Earth's Battle Tower - Martial Playtest - Arena 2

Game Master Joshua Hirtz

ARENA 2

"Congratulations to our second contestant chosen to participate in the special introductory event, Night. For your first opponent, you will be facing off against..."

Random Opponent: 1d15 ⇒ 12

"Cutpurse!"

Night may take up to three rounds worth of actions for preparation before the match. Please roll Night's initiative and if you win, you may proceed with the match. Assume that Night starts 60 ft from his opponent and that the arena is a 120 ft. diameter circle. I will provide a map shortly.

"I'm ready." He gives a bow, gravely, to the audience.

Night casts mage armor on himself as one of the prepatory rounds. He makes sure he's wielding his longspear.

Init: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

Night, seeing the opponent has not acted, draws a javelin and tosses it at his opponent. He regrips his longspear with two hands.

javelin toss: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 1 = 14
dmg on hit: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

-2 has been factored in for range increment.

Significance of longspear is that I have 10 ft reach - anyone approaching into melee range will take an AOO unless they Acro, or are using a reach weapon.

AC 20, CMD 15

The cutpurse reels and screams at the force of the blow as the javelin pierces through his studded leather. However, the fear of death is less permanent in this arena.

None the less, the cutpurse’s urge to win draws him to caution as he draws a bag from his belt and choose to put some more distance between himself and his opponent. A dagger rests within his other hand.

”You can’t run forever, you know.” Night says conversationally as he closes the distance between him and the cutthroat, holding his longspear one handed, drawing another javelin, and hurling it at the cutthroat. In his eagerness to finish the job, his javelin toss goes wide. He then regrips his longspear with both hands.

Using the following rules

The synthesist uses the eidolon’s base attack bonus (+1), and gains the eidolon’s armor and natural armor bonuses and modifiers to ability scores.

If you have a base attack bonus of +1 or higher, you may draw a weapon as a free action combined with a regular move.

javelin: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Factored in penalty range increment

Same drill as last round

The cutpurse starts to move forward, dodging to the side of the incoming javelin as he does so.

"There is nothing wrong with a tactical retreat to lure in your..."

Upon closing to within 20 feet of his opponent, he throws a bag.

Tanglefoot Bag: 1d20 + 3 - 2 ⇒ (9) + 3 - 2 = 10

The cutpurse's response turns into a groan as he watches the bag miss it's intended target.

Night calmly moves up to finish the job. But his longspear clatters harmlessly off the cutpurses's armor."I suppose it's just a matter of time.."

Longspear: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8
dmg: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8

*Grin. I've almost forgotten what it's like when you can't hit unless you roll above 10*

Seeing no room for escape, the cutpurse pulls forth his shortsword and lashes out with it as he steps in.

Short Sword Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (18) + 3 = 21
Short Sword Damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

The rogue smiles as his attack connects. At least he would not go down without some kind of show on his part.

The world of chance does seem to exist far more in low levels.

"Nice one."Night compliments him on his efforts. He then snaps at the rogue's head as a feint(not really using feint, just describing the miss in flowery language) before leaping backwards (5ft step) and running him through his chest with his longspear.

bite: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (12) - 2 = 10

longspear: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (18) + 3 = 21
dmg: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8

Using the following section of natural attack rules:

Creatures with natural attacks and attacks made with weapons can use both as part of a full attack action (although often a creature must forgo one natural attack for each weapon clutched in that limb, be it a claw, tentacle, or slam). Such creatures attack with their weapons normally but treat all of their available natural attacks as secondary attacks during that attack, regardless of the attack’s original type.

I am wielding my longspear in my arms, and my bite has nothing to do with the limbs wielding the longspear.

The rogue starts to gasp as the spear punctures his lung, but fails to continue as consciousness escapes him. Slowly he slips to the ground, the spear the only thing supporting him as he drops.

The crowd stays hushed for a moment as they watch the scene unfold before erupting into frenzy at the display of might.

Despite the ruckus, a voice rings clear over the noise, "Well done to our introductory member. You have shown your ability and won the right to continue on. Please take a bow before proceeding out of the arena to collect your winnings."

With that, your character earns 334 gold pieces. Did you have any kind of downtime actions you would like to take or would you like to spend your gold and continue to the next fight? I'll start prepping the new Gameplay and Discussion threads.

Will buy items. Let me think what to buy. I need to start collecting my usual.. Ahem.. Pathfinders kit.

Night moves over to his downed opponent trying to stabilize him. 'It might be me next time bleeding to death on the arena floor. He fought well. He shouldn't die this way.'

