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Fidel Cuckstro posted:I signed up to play in my first 2e/Pathfinder Society game this Friday. I emailed the organizer, but is there anything people suggest to come ready? Do they typically have pre-gen characters on hand, or should I be putting one together? I would recommend that, if you just want an easy intro, that you at least take a look over the official pregens (you can download the pdfs free here: https://paizo.com/products/btq01zt5?Community-Use-Package-PF2E-Iconics-Pregenerated-Characters) and, if you are feeling into one, print one off so you know you'll be able to use it (and not rely on the DM to have a copy of it, though they likely will). You could also look over or print yourself a cheat sheet of common actions, so you're reminded of all your options, visually. You can find a pretty good one here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16V0U0JqDV_M-BrPlaK_Nzg5GWrSbLiiJ (There's like 15 flavors and they all have the same actions, they are just different colors/styles/layouts, so pick the one that you like/is best for printing) Also, and I don't remember exactly how this works, because it's been a couple of years, you'll probably want to have your Paizo account set up, and and Organized Play ID, if they issue them online (again, it's been a while): https://paizo.com/organizedplay
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May 15, 2023 16:44
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Really starting to feel the grind now that we're done with book 4 in Age of Ashes. The math for casters is really tight and a streak of bad luck with monsters rolling high on their already extremely high saves means that my character is basically ineffective at anything other than buffing. And yeah, I'm aware of debuffs, but since those are still tied to the same saving throws, they usually also don't work in those situations or don't last enough to manage to butter them up for something else. I'm kinda wonder if it's just the AP being badly tuned (which it is) or if I'm somehow missing something with my action economy. Tried to go for spell attacks the last session but I burned one level 8 spell slot and even a hero point to get absolutely 0 effect too, which felt really bad. It makes me feel like some of these mechanics would work better in a videogame where you don't have to sit with those failures for longer and longer periods of time than in TTRPGs where you can have streaks of this length where nothing really goes right. And like, the martials miss too, but they also attack a lot more and don't expend resources for those failures.
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May 15, 2023 17:30
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Can you get the martial to use some of their actions to set you up? A Bon Mot to reduce will saves, a frighten to reduce all defenses, a skunk bomb to apply sickened? Like you said, their actions are more plentiful and they could really help you out.
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May 15, 2023 17:44
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Fair Bear Maiden posted:Really starting to feel the grind now that we're done with book 4 in Age of Ashes. The math for casters is really tight and a streak of bad luck with monsters rolling high on their already extremely high saves means that my character is basically ineffective at anything other than buffing. And yeah, I'm aware of debuffs, but since those are still tied to the same saving throws, they usually also don't work in those situations or don't last enough to manage to butter them up for something else. I am really hoping that their "Remaster" fixes the math at some of these problem levels for caster.
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May 15, 2023 18:10
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marshmallow creep posted:Can you get the martial to use some of their actions to set you up? A Bon Mot to reduce will saves, a frighten to reduce all defenses, a skunk bomb to apply sickened? Like you said, their actions are more plentiful and they could really help you out. To be fair, last time we did get a lucky Frightened on the boss monster the DM set up between books but I couldn't manage higher than a non-crit success on its saving throw, lol. My go-to move in normal encounters would be to use Grease/Wall spells and Gravity Pull to at least try to control the battlefield but lately the encounter design hasn't really allowed for that, or maybe I just haven't figured out how to use those effectively (the most recent fights we've had have been against Veshumirix and a Shemhazian demon, both of which were high-level foes with high saves against magic, one with a paralyze gaze that hurt my action economy after in my first turn I identified it and used Haste on the party, and the other was a flying beast that wasn't as easy to control, though at least I didn't get downed thanks to Fiery Body's immunity to fire damage).
