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I have a question related to being a GM~. In regards to placing treasure after a random encounter (considering they pass the survival tracking check to trace back to where its lair was which they DID), is the amount of treasure from the chart supposed to be based on the parties’ current lv, or the CR of the creature they managed to take out? Since for my Wednesday KM group they managed to roll a random encounter several CR above their average party level and kind of clobber it since the creature oddly had no DR on it.

More specifically I wanted to add I wasn’t using the random table in the KM campaign itself but instead the general random encounter tables. Why? Cause the party I’m running essentially _needs_ harder encounters than what is being given in the module itself. Off the chart the only encounters I think _might_ pose a threat in the 1st module’s table are the Will-o-wisp, the Shambling Mound, and if I rolled 4 trolls on the d4 trolls.

So I have a group of lv2 (they levelled to 3 off this encounter) players manage to take down a CR7 Young Black Dragon. Yes you _did_ read that right. Basically they were on the western side of the forests that border the Hooktongue Slough and rolled a random encounter. So I used the ‘swamp’ table instead of the one from module 4. So my question is what should I use to judge how much treasure I should give them for such an encounter?

Also yes the dragon _did_ try and ambush them in the middle of the night, but when I rolled for its stealth it absolutely _bungled_ it rolling only a total of it was either 20 or 22 on its stealth check. In which both the druid _and more importantly_ the monk both manage to roll perception higher than its stealth check. Also fyi the monk is the only person in the party (there’s 5 total but one of them had to leave before their first round in this combat) that has natural darkvision. The rest of the party has low-light vision though.

Alright, so I swear I’ve seen things on this before, but I cannot seem to bloody find them atm. But I think this is a limit of the aonprd more than anything. But are all lvls of Boro Beads all CL16? I thought I remembered seeing that each lv had a CL equivalent to what lv you needed to be to make the corresponding extract so:
Boro Bead VI -> CL16
Boro Bead V -> CL13
Boro Bead IV -> CL10
Boro Bead III -> CL7
Boro Bead II -> CL4
Boro Bead I -> CL1

I technically have the same question for Pearls of Power and similar. But the reason I’m asking is that my DM is being very particular over specific rules, but very open on others, (we’re using Elephant in the Room reducing feat taxes for example). And we’re in Iron Gods, and starting in Torch for the entirety of the first module, we’re lv2 halfway to lv3. Which has a listed population of 4,320 which is slightly below the size for a ‘small city’ and thus he’s saying ‘major items’ cannot be for sale here. Even though I can't seem to find things defining what a 'minor, medium, or major' item is. Our group is currently hard pressed for items to improve ourselves, and this is by far the single best thing either myself or the Magus could buy with the 1,333 gp we got for rescuing Khonnir Baine.

I feel like I’m forgetting to mention something here… but not sure what…

Alright, I’m unsure _where_ to realistically begin on this. But in the group I’m playing in, we’re playing through Iron Gods (have nearly tpked twice btw, both times to Kasatha skeletons, first one to the group of 7, and the 2nd to the juju zombie.)

One of my fellow players (there’s only 3 of us, and yes we are doing Iron Gods with a 3 man team) is currently playing a Half-orc Wind Shaman. We JUST levelled up to lv2 (we started in like October, but essentially took the month of Dec off). He has the lowest AC in the party. He at current has the lowest to-hit bonus out of the three of us. He also similarly has been in melee combat frequently. Often times being knocked out of combat first, thus eating into our very sparse funds to get him back on his feet. It’s not like the player is _intentionally_ playing badly, but he has had what I have deemed a ‘lesser Will Wheaton curse’ on him this campaign (it wasn’t this bad in prior games fyi). IE he cannot seem to roll higher than a 12 on the d20 to save his life. Every time he has hit, he has rolled below average dmg etc.

So, my question to you all is this: What can a low-level Shaman do better (lv5 and below) than a different full casting class? I’ve tried to find _any_ redeeming features for a low-level Shaman, and cannot seem to find any. Any insights as to make him more viable, or just if the Shaman feels lackluster as a class would be appreciated.

