Fafnoir's page

Hey!

I'm prepping to run this AP and I've got three players who want to short-man it with just three characters, no aid from an NPC or a Leadership mook. This is my first time running for a smaller party. Is it enough to simply run on the Medium XP track and give them XP for their three-person party as the Gamemastering chart gives?

Totaling up all the XP given from encounters, a four-person party receives 8600 XP in Book 1, and a three-person party would get 11460. This is before story awards, of course. These both put the party (after story XP) into level four, so the difference is negligible. I'm sure this difference compounds into the later books, but is enough to keep the party capable later into the campaign?

Thanks!
-F

Sources:
XP by CR
Character Advancement XP Track

I have a player wanting to play a construct race, as a Scavenger Investigator. I have a couple of questions about how things interact:

First, do the devices created by the Gadgetry ability still have schools? In this instance, if this construct-Investigator created a device of False Life, could it affect him? Constructs are typically not affected by Necromancy effects. The devices created seem to be magical devices that achieve the same effect as the extracts, but aren't necessarily the spell?

Second, does the Jury-Rig ability allow the construct-Investigator to repair himself? It specifies "an adjacent mechanical device," which doesn't seem like it would include a construct creature like a wyrwood, but does seem like it would include a clockwork creature or an android. Rules-wise, there's no difference between the two, so can it be reasoned that he could Jury-Rig himself?

Thirdly, my player brought up using Craft (Clockwork) and Master Craftsman to make Wondrous items or weapons/armor, and just give them a clockwork flair. I don't see any reason not to, but there's no harm in this, right?

Thanks!
-F

Sources:
Scavenger Investigator
Constructs
Master Craftsman

Also note this from the Invisibility Special Ability rules: A creature can generally notice the presence of an active invisible creature within 30 feet with a DC 20 Perception check.

It's hotly debated, but a common interpretation is that you always get a flat DC 20 check to notice something invisible is moving nearby. The Stealth +20 is needed to locate the creature's square.

I feel like this is misleading, I don't think the DC would be 20 in a majority of in-game situations (edit to clarify: as that DC seems to apply only to creatures not using stealth, and without any modifiers). By the numbers from the Invisibility special rules, I believe it should be:

Perception vs.

Invisible Creature, w/o Stealth, within 30':

• DC = 20 to notice presence, 40 to pinpoint square.
  Invisible Creature, w/ Stealth:
  
• DC = Creature's Stealth Roll + 20 to notice presence, Stealth Roll + 40 to pinpoint square.
  

It seems like the DC 20 perception check within 30' may likely come from the base DC 0 perception check to notice a visible creature, plus 20 from being invisible.

In both cases, the DC is modified as given in the table on the Invisibility entry:

• In combat or speaking: -20
  
• Moving at half speed: -5
  
• Moving at full speed: -10
  
• Running or charging: -20
  
• Not moving: +20
  
• Using Stealth: Stealth check +20
  
• Some distance away: +1 per 10 feet
  
• Behind an obstacle (door): +5
  
• Behind an obstacle (stone wall): +15

Given these numbers, if Tim the Rogue has a +12 to Stealth, is invisible, and is moving at half speed through a room with a guard 40' away,

DC = His Roll + 12 (Stealth) + 20 (Invisibility) - 5 (Moving Half Speed) + 4 (Distance)
DC = Roll + 31

An invisible stalker is in combat, so its stealth cannot be used. It is 20' away.

DC = 20 (Base) - 20 (In Combat) + 2 (Distance)
DC = 2

Both DCs are 20 higher to pinpoint the exact square.

However, to get back to the original question. The perception check is automatic in either case. Someone else mentioned it, but it's a result of bundling all the perception-type skills into one skill. The creature in question is invisible, which is taken into account by the +20 bonus to its stealth in the opposed check.

Source: Invisibility, per PFSRD.

It took me a bit to understand, but I think I get it. In your first example, can you apply any metamagic you know to the emulated spell as long as it doesn't exceed the max spell level of the Shadow spell?

How exactly do these two interact? A player of mine is curious.
Do you avoid the daze by saving against the Shadow Spell, the spell it's emulating, or both? And if you cast Shadow Weapon, does it daze the target every time you attack with it if they failed their initial save? Or do they get a save every time since it only allows a save on the initial attack?

A PC of mine wants to play a Wizard, but the first book has little to no opportunity to gather scrolls, it seems like. Are the resources the players will get later on in the AP enough for a Wizard to be playable?

Thanks!
-F

So, my players will nick literally anything that isn't nailed down, and through tenacity have been able to totally clean out the first two dungeons. That's about 15K in coinage alone, along with dozens of pieces of armor, weapons, and so on. For a party of 5, this puts them WELL above the pathfinder PC-wealth-per-level chart. Is this normal? Will it unbalance things a bit for the future?

I was looking at running a Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple, starting with Crossblooded of Draconic/Orc.

At 15th level, I'd like to take the Orc power Power of Giants instead of the Draconic power Wings. The 9th level Dragon Disciple ability states this:

At 9th level, a dragon disciple gains the wings bloodline power, even if his level does not yet grant that power. Once his level is high enough to grant this ability through the bloodline, the dragon disciple's speed increases to 90 feet.

