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The class honestly feels like a good representation of modern fantasy magical systems.

Rules of three, implements, demesnes, pacts, and all that fun stuff you see in series like Dresden Files or Pact.

The finding flaws thing I take as either just knowing such detail you can muster up a solution where there shouldn't be, or more likely... in the Pact setting anything you do is observed by the spirits of the universe, if you convince them something should work by being confident in it, then they make it happen.

And repetition strengthens that influence. Do something a certain way a lot and anytime you do it it's going to happen. I'm actually quite happy and excited about the Thaumaturge's theme.

I think you're trying to turn Implements into something they aren't the way people tried to do the same thing with Eidolons.

They don't need more customization. You can flavor them however you want, but the feature value and variation they add comes from the 9 different ones you can choose from as you add more to your character.

The fact you can pick 3 eventually and mix and match them as you see fit is already more variation than any other class gets in forming their core style.

Remember that implements are the equivalent of rackets, instincts, and things. You aren't going to see any more variety than besides what you pick, just like summoners pick their buddy and that's it.

Now there will likely be more feats that interact with them the way you can pick up feats that change debilitating strike on a rogue based on your racket, or barbarians get better animal powers, but they likely aren't in this playtest because that wasn't something Paizo wants to test.

Quite the opposite of your attempt to twist my point. I'm saying heal is so unnecessary that by level 15 I have found you don't need it at all. And before that you can absolutely get by without it. The current folks I'm playing low level PFS with are a fighter, an arcane witch, a paladin, and a swashbuckler. We've been fine.

My level 10 Primal Sorcerer has probably cast it 10-12 times. I think from what I've seen in this thread people are heavily overvaluing heal. It's a good spell, don't get me wrong, but it's not as critical as it's being made out to be.

Proper battlefield control, buffs, and debuffs go a lot further in getting a group through encounters than heal does.

Well this is a lot I only skimmed over.

The only thing I'll add, as having leveled a primal sorcerer to level 10 in PFS, and having played a cleric/bard to 20 in home games. The higher level I got the less I was using Heal.

In fact, I'm pretty sure I can count the number of times I used a heal spell past level 16 on one hand.

The problem with poisons is you get stuck in the niche of only being able to poison in order to be good at it.

A lot of things you regularly find while adventuring are immune to poisons, and a lot of what's left tends to have a high fort save. And to date except for 1 inhaled poison they all target fort saves.

I've watched a friend play a poison alchemist up to 10 so far, and he's just becoming increasingly more frustrated by PFS content he can't do anything in because of it.

Honestly the biggest issue I feel like I'm having with the summoner at the moment is a combination of Boost Eidolon and shared MAP.

Boost Eidolon being so necessary for the Eidolon remaining relevant is only half the reason people feel like they have to cast it every round. The other is you just don't have much else to do.

If you do anything that causes MAP (Spell attacks and Cantrip attacks, Martial melee or ranged abilities) you and your eidolon get in each others ways. Either the Eidolon is going to miss because no boost and MAP, or you're going to miss because weaker proficiencies and MAP.

And you have a very limited spell use for an adventuring day. Most of which will often have 3-5 combats, so you can'ta fford to use more than one spell a combat.

So that really just leaves you with Electric Arc, Daze, or casting Boost. So most people stuff the summoner in back, have them spam boost, and treat the eidolon like a 3-action martial.

------

Now I love the flavor of the summoner and the concept for the mechanics, but as is mechanically I just don't see a point to them. I can play a 3-action martial that has more options and does things better than the eidolon.

And if I want to do the team stuff with a pet, druid just does that better. They don't share MAP so if they want to use a spell attack spell, they can. Or they can take on a battle form and get into the fight.

So I'd like to see an interpretation of the summoner with independent MAP and see how that plays out (too strong, too weak, unnecessary.) That would at least give the option to say, step into melee and swing to some potential benefit. You might not be boosting, but giving yourself flank makes up for a lot of that and if you hit you can make up the damage.

Or being able to pull out a bow or use produce flame if you want as options.

So yeah, there's my big thought for the moment.

The point Tonya is making is that their endgame is transitioning to everything electronic.

If you want a full-page still, the onus is now on you to print it. Not OP or the GM. Which I think is fine. When I first started GMing a burned a lot of paper and ink every other weekend printing scenarios and chronicles.

Then when I picked up a tablet I just had to pay out on chronicles and that made a big difference. Not having to print up to 20 of those a gameday will be even nicer for me.

