My only problem with this one is that it's for level 10! Do we get pre-gens for level 10, or do I need to make some up for my drop-in players?
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My party is starting into book 2, and I can gleefully say that they have no idea what parts are from the books, and what parts have come about through their own actions and my scheming! They have fortunately embraced the role play aspects of having downtime and getting to know the village NPC's. Notable deviations so far -
After partying with the Kappa's and some good roleplay, there is now a good trading relationship between the Kappa's and the village - the bathhouse has even been given the 'kappa seal of approval' by the head kappa. How a trading partner with impact food shortages come winter I haven't figured out yet. (As an aside, I'm giving all the Kappas norse sounding names, just to stand out. Vikings travelled everywhere!). Yuli and LeLong are handling the day to day management of the Teahouse for the party. They're likely to start butting heads over how to run the place soon. The duel for leadership, almost a throw-away paragraph, became almost an entire session by itself - and the party didn't even fight! I now have a mob enforcer, a burly farm worker, and an few other NPC's to keep track of, and Zheng Peng is pissed at Granny for asking him to throw the fight. Due to added side quests, there is an abandoned temple to Hei Feng, Lord of Thunder, atop Green Silk Peak, complete with, if restored, a weather altering alter. Also a dead clockwork golem and a nest of griffons. A few of the local farmers are actually disguised Noppera-Bo's hoping to just live a peaceful life and stay clear of all the dangers and hazards. If only there wasn't a thatchling vigilante stalking them... Can't wait to see just what else is going the skew the game in different directions!
I would say you can't just go an orchard, unless you have orchard ready soil and land! Willowshore is a developed logging town, surrounded by wild spaces. To get enough space for an orchard, you'd need to clear enough existing trees for the new trees, and I'm sure some of the local loggers would have opinions about that. So you say - how about that empty pasture over there? The reason it doesn't already have trees in it is because of crappy soil, shallow rocks underground, poor irrigation, etc. So it's not "where a tree could grow" for the sake of the spell. "Aid Harvest" seems like the best way to handle this, I agree. It's a combined effort from local NPC loggers, NPC farmers, and the PC to even get the fruit trees going at all in orchard sized amounts.
I'm looking to theme some of my upcoming society games, and as we go through scenarios at a given level faster then new ones come out I'm trying to find a good way to tie the scenarios together. What are people's thoughts on good storylines, across multiple seasons, to run as a linked campaign type deal? Still run as Society games, with possibly different players each time, but a followable storyline for those players who make it to most games. An example of what I'm looking for - all of the scenarios with the "Sewer Dragons" - the kobolds living underneath Absalom. Across several seasons, cared over NPC's, and a linked backstory.
I'm pretty sure it's a mistake, and should be only a +1 attribute boost, but I kind of like the options it gives if it's not a mistake.
In the remaster Player Core, pg 91, it says that a character's class gives them an "attribute boost to their key attribute modifier, increasing that modifier by 2". Not increasing the attribute by 2, the attribute isn't used anymore, but the attribute modifier! Is this a typo, or a real change? A boost of +2 from the character class either gives us characters with partial boosts at level 1 (as you only get a partial boost if it's more then a +4 total), or let's characters use one of their boosts from ancestry, background, or the free boosts for something else - giving slightly more powerful characters then before.
On a far more metagame approach, if it's easy and cheap for a wizard to make a copy of his spellbook, then spellbooks full of spells should be flooding the market. Every corner shop would have a shelf full, and every wizard would be able to learn every spell. Nope, they, like everything else, has to have enough cost to it to make sure it's not worth abandoning the adventuring life for just cranking out spellbook copies. I also suggest using the "Learn a Spell" activity. Handwriting a physical copy is still going to require testing the new spell and careful proofreading, to prevent a faulty copy, so it still takes time and effort. My only alternate suggestion here - permit a wizard with some sort of "Scribing" lore or specialty crafting to make copies at a reduced DC and/or time and cost.
Some of the bounties are more "Open for anyone, not just Pathfinder society members" type and adventures. Nice for experience and treasure, but not always catching the attention of the Society factions. So some bounties don't grant any prestige, fame, or reputation. Just the gratitude of the local village.