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May 15, 2023 18:22
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the_steve posted:That said, not a bad idea to be looking at the website and making a character for yourself, especially since you get free re-dos up until like level 3 or 4, so if you end up hating your Fighter, you can retcon it to being a Wizard with no hassle, so you'll have plenty of time to decide what sort of character feels like a better fit for you. The free respecs are only for level one (i.e. your first three games), once you play your first session at level 2 you're locked in (though you can spend achievement points to respec, and it is cheaper below level 5). I started playing PFS last month as my introduction to Pathfinder and it's been pretty fun so far, all the GMs and Players have been very welcoming. I'm hoping to get my character up to level 4 before GenCon. My only issue so far is that I have no idea what to spend my gold on as a level 2 cloistered cleric, right now I'm basically just waiting for level 4 for Healer's Gloves and level 5 for armor runes...
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May 15, 2023 20:00
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Finally ran "Stolen Fate" last night and it went decently. The total newbies picked up fairly quickly, but unfortunately the Ranger had picked a build that was 100% ineffective against the opening monsters. Two of them caught Ferrugon tetanus from attacks so that'll be fun to have them blossom. I ended up having the Ferrugon bail out because 195 HP with a 10 Physical Resistance meant it was tanking way too much. The Osyluth got straight-up wrestled to death by the enlarged Monk though, who was insistent that she "played the ribcage like a violent xylophone" with flurry of blows and struck the death blow by grabbing the tail to lift the fucker up and then whip them down onto a table. The "Influence" section is going fantastically. They're really loving it. Really looking forward to how it goes forwards. This is so, so much better than previous systems we used, warts and all.
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May 16, 2023 01:14
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Fair Bear Maiden posted:To be fair, last time we did get a lucky Frightened on the boss monster the DM set up between books but I couldn't manage higher than a non-crit success on its saving throw, lol. My go-to move in normal encounters would be to use Grease/Wall spells and Gravity Pull to at least try to control the battlefield but lately the encounter design hasn't really allowed for that, or maybe I just haven't figured out how to use those effectively (the most recent fights we've had have been against Veshumirix and a Shemhazian demon, both of which were high-level foes with high saves against magic, one with a paralyze gaze that hurt my action economy after in my first turn I identified it and used Haste on the party, and the other was a flying beast that wasn't as easy to control, though at least I didn't get downed thanks to Fiery Body's immunity to fire damage). You basically need a Shadow Signet ring https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=1073 and then to start hitting weaknesses that you know of for the monsters and target something with lowest saves. Hopefully they patch this in because playing any sort of caster who attacks stuff out needs this shadow signet ring as the math gets tighter. Using Shadow Signet + hitting a weakness can be even useful with basic attack cantrips when you get on to a lower save. As mentioned, if you have any martials or other support, putting on a frighten, clumsy, or bon mot can go a long way.
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May 16, 2023 03:25
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Megaman's Jockstrap posted:I am really hoping that their "Remaster" fixes the math at some of these problem levels for caster. The Remaster can't fix the GM rolling well on saves.
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May 16, 2023 04:30
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Doing the third floor of Abomination Vaults. Our Fighter rolls 7 natural 20s in one night, two of them on attacks of opportunity, and basically deletes half the floor enemies all by himself with a +1 striking long hammer while our swashbuckler gets paralyzed and stands t-posing in another room and my rogue lies bleeding on the floor. Can I still blame it on faulty dice if we're using Foundry?
