sieylianna's page

Ran into this issue during the playtest adventure. The rogue took 2d4 of persistent damage. Failed 4 flat checks at 20 because we were fighting the fire elemental which had caused the fire damage with the initial attack. Combat ended so I spent four more rounds spending an action and not rolling a 15 or better and continued to suffer persistent damage. She might still be burning now, but the DM wanted to move on and there is no other means in the rules to get rid of it or for another PC to help out.

Totally ridiculous as written.

Hero Lab will be adding Starfinder support by the end of the month too.

I'm a big fan of HeroLab, but it's gotten to the point where adding new content to Herolab is almost as expensive as purchasing the books. Yes, you can buy bundles, but those of us who have been using it for years, already have an assortment of material which is in the bundles.

Raptors could tear apart an employee monthly at Paizo, and it would still be better working conditions than Amazon.

I know the turnover in our warehouse is huge (of the 12 warehouse people who started the same day as I did four years ago, one is still here). I think we ship about 40,000 order lines a day and those people work hard, but I am sure it's not nearly as bad as Amazon.

Wow. So much bitterness.

First of all, nobody ever gets free shipping, anywhere. If you see those words, what you're getting is "shipping costs are already included in the price of the product".

Yes, but generally you have other venues to purchase from and can compare the total cost between vendors. The cost to mail a single adventure path volume should be closer to $3 than $7. (I mailed three 12-packs of soda - each weighing more than a years worth of AP material for $28 and that included packaging and was at a retail UPS outlet).

If my local gaming store offered a better price than full retail - I may have been spoiled, but before I moved to Texas, purchases at 15-20% off were standard at game stores. At that point, avoiding the shipping charge and paying sales tax is a wash with subscribing cost wise and allows you to avoid getting stuck with "Iron Gods".

However, you did encourage me to take a look at Amazon and it looks like not only can I purchase the volumes cheaper than I can with my subscription, but I can also get my FREE SHIPPING!

I think it was a year or two ago that Paizo announced a price increase on the Adventure Paths because they had been that price since the start. Now we had another price increase and the list price is up to $29.99. That's $360 a year. Yes, you can save $9 a month by subscribing, but that sticks you with a $7 a month delivery fee.

I know the company I work for has far lower shipping charges than Paizo and that is without using the piss-poor Mail Innovations post office delivery option. (I have had mail innovations packages get returned to the sender because they wouldn't deliver to a UPS store box).

I get free shipping on virtually everything I buy from any on-line place these days. I don't know why Paizo is so far behind? Corporate Greed? Paying for the On-Line Pathfinder which I told them was doomed to fail due to the person selected to lead the project? I don't know, but the days of my committing $28 a month to a AP subscription are limited if something doesn't change.

Thank you

Please cancel my Maps subscription. The continued price increases force me to cut back on my purchases.

It is possible to retrain traits in PFS, although it is cumbersome. My rogue/sorcerer arcane trickster wanted to pick up Arcane Knack (?) - the trait that allows you to regain 2 caster levels, which was not allowed originally, but was later added to the detriment of the existing players (Seems to be a lot of that in PFS). I took the extra traits feat, picked up Arcane knack and something else, then retrained the Extra Traits feat for 5 PA and kept the two traits I wanted.

I didn't actually plan to resurrect this thread, but I ran across it while searching for an answer to the question "Can you retrain feats which you are awarded when PFS rules take away the normal feats you would receive (Leadership, item creation)". I didn't find that question or a response.

No, it's another option. You can turn into a tiger, an earth elemental, or a naga as you wish.

Thank you.

Naga shape is just another use of Wild Shape. You get a new form you can use with it, and you don't get that form until level 6. Simple as that.

Okay, does that mean that they lose the ability to change into animals of different size or elementals as they gain levels?

If it's just an additional form which can be used for Wild Shape and the rest of the wild shape abilities are intact, then that's great. I am just worried about putting some levels into the class and discovering that it I didn't understand how it was intended to work.

I will resurrect this thread. I am confused by the nagaji aspirant's wild shape. It says that it is gained normally at 4th level, but the Naga form is gained at 6th level. And it notes that this ability otherwise works like and replaces wild shape. So do they have wild shape for two levels or is the naga shape treated as a daily use of wild shape.

Congratulations Chuck and thanks to Marcus for his service to PFS in DFW.

Not at all happy about the change. If you are seriously trying to improve the game, how about banning gunslingers and the other classes that wreck modules? I have seen far more classes take the enjoyment out of my games than I have seen classes.

That was the missing order and I hadn't previously received the shipment notification. It appears that someone decided to repackage it in a large box instead of the normal shipping envelopes. I suspect that this was the cause of the problems.

This order was created on October 7th and was supposed to be shipped by October 21st. However, I have never received a shipment notification and the order has not been received as of Friday.

Maximillian joined the ranks of the level 12 characters this past weekend. He was Shadow Lodge up until his next to last module when he converted to Grand Lodge (DM credit for Rivalry's End).

