--The Halfling cleric of Desna's Str score so low that when he attacks he can only do 1 point of damage with his starknife. Oh, and that damage is nonlethal. (This is my brother's PFS character)My Gnome Sorcerer's damage is so low that his Maximum damage is 1 Non-lethal. [5 Str = 1d3-3 with cestus]
Having a Gnome Sorcerer in the same situation, except with a dagger, I remember being in a combat alone in a room with a single opponent in his first adventure. I color sprayed the poor rogue, closed the door of the small room we were in so no one could interfere, and proceeded to coup de grace him while he was unconscious for 2 point of damage per round. He still had hit points when he came around so it was a race for me to finish the job while he was blind and eventually took him down right before the stun wore off. It took some amazing rolls, considering his melee to hit was -2 or something and my max damage was 1. The other PCs heard the commotion in the other room and wondered what the heck was going on in there. His first and only melee victory. I knew tier 1-2 would be the only chance he'd get.
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Having a Gnome Sorcerer in the same situation, except with a dagger, I remember being in a combat alone in a room with a single opponent in his first adventure. I color sprayed the poor rogue, closed the door of the small room we were in so no one could interfere, and proceeded to coup de grace him while he was unconscious for 2 point of damage per round. He still had hit points when he came around so it was a race for me to finish the job while he was blind and eventually took him down right before the stun wore off. It took some amazing rolls, considering his melee to hit was -2 or something and my max damage was 1. The other PCs heard the commotion in the other room and wondered what the heck was going on in there. His first and only melee victory. I knew tier 1-2 would be the only chance he'd get.--The Halfling cleric of Desna's Str score so low that when he attacks he can only do 1 point of damage with his starknife. Oh, and that damage is nonlethal. (This is my brother's PFS character)My Gnome Sorcerer's damage is so low that his Maximum damage is 1 Non-lethal. [5 Str = 1d3-3 with cestus]
My Sorcerer's Bloodline is Fey, so his 1 NL damage is more often just an attempted Laughing Touch attempt. But, that's what he has Sorcerer Robes for- TICKLE MISSILES!
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...you're working out the Ranger's 'to hit' and 'damage bonus' before the Ranger's player does. Every. Single. Encounter.
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Courtesy of far too many online sessions, including TPKon today:
You get to the table and the GM, while present, hasn't even BEGUN to set up the VTT. "Maybe we'll get started in a half-hour or so... maybe...."
And five minutes in, it's clear he never read the scenario either.
As mentioned when you brought it up in the discord channel if you have an issue with the conduct of a GM bring up with them privately. If you are unable to resolve the issue escalate it to convention organizers. You've discussed this with one of us already but if you feel the need to discuss more contact one of us either via discord or PM here.
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Just finished the weekend convention, a few highlights:
The monk and fighter try to sneak into an ambush position alone, ahead of the rest of the party for a self described 'challenging encounter'.
A lvl 5 Dwarf ranger PC named Harsk, ran by a young player ends up in a high tier 5-9. (He nearly single handedly took down the boss after being one of the 2 characters to save against a mass suggestion, it was heroic).
You shuffle tiers in the multitable special and to make tables work, and end up playing a full caster in a lower tier during a special.
You play a character that has been GM credited for the past 3 levels and realize you never picked up the extra tools of the trade (pathfinder stuff, a way to fly, restoration magic) required for the new level.
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Trouble after the table; but I did the old salt water test on my dice (have a matching colour coded dice set that I use for playing and GMing, the only dice I use) and found out that my primary d20 was unbalanced, unbalanced towards the 20. Did some quick calculations and figure it's seen about 2000 rolls since I started GMing.
So now it is time to send out some apologies to a great number of players. Everyone said that die crit a lot, I though it was just a negativity bias...
(Of 7 single-colour opaque chessex d20s, only 2 passed my salt test.)
Venture-Captain, Utah—Utah County
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- the man from nowheresville utah goes to BIGcon usa and has no equipment except a pair of green wood 10' poles and "50' of rope cut into varying lengths", and sits at the 5-9 table
- the same man sits at the 1-5 table with 1st level character during a 00 special and has no equipment except an empty cask and a backpack.
- the bard says "i dont do performance or spells"
- the cleric says "i hope everyone has CLW wands"
- the wizard says "so, i sepcialized abjuration. my oppositions are necromancy and evocation"
- the titan mauler dual wielding great swords is the "face of the group"
- that wierd asian guy who has been silent the whole time says "wait I have THE solution!"
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Venture-Captain, Utah—Utah County
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I meant having people having trouble hearing me.This is why I shave before conventions.I have this happen to me too often.The noise in the room requires one of your players to read your lips.
