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Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber. *** Pathfinder Society GM. Starfinder Society GM. 2,158 posts (2,716 including aliases). 5 reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 28 Organized Play characters. 9 aliases.



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I'm very excited for this AP and trying to begin strategic planning for the AP. I don't love starting at high levels without a couple of shorter adventures to help establish the characters/help the players know how to drive the more complex starting build.

I think Rusthenge can be a good (but full-length three levels) starting hook that shares some themes. I think the season 2 PFS metaplot, could likewise be used in an accelerated level up fashion. The PFS 4-99 multi-table special could maybe be homebrewed into something as well. Other thoughts on other existing Paizo adventures that would work well for a prologue/accelerated vingettes for checking in on the characters as the got from 1-10 in a couple of adventures? Ie I'm not really looking for a normal 1-10 AP to run first, but between 3 and 15 sessions worth of content.

2/5 5/5 *****

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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:
1) The briefing mentions only "giving a guided tour of the maze", doesn't mention Galt/Woodsedge as points to see along the guided tour.

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
1) Navigate the Maze of the Open Road: 1 PC, all PCs? I think I've seen scattered reports of 1 PC being the answer, but adding it for posterity.

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"...


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Thank you all for being here. Thank you for all the wonder you create.


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I've only ever bought the hardcover collections after the fact. What's the normal way of getting these at release? I didn't see a subscription line for them, but maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.


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Over in another discord there was a discussion that a poster felt that +1 weapon/runes were in short supply pre-Staglord. I did a review and found 9 pre-Staglord and another 3-5 quickly post Staglord, so I don't think its a problem.

However when looking at Striking runes, it does seem they may have been missed in the conversion. We'd expect to start seeing 1-2 in the level 3 range, with another 2-4 in the level 4 range, and then typically start seeing them on "standard" opponents/loot above that. (At least according to the guidelines and most past APs). However I'm not seeing any in the level 3-4 range. And typically only on side/severe encounters after that, so I think Striking runes were missed in the conversion -- not too surprising they aren't in 1e. Haven't review for greater/major to see if the trend continues, but GMs will need to keep an eye out for that. Probably check some of the level 3-5 quests and see if you can seed in a rune there. And probably have Oleg start stocking them mid level 3, or strongly hinting he can special order them for folks with the delay days as listed.


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I'm usually a forever GM, but getting a chance to play in a SoT campaign soon; and have been talking myself in circles figuring out a character concept. We're using the baseline SoT free archetype rules (ie Wizard or Druid only).

The party so far:
Psychic/Druid (also planning to grab Bard eventually) -- generally buff
Rogue (archetype uncertain)
Witch/Wizard (generally healy/buffy)
Swashbuckler (dancer) archetype uncertain

Most people had be describing their characters as ones who help others -- though of course the Rogue or Swash could be a heavy hitter. But it felt like a more tanky frontliner would probably be better for the group, I also wanted a chance to play a Magus. However making a tanky magus feels a bit like you're trying to cover too much at once. So I keep going back and forth on
Champion/Wizard (would prefer Druid, but the anathema doesn't work too well, but champion Wizard is soo MAD)
Magus/either -- was probably thinking Inexorable Iron. Getting a reach weapon and trip. Feels like the temp HP and battle field control could work out about right. Probably needs to take Sentinel or Champion at some point.

I've been playing around with both a Str based version for Magus/Wizard, or a Dex based one for Magus/Druid going elf for the branched spear. Was also looking into throwing the Suli heritage on it for some of the fun elemental stuff, but it gets a bit tight on ancestry feats in that case. The Magus/Druid calls to be a bit more, but again its so MAD that I feel like I'll end up being lackluster at most things.

Any advice?


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Yes, I know there will be an official Foundry module sometime next year, but I know a lot of groups are starting before that. Wanted to start gathering tips/tricks/modules that make running this AP easier. Some may still be useful with the official offering, some may be superseded.

I'm still early in my exploration of these tools, so I'm only listing things I've heard about, or thought about, rather than any definitive suggestions in this opening post.

Hexploration & Kingdom Building Map Tools


  • Simple Hex Map with Hex Token Actors covering each hex
  • Simple Hex Map with party token visibility/fog of war/view distance
  • Supe's World Explorer module to have an overlay layer that reveals hexes

Can even mix and match the token visibility with either of the other two listed for a bit more nuance -- helps with difference between seen/known about and fully reconnoitered, etc.

Probably need drawing tools to handle claimed by the kingdom and some hex improvements. Token visibility for settlements to show influence should work as well.

I suspect the fancier you want to be here the more value you'll have in making your own solution. If you're not too opinionated here, I suspect the eventual official offering will handle your needs and just pick whatever is easiest for now.

