Kolby Sample's page

Option #3 seems like the best option to me. It's hard to say for sure because we don't know the numbers.

In the end I vote for whatever option lets me play PF V1 the most.

I am preping this scenario for this weekend and was hopeful to clarify a couple of the outstanding items.

-Uirch's damage
Having taken 2 "traps" with an average damage of 47 he could be unconscious. I was going to put him at zero. He would have been knocked out but healed himself back to zero and is drifting in and out of consciousness. The shock and damage have left him in such a state that he has yet to recover enough to treat his own wounds further. In this case he has used his orc ferocity for the day.

-The Red Reavers Size
It looks like everything in the stat block points to a huge creature. You look at the AC, damage dice, saves etc these all show a rebuild application of the giant template. As such the red reaver should be space 15, reach 15. Its like he was left as a large to help sell Crown of Fangs mini #29......

-Tactics call for Greater vital strike.
A normal red reaver has the following Feats: Ability Focus (roar), Awesome Blow, Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Improved Bull Rush, Iron Will, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (claws)

Its clear that this one was custom built. I think they misspelled greater vital strike,,,and we should make a spelling correction to improved bull rush(who would even use bull rush?).

If you look at the "trap" damage as further back up its the bite damage with greater vital strike.(that its not the greater vital strike claw damage seems a bit silly since it reads that he grabs a pc not bites them).

If we don't correct the feat then it invalidates his tactics and the stupid idea to waste his first round roaring is also off the table.

I was also going to note that the Animal Companion is missing from Poog which I think is a lost opportunity especially for a module intended to be played by players new to Pathfinder - they are likely going to miss that he has an animal companion let alone know how to make one up (and with a pregenerated character part of the fun is not having to do character generation to try something new). Too late now but this is also a rather large source of table variation for PFS play...

For PFS the only variation would be with the 2 feats & tricks. This is the version I made for my table. I think toughness is must and his bite is not that good to hit so went with weapon focus.

If anyone can help me out I am trying to get the map file for tomorrow so i can print it. I could scan it but at 300 dpi its going to not be very good at all when i print it to scale.

Whilst seconding Tim's questions, I'd like to add another; Poog has a giant frog listed as his animal companion, but no stats are given, what should we do?

Not an official response but this is what I made.

Animal Companion CR –
Giant frog (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary)
N Medium animal
Init +3; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +5
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 13 (+3 Dex, +3 natural)
hp 19 (3d8+6)
Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +2
Defensive Abilities evasion
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft.
Melee bite +4 (1d6+1), tongue -2 (grab)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (15 ft. with tongue)
Special Attacks pull (tongue, 5 ft.), tongue
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 13, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Base Atk +2; CMB +3 (+7 grapple); CMD 16 (20 vs. trip)
Feats Toughness, Weapon Focus (bite)
Tricks Attack, Attack Any Target, Combat Riding, Come, Defend, Down, Guard, Heel, Hunt, Throw Rider
Skills Acrobatics +7 (+11 to jump), Perception +5, Stealth +7, Swim +9
SQ attack any target, combat riding, hunt, throw rider
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Attack Any Target [Trick] The animal will attack any creature on command.
Combat Riding [Trick] The animal has been trained to bear a rider into combat.
Evasion (Ex) No damage on successful reflex save.
Grab: Tongue (Medium) (Ex) You can start a grapple as a free action if you hit with the designated weapon.
Hunt [Trick] Hunts or forages for food to bring to handler.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in dim light, distinguishing color and detail.
Pull (5 feet) (Ex) You can pull targets closer to you.
Scent (Ex) Detect opponents within 15+ ft. by sense of smell.
Swim (30 feet) You have a Swim speed.
Throw Rider [Trick] Attempts to throw creature riding it to ground.
Tongue (Ex) Grab with toungue does not inflict the grappled condition on a giant frog.

I had a physical copy, I was looking for the PDF so I can print up the maps. If I can't get the PDF of the adventure can I please have the Map image. If I have to scan it and print it off the scan its going going to look like blurry ass.

Also one prep question
Are there stats with feats/tricks for Poog's animal companion or should I just do my own?

Edit
Also I think the +5 tome has the wrong price. The price listed is for the +4 version, +5 should be 137,500 I think.

Running on the 16th and still waiting for the PDF & Chronicles.

Found something else.

Nairoth does not appear to include it's desecration aura properly in its stat block.

The hit points for a normal nightwalker are 21d8 +147. Hers is listed as 21d8 + 105. But the total is the same.

