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I've wondered if something could be done for the PF1 system that allows GM's who still run it the latitude to shape the PFS scenarios into what players are ready for. Many players are past system mastery and some are new, but GMs who have mastered running PF1 have a lot of institutional knowledge that can still be drawn from. It's a long legacy that Paizo can still show off.
Observation bias. More people will post about a dip that they are unsure might work than post about a straight build that simply works. Or they have a dip that does work really well and they want to share the rare find. Most dips aren’t catastrophic in effectiveness as I’ve seen, marginally better or worse, but the nature of message boards amplifies how much each difference will make in the course of play — Because other people saw me saying this was better, I will prove I’m right or circle the world a few times trying.
Switching seats with the GM to take over books 5 and 6 of Tyrant's Grasp. He had a few parts of the story that made him like the AP a LOT so they stay the same, but to keep everyone on their toes here are the planned changes. Any feedback would be appreciated by me (and appreciated by others with spoiler tags). Books 5 and 6 plan: The total information blackout on what is going on in Avistan will be replaced with access to Xopatl intelligence, which will be substantial with a rewrite that they are now the Wakanda of Golarion, and that this uber-powerful nation now has a say in what the party does with their obols. (Really hated the backwards look to Meso-American vibes.)
As events described after the fact in Book 6 unfold in the course of Book 5, the party can make a plan for how and when they decide to intervene, with the case presented to leave Xopatl becomes easier and easier to make both through the party's research and the Tyrant's move to do more than conquer the continent. Hopefully this way the ending the ending feels less arbitrary whether or not it's the good ending.
I know there's little to no info in this, but I'm a little worried this part is going to land like the Cinderlands bit of Crimson Throne did. I didn't mind it as much but the old 'bunch of foreigners must earn the respect of the native people's to gain an ancient mystic power to save their homeland' is a little overdone. I'm hoping it doesn't go that way My group is waking up in PF Wakanda next session for this reason. “Oh, you use magic to become more powerful than your neighbors, we have used it for millennia to MIND OUR OWN BUSINESS. All powerful lich? Please. I have more power than that in my coffee machine.“
I can add these have been attributed to higher deities in polytheistic times. Citizens in Rome didn’t care about highways and arches as much as the drain that kept river waste from filling their market places during heavy rains. The temple of Venus Cloaca was a very sacred place because of its job to keep poo water flowing away from citizens.
Like a couple other posters, I have never known Readying-against-spells to be a specific issue - the cost is very high, and the potential payoff is no better than the AoO you probably would have got anyway (although TBF, you do get both). So it is rarely attempted.A spellcaster does not normally provoke an Attack of Opportunity when they are casting defensively, though--unless the enemy threatening them has the Spellbreaker feat or similar abilities. That’s just against AoO’s, the ready a standard action is an action any character can take that a spell caster can’t avoid with casting defensively.
Yeah, that’s pretty much all the GM tried, but ranks in spellcraft were easy to come by and for higher rolls, the bard just used a free action ‘Now!’ to help out. The table decided it was too much a stuffy, uptight GM call to make the bard ready as well to help, since the bard was even better once they learned dispel. That and the melee had already invested in step up and following step, so we are just riding it out for now. But at a table where the players can make it work, should it be tuned down for the next AP and the GM’s sanity?
I could see a lot of roleplay fun with this at the conclusion of a campaign. Party is super-high-level, has an artifact to create life forms and has to decide what to do with it. As a GM in that space, I would drop plenty of hints that they would eventually face enemies of that race, so if they go overboard, it’s their fault the adventure just got harder.
At this point, I don't think it would be helpful to continue such a discussion or start a new one with the group. If I do, I run the danger of making the games "all about me" and I definitely don't want to do that. My ego isn't that big. If your ego tells you a racist statement is not alright, it's serving you well. If someone stood up in the middle of a game holding a weapon and threatened physical violence against another person at the table, it would be that person who is kicked out and never coming back. I rate a racial slur as the social equivalent of that. Not associating with people who accept those actions isn't selfish, nor is calling them out. It's social decency.
One instance stands out in my memory was I had about an hour-long argument with the system over who the current Pope was. For some reason it thought Francis was still Pope and would not recognize that he had died and Leo was the current Pope. I even had it pull up... It’s good to know that even in the modern era we will be confronted with 12th Century problems.
Looking to make the transition from P1 in a campaign or two, but are there any 3PP products that bring back the leveling arcs of the party becoming powerful 6-8, becoming co-authors of the plot 10-12, and then taking the lead on where the adventure goes 15+? Usually this tracked with what a party could do with spells as the full casters leveled up, but as I understand P2 spells don’t break plots as much as they used to. Any subsystems, rituals or other rules that do these things?
That’s pretty cool. So yeah, kingdom building has been called a spreadsheet simulator, so if I have the spreadsheet, could AI come up with random challenges and pop them out in text turn by turn? With training, could it study the spreadsheet and intuit parts about my kingdom? (We have a lot of libraries but no granaries, we only have one army but three cities, etc. )
Not too familiar with what different AI can and can't do, but assuming they can put together and maintain all of the rules for kingdom building consistently, can it run a kingdom? We finished kingmaker a year ago, but I really enjoyed the free form building system. It would be fun if AI could track a kingdom and invent new challenges each turn.
