I played this scenario at Gen Con, and it was great. Considering its ties to Siege of Serpents, and having played it a few nights previous, it was especially fun.
Not sure if this was a mistake or not but on 322's character sheet:
For people who want no info going in about abilities:
322's Interstellar void ability does not have the rules restriction text on it from the void mystery stating that it can be used once per day plus an additional time at 10th level. As such it became an ability which dealt a big chunk of damage, that could be used every turn, so there was almost no reason to use other damaging spells, since it could be used infinitely.
We eventually had to rule that the void mystery text took precedent, because the Oracle was just blasting everything. It might have been intentional, but it lead to a bit of imbalance.
Generally I say get a weapon ASAP. Not only will you be more effective, but you'll also bypass DR/Magic without assistance.
I also think that I'd shy away from getting a Belt of dex, if you want the AC bonus, go for a ring of protection, or similar item, or better yet, just get half-plate or higher for better armor.
Your belt can be Str, Con, or even Charisma. Also, a cloak of resistance is always a strong initial purchase, to boost your already admirable saves.
Judging it from a Pathfinder Society perspective, its more useful, but not super exciting. Firstly, wands are cheap enough that people are going to use that instead of waiting for 2 hours.
In a dungeon its not useful for regaining hp, in a scenario where you can take the two hours between encounters sure.
So I've lost my fair share of arcane casters, and I've been itching to try one out again. I have a level 2 witch. However, now I'm starting to get that sinking feeling, as this is often where I lose it with my Arcane characters.
Right now she's got 14hp, and only an 11 AC. I have a wand of mage armor which I use pretty liberally. What general tips/items should I shoot for so I don't bite it the way I normally do with my caster characters.
Swarmsuit - If you know its coming, makes you immune to it, so you can just walk past it.
Spells:
Gust of Wind and any spell that creates wind works on them. Even though the swarm is a Large creature, you treat it as though it were the size of the individual creatures in the swarm.
Wind Fan (5.5k gp 1/day each additional time 20% cumulative chance to break)
Elixir of Forceful Exhalation, 3 gust of winds within an hour of taking it.
Scrolls of Gust of wind are your best bet for that spell though. Druid/Magus/Sorcerer/Wizard
Anything that does area of effect damage does 50% more damage. Generally swarms have less HP than a monster of similar CR.
I find that rules/tactical play don't bog down combat, unprepared players do.
I come from RPGA/4e background where its basically a miniatures game with vague roleplaying layered over top, and we could get through a big complicated combat quickly as long as players were engaged and didn't waffle when it got to their turn.
Unless the last player totally screwed your turn plan up you should know where you want to move and what you want to do and be able to roll dice and rock on.
On the infernal healing kick, be careful using it in S5 scenarios. In 2 of the 3 scenarios we were surrounded by paladins, who, if bothered, could detect evil and get ticked that you detected as such.
Generally you want to be using a Lucerne Hammer or Earthbreaker. Both of which would make a sizeable enough hole in a wall.
If it was a 5ft thick wall I'd make it a small sized hole though, unless you work at it. If it were a small wall, like the side of a non-reinforced building like an inn/tavern/home, its too cool to force any silly rules and you can bust in like the cool-aid man all day.
I'm really lukewarm about the whole thing. I'm glad I did it, but my group wants to use GM stars to replay it at 10-11, and I'm not sure I'm sold.
Spoiler:
First two fights weren't that difficult. We had buffed before we went in, b/c we thought we were going to teleport straight into a fight, turns out we were right, so we had our defenses up.
Runelord himself didn't feel that bad. From previous sessions we had learned that he was a conjuration specialist, so we figured, the worst conjuration spell you can get hit with is cloudkill, so we had purchased a scroll of life bubble, which negated that issue and acid fog.
It was more annoying than anything, with him going through walls/teleporting between the inner and outer rooms and conjuring stuff. The individual summonings weren't that hard. However, we did all get hit by an empowered Horrid Withering which outright killed 1 party member, and almost knocked everyone else unconscious. Thankfully our life oracle didnt get hit by it, and was able to channel everyone back up.
The cleric had cast whatever the +2d6 damage against evil creatures on the zen archer, and that was largely responsible for the fight ending quickly. We also went in with only 2/6 runes down, b/c we had no way of entangling the one rune, or dealing negative energy damage of any kind.
I love crunchy fights, so I'm all for hard content, but this was just kind of annoying more than anything.
The time between scenarios is indeterminate, and so when I'm GM, whoever the cleric is is free to do with their character whatever they please, if they stick around to cast spells on their companions, then they are free to do so.
For your other cantrips, take stabilize. its not a touch spell so you can zot somoene to stabilize them from 30ft. It'll stop your allies from panicking.
