Finder's Jungle Ruins of Madaro-Shanti

Game Master Malvoisin

Here we go, discussion time! Welcome to the game officially and all that.

I'll have character creation rules up in a bit, meanwhile, please pop in and say hello.

Here's what I've got so far...

-6th level PCs
-20 point buy for starting stats.
-Hit points...assume maximum at 1st level. For subsequent levels, please roll the dice, but you can always take a minimum of half your hit die...if you roll less than that, round it up.
-Ask me if you want any equipment, feats, spells, etc., that aren't in the core book, APG, or Ultimate Magic.
-No traits
-16,000 gp in total wealth per PC (maximum 5,000 gp value for any single item, possibly negotiable).

Please feel free to holler at me with any questions.

Sweet, made the cut. Come on hit dice gods...

8
1d8 ⇒ 3
1d8 ⇒ 2
1d8 ⇒ 2
1d8 ⇒ 5
1d8 ⇒ 1

Probably a PbB noob questions, but how would like us us to post character sheets to list skills and such?

Boo dice...so does that mean I can take 4 on the low ones and keep the 5 or are those my rolls?

Come on good dice, tank needs some good amount of HP!
10
1d10 ⇒ 9
1d10 ⇒ 8
1d10 ⇒ 2
1d10 ⇒ 3
1d10 ⇒ 7

Wow, not bad! Tho that 2 and 3 hurts. Also curious on the reponse to Ciretose. *Goes back to building his Paladin of Light!*

I'll follow on with an even noober question :-) Is there a die roller function on the board here somewhere? If so, how do I find and access it?

Several other questions for the GM are perhaps not so silly.

1) Jack will be wearing a +1 mithral breastplate (medium armor). Per RAW in regards to mithral that means that it counts as light armor for movement purposes. But does that also mean that it can count as light armor for purposes of trying to sleep in armor? I could see a reasonable case being made either way. If it doesn't count as light armor for purposes of sleeping in armor then Jack will simply bring a standard chain shirt along to change into when he goes to sleep. However, if Jack can sleep in his mithral breastplate without any problems then he doesn't need to drag a chain shirt along.

2) A large part of Jack's design calls for him to be making a lot of use [perhaps even abuse :-)] of the quickdraw feat so that he can seamlessly switch back and forth between ranged attacks using thrown weapons and melee combat. Part of that tactic will be that more often than not before a fight begins (and even sometimes during a fight) Jack will not have a weapon "ready". He will simply be waiting to see what tactical situation arises and using quickdraw to get whatever weapon he thinks will work best into action. With that sort of scenario in mind I have two questions for the GM.

a) So Jack is standing there with no "ready" weapon waiting to see what develops, and a bad guy runs past him. Can Jack make an attack of opportunity using quickdraw to get a melee weapon out and pound the bad guy with? Or does Jack need to have had the weapon "ready" beforehand? Regardless, once Jack does have the weapon out, he would have to wait until it was his turn to take a move action to sheath it again if that's what he wanted to do.

b) What about readied actions? Could Jack "ready" an "action" to quickdraw (free action) and then throw a chakram (standard action) at somebody? Or would he have to have the chakram out and "ready" in his hand before he could "ready" the standard action to throw it?

3) Last but not least, the +1 mithral breastplate comes in at 5200 gold pieces. Will that be acceptable?

1) Jack will be wearing a +1 mithral breastplate (medium armor). Per RAW in regards to mithral that means that it counts as light armor for movement purposes. But does that also mean that it can count as light armor for purposes of trying to sleep in armor? I could see a reasonable case being made either way. If it doesn't count as light armor for purposes of sleeping in armor then Jack will simply bring a standard chain shirt along to change into when he goes to sleep. However, if Jack can sleep in his mithral breastplate without any problems then he doesn't need to drag a chain shirt along.

I can field the first question for you.

Yes it does count as light Armour for purposes of sleeping in. The only way in which it acts like Medium Armour is for the purposes of Proficiency. In all other respects it counts as Light. :)

Also, to access the Dice Roller, treat it the same as any of the other BBCode (bold, italics, etc...)

