Cintra Bristol's page

yellowpete wrote:

I concede that the ruling does not make monsters with Grab non-functional, however it would still be highly unintuitive that they can grapple after Striking, but not just grapple like that with the same body part.

Absolutely not, and the opposite is true. Just to take the example of the cave worm, the monster, Improved Grab is there because it's the jaws attack that's grabbing you. The cave worm sinks its jaws into you, and if you're not careful, you'll get caught as well as punctured. It's the same as with many other creatures like the dire wolf, whose jaws bite down on you and then attempt to Grab you, so that it can then Worry you in its jaws on a later turn on a success.

My cat grapples me with her teeth, without doing a bite attack first. She closes her teeth around my hand enough to "grab" without biting down and trying to do damage. Likewise, a dog can "grab" a stick to carry it, without first trying to damage it with said bite. Creatures without "hands" use their mouths to do these "maneuvers" all the time, it's absurd to argue that they are required to attempt to do damage first.

My cat also tries to use a "trip attack" against me when I'm carrying her dinner plate. Without attacking. Adorable.

If you have a Legacy Adventure Path subscription, you will have the same subscription when we switch over to the new system.

-Jim

You will retain your legacy discount if you are part of that small group of folks that have been subscribers since AP#1.

-Jim

Wait, I'm confused. Very early in this thread, your first reply quoted here said that those who have Legacy Advantage will retain their benefits.

Second quote indicates it is only those who retain the Charter Subscriber title?

According to my receipts from monthly shipments, I have the "Legacy Paizo Advantage" for having been a subscriber at the end of First Edition, and received #144 as part of my subscription; and the "Legacy Paizo Advantage - Adventure Path" for being subscribed at the end of First Edition. Does that or does that not count as the Legacy Advantage, and keeping our current discount???

I believe you're referring to the text on page 18, under the header Oubliette Encounters. Quoted here for clarity:

As the PCs progress their infiltration, they’ll periodically come across specific locations within the Amaranthine Oubliette that present them with encounters they’ll need to resolve in encounter mode. Unless the PCs take a significant amount of time in one of these encounter areas (more than an hour), time spent resolving these encounters does not count toward the accrual of Awareness Points at the end of infiltration rounds.

I don't read this as "they can't use exploration mode" - I see it as, there are places where they will need to deal with specific issues in encounter mode (e.g. a combat). Once they complete that encounter, they can spend the usual time to Refocus, heal up, etc.; and as long as they don't spend excessive time doing that, it doesn't accrue Awareness Points. Since excessive time was defined as "more than an hour," I feel confident that the PCs can take the time they need to heal etc. without tracking each round.

I would happily buy these products.

The Fungal Forges on p42 of the final adventure are missing the Disable information. The adventure PDF just shows:
"Disable DC"
The text indicates that something bad happens if you critically fail an attempt to disable, so it looks like there was supposed to be an option beyond just dealing damage.
Hoping someone can come in and tell us the text that was cut - or failing that, we can brainstorm the Disable options here.

Previously, these compilations have not been part of a Subscription. Is that an error, or (for subscribers to both lines, who already have/played the original and don't want the updated version) will we need to wait until the appropriate month and then remember to request not to receive this?

I'd greatly prefer these remastered versions of prior products be something we can opt into, rather than having to opt out of. And I'd think that would be easier for Customer Service as well, since opting in could be as simple as pre-ordering.

Personally, I'd love it if they'd shift this class to being a Conjurer, with one subtype of the class being Neromancer, alongside Swarm Master and (not sure what you'd call the plant conjurer) and one that conjures small constructs.

A "necromancer" will get zero play in my group, it doesn't fit the heroic fantasy we prefer - making necromancy just one possible flavor to apply onto the mechanics, and allowing cool constructs or plants instead, makes this class look insanely awesome to us!

Not sure if the occult list would apply regardless, or if the flavor choice should also affect the spell list? A plant summoner could do primal instead; or could do occult and it's due to weird pollens and the like. (Poppies!)

