We are still in discussions about how Starfinder subscription(s) might operate. As soon as we are ready to discuss subscriptions, I am sure we will broadcast it loudly from the rooftops. In the meantime, if you want a copy of Starfinder books, I would say to go ahead and preorder them. In the next few months before the launch at Gen Con, if there is a subscription that you wish to sign up for, the process to switch from preorder copy to subscription copy will be made as easy and painless as possible for you. I encourage you to consider a Starfinder subscription that includes most, or all, Starfinder products. Last I heard the product releases were not going to be as rigorous as Pathfinder. Those of us who want to Subscribe probably want to collect all the things!
If anyone has time to put together a poster/flyer template, please share with the rest of us! Venues in our area should have something hung up to show off their support for the benefit to be available, but I'm interested to hear if anyone else has other ideas for promotion. We run about five tables every Friday night at our FLGS. It's important to us to have this program run smoothly and unambiguously. Our retailer was onboard immediately. With the help of our other leaders I've put together a handout that can be dispersed to each table. We have wet-erase pens on hand so I'll be laminating this tonight. It is designed to be double-sided so that folks can track monies on one side and review rules/benefits on the other.
*I've updated this file so that it has a border instead of a silver background.
Greater heroism lasts minutes per level. It may be harsh, but that's how long that effect lasts at my table.
This is fantastic! Make sure to keep an eye on pacing so you don't have to rush the final encounter. Let the PCs marvel in glory at your creation :)
For apparel, if mess is a concern, it sounds like Emerald City has someone behind the counter with all of the apparel. There is a large graphic above the table that shows what is available. Someone can hand you a shirt to see if it will fit, but people can't rummage. This takes labor and could form a line, but I guess it works.
PaizoCon 2016 was excellent. Some quick thoughts that had little to no influence over my enjoyment:
I absolutely love attending PaizoCon because of all that it gets right and because of all of the wonderful people that put their time and love into it. That should stand out above all else! See you next year!
This adventure is complicated enough with plenty of prep time, but with so many moving parts it will be good to have some additional tools at the table. Over the next day or two I plan to create a Phase & Strike Tracker and an Evidence Point Tracker. If I have time, I may even create a player-friendly handout for the infiltration, distraction/trap and research rules of Part 1. Handouts for the treasure found in The Lab Warren area will be a real boon to the players. The vampiric metamagic rod is especially complex. For Shohiraj’s mission it may be helpful to slide the player a cut-out with instructions to hand to the GM when they player wishes to attempt the Sleight of Hand check. This would allow the player to signal the GM without having a discussion at the table. The note could read something like this: “Hand this back to the GM after you have recovered information and wish to copy it. Your companions will prevent any such theft if they know find out. Depending on your circumstances there may be bonuses or penalties to the attempt.” For your tables you may wish to fashion cut-outs for the theletos’ blessing as well. It could read as follows: “The theletos has shown you an ambiguous vision that seems to be of some benefit to you. While in the secret facility below Wirholt’s Rictus, before attempting an attack roll, saving throw, skill check, or ability check, you can use this benefit to roll 1d6 and add the result to his d20 roll. When deciding to use this benefit, hand this back to the GM.” The PCs can gain access to a nifty Esoteric Item Research boon. In the rush to fill out chronicles I can see GMs initialing the items found on the chronicle, but this is intended for future adventures. Also, an item under this boon, the necklace of shattered dreams, is at risk of detonating when exposed to a negative energy attack. This item is similar to a necklace of fireballs, which is only a risk when the wearer fails a Reflex save versus a magical fire attack, requiring the necklace to make its own Reflex save (+7), or detonate. If the necklace of shattered dreams functions exactly like this there are very few situations, if any, where a Reflex save against a negative energy attack is possible (maybe gloomblind bolts?). It seems the intention that the items instead use the Will save condition instead. The Conclusion section makes reference to a Seen it All boon that does not appear on the chronicle. This must be the Unwavering Resolve boon that appears on the chronicle instead. As a side note, is there any chance that Shohiraj’s vision is of her wearing a Decemvirate helm as her niece and nephew leave her old wayfinder at the Wall of Names? What else could the mask of falling water be?