So to roll 1d6 + 1 type: (dice)1d6 + 1(/dice)
Where you would replace the ( ) with [ ]
1d6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

No whammies:

1d8 ⇒ 1
1d8 ⇒ 7
1d8 ⇒ 3
1d8 ⇒ 4
1d8 ⇒ 4

Rough profile up.

1d8 ⇒ 2
1d8 ⇒ 1
1d8 ⇒ 6
1d8 ⇒ 1
1d8 ⇒ 6

1d8 ⇒ 31d8 ⇒ 31d8 ⇒ 61d8 ⇒ 21d8 ⇒ 8

I assuming that we round up?
if so:
8 + 5 + 5 + 6 + 5 + 8 = 37 HP
if not:
8 + 4 + 4 + 6 + 4 + 8 = 34 HP

I'm up as well (small changes from other one, but nothing major. I'll wait for the GM to let me know what format changes are needed).

I'm primarily going to be ranged, able to nova a few times a day for pretty good damage when I use bane/judgements. My initiative is ridiculous (+8) and I've good high movement and perception, so I am shooting for mobile ranged. I've also got good knowledge checks for identifying what we are fighting, I can track, I can heal, and I went with a fairly utility spell list.

If anyone has any suggestions of changes to fill a role we might need, let me know.

Boo dice...so does that mean I can take 4 on the low ones and keep the 5 or are those my rolls?

All the ones less than 4 you can change to four. Sorry, I guess I didn't explain that clearly enough.

Wow, not bad! Tho that 2 and 3 hurts. Also curious on the reponse to Ciretose. *Goes back to building his Paladin of Light!*

You can replace your twos and threes with five.

I'll follow on with an even noober question :-) Is there a die roller function on the board here somewhere? If so, how do I find and access it?

Several other questions for the GM are perhaps not so silly.

1) Jack will be wearing a +1 mithral breastplate (medium armor). Per RAW in regards to mithral that means that it counts as light armor for movement purposes. But does that also mean that it can count as light armor for purposes of trying to sleep in armor? I could see a reasonable case being made either way. If it doesn't count as light armor for purposes of sleeping in armor then Jack will simply bring a standard chain shirt along to change into when he goes to sleep. However, if Jack can sleep in his mithral breastplate without any problems then he doesn't need to drag a chain shirt along.

\

As for the cost of the cost of the breastplate, it's close enough to 5,000 that I'll allow it.

For your quickdraw questions, I'll have to mull things over. Stay tuned.

No whammies:

1d8
1d8
1d8
1d8
1d8

Rough profile up.

You can round the 1 and 3 up to 4, Doctor (if you haven't already done so).

1d8; 1d8; 1d8; 1d8; 1d8

I assuming that we round up?
if so:
8 + 5 + 5 + 6 + 5 + 8 = 37 HP
if not:
8 + 4 + 4 + 6 + 4 + 8 = 34 HP

The latter spread is correct for Kiley, take 4 for anything less...so, yeah, 34 hp total.

I'm up as well (small changes from other one, but nothing major. I'll wait for the GM to let me know what format changes are needed).

The format you have is okay. I'm not too fussy about these things, as long as I can find the info I need.

Looks like everyone is accounted for, that's great.

Sorry I wasn't too clear on the hit points thing, hopefully everyone is on the same page now.

ciretose wrote:

Boo dice...so does that mean I can take 4 on the low ones and keep the 5 or are those my rolls?

All the ones less than 4 you can change to four. Sorry, I guess I didn't explain that clearly enough.

No worries. Just glad to be on the team. That had to be a tough final cut, it was a good list.

So, let's see if I can get my hit dice rolled.

1d10 ⇒ 8
1d10 ⇒ 4
1d10 ⇒ 6
1d10 ⇒ 2
1d10 ⇒ 1

So 8,4,6,2,1 should become 8,5,6,5,5 thanks to the GM's generosity. Now to explore character sheets and try to get Jack's posted.

