Feegle's page

I didn't participate in the playtest, so this is my first encounter with the Ruleset. As was the case with 1e, the book is hard to parse when you have a specific question - the Glossary and the Index are both lacking in this regard. Specifically:

Shove (Single Action)

Attack
Requirements You have at least one hand free. The target can’t be more than one size larger than you.

You push an opponent away from you. Attempt an Athletics check against your opponent’s Fortitude DC.

What is a "Fortitude DC?" Is this like a defense, where it's 10+Fort modifier? Or is it an opposed roll? I've just spent 45 minutes with the Core Rulebook attempting to find a definition somewhere, plus another 15 on AoN.

It might be an interesting experiment (beta?) to allow image posting in PbP threads by the GM and enrolled players. Nontrivial to restrict posting to players-only in those threads, but a good compromise. Essentially, let the GMs police imagespam in their own thread, but have the tools to enhance PbP.

Ha! That's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks, Brf. I was looking under Targets; never occurred to me to look at Casting Time.

Feegle, you do not 'begin casting Enlarge Person on a specific ally'. You begin casting it. The target is not chosen until the spell is cast.

You quoted the relevant rule "You do not have to select your target until you finish casting the spell."

"You do not have to," is not the same as "You cannot," or "You do not;" and "You do not have to select your target until you finish casting the spell," is not the same as "You choose your target when you finish casting the spell."

I suspect that this will end up a house-rule, but I was wondering if there is actually a clearer rule written somewhere. It's for a home game, but my years as a PFS GM have taught me to look for absolutes in the rulebook, and not implications - hence my question. :)

This is a different question, but it's the same topic as in the subject line, so I'm going to add it here for ease of searching later.

When are you allowed to choose a target?

The situation was this.

1) Caster begins casting Enlarge Person on a specific ally (declared as "I start casting Enlarge Person on Honder; next round he'll be size large."
2) Enemies drop a Darkness spell
3) Caster finishes casting.

Does Enlarge Person work? The target is, for all intents and purposes, invisible when the spell completes, but was chosen as valid.

The only quote I can find in the CRB that seems relevant is this one:

Target or Targets: Some spells have a target or targets. You cast these spells on creatures or objects, as defined by the spell itself. You must be able to see or touch the target, and you must specifically choose that target. You do not have to select your target until you finish casting the spell.

Argument 1 (for) "You do not have to select your target until you finish casting the spell" implies that you can select your target when you begin, if you want to.

Anyway, at this point you can probably see the rabbit hole. Opinions?

Feegle, would you use Compels for more than just penalties to rolls, such as getting the PCs involved in a dangerous encounter they would otherwise try to avoid? Also, would you allow Invokes for a reroll?

The former is an interesting question. Because Fate is designed around telling a collaborative story, where Pathfinder is often (especially when using pre-written material) about moving them through a story that already exists, I'm not certain how well that would work. It's a really good idea, but it would take an agreement with the players before the adventure begins, in order to make sure that they're okay with the possibility and aren't going to view it as me railroading them.

The reroll is an idea that was suggested by my first round of "editors," and I'd considered it. Ultimately, I discarded it because I want someone with a Perfect Storm of Aspects to be able to Invoke multiple Aspects on the same roll, and I'm not sure how to do that if each Invoke is a Reroll. Does one drop three Fate Points, roll four d20s and keep the best? In the end, I just dropped that option for lack of a good implementation, though I'm not opposed to it in principle. It does solve the scaling problem mentioned in this thread. Do you envision it as a replacement for the bonus, or a second option? If the latter, how does the math stack up? (If you know off-hand - I can do it myself, I just haven't yet.)

...Frankly, the strongest ability of the points in FATE was allowing players to create parts of the narrative on the fly. It increases the overall buy in for players by allowing them to craft parts of the plot, and I think it's strong enough to use in that capacity alone, though I'd also allow the rerolls too.

I'd suggest using this IN ADDITION to the trait bonuses, especially if you drop the "bonus to d20 rolls" part. Make the aspects first, then choose 1, 2, or 3 (depending on game) trait bonuses based on them.

