Shaun's page

Are there any Pathfinder books that have a more in-depth system for GMs to generate weather for their games than those found in the CRB?

So I am looking for recommendations for game mechanics on using the Drowned Eye to create undead. The reason I ask is that one of my players loves undead and has literally build a crypt/storeroom to hold the bodies of notable NPC spell casters until he can use the spell Create Undead to make intelligent spellcasting juju zombies and skeletal lords. I predict that instead of destroying the rune in the Drowned Eye, he will want to restore the wards that had previously been around the place and try to harness the power of the place to help him make undead. Whats more, since he is a charismatic store-born half-elf with the water breathing spell so I could see him convincing the party to do just that, and returning to the place periodically to make undead. So the question is what kind of game mechanics should I give the place? My first assumption is that I should make it function like an unmoveable scroll of create undead (which I know he would love) that regenerates periodically (like once a month or so). The module has the Aboleth working to create a Sea Bonze, but I worry that giving him anything powerful enough to do that would unbalance the campaign. What do you guys think I should use?

It depends on whether you want him actually doing this or not. If you're fine with him doing it, then just make the thing as powerful as you're comfortable with because you're in the realm of GM fiat regardless.

Just because the aboleth was trying to create a sea bonze doesn't mean that it will work. First, the aboleth has no reason or probably even opportunity to share its plans with the group so they'll probably never really know what it was trying to do. Secondly, just because the aboleth was trying to make it work doesn't mean it was going to work. The monster could've been mistaken in its conclusions. Use this to make the Drowned Eye only as powerful as you're comfortable with, despite the aboleth's grandiose plans.

What's the story behind Marquel Aulorian's withered arm?

Whatever the GM wants it to be. It's never stated in the AP.

In my game, the rogue actually pulled off the intimidate check, with an assist from a teammate.

In my game the pcs fell for Luculla's ruse hook, line and sinker. They escorted her back to her home and even vouched for her to the parents, saying she was magically compelled. She's since flown the coop but they haven't figured it out yet. I cultivated her as a romantic interest for the rogue and they didn't even question the situation. I can't wait to see how they react when they find out she fled...

I've been adding them at the start of the Upkeep phase, just before the supporter attrition step.

Yeah, I thought of that but the game doesn't actually say that's when it's supposed to happen. I spent a lot of time looking for it.

... encourage the others to keep him in line a bit more.

If I were playing in your game and a party member started acting so aggrieved over this and was plotting tweaking a powerful Chelish captain who knew who we were and was willing to help us, that's what I'd be doing heavily without any GM nudging.

This kind of player reaction always makes me feel like the player is treating NPCs like inflatable clown punching dummies and not like people who can cause their actions to have consequences. It annoys me as a GM every time.

I had a similar thing happen. Three PCs were left for dead a Nox's feet. I didn't want to end it for them there, so I did the following.

The captured PCs were moved to a generic Dottari station in Red Roof. The remaining two party members found out about it and worked with the Silver Ravens to engineer a rescue. The rebellion set fire to the Fair Fortune Livery, causing the majority of the Dottari at the station to deal with it. They then broke into the station to free their allies. For the imprisoned players, I let them run some NPCs temporarily and just applied the XP earned to their PCs.

I used the Watch Station flip mat for this. In the yard of the map was one Dottari guard (used IHBS' stat block) and two dogs. Inside the main hall of the map where two more Dottari and one "investigator wizard" diviner 4 from the NPC Codex. In the basement was four more Dottari guards. In the torture chamber area of the map was a "torturer" expert 5 / fighter 2 from the Gamemastery Guide, who had the captured PCs in her custody. One was on the rack and the other two were in the small cells in that room. Afterwards they were able to escape into the sewers from the passageway on that map.

This worked out alright and allowed me to make up the XP missed for failing to defeat Nox. As a lose end, Nox is still wandering around undefeated in my game and I need to determine what to do with her to restore the standard game state where she returns as a broken soul in the future.

I've got a situation I'm not entirely sure how to play out, would be good to get some advice.

Essentially, just finished rescuing Marquel, ended the session before delivering him to the captain. However, I know for a fact that one of the PCs is rather angry at having been suddenly required to drag Marquel out of the house and over to the captain's ship, and would like some revenge. He did think about using slippers of spider climb (from Varl) to walk across the side of the ship, then casting summon monster to get some very noisy dogs into the Captain's quarters. This doesn't work due to line of effect (at least, I really hope it doesn't), but the PC will almost definitely do something to get some small measure of revenge.

Anyone have any tips on how to react to this? What would Cassius do?

Oh yeah? Because his adventurer had so many more important things to attend to than go on adventures, huh? Some players just wow me with the things that they decide offend them.

Anyway, to answer your question, if he gets found out maybe just getting a sound thwacking from the much higher level captain and mate. Or if you want to make everyone suffer, have the captain declare that the party has just used one of their favors for the captain's showing restraint in dealing with such a boor.

When the rebellion gains supporters through story rewards, when do they get added to the total? Immediately when they are awarded or at some point in the rebellion phases? Obviously, this makes a big difference in the area of leveling up the Rebellion.

I played Pathfinder for about three years, understanding some very complex rules well, but not understanding at all how point buy worked. I thought 15 point buy was at a 1 for 1 rate, no matter how much you spent on a stat with it.

In my defense I almost exclusively GM and run published material; so I'd made about two characters from scratch that entire time.

I'm looking forward to what they do with underwater combat rules. When I ran skull & shackles, my players would gripe to no end whenever they had to fight in the water.

I'm really looking forward to this one. I would love to run Hell's Vengeance (maybe even following my current Hell's Rebels game), but that aside, This has a great variety of small and medium humanoid pawns, which are a great trove of options for PCs and NPCs when I run modules without the benefits of pawn sets.

Basically what you're saying is you don't like succinct language because you want people to measure up to whatever random standard you have set for whether someone is a "real roleplayer".

It's not other people that are the problem.

Hahaha! Sick burn dude!

Upon thinking about this further, it's not MMORPG terms I hate, it's reductive phrasing. I don't like "skill monkey" (agreed that it has a prejorative connotation) or "face" any better than the others. I don't like characters being referred to by their class or race either, for the most part.

I don't like characters being reduced to their attributes because I think it honestly is a sign of, or leads to, a lack of immersion in the character and I think it detracts from a good atmosphere for role playing. When I hear these it makes me think that people aren't trying to get into their characters and don't care to. I find that a missed opportunity.

Oh! I despise MMO-talk when it applies to a tabletop RPG.

"Tank, DPS, CC..." Ugh.

Yes, because for the most part they're wholly inaccurate for the tabletop medium. Tanks: There is very little way in this game to force something to fight you and ignore others. "Tanking" has to be accomplished through role play and/or positioning. DPS: Is absolutely meaningless in an RPG. What they mean is "damage per round", at best.

I like to play when I can but I almost exclusively GM. The main reason is that I'm the only one in my circle of players who has the dedication and work ethic to run a game for longer than a few sessions without get bored of the grunt work involved, truth be told.

Funny thing, I GM'd before I had ever played a PC. I had always wanted to try RPGs growing up, but didn't know anyone who was into them in the 90s so never had the chance. I started college in 2000 and made friends with a group of guys who had the 3.0 D&D books and who said they had all played growing up together in rural Kentucky. I would ask them to run games (which they all ostensibly had done and liked to do) but no one was ever really interested in putting in the work. So, one day I just said "Let me read your books and I'll run a game." Using borrowed books, I ran a homebrew game for about a full school year at their house having never been a player. Since then, I've continued to play with at least one of these same guys and am considered a pretty good GM. To this day I've played a hand full of characters in one-offs, but have only ever played 3 PCs for longer than a month or two in 16 years!

I don't like it when people call paladins "pallys", clerics "healbots", melee focused classes "beat sticks", "meat shields" or "tanks". I guess the pattern is that I don't care for most MMORPG terms. The first one I just think is annoying and the last four are unnecessarily pigeon-holing and usually inaccurate to what the character does.

On the other hand, "caster" gets a pass from me. It just seems like a more concise way to refer to "magic-users" in general.

The comic "Knights of the Dinner Table" gave me a list of RPG-related jargon that I hate that would be too long to list. It's like Jolly Blackburn has never actually heard people talk to each other before...

