I would have been glad to provide you the flank Nicoleta. Sorry. Not sure how much I can move my animal companion around for such things. What do you think GT? Some cats do flank with each other. Lions are pack hunters.
And is the Spider dead?
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The spider is very much alive.
EDIT: Wait, sorry. Didn't see your chain of attacks before posting this. Let me count up the damage. : P
As for animal tactics, I generally don't have a problem with Int 2 animals taking basic factors like flanking, when to charge and when not to charge, readied attacks, and the like into account. Wolves do all those things, and the more clever fighters in the animal world (like badgers and monkies and dolphins) use tactics quite above and beyond those.
I'd only take offense the lion taking factors it could not possibly understand into account, such as readying until a spell is cast, or deciding whether or not to charge, flank, trip, etc based on some monster knowledge that YOU are aware of but the lion is not. Stuff like that.
I take it an 18 failed the poison save, or did you just roll the damage result with the save?
I was also unsure about the effect of the grease. I see where you said the spider did not fall, but since its still in the grease did it have to make any save or balance check to attack?
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An 18 fails. I know all your ACs, so I don't post damage that doesn't go through. If you see it - you take it. : P
As for the grease question: no. The grease spell requires an initial Reflex save, then thereafter requires creatures passing through or within the area to make an Acrobatics check or suffer adverse effects dependant on how good or bad the check was. Fighting without moving requires no such check within the affected area, though.
I think it would have, and that might have saved the lion. When an 18 fails the save I am not sure we can save him from death by con loss. He had a 13 con - down to 10. I am guessing at least 5 more saves and likely have to make two in a row to end the poison. On average he is a dead cat walking. I will try to bolster his save with Heal checks, but I have to beat the DC of the poison to grant +4. I am +6 to heal. Alternatively I could cast guidance on him for a +1. Not sure which is statistically better.
Any ideas anyone?
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The +2 might have made a big difference. Of course, the lion isn't dead yet. Heal is usable untrained, so you can do more than just double up on it. There's also the aid another action to consider. As for the statistically better option between Ojore's Heal check and his guidance spell: Do you have a 50% to pull off the Heal check? If so, roll it. If not, cast guidance. Also: has anyone got resistance prepared?
If there are 5 rounds left as Ojore supposes, and the average Con damage is 2, then the lion may survive as long as he saves at least once (or as long as I roll poorly on the Con damage). It's quite unlikely that Shange will be in any shape to go adventuring, however. Not for several days, at least.
Of course, before any of this can matter, you'll need to kill the spider...
No one has resistance prepared, so its heal checks and guidance.
Given the DC is greater than 18, guidance stacked on top of heal seems the way to go. The bad thing with con damage of course is the chance to save decreases with each failed save. And if the lion takes a second bite...
Those of us with no heal bonuses (like Nesipho) will be better off aiding another. Much easier to hit the DC10 to aid for +2 than the DC19+ to succeed on our own.
@GT: Would the various bracelets/jewelry the spider is wearing give me the +3 to hit with shocking grasp as though the spider were wearing metal armor? Or rather does it have enough of such trinkets that it looks like I'd be able to make good use of their conductivity to increase the chance to hit?
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Well, he's carrying more metal than an ogre with a dagger (which, according to shocking grasp, would qualify you for the +3) would be. So (despite the fact that gold is a poor conductor... but we know what happens when you introduce real-world physics into a game of Pathfinder), I'd say RAW is vague, but RAI is clear, that you'd get the +3.
KIcking myself for going into the jungle without antitoxin. Anyone packing that elixir?
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Ojore, since Heal is not a trained only skill, everyone could try using aid another to assist you on your heal check for poison. That's all I am currently able to think of, since it looks like no one has a anti-toxin and you have the highest heal skill of the entire group. Hell, I even though of putting my cloak of resistance on your lion, but it wouldent have stacked with resistance being cast.
I thought someone had the same heal skill as I. no?
No one is casting resistance, so the cloak should help. Someone can take it off of you and put it on the cat if you continue to detect magic, as long as you move up next to the cat. Its at least possible (long shot?) that one of the amulets/belts/items on the spider could help, if we knew they were magic. And I think Nicoleta can do her priest thing for a reroll once - maybe...