The to hit is the big wrong 15 bab + 12 strength +2 profane should be +29 to hit.

The damage seems right +12 strength +2 profane =14

One thing i was considering I was going to do is hand out a sheet with a bunch of slots for xd6 xd8 damage rolls and have the players fill them in for me as we are waiting for the game to start to speed up rolling and mathing those big attacks later on.

Does anyone else do something like that?

Running it twice this weekend with both the high and low tiers.

How many deaths from the 2nd encounters? Both options read as super deadly to me.

Actualy looking at the mythic vital strike again "Benefit: Whenever you use Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, or Greater Vital Strike, multiply the Strength bonus, magic bonus, and other bonuses that would normally be multiplied on a critical hit by the number of weapon damage dice you roll for that feat"

So that should be all bonus's by 6 and then the critical would be even worse.

Base MVS PA
6d6 + (9+15) x6) = 144
Critical 12d6 (8d6? Maybe not that it matters with this bonus damage) + ((9+30) x6x2)=468

On power attack

"primary natural weapon that adds 1-1/2 times your Strength modifier on damage rolls"

"Whenever you use Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, or Greater Vital Strike, multiply the Strength bonus, magic bonus, and other bonuses that would normally be multiplied on a critical hit by the number of weapon damage dice you roll for that feat."

The way I read this the power attack bonus should be x3 for vital strikes x2 for critical mod.

I still think that that PA bonus should be 22 not 15

But yes it's a hard pair of feats to determine damage.

A slam is a primary natural attack so should be 1.5 strength

Came up with the following questions after my review

Is the statblock for Vorviex tier 14-15 posted somewhere?

What is is Vector's 4th mythic feat (only 3 in stat block)?

John answered my question about regeneration already.

Mythic Power attack and vital strike
I came up with 6d6 +93 on a normal and 12d6 +308 on a crit. This is different then what FractialLaw had.

This is based on his base attack being 2d6 +9. the mythic power attack adds 22 damage (bab of 18 = -5 attack +15 x 1.5=22.5 rounded down) =31x3

Then on a crit its 44 damage from the base (9x3x2) and 264 bonus damage(44x3x2)=308

can someone confirm what the right answer would be

Thanks John. I for one will be glad to see the gloves gone.

Congratulations Marc!

You have put in a amazing effort to earn your 5th star and support pfs.

Welcome to the club!

You can replay or receive a second GM credit for the final updated special if you played or GMed the playtest version respectively. You still cannot apply the credit to the same character however.

Ahh poop thats going to screw some things up

Does anyone remember what the special replay rules were for the piazocon playtest vs the final product? Just realised I have both chronicles on the same character and don't recall if we were allowed to do this.

What was your favorite thing from e3 this year?

I fully suppot this revision and think it was needed to put an end to some cheeseburger options. I know of a few people that abbused the grace period from the race allowed change with a stockpile of 1 chronicle native outsiders that can't shortcut anymore.

Good job

Kolby Sample wrote:

Question for John/Mike.

I recently started running this module with a mixed table of level 12 and 13 chracters under the assumption that notice has been given that this module would be sanctioned for pfs (eventually) and we would do sign in/reporting/chronicles once it was done.

We are not very far in but now I'm not sure of what happens as far as the level 12 players having the possable option to recive the 4th chronicle.

Would we have needed a party of level 12's only to hand out the rewards under the seeker option or will the level 12 players have the option to gain the 4th chronicle adventuring in a mixed party?

*edit Thanks for putting the chronicles together for this.

The Eyes of the Ten series has a sharp cutoff of starting at exactly 33 XP (which has its pros and cons), and I wanted to ensure that the special method of experiencing Wardens of the Reborn Forge would have a more generous window to make it easier to run the adventure without a lot of careful coordination—especially since it took so long to sanction this module. That window involves the PCs all starting at 12th level, even if their exact XP total is not the same. That doesn't account for some of the PCs starting at 13th level, though, and the Seeker Arc Option is intended for a group that is all participating in that special option.

In speaking with Mike, we have agreed that the Seeker Arc Option is only available if all of the participants qualify. The primary three Chronicle sheets are still available for groups of mixed levels.

Thank you for the clear reply John

From my interpretation of the organized play rules for this module I think the situation I'm in with 3x level 13 and 2x level 12 allows for only the two 12's to get the bonus chronicle "if" having a mixed level party at the start does not disqualify them.

Just want to get official clarification.

Question for John/Mike.

I recently started running this module with a mixed table of level 12 and 13 chracters under the assumption that notice has been given that this module would be sanctioned for pfs (eventually) and we would do sign in/reporting/chronicles once it was done.

