You're right about the EMP cannon. They are useless on ships with only one weapon mount. I'll give it a flak cannon instead - it seems a little more useful than the laser net, with slightly better damage dice. Plus I like the idea of the flak cannon more.
Thanks for the catch Jin.
Damn amaryst, that's dark.
Bravo, Amaryst! You're character is spot on!! Keep her edgy ;-D
What's Cross' people-person paperwork name? Like the name he should probably be signing documents with?
Does it work like that, or does the guy at the DMV refer to him as Cross? Does his government ID say "Cross"?
For the rest of you - the temptation to be transparent with my plans for the upcoming adventure is strong, but I think it will become clear as Jin and Amaryst and Korvan and the psych-kids brainstorm a way to keep them safe. I can even fabricate a way to get Smyrna and Cross involved!
Nice.
Hey, would a natural telepath know Emily (MLE - 1138) was 'scanning' her? Would the telepath be able to localize the source of the scan?
And how does the Lashunta telepathic communication work? Is it broadcast only, or can we eavesdrop on other people's thoughts, assuming they're in a shared language? And if the latter, could we detect such eavesdropping? Could we shield against it?
Would telepathic broadcasting be heard by everyone in range, or could it be restricted to just a subset of people in range?
Alright, that question:
Think of a "telepathy" ability like a phone call. If you do not have telepathy, you cannot initiate telepathic contact with a person that does not have telepathy. However, if somebody has initiated telepathic contact with you, you can speak back.
If you want to eavesdrop on thoughts (which are not specifically and purposefully communicated to you), you will have to cast detect thoughts or a similar spell - which lashuntas can do 1/day. All creatures know when they have to make a saving throw unless a spell indicates otherwise (for example, with Pathfinder's modify memory you can erase the memory of having a spell cast on them). If MLE were to cast detect thoughts on you, you would know, and I would think that as a lashunta you would know what it was.
However, MLE also has an ability she can use called "Empathy", which you cannot detect and cannot prevent.
As for "shielding against magic", well, that's the realm of character build. There are items and feats and things that give bonuses to saving throws against mind-affecting, for example. You could take Iron Will.
You could also take the Phrenic Dabbler archetype, which trades out your 4th-level bonus feat for an ability called Phrenic Defense which allows you to spend Resolve to re-roll failed saves against emotion, fear, pain and mind-affecting spells.
I have no stake in Jin's suggestion, but I would like to remind you to check out/remember our house-rules regarding health recovery. They can be found in the campaign info tab.
@Jin - Maldor heard you talking and heard that you couldn't anything more for Rollo. He walked into the room and saw what a mess the guy was. No logic flaw there. And since we're likely to have an eight hour rest before going further, I thought a bit of role-play would be warranted. Otherwise, how would he show off his skills?
@leinathan - I saw the house rules. I don't like them, but they're your rules. You've pretty much hamstringed Maldor's build. So why not burn it in role-playing?
You don't like them? That's no good!
Here, let me explain, and then I can let you guys weigh in. I am not adverse to changing rules if they are not making people happy.
#1 - Difficulty recovering adds to grittiness, I think. Being low on Hit Points, especially past level 1 when your Health Pool increasingly outstrips your ability to recover health, adds decisionmaking: Are we healthy enough to make this encounter?
#2 - It adds an additional level of decision-making to entering even the first encounter of the day: will the wounds we receive from this fight be worth the result of the encounter?
#3 - It further differentiates Stamina and Hit points. If you can heal stamina in 10 minutes with 1 Resolve, but it takes 3 days to heal Health, they feel very different.
I am sorry to introduce houserules which make you feel less relevant. From my perspective, a magical healer is even more relevant in a world where healing Hit Points is harder.
Do you guys care to discuss?
OK. Great. I just wanted to be sure on the ground rules with our first big intraparty telepathic encounter coming up.
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@Jin - Maldor heard you talking and heard that you couldn't anything more for Rollo. He walked into the room and saw what a mess the guy was. No logic flaw there. And since we're likely to have an eight hour rest before going further, I thought a bit of role-play would be warranted. Otherwise, how would he show off his skills?
It was less the "there's an injured man i should heal him" and more the "a dude has bandages on, obviously he must have been a part of the attack on the institute" thing i was talking about, i mean, just because he was doesn't change the fact that you could have put yourself in real hot water there if he wasn't.
"When you are subjected to magical healing or medical attention, you heal 1 hit point per dice of healing that you would otherwise have attained, plus half the normal bonuses. The mystic's cure ability heals 1 hit point per level of the mystic."
