Goblin Squad Member. Pathfinder Society GM. Starfinder Society GM. 12 posts (188 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 21 Organized Play characters. 2 aliases.
I just realized the only eligible 1-4 level voter I have is the one who only cares about hunting for cultists of the Great Old Ones! Total single issue voter. I wonder if anyone will win him over
As a single issue, that's a really good one. Most, maybe all except my 702, are on board. Good thing I have a number of low tier GM babies to put this credit on.
Also, building a colossal mech out of Lego will certainly draw attention to your table.
Kind of sad the mech encounter feels bolted on. My players wanted to know where the big boss came from, my assumption was that it landed in the "some of something else." I old the players that the cat-mechs and robots were built based on reverse engineering the ceramic mesh on the big mech.
If the scenario author reads this, was there another species that tried to help the pahtra against the Vesk before / during the Gap? That was certainly my impression but I could be mistaken.
I found a glitch in the Description Vs Art category. Of Miiyu's inner circle there are two pahtra, a vlaka, and a ixtii. That last one threw me for a loop, until I remembered that Envar jerk.
The art in line with the text appears correct, the headshots in Appendix 3 switch Alfey and Vokuvi. Heads up for those making handouts to go with the investigation portion.
So I somehow had the party manage to complete the scenario meeting both primary and secondary success conditions without actually getting the big reveal. Was this meant to be possible. It would have been nice in that case (not failing the scenario) for them to have been told about Historia-Prime by Guidance, Celita, or some other SF leader during the debrief at the end, since they had all the piece just weren't able to put them together.
Maybe? The biggest parts of the backstory are carefully tucked behind Trained-Only skill checks (Culture). The party blows the perception roll that Hope-01 looks like the big statue. No PC played 1-38, player knowledge of what happened there will let them fill in gaps even if the character wouldn't know. Hope-01 is can't / won't just plot dump on the players (though I let a few things slip when I ran this).
I doubt it was meant to be possible. No author / editor can ensure that every scenario will work as designed when a random group of characters is tossed into it. I was a bit disappointed at the conclusion on this one. Some officer or Guidance itself explaining about H-Prime would have been nice. This being a tier 1-4, is likely to have newer players who don't know about that plot line from season 1.
I don’t suppose you could give us any hint of the plot, by any chance? I don’t do conventions and am dying to know what the deal is.
All I can say is that certain things done in the Pathfinder Special will activate conditions in the Starfinder Special. And this one has no Starship tag which will make certain people happy.
Salvation's End's Lodge is operated by Venture Captain Kunoris Vex.
Long suffering VC Kunoris Vex. I wonder if the yetis brought any of the "good stuff" with them so Vex can take the edge off. He does have two enemies directly underfoot.
Beruta is on the Fairweather Foe mobile lodge. He gets to babysit REDACTED. See SFS 4-05 for details.
I feel like I've seen something about this before. ** spoiler omitted **
BigNorseWolf wrote:
Why do I have the feeling that somewhere a hellknight is saying I told you so...
Hnngggghhhrrr *theorycrafting intensifies* I have hype, y'all! Hype and insane theories about a certain android in the wind from season 1, or a certain herald from the blogs
One of my favorite things about my home game is when my players go on weird tangents. I get some great ideas for the campaign and the players get to say "oh crap I was RIGHT!" Doesn't work as well in org play. Well, the first part about weird tangents does.
One very minor issue I had when running this was "How many PC's can a glass serpent swallow at a time?"
A related issue was, "What's the audience reaction to a solarian going supernova INSIDE a glass serpent?"
Starfinder Society #1-39: The Herald’s War (Levels 7–10)*
Starfinder Society #2-24: Cornered Rat (Levels 9–12)
Starfinder Society #3-20: TBA Name (Levels 11–14)
Starfinder Society #1-98: Into the Perplexity: The First Trial (Levels 3–6)
We're getting an 11-14 scenario? insert "happy dance gif"
Not sure I'll ever get around to running enough to hit 4 or 5 nova, but I can dream...
If you have faction heads doing field work, something has (or is about to) go terribly wrong.
Did Fitch sit this one out due to the risk of friendly fire?
My players were very concerned about Hats and are hoping it returns in a PF2 scenario. Or maybe Starfinder depending on how much magic was in that mishap.
