I'm a little vague. What were the PCs doing before they found themselves in a cell? Were they working in the asylum, or were they inmates? The prologue suggests this all took a day or two of the tatterman burning through the asylum population, and the PCs accompanied the cthonic rite that freed him. At some point they became amnesiacs. Do their memories start when they wake up in the cell? Did the tatterman strip their memories when he 'killed' them?
Wow. That was some bad, bad web design. I went to purchase some fine paizo products. I got to checkout. Credit card out of date. Okay. Put in new credit card number. Whats this, select address. Okay. Old address. WHAT?! Credit card info cleared, have to re-key. Click order.
......
......
What is this screen? Its some gobbledigook and a link for "If you are not slaughterwombat".
Check cart. Cart still full.
Try to check out again. Card declined (I know its good).
Okay. I quit.
1)Ask for address first, or don't reset credit card data when you put in the address.
2)If the order process goes sideways, have a screen that explains what happened and how to get back on track.
I actually didn't like the idea of Vancaskerin as evil. I re-jiggered him as a failed criminal who discovered Desna, goddess of luck, (or vice versa) and is trying to start up this casino to bring luck to those who really need it. And also to take money from the many wicked folks of Riddleport. I retooled Samaritha Beldusk as the puppetmaster, making her a lvl 5 witch in league with the Drow. I backed her up with some lvl 2 and 3 thugs, and a good fight occurred.
(I also made this change in case any of my players were reading up on the module, and thinking Vancaskerin was the villain and Samaritha was an ally, they would be sunk by their own cheating).
LOL. I JUST ran this encounter last week. My six person party of 3/3/3/3/4/4 made short work of Zincher. This is an old mod and most of the encounters are for 3.5 characters and with 3.5 characters, so they aren't very tough. I've been beefing up some of the encounters, but hadn't adjusted this one.
Honestly, there a few points where the narrative implies the party would work with/ally with people they wouldn't necessarily have a reason to.
The very first scene, where the golden goblin is robbed, the PCs actually have zero incentive to do anything but take the money and run. They don't have a pre-existing relationship. Vancaskerin means nothing to them and isn't presented as being very appealing.
I'm trying to find a good blending of PF and sci-fi. The main sticking point is weapons appropriate to the setting. Using swords and breastplates in the 23rd century is just deliberately thick or lazy. Right now I'm thinking weapons that are a blend of touch attacks (lazers and needlers) and regular attacks (slug throwers)with some grenade-types. Armor would be straight armor (heavier armor) deflection armor (force fields) and DR (heavy armor). I'm actually very surprised nobody has tried to do a sci-fi or at least Spelljammer PF mashup. Its been a few years. The market space is pretty empty. I also haven't seen anybody pick up the point-based D20 fusion of Silver Aged Sentinels/BESM D20, which was my first choice for a chassis.
And i must admit that i find the evangalist to be one of the strengest cleric Archtypes in the game.
Welp, I'm def back to the drawing board then. The reduced armor on the evang means he can't be melee. The reduced channel nerfs his heal....
Hmm. Its looking more and more like summoner.
Did you mean to say strongest or strangest? I could see either. Archetypes, in general, are weaker than their base classes imho. The evangelist is a big lateral jump.
I played a summoner wizard a year or two ago, so I didn't want to build yet another summoner, but I'll think about it. I'm also the only healer, although in pathfinder, that just means I hold the wand of CLW.
Archer and growth are pretty good. You go from shooting 1d8 arrows to shooting 2d6 arrows. And if we have a 2H melee type, I can quick buff them to truly grotesque damage output.
I like bards, but I've kind of settled on making evangelist work. That's kind of my thing, taking sub-optimal classes/archetypes and tweaking them to effectiveness.
I liked the idea of the evangelist archetype, but couldn't figure out how to make one charismatic. Right now I have an archer evangelist build, with the growth domain.
Any ideas of how I could make evangelist sort of effective in combat with high wis, con and cha? It just seems silly to be an 'evangelist' with a 10 Cha, but when I try and build noncombat cha skills, I end up with someone kind of useless except as a buffer.
I also took alertness and perception through a trait, so I could have a strong perception and sense motive. (He's also a bit of a detective)
When I first saw the class, the lvl 2 poison use, lvl 4 studied strike left me a little mystified.
SS is very sub-par to SA. Poison use is okay, but a little resource intensive. I think they should, *at the very least* flip them, so you get SS at 2, and poison use at 4. I also think SS should be a move action to activate.
My comparison to the Investigator would be the bard, who outshines the investigator hugely. By lvl 5, bard song is a +2/+2 to the WHOLE party. This is about what SS gets for the investigator only. (+3 +1d6 at lvl 6). At lvl 7 bard song becomes a move action. And the bard spell list is FAR superior to the alchemist/investigator. In terms of being a skill monkey, the investigator edges the bard. They are the master of knowledge skills. But bard song has way more flexibility than inspirations.
