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I am trying to purchase age of ashes #4 as a PDF but it just gives me an error when I attempt to add it to my cart.

Are digital purchases down during the pandemic?

Hope everyone stays healthy and safe.

Thanks

The glimpse of the anti paladin we got in the Game Mastery Guide has what I am assuming is the version of Champions reactions like retribution strike.

Unless I am missing something it is not good

Boiled down it works like this:

As a reaction when you are struck you may add 2d6 damage to the attack that is hitting you to then cause 2d6 damage to the attacker. You also gain 2 to damage on your strikes during your next round.

I hope Paizo can rework this as it has two glaring flaws:

1. For Champions AC is what they do. So why would I help my enemies by adding to the power of any blow lucky enough to connect.

2. Antipaladins do not get lay of hands so most likely are going to have 0 healing. While this makes senses thematically it also makes a power that causes me to soak more damage a poor choice.

I dont know maybe it is a missprint and it is supposed to decrease damage to the AP and cause it to the target.

Anyone else seeing something about this power that makes it better than what I am reading?

So per RAW you cant start an activity that you cant finish during a round in combat. The most obvious effect of this rule is that a caster can only cast one spell a round and then has to find something else to do for their last action.

However if we removed this limitation I think it adds some interesting strategic options.

Action 1-2 cast fireball
Action 3 begin to cast another fireball

Action 1 on my next turn: finish fireball
Action 2-3 cast lightning bolt

The interesting thing here is that while you are casting between rounds you would of course attract the attention of all the mobs who probably want you dead.

Critical hits from normal attacks would now disrupt your spell as if it was an attack of opportunity.

For casters it would increase spell output at the risk of losing spells to disruption or attracting additional attacks.

I am playing around with using this as a house rule but thought I would put it out to everyone in case I am missing some super OP pain in the ass thing I am not thinking of.

RAW states "Nothing can hold you in place. You immediately escape from every magical effect that has you immobilized or grabbed unless the effect is of a higher level than your unimpeded stride spell. "

Going by the first line this spell would affect grabs, chains, tanglefoot bags, etc.

Going by the next line this would only affect magical bindings such as the web spell.

I assume the first line is just flavor text that we can ignore due to the second line but...

Thoughts?

That thing just about TPKed the whole group.

Large 4th Level group
Barbarian, Champion, Cleric, Sorcerer, Bard, Monk, Alchemist

My sorcerer is bleeding out on the floor after enlarging both the champion and the Barbarian I stupidly closed in for a shocking grasp. That did not go well. Fading in and out of consciousness I see the Barbarian screaming in rage even as she is hammered to the floor poison and blood running from her.
Monk was doing virtually nothing due to some protective magic. The thing just laughed at her as her blows land with no effect. It looked down at her then deliberately stepped past ignoring her feeble blows.
The cleric of Calistra is swearing in some language I don't know. She is a "reformed" champion of Asmodeus but I am not sure I buy it. I realize at the last that she is trying to heal me but the creature doesn't like that. The priest is wearing some type of plate armor that covers nothing and yet somehow protects her anyway. Calistra's doing no doubt. It doesn't work in this case and the priest and her sexy armor both hit the ground, dying.
The goblin alchemist is as far as she can get from the Demonic thing. Seeing her former tribe reduced to skeletons that have been placed in bizarre worshipful poses might have broken her. She has been throwing colorful flasks of gods know what at it but missing with most of them. She did get lucky and land something green (acid?) on it and it has been burning away on the skin of the beast. I have no way of knowing if it is even feeling it.
The beast moves to finish me off. I am already done for but it is impatient. The monster's claws slashes down and the last thing I see is the champion's great sword thrust through the back of its head.

Thank the gods for Natural 20s.

Super fun fight but DAMN!!!!!!!!

I see that Paizo made, arguably, the best 1 handed weapon a yo-yo that you need to be raised by gnomes to use.

GM: “Your barbarian was raised by gnomes?”

Player 1: “Yes, and every time he lost his temper his parents made him stay in his room and his only entertainment was his yo-yo.”

Player 2: “Weird, my fighter was also raised by gnomes but his parents bought him two yo-yos to play with.”

Player 3: “You two sound like powergamers. Not me, my martial is based off the tried and true yo-yo and board style fighter that every fantasy movie ever has. He became an adventurer when his adoptive parent’s village was wiped out by orcs.”

