TwilightKnight's page

So, its been more than three months since the last blog update by the UPW, much longer since Paizo shared anything meaningful. Has the UPW lost steam? Has their leadership been determined? Are they in active negotiations with Paizo?
Has Paizo successfully "weathered the storm" and returned to business as usual?

In Troubles in Otari, on page 35, when you encounter Morgrym Leadbuster he has a spellbook that is called "Advanced Arcanomnemonics." It is not described in his stat block, anywhere in the module (that I could find) nor is it listed in Age of Nethys. What the hell does it mean?

It is amazing to me that in today's marketplace, Paizo continues to charge such incredibly high shipping rates. The vast majority of orders from Walmart, Amazon, Menards, Staples, Home Depot, etc. are free. Hell, even my FLGS ships to my home for free. I just had a 100 pound furniture-quality, fully assembled (including the marble countertop) bathroom vanity delivered (to Illinois from California) by Estes for FREE. They even subcontracted the final delivery through a local company (not USPS, UPS, or FedEx). My S/O who is a former shipper/dispatcher for Estes tells me it was incredibly expensive to ship said item. What does this all mean? Paizo is out of touch charging nearly $10(US) to send a simple flipmap across the continental US, let alone internationally. It reinforces the idea that we should be buying all our Pathfinder, Starfinder, etc. products from alternative sources to avoid delivery charges. The icing is that most of those places also charge less than MSRP for the product.

Don't try to tell me Paizo is some kind of a little mom & pop store. They are a multi-million dollar international publisher and distributor. In today's market, shipping is a cost of doing business. As a customer entering a business, I do not pay their electric/utility bill or their heat/AC as a fee in addition to the products I buy. Likewise, it is not my responsibility to pay for the shipping because the business decided they wanted to peddle their wares across a national/international footprint. YMMV.

Join the community in celebrating International Men's Day! It is an annual global celebration of the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of men and to raise awareness to the various issues that affect men as defined by the six pillars:

1. To promote positive male role models; not just movie stars and professional athletes but everyday, working class men who are living decent, honest lives.
2. To celebrate men’s positive contributions to society, community, family, marriage, child care, and to the environment.
3. To focus on men’s health and well-being; social, emotional, physical and spiritual.
4. To highlight discrimination against males; in areas of social services, social attitudes and expectations, and law.
5. To improve gender relations and promote gender equality.
6. To create a safer, better world; where people can be safe and grow to reach their full potential.

Its that time of year again. If you appreciate the rights and freedoms that you enjoy and know or see a veteran, please take a moment to thank them for their service. We should do this more than just once a year, but it is especially important now. Many of our veterans suffer PTSD from the experience and holidays like this can bring back hurtful memories. A kind word or a simple gesture can go a long way to remind them they are loved and appreciated.

To my brothers and sisters, "This we'll defend!"

I get that we want the -01 scenario highlighted as an intro so it will help encourage new players, but the way that info is being used is confusing, creating problems with scheduling and GMs knowing what they are running. Neither of the product pages for the intro games in either active campaign indicates that the intros are also -01. You only see that if you click on the cover image to enlarge it and read the title block. It wouldn't be so bad if we hadn't already established a line of "intro" scenarios that don't have seasonal numbering. There is no reason to expect that people will consider the newest intro scenarios to be anything other than a continuation of those. As an example, a convention I recently volunteered to GM for had the SFS intro listed as "Intro 3" because, of course they would. It's clearly an intro and its the third one. Why would they jump to the conclusion that it was also 4-01?

Please rename them to clarify the intent. Something simple like:
#3-01 Intro: Year of Shattered Sanctuaries
#4-01 Intro: Year of the Data Scourge
This simple update would clarify the issue while still conveying the information intended.

As it so happens, during one of our recent adventures*, I, that being my character, an aspiring Hellknight, wanted to take an action that was specifically called out in the scenario to earn infamy. Now, I was perfectly fine with said point of infamy. For one, the penalties for having a point of infamy was not going to impact my character in the immediate future. And two, I was prepared to buy the boon for fixing infamy as soon as I was able. However, I was denied said action because the other players said they wouldn't allow it.

