DM_Scholar's Kingmaker (Inactive)

Game Master Asmodeus' Advocate

That's awesome, DM! Still at work, so I can't see it all- but where's Townsend on this scale? Just a standard bandit with a really cool sword?

That's right, he does have a magic sword. I'd better make him a stat block eventually, then. (Too lazy to do it now.) But he's just a standard bandit with +1 hit and damage and a better threat range.

I've just been looking at the document, and I have some ideas.

Do any of us not have darkvision? Between the kobolds and the mites, I think we definitely need to attack at night (and we may want to decide that our group will operate at night most of the time, for the advantage over diurnal creatures). With Mr. Winky acting as a scout, we should be able to locate their lookouts without being spotted. If we get him a wand of Dancing Darkness, we can make sure any lookouts will be blinded (assuming they're human, and aren't using light spells of the second level or greater), and our stealthy minions can climb right up their asses before they know what happened.

OUR humans (who will need torches and such) can then visibly march toward the stag lord's compound as a distraction, while our sneaky-sneakies enter from other directions. Once they do that, I imagine there will be stores of lamp oil, or pitch, or barrels of boozoholt that they can ignite to cause enough chaos that the stag lord's men won't be able to put up an effective defense.

With a group this size, Viceroy Dragonfly's Coordinated Charge combined with his tactician ability will allow us to hit a single target (we should save it for the stag lord himself) with wave after wave of charge attacks from all sides (whenever ANY ally within 30ft of the viceroy charges while his ability is active, all other allies within 30ft of him can do so as an immediate action, and HE can also charge as a flyby attack).

We'll need to make sure everyone has a reach weapon so that we aren't limited to 8 simultaneous attacks from chargers (one ending in each adjacent square). Longspears for everyone, maybe upgraded to Glaives for those trained with martial weapons (all standard bandits, and all kobolds except for the rogues), or lances for those with mounts (can we find mounts for the kobolds?). Ozzy has craft weapons, and hopefully she can use that to instruct enough people to make these weapons in a reasonable amount of time.

We'll also have to find the best use for Dharak. A Brawler's martial flexibility can be devastating if used well for a specific situation, and our huge numbers probably make some normally-mediocre feat options nearly game-breaking.

Those mites all also have those Doom SLAs. They're only DC10, but casting 17 of them simultaneously should be more than enough to progress even the Stag Lord to Panicked. As a debuff that also forces him to drop his weapons and use his action to run away, that's powerful, but if they hide and use it secretly while the stag lord is publicly dueling someone, it might be enough to make his forces see him as weak and turn against him, allowing us to absorb his forces.

Hell, even the mites' prestidigitation might provide a tactical advantage with that many using it at once for a well-timed prank. They can also use Vermin Empathy to wrangle up some swarms to wreak some havoc.

Sorry Ozzy, don't know how I missed this, but I did. Going through it now.

I've been thinking about the diurnal side too- has anyone considered digging a tunnel? The mites do it all the time with the Sycamore Tree, and we could easily have a stealth team drop in. Plus, from what we know, the spellcaster has locked himself downstairs- which would be really good for us if a group of melee fighters all showed up on his doorstep. Probably not his best day.

That being said, I think I'd like to use our newfound allies (Garess) as scouts to get close to the base. They're tactical, well- armed and experienced, and mobile enough that we should be able to scout patterns of behavior from the Stag Lord and get out before anything bad happens. Does that make sense to anyone else?

For what it's worth, I'd like to see if we can't turn Akiros Ismort to our cause. Just doesn't make sense that a man like that would effectively run things but get none of the reward; at the very least, we should be able to offer him a more enticing offer than what he's got now.

In other non- related news, everyone still here?

Do we have stats for Garess et al? I would be surprised if any of them have stealth capabilities comparable to Mr. Winky or the mites/kobolds, and it sounds like they're all human, so they wouldn't have the darkness advantage. Mr. Winky's +17 stealth is better than some creatures have with invisibility.

