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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber. *****Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle 236 posts (469 including aliases). 22 reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 35 Organized Play characters. 1 alias.


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5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

The end text states that the PCs earn 1 Reputation, but this should be 2 Reputation, as for all Series 2 quests.

In B2, I think the intent of "Skill Actions" is combat maneuvers, i.e. grapple/shove/trip/reposition. The vulkariki (a.k.a. squox) has no Strikes and would only be doing Acrobatics in place of Athletics to grapple/shove/etc. The existence of the tentacle Strike of the sharktopus and that being a requirement to do its faceglomph does indeed contradict the text, but whatever. If you're running B2, it would be a crime not to use that ability.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

TomParker wrote:
This is sort of an aside but I've never seen reference to a [whatever]-born akata. Is the akata taking on the form of the buso a thing they've made up in this scenario? Or is this a standard thing for the creature?

In the real world, Buso is a term for evil spirits among the Bagobo people of Mindanao, in the Philippines. "Busoborn" as used here would mean something like "demon-born".

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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MNGwinn wrote:
How did you handle PCs who are appalled with the whole concept of eating the dead who are laid to rest w/o permission? I think many of my PCs would view the entire town as doing a horrifying thing.

Given that it is the nature of traditional undead to attack live people and eat them without permission, one might consider it an improvement to be only eating dead people.

The scenario speaks of "partaking of the memories" of the dead through this practice and of how it builds their community to come together for this ritual feeding. It's respectfully carried out (if you can admit of such a thing being respectful) and the inhabitants of the island, having been saved from the outside world where it would be difficult for them to live peacefully, are largely grateful for the mystical happenings that allow them to be part of this.

If, despite this, your PCs are horrified by the idea of undead being allowed to exist at all, then there is not a lot you can do about it. This scenario reflects the general shift towards "not all undead are bad" in the Society. Individual PCs don't have to agree with this sentiment, of course. But consider that this arc began with Marcon in PFS2 1-07 (and presumably he majority of parties playing that scenario chose to save him despite his undeadness).

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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As to why it's showing 2 Rep for your GM character, this is either because (a) whoever did the reporting made a mistake, or (b) a tool like RPGChronicles.net was used and you had the Slow Track box checked for your character (Slow Track means you want to take half of all your rewards - XP, Rep and Treasure - so your character advances slower and you get to play it longer.)

If you didn't intend to do so, then you should get the reporting corrected. As GM you should always get max rewards (regardless of whatever the players got).


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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

The PDF is still downloadable here.

(The physical book is also still purchaseable here on paizo.com, though of course used copies can be found more cheaply elsewhere.)

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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Swiss Army Mage wrote:
How do old tiefling/aasimar feats (namely lineage feats) work in regards to the new nephilim heritage, are they available for choice for new PFS characters?
PFS2 Clarification wrote:
The “aiuvarin” and “half-elf” traits are considered interchangeable; half-elf characters have access to aiuvarin options and vice versa. The same applies for dromaar and half-orc characters. The nephilim trait is interchangeable with either the aasimar or tiefling trait and vice versa, but aasimar characters may not treat that trait as interchangeable with the tiefling trait (or vice versa).

(As specified on the PFS2 Character Options page.)

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

Blakeg wrote:
I feel strongly that they should allow more online lodges to qualify as RSP supported locations. [...] it really feels like Paizo is picking and choosing winner Discords

RSP status is not determined by Paizo. Your Regional Venture-Coordinator is the person that approves all requests for RSP in your region. Speak to your local VO if you have questions about this or other aspects of policy in your region.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

I don't know if you will get an official answer from campaign leadership, but personally I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. It was already in motion, not intended as some sort of exploit, and breaks nothing to finish what you started.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

LeftHandShake wrote:
Running away from the final encounter would still allow Anohatsa to "fill[] in missing details, willing to tell the true story following Wanikkawi’s death".

I guess it's possible the party first kills Wanikkawi in the final encounter and then runs away without killing his sidekick(s), but otherwise running away wouldn't meet the condition "following Wanikkawi's death" for Anohatsa to fill in the missing details.

