Czael's page

As a new gm i'd strongly advocate against allowing an overly high stat array. The game functions best when primary stats are between 15 and 17 (after racial modifiers). This is the target you want, you can do this through a 15 point buy (where going over 17 really hurts) or you can do it by simply enforcing a hard cap. For instnace in my game, we do 25 point buy but no stat over 17 after racial mods. That lets people have well rounded characters if they want, but doesnt throw off the game's math.

I strongly disagree.

I apologize, but seeing "throw off the games math" and "the game functions best" made me angry. It struck me as conceited, like you have the best notion for how the Pathfinder is run. Again, sorry.

For a new DM, I feel you shouldn't limit the players, let them make what they like using RAW. If you start the game with some nerfed/hombrew limited stat option you won't get to see what players can do and may gain a warped sense of what is overpowered. I'm not saying 30 point buy or anything, just don't go out of your way to cripple players. Once you get a better idea of the people you're playing with, then you can make appropriate changes. Ask your players to be forgiving initially and for the most part they will. I know there will be moments of frustration on both sides but that will fade as you gain experience. Every group is different and what they enjoy will be different. There's no set way to do it.

What you need to worry about is keeping the players entertained and how you do that varies depending on your group. Players will constantly do things a DM would never consider and being able to flow with that will help a ton. Try not to have a set story, have an outline and possibilities where certain things can happen multiple ways so you aren't wasting effort coming up with things the players will never encounter.

I had two things happen to me that caught me a little off guard because I'm fairly new to GMing, the first being the blackmail notes found in the lock box by the Ghasts. The Cleric simply cast mending to fix the papers (and had a make whole prepared if that wasn't enough) In 3.5 mending and such could not repair fire damaged objects, but the Pathfinder version seems a little vague in that respect. No Linguistics check was necessary and all that information was revealed. Am I missing something obvious?

The other one was the blind witness that the prosecution calls to testify against the beast. Were his eyes utterly destroyed by the fire? The PCs simply removed his blindness and the witness easily pointed out that it wasn't the beast who killed his master/etc...

What would you do in that situation? It certainly made things easier and wasn't game breaking, but I'm curious if I let things pass that shouldn't have been possible/ were intended.