If you are in the Low Tier table, then you've come to the right place!
Not a problem! :)
Dot!
Hey folks what are we needing?
Low tier I have a few. I would like to play my lvl 2 Elf Summoner (think Arcane Ranger), but i also have a million lvl 1s, lvl 2 halfling monk and a lvl 2 human gunslinger.
Welcome Poblano! I think this group is tending somewhat melee-heavy with a brawler, a brawling fighter, either a Core Monk or a URogue (depending on what Eric decides), and an Arcane Duelist bard. They've not checked in yet, but I believe you'll also have a 3rd level Lore oracle joining the group as well (though this shouldn't pull you guys up to high-tier). However, I'd rather you play the PC that you want to play :)
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Hi everyone! Katswiri, Garundi Lore Oracle dotting in. Katswiri is knowledge and face skill heavy, with some healing/buffing and moderate combat ability to contribute to the party. She is deaf from her oracle curse, but has learned to read lips (and has recently purchased magical spectacles) to be able to interact socially without too much difficulty.
Also, hi Kronas! Its good to see you again, Katswiri will be happy to hear about your adventures since our confirmation together :).
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Hello all, Eric Swanson checking in with my Oread (Core) Monk here. He is going to be one of the other primary combat persons here. He only has one mission under his belt but he did get a pretty sweet Boon he he. One thing to keep in mind is his movement rate (20') as an Oread means he is more of a tank than a striker, at least for now.
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I'm already feeling sorry for anything that picks a fight with this group. Kronas is basically a flanking buddy right now with high acrobatics to help him get in the right positions, he'll leave most of the actual hitting to you pugilists.
Hello Katswiri! Kronas will love to hear a story or two as well, especially if accompanied by some of those paintings. He also travels with his little sister now, and (given all the big guys with low charisma and a preference for punching things) I think she'll be staying pretty close to you. (:
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Well that was a pleasant surprise to wake up to, all this activity, haha.
Corb's a down-on-his luck prize fighter who's taken to odd muscle jobs and bodyguarding duties to pay off some gambling debts (possibly from betting on himself, but that's neither here nor there...). He's only recently taken up with the Pathfinder Society, after learning of their need for brash adventurous types.
Right now at level 1, he mainly carries a shield and longspear, providing cover and guarding squishier party members while attacking from reach. And if anyone gets past his spearpoint? Well, that's what kicks, knees and headbutts are for. :)
Okay! We're approaching our start date of Monday, November 27th and now that I've actually got the time to sit and think on it and write it out, I'll be going over a few things.
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Who is GM Ladile?
My name is Kristin and I've been playing tabletop RPGs for the last 20 years or so. The bulk of my playing experience has been with AD&D 2nd Edition with a smattering of other systems such as AD&D 3rd/3.5, Dark Conspiracy and of course, Pathfinder. My home group switched to Pathfinder a little over 4 years ago and we've been hooked ever since. I started participating in PbP here on the Paizo forums maybe 6 months after that and then PFS PbP maybe a year and a half after that.
Yeah, that's a great story. What about your GM experience?
I'm still relatively new to GMing, with a grand total of 5 games (one being a multi-table Special) under my belt at this point in time. Luckily for you, if you're interested in reading to see how I roll, you can find them all here at the following links:
(PFS) GM 101 - Ladile's Manor (Phantom Phenomena)
(PFS) The Confirmation
(PFS) Portent's Peril
(PFS) Reaping What We Sow
(PFS) The Solstice Scar: Version A (Tier 3-4)
What does GM Ladile need or want from me?
For starters, I'll need all of the following information from each of you for when I prepare chronicle sheets and report the game:
Player/Forum Name
Character Name
PFS ID #
Faction
Day Job Roll (if you have one)
Okay, done. What else?
Something I'm trying to get into the habit of doing when I'm gearing up to run a new game is to get an idea of what sorts of characters I'll have at my table. To this end, I ask you to tell me this: What does your character do that's cool? Do you specialize in combat maneuvers? Are you a beast that crushes Diplomacy checks with the greatest of ease? If your character has a 'thing' that they do or otherwise utilizes unusual things or specific circumstances then please let me know! This will make it easier for me to account for such things during combat and other sections where they might apply.
Got it! Anything else?
Yes, actually. Sometimes a player might find themselves temporarily unavailable to post in the game but, alas, the show must go on, especially if the GM and other players are still present and participating. To this end, I ask that you give me some basic instructions to follow should I need to 'bot' your character for you during combat or other moments. They don't have to be elaborate. For example, you could say something like this:
'Okay, immediately prior to combat I'm going to cast SuperBuff on our melee guy if I can. Then, if things are going well, I'll stand behind the melee guy and use my Longspear of Butt-Whoopin' to help him kill the bad guys. But if someone gets really hurt or goes down I'll use my Gloves of Awesome to heal them up again.'
