No time for discussion, you must toil!
I find it useful and entertaining to have an alias for your animal companion. It also helps in that I can use the avatar as a token on the map.
As is often the case, your AC will go on your initiative.
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I can't resist pointing out what I noticed here....
It was bringing Facebook into PbP, not bringing real life into PbP.
So, Facebook is where things really happen, and real life is an accessory to that, I guess? :)
I left Facebook last fall, and have to admit I've been happier without it. (The election season is what broke me.)
Yeah, not exactly what I meant. I became FB friends with Kate not long ago, and she posted a picture of the beautiful flowers Dennis had given her, and that's the only reason I knew it was their anniversary - hence the FB reference.
As to the current experience of Facebook - I agree, it's not nearly as diverting a place for me as it used to be, and I wish that weren't so. I'm a little less bothered by it than my partner - she has had to make a rule for herself that she can't look at Facebook after 6 PM, so she's not too anxious or angry or otherwise worked up to get to sleep a few hours later.
What I can't resist pointing out is that your sociological observation post was hour after my last gameplay post, yet no one has engaged the dwarfbearbutterfly in either combat or conversation!
So here’s a general PbP question, unrelated to the current game: 2nd person 3rd person?
Generally, at a tabletop game, the GM will describe the party’s actions by saying, ”You open the door and see a pack of pugwampi,” or something along those lines – the salient bit here being that the GM says ‘you’ in describing the party. For some reason, I’ve never liked the way that sounds in PbP, perhaps because I think of it as all of us jointly writing a story. Since the players generally describe their characters’ actions in the third person – “Ostendiel falls bravely off the log!” – and the GM describes the monsters’ actions that way as well – “The dragon eats Sard’s lunch!” – it strikes me as incongruous to say “As you walk down the hall, you feel the floor get slick and start to tip downwards.” It seems to break the fourth wall somehow, so I tend to write in the third person.
The downside to that is it can be a bit forced sometimes, in terms of the language I have to use to keep it in the third person, and I very, very often find myself writing “the party” or “the [insert adjective here] Pathfinders”, which gets a bit old.
So, do you guys have an opinion or preference on this question?
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For players, I like third-person present tense. It matches best what's going on -- the action is *happening*. To me, this makes it somewhat different from writing a story together. Each of us plays our own character, but doesn't know what's going to happen next. The GM knows a lot more, of course, but even then doesn't know how all the PCs will react, or what they will do. In a story, the author or authors craft a narrative which others will read; in an RPG, we're reading and writing at the same time, making the unfolding more immediate for us.
For a GM, I tend to be flaky. I'm actually running a one-on-one right now, and I've noticed that I tend to switch back and forth between second and third person in a way that I would flag as inconsistent if I were grading a student paper.... (I even do it within one paragraph.) In games with multiple players, I tend to use "you" in spoilers for individual players, but 3rd person when writing about individuals to the group as a whole. This is necessary for clarity. When writing to the group as a whole without needing to distinguish, I am flaky again; sometimes I use second person ("y'all"), sometimes I use third person ("the intrepid explorers").
The advantage of second person is that it may make it a little more immersive -- the players identify with the characters. However, for whatever reason, I don't really players using the first person in PbPs that much, and prefer 3rd person, so I'm inconsistent on this.
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Ostendiel sees the giant snake swimming behind him, and panics. He quickly swims back to shore, bolts for his exit spot, jumps out of the tapestry, looks at Aram Zey with frenzy in his eyes, and shouts, "GIANT SNAKE!"
(When Ostendiel ran out of the tapestry before, he was subject to a Fear effect from a demon. It took him 2-3 rounds to get to the tapestry exit point, and each round if he passed somebody (civilians present, etc.), he would shoult "Demon!" This was in person, so I was actually shouting this. Aram Zey got a declaration as well....)
Sounds like a fun adventure!
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The best part was, Ostendiel was a level 5 monk in a party of otherwise level 1-2 characters playing low subtier.
I was trying to hold back a bit (grappling more than attacking, that kind of thing) to avoid dominating. It was kinda fun to miss the fear save, so I ran away and the rest of them got to deal with the demon on their own....
Given the language below on underwater combat and spells, I'm going to say that yes, glitterdust will work underwater, as much as the fossegrim and I might wish otherwise.
Attacks from Land: Characters swimming, floating, or treading water on the surface, or wading in water at least chest deep, have improved cover (+8 bonus to AC, +4 bonus on Reflex saves) from opponents on land. Land-bound opponents who have freedom of movement effects ignore this cover when making melee attacks against targets in the water. A completely submerged creature has total cover against opponents on land unless those opponents have freedom of movement effects. Magical effects are unaffected except for those that require attack rolls (which are treated like any other effects) and fire effects.
Yeah, I had a similar thought as I wrote that, but I carried on regardless.
