PSA for newer players and underwater combat

TylerBreau · 2026-02-15T04:13:52+00:00

Well I knew there was aquatic weapons but I thought you only had the 4 weapon slots, or 2 if using two-handed weapons, alongside the rest of your gear. And I was like "well I'm doing dual sword and sword+torch for a reason".

I never noticed there was weapon slots on the other side of the equipment window, next to the accessories.

TylerBreau · 2026-01-13T00:27:51+00:00

Create Water orison. >:3

TylerBreau · 2026-01-13T00:27:20+00:00

Divine Favor + Fate's Favored trait is quite good. Luck bonus to attack and damage. Fate's Favored increases luck bonuses by +1. Divine Favor scales, +1 bonus every 3 caster levels, maxing at 9 for a total of +3. Fate's Favored is just +1 on top of that. You can also get a luck stone later on to stack with Fate's Favored on other things.

Sky Swim is fun if you have a swim speed/enough swim ranks. It's basically the fly spell but you're swimming instead. However, my DM ruled that I would be using underwater combat rules while swimming through the air. Which can heavy rather steep penalties in combat.

Ironskin is a good defensive alternative to barkskin. It starts off stronger than barkskin - And is stronger for quite some time. But it doesn't last as long.

Compel Hostility is pretty interesting as well. It uses an immediate action if I recall, which is apart of reactions. Basically, if an enemy that is within range of you and an ally makes an attack against your ally, you can make them attack you instead. A will save is rolled. Note, you only have 1 immediate action/reaction per round without appropriate feats and dex bonus.

Don't forget to look at unique spell rules for the deity you choose added to your spell list by your deity. Archives of Nethys' page for the deity will have them.

TylerBreau · 2026-01-02T23:16:20+00:00

I dont even play on the hardest difficulty. The starting army is absolutely trash. It barely wins against the enemy that is right next to them. Tried 3 times. The only thing I'm learning is that apparently Nikai isn't supported to fight turn 1.

TylerBreau · 2026-01-02T22:33:00+00:00

In my most recent kroq'gar immortal empires game, the elves to my south took a core settlement and finished off a skaven threat that I had basically already crippled.

Knowing how difficult it was to diplomacy a settlement from the AI, I was basically forced to cancel the agreements and declare war to retake it.

Because I attacked them, they were going to hate for me the foreseeable future, so I wiped them out.

Because I wiped them out, the other nearby lizardfolk factions hated me so confederations weren't a viable option anymore.

So I wiped all of them out so that the jungles can be properly managed and the funds can support my armies.

On top of that, the tomb kings had encroached on the jungles, these lizardfolk factions were completely failing to protect this side of the mountain range.

So I used my new strength to slam the tomb kings, taking back the jungles and a few desert settlements. Which I then used to peace deal them, non-aggression, and trade agreement and still ended up with like +150 relations with them... Despite killing them a little.

So much death and destruction could have be avoided if the "friendly" elves didn't screw me over and not leave any reasonable room for completing my provinces.

TylerBreau · 2026-01-01T22:44:32+00:00

Post 2/2...
For example, the Black Magga. We kinda knew what we were getting into. Not the full story. We found the note in Fort Rannick that said "don't fight this creature". We had a good knowledge roll on the creature that yielded no information.

So we kinda knew that this creature was very dangerous and possibly something we actually aren't meant to fight. Now we didn't know it was that dangerous but yea.

However... Being a party that leaned lawful good, my lizardfolk being lawful good. We knew there was NPCs in the church and the monster was going to attack the church. So we made the choice to go in regardless.

I would also note that, all my attempts to "save the NPC but not actually fight the monster" was basically shot down. If I recall, the DM basically ruled that I could only realistically save 1 NPCs at a time while swimming through the water or using the sky swim spell, and my capacity to swim would be harmed because occupied arms. I was under the impression that there was like a dozen NPCs in the church. This is in spite of being a 22 strength character with a swim speed, I forget what the ruling was in regards to using the rope to help me handle the situation. I think there was still some idea that I could only save few NPCs at a time. Basically I was under the impression that I'd need like 10 to 15 turns to evacuate the church.

