GM Riatin's Rise of the Runelords

Game Master riatin

Cool, Hi Katrina!

Riatin, no questions at the moment, but having never done PBP, I'll be feeling my way through the mechanics. Excited to get into it, though - to play the game, to experience this cool story (from the bits that I know about it) and to play with old friends. Thanks for getting this together!

And a quick edit: I just went and looked at the recruitment thread - dang, you had a lot of contenders! I had no idea it would be such a scramble for the one spot. @Katrina: GMT +1? What part of Europe, out of curiosity? My wife is going to Vienna this Saturday for a week of business and we've seen our share of the area.

Hey Sweetcroft, you must be the 'DW' Rei has been talking about.

Also, Hi there Katarina, it's a pleasure to have you.

I am really looking forward to this, I love a good adventure.

For those unfamiliar with how to post in the thread, typically dialogue is set off with bold text [ b] and [ /b] and out of character comments are set off by [ ooc] and [ /ooc].

So lets get this thing started shall we. :)

Good morning all!

Zafzalurg Marniklum reporting for adventure. Yes, yes, it's a mouthful. You can just call me Zaf - it rhymes with laugh and couldn't we all use a good one today. Here's one of my favorites...

There once was a goblin from Nisroch
Who liked to play

What's that? Save that one for the road? No problem

I'm ready.

(Thanks ReiToei for the invite and GM Riatin for running the show!)

Oops - I misspelled Katarina's name above... Sorry! =\

Nice start! I'll put together my first bit in a while; this dovetails nicely with Garrok's backstory so it'll probably be more narrative than future entries.

Thanks, Riatin.

Hope you don't mind if I test adding a statblock - I saw in some other campaigns how it might be handy.

You're more than welcome put your stats where ever, I like to track just my HP, Current AC, and spells and abilities used inside the gameplay thread whenever they change.

As for when and what to roll like you were asking in the gameplay thread, most of the time I'll prompt for rolls, but sometimes you can feel free to roll things like diplomacy, bluff, intimidate, appraise, sense motive or things of that nature when dealing with npc's or objects.

So if you were trying to be charming when you step up to an npc you might start off with what you were saying and then give a diplomacy roll.

I messed up and posted as Thunderous in the Gameplay thread, but then I think I changed it, though it still seems to show Thunderous as one of the characters in the campaign, hopefully, I did no major damage!

I saw that you told Rei he could attack the target, does he have to roll for that, and how does one roll dice?

@reitoei Ah! Don't worry about it, a few times I got it wrong myself. ^^

I'm from Italy! Visited Vienna once, it's a beautiful city, there is a lot to see.

To roll use the dice text format (there's a button under the post window 'How to format your text' that shows all of the useful commands, I forgot to mention it)

So you put something like this [ dice=Attack#1 ] 1d20+3 [ /dice ]

and it comes out looking like this Attack#1: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

Glad to see we're fully underway!

@Katarina - how do you activate that quick stat button? I've been digging all through the character stuff and can't figure it out. Thanks for the help, apologies for my newbishness.

Italy - great! My wife has been to Rome, Siena and Milan, but I haven't made it there yet. She says we have to go; it was one of her very favorite trips ever and she's seen a lot.

Edit: forgot to ask @Riatin: I've seen in other threads people reacting to their rolls in the post they make them, but wonder how they do that, since you can't see the result of the roll until it's posted. Do they edit after, or is there a way to see the roll first? There has to be a mechanism to prevent gaming the system, right?

Again, sorry for the barrage of questions - once I'm settled in, I'll shut up. :)

When you create a profile for a character and make a post in a game or discussion thread, under your name should be displayed what you entered in the "Gender" "Race" "Class Levels" slots in the profile.

That's why under Katarina you see "Female Human (Varisian) Witch 1". The "Quick Stats" is simply something I personally like to do. You aren't forced if you don't like to! ^^
But if you do, in the "Class Levels" field, add the information you want in a 'spoiler' (you can see instructions about how to format text when you are making a post, in the "how to format your text" box, just under the space you are writing the post itself.)

You can see the results of a roll if you click 'preview' instead of 'submit post'. Or, if you prefer, you can submit, then click on 'Edit' (on the top right corner of a post, with other commands, like 'flag', 'reply' and so on), but only if less then 1h passed since you first posted it!

Hope this helps! ^_^

Oh! And you absolutely have to come and visit Italy at least once! There is so much to see and to do! :D

Thanks Katarina, I think that covered it pretty well.

Also, I wanted to let everyone know that I put up a map of Sandpoint in the Campaign Info tab. It has all of Sandpoints attractions marked and there's a key there as well. Just in case you wanted to know where you were.

Great, Thanks again, Katarina - I wouldn't have thought to put bbcode in that character profile field. I've put the most immediately useful information there and copied my full character info into his profile.

