Sadronmeldir's page

Hey all, I've been having a ton of fun in my current game as a LVL 3 Champion of Kurgess - just a farm lad who believes in healthy living and good sportsmanship! At 3, things are easy - raise a shield, glimpse of redemption, the occasional throw of his javelin...

We were playing Kingmaker and got up to the fight with one of the early big bads, but we realized the kingdom building isn't for us. The GM is proposing a fun sort of time jump and kicking off Stolen Fate with us as an established group of adventurers. This comes with a sort of "reset" - bringing these characters to level 11.

I'll include his draft build below, but I'd love any feedback about things to consider swapping in or buying without getting into campaign-specific spoilers.

I don't want to min-max and I want to keep the flavor of the character. He's a bit of an oaf, but generally likable (can win over a room with his optimism). I know I want to focus on being agile, protecting the party and using his javelin, as well as the general themes of Kurgess by leaning into athletics and acrobatics.

I'm less sure on taking two feats for the Zeal domain spells and focus points. On paper sharing initiative rolls sounds amazing, but I'm not sure if it's worth the two-feat sink and or if I'd be better off with other Champion feats or a dedication.

For reference, the rest of the party includes a sporty halfling bard, a half-elven cleric of Nethys, a dwarven gunslinger and a gnome druid.

Here's the build:

==============

Human champion 11 (Advanced Player's Guide)

Medium, Holy, Human, Humanoid

Heritage versatile human

Background rostlander

Perception +16

Languages Common, Varisian

Skills Acrobatics +19, Athletics +21 (+23 for High Jump and Long Jump actions.), Diplomacy +20, Farming Lore +13, Religion +14, Stealth +17

Str +4, Dex +4, Con +4, Int +0, Wis +1, Cha +3

Items +2 resilient hide armor (greater emerald grasshopper), spellguard shield, +2 returning striking javelin, javelin (4), backpack, bedroll, boots of bounding, chalk (10), crowbar, flint and steel, grappling hook, rations (1 week) (2), rope (foot) (50), soap, torch (5), waterskin, purse (4 sp)

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

AC 32 (34 with shield raised); Fort +22 (Successes are crit successes instead); Ref +20; Will +19 (Successes are crit successes instead)

HP 173; Resistances bludgeoning 3

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Speed 35 feet

Melee [1] shield bash +19 (holy), Damage 1d4+6 B

Ranged [1] +2 returning striking javelin +21 (thrown 30 ft., holy, magical), Damage 2d8+6 P

Ranged [1] javelin +19 (thrown 30 ft., holy), Damage 1d8+6 P

Focus Spells 3 Focus Points, DC 28; 6th Lay on Hands, Weapon Surge, Zeal for Battle

Ancestry Feats Clever Improviser, General Training, Natural Ambition

Class Feats Advanced Deity's Domain, Defensive Advance, Deity's Domain, Expand Aura, Quick Shield Block, Shield Of Reckoning, Shield Warden

General Feats Breath Control, Fleet, Robust Health, Shield Block, Toughness, Untrained Improvisation

Skill Feats Cat Fall, Glad-hand, Group Impression, Hefty Hauler, Quick Jump, Shameless Request, Wall Jump

Other Abilities blessed shield, redemption, shield block, zeal

I hope this is the appropriate place to make this post as it touches on multiple hot-button themes like inclusivity and AI, but this is exactly why I wanted to get some community input.

My wife and I have a pair of home campaign characters that we're bringing to society play at GenCon this year:

• A Gaston-inspired human Redeemer of Kurgess
  
• A sporty bard gnome inspired in part by Jane Fonda and 80's workout videos

The gnome isn't exactly a worshipper of Kurgess, but she's all for making a buck by inspiring people with the redeemer's feats of strength and workout regimen. Jokingly, we call it the Church of Swole.

As a laugh, I wanted to make some neon, 80s-inspired flair. Buttons to hand out to GMs as thank yous, matching t-shirts, etc.

I did use generative AI within Photoshop as a starting point but tailored it through extensive edits. This isn't for monetization or to claim it as my own, but I can't draw a stick figure to save my life so I used the embedded tools as a starting point.

I tried to use the original holy symbol as inspiration and I think it came out fun, but... well, his symbol is basically a fist and a chain. Even though it's just a reimagining of the original symbol, I wanted to make sure I wasn't accidentally codifying any hate groups or language into the symbol.