And as they're talking about a spreadsheet, or a form that can fit 20 trackers of the basics like gold, xp, and fame and a little spot for items? Well that saves even more paper for everyone.

Not every chronicle has a boon, and for all the ones that don't this works great, with the few that do you just pop onto the system later to download. (Likely as the system gets used they're still include the boons in the scenario so the GM can tell you about that.)

And I also really prefer this system just for the fact now instead of having a ton of useless boons I will never remember even exist, I can just give the boons to PCs that can take advantage.

Sounds like just your group's approach, Kwinten.

When I played it might group never raised an alarm or started a fight. We used a lot of sneakiness, subtlety, and class abilities to slide in and out Ocean's 11 style.

When I've run it I've seen it go full SWAT meltdown, and I've also seen it go super diplomatic or skilly. Lots of ways to approach it for Bronze House.

Bronze House Reprisal. You're given a building, the GM is given all the details of the building, and you have to figure out how to get in, get what you need, and get out.

How you do it is up to you and your group.

So what you're saying is... there are still new scenarios dropping for August, they just smoothed out the overall releases so there's no big gap in content coming out.

Cool. Not really a big change or issue.

Nothing has changed. These will be the newest scenarios going into the season and cover August. They were released early on top of the finale of season 1 for the end of July.

The first new scenarios of a season are always the ones coming out in August and traditionally the ones run at Dragoncon for Labor Day weekend, which is happening again here.

Any character choice that says as determined by GM, if it's not something allowed by Campaign leadership in PFS, is not allowed.

You have to go by the actually, explicitly allowed option. The table GM doesn't count as the GM for such choices.

So in PFS you must use a creature that you have legal access to with the mount special ability. Right now the only creature you have that option with is a Horse, so all Cavaliers get horses.

Until leadership expands that list somehow you can't choose anything else and your character would be illegal.

As Robert posted, Standard access means you can take it "If you have something that gives you access to it" when it's rare or uncommon.

Common stuff is always accessible unless the Additional resources bans it.

Uncommon and Rare are not. You need something (A class feature, a racial feature, a boon, or the AR telling you, etc) in order to use it.

There is currently nothing in PFS that gives you access to rare backgrounds, so you can't take them.

Standard access works fine, it means if they do decide they want to let people use it later, they don't have to change the AR. And it saves them a lot of space and time not having to go through and list out every uncommon or rare item out as not accessible on the AR, because it's assumed unless you have a way to unlock it as noted above.

Honestly, if you really go look at the list of uncommon spells it makes a lot of sense.

As Eric said, the majority of the uncommon spells break or bypass narratives. They give you things like the ability to teleport right past story, or use a quick casting divination to solve the mystery of a plot.

They're really hard to write a narrative around and limit what GMs (or authors in PFS's case) can do. By limiting access to them it opens up a world of additional story options for scenarios in PFS. And if you consider that you might like PFS more because that can make the games you play in much more interesting.

And as Nefreet said, we don't even know what uncommon spells are going to be accessible.

I've found there hasn't been a single spell I looked at and decided I really wanted that wasn't common. Unless you're super into divination magic, I think you'll find it's pretty rare for yourself as well.

From the Organized Play Online Discord's clarification section:

Scenario 1-17 The Thorned Monarch only list 9 potential Treasure Bundles.
Known error, subtract missed bundles from 10 to get how many the players recover (Reference VO discord)

So just do that instead and even if they screw up on the bundles badly they get a door prize!

Do keep in mind, "The symbol doesn’t fade until 1 year has passed, but if you Emblazon an Armament, any symbol you previously emblazoned and any symbol already emblazoned on that item instantly disappears. "

So you can only ever have one at a time. I agree with Robert as I don't think it's going to get a response, because you're not going to find a lot of clerics NPC or otherwise willing to permanently give up use of a feat for you for a year.

I could see it showing up as a boon on a chronicle, however, where an NPC offers to do it for you in thanks for your help.

My Achievement points are still way off. I should have... I think 116 and I currently have 39. So it's still a mess.

I assume they felt like it wasn't necessary and were trying to cut down on word count. Just go by how PFS and their scenarios have always worked, even in previously linked stories.

Every new scenario is its own encapsulated bubble. Yes, it makes no sense narratively, but you just have to roll with it and move on. It's not the first time in PFS it's happened.

If you're running this for PFS, Part 1 and 2 are different scenarios. Even if they're linked by narrative.

The players start this scenario as how they would start any other. Fully refreshed, they got downtime, and they'll be able to make downtime purchases. You have to suspend your disbelief for the sake of mechanics.

