Ith's PFS pbp (Inactive)

Game Master ithuriel

Hmmm, Int of 6 doesn't make you the best at describing the stuff you see, when you see it.....Those perceptions are *hard*.

This situation arps back to something that I've either miss-understood from the rules, or that *noone* ever plays out properly. As I DM I certainly ignore it....

But pretty much everything should have HP down to -Con. As soon as things are down, DM says "combat over" and everyone forgets about the bodies, except to loot them. Now technically a pretty decent amount of those things should get back up and start walking.....So does *everyone* just assume coup de gras?

Nope.

Unless the players actually tell me they do it, I assume they leave them to bleed out or stabilize on their own (which is what I was calculating here).

That said, I know a lot of GMs who, once the creatures are knocked unconscious, unless the players have a particular reason for wanting to keep them alive, simply declare them dead - the old joke being that only creatures with 'names' don't die at 0hp ;-)

Sorry for my sparse posting right now. I'm in the middle of the overwhelming holiday work load. No days off and long long hours. I'll be back to normal after the new year and post when I can until then.

Seven hours until my time zone hits midnight...Happy New Year!

Same to you and the rest of the group, Tal!

I don't know if anyone is interested in the kickstarter PFS boon, but I went ahead and got it just to give them a little support.

It is the $5 pledge level and you get a chronicle sheet which is a list of boons. You can use it to get the simple advanced template for one scenario (basically +2 to everything you would roll or DCs of your abilities) or you can roll on a chart to take a permanent beneficial mutation. If two or more people use that boon at the same time they can choose a mutation off the list rather than roll.

There is no list at the moment. Boon would be delivered in March according the the kickstarter. I'm not an MMO guy, but they are squeaking in at the last minute so I thought I'd mention it over here.

BTW- I know that offering a boon that you could essentially buy was super unpopular on the PFS boards. As long as they don't make a habit out of it (and they say they will not) I'm indifferent.

I'm in on it, too ith. Be interesting to see what happens with the bonuses

Yeah...I've already pledged $105 to get the Emerald Spire Print Pack & PFS Boon. I was hoping for more of a tabletop RPG "wow factor" stretch goal or last minute add-on; but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. I have zero interest in the MMO...or any MMO for that matter.

Regardless at this point it looks like it will be funded, so I'm curious to see what they'll come up with for the boon.

Awesome. So if either of you guys chose to apply the benefit to these characters we'll be able to pick the permanent benefit. If you are using them on others, no worries. I'll find an online table to kick it in.

If Alie lives, I'll apply the bonus to her, as she's my highest level PFS character. When it comes live, tell me what to do, ith, and we'll get them hooked up with the bonuses.

What do you mean, if? :-P

I, too, have backed the Kickstarter (mostly for the module, admittedly); I will be curious to see whether I can use the cert, as a GM...

Heads up-

I'm working in Paris for a couple of months and will be leaving this weekend. I'm pretty sure I'll have wifi when I arrive so it shouldn't be too much disruption, but I'll be out most of Sunday.

-d

As far as I am aware, no ranged attack roll is needed; it is basically a Fireball in a can ;-)

I've been asked to by some DMs, though not had cause in society games. They treat it like a splash weapon, you have to try to hit something, and if you miss it goes astray... I can see both sides, and it doesn't say in the description anything that implies it is, it just seems to make sense that you wont *always* get it just where you want, no matter how good a shot you are.

I'm happy to go with the liberal interpretation though ;)

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I'll be on holiday in Cancun next week and I'm not sure what my connectivity situation will be. I will post as actively as I can until I hop on my plane Sunday night.

Also....with 4x Cause Fear and now an Animate Dead...do these monkey heads ever run out of spells?

Lots of monkey heads, and lots of spell-like abilities... that is all I will say ;-)

Just for the sake of clarity:

There are multiple 'Monkey Gods', each with spell-like abilities that can each be used multiple times per day.

They don't have the ability to Animate Dead the living; in the case of Da'Tunga, they used Death Knell, and then animated him, whilst in the case of Grey, the used coup-de-grace, and *then* animated him.

Also, their tactics specify that they attempt to animate the fallen...

(This is something that can only be done at the high tier.)

FYI I'm on holiday this week so my posting will be spotty at best. However other than allowing two zombies to attack me 9 times I'm not sure what I can do anyway. We're victims of some early tactical mistakes, poor rolls and a scenario that seems to be severely unbalanced. (I mean we're a little low in damage output to begin with...but the seemingly unlimited number of spells these monkey gods have is just too much for this party to deal with.)

How about an arrow? If for no other reason than that there is an Alie and a Wadi between you and them. Remember, these are fast zombies, and have no DR...

Well that makes more sense then. I had the idea that they did every action in triplicate since everything seems to force three saves.

Obviously I wasn't trying to get killed there, but if Wadi can make it through I'm fine if Anashka doesn't. I have a higher level character that I was planning on bringing in anyway, where if Wadi dies he's back to L1. I think I even had just enough prestige for a raise dead, but it isn't going to matter on this one.