Your GM is very permissive indeed if they are ignoring the rather heavily reinforced language of altars being permanent fixtures, both in context and explicitly detailed in the descriptions for such items. Wondrous Items - Altars I won him over that consecrate existed before altars were wondrous items. Also the context of "area contains an altar, shrine, or other permanent fixture dedicated to your deity, pantheon, or aligned higher power". Asmodeus as an advocate, it does not directly specify a permanently fixed altar or give boundaries of what constitutes 'permanent'. But yes, it was also permissive to our martial more options and leverage now that casters have taken the lead in damage. And I'm really hoping my Oracle's deity ends up being Asmodeus or legally adjacent.
I want to add to this how much consecrate could add to this build if you are largely up against undead. Our Paladin hates undead and wants to obliterate them en masse, so (by GM permission) we now carry around cracked altar of Iomedae (an intact wouldn't work for my unwilling Oracle to consecrate it) in 1/16 scale. Their -2 to will saves and the +6 to the DC means that their failure rate doesn't depend on his Charisma modifier.
Hi all! I'm looking to run a campaign where everyone is an operative of some sort in addition to a party member. Not spies exactly, but advocates, emissaries, faction leaders -- pretty much everyone has their own agenda for a separate larger group that they represent (players say they don't mind competing with each other for limited resources or opportunities, but not directly against each other with conflicting agendas). Do the rules for intrigue work well for this? Research rules (beyond libraries)? Do guides published by other GMs exist on this? Looking for everything. Thank you all!
It’s on the GM as well to get into those gaps in the armor of really well formed parties and give them a scare. That doesn’t mean it has to be the characters not optimized for combats take the worst, but I hope the opposite, they have to hold their own and also apply something from out of combat in the middle of it. Challenging the party only by increases in CR showcases the combat focused, but doing a puzzle or skill check at the same time lets others take the spotlight when it’s least expected.
Play a different game??? We started playing at 1st, 2nd, and 3rd editions respectively, so the divide hasn't deterred anyone yet, but experimenting with new things is what keeps it fresh. Has anyone noticed a difference in spending habits for out of combat gear? Our front line rarely has more than one dump stat, and rarely is that stat 7 or lower, so I don't foresee the only mental boost there being wisdom. Does knowing the next weapon upgrade is already paid for nudge any of your players to buying skill gear (or even scheming gear like a Lyre of Building)?
Oh yeah :( I banned crafting in general because it creates problems. So I would tell you that your problem isn't the ABP rules or WBL levels, but crafting. Crafting is simply a huge problem. It's an intentional choice to allow it. The party can optimize and prepare when they have time, but even in a game with months of downtime, timing a crisis between when the party brings in a lot of gold and when their items are finished being crafted. But expect the party to punch above their level, which happens anyways at lvl 10+ in most games.
Which oracle mysteries have channel energy?Only the Life Mystery provides access to Channel Positive Energy. Hmmmmmm. If the GM ruled that Spirit Boost applied (channel is not a spell =-/ ) then there would be some synergy pumping the party full of temporary HP, but maxing the DC for channel even with an Oracle doesn't top the DC by more than 2 or 3 points than what an cleric could do but all the cool combat stuff is lost by choosing Oracle with that Mystery. If the DM is butchering the front line regularly, moving a target off that front line (even when turtling a life oracle in there) would would eat up the extra healing. Variant Channel starts at half damage as if the enemy saved, but selecting Protection portfolio gives the party a +3 to AC by lvl 10 with a chance of lowering enemy attacks by 3. Add the Quick Channel feat combined with Vital Strike or Power Attack + Furious Focus and you have a decent chance to damage with a standard action attack, party is buffed and healed, enemies take damage, possibly miss more. The key is having lots of channels, but a Ki Pool from Perfect Style can convert to channels and Replenish Ki spell and other channel feats keep your Ki Pool filled.
The other half of this is also playing the expectations game. It isn’t a one off situation with one class or a glitch that casters grow exponentially powerful. That was baked in from 3.5 from 2nd and from 1st edition. By the common rules then, you got to play a full caster if that was what the die gave you during character creation, not a choice to outshine the martials of your character didn’t die before hitting the higher levels. But also, who at each session has a problem with the party balance? Do we not like GMing games with unbalanced classes or once the PCs have the power to control more of the story? Do players not get along at that point, do some players not have the same chances to play casters at all or the space and time to learn how to play a caster? Solving these on a table by table basis would move the needle more precisely.
It does increase your action economy substantially. Looking at options, the DC of the will save will split your build options down the middle, either maxing it and losing melee efficiency or keeping it at its baseline and just using it in round 2 or 3. Either way, look at the feat Perfect Style to gain a ki pool that can recharge channels with Tea of Transference, then the Replenish Ki spell to convert spells to ki to channels. Variant channeling would also be a fun place to look for opportunities.
The point of the 'magic mart' is to allow players to build a character that isn't completely dependent on the authors of published adventures, the benevolence of the GM, or the party spending the feats and downtime for crafting when gearing up. A bitter taste remains still from when I bit my tongue hearing my GM explain the AP expects all PCs should be medium sized, so not finding any small sized armor and weapons is the price I should expect to pay for playing a Halfling.
Doing it in new and fun ways is the current challenge. There are forum pages full of ways to take a 1/2 BAB class and have it hit like a 3/2 class across the adventuring day, so anyone borrowing from those ideas can make their new character from those builds. Short of Opportune Parry and Riposte, there aren't many martial abilities that can't be replicated by a spell or feat combo. And even that one is granted at Swashbuckler lvl 1.
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