Raelynn's page

Dark reader is also a good option.

Hi,

I'm seeing a status of Transaction Declined and Transaction Authorized on this order.
My bank statement shows a pending withdraw and pending deposit for the exact amount of this order. I'd really like to get this sorted out so the order can be shipped.

Thanks,
Sam

Bestiary 2 not included in "Pathfinder Rulebook Subscription?"

I started it with the GMG and it appears that the Bestiary 2 is not shown as an item included in it. The next item shown is the APG.

I ended up purchasing a copy separate from the subscription, I'd just like to know if that was the case.

My groups have used them in almost every campaign I've played. Current one they have been used for re-rolls and extra actions in dire situations.
One of the other PC has used the 2 points to nix death. He had a particularly egregious attack of the stupid.
Charged through a cloud of fog with 5 pike-men militia on the other side who had all ready actions against a charge before the sorcerer put the cloud between them and the party. (party was trying to retreat but for whatever reason the cleric felt the need to deal with the militia first.)
Two of the pike-men crited and the total damage was two points over his full HP + negative con score. We were level 3 or 4..

The most common use I've seen is rerolling things and either extra actions or spells. I've used them a few times to get encounter saving spells off for the party, (distraction illusions or invisibility) so we could flee. The most successful one was major image involving a gold wyrm coming to the party's rescue and a well placed fireball to make it more 'realistic'.

Warlock/Dragonfire Adept are really nifty classes that can't be replicated in PF.

I'm a fan of the Good Omens style.. especially Red.

I have never actually been in a game where someone played a wizard.

No love for Dunkelzahn and Super Tuesdays?

Getting past that SR is going to be the big problem.

Currently the two games I'm playing in are 4 and 5. Once got up to 6 but the gm asked to last two that joined to leave because it just wasn't working out. Especially when one player was unreliable and the other was very disruptive. I've played in groups up to 8 and it gets messy and feels far more like a tactical combat game when the groups get that big. Not to mention combat drags on a lot and you have a lot of redundancy.
Personally I feel 4-5 works best. Six isn't bad but everyone needs to be on top of things and pet classes tend to slow things down when there are that many people.

Indeed, Raelynn, ye olde bag of holding and portable hole trick. Probably requires a sacrifical pc, but they may be able to rig a mechanical trap to glue onto it then jump away.

It's not dead, but it is lost, and maybe that works better for the party anyways.

There is also the possible side effect of him returning as elder evil from beyond the stars fighting dragon jesus.

Clearly the party needs an explosive powerful enough to blast a whole in the fabric of reality that leads to the astral plane.

Seems overly complicated and adds another resource to track. Not to mention it punishes certain already inefficient builds (blasters) while rewarding encounter breaking builds (SoS casters only need 1 or 2 spells cast in an encounter).

1. Some noble heroes just slew the tyrannical red dragon that has ruled your island for as long as your people can remember. Unfortunately as it turns out the Empress was guarding a sealed portal to the Void and one of those heroes unlocked it, sending a surge of wild void magic through the world and now something very wrong just happened your kindly village hedge wizard.
1a. You are the beautiful red great wyrm that received this miserable little island in exchange for protecting whole planet. Or you were.. because now you are in this squishy human body, something must have gone wrong with your resurrection contingency..

Damn this thread makes me feel like sorcerers need a boost when compared to wizards.

On a side note does anyone feel that charisma should be what affects Will saves rather than wisdom?

I went off on a tirade in a similar vein with one of my GMs. It still drives me nuts. I'm biased though because I tend to play Cha based casters.

I had a GM that had a rule for his scorcerers. I rather enjoyed it and it made people play much smarter. When you say that you want to play a sorcerer the GM picks your bloodline and the spells you recieve. His reasoning is you can't really pick what your ancestor fooled around with to get you your bloodline. And the way he described spells for a sorcerer is the spells you know were ancient spells that your ancestor knew, that know exist in your blood.

I was the only sorcerer after that point. I thought it was a cool idea.

That sounds awful. Sorcerer is one of my favorite classes to play and that.. well wizards already have a huge advantage over them. That just makes things much worse.

You do miss out on some not really unbalanced spells that way. Polar Ray, Stormbolts and some stuff in the polymorph school (Form of the Dragon II/III, Elemental Body and such.)

Yes!

Charisma is your ability to exert your will on others effectively.

I use a Nexus 7 for exactly that. I probably wouldn't use it for running scenarios, though I've had several GMs that love their full sized tablets for that.
As a player I use it for looking up spells, items and stuff on the prd, I prefer a hardcopy character sheet for playing though. It works incredibly well for that and has saved me hauling around a 15" laptop everywhere.

With a good group intra-party conflicts of interest came be lots of fun. One of campaigns I'm playing in now(homebrew heavily tweaked post time of troubles sort of post spell-plague Faerun) has had some great moments with it. Or it did until we picked up a 5th player that doesn't seem to grasp why his dwarf being a massive prick to the rest of the party when he is being paid to spy on us by a neutral 3rd part is a bad idea.
One really good example actually happened during the first session. When there were still 4 of us. We recovered the Mcguffin from an abandon dwarf hold and were ambushed by a rival group of adventurers. After a brutal fight (everyone went into the negatives at least once, cleric went into the negatives 3 times, fightery character twice.. sorcerer twice and rogue once but didn't get revived until after combat.) the sorcerer was furious. The orc leading the revival party basically give a "Turn over the device and we'll let you live." but she got taken into negatives by a barrage of arrows that was fired by the orc's hirelings before being given a chance to answer. The orc was down but still alive he was barely breathing, she drew an obsidian dagger no one had seen before and started to cut one of his ears off. At which point the cleric lost his shit (Lathander worshipper)and we had a stand off. It was good fun to roleplay out. Even if it ended with the cleric cowing to the sorcerer, which to be fair he had been rather terrified of her since roasted several lizardfolk and was the person that finally took down the orc barbarian-fighter. It set an interesting tone for the rest of campaign until chucklesmchateeveryone showed up and now the DM is regretting inviting him. >.<

