Uncle Ook's page

Hi everyone...

I've gotten the dubious honor of running and organizing Pathfinder Society for Buffalo's local gaming convention this year. Last year we offered 25 scenarios spread over 7 time slots, but I think maybe 15 or so went off.

I've pulled the following scenarios for us to run, based on ratings:

3-03 The Gennett Manor Gauntlet
4-03 The Golemworks Incident
4-09 The Blakros Matrimony
4-19 The Night March of Kalkamedes
5-02 The Wardstone Patrol
5-09 The Traitor's Lodge
7-01 Between the Lines
7-05 School of Spirits
7-07 Trouble in Tamran
7-15 The Deepmarket Deception
7-19 Labyrinth of Hungry Ghosts

and I have Master of the Fallen Fortress, The Confirmation, the Wounded Wisp and the Consortium Compact all ready to run if we get new players. I figure I will grab the first 3 Season 8 scenarios when they become available and possibly the quests.

So my question to anyone who can help: I figure I need at least 5-10 more scenarios to put out there for signup. Do you have any suggestions of your favorite Con adventures to play?

I only have a pool of about 5 or 6 other GMs I can pull from, and they won't be available for every slot. I'm the only one running locally on a regular basis.

any insight/advice would be appreciated.

I've had one death in five characters so far - down to a max damage negative channeling cleric at first level... not a good time at all. not many characters have 12 hp, especially when all but one of us failed our save.

I haven't killed anyone as GM yet. I likely missed killing my wife's 5th level ranger by 1 (rolled a 17) with a certain magus, and dropped her to negatives the next round, but the party got there in time. I nearly TPK'd a party in MotFF with some undead due to terrible rolls.

Back in the old days factions were more cloak and dagger... with individual faction missions, and some that directly conflicted, you NEVER* revealed your faction.

*most of the time...

yeah, but the Silver Crusaders and Andoran/Liberty's Edge folks were generally easy to spot.

If you meet all of the requirements anyway, I would definitely take three levels of shadowdancer for the shadow companion.

The concept of an unchained rogue/shadowdancer of Sarenrae is actually really cool. You're not a divine spellcaster, so it's fine to have somewhat unorthodox methods of carrying out your faith. And seeing yourself as "one of the select few to brave the shadows to defend the light" would give so many roleplaying opportunities. Darkvision is perfectly flavorful for a Sarenrae worshiper. Plus Sarenrae is all about redemption, and you have the ability to call an actual shadow, normally a chaotic evil undead creature, and convert it into your own alignment.

Finally, this is an excellent opportunity to subvert the whole "light is good, dark is evil" fantasy cliche. Maybe what the faith of Sarenrae really needs is someone to stand up and say "You know all the light and darkness stuff we talk about? You guys do get that that's a metaphor, right? Light sources themselves or their absence don't automatically make things good or evil."

Shadowdancer Alignment wrote:

To them, the darkness is simply the darkness, without any of the usual moral connotations made by the unenlightened.

Sounds great... assuming I survive, I'll definitely be taking Shadowdancer. I may go four levels to get Shadow jump, and then jump back for more roguish goodness.

Hi everyone - thought I would pick your collective brains on this.

I've got a PFS level 5.2 Unchained Rogue and an adventure on Tuesday. Should she survive, I have the requirements to pursue Shadowdancer, but I'm starting to question this.

Alainna is a Sarenite, and the Inner Sea Gods seems to indicate that pursuing the path of Shadow runs contrary to the Dawnflower's belief system. I had originally thought she could be recruited to become one of the select few to brave the shadows to defend the light.

Mechanically, things like darkvision (she's human) and shadow jump seem very cool, but losing out on some of the higher rogue abilities have me thinking that it's better to continue up the Rogue path.

My wife's Saurian Shaman is named "Gramina Prydnad", from Latin for "lawn" and Swedish for "ornament"

Her velociraptor is named Mk'nugg't. Because dinosaurs were just really big chickens. (she uses a chicken mini to represent him)

If any are available, I would also like a code, please. Thanks much!

It looks like I will be GMing a couple adventures at Queen City Conquest, so I was wondering if anyone has had their GM bring either the acrylics or table tents for people to fill out?

I know I would prefer to use the character's names and it doesn't seem like most players bring their own.

Interesting read.

I've recently realized that my CG halfling sized cavalier is the only member of our party who didn't dump charisma (primarily because I was thinking of crossing with bard and going battle herald.)

