GM questions after 2 sessions


Iron Gods


I have purchased last Humble Bundle with Pathfinder when it came out, but we were in middle of D&D5 campaign at that time. Recently we wanted to try PF out and after analyzing APs available we decided upon Iron Gods. And what happens? Exactly 2 hours afterwards new Humble Bundle appeared. Thank you very much Paizo ;)

There have been quite a lot of books and resources to go trough, but online reference and databases sure do help. My players also decided to convert to PCGen so it could help them with grasping all the rules.

Well, there are still some things I am not sure about, and haven't been able to find definite answers:
1) Some monsters that appear in AP reference Bestiaries, for example Gremlins do. Gremlins have Treasure standard listed in their stat block. Should I generate treasure, or only give what the AP book tells me to?

2) Random encounters. I don't like them. I feel like they waste the time of my players. There's already a lot of fighting. But with that heroes start to lag behind - both in terms of wealth and XP. I decided to give a bit more story based experience and buff gold prizes here and there to adjust. (I roll for expected number of random encounters before game and then add "hoard" necessary to stuff to throw at players. I decrease it a bit, since they will need less resources to heal up afterwards).

3) I'm kind of lazy and used this: http://archivesofnethys.com/RandomItemGenerator.aspx to generate marketplace for Torch. I only added as many minor and medium items as I rolled on my dice, but didn't want to create the items themselves. Do items this creates seem "right" rule and power level? (The players didn't earn enough yet to look after magic items yet).

4) Stat blocks. First of all - I'm confused about some SQs. Hetuath has "Armor Training 1", I checked on http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/rules-for-monsters/universal-monster-rules and there's nothing like this. Special Abilities section also doesn't mention that. What is that? Is that the same as Fighter's Armor Training? I guess Desert Runner/Stride are the same as in Kasatha, but it was a bit hard to figure out...

5) Stat blocks. Do I even have to care that much? I cannot imagine I'll remember all those details during session and will just focus on numbers and special abilities. It seems like the numbers already take into account feats, SQs and so on so are they there only for reference?

6) Monster loot: I don't see a reason why heroes wouldn't be able to loot stuff in "Gear" section of monster. Obviously if Hetuath regenerates after that he will be without gear, but I just want to make sure they can loot and use those items with no issues.

7) Just to make sure - anything that is not slashing or magic will be reduced by 5 damage against Hetuath, right?

8) On attacks - to do more than 1 attack one has to spend full action, if I remember correctly. So if Hetuath has to move and attack he will be only able to do single mwk short sword +7, but if he starts adjacent he will be able to go trough all 4 of his atacks(2 swords, 2 slams). Is that right?

Sorry I'm asking so much about Hetuath, but it seems like he could easily kill a level 2 character in single round. And they had really hard time hitting Gremlin chieftain (AC 22 is I understand how advanced monsters work correctly).

9) Advanced monsters - so, does +4 AC also include flat and touch?

10) Sorcerer seems to be on a bit of a weak side. Sure, she hits touch AC usually, but it's often only 1 less than real AC. Meanwhile she sports only her Dex modifier to hit with ranged attacks and STR with melee. Which makes melee quite silly idea. Also, on hit the damage is laughable - 1d3(+1 from bloodline) for ray of frost, 1d4 from magic missile(although this cannot miss). I suppose he will get much stronger at some point, as those magic users tend to do, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything. Barbarian sports his strength bonus to attacks and has nice BAB, so not only he hits more often, but his hits can be devastating with 1d12 + str mod.

11) So, my gunslinger player (well, techslinger) didn't take Rapid Reload to start with. That means that with pistol she will only be able to attack every second round? I suggested to use Alchemic for faster reload, but I guess that's that. I don't mind my players to change feats at this point, since they still learn the game, so that's other solution ;)

That's all folks... For now...


