Okay... I have put together a Harrowstone grounds map with a 5-foot grid:
Be careful when viewing. I had to divide the map into quarters and position them, so the background is 4 overlapping maps that make a whole.
Everyone has the ability to edit.
To the GM: If you would like me to share the map with you directly so that it appears in your Google Drive shared documents, please PM me your e-mail address.
That looks goods, thanks Stefan. I'll switch the links to that map when necessary.
Sentir updated!
I replaced the old Harrowstone map links with a gridded one helpfully provided by Stefan. I'll place your icons on the map if combat breaks out outside, although once inside the building I'll be placing you there based on your marching order.
Speaking of the interior of Harrowstone, Stefan also helped me out by placing the proper grids on those maps as well. He has my infinite thanks for the assistance.
Although this is still three weeks away, I wanted to let everyone know that I will be attending gencon this year, so my posting schedule will sparse to non-existent during July 29- August 3rd. My husband and I are driving up on Wednesday and returning on Sunday, but both drives can be 9+ hours for us, without stops.
I just wanted to let everyone know now, so that way when I vanished into thin air for an extended period of time, everyone knew where I was.
I won't be at Gen Con this year, but I will be at an outdoor music festival next weekend, Thursday through Sunday.
Drace, if you are a standard fighter I believe you get a +1 vs. Fear from Bravery.
Am back. Was away this weekend, business thing.
Just so you know, I won't be very active this week end.
just to give you a head up, I'll be on vacation for the two first weeks of August, without my computer, so I won't be active.
If you don't think you'll be able to post during those two weeks, Vivian, please give me a general idea of how you'd prefer to be run in combat for the purposes of botting you.
Combat:
Before combat, Vivian will try to identify the foe (using the relevant Know: Religion, planes, arcana) to determine the best way of action
Against zombies, Vivian will uses her short sword
vs humans, she will uses her sword, and try to get flank so she can use her sneak attack
against skeletons (or things immune to Piercing weapons), she won't get close and use her sling. If possible, in the prison, she will look out for a small bludgeoning weapon to use (or even an improvised weapon, like a chair leg as a club)
If the fight gets tough, she will use her daily Judgment power, and if possible cast a Shield of Faith on herself before fighting.
She will use her Magic Weapon spell on Drace, as she can use a Smiting Judgment so her own weapon becomes magic for the duration of the fight.
Vivian will be careful, and won't risk her life (or her companion's life) for nothing. She's better at ranged combat, she has light armor, and she knows she's not a frontline fighter, more a skirmisher
Thanks, Vivian. That's pretty thorough!
I like Vivian's witty remark about reaping season. let's hope we can keep up the bravado.
Sorry for disappearing. Life was been extremely busy and stressful this week. I should be back shortly.
Wife in labor with our second child, I'm likely offline for a few days.
I wish you all the best with the childbirth.
Congratulations and best of luck! And cherish each stage-- they grow up so fast. My only child is a confident and competent 16-year-old now, but sometimes it seems like it was only yesterday that she was a toddler...
After two days in hospital, was a false alarm. However, things are still progressing... may not be around often. We shall see.
Teil, now that Occult Adventures is out, we'll need to update your character with any changes made to the class once you pick up the book or the information appears on the PRD.
OK, will work on that! Haven't had a chance to take a look...
Your favorite redhead is back!
Watch out, RP is happening!
Glad to have you back Vivian.
Would Cure Light Wounds hurt a haunt?
It would, but you would need to be able to find out where the haunt is originating from. Since a haunt materializes in a surprise round, it can be very difficult to negate, unless you are standing right next to it.
It would, but you would need to be able to find out where the haunt is originating from. Since a haunt materializes in a surprise round, it can be very difficult to negate, unless you are standing right next to it.
How will I know what the origination point will be?
Never fought a haunt before...but this place is probably full of them.
It would, but you would need to be able to find out where the haunt is originating from. Since a haunt materializes in a surprise round, it can be very difficult to negate, unless you are standing right next to it.How will I know what the origination point will be?
Never fought a haunt before...but this place is probably full of them.
I would presume with the perception check that the gm rolls for us. That is why Vivian and I can react, while everyone else is caught up in the effects.
I love to run haunts in my games, which is why to date the second book of Rise of the Runelords is my favorite. (There is a location full of them, but each haunt only affects certain characters). :D
I'll try to leave some kind of clue of where you can cast a CLW or higher spell if you notice it in time and want to try to negate a Haunt. If I don't, feel free to ask in case I forgot. It might not always be obvious, however.
