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Sent: Seconday, 12th of Desnus
To: Director of Abadarcorp Customer Relations (thursty.dir@abadar.gov)
Cc: Starfinder Agent Roster (Agent#_star@finder.org) Celita (notHis7@finder.org)

Subject: The State of Cybernetics

Salutations. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am an Android, designation OV-416, known as Overwatch to my peers. I am a seasoned field agent of the Starfinder Society and a colleague of Detaphiles Executive Officer Celita. Our line of work entails great personal risk, so it is imperative my colleagues and I use only the best equipment and augmentations available to ensure the safety of our agents. Given my years long professional relationship with Abadarcorp as a Starfinder Agent, it is my responsibility to inform you of a grave deficiency in certain products offered by your company. In other words, I wish to lodge a complaint.

I will state it simply: the state of Cybernetic Augmentations is in urgent need of redress. In most cases they are grossly overpriced for the amount of actual value they provide, in terms of value they are utterly eclipsed by Armor Modifications, and they are lacking in functional diversity when compared to other augments available on the market. As a Cyberborn who values the calculated synthetics of Cybernetics instead of the unpredictable Magitech or the fleshy tumors of Biotech, this is simply untennable.

As I think divorcing the question of cost from the question of value when compared to Armor Mods is utterly impossible, I will address these first two points simultaneously. The most readily available comparison would be the Cybernetic Augmentation of Darkvision Capacitors, as the armor mod equivalent in Infrared Sensors is readily available to any adventurer the second they step off the shuttle into Absalom's Stations vast markets. Standard Darkvision Capacitors and Infrared sensors both provide the same benefit, that being able to see through complete darkness out to a distance of sixty feet. However, while the Infrared Sensors are a modest 200 credits, Standard Darkvision Capacitors are a significantly more substantial 1750 credits, an increase in cost of 875%.

An even more egregious example would be the comparison between the Armor Modification of Deflective Reinforcement with the Cybernetic Augmentation of Dermal Plating. While Deflective Reinforcement may cost 214% more than Dermal Plating Mk 1, but it also provides 500% more protection than it's Cybernetic counterpart. When compared to a Dermal Plating model that provides equal benefit, the Dermal Plating Mk 5, The Dermal Plating costs 105,000 Credits, a 1400% increase! The Dermal Plating product line also has a troublesome glitch where it's effectiveness decreases to that of a Mk 1 regardless of it's actual mark should the person it's installed in possess other, similar forms of physical protection. While the same glitch is present in the Deflective Reinforcement, it's greater potency at first purchase suggests that you are more likely to get your full value out of the Deflective Reinforcement, whereas with Dermal Plating investing in anything more than a Mk 1 seems like a woeful waste of credits.

Now I have discussed this in the past with other agents, and some may argue that the trade off is Armor Modifications are limited by the armor you are wearing. Armors can only support so many. To that I must point out that while that is true, Armor Modifications are modular and easily interchangeable with a little time and effort, making it relatively easier to simply swap through a rotation of mods as the situation calls for it. Augmentation however requires invasive surgery, and unless you are a member of a species with a natural proclivity to augmentation, or are a member of the Augmented who have special tech and training to handle more augments in the body, each system in the body is capable of only handling one augment. I also understand the argument that Augmentation prices reflect the need for a medical bay and a surgeon to properly install the augment, but I would argue that even still those fees should not be an over 800% increase, for even the most conservative of comparisons. How do these augmentation clinics expect to stay open when the same technology comes in a modular, cheaper, easier to acquire form?

Then there is the issue of diverse functionality in Cybernetic Augments. While Cybernetic Augments share much of the same territory as Armor Mods, Magitech, Biotech, and even Necrografts boast unique, impactful augments that are favored by many an adventurer. Force Soles are a very popular Magitech item, and I have personally seen Selective Ears used as well. Biotech seems to get the Lion's share, with Dragon Glands, Venom Spur, Glass Skin, and Pressurized Lungs all being popular options. I have even seen an agent willing to look past the stigma of Necrografts to get a Bone Blade. Meanwhile Cybernetics are woefully underrepresented.

Sure, Cybernetics have a few standouts. Speed Suspensions and Data Jacks are popular with scouts and engineers. But Cybernetics still fall short of being unique because of Adaptive Biochains. Effectively for any Cybernetic Augment that exists, there is also a Biotech version of it. When Biotech already has most of the appealing augments. It may come with a small markup, but there are plenty of Biotechnicians out there who usually can exercise their connections to not only make that mark up disappear, but still manage a tiny discount. It has the appearances of self dealing.

