robertness's page

Okay, this one probably isn't common usage. But it's a concept which I like to call I.D.I.O.T.

Impel
Dice
In
Observable
Trajectory

Or in other words, rolling where people can see. Let's everyone share how awesome your nat 20 is, or help commiserate that -7 you somehow rolled.

Nat Zero: The result of rolling your die off the table. The other PFS GM at my FLGS and I occasionally threaten to apply this rule to a player who rolls more enthusiastically than accurately.

Bait: The lightly armored roguish type who leads the way to find the traps, but gets found by the monsters first.

The Aspis Consortium: Just like the Pathfinder Society, but they'll take evil members and allow PVP.

Sub-boss: Warm up encounter before the adventure's climax with an annoying tendency of making the BBEG look like a pushover by comparison.

Outsider (native) appears on the Ranger Favored Enemies list and I see no Society specific prohibition, so I'd say yes to favored enemies.

The Skeleton Summoner feat summons skeletons via summon monster. Summon monster always summons monsters with a matching alignment, even if they would normally have another alignment. Since skeletons don't have the evil subtype, summon monster doesn't gain the evil descriptor when summoning skeletons. Same with zombies via that feat.

Not quite.

When you use a summoning spell to summon a creature with an alignment or elemental subtype, it is a spell of that type. Creatures on Table 10–1 marked with an "*" are summoned with the celestial template, if you are good, and the fiendish template, if you are evil. If you are neutral, you may choose which template to apply to the creature. Creatures marked with an "*" always have an alignment that matches yours, regardless of their usual alignment. Summoning these creatures makes the summoning spell's type match your alignment.

Notice that only creatures marked with an asterisk on the Summon Monster list have a matching alignment. Thus, you cannot summon a "good" hellhound because the hellhound entry doesn't have an asterisk.

You don't even need to check with a VL first.

You get an event code by going to your PFS Account then clicking the GM/Event Coordinator tab. On that tab, click the Create Your Event. It should be self-explanatory from there.

I concur with this proposal.

A local GM proposed an Intro to PFS gameday for this weekend. He wants to run character generation and Master of the Fallen Fortress in the first part, break for dinner, then run Phantom Phenomena until everyone needs to go home or they run out of quests. I just don't have the heart to tell him they'll need to use pregens for Phenomena, not their shiny new characters.

Given where this thread lives, I'm going to nominate three ships for roleplaying potential.

Bebop from Cowboy Bebop would be my go to as a design for a bunch of adventurers at large in the galaxy. Like Serenity and the Millennium Falcon, it's small enough that the PCs are the only crewmembers. However, Bebop's got a hangar deck, a great addition for games where space combat will be a focus. The hangar gives each player the option of their own fighter and so they can be active participants when pew-pew time comes.

Soyokaze from The Irresponsible Captain Tyler is my ideal for a military campaign. Essentially a baby Yamato, for my money, Soyokaze hits the sweet spot of being big enough to be sent to the frontier but small enough that each PC officer will have a major role in her operation. I also like that Soyokaze's the old clunker brought out of mothballs that the brass doesn't expect anything from, precisely the kind of ship that scrappy adventurers should turn into a legend.

The Death Star fills the role of huge ship that's simultaneously a location, plot device, and enemy. Destroying something like a Death Star should be an epic conclusion.

You see a human woman in her early twenties. She has brown hair and eyes and is wearing a long-sleeved white blouse over a chain shirt and black skirt. She carries a scythe that's as tall as she is. Visual reference.

Hello, my name is Samantha Stantz. I'm what some people call a "spiritualist," she says in a soft voice. At least that's what the Pathfinders in Riddleport called me when they caught me running away from the foundling home. They didn't send me back there and well... Here I am.

Spiritualists are kind of like summoners, only with ghosts instead of eidolons. We can get into more details later.

A Little Later...

Venture Captain: Yada yada yada. Any questions?

In loud "pirate" voice: Yar! When do we stop the gabbin' and start with the murder and pillage?

Normal voice: Not now, Uncle Albrecht. Sorry about that. That's Uncle Albrecht. He takes some getting used to. Just be glad he's not living in your head.

In many scenarios the opposition should know they're up against Pathfinders and that the Society has a reputation for alignment neutrality. They really should have a "smite neutral" equivalent. Yeah, I know such has never existed in Pathfinder or its predecessors, but...

"In the name of a deity that gives a darn! I smite thee for thy wishywashiness!"

Personally, I don't see an issue with ignoring the social identity. It's there if you need another face, but otherwise why not spend all your time as Batman? That's how most Justice League things work anyways. Bruce Wayne comes up in like one episode where they need a social funtion and then poof bye.

