GM Preparation


Advice


How do you prepare to GM a Pathfinder module?? I'm taking someone through Dragons Demand and as we have gotten further into the adventure the monsters all have numerous feats and abilities and spells.... What do you do to avoid having to look everything up in all the different books during combat? There is no way I can memorize all the information and looking it up on the spot slows things down so much it becomes a boring mess..

Any advice from Paizo??

Silver Crusade Contributor

Most of us have memorized such things, through time and experience. There's no real substitute for those things, sadly. My advice, then, is to spend some time outside the session looking things up and taking notes.

If a feat only provides a static bonus (like Iron Will), it's already calculated into the statistics provided, and you don't need to know it during the session. If a feat like Power Attack comes up, take some notes about its effects on an index card for use during the session. Spells will be a bit trickier; consider preparing similar notes as with feats, along with "basic tactics" based on the PCs (cast shield for +4 AC before the fighter gets into melee, then cast magic missile on the wizard, etc.)


James Goodman 960 wrote:

How do you prepare to GM a Pathfinder module?? I'm taking someone through Dragons Demand and as we have gotten further into the adventure the monsters all have numerous feats and abilities and spells.... What do you do to avoid having to look everything up in all the different books during combat? There is no way I can memorize all the information and looking it up on the spot slows things down so much it becomes a boring mess..

Any advice from Paizo??

Two things.

First, experience. The longer you play this game, the more familiar you are with the basics. You don't need to look up "grab" anymore once you've used it a few times.

Second, anticipation. Don't prep too much. Anticipate where your players are likely to go in a session and read up the opponents that will apply for that session.

I don't think there's any other trick; you need to know what the monsters can do, and that means you have to read them at some point.


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Thanks for the quick replies. I always read over everything before the game but I end up forgetting while playing. I'll make up some note card like suggested. Making notes about the tactics is a good idea too.

I just found a site where you can print out "spell cards" to have on hand during play. I'm going to print them out for the players as well as the monsters to avoid cracking the book so much. Thanks again!!


The trick is learning to identify which things you're likely to forget, and making notes to cover the gap.


I often copy-paste stats into a word doc that I amend for Feats. So if it has Power Attack I will amend its to hit and damage accordingly. I also highlight similar bonuses together, so all its defensive abilities like AC and Saves in one colour, Initiative, Perception and any Stealth together etc etc.
Doesn't actually take too long.
For spells you have to compromise between the choices it has available and just getting on, making the game flow, and taking an action. If it's an obscure spell you've never heard of, there's probably a better choice anyway.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
James Goodman 960 wrote:
Thanks for the quick replies. I always read over everything before the game but I end up forgetting while playing. I'll make up some note card like suggested. Making notes about the tactics is a good idea too.

Post-it notes are definitely your friend here. A few quick notes about what a certain feat does can go a long way. After getting some more experience, you'll probably find yourself remembering more about feats and abilities and such and won't need to rely on notes as much.

Most modules and APs include tactics for major monsters/NPCs in their stat blocks.

If there's something you didn't think to look up beforehand, d20pfsrd.com, Archives of Nethys, and the PRD on Paizo's site are all good quick reference resources. (Lately, it seems that the d20 is the most up-to-date, though it can't list certain spells/classes by their exact names for legal reasons. Archives of Nethys and the Paizo PRD will list everything by their correct name.)


Conjoy wrote:
I often copy-paste stats into a word doc that I amend for Feats. So if it has Power Attack I will amend its to hit and damage accordingly.

Actually, I guess yeah, that's another trick. I just wasn't willing to recommend it. Huge amount of work.

I do transcribe a lot of statblocks and lightly alter them. As with you, I'll include a specific melee line for Power Attack. That way I get this (numbers artificial):

Melee +1 longsword +7 (1d8+6/19-20x2)
PA +1 longsword +5 (1d8+9/19-20x2)

I'll do the same for Vital Strike etc. For casters, I'll usually in-line the DCs for spells, superscripted after the spell name.

3rd (4/day) - fireballR14, haste, lighting boltR14

All of my groups use standard statblocks as character sheets, so I'm very comfortable with that format, but as you point out, a little customization goes a long way to streamline at-the-table time.

A nice side-effect is that each sheet of paper, I can scrawl all kind of changes on as combat happens. At high-level as negative levels, ability drain/damage, and various penalties start stacking up, it's kind of nice to just scribble that onto the actual statblock.


Notecards are good for all the kind of stuff, or just a word doc with the complex feats.

I also work out all the spellcraft DCs for magic items ahead of time and any other DCs not listed but that I think the PCs may try in a certain area.

Finally, just having a laptop and the PRD / PFSRD search function helps with all the random spells and such with not having to break out books.

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