You folks are pretty darn amazing—every last one of you! Thank you so much for your dedication to the passions and joys of others. I can't wait to shake a few more hands at PaizoCon (I've already seen Crystal Fraiser a second time this year at Night of Ashes! Woohoo!). In the mean time, I'll keep throwing money through the internet to show my appreciation and to get sweet loot :)
I wanted to make an alchemist, but I didn't want the poison use, swift alchemy, and swift poisoning class features to go to waste. I also had only a basic idea of the complex poison rules in PFS. These were reason enough to jump in and make a Dex-based melee alchemist poisoner. I figured because he would be in melee that he could lead the party with the trap spotter rogue talent. This meant taking the inferior crypt breaker archetype, but I was happy to do it. I decided on the following discoveries, but will likely take the feat extra discovery to unlock more options. These are pulling from multiple sources. A short note, I've done a lot of research and even though I've decided to make a character for PFS that uses poison, I fully expect most scenarios to either not use them or find them to be ineffective. As BigNorseWolf said earlier in the thread: Combats tend to be quick. Discoveries
Mark Moreland stole my pen while playing Legendary. Who can I talk to about this? :PI didn't steal it, you walked away before I could give it back. If you would like, I can have it placed in your sidecart and it will be returned along with your next subscription shipment (that's totally not a hassle, right Customer Service team?). In any case, the pen served me well for the rest of the con, and for that you should feel nothing but pride. Hehe, how about you keep it until next PaizoCon ;)
Event Scheduling: I’d like to see at least 10 hours between evening and morning events. Ending at midnight and being at a morning event at 8am didn’t leave much room for sleep. This impacts enjoyment of each event and caused me to skip out on slots because I was desperate for a nap.
I provide this feedback to be honest about particulars, but it is so important to understand that I love attending PaizoCon. I look forward to it each year and make preparations months in advance. A couple of weeks before I get giddy. It’s obvious to me that Paizo does a tremendous amount so well. I can’t thank you enough for that.
Thank you for putting together the most enjoyable PaizoCon yet! As a player I think the venue worked very well. Games ending at midnight and starting at 8am made sleeping a challenging activity, but I can appreciate why the schedule was setup the way it was. The seminars were great, too. I especially loved the diversity panel. I'm already making plans for next year. I hope you all allow yourself some rest before GenCon :)
For those interested, I have made sweeping improvements to my reporting sheet. As I have intentions of collecting more character data for individual tables, I haven't formatted my sheet to record multiple tables. Also, I use Apple's Pages application and haven't attempted to export to Microsoft Word at this time. As such, I've only included a link to a PDF. UPDATED: Xebeche's Custom Scenario Reporting Sheet (PDF)
Before we proceed, feel free to consult my data section below and view a copy of my figures.
If a character receives the lowest amount of wealth reward at every possible opportunity, they will receive about 51,915 gp by the time they reach 10th-level. If a character receives the highest amount of wealth reward at every possible opportunity, they will receive about 100,526 gp by the time they reach 10th-level. These two hypothetical characters have a drastically different amount of wealth. There is no question that nearly twice the amount of gold can buy significant advantages. Even if we assume that one character has earned 60,000 gp and another has earned 80,000 gp by 10th-level, this discrepancy can still be noticeable. According to my figures an average PFS character can expect to earn about 76,000 by 10th-level.
This system also punishes players with higher level characters who play down. Its easy to imagine this being the case in smaller venues where less tables are run to cater to varied levels. On the other hand, the system can also be abused by a player who regularly seeks to play up and earn a higher out-of-subtier reward. One might suggest that this is a self-correcting problem as such a character has a higher risk of death, but the risk can be substantially minimized by player actions.
The one complication that I can think of that such a system would have for a scenario is how to subtract wealth rewards for incomplete encounters. In such a case, Paizo might see fit to reduce wealth rewards by a percentage for each incomplete encounter. I could see a figure like 10–33% being realistic.
