Darkest Corners volume 2

Game Master Harakani

Yep, what Diene said.

I'll be available most of the time over the holidays, but on some days posting may be slow or completely impossible...but there's no specific times where I should be unavailable completely.

What Daria said.

My slow period is actually just ending. Should be good from Monday on. Spotty on the days off.

I'm really just waiting to see how the store owner reacts before Isama comes in.

Also, I'd like to state that it's fine for me if GM wants a holiday break.
I know from personal experience that the storytelling-part is a lot more work, and time during the holidays will be tight.
While I'm confident I can throw out a post every so often, in-between various family business, I'm not sure if I would have sufficient time to GM, so should not expect that from others, either-

I'm only getting six days off during the christmas-new year break... and two of those are a weekend. I always feel like I need to get more momentum up for GMing than just doing a PC post though.

You are not forgotten, sorry for the delay.

No worries, we understand. And merry christmas everyone : )

Merry Christmas. :D

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays. Happy New Year!

Happy holidays :D

Sooo... as a Christmas present, I was thinking it'd be nice to hand out your next level.
Merry Christmas, and happy new year!

YES! I HAVE KI! WOOOH!

Why does it feel like I have made a terrible mistake... ;P

Yey presents!

Also quick note: I'm currently away on a small holiday trip and will be home tomorrow evening. But I have some spare time now and I'll see if I can get my thoughts together and post and update and stuff. Otherwise; tomorrow evening : )

yay ^_^

+1 bardic knowledge, +1 clever explorer, evasion, disarm magical traps, +1 trap sense, +1 FCB(at 1/2 per level), ...

I like even levels ^_^

This is like, the best level, for me. My damage die increases, to-hit increases, my AC increases, my saves increase, I get ki, I can jump off buildings easily,

Lets see:

+1 craft Alchemy
+1 2nd level extract
+1 inspiration
+1 on Trapfinding
+1 on Trap Sense
+1 on Studied Combat
+1d6 on Studied Strike
+1 BAB
+1 on all saves

As well as the hp & skill points from a level up. All in all, pretty nice here too : )

as mentioned above, + hp, + all saves, +1 bab

skills:
+1 Craft(Clockwork)
+1 Profession(Guard)
+1 Diplomacy
+1 Disguise
+1 Stealth
+1 Disable Device
+1 Bluff
+1 Perception
+1 Acrobatics

+1 Level 2 Spell Known/per day: Blood biography(and something I'll use on that foot we recovered...I was pondering wether to take it, but with castor MIA I think it may be a valid choice...I would prefer to repick if a prepared caster who has it on spell list (re-)joins the squad, since it does seem fitting for guards but highly situational.)

Do we also get a new budget for our equipment?(as in, WBL @ 16k gc?)

Rough day at work guys. Will try and update ASAP.

I was going to do the supplies later, but on reflection it makes sense that if you say you're going up against someone with this sort of power they might bump your budget.
Sure - what do people want?

If we are talking sheer numerical effectiveness, I'd ask for more to hit/damage/ac.

If we are talking about funzies, "Room Service" buffs.

@Gear - Wand of Protection From Evil might come in handy now and in the future. Ophelia has a decent Use Magic Device skill so she could probably wave it around nicely.

A +1 bonus to her spear wouldn't hurt!

Hmm. Maybe a net made out of some though material or enchanted?

@Party/Know skills - At the moment, Ophelia has a shallow but wide pool of knowledge. Is there some areas you would wish she had more expertise on?

I know Daria is in a similar situation skill-wise so I thought be best sync up a little : )

I'm thinking Ophelia would be mostly interested in stuff like History, Arcane or Engineering

Okay - everyone's 'budget' is raised to 16K. That should be 5.5K extra for most of you.
Don't feel pushed to spend it all on this fight.

Okay - so after this adventure, I was interested in running "The House on Hook Street". It seems custom made for a bunch of guards investigating problems that touch on the supernatural. It is normally set in Korvosa, but I think it would easily translate to Qantium.
Are people okay with that? Has anyone read it yet?

Haven't read it, and am perfectly fine with the suggestion. Also, need some more time to consider how I want to spend the budget :)

I have not read it. And whatever you think is nifty.

Know:Nature is Isama's specialty so Daria and Ophelia can avoid that if they want. Never read House on Hook. Sounds fun.