On the other hand, there is no Cybernetic equivalent for Biotech, even those Biotech Augments where logically one would exist. Augment Makers would really pay a premium to harvest the scales of a deadly Eoxian Serpent for Glass Skin, but wont pay a modest sum for the photo cells perfectly capable of replicating the effect. Even worse, the Machine Telepathy Cluster is a gift from robotic organisms commonly known as Drift Angels, who are believed to be heralds of Triune. Triune is the tripartite God of machines, AI, and synthetic life. This Augment, which even has Machine in it's name, is Biotech. I had one implanted despite my misgivings, if only because it plays to my strengths and is a gift of Triune. I would readily replace it with a Cybernetic version if given the opportunity.

Weaponized Prosthesis might vaguely resemble the offensive power granted by Dragon Glands or Venom Spurs, but the weapons capable of being installed in such a prosthesis are limited in number, lacking in efficiency, and like everything else, overpriced. Why is there no option to convert existing weaponry to be compatible with a Weaponized Prosthesis for a modest fee? Why no melee attachments? Is Abadarcorp really that comfortable with Eoxian Necrografts cornering the market on weaponized arm blades? How is it possible that the technology exists to stick an organic computer into my brain as a Data Jack, but not a synthetic blast nozzle in my throat as a Dragon Gland? Where do you even harvest all those Wyrmling Dragon Glands anyway? On second though, maybe I don't want to know.

I just don't understand how Cybernetics got into this state. Maybe Abadarcorp scaled back their investment in Cybernetics in fear of market backlash after all those faulty implants were sold in the Free Market back in Pharast 318. Yes, I am aware of that event.Maybe the ongoing media smear against my organization coupled with the internal politics of your organization has resulted in Abadarcorp being reluctant to sell their best equipment to Starfinders. Maybe the ongoing Corona Plague sweeping the Pact Worlds and the Veskarium has had an unseen impact on Research and Development for newer, better Cybernetics. It could be all or none of these things. All I know is the situation needs to change.

I can be patient. In these trying times, I understand that fixing the state of Cybernetic Augments will take time. Please do not mistake my patience for weakness. If Abadarcorp is unwilling to address the deficiencies in their cybernetics, your organization is not so big that I could not take my business elsewhere. The society has already done business in the past with Zeizerer Munitions, and I'm sure other companies both in the Pact Worlds and in Near Space would be willing to see to our needs. And of course, I would be recommending my colleagues do the same. I am sorry if this seems drastic, but I hope now I have your full attention, and this matter may finally be put to rest. Because I know if there is one thing Abadarcorp hates, it's losing business to a competitor.

With Regards,
Overwatch

P.S. This has been posted as an open letter visible to my colleagues in the Starfinder Society so that they may cosign or provide addendum as they see fit. Maybe then you will understand the market demand for impactful, affordable Cybernetics.

P.P.S. As a sign of good faith, attached below you will find the schematic for a prototype Cybernetic Augment developed by myself and some colleagues in the Dataphiles. You have our permission to mass produce and sell this augment royalty free, under the condition that the Dataphiles and Starfinder Society are properly accredits for it's discovery. It should require minimal fine tuning. This augment can serve as a stop gap for the Cybernetics issue until new product lines are developed, and help the Society in our ongoing struggle against negative media attention. I hope the mutually beneficial nature of our offer appeals to you.

Do Shirren have thoraxes? All official art shows them with a wide gate that makes it hard to tell, but for some reason imagining them without one seems really wierd to me. I'm drawing my Shirren for Starfinder Society and I wasn't sure if they had Thoraxes, and I wanted to know.

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/starfinder-society-ethical-anthropo logy.849622/

Is this True? Are izalguuns legal for play?

I'd like some input on ruling for grenade launchers. Because this makes sense to me RAW, but then it might not be RAI.

Grenades are weapons that you cannot get Weapon Specialization on. However, you can have specialization in heavy weapons. Grenade launchers are heavy weapons, and when a grenade is loaded into a grenade launcher, it's treated as ammunition.

So at that point, would firing a grenade from a grenade launcher allow you to add specialization to the damage? The generally low DC of grenades and low damage scaling makes using grenades rarely if ever viable, but if this works I may have found something for my Bombardier Soldier to do.

