rooty's page

I would say focus on the first part, and don't overstress about the second. Min maxing into op builds is a choice people make deliberately, its an outright statement that they want the mechanical aspects of the game to come easy to them. So let it happen and try to keep the excitement up in other areas. IF you try too hard to make the combat difficult you're just going to fall into a weird one upsmanship game with your players.

Fair enough, that's some good advice.

In that regard, I guess I want combat to have the gravitas that is appropriate for the plot. I don't necessarily want to make every combat a challenge, just make a few of them feel meaningful.

If you make small encounter to drain ressources they should be over relativly fast. Enemies dont need the best tactics or a lot of complicated terrain or spells the let the players use/waste some resources.

The monk charges in, flurry of blows full attack and stun or trip the enemy. An enemy is out before they can even react.

An encounter with 5 minions costs maybe 5 charges of their three Cure Light Wounds wands, one charge of Bardic Performance and a ki point.
The resources that a 'small encounter' drains is barely worth the time it took to play out.

That said, the Rathos encounter with Antimagic Field has been a banger. Even with the two tanky friendly NPCs the party has been dragging along, Rathos has been kicking their ass and is a genuine challenge they had to work around.

Certainly not a method that I can just repeat for every second encounter, but it was exactly the challenge I hoped for. Thank you everyone for the many suggestions and tips.

I need to start thinking of how to set up the boss encounter for this dungeon now to follow this up with. Definitely need to not let them have enough time to rest.

The most simpel solution is to let the players be 1 level behind the AP’s recommended party level.

They're two levels behind and still wipe the floor with everything.

A 17 tells them that it has DR, a 22 tells them it has immunity cold, a 27 tells them that he has channel resistance +4, and a 32 tells them that he gets improved initiative as a bonus feat.

Both the bard and the Arcanist regularly hit Knowledge checks of 30. Checks above 20 are almost guaranteed. Sure, they may not identify all the ins and outs of a creature, especially a rarer one, but they're bound to recognize a shambling skeleton.

That said, thank you for the tips!

Counterspelling is definitely an option... That said, you need to prepare an action to do that, right? That's just one person always ready to counterspell that one or two annoying spells.

I'd check out the Mummy's Mask forum...

Been a while since I peeked in there. Thank you for the reminder that this exists. But I did mostly want some more general tips for handling a party like this, even if I deeply appreciate all the AP-specific advice I've gotten here.

One last thing Rooty, I gotta ask: how immersed are the players in the game world, story and their own characters? Do you feel like the players feel an emotional connection to the action, or are they mechanically playing a tactical combat simulator to "win?"

[...]
So think about your players. Are they interested in the AP's plotlines and story beats? Are they engaged with the foes their fighting? Do they act out a personal stake their characters have in seeing this through? It might be that the issue you're feeling is that the players just want a combat simulation and you want something else? IDK, just throwing that out there.

It's a mix of both, both between different players and within a few of the players. There is definitely some of the players that don't engage as much in the roleplay as I'd like - which is a pity because they have some of the most setting-relevant or plothook-potential character builds, one being a follower of Wadjet and the other being a Paladin of Sarenrae, who sadly has to miss out on 2 of 3 sessions and can't really be the guy that builds up a connection with the handful of enemies that the party captures rather than kills.

Some of the other players definitely engage in some more roleplay, particularly among themselves or in relation to their own character (relationships, discoveries about their backstory or heritage, processing of near-death experiences, etc.) While they're not as deeply and emotionally invested in roleplay as I enjoy with another group I'm playing in, they do engage with some of the NPCs in roleplay ways. E.g. they decided and managed to convince the mercenaries hired by the enemy to lay down their weapons and retreat without a fight. They're also trying to not murder the maftets tempted by a demon, as they have been asked by their relatives a while back to try and save some of their tribe people. However, the party rarely engages and builds in-depth relationships with NPCs beyond what is relevant for the current quest.

Another thing to consider is if the party is expending limited resources to steamroll the encounter the encounter did what it is supposed to do. That is often the real purpose of the encounter. So, another option to increasing the difficulty of encounters is to increase the number of encounters. When the monk uses up his stunning fist and the paladin does not have any lay on hands left, they will not steamroll encounters.

Ideally, that would be the case, yes. But since we only have like 2-3 hours a week to play, I don't want to spend 3 weeks with seemingly meaningless encounters for the party to expend all their resources, only for them to do a long rest and be fully rested again before the next meaningful encounter.

