andreww's page

I am trying to register to run Passing the Torch but it is forcing me to also pick a PF1 module for some reason.

I would consider switching to use the Roc as a companion. It is fast, it can move you and you can still take full attacks, it can grapple eneies who you can then shoot and that reduces their AC rather than tripping which makes them harder to hit, it has great AC and you can ignore cover either by shooting while flying above enemies or by being up in melee with it grappling and you shooting.

I would also strongly recommend getting Improved Spell Sharing. It is a huge boon to your action economy and makes your companion even stronger. Sharing divinne favour, shield of faith, resist energy, see invis and the like makes your limited spell slots go a lot further.

Tripping enemies as an archer seems rather self defeating given you will be imposing a -4 penalty on your attacks. The control element can be decent but CMDs rise fairly fast and lots of things are also immune to being tripped.

If you want to be truly SAD then take the Lore Mystery and turn all of your knowledge skills into Charisma based as well. That allows the circlet of persuasion to add to them. Lore also has a few more interesting revelations to take although you dont get access to an animal companion.

Whichever you do Dex is doing very little for you, I would dump it to 7.

Also look through the AP chonicles. Lots of them have segments which give experience at level 16+.

I believe it is 2xp and 2pp.

That looks like an assumption on the part of Archives. The write up in War for the Crown 2 specifies no item slot.

If you are looking at these for PFS bear in mind there is a campaign clarification which specifies they must be used as components rather than foci.

Virtually everything to do with the rogues in their tactics as I recall.

From yesterdays game. the group is exploring an ancient crypt. They are surprised by a group of enemies. The whole area goes dark, all of their light sources go out, only a couple of people have darkvision.

The human wizard's turn comes up.

Wizard: I pull out my scroll of daylight and read it
Me: In the dark
Wizad: Yes
Me: That you cannot see in
Wizard: Yes. Oh, er...I hand it to the gnome with darkvision.
Rest of the Group: Is Int the wizards primary stat?

Related question: the group looks like it will be 5 or possibly 6, but no real healing capacity. Possibly no divine caster at all. Otherwise it seems pretty balanced though there’s still some uncertainty about who is bringing what. Any thoughts about this?

If they are even moderately competent it is likely to be a cake walk. Eyes was written for four players and there is no scope to increase the challenge if you have more.

Given it is season 1/2 the opposition is often rather lacking. There are a couple of encounters in the entire run which remain potentially challenging but that fades very fast as you add more players.

You also need to be careful in your prep. Some of the rules issues in there (particularly part 1) are stright up wrong.

CRB Barbarian, taking only barbarian levels, is tricky. There are multiple different ways you could go but I would probably recommend one of the following:

1. Two handed weapon face smasher. Pick up a falchion, grab improved critical or make it keen, fish for crits to proc stunning critical wbich significantly limits enemy options.

2. Two handed reach weapon face smaher. Much the same as above but mix in combat reflexes. Crit fishing is harder as all the CRB reach weapons only threaten on a 20.

3. Two weapon fighting blender, make use of those extra rage stat boosts to up your to hit rate while two weapon fighting. For extra defensive benefits do this with a sword and board set up and invest in some of the shield feats. This is very feat intensive.

Whichever route you go make sure you have something invested somewhere to do stuff out of combat. I wouldnt dump Int, have some skills that give you a way to contribute. At this level I would really want to invest in UMD for personal spell wands and lower level scrolls.

Here is a basic two weapon shield using barbarian. Stat block includes rage and power attack. I assume web enhancement traits are OK. You still have over 20k to spend on wands, scrolls, potions and backup weapons.

Being an evil mastermind requires investment in a lot of different skills, bluff, diplomacy, sense motive, various knowledge skills, maybe intimidate and stealth.

I would probably recommend going down the Int route with the Student of Philosophy trait to let you use Int instead of charisma for most uses of bluff or diplomacy that you care about. That will also ensure that you ave enough skill points to cover everything that you want.

You can still do that with sorcerer by taking the Sage wildblooded version of Arcane which switches your casting stat to Int. You can also do it with Witch, Arcanist or Wizard.

The other way to do it would be with a Kitsune sorcerer with crazily high enchantment spell DCs.

I would consider heavy armour proficiency for improved AC depending on your dex. You are going to be in up in melee and while eventually your main defence is likely to be mirror image you will want some investment to keep you alive.

Personally I like a reach weapon and combat reflexes a lot. Even with a dex of 12 or so, you dont get that many OS'a but being able to take them while still flat footed is still useful.