Now, my understanding is that a PC cannot be held accountable for the actions of others or if they are mind controlled. So, there should have been no risk to the other PCs. Also, there is the idea that characters cannot perform PvP, so technically, there would be no way for the other PCs to have stopped my action. To make matters more challenging, the GM was silent on the matter of the infamy being an individual or group award. Now, I'm not a douche (although I am sure a few would dispute that) so I do not want to negatively impact another player's character with my actions. I am a team player towards the end goal, but some characters are not opposed to getting a little "dirty" along the way. In no way would my action have negatively affected anyone's scenario rewards. In fact, it would have saved a couple of resources that we expended.

So, I am interested to hear some community thoughts on this situation. I do not expect everyone to agree so don't be surprised if there are diametrically opposed viewpoints. I am not aware of any org play rule that would cover this specific occurrence consistently from table to table so its just a thought exercise, but feel free to say so if there is.

*If you want specifics of which scenario I am referring to and the circumstances, I have it listed below, but its not really important for the question as it is a more general mental exercise. If you choose to respond with scenario specifics, please hide them behind a spoiler tag to protect the innocent.

Thought this forum might be better than the online one for a Roll20 question. Can anyone share their macro for the lay on hands spell? Since it is essentially every other character level, I'm not sure of the syntax to make "level/2*6" work.

I guess this forum is as good as any for Roll20 questions. Can anyone share their macro for the lay on hands spell? Since it is essentially every other character level, I'm not sure of the syntax to make "level/2*6" work.

This might be a bit pedantic, but according to the rules for Fast Healing...

Some abilities grant fast healing, and some creatures have regeneration. A creature with either ability regains the listed amount of Hit Points each round at the beginning of its turn.

emphasis mine

As the text is multilayered and a bit complex I am trying to wrap my head around the monk. Are the strikes associated with most stances, primarily tiger and wolf, still considered unarmed attacks and therefore benefit from handwraps? I would think so since it seems the monk would be gimped if not. If that is true, would that mean a monk with +1 striking handwraps using Tiger Slash would be doing 4d8 slashing?
1d8 (for Tiger Claw) + 1d8 (for handwraps} + 2d8 (for Tiger Slash)

I know its a sanctioned rule, but how many people remember to actually enforce it? I admit that once I am into the flow of the game, I rarely if ever remember to see if massive damage is in effect. I'm not the most prolific GM but I am running two home campaigns in addition to semi-regular org play and I have never remembered to apply massive damage when it applied and I do not recall a single table of org play I have played at where the GM enforced massive damage.

This is my second question regarding Roll20 here, but I could not find another more applicable forum. If there is a "better" board for this, please let me know.

I have noticed that many/all of the pre-built small tokens in the library center in the middle of a square, but if I make my own tokens small, it shifts them to the upper left corner of the square. Does anyone know how to format a token to be centered in the square when it is smaller than a full square?

I use Roll20 for my VTT and one problem I encounter is that even when I hide the token's name, it appears in the Initiative table. I really don't want to have to manually change the name of the creature in order to conceal what it is and then change it again when/if the PCs successful identify it with Recall Knowledge, but i cannot figure out another way to do it.

How do you handle this issue?

The last chronicle to see an associated boon was PFS 2-08, 5 months ago. Are we going to see some more while they are still meaningful?

Not sure if anyone else is noticing this, but I'm finding that when characters do not have an alignment requirement like cleric, champion, etc. players are choosing a true neutral alignment since it denies all alignment-based damage. There doesn't seem to be a disadvantage to it? Anyone else seeing this trend?

First impression...*SIGH* Another example of a useless "reward" given to the PCs at the end of the scenario that amounts to nothing. Its not on the chronicle. Its not granting access to a restricted item. Its not even accounted for in the treasure bundles. Ridiculous.

IIRC the plan was to integrate SFS into the AcP program and launch it at Gen Con. With Gen Con moving back their schedule, does that move the targeted launch of AcP or will it still start in August? Assuming, of course, that it is still on schedule.

Since it came up in another thread, and I don't want to derail said thread anymore than it already has been, I will bring the topic here.
Can you use Shield of Reckoning (champion feat) more than once per round?
My answer is yes and here is the relevant rules references.

Trigger: While you have your shield raised, you would take damage from a physical attack.

Effect: You snap your shield in place to ward off a blow. Your shield prevents you from taking an amount of damage up to the shield’s Hardness. You and the shield each take any remaining damage, possibly breaking or destroying the shield.