Yeah, that makes sense. I at first thought Antimagic Field was an area you place somewhere like Silence, but it's not. Rathos using it on himself makes perfect sense though.

Though technically an Antimagic Field would suppress Rathos' own supernatural abilities, if I read it right?

I guess I could change those to be Extraordinary Abilities though if I really wanted to.

2.) Your Party als dont have a rouge, so i guess no trapfinding.
I dont suggest some powerful traps, but some pits (10-20 feet deep only) to catch the Paladin before a fight (extra round or two to get out, deppending on their climb skill) can make for a much harder battlefield.

The monk has super high perception and makes sure to thoroughly examine every room and hallway and door before the party approaches. With this AP being an ancient egypt-themed campaign and there being a lot of ancient tombs and such to explore, the party encountered a handful of traps already and is careful to not run into them unnecessarily.

The only way to have a trap go off would be to give them no time to check for traps.

Definitely gonna keep troops in mind. I almost forgot about them, despite going up against a handful of them in another campaign. Not sure if there's much room for those in the current dungeon anymore, but I'll keep an eye out for opportunities.

The last tip likely won't be as useful. The bard and sorcerer have high knowledge skills and in our game group it's common to roll to identify the enemies and their abilities.
And with a single skeleton, I doubt a Cacophonous Call would be the first move. That would be the monk rushing in and knocking it to pieces.

Some nice tips in there though, thank you!

His stat block is miscalculated. He should actually have a speed of 15 feet as the template reduces his base speed to 20 feet and the heavy armor reduces it further.

Interesting! Though I think I will just to ignore this. With the party being as high range and high mobility as they are, I don't want to limit his movement any further.

You can save the spellcasters for the boss and have him take the drug Old-Mage and activate a scroll of Antimagic Field before the fight starts, perhaps even a scroll of Widened Antimagic Field. Will saves are overrated when he is immune to magic, and that will also negate Smite Evil and cause the Summoner's Eidolon to vanish, since it is treated as a summoned creature.

Oh, Antimagic is actually a great suggestion that could fit well here. Don't even need the drug, I planned to give him a spellcaster or two by his side anyway. Would make them useless too of course, but frankly, they're not doing much against the party anyway.

Edit: Oh I see, it's centered on self. Yeah, Rathos casting it on himself would make sense then. Scroll should still work. Excellent idea.

You mention the backline a lot in your OP. Some thoughts:

1. Dimension Door delivery service: a 7th level wizard NPC is a CR6 addition to the fight; not much of a genuine threat to an APL 10 party. However that's 1 NPC that can bring 2 Medium creatures from somewhere ahead of the fight to the backline in a heartbeat. The wizard NPC enemy has no more actions this round, but if the 2 Medium sized foes were specialized for grappling and instantly began engaging the wizard and cleric, there goes a lot of spell support

2. Stealth: a Small sized foe with Stealth as a Class skill at around CR8 could potentially have a Stealth +20. Say for the sake of argument this foe had a 10 on their Stealth check to hide and wait for all but the backline of the party to move into the combat area; there's a good chance some or none of the PCs detect them.

3. Long Range spells: the humble Magic Missile travels 100' +10'/level. A CR8 NPC Skeletal Champion caster would be L8 in their casting class. That means from 180' away they're dropping 5d4+5 on the Sorcerer, Bard or Cleric. Use a readied action so that the damage disrupts spellcasting for extra oomph.

Good tips, definitely gonna make use of some of them I think.

1. Taunt your players in real time: What does Rathos know about the plot that the party doesn't? What do they know about the PCs? Pick on them, taunt them with hints or clues, try to make the players feel that, even if their PCs win this battle there are still mysteries their foe will keep from them, reminding them how far behind the 8 ball they are.

2. Play tactically: how much time does Rathos have before the PCs get to them? What resources do they have, how can they use that time? Could Rathos bar a door, scatter caltrops or hoist a log trap in place? Do they or their minions have access to longer term spells like Cursed Terrain or Symbol of Death to ward the approach with? Does Rathos have an escape route planned in case the PCs prove too much for them?

Hmm taunting is fun. Gonna have to think of some things.

Definitely trying to set up the Rathos encounter a bit more dramatically. He had some minions that escaped the encounter with the PCs that can report to him, could spy on their plans through the scrying pool a bit, and heard the party planning to retreat to rest.