His backstory includes escaping slavery in Cheliax, and stops in Andoran and Liberthane in the River Kingdoms. Being King is probably not going to be his sort of deal, so I'll likely need to look at options.

or wait for one of us to die and hope their replacement is more suited.

master of many styles, for his hand to hand?

standard bearer cavalier (with his shield as banner?)

Just hard to picture Cap without superhigh STR, DEX, CON, and CHA, though.

Yeah, that group has no arcane caster and no one to handle battlefield control. Until that's handled this group will struggle in combat.

well, the druid preps entangle, but even with an 18 WIS gets 2 spells a day. i've got glitterdust as an SLA 1/day.

As for ranged, I have a short bow (went with a dex focus), the druid has a sling (ugh) and the monk has javelins, although the one fight we won he'd been swimming and ended up naked, so was fighting unarmed. Also, he'll be forever known as the Blue Streak (was the nicer of the options)

Druids are great this AP. Coming down to a normal race will curb the power back.

There is always the nature oracle...you can get a mount, cha for AC ands Reflex saves instead of dex, and a few other outside powers. Take the feat divine protection and you have insane saves.

just to follow up...

my PC Gen harfed on me just before we took off, so I was left with my musetouched aasimar halfling cavalier beast rider, and my wife has a plumekith aasimar druid. our other characters are an undine flowing monk and a dwarven fighter (apparently the investigator idea fell through)

we nearly died against some boars on the way to the first written encounter.

I think I need to get a bard level (at the least) to try to get some arcane spells, because it seemed like we're just not ready for a real fight.

but on the upside, our GM is focusing on the roleplay, and we all had fun.

Ciaran Barnes wrote:

What is a knight? The majority of my fictive reading on the age of chivalry comes from Malory's Le Morte d'Arther, but in that single expansive tomb, almost every character is a knight, and let me tell you that they run the entire spectrum of what could be considered a knight.

But only Lancelot and Galahad would be considered Paladins, and Lancelot loses his Paladinhood for his affair with the Lady Elaine. One might say that eventually he retrains his Ex-Paladin levels for Fighter, as he becomes even deadlier in warfare afterwards.

Percival probably qualifies, and an argument can certainly be made for Gawain too.

But yeah, cavalier is from the same etymology as Chevalier and Caballero - words in French and English for knight...

Quote:

Might I suggest taking a look at the Shaman as a possibility for your centaur? It would be very thematic, offer a decent amount of versatility, and can serve as either an arm or anvil, while still being able to deal damage because of the impressive physical stat bonuses.

This is great advice...I highly recommend Shaman or Druid. In the end you will end up being crazy powerful. I like the shaman idea as I like their spell list and hexes. The druid would offer a animal companion, Your awesome physical increases, and 9th level spells. I feel the druid would offer more things. Options are always nice.

But both are very powerful choices for this campaign.

honestly, that's where I'm stumbling right now - it might be too powerful, especially early on. My version of PC-Gen is even more powerful than the ARG -it's giving +4 for physical stats and +2 for Wis/Cha, which is clearly wrong. I prefer support characters - or, at least, cogs. I don't want to solo encounters.

I guess I'll just grab a nature based character of some sort to round out the party.

thanks again for all the advice.

I'm going to continue to toy with the Oracle/Wizard/M.T. build, but I found out today that our GM is absolutely fine with a centaur so...

yeah, gonna have a centaur. If I read the ARG correctly, that's +4/+2/+2 to physical stats and a +2 to wisdom. I'm thinking either Druid, Ranger or Hunter, but I need to keep it thematic and actually make sense

Now I have to figure out how to Centaur, and hope the little dungeon diving is right.

thanks again for everyone's input.

I've been reading the Mystic Theurge stuff, and I've probably missed something, but it seems like an Aasimar Heavens Oracle/Sorcerer (or witch, for that matter) would be possible for early entry while just maxing out Charisma for spells.

I do see that double spontaneous casters aren't preferred, so I am thinking I could go with Peri Blooded Aasimar, but I'm worried about having low or dumped physical traits and being too squishy. (Right now I'm think about about starting Blackened Heavens Oracle with 8-10-12-16-10-18 stat array, getting color spray @ 2nd level with Awesome Display. 3rd level I could start with wizard and go on from there.

