Defense of Brookside

Game Master caster4life

Actually, all bard spells have verbal components, even the ones that don't normally.

Huh. I never noticed that line before. I knew that Silent Spell doesn't work with bard spells -- the feat explicitly says so -- but not that ALL bard spells automatically have a verbal component.

Interesting. That means that although they put Disrupt Silence on the bard spell list, presumably so that Bards have some prayer of saving themselves from a silence effect, it doesn't actually function for its intended purpose!

Unless the bard moves out of the area of the silence effect first. But if they could do that, what exactly is the point of picking Disrupt Silence as a known spell?

And yes, I wondered about Eschew Materials. That could be nasty. A Confusion spell on the center of a caravan full of guards and horses would cause absolute chaos.

Perhaps we should ask Captain Hannady to please reconsider the gag.

Regarding prep for the obvious fight against the ambushers ahead: I don't know what else to do.

My weapons are locked in that chest, and I have this sneaking suspicion that if I ask for my bow back, Captain Hannady will insist on arming Elrin as well, which I'd really rather not have happen.

Besides, opening the chest and getting stuff out of it would probably be a standard plus a move action, assuming I had the key. But I'm not willing to give up my standard action. I need to keep using it to ready an action to try and stop Elrin's first move. If I do anything else with it, then he gets an opportunity to do something unhindered, and that's not something I'll give him.

By the way, I seriously considered going for a grapple on Elrin instead of kicking him in the goolies, because getting grappled while casting is likely to force a higher DC concentration check than Mel can dish out with an unarmed strike. But the kick seems like something Mel would really want to do, so I'm going to stick with it even though (assuming average damage) the DC of any concentration check would be two lower than what I'd get out of a grapple.

Thanks to Ev's fantastic perception roll and modifier, you guys don't have to deal with Elrin right now.

Tomorrow I'm closing the recruitment for our replacement players. Let me know your thoughts here or via PM! My goal is to let people know our decision as soon after recruitment closes as possible and then get the new players integrated as soon as makes sense.

I chose Arla Fuller and Kazador the Clanless as our new comrades in arms. Give them a warm welcome as I will be integrating them into gameplay at my earliest opportunity.

Popping in, look forward to gaming with you. Will get into the gameplay thread tomorrow :)

Hello! I look forward to it.

Glad to have you!

Hey all! Good to be here! I'm excited to get started.

Added my icon to the map, and smacked an elf with a hammer. So officially in the game!

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And also would like to take the time to explain my character mechanics to avoid any confusion.

Kazador is an Iron Caster. He has weapon training, 5 effective levels of fighter, and 7 uses of martial flexibility. Here's what it lets me do and how it works:

(1) Martial flexibility lets me, as a move action, take a combat feat that I don't have for 1 minute.

(2) The only combat feat I care about is the feat advanced weapon training
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/advanced-weapon-training-combat /
(3) This feat allows me to take:
Item Mastery: The fighter gains an item mastery feat as a bonus feat, which functions with any magic weapon he wields, even if the magic weapon does not meet the feat’s normal requirements. He must meet all of the feat’s prerequisites. Source: PZO9468
(4) All item mastery feats have 3 prerequisites:
(a) A magic item that meets very strict requirements...which is waived due to Item Mastery
(b) Ranks in Use Magic Device (Kazador has 6 ranks)
(c) Fort Save of X (Kazador has +11)

For Kazador, he has 7 uses of Martial Flexibility, or as I see them, spell points. Here are the uses that he is most likely to use:

As a note, before each one, I am using this to explain it: UMD X (which is the minimum number of UMD needed) and Fort X/X/X (Which is how much Fort save is needed per casting)

So for example, teleportation is UMD 4, Fort +6/+9/+12. This means that 4 skill points in UMD is needed. And as Kazador has Fort+11, if he uses Martial Flexibility for teleportation, then for 1 minute he can cast Dimension Door up to 2 times.

(1) Ability Mastery (UMD 3 points, Fort +4: Gain +2 Enchantment bonus to one stat for 24 hours. Kazador always uses this to grab +2 Strength)
(2) Teleportation Mastery (UMD 4 points, Fort +6/+9+/+12. Can cast Dimension Door!
(3) Curative Mastery (UMD 2 points, Fort +2/+4/+6/+8/+12. Each fort rank gives a point in curative mastery. 1 point casts Cure Light Wounds, 2 points casts CMW, 3 points casts CSW, 4 points casts CCW, and 5 points casts breath of life. With Fort+11, Kazador will have 4 points that he will have 1 minute to cast. So he can do 4x CLW, or 1x Cure Critical Wounds)
(4) Restoration Mastery (Heal 5 points, UMD 5 points, Fort +3/+9/+12. Can cast Lessor Restoration. This mastery will improve once Kazador has 9 ranks in both heal and UMD. Then he can cure blindness, deafness and paralysis)
(5) Dispel Mastery (UMD 3 points, Fort +6/+9/+12. Can cast Dispel Magic)

There are some other uses, such as fly, see invisibility, etc. But Kazador is less likely to use them, unless strictly necessary. Especially as he only has 7 castings per day (6 due to him grabbing +2 strength).

