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Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

Toshimo posted:

Only if you Enlarge yourself first (which is likely metagaming).

Firstly, Titan Wrestler means you can Trip an elephant, and if you're taking Assurance Athletics you are probably going to have Titan Wrestler. Secondly, knowing you're too small to Trip something isn't metagaming, it's having basic cop on that the character would be well aware of, just like how I am aware I'm too small to trip an elephant.

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Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014
I generally use Milestone because most of the time it's about the story and skipping fights is fine as long as things don't feel too quick, but I used XP for Abomination Vaults because it encouraged the players to check every nook and cranny of a floor instead of just rushing down quickly. Having the two different options to use depending on the style of the game is handy.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

Lamuella posted:

Player in the game I just started running is a swashbuckler who gets panache through wit. I am going to require him to come up with all the bon mots he uses as he embarrasses enemies to death.

Are you also expecting the Wizard player to actually cast all the spells they're doing? Or the Fighter to physically act out every attack? Because your idea sounds cool in theory, and in practice slows the game down and risks making the player not want to use the ability because of the pressure to come up with a Marvel quip ever turn.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

mind the walrus posted:

I've got players who may be interested in the Extinction Curse Adventure Path. Has anyone run any of those? I'm curious to hear any thoughts on them. The primary appeal of being a circus troupe is great but I'm still deciding on which Path to eventually take some players down, and it's pretty hard to argue with Path of Thousands or Outlaws of Alkenstar.

M. Night Skymall posted:

I haven't run it, but pretty much any time it comes up the first thing anyone says is that the circus rules aren't good, and the circus is kind of phased out very quickly, then you're just a party who used to be in the circus roaming around golarion saving the world. I hear it's not bad, just doesn't actually live up to the circus theme very well.

M. Night has the right of it. The AP is actually solid, with a good throughline of theme and story, but if the main appeal to your players is the Circus then they'll get annoyed when the Circus stops being a focus after Book 2 and gets dumped in Book 4. If I were to run it again I'd definitely change the party to be Pathfinder Society, so that them investigating ancient ruins and then travelling around saving the world makes sense, unlike Circusfolk doing it three days travel from a city full of actual Adventurers who do that sort of thing professionally.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014
Components don't really matter- even a combat spell with zero components takes the listed amount of actions and is very obviously happening.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

Jen X posted:

locking a caster's basic ability to contribute (beyond hoping really hard, making assumptions based on enemy art, or throwing out buffs) behind a fallible action

What a ridiculous overstatement. A completely loving moronic take. If you can't manage to contribute as a caster without a successful Recall Knowledge check then that's your incompetence, not a flaw in the system.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

Captain Oblivious posted:

Yeah just feels like spending an action to make them spend an action is mostly a wash. Ah well.

Against everything but mooks it's not. And Attacks of Opportunity are a lot more common for PCs than NPCs, most Martials have some way of generating additional attacks from Reactions, usually at level 6.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

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.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

sugar free jazz posted:

well youre playing a d&d knockoff so it’d be good for you to familiarize yourself with the very old logics of the game you’re playing so things start to make more sense

Hey, you accidentally hit on the reason for the change! Paizo doesn't want PF2 to be a D&D knockoff anymore, so lots of things that are just the way they are because that's how D&D does it are getting changed. Sure it's mostly petty and won't really change most people's perception, but it also means your point is worthless.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

Megazver posted:

So I am two sessions into running Abomination Vaults now for a bunch of new players. I only have a few months' experience with the system as well. It's a bit of struggle remembering all the stuff and making it all work, but I'm enjoying it.

One of my players is a Sprite Mastermind Rogue. So the whole Mastermind shtick is using Recall Knowledge on enemies to gain Flatfooted against them and Recall Knowledge in combat is already a pretty complicated affair with a lot of room for interpretation, as seen if you search for "Recall Knowledge combat". What do you tell them, can they do it multiple times, can you do it again if you failed the previous round, etc.

So they fought the mitflits this session and the Rogue has been gaining Flatfooted (which he needs for the Sneak Attack) on the enemies with intermittent success - it's his Nature +5 vs their baseline Nature Recall Knowledge DC13. Then they get to the Boss Mitflit and his Recall Knowledge DC is 25, because he's a named enemy. Compared to the other Rackets the Mastermind is... kinda screwed here and with other boss monsters, no? Is that how it's supposed to be handled?

It's advised that you only apply the increased DC from Named Uniques when the player is trying to learn about that specific creature, not their general species - https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=915

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014
It's a throwaway flavour spell some designer got to stick in for a bit of fun. It genuinely doesn't loving matter.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

Hellioning posted:

It's also unrealistic to not have a one handed reach spear, and yet.

Game balance is weird sometimes.

