Slithy's page

Note that while a wizard may have many spells in his spell book, many of these spells won't see active use and/or will decline in usefulness as the character levels up. Other casting classes don't actually need as many spells. For example, there are quite a few spells that are dependent on the hit dice of the target, like sleep and cause fear. A 12th level magic user won't get a lot of use out of a spell that only affects targets with four or five hit dice. You may want a spell like this for a lower level sorcerer, but you should use the following rule to swap it out for more useful as you level up:

Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even-numbered sorcerer level after that (6th, 8th, and so on), a sorcerer can choose to learn a new spell in place of one she already knows. In effect, the sorcerer loses the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell's level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged. A sorcerer may swap only a single spell at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that she gains new spells known for the level.

If you want to have access to hundreds of spells written in dozens of volumes of spellbooks, play a wizard. However, be aware that the limitation is that you have to have access to the spellbooks. If your spellbooks are lost, stolen, or destroyed, or if you are blinded and can't read your books, or if you wake up tied to a chair, then reading the spellbooks will be a problem. (And yes, that's spellbooks plural: a spellbook is 100 pages and each spell takes one page per level. A wizard needs to carry a library for the way most players play wizards.)

So one thing to consider here is how many pages Redrum's spells add up to. Would this end up being multiple volumes at 100 pages each? And if so, were all of the volumes lost or destroyed? There may be an opportunity to work with your DM to come to a compromise where one volume (and its included spells) was lost but the other volumes were still in your bag.

Finally, this is really the key advantage of playing a sorcerer: you always have your spells. Thrown in prison? Not a problem. Washed ashore after a shipwreck? No big deal.

Here's another thought: If the PCs are distracted by this side story, then I would have the main story come roaring back in a way that is somewhat related (and made a lot worse) by this side story.

I don't know much about your campaign, so I am making something up here:
The lead henchman for the big bad rolls into town wanting to know why the town missed their tribute payment yet again. He's unimpressed by the excuse of a linnorm eating part of the town. "All past-due accounts blame a monster attack. You think burning down a couple of abandoned shacks is going to convince me that a linnorm was here? Next time try something a little more plausible. The last town at least showed me some owlbear carcasses." The henchman announces that he will be back in a week with his troops to collect the tribute plus 50% late fee or they will raze the town, salt the earth, pour sugar in the gnomish tinker-engines, and so on. At this point the townsfolk beg the PCs to help them deal with this more pressing threat. They should explain that the linnorm is probably going to sleep for weeks or months after its big meal anyway.

It sounds like the players are mistaking a monster that should be an eventual foe 10 or so levels from now for an adventure hook that they should actively pursue now. I have a few thoughts about this.

I would empower the players to make an informed decision about approaching this monster. Have them encounter the high-level survivors of a failed attempt to attack the monster. (They can't be the only one who want justice after it ate 15% of the city.) These survivors should be traumatized and describe in detail the awful details of what happened to them despite being powerful warriors. In addition, have the local elder describe the long history and legends of all of the visiting heroes who have been eaten and maimed by this monster. Let the elder advise them that he doesn't think that they're anywhere near the league of this monster...not without more training, better weapons, and spells. Also have them encounter the aftermath of another battle between the monster and another clearly ferocious beast...which has been torn to shreds.

However, this is a game of risk followed by rewards and/or consequences. You can leave hints, clues, or encouragement, but don't railroad the players or pigeonhole them into certain outcomes. If they can't be dissuaded from taking this monster head-on, well, that's their choice. Maybe they'll surprise you. Or maybe they'll get eaten.

Thread necromancy...but I feel like commenting on this game.

I've been playing this for a while. So far I haven't spent a penny on it, and I have built up a pretty decent collection.

As mentioned above, play the weekly tavern brawls for the free pack.

There are lots of intro quests which are not advertised until you stumble across them. There are online guides that list all of these if you want to make sure that you have caught them all. Some of them offer gold, others offer free packs.

