Hymenopterix's Colonies of the Salt Coast

Game Master Electric Monk

dotting?

Ya that technical problem caused me to have to reset all my preset pages on google chrome -.-; but i'm here as well lurking until something happens lol

Does anyone know if my mount and I can attack together? or should that only be allowed when i'm not riding him. I was trying to find some rules on that but I couldn't find a straight answer =/. I've also been up 18hrs so I may have overlooked it.

Any help is appreciated =)

Having your mount fight while you are riding it is a combat trick decribed under the Handle Animal Skill in the Core Rulebook. There are some skill checks involved.

IIRC, if you do the "guide with your knees" Ride check, you can make an attack and your mount can make an attack.

I have to say that personally and based on some experiences I've had running my own games, this can be a bit OP at lower levels--the skill check is too easy and too much damage accumulates fast (especially when you start getting multiple attacks per round). OTOH, I'm sure a lot of how the cavalier works is based on this. Just my two cents. Rules say you should be able to do this.

Thats true =/ didn't think about that, my bad ^^;;; I will just use the attack option then when i'm dismounted or performing an overrun and such. Sorry about that guys ^^;

Thats true =/ didn't think about that, my bad ^^;;; I will just use the attack option then when i'm dismounted or performing an overrun and such. Sorry about that guys ^^;

Hey, wait for Hymenoptrix to weigh in, he's the GM after all.

I just wanted to note my experience since it came up.

Hi Guys,

I haven't had a lost experience running mounted combat but from the description HERE i think these are the key DCs for mounted combat:

A "Guide with Knees" check (Ride DC 5) allows you to attack with both hands whilst riding. (e.g. use two-handed weapons etc.)

A "Stay in Saddle" check (Ride DC 5) allows you to stay in the saddle if hit.

A "Fight with a Combat-Trained Mount" check (Ride DC 10) allows you and your (combat trained) mount to attack. Failure means that only your mount gets an attack! (so low DC but failure means you lose your attack).

A "Control mount in Battle" check (Ride DC 20) allows you to take an action in addition to controlling your horse in battle (not combat trained).

Thats true =/ didn't think about that, my bad ^^;;; I will just use the attack option then when i'm dismounted or performing an overrun and such. Sorry about that guys ^^;

Don't worry about overpowering the rest of the group while mounted. That's the cavalier's thing, and with Finnabar dipping Oracle, you'll be our heavy hitter, mounted or not. I'm sure there will be plenty of times when you can't be mounted in combat, so go ahead and show off when you can.

Here are the questions for which Xarafine would like answers. She will leave the interrogation process to Finnabar, and merely stand nearby to offer a disapproving stare if the bandit seems to be less than forthcoming.

1.) Where exactly the Thorn River encampment, and how long will it take to get there, by horse or foot?

2.) What is the terrain like between here and there, how dangerous is it in terms of animals and the like?

3.) How many bandits are there? What is their armament?

4.) Who are the leaders, and what are their particular skills?

5.) Can anyone among the bandits use magic of any kind?

6.) How long will it take them to notice you have not returned?

7.) Are there guards patrolling outside the encampment? If so, how soon can we expect them to notice us as we approach?

8.) Is your encampment fortified, walls, catapults and the like?

9.) Do any of the bandits use poison on their weapons?

10.) Where do you sell the goods that you steal?

Good set of questions!

Good set of questions!

Thanks!

Feel free to throw in any other questions you can think of, these were just the ones that immediately came to my mind.

Yep those are pretty much all inclusive, very nice =)

Good for me as well

Is everything okay? The game thread is not seeing much traffic.

We are at a decision point where the different players do not fully agree on the way to go. This is critical in PbP, according to my experience and can take weeks to resolve when people are not playing face to face.

I will try to summarize the option ooc for us to take a decision.

We know there are eight other bandits lead by a woman named Kessle. Four of them plus Kessle are in a camp whose location we know abot one day ride from here.

We have two main options: stay here to protect Oleg and Svetlana or go out and attack the camp.

Let me summarize the pro and cons of each options.

First option: Stay and fortify the trading post:
Pros: We protect the owners
We can separate the bandits for a few rounds
We can set up an ambush
Cons: We will likely meet the full contingent at the same time
We lack material and crafts skills to properly set up an ambush
The bandits will wary and may detect our ambush

Second option: Attack the camp
Pros: We take them by surprise
We can have the captured bandit describe us the layout
We will meet less bandits as some of them are out hunting or doing other things.
Cons: A surprise attack may be more difficult to set.
We leave the owners unprotected.
They may have a few surprises for us.