When I ran Kingmaker, I came up with a whole bunch of noteworthy terrain features, and made sure every hex had something interesting/unique to describe and remember. These weren't usually additional encounters per se, but scenic and memorable items. Like a field that was swarming with butterflies (and was an annual butterfly mating ground), or a foundation of an ancient collapsed building with some really weird statues. Or a cool scenic overlook, or some unusual vegetation, or an ancient graveyard.

Or they could be more social or skill challenge encounters. One hex had a row of low hills that were a rattlesnake mating ground, and many thousands of rattlesnakes meandering everywhere, with a bunch of trying-not-to-fade gnomes that had showed up to do a "Rattlesnake Roundup" bubba-style - that is, really poorly thought out, and guaranteed to get people hurt if the PCs didn't step in and help them out. Another hex had some homesteaders with an isolated farm and a whole bunch of family drama.

You typed the Failure effect incorrectly, you replace 1 round with 1 minute. not 1 turn with one minute, so it should read:

Failure: For 1 minute, the creature can't use reactions and must attempt another save at the start of its turn; on a failure, it is slowed 1 for that turn as it sobs uncontrollably.

In other words, for 1 minute, it makes a save every single round to determine whether it's slowed 1 for that round.

So not as bad as you're making out.

I think the first adventure path I ever ran was for 1st Edition D&D: Giants 1-3 (Against the Giants), D1-3 (Descent to the Depths of the Earth, Vault of the Drow), then Q1 (Queen of the Demonweb Pits).

Get your players to make Wish Lists, a few levels worth at a time. They'll generally pick several things per level, so you're only giving them a subset of what they chose (plus money to buy/make some of the rest), so they still won't know which items will show up.

When I did Wish Lists, the most hilarious thing was that my players would forget what they'd asked for. So I'd provide a handful of magic items and they'd all look at each other like, "That's cool, who was this for?" I didn't tell them, and while they were willing to hand things to whoever had asked for it if they could figure it out, a LOT of items ended up with someone other than the player who initially requested the item. Lots of laughs for me!

Or if you don't like that - look at what Skills they've selected, and lean in on items that give skill bonuses. Or anything that helps with movement (e.g. Bracelet of Dashing, Cloak of the Bat).

Agree, shift the level of the PCs up 1 level higher than the adventure expects. If you do the math on encounter budgets, you'll realize it comes out almost exactly right.

And I strongly recommend Free Archetype so they have a wider array of abilities across the 3 PCs.

OP mentioned that it can be disheartening to play a caster. That when a caster spends their entire turn casting a spell, and the spell doesn't accomplish much because the target(s) make their save(s), it can make the caster feel like they aren't contributing.

An easy fix is to rebalance challenges so that you're generally facing larger numbers of lower-CR foes, rather than mostly foes who are higher CR than the PCs. More recent APs have made this change compared to the first few that were published for PF2. This makes a HUGE difference in how successful spellcasters feel, because they're more likely to succeed vs enemy save DCs.

Take it one step further, and adjust so the PCs are one level ahead of the normal encounter expectations. That is, if you're running Adventure Paths, have the PCs always be one level higher than the adventure expects - and if you have a larger group and/or the extra level makes things feel too easy, just add a few extra foes, especially lower-level foes. This lets everyone feel more heroic, they're ALL succeeding more often, but it's particularly effective to casters who rely so heavily on save DCs.

And the GM can also hand out more info to address this. Give the PCs ways to learn what is coming, and do their Recall Knowledge checks ahead of time so they know what tactics will work best. Or if they don't get advance intel, I routinely tell them highest-to-lowest saving throws on a single successful Recall Knowledge, and I often throw in one useful vulnerability or resistance as well, rather than feeding info too slowly.

Kavlor wrote:

The Gold Sovereign wrote:

CastleDour wrote:

I am so excited about this article on Norgorber! We may finally learn about his background as a mortal. I can never get enough of him!!! Thank you Paizo.

There comes the reveal of the three evil halflings behind the curtains of Norgorber.

