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Mark - or anyone else that can give me a solid answer,

What is the call for using creatures multiple times in one encounter when only one pawn exists in the box and it's not part of the minis?

For instance (CR/Tiers aside), if I wanted to have an encounter with 2 Iron Golems, can I do that or do I have to limit it to just one?

Thanks for any help, and sorry if this has been asked - couldn't find it when searching.

RB

So yesterday a bunch of us ran through Fellnight Queen, and one of the players who was on slow progression leveled up after the adaptable was over.

But here's the thing - he had 23 xp, received 1.5 xp for the mod, leaving him technically at 24.5 xp. However, he wants to switch back to Fast Track at 9th level (24 xp).

So does he eat the .5 xp and just sits at 24 xp, or would he sit at 25, allowing the .5 to round up (since he is in the Fast Track and it "sorta" is equivalent to a full point of xp)?

I looked around some, but couldn't find any definitive answer...anyone have any type of official answer?

So lately we've seen a lot of discussions and calls to offenders about min-maxing, optimizing, roleplaying, ruining the game, org play and beer. The beer doesn't really have anything to do with the rest directly, but still.

And so as someone who would probably be judged as an "offender" (as would the group I play with) simply by looking at our sheets...I am throwing my opinions in the ring.

The crux of my opinion...play the game as you will. It.Is.A.Game.

The corrollary to my opinion...have fun and aim to help other have fun too...no matter how you build your character.

Do you want to be a jack-of-all-trades/master of nothing who rolls out with 12s and 14s and is successful half the time and needs to be rescued from near-death by the hero the other half? Awesome, have a blast playing the would-be superstar who juuuust can't quite get there...honestly, it's a good, well-rounded schtick.

Do you want to be a One-Trick-Pony Nackle, due to the fact that you are playing a crazy-@$$ gnome who really thinks he's a pony who can only do one trick and who's best stats are Cha and Int, but took levels in Fighter? You have fun with that...seriously, as long as I'm not playing in the world's hardest death-rally, I would love to be at a table with you.

Do you want to be a min-max, flying, bomb-dropping, 25 rage-per-day barbarian who wields 4 keen falchions, has 18 attacks a round and has more HP than a geek has action figures?? Awesome, I will let you wade into battle before me and have fun RPing in the background if I'm not as strong as you. Again, have a blast with it.

Do you want to be a skill-monkey bardic rogue who picks locks while playing a drum with your third hand and inspiring the masses of virginal lasses while diplomacizing the king and giving us a lecture on all the knowledges of the world...while performing acrobatic feats? Awesome once more...be in my party...sounds like fun.

In all seriousness...I really think we need to knock off the "optimzation sucks" threads. Jason S (who just happens to share my first name and last initial, as well as at least some of this opinion it seems) put it well when he said this is really more about "the player" not "the character". My group tends to play cracked-out characters. We enjoy building characters that are "uber"...sometimes on their own...sometimes because the three of us specifically who play often meld together in a wicked synergy. People have complained that we are too powerful...and then I laugh like the Emperor and force-lightning them.

And yes, we have characters that could probably finish certain year zero mods solo...with only one leg and arm. But we also know how to play nice with others...we paid attention in Kindergarten you know.

For instance...we have three barbarians that can carve through enemies like 'butta', but when we're at a con with less-optimized characters, we'll hold back as long as we're not going to get killed doing so. We have spent entire mods before without swinging a weapon and instead grappling and cornering enemies so a weak ninja and a weaker neg-energy cleric could do their thing happily. And you know what? We all had fun.

Because all the players made it fun. Optimized characters fraternized with newbie heroes who had no idea how to build a character...and the Earth didn't implode and the table didn't run away sad or angry.

Why? Because of the players...not the characters.

So, here's is my plea to the smart masses out there...end the hate on character builds! Instead, support free-thinking creation of your own hero or heroine and support the idea that players make the game fun no matter what character they bring to the table!

And if you are still reading to this point...thanks, that was long. :)

So I haven't played some of the Season 2 ending mods yet...and so haven't found out any major reveals about the Shadow Lodge as that arc gets wrapped up.

But I did purchase the Field Guide....and on page 21, just got hit with (I'm assuming) the major reveal.

Ouch.

It's a sweet bit of info...but I would have liked to find out in-mod instead of in-book.

So, I pass the caution to you...if you don't want to find something out about the Shadow Lodge arc, stay away from page 21 of the Field Guide, which is about the SL faction.

