Chaos in Sarlona (Inactive)

Game Master 137ben

I'm away this weekend and will probably be unable to post. Please bot me as needed.

Okay, have a nice weekend.

Hmm, I initially previewed those two posts as one post before splitting them up. The rolls in the second post changed when I moved them to a second post, which I wasn't expecting.
Well, I suppose now I know to re-check the roll results before describing the outcome.

Since Nik'o is away for the weekend, either mdt or Te'Shen may take his turn for him. If neither of you want to, I could take Nik'o's turn, but I'd rather one of you do it.

I will be out and busy all day tomorrow, and probably won't be able to post. I will be back Sunday (or possibly really late tomorrow night).

Kiana upgraded to level 5, took a level of marksman.

Okay, from a quick read-through of your new character sheet:
1)Where is your 5th level feat?
2)I should have noticed this much earlier, but you have a trait called "Blessed of Besmara". Where is this trait from? I don't see it in any of the online sources. I probably overlooked it before since you wrote what it did and it didn't seem particularly powerful, so I didn't check further.

They can't use the Besmara online. On PFSRD20 it's here :

Alternately Named trait

It's from Skulls & Shackles.

Forgot to type it on the first page. 5th level feat is Deadly Aim (I copied and pasted it into the last page of the character).

Nik'o is updated to level 5.

Can Helac heal Con damage?

Kiana:
Ah, I see. I searched for Blessed of Besmara on Archives of Neythrs, which can use the name, but didn't find it because it is actually called Besmara's Blessing, and the AoN search isn't very good (it only allows exact phrases, apparently).
Looking back to the original recruitment, I specified

Traits: Two bonus traits. No campaign traits.

So now it's a question of whether I should make a retroactive exception for you now. I don't expect Profession (sailing) to be of much use in this game. Hence, you are mainly just getting a +1 to perception, which is well within the normal range of non-campaign traits. Hence, I think I will allow you to keep it in spite of it being a campaign trait.

The second page of your character sheet lists feats, but doesn't have Deadly aim (which is why I missed it before).

Nik'o: It looks good on a cursorty reading, though I'll re-read it more carefully later tonight.

I should probably also level Charivia up to four, since she seems to be hanging around with the party for at least a little while longer....

Sorry about that, I thought I'd cleared it with you over her background originally (it's a pretty pathetic trait honestly, but it fit her background).

Maybe you did clear it with me and I forgot? Although, I don't see it mentioned in the second recruitment thread, so probably not.
Either way, it's fine, as it does fit her background and isn't particularly strong the way some other campaign traits are.

Can Helac help with the Con damage?

Not immediately, but if necessary, when Helac regains power points, he can meditate and swap out his powers.

. . . When a vitalist recovers his daily power points after resting, he may choose to rotate one or more powers he knows for new ones. These powers must always be chosen from the vitalist power list . . . .

So Helac could get body purification as his third level power, which could do that, and he would be stuck with it all day. If we do that, I may switch out share pain for animal affinity... which actually makes me wonder. I had picked unwilling participant as a feat to try and steal healing from fighter type enemies. However, does anyone think that using expanded knowledge to pick up an extra power for expansion (enlarge person) or physical acceleration (haste) to buff allies be more beneficial?

Edit: Oh, I forgot that empathetic transfer (2nd level) can also be used to absorb ability damage. However, it doesn't cure it, but only lets Helac take it. There's also long term care (heal skill/8 hours) but I don't think that's going to happen. :)

Nik'o could always develop lesser restoration as his new formulae, but he won't be able to share it with the group until much later.

Enlarge won't help Kiana as a ranged opponent. Haste would, as she mostly full attacks, however some GMs don't allow haste with Flurry, so we'd need to ask the GM.

I expect we'll be dealing with poisons a lot going forward, so something to deal with stat damage/drain would be useful.

...and the GM is tired because he stayed up literally all night working overtime. Anyhow, Unchained Monk's FoB explicitly says it stacks with Haste and 'similar effects', so it does. Nik'o may also benefit from haste (especially since he already has reach), so it might not be a bad idea.

No problem, just like to make sure. Been burned. :)

Did forget they got explicit with unchained. Probably to shut down GMs who didn't rule that way.