I personally don't think there is anything wrong with some party conflict and disagreement. It can add a lot of characters and roleplay. I'm not advocating the hurrr someone's playing a pally so I'm gonna play an undead lord or daemon worshipper, but I cut my teeth on Shadowrun and often PCs have radically different opinions, goals and plans but are brought together by mutual greed in that game so my opinions may be strange.

Honestly, I don't think a class should fall for something done under duress.

Arcane Strike!

I seriously like playing prepared casters. To the point at which I've not rolled up concepts I really liked because of how much I dislike playing them. For example I'd love to play a magus, in a homebrew game one of my gm's just started it would have been a close fit but I can't get over dealing prepared casting. (Instead ended up playing a tweaked and converted DFA.) I have this huge fear of getting caught with completely the wrong spells prepared. Maybe not fear.. but I just don't like the idea at all.
I suppose I also like the fluff of characters' magic being something innate and derived from themselves rather than taught or gifted.

Dragon Staff
any of the school staffs..

Here I was expecting a crappy wizard given my real life skills..High school injury cost me a service academy appointment. Then was an EMT (and instructor certed) for a while, hazmat operations certed, certed with local SWAT and bomb squad before I moved to the west coast. Almost finished my BSRN before I dropped out of medicine all together for personal reasons. Now I do unix network administration and some other virtual environment management. But it's mostly because I find it easy and lets me spend my free time romping around the hills on a bike or having fun with my friends.
Not sure if I totally agree with the stats. (I used to be a decent marksman before I moved out of the sticks.. and I aggressively lane share on a motorcycle on california freeway traffic on a regular basis.)
Test says..
Chaotic Good Human Sorcerer (4th Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength- 10
Dexterity- 12
Constitution- 13
Intelligence- 17
Wisdom- 15
Charisma- 16

Oh great.. I'm a Sorcerer that would have made a better wizard. You know what? That's cool. I like playing Sorcerers a lot and I'd totally be okay doing the whole dragonic bloodline thing. (Even if Sage would be a better fit..)

My girlfriend is presently running an Ifrit Arcane Duelist Mysterious stranger. She looked at doing Dervish Dancer and we built both but she liked being able to fall back on party buffs sometimes. Needless to say MS + AD is pretty fun. Being to cast Abundant Ammunition is damn useful too. Last I saw she was MS2 AD3 and planning on doing MS5, AD 15.

They weren't OP in 3.5. I don't really see why they would be OP in Pathfinder where everyone got more goodies. They should definitely be bumped up to D8 HD.

Good Caster gets to party in Elysium, or possibly catch a ride on Aspu's dragonbud party boat wandering the planes until the end of days. What's wrong with that?

dot

While I can't comment on silent image the most effective use I've seen or done was Major Image combined with other spell casting to make the effect more real.
Long story short the party was getting our ass handled to us by an APL +4 or 5 (don't remember exactly) encounter. Early on in the campaign we found a scroll of Major Image. Much later it was still hanging out in my Sorcerer's handy haversack. In a moment of inspiration she yanked it out and used it to create the image of a Gold Great Wyrm swooping down from the clouds to our rescue than using it's breath weapon on the enemy. She burned a hero point to cast fireball on the target of breath weapon.
The party cleric caught on and burned her fireball domain spell on the next swooping flyby imaginary dragon attack and the enemy broke, demoralized and unwilling to fight an ancient gold dragon. Which saved our asses during that encounter.

Talk to the player. My first D20 game I played an elf brass dragonblooded sorcerer in Pathfinder quite effectively, doing a mix of blasting and area control. My prior tabletop experience had been all excursively Shadowrun and Classic Battletech. My experience with anything DnD related was Baldur's Gate series, Neverwinter Nights series and Icewind Dale on the PC years before hand. For whatever reason now people look at me in a lot of the groups I play in like some arbiter of balance and fairness especially for homebrew stuff. Granted it helps that I have near photographic memory for things I've read.

The only thing that bugs me about this is the same thing that bugged me about the Orb spells. This should be an evocation spell. I know at least one of the GMs I play with would allow it with that caveat.

Sounds like fun. I'd love to play a scenario like this. I recently proposed something similar but much lower CR as an idea for episodic break from of their normal campaign.

Locate a cleric of Lamashtu. Convince her to seduce and bed the paladin. Cackle manically.

Synthesis Summoner.

This only works if the players are aware. I played a draconic blooded sorceress that occasionally pocketed small pieces of loot when nobody was looking. She was also the person the entire party trusted to divvy up the loot and was the party face. Eventually hilarity ensued when she was finally caught. She generally only pocketed shiny things, gems, jewelery, a ring of protection or two which she later offered up as payment for a couple magic items taken as party loot. When the party druid finally noticed she offered to cut her in but it didn't work.
The druid told everyone what scale-face was up to, she confessed and turned over a few minor magic items and lot of silver and copper. At which point the party looked baffled and she finally blurted out that slept on it. Which everyone happily believed and she made up for the stolen loot by making a some magic items for them. After that they continued to trust her to handle the party treasure but every now and then someone double checked her ledger.
Everyone got a good laugh out of it and she got bonus xp for roleplaying over it.

