Dire Ursus's page

I’m curious how other GMs are utilizing the reputation system. My group has just started book 2, and so far I’ve ran it rules as written: only adjusting reputation if the text says so.

Are you allowing or even encouraging your players to earn or lose reputation with side favours/disservices? Are you having NPCs react based on the reputation the party has with their faction? Any other creative reputation uses?

If any developers could chime in and give their opinion as well, I’d appreciate it! Is it expected for GMs to play around with the reputation system or will gaining/losing extra reputation cause problems in later books?

Healing is going to be tricky in this campaign; I realized I need to read up on how medicine works on the undead. No one has harm, but I’m letting them adjust their characters in between sessions, and recommended the bard to take Soothe.

There was a new skill feat added to the book of the dead called "Stitch Flesh" that allows treat wounds on undead. I actually gave that to my group for free since they are all playing as undead.

I have a vampire and a "wraith" (reflavoured ghost with sunlight powerlessness) in our party that can't really travel during the day. I think I'll have Berline Haldoli give them a small covered cart, along with the manor, that could fit a wraith and has a small compartment that can fit a coffin for the vampire so they can travel during the day. I'm leaning towards it being towed by a zombie donkey but I'm not decided yet. Would the slowed condition actually affect the donkey's overland travel speed?

I think with a TPK every 3 sessions across different groups we can rule out player tactics tbh. This has to be a rules mistake somewhere and OP isn't really giving us enough details to figure that out.

Unless OP gives specific details like character sheets or a turn by turn combat summary, it's going to be really hard to fix what's happening.

Currently praying to Urgathoa for an early shipment on my AP subscription. My group is meeting soon for session 0 of Blood Lords and I really want the book 1 pdf in my hands before then.

Just because they have Celtic or whatever region's folklore roots or mentions for this incarnation doesn't remove the fact of anti-sematic caricature it's had for awhile, green skin? nook hose?

And that's not even getting into the misogyny of the creature as well.

You can point at whatever myth you want, it doesn't take away from the cariacture, just like you can't claim that drow were never racist because they're inspired in part by Norse myths.

"Green skin and a hooked nose" so like a stereotypical witch then? You're literally describing the wicked witch in the west.

Sometimes I feel like people go so far to try to protect a certain culture they actually end up insulting it... Old ugly witches that steal children are definitely not an anti-semetic trope. I bet that trope has existed before our modern religious texts were ever even written.

I'm patiently waiting on the player's guide (should be any day now!) before I start asking my players for character ideas/concepts.

I'm really interested what the guide will mention about undead player characters. I'm hoping some of my players are going to lean into the undead options since this should be the most ideal setting for it.

Ginny Di seems to be under the impression that the comments under her video are from outsiders who don't watch her content coming to 5e videos and telling people to switch to a different game system. I think it's also reasonable to think that actually a good portion of these comments are from regular viewers who switched to Pathfinder or maybe play both while consuming 5e content. Pathfinder is my main game but I also watch d&d 5e content like Critical Role (where a lot of her fanbase comes from)

RPGnoremac wrote:

I am not sure it is actually a change for finesse weapons, I don't think they were ever supposed to be using your Dex instead of Str for maneuvers. I don't remember anyone saying by RAW that is how it was ever supposed to work.

My interpretation of the rules was always that STR was needing for "maneuver builds" no matter what weapon. With a 14 starting STR you will just be at a -1 anyway past level 4 anyway.

I read the errata and not sure how much things will really change for our games but it is nice things explained more clearly.

Main thing I am worried about is battle medicine seems like it was nerfed with these changes as far as I can tell. Since a player will need two hands free to use the tools so it will be much more action intense.

I know this isn't a video game and balancing isn't as simple, but I am glad they buffed the Alchemist a bit. It would be nice if they added more "balance changes". Would love a TTRPG that is 100% online so that it could be balanced more freely.

Yeah, I also never interpreted finesse builds the way some people ITT are. I'm pretty confused by the fact that there's any semblance of an outrage to be honest.

If they needed to add errata then obviously there was a strong enough argument for finesse weapons letting you use dex for skill attacks.

The first time I read the finesse trait in the final core rulebook printing my very first thought was about how it affects trip because of the whip. Just because you didn't see the connection, doesn't mean that other interpretations were wrong.

Not sure if this is a common problem or just some strange mishap, but I just started flipping through this book and noticed that pages 49 - 64 are repeated twice and instead the book is missing pages 65 - 80. I can send pictures as visual proof if needed.

