Gnasher's page

Krune's biggest weakness is that his spell selection is downright awful.

On the other hand, if he had a tricked out spell list, how would a party actually ever beat him?

In Northern Colorado we just completed a table of Year of the Shadow Lodge as Core, and a table of Bonekeep 1 as Core recently as we did a mini-convention. Was a hell of a ride. About half of our Core players are new to the organized play and attracted to it because of the low amount of books needed. The other half are regular PFS players who enjoy the challenge of Core games.

This spell has been around since the first Cheliax book came out. The Genie is out of the bottle on this one, and by taking it away, it will cause far more complaints than keeping it.

I do say leave it be, and in order to work on countering the spell, just be ready to actually use couterspells. A mage working in conjunction with anyone can nullify this spell completely and drop enormous bombs on people, if that's what you want to do. If you want your 300 + pt full melee attack or gigantic Horrid Wilting to kill people outright, just have them ready to counter it so their buddy can drop the bomb.

I do disagree with the action economy issue with the spell for NPc's though. Any caster smart enough to have this spell ready to go, is going mohave contingencies (not just the spell) ready to go. PC part of 5 - 6 runs in an the lone caster bad guy uses EFS. He Then teleports / Dimension Door's to a place where he can recover for a round or three, and now has the edge of surprise back. Or he casts stuff like Repulsion to get people away from him.

With the sheer amount of power going around because of the number of books that keep rolling in, this really seems like a puny spell compared to some of the junk people can pull these days. When doing less than 100+ Pts in a round is considered "non optimal" and everyone can easily make most of the sub -20 saving throws the average NPC wizard is tossing about with their spells, this seems pretty situational.

Of course, the best thing would be having an NPC wizard who knows the faintest glimmer of actual tactics when dealing with adventuring parties are. (I often find the biggest problems with NPC weakness to be their tactics, not their stats or spells, but that's a different thread).

I say keep it. Its not that big of a deal, and by the time it becomes a problem, most parties are at seeker level or at least close to it

Ah yeah that

I have a character that does this, and I played him last Thursday to make a legal table for a 7-11, so for all I know, this could be me the OP is talking about.

If it is, the first thing I want to say is that I'm sorry for making it not very fun for others at the table. It's not my intent to marginalize anyone, and I realize this character can be a little disruptive, so I tend to shy away from playing him outside a group of regulars who are used to the stupid shenanigans, and often partake in them together.

For the record, the character is level 9, and really just bought the Maul on the tail end of 8 / beginning of 9. It is a Half Orc Invulnerable Rager Barbarian, who is kind of awful in the social sections of the scenarios, as well as awful at saves. As many of you have pointed out, the Maul is an expensive item, so treasure has been pretty terrible. He only wears light armor, and only has a stat belt other than the Maul, so yes, his saving throws suck, though Superstitious helps.

I created this character to be part of a team of face-smasher types who were a little light in the intellect department. Many of the scenarios used to get him to this level were GMing ones, so I did my best not to be a drag on people.

I didn't come to the game with intent to play this character, and since the one I wanted to play was not eligible for either table (Magus 6 with choices of 1-5 or 7-11), it was this, or another team based Rogue.

The character is terrified of irrational things, and monsters that don't have any equipment (I'm looking at you demons.. and elementals... and animals... and naked monk sorcerers...etc) simply don't get attacked; kind of like kryptonite to Superman.

It doesn't fix everything though, and once this character hits 11, he's done, as no further retirement is in his future. I figure he's close enough to retirement that a few plays here and there won't matter too much, plus I fully expect the ruling on the Maul to be changed sooner or later, which would end most of the craziness. Until then, he gets 2, maybe 3 games per year anymore.

Again, if I was the cause of discomfort or otherwise causing someone to not have fun at a table, then I sincerely apologize. I'd be happy to play another character or anything but that one whenever you GM or are at the same table if it makes you uncomfortable.

Side note..... How come Level 6 is where Scenarios get really scarce? Stuck between 1-5 and 7-11, I've had to sit out of play a different character twice in a week now. Perhaps we can encourage the writing and scheduling of more 3-7's?

