Matthew D. Correll's page

I have attempted multiple times unsuccessfully to order a copy of the PDF version of the PF2 Core Rulebook. When I click "place order" nothing happens and I get no confirmation. Also the product is still in my shopping cart. The debit for the product shows up on my bank account where it lingers for a few days until it eventually drops off because the sale did not go through. I'm not sure what could be going wrong and potentially I may be making an error and not realizing it. Any help that you could provide in resolving the issue would be most appreciated.

Thank you,

Hello all. I have been playing this game and its famous predecessor for over twenty years now and there is a theme that comes up periodically for my players. How realistic do we want to get?

Typically the concept gets tabled because any standard practice of adding levels of realism to the game typically ends up in creating additional rules to a system that is already rules heavy. That being said there are a couple of things that pop into my head as a game master that I would prefer not to ignore if I can find a reasonable way of managing them.

1 - Spell component pouches. These handy little items can be found in most spell casters' inventories. They cost 5 gold pieces and once acquired that particular spell caster is set for life assuming they aren't robbed blind, dipped in lava, or otherwise left bereft of all of their earthly belongings.

Part of me has always thought about applying some kind of rule in the vein of 1 spell component pouch = x castings of spells. The problem is that not all spells require material spell components and tracking could become cumbersome.

Another idea that I had is that spell component pouches have an expiration date, and after a certain amount of time has passed that fresh components would need to be acquired.

2 - Gear wear and tear. This is similar thematically to the spell component pouch situation but with a twist. Adventurers are out in some of the most dangerous places in the world fighting hard and putting their gear through just as much stress as they are putting their bodies' through. How frequently should I as a game master make the players aware that their gear is not invincible?

A big portion of this question applies to weapons and armor which of course take the largest brunt of the characters' punishment. Do I make the player roll saves on all of his gear whenever they are victim of an area of effect saving throw? How about potential of a weapon breaking from repeated use? Should their armor take damage whenever the character takes enough damage to bypass the hardness of the armor?

The same questions could be applied to clothing, backpacks or other containers, as well as some other gear.

What do you guys think? Is there anything you do in your games to handle the types of situations I've mentioned above, or am I just putting too much thought into this little game of fantastical heroes, magic, and monsters?

Hello everyone.

I'm in the middle of constructing a two-weapon fighting combat style Ranger who employs a shield the majority of the time.

The character is 6th level, with a Strength of 16 (25 point build), and currently has the Improved Shield Bash, Two-Weapon Fighting, Shield Focus, Dodge, and Improved Two-Weapon Fighting feats.

The character is currently armed with a Heavy Pick and a +1 bashing light wooden shield. Here's where my question begins.

From the reading of the Bashing shield special ability, "...The shield acts as a +1 weapon when used to bash...". Does this break the normal rule of the enhancement bonus applied to a shield for armor class must be purchased separately from the enhancement bonus applied to a shield for attack and damage? I feel that it does as the description does not say that the weapon acts as a magical weapon. It specifically states "as a +1 weapon". Also the Bashing quality does not state that it provides all of your enhancement bonus to your shield bash so theoretically if I had a +5 Bashing shield but did not buy a separate enhancement bonus for attack and damage then the shield would still only act as a +1 weapon when used to bash. I could be off but that's why I'm here. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Also would the upgraded shield bash damage from the Bashing special ability and the increased shield bash damage from adding shield spikes stack with each other? Currently the shield does not have spikes, but I wonder if I should change that or not?

Good afternoon gamers!

I am currently playing in a Rappan Athuk game. One character has already fallen to the super dungeon and I'm on my second. Seeing on how this place is a grinder for PC's I thought it would be a good idea to start building my next replacement character should the worst befall my current character.

With that being said I have a couple of questions about the character concept I'm currently building. The character is a Tiefling Cavalier in the Order of the Seal. This reference, this order is called to protect a specific object, a place, or a secret. In this case the place he has been ordered to protect is Rappan Athuk itself, or in actuality he has been ordered to find a team to go into Rappan Athuk, discover what source of evil is drawing all of the little baddies to it and destroy that source. Failing that he has been ordered to find a way to seal the dungeon so it can no longer be a threat to anyone. Basically these are some really impossible goals, but as he is a Tiefling and perhaps not as trusted as other members of his order it gives me a good reason to send another character to this death trap. Now that we have the backstory out of the way here are my questions:

1) Are there any rules that I can be pointed to that describe the dangers of using firearms underground? There may not be, but I just figured I would ask, I imagine a lot of this is going to be common sense type stuff (how sound travels underground, loud noises causing cave ins, and those sorts of things).

2) Can the "Gifted Firearm" ever be upgraded. I can't seem to find any reference to if it is possible or what would be required. I could just elect to pay the masterwork weapon price and then later the price for enchantment, but I'd like to be sure I was doing it within the rules. Alternatively I could have the Gunsmithing feat apply to the character the same way it applies to a Gunslinger which more or less seems to the first option, but it makes no mention of anyone being able to do that other than a pure Gunslinger. It may be possible that the "Gifted Firearm" can not be upgraded but I was just curious.

