Given a scenario where the four of the party engaged in Blackjack in a direct confrontation to the death; odds are fairly even - I'd give it a 30% chance of a TPK, and 70% chance of party victory (not counting loss of life to achieve this victory). But as encountered, effectively a 1v1... Blackjack is hands down the favorite to win.
Fortunately the encounter doesn't require a fight to death with Blackjack. :)
For those that keep track of these things, the next part features straight-forward heroics and dismembering of evil doers. Much violence, and a bit of loot. It's also the finale of book 1, so expect something you can sink your teeth into. ;)
I once again point out that the cut-scene nature of this encounter, in which the authorities stand around and do nothing over the course of multiple rounds until the Named NPC succeeds at what he is obviously preordained to do, is both appalling and egregious. Putting a noose around someone's neck and pulling a lever takes 2 rounds, tops. It would have made a heck of a lot more sense if he'd swooped in to rescue her before she got on the platform when the Hellknights would have had more left to do to complete their job, but then it wouldn't have been as . :P
Actually, everything intense like that did happen in 2, 3 rounds tops. Once it became clear to the hellknight commander that things needed to happen right away.
Contrary to results-orientated business life today, there is protocol and how-things-should-appear; particularly with an execution. One does not simply kill someone publicly, just because there's some interference. An execution is an event, not a result. The hellknights assumed that two of them would handily be able to dispatch the interloper, likewise Blackjack wanted to spend time to explain his position and the wrong-doing he felt was being perpetrated.
Naturally, Joana, when you become evil overlord of earth, you'll dispatch troublesome people directly without bothering with elaborate decorum and public displays of hangings; public opinion be damned! ;)
Lightning Warrior? Then I have to give up Lord Reginald, my most powerful ability!
Thought I'd provide an open invite to the fabulous people of the Crimson Throne of Lore. I started a Marvel Civil War PbP a few weeks back. Unfortunately, I've lost two players, so I'm looking for 1 - 2 replacements.
We are running a "What if the X-Men were not so neutral" Civil War. We've already gone through our first action scene, which ran through the events of Spider-Man 529 - 531, where Peter Parker and Tony Stark address congress (and where Spidey fights Titanium Man). Instead of Peter and Tony, we used Emma Frost and Beast.
Currently, we're running through our first transition scene, back at the Xavier Institute. This is the ideal time for more of the X-Men to get directly involved with the action.
You don't need much knowledge of the Marvel universe or Civil War story arc, as I shall provide OOC notes regarding canon throughout (which you can follow or ignore - whatever makes the story more interesting (Lore has deemed Cyclops as unworthy of Emma Frost's affection, for example)). I can provide a few basic rules and provide OOC rules information, when needed, to anybody that doesn't have the full rules.
Thanks for the invite, but the superhero genre doesn't appeal to me. Plus, I've just decided to take the GMing plunge myself and can't commit to any further projects until I'm sure I can keep my own game running smoothly.
Nothing worse than a preachy cleric early in the morning.
Hmmm. Esme speaks with a tone of experience. Just how exactly does she know how unpleasant it is to wake up to a preachy cleric? :)
Thanks for the invite, but the superhero genre doesn't appeal to me. Plus, I've just decided to take the GMing plunge myself and can't commit to any further projects until I'm sure I can keep my own game running smoothly.
No problem. I think I'll open the invite to the general public in a little while. Good luck with your own game.
Trying to get my party selection wrapped up this afternoon, Lore; I'll post for Caulder when I've got that done. Can't spare the thought right now. :P
Ten's fantastic change log:
Feat: Extra Discovery: Tentacle
Base attack bonus: +1
Will save: +1
Bomb: +1d6 (total: 2d6) +1/day (total: 5/day)
Other:Swift alchemy
Extracts: Level 1: +1/day (total: 4/day)
New extract: shield
HP: (includes favoured class bonus)
Skills: Craft (alchemy) +2; Intimidate +1; Knowledge (nature) +1; Perception +1; Spellcraft +1; Survival +1
Wait? The growth wasn't enough? Now a tentacle? (freak) ;p
Wait? The growth wasn't enough? Now a tentacle? (freak) ;p
I prefer bio-mechadendrite. The next Discovery puts a laser cannon on the tip.