Would I be able to receive both powers in this way? It seems like it just grants me the power regardless, and when my level is high enough to where it'd grant me the power, I receive the speed increase. My gut tells me it /should/ lock me into choosing the Wings power, but reading it straight doesn't give that impression. Perhaps I gain the wings ability but never get the speed increase because I never actually get the power?

Thanks!

Sweet, I was going to grab the bonded item as a ring to make a ring of invisibility for cheap, but I'm definitely going for a familiar now because I love the idea there. Getting sneak attack with only one attack isn't any problem, because for the most part that's really all I need, I think? The only problem is that my familiar only has a +9 to bluff. Is there a way to boost that for familiars?

I think I'm going to swing melee and go for touch spells and evocation focus. I really /really/ want to go for that Magus VMC but I feel like I'm rather feat starved as it is, but it's a tempting offer.

The only think I'm feeling like I'm missing out by going that path is the ability to get that Ring of Invisibility for cheap, but I think I can resolve that just by throwing money around later down the road.

What sorts of feats would I need to consistently get ranged sneak attack with the spells? Impromptu Sneak Attack helps immensely (as does the ability to get greater invisibility a number of rounds per day, and the fact that his bonded item, a ring, will DEFINITELY be a ring of invisibility).

As for Fiery Shuriken I'd kind of forgotten that it's a ranged touch spell and his opponent would need to be flat footed to get that sneak attack each round. In regards to Scorching Ray, it gets sneak attack on only one ray, right? I remember reading about it in another thread, but now that I go back and look for it, it might be a 3.5 thing only?

Chess, do you remember the name of the feat? I can't seem to find it

Imbicatus: The original reason for going rogue was to go Rogue Unchained and get weapon finesse for free for those touch attacks, but if I can figure out how to make a ranged AT work I'll be looking at the other classes that get Sneak Attack ^^

My first question is whether taking the Accomplished Sneak Attacker feat and one level in Rogue would satisfy the +2d6 requirement for entering the Arcane Trickster PrC. I'm looking to go Rogue 1 / Wizard 3 / AT 10 / Wizard 6. (The character is entering the game at level 9, so R1/W3/AT5 at the moment.)

Secondly, this is my first time playing a Wizard, or even an arcane caster above level 3, much less an AT. Is it more advantageous to go for a ranged approach and take Precise Shot and Point Blank Shot and use ray spells? Or go for one focused on touch attacking? I've tentatively taken Enchantment and either Abjuration or Necromancy as opposed schools, as the party already has an Oracle and Psionic-type. I'm unsure whether to go Evocation for my school and try to go blasty, or Conjuration or Transmutation. Having a 13 CON currently, the +1 bonus from Transmutation is super tempting.

Thirdly, would it be worth losing a second level of spellcasting in order to get a second level in rogue, and pick up Evasion and a rogue talent, as well as one more BAB and Ref?

Lastly, what sorts of spells would you recommend? I've read through both the AT guides and having seen an arcane caster played before I have a few ideas. Calcific Touch is amazing, Ghoul Touch is the only thing keeping me from outright choosing Necromancy as my opposed school, Fiery Shuriken looks great as a way to get a swift action sneak attack each turn in addition to the rest of your actions.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Also just remembered another thing: Feinting and Improved Feint for the ranged sneak attacking rogue? Can you get that ranged sneak attack?

Alrighty.

Er, I think.

My concerns were that, since Age of Worms was designed for a six person party, that running it with five would level the party too quickly. For example, supposing that, for simplicity's sake, the party starts at level one and beats ten CR2 encounters. A party of five would be at 1500 experience, and Level 2. A party of six, though, as paizo likely planned for, would still be level one at 1000 experience. I'm not /immensely/ worried since you said that it sounds about right, but I'll likely be posting back in this thread again to check back once we're a few more books in.

Right, so.

I'm necro-ing this thread to make sure I'm still doing this right. My players have just finished book two, and their XP total is 13,300, putting them halfway to level six on the fast xp track.

The encounters are still challenging the party, but I worry that they're leveling much faster than the adventure anticipated, due to the fact that they're short-manning the adventure with five people instead of six, and thus getting more experience.

Does this seem right, to be almost level six going into Blackwall Keep?

Alright, if that's the normal way then that'll work just fine. I just wasn't quite certain, as I didn't have any info on what the normal way is. ^^; All I've got are the converted enemy stat sheets and the old campaign pdf. Thank you for affirming that it was the right way though, and thanks for the link. ^_^

So, I'm running a pathfinder-converted Age of Worms book, and I'm still confused on doling out XP. So far I've been looking at the encounter CR and getting the experience from the Gamemastering CR->XP thing, then using the Fast experience track for character advancement. There's got to be a better way.

I'm currently running this campaign, and we're just about halfway through book two. My PCs have been nagging me about whether they should take crafting feats, and one is even building his character centered around scrolls. Judging by the second book, there doesn't seem to be much down time, yet at the same time, book three opens with a massive research session. For the overall campaign through all the books, will there be enough time to let my players craft without dire consequences?