This is heresy. Everyone knows that there are four halflings.

And their names* are Blackfingers, Father Skinsaw, the Gray Master, and the Reaper of Reputation!

*-- the bit about erasing all knowledge of the original name went further than we realized.

I've long suspected that Norgorber was four people in a trenchcoat. Although it creates a troubling precedent, that an adventuring party can complete the Test of the Starstone together.

And wear something with a big letter E. Because then you are Spider Monk E.

Figured I'd provide some summaries for the contents. Spoilered for obvious reasons.

Gap Backgrounds:
** spoiler omitted **

Gap Archetypes:
** spoiler omitted **

Gap Magic Items:
** spoiler omitted **

Gap Spells:
** spoiler omitted **

Somehow, I was really expecting the material in that last section to be different! Something like this:

Gap Spells:

Customer Service got back to me too - mine is fixed.

I know they're working extra hard to get everyone taken care of. Hopefully they'll get some additional help hired in soon.

In the meantime - still, always, I remain an enthusiastic Paizo customer! And greatly looking forward to seeing this month's shipment!

In Archives of Nethys, go to Creatures:
* put "Arcane Prepared" in the text search box
* click Traits and select Humanoid (under Creature Type)

You might still be better crafting the wizard yourself, but maybe this will help you find a chassis to build it onto with a bit less effort.

GM Core p223: "If you have the formula for an item, you don’t need a different formula to Craft a different type of that item that’s just a higher-level upgrade. For example, if you have the formula for a +1 weapon potency rune, you don’t need to secure a new formula to etch a +2 weapon potency rune. This works similarly with items such as a spacious pouch with its multiple types or doubling rings with a base version and greater version."

GM Core p236, in the Striking Rune: "You can upgrade the striking rune already etched on a weapon to a stronger version, increasing the values of the existing rune to those of the new rune. You must have the formula of the stronger rune to do so, and the Price of the upgrade is the difference between the two runes’ Prices."

I suspect the bolded part of the Striking Rune text is what needs to be removed. Weapon Potency rune (p236) has the same issue.

Hopefully this works - it's the link to my original post about it.

Link to Castle Amber in Kingmaker explanation

Sorry, wasn't thinking, and I got back too late to edit it. I just self-flagged to request they add a Spoiler tag.

When I ran Kingmaker, I inserted Castle Amber as an interlude, replacing Steven Amber in the backstory with Count Ranalc, and revealing a (somewhat revised) explanation of Nyrissa and Ranalc's relationship, including the ghost of a cursed daughter in the throne room.

Awesome! Looking forward to hearing more about the GenCon plans!

In my current campaign, one of the PCs is an Anadi. And we encountered Jorogumo, those weird people who look like beautiful humans but can sprout spider legs from their backs to dart about. Leading to the anadi PC complaining bitterly about "horrible people who give spiders a bad name."

Not sure yet if I'll do this, but it certainly seems plausible these folk could just as easily disguise themselves as Elves - and could be the source of legends about spider-elf hybrids (aka the drider myth).

When I ran Kingmaker, I had a whole complex answer for the disappearance of House Rogarvia, including where Choral the Conquerer went.
See the Spoiler in this old post

May Fuss

(G as in Tough)

Hi Mr Smiles,

Yes, my copy matches what you describe. The multi-page folder, and one insert laminated urban grid. :)

The PF2 kobolds look snake-like to me (as opposed to other editions with dragon-like heads, or dog-like if you go back far enough).

So assuming they're sticking to the PF2 kobold art, I'd like to see patterned scale kobolds. Diamondback kobolds with poison bite, rainbow boa-scaled kobold with some benefit doing grabs (since boa is constrictor). Just an idea.

Ten Oldest Buildings on Campus:
I was able to identify most of them, at which point I realized that all the buildings with strong indicators in the names were in the ring of 10 buildings around the center of campus.

