Lalochezic's page

I'm running Giantslayer on Roll20 and wanted to show the players a photo or picture of the Plague House. I've got the etching of the Plague House from Rodrik's (rest his soul) journal but I wanted something else that kinda set the mood for what the players are getting themselves into.

Does anyone have any artwork of the Plague House that I could use? I'll credit the artist!

Thanks for the insights, folks. What about doing calculations for reposition, dirty trick, drag, and steal?

I'm using PCGen to generate character sheets for my NPCs/Encounters/Players, but my older version doesn't have the CMD/CMB for Dirty Trick, Drag, Reposition, and Steal. I can't get an older version because I'm using a Mac (only 6.07 vs. 6.08 on Windows) so I'm thinking of manually calculating the CMD/DMB for the other maneuvers.

But the CMB/CMD differs depending on the maneuver I'm performing.

For example, CMB/CMD for grapple is +7/20 and Sunder is +9/21.

I know the formula for CMD is:
CMD = 10 + Base attack bonus + Strength modifier + Dexterity modifier + special size modifier + miscellaneous modifiers

And for CMB is:
CMB = Base attack bonus + Strength modifier + special size modifier

Is there a specific formula to the different maneuvers? Or is the miscellaneous modifiers constant different between maneuvers?

I’ve seen caterpillars that are stronger than my player’s PCs so I’m looking for alternative games to play. I was thinking of playing Hide n’ Seek:
1. The hiding team would be town elites (Kurst, Rodrik, and Omast) and primarily use stealth to hide but survival to cover their tracks (for the sake of this game as opposed to using the actual feat)
2. Seekers would be the PCs and Ruby, who would primarily use survival or perception to find them

But I’m not sure about the mechanics. Was thinking of:
1. Seekers roll for initiative
2. Can do survival (opposes by NPC surcival) or perception (opposes by NPC stealth) checks (full-round and standard action, respectively)
3. Go to location (1 move action) and looking at it carefully (standard action) or opening it up and check inside (like a barrel, another move action)
4. Rinse and repeat for possibly 10-15 rounds (1–1.5 mins).

Did anyone else do hide n’ seek with a particular set of mechanics? Or do you have a suggestion for how to develop the mechanics?

I asked this here because it’s more of a mechanic question as opposed to an AP question.

I’m starting an AP soon and in the first five minutes it suggests getting the PCs to play Tug O’ War with NPCs. It uses primarily STR, but I’ve seen caterpillars that are stronger than my player’s PCs so I’m looking for alternative games to play. I was thinking of playing Hide n’ Seek:
1. The hiding team would be town elites (Kurst, Rodrik, and Omast) and primarily use stealth to hide but survival to cover their tracks (for the sake of this game as opposed to using the actual feat)
2. Seekers would be the PCs and Ruby, who would primarily use survival or perception to find them

But I’m not sure about the mechanics. Was thinking of:
1. Seekers roll for initiative
2. Can do survival (opposes by NPC surcival) or perception (opposes by NPC stealth) checks (full-round and standard action, respectively)
3. Go to location (1 move action) and looking at it carefully (standard action) or opening it up and check inside (like a barrel, another move action)
4. Rinse and repeat for possibly 10-15 rounds (1–1.5 mins).

Did anyone else do hide n’ seek with a particular set of mechanics? Or do you have a suggestion for how to develop the mechanics?

Are you running it online or in person?

With friends or people you found at a local game store / online forum?
(Because the rest of these answers can change depending on those things)

Players I know personally, some I played with in other sessions and some are folks I discovered were closet Pathfinder/DnD players. Mostly playing online because the maps are HUGE.

Thanks for all your tips! I can’t imagine they’ll change much based on the setting but maybe they do? Have you got stuff to add/want to change?

