Welcome to the game! I look forward to a fun time with you all.
Some notes:
I will roll passive Perception checks for your characters when the situation calls for them. To speed things along in combat, I will roll initiative for everybody. Those whose initiative scores are higher than the enemies can post their actions, I'll summarize the results and the monster's actions, then everybody can post for the following round's actions.
I am usually online weekdays between 4:00 AM and noon, and can check in sporadically the rest of the afternoon. I can usually post a few times each day during the week, but my access is limited on the weekends.
When you get a chance, please let me know which previous scenarios (if any) your character has completed.
The profile is fine, Jim. Thanks.
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Player Name: Clebsch73
PFS: #105836-703
Faction: Wayfinders
Day job:
Standard Advancement
Luanna has not played any scenarios. Another SFS character played the Fugitive on the Red Planet.
Character sheet is on the profile. I've got a background story to add, but I'll get that soon.
My posting schedule varies about every five weeks. But I'm generally able to post every day, including weekends. Currently, I'm limited to posting in the afternoon on Tuesday and Thursday (except this coming Thursday, which is American Thanksgiving).
No problem, Luanna. I'll make sure things don't get too far ahead between your posts.
The Culture checks were just to get a bit more information about the guests. It's assumed you guys share what you know with each other so everybody is on the same page.
Once the party actually starts, it will involve several skill checks over the course of numerous "social rounds." I will post full details when we get there, but everybody will have plenty of opportunities to interact with whichever guests they would like to. :)
Karish, I will wait until everybody else has made their first skill check before I come back to you for your Acrobatics check.
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This is my first adventure running a Starfinder character with Limited Telepathy. I've checked the forums and there are some discussions about the dynamics of conversation via telepahy but so far as I can see, no official pronouncements from Paizo developers. So I thought it would be good to get our GM's take on what happens when someone wants to communicate telepathically.
Telepathy
A creature with the telepathy special ability can mentally communicate with any other creature within a certain range (specified in the creature’s description, though the range of telepathy is usually 100 feet) that knows a language. It is possible to address multiple creatures at once telepathically, although maintaining a telepathic conversation with more than one creature at a time is just as difficult as simultaneously speaking and listening to multiple people at the same time.Limited Telepathy
Limited telepathy functions in the same manner as telepathy, except that both the creature with the limited telepathy special ability and the creature it is communicating with must have a language in common.
This thread has some good discussion and those involved seem to come to a reasonable conclusion about the questions, so it might be a good place to start.
Let me ask about a few specific situations that seem relevant for the situation of the PCs at the gala.
We have two PCs with limited telepathy: Luanna and Karish.
The rest (Gidget, Kultainen, and Huckle Jim) do not have limited telepathy.
#1) One way communication: I assume someone with limited telepathy can send a broadcast message to anyone within range and all will hear but only those who know the language 'spoken' can understand.
#2) Limited one way communication: Can Luanna send a thought to one individual but prevent anyone else in range from 'hearing' it?
#3) Limited one way communication follow-up: If #2 is possible, can Luanna send a a thought to all the other PCs in the party but prevent anyone else in range from 'hearing' it?
#4) Telepath/Non-telepath conversation: Luanna sends a thought to Huckle Jim. He 'hears' and thinks a reply. Luanna presumably can hear and the two can carry on a conversation. I'm assuming, however, that Luanna can only 'hear' the thoughts Huckle Jim specifically wants her to here. In other words, she can't read his thoughts just because they are in conversation mode.
#5) Conversation with a third party telepath in range: So Luanna and Huckle Jim are in a telepathic conversation. Can Karish listen in? (This relates back to #2 and #3).
#6) Conversation with a third party telepath in range, follow-up: Assuming the answer to #5 is no, which is what I would rule, could Luanna 'open a channel' and let Karish 'listen in'? It seems reasonable that two telepaths could each separately have a channel open to each other and to a non-telepath and all three would be able to hold a conversation telepathically.
#7) Conversation with a telepath and multiple non-telepaths: If Luanna sent out a mental broadcast to Gidget and Kultainen, I'm thinking that Luanna could 'hear' thoughts from both non-telepaths and both non-telepaths could 'hear' her thoughts to both but that Kultainen could not 'hear' what Gidget says and vice versa. Someone referred to this as "spoke and hub" type communication. It would be like someone with two cell phones in conversation with two distant people: she speaks and the other two hear, but caller A cannot hear what Caller B says and vice versa. The central caller has to say what she heard from one caller for the other caller to know what was said.
My assumptions are that #1 through #4 are possible, while #5 is not. I also assume #6 is possible and #7 works with the spoke and hub interpretation.