Settlement Layout, Settlement Stats, Kingdom Stats
Haven't seen any custom character sheets yet for settlements/kingdoms. Might start looking into coding something up myself, but this is extremely likely to be superseded by whatever the official solution offers.

For Settlement layout, background map for the grid, with tiles for the buildings should work from a graphics standpoint. Getting a little fancier you can set up walls/viewing area for the areas that are currently usable; might not be worth it.

Treating buildings as inventory items on a custom character sheet should work well for that side of automation, but probably a bigger project than I would start on solo in advance of the paid offering. Don't know enough to think of how to possibly link the purely graphical view (of maps/tiles) to the stats.

Might want all settlements on a single Scene, just to minimize jumping between scenes when comparing different settlements. I know from the CRPG all the loading screens jumping around between settlements is annoying. Unless you're playing weekly or more, you probably won't be up to anything too complicated until the paid module is released.

Kingdom or Camping Turn Aids
I'm thinking I might make a scene like a worker placement game, for tracking the invested positions and kingdom activities. But the growth of activities might make such a thing a bit too sprawling/less useful. Having the Kingdom, Settlements, and PCs/companions all as Actors on this scene would be good.

Camping might benefit from something similar, but as I think you'll do fewer multiple camping days in a row than you'll do kingdom turns in a row, it might not be as useful. I also think Camping might evolve a "standard" routine that can be expediated.

Quest/Bulletin Boards
I'm currently looking at Forien's Quest Log to help PCs handle all the side/companion/kingdom quests. I'm not sure its meshing well with Monk's Enhanced Journal I also tend to use, though. I need to play around a bit more and keep double checking the player view to see if its working.

I'd also like to play around with a more bulletin board/graphical style presentation, though I suspect the journal/log based presentation is more useful as it doesn't take you out of the current scene. The graphical one feels more useful for picking up quests (such as the flyers posted at Oleg's) but not really as the mechanisms for referring back to them.

Have y'all been playing around with other customizations beyond what a normal AP needs? Areas I forgot to mention, cool tricks you'd like to share?


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It feels like the chance of getting through a camping session w/o a random encounter is exceptionally low. Sure there is the advice to limit it to one encounter per rest, but even with that, the fact that every rest will almost always trigger a random encounter feels a little overturned.

For instance: for level 1s, the encounter dc is 12. so we have a 45% of a random encounter in the first hour, and a 50% in the second hour assuming someone does a campaign activity. And then 3 checks over the 10 hours of rest/watches, at 50%, 50% and 50%. Since it looks like the overnight ones don't change the DC from what was established by the camping activities

so the chance of no encounter on a rest is (1-0.45) * (1-0.5) .... = a 3.4% chance of passing a night without an random encounter. There's only 8 random encounters in the table for zone 1. Weighting the percentage, 25% are definite combat, 15% are set-up as non-combat, and the rest(60%) are animals of varying aggressiveness.

If the list of random encounters was maybe ~4 times longer with more non-combat/rumor sources, or even just interesting observation/discovery that percentage of random encounter might work, but as it is it feels like its too much (and would likely double the expected XP if you were tracking such things). I think I recall KM 1e's random encounter list being longer, but then again, it was probably ~3 of these zones combined with the much greater swingyness of CR that brings.


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I've been starting to dive into fleshing out a couple of the companions that got shorter entries focusing on both Harrim and Jaethal. For the former, the brief bits in the book feel right. For Jaethal on the other hand I'm questioning the NE Champion suggestion w/ Cleric multiclass. The tenet of "Subvert or corrupt everything in your path that is pure and good, and sow doubt among those upholding such ideals." feels too active, non-nuanced for her. She's selfish, hedonistic, coldly calculating, and dismissive of the value of most things, but not an active desecrator. And for me that makes her more interesting, and her suggestions/etc to the party wouldn't be as cartoony-evil/instantly dismissible, while still potentially leading to moral complications.

Fighter w/ Cleric dedication or Cleric (warpriest) with Mauler dedication both feel like they might work just about as well mechanically, while keeping her personality more "its complicated".

(A quick scan of the others don't highlight any problems either, Octavio/Regongar are both simple to build. K&K I'd build with the playtest rules for now before updating, instead of the sorcerer suggestion.)

2/5 5/5 *****

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Anyone have thoughts on Gremala's Q&A:
Would you like to buy my soul?/Are you trying to steal my soul?

“Oh, you tempt me so! But no. That bit of business is off of the table. You’re already spoken for.”

That last bit there really feels like something the PCs will fixate on, but it feels like its just meant to be flavor line. Seems likely to derail the scenario for quite some time. How do you plan to deal with it?


