Starcomet's page

I shall throw my hat into this as well!

The APL of a single character is 4 less than that of a a 4-person party. So a "equal-CR-encounter" for you (a decent fight that you ought to win) is your level - 4. So CR6 at 10th level. It goes a bit funny at low levels, but essentially it's CR 1/4 at 1st, CR 1/3 at 2nd, CR 1/2 at 3rd, CR 1 at 4-5th. Or thereabouts.

But being a single character, you're extremely vulnerable to swingy results, especially crits and SoD effects. One bad roll can mean Game Over. The inverse issue is that all these feeble opponents are likely to have weak saving throws, be susceptible to low-level spells like Daze, Sleep and Colour Spray (or as applicable to a cleric) so it's going to swing a lot in both directions.

Best advice: mooks. Just as if you were a BBEG ,not a BGGG, get mooks. Call them followers or hirelings or guards or acolytes or whatever. Assume low-level warriors and commoners for the most part, and RP or roll your own recruitment. Then bump up the opponent CR to suit.

That is good advice, thanks!

I am using the Game Master's Apprentice (GMA) deck to emulate a GM for me so I can play a downtime heavy pathfinder game solo. I am doing this as I have had immense difficulty finding anyone interested in a downtime/kingdom building game as of late. I noticed many players like combat heavy games and downtime/kingdom building campaigns tends to focus more on social/skill encounters and less on combat. But this does not mean combat encounters cannot happen in such games.

I plan to play an ecclesitheurge cleric that worships an empyreal lord and has the ultimate goal of founding a mystery religion dedicated to them and spreading their faith. Constructing shrines, temples, helping out people, are all things to help grow his influence. I plan to have leveling up handled by every 5 or 10 rounds of downtime or every 2 completed random encounters/quests from NPCs gives 1 level. This of course means there may be some combat encounters depending on what cards are drawn and I wonder what monsters are appropriate for a solo cleric to fight?

I plan to start at level 1 and at level 7 will take the leadership feat and get a cohort warrior (maybe paladin) to be a defender/protector for my cleric. Until that point though, I am thinking I would have to have one or two enemies that my cleric faces and they would have to be very weak given ecclesithruge clerics cannot wear armor and are as squishy as a wizard. I read that the CR for a solo character is Level/4 so at level 1 that is a CR 1/4 enemy. That means at level 10 a CR 2 enemy is a fair challenge, but that seems low. Any advice or suggestions? I know a solo table top game is unorthodox, but it has been done before according to other solo rpg fans.

I still play PFS here in Baltimore when there are scenarios my character can join in. I also play D&D 4e occasionally on discord, so I have other games to play.

I think it is okay to fudge the rolls in the player's favor if they are below level 11 and a roll would kill them and it would bother them or you. After that, I say you let the dice roll.

So yeah I am done. The satyr druid gave my cleric a ring of prestidigitation since he likes to stay clean, and I assume as a peace offering, and then told a story about his cousin. This cousin essential stole the holy symbol of a cleric of Asmodeus since they were mean to him. He took it while he slept and being a satyr...used the holy symbol as a "toy" while "playing" with a maid. After this, the maid took the symbol and sold it for gold. I swear these female players have such toilet humor.

I do not mean to necro my own post, but the GM has confirmed that he also feels that the two new players do not like me IC or OOC as well. He does not know why and was hoping my likable personality would win them over, but apparently I am seen as too cowardly, uptight, and prudish for them. He fears I am not fitting too well within the party and I told him if they continue to be mean to me tonight, I will bow out of the game.

The player who likely took it stated they would tell me where it is next session, since I am not able to play this today. I will see how it resolves next week.

Starcomet wrote:

Oh and just to clarify, this is an online game through roll20 and discord.

Um, have you met any of these people IRL for F2F play?

I'm getting the impression that leaving this bunch behind is going to be a whole lot less painful than it initially appeared. It may be heresy in certain quarters, but sometimes you just need to turn off the computer and get out of the house.

I have not met any of these individuals F2F before out of the many years I have known them. I do attend a local PFS group though and have been doing so for 2 years now.

Why did my sense motive check indicate that the rogue and druid were evading my questions and hiding something? If no one in the party did it, the GM should have indicated this with my high sense motive.

Starcomet wrote:

Meirril wrote:

The GM is being ridiculous. You can't be sure it is the other two players, and honestly you don't have to. If you have the conversation that "My character needs that holy symbol to pray for spells, and I pray for spells every day" but still insists it is a week before you notice then the GM needs to actually play that out because somebody in the party should notice your character acting weird for an entire week. As in I'd insist that the character would have to be subjected to some sort of mental or chemical domination that no 3rd level character would be able to pull off.