The party in the homebrew game I play in just got our shit pushed in by a group of Tiamat worshipers using Drow poison and Sleep. They snuck up on us while we slept in the middle of a nasty storm. Tagged the teifling on watch, hit the cleric and barb with sleep while they slept and made off with the dragonborn sorcerer while the rest of them slept.
Took the tiefling about 20 minutes to get the rest of the party awake and figure out what happened. They eventually managed to catch up to the cultists who had my poor dragonborn strung up in chains and with a metal muzzle holding her mouth and were draining her blood for use in some sort of ritual after spending some time torturing her. Worst part about that was watching them wipe the floor with the party while my poor sorcerer was unable to escape the chains or the muzzle and help them. Eventually they drove the cultists off (who fled with a lot of the poor girl's blood.)

So I second sleep + poison, ambush them when they least expect it for bonus points.

Oh.. that looks interesting in DG.
TheSideKick, hunter of the supernatural is what I'm getting.
I'll take a look at the infiltrator and forward that to him as well!
Thank y'all.

The urban barbarian and skirmisher ranger both look like very good options that I hadn't really looked at. I'll definitely suggest a good hard look at both of to him tomorrow. DG, that is an interesting paladin build, I may steal it or something similar to it in the future but we are trying to get him away from playing yet another paladin, again.

One of the players in of my weekly groups wants to play a 'smart, brash and someone reckless' monster hunter but doesn't like how magicky the inquisitor is or how nature and animal centric the ranger is. We are trying to get them a little away from playing paladins over and over. They are a decent player in a semi-optimized, roleplay heavy group. They are very focused on the idea of playing a reliant on his own wits, strength and guts monster hunter character but having a lot of trouble coming up with crunch for the idea. I'm trying to help but given the 'not really wanting to deal with innate magical ability thing" I'm a bit at a loss. (I usually play some sort of caster.)

6) There are monsters in the tall grass.

I've used tablets and laptops before and with a very by the RAW GM I used herolab extensively. In the end I decided I like having a paper sheet anyway. It's easier to manage, spell card are nice too. Now I under a very homebrew GM I use a paper sheet and keep the tablet handy for quickly looking up things I've forgotten the mechanics of or seeing if some weird idea I just thought up is possible. Mind you I do all of my looking up and tablet use before my turn in combat and I don't use it for anything else during gaming. Being able to look up scrolls, wands and magic items as loot immediately is nice as well.
In my current group only one other person uses a tablet or laptop. In my previous group several people stopped using paper sheets in favor of Herolab and Chummer (for Shadowrun). Toward the end of our last Shadowrun campaign almost everyone was using Chummer and we started running out of room at the table for laptops. Part of the reason that happened was the GM started to strictly count ammo and such which is way more tedious on a paper sheet.

A friend and I were talking about the Pages of Spell Knowledge and we can see a potentially big problem with them. The thing that makes the sorcerer powerful is versatility; they can cast any spell known, anytime they want, and can cast more spells per day than other equal level caster. This was balanced by not knowing many spells.

I can see issues in the future, especially at higher levels, with Pages of Knowledge totally ruining that balance and make selecting a Sorcerer (or other Spontaneous Caster) a no-brainer decision when it comes to selecting a caster class to play.

Of course, Wealth by Level guidelines will help with balance; if adhered to, since PAGEs are not cheap. But I am proposing a NERF that may seem severe on the surface, but really isn't so bad on close examination.

First: PAGEs become another one of those items that are sort of bonded to the character. You have to have them in your possession for 24 hours to attune to you before you can use them.

Second: You are limited to Caster Modifier x 1/2 Caster Level in total spell levels of PAGEs attuned to you at any one time. This is in keeping with other Pathfinder Item rules and limits the amount of extra spells you can have, without completely gimping the item.

So for example a Sorcerer with a 20 Cha (+5) at Level 20 could have 5 x 1/2(20) = 50 Levels in Spells from PAGEs. That still provides massive versatility. They could have several level 9 spells if they wanted, or a whole lot more spells of lower levels... I can already hear some people complaining bitterly at even this NERF; but its really not much of one. If your GM adheres anywhere closely to the Wealth by Level Guidelines, a Level 9 spell PAGE is 81K... If you bought 5 Level 9 PAGEs, that would be half your total wealth. So in reality its a very mild NERF, that still allows this item to provide the tremendous versatility that is truly a gift from the gods.

You are forgetting that for the cost of a single page you could have 20 scrolls of the same level. That seems like a really unnecessary nerf.

Early on, first 2 modules yes. After that not from what I recall though it has been 2 years since we ran RotRL so my memory might be a little spotty.

Yeah but Paizo seems to hate on spontaneous casters pretty hard already so it's nothing new.

Hell, destroying one seems like it would make a pretty entertaining high level (possibly short lived) campaign.

Wait, I guess you could use Forceful Hand... it's a hefty 6th level slot but.. heeey, ya know? :)

::

It'd be nice to have more pushy/pully/pokey spells - as it stands, we can permanently blind someone as a 3rd/4th level caster but to really pushme-pullyou a target we have to wait until Telekinesis (5th level).

(Yes yes, we can make our own but ya know, PFS? Ya knoooow? :))

Ah well!

*shakes forceful fist*

Take a look a Hydraulic Push in the APG?

