Xeall's page

So, I actually really like the adventure. I can see past any gaps as an experienced DM and make up any changes. Adore having so many NPC’s to prep for and have cards for all of them as I know my players will fall in love at random, and I’ll be having to bring more back.

My first note as we reach the end of chapter 1: there doesn’t appear to be enough XP to level up. My players prefer xp rewards from encounters and every other adventure path has supported this. However, I make chapter one about 560xp. Certainly not enough for a level up as proposed by the opening section for milestones.

All the games and influence events lack any listed xp, and I image this is where it would need to be made up?

Not me. I tell my players that the minis used, images of NPCs, or maps on the screen are merely representations of what's happening in the game to help their imagination and don't necessarily 100% reflect what is actually there. My words describing these things are more important than these representations, and if they have any questions to ask me. I do try to get things as close as I can, but my time and budget are unfortunately limited.

Oh I totally get that and its super understandable. Use what you got. It's just the official art next to the creature in the adventure has something the creature doesn't, and that threw me when I hadn't remembered every creatures weapons on top of their abilities, set up my boggards in the mine to pepper the party who had raised the alarm, only to discover they don't have crossbows.

You could either give them corssbows (pretty easy, doesn't unbalance anything, should probably have +10 to hit for 1d8+3 damage), or use this picture from the Bestiary instead.

Yeah, easy fix, but I think due to their unlikeliness to survive many rounds versus a level 8 party when they attack the Temple, I'll just narratively fob it off as their Acid Arrow spell. Have them fire a couple of "Acid Bolts" from their crossbows before throwing them asside to engage in CC.

Anyone else thrown off by Boggard Swampseer image in the book (which I have used for my Roll20 token) has a glowing crossbow, yet Boggard Swampseers don't have crossbows, let alone glowing ones?

You're quite welcome, I'm always happy to be of assistance. :)

As for the non-combat question, the ward doesn't do what you think it does. To quote:

Quote:

The southern door leading to area E7 bears a potent ward that prevents anyone who has signed a Contract of Citizenship from passing through it or even opening the door.

It does exactly the reverse of what you say, preventing anyone with a citizenship contract from entering it. It doesn't effect the PCs at all.

It's probably only mentioned to explain why there's no security to stop the PCs, and to ensure they need to do the research in there themselves.

From an in-character perspective it also shows off Mengkare's arrogance, as he's so sure nobody can get to this area without being a citizen that he's only defended against citizens.

You’re quite right. Thanks again for the help. Can’t wait for my players to get there. I know my players and will be going with a narrative arguement over the skill tests, so what to make sure they get all the information they need

Xeall wrote:

Hey guys,

Simple one. Page 14 Dragonstorm Fire Giants are listed as 3 of them in the stat block, but victory points says “1 victory point for defeating all four giants”

Does anyone know if it should be 3 or 4 giants for that fight?

It's labeled as a Severe encounter, so it should be three. Four would make it an Extreme encounter instead.

Thanks. Appreciate the help.

Maybe can again, but with a non-combat question.

Page 43, E4: describes southern door leading to E7 has a powerful ward that requires a citizens contract to open. Is it assumed there is no way dispel magic or thievery can disarm this? I know my players will want to try, especially as up to this point outside of Jonivar there really aren’t any NPC’s suitable to bring with you, and even Jonivar I imagine would be reluctant to sneak around Menekare’s archive.

Hey guys,

Simple one. Page 14 Dragonstorm Fire Giants are listed as 3 of them in the stat block, but victory points says “1 victory point for defeating all four giants”

Does anyone know if it should be 3 or 4 giants for that fight?

Currently playing Age of Ashes and on book 2. Players have asked when meeting the Andari in book 1 and the Grippli in book 2 if they are playable. Very exciting this Thursday to be able to tell them yes, as long as they can wait for next campaign.

Would this book by any chance be how I would go about making “Kingmaker in Space” kinda campaigns?

Luchador Biohacker? That sounds like one Bane from a certain Batman to me. Not that I’m complaining, that’s awesome.

Looks great. Still hoping for Starfinder a Kingmaker-like, where the maps are planets, and it’s all about terraforming and building colonies.

Hi guys, just bought the bestiary pawns for Pathfinder 2nd Ed.

Love them all but the first page. The images are printed so far to the left, names are cut off, all number tokens are off the pawn, and they even bleed onto the pawn to the left.

The boar token is unusable as it’s whole head is off the pawn and is just a furry body.

Is there a method of contacting paizo to send the page back for a replacement?

Is that’s bird person with a top hat?

Quote:

Could they reliable fire a pistol to kill the victim with one shot?