3) Are there any feats that allow you to take additional Gunslinger Deeds? I know that Amateur Gunslinger allows you to take one 1st level Deed, but I was unsure if there were any feats that allowed you to expand this feature for the Luring Cavalier/Musketeer. Once again the option may not be out there. The main reason I am asking on this one is to determine if Extra Grit would be worthwhile.

4) What feats would you recommend? Just the ranged combat feats (kind of a no-brainer), but are there any other feats that you would recommend that lie outside of the Point Blank Shot tree?

Disclaimer: I've read a few earlier threads that answered some of these questions but not all of them, and I do know that it seems a bit more cost effective to multiclass Cavalier and Gunslinger, but I would like to see what could be made without multi-classing if possible. Thanks in advance for your help!

**Disclaimer: the following are observations based off of the information available to me at the time. It is not meant to suggest anything about any of the contestants, their entries, or the judges. It is simply a bit of boredom induced fun, while looking at the Round 2 threads.**

Hello gang!

I was just sitting around with a little time on my hands, reading through the Round 2 posts, when a thought entered in my head. "If the judges opinions were the only ones that counted, who would be going to Round 3?" So, finding myself in between things to do I decided to crunch a few numbers. I assigned each judges declarations of "I do", "I don't", and "Meh" with a numerical value. "I do" = 2, "Meh" = 1, and "I don't" = 0.

Here's what I came up with:

First, if it were totally up to the judges, this is who our Round 2 winners would be: Awakened, Everbloom Monk, Floodwalker, Forecaster, Gralton Infiltrator, Green Knight, Huckster, Outsea Delver, Red Adder Magus, Riverhelm, River Wrangler, Skinchanger, Uringen Assayer, Wandering Judge, Water-Born Votary, and Water Snake.

Secondly, I constructed a breakdown of which classes got the most judge-love during this round:

Turns out the Magus gets the most love with a 100% recommendation across the board. Of course, that's sort of easyish since there was only one Magus to vote on. 2nd place goes to the alchemist, who received 88% judge-love between 5 entries.

On the other hand, the Druid and the fighter are tied for the least amount of judge-love as they received 0% recommendations and not even a single "Meh". Sorry guys!

Finally, I did a little stats in facts on our judges:

SKR is a hard man to impress (and rightfully so). He only recommended approximately 41 % of the contestants to Round 3. Although it is important to note, that he always had a firm yes or no stance in the judging. His fence is pristine, unsmudged, and I imagine, frequently dusted.

Clark was a little more generous recommending exactly 50 % of the contestants into Round 3, and his fence is slightly used, although I imagine it's still looking pretty good.

Wolfgang recommended 28% of the contestants into Round 3, and at first glance it would seem as if he might be a tougher judge than SKR, however, that is not the case. Wolfgang prefers to hang back and let the voters sort it out, and so his "Meh" pile totalled up to around 38%.

Well, all, that's it for the stats and facts, and of course I use those terms loosely, as I an not a professional statistician or any other word that seems wierder when you type it than when you say it.

A good day to all, and wishes of good luck to all of the Top 32. Not all of you will be going to Round 3, but you're all awesome gamers, of which I am proud to be an electronically based acquaintance thereof.

Cheers!

I've been lurking around on the boards and reading all of the "monk-hate", and have been noticing that one of the things that people wish was different about the monk is the whole not being able to move and flurry business. This makes sense, and I know I've seen more than my share of "kick-flicks" that feature some martial artist clearing a room in a matter of seconds by zipping from one place to another swinging and kicking and whatnot until all of the bad guys are drooling on the floor.

Various people have also mentioned that this could be balanced by allowing the Ki Pool give your monk a Pounce like ability, which seems like a good way to balance it.

So here's what I've come up with, Ki Barrage: By spending __ amount of Ki from your Ki Pool you can move up to half of your move action and flurry as a standard action.

This doesn't seem overpowered to me being as by the time you get Ki Pool you are moving 40 ft which would get knocked down to 20 ft for the use of this ability, and at level 20 (assuming your character goes that far) your looking at 45 feet of movement with a flurry (also assuming you don't have anything that allows you to increase your speed further like the Fleet feat).

So what do you think? Sucks/Doesn't Sucks? How much Ki would make this mechanically sound for the class? Would it be possible to use this for a Dervish like hit-move-hit-move tactic in addition to a pounce tactic?

Not sure if I'll end up playing this one or not, but I think I'd like to so I'm going to go ahead and ask for some advice on this build.

Disclaimer: I'm not particularly looking for an uber optimized character. I am looking for something that will be fun with lots of personality.

Basically I have something along the lines of Mandrake, the Magician (Yup, that cheesey old Defenders of the Earth cartoon) for this character concept. The well dressed magician that looks like he just walked off of a Vegas stage, and uses his various tricks/magic/what-have-you to solve mysteries and beat the bad guys.

