DM PeteZeros Ruby Phoenix Tournament (Inactive)

Game Master Pete who?

Nearly ready to go. As this is a tournament we will be using the Performance Combat Rules if you want to familiarize yourself with them.

no prob.

"Flame on!"
Pad has support spells like haste, heroism, greater infernal healing, stoneskin, improved invisibility and spell resistance. He can also UMD heal scrolls. However, his primary strength is chucking intensified, maximized fireballs.

"Hello everyone"

A couple of things to keep in mind about this character
Shared Precision When hit foe with ranged attack, all allies in 10 ft gain Precise Shot vs that foe.
Aura of Care (10' radius) Self and allies in aura no longer provide cover for ranged attacks.

Isis strolls into the discussion area, looking around.

"How quaint. This...this is where you expect us to talk? It's so...barren," Isis says disapprovingly. "Let me see what I can do to liven this place up."

Isis stares into the aether, sending her will to bend the void to her bidding. A wave of hot, fine white sand erupts at her feet, showing her walkspace with the sands of home. A small oasis gurgles to existence, a lone palm offering shade.

Within the shade a stately Osirion throne appears, with a tiny cat pad on its right side.

Isis goes to sit herself upon her throne, placing Bast in her bed.

"This is more like it. Now, what did you wish to discuss?"

Already bored, Bast goes to hunt for tuna in the oasis...which there is, because the cat willed it, of course, and because magic.

Looks around and nods with approval. Then suddenly pauses as if considering something.

"The sand is nice and all, but could we designate a 'cat' area." Wrinkles his nose. "I don't want to step in cat poo."

Princess Isis chortles at Ward's question.

*snork*

Isis uses the palm of her hand to snork away oncoming boogery from her nose.

"If you do wish to step in Bast's presents, then simply do not walk in her sand," Isis answers, simply unnwilling (or, more likely unable) to control Bast's 'movements'.

Looks Dora is still tight up. My suggestion - start RP in the gameplay, ands yes, even Dora, I don't mind a tiny bit of overlap, if you are all fine with it.

My suggestion - start RP in the gameplay...

A frustrated Princess Isis puts down her copy of the Osiriani Times to look angrily at the sky.

"Oh, it's time to work now is it?! You know, one day you won't just be able to boss us around. One day we're going to unionize! We're going to have rights! One day we're not going to be here for your bloodsport and amusement," Isis rants against the sky while looking for Bast.

Isis stomps over to the pool, captures the sunbathing and tuna-overfed cat and stuffs her in her back cowl. She still fumes. The cat is none too pleased either.

"At some future time, we'll have the power here, not you! Someday the workers are going to rise up, band together! You'll see!" Isis continues her angry rant while preening herself before heading to work. She pompfs up her bra, making sure everything is in place before ripping a hole in the aether and stepping though...

As an FYI, I will be travelling Wednesday afternoon and night, so I will not be posting often. When I do, it will be from my phone, so I'll be keeping it short.

Dora is still mired in her final combat...so if you get ready to rumble and need to leave her behind, I will understand. I will be sad, but understand.

Totally happy to wait.

Gerri can wait.. I just finished up another game with this character, so I can get all my paperwork down... Got to ove PFS and the paperwork.

Is anyone opposed to non-lethal poison use?

Gerri has access to the following three poisons/venom and is able to apply them to your weapons. His application of the poison/venoms allows them to be used for up to 8 successful attacks, before the applications is used up.

Giant Wasp Poison
Injury; DC18, 1/rd for 6 rds, 1d2 Dex, 1 save

Large Scorpion Venom
Injury; DC17, 1/rd for 6 rds, 1d2 Str, 1 save

Medium Spider Venom
Injury; DC14, 1/rd for 4 rds, 1d2 Str, 1 save

I am fine with getting the intro and RP out of the way and then pausing at that point if Dora needs more time.

Gerri I am fine with non lethal poison, but the sticky part has no benefit on single use arrows.

That is correct on the arrows. Comes in really handthough with melee weapons and returning weapons.

I wonder how abundant ammo would effect an arrow that was poisoned after the spell was cast would be affected? I need to check the message boards.