Especially since neither part is designed with the intention of them being run as a continuous adventure. You're really going to ruin the fun of anyone with limited daily resources (like a caster) otherwise by denying them the ability to use a lot of class features.

The cove is full of very shallow areas of the coral reef, shallow enough to be hazards during the fight. It's as close to the cave in that alcove that's safe.

Remember, ships don't go to shore anyways unless they intend to beach themselves. They either use a dock that comes out far enough into the water, or they use launches to ferry people back and forth.

So they're anchored in the cove as safe as they can be until the tide starts to turn waiting for you to get the people out to them.

It's a typo.

You know scenarios reward 4 xp, (and 4 rep and 4 fame if primary and secondary conditions are met). Give them what's due if they complete the secondary condition and move on. It's not worth getting hung up on.

The group I ran for struck a deal with Kef and convinced him he stood to gain from the bridge finishing. So the bridge was done but he still runs the area for them.

I will say, after running this yesterday. It can go -very- fast. Both tables we had skipped the entire middle of the scenario at the camp as they wanted to check for tracks and made their survival rolls. So they went directly to the big bad's lair.

I feel like being able to make that roll before the first night may be something they want to consider not doing the equivalent of in future scenarios, as it removed basically all of the custom mechanics for morale, building defenses, etc.

I just strongly hinted if they wanted to see if they could figure out where the attackers came from.

I think the pricing on the amulet is fine. It costs the same as enchanting 2 weapons of equal power level, but you get to enchant your entire body and use any part of it to attack.

Sometimes when you engage in archeology, archeology engages back.

I reread through the ending, and while I think the intent is one or the other, as written they can choose to do both if they don't do the ritual a second time.

Though the scenario doesn't really give any hints that they should keep him sealed and bring him back with them.

The boon for getting the devil’s service as the reaction requires that you become owner of the keep. Doing the second half of the ritual where you free Diggens is what transfers ownership.

So if you don’t free him you don’t get the devil boon.

Techlore (Ex) - 3rd Level
You rewire your mind to give you greater insight into the nature of magic and technology. You gain a +1 insight bonus to Computers and Mysticism checks. This bonus increases by 1 at 6th level and every 3 levels thereafter.

8 Ranks + 3 Class Skill + 6 Int + 2 Student + 2 Techlore = +21

Ah, the scenario does say they can bypass it. But they have to abandon wagons, vehicles, and mounts (Which could be a problem if they have large animal companions or mounts in the party) because there's no other cleared path.

So it would depend on the party if they can bypass it.

Leaving and coming back would realistically trigger the field fight with the skeletons at least 2 more times, since it resets every midnight. It takes several days to travel between it and both the town and the tower.

During the last bit of PFS 1 I had a merfolk cleric that I'd take on any mission that suggested water. The local joke was that someone in the Grand Lodge HR department was actually competent at their job and was thus doomed to be fired in the next month.

I ran this on high tier over the weekend and the enemy throttled them. It was a 4 Paladin, 3 fighter, 3 wizard, 4 bard, and 4 cleric with wizard dedication.

I specifically went after the front line just to give them a chance. I still dropped the fighter and kept the paladin up (Who was very tanky) out of sheer niceness. And they didn't have any dedicated good damage or a silver weapon either.

I'm not sure why anyone would expect everybody to have that at this level, especially with the cost and the fact it's never come up before.

Even after the fight was done we had to spend several more rounds in combat as they tried to beat Counter checks to get off heals or make the high flat check DCs to stop the bleeds before the paladin or fighter died.

When we ran this at my site over the weekend me and the other table GM decided to rule that the PCs could only get 1 progress point from each trial, so a maximum of 4 points per day.

Ultimately we were just guessing as the update isn't out yet, but this limited the PCs to 4 successes per day including the 3 from overland. So they needed 8 to win and it gave them the chance to fail 50% of the time and still succeed.

And honestly even with me rolling Stormy weather every day they still got 16 points.

-2001 Forge Dwarf (Level 2)
-2002 Ekujae Seer Elf (Level 5)

Players are always able to toss out lores they'd like to try in place of another check, and if the GM feels it's appropriate they allow them to roll and lower the DC for it being more specific.

The PCs will know that everything was taken from an old Gozreh temple, which should queue them to try a lore closer to the mark if they have it.

Storm Druids are getting a pass because they're immune to weather effects normally. Not because they worship Gozreh. Everyone else gets a pass if they're moving the artifact back to its temple, and I don't think Gozreh in all his grandeur would give a cleric of his an automatic pass if they're working against his artifact.

