rook1138's page

given how crappy medicine is as a skill, I'm tempted to throw it as many bones as possible. ""Receive Treatment" means you were actually treated (to me), so I'm going with the success interpretation, not the attempts interpretation.

Although the "final level" for most just say "by the end", but can easily sub in "before last encounter" if you want.

Each book has recommended level spots spelled out pretty much on page 2. (pg 6 for book 1)

Well, escape under the Acrobatics skill
"Attempting to escape from a grapple or pin is
a standard action. On a success, you free yourself from
the grapple or pin and no longer have the grappled or pinned condition. The DC to escape a grapple or pin is typically
10 + the grappler’s Kinetic Armor Class."

Nothing under the pinned condition says escaping a pin means you are still grappled, and nothing under grappled condition or maneuver say that either (the maneuver says they are instead pinned, not ALSO pinned, so they wouldn't have both conditions of grappled AND pinned).
so I'd say escaping a pin means you end the pinned condition. And you don't have the grappled condition, so you're free.

well, I'd advise them to still get a pistol...
range of 25ft+5/2lvls isnt nearly as good as range 80ft...

Weapons will often reflect in the stat block. That's covered in the back of alien archive as well, esp with the class graft. (you basically pick a lvl appropriate weapon and go from there).
but the AC and to hit and all that generally fit pretty well on the CR/Role table, with maybe a +/-2 swing on any given bonus, and +/- 10 hp.

monster stats don't really follow PC build rules. there's a whole table in thge back for hit/acs based on role/cr.
gear/loot in the block is really only there so they arent naked and you have something to take off them.

in the game im running, one of my players (a techno) has the armor mods for 5 fire/cold resist and 5 electricity resist.
and because of how line weapons work, the techno was basically the tank against the robots with the base plasma rifles.
He'd often take zero dmg on a hit (1d10+5, half fire half electricity...), which then meant the line didn't hit anyone else.

Strange - I would've thought that this would be covered under the Medicine skill.

Looking at the descriptions for medical gear, it seems like diagnosis is now part of the treatment check (i.e. the Advanced Medkit mentions "diagnose & treat ailments") but offers no mechanics aside from treatment bonuses & DCs.

Based on all of that, I'd opt for following SirShua's advice.

One of SO MANY flaws with the medicine skill as written...

yeah, there was a similar loot object that was a 5th lvl fusion in a lvl 5 seal.
REALLY limits what weapons it could go on...
There really needs to be a mechanic for upgrading a seal.

I agree with Big Lemon up until the interactions with objects that are not the initial target.

It seems to me that if any of those other objects/targets have cover/concealment from you (because the spell only counts for that first target, correct?) then you're giving yourself a pretty good chance to have your shot miss, and then the line rules come into effect so you can't hit anything else, even your initial target, anymore.

Or, if your initial target took a 90 degree right hand turn, your munitions take the turn to follow him, now you don't have line of effect or sight to anything else in that hall, so they aren't valid targets. Would your shot just end, since you can't damage a non-valid target? Or are we going to draw sight/effect lines from your munition instead of you now, bringing even more non-rule weirdness?

Missing doesn't prevent you from hitting other people. Hitting and doing zero damage does.

Hmm, maybe require Will saves after the first week in the Drift, if you don't have some notable entertainment options available or work to keep busy with. . .

All Drift and No Play make Ysoki go crazy...

alternatively, let the GM kill you all in the gimped ship, and then say "well, what'd you expect when you wouldn't let us upgrade it, and you knew the CRs of the ships we'd be facing. Good game though, wanna do a retcon and say we've been upgrading our ship the whole time and do it again?" (not really a good idea, but with his complaining, I think it'd at least be a good idea to broach the subject now and explain that you all WILL die in future space fights if things don't change)

