Navior's Serpent's Skull

Game Master Navior


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I'm still here! But only two people actually answered my question, and I've been a bit uncertain how to proceed from there...

At any rate, I guess I should assume from people being active on this thread that people would like to continue, so I will have Serpent's Skull up and running again on Monday.


Oh, um...

Navior wrote:
I suppose the first question ought to be, just to be sure, do people want to continue this campaign?

I doubt it's news to anyone that I haven't actually liked the direction of this AP since the end of book 1. And I find Douena's severe underpoweredness a trial. (I was hoping the variant multiclassing rules in Unchained might help, but they don't give a cleric the skill points to be a decent rogue, and a rogue variant-multiclassed to cleric is even farther behind the "you must have this-level spell to engage with this encounter" curve than Douena is.)

I enjoy the group of players in this game a great deal, and I enjoy Douena as long as she's not put in a situation where she's expected to do damage or have a level-appropriate spell on tap. I'd rather continue the game than not, as long as everyone's on board.

....DB3 and Javell? I think you're the last two not to chime in explicitly if you want to keep playing or not?


I think that's been pretty clear. :)

I've also been pretty open with my own disappointment with the second adventure. The perils of starting an AP before the whole thing's been published (wow, has it really been that long since we started?).

You're almost through the second adventure, and while the third one has a really bad reputation, it does have the advantage of being a lot more flexible. There's a lot I can do with it to make it a more interesting and fun adventure. And the PCs have a lot more control over what they do and how they do it.


Male Humanly Awesome 'n Totally Rockin' Paladin of Greatness

Sure.


Male Half-Orc Barbarian(Totem Warrior/Invulnerable Rager) : 2 Druid(Wolf Shaman) : 4

I've been playing it offline and let me tell you, Navior makes this book a lot better than my offline GM. He posts his rolls for one, and doesn't add more creatures and give everything max HP. Let's just say everyone is super excited for when we finish 5 and 6 so we can move on to a new AP(carrion crown!) and a new GM who will be running for the first time.

I'm good to go if we keep playing. You guys are a lot more fun for it too.


That's everyone! Hooray!

The game shall resume tomorrow...


And we're back!

One snag: I've discovered that MapTool no longer works for me. There are compatibility issues between the latest versions of Java (which MapTool needs) and Linux. I am currently in the process of figuring out Roll20 and getting the maps done up there instead. This might mean a slight delay on map updates.


Mahjik the Flink wrote:
Just so everybody is on board: Mahjik's profile has been updated with his equivalent implementation using the Monk Unfettered's monk rules. I assume it is okay to play with that, though Navior hasn't let me know if he finished reading the PDF yet.

So what actually changed from old Mahjik to new Mahjik? AC, BAB, different abilities?


@Joana: the character summary is in the profile, though with little explanation for all the abilities (like "monkey's ambition"). He's now a true 3/4 BAB and uses an alternate flurry progression (no pseudo-full-BAB))

Most of his feats are "Extra Insight" (similar to Extra Rogue Talent).

A short summary: sage, bend in the wind, monkey's ambition, versatile flurry, contemplation in the flesh, high jump, (improved) fight without thought

Sage (Ex): a monk with this insight can make Knowledge checks untrained and may use his Wisdom modifier instead of his Intelligence modifier when making Knowledge checks.

Bend in the wind (Ex): a monk with this insight gains Dodge as a bonus feat, at 6th level he additionally gains Mobility as a bonus feat.

Monkey’s ambition (Ex): a monk with this insight gains Catch-Off Guard and Throw Anything as bonus feats.

Versatile flurry (Ex)*: a monk with this insight may use improvised weapons when performing a flurry. A monk may select this insight a second time to flurry with any simple weapon, a third time to flurry any martial weapon, and a fourth time to flurry any exotic weapon. Additional selections of this insight do not count against the number of deep insights applied. A monk must have the monkey’s ambition insight before selecting this insight. This is a deep insight.

Contemplation without limit (Ex): a monk with this insight may apply an additional deep insight.

High jump (Ex): a monk with this insight adds his level to all Acrobatics checks made to jump, both for vertical jumps and horizontal jumps. In addition, he always counts as having a running start when making jump checks using Acrobatics. By spending 1 point from his ki pool as a swift action, a monk gains a +20 bonus on Acrobatics checks made to jump for 1 round.

