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In pre-remaster I'm pretty sure it was possible. Haven't looked deep into the remaster rules yet to know if that changed. But given than the +1 run is about half the price of the striking rune, it tends to never come up.
For a single anecdote about an encounter using this more lethal interpretation of the rules: Last night we had an encounter, that knocked my character to dying 2 in the first round. The party healed me, I retrieved my weapon, stood up, and stepped away. (Under the old rules I probably would have struck). I had a reach weapon so with the step I could still attack next round, while forcing the opponent to spend an action to come to me (or more, likely, attack my closer allies since it appeared to be mindless. Next round it put a lot of damage on an ally, but didn't drop anyone and we got some healing out. I missed with a spellstrike, used a hero point (had one remaining after this), still missed. Next round it dropped our second frontliner (only dying 1). Our primary healer was now out of spells, our secondary in-combat healer was down. We knew were in trouble. We also knew the enemy was getting low and had a weakness I could trigger. Next round, I tried another spellstrike, missed, committed to winning the fight or dying, used my last hero point (lower). Second front-liner made the recovery check, so safe, but unconscious. Boss knocked out a third character. We tried kiting the boss, stole two of its actions for one of ours each, but it still crit me, so dying 3. At which point the bard managed to finish it off. But we have no stabilize, no healing, no consumables (miscommunication about what we could purchase in the first place/lack of loot), no one up who was trained in medicine. So we had one dying 3, one dying 1, and one unconscious. The dying 1 stabilized on her own. I passed my first recovery roll (dying 2), before we had any ability to help. By the next round we were debating having the bard try to administer first aid, untrained (spent the previous round getting the healer's tools off one of the downed combatants). (So my DC 12 flat check, versus her DC 17 @ +2, IIRC) We decided on my flat check. I made it -- dying 1. Next round same idea, but I failed --- Dying 3. Next round we decided to risk her DC 18 check. Since I would need three passes in a row and if either of the first two failed it was death. Felt roughly equal odds and wouldn't drag things out. She succeeded. It definitely felt higher stakes. It still felt fair (and I'm someone who didn't like the new interpretation ahead of time). it highlights some lack of healing redundancy in the party, which I think was the greater problem than this version of the rules.
Historically, PFS1->PFS2 did not unlock any additional options in PFS1. T Races were more locked down in PFS1 -- mostly only available via GM boons or convention rewards. ACP was an designed to help make ancestries a bit more available for people who couldn't attend conventions as a reaction to that system.
We've only had one edition change in Paizo's organized play campaign to compare to, so its hard to make any concrete predictions. But for PFS1 - PFS2 ->
If we had 3-4 edition changes it would be easier to see what patterns have emerged, but with only one edition change, we can't really tell. There's also been a fair bit of staff turnover at Organized Play at Paizo so there may be a lot of new/different opinions on what they want to try when its time for SFS2.
In the Pathfinder Society FAQ. I linked to the CRB list, but there are other expandable sections there for other books.
While thematically that can make sense, I suspect they'll continue the trend of practically all charity boons being Background based, in order to avoid having to deal with forecasting if any two arbitrary different charity boons break the game if stacked. As long as the unlock is tied to the singular background of the character, they don't need to worry about that.
Check the guide for the order of operations when applying credit
Yes, see the store page for a volume of the AP:
I think there's no central list at present, you'll have to click through to a store page for a given AP volume to check. To my knowledge however all completed 2e APs, except for Agents of Edgewatch and Blood Lords, have been sanctioned. The character options page, I think, at one time had a list of the individual AP volumes & Adventures (Fall of Plaguestone, etc), but as about year 2 that was getting so long that it was causing formatting problems compared to the rulebooks and lost omen lines.
I believe in 1e there was a special note taking/monster knowledge boon that allowed inter-scenario tracking of that nature. In a home game, I wouldn't consider it metagaming, but in PFS2 without some tracking (or having it directly mentioned in the summary) I can see the controversy. We don't know if you successfully recalled knowledge, we don't know if the party saw the special ability/weakness.