But seriously though, I think the adventure REALLY should have spelled out more on "while the PCs are doing X, this is a good time to have their ship upgraded to lvl Y which they'll be once they're done exploring", considering this is a new adventure for a new system, there should have been slightly more hand holding imo in this department. I kept looking for good "downtime" options for ship retrofitting in the books, and finding none. So that's why I adopted the off-screen upgrades while the PCs are exploring. Not 100% sure how I'll be working it now that they're out in the expanse...

retrofitting (changes without new BP):
"Refitting a single system or starship weapon usually
takes 1d4 days."

upgrading (spending new BP):
"installing a single upgrade takes 1d4 days"

there's literally nothing saying you can't do more than one system at a time, especially if you've got the manpower.

and yeah, if GM isn't allowing you to upgrade your ship in the AP, you's gonna die.
I'm also running the AP for my group, and basically any time they're in port, it goes in to get retrofitted/upgraded to whatever tier they're gonna be by the time they leave. Like while they were in the jungle, the university lady was like "hey, while you were out, I upgraded your power core and shields and stuff".

Kinda sounds like your GM is just trying to be a dick (or inadvertently being one, may not be intentional).

That stat blocks I have seen for starships do not add the entire skill, just the rank of the pilot for AC and TL.

The blocks I have seen are for SFS adventures.

Yeah, this was what I was referring to as well, but mostly for the AP stuff.

depends on what you mean.
the bad guy stat blocks I believe have the pilot ranks added already.
the good guy stat block does not since it will change frequently.

Remember that a swarm doesn't need to be in only a 10-foot square. It can be a "line" 1 square by 4 squares, perhaps reaching PCs who stay away from it while still being a nuisance to those trying to flee.

I know that's how it was in PF, but I'm not seeing anything in the Alien Archive saying that's still the case for swarms. It's not in any of the swarm traits, not in the swarm graft. The only space mentioned is a 10ft square or cube. So although I was going to play with the old swarm rules of "any 4 contiguous squares", that's not how they play per RAW anymore from what I can tell...

And yeah, I was already going to have the building collapse regardless. The doors were jammed because they became pseudo-load bearing. So with the PCs more than likely opening a lot of those, it jacked the structural integrity of the building.

ok, for the last encounter in the security building...
how does a swarm actually block a door?

1) per RAW, you'd still need to tumble through them and if you fail your movement is stopped, so there IS that (doesn't really make sense for a swarm of fine critters imo, but purposefully entering the swarm area I'd imagine would subject you to the attack/distraction if nothing else).

2a) even with that above, it has no range and a speed of 10 and is unintelligent and REALLY hungry...if the PCs stay in the far side of the room, it's gonna have to move to engage them, thus no longer blocking the door. And once the door isn't blocked, why would the PCs stay and fight when they can just leave (thus also negating event 1)?
2b) And if the swarm stays in the doorway and the PCs decide not to engage, but just work on breaking down the wall with the charges they recovered from the temple of the twelve...
(90% sure my players are going to ask me about 2a and 2b since fighting swarms have always sucked [as in dangerous/takes forever] in every game and they'll work on not engaging it)

jack ferencz wrote:

Besides providing the requisite starship combat for Book 4, what is the purpose of the encounter with the Fearful Symmetry? My players aren't the biggest fans of starship combat so I feel inclined to cut this bit, since it seems disconnected from the rest of the adventure.

Real talk: we included that encounter to a) spice up travel through the Drift and b) to both show off that the Azlanti Star Empire is one of our setting's major threats and to foreshadow the next AP a bit. Now it can be told!

If you do end up cutting it, you might need to have at least one other encounter on Istamak to keep your players at the right XP level.

Yeah, i was about to ask the same thing. This encounter seemed sorta...random/unrelated/unnecessary...

so I was thinking of cutting it as well.

Or basically have it as a scenery encounter (honestly, looking at that ship and the stats of the PCs ship...the azlanti's scans would pretty much tell the 2-man crew to not attempt to try and take them out; their weapons wouldn't really do much to the PCs shields, and the PCs weapons would tear them apart).

