Herkemer Udelhoffen's page

I've got a player whose level 8 PC died last session due to a combination of bad rolls, a Confusion spell, and forgetting some of the abilities he had access to.

Now he's made up a replacement character: A Reincarnated Druid (level 8) with deliberately low HP that he plans to use as a critter-summoner and 'occasional suicide bomber' (his words). He's got Str, Dex, and Con all at 6 or 8--deliberately low stats and weak AC. In essence, he's eager to get killed regularly so he can roll on the Reincarnate table over and over again. "Basically, I'm immortal!" he grinned.

Now, I know that there are limits built into the Reincarnated archetype; for example, if he gets killed a second time within a week, it won't function to bring him back. But this player is basically daring me to kill him and seems to think it will be fun for everyone if he dies all the time and keeps coming back in new bodies. As with many a jokester at the table, he's missing that it will only be fun FOR HIM.

Any suggestions beyond the inevitable "talk with the player"? This is not a player I know well and don't particularly like, but he's generally experienced and competent, and two other players adore him (which is why they invited him into my game).

Hey there, folks! My home group has been going through Book 3, "Escape from Old Korvosa." And true to form, they're doing things out of order. After a disastrous failed raid on the "Emperor of Old Korvosa's" amphitheater (NPC party member died), they've concluded that things are too dangerous for them in the city right now, and they need to clear out... maybe go ask the friendly Shoanti Skull Clan (from Book 1) for help and look into getting the NPC raised/reincarnated.

Now, that works perfectly for the overall campaign arc: Book 4 is about traveling among the Shoanti anyway, to recover important facts that only the Sun Clan know about the artifact hidden below Castle Korvosa. So we could just jump the story ahead. But since the PCs never went through House Arkona's wacky rotating dungeon to rescue Ex-Seneschal Neolandus, they don't have his vital plot point (i.e., knowing that the Queen found a strange crown she took to wearing, and that the Shoanti who used to live in the region might know something about it). They've abandoned the prior mission, so (since they agreed they want consequences for their decisions) Neolandus and Orsini are dead.

So now I'm looking for a way to take advantage of their spontaneous trip to the Shoanti and just move ahead to Book 4's content. But to do that, I need some alternate way to deliver Neolandus' intelligence to the PCs, so they'll have a reason to look for the Sun Clan and investigate this crown the queen's started wearing. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

The party has already left the city and reached the Skull Clan, with the dead party member's body in tow. Existing allies include:

• *Trinia Sabor, artist/bard and falsely-accused assassin, currently hiding out with Orsini's friend Jasan at the nearby town of Harse
• *Ex-Commander Cressida Croft of the Korvosan Guard, now trying to keep her head down in a city under martial law and save who she can
• *Majenko the pseudo-dragon, currently disconnected from the dead NPC and living as a regular pseudo-dragon in the city
• *Priest of Abadar Ishani Dhatri, acting head of the Temple/Bank of Abadar while the archbanker recovers from a curse (long story)
• *Eries Yellow-Eyes, Old Korvosa fishmonger and secret wererat with many criminal contacts but no resources, in lockdown on the island
• *New NPC Telestrie Arnholt, well-to-do opera singer and estranged daughter-in-law of Yellow-Eyes, currently caring for over a dozen orphaned kids
• *Bishaar and Delinora, two friendly NPC elves affiliated with the elven embassy to Korvosa: an architect and an alchemist (note that the elven ambassador himself is NOT friendly)

This was said as a half-serious, half-joking comment in a recent session, to our charismatic bard/priest: "Will you quit trying to talk our way out of these encounters? It's costing us valuable treasure!"

Now, the players generally enjoy the priest's antics as he tries different RP approaches to charm, confuse, distract, barter with, or negotiate through various foes that the party runs into. And of course, the party gets full XP for 'defeating' any given encounter, whether it's through combat, stealth, deception, and so on.

But that's XP... and NOT treasure.