I think this looks handy. The front side could definitely be used as an inn with multiple rooms for guests and a large feasthall. I can't really tell what the area is in the southwest corner though.

The flip side is believable as a great mountaintop fortification.

When I read Inner Sea Races, I was rather disappointed with the Taldan chapter. It seemed that the book made an effort to portray every human ethnicity in a positive light except Taldans. It seemed there was very little written positively about them.

Interesting cultures have positives and negatives and especially conflicts. It seemed like the poor Taldans got the short end of the stick in that regard.

I didn't think that one could perform a combat maneuver as an attack of opportunity.

Making an Attack of Opportunity: An attack of opportunity is a single melee attack, and most characters can only make one per round. You don't have to make an attack of opportunity if you don't want to. You make your attack of opportunity at your normal attack bonus, even if you've already attacked in the round.

An attack of opportunity is defined here as a single melee attack, which isn't a combat maneuver. The only way something could get a chance to trip on an attack of opportunity is if it had the Trip monster ability that causes its standard melee attacks to also result in a trip attempt.

Since all the good old devilish tricks are gone (illusions and invisibility), his best bet is to sit in the dark (beggar's invisibility) and wait till he spots a glimmer of light somewhere in the area. Then he can decide to spend a round and summon his minion, but in combat it is a bit too late.

Thanks! The one thing about this devil that the AP kinda ties my hands on is that it explicitly says that it doesn't attack unless they attack it or they try to go through its door. It'll even shoot the breeze with them if neither of those two criteria are met. I think that is to keep it from getting the drop on them and making things too hard. It is CR 7 and the party is APL 5 when this is slated to occur.

So, it isn't supposed to summon as soon as it sees them. My concern then is if doing so once a fight begins is a waste of its action.

I thought it was a full round action because of this from the Bestiary:

Summon (Sp) A creature with the summon ability can summon other specific creatures of its kind much as though casting a summon monster spell, but it usually has only a limited chance of success (as specified in the creature's entry). Roll d%: On a failure, no creature answers the summons. Summoned creatures automatically return whence they came after 1 hour. A creature summoned in this way cannot use any spells or spell-like abilities that require material components costing more than 1 gp unless those components are supplied, nor can it use its own summon ability for 1 hour. An appropriate spell level is given for each summoning ability for purposes of Will saves, caster level checks, and concentration checks. No experience points are awarded for defeating summoned monsters.

Format: 1/day—summon (level 4, 1 hezrou 35%); Location: Spell-Like Abilities.

Summon monster spells require full round actions. But if the SLA itself should say that it's a full round and I should not infer from the spell it's mimicking, then that makes sense.

I am getting ready to run an encounter that involves an advanced Bearded Devil in the Hell's Rebels AP. I want to run down a couple questions I had to make sure I run this encounter correctly because it could be a tough one.

Regarding its summon ability, if it uses it to summon another bearded devil, this is a full round action. Every time it gets hit during that round, it has to make a concentration check (DC 10+spell level [5]+dmg dealt) or lose the spell. Once the spell is done it only has a 50% chance of working. For its concentration check, I'm rolling 1d20+12(CL)+2(for advanced).

If it's holding its glaive while casting the spell, does it get an attack of opportunity against anyone who comes within 10 feet, or does being in the middle of casting a spell negate that?

It might be smarter for the devil to teleport away (but still nearby) and then summon, then return for them with its ally if successful. The book doesn't say he'd use that kind of tactic, and he's supposed to be guarding a door. Does that seem like too much or just good use of a monster's abilities?

Why don't pirates use backpacks? Is the set up for a joke?

An introductory exposition for the tenth proclamation.

I'll throw in my 2 coppers since I might run this ap soon and knowing my players, they'd probably want to go the incognito route initially.

I'd introduce an encounter where the PCs save a street urchin from being abused by city guards.
The kid is grateful and as it turns out, is a member of an urchin gang of pickpockets and the like.
They're also messengers and has their ears on the streets.
And there is no doubt that they have no love for the guards and other persons in authority.

This way the PCs will find out when someone is looking for them (and other stuff).

You might even make them a special team in the Rebellion specialized in gathering information.

Something like this already exists in the game: The Lday Docur's Lacunafex. Although, you probably don't want to tip this hand to early regarding this group.

I.e if you write you hate all orcs, and you're playing a paladin, the villagers tell you that some orcs have been killing their cattle, you burn down the entire orc village and your GM declares you fall.

Why not role play the character coming around to understand his own prejudices? Why not role play the conflict? Too often people see their character as immutable granite from the time of creation. Why not have his life experiences shape him further once the game starts?

I think too often, people assume that PCs have to go full nuclear assault against everything in their path. Why would they act like that?

My beef with Reign of winter is that you necessarily built your character in a void, because nobody could know in advance the assumptions of that AP, and the gross railroading involved pretty much rankled on my nerves... because, yeah, it involved meddling with people that my character knew about and wanted to avoid like the plague.

Well, the GM knows. That's why I recommend that the GM be a part of character creation. If a player is going in a direction that the GM knows will be an issue later, he can steer the player in a different direction.

Problem with backstories is that they can be crippling.

To start with, in an unfamiliar world, it's much easier to be a generic murder hobo than to be grounded. You need to know the world, its countries and its cultures to make up a good backstory, and even if you do, it's a lot easier to stay vague, because if you're too precise, you might lose any good reason to be where you are when you're needed (like in an inn in the right country/city at the right time to be given a quest).

To boot, a developed backstory involves rooting in the character's motivations... and if the character has objectives and motivations of his own, he might not be so ready to take your proffered quests, because they take you away from what he really wants to do, and geasing/questing random people to force them to go on with the story, or any other methods of railroading, (Reign of Winter, I'm looking at you) might not be well received.

Also, there's the risk of the DM being a sadist and messing with your background ... I know campaigns where, as a player, I lost all motivations because of such practices.

To answer the OP, no a backstory isn't crucial to running an AP, but it helps.

I wanted to reply to the above however. in my opinion a backstory is ever only problematic if a player makes his character in a vacuum or actively tries to go against the AP's assumptions. Paizo publishes Player's Guides for all APs. You should always have a session before the game begins for character creation in which all players and the GM participate. The players should ideally tie their characters to each other and the GM should work to tie them to the setting. If you do that, you should come up with PCs with proper motivation who fit into the setting well with backstories that the GM can actually use to everyone's advantage. Also, making the PCs together means that the GM can nip problem conepts in the bud.

My only other thing to add is that I do prefer backstories to not be overwrought and appropriate for level 1 PCs. Keep in mind the character is at the beginning of his adventuring career and not at the end of it. Most of his major life events lie ahead of him not behind him. In most cases, it's not that believable to claim that he is the Dragon Knight of Legend at level 1, haha!

There are 220 pawns in this set:

-35 small
-160 medium!
-20 large
-5 huge

What are you doing this for? There is a list of these in each product description. We can count.

Interference from my mothertongue, in which words ending in consonant + i add apostrophe s for plural. My bad, in English it now looks like Arabasti IS in Cheliax, sorry. It should have been Arabastis.

In fairness, it seems like most Americans have no idea how to use the apostrophe anyway, so most will never notice.

Please recant on this cover art! I must say, whenever a GM says "I only allow core races in my campaign.", this cover is basically the image running through his head. This is not going to do a good job selling people on the coolness of these PC options.

I think that this is a silly thing to argue over. People have spent 3 pages basically talking past each other in circles. You either think that anthropomorphics and so on are cool or you think they're lame. It's based on personal taste and there's no real substantive argument that either side can put forth to convince the other.

So live and let live. The GM is the final arbiter. GMs should be upfront about their preferences and as the ones doing the majority of the heavy lifting for any game, their preferences should be respected. If the GM doesn't want to run a game for anthropomorphics, save your concept for another game. You'll have other chances to play.

Personally, I like core races only when I make PCs and I also prefer to run games for the cores. That aside, I have run games with ratfolk, catfolk and tengu PCs and it's fine. The world won't end. As long as the race isn't more powerful than the cores, I let it ride and it's always been fine.

On the other hand, refusing to grant mythic power means that the story really is one of Mephistopheles's pawns on both sides, that the image of a new world kindled by the Silver Ravens was never more than a figment, because some powers will remain forever out of reach.

