The Human Diversion's page

Sebastian Hirsch wrote:

Do you mean communicating as a retailer, or communicating about a retailer?

As a retailer / brick-and-mortar store.

When it comes to the RDU area of North Carolina, four stores are affected by the recent events unfolding.

While players and other organizers have been expressing their concerns here and elsewhere, I am just wondering what the best method / point of contact a retailer should employ to also express their concerns.

A wee bit of background; I was a former VO in the Raleigh area, and I quit about a year and 1/2 ago because of the actions and attitude of our regional coordinator.

Paizo's refusal to address this in a way that makes me feel they don't care about their customers/players is hitting the local gaming stores more than you know. I've more or less quit not just Pathfinder Society, but Paizo as a whole over this; I refuse to partake in Pathfinder Society until changes are made. I've also convinced all 6 players of my weekly gaming group to do the same, and I'm cancelling all my Paizo subscriptions as well. I'm not the only one, either, I know of at least a dozen other players who have done the same.

When I quit, I pretty much feel my comments to management were briefly read and discarded, and when I brought that fact up I was more or less told, "oh, we'll see you when your attitude changes."

Does this mean stealth/cloaking systems are completely non-plausible in Starfinder?

I'm guessing the 2 minutes to take 20 accounts for individual pieces of information, but if you're trying to research a topic there may be specific timeframes presented within the adventure itself.

Otherwise it's a bit silly to say you can be an expert in any topic in 2 minutes.

If perusing the Internet is any indication, there are tons of "experts" out there just from reading a few webpages and maybe the Wiki article.

The U.S. Revolution nominally started over taxation. ;) Wars start somewhere for some reason ...

My point ... because sometimes I do a horrible job at making it.

Obviously the answer to this is the trade federation

Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute.

Because taxation of trade routes and blockades are what I think of when I think Star Wars.

Ouachitonian wrote:

Isn't lightsaber anything objectively cooler than regular anything?

Not always. My lightsaber spoon keeps evaporating the broth of every soup I try to eat with it.

Every broth you vape

I'll be flinching at you

Guys the event is three weeks away and you already have the product. This could have been handled A LOT better than that. I have volunteered an significant amount of hours volunteering with red cross, scouts, and multiple other groups and entities. This smells very much like using the children this is supposed to help in a weaponized manner against people who quite possibly do not even know this going on.

And if you believe that an entire organization that has routinely supported both the gaming community and the charities(quite a few actually) is to be written off and tarred and feathered for a screw up, then don't LET THE DOOR HIT YOU ON THE WAY OUT.

I get where you're coming from, but when people are upset, drawing a line in the sand and basically saying "you're either with us or against us" doesn't really solve the problem at hand. I think both sides stepping back and then reaching out to the other to find out why things are the way they are might be a better option.

Does my experiences with Paizo staff (both voluntary and paid) dampen my expectations and hopes? Yes. Does that mean I'm going to wash my hands and give up on them? Not at all. I'm also willing to work so that Paizo central understands where I'm coming from and I'm going to keep an open mind so I can understand better where they're coming from.

I think based on past lacks of communication this will be difficult, though.

I'm far down the food chain but I strongly get the impression that there is a (perceived or real) lack of communication and responsiveness between the top and the grunts.

I certainly get this impression as well. I have voiced my complaints about certain things to Tonya and have gotten what felt like a canned response defending what was already in place. It honestly left me feeling like my opinion has little worth to Paizo, and certainly dampened my enthusiasm for the campaign and the direction it's heading.

I was at MACE, a gaming con in Charlotte NC, this past weekend with my fiance. We sat down for a table of "Horn of Aroden" and the con coordinator comes up with a young lady of around 12 and asked if she could play. I was apprehensive, because I'm nervous around kids and the coordinator said "This is her first gaming character, she made it herself with her father's help."