Also, as a friendly reminder, don't forget the cache of items you found earlier in the Restlands.
I was wondering why my health was so low.
I forgot to drink the CLW potion given to me. *sighs* Now it will take me a move action...ah well.
Yeah, last time you posted about it, you indicated you weren't going to drink it so I assumed you were saving it for something or going to give it back.
At hospital with new baby arriving! May be a day or two...
All the best with your new arrival!
I have updated Teilaenthis with the new rules for Occult classes. There are some substantial changes to his class design, but his personality remains identical.
The most obvious is that instead of an axe, shield and wand, he uses an Earthbreaker as his only implement. He no longer has evocation, only trasmutation and abjuration.
Sorry for going dark, folks.
I'd rather not get into details on a public forum (even one where my real identity is masked), but life took an unexpected and unpleasant turn last week. I feel like I was figuratively sucker-punched. I've needed to focus my energy there, and not on gaming forums. (And, no, this isn't related to the Ashley Madison hack.)
I think things have settled down for now, and I'll try to get some posts up shortly. Honestly, the distraction of gaming should be good for me right now.
On a completely unrelated and positive note, I'll be hosting a foreign exchange student from India starting next week! I know TTRPGs aren't really a thing in South Asia, so maybe I can infect him with the gaming bug.
Whew, thought you were leaving us, Dr.!
Glad to have you back.
GM Harker: I have two questions (and proposed answers) about haunts.
One is regarding how a haunt siphon intereacts with a persistent haunt. The other is what effect (if any) the Turn Undead feat has against a haunt.
1. Persistent haunts and the haunt siphon:
Most haunts only manifest for a surprise round, do their thing, and then go dormant for their refresh period.
However, persistent haunts continue to manifest for a number or rounds after the surprise round. It would appear that the Piper of Illmarsh is one such haunt.
According to the item description...
To capture a haunt’s energies within a haunt siphon, you need only twist the metal casing to open the vial in the same round that the haunt manifests (a standard action)—this can be before or after the haunt has acted. You must be within the haunt’s area of influence to use a haunt siphon. When you activate a haunt siphon, it deals 3d6 points of positive energy damage to a single haunt. If it deals enough damage to the haunt to reduce the haunt’s hit points to 0, the mist inside the haunt siphon glows green—if it does not reduce the haunt to 0 hit points, the haunt siphon is still expended and becomes nonmagical. It may take multiple haunt siphons to destroy powerful haunts. A haunt that is neutralized by a haunt siphon takes a –5 penalty on its caster level check to manifest again after its reset time passes.
Note the phrase "same round the haunt manifests."
Now, what does it mean for a haunt to "manifest?" According to the haunt rules...
When a haunt is triggered, its effects manifest at initiative rank 10 in a surprise round. All characters in the haunt's proximity can attempt to notice the haunt at the start of this surprise round by making a notice check). All haunts detect life sources and trigger as a result of the approach of or contact with living creatures, but some haunts can be tricked by effects like hide from undead or invisibility.
On the surprise round in which a haunt manifests, positive energy applied to the haunt (via channeled energy, cure spells, and the like) can damage the haunt's hit points (a haunt never gains a Will save to lessen the damage done by such effects, and attacks that require a successful attack roll to work must strike AC 10 in order to affect the haunt and not merely the physical structure it inhabits). Unless the haunt has an unusual weakness, no other form of attack can reduce its hit points. If the haunt is reduced to 0 hit points by positive energy, it is neutralized—if this occurs before the haunt takes its action at initiative rank 10, its effect does not occur...
Some haunts are persistent, and their immediate effects continue beyond the surprise round into actual full rounds. Persistent haunts continue to trigger their haunt effects once per round on their initiative rank until destroyed or they no longer have a target. [Emphasis added]
The question seems to boil down to whether persistent haunts are still "manifesting" while they "continue to trigger their haunt effects once per round." I would argue that the line I bolded above would indicate that they can continue to be damaged after that initial round.
Looking at definition of the word 'manifest': to make clear or evident to the eye or the understanding; show plainly.
This would indicate to me that a persistent haunt continues to manifest while its haunting effects are still occuring.
TL;DR: I believe that a persistent haunt should be subject to the effects of a haunt siphon beyond the first round while it continues to manifest.
