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The Arcing Weapon feat allows the Acid Arrow to used through your weapon in one of two ways.

Looking up Arcing Weapon rules myself. CAN Arcing allow you to cast Acid Arrow? Is it considered a Ray spell for the proposes of this feat?

And darts are not a melee weapon.

I never said they were. I was answering what weapon type they count as.

Can you find "card" on a weapon type list?

Deadly Dealer treats thrown cards as if they were Darts.

Hey since it's related, Paizo stated one of the Kid's Greatest Foe the Demodragon in Dungeon #147.

Quick Edit: Should have refreshed before posting. Risen has answered most of them already. But I'll leave my original post as is.

Parroting a little bit of bitter lily. Risengold’s questions aren’t as clear as they can be. Are we talking about strictly battlemaps? Or do town and world maps count?
Also this Binary Map: Yes/No could also be better.
There is Standard Grid map. Which is the tried and true, and my preferred.
Hex maps which many people swear alter the map experience greatly.
There also what I call the “Area Map” System which gives you an overall battle map, but individual areas are treated as- No Map areas. This is lifted from a non-Paizo RPG, that I see a surprising number of people on other RPG boards use.
There is token tracking (which I have little experience with), also lifted from non-Paizo RPGs where you use indicators to track distances but not exactly locations, without the use of a map. Basically Map-less but with some crunch.
Map-less ofcourse, keeping track of things in your head, and more fluid for imagination.
There is also switching between maps or no maps. Some groups only pull out the battle map for “important” fights. Others use the Standard grid, but use Hex when in Ship or 3D combat.

I noticed that you don't ask about our experience with other RPGs, and how that might influence our opinions. As someone who has played games other than D&D/PF for most of her life, I wanted to point it out in case it was unintentionally omitted.

Also this is a very important question. Is you paper going to specifically target Pathfinder, and ignore every other kind of RPG? Some Mech/vehicle related RPGs use movement costs, turn points, facing, elevation limits. Which is something you can not even mimic in Pathfinder without overhauling the movement rules completely. (I am aware Older D&Ds had facing, it's not quite the same.)

Risen, take the answers you have here, but I think you should reevaluate your questionnaire.

I would suggest rather than PbP, which can take ages, to do it in real time on a roll20 table. Its free and they are easy to set up.

There is a way to post the match(s) on the these boards I assume?

First off I agree and disagree.

Disagree:

Agree:

My Knee jerk reaction is that a seasoned adventurer should have half his levels in perception automatically.

Tuesday, 04:55 pm: I will be posting my fighter here this evening.

Did this happen already? Are we still waiting? Is there a post by post somewhere?

*Resurrect!*

you don't know a 3rd level spell as a 4th level occultist, so not until level 7

Shoot, well that does slow things down, but one can still take the Mastery and use it the same way any non-occultist would until he reaches the appropriate level. (Assuming he meets the other requirements of course.)

Rule questions:
Hey can Implement Mastery replace a Base Focus Power?

Special: An occultist who has this feat can select item mastery feats in place of focus powers, provided he meets the feats' prerequisites.

I suspect this is strictly Non-base Focus Powers.

When the PCs enter the room in the first place there should be a bell chime.

(2nd Attack) Didn't like that first one? Let me Slash my prices
Here is a deal to die for!
(Attempt to Escape) Time to recoup my loses
(AoE) Bundle Deal
(Fire) This item is red hot!
(Thrown Attack) Lemme show ya my sales pitch!
Try out this new product! It's Cutting Edge! (Player's may loot item: Cutting Edge)

In truth OP, the way I would play such a character, there would be little you could plan dialog wise. Crave out a overbearing salesman personality and play off your PCs. An over the top voice might help if your group is into that.
During combat if they miss with a sword, have him offer them a better one for a price. Heck even if they HIT with a sword, have him offer one that is better than "That old thing"! If a spell fails have him offer the caster some NoMussNoFuss-Spell-Polish "Guaranteed to help with Saves, Power, Cleans your familiar, Promises a good night sleep, Smells nice, will clear up that rash, sever nausea side effect in 80% of users, and did he mention it comes with a free razor?"

monsters

...
Just off-the-cuff, this one seems fine. One level isn't gamebreaking.

Perhaps define what a monster is exactly? I mean if your Wizard friend just summons up a Dire Badger, does that count?

Don't know why you feel that the Soul and Body would separate on it's home plane. There are lots of Outsider that have a body and soul, or are one in the same.

It's first showing that the Planar Oracle now belongs to the associated Outer Sphere by giving him a typing similar to other natural beings of that plane.
The Extraplanar/Native subtyping is simply so you can't dismiss or Banish a Outsider on it's home world- because that would be just down right embarrassing.

