Farabor's page

In "The Elemental Fields" there are two challenges that state "Note how many PCs succeed within 3 rounds." The actions in the challenges (swim or climb) can be done multiple times per round, so was the intention really to give the party members 9 attempts to get 2 or 3 successes?

note it takes more than 1 success to do some of the things, depending on PC's speed/if they have to sheathe things to free hands to climb, etc.

Cordell Kintner wrote:

I wish the writers would be more engaging in these threads to shed some light on these hiccups.

That's understandable, though it isn't the author's job to monitor the forums, and we developers generally prefer that they leave such questions to us.

Transparently, I've been quite busy with PaizoCon prep + GenCon scenario development. I'll loop back with more specific, bullet-point responses as soon as I can, but it looks like the issues that have been raised here are typos and other errors. Apologies!

Hate to be a bother, but did this fall through the cracks? Been a while and as a repeatable, this gets run a lot....

The new PC1 text of Underworld Smuggler no longer references finding downtime jobs any easier. I know we are supposed to use the new version of the feat as errata, but as there is nothing in the sanctioning document referencing this and the CrB sanctioning document still has the text The Experienced Smuggler skill feat (page 261) allows you to Earn Income using Underworld Lore with tasks of your level –1, instead of the normal level –2. , does it still give the level -1 downtime task in PfS?

If not, can that line be taken out of the CrB sanctioning document?

We have the following text in the remaster sanctioning under witch familiars: Familiars must have line of effect for their new abilities to affect creatures. As such, in order to use a familiar’s ability in combat, they must be represented by a token on the battlefield. from the PC1 sanctioning limited to the new combat abilities? In other words, if you just have the old master abilities that let the familiar do stuff to you like give you a focus point back or heal you, do they need to have a token?

If it is all abilities, is this limited to just witch familiars, or all familiars? If it's only the new abilities, can a witch's familiar who doesn't use the new combat abilities still use the old ones without a token?

Alternate domains were printed in Lost Omens: Gods & Magic, not in either the Core Rulebook or Player Core 1. Unfortunately, PfS sanctioning says a newer Core rulebook overwrites older Lost Omens content.

Does this mean that the core 20 deities suddenly lost their alternate domains, while all the other deities who have then get to keep them?

If the answer is yes, does this only apply to new/rebuilt characters, or are currently existing characters who are making use of those alternative domains (Either through the Syncretism feat or the Expanded Domain Initiate feat) suddenly invalid?

Are the new Pathfinder Provisions that are going into effect on the 15th published yet? I couldn't find them on the website

Simple request...can the frequent shopper boon for Frequent Shopper's name be changed to include the words "Grand Bazaar :" so it's easier to search for in the FAQ for full boon text?

Greetings,

I am on my way to the hospital and expect to be admitted for a particularly nasty infection.

If I am a player in this game, please bot me.

If I am the GM, please be patient and I will post when I can.

Thanks for your understanding

ACK! Hope you feel better soon, best wishes!

Falendral nods in response to the instructions, but then pauses to ask. In case we determine a cursed object, do you have some form of container we can transport it in to shield us from it's impacts?

Nature +6, Religion +6, skipping society

Falendral's at -1 diplomacy. But hey, +3 intimdidate, and +6 nature if someone has to calm the horses...but he'd much rather be on his own two feet (35 movement speed....can't wait until next level and 40 feet, with 20 feet mobility no AoO strides!)

What's the formatting for that lighter text on choosing a school item?

Falendral snorts softly, nodding towards Orion even as he waves towards Jong. There's your answer, apparently.

Okay, I think I got everything in, space separated...I don't think I have the patience for bolding/unbolding/etc, but hopefully it is readable? Fortunately a level 2 character doesn't have that much!

Okay, I think I have the basic stuff on the after name formatted....I have a pathbuilder PDF of the stat block, is there a way I can provide that, or do I need to get the various things into the character "sheet" on the profile section?