I’ve built the below character using rules for Pathfinder Society Organized Play, but did not assume that the character is that the character is a Pathfinder. The character’s starting wealth of 62,000 gp is largely unspent as the character would be saving for a belt upgrade. The character would likely have several expensive potions and basic adventuring gear. I enjoy playing balanced characters and made several decisions to reflect that. This character can contribute to melee and ranged combat equally. By accepting at least 3 burn throughout an adventure, the character’s blasts are more accurate, but 30+ nonlethal damage is nothing to scoff at. Much like a fighter, this character is a buff sponge. Anything that increases armor class, attack, or saving throws will be put to regular use, especially in melee. However, like most fighters this character is not very skilled and I have labored to make the best of what is available. Lastly, greater self telekinesis compensates for flight well enough, something most fighters struggles to do on their own.
DEFENSE
OFFENSE
STATISTICS
Another reason to limit the unique subsystems to rarely, or more likely none, is because people have been asking for less prep times for GM's, and easier scenarios for new GMs and Gms running cold to run. Adding a new type of scenario-only subsystem goes counter to all three of those reasonable requests. I'm a little disappointed that this has been the general feedback. Paizo has released, and will continue to release, unique rules. If this comment holds, few, if any, will be seen in future scenarios. This reduces the value of that content and provides less variability in PFS play.
Hey Folks, I created a custom Scenario Reporting Sheet for my needs and figured I'd share it in case someone else finds it useful. This came about as a result of faction name changes (and a merger). Almost all Scenario Reporting Sheets are now out of date. I also included fields to help me determine APL and to quickly break ties for Initiative results. Xebeche's Custom Scenario Reporting Sheet (PDF) I had an after thought to include a check box for slow track characters, which is something I will implement in the future. Please let me know if you have suggestions for improvement.
Here are notes from my preparations for those interested: I enjoy showing off the artwork that Paizo has taken the time to commission and include. Unfortunately, when there is a social gathering and the players only get to see a few portraits it feels like a dead give away. I pulled artwork from previous scenarios and assembled them into supplementary materials to have at the table. You can download a PDF below. Jakti’s favor doesn’t list a skill check, so as long as the PCs talk to the servants about opening windows I’ll assume success. During the first combat encounter of subtier 4–5, The Guest of Honor Rises, The desiccated mummy is listed as having the desert wind aura and is a variant advanced mummy. I did my best to confirm whether desert wind is in addition to, or replaces, despair (aura) of a unmodified mummy. I decided to rule on the side of the players and have desert wind replace despair. The modified chase rules make running this chase much easier and a group effort. I approve! It’s a little confusing as written, however. It seems like players individually pick one of the two options and that the player with the highest result might be aided by others. If so, then the player with the highest result might try to “knock them aside” and aided by someone attempting “we can jump it”. I’m going to err on the side of the players and run it this way, despite it falling outside the norm. The Subtier 4–5 Bahjari Scion is an advanced skeletal champion, which brings its AC from 21 to 25. The scaling text references his AC at 19, which appears to be an error. I’m personally disappointed that the Pathfinder Society staff chose to have Temel and Metella so childishly subvert and attack the other. I was even more disappointed to see the coins found on the assassin change depending on whom the PCs aided. I’m not clear on who hired this assassin either. Is it supposed to be Jakti? What evidence suggests that Temel and Metella are enemies of the Cult of the Dawnflower? Am I to infer that Shirin planted the evidence? She really went out of her way to make a ruckus of this funeral… These details are distracting, unconvincing, and the weakness of this scenario. All in all, I look forward to running this tonight. I’ll share my reflections afterword. Downloadable Content
We on the design team are really not looking forward to writing the remaining five volumes of the Advanced Class Guide Adventure Path. Geez, 50 more classes!lol dont forget all the archtypes and spells and feats and stuff lmao XD And I've been suggesting over the past couple years that Pathfinder isn't suffering from game breaking bloat. This Adventure Path is going to change all of that.