Eventually you may want to invest in furious focus but probably not until about level 9. Lunge is also extremely useful, especially in later levels as you encounter more large opponents and want to avoid provoking. You will be able to get around this eventually with the teleport power if you pick up conjuration at some point.

If activity like this was to occur at anything like a measurable amount, I could see Paizo simply ending 1E sanctioned play. That would not stop people from playing 1E material, but it would stop them from being offered officially at events and not providing support for them.

I was under the impression that 1e convention style support would end post the release of 2e. Are you suggesting that we can still put in requests for scenarios to be released to 1e GM's, that race boons will continue to be provided etc?

Nope, AFI is tier 12-15 soo anywhere between that works. It is the same for the other season 7+ seeker tier scenarios.

It does but I just used it to cast a spell I knew it has because it was on its memorised list. Mazing two people in the fight is relaly quite unpleasant.

For that level you are pretty much looking at Curse of the Riven Sky (levels 9-11), Emerald Spire 12 or 13 (9-11), 14 o 15 (10-12), 16 (11-13) or Feast of Dust (parts 1 or 2). There will be AP segments which count as well.

If you want to do Eyes of the Ten you must be on exactly 33xp.

Wel, I ran this low tier, core, with three players and a Kyra pregen. They managed to finish in just over three hours. Low tier really is an entirely different experience to high.

They are supposed to come out in two wavs of six at high tier but it is a giant slugfest given each of them have 90+ HP. The only saving grace is that they dont have reach so they cannot avoid being in melee range of people.

Also, their tactics dont make much sense. They are supposed to start off webbing people and then cast invisibility.

I think that in high tier the first encounter can be worse than the second. The golem is likely to go down very quickly. The duppies have lunge, flyby attack and no reason to ever stay anywhere they might take a full attack from anyone. Nearly 250hp of incorporeal enemies where for most of the time you might largely be limited to making single readied attacks makes for a grind fest.

So far I have run it twice at high tier. Both times it has run for 6+ hours. Both times I have killed someone with phantasmal killer. The first time it was a paladin.

I am due to run it in core at the end of this week.

Interested will post character details later

I plan to plane shift him somewhere obscure, mind blank him so he cannot be found then whack him in an imprisonment spell

It is from the special cosmic captive I believe.

You can purchase spellcasting services at whatever caster level you want, you are not limited to minimum. You have to pay the higher price but it is possible. Purchases made with PP are at minimum caster level.

Freedom of movement would not prevent stun in my view. It is a condition which prevents you taking any action, not just movement.

Tentacles would break invisibility but he is back in the throat of the thing so may not be in line of sight of the party.

I believe it is only on a failed check, that is how I have always run it.

Auke Teeninga wrote:

Well, AFAIK due to negative feedback on some of the early ideas John voiced during the podcast they rethought the "grinder" aspect and it's now more of a "finale".

up to 16 is confirmed.

(Also it will be run from PaizoCon to GenCon with OPC approval and after GenCon it will require RVC approval instead.)

This is all accurate. #10-98 (Tier 5–16) still packs a punch, but we dialed back the difficulty to better match participants' expectations and interests. You'll find two difficulty levels: "Soldier," which is the tough-but-fair base level, and "Champion," which is considerably tougher and roughly in line with prior scenarios' hard mode options. The story content differs somewhat between these two experiences.

Why can I only favourite this post once?

If a player is doing something you do not agree with the onus is on them to prove what they say is true not for you to disprove it. What someone said on the boards once does not count as proof unless that person is the PDT account or a member of the PFS leadership team.

Your GM is the 5 star venture captain of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, I'd be extremely surprised and disappointed if they dropped their PbP games without good reason.

Anyone in that local lodge heard anything about them? I hope they didn't get injured or anything. I wonder if Terminalmancer knows anything about it. I sent him a PM asking if his Venture Captain is ok.

GM Chie dropped off the radar in the game of Rasping Rebirth I was playing in. I ended up stepping in to take over and finish it off.

For a single target save or lose spell, if you cast it and the target saved, it's more likely a boss

Except that witin the playtest materials we have seen this isnt really true. Unless the math has changed significantly it was exceptionally common for equal level monsters to save against spells. Frankly, the only time spells seemed to contribute with much significance at all was on a critical fail and they generally only hppened on a natural 1 or encounters with lots of enemies significantly lower level than the party where you ddnt really need spells to mop them up in any event as they could barely hit any party member.

Yep, that seems absolutely fine with me.

It does leave the qustion of how it interacts with Quick Study. Quick Study says you have to reference your spellbook to use the ability. Do I need to keep them on hand to use quick study or can I swop out between the spells that I have gained access to, whether for free or with purchased access?