You don't think the personification of the plane of Hell itself is worthy of that?

By most accounts, Mythic rules were a game-breaker in a game written to handle them. I don't think this AP would fair any better.

Here is a little bit of exposition for the beginning of Turn of the Torrent.

Hm. Perhaps you can make the threat against the Acisazi land-based. Their village is on the shore, right? Just come up with a CR-equivalent challenge and have it attacking them from the land instead of the sea. I don't have any specific ideas now, but that might work.

A paladin is easy to justify. Thrune's regime is unjust and its laws shouldn't be followed by just people. In fact, a central aspect of the game is getting a LG Hellknight to side with the rebellion.

As far as god to revere, I wouldn't recommend Irori or Sarenrae because their faiths are all but absent from the city in an organized sense. On the other hand, Abadar and Shelyn are great choices because they have churches in the city. Paladins are better off with support from a church and your character could be a great "in" with either church for the Silver Ravens.

The heart of your problem is going to be other players, especially if they're hostile to the idea. If that's the case, I don't know what to tell you, you probably need to play this PC with another group. On the other hand, if you're all comfortable with roleplaying disagreements between PCs and not assuming they must be solved by fights to the death, it could be a good chance for moral questions and compromises which would make interesting roleplaying.

I wouldn't do this. You're not going to succeed in scaring your players (which is pretty much impossible in RPGs), you're really just going to end up annoying them if the adventure isn't written around this limitation such as Skull & Shackles was.

You're already saying you won't take things like spell books and holy symbols that the classes "need to function" but when you come right down to it, martial classes need their weapons "to function" just as much. I don't think this aspect of your game will be remembered positively if you do this.

Yes, with something that powerful, obviously don't make it an encounter where combat is necessary. Try to work something out where they can escape using tact, guile or stealth.

I don't like monstrous races in games I run, but I'd say "no" on the outset, not let a player do it and then make the experience miserable for everyone, which is what you're tacitly doing by victimizing any player. If the player couldn't accept my "no" on his idea, then he's free to not play my game.

I would also point out that beyond the role play angle everyone's squabbling over, the hobgoblin is an extra powerful race with +2 to two abilities and no negatives, darkvision and a +4 to stealth as a medium race. It's going to start with advantages over the cores and I don't find that acceptable either.

Should holy water harm Nox? I didn't think so because she is neither undead nor an outsider, despite being devil-bound. Does being devil-bound make her susceptible? It kinda makes sense if it does, but I found no mention of this in the write up of the template in Bestiary 4.

If it could hurt Nox, should its damage count as good? This is also unclear in the holy water write up in the CRB, but once again, would make some logical sense. Thanks!

Unless shown otherwise, my stance would be no to both questions, RAW.

So then that leaves the question of what grievance the Hobgoblins have against Nirmathas? ("Humans . . . They all look alike . . . .")

The hobgoblins might not be looking for revenge so much as a place to escape Molthune, making the neighboring country they've campaigned through a decent choice.

In my game, my players have done all of their street fighting wearing scarves over their faces. Once they found out the identities of the past Silver Ravens from Rexus' research, they all began to like the idea of assuming the previous Silver Ravens' names as nom-de-guerres.

They don't seem as concerned with deep secrecy as you are (although I believe that is the focus they chose), but I am planning to have them approach the quest givers in "Turn of the Torrent" instead of vice versa because it just seems more natural.

and a cast of really detestable NPCs that you seem to be expected to love unconditionally is just making Hell's Rebels a massive disappointment.

Don't forget that there is nothing saying that you need to present the NPCs exactly as written. If they have personality traits that you foresee rubbing your PCs the wrong way, remove them and present them in a way your PCs will find compelling. If you're the one who doesn't like the NPC, you're in an even better position to re-imagine them in ways you'd prefer.

I don't know why, but lots of players with stealthy characters (even experienced ones) think there is a lot to be gained by sneaking around solo when there seldom is. And if you get seen by yourself, you're usually hosed.

What's a bigger advantage once a fight starts? Four move and standard actions per round or one move OR standard action in a surprise round?

THOU SHALT NOT SPLIT THE PARTY!

Anyone have thoughts on Setrona? She shows up, knowing the identities of the PCs and their secret group, demands not only that they act as her personal cousin-rescuing team, but that they bring her along into an obvious setup for an ambush so that she can cut off their escape, and her stated end-goal is to rescue someone the PCs neither know nor care that much about yet. Heck, she's basically saying "Go rescue people who, as far as you know, are likely to arrest you and destroy your entire resistance to get back in the crown's good graces."

...And the adventure just assumes the PCs say "Yes ma'am, right away ma'am, shall we turn ourselves over when we're done doing your errands, or would you like to surprise us with the revelation that you're an obvious Thrune spy?"

It doesn't really matter that she isn't a spy. She is so completely and utterly suspicious that no revolutionary in their right mind would tell her anything but "You've got the wrong person, lady. I don't know a thing about the Silver Ravens". How have other groups handled her?

First, I built up Octavio Sabinus in "Hell's Bright Shadow" as a potential ally and the PCs are fairly well disposed towards him at this point. Also, one of the PCs has a brother who is an armiger in the order. If it's too late for that in your game, I would suggest having someone the PCs alreayd know and trust approach the PCs.

For instance have Laria say she knows that Setrona is looking for her brother and that Laria knows her and vouches for her and recommends the PCs approach her to see if there is anything that can be gained form helping her. She offers an in with the Order of the Torrent, so that should be a motivator.

Can you have someone they trust like Laria or Rexus be their sounding board? Not so much have other NPCs approach them, but reverse it. They'd recommend the players make contact with the other NPCs based on their read on them. Let the players approach those NPCs on their terms. For example, Laria recommends they make contact with Hetamon to establish relations with the tieflings, etc. Let the contacting be done on the players' terms so they don't feel compromised.

I'm going to have her be more visible from this point until they finally beat her for good at some point. She beat the PCs in my game, so there will be no disappearance for her, at least not yet. She is going to be on the lookout for the survivors. After all, they killed her dog...

Yes, I always roll treasure for random encounters (depending on the monster's treasure stat) and also in cases where an NPC is listed as a fight with no treasure. I'm actually quite scrupulous about it. But at level 1-4 most of what you find for given encounters is going to be consumables. And sometimes I have the NPCs drink the potions if they'd be helpful.

We're working through Hell's Rebels, BTW.

Overall, I did not enjoy the class at all.

The class lacks substance in its game mechanics, which are verbose but provide little gameplay value. Its core gameplay loop does not work as intended due to severe usability issues with Mark Quarry and On the Hunt.

Even if all the game mechanics worked as intended, the core class features feel way too derivative of other classes, like the Thaumaturge's Esoteric Lore, the Outwit Ranger's Hunt Prey, and Investigator's On the Case, all of which have better support for accomplishing the fantasy the slayer is meant to fulfill. I also don't find On the Hunt and relentless actions engaging at all.

Trophies are a neat idea, but the feature lacks substance. The class has almost a whole page of rules about the logistics of trophies, but they don't do anything by themselves. The trophy rules also feel completely superfluous. The game already has a system for attaching items that buff your equipment: talismans.

All of the trophy game mechanics are encapsulated in Slayer's Arsenal, the only class feature with any substance. Yet, even that one has its own set of severe issues, especially with one of the options being the only class feature that enhances the martial class's attacks and damage.

Aside from Mark Quarry feat taxes, I do like many of the class's feats, especially the support for combination weapons and the feats that let you do new things with your Slayer's Arsenal.

I feel a lot of the problems stem from a superficial approach to fulfilling the Monster Hunter fantasy. Mark Quarry and Trophies read more like an adventure description rather than concrete gameplay mechanics.

As a fan of the Monster Hunter series, I feel a better approach should focus on preparation and doing cool things in battle.

In Monster Hunter, making sure you have the right weapon, the right consumables, the right equipment, and the right buffs are crucial, with each combination also characterizing your gameplay expression. My vision of a monster hunter class should enable and facilitate these preparation decisions. It should be the ideal martial class if you already know what you're fighting. Make preparation be the core feature. Make it a martial that can choose options during daily preparations, like an animist choosing apparitions or a wizard preparing spells.