LeftHandShake wrote:
Going from needing 3 points with five PCs to 5 points with 6 PCs (to get the top tier reward) is a big jump-- almost punitive for having a sixth PC.

Mission success does not require getting any top-tier rewards in the preparation activities. In practice, those rewards don't make a huge impact on the combat encounters and may be nice to have but are not at all necessary.

LeftHandShake wrote:
In general, is there any way to summon a PFS dev / OrgPlay leader to resolve issues like the ones discussed here, especially with regard to success thresholds?

In general, there is no way to summon anyone official to clarify these sorts of things, but perhaps a dev will come into the thread after the holiday season and publicly post what has already been clarified privately about the success threshold (see above).

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

mizinamo wrote:
What if a 6-player group obtains exactly 4 Preparation points? Should the medium degree or the highest degree of success be used? Or is this a failure?

EDITED TO UPDATE: I hear (secondhand, but from a reliable source) the word from the Devs is that it's 1-4 for the lesser success and 5+ for the higher success.

mizinamo wrote:
Where are the "five marked areas outside the firelight" intended to be on the map?

It sure is annoying when references are made to marks on the map which don't exist. But, my guess is it probably matters very little in practice if GMs just put them wherever.

LeftHandShake wrote:
In high subtier, encounter 1C has a variant monster called enraged little man of the woods, which is marked as both [unique] and [rare].

Treating it as Rare seems the way to go, as the only thing this really affects is the DC of Recall Knowledge checks to Identify. If you don't like that, you could avoid the issue altogether by choosing a different encounter variant.

LeftHandShake wrote:
Anohatsa fills in missing details, willing to tell the true story following Wanikkawi’s death [...] Doesn't the first sentence mean that box B will always be checked in any non-TPK playthrough?

Besides TPKing, the party could also run away. But barring those corner cases which would fail the primary objective, yes, box B will get checked. This doesn't seem to really be a problem, though.

LeftHandShake wrote:
As written, the PCs can be *told* that they succeed at each of the three Preparation tasks (and get rewarded!), but *actually* fail them as far as reputation is concerned.

I suggest not telling the party they "succeeded" in each Preparation task but simply playing the quest-giver NPCs as merely polite or increasingly enthused, as appropriate. It does feel to me that the secondary success conditions should line up with the one of the thresholds on the Preparation tasks, but it isn't clear to me which threshold that would be. In any case, by not giving the PCs the impression of "success" even when they may have gotten the lesser reward from the NPC, we can run as written without being too misleading.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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If you know that the games were run under a particular lodge you may be able to get help from the Venture-Officers there.

Otherwise, email pfsreportingerrors@paizo.com with your info and copies of the chronicles that were issued to you.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

Ezekieru wrote:
Question: Where did you find that clarification? I'm looking all throughout the FAQ page, and I can't seem to spot it (at least, not this text with all of the examples, there is a bit in the Player Core errata that says to use the RK rules in Player Core instread of GM Core).

That quote is from the Pathfinder Society FAQ, which is distinct from the Pathfinder FAQ.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

DrSuss wrote:
Is there any way to either manually add back XP, progression to a new character or restore a deleted PC?

Email pfsreportingerrors@paizo.com with the Paizo email of the owner & character number(s) that need to be restored.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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Until the PDF is updated, take note of the scaling corrections posted by developer Shay Snow for the encounters on pages 21 and 30.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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There are no disallowed organizations.

However, keep in mind that the usual purpose of Secondary Initiation is not simply to be a member of some organization but to enable taking some character option (e.g. a feat) that has membership in that organization as its access condition or prerequisite. Practically speaking, it isn't the organization itself that might be disallowed, but the character option that it would enable.

So, you should first identify what character option you are interested in taking that has membership in an organization as an access condition or prerequisite. Then, check its (a) rarity and (b) availability, to see whether it would be possible for you to take it. That will help inform your decision on whether to spend Secondary Initiation to become a member of that organization.