/LOL

Dear Miss Manners,

I have seen many posts on the boards here that complain about the rules allowing the GM “too much power” and a few that complain about players “getting to much control”.
I honestly do not understand this. I have been both a player and a GM since the original hardbound AD&D books and this makes no sense.
As a GM I am going to run the game I want to run. For instance in PF1 when I tell you cant have more than one class per 5 character levels. I am not going to allow your Ninja/Paladin/Assassin/Rogue/Fighter/Monk/Gunslinger/Barbarian/Ranger/Druid /Butcher/Baker/Candlestickmaker into my game. Now you can show me exactly where in the books it says this is a legal character and how wrong I am. Hell, you could have the highlord of Paizo himself come down and tell me in a thunderous voice “Hastur! You are wrong. This character is legal.” Guess what? You still can't play that character in my game. I don't care about your law degree in PF1 rules. If you don't like how I run my game go elsewhere.
Now that being said as a GM I am trying to lay out a world for exciting stories and allow players to help tell those stories and hopefully have a ton of fun playing. And while I may have a certain way I do things I am not at odds with the players. It is a group effort. If you as the player didn't have fun during a session I as the GM probably didn't either. As the GM I have reasons for the things I do. Certainly I have better things to do then just show up to run a game where I f&*$ with you all night.

Tl;dr So my question is? What is happening in games where players feel that a rule in the book is going to help them? Are there really that many petty GMs that are just arbitrary f@#&ing with characters? And if so does a rule written in the book actually help?

In the situation I posted above if I caved into the thunderous voice of the Highlord of Paizo and allowed you to play your character would you really want to play in my game. If I was the player and had a character the GM didnt want to allow I would have no qualms about changing it or trying with a different GM.

-Signed Honestly Confused

I am a Sorcerer with Cleric Archetype and Master Cleric casting ability. If I take the Sorcerer Ability of Bloodline Conduit am I able to cast 5th level or lower cleric spells with no spell slots once a minute or because it has the Sorcerer tag will it only apply to my Sorcerer spells.

I was unable to find what the Sorcerer tag on an ability does if anything.

Thanks

A weeks worth of rations is light bulk and can be held in one hand. I'm not sure I could hold 7 modern day military MRE packs in one hand.

What do you suppose the alchemist guild is doing to make food so light and do you suppose it has something to do with all the aberrations in the world?

Abberation sorcerers gain the 9th level spell of shapechange.

"You transform yourself into any form you could choose with a
different polymorph spell you know of 7th level or lower. You
choose the type of creature as you cast the spell rather than
when you prepare it. You can Concentrate on the Spell to change
your form to any other form you could choose with this spell.
You can dismiss this spell by using an action (this action has the
concentrate trait)."

SO umm there are no polymorph spells on the occultist list, nor on the list of gained spells from your abberation bloodline. So you cast this spell to become yourself I guess for one minute.

The spell seems a little underwhelming anyway even just for a primal sorcerer. One of the few advantages I have as a spontaneous caster is that I dont have to pick the form I become in the morning. So if I have dragon form I can become whatever color dragon I need to fit the occasion. That is slightly better than say a druid who will have to guess. That said, the only advantage that shapechange gives a primal sorcerer is that I can change into a red dragon, then a dinosaur(I guess), then into a blue dragon. That is provided that
1)I know both the polymorph dino spell and polymorph dragon spell and
2) I need to change into those forms within one minute of casting the shapechange spell.

This spell seems a bad option for primal sorcerers and of course a bad joke for abberation sorcerers as printed.

If they allowed sorcerers to duplicate any of the lower level non offensive polymorph spells with it, I could see it being a pretty decent spell with lots of potential utility.

My goblin alchemist has an 18 int and 5 resonance. During daily preparation she prepares 4 batches (of two potions if I understood this correctly) of alchemist fire. I now have 8 alchemist fires I can throw and have burned 4 of my resonance.

Do my bombs take resonance to use?
Can I hand my bombs off to other group members?
Does it cost them resonance to use them?

What if I prepared one more batch of healing potions? I am now out of resonance. Can i use my own potion to heal myself or do I need to use the rules for overspending resonance to use one?

So lay of hands is one somatic action for a minor heal/harm undead effect. However as I am understanding the system (and that is tenuous at best at this stage) My paladin of Sarenrae is wielding a glaive in battle (a two handed weapon) His friend gets in trouble so I then have to
Action 1: Thrust my glaive into the ground to free up a hand.
Action 2: Lay of hands my friend
Action 3: Retrieve my glaive

Taking my whole round to perform a tiny heal.

