EricMcG's page

My characters require Heal regularly just to stay in the fight. The "+10 = crit" rule means that characters are going to get pounded hard and often. A Heal Monkey keeps everyone alive, assuming there is someone willing to do this.

Planning for Organized Play, a Heal Monkey is much less likely to be present. I would also suggest running one of your next playtests with a couple of characters 2 levels below tier, if you have players willing. The AC difference alone should show the need for prodigious healing resources.

You get 9 stat boosts to start, you can be 14 across the board with a 12 in one stat. I would argue it is more efficient to have a couple of 16s and a couple of 14s rather than an 18,16,14,10,10,10, but it is a matter of preference.

On the point of real world equivalents, remember this is a game in a fantasy setting loosely based on medieval Europe. If the average peasant has stats of 10 across the board, today's average office worker would have stats of Str 8, Con 7, Dex 10, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 14. Physical stats are low due to reduced need for physical labour to survive, mental stats are boosted due to much better and broader education, communication skills, personal hygiene and grooming.

In PF2 my game experience has been that CON is the primary stat for all classes, with DEX being secondary for unarmoured and light armour classes. Class stat gets whatever is left over. Stats are really just to provide game advantage with real world analogies only to help with immersion in the setting.

I feel pretty much the same as he does and will only read up on a new class or ability if it is required to prep a NPC in the mission. It kind of bit me when I misread Flesh OF Stone as Flesh TO Stone, this made a tier 5-6 a bit more challenging. Generally I trust the player not to cheat, but I expect him to know the rule he is using. I'm in the Roll With It group.

A downside is that newish players look to me as an experienced player and often ask "How does <weird ability> work with <new class and/or archetype>?" resulting in a "I have no idea." response. I am not particularly apologetic about it, GMs are not responsible to buy every bit of paper Paizo sells.

As a suggestion to keep him GMing, limit him to tier 1-5 scenarios. There are fewer shenanigans available. Also make sure he plays more so he can see how the classes work in action and how the other GMs handle them.

I am currently playing a core Monk of Nethys. I consider it my spiritual duty to use magic whenever it is available to enhance my natural strengths and make up for my weaknesses.

A previous monk (Zen Archer) balanced all of his stats (except Charisma, which is simply vanity). No stat was more than 2 points away from any other and generally in the 18-20 range. Ioun Stones for high stats, Belts/Headbands for lower stats.

Golarion is a magic intense world, it is not possible to exist without incorporating it into your philosophy. It is just too pervasive.

Law means to keep your word, say what you'll do and do what you say. Act in a way that will bring order to those around you. Follow the laws of whichever land you are in within your moral boundaries, but be flexible so that you do not disrupt the order maintained on the backs of slavery or devil worship. Causing a slave revolt may be morally right, but the ensuing chaos is spiritually wrong.

And stay from Galt.

Not sure where this is coming from, but for 3 PP it seems reasonable.

FanExpo 2016 is happening in Toronto Sept 1-4 (that's tomorrow until Sunday night). Multiple tables and tiers in every slot, 40 or so scheduled. If you want more info, Google it, that's what the Internet is for. The Con Special is Friday night and will be a retro blast from the past, likely Season 3 or 4.

Weapon Training (EX) is not the same as weapon training. The archetype loses the first step of Weapon Training and gains Duelist Training (EX) in its place. Other archetype class features replace later steps. The "for" should have been "from", all other references should have removed the word "weapon" for clarity. So, since you do not have the Weapon Training class ability, you do not benefit from Trained Grace, Gloves of Dueling or the like.

Duelist Stance gives you significant bonuses at no cost, including +2 on damage once you get Duelist Training, plus the other class features later on.

It looks like this was from a soft cover booster book where the editing may not have been up to standards, so interpreting it for the best possible build gain may not be the correct course.

The build otherwise looks good and fun to play.

A few long time players came back last year for Core, but we only got to about 8th level before they lost interest and it died off. Most of these long timers have 2 or 3 dozen scenarios they can still play, plus Season 7, so I doubt replays will bring them back. They are all involved in home games, but mostly it seems to be real world stuff keeping them busy.

