Welcome to the game everyone, for the moment we have six party members... First off my apologies for not getting all the introduction posts up last night, bit off a bit more than I could chew there I'm afraid! Things should move considerably faster once everyone gets together shortly.
Criss Falden of the Wastes Ranger: Ranged
Grimward Brack Oracle: Melee
Gwendolyn Yoresnson Gunslinger: Ranged
Ormiz Alchemist: Bomber
Staryth Bard: Ranged
Vance Nexus Spellslinger: Ranged
The designations besides characters are loose, please let me know if you feel they are inaccurate. I highlight these so you can consider potential problems and solutions and how you might work together, etc. You don't need to do this necessarily, but it can be helpful, especially to consider the groups performance in a few encounters. I generally consider myself a middling to tough DM, but I'll be trying to start you off relatively easily so we can all get an idea of the groups capacities, etc.
Howdy, y'all. Let me tell you a bit about myself, and about my character.
For the first time, I'm playing a character with some loose base on my own history. I'm a homicide detective with the Houston Police Department, having been a police officer for four years. I have a wonderful wife and a one-year-old son. I've been playing RPGs since about 2003. I currently DM two games - Kingmaker, for over two years, and Skull and Shackles, which just started. I have been playing in three games, all with the same DM. He seems to have disappeared for a little over two months, so I'm not sure if those count anymore.
Gwen is an interesting character. She is based in personality off a friend of mine who I worked with on the streets in Patrol. She is acerbic, almost hostile with self-righteousness, and very, very black-and-white. She curses like a sailor and works harder than anybody else. She has an outright talent for alienating folks, but an equally strong talent for engendering loyalty in her friends. She is absolutely loyal to those she deems worthy of it and outright dismissive of those that she doesn't. She is an all-or-nothing sort of person.
Her history involves her tracking a killer who has been targeting descendants of Nex in Alkenstar, where she is a deputy Shieldmarshal. (Her goal is to take levels in the Shieldmarshal prestige class.) At the onset of the campaign, she will have just arrived in Nex with a prisoner in tow. If anyone wants to be said prisoner, that would be fine. Alternately, I'm good to work in some sort of linked backstory with anyone else.
Howdy folks. Looking forward to gaming with you. I'll have a full introductory post up later.
I'm actually planning to make use of the Prisoner Gwendolyn, so for the moment please assume you know very little about him - I'll give you some general information once I've finished out working out how I'm planning to work everyone's back stories into the plot.
Hi all.
Unlike Gwendolyn, I don't have an especially interesting background. :)
I'm a Post-Grad student currently looking for work in Primary teaching. Until then, I have a bit more free time on my hands and am currently working in warehousing. I live in Sydney, Australia. Otherwise, I am a fan of Pathfinder Society (I co-host a nearby games group and am a 'Venture-Sergent' for the region). I also sometimes contribute to the Pathfinder Wiki (under the alias FaithfulofAroden).
As for my character, Grimward, I've been wanting to try out an oracle for a while and the 'wasted' curse fit nicely with the theme of being scarred by the Spellscar Desert storms. I'm a little concerned that I may be the front-liner for the game, but I think Grimward can handle it for now... also considering going Barbarian then Rage Prophet later.
A quick warning though, am a noob on PbP gaming.
Hi all. I just got into pathfinder midway through last year really and have been having a blast. Came here because I wanted to play more than I was with my group of friends that introduced me(we are going through carrion crown atm).
Never roleplayed much before but am finding it great fun.
@Gwendolyn. Are you also DM Barcas? I'm pretty sure I applied for your skulls and shackles game with a cleric. Randol Perry? Anyway hope this game is going to be great playing with you instead.
Same to all. Looking forward to us all meeting up and using nex blood to kick butt.
On that note. Are me and staryth arriving at the same time I the same caravan? Or different caravans perhaps arriving at the same time? Just want to know before I make my next post :)
Hello everyone,
Background wise I'm a programmer in Canberra. I've played in a few PbPs, despite having only been doing them for about a year. I'm a little worried Ormiz might let down the side a bit as I mostly built him around a concept so he's a little unoptimized.