Raelynn wrote:

Halfing Paladin of Iomodea, Halfing Rogue, Half-Elf Cleric of Sarenrae, Human Ranger, Elf Druid, Half-Orc Weapon Master and Elf Brass Dragon Sorcerer. None of the character are overly optimized, used 20 point buy and are all 4th level.

I have almost exactly the same issue. I'm DMing a party of 5th levels who just took out Ironbriar, questioned his messenger ravens and know the next place to go should be the Shadow Clock, but they don't know what's waiting for them there. I want them to be 6th L first.

NPCs were able to translate Ironbriar's ledger for them, so they found out that the Red Mantis has samples of Vorel's legacy, and they're going to take a side trip to Riddleport to try and recover that.

I plan to toss a sea serpent (PF Bestiary) at them on the way; between that and a couple of Red Mantis Assassins they should have enough points to level up.

Since your group spared Ironbriar -- what were the terms of that deal, BTW? -- this may not work for you.

He told us everything he knew about Xanesha and the Shadow Clock. We got a pretty intensive run down of her abilities, equipment and what sort of support she had there. In exchange he went free as long as we never saw him again and we would not turn him over to the Hellknights. The caveat being that our cleric smacked him with Mark of Justice (Thou shall not commit nor assist in murder ever again, effectively). Of course we no idea he could remove it so it seemed like a good idea.

We did also nab his ledger but haven't had time to translate it. Both the rouge and my sorcerer have all of the languages necessary and several points in linguistics so we plan on taking a stab at it. He did mention the Red Mantis at some point during our thorough negotiation and interrogation. So that might be a possibility.

Some spoilers below.

I'm part of a group running through Rise of the Runelords and after being incredibly thorough through Burnt Offerings and most of the Skinsaw Murders we've kinda run into a bit of a road block. We cleared out the Seven Sawmill and eventually made a deal with Justice Ironbriar (He went free but only after having a Mark of Just laid on him). Then we got the scoop on the lovely lamia matriarch that could easily eat our entire party for lunch.
Why? Because no one in our party is higher than 4th level. Just for reference the party consists of the following; Halfing Paladin of Iomodea, Halfing Rogue, Half-Elf Cleric of Sarenrae, Human Ranger, Elf Druid, Half-Orc Weapon Master and Elf Brass Dragon Sorcerer. None of the character are overly optimized, used 20 point buy and are all 4th level. Our DM is looking for ideas and suggestions for how to get the group to 6-7th level before taking on Xanesha that aren't complete and total railroads.

He doesn't have a ton of spare time so modules that can easily be adapted are recommended.

[cough]Docwagon[/cough]

^This is immediately came to mind. Of course Docwagon would also do hostile extractions for Platinum Customers. ;)

Bombers from the Remastered Alchemist get the ability to treat their versatile vials as being made from special materials at 11th level. Does the splash damage inherit this benefit too, or does it only affect the target of the attack?

Question about Book 2 of Stolen Fate:

At the beginning of the book demons invade the Harrow Court. This event is managed through "Battle Rounds." Are "Battle Rounds" counted for each round of a combat encounter? For example, if the players rush off to defend one of the three points of entry... do they lose one Defense Point at the end of each of those combat rounds? If that battle takes 4 combat rounds, does that count as 4 "Battle Rounds"? I thought so, but it gets a little confusing when I see it says they can take a battle round off to get one hour of rest. Which makes it sound that each Battle Round is 1 hour.

Hi everyone -- I wanted to see what peoples' thoughts were about afflictions and issues of time. It seems like there are two different camps, and I'm unsure what the "correct" answer is.

For example, an assassin stabs a player with a dagger that's coated with a poison that has the following stats:

Saving Throw DC 18 Fortitude; Onset 1 round; Maximum Duration 3 rounds; Stage 1 1d8 poison damage (1 round); Stage 2 1d10 poison damage (1 round); Stage 3 2d6 poison damage (1 round)

SCENARIO 1

* Assassin's Turn. Stabs PC. PC suffers weapon damage and must roll a Fort Save. PC fails the save.

* PC's Turn. Nothing related to the poison happens because the 1-round onset period has not passed.

* Assassin's Turn. The 1-round onset period is over. PC suffers Stage 1. There is a 1-round delay until the next save. Poison's duration is set to 3 rounds.

* PC's Turn. Nothing related to the poison happens because 1 round hasn't passed since the last save.

* Assassin's Turn. Poison's duration is set to 2 rounds. The 1-round delay following the previous save is over. PC rolls another Fort Save. Fails and moves to Stage 2. There is a 1-round delay until the next save.

* Repeat

SCENARIO 2

* Assassin's Turn. Stabs PC. PC suffers weapon damage and must roll a Fort Save. PC fails the save.

* PC's Turn. Nothing related to the poison happens because the 1-round onset period has not passed.

* Assassin's Turn. The 1-round onset period is over. PC suffers Stage 1. There is a 1-round delay until the next save. Poison's duration is set to 3 rounds.

* PC's Turn. At the end of their turn they must roll a Fort Save. They fail and move to Stage 2. Even though one full round did not pass since their previous save, they make their saving throw here at the end of their turn per page 469 of the Core Rules where it says, "You then attempt any saving throws for
ongoing afflictions" when discussing what happens at the end of each player's turn. There is a 1-round delay until the next saving throw.

* Assassin's Turn. Poison's duration is set to 2 rounds. Nothing else related to the poison happens here.

* PC's Turn. They must roll a save at the end of their turn.

* Repeat.

