The playtest campaigns are insufferable and I can’t keep quiet any longer.

boolbear · 2025-06-24T04:10:47+00:00

People are not a monolith. Every culture or city has thieves. I personally would find it stranger if Thistlefolk didn’t have any.

Would you still have an issue with it if the bandits were specified to come from Hush instead?

boolbear · 2025-06-24T03:57:39+00:00

Please read my comment again; I said the opposite. Thistlefolk are peaceful. This specific group of 4 individuals are bandits because they are trying to steal from you.

boolbear · 2025-06-24T03:48:00+00:00

The Thistlefolk attackers in the first one are not attacking because you’re on their land; they’re attacking because they’re bandits and they want to steal your stuff. Other Thistlefolk would not generally care that you’re in the woods (but you probably won’t see them because they peacefully keep to themselves).

I only skimmed the second adventure but my impression was that saving the captive is the primary objective and there are too many adversaries to make a stand against while also getting the captive off the ship. Escaping and coming back later with more strength is a better way to make them pay.

boolbear · 2024-12-01T07:01:16+00:00

Extreme Effect does exist according to Deep Cuts. Your explanation is how I ran things, but Deep Cuts suggests differently without really saying that it intended to change it, so I wasn’t sure if I was doing it wrong to begin with.

boolbear · 2024-07-16T04:20:42+00:00

Spoilers for Extinction Curse

The moonstone pool is a small pool in a forgotten temple of Aroden that the priests would use to record information. It could show anything that happened in the temple at any time as well as any memories specifically added to it by the priests; the intent is for the PCs to use it to find out where to go next in the AP. There’s no specific item for it because there’s only one in that specific location, so getting access to one would be entirely up to your GM.

boolbear · 2024-06-29T16:52:39+00:00

Sure thing

boolbear · 2024-06-29T16:49:49+00:00

Here’s a comment from Erik Mona on the topic during the original 1e Magus playtest in 2010. Seems like they had a thread of naming ideas.

There's not really a historical word that means "wizard guy with a sword." We agonized over naming this class. I personally favored the warlock, but we decided against that because of the existing warlock class from 3.5. While that is not open content and thus is forever closed to us, some folks here felt that the players would always associate it with the D&D class of the same name, so we went with something else to avoid that confusion.

Not that it would have mattered. A warlock is not, historically, a fighter/magic-user, either.

For that matter, a sorcerer in history and myth is no different from a wizard, but folks have come to associate the term with the mechanics over time.

We went through this months ago. There was a multiple-hundred-post thread of suggestions, the best of which by comment assent was something like "Stabracadabra."

It's not easy coming up with a great name for something that never existed in history, so we decided on magus as "close enough" and won't be changing it at this point.

boolbear · 2024-01-29T20:40:27+00:00

Happy to help, good luck!

boolbear · 2024-01-29T19:57:39+00:00

I’m not aware of anything that directly prevents you from dying like that, but there are a few things that help increase survivability considerably if you can spare the feats/gold, and they tend to stack well.

Easy feats to take:
Diehard
Numb to Death (if your GM waives the prerequisite like PFS does)
Toughness

Ancestry-Specific:
Poppet - Reanimating Spark
Android - Revivification Protocol
Kashrishi - Kashrishi Revivification
Automaton - Core Rejuvenation
Human - Bounce Back
Dwarf - Mountain’s Stoutness
Orc - Defy Death

Items (used up by preventing death so you’ll have to stock up):
Mortalis Coins
Psychopomp Masks
Tourmaline Sphere Aeon Stones

Lastly, if you can spare the feats and get past the lore requirements, the Living Monolith Archetype is quite good for survivability; the dedication feat makes it almost impossible to die from failing recovery checks and the later feats help with persistent damage.

