Pathfinder General /pfg/

There are maybe six that are even worth looking at

15 isn't even that many.

I will be running a Spheres of Might playtest game once the full playtest is released soon. Since N. Jolly would prefer "mid-range" optimization rather than high-end optimization, I have implemented some measures and restrictions to better enforce such a power level for characters.

app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/71197/spheres-of-might-unofficial-playtest-the-harrowing-modified

Of note is that the schedule has opened up. In UTC+0, these are the available time frames:

• Sundays: 11:00 P.M. to 11:59 P.M.
• Mondays: 12:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M.; then 11:00 P.M. to 11:59 P.M.
• Tuesdays: 12:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.; then 11:00 P.M. to 11:59 P.M.
• Wednesdays: 12:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M; then 11:00 P.M. to 11:59 P.M.
• Thursdays: 12:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.; then 11:00 P.M. to 11:59 P.M.
• Fridays: 6:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.

Additionally, I have opened up a thread in the Roll20 listing for general interest.

PLD is picking up players at about the same rate.

Poor Shardwalkers, all of them opened up within like a day of each other and a few days difference in deadline.

Reviews when? I'm curious to see how I stand.

25+ isn't unknown for /pfg/ games user. WotR hit or almost hit 40 if I'm not mistaken.

wasn't dragons2 in the mid 30s?

Actually only 15. 1 post is the GM's OP, another is GM clarifying "No guys seriously you have to have both bullet points and an expanded backstory) and three are "but writings haaarrrd".

It was, but it also had the hype of an already successful game that probably drove up applicant numbers.

Maybe my standards are low but I feel like both games have above average app quality for /pfg/ games too. No explicit memes or anything unless you count Amalthea.

Though there've been like, 4 or 5 meme games in the last week so maybe it's an unfair comparison.

It was very nearly 40 when applications abruptly ended

>Legacy
>High quality

Which ones stand out as above average? I don't really view not being full of retarded memes as being any indication of quality. The DM has the game setup in a pretty explicitly non meme-y way

Show us something good, then.

Legacy's apps are really low quality EXCEPT for cardwitch, who is a standout character.

Compare it to the slowly building but much more grounded Wrath of the Raunchy apps that quietly built up a pool of decent characters simply because the app process was so long.

Guess we know which app is yours

Tomasz, Amalthea, and Sakara all seem okay. Gamze is decent too, but has no sheet yet so I hesitate to pass judgment on it.

I think not being full of memes is an indication of quality, and having a clear tie into the game and themes is an indication of quality. It's too much to expect profiles to be very well-written when the nature of them alone is counter to conventions. There aren't many characters who're clearly out of place in either game, as opposed to well, most characters in most /pfg/ games.

I agree that WotR set a high bar but it's the only game which I think had a better consistent quality than the two relevant ones right now.

Nah, I haven't applied yet. I'm not sure I want to.

Besides, there has been vaguely broad agreement that her character is best simply because she's not an outlander and has a personality that is conveyed.

....I wanna make a character to be her husbando.

Amalthea is blatantly recycled concept cringe.

Sakara is......a GM who dropped a game I was enjoying last week, only to run this? Like couldn't we have moved the fucking game to Mondays instead of Sundays? I'm pretty miffed, now.

So, what are all of the pathfinder deities related to animals and nature?

*play, not run.

But yeah, the fuck, Doubleaction? The game couldn't be rescheduled?

Reading over them, there's a rare few who actually use their campaign traits well (and didn't just choose Outlander for the initiative). Shanan, for instance, actually built a profile about discovering his past to grow as a person.

On the other hand, we've got someone with Earning Your Freedom who is a respected career soldier, people with Outlander who were born and raised in Katapesh, and Visionaries with no vision.

Amalthea looks downright grounded by contrast.

Can hardly blame people for wanting to pick outlander as it fits a wide variety of concepts, and having multiple outlanders is infinitely superior to six people all raised by Haleen.

Have you even read what the visionary trait is?

Yes, but most seem to be using it as "guess I'll go adventuring" rather than "This serves my faith/studies/feels like it's fated".

Tomasz is fine.

Amalthea has nothing going on for her other than a cool concept and the meme. I mean, I don't even dislike the meme, she's just incomplete right now and thinking she's a better app than most of the other characters just comes off as... memes.

Sakara is similarly barebones, but without a big selling concept. She could end up being the best character when she's done but I'm pretty sure you just have a snake fetish user.

That 'wide variety of concepts' mostly means that the character doesn't fit the scenario.

