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Wish list processing = nothing in carts. That will be true later, but now? If they're gone, they're gone.... @ Swiftbrook; my bad, you're right. Have to log in within 2 hours of wish list processing, visit cart, and pay or your tickets escape.
Wish list processing = nothing in carts. That will be true later, but now? If they're gone, they're gone. Also, Tonya: I appreciate that you're trying to shift things and due to your sponsorship, you probably can. However, I know the specials sell out: if I don't get it because it's full at my desired level range, I and my +3 (4 total) aren't likely to check back just in case 4 tickets somehow magically appear. I'll see if my group is willing to play at a lower tier and if not, move on to other events. I realize it's the 1st year trying something new and we'll see how it goes. However, this is a bummer - and if my group does decide to play different characters at a lower tier now and more high tier become available later, the attempt to go back to what we wanted to play is going to be a mess.
6 of us at the table (4-5 subtier). Fairly early on, an opportunity for diplomacy arises. We determine that the highest diplomacy person we have ... has a 1. Oh well, worst thing that can happen is we fail (and probably flub the mission), right? the 5 with 0 or less in diplomacy -- all successfully aid! +10! No pressure, Mr. Diplomacy-monster-with-a-1.... Nat 20! We got a 31 on our Diplomacy roll! The most diplomatic that particular group will ever be (or was: the next diplomacy opportunity? The chaotic alchemist (myself) slight-of-handed a bomb and surprise-round tossed it into the face of the person we could have been negotiating with (critical hit); based on Sense Motive, we didn't trust the guy.)
Seconding visiting the dealer's room, even if only to look. Check out the food trucks (flying cupcake. so good....) -- or if they're packed, the mall food court which is only 4 or 5 blocks away. Wander through the room where the miniatures games (Warhammer, Battletech, War Machine) are played -- not only the minis but the tables are worth looking over. Enjoy!
Bottom line: Keep it simple for new folks. When I have a new person who wants to play:
For your example, I'm thinking
Based on the above, I give them 1 or 2 options.
The other stuff is going to require a lot of hand-holding, and as the GM.... Yes, there's tons of things, but they can try those once they've played a little. Exceptions:
My basic mantra is: if you want to build the most combat-destroying monster you can, go for it. Just save that POW for those times when the party is in trouble, or for the times when time's a tickin' and the game needs to move along before the store closes.
Staven, level 11 air elementalist wizard. Don't anger or bore high level wizards, it doesn't end well. Also, extended life bubble goes on my party - always. This ends up being relevant more than you'd think. Story #1: Staven is in a certain round mountain. Sometimes, we've successfully negotiated and sometimes we haven't. However, we're now in a cave! And... A fight breaks out (pathfinders). It's apparent the dirty melee-types are getting it done, but it's taking forever. The solution to boredom? Cloud kill on top of the party! (Lower con = less health = faster kills, right?) This actualy works but... Clouds of the killing variety move, and what I thought was a solid wall wasn't (pesky map edge wasn't the end of the world), so down the tunnel it goes! No biggie... then the GM asks me to roll for con damage to an unseen opponent. Oops. Roll con damage 3 or 4 more times and never mind, it's okay after all. The swarm isn't smart enough to move out of the cloudkill -- fumigation occured. Story #2: same adventure. We've encountered a dragon, who has had enough and decides to fly away. He's below me (air elementalist is so lovely) but in an obscuring mist. Queue cyclone, removing his mist and his ability to remain flying. The bloodrager in the party jumps off a cliff to land on the downed dragon, sword first. No more Mr dragon! Story #3: different adventure - neither bored nor angry. We've snuck into a certain establishment via the back door. GM: "you hear a hissing sound and a haze fills the air." Staven: "cloud? Obscuring mist? Can a spellcraft check tell me what it is?" Gm: "none of the above. Your party just triggered a poison mist, but since you're all in life bubble... It doesn't matter." Story #4: yet another adventure. Poor gm has just read what must be a half page of monologue from our opponent in the stage of the tournament we're in -- who isn't the final boss. 1 vs a group of 10/11s should be quite the fight, but staven got bored during the monologue, time's ticking, and staven's going first.... "You bore me. Icy prison, DC 26." Gm fails the save. Staven to the party: "gentlemen, let's (do what had to be done to leave the room); he'll keep." We do. Since the poor fella isnt getting out of the ice (26 strength checks are rough) as we leave, the soft-hearted fighter in the group chips him out so he won't die. See, not all fighters are murder hobos! Story #5: still another adventure. I've learned that if I make a knowledge check and the GM asks what I want to know, the response is "what's their weakest save?" We face a caster, who suggested that the rogue head to the next room and wait to be eviscerated. The rogue has failed his save, and is happily doing so, which angers staven: that wasn't very nice. Staven's turn. Weakest save? Reflex. "Icy prison. Leave the ice block alone. And could someone go grapple the rogue?" Okay, so icy prison isn't really nice either.
