The golem is very dangerous but can be managed by triggering its slow and staying away from it as much as possible.
The encounter with 4 lesser deaths is much more dangerous as those things are way under levelled.
In general this part has several sections which can disrupt the entire adventure given its all happening in a very short time period. Instant death effects are a pretty terrible idea when the group is stuck at a party and its a bit weird to have them pop off and try and find someone to raise a dead ally mid party.
There are several other massively debilitating to game ending effects in the adventure as well.
No, I dont believe so but the rules are relatively light on the issue.
CRB pg 304 wrote:
Spells with a range can affect targets, create areas, or make things appear only within that range. Most spell ranges are measured in feet, though some can stretch over miles, reach anywhere on the planet, or go even farther!
I know this is an old thread, but does anyone who ran this remember roughly how long it took?
Several posts say 5 hours, a few say 7. But anyone else who remembers, I would love to know.
This one very much varies based on how effective your group is. I would generally recommend avoiding running the optional encounter unless your group is very well coordinated.
My impulse is to say yes, since it's not like Enduring Armor is very strong for a Path Ability, but I've a bit of a headache and don't want to look up the RAW.
Personally I would say no as enduring armour at this level is already equivalent to +4 full plate. However, if you are prepared to allow it I wont complain. It does make unarmoured combatants exceptionally tanky.
For my next question, how much are we keeping secret from the other players? I mean in terms of build. Will we at least know the classes of everyone else? What about the archetypes? The feats? Knowledge is key here, and I have a few ideas that depend on how much everyone else knows!
I have a complete build which I will share with the GM. The Archive is an Aasimar Lore Oracle (Enlightened Philosopher) Hierophant|Archmage.
I wouldnt want to share specifics of feats and spells but happy to share the overarching concept. The Archive is the repository of all knowledge. It has max ranks in all knowledge skills, the ability to take 20 on them and can comfortably reach an 80+ on any knowledge check.
That's pretty typical for haunts. It takes time, skill, and luck to confront them directly to disable them with skill checks. That's to encourage players to explore the narrative around the haunt and not just smash through them.
Having run an awful lot of 2E, no it isn't, or at least not to this level. Putting in level 20 DCs for level 11 PCs is just flat out ignoring your entire system.
The Archive was brought into being in a previous reality by the gods of Order. It was sent to the prime material plane to provide guidance, education and support to the newly risen mortal races and bring them to enlightenment and civilisation. For thousands of years it ushered humans, elves, dwarves and others out of darkness, raising empires of light, hope and justice. However, entropy is an insidious thing and each time an empire rose it would, inevitably fall.
In time, the Archive came to believe that mortal races were inherently corrupt, incapable of achieving enlightenment on their own. It rebelled against its own makers and formed a plan. It would end this reality and forge the next reality in its own image. Mortals don't need guidance, they need an iron fist directing their development to ensure that growth continues and that entropy is banished forever.
And so it did just what it set out to do. It sought out the darkest and most forbidden magics. It engineered the end of an entire reality, casting itself into the maelstrom to be reborn into a fresh, new world, one it can shape in its own image, free of the constraints of interfering Gods.
The Archive is an Enlightened Philosopher Oracle of Lore Heirophant|Archmage. It has a stat block which I will share with our GM if he is interested in the character.
I dont know about the combats as we are still very early in Book 1 but the DCs for the haunts were stupidly high, as in regular DC for level 20 high. It left a rather sour taste for our group.
Career Change (Limited-Use, Service): Your existing abilities have helped you achieve success in the field, but you’re overdue for a drastic change if you’re to continue succeeding in the adventures to come. Between adventures, you can check the box that precedes this boon to completely rebuild your character. Remove everything your character has purchased with gp, as well as their class, feats, skill proficiencies, and related features. You may not alter the character's ancestry, heritage or background, but you may change the ability score boosts you selected at character creation. Your character’s wealth is set to 85% of the total gold you’ve earned—this reduction represents a small amount lost from consumable use as well as items sold back for a particularly favorable rate. This rebuilding process does not change the amount of Fame, Reputation, or gp the character has earned, nor does it change the resources your character has expended on services such as spellcasting.