Thanks, this is exactly the kind of suggestions I wanted!
I'm going to be running PFS games at a fairly new store, and trying to build a new community of players around it, while pulling in players from the surrounding area. I'm already working with the regions Venture Team, so I've got the support behind me. What are some of people's favorite Society adventures, thinking about newer players and/or a new venue? There are other stores running games in a 30+ minute driving distance, so some experienced players are expected.
So, the Broken Tusk following was once part of a larger following, but in the face of a great evil, some made a heroic sacrifice to stop it, and were promptly abandoned by the bulk of the following, with only a small number, recovering from their sacrifice, to make a new following they named "Broken Tusk". This Following preaches the ideals of "Compassion, Bravery, and Fortitude", and recruits new members with compatible ideals to that. All this is in the player's guide, if scattered about. What that says to me, is that there are all to likely evil followings out in the tundra, and possibly even the Following the Broken Tusk split from is one of them (and I suspect will turn out to be antagonists somewhere in the AP!) So, culturally, evil hunter-gathers possible and likely. Broken Tusk Following historically good guys and recruiting same, but if the recruiter fails their 'sense motive' check, then...
As tundra dwelling nomads, I'm imagining I'll be handwaving starting gear as "traded for at last years visit to Hillcross" or "recovered from Beorn after his less then successful attack hunting sabertooths". I'm sure the Broken Tusk following has a metalworker among it's members, capable of repairs at the least, and able to set up a small forge when the following camps for a week or so. Skilled leatherwoorkers and woodworkers are present in the following, I'm sure, so some goods not a problem. The big fun will come a few levels in, when the players can't upgrade their gear because there's no place to get real upgraded metal gear. Have to see if the AP elaborates on that
Only thing I'm disappointed in, and am well aware it's outside of the realm of the 12 page players guide format, is a lack of info equipping more primative characters. There's the mention that a player starting with a cold iron sword would have to travel quite a ways to replace it if it's damaged, and sure, some characters would have come to the frozen tundra with gear, but what about those characters native to the area? Are they all equipped with southern style metal armor and weapons, or should they have a chance at stone tipped spears and shields made from a mammoth skull? I hoped some of this will be expanded on in the AP.
Oh yeah, Chapter 4 is all dungeon crawl and combat! After the party has been focusing on skill use and de-escalating combats, this chapter is brutal in comparison! The Fiendflesh Siege happened a few years ago, an was played out as a Gencon, multi-table Society Scenario. https://paizo.com/products/btpy9tld?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-900-Assault -on-Absalom
I love the Vudra section in this book's toolbox! Nice to see a different area of the world covered. For GM's looking ahead, the players don't travel to Vudra, but they fight cultists from Vudra, who live in "Vudratown" an area in Absalom's Foreign Quarter.
"Shanty town established by immigrants who'd been hired to help in the reconstruction of the ruined Precipice Quarter. Now that the surprisingly low paying construction jobs are drying up, many have found that living in Absalom is beyond their means, yet lack the funds to return to their original homes (or would prefer not to)." That's my edit when we get to that part. It still gives a community of impoverished individuals, wronged by the festival organizers and the city by not having been paid enough for their hard work and unable to move elsewhere. It's one thing to add to the list of things to adjust for this AP. Though honestly, I don't think I've ever ran an adventure as written (except for Society play, and, oh man, sometimes it's sooo tempting even then).
Ahh - I'd missed the errata modifications.
"Oh no, poor Hendrik Pratchett accidently had his hotel built on the site of an old secret cult headquarters, and has undead and devils now spawning in his basement!" Easy enough to do as a red herring - could even be partially true, and he's using the old cult summoning energies to help power his nefarious traps. But it's still a bit annoying to have to change things as written and build that into your narrative just because of the title they choose.
I don't think so. In the rules for familiar abilities, it states "If your familiar is an animal that naturally has one of these abilities (for instance, an owl has a fly Speed), you must select that ability." The Faerie dragon has "amphibious, darkvision, flier, manual dexterity, speech, touch telepathy", so I think you have to choose those with your 6 ability choices. Have gotten the Farie Dragon when you had 4 ability choices says nothing about being able to bypass this general rule.
