Kyrand's page

Time to bring up an old issue: do skeleton PCs bleed? They are not covered in the FAQ, and I've seen discussions flare up about this.

Some people say that undead PCs don't bleed, as per the normal skeleton creature, but that isn't reflected in their PC statblock.

I personally think that's a strong bonus to be given to PCs, especially since it's not listed in their statblocks (then again, not breathing also isn't...).

Against: Skeletons (and zombies) don't have a circulatory system, so what's there to bleed?
Pro: Magical animating life-force? I admit, it's not a great argument, but I feel it's reasonable. Also, if skeletons are immune to bleed, then so should Poppets. They could lose stuffing, but it's not vital to their functioning.

Not breathing is powerful, but very circumstantial. You won't encounter that very often. But lots of creatures or effects inflict bleed damage, and you could encounter that several times across a single level. Being immune to that while not listed as a benefit feels like a big oversight.

I could envision it being an ancestry feat, or a heritage even, but considering Skeletal Resistance is a level 9 feat, I definitely wouldn't give it baked into the ancestry itself.

It's indirect, but this does already have an answer, in the definition of bleed damage (as copied from AoN, italics added by me):

Another special type of physical damage is bleed damage. This is persistent damage that represents loss of blood. As such, it has no effect on nonliving creatures or living creatures that don't need blood to live. Weaknesses and resistances to physical damage apply. Bleed damage ends automatically if you're healed to your full Hit Points.

While it’s not listed explicitly under basic undead benefits for a skeleton PC, it seems reasonable that a skeleton character wouldn’t need to breathe. Thus they could operate under water without a method of breathing water or an air supply, and wouldn’t suffocate or need to hold their breath if swallowed whole. Air born poisons could still be a problem if interpreted to be contact-based rather than inhaled. The undead benefits are pretty explicit about poison, simply granting a saving throw bonus.

I can see where not needing to breathe might be considered OP, but it is a rare ancestry only accessible via a rather expensive boon that can be purchased only once per player.

Is there any official ruling on this?

https://paizo.com/pathfindersociety/faq

What are the rules for undead PCs in the Pathfinder Society campaign?

Undead PCs, such as skeletons, follow the following rules, in addition to all rules from their source material. Please note that these are campaign-specific clarifications and should not be treated as official errata or design clarifications.

- Skeletons and other undead do not use the undead creature traits, instead using the Basic Undead Benefits (Book of the Dead 44).

- Skeletons and other undead do not need to breathe unless otherwise stated.

- Undead PCs cannot be targeted by PC-casted resurrect rituals or similar. We have updated the Second Chance boon to indicate that it can also be used to bring these PCs back to life in their undead state if desired.

- As per an update to the Guide to Organized Play, undead PCs can obtain an oil of unlife anytime a Pathfinder Society-aligned NPC would give them an equivalent potion of healing. The Character Options have also been updated to allow all PCs to purchase oils of unlife without owning the Advanced Player's Guide.

I don't see a sanctioning document... is this another unsanctioned AP like Agents of Edgewatch?

Society Sanctioning documents don't come out until after the full AP has been released, typically.

Here's to hoping mine gets shipped by tomorrow- I've got a society game on Saturday and I'd love to bring a new hybrid study magus to the table!

Nothing in the book will be Society legal until at least the book's street date, unfortunately.

I couldn't find it, but admit I might have missed it. Will Starfinder Society reset like pathfinder society did when we changed additions and new stuff will be SFS 2e characters starting with a new -01 character?

No details about 2e SF Society have been announced yet, but given that SF1e and SF2e do not look easily compatible at all, I would be surprised if what you describe didn't happen.

I see two main concerns with this option.

1) As others have mentioned, it creates a wealth imbalance.

> If you and the buyer always play at the same tables together, your spent downtime kinda evens out against their extra wealth (even if they paid half, it still counts as 100% for their total wealth value). But if you're always at the same table, you can already emulate this by "lending" the item to them every scenario, and they can "lend" you item(s) of an equivalent value.

> If you're not at the same table, that's when the imbalance shows. They suddenly have gear worth more than the average character, while you at your tables have less cash/gear than average. While some players find Downtime's value to not even be worth counting, the Buyer PC effectively having a free extra half an item is more significant. That's on top of the complexities others have stated about tracking who had the original access to the item in the first place.