Despite some memorably funny encounter stories, the party is still progressing well in terms of level. But they're way, way behind on actual wealth, because the only way to get wealth is through murder-looting. Let's face it, a level 5 fighter who's accumulated less than 1000gp in the campaign is not going to be as effective as one with the standard murderhobo's bank account.

How do your groups deal with the wealth-by-level issue if/when PCs insist on thinking and talking their way past encounters too often, instead of stabbing and looting?

Hi, all. I'm looking for tips to get a strong fighter AC for a CORE game--using the Pathfinder Core Rulebook only.

This means no archetypes, no non-Core Races, no splatbook feats or Advanced Player's Guide options, nothing from Ultimate Combat or Armor Master's Handbook, etc., etc. Just stuff in the Core Rulebook.

Assume a single-classed half-orc fighter at level 7, with PFS-standard wealth: 23,500gp. How can we get him the best armor class, using Core book rules?

Our group is starting up a Core game with 9th level characters, and I'm considering a caster-focused druid. However, I (and everyone else in the group) really hate dealing with summoned creatures. They drastically slow things down and complicate the combats, dragging things out much longer than we like. The faster we can wrap up a fight, the better*.

*And no amount of "but summons DO help end a fight faster" arguments will change our minds on that point: that's not our experience. Maybe I can clarify what I mean by 'faster.' I don't mean how many rounds a combat lasts, so much as how long each round, and each player's turn, takes up in real-world play time. Ideally, a good combat round for us means each PC takes one action and makes one roll, moving on to the next player, bam-bam-bam. So we hate dealing with summons, period.

So, is it feasible to play a caster-centric druid who doesn't focus on Summoning? If so, any tips would be appreciated. Thanks!

We've got a cavalier who needs to be able to charge enemies, which in turn requires "line of sight." At the current level (6), more and more of his enemies have invisibility, and there's no way for a cavalier to acquire the ability to see them.

The Blind-Fighting feat won't help, the GM has already stated; that just removes concealment penalties and miss chances, rather than giving you the needed 'line of sight.'

So, how can he get it?

"Make friends with someone who can cast Glitterdust." Ha ha, yes, very funny. "Buy this magic item that costs 40,000 gp." HA. HA. Level 6, remember? His most prized possessions are his +1 breastplate and +1 lance.

I'm looking for the rules on how a Small-sized cavalier stays on a Medium-sized mount when it's using a special movement type such as Swim or Climb. Is there a mount Strength requirement, a special type of saddle, a move-action Ride or Handle Animal check, etc.?

In this specific case, it's a halfling cavalier whose mount is a "giant" gecko (size Medium), but I'd like to find the general rules for any rider of any mount when the mount is climbing, jumping, swimming, and so forth.

(Do we really need spoiler tags by this date?)

Our group successfully got through Brinewall Castle to recover Ameiko's family seal, cure her magical coma, see a nifty historical vision about her family's arrival in Avistan, etc. She expressed an interest in traveling to Kalsgard to recover their ancestral sword, sold to a merchant up there many years back. No problem, we chorused; Ameiko's our friend, we got a caravan here, sounds like a fun trip!

Now we're most of the way through Book 2 (Night of Frozen Shadows), and the GM's getting nervous. Why? Because apparently a LOT of the story depends on the PCs looking for a guide to take them across the Crown of the World to Minkai. Only... we're not looking for such a guide. Because it's never occurred to us to make such a trip. Why would we?

Seriously, we must have missed something here. Why are the PCs supposed to be interested in traveling to Tian Xia at this stage of the story? Sure, there's a crazily well-funded and well-organized thieves' guild trying to stop us from recovering Ameiko's family sword, and we're happily doing all we can to put a stop to that. But we're not lifting a finger to find any 'missing guide,' because we don't know he exists and we don't know that we should be looking for one.

Now, maybe it will turn out that these Frozen Shadows are part of a larger organization with all sorts of schemes that involve Minkai, and we'll eventually want to go there.... But at this exact moment, the GM is saying the story is stalled because we don't want to go there already. And until we start hunting down a guide for a trip none of us have even considered taking, the plot can't advance.