Can anyone sanity-check me here? A quick Google showed similar things associated with Black Lives Matter, etc - which I consider inclusive. I just want to make sure I'm not accidentally drawing any negative parallels.

Here's the image. I appreciate any feedback!

I hope this is the right place to ask this. I've been playing with the same group for about 8 years now. We started in Pathfinder, specifically the standalone adventures and switched over to Starfinder when it came out. We are loving the world, but years in I'm finding the level of commitment by Paizo for Starfinder to be a bit worrisome, especially compared with how many offerings and products they provided for PF2 at launch.

It's great to have adventure paths but honestly, some of those are a bit long for my group, who is used to the standalone adventures we had for Pathfinder. Is there any talk about providing some of those? Or why it hasn't happened? I'd even settle for another round of 3-part adventure paths - anything more bite-sized than the full 6-book arcs.

Also, as a DM, I loved having fiction to draw inspiration from. The books and comics for Pathfinder really helped make the world come alive and find a tone for some settings. Is there a plan at all for comics or stories? It doesn't have to be an ongoing subscription, but even just a few to get us more lore in between the book releases?

GM here trying to help a player with some creative options for a Kitsune Envoy, but I've never Envoyed before so open to ideas.

The player concept is for Signal of Screams (level 7). She and another are doing a loose parody on the Psych tv show, with the Envoy being a fake psychic detective that's just really good at bluffing and the other character being a Biohacker as a parody of Gus.

Most of the recommendations out there for Envoy seem fairly vanilla - Longarm proficiency, versatile specialization, clever attack, get 'em and inspiring boost. Are there any more creative but viable options out there, especially with COM in the wild?

For instance, the Battleflower archetype has this cool ability to lock down a single enemy with a fascinating dance, which seems totally thematic for a Kitsune. Are any of the improvisations designed since the CRB comparable in combat effectiveness?

A bit of context... I've been GMing a home game of Dead Suns AP for over a year and we just finished book 5... loving it so far. The five of us are all headed to GenCon this year and just played Skitter Shot to introduce people to society play.

After playing Skitter Shot, we discovered that we could apply our Dead Suns campaign for society play, granting credit at the appropriate levels just as if we played pregens.

First question... do I retroactively need to ask people to reorder their chronicle sheets so that they count the AP book 1 prior to SKittershot? Or is it okay to put as sheet #2 because both happened and are being applied prior to their character's first foray at the Con?

Next question... the later AP books can't be applied right away because they are for levels 3+ and onward. When to the day job checks get rolled for? Right away or when they're applied?

Hey all,

This might have an easy solution, but I'd welcome some insight. At GenCon, myself and five friends are planning to play SFS for three sessions. At the start, I have 5 XP and my friends have 3 XP. The first two sessions are Tier 1-4, the final can be played at tier 1-2 or 3-4.

After one session, I technically level to 3, whereas they will still be 2. For the 1-4 sessions, I can easily play down since the APL will still be in the 2 range.

For the last session (tier 1-2 and tier 3-4), would I no longer be able to play with my friends or could I still play down because the APL would be low enough? If that's the case, could I simply reserve the first two chronicle sheets of the day and apply them after the third session to keep us all together?

Thanks, and sorry if this is obvious. It's been a few years since I've played SFS.

For the past 6 or 7 years, we've been running with the same group of players. Our old DM ran a ton of official Pathfinder modules, but we've since switched to Starfinder with me as DM.

There was one NPC from the Pathfinder sessions that became somewhat of a fan favorite - a copper or bronze dragon disguised as a human. Her name was "Adina" or "Adeena" or some such.

Now, I can't say with certainty whether or not this was part of a module or not, but if this rings any bells I'd love to know which it came from. I'm thinking of including her in an upcoming Starfinder campaign and I would love to check the source material for details first.

Thanks!

Is there any alternative out there, with comparable user-friendliness to at least Hero Lab Classic and ongoing support for the newly released content? I've been a longtime HL supporter and given them hundreds of dollars over the years. While I respect the new business model and have personally bought in, as a GM it frustrates me.

With Pathfinder HL, if a new or casual player wanted to join up, I could just loan them my laptop for a weekend and let them roll up a character. I remember fondly at GenCon the Hero Lab computers set up in the Paizo hall for new users to have the exact same experience that we as GMs could share with home games.

