wcv's page

Potency rune gives +1 to hit and adds nothing to damage. A Striking rune adds a second die to the damage. Neither gives a flat +1 damage.

Striking runes and potency runes are separate, and not contingent on each other.

Only the potency rune determines the number of property runes the weapon can hold. Striking has nothing to do with that.

Okay thanks. I knew nothing added damage, but hadn’t realized the striking runes didn’t affect property rune amounts.

Hello,

I’m currently running my first campaign (trying to start people playing Pathfinder in my area and there weren’t other options than to do it myself), and I’m not sure I understand the rules regarding runes correctly. I (think I) understand the basic point about fundamental striking and potency runes, with striking runes providing the extra damage die, and potency the extra chance to hit. And then these runes also determine the number of other property runes that can be put on a weapon.

I’m a bit unclear on the full difference between a potency and striking rune though. Does a weapon need both a +1 potency rune and a +1 striking rune to get both a +1 to hit and also +1 damage. Or is that a single rune?

And as a follow-up, if these are separate runes, do the number of additional runes stack? So if a weapon had a +2 potency rune and a +2 striking rune, would this mean it could get 4 property runes?

Sorry if this is something obvious.

You should also check out the Abomination Vaults forum section. Lots of tips from other GMs who have run the adventure.

It took my group more than an entire year of weekly 4-hour sessions to do the whole Abomination Vaults campaign. Make sure that you are communicating that Adventure Paths are a big commitment to your players!

Thanks, I didn't know that was there, I'll definitely be reading it. I'll make sure to let them know, its a good habit in general IMO. Since the store is dedicated exclusively to tabletop I hope that won't be an issue. I'm more worried about people bouncing off tbh since I'm the first person who will be running Second Edition at that location.

Sort-of. If using milestone leveling, it is easy enough to keep the characters at +1 level from what the AP lists.

Which is a fine thing to do - especially for people new to the system. It makes the game less difficult, but does so in a very unobtrusive way. It also lets the GM not need to pull any punches on tactics for the enemies - the players will likely win because of the math. But you can make them work for it by playing the enemies intelligently (just be sure to avoid GM Metagaming).

This is what I was thinking. I'm more used to milestone leveling (at least while running a game.) And since running this is as much about getting me experience running the system as anything I'm thinking milestone will be more comfortable. And since I'm not used to running it yet I might not pull punches correctly otherwise. And then the next campaign would be experience based.

Thanks to both of you.

I’m a fairly new Pathfinder 2e player, and am trying to get a group going at my LGS, as a GM. I’ve DM’d 5e before, and know a few of the pitfalls DMs can fall into.

As an intro I’m planning to start my player’s on the Beginner Box, then transition to Abomination Vaults. Since the players will all be new, I’m wondering about a way to make it a bit easier on them. My current idea is that since the Beginner Box starts them into AV at level 2 I’d just keep them a level ahead for the remainder of the AP.

Would this be a workable idea? If so is there anything I should keep in mind?