GM Mezegis The Begger's Pearl (Inactive)

Game Master Mezegis

Hey Ebon, You should get a spring loaded wrist sheath (1 lb, 5 gp) to get your Wand of CLW out as a swift action (and no AoO) instead of a MA with an AoO.

I think it is going to be part of my standard operating equipment for people able to use the WoCLW, from now on.

I haaaate spring-loaded wrist sheathes, they make me feel dirty. :(

I wish there was some magic item that let you draw things as a free/swift action.

And I find them amazing so that a character can move, pop the sheath, and wand CLW in 1 round.

It makes sense that you would have your life saving magic stick in an easily accessable location, and not tucked away somewhere that takes a bit to get to. Though, I think you should have to roll a d20 and if you get a 1, the thing shoots out past your hand and you then have to grab it before it rolls away, ala slapstick comedy movies.

Yes, critical fumbles/misses would be nice. Just remember that you must also own the source the item comes from.

Spring-loaded wrist sheaths are in Adventurer's Armory, which is something I'm not going to buy just to access one item.

Hmmm, still not sure who I'll play. With Mez and Ebon we would have 2 good martials. Maybe I'll try the pregen gunslinger?

Mez is actually a Divine skills character that I beefed up his AC on to be survivable. If you want to play someone that's doing more than a d6+3, we can easily accommodate you on the front lines.

What level are we talking, again please?

2ish I believe. Mez will be 3 after this scenarion however.

Hmmm. I might have someone who fits the bill. Let me take a look. If you folks will have me, of course.

As long as you've learnt your lesson about face tanking whole squads of guys with AC 13 PC's, I guess we can bring you.

:)

At least it makes the fight go fast, when there is only really 3 PC's to act, lol.

I could see the wrist sheath (spring loaded) as not for every character, but it is kind of a bummer to get an AoO for drawing a wand and not a dagger. (Could I have a w-agger?) And it is a lot in the 'action economy' to MA-draw, SA-use, and MA-replace a wand. (It seems like the Adventurer's Armory had more on interest than that... Coincidentally, it is currently only $3 print, though the S&H on the site can get you.)

Yeah, Norine is just at 4 xp with this scenario. Mez, did you send out Chronicles? I don't think I received mine.

The odd part of having a 3rd level with 2nd levels is that the 3rd level gets more gp (as mid-tier) for relatively less risk to themselves in a Tier 1-2 scenario. (I may be misinterpreting the rules on rewards.) Naurin is going to be 3rd, but just because of some GM credit that was supposed to apply to someone else, but eh.

And I find them amazing so that a character can move, pop the sheath, and wand CLW in 1 round.

Don't get me wrong. Mechanically they are awesome. SO awesome. But they are just DUMB.

It's basically a handful of gold for something that breaks open the action economy and does it in a really stupid kind of way (flavour wise). I just wish there was a way to do the same thing without it being dumb in flavour and RIDICULOUSLY underpriced for what it does. And I'm pretty sure Paizo agrees, because they weren't included in the Ultimate Equipment book...

I do use them on some of my characters though. Can't help myself, lol.

This sounds like the argument about weapon cords....and I would have to agree with you Calanthe. While strictly by the rules it is legal, it still feels broken and sort of like cheating. Maybe in a steampunk game it would fit in better, or with a gnome inventor, but for the regular player...it just does not fit, in my mind.

Weapon cords are another one of those things I love/hate. Really wish there was a way to do the same thing without it looking absolutely stupid and costing way too little for the incredible benefit.

One limitation about weapon cords is that you can't easily switch to a new weapon. In a sense, then, it is kind of like a locked gauntlet, which has been part of the game for a long time.

how about using the weapon cord for your wand. having it bang around near your wrist wouldn't cause too much trouble...

That would be great, but it doesn't seem to be in the rules.

An old-school AD&D trick was to have your rings on strings tied to a bracelet, so that they could be rapidly changed without fear of loss.

So I've decided to branch out a bit. I created my first two non-human characters recently - a dwarf barbarian and a gnome sorceror. One was even my first female character, the gnome.