I've retired 5 characters so far and I have enough unplayed 7-11s (5) and GM credit remaining (1) to retire two more. I've GMed all but two 7-11s, which isn't enough to retire another character unless a 3 parter 7-11 is released in Season 8. Resetting older replays or giving a GM star reset would allow me to meet my objectives, but I see no reason to change the rules for my personal benefit.

If Paizo did want to change the rules, I could see an advantage to GM credit being allowed multiple times, with boons available only once, but I personally would never retire a character on GM credit. An annual reset of GM star replays, again with boons available only once, would be a nice reward for those still active and would be a maximum of 5 games per year. Regardless, I doubt it would be used by more than a couple hundred people worldwide.

A kit is not a tool, so the bonus would not apply.

I would not have a problem with Masterwork Healers Tools including mithril scalpel, adamantine bone saw and books on anatomy, diseases and treatments for 55gp. This would provide a +2 bonus on the day job, but there is no provision for such a thing in PFS since Heal is neither Craft, Profession nor Perform.

One would assume Gunsmithing was to repair a damaged firearm from misfire damage, if such a thing can actually happen in PFS. I can't think of any other mundane item that could be made.

An Alchemist crafting Ghost Salt would be my new best friend. Half price other mundane alchemical items are just nice to have.

One requirement is that you need to own the resource (either hardcopy or PDF)in order to use it. To play a Bloodrager you need to own Advanced Class Guide. It is assumed you own the Core Rule Book, even if you don't. Online play is difficult to prove non-PDF ownership and is sometimes hand waved by the GM, F2F is usually enforced. All of the hardcover class books are online at Paizo.

Hope you can find a good game, online or f2f.

Gencon was last weekend, I'm sure Paizo staff ran or played at many of the tables, did they ensure this process was followed? Someone who was there could probably answer the question.

I think I read the Season 3 Guide cover to cover, all other seasons were mostly skimmed for interesting tidbits. Regardless of the official process, I do the following:

Before the game, fill out the location, code, date and GM number.
Do my best to kill, disease, poison and curse as many of the characters as possible in the time available.
After the game, fill out XP, Prestige and GP earned plus any day jobs.
Initial and sign where required.
Note down conditions removed on individual chronicles.
Initial any other notes the player feels are important.

I leave the rest of the paper to be filled out by the players during a slow part in their Pencils & Paycheques campaign.

A quick look through a few scenarios finds very few mooks carrying any coins at all. Even the final BBG may not have any actual coinage listed under Gear. The mooks referenced through NPC Codex seem to be the only consistent exception. The half dozen, mostly recent, scenarios I looked at are not much of a sample out of the 150+ available, so coinage may be more common than it appears.

There is no game mechanic to change one "salvaged" item into an other item of the same (or even lesser) value. I could not take 20 crossbow bolts to a weaponsmith and get a quiver of arrows for example. Coinage you do find listed in a stat block remains as found, CP,SP,GP or PP.

There is no rule removing destroyed items from everyone's chronicle sheet or reducing the GP equivalent, but it is generally accepted that coins, gems and other trade goods are an exception if spent/expended during a mission. This is a reasonable balance that allows the sunder specialist to go wild without unduly penalizing those who travel with her.

I don't see any significantly useful mechanical benefit to allowing this to have scenario carry over and it adds another spell to the list on p.21 that already has 4 too many spells in it.

Brains. BRAINS!!!

About the only thing I can think of.

What do I get for GMing a scenario for the first time? 1XP, 2PP, some GP, maybe a boon and no fear of a death chronicle. What do the players get? Maybe 1XP, 2PP, some GP, a boon or a condition (or two) to be removed, run by someone who maybe has a feel for how the story should flow in the time allowed.

What do I get for GMing a scenario for no credit? A tick towards my next star. woohoo. What do the players get? same as above, except story that flows more smoothly, better mission specific rules knowledge (chase rules of the month anyone?) and maybe time left for a satisfying conclusion.

If unlimited replay boons are a problem, then don't give them out. Rerun a scenario? You get everything except boons you have already applied to any other character. Add the clause to the Season 8 Player Guide to make it RAW. All I want is 1XP, some GP and a tick towards my next star (WOOHOO!), you can keep the Fame, boons and reminders of stuff I might want to buy.