Fight without thought (Ex)*: when performing a flurry, a monk with this insight may use his Wisdom modifier instead of his Strength modifier on attack rolls until the start of his next turn. A monk must have the sage insight before selecting this insight. A monk must be at least 4th level before selecting this insight. This is a deep insight.

Fight without thought, improved (Ex): a monk who uses the fight without thought insight may use his Wisdom modifier instead of his Strength modifier on all attack rolls (including maneuvers). The monk may spend 1 ki as a swift action to add his Wisdom modifier to all damage rolls for 1 round. A monk must have the fight without thought and sage insights before selecting this insight. A monk must be at least 6th level before selecting this insight.


But what is he giving up from the "fettered" monk to get those things? Or are they just free power-ups? I know a lot of them are just repackaged abilities he already had under other names, but it looks to me as if, for instance, Mahjik just went from +0 to +4 on all Knowledge checks. What is he sacrificing for the extra versatility?


Hey folks,

I'm going to be away for a few days and won't have internet access. I'll be back on Sunday. Take care!


@Joana: mostly everything, there are a couple of "core" features that the monk keeps (such as stunning fist, evasion, and purity of body). Excerpt from Monk Unfettered:

Quote:
(The) classic monk possesses a number of inherent class features that have been removed in the redesigned monk – maneuver training, high jump, wholeness of body, improved evasion, diamond body, abundant step, diamond soul, empty body, as well as 6 bonus feats. That means a total of 14 class features have been removed, which in turn have been replaced by 11 insights.

Insights are gained at level 1 and every even level (i.e. 11 in total). Naturally the removed class features (other than "Bonus Feats") can be regained manually as insights; but there are also plenty of other options (a total of 152 insights).

Some of the insights are "deep insights" of which a monk only can use a limited number at any given time. At level 1 that is 1. This increases at levels 8 and 16. The insight "contemplation without limit" increases the limit by 1. Deep insights are typically the things that allow interesting things, such as emulating a monk of the empty hands (via "versatile flurry").

Grand Lodge

Navior, I had forgotten how many NPCs you were running. So you know, you've ruined the tag-a-long NPC for me. In every other game I'm in that has tag-a-long npcs like Shalelu and the Black Arrows in Rise of the Runelords: Hook Mountain Massacre and Ameiko, Shalelu, Sandru, and Koya in Jade Regent, I find that I feel like the npcs don't pull their weight. I get that we're the heroes, but that doesn't mean that the npcs are spectators. In this game, and I know that this was said before, the NPCs are fully realized characters. I love it. You are the bar I measure all others by.


Thank you for the kind words! I do my best.

I've always felt it important that NPCs be fully believable characters, especially if they're tagging along with the party, and that means they should interact and become involved in what's happening. After all, from the point of view of the characters, they don't know who's a PC and who's an NPC. Of course, on a meta-level, there's then a delicate balancing act to make sure the PCs remain the stars of the show and that the NPCs never overshadow the PCs. It's a balancing act that I really enjoy, and it's always good to hear that I'm getting it right!

Now this group has a very large number of NPCs tagging along, which makes it very difficult. As much as I enjoy tag-along NPCs, I'm looking forward to being able to reduce the number somewhat. :)


If Navior has to bot Makoa again, he'll be fighting both sides of the combat by himself. Lorekeeper, you should have moved Mahjik up to take the last spot in melee before Ishirou grabbed it ... unless you're hoping to get him killed off so it's one fewer NPC with the group. ;)


Yay, battle which turned into mostly me fighting myself is over! :)

I'm going to be away for a couple days. I probably won't be able to post again until Monday. Have a good weekend everyone!


Hope you had a safe trip. Let's find ourselves some tre- ...exploring!


I'm concerned about straight-up dividing into PCs and NPCs, even if it would make it easier on Navior. If we're both exploring, what happens if the NPCs go the 'interesting' way and trigger all the plot-centric events? Not to mention that if we have to pay to bring anyone else back to life, we're going to be fighting the BBEG with rocks and pointy sticks.

We could divide into a couple of groups and put PCs and NPCs in each. It's potentially twice the work for Navior, if he has to put up two sets of combat maps, etc.

Alternatively, we could leave the NPCs to camp in the first room we came in, which would solve all our ooc issues, although I'm not sure what our in-character justification would be. (Well, not all our issues. The only thing Douena can contribute to most combats is providing a flank to get Pezock's and/or Ishirou's sneak-attack dice in play. Without them around, she's even more useless than she is now.)

Grand Lodge

+1

It's really Navior's fault for giving us NPC's that we like and then letting us take them with us.