So it'd be more a "Hey look, it's a ship you don't recognize that looks super spiffy, but they just dropped out of the drift before you could do anything", just like the other "random things you see in the drift" section.

And it felt weird that Part 1 was purely dedicated to that one encounter.

To make up for it xp/session wise, I was going to stretch out the town/2 religious sites so each one is sorta it's own part instead of mashed into a single part.

This is exactly what I was talking about, correct. As long as you are directly damaging (I assume hit points and ability damage both count) a target, it is considered an attack, even if you aren't rolling an attack roll.

I don't think damage is what defines an attack. but giving someone a condition or such would as well (such as fear, or daze, or blind, or whatever).

Basically, any spell that affects a non-ally is most likely an attack, even if it doesn't do damage.

I agree from the professional skills and services cost POV that the economy is kinda wonky.
but for items/upgrades as you level and such, for the most part, I don't have an issue with it. (10% to sell used stuff. seems legit #GameStop)
Crafting, well, that's a whole other issue imo. Although as someone who crafts a lot of stuff, this kinda rings true...
"Why buy something for $5 when you can get the stuff needed and make it yourself for $15" :-p

That being said, I personally wouldn't run my game that way. I don't have armor dex bonuses at the ready at the table; instead I would automatically apply a -2 AC penalty to any NPC with the encumbered condition for expediency's sake.

Pretty much what I'd do as well. NPCs use NPC rules, so adapting PC rules to NPCs means you really need to delve into the spirit of said rule more than the RAW of said rule.

Immediately following up a murder with necromancy performed on the corpse would also ensure they couldn't be raised.

Not only did you eliminate your business rival, but you get mindless servant as an added bonus!

in a pathfinder pirate game, we'd kill em, put em in a coffin, animate them, and then bury at sea (or bury the animate skeleton on an island.

so raising or using higher magics was quite difficult.

Honestly, although it may suck for players, I'd also adjust the cost of raise dead to be dependent on the target (kinda like an item of their level or something). It's more expensive to raise a powerful overlord than it would be to raise a peasant.

Once the players leave the dome...
"the PCs will be exposed to Eox’s
thin and toxic atmosphere (Core Rulebook 396)"

So go to 396
Where it says the type of poison, onset time, and DC varies by planet...

ok, so check Eox entry
Just says "atmosphere: toxic"

ok...so is it in the eox write up in the AP?
Not as far as I can tell...

I mean, yeah, the PCs would be dumb to venture out without armor that can protect them, but given all the info on the writeups when they were exploring the jungles in book 2 (which were also negated by armor and/or life bubble for the most part), I just find this sorta...odd...

Or am I totally missing something? which is always a possibility.

Since I've read comments here, and my own players have mentioned buying a land vehicle, I'm pretty sure they will also opt to not walk outside in hostile environment to the location, but use a car type.
The book has vehicle chase rules, so this seems like a fun way to introduce those while the PCs are coming back from the hut.

Oh, and one more thing: The loot in Star-Eaters Spine in area B6b has a pair of injection gloves that I could not find from the books either by hand or by PDF search. Only similiar thing that came to mind were the Painclaws in AP2. Since those were devourer-specific it seems logical that these are the ones you find, any comments or ideas on this one?

Injection gloves are a base book one-handed advanced melee weapons. pg 172

How are they encumbered while piloting? I'd assume they're probably only wearing their armor and maybe a weapon/sidearm while actually piloting, with the rest in a pack on the ground near them or in storage in their room. Or does the armor+weapon put them over their bulk limit?

side related question, if you're immune to flat footed, can you still get trick attacked ala it does extra damage, triggers possibly a debilitating trick but no flat footed (and no extra effects that trigger if flat foot) or is it a 'trick attack attempt, successful roll, but target immune to flat foot so no extra damage and no trick extras applied?

Nothing in the attack says the dmg is reliant on the target being flat-footed. Also, if the target is already flat-footed, you don't automatically do the extra damage. So I'd have to say being immune to flat-footed just means you are immune to being flat-footed, it does not make you immune to the extra damage.

