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I saw this piece of art about a giraffe/hydra hybrid earlier today, and felt like it deserved some stats. So without further ado, I give you the Hydraffe.

Hydraffe CR 6

This animal, covered in a spotted pattern, has five heads at the end of five disproportionately long necks. Three heads stretch upwards, vigilant scanning in all directions for threats. The remaining heads browse nearby vegetation.

XP 2,400
N Huge magical beast
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60ft, low-light vision, scent; Perception +13

Defense

AC 21, touch 10, flat-footed 19 (+2 Dex, +11 natural, –2 size)
hp 67 (9d8+27); fast healing 5
Fort +9, Ref +8, Will +5

Offense

Speed 50 ft.
Melee 2 hooves +12 (1d8+5), 5 slams +8 (1d8+2 plus push)
Space 15 ft., Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks push (slam, 5 ft.)

Statistics

Str 20, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 7
Base Atk +9; CMB +16; CMD 28 (32 vs. trip)
Feats Alertness, Dazzling Display, Endurance, Run, Weapon Focus (Slam)
Skills Intimidation +8, Perception +13, Sense Motive +4 ; Racial Modifiers +2 Intimidation, +2 Perception
SQ: hydra traits, regenerate head

Ecology

Environment warm plains
Organization solitary, mating pair (1 hydraffe, 1 giraffe), or mixed herd (1 hydraffe, 3–10 giraffes)
Treasure none

Special Abilities

Natural Weapons (Ex) A hydraffe's hoof attacks are primary attacks and its slam attacks are secondary attacks.

Fast Healing (Ex) A hydraffe’s fast healing ability is equal to its current number of heads (minimum fast healing 5). This fast healing applies only to damage inflicted on the hydraffe’s body.

Hydra Traits (Ex) A hydraffe can be killed by severing all of its heads or slaying its body. Any attack that is not an attempt to sever a head affects the body, including area attacks or attacks that cause piercing or bludgeoning damage. To sever a head, an opponent must make a sunder attempt with a slashing weapon targeting a head. A head is considered a separate weapon with hardness 0 and hit points equal to the hydraffe’s HD. To sever a head, an opponent must inflict enough damage to reduce the head’s hit points to 0 or less. Severing a head deals damage to the hydraffe’s body equal to the hydraffe’s current HD. A hydraffe can’t attack with a severed head, but takes no other penalties.

Regenerate Head (Ex) When a hydraffe’s head is destroyed, two heads regrow in 1d4 rounds. A hydraffe cannot have more than twice its original number of heads at any one time. To prevent new heads from growing, at least 5 points of acid or fire damage must be dealt to the stump (a touch attack to hit) before they appear. Acid or fire damage from area attacks can affect stumps and the body simultaneously. A hydraffe doesn’t die from losing its heads until all are cut off and the stumps seared by acid or fire.

Description

The origin of these multi-headed long-necked animals is unclear, though some ancient books speak of experiments with hydras, herd animals, and a demented arcanist with an over-crowded zoo. Whatever the actual case, the rare hydraffe exists today in the wild.

These creatures roam across plains as gentle protectors of herds of giraffes, with rarely more than one hydraffe per herd. They are able to graze quickly with their meany heads, preferring acacia trees. Hydraffes attempt to scare off dangerous creatures by loudly and wildly thrashing their necks into each other. If threatened it attacks ruthlessly, striking with its powerful hooves and bashing back foes with its many heads to let its herd flee to safety before retreating itself. A hydraffe may mate with a giraffe, but in these crosses, only one in twenty offspring are born as hydraffes.

A hydraffe is between 18 and 22 feet tall and weighs 4,500 pounds.

You can make more powerful hydraffes by increasing their Hit Dice—each added HD increases the hydraffe’s statistics as appropriate, but also gives it one additional head and a +1 increase to its natural armor. A hydraffe’s CR increases by +1 for each Hit Die it gains.

