Ozymandeus's page

Really appreciate the detailed response! We've been playing some other systems between AV and now a return to pf2e so perhaps their palate has been cleaned for more megadungeon :) I enjoyed Otari but indeed felt like my group didn't really need to interact with it that much. I know in book 2 there was a bit more town plot but overall they weren't too interested in Otari. From reading a bit of the players book, Sandpoint sounds much more exciting and I know we're missing tons of nostalgia hooks that I'm sure other players will love.

Thanks!

Hello, I'm interested in running Dooms as looked fun but some of my players who aren't very experienced with Golarion expressed some concern that this looked too similar to Abom Vaults which has been their only other AP. They enjoyed AV but we only got through the 1st book, and aren't sure if they want to do another "small town next to a megadungeon" adventure. Also none of us have played the original Rise of the Runelords so there's less nostalgia factor for us. I love a good dungeon but perhaps I should consider a different AP with more roleplay potential? They are excited with the idea of starting at lvl 4 instead of lvl 1, and would love to see options to start at mid-early level for similar adventures in the future!

Maybe for someone who's had a chance to look more at the adventure, what do you feel the ratio of 'megadungeon' to roleplay or even other types of encounters?

Thanks!

I used the pie festival to introduce the town NPCs to great success. I had all the PCs get called up to participate in the contest (Wrin bends fate to get them chosen), and even gave them a coupon book for participation. Things like, 20% off one purchase of 20g or less, 1 week free lodging at crook's nook, 2 free deliveries from absalom by gallantine delivery, one free rune transfer from Blades for Glades. The grand prize was a 10g golden pie trophy and a blessing from the Cooperation Blade (gave a persistent hero point). Then the group 'earned' a free fortune telling from Wrin.

Also got to show that Rejani was kinda an ass, and just get some connection to Otari. Was a great start for my group since once they're on dungeon crawl mode there's really no reason to go back and interact with most NPCs.

This is great, thank you!

Cylyria: The rest of the group is lvl 10+, so, I am really playing up. The only reason I get away with it is that they keep me in the back so I don't get hit. They keep me around because I can do massive damage if everything hits. The bad guy was an oracle that was possessed by a pit fiend. I don't remember what the third DR was but the first two were evil and adamantite.

Euan: I do have an Efficient Quiver and I carry normal, silver and blunt arrows. I could get a second one but I was looking for a more creative solution. Does Cluster Shots overcome all DR? In other words if you have normal arrows would it overcome evil for example?

6

Clustered shots won't help you directly overcome DR, but it will let you add up all your damage from multiple shots so the DR only applies once.

Say the monster has DR 10/good & adamantine

You shoot 3 shots that each do 10 damage. You'll do 0 total damage.
With clustered shots, you add up the 3 shots to equal 30 damage, then take 10 DR off, so you'd still do 20 damage total.

Weapon blanches can be a way to overcome certain DR, and you can carry oil of bless weapon to handle DR/good. That or a +1 holy longbow isn't a bad thing once you can afford it.

Doh, I missed that Continual Flame is a lvl 2 wizard spell. I was playing a cleric so that was what I was looking at. So much for that plan... Thanks for that link, I must have missed it when I did a forum search.

Well, with that thrown out, it seems that really the only ways to deal with lvl 2 Darkness spell is to cast a lvl 3 spell, Daylight, via scroll or slot, or a darkvision potion. That seems like a fairly expensive counter.

Daylight oil: 750g
Daylight scroll: 375g
Darkvision potion: 300g
Dayfinder: 10 PP Probably what I will invest in, thanks for the tip.

