GM Batpony's PBP PFS trilogy gameday VI (Inactive)

Game Master Batpony

As mage armour lasts an hour casting as we enter the sewers for example makes sense. Also my 7th lvl will be psychic so I can cast and use it myself.

Any word from Lupis?

Map is set to comment only so I can't add a token for Kuuma. I've made this post with him so you can grab the token.

Whoops. Corrected that to be editable now. Let me know if the problem still persist.

Pretty sure you can't crit swarms Flynn, but for in the future for when you crit, the strength, PBS, and enhancement bonus from your bow all get multiplied too, so it should be plus 12.

Yeah, I forgot 'bout that...was hoping I might knock it out in one shot, but no dice...at least these aren't immune to weapon damage...

@GM: I corrected the damage in my original post back to non-critical damage...

After that first combat, looking through the other combats, it could be one-sided throughout. Just wanted to make sure I offer you guys a chance for a challenge, we are currently at APL 4.2.

There are 6 other possible combats left, at the current tier it'll likely be a walk in the park unless the group gets unlucky with saves to carry on building status effects until the end of the game. Tier 3-4 combat reuses all the same tier 1-2 enemies, just addition of 1 or 2 more of them.

Considering the scenario was written for a 4 player make up, At tier 6-7 it will be a very challenging, but not impossible. But you might be really pushing your characters to their limits with the fact you could have 6 more possible combats.

The reward of course, is self satisfaction, and a bit more monetary gains.

I'll leave it to you guys for your decision as you've seen the first round of combat. I'm happy to adjust for the group.

I'm willing to give it a shot if everyone else is OK with it...

Kramac's only level 3. If tier 6-7 is more like what we'd expect at that tier, he's in for a rough time. And I'm not sure we're really allowed to play out of the correct tier are we? If we are then I'd give it a shot - we can always go back right?

What about the rest of the 'trilogy'? How does that sit in tier 3-4?

Im level 4, and a cocky bastard. If Batpony thinks it would be an ok challenge Im down for trying if eveeyone else is

I am staying out of this decision, since I am on the higher end of the tiers.

@Kiboko: When you take Filth Fever tonic, you may make an immediate Fortitude save with a +5 alchemical bonus against the disease’s DC to recover from the illness, with no penalty for failure.

Filth fever tonic does not heal any ability damage already inflicted by the disease so it's best to take it early on if you think you might've contracted it, before the ability damage sets in...

I actually bought a couple as they're only 5 gp apiece from the Prince of Augustana chronicle sheet...

Like Deyno as I am at the high end of the party I wont comment re higher tier.
Also Kiboko is 4th lvl not third according to your sheet.

It was Kramac's header said 3rd, but yes he's 4th level.

So it looks like all three lower-level PCs are willing to give the high tier a shot. If we find that the first "out of tier" fight is too rough though, I think we should look at it again.

How coincidental and fitting bout the filth fever tonic.

I have not looked into the other parts of the series, but we can always adjust if difficulty is totally out of sync for the other scenarios. But knowing how they written PFS in the early days, I suspect it'll be more of the same sort of thing.

Kramac has seemed to adjust his header, APL is now 4.6. So looks like we'll play high-tier for the next encounter and then decide from there to make or break.

Busy day. Will update in the morning (my time), in the meantime, do let me know your pre-buffs before you head onboard the prancing pixie, if applicable.

do we get there within 50 mins or an hour?

If not I will get mage armour re cast on me and re cast barkskin on myself.

Probably no additional pre-buffs for Kiboko, but Longstrider will still be running I expect (4 hours duration).

Mvumbu's Animal Focus will be set to Falcon by default (+4 perception, total = 9).

At this point I'd like to check off a faction journal card goal: "Defy local law or tradition in a way that assists you or your allies without endangering the mission or threatening innocent lives." I think breaking and entering counts!

This will qualify Kiboko for the Season 8 Liberty's Edge faction card boon "Bond Breaker:
once per adventure, you may perform one of two liberating acts. You may cast Shatter as a spell-like ability with a DC equal to 12 plus half the number of goals you have completed (rounded down). [total DC=14]. Alternatively you may deal 1d10 additional points of damage on your next attack roll against a creature or object with hardness. If your weapon's critical multiplier is x3 or x4 you deal 2d10 or 3d10 additional damage, respectively."

I'll pick up several filth fever tonics en route to the docks.

You've had a taste of combat at higher tier. They are mostly at arranged at a CR7-8.

There is a huge gap in the scenario, to a point I think there must have been a mistake in the tier 3-4 combat encounters. Although the say they are CR4-5. Adding up the total CR value of the monsters makes it no higher than CR2.5 or 3, where in reality the total should be around CR 8 for at least 3 creatures at CR 4.

I believe tier 3-4 will be too much of a cake walk, and while it will be challenging for some of the combat, no doubt you guys have the capacity to take it on.

not sure i fancy our chances against a spectre, especially with a negative channeling cleric around :0 maybe if we wait they'll just go away?

This next one is arguably the hardest combat encounter. We can always switch down to tier 3-4. Which is essentially only her at a much weaker rating and two variant zombies at CR0.5 each. Tier 1-2 is her and one zombie...

Unfortunately, you will have to encounter her to get the information you need. So there is no avoiding her completely.

I'm almost reluctant to discuss this because I don't know if the rest of us players have any familiarity with spectres and I don't want to spoil. But:

A spectre is hitting any of us except Qatala almost all the time, and kills the level 4 PCs in two hits. Worse than that it creates spawn. So if it only tries to hit Qatala, it'll basically do nothing. But she's got no way to hold it in place - it's incorporeal so it can go wherever it wants, and it flies. None of us has Ghost Touch weapons that I can see, so we'll have a hard time whittling it down. And if the cleric isn't prevented from negative channeling, the spectre could get healed too.

