DM_Scholar's Kingmaker (Inactive)

Game Master Asmodeus' Advocate

I was referring to climbing the staircase from the side, over the banister.

Video footage

XD

I just going to throw this out there, and DM can feel free to ignore it. Had a friend at work today point out that being under the effects of spider climb, since it helps me stick to walls, should help Abaos stick to Sneeg as long as I can touch him. Mechanically, it seems like a stretch to do anything, but if I do indeed hit, I'm totally RPing it that way!

That’s awesome!

From now on spiderclimb grants a +2 circumstance bonus to grapple checks, but imposes a -2 penalty against being grappled. (‘Cause stickiness cuts both ways!)

@ Ozzy: Mr. Blinky only has to jump five feet up to attack into a square ten feet away from him, is how I’d rule it. But I noticed something I did wrong earlier while reading the acrobatics skill to answer your question: jump DCs are doubled if you don’t have a running start. Which means, by the rules, that Guthruc couldn’t have made his spectacular leap by the rules; we’ll say that the way his snake hybrid was formed he was able to gain running start benefits by coiling, but that’ll only work this once. (Future snake hybrids won’t be as well suited to jumping, that this one was was a highly unlikely fluke.)

A running start doesn't make a lot of sense for trying to jump straight up. Can Mr. Blinky run up to the wall (5ft), then continue 5ft upward against the wall, diverting his momentum to vertical movement, to get the equivalent benefit?

And if so, in doing so, can he pounce?

A running start makes a heck ton of sense for jumping straight up. ',:| You can try this experiment yourself; try to jump on top of a table or a counter or something with and without a running start. I think by the rules Winky would have to back up before he could run forward.

Though, springing off a wall is also a good way to get up in the air, be there not any rules for it. I'll say go for it; but since wall-jumping is harder than just jumping you'll take a -2 penalty on your athletics check.

Re: Pounce

Jumping is a part of movement. If you're charging and part of that charge needs to be a jump, that's fine. You'll just need to make the appropriate Acrobatics DC to make the jump; if you fail the jump, obviously your charge is wasted.

In the interest of not giving the impression that I'm arguing with the GM over rules, I'll preface this musing on the real-world physics involved by saying that it is not intended to change your ruling, which I think is fair.

A running start makes a heck ton of sense for jumping straight up. ',:| You can try this experiment yourself; try to jump on top of a table or a counter or something with and without a running start. I think by the rules Winky would have to back up before he could run forward.

If you have something to push against to divert the direction of the energy, a running start would definitely help. You can certainly move more distance through the air with a running start, but without a wall or something to use like a ramp, I don't think the purely vertical component of the jump is increased by additional sideways momentum. It very well might feel like you could jump higher, but I don't think the vector physics involved would bear this out (again, assuming there is nothing to use as a ramp to redirect momentum.

Mammals aren’t motorcycles, we’re a little more complicated than that.

The stretch shortening cycle isn’t well understood, but is well documented, since days long gone by. Here’s an article from 2000 with a nifty table detailing the correlation between the strides taken afore leaping and the height of the jump.

Of course, one doesn’t need to read technical papers to recognize that running starts help you jump, one needs only watch Olympic high jumpers setting new records, or this minute long video of people jumping up and down. Or, heck, just go outside and try to jump on top of something. While you’re moving around, you’ll find that how your body moves comes quite intuitively.

We still can't actually see sneeg, just an outline of where he is. Is there any indication of how close he is to death? His wounds themselves wouldn't be visible, but maybe blood dripping from them down to the ground? Or maybe his pose indicates anything about how hurt he is?

I mentioned earlier that my posting would be fairly limited until, well, today, but in retrospect I was too optimistic; I won’t be spending a ton of time doing things online until after Wednesday. Good news (for y’all, less so for me) is that that’s a hard deadline; won’t be delaying past that point. (Though I might just sleep for a few days straight.)

Something I’m considering doing is posting the AC and HP of stuff you guys fight after they’ve been hit at least once; right now everyone’s actions have to go through me as a bottleneck and that slows things down. I figure stuff like how good someone’s defenses are and how badly someone is wounded are things that could be deduced in character pretty easily. Thoughts?

Sounds good to me. Knowing AC, in particular, would make it easier to narrate attacks, since you can include the results of a hit/miss without waiting for the GM to check it. The GM in another game I'm in decided to announce the enemies' AC in the combat we just finished, and it not only sped things up, but made the combat action narration more interesting.

HP is a slightly tougher call, but I'd say I'm also in favor. Knowing how close an enemy is to death is probably more likely to influence player actions, but then like you say, it should be possible to make (rough) in-character deductions. These in-character deductions probably shouldn't be nearly as difficult as GMs tend to make them. I mean, it's not like people actually have a number of hitpoints that increases as they gain experience, and have to be reduced (causing no ill effects) until they reach zero (at which point someone suddenly dies). A better in-character explanation is that small wounds stack up, weakening characters and reducing their ability to defend themselves until someone finally manages to land a killing blow.

