XD
Six or so hours.
|
Aww. No love for a 28 Survival check for tracks? :) That should be good enough to track him on pavement 8 days later, or after 8 hours of straight rain.
Not like it really matters here, but I've yet to get any love for using Survival to track things. These scenarios NEVER seem to contemplate someone being tracked.
Sorry Kobad, no statues outside the tower.
|
Question, GM--
Is this game going to be reported by Season 4 rules or by Season 5 rules?
By Season 5 rules, the faction mission is optional and we receive PP based on the session's primary and secondary missions.
I'm just asking because otherwise I need to figure out a really creative solution to my faction mission by the time we clear this dungeon... :P
I'm running this by Season 4 assumptions as I started this before Season 5 started. I don't know if that's a requirement, but it seemed easiest considering we'd be straddling the start of the new season.
Thanks for letting me know Oswin!
We are essentially at the end of the scenario. Any business anyone wants to clean up, I'm happy to indulge. Please roll day job checks here in this thread, and I will need you to PM me your PFS numbers and your e-mail addresses so I can send you your Chronicle sheets.
|
|
Hooray! Thanks for the game, GM!
What I've determined after this adventure is that I really don't have a good grasp of what I want Sigrun to be like, personality wise. I'm also really terrible at playing Strength based warriors, lol. I am not sure if Sigrun will be remaining a Barbarian by the time I play her next. :)
I just have my faction mission to deal with... if my crazy plan doesn't seem like it'll work, I'll be bothering the others to help me out!
|
|
Bom is happy to lend a hand anyway he can.
RE: Sigrun...
I also play a 10 INT/WIS/CHR Barbarian. His thing is he rarely talks. I generally don't have him do any puzzle solving or talk tactics or any critical thinking at all. I also don't post his thoughts as I think that's a cop out on the no talking RP.
With Bom, I use his 14 Wis to try and play him as being intuitive, "something doesn't seem right." But I refrain from being too deductive.
My third character is a 14 WIS/INT ranger and he is a full on tactician and problem solver based on the synergy of intelligence and wisdom. I gave him Fast Learner and Improvisation and he is constantly trying to build a better mousetrap and out-think the NPC's.
So I go from a guy who says nothing to the other extreme and then one character in the middle.
I have to say, it's nice to play the barbarian and just ignore all the plot and social situations. I do have to avoid some missions e.g. Blakros Matrimony, but that's why I made Bom so I could do those diplo heavy scenarios as well.
|
|
Thing is, in PbP, you can't really be "the guy who's quiet and says nothing much". Because then you basically have nothing to post about!
I guess it's pretty antithetical to how I play my characters as well. I tend to want to DO things in every post and progress the PbP as much as I can. And that sometimes involves having leaps of understanding more than my character might well do so.
I think a simple solution would be to just drop my Strength so I can boost the mental stats a little. The damage Sig's doing is clearly good enough to survive without an 18 for now. :P I'm also considering Ranger instead of Barbarian (the spell usage is too awesome!)...
|
|
Thing is, in PbP, you can't really be "the guy who's quiet and says nothing much". Because then you basically have nothing to post about!
Actually, it's much much easier to do that in PbP than in F2F. In PbP, you can write about the actions your character takes without saying what he or she thinks. Fore example,
Perhaps Barbar was angry, or perhaps he was trying to intimidate the guard, in either case, Barbar pulled his greatsword and gave the guard a menacing look.
So it's a lot of third-person writing as opposed to traditional first-person. As I said, it works in PbP really well but is nearly impossible to do in person.
|
|
It's fair enough in cases of intimidation and stuff like that, but if you're the sort to just not think too deeply, I mean... I felt it most keenly in the investigation part of the scenario, where Sigrun was basically just standing around wondering why she should care about this. :) It's probably just a matter of me not being used to playing characters like this, and I don't find it very fun it turns out, so things will have to change.
I'll get Chronicles sent out tomorrow. It's been good gaming with you all! Hopefully we can do it again some time. I'll be reviewing if I have the time to run another one over the next few days as some of my other PbPs wind down and I will certainly welcome any of you if you are interested in playing.
|
|
I felt it most keenly in the investigation part of the scenario, where Sigrun was basically just standing around wondering why she should care about this. :) It's probably just a matter of me not being used to playing characters like this, and I don't find it very fun it turns out, so things will have to change.
Well, that's why I enjoy having characters that go from one extreme to the other. My 14 INT/WIS ranger was my first and when I made my barbarian I realized that I enjoyed the variety. It's also a bit of an RP challenge to play a character when you don't post his thoughts or make statements about how he feels. But as I said above, it kind of fails in face to face games where the time crunch just forces me to be direct and communicate OOC.
Kobad, can you send me your e-mail address in a PM please?
Still waiting for PFS # and e-mail from Kargen and Oswin.
|
Thanks for running a smooth game DM! I'll send you my info by PM in a just a minute here.