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May 16, 2023 07:41
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Syntaxed posted:You basically need a Shadow Signet ring https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=1073 and then to start hitting weaknesses that you know of for the monsters and target something with lowest saves. Hopefully they patch this in because playing any sort of caster who attacks stuff out needs this shadow signet ring as the math gets tighter. Using Shadow Signet + hitting a weakness can be even useful with basic attack cantrips when you get on to a lower save. I've avoided getting a Shadow Signet because using an investment slot for an item that really only works on the few spell attack rolls I have (Polar Ray, Acid Arrow, Malicious Shadow and uh... I think that's it?) seemed overkill, but I guess I'm gonna have to give it a second look. EDIT: I also wanna add that, while it seems common practice with goon DMs to just share saves of the enemies for successful Recall Knowledge checks, my DM isn't of the same opinion, and the only way outside of experimentation to get the enemy saves is just for our Oracle to use Vision of Weakness. Fair Bear Maiden fucked around with this message at 08:58 on May 16, 2023 |
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May 16, 2023 08:16
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Anyone have an idea how to get magic missile working correctly in Foundry? edit: apparently there's a workshop module macro Bovineicide fucked around with this message at 11:33 on May 16, 2023 |
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May 16, 2023 08:24
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Clerical Terrors posted:Can I still blame it on faulty dice if we're using Foundry?  Faulty algorithm I'm just getting into Pathfinder in general (well, I've been at it for a month or so, but since I don't get to play or run it, I'm till 'just getting into it') and I've been reading up on Golarion. Pleasantly surprised with the setting as a whole, you can tell Paizo knows their stuff just by the sheer amount of open threads and interesting info they drop throughout the books. Lost Omens #1 has been an interesting read so far and it's made me want to explore the world a lot as a GM. What are some cool facts or occurrences in your Golarion that you'd like to share? Would love to read stories and anecdotes from people more familiar with the world than me and I know that there's bound to be some good ones ITT.
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May 16, 2023 08:58
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Fair Bear Maiden posted:I've avoided getting a Shadow Signet because using an investment slot Are you bumping up on 10 investments already?
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May 16, 2023 10:25
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Toshimo posted:Are you bumping up on 10 investments already? I mean, I'm level 15, so yeah, but I have something I can drop in that case. Granted, that only partially solves the issue, but I'm also stocking up on debuffs and I talked to my DM and apparently he genuinely forgot to give me the saves, so between all that I'm hoping I'll end this dry run.
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May 16, 2023 14:01
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Bovineicide posted:Anyone have an idea how to get magic missile working correctly in Foundry? What is/was the issue you're having? I've been playing on Foundry and casting MM and haven't noticed any weirdness, other than needing to hit the damage button once for each missile.
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May 16, 2023 16:48
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Hugoon Chavez posted:
I don't know a lot about Golarion but, spoilers(?) from a 1E AP our real world Anastasia is alive and well in Golarion and the AP this information comes from has a book titled "Rasputin Must Die!"
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May 16, 2023 17:40
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My current character for my group's AV game is from there because it means I can do the silly stereotype accent for fun 
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May 16, 2023 17:44
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Evilgm posted:The Remaster can't fix the GM rolling well on saves. No but it can fix the fact that casters start failing 60% of the time instead of 50% unless a combination of teamwork (good) and globby weird mechanics (bad) prevent that.
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May 16, 2023 18:28
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Clerical Terrors posted:Doing the third floor of Abomination Vaults. Our Fighter rolls 7 natural 20s in one night, two of them on attacks of opportunity, and basically deletes half the floor enemies all by himself with a +1 striking long hammer while our swashbuckler gets paralyzed and stands t-posing in another room and my rogue lies bleeding on the floor. That's what I did last night when my sorcerer got Stupefied and failed something like seven DC 6 flat checks to cast spells.
