If the protagonists were visible, he might see them sure (depending on perception, etc.) but they are not. So all he knows is there is something wrong and hostility is imminent.
Your opposition is not in the room as yet.
Thanks for the clarification. It just seems that the ability is somewhat useless then, at least in most cases.
In any case, it might be best for Ben to delay when he doesn't wish to act first. At least he could get an action in the surprise round, in addition tot he one in the first round, no?
He could delay, but then he's still flat footed. This way he can prepare for upcoming combat. In most cases, he'll see the opposition coming as well, and can react appropriately.
It's just these weird creatures who walk through walls that throw things off. ;)
True, he'd be flat-footed. However, he'd be able to cast something. And since he tends (and should) hang out a bit back, being flat-footed won't be too problematic for him.
And yes, you're right. It's for those pesky things coming out of walls.
Thanks for the clarification. It just seems that the ability is somewhat useless then, at least in most cases.
In any case, it might be best for Ben to delay when he doesn't wish to act first. At least he could get an action in the surprise round, in addition tot he one in the first round, no?
It's not useless...a readied action is probably best if and when he has the abilities/spells to disrupt/protect the party.
Sometimes a readied Glitterdust might be keen. Or Create Pit or Grease or other things that might disrupt an attacker.
Later on, he might have access to things like Haste (or other buffs) that are great to cast in the surprise round.
This is my only active game at the moment, but I'm currently at the beach.
Check-in was crazy yesterday. We were moving in our luggage when we heard a loud crash. Turns out the brackets holding up the sewage pipe broke. There was waste everywhere so they moved us to a different beach house. It broke over the front door too, so I was super lucky not to have been drenched in it while bringing stuff in.
Ooh...as much as I'd like to play Zeitgeist (it sounds so delightfully steampunk, plus investigation-heavy? Zounds!) I think I'd better pass for the time being. Thank you for thinking of us, though! :)
@Nidhi - Ewwwww, talk about a near miss! I'm glad they were able to get you into a different beach house quickly!
Nidhi's post about vacation reminds me that I never really said how my convention trip went...
DieCon 17; Spoilered for Length:
It actually went quite well! A friend of my brother's from his WoW days flew out from Las Vegas and went with us; the three of us drove out to Collinsville, IL on that Thursday morning and met up at our hotel with another mutual friend of theirs that lived a bit closer (but was still far enough away to need to stay at the hotel). The rest of the evening was spent out in St. Louis meeting up with some other folks that the gang knew from WoW for dinner and ice-cream floats afterwards. If you're ever in St. Louis, I'd definitely check out Blueberry Hill; it's a great little eatery!
Friday morning we were up early for breakfast at Denny's with even more people that my brother and the other two members of our gang knew from past DieCons. Then it was out to the convention center for check-in, signing up for our game slots, and then a quick lunch at the nearby Mexican place before the con officially started with Session #1 at 2pm! For me, Session #1 was a Call of Cthulhu game, which I had never played before. The game was set in the days leading up to and during the voyage of the Titanic and was quite enjoyable! However, this particular game was quite investigation-heavy which is apparently unusual for the DM that ran it? I think his normal CoC games are more along the lines of, 'Group meets up and interacts for a bit, then s*** starts going down'. Either way, it was fun!
Session #2, later that same evening, was for a game of Deadlands - a system that I'd played before, but not in some years. Since I didn't have my own original character I ended up playing the pregen Mad Scientist - Gordon Sumatra! I built a more mobile hot air balloon! Huzzah! Fun was had by all. By the time Session #2 ended it was a little past 11pm so we all returned to the hotel to get our beauty rest for the next day!
Saturday was a blast, especially the first two sessions (#3 & #4). We started off with a FAST session of Call of Scooby Doo - yes, it's more or less what it sounds like. We played the Scooby Doo gang as they attempted to help special guest star Wednesday Addams claim her legacy by clearing the spirits out of a spooky old manor house. Fun! Puzzles! Sanity checks! It was grand :)
For Session #4 I decided to get my board/card games on and had signed up for a game simply called 'Jack the Ripper' by Crypt Monkey Studios, which seemed interesting. Turns out the company is both pretty new and pretty small, with the bulk of the work on the game having been done by the husband and wife team (Ty & Dawn) that own the company. I believe he did most of the writing and she did the artwork - and they had their kids as some of the playtesters, hehe. At any rate, even though there were only 3 of us that showed up for this session (myself, a kid that couldn't have been more than maybe 12, and an older woman there with her family) we had a great time playing as Ty showed us the ropes. By some strange quirk I ended up being 'Jack' for the first several games, enough so that Ty told me that when he saw me at next year's DieCon he'd be calling me by my new name. Guess this means I'll have to get a shirt to wear... >:)
The last session for Saturday (#5) was originally supposed to be the PFS special Race for the Runecarved Key and I was signed up on the Tier 1-2 table. Sadly they apparently didn't have enough signs up for the special to fire, so they had to do some quick shuffling of the tables and run some different scenarios as back-ups. The higher tier table ended up running Tome of Righteous Repose and the low tier table where I ended up ran through The Confirmation. Though I was a bit disappointed that the special didn't happen, I did enjoy the game that we had. I'd played Confirmation three or four times already in PbP but it was neat to be able to do it live as well. Plus it let me give my witch the last scenario she needed to reach 2nd level - huzzah!
