GM Zephyre's page

Brave Pathfinders, Grandmaster Torch and Guaril Karela are looking for agents to aid them in hunting out Dorianna Ouidda in the Varisian city of Riddleport. Are you up for the task?

This is my first time GM'ing in almost a year, but I hope to do an honorable job.

I request that whoever signs up tries to post daily, with the weekends as optional. This will also be my own minimum requirement, though I will try to be more available than that.

I will be using Google slides for maps.

For recruitment I am open to anyone level appropriate for the scenario, please indicate your level of interest in playing out-of-subtier if the others interested would make the APL fall that way. (Ie if you are a level 3 and really don't want to risk playing up, or a level 7 who doesn't think they will enjoy playing down, please say so and I will consider that instead of necessarily picking the first 6 sign-ups).

I would like to start Monday May the 18th, but if I don't have enough sign-ups or everyone is ready quicker, I can be flexible.

Please sign up with:
Character name:
Class/es & level/s:
What does your character do: (ie I am a cleric, but I don't heal, I do bad touch)
Anything I should be aware of: (ie Trap Spotter)

Also please have your character profile filled in, an example would be Socraties Though you do not need to follow that format.

Any questions please ask. Let's go mess with the Ouidda!

The Cypher Lodge is one of Riddleport’s finest inns, and Grandmaster Torch currently inhabits its finest suite. Flanked by his ubiquitous half-orc bodyguards and the weasel-faced Varisian businessman Guaril Karela, Torch speaks

Partial intro, will wait for players to post the rest

Welcome Pathfinders please feel free discuss here as you wish. Please let me know if anything comes up and you need me to bot you for a couple of days.

Thank you,

GM Zephyre

Hi everyone, I personally am posting this as I am looking for anyone to help make a table of tier 14-15 with my wife and I for the special they are hosting, but there are some other openings.

Warhorn Fallicon 2019

We are level 15 Paladin and Warpriest, so even a pair of brave level 13s would get pulled up to 14-15 tier with us.

Warhorn Siege of the Diamond City

Welcome Pathfinders please feel free discuss here as you wish. Please let me know if anything comes up and you need me to bot you for a couple of days.

Thank you,

GM Zephyre

Sputtering lanterns light the grimy common room of the Poppy’s
Bloom, a tobacconist-turned-boardinghouse on the outskirts of
Bloodcove’s harbor. Two figures emerge from the room’s darkest
corner—the tattooed half-elf Fola Barun and Guaril Karela of the
Exchange faction. Fola shrinks into her cloak to avoid being seen,
whereas Guaril looks around with a nostalgic glint in his eye.

Partial intro, will wait for players to post the rest

Brave Pathfinders, Fola Barun and Guaril Karela [of the Exchange] are looking for agents to aid them in undermining an Aspis operation in the Bloodcove. Are you up for the task? They are especially interested in aid from anyone with experience in the region as it may help them with the task at hand.

This is my first time GM'ing PBP, but I hope to do an honerable job.

I request that whoever signs up tries to post daily, with the weekends as optional. This will also be my own minimum requirement, though I will try to be more available than that.

I will be using Google slides for maps.

For recruitment I am open to anyone level appropriate for the scenario, please indicate your level of interest in playing out-of-subtier if the others interested would make the APL fall that way. (Ie if you are a level 3 and really don't want to risk playing up, or a level 7 who doesn't think they will enjoy playing down, please say so and I will consider that instead of necessarily picking the first 6 sign-ups).

I would like to start Monday August the 12th, but if I don't have enough sign-ups or everyone is ready quicker, I can be flexible.

Please sign up with:
Character name:
Class/es & level/s:
What does your character do: (ie I am a cleric, but I don't heal, I do bad touch)
Anything I should be aware of: (ie Trap Spotter)

Also please have your character profile filled in, an example would be Socraties Though you do not need to follow that format.

Any questions please ask. Let's go mess with the Aspis!

Hello all,

Super short version: I am looking to see if there is an easy way to find when and where might be running specials particularly older ones.

Short specific to me: I am trying to see if there is anywhere that is running 5-00 in the relatively near future somewhere in the midwest-ish region of the US.