Keep on top of the daily quests to get gold. If you have limited time, try to work on multiple quests at the same time.

The various adventures offer specific cards. A few of them are quite nice, and you should probably target the adventures that grant good cards. If you are starting out, the first wing (module) of League of Explorers is the way to go: you get the roaring torch, adventurer's hat, and Reno Jackson, which are all decent cards for beginning players.

If you reach level 20 in ranked play you get the free monthly card back. Since you can't lose ranks below 20 theoretically anyone can reach level 20 given enough patience.

Yes, sorcerers get unlimited casting of their 0-level cantrip spells, as described below:

Cantrips: Sorcerers learn a number of cantrips, or 0-level spells, as noted on Table: Sorcerer Spells Known under “Spells Known.” These spells are cast like any other spell, but they do not consume any slots and may be used again.

"Mummified creature" is an acquired template that can be added to any living corporeal creature (hereafter referred to as the base creature).
(...)
"Zombie lord" is an acquired template that can be added to any corporeal creature (other than undead) that has a minimum Intelligence of 3.

A quick rules question here: the entry requirements for these two templates are described somewhat differently. One starts with a living creature, the other starts with a creature that is not undead. So does this mean that a construct (corporeal, not undead) with an Int score of 3 or above can become a zombie lord? That strikes me as a bit odd.

How large is the image compared to the rest of the T-shirt? Is the image printed on the front or is this one of those biking style T-shirts where there is a small logo in the front and a large image on the back? Ideally I would like to see a T-shirt with a large image printed on the front.

what if its two similar things at the same time...

<snip>
for example...
<snip>
or even 10+10+8+6+1+1 which would be insane...
<snip>
what about continuous damage...
<snip>
... does that mean the 10+10+8+6+1+1 example above is not so insane?

The short answer is that you add up the total damage but you only include the 10 and spell level once. So it is 10 + damage + spell level. So for the example of the archer and rogue above, that's 10 + 6 + 8 + 1.

For continuous damage, you count half of the most recent damage for the concentration DC.

Here is the relevant text from the PRD:

Injury: If you take damage while trying to cast a spell, you must make a concentration check with a DC equal to 10 + the damage taken + the level of the spell you're casting. If you fail the check, you lose the spell without effect. The interrupting event strikes during spellcasting if it comes between the time you started and the time you complete a spell (for a spell with a casting time of 1 full round or more) or if it comes in response to your casting the spell (such as an attack of opportunity provoked by the spell or a contingent attack, such as a readied action).

If you are taking continuous damage, such as from an acid arrow or by standing in a lake of lava, half the damage is considered to take place while you are casting a spell. You must make a concentration check with a DC equal to 10 + 1/2 the damage that the continuous source last dealt + the level of the spell you're casting. If the last damage dealt was the last damage that the effect could deal, then the damage is over and does not distract you.

I would love this! Count me in.

Test

Party members aren't always that helpful getting me flank opportunities...

Don't wait for your team mates to provide you flanking opportunities--make them for yourself by using acrobatics to get into position. Unless your party is entirely archers and spell casters, you should find scenarios where someone is holding a melee weapon and standing next to a foe. Tumble around to the other side of the foe and you've got flank. This is a dex-based class skill and you're playing a class with lots of skill points to spend--this is what you are good at. Just make sure you follow your party's moves so that you will be close enough.

I agree with the winning initiative point above too--this can be enhanced with traits and feats and it's well worth it, even if it's just for that one sneak attack per battle.

Pathfinder Spell Compendium!

Yes, please! Compendium-style books are quite useful and we've got books that cover monsters and equipment...spells are the next logical place to go. It is getting to the point where it is hard to remember exactly where I saw that cool spell--a one-stop shop would be great!

The other thing you can do is put it in STR or CON, since those are the only scores that have intrinsic benefits at odd numbers (increased carrying capacity and death threshold, respectively).