All Outsiders(Extraplanar) do the Extraplanar/Native flip flop. Devils and Angels all. The Planar Orcale's description mirrors the write up already on the Extraplanar subtype.

Perhaps the confusion is that there are occasionally Outsiders that are ALWAYS Outsiders (Native), these are generally outsiders that are part or tied to mortals or the Material plane. It is these guys that are actually the special cases.

Not 100% Paizo's lore reason for this, but it might be a hold over from D&D which had a rather long winded explanation.

Hey Guys,

Talk to me about Item Mastery and the Occultist class.
With the Feat Implement Mastery (from Magic Tactics Toolbox) an Occultist can pick up other Item Masteries in place of Focus powers in addition to any they snagged as feats. They get more uses per day out of them by burning (lots) of Mental Focus.

Has anyone looked into this? Any good options?

Energy Mastery might be neat assuming the ruling allows an Occult access to Lightning Bolt! (A level before wizard? A level after wizard? Never?)

Concealment Mastery is laughably awesome.

I'm running a Caster/Blaster/Controller Occultist myself and just looking for more options

Alignment Healing

Neat, and I'm a huge fan of supporting and making more use of the Alignment wheel with in game effects whenever possible. So I support this idea on principal, but I'm not sure I'd use it myself. PCs tend to have varied alignments to put it mildly, for various reasons not every player wants to play similar alignments. And ending up in a situation where a 4/5’s of party are able to benefits from group healing and one player cannot simply because he wanted to play the CG Robin Hood is just asking for strife to start.

-- Locate, Find, Enter, Leave
Once you become ethereal you have already effectively left your Home Material world. You are just standing in a spot on the ethereal plane that happens to overlap with your homeworld.

You may travel the Ethereal and find a demi plane, and you may float into the demiplane occupying the same space it does. You are still an ethereal being (and thus still on the ethereal plane). You just happen to once again be at a location on the ethereal that overlaps that demi plane.

To enter said plane you need to stop being ethereal- either by ending the spell or waiting for the duration. Once the spell ends, you "enter" the demi plane.

You may leave the Demi plane by the same method you entered. Cast Ethereal then wander the Ethereal Plane and relocate your home world.

-- Force Effects
Once you are on a Demiplane, it functions more or less the same as the Material with an overlapping Ethereal. Unless it has some special traits, but those are case by case.

-- Settings and rules
This of course only applies to Pathfinder's basic game, Golarion, and most classic D&D worlds. If you are playing a DM's homebrew setting for instance you need to speak to him to figure out how it works.

(1)Instead of Weapon Focus: Improvised Weapon

(2)Instead of Vigil Talent:Imp Trick.
(3)Instead of [Loyal Aid].
(4)Instead of Vital Strike->Disposable Weapon
*Just buy Weapon Focus.

1+) I’ll take your suggestion, and I’ll use it to Smash(!) my Dirty Trick lego house. This is what I get for focusing on Avenger Specialty too much. ‘Leave an Opening’ is SO much better than Clock and Dagger. It functions more-or-less for the same propose, with Imp Catch off guard I’ll still more than likely be Sneak Striking! And for the few that actually have Uncanny Dodge. I’ll just use a Combat Maneuver like a normal person, no need to burn another feat. That said I have feats to spare now.

2) Sorry more clear: Gaining Dirty Trick through: Vigilante Talent: Gain Rogue Talent: Underhanded Trick. Which if taken this way, auto qualifies you for Great Trick, and your Blind Condition is unremovable for 1 round. This was pretty much 80% why I’m taking Stalker over the much better BAB Avenger Specialty.

Value Brilliant Planner: Brilliant Planner by 7th level alone is any 3rd level scroll (ANY!) once a day. Any 2nd level potion, and whole smack of low level magic items. Including Feather Tokens for arrows. At higher levels it’s a WAND of cure light Per. Day. The limitation on items is only by weight and type of community/town/city. Services are mundane only, but item wise the sky is the limit. Combine with Loyal Aid’s 1/day and you can have your people refilling your Planning Fund and delivering new items while you are off adventuring. We’ll see how fast my DM will kibosh that idea.

3) Social Grace It’s nice but not being able to apply it to Perception or UMD, doesn’t make it great. If I was taking it I’d replace Safe-house first. Was there anything specific to use for this you had in mind? Other than bumping much needed Bluff and maybe something else it’s just kinda nice. Maybe I'm missing something.

