Not to mention that for those GMs who say you have to resolve all conditions before the end of the scenario, it just doesn't work at all, because it's not a wishblade until it's on the chronicle sheet.
Do direct those GMs to Page 20 of S9 PFS RPG Guide
"Characters can use the rewards from the Chronicle sheet they earned in order to resolve any conditions."
Just checked the pdf - it says Fortune Moon is a +2 khopesh and can be restored as per chronicle sheet ; however, the chronicle sheet says nothing about restoring it, and just says it is a Luckblade with Wish [1].
Would that mean it is already charged with a Wish spell in the scenario? If so, the Wish could be usable without expending any gold to purchase.
Per Page 36 "You can use any item that you find during the adventure for free until the end of the adventure, ..."
Aside to Matt - was above your intention? Not sure if this might help get someone back from perma dead.
Oh I see, yea that sucks. It is part of the monster profile and why I dont play melee characters. Theres also some swallow whole perma deaths in some early Season 1 or 2 multipart 7-11 scenarios, heck it even spawns at low tier 7-8 (Some huge plant thing).
That said, thanks to that, most of my characters have Lesser Talisman of Freedom.
@Mista - I am pretty sure she shunts into their body yes.
Here are some time saving tips. When i played, GM ran about 4+ hrs with 7 players, and when i ran it at low tier for 4 players it was comfortably 3.5 hrs. This is just a post off the top of my head, Ive deleted the pdf from my phone, need to get home to view it.
The first encounter its good (imho) to have players start out of the hazardous terrain, and dont forget to remind them of Tahonikepsu's instruction about the stone.
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About the lab part. Keeping it away from the flipmat will help speed stuff up. We did following and cleared comfortably in 1 hour.
1) Marching Order. establish a single line marching order for party
2) Directions. The scenario indicates theres a pillar with directions to rooms with label in Ancient Osiriani. If none of the players know it, have the sage with them translate (if they ask for help). Then give players the map printed on A4 size black and white, if they know Ancient Osiriani then with labels (your own, dont spoil contents by using the default room names). Run it semi point and click style (if you need to go through 4 to get to 5, make sure they have to go to 4 first).
3) Time. Roll time taken to explore a room if not stated, usually 2d6 min seems about right. If they take too long debating just roll 1d3 mins, it should be enough to give a hint to move on without beating up their time.
4) Skill Checks. After describing whats involved, dont make them guess the skill checks - just tell them. Especially the Profession one. If you feel the DCs are high (hell yeah they are) tell them they can assist the main attemptor (perhaps at cost of 1d3 mins? Up to you). At your discretion if a character knows Ancient Osiriani, you can also give some bonus.
5) Sage Advice. The Sage is a GM device to direct the pace, without giving help (since that comes with a price). In character remarks like "You know, you guys might want to speed up" or "Having a sample of the solution would be good" or "Ah, it seems one of my esteemed colleagues has found a suitable site! Shall we proceed / are we ready to go?"
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For the actual 1 hour (for 1st check) and 1 "moment" (for 2nd check) ritual, have a briefing by say Amenopheus and then spell out the skill checks. This hour also seems natural time to search for books, especially given the impending collapse.
Ask the PCs to position themselves prior to rolling the 2nd check. 2 squares from a sage seems reasonable, but take note that none should be within 1 square of the currently-human Tahonikepsu.
For the final encounter, the melee guy is easy to run if you just follow tactics. Just look up his aura and thats about it.
The desecrated area is pretty vague, so me and my GM (the one who ran it for me) agreed it would be a fixed radius from the BBEGs starting position. The next simple alternative is have it be the whole map.
The mindscapes can be run as cutscenes with some skill checks
The BBEG is complex, but a GM just needs to prep.
1) Sage Jewels. Know the jewels and what they do. If you follow what Matt Duval posted earlier (to my enquiry in fact), having them flash when their ability is used, helps. Imho only a few jewels are critical, especially the one that grants THP and the one that grants cast as a move action.
