Pan's page

Nice!

I didn’t realize this at first, but apparently the ghost that appeared to Fiona Shaw’s character is the ghost of the father of Matthew McConaughey‘s character from season 1. That’s cool.

And it seems the chick who got murdered six years prior had discovered something about what the scientists were up to. Or she just found something horrific. Maybe some eldritch microorganism that possessed her. And maybe they were keeping her on ice at their facility. Which could explain the “She’s awake” line. And I can’t help wonder if whatever’s going with the still births among the natives isn’t related to whatever has woken up, instead of the mine. Unless the mine is also somehow involved in what has awoken.

Either way, I’m enjoying this season. Jodie Foster’s character is particularly fun.

It's not bad, I really like the occult mystery in the air. I don't care for htem working overtime to make every person possible seem awful.

I love you Paizo!

I love you Paizo.

All this OGL nonsense has me feeling like its 2008 again.

Guess who's back in the MFing house?

Heya folks. This is a kerfuffle isnt it? Not sure how OGL 1.1 is going to shake out. My suspicion is that WotC wants everybody using their new 3DVTT like folks use Apple app store. Not sure how it will work. Im hoping the third party market comes together and makes their own OGL and thus history repeats itself for WotC. Though, it could go a lot of ways.

As for D&D One, not been super interested in 5E so far. Its fine, but its not nearly dedicated to character options as I would like (hey im a 3E/PF1 guy after all!) So, a GM really needs to sell me on a 5E game. Otherwise, ill be pretty bored. Dont know too many people who love or hate 5E, seems to be everyone's second favorite RPG system.

D&D One isnt doing much so far (via playtest) to change the above. Why mess with success right? I was interested in a set of anniversary core rule books because that seems like a cool milestone and collectors item. Also, I never bought any core 5E anyways. With OGL explosion buying any D&D One stuff is all on hold now. I mean, how cant it be?

Cheers.

opendnd

/signed

Oh man this site has a motherload of sci-fi music and sound effects.

If you like it, toss the creator a few bucks.

I hear ya, I got sucked into the collectors book because I'm certain it will just sit ont he shelf. I tend to use a lappy when GMing even if F2F. I do like the standard rulebook cover better.

The handouts really are intriguing. I hope they sell future kits for adventure modules and keep the handout game going!

I won't mention their name because I don't ask permission to do so, but we lost another forum member this week.

sad.

Off worlder right here.

Felt like the influenced by Batman movie. Touch of Bladerunner detective noir, dark rainy crime ridden city with emo rock like the crow, cat and mouse like game between the riddler like the Dark Knight... Great influences and I really liked the film, but I dont think it has its own identity, which will keep it from being considered a great movie.

Cast was excellent, and I liked a more introverted Batman we got from Patterson. Turturro proved, once again, he is a real underrated actor that out did himself in this film (so much presence!). Colin Ferrell's Penguin gave a real comic book almost Dick Tracy feel.

I was disappointed in Kravitz catwoman, not by her acting, but I feel the writing let her down. The character felt like she was there to move the plot around and be a cosplay doll. Jeffrey Wright's Gordon had the same issue. How many times does Gordon repeat, slowly, exactly what the audience just saw, knew, and read before he mutters it out? Also, why does anyone in the police force put up with Gordon? They clearly hate him and his friendship with Batman, but they just allow Gordon a wide berth.

Overall, a good solid addition to the Bat flicks.

The good news, in my humble view as a person with mild anxiety issues, is that the trigger seems to be getting ready for the game and not the game itself. The bad news, again in my humble view as a person with mild anxiety, you might have to go through this every time.

I had a panic attack once in the middle of a movie at the theater. I was alone on whatever afternoon and it just triggered. I was just learning about my anxiety (and family history) so it was very unnerving. It really sucked because I love going to movies. I have not had anywhere near that experience since. However, every time I go, there is a period of about 5-10 min after I sit down that I start freaking out. Once the lights dim and the movie starts rolling though, my anxiety melts away.

You are 100% correct about it just being in your mind. It's hard to talk to people because there isn't much sense about it. Anxiety is very personal and hard to relate to. What helps me is thinking about the process. It's routine, there is nothing wrong with me, or the situation. I have done this a million times and been just fine. Eventually, it washes away as you noted.

I hope your therapist can help better than I. All I can do is say, "yeah I know what anxiety is like."

-Cheers

Who owns the old Lucas Arts stuff? Id love to see a reboot of The Dig and Maniac Mansion.

The latest version is actually pretty playable vanilla. The only thing I miss is the extra zoom.

"Boom" "Whap" "Doink"

My favorite this time a year.