A Healer's sole job in the party is to keep others alive. His special abilities and spells are focused on healing. Your house rule basically nullifies his primary abilities. Here are specific examples:
Mystic Cure: 1d8+4 (5-12 HP) vs 3 HP healed. That's between 166% to 400% reduction.
Healing Channel: 2d8 (2-16 HP) vs 2 HP healed. This is always the worst possible case, and 800% less than best case.
Healing Touch: 5 HP vs 1 HP. 500% reduction.
I get you wanting to make us think, and I am willing to go along with the house rules because I absolutely LOVE this group and the creativeness of everyone!! But I'm not going to change the character and take more offensive, non-healing spells and skills just because he's practically worthless. I'll just role-play him as best I can =)
Perhaps there can be a middle ground found that satisfies the GM's desire for grittiness and Maldor's desire to not be hamstrung as a character concept.
I would propose that it heal 2-3 points per die and remain with the half bonus so for Mystic Cure, Mal would heal either 4 or 5 points. Healing Channel would heal 4 or 6.
As for the Healing Touch I would leave it as is, or if you feel the need to reduce it, drop it to 3 points. It is a once per day ability and takes 10 minutes to use. Certainly not something that would come into play mid combat.
Just some thoughts...
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I gotta agree with Maldor about this, this nerf is just WAY too harsh. Like, maybe just give it half effect instead? (so like, a d6 becomes 3 HP)
I'm also a bit miffed about this myself because while to a lesser extent compared to Mal i am still nerfed pretty hard when my Doctor character who's main focus is medicine (because really, being a scientist doesn't have much bearing on things at the moment) can only heal like, a single hit point a day. That is REDICULOUSLY underpowered.
The other issue is that unless you go out of your way to give us that choice, VERY few times will we be able to "decide" to avoid a fight cause the way most fights end up happening is effectively an ambush in these games.
What's Cross' people-person paperwork name? Like the name he should probably be signing documents with?
Does it work like that, or does the guy at the DMV refer to him as Cross? Does his government ID say "Cross"?
For the rest of you - the temptation to be transparent with my plans for the upcoming adventure is strong, but I think it will become clear as Jin and Amaryst and Korvan and the psych-kids brainstorm a way to keep them safe. I can even fabricate a way to get Smyrna and Cross involved!
I actually had not thought about that, I'd say when he was emancipated from Hashima Heavy Industries he had the chance to legally change his name to Cross. I'm sure there is a long social security type number that any pigs would use to identify him.
Emily is only 19; Mal's just a little older.
As for healing mechanics, I'm fine either way. I've played with much harsher systems before so I don't really mind limited healing, but not if it's going to hurt others' enjoyment of the game.
I certainly understand your point, but you can use your healing spells to heal Stamina points to full effect :) So during combat, you can still heal people that have taken damage using your full dice amounts.
I will think about changing the house-rule and get back to you later.
Alright, I thought about it (for a jaw-shattering 20 minutes!) Since the rules are unpopular, I will be alleviating them. However, they won't be completely eliminated - I want to see how gameplay plays out over a little while with the rules.
It is simply thus: If you are healing Hit Points, your healing is halved.
Also, Jin: As for your doctor character, remember that your healing is per person, per day, it doesn't use any resources. I feel that is the real benefit of mundane healing.
Although, I am brainstorming. I plan to give each of you a unique ability soon. The idea is to give you an ability that your character should logically have but that isn't present in the Starfinder rules yet, and to differentiate you more from one another.
Check. Thanks!
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Although, I am brainstorming. I plan to give each of you a unique ability soon. The idea is to give you an ability that your character should logically have but that isn't present in the Starfinder rules yet, and to differentiate you more from one another.
For Jin could it maybe be something a bit more geared to his science-y side? Maybe something to do with crafting or developing weapons and gear? (I always sorta wanted to turn him into the party's Mordin Solus/Rocket Raccoon, an innovator/inventor type).
Kinda sucks tho that in Starfinder crafting really isn't as viable since it costs the same and you are capped at crafting stuff the same level as you (when you can buy things as far as 2 levels higher from shops).
Edit: Nevermind my ramblings, i'd delete it but i don't like deleting things cause it seems shifty to do.
Noted, Jin!
I guess my last ooc post was to a stale page. I'd missed the beginning of the healing discussion.
I'm happy to play with any healing rules that we agree on. I've no strong preference.
Based on my limited experience (1 pbp fight), low level combat in Starfinder will mostly result in sandpapering down stamina points. If we need hit point healing, things will be looking bleak.
This scene is looking a lot like a Dickens novel.
:-)
Excited to see what the character-abilities are!
I didn't make anything like a decent survival roll. Can you describe the immediate area around the crash and which direction it looked like the kid came in from? A bit of logic might help.