1) For all monsters not specially mentioned in the book and who are just referenced to the bestiary I use some treasure based on the bestiary entry.
2) As you wish my friend.
3) Hm, don't know this side, so no help from me...
4) Right and right. Hetuath is an advanced Kasatha with 3 fighter class levels. So he has some abilities from being Kasatha and some for being a 3rd lvl fighter.
5) At low levels the stat blocks are mostly nice to know, but with increasing levels and complexity of fights they get more important. Ability damage, polymorph and other stat changing spells are just a short list for what the stat block is important for.
6) Right. Loot em all...
7) Right for weapon damage. Spelldamage and elemental damage is not reduced as well.
8) Right
9) No. Advanced monsters get +2 natural armor that adds to flatfooted but not to touch. And they get +4 to all abilities what means +4 to dex and thats +2 AC that adds to touch but not to flatfooted. So alltogether you get a +4 to normal AC and +2 to touch and flatfooted.
10) Difference between normal AC and touch AC depends on the armor/ natural armor. The heavier the armor the bigger the difference. Touch attacks against heavy armored fighters or later dragons and huge monsters will be some kind of autohit. And sorcerers as all magic users will rely of course on their spells. And they get much stronger at later levels. The first 3-5 lvls are frustrating but that compensates for being godmode at high levels.
11) No idea.


Areinu wrote:
1) Some monsters that appear in AP reference Bestiaries, for example Gremlins do. Gremlins have Treasure standard listed in their stat block. Should I generate treasure, or only give what the AP book tells me to?

Standard treasure is a recommendation. The module overrides it.

Areinu wrote:
2) Random encounters. I don't like them. I feel like they waste the time of my players. There's already a lot of fighting. But with that heroes start to lag behind - both in terms of wealth and XP. I decided to give a bit more story based experience and buff gold prizes here and there to adjust. (I roll for expected number of random encounters before game and then add "hoard" necessary to stuff to throw at players. I decrease it a bit, since they will need less resources to heal up afterwards).

The random encounter table on page 81 of Fires of Creation is especially bad, because the above-ground town encounters don't fit in the caves and the below-ground cave encounters don't fit in town.

I never follow the rules about frequency of random encounters: "the PCs have a 35% chance of a random encounter every hour they are in the Black Hill caves. Some of these creatures can be found in the town itself; the PCs have a 25% chance of a random encounter every 4 hours they spend exploring the town." Three members of my party had the Local Ties campaign trait, so the party never "explored" Torch; instead, the local party members gave the newcomers a nice safe tour.

I use the random encounter tables as a list of dangerous creatures common to the area when I deliberately add an unscripted encounter to the campaign. I also roll random encounters when the players are in an area not described in detail in the module and they should have an encounter, but I don't care which encounter.

Areinu wrote:
3) I'm kind of lazy and used this: http://archivesofnethys.com/RandomItemGenerator.aspx to generate marketplace for Torch. I only added as many minor and medium items as I rolled on my dice, but didn't want to create the items themselves. Do items this creates seem "right" rule and power level? (The players didn't earn enough yet to look after magic items yet).

I am even lazier. If the item a PC wants sounds reasonable, they can find it. If it sounds less likely to be in stock, I follow the marketplace rules for a town the size of Torch (see page 63 in the module), which usually means a 75% chance of finding it.

Areinu wrote:

4) Stat blocks. First of all - I'm confused about some SQs. Hetuath has "Armor Training 1", I checked on http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/rules-for-monsters/universal-monster-rules and there's nothing like this. Special Abilities section also doesn't mention that. What is that? Is that the same as Fighter's Armor Training? I guess Desert Runner/Stride are the same as in Kasatha, but it was a bit hard to figure out...

5) Stat blocks. Do I even have to care that much? I cannot imagine I'll remember all those details during session and will just focus on numbers and special abilities. It seems like the numbers already take into account feats, SQs and so on so are they there only for reference?

Sometimes the numbers in the Defense and Offense are enough to run the creature; other times individual abilities change the strategy. For example. Hetuath has Combat Reflexes, so he can have up to 5 attacks of opportunity per round. Annoyingly, we GMs have to read every one to check whether they matter.