Yeah, splitting up the party at this moment could cause you all kinds of concerns (and me, too).

Of course, splitting up into PCs and NPCs would give me the opportunity to kill all the NPCs off in one fell swoop. ;)


That's what I'm afraid of. ;P


Male Humanly Awesome 'n Totally Rockin' Paladin of Greatness
Navior wrote:
Of course, splitting up into PCs and NPCs would give me the opportunity to kill all the NPCs off in one fell swoop. ;)

HAHAHAHA!!! LOL!!! No concerns for me! Let's split the party! Let's split the party! Yay! No more NPC's! Yay! *Finally stops celebrating and notices several pairs of glaring eyes*

ORRRRR, what I really meant to say was: I mean, uh, that's probably a bad, um, idea to split the party... yeah. I'm pretty fairly sure that's not a good idea at, um, you know, all. Mostly. ANYway! Who wants ice cream?

Navior ONLY(The rest of you just eat your ice cream. There's nothing to see here, folks, you can trust me.):

All right, Navior, how much will it take to buy off the deaths of these red shirt rejects, hm? Money is no object. Also, we're gonna have to make it look like an "accident". We don't need suspicion flying our way. I've got a few ideas we could roll with when the "situation presents itself". *Wink, wink*

You know, something to the effect of: "The building begins to cave in! Oh no, the Expendable group(Okay, okay, the NPC's if you must) are trapped on the other side of the wall! Oh that's too bad. I sure hope they survive. Anyway, continuing along with the great group..."

Or even: "The building begins to cave in! Oh no, the multitude of rocks that fell JUST SO HAPPEN to pinpoint the proverbial 'monkeys-on-your-back' - (What? That's no good either? Alright, just put in stupid ol' NPC's I guess. Stupid ol' is also no good? Kinda demanding aren't we, Navior? Fine. Whatever) - specifically and each of them were hit several times! Looks like it's curtains for our poor NPC's. But on the plus side, doesn't your back feel better? Anyway, where to next for our fantastic band of heroes?"

You can even throw in: "High above you fly several flappybites and OH MY GOSH! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! In a most surprising move by the typically docile creatures, they swoop down with fantastic speed and manage to grapple ONLY the reje... I mean our friendly, neighborhood NPC's and carry them away! Unfortunately for the superb crew that is left, you were all far too surprised to even react. Ah well. So, awesome group of awesomness, where to next?"

Any one of those should suffice. :)


I say we send the New Guy with the NPCs. ;P

Shadow Lodge

Look, you already killed off one love interest, don't kill off potential ones too! XD


Is this where I insert EVIL DM LAUGHTER (TM)? ;)


Who needs to split the party when you can instead split the party? :P


So we're leaving behind Ishirou, Jask, Sasha, and Shokambe? I'd say leave behind Lorenz as well, but when we've finally got to the giant wasp poison, it seems like we should definitely bring him along. Plus, I think he still has the only magic weapon.

Grand Lodge

We are a party of sixth level characters and we only have one magical weapon between us? Amazing. It is now my goal to own the second one in our group.


I'll have you know that Mahjik counts as a magical weapon.

:p


Great! Next battle, Makoa can just pick up Mahjik and swing him by his ankles to hit the monster with. ;)


Joana wrote:
Great! Next battle, Makoa can just pick up Mahjik and swing him by his ankles to hit the monster with. ;)

Now, that I want to see! :)


Male Half-Orc Barbarian(Totem Warrior/Invulnerable Rager) : 2 Druid(Wolf Shaman) : 4

Body Bludgeon rage power or Caught off-Guard + Weapon Focus(Mahjik)?


Male Humanly Awesome 'n Totally Rockin' Paladin of Greatness
Makoa Wolf'sKin wrote:
Body Bludgeon rage power or Caught off-Guard + Weapon Focus(Mahjik)?

LOL!!! That's just greatness!!! Oh man you got me rolling on that one! :D

Shadow Lodge

During the Advanved Player's Guide Playtest, I tried out an alchemist with 20 Str just to see reactions... and then I threw a soaking wet Paladin at a fire elemental.

Win-win.


Navior, have you given any consideration to starting up your blog again, or is running this game as much extracurricular activity as you can keep up with right now?