Trigger An enemy damages your ally, and both are within 15 feet of you.

Effect: You protect your ally and strike your foe. The ally gains resistance to all damage against the triggering damage equal to 2 + your level. If the foe is within reach, make a melee Strike against it.

Prerequisites divine ally (shield), tenets of good

Effect: You use your shield to protect your allies as well as yourself. When you have a shield raised, you can use your Shield Block reaction when an attack is made against an ally adjacent to you. If you do, the shield prevents that ally from taking damage instead of preventing you from taking damage, following the normal rules for Shield Block.

You can block with your shield instinctively. At the start of each of your turns, you gain an additional reaction that you can use only to perform a Shield Block.

Prerequisites champion’s reaction, Shield Warden

Trigger A foe’s attack against an ally matches the trigger for both your Shield Block reaction and your champion’s reaction.
Effect: When you shield your ally against an attack, you call upon your power to protect your ally further. You use the Shield Block reaction to prevent damage to an ally and also use your champion’s reaction against the foe that attacked your ally.

In addition to the feat language, we need to reference the text of these rules as well...

Reactions have triggers, which must be met for you to use the reaction. You can use a reaction anytime its trigger is met, whether it’s your turn or not. In an encounter, you get 1 reaction each round, which you can use as described on page 468. Outside of encounters, your use of reactions is more flexible and up to the GM. Reactions are usually triggered by other creatures or by events outside your control.

Flourishes are techniques that require too much exertion to perform a large number in a row. You can use only 1 action with the flourish trait per turn.

When it’s your turn to act, you can use single actions,

short activities, reactions, and free actions. When you’re finished, your turn ends and the character next in the initiative order begins their turn.
This is also defined in the glossary as
During a round in an encounter, each creature takes a single turn. A creature typically uses up to 3 actions during its turn.

Discussion?

So, not sure if there is a better forum for this, but how is your bracket lookin? As long as I can survive tomorrow (East and West regions), I am still "in it to win it." with one of my remaining brackets. :-)

The Good:
I picked Syracuse, Oregon St, and Rutgers to upset. Wisconsin over UNC wasn't a stretch so its only marginally against chalk.

The bad:
I didn't pick the Purdue to go down, so that hurt a little, but I had them falling to Villanova in round 2 anyway so I'm still alive there.

The ugly:
No one in their right mind was taking Ohio St to get upset in the opening game after the way they played in the Big10 tournament and to Oral Roberts?!? I mean, its Oral Roberts. Isn't that like a seminary school? Guess having god on your side really does help. :-) This is gonna kill a lot of brackets.

Fortunately, I didn't follow the "trap" and have them in the elite eight or final four on all of my brackets, like most. Though I do admit I played more than one bracket, but only one is likely to still be competitive if that tells you anything about how I felt about Ohio St going into the tourney. I'm not saying I had them in the final four on at least one of my brackets, just sayin' ;-)

The Big10 was supposed to be the class of the tournament this year, but with two major upsets and the debacle that is Michigan St, its looking like a typical result. The conference always under-performs in the tourney, even when they send a team to the final four, or even a championship. We've (yes, I am in Big10 country, go Indiana!) only had one champion in the last 32 years and that was Michigan St 21 years ago. I don't count Maryland's win in '02 since they weren't in the Big10 at the time.

I'm not expecting much from Maryland this year and Michigan has a major injury that makes their chances of a deep run unlikely. I guess a fan has to hang their head on Illinois and Iowa trying to carry the conference. Wisconsin is a dark horse, but a 9 seed is about the worst position you can be in for success.

Is this finally the year Gonzaga comes though? I've been a fan since Stockton was there, but they rarely played anyone. This year they beat Iowa, Virginia, West Virginia, and BYU three times. I wish they would have rescheduled the Baylor because that could have interrupted their undefeated season or knocked Baylor from the #1 seed.

My searchfu found some threads back during the playtest, but nothing recent nor definitive. Did Paizo ever clarify the intent with casting spells from scrolls if the spell is on your list but is a level higher than you can use on your own? I know the GM can limit access to scrolls to prevent a wish from falling into the hands of a 1st level PC, but if it did would the PC be able to cast it?

So question for the room. Looking at the activation requiring the Cast a Spell action and in the language it says “you activate spellstrike ammunition by casting a spell into the ammunition.”