Odd ability scores is quite handy for spellcasters, especially if we are talking about multiclassing or martial classes with limited spellcasting:

The minimum Intelligence score needed to cast a wizard spell is 10 + the spell's level.

The minimum Wisdom score needed to cast a cleric, druid, or ranger spell is 10 + the spell's level.
The minimum Charisma score needed to cast a bard, paladin, or sorcerer spell is 10 + the spell's level.

Bumping a Fighter/Wizard's intelligence from 12 to 13 would mean the difference between second and third-level spells.

The "est of the stuff"...? I assume that's supposed to be "rest."

Thanks for bringing up this question. I have a kid around the same age who is very interested in PFS and I was wondering about this. We've gotten about half way through a module in our first session, so there is nothing to report yet. However, I have been wondering how this work out if I did want to report this as an official PFS session instead of just running it as a home game

However, I do recommend that Paizo staff review the COPPA regulation--this is the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. The statement that each player deserves a PFS number sounds great, but in practice this kind of thing isn't that easy. There is a reason why Facebook has a rule, "5.You will not use Facebook if you are under 13," for example. They're trying to stay in compliance with this regulation. I recommend investigating this.

Congratulations! Just a small edit to your post above. This should read $50 or more, not $75:

Because we've done so phenomenally, the print version of the Thornkeep book (available if you pledge $75 or more) has grown from a 64-page book to 96—that's the size of one of our Adventure Path volumes!

I see no problem with doing this since there are no prerequisites for this feat. The trade offs seem fair--you're taking a feat to get a jump on the spellcasting feat progression, but the PC won't get the benefit of this feat until taking a level in spellcasting class.

I also like the story hook aspect of this since it helps explain the decision to multi-class.

...feather fall isn't so bad for sorcerers...

I'm not disagreeing that feather fall is a useful spell, but I still feel it's not a good fit for how sorcerers are designed. I guess my follow-up question would be: are there any other arcane casters in the party? Is there a wizard or a bard, for example?

Sorcerers don't make good utility mages, that is, unless that's the one thing that they are good at. Sorcerers are one trick ponies: they generally tend to focus on one kind of spell and they're really good at it and they can cast it all day long. This is mainly dictated by their extremely limited spell lists.

For example, a fourth-level sorcerer knows three first-level spells. Let's say you take mage armor, feather fall, and burning hands. So this basically means you cast mage armor right before walking into the dungeon and the only first-level spell you will probably cast all day is burning hands. (Too bad your party ran into a fire elemental...) I would recommend selecting grease instead of feather fall--you can make enemies fall, prevent charges, and help allies out of grapples. Heck, you should probably get a wand of mage armor to free up that other spell slot. And this doesn't really improve over time, either. At seventh level a sorcerer maxes out at five(!) known first-level spells--this doesn't leave a lot of room for occasional spells--if you do select them it just magnifies the one-trick pony effect because you will be focusing on all of the other spells instead.

I would recommend coordinating with the other arcane spell caster (or casters) in the party. If you are the only arcane caster, then perhaps this could be useful. But understand that you are sacrificing your already extremely limited versatility to get this spell.

I would say that any spell that doesn't scale with your class as gain in level. The spell "Sleep" has always been one that I skip past. Granted, you always have the option to swap it out later but always felt that one was a waste of known spell space -- even at early levels.

Yes, this is a good point. In general sorcerers should avoid any spell that references hit dice. They become less and less useful until they are completely useless. During the play test I recommended that they update these spells to scale with the character's caster level, just like how damage spells get stronger as the caster goes up in level. Alas, we are still stuck with spells that only affect 4 hit dice worth of creatures, and so forth.

In an organized play setting with a known level cap, the player may decide that these spells are useful long enough to make them worth selecting. But a 16th level sorcerer facing down a big bad is going to regret his life choices if he's stuck with sleep, cause fear, and hypnotism on his spell list. On the other hand, magic missle, grease, shocking grasp, ray of enfeeblement, and enlarge person could all easily play a role in a high-level fight.