What's up, folks? Are the PCs supposed to start Book 2 already eager for a trip to Tian Xia? If so, where does the idea come from? None of the NPCs have mentioned it to us, and we've gone back and double-checked with everyone we can think of to see if we missed something.

Addendum: As players, we're not trying to be difficult. We know the Adventure Path is supposed to go there. And we're trying our best to find some reason, some clue or hint SOMEWHERE, that will suggest to our PCs that a tip to Minkai might be a good idea. But so far, we haven't found any.

Many martial classes have class feats available that mimic the fighter's built-in ability to make attacks of opportunity:

Monk 4 - Stand Still
Ranger 4 - Disrupt Prey
Barbarian 6 - Attack of Opp
Champion 6 - Attack of Opp

These are presented as feats, making them optional choices rather than inherent features of the class... but are they? Is the ability to make AOOs so important that every martial character should always take it?

Our group—fairly experienced tabletop RPG players—is having great difficulty surviving any combats in 2E. We listen to each other, stay out of each other’s way, support each other when possible, etc., but the monsters regularly stomp all over us and the GM has to keep scaling down every encounter just to keep the game alive… and that’s after bumping us up a level above norm. (This is across several games, with several sets of different PCs.) Combats take forever, and no one’s having any fun because most of each session is wasted on boring, endless combats instead of an actual story.

When we look around for suggestions, we keep hearing “2E is a more tactical game.” “You need better tactics.” “Focus on your combat tactics and teamwork instead of just mindlessly pounding away.”

Okay; fine. But WHAT tactics?! We need some specifics here. We don’t want to become combat experts here (far from it--the last thing we want is to spend even more time on combat!), but we’re looking for more than just vague terms like “action denial.”

So let’s set some baseline rules to operate from.

Rule 1: 2E monsters hit much harder and more effectively than the PCs. They have better AC and hit points, too. In the long run, blow for blow, the monsters will win.

Rule 2: Action economy matters. Denying a monster an action is great, unless it costs you the same number of actions (or more, in the case of spellcasters). Losing an attack to deny the monster an attack is a bad bargain because it just prolongs the fight… and in the long run, the monsters will win.

So for a suggested tactic like "Just keep focusing on in-combat healing," we refer back to Rule 1. In the long run, that favors the monsters. And for suggestions like "Cast a spell to Daze somebody," we point to Rule 2; this is a bad tradeoff that just prolongs the fight.

Here are our group’s already known and practiced tactics:

• *Stay out of each other’s AOE spells.
  
• *Provide flanking when possible.
  
• *If someone has a simple or repeatable buff effect (such as Inspire Courage or Bless), cast it.

And our corresponding hard-earned lessons learned:

• *Don’t expect enemies to fail saves.
  
• *Don’t waste time on knowledge, deception, or Seek checks; the DCs are too high.
  
• *Everyone needs the Medicine skill for Battle Medicine.
  
• *Aid Another is a trap.
  
• *Don’t bother with actions like Intimidate; the DCs are too high and they do nothing.

So: Can anyone give examples of specific actions in combat beyond the basic attacks that will help a group survive, and even win occasionally, in a 2E fight? I know it’s easiest to give advice for a specific party composition, but this seems to happen with any party we play, regardless of makeup or level.

Our dedicated party healer's strategy is to hang back and use Electric Arc on lower-level foes until someone's badly hurt. Then she moves forward to bring her main abilities to bear, putting the frontliners back in action with the appropriate single- or multi-action heal effect (and often getting blasted herself in the process).

But she can't keep pace with the damage the frontliners are taking, even though she's taken every Cleric feat, spell, and feature she can find that seems to support healing (including Battle Medicine and all the related Medic archetype stuff). And it's not just the frontliners; AOEs are destroying this level 7 party on a regular basis too. Any suggestions?

Compared to 1st edition, what is a good focus for a 2E wizard in an adventuring party? Taking on bosses is out, because range is gone and bosses don't fail saves any more. Defensive and offensive buffs have largely disappeared or dwindled in duration to nearly zero. More types of enemies are vulnerable to more types of spell effects (enchantment, mental, etc.), but the fact that save DCs remain fixed means you're still not going to have an impact using offensive spells in combat.

