Dan Turek's page

Just try to reuse what you made. My last campaign was based on Dungeon magazine and I used nearly all of the adventures that used L'trel. I combined Saltmarsh with Mistmoor, and Lankhmar, Barnacus, and any other major port city, giving me 3 sites the players had to keep traveling through that had loads of detail. You may want to warn your players though - they traveled being reckless adventurers from Barnacus through L'trel to Mistmoor and the next adventure obviously was taking them back to Barnacus to deliver back taxes and several players said something along the line of "I never had to go to the same place in a campaign before - the villagers are going to lynch us if we return!"

If you want to be a backup healer Bard can work since they get a few cure spells. You will never be primary healer, but you only need to focus on Dex and Cha. Once you can get wands for healing you won't need to use the UMD skill.

How about non-standard arms and armor?
+3 Luck Blade (0 wishes) or +2 Sword of Subtlety?
Or the barbarian upping the Rhino Hide to +3?

So my question, after the wall of text, is can optimizing a character be more of a hinderance then just making a character based on how you role play?

Yes.

Additional Equipment Rules
For ease of play in Pathfinder Society, a masterwork item
can always be upgraded to a +1 item without paying for
the masterwork cost again. In essence, you’re paying the
difference. This applies to upgrading from a +1 item to a
+2 item and so on—you never have to repay the original
cost or sell your current item for half to upgrade to the
next step. Note that this only applies to the same item—
you can’t, for example, turn your masterwork rapier into
a +1 greatsword.

This covers all the weapons, armor, and many miscellaneous items, but leaves a few questions.

Can a Belt of (Str, Dex, or Con) be made into one of Physical Might or Physical Pefection?
Can a Belt of Physical Might be made into one of Physical Perfection?

It seems you should be able to upgrade in the first case, but the Physical Might says "bonuses are chosen when ... created and cannot be changed". Does that mean the bonus cannot be increased, or you cannot change the physical stats it modifies, or both? Does that mean it also cannot be upgraded to apply to all three, or it can since it will be become one of Perfection?

Same question for the Headbands.

Dan Turek wrote:

I like the idea that flat footed is different than losing Dexterity bonus. The rules imply they are the same. Page 195 Table 8-5 Invisible "The defender loses any Dexterity bonus to AC". Page 69 "cannot be caught flat-footed, even if the attacker is invisible".

These two things are not reciprocals of each other.

The rule on page 69 for Uncanny Dodge says two things:
1. The rogue cannot be caught flatfooted when an enemy attacks first in a combat.
2. Even an invisible attacker cannot catch the rogue flatfooted by attacking first in the combat.

It is not meant to convey any misinterpretation that losing your DEX modifier is the same thing as being flatfooted.

So that invisible creature attacks me, I am denied Dex but am not flat-footed? What does that mean? I lose my Dex but can make an attack of opportunity if I can somehow detect it? Or Uncanny Dodge still lets me keep my Dex even if the attacker is invisible?

What are the best spells/abilities/feats/stratagies to help a party using just the core Pathfinder RPG book for a Bard/Rogue build? This is for Pathfinder Society, so don't presume any specific magic item/equipment access.

Mainly, what can that character do in combat, other than ineffective attacks?

All should have good Cha, Dex, and Int.

Bard X/Rogue 2 A bard with Trapfinding and Evasion
Bard X/Rogue 2/Barbarian 2 A fast bard with Intimidating Glare
Bard X/Rogue 2/Druid 1 A bard with many spells and all skills
Bard X/Rogue 2/Ranger 3 Bard that excels with right terrain/enemy
Rogue X/Bard 2 Rogue that quickly trains in all skills

Rogue Talent: Ledge Walker makes it sound like you should still be denied Dexterity when using Acrobatics for narrow ledges, and similar to that would be using Climb, or doing the Run action without the Run feat.

Using Escape Artist to crawl through a tight space does NOT make you lose your Dexterity bonus.

A Pinned character is flat-footed and cannot move.

A Stunned creature loses its Dex bonus.

Flat-footed is a condition, page 567, that says you lose your Dex bonus to AC and cannot make attacks of opportunity.

Uncanny Dodge says you cannot be caught Flat-footed.

Does that mean with Uncanny Dodge you CAN make attacks of opportunity even if you haven't acted yet in the first round of combat without Combat Reflexes?

Does anyone have a Pathfinder page reference for being able to move 5' during the attack routine? I would think one could bite and move back 5' to attack with the glaive as a full attack (or move up to bite after).