You have been warned!!!

As I just downloaded it but haven't looked at it yet....am I the only one hoping this is a mod involving a futuristic snarky android?? :)

So going over the latest (April) Guide, a friend just happened to notice this rule:

Additionally, any magic items that have usage frequencies above 1/day (such as 1/week or 1/month and so on) are now considered to have the frequency of 1/scenario.

The reason this is of concern is because we each own an Ebony Fly Figurine...something that we purchased originally because of the wonderful utility it allowed with a 3/day usage...but in all honesty now we can only use it 1 per scenario?

How does this rule make sense when many scenarios actually last over multiple days?

And is there any chance this is something that is getting reviewed for the next update?

Hyrum/Mark - any word on when we'll see an update to the additional resources on what is legal/not legal in UM now that it's out?

So, I am keeping a log of my kills for one of my characters...and recently just played in these two mods.

Problem is, I forgot to keep track of them for those two, and I don't own them either. Yes, I could spend the eight dollars to buy them, but I thought I would go to the boards for some help first.

Could anyone that has these mods perhaps reply back in a spoiler block to tell me what enemies are in the Tier 1-2 for Penumbral and 4-5 for Infernal please? I only need the enemies for each encounter and how many per...don't need anything more than that.

Thanks!

Came across a build this weekend at a Con and wanted to know if it was legal per rules or not.

It was a druid with an animal companion (ape) who had an INT of 3, and had taken Additional Traits as one of the animal's feats. With that, he took Heirloom Weapon (Lucerne Hammer) as one of the traits.

Is this really legal??

I've looked for an official answer on this but haven't been able to find one.

If I have an eidolon with six limbs, and thus a total of six claw attacks...would a single Improved Damage evolution grant each of those 6 the proper damage bump? Or do you have to take ID 3 times (since 2 claws is "one" attack per the evolution?

The way it reads with "attack form" in the description I would say Improved Damage (Claws) would apply to all Claws, thus only needing one, not three.

Any official rules wording on this??

Thanks!

I know we don't know if anything is legal out of the Bestiary II yet, and I know I most likely won't get a definite answer out of this question, but I was wondering from Hyrum/Mark if there was any chance at anything out of there becoming legal to summon, such as the new elementals or anything like that?

No, it's not some kinky new reality show on Fox.

So, reading the following:

Larger swarms are represented by multiples of single swarms. The area occupied by a large swarm is completely shapeable, though the swarm usually remains in contiguous squares.

What I'm wondering is - what happens when one swarm attacks another swarm.

Remember, they don't attack, they just do damage to any creature whose space they occupy...so does this mean they can damage each other? Or do they not do anything, in effect just swarming around each other?

Given some talk about how to make Factions better/work better, I thought we might start a thread on community ideas...if there is already one out there, my apologies, I didn't see one.

1. Faction-specific rewards, past just module boons.

Boons are great, but they usually are for the whole mod, not just a faction.

For example, have some special weapon that isn't in any books or a neat favor/boon for completing a faction mission. It would take a bit more work and creativity, and maybe these special items would have to be created by Hyrum/Mark instead of the authors, but this would be something neat for us to play for within the faction instead of just Prestige Points.

Rewards like this add to the fervor of completing the mission and sting just that much more if you don't complete it. For this to work though, the mission tied to the reward would need to be harder....bringing up my second point.....

2. Make Faction missions a bit more challenging.

Recent mods seem to be doing this, which is great...a lot of earlier mods seemed like either a.) you got the faction mission if you just simply completed the mod as written or b.) if you just asked someone a question, you were golden (simplified, but I think you get my point)

More challenging missions make it more rewarding when you actually get it.

So I'm starting this thread instead of tying it to Dragnmoon's so I don't clutter that up (per his request...and a good request it was).

Anyway...I have an issue with the "can't simply choose to play up" rule.

So let's set the game up here: a tier 5-9 mod with a group of 5 level 6 players. APL = 6.

I know the table however, and they know each other, and I know very well that if I play 5-6 as written, instead of having them play 8-9, as they have requested, I might as well just write up the Chronicles now and we can just go watch a few Firefly episodes.

Why? Because they will breeze through the mod in 1/2 the time, take little to no damage and have little fun because there is absolutely no challenge whatsoever to them.

Or, we could run it at 8-9, make it a challenge, have more fun and still get done in the 4-5 hour time range we're supposed to.