Anybody got console experience with MW5? I'm trying to talk my buddy into picking up a copy and I'm 90% cure he'll go PS4/5 with it. Im curious about co-op mode and cross platform?

In other news, still jamming on this. The update has added some nice things, and lancemate AI and spawns are much improved. Seems they even put some thought into AI behavior. Seems like enemy mechs will try and pull you away from bases during defense missions. Pretty neat.

They also added some more maps and new ambiance things like massive anti-aircraft cannon that will shake your mech if you a nearby and throw off some of your shots if not ready. Also, pretty neat.

Watching the final season now. I do appreciate the family friendly science fiction series. Seems everything has gone mature grimdark (even Picard). I think Parker Posey and what they did with Dr. Smith was incredible. I really enjoyed that. I did like the other characters too, but I felt like they had these mini arcs that they continuously faced over and over. It was like the constant death peril in every episode that just makes the series exhausting after awhile. I think they missed an opportunity to work more on the overall story.

They are not crashing, but they may not be working either. I do know that all AI seems to be using jump jets which is cool. They also like to melee which is not so cool as a teammate. They usually get smashed to death before your eyes.

It is cool that radar shows incoming drop ships.

Cool, I didnt realize this update was so recent. I just decided after a long time of not playing to fire it up again. Better Spawns 2.0 and Lancemate AI 2.0 are working still. As far as I can tell.

The update includes melee, which is nice when your mech is hot, hot, hot! Also, there are weapons caches laying around in missions you can mark for pickup.

Is there an 3D hud improvement mod? The old one I have crashes my client :(

IIRC (and I may not RC) some earlier versions of D&D, you could only get XP by killing monsters and collecting treasure (yes, treasure itself gave you XP). Earning XP for resolving quests, creative problem solving. So this quickly created a paradigm of the kill-n-loot story genre.

Early on you got XP for getting gold and treasure not from killing things. There was a lot of creative dungeons that tested players to try and get the loot without having to actually fight the monsters. It was considered a bit of a fail state if you did. This style is often referred to as skill play.

I do agree with you that videogames did up the carnage and bloodlust expectations. 3E went with an xp awarded for "defeating" encounters along with a major magic item expectation that could only be paid for in piles of bodies. Diablo influence was pretty obvious.

I'm not going to say much on the morality issue but I am a pacifist based on religious beliefs, and I enjoy fantasy violence in gaming as a safe, healthy way to let off steam. But for it to remain a healthy outlet, maintaining, respectful, supportive environments with one another at the table as well as a clear reminder that pretendy funtime games are not real life and the two should remain separated is critical.

Sound advice.

There is certainly a tendency for players to shoot first and ask questions later, but equally, there is a tendency for bad-faith GMs who ensure that no good deed ever goes unpunished - any time the players show clemency it is rewarded with treachery.

Definite two way street.

I had an old school GM for a bit that always punished the PCs for making hard choices. Though, in Kingmaker we let a couple of Bandits go. My character talked the group into it. Since in the ambush we killed a number of bandits before the others surrender. Sort of a message that the new lords are here and capable of kicking ass and mercy kind of thing. One bandit, of course, went back to the bandits, the other went back to town and became a blacksmith. The blacksmith thanked the PCs for sparing him and giving him a new opportunity he never had (which was why he was a bandit.) Was very rewarding specifically to this AP, but just in general to see good things come from the PCs being good people.

W E Ray wrote:

4) 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide 2

While Monte Cook's masterpiece 3.0 DMG is the beginning of contemporary game theory, actually showing us for the first time ever how to look at our game style and methodology, well, Robin Laws' DMG2 finishes it. We get so much insight in how to be Better DMs, creating a better experience for ourselves and our players. I mean, the chapter that identifies and describes various player-types, and points out that, 'Hey, be cognizant of both the player who just wants his PC to look cool, as well as the player who just wants her character to do crazy stuff,' should be required reading for every player in the game. (And yes, I know that technically the DMG 2 was coauthored with a few other people -- but I'm confident in saying the good stuff is almost ALL Robin Laws.)

I wrote a sizable chunk of that book, so it's always fun to see folks cite it as a favorite! :) (Was fun; I mostly worked on the Adventure Writing section, the NPC section, some of the magic items, and the Saltmarsh stuff, but WotC also had me go in and develop a fair amount of the other text to help it all sync up once the initial writing for the book was all done.)

Its a classic!

Planpanther wrote:

TriOmegaZero wrote:

Having visitors for Thanksgiving. I hear they are bringing scotch. Will update on results when I can.

Speaking of the upcoming holidays, folks got any good recommendations?

What do you like, and what is your budget?

Bourbon is my jam, but I do like Oban. I'll try anything in 30-50 dollar range but I might need some convincing to go above 80.