With Starfinder, every single person I invite to the table seems like they would need to at a minimum to pay $35 (more with add-on content) along with subscription fees in order to use the tool.

The devil's advocate in me would say that they could just pen and paper it like everyone else and build from scratch. But with the promise down the line of a connected online experience to manage the party during a campaign, it becomes peer pressure to sign up. Essentially, pay up or everyone suffers.

I'd personally be fine with having one account, signing up to have multiple concurrent usernames and logins for my party and pay the increased monthly subscription fee myself. It seems far more consumer-friendly and in keeping with how a lot of home groups used to run with Hero Lab Classic. From the outside looking in, that model seemed profitable for Lone Wolf, and would now include the added promise of recurring revenue from a monthly subscription.

The fact that a party of six (with a DM) needs to collectively shell out $245 for the core rulebook alone along with monthly fees seem downright greedy in comparison. What's more, it could actually become a blocking point for new gamers wanting to join once the online party features go live. It seems to go against the spirit of tabletop overall, and I'm looking to see if any system out there has been designed for Starfinder that operates like Hero Lab Classic would.

I couldn't decide if this was a rules question or more of an advice topic...

At a PFS table this last week, I saw an amazing level 4 zen archer. He had amazing attack bonuses and even better damage. When I asked, the damage was a result of gravity bow being active.

I didn't pry too much at the table because I didn't want to make it sound like I was challenging the build, but I have since tried to recreate it with no success.

I'm no zen archer expert, but I'm fairly certain that the character had access to his ki pool at level 4 which generally leads me to believe he hadn't dipped into something like ranger to get gravity bow onto his spell list. He also could cast gravity bow without a roll for success that I would have expected with a UMD check.

What am I missing? This was a PFS game, so no third party content, and I'm unfamiliar with zen archer mechanics in detail. I'm not challenging the build or suggesting any cheating occurred, rather I'm just trying to solve this brain teaser.

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

I've seen over in the general PFS section people reverence the Advanced Fireworks Techniques:

Characters who possess ranks in the Craft (alchemy) skill can use the following advanced techniques to improve their fireworks.

Fuse Lengths: Fireworks often have a slow-burning fuse, which allows the user to get away to a safe distance. A character with 3 or more ranks in Craft (alchemy) can increase the fuse length of a firework (a full-round action) to cause a 1- to 2-round delay between ignition and detonation. A character with 6 or more ranks in Craft (alchemy) can adjust the fuse length to create up to a 1-minute delay.

Lighting Multiple Fuses: A character with 5 or more ranks in Craft (alchemy) can light a number of fireworks within reach equal to 1 + her Dexterity modifier as a full-round action.

Shortening Fuses: A character with 2 or more ranks in Craft (alchemy) can cut a fuse so that the firework detonates at the end of her turn; however, if the wielder rolls a natural 1 on her attack roll when throwing a firework with a shortened fuse, the firework misfires in her hand.

Multiple times, I've seen people try to apply this to fuse grenades. Has there been any official ruling on this? Or is this more of a house ruling and best not to be tried in PFS?

So I'm coming up against a classic scenario where I find myself wanting to buy something no longer in distribution...

For an upcoming PFS session I'm running, many of the NPCs do not rank highly enough for a portrait. Are there any digital sources of face cards people use? It doesn't have to be Pathfinder specific or even free, just any place that is a good resource with a lot of difference faces to draw from in a fairly consistent art style.

Hey all, so I'm GMing for the first time this weekend to give the Mrs. a reprieve from our weekly campaign. I've participated in PFS for years, maybe a dozen sessions in all. That said, I've got a few PFS specific questions.

First, a few generic ones. Apologies in advance if some of them are repeats. I've found some answers, some going back as far as 2013, however I want to make sure I'm current.

• The "Welcome to Pathfinder" Boon... if players didn't know to receive this at level 1, are they still eligible?
  
• When filling out the Chronicle sheet, do I have to pick which character gets my GM credit when I report? Or can I save it and apply it retroactively so long as I apply it to an eligible character?
  

I'm running #7–14—Faithless and Forgotten, Part 1: Let Bygones Be and there's one question about the chronicle sheet I'm unclear on...