Alright, I’ll be honest _this_ topic unlike my prior I haven’t searched up yet. But I mainly wanted to bring this up to hear alternate viewpoints. This is for the game I’m currently a _player_ in. We’re running Iron Gods and are currently lv1.
I’m running a Ratfolk Gun Chemist Alchemist.
Other 2 players are a half-orc Shaman, and an Android BB Magus.
I’m small, and I dumped both Str and Cha. (more important for this discussion is Str)
My Str due to this is 5, and my light load limit 12 lbs.
After well over a half dozen sessions it was brought up about my inventory, and I was unaware of the alchemist kit and formula book which weigh 5 and 3 lbs respectively.
(I knew of the formula book beforehand but at the time was unable to find it on the aonprd lol)
As far as I’m aware unless it’s noted in the item block, an item weighs the same for medium and small characters? (one of my fellow players seems confident on this, but the GM has made no statement of determination one way or the other)
(This is explicitly stated for weapons and armor to weigh half but not items, which makes me confused in the opposite direction of large characters trying to use medium tools)
Unlike a wizard who does need to have his spell book to cast spells, does an alchemist realistically need their formula book on them except when making extracts?
Does a gun chemist need an alchemist kit on him to use his ‘Alchemical Ordnance’? Cause it only states that they imbue it with their innate ‘magical reserves’.
If non-indicated items are NOT half weight for small characters, what’s the best solution you can think of for me being able to carry those 8 extra pounds without being encumbered?

I have, both in and out of character asked my fellow players for assistance with help carrying my gear weight, but most of the time I’m either brushed off, or actively ignored.
I am by far out of the 4 of us the newest to the system, and tend to have a lot of niche rules questions, which seem to have rubbed at least one of the players the wrong way I feel like by being active in the group chat outside of session time.

Alright so I’m dming my first PF1e game and all my players are new to the system. I asked what kind of character my players wanted to play and helped them build something that would work with what they wanted to play. But as for 1 particular player in my group there’s certain things with his build that I’m not 100% sure how they interact with each other. They’re all at lv1 but this is more so me asking how this all interacts at _LATER_ levels so I’m not misleading him. So as a primer before we start:
I am using “Elephant in the Room” to reduce initial feat taxes.
I am using “Auto advancing feats” IE if you take a style feat chain, when you gain the BAB/skill ranks of the requirements of later feats in the chain you gain them without having to spend a feat on them.
For things like ‘Powerful/Deft Maneuvers’ from EitR the player chooses 1 option from the available which they will acquire the ‘Greater’ version of the CM when they reach the other prereqs for it. If they want multiple they have to spend additional feats as appropriate on them.
I am permitting players to take ‘Major Drawbacks’ from Rogue Genius Games on the d20pfsrd to take additional feats at CC. (3 out of my 5 players did this, this being one of them)
All NPCs also get access to the above, and the players are aware of this.