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A subscription based order was paid/shipped on Oct 19th. The tracking link has never been active. I'm not sure if it got lost in transit, never got to the shipper, or is just taking its time. Do you have any additional information you can discover from your end?

Here's the error message from the tracking link:

Quote:


Results for [redacted the actual number] Help
Tracking information for this piece is unavailable at this time. Tracking may take 24-48 hours after your mail piece has shipped. Please check back at a later time for additional information.

If tracking is unavailable after 3 days, please contact your shipper.

2/5 5/5 *****

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Congrats to Michael, Jocelyn, and Andrew!

2/5 5/5 *****

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A couple of the players in my lodge are trying to double check some of the ACP totals and have said it would be helpful if the Purchased boon section shows how much ACP was paid for various things. One player in particular has been aggressive it grabbing all the 0-cost chronicle boons from season 1, so his list is very long and double checking the price on each to see if it was a free or non-free boon is taking a lot of time. He's also said its tricky with some of the scaling cost boons to know how much he originally paid. I can also imagine its possible that some boon's ACP cost might change in the future, so knowing the boon cost at purchase time would be very critical for audits.


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In the first printing of the CRB we had the following wording:

page 451, CRB first printing wrote:


When an attack deals a type of damage, the attack action gains that trait. For example, the Strikes and attack actions you use wielding a sword when its flaming rune is active gain the fire trait, since the rune gives the weapon the ability to deal fire damage."

This line was removed in the second printing; however its not listed in the FAQ/Errata page.

An instance of where this could matter:
Does a raging Draconic Barbarian's attack (not the rage action itself which does have the appropriate elemental trait) have the elemental trait and thus able to trigger the Conduct Energy free action from Resonant/Conductive weapons?

2/5 5/5 *****

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Construct Armor has been subject to a fair bit of table variation regarding when broken does the hardness also go away. The consensus answer in the past was no; only the listed change to AC.

Recent scenarios, and Bestiary 3 creatures with construct armor, indicate explicitly that the hardness goes away too.

Is that enough evidence of the intent, to get a campaign leadership ruling that the old scenarios/B1/B2 creatures with construct armor should be run with the Bestiary 3 version of the rules? To avoid table variation or arguments about Run as Written.

2/5 5/5 *****

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The Metro Boston Lodge will be running a large number of online games at the virtual TotalCon this year. Convention dates are Feb 18-21, 2020.

We're currently in the GM sign-up phase. We're planning to run one special for each of PFS1/PFS2/SFS. I think we're still a week or two away from player sign-ups. Please let me know if you have other questions.

The convention is charging a $10 badge fee for the weekend. GMs can get a free badge by running at least two games. There's no table fee on top of the badge fee for players.

Convention Website

PFS1/PFS2/SFS Schedule

GM Information, Expectation, and sign-up instructions document

2/5 5/5 *****

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Two aspects are feeling a little uncertain to me, in an otherwise very cool looking scenario.

1) I'm a little confused by the apparent emphasis that the scenario is placing on time to travel between locations in the first ~1/2 of the scenario before handwaving most of the later ones. There's no explicitly ticking clock, (but PCs may feel there's some sense of urgency, of course). There's no secondary success condition based on how fast they arrive at a later location, etc. It feels like the "long bench wagons" aspect is there to help establish some character of Absalom; more than to contribute to the scenario. (Not a bad thing, just want to make sure I'm not missing how its critical to the story/challenge).

2) In the Blakros Museum encounter, there's a lot of details about the display cases and those are tied to the secondary conditions. While both Storm Bear and Spark Troll have area of effect abilities, both call out "creatures", so I don't think they are intended to destroy display cases/glass tops. So outside of PCs hiding behind a display case and the bear getting frustrated at getting to them, I don't think its intending for the GM to target display cases. Its more PCs can choose them to use them for defensive purposes, but if they do so, they may start to hurt their secondary success conditions. Is this how others are viewing it?

2/5 5/5 *****

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Hazzah! Great change, and looking forward to seeing the PFS2 list when its ready.


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Congratulations, James and Jenny! I'm looking forward to seeing all that you come up with.

2/5 5/5 *****

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The Volunteer Information section link appears to be broken (as does the link from the ToC of the OPF site).

2/5 5/5 *****

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Hello, we'll be hosting a one day online convention on Sept 26th.

While player sign-ups are still a couple days to a week away, we're conducting a broader call for GMs right now. We're especially in need of a couple of PFS1 or SFS GMs.


Review our GM expectation document
which includes links to our Discord and Warhorn.

