[AP] Curse of the Crimson Throne by GMs Rutseg, Zek and Snowheart (Inactive)

Game Master Balacertar

I'm personally a fan of “if you need to cheat at role-playing games, you’ve failed at life.”

Level 5:

Feat = I'm going to take the "Additional Traits" feat if that is okay because then I could make disable device a class skill and not suck at it. Let me know if that is not okay. If it is, these are my new traits:

Deadeye Bowman (religion) [When you are using a longbow, if only a single creature is providing soft cover to your target, your target does not receive the +4 bonus to AC.]
Vagabond Child (regional) [Allows +1 to Disable Device and makes it a class skill]

HP: 1d8 ⇒ 4, so half+1 +1 Con=6

Additional 1st and 2nd level spells per day, and one additional 2nd level spell known (Summon Swarm).

9 skill points (bluff, diplomacy, disable device (4), perception, stealth, intimidate)

Bardic performance +2

Absolutely swamped at work which is making managing combats a little difficult (checking stats, adjusting map, rolling, etc.) but I will try to keep the updates coming. Sorry and thank you.

Don't sweat it Snow, I definitely know how that goes myself. :>

Indeed! You’ve kept this campaign going with consistently high quality updates. We all understand.

Yep...I'd much rather have you remain happy and keep this amazing show going than to have you feel it's too much of a chore.

PLEASE take any time you need. :)

Tricky elves! That was almost a really nice hit too.

So glad that she can't sneak attack Kalem. Because right now he's a really tempting target.

Indeed.

I'm trying to think where she would need to be located to have the illusion appear where it did...

Honestly, y'all are making her/me work for this. But it's fun trying to make her strategy work; glad you're having fun, too. The higher levels are giving me more options in my bag of tricks.

This hasn't really come up before since we haven't really fought undead, but I thought I'd mention it if we ever do again.

My mind-affecting spells and abilities affect all undead normally, with no chance of failure. This is part of my archetype. Anyway, if it comes up again, here's the ability:

Out of curiosity, is anyone planning to take item crafting at any point?

No.

Doesn’t fit this character to do so

Haven't really thought about it. Might be worth it in this town to take potion crafting or whatever it is called... make potions of cure disease.

I don't currently have plans for Pel to do so. That said, if people are interested in having a crafter, Pel's probably the one that makes the most sense to do so since he theoretically has access to most relevant spells, assuming we can find the appropriate scroll or spellbook.

It's fine if no one is taking it. Taking a crafting feat eats up a valuable slot.

Sometimes there's minimal time for crafting, as well. I just thought I'd check.

Whatever this jester is, I'd like to see the build when we're done. I'd like to make a character that can keep an entire group chasing her around all day long.

LOL! Seriously. Happy to share when we're done. Potions definitely help, although... she may or may not have used them all up.

In completely unrelated news...

New avatars are available. Filters don't seem to be working on them, but you can sort by date and find the newest ones at the "top".

Thanks! That’s really cool. :)

I think we should start a petition to change the GM's name to Firebrain. It only seems right that the name match the avatar.

I’m pretty sure you need to change your name within ten posts or it’s permanent.

That was meant to be a joke.

While I’m currently broke, I think that I’ll save up for this:

Lucky Mail

+1 Chainmail. The wearer gains a +1 luck bonus on all saving throws and can use moment of greatness once per day.

Once per day change my rage from being +4 Str to +8 Str? Seems pretty clutch. And at some point if I can squeeze extra traits into my build, it’ll be another +1 to all Saves. Given my low wis and poor will save class this could be quite useful.

My +1 mithril chain shirt is party loot...so when I upgrade, who wants the current armor?

I would love the +1 Mithral Chain Shirt after you are done with it. I have a Mithral Chain Shirt now, but not enchanted.

Opposed Charisma Check if you want her to talk, but changing the context of the question may work as well. Intimidate and other means will work, too, but Kalem is leaving, so...

Kalem May have crazy good face skills, but scenes work best when the logical person gets to talk. Pel charmed her, so this is his scene. I’m happy to read on while Kalem goes alooting.

And since it has been about 1.5 years (gasp): Rolth

I don’t think Pel and Zamanda have heard of him at this point, unless someone mentioned him after they joined the group.

Hey now, you mean to say you don't remember the scene where Bashiel solved the entire conspiracy back in the Dead Warrens??? Jeez, this was only eight nine ten months ago! Get with the program! :>

Wow, its almost the end of November already...

Oh! Rip. Well, I suppose Pel hasn’t revealed his ignorance in-character. That was quite a while ago, huh?