Long: My wife and I have our -2 characters (My -1 died horribly at level 3 and her -1 was not as fun as she hoped) up to level 15 and have played most of the seeker level scenarios. I know there are a couple more things that we could in theory play, but we (I especially) would really like the chance to take on 5-00 as our characters are a paladin and warpriest of Iomedae that are, backstory wise, to have come from the crusaders, meaning it would be really fitting to get the chance to defend our capital home city. If I am unable to find a chance for us to play 5-00 we will likely try to fill that slot in our "to 20" plan with Unleashing the Untouchable as it is the only 12-15 we have yet to play. (I know Passing the torch is coming out, it is in the plan at the 17 -18 tier).

Thank you everyone,
Zephyre14

There was a situation in my game the other day that I am curious about how this would work, and essentially I think it comes down to how is an ooze split treated.

We had an ooze try to "run" past one of our players and it got hit by his AOO triggering the split ability in the middle of the movement. As the now oozeS continue to move forward how are they treated? Are they both new oozes with new amounts of movement and new ability to trigger AOOs from movement, just one is new with above implications, both are "halves of the old" with no more AOOs possible and only remaining movement? How does that work?

I then wonder how it works if you extrapolate it to other effects? If the original was say on fire, or under hold monster, or target of a judgment or smite ability?

I am sure this is asked before or answered somewhere, but my search-fu failed me.

Thank you,
Zephyre14

I have been trying to do research on good ways to cast daylight and have come across very few things that actually say something to the effect of "this item casts daylight". Alternatively I have found several items that say some variation of "creates light like a daylight spell".

This seems like a minor difference until you consider the darkness magic negating effect of the actual daylight spell. I wanted to know if these wordings actually mean something different or not.

I have included a few examples below (specifically ones I am considering as I am looking for something slotless).

If these don't include the negation effect because they don't ACTUALLY cast daylight then what are some items that do, preferably at a cost that is realistic for PFS?(I also am avoiding potions/oils because character concept/don't want to item manage for this character, but if that ends up my only option I will do it if I have to)

Thank you,
Zephyre14

Glorious Weapon Enchantment

Radiant Armor Enchantment

Dayfinder copy pasted because I don't think it has an AON entry.

Dayfinder (10 PP): Similar to a normal wayfinder in all
external ways, this rare form of wayfinder differs in the potency of its light-emitting abilities. Once per day, the light generated by an active dayfinder replicates a daylight spell for a duration of 1 minute. These powerful tools against darkness are granted to experienced Pathfinders by generous venture-captains, and may only be purchased on the black market within the Society itself, and even then only by exchanging favors—never for gold.

thflame wrote:

Mark Seifter wrote:

Deadmanwalking wrote:

Mark Seifter wrote:

Deadmanwalking wrote:

an item with charges (which seem common, Wands and Staves seem to all fall into this category)

Wands and staves, and only wands and staves, fall into this category. Staves are almost certainly the most complex item type in the game right now.

This is good to know, and if it were only Staves I'd be less concerned. Wands are super common and gonna continue to be so, though, and by far the most logistically difficult item to keep track of in PF1. Adding Resonance costs just makes that worse.

I mean, lower number of charges would help (and seems likely based on stuff you said in another thread)...but I still remain very concerned about the specific Resonance/Charges interaction.

I think as long as wands remain a multi-use consumable, it's definitionally and tautologically going to have charges, or at least a synonym for charges (I mean, they are basically similar to scrolls in bulk, like in PF1). Staves could lose their charges in their current incarnation and still function just fine, though.

Perhaps just don't make wands consumable?

Here's how I would handle it:

-Spend 1 RP to attune a wand.

-Spend 1 RP to cast the spell from the wand. (And any required actions for the spell.)

From your earlier response to my post, I assume that these items exist, they just aren't "wands". I guess what I am suggesting is that those items SHOULD be wands, and "wands" as they are(or "charged items"), just should not exist.

This is all coming purely from a ease of use stand point. I don't want to have to track Resonance AND charges simultaneously. I feel like doing so defeats the point of having Resonance in the first place.