Review the schedule

Fill out this form

Thank you, and let me know if you have any questions. We'll post again when player sign-ups open in general.


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I've run parts of book 1 for two different groups. The first group didn't really engage with the circus performance and I felt like they viewed it as a chore to get through.

The second group engaged very well (and I think I did a better job of weaving the front-of-house-problems, back-of-house-problems, and ongoing performances into a cohesive, chaotic, and frantic whole). Now I know that basically none of the other performances are as directly developed by the published adventures, but I'm looking for advice on what to consider doing to keep that feeling going when it comes time for other performances. (The second group just finished the first chapter, so we have a lot of book 1 content to go).

I expect we might have one performance at the end of book 1 still in abberton which is most in need of thoughts on useful evolving NPC drama, and complications from audience. The performance at the beginning of book 2, has some written support and I think I can come up with more ideas there.

I know for a future abberton performance I'll have the grigs come back since the party didn't deal with them too successfully. Probably interactions with townfolk during chapter 2 can spark some ideas.

But in addition to the random events, what have y'all found as satisfying complications to weave into the performances for groups that have been enjoying that subsystem?


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Some friends and I were discussing how to make consumables more interesting/more used.

To summarize the isses we have: we feel on-level consumables are too expensive for their benefits. There may be times when low level ones end up being very useful at high levels, when the cost is a drop in the bucket. But the majority of time consumables are vendor items for gold.

One person had a joke about a subscription server for consumables, but looking at it it starts to seem like an interesting idea (and is pretty close to the PFS Training/Schools freebie consumables).

What's needed to make this work
a) Remove the resale values from consumables (maybe drop to 10% sellback, instead), this gives the inventive to use rather than convert to gp for permament items any consumables found in situ, and prevents laundering of money from part c).
b) (optional) reduce the cost by about a factor of 4, for on-level this puts things into the expensive but maybe still usable/purchased
c) Add a potion of the month club/talisman of the month club from a local vendor. In exchange for guaranteed business you get N consumables of your choice and maybe 1-2 of the merchants choice at some level-determined price (or you pick which level you're subscribing at). We've been bouncing numbers around, but nothing I'm confident of yet for price/quantity. But as a ballpark something like 1gp for 2 level 1 items, per month. one character choice, one vendor choice)

Thoughts on how to fine tune it? Of course its highly dependent on a campaign where adventures are short enough with downtime in the same city (or a magical network of payment/delivery).


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I'm assuming this is just an error in Hero Lab, but before I report the bug, wanted to see what people thought here.

When you take the feat Magical Crafting you get the formulas for 4 common magical items of level 2 or less. HeroLab doesn't allow you to choose a formula for a +1 Weapon Potency Rune as one of your choices. As far as I can tell nothing in the rules should block it. The Rune has the Item tag, and is level 2 or below.

Bug in HeroLab or rule I'm missing?


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Is there any effective way for a barbarian to use attack-based talismans while raging? Almost all the interesting talismans are either command or envision to activate, both of which have concentrate traits. Most of free-actions, but still unsable while raging (unless you take moment of clarity and spend the action before to the attack). The feat + action (somewhat speculatively) feels a little expensive to make use of talismans. Is there another approach? Only use them before you rage?


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For etching runes onto something, which specialty crafting applies (if any), and which set of artison's tools are needed?

Is it based on what you're etching them onto (so often Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, woodworking) for metal armors/weapons, leather armors, wooden weapons?

Is it 'Artistry' as its sorta like fine-art, engraving onto something?

2/5 5/5 *****

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One of the themes of the boons are increasing the list of summonable creatures.

Two of the creatures don't appear to be summonable by a summon spell:
carnivorous crystal(earth, ooze) and deculi (beast)

Summon Animal doesn't include beast. Summon Elemental doesn't include Earth (requires the Elemental trait). Neither Summon Construct nor Summon Entity includes Oozes. Guess it could be future proofing.

Here's the list as I see it:

Summon Animal
blood boar
solifugid

Summon Fey
biloko warrior, biloko veteran, eloko, kishi
rusalka

Summon Fiend (Must match deity's preferred alignment, or one step of own)
kalavakus (CE), Osyluth (LE), cornugon (LE), crucidaemon(NE), nalfeshnee (CE)

As society character's can't be evil, the one-step rule means you'll be able to hit at most one pool of fiends (CE,LE, or NE). Norgorber (repear of reputation) allows N, and can reach all the fiend types, but doesn't feel too on-theme. Zon-Kuthon allows LN and can reach two of them, but none of the velstrac's were added so again it feels off. (Didn't check all the non-core deities/philosophies).

So while there's a fair number of creatures listed, outside of summon fey, it doesn't really add much usable to any given caster?

