GM Dak - Shattered Star 1

Game Master Dakcenturi

Esrisi will definitely want to get back on Mokhasi's good side. She wants to be friends with everyone.

Depilate is a hair loss spell, I couldn’t find any hair regrowing spells. Does anyone know of anything canon in the spell database?

This may not be what you have in mind, but it does literally grow hair out quite long!
Strangling Hair

It's a good thing depilate is not on the Cleric/Oracle spell list.

Oh sorry you ninja'd me Vel. He will just add a shrug before going in :p

Was a bit busy going to a wedding, sorry!

So, back to work and more persistent access to a PC and perfect timing coming to the Crow :D.

Also, congrats on us surpassing 1k posts and moving on to part 3 of the first book!

All we really know is that another shard is here, right? If so, Drask will assume this is hostile territory and will lead the way, weapon in hand and shadow double active.

Correct, at this point all you know is there is another shard somewhere in this massive place.

Also, congrats on us surpassing 1k posts and moving on to part 3 of the first book!

Great job guys! I hope we can keep up the vigorous stomping through the future chapters.

Any preference on marching order? Sapher can be rear guard glancing behind them with darkvision. Or she can be in front to maybe take the first hit, so Drask can be in his prime to cleave their head off.

She has no ability to be quiet though, so if Vels is attempting to sneak, Sapher the steel clad not so ninja will be a big hindrance.

I figured Ez would be towards the front. If sneaking is the plan I am not wearing armor and can move around somewhat quietly. A typical placement would be up front but behind Drask and Sapher. If Saph is rear guard then I guess Esrisi is second behind Drask.

Let Drask be in front. He's built to take punishment. Sapher you should stack behind me since you have a low movespeed, only rotate to rear guard if we have reason to suspect we're leaving open paths behind us.

Like Drask, I don't really believe in rearguards generally--it just keeps a fighter out of the combat many times. My main exception is in a 5-foot hallway where there's only one front-line fighter possible, then you may as well have a rearguard.

Caroliss can be in the way back--she just wants to stay within 30 feet of her allies to use her various support abilities.

If there needs to be a rear guard, Esrisi can flex to the back so that we can keep our muscle up front.

So who is leading the way, Drask or Vel?

I mean...if we are going in no recon, let Drask and Sapher lead and I’ll “rear guard.” I’m an archer anyway.

Okay Sapher will be behind Drask. Ez behind her. Just need to know if Vels is in front now.

Let's just skip the scouting because of the light source problem. Vel can keep herself conveniently behind Esrisi. :)

Wonderful.

”Let me be your eyes Veltariel. You can hold my hand if you get scared...”

heh

Bonding is a wonderful thing :)

So Drask, Sapher, Ez, Car/Mok, Vels.

Finish the Fight is actually a really strong trait, especially in conjunction with the 3 attacks Drask already has. I'm actually very pleasantly surprised with how well this build is coming together, because TWF builds are so hard to get off the ground.

Before I forget...

Drask: 1d3 ⇒ 3
Esrisi: 1d3 ⇒ 3

Please tell me 3 is awesome. I'll take +3 HP or +3 to attack vs. elves.

Filth fever onset time from our muddy misadventures?

Wow that silver reagent trick is brutally efficient considering the cost is only 1gp. I need to take that on all of my wizards.

Filth fever onset time from our muddy misadventures?

Oof, I forgot about that. Why is Caroliss always proclaiming things boldly for the GM when they negatively impact Esrisi?!

I didn't make a save today for that, shouldn't I have?

I intend to maximize the reagent stuff as much as I can. There’s a ton there which is good.

Having +1 damage on acid splash just by holding a flask puts the average damage at 3, as opposed to 3.5 from a bow or 4.5 from a crossbow.

And having speed 35 has helped me twice already - somewhat pleased with how it is working out.

What are you talking about Filth Fever...? If you did have Filth Fever you don't know yet, so no need for a save yet.

Wait how are you increasing your speed?

I’m long limbed - very tall for an elf. :D traded out weapon training.

According to some of the books, Ekujae often have that trait, so I decided to be slightly less optimized for RP purposes (+2 concentration with arcane might have been better).

Oh alright for a second I thought you were saying some alchemical reagent was doing that.

Yeah that's a pretty decent option, although if I'm playing an elven caster I usually prefer the initiative bonus which also replaces weapon familiarity. If you start with the right familiar and a trait, you can easily start over +10 on your initiative. And that's without taking improved initiative. Now imagine a diviner wizard on top of that who also takes the feat. You can start level 1 with an initiative around +15, and it keeps scaling.

As you can see, Drask is a bit different than what I normally play :)

Caroliss Kaddren wrote:

Filth fever onset time from our muddy misadventures?

Oof, I forgot about that. Why is Caroliss always proclaiming things boldly for the GM when they negatively impact Esrisi?!

I didn't make a save today for that, shouldn't I have?

