Sean Cannon 565's page

I am running Malevolence and recognized that I have missed something. I cannot find where experience is mentioned for research topics. I'm sure it's written somewhere as I seem to be the only one with this question. Can anyone provide me with the details for providing experience from research? Thank you in advance for your help!

"Perfumes" that provide the buffs of powerful spells but are short term. Could have a Perfume of Righteous Might that smells like lilacs, or a Perfume of Freedom of Movement that smells like daffodils. Obviously Righteous Might cannot be made into a potion by raw so this would be homebrew, but that makes it a little more special, adding mechanic-based uniqueness to an already theatrical and thematic item.

Curse of the Crimson Throne was my first completed AP with a group, but also one of my most memorable. Of course, the party broke the crap out of the combat, but that was besides the point.

The campaign has a wonderful balance between combat and RP that simultaneously let my Abadarian Cleric and Charismatic young Sorcerer shine in social situations while the Eldritch Archer and Rogue shined on missions. The entire Shoanti arch was especially memorable and provide insight to a culture that I, as a GM, had not thoroughly explored. It kick started my investigation into the different human cultures across Golarion, further enhancing my gm knowledge-base and my PC creation/background skills.

How do folks handle social situations the other way? Like, several of you have talked about the person at the table who likes to dialogue in character and has a decent wit in real life playing the Cha 7 fighter or whatever, and no rolls in social situations because roleplay.

What do you do with the awkward, social loner at your table that for whatever reason chose a halfling bard with a 20 Cha and a Diplomacy +9 at level 1? If you favor RP over rolls, this player has just had their entire build dismissed.

This isn't an indictment of anyone's gaming style. I'm honestly asking because my own balance between the two is just to default to RAW and use dice rolls as the equalizer. If folks have a better method or other advice, I'm open to it.

I have a player in my group who isn't a very talkative person. Sometimes he'll play things a lil more charismatic, and other times he will not. He usually has minimal input, short answers and/or stays quiet in social interactions. We tried as a group to get him to speak up a bit in the beginning but this isn't something we do so often any more.

And when I asked him if he was enjoying himself? His warm voice betrayed a smile and he thoroughly thanked me for having him in the group and assured me he was having fun.

A lot of the time, we put stipulations on how certain characters should be played; The bard has to be the party face, the Barbarian has to be stupid, the fighter has to be quiet. When a player comes in and breaks that mold, it can make us a little uncomfortable as a GM or player (like this player did to me), but you should always remember one thing: Your player knows best how to derive enjoyment from the game.

If your player is happy playing a bard with 20 Charisma but minimal roleplay, let him. Obviously, if you want to encourage discussion before social roles then discuss this with him but also be lenient, or at least make it clear your stance so he can have the choice to change character build. Some players, like the player I mentioned above, simply like sitting in, listening, laughing and hearing a great story that they can take part in when they feel motivated to do so. As a GM, my number one priority is building the game my players want to play, and with leniency from me, it's usually not difficult to let one person in my 5 man group enjoy the quiet side of the campaign, even as a charismatic character.

Note: High charisma (just as low charisma) does come in many different shapes and sizes. Maybe he is simply a beautiful man, or a kind quiet soul that everyone who probes his mind comes to love. Maybe you know someone in real life like that you can use as your concept for his char (if that is his style).

I remember trying to get 4th edition going with some buddies of mine in my teen years, but no one was never interested enough. I had one buddy who I knew from school and we sometimes played around with the concept of DND online (there was a DND mmorpg that was popular at the time) before finally finding Roll20. I immediately searched for a group, finding one that played alternating weeks of Pathfinder and DnD 3.5. DND felt too clunky and prone to power-gaming for me (likely the fault of the 3.5 fanatic in our group), but Pathfinder seemed perfect!

That was 8 years ago, and I have now GMed dozens of online games, finished multiple of the official adventures and created hundreds of chars. I am now a forever GM and happy with it lol.

For anyone curious, my first character with a Druid. The game was set in the 1970s during the "devil scare" craze that gave DnD a "bad reputation". We were all kids in a mundane world who had power thrusted upon us and we had to secretly protect the world from invading Golarion creatures like goblins and lizardfolk. Had my trust dog sidekick with me and enjoyed myself, thoroughly.

I've been working ona document I am not ready to release yet, but one I feel a lot of people should consider (that is to say, if it's right for their group) is adding 4+int skill ranks to any class that is not int based and has lower.

ALL the time. Like, seriously.

The best thing to do is familiarize yourself with the party and it's players. Some groups would rather stick to the standard rules, WBL, power level etc. while others like variance. My groups tend to like higher-than-average power and sometimes it can be a challenge for me to balance around it.

Most importantly, note the increase in power that such boons and buffs do. I am frequently guilty of 20+ PB (AFAIK the books are written for 15 PB, correct me if I am wrong), Max starting cash, increased wealth in game, special powers, and other misc. boons like deals with trapped devils/demons. Currently, my group is in book 5 in Rise and I have created a custom magic item that provides significant boosts on the party based on their personality. My goal is to provide tailor made effects for each member that finalizes the builds they emulated. By increasing the accessible wealth, their starting PB, their access to 1pp material and providing them custom items, I made the book Trivial, so I've adjusted encounters as required to keep the struggle real.

Just be ready to increase the power of encounters if/when needed if your party gets to strong and subsequently bored of the ease of combat.