The player is playing a Large MoMS Sohei Monk. (Assume either Undersized mount, or that he’ll eventually get a Huge or larger mount of some kind, the mount isn’t important for what I’m asking)
If he takes ‘Modified Weapon Proficiency’ (Lances) or ‘weapon Adept’ (Versatile Design) and grabs a Versatile Design (Monk) lance can he use the ‘ascetic style’ feat line with it?
“Ascetic strike’ then would allow him to treat that lance’s damage as if his character lv was 4 levels lower. If the above is correct?
From what I’ve seen due to being a Sohei, “Monks Robes” do nothing to affect Ascetic Style’s feat chain, but would increase his AC bonus by 1? Or can I get some more clarification on this?
(I have a rather good grasp on what the Ascetic Style chain does, but I haven’t found a good concise explanation on how a Monk’s Robes effects it)
In order to use “Ascetic Style” with this lance and say “Hamatulatsu” on it at the same time do you have to take the WF feat twice to get both, or does ‘Ascetic Style’s effect cancel needing WF (unarmed) for Hamatulatsu?
(Hamatulatsu was the only feat I could find that gave alternate damage types that augment US that weren’t ‘style’ feats, and all of the style feats that did didn’t really do what they were looking for, if there is a feat I missed do inform me!)
If the above is possible, this allows the lance to do Bludgeoning damage at no penalty, correct? Which means you could use it with Cudgeler style, correct?
(All this realistically does is save him a +2 bonus on either the lance/AoMF for the Impact enchantment)
Since from a forum post I saw, if this let’s us use a Lance with Ascetic Style, then we can use stuff like an AoMF and Greater Magic Fang on it correct?
Then again the PC will end up having a _crazy_ high UMD later so would a wand of lead blades not be cheaper and more efficient means of gaining a pseudo size increase for his weapon, or is there an even better option?
(he took Dangerously Curious as one of his traits so UMD is a CS, there’s a Halcyon druid in the party who is adamant about wanting to be the party’s crafter)

Also if anyone’s curious about party comp:
Toxicant Alchemist (who nearly killed himself from fumbling a bomb on the first turn of combat rolling dmg equal to his hp that landed on himself.)
Halcyon Druid
Sohei MoMs Monk
Vanilla Hunter w/ Warcat Acom.
Iroran Tempered Champion Paladin

Hello all, first time actually posting in here and going to be honest this isn’t even the _start_ of my questions, but I was introduced into PF1e a few months ago, and have started running the Kingmaker AP recently. I have Ultimate Campaign (UCP), and Ultimate Rulership (UR) as rules expansions for the Kingdom Building parts of this and I wanted to ask questions pertaining to those first.

First, in UR for the Brickyard it states that it reduces the cost of Quarries to 6 BP. Though in UCP it lists the cost for Quarries at 6 BP. Is this a typo or was it originally more, and later errata’d?

Second for both the Brickyard and the Lumberyard in UR it says that Quarries/Sawmills generate 1 additional BP for every 2 Quarries/Sawmills. Does that mean in only the honeycomb of hexes (6 adjacent) surrounding the settlement with the Brickyard/Lumberyard generates 1 additional BP for their corresponding building from? Or is it saying per every 2 Quarries/Sawmills in your entire kingdom?

Third, if using the rules for UR, would you say the Foundry would similarly work like a Brickyard/Lumberyard for mines?

Fourth, in UCP it says that terrain improvements with a * can share their tile with other improvements. Quarries, Mines, and sawmills lack this (for obvious reasons I feel). So does this mean you actually can’t build a road through a forest tile that ends up with a Sawmill on it?

Fifth, for the purposes of ‘water dependent buildings’ when crafting aqueducts, how as the GM should I determine what is considered a ‘water border’ for a hex that has an aqueduct crossing through it?

Sixth, in a circumstance where you have a party where _none_ of them have good Handle Animal, if they built a menagerie, how as the GM should I determine what the ‘CR of the highest CR creature in the menagerie’ is? (this actually isn’t a problem with my group this is just a genuine question since 3 of my 5 players have decently high Handle Animal scores)

Seventh, for Granaries I take it that for _EACH_ granary you can store up to 5 BP of excess production? I also take it you cannot stack this IE 5 on the first turn, then 10 total on the second, then 15 on the third if you keep having a surplus?

Eighth, in regards to the Waterfront, Cathedral, & Palace their special benefits, these apply universally to your Kingdom? IE by building 1 Waterfront it halves the loyalty penalty on taxation across your entire Kingdom??? (this isn’t as important for the Palace due to how it operates)

Ninth, in regards to the Palace actually, since this building doesn’t have a limit on it, if you build multiple does that allow you to issue more Special Edicts but at a further penalty? IE 2 Palaces give 3 special edicts a turn at -4, 3 Palaces give 4 at -6 etc?

I have more (next I had in mind was about lighthouses) but this is all I can type out for right now.