2/5 5/5 *****

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Has there been any guidance on how the six player limit interacts with campaign mode? I have a seven player work group that just finished book three of AoA, starting book four tomorrow. Hoping that I'd be able to report it for all seven players assuming the pf1-style retroactive reporting for in progress campaigns is authorized.

Looking to start an extinction curse group with my local lodge, currently limiting it to six, just in case, but recruiting seven for the invariable schedule conflicts to keep around five people most sessions is helpful.

2/5 5/5 *****

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In some of the crafting related discussions at PaizoCon Online, I'm seen signs of disagreement about how to interpret some of rules, and wasn't aware they were currently under debate. Wanted to see what's the consensus:

They way I thought it worked, when starting a craft
a) spend 4 days prepping, pay 1/2 the cost of the item. *
b) make a craft roll for the level of the item (that you have the formula of)
c) record the daily progress amount based on the level of the character and the degree of success of the roll **
d) record how many days of progress/discount made
e) choose at any point after c to pay the balance off and finish the item.

If you roll the crafting over to a new downtime period, there is no new roll, you just use the established daily progress from the previous craft. There is no requirement to finish the item on the chronicle it was started on, nor is there a requirement***, to always work on the item until its finished. Crafting is explicitly allowed to be interrupted and resumed.

I've been hearing some GMs require the item to be finished on the chronicle its started. I've been hearing some GMs are having a new crafting roll on a followup chronicle.

* Yes Envoy's Alliance boon skips this. If you get a fail on your first check, can you try again a day later? Seems like yes?

** Does this snapshot the character's level, or does it adjust if they level up over the course of the the crafting?

*** Same Envoy's Alliance boon, requires the boon to stay slotted until you finish, but doesn't require you to exclusively craft until finished.

Some GMs are leaning on the earned incomes's 1 check per 8 day block to require the additional crafting check on a follow-up chronicle, but those are explicitly different sections of the guide -- ditto for Earned income's result not carrying over to future chronicles.

Advocates 3/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Agent, Illinois—Chicago

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EMBER FOX


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My Pathfinder AP # 154: Siege of Dinosaurs (Extinction Curse 4 of 6) physical copy arrived yesterday (this month's subscription shipment) and looks like it was misprinted.

It has pages:
1-64, then 49-64 a second time, then 81-end
Completely missing 65-80.

Looks like a signature (16 page chunk) got deleted & the preceding one doubled.

The digital copy is correct.

Is there a procedure for mailing in a photo/documentation of the problem and getting a replacement? Do I need to ship the book back to y'all? Haven't seen other reports yet so I don't know if this is a one-off or a wide spread problem.

Thanks!

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This one is feeling pretty easy on the prep side, and didn't notice anything that I think will trip me up, but I'm sure my players will find something :)

However its written like its calling back to some previous scenario, but not one I'm familiar with, can anyone point it out?


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Got a monk in a campaign asking if there's any way to use the potency crystal on their unarmed attacked. Level 1, before they can afford +1 handwraps?

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I've been thinking through some rather contrived examples of deferred xp as I explore corner cases in my chronicle tracking tool and I've run into a place I'm not sure if the rules are clear what should happen.

Can you get into a state where your stack of deferred exp limits what you can play or what you can continue to defer? How is an un-apply-able chronicle dealt with after being assigned?

Examples:
Players-side
You have a level 2 and 8/12ths character. You've played a tier 3-6's using Pregens at level 3 and hold the chronicle. This is definitely allowed as per the rules.

Can you do it a second time on this character? I think the answer is yes, because nothing forbids it.

How about a fourth time -- this is where things break down for me. The character is still level 2, but one scenario (assignable to a level 2) away from level 4 -- a level 4 character could not choose to play a level 3 pregen. (Neither could a level 3 character, which is why even the second pre-gen assignment to the stack feels like it could be a corner case).

'The guide says, player basics' wrote:


If you apply credit for multiple adventures at once, your Pathfinder Society character might advance multiple levels. The character’s level cannot exceed the tier range of any Chronicle sheets applied to them.

It sounds like the assignment of the chronicle would be allowed, but it's not-applicable. What happens? Gold/Fame/XP reduced to 0, boons/items crossed off. Still counts as played for replayablity?

Is the player forced to switch to level 5 pre-gens at some point? Does the size of the deferred stack influence what chronicle you could apply at level 2 --if instead of a 4 xp chronicle you play Fall of Plaguestone for 12 xp, if FoP would push the last deferred chronicles out of the tier of the scenario is that a problem?