I'm expecting things to basically shut down during GenCon, which is okay with me, as I've got family visiting anyway. In fact, I'll be camping for a few days right after GenCon, so our break may be Wednesday to Wednesday. If we post a little, that's fine, but I'm okay with a pause rather than botting all our GenCon attendees.
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I am going to be completely offline from Wednesday through the following Tuesday. I mean, I might be able to check in during GenCon, but experience with past cons suggest no. And, I expect GenCon to be more frantic as a Tier 1 GM than PaizoCon is.
(Plus, there are some non-Paizo booths I want to go geek out at and play fanboy during my few breaks.)
Who of this group is going to GenCon?
I will be camping Aug 21-23, not expecting to have any signal. I'll post if possible, but will likely pick up when I return.
Kate - would you mind walking me through how Dewberry gets +17 to damage on her bite? I can just about get there with Power Attack, but I think I'm missing something, and I don't see her taking the Power Attack penalty on her attack rolls.
I'm sure if I dug around or statted up a snake like her in Hero Lab it would match up, I'm just trying to understand where all the bonuses come from. Thanks.
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No problem! Yes, she is power attacking. I just leave her set to power attack by default in Hero Lab, since I don't think a snake would have the strategy to know when to power attack or not. Her feats are power attack, weapon focus (bite), and improved natural armor, and greater magic fang is still active with a 6 hour duration.
Attack bonus: +4 BAB + 7 Str - 1 size + 1 weapon focus(bite) + 1 greater magic fang - 2 power attack
Damage bonus: +10 Str (gets str and a half from being the only natural attack) + 1 greater magic fang + 6 power attack (becaus this is a primary natural weapon doing str and a half)
Thanks for the clear explanation, Kate!
Rules question: biting does bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage, so if this is DR/bludgeoning, I think the bite would do full damage, right?
Yeah, I realized that just after I posted and edited my post. You must have read it in the few minutes before I revised the text and the damage done.
Additional rules point: Dewberry can't grapple because she doesn't have an adjacent square to pull the xorn into.
Understood, I just wanted to be clear about what the situation was, since things are looking a bit grim - though my terrible rolling last round may have shifted that a bit.
That was me mathing poorly, I think I just missed one of the 5 hp bolts - wouldn't have changed the outcome of this round, but always feel free to point stuff like that out or ask me about it.
With good cause - when you downed the cleric so quickly, I thought this was going to be an easy fight, but the xorn has pretty decent AC and hits hard. I have no problem with you guys asking me about stuff, telling me where I'm not doing it right, or helping me with a rules errata or some other nuance. In fact, I've been sort of hoping that someone would point out why Tarn isn't dead, but he and I have been PM'ing and that's not where we ended up.
Thank you for raising this again, Kate, as I didn't understand it when you wrote it before. Is Tarn in fact fifth level? If so, he'd still be alive, since the xorn did exactly the right amount to take him to -CON at 4th level. But I fear Lamplighter has already looked into things that might keep his gloomy dwarf alive.
Isn't this a Level 5-9 scenario?
It absolutely is. Good point.
I've PM'ed Lamplighter about the level 4 vs 5 issue. I do hope I didn't let him play at the wrong tier - would hate for that sort of oversight to kill Tarn.
If he is actually level 5, he should have 6 or 7 additional hp and would still be alive, which would be more fun and make the rest of the Toiling in the Tapestry more survivable for the rest of y'all.
Saved by math - who would'a thought? Thanks, everyone.
I'm assuming some of you are at SkalCon... SO wish I was there with you! Have fun!
We're within striking distance of the end of this scenario. Please post the relevant info: PFS #, faction, day job roll, slow/normal progression.
A few tidbits to share about this scenario:
1. I do not love the mechanic where you abstractly take damage. If a party doesn't heal after the fight with Ironwhip - which would be perfectly reasonable at the end of the scenario - there could easily be deaths due to that damage, with no way to avoid it.
2. The combination of Stunning Fist and Create Pit really messed with Ironwhip. He can earthglide, and would have done so earlier in the fight, but he couldn't earthglide out of the extra-dimensional pit. Had Dewberry's AoO not caught him, he would have moved to a safe spot that the party couldn't reach, healed up and likely buffed, and come back very strong indeed. So there was a lot riding on that roll.
3. Counter to point 2 above: Ironwhip normally buffs heavily before this fight, but the 4-player adjustment changes this to him only casting greater magic weapon on his hammer - which you guys got away from him!
4. I am glad I did not kill Tarn.
I'd appreciate any feedback you guys have about pacing, play, tone, mechanics, or anything else.
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Is there something in the abstract mechanic that would prevent the PCs from abstractly healing, too? Something like "you take 4d8 = 20 damage, each using four charges of your CLW wand to heal up between encounters"? I guess it depends if it's supposed to be one abstracted fights, or (as I imagined it from the description) a series of small encounters that add up.