GM's Starter Guide
[[TOC]]
All published Paizo monsters are included in the system. All that's missing is the artwork, as we're not allowed to share that. You can get the artwork from the pdfs, google image search, or from the Archives of Nethys page. The compendium mapper module can help to manage artwork if you want to be super organised.
There are two different NPC sheets available in Foundry. The default one is the old sheet, and you can access the new sheet from here:
The old sheet is 'UpdatedNPCActorPF2ESheet' and the new sheet is 'ActorSheetPF2eSimpleNPC'.
You can either set the new sheet as the default (which means every NPC will use it), or on a specific monster-by-monster basis. The two sheets have different strengths and weaknesses. In the long-term, the old sheet will be removed, but only once the new sheet can match all the features.
The old sheet has two sets of NPC strikes:
The ‘experimental’ ones at the bottom of the sheet will take conditions into account - e.g. a monster that’s frightened 2 will have -2 to attack. However, they don’t work if your monster had the elite or weak adjustment applied using the buttons on the sheet (the experimental strikes will apply the bonuses/penalties from elite and weak twice!).
The new sheet only has the non-experimental strikes available. If you use the Token Action HUD module, it lets you access experimental strikes without opening the sheet.
The best way to do this is by hand - put the NPC sheet into edit mode, and start typing! There’s a few minor quirks to be aware of. Firstly, you can drag feats onto NPC sheets in edit mode, but they won’t appear outside of edit mode. The best work around is to copy and paste the relevant text.
There is a module to import statblocks, but setting that up and using it is beyond the scope of this guide. If you want to know more about this option, come ask in the Discord!
Spellcasting Modifiers
All NPCs use Intelligence as their casting stat. This is only relevant for cantrip damage. A quick fix is to make their Intelligence equal to their ‘real’ casting stat.
These work similarly to NPCs. All the Paizo ones should be included, and the simplest way to make custom hazards is to type them in.
One very useful actor type is the Loot Actor. There are two modes for this sheet: loot and merchant. To make a merchant version, create a loot actor, press ‘configure loot’ and select ‘merchant’:
The best practise is to create a single loot actor called ‘Party Loot’. Set all the players to observer mode. They won’t be able to see the actor in the Actor Pane, but will be able to see it as a token on the map.
When the party have defeated some NPCs, drag the party loot actor onto the scene. Open up the loot actor, and select the defeated foes, and press ‘Loot selected tokens’. That will move all the loot from the NPCs into the party loot chest. The PCs can now merrily loot the chest!
The items you add this way are only placed on the loot token within the scene, and not in the main actor directory. This means you can re-use the same party loot actor across multiple rooms/scenes, with each copy having different items on it.
One thing to be aware of is that a lot of NPCs don’t have the correct items. They might say ‘+1 striking longsword’ but it’s effectively a placeholder item. This is something that will be correct going forwards, but manually correcting all the existing NPCs is a lot of work and will take a while.
** Mystification **
When you add items onto a loot actor, you can press the ? symbol to obscure the identity of the item. The GM will see the real name in brackets, but the players only see “Unidentified Weapon”:
GM's view
Player's view
If you click the ? again, it will show you the standard DCs to identify the item, based on it’s level and rarity. If you press Identify Item, it will reveal the identity.
The automated effects of items aren’t affected by mystification. If someone has the Boots of Speed in the inventory, their speed will increase whether they have the item marked as worn or invested or not.
If a player takes an item from a merchant, it will automatically deduct the relevant amount of gold from the PC. The only exception is if the PC owns the merchant actor - in which case, all the items are free!
You can adjust the price of items within the merchant manually, but there’s no way to set a global discount.
PCs also can’t sell automatically to merchants - if they transfer an item, they don’t get any money back.
A lot of people make use of the Quick Rolls module. This guide focuses on how to run combats without that module.
All NPCs have 0.5 added to their initiative rolls, to ensure they go before PCs on a tie. To have a PC use a different skill for initiative, there’s a drop down on the sidebar:
For NPCs, you need to the roll the correct skill, and press this button from chat:
If you know that all of your kobold rogue NPCs will always use Stealth for initiative, you could make their perception equal to their stealth to speed up rolling initiative. Just remember to note down the real perception value in case it becomes relevant!
There’s a toggle on the PC sheet to mark the target as flat-footed. This won’t apply the condition to the target. What it does do is activate sneak attack and other effects that care about a flat-footed target.
If a PC or NPC casts a spell, anyone who’s affected can press the ‘Save DC’ button to make their character roll a save. If the spell has a trait (e.g. fear) and you have a bonus against such effects, it will be automatically applied.
There’s a compendium called Action Macros which has macros for every skill-based action you might do in combat. If a PC uses one of these macros, it will roll the correct skill and apply all the relevant modifiers, and show the traits of the action.