Timrod's page

I'm about to GM this tomorrow and I noticed that the Secondary Success Conditions document has a huge error in regards to this scenario:

By the SSC doc, the primary success condition is recovering the tome.. which the Marquis doesn't have and no one knows where it is. There's a forgery dropped as part of a faction mission, but that would kind of break the scenario from a making-sense perspective.

Someone should probably re-write that, because by RAW there's no way to actually succeed at the primary goal.

I'm currently in the process of making an exploiter wizard in PFS, and I have a question about something.

As I understand it, if you are an Arcanist and take the "School Understanding" exploit, you get any one school ability that is usable 3 + Int Modifier times per day as if you were a Level 1 wizard, and then need to use Arcane Reservoir points to treat your Arcanist level as your Wizard level if you want to use it to greater effect.

Now, here's my question.

Let's say you're taking School Understanding as an exploiter wizard and not as an arcanist. Obviously, you actually have levels in wizard. Do you still get treated as an L1 wizard without spending the Arcane Reservoir point, or is that a moot point if you are already a wizard with a level higher than 1?

The way it's worded, I would guess that you would get the full benefit (since it's kind of illogical that you would be treated as a first-level wizard despite having actual wizard levels and have no arcanist levels to convert), but I'm not really sure.

Nice badges!

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I think someone didn't cross-check the Languages.

Magical Maggie: Common, Elven, Halfling.
Mugmurch: Goblin, Varisian
The rest only know Goblin.

Should we:
* Have Maggie know Goblin (allows all them to talk)
* Change Mugmurch's language to Common (which restricts dialogue to him, but gives more creature they can talk to)
* Pretend I never noticed and allow all NPCs to communicate freely with the Gobs

I prefer allowing the PCs to communicate with all the NPCs.

If it helps, the Campaign Setting book for Golarion states that Taldane ("Common") takes a lot of its vocabulary from Varisian. The way I'm running it, Mugmurch knows Varisian well enough to pick up on some of what Maggie says, allowing them to communicate in a rudimentary fashion (probably with lots of pantomime involved) - enough that she can try to sell the goblins her potions and carry on a basic conversation with them (with Mugmurch as the intermediary) almost like a game of Telephone. As an example:

What Maggie says: "Well, look at you fine green gentlemen - and loyal customers to boot! Are you interested in some of my Miracle Medicine? Only 300 gold pieces each for fine goblins like yourselves!"

What Mogmurch hears: "Sell boot.. potion 300 gold pieces! Fine goblins!"

What the rest of the goblins hear through Mogmurch: "She wants to sell us her boot for 300 gold pieces!"

That's just an example I came up with on the fly. You could probably do better.

I'm having some major issues with the PFS group in my area, and I'd like to know how to contact the current campaign coordinator by email. Does anyone know who the new coordinator is, or what their email is?

I'd like to thank the Australian GM who ran True Dragons of Absalom. Not only was he probably the best GM I've ever seen but I'm also pretty sure he is an actual wizard.

I've got a seemingly simple and straightforward question that I'm not sure is written anywhere in the rules, but I want to make sure.

I mostly run PFS games, but this would apply just as readily to a home campaign if something similar were to come up. The scenario I have is as follows:

An enemy starts their round standing on a wooden tower that is 20 feet tall. The tent is (logically) situated on ground that is legal for entangle. The enemy casts entangle in such a way that it affects the squares underneath them.

Logic dictates that there SHOULDN'T be any way that the enemy is affected by the entangle spell, because they are standing on an artificial structure with no mention of there being plants climbing up it.

I know with Web that it's a 20-foot radius, meaning it extends out 20 feet in all directions and is also 20 feet high. For Entangle to do the same thing, it would mean seeing grasses and shrubs reaching 20 feet up to grab the person on top of the structure. As a GM in a home game, I would definitely rule that the enemy is not affected (but anyone at the bottom of the structure would be).

Are there any written rules on how this works?

Hello,

I am working on making a Shaman for PFS, and I'm wondering what I should do about stat distribution. Obviously, Wisdom comes first and foremost, but what I'm wondering is this:

Ultimately, I plan to start with the Heavens spirit (for Color Spray and Hypnotic Pattern) and take Lore as a wandering spirit/wandering hex so I can start grabbing wizard spells.

What I'm wondering is whether or not it's worth it to put points into Charisma or just dump it altogether. As far as I can tell, none of the abilities for the Heavens spirit actually use Charisma for anything, and having a higher Charisma wouldn't make a whole lot of difference for the purpose of grabbing wizard spells.

Knowing this, my stat distribution is as follows:

7 Strength
12 Dexterity
12 Constitution
13 Intelligence
20 Wisdom (with human +2 bonus)
10 Charisma

What I'm wondering is whether this would be a better distribution:

7 Strength
14 Dexterity
15 Constitution (take alternate human racial for an extra +2)
13 Intelligence
20 Wisdom (with human +2 bonus)
7 Charisma

I'm building a shaman for PFS, and what I'm wondering is how I should distribute my stats. Ideally, I'm trying to make a shaman that is a debuffer and a battlefield controller.