Unless you nerf it by only having it fight Qatala, and not make use of its movement capabilities, I can only see this fight going badly. The party will probably kill the cleric, but the spectre and its spawn are likely to kill at least half the party.

Man, this adventure has some editing issues!

One thing to hope is that its job is to protect the cleric, so i can stun her and trip her.
But as Kiboko says this could be very nasty and lethal.

This adventure definitely does need editing! There's no real loss at tier 3-4 except feeling underwhelmed by the scenario's combat. Which is all this scenario is about. I've yet to go trough the next one but hopefully it does not suffer the same problem!

I'll let you guys decide from here if you want to go 6-7 all the way or 3-4 from here.

I'm game to give this a s. If Qatala doesn't mind sharing a few charges from her wand, we can crank out armor a bit. And I can burn my spells for a bunch of shield of faths. Using those two plus combat expertise and fighting defensively, I can get to AC 21 against the ghost (though I may not hit much). And we put out a bunch of damage. I bet even we drop it in 2 rounds. But I am ok dropping in tier if everyone else isn't up for it.

It's not a large size Spectre is it? The token is kinda in between large and medium. If it is large, then let's def drop down.

Deyno, if you're going to use claws, you should put on the 3rd amulets of mighty fists we got.

It wouldn't hurt. Thanks.

It's medium sized!

Briefly going through the next scenario, it is slightly closer to the appropriate CR for the tier, but still not a challenge for any adequately build level 3-4 party. Although if a few of you are levelling up we definitely will be playing at tier 6-7 based on the mix APL rules.

I know spectres from my AD&D days... very nasty...think we have to take it out quickly...if Qatala and Deyno can engage it, I can also concentrate my bow on it...undead is my favored enemy...if we get surprise and I'm at the top of the stairs, assuming I can take a 5' and fire one arrow... from there on, I'll fire two...I'll get +6 damage on each arrow hitting the spectre...

Maybe Kiboko and Kramac can take on the cleric in the meantime??? That's all I can think of...

I've also got a boon that gives me haste one time only...this might be a good time to use it... would haste let me fire twice if we get a surprise round and three times in a normal round?

You only get the extra attack on a full attack, so I only 1 on the surprise, but 3 each round after

I tend to vote for an all out 5 man pile on to kill the spectre asap.

Incorporeal only prevents damage from crits and sneak attack damage right? Normal damage still applies correct?

Think someone needs to engage the cleric to prevent it from healing the spectre...

Incorporeal only prevents damage from crits and sneak attack damage right? Normal damage still applies correct?

Think someone needs to engage the cleric to prevent it from healing the spectre...

Incorporeal means they take half damage from all non ghost touched weapons, in addition to no crits. I'm probably the best one to go engage the cleric as I deal sneak attack that won't work on the spectre.

Whew, that's gonna be tough...I better haste...does haste help with initiative? A magic weapon doesn't overcome incorporeal, does it?

Flyndyngylyn wrote:

Incorporeal only prevents damage from crits and sneak attack damage right? Normal damage still applies correct?

Think someone needs to engage the cleric to prevent it from healing the spectre...

Incorporeal means they take half damage from all non ghost touched weapons, in addition to no crits. I'm probably the best one to go engage the cleric as I deal sneak attack that won't work on the spectre.

Close..They take half damage from all magical weapons and spells.(Except those that use positive energy such as channel and wands). None from masterwork or mundane.

Ghost touch does full damage or a ghost salt weapons. Also, holy water, does full damage to them as well.

Yea, you should pick up some ghost salt and carry around 10 or 20 arrows treated with ghost salt.

Yea, you should pick up some ghost salt and carry around 10 or 20 arrows treated with ghost salt.

That usually my strategy, until I get high enough levels

Would have but never heard of ghost salt till now...will pick some up after this scenario...

As an archer enthusiast, it is a must.

I prefer not to attempt the spectre and would rather "play down". Not least because dying to a spawn-creating undead means that the spawn-you has to be destroyed before you can be raised. Also level 4 is that awkward point where you often don't have enough prestige or enough gold to get raised (certainly Kiboko doesn't).

(Also seconding ghost salt for archers.)

Alright, I'm not down for this unless everyone is on board. So let's drop back to tier 3 4 and do this thing.

Holy water I've got...but don't think I can dip my arrows in that...

Holy weapon balm would be even better...has to be applied a minute before using but deals an additional 2-8 damage on top of regular damage...

I see what you mean 'bout the tier 3-4 encounters, Batpony...appears to be a huge gap between this one and the spectre...although with the way initiative worked out, if I had ghost salt, I would've put 32 points on the spectre before it acted, so we might could've handled it with the salt...

It's hard to say really how combat would turn out..
Spectre's have a relatively better initiative modifier, and 8HD worth of hit points. Also since there was no hint of possible undead before this point, it might have been difficult to prepare. Ghost salt requires you to prepare to coat your weapons over a fire, and starting one in the boat might not be the best of ideas.

It's touch attacks, although not capable of killing anyone in 3 turns, could hinder you for the rest of the scenario with possible level drains.

Yeah, applying blanches is something one does during downtime in between scenarios.

Holy weapon balm is more easily applied, right? Downside is it has to be used within a minute, I think...

correct. You just have to smear it on. But it does give you the extra damage. and if I remember correctly, lets you bypass DR good.

The blanch can be applied way in advance. But it does take longer to apply. Needing fire and such.

If you are worried about DR, get clustered shots. A decent feat, and actually really useful once you can unleash 6-7 arrows in a round.