In other words, "Always be yourself, unless you can be Batman. Then by all means be Batman."

I'm not on board with a hard mode option. I've seen many "easy" scenarios come close to generating TPK from a combination of bad rolls and a moment of player inattention.

The only thing I can add is that I would have bull rushed the two playing tug-of-war with the body at the edge of the crocodile pit. Yeah, it's jerkish anti-social behavior, but that's what they want; and how often do you have the chance to push someone into a crocodile pit without provoking an attack of opportunity?

I've been thinking that if you want to run the big magic blast brand of magic girl, your best bet might be a sorcerer equipped with a wand of disguise self. Hit the disguise self wand on your first action for the "transformation" then start shouting spell names and blast away.

I want to know how the bacon is going to make the paladin fall.

Taking the most extreme on one side of the spectrum, knowledge checks are needed to ID creatures you've seen previously in the scenario. Do the players have to make knowledge rolls to remember what they fought when they report back to the VC for debriefing?

Barbarian: Then we fought this thing.

Paladin: You mean the scaly thing or the slimy thing?

Barbarian: Ummm... the green thing.

Sorcerer: I thought the green thing had feathers.

Paladin: Naw, that was the blue thing.

Kreighton Shayne wonders about the choices he made in life and if it's too late to join the Aspis Consortium.

If she runs, she goes to the place the PCs need to go next. Give them a relatively easy Survival roll to track her.

This weekend I met a player running a swashbuckler with Profession: Man of Action! Momentary lulls turned into various attempts to convert the mod into an 80s action movie complete with trailer.

"In a world..."

Jessex wrote:

I've never gotten alignment, and would never dream of asking for such a "crunchy" detail, but type when it is not obvious from the name of the creature is something I do expect to get.

eyup. For a diplomat its a pretty important piece of information I wouldn't USE the word alignment but...

It wants food, sex, shelter. (neutral)

You can bargain with it but it will turn on you with the least excuse (LE)

They're boisterous and generally good natured but don't give a flying beeep about social conventions (CG)

Its going to try to murder you with fire the second you're not looking at it and roast marshmellows over your corpse. (chaotic goblin)

The skill doesn't tell you HOW to give out the useful information. I've seen some groups do a question and answer thing which takes time, seems to get literal genie answers, and sometimes gives no information. ie, you ask about damage reduction and it doesn't have any. I prefer to go with information that wouldbe the most useful for the character: for casters what do you throw at it and for martials what do you hit it with.

If i'm out of helpful information i'll say it likes long walks on the beach.

I was playing non-PFS with a group that did the 20 questions thing for what pieces of information would be handed out. One of the players would run out of useful questions after the second or third and ask, "What's its backstory?" I loved having a GM that would make stuff up on the spot to make the player happy. "Fred the bugbear was the runt of his tribe..."

IMO, villains should be allowed a free monologue as long as PCs are allowed free snide commentary about the monologue.

I play a paladin in PFS and have gotten her to 5th level. I've yet to run into a scenario where I felt fulfilling the Society mission violated the paladin's code.

I have had a couple situations where tasks within the mission were a little dicey and I negotiated ways around or through the situation with the other players and GM both in and out of character as needed.

I also make sure that everyone knows Valtyra can't lie to save her life, but will stay quiet if others feel the need to bend the truth (and occasionally save the situation by turning on the charm when the liar is exposed.)

There was also the incident where Valtyra needed to swear an oath to a certain Lord of Hell or face the consequences... Consequences were faced and Val made sure she took the damage.

BigNorseWolf wrote:

*stuff*

No, my bard's a side-drummer and singer. Almost like Phil Collins, only not nearly as old. =P

But he still can't Performance: Dance.

I know this is a bit of a thread necro, but don't feel like making a new thread. Something nearly came up on Friday when I ran Wounded Wisp.

** spoiler omitted **

What happens if the party destroys that device too soon? Is the scenario considered an auto fail? Or should you do something to get them back on track?

One way to handle this.

Remember that Pathfinder Society Chronicles are an in game publication as well as the goody sheet you get at the end of the adventure. Most libraries of the Inner Sea, such as the one the bookish, adventure adverse scholar hangs out in, will have a subscription.

The lessons learned by other Pathfinders are available for all without metagaming. As they say, anyone can learn from their mistakes, genius is learning from the mistakes of others.

In addition to the AC penalty, some things to remember about running:

Running is a full round action, so you can run then act next round.

You must run in a straight line. Most GMs are reasonable about allowing a diagonal-ish line, but if the map requires you to turn (e.g. a bend in a hallway) you have to stop if you've used more than twice your movement.

No running through difficult terrain.