Almost done with sheet. Still pondering if giving up spell casting is worth the holy light archtype. *Ponders some more* It's a cool concept tho!

2) A large part of Jack's design calls for him to be making a lot of use [perhaps even abuse :-)] of the quickdraw feat so that he can seamlessly switch back and forth between ranged attacks using thrown weapons and melee combat. Part of that tactic will be that more often than not before a fight begins (and even sometimes during a fight) Jack will not have a weapon "ready". He will simply be waiting to see what tactical situation arises and using quickdraw to get whatever weapon he thinks will work best into action. With that sort of scenario in mind I have two questions for the GM.

a) So Jack is standing there with no "ready" weapon waiting to see what develops, and a bad guy runs past him. Can Jack make an attack of opportunity using quickdraw to get a melee weapon out and pound the bad guy with? Or does Jack need to have had the weapon "ready" beforehand? Regardless, once Jack does have the weapon out, he would have to wait until it was his turn to take a move action to sheath it again if that's what he wanted to do.

b) What about readied actions? Could Jack "ready" an "action" to quickdraw (free action) and then throw a chakram (standard action) at somebody? Or would he have to have the chakram out and...

Cutlass, it looks like the rules as written won't allow either of your proposed scenarios to fly.

I will confess that, being far from a rules guru myself, I sought some help with this topic here on the boards. I invite you to click on over there and check out that discussion.

No worries. Just glad to be on the team. That had to be a tough final cut, it was a good list.

It honestly was a very tough cut. But I just couldn't see trying to keep up with more than 7 PCs.

Okay, it's fixed.
And I just want to say thanks for picking me, I'm looking forward to this.

Sergent Jack wrote:

2) A large part of Jack's design calls for him to be making a lot of use [perhaps even abuse :-)] of the quickdraw feat so that he can seamlessly switch back and forth between ranged attacks using thrown weapons and melee combat. Part of that tactic will be that more often than not before a fight begins (and even sometimes during a fight) Jack will not have a weapon "ready". He will simply be waiting to see what tactical situation arises and using quickdraw to get whatever weapon he thinks will work best into action. With that sort of scenario in mind I have two questions for the GM.

a) So Jack is standing there with no "ready" weapon waiting to see what develops, and a bad guy runs past him. Can Jack make an attack of opportunity using quickdraw to get a melee weapon out and pound the bad guy with? Or does Jack need to have had the weapon "ready" beforehand? Regardless, once Jack does have the weapon out, he would have to wait until it was his turn to take a move action to sheath it again if that's what he wanted to do.

b) What about readied actions? Could Jack "ready" an "action" to quickdraw (free action) and then throw a chakram (standard action) at somebody? Or would he have to have the chakram out and...

Cutlass, it looks like the rules as written won't allow either of your proposed scenarios to fly.

I will confess that, being far from a rules guru myself, I sought some help with this topic here on the boards. I invite you to click on over there and check out that discussion.

Ok, thank you for taking the time and the trouble to check that out. I'll just have to make a few minor modifications to what I'm planning on having Jack do. Besides, it dawned on me later that if Jack is wearing his shield then he does have a weapon ready, he'll just lose the shield's armor class bonus until his next turn if he pounds somebody with it.

Hit Points
And once more this Dice Roller proves how much it really does hate me...

1st Level 12
2nd Level 1d8 ⇒ 3 4
3rd Level 1d8 ⇒ 1 4
4th Level 1d8 ⇒ 8 8
5th Level 1d8 ⇒ 1 4
6th Level 1d8 ⇒ 1 4

36 (+12 CON +1 Favoured Class +6 Toughness) = 55
4 FC Bonus Points are in Skills

2 first-level spells in exchange for a bard-like aura? I suppose it depends on how much healing we have available. Since I think we don't have a bard, it might be worth it. I think the value of the group buffs increases in the large party. People can stock up on some cure wounds potions, too.