I agree with the player influence on the narrative part, but I've been unable to really get my head around creating situational aspects without completely changing the system. If you have some ideas on how to use Fate points to influence the narrative in a way that doesn't hack the entire d20 system of conflict resolution, I'm happy to listen - any examples or explanations would be welcome. At the moment, tying Fate Point spending to the Aspects a character has is my way of limiting them to a character's background and the impact that might have on a particular encounter or scene.

I'm wary of trait bonuses, because I don't want to unbalance everything too far in one direction. I'm already replacing two traits with five aspects, but I'm comfortable with that because of the fact that they're double-edged. Giving a trait bonus on top of the ability to reroll in contextual situations seems like it might be a little over-the-top. Though I'm happy to be talked down from this.

The other issue is the way Pathfinder math works. Saves are on 1/2 progression of skills, CL checks, attacks, etc. I would either half the effect on saves or keep two trackers: +3/-3 for most, +1/-1 for saves that then grow with every 4th level by 2.

Just want to be clear here - your suggestion is that instead of a flat bonus, it would be a lesser bonus on saves because they progress more slowly, correct?

Just gonna bump this once, in case anyone else has ideas but missed the original post last week.

Thanks, Thomas.

I chose +/-2 because it could have an impact (especially at low levels), but stacking wouldn't become ridiculous.

Why do you think that banking 5 is too many? I felt that the situational nature of Aspects would keep it hard for people to just drop many Fate Points on the BBEG at the end of a scene, but I'm open to further discussion on it.

Starting with the max Fate Points makes Compels pointless (as I've written them) because players can decline them. That's lifted straight from Fate Core - you offer the Compel and if they want or need the Fate Point, they accept it.

Keeping that level of player agency in the rules was important to me, because I wanted to accomplish two things:

1) I want REAL double-edged aspects, not "What is your worst quality? I think I just work too hard sometimes," aspects, without having to edit them all myself.
2) I don't want them to feel like I'm the antagonist, pulling out their weaknesses at the worst possible moment to "make" them fail a save-or-suck saving throw.

I would love some feedback on the following idea. It's long, and I truly appreciate anyone who is willing to push through the whole thing to offer critique. I'm not interested in critique on the philosophy of the system, but rather on its implementation. If you're familiar with Fate Core, much of the information will be familiar, but this is the full text of a document that I wrote for my group, with the assumption that they weren't familiar with it - even if you've never heard of Fate Core before, this should tell you everything you need to know. Thanks in advance!

----

There are elements of character creation and mechanics from Fate Core that I’d like to lift and adapt for a Pathfinder Campaign (specifically, the Hell's Rebels Adventure Path, though I think there are many campaigns where this would work). There are a number of reasons for it, but ultimately, it comes down to encouraging thoughtful character backstory, having links between characters in place before the game begins, and reducing Trait twinking. :) This system is built on Aspects and Fate Points, and starts with Character Creation.

Aspects

From the Fate Core SRD: An aspect is a phrase that describes something unique or noteworthy about whatever it’s attached to. It can be thought of as the title of a Feat or Trait, though there is some crafting that needs to go into writing a trait to make it work with the proposed system. (see below).

Traits will be replaced with Aspects. Each character will have 5 Aspects that are developed during the character creation process, which are a High Concept, a Trouble, and three Qualities.

An Aspect can, if appropriate to the circumstance, be Invoked to allow a character to add a +2 Aspect bonus to any d20 roll. Multiple aspects can be Invoked on the same role if they are all appropriate, and multiple aspect bonuses do stack.

If an Aspect might hinder a character in a particular situation, a GM may ask to Compel a character’s Aspect to give them a -2 Aspect Penalty to a d20 roll, or an enemy a +2 Aspect bonus to a d20 roll. Players always have the option to decline this Compel.

Fate Points

Fate Points are a mechanic to rein in abuse of Aspects and to make their use a more judicious thing. Each scene, a character will begin with one Fate Point.

In order to Invoke an Aspect, the player must pay one Fate Point. Invoking multiple Aspects on the same roll costs multiple Fate Points - the same as the number of Aspects being Invoked. If a character has no Fate Points, then regardless of how appropriate the Aspect might be to the situation, it may not be Invoked for that roll.

To earn more Fate Points, characters must accept Compels on their character. Whenever a player accepts a Compel offered by the GM, they earn one Fate Point for their character. Fate Points may be banked, but at no point can a character have more than 5 Fate Points. Once a character has banked 5 Fate Points, they may no longer be Compelled by any of their Aspects.