Notes

Also posted to reddit, here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG/comments/mkr4ea/the_hydraffe_a_haun ting_new_hybrid_for_your_games/

Inspired by https://www.reddit.com/r/Art/comments/mkdwiu/hydra_or_something_me_acrylic_ 2021/

Which was in turn inspired by https://youtu.be/19JYOVPmwDM

Usage

Content in this post is released under the OGL: https://www.aonprd.com/Licenses.aspx

Pretty much every item in Starfinder has an "item level". However, the word "item level" does not seem to appear anywhere in the Equipment section on computers (p. 213). Computers instead have tiers.

Page 235 says we can craft a computer with tier equal to 1/2 ranks in engineering of computer, but doesn't mention anything about a computer's item level.

Com units say they can be upgraded at 110% of the price of a computer (p 218), but that doesn't seem to increase the item level. It also seems like it might to allow me to ignore the increased bulk, and ignore the need to pay extra to reduce the bulk of the computer to a smaller computer. (Intentionally?) I'd probably argue that to make a computer fit, I'd have to pay for the bulk reduction to the point it can fit in a commlink...but that also increases the price of the computer, so it seems weird to have to pay for both...but none of that increases the item level.)

Where do we find information on the item level for computers?

I wish that I could be there, but I want to wish everyone at GenCon a great time!! Thanks for getting the new guide out!!!

I seem to recall that a feat or ability came out recently that let you draw an ally's item from your person, as long as it hadn't been established who was carrying it. Was this a real ability? If so, what is it called and what book was it from?

On Wednesday, we took the wrappers off the shiny NDA on PFS5th at our FLGS game night. Response was mostly positive with some mixed on certain systems, but over all we had a good time. I wanted to report in now that our trial is over and I've had some time to think about it. I hope to get some feedback from others on how their games went.

For those of you who didn't invited in to the beta for PFS5th, here's a rundown of the new PFS5th rules.

Overview

PFS5th is completely new system based on Pathfinder rules for Pathfinder Society. It is an abstract system. It is a game of the theater of the mind. The GM has to be good at describing (in addition to drawing on flip mats) the environment around her. There is a lot of imagination involved, and creativity. Fortunately, it also uses playmats, making it completely compatible with existing PFS materials and scenarios. Characters in Pathfinder work just fine in PFS5th edition (no classes have been released yet).

Since there are no PFS5th events released yet, we played a scenario and applied the upgrade rules for our characters and the scenario.

Since not everyone was aware of the new rules, I shared them with people as we played and situations came up.

PFS Events

In PFS5th, scenarios are replaced by events. Events are like scenarios, but in addition to providing a chronicle sheet, you also get event points. Event points are very important for Rollplaying Checks (see below). You get seven event points for every event (aka, scenario) completed. You also get variable event points for every supplement purchased. There's no computer system set up to track this right now, so the PFS5th guide suggested requiring people to show the book. (However you can only use PFS5th edition books for this, old Pathfinder books and PDFs didn't count.) The guide suggested that a 32 or 64 page supplement would be on the order of 30 points, and hardcover might be more. These points are all additive as a bonus on Rollplaying checks.

Rollplaying Checks

This is probably the most interesting new aspect of PFS5th edition. Whenever you need to do an action, you can describe it as usual, and/or you can make a Rollplaying check. Rollplaying checks are usually made with a d100 (but might not in some circumstances). The most important part of a Rollplaying check is how well you roleplay rolling the check. It's important to remember that roleplaying is important in a rollplaying check: if you roleplay well, the GM is required to add a modifier (positive or negative) depending on how well the player roleplayed the rollplaying check. This can be anywhere from +100 to -100 to the check, but excellent roleplaying of the rollplaying roll may warrant more (or lackluster energy and effort my result in a bigger penalty). Higher numbers are usually better. This number impacts roleplaying aspects of each encounter or d20 roll. Really good roleplayers just roleplay their rollplaying check; some even were able to use d6's or d20's. The best at our table made me really believe that they rolled their rollplaying checks without needing to even use dice.

Rollplaying checks are exclusively for players. NPCs can't make rollplaying checks. GMs simply decide how an NPC rolls their rollplaying check.

There are three kinds of rollplaying checks: Basic, Opposed, and Cooperative (also known as a check-off).