At one point I had 4 different bottles of Laphroaig in my cabinet (10, quarter, lore, 18). Now I just have the 10 and 10 cask strength. The 18 is my all-time favorite scotch, but they don't bottle that any more.

My friend's brewery just closed. Their landlord screwed them over. Last winter, I was really enjoying their imperial/pastry stouts. Some of them were a bit on the sweet side, so I started making them into boiler makers with scotch. Glenfiddich 14 (bourbon barrel) paired really well with a sweet stout, giving just enough bite again for my taste. I've also found that it's a decent scotch to introduce bourbon drinkers to.

Damn, thats too bad. Im guessing they cant find another site?

Here are some unboxing picks (looks sweeeeet!)

My copy has been shipped!

I love the stylized look and tone. The acting was a little off to me. Hoping a less frantic pace mixed with some quieter moodier scenes that balance well in the anime to change that up at launch. Fun teaser for sure tho.

I could also see it becoming 1984's Dune.

I dont. At worst it will end up like Bladerunner 2049.

The Dead Boy Detectives were great. I did think they played Crystal Palace too close to Jane in personality. I almost thought Crystal was young Jane for a min.

Cool. Im still dying for more Battletech tho...

Maybe someone should put together a list of gaming companies they won't give money to. They could even color code it with the companies being either red or green based on whether they're woke or unwoke.

Why is treating people with disrespect so appealing to you?

Also curious.

I just want to take a moment and say I appreciate Paizo and the Paizo community for the last 10+ years I've been a player and customer. I am not LGBTQ+ or a POC, so earlier in my experiences with PF inclusivity wasn't something I expected. I do value inclusivity, but I lacked the perspectives on why its so important. Paizo including diversity in their products and allowing discussion on their forums about inclusivity really helped me learn about perspectives I never had before. This has affected my opinions in life beyond the game. Thank you Paizo and Paizo community!

That said, the recent comments by former employees are disheartening. I do believe there is a little something to the "nobody is prefect" mindset when talking about an organization, but that certainly doesn't excuse poor behavior by individuals. Paizo really needs to address this.

The Pathfinder discord has a lot of people on it. All the games, as far as I can tell, are online games, but it might be worth looking around to see if you can find local gamers.

20 dollars a game? I thought organized play was free?

Hmm, looks like the posting for PFS at haunted was a dated ad. I'll keep looking around. I dont live in CO but have friends who do.

Yeah, if you wont go online, then you have to work with what you can. If it has to be F2F, then its likely you need to start with organized play. If there is only 5E D&D in the area, you likely need to start there too.

One way to look at it is if you are forced to go 5E org play, there are likely others in 5E org play that feel the same way. You have a better chance of finding them there than hoping a flier will get their attention.

Near Fort Collins? The Haunted Game Cafe hosts there.

Some of the negative reviews I read where taking issue with Dune part 1 not being a complete story, or ending at an ideal story point. This reminds me of some of the reviews that dogged Lord of the Rings because the fellowship movie didn't end definitively. This might be one of those things that works better holistically than in parts.

They also had the typical Villeneuve response of style over substance that critics like to use on his films. They're not always wrong about that.

Honestly, I'm surprised folks even bother with fliers anymore. The internet is a much bigger net.

Organized play was my way out of your situation. I don't prefer it either, but its the best way to meet local gamers.

My number one rule is no campaigns with people I dont know. So, I'll try folks out at PFS or one shots before moving into a campaign. I have on a few occasions just set up a chat or one shot with the intention of maybe getting to a campaign. Thats how I roll.

I haven't found that online gaming shields me from awful people.

Online is super convenient for folks and was chipping away at the F2F pool for awhile. Combine that with a pandemic, that is not over, and folks are sheepish to get back to the table. Its going to be awhile, but I bet there will be a F2F explosion in a year or two when folks want to get back to the table.

In the meantime, Id try out some PFS locally and see if you can garner up some interest.

Pan wrote:

Arachnofiend wrote:

Pan wrote:

Arachnofiend wrote:

Best moment when I was playing my Monk was using Whirling Throw to keep a boss enemy that we were all having a hard time hitting on AC locked in the Druid's Fire Wall every turn. Everybody should be supporting everybody to find the most effective tactic.

For us that would go like this;

Druid casts fire wall. Boos saves takes no/half damage and moves out.
Monk tries whirling toss and fails.
Boss punches the sh!t out of monk and we have to pick up his unconscious body and run.

Wall of Fire has no saving throw tied to it, the only failure point is keeping the enemy in the area. If an encounter isn't overtuned there's gonna be a solution somewhere, a weakness you can exploit. That's why PF2 character building is all about diversity in options, you need to have a second and even third thing to try when your first thing doesn't work.