Making a Good Aspect

Aspects should be double-edged, flexible, and clear.

Double-edged Aspects let you Invoke them, but also give the GM opportunity to offer to Compel them - remember that without Compels, you won’t have the Fate Points to Invoke later. Greenhorn sailor is an example of a double-edged Aspect - it speaks to both inexperience and training in a particular area.

Flexible Aspects let them be invoked and compelled in a variety of situations, which makes them useful more often in game. Local celebrity tavern singer is a good example of a flexible Aspect - it might allow for bonuses on Diplomacy while on home turf, bonuses to Perform when earning money, penalties to Stealth if trying to stay unnoticed in a tavern, and so on.

Clear Aspects are important to define the boundaries of their flexibility. A vaguely-worded or metaphorical Aspect might seem to be useful in every situation, which will get overused and just slow down play. Aspects should also be worded in plain, system-neutral language - within an Aspect, Warrior means someone who fights rather than an NPC class, and Fighter just sounds strange, unless you mean it in the sense of organized sporting slang to refer to a boxer or MMA competitor.

Character Creation

Using the following structure helps to create fleshed-out characters with pre-existing connections to each other. The mechanical advantages of Aspects should allow them to gel nicely with Pathfinder and make the Phase Trio meaningful for the remainder of the game.

Once you have your character mechanics created, this part of character creation begins with developing a High Concept and Trouble for your character.

High Concept
From the Fate Core SRD: Your high concept is a phrase that sums up what your character is about - who he is and what he does. It’s an aspect, one of the first and most important ones for your character. If someone asked you for your character concept, this is the answer, as brief and complete as possible. Connected to the discussion on Clear Aspects above, you should avoid using, for example, their class name.

While it’s not specific to high fantasy, the Fate Core SRD has some good advice on different ways to develop a High Concept that can be found here.

Trouble
From the Fate Core SRD: In addition to a high concept, every character has some sort of trouble aspect that’s a part of his life and story. If your high concept is what or who your character is, your trouble is the answer to a simple question: what complicates your character’s existence? Troubles are usually fall into the categories of personal struggles and problematic relationships.

As the Trouble is an ongoing element of a character’s existence, it shouldn’t be easy to solve. (If it were, they’d have already done it.) On the other hand, it shouldn’t be an ever-present threat in the character’s life, lest it take over their every waking moment. Avoid making your Trouble an extension of your High Concept - you have a limited number of Aspects, and duplication of circumstances for Invoking or Compelling aspects should be avoided. Finally, remember that every Aspect should cut both ways; so your character’s Trouble should do so as well.

Your Story - The Phase Trio

Once you have a sense for your character’s High Concept and Trouble, you will develop a story from their past, and connections with two other characters, along with associated Aspects for each of those instances.

Phase One - Your Adventure
This may be your character’s first adventure, or something that happened very recently. It should be a time when they were the star of the story, though, and not merely a bit player - you can think of it as “that movie or book that starred my character.” It usually takes place after their coming-of-age, whatever that means for your character, and should be recent enough that it allows other characters to cross paths. For that reason, and for this Campaign, Your Adventure takes place in or around Kintargo.

Determine a title and jot down the basic details of the story. There shouldn’t be a lot of detail, because others will add to it in Phases Two and Three later. Limit your summary to a few sentences to avoid from getting too detailed.

If you’re stuck for ideas, look to your character’s High Concept and Trouble, and think of a dilemma or problem that might arise because of one of them or both. Then, imagine what happens next.

Once you’ve got a title and a summary, write an Aspect that connects to your story. This is the first of your three Qualities.

Phase Two - Crossing Paths
In this phase, you’ll be a minor supporting character in someone else’s adventure, and someone else will play the same role in yours. The GM will determine who contributes to each other’s adventures.

Begin this phase by reading the adventure of another character, and envision your character’s supporting role. Supporting roles come in three forms: they complicate the adventure, solve a situation, or both.

If your character complicates the adventure, they manage to make some part of the adventure uncertain. Obviously, since this has already happened, they got out of it alright, but the method of resolution doesn’t matter - leave that for someone else or leave it open.

If your character solves a situation, they have resolved a complication that the main character had to deal with. How that complication arose is irrelevant, you just need to determine how your character took care of it.