One more game and staven dings 12. My 1st high level caster (I've tended towards fighters and healers); I'm going to miss seeing what high level casters can do.
expanding: gencon hotel info : note that the "downtown campus" is where gencon actually occurs.
Other options: know anyone who lives in Indy? You might be able to find crash space and carpool....
Correct #1) buy a gencon badge
That said: gencon is an awesome but huge experience. you'll want to do more than just PFS (go visit the dealer room -- that is a MASSIVE time sink, but oh so fun!)
Season 6 guide states on page 18: "Liberty’s Edge faction PCs qualify for Andoran faction vanities and mission boons available in past seasons. Likewise, Dark Archive faction PCs qualify for Cheliax rewards, Scarab Sages as Osirion, The Exchange as Qadira, and Sovereign Court as Taldor. Without a boon that states otherwise, a PC cannot earn Sczarni vanities or boons." Is that what you're looking for?
Opera house scenario tells GMs on page 6 that Spoiler: : so that's a GM bad (read more closely, please)
"The PCs are
allowed to attend the opera for free (regardless of how they’re dressed), but anyone wearing less than a courtier’s outfit and 50 gp or more of jewelry suffers a –2 penalty on all Charisma-based checks" Jester's Fraud venture captain intro states Spoiler: and asking the right question of an NPC later makes the warning even more clear; PCs who put they find on are asking for it.... PCs, putting gear that you find isn't always a good idea!
“The man’s wife was a scholar of ancient magics who recently died in some sort of magical accident. If something in the collection caused the mishap, we fear the Tribune might try to unload it on an unsuspecting stranger!” As for the 3rd, Spoiler:
the module tells the GM exactly what to do if the PCs decide to fake it; it takes 1 diplomacy + 2 bluffs, with various modifiers for various reasons For your 3 examples:
I don't think so. From the Guide (Chapter 1, Additional Resources): "In order to utilize content from an Additional Resource, a player must have a physical copy of the Additional Resource in question, a name-watermarked Paizo PDF of it, or a printout of the relevant pages from it, as well as a copy of the current version of the Additional Resources list." Nothing in here says that just because it's on a chronicle, you don't need the source doc.
Having GM's all 3 and played 2: the ties are pretty loose. They make more sense if played in order, but playing 2 without having played 1 won't mess you up!
CAMPAIGN MODE Chaper 6 of the Guide talks about adventure paths and chronicles for PFS. Mummy's mask is an adventure path (AP). Some details exist within http://paizo.com/download/pathfinder/PZO9000-14-Rules.zip Of most interest to you:
In other words, since you plan to run it as a campaign, run it like you would normally (gear does NOT automatically get sold @ the end of each session but it's instead shared out to the party, etc). The portions of the adventure which result in scenario sheets still result in you handing out sheets. These sheets can be applied to any character -- but the character must be in the level range specified in the sheet.