I'm trying to prep this one and running into more things that are confusing to me than normal: A) On the briefing and Maze itself:
2) The question/answer portion implies that the Maze is physically in Galt, rather than the extra-dimensional space I think its usually presented as. 3) The Q&A then says you're going through the Maze to get to Galt to enter the Maze.... It feels like we're being warped to far end of the guided tour and then coming back, which seems a little odd. Had we simply been teleported to Woodsedge under the guise of having a "normal journey back to the Grand Lodge through the Maze" that would have felt more clear I think. B) On the Familiar Faces/Making a A Getaway bit: It feels a little odd to call out predominantly high-level scenarios -- Revecka and Waterfall are all from scenarios that are too high for the characters to have encountered. I know the sidebar calls out player, not character, but this is awkward from a "ask about a ton of different scenarios, across all the player's chronicles, and then it might not matter at all". Usual heavy callback scenarios are limited to a smaller number of relevant scenarios that are often signaled by Metaplot tags. C) Mechanics
2) Napsu-Sign: IIRC all PCs have access to it, but would still need to spend a language selection on it. Additionally all PCs are expected to know a small subset of the language even without knowing the whole language. Is Taiwalei's usage here expected to be within the "freely known signs" (more akin to squad tactics hand sign signals) or is this something that PCs might not understand? 3) Robber Novices: Combat Pickpocket: Which restrictions is it intending to relax on the underlying Steal ability? I'm assuming its intended to bypass the automatic failure for in combat. Does it also bypass the Negligible bulk only restriction? Does it bypass the -5 for in a pocket/closely guarded? 4) Treasure Bundle checkboxes, sum to 16 treasure bundles, not the usual 10. I'm assuming the second line-item with the three check boxes should be "1 TB each time..." not "3 TB each time"...
Minor point, but I think your ward medic numbers are assuming Master proficiency before you can get it (you're multiplying by 4 and not 2)
Confirmed, Module is installed and everything looks good now.
I think it looks like some bit hasn't been flipped over in Foundry land -- after purchasing the content and activating it on my FoundryVTT account the key shows up as successfully activated, but you can't get the manifest url to install into an actual foundry server. The modules also don't show up in the list of possible Paizo premium modules. The link from the activated content that should go to the module description page instead redirects back to the module search page.
How does the Deluxe option handle the Chronicles that the GM would need to distribute to the players?At present, the Deluxe Editions provide a Chronicle code and a link to a printable Chronicle Sheet PDF for each included scenario. We're also actively looking into ways we can improve and automate that process in the future with expanded support from various Paizo APIs! It makes me very happy that the Front End/Tech team understood the question and had a good answer ready :)
How does the Deluxe option handle the Chronicles that the GM would need to distribute to the players?
Both versions are played. This is probably obvious, but just in case, if its labeled PFS2 then its for PF2 and vice versa for PFS1. I just peeked in on the Recruitment forum here though and only about 1/2 the threads were obviously labelled by their title, so you might need to read the opening post or ask the GM if its unclear. For games played elsewhere (such as VTT games through the OPO lodges), or in person local lodges, both types that tend to use Warhorn it is much more obvious which version a given game is using.
Yeah, I could see something coming together late next year -- if the new Core Rulebook is a Divine focused supplement as some people expect, that could flesh out some outer plane mechanics, coupled with a LO book that is more about them in detail, and then an AP for the story. That tends to fit the way the lines self-reinforce each other. However there's lots of other ways a divine focused slant could go.