Haunts and the Turn Undead feat:
The rules don't say much one way or the other. Pathfinder has down-played turning undead in favor of damaging them with positive energy. Relatively few clerics take the Turn Undead feat, and most necromancers choose the Command Undead option, so turning rules don't really come up very often.
That said, Haunts pre-date the PFRPG, and were introduced in Pathfinder #2: The Skinsaw Murders. Under OGL rules, clerics using positive energy against undead turned them, rather than damaging them.
Here are the OGL rules for Haunts...
Haunts function somewhat like traps, but are difficult to detect since they do not “exist” until they are triggered. When a haunt is triggered, its effects manifest at initiative rank 10 on a surprise round; the haunt effect vanishes as soon as the surprise round is over and things return to normal (haunts never persist into actual round-by-round combat). Any characters haunted by the effect (all creatures for universal haunts, but only single characters for other types of haunts—see below) can make a specific skill check to notice the haunt in time to react—if he notices it, he may make an initiative check to determine when he acts in the round. Once a haunt is active, a successful turn undead attempt against the haunt’s effective Hit Dice ends it immediately, although the character making the turn attempt must notice the haunt and act before it in the surprise round it is activated. If the turning attempt results in a destruction result, that particular haunt is exorcised and permanently disabled... Once a haunting is triggered, it does not trigger again for 24 hours.
The PFRPG Turn Undead feat works a whole lot differently than the old OGL Turn Undead rules, so the above is really only helpful from a RAI perspective. Still, it seems that attempting to turn a haunt should so something.
So, if I were GMing, here's how I would table-rule Turn Undead vs. a Haunt...
The Haunt gets a Will save vs. the DC of the Turn Undead attempt. Its Will save modifier is its CR. If it fails the save, the haunt is neutralized. If it succeeds, it manifests as if nothing happened.
But, ultimately, this is your call. I'll abide with however you want to rule.
After doing some additional research, I'll allow you to use positive energy attacks on persistent haunts if they are still manifesting. Therefore, positive energy attacks and haunt siphons will work in this case and any future cases, although I'd keep in mind that the haunt siphons are currently a limited resource.
As for Turn Undead, I'm going to say that it does not work on Haunts. The ability to use channel energy is the primary method to deal with them in the Pathfinder rules set, and if Turn Undead was still a viable option to use against them, it would be mentioned somewhere in the rules on Haunts. In any event, this party has many options for positive energy attacks, so Turning not working shouldn't cause you any unnecessary hardship nor make things less fun overall. Indeed, if I did allow Turn Undead to work it might make this section of the AP too easy and less fun for everyone.
Fair enough!
Sorry for disappearing again. Life is a little complicated for me now. One thing that had been discouraging me from posting was guilt over my stalled Ravenloft campaign. I just pulled the plug on that game, so I should hopefully have more mental capacity for this one. I plan to catch up on the Gameplay thread soon and resume play.
Thanks for understanding!
No problem, Stefan. Thanks for letting us know what's going on, that's very appreciated.
I will be out of town from Friday night to Sunday night. Probably not posting, please bot me if required!
I'll be busy until tomorrow evening, won't post probably.
I see now that I should have double checked my information and gave you two extra haunt siphons on top of the four that were originally found in the crypt. To account for this mistake, we'll just say you found two extra somewhere in the crypt before leaving.
I believe you've used two out of the six, so that only leaves four. One of the used ones is charged with negative energy, and you can throw it as a splash weapon that does 1d6 negative energy damage on a direct touch attack, with 1 point of negative damage to surrounding squares.
GM Harker, due to a series of unfortunate computer incidents, I have had to reformat my computer. I am trying to deal with this as quickly as possible but I may be unable to post for the next couple of days due to ensuring that everything is reinstalled and that no important documents are missing. I am sorry for the inconvenience, but I will try to stay on top of reading what is going on in the thread. I should be back to posting no later than Wednesday, Sept. 30th, 2015.
Thank you for letting us know, Tara. Best of luck with your reformatting.
Good luck Tara!
Won't be able to post, probably, on the next two days.
Will be back this week end.
Hey, folks.
I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon on a five-day vacation to New England, and I am woefully behind in preparing for the trip, both personally and professionally. My posting will be sporadic at best until I get back late Monday night.
GM Harker: Please GMPC Stefan as need be.
I should be resuming regular posting on Tuesday 10/13.