Can every one have a look at that, take a vote on the two options and summarize a plan. When we've all done that,we'll go forward with the majority and try to get the game moving. Does that look fine to all of you?

I'll start.
Finnabar is for going to the bandits camp as they will not send scouts before a few days so Oleg and his wife should be safe. If some come anyway, they can just say that a guard party saw them and took them and give out their belongings. We'll get them back for them.

Plan proposed: Get a map drawn from the prisoner, have Jack and Volpe sneak out through the forest to take down the lookout with archery fire. In the mean time, the rest of the party will wait just out of sight mounted and come running to take on the remaining bandits.

Attacking the bandits directly as quickly as possible will probably have the best result without dragging matters out.

If we wait for them, it allows them to scout and plan on how to deal with us.

There is a risk to Oleg and Lana, leaving them alone and unguarded, but in the big picture, they should be in no worse danger than they were before we arrived - especially if they cooperate and hand over their goods should the bandits somehow go around us during the process.

I'm inclined to go with Finnabar's suggestion.

The forest around the camp is equally dense in all directions - its only near the edge that it thins out. Since you were travelling on the bandits route this is the direction you're approaching from (the north). It would have been possible to head into the forest from the west and to then follow the river to the camp, however that would've taken extra time. Also, if you'd done this you'd be approaching from the same direction since you'd have to follow the river to have a good chance of locating the camp. (going straight through the forest would be difficult without a GPS and coordinates).

it will be pretty easy for Vople and Jack to circle around, and shouldn't affect your tactics too much anyway.

The forest around the camp is equally dense in all directions - its only near the edge that it thins out. Since you were travelling on the bandits route this is the direction you're approaching from (the north). It would have been possible to head into the forest from the west and to then follow the river to the camp, however that would've taken extra time. Also, if you'd done this you'd be approaching from the same direction since you'd have to follow the river to have a good chance of locating the camp. (going straight through the forest would be difficult without a GPS and coordinates).

it will be pretty easy for Vople and Jack to circle around, and shouldn't affect your tactics too much anyway.

That's fine and makes sense but I still would like to know--we would have had to cross the river to get to the "You Are Here" Marker. How did we do that? Did we ford it, is there a bridge, etc.? How fast did it take us to do it? If Volpe and Jack want to approach the camp from the West, they will have to cross the river again--how long would that delay them?

It may be important to know for both our assault and if we need to retreat quickly.

The river is quite shallow and not very wide so it won't slow Vople and Jack down very much. (5 foot wide, difficult terrain)

The river does not continue straight north out of the forest. it jags west and then south-west somewhere inside the forest - you therefore have not crossed it. (note that the river is flowing north-to-south on the map)

If you like i can provide a sketch later today?

Okay, I was imagining it to be much wider! That all makes sense now, thanks for taking the time to explain. Obviously, we're crossing. :)

Sorry for the late reply, the Thanksgiving holiday (I'm in the U.S.) snuck up on me.

Yikes! where the heck did that snake in the grass come from! >.<; Good luck Xarafine!

Finnabar I think you and I stirred up the hornets nest there mate >.>;

Good Luck Everyone it may take awhile for me to post but I will post ASAP and once everyone else has had their actions of course ;). I'm heading hom today from work so I have alot of flying to and sitting at airports with no internet :p

Nonetheless good luck and have fun. No one get knocked out! We can Win this!

Yikes! where the heck did that snake in the grass come from! >.<; Good luck Xarafine!

Finnabar I think you and I stirred up the hornets nest there mate >.>;

Good Luck Everyone it may take awhile for me to post but I will post ASAP and once everyone else has had their actions of course ;). I'm heading hom today from work so I have alot of flying to and sitting at airports with no internet :p

Nonetheless good luck and have fun. No one get knocked out! We can Win this!

Thanks! Have a safe trip.

I realize now playing a cavalier is a little more difficult then I first expected, especially when my books aren't in front of me xD. As I type out his actions its like I have to keep re-reading his skills and making sure I don't miss something and by the time i'm done its a page of dice rolls >.>;

Thank god for the online PF rules or I would be hosed up lol

Not that i'm complaining, I just feel bad for righting a novel just to ride my horse and attack stuff xD. Hopefully I never do any trick riding >.>;

I realize now playing a cavalier is a little more difficult then I first expected, especially when my books aren't in front of me xD. As I type out his actions its like I have to keep re-reading his skills and making sure I don't miss something and by the time i'm done its a page of dice rolls >.>;

Thank god for the online PF rules or I would be hosed up lol

Not that i'm complaining, I just feel bad for writing a novel just to ride my horse and attack stuff xD. Hopefully I never do any trick riding >.>;

Nyar, this fight is even now >:D, FOR GREAT JUSTICE!

