Zain60's page

According to recent Aasimar source material, small aasimars (perhaps the descendants of halflings with celestial DNA) exist. Are small Aasimar's legal in PFS?

This would basically be the choice of only changing one thing, medium size to small size. (which would obviously cause some in-game effects like smaller weapon damage, +1 size bonus to AC, etc)

Sort of last minute, but I'm hosting a run-through of The Confirmation tomorrow on Roll20. Fair warning that it's my first Roll20 session, but I'm a seasoned DM.

First come, first served. Post here that you're interested. First 3-5 people who post available please E-mail me at Zain60@hotmail.com with:
Name
Character name/class/lvl
Society/Character ID
Initiative bonus

I'll post the forum name/character/level of attendees on this post. I will cancel the game if we don't get enough or experience technical issues.

There are good ways and bad ways of pointing out rule errors. Walking in with a sheet of paper designed to be used specifically for that purpose, as was originally implied, is asking for a fight.

This post, again, is not about what you think it is. I simply think helping out fellow players and DMs with the little helping aids I produce is a good thing. If you wish to not use it, or dislike people who use working aids, it doesn't affect me, but please let's not continue to de-rail the subject, though. I'm sure we can start a brand new conversation on the merit of working aids or the douchery of the lowest common denominator player.

There have been some excellent input so far on how to portray actions in combat, that I will definitely be taking on board. If anyone has any more suggestions for input, please pass them along!

As for the cheat sheet, it should be noted that an immediate action takes up your swift action for the next turn or current turn. (See below, emphasis mine)

Excellent input, thank you!

I represent actions in combat like this:

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In one normal round you may take one of the following combinations of actions:
|---Standard Action---|-------Move your speed-------|-I or S-|-F-|
|---Standard Action---|----Move Action-----|-5' step-|-I or S-|-F-|
|-----Move Action------|----Move Action-----|-5' step-|-I or S-|-F-|
|----------------------------Run------------------------------|-I or S-|-F-|
|--------------------------Charge---------------------------|-I or S-|-F-|
|------------------------Withdraw--------------------------|-I or S-|-F-|
|----Move 5 Feet through really difficult terrain------|-I or S-|-F-|
|-------------------Full Attack-------------------|-5' step-|-I or S-|-F-|
|-----------Other Full Round Actions---------|-5' step-|-I or S-|-F-|
|-----Cast a 1 round casting time spell----|-5' step-|-I or S-|-F-|

|-I or S-|-F-| = A character may take an immediate action or swift action each round and free actions.

Nicely done!

Jiggy wrote:

trollbill wrote:

One page rules cheat sheets are ... questionable for players as the base assumption in their creation is that they are going to be used to confront a DM.

Exactly. Both are based on a negative assumption about the people you are going to sit down at the table with and can create a negative atmosphere at the table.

I'm an experienced player and DM. I made this for myself to make sure I keep myself straight. I cannot account for the behavior of others, but one thing I will say is this: I will not let a DM blatantly change the rules and decrease the efficacy of my character in a scenario because he has a distaste for powerful characters or a misunderstanding of the rules. Some scenarios can end badly for ineffective groups and I don't want to be further penalized. PFS is not a homebrew game, and beyond some minor rules quabbles that the DM has authority to rule over, rules are simply rules. It's not a bad thing for players to keep their DM honest.

If you fear a sheet that is a carbon copy of the rules in the book being used as a banner of confrontation, that's player by player. Any rules lawyer doesn't need this sheet to do it.

Ya, he considered move actions "moving.". If there are any comments about the cheat sheet let me know.

Recently had a rules disagreement with a PFS scenario GM about whether a witch could five foot step, cackle, and use a standard action. His ruling was that another move action would be 'moving twice' and therefore too powerful. I started to think a one-page cheat sheet would be useful so I made a prototype to carry to games. You can find it Here.

If there are any edits/adds please contact me here. I'd like to make it a useful product for PFS players where round economy is often paramount and takes a long time if players don't understand the actions allowed or a GM is unsure what provokes, etc.

Thanks!

R/
Zain60

One of my players recommended I share some of the things that I make for our players/games to smooth things along. These aren't documents I maintain regularly but I hope they can be of use to you.

Go to my shared drive to access them. Comment here if you'd like some changes made or have ideas for some one-page documents that would help your game. I do them on my off time to help my players/group have to flip through as few pages as possible.

I only ask that if you edit them/share them, please let me know so I can benefit from the edits/upgrades.

Current File List:

Called Shots Cheat Sheet (fairly refined, let me know if you find errors)

Mounted Combat Cheat Sheet (made originally for my Halfling Cavalier, edit values for your own)

Combat Actions Cheat Sheet (prototype, text in red provokes AoO)

Gorelock Grapple Sheet (A quick guide for a Tetori or other high level grappler, edit values/dice for other grapplers. Intended to teach round economy and strategy to a new player... like Gorelock who wanted his first character to be a Tetori, don't report errors as this was made for a character who no longer exists.)

