dragonkitten's page

Now we're one step closer to have my dream spin off PFS campaigns of Sweet Valley High and Babysitters Club.

Vanities are in the Pathfinder Society Field Guide.

Does anyone actually get to play Pathfinder anymore? Threads as of late read like all GMs are the enemy. Which makes having an actual game tricky.

Matthew Morris wrote:

Chris Mortika wrote:

Or the animal companion chooses some other feat. Skill Focus (Perform ( cute tricks)). After all, if it isn't the player's choice ...

I prefer Perform (Mime).

"Your bear would attack, but he appears to be trapped in an invisible box..."

Step 1: Cut a hole in the box

2: Put yo bear in that box
3: Make her open the box

Crystalhue, bear in a box.

Evoking Day, bear in a box.
Jestercap, bear in a box.
Every single holiday a bear in a box.

Okay, I still don't know where this clear language is and it would have been great if someone would have simply quoted the clear language.

With that said, I see the symbols next to your names so I will accept your answer as gospel even without a citation.

Religion: Characters can elect to worship any deity

listed in a table of gods in the Core Rulebook, The Inner Sea
World Guide, Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Gods and Magic, or
any other source listed as an official Additional Resource.
Characters may elect to worship an evil god, but must
always be within one alignment step of their chosen deity.
For clerics, this is an especially important choice, since the
deity’s alignment determines whether the cleric channels positive or negative energy, a decision with significant
tactical implications for the cleric and her allies. Clerics,
inquisitors, paladins, cavaliers of the order of the star,
and samurai of the order of the star must choose a deity
as all classes in Golarion that receive spells and abilities
from a specific divine source receive their powers from a
deity. Druids, oracles, and rangers are the exception to this
rule. The list is not exhaustive, and divine spellcasters of
any future classes whose sources are added as additional
resources to the Pathfinder Society Organized Play
campaign will be required to choose a deity unless
otherwise specified. Otherwise, characters who do not
receive powers from a divine source may choose to be
atheists or to have no deity at all.

I do realize that it's only a game and I'm there to have fun, but being useless or knowing that my fellow players are annoyed with me for what I'm playing isn't fun. I'd rather play something I'd rather not than endure passive aggression.

That being said, I only ask because I've never been able to play a game at a con but have seen a lot of complaints on gaming sites and very little good things.

Here are a list of my characters:

I have a deaf gnome oracle of lore 10/mysterious stranger gunslinger 1.
She spams Blessing of Fervor to help her allies, casts a quickened divine favor on herself, and then shoots bad guys with her holy pepperbox.

I have a half orc oracle of nature 1/sylvan sorcerer 9 that has a stegosaurus as her bounded mount and spends the majority of her time making him more dangerous.

I have a human cad figher 6/tattooed wildblooded envenomed sorcerer 1. Her bloodline makes her better at stealthing, climbing and acrobatics. She is very, very good at using a heavy crossbow. She casts gravity bow on it and then shoots as many things as she can as fast as she can.

I have a kitsune divine hunter paladin 6/mysterious stranger gunslinger 1. (Yes. I like the mysterious stranger a lot.) She smites evil guys with her gun for justice and tumbles around a lot. She also has multiple tails.

This is what I have when I come to a convention. I lay that out and if players don't like it then I move on to a different group. These are the characters I want to play. Like has been said before the nature of random groups of a con means it's highly unlikely all characters at the table are going to perfectly fit together. You don't know how bought tickets and what they want to play. Just do your best to work together well with everyone else.

I almost forgot to add to please try to have a skill or two outside of murder hoboing your way through the Inner Sea. You will be glad you did. Swim, perception, sense motive and maybe a knowledge skill or two.

Play what you want to play. It's supposed to be your happy fun time and not a job. Have a decent AC, a fair amount of hitpoints, and try to be good at what the character focuses on. It's pretty difficult at a convention to magically find the "perfect party build" unless you bring a whole group from home.

