GM Kiora's Wrath of the Righteous

Game Master Kiora Atua

Hate to hold things up, but would you mind clarifying how daylight and (deeper) darkness interact, Kiora? For this particular situation, I'm not certain whether I should be trying to dispel the darkness spell (pretty sure they could just recast it), or if just bringing an active daylight spell into the area would be enough to neutralize it, and if the "prevailing light conditions" would qualify as natural sunlight.

Mark Seifter wrote a useful blog post that explains how light and darkness effects work with one another.

Basically, the normal light conditions here are sunlight. Daylight is unique amongst all light spells in that it negates all darkness spells regardless of spell level interactions per the spell text, bringing everything back to normal light conditions. So bringing in Daylight against Deeper Darkness here would restore things to sunlight.

However, if one were to cast Deeper Darkness as a readied counterspell, or directly on the object which has the Daylight spell cast on it, Deeper Darkness would negate Daylight because it is of equal spell level.

OK, so what about daylight? We’ve been putting that one off until now because it simply doesn’t work like other light and darkness spells. As it says “Daylight brought into an area of magical darkness (or vice versa) is temporarily negated, so that the otherwise prevailing light conditions exist in the overlapping areas of effect.” Daylight comes in, if necessary right after those last two bullet points in section 5.

If no other light spell is sufficient to overcome the darkness spells in the overlapping area, and if there is a daylight spell active in the overlapping area, the daylight spell’s special negation clause kicks in (regardless of the spell level of daylight and the darkness spell; it just works, always). This means that you negate all the magical light changes in the area and bring it back to prevailing conditions. As a side effect of negating the magical darkness, those nonmagical light sources activate again (while they are not ambient, they were still part of prevailing conditions). Other magical light sources still are not active in the area; they had their chance to attempt to negate the darkness spells and didn’t, so they were not part of the prevailing light conditions, instead subsumed by daylight’s more powerful special negation clause.

This allows all those deeper darkness spells to defeat the remaining light sources easily, plunging the entire area into supernatural darkness, much to the darkfolks' delight.

Ezren ends their victory cheers early by casting daylight on his cane, which negates everything in the overlapping area, leaving the fight at the prevailing light level, normal darkness (hey, at least Ezren can see now!). Damiel, alchemist that he is, cracks a sunrod, which now provides light to everyone else. Desperate now, the dark slayer sends in the dark stalkers, who cast deeper darkness and then deliver the touch spell to Ezren's cane. They succeed, which dispels the daylight because daylight is equal or lower spell level.

Random rules note that I just discovered:

Spell-like abilities are subject to spell resistance and dispel magic. They do not function in areas where magic is suppressed or negated. Spell-like abilities cannot be used to counterspell, nor can they be counterspelled.

So you actually couldn't counterspell this Deeper Darkness if you wanted to. But they can't use a SLA Deeper Darkness to counter Daylight, either.

And Xanderghul couldn't have counterspelled that Shadow Evocation anyway. Ah, rules. It's a bit late, so gonna move forward with what we have, but in the future I'll stick to RAW with how SLA work.

I'm gonna stop giving spellcraft checks vs SLA as a result. Though for instances where it matters to know what someone is casting as they cast it (such as getting your bonus to disbelieving shadow spells) you'll get your bonus for having completed the knowledge check regarding that SLA.

That's neat to know. I'm not sure I like that you can't realistically prevent SLAs from happening. Seems rough!

SLAs are still subject to concentration checks (and AoOs), so a readied attack action to disrupt them is still a valid move.

So... I don't think I will be able to post today. My uncle passed away and I am heading to the funerals. You can just bot Hinagiku. She'll probably simply let the summoner go to instead attack the barbarian unless someone urges her not to.

Okay! Thanks for checking in. I'm really sorry to hear that, my condolences.

Sorry to hear it as well. My condolences to you and your family Hinagiku.

I'm sorry for your loss. I hope you're doing alright.

I'm not very good at condolences... but have some anyway.

Were you close?

Thanks everyone, I appreciate it.

@Valaria: Yes, I am doing ok. His loss is sad, but we were expecting it. My uncle had been diagnosed with an incurable cancer about 1 year ago and his life expectancy was about a year. So, we were prepared to a certain degree.

@Ary: It's weird, a year ago, I would have said meh. But, in the last year my parents have been taking care of him, and when they couldn't I would. So, I got to know him much better. So I guess the answer would be yes.

Losing family sucks, even when it isn't close family or you aren't friends. I'm sorry, Hinagiku. Take care of yourself.

Ah, I understand. Both of my grandparents were diagnosed with something terminal ages before they went. Their last few months were spent in the hospital just waiting for it. So I know how it feels to know they're going.

Something cool and tricksy (a newish wizard discovery) that might be interesting for Xanderghul:

You can project your senses into any ongoing figment or shadow illusion you create with a spell of at least 3rd level. You can see through its eyes and hear through its ears as if you were standing where it is, and during your turn you can switch from using its senses to using your own, or back again, as a swift or move action. While you are using its senses, your body is considered blinded and deafened. You must be at least a 9th-level wizard to choose this discovery.