Stabilize: 1d20 ⇒ 9

Stabilize: 1d20 ⇒ 14

"Don't die on me!" Night curses as he fails to staunch the bleeding.

Stabilize: 1d20 ⇒ 20

Once he is sure the rogue is in no immediate danger, he bows to the crowd.

Night in his last incarnation was a paladin. I guess some of that goodness still carries over. Though he has gotten darker and snarkier.

Items to buy:

Alchemist fire (5) - 100 gp

Acid flask (5) - 50 gp

Cold Iron Morningstar - 16 gp - was previously in my sheet but I removed it because I realized I busted the 70 gp budget for summoners.

Silver mace - 24 gp- was previously in my sheet but I removed it because I realized I busted the 70 gp budget for summoners.

Stone bow - 35 gp

Sling bullets(30) - 3sp (foc)

Scroll of shield (25 gp)

Grappling hook (1 gp)

50 ft silk rope (10 gp)

2 sacks of powder (2 gp?)

How do you feel about crafting? I'm considering picking up craft wondrous at level 3 and crafting during downtime days.

Gp spent - 264 gold pieces. Saving the rest, together with the 7 gp previously saved. 77 gp left.

Actually wait.

Night moonlights with the stable master as a stable hand. Or the zookeeper(assuming the arena has beasts kept some place) if the arena has no stables.

Take 10 for handle animal, total 17

handle animal if take 10 is not allowed: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9

Hey, who knows if there are some knights around that need their warhorses groomed and fed? In pathfinder society technically you need the farmstead vanity for using handle animal for day job, but who knows down here =P

For calculation errors of starting gp, I sincerely apologize. I came from Pathfinder Society where everyone is given 150 gp to start with and I sort of auto roll characters up that way without reading carefully enough.

No worries on the budget. This is a playtest and I should have noticed that as well. None of that came into play so we don't need to worry about the outcome of the fight.

Crafting is perfectly acceptable and within the rules I was setting up for this. I figured it gave one use of downtime to people.

In regards to moonlighting as a stable hand or apprentice zookeeper, I'm fine with that. It's creative and fits in to the setting, although you find that you are helping the merchants outside of the tower as opposed to the tower itself. The tower seems to have enough constructs running around to take care of any of its, and it's guests (contestants and audience alike), needs. There appear to be very few non-constructs working for the arena. If you've happened into central bar, you'll have noticed a bartender who lacks such mechanical affects. Any suggestions on the payout? We could use core rules or perhaps modify the Pathfinder Society chart by dividing by seven and then multiplying by the number of downtime days used.

Do as what you did - 2 days between fights

Use pathfinder society rules to calculate my dayjob roll of 17, if take 10 is allowed, 9 if it isn't. Divide the number by 7 after x downtime dyas.

I will use both downtime days on dayjob, since I have nothing to do at this point of time.

Checking also with you - crafting - is it considered as off day for crafting or as per the adventuring crafter rules? No issues either way, just need to see what has to be prepared for.

Point to note, I am rather chatty, so thats also one reason why I wanted a separate discussion thread.

I am GMT +8. Usually anytime from 7 am to 11 pm on weekdays I'll be checking the boards regularly.

For weekends, make it 8 am till midnight.

Other then that I'll be asleep, and I can't live without my 8h sleep, so don't expect me to be checking boards outside my waking hours.

For weekends, I play Path of Exile so I check the boards less. (Can't be checking in the middle of a map, you know).

My activity..well I'd say is pretty much..unmatched.

Yeah, I'm needing to up my own. Things have been distracting me this weekend and then dealing with my own personal affairs. Weekends are my "off time" from work, but that of course does not mean I'm not actually working. Weekdays I'm at work and tied to a computer so I tend to be a little more keen to check the threads as I'm already at the computer, but it can depend on how busy work is. Most days I can check in a few times a day, but some I just get slammed on. Friday was a good example of that. I had project after project taking my attention, even during lunch.

I also GMed the whole Reign of Winter AP in less then a year via by PBP.

And currently running 3rd book of Strange Aeons. Yes I ran it all the way from the start. So yeah I probably have too much free time for my own good.

Now why I do not volunteer to run encounters? I am...creative. Maybe a little too much. I wouldn't be able to run NPCs as written and would make some tweaks(gear+feats), which would make the encounters harder, which would not be fair to the players in the arena here.