Lol. Esme might scare easily. She goes toe to um..foot with an otyugh but Tens' tentacle might scare her. Hilarious. (freak) ;p
Love the dig at Caulder too. I can imagine: Tentacle tax. "Now, Mr Cthulhu, I can see you have not been paying your tentacle tax for 340 billion aeons. That, with interest comes to, lets see, at least 3 times the gold in the multiverse. And I am being kind. No, 'I was asleep at the time' is not an acceptable defence."
Still takes a standard action to cast every 30 minutes: not an issue, except when you're in combat rounds and there's other things you want to do with your standard action. :)
hehe - I figure odds are good that you've cast it sometime in the 15mins before combat. I'll bring it up when I think it matters; or in this case, where the cantrip level light is no match for the darkness
So apparently Ten is in the dark and only Pagrip can see anything.
Note to self: Buy heightened continual flame for helmet ASAP.
The paladin's blade momentarily flashes,
It's a hammer. The blade dropped when stunning happened. Maybe Esme should be shouting "Stop! It's hammer time!".
Oops.
I mean... its dark! How would you know what she's wielding? :P
Bah, Caulder should have just bought the wand himself and charged proportionally by uses. This way, the people who rush into battle and get themselves hurt are going to end up freeloading off the people who make more tactically cautious choices.
Oh well. Maybe he can just keep track of who's used up their share of the wand and let them know when they're being cut off. Those who have charges left can auction them off to the most-wounded bidder and thus turn their intelligence to profit, as Abadar would wish.
Unlucky characters with lower AC that get smacked more has to pay more for healing? I can see that working :p
All that system would encourage is Caulder walking in the front.
mas (mildly amused smirk).
Ten missed an opportunity there: Caulders food of choice: doughnuts. :D
Hey hey - you're both "police" in this instance.
Actually, I think that last attack from the necrophidius put her at 0 hp and disabled; her character profile lists her at 6 hp, and the bite was for 6 damage. She can still take move actions, though, so if all she did was step back at Ten's instruction, she'd still be at 0 and not yet unconscious. If she takes the swing to kill the necrophidius, she'd drop to -1 where she stood before being able to step back; as Ten said he was readying an action when allies were out of the way, he couldn't have thrown his bomb yet with her prone an in the splash zone.
Can't attack since it would drop Esme to -1 in the square not allowing Ten to fire (or Esme takes extra 4 damage). Eitherway, Esme does not attack the necro.
What happened: At 0, stepped back, looked for a potion that was not there and passed out. While I would rule rummaging through your backpack is strenuous, I suspect others might not. Suppose it depends how messy the backpack is. :p
And can you really fail a check to be dazed while unconscious? It doesn't say you can't.
Edit: Though I suppose the GM can just ignore the fundamental rules of the game and give Esme extra... I don't know 20 hp? right? ok I won't be greedy. 10hp. yeah. I'll take 2 rounds of daze for extra 10 hp. call it 'divine healing'.
Actually, I think that last attack from the necrophidius put her at 0 hp and disabled; her character profile lists her at 6 hp, and the bite was for 6 damage. She can still take move actions, though, so if all she did was step back at Ten's instruction, she'd still be at 0 and not yet unconscious. If she takes the swing to kill the necrophidius, she'd drop to -1 where she stood before being able to step back; as Ten said he was readying an action when allies were out of the way, he couldn't have thrown his bomb yet with her prone an in the splash zone.
Yea, things got a little serendipitous there; I was baffled by Esmerelda's unconsciousness - unlike Avianfoo I wouldn't rule rummaging in your backpack is strenuous. Considering that you could be on 0hp and slowly move a couple of miles over the course of enough rounds, I fail to see how you could strain by looking inside your bag, even if you had packed an extra lunchbox for Lord Reginald.
Regardless, attacking should've dropped Esmerelda - I blame Abadar for addling my mind in that instance.
Was that sound burst? If so, how'd he catch Caulder in a 10-foot-radius burst? I don't see how he could get both Caulder and Ten in the same area of effect. Or was it metamagiced somehow?
Silly derro. Should have excluded itself and Ten. Not that it matters in the end. XD
Just re-checked, you're right: Caulder should be excluded. Regain 2hp!