4)Disposable Weapon. At first I was “Yep, you’re right. This adds nothing to the build”, now in the wake of ‘Leave an Opening’ I have spare feat slots. At least two, any suggestions? Do you still suggestion Combat Reflexes with the removable of Cloak and Dagger?
And like you suggested, I can still just buy weapon focus. Which I guess I'm still going to do.

I don't think "improvised weapon" is a legal setting for Weapon Focus. What do you want it for? If there's something in your build that has it as a prereq I'm missing it.

I think you even told me this same thing in another thread, shows how well it stuck. Cloak and Dagger Style needs it. Anyway not much of an issue, I'll just change it to something else. I'd rather replace it altogether, it's an unwanted feat tax.

Alright. I've actually been around the moon and back with different builds using Ranger, Monk, Cad, Magus, Full-Rogue, but I find the best option for what I want is still in the Rogue/Slayer mix.
Similar to my first post, but laid out more clearly.

Notes:
Hidden Strike: is not Sneak Attack so add damage still when preforming Sneaking Dirty Trick. I actually like this over the +1 bonus per SA dice I would normally gain with full rogue or slayer.
Brilliant Planner: meta choice for my group. Will allow me more creativity with Dirty Trick, certainly not RAW. Also 1/day scroll or potion of my choice, yes please.
Rogue's Underhanded Trick: Improved Dirty Trick plus an immovable status effect. Yes.
Social Talents: May not be taken in that exact order.
Startling Appearance: Is garbage, and with Improved Catch Off-Guard it is redundant and not-as-good garbage. Wish I could swap it without losing a ton of things.
Weapon Enchants: No reliable weapon enchants, due to the nature of picking up whatever is around.
Weapon Focus: Is there another ability or feat out there which "Counts" as weapon focus? I'm never a fan of this feat.

Alright. Clear on the Weapon Specific stuff.

Not so clear on Proficiencies still, no verdict or formal post to cover this I assume?

I personally like the name of the archetype. I get what you're saying, but Monk of the Empty Hand sounds way cooler than Monk of Whatever's At Hand.

See, now I just want to make a Emtpy-Hand Monk just so I can call him that.

The idea is that a monk of the empty hand isn't used to using weapons that aren't his own fists

It dawns on me that the Archtype name is a horrible description because the name does imply a "Fist only" monk, but the class description is actually stating the opposite:

Follow up question:
Would taking Weapon Specific feats or abilities apply to weapons, that the Empty-Hand is 'improvisingly' using?
The only example I can think off the top of my head would be Starry Grace for bonuses with starknifes. Would the monk gain the benefit since he is still wielding one? Or not so because it's an improvised weapon (or light hammer)?

Well for your other Cleric domain there is the Artifice Subdomain Trap-Domain which grants a Ranger Trap.

Question regarding the Monk of the Empty Hand Archetype, and the (what I find as) peculiar wording.

Reprinted proficiency section for convenience (Hope that's Ok to do on these boards?)

My question is: "Does the Empty-Hand still take the -4 penalty for wielding any improvised weapon?"
Actually does he take a -4 penalty for wielding EVERYTHING? Except shuriken and fists I guess.

The entry states:
-treats normal weapons as improvised weapons
-Empty hand are proficient with the shuriken only
-No actual mention of other Proficiencies, Such as improvised weapons.

Is this merely an oversight and the intention should be clear? Or is the Empty-hand intentionally like this for some reason?

I agree that Bane is definitely better in most cases, but until you can use it (which won't be until either level 6 or until you put a +1 enhancement bonus on your weapon) Lead Blades is a better use of a standard action.

Entirely dependent on when you get a reliable source of your two spells (Lead Blades/Enlarge person) - and presumably someone else casting one on you until you get Permanency. Which you might be able to generously attain at 7th level but likely later. If you do not have Permanency or a secondary caster, the Lead/Enlarge is eating two standards actions all the way until 8th (ish).

If you are worrying about lower levels Enlarge is your spell.

Sorry I'm not so familiar with PFS, are Half-Elves able to take the Full-Elf Favoured Class Alternates, because the Elf-Occultist Favoured is what you want. Or be an Full-Elf and pick up the Forlorn alternate racial trait(Which grants you Skill Focus) ?

Overall I often find the Battle Host is pretty much losing Magic circles and magic item skill, for combat feats. So it basically comes down to: Is what you are doing with 1-2 extra combat feats better than magic circles and universal UMD?
My personal opinion is "No-way" but everyone's mileage vary.

I find for a Melee Occultist the Reliquarian Archtype much more useful. Domains are crazy diverse some might not be so great when replacing an implement- Others Domains I'd drop whole class features for. The best part of the Reliquarian Implement is it works 100% of the time with no MF investment. That certainly saves on worrying how much MF to invest each day. Also sometimes far better spells lists that aren't tied down to a school.