Again, its not about things to do and options to try its about the math. Nothing we do has any decent chance to work because 2/3 our fights are +3-4 levels higher than us. Our only hope is to chip away at the AC because the lowest saves are still high enough to succeed 80% of the time.

I thought the new 4 tier critical system would be fun. however, being on the wrong side of it has sucked so bad I dont want to play PF2 anymore. And, yes I do put the blame on our GM, but the system also allows this. How many other folks will experience this? Who knows...

How many DMs have experienced the players not being challenged due to the lack of balance of PF1 or D&D 3rd edition? Similar idea.

You have a bad DM. But the PF2 system is must better at providing a challenge to PCs of any level. That is much, much better than the players running rough shod over the game due to the complete lack of any semblance of balance over previous iterations of the game.

So if players quit due to a bad DM, so be it. I quit PF1 and previous editions of D&D including 5E due to players...

I hear you. The GM definitely has way more confidence in their ability and perception of the game than they have any right to. A big part of my frustration.

Pan wrote:

The Raven Black wrote:

Pan wrote:

The Raven Black wrote:

OP, how do you know that the encounters are +3-4 levels higher than you ?

Note : if the GM is giving out XP for encounters budgeted for 4 PCs but you are 5 in the party, it means you will often be 1 level below what the adventure expects. In AV, it has a HUGE impact, especially when facing enemies that have abilities with Incapacitation.

We are suing roll20 so all the numbers are being revealed during combat. After I balked at a few encounters the GM opened up a bit about what we were facing. We were told that we should be x level at y floor of dungeon which we held to, but still each fight is +3-4 levels higher than us.

GM is running it like a 4 person party and not making any adjustments for a 5th player, per the GM anyways.

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

Are there many enemies in these encounters or only a few strong enemies ?

Its usually open a door and find an empty room. Open the next door fight a solo severe/extreme monster then rinse and repeat. This started on floor 3.

Pan wrote:

The Raven Black wrote:

OP, how do you know that the encounters are +3-4 levels higher than you ?

Note : if the GM is giving out XP for encounters budgeted for 4 PCs but you are 5 in the party, it means you will often be 1 level below what the adventure expects. In AV, it has a HUGE impact, especially when facing enemies that have abilities with Incapacitation.

We are suing roll20 so all the numbers are being revealed during combat. After I balked at a few encounters the GM opened up a bit about what we were facing. We were told that we should be x level at y floor of dungeon which we held to, but still each fight is +3-4 levels higher than us.

GM is running it like a 4 person party and not making any adjustments for a 5th player, per the GM anyways.

** spoiler omitted **

Pan wrote:

Arachnofiend wrote:

Pan wrote:

Arachnofiend wrote:

Best moment when I was playing my Monk was using Whirling Throw to keep a boss enemy that we were all having a hard time hitting on AC locked in the Druid's Fire Wall every turn. Everybody should be supporting everybody to find the most effective tactic.

For us that would go like this;

Druid casts fire wall. Boos saves takes no/half damage and moves out.
Monk tries whirling toss and fails.
Boss punches the sh!t out of monk and we have to pick up his unconscious body and run.

Wall of Fire has no saving throw tied to it, the only failure point is keeping the enemy in the area. If an encounter isn't overtuned there's gonna be a solution somewhere, a weakness you can exploit. That's why PF2 character building is all about diversity in options, you need to have a second and even third thing to try when your first thing doesn't work.

Again, its not about things to do and options to try its about the math. Nothing we do has any decent chance to work because 2/3 our fights are +3-4 levels higher than us. Our only hope is to chip away at the AC because the lowest saves are still high enough to succeed 80% of the time.

I thought the new 4 tier critical system would be fun. however, being on the wrong side of it has sucked so bad I dont want to play PF2 anymore. And, yes I do put the blame on our GM, but the system also allows this. How many other folks will experience this? Who knows...

I did experience this, it was frustrating as a player in my first game.

Then I learned what I was doing wrong, and I got better.

Recall knowledge is INSANELY GOOD, as a caster, provided your GM tells you which save is weakest.

There is on average a difference of 5 on saves between the highest and lowest save. That's 25% chance extra to land your spell and 25% chance extra to have them Crit fail. Mesh this with an aoe spell on a group and unless you are really unlucky you'll have failures and Crit...

This is helpful and I get it. Its just kind of a bummer when a significant portion of the spell list becomes ineffective or inefficient when facing boss level fights on the regular. The martials in our group dont mind the toughness of the fights, but the casters in our group have been frustrated by the lack of useful options and success in encounters.

This GM seems to wipe parties on a regular basis in several systems and often blames the material and/or the party. Our group seems pretty savvy and managed to avoid many TPKs. So its likely something in the middle of the GM not having a good sense of system and inexperienced players.

