Oread

Dalzarin's page

**** Pathfinder Society GM. 14 posts. No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 56 Organized Play characters.


Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Having just run Raiders of Shrieking Peaks, I have a thought on this topic. It was an investigation heavy scenario, and we finished up rather early. (It helped that players rolled well on a particular section to speed things up, but it was going quickly anyway.) The RP was definitely tending towards the 'mechanics focused light RP' as defined in the original post. This surprised me a little, because as a GM, I think I tend to lean towards more RP, and deeper, when I have the chance.

Now, part of this might be possible to lay at the feet of the system...but I think in our case most of it lay with the fact that it's a fairly complex system, and we don't know it yet. We don't have the kind of solid expectations we do of the well-trod 1st ed. So I have to be suggesting the kind of skills players might roll to get certain pieces of information, because the scenario specifies many such they might try, and it would be hard for them to guess what might be included. If they might remember something based on Society or Nature or Circus Lore, it seems only sporting that say "Hey, you might want to Recall Knowledge on that."

I'm not sure it'll be possible to judge yet. The fact that there are a lot of very codified mechanics might stand in the way of deep RP; but I suspect it will be a lot easier when all of us are not playing the game with the manual literally in our laps trying to get the rules mastered.

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I was playing around with the wild shape druid, and I agree with the general assessment of this original thread, and some of the suggestions make a lot of sense. However, I think the problem is more fundamental.

All the wild shape forms give 100% static stat blocks.

This is the biggest problem, IMO, and leads to the discussion of the Druid's Vestments being an irreplaceable item. It means the forms fail to scale, which leads to the wild druid falling behind at higher levels. While I thoroughly enjoyed making a wild druid, and think it would be quite a lot of fun in the middle levels, it will fall sadly behind in high end play. If you reach a point where you'd be doing more damage and hitting more often with a higher AC in normal form than transformed...then the concept has clearly hit a brick wall.

I think Dragorine has the right idea with the formulae he's discussing. I think you could get away with most forms having a set stat block, but I think it would be immeasurably better and more satisfying to write it as, using animal form for instance:

• AC 22 (TAC 20) or use your own unarmored proficiency + Dex + 5 if it is better, ignore armor’s check penalty and reduced Speed.
• One or more unarmed melee attacks, which are the only types of attacks you can use. You’re trained with them. Your attack modifier is +10 and your damage bonus is +5, unless your own would be higher (assuming trained unarmed proficiency and a strength-based damage bonus). These are Strength based (for the purpose of enfeebled, for example).
• 10 temporary Hit Points while you have the form.
• Low-light vision.
• Athletics bonus of +11 unless your own is higher.

That writing is a little clunky, but I think it would go a long way towards letting wild shape scale, and incentivize wild druids to really invest in their physical stats.
(Edit to fix a copy/paste error)

Grand Lodge 4/5 *

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Gino Melone wrote:

BEWARE!!The southern door to B10 isn't explicitly noted as locked like the others. I'm proceeding under the assumption that it has the same DC as the other doors.

Similarly, there is no key for B9 listed anywhere and it's pretty important to SS-faction members. That DC 30 is rough at T1-2. I'm gonna assume the key works here too. If I ever run 3-4, I might make it need unlocked, but that seems cruel.

The Necropolis doesn't seem to be well hinted-at to me. Did I miss something?

How long is Seeking the Dungeons supposed to take, in-game? Obahar is at the dig and fine when they go in/out. When they find him later, he's been driven mad and rambling for an indeterminate time and the div has had long enough to turn all the cultists on themselves and nearly wipe them out.

Is A7 supposed to count as a sense discovery for SS-faction? Is it a freebie if they explore the room?

Going to run this on Sunday, and overall, I agree with the commentary about the formatting making it a little bit annoying to find relevant information, but that it looks like a really fun scenario. But I do think I can answer a couple questions here:

Doors to B10: in the description, it does say the doors to B10 are locked, even though the B8 description does not say so, which means I assume it is locked. However, in B8, the crazy cultist has a key. In area B9's description, it says the cultist leader in B10 has a key which leads to me to believe there are different keys: Key 1 has two copies, one held by the crazy cultist in B8 and one held by the cultist leader in B10. Key 1 opens the doors to B10. Key 2 is held ONLY by the cultist leader in B10, and opens the doors to B9. So, without the DC 30 disable device check, you have to get through B8 to B10 and then to B9.

The mention of the Necropolis was not well highlighted: in the development after finishing all of area A, when the party talks to Obahar, he is supposed to suggest the Necropolis. That is the only place I can find where players could find out about that lead, though they ought to do so -- as long as the GM doesn't miss that point.

Seeking the Dungeons is, I guess, supposed to be Speed Of Plot. I presume Veshtahz has been flitting back and forth, so he's gotten a head start on driving cultists nuts, but he really kicks it up after the PCs find Obahar. But I think the cultist bodies are probably quite recent in area B.

Regarding A7: I would read "Collectively, though, they provide enough additional information to contribute to these faction PCs’ investigations in this ruin." as saying that yes, documenting the finds counts as 1 point toward the faction goal.

Obviously, I haven't actually run it yet, and all interpretations are my own, but that's how I plan to run this game in two days!

Grand Lodge 4/5 *

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Either then, or the "Courage Under Pressure" portion, I think...though that part itself is still skill-check based. But, at that point, they're not so much investigating as actively thwarting a terrorist plot in progress.

You could argue either, though. And if they fail to prevent Glass Pit badness, well, then it is definitely Hunting the Shark.