Strongly opposed to All

If you think you'll need it, buy it yourself beforehand. Particularly at the level where you have someone capable of casting Breath of Life. I might make an exception for a 0 XP character.

EricMcG wrote:

Stopping is generally accepted as the end of your movement. It bogs down play to ask if the player's move is over after a certain amount of inactivity. For beginner's getting used to situational positioning I make an exception.

Mim, the man in motion walks behind the goblin

His turn gets interrupted by Wam's readied action triggering

At what point has Mim lost his ability to choose whether to attack the same goblin as Wam or continue walking?

An interrupted action is different and the flow of play is fairly obvious. For a beginner I may ask if he wishes to attack or continue moving, he might think his movement was ended because he was stopped. I had assumed in your example voluntary stops along the path.

They can attack. They are not going to, but they can. That's all that matters. Stopping is not an action. You do not have to declare your movement over at any point. Its even possible to see the results of your partners readied action before deciding whether you want to stop there and swing at the same target or keep going.

Stopping is generally accepted as the end of your movement. It bogs down play to ask if the player's move is over after a certain amount of inactivity. For beginner's getting used to situational positioning I make an exception.

(other commenter) Note that being out of AoOs does not stop one from threatening, it merely prevents one from taking an action when the opportunity is presented. You can still take a non-action such as "providing a flank".

Yes, the flank occurs and triggers the readied action. Mainly because I like to reward team play, I would change "can" to "could". There are some shenanigans that may result, but generally it helps creative play.

If the character is Spring Attacking the flanked target, then no issue, he CAN attack and therefore threatens. If the Spring Attacking character is taking an AoO from the flanked creature to attack another beside it, he COULD attack if the AoO offers its own AoO. The target does not need to be designated at the start of movement, so if the flank attack fails, he could designate it as his target (although he still takes the result of any AoO) and then continue his move.

Note that Spring Attack is a non-action, so in the example if he has Cleave, he could attack the target behind and the one he flanked with (maybe even still with a flank).

I've chipped in 2 or 3 times to raise characters and 3 or 4 times as a GM I have given the option to the table to chip in. Generally speaking characters die due to bad luck rather than bad builds. I strongly suggest a CON of 12 for PFS, but that is just a suggestion. 2 build points aren't much, but it's your choice.

Local practice: Chip in for the Raise Dead, the 2 negative levels are the character's responsibility.

It really comes down to whether I like the person, not whether I like the character. The times I have chipped in, the money has come from the chronicle and I still consider it worth the cost. I can only think of one player for whom I would not have chipped in, if pressured by the table I would have insisted all of his stuff be sold for 1/2 price and then split the remaining cost amongst us.

PFS doesn't actually end at Level 12, just the missions the Venture Captains will send you on. Not even Drandle Dreng would wake a Seeker to go fetch some tome from somewhere.

I see a fair bit of dipping, but most people stay single class. I do tend to dip into arcane for martial types and divine for arcane, mainly because locally I find buffs to be inconsistent and healers to be few and far between. I also like the extra class skills, Knowledges greater than Huh? being particularly random.

Some dips don't work out, but 1 level dip will not significantly hinder a character and may provide much needed flexibility.

As a player I TRUST players to build legal characters. I HOPE they will play them competently. I KNOW they will make mistakes from time to time, usually with on the fly buff changes.

I TRUST the GM to run the scenario I signed up for. I HOPE she will change the tactics appropriately for intelligent encounters to be challenging. I KNOW the GM will make the same kinds of mistakes as players when things change.

As a GM, I no longer have any choice but to trust the players. I haven't opened any of the Occult products and never will. I trust you will play your Kineticist by the rules, but I will rely on other players to point out mistakes. There is just too much Paizo product out there to keep up with.

For the Yellow Tengu example, I would be curious as to why. It might be a physical representation that she has Exotic Weapon Training instead of Swordtraining or she just prefers to be based on a canary. If it comes out that it is a Herolabs(for example) variant that gives 60' perfect flight and all Exotic weapon proficiencies, then I would correct it for the current game and hope it stays corrected subsequently.

Followers are not allowed, however there are vanities that offer assistants of various kinds, none of which convey any mechanical advantages from what I recall.