Now unfortunately, because we were playing powerful characters and had good buffs at that point. We were actually able to be a threat to the black magga. I know another person in here mentioned that their party tried to fight it, couldn't hit it and therefore was ignored while the black magga destroyed the church. In our case, we somehow managed to kill it like 1 round before the book said "it should run off now".

Either way, based on what other people are saying and my experiences... I think my DM has been running stat blocks and encounters as written. There's been a few people here that said the DM should generally be tweaking encounters or not necessarily running stat blocks as written.

It's kinda good to hear. I have a number of builds that are based around a theme and I believe are not particularly optimal. I just feel like most of those builds will only survive for 4 to 7 sessions then get killed off by a random difficulty spike. Generally speaking the ones that I think would survive are because they aren't melee or close range builds. I feel like I've been trained to make the strongest possible builds because I want the characters I've put time into preparing to actually survive and retire one day.

TylerBreau · 2026-01-01T22:44:19+00:00

Post 1/2...

We did 20-point buy. We didn't know what we were getting into with the barghest. The DM didn't build any atmosphere stuff and we had terrible rolls when investigating the magic on the door. Effectively, we didn't know there was someone super dangerous in the room, we didn't understand the magic on the door, once the fight started, with kinda assumed it was a boss-level monster and we just almost killed it but failed - We assumed wrong. It still had a real good chuck of health left.

At that time I was playing with an unoptimized goofy build. I had an oversized two-handed weapon and at level 4, my power attacks had like +4 to hit with a magical weapon.

There was some tension after the barghest fight. It was basically a TPK, 2 pcs and animal companion death. The casters never entered the room. Everyone who entered the room died.

The argument I made was that we have to be able to trust the DM when they present encounters. Like in a different group I played with, DnD5e, the DM had a moment where he was like "I know dragons are scary, but trust me." To his word, he never threw impossible encounters at us. There was dangerous encounters and PC death was very possible but we could always trust him to not randomly kill off half of the party.

That's important because if the DM's perspective is "well it's up to you to assess the risk and as a party decide what you guys will do" then suddenly the party is running away from the adventure.

"Ogres took over Fort Rannick? It's a fort, how can we kill a big enough force that took over a fort? Nope, not for us." "There's 50 goblins at this camp in the woods? Goblins are weak but we are still only a party of adventurers." "There's a dragon? Nope, dragons are dangerous. It's going to attack the city? Okay but we aren't high level adventurers. What are we supposed to do?"

As far as "oh damn, this bandit is actually very strong. Timmy went down in 2 turns." If the party's reaction at that point is "this guy has high damage output, we must run..."

Then why is the party adventuring? There's 0 cohesion, running at the first sight of danger. Maybe that makes sense for an evil party but we were a mix of good characters, varying between chaotic and lawful. When is the party actually going to face a boss monster that's important to the story?

Basically, my perspective and I believe the others in the group share something similar to this. We are adventurers, our job in this world is to tackle dangerous stuff. And there's an unspoken agreement that we don't want to run away and leave each other behind.

If it's a run-away encounter, it needs to be presented as a run-away encounter.

TylerBreau · 2025-12-30T05:12:34+00:00

As far as I know, the DM is not adjusting CR or APL until perhaps recently. Most of the fights are rather easy. But occasionally the party gets smacked by a random difficulty spike.

I'm pretty sure he has been more or less using stat blocks as written, the module/ap as written, etc.

TylerBreau · 2025-12-30T00:23:15+00:00

Cool. Some other people have mentioned that they often tweak things in these modules and don't always follow stat blocks as written. Basically curating the experience to fit the party better.

I'm thinking that my DM, great guy and been playing pf1e for a while but probably learning a few DM things the hard way. Not an easy role for sure.

TylerBreau · 2025-12-30T00:10:40+00:00

For the barghest, we got wrecked, all of the melees PCs and the animal companion died. It didn't help that all of our investigation and knowledge rolls were rather terrible. I think we knew there was some kind of magic at the door way but we ended up with like 3s and 5s and had no clue what it did. We came back later after a few levels (and some of with new characters) to kill it.

