Rakle's page

What classes are the pregens?

bard, rogue, barbarian, druid

Difficulty varies based upon the number and level of players. This type of process will never be perfect for all situations. Everyone has supplied numerous examples of when it doesn't work.

This process is works better when there is less variance between the character levels. GM and players need to realize this. Extreme level differences cannot always be avoid, but many times they can be avoided by awareness and proactive effort.

Design only goes so far. The crit attack system, crit failures, and the more refined scenario scaling system puts more responsibility on the GM and players than e1 did.

When I see the DC 21 for a level 1-2, my assumptions are: the party was playing at a higher difficulty, and the GM made an error of some type.

GMs need to be better prepped. More than once, I have pulled e2 scenario because I wanted to review the stats for a very difficult encounter, hazard, or skill check. Then I discover that the GM used the wrong DCs or ran the encounter/hazard incorrectly. In PFS1, PCs were capable of powering their way through these type of errors. In PFS2, these type of errors turn lethal

Players and GMs need to watch and manage the level mix. Don't bring a level 1 into a party of lvl 4s. The bump to the level 1 will not always be enough. Don't bring a lvl 4 into a party of lvl 1s. The level 4 might not have any trouble with increased difficulty, but it could crush the level 1s.

The character creation section of the new guide doesn't contain any information related to Factions and Faction selection.

Email pfserportingerrors@paizo.com (at least until they set up a second alias for acp purchase errors).

Thanks

I was trying to purchase a wayfinder for a 1st level character using playtest points. The screen screen glitched when I pushed the purchase button. I refreshed, and discovered I had not purchased a wayfinder. Instead, I had been charged 50 achievement points for the second chance resurrection boon.

Is there a way to have the transaction reversed?

I just call people by their names. Problem solved.

I would add: If character has long name and/or challenging pronunciation; do something that allows others to succeed at using the name.

Use a phonetic spelling on the name card. Or use your character's full name during introductions, but then have them use a streetname (similar to shadowrun) during the game. Or use a nickname during the game.

I'm sure that it is GM-specific. In-person cons always seem to have a standard form for turning in the information to the coordinator(s). It sounded like GM's were left to their own devices on how to collect the information.

I had everything from GMs creating their own tracking form in google sheets that were available before the session ever started to GMs that were scrambling to having us enter the information into roll20.net chat at the very end of the session.

Standardizing the process for collecting the sign-in sheet information is a thing that could be improved in time for Origins and Gencon.

The process was chaotic and inconsistent.

I thought one of the objectives for the new rules was to make the game more accessible for new players.

Currently item access is based upon chronicle sheets, 8 bullet points in the guild guide, and a fame point chart.

Now we have to know item rarity, item level, character level, achievement pts, infamy pts, and source of item access (e.g. chronicle sheet, splatbook) to determine if someone can buy an item. This structure is going to be negatively viewed by new players.

The new approach is complexity for the sake complexity.

Have - PFS
Traveler in an unstable time (Replay a scenario or Free Retrain of a feat or class feature)
Brutal Reputation
Elemental Voyager
Fighting off corruption (Hellhound) x 2
Alchemical Versatility x 2
Freedom's Champion / Argent Knight
Seasoned Archivist / Taldan Courtier
Scholar of the Sages / Model Pathfinder
Mounted Tradition
Genie Grudge

Want PFS
1) Rebuild - (This is my main interest)
2) Races that work for caster builds.

I didn't get to GenCon this year...

for reference here's Michael's Boon List of what's out there... hopefully 2018 #6-18 will get filled in.

Have
** spoiler omitted **
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Are you specifically looking for anything?

I know the following isn't exactly PF2 related

I would suggest the idea of fast start chronicle sheets for PF1. The sheets would available to anyone. They have to be applied to new character numbers. They would come with preset amount of prestige, fame & gold. The amounts wouldn't be as good as actually working a character up each level, but still good enough to make a viable character.

PF1 could have a couple of different levels of available sheets such as level 4 and level 7. Mid and upper level will still be commonplace for the first few years of PF2 while low level play will drop off. It will allow people to participate when they might not be able to level up new characters

Mudfoot wrote:

I imagine the typical PFS table will consist of 4 clerics, as nobody wants to risk being in a game without one...

That will be the 1st question at every table "who's going to play the cleric". I'm not looking forward to this.

Or PFS could allow a GM to always run a NPC cleric - even if the table has four or more players.

Kyra could have pregen versions for ever level from 1 to 12. Then the GM select the Pregen that most closely matches the subtier or party APL.

Kerobelis wrote:

Third attacks (with the -10 penalty) will often require more than a 20 roll. So in this case when a natural 20 is rolled, it is a hit and not a critical hit?

That is a good point. Your third or subsequent hits will crit less due to the multiple attack penalty. If you roll a 20 and that would not normally hit due to those (and other) penalties, it would be a normal hit and not a critical hit.