If so, a wand of invisibility is going to cost more like 1,000 gp and be something you find/buy/get closer to 10th level than to 4th. And it would invert the relationship between staves and wands, insomuch as wands would be a lot more expensive than staves. Not saying it's impossible, but it's a big shift (one way to reduce that shift could be to have wands be something like a one-spell version of the current staves and remove charges from both, though then they are very similar to each other unless staves also change). Personally, I'm curious about how we can best use the really heavily thematic types of magic items with heavy genre buy-in (staves, wands, scrolls, potions, to name some) in ways that make some of them more interesting than just various numbers of uses of spells in a can. Staves and potions have moved away from that; scrolls seem like the best item type to continue being a spell in a can since it's like a pre-written spell, so that does leave room for wands to be something else.

First I know that is a long quote, but I feel the whole context is appropriate.

On page 3 of the Trinkets and Teasures Blog yester day, Mark Seifter made this quote.

I may be reading into it too much, but to me this sounds like he is saying that maybe the design team is not necessarily sure how best to differentiate the "spell in a can" items, especially with the new ideas of resonance and trying to avoid the ""just buy the cheap healing" philosophy of PF1.

I wanted to see what ideas other people had on creating this differentiation and see if maybe we could give the design team some ideas.

I know we haven't seen the current system in practice yet, but we are starting to get some ideas from the blogs and podcasts.

My thoughts:

Potions, leave them as is/PF1 style, it is a way to get spells to even the non-spellcasting especially since this has a lot of the "heal in a pinch" factor to it. I think it is also very appropriate to the genre as is too.

Scrolls, also leave as is, the ability for magically trained, even if not themselves not spell casters to be able to read someone else's magically enhanced script of a spell and cast it seems appropriate to me. They are cheap one use, investment based things, that while I see scrolls as usually being more for transferring the knowledge to others and most of the "I cast a spell by reading a thing" being more for book type objects it is a shrunken version of a book and things like rituals could be in books.

Staves, this is where things get a bit different for me. I think I actually like the direction that the blog seems to be taking things. Staves a magically empowered, but still have to channel your own magic. They can gift bonuses by channeling through them (such as the healing boost) and have a few spells inherent to them that you can use it to cast by channeling your own power through it. To me this seems like a very thematic way to make a staff feel like an extension of the caster and not just like the source of a spell, you aren't useless without it, but it is a huge boon.

Wands, okay the really tricky one. So we don't want heaps of free casting like PF1, and we don't want them to feel the same as any of the other three options. I believe the resolution to this is 1 of two things, and maybe you can have wands of either kind or create something else like foci (your crystal ball or magic skull or whatever you carry around)

1. Make each wand hold a single spell and you can either resonance cast that spell or use a spell slot to cast it, basically like a stave, except exclusively 1 spell and no other bonuses. To me this type of wand fulfills the purpose of PF1 style wands without giving the mass casting of them.

2. Give bonuses, (this is the version I would think foci could be if you did both) for instance like the plus 1 to healing spells or making the 1d4 of your damaging 0 level spell to a 1d6, or being able to change up to 1 dice of a spells damage to the specific element of that wand, or increasing the range of the spell by a up to 10% or allowing you to focus a cone spell into a line spell. To me while this may be much more out of line with the old version of wands I feel it is much more genre appropriate to wands. Whenever I see wands in a fantasy environment they always seem to be more of objects to channel someone's magic, not necessarily items of magic themselves.

I do believe that for the sake of a game system there is need for "wands" of type 1 to help with various situations, most specifically healing. In my experience (though limited compared to a lot of you long-timers) if it isn't healing you are only not using a scroll to save gold in the long run and the new resonance system and gold value system I am getting from the blog implies that may not be a good excuse anymore.

I know this is really long, but I hope it starts some good conversation and I hope it gets some people thinking.

In the mean time, how much longer till we get to actually test this thing again? ;P

I have just started my first full support character based around bard bonuses and having all the skill checks.

In theory the amount of bonuses I should be giving should make up for my essentially 0 actual combat ability.

BUT! I as the "wise old helper" character he is I would like to have a "trump card" in case everything goes to crap.

As of about level 6 I will be able to cast any 1 spell off a scroll without fail, but I have to pick one. Originally I was going to use a Summon Monster IX scroll as the parties safety button, but I was informed about the limit on 7th level and higher scroll purchases.

So with that I am looking to you all for a new suggestion, the only good one I jave thought of so far is teleport, but at scrolls level I could only bring 3 people with me and since I intend to mostly play this character with high party count groups to make my bonuses worth more that can't save everyone.