GM-side
Basically looks the same when holding higher level GM'd scenarios. Generally its 'simpler' as you're worried about 4 level tiers, rather than possible 2-level pre-gen bands (depending how some of those other questions are resolved).

PFS2's module/sanctioning process is simpler here than SFS/PFS1 -- there's no way to defer that xp in PFS2. But the narrow level bands of SFS/PFS1 module/AP, can make it a little easier to run into the corner cases, I think.

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(Currently academic) Just thinking through some of the mechanics of this, it feels like its the first? place where we'd have the character reported as dead by the GM, and then the between sessions the player purchases the boon and it flips the character back to alive. Rather than being cleared/dealt with on the chronicle when the character dies, its resolved by the AcP boon you'd print out and bring with your stack of chronicles/boons.

Is this how other people expect it to work (barring any clarifying text when we get the PDFs if we get those before the system is live)? Or is it more of an honor system where the player indicates their plan to purchase the boon and you annotate that on the sheet and don't mark them dead when reporting?

If it is cleared between sessions, is there a time limit on how long (real world time) a character can be dead and still purchase the Second Chance boon? How would this interact with slow to report GMs/conventions? Can you even purchase the boon on a non-dead character as insurance (or because of a slow to report session).

Other nuances we need to make sure are cleared up/explained in the guide?

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I'm very happy with the increased quest availability in PFS2 to help with places that can't run long scenarios. However, I don't run in one of those places. I run in a place that normal scenarios fit best, but my players still want the quests.

I tried running the first four in one slot last month. It worked, but was disappointing in a number of ways and I'm wondering if people have found approaches that help with any of the following aspects.

1) Increased paperwork load -- four sets of sign-in sheets, four sets of chronicles. Didn't require people to play all four, (some couldn't as they had already played 1-2 of the non-repeatables elsewhere), didn't require people to play all of the ones that they did play on the same character. But the extra inter-quest paperwork really breaks up the session. The chronicles definitely felt like they took a lot of time to deal with. If the campaign leadership could come up with & authorize some shorthand notation that could be used to skip filling out the bottom (event,id,signature,date, number) and just reference the first in the set, that might help, somewhat -- but we're still dealing with all the others boxes and downtime. I didn't mind the four-sets of reporting, that's work done away from the table.

2) Completely disjoint story -- expected, but definitely affected the flow of the session. Perhaps as more quests come out we'll have some more natural 'run these four as an artificial quest pack' all in same region, or same metaplot, or same VC giving the mission, etc.

When I ran quests 1-4, I did 1,4,3,2 (ie repeatables first, so people who had done the non-repeatables, could leave early. order of 2,3 was determined by # of people who had run each (one had run 2 & 3, another one had run 2), again maximizing the convenience for those who could leave early. I was lucky in that I didn't have a split of one had run 2 and one had run 3, so now one had a gap to worry about in the session schedule.

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Last weekend, out of frustration with my existing spreadsheet based approach, I began developing a character/scenario management tool. I know about (and use) PFSTracker, but it covers a different use case -- its mainly player-centric rather than character-centric.

Looking for a little feedback on the use cases to help decide if I build it just for myself/share with a few friends, or launch it as a service for the community.

The initial questions it seeks to answer
-- What scenarios can each of my characters play (or accept GM-chronicle) (currently ignoring Nova/boon/etc replay options)
-- What characters can play each scenario
-- at a player level -- what scenarios are available to me (PFSTracker already answers this one)

My current version handles level tracking to list which scenarios are too high (but possible in the future) or too low (never playable by this character). It understands repeatable/evergreen. It understands the different systems (PFS/SFS/PFS2)

Things I'd like to add:
-- replay tracking
-- faction/fame/reputation
-- list of boons from chronicles assigned to character
-- list of items from chronicles available to character

While those last two items are probably useful to everyone, most of the features are really centered around people who both GM & play and run into more complicated tracking than people who only (primarily) do one or the other.

Thoughts from y'all?


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Obviously Age of Ashes was written before Gods and Magic was out, but this does feel like an AP where using some of the the divine intercessions could be appropriate. We have options for the core 20, plus 20 extras (which includes Alseta, which could be appropriate). But definitely feels like a Dahak curse could come into play at certain points in the story. Anyone have thoughts as to what a homebrew version of his curses should look like?


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When using lingering performance on a bardic composition to extend the duration, when does the buff snapshot onto the affected characters?

a) When the bard does their lingering performance each character in range receives the buff for the duration (ie someone outside of it on the turn it was cast, can never benefit from it, affected people can 'carry' the buff outside the range')

b) Each round as the duration ticks down, on the bards turn apply a 1 round buff to anyone in range (ie people can gain and lose it depending on their position relative to the bard, on the bards turn)

c) On each characters turn, during the duration of the buff, check if they are in range of the bard when they make a roll (ie, you can never carry the affect outside the area, and you don't have to have been in range when it was initially cast)

I think c) is the correct interpretation after a couple more rounds of reading.

