Echos of The Desert (Legacy of Fire AP)

Game Master Rafael Bronzatti

Okay discussion thread up... And of importance if you want to make changes to anything in your sheets do it here. Also discuss anything here about the AP, and if you gonna for any reason have to step out aka not post one or two days please notify us here.

Yaaaaaay. *cough* :D

Do you want Daystar's stats in the profile? I wasn't really planning on using the horse for combat barring dire circumstances.

I appreciate if you put his stats there just for convenience (Mine obviously XD)

Checking in, thanks a ton for the selection Rafael - really excited to get going.

@Saresha: The only place where I think we might see overlap is Knowledge (Religion) and that's an area that will make sense thematically for both of our characters and it never hurts to have two people capable of identfying undead. Looks like you'll eventually have channeling which Beinir will not have.

Will need to see if we weave the Torag connection in ahead of time or build it as we go. Do you have a campaign trait?

@Bahram: Don't think we'll have any skills overlap at all. So far, classic "fighter", rogue/skills, cleric with a couple twists. I'll provide you with some flanking flexibility with my reach. You and I both grew up in the city of Katapesh so we might have known one another and probably start the journey toward Kelmarane from the same place. Given your background, you might be a resourceful addition to the expedition having heard it was going the same way you wanted to go for Haleen.

@Ghirhuk: And there's the not so typical "wizard." Will be fascinating to see where Rafael brings you in with the rest of us. You'd fit right in the city of Katapesh, but it sounds more like you'll be joining us in the highlands. From what I can see of where you're going, we won't have any overlap. Looks like you'll have some control (grease). Are you going Dragon Disciple or straight sorcerer?

@Rauve: Noticed from your summary of applicants that you're definitely thinking cross-role. Both melee and some casting. Also a gnoll killer I see. You and I both have Spellcraft, but its good to have at least two of us with some investment in it. I also see you and (I think) Ghirhuk overlap with Knowledge (Nature). Since that identifies weaknesses, probably not a bad idea to have two people with it. Love your Treacherous Earth because I have Rock Stepper. It will make my Combat Reflexes nasty for the foes when they can't 5-foot step. You and Bahram both share a rough history in Katapesh. Looks like we meet you along the way.

Gaps: I'm going to need to pick up a crossbow when I can afford it...rework my equipment because I think we all prefer to be in melee and need to be able to handle things that are up in the air or high places until we can fly.

Also, it definitely looks like I should plan to make some Knowledge investment in Arcana and Planes as we go along.

Saresha has a variant of channeling which is very 'Torag'. It should be fun, but it means her healing power is greatly reduced. Instead, she fixes constructs and raises everyone's AC!

By the way @lexi are you okay if I make Saresha parents npcs?

Absolutely! I like to leave major character points in the air for STs to play with. Its not that I'm lazy. Cough, no, not at all.

I'll be able to handle the healing emergencies. Out of combat healing will probably be more of my forte. I picked up the wand option from Reclaiming Your Roots to help with that at the start.

Maybe I make and break constructs and you fix them :)

Poof, Rafael's avatar changes :)

I'M SO CONFUSED RIGHT NOW.

I'M SO CONFUSED RIGHT NOW.

???

Poof, Rafael's avatar changes :)

Well I couldn't run a medieval desert AP with the detective Avatar. XD

I meant about your avatar changing. :D I'm just being silly. Don't mind me.

@Rafael: Question for you. I debated which way to go with racial traits for Beinir and went with the giants reasoning that those might have been an ancestral enemy in the area of the Hammerfalls. I also considered going with wyrmscourged which grants some bonuses versus dragons and I thought a deep dragon of some sort could have been the scourge of the Halls of Hammerfall. I wanted to go with Rock Stepper because it made sense thematically in Katapesh and now that I see Rauve has Treacherous Earth, I'm loving it.

All of this is a long-winded way of asking if you would consider letting me reskin the giant bonuses for gnolls. They were definitely a scourge of the mountains too (and still are). I'll get use of the ability. And, it will make me fit right in with the rest of the gnoll haters. But, you might also find it too overpowering:
+1 to Attack
+2 to Find and Follow Tracks (which since I won't be investing in Survival, won't get used anyway)
+4 Dodge bonus to AC (that's probably the most questionable one and not quite as logical as the little dwarves and their tricky tactics for hiding from giants, maybe its more like a +2)

Anyway, thought I'd get your opinion before we get started. Especially if we won't run into giants.

Beinir changing the giants to gnoll is fine but do change it to +2 to AC.

Ghirhuk is supposed to be more of a ranged character. We'll see how that works out in practice. Perhaps I should invest in a crossbow?

@Beinir - Saresha is a Pathfinder, that's her trait :)

She, erm, owes Snowball her life, and is thus repaying him by dragging him to the desert... >.>;

Yep life-debt to the contrary.

That right. Red-Hot owe me big. She say I follow till she owe me not.

Ok, I have made the following changes
- Added light crossbow and bolts
- Made the changes from giant to gnoll

Would it also be ok to change a language from Infernal to Gnoll? Can't really think of a logical reason he would have learned Infernal at this point. Actually, would it also make sense to change from Giant to Kelish?

Alias made will have to populate the profile after work today. all my files are at home. and limited time at work today

Go ahead with changes in languages Beinir.

Excllent, thanks. I have finished the update so Beinir's profile is ready to go unless we want to do anything else to draw the characters together and set the scene.

Thank you much for the pick! :D

Me and Saresh can talk all cool like in our elemental languages! And Beinir too!