So you know how we have full page art for all the relevant NPCs and monsters in Pathfinder 2nd Edition Scendarios? Can we make that a thing for Starfinder Society also? I usually make my own art by either clipping it out of the page in Photoshop or finding something similar/from the bestiary on Google, but having it readily available in the scenario would make GM prep that much easier on me.

For that matter, having all stat blocks organized by encounter with the encounter rules and tactics as a seperate appendix would make it easier for me, as someone who often runs off a PDF, since then I can just print off the appenices and don't have to go flipping back and forth to cross reference different parts of the same document when a creature gets reused or whatever.

I'm not seeing it on the additional resources page, but I'm hoping it will be there soon. In the meantime I have a question: does Paizo plan to make the Pathfinder Agent dedication accessible to all characters regardless of nation of origin? Being an uncommon archetype it wouldn't make much sense to me if my characters have to be from Absalom to be a Pathfinder, when they ARE a Pathfinder, and Pathfinders come from all over. It would be odd to build a Pathfinder from say, Kyonin, and for that reason they can't be a Pathfinder Agent. It's a pretty nice archetype too.

I don't remember the exact specifications of the boon, but it left me with a very important question. It let you buy a specific augment at a discounted price of 3000 credits. It also said that because it was bought at a discount, it would sell back for only 300.

From my understanding, augments code to your genetics and can't be resold, so...? Is this just the writer of the chronicle not knowing the rules? Or is this specific augment resellable?

So as not to Necro an old thread, which didn't answer the question anyway.

Benefit: You can use the Medicine skill in conjunction with a medpatch or sprayflesh to treat deadly wounds as a full action. If you have an ability that enables you to treat deadly wounds more often but with a longer time frame (such as the envoy’s surgeon expertise talent), you cannot use this feat to use that ability more quickly. When used in this way, the medpatch or sprayflesh does not perform any of its normal functions. You can also use the Medicine skill to provide longterm care with just a medkit.

Normal: It takes 1 minute to treat deadly wounds, and longterm care requires a medical bay or medical lab.

The problem being that the DC for treat deadly wounds is set by the equipment, not the skill, and while basic and advanced medkits have DCs for Treat Deadly Wounds, medpatch does not and Sprayflesh assumes special circumstances in that they don't receive the healing until a ten minute rest.

My question is what would the DCs for this feat be?

An additional question: how would this feat combine with battlefield medic?

When you attempt a Medicine check to stop bleed damage or administer first aid to a dying creature, you can choose not to roll your expertise die in order to also automatically treat deadly wounds on that creature if your Medicine check is successful. The DC for the check is based on the medical equipment used, using the DC for treat deadly wounds + 5. This does not count as the treat deadly wounds treatment for the purposes of how many times per day a creature can receive this treatment, though a creature can only benefit from battlefield medic once per day. If you also have the surgeon expertise talent, you can increase the DC of a battlefield medic-related Medicine check by a total of 10 to use battlefield medic to treat deadly wounds on a creature one additional time per day (which does not count as a use of the surgeon expertise talent).

This moment kept on giving to me both in the long and short term.

Long term, I proudly point to this moment every time someone complains about the fact that every single one of my characters has archetypes instead of (as they complain) "the good abilities."

This quote got me really thinking about Archetypes in Society, and I thought it would be enlightening to have a discussion about them. Why some people like them, why some don't, which are considered good, which are considered bad, and why.

I currently have only one character with an archetype, but he is one of my favorites.

Overwatch is a Cyberbor Starfinder Data Jockey Android Operative, Hacker Specialization 5. Should be level 6 by the end of the month. So far he's lost one exploit for Fast Retrieval. I chose Mysticism for the ability.(" I don't bother to learn about inane mystical mumbo jumbo. If I need to know I'll Google it.") At level 6 he will get System Guru instead of another exploit. At level 9 he will get Tactical Analysis and his trick attack will be delayed. He chose Alien Archive as his 4th level exploit.

I haven't really had much opportunity to apply what he's gained from the archetype yet, neither am I really hurting from the loss of exploits. Alien Archive was the only one I really wanted because it complimented the purpose of the archetype extremely well. There are a few others that I like, but none of them really feel like must haves except Uncanny Shooter, and he can pick that up at level 8. Between System Guru from the archetype and Elusive Hacker, he'll have both a 50% chance of a Mulligan on countermeasures, and a roll twice on any computer who's tier is no more than half his level. We'll be playing Data Breach sometime in the next few months and I feel like that Scenario was written for him. A hacking/espionage Dataphile mission? Sign me up!

