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In PF1, when a character took damage while climbing, they would have to make an Athltics check (DC = surface DC) to avoid falling. I can't find how PF2 handles this. Can someone point me in the right direction?
Hello, I bought the fifth expansion to the PACG Rise of the Runelord campaign and found that the card backs differ significantly from the previous sets. This creates a huge problem, since it's now rather obvious when the Henchmen etc. can and can't be the top card of a location. How do I go about getting a replacement? I can ofc provide pictures if you want. Thanks,
I've asked this within a thread in the "general" section, but I'm afraid that thread got buried, so I'll ask it again here. I'm planning on DM-ing a group of two players through the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition (but it could have been any non-Mythic adventure path), allowing the players to create Mythic characters. Due to time constraints, I'd prefer not to have to adjust anything on my end. Does anyone have any experience trying something like this? I'd love to hear how it turned out for you. What are the pitfalls I need to be aware of? I'm especially concerned about the abilities that have a clause vs. non-mythic enemies (like Mythic Hexes). How do you deal with them? Would it be fair to have every enemy with CR > APL receive the Mythic Companion feat for free so those powers won't work 100%? Also, how would you handle the first levels? Start the PCs off at level 1 and hand them 2-4 mythic tiers immediately? Or start them out as lvl 2 tier 1 and try to keep the 2 levels : 1 tier balance?
Even after more than a decade of playing 3.X, 4E and Pathfinder, I sometimes still find myself baffled by certain “start of combat” situations. Surprise, initiative, awareness, stealth – it all becomes a blur. So I’ve decided to post two situations from recent play and see how those of you with a firmer handle on things cope with them. 1) A party of PCs is resting in a dungeon, when they suddenly hear loud barking in the distance, rapidly drawing closer. The PCs draw their bows and aim at the only entrance into their resting spot. How does this play out, assuming the dogs that are racing towards them know the PCs are there (a druid told them / they have picked up their scent)? My problem: Technically both sides are aware of the other, even though they haven’t seen each other yet. So no surprise round. But did combat start already? If so, then the dogs aren’t flat-footed when they round the corner and are treated to a hail of arrows. This seems weird to me. Also, when exactly is initiative rolled in this example? As soon as the PCs hear the barking? 2) In a premade module I’m about to run, the party will be ambushed by a group of bandits in a city. The bandits plan to attack in a crowded street, hiding among the innocent bystanders until they make their move. Since the bandits have been trailing the PCs, the module states that every PC gets to roll Perception to recognize their stalkers in the crowd. A success means the PC gets to act in the surprise round. Important is that in the bandits’ tactics section, it is noted that the wizard that leads the bandits spends his first round casting slow on the party, thereby “initiating the combat” (quoted from the book). My problem: What happens if (some of) the PCs make their perception check and roll a higher initiative than the wizard? Has combat started? If so, why? After all, the PCs don’t know the people they recognize are about to attack them. If not, then why did everyone have to roll initiative? I'm probably just overthinking things. I'm sure you guys can clear this mess that is my brain up for me. :)
Does the combo in the title work? The Sylvan bloodline grants the sorcerer an Animal Companion with the "share spells" ability. "Share spells" states that "the druid may cast spells on her animal companion even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the companion's type (animal)". This seems to indicate Enlarge Person is fine. What makes me unsure is the next sentence in the description: "Spells cast in this way must come from a class that grants an animal companion". Go? No go?
I have an inquisitor in my party with Detect Alignment and a good perception score. The haunt rules state: "Detect undead or detect alignment spells of the appropriate type allow an observer a chance to notice a haunt even before it manifests (allowing that character the appropriate check to notice the haunt, but at a –4 penalty)." Since she pretty much always has Detect Evil on, she notices a lot of haunts before they manifest. My question is, can she now positive energy the not-yet-manifested haunt into oblivion, basically using a wand of cure light wounds to exorcise every haunt she discovers?