Found it. Page 187, Full Attack, Paragraph 2.

Of course, if someone can find some rules text that says losing dexterity bonus to AC is always the same as being flat footed, nothing defeats uncanny dodge except immobilization and any condition that causes immobility.

I like the idea that flat footed is different than losing Dexterity bonus. The rules imply they are the same. Page 195 Table 8-5 Invisible "The defender loses any Dexterity bonus to AC". Page 69 "cannot be caught flat-footed, even if the attacker is invisible".

Can a character using a 2 handed weapon make an off-hand attack with armor spikes?

If you make the spikes on armor or a shield magical would the total cost of the armor/shield and spikes count as one item or two separate items for organized play?

"by hitting them with a sneak attack"

As written this means even a non-lethal attack with a sap, one that does no damage due to DR, etc. could still do Bleed. I was looking at it to make sure it worked for blunt weapons; I guess the bleeding is internal sometimes.

I hope the new adventures have slightly different faction missions and possibly different monsters to fight at different tiers. I know some adventures already do that, but usually they just advances the monsters a bit or add more of them. The more variables between tiers the better replay could work. I have a non-Pathfinder adventure that was written for levels 1-2 and had helpful NPCs and a 4th level bad guy. When I ran it for 6 PCs of 4-5th level I had the NPCs be charmed by the enemy beforehand, raised the bad guy and gave it a henchman, and it played radically different when all those "nice villagers" turned on the PCs when the big battle started. Adding traps, wandering monsters, etc. might be icing, but it does help change the flavor.

Does the Bite Attack mean the Barbarian now threatens adjacent squares? It would be nice if the rules explicitly said it was a Natural Attack. The group's barbarian uses a glaive.

Take your total bonus and use that in place of the skill you should normally use.

So say I have Skill Focus (whatever Perform it is) and Skill Focus (replaced skill). Skill Focus (replaced skill) doesn't apply at all, because you take the total bonus, while Skill Focus (Perform) does. It also could let me use my Cha instead of Wis for certain skills.

This year the highest level will be about 12.
There will be about 40-50 adventures out (counting last season).
If I get to the highest level, do the adventure, then let myself die to lose one or two levels, I can then do the rest.
While I would lose some money, my PA would still go up and I'd get to be overequipped compared to some others.
Or would I be forced to remove the negative levels as an existing condition if I had the money? It seems that Restoration can now give you back the levels you lose from dying.

Shatter Defenses is a free action with every attack that lets subsequent attacks be against a flat-footed target, or does every hit, including the first on a qualified target count as flat-footed if you have the feat?

From what I've read so far, I assume only Feint defeats Uncanny Dodge.
Shatter Defenses does not supersede Uncanny Dodge or affect those that are Immune to Fear.
Catch Off Guard doesn't work against Uncanny Dodge.
Impromptu Sneak Attack (Arcane Trickster) doesn't.
Want to make sure.

What is your "bonus in that skill"? Is it just skill ranks + class skill bonus, or is it everything: Charisma modifier instead of regular stat modifier, any feat, competence, circumstance, insight, racial, etc. bonuses?

Shield Slam as a prereq seems excessive. Now that my opinion is out of the way...

Does Shield Slam remove the penalties for all attacks if you are using a non-shield weapon and a shield, remove only the penalties for the shield attack, and does it work with exotic versions (Tower Shields)?

I think it is supposed to remove all penalties from TWF, so it really should be worded that you gain a +2 on your attack rolls when using a shield and another weapon. Literally I think it is saying you have no penalty when attacking with your shield (which cannot be done with a Tower Shield, at least not currently).

I think you should be able to replay as an NPC to fill a table (it happened a bit before the new rules came out, that doesn't appear to be a problem now). I'm even fine with the NPC earning xp, just not prestige points.

Usually there isn't much of the plot to accidentally give away, but the faction missions tend to make me play a certain way. Once the faction mission is taken away you can just support the other players, and if new players are there they learn to be cautious when they see the experienced player's character die.

I just hope there will be NPCs above 1st level in the future.

Though when Season 5 starts I won't remember any Season 0 scenarios unless I go through my notes. Some kind of time limit should be fine for both xp and prestige points, but certainly not in the same season.

What is the difference? It seems both affect all opponents within 30'. Is Intimidate supposed to be worded to affect only one?