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So there you have it. If you see Kazador heal someone, or teleport, now you know how it was done mechanically.

Good to have you guys! Looking forward to seeing how the assembled team works together!

I'd just like to point out that the GM has not yet described any of these assailants as elves. They could be an unrelated bunch of bandits who were stupid enough to pick a fight with a group of heavily armed guards.

I wouldn't put it past the GM to mess with us like that. He's sneaky.

Mel's accurate shots bring down another foe when something happens with one of the guards.

The angry guard’s hammer draws a satisfying crunch from the elf in front of him, who falls under the blow. The elves look somewhat surprised as they had been fighting men with halberds when this shiny hammer came out of nowhere to kill one of their number.

The slippery grass tries the reflexes of the elves on the northern hill.
** spoiler omitted **

One of the archers falls while the other two balance precariously.

Well, he did...after I jumped the gun and called them elves before this.

But in my defense, if it has a bow, is in the woods, is wearing a cloak, and makes a funny sound when hit by a hammer...then there is a good chance that it's an elf.

Ah, I do see that it's uncertain, at least for the characters. The GM did call them elves in the last post, though, and I've had elves on the brain lately so that doesn't help. :p

I'll assume that I'm calling them elves outside of what Arla knows for now.

I know some were curious so here's your answer: current XP is 29,000. Halfway between levels 6 and 7. Some more XP and loot coming your way this fight.

Thanks for the gentle reminder about blur, Arla. The magus is a very cool class but it has a lot to track! I checked and they did, in fact, hit you through the 20% miss chance this time.

No problem! And yes, it does. I've been meaning to try playing one for a while, and I think it's definitely going to take some getting used to all the moving parts!

I appreciate the retroactive check against the concealment. I've added a section in my character header for active conditions and will try to keep that updated as much as possible, since it seems like it will be fairly mutable.

Thanks! That'll help. I've been meaning to play a magus for a while myself. The one game I've had one in was with the magus played by a friend who barely knew the extreme basics of PF... phew that wasn't a good class fit for him... But he loved how cool he felt!

I've long wanted to play a martial caster. My second PC, back in the 3.5 days, was a horrible agglomeration of multiclassing in an attempt to make one that worked, and I've never gotten back to it. I had high hopes when they announced the magus, but holy cow, they made the class so mechanically complex that it turned me off completely.

EDIT: See, that's why I wanted to know how many fleeing elves there are -- is Kazador using Dimension Door to go to the two who were fleeing through the difficult terrain to the south? Or is he going after the two that were fleeing north? Kazador didn't specify.

North, I assume. He can't see those to the south anymore.

To make matters worse with my magus friend, that was my first time GMing...

Incase anyone was wondering what Kazador is saying...all of his spells are using warhammer's Khazalid (dwarven language) to make simple sentences. They are as follows:

Teleportaion Mastery
* Dwarven: Gromthi! Dringorak-ha!
* Common: Ancestors! I have just realized the cunning road!
* 2x dimension door

Curative Mastery
* Dwarven: Gromthi! Akrak-an!
* Common: Ancestors! Fortune will be come!
* 4x uses
* You can expend one use to cast cure light wounds, two uses of this feat to cast cure moderate wounds, three uses to cast cure serious wounds, four uses to cast cure critical wounds, and five uses to cast breath of life.

Restoration Mastery
* Dwarven: Gromthi! Azamar-an!
* Common: Ancestors! Eternal fortune!
* 2x uses of lessor restoration

Vision Mastery
* Dwarven: Gromthi! Drazh-nu!
* Common: Ancestors! Now there is darkness!
* 4x uses of darkness and see invisibility

Dispel Mastery
* Dwarven: Gromthi! Rhun-dum!
* Common: Ancestors! Doom of magic!
* 2x uses dispel magic

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So rough translations. The basic idea is that magic items are rare in this setting, and Kazador's hammer is an ancient heirloom of his clan. He can tap into it's magic, which is activated by his bloodline, through the use of incantations. While his blood would allow him to tap into the power of any magic weapon (ie: pretty much a dwarven sorcerer), he believes that it is unique to his hammer.

When it comes to using these powers, it is his belief (whether it is true or not) that his ancestors can actually see (and judge). Up until this battle he has avoided using these powers at all costs because he has felt too ashamed to have his ancestors see him destitute, drunk and unwashed. Now that he is doing something which is honorable, he is willing to activate the hammer's power.