People often don't like the MAD problem that comes with Reliquarian, but in a Meleer's world that's not even an issue. 90% of your spells and Focus Power come from Abj, Trans, & Div and are bluffs, No-save, or use caster level checks.
So don't worry about Int. Ever. Just get 16 Int by level 10 or 13-14 for PFS which won't see past that level anyway, and pump the rest into Wisdom.

PROVIDED there is a domain suiting your needs, don't take the Archetype blindly.

Just thought I'd mention it but Dungeon Mag #150 (Two issues after its sister magazine Dragon #357) had a beefed up version of Demogorgon for the epic conclusion of that adventure path.

Might want to peruse it to see if they modified or "Fixed" something they were not happy with in the early printing. I know James had a heavy hand in writing that particular AP, also I recall Big D having a higher CR, around 33-35 something.

Domains: Chaos, Evil, Magic, Water

His offical Domains that I know of were: Chaos, Corruption, Demonic, and Evil. But water would definitely be on my personal list seeing as that is suppose to be exactly 1/2 his shtick.

Also thank you(!) for the write up regardless. Aameul/Hethradiah, is one of my favourite Demon Lords. I am very happy to have these stats.

No advice? I really appreciate some input for weal or woe.

Perhaps a rules question too: Can a vigilante take two different Rogue Talents through vigilante talent?

Saethori,
Don't count this thread as Stunted before it's had time to grow. That's small minded thinking.

lemeres,
Pack Mules, haha you got a really loud real laugh out of me from that one.

Halflings, Gnomes, Kobolds even!

Is your party nick-name "Ankle-Biter". Always being cut-"Down to size" by your party members snide remarks. The party half-orc jokingly says that some tasks may be too "Tall an order" for you?!

Well enough is enough! I propose this space to list Tall-Jokes, or comebacks to short-jokes!

We will no longer be on the "Short" end of these jokes!

Hey I’m looking to build a character that makes use of Improvised Weapons (Picking up rocks and chairs), and specializes in dirty tricks. Starting at 1st level aiming to max of 10th level ish, maybe 12th.
Kind of Mafia body guard, bouncer idea. Current Idea:

Traits: Dockside Brawler (Brass knuckles great for flavor), Surprise Weapon
Rogue 2 / Slayer 2 / Vigilante Rest (Rog1,Sly1,Sly2,Rog2,VigilX…)
or straight
Rogue 2 / Vigilante Rest
Deadly Surprise (or) Improved Catch Off-Guard, at first. Great Dirty Trick at 7th level.

Rogue (Make-shift Scrapper) for SA, Catch Off-Guard, Throw Anything, and 2nd level talent Dirty Strike. If this version of Dirty Strike is used to blind, it can’t be removed for 1 round. Sneak attack again, add a different debuff.
Slayer (Bounty Hunter): (Slow) Dirty Strike, Full BAB, Boost to saves, study nets gains a “Meh”, Sneak Attack if I took another level. Not so sold on this one.
Vigilante (Avenger): A class I’d really like to try. It doesn’t hinder the build and adds the Expose Weakness Talent and slick Social Talents. Pick up Vigilante Talent: Rogue Talent: Underhanded Trick, asap.

Maneuver Master Monk: I thought of the Master of Maneuvers 1 / Whatever x. Throw in Kata Master Arch and pick up Dastardly Trick Feat when I can. But I really dislike the requirement of needing a full-round action to pull off a dirty trick, and Vigilante's Mad Rush is a long way away. The other options up above are able to do it by 3rd level on Standard Sneak Attacks, which you can mix with charges, spring attacks, or just move and hit. No extra feats required. I am guaranteed at least one free SA with Deadly Surprise or Improved Catch Off-Guard.
Fighter Cad Archetype attempts to pull off everything I am looking for, but comes off a bit lack luster in my opinion. Not being able to pull anything off effectively until 7th level. If someone can make a case to change my mind by all means.

Am I trying to do too much with the Improvised / Trick mix? Do I need to add in some more damaging options? Opinions and suggestions please.

No 3rd party except Dreamscarred Press Psionics. Path of war stuff I'd have to make a case for.

what is the easiest class to play?

I say a strong contender is Rogue. You don't need to worry about a "Build" going wrong, everything that you need as a functional character is already built into the class. A minor learning curve to new players of making sure they are flanking (Explained as: "Make sure there is someone on the other side to do more damage") and you are golden.

Yes Trap-Abilities and Evasion might be confusing but when these come up the DM will usually be able to remind the player.
Rogue Talent much like Feats is a huge list of stuff, but unlike the fighter you can't mess them up. Even if you pick only the bad or useless ones, the core rogue is still a damage dealing machine.