Important safety tip: In the Resurgent Technologies quest (high tier) if the daemon goes first the party is still in fireball formation. If there are any pregens, they will fail DC 20 Reflex.
I had a table of 3 (+ the new Vanguard pregen). Two 6's (Technomancer and Operative/Mystic) and two 4's(Velloro and Keskodai) meant high tier, 4 play adjustment. Due to some low rolls the we ran a bit long. It may be burned into my brain now that CR 4 = 50 hp.
AbadarCorp wasn't too bad. The party made 3 of the 4 agents in time, demoralized one and broke the smoke goggles. By the time the Stewards arrived, one merc was a smear on the ground (Velloro crit), two others were down, and one ran. Our level 6 technomancer made Tharsa invisible for the entire encounter.
When the party learned they got to steal from Frozen Trove they got excited. When the technomancer set off the shock trap alerting Karezen that there's a problem it went down hill fast. He ran to the room with the drakecats and locked the doors. All three at once was almost too much. Velloro soaked full attacks like a champ, but a few AoO and a caustic conversion dropped our mystic (Keskodai pregen). Even with no breath weapon those cats are tough. THEY HAVE REACH and are only medium. Not sure if an error, but it gave the party fits.
So the Daemon. My group accidentally skipped the social network hacking and went into the tunnels after Ex-Maintenance 22 pointed them out. Plus side, casting explosive blast broke the invisibility. But two characters full cast magic missile in response. This left them in arcing surge formation. Keskodai ran out of spells using Mind Thrust. The 4 player adjustment reduced its HP and gave it a -2 to attacks, but it kept out of melee (mostly).
The starship test went well. There was a bit of confusion over who had shields when, my fault mostly. A few good hits to the front took out the drone. With a little encouraging Velloro was able to hit. I had ice cold dice for this encounter, I maybe hit them once.
The weapons testing started off rough, everyone only had small arms proficiency. The heavy weapon "bug" could have been a feature with a better battery. I played Crax as very enthusiastic about all the guns, he had to be reminded more than once that guns that blow up when used are bad for business. The shield testing went quick, no one failed a save. Which left the robots... Without Mind Thrust to carry the day, the party had to actually shoot. Its good that one robot is dropped for the 4 player adjustment. Nearly lost Keskodai again (heavy laser crit), people had to reload weapons due to several misses, Velloro could not hit but they couldn't hit him in melee either.
At one point a player was complaining about how expensive grenades are. That same player was surprised (and happy to see) the Purchasing Power boon and large number of credits on this one.
I was just going to consider the "melted" book to be Precautions. Assuming the party collects enough books on Sunday of course.
Really looking forward to running this at high tier. My only fear is the PCs will make the diplomacy check to the point the don't even fight Daosvaria. Not getting to make a True Strike, Power Attack, Fly-By Attack bite will make me a bit sad.
The condensed guide sound like a great idea. Something I can hand out at the FLGS or con floor that has enough to let a new player get started. I know people have made a version of this locally but an official one would be good.
GMing at a con should continue to get some kind of bonus. Most of the time you pay to get in and time behind the screen is time you aren't playing / at a party / etc. I like the extra boon slot idea (if 2e ends up with that system). It certainly doesn't need to be an ancestry boon. I never understood the fascination with catfolk anyway.
A reduced cost rebuild would be helpful. For example, when the GM credit character you cobbled together ends up 3rd level and you find the build is sub par after you play.
I'd like to see the corrected starship combat DC's added to the guide. Players and GMs are more likely to find it there than the Starfinder FAQ page. At least it gives people another chance to see it.
A Drake rebuild sounds good. Had a group use that in the drone fight and run out of ammo pretty fast.
Orbital bombardment is a staple of science fiction. "Nuke the site from orbit, its the only way to be sure" can be the correct answer to some problems. Viral outbreaks, massive colonies of undead, disassembler nanite swarms are all great reasons to evac and reduce the a city or continent to ash. I suspect most ships won't have the firepower to do more than a few city blocks worth of destruction at a time but I could be wrong.
It is not a Good answer in terms of alignment. The default assumption about Pathfinder and Starfinder is the PCs on average are somewhere between Neutral and Good. Indiscriminate destruction is always a Chaotic act and often Evil as well.