It turned out she and I were both playing bards so I got even more nervous over that, but once the game got rolling she was a trip. Her bard and mine were making bluff checks like crazy and feeding off each other's energy. My fiance, who has worked with kids in the past, did a great job helping her with her character sheet. The table was all-in-all quite fun and she liked it enough to ask about regular PFS gaming in the area.

Made me proud to see such a good experience with someone who I had a lot of doubts about.

Back in Living Greyhawk I'm playing Agroo the Coward, an elderly human cleric who had given up on life early and through the grace of his deity was trying to make amends before he died ...

The party is 3rd level and in one encounter the ground opens up and one of the party falls in and gets bitten/grabbed by an Ankheg that is about to drag said character off. I hadn't racked up any spells that would help, so my character pulled out his longspear and jumped 15' down into the pit (taking falling damage) and with his 8 strength and 8 dex, crit the sucker and saved the party member.

I do believe he was known as "Father Agroo" from that point forward.

Why cheat? We all know the outcome. Playing this game is like watching the movie Titanic - in the movie you know the Titanic is going to sink. You know the outcome. All you're watching for is to see the conflicts, the drama, the heroics along the way.

Ahhh, comparing fraudulent RPG gaming and James Cameron's Titanic.

One is a horrible, deplorable thing that causes tables full of intelligent folks to wonder why such a thing was attempted, is full of nasty dialogue, and leaves all involved with a sad feeling.

The other is cheating.

However, using an SLA to qualify for a Prestige Class (like tiefling and aasimar qualifying for Arcane Trickster) was grandfathered in.

Just wanted to clarify that, since I've already seen a thread get it wrong today.

I'm running a home game with a nymph oracle and a pixie ninja, so this thread is interesting to me.

So ... a little update.

To avoid attracting attention, the airship sailed out of Waterdeep Harbor as a normal ship. Shortly before taking off, the "infestation" of gremlins appeared and the characters went below decks to clear that out. While in the air, the party was attacked first by a few vampiric mists and then by a Derhii group scouting for the main bad guy, the insane magma dragon.

The dragon combat was epic, with flybys of a breath weapon, multiple parties being feared (including the dragon, thanks to an oracle being brave enough to walk up and touch it), and finally the dragon bursting the airship envelope and the gnomish crew bailing out. One PC wearing cat boots fell 5000 feet and survived only because of their mythic tier; he was at -33 out of -36 and auto-stabalized after hitting the ground. The dragon was in retreat with 10 HP out of 315, and got sniped by the pixie ninja using mythic rapid shot to be defeated.

But ... with the airship destroyed and the crew scattered, the PCs find themselves deep in the High Forest having to yet traverse a large river and a mountain range!

Thanks, all, for your suggestions.

It depends a lot on who you play With. Some GMs will not let you bring your mount/animal companion anytime they can feasibly make an excuse to disallow them. Sorry, no room on the boat, sorry can only teleport 6 people, sorry your horse isn't going to fit down this narrow staircase into the dungeon, etc.

I find this is often directly proportional to the amount of power gaming that is common in the group. GMs whose experience is that their PCs walk through everything without a scratch will banhammer the hardest in an attempt to make the scenario more challenging. GMs whose experience is their PCs often struggle to succeed will happily allow you to take your horse into the dungeon.

Apart from that, pfs has a lot more social scenarios and indoor scenarios then greyhawk did. You will find yourself attending dinner parties, libraries, etc. Where animals are clearly not going to be allowed in by the proprietors.

I have mulled with the idea of making a druid that wildshapes into a tiger, with and AC ape with boosted int so it can take the mounted combat feats and ride the druid in to battle.

My mounted character gets around this by being a paladin. "Oh? My dog can't travel with us? That's fine, I'll call her to my side when we get there."

And truly, never split the party.

Except for that one adventure that actually says you should.

Yes. It's real. It exists.

If you've gotten to level 20 and don't have a plan for getting out of being jumped while nekkid, you deserve to die.

At that level you should have a custom bathtub stored in a portable hole with minor portals to the elemental plane of water and fire to have a nice hot bath that will teleport you and your gear to a safe spot given a command word if you're jumped.