• The current PFS guide states "most scenarios have reporting notes at the end of the adventure. These instruct a GM to check one or more boxes (A, B, C, or D) based on the PCs’ choices and accomplishments". I'm not seeing anything stated in the instructions that I should do anything for ABCD. Can anyone who has run this confirm? I don't think I need to use these, but I just wanted to confirm.
  
• How much creative license do I have? I know the group I'm running quite well, and in this particular adventure there's a location on the map that is not relevant to the assignment and there's no detail provided about this location. I'm referring to the Open Slave Market. To avoid confusion and a rabbit hole, can I just photoshop this right off the version of the map I give players?
  

Thanks for helping a newbie GM!

My wife is running a Defenders-style campaign in a few weeks. It's a low-level campaign with an emphasis on dual identities, with local townsfolk donning masks to serve up some justice in one of the cities in Cheliax.

I'm planning on playing an Investigator who's a bit of a conspiracy theorist, inspired somewhat by DC Comic's The Question.

As I was coming up with my own list of conspiracies, I wanted to fill a notebook with a broader set and would love to see what other people could come up with. I only know a fraction of the lore in the grand scheme and want to make this character as lore-intensive as possible, in his own way.

Put on your tinfoil hats, folks. No conspiracy is too big or too small. Share any that pop into your head!

I've looked through the approved content and from what I've seen it looks like they are allowed, but has there been any ruling on whether or not the obediences from the Inner Sea Gods books are accepted in PFS?

Some of the bonuses are pretty nice, like +4 to particular saves for the day. It would be great to confirm these are valid and even better if I could cite an actual ruling.

I apologize for asking as I know this topic has been covered quite extensively on these forums, but I had a quick question about Alchemy use in PFS.

If I'm understanding correctly, Alchemists can craft most academical items so long as they have the craft alchemy skill at 1/3 the cost. The question I have is how much downtime do we have between sessions?

It sounds like it is open season, and I can craft as much as I want. Is this true? Is there any ruling somewhere that says there's no limit to downtime?

Hey all, I'm getting ready for GenCon 2015 and rolling up new Alchemist for the occasion! I'm hoping to run through all the applicable scenarios for Season 6 (Year of the Sky Key) and I was wondering what languages would be a good fit. I've picked up a few for flavor of the character, but I've got a couple empty spots. Any recommendations?

Does anyone have any good recommendations for a bipedal eidelon for a Synthesist build? He'll be going through the stages of medium, large and huge so if there's some sort of set or a chain of minis that would work with a similar look and feel, that would be great!

Hello,

I've tried calling 425-250-0800 several times over the last hour but it keeps ringing and ringing with no response. I've tried the number on several different lines with no luck.

Is this expected or is their something wrong with Verizon at the moment?

Hello all. I've been hunting around for a mini to come anywhere close to a merchant noble. Something similiar to the one in this picture.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Thank you in advance!

My party and I have recently come into some coin and we're hoping to set up a home base between campaigns. One character is even retiring to run the tavern.

Are there any good paid or free map-making tools out there with good town & building assets? I'd love to hear what others use to make town maps.

Hey all,

I've done some searching around and I think I have the answers to some of these, but I just want to double check. Item creation seems very fun but it is something our party hasn't tried before so I want to make sure I have it right.

Thank you in advance for any replies. :-)

Hey all,

I'm in a group right now I really want to play an Inquisitor. The judgement mechanics, leadership feats and spell list all really blend together nicely for the character concept I have in mind.

Unfortunately, the DM is restricting us to core. Is there any way to pull off an inquisitor-like build with core classes so that it comes into its own by level 6-7?

We're currently playing a campaign where the party has taken a "breach and clear" approach when in enemy fortresses. Our party's smart but chaotic halfling (okay, me) has decided to take this to the next level and carry around some tools for just such an occasion. Here is the hypothetical:

Using stone shape, he shapes a simple stone cannon right at the door. Into it, he tosses a keg of black powder with a campfire bead in it, some rags, a small, 5 lb anvil and some caltrops. He knocks on the door, waits for signs that someone is approaching, then fires using the bead's activation word!

The scenario is a bit absurd, but the DM is allowing it. Our challenge now is to determine how much damage the person on the other side of the door will take.