I have in all honesty done this kind of stuff before. Sometimes I am given a week to prepare a pathfinder scenario. I realize I learn monster abilities better when I have a live target to practice them on, as opposed to reading the stat block.

When that happens, I bring Night in for a playtest,in gestalt mode, to mimic the abilities of a party, then run the scenario, both as GM and player. Because running 4 characters, in addition to the monsters would kill me.

Yes I do get my @ss handed over to me sometimes. Past season 4 especially, though high level play gets interesting too.

That's why my earlier cryptic remarks that I usually play bipeds, and Night used to be a paladin in his last incarnation.

Also, GM, what is your timezone if you don't mind me asking?

That's impressive. I'm really hoping to push paste my normal lethargy and start making a better name for myself on the boards, both as a player and GM.

I don't mind running a game like this as it allows me to bring pre-made resources to the table to save time.

I have ran a party through the entirety of Skull & Shackles, but my Pathfinder/Starfinder Society GM'ing needs some work. I'm hoping to start fresh with Starfinder Society as my book keeping was less than stellar with Pathfinder Society so I'm not sure what all I've played and run. This is compounded by the games that other GMs did not post to the Pathfinder Society system.

I'm within the Central Standard Time zone (UTC -6:00).

In regards to you having too much free time, I would say that you are doing something you like and dedicating time to it. I see nothing wrong with that as long as you are not harming your ability to support yourself.

Check your paizo account - if your GMs have been reporting you should be able to see what you have played/ran.

My Organized play tab --> Player Sessions + GM Sessions.

If they don't report to paizo, then sorry I can't help you - unless you have the chronicle sheets - then you can ask your Venture Captain to make a report based on that.

For me I have a lot of energy, and yes, I whip my players if they idle around too long(which honestly by most other people's standards, isn't long at all).

I'll say if I am harsh on them, I'm even harsher on myself.

I'm not the type of player who can play Skulls and Shackles. I'm too Lawful for that.

My Alignment is LN.

Unfortunately that is how I know not everything has been reported, unless they went back in and finished reporting. I should see what I still have to report so that I can make sure it's not causing anyone similar issues.

It's been some time since I've played Pathfinder Society so I may give it a shot again with the new material that I know I've not played.

I don't feel like being too hard on people in this game. The lack of PvP makes it so that a player's delay should have little effect on other players.

I do prefer to stay away from evil. That game can be set up to be more of a privateer game as opposed to straight up pirates I believe. That may sit better with the lawful view point.

Usually players will contact you - if you left your contact details, if they missed a sheet/issues with their sheet.

Personally think that skulls and shackles can't be played non evil.

Season 9 is skill check like no one's business. Some really obscure ones too. Who would put ranks in climb when you can fly?

A lot of skill check based mechanics that can make the game draggy.

They took player feedback that it was Murderhobo society and tried to go a different direction. I'm not sure how successful it is...

A lot of my games were reported by the local Venture Captain/Lieutenant so I don't think too many are missing.

The game does lend itself towards it.

Interesting. Sounds like they tried to correct the issue, but overcompensated for it. It can be difficult to find a good balance I suppose. It does not hurt to have combat heavy, skill heavy, and balanced scenarios. The key is not to have too many of any given one I think. My experience with roleplaying games is that they often lean more towards combat than skills, but it's good to mix the two and not have only combat. Otherwise, what is the use of having skill monkey characters?

BTW I'm off to bed. Will be back in 5.5 h time. Meh a little later then usual tonight.

Philosophy - I asked my VC the same question before. His answer? Combats are easier to run with a limited timeframe(PFS scenarios are scheduled to be done in 4h), then heavy RP.

Which makes sense. Also if you want to heavy RP, I hope your GM is very spontaneous, else you don't expect anything more then the box text the scenario gives.

I can tell you when I legitimately put ranks in climb. Ranger for AP work. Everyone is going to expect him to you know..lead the way through the wilds. And it'd be embarrassing as fk if you, as the ranger couldnt scale the cliff to drop ropes, right?

I don't care very much for public embarrassment, thanks =)

Also, RPing diplomacy can be an issue at the table too. Some people are not spontaneous and having an entire table waiting on your diplo RP is not going to make you any less stressed...

Nights backstory:

Night was just another stable hand when he was kidnapped by evil cultists off the street and experimented on. Their goal was to create "super soldiers" loyal to the cult. They fused an outsider into Night and were to start the conditioning phase when they were busted. Not by heroic adventurers, but by an adventuring party told to raid their stronghold for the cults books that an evil wizard wanted.

