Skilmar's page

I know there are a lot of threads about the Dimensional feats out there, but I didn't find a clear answer to a question I have. The wording of Dimensional Assault is:

As a full-round action, you use abundant step or cast dimension door as a special charge. Doing so allows you to teleport up to double your current speed (up to the maximum distance allowed by the spell or ability) and to make the attack normally allowed on a charge.

This seems to say two different things. First, it is a "special charge", and I'm not sure what that means. Second, it allows a teleport and the ability to make the "attack normally allowed on a charge" -- which isn’t a charge..it’s a teleport and an attack. So, is Dimensional Assault considered a charge?

Two reasons why this matters in my current situation (GMing a Seeker party for PFS):

1. If it isn’t actually a charge, then all of the items, feats, etc. (ex: Belt of Thunderous Charging) that are affected by charge actions don't apply, and the charge to-hit bonus / AC reduction don't apply either. This interpretation makes logical sense to me because Dimensional Assault doesn't have any forward momentum associated with it. (I know that logical doesn't always equal RAW -- which matters, since this is PFS).

2. Specifically, this has come up with Pummeling Charge, which states that the Pummeling Strike attack is made as part of a charge action. If Dimensional Assault isn't a charge, you can't do Pummeling Charge with it. With a retrain at level 12, the combination of Dimensional Assault and Pummeling Charge is extremely powerful.

Thanks!

I'm going to be a table GM for a special for the first time -- Legacy of the Stonelords -- at a con at end of August. I'm comfortable doing normal GM prep: reading and looking up details ahead of time, drawing maps, printing chronicles and handouts, etc. I'm not quite sure what to do with all of the stat blocks, though. There are a lot of them and, while several people have kindly posted them as PDFs at the shared GM prep site, it's an awful lot of stuff to print out -- especially considering that I'm only going to run one subtier.

I've run from digital copies in the past, but that tends to be harder to organize and I find it slows me down.

Any tricks or tips for prepping to GM a special?

I did the following (using Chrome on my Android phone -- running Android 4.3):

Entered the website at http://paizo.com/pathfinderSociety . This was fine.

Clicked on the purple Paizo graphic in the upper left corner. This brought me to paizo.com/paizo.

Then I clicked on the Paizo Blog tab. The page started to load, but stalled indefinitely with the screen blank. The URL in the address bar was paizo.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Store.woa/wa/browse?path=paizo&tab=paizo .

I've had this happen many times using Chrome on my Android phone, Android tablet, and Chromebook. I think it has also happened when I've tried to go to paizo.com/paizo. I've tried clearing paizo cookies, and this seems to solve it for a few days -- then the same thing starts happening again. I can successfully get to the Paizo Blog page by clicking Paizo Blog in the navigation bar on the left (under Community).

This does not happen with any other websites that I browse with any of these devices.

Is this happening to anyone else?

I'm coordinating young players tables at a convention that will take place a couple of weeks after Gencon. This blog post mentioned 5 new Beginner Box adventures coming out at Gencon. I'd like to run these if they will be available. Has Paizo said anything about when these will be released as PDFs?

I'm coordinating young player PFS activities, including Kids Track and kids- and teen-only tables, for a convention in the during Labor Day weekend. I am looking for advice from people who have run similar events. My questions include:

How many tables did you run and what ages did you muster?
Did parents play with their kids?
What did you run in addition to Beginners Box?
What did you look for in GMs, and how did you recruit them?
How/where did you publicize?
What worked and what didn't? What do you wish you had done differently?

I'm asking a lot of questions, so feel free to send me a PM -- or I'd be happy to jump on the phone or Skype if it would be easier.

Thanks!

I was GMing today and had the following situation:

The setup:
The players approached a statue that was actually a monster. The players didn't know this (they needed to roll a Perception check). The adventure text said that as soon as the monster detects the players, it casts Shield on itself as a spell-like ability. Additionally, the monster doesn't animate and attack until a player crosses a certain line on the map.