That said, right now he's a decent ranged guy and a skill bunny. Probably closer to a rogue or bard than anything.
Plan is to take wizard (yes, *gasp* multiclassing) arcane bomber. That means the bomb damage will sort of keep pace, but he's going to take a hit in the high-level spells pocket.
Buff wise Alchemists aren;t great - till we get some cash and time, then it's Potion City...
I think.
Never actually played an Alchemist before. Only Alchemist I've seen played long term was a vivisectionist. Was in a PbP with a bomber for about two fights, so any advice is welcome.
Personality wise Ormiz is meant to be changing. I'm a tad concerned that he might fall into the "black" side of the scales for Gwendolyn - his background has him having fallen into some pretty bad stuff. He's not a bad guy per se, but he's done what it took to survive. The plan is that this is his new chance and he's going to become Lawful-ish.
I took the Pesh Addict flaw for concept reasons... but until Ormiz gets a few coins he can spend on equipment his AC is terrible. Combined with a favoured class of Wizard and subpar con meaning he's low HP... well he's more fragile than I'd like.
DM Carpe: Are we okay to run into each other? Should it be at the gates, or the Shelter?
I'm going to post a mechanic for it with my next post. Basically because you all arriving simultaneously stretches credulity you will all roll 1d6, the person with the lowest roll will have arrived first, and you would all have arrived the die roll difference days before them. So if Criss rolled a 1 and Ormiz a 4 then Criss would be the last to arrive and Ormiz would have been in Dehnet for three days. I will outline your options for that downtime in my gameplay post.
I'll post for the rest of you in an hour or so called a way briefly. Hopefully you should all be together by tomorrow so my work load will be lightened, and we can get stuck into a nice juicy encounter.
Addenda: Ormiz is dangerous with his bombs, and he gets a lot of them. As a touch attack he is likely to hit, and it is d6+5 damage.
So Ormiz arrived one day after Criss & Staryth?
We'll go with Criss, Staryth, and Grimward arriving a day before Ormiz and Gwendolyn, and Vance arriving two days after that when things will kick off properly.
Staryth could you invite Grimward along to check out the Environmental Department? Since you to are already conversing I believe that allows us to maintain the best flow.
DM Carpe: What has happened to Pendia? Bought along or left at home?
Ah yes sorry Ormiz, basically if you want her you are going to need to allocate some of your starting wealth to pay for her. Otherwise I can have someone offer to take her off your hands, perhaps the Seen Servants start spoiling her and she does not wish to leave or something. A guard dog for 25gp is probably the way to go. She would thus be a combat trained common dog knowing the tricks attack, come, defend, down, guard, and heel. So you could direct her to attack with a DC 10 handle animal check as a move action.
Okay - done. I'll need to switch out my leather armour, life savings and most of my weapons.
New equipment (with purchases) is...
alchemist’s kit is 25gp 5lbs
Pendia 25gp
Puppies (free)
10 x 1cp for street meat (1sp) from the slums
10 x 1cp of wandermeal (1sp) from a halfling baker at the market gates
bedroll (1sp) picked up off my couch where I've been sleeping
3 flasks (9cp) from around my house. Normally hold something stronger than water - but if that's what I've got...
sack (1sp) - bought from the markets I guess, though the idea of a repurposed shopping sack he had lying around the house is appealing.
assuming a pickpocket's outfit is the free one he starts with (3lbs)
Brass Knuckles 1gp 1lb
life savings: 1 gp 1cp
I like Pendia - for the record :)
Am assuming Ormiz can draw upon the reward funds.
Okay - Ormiz can build one potion a day, at 2 hours a pop. Negate Aroma and Keen Senses. Can't fail the roll, costs 50 gold.
If he can get someone to buy him an outfit he'll get them to buy clothes in his size appropriate for someone who is Master Akanarton's guest. He'll also casually ask for leathers and an armoured coat.
He'll ask for someone to pick him up a dagger or two while they're there.