Anyways, longer post than I intended. But just wanted to share that the words actually do mean something.

Cool to hear, Kazador!

@Arla - Mel got to Brookside about a year ago, so if your tax collection duties took you there during that time, you might have met her -- probably only very briefly. She would have paid her taxes dutifully, but it probably wasn't a large total -- you don't make a lot as a bowyer in a small village.

Also note that she was disguised as a human at that time, and she's pretty good at it. So you probably didn't ID her as elven in the past. She's still wearing the disguise now, in fact. If I've got the modifiers right, it's a DC 21 Perception check to see through the disguise:

take 10
+8
+5 circumstance for minor details only (the ears, basically)
-2 different race

Feel free to make that Perception check if you like, it's probably not going to be too hard for Arla. But considering that Arla doesn't like elves, it might make for interesting story if she got to know Mel a bit before learning her race.

Your wife's rolls came in decent but a tad on the low side. She can turn an 11 into a 13 -- her choice of whether that's from her first or second set.

Sounds great!

Hm, I have one more thing I could try to stop this last elf from fleeing. But I'm not sure it's worth it to pursue.

Say Arla were to look back briefly to see if anyone was pushing her to continue the pursuit. Do you think she would she any of you urging her to still chase?

Definitely not Perrin, he's focused on treating the injured.

Generally speaking, it might be nice to not let anyone escape to tell the tale, but since two of them already got away I doubt a third will make much of a difference.

GM, a rules point for Arla's benefit: her Bladed Dash took her directly in front of the fleeing elf. The withdraw action only avoids AoO from the first square of motion.

If he wants to continue going in the same direction and also avoid taking an AoO, his options are:

1) Make an Acrobatics check to move through Arla's threatened area without provoking; the DC would be 18 (Arla's CMD). This option slows him to half his ordinary movement speed.

2) Same as #1, but the DC is 28 and he can move at full speed.

3) Withdraw, but he has to move at least one square backward as his first movement and then walk around her threatened area rather than through it, which will wind up costing him a good bit of movement.

Of course he could always veer off in a whole new direction; but if he wants to keep running the same direction, Arla's maneuver has made his life much more complicated.

EDIT: Oh, and of course he could always just eat the Attack of Opportunity and hope for the best.

Good points but he's pretty far from the rest of you so he's not too picky about direction away from Arla.

Quick question: are we using background skills? I was referencing people's character sheets briefly and I noticed that the amount of skills seems high.

Yep! At least, we were when we started, and I haven't heard anything differently.

Yes to background skills.

Yes. Background skills are one of the best things in Pathfinder Unchained.

A ring of constant gravity bow? That would be spectacular for Mel. But I think she might need some time. And possibly persuasion. She's wrestling with some demons right now (figuratively speaking!).

Hey all, I'm sorry but I've had a rough sick day today. I don't know that I have a gameplay post in me this evening, so feel free to skip my post today or bot me to move things forward.

Arla can quietly fume about elves for a round.

“She refuses Perrin’s offer of the magical supplies...”

If you don’t want the belt (and you should take it), I’ll grab it. Will just move my Iron Caster bonus to be +2 con.

Also, great post and perfect time for a 20!

Thanks! I'm also very relieved - Arla is better at being scary to bandits than recounting a persuasive tale about them.

I'm not opposed to taking the belt and some other things, but I think I want to delay until it looks less like bribery.

Sounds good to me! Especially as you could make better use of it

Yes, an excellent time for a natural 20, and a good post to boot!

It looks like Perrin has a +2 to diplomacy, so he needs to roll a 2 or higher.

But wouldn't it be awesome if he rolled a natural 1? That could be huge -- campaign shaping. I love when stuff like that happens.

Please don't jinx it :P

We already have a Cha6 dwarf pulling us down...

...though next level, he'll get diplomacy as a class skill. Which will represent him slowly overcoming his personal demons and being more confident. But until then, don't let Kazador do the talking.

I've been GM'ing a campaign for a soloist for six years now. Way back at level 7, the PC rolled a random encounter, and it came up three werewolves. Because it's boring to just announce, "Three werewolves jump out of the bushes and try to eat you," I asked the player to take a break for a few minutes while I worked out what was going on.

She went and got dinner for herself, and over the course of 20 minute I statted up Nevin, a natural werewolf fighter 4, Perry, a halfling afflicted werewolf wizard 5, and Elena, a natural werewolf ranger 2/rogue 2. They were refugees who fled the destruction of their original pack. Elena was the prime, and it was her intent now that they had shaken their pursuers to found a new pack. So they had started ambushing travelers and spreading the curse. That was their goal: not to kill the heroine and her cohort, but to recruit them.