The main differences being that in Scenario 1, everything related to the poison takes place on the Assassin's turn because they're the one who created the effect. And in Scenario 2, the timing of the affliction is also tracked on the Assassin's turn (per the rules for effect durations), but the saves and results are applied at the end of the PC's turn (per the End of Turn rules). In either case, should the Assassin die before the Affliction expires or is removed, the duration of the affliction will continue to be tracked at the same point in initiative (as well as saves and results in Scenario 1).

Which Scenario is right? Or if neither of them are, what is the correct method?

Thanks!

The Roiling Incant (Bestiary 3, page 216) is Immune to Evocation (it doesn't specify spells... just says "Evocation"). Weapon Potency Runes have the Evocation trait. Therefore, Roiling Incants are immune to damage from basic magic weapons using Runes, but completely vulnerable to specific magic weapons (like a Retribution Axe) that are +1 magic weapons, but do not have the Evocation trait. That correct?

I swear sometimes these rules make my brain hurt. LOL

As the title says, I just downloaded the new 3rd printing PDF of the Core Rulebook, but the official page for the book doesn't show a new list of errata. Hopefully we'll get some errata soon!

Hi everyone,

Just want to make sure I have this correct. I haven't been able to find a strict definition for "Instance of Damage". Would it be fair and correct to say that each Type of damage applied by an attack is its own instance?

For example, a Red Dragon Instinct Barbarian is raging and strikes an enemy (which has Weakness 5 to fire) with a +1 Flaming Battle Axe. So this does 1d8 Slashing+2 Fire (Rage)+1d6 Fire (Flaming Rune). By my understanding, there are two "instances" of damage here... Instance 1 is 1d8 slashing damage and Instance 2 is 1d6+2 fire damage. The fire damage would be added together into its own instance even though it comes from two different sources. And therefore, the weakness to fire would only be triggered once for +5 damage instead of twice for +10.

Do I have that correct? Thank you all for your help!

Hi everyone,

Just want to make sure I understand this before I embarrass myself. Please see the examples below, all of which deal with attacking a Shadow Demon (Invidiak). Below are its weaknesses and resistances:

Weaknesses: Cold Iron 5, Good 5
Resistances: All 5 (except force, ghost touch, or positive; double resistance vs. non-magical)

EXAMPLE 1: Cold Iron Longsword: rolls 9 points of slashing damage. +5 due to Cold Iron weakness = 14. -10 for non-magical. Final damage = 4.

EXAMPLE 2: +1 Cold Iron Longsword: rolls 9 points of slashing damage. +5 due to Cold Iron weakness = 14. -5 for resist all. Final damage = 9.

EXAMPLE 3: +1 Shock Cold Iron Longsword: rolls 9 points of slashing damage. +5 due to Cold Iron Weakness (applies to the physical/slashing damage). -5 for resistance to slashing. Total Physical Damage = 9. Rolls 6 points of electricity damage. -5 for resistance to electricity. Final Electricity Damage = 1. 9 Physical Damage + 1 Electricity Damage = 10 final damage.

EXAMPLE 4: +2 Striking Ghost Touch Shock Longsword: rolls 13 points of slashing damage. No slashing resistance thanks to Ghost Touch. Rolls 4 points of electricity damage. No electricity resistance thanks to Ghost Touch. Final damage = 17.

Examples 3 and 4 are the ones that I'm a bit unsure about. Especially with not applying resistance to the electricity damage in example 4. Not sure if Ghost Touch applies to both instances of damage or just the physical.

Thanks!

Troop Movement for a City Guard Squadron says: "Whenever the city guards Stride, they first Form Up as a free action to condense into a 20-foot-by-20-foot area (minus any missing squares), then move up to their Speed. This works just like a Gargantuan creature moving; for instance, if any square of the guards enters difficult terrain, the extra movement cost applies to all the guards."

When the squad is reduced to 25 HP it only takes up 8 squares. At that point, since it is smaller than a 3x3 area, does it now move as if it was a Huge-sized creature? Or does the squadron still move like it was Gargantuan?

Thanks.

Need help pricing uncommon rarity formulas. The Grand Bazaar includes stores that sell Snare Formulas (Bellwether Lodge, for example). The book has the statblocks for the snares, including the price used when crafting the snare, but not a price for the snare's formula. And all of them are uncommon rarity, which (I think) means the table on page 293 of the core rules does not apply.

So how do you determine the cost for these formulas?

The core rulebook says, "Your reactions let you respond immediately to what’s happening around you. The GM determines whether you can use reactions before your first turn begins, depending on the situation in which the encounter happens."

Let's say the GM allows you to use a Reaction before your first turn in combat. Do you then get another reaction provided to you at the start of your turn... or did you just get access to that Reaction sooner than normal when acting before your first turn in combat, and spent it... so you would have to wait until the start of your turn in the second round before you get another Reaction?

1) When a Wizard is first rolled and selects spells for their spellbook it says, "You choose these from the common spells on the arcane spell list from this book (page 307) or from other arcane spells you gain access to."

Specifically, "from this book". I assume they can choose any level 1 common-rarity spell regardless of its source... provided it is listed as being the Arcane tradition.

2) It later says, "Each time you gain a level, you add two arcane spells to your spellbook, of any level for which you have spell slots."

No mention of rarity. So, when a wizard levels up and adds 2 more spells to their spell book, can they be of any rarity and from any source? I assume this is not the case and it follows the same rules as when first creating the spellbook, but would like to confirm.

Thank you.