I like to think of, "She can't tell me in character, but we discussed it out of character," moments as "off camera" society drinking training sessions paying off.

"You know, there's nothing I hate more than being hit with fireballs when I'm using invisibility to sneak up on the bad guys. Take a quick nose count of your team members before setting one of those suckers off. If you don't notice me, I'm probably getting ready to shank the enemy."

"Let's say we were in some Shelyn forsaken dungeon and some jerk uses magic to put you to sleep. Would you mind if I hit you with a magic missile to wake you up?"

When time permits and I am inspired, I like to add little notes to the chronicle to highlight some memorable thing the character did during the adventure. Most of the time, they're not physical items. For example, "Saved the Blakros Museum with a cantrip." Or "Was enlarged, enraged, green, prone, sticky, and on fire," a combination of conditions the party barbarian had racked up at the start of his turn in an encounter.

So, in one scenario, the party kills a cheetah. The fighter says, "Can I make a loin cloth from the skin?" I'm too busy giggling about the notion to ask for a craft roll, which the players take for ascent. Then the paladin asks, "Ooh, is there enough left over to make me a bikini?" At chronicle writing time, I add the following to their chronicles, "Has a cheetah skin loin cloth/bikini. No game effect."

The next week, I'm running another scenario with the same paladin and one of the baddies has a panther companion. Sure enough, the paladin has a panther skin bikini added to her chronicle. She's now shopping for scenarios with leopards, tigers, and zebras.

"Oh, Rigby just forgot their copy of Ultimate Breadsticks again, but that bard can definitely cast Wall of Breadsticks".

Will also have my local Olive Garden searching for Additional Resources.

I've always thought that part of the off screen debriefing includes some boilerplate questions from a Society healer:

"So, have you been suffering any sudden or uncontrollable urges to howl at the moon? Do you thirst for human blood or hunger for the uncooked internal organs of sentient creatures? Experiencing any urge to dance naked through the streets of Absalom or in an isolated fairy ring in the pale moonlight? Sorry, sir. These are just standard questions we ask all agents when they return from the field. Have you experienced lightheadedness, shortness of breath, or uncontrolled giggling?..."

Two parties that actually bring along healers:

Slayers The four core PCs are a human sorceress (some say wizard, but she's definitely a spontaneous caster and she does most of the party face stuff, so high Charisma), a human fighter who totally took Int as his dump stat, a custom race magus (started off human, but things got weird with a permanent stone skin spell), and a human cleric. They are periodically joined by a human cleric who's pretty much a dedicated healer, a dragonborn cleric, a demon who claims to be a cleric, and the cleric of a god that she just made up. At one point, the fighter even comments on how many clerics they seem to attract.

Star Trek: TOS The party leader is a lawful good fighter who'd be a paladin if it weren't for the whole chastity thing. There's also a half-elf archaeologist (bard archetype) and an engineer who has to be a dwarf with a thyroid condition (has a funny accent, loves strong drink, tinkering with machines, and the occasional brawl). Finally, we have the doctor that refuses to do anything but heal. "Bones, this man is dying." "Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor not a... Oh, right. It's my time in the spotlight."

I ran a selection of scenarios with supernatural themes as an extended Halloween celebration last month. Naturally, many undead and ghosts were involved. The first adventure I ran this month was

Dropping the keys in the circumstances described sounds like a case of GM fiat to make the plot device work.

They're just uncommon enough that my kitsune bard prefers to appear in human form when singing at predominantly human venues. It is so annoying when you're getting to the really emotional part of a ballad and some drunk in the corner shouts, "Hey, look! A singing fox!"

** spoiler omitted ** --warning innuendo ahead

Let's be clear about this:

The only trouble with pets I've seen at a table was at a con where the six character party included my spiritualist Samantha and her phantom Uncle Albrecht, a summoner and his eidolon, and two clerics and their animal companions. The issue wasn't really one of making turns take longer because we were all low level characters. The problem arose when we all tried to cram into a tiny rowboat. The rest of the party actually made Sam keep Uncle Albrecht out because he has Profession Sailor...

Remember, the goal is to have fun. If you're having fun, you're doing a good job. If you and your players are having fun, you're doing a great job.

If a player wants to use a rule you're unfamiliar with, have them read it to you--slowly and carefully. Listen to what that rule says, then calmly say how it applies to the situation at hand and why.

Did I tell you to have fun?

Reflex 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

Despite Kelistra's last moment effort to get out of the fiery projectile's path, it hits her in the chest. The rocket's impact hurts a lot, but more annoying are the bright lights that dance across her eyes, even when they're closed. Oh, well. Not like I could hit anyone normally, she thinks.

