Iggy Toymaker's page

The tumor 'transforms' from a tumor into a blob of flesh resembling a creature.. it isn't actually a creature at all. The thing merges and unmerges with the Alchemist on a regular basis. There is nothing to suggest that it always has to remain the same.

I agree that the text here is very vague and doesn't really say one way or the other if the tumor is a fixed creature or not.

As a standard action, the alchemist can have the tumor detach itself from his body as a separate creature vaguely resembling a kind of animal suitable for a familiar (bat, cat, and so on)

My read of this suggests that the 'creature' is created as a standard action.. which means that potentially it is created every time it is released... from like the goop of the tumor. Honestly, this is very potent since, as the original poster suggests, you could have quite a wide variety of bonuses. The text also doesn't suggest when the bonuses change and it does say that the bonuses are retained even after the tumor is reabsorbed... which gets pretty wonky if you can change it.

I would suggest some clarification text be added to the description of this ability.
The creature type, once selected, cannot be changed.
Or something like that.

Personally, I'm not the sort of Alchemist to dabble in this sort if shenanigans.. mutating one's self for sport... eww..
Anyway...

Fourth : to be honest to RL history, very few pirates actually "volunteered" for piracy, but were indicted/pressed into crews out of their merchant vessels (yes, even captains like Bartholomew Rodgers. He got pressed, because he was a master's mate and capable of navigation ). Even fewer contemporary rulers cared. Once you took part in piracy, it was VERY hard to ever get rid of the blame, unless one got a rare offer of a general amnesty. The PC might not wish to be a pirate, but he/she has plundered and pillaged under Harrigan, and yes, that has made him a pirate. I don't really see PCs getting rid of such stigmata through an appellate court. Looking at history, they dangled from yardarms, gibbets or gallows first, however innocent and pressed they...

By the same token, in a world like Golarion, just leaving the area of the Shackles probably would be enough to leave whatever supposed connection to piracy you might have had behind you forever. Once clear of the ports there would be nobody who could tie you to those activities... well.. unless some very specific divination spells were cast.. and then someone would have to have a reason to cast them.

At this point.. coming up with a good motivation to NOT leave them at the first opportunity is really my goal.

My backstory is pretty light but falls in along the lines of what BzAli was suggesting... he's a Catfolk barbarian wanderer from the hills of Andoran who has seen a bit of the world and has come to explore the Shackles because of what he's heard of it's rich history and mysterious islands. He's an NG follower of Sinashakti. I have the Ancient Explorer trait and have focused his background around being that sort of fellow. As such, finding a new path really just helps him along to his goals... unless there is some reason to stay on the ship with these, mostly trustworthy fellows.
He could care less about 'saving the world' or anything like that.. but he has no interest in benefiting at the expense of others, loot, plunder, fame or anything like that.

Hrm.

From the getgo I felt like traveling the seas on a ship would fit well with this guy, seeing sights and wonders... learning rare and exotic things.... that was what I figured the 'hook' would be for him. But when faced with becoming a 'bad guy' to do this.. and having the chance to go another way with relatively little effort.. I'm not sure why he wouldn't.

Personally I have no desire to play an evil character at all.. so unless I can figure a way to make it work with a good(ish) character without the GM having to rewrite the AP.. I'll probably bail.
I really wasn't aware when I signed up that it was going to be an evil game.

I don't think anyone is talking about introducing a LG paladin here, but that doesn't mean that some of the players are not CG and have fallen into a life that they have not chosen. Fictionally, that made for some of the best scripts for pirates anyway. The challenge is always in book 2 to make the transition from being freed from captivity to being full fledged pirated themselves. The players were aware this is a pirate campaign so it is not like they intend to go back to their old way of life, but that doesn't mean their characters know that yet. But they are adventurers and that should motivate them to continue down the only path they have available to them. Sorry, but I don't want to run an AP that requires that the characters be evil. I don't mind a mix of good and neutral, but I don't run evil characters, that is just me. I struggled for several months about even getting this AP until I could see whether it could be played for good characters or at least some of them. I don't even run a campaign in Golarion so I am adapting this area to fit into my world.

I have to agree with you on this.

