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Toshi takes a quick look at the insignia revealed, then jerks upright at the last couple sentences. He has no particular friends in the senate, but he is a merchant, as was his father before him, and his father before him. And he knows how badly something like that can make things into chaos. He blinks as he looks at the figure barging in. He had also been involved in helping this man's past get cleared - a most unpleasant time, as it involved Undead that ate part of his life force, weakening him badly for a time. Thankfully, the village there had been able to help, and also the Linnorm they had defeated at the end had helped him in other ways.
Toshi, who appeared distinctly Qadiran, despite his name, looked around. He looked like a very prosperous merchant at the moment, a little padded around the middle, with a small cloud of Ioun stones orbitting his head. It was only closer examination that revealed that they were all small and cracked, not worth nearly what initial appearances were. He nodded to the host, and asked "Have we an invite? Or other means of entry? How... martial should we appear? With all the ruckus, would it be strange if we wore our more... trouble focused gear?"
I can pick up the scroll, and if Zoomba allows it, make the attempts to learn it pre-game. It's been on my list of things to do - even printed out the page it was on to show a GM, then never got the chance at Gencon. And, if I'm reading it right, I could even cast it on myself, for the +4. A nice little bonus. Hmm. Pick up 2 scrolls, just in case?
Huh, after a bad year when we didn't play much, my party finally reached the Pit of Eons. Clever use of Enlarge Person on the fighter and Monk/sorcerer to allow them reach, too, and of the earlier claimed Wall of Fire scroll meant they were killing the big enemies fairly efficiently. The Summoner was so sure, he sent his flying eidolon down into the pit early, to see what was down there. It passed the madness roll, but failed the aging one, and left immediately, scared. After winning the fight, they debated a bit, then the Summoner cast Aqueous Orb in the bottom (less than 100+10 ft/level), swept it around till it grabbed the dragon scale, and had it climb the stairs. I thought it was pretty clever!
Doing a run through on Reign of Winter 3, Maiden, Mother, Crone, as GM for a party of 5 - Cleric; Bard/Thief; Summoner; Fighter; Monk/Sorc1. The party is in the Maiden dungeon, two of them (Summoner and Monk) got blinded in one of the encounters. The Cleric didn't memorize Cure Blindness/Deafness that day. They then run into the warden of the dungeon, and one of them manages to max out on the diplomacy. So, she offers to assist them. I look at her list to see how she could help them. No cure spells, but, let me get out the book and look this over. Heh. She casts Curse on the Summoner. Has to be negative, so she makes it so he can only see every other minute. He's still blind on the odd minutes, but has sight on the even ones. The monk decides to disparage her work, so she casts a slightly different version on him. Now, he trades off minutes - he's either blind, or deaf! They manage to use this to get through the rest of that day, then the party rests. Next day, the Cleric memorizes the Cure Blindness Deafness spell, but has to cast it for each thing. Succeeds on the Summoner, no problem. Cures the Monks's blindness, but fails on the deafness. So, every other minute, he's still deaf! Hasn't been an issue yet (Actually, helped out once, since he couldn't get influenced by the voice on a later encounter, since he was then deaf).
Is there a problem if you have a level 6 character, and apply a level 1-5 scenario chronicle sheet to it? Obviously, you would get less money than expected for a sheet at that level, but it wasn't in danger of getting the character hurt, so that's likely a wash. But, can it be done, or do you have to apply that credit to a properly leveled character? Does it matter if it was a level 4 character, and the scenario was played by all 1-2's?
As I chose Evocation as an opposed school, and Snowball was my only real damage dealing spell, being allowed to keep it as conjuration is great. As for the Stagger, I honestly only remembered it once, out of the many times I used it. So, not a big deal there. Good options, I can work with this. Thank you!
So, I'm planning to go to Gencon, and spend at least 2 days mostly playing PFS. The main character I will be using is Dark Archive. Are there any of the events that would be best to try to get into? Is there any indication which of the events will be the big, important one? Sadly, the local GM moved away, so this is the best chance I have to play for many months.
What about if you multi-class as both an arcanist and a wizard or Sorcerer (to make best use of some of the exploits)? I'm guessing you get the spells of the Arcanist, and the one level of spells of the Wizard or Sorcerer. What about benefits of high stats? You get bonus spells if you have an Int of 18, as an Arcanist. Would you get the same for your wizard level? What about a Sorcerer level? Would you get the benefits to the Sorcerer level if you had a Cha of say 16? If so, why one way and not the other?