2) Position. The BBEGs abilities allow good use of the move action, but starting her on the ground makes it a "should I move or not" decision. Start her 10' or 15' in the air so she can always 5' step and carry on casting
3) AI Script. The two spells that BBEG opens with are pretty much spelt out. The GM should prep spells to be cast for at least the first 3 rounds. After that, its just trying to cast as many spells as possible per round.
Personally, maybe because I GMed low tier 4 player adjustment, malevolence felt manageable. It is also one of the most powerful abilities in her arsenal, comprising a save or die/removed from encounter while simultaneously providing a literal meatshield. Whenever any PC starts next to the BBEG (and who is not already immune to malevolence), she should always use a standard action to use malevolence in place of a spell.
If you use above, she is fairly quick to run.
With above guidelines, final fight should be comfortably in the 90min range, unless players (understandably) hang the fight to make decisions due to the sheer difficulty of it. You know, when folks flip through their chronicle sheets hoping to have some maybe lifesaver.
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Separately, Im not sure what is the perma death Paul Jackson refers to. If it is disease, Remove Disease works even if you have not concocted a cure. If its the incurable one then yeah, probably perma dead (or miracle or wish. roll eyes) Other solution is to achieve the objective and the Sages clear the condition, or you guys have time to spare to head back up to the earlier level to concoct the mix. Either way would make sense but yes, probably not an option for a party that TPKed or fled the finale.
Hmm it's more like having played a lot with strangers, counting everyone else to pull their weight and play competently is often wishful thinking. I have played with deadweights such as very low level for the tier, horribly built characters, characters built only to tank but the player never sends their character forward, high level characters who spend 2 or 3 rounds just self-buffing, etc. (If you played Salvation of Sages before, I put up a combat log that illustrates a few of these) So it is not about condescension, I just rather not lose a decent character through being saddled with inconsiderate other players. If you've never been there before, good for you! :) Means your community of players tends to be very decent folks and players.
As for killing everything when not holding back, only my damage build is capable of clearing 150 damage in one round at L10, but his saves are still subpar. My others tend lurk behind the frontline, but they can do about 30-50-80 points of damage per round at L5-L7-L9, which is pretty midline. It frankly isn't enough against to drop the most dangerous stuff in one go, but since someone else is the frontline, thats hopefully enough time bought to neutralize the threat. There's also some practical aspect to delaying, since my ammo / flasks use up gold.
When I play with my regular group of friends though, we tend to know what each others characters are about and play to each other's strengths. It is not so much about holding back, more delaying for an inclusive strategy. Since most of my new characters are rather midline damage dealers, for pure damage I also defer to them to deal the bulk of it. Some of my friends use lockdown builds or AoEs, thus letting them do their stuff and picking off what remains is just about optimal play.
It was more meant as a joke, sorry it wasn't very clear. I take it easy even if I hate not optimizing my PCs.
My more serious reasoning : I always want to have a high power just in case, rather than being only average. The latter is fine but when facing a hard fight, the difference is really felt. But the only red flag would be of not meaningfully contributing to the adventure, but in the way they can, or being directed to play in some way. Unless what a player does is completely wrong, he/she should play as self seen fit.
Yup, better safe than sorry. Not optimizing feels a little icky and a little irresponsible to me.
My first PFS character is a straight damage build, but now I rather characters with above average skills and the ability to contribute in at least one hard fight (though usually more). Usually prefer to take things easy unless required. Throwing some knowledges and buffs around helps give impression of doing stuff without other players feeling youre holding back too much, gives newer players chance to shine. But when s*** hits the fan, always be able to go all out to make those enemies regret they crossed the Pathfinders.
Yeah, I never use any of those for PFS, including B tactics change. Only for homebrew.
Changing of tactics is absolutely permitted, the bar for tactics being invalidated is not defined anywhere nor would I want it to be.
Maybe in my community I've just heard too many instances of (probably just 1 or 2) GMs breaking tactics resulting in a TPK, or sole survivor flees. Disobeying morale tactics can also result in end of scenario encounter stacking.