Probably the only thing that hurts is at level 9 I'm forced to make a choice between Trick attack and Tactical Analysis, and even if I choose to Trick Attack my damage increase is delayed thanks to Tactical Analysis. Makes me wish the envoy improvisation Hurry, or Haste, wasn't so restrictive on the bonus move action. But I still see potential value in making it where my allies can bypass some of the enemy's resistances. Especially at higher levels.

The Steward officer looks like a fun archetype, but I haven't experimented with it.

The Augmented archetype looks really strong, with it's ability to supercharge personal upgrades, cheaper and more augments, if Overwatch wasn't a Data Jockey he would have been an Augmented. I haven't had the chance to play an Augmented yet, but a friend of mine has. He hasn't told me how he's liking it so far though.

What are everyone else's thoughts on Archetypes? Do you have a favorite? Has there ever been a time where an ability granted by an archetype came in clutch? Would love to hear what you think!

I thought I would open discussion on Envoys because I've noticed an odd trend, particularly in the playtest section of the forums. That trend is basically " be careful doing this, or you end up with another Envoy problem."

What exactly is "the envoy problem"? Maybe I'm just not seeing it, but from my experience an Envoy is both fun to play and useful to have. But at the same time, they're not overpowered. Is it the improvisations? The skill expertise? Weapon kit? What about Envoys makes them a problem?

So... Due to a mission that may or may not have happened -depending on how privy you are to confidential Dataphile and Acquisitives material- I have come into possession of a... Thing.

This "thing" is nothing I have seen before. Scouring the Infosphere and digital libraries on topics of catalogued life forms and life science has turned up nothing. I have come to the conclusion this creature is as of yet in catalogued by the Pact Worlds. Given it's physiology I have decided to call the species "Sharktopus" until such a time that a better name is presented. I have named my Sharktopus House Guest for obvious reasons, which I will now abbreviate to HG for simplicity's sake.

My dilemma is that I am an Android who lives in Aballon's industrial district, and this is an organic life form. I already had to pay an alarming sum to have atmosphere scrubbers and oxygen generators installed in my residence for HG's comfort. Local foods don't seem to appease it. Worse still, it exhibits an exhuberant personality that is damaging precious technology of our now shared home, but I don't wish to discourage this behavior lest doing so stunts HG's social development. I worry about HG's safety. Missions are dangerous affairs and exposure to other agents and hostile environments both bring up awkward questions and put HG's safety at risk, but I don't think leaving him at home alone would be good for his health or safety either. Androids don't have children, but if this is what it's like for human parents I don't envy them this experience.

I cannot bring this discovery to Fitch or other Society leadership without begging the question as to where I found it, and so I bring this to you, my fellow agents. HG's species seems to have the ability to self replicate, and so I am hoping there are other Sharktopus owners out there who can give a new Sharktopus owner some advice. Of course, even advice from other pet owners on how to juggle the job and the responsibility would also be appreciated.

I have not seen anything in the guild guide that says a tracking sheet is necessary for tracking a person's inventory. However I do believe that tracking inventory can make keeping track of one's credits and budget a lot easier. However there is no official starfinder tracking sheet. Has there been any talks about making one? I suppose the Pathfinder tracking sheet would be a semi-decent stand in but I feel that I would like a starfinder branded tracking sheet that better matches the unique situation of starfinder and how items in starfinder work. For instance on the Pathfinder tracking sheet for consumable items it has 5 groups of 10 boxes. this is fine for arrows which come in groups of 20 or wands which come with 50 charges, but what about all the different guns in starfinder?

Firstly, the In Defense of Honor encounter for tier 5-6 has listed for tactics of the enemies

Use the tactics for subtier 5-6.

I assume it means tier 3-4?

I also have a lot of questions concerning the Void Hantu boss fight.

During Combat The void Hantu attacks the nearest target with it's tendrils and uses it's gravitic pull attack to pull targets closer so it can make attacks of opportunity with it's tendrils.

And gravitic pull says this:

Gravitic Pull (Su) As a standard action, a void Hantu can alter the gravity between itself and a target. The void Hantu selects a target within 40 feet; that target must succeed at a reflex save (DC 17) or be pulled 20 feet closer to the void Hantu. This movement provokes attacks of opportunity.