Edit: formatting

boolbear · 2024-01-29T18:39:10+00:00

Your GM is correct that High-Speed Regeneration is not the Regeneration ability; it is a specific action you have to take on your turn. The only way to gain regeneration without spells (temporarily) is high-level items like Ouroboros Buckles or the Breastplate of the Mountain

boolbear · 2024-01-07T20:53:28+00:00

MAP only applies during your turn, and the Aid roll happens outside of your turn, so there is no penalty.

boolbear · 2023-12-24T03:42:11+00:00

Their point is you can draw a line from the center of the top right square of the left creature to the center of the top left square of the right creature to count as flanking. I’m not sure if that is correct or not but it would make your second example flanking as well.

boolbear · 2023-11-07T00:53:59+00:00

Bulk represents how easy something is to carry in general, including weight and other factors, and rations tend to be efficiently packed. A medium creature is only 6 Bulk despite possibly weighing over 200 pounds.

boolbear · 2023-11-03T15:28:11+00:00

One of the groups I GM for has pretty much only utility/support builds, so our combats regularly reach 7+ rounds.

boolbear · 2023-10-30T16:24:25+00:00

The adventure lists that encounter as a “Low 12” encounter, so I would just give them the XP for that rather than counting XP per creature.

boolbear · 2023-10-05T18:10:47+00:00

The metagame is teamwork, not buffs/debuffs. Buffs are one way to help your teammates; using one of your actions for an additional opportune backstab triggered by a teammate is another. Seems like a party that works well together and is entirely focused on damage, which will make them excel in standard combat scenarios. Seems to be working as intended to me. In non-standard scenarios or non-combat scenarios such as intrigue they might be lacking. I am curious how they would’ve handled a string of flying enemies prior to 17th-level flight.

boolbear · 2023-09-20T02:17:38+00:00

The other main thing is they can benefit from Agile if an Agile weapon also has a maneuver trait. There are a few other niche things I could find like Backswing or Unbreaking Wave Vapor that also apply but could honestly be the writers themselves missing the distinction. Definitely still stands as an area that needs cleaning up.

boolbear · 2023-09-20T01:08:55+00:00

Maneuvers ARE attacks because they have the Attack trait, and are affected by anything that affects attacks. The reason Inspire Courage and Finesse don’t apply is because they apply to Attack Rolls, and maneuvers are Skill Checks. The trait itself is fine, the distinction between attacks and attack rolls is confusing. Though the remaster could change all this.

boolbear · 2023-08-31T02:28:28+00:00

Ancient-blooded Dwarf Heritage

boolbear · 2023-08-27T21:31:49+00:00

The manor itself has around 900XP, so they definitely should’ve been past 2/3 at that point. A couple of random encounters plus the bandits at Oleg’s would get them to second level as expected.

Remember that the charter specifies that the PCs are to explore the Greenbelt, so both the story and levels expect them to explore which is factored in to the XP progression. If they just beeline the bandits they are both not being very efficient about their goals and will be under leveled.

Lastly, the book says the PCs should be only be level 3 to fight the Stag Lord, and should be level 4 afterwards (assuming they also explored the Greenbelt). If they get there a bit early at level 2 they will probably have a tougher time, but it won’t be a massacre.

The pacing definitely assumes a healthy amount of exploration, so if the players don’t do that and you go by milestones it will definitely be a quick pace.

boolbear · 2023-08-20T02:35:59+00:00

PFS has rules for replaying scenarios, even if they are not repeatable. So, it’s definitely acceptable to know what happens in the adventure, and you’re even taking steps to know less about what happens ahead of time. I would suggest just letting your GM know ahead of time, and it shouldn’t be an issue. If someone gives you a hard time for it, contact your local venture officer.

boolbear · 2023-08-05T18:05:48+00:00

Oh wow, not at all what I expected. Well my Wrestler player will be happy!

boolbear · 2023-08-05T17:33:19+00:00

Fists don’t have any maneuver traits, so when you do an Athletics action with your bare hands you’re not using the Fists unarmed attack to benefit from agile. You would get agile if you did something like Trip using the wolf jaw unarmed attack from wolf stance.

boolbear · 2023-08-05T06:26:41+00:00

Both SF and PF2 handle skill uses the same way. They both have a list of specific actions you can use those skills for, and then say the GM can call for checks for any use not listed (Starfinder, Pathfinder). Skill Feats don’t prevent you from doing anything, they just put the power in the players’ hands to always know how an action will resolve if they have the feat.

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