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Hi All, This question was posed to me the other day, and while my default assumption is 'no, probably not', there are a lot of good deities and there could be one that's particularly pragmatic about it, even if they would never condone it. Any thoughts?
With Crypt of the Everflame, Masks Of The Living God and City Of Golden Death all being included on the latest humble bundle, now felt like a good time to ask for this series of modules to be set up for play in campaign mode. I've only got two brief arguments for this, but they are:
Hi all, The question of the interaction between these abilities has come up for a player at our local PFS lodge, and there is some disagreement among the GMs there as to how it should be ruled, thus I'm bringing it here. Abilities in question
Elemental Spell (Metamagic Feat):
You can manipulate the elemental nature of your spells.
Benefit: Choose one energy type: acid, cold, electricity, or fire. You may replace a spell's normal damage with that energy type or split the spell's damage, so that half is of that energy type and half is of its normal type. An elemental spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level. Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Each time you must choose a different energy type. Admixture School - Versatile Evocation (Wizard Class Feature):
When you cast an evocation spell that does acid, cold, electricity, or fire damage, you may change the damage dealt to one of the other four energy types. This changes the descriptor of the spell to match the new energy type. Any non-damaging effects remain unchanged unless the new energy type invalidates them (an ice storm that deals fire damage might still provide a penalty on Perception checks due to smoke, but it would not create difficult terrain). Such effects are subject to GM discretion. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier. The character in question has a sorcerer level with the draconic bloodline (white) to increase the damage of his cold spells. Bloodline Arcana:
Whenever you cast a spell with an energy descriptor that matches your draconic bloodline's energy type, that spell deals +1 point of damage per die rolled. Using magic missile as an example (an evocation spell with the [force] descriptor)
Are there any reasons that this interaction doesn't line up with the RAW and should be disallowed at a PFS table?
Hi All, When using monstrous physique II to take the form of a Vouivre, is all of your gear assumed to be at the creature's humanoid end? If so, would this allow manufactured weapon attacks from the humanoid end and all 5 natural attacks from the dragon end, or should it be assumed manufactured weapon attacks would have to be used at the dragon end, replacing the claw attacks?
Hi All, Whist others may be dealing with the Sky Key and trying their darndest against the Aspis, I coordinate for a for a group of pathfinders still dealing with the shenanigans of the Shadow Lodge and solving the mysteries of the Hao Jin Tapestry. We jumped into organised play after the rules change that made faction missions something that could be used to add additional narrative, but now provide little, if any, mechanical benefit. I'm 100% on board with everyone playing towards the same objective, but the consequence it has had on these early scenarios is that factions means almost nothing to my local players, apart from a couple that make use of the faction journal cards. Would it be detrimental to the campaign if the 2nd prestige condition was to complete either the secondary objective or your faction mission? Naturally, this would make earning 2 PP easier, but might help bring factions more central to the plot. I could see the factions of then being different from the factions of now causing an issue (handing Andoran faction missions to Silver Crusaders has felt dodge on a couple of occasions), so while I'm not totally convinced by my own suggestion, I thought it was still worth putting out there. Are there any lodges out there battling through the past like ours that have been able to make factions feel relevant to their players? Have factions started to feel more relevant from season 5 onwards?
I'm thinking about picking up some of the Reaper Miniatures iconic metal minis for use at our local lodge for when players need or would like to play a pregenerated character. If time and money were limitless, I would like to have a mini for each of the pregens, for the sake of completion if nothing else. However I'll most likely be choosing the 6 pregens that are likely to see the most use & who contribute the most during PFS scenarios. So I thought the best thing to do would be try and create a team of 6 pregens that a effective at each level of play, so that there is always a pregen best able to fill any given role. My party of pregens so far is: Enora - Arcanist: Well built arcane caster, with access to all knowledge skills at 4th+.
I'm very curious to hear what others favourite pregens are, and why, and what your party of pregens would look like?
Hi All, One of the newer players in our lodge has been playing a Dual-Cursed Oracle with the heavens mystery and the misfortune revelation. I believe he has just reached 3rd level. He brought to my attention that he had made a mistake, and had taken the bonus spells from both dual cursed and heavens, and that character was supposed to use the awesome display revelation at 3rd level in conjunction with color spray (which is no longer avaliable as a spell). Fixing the character is easy, as we just removed color spray from the PCs spells known, however, the character will no longer work as intended. There are 2 options I can think of: Retraining
The PC cannot retrain their Mystery, as that isn't a retraining option avaliable in Ultimate Campaign. Just run with it
As always, any assistance is greatly appreciated.
