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Liberty's Edge

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Look at all these thin summoners. Pathetic. How do you plan to play wrestle with your eidolon when you can barely carry any Bulk? Hit the gyms.

One of my players is currently playing a god caller in my homebrew campaign set in Sarkoris. She's currently running her stats as [16-12-14-10-10-16] I believe. She's a level 3 human aasimar Beast Summoner with a Champion (Liberator) archetype, worshiper of Pulura from her clan's history with the Shimmering Maiden.

Essentially she's a second meat shield on the field for her team that supports her Eidolon. She was previously an Oracle/Beastmaster before the release of the Summoner playtest.

Mechanically the only thing that has happen so far is for her and her Sarkorian god to be run over by a giant beetle. It wasn't a good day for the god or god caller.

Liberty's Edge

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Ly'ualdre wrote:
Invictus Novo wrote:

I really hope the new iconic is a God Caller. The lore is just so great, and the opportunity to explore that culture would be awesome. That said, I have my doubts along with others as it seems an odd choice for her Eidolon to be a dragon time.

Going to hold out hope though until we know for sure.

I mean, there is the slim possibility that it is based on a Beast with a Dragons shape and abilities. This is highly possible with the way monster traits work now. Look at the Dracolisk, with both the Beast and Dragon traits. So it seems possible. But, I highly doubt it.

Godcalling eidolons come in many different forms and origins though. If I remember correctly, the founder of godcalling's eidolon was from the Elemental Plane of Water. It has also been specified that godcalling traditions are different between clans, and likely that Sarkorians fleeing from their homeland and being influence by new cultures.

Of course, could just be a character unrelated to godcalling all together, but I hope not!

Liberty's Edge

Multi-tradition is the most important thing for me and it was met.

Summoners can now reflect many different kinds of individuals in Golarion and help bring the fantasy of characters who can call upon a mystical ally to aid them. With the archetype system, this will only promote more flexibility.

More importantly the multi-tradition casting and eidolons permit Summoners to reflect different cultures and traditions in the setting. From Sarkorian godcallers, to Nidelese priests and their kytons, and other concepts.

I don't know how the mechanics will work out in the end, but from a narrative point of view I believe the Paizo staff has done a wonderful job of making the Summoner not only part of the setting of Golarion, but an integral piece to it. I like the fantasy of it and I'm happy to welcome the class into the game.

Liberty's Edge

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shroudb wrote:
SkylerJB wrote:

Actually the staff specifies

Quote:
The person who prepared a staff can expend the charges to cast spells from it. You can Cast a Spell from a staff only if you have that spell on your spell list, are able to cast spells of the appropriate level, and expend a number of charges from the staff equal to the spell’s level.

You are changing the wording. The staff never checks your spell slots. The requirements are that you have the spell on your spell list (which you di), able to cast spells of the appropriate level (you can, as you can use higher spell slots to cast spells of lower levels), and expend a number of charges (which you can).

It seems like the Paizo staff has also clarify this is how staves work.

you dont have appropriate spell slots.

you have higher level spellslots.

I cant see how "you can use higher level spell slots to cast lower level spells" somehow becomes "your higher level spellslots count as lower level spellslots as well".

A 9th level spellslot is a 9th level spell slot. It's not a 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 or 9th level spellslot despite what spells you are allowed to cast out of it.

I think I understand where you are confuse and I hope this example can help clarify things for you. I can see where you are making the mistake.

You believe staves check if you are have access to spell slots. The exact wording which I posted above is seeking [able to cast spells of the appropriate level].

Let's grab you Lesser Staff of Divination for the True Strike spell. Let us say our caster is a 5th level Magus.

The 5th level Magus has four spell slots. As specified by his Heightened Spells ability at level 2, he can choose to fill his spell slots with lower level spells.

But he doesn't need to do. Let us say our Magus has True Strike in his spellbook. We have to investigate, can the Magus cast spells of the appropriate level? Which is can he cast level 1 spells so he can use the Lesser Staff of Divination.

Yes. The Magus is capable of doing so. He can use any of his spell slots to prepare True Strike as a 1st level spell. He is thus capable of casting spells of the appropriate level (1).

As he is able to prepare and cast True Strike, and thus able to cast spells of the appropriate level, he is thus able to use the True Strike from his Lesser Staff of Divination.

I hope that clarifies it for you buddy. I can see the confusion between your choice of words [Appropriate Spell Slots] and the wording of the staff instructions [able to cast spells of the appropriate level] but this should show you how it is done.