I actually told him that the only way it was possible for him not to notice is if he was under a VERY powerful suggestion spell that caused him to think he still had his holy symbol. The GM just replied, "How do you know that is not the case?" If that is the case, why no will save? And even a 20th level Suggestion spells last 20 hours and even extended with metamagic would be 40 hours.

The GM could have made the Will save for you in secret. Some GMs do that in situations where the PCs would have no way of knowing that they were subjected to a mind-affecting effect.

That is possible, but it does not explain the effect lasting as long as a week. And most spells would require line of effect and sight. If it was done near me, I would have heard or seen someone chanting or making hand gestures. The question would be, when did this individual had a chance to cast such a spell? I was always around my allies when we traveled and no one in the villages had the knowledge for any type of magic that strong. Occam's razor suggest there must be a simpler explanation.

This is assuming it was some unknown NPC that did it.

And if you want to have a little fun before you ghost them, get a cheap replacement, and pvp the rogue to death in the middle of combat

Oh? You wanted healing? I'm sorry, I thought you wanted and inflict wounds, seeing as your full of negative energy

:D

It's better to just leave though, no game is better then a bad game, and on Roll20 you can find another group

Yeah, but I have known this group for years. It is just these two new players who seem to not like me for some reason. I will bow out of the game and refuse to play anymore games if they are in it until they apologize or become a lot less acerbic.

I tend to rule my table with an iron fist. This is a cooperative game but it's more mine than any of my players; none of them spent the time and effort I have.

This has led to a very small number of issues throughout my gaming career, but the overwhelming majority of the time my players have accepted my rulings because I am (1) open to discussion and (2) very clear that I am their advocate, not their enemy.

This DM sucks and these players suck. It's infuriating.

On the plus side, look at all the support you've got here. We're with you to the end on this one, comrade.

Thank you! This GM is only open to discussion if everyone voices their opinion and he is more than willing to allow players to do things in his games that normally would not be allowed. The current game is a 3rd party game and he will allow many house rules to make stuff more interesting like running off a wall and attacking to do extra damage and such. It is just that he is very big on improvisation. If something unexpected happens in the game that he did not anticipate, like a player stealing from another player or killing an NPC, he will improvise and incorporate it into the story. He just wants everyone to know he will not always make scenarios that are nice to characters or make sense. I know that is how he is, but the fact he potentially allowed two players to conspire against me this way and gave no reason is infuriating.

And not all of the players suck. I am sure the Paladin and the Summoner would have sided with me if they were there last Friday.

The GM is being ridiculous. You can't be sure it is the other two players, and honestly you don't have to. If you have the conversation that "My character needs that holy symbol to pray for spells, and I pray for spells every day" but still insists it is a week before you notice then the GM needs to actually play that out because somebody in the party should notice your character acting weird for an entire week. As in I'd insist that the character would have to be subjected to some sort of mental or chemical domination that no 3rd level character would be able to pull off.

I actually told him that the only way it was possible for him not to notice is if he was under a VERY powerful suggestion spell that caused him to think he still had his holy symbol. The GM just replied, "How do you know that is not the case?" If that is the case, why no will save? And even a 20th level Suggestion spells last 20 hours and even extended with metamagic would be 40 hours.

The GM is perfectly fine continuing on without me and some of the party is too. He had one of the Knight NPCs escorting our party to the city tell my character if he did not want to leave without his holy symbol, they would move on without him as they had to return to the city. If I decided to stay in the swamp and backtrack for it, he would have allowed it.

Your problem is not the missing holy symbol. Your problem is that your GM is doing something stupid. At best, he's too insecure to admit it. At worst, he's a blithering tyrant who thinks his job is to tell the characters' story instead of setting up situations for the players to tell their own stories.

...Either that or your character failed a Will save at some point and had their mind messed with. Do your trust your GM enough to think that this is a possibility, or has that already been ruled out? If this is really what's happening, the GM ought to have simply taken you aside and mentioned that there were in-game reasons why the usual expectations don't apply and that the reasons would become clear later.

Either way, you are not in a healthy gaming situation, and that needs to be resolved before further gaming commences.

The only checks I made before and after we set off on our journey to the city were two perception checks. IF a spell was cast on me, I was not told to make a saving throw.