Normally, a single keg that explodes in this manner deals 5d6 points of fire damage to anyone within a 20-foot burst. However this is a shaped charge in close range that is also propelling a 5 lb anvil and numerous caltrops. Any idea how one would go about computing damage?

When examining the different types of actions, I noticed that speaking a line or two is considered a free action that can even be spoken out of turn. I was wondering, perhaps a little optimistically, if closing ones eyes is also considered a free action that can be done out of turn?

I wouldn't think it would be possible to close your eyes in reaction to an attack, such as a gaze attack. The use case I have in mind is if I am about to cast Color Spray, can I shout to my allies to close their eyes (or use a code word) so that they aren't impacted.

Hey all,

I'm headed to GenCon this year with a group of friends and I plan on getting my first taste of PFS. I'm normally used to starting a character at level 4+, so it's a new experience starting from square one.

While I might make other PFS characters that I play throughout the year, this one is going to be reserved purely for GenCon with friends so I expect I'll only be level 2 by the end of the weekend and have to wait until next year to play again.

This got me wondering about builds that come into their own at level 1 or 2. I've dabbled around and drew from existing threads on the forums to build my own below. It's not optimized by any stretch, but it should be fun nonetheless.

If anyone has any suggestions or low-level PFS builds of their own, I'd love to hear them. Thank you in advance!

Hey all,

I've got a Rogue with a decent Dex mod that will be multi-classing in Halfling Opportunist in part to get a sneak attack on all attacks of opportunity.

I want to want combat reflexes, but right now I'm not getting a lot of attacks of opportunity in combat. The party is only level 5, so it may be due to the lower level encounters, but does anyone have any advice or strategies to maximize the number attacks of opportunities per round?

I accidentally stumbled upon the Halfling Opportunist class the other day and I wanted to make sure I was understanding the basic mechanics properly, specifically around these two class features:

Exploitive Maneuver (Ex)

A halfling opportunist can use an enemy’s actions in combat for her own gain, as if the opponent were using aid another to assist the opportunist, giving her a bonus on her next skill check, attack roll, or to AC against the next attack. The enemy must be able to reach the opportunist, and the opportunist must activate this ability as an immediate action and succeed at a combat maneuver check against the enemy’s CMD; at the GM’s discretion, the opportunist can substitute another ability score modifier for her Strength modifier when making her combat maneuver check (such as using Dexterity for an agility-related action or Charisma for a social-related action). If the halfling succeeds at this combat maneuver check, she adds the aid another bonus to her action on her next turn and subtracts that bonus from the enemy’s roll for that action. Note that if the combat maneuver check is successful, the outcome of the enemy’s roll is irrelevant to this ability—a halfling opportunist can use a giant’s swinging club to jump farther whether the giant hits or misses with its attack roll.

Excellent Aid (Ex)

A halfling opportunist has an amazing talent for getting the most out of those who assist her. Increase the bonus she gets from aid another by +1. This increases by another +1 at 3rd level and again at 5th level. This increase does not apply to when she uses aid another to help others, only when others aid her.

Now, if I'm reading this correctly, the opponent does not need to be attacking the Opportunist specifically, but simply be in reach and make an action that the Opportunist can reasonably react to (determined by DM discretion). Given that, am I understanding correctly that a level 5 Opportunist can imbue a -5 attack penalty on an opponent attacking an ally and receive a +5 bonus to his next attack?

Thank you in advance for all replies.

I did some initial research and I've seen a lot of different answers. In our party, we have a halfling rogue and a half-orc paladin. The debate has come up a few times regarding the viability of throwing the halfling into battle.

I've sorted out that throwing the halfling would be considered an improvised weapon, thus normally incurring a -4 penalty on attack rolls. After that, though, things get fuzzy for me. If anyone can provide some insight to the questions below or past experiences, I would appreciate it!

Question 1: When a halfing is thrown and makes contact, how much damage would it do? Would damage also be done to the halfling?

Question 2: Would the halfling have to make any sort of check to land properly?

Question 3: Can the halfing ready an attack and wait until he is thrown?

Question 4: Can the halfling treat the throw as a charge and then attack?

Thank you all in advance for any replies.

I'm playing a halfling rogue in a current campaign taking place in Golarion. I had started by declaring him chaotic neutral because at the time he seemed driven by profit and impulse.