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Unfortunately, my reroll doesn't allow me to reroll skill checks. It's all combat-based, attacks and defenses and so on.
I would suggest Nicoleta keep spamming guidance while Ojore makes Heal checks (hopefully aided by Kargath and Nesipho) and Elsir keep trying to find out if there's magic on the spider that could help. Ojore's got the best heal skill, and while Nic could help or even try her own and maybe succeed, the guidance is more certain.
GT: I don't think there is rule about donning or doffing magic items by default. I can't find one on a quick pass through the PRD, anyway. I would personally allow a character to remove a cloak as a move action and put it on the lion as a standard (sheathing a weapon is a move action, as is removing a shield, and doffing a cloak seems like a roughly equivalent amount of effort), but I really think it's GM's call.
Nothing to help the cat :(
Bracers should go to Elsir, as he is the only one not wearing any armor, and thus to the only one who can gain any benefit from them at the moment.
Unless we find ourselves fighting lots of generic mages I'd just as soon sell the brooch, though I don't really care if someone wants to claim it.
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Hey GT, elf's gain a +2 on rolls to identify magical items, that's why it was +12 rather than +10, I listed it under abilitys but I could have been more clear I suppose. Just something for next time. Sorry about the Cat, Inwish we could have done more, but it does bring up a valuable point, poison is very dangrous to us right now, perhaps we should sell the brooch and try to buy some anti toxin, a masterwork healers kid and a potion or two? I think this event really demonstrated one of our weak areas we need to strengthen.
Yay! Everything moved in and internet connected. I feel like an addict just finished with the DTs and now getting hooked all over again! Sorry for the delays.
I didn't use any spells, so won't need to worry about getting another 8 hours of rest. Elsir used 2 though, if we want him to have those available the following day we will need to either rest for an extra 4 hours, or have me be a sole-watcher during the last watch (or have a sole watcher during the 2nd watch with Nicoleta or Kargath joining me for the third watch).
Ojore will memorize Lesser Restoration and cast it on Shange in the morning IF the cat does live. I think he can only get one of those though.
I have 1 copy of grease prepared, so just a matter of whether we think we'd need more than 1 for crowd control in the coming day.
I think my vote would be to press on without the spells from Elsir for the one day.
I recommend giving both magic items to Elsir, at least for now to use. He is the only one who can put the bracers to any use. And as a wizard likely has the lowest health of the party, AND mostly likely to be the target of any magic missile spells because clever enemies will try to ready them to disrupt his magics.
Later we may choose to sell the bracers if Elsir often uses Mage Armor.
Oh, that sounds very nice. As soon as we can do so I recommend we buy a few communal items, including a healer's kit or 2, some anti-venom and a partially charged wand of Lesser Restoration. I am sure we can come up with a few other items for the common good.
I deliberately left 200g over from my starting funds to help pay for such...sadly I managed to not inform anyone of that fact until we were a goodly ways into the jungle :(
For some reason I feel like getting supplies is gonna be like being in a small town in the 1940s and ordering things from Sears and Robucks.
And you can use the catalog pages for something else when you're done!
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@ Everyone: Any further thoughts on what we're doing next? Tracking the spider is an option, by the way. This is a "living" campaign; even random encounters have to come from somewhere. Especially strange ones like this.
PS: The spider was a pre-prepared random encounter (one of many, and the luckiest one you could have gotten in a way, because you've just been endowed with quite a lot of cash right off the bat for an encounter which turned out to be easier than I'd hoped it to be), but none of my scripted random encounters are really all that random. This thing probably has a lair of some kind, and a place in the campaign. Of course, Shange is in bad shape, so that needs to be addressed, too.
I know a lot of folks are busy with GenCon - no rush - I just want to make sure we're making some actual decisions about where to go and what to do now. You have a very injured lion, a dungeon delve down the road, a large quantity of gold at your feet, and a strange and completely unexplained giant spider corpse to puzzle over. Thoughts? Agenda?
Also! I just want to brag to my PbPs... Abandoned Arts totally got a little mention on the Store Blog today. I'm on the font page of paizo.com, and I've only been at this in a professional capacity for a month and a half. And I've been featured in the Paizo newsletter at least three times recently, and three of my products occupied three (low-ish) spots on the "top 10 downloads from other companies" list last week. How cool is that?