So to me this suggests the goal is to attack with tentacles, and use Gravitic pull to yank people through it's reach to provoke attacks of opportunity. But I'm seeing a few issues with that.

For one, I see nothing in the creature's statblock in either subtier stating it's tentacles have reach. If I were to try to act on these tactics using the statblock as written, no attacks of opportunity would be provoked with Gravitic pull. There's is also the issue of the fact that as written a tendrils attack and Gravitic pull are both standard actions, so it can't do both like the tactics seem to indicate. So I find myself wondering if the lack of reach is a mistake in need of errata, and if it's Gravitic pull is supposed to be a move action.

I also have some concerns of the difficulty of this fight as the void Hantu has a perfect fly speed of 30 feet, in a room with a 50 foot cieling. Even with a five reach this seems like a tpk machine, because the Hantu can fly to be 20 feet above a party members and do Gravitic pull. It's a DC 17 even at low tier, which is a challenge for anyone in tier. If they fail, they now get yanked 20 feet into the air to be adjacent to the Hantu, then start to fall. Now they are leaving a threatened space and the core rulebook book says any movement out of a threatened space that is not a guarded step provokes an attack of opportunity. So now it gets it's tendrils attack, which with a +18 to +22 in low and high tier respectively is almost guaranteed to hit. This does either 1d8+11 or 2d6+13, and now they have to make either a DC 17 or 19 will save to halve mental score damage. And then even after all that, they're taking 2d6 additional damage from the 20 foot fall. His tactics say to prioritize casters, and that much damage could drop a caster in just 1 to 2 rounds. Now maybe as a solo boss the party can focus it down, except it's also incorporeal, which means in all likelihood the party is doing half damage, and it's a big bag of hit points at 124 and 174 respectively. By comparison I'm running dead sun's book 5 and my level 9-10 is struggling hard against incorporeal enemies with 105hp. And we're expecting a party Of 3-6 to handle this?

the title is pretty self-explanatory. I've been looking and looking and asking and asking and no one seems to know where the chapter one surveys are or how I submit them. Some help would be appreciated.

Today I tried to purchase the starfinder core rulebook PDF, pact worlds PDF, and alien archive PDF. It declined my card. Twice. Not in my downloads.

Check my bank account, and I have 2 charges of 29.97. this needs to be fixed.

I've been building a lot of characters. Like it's become an addiction. And the more I do it, the more I'm starting to see that Theme bonuses to ability scores at first level... probably have zero impact on how your character grows, mechanically speaking. You could probably role play it maybe, like "oh, I'm con 13, I'm just a little tougher than the guy with Con 12" but ultimately it doesn't reflect in play. The reason for that is how ability bonuses work on level up.

Don't get me wrong, I love the way leveling up ability scores works now. You level 4 scores every 5 levels, and if the score is 16 or lower it goes up 2 instead of 1. if it's 17 or higher, it goes up 1. This has lead to me, and every other player at my LGS, to never build a character with an ability score above a 16. It ultimately gets us more ability score points in the long run, and allows us to build more rounded characters at first level that can grow to become more specialized as we level up and apply personal upgrades.

However, the bonus from Themes is only a +1. since it's a point buy system and penalties/bonuses to ability scores from race are all +2/-2, the +1 is not going to shift anything. You could pick a theme that gives you a +1 to your key ability score and push it all the way up to a 17, but when you hit level 5 that's going to go to 18 still, as if it was a 16. You could put it into a lower score, like maybe a secondary important skill, like say an operative with intelligence bumping it from say a 14 to a 15. However, again, because of how ability score level ups work that 15 will still be an 18 at level 10, just like a 14 could be an 18 by level 10.

In the end, it usually just means we have one floating point that goes wherever. Generally we end up just throwing it into strength for a little extra carriable bulk, but that feels like a disappointed application of one's theme. About the only time the ability bonus matters is if it's in a score you have no intention of improving, and at the same time is not in strength to give you more carry capacity. And other than this Themes are really awesome, because they provide a lot of role play flavor. it determines what you know really well, and what sort of things you are capable of pulling off beyond your class. People don't go "I'm an operative" they go "I'm an Ace Pilot". THey don't go "I'm a soldier" they say "I'm a bounty hunter". My Shirren Envoy Xenoseeker doesn't introduce herself as an envoy, she says "Hi! My name is T'cheknkai, but you can call me Teach. I'm a professor of Xenobiology in Qabara on Castrovel, and I like to go on expeditions to discover new races. Its nice to meet you!"