• Basic: When you make a d20 roll, you can also make a rollplaying check to see how good your roleplaying was about making the d20 roll. This is mostly important for social encounters, but really good rollplaying checks in a combat situation can help even a rogue strike an enemy.
  
• Opposed: When you have an enemy NPC that makes a rollplaying check, a player can oppose that with their own. Think of this like a debate, or an opposed intimidate.
  
• Cooperative: Cooperative rollplaying checks are the roleplaying equivalent of aiding another. When two players are working together on a single action, they alternate rollplaying checks until they can't roll higher than the previous roll. Both players get to use the final rollplaying check.
  

As mentioned above, in regular play you get a bonus to your score based on a GM discretion. in PFS5th, in order to make it more fair, you add your event points to the roll to represent your character's growing ability to rollplay.

Action Point System

In PFS5th, the traditional action system has been replace by action points. There are several action points kinds in two categories: standard action points and fast action points.

Standard action points can only be done on your turn.

• Standard Standard action point: You get one of these. Lets you do major actions in combat, like fighting, casting spells, and the like. The PFS5th edition handout didn't go into detail on this, but otherwise it works like a standard action.
  
• Standard Move action point: You get one of these. Lets you change location, grab something, flip a switch, stand up, and the like. Think of this like a "move" action.
  
• Standard swift action point: You get one of these. Works like swift actions.
  
• Standard free action point: these you can do at almost any time on your turn.
  

Fast action points can be done whenever you like.

• Fast limited action points: Basically equivalent to an AOO. Feats like combat reflexes and class abilities can give you more than one.
  
• Fast swift action point: Like an immediate action, consumes your standard swift action point on your next turn.
  
• Fast free action point: you can do as many of these as you want as long as it's not your turn.
  

Special action points:

• Standard Complex action point: a complex action point is a standard action point that takes a Standard Standard action point and a Standard Move action point, and lets you do something like charge. These action points are analogous to full round actions or one round actions.
  

It sounds confusing at first, but really, the new action point system was really easy to follow once we started playing.

Movement

PFS5th has a compatible movement system with Pathfinder, so conversion was easy after teaching people how to use it. Instead of simply moving places in combat, you have to make a movement roll. A movement roll is a d20 plus your move speed. If you meet or exceed the DC of movement for an encounter (usually 40, but less for cramped encounters or more for outdoors encounters) you can move. On a grid you still always move your speed, but meeting or exceeding the DC lets you approach or disengage from an opponent when you don't use a grid. You can of course take a standard complex action point to add your speed twice to this roll; small creatures, dwarfs, medium armor wearers, or heavy armor wearers typically need to use standard complex action points to move appropriately.

As an advantage for those who train in it, acrobatics is added to this roll.

Experience Report

We had a group of six that volunteered for this event, and we chose By Way of Bloodcove. This scenario I felt was particularly good due to the many roleplaying, rollplaying, and the open world nature of the scenario. Having run it a few times now it's never run quite the same way.

The players got used to the new rules pretty quickly. It took some of them a while to figure out how to do rollplaying checks, but with quick feedback from me as the GM, they started to get used to it. We had one player who really got into the rollplaying aspect, and even figured out in one encounter that during his rollplaying check-off, he could roll more than just his d100! He ended up rolling 5d6 and using each die as a different value, getting a rollplaying check result of 36,000 ish. It really enhanced the description of his bull rush check.

Combat is as deadly as ever. Most people had played the scenario before, but since we were running it in core mode, everyone could get credit for it again. One had not played before at all, so that person made major decisions. That person decided it was fine to split the party to gather information, but accidentally triggered a combat...and by accidentally, I mean they intentionally triggered it by building a trap igniting it, and setting it off. This trap ended up engulfing most of the enemies, but one of the NPCs survived. This turned out to be the team's undoing: the NPC downed one of the three that split off to this encounter, and a great axe crit brought the other to true dead. Not even the excellent rollplaying could undo that. Fortunately, another player at the table had a free rez boon, and a cleric of Gozreh was handy.