Yeah Matt/Norine, I'm a copycat ;-)

I was thinking of building a new bard. The Lore Warden fits better for what I had in mind for Todric, but now I feel a concept really coming together for an archery bard. Trouble is, I want to build a halfling bard. This costs me 1 Feat at 1st level and 1 skill point every level relative to playing a human. Should this really bother me? I like skills and feats are critical to PFS archery, but I'm thinking I shouldn't let those considerations alone dictate my character build.

The bard could get a "test run" in our next scenario - and it would create a streak of playing bards in Blackros Museum scenarios GM'ed by Alice!

Depends on what you want from your bard. A Halfling one would make for a good caster focused bard, with archery on the side to help when spells aren't needed. If archery is your focus, anything small won't work too well, as bards only get short bow, so doing a D4, no matter the skill, is pretty weak.

If you want Archery, I'd suggest half-elven, allowing you to get the longbow with ancestral arms racial, go more into dex, and leave cha at only a 14 and do more song/shooting play style. Something like 14, 16, 14, 10, 10, 14 would be a solid base. You can kill Wis to up int, but I HATE killing anything a save is based on.

I could use another female gnome in the group: Someone better with gnome wackiness to inspire me, I think.

In other matters, I went with the spring-loaded wrist sheath with by 'Asperger's elf', but had it over-wound and it misfired, with the dagger pinning his sleeve to a tavern's table top.

So, far I am really enjoying playing my high int (19), low cha (7) character, where just about everything he says can be easily interpreted/misinterpreted as something negative (even though he doesn't intend it so), but I made sure to ask first so I (hopefully) won't ruin everyone else's fun. I'm feeling the character better than any of my other characters so far so I think I may have to face some unpleasant truths about myself. :-P

Happy new year, everyone!

I think that a halfling archer can work, but like Mez said you're unlikely to be a damage-dealing brute. Damage dice only really matters in the early levels though, damage bonuses are where it's at in the long run. And bards can provide those in excess.

That said, archery needs a lot of feats and bards don't get a single bonus one. It's hard to do it well as a bard (at least until you can grind through to level 3 to have both Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot [and Rapid Shot or Deadly Aim for a non-human]).

Still, if you wanna do it, do it!

p.s., the Andoran trait that gives you longbow proficiency might be nice...

Happy new year, too!

Yeah, definitely do what's fun. We haven't exactly built a super-optimized party.

Hey, if somebody sees something on the messageboards or wherever about the next online gameday, could you let me know? I am not the most clued-in as far as the boards are concerned.

Also, since I have my first Season 5 scenario, I'm just finding out about the new faction mission structure. I am curious about the one of the "boons" that doesn't appear to have any in-game effect - is this an end of the year award or something? It has to do with completing a season 5 goal, and it makes the faction leader happy with you or something, but beyond that I'm not sure what it does.

PS - Please let me know if you are going to do any game day stuff, too, and wouldn't mind having me along: I got really lucky with this set of GMs and players. :)

Hey all,

This is completely unofficial until Mez gives his go-ahead (and there are no signatures or initials on it), but I thought I would go ahead and see if I could give Mez a jump start on the Chronicle sheets for when he gets back.* (I went ahead and bought the scenario since it had great atmosphere and could be runnable with the right party with the right preparations, very possibly one of my parties with 3 characters with Darkvision.)

Here is a link to a temporary folder with temporary versions of each person's Chronicle sheet. Could you check the info and also let me know about any Day Job checks to add to your unofficial total?

*Also, it's Sunday night, none of my games have updated, my son is asleep, and I'm bored.

~~ Matt

looks good matt!!!

Good to hear, Targost!

PS - Did everyone get the holiday14 promotional code for the Paizo Shop in the mail? Normally, S&H kills me, but since I hadn't bought anything in months, I put together an order over $100 (just nudged over the top by Beggar's Pearl) and got $10 off of S&H and 10% off the order. (It's pretty cool that the digital stuff counts toward your total.)

I've debated whether subscribing to the Adventure Path for 15% off would be worth it or not. I probably won't run them, and I don't buy that much stuff, generally. I should have picked up more of the old modules during that 30% off sale.

