Vycamros Chandler's page

So I recently agreed to start GMing Pathfinder Society at a new Comic Store in my area. Since I haven't GMed for PFS too much I expect I'm going to have a lot of GM credits stacking up before I get to play again. I've had a character concept in mind for some time and I'd like some advice on it. I'm planning to make a Halfling Opportunist inspired by Looney Tunes and Animaniacs cartoons whose role is to attempt to avoid or undermine combat. I think the Prestige Class's Exploit Maneuver and Fit In abilities will help to convey the spirit of the character. I also expect to take feats like Well-Prepared and traits like Power of Suggestion.

My initial thought was to start with a Slayer (Bounty Hunter) as the base class because of it's attack bonus, exotic weapon proficiencies, skill points, and the Dirty Trick ability at 2nd level. But I'm not sure where to go with the character beyond that. As a Halfling I know my character won't be too adept at Combat Maneuvers. Also, what should my Ability Scores look like?

This is a character concept I played in a home game once before as a Catfolk with the Black Cat feat inspired by Tex Avery's Bad Luck Blackie cartoon. It was a throw-away game and we only played it once but it really left me wanting to explore the concept again. Anyway, thanks in advance for any advice.

We had an issue awhile back in a home game where a player had made a kobold rogue with a blowgun. The question came up about how a kobold could use a blowgun. They're often depicted as reptilian and we couldn't decide if they have lips to properly direct air into a blowgun. Does anyone know how this works in non-humanoids? It was suggested at our table that perhaps they stick the blowgun in one nostril to fire it or manipulate it with their tongue somehow.

I guess I'm fairly new to Society. I've posted a few questions about Society on the Boards before and I've played somewhere between ten and twenty scenarios. So I can't assume I have a complete picture of Society as a whole. But every time I play with my local group I always end up feeling like our party is completely incompetent. We bumble into ambushes from enemies, we search for traps with our Hit Points, and it generally seems like our main skill as a team is being ridiculously resilient. I don't feel like the measure of success for any scenario should be just surviving. That seems like a very reactive approach to the game. Instead, I feel like we should be proactive; setting up ambushes ourselves, using terrain to our advantage, and generally approaching combat in such a manner as is favorable for us instead of betting on surviving the odds. It's difficult for me to come up with specific examples, but I would think this approach would minimize expenditure of resources and maximize our chances of surviving. What I don't know is whether this is how the scenarios are written or if this is just the particular group I play with. I would be interested in hearing some perspectives and opinions from those of you who have played more. As it stands now, I generally feel like an idiot after we finish a Society Scenario.

I just started playing Society again and I've made an Elven Trap Breaker Alchemist designed as a forward scout. I've been using the Blend spell to sneak around and place bear traps with camo netting over them as traps and I have a few questions I'm hoping you guys won't mind addressing.

1. Can bear traps be resized like weapons? Can I carry smaller, lighter bear traps so they aren't as heavy?

2. Can bear traps be enchanted like weapons? Could I eventually have a +1 Flaming Burst bear trap?

3. Does the +4 to stealth from camo netting add to the survival check to hide an object?

Here are the two pieces of equipment for reference,

Bear Trap.

Camo Netting.

Thanks!

The Core Assumption

The leadership of this organized play community assumes that you will use common sense in your interpretation of the rules. This includes being courteous and encouraging a mutual interest in play, not engaging in endles rules discussions. While you are enjoying the game, be considerate of the others at the table and don't let your actions keep them from having a good time too. In short, don't be a jerk.

Does The Core Assumption preclude players from playing abrasive characters in an effort to drive interparty roleplay? At what point does one player's fun impose too much on another player? What if players definition of what is enjoyable about a session differ? Does PFS frown on roleplaying emotional conflict between players? I'm having a lot of trouble understanding what is acceptable at a Society game as I am fairly new at it. I'm struggling to reconcile the concept that all the party members know and trust each other and are always working towards the same goal.

Recently I was discussing with a fellow gamer about this trick you see in movies frequently. The hero needs to get from point A to point B and he throws a stone to make noise and distract the guards from looking his direction. Unfortunately Pathfinder doesn't really have rules for this concept. There is no facing in Pathfinder and the "Bluff to Create a Diversion to Hide" rules don't really cover it.

I have an idea I'm going to try out in our next game and I wanted to get some opinions on it. I was thinking of using the "Bluff to Create a Diversion to Hide" rules and adapting them to "Bluff to Create a Diversion to Move while Stealthing". By making a Bluff check to create a diversion you get to specify two adjacent five foot squares as providing concealment. And for every five points you overcome your target's Sense Motive you could specify one more five foot square to provide concealment.

What does everyone think? Is this too powerful of a use of the Bluff skill? Does it make Bluff too much of a no-brainer skill for stealthy characters? Can the idea be tweaked and refined at all? Or is anyone using a better system? Thanks in advance.

Currently my group is playing a modified E6 game with a bunch of Homebrewed rules. One of our players is upset with our Homebrewed Fatigue System. So I was hoping to get some opinions on the system to improve it or rework the system. So I'll lay out the system below.