Male Humanly Awesome 'n Totally Rockin' Paladin of Greatness
Mahjik the Flink wrote:
"Huh, what do you know, there's a wise guy over there,

So makes me wanna reply: "Come 'ere, you! Watch my hand." *Moves hand back and forth, and as he watches he pokes him in the eyes* "Now get outta here!" *Grabs him by the nose and shoves him along* :)


Joana wrote:
Navior, have you given any consideration to starting up your blog again, or is running this game as much extracurricular activity as you can keep up with right now?

I do intend to get my blog going again. In fact, I intended to have it going again a month ago. That didn't happen, obviously, but with a little luck, my first new review will be up tomorrow. After that, I hope updates will become more regular. I also promised Lorekeeper a review of his monk book.


Try to do an entry on the new Doctor Who promo image that was released because I want to complain about it. (Let's see if you know why.) :P


Heh, I think I will. As for why you'd want to complain about it... I'd say probably because of the way Clara is gazing so lovingly at the Doctor instead of paying attention to what's going on around her. The Doctor's running frantically away from the explosion and she looks like she's just going jogging with her boyfriend.

I'd also throw in the complaint that it's another terrible photoshop job like most of the promo picks of the last several years. I don't know why they don't just take photographs of the Doctor and companion like they used to. Or perhaps even a still from an episode.


Navior wrote:
As for why you'd want to complain about it... I'd say probably because of the way Clara is gazing so lovingly at the Doctor instead of paying attention to what's going on around her.

Replace "lovingly" with "adoringly" and throw in something at the end about how she's dressed like a 17-year-old schoolgirl, and you'd have my opening sentence. :)


Because it is unthinkable that a girl could develop feelings for a dashing timelord.

That's feelist I'll have you know.

[/sarcasm]

I mean come-on! The dude is dressed like a down on-his-luck street magician hobo. She's dressed lovely in comparison.


Douena wrote:
Calling on her innate ability to understand others, she calls into the room,

My first thought was that Douena was pulling a Dori (Finding Nemo) and speaking whale.

Shadow Lodge

That is amazing imagery.


Male Humanly Awesome 'n Totally Rockin' Paladin of Greatness
Douena wrote:
Calling on her innate ability to understand others, she calls into the room,
LoreKeeper wrote:
My first thought was that Douena was pulling a Dori (Finding Nemo) and speaking whale.

LOL! That's just greatness! "Plant speak"

Oh man, that just cracks me up just thinking about Douena throwing out some whale to the plant creature. :)


Player's Guide for Hell's Rebels is up! I love me an urban campaign. Wish we could have one not starring one of James Jacobs's pet PCs, though.


Joana wrote:
Player's Guide for Hell's Rebels is up! I love me an urban campaign. Wish we could have one not starring one of James Jacobs's pet PCs, though.

Crimson Throne and Council of Thieves are actually pretty free of such characters. Do we know for sure there will be one in Hell's Rebels (I haven't been able to pay much attention to what has been revealed about it)? The last couple APs have also been pretty free of such characters, too.


Shensen, covergirl of Pathfinder #100.

EDIT: I didn't like book 1 of CotCT because it made it so clear that the PCs were irrelevant to what was going on and just marking time until they were cool enough to accomplish anything; it's possible the AP gets better after that. I was actually in a CoT game that I was really enjoying, but the DM disappeared. If I get to play in Hell's Rebels, I'll probably use my orphaned CoT character, as long as she doesn't have to kiss up to Shensen.

EDIT: Hm, apparently Shensen is in Shackled City as well? I have the hardcover. Off to see how annoying she is.


Ah, Shensen. Okay, definitely looks like this AP brings back the Jacobs pet PC syndrome.

Crimson Throne remains one of my favourite APs, although the first adventure is one of the weaker segments. The second and third adventures are where it really shines and the final adventure is really good too--at least, based on memories of reading them years ago. My own attempt to run the AP died in the second adventure when my group fell apart, so I've never actually run the later ones. I've never played in them either.

I did run Council of Thieves all the way through. It's a good path, and it has the advantage of being one of the quicker ones too. Although it's the same number of instalments and pages as the others, the adventures somehow take a lot less time to run.


Joana wrote:
EDIT: Hm, apparently Shensen is in Shackled City as well? I have the hardcover. Off to see how annoying she is.

Wait, huh? Shackled City isn't set in Golarion. How come Shensen gets to be in two campaign settings?

(Edit: Yes, I know it's because James Jacob decided to put her in both. Still seems... I don't know...)


Not only is Shensen in Shackled City, I'm amused to see there's also a Todd Vanderboren. Wonder if he's any relation to Lavinia. :)

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