Liberty's Edge

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Actually the staff specifies

Quote:
The person who prepared a staff can expend the charges to cast spells from it. You can Cast a Spell from a staff only if you have that spell on your spell list, are able to cast spells of the appropriate level, and expend a number of charges from the staff equal to the spell’s level.

You are changing the wording. The staff never checks your spell slots. The requirements are that you have the spell on your spell list (which you di), able to cast spells of the appropriate level (you can, as you can use higher spell slots to cast spells of lower levels), and expend a number of charges (which you can).

It seems like the Paizo staff has also clarify this is how staves work.

Liberty's Edge

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MaxAstro wrote:

EDIT: You know what just occurred to me that would be really nice? An option to Sustain a spell prepared with Striking Spell if you haven't discharged it yet, maybe up to a minute.

That would give the Magus some nice ambush potential, and a way to recoup their losses if they have bad luck.

My group won't be playtesting the Magus so I'm more or less spending my time going to be observing how the community reacts. I feel the weird action economy of the Magus will be more group dependent than most as people figure out how viable it is for how their tables play.

But your suggestion is the one thing I feel the Magus is missing. I can't help but feel *bad* for a Magus player who stores a spell but bad dice rolls ends up causing the spell to fizzle before it has chance to proc. It's one thing to fail your Spell Attack or the enemy passes their Saving Throw. It's another to know your spell doesn't discharge cause you just couldn't quite land that blow and now you lost one of your four precious spell slots of the day and the actions committed to it.

Liberty's Edge

cartmanbeck wrote:
SkylerJB wrote:
cartmanbeck wrote:

First major question about the mechanics:

The Summoner and Eidolon share a pool of HP. Whose Constitution score do you use for this? Does this mean that summoners (other than if they use the Synthesis feat) need to have excellent Constitution in order to keep their eidolon from being a weakling?

Summoner. The Eidolon section specifies you and your Eidolon share *your* Hit Points. Summoner Hit Points are d10 + their Constitution mod.

Its good to treat the new Summoner as a martial/caster hybrid. Summomer handles spellcasting while the Eidolom handles martial combat, but they share their fate together.

The Eidolon gets a Con score to help determine its Saving Throw and any Con checks I presume.

I agree, but does this change when you use the Synthesis feats? Because it says: "While manifested in this way, you use your eidolon’s statistics." So do you gain a bunch of hit points from your eidolon's Con score, and they disappear if you de-manifest the eidolon? Is this now the new Rage-then-dead-Barbarian?

Good question. I would assume that you do change your Hit Points to your Eidolon as you are using their statistics. That does mean Rage-then-dead-Barbarian situation can happen. I'm not sure if this is RAI. Time to post in the Playtest forums!

Liberty's Edge

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cartmanbeck wrote:

First major question about the mechanics:

The Summoner and Eidolon share a pool of HP. Whose Constitution score do you use for this? Does this mean that summoners (other than if they use the Synthesis feat) need to have excellent Constitution in order to keep their eidolon from being a weakling?

Summoner. The Eidolon section specifies you and your Eidolon share *your* Hit Points. Summoner Hit Points are d10 + their Constitution mod.

Its good to treat the new Summoner as a martial/caster hybrid. Summomer handles spellcasting while the Eidolom handles martial combat, but they share their fate together.

The Eidolon gets a Con score to help determine its Saving Throw and any Con checks I presume.

Liberty's Edge

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zergtitan wrote:
Is that a Child or a Gnome?

Maybe I'm bias as I've been doing a Sarkoris Scar campaign, but the new iconic looks like a young Sarkorian godcaller. I hope so, an iconic of Sarkoris is pretty exciting and I hope it brings attention to the region beyond just demons and the Worldwound.

Liberty's Edge

Is that iconic a god-caller?

Liberty's Edge

Hi James,

So my group just began a new homebrew campaign set in the Sarkorian Scar where our young band of heroes will hopefully set the course to help reclaim and purify the land in a long-term campaign. I'm very excited about it. Your own homebrew in Ravounel, as well as finding glimpses of your old office campaign of Sandpoint/Orision really inspire me to take part of the setting and make it my own for me and my group. I've always done Adventure Paths but this is my serious attempt to tell a story in Golarion and I want to thank you for providing me the spark to try to make my own story.