He certainly learned that the gathered cultists can't really stand up to the party, but he has plenty of time to prepare for them now.

Some great ideas in here. Thank you!

Adjusting an encounter for a party is often a difficult task. One thing that can help is to do some analysis on the encounter. Figure out the average damage the party will do and use that to determine how many creatures should be in the encounter. Use a DPR spreadsheet or something similar to figure out how long the combat will run. This is also helpful for figuring out if you need to boost the power levels of the creatures. Factor in the boost the party is likely to have up in your calculations.

I prefer to create my own adventures and do this all the time. I generally have a good idea on how any particular combat is likely to go especially a boss fight. For the most part my boss fights end up being fairly close and often the players are not sure they are going to survive, but so far, I have had very few deaths. Occasionally a character may be knocked out, but death is fairly rare. But the players never realize that the odds favored them.

I think my next campaign will certainly be a homebrew one. Maybe in a different system. We'll see. But for now, I enjoy both this AP and PF 1e, despite the little hurdles.

This is certainly how I want my combats to feel. Not necessarily all of them. On occasion the party is free to steamroll some goons. But definitely not as much as they do right now.

My current rule of thumb for adjusting HP is that I want the enemy to be able to survive at least one full round of attacks from the monk. Maybe even two. But as I mentioned, I don't want to just pad the encounter with countless more minions and end up doubling the duration of the combat.

I think some of my recent enemies certainly could have needed a bit higher adjustments to their attacks and damage - but that one is also tricky to balance, when the Summoner has almost four times as many hp as the Sorcerer.
Any enemy that can be a reasonable threat to the front line would surely be able to one-shot the squishies, and I don't want that either.

But maybe I'm just still to hesitant with how much I buff the encounters and just have to learn to make the party deal with it.

My advice in how to challenge them? Do so out of combat. Focus on social interactions and knowledge and let them mop the floor with their enemies. Don't engage in an arms race, because then it will become rocket tag and lead to frustration. With some luck you'll show your players that resorting to cheese builds they can "win the game", but that isn't that fun.

We have, in fact, circumvented a bunch of the chump combat by diplomatic solutions. Inbetween the paladin and bard, diplomacy and deception roles are no challenge either, so really, as long as the party wants to try a diplomatic solution and doesn't completely fumble the approach, they can do so (and I happily let them do so).

If you use an AP as written (typical 4 players) for a 6 person groupe of expirenced players - then no wonder they steamroll everything.

My advice is
1) more minions!!! Could come as reinforcements a few rounds in, so you can evaluate if there are needed or not. Could come from another direction to threaten bard and sorcerer.
2) make good use of terrain and hazzards. These makes combats memorable and fun as well as difficult.
3) Limit vision on the battlefield makes the players come up with new strategies. Could be smoke, Darkness, Fog, Illusions or muddy water if under water.
4) Rebuild NPC enemies, as they are much weaker than equal CR monsters.
5) check your players abilities. Cacophonous Call fx. is a mind effect.
Lots of monsters are immune to mind effects like; undeads, construct, vermin, plants, oozes and swarms.

Already doing a good bit of 1, 3 and 4. It's certainly keeping the combat dynamic, but I don't want to just bloat the chump encounters by adding more numbers - plus, when those arrive in 1d4 rounds, the party has already dispatched the majority of the first encounter, so it's just them steamrolling another group of 4 or so reinforcements.

I have to disagree with Khan. At least their first point. You should use exact experience, divided equally between all participants. That means more players will be stronger at the start, since they were going to be level 1 anyways, but they'll keep leveling up slower and slower because the xp is being divided between more characters, causing them to round off as about equal in power to what they would have been if they had only been 4 players.

I don't use experience at all. I use milestone leveling, and as mentioned, the party is technically already underleveled for where the AP wants them, and they're still steamrolling just about any encounter (even those I buff with Advanced templates and extra combatants).

Possible boost for Rathos specifically, swap his feats vital strike and improved sunder for cut from the air and spellcut.

Spellcut is certainly an interesting and kind of flavorful feat. Keeping that in mind, thank you.

So what I'm getting from all of this is to basically keep doing what I'm already doing, just more. I realize there's no easy solution to a party like this, particularly when I really don't want to just blanket counter their intentional character builds.

Thank you all! I'm still open for more specific advice either way, but I guess I won't get around really trying to either cut or rework most of the encounters in this AP.