That way we can do the Battle Herald for the other class. (The centaur was my joke, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask)

The player's guide makes me think that we really need an outdoorsy type, so we're leaning druid for the other class. My wife's played a Saurian Shaman in PFS before, so maybe she'll want the Oracle.

That said, if crafting is a big part of this, should we be looking at an arcane caster?

I do like the idea of the Battle Herald but I have no idea what sort of build the Investigator or Monk is going with.

** spoiler omitted **...

The Heaven's Oracle seems like a good fit for an Aasimar too... can "dump" Wisdom or see if I can get the GM to approve using Blood Of Angels and go with Archon (for a Con boost) or Garuda (for a Dex boost) blooded version.

Heck, maybe I can swing a Halfling based Angel-blooded Aasimar for the other one for an Order of the Paw Cavalier?

Thanks for the advice. Will definitely try pulling together the Oracle, and will lean towards a Druid for the other.

My wife and I will be joining a Kingmaker campaign in a couple weeks, four players, 15 point buy.

The GM has told us that the other two players will be playing a monk and an investigator, and suggested that a caster would be helpful. (I was joking that when he said any races were acceptable that I should try a centaur cavalier)

From the player's guide it seems like a ranger/druid would be helpful, at least for the wilderness exploration portion, but it also looks like the party possibly needs a front liner, healing and possibly archery.

I was originally thinking an Aasimar cleric of Erastil, to provide support and a long bow, at least to get us going, possibly multi-classing out of it later (Paladin? Dunno if the degree of evil opponents)

We've been discussing whether to go with a wizard or summoner as the other class.

So, any thoughts?

Add a dwarf and a half-orc (sadly sort of deceased) to the list for me. I have one pre-gen credit that I'm not sure what to do with yet.

I wouldn't really call Dresden's Sidhe paladins, though. They might have the lawful part down :P

clearly not. I suppose it ends up if the GM considers deliberately deceiving someone with carefully worded truths is an evil act.

There's also the example of Carrot Ironfouderson, who's as close to a Paladin as any on the Discworld, and yet can twist a person's expectations with the truth and what's left unsaid.

SO it looks like by RAW you could be a paladin of Erecura. However, since there's like almost no information printed on Erecura (a paragraph in a spread on Moloch, and some info in a Kobold Quarterly article), there's no specific paladin code.

So you default to the standard paladin code, which says (among other things) "thou shalt not lie", nor do any other overly clever things that would be considered dishonorable. And that makes a very poor fit for the goddess of subtlety.

The Aes Sedai from The Wheel of Time and the Sidhe from The Dresden Files would likely dispute that there can be no subtlety when you speak no word that isn't true.

great list... tracking for future reference.

I guess going with Stone Plate for my Stonelord will end up being OK, because Heartstone gives him the Natural Armor bonus along the way, so missing out on the dex bonus isn't that bad.

Uncle Ook wrote:

I just wish I could get PC-Gen to let me buy it for my Stonelord.

I can with my PC-gen 6.02.1. Have you got the latest verion?

6.04.00... it has stoneplate, but it seems to be just a placeholder without no cost or properties. I ended up renaming Full Plate, and adding the extra weight and cost.

If he still wants to, tell him to go for it =).

I just wish I could get PC-Gen to let me buy it for my Stonelord.

My Stonelord Paladin is working with the Society in hopes that they might one day provide access to an artifact that will be able to overcome a certain curse and be able to return home to the mountains.

My wife's elven Ranger feels beholden to the Society after they aided the remnants of her village after an attack by other, non-PFS humans. She doesn't like humans - they are her favored enemy after all - but still works with the Society as a matter of honor.

RainyDayNinja wrote:

Amiri is the strongest at level 1. At higher levels, Kyra and Seelah are really good too.

But for the love of God, don't give them Harsk or Lirianne!

What is wrong with Harsk (ranger) or Lirianne (druid)?

isn't Lirianne the Gunslinger? Lini is the druid.

I've had success with Kyra and Seelah, but it might help to know what the party may need and go from there.

The way Pathfinders murder hobo their way around makes it unlikely NPC's who are supposedly the 'bad guys' would not do the same.

In our defense, we were not playing as murderhobos.

Uncle Ook,

I have a couple of aasimar boons, from back a couple years ago. If your wife wants another shot at one, send me a PM.

That's incredibly generous, really. I think we're going to see if we're going to keep playing, and she's rather attached to her Saurian Shaman, because velociraptor, so I wouldn't want to waste your boon on her.