Hello Customer Service Friends,

I have two credit cards associated with this account -- one of which is used for all of my Paizo subscriptions. I would like to move all of those subscriptions to the other card. I could not figure out how to do this on my own... can you please assist?

Thank you!

Hello,

I am interested in purchasing the Mengkare Premium Miniature, but want to confirm the shipping costs are accurate. It appears that if I order the miniature by itself, the cheapest shipping option is $33.72 and if I combine it with my next existing order (#36291770) it's $72.93?

I live in Virginia... that shipping cost for one miniature (although a large one) seems excessive. Can you please confirm it is accurate?

Thank you for your assistance.

Why do cantrips have levels listed in their descriptions? For example, Guidance is listed as "Cantrip 1". I get that you heighten them automatically, but this listing in the description seems to indicate a minimum level, which I've never seen for a cantrip. Are there any cantrips that aren't 1st level?

Is there anything in RAW that says a spell effect must be within range to sustain it? For example, if I cast False Vision... do I need to stay within touch range of the original effect to Sustain it? Or a Light spell... say I cast it on an ally's shield and the party splits. Can I extend the duration as part of my next daily preparations if that ally is no longer in range?

I feel like there must be something about this in the adventure that I'm just overlooking... but once the players take ownership of the citadel, what is to become of its current inhabitants?

As the title says... how does mail work in the campaign setting? Are there "Ravens" carrying mail like GoT? Or some other fantastical method of getting a letter from point A to point B? Or is it all couriers on horseback?

How does initiative change when an animal companion is reduced to zero hit points? Typically, when a PC, companion or significant NPC is reduced to zero HP, their place in initiative is moved to immediately before the turn in which they were hit.

I assume this means when an animal companion is reduced to zero HP, the player controlling them moves their initiative as a result of their companion being knocked out.

Is that correct? Is there text I'm missing that would suggest Animal Companions do not have their initiative changed... because doing so would impact the player too?

Thanks.

Suppose I have a flaming longsword that deals 1d8 slashing damage and 1d6 fire damage. If the bard in my party casts Inspire Courage, which grants a +1 status bonus to damage rolls, do I add that to both the 1d8 slashing and 1d6 fire... for a total of plus 2? Or is the weapon damage of 1d8 slashing the only "Damage Roll" here?

Thanks!

Suppose I have a flaming longsword that deals 1d8 slashing damage and 1d6 fire damage. If the bard in my party casts Inspire Courage, which grants a +1 status bonus to damage rolls, do I add that to both the 1d8 slashing and 1d6 fire... for a total of plus 2? Or is the weapon damage of 1d8 slashing the only "Damage Roll" here?

Thanks!

So, my last session ended with every player unconscious (but stable) in Altaerein's Vaults (Chapter 3 of Hellknight Hill... they aggroed more than intended and were ultimately defeated by the boggards and charau-kas from areas B6 and B7).

The decision was made to roll an all-new team that would be contacted by Helba, Warbal and Greta to go investigate the missing first party. The idea was that eventually the second party would rescue the first and then each player would pick between the surviving pool of PCs to make a new party.

But the question is... what happened to the first party after they were defeated? I don't want them just killed off, nor do I want them to be found bound and gagged right where they were defeated. That's too easy.

Where would you all recommend the second party find the first?

Thanks.

The listing for Crafting Scrolls says, "You have to either Cast that Spell during the crafting process, or someone else must do so in your presence... The caster has to provide any cost of the spell."

And the listing for Crafting Wands says, "You have to either cast that spell during the process, or someone else must do so in your presence... The caster doesn’t need to pay any cost of the spell."

Okay... so if you're making a scroll you need to pay any associated costs with the spell being cast. And if you're making a wand, you cast the spell without needing to pay the cost of the associated spell. Seems odd, but at least that's clear to understand.

But what if the item you are crafting calls for a spell to be cast, but isn't a scroll or wand? Does the caster need to provide the cost of the spell or not?

Thanks

If an animal is not combat-trained, it becomes panicked at the start of combat (Frightened 4 and Fleeing). The core rulebook says, "If you successfully Command your Animal using Nature (page 249), you can keep it from fleeing, though this doesn’t remove its frightened condition."

Does this mean if the player uses Command an Animal for any reason with the animal, it stops fleeing?

For example, a player has a frightened dog and wants to command it to stride to a certain location. Do they spend one action and use Command an Animal once and the dog stops fleeing and strides as commanded... or does the player need to use one action to Command the dog to not flee, and then a second action to Command the dog to stride to the desired location?

And how long does the animal not flee? It says, "keep it from fleeing", not "removes the fleeing condition", so would the animal then try and flee on the next round if not Commanded again?

Players are traveling down the road and goblins are hiding ready to ambush them. They PCs have made it clear that they are suspicious, alert and keeping a watchful eye for danger.

When they enter the general area where the goblins are hiding, the GM rolls Perception Checks in secret challenged by the goblins' Stealth DC +2 for cover.

Let's say one of the PCs succeeds and spots the Goblins. Combat begins and the GM calls for Initiative.

Do the PCs roll Perception for their Initiative, or does the GM use the Perception Checks rolled to spot the goblins as their initiative scores?

Do the goblins still roll their Stealth for Initiative? Or do they lose that option when they are spotted?

Does it make any difference that only 1 of the players spotted the goblins? In other systems the rest of the party would still be surprised, but here I'm not 100% sure how things should unfold.

Thanks.

The description for Disable Device under the Thievery Skill says "This action allows you to disarm a trap or another complex device."