One scenario has a relatively early encounter with an enemy with Dominate supernatural ability. After my group cleared the scenario, our GM recounted how in a 4 player game, a "killer GM" used the Dominate to start the fight, then immediately fled. As players hesitated whether to take out the dominated character while coping with other enemies, the dominated character fled the field (and rejoined the enemy for an auto offscreen kill). End of that scenario, he had the enemy from the early battle join up with the final boss and company, resulting in 2 more characters being dominated, and the last guy (my GM) fled, leaving 2 dominated characters to also be killed offscreen. This is a season 0 or 1 tier 7-11 scenario, some of you might know what Im talking about.
One of my other friends likes to use incorporeal attacks from within walls. I understand he TPKed a high level party in an AP using an incorporeal creature within the ground which had multiple dice of touch negative energy damage (probably to tune of Xd6 or Xd8) to *heal* an undead boss round after round, so he simply outlasted the players and killed everyone.
Thus I am generally wary of breaking tactics, unless it doesn't make sense or cannot be done, eg a babau that cannot attack with its spear because said spear has been sundered by the players.
"Hard mode" is acceptable if your players are agreeable and they trust you enough as a fair GM to let you run "hard mode".
Some adventures are hard and some adventures are easy, thats normal. I make it a point to try not to kill players during my games, but I also roll dice openly and have come close to killing players, due to untimely crits. So far no kills yet though, yay! (Yes Im proud of it, sue me lol)
Anyway, how to challenge optimized, well built (but hopefully not broken) characters.
Running "hard mode" by modifying a scenario, I suppose you should ask your players if theyre alright with death, sometimes by rather nefarious means especially if tactics are broken. In theory, all players should consent before doing so, so discuss each item below before running such a game. Whatsapp or any chat app works well.
A rough checklist of "are you ok with"
A) your char getting killed, even by underhanded means?
B) tactics for enemies being changed to whatever GM decides?
C) feats for enemies being changed?
D) spells/items for enemies being changed?
E) 1 class dip adjustment for bosses ? And/or Template?
F) using underhanded tactics aimed only at winning?
G) killed without being able to Raise Dead?
This should be a straight out harder set up, but its also worth to respect if players agree to all except some items. It is most efficient for a regular group that plays together and everyone has the same understanding and cracks their brains consistently to build good characters. Anyway, individual items in detail.
C) Feats
Power Attack and Furious Focus for most mobs. Combat Reflexes whers appropriate.
For spellcasters add Toughness, Combat Casting, Metamagic feats, Spell Focus / Spell Specialization.
Quicken Channel for negative channellers.
If your players often do it, take Eschew Materials, and be sure to still carry your spell material pouch.
Most scenarios dont have enemy summoners, but if they do make sure they have std action summons. Acadamae Graduate, Sacred Summons, or are Unchained Summoners.
D) Spells / Items
Self explanatory, but you can include counters of hard counters. All boss casters should have a lesser Talisman of Freedom, among other things, and maybe a precast Contingency to counter status/feeblemind etc.
Some caster should have prebuffs on. Scrolls are great too, esp Fly.
Firewall is an exceptionally lovely spell, but not for damage. Place it over actual deadly terrain (like lava) and watch folks melt.
E) Simple Templates/ ClassDip
Good templates are Simple Advanced. Fiendish template is good to counter blaster classes.
For bosses with not enough activations or prone to lockdown, look up Dual Initiative mythic template. Enjoy.
A arguable template is a "Race" followed by a free racial feat. This can be potentially brutal if done right (see Underhanded)
Note this is class dip because turning an L10 caster to L11 is a different ballgame altogether. Some good dips are
- Gunslinger Mysterious Stranger. Self explanatory and deadly buff for an archer with charisma.
- Warpriest for wpn focus and blessing of air for archer with wisdom
- Monk Far Strike for throwing enemies
- Swashbuckler for Parry & Riposte and Finesse
- Sorcerer Crossblooded for blaster casters. This can be a literal save or die.
- Diviner Wizard for anti-surprise round and prebuff mage armor, shield. Use the free roll for saves or aiming touch spells.
- Cleric with Travel Domain
- Barbarian for beatstick. It works well with many creatures too, from Purple Worms to Ghasts.
- Bloodrager Urban for archers. Barbarian Savage Technologist can also up damage and attack i think for ranged.
