GM Leinathan's Jade Regent (Inactive)

Game Master leinathan

But we might need a Healer quickly if Clarabulus gets near the cookpot!

Aside from that looming menace everything else on the caravan sheet looks good to me.

Need to know where Rae is and what she's doing before writing further.

I started drafting a gameplay post yesterday but my daughter needed help and I was't able to finish it before bed. Looking forward to posting it (and my first conversation in draconic) today.

By the way, I like the convention of posting languages other than Taldan/Common in another real world language. E.g. Skald might be Icelandic, Varisian might be Romanian. Minkai would presumably be Japanese. For Draconic I'll propose Burmese (since to my eye the script looks like something a dragon might create). Not sure what to use for Gnomish but I like Gaelic for Sylvan, so maybe it's a variation, like Scots Gaelic. (In any case, I always post a translation unless it's a single word for flavor...and I get my translations from Google.com/translate).

What do you think? Leinathan do you have a preference?

EDIT: as far as a healer, I and Koya can both take that role when needed. If we think we're all spread too thin and need to hire more folks, I'd hire a cook (since it's just 10 /month, and--if I'm reading it right--each up to 5 provides almost an equivalent value of a 100 gp Scout in hunting mode). Heck, maybe we want a couple cooks, and a Wainwright, since they're so cheap.

By the way, I like the convention of posting languages other than Taldan/Common in another real world language. E.g. Skald might be Icelandic, Varisian might be Romanian. Minkai would presumably be Japanese. For Draconic I'll propose Burmese (since to my eye the script looks like something a dragon might create). Not sure what to use for Gnomish but I like Gaelic for Sylvan, so maybe it's a variation, like Scots Gaelic. (In any case, I always post a translation unless it's a single word for flavor...and I get my translations from Google.com/translate).

I'm afraid I'm going to avoid using such convention at any point. Auto-translator texts tend to be really, really cringe-worthy, a quality I'll remain aware of even if I don't know the language in question itself. It'll be Red Alert 3 all over agin *shudders*.

EDIT: as far as a healer, I can Koya can both take that role when needed. If we think we're all spread too thin and need to hire more folks, I'd hire a cook (since it's just 10 /month, and--if I'm reading it right--each up to 5 provides almost an equivalent value of a Scout in hunting mode). Heck, maybe we want a couple cooks, and a Wainwright, since they're so cheap).

Actually, a scout is twice as good as a cook in terms of conserving supplies, due to not consuming any food themselves and living off the land, while a cook saves two points of consumption, one of which they immediately eat back.

First, I forgot to say before:
THANK YOU Irissa, for taking the lead on the Caravan spreadsheet. I find it very helpful. Also, big thanks to Rae for donating an extra 500 GP to beef up our caravan. I hope to do the same before too long, after we get a bit of loot.

I'm afraid I'm going to avoid using such convention at any point. Auto-translator texts tend to be really, really cringe-worthy, a quality I'll remain aware of even if I don't know the language in question itself. It'll be Red Alert 3 all over agin *shudders*.

Heheheh, true enough. It works best if none involved know the language in question...and are willing to post auto-translated text in a fantasy context. I'm not attached if the consensus leans against it.

Actually, a scout is twice as good as a cook in terms of conserving supplies, due to not consuming any food themselves and living off the land, while a cook saves two points of consumption, one of which they immediately eat back.

Ahh, I'd missed that. Thanks. I've only perused the Caravan rules so far. I know Scouts are bimodal too (they can gather food or provide Security) So 100 GP can net 1 Scout who returns 2 food without costing any food or shelter. And Cooks can only add value when there's 1 store / cook (where scouts can replenish stores). That said, *all* of us can scout if need be (since Calder has ranks in Survival and the rest of us are spellcasters) and right now your Caravan sheet lists us having 20 stores.

Looking a bit more now, and have started a throwaway spreadsheet of my own, just to do some calculations. By my math--assuming we have provisions in store, which we do--we net 3 provisions / 1 GP we spend on Cooks, versus 2 provisions / 1 GP we spend on Stores...and Scouts net us less than 1 provision / GP spent (even factoring in that they feed themselves). If I've got that right, it seems most cost effective to get up to 5 cooks (or at least as many as we can fit with our current wagon capacity, perhaps sparing a couple spots for NPCs we want to adopt on the way). Do I have that right?

Another question, the Player's Guide says:
" Travelers are all creatures who belong to the caravan with the exception of any draft animals used to pull the wagons. Player characters, NPCs, animal companions, mounts, and cohorts are all considered travelers for this purpose. Familiars are covered by their master as far as traveler count is concerned. "

If I'm reading that right, that means Kolung (Kikiri's eidolon) is a traveler too. He'll cost us 1 provision + 1 traveler spot (unless perhaps he's dismissed at night)...but can also take on a job. Am I reading that right? I hear Dragons make good Guards!

