Hey there GM here,

i polled my group and we landed on Jade Regent as the next campaign we want to tackle (it would be the first in that constellation of 6 players).

Those Campaign Traits, seem rather important, and every playercharacter should have one to have stakes in the Adventure and relationships to the main non-player characters, right?

What about the Caravan Submodule, is it worth it to use/transplant from 1e to 2e?

Also the Calender Year, I haven't found anything (or skimmed over it), when does the Adventure starts (year and month/season)?

About the play:

We are 6 players + me as the GM, and play roughly monthly in person. We have access to Herolab.online and a FoundryVTT server. My notes and conversion I keep in a Obsidian Vault with TTRPG plugins.

Would love to hear your input!

Potential Abomination Vault Spoilers Below

My group primarily plays homebrewed DnD 5e campaigns but we have enjoyed playing the beginner box so much that we have decided to play another Paizo adventure using Foundry VTT. So we have chosen Abomination Vaults which I will be GMing. I figured I would make posts about our shenanigans in the Vaults both as a way to provide some content to this community and to encourage me to take detailed (read: useful) notes to document our misadventures. Our group has 3 primary GMs that trade off each week, GMing our respective campaigns and sometimes special 2 or 3 shots ( We are running a 5e converted Tomb of Horrors module in a couple weeks for our most Masochistic DMs birthday, which should be... Fun?). Which is to say that updates on our shenanigans will be few and far between.

All that said Id like to introduce y'all to the cats I'll be wrangling. Hopefully their characters can serve as inspiration and/or be good for a laugh.

Meet the Chucklefucks

The Enigmatic Dave, Human Psychic

Dave is a down on his luck middle aged man. Who wears a greasy Cheeto stained robe. He has always peddled as a psychic giving sham tarot readings for little money. He has never really felt a purpose in life and as such has retreated into himself and fell into the bottle. Recently his wife, Susan, and “their” 2 kids left. She found another man who is 1000x’s better than Dave. I mean. He’s very rich and lives in Absalom if you’re into that kind of thing. He’s into real estate and has a ton of time to take Daves family on vacation. One time they took a vacation to Otari. Dave spotted them traipsing through the street in their fancy clothes. Susan still wanted him though. Dave could tell. Through her leaving Dave’s psyche was irreparably fractured however. He found latent abilities within himself. He rebranded, The Enigmatic Dave, and started giving true readings in Otari's local market. He’s made a bit of a name for himself locally. Dave hasn’t fixed any of his habits though. He instead hired a “manager” to keep him in line so he is sober and coherent enough to perform at his shows and readings. One day he will be known the world around. One day Susan will take him back.

Stove, Lizardfolk Beastkin (Were-goat) Kineticist

Stove grew up as a feral were-goat child in the Otari Hinterlands with nothing but a small scrap of flesh (birth certificate?) with the name “Steve” poorly tattooed on it, so poorly in fact that when Stove had someone literate read it to him for the first time they misread it as Stove. Stove has been curious about proper living for a while now though and has lurked on the outskirts of the town creeping and learning. One day he found Dave and started going to his shows. Finally started talking to him and learned that Susan had left Dave and now he was going to have to live with his mom again. Stove excitedly jumped at the opportunity and said he'd live with Dave and be his manager! Dave, desperate to not live with his bitchy mother again, begrudgingly accepted. Now Stove has a room at the very back of Dave's place that's very poorly lit, smells terrible, and has bones of small animals littered about the place. More like a barn at this point than a guest room. It goes fairly well with the rest of the house which has takeout boxes and empty liquor boxes littered everywhere. Dave never visits Stove in his room... he always just waits for him to come out if he needs something.

GM note: Without any prompting from me, The Enigmatic Dave (T.E.D. as we now call him in the discord) took the Market Runner background and decided to tie his backstory in with Stove who is a weird looking lizard goat dude who manipulates elements. Keeleno Lathenar is going to be incredibly distrustful of Stove since he is a druid adjacent animal person. So naturally I decided that Keeleno will be T.E.D.’s landlord of a small flat adjacent to the Otari Market and I'm going to let them decide if they try to hide the fact that Stove lives there or not. Shenanigans will surely ensure.

Preparing for the Adventure

Ive decided to add several elements from the AV expanded document, including: Starting the campaign at level 2 with a festival celebrating killing the dragon from the beginner box, The Scribbles, Rajani’s daughter, as well as the ritual to release the original Roseguard heros from the gem lenses. But most of these things will come later. Right now I am trying to decide how best to balance encounters for a party of 6 experienced and creative ttrpgers. Right now ive decided to use the Elite versiom for encounters against mostly one creature and just increasing mobs by about 50%. But I would love any advice in this regard!