Good luck Everyone especially Xarafine, that Kressel chick is vicious! >.>;

Volpe I think your up now that Kressel is done. I think anyway, unless the bandits still need to go =D. I wonder if I count for flanking bonuses on bandit #3? xD

I was going to use my tactician ability and give everyone Precision Strike but we haven't had many chances for flanking as of yet >.<; so it would have been wasted sadly.

Nyar, this fight is even now >:D, FOR GREAT JUSTICE!

Good luck Everyone especially Xarafine, that Kressel chick is vicious! >.>;

Volpe I think your up now that Kressel is done. I think anyway, unless the bandits still need to go =D. I wonder if I count for flanking bonuses on bandit #3? xD

I was going to use my tactician ability and give everyone Precision Strike but we haven't had many chances for flanking as of yet >.<; so it would have been wasted sadly.

Volpe should go for the bandit 3. If it goes down this round, Beim, go for Kressel with your Challenge ability, Finnabar will try to get the nb4 down.

We should be okay at this point (knock on wood), unless the dice fall poorly for us - which, unfortunately, happens from time to time.

I'll try to fend her off long enough for Jack and Bein to move in.

Orders received and understood! Hopefully I can take her in one fell swoop or else she is gonna floor me in the next round xD I will post once Finnabar is done with his actions~ Trying to stick with the Ini order and not mess it up too much ^^;. Although it helps i'm dead last xD

Orders received and understood! Hopefully I can take her in one fell swoop or else she is gonna floor me in the next round xD I will post once Finnabar is done with his actions~ Trying to stick with the Ini order and not mess it up too much ^^;. Although it helps i'm dead last xD

I'm waiting for our DM to add bandit 3 and 4 action before I act again, if I'm not wrong on initiative count.

Np boss man I was just assuming Volpe's attack missed earlier, so I was already fully expecting an AoO from that bandit. I was just hoping he didn't get a crit and take me out completely, oh wait he did get a crit lol... Scary. xD Thanks to everyone for watching out for me, I tend to miss some of the details sometimes ^^;

But anyway's~ Have fun at work!

I need to figure out a good feat progression list, i'm always terrible at deciding what to get -.-; but Quick draw almost seems worth it right now. I wanted to pull out my greatsword but dropping my longsword into the river wouldn't be very IC thing for me to do, but the way Jack dropped his bow made sense especially in his weakened state!

Right now though once we finish this encounter we will have to go fishing for Xarafine >.<;

Yeah, not to wish a more certain death on myself, but how deep and fast is the water?

Am I just floating? Lying on rocks with water sloshing over me? Sinking? Flowing downstream?

I still think you guys'll probably finish this in the next round or two, and that I'll be saved at the last second, but I'm morbidly curious about how perilous is my situation.

I can't find the post, but I recall Hymenopterix saying that the water wasn't very deep. Fingers crossed!

Bein--I think I'm always hesitant to take Quick Draw when there are so many other cool feats to take but it can be pretty dang useful--and if you know you're going to be switching between weapons a lot, probably worth thinking about.

I usually hesitate on taking it when i'm not a Fighter 100% its just proving a bit difficult to have the right weapons out and so far from my feat progression list I don't have room for a 'semi-useful' feat, since i'm focusing a lot of my feats on dishing out damage. It would be nice to have but its sadly not essential for the setup i'm going for =/.

@ Xarafine: I think the water is as Deathquaker was saying its not very deep and besides I picture Jack has moved to stand over/near you protectively. So I don't see you floating away or anything while he is standing by you. I was just making my usual silly comment, especially since i'm hoping the DM doesn't suddenly smash my face with this bandit chick. But we'll see what happens once my turn comes around again. ;)

I think we may have missed the bandits turn at least once throughout this, as much as I don't want to give them another one up on us ;). It just looks like the guy in the watchtower deserves another shot before round 7(?) ends. Bandit K appears to be right on track but the bandits appear to have lost a round just recently. But I am known to be wrong~ since Jack, Xarafine and I are dealing with Bandit (K) I posted my actions just so they are there at least and I don't slow anything down.

Good luck to Volpe, Finnabar, and the Evil bandit :P.

I've just made a spread sheet to help keep track of Loot and such. I would make it accessible for everyone to edit but I don't want some random noob coming in and wrecking it lol.

This is located near the top of Bein's profile page, its setup as a click able link ^^d. Check it out and let me know if I have anything setup wrong.

Go to The Party Warchest and Loot tracking sheet.