Offline I mainly run/play 3.5, and I had always assumed Haste and FoB worked together. It was fairly recently that I learned that that rule was in dispute.

Ok. I feel a little sheepish that I had forgotten one of the stipulations of the Expanded Knowledge feat.

. . . Add to your powers known one additional power of any level up to one level lower than the highest-level power you can manifest. . . .

So I won't qualify for temporal acceleration for two more levels. :\

I'll dig around and see if I can find something more suitable, but I suppose this does make Helac stuck with body purification for a little while.

I'm away for the long weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving) and do not know how often I'll be able to post, if at all. Please bot me as needed.

And Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Okay. I've been pretty busy this week, too, as you can probably tell from my lack of posts. I hope you're having a good weekend.

Whelp, it looks like Helac might have vanished. His last post was 10 days ago, he hasn't responded to my PMs, and he isn't posting with his other aliases. I don't have any contact information for him outside of these forums, either.
Maybe something happened in the real world preventing him from using the forums. Maybe he just decided this game was no longer enjoyable. Maybe he will come back in a couple days, maybe he won't.

If Te'shen is really gone and we are actually down to two players, I think all three of us need to decide what we want to happen to this game next.

One possibility is to simply end the campaign. This game has had a depressingly low player-retention rate: I've lost seven players over the last 15 months. The frequent loss of players could be due to bad luck, but I can't ignore the possibility that it is a negative indicator of the job I am doing as a GM. I have been rather buisier than usual for the last few months, due to a conincidental confluence of major events in my life. While I do expect things to improve in the future, it may well have negatively impacted the quality of my GMing recently.

It is very difficult for me to gauge player satisfaction with a game over the pbp medium. I just know that both of you (Dreaming Warforged and mdt) have stuck with it for more than a year, whilst several other people haven't.

I do want to continue this campaign. I have long-term plans for it that have unfolded very slowly. But I only want to continue if people are enjoying it.

If we do all want to keep going, one possibility would be to continue with only two players. Mechanically, it might be easier if we switched to gestalt or some other rules option that makes small parties work better. I can also just be more careful with encounter design.
However, in the past I've found that some players enjoy a campaign more if there are more real people to interact with. Two players is also smaller than my preferred group size....

Lastly, of course, we could do another recruitment for more players. I'd have to think about the best way to bring their new characters together with yours, but it should be possible. Hopefully, I can avoid making the same mistakes in a new recruitment thread that I made in the first one.

Opinions?

I'm enjoying it, although I do like gestalt. :) But even with it, 2 is kind of hard.

Personally, I don't think it's the GM, I think the current part of the campaign is difficult for the characters we have. I know that it particularly is painful for Kiana, as it negates all her strengths and plays to all her weaknesses.

To do more characters, it might be better to do a storyish ending for the current phase? Get us back to civilization where it's easier to add new PCs? Kind of short circuits some of the stuff her and now, but it'll be easier to integrate new characters and players.

You are already getting fairly close to the end of this leg of the campaign. I planned for the next phase of the campaign to take place mostly outdoors, too. So, there will definitely be chances to meet up with new PCs, and a lot more opportunities for Kiana to use her strengths.

The journey through the Starlight Tomb and getting the Tremble Tooth has taken longer than I originally anticipated, probably just because I overestimated the speed of pbp.

Although we are relatively close to the natural conclusion of tis section, and an in-story reason for you to go somewhere where you could find new players, I could speed it up somewhat if you want to hasten the arrival of new PCs. Or, we could just play it out naturally and make a new recruitment thread when it is appropriate.

Depends on Nik'O really, but I'd suggest a combination. Start a recruitment, give it a week or two so you get quality submissions (check posting rates), and then if we don't finish it before the recruitment ends, do a 'and then stuff happened and you all go back to town'.

Whelp, it looks like Helac might have vanished. His last post was 10 days ago, he hasn't responded to my PMs, and he isn't posting with his other aliases. . . .

Ok. Now for the heart felt apology and the explanation.

A lot of the time I say I've been having computer trouble it's because I am, quite possibly, one of the more retarded individuals when it comes to computers... and so I've been getting help from others to get my pc to limp along for the last few years.

I got a blue screen in safe mode a little over a week ago.