As far as I could tell in the other thread everyone was very polite in their answers. No they weren't going to tell the him or her where they could find the wand. It's not how PFS worked for them. The OP lashed out at everyone.

As far as in the scenario itself I think they venture captain would stare at Pathfinder who asked if they would find a certain item along the way. How would they know? Did Sheila Heidmarch get her best Diviners on the job?

"I am sending you to Qadira to retrieve the Maguffins we paid for. On the first day of your travel you will make love to a beautiful woman, but you will never see her again. On the second day you will arrive at a tavern that serves the perfect MLT. Where the mutton is nice and lean. On the third day you will be set upon by orc bandits. One will have a partially charged wand of lightning bolt that he got off a wizard he killed. He's just a fighter and has no idea how to use it."

It just doesn't work that way.

In fact, at Origins, I played at a table where there was a 3 or 4 star GM who was befuddled as to how a Fey sorcerer was doing what she was doing with her dinosaur AC both in terms of shape-changing it (turned out it was sharing forms with her familiar) and also how its AC was so huge and how it was doing so much damage.

I don't know where she was from, but this, to me, shows that these tendencies might be regional. If ACs I have played with looked more like Swiftbrook's example, you'd never hear a word from me.

I'd also not mind ACs as much if boon companion did not exist in the game. Animal domain clerics would look a lot more reasonable if their pet was three levels down, as would many ranger builds.

I also would not mind so much if the druid was more centered around the AC like the summoner is the eidolon. But this is not the case. The druid is quite strong even without the AC, and the AC itself can end up being...

I was the "offending" Sylvan Sorcerer and I would be more than happy to explain why her stegosaurus did what it did. (Also if you look up at my slightly fancy title you can see i am from Baltimore.)

My character is a Half Orc Oracle of Nature 1/Sylvan sorcerer 8. I specifically went into this character build understanding the dinosaur would be the star of the show. The sorcerer is more the ring girl with buffing abilities. She has magic missile as her one and only damaging spell in case of emergencies. (Well two damaging spells if you count her CL 1 Cure Light Wounds that she gets for being an Oracle.)

How Earthbreaker the Stegosaurus became a star:

PC Feats dedicated to the Animal Companion:
1. Boon Companion (So his Animal Companion level is 9 instead of 6)
2. Extra Revelation (Boon Companion- So he is smarter and a mount)
3. Beast Rider (The feat and not the archetype. He is large enough to be her mount and so gets the General Combat Purpose for free.)
4. Eldritch Heritage (Tangentially only. Mongoose familiar. Share Shape Spell.)

PC Magic Items dedicated to the Animal Companion:
1. Ring of Revelation(lesser) (10000gp cost. Allows me to add another revelation that has no prereq or one of less than level 6. Grabbed Friend to the Animals. Animals within 30 ft get her charisma modifier to saving throws. Which can be dangerous when actually fighting animals.
2. +1 Amulet of Mighty Fists (Makes his tail slap magical.)
3. Extend Metamagic Rod(lesser) (To extend mage armor, darkvision and heroism on the animal companion)

Trait(s) dedicated to animal companion:
1. Adopted (Sorcerer by gnomes when she was abandoned as child)
2.Animal Friend (Handle Animal is a class skill; +1 to will saves when near animals)

Spells for the Animal Companion:
1. Mage Armor (I don't bother with barding)
2. Heroism
3. Darkvision
4. Bull's Strength
5. Haste (It helps everyone)
6. Share Shape (It's from Animal Archive. Make the stego a mongoose for an hour per level. Only 4th level sorcerer spell. Help to counteract not being able to take him lots of places.)

The Dreaded Stegosaurus Armor Class:
1. +4 from Mage Armor
2. +15 from Natural Armor
3. +5 from Dexterity
4. -1 from Size
5. +1 from Haste
5. +10 that everyone gets at the base
= +34 AC

The Dread Stegosaurus disguised as a Mongoose Armor Class:
1. +4 from Mage Armor
2. +7 (or +15) from Natural Armor
3. +8 from Dexterity
4. +2 from size
5. +1 from Haste
6. +10 that everyone gets at the base
= +32 or +40 (depending on if you consider Polymorph spell leaves the targeted creature with their own Natural Armor or that of the new form. GMs bounce me back and forth on that point.