Most martial classes feel "static" and force you to choose a specific fighting style and stick to it. A martial with a preparation mechanic would set it aside from others. This approach also prevents the class from feeling too derivative of the ranger and thaumaturge, which are flavored as adjusting their tactics style on the fly rather than falling back to how they prepared for the fight.

GENERAL NOTES

- On the Hunt is way too situational. By the time you legitimately benefit from this, the battle is already mostly over.
- On the Hunt suffers from the "bag of rats" problem where you can easily cheese it by killing a small helpless critter to trigger the effect.
- On the Hunt is really boring for what seems like a potentially powerful ability.
- Mark Quarry has a lengthy text, but it's mechanically a worse Outwit Ranger's Hunt Prey with a lot more restrictions. The fact that there's so many feats to overcome these restrictions is a telling sign that it desperately needs quality-of-life changes.
- Mark Quarry has crippling usability issues. 1) If you don't know the monster exists or have no clues about it, you cannot use this ability at all. 2) It only works on a single specific monster. So, if you find tracks from a pack of werewolves, you will only get the benefits for one of the werewolves when you fight the pack. 3) If you find out the monster is lower level, you get no benefits at all and basically wasted your time. 4) Most monsters in published adventures have a level lower than APL.
- Trophies are "empty mechanics," with verbose game rules that provide no actual value or gameplay by itself. There's a long explanation for describing trophies, how you collect them, how you store them, and how many you can have at a time. However, the class feature doesn't actually do anything itself. You could just delete this entire class feature, add a couple of sentences to Slayer's Arsenal, and the class would be exactly the same.
- Slayer's Arsenal is the only class feature that has any meat to it, and it's marred by having an obvious choice that the class needs to actually deal any damage.
- Bloodseeking Blade is the obvious choice of Slayer's Arsenal. It is the only option that actually makes you better at killing things in a class that's all about killing things. A class that's literally called "slayer."
- Chymst's Eye is actually quite interesting. Unfortunately, it's essentially a once-per-dungeon ability that lasts only 10 minutes.
- Ignition Vial deals exceptionally little damage for a once per minute ability that's supposed to be your bread-and-butter martial action. Compare to Explode, which essentially deals 2d6 per level with a similar cooldown.
- Consecrated Panoply has awesome flavor with Safeguard Charms being fairly useful.
- Hunting Spikes has cool flavor and good action economy, but being unable to benefit from runes essentially makes this class feature weak and unreliable. 7th level is *way* too late for the spikes to gain +1 striking, especially when the spikes have the stats of a simple weapon.
- Warded Mail must always be a level-0 item, but it grants proficiency in heavy armor, which is always level 1 or higher. Repelling Shield feat raises a similar issue. It could be argued that the text merely says your starting armor must be level-0, but Warded Mail uses the same language as Bloodseeker Blade, which has a feat that lets you use an advanced weapon.
- Armored Shelter seems useful as it saves you from wielding a shield. I really like it.
- Martial classes typically get class features that grant bonus attacks (flurry of blows, Reactive Strike, Retributive Strike, etc.) or a damage bonus (rage, swashbuckler finisher, inventor's overcharge, weapon ikons, etc.). Slayer gains no such ability, with exception for Bloodseeking Blade.
- Instant Enmity and Pack Slayer feel like feat tax. They're way too mandatory to make your main class feature actually work as intended.
- Blood Rush should be part of the class feature. Again, another feat tax.
- There's no support for unarmed attacks. What if I want to play a slayer that punches bears?
- I really like the support for combination weapons

The playtest ends on the Friday of Origins Game Fair. Is there any chance to extend it to the end of the weekend?

I built several Exemplars to get a feel of the options and the experience of creating a character using it. Afterward, I ran a variety of combat encounters from the 10th level of Abomination Vaults. I was interested to see how satisfying the class felt in combat with the flow of swapping ikons.

SUMMARY

1) The class has amazing flavor and many interesting abilities. However, it lacked the breadth of tactical options I expected from this class's design.

2) Lack of medium armor proficiency, incompatibility with unarmed attacks, and weak feat choices at low levels were major limiting factors in character creation.

3) Almost all active feats are Transcend abilities, which compete with one another for usage. This made the class feel like it had less breadth of tactical options at higher levels compared to other martials.

4) Ikon swapping could be interesting at times, but I felt there's a dominant strategy in just swapping between weapon and worn ikons. Most body ikons did not feel useful in combat.

5) Damage feels low unless I'm scoring critical hits.

6) Struggles with constructs until level 7 when you can swap out spirit damage for something else.

7) Having only 2 + Religion trained skills does hurt.

Warning: There's minor spoilers for Abomination Vaults.

Print On Demand for Infinite Masters? Fantastic.

PLAYTEST SUMMARY

Overall, I did not enjoy playing this class, despite liking its general direction and structure.

The kineticist feels like it wants to be akin to a non-spell martial caster, but lacks the numbers, options, and action economy to pull this off. I felt mediocre at Striking because of the slower attack proficiency, key ability score, inability to two-hand or dual-wield Elemental Blasts. I felt bad at blasting because I don't have offensive cantrips and the blast impulses deal weak damage. And I felt bad at combining Strikes with blasts because offensive impulses essentially cost 3 actions due to Overflow. Contrast with other martial spellcasters, who typically Strike and then cast a non-attack cantrip.

1. I played an 11th level Strength-based melee kineticist with the fire dedicated gate. I played through the monk monastery dungeon in the first Ruby Phoenix AP volume alongside martial spellcasters.

2. Combat felt surprisingly dull. I spent all my feats on offense, and I still felt like I had few tactical options. Every fight just boiled down to spamming Elemental Blast.

3. The overflow offensive impulses never felt worthwhile. I would rather have electric arc or scatter scree than any of these impulses, and their secondary effects either felt too niche or too ineffective for the action economy cost. I wish there were tactical options with overflow, like an innate ability to boost an Elemental Blast. Or perhaps that offensive impulses have the overflow trait as an option, like how the inventor has the option to add unstable to Megavolt.

4. Impulse rules are annoying and cripple melee builds because all impulses have the manipulate trait and provoke reactions. Lack of medium armor proficiency also hurts melee builds as well.

5. Gather Element is really cool, but the class doesn't really use this ability other than as a punishment for overflow impulses, dropping the element, or using different elements.

6. Build versatility feels a little lacking for what I expected out of the class, but I think some quality of life changes for melee builds and maybe more Elemental Blast options would fix this.

7. I'm happy the CON is still the class's key score, but the "straining yourself to channel the elements" aspect of the class is completely missing. There's also a weird issue where the class punishes melee builds and encourages you to fight from afar while you have an absurd amount of Hit Points. It ends up making ranged builds feel way too safe, and you don't have the option of reducing your Hit Points with lower CON because you need it for your DCs.

I've run into an issue with the wand implement, aside from it feeling a little underwhelming as it provides little more benefit than a cantrip.

It doesn't mesh with the rest of the class's class features at all.

1. Requiring two-actions is understandable, but it exacerbates the class's action economy issues. Much of your action economy is already spent on Find Flaws and Esoteric Antithesis. Your implement's main ability clutters your action economy even further.

2. It doesn't synergize very well with Find Flaws because you cannot change its energy type until later levels.

3. It doesn't synergize with any of your other class features because they all rely on Strikes. The playstyle of the character revolves around Strikes. Esoteric Antithesis only works with Strikes. Relying on a saving throw is helpful to avoid MAP, but the implement doesn't work well with fighting with both the weapon and wand due to the above action economy issues.

It would have been cool if the wand implement allowed you to wield a wand as a special weapon that you can Strike with. Maybe it could allow you to shoot bolts of energy based on the traits of the wand? Or maybe you could conjure an energy blade out of the wand and wield it like a lightsaber esoteric spirit blade? Having it be something you can Strike with would make it more interesting and allow it to work well with your other class features. As is, I'd rather spend an ancestry feat on a cantrip than use a wand implement.

Most of the terrain attunements listed in the Geomancer archetypes.

When I gain an attunement, how long do they last? Do I keep them even when I leave the corresponding terrain?

If I go with RAW, it seems that when I cast a water spell in an aquatic terrain to gain the aquatic attunement, I gain its benefits indefinitely until I cast another spell in another terrain to gain a different attunement.