We can't take 5 cooks, though, since our available space is limited to 18 people, 13 of which are locked being PCs, quest NPCs and drivers. Well, we can, technically, but I believe having 5 dedicated NPC cooks serve a group of 18 would be both suboptimal and bizarre.

On that note, I got the impression that while scouts don't consume food, they still cost traveller slots (which makes sense, because why would they camp and sleep in the wilderness when there's a caravan? Or haul all their stuff on their person?).

In any case, given the pittance that are the wages (anything short of 100GP can be dismissed outright, and even those will become negligible before long), our main constraint is how long we can last on the road without restocking food stores (and possibly repair materials), not GP costs.

I use real-life languages as fantasy languages myself, in the other game that I play in. There's a guide, complete with links, in this campaign's campaign info page. If anybody would like to be interested in me posting something similar in our page, I would happily do so.

I don't have that font, Clara (and no idea which is it so that I could get it). I'm seeing... hexcode-filled squares? They also apprear to be breaking page formatting, at least I see no other apparent reason why it wouldn't adjust to fit screen width anymore.

Ahhhhhh, that's too bad. It's Burmese. Here's an image of what it looks like, if you're curious.

I'm fine with using a different font in the future if you'd rather not download a font (I see it on my Android phone and on the Chromebook where i composed it, and didn't realize it wasn't widely available.) That said, if you want it, see here.

EDIT: Out of curiosity, what browser & OS are you using? Is it rendering for others?

EDIT: Out of curiosity, what browser & OS are you using? Is it rendering for others?

On my Macbook it works in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, so I assume it's a Windows thing.

Win 7, latest Firefox.

On an unrelated note, think we should set up an IRC channel? It tends to be immensely useful for clarifications, hammering out details or writing dialogues, since all of those involve a lot of back and forth with many short posts.

OK, interesting. I have a Win 10 box and just checked it. They work on it (at least with Chrome and FF, didn't check IE/Edge).

I like the idea of some sort of optional chat forum for back-and-forth, if others are game. I tend to see Google Hangouts quickly, if others use those (or at least have a Google account). I don't use IRC much nowadays but have in the past and could grab a client pretty easily, if folks prefer that.

Also, I realized I didn't answer Leinathan but YES, my personal vote is to have a standard list of conversion languages, and having them linked from the Campaign tab would be convenient. If one of the players knows one of the proposed languages and is going to find the (presumably) butchered translated text distracting, I'm in favor of switching to a different language.

I'm fine with using an additional program, but I'd rather use Google Hangouts or Slack over IRC since they're programs I already use regularly.

I like the idea of some sort of optional chat forum for back-and-forth, if others are game. I tend to see Google Hangouts quickly, if others use those (or at least have a Google account). I don't use IRC much nowadays but have in the past and could grab a client pretty easily, if folks prefer that.

Discord is also a possibility, as it doesn't require a client as well.

We'd only really need two features - automatic log keeping (including messages posted in one's absense) and notification signal that would let one poke a person who's generally available at this time, but not looking at the forums.

On that note, what are Shalelu and Ameiko's respective manners of speech? It occures to me that I may not need to make an effort and ensure Irissa speaks properly (well, with less shorthands, slang or swearing - she's a teenager and works at an inn, none at all would be weird) if her sort of guardians' speech isn't as refined as I expected.

Ameiko is described as irreverent multiple times. I'm planning on her being a cynical, wisecracking POS most of the time.

Shalelu on the other hand I wanted to be uncomfortable to talk to. She's an elf, and has little understanding of the perspectives of lesser-lived people. She knows them pretty well, but I like to think there's a thick divide between elves and non-elves.

Probably should have done this, but I have audits:

Kikiri, I noticed you have studded leather and bracers of armor +1. Those don't stack, which means you probably should buy something else other than those bracers. Your armor bonus is only +3, but your AC should still be 18 (+3 armor, +3 Dex, +1 size, +1 natural).

Also, can I get you to record in your spells section how many spells you have per day? Should be 4 1st-level spells.

Rae, can I get you to choose your bonus languages now? Also, the rapier's damage dice is a 1d6, so your damage oughta be 1d6+2. You also seem to have 2 too few background skill ranks and 2 too few regular ranks. I count that you're entitled to 46 skill ranks (8 of which are background) and you've spent 42 skill ranks (6 of which are background). You seem to have forgotten to record that you have Opportune Parry & Riposte as well.