We will definitely take HabeneroHN's advice and make new characters for the con.

And I must know why the camel is called Dewdrop, Game Master.

I don't understand the bit where you left without chronicles. The questions you are asking would be answered on the chronicle. You should get in touch with the GM and determine what state the bad guys left you in. I think 1xp, 0gp, and much (if not all) of your equipment stolen is a reasonable answer if you don't have 5 prestige to pay for a recovery team. The recovery team usually gets your equipment back along with you.

It was a home game, and we wanted to get our guest to a family dinner, so we were in a bit of a rush. Again, it was a first time GM running the adventure cold, so he may not have had them handy. To date, we've still not received a chronicle, and he hasn't added the session to the site yet.

And Pregen equipment can be sold off to pay for a raise dead. That's something else that should have been handled at the table, but I don't see why the pregen players would have a problem footing the bill for the real PCs. Either way, you've learned some valuable lessons about the game, both in-game tactics, and out-of-game being more careful about the tables you join.

Yeah, definitely a learning experience. The first thing we did after completing TDWK part 2 was get the wand of CLW that might have kept us alive the first time around.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts (and sympathy). I'm loathe to bring our new characters (Dwarf Stonelord Paladin and Gnome Saurian Shaman because my wife wanted a velociraptor named Mcnugget) to the table at a con, but I guess we'll see.

Uncle Ook

Yeah, the guide would have recommended pulling a few punches on you, you really are at the low end of the power spectrum. (That said I would definitely have steered a first time GM and 4 near new players way far away from TDWK, that whole series is a walking meat grinder for novices. Easy enough even with 6 weak characters if the players are experienced, but 4 novice players? No way.

I'd read somewhere that it had been the number 1 killer at GenCon. If I'd know that, I'd have definitely had us play pre-gens as well, so as to not risk our characters with such a weak group.

Like I said, the dice were very, very cold, and the GM's very hot.

Given what I know of that particular adventure

** spoiler omitted **

I didn't know that one. Ah well, I still think an experienced GM might have had options, but it looks like there's no other options. I wish the GM would just report it to stop leaving us in limbo though.

We're signed up for a couple events at Queen City Conquest this coming weekend. I have to say the sour taste in my mouth from this is making me think this is the last chance for us with PFS. The first two adventures weren't bad, but TDWK:TSR just seemed completely unforgiving for 4 1st level characters, it's just doesn't seem like this is a game I'll be sticking with for 160+ adventures.

thanks for the reply. yeah, there's no chance of raising the money for a raise dead and restore, especially for level one characters.

The "run as written" mantra is seemingly contradicted by the Guide to Organized Play, advising that the GM "consider the experience of the player when deciding whether to use especially lethal tactics or if a character is in extreme danger of death, especially when the player is new to the game. Most players whose first experience in a campaign results in a character death don’t return to the campaign."

That, to me, would obviate the RAW - if the bad guy has an attack that can one shot 3/4ths of a party, the Guide would seem to suggest not using that attack.

Even then, the characters weren't dead, just unconscious and, when the final member fell, making their stabilization rolls. We haven't received chronicle sheets and the session hasn't been reported yet. Do the RAW say that bad guys will kill unconscious players, even if they might have better use for them? Not to mention we'd

My wife and I are fairly new to Pathfinder Society, now with five games under our belts. The scenario I'm talking about involves an incident during our third ever adventure, playing The Devil We Know, Part 1: The Shipyard Rats

It was, from beginning to end, a mess. We are still getting the hang - I hadn't played a D20 game in decades, since my early teens, and my wife hasn't really picked it up that well. We were joined at the table by someone playing their first ever Pathfinder game with a pregen, and another young man of unknown experience, also playing a pregen. My wife and I had characters with 2XP, one each from a pregen playing of Mists of Mwangi and one from Silent Tide.

To top it off, it was our GM's first game, and he was running it cold. He did his best, but he had hot dice, ours were cold, and in the end, we all ended up negative (but not actually dead). I've heard that The Shipyard Rats has generated a lot of TPK's, particualarly the

As it was, not a fun time, and as it was, we ran off without getting chronicle sheets. From reading posts on here, it seems like the GM could say we failed - and we did, certainly, rather epically - but not necessarily have us dead. The bad guys were

The worst part is that my wife lost her aasimar sorceress, and can't recreate it. All in all, it left a bad taste in my mouth.