2nd Fighter, 3rd Ranger but I want to talk about I believe is the 4th easiest class. The Sorcerer.

Generally speaking if you can get your to-be-Sorcerer player to look at the spell list he can pick whatever he wants, just heavily suggest some low level attack spells (Scorching Ray) and some med level ones (Fireball). After that just print out or have your player write out the rest of his spells on a notepad.
These spells never change- I know you CAN change them, but that's for more advance play. The player will just add new ones as he goes along. Playing Sorcerer with this method is surprisingly effective even allowing some of the younger-younger players to stay effective.
Sorcerer is the go to class for teaching new players about spells, and learning about spells is learning about larger portion of the game.
Besides the look on newer player's faces when they get to roll THAT many dice in a fireball, and no one else seems to be rolling as many dice. It makes they feel special every time, thus willing to learn more about the game.

Why? What benefits does this system provide over a simple point increase?

Rolling adds an unwelcome element of randomness to the proceedings.
I never met someone who thought rolling for hit points is fun.

I wonder if AD&D had point buy for statistics then introduced Rolling for stats later what the out cry would have been like?

That said I actually like the idea of rolling for skills, but I parrot many people's concerns that the original post's suggestion may make many classes weaker. Of course that does not mean you shouldn't try for random skill stats. Just refine it a little.

For instance every player rolls a d8. You can't roll lower than your class's "skill stat" Thus fighters will always have at least 2. Rangers's at least a 6, and rogue's still get to be super special because no matter what they roll they will always get 8.

Change variables as needed. Maybe drop the ranger's skill-stat down to 4, increase the monk's to 5, make the Skill roll a d6, or d10. Basically adjust as needed.

Hey Homebrewers,

The Story:
So reading the Vigilante class, and it's easily in my top 3 favourite classes written for anything that uses a d20. Reading the social talent Safe House and I thought that it would be neat if this was a Demiplane (of the same sizing that governs the Safe House Talent). That spiraled off into all sorts of ideas into an Archetype for Vigilante that deals with the great beyond, outer spheres, and planes.
TLDR:
So I'm looking to make a Planar Archetype for Vigilante but as a ammeter brewer I'd like some help on ideas on what to add, what to take away, perhaps even some wording

Dual Identity You now have two Identities that are both your Vigilante Identity and Social Identity, but you must designate that your identities must have one (or more) of their alignment components in opposition of the other. Law vs Chaos, Good vs Evil, etc. In addition you my take True Neutral and chose LG, CG, LE, or CE as it's opposition identity.
(For the sake of the DM, perhaps the Vigilante should have a “True” alignment, that is undetectable.)
This changes the Vigilante's Dual Identity

Talents:
Personal Demi-PlaneSocial: Acts as the safe house talents. The entrance is a Portal Gate which you must construct at a specific location. This is a pocket extradimensional space.

Personal PlaneshiftSocial: You no longer need a gate to access your demi plane (but you may still use on), preforming a 10 ritual allows you and up to eight creatures to be shifted to your pocket dimension. When you repeat this ritual in your demi-plane it teleports/planeshifts you to the exact location of the previous plane you just left.
(Perhaps use something like the Animate Object size rules to aid in transporting how much and many creatures and objects?)

Prefect TeleportSocial: You are able to designate a point in space and whenever you use teleport or planeshift, you are able to teleport to that location without error. You may share this prefect designation to anyone who includes you in the spell, or consults you while casting the spell. You can keep a number of designated point up to your intelligence Mod (min 1)

JaunterVigilante: Gain a pool of points some how that allows you to access some more spell like abilities. Similar to monk’s Ki pool.
A follow up talent at 8th level to spend 2 point to cast Dimension door.
More advanced at 12th to spend 4 points and cast teleport.
Even more advanced at 14th to spend 6 points to cast Planeshift.

Warrior from BeyondVigilante: Gain Favoured Enemy +2 against any summon, called, or conjured creature. Upgrades every 8 Vigilante levels, stacks with Rangers Favoured. Increases by +2 if you take Warrior of the Spheres after taking this Talent.

Warrior of the SpheresVigilante: Gain Favoured Enemy +2 against extraplanar creatures with an Alignment type that are in opposition to your current Identity. Upgrades every 8 Vigilante levels, stacks with Rangers Favoured. Increases by +2 if you take Warrior from Beyond after taking this Talent.