"SQ armor training 1, deathlink, desert runner, desert stride, jumper, multi-armed, stalker"
Armor training is a fighter ability. Its effects are already incorporated into Hetuath's stats.
Deathlink is described in his stat block.
Desert runner, desert stride, jumper, multi-armed, and stalker are kasathan abilites described in Bestiary 4. The first 3 matter only if he leaves the hallway for the desert environment in the habitat chamber. Multi-armed means he has four arms and gets 4 attacks in a full attack with Two-Weapon Fighting. Stalker improves his Perception and Stealth skills, so its effect is already in his skill numbers.

The stat blocks have all details necessary to recreate the character, in case we decice to change the character or his tactics. For example, what if Hetuath moves and takes a standard attack action instead of a full attack? He gets only one attack, but without the Two-Weapon Fighting penalty, he has +9 to hit with a shortsword. What if the PCs loot Hetuath's swords and he has to fight without them? He will have 4 slam attacks. He can make a natural full attack, since slams are natural weapons, so he can have a +8 to hit with them.

Areinu wrote:
6) Monster loot: I don't see a reason why heroes wouldn't be able to loot stuff in "Gear" section of monster. Obviously if Hetuath regenerates after that he will be without gear, but I just want to make sure they can loot and use those items with no issues.

Loot the bodies. Often the best loot is found on enemy bodies. Someone wants a masterwork shortsword? Use Hetuath's.

Areinu wrote:
7) Just to make sure - anything that is not slashing or magic will be reduced by 5 damage against Hetuath, right?

Sadly, it is quite restrictive. The weapon has to be both slashing and magic to bypass Hetuath's damage reduction 5. I changed the loot on Gerrol Sonder's body back in room A6 to include a +1 shortsword and Emelia Otterbie gave the party permission to use Gerrol's weapons after they retrieved his body. Hetuath is brutal if the party cannot exploit his weaknesses.

Areinu wrote:
8) On attacks - to do more than 1 attack one has to spend full action, if I remember correctly. So if Hetuath has to move and attack he will be only able to do single mwk short sword +7, but if he starts adjacent he will be able to go trough all 4 of his atacks(2 swords, 2 slams). Is that right?

Mostly right. The single shortsword will have +9 to hit without the Two-Weapon Fighting penalty. Also, he can take a 5-foot step (a special kind of movement that does not require an action and also does not provoke attacks of opportunity) and still make a full attack, 2 swords and 2 slams.

Areinu wrote:
Sorry I'm asking so much about Hetuath, but it seems like he could easily kill a level 2 character in single round.

Stories of other people's games show that Hetuath has killed 2nd-level PCs in those games. In my game, he knocked one unconscious.

Dark Archive

Hope you don't mind me expanding on a couple of answers here.

1) The stat blocks in the APs usually reference where the monster/NPC relevant information can be found. You'll need to refer to that source if the author didn't complete out the stat block.

2) In terms of XP, I've always ran my APs with no XP. Always provided characters levels at the appropriate time as indicated in the beginning of each AP book. So, don't have to worry about whether the PCs are behind on the XP curve. If I have 5 strong veteran players or 6 players, I hold them back one level after 3rd level. (Don't run with more than 6 players).

3) Great sight to generating purchasable loot in towns!

4) Keep in mind that some monsters will be given class levels. So, your harpy enemy could be a Harpy Archer Ranger 5.

5) Agree with Sheharan.

6) I provide only the loot indicating in the AP. If it's a generic monster with its own standard weapons and armor, then those are available to loot after the encounter. But overall, I don't provide anything more. The APs are already generous with loot, and offering more loot could cause your PCs to be extremely wealthy.

7) Correct.

8) Correct.

9) If you don't want to use the rebuild part of the Advanced template, you can add +2 to all rolls, +4 to AC, +2 to touch and flat-footed, and +4 to CMD. It's that simple. :)

10) What Sheharan said. :)

11) Not familiar with gunslinger (don't allow them in my campaigns, no guns), but you are correct with what I understand about guns. They take a standard action to reload without the Rapid Reload feat (but I could be wrong and welcome someone to confirm/correct).

Hope this helps.


I paused to look up the advanced monster rules at Simple Template: Advanced.

Areinu wrote:

And they had really hard time hitting Gremlin chieftain (AC 22 is I understand how advanced monsters work correctly).