A Character has a number or Fatigue Points equal their Constitution Score. Fatigue Points are used to heal Hit Points. Only one Fatigue Point can be expended per round. Whenever a Character does not take an offensive or strenuos action or does not have an offensive action taken against them they automatically spend a Fatigue Point to Heal a number of Hit Points equal to their Character Level. Fatigue Points are automatically spent and cannot be kept if you could Heal. Fatigue Points are Healed at a rate of one point per four hours. Healing Spells no longer Heal Hit Points but instead offer hours of rest equal to the die roll result for the purpose of regaining Fatigue Points. When you are out of Fatigue Points you gain the Fatigued state.

So our Player has been upset about Constitution Damage causing loss of Fatigue as well as the amount of time it takes to get back up to Adventuring Capacity in Fatigue Points. Any thoughts on this system? Does anyone have any suggestions for improving it? Thanks.

I've been looking around for threads about this and I haven't found any that fit. I'm curious to hear some opinions.

I've been generally dissatisfied with the approach my group takes to playing table-top games. I feel like our group has fallen into the "we can't die" mentality. I've tried discussing this individually with players and with the group as a whole. I've also taken the time to discuss this with other gamers outside my group that I'm familiar with. I feel like the self-assured attitude of the PCs is hurting my suspension of disbelief. Every puzzle we encounter we can overcome. Every enemy we fight we can defeat by charging it. And every NPC we encounter can be diplomanced into liking us. I feel like the PCs are super heroes.

I've had an instance of holding a knife to an NPC's throat to threaten him and a player wigged out because it would only deal 1d4 damage and the threatened character clearly had way more hit points than that.

I've seen a party encounter a Digester in a cavern and get sprayed with acid first turn then decide to ignore it because it rolled low and was no longer a real threat.

I've seen an entire tavern draw guns on a PC and he continued to insult the bar tender because they were all "low level NPCs."

I'm disillusioned with the Superman approach to encounters. It seems very unrealistic to me that a person would throw themselves into the blades of five to ten enemies without fear of death. I'm tired of PCs who are more than willing to free dive off a cliff with full confidence that the Wizard's magic will save them. I don't feel like there are enough repercussions to the player's choices. I recently discussed completely removing magical healing from a campaign to try to convince the players to take a more tactical approach to combat. It didn't go over well.

Does anyone else feel this way about gaming? Am I playing the wrong games? I mean, I understand that not everyone is going to take issue with these concepts. I don't feel like our group lacks in roleplay skill either. Some of these situations can be resolved with good roleplay. But I feel like there is a disconnect in my group between what can be achieved through roleplay and what is governed by numbers. I feel like the mortality of the group is never emphasized. We never face challenges that are too hard for us. It's like we're never afraid of anything.

Bore Bomb: When the saboteur creates a bomb, he may choose to make it a bore bomb. If a bore bomb strikes a wall, gate, siege engine, or similar large, solid, inanimate structure, it ignores half the target's hardness and deals 1 point of damage per saboteur level. If a bore bomb reduces an inanimate target to half its hit points or fewer, it blows a hole 5 feet wide and 5 feet deep in the target.

Am I interpreting correctly that Bore Bombs only do one damage per Alchemist level? This seems really underpowered. Do Bore Bombs splash? Does the Alchemist get to add Int to damage with the Bore Bomb? Is there some way to get more damage out of a Bore Bomb so as to be able to overcome the remaining half Hardness at an earlier level?

I don't know if this character has been proposed before. I'm sure someone has thought of it. I like my Vampire so far but I'm looking for some advice on where to go with my build. I don't know if there's an accepted format for displaying a character but hopefully this will do.

Race: Dhampir
Class: Barbarian (Invulnerable Rager)2 / Sorcerer (Undead [Sanguine Wildblooded]) 6
Abilities: Str. 16 Dex. 14 Con. 12 Int. 14 Wis. 10 Chr. 17 (That's with 20 point point buy)
Hit Points: 58
BAB: +5
Traits: Magical Knack for Sorcerer, and Conspiracy Hunter for Stealth
Feats: Power Attack, Arcane Strike, Furious Focus, Godless Healing

I'm using a (cliche) Scythe and trying to make the character as much of a melee combatant as possible. The character has so far been very hard to kill because he can heal himself fairly easily. My main strategy has been to make only one attack each round with Furious Focus since I'm primarily a Sorcerer. Eventually I was going to get Vital Strike to increase damage.

Right now I'm looking at maybe trying to get either Vital Strike, Extra Rage, or Extra Rage Power next level. To get Vital Strike I have to take a level of Barbarian for the Attack Bonus and I wasn't originally planning on taking any more than two levels of Barbarian. So, comments? Are there any useful feats I'm overlooking? Any advice is appreciated. Also of note is that our GM has stated the max level for our campaign is Eleventh. Thanks.

So we are currently in combat with an ooze. A Death Trap Ooze has caught and Grappled my character. I, as an Archaeologist Bard, was curious to know if I could use Summon Monster I to summon a Pony and have it Bull Rush me out of the Ooze. I looked briefly for rules about Bull Rushing a Grapple but I'm currently in the combat. Appreciate any input.