In the example from the CRB:

holy fusion seal (10th) means that the item level for the seal is 2, since holy fusion is a 2nd level fusion, and that the (10th) dictates that item level weapons of 10 down to 0 may apply it, but that it cannot go below 2, since 2 is the minimum for the fusion seal's actual item/fusion level.

A Much better way of explaining what I was trying to say. thank you.

This game sort of suffers from using the same word to mean so many different things...and where they intersect it can get confusing.

A couple things:
1) the price you pay is based off the level of the item the fusion is being added to, not the level of the fusion. (it took my group a bit to notice that...), +10% for a seal (so a lvl 10 seal would be 3580+358, no matter what fusion is being added to it)

2) so if you have holy fusion seal (lvl 10) as in the example, it can be added to any weapon between levels 2 and 10 (the minimum needed for holy, and the maximum level of the seal).

3) so in the OPs question, a Shock (5) seal could literally only be added to a level 5 weapon, since shock requires a minimum level of 5 to be added to a weapon, and you capped the seal at 5. But if it was a Shock (8) seal, it could be added to any weapon between 5 and 8.

Currently, the way they changed disease and poisons, Fort save is probably the one I really don't want to have low. and since a high con isn't AS necessary as it once was, a non-favored fort can really hurt.
who knew a DC 11 poison can hose half the party...

But really, all saves are important...when you need to make that save :-p

or a weapon with both the point and the broad category.

and it comes at the opportunity cost of not putting a harder hitting/longer range weapon in that spot (without spending more BP for a second mount on a turret/second turret).
I don't really see a problem with a point defense turret.

There is also the "taking dmg while you are dying" part. (bottom of 251, left column)

If PC A drops it, it is now dying; and then PC B does damage, it loses 1 RP. it CAN lose more than 1 RP in this way, but the 2nd one needs to do a fair amount of damage to result in RP loss.
Then on its turn, it could heal it's 2, then get up or crawl, then get dropped again to dying, and tagged 1 more time and be down another RP. Rinse and Repeat till dead.

Alternatively, if a PC is able to after it's been dropped to dying (so, it is now helpless), there's always a coup de grace (which MAY cause enough dmg to lower its RP by another one, and also the important fort save or die).

Realistically, unless a monster's AC is insane and fast healing is gigantic, a prone creature surrounded by PCs that heals a little before it actually dies isn't much of a threat...

especially if you combo this with the "resolve or die" happens before the fast healing (which I think it should), which means it'll be burnign at LEAST 1 RP a round, easily 2 if a PC hits it while it's down, and possibly more if someone can hit it REALLY hard after that before it gets back up.

if they remove the +4, they should add a new skill that ghosts can use for trick attack then.

The logic I see in the specs is this:

does the spec add a new skill to trick attack
No -> well, you get a +4 to the skill then

Yes ->
is the new skill dex-based ->
No -> you get a +4 to the new skill
Yes -> you have a new dex-based skill you can use for trick
attack

If you remove the +4 for ghost, they either need to add a new skill to use for trick attack, and if it's non-dex based, they'd get the +4. But then the question is...what skill fits thematically without stepping on the toes of other specs?

I was hoping there would be something at the start of book 3 about upgrading the tier of their ship to match the party level, but there really isn't anything. And from the pacing and urgency presented in the mod

is the 1d4 days needed to refit/upgrade a ship (according to RAW) within that time span? or are they stuck with the Maiden as is currently?

yeah, the only real major change my players were looking at was swapping out the recreation suite for a medbay once they can.

when planning my operative, I saw the "inoculated" exploit and was like "eh"
then i trekked through the jungle and ran in to murder monkeys.
yeah, that was my 4th lvl exploit.