Cases where organization membership via Secondary Initiation will not get you what you want:

(a) RARITY

- If the character option has the Rare trait, then regardless of anything else, you need a specific boon*.

- If it has the Uncommon trait and there are no access conditions (i.e. organization membership is a prerequisite and not an access condition) and nothing in the book, the PFS Guide or the Character Options page grants you access, then regardless of anything else, you need a specific boon*.

(b) AVAILABILITY

To check availability, go to the PFS2 Character Options page, open up the section for the book that contains the option you want, and see if there are any availability restrictions on that option. (Or if you use Archives of Nethys, PFS availability is shown using symbols.)

- If the option you want has Restricted or Limited availability, then regardless of anything else, you need a specific boon*.

EXAMPLE
The Uncommon feat Eye of the Arclords (from World Guide) has the access condition "You are a member of the Arclords of Nex". However, we see that this feat is of Limited availability. That being the case, there would be no mechanical benefit in spending Secondary Initiation to become a member of the Arclords of Nex, as you would not be able to take that feat without a specific boon for it*.

* Note that the need for a specific boon does not necessarily mean that any such boon currently exists, will ever exist or that it will be easily obtained, if/when it does exist.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

In the Remaster, spellcasting class features that used to be called [Magical Tradition Name] Spellcasting in the CRB have been renamed to [Class Name] Spellcasting in Player Core.

The following spellcaster pregens still use the old names from the CRB:

- Ezren's Arcane Spellcasting should be Wizard Spellcasting.
- Kyra's Divine Spellcasting should be Cleric Spellcasting.
- Lem's Occult Spellcasting should be Bard Spellcasting.
- Lini's Primal Spellcasting should be Druid Spellcasting.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Ed Reppert wrote:
Looks interesting. Is Paizo going to carry it?

Yes, the blog post contains a link to the Paizo store listing.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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dcalcoda wrote:
Will Earn Income for these quests be different than Series 1 with more XP, i.e. 4 days downtime rather than 2?

Yes, they follow this general rule from the PFS2 Guide.

PFS2 Guide wrote:
Scenarios and Quests grant two days of downtime per XP earned.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

Zoomba wrote:

Running this in PbP at the moment, and while not there yet, checking Encounter D's conditions I noticed this:

Quote:
Round 4: The smoke grows thicker, causing anyone who breathes it to become sickened 1, creatures can hold their breath to avoid being sickened. Geir intercedes for his commanders and uses one of his magical developments in Ghasterhall to grant the undead fire resist 5 to help reduce the effects of the forest fire. The undead must still contend with the smoke’s sickening effects.
I did not think wights needed to breathe at all generally (nor most undead). Is this incorrect, an exception for the scenario to help balance out the complex encounter, or something that might have been missed by the developers?

I think the intent is for the undead to be sickened by the smoke in this particular scenario, whereas normally most GMs (understandably) would tend to assume they are not.

Even if undead do not need to breathe (which is normally the assumption unless otherwise stated), they are not generally immune to sickened, so you could flavor it as some mystical undead-debilitating quality of the smoke, if you like.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

Rare backgrounds cannot be used in PFS2 unless granted by a boon (but not every rare thing has a boon that currently exists, and it might not ever exist).

Refer to the table on the character options page for explanation of how Rare works.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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The text of the missing Inspired Defense condition was posted in the OPF Major Cons Planning server on July 17. No doubt the PDF will be updated at some point, but here it is:

Inspired Defense condition wrote:
The next time an opponent would critically hit a PC with an attack roll, they instead get a regular hit against the PC.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

1. Walking along the bottom is definitely a possibility.

CRB p. 407 wrote:
The following adjustments apply whenever a character is swimming, walking in chest-deep water, or walking along the bottom of a body of water.

Similar language is in Handout #2 of the scenario (which is the same rule block that is present in AP #36).

People could argue abstractly about whether you could realistically stay at the bottom to walk along it due to buoyancy or the specifics of the particular environment in a situation, but I personally think it should be allowed in this scenario as difficult terrain and half speed at best on level 'ground'.