"Battlefield control" doesn't seem to exist any more, and summoning is still more of a headache than it's worth. Maybe AOEs vs. large numbers of low-level thugs could still be an option? It seems kind of dull to just load up on Fireballs and Magic Missiles every day, though. Former transport and utility winners like Teleport and Invisibility aren't reliable either. I'm kind of stumped for a good, fun niche for a 2E wizard to occupy.

Our 6-person party includes 2 melee, an arcane caster, a healer, a skills/skirmisher type... and the Bard in the Next Room.

This is his only tactic, and he uses it in every combat. He follows 30' behind the party everywhere they go and never enters the room that the rest of them enter, under any circumstances. He's always at least 40-60 feet away. When combat occurs, he spends each round doing Inspire Courage, sometimes mixing it up with a doubled-up performance for an added perk (such as an AC boost) or slowly moving in a bit for a ranged heal via Soothe, then moving back out. But that's his only action each turn; look up for a moment to say "Same thing; I make sure I'm out of line-of-sight, repeat Inspire Courage, done." He has never made an attack roll. He has never taken a point of damage.

Now, obviously, this tactic works great for him. He doesn't have to do much, and his character is completely safe. And to be fair, a reliable to-hit and damage bonus in combat is wonderful, especially in 2nd edition where every +1 counts. But is that really making good use of a bard's abilities? Are there other things he could be doing that would be more beneficial than a consistent +2 hit/damage and occasional backup heal?

Compared to Pathfinder 1st Edition, does 2E combat take up less game time, or more? I'm not asking about in-game duration in rounds, I'm talking about minutes/hours of play time spent on combat.

Our GM is letting us revise our Level 3 characters for more effectiveness, provided that we
*Stick to the Core Rulebook only,
*Don’t take any archetypes, and
*Use only our existing money.
So getting magic weapons is out. Any suggestions for my level 3 champion of Erastil and wannabe archer? The 'champion of Erastil' is the core of the concept and will remain the same.

Lawson
Champion (Paladin) 3
Versatile Human
Background: Bounty Hunter
LG (Erastil)
STR: 14
DEX: 14
CON: 14
INT: 10
WIS: 14
CHA: 12
AC (Hide Armor + Steel Shield, trained, +2 Dex =) 20, or 22 with shield raised
HP total: 47
Per(t) +7
Saves Fort(e) +9 Ref(t) +7 Will(e) +9
Speed 30’

Skills
Athletics(t) +7
Medicine(e) +9
Nature(t) +7
Religion(t) +7
Legal Lore(t) +5
Scouting Lore(t) +5
Survival(t) +7

Feats
Ancestral: Versatile Human (Fleet), Cooperative
Class: 1-Ranged Reprisal, 2-Divine Grace, 3-Weapon Ally
General: Toughness
Bonus: Shield Block
Skill: Experienced Tracker (survival), Battle Medicine (medicine)

Equipment
Hide Armor, Steel Shield, Shortbow + 40 arrows, Longsword + sheath, Light Hammer
Adventurer’s Pack, Holy Symbol, Wayfinder, Climbing Kit, Winter Clothes
1 Holy Water, 1 Minor Healing potion
26 gp, 8 sp

Typical Attacks
Melee: Longsword +7, 1d8+2 slashing
Ranged: Shortbow +7, 1d6 piercing

Our four-person party, currently level 4, includes a ranger, investigator, and bard, all of whom routinely need to make Recall Knowledge checks on foes and who regularly fail them. (Nobody expects the paladin to know stuff.) The most common result of a Recall Knowledge check is a wasted action.

We need suggestions on improving the odds of making successful knowledge checks. One obvious tip is "improve your proficiency with the relevant skill," but there are at least six regularly rolled skills for identifying creatures (Arcana, Crafting, Nature, Occultism, Religion, Society) plus a wide spectrum of Lore skills that nobody could hope to cover. That's a pretty tall order for any character.

What else is available?