Your mustache is set to "soup strainer"
::.rolls up character sheet like a listening cone.:: HUH??!! ROLLS AND CRUTONS!?? ... OH! NO THANKS I GOT PIZZA BEFORE I GOT HERE!
::.rolls up character sheet like a listening cone.:: HUH??!!I meant having people having trouble hearing me.This is why I shave before conventions.I have this happen to me too often.The noise in the room requires one of your players to read your lips.
Your mustache is set to "soup strainer"
Ooh! Pour a carton of milk in it and make it disappear!
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The arachnophobe finds a large house spider on them and throws it accross the table...
... to the other arachnophobe.
(don't worry they were safely moved to a nice shadowy corner)
Why did you move the Arachnophobes into the corner?
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16
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...you sit down at the table a little early, to finish leveling up your fighter and realize that, as everyone is discussing who they are bringing, literally no one can activate a CLW wand, let alone cast a heal spell. You surreptitiously put one of your new skill points into UMD, putting it at a +3. You are the sole healer for that adventure, and nat 1 two of the table's 6 wands. (But at least everyone had wands.)
...you sit down to play Tomb of the Iron Medusa with a table of three other PCs-- a monk, a rogue, and a bard. You have your same fighter, just older now. (We actually did pretty well but holy crap did our bard burn a ton of scrolls, as the only caster.)
...your unarmed, unarmored gnome paladin/sorcerer is the tank. (Bit of a red herring, since I actually built him to tank quite well at that level, but I imagine that it provided a moment of worrying what for other players there)
...you are the organizer and are running out of 'easy' 1-5 scenarios to schedule for the tightly-knit group of three quasi-new players of whom two have severe trouble adjusting to the increasing complexity of higher level play, or even the challenges of things like being prepared to deal with darkness, etc.
...you are the organizer and are running out of things for your other players to play, period.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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...you are the organizer and are running out of 'easy' 1-5 scenarios to schedule for the tightly-knit group of three quasi-new players of whom two have severe trouble adjusting to the increasing complexity of higher level play, or even the challenges of things like being prepared to deal with darkness, etc.
...you are the organizer and are running out of things for your other players to play, period.
Have you heard of the session tracker that one of the people in our lodge developed to assist with these scheduling problems?
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16
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Yep, and I'm familiar with it and also developed my own for local play. It's just that it doesn't solve the issue of many people having either played nearly everything (among the more experienced players) and trying to find a table that everyone can get credit for, or being really likely to party wipe (for our less system-mastery newer players) if faced with anything that their standard tactics haven't worked on so far.
This week, the local GM has brought his big toy tub -- the one that you know contains his gargantuan and colossal minis.
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Trouble after the table; but I did the old salt water test on my dice (have a matching colour coded dice set that I use for playing and GMing, the only dice I use) and found out that my primary d20 was unbalanced, unbalanced towards the 20. Did some quick calculations and figure it's seen about 2000 rolls since I started GMing.
So now it is time to send out some apologies to a great number of players. Everyone said that die crit a lot, I though it was just a negativity bias...
(Of 7 single-colour opaque chessex d20s, only 2 passed my salt test.)
How do you do that test?
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Venture-Agent, Netherlands—Utrecht
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How do you do that test?Trouble after the table; but I did the old salt water test on my dice (have a matching colour coded dice set that I use for playing and GMing, the only dice I use) and found out that my primary d20 was unbalanced, unbalanced towards the 20. Did some quick calculations and figure it's seen about 2000 rolls since I started GMing.
So now it is time to send out some apologies to a great number of players. Everyone said that die crit a lot, I though it was just a negativity bias...
(Of 7 single-colour opaque chessex d20s, only 2 passed my salt test.)
Warm water (to make the salt dissolve more easily) and lots of salt to change the density of the water. The dice should be able to float on the water at some point. Then spin the d20 while it's floating. If it's truly random, the dice should land at different faces. If it's weighted, the same number tends to pop up more often (as that side's lighter, or the other side is heavier).
Check this link for a visual how-to. As you see, the weighted dice really keep rolling back to one side, and make unnatural-looking leaps while doing so. I always try to fish out my clear dice, because those can't hide the visual imperfections and are usually more fair.
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Ya, all my opaque dice were too heavy to float so I just rolled them in salt water, hoping that the buoyancy would magnify any flaws. I rolled one dice in salt water 50 times, and got 6 (I think, don't have my notes with me) 20s. More than average but not impossible from chance alone. But 46 of the 50 rolls had results on the 20 side of the die... Strong evidence that the die had a flaw.