2) Given how few Downtime days each PC gets in Society play, I'm not sure this would even be efficient. Let's take two examples:

A) low-grade cold iron longsword. Level 2 item, costs 44gp. So 22gp and 2(or 1) days of setup. Even assuming you got a critical, you'd only make 5sp of progress each extra day, meaning paying nothing more than that 22gp takes you 44 extra days (or 36, since you'd level mid-process). So you're out ALL of your Downtime for just over a level and a half, and the Buyer PC is up 22gp from his expected wealth.

B) Let's go adamantine longsword instead. First you spend the AcP for the boon for adamantine. Lvl 11 item, 1,540gp. You pay 770gp and 2/1 days to start. With Master Crafting and a critical, best case scenario, it takes you 56 extra days to finish that sword without paying a copper more. You've just spent 20 of your own AcP and ALL your Downtime for 2.3333 levels just to give your friend an extra 770gp wealth... At a time when scenarios can grant up to 1,880gp each, and your friend's been waiting around for 7 scenarios

Following events that changed my work schedule, I fell behind in putting the event schedule online. I changed the important dates to accommodate this delay. With apologies.

Important Dates

24 june : GM and staff can fill the form to announce their availability.

20 july : HQ and GM can sign as player for one slot per voluntered slots.

22 july at 19:00 CEST : player sign up opens.

12 August : warhorn will be closed to sort tables.

15-18 August: PaizoCon Europe Online 2024!

I mean, those were absolutely going to continue, given the legacy boons included in season 10.

... I honestly forgot those boons existed, it's been so long. I don't think I've seen a 2E scenario asking if players had any of them though.

Are there any plans to do a Special Edition version of this like was done for Seven Dooms?

Thanks!

You mean this?

eddv wrote:

I think a good solution could be to increasingly just pretend PFS1 didnt happen to be honest.

I honestly thought that was what happened, but then I haven't played many 2E scenarios.

Also, man do I need to catch up if that many have been revealed.

Early in season 1, we were promised that the storylines would be almost completely separate, and that knowing 1E Society lore wouldn't be a requirement to enjoy the new stuff. This continued through season 2, but seasons 3-5 seem to have backpedaled somewhat significantly on this. I don't know if this was always intended or a change in design intent, especially since we changed developers more frequently than the Decemvirate did something shady for a while there.

I‘d really like to play this. Although the nearest Store is a little far to get there only for a pdf…

How does this work with the pdfs? I called the store and they said I can name them the associated Store to download the pdf. But where?

Stores participating (with can be found on Free RPG Day's website) will have physical copies of the products to give out. One month after Free RPG Day (July 22nd), Paizo will offer the pdf for free and physical copies for a small change here in their store. This month of exclusivity is because of their contract with Free RPG Day, and its intent to draw players into the physical stores.

Congrats to Kate, Philip, Travis and Travis!

About six months after the release of the hardcover

Three months, unless they've changed their plans

You become trained in all martial weapons at 3rd, so from that point on the only bonus from using your deity's weapon is crit specialization. And as Hammerjack pointed out, some kinds of weapon can still get that via different archetypes.

Yes thank you very much Kyrand.

I prefer these because (hopefully) it includes all the latest errata.

Unfortunately, they have already said it will not. Probably because they would have had to send the file to the printers before the errata even came out.

You mean these?

Pathfinder Player Core Pocket Edition

Pathfinder GM Core Pocket Edition

They've also announced future pocket editions will come out 3 months after the full hardbacks for main rulebooks going forward.

ElementalofCuteness wrote:

Elemental Instinct Barbarian also forces Kineticist Impulses to gain the rage trait meaning they can ONLY be used when raging and not outside of rage.

I don't think that's the case. From reading it to me it looks like it makes so you can use impulses while raging. Not that it stops you from using unless you're raging

Rage: You must be raging to use abilities with the rage trait, and they end automatically when you stop raging.

Kyrand wrote:

Errenor wrote:

Ah... Wow, that's true. It literally doesn't matter whether the failure is critical apart from the inital damage. The debuff and persistent were the same, as persistent wasn't part of the normal effect at all.

Persistent damage doubling on a crit failure, on top of the spell doing double damage, was likely the reason it got nerf'd.

It does not double. Effects which exist only on failures and have no critical failure lines don't double on criticals. For this spell it's even explicit that only initial instant damage is basic save.