I think you don't save until the onset time passes.

I did roll a Heal check on you a while back to boost your next roll while I was cleaning you up. @GM Dak, can I also try to boost Drask's save with a heal check? Preventative measures Caroliss would take for the party, like feeding everyone chicken soup.

Yeah I will take that into account once this disease, that you all are obviously imaging, hits...

"I feel fine, Cars. You're clearly imagining things!"

So uh, why and how did Esrisi use an extra charge of that wand?

Ez breaks things that she holds do to her curse. For wands since they don’t gain a broke condition it says that they use two charges instead of one when she uses them.

Oh alright for a second I thought you were saying some alchemical reagent was doing that.

Yeah that's a pretty decent option, although if I'm playing an elven caster I usually prefer the initiative bonus which also replaces weapon familiarity. If you start with the right familiar and a trait, you can easily start over +10 on your initiative. And that's without taking improved initiative. Now imagine a diviner wizard on top of that who also takes the feat. You can start level 1 with an initiative around +15, and it keeps scaling.

As you can see, Drask is a bit different than what I normally play :)

Aye, but I couldn’t take fleet-footed as I had swapped out keen senses for illustrious urbanite, which helps in other ways.

I may get a familiar, but I haven’t decided yet.

I think that I would note that unless it is an emergency that I would request Esrisi not use any more “group” wands then, please.

Ah, that is why you asked Mok to use the wand on you! I didn't know that about wands.

Spaher is getting a familiar next level, I had been thinking some kind of songbird, cause of it being from a goddess of love, but Bolka's sacred animal is a falcon so maybe that.

Ouch. That cuts deep Mokhasi. It's not my fault these hands are cursed! (Okay, it kind of is).

I had conferred with another party member before doing it because I had concern it wasn't an "effective" thing to do, so please note I'm not doing so without thought.

If it bothers you terribly, I will have Ez pay gold back to the party every time she uses it. Please deduct 15gp from Ez and distribute 3 to each party member.

I disagree with you having to pay back more. It gets Ez back up quicker which is good. And you put thought into whether you should or shouldn't, which you will again I'm sure if it comes up.

Wow that curse is so bad. Not only does it make you garbage at combat but it ruins your utility as well. Jesus remind me never to take that one.

I don’t see that drawback on the pfsrd or archives of nethys for the wrecker curse, nor do I see anything in the section regarding the broken condition for magic items? Is there somewhere that it is written that they operate like that when broken?

Never mind, I found it.

It's not in the context of Wrecker, it's the fact that anything she "equips" gains the broken condition.

I have it in my head that broken wands use two charges instead of one, so I'm sure I read it somewhere at some point. I'll need to either search it up or let Dak weigh in on his interpretation, but it seems right to me.

I serious about the gold Mokhasi, please remove 15 from me and give it to the others. It doesn't bother me at all and I'd rather there be no stress over my uses of it in the future.

You’re right, I edited my post to reflect that.

Ultimately, from my perspective as a player, I don’t mind you using double charges for level 1 wands if there is a legitimate need. But if it’s just for roleplaying, I think I have a limit for how much I’d appreciate before I got annoyed. Note that “wackiness” is included in the realm of this secondary category. :)

I am working through how Mokhasi would be processing interactions from the people he has compartmentalized. I have settled on the idea that he basically has set their specific natures aside, and sees them merely as components of what he believes to be an idealized group of Pathfinders. Any deviation or request outside of those parameters he ignores.

So essentially if you ask him to do something (even if it is unreasonable) that he thinks a Pathfinder might do in the service of the mission or the lodge, he will respond and act accordingly. If you ask him to tell a joke or ask him an unrelated question, he will ignore it. If you ask him to use magic in a way that doesn’t further the goal of the mission, he literally doesn’t understand (his coping mechanism to deal with stress has been to shut down creative centers of his brain and act almost like an automaton).

He still sees Drask and Sapher as individual people, because he trusts them both, but because he doesn’t know how to work with people he doesnt trust, everyone else has been subsumed (by default) into sort of a faceless other. He has to expend a lot of mental energy to see otherwise. To that end, Mokhasi will likely buy a blank ceramic mask in town to wear, a tradition of the warriors of Jatembe, to subsume himself within the identity of an “other” and separate his emotions even further.

Let’s see if the characters come to understand this, it’ll be interesting!

Hehe what a group of emotionally broken characters... I love it. What 1/2 to 2/3 of the group has some sort of emotional issue making things more difficult/interesting. Just need to break the rest of you now :D

Be interesting to eventually see the pieces (hopefully) get put back together.

Oh I hope so, if the other’s plans come to fruition, which there are signs of, Mokhasi will “come back”. But a broken mind does not become mended in one day.

Hehe what a group of emotionally broken characters... I love it. What 1/2 to 2/3 of the group has some sort of emotional issue making things more difficult/interesting.

What?! I'm fine. It's everyone else that's messed up!!!