Roleplaying with the new rollplaying system went well. We breezed through several social encounters. A couple of people by this point had really good roleplaying in their rollplaying rolls, and had decided to stop rolling dice altogether and just roleplay the rollplaying roll. Only in one case did I have to apply a negative GM modifier to the rollplaying roll due to poor roleplaying of the player, and that player learned very quickly that it was important to roleplay.

Summary

Overall the trial of PFS5th went just fine.

Everyone got into the new rollplaying system, but this new system added a lot of overhead. While everyone really enjoyed themselves, we went over on time for our five hour timeslot and had to cut the final encounter. The roleplaying opportunities with the rollplaying system is very much appreciated. I'm curious how the event bonus to rollplaying checks will work out in the long run - I'm not sure if I like the "pay to win" roleplaying implications...even if I am already subscribed to all of those book lines. It would be nice if that was incorporated right into the website and my PFS card so I could just show it instead of having to add it all up.

The other question I had was whether or not the event bonus to our rollplaying checks from books applied to only a single character or all characters; the document I had on this system was unclear. It might be a little unfair if they apply to all characters - a new character would automatically get a big bonus to rollplaying checks which wouldn't really be fair for new players. We might want to limit book event bonuses to rollplaying checks to only a single character or a fixed reuse limit, maybe based on GM stars. This might also be a way to curb additional resources: you can only use additional resources from books that you have an event bonus from. (But then that opens up a second question: if you have MULTIPLE physical/pdf copies of the book, can you get multiple boons? Might be a good way to boost sales!) Either way, I would expect to see some kind of standard form for each book, like a chronicle, that says you get that event bonus.

Combat, skills, and other unchanged game related components work well with the new systems. It was a transparent transition, which I really appreciate as a GM, and our players appreciated since they didn't have to rebuild or do any mechanical changes of any kind to their characters.

The out of combat movement system we didn't use much. I like the idea of adding acrobatics to movement, could make for some interesting rollplaying opportunities (like a skill focus/acrobatic dwarf getting +5 and +10 on movement checks in addition to skill ranks). If the PFS5th leadership wants to do this, you may want to consider just making acrobatics a bonus to move speed in addition to other abilities it provides.

The terminology updates were a mixed bag. The action point system description of each action point I felt was a little clearer about when you can and can't do something (standard vs fast). I like the inclusion of "complex" instead of "full round" action (makes it distinct from one round actions.) I was uncomfortable with how the action point names for each action are so long (much harder to explain to people how you get a standard standard action point and standard move action point than "move and standard" action).

I'm not sure about some of the balance changes. I like making "Advanced Class Guide", "Pathfinder Unchained", and the upcoming "Occult Adventures" the new core rulebooks - this will really spice up the society's character range. Potion and scroll crafting is much appreciated as a new character option to compete with alchemists. However, going to "firearms everywhere" is going to make a lot of people mad, even if it does "even the playing field" as the guide said. I forsee a lot of one level dips for the firearm training 1 at level 1 for gunslinger. Introduction of LE as a playable alignment is going to cause all sorts of headaches, but NE as well is just going to make people mad, even if they have to "explore, report, cooperate" to remain in the society. (Atonement are going to be flying like hotcakes.) Thank you for keeping away from CE. Both of these might need to be rethought to keep Pathfinder Society as an all-inclusive game.

In conclusion

I think PFS5th has a ways to go, but it's shaping up nice. I'm sorry to say we only got one day to test this (last Wednesday to last Wednesday was a very short beta period) but I'm glad we got the opportunity to try it out. I appreciated the opportunity to participate in this beta test, and I'd be happy to do it again. As always, I'm looking forward to whatever comes next! :)

I've been playing Core a lot lately and I wanted to share my experience so far.

Core vs Existing

Core so far has been a benefit to our lodge. As one of the founding members of our lodge, there's very little I have left that I can play in the existing mode. We have maybe 1-2 tables of players who have played so many scenarios that we can't organize game with these players due to scenario overlap. What this led to was our players doing APs, modules, or other games entirely if they were to attend at all...some just gave up coming. Now with Core our veterans can play again and another table of pathfinder runs. We were down to about three tables a week, but now due to Core we can play 5-6 tables a week again. Players who aren't as restricted on games typically play wherever there's an open slot (core or existing) without complaint.