9) Advanced monsters - so, does +4 AC also include flat and touch?

The +4 to AC is the quick rules for adding the advanced template on the fly. The more detailed rebuild rules show that the +4 to AC comes from +2 to natural armor (which helps flatfooted AC but not touch AC) and +2 to Dexterity modifier (which helps touch AC but not flatfooted AC). So it is +4 to reguar AC, +2 to flatfooted AC, and +2 to touch AC.

Areinu wrote:
10) Sorcerer seems to be on a bit of a weak side. Sure, she hits touch AC usually, but it's often only 1 less than real AC. Meanwhile she sports only her Dex modifier to hit with ranged attacks and STR with melee. Which makes melee quite silly idea. Also, on hit the damage is laughable - 1d3(+1 from bloodline) for ray of frost, 1d4 from magic missile(although this cannot miss). I suppose he will get much stronger at some point, as those magic users tend to do, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything. Barbarian sports his strength bonus to attacks and has nice BAB, so not only he hits more often, but his hits can be devastating with 1d12 + str mod.

Melee is not recommended for sorcerers. My wife once played a melee sorcerer who specialized in touch attacks, and she used a lot of unusual tactics such as wearing chain mail despite the arcane spell failure chance. Wizards and sorcerers are best at battlefield control tactics. For example, if she knew Mudball, she could blind Hetuath for a turn, which is a lot better than 1d4 damage.

Direct the sorcerer's player to Guide to the Class Guides so that she can find the guides to the sorcerer and learn the best tactics for that class.

Areinu wrote:
11) So, my gunslinger player (well, techslinger) didn't take Rapid Reload to start with. That means that with pistol she will only be able to attack every second round? I suggested to use Alchemic for faster reload, but I guess that's that. I don't mind my players to change feats at this point, since they still learn the game, so that's other solution ;)

A techslinger does not need Rapid Reload once he obtains a non-timeworn technological firearm, such as Meyanda's inferno pistol. Though ammunition for the inferno pistol is hard to find. He will have to visit a black market to purchase more nanite canisters.

Also, the feats Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and Deadly Aim are as important to gunslingers as Rapid Reload, so something had to wait.

Sovereign Court

Areinu wrote:
1) Some monsters that appear in AP reference Bestiaries, for example Gremlins do. Gremlins have Treasure standard listed in their stat block. Should I generate treasure, or only give what the AP book tells me to?

I recently did the math to see if my players were under, at or above expected Wealth By Level by the end of book 2. Turns out that they were a bit above it, but with a lot of items that they'd probably sell for half price. On the whole the AP contains enough treasure, you don't need to add more.

Areinu wrote:
2) Random encounters. I don't like them. I feel like they waste the time of my players. There's already a lot of fighting. But with that heroes start to lag behind - both in terms of wealth and XP. I decided to give a bit more story based experience and buff gold prizes here and there to adjust. (I roll for expected number of random encounters before game and then add "hoard" necessary to stuff to throw at players. I decrease it a bit, since they will need less resources to heal up afterwards).

You don't have to use random encounters, although in book 2 they can be nice to change the pace because otherwise it feels like you're going from one boss straight to another.

In the beginning of each book is a list explaining at which point in the adventure the players should be which level. Instead of using XP, you can just say everyone levels up at those points. It saves a lot of bookkeeping and monster grinding :)

Areinu wrote:
4) Stat blocks. First of all - I'm confused about some SQs. Hetuath has "Armor Training 1", I checked on http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/rules-for-monsters/universal-monster-rules and there's nothing like this. Special Abilities section also doesn't mention that. What is that? Is that the same as Fighter's Armor Training? I guess Desert Runner/Stride are the same as in Kasatha, but it was a bit hard to figure out...

The armor training comes from his three fighter levels.

Areinu wrote:
5) Stat blocks. Do I even have to care that much? I cannot imagine I'll remember all those details during session and will just focus on numbers and special abilities. It seems like the numbers already take into account feats, SQs and so on so are they there only for reference?

When I'm printing stuff out, I like to take a highlight marker and color the abilities that I think are important and that I should especially remember when running.