Now my question is in regards to the Sarkorian's practice of god-calling. It was previously a Summoner archetype which means it has its roots in the Arcane. Since the Summoner is not available yet, one of my players is going to play a god-caller by using the Beastmaster archetype as a substitute for an eidolon for the time-being. After all, many old Sarkorian gods are mystical beasts in appearance. In your own personal opinion, would god-calling still be a tradition rooted in the Arcane? Or do you believe it would lean more towards the Divine/Primal considering it comes from a basis of faith or the Sarkorian deep history in nature? Or heck, each god-caller finds their eidolon through their own method? To summarize: what magic tradition would best suit a god-caller? Thank you for your time.

Liberty's Edge

StephenOfOlde wrote:
Super excited to run this AP (my first time running an AP), but I had one thing I was confused by. It was my understanding things tagged "Uncommon" had specific unlock requirements, but I couldn't find anything that said how Players could unlock being able to use the Juggler or Staff Acrobat archetype, or learn the new spells in the volume. Is the unlock requirement just that they're playing this adventure?

I believe some of the spells can be found as scrolls in this AP.

From the top of my head I don't remember the rarity rules all too well but generally speaking anything that is uncommon can be access by a PC should the GM permit it. Essentially, if my memory is correct, common is under the assumption that PCs can access that resource at anytime. Uncommon is not obtainable unless it is found or the GM give's the green light for the player to take it.

I know in my case, my players all have access to the new player options for this AP and one of them has chosen to be a Juggler.

Liberty's Edge

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Cyprion wrote:
Ron Lundeen wrote:

10 is a good starting number to use if you want to ease into the circus with a fairly straightforward introduction to the circus rules (a good thing, right at the beginning). Yes, it's hard to get 15.

I want to emphasize for other GMs, 15 isn't just hard, it's all but impossible for lvl 1 characters to reach with tricks alone. A +2 to +3 net gain from random events is necessary if you think the PCs should have even a small chance to succeed.

But as you mentioned, at higher levels it should tune well, especially since the PC's can choose how much anticipation to start with in the first place.

Thanks for the calculations Cyprion. It made me review the opening performance. I've been working on adding more to the opening session to give more flavor to the circus mechanics. Here is a few quick ideas to help bolster the odds of the PCs being successful by rewarding their investment into the play.

As a reminder there is two events that generate extra Excitement. Aiding the Kanbali family and dealing with the vipers will net a +3 bonus. Keep these in mind.

1. For level 1, grant an additional +1 to Excitement for Critical Success with Perform a Trick. Alternatively reduce the additional Anticipation to 0. Or both. Regardless it would be a good idea for a Critical Success to feel good for the PCs to achieve at level 1.

2. The PCs earn an additional +1 Excitement for when they successfully handle the Drunks and Ruffians, for a total of +2 Excitement. This will make the not-performing PCs feel they are contributing to the show and earning a reward for resolving a problem properly.

3. Some of the NPCs have access to two separate checks for Perform a Trick, with one often being better than the other. Grant an additional +1 Excitement for each additional check used during an trick. Otherwise I see no reason for an NPC or a higher level PC to use their lower bonus checks. For example Elizia has Intimidation and Nature. If she uses both, her final Excitement total will generate one additional point.

4. Give purpose to the different Acts of the show. If the Opener is successful, reduce the DC for the remaining Acts. If the Build-Up is successful, increase the Anticipation of the show and grant a bonus to the Big Number. For the Big Number, feel free to make it to star of the night by having it generate additional Excitement. Lastly, the Finale encourage teamwork between the three performers by granting bonus Excitement should they costar. Little modifications like these can help make each Act feel purposeful and help the PCs engage on where they and their NPC cast fit best.

All these little bonuses can add up overtime to help the players succeed their very first show. Each table and GM obviously needs to understand what their players want, but on a personal level I find nothing is more exciting than having all the player's contribution and choices come together to bring the opening day into a smashing success. You want the players to enjoy this and having a blast scrambling to get the show working.

Liberty's Edge

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I am currently running a fresh campaign with a a couple of sessions set on a border town between Kyonin, Five King Mountains and Galt.

None of these regions felt really develop in the APs so they feel like a good place to start as a baseline Pathfinder high fantasy adventure. Enough story hooks from old source books and the area is rip for a long term campaign, while being generously open to several character concepts.