In the entirety of the level 4 part of the adventure, there is exactly one level +3 creature and one level +4 creature. In the level 3 section, there are only two level +3s. That's it. So something isn't adding up here.

Yeah, thats what I gathered. I dont have the AP so I cant compare whats written to what the GM is doing. We are new to each other so I dont know how the GM operates. Im not the only one in the group either thats noticed this. We had a long chat and GM keeps blaming the material but I know thats not right, but I dont know exactly whats going on either.

OP, how do you know that the encounters are +3-4 levels higher than you ?

Note : if the GM is giving out XP for encounters budgeted for 4 PCs but you are 5 in the party, it means you will often be 1 level below what the adventure expects. In AV, it has a HUGE impact, especially when facing enemies that have abilities with Incapacitation.

We are suing roll20 so all the numbers are being revealed during combat. After I balked at a few encounters the GM opened up a bit about what we were facing. We were told that we should be x level at y floor of dungeon which we held to, but still each fight is +3-4 levels higher than us.

GM is running it like a 4 person party and not making any adjustments for a 5th player, per the GM anyways.

Hey! I wanted to check in about whether y'all are planning to continue posting the Paizo Live and other segments that air on your Twitch/YouTube channels to the Paizo, Inc. podcast channel?

I found the January Paizo Live and it was a great listen while I was in my car. If at all possible, this would be hugely appreciated! (And maybe inform a few more people about the wonderful things that Paizo makes!)

This is a wonderful idea! So excited for these!

Hello,

I hope this finds you well. I'm writing about my order, which lists as having shipped on January 20, 2021. It's a subscription order, so I'm pretty attuned to regular shipping times. Packages from Paizo generally take 2 days, so I expected it on January 22. However, it still has not arrived by today, which is January 26. Could you please look into what's happened and whether a shipping label was generated but the package wasn't actually placed into transportation?

Feel free to contact me via this thread or via email (or phone, if it's tied to my account, though I'm not typing it on a public message board) if you have any questions.

B

Please cancel order 8239380. Thank you!

...from the Starfinder Accessories subscription line. I love it, but my home is overflowing with pawns and I need to conserve space.

If you get a moment, can you confirm that I will still receive PFS and SFS scenarios for free based on my remaining subscriptions?

Thank y'all for all you do. Paizo's customer service team is top-notch and so easy to work with!

B

Thank you. It's been a wonderful journey, but I've got enough minis...for the moment!

I made this order, but it hasn't shipped yet. I made it before my June subscription order was generated. I wanted to give it some time before I asked y'all to check in to it. Would you mind taking a look? Thank you!

Please unsubscribe me from the following subscription lines:

* Pathfinder Campaign setting
* Pathfinder Player Companion

Thank you!

Maryland's in the Northeast Region. Virginia's in the Southeast Region. There's a 68 square-mile piece of real estate between them that doesn't have a region. We already can't be a state or elect voting representatives to Congress. Can we please have a Starfinder Society Region?

First of all, thank y'all for doing what you can. I can't imagine the logistical difficulties inherent in trying to make the first shipment of what's rumored to be a wildly popular game and do the split between GenCon shipping and normal shipping.

I do have an issue with my order and would appreciate your help. My order looks like this:

Order #4374545
Starfinder Core Pawn Collection - Shipped
PF AP The Lost Outpost - Shipped
Starfinder AP Incident at Absalom Station - Shipped
Starfinder Core Rulebook - Not Shipped
Starfinder Flip Mat: Basic Terrain - Not Shipped
Starfinder Flip Mat: Basic Starfield - Not Shipped
Pathfinder Map Pack: Village Sites - Not Shipped
PF Player Companion: Elemental Master's HB - Not Shipped
PF Flip Map: Cavernous Lair - Not Shipped

Can you help me figure out what happened to the others? For what it's worth, I backed the Starfinder stuff from day one, but changed my order over to a subscription on July 27. Don't know if this is helpful or not, but It also marks my order as still being 'Pending' on paizo.com. But the PDFs for the files that were shipped have been made available. But not the the ones that haven't shipped. I'm really excited about playing both Starfinder and the new AP and appreciate any help that you can give me. Thanks!

Good morning,

I hope this finds you well. Please cancel my Pathfinder Battles & Campaign Setting subscriptions. Thank you.

I'm putting together a players guide for a Kaer Maga campaign. I was hoping to give my players a taste of the city with some short fiction. Anybody know of any web fiction (or...shudder fan-fic) that I could include as optional reading?