I interpret things the same way you do, Luanna.
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Thanks. I found a question about telepathy on the rules forum for Starfinder and added a post with some additional issues to clear up.
As of now, there is nothing in the Starfinder FAQ about how telepathy works, nor was there anything in the Pathfinder FAQ, so we may have to wait a while for official rules. I raise two possible models for interpreting how telepathic communication works: sonic-based or cell phone/Internet based. The suggestions I made above follow the latter.
I raised another question not mentioned above. Can one block communication that a telepath wants to send? In other words, is telepathic communication something like a cell phone call, where a person gets a kind of mental 'ping' that indicates someone wants to send him/her a telepathic message. Or does the message just come in as long as the PC has not indicated he is 'screening' calls.
This also raises the question of whether the person receiving the ping has caller ID. If Gidget gets a ping, would she know if it is coming from Luanna, Karish, or someone else?
As I say in the post, this is important if someone with telepathy wants to attempt to intimidate an opponent using telepathy.
I'm not sure if you can block communication from happening. It's basically like somebody talking out loud to you--you can't really stop yourself from hearing what they're saying. I think you would need a special spell or magic item to do that. Of course, you don't have to respond though.
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For what it's worth, I played a SFS game last night and I asked the GM, who is also the area venture captain for the PFS how he interprets the telepathy issues. He said he thought one could select individuals to receive the broadcast, so you do not have to communicate to all in range.
But he thought that one could not respond telepathically unless he/she also had the ability to use telepathy. I can see the logic of that too.
There is a technological way to communicate verbally with everyone in the party and get verbal replies. Could we assume our personal comm units could be connected to earbuds and act as short range radios that link to each other, kind of like in TV shows like NCIS and Scorpion (although I must point out as a physicist that they give these tiny earbuds a crazy amount of range and clarity).
It would seem to be a simple augmentation to get that would allow one to receive and transmit short range microwave signals without a detectable device in the ear. Can't have that in SFS games, but non-SFS games might house rule it.
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A couple of questions for the GM:
1) I'm wondering how people would respond to the sight of someone at a party like this casting a spell. Starfinder continues the general concept from Pathfinder that casting spells or using spell-like abilities always has visible effects that allow people to tell that you are casting a spell or using a spell-like ability (and possibly they can tell what spell you are casting). So at a social event such as we are attending, would people consider it alarming to see Luanna casting a spell? Some spells can be dangerous, but there are a lot of useful and generally benign spells as well. How might people generally react?
2) Separate from the above issue, if Luanna were able to cast her spell-like ability of detect thoughts on a person at the party without that person noticing her casting it and if the target failed his saving throw, would the target be able to tell that someone is trying to read their thoughts?
3) Same as number two, but if a person made their will save to prevent the thought reading, would they know someone was trying to read their thoughts and if so would they know who?
In case it would be advantageous to use this spell, I want to be sure I don't offend anyone. I assume that it is generally rude to try to read someone's thoughts in polite company, so if a target would be aware of someone in their head, I assume it would not go over well. I don't intend to use it on any of the guests we want to influence, but if she suspected someone was up to no good, for example, she might feel it was justified.
If the rules spell out the answers to these questions, let me know where. Paizo often leaves these issues vague, so I want to be clear on how the GM views the situation. Thanks.
1) Most of the people at this party wouldn't care too much about somebody casting a spell. It might be more alarming at other social events, but not a Starfinder banquet. I am pretty sure spell-like abilities do have visible components, so you can activate them without anybody realizing what you are doing.
2) If a target fails a save against a spell like detect thoughts, it usually can't tell that somebody is reading its mind.
3) If a target makes its save, it knows somebody was trying to use magic on them, but not necessarily who or what kind of spell it was.
I've uploaded a battle map to Google Slides. The link is at the top of the page, too.
Okay, the icons have been added to the map.
And here is an image of the creatures. Huckle Jim is up!
In Starfinder, anybody can take a full action to make two attacks, no matter your level. Each attack is at a -4 penalty.
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We're APL 1 while two CR 2 opponents rates this a CR 4 encounter, according the encounter guidelines on page 388-390, which makes the encounter "epic level" encounter difficulty.
I'm not usually one to complain but this does seem an encounter for which a few unlucky rolls in sequence could spell character death. Seems harsh for an introductory module, unless they want to give everyone an idea of how the Starfinder rules on death and dying are different from Pathfinder.
Yes, it is a very dangerous encounter. I suppose since it is only one of a few combat encounters in the module, they decided to make it more difficult.