When you bring in clerics and inquisitors, its really obvious Investigators desperately need love.
I'd really like some inspiration-based combat paths that use inspirations in different ways (burn an inspiration for a +1d6/2 lvls poison application, or 1d6/rd with a DC of lvl+int, combat maneuvers are a free inspiration use, etc.)
I hear they do nothing except try and full attack all day in combat and out of combat they dont really have the skills for anything useful (combined with the fact that almost all of their skills use dump stats for modifiers...).
None of the combat maneveurs seem useful unless you are fighting predominantly humanoid enemies. Trying to disarm a dragon or trip a hydra generally does not work well.
Its pathfinder. If you want variety in your class, you play a caster. Most of the combat-intensive classes have one or two special abilities. As far as the feats, most combat-types don't go with sunder/trip trees, focusing more on crit or something more broadly focused. But if you want to play Pathfinder, you can expect to do the same thing most combats, for 70% of the classes. If you want more flexibility, you probably want a different system, or a caster class.
THREAD LICH!
If anybody finds this thread, I thought I'd mention the only game I really liked for Sci Fi 3.5/PF was Big Eyes Small Mouth D20 and its sister game, Silver Age Sentinels D20. Both were made by turning the class benefits of 3.5 classes into points and then creating new classes for anime. Anime, as you may know, includes a lot of sci-fi stuff. So there are classes like Gunbunny, Mech Pilot, Ninja and Sentai (a sort of teamwork specialist). Best of all the system allowed you to find your own power level by giving your characters a bag of points they could use to buy abilities. Silver Age Sentinels was their supers approach, but a lot of sci-fi tropes (cyborgs, mecha, telepaths) are pretty superpowered.
I looked at Saga and I found it to be pretty underpowered, even compared to 3.5, and after pathfinder its just too vanilla for me to wrap my head around. One of the selling points was that you could mix and match their classes with the OGL classes. You could do the same with PF, you'd just have to give the classes more points to match the higher starting power levels.
True, but I compare it to shocking grasp and it is superior in every way. I'd balance it as written as 2nd lvl, but that's just me, if it's legal in the books, don't feel guilty over my opinion
I think that's more a function of the fact that Wizard spells were subtly nerfed, while fighter types got a bigger toolbox. Shocking grasp was rad in 3.5. In Pathfinder, its comparatively underpowered. Wizards dmg hasn't increased, but everyone else's has, so they are better off locking down enemies with control spells than trying to damage them down. Grease, for example, will probably put two enemies on the ground for a round. When most combats last two rounds, that's as good as killing an opponent. See also color spray vs. burning hands.
/facepalm I didn't read that far. That's a kind of silly rule honestly. If an attack hits with greater precision for more dmg, it shouldn't make a difference if its coming in an arrow or a streak of flame, but those are the rules.
I think snowball is powerful, but a bow fighter can do 2 shots at +7/+7 1d8+3/1d8+3, every round at lvl 5. After to hits that will be less than snowball, but he can do it EVERY ROUND. A dual wielding rogue will be doing +6/+6 4d6/4d6 from flank position. EVERY ROUND.
A wizard has a limited number of first level spells and I think a spell that pretty much only does damage isn't that bad. By comparison, a sleep spell does about as much dmg effectively, since it will usually take out 3 hd of critters. About 17hp.
Hi. I'm building my 3rog/3wiz admixture tiefling ray arcane trickster. I just hit 6th and I wanted input on feats.
Right now I have: Point Blank, Precise, Arcane Armor
I read the Highly Regarded Expert guide and with that in mind I'd like feat suggestions. I'm debating:
Deadly Aim. Essentialy an extra sneak dice, which becomes two with my first lvl of AT. Right now I have +8 to hit. With DA it will lock at +7 until lvl 8. This sounds like a good number for my rays since I will be using touch attacks against flat footed enemies 70% of the time.
Imp. Init. You know it, you love it.
I've considered toughness, but I have a 14 con and I should be okay for HPs.
Ditto imp. fort.
I also am thinking about Armor Of The Pit (+2 AC for tieflings). +2 AC is pretty awesome, but I stay out of combat pretty efficiently.
I play him in a Pathfinder Society Game, but so far he's pulled his weight once I got past the tough sniper rogue lvls. Being a rogue without weap finesse is TOUGH.
Now I'm well into my gravy phase, with vanish, snowball, and three 1st level pearls of power. I'm particularly excited about this lvl because I get my 2nd lvl spells. No, not scorching ray. Fiery Shuriken.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/f/fiery-shuriken
Which is like a love letter to ray ATs. I can shoot 3 missiles, 2xDay, for 1d8... +2d6+1. So 3d8+6d6+3. /monoclepop This is where the deadly aim would come in, as it would become 3d8+6d6+9, and then 3d8+6d6+15 next lvl.
So. Any other feats beyond Deadly Aim and Improved Init anybody can suggest?