Sorry, this is my first time playing on the forums. Getting on board now! (and I guess my 2 glyphs aren't needed, harumph!). I could use some pointers as to what to set, where....I think I have the slides info (First time using that as well), I have no idea how/where to set the character sheet info.

Okay, I've done play by discord, but not play by post on here....so, can someone point me to relevant info? How to set avatar, style guide (if different from the PbP discords), how to find my game (GM Super Zero's PF2 1-04)?

Thanks in advance!

Once again necrothreading, I'm getting a lodge started for Pathfinder Society in Palm Beach & Broward County. Still in the getting organized/interest phase, going to be setting up first meetings/games next month.

A boon to add things to the Champion's steed ally, as per the existing rule "You can select a different animal companion (GM's discretion), but this ability doesn't grant it the mount special ability.".

Specifically, for some strange reason riding dogs are not available as animal companions. Without actual new rules elements, at a minimum a boon could be created to allow a re-skinned wolf to be taken as a champion steed that looks like a riding dog! Currently only goblins get that option, even though riding dogs have been iconic to halflings since forever.

I saw the rules for having access to 2 ethnicities or 2 regions, but I couldn't find any clarity on whether it was okay to just have a character of an ethnicity that is not at all common from their region? The specific thing in mind I am looking at is to have a Nidalese ethnicity character with the Alkenstar region, story background being his parent were immigrants there so he was raised in Alkenstar.

The obvious mechanical benefit is the combination of access to Nidalese feats for low light/darkvision and firearms.

So I've only bought and read the first adventure, and it looks like there's only the initial show in the timeframe of the adventure. Several of my players are very interested in playing SimCircus, so I was just wondering how many actual performances can they expect to have? Is this something that I would just add more of in between the 6 adventures?

Perfect, thanks for all of the very constructive feedback.

I'm just starting the first adventure in the arc and I have players who want to further build their backstories as part of growing up in the Celestial Menagerie. In the first part of the AP, it gives 3 members of that circus and says that more will be detailed in the second adventure. I'm not ready yet to buy that (I want to make sure my group finishes and wants to continue from the first).
Are there any notable performers and/or other circus-folk for people to hook their backstories in?

Couldn't find this answered elsewhere....in the affliction rules is the following:

"If a failure or critical failure would increase the stage beyond the highest listed stage, the affliction instead repeats the effects of the highest stage."

My question is, lets say the max level is 3 and you fail at 3 and would go to 4. Do you go to condition stage 4 that has the EFFECTS of stage 3 (So you still need to recover from a stage 4 affliction), or does your stage number stay at 3?

It looks like they are cumulative. The encumbrance penalty is actually phrased as increasing your armor check penalty by 2, or giving you a penalty of 2 if you don't currently have an armor check penalty. As such, it seems both rules as written and rules as intended imply that the speed reduction from being encumbered also stacks with that from heavy armor.

I'd be far more okay with this if heavy armor only reduced speed by 5 and encumbrance only reduced speed by 5. This is something that should happen anyway because heavy armor is way too punitive as it currently stands. With both speed penalties sitting at 10, it's brutal.

Agreed, that's how I read RAW...but yeah, what with full plate being 4 bulk, even a max strength fighter has to be careful with carrying extra stuff to avoid being at a crawl

Speaking as both a player and a DM, treating time as an infinite resource strikes me as lazy. The PCs don't operate in a vacuum. Things react to their presence, NPCs have their own time schedules in which they make patrols/etc....

Right now, in my pathfinder I campaign, we just finished a mission to save some children from an evil cult. We didn't even take the time to loot everything, we had so much time pressure.

Sure, sometimes there won't be any time pressure at all...but in my experience, that should be the exception, not the rule.

So, in PF1 (And 3.5/3.0), you took the worse of the two penalties from your encumbrance and your armor. So far, it seems like in PF2, they combine. Is this the case/supposed to be the case? Is a fighter in full plate who is also encumbered moving at the speed of a snail?