I'm stoked. Hey; does anybody want a free PDF? Send me a PM and let me know which one you want, and I'll ask Liz to hook you up. If you can't hook up your gaming table with free stuff, what's the point of authoring for a third party production company, right?
heh, I saw that callout when I was there looking for the Ultimate Equipment (which they originally said would be available via PDF today, and that now they have pushed back a week). Congratulations! PM sent.
As for the direction that we are going, I fully think Kargath would prefer to press on to the dungeon, though the possibility of more loot at the creature's lair would intrigue him.
HI GT,
I for one am having a great time with your game. The encounter was plenty hard for a first random fight. The spider's AC was pretty good and the DC on the poison was almost too much to recover from. There was a very good chance that a bite would have killed any one party member.
The pace is refreshing compared to my other PBP experiences. Usually they go way too slow for me. Here are some thoughts/ideas on where we are:
1) Do we know approximately how much gold we just found? We have identified some specific party needs and there is no way to spend that gold out here. One suggestion would be to immediately go back and further equip. Might be smarter to admit that we were under provisioned than to proceed that way...
2) Totally out of character loosing the lion would likely have been easier than healing it back up. I do not want to loose Shange, and will do anything I can IC to prevent his death, but a druid can replace an animal companion in 24 hours IF he is in their native habitat. Of course another spider might come to visit me while I am calling a new lion. :)
3) Something is up with the spider. As I think you mentioned, it would not be capable of adorning itself with the items it was wearing. That means something. Could be that it has worshipers who adorned it. Maybe it has an alternate form. I don't want to derail current plans but Ojore would be fine trying to track it back to its lair.
So, if we are voting, my vote is to finish the night, let me cast lesser restoration on the cat, and try to track the spider. After either success or failure, take what treasure we have back to base camp and resupply before setting out a second time. This may not make our leader happy. I am not sure if there is any real rush or time critical element for the current mission though. Please update me it there is.
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... Might be smarter to admit that we were under provisioned than to proceed that way...3) Something is up with the spider. As I think you mentioned, it would not be capable of adorning itself with the items it was wearing. That means something. Could be that it has worshipers who adorned it. Maybe it has an alternate form. I don't want to derail current plans but Ojore would be fine trying to track it back to its lair.
So, if we are voting, my vote is to finish the night, let me cast lesser restoration on the cat, and try to track the spider.
I would agree, I say we try to track down the spider's lair. There is def something going on here and I think that Elsir would be interested to find out what it is. We do need additional supplys however such as a antitoxin, a masterwork healers kit and if we sold the brooch I could use the gold to make some other wonderous items that might be better for the party as a whole. But lets investiage first. thoughts?
GT: I saw your offer for free PDF's and if your feeling generious, I would love to check out Class Acts: Wizards (PFRPG) PDF. I was really interested in your stuff about Ioun stones in there.
p.s. sorry about the spelling, I have no auto-correct / spell checker here and I am trying to get this post out inbetween meeting.
The biggest risk (probably) about tracking the spider would be encountering a second one. If something is worshiping it, whatever it is is likely less powerful (though probably in greater numbers).
If we were to encounter another one though, unless we were sleeping it would likely die much quicker, 3 of us being asleep and taking several rounds to get into the combat slowed us down in killing it. Of course we also got lucky in that it's attacks weren't landing either.
If a member does get bitten, on average, a single fort save should place a player at -10 to con, leaving any of us still alive, but very sick. But that is assuming average con damage with the high DC fort save.
All that said, I'm open to tracking it.
@GT, I'll have to look through the PDF's and get back to you.
I haven't seen a post or PM or anything about my estimated worth on these. Wasn't sure if you posted and it got eaten? Or if you were just waiting till we were back at the base camp before mentioning the value of any treasure we've carried back?
I won't have my PDF copy for a week :(
@GT, did you post experience for killing the spider? Did that post get eaten? Or do you plan to award XP in bulk after we complete an area/encounter group/etc?
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I was thinking about that gold that we have from the spider. As GT has said, the dice are the dice. We might want to create a "emergency kit" with a few scrolls of restoration, a raise dead scroll, some potions of lesser restoration, and perhaps a delay poison or two. It could run us 4k or so. Just thinking ahead.