The Best AP that Paizo ever published, now updated so I can run it without restarting everything?!

I'm so in.

Hopefully they do a limited. I love this path.

This is something I don't understand. People one on to ask a question, then when they don't get the answer they want, they argue it.

Why ask the question in the first place?

If you firmly believe there is no ruling on it and are going to ignore the ruling on the forum linked to you here, why ask?

I apologize, I don't want to come off like a jerk, but it's a peeve.

As far as I have known, it is only clerics who have access to the alternative summoning lists.

I actually really like table variation and other judgments on the fly by GM's. Sure they can cause some issues from time to time, but on the whole, the more a GM can do to make a game fun, the better off the game can be. Yeah, a GM can be a petty butthead who decides to use these powers for evil, but I really believe most of these people will use the freedom to make the game more fun.

At a certain point, with no more ambiguity, we end up playing a video game with a few dice rolls. Those grey areas are what can make a GM really shine. Already, "Run as Written" can be exceptionally shackling when it comes to running against optimized groups. Giving a challenge based on spell choice or different tactics can help quite a bit, but that's a discussion for another time.

Overall, I tend to trust players, and the groups are pretty well self policing. We all know each other in our local lodge, and anyone who has something wonky usually gets the "c'mon man that's lame" treatment.

Find other solutions, right?

So what is the solution to a group of players who are up and coming, and they want to do some of the scenarios like Waking Rune and Eyes of the Ten because they heard they were really cool.

They don't have enough to make a full table, and others who have not played it would rather continue to enjoy the low level game, effectively leaving these few folks stranded on an island until maybe, a couple of people will get there in a year or three.. Sure there are other alternatives, other modules, and such, but they want to have the crack at those that the first group did.

Some have offered to replay those with them. But they can't because of some jerk doing super replay "speed runs" in Cincinnati ruined it for everyone, In a different game and a different living campaign at that! (Just picked Cincinnati because its a city far from my own, not because it actually did it)

Look, the replay we are suggesting is not unlimited. Its not even that unrestricted. The current restrictions on replay are just going to drive players to simply ignore those rules. Yes, it is driving some players to want to <gasp> cheat when it comes to replay, because in the end, it's not really policed by anyone. Let's be honest with each other. If someone wants to replay against the rules, there's pretty much nothing stopping them, aside from their own honesty and integrity. I mean really, when was the last time you had all your chronicle and inventory track sheets audited, especially against the other characters you have?

The only tracking we have is the website, which isn't all that accurate as results get put in by anyone and at the whim of the entrant. We find ourselves with a bunch of materials that are increasingly worthless as we won't bring ourselves to break the rules.

So, no, "Find another Solution" is a dismissive and frankly condescending answer. It's not that simple, and if replay is a big scare because of "cheating" just look at the other type of "cheating" it encourages.

I stand by my position to have GM stars refresh annually. I still believe that making it a boon unfairly punishes those that cannot make it to larger conventions, which most of the specials already feel like they do. This will limit replay to, at maximum, 5 per year. Further I wish to specify in that when I say replay, that it is for the player and not the character (Same character cannot do same scenario more than once, even with stars.)

Unfortunately, I don't believe we are going to change any of our minds on the matter with this thread, other than having our voices heard.

All I'm asking for is a refresh of GM star credits annually. Making it a boon was a mistake I believe.

It will limit replay, and encourage GM-ing. Plus, anyone who is actually a high star level GM will generally abide by "not being a jerk." We DO generally trust someone who is a 4 - 5 star GM right?

It will prevent multiple speed runs as well, and give the prolific GM's an ability to play with friends here and there where they may have run through originally.

As much as I love playing and GM-ing in Pathfinder Society, the replay restriction is one of the weakest areas.

I would love to replay some of the best scenarios or GM them for other folks but with no credit applied to anyone, even for GM-ing it again, there is little incentive beyond just enjoyment, which, admittedly, there is much of.

I would love to be able to Play specific scenarios such as Waking Rune, Rats of Round Mountain, or the big one, Eyes of the Ten more than once. With what we have, when the first group got past retirement, the second group is basically having some trouble filling their ranks because the higher level character players can't replay it.