Liberty's Edge

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Hey Bramble,

I believe the Redeemer Queen is a Chaotic Neutral deity, yes? The new Lost Omen setting has far more strict guidelines for who the gods accept as followers of their faith. The system is no longer being within one step of your god's alignment, as much as each deity has a specific list of alignments they accept for divine followers.

At the moment we have no official information on Nocticula as far as I can see, so it will be up to your gamemaster to homebrew something until then. They have to make the call if Nocticula accepts Chaotic Good worshippers.

From what I remember of her, I can easily see her being open to a liberator champion being in her service. If you're okay with coming up with some material for your favorite goddess with your GM, I strongly encourage you to do so and explore the new champion!

Cheers!

Liberty's Edge

bookrat wrote:

Funny thing is - even as I made a thread to b&%@# about Barricade, one of my players saw that feat and thought it was the most awesome feat in the book.

Goes to show how different we all are. :)

This.

For me, it is pretty clear not all players are as creative with what they can do in PF and SF. For some players, what their sheets tell them they can do helps inspire their actions in a game. Just as much as I have players who prefer using their creative thinking over searching feats or features to do it for them.

Diversion is a perfect example of this. I know I would have some players who just ask me if they can distract some guards by roleplaying something out. Just as much as I know that I have players who rather have a concrete mechanical rules that permits them to do this which this feat provides.

I permit both and everyone is happy at my table.

Liberty's Edge

Not sure if someone said this, but carbonedge shurikens in my game will probably be operative weapons. Something just feels off about them not being operative weapons. My cyborg ninjas should be able to use their dexterity and trick attacks with their shurikens!

Liberty's Edge

Last question before I head out. Thanks for the quick answers! It is clear you believe the Operative is superior to the Envoy. How would you address the issue so the Operative wouldn't step on the Envoy's niche at a table? I have a player with an early copy who's excited to play the Envoy. If the Operative and Envoy at my table split their focus on different skill sets, would they both shine in their departments in the end?

Thanks for everything by the way. Your thread open plenty of discussion among my group about how we plan to address things when we start our first game.

Liberty's Edge

Another question! How easy do you think it will be for characters to fill out different roles on a Starship? Do classes seem restricted to certain roles or can anyone with a bit of fine tuning end up in the role they like? Thanks!

Liberty's Edge

Hey Masha! Softer question: how is healing in Starfinder?

Liberty's Edge

I think the party archetypes are the selling feature here for me. If I have some spare cash to throw around I might buy it to take a look at those goodies. I very rarely buy 3PP but the party archetype concept sounds like a winning concept to me.

My only worries is that only four are mention here. Did I miss it being mention elsewhere or are there more then four?

Liberty's Edge

Happy New Years from Northern Ontario, Canada! May the rest of you not suffer our current flash freeze! May 2013 bring joy and happiness to you all!

Liberty's Edge

1d100 ⇒ 48 = Nixie
1d100 ⇒ 70 = Spriggan
1d100 ⇒ 99 = Mul (half-human/half-dwarf hybrid)
1d100 ⇒ 38 = Grippli
1d100 ⇒ 38 = Grippli

Let see what I get...

EDIT: Interesting I got a double race on this. Look's like I'm aiming for a swamp/forest like setting...

Liberty's Edge

@gutnedawg: My group usually loves simple straight forward stuff. The only time they like to twist their minds is when I throw puzzles at them which they indeed greatly love. I have to agree though sometimes I do make dungeons a bit more difficult then what my party can handle which drags games on. The amount encounters per dungeon always throws me a bit off.

@Trinite: As much as stealing would save me time and I have no shame of doing when prep. time is short, I do wish to improve as an individual GM. I've have use old dungeon maps before and filled them with my own work. It's a big time saver during exam times that's for sure ;P

Still... The funnest part of DMing is building a world fill with your own imagination and hard work and then seeing your players travel through it. Last week I ran my first successful dungeon that my player's heavily praise me for and I was filled with pride about my work. I want to try to improve myself so I can feel proud about what 'I' accomplish even if my player's would never know the difference between a pre-made map and my own. It's a self accomplishment goal and I'm sure you understand :)

@eleclipse: Actually speaking about pyramids I've been looking for information about them as my player's are approaching one soon. I would be nice to have some idea of how they were actually design. Would you mind sharing?

@darth borehd: Same reason as Trinite as why I would like to learn myself ;)

Still that tutorial for old school maps brings me back when I first found my father's D&D modules in a box. Those maps were what that got me into the game in the first place. Thank you so much for sharing the tutorial!

