SteeleC's page

My trick is to play with couples. I have a group of 5 (I'm the GM) two married couples and one extra. I'm normally guaranteed if one can make it, then they both can.

The other trick I use is not to have a regular scheduled time. This might sound counterintuitive but it works really well. We "try" to play every Sunday but that's just a target. At the end of every session the question is "when are we meeting next". If the next upcoming Sunday (or whatever day you decide) works for everyone, that's the day. If not, we look at Saturday or jump to the next Sunday. If two weekends don't work then we find a weekday in the middle that works for everyone with the understanding that it's a short session (2-3 hours). Short sessions are great to bridge the gap between long sessions due to life.

This has worked for 3 long term campaigns I've run. The first was 2 years long level 1-30 with 4e. The next was 1 year with PF (levels 1-13). And now with 5e for the last 5 months.

As an aside, there could also be a matter of interest being lost in these games. Player's are not likely to tell you they aren't having a good time no matter how much you ask. And if you have to ask, you already are doubtful they are having a good time. Another thing is that adventure paths, although great source material, are a little dry to actually run (even rise of the rune lords). No matter what you do, the players are still on rails and they know it. As a GM the prep for them is crazy as well, so I can see getting burnt out in prep when it feels like the players don't appreciate it. Adventure paths are really only a longer PFS so all the things that make PFS "not your ideal way to play" also applies to adventure paths for your players. So my final advise, don't run modules for home games. Use modules to give you ideas for your home game, but keep your home game driven by the players. Prepare less and let the players drive what's going on. You'll have a lot more fun.

I have a pretty basic question that I can’t seem to find a _direct_ answer to. How much does a healing potion heal?

I believe it would go something like this:

Potion of Cure Light Wounds: 1d8+1
Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds: 2d8+3
Potion of Cure Serious Wounds: 3d8+5

But how do I know this when the effect isn't listed?

So I attempted to figure it out, so to start, if these were spells cast by a cleric the effects would be:
Cure Light Wounds: 1d8 +1/level (max +5)
Cure Moderate Wounds: 2d8 +1/level (max +10)
Cure Serious Wounds: 3d8 +1/level (max +15)

So the question now is, when it’s a potion, what’s the “+” portion of the effect.

From what I can tell…
In the core rulebook, page 477-478 there is a short column on potions with no examples (in fact I couldn’t find an example of a potion effect in any source material anywhere, it’s always just a generic reference to the spell).

The first thing it notes is, “The level of such spells depends on the caster brewing the potion.” I now know how to find the effect of a potion when I know who brewed it, but what about stock potions?

On the next page, there follows a table of potion prices that are based on the “lowest possible caster level”. So I make an assumption that the off-the-shelf potions are made with the lowest possible caster level. And here’s where it gets too complicated to be true…

Cure Light Wounds is a level 1 cleric spell. To cast a level 1 cleric spell you must be at least a level 1 cleric so the effect would be 1d8+1.

Cure Moderate Wounds is a level 2 cleric spell. I look up clerics to see when they can cast this (page 40). I see the cleric must be level 3 so I assume the effect is 2d8+3.

I do the same for Cure Serious Wounds and find the cleric needs to be level 5 so the effect is 2d8+5.

Then I think. Did I miss something?? Did I really find a level 1 potion in the first encounter of my first adventure and to determine the effect I had to:
1) read the spell and ask, “What’s the plus?”
2) read about how potions are made
3) read about the cleric (or at least reference its spell table)
4) map the spell level to the minimum cleric level
5) find my answer of +1

Is there someplace, anywhere that I can just directly get the effect of potions (and scrolls as well) or does this cross-referencing nightmare involve everything when it references a spell effect? (ok, that’s a slight vent, sorry)

But lastly, and more importantly – did I do it right? Are my healing potion effects correct?

Thanks’ in advance!

My two cents on the ageless wizard is frigile therefore his power is balanced argument...

Lame. It means the way the GM deals with wizards is by killing them or at least dropping them. I say again, lame.

That said - it's not really something to worry about unless you plan to play to that high a level. You can also always house rule a max level of 12 for any pure caster class and then require multiclassing to reduce the power curve.

At low levels the cantrips are enough to keep the Mage casting. At high levels, they have so many spells you can't stop them from casting. PF is a nice middle between 4e and classic 3.5e IMO.

What I would love to see is 4e style monster stat blocks. PF is reduclous in its monster stat blocks. Playing the game is fun. Running the game is a full time job. Say what you will about 4e - but it got that part right.

I agree with the OP. IMO the biggest problem with 3.x/PF is the huge barrier to entry for the DM/GM. Anything that simplifies the stat block should be considered seriously. Honestly, even a CR3 or 4 level monster can require cross referencing 3 different books and 2 dozen spells and abilities. More practice at GMing or more prep are not answers, they are work arounds. Let's create a manageable, encounter centric, stat block!!!

My recommendations for a new group that won't break the bank but keeps the players engaged:

Core Rule Book (of course)
http://paizo.com/products/btpy88yj?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Core-Ruleboo k

Beginners Box (easy rule set for players to reference, pawns for players to use, sample character sheets - missing from most other products, and a generic map)
http://paizo.com/products/btpy8osv?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Beginner-Box

Beastiery I (lots of modules refer to this)
http://paizo.com/products/btpy8auu?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Bestiary

Beastiery Pawn set (not out yet, but will be shortly)
http://paizo.com/products/btpy8qab

Battlemap and dry/wet earse markers (or use what's in the beginner box)

For modules, start with the free pathfinder society modules. At the very least it'll give you a sense of how modules work and maybe it sparks a pathfinder society based campaign. Can't beat the price either:
http://paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/pfsproducts/pfsFreeProducts

The advanced player guides and ultimate books are great but not for a new group just getting into the game. Add these in a few months once you have the core rules down.
Map packs and plastic minis are also great, but a huge investment at this point. Keep it simple, add things as you find you need them.

Quick background, I've been role playing for nearly 20 years and DM/GMed most of that time. I've always avoided D&D because the system never really appealed to me (various reasons) until 4th Ed. Been playing that 2-3 times a week for the last 3 years. Now I want to try something new...enter Pathfinder.

So far I really like what I'm seeing (except HP numbers and healing, but simple house rule fixes that). What I need help with is the spontaneous encounter. I don't preplan and prepare most of my encounters. It's the player's game and the world adjusts to whatever they decided to do. Making that work in the story is easy enough for me, but making it work mechanically is prooving very difficult. With Pathfinder there are so many references to abilities it takes me 10 minutes just to understand one stat block. I have all the PDFs and can cross reference thing pretty quickly with searches and such, but when you have to do that 5-20 times (feats, special attacks/abilities, spells, etc) per stat block, it gets crazy time consuming.

What I'm looking for is a utility that inlines the details into the stat blocks. Think something like MtG does with it's rule keywords and then the rules text in parenthcies. Is there anything like that?

I'm sure over time I'll get better at knowing what everything does - but I'm not sure I can invest that much time into someing that is so much work to start with. HELP - I love the writing and stories and most all of the system, how do I simplify the GMing part?!?!?