We are not very far in but now I'm not sure of what happens as far as the level 12 players having the possable option to recive the 4th chronicle.

Would we have needed a party of level 12's only to hand out the rewards under the seeker option or will the level 12 players have the option to gain the 4th chronicle adventuring in a mixed party?

*edit Thanks for putting the chronicles together for this.

Mike and all the development team thank you for the continued efforts. Alot of what you do is thankless stuff and cat herding but you keep striving to improve pfs and are taking the feedback to heart by having major meeting like this.

Looking forward to more info on the changes to come.

Also ban gunslingers pls

I was looking to clarify how levels of a prestige class work for spells per level and the bonus spell that a thassilonian wizard has for his specilized school.

The bonus spell reads as follows:
"A Sin mage receives two additional spell slots of each spell level he can cast. These bonus spell slots must both be used to prepare the same spell from the wizard's school of specialization, allowing the wizard to cast that spell twice (as he has prepared the spell twice). The wizard cannot use these slots to prepare two different spells, even if they are of the school he is specialized in."

The way I read this is that a level 5 sin wizard with 2 levels of lets say bloatmage gains 2 bonus slots for his level 4 spells because the prestige class increases his effective wizard level to 7.

Is this the correct interpretation?

Thanks for clarification John. That seems more then fair.

I hate to sound like a broken record. I kept asking for dragons demand. I understand with the lead up to paizocon and getting all those scenarios ready and finishing the development of the first batch of season 6 scenarios on top of emerald spire on top of mummies mask... etc I know John is busy.

I have been holding off scheduling to run this for some of our many players that have more then one high level chracter that have already put a character through eyes to wait for the chronicles.

I did not get a chance to catch John in a free moment at paizocon but any chance for an update for the chronicles? Some of us are still waiting on this.

So with paizocon only a couple of days away I thought I would post a topic to discussing some of the ways for GM's to run games in the big room better. I was at paizocon last year so most of my ideas come from that experience but I am hopeful that other people will comment with ideas that they have found at other con's and that as GM’s we can strive to make each experience fun.

~Noise control/GMing in a noisy room~

*if you try to shout over all the tables around you the whole convention your voice will be very stressed before the first day ends and it’s going to affect you the rest of the weekend and not be fun. So tips to cut down on the noise.

*Print the venture office briefing. Give everyone a chance to read it then take it back. At the start of every game you are surrounded by people trying to read block text clearly. If you don't have to fight to be heard all the players will understand the mission and it will make transitioning into the adventure smoother.

*Print the Knowledge check information and let the player who makes the check convey the information to the group. It helps to get the players interacting with each other early on and encourage them to do so in character.

*Look at the person you are speaking to!!!! Try not to get stuck sitting with your head down reading text. Your voice will not carry as well and you will end up having to repeat yourself a lot.

*Keep control of the chatter. If your whole table is talking all the time all at once you’re going to have a hard time hearing and being heard and the tables around you will be negatively affected.

~Auditing players pre game~

*one thing you should not do is spend the first half hour of a game slot pouring through character sheets and chronicles looking for mistakes. You end up losing a lot of game time and it can come across very adversarial. Here are some of my recommendations.

*As players make player introductions look over character sheets/hero labs and their inventory tracking sheet. Ask questions about any ability’s you don’t understand as your reading it and try to get a basic understanding of what the character is and does. You don’t need to know every trick, it’s the players job to understand the character and be able to explain it.

*Have a copy of the additional resources printed and if you have to cross reference something ask a 3rd party player to do it so that you can keep things moving. Make sure that the player is not using something like d20pfsrd or herolabs as the source for abilities and items but don’t make it into a witch hunt. Ideally you should be able to do this as the introductions happen.

*Check to see if they know what they should have for a bonus to hit, damage, concentration check etc. Get a sense of what they do best, if it seems high ask how.

*Ask questions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and one of the best ones would be does this character have aspects that have been subject to table variation and try to sort those out before the game starts. Let the player know where you stand on a rule beforehand and it will save on rules discussion that bring the game to a crawl mid game.

~Common mistakes~

*Chronicles or inventory sheets not filled out properly

*Gun Slingers continuing to double dip in the bonus dex damage.

*Cleric’s that take extra channel more than once.

*Mounts with barding and items but not the feats to wear or use them.

*People in medium or heavy encumbrance but not taking the penalties or even calculating the encumbrance weight they are at.

*Zen Archer trying to use rapid shot & many shot during a flurry of arrows

~Time saving~

It can be very easy to lose track of time. Some season 5 games are hard to get done in the time slot. Here are some tips.