"What do we know so far?"

"Well, the killer had to be an operative at least 12 levels higher than the victim and he used a small arm of an equivalent item level."

The killer moved to 200ft before the victim could act so is definitely a blitz solider with a haste circuit.

Hi guys,

In our game of Hell’s Vengeance (which I’m very much enjoying) our clerics back story is he joined the church of Asmodeus to try and find a bargain, devil or deal to reclaim his daughter from hell. His marriage turned out to be a family which had a deal that a devil would claim the first born (classic).

Now as the wizard who is trying to get leverage on this noble, I have found out he is looking for his daughter by getting him rather drunk, although in character I have no reason to suspect she is in hell.

I was planning to use Scrying to try and find her after rummaging through his stuff and finding a bow he carries that he bought for her. However, she is technically dead from what I understand, her soul was just claimed, rather than her being planar shifted.

Would a successful scrying roll instantly fail? Show the corpse? Or show her in hell?

My gut says the latter, as she is simply on another plane, physical nature aside. Of course she would gain 10+ to the save with me only having heard of her and being on a different plane. Then apply the -4 for me having an item of hers.

Thoughts?

Darimatosh is listed as the “primary” god worshiped in the veskarium. Will we learn more about the gods of Vesk space?

I’d not read up on the Pure Legion before this. Now they are one of my favourite things in Pathfinder. I hope they make it in some form to Starfinder too, although that may make them a bit slow with the inability to use the Drift ideologically.

Perhaps he saw the prophecy laid out ahead, saw what the world would become and killed himself to change fate. One final sacrifice for the sake of humanity.

I know “the gap” is a mystery to never be truly answered, but reading this story just makes me hope one day there is at least an adventure path dealing with the vault.

Happy holidays from a very happy Starfinder and PF2e fan.

One of my players was obsessed with fighting pits for his fighter to prove himself in.

I setup a location where the guards usually fight the soldiers in a “friendly” rivalry, agreed upon by the head of the guard and the Lord general. I had him pick a side, and then work his way through fights. Each fight meant you could challenge the next rank.

I made it clear it was a perpetual world, and that you could only fight who was healthy. If someone was too injured, Ill or busy, you automatically got put against the next nearest rank. I also made it clear the people that run this town in the highest positions are around Level 15. Players at this point at lvl5.

So this fighter rocks up the day after a literal war ended in a bloody battle, and decides to challenge the fighters pit. I bloody knew he would do this, and had written down exactly who got injured during the war, so I could pull the piece of paper and slap it down in a gotcha moment.

The Lord general was the only healthy officer left, and that fighter got the beat down of his life. He was left bleeding in a pit, left realising that the world and role playing as if a part of it has an effect on encounters.

He’s been a much better player ever since, taking into account events and thinking through his actions, instead of just being “me fighter. Me best at hitting”

I’d love to talk about the story, but that artwork mid way through is just so good I can’t tnjnk of anything else

Are we then assuming the answer to the first question is simply add proficiency? Str+instinct isn’t very much damage at all if Prof is not included

Hi guys,

Quick couple of questions regarding Thrash

Requirements You have a foe grabbed.
You thrash the grabbed foe around. It takes bludgeoning damage equal to your Strength modifier plus your ferocious specialization damage plus your Rage damage. The foe must attempt a basic Fortitude save against your class DC.

1) it says add “ferocious specialisation” but I can’t find anything by that name in the book. Even tried search function on PDF and comes up with nothing. Do we know what extra damage it refers to?

2) it says at the end the foe must attempt a basic fort save, but without specifying that it’s against the damage. Is there meant to be a secondary effect? As you can still attack with your free hand during combat, unless the enemy has a silly high AC, I can’t see the reason to use it for a barb, as damage would be less than a good hit in the face with a one handed weapon.

This has to be building towards new iconics with the new classes from the play test being finalised.

What I would like to see is a Soldier fighting style that involves shields that let you do it as part of other actions to do things or makes the benefit last longer so you don't have to spend the action each turn.

This works for me. Like a Sci-fi Phalanx archetype.

As it stands for me, shields seem to be a joy for casters who just need to cast and little else.

Quick thought, does this make the haste circuit even better as it allows a full attack and then raise a shield?

I feel this thread has become relavent again, due to the new shield rules in the playtest. How do you all feel about them?

Initially like them, but I fear the 4 armed creatures having long arms/sniper rifles/two handed melee and a decent shield negating the “can’t wield a weapon in that hand”

I think your looking at the feats too mechanically, and not thematically enough for a horror campaign.