Enjoy!

R/
Zain60

Normally, called shots are full round actions, Improved Called Shot lets you make one as a standard action, and Greater Called Shot says:

Whenever you make an attack, you can choose to replace that attack with a called shot. You can make multiple called shots in a single round. Each additional called shot after the first made in the same round takes a –5 penalty. In addition, a called shot that deals half the creature’s hit points of damage (minimum 40) is a debilitating blow.

So, when I charge, can I replace the charging single attack with a called shot and still gain all the other benefits of charging?

Charge rule:
After moving, you may make a single melee attack. You get a +2 bonus on the attack roll and take a –2 penalty to your AC until the start of your next turn.

As long as you aren't multi-summoning in the same fight, you will probably be ok. The Master Summoner (MS) can summon while another summon is already there, therefore fights can become quite ridiculous if you just summon every round. Since they last minutes, not rounds, my wife's summoner can often summon many creatures before the group even enters a room, basically creating an army between the enemies and the group.

Use more than one summon per encounter at your own risk to your game. Every time my wife does it, the next boss instantly recognizes her puppet-mastering and tries to insta-gib her. That's her in-game penalty for shenanigans.

Fire theme cleric
Witch debuffer and counterspeller
Knife fighter scout rogue
Two handed fighter with called shots

Are there any Huge Elementals in Rise of the Runelords?

If so, what types?

Also, do Huge Wolves appear at all?

That's two questions! Elemental answered above, two elder earth elementals for sure. There are zero huge wolves that I have seen.

Some decent suggestions above - but my #1 suggestion is stop the loot duplication. There are TONS of duplicate magical items if you use the loot in the book. Because a level 5 ogre warrior ALWAYS has a +2 belt of giant strength. I went through and re-tooled most of the loot in the first 3-4 chapters to make sure the group had slightly different loot every time. Although I figured the ogre hooks were probably it.

WBL at level 3 isn't a game changer. Even under'geared' they should be able to take the content. If they can't they probably aren't that great and should die in my opinion.

I don't overly penalize characters and will often make sure content doesn't TPK people unnecessarily. This is a different case.

Whenever you make an attack, you can choose to replace that attack with a called shot. You can make multiple called shots in a single round. Each additional called shot after the first made in the same round takes a –5 penalty.

Bottom Line:

Is the negative 5 per attack mention of the simple iteration of secondary and tertiary attacks in the D20 system (ie. a level 11 fighter who has a +11/+6/+1 (-5 iteration each) attack. OR is this cumulative negatives? OR is this a flat -5 to any called shot made after the first. (+0, -5, -5 modifiers on the attack ratings above)

Background:
Greater called shot mentions a -5 penalty to every iterative called shot made as part of a full attack/multiple attack. I have one question with multiple consequences:

False iteration: TWF/Flurry of ... Called Shots?

If I'm +10/+5 and +10/+5 with my offhand weapon for the sake of argument, if I called shot with my primary (+10) then make one with my secondary hand (+10) is it now -5 (+5 total), then the second primary hand attack could conceivably be the third called shot, making it -5 (+0 total).

OR worse, is this a cumulative -5, IE, first called shot is normal, second is -5, third is -10?

Secondly, someone who's using a 1h or 2h weapon, who is hasted, does the hasted attack (made first) make normal attack bonus, but the second full attack bonus attack take a -5 penalty, while the third/fourth attacks each take -5 as well, OR worse, a cumulative -5 each (-5, -10, -15)

I'm the DM in the campaign Exocrat mentioned. I will not be limiting usage of teleport to mileage restrictions that essentially make it a level 5 dimension door. If they're willing to bag of holding people then I'll allow it (and the risks involved).

I'm not worried about them skipping encounters, they've already skipped a huge portion of book 2, and that had nothing to do with instant travel and more to do with the shortfalls of the storyline against a veteran group of gamers. They will no doubt skip a huge portion of book 4 due to instant travel, but I'm ok with that. That just gives me time/place to introduce my own encounters at a whim.

My advice for anyone trying to make a game more restrictive, is try to use realistic (heh) consequences that keep them on level path with the campaign. They're going to miss 13 level 7 encounters and basically miss a level? I can keep them underlevel and laugh, or I can introduce a solid plot hook or random encounter-that's-actually-a-dungeon to level them up and take a break from the train tracks of the campaign. Flying PCs for instance? There are flying monsters. They exist, and they just might notice flying PCs. In Magnimar, I just had the party catch up by using the Magnimar city supplement material and hooks and it worked fine. The party appreciated the detour.

Turin, great advice on the proper use of this type of magic. In this case, Exocrat's party owns/operates the Glassworks so they are familiar enough not to arrive off target.

I do enforce the percentile rolls, btw. What fun is it otherwise.