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Gunslingers are tricky. There's obviously WAY MORE of then in PFS than the setting honestly expects.
As an author, when I get a cool outline from the powers that be, I never have a good opportunity to say "Hey, let's use a gunslinger in this." because I generally know that gunslingers are supposed to be a rarity in Pathfinder. In my mind, once per season as a max. Maybe more for season 6 if there's Numeria stuff.
Now, I did suggest to John at one point that we put in a Synthesist as a BBEG... :3
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Then the BBEG shifts to running the tetori out of Ki. Or just using minions that don't care if they are grappled.The difference between having a continuous set of major antagonists that can learn and adapt to the PCs is night and day from the plight of the one-off scenario antagonists who have likely never heard of a Tetori monk and find out what they do the hard way.Tetori monks trump a lot of NPC schemes. In home brew, my solution would be to add NPCs to the encounter. And, at later levels, add healthy doses of Freedom of Movement from evil priests. No such luck in PFS for authors.Bless you.However, not even Freedom of Movement can escape the Inescapable Grasp of a Tetori.
The problem is, a well built Tetori will destroy anyone they have grappled before they run out of Ki. Greater + Rapid Grapple + Constrict + Pinning Knockout + Final Embrace Master and it's going to be dead or knocked out FAST. Minons are a stopgap, but the BBEG is doomed once the Tetori lays hands on him.
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The problem is, a well built Tetori will destroy anyone they have grappled before they run out of Ki. Greater + Rapid Grapple + Constrict + Pinning Knockout + Final Embrace Master and it's going to be dead or knocked out FAST. Minons are a stopgap, but the BBEG is doomed once the Tetori lays hands on him.Then the BBEG shifts to running the tetori out of Ki. Or just using minions that don't care if they are grappled.The difference between having a continuous set of major antagonists that can learn and adapt to the PCs is night and day from the plight of the one-off scenario antagonists who have likely never heard of a Tetori monk and find out what they do the hard way.Tetori monks trump a lot of NPC schemes. In home brew, my solution would be to add NPCs to the encounter. And, at later levels, add healthy doses of Freedom of Movement from evil priests. No such luck in PFS for authors.Bless you.However, not even Freedom of Movement can escape the Inescapable Grasp of a Tetori.
Oh, the actual BBEG makes sure that never happens. The BBEG would have to deploy multiple minions all protected by Freedom of Movement. A party with such a character would have to be fighting CRs far beyond what you see in PFS.
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Gunslingers are tricky. There's obviously WAY MORE of then in PFS than the setting honestly expects.
As an author, when I get a cool outline from the powers that be, I never have a good opportunity to say "Hey, let's use a gunslinger in this." because I generally know that gunslingers are supposed to be a rarity in Pathfinder. In my mind, once per season as a max. Maybe more for season 6 if there's Numeria stuff.
Now, I did suggest to John at one point that we put in a Synthesist as a BBEG... :3
Someone forgot to tell the PCs this. Gunslingers should be fair game. Just like enemy tetori monks should be fair game. Everything legal for the PCs should be fair game for the NPCs. That's the bottom line.
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The interesting thing about employing a band of evil elven archers in a scenario who each have a 1 level inquisitor dip and each have liberating command... the encounter is only more challenging for the slumber witches/tetori monks as a result of this extra embellishment to the encounter. A party without those "tricks" sees no difficulty change.
If the target is bound, grappled, or otherwise restrained, he may make an Escape Artist check to escape as an immediate action. He gains a competence bonus on this check equal to twice your caster level (maximum +20)
Bruno think no grappler worried about a 1-level-dipped inquisitor with Liberating Command.
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Actually, for the non-Tetori, non-Slumber witch party will still see a serious difficulty increase, unless, for some odd reason, all those Inquisitors are tacticed to not use their Judgments.
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I think the solution is more hard modes. I would love to play more scenarios with hard mode. I also wish I knew what scenarios offered hard mode so I could get a group of people together that wanted a challenge.
When I did weapons in the rift on hard mode I convinced the other players to do it with me on hard mode, and we had a blast. To the point that afterward they asked me if they could join me on the next hard mode.
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The two times I've seen erinyes have been in small enclosed spaces. I think ranged enemies are under utilized because, while people should be prepared for them, it will lead to a lot of people sitting around without a significant way to contribute. Give the developers some credit, I bet they realize the threat of ranged enemies and purposely choose when to bring that asset to bear. Every fight I've seen with an alchemist has been pretty memorable, for example.
Anyway more ranged enemies will just lead to more ranged pcs and is that really what anyone wants?
PCs that can close the distance and PCs that have invisibility tech and/or cover tech are also possible solutions.
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The problem is, a well built Tetori will destroy anyone they have grappled before they run out of Ki. Greater + Rapid Grapple + Constrict + Pinning Knockout + Final Embrace Master and it's going to be dead or knocked out FAST. Minons are a stopgap, but the BBEG is doomed once the Tetori lays hands on him.
Would a potion of blink help against the Tetori?
I am surprised at the bad guys that don't have a potion of undetectable alignment.
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Developer
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I am surprised at the bad guys that don't have a potion of undetectable alignment.
That's a tricky one to balance. I've made sure to include undetectable alignment in several scenarios over the past year—particularly when an inopportune detect evil would really derail the adventure. On the other hand, having everyone packing divination countermeasures starts to punish those characters. I think the balance during Season 5 was about right, albeit open to some tweaking.