1) you can pre-generate #s for them. https://secure.paizo.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Store.woa/wa/browse?path=pathfi nderSociety/myAccount/coord#tabs @ the bottom, there's a button for "Reserve 10 Pathfinder Society Cards" 2) correct -- that's "campaign mode" 3) if you're doing mummy's mask as a campaign, do what you'd do in a home game (more in a sec). For scenario play -- the loot that's found throughout the scenario disappears, and cash is handed out in its place. Even if it's used up. 3.1) The Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play includes list of "always available" stuff -- which is how people can buy potions of CLW (the ones you find still disappear -- so use them. it doesn't hurt the payout!) 3.2) the scenario "cash" appeared because your party magically sold stuff back. alternately, if you HAVE actually bought stuff previously, you can sell it back for 50% the purchase price.
Spoiler:
"People around here liked Daniel; he was always Willing to lend a hand. Them outsider pathfinders killed him. That's settled. It's the slow part of the year, and the hanging's bringing in people and money -- and something to talk about. What? Someone else may have killed them? Prove it -- and bring us the perpetrator so we can hang him. Someone's getting hung." ;)
Haven't read/played/GMd the scenario in question, but here's my take on the question:
Spoiler:
1) NPCs: "don't come in here." PCs: "OK" GM: "OOC: your mission's in there. if you don't go, you're going to fail." Give the players a warning. They move on? All good. They persist in waiting? 0 0 0 would have been right. 2) Invisibility. Invis is +20 to stealth if moving, +40 if not. That said, you're still there if you're invisible. Hit me with the door, open the door, or walk into me: i may not see you but i know SOMETHING'S THERE (allowing me to swing my sword at it! Go blind fight!) I might have gone with your call. Alternately, I might have given them stealth checks which they'd likely succeed on -- only to either:
3) Without reading the scenario: kidnapped people in danger, story's pushing time even if there's not a "clock on the wall": coming back tomorrow isn't going to cut it.
4) telepathy in the dark? Absolutely let it keep going. I do the same with Message. See also http://paizo.com/prd/spells/telepathicBond.html 5) There are critters that essentially blind themselves if they use deeper darkness in dim light (resulting in supernatural darkness); if you want to see through your own DD, cancel it -- or have tremor sense or blind sense or.... What was the prevailing light condition before deeper darkness went off? Tracking the sliding scale that is darkness is always fun. http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/detectThoughts.html#_detect-thoug hts Nothing in there speaking for/against use in the dark; I'd let PCs/NPCs/monsters use it to find others. Note that round 1 only notes presence/absence of thought. I don't view it as a free action, so the critter has to chew up their standard to find you. 6) I'd have done what you did: "Hex is spell-like, not supernatural. It's targeted, not AoE. Pick your target. Point at it. Cast it. You can't see it? Pick where you think it is and cast away." 7) Spiritual weapon "attacks foes at a distance, as you direct it". Direct it to the creature it is to attack. Can't see it? it's just like a fighter in that respect. Direct it to attack a square. Roll attack and then 50/50 percentile dice. If your attack is high enough and the 50/50 is in your favor and the critter is there, you will hit. 8) Incorporeal absolutely threaten. They're an opponent. To quote the CRB and its discussion about movement: "Opponent: You can't move through a square occupied by an opponent unless the opponent is helpless...." Incorporeal critters aren't helpless, just ask the pally who recently lost 6 con to one! You can move through their square using acrobatics just like everything else (tumbling movement rules). 9) Um no. As you said: no stacking the same metamagic over and over. stacking different ones? sure. GM call-wise: i would have dealt with the cleric separately, and i don't know enough about the initial light condition to know what deeper darkness would have done -- but I 100% agree with the rest of the calls. On to the player question, a much harder issue:
Spoiler: You had someone who wanted to argue and was going to do so. I suspect that it was "i'm angry from the 'no' I got early" bleeding all over the game. One thing I'd have tried regarding the rules: "look through your copy of the CRB while others are acting. Show me the relevant entries after the game so we can both learn together. If the party wipes, we can also discuss what you've learned and whether or not it might have helped, but if not -- it's slowing down the game and we only have so much time. I'll happily listen to what you've learned after the game, but I'm going with my understanding of the relevant rules for now. We need to move on." Let him do the research. Discuss what he learns with him after the game if he's interested. No CRB? No basis for discussion. Beyond that, I'd have been actively working to pull the other players into interactions with me and minimizing interactions with him unless his interactions were relevant to his turn and helpful. Essentially reward appropriate behavior and ignore inappropriate behavior. Short-term wouldn't have helped much, but might have long term. side note: My solution for invisibility/deeper darkness is to take my monsters off the board and to take notes so I can tell players where they are if it's relevant (ABC/123 grid the map like a spreadsheet. Monster X moved to A23.) Sure, people don't bump into tables and the like, but oh well. A merge of the two approaches could be fun. hide the room from them so they can trip over tables, don't even put monster pieces on board unless visible.