Hi All, So attendance has been growing at my FLGS (Yay!), but with new players comes the need to have a variety of table levels available to play at, to help minimise the number of people playing a pregenerated character. In my experience so far, people would much rather play one of their own characters than a pregen, even if it means playing out of the subtier for the scenario. However, it is unfortunate when a player is forced into playing a pregen because they don't have a character that is legal within that tier, but is only a level away from the subtier. I don't enjoy explaining to players that they cannot play their level 2 in a subtier 3-4 scenario, but could play that character in a subtier 4-5 scenario. Alternatively, it is unfortunate when a player cannot complete a multi-part arc because they levelled up too highly to finish it with that same character (though I will admit this can be avoided most of the time thanks to the change in slow/fast track rules). My proposal is (in addition to making everything just that little bit more complicated), that an allowance is created for characters to be played out of tier, and at the end of a scenario, gold is awarded in a similar fashion to OOST gold, except the values for playing low or high are set values, averaged with the played subtier. Characters would still not be able to play more than one subtier from their current character level. Some examples: Tier 1-5
Tier 3-7
Tier 5-9
Tier 7-11
So, here is my hastily written & terribly put idea :)
I take it there wont be a quest like Fane of Fangs for occult adventures like there was with unchained. I'm tempted to run a session to showcase the new pregens and make people at my LGS aware of the new book launch. Are there any season 4+ scenarios that have an occult theme that might make for a good run for a party of 4-6 occult pregens?
Looking for some advice on this playtest character build for use in We Be Goblins Free! Too powerful, missing something, mistakes etc. I haven't done gear at this point, as a bit of time an imagination is necessary to write up those goblin inventory lists. I'm also missing a goblin song... I'll work on that later. Otherwise, I'm hoping the character will be as fun as any of the others in the module, and it should be a decent environment to test the Vigilante's social abilities (or better than MotFF at least).
As much as I like organised play, it can be a little too easy at times (though our lodge hasn't reached season 4 yet, I've heard exciting things). For a little fun, I thought I'd come up with some rules for home games of PFS to increase the challenge beyond that of the core campaign.
When calculating ability scores, no ability score can be higher than 15, or lower than 8 before racial modifiers. This restriction varies for certain classes.
Half-Elves: +2 to one ability score can only be used to improve Dexterity, Intelligence or Charisma Half-Orcs: +2 to one ability score can only be used to improve Strength, Constitution or Wisdom Humans: +2 to one ability score can only be used to improve an ability of 14 or lower
Cleric: The Travel domain is prohibited Druid: Must select one of the Cleric domains for its Nature Bond Fighter: Starting Strength may be 16 before racial modifiers Monk: Starting Strength, Dexterity and Wisdom may all be 16 before racial modifiers Rogue: Starting Dexterity may be 16 before racial modifiers
All characters must purchase a wayfinder as soon as they are able All chronicles and boons must have been earned by that character (no credit from pregens, GM credits, convention boons etc.) No free rerolls from organised play shirts or character folios
Hi All, Yesterday I ran a table of 'We Be Goblins Too' for five players, however, 3 of the players left part way through the module. I was rereading the guide to organised play to determine the correct XP, PP & Gold award for these players, and this line seems most appropriate.
Do I simply not assign credit or award chronicles to the players that had to leave early. If them's the breaks, then fine, but that doesn't sit quite right with me.
Characters used in this playtest can be found here: Character Sheets
1. Ravenous Dogs (CR 1):
Bukka won initiative and dispatch one of the dogs with a shortbow plus hidden strike (11 damage)
The two remaining dogs charged into combat, both failed to hit Hskori defeated one of the dogs (10 damage) Chankotu missed Duskade defeats one of the dogs with her greataxe (7 damage) The fight lasted one round, but this is just the warm-up 2. Spider’s Lair (CR 1):
Hskori and Bukka succeed the DC21 perception and notice the spider on the celling, getting to act in the surprise round.
Spider entangles Hskori with web Hskori bursts the web Bukka moves into the room Round 1 Duskade hits the spider with her short bow (4 damage) Spider descends and attacks Hskori, but misses Hskori power attacks, but misses. Bukka moves to flank with Hskori and bites with hidden strike (4 damage) Chankotu hits (11 damage) Combat over The players grappling hook up to the second floor. 3. Shocker Pet (CR 2):
Round 1 Chankotu casts light his Bardiche to see in the darkened room Bukka moves into the room and fires an arrow at the shocker lizard, but misses The shocker lizard approaches Bukka, who makes a successful saving throw against shock (1 damage) Duskade fires a shot, but misses Hskori moves to flank with Bukka, attacks, but misses Round 2
As everyone regroups, 2 young troglodytes burst in. Round 4
Combat over Bukka disable the javelin trap in room five Bukka picks the lock to room 7. 7. The Temple of Nethys (CR 1):
Fight against 2 burning skeletons. The players use stealth and secure a surprise round.