@Hinagiku: Then I'm definitely sorry for your loss. :(

@Hinagiku: My belated condolences. Losing family is never easy. :(

@Ary: I liked Awakening, so I went ahead and downloaded Fire Emblem Heroes. For as long as Nintendo has avoided the mobile market, I have to say, they aren't doing a bad job so far. Now to roll forever until I get a Lucina. :P

Heroes is fun so far, making me interested in checking out the real fire emblem games. I also lucked out, getting a 5 star Marth and Effie right off the bat. :o

Random rules question time. :O

Does the extra enhancement bonus provided by a bane weapon stack with the enhancement bonuses from attunement for the purposes of bypassing damage reduction?

For example, if an evil outsider bane weapon is attuned with a +4 bonus from ABP, it becomes a +3 evil outsider bane weapon. Against evil outsiders, its enhancement bonus becomes +5 - does that enable it to penetrate alignment-based damage reduction?

Normally, totally. :) Just remember that as you noted, part of the enhancement bonus is eaten by ABP making it really not a great idea until higher levels if you actively rely on that weapon. It's a good grab for Xanderghul's crossbow at this stage because he'll just use magic to subdue NOT-DEMONS, but on Ary's sword, it'd make her less effective against everything that uses DR/Magic that isn't DEMON (or demon-like).

But yeah. It's added to teh enhancement bonus, and it does't say anything regarding it not counting. :)

Random rules question time. :O

Does the extra enhancement bonus provided by a bane weapon stack with the enhancement bonuses from attunement for the purposes of bypassing damage reduction?

For example, if an evil outsider bane weapon is attuned with a +4 bonus from ABP, it becomes a +3 evil outsider bane weapon. Against evil outsiders, its enhancement bonus becomes +5 - does that enable it to penetrate alignment-based damage reduction?

Yup! Totally a worthwhile investment for this AP. Will pretty much take care of your demon slaying needs, short of some mythic demons and their Epic DR, which will require mythic-level counters.

More work soon. Blarggghghgh.

Do the Sarkorians get a bonus for praying at Ehren like we get for praying at a shrine? :P

Not unless he has Divine Source. ;P

Edit: Or hunter's blessing, which would be awesome for this exact situation, but it's a level 5 spell. But alas! I'll have to keep it in mind for the future.

Edit Edit: Oh wait, that's a spell for followers of Erastil. :/

Hey all, I'm on vacation right now. I brought my tablet and can, in fact, post. I'm also at my dad's house for the weekend where there's totally a computer.

However, between Tuesday and Friday I will be less able to post and unless I have to I probably won't.

Vacations, exciting! Anything special planned?

I brought my girlfriend to meet my dad, and we're gonna take a couple days in Portland to look at places that we don't live and be not-at-home for a bit.

Basically its just a break from being at home and an opportunity to relax.

Xanderghul - thanks for letting us know!!! Have fun. Relax much.

Everyone else - won't be posting today. Had an interview, so basically the first half of the day was spent stressing about having an interview, and now the rest of the day needs to be spent unwinding.

Though really I haven't much to contribute to the scene other than responding to Valaria and Ehren. if you're ready to go to sleep and pass to the next day, just say so, and we will.

Good luck!

Ary is exhausted IRL and IC. :) It's a cool scene but I'm zonked.

Also! How do you think your interview went?

Pretty terribly, the interviewer and I had very different ideas of what a pharmacist should be.

Sorry for the delay, it was demoralizing enough I needed much drink to recover haha.

Sorry, Miss Kioralady! :(

Paizo had a hiccup that deleted all of our dots, so if you were up to date on checking your games prior to the glitch, you never got your dots when people updated yesterday. Just a PSA!

Or... not. My games still aren't giving me pings.

Ugh, weird.

I use an RSS reader to track the game so I don't monitor dots, haha.

Yeah they're working on it so hopefully it will be fixed later tonight.

Sorry about the delay, guys, Paizo wasn't cooperating with me the couple of times today I tried to log on and post.

In game, I need you guys to decide what you're doing next, and once that is figured out and you have made your preparations we can leave.

Xanderghul, since you're on vacation, don't worry about your spell list until you're home. If we manage to get into a fight before then (unlikely) I'll just be skipping your turns, or crossbow-ing it until you do.

@Kiora: too bad for the interview.

Also, really weir the dotting thing, and its the reason why I didn't post, I was certain no one had done so.

Edit: Longstrider 3 hours after we leave, or at the first sign of a stranger's approach. :)

That way it's up for the 5 hours we're -expected- to be moving and there are potential threats for... ish.

Sorry the message is taking so long. :/

I keep trying to sum things up in Ehren's writing voice, but since he doesn't really write all that often, it keeps coming off as wordy and ughhh to me.

Thanks for the map, Kiora. :)

Vivid as your written description was, I still had trouble picturing everything in my head. Looks like it was a lot of work!