As for the initial question, it sounds like 1) is correct

pg 415
"If a victim is exposed to multiple doses of the same poison, she must attempt a separate save for each dose and progresses to the next state on the poison track with each failed save."

so RAW, if you're hit with the same poison enough times in a single round, you could die in that round, when you or an ally haven't had time to do anything. which sucks and seems a little OP. (but, also sorta makes sense if you've been injected with a liter of poison over 4.2 seconds...). I may house rule this a little, but not 100% sure how.

Looks like you'd need to upgrade an existing mount (5 BP), or add a mount (3BP) and then upgrade to a turret (5bp). But you can't have more than 2 in an arc.

By spending 4 BP, the crew can upgrade a light weapon
mount in any of the aft, forward, port, or starboard arcs to a
heavy weapon mount. By spending 6 BP, the crew can upgrade
a light weapon mount on a turret to a heavy weapon mount. By
spending 5 Build Points, the crew can upgrade a heavy weapon
mount in any of the aft, forward, port, or starboard arcs to a
capital weapon mount. Heavy weapons can be mounted on only
Medium or larger starships. Capital weapons can be mounted on
only Huge or larger starships and can’t be mounted on turrets.

By spending 3 BP, the crew can fit a new light weapon mount
in any of the aft, forward, port, or starboard arcs with enough
free space. By spending 5 BP, the crew can fit a new light weapon
mount on a turret that has enough free space. Tiny and Small
starships can have only two weapon mounts per arc (and per
turret). Medium and Large starships can have only three weapon
mounts per arc (and per turret). Huge and larger starships can
have only four weapon mounts per arc (and per turret).

rook1138 wrote:

Since it's pretty much impossible for someone's pilot bonus to be lower than their gunnery bonus (assuming max ranks), I think I'm going to just use the listed pilot bonus for the gunnery checks for when I run it tonight.

Although it IS a CR4 encounter for a tier2 opponent ship, so :shrug:

Not impossible; Piloting skill also includes things like class skill bonus and skill focus, which gunnery does not.

But gunnery checks don’t use piloting bonus, they use piloting ranks.

...that's exactly my point.

pilot bonus = ranks+dex+class+theme+focus+whatever
gunnery = ranks+dex

gunnery is basically a subset of your pilot bonus, it can be equal, but pretty much impossible to be higher than your pilot bonus.
which is why the to-hit for the ship doesn't really jive.

So not sure if you guys disagreeing with me but really accidentally agreeing with me, or what...

Ah, I didn't realize antitoxins worked like that. The poison was more of an aside, though. I still have a huge problem with their accuracy and damage.

seems reasonable to me given how npc stats are being calced these days.

That being said, I had 3 poisoned PCs, and 1 was 2 down the track. And recovering UP the track takes forever and there isn't really an easy way to accelerate that...I like (but hate as a player) that they made poisons and diseases matter again, even with low DC.

rixu wrote:

Then again,

"Most of the recharging stations that replenish devices, such as batteries and power cells (see page 234), also recharge armor’s environmental protections"
and in the backup generators: "You can connect charged electric items such as batteries to this miniature generator to recharge them."

I ruled that since the armor is a charged electric item it can be charged. It is a bit of a gray area though, and I'm not sure if that was a good call to make...

EDIT: Then again, on batteries it is said "In addition to weapons, batteries can be used to power a wide array of items, including powered armor and technological items."
So you can charge batteries that could power powered armors but not basic armors? That also sounds strange.

I ruled the other way. Since most armor and environmental protection doesn't have a capacity or charge section written up about it I think it's probably not a battery and thus beyond the backup generator's ability to recharge

On the other hand I don't have a problem with it charging a battery that goes into power armor. That battery is a separate item that is distinguishable from the armor itself.

I envision the backup generator working like a station for rechargeable AA batteries; you can plug something in and charge it but you can't use it while it's charging.

I viewed the "recharging" of the environmental protections more like a series of hoses and plugs that you'd plug into the armor. some recharge the power portion, sure. the others clean out/flush the filters, respirators, personal waste systems, cleans the sweat out, etc; which is why I figured a backup generator was insufficient, it doesn't deal with a lot of that part...

since the mod says that it tried to hitch a ride if it flees, I did the same.
however, it got killed when a missile hit the arc it was hiding on on the outside of the ship once the shields got depleted.
The party was surprised to see a large mass of biological goo when they were repairing the hull.