Really we've been on a spiral of bad luck and decisions from the beginning- from no full on melee guy to playing up to continually thinking one more action might turn the tide in this last fight, but at the same time the scenario seems like it is just mean to force multiple saves vs the same effect so many times throughout one scenario. If we weren't playing up maybe it wouldn't have been a big deal.

This is only the fourth time I've actually played this character so its not like I'm too attached. Even if I was, stuff happens.

It seems like this scenario must have gotten tougher in the conversion too.
For example-
vargouilles in 3.5: 5 hps, AC 12, +3 to hit, kiss DC 15
vargouilles in PF: 19 hps, AC 15, +5 to hit, kiss DC 16
Somehow they both come out to CR 2, which means they probably just subbed in the same number of significantly harder monsters.

Am I kooky to think we still might have a shot here? If one of us can hit the ape and put it down, Grey shouldn't be that much trouble.

How long is everyone else still out of action? If Tal and the others come back, we might get through it.

How about if Anashka rises as another fast zombie this turn?

Heh...not so good I would say.

Hmmmm... Not so good.

Tal can come back whenever he wants, Kovar is about to come back, and Fog is back next turn.

Provided someone hits Da'Tunga, I would say that you have an excellent chance of *everyone* surviving.

Multiple Vargouilles are always nasty - I remember a module from the LG days where an encounter consisted 12 of the little blighters; the sheer volume of saves decimated an APL 8 party :-/

Get back in the game, Tal. Let's go in, and finish these jokers off.

Do we know or think we know what the monkey skulls are doing (from an in-game prospective). I can do one of three things- continue to attack Gray, heal Ana to stabilize her (two HP until dead), or attack the monkey skulls.

Unless someone has a better idea, I'll try to finish off Grey, next turn stabilize Ana (unless already done) and then go after the skulls.

Do you know that they are using spell-like abilities? No.

Do you think it is more than a little odd that these strange, blood-caked bone idols are rolling around, seemingly by themselves? Yes.

React to that as you will.

Aye, that is the problem with having a monkey in charge at the moment!

Alie also has the CLW wand, Kovar. If she can hit her UMD score, she can help stabilize one of them next round.

I think she already tried...so she can't try again.

Is that right? I did try and fail, but it wasn't a terrible fail, so I thought I could try again. If not, that's no good. :(

Wadi has a couple of potions (one CLW and one CMW) you can use for him.

Nope...you're right. It only locks up on you on a natural 1...not sure what I was thinking.

Fog's first action is going to be to heal Ana... He likes her ;)

Quick question...

I was discussing the difficulty we've been having with scenario this weekend with a friend of mine who has run it a few times and, although he didn't have a copy of the scenario with him, he seemed to recall that characters affected by the mist template are immune to fear. If this is true the entire course of this battle might have gone very differently.

Can you check this out for us Luke? Not sure what we can do (if anything) about what's already happened but it would be good to know as we move forward since it would prevent our heavy hitters from running away again.

I've just dug out the appropriate spoiler, and yes Tal, that's right.....

Immune to fear was one of the things we were told, and it would seem neither myself or Kovor rememberd that bit....

Doh! That might have changed things a bit in this adventure...

Hmmm... That would seem to be correct.

Sorry guys :-/ I'll chalk that one up to the PbP format; we would all remember the template for the course of a face-to-face session, but over the course of weeks/months on-line, we forget things :-(

To be fair, the only encounter it would have changed would have been this one, and the main difference is that Fog and Kovar would not have been targeted by the fear effects - other people would have been.

That happens, Luke. Part of the game. Looks like we might make it out anyway!

I think the round count might have been lower, but similar effects would have occurred - after all, if you compare what I rolled with 'Da'Tunga' and 'Da'Tunga Risen' against Fog/Kovar's AC, they would probably have gone down, too.

I think the main difference is that they would have had a greater chance of actually hitting their targets and would have also been doing much more damage per round.

I'm fine with how it's gone, it's *not* the DMs job to remember this stuff, or to react according to it.

At best, Fog and Kovar would have shaken off a fear effect and got a round of hits in before being smashed to the ground, along with most of the healing capability! Onwards and upwards, and next time I copy paste the whole text into my profile ;)

I think the main difference is that they would have had a greater chance of actually hitting their targets and would have also been doing much more damage per round.

Hence why I said the round count would have been lower :-)

That said, a full attack from Da'Tunga(Risen) would still have put *any* of the PCs down...

All is well, and perhaps for the best! I was keeping track of the effect in hero lab, but apparently there isn't a tab that blinks wildly "Immune to Fear!", lol.

I've never "played up" before. I am anxious to see what sort of goodies we get for completing this scenario.

Also, that will mean Alie is only one more XP from 4th level and her initial second level spell!!!

Looking through my actual physical books since I have the day off work....

The only real difference between a level of cleric and a level of fighter is:

Cleric gets an extra first level spell per day and a straight +1 to will saves, and caster level goes up.

Fighter gets More HP, A bonus Feat, and +1 to Will vs Fear.

So i think fighter is *definitely* is.

I'm thinking Fight On and Channel Smite for feats.

Any thoughts?

I think I'd take Power Attack as one of the two feats, but that's just me. That's the only 'must have' feat for a front liner I can think of. Either of the others would be fine, IMHO.

Already got PA, I just forget about it. A lot.