*If the player has a mount or companion or summoned creature make sure they have access to the stat block for it and can have it at the ready. If they are taking an excessive amount of time offer a warning but be prepared to take the creature over as GM. You can’t let Fluffy the Wonder Bison take 5 min to resolve a turn.

*When in combat inform players of the order and give advanced warning so that they can plan out their actions ahead of time. Be prepared to put players that are indecisive on delay if needed but give them a fair warning before doing so.

*Ask players to roll all the damage dice at the same time as the too hit.

Fill out the bottom part of the chronicles beforehand to save you some time finishing the end of the game.

*Have Stat block organized so that you can see all the information you need before had. If they have spells or abilities you don’t know try to have those printed so that you don’t need to stop the game to reference them. Printing more than one copy can keep you from flipping back and forth.

And Finally

~Smile!~

Yes that’s right Smile. Enjoy the game you are running interact with the players, be funny give bad guys some dialog during combat, toss an insult out (By Besmaria’s barnacled arse!) expand on the flavor of text. Your sitting with a bunch of people that enjoy the same thing you do, make it fun!

If anyone else has some good ideas please post them.

thistledown wrote:

Michael Brock wrote:

Kolby Sample wrote:

Rawr!!!

Anti-rawr

Rawr?

Write him in all you like. The man no longer wants to be a faction leader. I had a beer with him yesterday and he advised he was happy where things were now.

Well if not as a leader hopefully he will continue to appear in many a bath house to offer his secrets for a price for scenarios to come.

Michael Brock wrote:

Kolby Sample wrote:

All hail Grandmaster Torch, bring back the Shadow Lodge

He doesn't want to come back. He is perfectly content turning info into gold.

In a certain recent scenario where you vote on the new head of [redacted], some of us considered writing him in as a third party candidate.

Played it last night and thats what I wanted to do but the gm was not really on board with the idea. So we voted for the most qualified one who has not been found hog tied in a closet in a prior scenario.

All hail Grandmaster Torch, bring back the Shadow Lodge

Sounds great looking forward to this thanks John

We have to stick with RAW and it clearly says (c/p of the same part, a bit expanded) p.25:

"Within each tier, PCs should play in the
subtier in which they fall whenever possible, but they may
be allowed to play up or down, based on the average party
level at the table, as outlined below. Some scenarios or
special events offer more than two subtiers. In these cases,
no PC can play at a subtier more than 1 step away from her
character level."

This rule has no bearing on a character level 1-2 playing in tier 4-5 in a level 1-5 scenario.

It is specificly for some of the older level 1-7 scenarios and multi level special events like seige of the diamond city.

In those cases a level 1-2 player can not play in tier 6-7 because it is more then one step away (the "step" being tier 3-4).

Congratulations both of you!

I present 6 mighty adventurers who bested the Waking Rune hard mode.

Nailo Tealeaf, the undefeated alchemist.
Tsemichla Tal'Nar, elven alchemist extraordinaire.
Varric Chaoswielder, The Righteousness of Iomedae.
Henric, humble servent of the Dawnflower.
Ahote Takoda, Warrior of Tamiir-Quah
Cyax the Horselord.

Despite the chalange put before these 6 they were able to overcome a 7 hour battle of wills and end the Runelord of Sloth.

Congratulations

If it makes a difference the grab can happen before the Hamatula Strike.

In terms of each attack there is no before hamatula strike. Its part of the attack. The double up on grapple constrict would not happen as far as I can see.

Master Bruno's option Version B would be the correct (and devastating) full attack.

An interesting combo but to be honest I would personaly prefer to never see someone this fully specialized at a pfs table.

My half orc ranger has a pteradon mount from the racial feat beast rider. I have to cast ant haul on it to make sure he stays in light load but it makes for an effective and monstrous animal compaion who is also a flying mount.

I took this feat after a pack of hill giants beat my axe beak mount to death on some stairs.

I asked the question to customer service last week what steps would need to be taken to drop the subscription at the end of mummy's mask and the answer I got from Erik Keith was that after paizo ships book 5 to then send in an email to customer service asking to end my adventure path subscription after book 6. Paizo can then set my subscription to end with mummy's mask and I won't get charged with iron gods.

Its a personal taste thing and for me iron gods offers no attraction. I hope to learn more about the next ap and if I like it I will re subscribe.

I agree with John that for special events hard mode is a great extra flair to put on select adventures.