And I do not think this was part of the plot and was spontaneous since the holy symbol was stolen. He will include it as part of the plot though since he told me he would.

I mean he DMPCed a Paladin that somehow allowed a rogue to rummage through another person's things and not intervene...would the normal player of that character allowed it?

No, if he was there last Friday he would have interrogated the rogue to no end. And when my holy symbol disappeared, he would have backed me up and helped me interrogated them all. Without him there and when one of the other players had to leave early, I sort of was on my own sadly.

Oh and just to clarify, this is an online game through roll20 and discord.

I will let him know since I have known him for so long.

I decided to not show up to this Friday's game. If anyone contacts me I will explain my issue. I know this GM and he honestly does not care if people leave his game for not having fun. He is firmly in the philosophy that players can vote with their feet if they do not like what the GM has done. So no amount of my talking to him will change that. It is sad because it feels like he is allowing these two new players a lot of leeway even though he has only known them for a year.

Ugh. Disruptive party conflict allowed and actively encouraged by the GM. Great.

The normal advice is normally "solve this out of character, sit down and be adults", but that apparently didn't work. The follow-up is always "quit the game, no game is better than bad game" but you may not want to do that.

But you should. If two players are this petty and it's allowed by the GM, it's only going to get worse. Alternatively, do the immature thing and fight fire with fire.

** spoiler omitted **

I was considering leaving due to this, but I have known this guy for 8 years and he has run some fun campaigns and games with various systems and he said he will allow me to do anything I want to get it back, so I want to give it one final shot this Friday to see how it goes. He has always made it clear since day one during the 4e days, that if a player does not like his decisions or DM/GMing style, they are free to leave (no hard feelings). He takes his own advice also and will leave a game he feels is not to his liking.

This is not an ingame problem. Don't even try to fix it with ingame means!

Seriously, talk with the GM. There is no way a Cleric doesn't notice their bonded holy symbol missing. You wouldn't even need to make a perception check, you'd notice that the very first morning - it is, after all you, most priced possession. The Cleric should have noticed it, and demanded a strip search of every single party member. Although I find it weird that your character apparently doesn't keep it on their body when sleeping?

Ask the GM why he is completely crippling your character. Ask the GM why he is apparently supporting PVP. Tell the GM that this is not what you (presumably) agreed to play.

My GM has already told me to let the issue go, he will not change the fact that a week went by before my cleric noticed it was gone. I already stated my cleric wears the holy symbol at all times and only takes it off to bathe and when he sleeps (This also depends on how shady the area is). There is no way he would have gone a week before noticing. Requesting the party to allow me to search through there belongings will not work since the druid and rogue already implied they will refuse to let me search them and they are willing to fight me for it!

The only other thing I can think of that would work outside of what you've already brought up would be Dowsing Syrup. It's more expensive then the scroll but it doesn't seem to have any sort of range limit meaning it will create a trail directly to the item. Unless it's physically on a different plane.

Of course, the easiest option would be to simply replace it since the DM has already insisted that a week has gone by (which makes no sense to me, wouldn't it be part of the ritual to pray for spells each day? was the party memory wiped?).

Bonded Holy Symbol wrote:

At 3rd level, an ecclesitheurge forms a powerful bond with a holy symbol of his deity, which functions identically to a wizard’s bonded object except it can be used to cast cleric and domain spells (instead of wizard spells) and the ecclesitheurge can grant his bonded holy symbol only magic abilities appropriate for a holy symbol or a neck slot item.

Arcane Bond wrote:

If the object of an arcane bond is lost or destroyed, it can be replaced after 1 week in a special ritual that costs 200 gp per wizard level plus the cost of the masterwork item. This ritual takes 8 hours to complete. Items replaced in this way do not possess any of the additional enchantments of the previous bonded item.

So, at your level you'd be looking at spending 600gp + the cost of the holy symbol to replace it. So, any solution you use should cost less than this. (the aforementioned syrup only falls under this category if you're able to create it at cost). Even using the scroll seems risky since the spell is easily blocked and has a relatively short range and at that point you've already spent half the needed gold to simply replace the symbol.

Replacing the symbol would cost me 1,100 gold since I had a Platinum symbol. I could go for a cheaper option this time to save cost. But I still demand justice if this is indeed a party member who took it. Otherwise, they could do it again.

Well, without it, you have top make DC 20 + spell level every time you cast. Fail enough healing spells on them and see what happens.

Well yeah this what is they will come to find out, but the druid in the party already complained that I am a useless cleric anyway so they would not care if I stand there and fail at casting my spells.