Good catch, I misread the damage as part of the base effect.

roquepo wrote:

Calliope5431 wrote:

roquepo wrote:

So the day 1 errata just hit and Rogues are still getting success to crit success on fortitude saves. Hmmm....

Ngl, that one flying under the radar and the random Tempest Surge nerf (a very unclear nerf on top of that) left me completely puzzled.

Yeah both of those things are really random and weird.

And neither of them was something people were clamoring for or thought needed to happen. I guess people sometimes say tempest surge is good, but it's not because of the random crit fail effects lol

Worst part is that despite Tempest Surge being nerfed due to crit failures, the spell doesn't even have a specific crit fail effect, persistent happens on failure.

So the errata needs an errata it seems.

Ah... Wow, that's true. It literally doesn't matter whether the failure is critical apart from the inital damage. The debuff and persistent were the same, as persistent wasn't part of the normal effect at all.

Persistent damage doubling on a crit failure, on top of the spell doing double damage, was likely the reason it got nerf'd.

When taking archetype feats with the Skill trait, you used to be required to select them in place of your skill feats rather than in place of your class feats.

CRB, pg. 219 wrote:

Occasionally, an archetype feat works like a skill feat instead of a class feat. These archetype feats have the skill trait, and you select them in place of a skill feat, otherwise following the same rules above.

The wording in Player Core 1 has changed.

PC1, pg. 215 wrote:

Some archetype feats in other books have the skill trait, allowing you to take them in place of a skill feat rather than a class feat.

You are now allowed to select them in place of your skill feats rather than required to, so presumably you could also take them in place of your class feats.

(You probably don't want to do that since class feats are usually more valuable than skill feats, but it's interesting that we now seem to have the option.)

This will be helpful in games with Free Archetype, for Archetypes that only have a skill feat at some of their early levels (like Sentinel)

Various issues in the current language of the PFS Remaster Rules linked above:

1) Game Rules 1.3 says (as an "example") that monster abilities such as Grab are no longer automatic, instead allowing a free skill check. There is no such rule in Player Core nor GM Core. The rules were published in the (unsanctioned) Core Preview, and it will apparently appear in Monster Core, but does not exist yet.

The relevant monster abilities were updated in Rage of Elements as well, so the rules are already in print.

I've already had this question answered for me, but now I'm wondering again because the wording of Shove's subordinate Stride is similar. When you Administer First Aid to dying and bleeding creature, can you make a Medicine check for one ailment then a separate check for the other? I assume no infinite loops are allowed; the subordinate Administer First Aid can't have its own subordinate Administer First Aid.

Not as part of the same 2-action acivity, no. You would have to spend another 2-actions to Administer First Aid again for the second condition.

This figure shows as a Preorder, for a date that's passed, and can't be added to cart to purchase either way. Any chance we could get an update on its availability (even if it's "TBD, shipping delays")?

For this, my 10th consecutive GenCon, I put away my well loved purple shirts for the orange of HQ, and experienced life on the other side. It's easy when you're GMing, trying to focus on the players in front of you and giving them the best game you can, to have the other hard-working volunteers in orange fade into the background, the forgotten gears that keep the clock turning. But this year, things were different. I got to see just how much work goes into making the process as smooth as possible for GMs and players alike, and I have a deeper respect for those that give their time and energy so that others can have a better experience.

And players notice the work put in. More than once a group I'd helped handle a scenario mix-up or generics seating request found me later in the event to thank me. That sense of fulfillment, while different than that of running an excellent table, will burn just as bright in my chest for a long time.

Thank you Paizo, the Organizing Committee, our GMs and my fellow HQ for helping us all have such a good time. To next year!

I appreciate the article about how to deal with darkness which helps to manage expectations and ensure players are prepared and brainstorming early.

Agreed. It's been a little frustrating running Abomination Vaults and having the adventure written as though everyone has darkvision (especially in spots where 2e's no-range-cap darkvision would mean you can see multiple encounters at once)

Just a heads-up, the everair mask is marked as PFS Standard for all versions, but is actually PFS Restricted.

I am curious- is this available for purchase early because of Paizocon? I played it there, but I have not seen it in my subscription.