Happy Thanksgiving if it applies to you! And happy Thanksgiving to you if it doesn’t!

Hey all. Just wanted to touch base. I may not have an update up until Tuesday. Although this is supposed to be a holiday weekend here in the US, I've been working non-stop to get a project done by an end-of-month deadline. Add to that my son has his 3-year check-up tomorrow, and I'm just swamped. Thanks for the patience and, as Varor said, I hope all who celebrated it had a great Thanksgiving.

Best of luck with the RL, and thanks for keeping us updated

Thanks. Just had an 18 hour day and looks like tomorrow will be another long one. Sorry.

Hang in there!

Just to let you all know, I'll be at PAX Unplugged this weekend and therefore likely won't have any free time to post until Monday. If any of you happen to be at PAX, I'll be running PF2E Playtest demos in the afternoon on both days and running SFS1-09 on Sat evening.

@Snow: In case we move unusually quick this weekend and are waiting on me, feel free to have Bashiel finish Jolistina off once everyone is satisfied with their questions.

Since it seems we're about done with the jester, I'd still like to inquire as to her build once we're done with her. It could make an interesting character concept in the future...I found her incredibly obnoxious to engage on any terms but her own.

Can you please share the elf build now that she's dead?

I'm gonna bet on Rogue-Sorcerer. Maybe Rogue 6/Sorc 1 based on the number of sneak dice she rolled and the ease with which she was turning invisible.

I'm curious to see it as well. Though, as someone who has GM'd hit-and-run characters like this before, I know that despite being frustrating to fight, she wasn't very dangerous to us. Takes too many actions to snipe or turn invisible again.

I don't know about her not being too dangerous. We had Kalem and Varor on death's door...she hit like a mack truck.

To be fair it was the hound that nearly killed Kalem

She couldn’t sneak attack Kalem. Which meant that she could barely damage him.

And we were underleveled when she put that bolt in Varor’s throat. I’m pretty sure her old stat block in the original books had her as just a regular rogue with a lot of magic items. I remember it saying that she is certifiably insane to the point where it’s nearly impossible to get her to cooperate without magic, I just can’t remember if it was the drugs that did that or not.

Yup. Now that she's dead... Apologies for formatting issues. This is a copy-paste from the pdf.

Also, as an aside, Bashiel's player and I PM'd a bit in advance of that scene because I wanted to make sure alignment issues were being considered. They are important generally for divine characters, but especially so for paladins. After some discussion, while I'm not sure executing Jolistina was a "good act", I don't think it's necessarily "evil", either, and a single neutral act isn't going to immediately shift someone's alignment. And, for a Pharasmite, I can see a very strong argument that it was lawful.

I don't want to open up a debate on the rules around alignment in RPGs (talk about a can of worms). I just want to say it is something I was considering in the context of the paladin class generally and Bashiel in particular.

On the loot, the potions of invisibility have all been consumed, but everything else in the stat block should be available, minus maybe a few crossbow bolts.

Interesting...looks like quite the arcane trickster build.

I guess her loot is included in the stats above.

+1 glamered studded leather!

Glamered is too expensive to normally buy, but which is so much fun

If we were talking alignment though I would say that his actions were more in line with chaotic neutral. It’s not lawful to kill someone you have already captured as a prisoner unless you have the legal authority to make those decisions. But it is not, in any way, a good act and that’s the problem.

Now the fact that he broke the law isn’t the main problem, it would be if he was just a member of the military, the main problem is that he is a paladin and I am a cleric. We have different gods with different priorities. And we, as characters, clearly have very different priorities.

I’d say chaotic good.

Chaotic as the lawful thing would be to arrest her.

Good as he killed a necromancer who was completely crazy in a homicidal way. And as at the moment the party doesn’t trust the authorities. He acted the best he could. To a Pharasmite killing a necrlmancer is a good act.

Just as to a follower of Torag it is a good act to slaughter all orcs, while a follower of Saraerae would be more willing to try to redeem them

I think we'll just have to disagree on this one, Varor.

Dispatching of the bad guys is a time-honored tradition of good heroes, whether chaotic or lawful.

It even says in the entry for the elf that "if she does escape, she seeks out Rolth despite his request for privacy, so the PCs may well encounter her at his side later in the chapter." She's chaotic evil.

I think the other players are all on the same page here...

Lawful doesn't have to mean conformity to the laws of a specific region or government. Lawful can mean consistent with a set of principles and guidelines. If Bashiel believes that the just penalty for killing another is death, then his action would be lawful (at least from his perspective). Same with good v. evil. He could consider it a good act to kill someone who's clearly evil and who has also committed great evil.