Could we make a party roster? So far this is what I've seen:
Ciaran - Druid 6 (storm druid)
Gerald - Paladin 6 (warrior of holy light?)
Jack - Fighter 6
Rufus - Inquisitor 6 (preacher)
Kiley - Rogue 6
Iiwo - Alchemist 6 (internal alchemist)
Xoc Xoc - Barbarian 1/Summoner 5

I think on average it is a fairly low-magic party. So your aura will be quite useful in combat, but spells could provide some usefulness out of combat.

Xoc Xoc is annoyed with the die roller? I'm playing a fighter and he ends up with one hit point less than I do. I think I'm the one who should be complaining ;-)

Regardless, I pretty much have Jack finished by now. He ended up spending 15,237.62 gold pieces on gear and has 762.38 gold pieces left over. He spent 1,000 gold pieces on potions. Depending on who wants to do what Jack would be willing to sell the potions back and contribute some of his remaining money to a "wand fund" or some such thing.

2 first-level spells in exchange for a bard-like aura? I suppose it depends on how much healing we have available. Since I think we don't have a bard, it might be worth it. I think the value of the group buffs increases in the large party. People can stock up on some cure wounds potions, too.

Could we make a party roster? So far this is what I've seen:
Ciaran - Druid 6 (storm druid)
Gerald - Paladin 6 (warrior of holy light?)
Jack - Fighter 6
Rufus - Inquisitor 6 (preacher)
Kiley - Rogue 6
Iiwo - Alchemist 6 (internal alchemist)
Xoc Xoc - Barbarian 1/Summoner 5

I think on average it is a fairly low-magic party. So your aura will be quite useful in combat, but spells could provide some usefulness out of combat.

I've got cure light and cure mod, the paladin will still be able to channel and the alchemist and druid both have access to healing. So we should be as good as a party without a cleric can be from that angle.

I would agree that the aura is more helpful, considering at I'm thinking 4 players are likely looking to getting up close and personal, plus Xoc Xoc's pet.

That is a lot of benefit from a buff.

Looking at the group, I would say Kiley and I are ranged types with good scouting ability, Jack, Xoc Xoc, and Gerald are front line, and the Dr and Ciaran are going to be able to be utility/artillery with the flexibility to fill other roles as needed?

Does that sound about right?

I had some gold left, I got three potions of CLW and a wand of CLW so we should be okay for a bit.

Could we make a party roster? So far this is what I've seen:

Ciaran - Druid 6 (storm druid)
Gerald - Paladin 6 (warrior of holy light?)
Jack - Fighter 6
Rufus - Inquisitor 6 (preacher)
Kiley - Rogue 6
Iiwo - Alchemist 6 (internal alchemist)
Xoc Xoc - Barbarian 1/Summoner 5

That looks about right to me. I like how you guys are working together to think about party roles.

What do you all think about trying to get things kicked off early next week?

What do you all think about trying to get things kicked off early next week?

Sounds good to me. :)

Xôc Xôc is 2/3 done right now (just have to do Skills and finish Equipment selection). Xahara is gonna be the tough one to do. I have an idea for her, but this is my first time playing a Summoner, so I'm still a bit iffy on how to build an Eidolon).

Sound good to me.
Just to make sure, both the Pally and the Druid have CLW in their spell lists right?

If so I've got a wand with your name it.

Looking at the group, I would say Kiley and I are ranged types with good scouting ability, Jack, Xoc Xoc, and Gerald are front line, and the Dr and Ciaran are going to be able to be utility/artillery with the flexibility to fill other roles as needed?

Does that sound about right?

Yeah, Xôc Xôc is going to be a Front Line/Secondary fighter.

I figure that Jack and Gerald will be our heavy hitters and Xôc Xôc and Xahara can take out secondary targets/back up the front line.

I must say, I find it funny that in a Party of Seven we have no dedicated Arcane Caster! :)

And what amounts to 3 Secondary Healers...