If a TWF person with rapier & magic shortsword out moves and attacks with the shortsword in the off-hand, it seems there would be no attack penalty (but the off-hand damage for Str would apply). There doesn't seem to be an action for switching the weapons to the other hands. Since it is less than Drawing a Weapon would it be a free action?

Can you use the concealment granted by the feat to Stealth on your move action?

Pages 154-155 book.

Do you halve the weight of the item before or after you price it by weight? It seems like it would be after (since that is the order it is written in) but that would make a masterwork mithral dagger (or spiked gauntlet) cost +250gp. Then again not halving the weight first makes short swords through greatswords more expensive than they are probably worth.

Problem is a player could use that to gain a mechanical advantage with his PC by just playing mods others have 'eaten' for him.

Oh, I think I misinterpreted. You mean DM A runs a mod, then DM B who plays in DM A's group runs the mod 3 times. Yes, eating a mod should be worth more than just a bonus point, I would hope it would be worth something to Paizo to offer them something special beyond the norm.

Which brings us to the topic GM Rewards: What do *you* want to see :)

So I would say eating a mod gets you something way cool (previously mentioned in the above posts - become an important NPC, gain a title, PDFs discounted or special exclusive ones) while someone who runs a lot for players but doesn't eat a mod gets more society awards (stuff to use in game, or options for that stuff). If you are a DM that does both, more power to you, and I think you deserve it!

Problem is a player could use that to gain a mechanical advantage with his PC by just playing mods others have 'eaten' for him.

A PC can only use a module once, but if there are enough people in the area, a DM can run it multiple times. I don't mind a DM have a mechanical advantage if they run something that often.

I admit, full gold the first time ran is simpler, but it doesn't encourage me to run a game as much as getting my character raised.

I also don't know how often players get max gold or prestige awards.
I am lucky to have the minimum 4 players when I play, and I like to avoid combat encounters that have nothing to do with the plot. I understand if I have to sneak into them anyway for someone's prestige award, but sometimes I am quite willing to leave some treasure if it seems an unnecessary risk, or like in Frozen Fingers where I felt for the witch and could not bring myself to attack her.

Assuming I did get less treasure for Frozen Fingers and that was the 1st time the DM ran it, would the DM get the max possible gold/rewards, or simply get the exact treasure/rewards each player received? If the DM ran it several times, then the DM would get to choose which rewards to take.

If the DM and the players register you could set up something simple for feedback, and give the DM 2 point for running a new module, 1 point for running an old module, and 1 point for each player that gives feedback. I would hope for simple, eBay-like feedback interface for players.

In addition to whatever cool stuff a GM can get from the company, for Pathfinder campaign stuff I would suggest:

1 pt. Any 50gp potion, 0 level scroll or a Special Substance (PH)
5 pts. One potion worth up to 300gp or a 1st level scroll
10 pts. Any one spell from Chapter 6 in the Guide to Pathfinder Society Oganized Play rules (pg. 21). The character may even have died in a TPK, as some other Pathfinder could have brought back some partial remains.

That way a DM can recoup incidental costs for their character.

What sorts of rewards do you want to see put into place for Season 1 of Pathfinder Society?

Looking forward to hearing your ideas.

I don't run anything Pathfinder. That may change after the rulebook comes out. Right now I'm a player of all sorts of games. I hope that player feedback can somehow be used.

There is one person that ran stuff for WotC and he was horrible. He runs stuff on rare occasion, was rude to players, especially the younger ones, and expected everyone to be as well versed or better in the rules. I don't want to reward that kind of behavior.

For Pathfinder I have played with an excellent DM who is merciful, yet still cruel enough to be a DM. He works with the players on rules, is nice to the younger or newer players, and keeps things challenging for the experienced gamers. He also seems to run something somewhere all the time. Last time I was going to buy him lunch or something except we didn't break for lunch and rushed through two mods. I think at the least he should get a "Pathfinder Ambassador" title for the Paizo boards. A discount on PDFs or anything else that doesn't have to be shipped, or some really cool exclusive thing should be in order. (His character could become an NPC for another adventure, or maybe some special benefit like a title, lands, extra income, etc.)

I like leveling every 3 adventures.

What I don't like is barely squeaking by with 3 or 4 players and getting the same rewards as if we had played with 6. I tend to spend
a good amount on healing and incidentals that would not be an issue if we had one more player that could heal.

On the LG tangent - I played a couple times and found some of those people scary because they knew so much about the campaign history, world, etc. I like Pathfinder because it is new and they are still making those things up. I enjoy reading little blurby things while people get ready for adventures, but I don't want to have to read the whole of a Pathfinder Companion book, let alone know all the important NPCs and major areas in order to fully succeed at an adventure.

