Chris Wasson's page

So I have been wanting to run Pathfinder for my normal game group for a long time but never had the opportunity. When I finally had a chance to run, the group had dwindled in size slightly, so I decided to send out some invites for my game. My first session is tomorrow and I just found out today that my party has grown to 5 regular players with 2 players who will come and go when they can.

So I am asking for some ideas on how to challenge the party in combat, they are all experienced players so i'm not worried about being too harsh on them but I also don't want anyone to be bored. Should I just increase the amount of monsters per encounter? Should I make a "leader" type in each encounter to up the CR of the fight? Should I just let the party run over everything?

Right now i'm leaning toward just increasing the amount of monsters per encounter but i'm open to ideas

So what happens when you cast dispel magic on a creature that was summoned via a spell cast during that combat (So obviously you know it's a summoned creature and not something the BBEG found somewhere)

Is it possible to dispel summoned creatures?

Also what effect would the barbarian rage power Spell Sunder have on a summoned creature? The way the power is described looks like it may have no affect unless you beat the CMD by more than 10. Would suppressing the summon spell only for 1 or 2 rounds temporarily deal with the creature or would it be immediately destroyed because the summon was suppressed?

This is probably a simple question but I myself am unsure to the answer.

What exactly can augment your CMB and CMD? Besides what is already on the character sheet. I have heard Dodge bonuses and Luck bonuses affect CMD but what else? Armor enhancement bonuses? Magic rings/shields? And for CMB I have been told certain spell buffs affect the number (Bless, Bard Song, Good Hope, Haste etc.) but what about the enhancement bonus of your weapon for sunder/trip attempts? And weapon focus for that weapon? And what about Luck/competence bonuses to "Attack rolls", would those affect CMB?

If anyone has a good answer for this (And a location where it's written in the rules) I would be grateful

So I have one of my first pathfinder characters on a character sheet that looks customized for pathfinder SOCIETY. It has the pathfinder society words and logo on the top left and under that it says Character Record Sheet.

I really like this sheet because it also includes a spot for Faction and Character number and Prestige/Fame on the back.

I have noticed when I go to the player resources I can't find a link for this style of character sheet, only the basic pathfinder character sheet.

Anyone have a clue where I got this? (I know it was from paizo because it has the watermark for my account) I just can't find a link

So the current online set up is great for a scenario here and there but what about those big huge awesome looking Adventure Paths?

I'm just wondering if any GMs and players would be interested in forming a dedicated group (Time each week/day/whatever) That people could set a schedule around to do these Adventures.

So this weekend I am playing in ALL of the thornkeep modules back to back. So I was thinking of making a new character.

I would like to make either a barbarian or a fighter(type) character, as I already have A wizard and a ninja I would like someone who can take some damage and keep on kicking.

I am having some trouble deciding between the two classes.

If I pick fighter I plan on going Super tank using the Brawler archtype and TWF Shield slams / Spiked Fists. This build would have a high AC but low mobility and very little "special" stuff to do, basically would be get into melee range and attack....and that's it for everything.

I am really not sure what to do at ALL with a barbarian, but I found a really cool mini I want to use and it just screams barbarian. The drawbacks of a barbarian being I would be a very VERY easy to hit sponge, and because of averaged HP I really wouldn't have the HP to fill that role (I think).

I guess i'm really asking if either of these two classes can really survive/shine in PFS. Everyone has gish magic builds but I hardly see straight fighters or barbarians.

Any thoughts?

For rogues and ninjas and anyone else who wants to walk around in stealth (because if you can why not?)

Besides abusing low-light situations, are there more ways to gain concealment or abilities that allow you to jump into or use stealth?

Also Mid combat what are some options for Stealth? I thought about the mistmail but wasn't sure if that would really work, TECHNICALLY you get concealment from the fog, but then if your trying to move around stealthed your a moving fog cloud...

Any input?

I was looking at different arcane classes for maybe a dip into.

As a wizard or any arcane class is there a benefit besides specific class abilities? How are spells handled if they are from the same list but different classes?

Any input?

I have a question about where I can buy a certain item for miniature modeling.

I love buying and preparing and painting my own miniatures, and making sure I have exactly what I want is key. So I will often remove/replace certain things about the mini such as weapons and the like.

My question, is there a website or place where I could buy "bits" for metal miniatures? I know about reaper. Specifically I am looking for weapons that have magical effects on them, such as lightning arcing off the blade, or fire flowing etc etc.

Many single miniatures have these effects on them but I would hate to buy a whole mini just to chop the sword off for use on a different mini.

Any help would be appreciated!

I have a new bard character, and it looks like you don't really USE the perform skill itself that often.

The Main Question

Is there a reason to have more than 1 rank in a perform skill for a bard? In terms of PFS do lots of scenarios have situations where perform is actually useful?

Now I know bards normally get versatile performance but I do not because of an archtype. So I have one less reason to take really high perform ranks.

Any input would be appreciated!

I am looking to make a new PFS character that I can spend a lot of time developing and role-playing. I'm generally inclined to make melee characters, I can play spell casters for only so long before I want to hit something with a weapon.