I am very much looking forward to seeing how this dynamic plays out. :D

Just got back from running my Legacy of Fire game, and was pondering about changing back to normal paladin. But with those points, I'll keep the archetype. Fits more with the background anyway. The character is pretty much fully completed, other then seeing what gear I can do without so I have more gold then I have left over so I'm not a "poor" paladin. xD
Just working on a more fleshed out background. :)

CLW is not a problem, but CMW is a 3rd level spell for a druid :( I wonder if I can shop for wands/scrolls/potions which have been crafted by non-druids? E.g. CMW as a druid is CL5 and SL3, but as a cleric it's CL3 and SL2. Same for Wind Wall prepared by a ranger.

I'm mostly done with the sheet, but I need to finish formatting and decide on utility gear.

Oh and yes, my role will mostly be artillery (spontaneous call lightning anyone?), with buffs/debuffs, occasional summoning and wild shaping thrown in.

Ciaran Maelgwynn wrote:

Could we make a party roster? So far this is what I've seen:

Ciaran - Druid 6 (storm druid)
Gerald - Paladin 6 (warrior of holy light?)
Jack - Fighter 6
Rufus - Inquisitor 6 (preacher)
Kiley - Rogue 6
Iiwo - Alchemist 6 (internal alchemist)
Xoc Xoc - Barbarian 1/Summoner 5

That looks about right to me. I like how you guys are working together to think about party roles.

What do you all think about trying to get things kicked off early next week?

Works for me, I'm pretty much done with equipment now that I bought the gaudy pavilion tent.

Sleeps 10, chums!

Ok I think I'm done, and I've managed to fit a wand of CMW in my budget (assuming it was made by a cleric). But I'm nearly broke now, with about 100gp left :) Sorry I wasn't counting the minutiae like a waterskin.

I must say, I find it funny that in a Party of Seven we have no dedicated Arcane Caster! :)

And what amounts to 3 Secondary Healers...

I am very much looking forward to seeing how this dynamic plays out. :D

Yep, it's an interesting mix...both of personalities and of abilities.

I'm really looking forward to this.

Just updated my sheet. Spent another 600 gp on potions.

I haven't looked at anybody's sheets in the last 12 hours or so, but there was a potential problem that I saw when I was skimming through them earlier. Given that I'm new on the boards here and don't know this GM's play style then I'm not sure how big a potential problem it is/was (may have been corrected by now) but it has the potential to be obnoxious. Basically, I saw several characters that were set up to be good ranged weapons specialists who had good weapons, excellent ability scores with items that boosted said scores, and squat for ammo for their weapons.

Now this could just be me being funky and weird and old fashioned, but if I were playing a ranged weapon specialist I would have dozens of arrows/crossbow bolts ready to go on my person with several dozen if not several hundred more arrows/crossbow bolts in reserve. That can easily be done with something like a handy haversack or a bag of holding as one of your character's items. But then those items cost enough that somebody might have to punt an ability increase item to get the capability of carrying enough ammo to keep their primary weapon operational over the course of multiple heavy engagements. To my way of thinking that's a no brainer, one does what one needs to do to keep one's weapons operational with the ability increase items being a second tier consideration. Casters will work that decision matrix differently and other people's mileage may vary. I also don't know how lenient the GM will be. All I know is that I never equip one of my characters such that I have to be overly dependent on the GM being nice.

I'm going with an efficient quiver. It holds 60 arrows, plus other items. Hopefully that's sufficient. I've also been going a bit crazy buying alchemical items, so it's taking me longer than usual to get my equipment list together.

Don't worry about Doctor Iiwo, young man, he'll be cocked and locked and ready to rock.

Just updated my sheet. Spent another 600 gp on potions.

I haven't looked at anybody's sheets in the last 12 hours or so, but there was a potential problem that I saw when I was skimming through them earlier. Given that I'm new on the boards here and don't know this GM's play style then I'm not sure how big a potential problem it is/was (may have been corrected by now) but it has the potential to be obnoxious. Basically, I saw several characters that were set up to be good ranged weapons specialists who had good weapons, excellent ability scores with items that boosted said scores, and squat for ammo for their weapons.