If your character does both of these, then your character either solves a complication while creating a new one in the process, or creates a situation but later solves a different one. Mash up the two ideas using the word 'later' between them.

While your character isn't the star of this story, your role needs to be important and cast a spotlight on them for something specific - you will be developing your second Quality Aspect from the role you create, so what happens should highlight something you’re known for, something you can do, something you own or have, or someone who have a relationship with.

Once you’ve decided on your role, summarize it in one sentence, and then write an Aspect that connects to it; this is the second of your three Qualities. The limit of one sentence is to reinforce the idea that this isn’t a story that stars your character - you’re a bit player on someone else’s stage. If you can’t summarize it in one sentence, it’s likely too big a role.

Phase Three - Crossing Paths Again
Phase Three is a repeat of Phase Two, but in a different character’s adventure. Develop your role in their story, and create another Aspect that draws from that role; this is the last of your Qualities.

Now your character has five Aspects: a High Concept, a Trouble, and three Qualities

Character Progression

As a character grows and develops, so too do their Aspects change with them. In Fate Core, this is built into Character Progression. In Pathfinder, this will be more informally represented using Milestones.

Milestones represent key events in a story, and will be decided on and announced by the GM. As a general rule, Milestones will take place approximately once every two levels.

When a character reaches a Milestone, they will have the opportunity to change one of their Aspects. Their High Concept may evolve as they live their adventures, or they may have dealt with their Trouble and move on to a different conflict. Qualities may become less important due to experiences and fade into the background as more prevalent Qualities take the fore.

Aspects can change by Evolving, (From Bumbling Apprentice to Mostly-Competent Spellslinger to Feared Archmage, for example.) or they may be replaced by something completely different. High Concepts usually Evolve, Troubles are usually Replaced, and Qualities change in both ways, though there are exceptions to every rule. In general, new Aspects should reflect some element of recent adventures.

Apology accepted, T-Rex. :) For me, at least, it's an easy adjustment as I'm running it online through Roll20. "Page Settings --> 1 square = 2 units" and problem solved.

It makes a whole lot more sense at a larger scale in general - I never even considered the logistics of 300+ people in a building only 110 feet wide. :)

Is it just me, or does the basement of the Opera House seem a little cramped? Barzilai's quarters is a 10x10 room that also contains a life-sized statue? The Southern guardpost is 15x15 but contains a large-sized monster as a guard? I have a hard time imagining how a Nessian Warhound is supposed to chase interlopers through a series of 5' wide passages.

I can't find Transmuter Goggles in the PRD. Link, please?

For an Adventure-Path length campaign, I'm creating a Transmuter Wizard that I am to end up developing as a polymorph specialist. I'm not usually a caster-builder, so I've no idea where to start, really. I'm looking for advice on Feats, and archetypes, if there are any to grab. The ones I'm already considering, in no particular order, are mostly the obvious ones:

* Eschew Materials
* Spell Focus & Greater
* Spell Penetration, eventually
* Brew Potion (for flavour and flexibility, not for optimization)

Any other suggestions, including things like "Spells not to miss" or "Items you definitely want to grab at first opportunity," are definitely welcome.

Hello,

At this time, please cancel my Card Game and Maps subscriptions.

I'd also like to hold my AP and Campaign Setting subscriptions; I will likely start them back up in a couple of months, and I'll be looking to complete the collections one I'm back in the country. I'm pretty sure there's a term for this, but I can't remember what it is at the moment.

Curmudgeonly wrote:

Quote:

As usual, this set will "flesh out" a couple of key monster types (including a major one people have been demanding from the start, but which we've not yet included in a single set).

I'm hoping this means fey!

Well... we've had at least two fey (redcap, faun) and a plant (vine choker), but I don't think there has been an ooze yet...

EDIT: Not that I'm arguing against more fey or plants.

Ravenous Ooze - Shattered Star #22 :)

That's not quite what the OP is looking for. He wants an index like this:

Burnt Offerings - Thistletop, Level 1

Minis:
Bugbear (RotR #1)
Goblins x 4 (RotR #2 or H&M #1 or #2)
Tsuto Kaijutsu (RotR #29)
Orik Vancaskerkin (RotR #28)
Lyrie Akenja (RotR #23)
Nualia (RotR #58)
Yeth Hounds x 2 (RotR #10)

Pawns:
Tentamort (B2 Box)

I hope this is clear enough:

Rulebook, Page 24 wrote:

Blessing cards often allow you to explore or add dice to checks attempted by any player, including yourself, at any location. The dice added are normally of the type associated with the skill the character is using for the check; if a card instead specifies the exact dice to roll for the check, the added dice are of the type specified by that card. For example, if Merisiel is making a Charisma check with her Charisma of d8+1, Blessing of the Gods adds a d8.