Clara, you should record somewhere the spell-like abilities that you get from the pyromaniac alternate racial trait. As I understand it, smoke & stink bomb happen at the same time as your regular bomb, so I'm unsure why you're listing them separately. Also, your attack bonus with your bombs, by my count, ought to be +7 (+3 BAB, +2 Dex, +1 Throw Anything, +1 Firebug).

Calder, you still don't have your PC's statblock in his profile. Can you put it there, please?

Irissa, I'm assuming you're using your favored class bonus on extra spells, yeah? Can you record that somewhere?

Irissa, I'm assuming you're using your favored class bonus on extra spells, yeah? Can you record that somewhere?

Yeah, I'm adding that to spells known in MF sheet. Would just separating the numbers suffice, or should I make a more detailed note in additional info?

Stat block is up in my profile now.

Let me know if you have any questions or corrections.

leinathan wrote:

Irissa, I'm assuming you're using your favored class bonus on extra spells, yeah? Can you record that somewhere?

Yeah, I'm adding that to spells known in MF sheet. Would just separating the numbers suffice, or should I make a more detailed note in additional info?

I'd like you to either mark your spells with something like an asterisk (or whichever symbol you like) and then have somewhere like "*=spells gained from favored class"

OR mark somewhere that you chose bonus spells for your favored class.

As for Calder, your statblock looks pretty correct. I noticed that you don't have arrows, though, and I'd like you to source your AC next to it.

You know, like this: AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+6 armor, +2 Dex)

Sorry about that! I should be all fixed up now.

Thanks for the audit.

Clara, you should record somewhere the spell-like abilities that you get from the pyromaniac alternate racial trait. As I understand it, smoke & stink bomb happen at the same time as your regular bomb, so I'm unsure why you're listing them separately. Also, your attack bonus with your bombs, by my count, ought to be +7 (+3 BAB, +2 Dex, +1 Throw Anything, +1 Firebug).

Pyromaniac: I actually don't get the SLAs because my CHA is too low. It would need to be 11. Alas!

I don't really need to list the bombs separately. I think my options at present are: Fire+Smoke+Stink, Fire+Smoke, or just plain Fire. If I ever take a bomb that doesn't do fire damage, it'll deal damage as my actual level (instead of LVL+1).

Re my To-Hit, I think it should actually be +8 (3 BAB +2 DEX +1 size +1 trait +1 circum (throw anything)). I think you missed the size bonus...and *I* mistakenly was thinking my DEX was 16 instead of 14. Whoops!

. .

As a separate Q, can someone remind me/point me toward how much it costs to buy access to copy a new spell/formula. I realized it would make sense to buy another few spells before we go.

. .

Also, I haven't forgotten to get my stat line up. I'll get it soon.

I think I'm done now. If that was what you were looking for. I had arrows, they just weren't copied over for some reason?

The formula for buying extra spells is:

Spell level^2 x 10gp

So that's how much it costs to buy the special scribing supplies to do the actual writing. You need to pay half of the cost on top of the cost for paying a wizard to look at his spellbook.

There are no spells above 2nd level available for scribing in Sandpoint.

Thanks, so to make sure I understand:
- I can scribe a 1st level extract (pay for writing supplies) for 10 GP, and a 2nd level extract for 40 GP.
- The cost to pay the wizard for access is 50% more on top of that (so a grand total of 15 GP to read and copy a 1st level extract, and 60 GP to read and copy a 2nd level extract).

Do I have that right?

You have that exactly right.

NOTICE: I'm updating the Campaign Info tab. I'll be keeping as much relevant info on the campaign there as I can. I've also decided to delegate the caravan bookkeeping to Irissa and thus have linked her spreadsheet on the campaign info tab.

I will, of course, still be rolling for the caravan events and combat and stuff to keep things running smoothly.

So far, in the campaign info tab, I want to add:

-PC and NPC info, categorized by relation to the PCs
-The language page
-Info on current and past quests/an overview of the campaign with small summaries

is there anything else you'd like me to record there, so as to be easily accessible?

Re Campaign tab: maybe a loot tracker. Do you want to track it? Do you prefer a player do so? Either way a link is handy.

(If you prefer a player, I'm happy to make a loot tracker but I'd want at least one other player (or DM) to volunteer to help to keep it up to date.)

Unrelated:
Fellow players, do you have any extracts you'd like me to learn (1st or 2nd level only)? I'm happy to craft as many potions as you'd like, at cost. I also plan to get Infusion as my next Discovery so that I can share my extracts...so if there's something on the Alchemist list that you'd appreciate as a free buff, don't be shy to request it.

Also BTW, I'm not sure I'm going to need my Mutagen all that often (we'll see how well I can hit without it, and if I need the AC boost or can just hide behind beefier allies). If I don't need it, I'm happy to lend it to others (thanks to my Visionary Researcher archetype). You'd get 1/2 the normal benefit (so +2 alchemical bonus to STR(or DEX or CON) and +1 natural armor, in exchange for -2 to a mental stat).

