Laird Triath's page

Many settings assume that the gods very rarely if ever intervene directly in the mortal realm. They have clerics and other faithful to do that for them, and merely provide divine magic and the occasional cryptic prophecy.

You might want to take a look at Green Ronin's The Book of the Righteous (originally for v.3.0, now available for 5E). It provides an in-depth look at how to run a game with churches that have been infiltrated by imposters, or corrupted away from the god's original worship. The book as a whole presents a fully-developed pantheon with information on each god's legends, church, and precepts. The shared mythology of these gods includes a divine compact which ended direct conflict between gods, but also allowed fiends to tempt mortals. One effect of this compact is that the gods can't (or don't) intervene to cleanse their temples of false or corrupt priests. One major god's church has been almost entirely taken over by a vast conspiracy of priests of an evil god. Several others have splinter sects that are corrupt or outright heretical. (The book posits that these latter might receive their spells from a source other than they god they claim to serve, but only the gods know the truth.)

Green Ronin's Freeport setting includes a similar situation, where (per Cults of Freeport) one of the major temples in the city has been infiltrated by an archfiend's cult that now controls it entirely. The temple's original god is quite furious about it, but largely powerless to act and reveal the truth. And in the original Freeport Trilogy, there's an example of a more benevolent imposter cleric who never suffered any consequences for his deception.

This is quite the lengthy (and insightful) reply - thanks, Tim! I'll admit I know next to nothing about the lore other than the basics, so I appreciate you taking the time to provide this.

I always found settings where something other than the Gods was answering back (like Ravenloft, for instance), so I'll need to try to read more into the heretic stuff, too!

As some of you guys've said, I was sort-of hinting toward the idea that - even if the followers don't know about the blasphemy, the Deity might, and might therefore task their followers to deal with it (as opposed to, as you say, direct intervention).

I wondered if it might offend the God, or the religion, for an Arcane caster to be goin' around profiteering off of the God's reputation without having earned that position, or paying due tribute/respect. Even if this wouldn't bring any real harm to their reputation, although arguably it might do if this unscrupulous individual is seen to be charging for heals in Bahamut's good name (for instance).

I'm not talking about the specific spell "Blasphemy", but a more general sense of blasphemy.

Basically: say I have a bard with healing spells (or any other class, really), but I pose as a Cleric of a certain God for some reason. Be it profit, infiltration, etc.

Would you have consequences to doing this? Are there specific rules, or is this more a GM discretion thing?

Assume the character isn't caught out in their lie - so there's no legitimate clerics or paladins that're offended by their actions. The Gods would surely know, however?

I dunno - just a small scenario I was thinking of today. Wondered what the wider community thought.

GM Blake - that's the logic I was following. Thanks for clarifying!

I guess - in terms of overall rules - it's one of those "there's no clear rule, so GM is the final arbiter"?

This one feels very Skald to me.

And Buccaneers have the pick of most Alestorm songs. :D

GM Blake - I'm actually kinda confused now. The check is a Bluff check - so everything else is treated as bluff in regard to aiding another with it, or stuff like that.

But the application of bonuses is to utilise Perform bonuses, and not Bluff bonuses? Or vice versa?

Apologies if I'm picking it up wrong.

EDIT: Wait, just read the OP you linked - so you'd apply the (in Diplomacy example) the bonus for the fancy clothes AND the ocarina?

Since James Jacobs said "they should probably stack", I assume that's what he means?

Glad I'm not the only one that second guessed, at least!

Thanks Pendergast for the detailed reply - the difference between your own and Andy's comments are why I'm confused by it!

If I was going to go rules lawyer, I (personally) from an RP standpoint think it makes more sense to use the base Perform skill, and apply bluff bonuses to the check, since it's a bluff check which you're using your own unique skills to do.

So, if I'm using Diplomacy on someone and I have +2 to Diplomacy due to wearing Noble or upper-class clothing, that makes sense in RP to me. Whereas, for instance, if I have +2 to Perform (Wind) because I have a fancy magic Ocarina, it makes a bit less sense that I'd be more effective.

In my view, anyway!