I don't neccessarily think we need to use them as stealth guys- in fact, better for us if they aren't in stealth. What I was proposing is using them to probe for weaknesses. For example, we know they have a manticore they use to chase people close to the nest. Well, how far away is that manticore allowed to go? And, is there a possibility of using our guys on horses to lure that manticore into a trap and murder it, lowering morale for the Stag Lord and taking out a powerful enemy? Or, if we charge the gates, what's the plan? How does this spellcaster/evil druid/necromancer fit in? At what point does the Stag Lord deem it appropriate ot insert himself into the fight? All sorts of questions they can answer for us.

For what it's worth, the day of the attack, definetly use Mr. Winky to scout, blind, and everything else; though blind doesn't mean mute, so we'd have to be careful there. I bet Ozzy and Abaos (well, I know the answer to one of those questions) have pretty solid Stealth scores too- maybe have Winky scout, report back, and Ozzy+Abaos+whomever else can Stealth kill them before they can shout?

Ozzy's stealth is only a +5. Mr. Blinky's is +7.

The stealth attack won't help if they expect it, but a series of non-stealthy probes might work to keep them from expecting the stealthy approach...

My stealth is -1. Not much of a help there...

The stealth attack won't help if they expect it, but a series of non-stealthy probes might work to keep them from expecting the stealthy approach...

Especially if we camp visibly one direction, always probe from that direction, and then sneak attack from the other direction. That could be devastating.

Abaos has +9, and re-rolls. So he'd be ok.

I forget how ridiculous small races are with Stealth. The kobold spearmen have a +8, the kobold commandos +10, Chief Sootscale +14, and the mites all at +13 with Viceroy at +11. So, there's your Stealth squad, right there.

Tunnels! Just saying, if we do decide to tunnels, maybe Viceroy dragonfly in charge there, while Abaos+Winky run around destroying the guards up top with the main assault happening. Then we flank and surround them, with our team of awesome coming from up top while we take the walls. Get one of the mites to open the gates, maybe?

My stealth is -1. Not much of a help there...

Don't worry bud; you still get ot command an army of kobolds! Isn't that awesome?

P.S.- DM, we (I) have another problem. Perhaps this is my PC insistence that all named NPC's must be cool and awesome, but where are our buddies Nakpik, Zornesk, Poro, and Eadoo in the kobold chart? Poro is supposed to be super stealthy- can we use her as our kobold- in- charge- of- scouting?

We'll have to get some feedback from the DM on WRT how realistic tunneling is. My instinct is that we don't want to wait that long.

Kobolds all have 8+ stealth, and are taking 10. So nobody can see them.

Alone, in the middle of an empty field, is Iorskan. Taking 10 for a -1, roaring "HIDE! I, LORD IORSKAN COMMAND YOU TO HIDE FROM THE STUPID HUMANS! WE MUST SNEAK UP ON THEM WHILE THEY SLEEP."

Oh, don't worry guys! I'm certain my math is off somewhere, but assuming 250 ft^3 takes 2 hrs of work, and about 1.5x10^11 ft^3 = 10 miles, it would only take us 500,000,000 days (1,369,863 years) to dig a 10 mile long tunnel!

Have I mentioned I'm bad at math? lol

You are bad at math. You can't convert ft^3 to miles. One is a unit of volume, the other of length.

250fs^3 in 2 hours equates to one 5ft cube (125ft^3) per hour. Assuming for sake of easy calculation that we only need a tunnel with a cross-sectional area of 25ft^2 (enough for small creatures to move freely, medium creatures would need to crawl, or at least crouch), round-the-clock tunneling at that speed would give you a mile of tunnel in about 1.5 months.

Even that seems high with primitive tools. Are you familiar with Elon Musk's venture, The Boring Company? Their goal is to increase tunneling efficiency so that, unlike all previous boring machines, they can bore through the ground at a rate that isn't literally slower than a snail's pace.

You are bad at math. You can't convert ft^3 to miles. One is a unit of volume, the other of length.

Well, that's what I get for typing in "cubic feet to miles converter" into Google. Thanks, google.