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May 16, 2023 22:31
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I've been running AV using Foundry and my NPCs/monsters have been on an insane hot streak. At the start of chapter 2 during the graveyard fight with the skalathrax the monster rolled 3 crits in a row and one-shot two players and dropped the third who was already at half. Combat only lasted 3 rounds. The monster was literally at 1 hitpoint left so I had a guard finish it off and revive the players since they had potions that they didn't even have time to use. Because there's only 3 players and they're not exactly super-optimal, I'm going to just jump a level for them so they're a level above the dungeon from here on out. Without overloading them with magic items it shouldn't entirely dominate, hopefully. My plan is keep the gear a at the dungeon level, so they won't necessarily get the striking weapons early too, that sort of thing. The 10-over-equals-crit thing is just a nightmare at lower levels for any of the 'one big badguy' fights. We've had probably 7-8 characters drop in the first level worth of fights, almost always to a 10-over crit so immediately going to dying 2. Probably half of those were one-shots the instant any monster attacks anyone other than the martial, they're down in a single round every time, basically. The fights 'balanced' for a single monster leave them with insane + to hit given the players' ACs early on. To be clear the barbarian is critting a lot too which trivializes the other characters when he's doing 30-50 damage a round at level one vs the other characters eeking out 5-10 damage a round since they miss much more often. Rescue Toaster fucked around with this message at 16:20 on May 17, 2023 |
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May 17, 2023 16:14
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Yeah, be careful, published adventures tend to be super-optimized to having exactly X number of PCs at Y level. If your party is short in any way, you need to cut back on minions and give boss monsters the Weak tag.
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May 17, 2023 16:37
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One thing is that hitting and running is a lot better than it seems. Monsters don't always have attack of opportunities so making sure the boss can't hit multiple people helps a lot. Players have the action advantage over boss monsters so spending one action to waste a boss action is a great trade.
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May 17, 2023 16:48
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I am rapidly growing less enamored with the 'amazing balance where you don't have to make poo poo up on the fly like with dnd 5e' which, okay, but you DO apparently have to constantly adjust every single fight unless your group is EXACTLY the makeup expected and playing at exactly the level of optimization expected. The difficulty vs level vs party comp slope is so steep in pf2e, if things are off even a little every single fight is completely trivial or an absolute nightmare where PCs drop every fight. The 'generally everyone is full health for a fight' tuning makes it even worse too, because it means the party can't sort of intuitively adjust encounters/day like they will with 5e as they expend resources, the party just dies in one or two rounds even from full rest if you're off even a hair in the encounter difficulty.
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May 17, 2023 16:58
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Rescue Toaster posted:I am rapidly growing less enamored with the 'amazing balance where you don't have to make poo poo up on the fly like with dnd 5e' which, okay, but you DO apparently have to constantly adjust every single fight unless your group is EXACTLY the makeup expected and playing at exactly the level of optimization expected. The difficulty vs level vs party comp slope is so steep in pf2e, if things are off even a little every single fight is completely trivial or an absolute nightmare where PCs drop every fight. I don't get it, the issue with 5E is you have no tools to evaluate anything, so you just run the encounter and whoops they all died or one shot the boss or whatever happened. Putting a weak tag on the strongest monster because your party is down 25% is not a big ask. The encounters are default balanced for 4 people, but the tools to change it for other party sizes work pretty well.
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May 17, 2023 17:02
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Also I haven't found that to be the case at all. Obviously there's some party comp that matters (e.g., the party can't be all ranged casters), but only in the loosest sense. And the few times I've had players go down in AV is because they weren't bothering with tactics, they were just doing the D&D thing where you run straight in and hope for the best. Encounters per day just doesn't matter. Take 10-20 minutes to treat wounds and refocus, then move on. Use those cantrips. Use wands and scrolls.