That being said, is it possible for an archer to have someone else cast a spell into an arrow so it can be stored for later? Seems like by RAW the answer is no, but I really want to be able have a wizard cast a scroll of shocking grasp on a spellstrike arrow that I can store for later use.

If you critically fail vs dominate you only get a new save if you are given an order that is "against your nature such as killing your allies."

"Against its nature" is fairly broad. Would you consider a character's anathema to be against its nature?
Examples:
a spirit barbarian instructed to loot the tomb of a tribal elder
a paladin of Imodedae instructed to run away from a battle leaving your allies behind
a cleric of Gozreh instructed to set fire to a city park
etc.

Is anyone using the 2E Critical Hit/Miss decks in their Adventure Paths? How are they working? Are they OP? Do they disrupt the flow of combat having to draw cards during gameplay and resolving their effects?

Due to the delays and rescheduling of numerous products, please cancel all my subscriptions effective today. Thank You.

Given how personal a background is to a character and that most GMs who are running 1E APs converted to 2E are also converting the traits to backgrounds, has anyone given any thought to just letting the players write their own backgrounds using the published material as a guide? Seems like it would be more productive than to "force" the players to pick from an existing list.

Well, we started. I recruited a group of five excellent players from our org play community to start a new Hell's Rebels campaign converted to 2E. We'll be running bi-weekly on Monday nights. Our heroes are:

Abrax Volso a half-elf ranger (flurry) originally from nearby Kintaria. He has come to Kintargo seeking out information on the Silver Ravens. He has uncovered information that his grandmother was somehow involved with that group and he's here to find out more.

Eike Blacksun a human warpriest of Sarenrae. Eike comes from an Asmodean background, but when the faith asked for more than what the Blacksuns were willing to give, things went bad. Now, Eike has denouced the Asmodean faith and turned to Sarenrae.

Firgis Klupminn is a half-orc oracle (battle). He is an orphan who was trained at a young age to work with the Kintargan courts. His attitudes soured as he saw how the commoners were treated and how easy it was for the wealthy to "buy" their way out of more serious crimes. This came to a head recently when his daughter disappeared on the Night of Ashes. He knew she might be caught up with some rebellious groups in town, but he thought it was just the growing pains of youth. His pain and distraught has awakened his blood connection to his oracular heritage.

Magnus is an elven rogue with tiefling blood, but a goodly heart. He is native to Kintargo and has known the shame and oppression not only of the city's elves, but also his fiendish blood. He has heard of a former rebellious group called the silver ravens who protected the city years ago. Perhaps now is time for such heroes to reappear.

Malcom the Magnificent is a gnome of exemplary talent. Just ask him :-D. Something of a prodigy he spend time at the opera house under the tutelage of Shensen. When the opera house was closed and Shensen went missing, he was devastated, but his ever optimistic heart has won out. He is determined to reopen the opera house and restore its gloried status. Now, if he can just figure out how to get the new lord-mayor out of the building...

Interestingly enough (or not) all characters are chaotic good. This certainly is in line with the theme of the campaign.

Our first session was last night with a rousing riot at the Aria Park protest where four of our five characters were looking for the one-gloved man. Fortunately, they found him, but before they could actually speak to him, the riot began. Despite theur efforts to have him stay, the contact fled to avoid the authorities. The PCs pursued him briefly through the streets of Kintargo. When he ducked down a dark alleyway, he ran right into a group of thugs looking for him. The thugs there tried to dissuade the PCs from interrupting their "fun," but our heroes were having none of it. After almost losing Magnus (despite his repeated efforts to Nimble Dodge away from inbound attacks) they dispatched the Chelish thugs and all fled to Crissali’s Fine Tomes.

That's where we left it. Unfortunately due to the holidays we'll miss out next session, so next game will be 1/4/2021.

Just like my Ironfang Invasion campaign, I will post a recap of our sessions here as we progress. I'm not interested in arguing about rules and such, but I am happy to answer questions or discuss my methodology. I have no idea if anyone cares or reads these posts, but it helps to document our campaign and give me a diary of sorts. Enjoy!

Our group has decided to play this campaign and I’ll be converting it to 2E. Has anyone done it and has friendly advice?

Is anyone running or playing in a converted to 2E Giantslayer campaign? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts and struggles as I am considering one myself.