Now I'm just going to do a quick test to see how the dice work. Don't mind me...

Test attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9
Test damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

Interesting - seems the dice rolls are generated once for your post and previewing/deleting/editing afterwards doesn't change the results at all. That's pretty cool and good to know!

Keep asking questions and figuring things out Rei, you're helping me as much as you are helping yourself.

Sorry about that. Left the spaces around the square brackets...

Hey! Looks like we're back in business... I guess Paizo released a free play test book today and that murdered the servers. Now, on with the perception checks: I need to know what's happening! :o

Between the forums going down, and problems with my own internet, I'm just gonna grab this tiny window of time and post a quick action in the gameplay thread, so if everything goes down again at least my rolls should be there!

That's a great page to link up Rei and it looks like everything was correct to me.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/combat.html

You guys are doing a great job and this has been a lot of fun so far.

Cool... Yeah things like "one action on a Surprise round" and the Action types table are handy information for the uninitiated. :)

Nice job so far, BTW - you inspire me to put some color into the character with your excellent exposition and descriptions.

Hey people!

In my last post in the game thread, Katarina just used one of her powers, the Slumber Hex, which has a few interesting implications I'd like to point out.

Assuming the goblin fails its save (and since the DC is 15 on a Will save, there is a pretty good chance it will *finger crossed*), it'll fall in a magical sleep for 1 round, during which it's considered helpless.

To make it short, this means it takes a –9 malus against melee and –5 against ranged on its AC, so it's VERY easy to hit.

Furthermore, you can perform a Coup de Grace on him, basically a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity, during which you automatically score a critical hit against it.

Sorry about this, I know how it may be boring and/or confusing if you are new to D&D to have people throw a bunch of rules at you, but since this is something Katarina may very well do times again in the future to help out melee characters, I wanted to give you all the relevant information now.

Hoping this helped (and not the other way around), if you have any questions at all please don't hesitate to ask!

You guys are doing a great job and this has been a lot of fun so far.

My sentiment exactly! ^_^

EDIT - Aaaand, since I called it, the goblin made its save... Well, uh... It's still a nice tactic! Yep... Works most of the time!... Most being the key word... -.-'

Yeah, I let the 'only a standard action on a surprise round' slide this time around. I wanted to kind of take baby steps into the system and I feel that some rules make the waters a bit muddy when you're just learning the difference between a standard, move, swift, free, and other actions, but after a while it becomes clear enough.

I'm using this as writing practice and thoroughly enjoying it.

Katarina - haha, better luck next time. Fortunately my luck came back and I think we have one serving of goblin sauce in the square :)

But thank you for that information, yeah, it super helpful, though I feel bad about you having to spell stuff out for the newbies... That's the kind of context-sensitive information that I'd never find if i were just browsing the rule book or PRD, so I really appreciate you taking the time to explain.

@Riatin - minor bookkeeping update - when I built Garrokmal, I just used HeroLab's randomize function for his height, which is strangely limited... I just noticed in the proper rule book last night that half-orcs are "6-7 feet" tall, so I'm updating his height to 6'8". Probably won't matter much but it seems more character appropriate, so I'm changing it.

No problem, just change it on your online character sheet for me too so I'll know when I'm looking for future reference.

Katarina - haha, better luck next time. Fortunately my luck came back and I think we have one serving of goblin sauce in the square :)

I can almost picture it - that nasty goblin, all gleeful and smug, just rampaging around, and then suddenly a shadow looms over him, he looks up, and there stands an half-orc barbarian, three times his height, armed to the teeth and with murder in his eyes... Goblin - "Oh, dam-" dead. ;)

But thank you for that information, yeah, it super helpful, though I feel bad about you having to spell stuff out for the newbies... That's the kind of context-sensitive information that I'd never find if i were just browsing the rule book or PRD, so I really appreciate you taking the time to explain.

No problem at all, I'm happy to help! ^_^

I thought Garrockmal seemed a little short... but my guy is 5'4" so I shouldn't poke fun.

Got some more reading to do now that we've done a little combat, then some of this stuff will make more sense.

Katarina and Riatin, please feel free to keep explaining stuff if you have the inclination, throw the whole rulebook at us if you want. We can always choose not to read it if it's a bit much, but I find it all fascinating.

I have about an 11 hour window where I am going to or from work and no smart phone, but it seems to be working out well so far just checking before and after work. Maybe it's time I stepped into the 21st century an got a data plan...

This is more fun than I have had in a game for a while, the gameplay posts are especially fun to read.

Thanks everyone!

Katarina and Riatin, please feel free to keep explaining stuff if you have the inclination, throw the whole rulebook at us if you want.

Just as an FYI what I keep doing is when someone uses something that looks like a keyword, I just search it on paizo.com/prd - that's how I knew in a Surprise round, I could move or attack, but not both. Kata keeps linking to d20pfsrd.com and I intend to try using that more - a little more whitespace helps legibility and the information looks pretty much identical.