Hskori charges the nearby skeleton and hits (10 damage after DR) The other vigilantes move into the room behind Hskori. The remaining skeleton charges Hskori and threatens a crit but doesn’t confirm (1 damage, 6 fire damage) Hskori takes 4 damage from the fiery aura, leaving him on 0 hp. He readies a standard action to attack when flanking. Chankotu uses cure light wounds on Hskori (heals 5), and moves to flank. Hskori attacks (9 damage after DR) destroying the remaining skeleton. Combat over Duskade pockets the scrolls of Shatter and Shield Other
Alchemist fires are thrown against the bat swarm and a readily dispatched. Hskori does take 4 points of damage from the swarm, casuing Duskade to use infernal healing to bring her up to full hp. Hskori holds onto the potion of cure light wounds that was found. Up to the 4th floor, the fight on this floor against the giant frog is much of the same. One young trog fled upstairs after the first one was defeated and the other went for Tulok’s help. When Tulok joined the fight, he ate a colour spray along with the remaining trog, ending the fight. Balenar’s gear is returned to him and he joins the party and heals everybody’s wounds. 12. Top of the Tower (CR 3):
Using the scroll of invisibility cast by Balenar, Duskade scouts the room. Tasskar, Snapjaw & the remaining trog are ready, and waiting for the vigilantes at the eastern side of the room. Chankotu casts bless before the fight.
Surprise Round Duskade colour sprays Snapjaw & Tasskar, both fail their will saves. Tasskar is stunned and drops his scimitar, and Snapjaw is blinded and stunned for two rounds. Round 1
The vigilantes regroup on the ground floor, Tasskar has readied himself by summoning a spider swarm and a giant centipede. Balenar is using inspire courage as they approach the ground floor to re-join the fight. I have players reroll initiatives at this point. Round 2 (sort of)
Post-game thoughts
Hi All, I started knocking up four 1st level Vigilantes for the playtest. My original thread is here, on the PFS forums, but I thought it might be worthwhile to post it here as well in case it was of interest to anyone involved in the playtest that doesn't play PFS.
I'm hoping to run a few playtest sessions for the vigilante class, and in aid of this I've knocked up four level 1 pregens, one for each specialization, for use in PFS. They need some more work, but the meat is there so I thought I'd share anyway and hopefully get a bit of feedback: I've used one of each of the PFS legal non-core races for this for those interested in the noble art of grandfathering. I will also be looking to provide each character with some backstory, essential first purchases, and levelling suggestions. Any and all input is appreciated.
While I like the separation of the Vigilante into four different specializations thematically as a way to have traditional party of four filling each of the traditional roles, I feel that mechanically, it is unnecessarily restrictive to have a separate pool of talents based on specialization. The is no reason why Armor Silence & Armor Skin should not be available to Stalkers. Skills
Dual Identity
The Odd Level Class Features
Vigilante Specialization
Vigilante Talents
I’m hoping to get a chance to play a Vigilante soon (or at least GM for some Vigilantes), and I’ll try to provide some in game feedback on the class then.
Not that I'm getting ahead of myself... As far as I'm aware there is: Have I missed any, or do any of these not count towards the 10 specials to run?
Hi All, I'm looking to take a group of Pathfinders through the Emerald Spire soon, and thought it would be a good idea to tackle the nearby Thornkeep dungeons as well since we'll all be in the River Kingdoms anyway. While it's quite easy to justify why a Pathfinder would be at either of these locations, I'm a bit stuck at the moment on finding a justification why someone should stop exploring the spire to tackle the next level of Thornkeep or vice versa. Any insight here would be great. As the idea would be to run most of it on the slow track, I'm considering running a few scenarios with it as well. Any suggestions as to what might work well with the spire would be appreciated.
Hi All, Passing thought. Has it been considered at any point to convert the BBBD into quests, with a chronicle similar to what is awarded for silverhex. Something like: Quests | GP | XP | PP | Other
[ ] Relics
[ ] Initiate of the Society: Does something flashy one time. Couldn't hurt to get more quests out there, and another evergreen and a decent link for beginners into organised play.
Hi All, I've recently been contemplating what the impact would be if campaign leadership decided to introduce magic item creation to organised play. Assuming that: What would be the advantages and drawbacks if this was included in the campaign? Is this open to abuse, or is there anything that I have overlooked?