For a point of comparison:

CRB p. 400 wrote:
A square that is part of a deep bog has roughly 4 feet of standing water. It counts as difficult terrain, and Medium or larger creatures must spend 4 squares of movement to move into a square with a deep bog, or characters can swim if they wish. Small or smaller creatures must swim to move through a deep bog.

-----

2. Almost all armor is technological in game terms; archaic or purely magical armor wouldn't be. But I could see an argument that only powered armor wearers should have their AC be affected by a purely electrical effect (due to the loss of DEX bonus if the powered armor has no battery charges, becoming forcibly flat-footed, etc).

Armor upgrades that are technological or hybrid in nature (i.e., not purely magical) do use charges and would be inoperable during that round.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

Larger groups would certainly have an advantage in the skill checks, but the mission baseline is 1 success per task which should be pretty doable for a group of 4 PCs.

In general, when this sort of mechanic is used, the extra help for the battles from higher levels of success in the preparation activities is meant to be more "nice to have" than "must have" (though in some cases it's really nice to have). Especially since:

(a) the DCs here increase as points are earned, meaning the higher levels of success in a task are significantly less likely in any case;
(b) it's statistically quite unlikely that even a group of 6 PCs achieves the maximum number of points in every one of the 6 tasks; and
(c) the PCs don't really know what the precise mechanical benefit of each task is and are not likely to be able to choose to succeed better at those tasks that will turn out to grant more effective help;

so the difficulty calibration of the battles logically would not assume that most parties will have attained the higher levels of success in any particular task.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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The Emerald City Lodge of northwestern Washington state will be running Organized Play games at Dragonflight GameCon in Bellevue, WA, USA from August 18-20, 2023. This is an in-person convention with no online component.

We'll be offering the multitable interactive special, PFS2 2-00 The King in Thorns, as well as other PFS2 and SFS games.

For information on the convention and links to (paid) badge registration, which is required for game signups, please go to dragonflight.org.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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I've contacted the Southwest Regional Venture Coordinator (RVC) and also the Utah Venture-Captain (VC) to get in touch with you. It sounds like you would like to become a volunteer serving your area and these are the people you need to connect with.

Your local venture officer corps will be able to provide support, answer your questions and tell you about any practices specific to your area. There is an administrative procedure to become a VO in charge of organizing at a location, to get access to VO resources, and specific responsibilities to uphold, that your VC should discuss with you.

To address your questions so far:

Advertising: In addition to what you mention, depending on your local practices there will usually be a site that the upcoming game schedule for various stores in the area is posted by the VO(s) and players can sign up in advance (couple of examples on Warhorn.net: Wasach Front Pathfinder Society or Lehi Roleplaying).

Reporting: Each session played is reported on paizo.com under the appropriate Event. Each Event has a unique Event Code that is recorded on the Chronicles issued after each game. While it is physically possible to create a separate Event on paizo.com for every single game run, that is excessive and unnecessary. Typically, an Event will consist of all the regular weekly games run at a certain store or local area over a certain period of time, or it may consist of all the games run at a certain convention. A VO is usually the person doing this for games run at their store. At conventions, the sessions are reported by the VO(s) organizing the Org Play presence at the Con.

Org Play IDs: A player who does not have an Org Play ID should be given one (there are new IDs that can be downloaded in batches of 10 to hand out, from paizo.com on the My Organized Play > Event Coordinator tab) or they can be guided to create an account and OP ID on paizo.com on the spot, if that's practical. If a player is absolutely adamant about not wanting to get an OP ID, then they do not get included in the reporting, do not get a Chronicle, and therefore do not get OP credit.

Conventions: There are special procedures around Cons involving obtaining Paizo support for the Con and getting increased ACP rewards for participants. Again, your local VO hierarchy can help you with this.