My order number is 22058983

Cackle description: With a quick burst of laughter, you prolong a magical effect you created. You Sustain a Spell.

Minion Trait description: Your minion acts on your turn in combat, once per turn, when you spend an action to issue it commands.... for a minion that’s a spell or magic item effect, like a summoned minion, you Sustain a Spell or Sustain an Activation

From my reading it seems the answer is yes, but I'm curious what others think.

Hey there! I'd like to cancel my Pathfinder Rulebook Subscription. The shipping price to Canada is a bit too steep for me right now.

Keep my Adventure Path subscription.

I'd vote no on Guidance. It only last for 6 seconds. He would also need to meet the performer in or near their circle since it only has a 30ft range. I'd say a similar thing for inspire competence. In my mind, the act last for at least a full minute to entertain the crowd. Also, unless the bard knows the trick perfectly, he wouldn't know when to cast either of these spells to fully benefit the performer.

Any chance you kept track of the circus and wouldn't mind sharing the outcomes? I ran my first session recently and my group actually almost ran over the 15 anticipation mark with the excitement they generated.

They are both cantrips though so as long as the bard is within 30 ft. he can keep casting it. Right now I'm leaning towards making it a non-performer role as background musician or something, so they wouldn't be able to perform their signature trick themselves but they would be able to aid everyone else with their cantrips.

I don't have the sheet with me but I know they lost 2 excitement from attacking the drunken brawlers with a wolf. They only crit succeeded once, and most performers came out with a net 1 or 2 excitement each round.

So I just GMed my first session last night and it went well! I decided to start anticipation at 10 instead of 15 based on calculations done by you fine folks, and the group ended up critically succeeding with a final excitement and anticipation of 11 thanks to the backup clown role clutching it out in the last act.

The bard of our group had some interesting questions that I thought I would post in here. He asked if he could use his guidance cantrip during the performance to help someone with their performance check. I decided that he would be able to do this once per act to only one performer but he has to be preoccupied the entire act while casting the spell. The bard also gains Inspire Competence next level, and I'm wondering how other GMs would handle this. Would you allow him to cast Inspire Competence to help out other tricks? I'm leaning towards the same ruling for Guidance, that he can aid them, but he must be preoccupied the entire time and only one performer per act.

Something else worth mentioning as a general rule you can spend two actions to prepare a single action as a reaction. So if you are going first in the act, and dont want to spend your last two actions you could prepare the clowns as a reaction with your last two.

Amazon.ca also says April for the shipping date of Gods and Magic. I'll shoot them an email.

Another thing to note: If you use fantasy grounds you can buy the adventures and if you buy the pdf for the actual book you can get a discount = to the amount you paid for the pdf if you link your paizo account. That's your best bet for using the highest resolution map possible.

Dire Ursus wrote:

Did you take into account that performers can help each other, and also all the background roles that a PC could take over?

Yeah, the last scenario I ran with +8 skill checks and +1 circ bonus modeled that generously, as if every single check was helped by assistance and agile tricks. My model circus failed all 100 tries even so.

If you want the players to have a shot (and maybe you don't, idk) you really need to make sure they net that +4 excitement from outside events, or start with 10-11 anticipation.

Thanks for working out the math! I'll probably lower the starting anticipation level when we have our first session.

The first circus performance starts with 15 anticipation, but i wonder if this was meant to be 10. I don't think the PCs have any chance to generate 15 excitement (could this be intentional?). If you want to give them approx 50/50 chance in this first performance I suggest lowering starting anticipation to 11, or making a net +4 excitement from random events likely.

Here's the math to maximise expected excitement generation:

Use trick DC 15

1st trick attempt, Bonus +7
65% success x +1 exite = 0.65
30% fail x 0 exite = 0
5% crit fail x -1 exite = -0.05
Total: 0.6

2nd attempt, Bonus +2
40% success x +1 exite = 0.4
60% fail or crit fail x +1 excite because you should send in clowns on failed attempts = 0.6
Total: 1.0

3rd attempt is a negative expected value, even with an agile trick, so never attempt.

Result:
Over 7 tricks that's an expected total of only about 11. I skipped over some things, but i think their net effect would make the result worse, such as:
- you can only send clowns 4 times
- crit success raises anticipation, at level 1 this means you get no closer to success
- PCs could be assisting each other for a +1 on 4 trick attempts total. I estimate this balances the negatives somewhat.
- Agile tricks will help, but not enough to make the 3rd attempt a net positive

Notice that you can't even get to 15 if you always skip attempt #3 of your trick (2 attempts x 7 tricks = 14), which we did because it's optimal for expected value. To get 15 you have to accept a lower expected value.