We've got a 4-person party at level 4 preparing to face down the 'final boss' in the basement of the Dreaming Palace, and their gear is looking pretty darn weak. Here's the complete list:

*Two +1 to-hit melee weapons (no damage bonus, just +1 to hit)
*Silver weapon
*Everburning torch
*Bag of holding
*Assortment of scrolls and potions with irrelevant effects^

^The exception being a few healing potions, which were of course gobbled up in the very next fight if not immediately

And that's it. As I said--pretty darn weak for a level 4 party. On average, each PC has one level 2 permanent item and one level 1 useless--sorry, "consumable" item. That's all they've found. Where's the treasure in this AP?

Now, I'm not talking about gear purchased with gold. I know Agents of Edgewatch has an issue with gold being tied to graft and corruption, and for what it's worth this game group agrees that they're playing cops, not crooks. They don't confiscate the property of people they arrest (it's usually evidence anyway); they only 'loot' the lairs of unintelligent monsters. But that's a separate issue.

I'm asking about actual found (not purchased, found) treasure. The PCs have found a few level 1-2 items, and then.... nothing. No cloaks or rings or magic armor, no damage-boosting weapons or wands, nada. And they're level 4, about to face the end boss with the pitiful gear assortment you see listed above. If nothing else, their damage output is limited to d8+3/4 weapons (+1 with Bard Song!) and an Electric Arc cantrip. What's going on?

A player in one of our recent Org Play sessions pointed out that the Society motto should be updated to "explore, report, and never cooperate because it's fatal."

Thanks to 2nd Edition mechanics, Aid Another now has a DC of 20, which means that starting (low-level) agents will fail a lot more than they succeed if they try to work together. And thanks to the critical failure mechanic, an attempt to assist your teammates can actually do more harm than good--up to and including (in the case of Medicine) killing them! (This is in addition to any per-scenario mechanic of taking away success points for a story goal, mind you.)

So really, newly minted graduates of the Grand Lodge should have it drummed into their heads that they're expected to be solo specialists in their field, but to never try to come to each other's assistance. Cooperation is a bad idea, with the worst outcomes being most frequent at level 1, where beginning players start. I'm sure this wasn't the design goal, but that's how it comes across.

Any thoughts on this?

So our rookie cops (2 martials, 1 ranged, 1 caster) are sent into the Knight’s Menagerie at the Radiant Festival to recapture some escaped animals. We’re peacekeepers, and we’re encouraged to look for ways to capture and contain our targets non-lethally, which the Player’s Guide emphasized. We certainly made characters with that in mind, and the initial bar fight bore that out. Should be interesting!

We wrangle a surprisingly dangerous cockatrice, but manage to overcome its deadly attacks with some difficulty and some clever tactics. A tough fight, but okay.

Then we move on to some noise in the forge. A rust monster? Really? It trashes essential gear for half the party, and its free incidental AOO alone can take down a PC with a single casual swipe. Holy cow, these things are deadly! Maybe we should skip the cute lure-and-trap ideas and just focus on putting these beasts down…

And over here is… WTF? An owlbear? We’re level 1 here! This is crazy! And there’s no clever tactics option, it’s just a straight-out smackdown against something that’s way above our weight class. “Holy crap, this thing’s got a +11 attack bonus!” one player pointed out, courtesy of Roll20's chat log. We checked; yep, +11. That’s insane. That’s roughly twice the attack bonus of a PC. We looked at the previous critters; they had the same +11, and similarly super-high ACs and save bonuses. What was going on here? Why were level 1 characters fighting level 3 or 4 monsters—a whole string of them?

More and more deadly monsters kept coming, each of them easily capable of tearing us to shreds in short order. All with that absurd +11 attack bonus, ensuring that they never, ever missed. All of their abilities were well above anything a level 1 PC could counter, and forget trying to figure out any tactics: Recall Knowledge of 16? “You fail and know nothing about this.”