For context, I'm running the Mummmy's Mask AP. The party is currently in the Sightless Sphinx, the final dungeon in the fourth book, and the party is currently half-intentionally underleveled at lvl 10.

While the party is not out to build the most out and out broken combos that are possible, a lot of them are veteran Pathfinder players that manage to get the best out of their builds, and they managed to put together a group that works together incredibly well.

Consisting of a monk, paladin, bard, synthesist summoner, sorcerer and ecclesitheurge cleric.

The monk has insane damage output with flurry of blows, the Stunning Strikes that target Fortitude, and incredibly high AC (currently 31 with buffs) and mobility. Obviously the frontline, and one that manages to take out any enemy frontline before they can even make a dent in the monk.

The Paladin is similarly tanky, with built-in sustain with the lay on hands. Not as mobile and as many attacks as the monk, but high single target damage with smite.

The Summmoner (Synthesist) is built for grappling, with about a +30 bonus to any grapple attempt, and a CMD to match. Unless the enemy is specifically built for being able to escape that (particularly demons with their at-will teleport, or a Freedom of Movement buff), no enemy has a realistic chance of escaping that grapple. At best, they can squirm out of the pinned condition back into grapple and at least keep the Summoner busy for half the fight.
And the summoner has an insane HP pool and AC.

This is an absolutely lethal combo with the bard's favorite spell: Cacophonous Call. No standard action to free one-self from the grapple. No escaping when you only have one move action and the monk's base speed is already twice your own. And that for 10 turns? That enemy is basically gone from combat. Oh, also, it's a dirge bard, so not even undead are safe.
Followed up by Blindness, especially on the enemy casters.

Bard and Cleric are also great at undoing any CC put onto their party or getting them out of sticky situations with Saving Finale and Dispel Magic and Ethereal Jaunt. (And if the Cleric has nothing to heal, that's just a free +2 AC buff to whoever needs it the most right now.)

The sorcerer is fine enough damage output from the backlines.

Inbetween the monk, paladin and cleric, the party also generally has great wisdom saves, and overall solid saves.

The bard-ecclesitheurge-sorcerer backline is very squishy, but it's often hard to reach those, especially with melee enemies, because the three frontliners (especially the large-to-huge Synthesist) can block hallways and grapple-pull enemies away from the squishies with a ridiculous range.

I am more and more struggling to have encounters feel challenging and meaningful.

I basically run no encounter by the book. Every enemy by now - at least the standard minions - already get an advanced template and their HP set to 100% by default.
(Boss encounters may get some more fine tuning. Hell, I'm about to add Legendary Resistances and Legendary Actions to some of them.)
I also tend to just adding in two or three more minions at least.

And sure, as mentioned above, some encounters naturally come with buffs against certain effects of the party, like the teleport out of a grapple.

Obviously I don't want to blanket negate any of the player builds. But I also don't think that slaughtering their way through 30 nameless minions just to use up some of their resources is particularly thrilling gameplay, especially in the long run. Especially with the time combat tends to take...

The flipside would be to overtune an encounter so much that they basically just assassinate the squishy backline in some way. (See problem above - encounters of primarily/solely melee creatures rarely manage to even get into the ballpark of the backline).

I have a hard time justifying any intelligent creature facing the party to not try to run away after they mowed down the first two enemies, while the enemies in turn barely got to touch the party.

Now I'm looking at the next upcoming encounter: Rathos, a Broken Soul. The abilities and stats are well suited to actually leave some dents in the front line, especially with that Torturous Touch, and the Baleful Gaze can majorly debuff the entire party, depending on their rolls.
I look over to his will save and..... +1. You gotta be kidding me.

One Cacophonous Call and that combat is over.

Sure, Rathos is just a mini boss, but that would be so anti-climactic, especially after I build him up as the 'once second-in command' over the last couple of sessions.

I will be buffing that will save for sure. He's also not fighting alone, as survivors of previous skirmishes have gathered around him. Will add two or so spellcasters to his side with dispel magic at the ready. Maybe Haste too? That base speed of 20 feet is underwhelming.

Even so, I worry about whether the combat will feel dramatic enough. And after that? How would I stop the party from just retreating to rest up again so they're rejuvinated for taking on the big boss? Or should the boss just leave at that point? Because obviously, fleeing from the party seems like a reasonable action at this point, unless the enemies outnumber the party by 1:3.