And I've finally updated my spoiler to show the data up to date as of Nov 1st. Whoo!

Anyway, Diene could use a CLW.

Also, I was thinking of doubling down on my intimidate with a Cruel AomF. What do you guys think?

Ooooh, AomF got cheaper... very tempting..

+ hp and all saves
+1 BAB

got an extra 1st and 2nd level spell.

Bumped up Diplomacy, Sense Motive, Perception, Kn:Nature, and Prof:Guard

And A Thousand Faces special ability :). Urban Druids get it at 6 wahoo!

Need to think about Gear but a Wand of Longstrider for sure.

We can get one divine and one arcane wand of CLW (20 charges) for Free. Makes sense that Isama would get one divine and keep it on her.

Happy new year!

I have distributed my skills as following:

+1 perception
+1 disable device
+1 use magic device
+5 know(arcana)
+2 spellcraft

@GM - Would it be possible to requisition a partially charged wand?

I was thinking a Magic Circle against Evil wand. It seems more convenient then a Protection from Evil one and more versatile to boot (if one has a bit of silver around of course!).

I was thinking around ~20 charges

@Urban Druids - they are awesome! I play one at level 5, eagerly awaiting the next step : )

Oh and I forgot - I haven't read 'The House on Hook Street' and I don't think I'd mind playing it : )

@Diene: What is AomF?
@Isama: Good memory!
@Ophelia: I suppose that is logical. Not too few charges, though: that negates the need for scrolls.
@Mia: Don't feel pushed to get more magic items right now.

House on Hook Street it is!

Amulet of might Fists.

Aye, not feeling pushed at all. I'm fine to progress once everybody is done.
Just want to sit down and take a good look at the options, because there's a few interesting things within the budget-

Also, fun thing i noticed when looking over skills again. With the ability to take 10 on disguise, I get to 37 total when pretending to be a human child. Intimate knowledge is a +10 modifier on the opposed perception check if impersonating a specific individual. Rolling 20 then totals for 30+perception score. So for quite a number of commoners/people with mediocre perception/wisdom, I could technically impersonate their daughter and they wouldn't realize a difference ^_^ (of course, if they interact, I can take 10 on the Bluff check, too, for a still solid 22 that said commoners/low wisdom people may also fail with their sense motive...or, if I get to cast innocence before, a total of 32 on the bluff-) - sorry for the lenghty discourse, but it kind of amused me and HAD to put it in writing ;)

So at the very least for Gear Daria gets a 'free' arcane wand of CLW and Isama gets a divine one? Should be set for out of combat HP healing at the very least.

Aye, I took the Arcane one back then. But we only had one real job yet, and there I came without equipment(including only wearing my dress that I wore for the transfer introduction to Lt. Spooky rather than armor...)
^_^
In order to be able to do anything, it was decided that I brought my crossbow, but that was pretty much it :)

I can use an Arcane CLW wand as well.

I know, but you're usually in the front getting pummeled. I'd rather just take the wand out of my pack than search your unconscious body for it while you're bleeding out ^_^

Also, just to make sure this is not misunderstood. I much prefer YOU being in front getting pummeled over ME being in front being pummeled, so your meatshielding is strongly appreciated ^_~

@Daria - Hmm. Mayhaps we can see if our target has some long-lost daughter or sister we could level to our advantage then :P?

@See Invisibility - Ophelia can swing together some Infusions of that too!

@Wand - Yeah. I mentioned about 20 since that is still a sizeable chunk more then a simple scroll. But it's not 50 (I think we would be hard pressed to work trough 50 charges of Magic Circle even if we tried :P)

@Cruel - It's quite a nice little debuff that hits most things. And the Temp Hp part would be really awesome when facing a larger number of small critters so I'd say go for it!

Furious is also a really nice alternative, but I'm not sure if Diene is angry enough long enough for it to be worth it :P?

Was that part: "When the wielder uses the weapon to knock unconscious or kill a creature, he gains 5 temporary hit points that last for 10 minutes." ever erratad?
Or do we want to take a bag full of rats with us that Diene knocks out before we're heading in, for a tasty 250 temporary HP? ^_^
(Just kidding, of course...but the correct modus operandi would still be interesting-)

Also, big fan of courageous furious weapons on barbarians of all sorts...still some time there, but at +2 furious courageous things are interesting(pair it up with rage morale boni and heroism and things get real sick, real fast.)