As we've played I've fleshed out his backstory and established that he had grown up in the River Kingdoms and adheres to this day rather strictly to *his* interpretation of the River Freedoms. For example, he firmly believes that slavery is wrong and will take almost any action to prevent it.

Can an argument be made that he is therefore a lawful given that he has a certain set of ethics that he adheres to?

So I've read some of the threads on this but I'm still hurting me head trying to grasp what should be a simple concept (which leads me to believe I'm over-thinking it). In the Ultimate Equipment guide, it states:

Like a normal gauntlet, a locked gauntlet lets you deal lethal damage rather than nonlethal damage with an unarmed strike.

However, based on what I have read in other thread, the strike itself is no longer considered "unarmed" when a gauntlet is used. Is this correct?

If so, is there any classless way other than the Amulet of Mighty fists to add an enhancement bonus to unarmed strikes?

Are there any rules allowing or denying players the ability to use items that are tied together?

For example, what is to stop a player from lashing a Thunderstone to an Alchemist's Fire and then lobbing them both at the same time?

Okay, so this might not be a problem everywhere but our party is currently in a region that generally treats halflings as second class citizens or worse. We're planning an elaborate Ocean's 11 style heist but the plan has one major flaw... the only two party members that can bluff worth a damn stand just under 3 feet tall!

Now, with the disguise self spell, my character can maybe break 4 feet and either pass as a very short female human or a short dwarf... maybe more if I'm allowed to wear stilts under the disguise self veil (is that allowed)?

I've done some looking but I can't seem to find which a male halfling would be better at passing at voice-wise: a dwarf male or a human female. Any thoughts or advice on how to pull this off?

The character has 5 levels in rogue and 1 in wizard.

I know the subject line is a bit broad, so let me narrow the field a bit. I've got a standard level 5 rogue built for two-weapon sneak attacking and I'm considering taking a level in cleric or wizard. My question is whether or not a single level in either is really worth it.

We're using CRB and while I'm mainly focused on using spells in combat to augment the rogue's other talents, such as Grease, our party is a bit light on the casting front so utility spells are fine too.

What creative ways have you all dipped into spellcasting while playing a rogue?

Hey all! I apologize if this is the wrong session for this kind of advice.

Our regular DM is feeling a bit of fatigue and I was hoping to help break up the modules with some "intermission" adventures that she could take part in.

I'm trying to find some short scenarios for six 6th level players. We're just a casual group and meet every other week for 3-4 hours. I'm looking for material that would last us 2-3 play sessions. Midnight Mirror, by way of comparison, took us about 7 sessions to play through.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. DM fatigue is not to be trifled with!

Well you can probably guess what I am about to ask from the title, but here it goes.

If I have a long spear and spiked armor and take the combat reflexes feat, does that mean that I can make an AoO when an enemy moves from 15 to 10 feet with the spear, then again when they move 10 to 5 with my spiked armor?

Thank you in advance for your replies.

First time poster, so I apologize if this is somewhat of a beginner question that has been answered elsewhere. My search-fu failed me. I had a question about creating forgeries, outlined in the Linguistics skill section as follows.

Create or Detect Forgeries: Forgery requires writing materials appropriate to the document being forged. To forge a document on which the handwriting is not specific to a person, you need only to have seen a similar document before, and you gain a +8 bonus on your check. To forge a signature, you need an autograph of that person to copy, and you gain a +4 bonus on the check. To forge a longer document written in the hand of some particular person, a large sample of that person's handwriting is needed.

The Linguistics check is made secretly, so that you're not sure how good your forgery is. As with Disguise, you don't make a check until someone examines the work. Your Linguistics check is opposed by the Linguistics check of the person who examines the document to verify its authenticity. The examiner gains modifiers if any of the conditions are listed on the table above.

The emphasis is mine. In our campaign, we have an object (a magic inkpen) that once per day adds a competence bonus to Linguistics for creating forgeries. It could be I'm misreading the rules, but it sounds like the check to see how good the forgery turned out gets re-rolled every time it is examined. Is this right? Or is the roll done once by the DM secretly when the forgery is made and only the opposed Linguistics rolls have to be re-made?

Obviously, this would have a huge impact on the usefulness of the magic pen if two people could look at the same forgery and only be affected by the item's competency bonus.

Thank you in advance for the replies.