GM Star Refreshes being a convention boon is pretty terrible really. They should refresh annually at the start of the season (Gen Con). I know that now the annual boon someone mentioned may be a possibility, but prior to that, if you didn't go and play at a big convention, your stars meant squat really. An annual refresh for all would help immensely in making GM-ing meaningful to those that cannot play at conventions.

I would be against this, as it encourages deity fishing for your weapon of choice, instead of choosing a deity who's faith is interesting.

The poster I responded to was certainly removing an option. The spell is clear in writing. Whatever you view as 'over powered' or 'not intended' is immaterial as you are bound by the PFS guide, as a GM, to run the game by the rules with no changes.
There is plenty in the game that is not clear, or left vague and I am not saying the game does not have those and that a GM has no room to adjudicate. The game only functions when there is a GM to make judgments about issues of clarity, snap judgements about rules not written and ask players to avoid using disruptive abilities. Among the many many other tasks they have at the table.

As a GM volunteer, I may not have the right to make things up, but I absolutely have the right to call out a player for being a butthead who is ruining the fun for me as the GM as well as the other players at the table. I also have the right to tell him to cut that crap out.

We had a player a couple of weeks ago try to say that he can Kraken Throttle anyone to death in 2 rounds because there was never an "Official PFS Ruling" made on it, only people talking about it on the forums who may or may not have been the guy who wrote the rule. This same player tried that gold weapon trick to get money at level 1 some time back.

We told him not to do it, and he said we couldn't stop him. We then said he could just not come if he's going to act like a jerk.

I understand that you as a player wouldn't use it, and that's awesome, but I'm right there with rknop.

Ultimately, it looks like this spell needs some work in how it interacts with other abilities and spells in the game.

With lots of players citing "Rules Bloat" our attendance at our normal PFS games seemed to be declining over the past two years. Our multiple table events often condensing down to a single table or barely scraping by with two. Sure, some days it still worked out no problem, but it seemed the days of 4 table Sundays were gone.

A few weeks ago, we started running a Core table on an off night, and now we've already outgrown one venue and moved to another, so we can have multiple tables. New players who were were not part of the previous group started showing up and brining their friends with the barrier to entry gone. Now these players have also started attending regular games, not just Core ones.

Many of us are optimizers. Many of us can use the books with each other in ways that make the character classes sing with overpowered auras of destruction, but Core provides a unique challenge that we almost universally enjoy. It makes us approach missions with some thought and really can test our chops as players.

Sure we miss a few rules here and there, but Core has done wonders for our player base and revitalized the game for many of us. Way to go with this.

Would love to see more Core oriented stuff!

I absolutely loved Curse of the Crimson Throne. Great RP opportunities all the way through. Each book ties in very well to each other, and the adventures never lose sight of who the bad guy is. I've found that in several AP's the villain never really appears till the latter half, except in foreshadowing (Rise of the Runelords, Kingmaker, Carrion Crown, etc) so they lose some of the impact.

Unfortunately, Curse of the Crimson Throne, while I think it is Paizo's finest AP ever, is not sanctioned for PFS, and it is written for 3.5.

I would buy the heck out of an updated version.

For PFS sanctioned ones, Jade Regent has a lot of good opportunities, due to interactions with NPC's and exotic locales (Crown of the World, Minkai)

Most of the time, a caster can stay out of combat's way on their own. They are supposed to be more intelligent than everyone else, so if they are putting their face where it is likely to get hit, they probably aren't playing as smart as they could be.

AC is not necessary, unless your group is constantly being surrounded, and if you are continually bombarded with mass amounts of AoE effects, HP is far more valuable. Plus the magic item slots you are wasting on AC can be spent on items that make a caster exponentially more powerful. Rings of Protection suck compared to Rings of Freedom of Movement or Rings of Wizardry. Amulets of Natural Armor are terrible compared to other amulets, and so on.

In my experience of playing wizards and such, there are just times when you don't do anything and let the thugs handle combat with the little guys. The only times I went down was when I myself did something stupid and got hit for it.

Witches tend to be more about disabling and deception, so perhaps they have spells that will really make the other characters shine, or perhaps making the bad guy do dumb things.