Looking at the rules for Bleed, you could chose to help stop the bleeding using two actions using Assisted Recovery OR you could use Medicine to Stop Bleeding, again two actions, with the DC of the effect.

If that is true, why would you Stop Bleeding with a risk of failure when you could just Assisted Recovery and auto-success?

Isn't it interesting that there has been a rather insistent push to remove personal names, PFS#s, email addresses, virtually anything that could even remotely be viewed as personal or that could lead back to a users real information yet Paizo customer service's preferred method of communication is posting in an open public forum details about any issues involving customer orders or account problems.

Yes, you could email them instead, but seeing as how three of the last four emails I sent are still pending after three+ months I wouldn't hold my breath. The one that was answered took more than six weeks, is still unresolved, and my response to their response has gone without response since July.

We can use Covid as an excuse for many things, but not one online company that I know of takes more than a few days maximum to respond to customer issues. That extends from the big boys like Amazon and Walmart to "little" ones like Dr Squatch, Tee Turtle, Betabrand, etc. These company's employees pools are roughly equivalent to Paiso yet with customer service interactions that far exceed them. Many have mandatory maximums in customer handling times that result in automatic discounts and free offers if their issue is not addressed and/or resolved in a timely manner. And many of these companies are far younger than Paizo thus having less time to perfect their customer service systems.

Look, we love Paizo's products. We wouldn't be so passionate if we didn't, but enough is enough. And this is not a knock on the customer service agents who are left apologizing to virtually every customer because of the untenable and frankly, terrible, system that has been built for them to use. It is time for Paizo management to cut the excuses and fix your system. Period.

since its impossible for us to know who at Paizo is reading which message boards, and because this involves multiple departments, I am posting this in multiple forums in hopes of bringing as much focus and attention to the problem as possible

Let me try this again. My email dated 12 August ("Subscription Order Anomaly") on this subject was apparently missed. Since it has been 11 weeks since I sent it, I'm thinking its not in anyone's pending inbox.

This involves two accounts. Mine and my girlfriend (Alison Ooms alias Valkyrie Incarnate). We ordered the Bestiary I Battle Cards back in February (Order#8366388) on her account. It wasn't until late May/early June that the PDFs were added as an option. When we found out that was an option, we ordered all the available cards (spell cards, etc.) and subscribed to the accessories line on my account. You can verify that from my history.

What we are trying to find out is if we can get the PDF of the Bestiary Battle Cards added to either her account (as the one we ordered the physical product from) or my account (as the one with the subscription). Had the option for the PDF been available at the time we ordered it, we would have subscribed then. Having already paid the $59.99 for the print product, we'd like to avoid having to "double" pay another $41.99 to get the PDF as well.

Thx

Are this month's subscription orders delayed? I am subscribed to the Pathfinder Accessories line and my subscriptions page says "This subscription always ships once a month on the Paizo release schedule" which would have been the 14th. I do not have an order processed. I should be getting a Pathfinder Advanced GM screen and NPC Battle Cards. Neither of those PDFs appear in my downloads. What's the status?

I know that we take some liberties with the game rules in some scenarios for sake of time, gameplay, etc. especially with how many skill challenges work. However, do we really need to deviate from clearly defined rules? Why are we allowing players to Aid with a 15 instead of the required 20? And why are we allowing someone to Aid one skill using a different one? The more we vary the org play rules, the less they sink-up with the core rules and the more confusion we sow in the player base, especially at a time when many players are still learning the core rules.

Most players with animal companions, when giving them an attack command, always seem to Stride into a flanking position if one exists. I cannot find a specific rule in the game to justify this other than GM fiat as described in the inset (CRB 249) or if you used the Train Animal feat. Seems like it would just move to the closest available square from which it can attack.

Do you just let the master tell it precisely where to go? Would you consider that like an advanced trick and require a Nature check vs an elevated DC? Would you require them to train the animal using the feat? Other?