Stegosaurus Attack!:
1. +6 Base attack
2. +6 Strength
3. +1 from Amulet of Mighty Fist
4. -1 to attach from size
5. +2 morale bonus to attack rolls from Heroism
6. +1 to attack from Haste
7. +9 to damage from strength (Only one natural attack. So the stego gets 1.5 strength to damage)
8. +1 from Amulet of Mighty Fist
= +15/+10, 2d8+10 (tail slap. third attack when hasted)

Mongoose Disguise attack:
1. +6 Base attack
2. +5 Strength (Bulls Strength Added)
3. +1 from Amulet of Mighty Fist
4. +2 from size
5. +2 morale bonus from Heroism
6. +1 to attack from Haste
7. +7 to damage from strength
8. +1 to damage from amulet of Mighty Fist
= +17, 1d2+8 w/Attach (I did make the mistake of scaling down 2d8 to 1d8 instead of using the 1d2 damage die initially)

I realize this is a ton of information. I welcome any questions and pointing out things I have done totally wrong. This is probably the most complicated character build I have done by far.

I was told that top notch baking skills were a must.

They characters that we play in PFS are Pathfinders and supposedly have several years of training. They had at least basic tutelage from the Master of Spells; even if they were just a giant of a man with a greatsword.

Now the majority of my characters have no problem with Infernal Healing. There philosophy is, "It's going to keep me alive? Yes please". Now I do have a paladin that doesn't want to be touched by the spell. If it happened while she was unconscious then she would pay for an atonement even though it wasn't required in any way.

She is nearly sixth level and I think there was maybe one scenario she played in where no one in her group of Pathfinders had a wand of infernal healing. It has become pretty common. She has seen it used on other Pathfinders and how their wounds slowly heal up over time.

Now if she happens to get brought down low by an enemy someone could use it on her. Say she was down to -3 then by the fourth round of healing she will wake up. She's going to wake up, by the description of the spell, with a case of the evil heebie jeebies. She could possibly look down at a wound on her body and see it is slowly knitting up.

Now the paladin has seen the spell at work before on her allies. It's very doubtful that one of the evil cultist they were fighting leaned down to ruffle her hair and say, "You crazy kid. You worked so hard. Here's some healing". The paladin could certainly narrow it down to one of her fellow pathfinders who has used such magic before. It probably wasn't the rage ball of a barbarian or the fighter who appears content to stab people as fast as possible with two rapiers. They could figure it out.

What it comes down to is being respectful of choices of other players and their characters. The person who asks to not have the spell used on them won't smite your character. They are also happy. It works out for everyone.

I just want to play a carnivalist rogue whose animal companion is a monkey with a shiv for sneak attacks.

Empathy is wonderful when everyone has it. I do not need to have a spotlight on me ever. I do not care. I am there to play my guy and play my turn. If I am mostly ignored that is fine.

The DMs job is to provide a ground for all players. I notice a lot of whoever complains the hardest and cries first is automatically the victim.

This game is huge you can do countless things. You can be as creative as the DM lets you. If they cry they are being trumped because they are unorginal enough to to play their character as bland as possible then ofcourse you will lose the spotlight.

This is a social game where you meet all different types of people that want different things. Part of the game is playing together so you all can have fun. You can talk to each other and say what you want out of the game. To cry and moan right away is just as childish as hogging the spotlight.

I actually started playing in Pathfinder Society because of the spotlight hogs in another organized campaign I have been involved in. I had some experiences so negative that I considered just quitting playing at conventions and in organized play at all. I believe that I had a solidly built character. I just worked on a crazy build.

A GM in a home game can easily work to settle things on even ground. It's really not so easy in a society game where the monsters are built a certain way and they have assigned tactics. I can only imagine the uproar if a GM changed the monsters, or strengthened them, to make an actual challenger for a far more powerful character in the group.