And the existance of ANY items designed for Familiars/animal companions means they can use items, including magical items. There are also several abilities for familiars that let them interact and do special things - poison receptacle, lab assistant, and spellcasting. Regardless, I'd think for using a lot of items, you'd need to give them the right abilities. Giving a familiar a "Hand of the Mage" for example - it allows casting the "Mage Hand" spell, which has Somatic and Verbal requirements for it's casting. So to use it, your familiar has to have the "Manual dexterity" and "Speech". Your other example - "Lifting Belt", specifies that you need 2 hands when activiated, which means it still requires "Manual Dexterity" from the familiar. And, as it takes 2 actions to activate, and minions only get 2 actions when commanded, you lose a full turn of use out of it.
At least until August 25th, all that's out there is the physical copies from game stores on Free RPG day. So until then, I think it's just take your copy to a scanner and get the maps and images - maybe some photoshop skills required! This is what I'm doing. By community use rules, I'm pretty sure I can't scan my copy, edit the maps and images for use in Roll20, and then share them with you, unless I re-draw everything to look different.
Even the Guide to Absalom from 1E never gave street names. If I shrink the Festival grounds to half the scale listed, they fit nicely and are still almost 3/4 of a mile across, while giving a fair amount of the quarter left. The "Hall of Nations" is still about 150 yards long, or a good sized city block. I can even point to a street parallel to the outer wall that I'll call "Jasper", and a street just north of the fairgrounds to call "Whisper Lane" (as they flattened everything from whisper lane to the outer wall for the festival). Here's crappy photoshop screengrabs from the pdf's
With the festival at half the stated scale -
(I made them crappy lowrez, but they're still screengrabs from the official pdfs - if Paizo wants the images gone I'll happily comply)
I'm trying to place the Radiant Festival within the Precipice Quarter, and am running into a problem. By all the descriptions, there are plenty of sites, buildings, displays and attractions in the Quarter, but not on the Radiant Festival fairgrounds. The Tipsy Tengu, the goblin food stalls, the Dragonfly Pagoda, the Dreaming Palace, and the Edgewatch Headquarters - all in the Quarter but not on the fairgrounds. There is mention that the rebuilders just closed off everything east of Jasper street to contain the undead there. However, when I look at the maps of Absalom, and adjust them to match the scale of the map of the Radiant Festival grounds, the festival fills the entire quarter. The shoreline even matches up - though the scale of the buildings in the maps are hugely different. So - is the scale incorrect for one map or the other, or are some of these other locations located in the Eastgate or Docks districts near the Precipice Quarter?
The closest currently out in official stuff is the "Pacifying" rune, in the Agents of Edgewatch book. Doesn't change your own damage - but once you damage a target, they have to save or take a penalty when making attacks that aren't non-lethal, while receiving a psychic message that they should stop doing lethal damage.
My plan, if the players get suspious of him, is to try and steer their expectations into thinking he'll be a victim later, that they'll have to rescue/work for. Let them visit the hotel run by the guy (but it's too pricey for them to stay at!), mention how construction has unearthed things (like the skeletons in the first chapter), make them expect that perhaps his hotel repairs have something sinister breaking into his basement. Basically, paint him as a quest giving NPC rather then a the future Villian.
Nice! But looks very new construction and well planned and funded. The way they talk about the Edgewatch as only half funded, and with all the fast construction and repair on existing buildings going on, I always pictured the watch headquarters shoehorned into some existing, half repaired building. My imagining puts in the shell of what was once a grand hotel, now with half the rooms collapsed and just boarded off, and holding cells being old rooms, just with a cell door repalacing the old door. Of course, I haven't got around to drawing it, so you're ahead of me.
In the adventures description of how the Edgewatch was set up, they mention that it's not really funded and paid for by the city, instead set up more like a 'Freebooters Charter'. So officially, the watch has been given an official license to claim treasures from lawbreakers, in lieu of a more regular paycheck. Fortunately, about half the time the adventure specifies that "the grateful citizens give the guard the treasure, as thanks for their help". It's that other half, and it's lack of clear rules for 'fines', that's a bit sticky
Something with good social skills. If you don't want to be a face-type, then go for a wide range of skills. Yes, they're be fights, and you'll need to do damage at some point, but there's an strong push to try and talk your way around many fights. Also, Paizo is growing fond of dumping skill check challenges in more and more encounters, often with unexpected skills.