By process of elimination, that confirmed that Archhorn Library is named for the Horn-Forger, and Indigo Hall must be named for Ibex the Flourishing Field. I don't understand that last one at all - does anyone know a source that tells us more about the 10 Magic Warriors that might shed light on a connection between Ibex and Indigo? If nothing else, I can go with "His mask is always represented as having indigo horns."

With that said, here's the list, clockwise from the Welcome Walk:
Archhorn Library named for White Bull, the Horn-Forger
The Between named for Carmine Jaws, the Hyena Who Looks Between
Elephant Museum named for Elephant, the Conjured Chronicle
Warden House named for Azure Leopard, the Patient Warder
Tireless Hall named for Golden Snake, the Tireless Guide
Heron Archives named for Black Heron, the Wings of Knowledge
Indigo Hall named for Ibex, the Flourishing Field
Shifting Greenhouse named for Shifting Frog, Storyteller of Past and Future
Whistle Tower named for Whistling Kite, the Vigilant Seer
Verdant House named for Verdant Spider, the Speaker of Needs

Wood rune could offer some sort of entangling/grab/trip effects.

Metal rune could mimic being made of other metal types - so you can toggle your main weapon between Silver and Cold Iron.

Rest in Peace, Carman.

My group really struggled with how to deal with Carman, and ended up letting him come with them to open the lower levels. But no one told Carman that his job was done once the barrier was open, so he kept tagging along.

They didn't really want to keep him, but they also didn't want to take his sword from him, nor did they want to let him leave with the sword in case it was needed again later. The players kept making comments about "maybe he'll die along the way somewhere" but in character, they wanted to be "good" so they didn't want to help that happen.

Carman whined a bit. He clearly didn't understand why they were going to all this trouble - "The mayor isn't even paying you to do all this???" - although once they (finally) found some treasure, it began to make more sense to him. They even gave him a returning hammer so he'd be more effective.

He climbed down shafts with them to help destroy some oozes. He fought the basilisks with them, and Carman unfortunately succumbed to petrification - but since he had the sword, they had to unpetrify him. He was amazed that they saved him! Now they're his best friends!

Soon afterward, they encountered strange bounding beasties, and Carman (with his sword) was knocked down a hole into deep water. One of the PCs tossed an everburning torch, and Carman yelled out that he saw "big snaky heads floating on the water! They're all around me! They're popping up like daisies!" And since Carman still had the sword, they knew they had to save him. The PCs in the room above quickly tied off a rope even as they finished off the last bounder. Carman meanwhile dove to recover the Everburning Torch (they're worth money), then scrambled up onto a bank, taking one fearsome bite from the nearest hydra! The rope came down into reach, and Carman bravely leapt forward onto the hydra's back, evading one snapping tooth-filled maw, then climbed the rope to safety!

The party was beginning to appreciate Carman. Sure, he's selfish, and evil, and self-centered, and greedy, and obnoxious. Yeah, he's a jerk. But he's their jerk.

So with a newfound spirit of camaraderie, they ventured into a maze of narrow, twisting halls. Where they triggered a horrifying trap. It slices! It dices! Several members of the group took damage, including Carman. And while most of the group leapt to safety in an adjacent room, Carman was just too slow, and was struck by three more blades! (a crit, initiative, then a crit that dropped him below zero so Dying 2, and two more hits that took him directly to Dying 4). The party fighter, also struck by two of those blades, survived and grabbed as much of Carman as she could before leaping to safety. Alas, there was nothing the medic could do.

The party was saddened. "We were just beginning to sorta like the guy!" they proclaimed. It took them several minutes to gather themselves. (And Carman.)

Congrats, Jim! I'm very happy to read this news!

Wow! I saw exactly what you must have seen - the Adventure Path pages are all pretty but have no PDFs available.

But I found a way to get to the PDF links:

In the Search bar, search for the words "Fly Free or Die"
When the results come up, it'll be on the "Everything" tab. Click on the "Product" tab instead. Then scroll down and you'll see the products listed, with the separate link for physical book or PDF.

And yeah, they need to add the PDFs to those shiny new Adventure Path Product pages.

What browser are you using? There are ways to clear the cookies for a single site if you dig into the settings.