He may even see it as a test of their resolve against the strength of nature.

Nebulous ruling, but without having dug too deep on it myself, I'm going to assume the intent is you can always invest an item you find if you have space for it, but you can swap out to something new until daily prep.

Which means this scenario should be fine. And otherwise it would prevent players from taking advantage of a lot of the things they find mid-scenario.

Oh crap, I didn't even think of that. Good catch Exton.

I'm still getting used to the investment rules. I'd wager so are the authors because it seems intentional to have the hat and then a character that needs to be snuck out.

The group I ran for put the Hat of Disguise on Marcon. They then returned to the king and enacted a second play, this one of their adventures into the sewers and temple. They finished it with them finding the deed and handing it to the king... where they actually gave it to him.

When inquired about why their team of 4 was now a team of 5 they asked what the king meant, there had been 5 of them the whole time. They passed their deception check and the confused king brushed it off to sing about the deed.

They walked back to the lodge and turned Marcon over.

I've only played this, so pardon any inaccuracies

My group of 4 did the high tier (3 3's and a 4) of the Hag fight at the end. I think if challenge points brought a group of 1-2s up to even basic high tier it would be an almost guaranteed TPK.

We didn't have anyone specialized in AC (Best AC at 4 is 23 if you build for it) so our best AC was 20. It needed a 4 to hit us on its first attack, did an average of 15-16 damage a hit, and we needed an average of 14 or better on our dice rolls to hit it its 24 AC.

A low level party would be getting hit on a 2, crit often on the first attack, and almost certainly rended. Meaning you're going to basically have a PC go down every round. And they'd only have a 20-25% chance of even hitting back.

So I would definitely avoid ever running at least that variable for a party that jumps up tiers due to challenge points.

I have to agree with Sebastian and Tineke. I didn't have to do anything more than point out there was a group, and my players wanted to approach them. And as they got close I described them a bit more, their gear, and the lack of a proper watch.

Then they were certain they wanted to talk to the nobles and see what these city slickers were up to. Not a moment of hesitation or dissent.

Incorrect, as I read it the HH rep functions the same as faction specific rep I SFS. It doesn’t say you have to be a horizon hunter to get the +1. Just if they meet the Hunter faction goal then everyone gets that rep.

So someone that slotted Horizon hunter faction boon that gets primary and secondary as well as meeting the Horizon Hunter goal gets a total of 5 Horizon Hunter rep.
Someone that slotted the Envoy’s Alliance faction boon and did the same gets 4 Envoy’s Alliance rep and 1 Horizon hunter rep.

Zach, it's 2 for the Primary, 2 for the Secondary, and +1 to everyone to Horizon Hunters specifically if they met the Horizon Hunter goals.

That would result in a failure of their primary objective. If you're running I would make that very clear to the PCs if they discuss it.

Their job is to get whatever is causing the bad luck back to the Lodge so they can study it. Hard to do that if you purposely destroy or toss it.

Look at it this way, if you're campaigning are you going to try and sway the mass of young and impressionable new starfinders? The ones easier to talk around to your ideas?

Or would you be trying to get support of the older, grizzled ones that are set in their ways?

It's much less likely you're going to convince the older group to vote for you. They're more experienced and know what they're concerned with.

Everyone gets to vote, the scenario is just about the campaign, and new guys are the ones being focused on for that.

The balance for Calisro is they're much, much more likely to have to fight the crowd. As the DCs to placate the leaders are 5 higher for her mission.

The idea being that the party will most likely fight the crowd for her, and has a strong chance of bypassing the crowd fight for the others, thus doing the goblin or demon fight as the only encounter there.

Also note the modifiers on the fight itself for Calisro's version. The leaders and crowd all get +2 to attack rolls, damage, and I believe saves.

With all of the above, The Jet Dash Feat lets you jump twice as high and far as normal. So they might be doubling their result instead of just how far they can go (Works the same either way for distance/height but would technically be wrong if there's just a set check in the scenario for something).

If it makes you feel better, I'm having the same problem. 90 sessions reported with me as GM just in PF and it says I have 1 star.

So here's a little bump about the issue impacting others. I haven't found any sort of commonality in what's causing mine, either.

If you're still recruiting I have a level 3 Operative Steward I could bring. I'd just have to get him added to the site.

However, I have run this one in realspace so I know what happens just FYI.

I’m running Slaver’s End this weekend in realspace and it looks like a really fun scenario for my Merfolk. If anyone happens to decide to run it on here I’d love to get in on it!