I'm having fun, too! Beats wiping on Majordomo Executus all night. :D

Beats wiping on Majordomo Executus all night. :D

Reckless mortals! None may challenge the Sons of the Living flame! *evil grin*

Just to elaborate more on the surprise round since it's come up and cause I'm bored at work and want to spout rules and because this will no doubt be useful to Rei and Thunder in the future. Most of you are probably aware of my wordiness.

There's a specific action called a charge that you'll probably want to look at (it's sort of the barbarian/melee wheelhouse). A normal charge allows you to basically do just that, run at someone and attack them at the end of your movement, it provides a +2 to the attack, allows you to move up to double your move, and roll an attack. There is a -2 penalty to your AC though, and you must 'charge' at least 10 feet, so it's not perfect. In most normal combat this is a full round action. Charge

In the surprise round you can do a variation on the charge called a partial charge, this has the same rules and restrictions, but you can only move up to your movement distance. Many melee characters opt for this action during a surprise round as opposed to simply moving.

Any comments or additions are welcome.

Did you quote that from memory Riatin? If so, I am impressed, what has it been, 7 years since anyone has been in MC?

Sometimes I miss that game.

Hahaha - Sorry! I shouldn't have gone there (we're old friends from World of Warcraft for those that don't know, and yes, it's been a LONG time since MC) - I didn't mean to distract by mentioning it. Now that it's out there, though: I watched some BlizzCon video about the next expansion and it looks good enough that I might play. You never know. :)

But I'd still totally do this as well, because I'm having a good time and Riatin is doing a great job and I'm enjoying playing with friends new and old. I'll be trying out that Charge action on my next go - hope I don't mess it up. Thanks for the protips!

No, there's no way I could pull that out of the memory, I had to look it up.

It was bound to come up sooner or later :)

Gonna be at work for the next 11 or so hours, so Riatin feel free to act for me after Katarina acts. I am pretty sure the only thing I am likely to do is charge any goblin she doesn't cast a spell on. Will be fun to see what happens.

Go ahead, and I think I can explain it in subtext as things progress, shouldn't be too much of a problem as these guys catch on to things very quickly.

Ok, will do! But just to make your burden lighter, I'll leave a quick post here to explain a few things myself.

Here we go again guys! Since Katarina is going to use a particular spell with interesting implications, I'll elaborate a bit below.

Enlarge Person is a first level spell that many classes can cast.

At its core, it does the following:

Doubles target height and multiplies its weight by 8 (so a Medium target becomes Large)
Target gets +1 on damage rolls with melee weapons, but -1 to attack rolls with ranged weapons.
Target's weapon gets enlarged, and does more damage (for instance 1d8 becomes 2d6).
Target gets -2 penalty on AC.

Seems pretty lackluster right? Here's when this becomes interesting: when a Medium creature becomes Large, it changes its Space, Reach and Threatened Area.

If you imagine the battlefield as a chessboard, then a Medium creature occupies 1 square and with a 'normal' melee weapon (like a longsword), he can attack the bordering 8 squares.

But a Large creature (check Large(Tall) in the link above), occupies 4 squares and can attack targets adjacent (5 ft. away, the 8 squares mentioned above) or 10 ft. away.

Couple this with how Attacks of Opportunity work (mainly, you get a free attack against a creature that EXITS one of the squares you threaten), and what happens?

A medium creature (or smaller) that tries to engage a large one in melee with a non-reach weapon, will provoke an AoO (Attack of Opportunity) before getting close enough to actually strike.

Granted, without Combat Reflexes (a talent many players take for characters they know will spend a lot of time in melee), you can only do ONE AoO a turn, but still at lower levels you just doubled your number of attacks, which isn't bad at all! ;)

There are actually a few other things that get changed when Enlarge Person is used (Intimidate, Sunder, Combat Maneuvers, etc...), but if I can give my advice do NOT Look them up now, or this may get confusing fast!

If my explanation was terrible, I'll make it up to you and post an example of theoretical fight to clear things up, and of course if you have questions ask away!

I hope this helps! ^_^

Not terrible at all - I get it, and the d20pfsrd page has all the information I need. (I was hoping Hero Lab would let me just check a box for the condition, but that's not one that's covered, boo.)

I'll just be a little more descriptive about my math when I make rolls to be sure it's all correct. Seems like the three main stats you mentioned above are the only ones that will factor in at the moment.

This oughta be fun!

Rei, in Hero lab, if you go into the Adjustments Tab and then add a new spell adjustment, you can select Enlarge Person and it will do all the math and such for you.

Duration is 1 minute.

Also your fatigue would be gone by this time.

So I thought a good use of this space would be to go over a rule every other day or so, not only to kind of detail them for you but to help me review them as we go.