Is anyone opposed to non-lethal poison use?

Gerri -

No issues with poisons here. I've never been a fan of poison use during 'normal'/F2F PFS games as more saves and effects takes up too much time (and remembering and calculating effects, etc.) when usually mods are rushed already.

However, in PbP, I think the effect will be much easier to take and time and look forward to seeing if poisons are more viable. PbP changes a lot of assumptions from normal Face2Face games...and I look forward to being able to reclassify poison use. (Other topics under consideration as viable in PbP vs. Face2Face include summoning and roleplaying. ;) )

Anyhoot, Isis doesn't need any poison use personally...nor does Bast, but both appreciate the offer. :)

*snork*

Isis rubs away another booger while snarfing deeply.

No problems with poisons, would be interesting to see them in action. Just it is a tournament, and their might be some rules coming up.

I'll wait for the rules, but it is also why I only use the non-Con damaging poisons. I see no problem with making the opponent go unconscious. Can interrogate them better later that way.

GM, will we need tokens for cat and wolf or are they not considered with us (while eating or afterwards)?

I will put them up, when you need them. And yes, they are with you, but large ones are a bit too big for the Noodle House. They will be good taken care off.

Don't worry too much about Bast. I consider her to be an attended item who never leaves her cowl. She'll never scout nor risk her dainty fur nor roll any checks.

Ok, thanks. Boots is medium size, and Dora would normally be riding him in combat, but not while eating soup. :-)

I think we may have finished our final combat. I should know today or tomorrow when Dora is released. Thank you again for everyone's patience.

Nothing much going on, lots of time to get into the mod

"The second dragon was know as an Underworld Imperial Dragon. While my dream has been spoiled by the fog of forgetfulness, I do remember defeating the dragon by giving it what it wanted, treasures that we carried that our party did not use any more. We feed the creatures greed."

WTF? Sounds like you got Bairded. I think he told me the story.

Just wanted to say how proud I am of all of you for handling the signature thing so ...uniquely.

Well played, peeps.

@DM PeteZero: I have not used the map function you are using for the game before. Did I do it right by posting the map with my action after I had made my move, or is there some other method we are to use?

What you do, you move your icon, then hit enter and the ulrl reload, just copy paste it, as this is the new map.
Hope this helps.

Judst checked your map - absolutely fine.

Ok, then I did it right.

So were we able to have buffs up, or not prior to our combat?
Don't want to hose Isis, but would like to know.

One round to buff - but as mentioned, if you are worried in this combat....

Btw., very big last hint - roll your performance!

The check is a Charisma ability check modified by the base attack bonus of the character plus any ranks the character has in Perform (act), Perform (comedy), or Perform (dance), whichever is highest.

Perform ranks 1-5 gives a +1 to the performance combat check
6-10 a +2 and so on.

Here when you can roll a check:

Swift Action Checks

The following triggers allow a character participating in a performance combat to make a performance combat check as a swift action. A character can always opt not to make a performance combat check that requires a swift action. Some feats, called performance feats, allow a character to perform other actions as part of the performance combat check. These feats can be found in Chapter 2.

Charge: Whenever a combatant hits with a charge attack, she can make a performance combat check as a swift action.

Combat Maneuvers: Whenever a combatant successfully performs any combat maneuver, she can make a performance combat check as a swift action.

Dealing Maximum Damage: Whenever a combatant deals maximum damage with a damage roll (weapon or spell, but not including sneak attack or other variable precision damage), she can make a performance combat check as a swift action. She gains a penalty or bonus on this check based on the type of weapon or spell she uses. Light weapons take a –4 penalty on the check, one-handed weapons grant neither a bonus or a penalty, and two-handed or exotic weapons grant a +2 circumstance bonus on the check. Spells grant a bonus on the performance combat check equal to half their spell level.

Energy Spells and Effects: Crowds tend to respond to flashy spells and effects. If a combatant casts a spell or produces an effect that deals acid, cold, fire, electricity, force, or sonic damage in a visible way (including weapons with special abilities like flaming burst or shocking burst that deal bursts of energy damage on critical hits), she can make a performance combat check as a swift action.