You can create undead during the scenario I believe, but they crumble to dust, along with everything else found in the scenario, when it is over. There were threads discussing this but I don't recall the final consensus answer.

I'd say the change to a different or no archetype would be free. But no other rebuild options would come free. Fortunately it is only 5pp to retrain a feat. At 4th level you likely have roughly 20 or so PP. So swapping a couple feats shouldn't be too expensive.

This is how I would rule it. I might consider other options if it was due to a rules change/clarification.

A resource needs to be owned to retrain, this is not an always available option. I wouldn't mind a subset of the retraining rules made part of PFS play.

I'm doing well to keep initiative straight and the right tier stat block in use, so tracking PC HP really isn't going to happen. It might be appropriate for Bonekeep, but general play not so much.

Locally some GMs ask players not to say how negative they are when they go down, they should also roll to stabilize even if stable or when bled out. Personally I like this, but only when I am with experienced players, new players don't necessarily understand the implications.

Eyup. Not only can he donate his gold, he can sell his gear at half price (and may as well )

I would rule Yes in most cases.

He would need to spend the 5PP for body recovery to sell his stuff. It probably doesn't matter, but it makes the paperwork easier. Locally, gold is assumed to not be on your character, but always available to be spent during the mission.

A pre-gen may or may not have the same option available, depending on how the death chronicle is applied. For example a 4th level pre-gen may be applied to a 1st level character who doesn't have the 5PP available yet.

I have issues with an 1870's gunslinger in a fantasy setting, but with a little self restraint it is both fun to play and fun to play with.

I don't think you need a high INT, but a negative CHA will impede your UMD. Money is fairly generous, so after the first mission, ammunition will not be too much of a problem, your Day Job as an Alchemist pays for it more often than not anyhow. Weapon cords have been changed, so a second gun is more difficult to use and less valuable to enchant, I'd not recommend it.

Feats:
Point Blank Shot
Rapid Reload
Deadly Aim
Precise Shot
Clustered Shot
Improved Precise Shot

I have Precise Shot a little lower than others might. There is usually more than a 4 point gap between regular and touch AC, so you still hit more often than most other ranged types firing into melee.

Other feats to look into:
Quick Draw
Improved Initiative (for flat footed Touch attacks)
Skill Focus (Perception)
Weapon Focus (Pistol)/Specialization (if dipping into Fighter feats)

If it were Strength Drain, I would be OK with the spell. Although I think Con Drain would be more appropriate mechanically given that it is blood loss.

The spell was written for a 3.5 AP and in this context is a good spell. Money is hard to come by and losing a character mid-campaign is disruptive to the flow of the story. In a PFS setting, characters die rarely enough, having a significant cost to dying gives incentive to playing your character well and meaning when it dies heroically holding the line.

I have rarely seen Blood Money used for 100 gp components, it's usually 1,000's of gp. I am happy to see the spell as written removed from play.

Divine casters of evil gods are often a hindrance, particularly if the players are expecting spells like Align Weapon Good, Protection From Evil or spontaneous Cures. Tell the players you worship Calistria and favour negative energy, if you want to keep Norgorber secret. Sarenrae or Pharasma may cause too much confusion. Inquisitors may not have the same issues as players seem to expect less divine aid from them.

At my table, any spell that requires a Divine Focus must have line of effect from the (un)holy symbol. Tattoo, birthmark or Ploog's skull generally must be visible for anything other than personal effect. Of course, seeing it and knowing what it is are two very different things.

If you want to get into the God Of Secrets thing, I suggest you read "Lythande".

"Drow of the Darklands Pyramid" gives an opportunity to fly reliably every day. I would have no problem with allowing ranks in Fly to any character with that chronicle.

Flying Carpet, Winged Boots or Celestial Armour meet the requirement, I guess the question is why do you want to spend your precious SP on Fly? I would hope it is more than envy of the Wizard who never again touches the ground after getting Overland Flight.

characters are the easy part. Anything you write them down on (including twoply.) is the official sheet so there's nothing to keep track of.

Sigh... I wish I could afford two ply.

Some players choose the "Ignore, Taunt and Kill" theme for how they play their characters. It's their thing and that's what they do.