It just seems disappointing to me that for something that seems to have a huge impact in roleplay, it doesn't necessarily impact you much mechanically at first level besides a bonus class skill/skill point, and improved skill DCs on certain subjects. I feel in the future there should be an errata to make the ability score bonus more impactful. My thought is a +2 bonus to an ability score instead of a +1. My shirren would rather have a 16 in CHA because she's a Xenoseeker instead of a 14 and a random 11 strength because it wasn't worth making the CHA a 15 with that last floating ability point.

Would love to hear other viewpoints on this, but personally I hope I'm not alone in feeling that the ability score bonus from themes is pretty much useless.

For the ruling in question, it's this one.

http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1hh#v5748eaic9vih

Can I purchase spellcasting services at higher than the minimum caster level?
You may purchase spellcasting services at higher than minimum caster level if the spell appears on the prestige award list in the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide. Spellcasting services for all other spells can only be purchased at minimum caster level. Spells purchased with Prestige Points are always at minimum caster level.

posted Mar 13, 2017

I got into a heated debate about this one with my GM after the game, because my third level character spent a prestige point for a Remove Disease, which then didn't work, and then I still ended up having to pay gold to get the disease removed or get marked dead. He mentioned this ruling as justification but initially neither of us could find it. Now that we've found it, I'd like to argue why this ruling is antithetical to the spirit of the game, and why it should be removed.

To home in on the key point here, it's the part of the ruling that states that any Spellcasting service purchased with prestige points is purchased at minimum caster level. However, any other spellcasting purchased you can pay more gold to hire a higher level caster. I think that spending prestige points should either guarantee success, or at least allow you to increase the caster level for things like Remove Disease and Remove Poison, also at a higher caster level. I don't think the prestige cost should be adjusted. And here's why.

In the case of my 3rd level character, he ended up spending nearly all the money he had earned from the scenario to stay alive. At low levels, that money lost hurts more than at higher levels because you're still trying to save up, or purchase essentials. You don't really have any surplus gold just lying around for such things. However, lower level characters especially seem to have more Prestige points available to them because most of the prestige costs eaten up later are in retraining, unfortunate deaths, and prestige awards. So a lower level PC may be better able to handle an unfortunate set back with a prestige cost than a gold cost.

But there's more to it than that. Prestige is a very finite resources that's hard to replace. whereas the amount of gold earned gets exponentially larger as you level, while spellcasting services remain about the same in cost. Prestige point gains however are largely uniform as you level, getting only 3 to 6 prestige per level. This makes it that much more of a precious resources as you go. Now while higher level characters here have the money to throw around to purchase spellcasting services, my attention here is on the respect given to Prestige Points as a resource. Being a very finite, precious resource, things that you spend prestige points on should be worth the point spent. In the case of magical healing, where your magical healing is at minimum caster level, it feels like a huge disrespect to that prestige and what you had to do to earn it when you get a third level caster who has to roll a 12 or better on the caster level check for say a Remove Disease, they fail, and that prestige point was effectively taken from you for nothing. You got zero for that prestige point. At higher levels too where the DCs of poisons and Diseases are typically higher, having that level 3 cleric casting spells for you is borderline useless.

Sure, higher level characters can fall back onto gold reserves, but lower level characters don't typically have that luxury. So when you pay prestige to cure a disease, fail, then still have to pay money to cure that disease or die, It feels like a punch in the gut. Like kicking a man while he's down. And these magical spellcasting services are pretty much the ONLY thing to spend prestige on that's available to those who have only the bare minimum of what they need to play.

Just my thoughts on the matter, and hoping to change a few minds about the subject.

Is "purchasing spellcasting services" the same thing as "hire a spellcaster"?

I just recently bought Legacy of dragons and I've been reading through it. And I have some questions about how exactly the archetype works, centered around the Drake companion.

Drake

Starting Statistics

Size Tiny; Alignment any nongood; Speed 20 ft.; Attack bite (1d3), tail* (1d3); Ability Scores Str 8, Dex 17, Con 11, Int 4, Wis 10, Cha 7; Languages Draconic.

*This is a secondary natural attack

The Drake gets size increases at levels 5, 9, 13 and 17. If it's starting size is Tiny, then that means a DrakeRIDER cavalier will never be able to ride his Drake during normal games (levels 1-12). There is nothing in drakerider cavalier that indicates this Drake companion gets a larger starting size.

