GM Raltus' - Slaying Giants

Game Master Raltus

They will have your eyes.

Plus liver.

Sorry, I had no idea that you were waiting for me. Somehow I missed the end of the last round.

You got a halfway decent heal skill. Would you remove the offspring of the chicken from my belly, before it rips me open.

Hopefully it has talent

Slumebr Hex is a mind effecting effect. If things are immune to mind effecting (like vermin like giant spiders) they are immune to slumber hex

Slumber

Works as the sleep spell which is mind affecting, Spiders are immune to mind affecting spells.

Dark vision only works in complete darkness, you have a light source and so does he so it negates dark vision. This is where Low light vision will allow you to see beyond 30'.

Lighting and the different kinds of vision are an interesting topic with many discussions, as the rules for it are to be gathered through the book instead of a paragraph where it is explained how the two interact. But I wonder where you found that light negates darkvision, as I haven't come across that so far.

"Characters with darkvision (dwarves and half-orcs) can see lit areas normally as well as dark areas within 60 feet. A creature can’t hide within 60 feet of a character with darkvision unless it is invisible or has cover."

We can see lit and dark areas within 60'.

Gran't's interpretation is the way we have always played. But maybe we missed something.

It almost feels like you are running this like 1E's Infravision, or standard night vision goggles, which is an interesting way to look at darkvision.

But just to be clear, You are the DM and however you want to play this, we will work with that. Just it seems like it's house rule.

In my home games we had always run Dark Vision as negated by light sources, I will defer to the consensus of the group on this as it makes sense both ways to me.

Now I had GMs who played from 1E up so maybe since they were used to Infravision that is the way they just always ran it.

Looking at what Gran't' put the:

Characters with darkvision (dwarves and half-orcs) can see lit areas normally as well as dark areas within 60 feet. A creature can’t hide within 60 feet of a character with darkvision unless it is invisible or has cover."

The bolded part says one or the other, from my research people are saying that you can see beyond the 20' of the Torches light to the range of your dark vision. That is fine with me.

Works for me

So putting Enlarge person on Balder might have been an odd move from a GM perspective.

Balder Before Enlarge.

16 AC (4 Armor, 1 Dex, 1 Dodge)
BAB +5 (Suffering -4 Str damage from Shadow Rats)

Balder After Enlarge

14 AC (4 Armor, 1 dodge, -1 size)
Atk Bonus +5 (+3 level, +3 Str, -1 Size)

I am not saying you shouldn't have done it but the math didn't really help him much. Another side note that I was just looking at.

Dodge Feat Since he lost his dex bonus to his AC would he lose dodge as well? The wording is funny but I could see how it could be argued either way.

If you lose dex bonus doe to circumstances. He doesn't lose his. His bonus is just 0.

The boon of enlarge person is in reach and more damage. With Balder already wielding a large mace this will become big style damage.

So the weapon would become huge? I will build him in hero lab tonight and see what comes of it

Doh, I forgot about the strength penalty, oh well.

As for dodge:
He still has a +0 dex bonus to AC. So under normal situations he still has his dodge bonus. The wording is intended to specify that if you would lose your dex bonus (like when you are flat footed) you also lose the dodge bonus.

Yes, from an AC perspective it hurts.

BUT he now also has reach, his weapons are a size bigger AND his strength bonus is bigger. So his Weapon now does 3d6 + 4 (over 2d6 + 3) damage and he has a 10' reach.

As I assume he is going to get hit anyway (with his 16 AC), I don't see how this is much downside.

Ok since this is the Final fight and a boss fight who wants to play Balder, I don't want to do it with the end of the book fight going on.

I do.

@Lanneth
I guess here are some enemies that could fall for your slumber hex. If that second wolf wouldn't be able to aid in the fight. Even better if 'The Voice' wouldn't.

Maybe it went unnoticed, because I edited a purely ooc post. But I got the fight going in gameplay.

@ Gran't' I don't remember asking for a Fort save, I did you reflex save to speed things up based on the bomb.

So looking at the map and saying the stairs are rough terrain none of you could really get there this round since it is 14 squares or 70' to get to the red wolf who has not moved.