If the library is an option he will consume as much knowledge as possible, memorising what he can for digestion later. If he gets a chance to find a spellbook he'll copy what he can.
If he can't he's going to go mad with the waiting, and the cravings. He'll spend his time crafting alchemy. He'll use crafter's fortune every day but the first.
&
divide both by 14 for daily amount, I guess. 3 and a half gold - a small fortune!
If he can possibly arrange it Ormiz would wait to meet other descendent until he is "properly dressed", but I'd prefer he met one before that happens. Anyone interested in blundering into his room (or vice versa I guess). Other ideas cheerfully considered!
Let's push the game to its limits. PBP is a format that allows people to really explore their characters and interact with each other and the game world. It is far more immersive than a regular game. We have a real opportunity here to get to know these characters. I treat my games like a mini-novel. Rarely will I post a short sentence or two, preferring multiple paragaphs that really dig into my characters' psyche. I can tell that we have some strong writers here, and I'd like to see some super-high-quality work that makes others jealous that they're not here with us.
I'm certainly all for that, this will be a relatively combat heavy game and one of the things I'd really love to encourage is interaction between the group in combat. So I don't want any tactical talk OOC, you can shout to one another signal, for intelligent foes you can come up with codes, etc.
The first combat is going to be relatively soon as is going to be a controlled tough encounter. Its an ideal opportunity to see what everyone can do and see how you work together. A party that works well as a unit is always stronger than one does not, and the game will be a lot more fun if there is banter and interaction with each other and foes in combats which often last for days in PBP.
Many PBP games see combats descend into strings of dice rolls and mechanics, which are certainly interesting in their own way but which of the following examples would you rather read?
Thorgar swings his greatsword at the troll again stepping over to flank. But he misses.
Thorgar grits his teeth and spits blood at the troll towering over him, circling to put it between himself and Halford,
"Alright you shambling pile of crap, I'm gonna cut your face off and stick it up your arse! I'd like to see you regenerate that!"
But as he braces himself to swing his foot slides in the mud, and his murderous hack rends only the air.
On a different note I'm going to try giving you access to monster stats. I know many of us look at them anyway - at least I hope I'm not the only one! - enabling you to describe hits, misses, kills and effects in your own posts. If you cast charm monster on an enemy for example, you would roll its save and could describe it succumbing - but not its actions.
I might put this aside for "boss" battles, but I might not - not sure which would be more worrying ;) Thoughts?
That's how I do it. I have never had issue with it. It saves a lot of time and allows the players to write their reations to the hit/miss/save.
Interesting - I've been pretty careful to try not to.
Forgive me for being blunt, but one of Ormiz's big abilities is going to be knowing what we face - strengths, weaknesses, etc. If everyone is getting all the monster knowledge anyway seems like one of the main things that makes him valuable to the group (knowledge skills) is going to be pointless.
What I do is list AC, saves, and hit points. Attacks, weaknesses, and the like are still fair game that knowledge can uncover.
Agreed, this is where I'm relying on you guys to know the difference between your character knowing something an you knowing it. Your character only knows something is immune to electricty if you succeed on a knowledge check, etc. If the group faces skeletons and everyone drops their swords and snatches up maces I'm going to call foul, unless someone has succeeded on a knowledge check, etc.
As someone who DMs frequently I typically know the abilities of most common monsters, as do a great many players and I feel this generally isn't much of an issue. I'm trusting you guys not to metagame, and if I start getting worried there's an element of that I have no issues with changing things up - I'll almost certainly do this anyway. I value knowledge skills highly as a DM and a player and I believe they will serve you well in this game.
A lot of things are obvious, animals have lower AC than armored men so power attacking against them makes sense. Fire breathing dragons likely aren't bothered by fire. If you aren't sure whether something is obvious just ask, or preferably roll a knowledge check and ask at the same time.
My Serpent's Skull group just faced a swarm of ravenous sea urchins and very nearly meta-gamed themselves to death thinking they could not hurt a swarm with melee weapons. There knowledge checks had not revealed this, they assumed it, but since the swarm was made up of tiny rather than diminutive creatures they could be hurt. I told them after a round, and they were never in anything near real danger, but still.
