GM Burglar's 0-56: The Jester's Fraud (Inactive)

Game Master mechaedd

Varg's joined us.

Right, I was counting Varg but missed counting our new fire sorceress. So 41/7=5.86 :-)

Sorry for the delay. I'm trying to get everything that needs water done before something eventually freezes.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Yep, yep. It's -5 here. It was -15 @ 11:00a in Indianapolis today. (about 2.5 hrs north of me.)

Less than -30 here with the windchill.

I mean, we're at least crankinl a positive (though single digit) number high and low. Post is in processing.

+75 here. Oh, and my kids have never seen snow.

F#!# you.

Just kidding.

But seriously, Indiana has the stupidest weather sometimes-especially in LaPorte because we're near Lake Michigan so we get dumped on in the winter with lake-effect snow. Makes me miss Bloomington, the winters are so much milder there. Of course I may be in either Chicago or Madison, WI next year so things are not looking up for me weather-wise.

Becca and I are planning on heading to New Zealand for our honeymoon next December. Should be nice. We tell people it's so that we can walk the trail to Mordor and throw our rings into Mount Doom. But really it's because I've been to NZ and Australia before and fell in love. Thought about applying to Melbourne but my mom would have killed me if I moved there for 6 years right after getting married.

There are some good schools in Melbourne, but family first, Calidamnit!

I agree NZ’s countryside (I’ve only been to the North Island) is beautiful. Quite different to most parts of Australia though.

MUCH more geothermal activity, higher mountains and “generally” colder and greener because NZ gets a fair amount of rain.

It is hard to generalize though, because Australia is roughly the size of the continental US.

Yep. I spent several weeks there back in high school as part of the People to People 'student ambassador' program. We traveled from Auckland south, hopped a ferry to the south island in Wellington, then flew over to Sydney and made our way up to Cairns and Melbourne. Didn't get to see the outback much but really loved the east coast. I went there during our summer so it was of course freezing down there but I still had a blast. That's why we're waiting until December to take our honeymoon, so that it'll be a little bit warmer.

WooHoo! Got my Inner Sea World Guide and Animal Archive today.

Glancing through it, I already see a feat I want for Sahrek.

Luisila looks over Desmond’s shoulder. “Watcha reading, Des? Oh, Atlas of the Inner Sea. Cool!”

“Sing out when you get to the religions section. The number of deities available can be overwhelming."

"I could probably suggest a good goddess to worship ...”

I don’t have Animal Archive. Is it any good?

So far, it is really cool. I just wish I had this when I first got Sahrek. I'm going to take the Companion Boon feat for Sahrek next level - it brings his level equal to mine, which will make him much more durable - he'll grow to a large creature. I'm almost considering getting him a saddle and riding him around.

Note: You take boon companion, not him. Sahrek doesn't have an animal companion.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Sahrek doesn't have an animal companion.

I dunno.

There are people that would say he does. :D ;)

So I do. Still, I think it'll be worth it.

Its a spectacular feat. I'm glad they reprinted it in Animal Archive, since Seeker of Secrets was such a weird book to need to have access to to a full animal companion.

-Posted with Wayfinder

And good one, Luisila.

If it's true that slashing does less to this creature, realize that Merciful does not make my scimitar a 'flat of blade' bludgeoning weapon. I believe it is still slashing, just nonlethal slashing.

I am making an assumption based on this:

Then Varg just moves past him anyways and connects with his axe! It seems to resist the tiiiiiiiniest bit of damage, though it's a drop in the bucket of damage at this point.

Indeed. DRs proven to not be include slashing and piercing. Maybe Cold Iron, to be more clear since pretty much everyone knows what these are already.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Ah ok. Too bad Yushua wasn't able to ID it, the bonus enhancement from Bane would have brought my weapon to a +3 and thus cold iron/silver.

I'm looking through random stat blocks; is "Special Defenses" not a thing that goes into statblocks like Special Attacks? Have I been living a LIE?

-Posted with Wayfinder

*shrugs shoulders* "Your guess is as good as mine."

I need to GM something so that I can have that excuse to familiarize myself with statblocks.

Or just get a bestiary and flip through it, starting with the lowest CR monsters and moving your way up to the more complicated things.

When you first start GMing, you will have to do a lot of looking things up because stat blocks have a lot of words that they just expect you to know. When it says 'undead traits' or 'amorphous' or 'incorporeal', the stat block never says what those things mean; you have to look them up elsewhere or eventually just become familiar with what they do.