Personally, I don't like the idea of running anything immortal with a fixed alignment. Eliminates the option for characters to grow, mentally.
It's canonical that in Wrath of the Righteous
Serious Spoilers within:
** spoiler omitted **
So a Lich being something other than Evil is possible. This is from an AP where "redemption" is one of the major themes, and these are exceptional circumstances but it appears possible for a lich to eventually change its alignment.
And somehow that wasn't the spoiler I was expecting. Anything with an intelligence over 2 can be redeemed in theory. Just because you've broken the natural cycle of life and death to extend your material existence ... oh wait, that's why you're evil in the first place. So maybe the best we can hope for is True Neutral.
That would be another route to defeating a Lich even if you can't identify the phylactery. If you can't kill it, convert it.
Even the halfling ranger in Order of the Stick knows lead blocks divination. Maybe if you dropped Divination when you specialized I could understand why a caster wouldn't know that.
The problem with dropping it in the ocean (aside from the new pressure zone rules in Aquatic Adventures) is that even you don't know where it is. Things wash up on shore all the time, there are aquatic species out there that have the same spells as surface folk. When you regenerate do you really want to wake up inside a whale? Or stuck in some tube worm near a volcanic vent?
Most Liches I know hide their soul away from the lair they operate from. Some distant, forgotten place. My favorite is a dragon's hoard. You should really get permission from said dragon as you aren't sure when you'll need to hang out there for a few days to regenerate. Leave yourself a few useful items so you can start rebuilding.
As to identifying one that has been collected by troublesome "Heroes" the spell Detect Evil should be your first step. Yes, if it has been worn by its foolish owner for years and has other evil spells attached to it the Detect Spell won't help much. Having other evil people nearby won't matter, the spell will let you get specific by the third round of concentration.
The higher level divination spells like Legend Lore, Analyzer Dweomer and some psychic abilities should be able to confirm if an object is the phylactery. A sufficiently high DC Spellcraft check to identify the properties of the item should do the job (treat like a Cursed object). Example, if you made it out of an Amulet of Natural Armor +5 the DC to identify a phylactery with Spellcraft is 15 (starting) + 15 (Caster level of the item) +10 (margin of success required to spot a curse) for a total DC of 40. By the time a party can take on a lich, there should be someone in the group who can hit that DC better than half the time.
Are the starship rules less complicated than GURPS? I saw people talking about cube roots above and started thinking about GURPS Vehicles again. <shudder>
If the system flows well I can live with handwaving away parts of physics. This is still a fantasy game at its heart.
Kingmaker style colonization or a build-your-own stellar empire where the PCs are trying to build up defenses before the swarm or other big bad shows up.
I second Maze. Nothing splits up a party quite like it. If you can augment mythic cast it then things are extra fun.
Time Stop + summons or battlefield control. "With a simple wave of his hand, the room is divided by multiple Walls of Force." The key to knocking out a PC always starts with getting them alone.
Naturally, Dominate Monster (with that quickened Ill Omen prior if you can) should be one the table. Use their Min/Maxing Mythic Madness against them.
edit: almost forgot about Prismatic Spray. A bit to random for some people but Blue, Indigo, and Violet really mess up a party.
The Vagabond Child trait can give you Disable Device. The Android race gives and INT boost and fits the theme.
Not sure how to get around needing to be a wizard. Maybe an Alchemist, they are technically an arcane caster. If your GM says extracts = spells it should work. You don't get 3rd level spells as until 7th so you would have one less level of technomancer.
Be careful with extra gear. The PCs will eventually kill guards and keep the gear. You may get more mileage out of the advanced simple template. Giving Blackerly an extra level should be OK. The party doesn't have to fight him, but odds are someone will. Watch his damage output. You do eventually want the party to get out. Having Sarge crit and kill a character while realistic might bring the player's mood down.
Even with the holy symbol and potions on the veil, healing is very limited in this section. The entire AP for that matter (evil cleric does not channel healing). If the party keeps going and some or all of them go undead around book 3 or 4 then the evil cleric rocks for healing. You should consider having a wand of cure light wounds available for sale in Aldencross or other small town they pass through on the way.
You shouldn't need to give extra story awards and put more guards in. you don't want them leveling too fast. My group didn't even try to find their old gear (I didn't bother to tell them it was still in whatever town they were arrested in, not Branderscar). They were in a big hurry to get out. They covered the last leg of their escape by setting a building on fire to distract the remaining guards.