I’m a new GM and will be starting my first campaign really soon. I want to make sure my players are having fun, but I want to be sure they’re playing in a safe environment, e.g. be inclusive, allow everyone a chance to roleplay/speak/roll checks, don’t make jokes at the expense of others, avoid dark themes where possible.

I’m planning to ask my players if they have any triggers they want me to avoid. Is there anything else you or other GM’s do to make sure your players are playing in a safe environment? What are the mechanics of how you go about your sessions?

The 6,3,1 is the spells known in your head. You get to cast 4 firsts and 2 second for the day. It is in the first chart

https://www.aonprd.com/ClassDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Arcanist

This makes sense now, thank you!

I wanted to clarify the rules of how an arcanist would cast their spells.

An arcanist casts arcane spells drawn from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. An arcanist must prepare [their] spells ahead of time, but unlike a wizard, [their] spells are not expended when they’re cast. Instead, [they] can cast any spell that [they have] prepared consuming a spell slot of the appropriate level, assuming [they haven't] yet used up [their] spell slots per day for that level.

Okay so there are a few parts to this, the first being spell prep:

An arcanist must prepare [their] spells ahead of time...

Coming from playing a witch, I get how this mechanic is done (8-hr rest + 1-hr study of certain spells form spell book)

Second is the part that sets arcanists apart from wizards:

...but unlike a wizard, [their] spells are not expended when they’re cast.

So does that mean I can cast the same spell more than once per day?

The third part is the small-print to the above rule:

Instead, [they] can cast any spell that [they have] prepared consuming a spell slot of the appropriate level, assuming [they haven’t] yet used up [their] spell slots per day for that level

So I can cast the same spells for the amount of times equal to the number of spells I know per day?

Here's a scenario based on my understanding, so please correct me if I'm wrong

Let's say I have a level 4 arcanist. that means I've got:
- 6 cantrip spells/day
- 3 level-1 spells/day
- 1 level-2 spell/day

I'll skip over the what cantrip and level-2 spells I prepared and just focus on the level-3 spells. I prepare color spray, gravity bow, and mage armor.

The cantrip spells I prepared can be casted willy-nilly as many times a day based on another rule.

But it's a little different for my level-1 spell, right? Let's say I was at range for a combat. I cast gravity bow to shoot from afar but casted color spray to paralyze a mob. Because of the second part of the rule, I could cast color spray again on another mob that wants to have a go at me. However, because of the third part of the rule, I can't cast anymore level-1 spells.

Because of the restrictions on the number of spells I can cast/level, once I cast my level-2 spells, it's done for the day.

Is that right?

I've looked around the interwebs and found some things on multiclassing, some for and some against. Despite this, there are some benefits for a caster to dip into melee and vice versa, or two melee (fighter+rogue) or two casters (wizard+sorcerer).

What I see are fewer examples of arcanists multiclassing with a melee combatant. I ask because I'm in the midst creating a backup character who's arcanist 2/rogue (unchained) 1 for flavor/story but also mechanistically so my squishy caster has better ability hide/stealth/escape when need be.

I already see some downsides to this, namely that I won't have access to higher level spells as quickly (4th level to get 2nd level spells??). Mechanically, this would seem like a good enough reason to stick with a pure arcanist and just get a good archetype (School Savant or Occultist), but the lure of a good story feels too good to ignore.

My questions are:

1. What are other considerations for multiclassing an arcanist, and are these enough to not multiclass?
2. How would you "successfully" multiclass an arcanist with an unchained rogue (e.g. how many levels in unchained rogue, what unchained rogue talents to pick up, what skills to focus on, etc.)?
3. What arcanist archetype would be good (I know School Savant and Occultist are really good, but would they still apply to an arcanist/unchained rogue character?)
4. Did you build the character's story first and the build second with any success?

I'm quite (very) new to the game, so if you're going to explain some game mechanics, I may ask a lot more questions to clarify what some things mean. Being new also reflects why I would focus on story and flavor more than I would mechanics, so help me understand the balance between the two.