- Paladin/ Antipaladin for Smite.
- Magus Esoteric for L1 Spellstrike and Spellcombat on unarmed strikers
- Witch for a hex or two, good on flying enemies that harry the action on the ground
- Unbreakable Fighter is good for Diehard prerequisite with feat alteration
- Ranger for Favored Enemy
F) Underhanded Tactics
Flyby Attack and incorporeal can be exceptionally nasty. Poke a finger out of the ground and fly away. Incorporeal casters are even worse, arguably cast spells from inside total cover, stick a finger out to release, then back in stone.
Flyby works for any standard action so you can fly, toss a medium or long range spell then manuever and fly away. Ennervation is a deadly spell after a few rounds of spams (yes its from a scenario)
Use Greater Invisibility and backstab away. You can look up an enemy called Lurker in the Light for details.
Invisibility against a party with no counter and doing non offensive annoying spells like Grease, and Summons, or buffing allies also works.
Party full of Ifrits with Firesight and Obscuring Mist using smokestick focus will be bad.
Tieflings with Darkness also work. Or Deeper Darkness with Fiend Sight x2.
Possibilities are endless. Pathfinder is a game of counters, so it is probable you can counter anything your players have. At any given time, probably not more than 1 or 2 players can counter your underhanded tactics, so taking those out means you have "won". Try your best not to metagame too much against players. Alternatively its good to give some retreat room, or establish a pattern, or just let up with the annoying stuff once party is suitably "challenged"
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Sometimes another way to run it is with enjoyment in mind.
Start the session by checking if players (ideally a regular group that knows you, each other and the game) are all right if you up the difficulty of one (max two usually, unless you have a lot of time) battle, with the understanding that if need be (say a TPK or unexpected deaths), you will let them have a go again at the original battle, or provide some extra resources / free Raise Dead etc if need be. Raise Dead is usually most naturally provided for at the end of a scenario.
Then just try out the above. Quite a few of tough fights are potential TPKs with some of above adjustments. This would be more immersive and less warning given, but can also be more stressful for players who dont enjoy life on the edge (but then they shouldnt care about being challenged... right?)
The other approach is the flip side. After they beat the fight (or even whole scenario) and there's time to spare, let them do one of the battles again with your modifications. Win or lose, no stress, everyone just have fun, and you get to show how effortless it is to make something manageable nasty.
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Heres also a list of "Hard" scenarios that I know of and you can try running :
Dalsine Affair 1-7
In Wraths Shadow 3-7
Storming the Diamond Gate 3-7
Beyond the Azlant Ridge 3-7
Tome of Righteous Repose 3-7
Fortunes Blight 5-9
*Weapon in the Rift 5-9
Cairn of Shadows 5-9
*The Sealed Gate 7-11
*The Waking Rune 7-11
Return to Sky 7-11
Echoes of Everwar 3 : Terror at Thistledown
Rats of the Round Mountain I 7-11
Elven Entanglement 7-11
Feast of Sigils 7-11
Beacon Below 7-11
Salvation of Sages 7-11
( and quite a few season 9 games i heard )
* - scenarios with an explicitly stated hard mode
Tome of Righteous Repose deserves some special mention here:
- All At Once : Youre technically allowed to throw the entire scenario's combat encounters against the party at once. In the right part of the dungeon, this is a wipe or near wipe, and it can be quite difficult, unless your party is summon based and can pull out all stops go keep the enemies entertained. I usually send two of the combats at one time then wrap up.
- Tailoring : Tome of Righteous Repose is practically a bestiary for its tier. If you know every character before hand and specifically pick enemies for their weaknesses (eg wpn immune swarm for an all gunslinger party), youre virtually guaranteed "challenge", if not a TPK. Pathfinder is a game of hard counters, so tread lightly and try to let at least 1 guy be able to do something, or use a soft counter (eg deeper darkness and high touch AC against a gunslinger). Personally I always roll randomly and keep a screen shot or photo of my roll. If they die Im prepared to show, it was random.