So here it is and it's one gorgeous book. I've skimmed through it, read some choice chapters and so far I have to say this is a definite improvement over 3.5. However, like others have also stated, it feels more like 3.6 than 3.75 and that's mainly because 90% of the work seems to focus on the stuff that was already good to begin with. The classes and races have been rebalanced, skills and feats tidied up and compressed, troublesome spells nerfed or made less complex. There is a lot of good stuff here, it feels clean, and I'm especially impressed with the combat maneuvre overhaul. Still my main gripe with 3rd edition remains: high level complexity. Apart from the Vital Strike feat chain, which gives an alternative to the endless rolling of iterative attacks, I just don't see how PFRPG improves what imo has always been this edition's weak spot. Am I missing something? Was it maybe decided at some point that simplifying high-level combat could not be accomplished alongside the goal of backward compatibility? Or is it just deemed a lost cause (the fact that the APs still end around level 14 seems to point that way)?
I'm curious how other DM's answered the following questions: Spoiler: 1. Yargos replicates the codes on a lark. Why on earth would he do this? And what happened next? Did the Black Echelon destroy the bell towers? 2. Yargos then tries to alert the city. I take it nobody believed his story? If the bell towers were destroyed, why didn't they believe him? 3. He then tries to hurl the codebook into the sea. However, Nessian "intervenes". How exactly did Nessian learn of the book and how did he intervene? 4. Nessian later sends his goons to kill Yargos. Why didn't he kill the historian immediately? 5. Act 1 starts at early evening. Act 4 at sunrise. Since the PCs are under time pressure, I assume they didn't sleep. Where did the time go then? Surely act 2 and 3 don't take all night to complete? 6. Nessian plans to blackmail the city. However, it is made clear that unless the abort code is given within half an hour of the cathedral attack, the city is doomed. So how exactly does he plan to go about his blackmailing in that short timeframe? 7. For that matter, is it wisdom to be encamped just outside the city when you summon an army of undead to sack it? :-)
I'm a huge fan of Hero Points and would love to see them find their way into PFRPG in one form or another. The best system I've come across so far is from Warhammer FRP. Basically, the PCs start out with a couple of Fate Points which can be expended to avoid death. As long as the PC still has points, he also can make one reroll per day per Fate Point. PCs gain Fate Points very sparingly, and only when they achieve some major success. The result is a system that diminishes the amount of PC deaths but at a very real cost - every Fate Point expended means one less reroll per day. Since WFRP is deadlier than D&D, beginning characters should probably start with only one Hero/Fate Point and never be allowed to have more than one at a time. They could then be given a chance to regain any expended points every three levels or so (once per PF AP module). I'm going to playtest this in our next campaign, but in the meantime I'm curious what others think of such a system for PF.
I'm thinking of using the beta rules for our upcoming RotRL campaign, but am worried that the AP will be too easy for the beefed up PCs. PFRP suggests handling the PCs as one level higher than they are, but that seems a bit harsh. What are your thoughts? Are the encounters challenging enough, even for PF characters? Has anyone tried to keep the PCs one level below what the modules expect?
Okay... 1. A lot of stuff (sneak attack, immediate actions) is "once per round". I'm a bit confused as to what they mean by a round. Is it the time between your current turn and your next turn (as in 3.5) or is it the combat round (in which every combatant takes one turn)? 2. The Healing/Inspiring Word powers grant more healing than just using a normal Healing Surge. What's to stop anyone from using this after combat? 3. If I understand correctly, you can take a move action and then charge as a standard action? Allowing you to completely bypass anything in the way?
Since he's on the team now, I wanted to bring up a suggestion Monte once made to get rid of those bloated spell lists spell casters have to drag around with them their whole life. His idea was to use multiple spell slots of the same level instead of one slot of a higher level to balance metamagic. For instance, a maximized magic missile would not cost a 4th level spell slot, but four 1st level ones. I'm not sure whether he intended there to be any other limiting factor (like that you have to be able to cast 4th level spells before you can maximize a 1st level one), but I really like this rule. Any chance this might be considered for the PFRPG? |
