Male(s) 27 Ducks in a James suit Duck 27/ Expert 5
I've been selected for jury duty, which means my internet access during the day (US East Coast time) may be spotty. I would like to get at least an initial post up either tomorrow night or Friday afternoon, but it may stretch out to Monday.
As it happens, I'm departing for NYC this evening and I might not have much time to post for the weekend either. Holding the first post 'till Monday might not be a bad idea.
Male(s) 27 Ducks in a James suit Duck 27/ Expert 5
Before we get started, I thought I would run a few ideas by you for house rules.
- First would be exploration related: one thing I thought was interesting in the much-maligned fourth edition was the idea of a Passive Perception check. Essentially, while you're in a dangerous place like a dungeon, dangerous wilderness area or a city location known for being dangerous, I would use your Perception score + 10 as your passive perception to see if there is anything out of the ordinary. Actively searching an area or peering into shadows for hidden foes will be under your control, making new rolls yourself but noticing secret doors you didn't think to check for or various other things may be automatic and wouldn't require me to constantly roll for you behind the scenes.
- Second would be gridless combat: I'll be honest, trying to keep up a grid with coordinates for each fight is the thing I like least about running a pbp. It feels like homework, be it for me or whomever is keeping up the map themselves. In a face to face game, it's fine because you just shuffle miniatures around and such, but if I can't be at my computer each round to update (and I often post from my phone) then it slows things down. I intend to use the rules as written for combat, but maybe we can be a little looser about it? If you say "I move forward to flank attacker A with Kua" or something like that, I'll make a ruling if it's a standard or move action and if you have enough room in the space to avoid an attack of opportunity. In this way, taking a double move to close for melee will almost always prevent any attacks of opportunity and we can move on to the next action and the next round.
- Area of effect spells will require a Spellcraft check to keep allies in melee out of the spell effect radius. For instance, if Auron is in melee with a troll and Yang wishes to use a burning hands spell, Yang will need to make a spellcraft check to line up the spell just right and avoid Auron. Combat can be messy, especially with spells flying around after all, and this will extend likewise to enemy spellcasters.
-Using a 5 foot step to leave melee, so long as it's a 1 on 1 fight, will prevent an attack of opportunity and allow a spellcaster to use a spell with a casting time of a standard action. An overwhelmed spellcaster with two melee combatants or more will need to either cast defensively or use a move action to escape.
Before we get started, I thought I would run a few ideas by you for house rules.
- First would be exploration related: one thing I thought was interesting in the much-maligned fourth edition was the idea of a Passive Perception check. Essentially, while you're in a dangerous place like a dungeon, dangerous wilderness area or a city location known for being dangerous, I would use your Perception score + 10 as your passive perception to see if there is anything out of the ordinary. Actively searching an area or peering into shadows for hidden foes will be under your control, making new rolls yourself but noticing secret doors you didn't think to check for or various other things may be automatic and wouldn't require me to constantly roll for you behind the scenes.
- Second would be gridless combat: I'll be honest, trying to keep up a grid with coordinates for each fight is the thing I like least about running a pbp. It feels like homework, be it for me or whomever is keeping up the map themselves. In a face to face game, it's fine because you just shuffle miniatures around and such, but if I can't be at my computer each round to update (and I often post from my phone) then it slows things down. I intend to use the rules as written for combat, but maybe we can be a little looser about it? If you say "I move forward to flank attacker A with Kua" or something like that, I'll make a ruling if it's a standard or move action and if you have enough room in the space to avoid an attack of opportunity. In this way, taking a double move to close for melee will almost always prevent any attacks of opportunity and we can move on to the next action and the next round.
- Area of effect spells will require a Spellcraft check to keep allies in melee out of the spell effect radius. For instance, if Auron is in melee with a troll and Yang wishes to use a burning hands spell, Yang will need to make a spellcraft check to line up the spell just right and avoid Auron. Combat can be messy, especially with spells flying around...
I like those. Especially the one about the spellcraft check to avoid friendlies; last adventure I just didn't cast many of my spells 'cause everyone rushed forward first ...
Cool, Ill leave it to you to determine how its all going to work with the combat reflexes and a reach weapon though, this build is really about control and taking advantage of reach/range to pin down the bad guys, and cleaves will come in shortly too - so just need to consider how people might be adjacently placed. Enemies are going to have a hard time coming into melee range and not drawing AoO's, unless they too have reach.