Max is Barbarian 2 / Oracle of Battle 6 / Rage Prophet 4 (I haven't actually leveled him to 12, but that is what I expect to do).

Jonathan Cary wrote:

The games at Madness have been a smashing success, and are already up to 5 or 6 tables being run every other week.

Holy crap! I wish there was a store in Houston with that much gaming space.

Congrats Jacob. Here's hoping we'll meet at Owlcon.

I asked the owner about the size the first time we played at Madness and he said they had 20,000 sq. feet.

Congrats Jacob.

I noticed when I referenced Paizo in the customer service message board, as well as above, that the system dictionary does not recognize Paizo as a valid word. You may want to rectify this situation.

Has Paizo managed to merge their system with mail innovations or can I look forward to more weeks of wondering when my package will show up? I would have responded to one of my prior posts, but they seem to have been deleted.

That sounds small, but would depend to a certain extent on the tables you are using. The size of the tables and their shapes are important.

The serpentine sorcerer gets a poison bite. Not save or die though.

A couple of additional spoiler-like questions, I ran across when running the module, which I am putting here in the hopes the author will answer them for other judges

Wanting to make sure that I understand how something is supposed to work.

I noticed another issue during my final prep, but it was too late to bring to the board.

Please explain to me, and use small words since now that I have retired I have forgotten all my IT training, on how the tracking interface between Paizo and UPS-MI not working will stop delivery of products to subscribers?

Some of us have their mail delivered to the UPS store instead of to their homes. I don't want to make a side trip to the UPS store 10 times in order to find out when the package actually arrives.

That is why tracking is important.

And I am currently working in IT for a company which ships about 8K packages a day and we managed to keep our software working despite the mail innovations changes.

I am also interested in seeing if there is going to be a change in the PFS policy of vetting writers. I had communicated with Mr. Frost before he left, but that never went anywhere. I wrote over two dozen modules (various systems) for the RPGA and was professionally published. I can't seen going out and buying PF miniatures to write a single encounter which is unlikely to go anywhere.

There have been other projects requiring the tech team's priority.

So you are saying that delivering products to your subscribers is not the tech team's priority? Sounds a lot like WotC.

And once again - I believe this is three months in a row that I can't track my package on-line.

How am I supposed to run this module? Do I have to retro everything to 3.5? I can't run it as is using PF rules because some of the encounters make zero sense (spiked chains lost reach in PF). My local VL has told me that nothing may changed and since he'll be running another table of it, we need to be consistent, but if I run it as written I may as well hand out the chronicles and let the people go home early. It's going to be absolutely zero challenge.

I did a search, but it appears that the official ruling is you can not change anything. For all the money Paizo has made off this scenario over the years, you would think they could update it to the current rules.

Mail Innovations recently made a change to their tracking system and it is not presently working with our shipping system. We are currently looking into getting this fixed as soon as possible.

That's what Customer Service said a month ago. Are you saying that you haven't made any progress in the last month?

I'm not at all happy about this. I gave up LFR following a similar rule change. I have a tiefling rogue/sorcerer who just made 7th level and will be able to start taking Arcane Trickster levels. It was annoying that I had to spend a feat on Additional Traits to get Magical Knack, but I did it. Now this ruling has invalidated all the work I put into this character. Arcane Trickster is a marginal class, even more so when you are dealing with the PFS rules, but when you have a lot of characters, you want some variety.

"Oh, we're going to send you on a mission that could literally be done any night at all, that could be done SO much safer if you had time to figure things out in advance, but we're not going to so much as TELL you anything about it until LITERALLY THE MOMENT WE'RE FORCING YOU TO GO."

That's one of my biggest complaints with PFS scenarios in general. There are too many where the VC has known about the problems for days or weeks, but they call you in at midnight and you have to start now.

Rivalry's End was a major disappointment. Season 4 has in general has been a major disappointment. I can think of plenty of bad season 4 modules, but I'm having a tough time thinking of any which really impressed me. (I've probably played 3/4 of them).

We also played high tier, but we were not playing up, that is just how the levels worked out and we had issues with the 1st fight.

I've also had problems with tracking of packages. There is a reason it is called "snail mail" and it's not justified at the shipping rates which Paizo is charging for subscriptions.

The past three monthly shipments I have not been able to access tracking information on my orders. The last one shipped last Wednesday and nothing is available. The previous one never had any tracking information even two weeks after it shipped when I picked it up.

Mail innovations service is horrible and for the shipping charges which we are paying, the quality needs to improve.

I recently moved and need to change the billing address for my credit card. However, I have my subscriptions sent to a different shipping address. I didn't see any way to update the address associated with the credit card, it looked like I would have to delete the pay method and set it back up.

Can you advise me on how to proceed?