Areinu wrote:
6) Monster loot: I don't see a reason why heroes wouldn't be able to loot stuff in "Gear" section of monster. Obviously if Hetuath regenerates after that he will be without gear, but I just want to make sure they can loot and use those items with no issues.

Yes. In fact, the boss of book 2 has a big chainsaw, and the art for book 3 features one of the PCs lugging it around everywhere :P

Areinu wrote:
7) Just to make sure - anything that is not slashing or magic will be reduced by 5 damage against Hetuath, right?

It's even worse: anything that is not slashing AND magical at the same time is reduced.

Areinu wrote:
8) On attacks - to do more than 1 attack one has to spend full action, if I remember correctly. So if Hetuath has to move and attack he will be only able to do single mwk short sword +7, but if he starts adjacent he will be able to go trough all 4 of his atacks(2 swords, 2 slams). Is that right?

Yes, with the note that he can make a 5ft step (since that doesn't take an action) and still do a full attack action.

Areinu wrote:
Sorry I'm asking so much about Hetuath, but it seems like he could easily kill a level 2 character in single round. And they had really hard time hitting Gremlin chieftain (AC 22 is I understand how advanced monsters work correctly).

He's one of the scariest monsters in the book. The others are:

The Blindheim - blindness is extremely bad for you.

The Collector Drone - has very high hardness.

The Collector and Repair Drone/Medbot combination; the Repair Drone hits hard and can heal the Collector. Wise players take down the Repair Drone first.

The Gearsman. Has a high to-hit, damage and hardness. And isn't even super-stupid so you really have to work to lure it into a trap.

Areinu wrote:
9) Advanced monsters - so, does +4 AC also include flat and touch?

No. Only a +2 to those two. The +4 is because the monster gains +2 natural armor (explaining the +2 to flat-footed AC), a +4 Dexterity (explaining a +2 to touch AC). It's CMD also goes up by +2 because that's the effect of Dexterity and Strength both going up by +4.

Areinu wrote:
10) Sorcerer seems to be on a bit of a weak side. Sure, she hits touch AC usually, but it's often only 1 less than real AC. Meanwhile she sports only her Dex modifier to hit with ranged attacks and STR with melee. Which makes melee quite silly idea. Also, on hit the damage is laughable - 1d3(+1 from bloodline) for ray of frost, 1d4 from magic missile(although this cannot miss). I suppose he will get much stronger at some point, as those magic users tend to do, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything. Barbarian sports his strength bonus to attacks and has nice BAB, so not only he hits more often, but his hits can be devastating with 1d12 + str mod.

Yeah, sorcers can be kinda "meh" in the beginning. The damaging spells won't be all that powerful. Spells like Grease however are strong from the beginning and will always stay strong.

Areinu wrote:
11) So, my gunslinger player (well, techslinger) didn't take Rapid Reload to start with. That means that with pistol she will only be able to attack every second round? I suggested to use Alchemic for faster reload, but I guess that's that. I don't mind my players to change feats at this point, since they still learn the game, so that's other solution ;)

Yeah, I'd go easy on them when they figure out they want to change some stuff. It's better to change a PC a bit and then be happy with him after all :)


Thank you for all the replies!

1) So mostly general consensus it's they shouldn't have any additional rewards past what's in AP. That's cool - for lazy I am.

2) I like the idea to have some of random encounters prepared in case players do something I wasn't prepared for. I guess I'll be giving XP based on battles and story rewards mentioned in the book... And when they should be at X level I will give them "story reward" to push them to level they need(if they would fall behind).

3) I like Mathmuse's idea, but I have one player who would then need to read EVERY minor magic item description, effect and so on before agreeing to move on. I guess I'll just use the site then.

4-5) Ah, I get it now. Hetuath is:
* Kasatha
* Zombie Juju
* Fighter
so he can draw SQs from all 3 sources. Good idea to highlight useful stuff Ascalaphus. I print everything so I can write on it however much I want :)

6) Great! :)

7) Whoa. That damage reduction is crazy... At this point the only thing that would be able to damage him would be barbarian with his axe(1d12 + 4) and maybe some crits. I guess dropping them a +1 slashing weapon wouldn't be that bad of an idea.