Not sure about the temp hp, but courageous has been erratad to not work that well anymore (it's just for fear effects now I think).

AFAIK, that's just the saving throws?

A courageous weapon fortifies the wielder's courage and morale in battle. The wielder gains a morale bonus on saving throws against fear equal to the weapon's enhancement bonus. In addition, any morale bonus the wielder gains from any other source is increased by half the weapon's enhancement bonus (minimum 1).

Or is the bold part out? Because that's what always made it so great in my eyes. +2 furious goes to +4 on rage, so strenght/con get an extra +2 bonus, and stuff like heroism or good morale basically double their bonus from +2 to +4...

I can understand if they errata'd it, but ONLY giving a save against fear now? That seems like weaksauce...

Courageous Weapon Property: Is the courageous weapon property meant to help only on saves against fear? The text seems to give unfettered increases to all morale bonuses, which is way out of line for a +1 equivalent weapon ability.

A courageous weapon was meant to help only on saves against fear (either adding its enhancement bonus as a morale bonus on saves against fear, or adding half its enhancement bonus to your existing morale bonus on saves against fear, whichever is best for you). However, the wording is in error. The last sentence should say “on saves against fear” after “any morale bonus.” This change will be reflected in the next errata.

Link

Yeah. They basically decided that it was too op before ('way out of line') and therefore it must be super weak instead to compensate. Or something :P

They couldn't just have kept it and made it into a +2 bonus? Seriously, sometimes I wonder about their balancing decisions.
Same stupidity as with Divine Protection - instead of just tuning things down, they outright break it. oh well.

A very thematic thing for unarmed combat would be Vicious ^_^ Hitting stuff so hard your bruising your own knuckles *gg*
(Not suggesting to take it, mind you...but flavorwise-...)

I only much pay attention to the rules of Pathfinder for forum roleplays these days. In my IRL games, we make up our own feats, spells, and items to avoid having to search through the glut of hundreds of absolutely useless abilities to find the occasional absolutely necessary choice.

In hindsight, next time, it might have been more humane to have the see invisible extract be a pair of cool goggles.

But I wanted to subject someone to Ophelias cooking atleast once :P

Given Diene's upbringing (goblins), you may be disappointed by her lack of reaction.

She recently hugged an undead covered in sewage and gore and reacted like this was normal.

Ahh that is true!

This also means that Ophelia considers honey + mint + muck a successful 'dish' now ...

:D

@Daria (Originally planned to post in gameplay but I change my mind but I'm too lazy to remove the ooc tags :P):

@extracts - Mkay no worries :)

@scroll - Oh I was wondering why you paid so much. But a head's up:

Scrolls are not tied to class, only Arcane or Divine. So a bard can totally use a Wizard scroll without worries as long as the spell appears on the bard list (like See Invisible). So you can purchase them for 150gp each and use them just as well as if a bard scribed them (aka only needing the CL check because they are 'supposed' to be 7th level for you :P)

The spell must be of the correct type (arcane or divine). Arcane spellcasters (wizards, sorcerers, and bards) can only use scrolls containing arcane spells, and divine spellcasters (clerics, druids, paladins, and rangers) can only use scrolls containing divine spells. (The type of scroll a character creates is also determined by his class.)
The user must have the spell on her class list.
The user must have the requisite ability score.

Now that I copy it I realize you won't even need the CL check since it is only CL 3 for the wizard version, even though it is CL 7 for a bard^^

If the user meets all the requirements noted above, and her caster level is at least equal to the spell's caster level, she can automatically activate the spell without a check. If she meets all three requirements but her own caster level is lower than the scroll spell's caster level, then she has to make a caster level check (DC = scroll's caster level + 1) to cast the spell successfully. If she fails, she must make a DC 5 Wisdom check to avoid a scroll mishap. A natural roll of 1 always fails, whatever the modifiers. Activating a scroll is a standard action (or the spell's casting time, whichever is longer) and it provokes attacks of opportunity exactly as casting a spell does. If the caster level check fails but no mishap occurs, the scroll is not expended.

TL:DR A bard can use Wizard scrolls. And since the CL is lower, it is actually easier for them to use Wizard scrolls. Yey logic! :P