What it sounds like, is that the saving throws to resist their effects isn't high enough. That means they need ways to get that linked stat up as high as possible, as well as taking spell focus in a choice school of spells. Most witch effects, such as hexes or their spells rely on the enemy failing. It's usually save negates, which puts the Witch in a poor situation if their saves are made frequently. (Happens in our game with our shaman who can't land a hex to save his life).

Defensively, just think through it. If grapples are a problem, find or make a Ring of Freedom of Movement. If arrows and projectiles are an issue, look to Wind Wall or Fickle Winds. If they are getting stabbed, they need to be in a position to not be stabbed, and staying away and using range can help this quite a bit.

I just ran this scenario last night. The investigation went well, and the set up with the cutpurse and coins worked out wonderfully.

The only complaint I have about this scenario is the loss of a potential item if anyone doesn't have a specific chronicle sheet. (No one at the 7 person table, inc. GM did)

This addition was terrible. Please Paizo, never do this again. My players, even if they didn't want the item itself, felt that hey were penalized for not attending a big convention. They already feel like they have no chance of getting any boons worthwhile because the majority of the players in my area do not attend Gen Con, Origins, or PaizoCon. Making it so an item only shows up if someone attended a limited access special kind of rubbed salt in that wound, even if the item wasn't spectacular or life changing.

The scenario itself was solid. The players really liked the mix of combat and investigation, especially how it didn't just give them the answer, in that they had to figure out where the attacks were coming from based on information they gathered themselves.

Charging an enemy with reach. Does it provoke an attack of opportunity.

One part of the rulebook says yes, as you are moving through a threatened area. Another part says no as you are charging and the charge action does not.

I really wish there was an official FAQ on this one instead of digging around forum posts by non-rule writers.

Wait till you get to the retirement arc. The Pathfinder Society as an In game organization is greedy, nosy, and driven to get what it wants by any means necessary. I've always said, the Aspis Consortium may be just as shady, but at least they are honest about it.

Who knows what happens to the artifacts after they are catalogued.

A really neat arc for a future season could be taking out some of the outright corruption at the head of the society and replacing it with player driven stuff. It could use which person was supported the most etc. on chronicle reporting. Leave faction people in place, just haul out the decemvirate and unmask them.

Result: Wizards are, once again, the undisputed God class that makes DMs from Gencon to PFS Core tables cry bitterly into their screens

Really? Those guys are volunteers and deserve to have some fun too you know. They put a lot of work in so you can have your munchkin character. Cut them a break and maybe play ball with them instead of acting like a jerk who just wants to exploit the game.

This is the kind of character a GM should have the right, no, duty, to bury in a hole behind the shed.

Can we take the acronym "DPR" out of this conversation? I don't care if it's that important to you as a stat, please try to rephrase it. It makes us sound like a bunch of insufferable cheeto stained neck beards making spreadsheets in our dark basement corners when we are trying to mathematically tweak a game where situation will trump raw numbers most of the time.

If people want to play it as a numbers game fine. I don't have to play with them, and neither does anyone have to play with anyone they find playing something "inferior."

As for me, I think Core is an awesome challenge, and creating a character who can squeak by on his wit and skin of his teeth is far more enjoyable than creating the damage machine monster or invincible guy.

If you're into numbers, try it sometime. Try to be as "bad" as you can be and still get by. I bet it's a lot harder than just trying to add numbers up to crush the enemy.

"Twisted Urge to Kill" and "Insatiable Bloodlust," cursed or no, I have a hard time buying that the character isn't evil. It's pretty Snidely Whiplash if you ask me.

If you are looking for an anti-hero type, and don't want to be an angsty fop, consider separating from Urgathoa. The connection really drives the evilness home on top of those things.

Something you may want to look at is someone who genuinely believes they are doing good, but ends up not truly being a good guy. Take someone who worships Serenrae and sees the only way to redeem enemies is in her judgment, so he murders them coldly. Or Overdoing the Justice portion of Iomedae. That can be twisted into an inquisition (not class ability) type attitude, where you torture enemies to get the answers you want.

If you are looking for something more primal, you can have, say a tribesman who's belief that if they don't destroy their enemy utterly, Rovagug will rise up and devour their family member's souls.