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May 17, 2023 17:10
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This seems to be less an issue with tuning and more players being extremely bad. Everyone in my group who previously played 5e came in with the expectation that you can do whatever and just win, which isn't the case at all. People would dive into the middle of enemy groups or open doors to add more monsters to combat because they were used to always winning. 5e combat is more of an illusion than an actual game. Pathfinder isn't hard, but in my experience having both sides stand there and use nothing but the attack action each round results in a tpk or near tpk at least once per level. Monsters have one or two tricks that should be played around. I've tested it playing solo. Every time in AV that I've decided "I'll just tank this with my fighter and have the casters use electric arc" things go extremely poorly. Kinda related: I'm at the point where I think everyone's favorite attack cantrip is secretly trash because half damage on a save isn't meaningful and it is significantly harder to use teamwork to make it better. Produce Flame can benefit from aid, flat-footed, and has an innate +2 from being rolled by the player. Even though it only targets one enemy, it is more likely to do something. Start tracking how much overkill damage a martial ends up doing and it becomes clear most turns spent casting electric arc were a waste. Edit: The most important advice for new players is don't end your turn next to solo monsters. There are cases where doing so can work, and you'll learn them with experience, but the default assumption when you fight something as powerful as your entire party shouldn't be that you'll be safe standing next to the dragon or ogre or giant aberrant spider. Edit 2: I've had characters critically hit on -10 MAP attacks from a boss. It is terrifying but also should never happen. If you don't have enough AC to avoid full MAP crits you shouldn't be close enough for the enemy to make three attacks on their turn because it'll eventually happen and you won't survive it. KPC_Mammon fucked around with this message at 17:30 on May 17, 2023 |
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May 17, 2023 17:17
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The advantage for Electric Arc is that is a save and not an attack roll, casters don't get the bonuses to hit martials get from runes so its hard to hit until you get a shadow signet. Cantrips scale every two levels so around midgame is when they start scaling past a normal attack. Telekinetic Projectile is probably the most flexible cantrip for ranged dps. With the new spellhearts, any caster should be running with 2 good dps cantrips.
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May 17, 2023 17:37
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Funny thing is my current AV group is coming from 5e after having just done Trouble in Otari and the GM has had to remind everyone that strategically repositioning is a completely valid thing to do in Pathfinder and that you do not need to pile into a small room or a hallway just to make sure you get at least a hit off.
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May 17, 2023 17:59
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KPC_Mammon posted:This seems to be less an issue with tuning and more players being extremely bad. Everyone in my group who previously played 5e came in with the expectation that you can do whatever and just win, which isn't the case at all. People would dive into the middle of enemy groups or open doors to add more monsters to combat because they were used to always winning. 5e combat is more of an illusion than an actual game. I mean I'll concede that my players don't really have the hang of pf2e tactics. But also I'm hearing "Oh your party didn't plan their characters and progression to have synergy and debuf for each other? And they aren't setup to kite bosses endlessly while still dealing damage? Get rekt." And my problem isn't the boss's -10 MAP attack, it's the -0 attack that crits like crazy and drops every character except a tank to dying 2 instantly from full health. The squishies are definitely not just hanging out next to monsters, but always staying past two move actions to deny even a single attack for the entire fight isn't always possible. EDIT: To be clear, I did kick this off by specifying that Foundry is absolutely trying to loving kill my players. Crit crit crit crit crit crit crit for the first 4 sessions. I've never seen so many crits in 20+ years of playing D&D. Both the barbarian and any of the solo/duo monsters have just been absolutely going insane with crits. If there's not at least one crit every round it's extremely unusual. Rescue Toaster fucked around with this message at 18:15 on May 17, 2023 |
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May 17, 2023 18:06
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Rescue Toaster posted:I mean I'll concede that my players don't really have the hang of pf2e tactics. The game is definitely a bit swingier in the early game where a dangerous monsters crit deletes the majority of a characters HP and if dice are hot, dice are hot. I'd always advise goosing the party with a few on level scrolls of Heal for situations like that in the early game. A big crit is scary stuff, but when a healer then takes their turn to add back 1d8+8 or 2d8+16 hp to the character who took the crit, all of a sudden it looks more manageable. The big thing to get across is that an on level Heal is a tremendous midcombat tool. It is not for between encounters, its for rewinding an enemies turn. It's your ohshit button, get them to think of it like that.
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May 17, 2023 18:27
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Rescue Toaster posted:I mean I'll concede that my players don't really have the hang of pf2e tactics. You probably should be hitting solo bosses with a weak template if you have a 3 person party. If the healer has to use their turn to prop up one of the other players every turn then only half of a normal party is making any sort of progress on taking down the enemy. The thing to remember is that when an encounter says Severe they mean it, and sometimes the designers put too many Severe encounters in when there should have been more lower difficulty encounters, especially in the earlier APs. Edit: And I have seen foundry be very swingy, I swear I went two sessions where I whiffed every attack but 2 or 3 and those 2 or 3 were crits, it was insane.