While I would get frustrated with Paizo if this thing happened regularly, I would be even more upset if Paizo wasted that many books and their financial resources on such a small error. I think you made the right decision and I'll happily place this volume on my bookcase. Just as soon as you ship my subscriptions, that is ;)
Here are some of my conclusions given the numerous editing issues present in this scenario. —Scenario #3-24 The Golden Serpent has an image of Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Urban Tavern that is suggested for "A. The Escape". I printed this, and all other maps, at Fedex Kinkos for use in my game. —A secret passage is shown on the map "The Shadow Throne", but not mentioned in the scenario as being secret. The text referencing it was either deleted, never added, or the map is erroneous. A GM could treat it as a wooden door, as area "B5. Cold Storage" states, or default to a DC 20 Perception check for a typical secret door (Pathfinder Core Rulebook 414). The latter may be frowned upon by Paizo and I will omit the secret door in my game. —Erring on the side of the players, I do not interpret “bypass the trap entirely” to mean disabling it. For example, a group could discover the trap and decide to ignore (bypass) the door/trap. This is in reference to the trap in area "B3. The Darkened Pit ". —Area "B3. The Darkened Pit " references area "B3a", which does not appear on the included maps. PCs are later described to be falling into a 10 ft. wide, 30 ft. long area. As this will happen out of combat, I see no need to create or draw a map. —The map of level 2, "The Warden’s Lab", casts a shadow on the platform in the middle of the room, suggesting that the cartographer thought there was no whole in the center of the platform. —The most difficult combat to run, the climb toward the anchorites on level 2, has no visual aid. I created a 5x16 map, representing the widest single wall, that the PCs might climb together. However, I imagine that most PCs will climb the smaller area above the throne. To be clear, the map represent vertical travel up the wall. You can download the map by clicking the link below. —The trapped tables in area "C2. The Kyton’s Flesh Lab" do not have a CMD or Escape Artist DC. I’m going to treat the CMD/DC as 10 higher than the CMB of the trap. I’m also going to have the tables roll to maintain each round with the standard +5 bonus. —The Advanced Kytons during "Event 1: Final Confrontation" do not have listed tactics. I am using the tactics from the chain slaves in subtier 5–6. The kytons have a +5 Stealth. It's also worth noting that there is no listed scaling for the final encounter. Until I have a better idea of how to use the GM Shared Prep folder, here are my prep files: A. Escape Encounter
In conclusion, After spending hours preparing this scenario I get the impression that it was rushed to publishing. It lacks the artwork normally present and has several confusing errors that were not corrected. Traps do not appear in a separate layer on the maps, requiring editing before print. Not that I can fault Paizo considering the amount of work they have leading up to the convention season. Fortunately, these are issues that the community can help clarify and come to a PFS legal consensus on.
Alex, Back in 2010 I had never played a tabletop roleplaying game. A coworker at the time introduced a few of us to Pathfinder after he had transitioned from D&D 3.5. I was hooked, but meeting once a month for our Kingmaker campaign wasn’t cutting it. After I had come across the existence of Pathfinder Society Organized Play I built up the courage to try it. You were my first PFS GM back in the summer of 2011 and #29: The Devil We Know—Part I: Shipyard Rats was my first PFS scenario. It was immediately evident that more GMs were needed, so you encouraged me to give it a shot, despite my inexperience. Pathfinder has become more than just a hobby, in large part because of your generosity and good will. The years that have followed have built lasting friendships. A large group of us regularly get together to enjoy Pathfinder, board games, and outdoor activities. Heck, one of these friends is now my roommate, and I am very happy for that. Truly, your hard work to make Pathfinder available, and enjoyable, for the Portland, Oregon community has done a great deal to influence my life for the better. I have no doubt that it has been the case for others as well. Always grateful for your friendship,
You wrote it, Jim, so I know that I'll enjoy it! I can't wait :D Jim Groves wrote this?! I should have looked at the author sooner. I was excited, but now I'm EXCITED!!! =D
Nauseated Condition: Creatures with the nauseated condition experience stomach distress. Nauseated creatures are unable to attack, cast spells, concentrate on spells, or do anything else requiring attention. The only action such a character can take is a single move action per turn. I've unsuccessfully searched the messageboards for a similar topic after observing that the nauseated condition doesn't allow for standard actions, thus the condition wouldn't be removable when applied by the dirty trick master feat. Is it intended that this be the case, or is there an exception to the nauseated condition for this situation?
How about planning out a cowbell that summons a skeletal undead with a cloak and a scythe for next year's RPG Superstar!Just put together a rough concept for my play-along bestiary entry. Let's get that blog post! ;)I need to get started on these, but all I want to design right now is a reaper who casts fear and plays cowbell. These are both competition ending ideas. Let's call RPG Superstar 2014 right now.