In the end, we are all players, GM included, to have fun together and not at each other's expense. Whatever you do, if your players are with you and enjoying themselves, thats what counts. Everything else, the scenario, the chronicle sheet, the entire rules, are just tools. Find like minded friends and keep the trust while the heat is up.
Yes Matt, that is a great help! So quickly too, right before my run of the scenario tomorrow (at low tier). Thank you very much for your replies.
Looks exactly as written for post finale development, though I feel a lil bad for not Spoilering my post too. I had suspected as an enemy who casts with a move action, she would probably not move to use Malevolence, unless an enemy comes adjacent to her.
Compliments are already on the review so wont add more here lol.
Matt Duval wrote:
I'm very interested in any feedback about the difficulty of the final encounter and thoughts on challenging higher level PCs. I went through several iterations of the final spell selection and the composition of that last encounter and I'd love to hear what did and didn't work. Please feel free to PM me if it's off topic for this thread. Thank you!
Played at High Tier, so here was how it went in some detail. I was fortunate that the GM is a good friend of mine and he provided more detail.
Prior to combat, the two deadweights didn't pay attention and insisted on directly making checks instead of assisting or doing nothing, even though GM repeated right before they rolled. They also both knew (if they were paying attention, but they might not have been) that skill check DCs were very high for the scenario. Consequently we started combat with 63 points of damage, which significantly affected the combat.
( checking with GM, understand we took 25d6 damage from 5 failures at -5, and 4 of them were caused by deadweights. He handwaved some damage as he felt it would be a cheap TPK, and didnt want to punish players who brought actual characters with death through no fault of their own whatsoever, caused by players with very little to lose )
Note that we had no negative levels on us, and Tahari started 10' above ground. GM ruled Tahonikepsu's jewel was difficult to reach, 10' above ground (since she's huge and presumably upright) thus we can't simply walk next to her and enter it.
Round 1
Moving on, Skillmonkey fired on Ermias the Graveknight then MainDPS bladed dash and finished him off. OffDPS self-healed using earlier scroll of heal and repositioned to benefit from Summoner's Haste.
Tahari 1st turn, casted
- Dazing Flaming Sphere successfully dazed Eidolon
- Quickened Glitterdust. SkillMonkey and Summoner passed, Fighter and Eidolon failed
- Cloudkill on the cluster. Skillmonkey Fighter passed, Eidolon failed
Then she 5' step onto ledge next to her position.
Tahonikepsu used Breath weapon, mostly on fellow sages and MainDPS made his save.
Summoner cast Haste on allies nearby and retreated back 10 squares or so. Magus quicken vanish and fly hex. Deadweights did nothing (fighter stumbled around blindly for most part, kineticist missed firing in Tahari for 2 rounds)
Round 2
Skillmonkey freed Sinuhotep, who was nearest to him, from Mindscape. MainDPS scaled the wall to Tahari, provoked OA (17 damage Tahonikepsu) from Tahari where he riposted and beat on her.
OffDPS rode forward and full attacked, 3 bullets landed but half damage as usual. We failed to clear 100 damage but had no idea we were failing.
Tahari 2nd turn, casted
- Either Malevolence or Suffocation. I recall MainDPS made a save. Then Tahari 5' step into the air.
- Sirocco. MainDPS passed his save, thus remained up, became fatigued
- Quickened Ray of Enfeeblement. MainDPS lost some Str
Note that dazed Eidolon was still in Cloudkill and eating Flaming Sphere after it rolled back, thus died / returned to home plane.
Tahonikepsu engaged with a claw attack on Skillmonkey. ( Div did not spawn, maybe GM fiat treating as 4 player adjustment after the 2 deadweights screwed us so bigtime )
Summoner summoned 2 Bralani Azatas who shot lightning at Tahari. Magus buffed more and repositioned to get closer to Tahari, drew Wand of Bladed Dash. Deadweights flailed/failed.
I think Sinuhotep dispelled Tahari's defensive spell - maybe Shield or Mage Armor - Im not sure.
Round 3
Skillmonkey freed Amenopheus, MainDPS 5' step and carried on pounding on Tahari. OffDPS rode again and full attacked with 4 shots, better position with less penalties and most connected. We took out her 100 THPs between us and maybe dealt some actual damage.