Any good ideas?

I'll be straight to the point of why I want to know and maybe someone else can more generalize the question.

I want to give my familiar some equipment that is not armor/weapons in this particular case spring-loaded wrist sheaths for a scroll of breath of life. (Yes I understand the using magic items and everythig rules the wonderful recent FAQ on that is very nice and I am including it here for reference)

As of my understanding there are no rules for resizing equipment, but by my understanding of the FAQ I can put slotless equipment on a familiar/animal companion with no problems. Also by the other recent FAQ scrolls are good to go for spring loaded wrist sheaths.

So to me this would work by the rules, but in "I'm thinking about this practically land" those are some tiny wrists and thats gonna end up a tiny scroll and can my familiar and I use the same scroll that was stuff it it's wrist sheath if so tiny and is that wrist sheath really still going to weight 1 lb (or oh goodness what if I give my familiar a handy haversack for the less rush need supplies thats 5 lbs and most of it's light load).

Sorry if there isn't an exact question in there, but I think what I am going for is, does this actually work? And if so are there any rules I am missing that affect it I should know about?

Thanks everyone.

P.S.
Can my familiar wield weapons or use magic items?
By default, familiars do not have any magic item slots, but they can unlock magic item slots associated with their respective body shape. See below for the list of which body slots each familiar is eligible to unlock. To unlock a magic item slot, a familiar must take the Extra Item Slot feat, which appears in Pathfinder Player Companion: Animal Archive and will be reprinted in the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide as of version 9.0. In the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild, familiars of all body shapes may take this feat, including humanoid-shaped familiars. When you gain a familiar, you may exchange one of its non-bonus feats for Extra Item Slot for free (bonus feats are marked with a superscript B after the feat’s name). You may retrain your familiar’s other non-bonus feats into Extra Item Slot using the standard rules for feat retraining. Familiars may also carry slotless magic items.

Some Tiny familiars have the Weapon Finesse feat listed as one of their feats, even though they gain the benefits of Weapon Finesse for free from their size. Swapping out this feat does not deprive Tiny familiars of the ability to use its Dexterity to hit.

The following chart specifies the magic item slots that each familiar can unlock. Available slots followed by either (saddle) or (horseshoes) denote that creatures of that body type can only wear magic items in those slots if they are saddles or horseshoes, respectively. Creatures without these notes cannot wear saddles or horseshoes. Celestial, entropic, fiendish, and resolute familiars use the same slots as typical animals of their kind.

All familiars can activate the abilities of their use-activated magic items, so long as these abilities do not require a command word. The following familiars can use spell trigger and spell completion magic items, including wands and scrolls, as well as magic items with a command word: arbiter, brownie, cassisian (in small humanoid form), faerie dragon, imp, leshy (any), liminal sprite, lyrakien, mephit (any type), nosoi, nuglub, pooka, pyrausta, quasit, shikigami, soulbound doll, sprite, and zhyen. For more information on these magic item categories, see page 456 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook.

Familiars in categories marked with an asterisk (*) are able to grasp and carry one object at a time in their paws, claws, or hands, including weapons, rods, wands, and staves, as long as their carrying capacity is sufficient. Most familiars cannot wield weapons in combat. The following familiars can wield weapons: arbiter, brownie, cassisian (in small humanoid form), imp, leshy (any), liminal sprite, lyrakien, mephit (any), nuglub, pooka, quasit, shikigami, soulbound doll, sprite, and zhyen.

Some familiars have natural shapeshifting ability. One of the most striking cases is the cassisian familiar, which is listed below in both its humanoid form and its helmet form. Whenever a familiar changes from a form that has access to a magic item slot into a form that does not, the item melded into its body. A melded item provides no benefits. For familiars that can take the shapes of animals, use the standard item categories for that animal listed below.