No, it's not bad.
leinathan, what are the limits of Lashunta or other known race's TPK type powers? Any healers? The typical lashunta's telepathy and 5 lb TK an absoulte limit or are there extraordinary individuals with more power?
Take a look at the Phrenic Adept class archetype. That's the kind of thing that lashunta and shirren would be able to take, which means that high-level lashunta Phrenic Adepts could do things like... crush people's heads with psychic magic.
There may be extraordinary, unique individuals out there with healing abilities, but it's the kind of thing that would be worthy of generations-remembered legend.
In the future, more people with spellcasting classes may emerge, with greater frequency among already-telepathic races.
Hey, just a little heads-up before you guys try something that you should know better doing: There's a couple "quests" you need to do before you get off-world.
Before Mal and Emily can leave the planet, you need to do one of two things for them:
1. Get them government IDs and then off-world visas.
2. Smuggle them into an orbital shuttle secretly.
I also assume that you want to go check out that safehouse first, which is fine. Are the 5 of you ready to move on to tomorrow so that we can do that?
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We also gotta figure out a way to get Cross and Smyrna involved with the rest of the group... I have an idea or two, mostly circumstantial. If any of you has any genius ideas though, that'd be great!
There's a few things that are necessary to happen, but otherwise I do want to deliver a relatively organic adventure, so I'm sorry for this weird meta-ness.
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My idea for Mal and Em was to get them onto Amaryst's ship, since there would be no government check to get into the equivalent of your own car.
As for Cross and Smyrna, maybe the kid can lead them to the safehouse and that's how our groups meet?
(Sidenote: Is it bad that my desire to collect NPCs is already kicking in? It's like in Fallout 4 how you can send all your companions to a single settlement lol.)
Amaryst's ship is not on Earth though, which means you do have to take a shuttle to the dock where it is.
Drift-capable ships cannot dock on planetside docks, for safety reasons.
No, I don't think that's bad.
I hope that's OK.
Threatening children is rapidly becoming a theme with Cross.
:) I'm just trying to keep momentum going in events, that's all. It seemed like you were done handling whatever decisions were being made.
That assumption is fine, thom.
I'm fine either way. Amaryst is just feeling a little paranoid, and wants to get moving.
Sorry about the last 48 hours, I got caught up in work stuff. Put more reminders on my phone to check paizo!
... Smyrna always had soft-spot for kids and arsonists, and this seemed to check off both boxes. ...
Best single sentence so far.
Hahah it felt really right, thanks :)
K-Van phonetically pronounced 'Kay Vaughn'
It happens.
15 posts is a good number to come back to, I think. Don't worry about it.
My most active game got nearly 40 posts yesterday :)
Hey Amaryst, I'm checkin' out your profile and I'm wondering if you could re-format your statblock? It's a little hard to read. Maybe I need to do an audit.
First of all, what two skills do you choose with your lashunta racial ability to get +2 to two skills? Secondly, what skills do you have ranks in?
Secondly, I believe your KAC should be 15 and your EAC should be 13 - +3 armor to KAC, +1 armor to EAC and +2 Dex to each, as per ceremonial plate armor. Do you have an additional bonus?
Hey Amaryst, I'm checkin' out your profile and I'm wondering if you could re-format your statblock? It's a little hard to read. Maybe I need to do an audit.
First of all, what two skills do you choose with your lashunta racial ability to get +2 to two skills? Secondly, what skills do you have ranks in?
Secondly, I believe your KAC should be 15 and your EAC should be 13 - +3 armor to KAC, +1 armor to EAC and +2 Dex to each, as per ceremonial plate armor. Do you have an additional bonus?
Checking me is always a good thing. I make so many mistakes during PC creation, mostly 'cause I'm juggling the build back and forth and don't always update everything on each iteration.
At the bottom of my profile is a spoiler for Stat Calcs. Inside it shows the full blown calculations for everything. Racial skills -- Perception and Piloting. Skill points in Culture, Engineering, Intimidate, Medicine, Piloting.\
Your AC calcs are correct, and agree with my calculations inside the spoiler. Looks like I forgot to update the PC header.
I will double check the other header entries.
Thanks Amaryst!
Sorry for not posting yesterday!
I've decided on a couple of our stand-in languages.
- Vesk will be Danish
- Castrovelian (Lashunta) will be Romanian
- Witchwyrd will be Arabic
- Kasatha will be Greek
When a language comes up, I'll decide on a corresponding language for it. If you're the first one to use a language in-game, congrats, you get to decide what to use for it!
If we do speaking in Chinese, it's probably best if we use Pinyin instead of the characters.
I'll update the campaign info tab with descriptions and links now.