Yes I really want to make this story as epic as possible. I have never looked at monster stats. It never occured to me actually. It will be helpful and ill keep the information separate.
Oh - I think I misunderstood what you were saying. Sure, that sounds fine.
No problem Ormiz, I'm all for discussion and would always like to hear questions, or comments on how I/we might improve the game - of course I'm not going to agree with every idea, etc.
No, no - fair enough. I've put a feat, atts and am looking at putting an entire level into knowledges... I think I just panicked!
Sorry I'm late to the party folks
GM, I'll have those details worked out for you by tonight.
Edit: Scratch that. Done now.
Wow! Awesome map - how did you do that?
I assume Ormiz can't talk until his turn? Also assuming he's used Negate Aroma for the day making his potion, but he has his new gear. Pleae tell me if this is wrong.
Thanks for rolling the knowledge checks for us :)
You are quite right Ormiz, sorry about missing you in the init order there!
As for the map, well, for this I just photoshopped the gubbins out of an existing map - mostly cutting the temple room in half and using the healing brush tool to get rid of the bones scattered on the floor. The stairs are just made from copy and pastes of the steps elsewhere in the room, etc. I'm moving onto creating my own maps for my Serpents Skull game using textures, etc., but where possible I steal an existing map and modify it to fit.
Yeah, that's a great looking map.
Would I be correct to assume that anyone acting before the ants can post their actions in any order? I assumed this already and posted my actions up, let me know if I've made a mistake somewhere.
In case it matters: Eldritch Bolt is in the Inner Sea Magic (p. 30) book. Essentially it's a 30ft ranged touch attack dealing 1d8 pts of force damage (although this will increase with oracle levels). It's also a supernatural effect, not a spell-like effect.
Yes you would, if you wish to act after someone since you expect a benefit just maske note of it in your post preferably in character - this will make more sense once you know each others abilities of course. So you might post, seeing Staryth at the ready Grimward waits a moment to see if the bard begins singing and then charges in sweeping his.., etc., etc.
No problem with Eldritch Bolt, its no subject to SR or anything so works just fine.
Ant 2 now has the grappled condition meaning its AC is two lower - 13.
Huh - didn't realise it was intersection, thought it was square. Weird. Let's go with what you've done and I'll target better - if Ormiz survives this fight!
Wondering if I can aid another on grimward to help him get out of grapple though my initiative is after his?
I've not actually assigned the damage Ormiz, left it floating. If you don't chose to do otherwise it'll be on ant 2 since it was the closest. Also Ormiz an 8 is only a -1 modifier, not -2, so your strength is not quite as bad for most purposes.
Criss Grimward is not grappled Ormiz is, but yes you can give a +2 bonus by joining the grapple. Generally speaking its much better in PF to just do damage to the grappling enemy though, you no longer have a chance of hitting your ally like in 3.5 and they have a lowered AC.
Oh oops I thought they were both grappled.
So since its first attack failed it didnt get a grapple attempt?
Lets say I moved around the spaces it threatens to flank it then :p
yeah - go ant 2, thanks DM Carpe :) Don't forget the -2ACP for the coat!
So since its first attack failed it didnt get a grapple attempt?
I believe so. I think the giant ants only get to grab (free grapple attempt) when they hit with their mandible attack. Since it missed, there was no grapple.
Lets say I moved around the spaces it threatens to flank it then :p
If you still shot the arrow then I don't think you're able to flank. After all, you'll still have the bow in your hand when adjacent to the ant, and thus won't threaten.
By the way, did you count the 'bardic music' bonuses?
Oh well. Messed up that one.
Oh well. Messed up that one.
lol. Hardly. You've done more damage than me so far. Besides, if I had any sense I would have backed off 5ft so that the ant could only have had a single attack against me, instead of a full attack.
Wow, ouch! But I think this is an excellent time to remind you all that we are using hero points in this game. You each currently have 1. Here is how you use them...