It is dead though if you can but ti did get it's readied action since those go before

As for the distance: Yeah, with difficult terrain it's too far for Yori. And Balder couldn't have charged. But I think it doesn't really matter. Either we get there. Or we walk down the stairs and everything gets delayed one round as none of the enemies were willing to move on their turn. If they would have moved then, the doggies would have run into our readied attacks, with the same result.

My 2c worth.

Ya we can just do a quick time skip and say that you did get that far, no reason to delay as I wouldn't have changed their tactics.

I will be taking your 2c and keeping it :)

Waiting on Dain, I know he will shoot something. Dain you can shoot the Orc or the Blue Wolf since it will make the most sense and not mess up someone else's attacks and killing stuffs.

Blue Wolf

OK question....

Yorikata is my Familiar. It's mostly for role playing BUT If we didn't have things set up this way At 3rd level I could be using my familiar to be delivering touch spells. While I normally don't think that sending a weak little animal in to deliver offensive touches is a great thing to do. It suddenly occurred to me that I could be using my familure to deliver Healing Hexs/other Buffs, and keeping it generally safe.

Reading up on the PRD witches familiars have the following ability at 3rd level: (Emphasis Mine)

Deliver Touch Spells (Su)

If a witch is 3rd level or higher, her familiar can deliver touch spells or hexes for her. If the witch and the familiar are in contact at the time the witch casts a touch spell, she can designate her familiar as the “toucher.” The familiar can then deliver the touch spell just as the witch would. As usual, if the witch casts another spell before the touch is delivered, the touch spell dissipates. If the witch activates a hex, her familiar can be used to make the touch. She does not have to be in contact with the familiar to use this ability.

So here's what I'm asking is:

Can I (on my turn) do a Healing Hex on Yorikata (or anyone adjacent to her? I know we said that if touch spells were to be used offensively, I would cast it and Yorikata would have to use her turn to deliver the touch, But what about cure hexes and any Hex Buffs I may pick up?
If we were playing the standard Witch, with a say owl familiar, That's exactly what I would be considering now. Sending it to fly over near the fighters and then having it deliver healing hexes while I keep misfortune up on the troll. Owl would remain out of range of AoO but still allow me to extend my range as they seem to be intended to do.

To preserve the action economy, can I, use my action to force Buff/Heal Hexes though the link to Yorikata or someone adjacent to her? Without making Yorikata use her actions to deliver this?

I perfectly understand if you want to say no, or a contingent yes, and later revoke this if it seems to be being abused, but I'm not trying to break the game. Just bringing this back into line with what I think the class was intended to do.

I think the Idea of Forcing her or even a limited amount of times per day is what would make the most sense.

could be 3 + con modifier Or Cha.

You could do the healing hex on her for free since it makes sense to me. Any offensive Hex you cast through Yorikata is limited to an amount of times per day just because she is her own person as well.

This doesn't interfere with Action Economy since she just acts as a divining rod of sorts. Or it could be unlimited but it uses her Int Modifier for the DC of the Spell/Hex you are casting.

In my opinion it is really complicated to exactly balance out a familiar on it's own and a familiar merged into Yorikata. The familiar is free to move where it should, while Yorikata has her own needs about positioning. But Yorikata also has much better chances to get an attack in. For buffing and healing the former is better, for harming enemies the latter.

At the moment Raltus' suggestion is a very generous one. And as the witch doesn't have that many touch spells, that would benefit from this option it probably would stay nice into higher levels.

But looking at what the familiar does, another option offers itself.
Lanneth casts, with the familiar next to her, designating it as toucher. Then the familiar moves to the person to be touched and delivers the spell. I'm not sure about the ruling about what action is used to deliver the touch, as it would be part of the casting action if Lanneth delivers it herself.

Next round the familiar returns to Lanneth. Which would mean that a familiar can deliver one spell in two rounds as long as Lanneth and the target of the spell are no further apart than a double movement of the familiar.

Because of this, another balanced approach to this issue would be in my opinion to allow for one touch spell to be done via Yorikata every two rounds (or to be more presice with at least one round pause between two deliveries), as long as the distance between Lanneth and Yorikata isn't larger than what Yorikata could reach with a double move.