I still think that the darkness spell is too powerful when combined with darkvision, since there are only a few, more expensive counters that may not be at hand, as long as the ambient lighting was dim to begin with. I am going to buy a scroll of daylight... hopefully I would be able to escape the darkness so I could be able to read the spell :P

I can see players abusing the darkness spell as well. Everyone makes dwarf/half-orc characters and they go into every combat with darkness cast on a rogue. Even in normal light converted to dim light, that gives the party 20% miss chance (VS normal vision), and in dim light converted to darkness, that essentially gives the party mass greater invisibility where the rogues are free to sneak attack to their hearts content and not worry about losing 'invisibility' and everyone enjoys 50% miss chance while attacking flat footed AC, barring of course if the enemy has darkvision.

Perhaps I just never had the darkness spell used to effectively on me before, but it certainly raised the value of darkvision on certain races. Orc night raids under the cover of Darkness would be truly terrifying.

Darkness + Darkvision seems a very powerful combo. Specifically regarding the Darkness Spell. Essentially, it's like greater invisibility for a few minutes if your enemy cannot escape, and lacks darkvision or appropriate counter. I ran into a scenario where the party was fighting a creature that cast darkness on itself and had darkvision. Luckily we had a dwarf and half-orc so we weren't totally helpless, but it was rough. Party level 5.

So I looked into how to deal with darkness. From the spell darkness:

Magical light sources only increase the light level in an area if they are of a higher spell level than darkness.

and

Darkness can be used to counter or dispel any light spell of equal or lower spell level.

Now, I take the latter to mean that if I actually cast the spell myself I could use it to counter or dispel a light spell. Meaning that if I cast darkness on a stone, then walked into a light spell (lvl 0) it would not counter it, just negate it.

My primary question is this: For the first sentence it says light of a higher spell level does increase the light level. Now, am I correct in assuming this means Spell level (as in, Light is level 0, Continual Flame is level 3), and not caster level?

If this assumption is true, does that mean that an everburning torch or ioun torch (3rd level spells) would always illuminate a darkness spell? And if so, would the continual flame completely ignore the darkness spell (Providing normal light in 20' radius, dim to 40'), would the darkness have some sort of 'dimming' effect on the flame, or would the two completely counter and you are left with ambient lighting? I'm inclined to go with a lvl 3 effect completely overriding a lvl 2 effect.

Regarding Deeper Darkness, Daylight, and Continual Flame (all level 3 spells), continual flame brought into a region of deeper darkness would NOT counteract the effect (the effect has to be of a higher spell level, which it is not) but it could be cast, as a spell, to specifically counter or dispel the effect.

Daylight brought into an area of deeper darkness *would* negate the effect, because of the wording under daylight:

Daylight brought into an area of magical darkness (or vice versa) is temporarily negated, so that the otherwise prevailing light conditions exist in the overlapping areas of effect.

Which seems to make daylight the end-all spell for negating magical darkness effects.

TL:DR Does a level 3 continual flame spell from an ioun torch completely override a level 2 darkness spell when brought into the same area? If so, darkness goes from a possibly crippling effect to very easily manageable.

deusvult wrote:

That's not really comparable.. alchemists' produce has a built-in expiration date.. it's not like they're passing around actual potions.

Their 'items' are just a different form of party buff :)

Ge wasn't talking about their extracts. Alchemists can make actual alchemical items like alchemist's fire, acid, weapon blanches, etc. using craft (alchemy)

The difference is in scale. All alchemical items are pretty cheap, and are typically consumables. Giving alchemists extra alchemist fires won't break a power curve. However, if you give casters the ability to Craft Wondrous Items, you essentially double the amount of gold they earn per adventure, giving those casters double the magical items of other players who can't take the feat. It wrecks the balance of power. That is the primary reason, and its a good one.

That being said, I personally think that scribing scrolls could have been left in, and might have been what the OP was originally referring to. Nothing is stopping you from buying scrolls at full cost however.

Not replayable for credit:

We Be Goblins!