Portal MasterVigilante: You may preform a 10 min ritual on an doorway, entrance, or archway. To imbue the passage with portal energies transforming it into a portal. The portal does nothing and does not activate until you perform the ritual on a second passage way. Linking these two portals allows any creatures that pass through to instantly transport to the other one. You may designate requirements or restrictions to activate either of the portals. For instances: "A creature must carry a key through the doorway to activate the portal"
You may only have two portals activate in this way at one time. You may dismiss or destroy a portal if you are within 100ft of it, or are standing on the other side of it's linked portal.

This is just what I have so far. Comments, thoughts, Ideas?

I realize Battle Host loses quite a bit of utility, but honestly I never intended to build this character for party utility.
And honestly speaking if I was told to provide more party support I'd have just played another class.

Battle host loses the true power behind the "Magic item skill" feature, that by itself is more utility than whole classes can sometimes bring. Especially if you are only playing in the low levels (levels 5th - 8th). Where most UMD classes are only able to Reliably sling stolen magical devices just before level 9, Base Occultist is doing that at level 5-6. That's even excluding good Cha.

Battle host can only manipulate weapons, armor, and shields, and the few of those that ever need UMD checks are often artifacts.

Spirit Warrior, Heroic Splendor, Mend (Implement), Some Bonus Feats depending
All class features which you can pick up on low level scrolls.

Do levels of Psychometrist (Vigilante) stack? Might be a way to snag some extra Implements quickly if they do - No Resonant Powers with Psychometrist thou, hampers your spell casting as well.

So question to see if any of these work.

1- First if I place a Ranger Trap using "Expansive Trap Ability" feat, which lets the trap take up 4 squares instead of 1. Can I place a trap under the feet of an opponent, thus setting is off?

2- Kobold Snare Setter has "Deadly Traps (Ex)" which says:
"Snare setter's traps deal an additional 1d6 points of damage on the first round they're activated. This damage is of the same type the trap normally deals."
So empathizing on the "same type the trap normally deals"
How does this effect something like the:

-2a- Blightburn Trap: Increase ALL the damage types? Ones of my choice (Con Damage)?

-2b- Over-sized Barbs Trap: 1d4+1 barbs which each dealing 1 point. Extra Xd6 PER barb? Or just Xd6 to the trap overall?

-2c- Poison Trap (Su): Inflicts poison which is part of the trap, normally 1d2 per 6 rounds. Snare setter only increase the damage on the First round, but possibly 1d2+Xd6 Con damage?

3- Does a Slayer's studied target apply to Traps you set? I assume yes.

4- Can you pick up (some) of your traps? Swing them as Improved weapons? Boxing glove bear traps would be wonderfully scary.

Try just a little bump.

Ship combat and sea faring already has rules, several of them actually. But I find them a bit too complicated. Also, as written, ship combat takes ages because each ballista only does 3d8 damage and ships have well over 900 hitpoints. So, I developed the following houserules:

For the sake of being concise (which I am terrible at) I left that out. Yes I know there has been many different rules for sailing. We've tried the D&D 3.0 one, the D&D 3.5 ones, the D&D Storm wreck ones, some rules we found on sand skimmers, the Campaign's custom ones, some D&D 2ed ones, ofcourse pathfinder's, I even got half-way through some Starjammer rules before I realized they just simply wouldn't work.

I like the 1 ships rounds = 2 normal rounds. In my head I see that solving a few issues right there.

requires all PCs to take a role in defending a ship with each PC's turn in initiative to ...

This interests me greatly, I will certainly look into it this weekend.

Hey all

I will be resurrecting and DMing a seafaring campaign of mine, and what I seem to be in need of are Seafaring rules which everyone can be happy with.

I gave the PC/Crew a ship and they have gone the realistic route of hiring on a crew, then hiring on ex-naval officers, hiring carpenters and outfitting the ship for combat. The captain(PC) has set up crew rotations and times am/pm when people would be on posts based on the brief blurbs I said about them. Stat wise they are mostly level 3 experts and some level 3 warriors with the helms man being a level 7 rogue/warrior. The 4 PCs are about level 11. Druid, Bard, Ranger, PsiWarrior

I don’t have a problem with any of this, I love it when my PCs really get into things or get attached to things! What I AM having a problem with is how to handle, how they are handling things. When EVER an issue arose on deck (Like a random encounter or storm) the FIRST words out of the Captains mouth is “Well where is helmsman/naval office/Profession-we-hired and what is he doing about this/handling it/why hasn’t it been taken care of? And I am left with a strong feeling of that the PCs are saying that they shouldn’t be doing anything at all, and that the NPCS should handle whatever seafaring encounter they come across while the PCs kick back and do nothing.
On the flip side of that coin the same player(s) also drill me for “What good are all these ranks in profession sailor that I have!?” And I’m just about to strangle said player shouting at him “Why do you need ranks in Sailor at all when you specifically hired NPCs to null-and-void your ranks!?”