Replays

Replays were nothing new to our area. We were one of the lodges who interpreted the replay rule as more permissive until its lockdown, so we had already developed a good culture around replays: replay only to fill a table, letting the new players drive the narrative of the story, never spoiling the plot. When we had a table of mostly veteran players who all completed the scenario before, we have had a few instances where GMs gloss over or simplify encounters that they felt were "easy" or "boring". Our group talked about it, and since then it hasn't been a problem.

Class Viability

I saw this in another thread:

snickersimba wrote:

How good is core barbarian?

It's in the playable half but you still require other caster classes because spell sunder isn't core.

The other day I played one of the newest scenarios, #6-12, in the existing mode. I haven't been able to play any of my existing mode characters for a long time, so I played my necromancer wizard. I had arrived late, and the rest of the table had already figured out their characters. it was a table full of players with excellent mastery of the system, so everyone had well optimized characters. In fact, every single character had either a full level animal companion, mount, or eidolon.

It was one of the worst gaming experiences I've had in a long time.

1) There was absolutely no challenge. Every character was what some people would call "viable" and other would call "broken". Every single character could have soloed that entire encounter.
2) In total, we had 15 creatures fielded by our side by the end of the night. We had enough disposable HP and attacks that our main characters wouldn't have to attack if we didn't want to.
3) An eidolon trivialized two of the encounters. what might have required thinking, teamwork, we were able to hand-wave bypass.
4) Because every character was so powerful, combat was over in less than a round save for the final encounter. That took three, due to the GM going a bit off script and tripling the enemy threat. We barely got scratched.

1) Gleery, My rogue/wizard going arcane trickster,
2) Nili'Merithas, a shillelagh quarterstaff wielding monk,
3) Several two weapon fighting or switch hitting dwarven rangers,
4) A cleric going loremaster,
5) A bard with 13 Charisma.

So far this group (+/- a player from time to time) has had tremendous success. Aside from a poorly executed battle in Tian Xia due to some poor tactical decisions (which we eventually turned around), we've made it through the Blackros estates, plunged the depths of Cassomir, and are on our way through Osirion presently with an intention of completing requests for the Blackros family shortly.

Other Thoughts

Some additional random thoughts:

• Positioning, flanking, and teamwork provide important bonuses so we take advantage of them.
  
• Combat takes usually two to four rounds and has been very survivable.
  
• Over all, we've not had any trouble finishing scenarios. If anyone has suggestions of the most difficult scenarios for us to tackle, we'd be happy to take them on.
  
• Rules questions basically don't happen. If a player says they're a fighter, or a bard, or a wizard, I know exactly what to expect. I know all the feats in use. We have a single book to look at if we do have a question.
  
• Characters don't need to start with a 20 in a stat to be effective. Having at least a couple ways to contribute to the party has been most effective for us. The difference in being a single minded murder monster and a well rounded character is about a +1 to hit and 1-3 damage an attack - not a big deal. This lets them help with range, melee, spells, and/or skills instead of one of the above.
  
• Plan to be good at least one non-combat skill that everyone needs: diplomacy, survival, perception, knowledge, umd. A well rounded group of skills has helped us overcome a number of scenarios.
  
• Bring utility scrolls, potions, and wands (more than just a CLW wand). Actually use that prestige to get them, if you'd rather not spend the gold. More, if possible. If you can't use it, likely someone else in the party can.
  
• Many of our martials haven't even bothered with power attack or deadly aim yet. We seem to do enough damage as is.
  
• We're all ready to overcome DR. Masterwork items and oil of bless weapon or magic weapon may take a round to get ready, but it's worth it.
  
• Now that wizards/sorcerers are the only source for many spells, I expect to see more of them.

For the first time in a long time I'm regularly looking forward to my games. I know I have something I can play. I know that, at least with my playgroup, everyone will have a chance to contribute to each fight.

Thank you for this mode!