I will work on getting another one made up for our expedition pack horses/mules that have the majority of our supplies. I won't worry about grabbing up your mules and such since they are yours ;). Hope this makes it a little cleaner and easier to find objects. Let me know if there is something I can do to stream line the process.

https://spreadsheets0.google.com/ccc?key=tx1qePrrF74CxSPNR5u4yew&hl=en& amp;authkey=CIGQ-5sE#gid=0

This is the normal link if you want to add it to your own profiles so you don't have to dig through mine all the time. I'm not sure if the web address changes or not but if it does let me know and I will post the updated one.

Just thought i'd post this here, hope it helps~

edit: I've added an additional sheet to the same link so the expedition gear and loot sheets are at the same web address. Let me know if you have any issues loading it~

Hey, just wanted everyone to know that I have been following the thread. I just figured that I couldn't post anyting meaningful until Hymenopterix declares me ambulatory again.

@ Finnabar: Did you perform a treat deadly wounds check Finnabar? Or maybe i'm looking at the wrong PFSRD for the Heal skill. But since she has -4 hp I thought it would be a full 24hrs, with long term care, until she regains consciousness same with Jack depending on when he finally stabilized. =/. Just wondering because I got confused is all.

@ Finnabar: Did you perform a treat deadly wounds check Finnabar? Or maybe i'm looking at the wrong PFSRD for the Heal skill. But since she has -4 hp I thought it would be a full 24hrs, with long term care, until she regains consciousness same with Jack depending on when he finally stabilized. =/. Just wondering because I got confused is all.

Recovering with Help: One hour after a tended, dying character becomes stable, the character must make a DC 10 Constitution check to become conscious. The character takes a penalty on this roll equal to his negative hit point total. Conscious characters with negative hit point totals are treated as disabled characters. If the character remains unconscious, he receives another check every hour to regain consciousness. A natural 20 on this check is an automatic success. Even if unconscious, the character recovers hit points naturally. He automatically regains consciousness when his hit points rise to 1 or higher.

Link

So from that, both Xarafine and Jack can make a DC 10 constitution check to regain consciousness. Once there, they are disabled, but that means Xarafine can still cast cure light wounds on herself.

Okay that is very awesome and will be noted for future reference. xD

Nice Finnabar! Didn't mean to doubt you there, I just was too lazy to apparently look in more then one place. My bad bro xD!

Thanks for that Finnabar,.. I did look but obviously not in the right place!

I was really REALLY bored. lol...

I've got that loot/expedition spreadsheet setup now for how much each individual item is worth/weighs, total weight, and what it is worth if we resell it. Which following what the DM said oleg would buy it for 50% resell value at best :P Blasted merchant lol. I've also got it marked down which item everyone has and which horse's, correctly, now as well. Did a little back tracking but I found everything I needed. ( ^_^)-d.

I mainly did that because I plan on training the horses to be combat-trained when we get the time to do so it'll take 3 weeks each though so its going to take awhile...

I've also marked what is and isn't for sale (Although that is up for debate, I was just estimating roughly at what we would want to sell.) Mainly the generic weapons and gear are marked for sale. I've totaled the amount we would gain at the top of the sheet for the possible Items we sell to Oleg.

Hopefully it didn't clog up the sheet too much by trying to simplify things >.<; my email is included now as well, just in case you need me to make a change. ^^;

So yeah... Still working on it but eventually it will be perfect~ =)

Jack can Aid Another to Xerafine for providing the care to Volpe, Finnabar, and Bein, and he can do the check on Xerafine
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The rules are VERY unclear on rest in general (how much you need per day, what you can do during this period etc. My rule of thumb is that if you are doing something which requires a skill check, then you're not resting. In the case of "Long-term Care" someone has to provide the care - "Giving long-term care counts as light activity for the healer." you can't do this whilst resting. Long-term care is like being a patient in a hospital. The nurse makes the heal check - everyone else has to be confined to their bed or close to it.

If anyone is aware of alternative rules or interpretations feel free to give your opinion.

The rules are VERY unclear on rest in general (how much you need per day, what you can do during this period etc. My rule of thumb is that if you are doing something which requires a skill check, then you're not resting. In the case of "Long-term Care" someone has to provide the care - "Giving long-term care counts as light activity for the healer." you can't do this whilst resting. Long-term care is like being a patient in a hospital. The nurse makes the heal check - everyone else has to be confined to their bed or close to it.

If anyone is aware of alternative rules or interpretations feel free to give your opinion.

