I'm sorry, but I have to step down as VC for Orange County and the Inland Empire in Southern California.
It's been a lot of fun playing and working with everyone and meeting a lot of great people. However, circumstances unrelated to PFS have finally become significant enough that I'm no longer able to lead or even participate in PFS.
Thanks to everyone who has made this a great experience!
Please welcome our fresh new Venture-Lieutenants for the IE, Justin Samuels and Steven Lee!
Justin is based out of Temecula. He will be coordinating PFS at SoCal Comics and Games in Temecula, and has already been a big contributor to PFS in the area.
Steven is in Riverside, where he'll be coordinating at GMI Games starting near the end of the summer.
Both are great guys and have a lot of enthusiasm for supporting and expanding PFS in the IE.
I'm pleased to announce Adam Meza and Ian Foster as our new VL Team for the Inland Empire!
Adam is one of the most creative and effective players I've met, and he's a very generous and helpful person.
Ian has been a strong, steady presence in the PFS community for a long time. As a player, you know you're in trouble when he fixes that steely gaze upon you.
Both of them have a high level of expertise in rules and lore, and their GMing and playing has helped in the success of many cons.
I'm happy to announce the promotion of two great people as a VL Team in Orange County, CA.
Brandy Camel is a long-time GM and player, with several years of experience in the old Living Greyhawk campaign. She's smart, funny, and definitely quite lethal with a waffle iron.
Ashton Schmitt has got a great head for rules, tactics, and synergies, and is always entertaining and challenging as both a GM and a player.
They have both been GMing and playing at Comic Quest in Lake Forest and Game Master in Laguna Hills for a while now (and Mercenary Market before it closed), and have helped to organize, build and sustain the local PFS community.
I had a very good and experienced player make a monumental blunder and the absolute worst (best) time in this scenario. He was only saved by my low Stealth roll for the Ettercap and his high Perception checks.
In the Corpse Marionette scene at the end of Act 3, the corpse is (I decided) 1000 ft. away from the party (at the base of the small hill in the clearing). The healer (cleric or oracle) who, up until this point, has been judicious, cautious, and astute, RUNS AT FULL SPEED towards the "survivor" while the rest of the party discusses how curious this situation is. This was really just the absolute worst (best) reaction a player could have to this clever ruse. Had he not rolled his Perception checks very well, even with negatives for running, focusing on his goal, and distance from the Ettercap, he would absolutely have been in the pit with nobody anywhere near him. Even at a full run, it would have taken the monk about 6 rounds to reach him after seeing him fall in the pit, and the sorcerer, who was the only real help, would have taken even longer.The healer probably wouldn't have died from damage, but the player might have died from embarrassment.
This was a nice, clever trap and a fun encounter. Our table may have been the beneficiaries of the most entertaining of all play-throughs of this encounter.
I want to be able to be effective with the Sword and Gun ability of my savage technologist 2/gun tank 1, making him able to reload while he's got his light off-hand weapon still equipped, and I don't want to deal with weapon cords, class dips, or any of those other costly or just "thematically-challenged" solutions.
It looks like a cestus should allow the character to reload with his exposed fingers, since there's no skill check for reloading. Combining rapid reload and paper cartridges, this would make reloading a free action and still allow him to benefit from the Sword and Gun ability every round (though he'd take AOO's occasionally).
However, some would say that while there's no skill check for reloading, it still requires more manual dexterity and freedom of movement than simply wielding or carrying an item.
How would you PFS GMs rule on this? Can a cestus-wielding pistol shooter use his off-hand to reload his weapon?
We've now got classes or archetypes that start with every letter of the alphabet EXCEPT for the wonderful letter "X". Why is Paizo so hateful of this proud, EXCEPTIONAL letter?
Why not a Xenophobe archetype for Inquisitor? Or Xebec Sailor archetype for Swashbuckler? Or even a Xerarch Monk, who develops fighting styles that take advantage of dry, desert environs?
You can DO it, Paizo!
Edit: Just in case you want to save yourself the trouble of confirming this, here's a sample list.
I am looking for lvl 5-9 scenarios which will fit comfortably into a 4-hour time slot. I want to set them up as alternative scenarios for when a scheduled 7-11 scenario does not start on time, and therefore is almost guaranteed to run way too long.
One that I'd like to run is Hellknight's Feats. I played in it a while ago, but I don't remember how long it took (I was too busy having fun to notice the time ;). Does anyone have input about how long that one generally runs?
By popular demand, we've added weeknight sessions at CQ PFS. Our first weeknight games will be Wednesday, March 26, from 5:30 - 10pm, and we'll be hosting games every other Wednesday night. There will be a limit of two tables at these events, so sign up early!
This is in addition to our regular weekend games running every second Sunday of the month from 10am to 7pm, with two slots of three tables each.
It seems that the front doors have no way to be opened. The only way in is through the secret door, unless the characters do something like cast Passwall. I don't even think a Knock spell would work, since the doors seem to only be ornamental and not functional.
Does this seem intentional, or just an oversight that no mention is given of how the doors might be opened?
I need to nullify the Zen Archer's Oathbow for a final, epic fight against an adult Blue Dragon. He will rip it to shreds in 2-3 rounds unless I do something to nullify the Oathbow.
I have been wracking my brain, and I finally came up with a one-time shot that would remove the Oathbow from the fight without permanently removing it from the character altogether - an illusion. My idea is that the party will spring a trap that will trigger a programmed illusion of the dragon. They'd attack the illusion, the Zen Archer would activate his Oathbow ability, and it would be wasted on the illusion so that a real fight with the real dragon could ensue. Luckily, the Zen Archer gets to act in a surprise round, so I'm guaranteed that he'll be the first one to pop the illusion. The party also has no rogue or other trap-remover, so the illusion will be guaranteed to take place.
So my question is: does an Oathbow's one oath per day get spent if the character uses it against an illusion? Let's assume that the dragon himself did not create the illusion or the trap, so there's no issue of him being a viable oath target because it's his illusion.
Honestly, I am pretty sure that the party (even the Zen Archer) would be relieved to have the Oathbow nullified so that they could fight a big baddie without it being over and done with in the blink of an eye. So I'm not looking for any advice on justifying the action. I'm looking for rules interpretation advice.