Do remember that everyone involved in OP is a volunteer doing this out of passion so give a little grace if things sometimes do not move as fast as you would like. I'm sure your local officers will be delighted to get you involved in Org Play and to assist you in your service to the community.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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The trap has been officially modified to be less of a problem. For easy reference here are the original and updated stats. (Effective June 9, 2023)

L1-2:
ORIGINALLY Perception DC 24, Engineering DC 19, Reflex DC 14, Damage 6d6 E&F
UPDATED to Perception DC 20, Engineering DC 16, Reflex DC 12, Damage 2d6 E&F

L3-4:
ORIGINALLY Perception DC 27, Engineering DC 22, Reflex DC 15, Damage 4d12+4 E&F
UPDATED to Perception DC 23, Engineering DC 19, Reflex DC 14, Damage 4d6 E&F

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

Copying discussion here from the PaizoCon planning Discord server back from when this scenario was still SUPER SEKRIT.

Cassi wrote:

Hey, so there's no real morale signifiers (even in the box text before and after) for the B. AGENTS OF DETERIORATION fight (with the boss of the scenario). It kind of hints at Omen getting out of there.

What's a reasonable assumption there?
ogrenoah wrote:

iirc it says that they fight to the death a bit earlier in the scenario

Omen escapes if the PCs decide not to fight though

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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Copying discussion here from the PaizoCon planning Discord server back from when this scenario was still SUPER SEKRIT.

*****

First, the obligatory stat block complaints, about which there is really nothing to be done, but should obviate the need for any other GM to point them out.

Hedron wrote:

Suncatcher Blooms (p. 18 & 23). The Stealth DC of the low tier version is 21. The Stealth DC of the high tier version is 17...

I have been noticing more more curious things like this lately... but the low-tier version of Suhko has a +10 Perception, and the High Tier version has a +8 Perception. Having worked on the stats further... the high tier verison of Suhko inexplicably loses the Arcana skill... and gains Deception and Stealth. She also loses a point in Intimidation for going up two levels... Her attack bonus with her living hair decreases (which, granted, shouldn't be her go to anyway...) And her armor class remains... the same in both versions.

The Meddlesome Scrit from low tier and the Troublesome Scrit from high tier have the exact same stat blocks with the exception that one is marked as Level -1 and the the other Level 1. Same hp, ac, spell dcs, same attack, same damage...
Oh... actually the higher level one has a spell DC one lower than the 'weaker' one.
I have looked the scrits over a bit, trying to figure out what the intention was for them. I am guessing that the low level version (given its level) is suppose to be a 'weak' adjusted scrit... but as a zero level monster that shouldn't reduce it's hp... so that makes no sense. The higher level one is clearly just wrong. (being identical with the exception of the higher level one having lower DCs...)

AndeGM wrote:
the damage on the Weak Air Mephit is applied correctly to its Breath Weapon. however, the damage on the Elite Burrowing Viper Rat is not applied correctly to its Burrowing Viper Rat Poison

*****

Regarding the Blue Bison Jerky and the text mentioning that it should be given as a gift to either the gunsmith or the mayor.

Hedron wrote:
Blue Bison Jerky: Given to the PCs with instructions to use as a gift, there is no mention of what (mechanically) this does anywhere in the adventure. My plan is to leave it in, for flavor reasons, but to remove any mention of it being a useful gift in negotiations.
Alex Speidel (OPC) wrote:
It doesn't look like the benefit is explicitly called out, no. I leave it to the GM to determine an appropriate boon for presenting the jerky to either of the individuals.
Saphireking wrote:
I think a +2 circumstance bonus to an Impression check is a good mechanical bonus for Whiirii, and for the Mayor, a bonus on the Request check (since the other things reduce the DC instead)

*****

Regarding the starting positions for the final combat

Hedron wrote:

Final Encounter Placement: There is some inconsistency with the flavor text, listed strategy of the foes, and the map markers on where everyone should be in the final encounter. I plan to put Suhko right next to the travelers, the rest of the monsters where they are marked on the map, and the PCs in-between them.