Hi, Apologies if this is on the to fix list, but I thought it was worth mentioning. When cloning an event, I lose the GM credit from the original event. As best as I can tell, what appears to be happening is that the scenario's from the original event become deselected, and when going back into that event's reporting, the scenario is no longer selectable from the drop down options. It is possible to repair the events by going back into the event creation, reselecting the scenarios, then amending the scenario in event reporting. I was able to check this for the games I've run & reported, but am unable to check this for games GMed by others which I have reported.
Hi All, I've been trying to find the official rules for character levels in a tier 1-7 scenario, and was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction? From memory, you can play out of subtier, but not by more that 1 subtier, so... Subtier 1-2: Legal levels 1-4 (someone please correct me if this should be 1-5)
I'm just looking to clarify because we are likely to be running one table of Among the Living next Friday with a pretty high level disparity of 5, 5, 3, 3, 2, 1: APL 3 I just wanted to make sure that all of these characters could play at the same table. Also, if one of the players wanted to play a level 6 character, would this be okay?
Hi All, While setting up PFS events, I've been curious about the six items in free products. Intro 1 is fine, but intros 2 & 3 are still available as options even though they are retired. I am assuming these options are still there so that GMs can amend any problems they may have with reporting these while they were still available, however, is it still possible to run these scenarios and report them? If someone were to run them, naturally players wouldn't receive any credit, but should the GM still receive a table credit (I suppose this question also applies to other retired scenarios)? I'm not sure why the PFS GM 101 & 201 are options here? I plan on running a session for people looking to start GMing, and a part of that will include use of these. Is this something that should be reported? Pathfinder Society: Kid's Track, I'm guessing that you can sanction running the kid's track for a GM table credit, but no chronicles are assigned here. Same for the Beginner Box Bash demo.
Hi All, I have a few players at our local lodge looking to start GMing, but naturally they would like to start out GMing for players they know to help build confidence. For this, I was thinking of running a session in which six of us all play six parts of the Silverhex Chronicles, each part being run by a different GM who will also play the other five parts. Is it a good idea to introduce players to GMing this way? They each get a bite size session with less to prep for and don't have to worry about PCs with exotic abilities. Or is it better to ask someone looking to GM to run a whole scenario? More daunting, but potentially more rewarding. My other question regards reporting for the Silverhex Chronicles. I had a quick look at reporting and I expected it to appear as a multi-part session, however, it appears as any other scenario. When it comes to actually reporting it, should I just report the session six times, changing the GM for each entry? Thanks in advance for any input. :D
Hi All, A little bit of confusion on my part. I believe that you can replay a tier 1 scenario or a tier 1-2 module any number of times (different character each time). When reporting WBG for the first time, I received 2 table credits because it is classed as a 'module'. I ran it a second time recently, and was unable to assign credit to a second character as I'd run the session once before. Was I wrong in my initial assumption that WBG can be replayed an unlimited number of times as it isn't actually a module?
Hi All, I am running this scenario on Thursday and have noticed there is an encounter with:
4 Gnome Warriors. This monster is from the 3.5 monster manual, no stat block is provided in the scenario and there doesn't appear to be an alternative in the bestiary. Should I refer to the 3.5 SRD in this instance or is there something else I can/should do?