But since I was sure it just works as a straight swap anyway, I had just wondered if - due to the PFS badge being specific to PFS and somewhat separate from the main game - that might apply differently! And if not, I'm still interested to hear the views of experienced GMs like yourself. :D

Also thanks Andy for the move! I actually was thinking to have it in the PFS forums initially, but then I second guessed myself. I appreciate it.

Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone can provide clarity on this!

So I'm running a Bard. Thanks to Versatile Performance, I'll likely be using my Perform checks rather than a lot of my skills. I know that these checks (I think) replace the entire check - ie. even if I receive a +2 to bluff for wearing fancy clothes, I forfeit that if I decide to use Perform (Sing) instead.

What I DID want to ask about, however, was this PFS-specific rule:

"Once per session, while wearing a faction pin matching your character's faction, you may add 1 to any skill check. If you apply this benefit to one of your faction's favored skills, listed below, you instead roll 1d4 and add the result. For this roll you also treat the faction's favored skill as if you were trained, even if you don't have a rank in it."
Sovereign Court: Bluff, Disguise, and Knowledge (nobility)

Would this essentially mean that, as a Bard, the benefit from Sovereign Court would be less useful to me than (say) one of the other factions? Or, as it's a PFS rule relating to the merch or whatever, would this bonus be applied to the top of the check?

I asked one DM who suggested it'd likely be down to the GM on the day, but I was curious of a community thought on the matter, or even if this is something that's been tackled in the rules at some point.

Laird Triath wrote:

Sovereign Court might also be an option, but I think she has her heart set on the Sages.

Scarab Sages faction is retiring this Season (by the end of July).

Your friend can still sign up now, but she'll have to change to something else over the summer.

Oh! Thanks for the head's up - I'll let her know.

Fuzzy-Wuzzy Thanks! I did a google <"noble" site:archivesofnethys.com> search, but I was only finding Noble Born, Noble Scion, Ex-Noble. None of the others!

That's exactly what I was looking for, though. Much appreciated!

There's the Keleshite Princess trait, though A) that locks her into being Qadiran and B) bonuses to charisma skills aren't terribly useful to a wisdom based ranger.

This is a possibility - need she be human, though? She's built a half-elf so far.

Sovereign Court might also be an option, but I think she has her heart set on the Sages.

EDIT: Can you direct me to where I can read on vanity awards and the like? I couldn't find this in the CRB. Perhaps I missed a download somewhere?

Hey guys,

I'm helping a friend build her Ranger and I wondered if there are any traits related to Nobility which are PFS Legal? Obviously Noble Born isn't, and I had mistakenly read Noble Scion as a trait, only to realise later that it's a feat.

For character purposes, she wants to have a noble character, and it'd be nice if there was SOME way to have this influence gameplay in some way.

Also, on a related note, I wanted to check that Rangers do only get one feat at first level, so she'd not be able to take that one as a feat anyway? (She wants to specialise in Archery, so it'd be a wasted feat).

I couldn't find anything, but as Pathfinder rules are so big, and I'm still wrapping my head around the whole thing, I wanted to check with you guys

Appreciate your help!

@Syries - that's a good idea, but I think I'd probably prefer the FCB for my own class. Particularly as it allows the option of increasing my bardic performances, too.

That said, it may be worth thinking on, as it's an ability that doesn't require waiting until level up, and can theoretically be used more often.

Thanks guys! I appreciate it, and now I have a good site to use for reference.

It seems that, of the PFS-legal options, there aren't many that're any more appealing than Multitalented, however. :(

Oh well - I'll think on it a bit, and see where I want to take things. I've not much interest in multi-classing, except possibly prestige, which isn't applicable to Multitalented iirc!

Hey guys!

Apologies if there's another thread addressing this, but I couldn't find anything in my search.

Are there other traits to replace Multitalented (Half-Elf racial trait) aside from the Arcane Training trait (which is useless to Bards, if I understand correctly?)?

I found Blended View, which I was quite fond of for obvious reasons, but apparently in the PFS rules that's a banned trait.

If anyone could advise on other alternatives which I may've missed - or if the Arcane Training IS of use to a bard - that'd be appreciated!