What I was thinking of doing is taking Lore as a wandering spirit at level 4 to gain at least one sorcerer/wizard spell per day. From what I understand, if you do this, you can pick which spell(s) you want on a daily basis rather than permanently and changing them at level-up only.

Since most debuff hexes for shamans do not use charisma, I was thinking of distributing my stats like this:

7 STR
12 DEX
12 CON
13 INT
20 WIS
10 CHA

The reason for this is that even though I don't plan on being the party face, I have enough intelligence to cast up to third-level spells using the wandering spirit and can buy an ioun stone to get another +2 so I can cast up to fifth level (my target being magic jar).

However, I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to dump charisma entirely and put a few extra points in dex/con. Which is the better option?

Hi. First time posting here, because tomorrow morning is (or will be) my first time GMing in PFS.

The problem I'm facing is that I was planning to run one of two scenarios tomorrow - either 1-33 Assault on the Kingdom of the Impossible or 0-14 Many Fortunes of Grandmaster Torch. The Season 0 one was being used as a placeholder on Warhorn, and I basically said "Well, since people signed up for it if they want to do it I will prep it." Both of these were obviously designed for 4 players rather than 6. When I looked at the Warhorn signups tonight, I saw that there are seven people signed up for my table, and six for the other one.

What I'm worried about is that 7 players will completely wreck either of these scenarios - especially if they take the diplomatic route in 1-33. If I had more time to prepare everything I probably would've asked to set up a third table for later in the day and had 3 people sign up for one and 4 for the other, but that's not really an option given how little time I have.

There are people at the table who have GMed before, but I don't think they have anything prepared, and given that I only knew I'd have seven at my table a few hours ago, I can't expect them to prep anything tonight.

So my question to anyone who has run these is this: Which of these two scenarios are the players less likely to completely destroy?

Timrod wrote:

Can I ask how he did that? I made a conjuration-spec wizard and have been taking every possible DC increase I can find and have no idea how an L7 sorcerer can have a DC over 30 on any spell. Is it that he JUST has confusion and that's his only thing?

He didn't say it was level 7, only that it was a 7-11 scenario. Here's a quick napkin math theoretical L8 kitsune sorceror

L8 Kitsune Sorcerer Fey Bloodline
24 CHA (18 + 2 Racial + 2 Level Ups + 2 Headband)

10 Base
4 Spell level
7 Charisma
2 Kitsune FCB x8
2 Spell Focus/Greater Spell Focus
2 Fey Bloodline
2 Focused Metamagic Rod

DC 29 Confusion

I don't play DC boosting casters, so I'm sure there's a trick or two I'm missing. Add a level or two, and his DC breaks 30 from upgrading his headband.

Oh, okay. I'll have to get around to buying a focused rod at some point once I have the gold to do so (Fresh L3 right now with nearly 4k gold from playing up) but my DCs won't be anywhere near 29. Kind of hoping my DCs are good enough for when I hit 7. Right now for my second-levels I'm at DC19, but I don't have enough fame to buy a headband yet. With it I'd be at DC20 for second levels, thus 22 for fourth-level spells.

I know either playing or DMing, I know that it won't be a very good night when certain very optimized characters are seated at the table. A few weeks ago, I seriously wanted to just sign chronicle sheets as soon as the character sheets hit the table. I knew we had a 7-11 mod with will saves no greater than +5 (low tier), and that there was a sorcerer that would have 2 DC30+ confusion spells per combat. I knew going in that absolutely nothing in the mod could remotely challenge that character, let alone the other 5 people sitting at the table watching him throw his confusion at initiative 30 or so to start every battle.

This was an extreme example do to the terrible saves in the module, but in all the times I've seen that character at the table as a player or GM, I've only seen 1 enemy make a save and that enemy only had a 10% chance and got lucky. It doesn't make for a very interesting tactical game.

Too optimized definitely can detract from the experience at the table as well.

Can I ask how he did that? I made a conjuration-spec wizard and have been taking every possible DC increase I can find and have no idea how an L7 sorcerer can have a DC over 30 on any spell. Is it that he JUST has confusion and that's his only thing?

Question, do you actually need handle animal if you're planning on using a creature as an impromptu mount without being a cavalier? I just realized how hilarious it would be for my wizard to buy a battle-trained bison and ride around on it casting spells. As far as I can tell, as long as I have the bison move before or after I cast a spell I wouldn't even have to make concentration checks to cast.

For reference, I don't even want the bison to attack, I'd just want it for the imagery of a crazy wizard spamming create pit off the back of a bison.

I'm a relatively new PFS player, so forgive me if I say something that's blatantly incorrect.

My understanding of summons is this: as per the organized play rules, you are only allowed to have one combat animal (usually an animal companion, eidolon, mount, or familiar) and one summon active at a time.

I have a couple of questions about the legality and mechanics of multiple summons, some of which I've seen asked but were never really answered.