I know We Be Goblins doesn't qualify at the moment because it can be applied to a lvl 1 or 2 PC, but it is an incredibly fun adventure and really never gets old even if you keep repeating it with other players, whereas I have heard many folks complain about doing godsmouth for the 10th time. I don't suppose it could get an exception or change to give repeated credit? It's very similar to other level 1 adventures. Perhaps change it that you could only apply credit to a level 2 PC once, but could repeatedly apply credit to multiple lvl 1 PCs? Its a great intro to PFS, not for rules mechanics or factions like the first steps, but just in sheer fun. My experienced players would be more happier running a silly adventure with new players if they know they can get a little credit for a new PC out of the deal as well.

It makes a really good fallback adventure if new players show up, and everyone, new and experienced players, would leave happy and with a little progress to show on their characters.

4) If I crit on my spellstrike hit, I use my weapon crit range of 18-20x2 (or 15-20x2 if I was smart enough to keen out the blade) and then my damage is the 5d6+1d6x2+8..

5) I grin with a maximum one round damage of 58 damage (or 100 if I crit both attacks and roll all 6s - 80 if I crit on the spellstrike only rolling all 6s).

Is my math correct?

...

Actually you critical hit with a spellstrike should be much more powerful, if I'm correct.

Your normal spellstrike is 1d6+8 plus 5d6 lightning.

If you critically hit, both the spell and attack are critical, so you would do: 2d6+16 plus 10d6 lightning.

I think you forgot to multiply the +8 dmg modifier as well.

So your maximum spellstrike crit should be: 82 dmg.
Crit on Spellstrike & Normal attack: 110dmg.

Relevant text:

"This attack uses the weapon’s critical range (20, 19–20, or 18–20 and modified by the keen weapon property or similar effects), but the spell effect only deals ×2 damage on a successful critical hit, while the weapon damage uses its own critical modifier."

Hopefully I have my crit math right...

Without getting into the discussion of whether PFS is too safe or not, I believe there should be more tools at the GM's disposal to deal with parties who are making the module easy enough to sleep through.

I agree with this, I have had players complain about certain adventures not being challenging (although others are potentially deadly). Even an option to add one or two extra goblin minions, bumping the BBEG's HP up by 10, etc for groups of 6 players would be helpful.

Character death is something that should be a risk, but it should be a risk more because of the player or players being stupid and not because there are GMs that enjoy trying to kill characters. I will not play at a table with that kind of GM. Also, if a GM gets a group of players with a mix of characters he knows will have a very hard time with the scenario, maybe even resulting in a TPK, then that GM should have the right and the leeway to try and avoid that happening.

One thing I've noticed when GMing is that there are not any modifiers on encounters based on how many PCs there are, apart from the "add +1 to CR for 6 players to determine tier."

There's a pretty significant power difference between a 4 player group and a 6 player group. Typically what I've seen in other organized campaigns were encounters balanced for a party of 5, and either add or subtract on additional critter for 4 or 6 player groups. As far as I know, GMs are not allowed to modify encounters in this way. A group of 6 PCs will have a much lower death rate due to this factor.

Mark perhaps you could just dorp he idea of a poor NPC's, IMO NPC's should have the same WBL or greater. My reasoing is this how can a super villian be a super villian or BBG if he is whimpier than

the PC's. This would also solve the probelm of haveing cool things appear on chronicle sheets.

IF GM's use BBG's and the 2ds to whip up on the players then it would be time for the Venture captains to step in and talk to the Killer GM
We have a Killer GM in my area [Painlord] You just have to be careful when you play on his table and be on your toes and you will survive unless you run into bad old plants.

I'm hesitant about this because increasing NPC gear is somewhat hard to factor into increasing challenge CR. I'm not familiar with the rules PFS mod writers use, but from my experience with Living Greyhawk, I've played a few adventures where the mod writers completed loaded up some NPCs (devils of some sort, which already had a default CR) with gear and then they just destroyed about every group. I think it was allowed since their CR was only bumped up slightly for having gear...but the gear made them drastically overpowered.