Same here

For prepared casters are we able to purchase access to spells at the usual rate (half the scribing cost)?

I am looking at playing an arcanist with the Quick Study exploit.

How would that interaxct with the Perfect Preparation mythic path ability? Linked to that, how does Perfect Preparation work generally? Do you still have to buy access to spells or can you simply prepare any spell in existence that is of a level you can cast?

The arcanist can prepare a spell in place of an existing spell by expending 1 point from her arcane reservoir. Using this ability is a full-round action that provokes an attack of opportunity. The arcanist must be able to reference her spellbook when using this ability. The spell prepared must be of the same level as the spell being replaced.

You have discovered the secret to preparing spells without having to refer to outside sources. You no longer need to prepare spells from a spellbook (if you’re a magus or wizard) or a familiar (if you’re a witch). You still must spend the normal amount of time preparing spells. You may keep or discard your spellbook or familiar.

Ok, here are the updated details for Amnon

Ammon: A nascent divine human of historians, spies and service
Portfolio: History, humanity, service, spies
Domains: Law, Knowledge, Protection, Community
Favored Weapon: Dagger
Symbol: A pair of eyes, one gold, one grey
Sacred Animal: Cat
Sacred Color: Gold and Grey

Obediance: Committ to a task for your liege lord, chronicle the events of the past day or copy secret documents belonging to another which you have stolen.
Benefit: Choose one skill, it is considered a class skill and you gain a number of ranks in it equal to your character level.

Divine Relationships:

Abadar: His home is in Axis and he has worked the Church of Abadar on several occasions, tracking down those who would seek to steal from the Lord of the First Vault

Iomedae: She is his patron and his lord. She rescued him from imprisonment in a fragment of the plane of shadow and he is utterly loyal to her. Some think, given his tendency for subterfuge, that he can be tempted into betraying her but so far all attempts to get him to do so have failed.

Sivanah: Amnon is a specialist in illusion based magic. He has stolen many of the secrets of her cult over time, her view of this is unknown (I am planning on taking levels of veiled illusionist)

Mammon: The archdevil of greed has called on his services to track down bad debtoors on more than a few occasions. While pragmatic he has only ever taken on tasks which involve those who have willingly sold their souls to Hell.

Dispater: He has travelled the infernal city of Dis identifying those who would betray their Lord on the basis that if the forces of Hell are fighting each other its better than them poking their noses in elsewhere. He has on occasion seeded information to the enemies of Dispater to create such problems.

Hand of the Inheritor: The Herald of Iomedae dislikes him and often makes life difficult when he attends her Court. She does not trust the fact that he has been marked by shadow.

Vevelor: The kyton demagogue of transcendance helld him prisoner for thousands of years in a collapsed demiplane hived off the plane of shadow. He very much wants revenge.

Demon Lord Deskari: He believes that deskari was in part responsible for the death of his friend Aroden, he wants him dead.

Avram: The two have a common link through Aroden.

@andreww/Ammon - Your character seems very easy to fit into a party and an adventure. He has a built-in reason to explore and quest, which is nice.

Amnon lives in Axis so certainly has a pre-existing relationship with Abadar, probably of the landlord/tenant variety. He may pay his rent in the form of various jobs for the Lord of Trade.

He is more pragmatic than his patron Iomedae (he is LN) and so has on occasion been willing to work with infernal powers when their interests have coincided. He has in the past worked with both Dispater and Mammon given their portfolios have some degree of crossover with his own.

This has made him a sometimes unwelcome visitor in the Domain of Iomedae and he and her Herald, the Hand of the Inheritor very much rub one another up the wrong way. Saint Lymirin has often acted as peacemaker between the two of them.

However he reserves his main dislike for the forces of the Abyss. In particular he has regularly skirmished with the minions of the Demon Lord Deskari and would like nothing more than to see him brought down, for good.

OK, here goes.

1. What is your character? Where are they from?
Amnon is a human from the Inner Sea, one of the first people to meet Aroden as he lead the Azlanti survivors from the collapsing empire following Earthfall. He followed Aroden for many years before he was lost in an adventure in what would eventually become Egorian. Trapped and petrified in a collapsing demiplane he was recovered and revived by Iomedae thousands of years later.

Seeing in her what he saw in Aroden he joined her cause and fought alongside her during the Shining Crusade, coming to be known as the Shadow of Iomedae. Amnon was her chronicler and historian, but also her spymaster. Even the honourable and just need knowledge of the workings of their enemy.