I just found some PDFs of generic villages from Raging Swan Press. You could drop a few of those on the island without hurting anything. There do need to be more villages / towns on the map. Just remember, unless they kill EVERYTHING in the prison, there will be pursuit so the options of exploration are limited. More advice below, but first some warnings about this AP.
With 6 players, the action economy is going to crush several of the planned encounters. Like most APs the assumed size is 4. If they are a level behind where the book says they should be its OK.
And plan now for a bigger group. IF you plan on continuing to book 2 the author encourages the entire group to take Leadership. This makes perfect sense in the story. The party is an insurgency, they will need the help. There certainly are others on the island tired of the oppression and would happily work with the PCs. It makes your job harder. Make sure you have things for the cohorts and minions to do that is not just follow around the main group.
Book 1 Side Quests: After the jail break but before they reach Thorn you could have a CR 1 or 2 swamp encounter. Once they reach the house you could have Thorn or Tiadora send them out for something. After Thorn's test there isn't much room to add anything until they get to Balentyne. There is lots of room for side jobs in and around the town. Build up the need to do recon and infiltration. You could invent another officer who the party needs to discredit / assassinate.
Book 2: The party gets to hang out in an area with little control and a large wilderness. Any number of search and destroy missions into the Caer Bryr. Farholde could use a new Thieves' Guild. There is always room for another group of heroes to attack the Horn.
Definitely look to Mythic Adventures for this. The character taking the test probably has an idea of what domains they would like, try to base the Test on those. If the player wants the domain of War, defeating a wave of lesser creature may work. Or he somehow finds himself at the head of an army and must lead others into battle. Some domains are easier to plan for and many will not be combat.
Other elements of a portfolio can be used as well. For example, if they want to be the "Gun God" they may find themselves in a room unarmed but with all (or most) the raw materials need to forge their own gun and ammo. They next have to defeat a guardian creature armed only with this weapon. That's one phase of the test.
I agree there should be a consequence for failure. Maybe not death, but level loss, reduced stats, or just the knowledge that they will NEVER get another chance.
BTW, as a GM you need to decide if this is the kind of game you want to run. Lots of players hear about the Test and say "That sounds awesome, I want to try it." Give some thought to what the rest of the group is doing. Are they OK with working toward something that will in the end only boost one of them? Are multiple character going to try?
Adding it in book one seems off to me. Completing the ritual in book 2 would be a fitting place to start. If you must use it in book 1, the lantern archon gestalt could be rebuilt as a rank 1 creature. Its destruction and the desecration of that temple would then be the act that unlocks mythic.
Useful touchstones for trials (if you're mythic at the end of Book 1)
plots from later books:
Book 2
The the death / sacrifice of the inquisitor.
The treant guardian if upgraded with a mythic rank or 2
The ritual's end in book 2.
Book 3
The destruction of multiple celestials in the attack on the Vale.
The true death of the phoenix.
Extinguishing all three flames of mitra.
Killing Ara Mathra, the Angels in Iron, and / or the Cloud giant.
Book 4
Desecrating the Catheral of Mitra in Daveryn
Killing the Lord of Eagles (add 3 or 4 mythic ranks depending on the party)
The final destruction of the demilich in the copper dragon's hoard.
Not sure if "just" killing the copper dragon is enough to count as a trial. Certainly if the party kills him with on or more of his consorts present if should count.
Reassembling Helbrand should definitely count, it takes you all book 4 to do it.
Killing the king, while important to the plot, should not be a trial in my opinion.
I have not run Books 5 yet, we start it next week. I'm sure there are good spots you could add trials or modify encounters I overlooked. Remember, these are not supposed to be just challenging. Mythic Trials should feel different from other fights. Unusual circumstances, direct divine (or more likely Infernal) intervention, or powerful magic should be present. Adding a rank or tier to the existing cast that our villains cut down goes a long way to letting the players know "Hey, this isn't a normal paladin."
Not sure I need it currently. But when my group was working through Kingmaker this would have been great. Maybe I should give kobolds a bigger role in my next game.
Kingmaker:
My PC's sided with the kobolds and eventually named Chief Sootscale to the post of Royal Assassin of their kingdom.