I had a lot of fun in this one. Like I said, it was my first time using Oswin after giving him some GM credits. In the end, I'm happy how he worked out mechanically. Still not completely sure about his character.
I want him to be staunch in the face of evil, like a good Iomedean, but not too stern or naive either. I'll have to work on it a bit more, I suppose.
|
Nope. I liked the way you had ranger wands. I hadn't thought of that before, so I decided to copycat you and pick up a couple for myself, lol.
I'm not sure about my third level feat. Thinking Iron Will, since my will save is going to lag big time with me alternating ranger and rogue.
Any suggestions, Bom? This is my first ranger/rogue type in Pathfinder and you seem to have a very good handle on this idea. Critiques would be welcomed.
|
|
As an FYI, you can only use PP to purchase something once per Scenario so you'll need to record one wand here and purchase the other at the start of your next scenario.
The other caveat about a wand like Lead Blades is that if you have to sacrifice a Standard action to use it, you're in danger of hurting your damage more than helping it. The key is to use it before you roll for Init. I was going to post that Bom triggers his wand as soon as the last person climbs up the rope, but I never got that chance. So in PbP, you kind of need to think ahead and make the note in advance. Sometimes you'll waste a charge, but that's roughly 15gp.
Third level feats? Depends on what you're going for. I took Iron Will for my barbarian because I figured he'd get targeted a lot and he'd be a real danger to his teammates if controlled. The thing to recognize about bonuses applied to a d20 is that each +1 is only a 5% difference. So Iron Will is going to save you 1 time out of 10. The other 9 times, you're not within +2 of making the roll.
Tell me more about what role you want to play with Shel and I can throw out other options.
|
|
I sort of just looka t Shel as the ultimate "glue guy" so to speak. She is the skills character to help with a lot of non-Knowledge missions for everyone. I also like using her to Aid Another quite a bit as her damage is never going to be that great.
I noticed that about Lead Blades. But it does last for a minute, so you have to be smart with that one. Longstrider lasting an hour is a great buff. I hadn't really paid attention to that until you used it on me in this scenario.
|
|
So my philosophy is that you want your character to be eventually be great at something. In a home brew campaign, the GM will adjust the challenge to suite the players. PFS doesn't/can't do that. Which means that as you move up in level, the game is expecting you to be really good at something. It could mean hitting skill checks that hit the high 20's into the 30's and beyond. Or having an AC in the high 20's and low 30's. Or being able to withstand a full round attack from a BBEG.
Being a generalist, you run the risk of not being able to be of much help as the DC's and opposing monsters ramp up in difficulty. For example, I took Fast Learner and Improvisation on my Ranger and we'll see how that goes. I may have to Retrain Improvisation for Boon Companion or Deadly Aim because the benefit form Improvisation (+2 on any untrained skill) may become meaningless at level 10 when I can't hit the DC's even if I take 20.
If you really want to try the Skill approach, then you might consider more levels in Rogue than Ranger. IMO, the Ranger archetype is meant to at least be a secondary damage dealer. The FE bonuses, d10, and combat-style feats mean the class is primarily mean to contribute damage and provide expertise in a few areas (Survival, Perception, a few knowledge checks).
However, the TWF path feat is probably the weakest in terms of damage dealing unless you can tack on a lot of extra damage per hit from STR, Sneak Attack, and Favored Enemy, Feats. The real challenge with TWF is that you have to be in melee for it to be effective and that means you need to invest a ton of cash in armor or items to boost your AC.
As a straight skills guy, the Ranger doesn't have enough class skill to really excel at this role, but your mix with Rogue really helps fix that. However, I don't know if you get the class skill bonus if you put points into rogue-only class skills as a ranger. So if you are really trying to be the "glue" guy, I'd consider taking some Luck feats. You'll have to take several of them before you see the real benefits, but they do add to your ability to get things done. You might also consider retraining your Racial Trait to Adaptable Luck and the Fortunate One feat. Lucky Halfling is also are really nice Feat to have as a team player.
I do think that using Aid Another in combat can be a real benefit. For example, if the ghoul had been tougher, you could Aid Another for Bom to help his Shield slam hit and keep knocking the ghoul down. So feats that improve your Aid Another benefit are also worth considering. But to leverage them you really need to use them effectively i.e. aid the person who does the most damage or provides the best benefit. That means you'll need to be familiar with what your teammates do and rarely do I see players actually take time to talk tactics or even look at each others characters.
The thing I'll say from experience is that at least 1/3 to 1/2 of a mission is defeating stuff through brute force. I think that players who have characters that can't bring anything substantive to battle enjoy the game less. So keep that in mind. Pathfinder, imho, really drops the ball with Knowledge Checks on monsters. There is SO much table variation on what you get with K checks, it really undermines the benefit. Most GMs refuse to provide any hard information or comparative information. Without OOC knowledge, you'd have no idea who had more hit die from a K check, a dragon or a kobold. In reality, successful K checks should provide information that can turn the tide of battle, but so many GMs intentionally withhold info because they see it as adding mystery to the game.