That's perfect, Reptilian, thank you. I think I missed the word "instead" (italicised in the quote) on my initial readthrough of that line, and was unclear as to what "normally" means. Without "instead" it doesn't imply that "normally" is "unless the card says otherwise," which opens up a whole other whack of interpretations for the card.

A player rolled a survival check. Her dice pool was d4 (no skill) and a d10 (recharge this ally to add d10 to your survival check).

Another player played a blessing to "add a die" to a check. Can the player then roll 2d10 + 1d4, or must it be 2d4 + 1d10? There is a d10 involved in the roll, and the blessing does not say which die must be added to the check.

The rulebook is also unclear - the only example (under "Assemble your Dice") involves a single die in a check, and so which die to add is obvious.

If there's a quote I'm missing, I'd love a citation. Note that this is for Organized Play, so I'd like something concrete, not simply, "It's obvious that it's intended to work in this way."

So, being that I placed this order on September 23, and it's now November, any chance of a status update on the purchase? It's still showing as Pending in my account.

I'm not sure I see the problem with "death by box text." You were told there was a time limit, and then you hit the time limit because you ignored the warning. How else are you supposed to be killed?

If the objection is "I didn't get a chance to determine my character's ultimate fate," then I'll humbly disagree with you. You had that chance at the warning about the time limit.

To be clear, the owner told me "They'll be here by Wednesday." It's possible that they'll be in this weekend; I've been told their shipment arrival date from the distributor is quite fluid.

Dueling Grounds at Bloor and Dufferin says they'll have them next week.

Well, that's your choice, I suppose. I've got my own flavour of OCD (a very mild version that just irks me if things aren't exactly so), so I can see where you're coming from. If not getting the scenarios ahead of time is a deal-breaker, then I suppose you'll have to wait the month.

Marvellous! I was wondering why I was so lucky when everyone else in the world doesn't have any. :)

Thanks for the clarification.

FWIW, there's not a lot of stuff to prep for the adventure. It's basically a one-sheet with a paragraph to read and instructions as to which location decks you need to set up. If you arrive at the store 15 minutes before game time, you'll have all the time you need to be ready to run the game.

To clarify: I know that sometimes if the supply runs out after you order, the system starts to show as "backordered" and the order as "pending." If that's the case, then the order is fine. It's only if I'm going to be waiting for months that I'd like to cancel the order.

I ordered this product here because my FLGS has it on backorder, and it was showing as available at Paizo. The email I received shows it as backordered here too, and now the website lists it as such.

If Paizo does, in fact, have it backordered, please cancel the order; I'd rather buy it at my FLGS when it becomes available again.

Kalvit, I'm a Venture-Lieutenant, and I can say with some certainty that there's not a whole lot VOs can do to fix problems like this.

I'd encourage the store owner to email customer.service@paizo.com and describe the problem. I'd hazard a guess that your local VCs will tell them the same thing.

Hey, look! Déjà vu!

That may be, but this isn't the place to have that conversation. You'll get more of the stakeholders weighing in if you reopen the discussion at the forum sire that Daviot linked above.

About a month ago, I think. Certainly more recently than I've noticed problems, given that the computer's only 6 weeks old. :) I'll give them a try and see if one of them fixes the problem.

EDIT: Nope, no fix.

Incidentally, it happens across browsers, and I think across devices, though I haven't tested that hypothesis in a while. It also seems to happen regardless of whether I'm using my home internet or my work, which is why I thought it might be a site problem as opposed to PEBKAC or my devices.

So, I've noticed recently (like, over the past few months, recently) that Pathfinderwiki is slooooooow loading a lot of the time. Like, my browser times-out slow, and more than half of the time that I try to go there. Happens to me on both Firefox and Safari.