I made an independent order over the first weekend in February and it looks like it split my Campaign Setting Subscription off from the rest of my subscription products. When my subscription order spawned on Saturday (thanks for running them over the weekend, by the way!), it didn't have the campaign setting for Belkzen in it. That's split aside in a separate order.

Subscription Order - 3455417
Campaign Setting Split Order - 3427300

Thanks, y'all!

Can you please cancel my campaign setting subscription? Many thanks!

Good morning! On Friday I received an email from Paizo saying my subscription shipped, but UPS tracking isn't showing it actually having been tendered into their system. Is everything good to go?

On October 1, I made a great golem sale order and asked that the items be stored in my sidecart (3254957). Then when my subscription went to pending today, one of the items didn't make it in (3293487). The copy of the Shackled City Adventure Path hardcover isn't there. I see that the hardcover has now sold out--can someone let me know what happened?

Many thanks!

Good morning,

Please cancel my Pathfinder Maps subscription. I love the products, but am finding that I'm doing most of my gaming online these days and it makes more sense to just buy the PDFs as I need them. Thank you!

So, I did some messing around in Excel with the various types of armor and have come up with an argument for studded leather being the uber armor for all players. I'm printing the text of my blog post about it here, but to get a look at the tables and the the graph, you'll need to visit the site directly.

Now, begin post transcription...

Today, I decided to do a little bit of musing over how armor choices affect a character in a d20 system, specifically Pathfinder. Before we get to heavy into the numbers, I want to make a few comments about the statistics that underlie any d20 game. Most obviously, you are rolling 20-sided dice. With 20 possible options, you have a 5% chance of any particular one showing up. Since PCs all start with armor class 10, they have a 50% chance of being hit by an attack before any bonuses they or their assailant may have are factored in.

A CR 1 creature should be doing 6 points of damage a round (5 is low attack damage and 7 is high attack damage). It should also be adding +1 to its hits per round, but I'm going to ignore that to make the math easier. 6 points of damage per round with a 50% hit chance (55% with the bonus) works out to 3 points of damage per round. Before CON bonuses are added in, that means a level one PC with d4 or d6 hit points can survive one hit, a creature with d8 hit points can survive two, and a creature with d10 or d12 can survive three. Assume at least a CON bonus of +1 and the d6 and d12 creatures move up to two hits and four hits, respectively.

But, increased armor significantly changes this equation. By taking a high DEX score or picking up armor and shields, characters can significantly increase their chances to avoid damage. But, both DEX and armor have tradeoffs. In the case of DEX, you are placing higher scores (for die-rolling character creation) or more points (for point-buy systems) that requires you to forego scores in other abilities. With armor, characters are limiting their maximum dexterity bonus and taking penalties on several skills checks.

Under a rational system, PCs with lower hit dice for their class would be the ones investing most heavily in armor. The characters that are the easiest to kill have the most rationale to make hitting them harder. Of course, a rational system wouldn't care much about game balance and we have a system where the classes with lower hit points per level are actually forbidden from wearing armor.

I've done a very (emphasis on very) basic analysis of the armors listed in the Core Rulebook. Following the order in which they are listed, I plugged the armor bonus, maximum Dexterity bonus, and armor check penalty for each CRB armor into an Excel spreadsheet. I then added trendlines and R-squared values for each attribute:

[MISSING GRAPH HERE]

So, what do we notice? First of all, the R-squared values are high. That means that the trendline drawn for the series of points does a good job of predicting what the actual value of any given item will be. (Note: This analysis basically assumes we are using padded armor as '1' leather as '2,' studded leather as '3,' and so on. That basically tracks increased armor bonuses, but you could reorder the armors with the same bonuses and get slightly different R-squared values). The R-square values range from a low of 87% for maximum dexterity bonus to a high of 98% for armor bonus. Basically, this is a good way for us to see that our designers have done a good job balancing armor's effectiveness for avoiding attacks with providing limitations to dexterity and to skills checks. That's good game design!

But, they haven't completely removed any differences, otherwise the lines would be perfectly smooth and the R-squared values would always equal 100%. The other important thing that we notice is that although the R-squared for the armor bonus is almost completely explained by its level, we have a lot more variation on maximum Dexterity and armor check penalties. That differentiation means that there's room for optimization.

To figure out the optimal values, I did a very simple analysis. If the armor check or maximum Dexterity bonus for the specific type of armor was above the trendline, it got one point. I'd redone the armor check penalties as absolute values (so an armor check of '1' on the chart means a -1 penalty), so those armors received a point if they were below the trendline. If the two were evenly matched, the armor received no points. If the trendline was above the armor bonus or the maximum dexterity bonus, the armor received -1 point. If the trendline was below the armor check penalty, it received a -1. Here's what I came up with:

Now here's a table!