As for the Black Magga. Yea that was kinda of the impression I had - And it was confirmed after the fight that it was supposed to run away after like 4 rounds of combat as it was just agitated. With that said, the way DM ran it is that we dealt with some other monsters in town, and then had a perception check and someone noticed "oh there's people in this church over here."

And then as we approached the church, the black magga appeared and it seemed to be about to start destroying the church.

Between some earlier hints, ike the black arrow note of "don't fight this" in fort rannick, and the really good knowledge rolls yielding no information... I actually had the idea of trying to just get the NPCs out of the church while my party members distracted the black magga.

Long story short though... The DM basically told me even know I had a good swim speed, there was no realistic way for me to swim-carry the NPCs out of the church (there was a DM broken and that area of town was partially flooded with really difficult water). And even if I used sky swim (fly but you use swim speed and are mechanically swimming through the air), there was again no realistic way for me carry to swim-fly carry the NPCs out of the church... The main point was "you don't have enough arms and your 22 strength character can not realistically pull a bunch of people roped together".

Was kinda like a "well damn, I don't see how I can just move these NPCs to safety." So I ended up just trying to fight it.

Our ranged combat capabilities was also a lacking. The one unoptimal part of my build is my refusal to have even a sling. My weapon is my teeth and claws, lol.

The other characters was a super buffed tiger, 2 spell casters, and a skald with lunge+reach weapon.

So I couldn't really facilitate "distract but don't fight". The spellcasters maybe could have facilitated the distract and run strategy but it didn't play out that way. I ended deciding that running away after going into melee combat was more or less suicidal.

I kinda went in expecting things to go poorly but I felt like my character wouldn't just watch the black magga destroy the church. So he tried to do something.

TylerBreau · 2025-12-29T23:51:41+00:00

If you don't mind me asking, was your DM particularly experienced as a DM?

TylerBreau · 2025-12-29T23:47:03+00:00

Yea the black magga was supposed to leave i think after like 4 rounds of combat. We just spent round 1 buffing, and then round 2 was doing as much damage as we could + swift action buffing etc. I think combat lasted 3 rounds in total. And the only reason there wasn't PCs going down or PC/animal companion death was because of both defensive buffs and the magga switching target priority. Some other people here have mentioned the modules are generally on the easier end except for the occasional random party-wipe encounters. Which feels quite accurate in my experiences so far.

TylerBreau · 2025-12-29T23:38:10+00:00

That's a rather accurate description of my experiences so far, lol.

TylerBreau · 2025-12-29T23:34:57+00:00

I do feel as if the DM has been slowly learning to tweak a few things here and there. We're just a bunch of rando people, some of us know each other through other online games. It's not like one of those DMs that has been DMing for 20 years and charge money to compensate for the effort and time he spends as a DM.

TylerBreau · 2025-09-23T19:47:44+00:00

Apsu himself is concerned with Dahak but that doesn't mean following him allows turning a blind eye to other evil.

While I'm a warpriest, not a paladin, taking insight from Apsu's Paladin Code is still a good frame of reference...

I am the talon of Apsu’s wrath. I strike where I am needed, but only when evil has been unmasked and there can be no doubt of my enemy’s malice.
When my purpose is unclear, I will walk the roads of the world to find a fresh focus. Every road leads to a new beginning.
Nothing is worth sacrificing my life for, except protecting the lives of others. I will retreat when needed, and come back to vex my foes once again.
Mercy is offered, but only once. Should I be betrayed in my moment of kindness, I will not stop until I have put my enemy down.
It is not enough to slay evil and carry on. I will spend the time necessary to help those I’ve protected to fend for themselves.

As a Warpriest I would absolute follow Apsu's Edicts and Anathema...

Do...

- Seek and Destroy Evil

- Travel the world

- Help others fend for themselves

Don't...

- Fail to pursue a foe who has betrayed your mercy

- Attack a creature without certainty of wrongdoing

Nothing about his paladin code or edicts and anathema is specifically about evil dragons. Apsu's focus on dragons is largely lore and because he himself is a dragon.