I don't think we need to know HP, IF we are given narrative/descriptive clues along the way to reflect relative health/damage done.

Posting AC is probably a handy tool so we can narratively explain things when they hit or miss, and it might actually help Awn with his narrative-jamming (and Abaos too). Though some enemies might have interrupts/immediates that could also stop us. Definitely tricky in PbP, but where things are simple, by all means post the relevant AC.

Presumably, the reflex save to avoid being blinded by Glitterdust is to close your eyes before the glitterdust gets in them, or something to that effect. If the caster issues a verbal warning for her allies to close their eyes before casting, they should be able to auto-succeed. Of course, the enemies (assuming they also understand common (which the wizard and his familiar probably do, but the third invisible thing might not) would also be aware of the warning. The enemies might, however, think that it was a bluff, and not blink. Maybe a sense motive check?

Glitterdust is a will save, and there’s a new one every round. I don’t think the blindness effect has anything to do with having grit in your eyes. And if it did have something to do with grit in one’s eyes, it’d be a fortitude save, wouldn’t it? Blinking wouldn’t help against a persistent effect.

I’d let someone avoid the blindness effect if they closed their eyes and kept them closed, sure. :P

But I’ll have to say “nah” on casting spells at a lower DC. It changes too many things about the game and tactics for me to want to muck about messing around with.

I don't think we need to know HP, IF we are given narrative/descriptive clues along the way to reflect relative health/damage done.

The obvious next question is: how do you guys feel I’ve been doing with that? I don’t think I’ve been doing super hot, myself. I have a hard time coming up with narration-ey descriptions of health totals, a hard time describing the small wounds that stack up, weakening characters and reducing their ability to defend themselves until someone finally manages to land a killing blow.

Glitterdust, doesn't blind if possible. Otherwise, not casting it (yet another reason to retcon. Wheeee!)

Heh. :)

In my second play-by-post battle on the Paizo forums, I had to retcon one turn four times, on account of not knowing how my spells worked, how my class worked, and, apparently, mistakenly thinking I could make a ranged attack with a melee weapon. And I wasn’t more or less entirely new to the system, you have a better excuse than I did.

I guess what I’m trying to say is; everyone starts a beginner, you’ll figure it out fast enough.

Post Script:

Washable battle mats are remarkable things.

Eh?

Get it?

Ah, will save. Serves me right for commenting on the spell from (apparently flawed) memory.

I almost replied that a will save must mean that it's illusion, and the save is to disbelieve the stuff blocking your vision, but that wouldn't have been right, either. It's a conjuration spell. Conjuration with a will save is an unusual combination, isn't it? Will saves are usually for illusion/enchantment.

So in summary, I have no idea how it's supposed to work. I'll point out, though, that the save DC is modified by the caster's intelligence score (for the wizard/arcanist version, anyway), and it seems like it should be possible for an intelligent caster to choose to cast the spell the way a less intelligent one would...

Moving this over to discussion...

So, the kytons are tied up. My understanding is that this counts as "Escape rope/bindings". The DC for this is 25, and being tied up gives all kinds of penalties to the check. More importantly though, the escape artist skill says that the check to escape bindings takes one minute, and there can't possibly be that much time left before the spell that summoned them runs out.

Yes, that’s true. Kytons are effectively a nonissue!

Just noticed that jen and guthruc both speak goblin, or as guthruc would insist, worg. Guthruc has another being who he can speak somewhat intelligably to! yay!

Hey guys!

Welcome to level four! Is it alright with y'all if we implement another houserule? This one's a straight buff to everyone, PC and NPC alike.

I'll take your silence as a yes. :-)

We'll be using The Elephant in the Room: Feat Taxes in Pathfinder from this point forward! If you've already taken a feat that's now being given away free, feel free to swap it for something else!

Silence.

I'm going to be real, I've played with the feat taxes and I usually like them..... but I also don't play a lot of ranged strikers (Abaos is more of a mixed striker, anyhow). I've never noticed this before, but Point- Blank Shot just gets- gone. Done away with, and as far as I can tell, there isn't really anything replacing it. That's so unfortunate! Some of us actually like our ranged attacks within 30 ft!

Also, am I the only one who's kinda disappointed that Sneeg got away? Great job DM for actually making me the player so wrapped up in anger about this guy I'm disappointed I can't kill him haha!