Tahari 3rd turn
- Either Malevolence or Suffocation. I recall MainDPS made a save. Then Tahari 5' step into the air, once more she's 10' above ground
- Circle of Death. Deadweights died, good riddance. 1 Bralani was caught and also poofed.
Tahonikepsu recharged breath (probably GM discretion to compensate for Div absence) and released, killing Skillmonkey.
Summoner delayed for remaining Bralani to cast lightning, then resummoned another 2 more bralanis for 3 lightnings all in all on Tahari. Magus finally decided to wake up his idea, bladed dash forward activating his touch melee attack abilities, and (I estimate) just barely managed to burn through her HP!
Victory!
Estimated HP left
L11 Magus11 : 31 HP
L11 Monk1 Swash1 Magus9 (MainDPS) : 20 HP
L11 APG Summoner11 with Pounce Eidolon : 40+ HP
L10 Gunslinger5 Wizard1 InvestigatorEmpiricist2 Bard2 (Skill Monkey) : DEAD
L9 Paladin2 Gunslinger1 with 6 other dips (Off DPS) : 3 HP (if I didnt cast Heal with Scroll. And if I had not upgraded my Belt to add Con, i would be dead.)
L7 Fighter (deadweight1) : DEAD
L7 Pregen Kineticist (deadweight2) : DEAD
Thoughts - wonderful last fight, amazing feel to it. I thought her spell selection was really quite cool, how it was not straight out kill kill kill (although Malevolence is pretty much an instant death). It fit the mood very well. That said, without the HP damage and lack of buffs, it might have been less thrilling.
Some personal, subjective thoughts on what worked and what did not.
Spoiler:
HITS
- Dazing Flaming Sphere is great. If she starts to pace her spells out, or lose move action cast, I think it would be awesome to move it around and lol
- Glitterdust is great, especially if used later as enemies close in
- Sirocco is best used as an opening knock down. The delay due to tactics saying she uses Cloudkill and Flaming Sphere misses an opportunity, but I think thats fine given the challenge of the fight. Perhaps let players head up a bottle neck to reach her, Sirocco and fly away.
MISSES
- Contagion : not sure how this would work out, but I guess it would just be irritating at best. It doesnt even stop the spell from going off. However it is thematically perfect, so thats great
- Suffocation: seems almost strictly subpar to Malevolence, except for its range. I may try it more today's game and see how it goes
- Enervation might be better if i could catch folks flatfooted, which shouldnt be too hard with Cloudkill. Her attack bonus is dismal, albeit understandably so
- Howling Agony : no surprise this is here. Still, great fluff! Awesome match.
- Slow should be theoretically great, but so far Haste is far and away the most common L3 spell Ive seen in play. I may try it later against a party that has no real spellcasters
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Btw, the scenario brings up an interesting question - could it be the scars/burns are not due to someone cursing Torch, but his decision to leave them there as a constant reminder of his own failure (and also to conceal his former face)?
Aryana Tahari is not the first spellcasting ghost, nor will be the last. However, she is probably the most powerful of them all, and perhaps capable of casting more spells per round than even a Runelord. The burning question in my mind though is, can such spellcasters cast spells while entirely inside a wall and benefitting from total cover?
From http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary/universalMonsterRules.html
Quote:
An incorporeal creature can enter or pass through solid objects, but must remain adjacent to the object's exterior, and so cannot pass entirely through an object whose space is larger than its own. It can sense the presence of creatures or objects within a square adjacent to its current location, but enemies have total concealment (50% miss chance) from an incorporeal creature that is inside an object. In order to see beyond the object it is in and attack normally, the incorporeal creature must emerge. An incorporeal creature inside an object has total cover, but when it attacks a creature outside the object it only has cover, so a creature outside with a readied action could strike at it as it attacks. An incorporeal creature cannot pass through a force effect.
The section seems to imply that the incorporeal caster can in fact stand within the total cover and attack with its spells, especially those such as Cloudkill and Flaming Sphere, neither which are affected by the total concealment an incorporeal suffers from being within a wall. Since only a readied action allows an attack (penalized by cover), it is also implied that after the attack is resolved, the ghost returns into the total cover, similar to sticking a finger out and releasing a spell.