So, if you're unaware, the basic math of PF2e's armour items assumes that for light and medium armour, (item bonus + dex cap) = 5, and for heavy armour, = 6. This means that as long as you can pick an armour that has a lower dex cap than your dex bonus, you are expected to be getting either 5 or 6 AC from your armour.

With all that said, there are a ton of armours out there that offer some kind of tradeoff, where that formula doesn't hold. For example, the Armoured Coat gives +4 AC between item bonus and dex cap, but it has the flexible trait which negates the check penalty to athletics and acrobatics checks. In my mind, that's a crazy tradeoff to make. The extra AC is so much more important.

At the end of the day though, I don't have the time to analyze the tradeoff offered by all of these "sub-optimal" armours. So yeah, I'd love to hear if anyone has experience with an armour item that yields less than 5 AC (or 6 for heavy armour) and yet the tradeoff was actually worth it for them.

I'm sure we've all seen the old 5D dungeon post on reddit, this isn't quite that and its use of 4D space is rather simplistic being a basic translation through 3 slices of an un-rotated 4D cube, however its already set up and ready to go.

I hope some DMs out there get some use out of it wether that be for a confusingly long dungeon crawl or just a one session gimmick.

For more context, I'm thinking of playing a centaur barbarian which means with the practiced brawn ancestry feat I can get +1 to athletic checks to shove and any succesful shove is a critical success.

Despite the potential for cool Trip just seems better though? it targets a save which most monsters are worse at than fortitude, also steals a movement action and puts the enemy off-guard until their turn. Is there something I'm missing or is trip just a better option every time that doesn't involve a convenient cliff or river of lava?

The NPC gallery from the legacy GMG wasn't reprinted in GMC. No more generic "bandit" "mad scientist", "assassin", "priest", "necromancer", "gang leader"

These had a lot of value for telling the sort of stories I like to tell in my games, which are less about killing unequivocally evil "monsters" and more about regular people who may be morally complex and provoke more interaction from the players.

I'm well aware one can simply use legacy content, but that ignores that some of these had mechanics that have been revised in the remaster, and they were an important part of the toolkit provided to GMs in the GMG. Right now, the GM Core feels very lacking in terms of providing support for creating a cast of NPCs in adventures. There's literally a half a page dedicated to NPCs and it basically just says "make 'em up". Saying "You can use legacy content" is not a valid point when these new books are supposed to serve as a foundation for the system standing on their own.

Additionally, the official Paizo FoundryVTT bestiary portraits module, which I paid good money for, appears to have removed the portraits for these generic NPCs when the remaster content was added to the system. The realization of that was actually the thing that prompted this post. I was setting up an encounter for my players and was confused as to why the "Antipaladin" art was this instead of this. I am almost certain that before the remaster it used the art from the GMG for those tokens.

Hello, title. I have been playing pf2e coming on 2 years now. Unfortunately, I have never enjoyed character creation or progression in this system. I like playing with my group, but would rather never again make a decision when it comes to character options.

I am surprised because it seems like there are very few written resources or videos which just make a build with feats/spells chosen, retraining recommendations by level, etc. Any recommendations?

I just got the beginner box for my group (I'm an experienced GM and the group consists of young teens with neurodivergence) and the box looks like a perfect fit for us, and I plan to continue with the Troubles book and possibly the Abomination book as well.

Does anyone know if it's worth to get the flip-mat and if the books will get reprinted to ORC?

I also would like to get any ideas for adventure books fitting for a group of younger players if you have any!

Thanks in advance

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/20694686

u/corsica1990 over on th'other site posted a survey a few days ago, trying to figure out how easily people could intuit creatures' worst saving throws (Fortitude, Reflex, or Will) based on just the creature's name and bestiary art.

How'd you do? Also, will you, too, forever have nightmares about jellyfish clam squids? Because I ain't ever unseeing that.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/19889099

So, over on the subreddit there's a post that caught me off guard. I'm not experienced enough with the game to know the ins-and-outs of all of classes, so when someone posted asking about Ruffian Rogues and Picks.

From the comments, this appears to be a Thing of Great Contention within the Pathfinder space (or, at least within that Pathfinder space; I find r/Pathfinder2e to be a rather... idiosyncratic place, personally).