The remaining creature only has a few HP left though. If you had focused one of them down first instead splitting up shots between the two, it would have been a little more manageable. But it still has the potential to be lethal. :(
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Closest creature works in most situations where you have a miss chance.
Most damage creature works best if you are guaranteed hit, like MM. Though some people probably though the closest was the most damaged.
Also, two CR 2s does not mean CR 4, it doesn't work that way. If that were the case, 100 CR 1/2s would equal CR 50. To find out the overall CR encounter, you add up the experience of all the monsters and find a monster with that CR rating equal to that exp. CR 2 is 600 exp, so unless CR 4 just happens to be 1200 exp. Edit, in this case it is.
Also this is 1-5, as Starfinder might be assuming you played a few modules with said character, so even if level 1, you'd be able to afford more stuff like armor or a few grenades, etc.
Luckily none of us died yet.
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Generally in PF (and I assume SF) you work out the CR of an encounter with 2 CR x creatures and adding 2 to it.
So 2 CR5 monsters is a CR7 encounter, two CR2 monsters is a CR 4 encounter etc. Then you may add a bit at the end to help even things out.
So an encounter with 2xCR7, and 3xCR5 may end up as
2xCR5=CR7
2xCR7=CR9
CR9+CR7+CR5 is probably not going to quite make it to CR11, but be much more than CR9, so likely a 10 (although possibly an 11 - though it would be a tad on the easy side for an 11).
Kultainen, you already used your inspiring word on Karish. You can only use it on an ally once in between 10 minute rests. You could use it on Gidget still, if you can change your action for this round,
Hopefully Gidget can finish off the second creature this round. If not, Huckle Jim could spend another Resolve Point to heal 1 HP, become conscious, and be able to take his turn before it attacks again.
Yeah, I don't actually WANT to kill you guys. ;)
Speaking of--Gidget, dragging Jim out will provoke an attack of opportunity. Do you still want to do that, or would you rather attack the creature? It only has a few HP left.
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Anyone who's tried to use the rules for determining encounter CR knows it is not very accurate, particularly when you have multiple enemies. I try to think more about how easy the targets are to hit, how many hit points they have, and that gives a feel for about how many rounds it may take for a party to take them down. Then consider the attacks and damage of the enemy to see if they could take the party out before the party takes them out.
In this case, these two things have a combined total of over 40 hp. I figure most 1st levels would get about a 50% hit rate and do less than 10 points for each hit. That would mean maybe 8 hits minimum or 16 attacks. For a party of 5, that would be at least 4 rounds to take them out. We may do it in 3 if Gidget can take it out with an attack this round. Meanwhile, they are likely to hit us about 75% of the time, doing around 5 or 6 points per hit. So if they did nothing but tail slaps, in 4 rounds they are likely to get 6 hits and do about 30-35 points. PC stamina gives them some extra points to play with, but if the same PC gets hit several times, he/she is going down without healing.
If they use their shock attack, they could do much more damage, of course. That's why the CR is only a very rough indicator of encounter challenge. It depends a lot on how the GM runs the monsters and how the PCs work together.
I realized I should have concentrated my 2nd blast of magic missiles on the north one to take it out, but I forgot that we had been told it was close to death and targeted the closer one. I divided my first set of missiles because I didn't want to focus them all on one and then find they only had 6 hit points and use up 3 missiles when only 2 was needed.
I like challenging fights provided they are winnable if players don't make any major tactical blunders. This is my first encounter in Starfinder that demonstrates the difference in how death and dying are handled in Starfinder. So far, it looks as if we can all survive as long as the remaining one doesn't attack Jim or use its shock attack.
Often, Paizo will weaken a tough opponent to keep a high CR monster from TPK, such as starting it out injured. In this case, I might limit them to 1 or maybe 0 resolve points (maybe there's not much electricity to munch here and they are starving). If they get a critical with the tail slap, they can regain an resolve point. That would provide a natural limit to the damage they can do without eliminating the shock attack entirely.
The rules for scaling down this encounter for only 4 PCs has the electrovores start with only 1 RP instead of 3, and reduces their AC by 2. They're still a powerful threat for 1st-level characters.
@Karish, I'm not sure if I'm able to remove characters from the list.
Okay, I figured out how to do it. :)
Kultainen, the creatures are both dead. We are out of combat now.
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Based on posting times of other players, which often are in the middle of the night or the wee hours of the morning in my time zone (East Coast Time in US), I suspect a number of other players are in Europe. This morning I slept in, which accounts for the delay in my posting after the other posts came in hours ago.
I'm on the east coast too. I just work an early morning shift (3:30 AM - 11:30 AM).