First: When you reach second-level spells (Summon Monster 2 or Summon Nature's Ally 2) you have the option of summoning either one creature from the level 2 list or 1d3 creatures of the same type from the level 1 list. Would taking the latter option be violating the "one summon" rule? I would imagine not, because feats like Superior Summoning and Balanced Summoning are listed as legal on the Additional Resources page.

Second: Does Superior Summoning apply if you take the 1d3 creatures option on Summon Monster 2 (or above), even if you do not manage to summon multiple creatures (roll a 1 on the d3), or does it only apply if you actually manage to summon multiple creatures?

Third: With Balanced Summoning and Superior Summoning active at the same time, how does that work mechanically? You summon two creatures of opposing alignments (one celestial and one fiendish) but which alignment would the third be?

I have to roll a new character, since as far as I know my main character is doing the rest of Emerald Spire. I want to make something a little bit unique, but PFS seems to have the stance of "no fun allowed" when making builds.

I run in a group that has far too much melee for its own good, and as far as I can tell there are no valid ranged builds outside of the cookie-cutter ones like fighter archer.

Are there any builds that are at least somewhat unique that are legal for PFS?

This will contain unmarked spoilers for Slave Ships of Absalom. Please do not read ahead if you wish to not be spoiled.

I tried a newly-rolled L1 Hydrokineticist in Society today, doing this scenario. Most of it went pretty well - I was hitting regularly and doing well in closed quarters because of my use of Cold Blast and its ranged touch AC.

There were three problems that I felt the class had with this scenario, which were:

- When fighting the human caster in the ship's hold, I was actually afraid to move into the Grease spell he had just cast because I didn't have enough skill points (even as a human) to afford a point in Acrobatics. I built my character with 20 Dexterity, so Reflex saves weren't really an issue, but there are a whole bunch of Dex-based skills that I felt I would take if I had more skill points but couldn't.

- When trying to put out the brazier during the final encounter, both I and the rest of the group found it a little weird that the Hydrokineticist doesn't have an ability that mimics Create Water. It felt kind of odd hitting the brazier with a cold blast to stop the fire, rather than simply creating or manipulating some water to do the same job.

- The social parts were definitely a major weak point for this character, since Charisma was my dump stat. However, I feel like that because Constitution is the main stat for the class, it's kind of hard to be really good at anything besides Dexterity-based skills, since no skills use Constitution as their associated stat.

In building the character, I think it's kind of odd that Constitution is the class's primary stat, but the Kineticist gains no real benefits (other than the HP from having a higher Con score) from it. In fact, I wound up going 18 (20 with human bonus) in Dexterity and leaving Con at 15, simply because I didn't think taking Burn in any amount would be a prudent thing to do at such a low level. It's also probably a good thing I didn't take Kinetic Healer and instead opted for Extended Range, because had I passed on the single point of Burn to either the Paladin or the Samurai in my group they would likely have died from the lower max HP from the Burn.

In my opinion, there are three changes I think should be made to Kineticist to make them a little more all-round useful:

1. Raise the skills per level to 4+Int, as was previously suggested by many other people.

2. Give the Kineticist the ability to use their force of will to enhance their skill rolls - this would balance out Constitution being their main stat in terms of skill use.

3. Give the Kineticist some free Talents that allow them some minor manipulation of their chosen element - something like Create Water for the Hydrokineticist. I think this would also help with the ranged-attack blasts which seemingly require material components (water, fire, unattended objects) and give them a bit more usefulness in general.

I'm working on building a Kineticist for PFS, and I realized something. I went Hydrokineticist with Cold Blast, and was thinking that with Cold Blast, there are a lot of enemies that have SR or are immune to cold. Then I realized that similarly, Cold Blast cannot penetrate DR/magic.

My solution to this (since I went human and maxed out on Dexterity, and had taken PBS and Precise Shot) was to buy a light crossbow. Then, I realized something.

In virtually every situation, the crossbow is better than my blast.

Alma the Hydrokineticist
Level 1 Human Kineticist

7 STR
18 (20) DEX
15 CON
10 INT
12 WIS
7 CHA

Feats: Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot

Wild Talents: Extended Range

Now, let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of Cold Blast vs Light Crossbow.

Cold Blast

Pros:

Hits touch AC
No reloads
Can take 5 foot step and fire

Cons:

Less range than xbow unless using full round or burn
Cannot bypass DR
Affected by SR
Creatures can be immune to cold
Cannot ever be made to bypass DR or Hardness
Less damage (d6 + 1)

Light Crossbow

Pros:

Can be enchanted later to bypass DR
Not effected by SR
Creatures cannot be immune to it
More damage (d8)
More range unless extend range is used

Cons:

Does not hit touch AC
Needs move action to reload
Cannot take 5 foot step while reloading and firing on same turn

I'm fairly certain there is a problem with the class when the blasts will not outdamage that crossbow until level 3, and really don't have any other advantages over the crossbow until level 6 when I can get a free entangle for a full round action.