The long and short of it is that Picks have the Fatal d10 trait, but Ruffian specifies:

You can deal sneak attack damage with any weapon, not just the weapons listed in the sneak attack class feature. This benefit doesn't apply to a simple weapon with a damage die greater than d8 or a martial or advanced weapon with a damage die greater than d6. (Apply any abilities that alter the damage die size first.)

(Emphasis mine.)

A lot of words have been published over how the Ruffian doesn't lose Sneak Attack on a critical hit, but this seems pretty straight forward from the text here that it does. Weird and stupid, and something I'd never personally enforce, but clear and straight forward nonetheless.

This is the updated wording from Player Core 1, no less, and Ruffian's text was updated in the remaster, so there was an opportunity to reword or clarify that was not taken, so I'm not sure what others are reading from this that I'm not.

How do you interpret this situation? How would you judge it at your table?

Hi, I am starting to listen to more and more podcasts and thought about Pathfinder in this context. Are there any recommended podcasts? Maybe something regarding rules and gameplay or nice and immersive plays? Open for anything interesting.

Thanks!

Xalchs just posted this to Reddit, announcing the launch of a new website hosting their Pf2e compatible item cards. There's currently 40 available, but they're apparently planning to expand the deck to 200 over 2024.

Spoiler Warning: Contains unmasked spoilers for the first encounter of The Longnight Before Krampus

My sister-in-law and niece are staying with us over the holidays, and truth be told, we don't reeeaaaaally have the space to house guests. We just have the most space of anyone in my partner's family. Partially because of this (and partially because the next generation of my partner's family is entirely comprised of only children who have apparently finally started to reach the "WTF is 'sharing'" phase of being only children), there have been some conflicts between the chilluns under my roof this week, particularly when it has come to unstructured play.

So, I thought, maybe tonight was the time to bust out some structured, non-denominational, solstice-adjacent winter holiday themed play! I had The Longnight Before Krampus printed off and ready to go and asked the wee warriors if they wanted to roll some dice. With the other adults in the room busy with holiday baking (I'm off of food prep this year, due to everyone else using my kitchen), and having shouldered more of the youngun refereeing than me (I was out all afternoon running errands), I didn't think anyone else would have the bandwidth for a game, so I thought it would be a relatively rigid affair. You know, the kind of thing that I could control to the point where two pre-teens would tolerate it, because someone was actively entertaining them, but stay in their lane, because I'm a large, loud guy who's often quick to say 'no'.

So anyway, the party of 5 walk into the inn on a cold, dark, storm winter's night, and both kids immediately start to shout over me.

Well... shit.

"I put out a cup and start painting a picture!" cries out the visiting kid, playing a wild order woodland elf druid with an art degree.

"I put out a cup and..." my step-son -- playing a storm order woodland elf druid -- yells his attempt at further mimicking his older cousin cut off by the big, mean game master.

"What are you painting on?"

"I don't know. The wall?" she says, almost confused by the question.

"You see the innkeeper approach quickly. She has a stern, if somewhat surprised, look on her face."

"Uhhh, I meant a piece of paper."

"I put out a cup and start doing magic card tricks!" my step-son yells out again, trying to assert his copy-cattery.

"Do you cast any spells?"

"No."

"Both of you roll perf..."

"I come over and start playing my lute," interjects the bard, played by the older child's mother.

"Ok, I'll need performance checks from all of you," I inform them as I secretly roll a d10. The first pages of the adventure introduce a bevy of triggers for the first encounter, the suddenly most appreciated one being "if no one triggers it within 10 minutes". A mixed set of performance rolls nets them a couple of coins, and nets me one step-son asking every 30 seconds if he can re-roll his failed check.

The adventure actually prompts the GM to hand out hero points after each encounter, so I didn't start the party with any (thinking they'd have one in short order, and that it would feel better getting one as a victory prize). It was around this point where I started regretting that decision.

While the merry band of uninvited buskers do their thing, the party's Oracle -- played by my partner, and the mother of the mother of the already tilted younger druid -- decides to talk to the innkeeper. She orders a drink and starts to ask her a question when the elder cousin suddenly screams out, "I seduce the innkeeper!"

With seemingly everyone else in the room distracted, the Rogue Thief does a circuit around the room, easily picking every pocket they come across.

I roll the d10 again. It comes up as a 3.

The Bard, suddenly freed from her sense of obligation to spotlight her little one, looks around the room and sees the innkeeper's son looking longingly at the ever shortening candle on the fireplace mantle, as he waits for the moment where he can open the mystery boxes under the ~~Christmas~~ Longnight tree. So, using her foot, she slides one of them across the room to him.

