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I have a group of players getting ready to do their first character creations soon, and I was wondering how you handle helping players pick feats. There is an absolute ocean of feats available at this point... where do you even tell them to start? Do you just pick a handful of 1st level feats (say, from the iconics) and let them pick from that? I'm afraid if I just send them to https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/ I may never hear from them again!

I'm a new-ish GM prepping to run Hollow's Last Hope (a level 1 adventure) for some friends, including new players and one player who has never played a tabletop RPG. It's a group of 6 players, so I've been converting it to the Pathfinder monsters and increasing CR by 1 for group size. But there's one CR2 monster that attacks when the PCs disturb a room that has a quest mcguffin in it:

14 AC
31 HP
Hardness 5
Bite +2 (1d8+1)
Improved Grab (Grapple CMB +2 I guess)
Swallow Whole - 1d4 nonlethal/turn, escape with 10 damage, hardness 5.

It does have the morale-ish condition that it will only chase the PCs inside this 120-foot area, but they have no way of knowing that, and I'm sure they're not just going to abandon a swallowed teammate.

My concerns that this could cause a bunch of kills on new Level 1 players are:
- It has hardness 5, so really only power attacks from the 2-handed fighter are going to be able touch it with average damage rolls--everyone else will be praying for max damage. Level 0 and 1 damage spells are useless and I'm sure will get wasted on it.
- If a PC gets swallowed in the first 3 turns, it seems like they're basically screwed. I don't see how a swallowed PC can deal 10 damage against hardness 5 with a light weapon at this level. They have daggers.
- It's pretty early in the adventure, so they're not going to be in a groove in terms of their teamwork and their characters' abilities.

Am I missing something? This is without any enhancements or extra baddies to up the CR for 6 players. Do I need to nerf this?

It would really depend on the knowledge geography or local check of the author. Earthfall would have sparse detail, mostly myths and guesses regarding Aroden and the Starstone.

Hmm, let's say it's written by a notable historian, based on a toned-down version of this super legendary one: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/npc-s/npc-16/mast-historian-dwarf-bard-10- loremaster-7/

He has Knowledge Geography +10, History +20, Planes +10, Local +10, Religion +10. He has plenty of time and assistance (this could even be a revised edition), but there's limited space in this small pamphlet-sized publication (so it covers a broad range of things without too much detail).

It's a history DC20 to "Know obscure or ancient historical event." With the other skills, it seems like brief descriptions of the major planes, planets, countries are available. With +20 history, it seems like would know pretty much anything that could be known by someone on Golarion about history, but is that still limited to " mostly myths and guesses regarding Aroden and the Starstone"? And are things like a full world map available?

I'm prepping to start GMing some sessions set in the Inner Sea, and I'm building a gazetteer to help the players get in the mood and as a useful quick resource that isn't omniscient. But it has raised an interesting question: what would a gazetteer about Golarion look like in Golarion? I assume that the gazetteer's creators would have above average access to information but not access to all knowledge.

I think it would contain things like:
- Days of the week, months of the year
- List of countries and major cities in the Inner Sea with basic information
- Major deities
- A full map of the Inner Sea
- General history of the last 20 years
- Ongoing conflicts/disputes (does anyone have a list of these?)
- Something about Earthfall (unsure how much detail)
- Something about the Starstone and Aroden founding Absalom (unsure how much detail)
- Something about the Worldwound (unsure how much detail)
- Something about the Whispering Tyrant (unsure how much detail)
- The Ages with 1 or 2 sentences about what happened during each

But would it contain these?
- Other major events that people on Golarion might know about?
- A full planet map of Golarion
- Minor deities
- A list of planets in the solar system
- Planes of the Inner and Outer Spheres
- Detailed history since -5300 AR (is that when "recorded history" starts?)

Anything else I left out that might be useful? Thanks.

Thanks for the thoughtful analysis, all.

A sword and board (one handed weapon and shield) barbarian isn't the best idea anyway. You lose the damage that a two-handed weapon gives you, and the decrease in AC can be compensated for by better armor or a feat such as Toughness. Sword and board works best for fighters and rangers who can use the shield as a weapon for two-handed fighting when they want to, with shield spikes for example.