I'd be happy to maintain a loot tracker, but under no circumstances do I want to make any specific rules about who gets what loot, or track how much each person has.

There is merit in tracking what has been found/what isn't on character sheets, though. And also merit in making sure everyone's individual loot lists are accurate.

Also, I just added little summaries for everyone and made up a couple NPCs for the hirelings you chose (two drivers, two guards and a cook). Although one of the NPCs (Kelda) is in the AP already.

Where is Ameiko at the moment and what she's doing?

Also, I've marked extra spells with asterisks in spell list.

She's sitting on a table, in the middle of the tavern, entertaining a half-dozen randos with a funny story.

Sorry! Been a tad busier than expected as of late (...that, and, I've been going on some safaris with my siblings in Pokemon GO...)

@Clara - Reduce Person would be a handy one for Kikiri, since he could use it to sneak in Ant-Man style on places. Barkskin would also be helpful.

Also, if I don't need the Bracers, I suppose I could just sell them back and spend it on a wand of CLW! Woo!

Reduce person's definitely on her list. She wants it too (to increase AC, stealth, and to hit bonus).

Hey, it seems like this scene has reached its logical conclusion. If anybody has anything else they want to contribute, do so in the next 24 hours. Elsewise, please post that you're satisfied with the scene. Once three people have posted that they'd like to move on, I'll move forward to the next day.

I'm good to go. The rest of the party can be easily covered with single post containing a brief recap come the morning. For Irissa it was basically half edgining people on to make things more exciting and half joining in and enjoying the actions thus provoked.

Good to go.

Good to go here. Looking forward to more.

All good here! Let's go!

Works for me!

Oh hey, I happened to check my google mailbox. Better late than never, I guess =)

That 'leave disappointed - the caravan has brought no trade goods' line just hurts. Going purely on in-universe logic, we should be hauling such, because an expedition founded fully out of some rich guys' pockets with no concern for profit whatsoever doesn't fit our characterisation. But OOC trading under existing rules is nothing but hindrance. Ugh, situations where fluff and crunch directly contradict each other are the worst.

That 'leave disappointed - the caravan has brought no trade goods' line just hurts. Going purely on in-universe logic, we should be hauling such, because an expedition founded fully out of some rich guys' pockets with no concern for profit whatsoever doesn't fit our characterisation. But OOC trading under existing rules is nothing but hindrance. Ugh, situations where fluff and crunch directly contradict each other are the worst.

I know they are, which is exactly what I'm trying to correct with the present situation. I'm planning on offering trade opportunities whenever you visit a town with specific, quoted costs and a percentage chance of gaining profit (at different magnitudes), loss on your investment or selling even, depending on where you try to sell it and how well you do (AKA social skills to haggle).

Neat, that's good to know.

Nice! I like that you're making changes to bring the mechanics and the story together.

Hey Leinathan (or others), I picture Clara constantly fiddling with recipes of all sorts (extracts, potions, etc.) I can make that purely fluff but I'm wondering about a way to reflect that mechanically too, e.g. a chart that randomly adds some minor quirk, advantage, or disadvantage to it.

Is there any such option in Pathfinder RAW? And if not, Leinathan, would you have any interest in a homebrew or 3rd party way of doing this?

If not, it can just be in the realm of roleplay.

__________

Unrelated: Who is carrying our wand of CLW? Clara certainly can (it's on her list, and I think it may not be on anyone else's)...but know that she has short, stubby gnomish legs so won't be able to reach folks on the battlefield as fast as someone else might. I'll assume she's carrying it unless someone else wants it.

Can't be Calder, he doesn't have UMD.

I've got the wand! No worries!

Also, it occurs to me... Kikiri might actually be a half decent trader for the caravan. I mean, he DOES like collecting things from their various stops, and he IS a kobold, which have some slight tendencies of hoarding valuables...

Do you have the spell? If not, Clara should probably carry it.

Well, Clara's actually not a spellcaster and doesn't have a caster level. Nobody in the party can activate a wand of cure light wounds without a UMD check.

On the other hand, Ameiko is a bard and Koya is a cleric, and both can cast healing spells.. so if you ever need a want used, you can ask one of them.

Actually, (from Alchemist class description):

Although the alchemist doesn't actually cast spells, he does have a formulae list that determines what extracts he can create. An alchemist can utilize spell-trigger items if the spell appears on his formulae list, but not spell-completion items (unless he uses Use Magic Device to do so).

...so alchemists can use wands (of things on their formulae list) but not scrolls...though they can learn new formulae from scrolls (of things on their formulae list).