I added the Tomb of the Necrophage from the Tombs of Golarion book. The Centaurs needed the players to go in, because they couldn't fit in the entrance, so the PCs could get rid of the cannibals inside that were raiding the Centaurs. It added some interesting twists to the story, and a few more interesting items. Then, they lost one of the minor artifacts (the club) because it bonded to a centaur child as they passed by. Some nice RPing there, as they had to decide what to do. They decided to wait to the Mother entrance, and went in there, but when it was mostly done, they came out. They passed the tree the first time, by having the Summoner summon a demon from his list, to give to it. The tree refused it a second time, wise to that trick, so they attacked it. Trickier battle than they expected - the movement from the tree caught them all by surprise!
Okay, they might be a touch overpowered. My player's looked out the windows of the Hut, saw the first Giant, and started buffing. Like, a lot. Then, ran out, and killed it in 1 round. Then the second in the round it appeared. Missed a couple swings on the third, so it survived a round, but... by the time the fight was done, they had killed 8 of the giants, and scared one off, without using the Hut. I had switched them to using the middle XP-gain, to slow them down a bit, but even with that, 9x 6400 XP puts them ahead a little, even dividing it 5 ways. And, none of them is really a power-gamer. Yes, the fighter can do a lot of damage, but that's about all he can do, that and tank damage. The Summoner is kind of weak, apart from one slowly diminishing wand and a medium strength Eidolon. The Bard/Rogue is good, and really buffs the party with his Bardic Performance, but doesn't swing things that much. The Cleric was the swing in that battle, with Blessing of Fervor giving them the Tactical advantage they needed to win. But, one or two castings a day isn't that impossible. And the Monk with a splash of Sorceror, so he can Enlarge Self, is decent, but not that great. Is he? Just, wow. They really beat that encounter.
I had a couple players die mid-Shackled Hut, so the new ones got the chance to claim the Mark from the White and Red Rider corpses; which will allow me to end the game (after all 6 APs) with them being taken by Baba Yaga as her new Heralds, with a Grey Rider as well. They did, after all, agree to help free an Evil Legendary Witch.
If you have one of the cracked Ioun stones that grants, say, +1 to an Intelligence skill, I understand it won't stack with another bonus of the same sort, like another Ioun stone of the same type on that skill. The question is, would having multiples of that stone, each aligned to a different skill be feasible, or would they conflict? Example: I have one stone with +1 to Knowledge: Arcana, then get another with +1 to Knowledge: Nature, and a third with +1 to Spellcraft. Is that allowed in Society?
With how my players go through things, they will either jump steps, or explore every stage of this dungeon set. I am thinking of running things a bit fast, and using another level 8-10 module as a filler (here's another key the hut led you vaguely to, now go get it!), like the old modules "No Response From Deepmar" for level 8, or "Doom Comes to Dustpawn" for level 9 - as that one is an alien ship crash, and book 4 is in space, I thought it might be adapted easily enough. Another option is "Curse of the Riven Sky", for level 10, which could be adapted to the hole in the sky being another of the Ice-spreading ones Elvanna created. Is this reasonable, or would it not work? Should it happen before or after the "MAiden, Mother, Crone" module?
