The Hallajin Key intelligent item has imprecise hearing 60 feet but no precise senses at all. Does this mean all of the key's single-target abilities require a DC 11 flat check?
Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Turku
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I wouldn't make it roll a flat check unless the holder would need to make those - it has communication: telepathic images, so I would just assume that the holder can give it clear enough mental image of the situation. Giving it flat checks seems like effectively reducing it's uses by roughly 50%, and doesn't *feel* intended.
Community & Social Media Specialist
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Hey all! Someone has marked this question as in the wrong forum, but I don't think I agree. If this is about the Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-11: Prisoners of the Electric Castle, I don't see an issue with it being asked here. OP SuperParkourio, can you confirm please when you have a chance?
Yes, it's Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-11: Prisoners of the Electric Castle. And I don't think the item's senses are a mistake, since the scenario text calls attention to the fact that the item cannot perceive the players if they get more than 60 feet away.
it has communication: telepathic images, so I would just assume that the holder can give it clear enough mental image of the situation.
Would that really be enough to substitute a precise sense? Telepathy communicates no more information than normal speech would, and I don't think 2 seconds of speech is capable of overriding the hidden condition.
Additionally, the item has ten charges, whereas most intelligent item activations seem to have cooldowns that prevent them from being used repeatedly in a single battle. The imprecise sense could be deliberate.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Turku
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True, but I tend to err on the side of the players in issues like this:
Option A: ... It's probably supposed to be able to use it's abilities without a 50/50 failure chance. This favors the players.
Option B: It's abilities have a 50/50 failure chance. For some tables, this means that it works every time. For some tables, this means it never works. Ruling it this way, will make the scenario harder for the players.
I just don't think it's likely that scenario writer really wrote a situation where "here's a helper for you, but for some tables, he arbitrarily refuses to help.", that doesn't seem like a fair/fun experience.
Regardless, I wouldn't fault a GM whichever way they ruled it, both seem valid. The "requires a flat check" feels a bit more "RAW", but way less intended.
This should be in the GM Discussion forum of Org Play and not the general Pathfinder Society forum, as it contains spoilers.
Hardly. The item is provided at the very start of the scenario, and the item in question goes out of their way to explain their capabilities to the PCs.
I agree with Tomppa. This is a case where strict RAW feels like a troll ruling.
Creatures, Intelligent items, and other such NPCs both allied and antagonistic should be able to use their abilities without penalties. If there is a case where an NPC has an ability that they can use, but it involves penalties not normally thought of, then it should be mentioned in the creature's stat block for the ability that the penalty should apply.
The thing is, GMs creating homebrew campaigns with custom-built NPCs aren't always rule experts who have memorized every rule and every interaction and every edge case. Same goes for the adventure writers. They aren't necessarily rules experts.
So it is very plausible that whoever wrote the Hallajin Key wasn't aware that having only imprecise senses would mean that a flat check was needed every time a targeted ability was used. The writer wrote the Hallajin Key with the idea of it only having short-range imprecise senses for interesting flavor - and mentioned some of the narrative implications to the story in the stat block. They didn't mention the rather devastating mechanical impacts of that lack of precise senses; the implications that could be causing balance problems.
So to me this falls into the category of 'Strict RAW has balance problems large enough to trigger the Ambiguous Rules rule. A table ruling is needed.'
I should also mention that the item can expend 5 of their 10 charges to give all the PCs the benefits of a long-term rest.