Can this clarification be added to the errata page? I seen more than character knocked out due to these hail-mary nat 20 rolls.

Stephen's actual comment:

That is a good point. Your third or subsequent hits will crit less due to the multiple attack penalty. If you roll a 20 and that would not normally hit due to those (and other) penalties, it would be a normal hit and not a critical hit.

Example a creature takes a third attack at -4. It could not crit enemies with an AC of 17 or higher since it cannot get a result higher than 16 (20-4).

I like that kit idea. Much better than everyone buying a kit that contained a 4 pound iron cooking pot, and 10 torches.

The bo staff is a reach monk weapon that allows the parry ability. Monk just needs to take the monastic weapons feat to use it. Unarmed attacks do not require open hands. Flurry only takes one action so a monk can afford to use one action on parrying.

A human monk could take it and a stance at 1st level. A 18 str & 16 dex dragon stance human monk could have a 16AC whenever they parry at level 1.

They should give a pool of points to every class that can be spent on special abilities similar to the arcanist.

Healing could be one of the powers that every class has:

Healing power: 1 point +2 actions: Healing equal to 30% of your max hp. The healing can be used on someone else but the healing is only equal to 20%.

Yes, each action would be an individual check, so a somatic + material action spell would have a combined probability of failure of 36%.

It will probably be only one check for the spell. Entangle disrupts an activity which includes multi-action spells. The flat check will be for the entire activity rather than each action within the activity.

I think that ability to disrupt reactions is going to be the interesting addition to the entangle condition. Reactive shield, AoO's, cleave, deflect arrow, retributive strike, divine grace, nimble dodge & etc will now have a 20% of failure when the user is entangled.

I've created (NOT yet played) a druid with bear companion. It looks like together they'll be doing LOTS of damage. The bear is fairly fragile but that is what heal animal is for :-).

Sure, as a practical matter once they're actually IN combat they're likely to only get 1 attack each (my druid will ready his shield, command the bear, and whack. The bear will Work Together and whack). But that is 2 attacks at no penalty, one of which does an extra dice of damage.

Its all theory crafting at this point but that looks QUITE adequate to me.

With spells etc as gravy on top :-) :-)

One of the players in my test group has a dwarf animal order druid w/bear companion. He spent most of his starting money on barding for the bear.

The bear has been holding up fairly well. It takes more crits due to the slightly lower AC. So far, the extra damage has not been an issue, since the bear is the only one that can benefit from the druid's heal animal spell point ability.

The bonus damage die has been nice. It becomes absolutely murderous when combined with shillelagh. So far it looks good.

I went with a slightly different route to avoid the high ACP's. Built a human abjuration school wizard. Picked up light armor proficiency with my ancestor feat. Made sure to train in athletics & acrobatics to decrease issues with the various adventuring checks.

16 Dex + light armor prof + chain shirt + shield spell gives a solid AC for a level 1 wizard.

Blasting is going to be better for the enemies due to persistent damage. Shocking grasp has 1d4 persistent damage when used against foes in metal armor.

Players will probably get a 2 couple rounds of persistent damage on enemy before the enemy is killed by the group. While a PC hit with the spell is going to cook until cured or killed.

Reach is a level 1 Wizard feat that can be used at will. Anyone wearing metal armor should be afraid whenever they see a wizard standing behind a bunch of mooks. Ranged shocking grasp will be the death of many PC tank builds.

Hopefully barkskin has a typo. Otherwise it has become worthless: "The target’s skin is covered in bark. The target gains resistance 1 to bludgeoning and piercing damage and weakness 2 to fire."

My son has suggested that it could be used as a debuff. Cast it on an enemy before the party attacks it with persistent fire attacks.

There's also the natural medicine feat. It uses the nature skill.
It is similar to the battle medic, but it has a couple of downsides. First, the character needs to be an expert in nature. Second, it takes 10 minutes to use.

Potentially a human character could have battle medic and natural medicine by 3rd level. It would require them to use their human ancestry, their 2nd level skill upgrade, and the 3rd level general feat to do it.

My opinion on Resonance is that it needs to go away or be majorly revamped; right now the design expectation seems to be have only 1 buff/spell/potion/power per combat, or have only 1-2 combats per day. Opening a Bag of Holding requires a point of resonance - an out of combat, non-time bound activity. What? If I want to open it, pull something out, and put it away twice a day thats 4 points of resonance, gone. A 1 minute alchemical elixir requires a point of resonance. Casting a spell from a staff requires a point of resonance. I thought the alchemist feat to dabble would be interesting, liked some of the formulae I saw, and then realized they all needed resonance.

Agreed. Clerics will be back to being healbots similar to the clerics in AD&D e1. Cleric builds will need to max Wisdom and Charisma to provide the party with enough healing. Most of their spell slot will need to be used for healing spells.

It will be back to being a NPC class.