Is this thread dead?

I hope not. I'm thinking of running this in the next year and this is a great overview. I'm posting just so I can easily find it again.

If the DR price seems to high, you can always split it in half and get the AC/Res you want as well as the DR you want.

Adamantine: Chain Shirt, Breast Plate, Full Plate.

Do we really need to bribe players with extra HP or Skill Points to try and encourage them to play traditional race/class combinations?

I only read the first and last page, so sorry if this was said before.

No, we shouldn't bribe or penalize players for having certain races play certain classes.

It would make much more sense for the extra point to be for any character that has only one class, or gains a new level in their highest level class. Then everyone gets the bonus at first level and if you don't split class, you get a small bonus for keeping on the same track.

Right, but you were given 200 words. Of course you can say more given more words. But you're best avoiding items that would require more words, when that's part of the challenge.

Similarly, it's not that a flying carpet isn't a good, iconic, magic item grounded in myth. It's just that it's a bad choice when you only have 200 words to play with.

Exactly.

I hope for the next contest they remember that the quality of their best submissions will relate to the amount of freedom allowed within given parameters.

I understand as they go over more submissions they want to keep raising the bar, and I want to see the best designed, tightest stuff win. I am concerned when the examples of what they are looking for do not follow the guidelines the contest gave.

If the contest had a point system - say 10 points for designing an item with a breakdown for each point, then -1 point for every 50 words over 100, -1 point for every omission, -1 point for misspelling, -1 point for incorrect grammar, etc. it would allow the entrants to know what the judges are looking for, make it easier for anyone to judge the items, and allow you to go for points if you are willing to sacrifice other points.

Say
Creativity: 2 points (something novel, works in a new way)
Flavor: 2 points (can see it being added to a novel or movie and it fits the setting, easily fits a Pathfinder campaign)
Power/Cost: 2 points (level and cost about right for what it does)
Impact: 2 points (tomorrow when you think about the items you read, does this jump to the first one you think of)
Balance: 2 points (does it fit and work within the rules).

I am NOT saying a word limit is bad. I am sure it is necessary. I know many people that like to drone on and on. You do not need to add "this item is not meant to be bent, folded, spindled, torn, replicated or duplicated, copied or mimeographed, twisted, knotted, falsified, or abused in any other fashion as described in volume 2,chapter 6, paragraph 3, line 5, subsection 2" to the back of every submission, but some people like to do that kind of thing, and they may enter contests.

Here's another pitfall I noticed folks falling into: leaving out something important.

The worst of these, to my mind, are the ones that are *aware* they're missing something, and suggest that the "GM discretion" be applied to fill in the holes.

I think that comes from the word limit. Some of the classic examples given earlier (flying carpet, helm of brilliance, and iron flask) go over the word limit, even including tables and charts. There are many ways to specify how an item can be used, or prevent abuse, but not many ways to use accepted verbage and still be under the word count. If the word limit was upped to 250 and did not include the required format block in the word count I think the quality of the submissions would be improved.

The first thing I would delete are standard rule references since an experienced DM should be able to infer which rules to use - or outright pervert them if it is a sadistic DM. Should the designer thwart an experiened and cruel DM's glee over leaving something open-ended knowing it also might cause an inexperienced DM grief? Isn't it from those learning experiences from interdimensional, summoning, or one-shot adventure items that a DM learns how to implement rules and improve?

Disclaimer:
This commentary may or may not apply to an item I may have or may not have submitted.

Minor Magic, as written, is terrible. No sane player wants to cast the same cantrip 2 times per day when they could have taken a level of Wizard, Sorcerer, or Bard instead.

The point of the ability was to try to keep the player in the class instead of dipping. If it was "If your Charisma is at least 10 choose 1 + your Charisma modifier cantrips from the Sorcerer/Wizard list, you can use these cantrips as a Spell-like ability a number of times per day equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier. Your caster level is equal to one-half your character level". It would be just versatile and strong enough to keep someone in the class, but still be weak enough to prevent someone from being compared to a Sorcerer or Wizard.

It could even be a feat, requiring Spellcraft and Knowledge(arcana), though it might make more sense to then replace Charisma with Intelligence.

I was trying to put my character online and totally screwed it up. Somehow I made two characters incorrectly and incompletely, but I don't see how to delete them. Any advice? I don't see it in the FAQ. I just played my first adventures today.