I bring you tidings of great joy- Breaching Pike. Absolutely agree it's odd how long it took them to add it.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014
It is likely a typo, and supposed to be 1d8 scaling.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

sugar free jazz posted:

On the other hand the guy in that quote thinks Arcanists weren’t completely busted so lol

They weren't though. They were easily surpassed by a Wizard taking the Exploiter Wizard Archetype that gave them access to some of the tools Arcanists got that were supposed to help them catch up to Wizards. Which was partly his point.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

Facebook Aunt posted:


Once per combat she can do a 1d8 spell. :toot:


As a Single Action. If you can't find value in a single action attack spell on a spellcaster then no changes to Focus spells are going to help.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014
You don't need to learn the name of every ancestry in the books- if you can't remember which one is Vishkanya and which one is Vanara and you are playing in a game without either it doesn't matter, and if you're playing in a game with both and you still can't learn the difference then that's on you. People remember what elves and orcs and gnomes are, and they learned what kitsune and kobolds and leshy are. They'll learn the others when they play them or encounter NPCs of that ancestry, and until then what they're called is largely irrelevant.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

Kyrosiris posted:

Making crossbows not poo poo?

Is this really still Pathfinder???

No worries, they're still poo poo.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

KPC_Mammon posted:

Taking cover is really powerful, but if you don't need to move, you'll only do it once per fight.

Or until you shoot, as Attack actions end the effect. So if you end up in a situation where you need to Reload before your attack instead of after the Feat loses a lot of value, and it didn't have much to begin with- Reload+ actions are a great idea, but these aren't super useful options for most Ranger builds to be able to capitalise on.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

KPC_Mammon posted:

Edit: Even if a stone golem is carved from solid stone surely it could have hairline cracks or imperfections where it is weaker.

It's been mentioned in this thread already, but Golems aren't immune to Precision damage by default. They're resistant to Physical damage, which Precision usually is, but it's actually really useful against them as it is generally tied to spikes in damage which are better against Resistance than smaller consistent attacks.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014
It also has the advantage of being one and done- your Cleric can cast that and then spend 10 minutes doing something else, like Searching or Refocusing.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014
Hand waving is fine, and I'll definitely do it in situations where time has absolutely no consequence, but I feel it's better to have the various tools available for players who prefer that level of resource management.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

Andrast posted:

Cleric has more impactful feats available
Do they though?

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014
You just follow it with a 10 minute action and the rest of the party spend the extra 1 minute waiting- time isn't actually broken into discrete 10 minute segments...

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

KPC_Mammon posted:

Time is broken up into 10 minutes segments because most activities take 10 minutes (regaining focus, treat injury, repairs, identifying magic items, wizard spell substitution.

Being able to ask players what they are doing in 10 minute chunks is a good feature. It makes tracking time significantly easier because you can ask everyone what they are doing for the next 10 minutes. Throwing an 11 minute activity into the mix that you most likely need to use multiple times completely breaks a system that otherwise made tracking really easy. Worse still, it is breaking the 10 minute increments for out of combat recovery for what, exactly? What benefit are we gaining from making this an 11 minute activity? Would it have been broken if it took 10 minutes?

You are wrong, and probably never used the rules as written . . .

I'm not wrong, I'm just not an unthinking moron. Most activities do take 10 minutes. But the game doesn't break if the characters take an extra minute, and that's possible because of how RPGs work- people can talk and agree something, and this something doesn't even break the rules as written, it's just applying common loving sense to a minor potential issue. But don't worry buddy, some day maybe you too will develop the ability to think through complicated concepts like "we'll say we spend one more minute to get the healing".

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014
I think the key to getting players to understand PF2 is letting them know when an attack connected because of a flank or an attack bonus from an ally. Teamwork is the name of the game, and by pointing out when it helps you reinforce that AND makes the player that provided the benefit feel seen and rewarded.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

KPC_Mammon posted:

Balancing is its own action with the move tag. It isn't a free action to add to an existing move. It costs its own action to do, as denoted by the action pip next to its name.

Edit:
What you can do is move to the edge of uneven terrain, use a balance action to get across it, and then continue your original movement. Because you can specifically split a move action if the nested action is also movement.

What you quoted isn't a rule, it's a suggestion for GMs in the GMG. I can't see any real merit in not running it that way, but some GMs may want to discourage players doing things in their turn.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

gurragadon posted:

The difference between grabbed and restrained is that the player can still make attacks while grabbed as long as they make a flat 5 check while restrained limits doing any attacks?


A Grabbed character is just Off-Guard and Immobilized, so they can do everything but Move, though anything with the Manipulation trait (mainly spellcasting) has a fail chance. It's basically someone holding onto a wrist or a leg, a nuisance but doesn't stop a lot of things a character might do in a fight.

A Restrained is also Off-Guard and Immobilized, but can't take any Attack or Manipulate actions except those that would let them try to Escape. It's a full-on proper wrestling hold, shutting down most things a character can do, especially one that doesn't have good Athletics or Acrobatics.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

sugar free jazz posted:

torag would be boring and stupid and disappointing

I'm sure each choice has people that feel that way.

Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

Facebook Aunt posted:


It's so silly. "Okay this is a really complex lock so it's going to 4 successes on a DC 30 thievery check. Or I guess the fighter can make a single DC 30 athletics check instead."


Kicking down a door is both a lot louder and a lot harder to hide or undo than picking a lock.

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Evilgm
Dec 31, 2014

kingcobweb posted:

As a GM, assuming the player is ok with the tradeoff, I’d let them draw the weapon in either grip but take a penalty to attack roles if they’re in the reach grip and attacking right next to them (or a tiny creature in the same space)

Why are you just making the game worse for your players by giving them penalties for no reason?

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