It 'seems' like good/honorable/honest characters can put up with this AP as long as there is enough story to basically force them to stay on the ship. Initially, my character was forced to bide his time, there was no way he could stand up to all those pirates and escape. At this point, the crew are people he has come to trust with his back, much like any adventuring party. There will be pressure from the 'crew' to do whatever (probably some sort of illegal activity.. although some of them were honest men forced into service).. but we are in charge of the ship.
I don't know what goals there are out there on those islands that might keep a man on board a boat despite his better judgement... but it doesn't seem like that big a stretch to come up with something.

My character had no issues in the AP right up until they went to refit the ship. Now... well... unless I can tweak his background for him to be on the run or something... I guess I'll have to bail on the AP.

Honestly, based on the setup, it makes no sense for them to 'want to be pirates'. They get enslaved and forced to become pirates.. why would they stay with that trade? The setup seems poor if that is the intention... why wouldn't they just get recruited or have some sort of normal background where they end up following the path that they have chosen for their lives?
The background pretty much calls for them being off-kilter in the environment and wanting to 'get away' from the evil pirates have forced them into servitude.

Our group seems to feel that internal squabbling over motivations will be counterproductive to play. Plus I'm not really sure why a 'good' character wouldn't (A) Try and return the Man's Promise at the first opportunity. (B) Try and get off the boat and go on with their lives as soon as possible... which is pretty much right after the Plugg and his buddies are put down like the dogs they are.

My group has run into the same moral issues that some of you also seem to be finding. My character in particular is an NG wanderer who was in the shackles to explore the wonders of the islands. Next thing he knew he was shanghaied and forced into service on the pirate ship. All this was fine when he couldn't do anything about it and was just waiting for his opportunity to escape to freedom, but now that they have taken the ship he suddenly finds that the others who were captured with him really just seem to have been waiting in Port Peril for the chance to be 'recruited' as pirates. I'm not sure this makes a whole lot of sense motivation wise.

At this point he wants to return the captured ship to it's owners... (several of the crew are from that ship anyway) ...and be a hero.

I'm not sure where this is going... but it doesn't seem 'good' or 'right'. Is this AP without heroism?

You can build a bomb focused Alchemist with all their feats, discoveries, and abilities focused on making their bombs better... it's not that bad but it'd be cooler if there were an archetype that fit with a nonmagical bomber... it seems very possible within the structure of the world. I'm hopeful that they may at some point create one.

The idea is generally to ditch all the alchemist stuff except the bombs ... a rogue archetype that did traps and bombs would be cool too... perhaps in place of sneak attack.

It would be nice if there was a Gunslinger archetype that got Alchemist 'Bombs' in place of his 'Deeds' or something...

That still isn't official PFS rules... can anyone post a link to the official rules for this? Particularly as they relate to PATHFINDER SOCIETY ORGANIZED PLAY?
(of course some joker has now moved this thread OUT of PFS discussion so it is now blasting into areas where people don't care about the specifics of PFS play... how annoying for everyone)

There is no rules forum for the PFS... this is a question about PFS rules. PFS rules are supposed to be specific and consistent.

There are no official rules for this? I mean seriously? What is more common than throwing a rock? I know I got in trouble for it when I was 5... didn't everyone?

How do you figure how much damage a regular thrown rock does?
I have 'Thrown Anything' so I can throw a fist sized rock without much trouble... but I'm not sure how much damage it would do under PFS rules.
Can someone point me at the actual rules for it? I assume they are improvised weapons...

Oh yes.. and I'm a Dwarf, therefore medium sized.

I ask about the PFS rules because they are somewhat more specific than regular PF RPG rules.

Does it do sling damage with a shorter range?
I know I can throw a baseball pretty far and pretty hard... rocks are a bit harder... at range the damage probably drops off a bit.

This does seem to be a particular problem for Alchemists. Is there a clever way for them to use an extract and throw a bomb in the same round?

It seems pretty complicated...
for the extract...

An Alchemist can draw and drink an extract as a standard action.

for the bomb...

Drawing the components of, creating, and throwing a bomb requires a standard action that provokes an attack of opportunity.

You do have a 'move action' left in the round you throw the bomb.. so theoretically.. since drinking a potion is a move action.. if you 'draw' on the round before... you could drink extract... draw, create, and throw bomb... assuming you do all that after you drop the extract bottle.