Sunday, being the last day of the con, was a little more subdued as you might expect. Both of my sessions for this day (#6 & 7) were devoted to playing more PFS - specifically the very new two-parter series called Champion's Chalice. Since I know at least Ventiine plays PFS I won't spoil the scenarios except to say that playing the first part with a cavalier, a magus, a rogue, and my life oracle was...interesting. The only real bummer part about the experience was the behavior of one of the other players (who had also been at my Confirmation table the night before), though being relatively young (13/14) and obviously pretty new to Pathfinder, I was willing to cut him some slack and be patient.
After Session #7 ended, we said our goodbyes, packed up, and headed for home. It was a grand experience and I'm definitely hoping to be able to go again next year!
Random Takeaways
My brother and his friends (Becca & Chris) know some awesome people by way of this convention.
Now that we know how PFS sign-ups & Warhorn work for this convention, maybe next year my brother and I can actually play some PFS together. We'd hoped to do that this year and it sadly didn't work out.
I need more Call of Cthulhu and Deadlands in my life.
Bringing my laptop was completely unnecessary as I had next to no time to sit down and use it - I was either gaming, sleeping, or eating.
The concession stand is expensive! Next year, just bring an empty bottle to refill with water and some of those little flavor packets.
Playing PFS live is a nice change of pace, but I still prefer my PbP games.
At live tables, especially with strangers, one needs to be much more assertive or else they're liable to be drowned out by players with more vocal/dominant personalities.
Start saving 'fun money' now for next year's convention. There were soooo many things that I wanted to buy but didn't have the funds for. I did end up coming home with some shiny new (and green) FAST dice, my own copy of the Jack the Ripper game, as well as a card game called Super Fight though.
NG male human (Garundi) diviner 10 | HP: 62/62 | AC: 14 [17] (13 Tch, 11 [14] FF) | CMB: +5, CMD: 18 | F: +5, R: +7, W: +10 | Init: +16 | Perc: +14 (+16), SM: +1 (+3) | Speed 30 ft | Special abilities: prescience 10/10 | foretell 10/10 | Active Conditions:
Well guys, it's nice to see that you Americans have all those opportunities to share your passion with others. Here in Italy, things are very different, and ours is a private hobby at best. But sooner or later I will find a way to get a place in an American university!
Yeah, when I did more Face to Face gaming I did the convention circuit for a few years. LOTS of fun, but they are expensive. Sounds like you had a great time Florence!
Yep, he sure was! He's almost a full 12 years older than I am, but we've thankfully always been close because we have similar tastes in a lot of things and he's always made an effort to keep up with the things going on in my life. During his high school and college years I'd often sit and watch him play video games and computer games, once he'd saved enough to buy himself a computer. That's how I got into stuff like Zelda and Final Fantasy.
The tabletop RPGs came a bit later. I think he reasoned that since I enjoyed video games so much that I'd enjoy the tabletop stuff too. Once he'd graduated from college and moved back home, he started playing AD&D 2nd edition with some old high school friends and he would tell me stories about how the games went. Once he deemed me old enough, he invited me along to actually them play a game and told me that if I liked what I saw, then I'd be welcome to make a character too and start playing with them. This was a week before my 13th birthday and I've been a gamer ever since! Oh and in true gamer tradition that very first game I watched ended up going all night and so my parents were not happy that my brother had had me out all night, even though it hadn't been a school night :3
Nowadays he's the GM for our Pathfinder group, but it's rare that we both get to sit on the same side of the GM screen together. This is why we've started trying to go play PFS together once or twice a month; it's just difficult to wrangle because my work schedule is everchanging and the closest PFS hubs to where we live are easily an hour and 1/2 away by car. He's expressed some interest in my PbP exploits but until recently didn't really have the time for writing due to being involved in a different writing-intensive hobby. Maybe now I'll be able to talk him into giving PFS PbP a try :)
@Ben - That's a shame that there aren't more opportunities for gamers to get together in Italy. If it's not too nosy to ask, is there a stigma against such hobbies?
