Rhatha's page

Hello,

This order was shipped on Feb. 18th, and I haven't received it yet.. I have had long delays on getting things in the past, but there doesn't seem to be any tracking info on it. It wasn't sent to our apartment office or anywhere else I can tell (generally UPS will call on arrival). Do you have further tracking on this? Can you confirm that it was sent and isn't hanging in limbo somewhere? If it was delivered, it's possible it was just left on the mailboxes.. where any number of people could walk by and take it, so I'm hoping that wasn't the case..

Thanks for looking into this.

It's because they can't have it in the compendiums due to OGL not allowing for the art. As the GM, if you have individual images on your computer (or your hosted webservice if you go that route) you can easily search and add them. Foundry doesn't have an arrangement with Paizo like Roll20 does to sell e.g. the bestiary and its art in VTT form. Instead, they include all the info that's free on the OGL (e.g. the statblocks) and have a default blank image in most cases. A few of the monsters have basic art that fan have created but most are the default.

If you own an AP PDF and use the importer module it will pull in all the monster images from that AP for you. I don't believe there's anything similar for the bestiaries at this time.

Unlike something like Roll20, almost all content on Foundry is created by the community, not necessarily by Foundry's creator.

While I haven't had a chance to play all the ones I'm interested in, Druid so far has been amazingly fun all the way from level 3 up to 16 (playing AoA). Being able to have a wild shape build that's still a full caster instead of cutting out the majority of the class has worked very well, and the tradeoff in feat choice and actions to get in/out of form seems fair so far (haste is your friend!). I do wish there was a little more wiggle room in feats as you're constantly deciding what forms to give up, but the versatility in play makes up for the tough choices on paper.

Foundry

3. I have a concern about the technical aspect of Foundry's non-hosted version - when people say that you'll need to, say, port-forward, where does that fall on the scale of difficulty? I'm not tech savvy by modern standards, in the sense that nobody but my family asks me to fix their computer; I know how to log into my router and change the password, but I've never heard of port-forwarding before. Can someone give a common task of equivalent complexity? Is it like turning off auto-correct on Microsoft Word difficult? Changing your oil by yourself difficult?

Both

4. I'm pretty familiar with making maps for PbP, so I have no problems, for example, lining up those Pathfinder Flip Mat tiles from PFS scenarios and whatnot. Do I always have the option of uploading my own maps, icons, and art (within space constraints), or am I forced to use theirs (especially with the Roll20 free version)?

3. This will depend on your router. If it's a newer router with uPNP you might not need to do anything. If it's an older router, you would log in, find the Port Forwarding section in the router settings, and figure out what port Foundry is using. There are guides on this online, try googling "port forwarding [your router's brand and model number"] and see what comes up. It's generally not super complicated if you're able to log into the router already.

4. Both Roll20 and Foundry will let you upload your own maps. Roll20, as many people have mentioned, has limits based on what you pay monthly. Foundry is just whatever you can store on your hard drive, or if you pay for web hosting, whatever the host allows.

I've used both, as well as Fantasy Grounds. My group overall prefers Foundry, but no system is perfect. Here are my quick thoughts:

Roll20:
- simplest to use out of the box
- clean UI
- very little automation. You can roll the dice and have bonuses added, but then it's generally easier to compare the numbers to the NPC/PC sheets and figure the results yourself.
- In my experience, slower to add premade content to their store/doesn't have as many options as the other two.
- Theoretically free. In practical terms the GM will run out of space very quickly, so you're looking at a monthly fee, and possibly more if you want premade content on top of that. Over a very long term, potentially more expensive than FG.
- the game data is stored on the web.

FG:
- most complicated of the three to set up custom content
- confusing UI
- best automation of the three (you can drag a die from a spell onto a monster, it will roll, use all the buffs and debuffs on the caster and the target(s), makes the saves, and apply the damage for you)
- but, you need to remember to track those buffs and make sure the spell is set up accurately for the automation to work.
- one time payments, but very, VERY expensive for the GM up front if you want the benefit of not entering in all the player and monster options from every book yourself. There is a monthly option but that's only for the base program, not the books, and is generally only useful to try the GM side out for a short time vs. buying a license.
- the game data is stored on your computer.