8) Cool
9) Got it.

10) I guess I forgot how magic users were in 3.5 ;)

11) Well, the player doesn't want any changes so that's up to him.

We're playing tomorrow so I'll probably generate more questions :)

Sovereign Court

Hethuath is brutal the first time you face him. When my party first met him they barely managed to drop him. Then they rested and went on. Came back carrying unconscious Khonnir, exhausted from the science deck, and met Hethuath respawned. Ouch.

So they ran, and I made it a chase scene to cross the desert and evade him back to the electric doors which they could lock.

Back in town, they consulted with the town cleric. He deduced that although he couldn't explain the four arms, the undead "sauce" was more typical for Golarion (after all, cursed by Zyphus), and that the solution would be to use Magic Weapon spells on a slashing weapon, and eventually drag his corpse into the sun.

Using Magic Weapon spells was easy enough for the party cleric, so the third time they faced him they went through him pretty fast. Which worked pretty well from a "we feel we're getting better at this" standpoint.


Areinu wrote:
3) I like Mathmuse's idea, but I have one player who would then need to read EVERY minor magic item description, effect and so on before agreeing to move on. I guess I'll just use the site then.

Yes, my method leads to catalog shopping from Ultimate Equipment. I warn my players a week before the party might have a shopping opportunity, so they can prepare their shopping list in advance.

One detail I forgot to mention is that the rules for how hardness works on creatures, such as robots, are hard to find. So let me cover them here.

Hardness X reduces all weapon damage by X and all energy damage by X. It acts very similar to "DR X/adamantine, Resist everything X," except that abilities that bypass DR don't bypass it. Adamantine has the special property that it ignores hardness less than 20, so everyone in my campaign now carries adamantine weapons. Alas, the special material adamantine also adds 3000 gp to the price of a weapon, so no-one can afford that at low levels.

Objects with hardness also often reduce the remaining energy damage by 50%. This reduction does not happen with creatures with hardness, because the half damage is a feature of object, not of hardness.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Mathmuse wrote:
Hardness X reduces all weapon damage by X and all energy damage by X. It acts very similar to "DR X/adamantine, Resist everything X," except that abilities that bypass DR don't bypass it. Adamantine has the special property that it ignores hardness less than 20, so everyone in my campaign now carries adamantine weapons. Alas, the special material adamantine also adds 3000 gp to the price of a weapon, so no-one can afford that at low levels.

Some people do "house rule" that if a creature has a vulnerability, that they can't use their hardness to protect against it.

While that might be R.A.I. (Rules as intended), it is not the way the rules are written.


So, Hetuath went down without a hitch. They got scared by him a lot. Then Barbarian did a crit with greataxe. On rage. He got 12 and 11 on damage dice... So that was 12+11+(4+2)*2-5=30 damage. Fortunately that wasn't first thing they did to him, so he managed to show his true colors, resisting a lot of stuff and almost not being hurt for quite a while.

How do you deal with magic weapons? At this point Sorcerer usually only managed to tell the auras of items, so I tell him the aura. But by the time he is back to town it's hard to tell which item he is asking about when trying to identify again/asking someone to identify.

Also, what if players fail to identify Technological/Magic item that always works, yet they decide to wear it anyway? Should I just recalculate the numbers when they roll? Or should I let them update numbers accordingly(like Baldur's Gate did). I got spoiled by 5E, where using magic items required user to be attuned, so there was no issue if someone just wore the item. There's obviously no problem with activate to use items, since they don't know how to activate them ;)


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Dotting for future reference.

Sovereign Court

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When the players find an item, I describe it and give it a number. In an Excel sheet I track the numbers and what item #23 actually is.

So when the players come to town to identify their items they'll say "and we're going to have Khonnir look at the weird helmet, #23" and I see in my table that that's the proximity helmet.