I did pick up a "Year of the Risen Rune" 3XL t-shirt, however, because I may be cheesy enough to go for the free reroll. (The year of the Demon t-shirt just looks too much like a bad heavy metal band popular with middle-schoolers.) I'm a big guy (6'5" and 250 lbs.) but it still might be a tent on me. I'll put a picture up on DropBox for proof - especially if it looks really silly.

I like the AP's! I have been a subscriber since dragon magazine ended and Paizo offered the remaining credit towards an AP subscription. that being said they are long and involved. Really liked the Rise of the Runelords, but it took over a year to complete with my TT group, and we never finished Kingmaker cause I moved. they have a lot of info in them, not just the adventure. A mini bestiary, new magic items or spells, and a short chapter of fiction that continues for the 6 books. Plus a small bit of history about each area that it takes place in. or details of towns or cities, or regions. Cool stuff.
I haven't read them all ( the fiction I have) case I play in them. But I'v read RotR many times and kingmaker many time. Glanced through some of the others and am currently playing in two more...(Mez's Reign of Winter, and another DMMedlii's Curse of the Crimson Throne.)

I used to subscribe to a bunch of lines, but cancelled when I was saving up to go overseas on university exchange for a year. I keep thinking I should subscribe again (Reign of Winter and Wrath of the Righteous really tested my patience) but I'm not working as much as I used to so I probably shouldn't...

I've started numerous APs though, both on the GM and player side, just never gotten really far, yet!

I'm tempted to buy a shirt or the folio for rerolls. :)

I'm running Skull & Shackles and Legacy of Fire as tabletop games, and running Skull & Shackles as an online game as well.

How did you manage S&S chapter 1? I found the beginning part with the daily checks to be incredibly tedious and annoying, and my players found it an utter bore. I can't imagine what it would be like in PbP...

It is quite tedious. I've kind of glossed over the uninteresting days and kept them busy with little details.

Thanks for putting the sheets together Matt! I understand I'm partly to blame for the lack of updates - I haven't moved any of my GM games really since Friday. This weekend has been pretty hectic.

My sheet looks good. Hopefully we can work out the kinks before long.

Last I heard Mez was having technical difficulties, so no worries Derek. Hopefully everything's ok.

I'm back.

Thanks Matt for doing that. I'm fine with everyone using his. Games are based on trust and faith, so it's not like I'm worried you guys are going to add an extra few zero's in the GP section... ;)

Hey, No problem Mez.

They are all 'signed' and 'initialed' now, and I change it to Malfeas Rayne as getting the credit.

Do download them and check them locally - I have had a couple of people have problems (mostly with file names and URLs).

Hey, another question: is anyone planning on GMing a run of We Be Goblins and/or We Be Goblins, Too, someday? I would like to add them to my repertoire but I would prefer to play them first and haven't had the opportunity.

Actually, I am particularly interested in any replayable Tier 1/Tier 1-2 scenarios/modules since I would like to start up a group of newbies now and then, pulling them from the boards and seeing if I can get groups started. (Worked a couple of times so far!)

I see We Be Goblins games semi regularly on the PbP recruitment forum. I've never played or run it personally.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Ugh can't edit on my phone. I played The Confirmation and it was pretty fun.

-Posted with Wayfinder

So did we earn 1 or 2 PP for this? I looked at the secondary success condition,and I wasn't sure - it said we had to save the three prisoners in Area 9 and cure Lyrehawk's blindness.

2, as I said. I didn't do most of the sub missions. You did save the prisoners and cure their illnesses.

Sorry, I missed that when I re-read the posts. My chronicle has 1 on it, but I'm just going to write over it.

Here is a link to a temporary folder with temporary versions of each person's Chronicle sheet. Could you check the info and also let me know about any Day Job checks to add to your unofficial total?

~~ Matt

Why does no one check my work for errors? I am an error-making machine! :-P

It is a rough life being an incompetent perfectionist!

Don't worry, it will literally take me 2 minutes to make all of those correction. :)

Edit: Done! I also changed the 510 gp to 509 gp, since I accidentally introduced that error when adding in the 1 gp from Norine's Day Job check. (It took me more than two minutes since I was also making breakfast, lol.) Hopefully, everything is good now, but just let me know if there are more errors. :)

No problem, I did check and just didn't see it the first time! The GP was different too.