You can also refund any faction boons for the Fame price at which you purchased them, though you cannot sell back Limited-Use boons that you have expended or Faction Champion boons that you have used to earn Reputation for a faction.
All changes to the character must be applied by the time the character next plays an adventure; once the adventure begins, no further changes can be made with this boon.
Not yet. Most of the APs are sanctioned and they go up to 20. High level content requires a heavy body of lower level content to support it. PFS2 is still quite young, only in its third season. I expect we might see a 9-12 this year along with a couple of 7-10's.
When I played this we wanted to hire a guide, since that's strongly implied in the narrative and we had coin left over, but now I see that's not presented as an option.
So if the same question comes up when I GM I'm going to present them with 3 Hireling options (since they're Society legal and could be purchased normally anyways):
• 1sp for an Untrained Hireling (+0) who simply leads them to the swamp
• 5sp for an Expert Survival Hireling (+4) who attempts one check to Track Rain in Cloudy Day
• 1gp/day for an Expert Survival Hireling (+4) who adventures with the PCs
Hirelings are no longer available for purchase as of today, so I suppose I shall retract this suggestion.
Teleport isnt an option in this scenario as it is a level 6 spell. Dimension Door is and doesnt have the off target limitation. Of course, Dimension Door is now single target only so unless your entire group has it it's a really bad idea.
My group has started Book 3, we have just finished the first level. They befriended both the drow and the caligini. The goliath spider was a bit of a nightmare and it dragged off two of them paralysed to eat later on. The other members of the group managed to reach its lair in the ceiling and kill it before it had them for lunch.
The froghemoth is however utterly ridiculous. It is a level +5 more than extreme encounter for level 8 PCs which with improved grab and greater constrict is basically impossible to run away from. I ran the encounter and then handwaved the TPK as a disturbing, haunting vision.
The introduction of Belcorra very early on is also very badly tuned. On the first encounter she dropped 3 of 4 PCs with ridiculously high DC level 6 phantasmal calamity. She then withdrew, as per her tactics, which makes basically no sense. I have since decided to not run any of the other attacks at least until the group reaches near the end of the second part.
I am busy preparing this to run at Gencon. The scenario has the Repeatable tag in the PDF but doesnt seem to have any variable elements. Am I missing something?
These changes are really disappointing. Personally I have no interest in bounties and the one shots are not particularly engaging either, being divorced from Society content. They may be sanctioned but they dont offer PFS reputation.
I dont particularly see the basis for this change at all.
Sneak attack is defined in the monster ability section of Bestiary 1 at page 344.
Quote:
Sneak Attack When the monster Strikes a creature that has the flat-footed condition with an agile or finesse melee weapon, an agile or finesse unarmed attack, or a ranged weapon attack, it also deals the listed precision damage. For a ranged attack with a thrown weapon, that weapon must also be an agile or finesse weapon.
You really want to include level 5 command as one of the best multi target control spells. It targets up to 10 enemies and can deny enemies multiple actions. If you have party members with AoO it is even better.
As written the ritual requires a PC to critically succeed and for no-one to fail. If anyone fails and no-one critically passes the ritual fails. If PCs only succeed the ritual fails. I think this was written with the assumption that success gave a benefit and fail didnt give a penalty but that isnt the case. Alternatively, the primary DC may have been mislabelled.
--
Yeah. I adjudicated this based on the "possible results" written on page 5; I understood them to supersede the normal ritual rules. That's how I ran it, at least:
Page 5 wrote:
If a PC critically succeeds and no PCs fail, the ritual’s result is a critical success. If a PC critically fails and no PC critically succeeds, the ritual is failure. All other outcomes result in a success.
With no chance to use Hero Points on the ritual, this doesn't seem like the best moment to go beyond what the scenario itself presents.
My only issue with that is that the scenario explicitly states that it uses the rules for rituals in the CRB.
Page 5 wrote:
This section uses the rules for rituals from page 408 of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook
It then gets those rules wrong based on the numbers it gives us.