Indirect Retreat: isn’t for getting into cover, it’s for legging it from the Xenomorph/Jason/Kruger that will 100% kill you. Winding corridors and obsticables that would slow your down are a classic trope of Horror and this feat works with that perfectly

Craven Ploy: your playing Burke from Aliens. You’ll sacrifice the guy in front of you to not get hit. Sadly the consent bit means you’ll need a good aligned character that wants the keep you safe to make it effective. Although the RP potential for a scene after you use it constantly could be interesting.

Startled Scream: again a classic horror trope of the person with an ear piercing wail the second anything slightly scary happens. I don’t even think using it should be optional once taken. It’s just a quirk of personality. Makes once again for good role play.

The other feats, spells and theme are similar. I loved it from a role playing perspective for the thematic feel of a horror campaign. The overall use of it in other campaigns hadn’t really occurred to me. I am a huge horror film/game fan and love the opportunity’s in game for decent role playing and scene building a lot of these updates give.

My only complaint is that these “personally” feats come in a lvl7 campaign where these quirks should be already established.

Doesn’t Monk in legacy rules use Trick attack damage in the place of flurry? I guess claws could work with it that way?

*Mortal Kombat voice”

TECHNICALITY

I imagine they know not to. The book that reveals secrets throughout time, in the armoury F’s you up if you try and look up the gap. Can’t even imagine what happens if you end up there.

Also who says they haven’t and just did not come back.

Use legendary conversion for a bard with performance cooking? Instead of sight or hearing based, it’s all off smell.

Portable stove in a glove of storing & ingredient bandolier full of herbs & spices. The aromas you create buff your allies or debuff your opponents.

any characters have any family or friends on Absalom? Classic mobster move to attack/kidnap someone. The ol’ “meet me at dock 34 at 2:00 or I blast your friend out the airlock” would make for an easy showdown. The two come alone as she doesn’t want to draw the gangs attention to the fact the Homebase was invaded and guards killed on her watch, avoiding what they may consider weakeness. Besides, she has the upper hand. Villains always think they have already won.

Maybe have the villain start the depressurisation of the airlock when negotiations inevitably fail. Put a timer on how long they have to deactivate the process, throwing a sub-objective into the brawl.

Solarion, but choose that intelligent Ooze race in the back of AP5. I just love the idea of you chopping stuff with solar weapon and all the food you have eaten visibly floating around inside of you

If your going Ramsey though, you gotta go Half-orc Envoy. Skill focus intimidate, first talent dispiriting taunt

I’d take an equivalent Advanced Players guide. Couple of classes to play with, some extras for existing, archetypes.

Other than that some Veskarium info would be great as others said.

I’d also settle for Ultimate Campaign, but only because I want Kingmaker IN SPACE!

Intentionally unknown. The gap could have been any length of time.

Regardless of if i’m for or against shields, it does appear that no one is bringing up that shields from PF used to come with an armour check penalty.

That should 100% be a factor no matter on what style people land on for stats.

Okay lets try this again because this is not a hard one... all checks that use your dex, are dex based checks ...if its listed under pg8 as a check (like initiative) its a check ..... so.. it's a dex based check ....it's does not need to be a ability check ....ability checks, dex based skill checks and initiative checks are ALL dex based checks ... ranged attack rolls and saves are not, because they are not checks

From this let’s says there are 3 types of dice attempts

1) checks
2) rolls
3) saves

Break down

1) ability checks, skill checks, initiative checks,
2) melee & ranged attack rolls
3) easy one, fort, will, refl

Dex based checks are everything under 1)

Source Starfinder Core Rulebook pg. 8

A check is a d20 roll that may or may not be modified by your character’s statistics or another value. The most common types are skill checks and ability checks (which determine whether you successfully perform a task), and initiative checks (which determine when you act in combat).

An initiative check is listed separately from an ability check, which means the -5 to strength and dex (which are abilities) would not apply.

Seriously, I don't know how to make it more clear that an initiative check is not the same thing as a dexterity check at this point.

I think your issue is you seem to believe Dex “based” checks are only in relation to straight Ability checks. This is the issue. Acrobatics is a Dex based Skill check, just in the same was a initiative is.

If it only applied to ability checks it would say a -5 to str and Dex ability checks.

See i’m still very much of the mind that the ability score is affected so the initiative check is too. Your ability to react faster than others has been altered.

The wording for encumbered says dex based checks. Initiative checks are by definition a check and are 90% based off dex.

It was in Pathfinder:

An initiative check is a d20 roll to which a character adds her Dexterity modifier plus any other modifiers from feats, spells, and other effects.