If I take the feat Warded touch my lay of hands loses the need for complicated action and loses the "manipulate trait"

I don't know what this means. Per the power it has a somatic action. Nothing is mentioned about a manipulate trait.

Does this feat mean that I can cast Lay on hands with my hands full. Thereby negating my need to free up a hand?

My group is headed into the Eoxian wastes tonight. Going to run into massive packs of these.

Irradiated Outcast Eoxian
CR 2
XP 600
CE Medium undead (evil)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., blindsense exotic; Perception +12

DEFENSE
HP 25
EAC 13; KAC 15
Fort +6; Ref +4; Will +1
Immunities Undead immunities

OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee irradiated claw +10 (1d6+6 S; Fort DC 16 Radiation Sickness; critical +1d4 radiation)

STATISTICS
Str +4; Dex +2; Con -; Int +0; Wis +1; Cha +0
Skills Athletics +7, Perception +12, Stealth +7
Languages Eoxian
Other abilities unliving

ECOLOGY
The wastes of Eox is covered with countless undead. Former citizens turned into undead in an instant with most of the rest of the planet. These creatures found themselves without a food supply of any kind and degenerated into a savage state. Long exposure to the irradiated wastelands has turned the touch of these creatures radioactive. Although not technically mindless these undead are unthinking killing machines driven mad with hunger. Massive pacts of these creatures roam the wastes constantly searching for the living to feast upon. The bone sages don't want to waste the resources that would be required to destroy these pacts so other than breaking up groups that become large enough to threaten a necropolis the bone sages ignore them. They find these pacts a great motivator of the remaining undead citizens. Those that fall too far below the poverty line or displease the bone sages find themselves banished to the waste. Many a living adventuring party that sought riches in the wastelands of Eox has found themselves run down by a pack.

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Lifesense Exotic (Ex) Perpetual starvation has improved the awareness of these creatures. They can sense life within 120 ft.

Resistance (Ex) DR 5/Holy

This is a Charisma caster I use in my campaign. I am sure there are a bunch of different Sorcerers out there so here is my version of it.

Couple of things upfront

1-This is not a port/ conversion of the 3.5/PF sorcerer if you want scales, wings, and a tail make a dragonkin.

2-Metamagic=Reskinned Spell Hacks at the moment as I have not reworked them yet.

3-Spell specialization. This is something I give to spell casters in my campaign. It adds level damage to single target damage spells, 1/2 level damage to AOE spells. Spells such as magic missile add full level damage divided between missiles as the caster likes. If you don't use it just drop it.

So I notice that every class in Starfinder has a good willpower save except the mechanic. Why is everyone in the galaxy strong willed except the guys fixing computers and robots. Seems like a few more classes should be weak in willpower saves.

Was this a conscious design decision? If so I would be interested what the reasoning was if there happen to be any creator types reading the boards. Just seems strange to have everyone innately strong willed.

Here are a few descriptions I used when I ran this adventure from my group. Inaccurate, condescending, but no less boldly made by the explorer.

Halkueem Zan’s Descriptions

Kaukarriki- A population of furry humanoid creatures has been following our progress through the jungle. At first they avoided us but eventually started to assault us with rotten fruit and feces. One flew from the tree branches and stole my hat. I ordered my huntmaster to have his men open fire. After slaying several dozens of the creatures the rest fled. I regained my headgear and taught the wilderness the first lesson of many to come about who is master. I have named these vermin monkey-bats.

Obelisk- An immense pillar, nay, an Obelisk arising higher than the trees. Clearly this monument was built by the savages of this land to reach the gods. Were one to take the time to dig below they would most likely find the most valued treasures of the tribe brought here as tribute. I have neither the time or desire to unearth what is likely to be the worthless baubles (to civilized men ) and decayed remains of loved ones left here as sacrifices.

The Plague Warden-A grand statue of an alien creature dying of a wasting disease implores the uncaring gods to save it from its plight. The boils of its disease gained no doubt, from tribal cannibalism or other such savage practice, riddle its body in horrific and painful fashion. A grand construction used to hold those struck down with this apparently common malady.

B3-Poor construction has allowed rain water to flow into this room and fill a pit likely used to grow food (fungus and grubs) that would feed the outcasts forced to live in this plague hut. For the safety of my men I had them avoid the water.

B4-Depictions of primitive medicine men lancing the boils of the infected patients.

B5-A poorly made room with so many holes in the walls I could see in virtually every direction. Primitive craftsmanship indeed!

B6-A platform likely used to fling the bodies of dead plague victims to the earth below.