There are ways to work these things in.

If you wanted to still use Urgathoa, figure out the connection from an RP side. Being driven to do something by a curse makes you a monster like a werewolf, or worse, something to be put down like a rabid dog. Having other reasons would be more of an interesting dynamic.

It could be argued that Murder-Hoboing in general is evil. Killing something simply because they are evil could be evil itself.

There's a lot of grey area here. I tend to agree that the character you described is evil, because coup de grace is a deliberate, difficult and unnecessary maneuver to pull off in the middle of combat. To even get it done, the opponent has to be helpless, so, to do it at all, you're just stabbing a helpless opponent. Not exactly the good thing to do in really, any situation.

I've seen a lot of threads recently regarding evil, and how it applies in PFS. Each time, someone asks for an opinion, then argues with the people who respond if they give an opinion contrary to their own. Please, if you ask an opinion, don't tell the guy who responded that you were right all along and they are wrong. Doing this isn't asking for advice, it's picking a fight.

Ultimately, I'm not a fan of the alignment system, and I have probably abused leeway with it more than I should have in a couple of my characters. Anymore, I consider it a Roleplaying challenge, regardless of my personal feelings for it. I have one character who is high seeker levels who absolutely despises the Decemvirate and the Society's leadership, and I'm creating a core Monk who is utterly loyal to it.

Bottom line? Play the game with what you have, don't try to change the game to fit what you want.

Home games though. The chains are off. Go crazy. Eat opponent's brains. Stab puppies, kick old ladies. Whatever floats your boat and makes your game better. Organized play just has more stringent requirements.

It's important to remember that while it is an awesome adventure path, Curse of the Crimson Throne was built with D&D 3.5 rules. Not only that, it doesn't take into account 6 players nor does it take into account years of rules bloat.

As a GM the first thing I would do, is take a look at what your players are doing and what they usually do. Do they have a specific tactic they exploit the hell out of? Turn it against them later. Is it just that the monsters aren't tough enough? Change things up on them.

Feel free to make adjustments and add in other monsters. Increase saving throw DC's. Add HP.

I HEAVILY altered the final fight but it was a blast.

Also, one thing it seems like they are doing is withdrawing and coming back, multiple times. Push them, put them on a timetable, and give consequences to using those kinds of tactics. Maybe the enemies get wind they are about the be invaded and they took their loot and ran off. Or they called in extra security. Maybe they put up some additional traps.

If they cleared the bigger monsters and are just coming back to pick up loot, you can have the lesser ones grab it and take off with it, or better yet, use it against them.

This particular path lends itself well to the timetable because really bad stuff can happen if you wait around too long and treat it like a console RPG.

I ran this for 6 players about 2 years ago, and I loved every minute of it, especially Scarwall.

Basically, you're the GM, don't limit yourself to what's on a page. Challenge your players and make it fun for everyone, even you!

Personally, I'm not a fan of the new races so much, especially the Kitsune. I'm not really looking forward to the "cantina effect" of having fox people around. They will be far more common than the others I suspect. Just a personal preference. More power to you if you like them.

That said, I'm with BNW on the Aasimar. Having a race with no drawbacks, and a bonus worth 4000 gold (a second +2 stat bump with no drawback) they far outshine other races in classes that are not feat dependent at lower levels. I've been trying for weeks to make an effective monk without making them an Aasimar, and it's very difficult with the limited point buy due to the number of stats a monk needs,(other monk problems aside.)

1 - Personally I really liked the old way.

I understand that PFS is set up so your character is a "Pathfinder," but I'm not a fan of the Society in world at all. I love organized play, but I don't want to identify as a "pathfinder," especially after playing Eyes of the Ten. The old Faction Missions made it feel like there was a different way to play than just be some Venture Captain's lackey.

It's a vehicle to make things easier to organize. I get that. I just wish it didn't involve being a mandatory member in world.

Those familiar with older Shadowrun Missions will remember a thing called "Table Rating."

It was a quick slider to adjust difficulty of a mission by adding the rating (0-4) to the number of dice the GM got to roll for every NPC action or roll in the scenario. This could result in a significant increase in the difficulty of the mission. The table rating was agreed to by the party before the mission started, and could effect the reward in the mission.