Feint: If a combatant successfully feints against an enemy, she can make a performance combat check as a swift action.

Knocking Opponent Prone: When a combatant knocks another combatant prone, she can make a performance combat check as a swift action.

Multiple Hits: If a combatant has more than one attack on her turn and hits an opponent with at least two of those attacks, she can make a performance combat check as a swift action. She gains a +2 bonus on this performance combat check for every attack she hits with beyond the second.

Free Action or Immediate Action Checks

The following triggers allow a combatant to make a performance combat check as a free action or an immediate action. A combatant may also opt to make any of these performance combat checks as a swift action instead, and gains the benefit of performance feats when he does so. A combatant can always opt to not make a performance combat check that requires a free action or immediate action. A combatant can also spend a victory point to make any one of these performance combat checks as a free action taken when it is not the combatant's turn, which allows the combatant to make one of these performance combat checks without spending an immediate action.

Critical Hit: When a combatant confirms a critical hit, he can make a performance combat check as a free or immediate action. When he does so, failing by 5 or more does not lower the crowd's attitude. If the combatant gains a special effect on this critical hit from a critical feat, he gains a +2 bonus on the performance combat check.

First Blood: If the combatant is the first person to damage an enemy during a performance combat (or to hit an opponent in the case of staged combats), he can make a performance combat check as a free or immediate action.

Raging: The first time a combatant enters a rage in a performance combat, he can make a performance combat check as a free or immediate action.

Vanquish Opponent: Whenever a combatant reduces a creature to 0 or fewer hit points, he can make a performance combat check as a free or immediate action.

Mandatory Checks

The following performance combat checks must be attempted whenever possible. These checks don't improve a crowd's attitude, and the combatant gains no benefit from performance feats with these checks. Failing them typically has a detrimental effect on a crowd's attitude. If the crowd cannot see the action that triggered these checks, the combatant who performed it does not need to make the check. Making a performance check for one of these triggers is not an action.

Magical Healing: Crowds tend to dislike the use of magical healing; some crowds even see it as cheating. On a turn when a combatant casts a healing spell or other healing effect, or uses a healing spell trigger, spell completion, or use-activated item (including forcing a potion of cure light wounds or similar potion down the throat of an opponent) she must make a performance combat check. Success yields no change to the attitude of the crowd, but any failure reduces the crowd's attitude by one step.

Rolling a Natural 1: When a combatant rolls a natural 1 on an attack roll or a saving throw, she must make a performance combat check. A success does not affect the crowd in any way, but any failure reduces the crowd's attitude by one step.

Withdraw: Whenever a combatant uses the withdraw action, she must make a performance combat check as a free action. She takes a –5 penalty on the check, and success does not shift the crowd's attitude, but failure shifts it one step lower.

Victory Points

When a side is benefiting from a helpful crowd reaction and succeeds at a performance combat check, that side gains a victory point.

And yes, I will be using VP!

@Party:

There are three performance weapons, from Ultimate Combat that not exotic and should be considered based on your abilities. Each of these weapons gives a +2 bonus to performance combat checks.

Simple Weapon - Gladius
One-Handed Melee Weapons - Scizore
Ranged Weapons - Amentum (Javelin) [Note: Ward, I believe all your feats except WF can be applied to this weapon.]

There are numerous exotic weapons, but it may not be worth it to some to take the non-proficiency penalty.

Another easy bonus comes with the use of Haste. A +2 bonus to the check for every successful hit beyond the second. This is for melee and ranged attacks.

Everyone should have there base performance modifier calculated by this point. Gerri is currently a +0 (BAB+7= +2, Cha 7 = -2, Perform 0 = 0), so I'll be purchasing either a wand or potions after this battle, to help augment my low modifier. I suggest adding this modifier to our stat lines.

Last two things, and this is just my opinion, we need to fight smarter in regards to our initiatives and we may need to extend the combat out longer.

If you go over the performance combat rules, you will see that the check is harder as the crowd swings in your favor. People with higher modifiers should attempt to delay for others to make the lower level checks.