I keep running into the same issue when I build and play a character with this class.

I need a high Charisma because it's my key ability score and my main class feature uses it.

I need a high Strength and/or high Dexterity because I am a combat class with class features revolving around Striking enemies.

I need a good Constitution because I'm a combat class that only gets 8 hit points per level.

Because I need these three or four ability scores, it means my Wisdom and Intelligence will be low. However, most of what my class does revolves around using Wisdom-based and Intelligence-based skills. I can only use Charisma on these skills when I Find Flaws. Outside of magic skills (all Intelligence- and Wisdom-based skills), I won't have many skills because my Intelligence will be low.

As a consequence of all this, the class forces me to invest in skills I'm not good at while also hindering me from using skills I would be good at. I feel it when I play, too. Outside of combat, I feel useless because I'm bad or mediocre at almost all my skills. And I'm bad or mediocre at these skills because I'm a Charisma-based martial class with a role revolving around Wisdom-based and Intelligence-based skills.

Due to shipping delays, I would like to cancel my Pathfinder Special Edition subscription.

Thank you.

I am creating a character for PFS that is a kitsune whose eidolon looks like herself. The two act like twin sisters with a mild hivemind that perform coordinated dances and acts of mischief. The eidolon's unarmed attacks are flavored as stylish dance moves that conjure flames around herself.

I pictured the character functioning as a face and a skirmisher where the two of them flank enemies, debuff using Intimidate/Bon Mot/distractions, and bombard with foxfire when dealing with enemies at range.

But I'm not sure if the build accomplishes this. I'm concerned about lack of damage.

Maybe someone can give suggestions for improvements?

Summary

Overall, I did not enjoy playing the class. Adaptive Strike is really cool, but the class felt largely boring during combat and ineffective out of combat. The class also fails to meet the expectation of being an adaptive combatant and fails to live up to the thematic of playing a shapeshifter.

- Adaptive Strike is pretty cool, customizable, and does satisfying damage.

- Dexterity-based evolutionist using a melee adaptive strike is frustratingly not viable due to lack of the ability to give it the operative ability.

- Evolution Track and EP were easier to manage than expected. However, I felt like the buffs were mostly inconsequential and unsatisfying.

- I felt like I had very few tactical options. My only option was pretty much just run at an enemy and adaptive strike them to death.

- I did not feel like a shapeshifter or a fighter that was shifting to the needs of the battle. Few tactical options to adapt to fights.

- Transformation abilities don't really feel like transformation abilities as they don't help you disguise or change forms.

- Felt almost completely useless out of combat, including during a martial non-combat challenge due to being unable to generate EP.

I expected more transformation and adaptation abilities for a class centered around transformation and adaptation.

From a mechanics and thematic standpoint, I mean:

1. The class does not give you any abilities that let you fully transform into a creature. I wasn't expecting a druid wild shape, but the class lacks the mechanics to realize the numerous tropes and characters in science fiction that have shapeshifting abilities or alternate forms.

2. There are no abilities that allow you to alter your appearance in any meaningful way. It doesn't matter that your class features are flavored as altering yourself -- you still need a disguise kit to look like something other than yourself. Mutating yourself gives you no bonus to Disguise. The best you get is a discount for Adaptive Skin.

3. Lack of adaptation and customization. Only one of the main uses of EP actually give you extra tactical options. The other three merely circumvent the class's numerous weaknesses. Aside from choosing your niche and the usual talents, there's not much customization to your new glorious evolution.

When I ordered the subscription for Secrets of Magic last week, the special edition of the book was not an available option in the special edition subscription. Now it is.

Is there any possibility my rulebook subscription can be changed to the special edition rulebook subscription so I can get the special edition of Secrets of Magic?

Thank you.

Almost all battle form polymorph spells have some version of the following text.

One or more unarmed melee attacks specific to the battle form you choose, which are the only attacks you can use.

The second printing errata defines attacks as any check with the attack trait.

An attack is any check that has the attack trait. It applies and increases the multiple attack penalty.

So if I become the god of liberation, I cannot Escape a grab? Or Disarm, Trip, or Shove? And if my form gives me an unarmed attack with disarm, I cannot actually Disarm anyone?

I feel like the original intent was to prohibit other types of Strikes or prohibit other types of unarmed attacks, but the second printing makes it clear that's not what the text means anymore. If the spell says "[these] are the only attacks you can use," then you cannot do anything that has a check with the attack trait.

I get an error page everytime I go to checkout or view my cart. Clearing cookies/cache, relogging, and using other browsers doesn't solve the problem.

Through playtesting, character building, and long hours of examining the rules of each feat and how they stack with other classes, I put together this spreadsheet that rates each gunslinger feat on three pillars (Power, Usability, Fun) on a scale of 0 to 3, with zero and three as outliers. A little late, but better late than never I suppose!

LINK

Some notes of interest.

1. Many utility feats require a loaded firearm, which essentially increases the action cost by 1. When playtesting, I found this particularly problematic with reactions because you have to end your turn with a loaded gun and using the reaction sets you back as you have to start your next turn with an empty. The same goes for Press abilities that require a loaded gun.

2. The above and other action economy issues resulted in some feats getting a Usability rating of zero. Some feats like Two-Weapon Flurry or Slinger's Relexes you almost can never use unless you get an archetype or pull some other shenanigans to overcome the action economy drawback.

3. Cover Fire and Cauterize had the lowest rating. I had to leave Glancing Shot unrated because the text is unclear how much damage it deals.

TL:DR
1. I tried to build and play Way of the Drifter characters using a melee weapon and firearm. It was fun, but annoying to build.
2. Using an unarmed attack for Way of the Drifter felt like the most effective approach, which feels counterintuitive and undermines the flavor.
3. I struggled to build a sword-and-pistol character that felt fun and effective enough to make the action economy hindrances, low range, and low damage of one-handed firearms feel worth it.
4. Finesse weapons feel mandatory for a melee+gun build. Agile is ideal.
5. The brace-of-guns build can be really fun, but it requires a lot of money, levels, and feats to make it work. For a sword-and-pistol gunslinger, it did not feel very effective.
6. I love scatter weapons, but I wish the gunslinger got feats to increase the splash damage.
7. Tried using a shield for my melee weapon in Way of the Drifter. It felt pretty cool, but I'm not sure if it was intended or legal.
8. Firearm Ace feels mandatory and a build that cannot use it feels lackluster.
9. I found some fun roleplay uses of Black Powder Boost.
10. Not many high level feats that support melee+firearm gunslingers.
11. The scatter quality left questions whether or not I could shoot beyond the first ranged increment. It also raised questions how it interacts with the fatal trait and critical hits. Does the double damage and bonus die count towards the splash damage, which is based on damage dice?

Below reports my experience building and playing Bitey Boom Boom, my boisterous kobold gunslinger that wielded a blunderbuss and bit enemies that got too close.

Each day up to Christmas, I created a piece of holiday-themed content for Pathfinder.

Happy Holiday Gaming and let me know which you like best!