We quickly realized that “critical success” was a rule that existed only for the monsters’ benefit, not ours. We’d never be able to roll 10 higher than the target DC for anything-—not a Recall Knowledge check, not a poison/acid save, and certainly never an enemy AC. The highest number any level 1 PC could theoretically roll was 26; these monsters were way out of that league. At one point, I even heard the dreaded phrase that had convinced me to walk away from PFS Organized Play tables: “Might as well take all three attacks; my only hope is a nat 20 anyway.”

No doubt about it: It was going to be a loooong session, and all of it was going to be nothing but combat. No diplomacy, no investigation, no story; just an aboveground dungeon-crawl, slogging from one bloody and hopeless fight to the next.

So the mood shifted. The laughter and clever strategies died out, as did any attempts to do nonlethal damage or capture the creatures unharmed. An NPC tried to babble something at us about the ringmaster and the zoo vet at one point, but we were too beaten and bloody to care by then. And what difference did it make, really? What’s the next death-dealing monstrosity headed our way?

The pattern repeated: monster takes three strikes, all of them hitting, often with a crit thrown in. By the end of the first round, one or maybe two of the martials have dropped (if not by Round 1, then definitely by Round 2). The martials had made as many desperate attacks as possible during the brief seconds they were conscious in hopes of dealing at least a little damage, because why waste actions on anything else? The other two PCs then scramble desperately trying to stabilize them with no viable healing options (Medicine was used up long ago), and the GM looks for ways to be lenient and allow them extra actions, time, or other leeway to avoid a TPK… again. Between fights, we pool our gold to see if we can afford to go buy some potions or scrolls or some sort of healing, because Medicine has a cooldown.

Water snake. Ankhrav. Almiraj. This isn’t a wacky zoo escape; it’s Jurassic Park, and the PCs are in an exhaustive, brutal struggle for their very survival. The frustrated players aren’t even considering capture anymore; every battle ends with the terrifying monsters chopped into pieces, and often ground viciously into the dirt afterward. “Screw taking them alive!” snarls one player. “These killers aren’t going to threaten anyone ever again, even if I have to burn this whole place to the ground.”

At the end, the GM feebly announces we’ve leveled up to 2(!) and reminds us that we can redesign our characters if we want. One of the martial PC players declares he’ll drop his roleplay-friendly concept and try to come back with something ‘a bit deadlier,’ looking into ways to make a more efficient killing machine. The caster says he’s rethinking the myth that 2E parties don’t require a dedicated healer. Another player’s unsure if he even wants to continue with 2E at all. Nobody discusses the story, because there wasn’t any.

And I’m left wondering how this outcome lines up with what the designers of Agents of Edgewatch wanted to accomplish with their ‘nonlethal peacekeepers and agents of justice’ adventure path.

Does anyone know of any spells that are especially effective vs. constructs (not golems, of course--just constructs)? I'm not talking about "constructs have a bad Reflex save, so use AOEs or Create Pit." Rather, I'm looking for spells that specifically deal damage to objects and structures, while doing less harm (or none at all) to living creatures. The only one that comes to mind is Shatter, and that doesn't seem to qualify because most constructs aren't 'crystalline.'

Something like a magnetic pulse vs. clockworks would be ideal, or some sort of vibrational attack that deals extra damage to inorganic materials. Any suggestions welcome.

So in first edition Pathfinder, our group tried to figure out why a magic staff was so massively expensive. It is, essentially, a drastically lower-capacity wand that you can (very, very gradually) recharge at the rate of one charge/day, and only by robbing yourself of one of your own spell slots. Sure, it's rechargeable--but is going green really worth that much of an upcharge, compared to just buying a scroll for the same result (one use, fixed caster level)?

Eventually we decided it was an easy way to transfer massive amounts of wealth around Golarion's screwy economy; supposedly 'brilliant' wizards were shelling out huge quantities of gold for the sheer social status of carrying around a big useless chunk of wood.

(break)

But no matter! Now we're looking at Second Edition, and things seem a bit brighter. A staff is a still a bigger, heavier wand with much lower capacity (no, strike that, wands only have one charge now). And a staff still gets used up in two or three casts... but now you get its meager charges for FREE at the start of each day, based on your highest available spell level. Okay, not so bad. Certainly it's still not worth a dump truck full of money, but that's somewhat useful.