Also, I am now officially recruiting for my homebrew campaign, for those interested.

Recruiting!

It is interesting that the secondary prestige point was restoring her sight. Fortunately, in my rewrite of Norine I didn't neglect Heal (it seems so pointless when you actually have the cures) and I have been making it a point to stock up on alchemical remedies and scrolls of non-combat spells. So far, Comprehend Languages has really helped in one adventure (the Night March) and brought in the second prestige point in another adventure.

On the Heal skill, in another group my healer saved the group 450 or more gp on castings of Remove Disease, so that was a pretty good use at Tier 1-2.

I find Heal a great skill at low levels. Once you get, say, 3rd level spells, it tapers off a bit, but it's still handy.

Linguistics/Comprehend Languages is incredibly valuable in PFS too.

The skill I see most of all that I NEVER have is Sleight of Hand. All over the bloody place in PFS!

Yeah, that is interesting about sleight of hand, at least in some of the faction missions that I've read. But, is is completely inappropriate for any of my characters. A good Sczarni skill.

Appraise is, I think, the most useless skill. At least as far as I can tell, it occasionally will help you will the value of something, but not in a way that affects the game. Then, you get full value for everything you turn in to the Pathfinder Society anyway. Perhaps if it helped you refine the amount needed for a bribe or something?

Knowledge (Nobility) is also, in my experience, never very useful. Offhand, I don't remember it coming up at all. I think that they should expand its purview to "upper class, leadership, and government", instead of having everything Knowledge (Local) (or Diplomacy (Gather Information). Knowing about the Blakros's and such would seem to be the kind of thing that should be Knowledge (Local). (There should also be some variation in Knowledge (Local), so that when I am in a completely strange place there would be some penalty, and some bonus when I'm home.)

Knowledge (Engineering) has come up, but it is a close second.

I've seen Knowledge (Nobility) in a handful of scenarios. Never seen Knowledge (Engineering), ever.

In my home games I sometimes use an alternate series of Knowledge skills:

- Arcana (arcane spells and effects)
>> Covers Knowledge (Arcana) and Spellcraft*
... identifies aberrations, constructs, and oozes
... also can be used to identify arcane magics (as Spellcraft, but only for arcane magic) and magical items

- Cosmology (religion, divine magic, the planes, and outsiders)
>> Covers Knowledge (Religion) and Knowledge (Planes)
... identifies undead and outsiders
... also can be used to identify divine magics (as Spellcraft, but only for cleric magic)

- Culture (local nobility, laws, and rumours, languages, and geography)
>> Covers Knowledge (Local), Knowledge (Geography), and Knowledge (Nobility)
... identifies civilised humanoids**

- Lore (history, legends, and epics)
>> Covers Appraise***, Knowledge (History) and bits and bobs from most other Knowledges (particularly Arcana, Nobility, and Engineering)
... identifies dragons, magical beasts, and unique/legendary/special creatures

- Nature (animals, natural features and threats)
>> Covers Knowledge (Nature) and Knowledge (Dungeoneering)
... identifies animals, plants, fey, and vermin
... also can be used to identify druidic magics (as Spellcraft, but only for druid magic)

- Warfare (strategy and tactics)
>> Covers varied aspects of Knowledge (Local), Knowledge (History), Knowledge (Nobility), and Knowledge (Engineering)
... identifies uncivilised humanoids**** and monstrous humanoids
... also can be used to identify martial abilities, feats, etc.

* I never understood why these were separate skills.
** Civilised humanoids are things like humans, elves, gnomes, etc.
*** Another skill I get rid of and merge with another as it's pretty useless.
**** Uncivilised humanoids are things like goblins, orcs, giants, etc.

It gives each Knowledge skill a more logical coverage, gives them all 'monster identification' abilities, and makes them all roughly equal in usability.

That is a great list, Alice. You've really thought about things, and I wish there was some way to get some of those changes into PF.

Derek, I'm sad you've said no to Gnomes or Halflings, I've been itching to make one.