I knew you must be legitimately out of touch or you'd have one of those Superstar voter tags. ;)
I knew you must be legitimately out of touch or you'd have one of those Superstar voter tags. ;)
hahahaha - I *did* manage to post on Dave Gross' blog post on designing his characters (carefully preparing the post offline in advance); and I did also manage to do a handful of votes on the superstars (the 1 minute delay before placing a vote actually is helpful in a situation where the internet moves at glacial speed).
just btw. Sound burst doesn't save for half. It saves for only the stunning effect. Everyone in the area will take all the damage.
Damage adjusted.
I hope torpedo'n our own party doesn't become a trend :p
hahaha - the way you guys have been rolling, it doesn't matter.
Yes, I feel like we should be adventuring to a laugh track and one of those wah-wah trumpets. :P
Kind of hoping we TPK. Or at least that Caulder dies. Much as with Corinna, I've lost all enthusiasm about playing him. No fun playing a buffoon who fails at everything he sets out to accomplish.
I don't think its suitable to make your character competence be heavily reduced to the result of the dice. Especially low-level characters have relatively little impact on the success of their rolls - a check with +5 to its name will go 50-50 against a DC 16 challenge. Those aren't good odds. Even a DC 10 challenge (as mundane as it gets) will only succeed 80% of the time.
Strength of character needs to be earned by how you play the character, not by the number of times he rolls a natural 20. Melon's death, for example, left me with a positive impression of her - she died for what she believed in: protecting her companions.
That said... there's a lot of hit points on Vreeg - and you guys haven't done much to change that yet. We'll see how it turns out :)
Maybe that's part of my issue with Corinna: she's being forced to do things she doesn't believe in: namely, to work for the benefit of a spoiled, entitled NPC she's always hated. It's clear that the goals of any individual PC mean nothing to the storyline; only Ameiko matters, and everyone else is a nameless, faceless redshirt to do her bidding. Melon's dead? Oh well, there's always some other chump waiting in the wings to throw his life away for the benefit of a woman who's accomplished nothing in her life but to be pretty and popular.
It's the same thing with Caulder. Everyone's whole backstory was built around getting Lamm. Only that was over the first encounter of the adventure and turned out to be insanely anticlimactic. Now all we're doing is following orders for busywork quests for the Field Marshal. I have no buy-in on any of this stuff we're doing. I don't care about Verik Vancaskerkin and All the World's Meat, or that Spider-King guy, or the whiny Shoanti. I think it's idiotic to go looking for pieces of a dead body; no one cares if we fail, and I won't feel any sense of accomplishment if we succeed. It's all pointless, and there's no hook other than "NPC tells you to go do this stuff."
Honestly, I've always heard how great this AP is, but I'm finding it really poorly designed. It feels like pointless XP-grinding interspersed with overpowered tasks we have very little chance to succeed at. And even our failures are meaningless since some NPC is waiting in the wings to do what we can't. It would have been interesting if we'd had the chance to do some footwork with Knowledge (local) and Gathering Information to track down Trinia when she got away, not to mention giving us a second chance to achieve some sort of victory out of the situation. But no, she gets away from us directly into the arms of a waiting NPC and everything ends up the same way whether we succeed or fail. So why are we doing it in the first place? It feels like the campaign shouldn't really start until the second book and we're just playing through a predetermined story without a real chance to make an impact on the story because APs have to start at level one. I've always felt an adventure shouldn't start until the PCs are allowed to make a difference to events as they unfold. It's better to start an adventure with "You are prisoners of orcs" than force PCs to play through a fiated battle they're doomed to lose just so they can end up prisoners of orcs: The former is interesting; the latter's just wasting my time.
I don't think its suitable to make your character competence be heavily reduced to the result of the dice. Especially low-level characters have relatively little impact on the success of their rolls - a check with +5 to its name will go 50-50 against a DC 16 challenge. Those aren't good odds. Even a DC 10 challenge (as mundane as it gets) will only succeed 80% of the time.
Strength of character needs to be earned by how you play the character, not by the number of times he rolls a natural 20. Melon's death, for example, left me with a positive impression of her - she died for what she believed in: protecting her companions.