So my GM, that I have known for 8 years, has possibly allowed a fellow party member steal my ecclesithurge's bonded holy symbol. I made my perception check in the morning to notice it was being stolen, but failed the check. The Paladin (played by the DM since the player was not available) mentioned that they saw the female rogue rummaging through his things and the rogue refused to give an answer. A week after this, my the GM had me do another perception check and my cleric noticed that my holy symbol was gone. I have already argued with the GM how this is unrealistic that my ecclesithurge cleric could go a week without noticing his bonded holy symbol was missing. He essentially told me this is the story he has told and I have to go with it.

I questioned the party members and the NPCs with our party and I found that the thief and the satyr druid (both played by females players who I believe do not like me OOC) were hiding something when I made a sense motive check. Regardless, they refused to admit to stealing it and stated the last time they saw it was a week ago and so we moved on to one of the large cities on the continent. I now plan to try and find my holy symbol next session and need advice for doing so. We are all level 3 and I do not have access to Locate Object since that is 3rd level for a cleric and Communion is a 5th level spell. I could buy a scroll of locate object and see if indeed one of my party members have it on their person.

Since I worship an Empyreal Lord, Winlas, I will not be able to go to a temple to my deity for assistance. I do however have good relations with Abadar and Irori priest and could request they cast communion for me and help me in getting my holy symbol back.

Starcomet wrote:

I am only 1 more goal away from becoming a jeweled sage of the Sacarab Sages and either need to become possessed via a magic jar or a similar ability, permanently destroy a haunt, or defeat divs, followers of divs, or an evil necromancer. The thing is, it has to be a 7-11 scenario as my wizard is level 10 and going slow. Does any one know which scenarios or modules can fulfill these requirements?

That one is easy. Never thought about it until it was pointed out but you could just have someone in the group do it.

You know you are right about that!

I have not been naming scenarios because of "chonicle sheet fishing" but reading a few scenario blurbs ought to give clues.

Ah I figured that was the case. Then I will ask my local Venture Captain and other players hints?

They don't have to be Scarab Sage scenarios to have them. I remember an interesting technological haunt in a Season 8 7-11.

Which scenario was that?

Anything specific? I have done Beacon below, Ancient's Anguish, and Salvation of the Sages and all are 7-11. Any other 7-11 Scarab Sage Scenario's with these goals?

I am only 1 more goal away from becoming a jeweled sage of the Sacarab Sages and either need to become possessed via a magic jar or a similar ability, permanently destroy a haunt, or defeat divs, followers of divs, or an evil necromancer. The thing is, it has to be a 7-11 scenario as my wizard is level 10 and going slow. Does any one know which scenarios or modules can fulfill these requirements?

I figured as much, thank you all!

Thoughts anyone?

Thank you!

Well I am asking it here as this question is meant for Society play, but the rules department works as well.

I have always played the archon's Aura of Menace penalty as not stacking despite the fact that the rules as written certainly could lead one to arguing that. If this was the case, then the archons would of long ago defeated the forces of evil as even a Balor or Pit Fiend would eventually roll enough 1s if they are up against hundreds or thousands of archons.

My question is do the effects stack for each archon as to being hit by the effect? For example, if a target is up against four archons and fails their save against all of them, do they have to hit each archon in order to remove the -2 penalty, or do they only need to hit one?

Another interesting point is that if one had an archon on the field, a cleric who cast archon's aura on themselves, and wearing a halo of menace it could be argued the penalty would stack for all since they are and coming from different sources.

Hmm maybe the GM decided not to include the negatives since we were running low tier and he did not want characters to have difficulty with the skill challenges?

Oh my mistake then! But that still draws into question why the chaotic neutral party members did not receive any negatives?

I wonder if it has something to do with the tier? Maybe playing high had those affects as we played the scenario low since we had a lot of level 1s.

How about a chest slot item like the Snakeskin tunic? It provides a +1 Armor bonus without being armor. Casting Magic Vestment on that should stack, correct, since the tunic is providing a normal armor bonus and not an enhancement bonus?

Thanks for mentioning this item; I did not even know of it! I would argue that it would stack with magic vestments indeed. And it is not armor but a wondrous item so would not violate my character's vow of no armor or shields.

Seems you had a very different experience because when I played my true neutral cleric with an evil aura had like -8 total to certain checks and they sternly told me to change my ways.