NG male human (Garundi) diviner 10 | HP: 62/62 | AC: 14 [17] (13 Tch, 11 [14] FF) | CMB: +5, CMD: 18 | F: +5, R: +7, W: +10 | Init: +16 | Perc: +14 (+16), SM: +1 (+3) | Speed 30 ft | Special abilities: prescience 10/10 | foretell 10/10 | Active Conditions:
No, as far as I know there's not any stigma against roleplay games. The problem is that RPG are anywhere as near as well-known as in he U.S. For instance, consider that only 1 guy in 1 knows what a tabletop RPG is.
GM, I can't find Ben on the new map. Can you please add him and place him close to the statue?
He's stacked up behind Nidhi. I moved you to the gate, but others can simply click where Florence is and their icon should be movable into the room. Messy, but it won't last long. :)
Checking in, patiently awaiting Florence's turn :)
Also, at the risk of hijacking our good GM's thread, I wanted to mention that I'm gathering together a PFS group for The Confirmation. Currently I've got 3 and possibly a 4th interested so I'd be willing to take 1-2 more if anyone is interested.
On the other hand, if you're sick of being confirmed but are still curious to check out a fledgling GM in action, I'm looking to run Portent's Peril (1-5) and Reaping What We Sow (1-5) for Sessions 1 and 2 of the upcoming PbP Gameday. If either of those seem interesting let me know and I'll save you a spot :)
NG male human (Garundi) diviner 10 | HP: 62/62 | AC: 14 [17] (13 Tch, 11 [14] FF) | CMB: +5, CMD: 18 | F: +5, R: +7, W: +10 | Init: +16 | Perc: +14 (+16), SM: +1 (+3) | Speed 30 ft | Special abilities: prescience 10/10 | foretell 10/10 | Active Conditions:
Oh, sorry GM. I was quite in a hurry when I read it. To be honest, I still am. As such, could I please ask you to bot Ben for the next round? Today time is a tyrant.
Happy 4th of July to my fellow Americans, happy Tuesday to the rest of the world! And remember kids, it's not a proper rendition of the 1812 Overture unless it has cannons!
Happy 4th of July! I'm greatful I live in the USA to celebrate what our forefathers fought to achieve and my ancestors who came via Ellis Island with hopes of a better life.
Just to complicate matters, I have two comments about fighting on the stairs. One, it's a mapping PIA as it's 'between' maps so I'd like to avoid it (which is I think why Zilchus picked it - eyes Zilchus menacingly).
Further, fighting on the stairs is worse for you than them tactically I think. You'll only get one on one with their front liner, and they have better healing and ranged support than you do from what you've seen so far.
Hmm, unsure what to make of this. I don't insist on anything (except chaos, of course).
And if we do get the terrain I favor, it will mean that we have two on their frontliner (with Cahal's reach) and half their forces won't have line of effect to anyone but Zilch...which is fine with him and our team will have covered access to their frontliner (and they all heal Zilch if they choose).
However, given that it's more work for the GM, I'm happy to do the fight here, but would like Ben & Nidhi to be able to position themselves better rather than going up the stairs.
Can we do the fight where the map works, but with a penalty for them or an advantage for us that would in some ways compensate for the good positioning we had?
My only real concern is AoE spells that Velriana/Azaz/Khelru might still have but as we're more or less going to be in fireball formation no matter where we make our stand, there's not really been any point in making a big deal of it :)
But I was thinking it'd work like what Zilchus was envisioning; he forms the lead of the conga line with Cahal behind him using her longspear. The rest of us can still shoot our ranged weapons/throw stuff and Florence still has the capability to heal people as needed. However I'm also happy to do the fight where it's easier on the GM to manage!
Also I've not really been discussing possible tactics OOC much because I've been under the impression that a few folks would prefer such things to stay IC.
NG male human (Garundi) diviner 10 | HP: 62/62 | AC: 14 [17] (13 Tch, 11 [14] FF) | CMB: +5, CMD: 18 | F: +5, R: +7, W: +10 | Init: +16 | Perc: +14 (+16), SM: +1 (+3) | Speed 30 ft | Special abilities: prescience 10/10 | foretell 10/10 | Active Conditions:
There's no way in which I can reasonbly contribute to this fight, so anywhere is fine for me. I would have preferred the stairs as well, but anywhere is fine.
Florence, thank you. I do prefer tactics should be in character with character knowledge and coloring. It's more interesting at times as well.
Benedictus, I disagree - at this level color spray can end a combat judiciously used. 'course it is risky and there are saving throws, but I wouldn't say you're useless. :)
I'll put you in the chamber at the foot of the stairs. I don't have fireball, so you're good. I think it's a single move for everyone to get into position, so please post any standard actions you may wish to take and we'll proceed!