Mind you, it's never my goal to kill the party, but I want them to feel like they could, in fact, die. And I want to get there without constantly having to target the squishy backline as an opening move. That doesn't seem feasible for every combat scenario, especially ones where the party barges into a room of enemies and manages to engage first.

I'd love to keep this campaign filled with tension, without having to just throw out and completely redo every encounter and dungeon planned in the remaining two books.

I very much enjoy the discussion of Silencing a performing bard, all very insightful. Thank you for the responses!
I would agree that casting Silence on a performing bard should stop the effects all around, but I can see how some people might want to interpret that differently.

But some clarification that might have been missed in my original post:

The bard has consciously ended the performance, thus Lingering Performance is already 'active'.

The question is if casting Silence on the source of the Lingering Performance stops the effects of Lingering Performance (i.e. the lingering effects of the performance in the party members).

The bard has an audible Inspire Courage started, cancels it, has it linger via Lingering Performance.

An enemy then casts Silence on the area the bard is in.

Does the effect of the bardic performance continue or is it immediately drowned out by the silence spell? It seems that RAW is not very clear (I'd be happy to be correct), but would you say RAI the effect is still echoing from the bard, or is it just that the party members are still feeling inspired after the performance ends?

Would you consider "such as range or specific conditions" to include "the targets must be able to hear the bard for the performance to have any effect"?

Relevant rules texts:

If a bardic performance has audible components, the targets must be able to hear the bard for the performance to have any effect, and many such performances are language dependent (as noted in the description). A deaf bard has a 20% chance to fail when attempting to use a bardic performance with an audible component. If he fails this check, the attempt still counts against his daily limit. Deaf creatures are immune to bardic performances with audible components.

A 1st level bard can use his performance to inspire courage in his allies (including himself), bolstering them against fear and improving their combat abilities. To be affected, an ally must be able to perceive the bard’s performance. An affected ally receives a +1 morale bonus on saving throws against charm and fear effects and a +1 competence bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls. At 5th level, and every six bard levels thereafter, this bonus increases by +1, to a maximum of +4 at 17th level. Inspire courage is a mind-affecting ability. inspire courage can use audible or visual components. The bard must choose which component to use when starting his performance.

The bonuses and penalties from your bardic performance continue for 2 rounds after you cease performing. Any other requirement, such as range or specific conditions, must still be met for the effect to continue. If you begin a new bardic performance during this time, the effects of the previous performance immediately cease.

I have a similar problem as above. Book 1 can only be found for atrocious resale prices, if at all.

I can make do with the pdfs, but I would love to have a full collection of the physical books for the first campaign I've ever run for a total of three groups by now, so I'd really love to see a reprint...

(Alternatively, if anyone has the first book for resale for -not over 100-200 bucks-, I'd really appreciate a DM.)

Played this AP through Book 5 Part 1, now running it and having a blast (as are my players, one of whom is 1st-time PF). Anyhoo, to anyone else who ran or is running this, in The Sanctum of the Erudite Eye, area D11 (last room on ground level and the stairs heading down to the crypt), the text states:

Characters who search for tracks in this room can find a single set of bloody boot prints going south with a successful DC 15 Survival check. A result of 19 or more also turns up the tracks of multiple people heading north through this area. The DCs of these Survival checks are reduced by 5 on the staircase behind the north door that descends to the lower level, because of the thickness of the dust on the steps.

Do you take this to mean the PCs must be searching, or does just being there allow Survival checks?

Game on!
- Corey

Imo the players should only do survival checks if they're actively deciding to search for tracks. That takes time, and the players should be the ones playing the game and deciding their actions, not the GM.

If you're generous and your players aren't already in the habit of searching for tracks, you could ask them for a perception check to notice the presence of tracks in the dust or blood (should still require a decision to examine them via Survival to see what kind/how many/which direction they go).

For me it's the exact opposite. I watch this on my TV, via the Twitch app on my FireTV just like any old TV show. I don't really have a use for podcasts though, because I can't just sit down and just listen and do nothing else for hours, and I don't have a long commute and I prefer to read a book on the tram.

The thing is, podcasts aren't really there for you to sit down and do nothing, they're there to fill exactly the times when you want to listen to something but got your hands full, be it during commute, drawing (if you're an artist like me) or doing chores at home.

I second the request above. I listen to a ton of podcast, including TTRPG ones, but I use a podcast app for it (Player FM). I'd appreciate an RSS feed to import and listen the podcast there!

Some posts in here confirmed my worry that the position of the Observatory would make it too easy to find once the group repairs the compass.

