GM Ragged's Keep on the Borderlands - B

Game Master waynemarkstubbs

Questions, comments, complaints, pop-culture references and blatant rules lawyering go here.

Minah - let's check we both agree how Rake works. My interpretation is:

a) If your lion has been in grapple since the start of its turn, and it currently the GRAPPLER, it gets its rake attacks in addition to the other action it can take as a standard action to maintain the grapple. So it can move + rake or damamge (single attack, probably bite) + rake.
What it can't do is rake, release the grapple, then make a full attack.

b) If your lion has been in a grapple since the start of its turn, and it currently BEING GRAPPLED, it can rake as part of whatever other action it is doing, so it can full attack + rake, or try to break the grapple plus rake etc.

Lesson to learn - don't grapple a lion

Hey look a dot.

I am here.

Hello. Per GM request, moved my animal companion's stats to the bottom of my profile. I'm not much on summoning spells so I don't generally have a go-to with summon nature's ally but if the need arises and I summon something I'll put the stats on the profile page as well.

Right, summoning stats!

I'm not sure what I'll be summoning yet (or if I will be), but I have the option. I also don't know if I'll be modifying any stats for them via Feats. It isn't exactly something I was going to specialize in.

EDIT: I now have stats for a Celestial Eagle in my profile. If I summon, it will be that.

Won't be summoning anything in the immediate future, but I'll start compiling stats preemptively. Would a link to the SRD be alright, assuming a lack of abilities that modify the base summoned creature, or would the preference be to just include the stats?

I had some money left over, so I added reduce person and true trike to my formula book. I hope that's okay.

I also bought a combat-trained light horse. Seemed like a smart thing to do, considering I've got so much stuff to lug around. I can eat it too, in case I get peckish.

I switched Dodge for agile maneuvers.

I added my 2 Traits. Militia Veteran and Dirty Fighter.

A twin room, with bed, fireplace and two lockers, is 5 silver per person per night. A bed in the bunkroom is 2 silver. This includes dinner (stew and bread) and breakfast (yesterdays stew and bread, plus fried eggs). Stabling is 1sp per night, as are mugs of ale. Doris can provide better fare with a bit of notice - mainly sausages or roast chicken and potatoes - and also takes in laundry for 2 silver per load.

Well, I have enough money for precisely one night in the common room with stabling. I think I might have to eat the horse earlier than I thought... :P

If we reconnoiter the next day and find a small amount of loot, we may be able to get Margut enough money for another night. Or someone will cover her.

There's a pawnbroker in the Keep. You noticed it on the way in.

Blaughter wouldn't have a problem bunking with Margut and fronting the coin for a night or two. He's probably fought alongside as well as against hobgoblins in the past, and isn't the type to judge on race.

Thanks!

As for tracking silvers, could we just go by the Cost of Living rules, or some other lump sum per month?

The "few silvers" I handed over were the rest of the 1 gp I would have to break in order to pay for the room and the ale. Much more convenient.

Note to Margût: Orono doesn't ride her pony. She simply used it as a pack animal in the caravan.

Oh, sorry. Fixed.

It's not my intention to make you track every mug of ale or piece of soap at the inn (unless you want to). I suggest you give yourself a budget -e.g. 1gp for basic lodging, stabling and a few drinks, 2-3gp if you're going to be drinking wine or spirits - and just deduct that every night you are at the Inn.

I looked at my profile and realized I had not accounted for which of my equipment was masterwork.

Woohoo.

Is thieves cant still a thing. Because I was I figured obviously fishing for info without saying it directly.

That would probably be a Bluff check to convey a secret message.

Yep. It's a DC 15 or 20 Bluff check. I just had to look the rules up for it Friday night.

I am a little confused. Does initiative apply to the surprise round, meaning those initiatives after the owlbear can't act until after the owlbears or after the surprise round is finished and those who saw the bears can act we then have an initiative order?

Oh, sorry. I might have jumped the gun on that one. :S

I'm use the 'batch' method for initiative. This is halfway between the 'everyone acts in a strict order' approach and the 'everyone does everything at once' approach.

Each time, I'll mark two or three people in the order as 'can post' - have a look at the list of names at the bottom of my long post. Those three people can act, and we'll resolve their actions in the order that they post. Once they've posted, I'll move on to a new 'batch' of a few more people.

This helps keep the combat going at a reasonable pace.

There's no reason you can't have your character talk, shout something or similar even when it is not your turn.

Cool I just wanted to make I should or shouldn't wait. Or if Roscoe was going to be able to run for cover before the Owlbear acted.

My action will be the same as previously stated.

Folks, we are still in the surprise round, so only single actions please. Move or attack, not both, until the next round.