Please review Additional Resources before selecting a familiar. Some of the listed familiars are only legal choices if your character has a Chronicle sheet boon or an archetype that grants access to them.
Arbiter* (eyes, hand, headband, wrist): Arbiter
Auger (eyes, headband): Auger
Avian* (armor, belt, chest [saddle], eyes, headband, neck, ring, wrist): Archaeopteryx, arctic tern, bat, chicken, clockwork familiar, dodo, dove, flying fox, hawk, kakapo, mockingfey, nosoi, osprey, owl, parrot, peacock, penguin, pseudowyvern, ptarmigan, puffin, raven, rhamphorhynchus, snail kite, snowy owl, thrush, toucan
Biped [claws/paws]* (armor, belt, chest, eyes, head, headband, neck, ring, shoulders): Compsognathus, wallaby
Biped [hands]* (all item slots): Brownie, cassisan (Small humanoid form), coral capuchin, faerie dragon, homunculus, imp, leshy (any), liminal sprite, lyrakien, mephit (any type), monkey, nuglub, pooka, pyrausta, quasit, shikigami, soulbound doll, sprite, xiao, zhyen
Cassisian (headband): Cassisian (helmet form)
Floating Head (eyes, head, headband): Doru, spirit oni
None (no item slots): Eyeball, harbinger, paracletus, wysp
Piscine (belt, chest [saddle], eyes): Popoto dolphin, pufferfish, seal
Quadruped [claws/paws] (armor, belt [saddle], chest, eyes, head, headband, neck, shoulders): Almiraj, arctic fox, arctic hare, armadillo, brain mole, calligraphy wyrm, cat, cat sith, caypup, chuspiki, dire rat, donkey rat, ermine, flying squirrel, fox, hedgehog, koala, lemming, mole, mongoose, otter, platypus, pseudodragon, pseudosphinx, rabbit, raccoon, rat, red panda, silvanshee, skunk, sloth, squirrel, weasel
Quadruped [hooves] (armor, belt [saddle], chest, eyes, feet [horseshoes], head, headband, neck, shoulders): Goat, pig
Quadruped [squat body] (armor, eyes, head, headband, neck, shoulders): Snapping turtle, toad, turtle
Saurian (armor, belt [saddle], chest, eyes, head, headband, neck): Dwarf caiman, lizard, marine iguana, tuatara
Serpentine (belt, eyes, headband): cacodaemon, leopard slug, mamiwa, nehushtan, nycar, pipefox, raktavarna, sea krait, viper, voidworm
Plant/Verminous (belt, eyes): Blue-ringed octopus, clockwork spy, elemental (any type), giant flea, giant isopod, greensting scorpion, house centipede, katroome, king crab, octopus (young template), petrifern, scarlet spider, stirge, trilobite, typhilipede

P.P.S. I'll try to spoiler the FAQ when I get to a computer. On my phone right now.

I am sure this is somewhere in the depths of the forums, but I can't find it.

How do you defend against spells with no save?

In this particular case I am looking at Power Word Blind/Stun/Kill spells?

I know they have the HP threshold that you should just try to stay above, but if being used against PC's by a monster that is APL+2 or 3 or worse, the PC's may not even be high enough level to be above the HP threshold unless they are a CON monster Barbarian or if they were enough higher, one AOE (fireball or something of the sort) will take them below the threshold.

I also know that power word Kill inparticular can be defended with Death Ward at least allowing a save, but what about the lower two? Stun inparticular makes you useless and it doesn't even allow you to undo it yourself with a potion/wand/spell/cure item since you get no actions.

Any advice against no save spells? Power Word Stun/Blind being prime examples?

Hello everyone.

I have been working rather diligently for a while now on a concept for a PFS character that I want to play. First off I am not looking for the most min/max'd or optimized option, I am just looking to do what I am trying to ask best I can AND not be completely useless/irrelevant when that one thing is not possible for some reason.

So, I am doing a trip/combat reflexes based "battlefield control" goliath druid. The main goal is to have him be able to stand between the bad guys and his squishy friends and keep the bad guys from closing the gap.

At this point I have things mostly together, but I am afraid that I will run into not being useful at all when I can not trip the enemy (IE flying or gargantuan). This build A)takes a while to get online and B)will cost me a rather significant investment in books, so I want to get some advice before I commit to it.