It's a that guy enabler. Nobody wants to see your Tianxi samurai running around Katapesh.

It's an AP, the scenario is "Willing to be railroaded"

I'd take a Tianxi samurai that was played well over someone who spent three weeks crafting an app and meme'ing themselves and shitting on other apps in the thread.

There's Erastil; LG, gave early humans his bow to help them survive the wilderness, watches over hunters, farmers, and other rural/pioneer types. Big believer in hard work, honest living, helping your community, and having 400 babies.

Finding Haleen doesn't seem to be much of a problem considering how much the GM nerfed it.

don't forget the blatant sexism.
not that theres any reason to throw a shit storm over that, we're all mature adults who are playing a game involving deties who defile corpses and steal and eat souls. And it's not like golarion is overrun by male dominated societies.

Yeah... but it's impossible tell how well a character will be played. A backstory clears the worst of them, but can't weed out the rest.

I thought Paizo was gonna retcon Erastil out or something for standing for traditional values and being a WHITE DEER-MALE.

>Not wanting to see a tianxi samurai getting bullied by gnolls

The default assumption is that you don't know who plays well though, and if I were a DM I wouldn't even feel comfortable avoiding a person for memeing and shitting on other apps because I'd be afraid it was a false flag. I mean, we all know about Roryanon, but during WotR season I know I made a few posts about how great Lucius was and other anons agreed. I'd hate it if he didn't end up in the game because people who aren't related to the player at all liked his character.

Trying to gauge a player through their profile just seems practical, short of putting in a lot more effort trying to get to know each one of them. I mean I'm not even confident if that's a better solution, because I've played with a lot of players who seem wonderful until they get in game and start bitching, and a lot of players who take a few sessions adjusting to a group before they become comfortable.

I think they at least backed him down to being Hank Hill with antlers as opposed to either the extreme of "BURN THE GAYS" or "CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGE"

they really should make him a red deer male. it would explain his views more adequately. I will be a little butthurt if they change his views or take him out.

So why do /pfg/ games recruit characters based on backstories/concepts, instead of the players behind them?

No. There is a disgusting amount of disinformation about this topic, most of which is motivated by a political agenda.

Erastil's character was misrepresented in "River's Run Red/Kingmaker" as being a lot more fire and brimstone the what the authors had intended. Hence, some things were clarified and retconed.

Well, he makes way the hell more sense as the wilderness/backwoods protector god than fucking Milani, I'll say that much.

It's St. Pats, so I'm hell drunk this weekend. The plan is to get through HR on Sunday, get my app for Legacy in on Monday, and start reviews for it on Tuesday.

I doubt a DM would buy into what people say in the thread, I just mean, from the perspective of an AP, the single best quality you can have is the ability to roll with whatever comes up. If you build yourself too much of a story you can be asking "Wait why am I doing this now?" Especially as Paizo AP's tend to have a little warm up section at the start, and then get the meta plot rolling afterwards.

Shitting on apps for choice of campaign trait is pointless, PC's have so much more depth than what brings them to a group, or at least they have the potential to be more than that.

I've played with characters who are too into their backstories, and they disrupt games under the guise of "Hey man it's my character!"

Not to say that's the case for apps here, all in all, it's probably more an indication that the mostly anonymous application process doesn't really even tell you much about players.

>So why do /pfg/ games recruit characters based on backstories/concepts,
>im-fucking-plying
Because otherwise it's a popularity contest, and realistically the DM can't screen that many people personally. It takes ages to "feel out" somebody.

Hooray! Thank you for everything you do, ReviewAnon2!

It can't be much longer than processing tons of backstory and builds.

You can feel someone out by what avatar they use on discord, and talking to them for five minutes. DM working with people to create concepts that fit the vision he has for the game is the best way to go.

It's a popularity contest anyways. There's a lot of intersection between who's gotten into games, if you haven't noticed.

It is.

It can be a useful tool to gauge out how well someone writes.

You'd be surprised.

Well.... speaking as a GM who does a lot of roll20 stuff, it beats nothing.

There's no way I can tell if a person is a flake, slow to post, a drama whore, or any number of problems that won't materialize until we actually play, but at least I can rule out writing, creativity, and fit, as flaws that I don't want in my games. Then I kick people and re-recruit viciously until I get the group I want. Worked so far.

>what avatar they use on discord
>mfw not on the discord
>mfw I've been potentially screwing myself out of games by not being on the discord

I'm sure I've heard you say you have been wasted at least thrice this week.

Maybe it's because they're vetted players who are known to make good characters?

it wouldn't be Veeky Forums if we didn't pointlessly analayze and rate people by their taste in media.