I couldn't figure out the right sub-forum for this. Anyone have a clue on what the land speed of a laden camel should be? And no, I don't know if it's African or European!

I couldn't figure out the right sub-forum for this. Anyone have a clue on what the land speed of a laden camel should be? And no, I don't know if it's African or European!

So, when a barbarian gets knocked unconscious while in a rage, then gets woken up by the friendly cleric later that round, how does that work?

Is his rage ended? If so, does he still suffer from the round of fatigue? IF not, can he immediately re-enter a rage next round?

I'm about to run it, and I was confused at the fighter only nature as well. Guess I'm not the only one.

So I just skimmed the 2.1 document (Yeah!), and I was wondering if a change log is available? I.E. a list of where the document has changes from 2.01 to 2.1?

As always, great food for thought. A couple of comments:

Liveoak: This spell specifically requires a healthy, Huge Oak. Obviously this is DM and campaign specific on just how available these are....but I know that if a player was recasting this every day because he kept getting his treants killed, I'd certainly start limiting the availability...

Summon Monster 1 Riding Dog...there's a recent post on the rules forum about downgrading it to the normal dog.

So, finally got around to buying and flipping through a dead tree format of the Bestiary. First two questioned popped up on everyone's favorite pal, the Rust Monster.

1: Its antenna is listed as a primary attack, yet only has an attack bonus of +1, 5 less than its claws, as if it was a secondary. Err?

2: Its carapace is listed as having the rust effect, yet I don't see anything in the rules about applying the rust effect to metal weapons that strike it. Double Err?

You have to choose one. You could be crazy and choose one then ignore it and never do your faction missions.....but that'd limit your buying ability and bonus equipment pretty steep.

So, finally taking a look at the rules for item creations...I highly advise craft wand on a bard, considering you can easily keep grinding out level 1 wands without even taking downtime (Using the craft during adventuring rules, easily taking the +5 spell DC). Your level 1 spells are quite good at CL 1 ...and 50d8+8 healing for 375gp can't be beat for pretty much always being at full health between encounters without using up any of your combat resources.

Zurai wrote:

Bogmoll wrote:

the only big complain I have gotten so far is the change to exp, my players are not happy about the slower progression.

Assuming you're using the "medium" column on the chart, there should be no noticeable change in progression speed. The numbers are very carefully balanced to be identical to the 3.5 numbers (13.3333... encounters of a level equal to yours per level).

Your correct I think the problem lies in that the numbers have changed and none of my players have bothered to do the math, witch is not a surprise really.

XP is no longer a resource that can be spent on anything, it just accumulates until you level.....which makes it even easier to use my favorite XP method...don't hand it out at all. Tell the party when they level :).

There's a reason why all my evokers take whatever skill will cover knowledge:Geometry...

Ah, yes, sorry. I forgot we house-ruled all those away. The Strength check on entangle is especially stupid, because it's fairly easy to get it to "impossible".

On the plus side, while they didn't change the escape artist table, they did change the text on the pathfinder entangle to make it less utterly broken....all the rolls to get out of it are now the same as the original save DC, not crazy high 20+s for a level 1 spell.

Basic example: The DC of a CL 5 Wondrous Item would be DC 10. A Wiz with a 18 Int has (+4) ability modifier, and presumably 5 skill ranks of Spell craft, for a total skill of 9. They only need to roll a 1, and automatic failure actually only applies in combat and saves (but I houserule it in anyway). Using the other methodology, the DC would be 15, and the wizard would have to roll at least a 6..

Your example missed out on the +3 trained class skill modifier...level 5 wizard, 4 int, 3 class skill, +12 spellcraft. So would only need a 3 to succeed on a 15.

On a side note....I haven't looked up the rules in detail. Is there anything to indicate that you can't take 10 during item creation? I mean, it's not in a stressful/combat situation (usually...)