My starting point is to run with a Human Bard with the Magician archetype and possibly even the Soundstriker archetype since the two are stackable, but these things are by no means mandatory.

I figure I will probably take on the Dilletante feat to make up a little bit of ground from losing Bardic Knowledge if I go the route I'm thinking. Possibly also some feats to increase the DC's of either Enchantment or Illusion based spells. Other than that though, the concept could go who knows where.

So, here we go. What sort of ideas do you all have?

Ok so as someone who generally feels that they have a grasp for the rules I occasionally get suckered in by my own logic, and a possibility that I had long ago misjudged as impossible gets shoved in my face and I have to do a double take.

The culprit: Archtypes, specifically the combining of Archtypes.

When I originally started reading the rules about the Archtypes in the APG, I literally assumed that if you took one, then you *only* got to take one. I guess my brain was going back to the Class Kits from 2nd ed DnD.

Well after taking a overly long vacaction from the boards here, I have returned and began reading all about how different builds that people have implemented combined archtypes (ex. the Vivesectionist/Chirurgeon Alchemist).

Well assuming (see, there I go again) this tactic is legal in standard play (and I can see no reason why it wouldn't be) then from what I understand you can combine any collection of Archtypes as long as the abilities that the Archtypes are replacing do not overlap. Is this correct? Also are there any other rules that would effect the combining of Archtypes or that would prevent certain Archtypes from being combined?

Also is there a specific book or FAQ that talks about combining Archtypes? Thanks for your help in advance. I'm still in a little bit of shock that I didn't know about this sooner.

It's getting ready to be my turn to run for the group that I have been playing with for years now, and I am thinking of running CoT, just because I love the idea of a campaign where you are actually making a difference in one place and not trotting across the globe.

I was just wondering what people's experiences where for the different levels of point buys and if it's going to make that much of a difference if I go with 15 pts vs. 20 pts. or even 25 pts.?

My group will be between 4-6 players depending on who all actually signs on for this one, and there is a fair spread of heavy duty role players, rules lawyers, and power gamers involved.

So, that's it for now. I want to give my team a good show, but I also don't want to be perma-face palming when they blast through all of the baddies "like butta". So come one, come all. No advice will go unconsidered.

Thanks, in advance.

Ok so from time to time I contemplate taking a concept a little off of the beaten path. I usually do this by looking at the rules and how they are conventionally used and then finding a goofy little loop hole and running with it (mostly for laughs).

In this vein I was perusing the Duelist and noticed how most of its abilities required the use of a one handed piercing weapon. And then I said to myself, "Self, isn't a Heavy Pick a one handed piercing weapon?", and after taking a moment to double check I found that it was much to my glee.

So now I'm on a theoretical journey to build a Duelist who uses a Heavy Pick, and invite suggestions, comments, or criticisms.

In other words, feel free to "pick" this idea apart...pun very horribly intended :)

Hello.

I am writing to inform Paizo that I never received my copy of "The Final Wish" I thought maybe things were just taking some time, but yesterday my copy of "The Bastards of Erebus" arrived, so I think something may be up. Is there anything I can do about this (without paying for the cost of the book again, or printing the PDF version?)

Additionally my order of the Core Rules is currently in Pending status, even though I pre-ordered it, and I'm not sure why. Any information you could provide on this matter would be greatly appreciated

Thanks for your time and attention to these matters.

Hello all. I'm looking to start a PFS chapter in southwest VA, particularly the areas around Roanoke, VA (Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Lynchburg, Salem, etc.) and was looking to see if there is any interest from players in the area. If anyone is interested let me know and I'll shoot you over my contact info so we can get something started!

Hey there. I have been running a Homebrew that is fairly centered on the events of the Darkmoon Vale. The group has already gone through Hollow's Last Hope and Crown of the Kobold King and is looking into beginning Carnival of Tears soon. The game meets weekly on Sundays starting at approximately 2 p.m. and going on until everyone agrees to break up for the eve. Currently the party is at 3rd level.

2 things of note: 1) I do not dole out xp per encounter or session, however when the group accomplishes a main goal or finishes a module, the group levels; and 2) The game is very character driven so creating a detailed character background is highly recommended although not necessary.

Anyone who is interested please feel free to contact me and I will be happy to set up a meeting with you. I currently only have three people playing in my game and would like between 1 and 3 more to round things out.

Additionally my wife is planning on starting a new homebrew based out of the Land of the Linnorm Kings; so there may be an opportunity to get in on two games.

If I set up a subscription for Pathfinder Chronicles or one of the other very nice subscriptions that I can choose from, will my first product from the subscription be the first product created for that subscription (issue #1) or will it just start off with whatever book happens to be the current product (or current issue)?

I just want to be sure before I sign up for any subscriptions so I know what I need to do as far as purchasing back ordered issues.

Thanks so much! I've been reading everything I can about the Pathfinder game and I definitely think this will be a new home for my rpg's for the forseeable future!

Hope I didn't confuse anybody with my question.