Easiest is just to use some of the NPC statblocks from the gamemastery guide. Guard (CR1), Watch Officer (CR3), and Captain of the Guard (CR6) should give a solid stating point. There are rules there for adding ancestry adjustments, for the dwarf, as well. I think they've left out the statblocks, because they don't expect you to get into fights with your fellow guards. Optimistic of the authors, I know.
One thing I wold like , though, is a better map of just the Precipice Quarter. I keep trying to fit the map of the Radiant Festival onto the Absalom Map, and matching the shoreline makes the Festival cover 3/4 of the Quarter. However, from descriptions, there's obviously a lot of buildings, restored or otherwise, in the quarter but not on the fairgrounds, with the fairgrounds being "from Whisper Street to the edgewall"
Forget spoilers in the item description - there's the big spoiler right in the name of the book! "Devil at the Dreaming Palace", in the very first encounter you meet a guy who runs a hotel named the "Dreaming Palace". How is any player not going to make at least some connection there?
The only problem I see with a gingerbread man familiar is language related. If you get the feat that let's you speak to the same creature type as your familiar, does this mean you can speak with other baked goods?
Thanks Moximus! You (and Porridge last week) have really helped me out!Are there any new 1st or 2nd level Sorcerer class feats in the APG? If yes, can someone with the book or pdf let me know what they are? Many thanks! I'm glad to help, and it gives me an excuse to read up on different chunks of new rules!
Are there any new 1st or 2nd level Sorcerer class feats in the APG? If yes, can someone with the book or pdf let me know what they are? Many thanks! There are! Ancestral Blood Magic (1) - you gain the blood magic effect when casting non-cantrip spells that come from an ancestry or heritage Anoint ally (2) - let's you give a blood magic effect to an ally Entreat with Forebears (2) - gives a bonus on social checks with creatures that share your bloodline trait, as well as bonuses to perception and saves against them.
Do the new rogue rackets get feats offering special debilitations at level 10 like the original rackets? And if so, are they sweet? Eldritch Debilitations, adding a stupify effect or inability to step to your choices on debilitating strike Methodical debilitations, adding the option to make the enemy not able to flank, or not gain advantage from cover or shields And, as a bonus, bloody debilitation, level 12, to any rogue trained in medicine. where you choose to add 3d6 persistant bleed damage to a debilitating strike
Prereq is simple - trained in Nature. The dedication gets you the animal companion feat. If you already have that feat, with this you can get a second animal companion. How that works, though, is you only have one companion with you at a time during encounters, the other is assumed to be close by, foraging for food or something. You can spend 1 minute doing the "Call Companion" activity to swap out which you have with you. So you're never juggling multiples during one combat.
What level is Verdant Seed? I can't find any ability called "Verdant Seed" - I think you're thinking of "Verdant Weapon", which is a level 1 Druid feat, that let's you create a verdant seed which you can transform into a weapon and back to a seed as an action.
Right off - Poisoner gives some alchemical abilities, and helps with some melee range attacks, but has nothing that will help a crossbow user. Bounty Hunter - gives the "Hunt Prey" ability from a ranger, but after that it's tracking and posse things. Not much crossbow help Archer - almost everything refers to weapons from the "Bow" group, which includes most crossbows. Adding crit effects if your expert trained, profenciency in advanced bows, good stuff. Best is "Crossbow Terror" level 6, which adds +2 damage AND increases the damage die is the crossbow is a simple weapon. "Archer's Aim (8) let's you do a 2 action shot at +2, ignoring concealment and reducing the flat check from hidden. So of the 3, it's no contest.
The "Scout" archetype? The dedication give's you the rangers feat "Scout's Warning", and improves the parties iniative when you're scouting. After that -
Haven't heard anything about the Herbalist archetype. What does it? The dedication gives you the ability to create alchemical items with the healing trait, (plus antitoxin and antiplague), like an alchemist but with only half the daily reagents. It also lets you craft these things using nature instead of crafting. There's level limitations though. Later feats give you bonuses when using natural medicine, and let you use native plants to add bonuses on top of your elixirs.