Farabor wrote:

The current system (since 3.0), onward, supports a simple int check the same way as every other d20 check.....roll 1d20, add your int mod, try to reach a DC.

The problem with this is that unless you're a Wizard, your int mod is going to be +1 or +2 at most. That means the result of the roll is entirely random. That's just pure silliness. There's a reason that there's no such thing as a pure-stat check in the default rules. Stats are always added to some other scaling modifier to determine your bonus, never used by themselves (the obvious exception of untrained skill checks just prove how silly it is to treat memory as an untrained skill check).

Rolling under your ability score provides a means to roll a viable stat check. It's unfortunate that stat checks rolled the normal way just are not viable in a mathematical sense, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Umm...Just to contradict you, there are several places where pure stat rolls are made. Strength check DCs to destroy objects/break free from entangle/etc. Constitution checks to stabilize.

I know in 3.5, there was a whole second in the rules talking about the philosophy of when to have something be a stat check vs a saving throw vs a skill check, for how much you wanted levels to impact the relative ability of people to make the roll.

The silliest part of this spell/ruling, is that you can take a hair off yourself, then cast alter self to turn into...yourself. And get a +2 dex or strength bonus. Now, system wise, this isn't at all broken for the level of the spell..but it is pretty silly.

On the other hand, it's been discussed on the previously mentioned thread _why_ they did it like this, and for simplicity's sake, its a good implementation.

Thanks for the input!

I was originally going to do it as an Int check, but that is always a pain due to new role players and being told to always roll OVER a target number and now being told to roll UNDER a target number ... it's just confusing for some people.

Really like the gut-check mechanic. Thanks!

Never, ever have someone do roll 'under' their stat.....that's going back several editions to the land of craziness. The current system (since 3.0), onward, supports a simple int check the same way as every other d20 check.....roll 1d20, add your int mod, try to reach a DC.

Thanks for stepping up to the plate! One of these years I may actually dip my toe into one of these.....but for now, perfectly happy to make use of all your efforts, and just add my commentary :).

First, on your skill list, I feel that perception should probably be added. It's just one of those pathfinder skills that every character should see about squeezing points into. Especially since if you're playing at later levels, where the stat modifier and the class skill become less and less of a factor compared to # of ranks.

Second, commentaries on the Elementalist bloodline:

I'm aware that both you and Treatmonk don't like blasters...I'm aware of the math and the arguments behind them. I'm also aware that if a player does want to play that kind of char, they're going to come to one of these two classes to do it in, and it's worth at least a comment.

Given that, There's one minor feature and one major feature of the Elemental bloodline to point out. The minor is you get burning hands and scorching ray as whatever element you chose, not fire. The _major_ is the bloodline arcana I feel you highly undervalue. You get the choice of changing the element of your blast spells at cast time, each time. This effectively doubles your blast spells known for versatility in getting past resistances....and since as a sorcerer, you're only going to know a few blast spells total..even for a non blaster type, it's quite useful. Say your element is electricity...take a fire blast spell, a cold blast spell, and an acid blast spell as your 3 different blast spells at different levels....and if any of those aren't appropriate, you can sub it to one that is. Since as far as I can tell, Energy Substitution hasn't made into pathfinder, this is pretty unique (For games not using 3.5 content)

I would like clarification on the "Wizards and Their Spellbooks" section of The Guide.

1. Does successfully scribing a scroll found during a scenario remove it from the wizard's chronicle? That is, can a wizard scribe a spell then ALSO buy the scroll of that same spell? Should the GM cross it off the chronicle?
2. Would successfully scribing a scroll during a scenario remove the scroll from OTHER characters chronicles, since it was consumed?
3. A general chronicle access question: Can multiple consumables be bought when listed on a chronicle? When a potion of cure moderate wounds is listed on the chronicle, does that mean we can buy just one or do we have the option to buy two or more, assuming we can afford it?