I’m frustrated, because I’d like the PCs to do as they please but the reason they are the heroes of the story is because they are above human and are able to take on things NPCs can’t. Before anyone suggests it, I have spoken to my players about it, three times over the last twoish years. They reasonable listen to me, and we make changes but things always seem to come around again, so now I’m looking for outside help.

If you’ve listened to my rant this far: What I am really looking for is a set of Rules for Sea Faring sailing, ship combat, and handling grid map combat on their ship, which incorporates all of these people and modification the PCs have hired, but rely (mostly) on the PCs character sheets when it comes rolling.

Who or what, if anything or anyone...

Who/What? Don't know, something with Mythic Tiers. As after slaying a tier 1 dragon and gaining said McGuffin, and becaming mythic, "We felt something watching us." Which is rather heavy handed in this DMs case. Since then we've been assaulted by a group of Oriental themed Warriors and then a group of OgreMage/Oni Assassins, and our DM is know for using other-worldly-horrors. So we are expecting to escalate, but don't know into what.

McGuffins: One is some semi-holy sword, and one is a small Seal which can not be teleported or placed in extra-dimensional spaces. The seal came with some "Anti-Scrying box" which we keep it in.
NonMcguffins: Gold. We now have lots of coins of various money, enough for say... a Dragon to sleep on, and this DM has been know to hit our stashes before with Common thieves, because of storing all our loot in one spot. Well common UMD thieves, but we are also worried about "whatever else" is coming.

Extend?: Moderate Metamaigc Rod of Extend, yes.

Hello all!

Looking for some spell suggestions to help fortify our party's Homebase.

Last session with my group we ended up getting some valuable Plot McGuffins and cash loot that we'd like to store at our home base, and said items need protecting.

As the party spellcaster (Level 10 heavily focused Illusionist wizard, Mythic 1), the task as fallen to me, and our Rogue9/Bard1/Mythic1 to trap up and make safe our home.
I have unlimited access to every spell 3rd and lower, most of the 4th level spells, and restricted amounts of what I can do with 5th. Safe to assume I own any illusion or Shadow spells of any level, plus Permanency, & Lesser Planar Binding.

The home in question is a two story house on the outer edge of a Lakeside town, nothing particularly note worth about the house or landscape. We have a maid (Former rescuee) who looks after things- and although she's been incredibly trust worthy in my opinion, the party seems to have reservations about telling her everything, so she is to have limited access/knowledge on trappings.
We normally don't have access to the house for days on end- even with teleport. So spells that require refreshing might be an issue, but we'll take then into consideration anyway.

Advice Please, and thank you in advance!

Generally speaking, Zombie-boots, the campaign discourages that sort of question ("What scenario opens early access to a wand of lightning before the Fame score necessary to just buy it?") Sorry.

Oh alright.

Hey. Spoiler alerts I suppose.

But which AP lets you get this Owlbear-companion-boon? It sounds fun, and I might think of running my group through it if I can.

Ok well, I suppose that is no real difference than other home games. Just need to check player sheets. Oh well.

I'm liking these fast replies. Thank you all =)

One last question. If a player buys an item with his starting/earned gold at the start of the session. Then during the session the player sells it for gold (Equal, higher, or lower than the item's real value).

At the end of the session the gold he obtained from selling the item is turned over to the Society- because it was gain during that session. The player does not get a refund on the item. It's simply gone and the player is SOL on the money/item he spent. Yes, no?

then it gets marked as expended on your ITS.

Alright. Good, that's cleared up.

What do player's / GMs use to ensure your Item Tracking Sheet is "Correct"?

Barring the honor system a less-than-morale player could write up a new ITS and Character sheet to juggle around items, yes?

Hey all.

So I'm new to PFS, I got two session under my belt thus far, and I'd like some clarification on how exactly buying items works.

When you BUY something at the start of a session with the gold you've accumulated, you have the item or items- yay- And are able to use it thusly in the current session. Great.

Any item, gold, trinkets you find in the campaign/session itself are los-ahem- Turned over to the Society itself. But you gain PP, Fame, the ability to purchase certain items, and a lump sum of gold according to the chronicle sheet.

After the session ends, my CURRENT understanding is that you lose (Return, Refund) all items that you have bought at the beginning of the session with your starting Gold, and are basically refunded everything. So at the start of next session you are naked but have your total lump sum of money and can buy the same or different items again- (based on fame, chronicle sheets, etc, etc.)
Any items you buy through PP, you get to keep permanently, because PP is never replenished you have to earn more.

Is this correct?