1. The Gift Wrapper (Creature 7): The forlorn construct desperate turn anything into properly packaged gifts.
2. Eggnog Ooze (Creature 5): This delicious predator lies in wait for unsuspecting party-goers.
3. Animated Dreidel (Creature 5): As it spins, your fate spins in the balance. When it falls, good fortune falls upon you.
4. Delicious Polymorph (Spell 6): The perfect spell when someone needs to be a little sweeter for the holidays.
5. Deadly Mistletoe (Creature 2): Share a fate together under the mistletoe.
6. Gift Bag of Holding (Item 4+): Useful for giftwrapping presents. Not so much for storing adventuring equipment.
7. Giftwrap Gremlin (Creature 1): This mischievous gremlin gifts back an individual's own items.
8. Candy Cane Dirk (Item 1+): The perfect treat when someone threatens your holiday cheer.
9. Gingerbread Golem (Creature 2): You will have to eat or smash this dangerous holiday treat.
10. Cookie Dough Blob (Creature 2): Baking up trouble when you encounter this precursor to delicious treats.
11. Snow Golem (Creature 5): Thumpety thump thump, look at that golem go!
12. Bah Humbug (Curse 6): A curse that turns you into a real Scrooge.
13. Festive (Rune 2+): When your equipment needs a little Christmas cheer.
14. Cursed Festive Item (Curse 5): Someone has a bah humbug? Give them one of these cursed items.
15. Childhood Glee (Spell 5): Recapture youth with this radiant spell.
16. Cottage Mimic (Creature 15): Hope Old Saint Nick doesn't stumble upon one of these overgrown mimics.
17. Decorated Arboreal (Creature 8): Sometimes even a treant gets caught up in the holiday cheer.
18. Fireplace Passage (Spell 5): They always wonder how Old Saint Nick delivers gifts to houses without a chimney.
19. Nutcracker (Creature 5): The real fey creature that inspired the toy can crush much more than walnuts.
20. Radiant Reindeer (Creature 10): A nose so bright, they even say it glows!
21. Guiding Star (Spell 3): Place a shining star to guide all towards it.
22. Snowfield (Spell 2): Anyone ready for a snowball fight?
23. Menorah Master (Creature 14): Light a candle for the ultimate beholder of the festivities.
24. Krampus (Creature 21): The true fiend of the holiday manifested from absence of Christmas spirit.
25. Old Saint Nicolas (Creature 20): The legendary figure brings peace and joy to all and a merry holiday for the children of his Lord.

I wish you guys would show a line up of your character miniatures

I wanted to purchase the Rewrite History boon for my 60928-2001 and 60928-2005 characters for 0 AcP.

I selected my 60928-2001 character and clicked Purchase next to the Rewrite History boon. Instead, it spent 4 of my playtest points to purchase Kortos Captivation.

So, I then selected my 60928-2005 character and clicked Purchase next to the Rewrite History boon. Instead, it gave a Rewrite History to my 60928-2001 character.

I tried the process again. Thankfully, *this time* it gave Rewrite History to my 60928-2005

Can you please refund Kortos Captivation? I was planning to spend my playtest points on Experienced Adventurer. Now I can't anymore.

I'm glad ConCurrent is still going, but I'm not hopeful as I couldn't find any available games during PaizoCon.

This adventure path looks like fun.

A picture of a card thrower? Does that mean we might get the Deadly Dealer feat soon?!

(And hopefully not locked behind yet another archetype)

Gods & Magic is a great book written by many talented people. However, I've noticed examples of significant dissonance with the lore that obstruct building character concepts around the setting's narrative, which makes it difficult for me to get past them. A few I have encountered include:

1. Apsu will only serve as a patron to Lawful Good characters despite the fact he's the patron deity of all good-aligned dragons. It feels strange that copper and brass dragons cannot become clerics or champions of Apsu despite him being the father of all good metallic dragons.

2. Glyph domain's redact focus spell violates the edicts of most deities that have that domain. Obscuring or redacting information or destroying literary works is an anathema for deities like Irez, Entrice, Imot, and many others.

3. Bladed scarves are no longer finesse weapons. The changes to this weapon from its 1st Edition counterpart strikes me as odd. Adding reach is neat, but the finesse property was the selling point of bladed scarves in terms of both flavor and mechanics. Especially bladed scarves are associated with Varisian dancers and deities with Dexterity as a divine ability score.

4. No deities have bo staff as a favored weapon, not even Tien dieties like Sun Wukong. A minor one but still worth mentioning. I suppose an odd effect from quarterstaff not existing in 2nd Edition.

Any others you spotted?

Is there any way to lift the cart limitations?

I tried to add a bunch of $1 minis. My cart is now bugged and I can't make any changes to it. Even removing items don't work most of the time.

Recall Knowledge and other information gathering mechanics in 2nd Edition tend to be nebulous and leave the DC as well as the quality and quantity of information entirely to GM fiat with little to no direction or guidance. This is an issue for the investigator, a class centered around using Recall Knowledge and gaining information.

Many investigator abilities and feats feel very “meh” because they have a non-discrete effect with a value that heavily depends on the GM’s adjudication. Others feel useless because they hinge on vague or nonexistent rules.

Thorough Research is an egregious example – it gives you one extra fact when using Recall Knowledge and even more information with GM discretion if you get a critical success. However, Recall Knowledge doesn’t tell you how many facts you recall and leaves the quality of the information entirely to GM discretion anyway.

Looks Good! I wonder how many new connections for Mystics will be offered in the book.

Errata for 2E? Horray!

I had 12 playtest points and 16 replays. Now, they're all reduced to 0.

I also don't seem to have an achievement point counter, but I might not have been able to find it.

There's several boons like Home Region that let you satisfy access conditions and prerequisites for uncommon cultural options. The problem is that weapons don't have access conditions and prerequisites.

So now my Tian Xia fighter has access to almost all weapons in the game, but not the everyday weapons of his homeland. Unless I have him be human (in a land where nonhuman ancestries are common) with the Unconventional Weaponry feat.

Can we get a clarification about this?

The core rulebook is a bit vague about the details of how improvised weapons work with respect to proficiency, damage, traits, and other statistics. It leaves it entirely on the GM to figure out the details.

What is the Society's stance on this? Are there plans to add guidelines for improvised weapons? If I want my character to wield a broom or chair, can I just take an existing weapon from the Equipment chapter and reflavor it?

I want to convert my barrel-wielding brewmaster from 1E to 2E.

I only selected the 2nd Edition core rulebook for my subscription. When I checked my subscription status at the time of subscribing, only the core rulebook was in my side cart. But now I received an email that the bestiary was added to the order?

Following the release of the Artiforged Class Handbook, we decided to release an open playtest of our next class for 1st Edition Pathfinder: the Reaver.

LINK

The reaver is a 6-level spellcaster centered around stealing essence from enemies through melee attacks and weaponizing that essence into a negative energy special attack. They can also study essence to learn about a creature, use it fuel special abilities, and even temporarily add new spells to their spell list. They prepare spells like an arcanist.

The final product will feature additional archetypes, feats, traits, and magic items based on feedback.

Having registered for 2e events at Gen Con, I want to ensure I get the rule set as soon as possible before the event. What method of pre-ordering or subscribing should I do? I don't mind getting a PDF.

I ask this because I had pre-ordered Starfinder's Core Rulebook for Gen Con 2017 only to discover I couldn't pick it up at the event and it would not arrive before the event. So Customer Service had to change my order to a subscription so I could get a PDF. I want to avoid this situation happening again.

I'm finding this class rather awkward and limited in build choices. It feels like Con + Dex are the only way to go. If you go Str + Con, then you're better off using an advanced melee weapon unless you need to target EAC. It hurts as the class already feels like it doens't offer much in customization.

He has many names across the Pact World, but the enigma's current incarnation called himself "Steve," resembling a scruffy traveler with a rugged trench coat and a five-o-clock shadow. His new comrades asked if he was a man called The Doctor, to which he replied, "Maybe an David Tennant if he was high and could reshape reality. If you knew who I was, I doubt you would venture with me." One his comrades then "Googled" a photo of his face on the infosphere and found reports of a strange man ending bank robberies by turning guns into snakes or ending gang wars by transforming a city street into gingerbread.

Knowing he would cease to exist after 16 Abadius, 319, Steve lent his services to the Starfinder Society for the first and final time. He was surprised his party welcomed him with open arms despite the news reports about him. In fact, they even felt safe knowing Steve had their back. He was friendly to them, especially to the halfling he knew was a 7-foot tall hero in another reality. One party member asked if he gambled.

"Not after I got kicked out of a casino when my dice turned into a pair of rubber ducks."

"Dude, we gotta go out gambling together!"

Steve was selfless and took no gear for himself. He offered one of his tools (a null-space chamber) to store an alien creature, though warned to remove the creature before he (and the chamber) stop existing. When the party encountered a decent Freebooter armor, they gave it to the halfling.

"Perhaps we should call it a Half-booter armor," snickered the dwarf.

Steve, who knew the halfling to be a 7-foot hero in another reality, looked to his friend and said, "Don't worry. You will always be a Full-booter in my eyes."

"Aw, thanks, Steve! You're a great guy!"