Foundry:
- easy to use out of the box, though adding modules can make it more complicated.
- clean UI, very similar to Roll20
- limited automation. There's a little bit of this in being able to roll saves for multiple creatures and apply damage from the chat window to selected tokens. It's not near an comprehensive as FG, but also not nearly as complicated.
- Easiest to expand beyond the base program. There are a lot of modules that modify bits of the main program to change how things work.
- OGL content is drag and drop. That means that anything on Archives of Nethys save some of the art is ready and waiting.
- Community driven content and updates. This is both a pro and a con. Foundry updates much, much faster than either of the other programs when new content comes out. The Pathfinder 2e ruleset as a whole also has much faster and more extensive additions. On the flip side, there are some things that are a work in progress yet. This means the ruleset is constantly improving, but it also means if some particular feature you want isn't there and you don't know enough to code it yourself, you're doing workarounds until someone in the community decides to tackle it. Overall I think this is a net positive, but it could lead to frustration for some people.
- This varies by system. I have only run 2e in Foundry, from what I have seen as a player 1e also has a strong community, where Starfinder is a bit slower to adding things/has less people working on it.
- One time fee, and modules to import from Paizo pdfs. Foundry is the cheapest option by far, and the importer module will pull all the maps and images needed into the system, and apply the line of sight walls to most of the maps for you (I think there are a few still being worked on).
- the game data is stored on your computer, unless you use an optional service they've partnered with to pay monthly and store in on the web.

There's a lot more that could be said about all of them. As a GM I find Foundry the easiest to use. FG is my second choice, as I wanted to avoid monthly subs for something I've been doing for years and some of its automation is impressive, but it also has a lot of stumbling blocks in adding custom content, UI, and the like. Roll20 is easy and was great when I started, but the cost over time was too high and Foundry does a similar job in my players' eyes and is a lot more beneficial as a GM.

1) I treat it as a normal attack roll with all the relevant modifiers.

2) At low levels, when the monster's AC is below 20, I have been setting the DC at the AC of the monster instead. Once ACs become higher I'll leave it at 20.

3) Up to the players. We tend to do descriptions for an entire turn instead of splitting it between actions.

4) Haven't had to yet. There could always be specific circumstances but as long as an attack will work I'll let Aid work. If someone is trying to Aid an attack with a different skill I'd take that on a case by case basis.

Whatever works for your group, I tend to err on the side of letting players attempt what they want and have a decent chance unless there's a clear reason not to.

Good afternoon,

This subscription order went to my previously default address, which is my apartment office. However, with the current situation, they're not accepting packages, and I'm home all the time. I updated my default subscription address and added a phone number as that will likely be needed for delivery (deliveries normally can't get into the building). It didn't update the pending order, however. Also, I put the apt. number in the Address line 2, but it didn't appear when selecting the address, I'm not sure if that's only a display issue or not.

Will you please change the address on this order to my current default (has a phone # listed, address starts with the number 1), and also confirm that the Apt # is included on the address?

You can look up the material the object you're attacking is made of to find the hardness/HP, so that's not an issue. Whether your GM chooses to use an Athletics check, have you straight up attack (either auto-hit terating hardness as the difficulty to damage, or picking a standard DC to use as the AC of the item), or comes up with another way to handle the situation is up to them.

If you want to argue that certain spells can or can't affect a certain object, take it up with your GM. If you try to argue that you can't smash a random object with a battleaxe, you maybe need to step back and remember that space is at a premium in books and there are many different people working on them, and not everything can be nitpicked down to that level. Isn't there a line right in the book that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is? Same principle, in reverse. If there really is confusion on something due to how the rules are worded, there's one person at your table that can answer that, or make a call until they can look at it further. And if you can't trust your own GM, you might be at the wrong table.

The only time something that literal should even be a discussion is in organized play, and even in that setting, I'm pretty sure if you tried to convince a group that you can't even attempt to swing a sword at a door, urn, unattended candle, or what have you, you'd be politely told that it's completely nonsensical to disallow that (at best).

That's fair.. most of the other maneuvers seem to be not nearly as problematic.. except for maybe Bull Rush or the like using Add Leverage with 4-6 arms. Grapple just shuts down a lot more.

So, I was looking into ideas for a new character, and found a Skittermander grapple vanguard build elsewhere on the forums here that looked interesting.. but when talking to my GM and looking at the math, we decided not to go with it as there was a strong likelihood that it would be too good at shutting down a single target and make the combats unfun for the group - there have been similar problems in the past in Pathfinder.

I was curious if anyone else has run this, and how it worked out.

For example, at level 5, 18 DEX:
5 BAB + 4 DEX + 2 racial + 2 weapon grapple property + 1 weapon focus + 4 imp. combat maneuver = +18 vs. EAC (because vanguard)

We looked at a few CR 5-8 monsters and found roughly 17-19 EAC. Taking the higher value, for a CR8, this would mean a 9 or higher would grapple, and a 14 or higher would flat out pin. Then there's also a great likelihood that on the second round, you can succeed again, and steal an item to break the grapple.. which appears to include held weapons. While it doesn't shut down spellcasting, grappling also prevents any two handed items, so anyone with a longarm or heavy weapon is likely to be severely hampered.. and that's a CR 3 above your level. It's much easier on anything lower. Plus, with vibrogarrote, you can do entropic strike damage on top of that.