Alright. I think I'm set to go this Sunday, just an in-world question thou:

Lantern Lodge? Shadow Lodge? Retired?
Why'd Paizo decide to do this, any particular reason? Just world evolving?

Also Shadow lodge I get- uprising and such. Why is Lantern Lodge no longer valid? According to the blurbs I read, they seem no different than Grand Lodge- just foreign.

1) you can spend 2 pp on any item up to 750 gp (most commonly used to snag a wand of CLW)

Just clarifying.

You can spend PP, but once you spend it- it's gone for good?
So if one were to spend 2 PP on a wand, you'll gain the CLW wand for a session. But lose the wand at the end of the session, and the PP will remain spent.

Five of the factions are country-based, while three are ideology-based.

That's probably a good summary of explaining it right there.

Thank you for all the advice everyone, by the way.

Hey all, thanks for the responses.

So just to response to stuff in the order I read it:

Yes I've gone through the Guide to Organized Play guide, and the GMing 101 guides.

I played the first campaign First Steps, and so did... well half of the players there. I see second and third steps are now retired (banned?). The store has purchase "The Goblinblood Debt" and our regional Venture Captain said/suggested that it was a fun one to play. So I'm thinking of using that, as it is the one on hand.

So the tengu, aasimar, and tiefling races and legal- no questions asked?

I personally like more emphasis on role-playing, but I've done heavy dungeon crawls in the past. It's usually just been a matter of breathing life into one or two NPCs- something quirky. Players often take it from there.

I think the item tracking confuses me the very most. I personally have a chronicle sheet listing what I can buy.
But how... do I handle if a new player just shows up with one? How would I double check that? If another player loses his sheet, what does he do then? I don't really see an obviously place for chronicle sheet entire in the website, do you just need to reference the adventure? All authorized PFS adventures have a premade chronicle sheet in the back correct? Etc...

Also factions. None of us were introduced to them last session, so I suppose that's my job to do so now. Not a big deal but any specific suggests on how I should go about doing that?
Lastly where do I find the "Faction reward" tables that you can spend your PP on?

Hey All.

I need some advice setting up as a PFS GM.

My LGS has as of last week just got into the PFS. There is a little bit of a story. They've asked me if I would like to GM for them, since the store itself is new to the RPG scene and I'm the only "Real RPG player" they know. I've 15 years experience playing and GMing Mostly D&Deqse stuff, but other RPGs as well. Played plenty of PF, never PFS thou.

So we had the first PFS game day last week. Turn out was ok. We had the regional Venture Captain for our area show up and two of his "Trusted" GMs who hosted the night. I played an oracle for that session (-which I still have not signed up on the site yet, oops). I asked a lot of questions from the more experienced GMs/VC, about the particulars, It was all good fun.

So now this week is rolling around and the VC or the previous GMs will be unlikely to make it again. So the store owners have asked me politely if I'd be ready to take up the reigns. I'm not sure I feel I am, but I want help the store grow a RPG community- because that's in MY interests as well.

So I'm coming here asking for help, advice, or very important things I should know. I've been reading as much of the Non-cost PFS resources from Piazo that I can. I'm not sure if I'm reading the right things or if I have everything. I'm not 100% what I should really be looking out for. I assume the players will be continuing with their level 1s they made last week.

Just... A little help if you fellows would be so kind. That's all I ask.

Hey all.

I'll just fill you in on the situation, and if you feel you can share some wisdom of any sort, feel free. There is no TLDR version.

The LGS I frequent, up to this point has mostly been a Magic: The Gathering only. They've been trying to start up RPGs recently with some amount of failure (mostly a space and time thing). I'm not a Regular-Regular by any means. They know me by name, but they know many other store goers far better.

Out of no where I get an email from them asking (Paraphrased) "Hey we've finally got a pathfinder game day and such set up sorted out, etc. We are looking for DMs and players. Would you like to join? As DM if possible?" The setup I believe will be a one-off adventure to see how it works for them. There will be two DMs and four-five players under each. Room size if it matters is good but not "great".

I've since spoken to them saying "Yeah I can show as whatever you need." And obviously they are attempting to corral me into a DM position. As we are a rare breed I guess.

I've got... 15 years? (Yikes time flies) playing, DMing, GMing experience across a few RPGs out there, but always with friends when I DM and not strangers. So that makes me kind of nervous. I wonder what kind of adventure I should even run? Is there a good one-shotter? I was thinking the we be goblin campaign, but what if there are brand new players? Does that matter? preconstructed characters or not? etc etc.

I have no specific question. Just kind of tossing my line out there and seeing what you fine fellows have to offer as advise. Clearly I'm a little nervous- and rambling.