The back story on the character is lame, but basically an Oread who was too human so was abandoned by his family and ended up raised in the wilds by the forest, that just so happened to be a land full of megafauna (I am sure there is a specific place, but I have trouble being a lore person so I haven't looked into that). His animal companion is his link back to the original forest and is where his wisdom comes from. So without further ado, meet Fluffy:

Oread Goliath Druid 9/Mammoth Rider 1/Goliath Druid X

Alternate Racials:
Granite Skin (loses energy resistance)
Earth Insight (loses earth affinity)
Treacherous Earth (loses spell like ability)
Mostly Human (loses geniekin type, subtype, and languages)

STR 14(+2)
DEX 17 (Lvl 4 +1)
Con 14
INT 7 (Lvl 8 +1)
WIS 14(+2)
CHA 7(-2)

Favored Class Bonus:
SP

Traits:
Mammoth Master
Heirloom Weapon (Combat Maneuvers:Horsechopper)

Feats:
Lvl 1: Combat Reflexes
Lvl 3: Dirty Fighting
Lvl 5: Improved Trip
Lvl 7: Fury's Fall
Lvl 9: Greater Trip
Lvl 11: Magic fang

Lvl 2:
Bull's Strength
Carry Companion
Reduce Animal

Lvl 4:
Strong Jaw

Lvl 5:
Animal Growth

Preferred Wildshape:
Rock Troll

Important Gear:

By level 6 get:
Clear Opalescent Pyramid Ioun Stone (tuned for horsechopper)

When can:
Dueling property for horsechopper (the one from pathfinder society field guide that gives a luck bonus to cmb equal to double the weapons enhancement bonus)
Brown Thorny Ioun Stone
Gauntlets of the Skilled Manuever
Belt of Incredible Dexterity +4
Headband of Inspired Wisdom +4

Animal Companion

Elasmotherium:

Stat Progression:

Lvl 4: Int
Lvl 9: STR

Feats:

Lvl 1: Toughness
Lvl 2: Power Attack
Lvl 5: Improved Overrun
Lvl 8: Improved Natural Attack
Lvl 10: Narrow Frame

I have done different number breakdowns on all of this, but that is more than I think I can get in a post and it is already huge... basically it comes out that once I hit lvl 6 if it can be tripped I WILL trip it with the horsechopper, but the bite is weaker and very questionable on how frequent it would trip, I am not even sure if that bite attack would allow me to try trip attempts on things within the horsechopper reach (I know it will let me make attacks with it, just not sure on trips).

Also actually attacking things is well...on the lower chances like even my first attack once I get an iterative was somewhere close to the 50% chance of hitting on equal CR average monsters...

SOOO does anyone have any advice?

Please and thank you.

So a moss troll is a large creature with standard size 10, reach 10, but it has 15 foot reach on it's claw attack. Would this reach apply to a weapon if the moss troll used one?

Moss Troll PFSRD

By RAW I do not think so, but by reading the description and such it would be a very reasonable thing for a GM to do I think.

Megafauna was added as a category in I believe bestiary 2 or 3, but there are some creatures from before that release which are very iconicly megafauna in history,ie mammoth/mastadon.

Has there been anything to include them as such or are they stuck as not being part of the category?

The Mammoth Master trait specifies them seperately, but is worded in such a way that emplies they are supposed to be part of the group, so are they?

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits/regional-traits/mammoth-master-regional-real m-of-the-mammoth-lords/

Thanks

Some gear has good and bad effects to it, one of the most well known being smoked goggles. In these cases most PC's don't keep them equipped at all times.

As such how long does it take to equip "easy access" (rings, necklaces, goggles) slotted items?

It takes a move action to retrieve the item to start, then is it just an addition move under the manipulate item rules or is it something else?

Also what are the actual rules on "quick-equipping" items. For instance with the smoked goggles people want to keep them on thier forhead for easy access. I don't think this kind of thind can be done within the rules and therefore is not legal. (Especially for PFS)

Anything official I am missing on these things?

Thank you.

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2rz8y?Does-Litany-of-Righteousness-work-like

Hello everyone. So I am wondering if there has been an official ruling on how littany of righteousness damage gets calculated. It recebtly came up at my local group and we are not sure exactly how to deal with it.

The question boils down to essentially wheither littany of righteousness is a buff to the party or a debuff to the target. If a buff to the party you "double damage" like a crit ans it would follow the crit stacking rules for dice/damage calculation. If a debuff to the creature it would essentially function like a vulnerability and "double damage" after all other calculations have been made.

If everyone wants to discuss this for the zillionth time have at it, but I am really just looking for an official PFS ruling to know how it should be treated.

Thank you,

I have linked at the top the most recent discussion on the topic i can find.