How strict are you?

[DMFTodd]

In the last dozen PFS games I've been in, the GM hasn't so much as looked at a character sheet.

Many of the players (and some of the DMs) in those games showed a shaky grasp of the rules. I seriously doubt most of those characters were correct on the big things (Ability scores, saves). If any of those 60 players calculated encumbrance, I'll eat my dice bag.

[Eric Clingenpeel]

Jiggy wrote:

Dan Luckett wrote:

Werent there rules that a favored weapon of your god was a "holy symbol" and you could engrave your symbol on your shield and channel through your shield? Or is this 3.0/5 memory slipping in?

I've heard of no such rule.

Channel foci from Adventurer's Armory. They incorporate holy symbols into the foci and they can be used as holy symbols for spells or turning. One of the foci categories is a consecrated weapon.

[LazarX]

Dan Luckett wrote:

Werent there rules that a favored weapon of your god was a "holy symbol" and you could engrave your symbol on your shield and channel through your shield? Or is this 3.0/5 memory slipping in?

That wasn't 3.X rule unless it came out of some supplement somewhere. Although I did see it as a home rule on a few occaisions.

[Dan Luckett]

I don't care enough to go digging through. It was either the PHB, the 3.0 faith supplement, or the complete divine.

I haven't made a PFRPG cleric yet, and thus am not intimately familiar with the new rendition.

[Saint Caleth]

It's in Complete Divine in 3.5. It might very well also be in 3.0 but I don;t have access to my 3.0 library ATM to check. In my games, I let players incorporate their holy symbol into their gear if they want and just hand wave it, so I have never really cared until coming to PFS.

I missed that the channel foci count as your holy symbol. That is quite useful.

[Kyle Baird]

I'm only strict when I need to be. Usually that's only after a player at the table is doing something that disrupts the fun of everyone else at the table.

[Thod]

I checked my 8th level cleric - seems he reached 8 level and approx. 65% of games played and not with GM credit without ever owning a holy symbol.

That shows about enforcement of this rule. It must have been forgotten early and never was rectified.

I will do better now (bowing towards Sarenrae).

At least he is using her favoured weapon and it's even a flaming one by now.

[Mike Lindner]

DMFTodd wrote:

In the last dozen PFS games I've been in, the GM hasn't so much as looked at a character sheet.

I don't think I have ever had a GM look at my character sheet. This is with ~40 scenarios played in PFS with around 8-10 GMs. Locally there is an attitude of trust unless given significant reasons not to.

As a GM I have asked people how they got the attack bonus, damage bonus, etc. they did, but never felt the need to actually look at the character sheet; I'll just do a little mental arithmetic counting up feat bonuses and such and if it's close I trust them.

I do tend to be rather picky as a GM about what actions people take, such as reminding people that a withdraw is a full-round action and it only prevents an AoO from the first square of movement or that you have to get a potion out before drinking it. I only question someone's encumbrance if they are carrying a large chest, another player, etc. and don't bother with heat or cold unless it's a key part of the story being told.

For my part I do track everything about my characters including encumbrance, money down to the copper, replenishing consumables, and so on.

[Dan Luckett]

Most of my characters have a holy symbol anyways. My pirate has Besmara, my summoner is Nethys, my paladin is Iomedae.

[Legion42]

Somewhere out there I've seen rules for sanctifying/consecrating an item for use as a holy symbol.. It was a cash addition to to armor and weapons like the skill bonus add ons. I think it ran about +75 gp to the item's base cost. I'm not certain it was in the rulings for the addition, but I always house ruled that it had to display the actual symbol. I did allow a one time craft/stealth check to disguise the symbol during the crafting process that set a permanent perception DC to notice the hidden symbol. It was a little pricey for 1st level PCs but well worth it later.

Also a Light shield allows you to hold an item in hand while still maintaining your AC bonus. I might rule that you lose your AC if you use the hand for something else, like drinking the potion you've been holding for the last 3 rounds without managing to break or pack searching, but not for divine focus or component issues.

[Fromper]

Thod wrote:

I checked my 8th level cleric - seems he reached 8 level and approx. 65% of games played and not with GM credit without ever owning a holy symbol.

That shows about enforcement of this rule. It must have been forgotten early and never was rectified.

I will do better now (bowing towards Sarenrae).

At least he is using her favoured weapon and it's even a flaming one by now.

That's ok - I don't recall ever seeing a bad guy cleric with a holy symbol in a PFS adventure, either. I just checked the two adventures I'm going to GM tomorrow, which have 3 clerics total, and a quick search showed that the phrase "holy symbol" doesn't appear in either adventure.

Personally, I'd love to see a caster go for a Grease spell on an enemy's holy symbol. Fastest way to take an enemy caster out of the battle.

[Jiggy]

Fromper wrote:

Personally, I'd love to see a caster go for a Grease spell on an enemy's holy symbol. Fastest way to take an enemy caster out of the battle.

Until they start casting spells that don't have a DF component.

[Fromper]

Jiggy wrote:

Fromper wrote:

Personally, I'd love to see a caster go for a Grease spell on an enemy's holy symbol. Fastest way to take an enemy caster out of the battle.

Until they start casting spells that don't have a DF component.

These are clerics we're talking about. That'll severely limit their options, and stop them from channeling.

[Jiggy]

Fromper wrote:

Jiggy wrote:

Fromper wrote:

Personally, I'd love to see a caster go for a Grease spell on an enemy's holy symbol. Fastest way to take an enemy caster out of the battle.

Until they start casting spells that don't have a DF component.

These are clerics we're talking about. That'll severely limit their options, and stop them from channeling.

They can run around CLW-ing people.

[TetsujinOni]

Disarm / Sunder / Grease on a holy symbol is a longstanding tactic. Watch out if they've got a 2H weapon to fall back on though

[karlbadmanners]

As a GM I myself am rather lenient for the most part, as many of my posts indicate. I have no issue with GM's who are more strict about certain aspects of the game(eg. ability scores,damage,spells per day) as I am strict in those ways as well, however this is a fantastical game of swords and sorcery...I do NOT care if I carrying an extra bottle puts one of my PC's monk into medium encumb, within reason of course, there are just waaaaaay too many other more important things about playing this game. My biggest beef is with GM's who are wildly inconsistent with being stringent, like oh no big deal that you didn't buy arrows in town, we can just reconn that, oh but wait the cleric's holy symbol is technically still under his armor so no channeling till he pulls it out. I think what a lot of this boils down to, is that a lot of GMs in my experience are drawn to being a GM because of the level of control it confers.