OP? Sorry.. what does that mean?

Eh? Yeah.. I'm looking for a PFS build.

Is there a way to build a gunslinger without a gun? or does that totally hose the class... hmmm...

It's not so much about 'dislike' as they don't actually fit with the character type... I'm really looking at more of a fighter with bombs... essentially a gunslinger with bombs instead of guns... a master of throwing stuff that goes boom... probably good at building and disabling things as well.
Most of the non-alchemist builds I've tried just don't have the firepower. Grenadier is a step in the right direction.. (ditches poison for a couple of bomb effects) but, in PFS, loses his extra bombs and keeps his chemicals. It seems like, in a world where black powder characters exist... a black powder bomber is a natural.

Hrm. Thanks for the suggestion. Really trying to go PFS here though. :(

I actually looked at doing it with a fighter 'bought' stuff and a focus on throwing.. but it gets really expensive in terms of uses per day...
and still the bombs aren't as good as alchemist bombs.

Yeah.. but your bombs are nowhere near as good as a straight alchemist. Bah. Magic is for sissies. Black Powder and Traps.. all the way!

I've looked at multiclass with gunslinger, ranger, rogue, fighter... straight alchemist gets the bomb piece.. but I could really care less about the other 'magic' poop. I want to work with the Black Powder.. not a bunch of magical hoopla.

I'm working on a psionics themed game using the fantastic Dreamscarred Press products, and borrowing a bit from old AD&D lore. I have a basic outline on the story and setting but could use a few suggestions to make it more interesting.

Here's the basic outline for the setting. Years ago (I haven't set an exact time frame yet) an Illithid Dreadnought spelljamming ship (with illithids replaced by phrenic scourge and friends) was carrying a large supply of slaves of various races to an outpost when it was attacked by Automatons (constructs created to defeat the phrenic hedgemony in psionic bestiary). The dreadnought crashed on a barely habitable world where the survivors of the crash spread out and multiplied, populating the world (or at least part of it). A lone phrenic scourge survived the crash by placing itself into stasis, and has remained in stasis ever since.

The various races spread out, a few branching off and creating their own societies, some of the more tolerant races banded together and have built cities. The plan is for there to be no strong nations, just independant city states, this will be a points of light style world, where the world is extremely dangerous and populated by all kinds of psionic monsters and other dangers. Over the years the races have forgotten much of their history due to the need to overcome such extreme hardships, so there will be some lore letting them know that they are not originally from this world, but they won't have many details. Since their ancestors were enslaved and experimented on by the phrenic, they will have no knowledge of arcane or divine magic, or the gods, psionics will be the only source of power.

At some point the players will be lead to the crash site and will explore it and it's surroundings (I'll be building that up into a sort of super-dungeon crawl). While exploring the crash they will discover the lone survivor and "accidentally" release it from stasis. It will then escape, and start implanting various humanoids who will grow into a sizable force of the various types of phrenic. The players will have to stop the phrenic from spreading and taking over.

I thought I might kick the game off by having a force of goblins, lead by a blue, stumble across some phrenic based psionic technology that is above the level of what is normally available and start causing problems. But I'd like to use something a little more creative than the stereo typical goblin activity to start things off.

So what do you think? Have any suggestions for ways to make things more interesting?

I'm getting ready to start a game based in Osirion around -3000ar. According to the timeline in the Inner Sea World Guide these are the gods that would be alive during that time frame.

Abadar, Asmodeus, Calistria, Desna, Erastil, Gorum, Gozreh, Lamashtu, Nethys, Pharasma, Rovagug, Sarenrae, Shelyn, Torag, Urgathoa and Zon-Kuthon

First, can anyone who's more familiar with the lore confirm that this is correct?

Second, this time frame would fall in the bronze age, but Abadar, Gorum, and Shelyn have favored weapons that do not exist in the bronze age. Light crossbows won't be invented for a few thousand years, and great swords and glaives are too big to be made out of bronze.

Now the glaive can be easily replaced with the rhomphaia, which is a fairly close counterpart. But not I'm not sure what to replace the light crossbow or great sword with.

Any suggestions?