I just GMed my very first society game yesterday. Organized play is new to my group of friends, and we were confused on a few issues.
1) Credit rewards: at the end of a the mission the chronicle sheet tells you the maximum credits for the scenario. I understand that receiving the full amount is contingent upon completing all the quests, etc. I originally assumed that full amount went to each player, but a friend of mine thought that the amount (in the commencement it is like 750) was split among the group.
2) chronicle sheet errors: Being new, we have made a few accounting errors over the course of the 3 or 4 scenarios we have ran (for instance, trying to figure out how much credits we receive). I am assuming best practice is for the GM to cross out the mistake and initial the new value. It gets a little messy when a mistake has to be changed across multiple sheets. Does anybody have recommendations for handling this? Is it not such a big deal?
3) GM rewards: just to clarify, the GM receives the same credit reward as the party, and also gains access to items on the chronicle sheet, can make a dayjob check, etc.?
so I am slightly new to PFS and still trying to figure out the rules and what I want to make as my first character. One concept I have been wanting to try for quite some time is the arcane caster that prestiges into diabolist.
before continuing, this isn't a question about the true name feat, which I realize is not legal for PFS play. I am also not asking about the mechanics of the binding spell itself, but more so the mechanics of the spell within the context of PFS play, and how that would influence some character creation choices.
Also, anybody who has used the spell in PFS play and could tell me how it went, that would be pretty cool too. Like, was it fun? Did the group enjoy it, or did it bog down play? Basically, even if I am a reasonable and conscientious adult, will I be annoying?
Aside from good gaming citizenship, the big thing I am wondering about with planar binding is researching true names:
True names:
To discover a single outsider’s true name, a spellcaster
must spend at least a month in a library or on a quest of
discovery to uncover occult mysteries and riddles hidden
in the pages of books, scrolls, and glyphs written millennia
ago, buried in ancient temples or found among the ravings
of madmen’s spellbooks. At the end of this month, the GM
makes a Knowledge (planes) check for the character. The
DC is 10 + the creature’s Hit Dice. The GM can increase
the DC by +2, +5, or even +10, based on the power of the
outsider or the circumstances of the true name search. A
failure by 5 or more turns up false information that may
expose researchers to unexpected dangers.
For most outer-planar outsiders, knowledge of the
creature’s true name is a powerful weapon. In summoning,
if the name is spoken correctly (requiring knowledge of at
least one of the outsider’s languages, or a Linguistics skill
check with a DC equal to 10 + the creature’s Hit Dice), the
target takes a –5 penalty on the Will save to resist being
conjured, and if its name is inscribed in the protective
magic circle, the outsider takes a –5 penalty on all checks to
escape or breach that circle. (from ultimate magic)
TL;DR: discovering an outsider's true name takes at least a month of research in a library. There are some more rules in the Book of the Damned Vol. I, but I don't think those rules are legal for PFS play. In either case, a month of research in a libracy makes it sound like trying to discover true names may be too cumbersome to use in PFS play. then I saw this trait:
True Name Caller:
Benefit Choose a plane other than the Material Plane. When attempting to discover the true name of an outsider from the chosen plane, you halve the amount of research time required and gain a +4 trait bonus on the Knowledge (planes) check made to learn the outsider’s name. (from Demon Hunter's handbook)
This trait reduces the amount of research time by half, which starts to sound reasonable. But is it enough?
It seems to me that with DM consent, and providing that the group is in a settlement with an appropriately equipped library, that my character could spend two weeks prior to the actual quest performing the necessary research on true names. This use of time seems similar to another character using two weeks to train an animal companion or pet two new tricks using the handle animal skill, since each trick takes a week of training. If the Knowledge: Planes check is successful and my character discovers the true name of some outsider, following the example of handle animal, this new information would be noted as a condition gained in my chronicle sheet.
As far as I can tell from what I read about handle animal, those conditions persist, and this means my character would be able to apply the true name penalties to the named outsider on subsequent attempts to bind it at different sessions (until it dies), just as a pet retains knowledge of its trick. Once the outsider dies (or somehow escapes this annoying situation), the true name would be marked as a condition lost on my chronicle sheet, much as if it were a forgotten trick.
Unless I am way off base and you have to re-teach pets tricks each game, which sounds kind of wack but I assume there must have been a reason if that is the case.
Also, I should mention: I don't mean to imply that continued knowledge of the true name would mean you could render outsiders into permanent slaves, just that you could apply the associated debuffs to them in binding using the mechanisms designed for that purpose. This seems particularly important for wizards, since their charisma score tends to be on the low side anyway. Also, I am not the kind of person who wants to summon 15 devils to bog down gameplay.
Also, the capstone to the diabolist prestige class is entirely dependent on knowing a devil's true name.
Master Conjurer:
At 10th level, when a diabolist calls a devil whose name she knows, she may cast the calling spell as a standard action and bargain with it as a move action. She adds half her Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate modifier on the bargaining Charisma check (if any).
So, long story short: is it worth it to invest in feats (skill focus (knowledge: planes, etc), traits, and a prestige class that will make my character better at discovering and using true names, or is this a mechanic that I will likely not get much opportunity to use? I think I have made a decent argument for why it should work, but I am also pretty biased since I really want to bind some dang devils.
So I have a pretty straightforward question: what happens when you transform into an outsider?
when you take the fourth and final damnation feat, fiendskin states the following:
fiendskin entry wrote:
"Your creature type changes to outsider (native). Additionally, choose one energy type to which your patron’s outsider subtype grants immunity or resistance. You gain immunity to that energy type."
I almost assumed it was flavor, but that term outsider directly links to this information:
outsider entry wrote:
Anoutsider has the following features.
d10 Hit Dice.
Base attack bonus equal to total Hit Dice (fast progression).
Two good saving throws, usually Reflex and Will.
Skill points equal to 6 + Int modifier (minimum 1) per Hit Die. The following are class skills for outsiders: Bluff, Craft, Knowledge (planes), Perception, Sense Motive, and Stealth. Due to their varied nature, outsiders also receive 4 additional class skills determined by the creature’s theme.
Traits: An outsider possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).
so let's say a wizard summons a demon and convinces it to be their patron, then they take these feats. does the wizard recalculate their BAB and hitdice to reflect the change? skills too? is it all retroactive?
I have a question that is mostly a concern from a roleplay standpoint:
TL;DR:
Is undead sub-domain sufficient for a deity's worship to count as an "undead worshipping cult"
Long version:
Basically, I just started playing a necromancer wizard in an evil campaign and was hoping to prestige into "agent of the grave". the campaign is following the Hell's Vengeance adventure path, and as this adventure path is set in Cheliax, I was hoping to have him worship one of the archdevils. One of the requirements for Agent of the Grave is that the character be part of an "undead worshipping cult", and I had settled on Baalzebul since undead is listed as one of his subdomains. I am starting to wonder if I have misterpreted what actually constitutes an undead worshipping cult.
The players guide for hell's vengeance says that the whispering way, which is usually associated with Urgathoa, doesn't play a role in the adventure path but is still an appropriate prestige class choice for the campaign. Under normal circumstances I might just retcon my worship to her (i only just hit lvl 2), but I've grown pretty fond of the backstory I've developed that works better with Baalzebul and was hoping the choice was still appropriate