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My most recent reported table from PAX Unplugged shows both GM credit and ACP. Checked with Tonya and this is intentional and a good thing. The gm credit is what's needed for the glyph calculation.
(ACP values are still wrong, as everyone is aware and they're still working on it.)

I'm assuming tech will backfill at so point, or well be given alternate instructions.

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Regarding GM Glyphs and handing out extra hero points at the start of a session the guide says:

"When playing a scenario, they can distribute a number of Hero Points equal to their number of glyphs to the other players at the table. Distribute these Hero Points during the portion of the scenario in which players are slotting boons. A player cannot gain more than one Hero Point from the table’s GM glyphs."

Is the GM of the scenario 'playing' the scenario for the purpose of this rule? Or is this only activated when the person controlling a PC has glyphs? (In most places I've been people have been interpreting the former, but I'm thinking our local area might have it wrong)

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It looks like the "forgotten smuggler's stash" that is mentioned at the beginning of Section B is double counted as two different treasure bundles, worth a total of 3 between the two entries. Is this correct? The treasure bundle checklist at the end also doesn't appear to page numbers or section letters. (looks like the lodge and ruined village/campfire were a single lettered section in an earlier draft?)

Page 7: "The stash contains a pouch filled with coins and gems, and a scroll case, altogether worth 1 Treasure Bundle."

Page 8: " The coins and gems in the pouch are worth 2 Treasure Bundles. The scroll case contains a scroll of darkness (a scroll of haste in Subtier 3-4).

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It feels that some of the political side of things has been left a little too open -- especially if the PCs get a crit success on the early gather information (that the villages seem to be happy with the king and optimistic.) Obviously there's a lot of different ways the scenario can play out, but it feels like some of the hooks are missing.

Chops doesn't have much motivation/backstory for _why_ they dislike the king, he's not a hint/source of the "people's council" that is mentioned during the influence the king section.

Pavo Crispin doesn't have any opinion on the kingdom's politics to help encourage the PCs to want to influence the king one way or the other.

While Nalla and Harsus have a good amount of backstory/motivations to hang dialogue on, Nalla doesn't have any 'demands' or things to present to the king if you talk her down. Only Nalla's tactics talk of surrender (rather than fleeing), but nothing sets up that the PCs might want to ask for mercy. The PCs make their request _before_ the Queen Mother states her hardline stance, so the PCs don't have that hook to argue against initially.

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Finally I feel a bit odd about the Firebrands refuting/denying membership bit. I thought the whole point was anyone can call themselves a Firebrand. While its a chaotic organization and there's bound to be disagreement about methods/objectives, it feels odd that in their first appearance we're already doing the 'but they're not real firebrands' style thing. Feels like its working against one of their defining traits.

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Do you know when we'll start hearing about GM acceptance/assignments for PAX Unplugged?

(But really posting to see if the glyph appears! Up to 20 reported games, still waiting on some DragonCon games to be reported, think its 25 total once those are in)

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Didn't want to tack this on to the existing sticky since that's PFS1, and I don't think I found it in the guide.

What is the appropriate way, to upgrade weapons/armor?

By level 2, characters easily have enough money to start grabbing weapon potency runes. They're common, and covered under the level +2 guidelines for access for such items. Do they need to buy spellcasting/crafting hireling/npc services, use downtime/etc to apply the rune to the weapon?

By level 3, the same applies for armor.

The strictest ruling I can see is for adding (not upgrading) a rune:
a) character has an item they want to add a rune to
b) character buys the rune (I'm assuming, this means you're actually buying a runestone with that rune on it, and I'm assuming that the runestone's cost is baked in -- the runestone is destroyed when you transfer the rune off, so I think that's fair -- but still trying to find a definitive source in the book for that's the form of a bare rune purchase)
c) character needs to spend downtime and a craft check to transfer the rune to the item.
It takes 1 day, and there is no cost (since its coming from a runestone). DC is set by the item level of the rune. If the character doesn't have craft, they'll need to hire services, I didn't see a cost/allowance/provision for that in the guide.

This does mean that upgrading gear, requires a roll that at the table with the GM, rather than a between sessions thing.

I can't find the rules for upgrading an existing rune -- there's the table showing the costs, but not the procedure, is it a craft check also?