If the creature then wants to grapple you in turn, there's a good chance that they'll be able to as well (in the example above, depending on your armor, roughly an 8+ would work), but they don't get to deal damage, and unless you're pinned right back, it's likely you'll be able to regrapple on your turn. If they just attack, they suffer all the penalties and are hitting likely the most defensive party member. This may be fine for creatures with a strong attack that doesn't rely on two hands. Size differences seem to be GM discretion, but could also mitigate things.

Am I missing something here? Is it really not as strong as it seems? I'm not sure it's any one piece of this pushing it over the top.. it's the incremental bits from having the grapple weapon property and weapon focus, being able to target EAC, etc. but grapple and especially pin are so crippling that it seems like it's just too strong. It's true that sometimes you'll have a larger number of weaker enemies, but most of the time, there is a clear target that's more dangerous. I saw a lot of discussions saying combat maneuvers are too weak, but most seem to be from before the Armory and COM came out.

Thanks for the help! I received another pending email, but that's probably from what you fixed, so I'll keep an eye out for the notice that it's shipped.

Good afternoon,

I put in two orders near the beginning of the holiday sale. One of them has already gone through and been delivered. The other, order 9746077, has not, and looking back at my emails I don't see a notice that it shipped. Can you confirm if this has been sent, or is it waiting on something? It appears complete in my order history on the site, so I'm not sure what needs to be done here. Thanks!

Ah, but everyone is still special compared to the vast majority of NPCs they're going to encounter, yes? ;)

IMO, it is totally wrong to sigh in exasperation. There are people who like the offbeat races and think that playing most humans, elves, etc. is boring and overdone (I'm one of them). The best thing about Pathfinder is that there are SO many options, you can find something you like and even if it's a little unusual, it mostly can fit in. Even if it's not your thing, it's usually better to support your players in playing how they want to have fun. That kind of reaction can be really discouraging, especially with new players.

(Obviously, if something is a deal breaker it needs to be discussed between the gm and the players asap, but I didn't get that impression here.)

As far as the RP difficulty goes, you can certainly point your players at the right material for background, and not everything is going to be perfect to lore when they're just starting, but they're likely to do a lot better with something they really want to play instead of just sticking to a common race.

Sorry for the semi-rant, this is a sticking point for me.

While I suppose the wording can be argued, the first part of the archetype description says that you join a druidic circle, and you also learn the druidic language, so I would say that this qualifies you as a druid for purposes of their overall anathema. An organization that disowns its members for teaching their secret language isn't going to just let a part-timer get away with that. That aside, I think that it's implied in the multiclassing.

Depends on if you consider the entire wall as an object, or allow the portion of it. From the spell description I'd normally say the wall is too large to be affected, though it could be an interesting, if gruesome, creative use.

Lizardfolk for sure, though I tend to like a lot of the nonstandard races. While there could be a bit more fleshing out in future books, the different heritages felt very differently themed in their case, and I want to know more. This is true for a lot of heritages, but they stand out to me for whatever reason, and I really like some of the feat options.

So, after walking through creating several forms, I think I have the basic idea down, but I ran into a few things that weren't clear.

First, do you have to choose one of the types/subtypes available, or can you choose not to specify one and to retain your normal type? My mystic is a Dragonkin, and if not, that means he'd never be able to retain his equipment short of dropping it before casting, since Dragon is never an option for type. This isn't clear, it says the spell allows you to appear to be another type, not that it forces you, but I can see it either way.

Second, when using a specific form for something like a Tashtari, and using a special ability like Muzzle Beam, do you use the same rules as natural attacks for capping to hit and calculating damage, or just use the stats from the bestiary as they are? Presumably this one would at least target EAC/use the ranged damage instead of the melee damage column. I'm not sure if this falls under "a trait that uses the base creature's CR for a calculation" though, or if that's referring to things like DCs.

Very interesting.. this will be a good aligned character, so that probably won't work, but I'll keep that in my back pocket, missed that in the world guide. Thanks!

As it turns out, Field Medic from the core book is very close and will work fine mechanically and still fit the RP aspect fine, so I'll likely use that.

Still unsure on the dedications, and heritage. Trying to get a solid answer on if the fire resist from sandscale is maintained, if so, I love the art for that one and would try it, if not, either of the mobility based ones for non-wildshaped form should be fine.

I'm looking into a wild druid as primarily a shapeshifting melee, using spells for utility or in situations where range is needed or for utiliy out of combat, and wanted to bounce some ideas off of people to see if there's anything I missed that could be fun to play with.

Lizardfolk, Druid, Wild Order
16 STR
14 DEX
14 CON
8 INT
16 WIS
10 CHA

STR as high as possible. DEX high enough to cap AC in Hide armor, it will likely never be increased. CON and WIS as high as possible with the remaining points. Increases will likely be STR, CON, INT, WIS as we level.