What has been said about CLW is very true, dont bother preparing it, buy a CLW wand with 2PP (which you'll get from your first scenario), and then use that instead. You can basically keep it in your hand b/c you're not fighting in melee with a weapon anyway. For your first scenario borrow someone else's.
I would probably sacrifice wisdom or dex to get you some charisma. It'd fit with your Joker theme, that hes scary and weird, you could take intimidate and use magic device instead of craft, acrobatics, or knowledge: history. It is a good spell to have.
Just start keeping track of mobs which are immune to mind-affecting spells on a piece of paper. Oozes, undead, demons, etc. Slumber hex will be really harsh on fights for a few levels, basically a Save or Die spell.
The spell component one seems a little more questionable to me, especially with spell components like sand, or a bit of lint etc, how do you sunder sand when its already sundered stones?
However, the alchemist vial of 1oz is the same description as a potion vial, and you can certainly sunder potions and oils.
Elves of Golarion. Which I think is a 3.5 era book.
Also It is not in the pf SRD for whatever reason. It leads me to believe that they dont particularly support it, but you could obviously use it in a home game, so the ruling is mainly, whatever you and your GM decide.
An attack of opportunity “interrupts” the normal flow of actions in the round. If an attack of opportunity is provoked, immediately resolve the attack of opportunity, then continue with the next character's turn (or complete the current turn, if the attack of opportunity was provoked in the midst of a character's turn).
So, it would appear that you interupt the characters actions. So if you sunder someones bow and cause enough damage to cause the broken condition then they take the appropriate penalties for using a broken weapon. If you cause enough damage to destroy the bow they cannot make the bow attack now. Assuming they were going to full attack with the bow, they could move and as part of the move action draw a weapon (assuming +1 BAB or higher) and then make an attack as a standard action. Of course most archers will pick up the feat so they don't provoke an AoO when firing.
Any archer worth his salt that is :).
The last question is whether or not the bomb is sunderable at all. It would seem to me that it is, but I had someone call me out saying that since it is a supernatural ability that it couldnt be sundered. However the rule states that you use a glass vial, which is hardness 1, HP 1/inch.
There is an elves of golarion item called Cluster Shot Arrows. I dont have the PDF but it seems like the arrow gives you 50% of the crit damage from the first arrow on all subsequent arrows.
If it were me, I'd say that it does not apply to the manyshot arrow, since the manyshot arrows on the first attack are a single attack, but if it crit, it would apply to the remaining arrows you fire as a part of the fullround action.
If I am using an AOO to sunder as the result of either someone mixing/throwing a bomb or using a ranged attack, and I successfully sunder their bomb or bow (assuming bombs are sunderable), does the attack go off?
From that thread: "Also on page 201 under sunder: "You can attempt to sunder an item held or worn by your opponent as part of an attack action in place of a melee attack."
AOO's are a melee attack. The same clarification was used in the official FAQ of the core rulebook to show that you can make multiple sunder attempts as a part of a full-round action.
then that still begs the question of an alchemist throwing a bomb, or similarly an archer shooting a bow. If I sunder it on the AOO they generate from attacking/throwing in a threatened square, does the AOO happen before or after they throw it? If it happens before you could sunder their bow/crossbow/bomb and prevent them from making the attack.
Then the question still remains about whether or not an alchemist bomb is even sunderable.
Fair enough, that was never the intention of the question. It was more along the lines of, my opponent retrieves the spell component from the pouch, then starts casting a spell. As an attack of opportunity, can I sunder the component, stopping them from casting the spell?
So, in beginning to play a sunder-oriented character, I was struck by a few things about Sundering that aren't 100% clear in the rules:
Can you sunder an alchemist's bomb. It would see that you would, as the rules state that the alchemist is using a 1oz vial with alchemical liquid in it, in the same fashion as a spell component. I assume that if an alchemist were to throw a bomb while in my threatened area, I could sunder as an AOO and potentially destroy it. However I've heard the argument now that it is a supernatural ability, i.e. the whole process is a supernatural ability and thus doesnt have hardness or HP and can't be sundered.
That brings me to the second question, is this a way to essentially stop spellcasting in my threatened area with successful sunders? For example, an opponent takes out a twig as a part of a spell, they attack, provoking, and I sunder the spell component (not pouch since they've already taken it out), and the spell can't be continued without it. The same is true of potions and oils. I guess my question specifically is what triggers the attack, beginning to cast the spell, or ending it? All of these questions are somewhat moot, if your opponent quaffs the potion and finishing the potion is what provokes, not starting it, if I were to sunder an empty potion vial, it makes no difference, and I wouldnt even be able to sunder a bomb if they'd already thrown it at me.
I play a Zen Archer and the first two levels aren't bad, and its worth it to just go ahead and flurry anyway. I think the penalty is like only -1 or -2 at level 1? I don't remember it has been awhile. The percentages work out in your favor to get the second attack even if both are slightly penalized than to take one at a slightly higher percentage.