I modeled this in excel trying to account for the stuff i didn't include above, and in no case could I turn up a success:
100 attempts w/non agile tricks yielded an average 9.5 excitement, highest was 14
100 attempts with agile tricks yielded an average 10.1 excitement, highest was 13
100 attempts with +8 bonuses, +1 circumstance every roll, and agile tricks yielded an average 11.0, highest was 14

Did you take into account that performers can help each other, and also all the background roles that a PC could take over?

Has anyone’s order shown as shipped yet? The Extinction Curse boards are up but there’s not as much as a single comment yet. Likewise for Gods and Magic.

Mine's still pending as of now.

For the benefit of GMs who think to look here rather than in the sticky for book 2:

Will there be any specific callbacks to the Player's Guide backgrounds in later adventures, as was sometimes done in 1e with campaign traits in later adventures?

Basically want to know how hard I should encourage players to choose backgrounds from the Player's Guide over those in the Core Rulebook.

I too would also like to know if the backgrounds are going to have any 'specific' callbacks. Or would the only callbacks be that the rival circus performers know the characters with backgrounds that state they were employed in the rival circus?

They're sold out right now, but going back for a second printing!

I had the Lost Omens World Guide preordered since it basically came out so I'm not sure if that's accurate. And since the Lost Omen Character Guide showed up on the site I've set it to email notify me when it's available for preorder and I've not gotten one. So they must not have confirmed with Paizo the first printing...

I pre-ordered the Lost Omens World Guide on Amazon.ca a while back but they recently sent me an email saying they don't have any books in stock yet even though the release date has gone and past. Also the upcoming Lost Omens Character Guide still doesn't have a release date or a pre order option.

Is this something that Paizo is aware of and should I keep my World Guide order? Will there be Lost Omen books sold on the Amazon Canada website in the future?

That Shed Tail ancestry feat is amazing. Exactly the type of flavourful but still useful feats I want to see in the future of this edition.

Flurry of Blows states: "You can attack rapidly with fists, feet, elbows, knees, and other unarmed attacks. You gain the Flurry of Blows action."

I can see how a GM would rule that you would need a free hand to use something like Tiger Stance, or Wolf Stance. But Dragon Stance in particular calls out using powerful leg strikes. Does that mean a monk could flurry with say a shield in one hand and a potion in the other while in Dragon stance?

Hmm good question. I don't think it having the attack trait suddenly makes it not a skill check. For instance tripping someone is an 'attack' but I would say it's still an athletics skill check.

The logic is that the longbow is large and unwieldy so it's harder to set up and aim at something that's really close. The closer something is, the more you have to move the bow to keep it aimed at a moving target.

Hmm people over reacting... what a surprise. The first paragraph spoils nothing about the AP other than that Tar Baphon escapes his prison (THAT'S PRETTY OBVIOUS CONSIDERING THE AP IS CALLED TYRANT'S GRASP). It also makes it pretty clear that this article will spoil stuff if you keep reading. At that point why would you keep reading if you didn't want to be spoiled?

I have to agree that summoning seemed lack luster in the playtest. Especially when you consider that you have to use one of your actions to control it. Another thing I found pretty weak was Druid wild shaping. I don't like the fact that you can basically only use the highest level wild shape spell you have access to, if you basically never use the earlier ones ever again since their flat stats aren't good anymore.

I think the hair specifically doesn't look great against the white background but I'm sure it'll look better in print. Other than that nice work. I'm surprised the cape actually works since it's such a contrasting color but it definitely does.

Got the early bird ruler level. So happy with how fast the campaign is blazing through. Keep it up guys!

Lower res comparisons aside. I have to say I'm a bit disappointed that the new art seems a bit less detailed. Especially when it comes to shading and shadows. It could be the lower resolution playing tricks on me, but the old art just looks way better, not because of design decisions or anything (I actually like most of the design decisions) just in overall quality.

I hope Doomed increases each time you are healed back from near-death, so that players will be a bit more careful with their characters

That'd be a neat little house rule for hardcore games. Each time you are downed, your doomed condition goes up permanently.

honestly this is the reason I'm using fantasy grounds. They have high resolution maps already in the game. And you get a discount when you buy the pdf. Everytime I try to port maps to roll20 they end up looking blurry and off center.