I have to admit, I wasn't familiar with The Boring Company, no. Very interesting.

To be fair, the limiting factor isn't how fast they can cut material away underground. Most of it has to do with bottlenecks related to moving material OUT of the tunnel as they dig it.

Luckily, we're in Golarion and here the druid casting Soften Earth and Stone can cause that excess dirt to just disappear.

That spell doesn't make stuff disappear. It doesn't even say anything about changing its volume. It would make the cutting part easier, but not the material removal. All the spells I can think of that involve creating holes do so by creating a temporary extradimensional space rather than nullifying material, specifically to prevent this type of abuse.

Hey everyone! Sorry for not posting over the weekend, was busy.

I've been trying to find proper statistics for how fast someone can dig a tunnel through packed (or magically softened) dirt; I'm assuming that the kobolds (being trained in Profession: Miner) can do it if anyone can, and I know that digging under castle walls was a common tactic in medieval sieges. Unfortunately, I can't find the numbers I need. My firefox-fu has failed me, but if someone can tell me the timeframe and logistics involved, that's definitely a thing you can do. (I mean, this is Pathfinder. There's more than one way to skin any given cat.)

Do we have stats for Garess et al?

Shortly. As in, some time tomorrow.

.S.- DM, we (I) have another problem. Perhaps this is my PC insistence that all named NPC's must be cool and awesome, but where are our buddies Nakpik, Zornesk, Poro, and Eadoo in the kobold chart? Poro is supposed to be super stealthy- can we use her as our kobold- in- charge- of- scouting?

Poro is one of the Commandos, Nakpik and Eadoo both bear shields, and Zornesk fights with a longspear. While their mental stats are likely different from those portrayed, they use the same stats as the functionally identical kobolds. I considered rolling dice whenever a kobold died to see if it was a named NPC, but decided instead that as main characters they deserve some measure of plot immunity. None of them will die in combat unless all the kobolds who share their stats do.

I'ma go get a post up in the gameplay now, sorry for making everyone wait on me!

I have found that I have to go to some national guard mandatory fun in June. From the 3rd to the 23rd I’ll have limited internet connectivity. While I’ll finally learn how to use an m249 light machine gun...it’ll limit my posting. My apologies in advance.

I have found that I have to go to some national guard mandatory fun in June. From the 3rd to the 23rd I’ll have limited internet connectivity. While I’ll finally learn how to use an m249 light machine gun...it’ll limit my posting. My apologies in advance.

Is cool, thanks for the heads up. :)

In the long run, a month isn't a huge amount of time when compared to the estimated time to run an adventure path, so we'll wait patiently, starting on the third. I'll try to wrap up the current encounter before then.

Also, Garess and Co. have been added to the document.

I also just remembered that Ozzy has a 1/day Disguise Self SLA that she hasn't used yet. We could use that to let her sneak in, or even create a second Stag King to give conflicting orders. She'll have to get a look at him first for it to be convincing, but Bond Senses will allow her do that through Mr. Winky's eyes.

Apologies for taking a long weekend!

Iorskan is off serving his country by shooting targets, so we'll be waiting for him to get back. What do the lot of you want to do in interim? Perhaps a quick game of crab truckers?

Oh, well there is one thing you can do in the Stolen Lands without your draconic comrade. You're currently wearing and wielding the same gear you've been wielding and wearing since level the first, sitting on a stack of currency large enough to ransom the mayor of a small town, stranding outside the walls of a post where trade is conducted.

What kind of goods do we have access to, and does anyone have a good accounting of how much gold we should have? I have my own numbers, but I'm not sure they properly account for the fact that some of our characters are using the no magic items rules, and thus may not be getting the same share of gold...

If we want to implement the darkness plan, we'll need to scrape together enough for a first-level wand (I assume we don't have access to partial wands? Do we have access to magic items at all?).

Also, we need to take inventory of what we're going to sell (like what's-his-face's magic items).

Which what's-his-face?