I think the reason why a book of bosses doesn't really exist is that a great boss fight is the union of three-four things:
If you "just" do a book of (a) the the fights will tend to fall flat. If you try to include all of a-d for each "boos" in a book, it becomes much harder to fit an arbitrary selection into an existing campaign. Look at Lost Omen: Monsters of Myth, that's almost a Boss monster book, and is basically (a) + lore. It still leaves most of the work to the GM craft b-d to make the boss work for the campaign though. And while I enjoy the book, it's not one that I see people talking about a lot, so empirically it feels like it's not the most popular format.
This is all spoilers, but listing scenarios and their destinations that involve the Maze of the Open Road. I'm sure there are more in 1e, but I don't know those) Maze of the Open Road location:
Grand Lodge (almost any scenario that involves it) Galt/Woodsedge (Mistress of the Maze, and I think the second Dacilane adventure) Somewhere in Thruvia (Trappings the Hags Claw) Somewhere in the Mwangi Expanse (The King in Thorns) Regarding maps of the Maze
scenarios that has a partial map: takes place inside the maze and has some battle maps and descriptions.
1-24 Mistress of the Maze Regarding Maps of the Grand Lodge:
Spoiler:
PFS1 Season 2: Year of the Shadow Lodge Special PFS2 3-06 Struck By Shadows I'm sure there are more, but those are the tow I can think of immediately.
PFS2 is almost always significantly ahead of the expected wealth by level. You'll most likely be able to afford all your fundamental runes as soon as you ding their level. In general non-PFS pacing you'd typically only see at most 50% getting their runes immediately (or before) at the minimum level, with the other 50% trickling in over the full level range -- so PFS characters tend to have runes about 2-4 scenarios earlier than the baseline expectation. It might be hard to stretch to buy things early, though, even with chronicle access. I know I had a champion who got his +1 armor potency rune early thanks to a chronicle, but had to delay his striking rune to make that work. For him, I felt it was the correct trade off. The treasure bundle mechanism for giving treasure/abstracting liquidating found loot also means people don't "tend to experiment" as much with random stuff they find and just stay focused on the "optimal" gear they want.
I ran this one three times at GenCon. Felt it was very well received. I would have liked deeper minigames/role play prompts for the four student pranks. Cass in particular I think needs more setup/help to GMs for getting things moving. A couple of scripted expected questions/answers for each of them I think would have been very helpful. Even at the cost of losing one of the fey pranks on terms of word count.
I think its some people were confused that cantrips had casting mod while non-cantrips typically didn't. so people were either forgetting to add on cantrips, or adding on regular spells.
I'd like a replay boon that works for sanctioned Adventures, rather than only scenario-length options like the current boon. I feel GM styles, party approach, etc are more likely to make Adventures feel more significantly different than scenarios on a replay, and while I'm generally unlikely to replay either format, I would be much more likely to want to replay (or re-GM for a chronicle if that ever gets worked out) an Adventure than a Scenario. I'd expect the cost to be at least 3x the Scenario cost (ie scaling by relative XP), wouldn't be surprised if there's a slight surcharge on top of it. However it shouldn't have a scaling cost (since that would make a full AP nearly impossible).
Even if nothing changes, I think helping raise the issue that spider/spider adjacent creatures have become rather prevalent for surprise encounter/ surprise artwork is useful feedback. An awareness of unintentional patterns, especially when those patterns align poorly with some of the more common phobias, can help revisit future decisions. Certain creature types often feel over utilized in adventures, Golems are an example. The author needs something that makes sense in an abandoned complex and decides undead aren't a good fit. Suddenly every dungeon has golems. Warm-up or setting establishing encounters likewise often reach for mundane animals ( and spiders can fit in that category) so they often get over represented especially as the first encounter/artwork in a chapter. These things always feel like they make sense in the adventure you're looking at, but when viewed across the entire collection of adventures, it starts to feel a bit off. So a reminder, like this thread, to think a bit more about " does this need to be a spider, again" is a good thing
I acknowledge this might get too close to things best kept as charity boons, but I really liked the Planetoid, Congregation, Ramlock's Tower style boons -- things that are a cross between a Vanity and a mechanical use for downtime/delayed pay-off. I know there's a lot of PCs with backstories about running some form of business between missions and having something that feels a little different than just "earn income" would be nice.