There is a whole class of wizard/sorcerer spells that are designed to inhabit the back pages of a wizard's spellbook. Wizards never prepare them, except for those rare cases when the situation specifically calls for it. Do not waste sorcerer spell slots on these spells. It might be useful to have a scroll or a wand, but you will regret adding them to your sorcerer spell list.

Here are some examples with commentary:
Feather fall: Unless your sorcerer has a tendency of hurling himself off of cliffs, this really is a waste of a spell slot. You want to select spells that you will casting multiple times a day, not once every two months of adventuring. (A wizard would prepare this right before rock climbing; a sorcerer is stuck with it every day of his life.) Buy a ring of feather fall instead.

Water Breathing: Unless your sorcerer lives on a small island and plans on adventuring only in aquatic settings, this is a waste. Buy a scroll.

Any of the text-based spells (explosive runes, sepia snake sigil, secret page): Unless your whole concept as a sorcerer is that you run around and play tricks with books and literacy, these are a waste of sorcerer spell slots. Gnomish bibliomantic sorcerers will love these; all other sorcerers should avoid them like the plague. Again, buy a scroll if you think you might ever need them.

Detect Scrying: Unless you have an arcane stalker, a sorcerer will not find enough use out of this spell to make it worth adding to a spell list.

Charm Person: There's nothing stating that victims forget that they were charmed, so they don't.

Charm Person is a first-level spell. Temporarily changing a person's attitude for a first-level spell? Sounds OK. Permanently tampering with their memory? No, that is way too powerful for first-level spell. What you are asking for would have to be a higher-level spell. Part of the whole point of Charm Person is that it is playing with fire: for the short term you can charm someone to help you, but you better plan on skipping town afterward.

Other Illusions: As mislead.

Here's my favorite trick for illusionists: step 1: cast invisiblity on yourself. Step 2: cast illusion spells to your heart's content--you stay invisible until you attack or the spell wears off. (Some illusion spells count as attacks, but there is quite a range of spells that don't.) No one is going to see the somatic or material components used in the spells, so that cuts down on using those as part of the spell craft check. And, quite frankly, it's a rather hard case to make that a character is going to listen intently to the words spoken by someone they can't see in a crowded room or during combat or out on the street.

One of my favorite creative uses of a spell is using mage hand as a substitute for detect magic. This came into play more back in 3.5 when there were more limitations on cantrips, but this was something that I did use several times.

Mage hand only works on non-magical items: if you can pick up the long sword with that spell, then it is not magical. (It doesn't hurt to remind the DM at the right moment about this rule.) There's also a weight restriction, but this limitation can also prove useful as way of measuring more than vs. less than five pounds.

From what I can tell, this is how it is supposed to work out:

A player want to learn more about Golarion and the PFS, so the player reads the novel, and then gets to use the chronicle, which grants access to a magic item and provides two separate one-time-use boons.

In addition, I would assume that "sanctioning" this content would also mean that adventure authors would be more free to reference the places, characters, and/or situations mentioned in the book. Players and GMs would also be more free to mention ideas from the books: "my character visited location X as a child, which is mentioned in the novel." This is just an assumption at this point because they have not explicitly mentioned how this would work, but this would be in the same spirit as other books that are officially part of the organized play.

Speaking of explicitly mentioning how things work, here is something that is not clear to me:
If the player reads the novel and gets the chronicle, how many characters can get the benefit? One? As many as the player would like? Either way is fine with me, but I would recommend having an explicit rule that states that it's OK to do this or you're only allowed to do that--otherwise players and GMs might disagree about the implementation.

Finally, the "revolutionary bluster" boon is missing a checkbox. Master of shadows has a checkbox, but revolutionary bluster does not.

Stormfriend, I can see why one would want to suggest these changes, but I personally would not like to see them in action for PFS. I could see this working for a certain kind of organized play, but I don't see it working well for Pathfinder Society. (It seems more suited for a relatively small player base where any given player is likely not to show up at a game day or convention--it won't matter because they can't fall behind.) I would like to see PFS move more in the direction of a living, breathing, player-supported campaign; in general your proposals seem to go in the opposite direction of that.

