The Buying Game, or "How I Learned to Love the Market Again"

The shopping trip, it happens in every TTRPG, whether it is a tiny town's general store, all the way up to high end magic shops in metropolitan cities, players are guaranteed to frequent such places.

But, you ask, how do I avoid the eye rolls and groans that come with extended trips of this type?  Let us be honest, sometimes those "short" shopping trips turn into full session pace breakers.  

The simply answer is, make shopping more exciting, and weave the store into the plot, or give the store a plot of its own.  This is exactly what The Flying Pincushion Games new product line "Mystical Marketplaces" looks to do.  It is all too easy for GM's (I have done this myself) to hand wave shops and buying to a mechanical and book keeping level, which is not all that fun for anyone involved.  

Mystical Marketplaces addresses this problem by providing vividly detailed shops and locations, run by interesting and three dimensional proprietors with their own stories and motivations. Add that to quests and task that are shop specific, and an easy to use barter and patronage system, and we go from a bland "get it done and over with" shopping trip to a multifaceted adventure opportunity that also happens to have the option to purchase gear, some of which is unique to the shop.  All of this adds up to a deeper immersion into the game world for the players, less work and more adventure hooks for GM's, and a more memorable game session for everyone involved.

Look for the first installment of Mystical Marketplaces, "The Brass Drake" to be up for sale from such well known RPG store sites as DriveThruRPG, Paizo.com, and PFSRD20.com in the near future.  Best of all, "The Brass Drake" is only the first of what will be a sizable catalog of unique, flavorful, time saving, and fun stores and shops for your PC's to explore.  Oh, and at a very reasonable price too!

Cheers!

Jeff Harris
The Flying Pincushin Games Co-Owner 
 

From the Vault: From our cold dead hands

Forward:

Presented here is an alternate rules system for firearms that address some of the more common gripes with the Gunslinger class. The leadership here at Flying Pincushion Games acknowledge that there is some controversy with the rules particularly the “touch AC” rule. Some of us are of the opinion that it ain’t broken, so we did not include it in Into the Breach Gunslinger.

That said, the rules here are carefully balanced and well executed. Our editor Taylor Hubler did a fine job and we believe these rules deserve consideration, particularly if your GM doesn’t allow the normal rules and as a player you would like to stick to your guns.

To put it bluntly from this editor magic still wins...

-Frank Gori, Creative Director of Flying Pincushion Games

Alternative Firearm Rules

By: Taylor Hubler

Not everyone believes the firearm rules in Pathfinder are balanced, and there is some evidence that this is true. For example, touch attack armor class doesn’t scale in level while the base attack bonus does, and there are some issues with action economy. As a result there are some people looking for alternative rules, which we are providing here.

The following places firearms at about the same level as other ranged weapons. The bow is still the king of the full attack, but firearms should out perform them as single shot weapons. This is going to be especially true once the dead shot deed is available. There are wide variety of suggested changes to the rules, but they don’t need to be taken as a whole. GMs should feel free to pick and choose which alternative rules to use with their game.

Firearm Rules

Firearms work differently from other ranged projectile weapons—they instead use the following rules.

Firearm Proficiency: Those not proficient with firearms only have a -2 penalty to attack with firearms but take twice as long to reload them. If they reload a firearm, the misfire value increases by 4.

Capacity: This works as laid out in the original rules with one exception. If an early firearm has multiple barrels it takes an attack action to fire each one individually. Advanced firearms that have multiple barrels that can be fired together will say so in their individual weapon descriptions.

Range and Penetration: Defenses, whether manufactured or natural, provides less of a protection against the force of a bullet at short range.

Early Firearms: Those proficient with early firearms treat range increments differently from normal. The first range increment for a one handed firearm gains a +2 to attack, while a two-handed gains a +4, with a cumulative –2 penalty for each full-range increment after that. Thus the second increment for a one handed would have no bonus to attack, the third a -2 penalty, and so on. Early firearms have a maximum range of 5 increments.

Advanced Firearms: Those proficient with advanced firearms treat range increments differently from normal. In the first range increment a one handed firearm gains a +4 to attack, while a two-handed firearm gains a +6, with a cumulative –2 penalty for each full-range increment after that. Thus the second for a one handed would have a +2 bonus to attack, the third no bonus, and so on. Advanced firearms have a maximum range of 10 increments.

Loading a Firearm: The basics here are the same as the rules already established.

Early Firearms: Early firearms are muzzle-loaded, requiring bullets or pellets and black powder to be rammed down the muzzle. If an early firearm has multiple barrels, each barrel must be loaded separately. It is a standard action to load each barrel of a one-handed early firearm and a full-round action to load each barrel of a two-handed early firearm. It takes three full-round actions by one person to load a siege firearm. This can be reduced to two full-round actions if more than one person is loading the cannon.