The amoral adventurers, with a mind only for profit sold the other captives to the slave markets and noted that Night, with his unusual configuration, would be worth more being sold to the arena and sold him to the arena.

Think Night as Anakin Skywalker trying to win his freedom from Watto

Off to bed. Stayed up too late last night.

Today was a busy day and I'm currently working. I'll get up some replies before I go to bed.

All those things have come to be pretty clear to me. Roleplay tends to take time and can be difficult within an established group, let alone a group of strangers. It takes time depending on the skill in use. Climb is easy and quick enough, diplomacy as you mentioned can eat up a lot of time.

The evil adventurers would have likely met their end at the arena and Night given the chance to fight if he wanted. Perhaps choosing to do so out of gratitude for his rescuers. The tower would care little for people trying to force people to fight. A fight is better when someone wants to.

We have continuation of cruddy rolls in the game.

I'm off to bed myself. I'll check back in later today. Have a good one.

Sorry – I was called off by some AFK on work. If stuff needs to be done it needs to be done.

Also backstory wise – I have no idea how the arena works – so I suggested a plausible explanation.

Have a good night.

The original explanation for Night’s Synthesist powers wouldn’t fit the setting since what the heck..is a paladin doing in an arena. Or at least the way I view the pally code I don’t really care for Paladins showboating around. No paladin of mine would showboat...

Whereas for a PFS scenario playtest it’s enough to say that Drandle Dreng calls you up at 3 am at night and tells you that the last party TPKED and you’re there to retrieve the bodies =P

Off to snooze.

The tower is currently a mystery to just about everyone. It showed up one day and people were afraid, but then were lured in by the spectacles and wealth to be earned. Despite being basically a gladiatorial pit, it does not seem to care for forced participation.

Their is an extreme lack of answers as to why the arena showed up and how it runs exactly. Almost all interaction is with his construct custodians.

The other match was actually against a showboating paladin and I appreciate the fact that the description states he is close to losing his powers.

I've had my 2 rounds, I think it's time for Vrog to have his turn for another 2 rounds. Fair's fair.

Dayjob - Off to be stablehand again! Taking 10, total 17.

77 gp saved + 333 gp = 410 gp

Purchases:
Scroll of lesser evolution surge (150 gp)
Scroll of see invisibility (150 gp)
Healers kit (50 gp)
Saving 60 gp.

I'd say we should go through one more battle to get you to second level. We can figure out switching at that point in time.

Ok. If you wish then Ill continue till 2. I don't want to go back on my promises.

Well it's a tricky point as further testing needs to be done with both more player characters and higher levels. So I'll decide what I want to do as we go through this match.

It's Voog's turn now I think, so I'll level later...

Saving all the money.

Level 2 update:

+8 summoner hp
+6 hp eidolon

Eidolon is at 5.5 hp/HD, so 2 HD = 11 hp + 1(con modifier) x 2(level) = 13

Eidolon gains evasion, +1 str and dex, +2 nat armor, +1 BAB

So my nat armor with Mage armor is 22 (12 Touch, 20 flat footed)

+1 evolution point (Claws)

So first round I will be wielding longspear, then after I get in close and personal, I will drop longspear and bite, claw, claw.

Night gains 1 more spell per day, and 1 more spell known: Shield.

The prebuff rounds will now be mage armor + shield.

AC with mage armor + shield = 26 (12 touch(or 18 v incorp touch), 24 flat footed)

Skill ranks:

Perception +1
Spellcraft +1
Knowledge Planes +1
Knowledge Nature +1

Background skills:
Animal Handling +1
Linguistics +1

I'm getting ready to send Vrog a message to see if he is still interested. If he is not, would you like to continue?

Only if he states he isn't interested. Because I keep my promises.

Sure thing. I've posted in the old interest check thread and sent him a private message. I will let you know.

*bows respectfully to Rob*

Go for it.

Good luck, Rob!

That's a rough first match and probably one of the more dangerous foes I've seen.

Colourspray is rough. I was wondering if I should get smoked goggles, but if I guess the capabilities of the opponent wrong, its quite painful on my end. Funnily one of the builds I was considering submitting would be colour spray heavens oracle, but you can't really pump the colourspray HD with awesome display further much past 8 or so...

Sorry nope, and CDG requires a 10+dmg done Fort save or die

Technically the magic missile did damage to him first, but I have a feeling something might be misinterpreted here. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure damage does not end the unconscious effect of color spray, just as damage does not end the unconscious effect of being below 0 hit points.