Dimwold A.'s page

I am recovering my thoughts from 5 Pathfinder Society events at GenCon 2016.

Net result? AWESOME!

-5 events with 5 excellent gamemasters.
-Met new friends on Faithless & Forgotten. Carried through to parts 2 and 3 with those folks. Memories were made and enemies were slain.
-The Cosmic Captive. Outstanding! If The Joker were a gamemaster, he was at our table. He did a fantastic job. The atmosphere in the room was incredible.
-Sun Orchid Scheme on Sunday. We finished it in about 2.5 hours..and that was a good thing after the intense week.

What else can I say? The entire Pathfinder Society crew did an amazing job. The gamemasters were on top of their game, knew the rules, knew the scenarios, and knew how to keep us entertained.

Wow. Just wow. Torag shined down upon us over the weekend and all was just and good in the universe.

-Dimwold Axereaver

Play an urban Ranger with Profession-Herbalist or Profession-botanist skill. Create your urban area's version of Central Park. Have a big dog or squirrel as your companion. In the park, create a garden of healing kit supplies. make money in your off time off your herbalism business. eventually take the brew potion feat. every good urban natural paradise has the creaky old shed where the brew kettles are maintained. besides, the guard dog lets NOBODY near the shed.

Ability damage is not permanent. And it is highly unlikely that you would keep taking ability damage until you fell unconscious (the stat reached zero). Almost all such effects have very well defined effects and it is very rare for them to be ongoing like that and I really doubt there would be one in a low tier game.

Someone at the table should have explained to you that you had many options. First, spells and potions of lesser restoration will deal with ability damage and the potion is cheap. Second time between scenarios is undefined so you will be fully healed including from ability damage.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience.

The GameMaster for this game looked me straight in the eye after dicebags and books were put away and said something to the effect of

My options, as explained by the GM in clear terms, were to
A) spend about 760 gp to cure both stats and stop the drain or
B) 380 gp and 1 prestige point (?) or
C) to go insane as WIS and CHA hit zero. (If I chose physical stats I would have died.)

I chose option A. I did not go into the rules to look for the difference between ability damage and ability drain.

Nevertheless, I look forward to the next Pathfinder Society game.

PhatPat wrote:

My only complaint with the adventure was it was too short. We burned through it in about 2 hours while earning full xp, expecting closer to 5 hours of gameplay.

I was your GM for Wounded Wisp and I'll take responsibility for the game length. None of my tables took more than 2 1/2 hours. Were I to do it again, I think I would have brought prep for The Confirmation and/or First Steps with me to see if I could run two in a slot. Not sure if that would be allowed, though.

One point of clarification, though. While the slots were 5 hours, games are only expected to take 4. The extra hour is padding 'just in case.'

Redward, I would have you GameMaster my group again in a heartbeat. You rocked.

Thanks,
PhatPat

GenCon2015 Pathfinder was, for the most part, excellent! It was my first true PFS experience at GenCon. (Long time D&D/AD&D player, short time Pathfinder player).

First we ran through Wounded Wisp on Friday at 1 p.m. The GM was awesome. He made the adventure entertaining and was patient with our lack of understanding with the Pathfinder universe. My only complaint with the adventure was it was too short. We burned through it in about 2 hours while earning full xp, expecting closer to 5 hours of gameplay.

Finding the event itself was not quickly intuitive. We went into the carpeted room and out again, back and forth a few times, until we found the person we were seeking to get us into the adventure. It was my group's first experience with a Muster.

On Saturday afternoon we ran through Between the Lines. Our party of 3 quickly hooked up with another party of 3. We knew the Muster thing by this time. I recall 2 of the 3 names of the other party but will not repeat here unless probed. The GM was thrust into the role with about 24-48 hours of prep time and it showed. Anytime we tried to roleplay and use diplomacy to discuss options with townsfolk, he got this dazed look in his eyes as though his adventure path notes did not compute for a parlay.

Through the adventure, two of we 1st level characters each lost two ability score points and found, at the end of the adventure after all roleplay and interaction was terminated, that our ability score losses would continue until the stats reached zero. The only cure was to drop about 900 gp OR burned points (XP? EP? PP? Some kind of point). We did not get full XP for this adventure as we escaped to the end after doing something which, unknown to us, put a Venture Captain at risk. Finally, the other three characters (not my two friends) were repulsed by the thought of helping us with the recovery costs. I am not sure of the motive but it seemed to be two parties of 3 instead of a party of 6 after the curtains closed and the GM declared the adventure OVER. Those three were outta there fast even after we asked for help paying to remove the stat loss.

I was frustrated by the lack of opportunity to get our hirers to help us, the fact we see permanent ability drain at level 1, and by the lack of help from fellow party members with the costs. The adventure itself was okay but not as fun as Wounded Wisp as each encounter appeared the same. (Fight a monster with x and with y. Oh..fight another one. And another one. And another one....)

Saturday was definitely a different taste than Friday. I am assuming Friday's players were the more typical Pathfinder Society members and the selfish play shown Saturday was an anomaly. I hope future adventures for the Society confirms my assumption.

In conclusion, both adventures filled my thirst for adventure. The first left me quenched and the 2nd left a bitter taste with sweet undertones of dungeon delving.

Thank you all for the help. I agree!
Phatpat

As a lover of rules, I hated not having an answer to "If a character has a BAB of +6/+1 because she is a 6th level ranger, how many attacks per round does she get with a Longbow?"

Nothing states explicitely that a bow is as fast as a sword in our ranger's hands. HOWEVER, a few other items state how they are slower.

1. Crossbow descriptions list loading the weapons as move actions (light) or full round actions (heavy).
2. Rapid Reload feat (For crossbows) states "If you have selected this feat for a hand crossbow or light crossbow, you may fire that weapon as many times in a full-attack action as you could attack if you were using a bow." This implies you can fire a bow multiple times with a high BAB.
3. The Quickdraw feat states "A character who has selected this feat may throw weapons at his full normal rate of attacks (much like a character with a bow)."
4. Of final note: "Drawing ammunition for use with a ranged weapon (such as arrows, bolts, sling bullets, or shuriken) is a free action."

By what I see so far, it looks like a high level ranger (6 is high enough!) can make multiple attacks in a round with a longbow / shortbow. One with the right feats can make multiple attacks with a light crossbow.

So, what is the final answer? How many attacks can a level 6 ranger (BAB +6/+1) with no other applicable feats make in a round with a longbow?