Sir Belmont the Valiant, II's page

Balkolth, you can carry a shield, or use the the Shield cantrip. Using either counts as using the Raise Shield action. IE, you can use only one of these actions.

Using a steel shield requires you to buy one (relatively trivial), strap it onto your arm, and occupy your hand. It gives you +2 circumstance bonus to your AC.

The Shield cantrip only gives you +1 circumstance bonus to your AC. But it does allow you to Shield Block, even without the feat. After you use Shield Block, the spell ends and you can’t cast it again for 10 minutes.
Your hand is free for other uses.

Pick the option that works best for you, they do not stack.

The phrase "automatically hits" doesn't have that kind of power.

It does.

Acid Grip says the enemy is affected depending on the results of the target's Reflex save. Since it doesn't mention the result of a concealed flat check, we can ignore the flat check, right?

Wrong. Concealed is not mentioned in the description of Acid Grip as it is a condition/status applied to the target, regardless of melee/spell type. This is a general circumstance. The fact that Force Barrage says "automatically hits" is a _specific_ factor that applies only to that particular spell.

Once again, Specific trumps General.

An excerpt from FORCE BARRAGE
You fire a shard of solidified magic toward a creature that you
can see. It automatically hits and...

Concealed: Fog or similar obscuration makes you difficult to see and target.

Hidden: A creature you’re hidden from knows your location but can’t see
you.

Undetected: A creature you’re undetected by doesn’t know where you are.
.
.
All of the above have been copied from Player Core 1. You can see something Concealed, so it's auto hit. No flat check required.

You can't see someone Hidden or Undetected, so you can't even use Force Barrage.

Did you carry a shield? Was it helpfull to have one? Or would a shield have been helpfull if you had one? The later question is largely about "did you have an action to spare for raising your shield?"

I am emphasizing the shield here as it's a partial solution to your AC problems that you can apply _right now_. Not X levels later.

Also please remember the definition...
Bulwark: The armor covers you so completely that it provides benefits against some damaging effects. On Reflex saves to avoid a damaging effect, such as a _fireball_, you add a +3 modifier instead of your Dexterity modifier.

I am not certain that Bulwark applies against a Basic Reflex Save (and it certainly won't help you when you want to Grab an Edge). Frex: how does Bulwark help you save against a Grease spell?

Specific trumps general.

The description of Concealment is a general statement of how it works.

The Force Barrage statement 'hits automatically' Trumps Concealment.

You say that you have played the character as a sorcerer once already. I would like to hear your report on that. Before discussing possible rebuilds of your character:

Did you enjoy playing your current character, as built?

Were there a lot of Recall Knowledges required?

Was there a lot of "Face Person talking to other sentient" activities? (Side question, do you/will you need Multilingual to get more languages?)

Was there any emphasis on Arcana, as the GM seemed to be interested in this?

Does the Warpriest have Nature and/or Religion?

Do the other two players have _any_ of Arcana/Nature/Occultism/Religion?

Can you ask the GM/other PCs what skills they have? If they rant, tell them "the GM asked me to fill in some of the gaps in the party, so please help me figure out where the gaps are."

* * * * * *

As a side note, there's nothing to stop you from taking in a steel shield. It takes an action to raise, but with at least one 60' cantrip, you won't need to move around much.

It seems to me that the simple solution if the replay bug has really bit you, is to go buy a few replay boons for immediate replay. Then use the 'glyph' replays later on.

This is what I just pulled from the GM Core, page 225:

"The DC of the Crafting check to transfer a rune is determined by the item level of the rune being transferred, and the Price of the transfer is 10% of the rune’s Price, unless transferring from a runestone, which is free. If you’re swapping, use the higher level and higher Price between the two runes to determine these values. It takes 1 day (instead of the 4 days usually needed to Craft) to transfer a rune or swap a pair of runes, and you can continue to work over additional days to get a discount, as usual with Craft."