Dovan. That was his name. He had magic armor, a magic rapier, and some other stuff (at least a necklace, but I think there was more) that we couldn't identify at the time.

If I remember correctly, we all took and divied up Dovan's items, minus the sword- which we gave to Townsend. We can always take back the magic rapier (and I think we told him it was temporary), but I do believe that everything else went to various personages. i know for a fact I took Dovan's armor.

I'm pretty sure that the necklace was never identified, at least...

So, I guess the question becomes- who's been keeping track of inventory? I haven't, but if you give me till tomorrow I can track down everything we've gotten since we started, and whether or not we've identified it or not. Then make a list, and we can start auctioning off/purchasing items.

So, I guess the question becomes- who's been keeping track of inventory?

I've been! Though I did a goof; I haven't been tracking gold pieces. I've no idea how many the party has.

We can just round it off to wealth by level . . . but I think the high CR encounters you guys faced earned you a bit more money than the WBL guidelines. And it's possible that you'll spend some of your money better equipping your small army, so I wouldn't want to reduce how much you have.

To answer questions about what you can buy at Oleg's, here's what it says in the AP:

EDIT to avoid double post

And, changing topics, I previously linked you to a doc called "XP and Treasure". You'll note the XP is out of date - I gave up on the idea of getting experience points after I designed Auchs without the CR guidelines in mind (thinking about the party's abilities instead). With no idea what CR he was, I didn't know how much XP to reward, which reminded me how much I dislike XP, so I decided to just level the party up to make sure they hit level four by the end of the book. We won't be using experience points going forward!

So how long has it actually been in game time? Must have been a few weeks, at least. With all the walking around, it's hard to keep track. At any rate, it sounds like that wand I wanted would need to be ordered...

Selling the sword should certainly allow us to afford it, but it would be a not-insignificant chunk of party resources. Given that we all have darkvision, I think being able to effectively blind opponents without it with a first-level wand will pay off for a long time to come, but the rest of the group will have to weigh in on whether they agree with that allocation of resources.

Also, what about my idea for getting all the kobolds and mites together under Ozzy's tutelage to craft a bunch of small-sized longspears (and lances for those with mounts)? That would allow us to make sure everyone has a reach weapon available for use with Viceroy Dragonfly's Coordinated Charge feat (via his tactician ability). That would allow for up to 25 charge attacks (including Dragonfly himself, who would charge with a Flyby attack) against a single target (with everyone else taking an immediate action). More if the target takes up more than one square (and thus has more squares adjacent to it).

Ozzy, I like the plans- let's do it. You'll havew to explain the 25 number to me again (I count 17- 8 squares within 5, 8 squares within 10, plus flying Viceroy), but otherwise, I like it.

What about a holy symbol, or something, to try and move those undead around? Or a magic item to help dig tunnels? I still think those are good ideas, we just need time to implement them.

That, and if we plan on using Garess's mounts to lure the manticore away, maybe a net/tanglefoot bag launcher or something, should it try to flee.

Ozzy, I like the plans- let's do it. You'll havew to explain the 25 number to me again (I count 17- 8 squares within 5, 8 squares within 10, plus flying Viceroy), but otherwise, I like it.

There are 8 squares adjacent. If you look just behind those, there are 12 more, 3 on each side times 4 sides. Then you also count the corners, since reach weapons are an exception to the double-diagonal rule (because if they weren't you could 5-ft step from 15ft range to 5ft range without ever entering the weapon's threatened area), so that's 4 more in the corners, for a total of 24. Add Viceroy Dragonfly, who doesn't need to occupy one of those squares, and you get 25.

Another way to think about it is that in a 25ft square (5x5 on the grid, which is 25 squares), a character in the center with a reach weapon AND a non reach weapon threatens all the other squares, and thus can be attacked (either with a reach weapon or a non-reach weapon) by characters in any of those squares.

Actually looking at the tables- yeah, I count 25, as well. Just me being math- bad.

Hey, DM, could I make a survival check to put snakes and beehives/waspnests in sacks? Also, how effective would they be as splash/ranged weapons?