In a home game you can pick and choose who you invite play. With a group of PFS players that get together regularly you get know each other's style and adjust your own to fit. At a con, half the players at the table may have never played Pathfinder before and maybe were shanghai'd out in the hallway, so any "theme" is lost on them, only the problem in front of them matters.

"Explore" is intrinsic to the mission, you enter a room you've never seen before and this is one of many rooms in the structure.

"Cooperate" is a suggestion and most do to some degree since no one character can get past every single situation alone. Those who don't, generally die often or expend large amounts of resources needlessly.

"Report" is assumed if there are survivors to actually report back.

The "chronicle sheet" ties them together and provides a tangible record for the player to look back on. Most have a lot of white space on them for notes, one of my characters made little proverbs for memorable adventures (both good and bad) such as "Many strong trees failing to make a forest". As a GM or experienced player, perhaps you can go over this with players after the mission, if they seem interested in the bigger picture that is.

Got it, P.10 of the PFS Guild Guide. Oh well, c'est la loi.

Alignment: LN Domains: Law, Trickery

Holy Symbol: miniature 6 walled crenellated tower

Precepts: Discipline, Planning, Decisiveness, Deception, Misdirection and Unpredictability form each of the sides of the Strategic Tower. The Adherent aims to follow these precepts for attaining both short term and long term objectives. All Adherents shun randomness of action and thought, but some favour personal power (LE) or the greater good (LG) over optimal execution of their plans.

I am posting this in Core since I can point to a reference that allows it (CRB P.40 & 41) and I can not show a reference that bans it. Although any 2 domains can be chosen, I prefer a philosophical basis for the choices for RP and game mechanic purposes (i.e. ex-Cleric of Philosophy).

Your best bet is not to think about how something would work in the real world, it will only cause pain and suffering. A polearm is only used in open field battles as part of a larger formation, never indoors or individually, it is just too unwieldy and impossible to get through narrow hallways and spiral stairs. A polearm soldier might use a halberd or short spear if garrisoning a building, but they would only have a dagger or shortsword as a secondary weapon.

In game terms, 50 lbs of feathers in a sack encumbers just as much as 50 lbs of feathers carried individually. How do you carry that many feathers individually? Don't know, don't care, still lightly encumbered and I can locate the one specific feather I want as a move action. Pathfinder is ultra high fantasy, if you want something closer to reality, I would suggest a different game system.

If you wish, you can think of it as arranging the kit so that things that your life depends on are always within easy reach and accessible by habit.

As far as Enlarge Person goes, more than likely the character was medium encumbered after enlarging. Strength goes up by 2 points which increases carrying capacity by about 33%, but Large Everything doubles in weight. Given a light capacity of 100 lbs, armour, weapons and miscellaneous totaling 80 lbs, enlarging makes light capacity 133 lbs but total load becomes 160 lbs. If you like being enlarged make sure you know exactly what you are carrying.

You have a number of different characters, one of which is nearing retirement, so I don't understand your question.

I will elaborate on JK above. A "used consumable" would be a potion, scroll, alchemical item, torch, or anything else expended during play, but it is also a wand if 1 or more charges were used. Your rebuilt character is stuck with any wands that have fewer than 50 charges remaining, but other equipment can be sold at full price for the rebuild only.

Except during summer I can play 4 or 5 times a month, sometimes more. I have done one non-Core module and one non-Core scenario in the past 4 months. Without Core, I'd play very little at all since I've already played just about everything. 2 new scenarios come out every month, but it takes a while for someone to bite the bullet and run one of them.

I GM once for every 2 games I play. I feel this is fair trade. This allows me to play my character at each level and apply the GM credit to top it up. GMing regular campaign means I credit up characters that rarely get played and that's not a lot of fun for me. It's also not a lot of fun having some tweaked out character with classes I've never heard of using powers I've never heard of end an encounter in a way that makes no sense. This has become so prevalent in regular campaign that I don't bother prepping encounters anymore: set up the minis, roll initiative, blow up the bad guy and move on. Just once I'd like to see tactics that say: "Sets up an ambush that starts on her initiative. Uses every ability and option to kill as many of her enemies as possible. Fights to the death only if there is a chance of causing actual harm."