Nonsentient Companions: A nonsentient companion (one with animal-level intelligence) is loyal to you in the way a well-trained dog is—the creature is conditioned to obey your commands, but its behavior is limited by its intelligence and it can't make altruistic moral decisions—such as nobly sacrificing itself to save another. Animal companions, cavalier mounts, and purchased creatures (such as common horses and guard dogs) fall into this category. In general they're GM-controlled companions. You can direct them using the Handle Animal skill, but their specific behavior is up to the GM.

Sentient Companions: A sentient companion (a creature that can understand language and has an Intelligence score of at least 3) is considered your ally and obeys your suggestions and orders to the best of its ability. It won't necessarily blindly follow a suicidal order, but it has your interests at heart and does what it can to keep you alive. Paladin bonded mounts, familiars, and cohorts fall into this category, and are usually player-controlled companions.

That should clear it up. I apologize, as I kept thinking all magical beast intelligent mounts are bonded mounts (a la paladin)

"I've upped my will save, now up yours."

Thank you everyone, I hope to help make PFS even stronger in the area and look help fill the big shoes left empty by Mr. Steve Miller

I just think it's incredibly unfair that some people have grandfathered characters that get to do things/be classes/be races that others can't. I shouldn't be penalized for when I started playing PFS. Either everyone should be able to do it or no one should.

To play devil's advocate, it would be incredibly unfair to essentially invalidate someone's character that they have played more than a few times and represent more than a few hours of play and planning.

This might sound silly, but check out Neverwinter Nights 2 - I think it's 2nd or 3rd chapter you are given a keep and a lot is planned around upgrading it. Things you can do:

• Fix a tower and invite a resident wizard
  
• Fix a temple and invite a cleric or a monastic order
  
• Upgrade the roads in the area
  
• Upgrade the local defenses
  
• Train men and start patrols
  
• Send out tax collectors
  
• Set training levels (invite all to join your forces, or set the bar higher?)
  
• fix specific buildings and invite craftsmen (armorsmith, weaponsmith, etc)
  

There's also subplots around arcane texts in the library, a gnome building a golem in the basement, and a former enemy surrendering and begging for mercy and a job.

All of that might fit in well with your theme

If Pathfinder were a pro sports game, rogue would be on the bench and sent in to play the trap-monkey position only when the archaeologist bard or the urban ranger get tired.

Yes, rogues are great at traps, but other classes can do that now and they can also do many other things much better than the rogue.

Ok, I'm going to be a bit rude here, but the last 40 posts have boiled down to "1 person's anecdotal evidence vs 20 people's anecdotal evidence."

Certain classes need help, mostly because the hybrids that they helped create have far out-stripped the classes they are supposed to be a mere fraction of. It's widely recognized that the rogue is one of these classes and to argue otherwise goes against the vastly popular consensus on these boards as well as a few independent mathematical/statistical analyses.

Rogues may very well be powerful in your game, but until you can prove your game is just like everyone else's, we'll just have to keep arguing here.

Imbicatus, what would _you_ like the rogue to be able to do that it doesn't do now?

Let's flip that question ... do you think the rogue does anything at least as well as other classes?

I get the feeling in this argument that there are a few people out there that don't trust the GMs that they play with to be fair and see their role as adversarial. No one in my area GMs to "get" the characters so this mindset is a little foreign to me.

We've ALL had that one GM who just simply sucked beyond suck. I made a post a year ago about a GM I had where the first thing he did when I sat down was setup his GM screen and proudly show me his player kill stickers, not unlike WWII aces had kill decals on their planes. My inner common sense gave me a huge "NOPE" and I quite simply got up and left.

Any DM that views an RP game as "me vs. them" is never going to be a good DM. IMHO, a DM is a storyteller and rules arbitrator who just happens to run the bad guys. I will admit that when I get a completely cheesed-out character that could solo an adventure who makes the table unfun for the other players, I notice myself getting a bit adversarial with them but I'm trying to remember to pull them aside and ask them to not overshadow the other PCs rather than sit there and get mad.

