Steve Vermin's page

well... I ride a Dragonfly? would that count?

OH! class is Hunter, so I'm Steve Vermin - Verminous Hunter - Small rider, but it took a few levels for the Dragon(fly) to get big enough to ride...

I am an expert with things in the wild, a hunter, tracker, and expert in survival skills. Along with "Huey", my Dragon Fly Vermin Companion, we provide the team with scouting and aerial support...

Regarding the Party, there's a Druid, Wizard, Pally, Cleric, and Ranger. It's a mostly wilderness campaign, so if I went rogue I may want to look at an APG archetype and apply for that.

Sadly, alchemist isn't allowed.

Elven Rogue maybe? Concentration on Stealth, and the use of the Long Bow, so that you get Sneak Dice from cover and can snipe. The APG would (maybe?) give you Scout or Sniper, both good in a wilderness campaign. Beastkin flavored for the "Rodent - squirrel" or maybe pack-rat?

Though, from looking at the other PCs I personally would take a Core Bard, but then I am partial to Bards. I could see a PC "Squirrel" scampering up a tree, where he spends the rest of the combat chattering (Bardic Performance) and throwing acorns at the Mooks.

Go canine for the INT and be an Alchemist, beastmorph + Vivisectionist is very strong, feral mutagen gives you claw x2 and bite, beastmorph slowly add a few bonuses and vivisectionist give you sneak attack, you can later on add things like wings and other interesting alchemic stuffs like tumor familiar.

Alchemist isn't Core. and Thunderfrog did say "Only the core book plus custom site content is allowed."

I'd think Rogue would be good, esp. depending on what other PCs there are in the party. Though, maybe Paladin would be a twist too, as long as you are getting "charisma based abilities"? Something like a "Lion Beastkin" - which should be Lawful Good (ala. Lion King).

Thanks for your input everyone!
Yeah, she finally got to use G'wano in a combat - flying around a battlefield, shooting (throwning) at the enemy Mooks. Great fun was had... and that's the point right?

Then, poor G'wano sucked up a crossbow bolt and she scrambled around post combat pestering all the other PCs to heal him... best phrase heard in game was "Can you lay on hands on my G'wano?"

LOL!

Additional resources under ultimate equipment, but I believe its a global rule for buying attack critters

Equipment: Only creatures of the animal type of size Large and smaller may be purchased. No eggs are legal for play. A PC can only purchase an animal, mount, or similar creature if its Challenge Rating is lower than that character's level; creatures with a Challenge Rating of 1 or lower are exempt from this restriction, as are horses.

The Dire bat is a CR 2 , So you should be able to use them once you're third level. I don't know if you were under that level when the DM told you no, the dm didn't understand the rule, or if there's some other rule that either applies or the DM thought applied.

yeah - we got that part...

That's how we've been playing it up till now, and usually it's not a "Game Rule" preventing her from bringing her Bat G'wano, it's more of the "We're in the middle of the city - in a building... WHY do you want to bring in a riding beast?"...

This is the first time she is actually going to have the chance to USE G'wano - I'm running 8-03 tonight and she's going to be playing Chuck... and another player chimed at lunch today in with the comment "I hate to be a Kill-Joy, but I think Dire Animals were just recently banned... maybe with the release of Ultimate Wilderness or something?"

So, has there been a recent change banning Dire Animals?

I'll have to catch the answer to this at the shop - gotta run to make the start time!

Thanks for the input BNW.

Ok, I heard a rumor that there has been a change recently to what animals a PC can own/use in PFS. Due maybe to the release of Ultimate Wilderness or something?

Something about removing access to Dire Bats?

here, let me give the full background

finally it looks like she is going to get to use the mount in part of an up-coming game (tonight in fact)... and ... the rumor pops up that Dire Animals are no longer allowed in the game.

so - can a PC buy/own/use a Dire Bat riding animal?

as the PCs gaze upon a towering "mountainous" (giant) ant hill that they will shortly be climbing to the top of, from the back of the party comes the comment...

"so, does this mean someone has been making a Mountain out of an Ant Hill?"

G'day Mate! Welcome to the neighborhood! Always nice to have another Vermin friend around!