YMMV, but Core is the only reason I am still here after 5 years.

I would recommend First Steps, it has lots of role play and a couple of fights. It doesn't have a lot of advanced rules for you or your players to know and it makes a certain amount of sense to have newly minted Pathfinders doing some joe jobs before the real work begins.

Confirmation is also a good choice for the same reasons, but I find it works best after the first chronicle is had. The 2PP Wand of Saved My Life (aka wand of Cure Light Wounds) is more likely to be needed. Although The Thing That Will Kill You is far more obvious than in First Steps.

Master of the Fallen Fortress is a straight up dungeon crawl and definitely requires the CLW wand. The big problem is the Total Party Kill (TPK) trap that goes off about half the times the scenario is run.

Since you don't know who will show up, you might want to bring a couple of Quests. They are much faster than a full scenario, but don't provide significant loot. They are a good intro to the game though.

Also, bring a half dozen PFS ID numbers with you to give to your players. They need to activate them online to register their characters and you need them to complete the paperwork of reporting the game.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

I don't know how many games you've played, but you have run between 10 and 29, so you should have a pretty good idea of how a typical PFS scenario goes. Assuming you ran the same players, how many characters did you kill?

Four things generally kill characters, bad luck (crit confirm with low HP), bad play (being the only target for multiple attacks), bad build (Con as a dump stat and/or AC less than 15), bad GM (cheats or uses wrong tier stats). The first three are fairly obvious to spot before or during play, the last is a bit trickier. I would suggest verifying the stat block after the encounter that killed a character. Even if you didn't knowledge the creature, you should have a good idea about its AC, HP and special abilities so you will know it was the right tier.

All To Hit die rolls and damage should be in the open for all to see, saves as well.

I would suggest you stop playing 3-7 scenarios and play 1-5 instead. The rewards are more or less the same and it takes accidental tier 6-7 encounters out of the equation. Also, level 1 characters are very squishy, as a Cleric your job is to keep them alive so you will not need to intervene in a CR1 encounter and thus won't ruin the session by killing everything for them.

BTW locally we have about 20 players playing weekly at various locations and we've had less than 10 character deaths this year.

You can't use chronicle boons with pregens, you get no day job and the Grand Lodge gets too much undeserved love, so I see reasons why some would suggest you build your own PC. They may also see errors when reporting (for reasons given above).

Level 9+ modules would not be playable as there would be no pregens in tier.

Anyhow, if pregens are your thing, go ahead and keep playing them.

You have 45 minutes to an hour per combat, if you have a character that ends the combat in 5 minutes, you have plenty of time to say "show me". If it passes the audit everyone learns something, if not then adjust it accordingly and move on. Be sure to have a current copy of Additional Resources on hand.

Alternatively you can give the players more of the flavour text in the scenario. The blue text is fine, but the true story (and real quality in the product) is the most interesting part of a PFS adventure. Treat each combat encounter as a small stop before continuing the story. Include a journal after the second last encounter outlining the "nefarious plot" that summarizes why they are going after the Big Bad in the first place. If the players don't care, then fill out the paperwork and go home early.

I would recommend First Steps Part 1 as it has 3 combats and a lot of role playing. If you like your NPCs chatty, you can really go to town with this one. It may be difficult keeping within time limits though. Parts 2 and 3 have been retired and are not valid for PFS.

This will level your regular players to 2nd (3XP), then I would recommend City of Strangers Parts 1 & 2 and Rise of the Goblin Guild. They are now level 3 and things open up, if they are clearing the encounters too easily, try season 5 or 6 scenarios, otherwise stay with some of the earlier seasons. When they reach 4th, I would suggest Quest for Perfection 1,2 & 3 followed by Way of the Kirin. By this time everyone has lots of experience with the game system, PFS and each other, so run anything that looks interesting.

PS, crits tend to insta-kill 1st level characters, try not to confirm them, which may be difficult with Roll20.

As GM, I'm pretty much School 1. If any of the players care, I will tell them why they are fighting, but these are fairly rare in PFS.