Generally when I bot PCs I don't use consumable resources such as spells, abilities with <X> uses per day/round/whatever, potions, alchemical items, etc. unless explicitly given permission to do so via botting instructions *or* the situation is dire and I suspect the PC would use them to save himself or an ally.
GM Ladile, are you a hard@ss about things?
I suppose it depends on what you consider to be a 'hard@ass'. I will run the scenario and the encounters within as written, to the best of my ability, as all Society GMs are expected to do. But I also try to utilize my own common sense when I run my games. I'm not going to have my monsters deliberately eat your familiar when (and if) there are more dangerous threats to target. I'm going to assume that the collective group is smart enough to utilize light sources when they need them, without me making you state so every single time you enter a dark place. If you have the time and aren't threatened by anything, I'm going to assume that you'll probably Take 10 to ID items via Spellcraft, that sort of thing. You're Pathfinder agents who are assumed to have had at least a little basic training before being sent out on missions and so I don't personally see the point in dithering around on minor things - it's boring and it slows the game down.
May I bring my tricked-out guy, Archer O'Doom to just blow things away? Or my witch to Slumber Hex everything in sight?
Well, technically yes. But my real answer is a bit more nuanced. If your character has a 'Thing' that they do, whether that be something cool for combat or something cool for social situations, then that's wonderful! My own sense of fun isn't contingent on me 'beating' the PCs - I want you guys to succeed! And so if you mow down my monsters with the greatest of ease or crush those diplomacy checks no problem then I'm not going to get butthurt about it. That being said, it is important to also consider your fellow teammates. While I'm happy to try and make sure that you'll get a chance to do your 'Thing' during the course of the scenario, please consider whether or not it'll be fun for your fellow players to sit by while you destroy everything. Everyone deserves a chance to participate and an opportunity to shine, so maybe consider toning your 'Thing' down a little so others have a chance to do their own 'Things'.
What about the posting rate?
Glad you asked! I'm aware that we're heading into the Christmas season and that people may be a little busier during the coming weeks than they would be otherwise. This is meant to be a relatively casual game with a more relaxed pace to account for the holiday season and so I ask that everyone try to at least post 1/day, whether that's an actual Gameplay post or a post in Discussion to let me know that you're still here, even if your character doesn't have anything to add to the current scene.
Most of you have played with me before and know that my own posting habits and times shift depending on when I'm working and such. On the days that I work I'll likely only manage 1 post myself but on my off days I can usually manage more. In general, I try to post as much as I need to to keep the game moving along and people from getting bored.
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I think that's everything that I wanted to cover, but if there's something I missed, something that's unclear, or something else that you want to ask about then please do so :)
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Player/Forum Name: Eric Swanson
Character Name: Jyrrar Rivurder
PFS ID: # 13977-5
Faction: Liberty's Edge
Day Job Roll (if you have one): N/A
While I am sure GM Ladile is well familiar with Jyrrar, since he was in the Cosmic Captive special with her character, I can fill in the others about what makes Jyrrar tick.
Jyrrar is a Standard Monk who has sacrifices the ususal monkish mobility for resilience and toughness. Until some of his class abilities kick in he is content to play in a support/bodyguard roll for a spellcaster/lightly armored character. He strongly believes in personal freedom due to his association with Liora, even though he is a typically stoic oread :)
For any Botting instructions, moving into position to flank/aid another his teammates will do quite nicely :)
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Very nice intro!
Starting with my character block:
Player/Forum Name: Geoffrey Basore
Character Name: Katswiri
PFS ID #: 228480-1
Faction: Scarab Sages
Day Job Roll:
Katswiri was in GM Ladile's The Solstice Scar, so I think she will be familiar with a lot of Katswiri's quirks, but I'll go ahead and summarize some of them anyway. Katswiri's a Lore Oracle, and her most stand out ability is to blow several out of combat Int based skill checks out of the water each day using her Focused Trance ability, where she meditates for a few rounds, then gets to make a check with a +20 circumstance bonus. Her natural divination ability also usually is used to get a skill check with a +10 competence bonus, for helping to guarantee an important non-int skill check. She can also effectively cast Augury 1/day with a 1 minute cast time if we need guidance on how to proceed. I usually flavor all these abilities as either omens or visions of the past or future, as Katswiri is a seer.
In combat, she's less exciting, mostly acting as support with buffing and healing. She's got a -6 initiative modifier, so is almost always last, and is carrying a medium load and medium armor so tends to have some trouble getting to combats before they end. She gets CHA to AC, so does have a pretty good AC though.