Looks like we have a well rounded party. 1 Full Combat/Divine plus 2 mixed Divine Combat (though I may head the caster route depending on how things work out), 1 Full Arcane, and 1 Rouge that will have many great opportunities to do stuff (in combat anyway).

I'm very excited about this campaign! Just need to add equipment in, and finish the back story stuff.

Equipment time, eventually followed by Fraa's Stats

Ok character profile complete and ready to go. now to look at the rest of the party to look for ties.

Well since everyone got ready while I slept, I going to put up the thread nad begins =O.

We're readiness ninjas!

By the way Saresha since Daystar is a heavy horse I would consider his trek in the desert while mounted by a medium creature a trek trough hard terrain.

Yep and rather than a monkey "mascot" this party has an Kobold XD

That's why Saresha isn't riding him. ;)

Did we have 5 or 6 players? We've either got 5 and everyone's on board at this point or 6 and I've no idea who the last guy is...

Saresha the Paladin
Ghirhuk the Sorcerer
Beinir the Cleric
Rauve the Druid
Bahram the Rogue
??

We have 5 players. Did I write somewhere 6 rather than five?

Beinir, how do you make the blue and bold together like you have been doing for the rounds?

{ooc}{b}Round X{/b}{/ooc}
Replace the {} with []

Thanks Beinir it worked.

I try to put it up there for most of my characters in combat because it helps me remember if I've gone or not in the round.

BAHAHAHA. I love Snowball. <33

I looked at every avatar they have on this site and I couldn't find a single one I liked for Rauve. :(
I wish they had custom ones enabled.

Just letting you all know, tomorrow, I'll be getting on a plane to the US. So there will be a huge gap of time where I will most likely not be online. I might check in from Beijing, but I can't guarantee it. Also, I'll be in the states for about a week, and I'm sure I'll have internet at various points, but I'll also be moving stuff and visiting friends, so I might not be available quite as much as I have been. Aside from my day in the Beijing Airport I should manage once a day just the same though!

Good Travels lexi =D

Can everyone put up some form of status bar? You add it to your class line in your profile and can spoiler it if you prefer. While Beinir isn't built to be a healing machine, it will help him and others who can heal to keep you alive. Also might cause fits of kindness for Rafael if he realizes he's about to kill you and generally makes his job easier.

Does this look alright for you?

That is a holy help truthfully.

Beautiful!

I will figure this out shortly!

Just a general heads up to the games that I’m in. I’ll be away from the internet for the majority of this weekend. Starting right around 1600 EST. The same will be true next weekend.

If it’s called for, feel free to put my PC on autopilot. I’ve faith in you guys.

Sorry about the lack of posting. My life is crazy and I am getting it under control. I will post after I rest.

So I've been thinking on the combat problem for Pbp or the Initiative problem and came with this:
I will separate enemies and PCs in two groups, then I will roll initiative to see who goes first, and the other turns will be alternate, like in these two examples:

If the situation changes enough that your action becomes either impossible or obsolete then I will give a warning somehow like this:
WARNING: Your friend is going to die, want to change your ready action?

Plus after I have posted for the first enemy group (And only after, to keep things non confusing.) The guys in the first group can ready actions for their nex turn also, wih something along these lines:Round 2 PC G1. This is only for cases where you guys go first in case I move enemy groups first then you guys post after I move enemy group 2.

Some other things: I would like to ask you guys keep track of your own hit points. Plus that in all combat turns you guys put something like this: Round 1 PC G1 or Round 1 PC G2. This should keep things from going confusing in case people ready actions or delay actions.

I think this will work out better and will not break the game, like having first all PCs then later all enemeies or the contrary, where going first would be a giant advantage. And it should keep thing moving better.

I'm going to toss out that we let Bahram take the first set of actions in any combat. We're using his init and he benefits from acting first more than any of the rest of us. I had this realization immediately after posting my actions, so I understand this makes me a bit of a hypocrite.

I think we're all struggling a bit with this method for initiative. I know PbP has its challenges, but let me throw out a couple suggestions.

First, 24-hour rule needs to apply in combat. If you don't post in 24 hours, GM posts for you consistent with your typical actions. I'm also quite open to this being an even shorter window if you prefer.

Second, GM rolls all initiative. I know you're trying to avoid rolling initiative, but its a big part of the game. I've found that if the GM rolls it, you can quickly sort out who goes where. The games I'm in where the players roll initiative really bog down.

I think you can leave it at this if you don't want to muck around too much with what you're trying to accomplish. This way, you would sort people into the groups and we can go from there. I think that will be more efficient than having us self-sort by order of posting and it respects the players who are making investments into initiative.

If you want to tweak things further, I've seen different GMs apply a couple different methods once the initial initiative is sorted out that I think work well.

Option 1: Stick in initiative order. This does work, but can bog down a little. Some players wind up having to wait for players taking a while to post. But, with the 24-hour rule, it keeps a lid on how bad it can get.

Option 2: Post in any order, but GM resolves by initiative order. IMHO this is a better version of Option 1. You don't slow down as much. Players can post an option or two depending on what happens before them (for example the way I just said that I would attack a different one if Saresha killed the one I was attacking). A lot of the time, its pretty easy for the GM to redirect the action. If there is a question about what would happen, you can just post a question to the player.

Options 3: Use initiative blocks. This is similar to what you're doing. Use initiative rolls to sort people into player and monster blocks, but allow people to go in any order they post within those blocks. If you wind up with a single person (like Bahram) who is out in front of the monsters with the rest of the people behind, you can even move him into the PC block once he has had his first action so you go PCs-Monsters-PCs-Monsters.

I also would strongly recommend that you put all monsters in a single block except for BBEG fights.