Fire while Prone: This is the same as established in the rules with the exception that you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to ranged attacks with a firearm. (Crossbows should probably also gain this bonus.)

Criticals: Change firearm critical ranges/multipliers to 19-20/x3.

Alchemical Cartridges: The the change in reload time would have the move action changed to a

swift action.

Double Barreled Pistols and Muskets: For these early firearms, it takes an attack action to fire each barrel. The barrels cannot be fired together in the same shot.

Dead Shot Deed(I suggest making this into a feat that works in the following way.)
With steady aim and a keen eye you are able to make every shot count.

Prerequisite: grit class feature or the Amateur Gunslinger feat, Point Blank Shot, base attack bonus +7.

Benefit: At 7th level, as a standard action, you can take careful aim and pool all of your attacks potential into a single, deadly shot. When you do this, you shoot the firearm at a single target, but make as many attack rolls as you can, based on your base attack bonus plus any extra attacks you gain from feats, spells, or abilities. You make the attack rolls in order from highest bonus to lowest, as if you were making a full attack. If any of the attack rolls hit the target, your single attack is considered to have hit. For each additional successful attack roll beyond the first, you increase the damage of the shot by the base damage dice of the firearm. For instance, if a 7th-level gunslinger firing a musket hits with both attacks, she does 2d12 points of damage with the shot, instead of 1d12 points of damage, before adding any damage modifiers. Precision damage and extra damage from weapon special abilities (such as flaming) are added with damage modifiers and are not increased by this deed. If one or more rolls are critical threats, you confirm the critical once using your highest base attack bonus –5. For each critical threat beyond the first, you reduce this penalty by 1 (to a maximum of 0). You only misfire on a dead shot if all the attack rolls are misfires. You cannot perform this deed with a blunderbuss or other scatter weapon when attacking creatures in a cone. You must spend 1 grit point to perform this deed.

Improved Dead Shot Deed

With greater concentration you are able to really make your shots count, hitting your target exactly where you need to.

Prerequisite: Dead Shot Deed feat, base attack bonus +12

Benefit: When you use the dead shot deed you can spend more grit to multiply the damage modifier by the number of successful hits with this deed. The cost to use Dead Shot increases to 2 when it is used in this way.

Greater Dead Shot Deed

You are a master of the single shot, using impressive aim to hit the most damaging locations of your target.

Prerequisite: Improved Dead Shot Deed feat, base attack bonus +17

Benefit: When you use the dead shot deed you can increase the grit cost to multiply precision damage and extra damage from weapon qualities by the number of successful attacks. The grit costs to use Dead Shot increases to 4 when it is used this way.

Far Reaching Sight

Instead of having the attacks resolve against touch attacks AC, if you use a full-round action to attack with the dead shot deed you gain a +2 bonus to each attack and a +4 bonus to damage for each success.

Questions About Class: the Witch

Image by Ines-Ka

Welcome back readers! Here is another entry in our Questions about Class series, this time focusing on the witch. As you may (or may not) know, Flying Pincushion Games is releasing the next book, Into the Breach: The Witch so we thought it was a good time that I, Kiel Howell, sit down with fellow Pincushioneer Taylor Hubler to talk about the class.

KH: First of all, thank you for taking the time to sit down and answer these questions!

TH: You are welcome kind sir!

KH: Can you give the readers a little about yourself and your role at The Flying Pincushion?

TH: I was raised on tabletop games of all kinds and started playing tabletop RPGs nearly fifteen years ago. Because I was too poor and there wasn’t a dedicated game store in my area I ended up writing all of my own material until I ran Pathfinder’s adventure path “Kingmaker.” Even then I did considerable amounts of customization to it and shared it online. Frank saw it, liked it, and we have been collaborating off and on since. When he started up Flying Pincushion I slaughtered my way into the copyeditor position and I recently took charge of some of the format, templates, and styles used by FP.

KH: Ok, the witch. I have to admit, I’m a fan of the witch but I don’t actually understand exactly what they are and what their role is. Are they some sort of half-druid and half-sorcerer?

TH: No, that wouldn’t be a fair assessment. Witches are like the anti-bard, but are full casters with a narrow spell list. They focus mostly on enchantment and necromancy, but have bits of other spell schools as well. They are the best debuffing class you can play, which really plays well with their role in literature as well.

KH: What’s the deal with their familiar?