Heritage TBD - I don't think any of the benefits apply while in Wild Shape, so this may end up being for flavor based on where the character ends up being from.

Background TBD - it's for Age of Ashes, so the one that gives Religion and Dahak Lore might be relevant. Lastwall Survivor looked interesting, but I'm not sure there were many Lizardfolk in Lastwall, or what type they'd be. Does anyone know of a reference to Lizardfolk living there?

Feats
Ancestry 1: Sharp Fangs - since we're likely looking at handwraps anyway for the weapon runes, as I think they fall under constant effects and work in wild shape. Any of the natural attack options could work here.
Class 1: Wild Shape - unless we change around and start with storm or leaf order to get a second focus point at level 2. Bizarre how that works. I don't know if this is needed but am going under the assumption that 1 focus + a few prepared Form spells will be enough.

Later Feats:
Class
Form Control, Ferocious, Soaring, Dragon, maybe Elemental Shape
Fighter Dedication, Opportunist, maybe Sudden Charge - I'm not sure if this is worth it or not. I don't like monk dedication as Flurry is at 10, and you really want to take Soaring and Dragon Shape around then. Barbarian could also increase damage, though it hurts your AC and Opportunist seems stronger for that. If we don't take a dedication, an extra focus point or two and Poison Resistance may be possible. I'm not sure that works in Wild Shape, though.

General
Toughness, Incredible Initiative, Rapid Recovery, Fleet - much of this is increasing your strengths.

Ancestry
Terrain Advantage is the only must have. Depending on the Heritage, the feats that boost each are strong. Lizardfolk Lore would also help with the low INT early on.

Skills
Medicine, Nature, Survival, maybe Religion, Athletics - play to your strengths. Multiple people with any of these have worked well so far. Athletics can be a later pickup, as will Acrobatics for flying later on down the line.

Skill Feats
Battle Medicine, Ward Medic, Continual Recovery - cheap healing, save spell slots.
Titan Wrestler - you can perform maneuvers on huge and gargantuan opponents later on, which most other classes can't.
Survey Wildlife, Forager - depending on how often we're trekking across the countryside
Quick Squeeze - unsure if this is needed, but it may be a late pickup.

Basically, at low levels, use a shield as needed and bite things a lot. Once Wild Shape takes off, you have a lot of options.

Items
Druid's Vestment - not right away, but once 1000 gold isn't a big deal, this will be nice to have.
Armbands of Athleticism - as noted above, you are uniquely suited to trip, shove, etc. very large creatures.
Goggles of Night - You will generally have a very high initiative, this will help further. If you activate greater goggles, the darkvision might carry over.
Any skill boosting items.

My biggest question is whether a Dedication is worth it given how many feats you want for Wild Shape.. AoO with reach sounds great on paper. Also, if one focus point is enough or not, not knowing how often rests will be an option.

In looking into a Wild Order Druid, I ran into several questions trying to figure out how Wild Shape actually works.

Attacks: Weapon attack bonuses definitely don't work. Striking appears to not work by virtue of the simple fact that it would incredibly unbalance your damage. Weapon runes like Ghost Touch might work, as they could be considered a constant effect and that would keep you at parity with anyone attacking with a weapon.That's not exactly clear, but that seems to be what most people think from reading other threads.

AC: Seems to only include what the form spells say, no dex.

But what about other abilities that could be inherent to your form? The Polymorph tag doesn't explicitly say you lose them, but this seems to fall under the umbrella of the special statistics of the form not being adjustable. It seems odd, though. For example, the fire resistance from the Sandstrider Lizardfolk heritage makes sense as the text implies that this is at least in part based on your physiology. What about the Druid feat Poison Resistance? That seems to imply that it's not based on your form.. it seems very odd if Wild Shape makes your class feats just not work part of the time. It's possible that that's the answer, though. I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

Might be mixing them up, as they're all PFS:

Moonblossom - Kitsune Oracle 3 (Spirit Guide, Lunar, Deaf) and Mist (Wolf) - A follower of Ashava who was touched by the divine during a visit to Varisia. The deaf curse is often tricky to play around, and does sometimes make it difficult if party member don't take it into account as the RP then often goes off of what she can see.

Rathalan - Shoanti human Shifter (Weretouched, Tiger) 4 / Unchained Rogue (Scout) 2 - A solid frontline fighter that likes to wade right in, but in working for the society has learned several skills not common among Shoanti. Mid-size, but solidly built, with tiger stripe tattoos going down his arms and legs.

Rikaru - Kitsune Sorcerer (Nine-Tailed Heir, Starsoul BL) 4 - A frail, but mischevious spellcaster specializing in disabling his enemies. He started out very proud and cocky, but several near-death experiences have tempered his attitude somewhat. As a kitsune with multiple tails, though, he does consider himself to be a cut above the common, but mostly keeps this to himself, understanding that other races may not recognize the significance.