Today I'll pick flanking because its an important tactical ability. Flanking is when two allies take up opposing sides of an enemy, thereby making it divide its attention between its attackers. Flanking is by and large a melee only ability and provides a +2 flanking bonus to attacks for both 'flankers.' In the case of a character that can do sneak attack damage (rogue, bard, ninja), flanking also allows the most reliable method to deliver that sneak attack damage. Zaf will eventually get sneak attack as a bard ability, but its good tactical knowledge for everyone and a valuable bonus.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled mayhem.

The diagrams on Flanking on the two PRD sites were helpful for understanding that.

Re: Garrok's shield - he has been using it; I've mentioned it a couple times. It's a Heavy Wooden Shield and I don't see anything in the item data or Hero Lab (where it has been marked as equipped all along) about an attack penalty. If it's in there, it should be accounted for - so far I've managed to reconcile all effects with the net bonus numbers shown in Hero Lab.

But you're right with my net AC this round being 14 (according to what I'm showing), so I don't think it makes a difference at the moment.

That AOO turned out to be handy, though. ;)

Re: Garrok's shield - he has been using it; I've mentioned it a couple times. It's a Heavy Wooden Shield and I don't see anything in the item data or Hero Lab (where it has been marked as equipped all along) about an attack penalty. If it's in there, it should be accounted for - so far I've managed to reconcile all effects with the net bonus numbers shown in Hero Lab.

That was directed at thunder, I changed the post to be more clear.

A shield provides a static +2 shield bonus but means that the arm using it can't be used for any other actions like wielding a weapon or using a two handed weapon. A buckler provides a +1 shield bonus if you are not wielding a weapon with the hand its on, however you can choose not to use it (though still attached to your arm) and wield a weapon with that hand, but you take a -1 attack penalty with any attack involving that hand. It's a bit more versatile than an actual shield, but with less protection and a slight drawback.

Yep. you were correct, not using my buckler. I figure I will switch to mace and buckler if I feel more threatened... like maybe right now having lost more than half my hit points!

Since I lost some HP, I finally got around to making that stat block.

My questions, can I switch to Mace/Buckler as a move action and then still attack next round?

Can I still use the arm that was slashed by the goblin (I assume I can, but you never know)?

Oh! Oops - my mistake.

Backs slowly out of the room...

Dropping a weapon is a free action. Sheathing a weapon is a move action that provokes an attack of opportunity. (Most people drop their weapons in combat)

Drawing a weapon is a move action that provokes an attack of opportunity.

Donning a shield is a move action that provokes an attack of opportunity.

So switching weapons is risky in combat, drawing a shield is also risky in combat, and doing it all will take quite a bit of time.

Dropping the spear, and using a move action to draw the shield, then another move action to draw the mace is do able in one round though.

A couple other defensive options are to fight defensively which gives you a -4 penalty to attacking, but gains you a +2 AC bonus. You can also go on total defense which gives you a +4 AC but doesn't allow you to attack.

And there are other more complicated options later, but none of those apply at the moment.

Any mechanical penalties I will try to put in blue text, like the goblin falling prone. That was more just a dramatic flare thing to make the fight more interesting. Fumbles on a 1 attack roll are fun from time to time, but I use them sparingly. (there's a fun fumbles and criticals deck we use for our table games, but that would be a lot of extra rolling for everyone and I'm trying to keep it streamlined.) Your arm is fine, just spicing it up with some flavor text.

Question about effect timing: Katarina's Slumber Hex lasts 1 round/level, so 1 round. When exactly does it wake up - is it considered awake after Kat's next initiative pass, or does it not wake up until its initiative?

I'm mostly wondering if Garrok can deliver a coup de grace on him or not.

Thanks!

Effects that last a certain number of rounds end just before the same initiative count that they began on.

So unfortunately the goblin awakens just before Katarina acts again, and it can't be Coup de Grace-ed this time... On the bright side, even if it miraculously survives Garrokmal's next attack (provided he does attack it, and he doesn't move from his spot), as soon as the goblin tries to move, BAM! Garrokmal's gets an AoO because the little monster did just exit from a square he threatens. ^_^

That's in line with what I thought (but not what I hoped, haha) - thanks for the clarification. I saw that you can't Slumber Hex the same target twice in a single day, so I figured you'd be getting away from him, anyway.

RESEARCH! :D

I figured you'd be getting away from him, anyway.

Oh, don't worry about me, I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve! ;)

The goblin's also going to provoke when he stands up from prone as well, which means, his AC will also be 4 less, even before he moves.

At the top of the page, above the tabs for Campaign Info, Gameplay, etc there's a link called Current Map. I'll be changing that regularly to reflect what each battle looks like on the current round, or if you're in a city or dungeon what that map looks like. So get used to checking there. :)