You can still five-foot step and attack, right?

yes

Minah Waits for the Sun wrote:

The map doesnt show Owlbear 2 near Minah

Mine does - what does everyone else see?

I see it.

At a wedding this weekend. Bot as needed. Next round will either be snowball or telekinetic strike, depending on how we do this round.

I'm afraid gravity bow is range personal, so you can't use it on someone else's bow.

Yes, I will take another action. I forgot Gravity Bow was range personal.

@GM_Ragged: Looking at my build at this point makes me realise that I would probably have been better off going with the standard alchemist. Either that, or the hobgoblin archetype. The latter would actually make me a somewhat viable melee combatant, so I could switch between tossing bombs and helping out at the front.

Do you mind if I switch a few things around, or are we in retrain territory by now?

Make your character so that you are happy with it.

Thanks, boss! I'll update my profile ASAP, assuming there are no objections to the following...

The only real downside from swapping to Grenadier is that I'll have to wait until next level to grab Brew Potion. Not that I have the money to craft anything yet, anyway.

What action would it be to make an unconscious character drink a potion?

What action would it be to make an unconscious character drink a potion?

Standard action that will provoke an AoO

I am hunkering down for Hurricane MATTHEW. Will likely lose power. It looks like it will be north of us but still gonna be ablowin.

Stay safe! Best wishes for coming through this!

I may have been premature in thinking the owlbears were defeated?

Just one of them, unfortunately. Maybe Houk is a bit delirious from blood loss? :P

The group doesn't really have a frontline tank, or a heavy-hitting fighter. Blaughter and Minah are probably the closest. Everyone else wants to be at range.

If you feel this is a problem, we could deal with it in a couple of ways, from someone respeccing a bit to reality rippling someone over from the other game. Or you may not think it's a problem, and you will just have o adjust your combat tactics to a more 'skirmish' style. Let me know.

Well, for starters, I completely forgot gravity bow was a personal only spell, and regret preparing two uses of it. That's poor spell selection on me.

I'll have to review my spell list and see about finding spells that focus more on status effect generation. Limiting enemy actions might help quite a bit. Summoning creatures to divert the attention from some of our melee characters might help, too.

We should also look into grabbing some extra healing, in the form of potions or wands. That way Margut, Blaughter, and Orono don't have to devote a chunk of their spellcasting to healing spells all the time.

Speaking of spell selection, who should be the main target of Enlarge Person? I'm leaning towards Blaughter so he can get more reach, but Margut and Houk might not be bad ideas, either.

I'm ok with doing the healing as I have been. I'm also ok with doing more melee. I can't do both, though. Also my mobility is limited due to armor and encumbrance.

I'll be able to start brewing potions next level, assuming we have the extra cash. I can use a wand as well, if necessary. With the adjustments I made to Margût, I should be able to switch between melee and ranged pretty well. However, like all alchemists, I'll do better at both when I have the time to prep. Those buffs don't quaff themselves!

In any case, two surprise owlbears are pretty rough for any second level character (even if there are a bunch of us), so I wouldn't really judge our combat capability just yet. Unless, of course, this is the general level of difficulty we should expect, in which case we should probably start working on our back-up characters. ;P

In theory Blaughter is designed to be a frontline combatant...though I'm going to need to get his AC up...and start managing to hit. I probably should have started the fight off with a buff instead of plunging in to melee too. Considering the number of people we have I'm going to have Bless at the ready next time I prepare.

As for a good target to enlarge, Blaughter is a decent choice like Henris said, but hitting Houk with it to give us two melee folk with reach would help.

As far as mechanical changes...I wouldn't mind dropping the Evangelist archetype to gain back medium armor prof. Especially considering I spaced the fact that the evangelist loses the ability to spontaneously cast cure spells...

I am open to options. Roscoe functions better with a tank to flank with.

Sounds like I should tank for the time being. If Orono dies I'll switch to my halfling armor master.

Margût spits out a gob of blood, quickly mixing another of his foul-smelling concoctions.

Staggering to his feet slowly, Blaughter hawks and spits a large glob of bloody phlegm onto the ground near the downed owlbear.

Soulmates, clearly.

At least three hit rolls missed by 1, so bless would have made a big difference.

The encounter was hard, but I wanted to see how you did. I'll probably be more forgiving with encounter distances etc. in the future, at least until we get to the dungeon crawls.

Soulmates, clearly.

Hah! Aye, probably. That or destined to create Golarion's first baseball team.

Going to go ahead and put Blaughter back to a standard cleric if that's alright GM Ragged.

go ahead

How are we planning on tracking loot, by the way?