That adventure was an outlier though, it seemed to be specifically designed to kill PCs. If you have a Killer Writer with tools to make Killer NPCs (aka more gear) it can make a difficult adventure into a TPK, regardless of what GM runs it later. I haven't seen this at all in PFS yet, but I imagine that is one reason NPCs have less gear.

Still, I don't necessarily think that NPC gear has to be specifically tied into rewards. There's already a degree of hand-waving as players don't get to keep what they find anyways. Players really only have so much gold anyways, I don't see a reason to give more expensive access earlier.

Ozymandeus wrote:

How about this to compensate?

Actually I not not looking for the rule to change, I understand the need for it. Still does not stop me from being upset about it. ;)

I recall seeing a previous thread asking for ideas for more GM awards... it doesn't hurt to throw ideas out now & then and see if a developer bites ;)

Ozymandeus wrote:

Well, you're always able to play the adventure as a PC and gain those boons for your player credit.

But for a different PC, the PC that got the Chronicle is can now never able get that boon.

How about this to compensate?

We already track GMs by their Star ranking. What if there was a specific GM Boon Chronicle that a GM could attach to one (or all) of their new PCs. Every time a GM earned a higher star rating, they would be awarded the Boon Chronicle for that next higher star level.

1 Star: You can reroll one attack. You can remember one spell. You can reroll one skill. You can use each of these boons once, then are crossed off.

2 Star: Same as above, but can use each of these boons twice. In addition, it costs 2 PA less to cast raise dead on this PC.

Repeat for higher star levels, perhaps with more interesting boons or special in-game titles for GMs that earn those higher ranks. What the actual boons are can be determined, but I like the concept of GMs earning a special perk boon, as you stated GMs do miss out on the normally earned boons.

heretic wrote:

As I tend to GM more than I play I guess I am not too keen on the focus of chronicle rewards being in boons.

I am not a fan of the GM not getting Boons either.. I have lost access to a ton of those! Some really good ones to.

Well, you're always able to play the adventure as a PC and gain those boons for your player credit. I find GMs not receiving boons to be acceptable as there's no risk to your character. I recall a particular adventure that, if you failed, you took a permanent -1 CON from torture. Risk, reward, and choice should all go together.

Many of my players are questioning the point of even having magic items show up on chronicles if they could already have purchased them via fame.

I'm actually fine with how items are handled with the fame limit. Contrasted to Living Greyhawk, you couldn't buy an item until you found it...so found items really meant alot. However, because of that, every time you completed an adventure you carefully looked over your chronicle sheet to see what item access you earned, and were really excited when FINALLY you had access to that item that you really wanted! (It was Riding Boots for my Spirited Charging paladin, increased the damage modifier on charges by another multiplier).

I feel that we have to excite players about the rewards the get from playing an adventure, otherwise every adventure is just a generic +1xp, +tier gold, which is boring.

Since fame ultimately gives you access to everything (within reason), I would recommend changing the ways adventures reward players.

One idea would be to restrict item access significantly and make many items accessible by only "finding" them. I don't like this approach myself, but it would increase the value of item access. At this point in the campaign, I'd see this as incredibly difficult if not impossible to implement. This concept could also be used for feats or prestige classes, restrict them initially, especially from new books, and award them through adventures.

Instead of the above idea of restricting players options, I would much rather see special adventure specific awards given out. I have seen this pop up in a few adventures so far (Azlant Ridge Part 1, which I will add also had a very cool penalty for mission failure, and in the Frostfur adventures) but I would like to see much more. It's cool when a player can use a benefit they earned in a previous adventure, and it makes them feel like their previous adventures had meaning. It can be simple things like making their eyes glow blue in moonlight or resisting cold temperatures, or more powerful rewards like the ability to Rage for 3 rounds.

In addition, tie these boons specifically to player actions in the adventure. If you save that dwarf, he teaches you a little about stonecunning, but if shave his beard and sell it to an elven beard merchant, the elf will make you authentic dwarf beards giving +1 scruffiness but earning Dwarf Hatred. Some of my players complain about railroad adventures that doesn't really give them choices, but even if there's just one choice per adventure that affects the reward at the end, players would think "Oh, if we would have only shaved the dwarf!"