I throw bonuses at my players far, FAR more often than penalties. Usually for RP.

This. I reward RP, and I reward creative gameplay.

Monster A and Hero B begin an encounter, there's no suprise and Monster A has higher initiative. Hero B has a reach weapon. If Monster A moves to attack B, does B get an attack of opportunity even though he hasn't acted yet?

The answer: it depends

Hero B will only get an attack of opportunity if he has combat reflexes and the monster moves through a threatened square.

I can't imagine any low lvl party being thrilled to fight a swarm of stirges. They suck

Pun intended

a swarm of half dragon stirges.

"Ok, make 100 reflex saves please."

Here's a question for other GMs:

If you encounter a spellcaster who just records a 10-25 GP expenditure every once in a while on their chronicle sheets with an entry of "random" or "misc. mat. comp." would you be ok assuming that spellcaster had all the basic components and focal items they needed (even a 10 GP shovel)?

I'm going to a con this weekend and for the first time I'm hoping to be 100% paper free, I.E. have all my characters on just my laptop using Hero Lab and/or PDFs. I'll of course have all my chronicle sheets on paper and with me, but I'm wondering if there's any esoteric rules that state a player has to have a paper sheet, or that a GM can require one?

thanks

I have an advanced version of the reincarnate spell, a 6th level spell called reincarnate, greater. The player rolls three times and picks the result they'd prefer.

Kudaku wrote:

Wouldn't a Hold Person scroll have a save DC of 13?

That's why martial characters have to really focus on keeping their Will save low. Wisdom of seven - or five if you can get a racial penalty - and never get a Cloak of Resistance. That way you can still be failing to resist that Hold Person scroll with a 50% success rate at level 17, thus allowing your allies to protect themselves from the consequences of your bad Will save.

notsureifserious.jpg

'A story that changes you' is best done through roleplay and personality. It in no stretch has to be modelled in the mechanics.

This thread sounds more like 'I like fighters that use longswords, so I don't care that this guy took exotic weapon proficiency bastard sword, weapon focus bastard sword, and weapon specialisation bastard sword, I'm going to throw magical longswords at him and whine if he doesn't use them'.

At some point in my GMing life I had a realization or two:

1) while challenging players is important, the perception of difficulty in combat is more important than the actual difficulty.
2) the GM exists to tell a story and adjudicate the rules, not to kill the players
3) You can tell a changing, evolving story without keeping secrets from the players that they should know.

Ok, I've read through this and am still a bit baffled at why anyone ever thought "planning your character is bad, mmkay."

The only thing I can think of is that this was a case of "you're not playing the way I want you to play so I'm gonna get mad and say it's your fault"

But every player appreciates the humor value of putting Kalthar Dragonsmasher in a tuxedo.

Or guarding a group of 5 year olds

and,

is Skill Mastery the specific case that overrides the general ban on taking 10 with UMD,
or,
is Use Magic Device's ban on taking 10 the specific case that overrides SM's general take 10 privilege?

plus

Jack of all Trades wrote:

At 10th level, the bard can use any skill, even if the skill normally requires him to be trained. At 16th level, the bard considers all skills to be class skills. At 19th level, the bard can take 10 on any skill check, even if it is not normally allowed.

is this ability the same or simply better?

An example of another class doing something better than the rogue? Never, I say, never!

Vampire Touch just because it is often poorly used in Adventure Paths. There seems to be a tendency to give it to mid level BBEGs to use once they are losing in a combat. If a BBEG is vampire touching while outnumbered 4 to 1 he is prolonging the inevitable.

Just once I'd like to see an AP have an arcane trickster bad guy use a reach rod with vampiric touch as an opening attack and really drive up the damage with sneak.

inflatable flailing arm tube men.

Back in orchestra we used to call that "the conductor"

Useless for the level?

Polar Ray. 1d6/level damage and 1d4 dex drain at a single target.