PaizoCon and GenCon frequently get to include scenarios before their official releases, to help encourage attendance. Scenarios usually release the last Wednesday of the month (Nov and Dec sometimes release early due to holidays)

I also agree. For me, them being in such a different environment seems particularly intentional, as a clue to players that the animals are being manipulated into attacking by an outside force.

The issue I ran into while running was the trap... If no characters are affected by it (such as from making the saves or noticing\disabling it), as written, the whole dream sequence doesn't happen, leaving out some crucial info for the players. I personally ran the sequence but had them auto-succeed the saves to avoid giving up anything about their mission, but I'm curious how others handle it

I added March of the Dead and recent PFS and SFS scenarios.

Thank you! I can't imagine it's been easy, picking up and maintaining a project someone else started, so you have my crew's sincere thanks for all the work you've done!

There is a pair in

keftiu wrote:

Any clue what that shiny metal orb crashed into the map is? Central-south, right before Valashmai really begins to fan out.

Pathfinder Society players know. ;)

(It's not metal.)

Is that... Round Mountain?!?

I think the answer is "yes", but just want to make sure...

Can replays be used to GM a scenario a second time and apply the credit on a different PC?

At this time, no. It's one of the things Alex is working on, and might go either way depending on various things behind the scenes.

I have two puzzles about D19 The Forever Stairs.

First: The description of D19 mentions a Will DC to disbelieve the illusory wall that obscures the alcove that leads to Belcorra's suite.

I thought disbelieving used Perception, not Will. Is the text a mistake, or am I misunderstanding the rules of illusions?

Second: Jaul Mezmin advises the heroes to keep their eyes closed if they ever want to escape the nightmare stairs.

I don't get how that helps. As far as I can tell, the two doors that lead out of the stairs are plainly visible, and so keeping eyes closed would not help with those.

And the illusory wall that obscures the way to Belcorra's suite is level 5, and so feels right to the touch, and so the heroes would be just as fooled by touching it as by looking at it.

What is the purpose of Mezmin's advice? How does keeping eyes closed help the heroes?

1) This one is either A) a minor mistake on the author\developer's part, maybe out of habit from a previous edition OR B) is intended to reference this section of the Disbelieving Illusions sidebar: "Mental illusions typically provide rules in the spell’s description for disbelieving the effect (often allowing the affected creature to attempt a Will save)."

2) The spell does say it feels right to the touch, but it does have the Visual trait, which says "A visual spell can affect only creatures that can see it." This (in one interpretation) would mean that closing your eyes makes you completely immune to the illusion, and can thus pass right through it.

During the Head in the Books phase, the PCs have a limited window of time to research Alyreha's work into true names.

Sebnet wrote:

Thanks to this wondrous bit of magical resonance you’ve discovered, I sense we may have a limited window of time to track down what secrets she was seeking to uncover!”

What's in in-story justification for the time limit? I know that the Doylist explanation is so the PCs have to do it. Did Alyreha rig her library to explode or something?

The PCs are still trying to outpace Aslynn discovering and weaponizing whatever Alyreha had discovered.

As a fellow hater of drawing maps, I've tried a couple different methods as I've been running my group through this. Part of the problem is that the maps were never designed for that size... Most of the dungeon's levels would take 2 adjacent Enormous size flip-mats to print/draw. I've resorted to using Adobe to blow the map up to scale, cut it into pieces that fit on a 48"x36" print, and paying to have them done in black and white at my local FedEx Office. Level 9, however... I'm still not sure how I'm going to handle that one. Blown up to 1 inch squares, the full map for level 9 is approximately 9 feet by 7.5 feet. I might have to move the game to Roll20 just for that level alone

Those numbers look wrong to me, so make sure you always read the sanction document -- almost all APs give _1_ level worth of rewards, which would be 12 XP, 12 Rep, 30 Treasure Bundles, and 24 days of downtime.. I don't know any that gives two-levels worth with reduced downtime (as listed above) for a single chronicle)

Neilsen is correct, I fluffed up the math in my original post. Sorry!

There's been a slowly building storyline in Society adventures over the last couple years about exploring the ruins in Droskar's Crag, the volcano that led to the destruction of two major dwarven cities several hundred years ago. The most recent one is a multi-table special where one of those lost cities is rediscovered and opened, though we haven't yet explored inside. A major expansion of dwarven history as we do so could be tied to this book, and new volcanic activity there could tie in Rage of Elements...