In a homebrew, there is quite a bit more narrative as there may not be any shared base to jump into. I always start with the big wheel of the story and have a couple of smaller wheels turning within it. Each of these smaller wheels have various obstacles to be overcome. All of the wheels keep turning even if the players aren't necessarily ready. The narrative is to lead them to the next obstacle in an interesting and internally consistent fashion.

As a player, I want to know why I'm fighting, where and who. Most GMs seem to appreciate this, but I don't get the impression that the guy behind the screen is on my side.

In FLite's philosophy, I would be a Simulationist-Gamist with an appetizer of Narrativist. I firmly believe a fantasy RPG needs some grounding in reality to make sense and that Good Wins (but not always), with a detailed, reasonable world populated by memorable allies and enemies (but not so much as to be confusing).

It's all just formulas and numbers to try to give players an idea of how difficult it might be. Player skill and experience, class mix, GM experience, strings of bad luck, all have far more impact on the challenge of the encounters than the tier calculation, but these variables can't be quantified. As the GM , if you don't think your players are able to play up, then don't. Blindly following a simplistic formula doesn't do anyone any favours. You can also offer to play up for the first encounter and then down shift if they are getting creamed, they lose some GP for the lower tier, but hopefully live, learn and still have fun.

Certain classes skew the average dramatically, Musketmasters, Summoners, Zen Archers for example, often drop the CR by 2 or 3 levels when played well.

If the groups given were my local players, the results would be:

Cake walk (any season/almost any mix)
Some Challenge (depending on who/what was 7th and season)
Significant Challenge (season 4+ only)

It's not that the characters are over optimized or the GMs take it easy on them (especially me), they are just good players working well together for the most part.

BTW Kyle Baird is the only author who consistently makes the challenge match the CR. IMHO.

Minor point, but any flu kills birds quickly and is just a few days of suffering for healthy humans. A few specific strains notwithstanding.

Back on topic, unless the Roc has 3 levels of Paladin, it saves with everyone else. For the sake of completeness, Familiars and mounts would also be affected.

trollbill wrote:

To be honest, it is probably a good thing they didn't make them function similar to real life. Otherwise everyone and their brother would carry one, fire off a volley in the first round, then drop the gun and switch to normal tactics. I can see why that might no be desirable.

I don't see the problem. It's how I've handled things. Open up with gun, finish with sword. The class DOES have full martial proficiency after all. It's basically how the Musketeers fought as well.

My opinion is that double barrelled pistoleros just want to Uzi the encounter and move on.

While I think it is great for role playing, the feat selection makes Clustered Shot less desirable and Weapon Finesse a requirement. Guns are Dex based, swords Strength based, so you tend to not be very good at one or the other. However it is a reasonable interpretation of RAW in that you are not limited in the number of free actions (GM discretion of course), but it doesn't say that you can use the same free action twice. Not that anyone has ever adjudicated it that way.

Leveling is an opportunity to improve deficiencies in the character. Some deficiencies are planned, say due to limited build points, some are unexpected, Fort Save of +3 not helping much, due to limited play experience perhaps. HP of course moves you from fragile to god-like and SP moves you from clueless to competent, at least at some tasks.

Moving up in tier gets you more GP to buy more stuff to fix more flaws. Belt or Cloak? Both! And a ioun stone.

New feats, new powers, will open up. Also the chance to change the complexion of the character through multi-classing. Each level is an opportunity make a new decision about your character, hopefully making it more fun to play and play with.

My printer (HP LJ400) has the option to print watermarks. Preferences-> Effects-> Watermark

I have created a CORE watermark and will try it with the next Core game I run.

Handle Animal is a Charisma based skill, so I might suggest you take a couple points from Int to boost Cha to 13 or 14. You start with Skill Focus, Skill Focus (Handle Animal) offsets this quite nicely, so it isn't really necessary to change your stats. At 4th, you get to add +1 to any stat you want, this will allow you to up something that you feel is a weakness in your character.

I would also suggest you put a skill point into Handle Animal and Perception every level. In PFS Knowledge (Local) is used very often. With your high Int, you can do quite well in a number of skills Druids tend not to take (typical Druid Int is 7-10), but put at least 1 point into every class skill at some point in your first three levels.

Also you get 2 free traits (free downloadable PDF). These can help round out your character nicely.

However you end up making it, have fun with it.