After my very unpleasant experience from before I very much appreciate someone that has their fun but also considerate of everyone else. I always try to do the same.

DM's who run Pathfinder Society who can not deal with or highly dislike Power Gamers are weak DM's. Just because you have 5 stars does not make you a good DM. The regional director of PFS in my area is a horrible DM and shes been around forever. There are others who can barely speak straight and who GM like they wish they were somewhere else. They all have a lot more stars than me. My point is that if you get frustrated over a character thats ok. If you say that it should not be allowed, you should not be a DM. I have been DMing since the late 80's and for some thats not a long time, but I have conditioned and learned along the way that Power Gamers have fun at the table. Min Maxers have fun. Mediocre builders have fun. The whole point is to have fun. Have fun doing what you do and let others please have fun doing what they do. As long as you are not ruining the module by being a pompous uncaring ass about it. Thats the only thing I have dealt with that I did not like. I played PFS with a character who was a synthesist summoner who could not be hit cause his AC was so high, could not miss cause his attack was so high, and all kinds of rediculousness. But you know what, he had fun and so did the rest of the party because I didnt complain too much besides pointing out the rediculousness and the party used him as a meat shield. Now this character did not do any damage and his spells sucked. It all works out in the end.

IN PFS you are very limited in what you can do as a DM. If someone is using his build to bulldoze over the mod and other players, and everything is perfectly legal by RAW, then what are they allowed to do? Bring the game to a grinding halt by trying to explain to them why they shouldn't do it? You can see how people can lose their minds if it's suggested that maybe they should take a penalty to diplomacy because they walked into the throne room and kicked him between the legs so hard he won't be able to produce a heir. But they will point out that nowhere does it say the DM is allowed to do so.

TarkXT wrote:

Wyrd_Wik wrote:

Back On Topic: I personally hate the term "Power Game". It is a negative label that is attached to anyone who builds a character that is good at what they do. Frankly, if you don't "Power Game" (by that definition), I think you are playing the game "wrong" by building ineffective...

My experience with people who "power game" is often that they steam roll the encounter while everyone else just sits around and watches. As much as "power gamers" complain people stereotype them I think it goes both ways. Often people I meet with really optimized characters end believing that anyone who doesn't is "obsessed with roleplay to the point of playing a fighter with 7s in all physical stats because that's part of the story". There is no middle ground and so I wonder where I happen to be standing.

There are people who make solid characters, eighteen in their man stat, with a good selection of abilities and magic items. They just want to have some fun and maybe get a little spotlight.

I'll use this example again, because it happened to be personally. I was running an organized play event, of a different system, at Gen Con. There were a pair of guys that had this crazy combo together. Fight after fight they basically went first and killed everything while the rest of the group sat and watch. I tried to get them to cut down on dominating, but they were quick to point out everything was RAW. So as a GM of an organized play event I couldn't say anything.

As you can guess by the end of the adventure the other four people just wanted to leave. It was no fun for them. I am sure they were wondering why they paid all this money just to be a quartet of useless sidekicks. It was probably the worst GM experience I ever had.

Of course if they just simply had picked from the list of 10 approved classes, 10 approved archetypes, and something from the list of 30 feats and spells that don't suck then they would have been awesome.

It has gotten to a point where I try my hardest to play only with a small circle of gamers I know personally. Which is sad because a big part of the fun of going to a convention is meeting new people.

I really apologize for this being so long winded. I hope it made some sense. I am sure people who really like optimizing get tired of people stating complaints. I personally get tired of being told I didn't have fun because I make terrible characters. That I want everyone else to make terrible characters and come down to my level so I can have fun. I just want to have fun.

I apologize once more for being long winded.

I was thinking Jason Stackhouse from Trueblood (television version). He is so attractive and charming people forgive a great deal of shortcomings. He's smart enough to sound convincing about his schemes, but kind of ditzy enough to pretty much fall for anything.