This is on top of my 5d6+2d6 Snowball.
The Aspis Consortium just isn't making it. Its like being opposed by 7-11. They're too generic. What do they stand for? What are their motives? How are they different from other evil entities?
I realize there are only so many mods available, but I'm sure in the richness of Golarion, there are other organizations to oppose the pathfinders. Lets see some of them.
How many people have had their party, having had to choose high tier and low tier, chose high? What were the consequences?
The results were widely variable depending mostly on: Season of the mod we were playing. (Season 1 or 2, no biggie, Season 3 or 4, harder)
And the optimization of the characters party. An all-striker party, where the only healing was a wand of cure light wounds, had a much tougher time than the well-balanced party.
Gratuitous (Leeeeroy Jeeeenkins!!) stupidity could also play a role, but ours are pickup games where you showed up and got random people, but the pool of playes was stable. You didn't know the people well enough to think the GM and other players would put up with you being an idiot, but it also wasn't a one-off where you could tank the adventure and never see anybody again.
I've never played or GMed a TPK, but playing high usually meant running long. The combats lasted a LOT longer.
I will say that much of my experience has been spent leveling a witch from 1 to 12, and HE pretty much singlehandedly destroyed numerous encounters, up to and including one shotting a CR 15 or 16 dragon with a very lucky baleful polymorph. But that was pretty much his thing. You fail a save, the combat ended as you either slept, or sat there whiffing while he cackled because you had to make all the attacks twice.
I just played this tonight and was pretty frustrated. Its possible my GM left out some critical information that would have helped make sense of this. The first hour was prepping for a siege. Cool concept. Love the premise. Here were the problems in the execution:
:
The mission was framed as an escort mission. We did some shopping. For an escort mission. We arrive at our destination and discover its a Rorkes Drift/Aliens 2 mission. So I hit my first major complaint. The mission giver couldn't have told us we were going to be defending from an assault? We could have bought supplies like greek fire, smoke bombs, or whatever.
Now we have an hour or so to prep defenses. How did we know an assault was coming? The GM never mentioned this but perhaps it was in the mod somewhere.
Complaint #2. The mission giver hired us the DAY BEFORE. If time was so critical, why didn't we leave THAT DAY?
Complaint #3. This was a big one. If you didn't have knowledge:engineering, or craft: traps, or maybe knowledge:survival, you pretty much sat on your thumbs during the prep for the assault. Again, this could have been our GM, but most of my party spent the prep feeling useless. To know what I consider pretty much the Gold Standard for this sort of scenario, try and find a copy of the Tides Of Dread from the Savage Tide adventure path. Same basic scenario (pirate assault coming, prepare a villages defenses), but a LOT more options and ways to be helpful.
Complaint #4. This isn't as big, but always a pet peeve in any adventure. The NPCs are morons/jerks. The mission giver did NOTHING to contribute to her own survival or the one guy we held the tea ceremony with. Also: There's a force coming to assault the house and we're holding a TEA CEREMONY?!
Complaint #5. The assault force arrives. The NPCs immediately leave. Half the table was like "Fine, we go with them." "Thats not your mission." So we are defending an EMPTY house? Apparently so.
Complaint #6. Nothing you did mattered. The house got burned downed ("Four sorcerors begin bombarding the house with fireballs.") and the NPCs are intercepted by the Big Bad.
I mean. Really. Once again. 5th Module in Savage Tides. Check it out for how to do this right.
I've found the list of 25 modules which are PFS legal and the records documents. I had one question: are characters who play the modules given 2xp rather than the usual 1? Are there any other niceties I should be aware of for running a mudule rather than a scenario? I'm assuming the module would be run over two (or one very long) sessions?
*LIGHTBULB!*
That use of bag of holding for Med. mounts is GENIUS. I still have a lot of encounters at the bottoms of ladders/ropes/ponds, but this would negate the whole "I haul my wolf/velociraptor up with a rope" lameness.
I couldn't really reccomend a medium cavalier with a large mount in most campaigns. Just too much of a headache.
Hi. I'm trying to build a Halfling Beast Rider Cavalier for Pathfinder Society open play. The groups will be potluck. The only constant will be my brother, who is currently planning on playing a bard. As such, I have gone Order of Dragon, with a challenge buff that stacks with bardsong.
I'm going Halfling beastrider because I didn't want to lose the mount benefit, which would happen a LOT in PF (lots of dungeons/indoor). I think a wolf with bardsong and my challenge would be pretty cool.
Can I give my wolf a teamwork feat at the appropriate level, or is that gratuitous cheese? (As a GM, I would give a wolf a teamwork feat because, THEY'RE WOLVES)
Are there any other suggestions? With small weapons and the str hit, I debated weapon finesse, but I think my first level feat will be mounted cbt. I'm thinking my starting teamwork feat will be safe passage.
Really just looking for feedback/suggestions.