So I thought I would try a Battle Bard set up, I think it could be a pretty viable build. The Bard would give me decent combative ability with lots of utility and a large skill list.

The only problem now is what kind of Bard to make.
On the first go I was thinking.

Half-Orc Bard (Dervish Dancer)/ Dragon Disciple Str Build

The problem I run into is around 6th level, the Dervish gets a new battle dance for a second attack at Full AB I think. Versus Inspire Courage for the bonus to Hit.

Also you lose a lot of the bardic utility with the Archtypes such as Dervish Dancer, or Arcane Duelist. Also when would be a good time to start taking Dragon Disciple levels or perhaps a different prestige class?

Feats would be pretty straight forward for the first few levels. Arcane Strike(If dervish), Power Attack.

From their my lack of Pathfinder knowledge catches up to me about viable/fun feats to take for an effective bard.

Anyone have any thoughts or tips?

I have a 3rd level wizard who has played UP in every scenario except 2 since he was created.

He now has just under 7k gold pieces and I don't really know what to spend them on.

I know in the future to get metamagic rods and rings of protection and fancy robes but all of that stuff requires a much higher fame rating

My wizards fame is currently 16

So my question to all you experienced pathfinders is what does a 3rd level wizard even want/need?

For those who have run the adventures, is there a problem for players not playing Accursed Halls part 1, and starting with part 2? (The convention running the events has them split)

So there are multiple ways to reduce Armor Check Penalties on armor, the question is do they all stack?

Masterwork armor is -1 ACP

Mithril is -3 ACP

there is a trait for -1 ACP

and the fighter class feature for reducing ACP

Do these all stack together? or do some of them override others?

Yet another question about druids! (Why are they so complicated?)

For creating an animal companion and leveling that companion, the basic rules for this are spelled out in the core book. But is there any more options from other sources?

Also the Handle Animal skill, says a creature can know 3 or 6 tricks based on its intelligence score. If my animal companion starts the game with a 4 intelligence (from Human Eye for Talent) would she start with 12 tricks?

Also do animal companions get racial modifiers from the beastiary? Ex..Big cats (tigers) Get racial bonus to acrobatics and stealth checks, does this apply to animal companions?

And last I know animal companions with higher INT can take armor prof feats but is it really worth it?

So now that my Natural attacks question has been answered, I would like to know how big a difference there is between Lion Shaman and Saurion Shaman.

The Lion shaman has "Lions" as their creature type so they have only a handful of creatures to choose for animal companions and to wild shape into.

Versus the Saurion shaman which has all Dino creatures to turn into, which includes tanks, stealthy types, flyers and swimmers. Also Saurion shamans are in my opinion super duper chedder infused cheese monsters.

I want to make an effective Combat druid without utterly breaking low level combat, is Saurion shaman just too overpowered vs its other animal shaman counter-parts?

Also I have no idea how to build a backstory for someone who loves dinosaurs and turns into a dinosaur while riding a dinosaur and summoning more dinosaurs....

So I have a rules question because I can't find where to read about this kind of thing.

I have made a level 1 druid who plans to use many wild shapes during his adventure. I also read about the druid Shaman archtypes that allow you do swap out or delay normal druid abilties for those of the shaman type.

For example a Lion Shaman (APG) at level 2 can select to Totem Transform and give himself the natural attacks of a lion (Bite, 2 Claws).

So the main question of the thread is how do monsters handle multiple natural attacks and how do druids handle them? I am confused because if you look at the stats of a CR 1 Eagle (3 attacks) it seems to have no penalties to use multiple attacks, but if you read the monstrous Multi-Attack feat it says a monster with this feat only has a -2 to secondary attacks not a -5.

Where did this -5 come from and how does it affect druids and wild shape?

(And animal companions I guess)

I know there is a rule about changing your character before level 2, but what if you didn't know about the options available at the time and your character is already level 2?

To put some backstory on the question, My first PFS character was in a day long event that would put you at level 2 at the end of the day, this was fine and a fun adventure but at the end of the day I still only thought Core Rulebook was legal for PFS. (character now level 2)

Then I come to find out that there is in fact MANY MANY source books and additional material for building the exact character you want, in this case I would have liked to add an Archtype to my class instead of just being the Core rulebook basic

Is there anything that can be done at this point?

Thanks in advance!

Hello, I just started PFS and was wondering if there are modules/scenarios that are more deadly? The group I played with wasn't exactly optimized for combat (Alot of Concept characters, which are fine) But in the 3.5 D&D games im used to, my DM would PUNISH us hard if someone couldn't pull their "weight"

So I tend to build powerhouses (Ill try and make some skill monkeys for more fun times)

But my question is, are there modules that will put strong characters to the test? or will a powergamed character always breeze through things??

As I said I only played the VERY easy modules so i'm Guessing "hoping" things get harder and more interesting

Oh and because of D&D goofiness we even had someone die in our easy modules to a halfing-barbarian greataxe crit!