What I did:
The monster detected the players long before they reached it, so I noted that Shield was cast. The players intentionally examined the monster and one of them made the perception roll, so I told them the statue wasn't a statue. Then, one of the players crossed the threshold. I told them that the monster started to move and I had everyone roll initiative. The monster rolled poorly and went last. One of the players tried to sneak attack and I ruled against -- I knew the monster had already acted by casting Shield and I said it was not flat-footed.

What I think I might have done instead:
Have the monster cast Shield as above, then wait until a player crosses the threshold. At that time, have everyone roll Perception (to detect that the monster wasn't a statue) and roll initiative. The monster and everyone who made the Perception check get to act in the Surprise round, and the monster is flat-footed until its turn.

What are the right rules for flat-footed, and how could I have run this better?

Thanks!

I'm going to be running City of Golden Death over three sessions at my local gaming store. The mod recommends that the party is 5th level before getting to the island and 6th level before getting to the third ring -- and suggests getting the party there via random encounters if they aren't otherwise. I know that these suggestions are not written with Society play in mind. That said, three of the last four encounters (CR 7, CR 7, and CR 8) will be pretty challenging for an under-leveled party -- and there isn't opportunity to rest between them. Right now, half the people signed up at the table are level 4.

I'd really love to be able to give people partial experience as they complete sessions (1 XP per session) so they could potentially level as they go along. I'm thinking something along the lines of:

- After each session, they can level as if they received 1 XP (statistically, 2/3 of the party should level over 2 sessions).
- They can't do anything that would require a city/town between sessions, since they are on the island. This would include buying, selling, spending prestige points, and acquiring new wizard spells.
- They'll receive chronicles once the adventure is complete. At that time, they can do everything normally.

This is counter to the rules for running modules in the Guide to Organized play. My concern is that without leveling during play they will have a hard time surviving -- especially in the last few encounters.

Am I worrying too much about party capabilities? Any other thoughts/suggestions for how to make this survivable?

I'm going to be GMing an adventure with monsters that have blind-fight, 10' reach (natural weapons), a propensity to drop Fog Clouds, and they travel in groups of 2-3. Assume the PCs do not have blind-fight or reach. For reference, definitions are:

Blind fight
In melee, every time you miss because of concealment (see Combat), you can reroll your miss chance percentile roll one time to see if you actually hit.
An invisible attacker gets no advantages related to hitting you in melee. That is, you don't lose your Dexterity bonus to Armor Class, and the attacker doesn't get the usual +2 bonus for being invisible. The invisible attacker's bonuses do still apply for ranged attacks, however.
You do not need to make Acrobatics skill checks to move at full speed while blinded.

Fog cloud
A bank of fog billows out from the point you designate. The fog obscures all sight, including darkvision, beyond 5 feet. A creature within 5 feet has concealment (attacks have a 20% miss chance). Creatures farther away have total concealment (50% miss chance, and the attacker can't use sight to locate the target).

Questions:
1. Is it correct that the monsters must be adjacent to a PC to threaten the PC, since they can't see PCs further than 5 ft away?
2. Is it correct that the monsters can only attack adjacent, and not 10 feet away even with reach, because they cannot see a PC 10 feet away? (Or is there a perception roll?)
3. If 1 and/or 2 is incorrect and the monster can attack more than 5 feet away, is it correct that the defending PC will be at -2 AC with no dex modifier to AC because the attacker is concealed?
4. Is it correct that if the monster is attacked from more than 5 feet away, the monster retains full AC because of blind-fight?
5. Is it correct that the monsters can move full speed in the fog cloud without an Acrobatics roll. The PCs can move at 1/2 speed.

Thanks!
Adam

I typically travel to Manhattan for about a week every few months on business, and I'd like to try and play PFS with a local group when I'm there. Any groups out there that I could potentially drop into for a night?

Thanks,
Adam