Which is unfortunate as it seems the PFS scenario's punish you when you do wrong but not really reward you when you do right. It makes sense that since you had an evil aura you would receive negatives to interact with Heaven's residence, but I find the fact the Lawful Good characters did not get any bonuses or even acknowledgements for staying the righteous and lawful path discouraging.

Yeah the Silken Ceremonial Robes count as armor and thus he is not allowed to wear it.

Any article of clothing should be fine.

It seems to me that any GM disallowing this is being overly pedantic.

”Only” 34 AC is still quite a lot in regular PFS play (levels 1-11).

Oh I know that, but I plan to take this character all the way to level 20 (despite how difficult that is) and 34 AC in a Level 15+ scenario is not enough.

I played this scenario recently with my cleric and I liked it! It was my first time visiting the plane of Heaven and I always wanted to play a game where this was possible. While the scenario did a good job portraying Heaven as the stereotypical celestial bureaucratic realm, I felt that Paizo watered it down a little too much for PFS in a few ways that could of made it unique. From what I have read about the planes, most have qualities that affect it such as special gravity, magic rules, etc, but this was ignored when our party went to Heaven. Since Heaven is a strongly aligned Lawful Good plane, you will receive a +2 bonus to INT, WIS, and CHA for each alignment step you match and -2 if you do not. This was not acknowledged at all given my character is Lawful Good along with the paladin and we received no bonuses on our diplomacy or knowledge checks.

I felt the various archons you encountered in the plane should have reacted more strictly to the PC's personalities and alignments. Yes archons will treat non evil creatures politely, but they are still quite a judgmental lot and even the chaotic character's in our party should of been eyed suspiciously.

I also felt that the writer of this scenario should of added a little section for the GM to use if a character in the party worships one of the Empyreal Lords and especially Winlas since you enter his domain in the scenario. It felt odd knowing that my cleric, who worships Winlas and plans to become a mystery cultist, was just sidelined and ignored despite how devout and fervent he is to Winlas and how deeply respected the Empyreal Lords are in Heaven. I even roleplayed how happy and reverent he was the entire time, but there was nothing the GM could do to acknowledge it. I was not expecting my character receives the red carpet treatment (He is only level 4 after all), but there should of been something in the scenario that GMs could use for rp purposes.

Overall, I liked the scenario and would like more of these that require trips to other planes. I just wish they would stick to the rules that applies to the planes. I am sure if we traveled to the Positive or Negative plane we would be subject to its dangerous environment.

It has already been explained that enhancement bonuses must be applied to something that already has an armor, shield, or in rare cases, a natural armor bonus in order to work. The enhancement bonuses is added into the bonus and thus is not separate and cannot be stacked with the mage armor spell in the case of magic vestment on armor or the shield spell if it is casts on a shield. This is understood and is not what I am concerned with.

My question is can you cast the spell on a piece of magical clothing like Cassock of the Clergy and have it give an Armor bonus of + 5 (max), 0 from being clothing and + 5 from magic vestments? The spell itself says that it can be cast on clothing but says "an outfit of regular clothing".

This was asked on the forums back in 2007, but I never saw a definitive answer and must ask again for clarity sake. As per the rules as written, I am inclined to say no since PFS requires RAW rather than RAI and little GM discretion.

So my Ecclesitheurge Cleric could have a total AC of only 34 rather than 39 if one cannot use magic vestments on magical clothing. I do not care either way it is just since I cannot wear regular armor I need to find as many ways magically to raise my AC.

I figured it would be single target, thank you!

As a full round action you can swing the aspergillum and dispense the holy water as a ranged touch attack up to 10 feet. My question is does this only mean swinging in a single direction or can you swing in an arc or twirl around while doing so? I have seen real life aspergillum's used in this way.

Local is my least favorite Knowledge skill to GM for. It doesn't seem to imply that the character spends any time gathering this information, they just know it. Someone with 10 ranks in this skill just inexplicably knows about local customs and such wherever they go? Even, as this thread indicates, on another plane of existence?

Indeed, especially if said character has no ranks in knowledge planes or has never been to said plane.

Hmm I can see one still using Planes even once they get there, but I would not rule out Local. I am just asking as my level 2 Cleric will be going to the plane of heaven in one of the PFS scenario's and we will need to navigate the laws and customs of heaven. My cleric is lawful Good and worships Winlas and has ranks in Knowledge Planes, but not local. Just want to see if he can be useful in helping with this scenario.

Would this be knowledge planes or knowledge local? I could see both, but local would be a higher DC since knowledge local deals mainly with the cities, towns, and people on the material plane.