Also, I think it's a little specious to say one can't judge a character's competence based on the results of the dice. Out of character, I might know I've rolled a series of single-digit attack rolls while another player at the table hasn't rolled anything under 14, but the only in-world explanation for their respective actions is that one PC is a stronger, better, more effective fighter than the other. They don't know everything in their lives is determined by the roll of the dice; they're under the impression that their training and effort have something to do with the outcome of their actions.
Similarly, if my character is built to be a scholar who has spent the last decade of her life studying and then can't roll above a 4 on a Knowledge roll, the only in-character result she can draw is that all those years of study provide no appreciable return.
And what happens when your character can't achieve what she believes in due to the roll of the dice? I have an oracle in another game whose story was supposed to be that she moves from shyness to self-confidence as she is drawn into adventure alongside her companions. Only she failed about 4 saves vs. fear, despite Will being her best save, and ran away from every major encounter in the first book of the AP. How can she see herself as anything other than a failure who can't even stand by her friends in their hour of need? She's more of a basket-case now than she was when the adventure started, after her repeated public humiliations.
I have another PC who is a barbarian and hunter. The city-bred scholar with no ranks in Survival rolled nothing under a 16, and she rolled nothing out of single digits, resulting in a man who had never hunted an animal in his life being able to track, stalk, and kill an animal that she couldn't. How do I justify that in-game?
The fact is that virtually every success one can achieve in this game is determined by the roll of the dice. As you say, there's a lot of hit points on Vreeg ... and the only way to affect that is to win at rolling dice. You can't judge your character apart from the results of their efforts. You can't say your PC is a great fighter if he never hits an enemy in battle; you can't say your PC is a great scholar if she never knows anything about things you encounter; and you can't say your PC is brave and loyal and true if she fails saves vs. fear and runs away from everything that says boo at her. I'd rather fail through poor judgment or tactics than through poor dice-rolling because I can hope to improve at the former; I'm at the mercy of chance with the latter.
In short, while I may be aware that my character is failing through no fault of their or my own, it doesn't prevent me from wanting to dissociate myself from a character who has, for whatever reason, turned out to be useless at what they were built to do.
In short, while I may be aware that my character is failing through no fault of their or my own, it doesn't prevent me from wanting to dissociate myself from a character who has, for whatever reason, turned out to be useless at what they were built to do.
But now consider the following two scenarios: 1. Caulder keeps going; 2. NewPC(tm) gets into the pbp. In both cases the same die rolls will be attributed to the respective PCs as the rolls are not linked to character name. Maybe there's a string of good rolls. Maybe its some bad rolls. Probably it is a combination of both. In any event your characters would have to deal with it.
The longer a game goes, the more normative the expected dice distribution will be. I know Mahjik had reams of crappy rolls, followed by a deluge of good, and then plenty in between and phases of either. Having made some 1000 or so dice rolls with the character kind of makes that happen.
Crimson Throne is a great AP because it builds and foreshadows a coherent villain from the start (i.e. the queen) - I don't think you can make a fair assessment on the AP at this point (with part 1 not even done yet). But, what is true for Caulder, Corinna, and any other PC: it is the PC/player's responsibility to buy-in to the story. That's true for pretty much any published AP, even the sandboxy ones. To spin a campaign around the PCs and their plans requires something homegrown.
What? The queen is the villain? I did not see that coming. Is it too late to join the queen's side? (end sarcasm)
For AP's I run, I enjoy weaving in PC specific plot elements while they are going about the "super-plot" of the AP. Best of both worlds imo. (though due to PC buy in, some succeed better than others) I am unsure if PbP is the best format for these kinds of sub-plots, though.
Still there is nothing worse than playing a character you really really don't want to play for any reason. If it just gets too much, have that character walk out and become an NPC and start another. Imo, you should want to play a character *despite* bad rolls. If the rolls are that important change to a character that requires no rolls (e.g. magic missile sorcerer) or one that mitigates the bad rolls (e.g. Luck Domain). Caulders character seems to have been an experiment, one that is not doing so well now. 'Course a sharp blow to the head could completely change his character...
Both grappler and grapplee gain the grappled condition, and grappled characters can't make AoOs. Seems a bit odd in a situation where the grappler still has both hands free and is grappling with a tentacle, but it seems to be RAW.