Paizo and the authors of the past years content need to give themselves a pat on the back. The content that has been released over the past year has added flavor to our beloved Golarion (and beyond), and excluded a lot of power creep. I buy a majority of Paizo PDFs because I enjoy reading the wonderful options you folks have created to add depth to our campaigns. Thanks for making Pathfinder my favorite game!
I've been interested in trying to build a poison use character within Pathfinder Society for a while. The alchemist always seemed a natural as they can apply poisons very quickly. With Pathfinder Player Companion: Champions of Purity the Celestial Poisons discovery became available, making poison even more versatile with their ability to effect undead and evil outsiders. With this I set out to compile the options and came to some disappointing conclusions. Say by 10th-level an alchemist player character can bring a giant wasp poison from DC 18 to DC 24 through the use of Concentrate Poison and Malignant Poison discoveries. Giving the benefit of the doubt to the player character, lets say they know that they are able to spend a full-round action preparing this enhanced poison immediately before combat with a Glabrezu demon (CR 13). Lets also say that the party of adventures manages to apply the shaken condition to the Glabrezu, reducing its Fortitude save to +16. This means that there is a 35% chance that the Glabrezu will fail a save under these ideal conditions for the alchemist, which is still not very good odds. On the other hand, this character's use of poison might be more discriminating, like any class ability. Unfortunately, even with these silver linings, these poisons will not become more potent while creature Fortitude saves will only rise. Short combats also penalize poison use. Lastly, poisons are expensive over the long haul. How can alchemists craft in Pathfinder Society Organized Play?
How do poisons work in Pathfinder Society Organized Play?
—Giant wasp poison [210 gp, DC 18, 6 rounds, 1d2 Dex damage, 1 save]
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Rival Guide —Legal as per Additional Resources
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Equipment —Legal as per Additional Resources
Lesser poisoner’s jacket (12,000 GP) —Ultimate Equipment, page 222
Greater poisoner’s jacket (58,000 GP) —Ultimate Equipment, page 221
Immunities Constructs, plants, undead, oozes, daemons, demodands, demons, devils, and elementals are immune to poison. In the case of the crypt breaker, constructs and corporeal undead are especially vulnerable to alkahest bombs. Further, with the Celestial Poison discovery, undead and evil outsiders become vulnerable to poison, but usually have strong Fortitude saves despite this. This leaves plants, non-corporeal undead (if they still cannot be poisoned), oozes, and elementals unaffected by poison, or another Crypt Breaker Alchemist ability. Discoveries Concentrate Poison (50% duration, +2 DC), sticky poison (6th; a single dose of created poison lasts Int mod), celestial poison (8th; good; poison undead and evil outsiders), and malignant poison (10th; +4 poison DC; no onset) Dropping Fortitude Saves Shaken, sickened, pernicious poison (no save, but subject to SR), Con damage, and anything else that drops a creatures Fortitude saving throw, directly or indirectly, will make poison use reasonable.
Alkahest Bombs (Su) A crypt breaker’s bombs are specially designed to work best against constructs and corporeal undead—two foes commonly encountered in ancient tombs. Known as alkahest bombs, these bombs deal acid damage instead of fire damage. Alkahest is an alchemical fluid that eats away unliving flesh and animated constructs, but it doesn’t work as well against other targets. Against constructs and corporeal undead, alkahest bombs deal 1d8 points of damage, plus 1d8 points of damage for every odd-numbered level instead of 1d6. Against all other creatures, alkahest bombs deal 1d4 points of damage, plus 1d4 points of acid damage for every odd-numbered level. This ability otherwise functions as and replaces the standard alchemist bomb class feature. I'm interested in playing a Crypt Breaker Alchemist for Pathfinder Society Organized Play and am considering discoveries. Something that is not clear to me is the Crypt Breaker's Alkahest Bombs and how they are modified, if at all, by discoveries such as Dispelling Bomb, Force Bomb, Acid Bomb, and Concussive Bomb. Each discovery is explicit in what it does, so it leads me to believe that while a Crypt Breaker wouldn't make a simple fire-based bomb like most alchemists, but that these mentioned bomb discoveries would expand the kinds of bombs that the Crypt Breaker can create, allowing for more versatility against non-construct and non-corporeal undead. Does this sound like it would hold up at PFS tables?
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