Getting the Travelers to Flee: It isn't completely clear what happens when the PCs get the travelers to 'snap out of it' and flee. For ease, if they succeed I will simply immediately remove them from battle and have Suhko turn her attention fully to the PCs.

*****

Regarding the lore referenced in the scenario

Hedron wrote:

For any GMs running this scenario who enjoy injecting a bit of lore, I would highly recommend reading over p.206-207 of Guns and Gears which covers the aforementioned Crowned Regents and the Star Code.

Short(er) version: The Crowned Regents were "a gaunt, isolationist people who inhabited monasteries high in the Mildanesi Mountains. Imposing and mute, with stone crowns protruding from their long heads, these recluses gave no name for themselves but became known as the Crowned Regents." Who vanished long, long ago... around -5111 AR.

The Star Code is a sort of chivalric-like code of the ancient hero-warriors of Arcadia: "to never attack an unarmed opponent, to give parley to the weak who request it, to eschew deceit, to honor the terms of a duel, to respect one’s star gun, and many more rules that vary in the retelling."

*****

Regarding the combat difficulty

Eric Nielsen wrote:

The encounters for this scenario all feel significantly under tuned. Both high and low tiers I ran were cake walks for the parties. Felt like everyone had fun though. Low tier, I would especially advise against weak templates on level 1 creatures. I think it's not yielding a level 0 as desired, but something weaker than a -1.

(advice for editors/authors, obviously not something gms can change)

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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Copying discussion here from the PaizoCon planning Discord server back from when this scenario was still SUPER SEKRIT.

*****

Saphireking wrote:

To disable the Adagio/Allegro trap, it says it takes Crafting, Acrobatics or Performance (2 successes), or a single attack, yet in the Challenge adjustments it says "Disabling the trap with Acrobatics, Crafting, or Performance requires three successful checks."

Does this mean it makes Crafting go from one success to three? Or should it just be one additional check, which is what I think they meant to say.

Actual text of the Disable entry wrote:
DC 26 Crafting (trained) to create beautiful flying objects to complement the paper birds; DC 28 Acrobatics or DC 25 (21 if using a flute) Performance (trained) to perform along with the flute and paper birds (requires two successes); or one successful attack roll against the invisible Mehryar (AC 25, DC 25 Perception to determine Mehryar’s location)

*****

My personal opinion after reading the CP scaling sidebar is that, despite the unfortunate placement of the semicolon in the hazard's stat block, the number of successes is intended to encompass all the Disable skill checks, in total. In other words: without CP scaling, the party needs 2 successes and at certain CP the scaling increases this to 3 successes, but the successes can come from rolling any of {Crafting, Acrobatics, Performance} and do not all have to be in the same skill.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

Yes, it would be an innate spell, as is generally the case with options that grant spells but that don't require a spellcasting class feature.

Innate spells use Charisma as the ability score for spellcasting. You're always at least trained in spell attack rolls and spell DCs for your innate spells, even if you have no class-based spellcasting ability (if your proficiency is better than trained, you use that).

Spell attack and DC are calculated in the usual way:

Spell attack = d20 + ability modifier used for spellcasting (CHA for innate spells) + proficiency bonus + other bonuses + penalties
Spell DC = 10 + ability modifier used for spellcasting (CHA for innate spells) + proficiency bonus + other bonuses + penalties

Rules references:
- Innate spells
- Spell attack and DC

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

Society rules, including table size rules, only apply to things run in Society mode.

The only requirements for sanctioned adventures are
(a) using the correct character type for the adventure type: e.g. SFS chars for bounties, story pregens for Free RPG Day adventures.
(b) whatever is specifically stated in that adventure's sanctioning document (which, in case of conflicts, takes precedence over anything stated in the SFS Guide).

Link to Sanctioned Adventures section of the SFS Guide

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

Jason S wrote:

I read through the Core Rulebook on traps and I'm looking at the Season's Toll trap, and I just want to be 100% sure before blasting the PCs that I got it right.