Abaos 4th lvl upgrades:

+4 HP
+1 BaB, +1 Fort, +1 Ref
+1 CHA
+1 MoC

+1 Acrobatics, Athletics, Bluff, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Knowledge (local), Sleight of Hand, Stealth, UMD.... and Knowledge (Religion)! About time Abaos starts having some flashback moments. Assuming I can take advantage of the opportunities.

Improbable Ability: Jinx

And that's all! Any questions or clarification needed, just yell at me!

Do hitpoints round up or down this level?

Up, for me. Up on Even, Down on Odd.

Sounds right. So, I'm going for an ability bump to CHA, new spells are Create Pit and Summon Eidolon. I also need to pick a new eidolon feat to replace Power Attack.

DM, I'm assuming that if my eidolons are summoned via that spell instead of the normal way, I can also use my Summon Monster SLA, the same way you can use summon monster spells (but not the SLA) while your eidolon is out normally... is that how you read it? Not that I'm planning that as a tactic. The spell is more of an "in case an eidolon gets downed at a crucial moment" thing, but I just want to know where I stand on that (since if an eidolon DOES get downed again, I'm likely to need all the help I can get).

Also, am I the only one who's kinda disappointed that Sneeg got away? Great job DM for actually making me the player so wrapped up in anger about this guy I'm disappointed I can't kill him haha!

Yes, very disappointed that he got away. Largely because I was hoping he would have some magic items for us. Also, the DM said I could look at his character sheet once he was dead, and now that may never happen.

We at least managed to capture/kill his familiar, right? He seemed to have some magic items, which have hopefully not been used up.

Also, any sign of the other invisible thing?

I'm going to be real, I've played with the feat taxes and I usually like them..... but I also don't play a lot of ranged strikers (Abaos is more of a mixed striker, anyhow). I've never noticed this before, but Point- Blank Shot just gets- gone. Done away with, and as far as I can tell, there isn't really anything replacing it. That's so unfortunate! Some of us actually like our ranged attacks within 30 ft!

Yeah, that is kind of unfortunate. Whad'ya say we wrap Point Blank in with Precise, like they did with Dodge and Mobility?

Also, am I the only one who's kinda disappointed that Sneeg got away? Great job DM for actually making me the player so wrapped up in anger about this guy I'm disappointed I can't kill him haha!

That's a very short range teleport he used; he hasn't gotten away yet! Something tells me that the wizard's days are still numbered - in six second combat rounds!

We at least managed to capture/kill his familiar, right? He seemed to have some magic items, which have hopefully not been used up.

I'll post in the other thread!

Also, any sign of the other invisible thing?

Not that anyone sees, nope.

I'm going for Weapon Focus: Natural for Mr. Blinky's replacement feat. This level's Evolution points go to Mr. Winky for the Shadow Form evolution.

These guys are changing from level one warriors to level one unbreakable fighters. I figure they've earned it. :)

DM, I hate to be that guy, but you can't make Sally, the Butcher of Badger's Glade an Unbreakable Fighter, because her levels are already spoken for.....

Her icon, actually. That's I-forget-her-name, the butcher of some glade or other. Honestly, though, seeing as she's still nauseated and not capable of taking useful actions, you can just stand on her. No one cares. She'll be back in ten levels, levels she took in Ranger, favored enemy (Undrell). Teach you to stand on people. But no use worrying about that now. :-)

Just messing with you guys lol!

Guthruc 4th level upgrades:

+10 hitpoints

+1 strength

+Draconic language

Rage power:superstition
The barbarian gains a +2 morale bonus on saving throws made to resist spells, supernatural abilities, and spell-like abilities. This bonus increases by +1 for every 4 levels the barbarian has attained. While raging, the barbarian cannot be a willing target of any spell and must make saving throws to resist all spells, even those cast by allies.

Power attack replaced with monkey grip [3.5]

So, auchs would make a powerful ally, right?
The problem being, dovan, his best friend. We killed him.
The solution: lie to auchs, saying that dovan lives and auchs can work for us if he ever wants to see dovan again. After a while, ozzy uses her disguise person sla to take the shape of dovan. They have Brief chat, and auchs continues service to continue his visits with "dovan". And bam! A new "ally"

EDIT:
I think that might tip Guthruc into chaotic evil territory...

I'm going for Weapon Focus: Natural for Mr. Blinky's replacement feat.

Can you do that? I always thought you had to pick a particular natural attack.

*searches internet*

If you'll take a gander at this adult silver dragon, you'll note that it has Weapon Focus (Bite). If it was allowed to take Weapon Focus for natural attacks in general, you'd think it would have.

Lvl 4: Medium Size, +1 Charisma, +1 Gore attack!