Thanks for posting that. I was having a recurrence of the "can't log in" issue all of a sudden, and I'd never realized clearing just one site was an option. Found it, and (obviously since I'm posting this) it fixed the issue.

This book sounds amazing!

I wish that the Absalom map had street names.

So a little kid draws a picture. In the moment of creation, that kid is REALLY proud of that picture. Mom posts it on the kitchen cabinet. Next day, kid draws another picture. Mom posts that one too. <wash-rinse-repeat> Ten years go by.

Or in other words, are Shelynite clerics who become parents basically condemned to be hoarders?

Um, I don't understand this concept.

My mother-in-law and her sisters demonstrably suffer under the mistaken belief that "She who dies with the most unused sewing fabric, wins." However, it's clearly gaming books, not sewing fabric, that is the determiner.

Light the candle, say the words, open the new shelf to its sacred duty. Let the collection continue.

I think I found my answer in the Founding Laws of Absalom:

"Grant all adult natives of the city (defined as those born on the Isle of Kortos, children of those born there, and adults who serve the councils or guard units of Absalom for no less than 10 years) protection from unwilling exile or imprisonment except as punishment upon conviction of a crime."

I think it's fair to assume "natives of the city" = "citizens"; so children of foreigners, if born in the city, have citizenship.

I'm reading through Absalom, City of Lost Omens. And loving it!!!!

Thought it might be fun to open a Lore thread where we can ask questions or post interesting observations about the Lore of Absalom.

Okay, my first question: How does someone qualify as a Citizen?

Foreign Quarter indicates that foreigners are heavily taxed if they live anywhere else in the city. Only two specific mentions of citizenship in the book are, all ex-slaves freed in 4717 AR have full citizenship; and a certain troll hopes to be granted citizenship by a potential future primarch. (So it sounds like the primarch can grant citizenship. And foreigners who perform acts of exceptional heroism on behalf of the city might also receive this award.)

Meanwhile, the grandchildren of Lirgen refugees still live in their designated neighborhood of the Foreign Quarter, as do Taldan and Chelaxian expatriates from (in some cases, presumably) generations ago. Which could be because they're still "foreigners" or just because families tend to remain together.

So, do children born on the Isle of Kortos receive citizenship regardless of parentage? Or only if a parent is already a citizen/only outside the Foreign Quarter? That is, could one of those Lirgen grandkids, whose family moved here 100 years ago, decide to buy a house in Eastgate, or would they still be subjected to the Foreigner tax?

Agreed that this is still a work in progress. I do hope they move Announcements up on the page to where the old CS forum was (actually, either just above or just below Product Discussion would make sense to me), so they're more visible.

Logan, Brian, thank you both for providing additional context. I'd still like to know what you expect the SLA for responses will be - or at least, will there be some way that we know if delays are expected? Sending an email and having no clue whether to expect a response in a day, three days, or two weeks, would be a real problem. (Maybe this could be an "estimated response time is currently..." in a bounce-back email when we submit a ticket?)

With that said, I really appreciate your responses, and I am now guardedly optimistic.

The failure to staff up the CS team has been a problem for a long time. When CS response times got so far behind, early-to-mid pandemic, and certain product delays became extremely noticeable, I mentioned to my husband that these seemed like the symptoms of a company that was failing.

The revelations made by employees and ex-employees over the last few months have greatly magnified that impression. With the formation of the union being a sign of hope.

The glacial response to rampant transphobia, followed by (finally!) announcing zero-tolerance and perma-bans, yet showing continued hesitance to perma-ban specific people, is greatly worrying. The enforcement of "zero-tolerance" appears inconsistent and arbitrary, with no real (visible) concern given to addressing the real harm being done to those who are repeatedly targeted.

Eliminating transparency by removing the currently-most-reliable method of contacting CS feels like another huge step in the wrong direction. I've seen too many people post "got no response to email" messages on the CS boards to be comfortable with this. Sneaking it in with a few days notice during the holidays is a very corporate move. (Tonya, can you commit to an SLA on how quickly CS emails should/will receive a response? Any further information on how this is supposed to make things better for the customer?)