In any case starting in the open, taking note of all the enemies' positions then 5' stepping into total cover would suffice, and the next round use Life Sight to get a tab on who is where within 20'.
Meantime, the incorporeal caster would safely be in total cover and utterly immune to all but ready action attacks. If it doesn't use its move action to cast spells, it can also hide with ease elsewhere, such as attacking from the top of balconies, or from within its Cloudkill where readying an action would not detect it until the spell has been released. Even without gaining THP every round from the Diamond jewel, based on the map, this is virtually guaranteed to drag the combat on.
While I have absolutely no intention of using such tactics (nor did I use them when running other scenarios with incorporeal spellcasters), I was wondering, is this rule interpretation correct? If the interpretation is reasonable, is this the intention when facing off Aryana Tahari?
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2. Severing All Connections
Separately, from pdf
"After the PCs defeat Aryana Tahari, her ghost disintegrates and her pendant falls to the ground. Any sages still under her influence slowly awaken. If Tahari retained a connection to any sage jewel, it anchors her spirit to this chamber to later rejuvenate. If the Pathfinders severed all her connections through the mindscapes, Ahriman snatches her freed spirit and drags it to Abaddon."
If a party were to free 1 sage jewel per round for 6 rounds, it seems unlikely (but possible) that Aryana would still be above 0 HP, unless afore-mentioned total cover tactic was used, or simply 1-2 successful uses of Malevolence.
Is it the intention that if all 6 connections were severed, Aryana is simply automatically dragged off to Abbadon? Or would the players still have to reduce her to 0 HP, including defeating (and probably killing) whoever she inhabits via Magic Jar?
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3. What each Jewel does
Separately, is there any skill check the characters can make to determine what Jewels give her what benefits? The most powerful benefits in my mind are cast as a Move action and THPs. Being able to figure out which is which - and that she even has THPs! - would be critical for an average party.
Is it supposed to be discoverable via skill checks or just kept silent? I can imagine parties that deal less than 100 damage (after some casualties) might eventually wear out and perish.
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4. If some/all Sages Die
"If the PCs saved every sage jewel, the sages are elated, and Tahonikepsu commissions a sculpture for the sages’ sanctum to commemorate for all time the Pathfinders’ role in the salvation of the order. The faction pools its resources to restore the PCs to full health (removing any conditions and restoring dead PCs to life), and each PC receives the Savior of Knowledge boon."
Is this outcome contingent on zero sages dying / reduced to 0 HP? This seems unlikely if aforesaid stalling tactics were applied, and if the party failed a few checks by more than 5, exceptionally likely at high tier where the DCs are extraordinary.
If the above positive outcome is not negated by the death of some sages (notably those with less HP), what if all the sages were to die? It would be a real stretch for Tahonikepsu to lose 212 HP, but i can see it happening if some player's bright idea is to take out the big threat, especially if he/she doesnt have ghost touch, cant reach/find Tahari, and otherwise feels it is more optimal to simply take Tahonikepsu out of the equation.
The flip argument would be that if all the jewels survived, by definition Sinuhotep would have survived, and after he returns the above positive outcome then plays out. That seems quite a stretch though.
Just the 2 3 4 5 star GMs who are apparently no longer valued customers, volunteers and players.
Eh, lets not turn this into this sort of conversation. I get that you are feeling ignored and devalued. But we don't know what the bug is, why its happening, or the problems they are having fixing it.
To most companies, bottom-line matters. Those keeping Organized Play going, buying Scenarios APs and New PDFs etc help keep money flowing into Paizo. I dont even spend barely a fraction of what my two 4* GM friends do lol.
They are probably part of the maybe 10-20% customer base that accounts for maybe 80-90% of the companies' B2C sales.
So Paizo really should be looking at supporting them and keeping them happy.
That said, they are both currently quite happily into Starfinder (and Im not haha) and not keen on carrying on meaningfully with playing PFS, and definitely not while their 100-200+ credits over 40-50+ characters are a pain to sort out.