Before there was an option for PDFs in the accessory/card product line, we ordered the Bestiary Battle Cards using my girlfriend's account (since it didn't matter). Now, that they are available as part of the subscription, do I have to buy another box of Bestiary cards from this account in order to get the PDF? Or is her account eligible for the PDF without having to subscribe twice? It doesn't really matter either way since we share our PDFs. Thx

I did not receive the pdf for the
Pathfinder Spell Cards: Divine
Pathfinder Spell Cards: Arcane
Pathfinder Spell Cards: Occult
Pathfinder Spell Cards: Primal
Pathfinder Spell Cards: Focus
from this order. Please add them to my downloads. Thx

I did not receive the pdf for the Pathfinder Chase Cards Deck. Please add it to my downloads. Thx

The tracking link in my order receipt never works. It tries to load, but never gets anywhere and then times out. Is it just my bad luck or is anyone else experiencing this? One of the reasons this concerns me is that it does not take UPS or USPS priority more than a few days to deliver anything other than my Paizo order and I would like to see where it is and when to expect it to be delivered in case some random package thief whats to grab it from my porch. Unfortunately, the link does not work and the "package number" listed is not a tracking number so there is no way to track the package manually.

Paizo, folks, ya gotta give us some indication that things are getting better. The delays are incredibly bad and getting worse, not better. The [lack of] progress with customer concerns is terrible. Example, on 6/24 you had emails going back to May 15th. That's nearly six weeks behind. After another 24 hours, the backlog was still on the 15th. Then on June 26, it was "caught up" to the 18th, but that doesn't account for the weekend, so really only one day better. Then on the 29th, three days later, the backlog only moved one day. Jump forward two days to July 1st and still backlog to the 19th of May. Zero change from the previous update. So we're now a week into July and you are still working on emails from May.

And the records above don't even reference the customer service message boards which is much harder to follow, but appears to be at least backlogged to the first week in June just going by threads with no response.

Seriously? I don't know about anyone else, but I deal with dozens on online customer service providers, some larger, some smaller than Paizo on a regular basis and none of them are even close to being a month behind in addressing customer service issues.

Now, I am sure not all the cancelled subscription threads are related to this amazingly bad service response, but many of them are, yet there appears to be no escalated importance on your side to address it. Whenever the subject is addressed, we get the standard excuses like the virus, short-staffing (whatever that means), etc. yet this issue has existed long before covid. This is a systemic problem with how the business is designed and managed. This is NOT an issue with the customer service staff. They are excellent at their job, but you are setting them up to fail. It is incredibly disrespectful to them that you put them in a position to have to apologize to virtually every customer because of the response delays. Though to be honest, given the way OPF volunteers are treated it doesn't surprise me that paid employees would fair any better.

You owe it to your customers who continue to show brand loyalty for well over a decade and who send you their money on time, every month to improve your customer service mechanism. If its an issue of mismanagement, hold people accountable. If its an issue of staff, hire more customer service agents. If its an issue of procedures/systems, then change them to meet the demand.

The frustrating thing about this is the quality of the products is excellent so people really want them, but we just cannot communicate in a timely manner. Many of us go to our FLGS or Amazon, etc rather than deal with Paizo direct whenever possible, but there are some products we just cannot do that. Customers should not shudder at the thought of having to deal directly with Paizo because they cannot resolve an issue for six weeks or more after they report it.

I don't know why, but every few weeks my shopping cart is getting cleared for some reason. I've been ordering from Paizo virtually since their launch and never had this happen before. The time (or two) I dismissed it as an accidental by-product of fixing ongoing problems with the website, but now its happening on an almost regular basis. Paizo, have you changed your maintenance procedures and routinely clear everyone's shopping cart or is this a glitch that is not being corrected? Its making it much more difficult to manage future product orders.

I pre-ordered all the spell cards on the same order, but I received a notice for three separate shipments. One for the divine cards, one for the focus card, and one for the other set sets together. They are all releasing at the same time, so why the separate shipments? I know Paizo has a box big enough for al of them. If it was a weight issue, then why can three go together, but not the other two. I’ve done some checking and it’s more expensive to ship these in three boxes than two. Depending on the weight, it might be cheaper to ship three in one box and two in the other, but the price is really close so I’m not yet convinced. I’m certainly not going to pay shipping three times, so I’m just wondering what gives?

I didn't want to stomp on anyone else's story threads, so I'll start my own.

We have really just started. I'm converting the AP to 2E so there is a bit more prep than usual, but Roll20 makes it easy for me to organize things before the session moreso than I can do live. Not sure yet how good/bad I'm doing with comparative challenge ratings, our few combats have neither been deadly, nor one-shots. Reading some of the commentary here has been helpful.