To summarize: leveling up is fun--there are new abilities and/or spells to play with and the character becomes more competent. But more importantly, leveling up is important because it makes PFS more living than just a series of one-off scenarios. I invested X amount of time in this character and I have watched him grow and I made decisions--if he dies that means something. (If all characters are stuck in the level 7 limbo, character death would be meaningless--the character's twin brother could show up in the next mod with the same level, equipment, and everything.) It is fun watching other players' characters evolve over time, and it's fun discussing future character options--have you seen this feat, have you considered that spell? Again, this shared experience contributes to the sense of building something together--the PC I saved at a gameday a couple of months ago now has the spell that just saved me in this combat. I also have to say that purchasing equipment is an important element of the game--shopping with imaginary money for magic items is fun, and there is a certain element of strategy and planning--do I go for the magic armor or the magic weapon if I can only afford one right now, and so forth. And if you make the "wrong" choice, that's part of the fun--how do you cope and adapt with the decisions that you have made?

5) Change the chronicles to list places visited, people met and monsters/bad guys killed or subdued. Use the monster tally for bragging rights; use the other records as a reminder of what the scenario was all about - useful for those of us who are getting old and who's memories are not what they once were!

I do agree with this point. I do find the "Star Trek amnesia" element of PFS to be a bit annoying at times. What do I mean by this? Well, if the PC goes to the same location or encounters the same group but it's not specifically part of a series, then there's this element of everything is new and it's the first time encountering the situation. The same goes for monsters--the PC fights the same monsters three mods in a row and then fails a knowledge check and has no idea what they are. Hmmm... This could be solved by a relatively simple mechanic such as the following: a PC gets a +1 bonus to the relevant knowledge check for every mod that features a particular location/NPC/monster. There could be a grid at the bottom of the chronicle that lists the things the PC learned more about. So if the PC has been in three mods in the city of X, the PC gets a +3 to a knowledge (local) check to know something about that city.

Ciretose--I agree with you. I have been drafting some thoughts about this round of playtesting that I was going to post, but since you brought up this topic I'll add the relevant portions here:

While they function in much the same way as every other spellcaster, words of power spellcasters (or wordcasters, as they tend to call themselves)

Out of curiosity, if wordcasters are so different (they even have a special name for themselves), then why are they still considered to be members of the existing classes? Reading through this playtest document, it sounds like a wordcasting is fairly different than the standard spellcasting classes. If we are going to make a distinction between "memorization-casting mages" (i.e. wizards) and "spontaneous-casting mages" (i.e. sorcerers), then it seems to me that we should also make the same distinction for wordcasting mages. This may not be the direction Paizo wants to take the game, but it is something to consider.

Just to clarify something here: Only three players died during the Special event, and all three were at the only Tier 10-11 table. They had an unfortunate encounter with something black and huge knocked that down two of their party, one of which was their only healer. The remaining three left them for dead and used dimension door to escape... right into Charvion's room.

See? It wasn't that bad! The rest of the Society rallied together and saved the day, even after the tier 10-11 table left them behind at the gates. ;-)

Thank you for setting the record straight. Yes, only three members of the party got killed. The two sorceresses and I were able to hold out for several rounds against Charvion, but when the sorceresses were knock down to, um, something like negative 40 HP each, old Slithy knew it was time to regroup. (For one thing, I can't flank by myself for the sneak damage.) I went back and revived the paladin who was unconscious on the roof, but when we returned, Charvion was nowhere to be found.

Have a clear sense of the target audience. I recommend aiming for "people who are willing to give Pathfinder a try, but who aren't currently playing any RPG at all." People who are currently playing other RPGs will just pick up a copy of the Core Rulebook and will read it--they are not your target audience for this set. Instead, go for the uninitiated players who haven't ever played an RPG, and the players who haven't touched an RPG in a long time (the 30 year-old who hasn't played a role playing game since high school or college), and so forth.