The mission involved infiltrating a hostile base. After a failed attempt of Steve disguising himself as an alien, the party sneaked into the base and took out many hostiles. Steve helped by hobbling enemies, by turning an alien into partially Morgan Freeman and startling robots by merging their reality with that which they were human. He also blocked enemy reinforcements by lowering the floor and raising a catwalk upwards (and turning it into candy canes). He attacked an enemy spellcaster with a spell of his own (explosive blast) where a duck flew out of his sleeve and transformed into a grenade that exploded. This bought enough time to complete the mission and escape safely, which Steve helped by transforming the dwarf into a flying dragon-like person.

After the mission, Steve treated his allies to a massive party with booze for the dwarves and gambling for the gambler. After handing off credit of the mission to a future incarnation, Steve gave his new friends a final farewell before departing. Alone by himself, he said "I don't want to go" as his body glowed with radiant energy. Just as it seemed his very being would explode, Steve vanished from existence with a subtle "POP."

My spiritualist is a librarian that got haunted by a grim reaper-like death spirit and forced into adventuring. The initial build strategy was to make her be a skill monkey while the phantom is a tank/debuffer. However, I've been struggling to think of things for her to do other than heal allies with CLW wands and casting buffs on occasion.

Maybe some suggestions? Her phantom has the fear emotion focus. I considered retraining a couple of feats so she can spend her turns demoralizing enemies.

I'm working on a new campaign that uses a patchwork of different rules for an original setting.

LINK

However, I am concerned I might not have provided enough information for players to create original characters for the setting. I don't want to burden them with too much information.

I am also debating how death and dying will work. Resurrection doesn't exist in the setting, so I need a way for PCs to be durable without taking away the tension of dropping to 0. I already tried borrowing the stamina system from Starfinder, but it ended up being too much book keeping.

Many spells such as polymorph and summon creature give you different options depending on what class you are. Which (if any) of these classes is the witchwarper considered for the purpose of these spell effects?

The party is level 20 with a few mythic tiers. Team Big Bad set up a horrible trap by opening a portal to the Negative Energy Plane (as a homage to Tar Baphon's trap for Aroden). However, despite having every advantage, Team Big Bad still suffered a humiliating defeat that makes it clear they have little chance to defeat them.

What should I have the Big Bads do? Should they just give up and attempt to make peace?

I wrote this article in response to an issue I've encountered with running and playing the Pathfinder Playtest.

The playtest replaces attacks of opportunity with a paradigm where monsters and martial characters gain special abilities where they get free attacks or actions in response to a trigger. While this is a cool way to add variety of combat roles, it does an inadequate job of influencing combat tactics in a positive way. This mostly has to do with the fact that the reactions (unlike attacks of opportunity) are not universal and provide no descriptive means to convey when an opponent has such an ability. As a result, most monster reactions just feel like "cheap shots" and don't affect tactical decision-making the same way that AoOs do unless a player metagames or accidentally triggers one.

There's also the issue that almost all the player martial reactions are reactive rather than proactive choices and generally feel unsatisfying.

As someone who loves shapeshifting in fiction, I really enjoyed the polymorph rules. It did have a few rough spots, such as natural weapons being uselessly weak unless you spend one of the form's racial trait slots. However, I find it shockingly uncommon in games to offer this much customization when it comes to shapeshifting. It does take some reading and comprehension, but most of the rules are just making your forms, which only need to be once and can be done in 5 minutes.

I'm looking forward to this volume getting cleared for organized play so I can make my priest of Oras.

Now if we can only get kitsune added to the game...

Shapeshifting is one of my favorite tropes in fantasy and science fiction. It creates a very broad design space that I feel most games do not fully explore. I looked forward to seeing how the playtest would implement them. However, after building and playing characters at various levels with multiple combinations of classes and spells, I ran into many issues with polymorph effects that hindered character concepts and made them not as fun as they should be.

Attack Bonus & AC: Polymorph spells overwrite your attack bonus and AC, which feels awful and creates a situation where polymorph spells are only useful if your natural form is weak. While this is neat for weak monsters turning into beasts, it feels terrible when a buff spell actually cripples you. This is also bad because it causes each polymorph spell to have a shelf life based on the maximum level you can heighten it. Much of this can be fixed just by having polymorph spells use your bonus/AC if it's higher without forcing you to buy an expensive item late in your career. Or have the attack bonus and AC be based on the target's level.

Level Gating: You can't turn into an animal or another humanoid until level 3. You can't turn into an animal that can fight until level 5. You can't break any of these restrictions unless you play a specific class. All of this hinders character concepts for no good reason. Level gating isn't as necessary in a game when you can balance spells using heightening. Level gating also creates some significant dissonance if the selection of spells has inconsistent standards. My classic complaint in Pathfinder was "Why is it that I can only turn a man into an elf for a few minutes at the same level I can permanently transform a dragon into a chicken AND brainwash him into thinking he was always a chicken?"

Limited Targeting: Almost all of the polymorph spells target the caster. Again, hurts character concepts. Wanna play a witch that punishes enemies by turning them into goblins? Well, tough luck. You can never do that!

Duration: Polymorph spells have prohibitively short durations that don't scale with level and have extremely few options to extend durations. Even non-combat polymorph spells only have (at most) a 10 minute duration, which isn't enough for most non-combat encounters and exploration mode. The short duration is also a problem in high level play where combats tend to drag for a long time. Many combats in Frozen Oath got very close to 10 rounds. Now that the 10-minute Treat Wounds might be the standard healing option, it seems less necessary to keep the durations so short.

Restrictive Choices: Not to sound like a cranky Protean, but the polymorph spells severely restrict your choices of form. I like that some of them try to cover all the bases and balance the different forms, but it still feels rather restrictive and doesn't make the forms feel distinct enough.

Rules Repeat: Minor nitpick about rules presentation. Many spells and effects repeat the same rules about polymorphing. While it's nice to have all the rules in one place, it makes the spells and feats bloated and risks consistency problems. This could be fixed by putting the rules in the polymorph trait or inventing new traits depending on how the polymorph effect changes you.

I understand there's good reasons for many of these quirks, especially now that monsters have completely different standards than PCs. However, so far, I had very mixed experiences.

I'm happy you're trying to streamline tracking and chronicle sheets, but the log sheet has so much wasted space that you can only put three entries on it!

I'd prefer a ledger like this.

I track every character in a similar way using just a sheet of notebook paper. It's so much easier to record purchases and audit characters this way than shuffling through dozens of chronicle sheets.

What does it cost for someone to drink a combined elixir? I would guess 0 RP as it seems like the intent is having the combined effects of two elixirs costs the same RP as two elixirs. Since an infused elixir no longer has a cost to drink, then double the elixir has no cost.

Frequency once per round

Trigger You craft an alchemical item that has the
elixir trait using the Quick Alchemy action.

You’ve discovered how to mix two elixirs into a single concoction
for quicker consumption. You can spend 3 Resonance Points
instead of 1 Resonance Point to add a second elixir to the one
you’re crafting. When this combination elixir is consumed, both
the constituent elixirs take effect. For example, you can combine
two of the same elixirs to create a combined elixir of life that
heals double the amount. If a creature other than you drinks a
combined elixir, it must spend 2 Resonance Points to gain the
effects instead of only 1 Resonance Point.

Page 47—In the infused trait, change “cost its crafter any

Resonance Points” to “cost any Resonance Points” and
delete “though anyone else must spend Resonance Points to
activate it normally”.

Skill checks with the Secret trait have left a bad taste in my mouth. I recently ran a game with a rogue, and it was an awful experience for me and the player.

I generally hate having to roll a player's skill check in tabletop RPGs because:
1) It takes the fun of rolling the die away from the player.
2) It burdens adds more burden to GMing.
3) It breaks flow and adds more book keeping as I now have to ask the player for their bonus in the middle of play or ask for it ahead of time.

The game added a lot more secret rolls, too. Now sneaking and identifying magic are secret rolls. I don't see why it's all necessary, especially when it's annoying.

Reporting feedback from my run of Part 2.

TL:DR
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1) Players had an "okay" time overall, but the rogue was frustrating to both play and GM for.

2) Tactical combat was fine, but often the players felt their classes did not give them enough breadth in ways to deal with situations. Both the alchemist and the sorcerer had to burn many resources just to consistently contribute.

3) Liked exploration but not how it was executed in the module. Did not enjoy the way it forced me to draw maps in specific ways.

4) Very little narrative until the very end.