--

On another note since it comes up with animals often: I believe there is a separate trick to teach your animal Flank, which generally covers the question "does my animal know how to flank"? If they don't have that trick, then probably not; they'll just attack indiscriminately. If they have an Int of 3 they might not know what flanking is but they understand language so you can always tell them "shift to the right!" and get the same effect.

Flank us indeed a trick; Animal Archive, and Helkit had it on Brimstone.

-Posted with Wayfinder

I haven't read through all of the new tricks listed in the Animal Archive, but it doesn't look like there's anything in the CRB list of tricks.

My next purchase is a bestiary - start with #1, I guess. I have a pdf file that another player copied to me, but I just can't read stuff on a screen for a serious length of time.

But holy crap the Inner Sea World Guide is fun, isn't it? I just keep flipping through and reading about the different regions - definitely helps put some of the Society missions into context.

Alright, so - ignore the flanking (not that it mattered, I don't think he hit). I'll move Sahrek back to the square he was in.

(doesn't stop Desmond from moving into a flank though)

Yeah, Inner Sea World Guide was one of the best investments I made early on because it gave the game and each scenario so much more depth and context. I started out knowing nothing about the Golarion and was admittedly pretty confused for quite a while, especially with so many political, religious, and geographical things thrown at me at once. But when I got the ISWG I started looking ahead to see where the scenario I was about to play took place and then read up the entry about that country. (Or I'd run into a cleric of such-and-such and read up about that god(dess)-you get the picture.) Made the scenarios so much more fun.

… you can't heal and hurt with channels at the same time …

I didn’t know that, Endless. Thanks!

I swear I learn a new rule in every combat.

There is so much (good) stuff put out for Pathfinder, it is hard to decide what to buy next. Maybe choose a topic that interests you, Des?

The good thing about the hard cover Rule Books is you can check out all their content in the PRD (sans artwork) to see if like them.

To clarify the Summoner bit; the Summoner SLA is a Standard, casting it is still a full-round for them. I am currently or have played a Summoner of each non-racial archetype that I know of, sans Broodmaster, before the great "Add Outsiders, Remove Archetypes" of long ago.

Acadmae Student is a classic work around for that for all classes, though the Korvosan flavor won't work for all. Plus, if I remember correctly, it fatigues the user or something? Then again, you're summoning, so you're likely not doing any physically demanding activities anyways.

-Posted with Wayfinder

I hadn’t seen that feat, Burglar.

There is Sacred Summons for clerics, but Luisila’s aura is Chaotic Neutral (despite her being CG) so it’s pretty useless to her. Sacred Summons looks like it would be quite good for LG clerics though.

I have yet to see much summoning in PFS. Ernest is a Conjurer isn’t he? Is it fair to say summoning is more common in higher level play? Does it slow the game down much?

Hmm… Elemental Gems look like they activate as a standard action.

I love summons at mid to high levels for clerics. Very versatile since many of the summoned creatures have abilities to fly or speak tongues or cure in addition to fight.

At low levels, lasts too short to be useful IMHO

Sacred summons is ok but the LG list is limited at upper levels. Great for spamming the field with lantern archons.

Ernest is a conjurer-specialized wizard, but doesn't really prepare Summons since he has all the Spell Focuses for the school, which don't really do anything for him if he uses Summons. He's built to Pit, Web, and Grease at near-optimal efficiency, though the fact I took a non-caster-progression-advancement-having prestige class level for Trapfinding/Flavor hurts a LOT.

I consider preparing them on Clerics I play,despite the alignment restrictions, since they can be dropped for Cures/Inflicts as appropriate when they prove less useful.

That said, the pinch Summon Monster 5 Celestial ankylosaurus Tail Stun/Meat Shield Slam Jam is mighty grand and within the realm of amusement for my tastes.

-Posted with Wayfinder

One reason I like Taldor missions include the fact that when they're in Backwater & Mildly Prejudiced Nowhere-ville, all I have to do is think "What would the "average West Deer Old Guy" think or say if they were a minority?" to accurately portray them.

-Posted with Wayfinder

@Luisila: Not that it really matters because it was just a quick fun thing but for everyone's general benefit, I don't think you can take 10 on opposed checks (stealth/perception, bluff/sense motive, etc). At least I'm pretty sure you can't but I could always be wrong.