In the section on Hazards, none of them (that I've seen) specifically mention Disable a Device and instead simply say "Thievery".

Is it correct that the player would still need to use Disable Device? This is important because that requires 2 actions instead of 1.

Also, the text for Disable a Device and Pick a Lock both put a great amount of emphasis on needing multiple successes to disarm a trap or pick a lock. But so far I haven't seen any Hazards that mention multiple successes and the only locks I've seen that mention it are those in the equipment section of the core rules (and not those in the adventures so far).

So, when using the Hazards from the core rules, do these all really only need one success? Or are GMs supposed to somehow know how many successes are needed?

It just seems really odd to me that so much emphasis would be placed on multiple success in the Thievery Skill section, but never mentioned in all of the stat blocks.

The text for Conceal an Object says "You hide a small object on your person (such as a weapon of light Bulk)." It doesn't specifically say the concealed object must be light bulk, so I assume it's up to each GM to decide what can and cannot be concealed.

If a player wished to hide a 1-bulk sword Highlander-style, how would you rule? Too big to attempt? Or if you allowed it, would you apply a penalty to the check? I think I'm used to other systems that have a clearly defined modifier for each size category to apply to checks like these, but don't see that with Bulk.

Thanks.

Hi Everyone,

I've been making YouTube videos about Starfinder for the past 8 months, and now with the release of Second Edition I've started doing the same for Pathfinder as well.

My first video is a review of the rules for Flanking: Pathfinder: Basics of Flanking

And my Starfinder videos can be found here:
Basics of Starfinder Playlist
Basics of Starfinder Forum Thread

Enjoy!

Hi Everyone,

Which encounters from the various adventure paths stand out as being the best designed or having the most interesting or original mechanics?

Not necessarily which encounters were the most fun or memorable, because that's very subjective and varies from table to table. But which stood out has having memorable mechanics because of map design, use of traps, unusual enemies, etc.?

"All sensors have a skill modifier that applies to any skill used in conjunction with them."

Does this bonus apply to a Science Officer using the Balance action? At first I thought Shields and Sensors were different systems, but the Critical Damage Effect rules state that damaged sensors impose a penalty to *all* Science Officer checks.

So, is it reasonable that if damaged sensors impose a penalty to checks made to balance shields, then undamaged sensors would grant a bonus to those checks? Provided the sensors were of a level of quality that grants bonuses, of course.

The "Hold it Together" action for Engineers in Starship Combat says that it is used to treat a critically damaged system as if its damage was two steps less severe for the rest of the round.

So say we have Engines that are Malfunctioning. If the Engineer succeeds at their check for Hold it Together, we treat the Engines as if they had not suffered Critical Damage.

This would mean Pilot Checks are not imposed with a -4 penalty that round.

That all seems clear to me, but my question is what happens if these engines are subjected to a Critical Damage Effect during that Gunnery Phase? Would they become Wrecked? I believe that is the Rule as Intended, but by RAW the Engines were being treated as if they were Undamaged when the critical damage occurred. And it certainly wouldn't make sense to move their condition to Glitching here.

So what does the community say? The Engines become Wrecked, or do they stay Malfunctioning since the damage was delivered when they were considered Undamaged and Malfunctioning is more severe than Glitching?

Hello Gamers!

I wanted to share with the community a project I've been working on the past couple of months -- a series of rules instructional videos for Starfinder that tries to take a "Show, Don't Tell" approach. In addition to explaining the rules we illustrate them with animations as well.

We publish a new Starfinder video every two weeks, so please check them out and let me know here or in the video comments if you have any suggestions for future topics.

The channel can be found here: Basics4Gamers

And here are links to our existing videos:
Basics of Concealment
Basics of Cover
Basics of Attacks of Opportunity & Flanking
Basics of Computers
Starfinder Supplemental #01 (Starship Combat, Solarian Powers and Robot Telepathy)

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to wrap my head around the Hacking Rules and would appreciate some feedback. Below is a realistic scenario of something that would likely happen in one of my games. I would appreciate some feedback on if the steps in the scenario are valid, as well as a few questions following it. Thanks!

-----------------------------------

Our heroes have infiltrated the hanger of a starship and spot a computer terminal. On their way to the hanger they defeated an officer and freed her of her security card key. Unfortunately, the officer didn’t stay conscious long enough to tell them her password too. Unknown to Quig’s player, this is a Tier-3 Computer with a Security I Upgrade, two Firewalls and an Alarm Countermeasure. The DC to Hack this system is 26. The specifics of the computer are not disclosed to Quig, but he is informed that hacking the system will take three rounds so he can determine if he wants to attempt to breach the system faster. From that information the player can deduce this is a Tier-3 computer and expect the DC to be 25.

Quig is lacking the password to access the system, so he attempts to hack it. Quig’s bonus to Computers is +11, and is increased by another +5 for having the officer’s security key card to a total +16 bonus. This will take three full rounds. If he wished to hack it faster, he could declare so before rolling the dice and increase the DC to 31. He decides not to risk it and takes the full three rounds.

After three rounds pass, Quig’s player rolls the Computers Check, 1d20+16. If his total is 26 or higher he gains Access to the system. If his total is 22-25, he fails to Access the system, but there are no negative consequences. Basically, he ran into a few roadblocks and wasn’t able to complete the attempt within three rounds. That time is wasted and he may try again.