And what's this? Prepared casters can even boost that number of charges by sacrificing one of their daily spells. An optional addition to the arsenal on any given day. Seems nice, and perfectly fair. Then we come to spontane--

Uhh, what? What the flying flumph is this? Spontaneous casters can... cast one of their spells using their spell slots, and choose to expend a charge from the staff at the same time. To no apparent effect. Because they get the exact same-level spell and spell effect, just as if they'd cast it without the staff.

So how is this helpful? You're still spending your spell slot, and you're getting nothing in return but lost charges from a staff that hasn't aided you. Why don't we run the AC and the heater with the windows down while we're at it? Please tell me they're giving away magic staves for free in cereal boxes now.....

Where can I find the list of 2E quests and scenarios that are replayable? I can't figure out how to filter/configure a search for that.

I've got a very small home group (three players) about to start Curse of the Crimson Throne, and they want a suitable GMPC to be a fourth party member.

The PCs are a ranger (melee focused), paladin (half-orc redeemer), and bard (buffer). What would be a good addition to this mix for a fourth?

Basically I'm looking for mithral-equivalent dragonhide--a Medium breastplate that could count as Light with the right material.

I've got a large-size group (7 players plus me, the GM) that's about level 10. They'd love to do a level-appropriate scenario or module with LOTS of undead. Any recommendations?

It seems like a lot of creatures are flat-out immune to spells of the Enchantment school, especially at higher levels. Are there any ways to make an enchanter wizard (or bard) more viable in PFS-legal games?

I'm not talking about boosting save DCs or increasing Charisma; I mean dealing with enemies who simply ignore anything Enchantment-based.

Has anyone else gamed with someone and started to suspect they have a personal problem, or even a psychological condition, based on how their PCs act? Not how the player acts sitting around the table, but just the actions of their PCs?

My example: A friend of several years who's laid-back and funny, always fun to hang around with. But his PCs are, without exception, always absolutely furious. Every character he plays is seething with rage and eagerly advocates torture, mutilation, and vicious murder wherever possible. They're always boiling over with hate. But I must emphasize: this is ONLY when he's roleplaying. Outside the game, he's his same old self.

And it has me wondering if something is bothering the player.

My home group is going through Rise of the Runelords, and they've decided that an invading army is something best met with a horde of paid mercenaries, which they'll stay home and direct via messenger. They're around level 10, so they've got a good amount of GP--but needless to say, this doesn't fit the fantasy-hero tone and would be a huge waste of game time.

Any suggestions on how to derail this plan and get them back to tackling their problems personally? (I've also got a wizard PC who's determined to hire one or more 'shieldmen' to stand between him and any attackers because he can't be bothered to cast defensive spells, but that's another story.)

My home group wants to fight some undead... has anything been published that takes place in Geb, other than You Only Die Twice? Something around 9-11 would be ideal, maybe involving Arazni.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to play a character with high Int and Wis who is still Chaotic Neutral?

It's easy (VERY easy) to play a CN character who's silly, crazy, psychotic, shortsighted, fractured, fanatical, impetuous, or otherwise mentally impaired... but is there a personality that can be thoughtful and insightful, and yet still manage to be Chaotic Neutral?

Are there any rules to determine how much farmland/how many farms are needed to support a town? Assume a town of about 1500 people with good access to land and sea travel routes, so it doesn't have to be 100% self-sustaining.

A paladin in my home game is getting a cohort via Leadership, so I need to make up a level 7 human fighter with the Crossbowman archetype. Any suggested feats or equipment assuming a 20-point buy and average character wealth?

Has anyone come across any ways to restrict or modify how Leadership works that still allows the PC to have a sidekick? I've got a paladin player in my Core home game who's been excited about getting an assistant adventurer (i.e., cohort) since level 3, and he's about to take the feat at level 9.

I don't want to ban Leadership outright, but I do want to make it playable. Some suggestions I've seen are to allow a cohort but not followers; forbid the cohort from crafting; ensure that the cohort can never take Leadership himself; etc.