Thanks! It did take awhile, but now there should be no confusion about what the area looks like. ;)

Though if there is still confusion about anything please ask questions. Don't want another pit incident, haha

Is there some way that you guys can think of to pin the 'theft of their prisoners' on the cultists? That could help sell the assault on Drezen. :3

It'd be really neat if we could manage disguises that would help with that, but it'd be way difficult to fake tracks or the like. We'd have to find a way to leave no tracks and travel quickly for a bit, I'd think.

That could actually be a good idea, but I have no idea how we'd pull it off. I've discovered that I'm not nearly as creative with trickery as I thought I was.

If they've got someone smart enough to know the religion of others nearby, simply leaving our Baphomet symbol here could work.

If they speak common, leaving a note behind could help sell it.

Either way, they might not care, though, given their recent procurement (or probable procurement) of noms.

There is something here very likely responsible for the domination of Dralia. Whatever that thing is, it is likely smart enough to see through any fairly crude attempts at tricking the Wikkawaks. This is assuming it has some sort of control over them, which I find likely, as the description of Wikkawaks made them out to be solitary creatures, not the type to form a large horde. Given they are still goblinoids, their primary reason for forming a horde is that something big and powerful has whipped them into line.

If we had prepared in Mantarin, we likely could have put together enough cultist gear to pose effectively via disguise as cultists, but as it stands, I don't know how well we would be able to pull off tricking the wikkawaks, as we have nothing to disguise ourselves with. That's not to say it won't work, but I think our best bet of being able to pull a trick like that is to start by infiltrating without drawing any attention. Once we know *who* is in charge of the wikkawaks, we will have a better idea of how we can go about fooling them.

Wikkawaks do indeed speak common. And goblin, and giant. :)

Alright! Just got finished updating the NPC Appendix. I hadn't updated the thing since August, so I had to read some 2000~ posts and added 75 NPCs ranging from crusaders to kellids to cultists and demons. Now it should be useable as a reference document should you forget details such as what Dralia's sons' names are, or who the Clan-Lieges at Silvershore are.

It is 32 pages long, so Ctrl-F is your friend with the document - there are 242 NPCs in total now! Really, a wiki would be more appropriate at this point, but that's also even more work, so I'm happy with the NPC appendix for now.

It was actually pretty enjoyable to update. Re-reading the mass combat battles was very entertaining - the battle at Ahari Bridge and the battle of Silvershore were particularly epic, and hit all the notes I was hoping the mass combat would. Also, you guys are fantastic roleplayers. I am forever in awe of you guys.

Impressive!

Alright, posting in discussion to hash things out. I can get in one range tier in two rounds of movement, and I'll be right on the edge of the illusion. Should I go for red or white? And can we wait for two rounds for me to get within a reasonable distance to actually make a shot without an outrageous penalty?

We should give other people a chance to get up the rope first, I think.

We can afford to take a round or two to ensure they go down quickly I think. Probably should have at least Ary and Hinagiku move forward as well, in case the wikkawaks decide to come over to investigate.

We should give other people a chance to get up the rope first, I think.

If you want to delay an action until everyone is up the rope, I'll automate that. Just say so. No point in waiting for unnecessary back and forth.

Hey y'all! Was scouring the interwebs, trying to decide exactly how far away folks could hear Xanderghul's ear-piercing scream and found this fantastic resource with DCs for hearing based on distance with modifiers for buildings/walls/trees and whatnot. While this is the sort of thing I'd wing the hell out of at the table, in PBP we have the luxury of taking time to think about this kind of crunch.

I'm mostly bringing this up because vocal spell components are an important part of using magic all sneaky-like, as you guys are apt to do.

So here's how I'm gonna run things starting now.

Spells with vocal components are, per RAW, spoken with a strong voice. Using the above table, that is equivalent to a "normal conversation", and I will calculate DCs accordingly.

So here's the predicament. I want you guys to be able to at least attempt to cast spells quietly, though I also don't want to completely devalue stuff like the silent spell metamagic or feats like spell song, cunning caster, conceal spell or secret signs. So here's what I'm gonna do.

- If you would like to try and cast silently, you make take a stealth check opposed by perception. Normal distance modifiers apply. This allows your spell to be reduced to a whisper per the hearing distance table. Failure means you are speaking with a strong voice. Note that the hearing distance table has different DCs for comprehending a whisper vs detecting a whisper.

- Spells with somatic components are likewise, obvious. The gestures are outlandish enough that anyone watching can tell you are casting a spell. So the easy way to get around this is to not be observed - via stealth or invisibility. If you want to cast spells with somatic components while people are watching you, you will need a feat.

I'm hoping the advantage of sharing that table will allow you to make risk-reward decisions when you decide to try and cast spells stealthily - you can determine for yourself the exact perception DC you would get for a whispered or spoken spell at a given distance.

---

On a somewhat related note, you guys have gotten pretty lazy of late when it comes to making stealth checks. I will never assume for you that you are moving stealthily. If you wish to be moving stealthily, you must make a stealth check. I'm going to be harsher about this in the future.