If his total is 21 or lower, he fails the attempt and is detected. The computer detects the breach attempt, triggers the Alarm countermeasure, and invalidates the security key card. Quig may try again, but will no longer receive the card’s +5 bonus. And although it’s mathematically impossible, if Quig was a higher level and had a better bonus, if his total was 46 or higher he would have breached into the system and gained Root Access to the computer, but would still not be able to see or Access anything behind the two firewalls.

We’ll say Quig’s player rolls a 12 on the die for a total of 28, enough to gain Access to the computer. The GM informs him that he now has access to the computer’s basic functions which include opening/closing the interior doors, cycling an airlock, controlling the lighting system, accessing the hanger’s PA system, and transmitting messages through the ship’s internal comm system. The GM also tells him that he can see two Firewalls, but not what’s hidden behind them. The GM does not inform the player that there is an Alarm countermeasure.

Because this is a player, Quig immediately declares that he is going to use the terminal to shut off life support systems to the bridge. The GM politely informs him that that is not a Basic Function of this terminal. The player argues that all computers on a starship are networked and if the bridge can monitor activities in the hanger, then the hanger’s computer should be able to access what’s on the bridge. The GM sighs and says, “Okay, if you want to mess with the ship’s life support you’ll need to hack into the ship’s Computer Core. You can do that from here, but the attempt will take you 10 full rounds.” Quig’s player deduces the check will be at minimum DC 53 and decides to find a different strategy.

(Can you tell I’ve had this argument before?)

Now Quig’s player wants to know what’s behind the two firewalls. He decides to breach Firewall #1. Unknown to Quig, the DC for this check is 28 (the computer’s Hacking DC plus 2). He gets lucky and rolls a total of 29! He now has Access, but not Root Access, to whatever is hiding behind Door #1 – in this case it’s a Secure Data Module. He examines the data and discovers it is a log of all ships entering and leaving the hanger, their cargo manifests and destinations. He copies the data and moves to Firewall #2. Again, we’ll say he got a lucky roll and breached the second Firewall. Behind it he finds three Control Modules. One controls the large, exterior hanger door to space, the second controls a Cargo Loading Robot, and the third controls cameras in the hanger. He now has access to these three functions… he can open/close the exterior hanger door, can view what’s on the cameras and issue commands to the Cargo Loading Robot from this terminal – he does not have direct control over the robot, but can issue commands.

-----------------------------------

Is all of that accurate?

Follow-up Questions:
1) What triggers an alarm? Any hacking failure? Only failure by 5 or more? 10 or more? Would the alarm be triggered by failures after gaining Access to a system... like a failure to breach a Firewall?

2) If I have both the security key and password, why do I need to make a Computers Check to hack the system? If I have both those items, wouldn’t the computer treat me as authorized and just let me in?

3) How long does it take to breach a Firewall? Is it one standard action? Or is it a completely new Hacking check at 1 full action per tier of the computer? Does he get the +5 bonus for having the security key here? Does failure trigger the Alarm countermeasure?

4) Once Quig is through Firewall #1 and has Access to the Secure Data Module we know he can view and copy the data. But can he edit it?

5) Regarding Secure Data Modules, the book says, “This… is almost never available without root access or an action by someone with root access to grant another user the ability to access the secure data module… it is frequently also kept behind a firewall.” So, does this mean the Secure Data Module can be not kept behind a Firewall, but instead on the main computer partition but set so that only people with Root Access can see it? That doesn’t make much sense because the check to access it then would be a DC +18 higher than keeping it behind a Firewall.

Does the Range Upgrade for a computer need to be purchased per device to be connected, or do you upgrade the Range once and it covers all control modules?

1) Can you use Harrying Fire as a Gunner aboard a starship?

2) Can the Captain of a starship use Encourage to grant a +2 to a Gunner's next attack roll? The text for Encourage specifically says "... using the same Skill". And Gunnery isn't a skill... but may use the Gunner's Piloting ranks, so I'm not sure where this one falls.

3) Can Sentient Robotic Organisms (SROs) communicate with a Lashunta via their limited telepathy? As a technological construct they are immune to Mind-Affecting abilities, but "mind-affecting" does not appear on the Lashunta page for Limited Telepathy.... but the Telepathy spell is mind-affecting.

Hello,

Order #5386639 arrived damaged (the envelope was severely bent during transit). Please see the below pictures and advise how I may receive replacements.

Image 1

Image 2

Thank you.

Hi All,

My girlfriend and I are new to the game (starting with Skull and Shackles -- with the character Add-on expansion), and are a little disheartened by our 0-3 record on the first scenario. Two losses were due to the blessings deck running out and in the third one of us died due to an attached barrier card ("Man Overboard") slowly killing her because there was no mathematical way to beat the challenge required every turn that forced her to bury a card until she could no longer draw up to her hand size.

We're playing Seltyiel and Merisiel.

I'm sure inexperience and bad luck both contribute some to our losses, but I also wonder if we just didn't select characters suited for a party size of 2.

Can anyone offer a better Duo for tackling this game?

Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

Hi All,

I'm new to Pathfinder (and d20 games in general) and am trying to make sense of the monster stat blocks. Specifically, melee attacks...

For example, let's take the Barghest. It says "Melee bite +10 (1d6+4), 2 claws +10 (1d4+4)". So, if I'm understanding this right, a Barghest can make a Bite attack at +10 as a standard action. Or, it can make the Bite at +10, and two more Claw attacks at +10 as a full-round action. Is that correct? Or does it make all three attacks every round as a standard action?

And can the Barghest attack 3 different targets if they're all adjacent to it, or does it have to pounce and attack one target with all three?

Clarification is appreciated. Thanks!