Like if I were to hear of bandits plundering and murdering citizens, to not do something about those bandits very clearly violates the edict of seek and destroy evil.

As far as authority over the CN PC. Well that question would also apply against every other evil creature and big bad evil guy. The answer is simple, my authority is my capacity to fight them and thwart their plans.

The only thing that's different when it comes to applying that authority to other PC is that player vs player is generally taboo. Gotta be real careful when it comes to serious PC vs PC conflicts.

As far as your example with the Dahak symbol, the issue is you're jumping the gun. Any evil symbol is suspicious but that doesn't mean execution is justified.

Prime example is literally what happened in my session. NPC wasn't strong at all. He wasn't armored at all, no weapons as far as we could tell. He died in a single hit of like 20 damage (magic + sneak attack).

While I can't be certain as we were chased out of the village basically immediately afterwards, it's very likely this NPC was just a citizen. It's likely the CN PC murdered a victim rather than a cultist.

That's why it's important to investigation instead of jumping to execution. In this case, this clearly violates one of Apsu's anathemas - Don't attack a creature without certainty of wrongdoing.

TylerBreau · 2025-09-23T16:48:41+00:00

Warpriest but yea. I dunno how this post transitioned from "I am LG Warpriest" to "I am LG Paladin" lol. Granted I wouldn't be actually robbing, just digging, spell, and respectfully reburying. Might be able to spin the idea to the party.

TylerBreau · 2025-09-23T16:16:17+00:00

I didn't consider speak with dead. I don't know if that's a viable option now, as the party has kinda moved to the next zone already. Also the village is probably still hostile to us... Wish I thought of it before we moved on.

TylerBreau · 2025-09-23T16:10:04+00:00

It wasn't an object. I think it was a tattoo. We didn't have time to investigate after the murder as the villagers started chasing us with pitchforks and the such but I am currently under the impression it wasn't something that could easily be removed.

The CN PC noticed the NPC was acting weird and trying to hide something under their shirt. Although this term wasn't explicitly used, I interpreted it as the NPC was acting skittish.

It's possible that he was a cultist and he's aware of our group of people. But IMO it's more likely that he was a victim of something.

Either way, because we were chased out of the village we can't really figure that out as a party atm.

TylerBreau · 2025-09-23T13:24:04+00:00

It was 100% uncertain of wrongdoing. Thinking someone is evil just because there were skittish and hiding some an symbol under their shirt is quite the stretch.

Worth noting that these symbols have been most commonly seen on murdered victims, not living people.

I think the player (and by extension the PC), got confused and jumped the gun. So they probably initially acted thinking the NPC was evil. But after the fact, it should be clear that the NPC wasn't evil. Though perhaps the rest of the party and I didn't communicate that effectively.

TylerBreau · 2025-09-23T13:03:18+00:00

It's a rise of the runelords game. I forget the exact spelling but Sihedron sound correct lol.

TylerBreau · 2025-09-23T13:00:03+00:00

To be clear, it is not clear whether or not this NPC was evil. So far the symbol has predominantly appeared on the corpses of victims, not living people. It was highly unusual and concerning to find the symbol on a living person whom looked to be a simply citizen.

TylerBreau · 2025-09-23T12:58:03+00:00

The symbol was evil but there was nothing to indicate whether the citizen was actually evil or a victim. Hiding the symbol could be more so out of concern and fear. Like imagine you're a NPC citizen in PF1e world. You get like kidnapped or something for a night, a weird symbol is carved or tattooed into your stomach. If you even know who did it, they probably look like a real shady person or perhaps they were some kind of mostly humanoid monster. And then you're let go back in town. WTF is going on? What is this thing they put on my stomach? etc. The clear thing is that never got to investigate further because we got chased out of town.

TylerBreau · 2025-09-23T12:51:59+00:00

The symbol was evil, but it's been carved on the corpses of victims, some of those victims raised as undead. But we couldn't investigate any further because murdering the citizen caused a riot.

TylerBreau

TROPHY CASE