I'd introduce your lil'buddy to Huey (my Companion) but I've been having some issues teaching Huey NOT TO EAT GUESTS! and I'm afraid having a 'roach around... Huey'd have some trouble telling it from a Prawn. Totally not Huey's fault. Best not to stress them...

Huey is the Dragonfly... Steve is the Grippli in the saddle.

Steve Vermin wrote:

Lau, how did the PCs get it to switch from attacking Stuinvolk to attacking someone else? on it's opening attack I mean. Did they disguise someone else as Stuinvolk? or conceal his location in some way (magically I mean)?

We didn't do anything particularly planned. I mean, we knew that it was probably dangerous; but we didn't know it's CR or anything. We knew it was a creature that would just keep haunting us for a long time until it picked its time to attack. So we just put out guards every night and hoped for the best.

So there were two PCs up on their feet when it attacked, and Stuinvolk was on his bed. The critter picked one of the on-his-feet people to attack.

I really like this scenario - but I really worry that the PCs are going to be stuck after the first encounter with a dead guide, and no way to finish the mission...

Lau, how did the PCs get it to switch from attacking Stuinvolk to attacking someone else? on it's opening attack I mean. Did they disguise someone else as Stuinvolk? or conceal his location in some way (magically I mean)?

A good knowledge check about the monster should turn up that "...normally these magical beasts are a manifestation of the hatred from spirits offended by trespassers desecrating sacred sites..." and that it might be targeting one person...

but even if they know it's target (Stuinvolk), it has a really good stealth (30+ in high tier) and with chameleon stride it has concealment from creatures more than 5 feet away - so as long as it doesn't step next to someone it can just sneak into camp. At least close enough to get a charge/pounce on Stuinvolk.

Ok, I ran this at high tier ... and it really bothers me.

I can see this easily (in fact more than likely) ending in the first round of actual combat.

How does this not happen? It seems to me it will play out something like my game ran last night...

Mngwa cries from the night - North of the Camp (just as it has done for the past 5 nights). Those PCs on watch try to make Perception checks (DC30), and those not on watch either get "up to take a whiz" or "clutch my sword tighter" or "put a pillow over my head".

Mngwa cries from the West of the Camp (just as it has done for the past 5 nights). Someone comments that they need to set some traps... "and how do we do that in this rules set?"

Mngwa attacks from the South - but with it's +30 Stealth it just walks up to charge reach and pounces Stuinvolk (who was actually standing up and in armor). 3 attacks at +17, +17, +18 against Stuinvolks AC of 18 (not even counting him as Flat-Footed) means rolling for "Not ones", gives us 3 hits. Damage on 3 regular hits is 2d6+9, 1d8+9 and 1d8+9 all with grab and the bite does an extra 1d4 bleed. Average on this is 16+13.5+13.5 or 43 HP to Stuinvolks 46. Now we have the rake (which I "forgot" to include when I ran this), which is +18 ("not a one" again) for 1d8+9 or 13.5 average. So at the end of the first monsters attack we have Stuinvolk down with 46 minus 56.5 or ON AVERAGE 10.5 HP below zero. And on his turn (if he's still alive) he'll take 1d4+1 bleed damage (average 3.5). So at the end of Stuinvolks turn he has taken 60 HP damage - which is enough to kill him. Not from a crit, not from rolling really great, or even above average, just from not rolling a "1" on an attack and rolling average damage. And we haven't even finished the first round of combat. Was this a Surprise Round?

Let's say I "forgot" to do the rake attack (which I did), and the players actually get a second turn. Everyone unloads on the Mngwa and discovers the DR 10/magic... and they do 50 HP even thru that. The Mngwa starts it's second round with Stuinvolks body grabbed, and ... what?

a) drops the body to attack PCs? (so that - even it he is still alive - he can bleed out on his turn at 1d4+1 per round?)
b) finish Stu off?

And what happens of the Mngwa actually rolls just a bit above average on damage and kills Stu? Or heck, just average and kills him? Where do we go from here? End the scenario? Sign chronicles, hand them out and say "thanks for coming! see you next week!"?

as the PCs gaze upon a towering "mountainous" (giant) ant hill that they will shortly be climbing, from the back of the party comes the comment...