I have the following characters in our group:
Chudd — a human barbarian [fury] born and raised in Phaendar with dwarven ancestry ties so he primarily uses a waraxe/shield and is an apprentice blacksmith under the tutelage of Kining

Sam Smithy — a goblin sorcerer [elemental] originally from Tamran and the adopted child of humans. He is an intellectual and the father is a social scientist studying the effects of "nature vs nurture" splitting time between Tamran and the University of Lepidstadt. Adopted is a bit misleading as he is really just another of the father's experiments. Being a goblin and therefore having related ancestry to the local raiding hobgoblins has made it hard for him to earn a living in Phaendar. Recently, he's been working for Kining in the store as a stock-boy and clerk.

Bridgit — a half-elf sorcerer (draconic) who has the most hatred for the hobgoblins as they are responsible for the murder of her parents. Father was a seer elf with some minor magical skill. Mother was a human herbalist with a touch of draconic blood ancestry. She is studying Herbalism and Nature part-time under the tutelage of Aubrin the Green when she's not working as a waitress at the Taproot.

Phillip Tufang — a human ranger [fury] formerly of Nidal. He was scouting for the Chernasardo Rangers in hopes of joining their organization, but was brutally ambushed by some hobgoblin bandits, a scouting party for the Invasion. He has almost fully recovered by the start of the campaign under the healing of Rhyna (who I changed into a halfling, mostly because that's how I see her based on the included image). His injuries prevented him from earning a living for a number of weeks and if not for the leftovers provided by Bridgit from the Taproot he might have starved. He is looking to use snare crafting as often as possible so it'll be a good chance to see how effective (or ineffective) snares are in 2E.

Fenadonia "Fen" Calinbrew — half-elf rogue (thief), although she's not so much a criminal as a skill-monkey who focuses on agility and finesse rather than brute strength (otherwise, she would be a ruffian). She probably should be a scoundrel, but the player has one of those in PFS so wanted to try a different racket. Another born in Tamran, she is the granddaughter of a so-far unnamed town elder. She knows she is expected to continue her family's tradition of being a leader, but her youth and inexperience are insufficient. She left for Phaendar in hopes of getting some life experience and learning the hard lessons of adventure (not to mention, loot) so she can develop into a respected leader. Because she has some medical knowledge, she's been working as a nurse for Vane Oreld.

The players are in the midst of escaping Phaendar. We spent extra time going over PC-NPC relationships and which PCs know each other and to what extent. I hope that will provide a bit more connection to the rest of the townsfolk and them wanting to help them not only escape but survive in the wilds.

I've decided to add a chase for just after they finish exploring the four main shops in town and try to escape with as many villagers and provisions as possible. I like chases in general and them trying to escape from town as a group of hobgoblins tries to capture them seems a perfect opportunity. Parts 2/3 are so sand-boxy, I hope they come off as organic and not feel like a series of events down a set of railroad tracks.

We are not tracking XP. I'm just going to level them at opportune times as we go along. This saves me from having to watch XP awards and add/subtract to keep them on pace. We are also going to play all the way to level 20 so I will be slightly adjusting the pace and will have to advance many of the encounters in books 5-6 as they will be higher than the printed ones.

I'm looking forward to the release of the APG so I can incorporate the new classes into some of the NPCs. I've already rebuilt Veld the hermit into a witch with a leshy familiar. I'm hoping she becomes a re-occurring NPC, but we'll see. Oh, and I changed her to a goblin to have the "feel" I wanted for her.

Aubrin the Green was a fairly easy conversion. I just made her a ranger with the cleric dedication so I could keep her as close to the original build as possible. I went ahead and built the stat blocks for the four primary NPCs from Phaendar thinking they might be re-occurring NPCs beyond the first book. I have not thoroughly read the rest of the series outside of some quick scanning and reading the summaries.

Our next session is Wednesday June 17th, so I'll have more to report after that.

Now that I have notified my teams, I will announce it here. I have resigned my position as Premier Event Coordinator effective immediately. I will still be active in the community as a GM and player, just not as a leader or a representative of the OPF. Thank you for all the support you have provided and the volunteering you do. It makes this community amazing. I hope to see y’all at a gaming table, real or virtual, in the future. Until then...

Explore! Report! Cooperate!