Even if rewards are minor, if they are unique to the adventure, players will be excited about them. I *still* have a player who keeps talking about his scary Tiger Mask he found in the Kingdom of the Impossible, even though in reality it's just a masterwork intimidate tool. Players should be excited at the end of each adventure and wondering what rewards they earned, and if it really mattered that they killed all those merchants.

One option may be to also distribute boons to folks as they earn GM stars.

I do think the boon system is a great reward for those who go to major conventions -- and this is coming from someone who has not had a chance to ever go to Gencon or Dragoncon. It's a cool (and inexpensive) promotion that generates a lot of excitement.

At the same time, it does rely on dumb luck and reward those who can afford to travel to these conventions.

Perhaps also rewarding the people who make the PFS what it is today -- the GM's -- would introduce a bit of merit into the boon system.

I can't see how anyone could jealously claim that a four star or five star GM is undeserving of such a boon. It also introduces a clear avenue of reward for those who may not be able to attend these cons.

I think this is a great idea. It is always great to have incentives to DM. One of my favorite perks of PFS over other "Living" campaigns was that the DM also gets credit for one of his characters.

In general I think there should be more player rewards, both from adventures and convention rewards. Adventure rewards have been popping up more in some of the newer material (and I have yet to play Season 3 adventures) but I feel there could be more impact. I recall from Living Greyhawk some very interesting rewards coming from adventures.

One of my favorite was from an adventure where the party gets transported to the Fey realm, and is shapeshifted into an animal in order to escape the notice of powerful fey beings in the area. You were randomly assigned an animal; sparrow, gopher, snake, etc. My paladin was transformed into a pig, and the adventure itself was very fun. At the end though, each player got a specific reward that could be used for 4 rounds total, and was then lost. Mine was the ability to rage like a barbarian. Sure it was only 4 rounds in his career, but it was really cool when I was fighting some big nasty dragon way later in his career, and I look up at the DM and say "I Rage!"

I recall another that was a blessing, given to me by a dwarf king, that let me cast Stoneskin on myself, and when I ended up playing up at a table that I probably shouldn't have, and had to stand up to an Ettin, it saved my character's life. These were the two most powerful rewards I remember, but there were many other minor ones that came up in memorable ways.

If players are going back and referencing their previous adventures for rewards that they earned for completing a mission, that's part of what I consider a "Living" campaign. Sure, your character really isn't going to influence the plotline, and as a player you know that. But if a player can go, "Oh! I remember when I helped slay that dragon in the Linnorm Kingdoms! I have a +1 bonus to reflex against breath weapons! I make my save!" That player will remember not only his current mission, but the one he earned the reward. If the reward saves his life, I'm sure that will be one of that players more memorable moments in Pathfinder Society, and he'll know that his previous adventures affected him more than just a static +1 XP and +Gold.

In specific regards to conventions and "boons", I think they are a great idea. It takes alot of effort to set up a convention, and alot to attend, both at national and regional scale. Boons, rewards, whatever you'd like to call them, are incentives for players to attend. Personally I enjoy attending conventions, especially my local ones where I can connect with new players as well as see old veterans. If a few extra players attend because they are excited about boons, then they are a success. If a few players at a convention earn a boon, get excited about it, and talk to their friends, then they are a success. I myself only started playing PFS because I went to a local convention that previously hosted Living Greyhawk, and became excited about PFS, went back home where there wasn't a PFS presence, and decided to start up my own group. Now four months later I have several of my players excited about going to the next convention being hosted locally. I'm sure if the possibility of a special boon was there, more might even attend.

As long as the convention boons are a minor effect or early access, I can't see them doing anything harmful except perhaps making people jealous they didn't get one. Which, really, is kind of the point of a reward. It's not special if everyone has one.