"so, does this mean someone has been making a Mountain out of an Ant Hill?"

The Swarm/Troop rules are pretty unfair.

** spoiler omitted **

Alchemists being core will help, and Spellcasters like Wizards, Druids, and their Sorcerous peers will shine here with the right spells available. But beyond that there need to be reliable mundane solutions to swarms, or they need to have an appropriate minimum CR (like 3rd-5th level).
Personally I prefer the idea of Swarms/Troops having much larger Hit-Point/Morale pool than an individual creature, and a severe weakness to Area of Effect attacks. That way mundane weaponry is just woefully inefficient, not completely worthless.

(in the email sent to all the players before the game):
I will remind you to be prepared for the basics.

Then, after you leave the venture captains office...

any of those things can TPK a party.

The fact that Martial characters have significate difficulties with Swarms is not a surprise... but that's why the Party should not be exclusively Martial characters right? This is often a Rock-Paper-Scissors game.

I can recall encountering a Shadow at 1st level (in more than one PFS1 settings) -
Or encountering a scenario full of zombies when the Party of PCs had only one slashing weapon among the six of them (a dagger that was in a Pathfinder Pack), and the cleric was a Neg. channeling cleric (noticed an issue with wands of infernal healing vs cure light wounds then).
Or an animated stone object (Hardness/Mindless) when the PCs didn't have a Power Attacking Barbarian...

When playing PFS1e, Swarms are something the players (IMHO) need to prepare for. I have seen a Rogue with UMD pull a partly changed wand of burning hands (CL3) to finish off 2 swarms at once. That was her "paper" to counter the "rock" of the swarm.

Ok, this thread has convinced me to create a Necromancer Paladin... so, would that make him a Necroladin or a Palamancer?

Nefreet wrote:

It's not "more complicated".

If you're sitting down to a PFS table as a player, you have to acknowledge that your PC is choosing to be a "Pathfinder first", and a "everything else second".

Pathfinders cooperate. They know that a party may be composed of 1) a Pacificst, 2) a Warlord of Gorum, 3) a Fire Elementalist, 4) a Water Elementalist, 5) a Paladin, and 6) a Necromancer.

And they're going to make it work.

Have fun with your roleplay, but *nobody's* RP gets to trump anyone else's.

I actually agree with this. And as adults, we can create some really fun roleplay from the potential character choice conflicts.

Its the players who are unwilling to find a compromise that are the ones that cause the problems, not the characters.

However, what I've seen, is that necromancy is a very easy way for the type of player who likes to show off just how disgusting and evil they can be to do so. This character type attracts players who like to be "evil" and thus jerks to everyone else at the table.

"Oh, you're a paladin? I'm gonna screw with you... hehehe"

I've seen it and been the target of it. It isn't fun when I'm trying to find a compromise.

And no matter which character you are playing (goody-two-shoes or near-evil) either bring an alternate character or bring an alternate thing you can do. If playing a necromancer, part of the compromise you make as characters with the Paladin, is that you will only raise dead if absolutely necessary to save the party. Its ok, because you have other spells you can cast that day that are pretty effective too. If you are playing the Paladin, you have to be ok with that. It might be distasteful, but you joined an organization that employs all sorts, and you agreed to its edicts. And if, as a player, you can't reconcile that with your character, then make sure you always bring an alternate character.

The problem, most often, is not with the characters, but the players.

I've just seen more character-griefing done by the "evil" side than the "good" side.

And I actually have seen it more often from the "good"/"lawful" side.

IMHO you said it best with "The problem, most often, is not with the characters, but the players."

The classic "pain in the buttocks" PC to have dropped into your group is a Paladin played by a stranger. Is this guy going to be "one of those players" who insists on reviewing your every PC action thru a lens of "can I interfere with what the other player wants to do"? This has been a phenomena I've encountered many times in 40+ years of RPG games...

Can you get great fun games with Paladins? Sure!
Can a real jerk show up playing an "evil" type PC? Yeah - easily.
But if someone is going to set out to be a pain to is fellow players? In my experience, they are much more likely to do that by running a Paladin...

"The problem, most often, is not with the characters, but the players."