We need to get the crowd up to helpful before start earning Victory Points. Once we get them to helpful, we need to allow our people with higher modifiers the ability to rack up some points.

This is a team event, but it is also make the crowd happy event. As you saw, we got a +1 modifier when the crowd turned happy.

Forgive me, Gerri. I think we have a difference in playstyles.

There is always a balance between metagaming and cooperating and roleplaying.

On one hand, we don't want to metagame overly, and trying to arrange our turns/weapons to get the best scores seems less preferable to my playstyle.

Clearly, the mechanic has been introduced so that our characters have a way to play to the crowd if they wish...and so it is not inconceivable that our characters would know this and want to respond favorably.

I think our team is capable of winning this thing with and without the crowd or mix maxing our performance (not that you're suggesting otherwise).

Isis will be happy to play to the crowd, but will be doing so in character as she gets comfortable.

@DM PeteZero: is the Tower portion of the map suppose to be in the main arena also. The description you gave indicates 2 levels not three. Also which is the mid level map section and which is the top level map section?

Thanks for getting me to read over it again - the lower ground is free, now platforms, the left one is mid level, the right one top level

Do we know how many VP we have accumilated?

click on campaign info tab

Thank you Savage

How are folks purchasing potions of Acid Resistance (20)? Did I miss an update someplace for PFS gameplay?

I thought all potions, scrolls and wands were all created at minimum level unless available on a chronicle sheet?

That is the reason I am very happen about the potion of Stoneskin (CL15) we were rewarded earlier.

By the way, we may want to pass that around with my Alchemical Allocation extracts.

Thanks for pointing this out. Yes, there is no potion of acid resistance 20 (unless on a cert) and a potion of stoneskin is normaly not available in PFS - you get it in this mod, and it is one of the best rewards.

In regards to VP, it is nice to finish a combat in one round, but you gimped yourself out of a huge amount of VPs. The crowd doesn't like a one round combat. And I was generous, a 24 resulted immediately in the highest attitude. You need a LOT more VPs, and the dragon won't give you anything. You are though to the semi-finals now, 2 more combats, and you have roughly 50% of the VPs needed.

So what happens if we don't have enough VP?

Is this a popularity contest or last man standing tournament? I get the impression we have been working more towards the latter and missed the difference.

I think we should be doing both.

So what happens if we don't have enough VP?

Meh.

Not sure we need VP to win the tourney...all we need to do is keep winning. And since we're winning by an average of <1 round per fight and some of us are doing nothing *cough cough*, I don't think we need to worry.

Of course, if the point of this tourney was to metagame getting VPs and not actually winning matches, I'm going to be crushed.

Bottom line for me: I'd rather die or lose than metagame or not play my character. I hope it doesn't come to that.

You don't need the VP to win the turnament, but you still want them! It is up to you, basically think of an old roman arena. If every gladiator would be crushed in seconds the audience would be unhappy. But the more goes on, with flashes, maneuvers and so on, the better it gets. All up to you. Let'S say, you are a tad bit too powerful for your opponents, so the audience doesn't see much of a game.

The masses wouldnt be entertained or impressed by a boxer vs a figure skater fight. We are the boxers.

That's basically it. You can win the tournament and that's it, or you win and are loved by the crowds, that's what the VPs stand for. They want a spectacle not a one round slaughter.

FYI, Pad will be staying with the Force Punch & Spectral Hand combinations in arena fights, since the damage is low (average 25 per round) and produces knockback effects for performance value. He did this for 3 rounds last encounter and rolled three decent perform checks (DC 22+). No more maximized intensified fireballs in arena fights.

Yeah, but 22 was not enough for a VP.
You still have enough chances, but your maximized intensified fireball literally blew it ;)

Ward will continue to walk down to the pagoda and see what is inside. He will also try and keep his bow arm from shaking as that dragon really got the drop on him.

C'mon Ward. Lemme see what you woulda done with another full round attack action.

Post it here. Want to see what you can do on a heated round.

I don't think I need to do that. I've shown what I can do in other combats. Besides I don't want to waste all the good rolls I should be getting after all those ones and twos.