Nah, the only retcon to Erastil was that they toned down the chauvinism part of his description because they didn't feel like that fit the character and made him, as , more of a Hank Hill with antlers thing.

Old Deadeye, the based dad god, isn't going anywhere.

Hence, popularity contest. They have more social traction. Exactly.

Indeed I have.

Got a problem with that?

Wh-What if my avatar is a generic anime girl?

we're all aware that zipfs law is a thing, that doesn't make it any less shit for the rest of us.

Just concerned about your health, sempai.

Trying to choose gear for a caster druid at Lv6 WBL. Any advice?

>Boi that Gorum fella just ain't right, I tell you hwat.

I'm having issues picking which bloodline to go. So time for the ol first post is the pick

Impossible.

Then you go into the trash user

What a cute doggo. Would pet/10

None whatsoever, dipso.

And, what kind of AC do you think I need as a caster druid, is a 20 reasonable since I'm a caster, or do you think magic armor is necessary?

>Worldwound opens up and starts leaking demons into Erastilian worshipers' lands
>BWAAAAAAH!

sylvan

Builds take no time to process once your system mastery is up to par. You can check scores against benchmarks, look for their primary function, then leave any in-depth examination out for when you've narrowed down characters.

Backstory is a bit longer but it probably doesn't take more than half an hour to read one through twice for big red flags.

Stuff like might help but ultimately it's still a crapshoot on how someone will handle a few sessions in. It's also arguably unfair for games advertised as /pfg/, though I'll give that a DM should pick the players that'll give them the best experience and personal preferences is a big part of that. Talking to a yesman for five minutes isn't really a reliable way to tell what kind of player they are though.

I am making a character that's basically a TLDR version of this.

>You can check scores against benchmarks

Why the hell does no /pfg/ GM ever post these benchmarks?

"Go make a character of some nebulous and undefined 'balanced' power level, kay?"

Now I want to see an Erasil'd version of pic related.

>That's a clean burning plane of fire.

The duality of man.

Also if I may speak as one of the DMs from this thread, I went into this with literally no knowledge of whether or not my players were well known here, and judged them based off of how my Discord interactions with them went, how much I liked the nature of their character, what their schedule looked like, and how much they followed the ruleset I gave for character creation.

>sound of trumpets from far away, screaming PCs
>"That girl ain't right, I tell you what."

There's a global benchmark by creature CR. A DM should adjust it based off their ruleset and expected level of optimization, but it's typically not some vague arbitrary thing.

I think Argent said they don't even look at builds before selecting characters so I guess there's always skipping it. Which is fine if you care less about function than form.

>my Discord interactions
>mfw

> picking PCs based on optimization

It's a terrible night to have autism.

I think a big part of it is also availability. Sometimes a great app just doesn't have the right time for the others you want to pick, so you make do with someone not as good.

I talked with my prospective players via DM for the most part, and even gave my contact info in the lfg. It wasn't a secret, at least for mine.

I think you're mostly right but I'd always give a sheet a look through first. I wouldn't go far enough to arrange a party to similar tiers, but again, a DM's goal is to make the best game for themselves, and sometimes you gotta be concerned about characters who'll solo every encounter or characters that're dead weight. If you can't decide between two characters based off their profile, then it's perfectly fine to use party compatibility as a tiebreaker.

This is definitely true, if you allow PoW it's going to be hard to have a game with those classes and a 1PP fighter or rogue

Evening gents. Gonna be on a good chunk of the night for anyone who needs things clarified concerning Legacy of Blood and Flame--or failing that, just wants to talk arabian nights setting stuff.
app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/67321/legacy-of-blood-and-flame

Ask me whatever you want.

I'd prefer to work with the player. When I GM I lean towards making suggestions, and if the player is really keen on a concept that is really good, I work with it somehow.

I might offer small buffs or bonuses somehow. Not just at random, but in-character, as the campaign develops. Have a paladin in my current campaign who is, as optimization goes, kind of shit, but his collection of perks brings him up to par and suits the campaign like a glove. Good fun for everyone.

Are you retooling the AP heavily? Seems like a lot of work has gone into the setting document alone

I can't decide what to app!

>a lot of work
Haven't read any Al-Qadim books lately, I take it.

But anyhow, I will be following it for long swaths here and there, but there as the AP is heavily flawed on its own, there will be many parts where it diverges into side quests, set pieces, and similar.

Possibly more depending on necessity.

Do what your heart tells you.

Your heart is telling you sexy belly dancing harem girl.