Ask if anyone has the trapspotter ability. Roll a D20 any time that character moves, if only to make them paranoid.

I met my current GF at a Pathfinder Society Table. As we got to know each other I found out she's a good cook, likes baseball, likes video games, and is into fantasy RPGs. I feel like I couldn't be luckier.

I was playing my cleric of Calistria -inspired by pathological liar Gaius Baltar - in PFS "Eyes of the Ten" a while ago. He walks up to the very first person in the adventure he meets, the venture captain who assigns you the mission, and introduces himself as "Venture Captain Jorza Wood" - I rolled a 20 on my bluff check giving me a 52 and the "real" venture captain fully believed me.

Hows abouts we take the one-on-one argument offline, please?

hardness ≠ DR

One of my favorite uses for quickened true strike:

Wizard 12, Arcane Archer 2, use Arcane Archer "imbue arrow" to put antimagic field on your arrow and shoot it at a caster.

No save, no SR, no magic happening around that caster.

To the rogue-haters in this thread: No other class can get the Rumormonger ability. "If the check succeeds, the rumor is practically accepted as fact within the community." YES PLEASE! I've wanted to build a Charlatan for the longest time, just because this ability is so damn cool.

If you do take Sorcerer levels, the Rakshasa bloodline will give you an additional +5 on your Bluff checks.

The Power of Suggestion trait is very cool as well. More-or-less flat DC to make everyone believe an object in your hand is something else, no save.

Coax Information is a cool talent - use Bluff instead of Intimidate to get information.

For gear, pick up a wand of Honeyed Tongue so your Diplomacy skills will be excellent as well.

Cool! A class known for sneak-attacks, evasion, trapfinding, sneaking, and thievery is the best at spreading rumors!

Play a better class. Classes with 1 good save which is reflex are virtually unplayable at significant levels.

"Play a better class"? Really?

The whole point of this thread was to show how rogues are underpowered and I was asked to post a build which I claimed sacrificed a bunch of things to be decently effective in combat. I did so. I don't disagree at all. I'm right with the group that says the rogue needs a pretty big boost, but I feel that comments like "play a better class" are unhelpful at best and obnoxious at worst. Believe me, if you showed me a way to snap my fingers and make my PFS rogue into a slayer, I'd do so. I'm already going to be getting a cracked green ioun stone before that character's next adventure.

Yeah, I'm just saying that GMs break the intent in both directions: Using tactics if possible, even if the PC have done something to make them useless and not using the tactics even in the default situation, because the GM has thought of something better.

As wraithstrike suggested, I'd not treat it as a binary either: try to follow the spirit of the tactics, rather hoping the tactics get invalidated and going to Killer GM level as soon as you can justify it.

I agree with you on this, however my problem in Society Play comes from GMs who feel like their duty is to be your opponent, not your storyteller/fair rules judge.

There aren't many of them out there, but they do exist - I've had an organized play judge (in LG) sit down with "kill stickers" on his GM screen and the very first thing he did was point them out with both pride in himself and contempt for the players. That was my first time experiencing that kind of GM, and he continually twisted rules to give all the NPCs an advantage. We ended up with 3 of 6 dead. The second time I encountered a GM like that the very first thing I did was get up and walk away from the table. I work in IT - I get enough a-holes at work - I don't need them at the Pathfinder table.

I have zero qualms getting up and walking away from a table when the GM is clearly being a jerk and/or fudging things at this point in time. That being said, that's only happened once in Pathfinder Society and it was in the middle of the 2nd combat and 2 other people at the table were in complete agreement with me and left with me. The GM threatened to report the entire party down as dead and I told him he could do whatever he wanted, the Chronicle Sheet is always the higher authority and we all refused to take one from him. He never even reported the adventure.

The majority of the PFS GMs I've had are fun. The worst you're going to get is mixed interpretations on specific rules that are contentious anyway. If your character uses those rules a lot, clear things up with the GM beforehand.