In Pathfinder Society, I could see a similar system in play for the players who explicitly want more challenge, but don't get anything but bragging rights out of it (read: Hard Mode Waking Rune.)

Maybe do a smaller scale, say up to Table Rating 3, and everything the scenario has is now +3 to die roll totals. It would make things significantly more dangerous (Think of those little creatures with lots of attacks.. and it stacks up) with early season scenarios and low level scenarios especially.

I don't think a higher table rating should earn more loot, though. I really enjoyed the big game hunting aspect of Hard Mode Waking Rune. It made us think, and work very closely together as a team.

I'm an insufferable power gamer and I will only say: rules and power creep are incredibly damaging to a living campaign.

I completely agree that the Pathfinder Society, as an in game entity, is decidedly not a "Good" organization. Neutral makes more sense for who they are and what they pull. Mass invasion of privacy via magical means, and hoarding of artifacts for an unknown purpose (it's never, "find out more about this one artifact we have that isn't the Tapestry," It's more like "Thanks for the artifact, throw it on the pile over there, and go get me more.") are only a few. Their security measures put the Pentagon to shame, and for what? A glorified explorer's club? No way, these guys are far more sinister than we are led to believe.

Upon further thought, here are some other things to add to this list:

-Blood of Angels's aasimar heritages.

This I completely agree with. Aasimar is already pushing the limits of an overpowered race, with 2 +2 to ability scores, no negatives, darkvision, energy resistance and a spell like ability. To give them more variety basically makes Blood of Angels the old "Complete book of Elves," in that, anything any other race can do, they can do better.

Having played a fair number of scenarios and recently going through EoT, I have begun to wonder, what does an organization like the Pathfinder Society need with the amount of surveillance, secrecy, and extreme security they have?

For an organization that touts their archaeological exploits and hoards things like pottery shards, they have an awful lot of extra security and ways to keep very very close eyes on members. We know they collect some magic items, and have access to a few artifacts (Hao Jin Tapestry etc), but even those things aren't near justification for the level of security and secrecy the Decemvirate keep.

We all know the Decemvirate are a bunch of cagey, secret folks who wear masks and shouldn't even know who each other are. Why is that even a concern for a group who's primary motto amongst it's members is "Explore, Report, Cooperate?"

Is the society really run by some malevolent external force that wishes to remain anonymous? Are members of the Decemvirate possessed by devils, or devils themselves in humanoid form? I certainly wouldn't be surprised if at least on the Venture-Captain level, there is some of this. It would certainly explain Sheila Heidmarch better if she were some kind of disguised devil.

Bottom line, it seems the leadership of the Pathfinder Society (In Game of course) is lying to its members about who they are and what their purpose is...to what end? It certainly makes the Aspis Consortium look good. At least they are honest in saying they just want these artifacts for personal gain.

Any thoughts on the matter?

I'll chime in and say that I echo Lormyr and Thomas Graham in the issue about the Adventure Paths and Modules. Having these things available for credit is an awesome resource, and I can't wait either for new ones to become available.

Said Wizard here. There were a few things that took me by surprise, mainly to do with spells.

We have a local group that really relies heavily on teamwork feats. Because of this, Cavaliers work wondrously. Cavalier/Rogues with Swap Places, Outflank and Precise Strike get some great bonuses when working in tandem. It's really pretty gross.

One Roasted Runelord. Cooked to Order.

This Runelord was lovingly tenderized by a god-mocking cross between a cat, a lizard, and a cartoon. Point seared by rays, and braised on a skewer of arrows, he was then served chilled with a heaping side of expended scroll ashes and potion bottles.

The Cerberi enjoyed it very much. Three dog heads is a lot to feed.

This was a rule in 3.5, but for some reason I didn't find it in PF, so if you could direct me I'd be most appreciative.

You are standing directly in front of a dragon, in melee combat. The Dragon goes full attack and is attacking you with its claws, wings and bite.

Can this dragon hit you with its tail without penalty in addition to its other attacks?

Seems a little goofy if it can, as it is a rear facing attack.