Some examples of player/DM rewards off the top of my head:

Vanities from the Field Guide - Yes, they do cost anywhere from 2 to 30 PP, but can you honestly say that the 30 PP Coastal Island will ever have an in game effect? And how many people are going to spend 30 PP just to say they have an island, that has nil effect on the game? Most of the vanities have very minor effects, mostly affecting Day Job rolls. Rewarding a playing his very own ship would be really exciting for a player, but really won't affect his "power level" at all.

Single Use Dice Re-rolls - They already exist due to the PFS shirts, so its established to be a viable reward.

Day Job effects -
~Reroll a dayjob roll of less than 5.
~Critical dayjob roll effect - If you roll a 20 you get a free cure light wound potion.
~Earn an additional 5g on dayjob rolls (Max of 180g extra, not that much).

Bonus Traits - I personally think once you start awarding bonuses on par with traits, you are nearing or surpassing the power level that should be granted by boons, but it could be done as traits are still rather minor in effect. In addition, a boon could give a specific trait that wouldn't be considered that powerful, but would be situational (+1 vs fear).

Single use Class Abilities - Smite Evil, Rage, Evasion, etc. One use then crossed off.

Cantrips - Prestigitation, Light, etc usable once daily.

Hi all. With my assuming the position of Campaign Coordinator on Monday, I wanted to let everyone know I am looking to expand the Venture-Captain program immediately into other areas of the globe I feel are in need of more Pathfinder Society presence.

Please point your browser to HERE to have a look at the updated areas that have been added.

Feel free to send applications, resumes, and other suggestions (with reasons why you think other areas should be added) to me at mike.brock@paizo.com

You must really need a Milwaukee VC if they're on the list twice. ;) I think Columbus was duplicated as well.

*The Rules Police air-drops Matt out of a helicopter*

Feint is not actually a combat maneuver, thus it cannot be used in a Maneuver Master's flurry.

*Matt puts on a pair of sunglasses, then pulls the lever on his jetpack and flies off.*

-Matt

This has got to be the most amazing rules correction I've ever seen.

Not the coordinator but I'd like to bring to attention:

Dan's Con of the Vale
Location: Tommy Thompson Youth Center (Wisconsin State Fair Park)
West Allis, WI

October 21st - 23rd 2011

http://wiscons.roseocon.net/index.php

As a magus, if you miss with a touch spell cast through your weapon on the first round, can you hold the charge and deliver it through your weapon the next round?

For Example:

Round 1: Cast Shocking Grasp, use sword to make attack in place of touch, miss.

Round 2: Attack normally with sword attacking AC. Hit, and discharge shocking grasp plus sword damage.

OR

Round 2: Attack with hand for touch AC, hit and discharge shocking grasp.

I guess I want to make sure I'm doing this correctly, as it says a magus can make a spellstrike when *casting* a spell, but it doesn't mention anything regarding holding the charge.

ElyasRavenwood wrote:

Revise a Chronicle sheet to add a PA award, click "save as", replace the page in the product's existing .pdf on the system and you are *done*.

MotFF is not like older stand-alone modules in the Pathfinder module line. That is because it was a free product, expressly released as being PFS compatible and it continues to be a free download.

Accordingly, it continues to be widely read and played in a way that many older modules are not -- and never will be.

I haven't played or DMed this adventure yet, but I've considered it, mostly for the sake it was a free download.

I don't think it would be a bad idea to give this module a PA award of 1, similar to We Be Goblins. You wouldn't even have to edit the PDF, just make a an official comment stating that players can earn one PA. It may be a deterrent for some players who don't want to start a new PC off with a 0 PA adventure.

Also, I don't see why this adventure couldn't be opened up to any PC of lvl 1 or 2. It's jarring for new players to learn than, even though this is only their 2nd or 3rd PFS game, they have to make another new PC because they can't play their existing lvl 1 PC in this.