Katswiri has the deaf oracle curse, so she cannot hear. Mechanically, deafness:
--Causes her to automatically fail all perception checks based on sound
--Gives her a -4 penalty to initiative checks.
--Gives her a -4 penalty to opposed perception checks
--Makes her immune to language dependent spells and abilities, and audible bardic performances (Sorry Kronas! Fortunately, I think Katswiri's probably not going to be meleeing a lot to benefit from inspired courage anyway)
--Would give her a 20% spell failure chance for casting spells with verbal components, but her curse gives her the silent spell metamagic on all her spells for free with no level or cast time increase.
To help understand the people around her, she took read lips as a language with linguistics as noted in the PFS faq: http://paizo.com/organizedplay/faq#v5748eaic9vhs
More recently, she has purchased magical Spectacles of Lip Reading, which have made it much easier for her to understand those around her without needing ideal conditions (she just needs to pass a DC 0 perception check, modified by distance and conditions as appropriate to understand someone). Most of the time, lip reading is sufficient to allow her to function pretty well, but occasionally events will require some help with someone repeating information or explaining things, like the time she ran into a pathfinder coin.
Katswiri keeps a visual journal of her adventures, where if she has the opportunity, she will paint pictures of various important events or interesting people/scenery/objects that occur during the mission. Its mostly fluff, but it's fun, and its how she does her reporting for the society.
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Player/Forum Name Brant "zebeev" Vallier
Character Name Corbett "the Crab" Cromwell
PFS ID # 262447-2
Faction Liberty's Edge
Day Job Roll (if you have one)
A leathery sack of a brawler, Corbett doesn't appear to be much other than your typical run of the mill fighter-type - he's big and lean, got a bunch of scars to recount past fights and battles.
At the moment, his brawler kit doesn't offer much aside from Martial Flexibility, which he's used a total of zero times in combat so far. He'll
stick by the casters in the group and ensure that no one gets too close.
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Hello again! Let's get to it, shall we?
What does GM Ladile need or want from me?
Player/Forum Name: NotEspi
Character Name: Kridash Magath
PFS ID #: 179284-4
Faction: Liberty’s Edge
Day Job Roll (if you have one): None for now
I cast FIST!
With the help of the power of friendship, Kridash smacks people and makes scary faces while doing so. He can open the occasional lock or disable a trap in the party’s way.
What does that mean, though?
It means that he would attempt to flank a lot and use his sneak attack dice to put opponents out of commission. He uses fists, knees, headbutts, butt-butts (what?), stomping on toes, etc. The point of this is to deal nonlethal damage whenever possible, to make use of the Enforcer feat and demoralise the target.
Speaking of which, something that might come in handy:
Can deal with traps as well. Got a kit and everything. Yay!
Botting
I have made a convenient spoiler in the profile exactly for this purpose. I’m pretty much online daily, however. In case there is a period of this not being the case, I’ll let you know in advance (if possible).
Fantasy character names, amirite?
Fellow players, when you play a tabletop RPG with friends over an extended period of time, you remember their character names, no problem. But we’ve just met, and it’s a Saturday. My head hurts a bit and I might have issues with putting the proper letters down when writing the name of your character. I do apologise in advance, if this happens. For your convenience, refer to my character as Ash. He lacks the pigment, and it is the ending part of his first name.
...if there's something I missed, something that's unclear, or something else that you want to ask…
Na I’m okay for now. Thanks though.
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Player/Forum Name:Gary Pepper
Character Name: Winterhawk
PFS ID #: 43992-4
Faction: Scarface Sages
Day Job Roll: n/a
Winterhawk is not your typical summoner. He grew up training to be a ranger like his father, his father's father, and so on. He has sought our to learn the arcane connection to nature.
Outside of combat he tends to I reject into conversations to offer and helpful information on knowledge checks. He also has a journal he takes constant notes in.
During combat he tries to stay just within 30ft of his target to rain arrows of death upon his enemies. If trying too capture a combatant he will switch to blunt arrows.
I'm looking forward to more.
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Player/Forum Name: Marty
Character Name: Kronas Kronglic
PFS ID# 210803-1
Faction: Silver Crusade
Day Job (if you have one):
Hello all! Kronas is a childlike gnome who loves stories and desperately wants to be a shiny white knight one day (just need to reach 20 fame, I can't wait) so that he can be like the heroes he has read about. He is very much a support character and will do his best to stop enemies from overrunning us with judicious use of grease, and inspire his friends to greatness. And this time Kronas even has Katswiri covered since, thanks to the flagbearer feat, by waving his flag he is able to give all Pathfinders within 30' a +1 morale bonus to hit and damage rolls (which stack with Inspire Courage) and a +1 morale bonus to saves vs. Charm and Fear effects (which doesn't stack). So I'm hoping to give everyone a +2 to hit and damage for most melee combat. Although, he will also do his best to disrupt spell casters, charging at them with the aid of expeditious retreat, so that they don't cause to much of an issue to the melee guys happily doing their thing on the front lines.