I don't think the backup generator works with the environmental protection recharge since it is neither a starship nor an environmental recharge station (which are also available at places that have a battery charging station):
pg 198: "Recharging this duration requires access
to a functioning starship or an environment recharging station"
This makes me think it is more than a simple battery charge, but probably also filters, etc. BUT, I can see how one could also say it's the same thing, so :shrug:

However,

Androids need to sleep.
pg 43: "Due to their biological components, androids need to eat and sleep,"
unless he's got something else going for him that says otherwise (?)

we treated it as a trade good for resell (so 100% resell per the CRB),

As for crafting, since crafting is also basically a 1:1, we basically said a melee weapon needs 2,000 creds worth of noqual (so 4 bulks worth), and ammo needs 40creds of noqual to make per piece, since that's how much making something out of it increases the cost of that item. Made for easy math and no real fudging of the numbers.

When everything is a 1:1, it's pretty easy.
It's also why i like the salvage rules.
UPBs are 1:1 (and 1000upbs is 1 bulk)
if I sell a laser, i get 10%
if I scrap the laser, I get 10% worth of UPBs.
so sell or scrap, the math is the same to my bottom line.

I don't know about the changes for taking longer, but I know my party is looking at 12, not 10 days, since there are some in heavy armor, so speed is 25 not 30.
That being said, they aren't worried about the extra time for their environmental issues. We're on day 8, and so far the most anyone has used is 16 hours of life support.

Life Bubble is a great known spell. hits multiple targets and lasts multiple days, and negates the heat factor which is the main reason you'd be burning life support hours on your armor. So a single caster, casting it once a day, can get the whole party by the second day, so only some people need to use their life support on day 1 (12 hours). after that, the caster just re-ups it each day on the ones with the lowest duration left.

But yeah, since they're not making it in 10 days, but also not taking longer than 13 (the 2 lengths that dictate story XP for the trek), I'm not really gonna mess with much.

if you look at his bonuses, it looks like he didn't max all of his 1st lvl skills.

Acrobatics went up by 3, so maxed
athletics only went up by 2. so 1 extra points
diplomacy went up by 3, so maxed
life science went up by 1, so 2 extra points

so he's got 3 points to play with, thus adding Perception (1 rank, 1 wis, 3 class for +5) and Stealth (2 ranks, 1 dex, 3 class, so +6)

[list]

Round 2, this unfortunately doesn't work. A Full Action is its own kind of action, and even though it encompasses you moving with the Trick Attack, its still the type of action Full Action which will not allow you to make a Stealth check as part of it.

My biggest issue with this correct RAW is that it also means a lot of OTHER things can't be done during the move part of the trick attack. Like balancing, or fly, or climbing, or jumping, or swimming, or drawing a weapon while moving if you have a +1 BAB, use jump jets, etc.

Some of these I can maybe see not being allowed (maybe), but honestly, most of them make no sense for not being allowed. It basically invalidates the actual use of the skill acrobatics for the daredevil archetype.
"ok, I leap onto the table, swing from the chandelier onto the table next to him, and then stab him". Well, sorry, no. according to the RAW, you can walk around the table, making some fancy arm gestures, and then stab him, so you can't end the movement on top of the table.

Like I said, it IS correct, but imo, it's also dumb and an unnecessary restriction to a keystone power to a class that STILL doesn't make them remotely compare to the bab+1 classes avg damage potential, and HOPE it gets cleared up in an FAQ in a non-dumb way.

We just used sniping the other day...
monster only had 15ft move, but a 100ft aura. so we stayed well out of the aura and sniped it with sniper rifles. One would aim and fire while the other moved back and reloaded (the rest of the party stayed between or behind the snipers for support purposes, just in case). repeat till the monster died.