So if the PC who enters the trapped area fails to notice the trap (perception vs stealth DC) and then fails initiative against the trap, the trap could potentially blast the PC with 4 actions in the first round, for 4D6+4 damage each action (on a fail on subtier 5-6)?

Does this happen every round (potentially to someone that entered with the PC that was blasted, or to someone who enters to rescue them)? Could this trap potentially target a PC that is down and dying? Or does this trap only take action once every 5 minutes (on the reset)?

This is a potentially deadly trap or at least an intense resource sink if I understand it correctly.

The trap takes up to 4 actions every round on its initiative count, fewer if some sensors have been disabled.

As a kind and benevolent GM I personally believe the intent was that each of the 4 possible actions is associated with a sensor (i.e. each action happens in a different alcove) so it wouldn't blast the same person 4 times in one round, but admittedly it doesn't explicitly say that.

It does say that the trap can only target one creature per alcove per round, so if 3 people are present in the same alcove in one round, they couldn't all get blasted in that round.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

Jack Aramus wrote:

Hello,

I am relatively new to 2e and am trying to get a Pathfinder Society game going at my local game store. I would love some insight and guidance on how to set this up. Please message. Thank you very much.

You can contact the Regional Venture Coordinator (RVC) who can help you with all of this and connect you to the local Venture Officers in your area. RVCs are listed here: link.

PMing you as well as I believe you are actually in my area.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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Darrell Impey UK wrote:

Are PCs meant to know the Influence thresholds of the council members or are they meant to be secret?

I ran it as letting them know when they had reached maximum influence on a particular NPC; but that resulted in them continuing to gain points with Tekawenda even when they had already gained her backing rather than moving on to other NPCs, and missing out on a unanimous decision and a treasure bundle.

I personally would let them know when an NPC is fully "on their side".

The influence subsystem is known for having certain pitfalls and ambiguity that lead to significant table variation.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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It sounds like you're playing Big Trouble in Little Absalom. This is a sanctioned adventure that is run in Adventure mode for PFS2 credit. The death of your kobold in that adventure would not affect your actual PFS2 character.

When playing in Adventure mode and applying the credit to a PFS2 character, nothing that happens to the character playing the adventure affects the PFS2 character receiving credit (unless the sanctioning document specifically says there is some effect). This is different from what happens in Society mode (the mode in which PFS2 Scenarios are run), where unresolved negative conditions on a pregen do carry over to the character receiving credit.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

Kyrand wrote:
The issue I ran into while running was the trap... If no characters are affected by it (such as from making the saves or noticing\disabling it), as written, the whole dream sequence doesn't happen, leaving out some crucial info for the players. I personally ran the sequence but had them auto-succeed the saves to avoid giving up anything about their mission, but I'm curious how others handle it

I agree with you on this point and would do basically the same, were I in that situation. It puzzles me when scenarios appear to have interesting info (it needn't be actually crucial or important really) that PCs only get when failing checks.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

I agree that the city doesn't qualify as "natural surroundings".

It isn't unusual for creatures to appear in scenarios under conditions where they can't use all of their abilities so I wouldn't take that as a strong indication of intent.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

The tiles making up the map on p16 are incorrectly aligned and the resulting image has been unfortunately flattened into a single image instead of retaining separate tiles, so unless/until this is fixed, GMs on VTTs will need to use the actual flip-tiles product rather than extracting the tiles from the PDF.


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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

As GM, I find SF much more relaxing than PF2, though overall I've run more total sessions of PF2 than SF.

Currently I run more SF than PF2, but that's mostly because there are even fewer SF GMs than PF2 GMs and I want to support SF.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

It's one of the 8 research fragments, not a scroll that can be used by the PCs.

The 8 fragments are in A2, A3, A5, B1, B5, B6, B7 (stuffed owl), and C (taken from A4 and brought here by Liaskra).

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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andreww wrote:
It is also worth noting that at high tier the Tormentors know Banishment which could lead to all sorts of complications as the PCs have no way to get back to the Castle if ejected.