I've maintained my subscriptions thus far, but it's becoming harder to justify.

And KC's statement is mine, too - "these forums are Paizo to me."

What is the current turnaround time for an email to CS? If it's same day or next business day, that's one thing; if it's longer, that's going to be a pretty negative customer experience, I'm afraid.

Also, is there any way that some "Announcements" threads can allow responses? I really enjoy the excitement in the monthly Shipping threads, and if there's any way to post that thread so people can still respond to it, I think that's pretty important. Even if it has to be in a separate area instead of the new Announcements thread. Please?

Website Feedback needs to stay open. Plenty of times, I've looked in here, seen that others are experiencing an issue, and gotten the solution. This isn't a CS response-forum, it's a technical channel and group-solutioning option.

Ticketing systems are fine for individual customer requests, like a problem with an order. But they're terrible for something like this. You make it more difficult for customers to let you know there's a problem, and you're going to have customers leave without ever telling you why.

Strong vote for NO on this decision. Please rethink this.

Agreed, this new kingdom management system sound amazing!

Tender Tendrils wrote:

Yeah, there is literally a user who hasn't posted in like a week, and I have been stress-checking the posts portion of their profile because I am afraid they are just busy instead of banned and that they will come back. Not knowing if they are gone or not means I can't let out a sigh of relief and fully relax.

I've been regularly checking one poster's PbPs for the exact same reason.

Knowing the trolls have caused this for you both makes me really sad. <Hugs> This roller coaster of things getting bad, getting better, then new toxic posters rolling in, is exhausting. Those directly targeted should have a right to know what's actions are taken against the people causing misery.

If you send an email to CS with INTOLERANCE in the subject line and draw attention to the specific toxic posters, will Paizo let you know the status of your harassers once they address it? Will they let you know now if you ask about the specific people whose past behavior still has you on edge?

For whatever it's worth, I cast my vote in favor of forum tags, or basically any other solution Team Paizo can come up with, to make it so those being harassed can know when their harassers are banned.

Pathfinder has plenty of recent "dark" content, and no indications they want to veer away from the vast majority of it. Take a look at the big-bad/main encounter zone in the first adventure of Agents of Edgewatch. The implied and explicit behaviors of the catfolk circus master in Extinction Curse. The addition of "content warnings" at the front of their publications, and the scenes those warn about. Flip through Bestiary 3 and read some of the critters they've created.

Paizo isn't taking away everything "dark" and "edgy"; they're just declining to focus on specific examples that unreasonably target/harm real-world marginalized groups. And the writers/developers generally recognize the difference between "edgy" content that is cool and tells a valuable story, and "edgy" content that exists simply for shock value; they're sticking with the former but reducing the latter. I personally think that's a good direction to be moving.

So from what they've published in 2e, serial killers = fine. Torturers = fine if handled properly (see velstracs). Gray areas where the PCs don't have any fully-"good" choices = fine-with-sidebar (to advise groups that want an alternative). Bad guys who are implied to do virtually any sort of terrible things off-screen = fine. I have no idea what we'll see in the upcoming Blood Lords AP, but I expect it'll have some significant darkness.

Some posters have been trying to push slippery-slope arguments that if you take away on-screen slavery, that means you have to take away (endless list of things that are in no way comparable). Please don't buy those arguments.

Actually, if you want to see evidence of these experiences - go find any moderator post by Heather F or Tonya Woldridge; then click on their name, and within their profile, click on the "Posts" tab, and scroll back a few days/weeks. See how many times they say they've removed posts; they'll often describe (in general/polite terms) what they've removed.

Also, notice that in some of those threads, a page of 50 posts may have only a handful of posts remaining after the moderators did that cleanup - because that's how much vitriol and dog-whistle-laden and "oh but I didn't mean to offend I just want to keep repeating this offensive thing until you can convince me it's really offensive" there was to be cleaned up.