PFS Scenarios are very scripted. They tend to be railroady and very linear. Most of the time, this comes from a necessity to meet a timetable and to tell a coherent story, and make things go smoothly. Don't get me wrong, I love PFS, but being on the tracks is more or less the price of admission. Being crafty with spells or using a dedicated scout may help you quite a bit, though. In fact, being that character may open up a lot of possibilities even if you are at a random table.

If you want more of a flexible way of dealing with encounters, play Shadowrun. It lends itself more to team planning and setting up encounters like that.

Its not a monster, but I would nerfbat the blanket immunity from mental domination effects of Protection from Evil to a +2 bonus to the saves.

I kinda doubt we'll see this one in any playable capacity with the way things are. Mythic tiers are integral to how the game is ran, and there is no "Non-mythic version" actually in the book that I've seen. There is a sidebar in the first book saying that it CAN be run with non-mythic PC's but "adjustments" would have to be made.

From just a cursory glance at some of the later books, those "adjustments" entail overhauling a huge portion of the encounters and NPC's in order to make it work.

Not only that, but a couple of the NPC's you receive your missions from are frankly above the In-Game Pathfinder Society's pay grade.

Well just take a look at the Adventure Path that releases at Gen Con. this year its Iron Gods. Last year it was Wrath of the Righteous. The year before the big release was the Rise of the Runelords pfs edition.

Rise of the Runelords - Year of the Risen Rune
Wrath of the Righteous - Year of the Demon (Siege of Diamond city even happens kinda in the background of The Worldwound Incursion and vice versa)
Iron Gods - Year of the golem?

Since the PFS releases have been tying into the AP ones, you can bet Numeria will be involved.

Did your players have fun, even if they got geeked?

If so, it doesn't matter if they got killed, everyone had a good time, and you can pick up with a session that is about recovering from this.

That's really the heart of it. As a GM, you can do whatever you like to help recover from this so over a year of game time isn't lost this close to the end. As long as people are having fun, who cares what the book says?

76) As a spellcaster, I will be properly prepared and not caught unaware. If I can caught unaware, I will find a way to either rapidly put up protection or get away to do so at my leisure.

77) If I am a spellcaster, I will have a functional and useful spell memorization. I will never quicken stupid spells just to suck up a level slot.

Natural attacks from playable humanoids have traditionally been very weak. It's why you don't see a lot of tengu biting people for massive damage. Sure it's there, it can count as an offhand or secondary, but beyond doing the amulet thing or going monk or something similar, you may be out of luck. Best bet is to lay out options, and let her learn on her own.

Far be it from me to discourage anyone from playing a type of character they want to play, but I know it's a type I'd never try. Then again, I'm just not a fan of catfolk.

No offense, but maybe you should keep your judgments to yourself. If I were looking for cheese I'd be working on improving the tactic I'll be using 99.9999% of the time, which is melee Spellstrike/Spell Combat. My custom gunblade will be heavily enchanted over the course of the campaign, and I expect will be hitting +10 well ahead of the rest of the party. I certainly wouldn't be asking about ways to not use that weapon and instead use my completely unenchanted gun.

.....

Okay, I think I'm going to stop responding to you here. If you can't discuss the subject without continually insinuating that I'm an evil powergamer having nastybadfun, then please refrain from participating at all.

Okay I just couldn't stop thinking about this. You claim to not want cheese, yet you pick a fairly borderline cheese class, build a custom weapon that is presumably better than what is readily available (since you would have just chosen one otherwise,) and brag about hitting +10 before the rest of the party? Then you get hyper defensive when probed about it and stop responding?

If you aren't looking for cheese I'm not sure what you are looking for.

This is not a knock. Remember, cheese can be fun too! I love myself some cheese. Especially if everyone is on board the cheese-submarine.

If you are serious about it though and your GM is crazy enough to work with it, try the spell storing route. I also believe there is useful ammunition that can store a spell and explode on impact.

You know what would be cool? Spell combat with cone spells. Or spell combat with Web if you can get the ranges to work out right. Imagine a gun that can shoot a cone of glue. Kind of like the old wand of viscid globs before they nerfed it in 3e.

