GM Rednal's Cyclopean Deeps (Inactive)

Game Master Rednal

I'm sorry oh mighty Yidhra. How can I ever replay you? Though honestly first time I read that sentence I thought you spoke about a magical spell and wondered how I would go about making such a thing.

The cost I listed 16200 (buy cost 32400), is the crafting cost, in between the 12000 crafting cost for cloak of minor displacement and the 25000 for the cloak of displacement so I don't think it's as widely unreasonable as you make it sound. Still, it's slightly more cost effective than cloak of minor displacement and hence probably too cheap (even if cloak of minor displacement is an all the time effect rather than 9 hours). The item i imagined as something you need to hold to use it, but if that's not sufficient for a drawback then a cloak is a good alternative (you can still have the picture on that). Anyway, 32400 gold was already pushing my budget, I can't afford anything much more expensive than that.

A waste that I spent time better spent elsewhere calculating this item when the calculations/rules doesn't apply :(. I guess I misjudged the point about comparing to similar items. I thought that only applied when the costing was widely wrong, not when sphere crafting made an item with slightly different limitations that was slightly more efficient. Good to clear that up at least.

I do understand that hiding in the wall is not granting me as much protection as one might imagine. I was mostly thinking to use it to be able to function at a size larger than the tunnel (as well as to move around). Not being able to be partially within the wall screws with that heavily though. I think that logically it would make sense to be partially within the wall (especially if the earth elemental is larger than the wall), gaining no protection from the wall, but no penalty either. But if you say it doesn't work, then it doesn't. If I attack from within the wall with tremorsense, do I suffer miss chance?

So for a tremorsense item: The complexity is 1 for base talent, 1 for the termorsense talent instead of the base sense. Then 4 more complexity to raise it from 1 minute/casterlevel to 1 hour/caster level. So 6*400*8 = 19200 would grant me an item that grants tremorsense (as per the talent) 8 hours per day, is that correct? For example a vest of tremorsense.

Though if that doesn't work I probably should just switch one of my other sense talents (probably Foreshadow) over to tremorsense and just pick that talent up later...

Well, let me put it this way... do you really want to spend nine hours holding onto something valuable but easy to sunder? XD (Incidentally, if it were to go into any slot, it ought to be the cloak slot, since a similar effect already exists there - cross-slot effects should be avoided whenever possible, since that's a deliberate part of the game's design.)

Creatures with Earth Glide CAN be partially in and partially out of the stone - but enemies can attack the exposed portions without penalty. What isn't allowed is "peeking out" to negate the normal miss chance but still getting the full protection of being merged with the stone.

Tremorsense lets you attack accurately from inside the stone, but... honestly, I'm considering barring it for being too powerful. This is a fully underground campaign, and things that give an advantage underground will be much more valuable than usual. If there's an easy way for you to hide from most enemies, that goes against the intended style of the game. Similarly, I wouldn't want to see things like, say, you transforming the whole party into Earth Elementals and casually bypassing challenges. XD That could easily make everything way too easy, you know? Part of the fun of a game like this is the pressure of being trapped, and I'd like to keep that in play.

And price comparisons apply as a general rule. ^^ Regardless of the system, check existing prices first. Only if you find nothing comparable should you price by the table. Also, you should see if an existing item can do the same thing first, because you shouldn't craft an original item if there's already an option with that effect. (Not in this game, anyway, because normal Vancian items are available. It would be a different story if no traditional items were available and Spherecrafting was the only option. XD Then you'd only reference them for prices.)

*Whistles and waits for everyone to say they're ready*

My son got sick, which has taken up much of my time. I'm so sorry. If your patience have worn out, I understand that. If not I'll finish shortly...

About termorsense, let's just treat it as not possible to get for PCs. That'll also make the movement from earth elementals less useful as I'll essentially be blind.

Works for me. XD

(And I hope your son feels better soon!)

I'm ready, I guess I'm not making any changes.

I am also ready!

Hrrrm... I suppose technically I could send the Tin Man in, he won't exactly be smart enough to give us answers about what's going on. I vote for one of the two front liners to take the lead!

What knowledge do you think would be relevant if I wanted to try and figure out a detail of what the party was looking at?

Know (Arcana) is rarely a bad choice when you feel like vast energies are involved. XD

Red, missing the Tin Man on the map. Mind dropping a token for him?

Got a pic for him? XD Note that you guys can edit the map, so you can (and should) add such tokens yourselves.

Added the tin man to the board. Even found a good shadowy armored look for him. XD

Any results for the knowledge roll?

Not from that situation, no.

So Joshua has never seen anything like this and has no idea what any of it could mean?

Mostly, I don't believe you have the ability to divine for magical auras, which is something of a necessity for most understanding active magical effects. A lot of things won't be easy to understand just by looking at them. (Especially some of the weirder things down here...)

These are the things you can do with knowledge Arcana.

Identify auras while using detect magic Arcana 15 + spell level
Identify a spell effect that is in place Arcana 20 + spell level
Identify materials manufactured by magic Arcana 20 + spell level
Identify a spell that just targeted you Arcana 25 + spell level
Identify the spells cast using a specific material component Arcana 20
Identify a monster's abilities and weaknesses Varies 10 + monster's CR

So without divining I could normally do it at a 20 + spell level DC. I probably didn't beat that with only a 25, but I did only roll a 4. XD The only thing that requires divining abilities is discerning the aura's of an effect, which is makes things easier for everything else, and Spellcrafts identify magic items.

Now I agree that on a lucky roll Joshua shouldn't know everything about some crazy ass abomination but half the character is a guy who delved real deep into forbidden knowledges and became a bit of a scholar ala Indy. So is there a new rule set for Knowledges, given that a lot of what we're supposed to face is unknown and weird as hell?

I'm not asking too push buttons either. I spent a loooot of skill points in Knowledge skills so I'd like to know what's the appropriate way to go about using them.

Fair enough. XD There isn't a new set of rules for knowledges, per se, but some things are simply outside your frame of reference. It'd be a bit like, oh, showing advanced computer technology to a Pathfinder wizard. He may figure out what it does, but probably won't be able to figure out how. Fortunately, those won't come up too often - just use your skills as you normally would.

(Incidentally, I'd try a Know Arcana check on that circle, if I were you. Sometimes, the best way to use a skill is to look in the right direction...)

My next guess honestly. XD Just working on dinner and waking up. PT was a bit rough today but not because of the PT, ironically. Got stopped about five minutes outside the hospital by a train... that took 40 minutes to pass. With no bench in sight I was forced to stand and wait. Man, the pain.

...The local setup allows for passage to and from a nearby hospital to be blocked for 40 minutes? o_O ...I feel like someone failed their "Profession: Urban Planning" roll...

There are bridges a few miles in either direction but I'm not in any condition to walk that far in one go, nonetheless the walk back to the road I live on.

The Illuminator's Handbook just came out, and has been added to the wiki. ^^ Most notably, the Sphere's got some new options for inflicting conditions and controlling the battlefield.