"Twinkle, twinkle, Pointy Hat," the melody of Kelistra's ongoing performance has transitioned to an old nursery tune. "How I wonder where you're at. I see a shadow over there, I'm shooting now, best beware. Twinkle, twinkle, Pointy Hat. Did I find where you're at?"

Attack 1d20 + 2 + 1 - 1 ⇒ (5) + 2 + 1 - 1 = 7 Damage 1d6 ⇒ 6 This is the last round of Kelistra's Inspire Courage.

When you team up with a paladin, you have to be prepared for the periodic facepalm when he busts into the temple full of evil cultists and yells, "You're all under arrest." Or words to that effect.

But yes, the decision was reached and acted upon to forego subterfuge.

OK, a roll that good has to work, so that's how I'll write this post. Hope you don't mind I'm not waiting for the "official" word, Tare.

I must get free. Free to keep moving. No, free of this urge. I don't want to go south, really. But I have to. No, I don't. Yes, south. Naiethua struggles vainly to free herself from the mental compulsion. She tries to wiggle free of her irrational desire with logic, but the compulsion grabs her arguments and drags her back to the need to head south. Every time she thinks she can force her way free by sheer will power, the compulsion pushes her will down. Her mental struggles are mirrored in her body's futile efforts to get free of Sylthain's hold. Must prevent whatever's doing this from learning how I can... Lightning, that's it I'll fry the filthy human. No, in the name of Eanius, no!

Then Victor grabs the necklace and rips it from Naiethua's throat and the elf goes limp under Sylthain. She takes a few deep breaths then says, "Thanks, friends. I never realized what a tricky trap my own mind could be. Not sure I could have gotten out without you." She sits quietly for a few moments before adding, "But I'm fine now. So Sylthain, you might want to get off of me before we give Miss Lyra the wrong impression."

Be it so known that the bearer of this charter has been charged by the Swordlords of Restov, acting upon the greater good and the authority vested within them by the office of the Regent of the Dragonscale Throne, has granted the right of exploration and travel within the wilderness region known as the Greenbelt. Exploration should be limited to an area no further than thirty-six miles east and west and sixty miles south of Oleg’s Trading Post. The carrier of this charter should also strive against banditry and other unlawful behavior to be encountered. The punishment for unrepentant banditry remains, as always, execution by sword or rope. So witnessed on this 24th day of Calistril, under watchful eye of the Lordship of Restov and authority granted by Lord Noleski Surtova, current Regent of the Dragonscale Throne.

This is the recruitment thread for a beginner friendly Kingmaker Adventure Path PBP. I’m looking for six players, no experience required. That said, I’m not going to turn away experienced players if you’re willing to tolerate the newness factor—including newish GM.

I’d appreciate it if you’d read these character creation guidelines. Also read the Kingmaker AP Player’s guide which is available as a free download from Paizo.

Character Requirements:

What I’m looking for is characters that are interesting, will work in a party, and fit this setting. Please read the player’s guide before submitting a character. I’ll be weighting acceptance towards well written background and personality with allowances made for people who are new to PBP.

I'll keep recruitment open at least until Monday March 12. I'm sure I've forgotten many things. So please feel free to ask if you don't see something covered.

47. You think of your cubicle at work as the five foot space you occupy.

As a point of information: Google's search algorithm selects the results that will be most relevant for each user based on their prior searches and what they clicked. So, if the algorithm see a user going to the Democratic National Committee site and that user searches "Newt Gingrich", she's more likely to get links to "newtisafascistdog.org" than a Google user who routinely goes to the Fox News website.

So what does that have to do with this conversation? Many people have posted that they googled "furry" or "catfolk" and didn't get fetish art. 3.5 Loyalist claims that he gets inundated with fetish porn when he runs those posts. That doesn't mean all furry art is fetish porn, it means that Google selects fetish porn when Loyalist searches for furry art.

I know resolving the rules ambiguity is up to the DM, but if I were running I'd allow it. Just because I love how you're going from "My character just died, bummer" to "For now, I'm gonna rock playing this snow leopard! Unleash Awesome Attack!"

Skaorn wrote:

magnuskn wrote:

Well, it made me say "There's no way that any straight man, ever, will play this race." :p

Thank you for giving me a reason to actually want to play a Catfolk character.

Really? Can you imagine playing a male character who looks remotely like that catgirl in the Bestiary? And be taken seriously by the other players?

Assuming you meant "male player" instead of "male character", yes, I can. The same way I can take the scrawny kid playing a burly barbarian, the middle aged accountant playing an elven bard, and the off duty cop playing a rogue seriously. (BTW, played with all three of those examples at one time or another.) One of the selling points of the RPG is that it allows you to mess around with being something you're not.