Yeah I'm a fan of the "no-multiclass, no medic/sentinel/marshall/beastmaster" for the free archetype. I do allow players to pick those up with their class feats, effectively saying that the "class feat" track and the "free archetype" tracks don't see each other for the purpose of "can I start another archetype". Within each track, they must obey the usual rules about not tacking another archetype until they've taken enough feats.
I know others like it, but it's probably my least favorite bit in Golarian; and probably the only book (that I can picture Paizo publishing) that i would unsubscribe to skip.
That question doesn't really make sense, but I'll see if I can provide enough information to help figure out what question you're trying to ask. Scenarios and Quests (at least Series 1 Quests, not sure about Series 2 Quests) are all written by the Organized Play team, specifically for Organized Play. They have a fairly standard structure, of an in-world Venture Captain giving the agents a mission to accomplish, along with secondary goals. They are all set in a shared, common, canonical world and tend to use recurring characters when possible, even if not part of the current Metaplot. There's some arcs that cross multiple seasons (The Pallid Peaks arc, the Dacilane arc, etc). About 1/4 to 1/3rd of the actual scenarios in a season are part of the Metaplot for that season that have a more connected plot-line connecting them, designed to tell a longer than one-session story, while still being consumable in a single session. Bounties, on the other hand, are very similar to Quests -- short, single hour missions. However they lack the explicit tie in to the in-world Pathfinder Society. They are still developed by the Organized Play team, but are targeting a broader audience. They won't tend to tie in to existing stories as a result and tend to be much more stand-alone. The might mention events in passing that happen in the background that call back to an Adventure Path, etc, but its not the focus. Adventure Paths (and the shorter Adventures) are not developed by the Organized Play staff, but by a different team at Paizo. They are designed to be long, multi-session (multi-year in most APs) games for a static player base, rather than the drop-in/drop-out play of society. APs are the main thing that move the history/story of Golarian along. Society scenarios may reference the expected/canonical ending of an adventure path, but society storylines will almost never impact future APs.
Standard only means that PFS is not changing the requirements from the published version. It does not mean there is a way to get it. Refer to the character options page for a more in-depth review of how to interpret Availability labels. In this particular case, as its a rare option, the "You need a boon to gain access to this option." disclaimer applies. And there is not a boon at present. Nor does standard imply there will be a boon.
Where's the best place to check for when its safe to upgrade to V11? I know Paizo has said that the Paizo branded AP modules are ready, but not sure if that covers the Sigil ones?
Thank you all for being here. Thank you for all the wonder you create.
PFS scenarios are a good source of single session content to add to a home game. They are generally stand alone missions, that take roughly 3-5 hours to complete. Heavy role-play groups might go longer. With the exception for specials (generally scenarios numbers ending in -00, -98, or -99) they would be appropriate for a home group. Specials are designed to feature some amount of cross-table feedback. If you need to string a couple of scenarios together to fill a longer than one-session gap, you can look for things with the "metaplot" tag for a more connected story. There was a high level 3-parter at the end of Season 2 for instance, but the first one of that arc is probably not the best introduction to society scenarios -- more complicated than average, often runs long, etc. How many gaming sessions are you looking to fill, I an try to suggest a recommended set of scenarios in the 6-8 level range you mentioned.
The Slithering is level 5-7. When my group played it we were level 6 at the start, and we used milestone leveling to just hang out at level 6 for the first two chapters and I think the GM adjusted a couple encounters in the first part. Though our pre-existing party was a fairly bad fit for the first chapter, so I think the GM didn't adjust everything as much as he could have.
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Pathfinder Society GM. Starfinder Society GM. 2,104 posts (2,662 including aliases). 5 reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 26 Organized Play characters. 9 aliases. 