I'm asking because the Encumbered condition gives you a –5 penalty on Dexterity-based checks, and it makes sense that an encumbered character would be slower to react to danger, but perhaps not so in Starfinder.

Wouldn’t Encumbered come under “other effects” at the end of the explanation of the check?

Xeall wrote:

I’m inclined to agree that it bypasses the original limit, as it’s no longer you doing the additional jumping, but the thrusters.

I’d also agree the original DC stands, with the jets doubling the distance achieved.

Thrusters? Jets?

Jet dash is a feat. There's no tech mentioned in the discussion here.

Apologies, one of my players took the armour upgrade (jump jets) and the feat at the same time. Clearly confused me.

I’m still inclined to believe that you can go the extra distance as the feat does expand movement in other areas

I’m inclined to agree that it bypasses the original limit, as it’s no longer you doing the additional jumping, but the thrusters.

I’d also agree the original DC stands, with the jets doubling the distance achieved.

If it suits your campaign, isn’t OP, and everyone is happy, always make a change to suit the game over rules.

However the drone does get better with levels to show the mechanics ability increasing, eventually getting its own full set of actions, and this would negate that level up.

As for carrying it, it depends on the type of drone. I allow my mechanic to keep his Hover drone on a clip on his belt, drawing it like a weapon when he wants to release it.

The larger drones I would encourage the players to consider using as a fallback point in this circumstance as they know from
the off it’s not fast, and is a drawback of the design. Just like how taking animal companions into every situation in PF is t entirely appropriate.

However, my first paragraph is more important than that ramble. Do what’s good for your table

I'm inclined to agree with you. So would it make more sense for this character I'm designing to BE the Swarm War vet themselves, or have their mom be the vet? I just wonder how they'd survive that conflict and still only be a first level character...

Level = background has always been an odd one. I’d roll with it and ignore the mechanical side of things. SF levels quickly and the character will fit before it becomes jarring.

Remember levelled characters are the extraordinary people, there are plenty of lvl 1-3 vets out there

New question: shades on page 29 have a reference of page 58. These are the CR8 versions of the shades not the CR5 ones found on page 9.

The previous time you encounter the shades again on page 23 it does send you to page 9.

Just want to make sure it’s a typo and I should still use the weaker CR5 versions

This is why I take Enhanced Resistance (physical) and equip an electrostatic field, sonic dampener, and thermal capacitor on all my characters. Uses up hardly any resources and makes you damn hard to kill.

That would be all your armour upgrade slots though. While it certainly decreases incoming damage, you lose some versatility.

Classic vampires. As far as I know we don’t have them yet.

More dragons. I wanna ancient dragon as a space encounter!

Tieflings.

And who doesn’t need a space owlbear? A spowlbear?

Here's a thought, though. Most undead form out of dead bodies in which the soul is either trapped, or recently gone, but other way, its the soul of the decedent. However, a dead android naturally draws a new soul, as part of the respawning process.

So, you could entirely have varieties of undead androids wherein they possess a trapped, tormented soul. . . but the *new* one, not the original decedent.

I’m under the impression androids undergo a process in which they pass on in order for a new soul to inhabit the body. It had to be willing. Pretty certain death is death. Otherwise someone torn in half would die from shock and a new person would spawn with no legs bleeding out.

I guess if you could rebuild the body after you could try to urge a new soul in.

Side note: I guess you could do an awesome new form of undead by having someone create undead in the moment the process of swapping over occurs. One new soul unaware of what’s happening & another angrily trapped in its own dead body with its, socially speaking, child.

4. Advertising useful spell effects without disclosing major restrictions ( ie, claiming a full strength healing spell which will work on androids, and charging for such, despite it only working half strength on constructs)

FAQ: When determining what abilities affect an android, and how, replace the first sentence of the constructed ability with the following. "For effects targeting creatures by type, androids count as both constructs and humanoids (whichever type allows an ability to affect them for abilities that affect only one type, and whichever is worse for abilities that affect both types)."

Heal spells work fine on androids.

Pretty sure there is one in one of the books. They have souls and while the flesh may be synthetic, it’s still flesh.

In real life there is a small percentage chance of medical procedures not working. With magic that percentage goes way up, so I imagine the promises made are not the same in general. Malpractice when magic just doesn’t take is an unlikely circumstance to exist.

I’d make it an RP experience.

Helpful Sam’s spells and things: halfling who offers 10% discount on return customers, but no guarantees of success.

Professor Versal: half-elf professional who has a clinic that only works for the wealthy and elite. You’ll have to be introduced if you wish to seek his services. You may have to wait a day or two if your not willing to pay the fee to skip the queue, but he guarantees success.