Areinu wrote:
So, Hetuath went down without a hitch. They got scared by him a lot. Then Barbarian did a crit with greataxe. On rage. He got 12 and 11 on damage dice... So that was 12+11+(4+2)*2-5=30 damage. Fortunately that wasn't first thing they did to him, so he managed to show his true colors, resisting a lot of stuff and almost not being hurt for quite a while.

My party defeated the hard-to-kill collector robot in the Sick Bay with a lucky crit in a similar battle. That end to a fight makes everyone breathe a sigh of relief, so it is exciting. The critical hit was not completely luck: they had the robot entangled with an autograpnel and flanked, so when the fighter rolled a nat 6 to confirm the crit, its AC was low enough to confirm. Teamwork is effective.

Areinu wrote:

How do you deal with magic weapons? At this point Sorcerer usually only managed to tell the auras of items, so I tell him the aura. But by the time he is back to town it's hard to tell which item he is asking about when trying to identify again/asking someone to identify.

Also, what if players fail to identify Technological/Magic item that always works, yet they decide to wear it anyway? Should I just recalculate the numbers when they roll? Or should I let them update numbers accordingly(like Baldur's Gate did). I got spoiled by 5E, where using magic items required user to be attuned, so there was no issue if someone just wore the item. There's obviously no problem with activate to use items, since they don't know how to activate them ;)

Unidentified magic items are a pain to us GMs. The module or the GM himself put them in the dungeon to be used, and lack of known function prevents that. Furthermore, unidentified items are often packed away and forgotten until the party is selling off unwanted items.

PLAYER: How much is the tech item with handle and spikey prong?
GM: I don't recognize the description. Where did you find it?
PLAYER: I didn't write that down. It is after the grippers and before two batteries.
GM (pages frantically through module): That must be the black e-pick from room B3.
GM (checks Technology Guide): It's worth 100 gp.
OTHER PLAYER: May I look at that entry? Hey, my rogue can use that. Let's keep it.
GM: You still don't know what it is, so you can't use it.

The Spellcraft rules from the Core Rulebook say that the DC to identify a magic item with Detect Magic is 15 + item's caster level. The skill check can be tried once a day. Page 5 of the Technology Guide says, "Knowledge (engineering) is also used to identify and understand unknown technological objects in a similar manner to how Spellcraft is used to identify the properties of a magic item. The DC to correctly identify and understand an unknown technological object is equal to the object's Craft DC. An object with a Craft DC of 15 or less can be automatically identified and understood by someone trained in Knowledge (engineering) who also has the Technologist feat." The once-a-day is not stated, but implied by similarity to Spellcraft.

Once a day is pretty slow for Fires of Creation: my party took only four in-game days to get through that module. They had two people with Detect Magic and three invested in Knowledge(engineering) and Technologist, so they passed magic items and technological items among themselve until one identifies it. For use-activated items, I treat extra information from a magical manifestation as an excuse to retry the skill check the same day with +2 circumstance bonus. If your party fails to identify an item, perhaps Joram Kyte back in town can figure it out.


Good ideas for all that. I'll utilize them in today's session.

When reading entry for gearsman on p. 49 I found 2 questions:
1) metal inhibitor deals 1d6+5 plus resonance.
I cannot find this "resonance" keyword anywhere.
2) Do I add 1d6 to metal inhibitor from Charge Weapon in addition to what's listed in melee entry?

Basically it seems like it should deal 2d6+5 plus resonance(whatever that is). Is that right?

Sovereign Court

The resonance is shorthand for the effects of the inhibitor (an item in the back of the book).


Areinu wrote:

Good ideas for all that. I'll utilize them in today's session.

When reading entry for gearsman on p. 49 I found 2 questions:
1) metal inhibitor deals 1d6+5 plus resonance.
I cannot find this "resonance" keyword anywhere.
2) Do I add 1d6 to metal inhibitor from Charge Weapon in addition to what's listed in melee entry?

Basically it seems like it should deal 2d6+5 plus resonance(whatever that is). Is that right?

1) It's that shockin feature described in the back of the book under mental inhibitor. But in the description it is not called resonance. Could have been better indicated.

2) Right. 1d6 weapon damage + 1d6 electricity damage +5. Without any resistances it's in fact 2d6+5.

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