2. What is your character's portfolio?
History, Humanity, Service, Spies
Amnon has taken up part of the portfolio of Aroden following his death. He is the patron of chroniclers and historians but also of spies and service to ones liege lord.
Domains: Law, Knowledge, Protection, Community
Favored Weapon: Dagger
Symbol: A pair of eyes, one gold, one grey
Sacred Animal: Spider
Sacred Color: Gold and Grey

3. What does your character look like?
It is difficult to know what Amnon truly looks like as he changes appearance on a regular basis, depending on the situation. In the Courts of Kings he might appear as a wizened old sage, weighed down with tomes of knowledge. On the road he might pose as a travelling mercenary or merchant. Infiltrating the domain of a demon lord he might take the form of a babau.

4. How did your character become a demigod?
Amnon was raised to divinty by Iomedae in the years following her own exaltation.

5. Where does your character live?
Amnon has made his home in Axis, in an area known as the Empty Court, the former divine realm of Aroden. Iomedae has tasked him with trying to learn the fate of Aroden, a task to date he has singularlly failed to complete. This vexes him. However, he is rarely found here being a regular traveller of the Great Beyond.

Your Cult:

1. Where in the verse is your cult centered?.
Amnons cult is largely based in the Inner Sea region, particularly Taldor and Cheliax. His followers work to preseerve the true history of humanity whether preserving it from the chaos of Taldan civil war or from the redactions of Chelish hellknights.

2. What sorts of people worship you?
Historians, storytellers, academics and seekers after truth.

He does not have a Herald (yet).

We played in just under five hours at high tier in hard mode but we were a well organised group who knew what we were doing. I have heard of it running much longer and I have listed it for a 6 hour slot next week. It doesn't look like it is as long as the Scarab Sages one but it can definately run very long, especially at high tier.

Hilariously it has an optional encounter which I struggle to see anyone ever using.

I have never have it be an issue and I have something like 5 different spirit guide oracles who have been actively played.

Wow me too. Thanks.

I have started to prep this and have a question.

Sempets disease has an onset time of immediately but no frequency. The base creature it comes from also has no frequency. Is this a once per round thing, once per hour, oncce per day. Given what it does this could be pretty brutal.

So, where exactly are Hao Jins notes in the final room. They are said to be next to the scrying mirror however no scrying mirror is noted in either the boxed text or the room description. There is reference to an orb which might be it and a couple of mirrors marked on the map but it is entirely unclear. Given that they are the primary success condition and are unattended objects made of paper any sort of stray aoe could cause a group serious issues. the first time I ran this my group were going to fireball the slivers until I reminded them the place was still filled with books they might be interested in but I can certainly imagine less restrained groups having an issue.

Given the slivers also explode when they die this could also cause a real issue with actually completing the primary success.

I also think something got cut in development about the group laying traps and earning their own names from the kobolds. There are some vague references to this at the outset but no mechanics for it anywhere and no mention of it as part of the conclusion.

I recommend picking up gloves of storing to get round the move action to retrieve thing.

Oh god, please dont let there be an actual trial using the verbal duel mechanics....

Emergency Force Sphere - in case you lose Initiative,

You cannot take immediate actions while flatfooted, EFS is generally useless to you if you lose initiative.

Any spellbooks you find in the scenario that aren't on the chronicle sheet wouldn't give you access to non-Core spells for a Core campaign character.

I donnt believe this is true. You can scribe from a spellbook in the scenario using the regular rules. You can also trade spells with other wizard characters you meet in core games.

As for actual spellbooks on chronicles, there are only a handful as mentioned already but there are a faiir few found as loot on enemy wizards.

The blades do nothing for bite attacks, they only affect gore. I would be dubious that any humanoid could use them full stop given they are specifically called out as animal gear.

Don't bother with muleback cords. Ant Haul is a cleric spell and last 2 hours per level.

The light domain ability is strong but you have no way to exclude alllies from the effect which means you need to be 20' away from your allies while still being within 20' of the enemy.

The 4 player scaling on the centaur encampment also seems to be wrong. It references traps which do not exist. I assume this was changed in devleopment. Are we supposed to instead reduce the DC of the hazard saving throw?

Also, are all PCs in the camp exposed to the hazard or just those who choose to try and help fight the fire?

Also, there doesnt appear to be any scaling for the Mishkar portion.

How long does the trip through the forest actually take? The scenario says it would be 2 days in ideal conditions, which these certainly are not.

The druid rescue portion seems to have no penlaty for failure, making it not much of a challenge. There is only one DC for the last stage.

Is the dragonspine burn the 1d8 in its stat block or the 1d6 in its burn ability description?