TH: Well, the familiar is pretty much like a wizard’s but also doubles as the spell library. In myth and folklore this was the case as well. It used to be thought that the familiar, such as a black cat, would be possessed by a devil and whisper dark secrets to the witch. Paizo did pretty well with capturing the witch from folklore by having something similar.

KH: Is a male still a witch or are they a warlock?

TH: You still write witch under the class section of the character sheet. However my real life witch friends would say that males are supposed to be called warlocks. I honestly don’t care and treat nearly all class names as flavor more than mechanics and have played male witch characters that referred to themselves as tricksters.

KH: Does it matter what kind of familiar you choose? Are there benefits or detriments to certain types?

TH: Totally. Opinions do vary but most people will say that you want to pick either a familiar that gives a boost to initiative or one that can use magic items like a wand or potion. They are living spellbooks, so you should keep that in mind as well. A familiar that you can keep out of danger is a good idea. Other than that, they are just like a wizard’s familiar and carry all the same benefits and drawbacks.

KH: When I think of a witch, the first thing that comes to mind are stories like Hansel and Gretel. Pathfinder’s witch class is more than that though?

TH: Totally, because when Paizo designed the class they wanted to cover a broader scope of literature and folklore. For example, you can see sixteenth century folklore of the Salem witch trials, witches from Grimm’s tales, and a bit of asian folklore witch as well. In fact, most cultures around the world have a form of witch that follow similar themes. Typically a female but can also be male, listens to spirits or devils that could be good or evil, has the power to curse or bless, and usually knows secrets that scare other people. There is also a great deal of cannibalism when it comes to evil witches in folklore.

KH: Let’s talk about hexes for a moment. What are they and why do they seem so powerful?

TH: Hexes are supernatural powers that set the witch apart from other classes. They allow the witch to do all those cool things witches do in folklore. Smell children, make gingerbread men from people, put people to sleep, make them feel weak, and mostly just make someone have a really, really bad day. What sets them apart from spells is that you don’t have to prepare them and most of them are once per target. There is some argument that a few of them, like slumber, are too overpowered because there isn’t a level limit and most creatures or NPCs are going to be susceptible to it. However, most claims are made without looking at the whole picture and often use best case scenarios.

KH: Let’s switch gears for a second and talk about Patrons. So these are...what?

TH: In folklore, the devil or the spirits were patrons to the witch. A witch had to learn their powers from a patron of some sort, be it a devil or a possessed animal. In the game patrons are left very, very open. They can be any being that is capable of granting power. Sadly, the mechanical benefits are just a list of bonus spells, and I would have loved to have seen more done with this piece of legend. You can totally play without having to flesh out who your patron is. I had a character with an illusion goddess as a patron. A friend of mine had a devil. My wife’s witch never had one fleshed out.

KH: Back to Hexes, what are the Major and Grand Hexes? Are they potentially overpowered, kind of like the concerns with the slumber hex but on a bigger scale?

TH: Major and Grand hexes are just hexes you gain at higher levels. I haven’t come across anything that suggests that they might be overpowered but Ice Tomb needs some serious errata and there are a few that could be considered underpowered for the level you take them. The Summon Spirit grand hex certainly is potentially powerful, but you get it at level 18 and the wish machine strategies that use it are either going to be laughed at by a GM or made really expensive.

KH: What is your favorite witch you’ve made, seen played, or want to make out of the stuff presented in Into the Breach: The Witch?

TH: Favorite played was my ratfolk witch Cosimo. He really messed people up and the party really loved having him around when he wasn’t being stupid dodgy and creepy. I really wanted to be able to play a scarred witchdoctor with barbarian levels, and that is the reason behind my own prestige class in the new witch book we have done. Something that allows for a bit more frontline presence but is still a witch at heart.

KH: Have you ever had to ban or have you seen the class banned at a table?

TH: Nope. And I think it is silly to do so unless you can prove that the class, or any ability it has, is outshining the rest of the table. I don’t think anyone who looks at the big picture can do so. Slumber is something people often point at and cry foul. However, if you really understand it and you play your game smart it is actually one of the weaker witch abilities. I almost never used it in higher levels, for example, because there were so many other options that were just better. For example, hold person or hold monster have similar save DCs and can’t be stopped from a minion kicking the target. Also, there were plenty of times where I could have used it because the enemy was severely debuffed but I switched targets because my party members were going to kill the target in that round anyway. Sometimes overkill on one target means you are behind in defeating another.

KH: What is your advice for building a successful witch?

TH: Read lots of guides. I wrote one called “A Witch's Guide to Shutting Down Enemies.” There are lots of others that have great advice as well.

KH: Thank you for taking the time to have this chat Taylor!

TH: Thank you as well!