So, 10% of the value of the Rune to move it from one object to another, but it's free to move off of a Runestone.

This is going to get a little long, but the phrase "expensive in resources" has been questioned.

A Sturdy Shield is described as follows: With a superior design and excellent craftsmanship, this steel shield has higher Hardness than its non-magical counterparts, making it harder to break and destroy.

So yes, magical. A Mending spell will fix one if it is Heightened to 3rd level. Were you planning on carrying this spell in one of your spell slots instead of Aqueous Orb, Fireball or Holy Light? That's one of the resource expenses I was talking about; it takes up the 'resource' of a spell slot. (Or perhaps, a Martial character is asking another party member to do this for him?)

Another way to expend resources on this effort is to get a Wand of Mending, heightened to level 3. Let's see, that's a 7th level item that costs 360 GP, and can be used once per day. And will only restore 15 hit points to the item. It might not get your item back to 'unbroken' status.

Hmm, I suppose you could get a couple of 3rd level spell scrolls at 30 GP each and see how often this problem actually comes up in play? Such scrolls are only 5th level items. This seems like the most sensible way to go about it.

A Sturdy Shield at level 4 (as low as it goes) costs 100 gp and has a bulk of 1. Pray let me remind you that 100 GP will turn a normal weapon into a +1 Striking weapon. And at level 5, you need 165 GP to enchant your armor to +1.

This entire discussion is about: do you want to do this? Do you want to spend these resources to fix shields damaged by Shield Block? Or do you want to spend this money/reaction when you could instead save your reaction for Reactive Strike and spend the money elsewhere?

It is always pleasant to have one of the staff lend a hand in such matters; thank you James!

As an aside, I believe there is a generic Manor House map with the first and second stories on the two sides of the flip map. Hmmm, I am looking in the store and have come up with NOBLE ESTATE. Which is only available as a PDF.

Well, I guess someone riding a horse has invested resources (Animal Companion / Mount) into it, a Centaur hasn't. It just feels odd.

Note that if you Shield Block a lot, you need to invest a lot in the expense of Sturdy Shields. And Crafting, so as to repair them, magical mending only works on non-magical items, and is fairly expensive in resources.

Or you can forego Shield Block. Simply Raise Shield and acquire +2 AC, which is a lot in 2E. And use those resources somewhere else.

Note: a Fighter that uses his Shield Block or even the Raise Shield reactions, is forgoing his Attack of Opportunity.

Would a Centaur moving 10' or more with a Lance (Jousting trait) receive all of these bonuses to damage?

The crafting skill is _not_ useless in PFS. I have been in many PFS adventures where you want to craft to accomplish one or more of your goals.

PF2 is a party co-operation game, crafting is something you want one or two party members to have. Just like diplomacy or society.

The 22 SP is for the _some_ of the raw material. You need a hilt, a pommel, a cross-guard, a sheath and you need to apply labor. Working with such an unusual metal requires greater care and precision.

Everything but the 22 SP for the Cold Iron is rolled into the other 22 SP, as you can trade labor for the more mundane material.

What about Centaur and Minotaur?

Quests that are supposed to take one hour yield 1 XP.

Recently, there have been a number of Quests written that are supposed to take two hours and yield 2 XP.

Check the amount of time a quest is scheduled for. At conventions, it is not uncommon to see a two hour slot set up for the one of the 1 XP Quests, and the 2 XP Quests are scheduled for three hours. I believe that this is to account for the fact that Quests are often geared to new/inexperienced players, and their need to be taught portions of the rules.

Experienced players generally don't have any trouble finishing a 1 XP Quest in one hour, or a 2 XP Quest in two hours.

Perhaps you should communicate with the convention staff if Quests are on your schedule.

One if my sons (he's 20 and should know better) wants us to turn up at a PFS table with a party of awakened penguins. (There's six of us, we can take a whole table.)

If only four of you are there, you could turn up as turtles:

Is this information available on Archives of Nethys? I think so, but am not 100% positive.