Drake Mount
A drakerider gains a drake companion instead of a mount. She gains cavalier’s charge at 9th level instead of 3rd.

This ability replaces mount, tactician, expert trainer, banner, greater tactician, greater banner, and master tactician and alters cavalier’s charge.

Approved Order: A drakerider can join only an order approved by its mount. Suitable orders include order of the beast, order of the cockatrice, and order of the dragon, as well as other fitting orders at the GM’s discretion.

So there is nothing there that says this companion starts at a different size. But it does mention cavalier's charge at ninth level.

At 3rd level, a cavalier learns to make more accurate charge attacks while mounted. The cavalier receives a +4 bonus on melee attack rolls on a charge while mounted (instead of the normal +2). In addition, the cavalier does not suffer any penalty to his AC after making a charge attack while mounted.

This to me suggests that the archetype expects you to be able to mount by at least ninth level. But that's only doable if you're a small character. So I find myself wondering if the archetype intended the companion to be of typical mountable size for it's rider and just forgot to mention it? Or is it really as bad as it sounds?

I have a rules question about GMing evergreens, since I feel the rulebook is a bit vague on the subject. I bring it up because one of my GMs had GMed an evergreen, Emerald Spire Superdungeon Floor 1 over the weekend. This was his third time ever GMing the module. We were under the understanding that just like a player, you can always apply the Evergreen Chronicle Sheet to a first level character for credit even as a GM, but when I reported the event it automatically inserted the following note:

Player has already run scenario at session # [number] of event # [number] [location] on October 23, 2015.

GM ranking: +2

Next to his name is marked him as having no Prestige earned for the module.

So I go into the Season 8 Rule book, thinking we may have overlooked something. On Page 18 it reads:

Evergreen Adventures

All Tier 1 and Tier 1-2 Adventures can be replayed an unlimited number of times with a 1st-level character for credit. The Tier 1 and 1-2 adventures can also be played with a 2nd-level character once for credit in each campaign mode (Core and Standard Modes). GMs receive another Chronicle sheet each time they run one of the Tier 1 and Tier 1-2 adventures, but can only apply a chronicle sheet to one 2nd-level character per adventure per campaign mode.

While this states explicitly that GMs can only apply credit to a second level character once per campaign mode just like players, based on my understanding, it doesn't directly state whether a GM earns credit each time when applied to a first level character. I also don't know if the omission of a direct statement that GMs can always apply credit to a first level character means that GMs can't apply it to as many first level characters they like, or even if they are allowed to apply them to first level characters at all. Some clarification on this would be appreciated, as based on the note in the system I'm not sure our initial interpretation of the rules was correct. Thanks.

So I have a question concerning the Tower Shield Specialist, and how his abilities work together. Particular in terms of the third level ability Tower Shield Training.

My question is how it interacts with Armor Training, which reduces Armor check penalty by 1 and increases max dex by 1 for armor. From how I'm reading it Armor Training applies specifically to the armor. Now the way the Tower Shield Training is written, How I'm interpreting it is that I get to reduce the ACP of both my armor and shield by another 3, and increase the max dex of both by 2. so when I'm using a +1 Full Plate and a +1 Darkwood Tower Shield, my check penalty for both items is a -4 for each, and for max dex it's a +3 for the full plate and a +6 for the Tower Shield. (+2 base, +2 for darkwood, +2 for tower shield training) Am I correct on this? I've been building my characters in hero lab and it's telling me my full plate has a Max dex of +2, and my tower shield has a max dex of +4. I don't think that's right but Hero Lab has found interactions I had missed before.

So I just finished the third part of the Quest for Perfection quest line. On the chronicle sheet,

I read the society rules over and over again, and I don't have access to my GM at hte moment, so I simply must ask: how exactly does fame and purchasing gear work? I understand it says that gear found in the core rule book, mundane items and +! items are all considered generally always available. But then it also says that depending on your fame, there is a limit on the value of items you purchase from your faction. So I have a level one, going on level two Fighter Tower Shield Specialist, and I want to sell his regular tower shield, and then buy a Darkwood Tower Shield. Now a Darkwood Tower Shield costs 630 GP, but since I have only 5 Fame I can only purchase items worth up to 500 GP from my faction. So can I actually purchase this shield between sessions or no? the way it's worded has me confused.