Note: I went by exact values, so even the tiniest difference between the trendline and the actual value resulted in a '1' or a '-1.' That said, some of them very actually really close to each other. Another analysis that discounts these minute differences may find that some armors aren't as far from optimal as discussed here.

Based on this analysis, studded leather is the optimal light armor. Chainmail or a breastplate is the optimal medium armor and banded mail or full plate is the optimal heavy armor. We also see that all light armor gives more benefits than it takes in penalties but that medium and heavy armors are mixed bags. I found this particularly interesting, because these are NOT my usual armor choices. In fact, I almost always purchase leather for characters that need high Dexterity and scale mail for characters that will wear medium armor. I generally don't run PCs that wear heavy armor, but I'd suspect that I'd lean more towards splint mail, a less than optimal choice, if I did.

That's because in my mind, the penalties to Dexterity and to armor checks far outweigh the benefits of better armor. Once you control for the differences in these things, studded leather becomes as useful as full plate. Of course, this method only considers whether or not something is different from the trendline. If I considred how far things moved from the trendline, I might end up with different results (but not very different. The high R-squared values mean that few actual numbers differ much from the trendlines anyway).

Of course, people like to play characters that can have high dexterity scores for ranged attacks and for general roguishness. I then ran the checks again, but this time, I doubled and tripled the weight for the Dexterity score trendline. Zeros stayed the same, but positives and negatives counted twice as much:

Now there's a link to a fabulous table!

Yet again, studded leather is the clear winner. Now, I'm not an optimizer in character creation. But, no one wants to pick up gear that's intentionally bad. This might explain my reticence about using medium armor. The juice doesn't isn't worth the squeeze. However, this does explain why the power gamers I ended up playing with on Friday night at GenCon were so confused that my fighter wasn't wearing heavy armor. Now that I've seen how the numbers stack up, he just might make the jump. (Actually, if he puts on heavy armor, he likely won't be making any jumps, but that's another matter!)

Now that we know that studded leather is the optimal armor choice, let's take a look at what it does for armor choices across various class hit die groups. Studded leather adds 3 to a character's armor bonus, making the default 13 before other bonuses and penalties are added in. Against the average CR 1 creature, you've moved from a 55% chance of being hit to a 40% chance of being hit. Of course, heavy armor makes more sense for warriors, so we can figure an at least +2 dexterity bonus for our level one character, reducing her chance to be hit down to 30%. Using the average damage of 6 and a 30% chance to hit, we get 1.8 damage per round. That's two hits and still alive for the d4 group, 3 hits and still alive for the d6 group, 4 for the d8 group and the d10 group and 5 for the d12 group. Constitution bonuses will only increase these numbers.

Anyway, hope that you liked it. Let me know your thoughts. Also, if anyone wants to run other numbers, I'm happy to post those or links to them. It would be interesting to look at how masterwork armor changes the equation on things as well as how adding enchantment moves the relative values between the three variables.

Good evening,

Hope that you had a great weekend. I've recently brought back my Campaign Setting subscription. I signed up to start with the Technology Guide, but my subscription page is showing the Mummy's Mask map folio being in my cart as well. I'm not sure if this is just a quirk of the subscription page or an actual error, but I wanted to alert y'all to make sure.

Thank you so much in advance for all that you do!

Morning,

Hope y'all are all getting some well-deserved rest after the June subscription ship-out! Can you please cancel my Campaign Setting line subscription?

I'm starting as a character in a new homebrew campaign on Sunday.

I've decided to play a blight druid.

We start at 3rd Level and I'm trying to figure out good feat choices as well as a familiar choice. As racial feats I've got Skill Focus (Perception) and Exotic Weapon proficiency (bastard sword for Feronia). I'd like to delay taking Natural Spell until level 5. My druid's very melee combat focused.

I'm also debating between having a familiar (since blight druids don't get companions) and taking the death domain. If a familiar, I'm leaning towards a vulture, but I'm not sure what stats best fit that--the vulture bestiary entry seems too powerful while the bird familiar (hawk, eagle, etc.) seems too weak.

Good morning lovely people who help me get my stuff! When my harrow deck was added to my subscription order, the shipping was changed from UPS Ground to Standard Postal. Actually, because I have to travel, would y'all mind changing just this one to UPS next day air? I have to travel for work and want some fun reading!

Y'all are the bestest!

I signed up for the module subscription to start with Plunder & Peril, but when I view My Subscriptions page, it lists Tears at Bitter Manor shipping with the rest of my April order. Is there some way I can get this out of my subscription cart?

This order is actually shipped, delivered, and everything's good. My account says that it's still pending. It's no skin off my back--I'm happy to have my books! But in case this matters to Paizo, thought I'd let you know.