I like that as well, Lanneth will always be with in 30' because her Hexes are mostly limited to that in range and if she wants to Cackle to extent it has to be with in 30' as well.

Another way to do it would be to not allow Lanneth to Cackle to extent a Hex that Yorikata delivers for her.

Can you deliver Hexes through a familiar?

The familiar section of the witch only tells about spells.

The easy solution is to get the scar hex. Then you'd be able to hex the whole party with a range of a mile. But it wastes a feat on very limited healing, as Lanneth goes for debuffing witch and not buffing so far.

Dain took his shot

Read the bold part above. The they did include hexes in what a familure can do. It's different then a standard wizard familar.

I'm good with any suggestion, just let me know what I should be working with...

I like the every other round, if it becomes to disruptive or unbalanced we can visit it again.

I will update in the morning.

FYI: I'll be traveling for the next 4 days, so please feel free to bot me, as my internet access is going to be very inconsistent.

Sure, I know that the DC of 35 Seems daunting but the weapon is really worth it

The charm is, you don't need to know to use it.

As for botting. If the many skeltons standing at the wall are any indication, the will not be much for you to do anyway.

I am down with bashing away with Balder

he is all yours, then it is RP for a while

Ok so this is our second encounter with a Giant. I realize it is dead but still a Giant.

Dain has a 24 AC vs it when fighting defensively which is high but he is ranged it will rarely come into play.

Balder is about moving in and attacking from the range of his weapon, he has feats for it.

Right now with Balder's feat "Just out of Reach" Which gives him a +4 to AC vs someone attacking more than 5' away. The Giant rolled a low 6 but still hit. Right now he is using the best Light armor he can with a +4 bonus, as a Fighter he could be using medium or heavy but is choosing not to right now. The armor you found is Armor
The hammer is Hammer time

Both will be potent in his hands, even just the Armor alone. Now Gran't' is meant to be "tanky" he just hasn't drawn an ire from the Giant yet, I want to press again the deadliness of this AP as Giants will almost always hit you on the first and possibly 2nd attacks with heavy damage. High AC won't always help, lots of spells to buff you HP pool or the like will help.

Now sure what sort of Buffs Lanneth will be able to hand out later, this AP again does follow the 2nd Book railroad minimal places to sell things make use of what you find rules of PF APs

Well I clearly need to deal with the fact that I can't do anything against those who are immune to mind effecting...

Like I said it is really just this first book and this is the final fight. There will be other fights but not as many as there have been this fight.

You did have 5 waves of orcs you could hex, what more do you want? haha

Healing hex does not provoke

Also, the attack bonus on the giant is confusing me. How is it +12/+9?

Also the attack against Balder misses.
His base AC is 16. He gains +4 vs reach. Puts him at 20.

I did the AoO becuase Lanneth said to, you will have to keep me honest on stuff like that since I won't always be looking.

You are right that the Attack missed Balder, which is nice this time. I am using the stat block from the AP book and have built it on Hero Lab. I have seen some errors between the two since on Hero Lab the Giant Skeleton should have AC 20 and 26 with the Armor on. in the AP book it is listed as 17 so. I am going with the 17 AC but the 12 Atk bonus

I wasn't sure if the giant skeleton had reach or not. If they did have reach then I would have gotten an AoO for moving up to the giant. If the Giant does not have reach then I either damaged the skeleton with my hex or am holding a healing charge for next turn.

So not the hex that caused the AoO possibly the movement that would have caused it.

Oh thats fine. I was just making sure on some stuff.

How does the Skelly have AC 20 base?

I suppose it depends what templates and such are used to build it.

I wasn't questioning the bonus being plus 12.
My issue was that the first attack was +12 and the second iterative was +9. Should it not be +7?

Also, giant rat misses me.

Did Lanneth's attack hit touch AC?

Ok then you did take the AoO since you moved in and it does have 10' reach. So ret con the ret con.

Lanneth is down and Yorikata danced around

I can't use the kinetic blade for AoO. Can only use my shield, and would rather have the 1 ac, than the minor damage I could possibly do to the rat

Ahh ok, quick reminder your Blade by passes DR for S/P/B right regardless of the shape you have it in?

I think it does one of the three. I have to choose. At the moment I am doing bludgeoning