The druid PC (Verdessa) was level 7 and her witch cohort (Ardulia) was level 5. The fight went all right -- both of them got infected, and all three werewolves got away (though Perry got a nasty case of periodic seizures off a Bestow Curse, the 50%-of-your-actions-fail variant).

After it was all over, I called for a Knowledge check to see if they knew how lycanthropy spread. I figured Knowledge (Arcana) would be appropriate, since it's a curse; and the same DC as the curse itself, 15. Verdessa did not have Knowledge (Arcana), but Ardulia had a +13. All she needed to do was roll a 2 or higher.

Natural 1.

And so a month later they transformed for the first time and slaughtered a camp full of gnomes alongside their new pack. Things snowballed and developed. They both eventually got the lycanthropy cured, but by that time it was too late. Five years of gameplay later, we are still not done dealing with the consequences of that natural 1. It led to the death of Jezelda, demon lord of lycanthropy, and to Verdessa's now impending ascension as the new demigod of werewolves (she's now level 19 and mythic tier 9).

I never intended to include werewolves in the campaign. At all. But ultimately that random encounter, and the natural 1 that rounded it out, came to be the most important arc in the whole campaign. If she survives the final battle, Verdessa is going to be able to rewrite the lycanthropy templates as she sees fit, and that will be canon for any game that player joins with me in future.

That's the kind of natural 1 I'm talking about. The kind where the entire campaign can unexpectedly take a turn that no one expected, not even the GM.

Awesome story, Mel! I do have some plans for where things will go if you guys don't pass this check. It'll be harder but, as you illustrated, also interesting.

Okay, so, if I understand correctly:

1) Smythe agreed to give Arla jurisdiction over Mel;

2) Smythe offered to host Mel;

3) Arla, as Mel's current handler, agreed to his offer on Mel's behalf until better arrangements can be made.

Therefore Mel is staying with Smythe. Is that right?

Ah I see a source of confusion.

Not quite. Smythe is offering for Mel to be under his watch instead of Arla's.

Wait, when Arla said this:

"Thank you, sir. I will continue as planned. Thank you for offering to host her; I will arrange proper arrangements soon once I have things sorted for the doctor and the young man."

I interpreted that as her turning down Smythe's offer, saying "thank you, but no, I'll handle it myself." If otherwise Perrin would be raising some objection. Arla, could we get a clarification on your intent?

Yes, I think I understood that, but I wasn't entirely clear on what Arla was doing. It's this bit that I'm unsure of:

Receiving Colonel Smythe's confirmation of her authority, she visibly relaxes the tension built up in her shoulders. "Thank you, sir. I will continue as planned. Thank you for offering to host her; I will arrange proper arrangements soon once I have things sorted for the doctor and the young man."

About time that buffoon recognized someone's authority besides his own. Man acts like he's the bishop. More calm now, she turns and gestures to the door. "Shall we?" she suggests to the others.

"I will continue as planned" is vague. Arla may know what she planned, but the details are not clear to anyone else.

"Thank you for offering to host her; I will arrange proper arrangements soon once I have things sorted for the doctor and the young man" could mean "Yes, take her while I deal with these two and I'll come back and get her later."

And finally, "the others" is vague as to who exactly is being addressed. It might include Mel, or it might not, depending on how you interpret what came before.

I'm okay with either route -- staying with Smythe or going with Arla. But I want to know which one Arla was angling for.

Well either way Smythe thinks Mel is going to stay with him. So anyone who doesn't like that can go ahead and speak up. I'm sure Arla will clarify shortly.

By the way, Mel has been making some knowledge checks and asking for general information.

Note on spoilers: My policy is that you can look at spoilers you don't qualify for as long as you remember your character doesn't know that. Without this practice, players can really miss out on interesting things when really only their characters need to be kept in the dark. The exception to this rule will be if I post a spoiler like the following

The exclamation mark indicates that you should only read the spoiler if you qualify. Sometimes (rarely) players need to be in the dark as well.

Mel, what else did you ask about? I didn't write down a list (which would have been a good idea) and the paizo message feature is a mess to search through.

Thanks for the info on dwarves!

(1) These scattered communities: Are any autonomous?
(2) Has there ever been a Dwarven kingdom, or has the race always been scattered?

Ah, gotcha, I see the confusion.

I thought that Smythe was granting me custody, i.e. charge over her situation. Arla doesn't trust her yet, what with being an elf.

When he offered to host her I thought he was just suggesting a place for Mel to stay, not to take Mel as his charge instead of mine. Since I failed the Sense Motive check, I leaned into it. I figured that Mel would stay with Smythe for a little bit until Arla could arrange a better place to keep an eye on Mel.

Okay, I think Mel is actually going to stay with Smythe. Sorry GM, I know it's inconvenient to have a split party! But Mel wants to avoid pissing off the first official they meet in Helm.

I'll post that in a couple hours once I get back from the gym.