I talked to her about this, and I may have convinced her to go 2-handed. I think she was thinking that she needed more AC for effective tanking. She already took the Toughness feat, by the way, to overcome the CON hit to HP from being a Drow. I think going 2-handed goes better with her "out for vengeance" backstory anyway. I think she's got some carrying capacity left over, so perhaps I can convince her to carry some extra weapons and try them out for a while.

You can forinstance hide them on your body using sleight of hands. Assuming you preload one, you can use them when you only have one hand available, for instance when climbing (IIRC, you can stop climbing and attack as a standard action though only one handed, or I would house rule that atleast).

That's an interesting point and makes sense. I like anything that encourages creativity (which is why I'm working on this instead of just saying "use a longbow" or whatever).

P.S. If as a barbarian, she wants a minor focus on the weapon (a main is just not going to work), consider giving her a reason to pursuit the legendary repeating hand crossbow (either by crafting one herself or through some sort of adventure) and give her free proficiency. With 5 bolts, she can use it in the surprise round and the next round without reloading. That should be enough, a barbarian just isn't made for that kind of play style. She should engaging in some real killing action atleast by the 2nd round.

This is brilliant; I dig your creativity again. This way she doesn't have to waste a feat on Rapid Reload either. She's from a family of nobles who were overthrown, so it could be some kind of ancestral weapon with proficiency "in her blood".

Style > Substance

Just my $0.02 on the topic... for me it's a little more like "Fun > Rules" since, as Stream points out, it's all in our heads anyway. I'm making a Monk/Wizard as a recruitable NPC not because it's the best idea mechanically but because I think it's a cool RPG concept that I haven't seen much of.

To the barbarian, no it's not particularly useful.... unless like many drow she uses poison on it. But let her have it anyway. Ranged combat is more of a hobby thing for barbarians anyhow.

The poison aspect might be useful in early levels, so I'll make sure she knows about that. You're right about the hobby thing--the only reason she's used a ranged attack so far was when they were in a wagon being attacked by marauders. She used her light crossbow for a couple of shots until they were boarded and she had to drop it. When she couldn't get back to it, she threw her axe out of desperation and missed by a hair. I told her it would also be a good idea for flying enemies, etc.

This is (half of) the reason for the Deadly Aim feat. Again, it's still not optimal, but it helps quite a bit, especially as the barbarian is a full BAB class. I also endorse the idea of the repeating hand crossbow (ran into this situation about 5 years ago) and, since pathfinder is, theoretically, backwards compatible, the Hand Crossbow Focus feat should be legit as well.

Deadly Aim is a great suggestion. I looked up Hand Crossbow Focus, and I think she'll dig that. We've only been using Pathfinder feats but as DM, I'm not going to let that get in the way of a fun character. Between these feats and the quest for the repeating hand crossbow, it'll just come down to how serious she is about her desire to use a hand crossbow.

[Enemy on knees begging for mercy] "Killing me won't bring her back."

[Drow barbarian, holding hand crossbow] "Ain't that a shame."
[thunk. Barbarian walks away without looking back as villain writhes in the throes of terrible dark elf poison.]

Ha, this was awesome. She's chaotic neutral and out for revenge, so that fit perfectly. I imagined her reply in Undercommon... not bothering to translate for her doomed foe.

Hello, y'all. So I'm a new GM with a group of new players. One of my players is a Drow barbarian (abducted during childhood by human barbarians), so she's racially proficient with the hand crossbow. She really wants to use one, probably because it's unique to her character, but I'm having a hard time understanding their usefulness relative to light crossbows.

+ Weighs half as much (2 lbs lighter).
+ Can fire it one-handed, but it takes two hands to load.
- 3 times as expensive (100 GP instead of 35 GP).
- Half the damage (1d4 vs 1d8).
- Less than half the range (30 ft vs 80 ft).
- Requires an exotic or racial proficiency.

1) Is there something I'm missing here? What's the point of being able to fire one-handed if it takes two hands to load it? To use it with her heavy shield, wouldn't she have to stow the shield, load it, then pull the shield back out?
2) If she wants to keep the shield for tanking purposes in a ranged situation, wouldn't she be better off with javelins?