If characters are not going to be able to use animal companions, then that should be made clear in the introduction and the player should be given a chance to swap characters. I ran into this recently, had a choice between two characters, but no real guidance from the module info or the GM and the sylvan sorcerer ended up not having her tiger for the module. I would have been much happier to have been playing the character who was not nerfed by author fiat.

I would think long and hard about the local play environment before I went down this path. If you are always going to have the same judge, who is familiar with combat maneuvers, then you're okay. But if you are like most of us who have a variety of GM's who vary in their knowledge of combat maneuvers, it's going to be painful for you, the other players and your GM.

And for the people who say that the GM needs to understand ever single possible tactic among thousands of pages of material allowed in PFS: I say that running PFS is not a job, I'm not getting paid for it, and if it becomes more agravating than fun, I won't judge.

Is it possible to purchase animal-sized versions of named armor? (I.e can I put Rhino Hide armor on my huge (enlarge person) pouncing Tiger?

I've seen far more Color Sprays cast in PFS by Oracles of the Heavens than by the arcane classes combined. Awesome Display keeps it effective until you reach the level 12 cap. And Oracles have more hit points and better armor, so the close range isn't an issue.

Thanks for the tip, I'll take Dangerously Curious then. Any advice on arcane wands I should invest in (with PFS in mind)?

Magic Missile is always good. The rest depend on your style of play and the group you play with (Enlarge Person for example).

I ordered a non-mint Ultimate Equipment with a certain amount of worry over whether the book would even be usable, since it would be non-returnable. However, I am unable to figure out the imperfection in my book. Flipping through the pages, it looks like all the pages are there. The cover isn't cut or creased. I am somewhat surprised that it wasn't marked as non-mint for future reference, but I wanted to let you know that I wouldn't have qualms about ordering non-mint items in the future.

Dangerously Curious is very worthwhile for an Oracle. I think all my oracles have it and more than one has a wand of magic missiles for annoying incorporeal monsters.

I looked at the Ancient Lorekeeper, but decided to pass when I realized that you learned Arcane spells at +1 level. I wouldn't play one in PFS, although I might in a home game which had an elven focus.

There is some room for abuse in the rebuild process, but it's fairly trivial. I had one character wear hide armor for her first module because she didn't have the cash to purchase a chain shirt. She sold it back and replaced it with a chain shirt for the second module. I believe she sold that back and replaced it with a mithril shirt when she started play at 2nd level.

A point of armor class isn't a big deal and a significant number of players find level 1 to be frustrating and want to get to the relative safety of level 2. You can see this in the number of people who replay the first steps or we be goblins or level 1 modules to get past first level. The Living Arcanis campaign used to offer a rebuild option similar to what is being done in PFS (I think they allowed a rebuild through level 2), but they also gave starting PCs their first three levels of hit points at creation to make low level characters less squishy.

I'm far less concerned about the party choosing to play up than when the rules give them no option. I think every bad experience that I have had with playing up has been when we were forced to do so.

Had that happen yesterday - six player (tier 1-7) table where one player had to play a 2nd, one could play a 2nd or a 3rd and one could play a 2nd or a 6th. The other players had a variety of characters, but six players and the character selections where people had no choice pretty much dictated that we would be tier 3/4. We even considered playing tier 6-7 and forcing people to play pre-gens. Eventually we ended up with three 2's and three 3's because my bringing my 7 sorcerer or another player bringing his 6 fighter would undoubtedly dominate combat and cut into the other players fun. That decision was called into question when the first encounter was a large air elemental. We'd probably still be fighting it if the DM had kept using flyby attack despite our grouping up. That was the most difficult fight in the module.

There are two common entry points to Rage Prophet. You can go Barbarian 4 / Oracle 2 or Oracle 4 / Barbarian 2. My PFS character followed the latter route and that may be the better approach for the rest of your group. You're much more of a casting character and I don't think that is as hampered by rage prophet, although I will never take the second missed caster level due to the level 12 limit of PFS.

I don't think this is going to work out. Bards are skill based characters and dumping Wisdom, Dexterity hurts your skill numbers. 18 Strength is too much. 10 Dexterity is too little.

The other thing I will caution you about in PFS is that Bards are expected to Inspire Courage. If you can't do that, then you may face issues with acceptance. This is more of an issue in a smaller gaming circle.

There was a boardgame group which met at Krystal Keep before it closed. They have probably moved to another store. Meetup and SOGG are your best bets for gaming information in the area.

Specifically:

You may use Disarm, Sunder, or Trip as an attack of opportunity.

However, you may not use Trip as an Attack of Opportunity when an opponent stands up from prone.

You need Diplomacy as a class skill. You can either get that from a trait or I would recommend the Serpentine bloodline. It has a the right feel for what you are planning (IMO).

I'd look at the cleric Evangelist Archetype and see whether you could work out something similar for an oracle. I think giving only Inspire Courage - Not the entire range of Bardic Performance abilities - wouldn't be too powerful for a revelation. I would also put a minimum level of 3 or 5 to help balance it. That wouldn't affect you though.