I've been successful in getting my wife into PFS. I sucked her in with a Kitsune boon after gencon 2012 and she'll ding her Sorceress to level 10 @ gencon 2014. Most of her games have been PFS-at-home, but she's got a decent # of at-con games under her belt as well. Overall, her experiences have been positive because:
Going all the way back to the beginning of the thread: 1) Focus on the social (amongst the players, not the PCs -- although that helps too!). Focusing on the social aspects of the game has helped me get several women interested in Pathfinder. I've had success in building a Wrath of the Righteous homegame where there women outnumber the men (wife's friends, mostly). The fact that it's dinner-and-a-team-game helped pull them in. How can we use the social aspects of the game to draw women to PFS?
2) Simplify the game. Pathfinder/PFS has a massive amount of rules. If you want to help ANY completely-new player (I don't care about the gender), simplify it. How?
At their 1st game, have the new person sit next to someone whose job is to help (as a GM, I've sat them next to me sometimes). Then
PS: I'm giving her a link -- she'll post later
You've only played 4 games total, correct? That barely touches the surface of the variety that scenarios can encompass. What makes you feel that your character is "broken"? Can you post your build? As was determined in a similar, recent thread, it's usually not as bad as it seems. This. It's amazing what can be done with a "broken" character....
My perspective may have also been affected by being a lvl 4 playing up -- and I was essentially the tank (lone melee). O_O
I've played <redacted> where you were mythic for the length of that single scenario -- and then the powers go away (will they ever return? Who knows?). Since that scenario is built for them -- you need them. The nice thing is that since they go away, it's a one shot. Play with them, have fun, and know that they don't stick around.
As other people seem to be handling the character legality/optimisation issues, I would say that you can't go too far wrong buying some +1 armour, a masterwork shield, and a cloak of resistance +1 (assuming you have the necessary fame or it's on a chronicle). Then save up for something like a ring of protection +1 or a +1 weapon. This. You appear to desire a melee experience in combat (14 str, falcata discussion). 15 AC is going to get you hurt. A lot. Your dex is very low, so head to the mediun weight armors, magic up the armor, and give yourself a better chance to avoid some damage.
Armor spikes cost 50g and add 10lb to armor (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/equipment.html, search for armor spikes)
A quick note/disclaimer: if you haven't magically enhanced the spikes, we're talking 25g -- which isn't worth this potentially bitter debate. That's less than the cost of a potion of CLW. Onward:
That said, that same paragraph mentions adding the spikes by saying "You can have spikes added to your armor" but says nothing about removing them, so I wouldn't fight for my 1st opinion overly hard if a different GM said "nope,". After all, the verbiage around "adding" spikes strikes me as more welding on than swapping out pieces.
There's a reason I included 7-player groups -- it's allowed and I see them quite regularly!
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