Fixing both these aspects would help encourage more play and reduce problems that were brought up that may drive away new players.

I think there are bigger problems with this. The "one item" restriction is not really a functional restriction at all: you actually get 10% off of everything you buy, ever. The method is to buy items that are fungible and sell at its full value (like gems or trade goods), and not items that sell for half (like most items). Say you're sitting on 4,500 gp at the end of a scenario. Use it to buy a 5,000 gp gem, as that single item only costs you 4,500 gp. Then you use that gem to buy a piece of chalk and get 4999.99 gp in change, which you can then use to buy whatever you want (including lots of smaller items).

I think the restriction that you can't buy spellcasting or material components with your discounted purchase isn't enough. It should also state that you can't purchase anything that you are able to resell for full value.

It wouldn't work that way, you can't 'buy' gold that way, even for trade goods. Even if you bought a gem for 5,000g, discounted to 4,500g, its only worth 2,500g (selling price is 1/2 purchase price.) But you are correct, there definitely should have better wording to specify that you cannot do this.

I would say the discount would be similar to the Artisan Shop discount, which specifically specifies *non-magical* Still, a Qadiran Armorsmith with an artisan's shop would get a nice 15% discount on mithral/adamantine armor. If these discounts are not supposed to apply to special material goods, that also should be added in the FAQ.

"Artisan’s Shop (5 PP): Your craft is your livelihood when
you aren’t excavating musty tombs or exploring uncharted
lands. You sell your wares through an unassuming
storefront in a well-trafficked mercantile district. If you
use ranks in any Craft skill to calculate your bonus on
Day Job checks, having an artisan’s shop grants you a +1
circumstance bonus on all such checks. Additionally, you
receive a 5% discount on all nonmagical merchandise in
your area of expertise when purchasing it in the same city
as your shop, rounded to the nearest gold piece."

Great, thanks!

I was prepping the 3part Tier One adventures and had a few questions come up.

From what I understand, the prestige is all earned on part 3, as that is the part where the players pick a faction (I haven't had time yet to look at part 3, forgive me if its explained in that part). In addition, you can get both player and GM credit from the series unlimited amounts of time.

As a GM, do you get credit for each part separately or as a whole. I'm leaning towards 1 XP & normal gold for each part, as normal. However, would the GM no PA for part 1 & 2, and then 6 PA when he runs part 3, or would he earn 2 PA for each part? I would have to say the latter, since its very likely a DM would only run one part and be unable to complete the other parts.

Secondly I was wondering about traits for the players. As the players pick their faction in part 3, are they unable to pick any faction traits? Or, if the players know which faction they want to join initially (say, experienced players running the adventures again for the 5th time) can they pick faction traits? One of the big perks of joining a faction is access to their special traits, and it would be a shame if running this intro series essentially denied those.

Thanks for your answers!

DrakeRocket's Gunslinger guide

The Creepy Two Gun Build:

Alright, so, I -know- someone is going to want to play a two-gun wielding character and they are going to plead to DrakeRocket to tell them how. The reality of this is that Gunslinger does not support an effective way to use two pistols, because you have to have a hand free to reload. Other classes however...

Alchemist: Yup. I am telling you to take two levels in alchemist. In particular pick up vivisectionist for the 1d6 sneak attack instead of a worthless (to you) bomb. This gives you a few okay infusions, a very nice mutagen for your dex that will last most of a dungeon and, of greatest importance: the vestigial arm or tentacle discoveries from Ultimate Magic. Yup, use horrific potions to grow extra limbs to reload your weapon.

I thought of the creepy 3-armed gunslinger "Justice" from Afro Samurai as soon as I read this :)

I would like to point out that Hexcrafter archetype gives the magus all spells with the "Curse" descriptor, which includes the level 0 inquisitor spell "Brand" a melee touch attack that deals 1 dmg on a failed fort save (and carves a brand of up to 6 characters into them for 1day/level).