I placed this order on Feb. 28 and it's been pending since then. I thought it might be getting combined with my subscription shipment, but now that one has spawned separately and this one is still pending. Sorry to make noise, but I'm worried because my CC authorization expires on Tuesday.

After looking at the sphinx fascinated trait from the Player's Guide, I decided to take a look at the Bestiary entries for the various sphinxes. I'm loving this thing where they gynosphinxes are wanting some babies but the androsphinxes just think it's a distraction. So, I got to thinking about what other options the gynosphixes might take and thus came the idea for the Half-Sphinx race. With Ye Olde Race Builder from the ARG, here's what I came up with. Any suggestions welcome!

Half-Sphinx (Gynosphinx) - 11 Race Points
Medium Humanoid
Speed 30
Specialized Ability Scores: +2 INT or WIS/+2 CHA/-2 DEX (1 RP)
Speaks Common, Sphinx & INT bonus languages
Curiosity: +4 Diplomacy to gather info / Knowledge (local & history) become class skills / If Knowledge (local or history) already class skill, get +2 bonus (4 RP)
Magical Linguist: +1 DC to language-dependent spells & spells that create glyphs, symbols, or other writings. CHA 11 or higher gets arcane mark, comprehend languages, message, read magic with caster level equal to character level. (2 RP)
Vestigial Wings: Has wings too weak for flight alone but that grant +4 to Fly checks if other method of flight is achieved. (2 RP)
Darkvision: Darkvision 60'

And, although it might be rarer, a possible half-androsphinx. The half-androsphinx is probably to powerful for a PC because of balance issues, but could make for a fun NPC:

Half-Sphinx (Androsphinx) - 16 Race Points
Medium Humanoid
Speed 30
Standard Ability Scores: +2 STR / +2 WIS / -2 DEX
Speaks Common, Sphinx, & INT bonus languages
Curiosity: As above (4 RP)
Magical Linguist As above (2 RP)
Flight: 30' (Clumsy) (4 RP)
Androsphinx's Roar (reskinned Frightful Gaze): (Su) Three times per day, a half-androsphinx can let out a frightful roar. All creatures within 30' must make a Will saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 roarer's level + the roarer's CHA modifier) or stand paralyzed in fear for one round. This is a sonic mind-affecting fear effect. A target that successfully saves cannot be affected by the user's Androsphinx's Roar for 24 hours. (6 RP)
Darkvision: Darkvision 60'

What do y'all think? I wanted to do Hierasphinxes (a half-hierasphinx barbarian would be a fun villain choice for an early side-quest from the AP) and criosphinxes, but I ran out of time.

EDIT: Added Darkvision to half-androsphinx.

I've made a dwarven foehammer that's wearing a dwarven boulder helmet and has taken the Hard Headed feat (both from the Advanced Race Guide). The feat says that my character gets +2 to bull rush when charging, and my helmet has spikes that do melee damage. Here are my questions:

1) Can my character do a head-down charge that functions as a bull rush and a melee attack with the helmet? I really want this to be his signature move to close for battle before pulling out his hammer (while staggered).

2) If no to above, is there a feat that would let me do this?

3) If I took the spiked destroyer feat, would you rule that the damage from the Dwarven Boulder helmet could function like armor spikes? My character worships Angraad, so I qualify.

It looks like there's nothing in the campaign setting line coming for March. Is that because we are getting double goodness with the Inner Sea Gods hardcover in April? Or is there something for March and I'm just totally missing it?

How would you go about statting up the three storms from Big Trouble in Little China for Pathfinder? What about David Lo Pan? My basic ideas are:

Thunder seems pretty clearly like a monk and Rain like a samurai. I am thinking either sorceror (Elemental Electricity bloodline) or magus for Lightning. Also, they would need to have some serious teamwork feats, which I know very little about.

Is Lo Pan just a wizard?

Washington, D.C. area rise of the rune lords game. I'd prefer to play, but I will GM if necessary. 4-6 players. Who wants in?

Let me start this off by saying I know it would require an almost prohibitive amount of work. But, I think it would be amazing to see an AP focused on the guerrilla war between Nirmathas and Molthune where the PCs could end up fighting for either side. It could be a situation where the PCs start off knowing they'll fight for one side or they might be forced to make a decision partway through the AP.

This would be tough to do, since you would have to generate material that might apply only for PCs on one side or the other. But, there could also be material that would overlap. Maybe there is an artifact in a dungeon that would be useful to both countries' war efforts. Or, there could be a situation where one side is trying to take a fort while the others are defending it.

There's not a lot of material on the Nirmathis/Molthune war thus far (I'm only partway through The Wizard's Mask) and it would be awesome to be able to create material where the PCs could influence the course of the war to go two different ways.