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I'm looking for reports (from players or GMs) about how the Challenge Point system worked or didn't work for your tables. We're getting into the point that we'll have a lot of characters at level 2, with a smattering of higher levels from playtest points, which I think lands at one of the tricky thresholds for mustering. Just looking to see how its working for people and what type of guidance people like to give when players have an option of what to play.

Here's an example of what I'm thinking about for a game later today:

Gearing up to play one of the September scenarios today, and trying to decide which character to bring. Looking at the levels at the table via warhorn its showing a sticky place, IMO, for Challenge Points. Now I'm generally a fan of the challenge point system, I like that difficulty strictly increases as you add characters/decreases as you remove them. However, I do think its making it very difficult from a mustering perspective at least for people who understand the new rules and are trying to be considerate.

I haven't looked at the scenario yet, but I know that they're trying to make how to adjust encounters more obvious based on challenge points. So if the scenario's implementation of the scaling is rather different in execution that the org play's generic guidelines, what follows might be less grounded.

Starting with a table of four level 2s. Currently 12 points -> so they're currently in the GM choose (low tier w/6 player, best for all level 1s OR low tier w/ level bump, best for all levels 2s). Both options make sense, and I'm glad the guide allows that GM choice.

Now I'm trying to add in to that table. I have a level 3 (started at level 2 with PTP and then added GM credit), and a level 4 (started at level 3 with PTP and then played), and a lot of level 1s w/ 1-01 GM credit.

Would really like to play one of the level 3 or 4s, but definitely looks like it would be bad for the table. Level 3 pushes it to 16 points, Level 4 pushes it to 18. Both are the same adjustment: High Tier 4 player. As the other four players are all level 2, no one gets a boost or benefit from my mentor boon. From a previous experience with one level 3, pulling a 6 person table up into high tier, I know how deadly that gets with only 1 high tier character in high tier -- especially if the one character in high tier isn't a frontliner type.

So instead using a level 1, we get 14 points --> 5 player w/ level bump to the adventure. This sounds appropriate, and its what I'll likely end up doing. That said, I wouldn't expect that many players/GMs to really think through the options (yet) and we'll likely see some low-tier tables pulled up, out of ignorance, and into a deadly place.

Addendum: While writing this, two other people signed up(level 1 and ?), so maybe it'll be a moot point. Guaranteed to be high tier now no matter what. High tier with all low tier sounds worse, than 5 player high tier, with at least one high tier character.


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Trying to explore what might synergize in a Monk/MC Druid.

1) Stances that limit your strikes, or only have riders if you use their strikes don't end up as useful. The higher level stances (ironblood/tangled tree) looks like they may work.

2) Flurry of blows should work with wild-morph/wild-shape forms as far as I can tell. Wild-shape versions, using your own modifiers, plus the bonus +2 from wild-shape, would let the monk match fighter's accuracy (effectively one level of proficiency jump)

3) Ki powers probably won't be super useful, given that wild-shape or morph is already consuming ki points. Once you can get to the regain 2 at once they become possible useful, but typically need to be used before you shape.

4) With focus spells auto-heightening, you don't need to ever take any of the spell casting feats w/in druid. And while your access to additional forms is pretty limited with the level/2 bits, those that you get start off pretty highly heightened. I don't think it stays competitive with handwarps or potency runes on monk weapons, but might stay close enough.

5) Wild-morph's heightening however don't look like they stay competitive for damage.

6) I'm still chasing down rules for how a lot of the monk maneuver feats would/wold not work in wild-shapes.

On balance I think its not going to combine as much as I had liked, but the equal to fighter accuracy w/ monk flurry might be an interesting aspect to explore.

Other pros/cons to consider?


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I'm pretty sure in the playtest, the shield wasn't raised after blocking. However I don't see any verbiage to that effect in the final version. I know many GM's have been playing this wrong in the past month or so. Wanted to check if anyone had seen anything refuting the proposition that the shield stays raised after blocking?

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I just finished GMing a session for a local con, for which I'm a reporter and could report it now. However its a repeat of a non-repeatable. I GM'd it last week at DragonCon, which hasn't been reported yet. Is it likely to cause problems if I report the not-for-gm-chronicle-credit one before the gm-chronicle one gets reported?

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I can only spot check the two that I've purchased, but it looks like the math is wrong.

River Kingdom Excavation says 'May purchase more than once, but cost increases 50% at each purchase' It starts at 4 PTP, but shows 12 PTP for a second purchase. That's not a 50% increase. 50% Increase would suggest 6PP for the second one.

Experienced Adventurer says 'May purchase more than once, May purchase more than once, but price doubles at each purchase.' starts at 12, lists 48 for a second purchase. Double would suggest 24.

In both cases it looks like an extra factor of two is either being added to the cost, or is missing from the test.

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