And this game is supposed to be about fun, yes? So why not let a group choose that even if the APL isn't correct?

I was reading over the Scenario Submission advice again and something struck me as slightly funny, having just come from GenCon.

Josh writes: "Avoid child endangerment stories. It's cheap, it's trite, and I'm tired of reading them."

And yet...

I'm thinking of submitting a scenario idea, but was wanting to know if the one or two locations I was thinking of had been used/abused in any of the previous scenarios.

I can't remember them being used in any of the ones I have DM'd...or even played...but my memory ain't that good either. :)

So, is there a list of locations used by scenario out there somewhere, sorta similar to the list of maps?

First off, I want to say thanks to the whole Paizo clan...the APG truly has some very cool stuff in it, complementing the rest of the PFRPG line wonderfully.

That said, why do you hate the summoner so?

The summoner is a great idea for a class...I loved the idea as soon as I saw it, but with each pass at it from the original playtest, it has been beaten further and further into "Not Quite as Useful" land. Now, maybe most of this frustration stems from having seen it from "beta" to "final" and seeing what it once was and could have been, but I think my issues stem from seeing that view, and then hearing the reasons why it's not that view anymore.

Here are a couple of examples I am really refering to:

* Eidolon Can't Wear Armor - yes, armor cracked the Eidolon out too much, but taking it away completely made them a bit too squishy. Without my summoner basically casting (or wanding) Mage Armor "constantly", my Eidolon has a great chance of dropping. And since the Eidolon is honestly meant as a front-line warrior, this seems odd to me.

* Magic Items - awesome addition/clarification, but to make it either the Eidolon or Summoner? As we level, that essentially makes me choose between making my summoner a more effective caster or my Eidolon a worthwhile fighter. I guess this was the intent...but I'm not sure why there couldn't have been some crossover.

* Nerf of our SLA - really?? This is one thing that made this class fun to play -- our beater/tank was out there and we could still throw some utility/ranged help out as well.

Battlefield spamming? We couldn't spam any worse (if even as well as) any druid, sorcerer or wizard. Maybe, if a summoner for some reason took the Summon spells, we might be able to throw one more creature out there...but I for one never had more than my Eidolon and one summoned creature out there at at time.

If you were going to make the Summon Monster SLA and Eidolon use the same "source", why couldn't you have given us something else...anything...more skill points, skill focus, throw in spell focus(abj) and/or augment summoning...more evo points for the Eidolon...almost anything like that would be more useful....especially because.....

* Eidolon still takes 1 min to summon - I'm hoping this is errata'd given this statement from the preview:

APG Preview 2 wrote:

the big one was a change to how often the summoner can call his eidolon. He can now summon the ally as often as he likes (provided it has not been banished due to damage recently), but he cannot use his summon monster ability at the same time. This allows him to keep the flexibility needed with the summoned creatures, but prevents him from overrunning the battlefield with too many creatures.

And please don't tell me the Summon Eidolon spell is what that was referring to...because as far as I can tell this spell is nearly worthless, and I can't see anyone taking this as one of their few, precious slots.

OK, well, I think I've been negative enough, but I had to get some of that off my chest and see if anyone can give me some answers/advice. Like I said, I'm really happy with most of PFRPG and PFS and I really like the idea of this class, and it is fun to play overall, but I just kinda feel like we got the shaft while most of the other classes (Alchemist specifically) got some sweet, sweet Bulmahn love. :)

Oh and in closing, I did want to say thank you for giving us Haste back at level 2. :)

So, Eidolon's HD/BAB get reduced, fine....it's a little harsh I think, considering it's our damage output, but makes more like a companion, and we do get to have our summoned monsters a lot longer and quicker...so guess I can't really argue.

With the reduction in HD though, do we still treat their first level of HP as a companion, so they only get 6 (5 from the d10 and 1 for CON) at first level, or do they get full like a character at first?

Whatever the answer is, thanks for the new playtest rules...awesome job on all of this and for listening to the playtesters!

I'm getting ready to start up Burnt Offerings Friday night, and am wondering what the norm is for what info in the beginning to tell the PCs.

Obviously they need to know that they are in Sandpoint for the Festival, and I can give them a bit of background on the town, but what about all of the Adventure Background/Nualia's Story details?

Has anyone shared bits of these details right off the start? If so, did it help or hurt?

Thanks!