Most of my friends that have graciously kept my machine up and running have moved away for work and school, and there's only so much phone calls can help. I tried a few things, but I finally broke down and bought a new tower. I apologize for my absence and the inconvenience. I can honestly say that I'm not going to have the same problem again anytime soon, but with my skill level, I'll probably have a completely different set of problems. :\

That said, I'm still here... or back, as the case may be.

Glad you found your way back on the internets!

Blue screens are CR 20...

Yay:)
I'm glad you're still here, computer crashes are extremely annoying.

The Paizo server went down while I was typing the big post I just made, eating it. Fortunately I had copied it into a txt file before hitting submit.

Now that we have three players again, we don't really need to do another recruitment. We could, though, if y'all would prefer, though I'd feel a bit less motivated to do so now that I know all three of ya are still here.

I'd rather have a fourth and if possible a fifth, if for no other reason than we have enough to continue if someone does have to leave. Plus, it means that we have more options.

We can take our time about adding new players, since we aren't done with this bit though.

Please note I'm going away for two weeks with very spotty access to internet. Please bot me as needed.

Okay! Have a nice trip.

Just a warning: my posting might be getting even more irregular over the next three-ish weeks.
On the bright side, however, when January comes around I will have more free time than at any point in the last several years, so if we want to do another recruitment for more players, January (or later) would be the time to do it.

That's fair. The holidays do have a tendency to make things a little more hectic and distracting.

Hi all,
My apologies, this last week has been... stressful. I had to fly to another state to deal with a family issue. My father had to undergo a semi-routine medical procedure, but he had some sort of breakdown during the procedure. The doctors suspect it's from the anesthetic, it's put him in a state of dementia. We're hoping he will recover, but the week was extremely busy and very draining. I spent most of last night and today sleeping.

I'll try to get back to posting regularly.

MDT

Okay, take all the time you need.

I'll echo that sentiment. I wish you and your family good luck.

Sorry to hear. Best wishes of health to your dad.

I'm going to be away this weekend, and the first two days of next week. I might be able to post, but it is unlikely. I'll be back Wednesday.

I'm back from my trip, but I am taking a couple days to reorient myself. Sorry for delays.

Happy birthday everyone born on December 25th!
And any other holidays that happen to be today.

Hey! That leaves out Hanukkah which was ... the 6th through the 14th this year and Kwanzaa which starts on the 26th and last until the 1st. Artfully placed well wishing you have there DM...

Oh. Wait. Birthdays. Well, not me then. A very merry un-birthday to me.

:D

... though I am still a Capricorn ....

Happy new year!

I thought Nik'O was human? I just realized he was a Changling (I thought changlings were always female). Either way, both Elan and Changlings (with human fathers) look human, and Kiana would never reveal someone's real background if it wasn't obvious. So human still works.

If we were playing a straight Pathfinder game you would be absolutely correct.

Though in Eberron, Changelings are a true breeding race that came from the mixing of humans and doppelgangers. They are born with a gender, but, depending on the Changeling in question, it matters little what it is because they can easily change it.

There are three general outlooks that tend to exist among the Changelings in Eberron. Passers, Becomers, and Reality Seekers. Passers tend to adopt a single persona and try to maintain it, usually having grown up among another racial group. Becomers try to be as mutable as possible, attempting to be true to their basic nature as doppelgangers. Seekers usually walk around in their original form and generally try to shun deception, but what qualifies varies from Changeling to Changeling. (Or at least, that's my abbreviated interpretation from my reading the Races of Eberron book a while back.)

I think they're a whole lot of fun.

Yea, changelings can be any gender.
Kiana has seen Nik'o shapeshift at least once (that I remember), so she would know that he is a changeling, even if she chooses not to reveal it.

Looking forwards, based on where I expect this campaign to go, I think the best time to recruit new players will be shortly after you get out of the Starlight Tomb, if y'all still want to expand the group (and I'm still okay with adding more players to the group if you are).

I wouldn't mind going up to 5 players, that would give us a bit of room in case someone drops out.

Somewhat away for the weekend. Bot as needed :)

Okay, have a nice trip!

And, before I forget, that encounter with the changeling and giant trap was worth (with a bit of hand-waving) 1144 xp for each of you, putting you at 11885 xp.

I'll be far from computers from Friday morning until Monday morning. Please bot me as needed.