Over the past week, after several attempts to visit the site, I'm always getting the same message on the page:

Gateway Timeout: can't connect to remote host

I sort of figured I wouldn't be the only one noticing this, so figured it might be just me, but going on several months of trouble now, I figured I'd ask to see if it's just me.

I estimate 2/3rds of season 6 will be majority constructs/robots.

I suspect your estimate is WAY too high. Personally, I'll be surprised if the number of scenarios with tech in them makes it into double digits.

It's a nice summary, but I'd never use it, personally. When prepping a game, I want to have the entire stat block around, and I'd rather my prep document spans several pages in order to make that happen.

If it works for you, though, go for it. You might find that including the monster's hp along with Init and AC is useful for quick reference.

This discussion is really good and interesting to follow, but in case it isn't clear yet, the Technology Guide is in the PRD.

I'm not saying this to imply that every GM has to have read it, but rather to cut off at the knees the argument that "I don't own it and I never will, so I have no way of knowing what the feat says!" Please be precise in your arguments around the Technologist feat.

It's true, but it's a fair assumption that moderators aren't reading every single post in the forums either, and that they're relying to a certain extent on the flagging system to find posts that violate the terms of use. Forcing those who want to connect to use English when that may not be their first language may be driving them away from the website, which (speaking as a PFS Venture-Officer) is not ideal, at least as far as PFS goes.

That said, it's a request and suggestion, and they're welcome to reject it if they feel it's too much extra work.

With regards to the last point - the one about language - can I suggest that posts in other languages might be acceptable if they're accompanied by an English translation? Non-English speakers could just feed their own posts into Google Translate. This could be particularly useful in the PFS Grand Lodge as non-English speakers look for games.

Hablando del ultimo punto - lo de idioma - quiero sugerar que mesajes en otras idiomas pueden ser aceptable si son juntos con un traducion en ingles. Los que no hablan ingles podrian usar el traductor Google para hacerlo. Lo mas util sera en el Grand Lodge de PFS cuando los que no hablan ingles buscan juegos.

:)

As far as I know, there are only two Waking Rune and Weapon in the Rift.

I know there are issues with the display of subscriptions, but I just wanted to be sure that there's no mistake. I stopped and then restarted my ACG subscription with the class deck to avoid the shipping costs associated with a core set; I plan to buy it at my FLGS.

With the adjustment to the core set's shipping date, it's reappeared in my pending subscriptions. I presume that's because I have a subscription active at the time of its release.

Can someone verify that I will not be charged for, or receiving, the ACG core set, please?

If you have access to different software for reading the file, that can help. I've had trouble in Preview (Mac) in the past, but Acrobat Reader copies the images fine. Photoshop also seems to allow pulling the image out. There are a number of free PDF readers out there; try a few of them and see if one of them solves the problem.

Oh, for image tags.

Ah well,

Click here first.

Then here.

Jeff Mahood wrote:

Define "driving distance," and also "major cities in Ontario." :) Thunder Bay to Ottawa is a good 18-hour drive.

Major City for me is Population 500,000+. The furthest from North Bay is Hamilton, which is 400 km.

Fair enough, I suppose. When you move here, you might find yourself revising your definition of "large city" to Canadian standards. By yours, there are only 11 major cities nationwide, with many places more than eight hours drive from one - not even counting north of 60. :)

Warning to everyone in the province of Ontario, I may be volunteering for an assignment up there and I will be in driving distance of all the major cities of Ontario. Just want to warn you so you are prepared. ;)

Define "driving distance," and also "major cities in Ontario." :) Thunder Bay to Ottawa is a good 18-hour drive.

Congratulations, new boss!

Have: Oread
Want: Undine

I just restarted my ACG subscription, but it's showing as a second Pending shipment. Is it too late to combine it with the rest of my subscription items in a single shipment?

There are a few Paper Miniatures from the Serpent's Skull paper minis, if that would do you.

Feegle wrote:

I'm about halfway through this blog post, and I feel the need to say that I'm really enjoying Gary's writing style. Please let him write ALL THE BLOG POSTS from now on. :)

Do you mean "Gaby"

Oops, yes I do. And with that correction, then I also mean "Please let him or her (as appropriate) write ALL THE BLOG POSTS from now on."

I'm about halfway through this blog post, and I feel the need to say that I'm really enjoying Gary's writing style. Please let him write ALL THE BLOG POSTS from now on. :)