Preparation
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Exploration: Exploration was surprisingly not that hard to prepare. I liked it.

Maps: I don't mind drawing maps, but I hated the way the "draw your own maps" thing was handled in the module. The descriptions for B1, B2, and B4 were so overly specific and presented in a big paragraph that made it annoying to reference. It would have been better off as an itemized list or a small diagram. If a map has to be that specific, then you're better off just having the map in the adventure.

FormatI also strongly believe the module presents information very poorly in the format. I always believed modules made terrible reference documents because all of the important information is buried in a huge block of text. Having to pause the game while I search for a skill check DC lost in a page of text feels really awful. I never understood why rooms and encounters can't have stat blocks that quickly summarize items and creatures in the room while also listing important skill check DCs.

Hero Points
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I gave out the basic 2 hero points to each character at the start of the adventure. However, none of the PCs used them. From our past experiences with 2nd Edition's hero points, we felt like hero points are better off saved for when a character is dying.

Characters
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Players complained that you couldn't buy a +1 weapon with the wealth that was provided. They also complained that the equipment chapter does not include a general "adventurer's kit" that has all of the standard adventurer gear. This was annoying as they had to waste a lot of time tracking trivial piecemeal purchases of mundane adventuring items.

1) human fighter: Used a warhammer and shield. He was the highest damage dealer in the party. He was also the one who took the +1 weapon at the start of the adventure. The player seemed to have a lot of fun during the session, which is good especially as it was also his birthday. He spent his magic items on armor.

2) goblin sorcerer: She had the celestial bloodline. On my side of the table, the character came off feeling like she had little impact on the party. Almost all of her spells kept failing or missing. The character felt like a worse cleric in every way, and she lacked the proficiencies to contribute anything beyond the limited number of spells she could do in a day. She spent her magic items on a staff of healing and a wand of magic missile (which she didn't use for some reason).

3) half-elf alchemist: He ended up being a huge asset during non-combat encounters as he had excellent skills in Arcana, Religion, and Occultism and had spent his skill feats on Multilingual. Despite having Extra Resonance (which cost him two ability boosts because the feat requires a good Charisma), he ran out of resources after only two Overall, it seemed like he was burning through a lot of resources just to have a consistent contribution to the team.

4) half-elf rogue: This character ended up being frustrating for both the player and myself. The rogue used a shortsword and had feats for frightening opponents so she could sneak attack them. However, the sneak attacks required so much set up for very little pay off. Sneak attack and the increased number of trained skills did not make up for the loss in proficiencies and damage options that other non-spellcasting classes have. Despite loving the rogue as a concept, the player felt like she was at a handicap compared to other classes. I personally got irritated with the mechanics due to Sneak and other rolls having the Secret trait, requiring me having to waste time rolling her skill checks. Even though I asked for her bonuses ahead of time, it still was a pain. It's not the player's fault as the character needs these rolls in order to function. I'd never want to GM for a party of rogues.

Encounters
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At the start of the adventure, I had Lady Vord give the party the choice between a +1 hammer, +1 shortsword, or a +1 dagger. The party agreed to have the fighter take the hammer.

Exploration: The party got lucky and did very well on the Survival checks despite the highest bonus only being about +4 or +5. While no critical successes, they managed to get to the tomb in 6 days with 3 days to spare.

B1: This encounter went pretty well. I actually really liked the hyena special abilities to knockdown and drag foes. That was a lot of fun to do, and it surprised the party. The terrain had little to no effect on the encounter. Because the hyenas had no reactions, it made no difference that the PCs couldn't Step. One of the PCs had a feat that let them Step in difficult terrain that was useless as a consequence.

B2: The encounter rules do not make it clear how awareness works at the start of combat when someone (or something) uses Stealth for initiative. Only one PC beat the quicksand's initiative, so I ran the the encounter assuming that only someone who beat its initiative sees the quicksand before it acts. Only one PC fell into the quicksand and was quickly pulled out. I did like the quicksand rules. However, group all agreed that persistent damage is insanely annoying as each character has to make up to 4 rolls a turn in attempt to get rid of it. The DC also feels incredibly unfair. I would have preferred a system where you only roll once a turn, but can spend an action to reduce the DC by 5, resulting in a flat DC 5 check if you spent an entire turn trying to remove it. After combat ended, I just ruled that all the damage stops because I didn't want to waste another precious 10 minutes on it. Most of the party's resources were tapped out after this encounter.

B3: The party made their checks to notice, identify, and stealth past the gnoll camp.

B4: The climb was very tough. But because they made good time, it didn't matter that they lost almost an hour. The manticore fight was annoying for the party because it was a high health flying enemy. The party could not deal much damage to it from range. It could fly out of the range of the alchemist bombs and the sorcerer's spells kept failing or missing. The alchemist entangled it, but that only reduced its movement speed as the creature had no After it pinned two party members and started to run low on quills, the manticore went in to try to kill one of them. That's when the fight turned around as the fighter got a couple of lucky criticals. When the manticore got low on health, it flew away and the party decided to just

B5: The alchemist spoke Gnoll and told the gnolls that the manticore was heavily wounded and that the gnolls could probably kill it for revenge if it appeared again. This and a great Diplomacy check persuaded the gnolls to take their leave.

C1: The rogue found the letch and discovered the trap on it. She was able to bypass it so she could open the door safely.

C2: The mute rogue took one look at the room, said "f*** that" in sign language, and proceeded down the hall. Because the countdown clock probably wasn't hidden there, the party felt no need to enter a room that obviously had a monster or trap hidden inside and probably led to a dead end.

C3: The party did not discover this room. I described the hallway leading to it as emitting some heat, so they avoided it and proceeded to C3. It was probably for the best as we were starting to run low on time.

C4: The encounter's description overcomplicated what is actually a fairly simple and boring "puzzle." The puzzle basically boils down to "perform four skill checks. If you got a gem, the DC is lower." Despite the party having no gems, the alchemist had great Arcana, Occultism, and Religion checks. The rogue also helped out. I really loved the fact that the rogue could help by using Thievery. I would love to see this in future adventures as rogues often get left out in what are commonly seen as "mage only" non-combat encounters.

C5: The party slaughtered the mummies as each was well equiped to deal with them. Despite missing most of his bombs, the alchemist devastated the mummies as each mummy took 11 points of fire damage from the splash damage that normally only did 1 point of damage. This is ontop of the persistent damage that some of the mummies suffered. The rogue had ample opportunities to stealth and take advantage of flatfooted enemies. The divine sorcerer finally got to use all of her anti-undead spells. And the fighter was dishing out huge amounts of damage.

The party was suspicious of Mabar at first, but eventually let him go. We had some time to spare for roleplay (which they enjoyed).

C6: The party was more terrified of the mummy than the mirror. Afterall, from successful Occultism checks about the Dark Tapestry, they knew the mirror was dangerous and knew right away not to do anything with it. With only 5 minutes left, I had to tell them, "After staring at the mummy for a solid 10 minutes, you are certain that it will do exactly what all mummies should do. Nothing." The party grabbed the gem and the treasure, and got out of Dodge.

With more than two days to spare, the Night Heralds were unable to catch up with them.

Other Notes
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1) The players seemed to have an "okay" experience overall. Though, both the rogue and I found many mechanics such as Secret rolls and persistant damage very annoying.

2) I really hate the abundance of Secret rolls in this game. It takes the fun away from the player because they aren't rolling anything. It adds to the hassle of GMing. And it breaks the flow of things since I have to either ask the player directly for their Stealth bonus or obtain this information ahead of time. It's not fun for the player. It's not fun for the GM.

3) I did like the exploration rules. However, I do not believe they were executed well in the adventure. All of the encounters were bunched up after most of the exploration was already completed.

4) Like with part 1, the narrative felt lacking. Almost all of the encounters had nothing to do with the story. The tomb was a little bit of a let down as it was basically just 1 trapped door, 1 lame puzzle, a mummy fight that the party slaughtered easily, and a couple of unrewarding optional combats.

5) Minor Point: I can't say I'm a fan of the "preview" of the antipaladin as it has many of the same problems as the normal paladin with having smite get replaced with a lame, situational reaction. Also, would prefer if the antipaladin was lawful evil as a tyrant makes a more suitable rival for a class all about justice and righteousness.