Yeah, it feels like Ten should be able smack Vreeg for casting and making a ranged attack. Oh well.
In other news, (according to the PRD, under Magic not Combat) the only spells you can cast while grappling or pinned are those without somatic components and whose material components (if any) you have in hand. Even so, you must make a concentration check (DC 10 + the grappler's CMB + the level of the spell you're casting) or lose the spell.
The ray has a somatic component, but it missed on the attack anyway.
Well, Ten could have taken -20 on the grapple check as per the grab rules...
Talking about grab, I just spotted this line in the PRD glossary entry for grab: If the creature does not constrict, each successful grapple check it makes during successive rounds automatically deals the damage indicated for the attack that established the hold. Otherwise, it deals constriction damage as well (the amount is given in the creature's descriptive text).
So that sounds like Ten doesn't have to grapple to damage to deal damage.
I've balanced the AOO situation out a bit, because I decided that a flying creature that is grappled takes a slightly bigger penalty to Dexterity - after all, in this case all the leverage lies with Ten.
For AP's I run, I enjoy weaving in PC specific plot elements while they are going about the "super-plot" of the AP. Best of both worlds imo. (though due to PC buy in, some succeed better than others) I am unsure if PbP is the best format for these kinds of sub-plots, though.
On the contrary, I find PbP much more conducive to personalized subplots than games at the table, if only because the rest of the players aren't left sitting around bored while one PC's storyline is explored; all the PCs can be doing different things at once, and each player can choose how deeply they want to get involved in sidequests and NPCs without feeling like they're holding up the rest of the table. There's no downside to splitting the party -- metawise, anyway. :)
Crimson Throne is a great AP because it builds and foreshadows a coherent villain from the start (i.e. the queen) - I don't think you can make a fair assessment on the AP at this point (with part 1 not even done yet).
Perhaps not on the whole AP, but the first book is very poorly designed. The hook is supposed to be a grudge against Gaedran Lamm, and then Lamm dies in the first encounter. There's no build-up so there's minimal player investment. There's just no time to care.
Especially since the PCs aren't allowed to have any player agency into the metaplot at this level, they'd at least feel like they were accomplishing things if they spent the first book tracking him down through the use of their own skills and initiative rather than just having him dumped in their lap by an NPC. They could still be dealing with the metaplot with the queen and the riots in the background, but it wouldn't feel so much like they were spinning their wheels since they'd actually be working toward their own personal goal instead of just riding through "It's a Small World" at Disneyland while the animatronic pre-planned events unfold around them. It's like if the Jade Regent player's guide advised to make PCs whose goal was to defend Sandpoint from goblins: That's good for the first combat encounter, but then what? It's over, and they have no connection to the majority of the AP. Second Darkness is criticized for its campaign traits being useless to most of the campaign, but they do at least apply through the entirety of book one.
So here I am with my PC who has spent years of his life focusing on Gaedran Lamm, and now Gaedran Lamm is dead. (And no one even cares or says, 'Hey, guys, good job; you accomplished something the city watch hasn't been able to.' No, it's not mentioned at all. Don't want to make the PCs feel like they actually did something noteworthy.) Now what? I'm just pressed into a squadron with a handful of strangers and start taking random orders from an NPC? Suddenly we're playing Pathfinder Society organized play. :P
This AP asks for buy-in in the form of the grudge against Lamm, receives it, and then throws it out the window and expects the PCs to just keep playing because ... I don't know: they've already gone to the trouble of creating a character and there's still several hours left before they were expecting to go home?
If it helps you, you're welcome to retire Caulder after his set-piece in favor of a more appropriate character. He'll still stay around as an occasionally useful inside-man when Esmerelda needs real clerical attention.
[dice=Spellcraft]1d20 + 5
Slacker! No wonder they kicked you out. ;P
It's in Caulder's profile under Party Gear carried. It had 46 charges when he handed it to you; now it's at 45. And Caulder's only 1 point shy of full hp now; nice rolling!
"As long as you're a true man in soul, you can be a true man, even if you're a biological female!"
- these words were brought to you by Boku ha Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT
Stolen from LoreKeeper :). Relevant to Caulder calling Esme a man...