Hi All, I'm looking from some pointers on my Battle Herald build, and to check to make sure everything here is PFS legal. The build is a classic Human Cavalier 4/Bard (Arcane Duellist) 1/Battle Herald x Abilities: Str 18, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 13 Weapon of choice will probably be a longspear for use with Banner of the Ancient Kings, otherwise, Lance. Question: With the Battle Herald's Banner ability, the AGP writes
Banner (Ex): At 5th level, a battle herald may fly a battle standard that inspires her allies. This ability is identical to the cavalier's banner ability, and cavalier levels stack with battle herald levels to determine the bonuses provided by the banner. I am assuming that the cavalier is required to have the Banner ability for cavalier & battle herald levels to stack. If someone could correct me if this is not the case. Cavalier 1:
Feats: Mounted Combat, Power Attack (human bonus), Shake it Off (bonus, teamwork) Traits: Helpful, Gregarious Skills: Diplomacy 1, Handle Animal 1, Perception 1, Profession (soldier) 1, Ride 1 Order of the Dragon Cavalier 2:
Skills: Diplomacy 2, Handle Animal 2, Intimidate 1, Perception 1, Perform (oratory) 1, Profession (soldier) 1, Ride 2 Cavalier 2/Arcane Duellist 1:
Feats: Lingering Performance, Arcane Strike (bonus) Lingering Performance allows me to combine inspire courage with inspiring command to a certain extent. Skills: Diplomacy 3, Handle Animal 3, Intimidate 3, Perception 1, Perform (oratory) 2, Profession (soldier) 2, Ride 3 Spells: 0 - light, mending, prestidigitation, spark. 1 - feather fall, ventriloquism feather fall has no somatic components and will improve in utility once this character is griffon mounted, ventriloquism is there because I couldn't find a more useful bard spell with no somatic components. The bard level has to come at level three so I can take both lingering performance & monstrous mount by 5th level. Cavalier 3/Arcane Duellist 1:
Ability Bonus: +1 Charisma to 14 Skills: Diplomacy 4, Handle Animal 4, Intimidate 4, Perception 1, Perform (oratory) 3, Profession (soldier) 2, Ride 4 Cavalier 4/Arance Duellist 1:
Feats: Monstrous Mount (Griffon), Skill Focus: Handle Animal (PFS bonus feat, no expert trainer) Skills: Diplomacy 5, Handle Animal 4, Intimidate 5, Perception 1, Perform (oratory) 5, Profession (soldier) 2, Ride 5 All requirements have been met for Battle Herald, and I qualify for horse master at 6th (although I'll have to wait till 7th to take the feat). Cavalier 4/Arcane Duelliet 1/Battle Herald 1:
Command: Shake It Off I can start combats with inspire courage, and drop it for shake it off when needed and inspire courage lingers Now that the skill prerequisites have been met, I will started improving perception and UMD & stop advancing intimidate, & perform (oratory). Cavalier 4/Arcane Duelliet 1/Battle Herald 2:
Feat: Horse Master Cavalier 4/Arcane Duelliet 1/Battle Herald 3:
Ability Bonus: Strength or Charisma, currenlt undecided. Command: None Shall Fall, I though this was pretty rubbish at first, but the extra utility is good and I'm primarily after ability that aren't redundant with inspire courage
Cavalier 4/Arcane Duelliet 1/Battle Herald 4:
Feat: Outflank (2nd teamwork feat required for Coordinated Charge). Cavalier 4/Arcane Duelliet 1/Battle Herald 5:
Command: Teamwork Cavalier 4/Arcane Duelliet 1/Battle Herald 6:
Feats: Practiced Tactician, Coordinated Charge (teamwork, bonus), coordinated charge is a powerful teamwork feat, and practiced tactician allows me to at least use it twice a day. My build goes to level 20, which is mostly beyond the scope of PFS, but I'll include feats & commands below for completeness. Level 12 (C4/AD1/BH7): Command Sound the charge. +3 inspiring command makes this better than inspire courage most of the time.
I could really use some help with what's best to do with levels 16-20 after leaving battle herald from a theorycraft perspective, but I am unlikely to play this character to that point. As an aside, it would be nice if improved leadership did something in PFS, even if it was a bonus to knowledge: nobility checks or something equally trash, but that isn't the reason I'm in the class so the character isn't really missing out there. Any advice or input would be greatly appreciated.
In the short time I have been running pathfinder society games, I have found that pregens are essential, allowing people to play when they don't have an in tier character, or just allowing someone to try out organised play. Even though the iconics are, well, iconic, I have found that new players can have an underwhelming experience with pathfinder by having to play sub-optimal characters (I will say that last nights Kyra GMPC and her wand with 50 CLWs was appreciated. although this would have been a pretty dull experience for a player). In addition to being stronger, it would be good to see pregens that also have a identity in the Pathfinder Society itself, each being a member of a faction (those PCs could even receive faction missions from the older scenarios), and could even be involved in larger plots. I would love to see 14 new iconic pathfinder society characters, 2 of each race & faction, with 3 classes doubled up, all legal in the CORE campaign. An example distribution could be: CG Female Gnome Bard of Liberty's Edge
CN Female Human Barbarian of the Exchange
LG Female Dwarf Cleric of the Silver Crusade
LN Male Dwarf Monk of the Scarab Sages
NG Male Elf Fighter of the Sovereign Court
LN Male Human Cleric of the Dark Archive
N Female Half-Orc Druid of the Grand Lodge
Lastly, a broader array of levels available, maybe every odd number from 1st - 11th level. Not that my local group has gotten that far yet, but I'm guessing it can't feel good to sit down at 10-11 table and have one of the characters be a 7th level iconic. What are other peoples thoughts the above, or on pregens in general. I'd also be very interested to hear about peoples positive experiences of playing pregens, if just to coax some of the negativity surrounding them from me. Pregens are essential to PFS organised play, I think they could be better and provide a better play experience all around.
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