I am running hard mode waking rune this weekend and looking forward to it. The group who signed up has been preping to work as a team we have had alot of build up.

When I ran weapons a couple of weeks ago the party did not want hard mode and that was good. They were 2 rounds away from total failure and likly would not have survived the additional chalanges.

As lomg as players understand what they can do I like how hard mode offers additional risks and opertunities for teamwork and creative problem solving rather then seeing superheros just power attacking and oneshoting everything.

It would be nice if in the future hard mode also allowed for changes in enemy alignment. More chaotic neutral big bads!

Well I like most of the changes I strongly disagreed with Shaman origionaly being based off the cleric list and have said that the witch list is a better choice. Druid spell list is better but still a mistake, the witch spell list is the best choice in my opinion.

I have been running this for a few groups and this is the pace I have been seeing or expect to see for each section

Intro and Witch tower 4-5 hours
Abandoned quarry 3-4 hours
Hunclay's mannor and cave 4-5 hours
Auction and Town meeting 2 hours
Dragon slayer's tomb 3-4 hours
Creepy abbey 5-6 hours
Lair and wrap up 2 hours

So your looking at 25-30ish hours for just the enconters depending on how well you bring the town to life, side quests, breaks for food and distraction add more time as needed.

Gone and made Aeteperax angry now,,,, I hope your happy John!

At paizocon I had the good fortune to meet John and I'm going to say the over/under for how many bites it would take to gobble him up should be around 2.

More serously I get that it's not John's fault for the hold up. Without knowing for certain I would guess he has been told a few dates now when the chronicles would be released. There is a lot of product coming down the pipe. The next adventure path,10 new classes splat book, beast 4, etc. Some of these are big expensive hadcover books that I'm sure are more of a priority to get them right before they go off to production. What were asking for is a set of 4 pdfs paizo won't make any money. Plus paizocon, gencon, pax are all big distractions. I understand why the chronicles are not a focus as a consumer I do.

That said this is the first of the new modules as a cordinator I want to get these included into our scheduled organized play events to show to the player base. It has not been as easy as I have hoped. I'm not sure if I want to scheduel the new modules going forward but now the second has already been pushed back and we are still waiting on the chronicles for what will be about 2 months.

It does not reflect well on the new format and might drive away people from buying all the things that were added for this. A promotional poster, a set of adventure cards, a paper pawns print. I know I'm not intrest in pre-ordering them from paizo or my local store if it is for an adventure I would need to wait 2 months to get chronicles for.

Any progress been made on the chronicles for this adventure (cough still waiting on ones for dragon's demand) Is it going to be similar to the dragon's demand with 3 chronicles and a bonus? A bunch of my local players have expressed intrest in playing this once it comes out so would be good to get a rough idea how I am going to plan out the sessions.

Thanks for the update John, been holding one group from starting act 2 so they can level and use the same characters.

Chronicle sheets for this will be showing up very soon after Gen Con.

John, any update on the Chronicles? I was hopeing to finish running my first group through act 1 this weekend and then have another group starting act 1 next week. Would like to start schedualing when act 2 will run and get chronicles to players.

Well this was my first Paizocon so I can't compare it to any others so here were my impressions

Pro
-hotel was nice and very close to the airport
-THE MEET AND EAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-The Banquet. Got to sit with SKR, big highlight, and exciting upcoming products.
-Getting to meet so many people an put faces to names. Painlord (truely a pleasure to speak with though only briefly), Rogue Eidolon, SKR, Denis Baker, Todd Morgan, Big Kyle, Gary McBride (So many fantastic stories), Mike Brock and so many others.
-Flying to and from the con with Thursty. Bonus of living in Winnipeg he was a great travelling companion.

They say that people make a con great and these people any many more that I meet really were the key to that.

Con
-food options were somewhat pricey and limited to just the hotel restaurant and a Denny's. Food Trucks would have been a nice option.
-Store was not as accessible as I would have liked, I was running alot of games and would have been nice if the store stayed open after the game slots a bit more. I was able to do some shopping but it was rushed and would have liked more time.
-Being able to pick up my orders at the store and saving myself shipping costs. From what I was told this was something that was done at other Paizocon's and would have been nice to do.

Looking forward to next year

Thanks John I like this idea!

For special events like season conclusions it should feel like a mighty chalange marginaly overcome. I am not sure if this concept should be applyed all the time but for the big special things I like the concept.

Ya the canadian customs was an extra hit for the shattered star set of around an extra $70. I think that order worked out to around $700 after the dragon add+shipping+tax+customs.

A lot of broken mini's in that order but I hope for better this round!