Hey, I have been reading through the book and the devil Urevian who wants Carman Rajani's soul says that he has committed murder in his past. But reading about Carman in the toolbox section of the book, there is nothing about him murdering anyone. Is the devil just saying it to make it easier for the players to take the deal, or did I miss something about Carman somewhere in the book?
My group didnt want to take the deal and so tried to fight him. Unfortunately he split the party with Wall of Force and their fighter was trapped with him and bleeding to death with a very unpleasant infernal wound. The ended up having to make a deal or lose their fighter which none of them were happy about but that's devils for you.
I have played this and am now starting to prep it. I will flag up issues as I come across them.
The suggested results for the ritual at the start are entirely wrong. As written Dolok gets a 30 or a 32. These are both failing checks against DCs of 32 and 34. The use of secondary casters in rituals is awful as you need to critically succeed in order to provide any benefit. A failure imposes a -4.
As written the ritual requires a PC to critically succeed and for no-one to fail. If anyone fails and no-one critically passes the ritual fails. If PCs only succeed the ritual fails. I think this was written with the assumption that success gave a benefit and fail didnt give a penalty but that isnt the case. Alternatively, the primary DC may have been mislabelled.
As written there is no way for the PCs to critically succeed at the ritual and they need at least 1 crit success to pass.
In the final encounter the first CP adjustment has the Disciple using a levdel 3 and two level 2 spell slots however all of the spells it casts are 2nd level. Is it supposed to cast level 4 silence on Dreng? It doesnt actually have silence at level 2.
It might have been easier just to note that all of the CP adjusts for the last encounter are actually cumulative.
The Invidiak lacks a spell attack modifier despite having telekinetic projectile as a spell. This is a Bestiary error. Most monsters tend to have spell attacks 8 lower than their DCs.
Also, precision ranger will work absolutely fine. While there are some precision immune enemies they are by no means ubiquitous. I wouldn't say they were any more common than in any other AP.
We have a rogue in our group and he is doing absolutely fine even though he is a mastermind. Gang up has solved most of his issues.
This is actually in the 1e Season 10 Guide at page 20. It isnt a carte blanche to pay for any consumable though.
Quote:
In Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild play, you can never buy, sell, or trade items with another player, but you may allow another player to borrow an item for the duration of an adventure. Characters may also expend consumables on behalf of their party members. Players are permitted
to spend character gold to help a party member purchase spellcasting services such as raise dead or remove disease. This includes pooling money to buy breath of life or raise dead scrolls or potions for use in the game.
If the PCs buy an item using pooled money that they do not use during the adventure, one PC may purchase the item at the end of the adventure, paying the item’s full cost. If no PC wants to purchase the item, the PCs must sell the item back for half value, reimbursing each PC for half of what she paid into the pool.
&{template:rolls} {{header=Ensnaring Roots }} {{desc=**Area** 20' cone
**Save** DC20 Reflex
**Success** The creature is flat footed until the start of its next turn
**Failure** The creature falls prone
**Critical Failure** As failure plus [[1d6]] B damage
}}
High tier are the same just with adjusted attack, damage and saves numbers.
Many items and other game elements can be purchased using Achievement Points which you get every time you play or run a game. You can find those on the Boons tab in the Organised Play section of your My Account. Some are free (the Wayfinder boon), most have a cost.
I believe the Stiletto Pen is available using the Grand Archive gear boon.
I recently had a group in tier 5-6 with no easy means to reveal an invisible attacker who did not become visible on attacking. Scrolls of faerie fire are 12gp, allow no save and the effect lasts 5 minutes. I strongly recommend picking some up.
The Haunt does bleed damage which is a type of persistent damage. Its dealt with in the damage types section on page 452.
Quote:
Bleed Damage
Another special type of physical damage is bleed damage. This is persistent damage that represents loss of blood. As such, it has no effect on nonliving creatures or living creatures that don’t need blood to live. Weaknesses and resistances to physical damage apply. Bleed damage ends
automatically if you’re healed to your full Hit Points.
The issue you run into is if none of your PCs are injured Bleed damage is supposed to end once you are back to full HP. As written, the bleed will do nothing to fully healed characters.
When I ran it I enforced an initial damage roll and then applied the rule about removing bleed damage at full HP.