Hero Points can be spent at any time and do not require an action to use (although the actions they modify consume part of your character’s turn as normal). You cannot spend more than 1 hero point during a single round of combat. Whenever a hero point is spent, it can have any one of the following effects.Act Out of Turn: You can spend a hero point to take your turn immediately. Treat this as a readied action, moving your initiative to just before the currently acting creature. You may only take a move or a standard action on this turn.
Bonus: If used before a roll is made, a hero point grants you a +8 luck bonus to any one d20 roll. If used after a roll is made, this bonus is reduced to +4. You can use a hero point to grant this bonus to another character, as long as you are in the same location and your character can reasonably affect the outcome of the roll (such as distracting a monster, shouting words of encouragement, or otherwise aiding another with the check). Hero Points spent to aid another character grant only half the listed bonus (+4 before the roll, +2 after the roll).
Extra Action: You can spend a hero point on your turn to gain an additional standard or move action this turn.
Inspiration: If you feel stuck at one point in the adventure, you can spend a hero point and petition the GM for a hint about what to do next. If the GM feels that there is no information to be gained, the hero point is not spent.
Recall: You can spend a hero point to recall a spell you have already cast or to gain another use of a special ability that is otherwise limited. This should only be used on spells and abilities possessed by your character that recharge on a daily basis.
Reroll: You may spend a hero point to reroll any one d20 roll you just made. You must take the results of the second roll, even if it is worse.
Special: You can petition the GM to allow a hero point to be used to attempt nearly anything that would normally be almost impossible. Such uses are not guaranteed and should be considered carefully by the GM. Possibilities include casting a single spell that is one level higher than you could normally cast (or a 1st-level spell if you are not a spellcaster), making an attack that blinds a foe or bypasses its damage reduction entirely, or attempting to use Diplomacy to convince a raging dragon to give up its attack. Regardless of the desired action, the attempt should be accompanied by a difficult check or penalty on the attack roll. No additional hero points may be spent on such an attempt, either by the character or her allies.
Cheat Death: A character can spend 2 hero points to cheat death. How this plays out is up to the GM, but generally the character is left alive, with negative hit points but stable. For example, a character is about to be slain by a critical hit from an arrow. If the character spends 2 hero points, the GM decides that the arrow pierced the character’s holy symbol, reducing the damage enough to prevent him from being killed, and that he made his stabilization roll at the end of his turn. Cheating death is the only way for a character to spend more than 1 hero point in a turn. The character can spend hero points in this way to prevent the death of a familiar, animal companion, eidolon, or special mount, but not another character or NPC.
Grimward is possibly going to have to make a DC 22 constitution check on his next turn or die, so he can use a hero point to either add +8 to his roll or to get a reroll.
If one of you can perform a DC 15 heal check - which would provoke from the ant if you were withing its reach - then he will be not have to risk death and can save his hero point. Magical healing would also work of course.
Wow, ouch! But I think this is an excellent time to remind you all that we are using hero points in this game. You each currently have
Yikes! I was anticipating taking a nasty hit or two... but OW!!! Both attacks hit and 1 off maximum damage! :S
Grimward is possibly going to have to make a DC 22 constitution check on his next turn or die, so he can use a hero point to either add +8 to his roll or to get a reroll.
If one of you can perform a DC 15 heal check - which would provoke from the ant if you were withing its reach - then he will be not have to risk death and can save his hero point. Magical healing would also work of course.
Note that, as Grimward is a half-orc, he can use his Orc Ferocity racial trait to stay conscious until the end of his next turn. As this will give him one last chance to heal himself before his gruesome demise, I do believe I shall be taking it.
So, hopefully everyone else can take down the ant before my turn comes around.
Oh, and nice touch on the pic of Grimward on the map. :)
Ah, excellent I had quite forgotten about ferocity! Could you give us an IC post on staying up with your crushed torn and perforated throat? Also a fort save for the poison!
For the record Vance's comments are still fair, but the camp is not operational as yet and won't be for some time. I'm going to keep the time line intentionally vague so I can fit it neatly in around how the game progresses, but it will be in a few months in game. It is being constructed so being aware of it is fine, etc.