My assumption is that the Urdefhan High Tormenters are also not on their home plane (they typically are found in the Darklands on the Material Plane) so they would not attempt to cast banishment, knowing that it would fail.

Banishment wrote:
This spell fails if you aren't on your home plane when you cast it. (link)

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

At high tier, event 4, the stat block for Blood Hag is missing the quantity (2). The intent is clearly to be for the base encounter to have 2 blood hags, because:
- the 23-27 CP and 28-32 CP adjustments both say "add one blood hag" and "all three blood hags form a coven"
- the 33+ CP adjustment says to "remove the two blood hags".

For Deimostride as an Elite Nightmare in low tier, the Reflex DC for Flaming Gallop should be 26, but is stated as 25. I believe this is likely to be simply a typo rather than an intentional variant. The DC in high tier (Deimostride as a Weak Greater Nightmare) follows the standard.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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For players that don't yet have any Society characters, you can use 2001 or 701, unless for some reason the player already has some other plan for that number and wants you to use (say) 2002 or 709 instead.

For sanctioned adventures whose credit must apply to a higher-level character, the player may hold it and apply it later when the assigned character reaches that level, or they may choose to apply the chronicle instantly to a level 1 character with treasure bundles reduced to level 1. (If reducing to level 1, note that characters do not benefit from any boons or item unlocks until the character reaches the minimum chronicle level and downtime applies as to the 1st level character the chronicle is applied to.) These are the only 2 choices: hold till the chronicle level, or reduce rewards to level 1 and apply to a level 1 character.

The decision of which character number gets the chronicle for sanctioned adventures has to be made at the time of the GM issuing the chronicle to the player (and reporting the game).

The default factions are Horizon Hunters for PFS2 and Wayfinders for SFS. Players who don't care about factions or don't have a preference right now should be assigned these. Since you can switch which faction you represent for every adventure you play, this is not a choice a PC has to live with forever, so you don't have to worry about it too much.

If some players of a sanctioned adventure don't care about or want Society credit, you don't have to give those people a chronicle or include them in the reporting. You can report the table with just the ones who care about Society credit.

Link to the Org Play guides for reference - https://www.organizedplayfoundation.org/Lorespire/Homepage


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

Seems right to me.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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Leomund "Leo" Velinznrarikovich wrote:
Minimum table size (GM not included) of minimum level 5 and below is probably 1. Though, I would avoid that as much as possible. Personally, I'd minimum 2 at least.

1 player + GM is not legal.

PFS2 Guide wrote:
Adventures with a Minimum level of 5 or lower. For these adventures, the GM can run a table of two or three players, and can add additional appropriately leveled pregenerated iconic characters in order to meet the minimum table size of four PCs.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

You can see that the class DC starts as Trained under the Initial Proficiencies section for the class.

At higher levels, class features increase the proficiency in Class DC to Expert and Master, e.g. Rogue Expertise and Master Strike for Rogues, or Fighter Expertise and Versatile Legend for Fighters.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

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Yes, the follow-up to 1-20 is the special 2-00 which is the culmination of the "Pact of the Open Road" storyline and involves (amidst the beating up of fey) finding the last, lost member of the Pact.

- Scenarios that contain some lore tidbits related to the 2-00 metaplot: 1-00, 1-08, 1-11
- Scenarios that actually have the metaplot tag: 1-16, 1-17, 1-20.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

I don't believe there's any rule that prevents you from taking any combination of an ethnicity and a nationality.

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

"Drink Blood" ability of the creature wrote:

A victim’s drained condition decreases by 1 per week. A blood transfusion, which requires a DC 20 Medicine check and sufficient blood or a blood donor, reduces the drain by 1 after 10 minutes.

I take this to mean that if a party member is willing to donate blood, and you have someone to do the DC 20 Medicine check, you can remove [this specific type of] drain in 10 min (i.e. you don't have to wait a week).

5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle

If you had played the relevant book of the AoA AP, you could use the corresponding (free) Chronicle boon instead of the ACP boon which costs ACP. These are 2 separate methods of getting the same thing.

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