"Oh thank the gods," I think to myself. Touching one of the presents is an encounter trigger.

"I need everyone in the room to give me a perception check," I inform them. Most of them roll pretty low. Meanwhile, the evil poppet inside the box rolls a massive deception roll for their initiative, and looks like a regular windup toy to everyone. Only the thief takes notice of it at all, amused by how it seemingly is heading back to under the tree, where it just was.

I turn to my step-son and ask him what he wants to do. His cousin excitedly leans in front of him and starts yelling again, but I cut her off and inform her that it's not her turn yet. I repeat my question.

"I go over to [Bard] and point the toy bear out to them," he says.

"Ok, that's your first action. What else do you do?"

"Wait, we're in combat?"

"No, but we are in encounter mode. All that means it that the order in which everyone does things matters. You have two actions left."

He spends another action pointing the walking doll out to everyone else, and then finishes his turn off finally re-rolling for his card trick.

The Oracle goes next, but she pays little attention to the transpiring events. Instead, she spends an action to talk to my step-son, and to drop a silver coin into his cup, before turning back to the inn keeper to ask her about renting a room for the night.

Next, the Rogue starts investigating the doll. A middling crafting check informs them that this thing doesn't look like something that should be able to walk on its own. Also, who wound it up? They pick the bear up, only to have it squirm out of their grip. The Bard comes over to try grabbing it, and rolls high on their grapple attempt. They look closely at the bear and discover that it spells of black powder, and seems to have ill intentions.

The elder druid throws her dagger at the bear -- and her mother -- landing a critical blow. She then walks over to the window and opens it.

The bear tries to break free, but fails its saves.

Now the younger druid, who I foolishly allowed to have a jezail because I'm that dumb, turns his rifle on the bear -- and the Bard. At this point the Rogue -- his other bio parent -- points out that someone is holding the bear, and that he'll end up shooting them, too, he instead turns to them and says "I'll shoot you, then".

Nice, quiet, structured play. That's what this'll be.

They did, eventually, win the encounter. And somehow, no one got shot, despite multiple threats -- it turns out the over-tired ten-year-old competing for the spotlight is very sensitive to being told he'd have to relabel his character as chaotic evil if he shot any of his teammates. But yeah, gonna keep a closer eye on that one before he succeeds in Marty Jannettying someone through a window.

Last year’s wildly successful humble bundle is back for an encore.

I'm a fan of Puffin Forest's RPG Story videos, and Abserd was one of my favourite recurring character from them, so I got a kick out of the latest TRL video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NvlgkARcpY

Been running AV for a year or so now and we finally made it to the labs and the Warped Brew. I wanted to come up with some good music for Shadow Malice to play and I think I found the perfect thing: Days N Daze. Folk punk works so well here. I personally played Call in the Coroner and my players absolutely loved it, probably one of the most energetic sessions we’ve had.

Just wanted to share in case anyone else runs into the same desire.

I just downloaded one and, unless I'm missing something, the file is missing the usual, "Permission to print for personal use…." text.

Perhaps Paizo has a standard statement somewhere else that these can be printed? Without the ability to print these I'm unsure, outside of VTTs…maybe, what their use is for GMs.

I purchased one to try out, and was planning on having it printed on a large-format printer at Kinko's. However without that statement/release I can't see any commercial provider touching these for printing.

Just what the title says.

Me (DM) and my friends will be trying out the beginner box this weekend. There are 2 players and myself as the DM.

Is there anything we should do before we play? We’ve played D&D 5e a couple times but this will be our first go at Pathfinder.

Thank you!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/1339512

As a GM I'd like to feel like I fully understand how to utilize my monsters tactically, but over the past couple months as I've been running the beginner box and now leading into Abomination Vaults, I feel as though I'm very often just making three strikes with an enemy or moving and striking twice unless the enemy has a very specific action in its statblock which is obviously better. Like a dragon is obviously supposed to use its breath weapon, but then I ran goblin warriors last night and I couldn't even figure out how to use their scurry reaction beneficially.

Anyone excited for the new Rage of the Elements module dropping in a couple weeks? I've been helping one of the authors doing playtesting for the last year and it's going to be awesome!!

I'm planning on running a one shot for a new group soon. Two of them are fairly experienced, having played Sundered Waves and Plaguestone. The other two are brand new. Plan at the moment is Mark of the Mantis. Would love to hear everyone's favorites and stories!