Hey, DM, could I make a survival check to put snakes and beehives/waspnests in sacks? Also, how effective would they be as splash/ranged weapons?

I'm going to say that you can collect an intact beehive with a DC 15 survival check, that can be attempted once per hex.

After they have been bagged, they'll work as alchemists fire (1d6 damage, and then a d6 more the next round) except piercing instead of fire damage, and they can't damage structures.

I'm still here! Do you guys have any idea what preparations you'd like to make at Oleg's?

I assume that the army will be briefed on the plan and we will all march out after getting our provisions and supplies.

Iorskan will just glide off the walls of the trading post for the morale of his koboldian guard.

Do you guys have any idea what preparations you'd like to make at Oleg's?

See questions in my June 5th post.

Since I haven't been keeping track of money (sorry :( ) I'll just say that y'all've found 10,000 moneys in the Stolen Lands. That'll take you a bit above WBL, especially accounting for Iorskan not wanting items, but I imagine that you'll be using some of that money to better equip your army. (Such as getting crossbows for the kobolds, so that they don't subtract their strength from their ranged damage, or just upgrading armor and weapons in general).

Besides, who knows how many levels you'll gain before you can next buy gear? It's a big forest.

You have access to magic items, but they'll have to ship in from Restov. Since you'll likely be making some large purchases, you'd have to wait for it to ship from Restov anyway.

No partial wands, I'm afraid, but that is what scrolls are for, is it not?

Iorskan wants crossbows for his kobolds. He also wants helms for them in the shape of his face for his “elite” guard. It speaks to the egotist within him.

Don't forget the longspears for Coordinated Charge.

Since I haven't been keeping track of money (sorry :( ) I'll just say that y'all've found 10,000 moneys in the Stolen Lands. That'll take you a bit above WBL, especially accounting for Iorskan not wanting items, but I imagine that you'll be using some of that money to better equip your army. (Such as getting crossbows for the kobolds, so that they don't subtract their strength from their ranged damage, or just upgrading armor and weapons in general).

Besides, who knows how many levels you'll gain before you can next buy gear? It's a big forest.

You have access to magic items, but they'll have to ship in from Restov. Since you'll likely be making some large purchases, you'd have to wait for it to ship from Restov anyway.

No partial wands, I'm afraid, but that is what scrolls are for, is it not?

We definitely need to put an order in for a wand of dancing darkness, and maybe a couple of others. Silent Image is probably the best first-level wand after Infernal Healing. We would also get a lot of bang for the buck out of Bless with so many allies, though it probably makes more sense to get a scroll or two for that one. What are your thoughts on a masterwork tool for UMD? Mr. Winky also needs some masterwork thieves' tools (better make it the concealable kind, if only for the weight reduction).

Probably also time to upgrade Ozzy's armor. I don't think she needs a mithral chain shirt, but I should at least go for a masterwork one. Probably worth making her longspear masterwork as well.

Not sure what if anything Awn might require.

Guthruc will just want about 20 sacks and a cart to carry his beehives and snakes he'll be gathering before the attack.

Bump

AHHH! Guys! It's July! Wow! And where have I been? Totally sleeping, I apologize. Is everyone still here?

Shovels? Magic shovels to make move dirt and dig tunnels? This has to be a thing, somewhere, somehow, someone has to have invented a magic shovel. Just saying.

Anyways, so, what's the gameplan? We never did actually figure that out

Step 1 proposed.

Lure Manticore out using cavalry as bait, see if it flies after then use tanglefoot bags/thunderstone's to bring it down.

Sneak in a night, using wands of darkness to take out the guards. Utilize the Viceroy's cavalier talents with mites to gang-up on one enemy.

Step 3: Be epic.

Am I missing anything?

What are the thunderstones for? A deafened manticore doesn't seem to be at a big disadvantage...

Stop it from flying, presumably, but that's real logic, not Pathfinder

Be epic sounds like the best plan to me. Let’s do it!

We can toss my bags of venomous snakes in front of major doorways to prevent easy access/escape from armories and such.