Been running my brother (the preacher) and his 4 kids through this AP. As a result, Bella had to change to Solveig's sister, but it still works well. One Rogue3/Bard3, a Summoner 6, a Paladin 6, a Hunter 6 with a White Tiger, and a Fighter 6. The Logrivich battle was brutal and short; Two of the PCs beat his Init, and whacked him hard, then he Crti-Fumbled his first attack, which for us means his turn ends there - no movement, which also meant they whaled on Logrivich unopposed for a full round, and with 2 crits, he died before he could do anything. They had more trouble with the Whisperer that had come up to report to him. The rogue/bard convinced the others to take to time to let him skin the Dragon (and rolled a 20 on that!). Then, they went out, escorting the kids and Bella, leaving the fighter at the top, so they could get away before lighting off the firework. As they exited, I had them all roll Perception, and, for the first time, they all failed. So, they didn't notice the 5 regular mirror men, and 2 Advanced ones (+2 to all rolls, Init, etc), waiting for them. Turns out killing your way through the city attracts attention! Especially since I gave them a side quest to retrieve the belongings and bodies of the previous revolutionaries, who I based on the old D&D cartoon (Ranger with a magic bow, Thief with a Cloak of Invis, Cavalier with a Shield with ForceCage 1/d (but they haven't made the Spellcraft to figure that one out yet), a Wizard with a Magic Hat (Same problem with Spellcraft), a 12 inch pole that can grow to 6 or 10 feet, and a club that allows the wielder to use Barbarian Rage 1/d). This could have been done sneaky, but they decided to Kill the 5 Mirror Men guards; gained them lots of XP, but their faces were now known. To up the fight, Witches could cast spells through the mirrors of the Mirror Men, at the cost of their attacks. Even with all this, it seemed a fair fight, as the group had purchased a Wand of CLW, and used it to heal up completely while skinning the Dragon. The kids and summoner stayed in the base of the tower, while the fighter was on the top floor letting off the Fireworks. However, hearing the fight beneath him, he drank his featherfall potion, and jumped off. The MM had gotten a good Init, and worked together to flank and attack. The Summoner cast a Summon Pit spell that hampered both sides, but the MM more. As a result, they felt they were mostly winning, till I started hitting the Crits! Two of the MM were flanking the Paladin (who was the Anvil, AC 24), and of their 4 combined attacks, 3 critted! He double checked, then announced he would have to make a new character. He had been taken to -26HP! This was followed not too long later with the Hunter getting it in the face from one of the advanced MM, killing her, then a round later, her tiger. Fortunately for the rest, the Fighter on one side, the Eidolon with Reach, and the Summoner using his last spell for a Summon Pit that dumped the last two MM in the pit, and the fighter jumping in after to wreck them (he was the hammer, with a base +12 to all his damage rolls, using a D12 weapon). The group agreed this was a much more fitting 'boss battle' than Logrivich had been.
One of my players (A gnome Bard/Rogue) had Leatherworking as a Profession from the start. Skinned the green lizard from book one and made a headdress of it early on. Now, they just killed Logrivich, and before shooting off the firework, he took the time to skin the medium White Dragon (and got a nat 20 on his roll!). Now, he wants to know what bonus this would make as leather armor/buckler shield. Magic? Cold resistance? Anything? How much can he make with this - boots in addition? More? It's the first path I've GM'd, and really first time I've GM'd in over a decade, so I'm kind of in a quandary how to manage this. I love the creativity, but how do I answer this series of questions?
I went at it a different way. I will have between 5-7 players, so, I let them make their own characters, 20 point build, but they start with 8's in all their stats. Means they won't be as powerful as the pregens, but will probably be very goblinny. I also restricted Wizards, Gunslingers, Cavaliers, Paladins, and Samurai/Ninja. This is most of the player's second characters ever, so it should be interesting to see what they come up with.
How far can a magic item resize itself? Specifically, the party gained a Robe of Useful Items. The previous owner was a medium human. The character that most wants it is a Gnome. Would the Robe Shrink that much? Would it affect how many of the Items are available? What about other items, like headbands, weapons, and rings?
The entry requirements aren't a problem, the only one that wouldn't fit the build is Skill Focus Knowledge. Not gaining the spells, in Society that would be a bit more of a problem, I admit. Hadn't thought of that. Opposition research doesn't look too needed. I did, somewhat stupidly, take Evocation as an opposition school, but then, I'm more about battlefield control than direct damage. We have an alchemist that deals out more damage than I can, or will be able to for levels and levels. Fast study - how often has that come up, where it would be useful? And, can't you take a discovery in place of the normal feat gained, not just the Wizard ones?
Hadn't thought about the discoveries, but with my Int [19, about to be 20], I can get one of the listed bonuses as a Loremaster [+2 to a saving throw, Toughness, or raise a skill from 0 to 4], at first LM level, then Any feat I want at 3rd LM level. Whereas, in same time as wizard, I would get, what, one bonus metamagic or spell focus feat? Or discovery, but for a conjuror, with a secondary focus in Enchantment, are any of those a major bonus?
With all the changes to the straight Wizard for Society [no item creation, mostly], what advantage is there for staying as a straight wizard, versus going into the Loremaster Prestige class at level 8? Related to that, since it requires 7 ranks of Knowledge skills, can you enter it at level 7, or is 8 the earliest?
In our party, my wizard worked with the alchemist, including offering access to spell-lists. Do 0 level spells do an alchemist any good? What about if a metamagic feat was used with the spell to raise it to level 1? In particular, Detect Magic or Read Magic might be useful extracts, for party splits, if they are in the other party from me. What about spells like Magic Missile? Would an extract allow the alchemist to then fire it off, or would it cause the Alchemist to take the damage of the Missile?
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