Now this could just be me being funky and weird and old fashioned, but if I were playing a ranged weapon specialist I would have dozens of arrows/crossbow bolts ready to go on my person with several dozen if not several hundred more arrows/crossbow bolts in reserve. That can easily be done with something like a handy haversack or a bag of holding as one of your character's items. But then those items cost enough that somebody might have to punt an ability increase item to get the capability of carrying enough ammo to keep their primary weapon operational over the course of multiple heavy engagements. To my way of thinking that's a no brainer, one does what one needs to do to keep one's weapons operational with the ability increase items being a second tier consideration. Casters will work that decision matrix differently and other people's mileage may vary. I also don't know how lenient the GM will be. All I know is that I never equip one of my characters such that I have to be overly dependent on the GM being nice.

Good call, I got the haversack and forgot the bolts.

Updating now.

Had 40 arrows and 20 blunt arrows. I just updated my list, I have 60 blunt arrows and 140 arrows. I still have 1114GP if anyone thinks we need another wand of CLW. Other than that, I'm pretty much ready to go.

Healing is always good. Only healing this paladin will have is LoH and Channel. I love this archetype, but going to miss some of those paladin spells..*sniffs* No Blessed weapon. xD But Anyway. I'm all set to go as well.

After making some last minute minor changes I'm as ready to go as I'll ever be.

As for party tactics, we still have quite a bit to discuss. It seems to me like our marching order would probably be something along the lines of Kiley on point, far enough ahead she can stealth without the rest of us giving her away but close enough she can still get backup fast if she needs it.

Then Gerald and Myself as the mobile shield wall.

Rear guard would likely be Rufus and Xoc Xoc.

That leaves Iiwo and Ciarin in the middle.

Regardless of anything else, Gerald and I are going to have to stay close to one another so we can get a shield wall that has a chance of working. The rest of the party then arrays themselves either alongside us or behind us as best fits their abilities and blasts away as best they can. The worst case scenario, if what's in front of us is really nasty, would be that Gerald and myself end up going defensive just trying to hold the threat at bay while the rest of the party cranks out the damage.

With Kiley on point there are two basic scenarios to look at when Kiley finds something big, bad and ugly ahead of us.

1) Kiley is able to successfully remain stealthed and get back to rest of us before whatever it is becomes aware of the party. In which case we plan the assault/ambush at our leisure (within limits) and execute it when we're ready to go with Kiley guiding us in as close as she can before we unload on the problem.

2) Whatever it is notices Kiley and she ends up having to run back to the party with a whole bunch of serious ugly chasing her. In which case she should proceed to run past Gerald and myself while we do our best to contain whatever it is and the rest of the party comes forward to unload on it.

Obviously then if the rear of the party gets hit Gerald and I head over that way to reinforce Xoc Xoc, with Rufus falling back when we get there and the rest of the party doing what they do best.

If the party gets hit on a flank Gerald and I will face whatever it is, try to advance about 10 feet or so, then head back down the engaged side of the party trying to take whatever is attacking us on its flank.

In general I'm going to be trying to stay on Gerald's right side so I don't have to worry as much about inadvertently hitting him when I'm throwing chakrams around and or engaging in other weirdness. If Kiley has to come running back to the party she should then try to come down Gerald's left side if she can so I can get a better shot at what's chasing her.

We also need to develop some sort of signal system so we can let each other know what's going on. This is especially important when it comes to working with Kiley out on an extended point position. Having maybe said more than I should, I'll let everybody else comment for now.

Sounds good to me, but you forgot me getting caught and getting killed or captured in your contingencies ;).

I have to check with the GM and I may have to move some skills to swing it, but what about whistling?

One whistle for all clear, two for enemies, three for big group of enemies or big enemies, and a scream for I need help.

Okay joking about the scream, but that's the mos likely outcome if I do need it.

That pretty much works out to be right. I also plan to do some bullrushing with my shield, to get any baddies off our less hardy folk. And I think it's a given against a EBBG(Evil Big Bad guy), I'll be right in front and smiting him nice and hard. :)

Xôc Xôc is now Xôc Xôc. Xôc Xôc still needs talky talk about him, but all crunchy stuff is done.

Xahara is not Xahara yet. She will come soon.