Happy with passive perception, as a Fighter though, Perception is something we don't tend to get involved with...!
Similarly Spells aren't something I'm chucking, but as I have 5 fire resist, I'm happy to get jagged in some of the low dice yield spells (1 d6 no worries, 2d6 only if Im fresh!) so if you have an Area Effect feel free to throw it in.
Male(s) 27 Ducks in a James suit Duck 27/ Expert 5
Yeah, line of sight won't be a big deal- I will say who has cover and what the approximate range may be and firing into melee will still carry penalties if you don't have precise shot. Not sure how to perfectly simulate reach just yet, but it's something we'll figure out. It will still be useful and I'll pay attention to it on each specific instance. We want to retain the tactical aspects without slowing down, not rob anyone of their utility. Acrobatics and mobility, I imagine, will still be very useful as well.
I'm good with trying out these house rules, although I may have a bit of trouble adapting to gridless combat. I really like the idea of passive Perception, Spellcraft checks to keep allies out of area of effect spells, and the house rule for moving out of combat.
One last minute swap that I thought I already did: Just want to take point blank shot instead of deadly aim. If that's not cool for whatever reason, let me know and I'll change it back.
It's turned into a busy day at work. I'm most likely not going to be able to post in detail until tonight but if you want to start before that, no problem.
Male(s) 27 Ducks in a James suit Duck 27/ Expert 5
Campaign's created and first post is up! I'm assuming that Shifty and Wander Weir's characters are still in Magnimar, I just thought I would throw in a little epilogue on unfinished business in Kaer Maga before diving in.
Fellow dungeon delvers: So I've never played an archer character before. I bought 40 arrows to start Kua out with. Does that seem like enough? I'm sure I'll have time to pick some more up once we're running around Magnimar, but I'm not sure if I should bother.
As a player and GM I usually assume the player is fletching new ones, and worst case scenario if that magic handwave doesn't work, buy some for others to carry for you too :) And always carry a sling.
Shifty: Sounds good to me! It makes sense to me that we'd both be in Magnimar already, and as a member of the society would Oren have an invitation as well or would he have been asked to attend the meeting directly?
Heading away in the am for some relaxing chill time - may or may not have internetz... so just posting last posts for the night, back in about 36 or so hours guys!
Well, time again for me to add to my bank of airline miles. I'm leaving again for Turin on Saturday, and won't be back until the following Saturday (the 6th). Please feel free to DMPC me in that time when needed.
Male(s) 27 Ducks in a James suit Duck 27/ Expert 5
Probably as good a time to ask as any: how do you guys feel about tracking XP? The adventures have benchmarks for what level you should be by what time, etc. but we can also start handing out xp if you prefer it that way. The side quest items tend to be a little more enticing if they award XP as well as gold, items or favors, but it is also one more thing to keep track of.
Not a big deal to me either way. I've got no problem tracking XP but if not handing it out makes things more manageable for you then I'm cool with that.
I have historically found that AP's do an terrible job of giving enough XP to actually meet the level indicators in line with the AP progression, even with the side quests. This is my sixth* AP and we have always been very thorough, yet oddly we always end up well below the WBL until usually book 2 or 3, and always come in UNDER the suggested level for the second book and usually the third as well... I wonder if they are even doing the math when they write these things :P
So if you bear that in mind, I wouldn't mind seeing it abstracted out (or just give us a bump if we come in 'under level' for the next installment).
*
Legacy of Fire
Second Darkness
Rise of the Runelords
Council of Thieves
Skull & Shackles (actually seems 'vaguely' on track XP, WAAAAY off WBL)
Shattered Star
Since Pathfinder splits all XP evenly, one of us could just keep track of a group total. That way, we would have incentive to do side quests and the folks who don't like book keeping won't have to worry about it.
Assuming of course that James wants to bother with it at all.
Male(s) 27 Ducks in a James suit Duck 27/ Expert 5
I think we'll just go with the benchmark system and if you do side trek things, I'll sweeten the deal with either a little more coin since you have 2 more PCs than the default or prestige points in the Society that you can cash in for favors/spellcasting or magic items.
Male(s) 27 Ducks in a James suit Duck 27/ Expert 5
Sorry for the hold-up, I'm catching up with work and fighting off a cold. Which means Grandpa over here has been going to bed at 8:30- the round will continue today.
I'm open to thoughts about how the combat can work better for you guys, if you have suggestions.
Bryan