I have decided to move it to the far end of the Necropolis, so the party will need to either examine all other buildings along that line or collect further hints (and red herrings). The necropolis is so full of interesting figures and buzzing with life, I don't want to cut that too short.

Also, I decided to forego the random encounter table, because it just doesn't add anything interesting for me. The issue isn't necessarily that they don't contribute to the story, but that most of the encounters lack any sort of context....

Some of the encounters are actually interesting and flavorful, like the Flickering Four from Book 1, or the Dark Stalker in Book 2 searching for other Dark Folk. Less straight up combat stat blocks, more encounters that may or may not get resolved as combat.
(Angry DM explains the issues and solutions more elaborately on his blog. But I get that this may also be an issue of word count and different playstyles.)

Instead, I've written up some more 'scripted events' that I drop wherever they're needed and/or seem appropriate, rather than 2 festrogs that ambush them on a sunny urban street (which aren't much of a challenge at all for my min-maxed monk anyway), or three subsequent vermin fights when the city should be overrun with undead.
For example: the gearghost is a really interesting monster to encounter, but that needs a proper backdrop. You can't just have that spawn in the middle of the street just because your dice told you so. But could have 'set up shop' in a (otherwise uninteresting) building the group investigates - and should be accompanied by an inappropriate number of traps for such a small building.

I'm thinking about cleaning up my notes and plans and post them around the forums for future DMs, though I also worry that most game groups have already moved on to other campaigns or PF2.

Wonderful project, would love to see it continued sometime.

Searching for an obedience for Anubis for one of my players brought me here and the obedience boons helped me a ton.

I made slight alterations to the obedience ritual, just to have it be less restrictive if needed.

At the request of the player, I also made some small changes to the exalted's abilities in relation to Anubis. It should fit a follower of Anubis and the Mummy's Mask campaign just fine.

Also, for anyone else coming here for Obediences for Osirian gods, I'd love to share the Wadjet obedience I made for another player! If
TerminalArtiste ever continues this project and comes around to letter W, let this not stop you from making your own!
Credit where credit is due, the ritual is in part inspired/based off the one the Hastur group came up with, but I found the herb and plant theme unfitting for Wadjet's portfolio. Might rather suit Sobek as god of fertility.

Anyway..

Thank you so much! That's what I hoped to hear.

So, if I want to grow a stronger leaf leshy with two HD, that would be 2*500GP (-25%) for the ritual? And not 500GP+2,250GP (-25%)?

Hello people!

I have a Leshy Warden druid that I very much enjoy playing, but I am unfortunately a bit lost on the actual cost of creating new Leshy (via ritual, not summoning).

Here are the various excerpts that are relevant.

Leshy Caller (Ex)

A leshy warden is an expert at summoning and growing leshies. She counts as a plant creature for the purpose of growing leshies.

[source]

Leshy Creation Summary

• [...]
  
• Time: 2 weeks per HD. Plant creatures take half the time required to grow the leshy.
  
• Cost: never less than 1,000 gp. Plant creatures reduce the cost to create the creature by 25%.
  
• [...]
  
• Tougher Leshys: Each additional Hit Die adds 2,250 gp to the cost (and thus 4,500 gp to the overall price), increases the Knowledge check DC by +2, and requires an 2 additional weeks to grow. Attempts to create leshys larger than Small always fail—the strange spiritual energies that animate these creatures are only capable of doing so to a body no larger than that of a human child.
  

[source]

[Growing a Leaf Leshy

Leaf leshys are usually grown under the shade of fruit or nut trees. To grow a leaf leshy, the maker plants an acorn and pine cone together, then mounds up leaves, sticks, and needles around them. When first born, a leaf leshy has no armor, leafy cape, or weapon, but can construct them from available materials given a day and left to its own devices (no Craft check required).

CL 5th; Price 1,000 gp

RITUAL REQUIREMENTS

Knowledge (nature) 5 ranks, magic stone, plant growth, summon nature’s ally I; Skill Knowledge (nature) DC 12; Cost 500 gp

[source]

For a simple level 1 leaf leshy, is the base cost for a ritual I am doing 1,000 GP or 500 GP? Do I pay 750 GP or 375 GP? Can I at all, even though it says "never less than 1,000 gp"? Would the price automatically default to 1000 GP? Or can I only create a lvl 2 one? (That's a steep cost rise)

Please help, I need my little plant soldiers..

Many thanks!