Out of combat, he a couple of good face skills and, should we ever need a scout, surprisingly good stealth. He also travels with his little sister (a porter vanity) who I hope will one day carry something for every situation. She'll disappear during combat, but will always conveniently pop up outside of combat if we need something she is carrying.
There is a 'Bot Me' spoiler in my profile, but I shouldn't have any trouble posting once a day. I will let you know ahead of time if I expect to drop out for any reason.
Wow guys, thank you for the prompt responses! At first glance most of you don't have anything that I'm super unfamiliar with so I don't anticipate any issues as we play - and if I forget something or you suspect I might've forgotten something then please point it out! If I make a mistake in favor of my players I'm usually just going to let it ride but if I make one against my players I'm more likely to retcon it or fix it if I can.
^Done!
So we start tomorrow! I will be out shopping with my mother tomorrow morning and afternoon but I'll have the opening post up before I go and will be eagerly anticipating reading many replies once I return home :)
Before then, a few notes about combat and other miscellaneous things:
(1) I will be rolling initiatives for everyone and may occasionally make Perception checks for everyone as well. Skill checks, saves, and ability checks I will leave to the individual unless I'm botting someone.
(2) Eidolons and familiars, due to having greater than animal intelligence, I will allow to either act independently of their masters with their own place in the initiative order or you may have them act on your own initiative. Animal companions need to be issued commands and so master & AC will act on one initiative - I'm happy to use the better of the two, since some folks select feats and abilities to maximize their initiative modifiers.
(3) I will allow Aid Another on Knowledge checks. This tends to be a gray area in PFS but have seen this clip given as an example of someone aiding a knowledge check - in combat, to boot! Thus I'm inclined to rule on the side of the players and allow it.
(4) I operate under the assumption that characters will share results of Knowledge checks during combat, barring unusual circumstances such as a Silence spell being in effect.
And I'm sure there's probably more that I'm forgetting right now. As always, if there are any questions or comments then please speak up :)
*waiting intensifies*
By the way, if you've got any other purchases you think you might want to make I suggest making them now before we officially start. We'll be starting in Varisia but for the sake of the current RP in Gameplay we'll say you're all meeting up in Absalom or perhaps Magnimar first :3
^Noted!
Aaaaaand we're off! As I said I will be out and about all morning and part of the afternoon so more updates will be forthcoming later this evening :)
Sorry for the delayed post today guys; ended up pooping out last night before I could make the rounds to all my player-games and so I wanted to try and get caught up on some of them first. I also ended up agreeing to kinda-sorta take over a Gameday game that had some issues so I had to spend some time getting oriented for that.
A note: for the next several days (Thursday through Tuesday, sans Sunday) I will be working and so my posting will be largely limited to the evenings CST - so don't panic if you don't see any posts from me earlier in the day on those days :)
We're about to start getting to the really fun parts and I'm really looking forward to it. I hope people are enjoying the game so far :)
*edit* Will do Kridash and Kronas! I'm actually working basically every day from now until next Friday with the exception of Sunday (which is spoken for with other stuff) and Wednesday (blessedly open and free for now) so it looks like the timing works out.
Hey guys, I am sooo sorry for not posting yesterday! I got home late from work and totally crashed. Today I've got an out of town baby shower to go to but I will get a post up when I get home tonight!
@Kronas - I don't know if it was intentional but your 'Mr. Crab' line made me think of this :3
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@Kronas - I don't know if it was intentional but your 'Mr. Crab' line made me think of this :3
HAHA omg that's awesome.
By the way folks, I apologize if the game seems to be moving a bit slowly right now - part of that is the way that the scenario is set up and part of it is because it's been hard for me to do more than a post per day due to work and other stuff. I hope everyone is enjoying themselves though and, as always, if there are any concerns or questions about anything then please feel free to share them here or send me a PM!
Glad to hear it! :)
(And for those who were in my Reaping What We Sow or Solstice Scar game, I promise I won't be as neurotic about my posting rate this time around :P)
Good stuff guys! I'll have a post for you a bit later tonight once I get home from work :)
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Not that I think anyone in this group wonders, but I'm finding that unless I need to do something pretty simplistic, I prefer composing GM posts at home. Player posts I can generally fire off during slow moments at work but GM posts tend to require a bit more concentration to do. So, if you've ever seen me active elsewhere on the forums and been like, "GM Y U NO POST FOR US!?!?!" - that's usually why :P
Sorry about that guys, I'd intended to get that posted last night and ended up feeling a bit sick. Today seems a little better at least!