This gives the magus a replacement spammable touch spell if your DM doesn't like the idea of using Arcane Mark as an attack.

Thanks for the thoughts guys. Sounds like it's not totally worthless as I might have feared.. if it's a class skill put a point in at some point but that's pretty much the extent of it?

Sounds like it comes up often enough to keep it from being worthless, but definately not something you want to make your character's forte?

Qadira faction members are able to purchase the ability to use appraise for your day job rolls for 5 prestige. Since appraise isn't really a "powergamey" type skill, you might be able to find traits/items that would give a significant bonus to this skill (and thus your day job roll). I was considering it myself...but I figured that since craft already uses your INT modifier it probably wasn't worth it.

Otherwise I'm sure it can come up in game, just nowhere near as much as say, perception. I personally wouldn't sink more than the 1 point in it.

Here is what I think the feat is supposed to become for PFS play:

Gunsmithing

You know the secrets of repairing and restoring firearms.

Benefit: If you have access to a gunsmith’s kit, you can restore firearms, and purchase discounted bullets and black powder for all types of firearms. You do not need to make a Craft check to purchase discounted ammunition or to restore firearms.

Purchasing Ammunition: You can purchase bullets, pellets, and black powder for 10% of the price. If you have at least 1 rank in Craft (alchemy), you can also purchase alchemical cartridges for half the normal price of the cartridge. Resold items gained through this feat are worth half the actual cost paid, not half the regular market value for the item.

Restoring a Broken Firearm: Each day, with an hour’s worth of work, you can use this feat to repair a single firearm with the broken condition. You can take time during a rest period to restore a broken firearm with this feat.

Special: If you are a gunslinger, this feat grants the following additional benefit. You can use this feat to repair and restore your initial, battered weapon. It costs 300 gp and 1 day of work to upgrade it to a masterwork firearm of its type.

Normal: No PC can purchase a gun without this feat, even if they possess the Amateur Gunslinger or Exotic Weapon Proficiency (firearm) feats.

/agree

I'm flagging this for the FAQ, which I imagine this issue will be address as it was stated that class specific issues will be covered there.

Gunslinger is kind of a special beast though, and I think the ability for a gunslinger to improve his base gun to masterwork should be looked at, considering it IS part of the base rules. No other class that I can think of is dependent on a specific weapon that has a tendency to self-destruct, that also costs 1500g.

In case you were not aware of how guns work, if you roll a 1-2 on your attack, it breaks. If you again roll a 1-4 after its broken, it explodes and is destroyed (unless it is magical). I saw the chance for a gunslinger's weapon to be destroyed twice in his first mod. If it was destroyed, he'd have to wait 3-4 adventures before he can even replace his gun.

This class is already very high maintenance cost compared to any other. I don't see any harm in allowing a gunslinger to upgrade his base gun to masterwork for 300g as this is actually in the rules under the gunslinger feat and intended to offset some of the ridiculous costs.

I have an Inquisitor in PFS who likes to turn his adversaries into Pincushion with the arrows he shoots from his +1 Composite Longbow (with +2 str).

After squaring off with some incorporeal undead, I have decided my inquisitor is in need of a weapon with the “Ghost touch” quality.

How would I go about this? Do I need to purchase a new +1 Composite Longbow (+2 str bonus) with the Ghost touch ability? Or can I simply add the “Ghost Touch” quality to my existing bow? If possible how much would this improvement cost?

Thank you

In the new Pathfinder Society field guide, they added ghost salt weapon blanches, 200g for 10 arrows. Probably much better than enchanting your weapon with a very situational effect.

I was at a convention a week ago and a player mentioned that arrow quivers and other mundane gear "refills" after each mod. I'm guessing that he's carrying this concept over from his time with Living Greyhawk since I couldn't find anything to support this in the PFS rules document, but I wanted to ask here to be sure.

Just wanted to know how detailed a ranger has to track all his ammo ;)

Thanks!