It could actually be a plan to guide us all over into Starfinder too.
So no (real) sarcasm meant, it might be part of a plan to try and focus on a new product line.
Meantime, lets try this again for the Moderators and Paizo Staff reading this, if any.
They (especially the 4-5 star GMs, including you Tallow) are probably part of the maybe 10-20% customer base that accounts for maybe 80-90% of the companies' B2C sales.
So Paizo really should be looking at supporting them and keeping them happy.
Yes they apparently think its the same issue since moderator locked up other thread. Been a good while and all of zero progress.
On the bright side it doesnt really affect most folks who dont GM much. Just the 2 3 4 5 star GMs who are apparently no longer valued customers, volunteers and players.
Checked on my account and with some friends. We are not missing GM credit (at least based on XX tables of Credit) and it shows up under GM sessions. Main issue is not appearing under Character Sessions, so most characters are missing XP.
One of my friends is a 4* with 200+ tables of GM credit and 50 over characters. He told me until the problem is fixed he will prob just run games and play 1-5 tier games.
I'll be doing some investigation on this shortly. Unfortunately I'll be out of the office until early next week, but once I'm back I'll try and ramp up on this in full. I just wanted to let everyone know that this is on my radar and I'll be looking into it as soon as physically possible. I have a pretty good idea of what might be causing it.
Not sure if others are facing this problem after the website maintenance. Now on my Pathfinder characters, when I click Sessions button, all the Sessions where I served as GM are completely missing / not visible.
I understand that this problem may not affect most players much, but for those of us that GM a lot (sometimes more than we play), it would help a lot to be able to keep track of which characters we applied GM Sessions chronicle sheets to.
Anyone else have this problem, and could it be resolved? Thank you in advance.
Is a bonus spell considered part of the class' spell list, if the spell has not yet been learnt?
Specifically I am considering whether to purchase for an L1 Oracle with Heavens Mystery either Wand of Color Spray or Page of Spell Knowledge for Color Spray.
Hi All, I was searching around for answers but have not managed to find one. It seems Imbicatus posed a question about it on the Vigilante blog post here but there's no reply.
My question is same as Imbicatus' : what are the retraining synergies for Vigilante?
Currently I have an L4 Swashbuckler1 Bloodrager1 Vigilante2 character who is a tripping whip specialist, and taking 2 levels of Fighter (Lore Warden) would really help with the Combat Reflexes & Improved Whip Mastery at L5 followed by Combat Expertise and Greater Trip at L6.
However, long term I intend to retrain her back to be a Vigilante to get Hide in Plain Sight by Level 9 or Level 10. I may need to store PP for when the time comes to retrain, hence would like to know what are the retraining synergies for Vigilante.
If in case it comes up, I'm also curious if the synergies differ for different Vigilantes. For example, the Avenger seems closer to a Fighter, while the Stalker seems closer to a Rogue.
This question came up when I was theorycrafting an Unchained Summoner for Pathfinder Society play.
I was looking at an Azata Eidolon that wields weapons with multiple limbs (Marilith style! Lol ) and using Multiweapon Fighting in place of Two Weapon Fighting.
A kind friend pointed out to me that Multiweapon Fighting is from Pathfinder RPG Bestiary which is not listed under Additional Resources for society play, and we agreed it was best to come here to clarify.
For Easy Reference
Under Unchained Eidolon, it indicates
"Feats: This is the total number of feats possessed by an eidolon. Eidolons can select any feat they qualify for, but they must possess the appropriate appendages to use some feats. Eidolon feats are set once chosen, even if the creature changes when the summoner gains a new level. If, due to such changes, the eidolon no longer qualifies for a feat, the feat has no effect until the eidolon once again qualifies for the feat."
Multiweapon Fighting states
"Special: This feat replaces the Two-Weapon Fighting feat for creatures with more than two arms."
Also, an Unchained Eidolon may gain Multiattack as a bonus feat at L10, and this feat is likewise is from the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary.
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Bearing the above in mind, would like to check if Multiweapon Fighting is legal for PFS play on a many limbed Eidolon?