NPC's seem to break the no personal spell potion rules quite regularly...Blink is a personal range spell and ineligible for potions.That's okay, I'll just drink my potions of mirror image and true strike instead. Wait? What's that you say? NOOOOOOOO!
Oh, I watch for these so vigilantly, yet inevitably a few slip through.
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We need more harpies. Harpies with fighter levels and half-fiend templates.
Funny story: In a recent scenario featuring some massive ancient stairs(those in the know should know), my Ranger first made the proper checks to know there would be harpies, then found a harpy feather and finally saw some harpies as they flew out of cover, singing a merry tune.
And he did it all while holding a thunderstone in his mouth, ready to bite it the moment he would hear a harpy. Ain't Int 8 a great thing?
Then the harpies high-fived and started shooting.
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Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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I am surprised at the bad guys that don't have a potion of undetectable alignment.That's a tricky one to balance. I've made sure to include undetectable alignment in several scenarios over the past year—particularly when an inopportune detect evil would really derail the adventure. On the other hand, having everyone packing divination countermeasures starts to punish those characters. I think the balance during Season 5 was about right, albeit open to some tweaking.
Ironically, in at least one season 5, there is a very smart bad guy using undetectable alignment, and GMs came back and complained that the author was nuetering classes granted powers. (Several other people complained that the module was not allowing detect evil to work for no good reason, or complained that the plot made no sense because at least one of the NPCs should be able to detect the evil aura of the person causing the mischief.)
So I could totally understand why staff is leary of having too much undetectable alignment in game.
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Ironically, in at least one season 5, there is a very smart bad guy using undetectable alignment, and GMs came back and complained that the author was nuetering classes granted powers. (Several other people complained that the module was not allowing detect evil to work for no good reason, or complained that the plot made no sense because at least one of the NPCs should be able to detect the evil aura of the person causing the mischief.)
So I could totally understand why staff is leary of having too much undetectable alignment in game.
It's totally unfair for NPCs to use gear, tactics, abilities or spells that PCs have access to.
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It's totally unfair for NPCs to use gear, tactics, abilities or spells that PCs have access to.Ironically, in at least one season 5, there is a very smart bad guy using undetectable alignment, and GMs came back and complained that the author was nuetering classes granted powers. (Several other people complained that the module was not allowing detect evil to work for no good reason, or complained that the plot made no sense because at least one of the NPCs should be able to detect the evil aura of the person causing the mischief.)
So I could totally understand why staff is leary of having too much undetectable alignment in game.
Actually, I would submit that it's stupid and offensive for them NOT to. And leads to the "only monsters are actually challenging" effect. If I have to GM another set of incompetent Aspis fighter/rogues, I'll be a sad panda.
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Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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The BBEG has also been running his air conditioner a lot this week, so his skin's been dry and he's been regularly applying alchemical grease.
It totally has nothing to do with your tetori. Please, move along...
We totally need a thread of "lame excuses for prepared bad guys."
(No, the bad guy doesn't have a decoy door that goes nowhere but triggers a noisy trap when opened. That's just his hall closet. Everytime he cleans the lair he just stuffs everything in there. Treat it as a falling boulder trap that can be heard from up to 100 feet away.)
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Now that you mention it, I've never seen an enemy snooze witch.And if you did, you'd be able to read about how much players would hate that here on the messageboards and in the reviews.
I consider a snooze witch to be much more legitimate CR-wise than harpies. I don't see how players can complain about NPC builds in any way. Especially given how there were 6-armed synthesist gunslingers back in the day.
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Snooze witch can only hit one character per round one time per scenario. If you make your save nothing happens, if you fail, another person can spend a standard to wake you. Or if they can't get to you, that can even hit you with an alchemist fire for one point of damage that will auto-wake you.
It's not an immediate CDG like it is for most npcs.
I'd much rather have a slumber witch as an opponent than most of the fights I've been in.
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If there's one universal rule in life, it's folks will complain no matter what.
Even, if you're just playing straight Core rules.
Angry Player: What? You're running a big bad evil guy with color spray? And Greater spell focus?? What are you trying to do? Kill us?
GM: I, uh, no... well, yes...
Luckily as GMs, we have adventure writers to employ as scapegoats for all these evil, villainous acts.
GM: I mean, I didn't write this. Some guy named Kyle Baird did...
Angry Player: What? Who's that? You're making that name up!
Don't forget enemy gunslingers to deal with plate wearers and pets with 30+ armor classes.Scenarios seem to shun gunslinger enemies... perhaps that changes in Season 6.
But certainly the evil masterminds can hire a team of tiefling alchemist triplets who all quaff their mutagens and targeted bomb admixture.
Three 3rd level alchemists in a subtier 4-5 scenario? Evil...
I think PFS should start having some summoner NPC's. When sir-clanks-a-lot makes it obvious someone is assaulting the lair, summoner casts invisibility and starts summoning monsters to fight alongside his eidelon from around the corner under cover.
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When my players outright destroy a written scenario, I don't always mention who I wished wrote the scenario instead.
But when I do, it's Kyle Baird.
(or Jacobs, Vaughn, Logue, Pett or Hichcock - but they seem to be retired from scenario writing. That Baker fellow is pretty good, too)