BaB: +1
HP: +12
Saves: +1 all
Stats: +1 Cha
Skills: +4

At 4th level, the draconic exemplar increases his size to Medium, adjusting the base damage of his natural attacks accordingly. He gains two secondary wing attacks that deal 1d4 points of damage, or gains a primary gore attack that deals 1d6 points of damage if he has the Lung alternate racial trait. The reach of his bite attack (and gore, if any) increases to 10 feet. He gains a +2 size bonus to Strength and a +2 size bonus to his natural armor bonus to AC. He gains the ability to fly with a base speed of 60 feet and average maneuverability. This flight is considered a supernatural ability.

As no longer small, -2 Dex, -1,Hit, -1 AC

A good level!

Wait, Iorskan is a lung?

It’s an alternative racial trait that I couldn’t find. So I had to take the wing attacks

Ozara "Ozzy" wrote:

I'm going for Weapon Focus: Natural for Mr. Blinky's replacement feat.

Can you do that? I always thought you had to pick a particular natural attack.

*searches internet*

If you'll take a gander at this adult silver dragon, you'll note that it has Weapon Focus (Bite). If it was allowed to take Weapon Focus for natural attacks in general, you'd think it would have.

The feat tax thing modifies weapon focus. "Natural" is a weapon group (which also includes unarmed strike).

Ah! My bad.

So, auchs would make a powerful ally, right?

The problem being, dovan, his best friend. We killed him.
The solution: lie to auchs, saying that dovan lives and auchs can work for us if he ever wants to see dovan again. After a while, ozzy uses her disguise person sla to take the shape of dovan. They have Brief chat, and auchs continues service to continue his visits with "dovan". And bam! A new "ally"

EDIT:
I think that might tip Guthruc into chaotic evil territory...

Considering that we have two characters with double-digit bluff modifiers and auchs probably has a native sense motive modifier, fooling him shouldn't be too hard.

And the bluff check gets a +5 bonus ‘cause the target wants to believe you. x)

Probably wouldn’t be able to string him along forever, eventually he’ll roll high and you’ll roll low. But it’s entertaining.

So, now that Sneeg and Ralmog are dead, can I get a look at those sheets?

The familiar isn't dead, I believe he's just tied up. We could question him if we want

Wait, Sneeg is dead?

[rushes off to read Gameplay]

Oh. Ok.

Will level up and post in Gameplay in the next few hours.

Level 4 means...spells!!!

Quick Narration question:

The archers on the roof had broken the kobold's phalanx

everyone and their mother is trying to make their way up the stairs to avoid the kobold phalanx pressing inexorably inward

Is the kobold phalanx broken, or not? Are there two phalanxes? It really doesn't matter, at the end of the day, but it makes me happy knowing what's happening.

Not saying you have to do it all the time, but this part will go faster if we know the AC and HP you're using for the numbered bandits we're fighting, so that we can mark them dead as we go.

Edit: Not that our goal should be to kill them all, but we need to clear enough area to let us get to the stag lord.

Quick Narration question:

DM Scholar wrote:

The archers on the roof had broken the kobold's phalanx

Dm Scholar wrote:

everyone and their mother is trying to make their way up the stairs to avoid the kobold phalanx pressing inexorably inward

Is the kobold phalanx broken, or not? Are there two phalanxes? It really doesn't matter, at the end of the day, but it makes me happy knowing what's happening.

If you look closely at the kobolds inside the building, you'll see that the back half of them aren't organized into a phalanx; they're the ones who got caught outside.

Not saying you have to do it all the time, but this part will go faster if we know the AC and HP you're using for the numbered bandits we're fighting, so that we can mark them dead as we go.

Yes extremely. The redshirts have AC 15, HP 6, Fort +3, Ref +1, Will -1. Y'all can roll their saves, and remove them from the map if and when they bite it.

Removed my kills. Looks like Guthruc missed. Iorskan's victims will be dead if they fail their reflex saves. Hopefully he can direct his flames to avoid the two mites. They appear to be on top of a wall, so maybe he just needs to aim low. If, however, they're at ground level, they're so much shorter than the humans that he should be able to aim over their heads.

Looks like Guthruc missed.

In that case, may I please get a use of second sight (need +1) if available?

No, Awn walks a path now shadow'd. Kill them all. Consider it done.

4 uses of second sight left. (Actually maybe more seeing as he leveled up...will check later...

Wait, so I'm confused. Can they not just walk through area Z7 to get to the stag lord and kill him, if that's their goal? (I'm assuming that the stag lord is the guy in Z8 wearing the deer skull on his head)

The door we're coming out of is surrounded. We're clearing the immediate area so that everyone can get through. I imagine we'll all head over to the stag lord's room next round (though Iorskan might want to stop to breath some fire on the guys fighting his kobold subjects).

Undrell's up, then I'll roll initiative. (I'm treating this as a kind of wonky surprise round where no one's flatfooted and everyone gets full actions.)