I know the answer to 3 is yes, as I've explicitly had that answered..unless an item is listed as limited on the sheet, you can buy as many copies of it as you want during the current/previous two chronicle sheets. I've also been told that even if an item is consumed during a mod, you shouldn't take away its treasure value/access on the sheet, so I'm 99% certain that the answers to 1 and 2 are no.

Well, just to share....

I play a level 2 melee battle cleric in PFS...and I suffer the 1 AC hit of using a buckler instead of a large shield, specifically so I have the option of using that hand (and losing the AC), if I need to cast. Still, I spend quite a few rounds with nothing in my other hand so I can keep that AC...I do a lot of sheathing, redrawing, switching, and other oddball stuff....

Personally, I find that aspect of playing the character fun. It adds the need for a lot more thought and planning to deal with the limitations of needing that free hand. As for game balance....I think it's perfectly balanced to say you can't cast when gussied up like a line combatant. If you're a primary caster and want your AC, just don't have a melee weapon out. If you're a primary melee combatant and want the option of casting, suffer the 1 AC hit and use a buckler....so in an emergency you don't have to drop something to free up your hand.

Farabor wrote:

As per rogues taking extra feats instead of talents, no can do, more than one combat and one general feat.

page 68, rogue talents: A rogue cannot select an individual talent more than once.

That text is included in the description for Rogue Talents, but NOT for Advanced Talents. Also, the wording for the bonus feat for the advanced talents implies that it may be taken repeatedly.

I just reread the rules....and all it says on 'advanced talents', is that starting at level 10 you can take them in place of regular talents. Nothing to indicate whether the that's intended to follow or not the rule on regular rogue talents. However, the Skill Mastery Advanced talent does specify that _this_ special ability can be taken multiple times, which leads me to believe that in general, you cannot.

Typically, you start with 2 traits, one of which must be a campaign trait, the other can be any one of the other 4 types.

Also, I'm pretty sure one doesn't have to be from the campaign specific list...I know in PFS it doesn't (Though the wording on the 2.01 document was very poorly done, IMO, and gave me that impression.....)

Between only needing a single rank to get an extra +3 in a class skill, and the combination/elimination of skills.....I personally think there's plenty of an increase of skills for everyone. Even my int 7 human cleric is liking his 3 skill points per level very much :).

As per rogues taking extra feats instead of talents, no can do, more than one combat and one general feat.

page 68, rogue talents: A rogue cannot select an individual talent more than once.

LazarX wrote:

Quite frankly after a certain point, parties don't need to be showered with treasure. D+D scenarios and playing style still seem to be influenced by the old paradigm that experience depended on treasure that was looted. Other fantasy RPGs like Amber, Ars Magica, practically any superhero rpg aren't bound by this incessant need to feed greed. In a heroic campaign... defeating the big bad should be it's own reward.

And that' why they're guidelines.... not rules.

Agreed.

That is why made sure to specifically use the term guidelines.

My point was more in response to a GM trying to shaft his players by using the bonded item as a loop hole.

So, to clarify the intent of the statement that started this diversion.....

There's times where as a DM/GM/what have you, you've got this wonderful idea for this neat challenge for the party to have to overcome...but then you hit that "Ut oh, afterwards the party will end up with the Thing of Doom! that made it challenging" problem...which can quickly build into an arms race. Players defeat X, take X's stuff...now you need Y to be even more powerfully armed to challenge them....a few cycles of this can lead to very silly games.

This happens to be a built in mechanic in the game that lets you avoid that arms race while still challenging the party with something that you ordinarilly don't want in player's hands.

It's a tiny bit off topic, but one of the "Evil" (TM) things about arcane bond magic items is the 'usable only for creator'. Nice for the GM who wants to make a nice challenging fight for his party, without then giving them the Amulet of Roxxors that made the fight challenging in the first place (And thus making it even harder to challenge in the future....)