On that note, how about using alchemical stuff? Thunderstones, tanglefoot bags and such on your ammo? Is the gun more of a solid slug thrower or a blunderbuss?

Not to be facetious, but isn't "ranged spellstrike" already in game?

Isn't is called a "spell?"

Sorry couldn't resist.

As a wizard, be smarter than the rest of your party. Live up to the 18 - 20 INT.

CON is better than DEX is better than AC. Spending money on Bracers of Armor + 1 will make you regret it. A Wizard's AC almost invariably is lower than that of a fighter or armor wearer, so you have to do what you can to stay out of the combats.

My wizard has an AC of 10 and is about to hit 11th level. Most people can't believe it when I tell them that, but why would I spend a few thousand gold on making myself harder to be hit when I just don't get hit in the first place. Magic items aren't cheap and spending in unnecessary areas will bite you in the rear sooner or later.

Mystic Lemur has it exactly right. Just make it a pain in the butt to get to you and you wont be targeted. If you have a decent CON when they do come after you,you can simply immolate them for being so dumb as to approach after you soak a hit or two.

Also: Jack up your INT as high as you can and follow up with spell focus feats in your favorite schools. Your effects will live and die on your Save DC, and unless you want to be a Bard-like buff bot, save DC's will be big for you.

Just a quick question.

Would someone under the spell "Statue" be effected by Horrid Wilting? In this sense, I mean someone who is actively in statue form at the time the spell is cast.

The spell states it turns a creature to solid stone. Solid Stone has no water to evaporate from Horrid Wilting.

What it doesn't say is that it changes your creature type or grants any immunities beyond hardness 8.

Personally, this change wont have much of an effect on my group. We tend to play up just for the challenge of it, and the extra gold is really just gravy, not something required. We're looking forward to taking on the hard mode Waking Rune, so a team of us are working together to get there.

Now, in a con situation, or one where we are grouped with other PFS players because we either want a break, or just want to try something new for a bit, playing up or down based on unanimous table vote is always supported.

I've played down when only one guy didn't want to play up. Really, one person's fun is not ever worth sacrificing because I want to pew pew more. I'd rather they have a good time and come back to grow the region in organized play.

An Addendum:

Selective Spell is a waste. Don't bother. Just communicate with your party and be smart about placement. You won't get all the bad guys in one swoop, but you have an entire party of "minions" to pull cleanup after the bomb drops.

I also disagree on the Sorc dip. +2 Points per die of damage is okay, but when you already throw a guaranteed 90, 20 points is nothing but faffing about and keeping your caster level down. Between saves, resistances and evasion, it's pretty nullified in the end.

I play a wizard in PFS, and I have found that a good CON has saved my bacon more times than I can count, most recently, sucking 2 empowered Cone of Cold spells. If it weren't for my 16 con I'd be a magesicle.

I don't have a high DEX, and I find that AC items are a waste of time. Simply put, if something if big enough to hit a fighter, it will be big enough to hit a wizard, AC 10 or AC 25. The strength you have is that you don't have to be in combat.

Pick up a Lesser Maximize Rod as soon as you can and combine it with Empower Spell. I chose Universalist for my school for Metamagic Mastery. Sure I dont get the tiny bonus from Evoker, but I get 90 point Fireballs memorized in a 3rd level slot. Also, pick up a Lesser Elemental Metamagic Rod (Cold). Cold is the one energy type that Devils, Daemons and Demons are all "vulnerable" to. (They have resistances sure, but not outright immunity)

A recommendation: Get Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, and their greaters too. As you go up in level, things will routinely make a 21 save, so you need to jack that saving throw and make sure things land on monsters with spell resistance at all costs.

All of that said, your boomchuck damage at 11th/12th level relies upon failed saves. As you get higher, you will be doing less explosions and more setup. More things have Evasion higher up too, which causes issues with the fireball mage.

Keep your options open, but make sure when you want something to hit, by god it will hit. As always, a well placed Enervation (or two) is your friend, as is having Illusion open as a school (Mirror Image / Displacement is invaluable). And a Well timed Charm Person can win you a prestige point, even with the crappy CHA.

Too much rambling.