Also, my stat build is similar, 14 str/dex. I did dump int for more wisdom, as the bonus to hit is really important. Played human, which is strictly not necessary because you're not really feat starved, but I like human stuff mostly.
In addition you gain your wisdom to your AC which is also important. At level 7, with a wisdom headband, I think my AC is base 20, 24 with ki defense, 27 with barkskin up, 31 with a mage armor portion. CMD is even more dumb. If I'm near casters I wont even 5 foot out of combat if I'm near a squishy, I'll just sacrifice the extra flurry attack for a ki defense.
Its the price you pay for being able to stand 100 ft out of combat, while the fighter stands 5-10ft.
Also, the precise shot tree is ridiculously good so if he's not taking it he's not trying to be an archer. Ignoring anything but full cover and then ignoring EVEN THAT is so stupid good and hilarious that its worth taking.
My friend got the Secret Shadow Lodge boon, and was really bummed because he had no SL characters and doesnt play except at conventions to be able to trade.
Our GM stated that when they had played the mod before, that in the Demon General battle, that their demon was killed by a ballista bolt fired by the low level tables, so we were cheering every time we got a bolt off. It was kind of nice that we had fired off a shot right as a monster died, then there were 5 rounds between that and the next monster appearing, and so got 2 shots off in like 5 minutes because we were just zapping with cure wands and readying actions.
My character also died to the same encounter. I had some issues with the encounter here.
I'll spoiler tag the stuff that would give away things or is too really meta-gamey.
The specials always feel weird because you have way more combats/fights than any other PFS mod.
Spoiler:
This was typified in the last fight where you have to fight encounters that in any other game would be a single encounter 5-6 times in a row.
Also, I don't believe it was a GM chooses the encounter, after I died and the rogue in our party died, our GM asked us to roll D6's periodically right before a new wave approached, so I think it was a table of monster encounters.
Meta-game stuff that I noticed:
I died because I was cranking one of the smaller turrets, which I dont think had an effect on anything. Our GM was marking down rounds to fire the larger turret, but did nothing on the smaller turrets, leading me to believe that my efforts were for nothing.
Huge jump in difficulty between the first set of encounters and the last. When we were running around town trying to help out it seemed like the fighters were about as well tuned as you got, a little dangerous, but nothing that a little strategic combat couldn't overcome.
Then we get into the outside big battle, and we have monsters that can one-shot folks, multiple monsters with really harsh attacks and the like, etc.
The worst was however, that it wasn't clear what making the zones "safer" was doing. I'm not even sure there was a difference between a fight in a zone that was red or green, b/c we still fought demons and stuff in safer zones.
All this being said, my teammates pitched in money to offset the cost of my resurrection in gold, so I was able to come back, albeit with no gold.
I had a really good time with it actually. The feel was great, and it was fun to see the seekers
Spoiler:
giving low level tables boons early, and the low level tables grouping together to give the seekers boons in the form of ballista bolts in act 2.
I think moving forward the continued use of folks proposing to their girlfriends will help shore up the hopeless romantic demographic/avid gamer demographic cross-section
As a non-caster are there any ways to mitigate the usage (by NPC's) of Darkness and Deeper Darkness spells? It seems like in the PFS games I've been playing these spells (along with entanglement) have featured prominently.
I obviously can't cast daylight myself, and have no character-skill related way of dealing with it. I play an Archer type and as a result I'm often stuck taking a wild guess as to where someone is and hoping I picked correct, can hit, and can deal with the miss chances (in total darkness).
Are there any items I can get to make this process easier?
I really want to run the shattered star adventure path with my friends in addition to my normal games at my local shop. However, they're new to pathfinder and would have to play at level 1, and it seems that I'd need to have level 3-5 characters to run part 3 of the first section.
Now, parts 1 and 2 are enough to get them to level 3, so it makes sense that they would want there to be an appropriate level for other pathfinders to do that mission. However, my question is this, am I not able to play parts 1-2 with my friends playing their level 1's for credit?
I guess I'm just confused in general as to how it works if I want to run the entire path start to finish.
Honestly my next character is going to be one for this reason. Well, that and I wan't to be a party face for awhile after shooting arrows really effectively for the last few months.
It has happened a few times in my past few sessions that my mission was charisma based, or based off a single knowledge based check. If you, like many, took charisma as a dump stat, or don't have the exact knowledge skill required, what is the best plan?
Generally I don't like asking for help for roleplaying reasons, and if my character would fail a diplomacy check to finish a mission he'd most likely fail a bluff check to convince his party members to do his faction mission for him.
They are asian themed, which may not be everyone's deal, but painted correctly it'd be just fine. Also, the hats are a little much, but maybe a head swap is possible I haven't seen the sprues yet.
Pathfinder Society GM. 36 posts (65 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 26 Organized Play characters. 