Make it so that experienced players can use the set to introduce others to Pathfinder without feeling like these are fakey, made-up rules. Any gamer will have a set of friends who don't game--make it so that the experienced gamer can use this as an opportunity to introduce the game to others. I am personally intrigued by this as a way to introduce the game to my eldest daughter who has expressed a lot of interest in Pathfinder, but isn't quite old enough to play the real game.

Include explanations that relate game ideas to common-knowledge ideas and include pictures to help explain.

Make certain decisions for the player. For example, don't mention feats, but build the characters so that the effects of feats are clearly incorporated. Advanced players would be able to spot why this is the case, but the beginning players don't need to worry about those rules until they get to a more advanced level.

Include real rules, but only include the rules that are actually necessary to get started. Pathfinder is a game with a lot of rules, but you don't need all of the rules all of the time. So give the spellcaster real spells, but leave metamagic out. This is something the player can discover with the real game.

Don't make up new rules. The key here is to edit out the rules that get used less than 5% of the time, but everything that's left in should be a real part of the real game.

Streamline and go for rules that fit a pattern. So a player's turn should be a move action and a standard action so that the player gets used to the rhythm. Don't include spells that have a full-round casting time or combat options that require a full round to complete.

Error-proof the game. Go for options that work when you don't know what you're doing. So comparing the wizard vs. sorcerer: one requires the player to predict what spells will be necessary and to plan ahead, the other allows the player to make a decision on the spur of the moment. To me, this type of choice is clear--go with the sorcerer.

Make it possible to play with a less-than-optimal table. So if the players can only scrape together 3-4 people to sit down at the table, that's fine--it will still work. Heck, if the adventures work so that a player can solo play his way through the adventure, that's even better. So a player could get this for Christmas, try it out on his own, and then turn around and be the guide/GM for his friends.

It sounds to me that you had a bad experience with that particular GM. If you have concerns about how things are playing out during the game session, then you should bring it up with GM at that point. Questions such as, "are you sure this NPC would rather finish off a defenseless foe than protect himself against the rest of the party" or "this villain seems to have gone to great lengths and personal sacrifice to set up the ritual--are you sure that he would stop at the last moment to kill a PC instead of trying to finish the ritual" are fair game if the GM's actions don't seem to fit the character.

However, if your complaint is that it's not fun to have a character get killed, then that doesn't hold water. Part of the fun of the game is that there is a risk of failing--sometimes we don't finish the mission, sometimes we don't get the gold, and sometimes player characters die. These outcomes might not always be as fun as winning, but there is no winning if there is no risk of losing.

I have no problem with a GM employing a coup de grace against a PC as if it's situationally appropriate. If it fits with the tone of the mod and the established nature of the villain, then it's fair game. If the PCs have spent the entire mod tracking down the Mad Slasher of Absalom, an insane mage who uses magic to disable his victims so he can murder them, then the players shouldn't be surprised if the Mad Slasher turns out to be a mad slasher when they meet him in person. (Maybe this is a scenario where they should sneak up on the bad guy and surprise him instead of rushing in.) Or if the villain grabs the disabled PC and calls out "let me go or I'll finish him off" and the PCs decide to attack anyway, then, well, maybe the players should have listened to him.

I have taken that restriction off and everything should be back to their discounted prices.

Huzzah! Thank you! I have placed my order.

Not to complain here, but what happened to this sale?

We've picked up a pile of Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition hardcovers at prices that can't be beat, and we're passing along the savings to you!

Serpent Kingdoms was $4.99 but now it's $22.99, Ghostwalk was $9.99 but now it's $24.47, Dragons of Faerun was $9.99 but now it's $26.95, and so on. Maybe I misread the blog entry, but I was under the impression that these items would be at the clearance prices until the stock sold out. I guess you snooze, you lose.