I guess I was thinking that after doing checks for the other four party members, another party member could do the heal check on the fifth (Jack or Xerafine) so they could all get the benefit, but I see what you are saying--getting up to bandage someone else after being bandaged is not resting. One person would have to go without the extra hit point after resting for 8 hours. Jack would certainly volunteer himself for the task. I'm not sure where everyone else is health wise at the moment.

May I please suggest that since this is supposed to be a low magic campaign, that you review the heal rules and post some clear guidelines here for how it will apply to us? Because we will be relying on it far more than in a typical Pathfinder game.

I've been doing my best to keep track of my HP in my profile but currently Bein is at 8 / 11 HP. He has only taken 3 hp of damage in our big battle and luckily I missed out on the AoO, thanks to Volpe and Finnbar's blades.

I'm not very concerned about getting healed because while i'm in the watch post I get a cover bonus to AC. Without my shield I have an AC of 18 so with cover bonus I am pretty much covered. :D

I do appreciate the concern though! :D

Bein is more concerned about the Xarafines and Jacks wounds anyway, and thinking tactically his wounds are insignificant in comparison lol.

@ DM: That healing salve we found has 3 uses left you said?

Just wanted to know so I can update the loot sheet

May I please suggest that since this is supposed to be a low magic campaign, that you review the heal rules and post some clear guidelines here for how it will apply to us? Because we will be relying on it far more than in a typical Pathfinder game.

Good point,... I'll work up some specific rules, however, even though it is low-magic i'm going to be making healing potions etc. reasonably common.

The other option i've been thinking about (which i was going to implement in another campaign) is to give armour a damage conversion score equal to its AC bonus so that 6 damage for someone in Studded Leather armour would be converted to 3 points of real damage and 3 points of subdual.

The upside of this is that subdual damage heals faster than normal damage, the downside is that there's more paperwork.

... Thoughts?

Sounds good to me =) almost sounds like what they had in Unearthed Arcana for 3.5 (Trade marked by WOTC, yada yada) as a variant option. Although that one was slightly different from what your suggesting.

Armor as damage reduction. Unearthed Arcana

Sounds good to me =) almost sounds like what they had in Unearthed Arcana for 3.5 (Trade marked by WOTC, yada yada) as a variant option. Although that one was slightly different from what your suggesting.

Armor as damage reduction. Unearthed Arcana

Yeah, the problem with that system is that it makes you easier to hit without increasing your effective hit points for each encounter, it just makes you heal faster between them. This increases the chances of a TPK.

Bein, thanks for keeping the loot sheet, btw! I keep an eye on what gets posted but having it in one place is a good thing.

Hy, the armor absorption is an interesting idea, but in my opinion simpler is always better, and I would worry that it would complicate things.

This is where I'm coming from: I'm GMing a high level campaign, and I have come to discover tracking plain old DR gets to be a pain in the rear end when it pops up all the time--especially when you have to subtract it each time from iterative attacks from a full attack.

Similarly, trying to track nonlethal vs. regular damage when everything gets split for every single hit would be more complicated than that. At 1st level, it's not a big deal. But assuming we're eventually going to go up a few levels, tracking what damage we take when we get hit three and four times in one turn is going to get harder---and likewise get harder for you to track the damage taken by enemies (and we only have to track what happens to our own characters; you have to track everybody!).

If you don't think it would be problematic, I'd be willing to give it a go. But maybe we should try a few more fights before changing anything. There might be other possible solutions too.

Bein'Meleth Rámalóce wrote:

Sounds good to me =) almost sounds like what they had in Unearthed Arcana for 3.5 (Trade marked by WOTC, yada yada) as a variant option. Although that one was slightly different from what your suggesting.

Armor as damage reduction. Unearthed Arcana

Yeah, the problem with that system is that it makes you easier to hit without increasing your effective hit points for each encounter, it just makes you heal faster between them. This increases the chances of a TPK.

True, I only posted it in case you didn't know about and as a possible spring board for brainstorming. I used that system with my normal adventures and it turned out okay, but you are 100% correct on the fact that it didn't improve anything really :/. It was interesting but a flawed variant. I like your idea a lot better though. =)

@ Deathquaker: Thanks! I was hoping I didn't make it to overly complicated xD, but I was trying to make it all inclusive. That way I have just one format we can get used to before things get really oout of hand. But once we sell some stuff off it will clean up nicely. But I am glad you like it!

So far I have 3 pages on there, it should be listed on the bottem of the page when you load it. (BoO - Base of Operations)

Warchest Total Loot - Stuff at our BoO

New Loot - So I can keep stuff separate until we get back to our BoO, that way the DM can make it hard on us if we find stuff that weighs a ton and we have to figure out a way to carry it back with us lol.

Expedition Gear sheet - Nuff said~.