Also for your question I'm currently studying Game Development. Level Design is a 2nd year course we take for two semesters.

@Saganen Hellheart: Wow thank you so much Saganen! This is precisely what I've needed! Your help was both inspiring and useful and I will definitely keep your example in mind when I develop my own dungeons. Thank you :)

Liberty's Edge

I think, Geno, you're playing a totally different game then the rest of us here with house rules of yours. While I'm not criticizing how your group plays you do have to understand then when you bring up your own 'arguments' you're by yourself on this one. We don't know the rules which are permitted or not. Heck are there even limits?

The other posters are right when they say most things are only hitting an AC of around 25~30. You say 'it happens'... Sure it does but it only happens at your gaming table. The standard creatures don't. So how are we suppose to min-max when we are suppose to be min-maxing for your table and your rules?

dustries wasn't wrong when she/(he?) said a full attack was stronger then your vital strike. By NORMAL standards it would be your best options. Then you bring in your own table rules and suddenly she's wrong? The same happen to Lumiere.

You aren't really min/maxing at this point as much as you are breaking all the standard rules that everyone else follow to get a character design to fight the overpowered enemies at your table.

tl dr; Short story is that it's near impossible to min/max with you as you use utterly different rules and complete different mindset.

Liberty's Edge

Thanks for the help you two! I'll put your advice to good use. Both a clever answers. Hopefully I can pull off my next dungeon well enough :)

Liberty's Edge

First off let me start off by declaring my problem. I'm pretty terrible at designing 'Dungeons' in Pathfinder. Actually in my years of experience as a GM I've never once ever consider myself strong in that area.

Now that is to say I don't consider myself inexperience. I'm pretty confident in my skills as a GM and I have a strong grasp on pretty much everything. The thing is when it comes to developing a dungeon delve wherever it's a haunted mansion or a old ruin temple leading to an underground labyrinth I can't seem to do it. I spend wasteful hours in front of graph papers and note sheets to end up blank or tearing the paper away in frustration.

Generally I'm a GM who likes to prepare way ahead of time. I have my entire plot plan, NPCs flesh out, store list written out, villages drawn and so on. I like to be prepared. For whatever reason I always waste hours away just trying to build those damn dungeon crawls that my players love. For a while I put them aside for the wilderness and urban adventures but I know my player's aren't always satisfied by that and personally even I want to run a dungeon or two. It just I can't seem to grasp the concept right.

So what I'm asking for aid. How do you, fellow GMs, do it? How to manage to build these 'dungeons'? Do you guys just wing it or is there a pattern you follow? I would appreciate any advice really.

Of course I presume some specifications would help so here's my biggest issue is drawing/designing dungeons. I'm terrible at level design. (Fail my level design course in college as well. Just isn't my calling.) Is there anything out there that could give me some sort of guidelines of how a dungeon should be build? Like how a entrance should be done and all the rooms that connect.

I look at other dungeons and I just can't seem to grasp how people end up with the results. For myself I start with the entrance and try to design the following rooms and then things just spiral downwards as I feel the place is fake. I'm a by-the-book kind of person and without guidelines I have a hard time coming up with stuff.

Liberty's Edge

Gorbacz wrote:

Why the snark? Some kind of novel therapy there?

Every odd level gets you a feat.

What if you class dip a single level or something? Next thing you know you hit level Something 1/Brawler 5 and *poof* you got nothing special just some good old BAB, skills and hp. It's a very, very boring level up.

Liberty's Edge

Hey Milliken funny thing one of my PCs was just afflicted a couple of sessions ago and here is how I run it.

My player is a NG Druid who is fully aware of his condition. Unfortunately he has long since miss the change to cure himself. We work on some house rules where he has to roll will saves to maintain control of his werewolf form.

Generally speaking becoming a werewolf shouldn't be an advantage to a PC. It's a curse and a PC should desire to be rid of it or at least fear it. Either way when it comes to alignment my Druid stays NG when he enter his werewolf form. In my opinion the individual itself is still good but when he loses control the werewolf form takes over. He retains his alignment as I feel it's more like an raging violent creature on the loose then it is his own actions.

Generally speaking a werewolf is 'assume' to be a uncontrollable monster. It's really all up to your DM and how he handles it. If he wants to make you a raging beast then that's what becomes of you. I don't think you deserve an alignment change over something you have no control over. I mean when your character isn't a werewolf isn't he still just himself?