While reporting sessions as a GM, there is a little form field called "GM Prestige." What is that and what should I be putting there?

I've run the first three modules for Extinction Curse, and am wondering what organized society benefits I get out of it.

Prestige is the old name for what has become the Reputation earned at the end of an adventure. When running an AP where you can receive a Chronicle Sheet, you receive 24 XP, 24 Reputation, and 24 days of downtime per Chronicle, as outlined in the Sanctioning Documents (the first 2 pages before the Chronicles in the file). For scenarios, where the rewards vary based on success in the story, GMs automatically get full rewards for an adventure, as though they had played it with maximum success. For run throughs after the first, where you do not earn additional Chronicles, you can leave that field (as well as character number) blank.

Yeah, I wrote that section of the book! I am just waiting to see what Worlanisi feats are society-legal!

I should have known, haha! Hopefully we'll get day one sanctioning again :-)

I think worlanisis are one of the species being expanded in Interstellar Species (out tomorrow), so there might be more inspiration for you there as well.

Who is Biglock?

You should read or play #4-01 Year of Boundless Wonder to meet them.

Sounds good!

Pirate Rob wrote:

All of the PF2 Adventure Paths do give you a levels worth of PFS credit to a character of your choice every time you complete a book (or equivalent). Not PFS play but does still punch your PFS xp punch card.

Wait, you mean I can get credit for all the PF 2e Adventure Paths I've done so far, even if not for PFS?

Would I still get double credit for those I GMed for? I've hosted most of Extinction Curse multiple times and have been playing through Agents of Edgewatch for over a year already.

*Dollar Sign Eyes*

Good News- You can get chronicles once for playing and once for GMing, yes. You could report GMing runs after the first to count towards your GM table count.

Bad News- Because some themes in Agents of Edgewatch are iffy at best for games likely to be run in public settings, that particular AP (and Blood Lords) are not sanctioned.

For the disease, I left it at counteract level 5, but we'd already worked out that Absalom is only a 2.5 day trip, so the party medic tried Treat Disease to help the sorceress out on the way. One successful check was all they needed to keep her from getting worse than Stage 3. (They did try to cast remove disease on the way, praying for a critical success)

I would have allowed the curse to show up under detect magic with a Nature check, but no one thought of it. Unfortunately for my party, their full moon came sooner than yours, causing the rogue and unlucky sorceress to transform the night after they headed back to Otari. While everyone survived, it meant losing two days going back to Absalom to get the one remove curse they could afford at the moment. So one PC is still afflicted, but they know they have some time before she changes again.

For the sake of clarity, is it 45 Reputation with any one faction, or All Factions, since All Factions is an existing measurement?

Just wanted to clarify, this is for 2 subtiers, not 3 like previous specials?

While the files are split into 1-4 and 3-6, this is only for GM convenience, so they don't have to print as much. Unlike previous specials, the "subtiers" do not affect if\how it can be replayed, per Alex's post.

My level 3 party took 3 weeks off without knowing the month long cool down of the Gauntlight. The paladin fell and decided to retrain to fighter instead of Atone, and the gunslinger wanted to try the Thaumaturge. Now the Gauntlight is ready to light again, and I'm wondering what it should do.

1. I ended my last session with the light beaming into the middle of town. What creature should Belcorra send this time?

2. What sort of damage should the creature do before the players arrive? I'm debating if having an NPC or two die is too mean.

3. With the graveyard already risen, is there a credible source of dead bodies to use? (And would Belcorra know where it is to target it?) If not, maybe that's a case to have the monster kill a few people before the party arrives, so those people can be animated midbattle.

I had planned to use the creature list from the critical failure result of the awaken portal ritual

Does the reduction in cost come with a grandfathered free raise for those that paid the original price, like when leshies got reduced? Or was that a different case since they were becoming “always available”?

I see that the product description says that the map list is in the front cover for this scenario. However, I am running this for Free RPG Day next weekend, and the store's product is currently not available. Can you list the flip mats that are needed for this so that I can prepare for this?

Free RPG Day adventures typically use only custom maps.

There are some unique aspects of those two specials that we're sorting out. I can search for those two scenarios but it's unclear what season they're a part of. Do you know?

The two Intro scenarios are not part of any season.

David knott 242 wrote:

Is Drift travel different in any way after the Crisis is fixed than it was pre-Crisis?

** spoiler omitted **