Pathfinder RPG Best Practices

I haven't had the time to really sink my teeth into the new character sheets. Has anyone else been playing Pathfinder with all this new stuff? What's the best, quickest way to go about automating creature stats as a GM?  My first impulse would ordinarily be to make an Attribute for almost everything, but that will get cluttered very fast...   So tell me, how do *you* handle Pathfinder stats in Roll20?

I dont. As a GM it is not worth it to me to use the attribute system for NPCs which I will only be using once. What I do instead is a stat block dump into the Token's GM section. If I took the stat block off of a pre-written adventure I edit the block to simplify it. When I want to check an ability for that token I just double click on it and check.  I did use to make individualized macros but I went to running a plain 1d20 macro and then just mentally adding in the bonuses since it was faster. It also had the bonus that the players got to see my roll, without seeing the monster's stats.  When I made individualized macros I made macros for some creatures and just un-archived them when I needed them. - Gauss

I generally don't Mess with Character Sheets at all.  I run a premade module so I look at that stat block and make rolls without using the dice roller so I don't have the problem of trying to type everything out and figure out what needs to be added and what not.  If the players want to do that that's fine, I give them that option, but I don't do it myself.

I use real dice and printed stat blocks. Sometimes analog just works best.

I use Roll20 character sheets for the Players, but not for random NPCs/monsters. For NPCs I just paste in (if from a module) or create a stat block inside the DM notes of a token. The Roll20 character sheets just have basic attributes and stats needed for macros, so players don't have to constantly look up what their AB is and type out their rolls, they can just hit the macro button for the most commonly used things. The main PC character sheets are hosted on Mythweavers.com. I've given players access to their sheets there so they can just have them open in a new tab and use that for tracking spells, inventory, etc. As for the attributes needed for macros, you don't need much. Just  Base Attack Bonus, the 6 ability score bonuses, saving throws, and only the few most commonly used skills for that character. I created a couple for spells that get used a lot as well, like healing. The trick is just to limit the macros to only the things that get used the most, the right balance and you avoid clutter while speeding up the game quite a bit. It's tempting to record and macro everything, but that just creates problems with the limitations of the current Roll20 macro and character sheet interface. It's also a lot of stuff to have to update when characters level up.

You log into Paizo and you buy PDF's of the Beastiaries, you can either run them in the background, having the entire creature description, or grab screen shots to paste into your Roll20 campaign. The PAG is using mythweavers, however with mythweavers many mistakes and illegal elements are possible. All PAG mythweaver sheets are ported over to Hero Lab, the BEST all round program for creating and maintaining PCs and NPCs. It is not cheap however and mythweaver is free. For dice rolling I use the Dice Roller and manually add the bonuses or penalties, just as you would have to in a Real Life Game.

I use PDFs of my players' character sheets and I just use <a href="http://www.d20pfsrd.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.d20pfsrd.com/</a> as my reference for monsters and NPCs. I'll keep track of their HP with the tokens, but I don't fill out stats. I splurged to buy a bunch of the physical books, like the NPC codex, so I try to get as much mileage out of it as I can. I roll my own dice and my own players do to out of personal choice. It's much easier for me to make secret rolls this way instead of being worried about making mistakes that my players can see.

I frankly never thought it was worthwhile as a GM to use macros with all the characters I'd be dealing with, so when character sheets came out i was "oh yeah, now I can pre-prepare all this and not have to think about what they're supposed to be, just click a button." I generally only have NPCs that qwill be in combat or monsters listed and generally only their attacks to hit, damage and initiative.

Jesse, you can roll hidden dice on Roll20. The command for hidden dice is /gmroll instead of /roll. Note: I am not suggesting you give up your physical dice, it just seemed you were unaware of the /gmroll option. :) - Gauss

Like Gauss had mentioned, I do something similar.&nbsp; With my NPC's I copy and paste all the stats that I aquire from&nbsp; <a href="http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/npcCodex/npc/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/npcCodex/npc/index.html</a> (a Pathfinder NPC PreGen) &nbsp;into there tokens. This way when I need something I need only click one the corresponding token to retrieve it. I do the same thing with my Monster I use.&nbsp; <a href="http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/monsterIndex.html" rel="nofollow">http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/monsterIndex.html</a> (monster index)&nbsp; I prefer this site over the usual d20pfsrd I would also like to invite you sometime to the PAG were I can assit you in any of your GM creation. I have base campaign set up to help new GMs. This is what I do and works for me.&nbsp; <a href="https://app.roll20.net/join/72707/3VB53g" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/join/72707/3VB53g</a> ~Deveraux

Deveraux, it seems we're not authorized to join that campaign. Maybe you'd like to add me in manually?

Deveraux might have changed the join link by either: copying the campaign and deleting the old one OR booting a person from his game (I believe that automatically shuts down the previous join link). - Gauss

you should check out a program called combat manager . it imports from herolab tracks hit points imitative and conditions and is free also there is a android app called PF battle that doors the same thing from a phone or tablet