Lodge of the Living God gets a lot shorter if you

and /or replace it with something shorter.

Note: I have both played and run this module, and found the spoiler'd part to be interesting and enjoyable. But it takes up a lot of time.

Due to the lack of a personal gaming group, I mostly play PFS. As such, I have seen a lot of different party compositions.

My advice: you need two melee characters in any party of four or larger. It can even be four ranged PCs to two melee... but with any group larger than three you definitely need two characters to go into melee.

Maybe with your particular group/GM you won't need two. But from the way I read your post I would say yes you do.

I can't advise you as to a warrior/bard build as I have never tried it.

You can replay a scenario by going into your Pathfinder
account and purchasing the Replay Boon for 40 APC

Pathfinder Society (second edition) Replay
Gain 1 replay, usable on any Pathfinder Society(second edition) scenario by any character. 40.00 APC

While it doesn't say it right here, I understand that this means replay with a different character.

...Does the phrase "OTHER INDICATORS" mean they have an orc heritage or does is it just referencing non-mechanical features such as appearance?

Appearance. If you look at a picture of Captain Calisro Benarry, you will see that she also has pointed ears and small fangs.

See the picture here

I was under the impression that Bounties were designed to be one hour long and only involve one fight.

With new players, you could easily run two bounties, and let them run long if necessary.

In my experience with D&D, RuneQuest, Pathfinder home games, etc. the guy who always shows up slowly pulls ahead, and the least frequent player falls behind.

In PFS, 2e adventures are written for a four-level spread. Level 3-6, frex. As I mostly play at conventions, a 3-6 module will usually have all the characters at 3-4, or 5-6. Which works out decently.

In a recent convention game there were four 7-8 characters and a level 5 character in a 5-8 module. The level 5 character got a level bump to 6, and a mentor boon added an additional +1 to all saves. The bigger characters were all carefull of the level 5, and we all had a good time.

I was also in a convention game where there was one level 3 char, four level 4 characters, and a level 6. The one level 6 guy threw everything out of whack for the rest of the party, but not enough for the level 3 to get a level bump. So the level 3 got knocked out in every fight.

It helps if the judge steers the boss/tougher monsters at the bigger guys and goes easy on the weaker guys, but the judge in the 3/4/6 module didn't. The level 3 was the only fighter in plate, and drew all the monster attention.

Exactly what I was attempting to point out. Dual wielding or free hand fighting styles need some sort of innate boost to make them roughly comparable to wielding a two handed weapon.

You get to do something with your other hand, like Raise Shield, Shove or Parry.

Debating whether the armor class bump (or Shield Block damage reduction) is worthwhile is beyond me, as it includes too many new variables.

Farmageddon, in central Illinois still has a lot of 1e in play.

That is why I (a Paladin) have crafting as well. And also a Sorcerer Dedication. The Dedication comes with the Shield cantrip, which takes no longer to cast than a Raise Shield.

What is the crafting difficulty to repair a:
Buckler
Wooden shield?
Steel shield?
Sturdy Shield?
Meteor Shield?

I don't know how the 'earn a replay' mechanism works. Mark Stratton could you explain this? I know that I have some but don't know how they were gained/allotted.

I do know that you can buy a replay boon with collected ACP, but off the top of my head that takes 40 ACP (which takes ten full modules to acquire).

PFS 2e has a whole bunch of Quests for you to play, designed to played in an hour. These will make it easier to schedule a session, as you don't have to run as long. If you have 2 or 3 hours, run two of them.

Look at the quests here.

This is far more likely to have been ordered by some Hasbro exec who has no idea what problems he's causing to WotC by ordering this, in a move to generate more revenue.

It's a loss for Paizo, in that it caused them to sink a bunch of time & effort into the remaster. It's a win for Paizo in that they created and are leading the charge into ORC, and WotC/Hasbro got a lot of bad press over it.

What's wrong with Deadpool level Regeneration?