Suggestions?

Any suggestions for ways to boost the AC of a TWF Fighter (half-elf, level 10) that do not involve multiclassing?

Like all gaming groups, mine has frequent scheduling problems. At times, we have to go with whoever's available and leave out one or two PCs whose players can't make it that day. No big deal.

Howeverrr..... last time we stopped in mid-story (Scenario 1.50, Fortune's Blight), and the two missing players will be able to attend the next session! How have you handled the addition of 'missing' PCs mid-story in your games? It's not like the Grand Lodge has a teleport booth.

So a wizard in my home group is multiclassing into Monk for a few levels ("Hey, no armor = no armor"), with the goal of delivering a few karate chops to the bad guys when he's out of spells (which is often).

Any suggestions on feats, gear, skills, etc.?

Is there any reason a one-armed monk can't deliver an armed Flurry of Blows with a monk weapon? He can obviously do the unarmed version.

What's a suitable class to join an existing low-level party of Ranger, Rogue, Shaman, and Summoner in an urban setting? (No Occult classes.)

My home-game group has grown to seven players, and I'm looking for the best way to keep things balanced.

Most scenarios are written for a party of four, and the encounters tend to focus on a single bad guy. I don't want to just switch to a higher-CR villain, because the PCs won't be able to affect him or survive his attacks. Plus, I want to make sure everybody has something to do.

Is the best solution just adding in some more lower-level opponents to each combat?

I'm running a group through Book 3, the Hook Mountain Massacre. The party is at Part 2, Retaking Fort Rannick. But I haven't found any clues or links that will eventually point them to the clanhold on top of the mountain (part 5). Once they've dealt with the flood and maybe checked out the Shimmerglen story, they'll have no reason not to return home, satisfied with a job well done.

Where's the link to the Clanhold?

Do the Riftwardens include any non-spellcasters? I have a monk in the service of Alseta who'd be interested in helping to guard or close down planar breaches.

What approach to combat tactics and style would work best for a halfling monk?

I'm making a human magus for my group, and he'll have to be the tank. Any build suggestions?

(Yes, "Don't do it," very funny, ha ha. Moving on.....)

I need a list of names for a Chelaxian diplomatic reception. (The guests are Tien, but I've got names for that party.) Can anyone recommend some pronounceable Chelaxian names, or a source for generating NPC names of that culture/ethnicity?

Our group has only tried using Dispel Magic a handful of times, and we quickly gave up on it as a wasted spell slot. Since the enemy caster is always several levels higher than ours (usually 5 or more), a straight CL-vs-CL check (with no way to boost it) generally results in failure.

Has anyone else had a better experience with Dispel? or is it truly a waste of time?

My group's been playing Pathfinder for about four years now, and we've run across our first staff in the treasure. After reading through the rules on how staves work, the consensus was immediate: "Wow, these are completely worthless!" (language cleaned up for forum audiences)

Tell me... what are we missing? They hold ten charges, most of their effects cost multiple charges to activate (i.e., you burn through it in less than a day), and you can only restore one charge per day. And the prices are insane! How are they better than buying scrolls of the appropriate spell, exactly? Yes, they operate at the wielder's caster level rather than the item's... which is a step DOWN more often than not.

We're just not seeing the appeal of carrying around something as fantasy-iconic as a wizard's staff, and that's a shame.

I'm looking for ways to boost a character's Perform(Dance) skill. I know about ioun stones to add to Cha-based skill checks, and the reliable Headband of Charisma Boosting.... but is there any mundane equipment for dancers that's the equivalent of a masterwork instrument?

Does anyone know which scenarios feature Zarta Dralneen, her falling-out with Cheliax, the kidnapping, etc.? My group would like to see her story.

A player in my group is doing an elf ranger and wants to specialize in the heavy crossbow. What feats would work best for this?

Note: Saying "Don't" or "He's an idiot" is not helpful.

Our group is planing to take up an Adventure Path and looking for recommendations on which one offers the most roleplaying opportunities. Any favorites?