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May 17, 2023 18:59
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Yeah, a group I'm playing with that is largely 5e players getting PF2e under their fingers nearly wiped on the cinder rat in the beginner box because there was a lot of "run in, attack" antics going on and I was the idiot who triggered it and went down turn one (we're playing iconics, I was Ezren, "I want to ponder the orb" felt in character). I had to not-so-subtlely suggest some actual tactics like tripping/shoving the rat around, etc. before we started recovering.
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May 17, 2023 19:14
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I use the roll tracker mod to keep a log of who's dice suck or not, and obviously a collection of 150 rolls is only so statistically significant, but the worst I've seen is an average of +-2 from 10.
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May 17, 2023 19:19
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New players to RPGs and D&D 5e'ers who play brain-dead need to be coached, that's your job as DM.
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May 17, 2023 19:47
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Pathfinder 2E was designed for players who have at least some level of interest in tactical combat, if the players just want something simpler its probably better to choose a different system. Also level 1, like basically every d20 based system, is bad.
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May 17, 2023 19:52
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Megaman's Jockstrap posted:New players to RPGs and D&D 5e'ers who play brain-dead need to be coached, that's your job as DM. Yep. Lots of prodding and reminders, even though sometimes it feels somewhat overbearing, as they're all new to Pathfinder. "You know if you moved one more square over, they'd be flanked, and therefore flat-footed...." "Don't forget you can use Lay on Hands and then refocus to use it again before you open that door."
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May 17, 2023 20:06
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For the games I've run, maybe the standout worst thing players have done in a tactical sense is moving towards obviously melee-only enemies in the first round of combat, instead of taking a decent defensive position and letting enemies come to them. Second worst is repeatedly forgetting about flanking and Demoralize. Third worst is repeatedly using debuffs like Trip or Demoralize or Bon Mot after other actions instead of before. Epi Lepi posted:Edit: And I have seen foundry be very swingy, I swear I went two sessions where I whiffed every attack but 2 or 3 and those 2 or 3 were crits, it was insane. Foundry is fine. Don't be a pseudorandom number generator conspiracist. Roadie fucked around with this message at 20:14 on May 17, 2023 |
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May 17, 2023 20:11
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Roadie posted:Foundry is fine. Don't be a pseudorandom number generator conspiracist. pssst, Epi Lepi I think this guy is on the pseudorandom number generator payroll very sus imo
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May 17, 2023 21:21
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HidaO-Win posted:The game is definitely a bit swingier in the early game where a dangerous monsters crit deletes the majority of a characters HP and if dice are hot, dice are hot. I'd always advise goosing the party with a few on level scrolls of Heal for situations like that in the early game. A big crit is scary stuff, but when a healer then takes their turn to add back 1d8+8 or 2d8+16 hp to the character who took the crit, all of a sudden it looks more manageable. The big thing to get across is that an on level Heal is a tremendous midcombat tool. It is not for between encounters, its for rewinding an enemies turn. It's your ohshit button, get them to think of it like that. Unfortunately nobody can use any healing items at all because of the abject stupidity of listening to the internet saying "Oh it's ok, you don't need a dedicated divine healer, medicine is great!" I mean, it's sort of true in the sense everybody dies in one round, often in one hit, so there's no time/chance to heal anybody in combat anyway. Wand of healing, scrolls of heal, etc... can't be used without a divine or primal caster. Potions are fine except it does require a character living an entire round after taking damage. Medicine also only works in combat if the damage is spread around, due to the battle medicine cooldown. Except if the damage is being 'spread around' that means characters are dropping left and right since nobody except a dedicated martial/tank can take more than one hit.
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May 17, 2023 22:33
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