Are there any new Rituals that have been added in the APG?New as in "never before in Pathfinder" new, or just Ritual spells in general for this book? 'Cause there's 13 ritual spells. I haven't played PF1E, so I couldn't tell you what is or isn't brand new. 13 rituals in the APG - Heartbond, Reincarnate, Unseen Custodians,Rest Eternal, simaculum, Astral Projection, Heroes Feast,Ward Domain, Teleportation Circle, Word of Recall, Create Demiplane, Clone, Fantastic Facade. And there is a Ritualist archetype - don't need to be a spellcaster, just expert in arcana, nature, occultism or religion, and get bonus to ritual casting
At what level can the dragon,slime, and imp be taken? To get the special familiars, you have to able to give a familiar enough special abilities. The standard for familiars is only 2 abilities, with adding bonus abilites through feats like "Enhanced Familiar" To get the Spellslime, you need to able to give 4 abilities, 6 for the Fairie dragon, and 8 for the Imp. So a wizard, or someone taking the "Familiar Master" Archetype, could get the spellslime by level 2. With the archetype, dragon by level 6 and the Imp by level 10. There's likely other methods for adding abilites for familiars (I know witches get more abilities for their familiars, for example)
Arcana remains pretty bare, with no new skill feats. Nature, however, gets 2. Religion gets 2, and Occultism scores a whopping 4 new skill feats! Nature
Religion
Occultism
I dunno if it has been discussed but what do the improved familiars look like? I know imps, faerie dragons and spell slimes were introduced can someone post about one of them? Like do they get special abilities? The fairie dragon is a tiny, flying, talking dragon, and you want more? How about a once an hour breathe weapon of stupifying gas? An imp has what you'd expect - is a good at lying and resists fire and poison. And can turn invisible as well as offer infernal pacts (get a reroll in the next hour - but if you die in that hour, soul goes to hell!). Be aware, unless you've went for the Familiar Master archetype, it's gonna be pretty hard to get his guy. Spellslimes, despite the name, cast no spells, instead coming from spellcasting residue. But they've got more hit points, immune to criticals, heal when you refocus, and can sense magic nearby.
This is cool - but what I'd like as a player handout is the issue before this. Articles with a hint of missing people, ads for newly opened attractions, profiles of prominent business people. Fluff pieces about the Radiant Festival as teasers for the players to discover.
Any information on the Familiar Master Archetype would be appreciated, especially if you think it would mesh well with an Alchemist. Thanks for giving us all this preview! The biggest selling point of this archetype, is it's pretty much the only way most characters can get a fairie dragon or Imp familiar. Otherwise, it's good for getting a familiar or boosting an existing one to have abilities to choose from, extend the range of spells, and even help the rest of the party a bit. It's just slightly more useful for a spell caster then an alchemist, but that's on feat choices.
Do oracles have any special advantage for following a dieity or is there a particular cleric/champion option that I should look at for this? While Oracles cast divine magic - "An Oracles wields divine power, but not from a single divine being" and "This is the Oracle's Mystery, a source of divine magic not beholden to any diety".No Oracle abilities directly connect or mention worshipping a diety or grant access to any domain abilites of a diety. So you can choose the "battle" mystery, say you worship Gorum, but you don't gain any of Gorum's domain abilities, as an example.
Which of the new ancestries/heritages can have natural weapons? How about this - of the new heritages/ancestries, only the Aaasimer and Duskwalker do not have an option for natural weapons. All the others vary between it being part of the heritage choice, or a 1st level feat, and all are either 1d6 or 1d4.
Vigilante gives you 2 identities, each with their own name, alignment, and abilities. The alignment of each must be within one step of the other. The important part of what you're asking though - "you are eligible for abilities that require a certain alignment (such as a cleric's deity) only if both your identities qualify." So both identities need to be the same to get your Champion abilities, it seems. As for a good fit with a melee character - the vigilantes abilities are mostly aimed at making the social identity disguised, and only a few vigilante feats help in combat, and only add status effects like flat-footed or frightened for a turn.
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