@Endless: No worries! I wouldn’t do something so chaotic as a part of the ‘fur realz’ part of the game.

BUT as you know, I have been known to Take 10 or even Take Zero!! **deep intake of breath from the purists** to promote roleplay or for a laugh.

I don’t believe I’ve ever done so to try and get an unfair advantage. And if I did, I know any of the pbp GMs I’ve played with would pull me up on it.

@Desmond: What happened to Linnea’s avatar??

It’s like she’s all grown up now! EDIT: lol

Yeah, I was looking for an avatar for my new fighter - female elf - and I found that pic. It just seemed to fit a little better. I don't know. Linnea's seen things, man, and it's changed her. She's darker, edgier - more appealing to today's youth with their Breaking Bad and their Lars Von Trier movies.

@Luisila: Oh yeah, I know. I wasn't chastising you, just thought I would point it out because I wasn't sure if you were just ignoring the rule because it was just for fun and didn't really matter or if you were legitimately not aware of it so I thought I'd take the opportunity to point it out to anyone who wasn't aware of that rule.

@T10: The funny thing ends up being when a scenario gives an arbitrary DC (like one the NPC could not achieve even with a great deal of luck), then it's not technically contested. In a live game, I would note to the player that T10 isn't an option, but my phrasing and emphasis would hopefully imply what the Sense Motive had to depict and not force a roll for a player attentive enough to pick up on it. Heck, I probably wouldn't even roll bluff unless they wanted to Sense Motive.

"Eek! Lin looks like the girls who used to beat me up and steal my second-and-third-lunch monies and call me "Fatty Tattys" and "Dig-Dug" and "Mole Boy" back in the academy! I wonder what happened..."

I think I'm going to try to keep Ernest out of any games until I can find a 3-7 or something that both Linnea and Ernest can be in together. Both characters have clearly changed a good bit.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Ernie, that's a great idea. Those two need to be on an assignment together.

Heads up guys, I will be unavailable this weekend. Going to Sacramento for my youngest brother's wedding. I can get a post in early Friday, but won't be able to post again until Monday at the earliest.

Have fun, Des! I am away visiting family over the next ten days.

I don’t anticipate any problems with 1+ posts per day or viewing maps, but I probably won’t be able to make another post for about 24 hours.

Normally, I'd linger around and let the diplos do their job, even after a failed Intimidate check. This guy is hardwired to snap at the first provocation, though, so I didn't want to have folks typing up nice, big paragraphs for nothing. Just wanted to make sure the nice folks knew I'm not letting one egg spoil the basket for nothin'.

(I think I messed that euphemism up...)

-Posted with Wayfinder

Oh no problem with that here, GM...Just Omrax striving unsuccessfully to emulate Iomedae's patience. I was really done and did not have anything meaningful to add to the thugs. More just to egg on Sir Varg and his ale driven bloodlusts. :-)

No problem here either.

The special size modifier for a creature's Combat Maneuver Defense is as follows: Fine –8, Diminutive –4, Tiny –2, Small –1, Medium +0, Large +1, Huge +2, Gargantuan +4, Colossal +8. Some feats and abilities grant a bonus to your CMD when resisting specific maneuvers. A creature can also add any circumstance, deflection, dodge, insight, luck, morale, profane, and sacred bonuses to AC to its CMD. Any penalties to a creature's AC also apply to its CMD. A flat-footed creature does not add its Dexterity bonus to its CMD.

A commonly-missed bit, along with the "You add pretty much everything that's not Armor, Shield, or Natural Armor to CMD."

Just got back from a surprise GM session. Our PFS group had need of a 2nd GM and I volunteered, since I hadn't officially RSVP'd for the event.

Ran Many fortunes of Grandmaster Flash Torch. The printout had all sorts of weird stuff though. It kept referencing Spot checks, and there were weird skills listed.

Ja, I believe Season Zero scenarios were all written for the 3.5 version of the world's oldest role playing game.

So, the skills Spot, Listen and Search which could all be in there, have been replaced by Perception in Pathfinder - which seems like an improvement to me.

What else has gone? Rope Use? I asked Neb how that worked when we played Many Fortunes of Grandmaster Torch, Des. It's based on your CMB to tie up and Escape Artist to escape IIRC.

@Burglar, thanks for the tutorial on CMD. I had calculated Luisila's correctly, but I had failed to add the Dodge bonus to my fighter's CMD.