Exciting! Will you be able to answer questions about PF2 is that all still hush hush?

You should use the milestone progression. It's honestly so much better. If you look near the front pages it says when your characters should level. Just at the end of the session or whenever you feel appropriate tell your PCs that they leveled.

Hey Sam actually please disregard and cancel that replacement. I surprisingly received it last night! Thanks.

Hey there, I haven't received my order yet, I'm worried that it probably got lost in transit because I have received the next AP book already and I got the confirmation email for that shipment 5 days after this one.

I disagree that 5e helped Critical Role. I think it would be massively popular even playing Pathfinder 1e. I can't really see anyone being sold on Critical Role just because they were playing 5e... The system isn't really the focus of the show and it's already got a massive amount of house rules that Mercer plays with.

Is there any city info on Roslar's Coffer? I know of the info that is in the inner sea region book, but I was hoping to portray the city on the living end before I kicked off the AP.

My plan is to run Reaver's Roar for my party as a one-shot prequel to set the scene. I know that RC is fairly barren due to the Red Reaver's occupation, but I can only piece together the town's occupants from the encounters with their ghosts in book one, as well as a couple of people from Reaver's Roar.

Suffice to say that since we'll never see Roslar's Coffer whole in the AP I won't be worried about a stat block coming out... How do other GMs plan on running it?

The player's handbook actually gives a good description since the players are supposed to be residents of the town.

5E seems to currently have another advantage.

In the last year, in all of the social networks I'm in were popping up people that started Pen&Paper-RPGing because of an appearantly very popular video-podcast (CriticalRole). And they chose 5E because that was what the podcast played, it was the entry point.

I don't know how big that influence really is - all I can see is that big surge of people starting to play and liking that podcast.

I would understand WotC if they held the CR people at gunpoint to never change their playing system.

Yeah, and their home game before the stream started was actually PF1e. Imagine how different the market would be if they didn't swap over to 5e when they started streaming. I imagine if PF2 was out at the time, they would probably have not switched to D&D, since PF2s mechanics are a lot more accessible and that's one of the big reasons they switched to 5e for the stream.

I think backgrounds could be a good use for this as well. Maybe a supplementary book where based on which ability boosts your background gives you (since they won't be able to name all backgrounds they create, I think grouping them by which ability boosts they give you would be sufficient) , it will allow you to pick a background feat of some sort, that gives you flavourful out of combat abilities.

See, I don't think I've seen a player take either of those spells full-stop. Or Power Attack. Or Point-Blank Shot or any of the other Feats these forums insist are required to be 'viable' (except as Bonus Feat selections from restricted lists like the Monk or Ranger)

So if your player is making a ranged build without point blank shot (and by extension precise shot) do they just take the -4 for shooting into melee every single time and they somehow don't feel like they are completely useless or do you guys just house rule that out of the game. Because legitimately it feels impossible to play an archer without that feat.

The other nice thing about the math being tighter is you're less likely to have two characters optimize while others struggle. Had a game where the druid and alchemist could kill anything I threw at them, while the rest of the party struggled to keep up, and wouldn't let me help them make sure their characters were properly equipped. Ended one of my games. Glad to have that issue lessened

Yup. New players being able to have fun and be useful in combat without you as GM having to either create their character for them or scale down encounters is a huge plus for me.

Ok thank god. I did not want them to revert back to the first system.

Sounds a lot like the first dying system they went with. I wasn't really a big fan of any of the systems they came out with honestly. And I really hope that if they are using the creature's stats as the save that it's easier to calculate on the fly, or it's just simply listed somewhere.

Yeah and isn't the point of race against the clock style stories that your resources are being drained and you don't have much time? Isn't this version better for that since you can get one big heal fast rather than having to spend an hour just to fully heal yourselves.

Dire Ursus wrote:

Are the Clarity points at the Scriptorium something the PCs should be aware of and actively seeking or should it be something the GM keeps track of secretly?

I don't have a strong preference on that, as an author. As for myself, I would make it clear what their total is and when they get them, so they take actions that they think would get them more (without telling them, "do this right here to get more").

Thanks. I guess I'm still confused as to how the checks should actually work. Do I just tell all my players to make a roll with the appropriate skill when they encounter the event or do I tell them to choose one skill they think would be appropriate and they only get one roll each?

Are the Clarity points at the Scriptorium something the PCs should be aware of and actively seeking or should it be something the GM keeps track of secretly?