Oh, normally, the diagonal spaces would be squeezing spaces, but for the purposes of this fight, the northern diagonals are NOT squeezing but the southern are.
There's no way in which I can reasonbly contribute to this fight, so anywhere is fine for me. I would have preferred the stairs as well, but anywhere is fine.
There's no way in which I can reasonbly contribute to this fight, so anywhere is fine for me. I would have preferred the stairs as well, but anywhere is fine.
You can also ask us for alchemical fires ;)
Heck, we offered him repeated alch fires which are touch attacks...he might accidentally be useful. ;)
NG male human (Garundi) diviner 10 | HP: 62/62 | AC: 14 [17] (13 Tch, 11 [14] FF) | CMB: +5, CMD: 18 | F: +5, R: +7, W: +10 | Init: +16 | Perc: +14 (+16), SM: +1 (+3) | Speed 30 ft | Special abilities: prescience 10/10 | foretell 10/10 | Active Conditions:
I'd rather not become a flask thrower. But this dungeon was super intensive with no time to rest so I'll do what I can. Indeed I was saving my last spell for a potentially good use. Let's see what happens then!
PFS went well today but I had an early wakeup so what was meant to be a short nap upon getting home turned into "Oh wow it's that late...might as well just go back to bed." So that is what I am doing; feel free to bot Flo as needed and I will catch up after work tomorrow :)
NG male human (Garundi) diviner 10 | HP: 62/62 | AC: 14 [17] (13 Tch, 11 [14] FF) | CMB: +5, CMD: 18 | F: +5, R: +7, W: +10 | Init: +16 | Perc: +14 (+16), SM: +1 (+3) | Speed 30 ft | Special abilities: prescience 10/10 | foretell 10/10 | Active Conditions:
Hey guys, today was crazy. Hectic, to say the least. I managed to get a post in, but I don't have enough time for inventory the items we've found. If no one has problems with it, I would like to ask you if you're OK if I do it tomorrow. Otherwise, someone else can do it now.
Assuming I will be taking care of the inventory tomorrow, please let me know if you're claiming anything from the loot.
By the way, Florence has been holding off on making any claims on any of the scrolls and such that we've found until Ben (or Nidhi) has a chance to state what they'd be interested in; she assumes Ben knows more about what he's doing with magic than she does so it makes sense to her to let him have first 'dibs' so to speak :)
However if no one really expresses any interest in anything within the next little bit then she'll claim some things.
NG male human (Garundi) diviner 10 | HP: 62/62 | AC: 14 [17] (13 Tch, 11 [14] FF) | CMB: +5, CMD: 18 | F: +5, R: +7, W: +10 | Init: +16 | Perc: +14 (+16), SM: +1 (+3) | Speed 30 ft | Special abilities: prescience 10/10 | foretell 10/10 | Active Conditions:
Hey everyone, sorry for not posting yesterday. It was impossible for me to access the internet, not even with my phone. I wasn't expecting it, that's the reason why I couldn't let you know before. Sorry.
As for the treasure, Ben would like to claim the following:
Quote:
Scroll of burning hands (CL 2nd), scroll of identify, scroll of levitate, scroll of magic missile (2), scroll of shocking grasp (CL 2nd), scroll of invisibility.
Wand of grease (10 charges), wand of vanish (9 charges), wand of scorching ray (6 charges), wand of shield (9 charges).
Spellbooks, silver holy symbol of Nethys, two alchemist's fire, bracers of armor +1.
Of course I'm willing to split the scrolls among the casters. That's just a list of what Ben is interested in, not a list of what he's going to take. Please feel free to claim any scroll you're interested in Florence, Nidhi.
Also, I know I'm claiming a lot of things, but this loot was particularly wizard-friendly. It won't happen frequently. As such, I'm aware that Ben will receive much less money from party divvy when we get to sell the rest of the things we gathered.
^Not a problem, Ben! Most of the scrolls are things that Florence either already knows, wouldn't be able to actually learn, or has no interest in (fire spells? NOPE!).
However, she'll take the divine scrolls which I believe are: Bless x2, CMW, Effortless Armor, Magic Weapon, Sound Burst, and Warding Weapon. She'll also take 1 Holy Water; she's already carrying plenty of acid flasks and probably won't take Alchemist's Fire unless someone insists.
Cahal - a little bird pointed me to this question (link) in which James Jacobs clearly states that your unarmed attacks are not damaged by the foe you face - caryatid columns.
Well OK then. I try to stick to the rules as intended, modifying as need by to make sense of things and keep the play balanced. Well, I can't do that and ignore dear old James, so I'm reversing my ruling - your unarmed strikes will not take damage when fighting this foe.
I'm not going back however, but you can change your tactics going forward into next round. And you can keep your mace, but your longspear will need to be replaced.
