GMTheBobJones #6–19: Test of Tar Kuata (Inactive)

Game Master TheBobJones

Feel free to discuss, marching order, updates, purchases, party tricks.

So tier math - we are at 5x5+6= 31/6 = 5.16 rounded to 5, so is this Tier 6-7?

Thanks so much for taking this on, John! Much appreciated. Hope you enjoy running it for us. I'll try to keep true to Lort and just barrel in where appropriate... but not when it's going to get us killed.

So, if I am right, we're playing this up a tier (6-7) with the 4-player adjustment.

As for Marching order... I think highest AC to the front. That's likely Jack's hellknight. Lort can follow soon after.

Oh, and don't worry about the avatar. Lort's just in his pajamas. When he leaves for adventure, he'll put his regular gear back on.

As for purchases... well... after my belt of strength, Lort has almost no cash left for anything else. He'll just have to mooch where possible. He's still got a wand with all the right spells (50 of the same "right spell" to be precise), so should be fine.

Oh hell, just looked and no alchemist's fire. Well, there goes my last 20gp! Fire me, baby! Erm.... yeah.

Wow, welcome to tier 6-7. This is going to be fun. Seems a good adventure, a bit linear, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Thanks for running, John! I'm looking forward to it.

Tier 6-7, but with the four player adjustment. Will be tough, but doable. We'll be Relying heavily on Miro's singing, I think.

Oh. And I can tell that Lort and Faustus will be getting along famously!

Faustus can definitely take point, he is used to that. He will be buffing early with long term spells, including shield of faith and see invisibility. Miro, he'll point out where to glitterdust when he sees something. He hits hard, but would be a good target for heroism due to his medium progression, allowing him to use his judgements for damage instead of to-hit. He'll use a lot of bane, and if he doesn't ID a target will be calling for information.

The Final Arbitration is. +1 Adamantine Heavy Mace. For now.

I still have to see what he has for cash (last played the Silver Mount Collection out of tier), but will get him updated by tomorrow. I did manage to waste prestige on being a hellknight, but technically lost that when he changed factions.

Hmmm. Lort's new profile pic is growing on me - it's a little more expressive. Both his new and old one are of Tsadok Goldtooth (from Skull & Shackles). Thinking about keeping it.

What do you guys think? Old or new?

For me, I think seeing the full pictures and that the new one is actually better armored made me feel a little differently:

http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/images/995135/052_max.jpg (old one)

http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/224823/Tsadok.jpg (new one)

It is amazing how much the profile picture matters. When I switched Finarin I hated it.

Totally a personal decision, go with your gut!

Yeah, I think I'll keep the new one for now. Finarin's pic was completely different, so I totally get why you struggled with it. At least the new Lort is just a different pic of the same character. I think I'll get used to it. ;-)

Also... really great to be playing Lort again. He's probably the character that most mirrors my own inner self. Brash, brazen and not much for ceremony or conforming to norms. The only difference is that he's quite into physical fitness... and I'm a roleplayer.

Will be awesome to play with 5/7ths of the Drongos on that GenCon Friday morning!

Ok, so I am waiting on Cyrus and Ibid to update taglines.

Amaranti and Faustus not sure what the modifiers are in your tagline. Is your tagline buffed currently?

For marching order I have:

Faustus Amaranti/Kaisharga
Lort Cyrus
Miro Ibid

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Dramatis Personae updated, and pictures coming soon, I used Photoshop. (pats self on back)

And how nice is it to have the maps included in the Mods for season 6!

All purchases need to be retconed by tomorrow, 5 PM CDT

Sorry for pushing the beginning so fast, we will resume a normal pace shortly.

As a note to all I will be offline Saturday and Sunday due to family obligations/Mother's Day. Last post Friday afternoon, then we will resume on Monday.

No problems! Nice to be able to get some more posting in than usual. As for marching, it might be nice to have Lort alongside Faustus and Amaranti/Kaisharga in the second rank - since they have reach. ;-)

Been loving the maps ever since I first saw them in 6-12.... loving he creature entries more (I've always been able to extract the maps anyway).

Picture of Menkha

Nice! Very un-dwarven!

I feel like I should be Eddie Murphy.

Golden Child reference?

Cyrus is finally updated! Woo!

No purchases - going to see if I can save my money... might be a fool's errand. we will see... :)

You win the prize!

Guess lunch will wait, RP and RL.

Quick and dirty foot race rules.

If your base speed is 60' you need to move 1 square
If your base speed is 50' you need to move 2 squares
If your base speed is 40' you need to move 3 squares
If your base speed is 30' you need to move 4 squares
If your base speed is 20' you need to move 5 squares

Give me an Acrobatics check, and a Fortitude Check. For ever 2 you clear the DC, I will move you a square.

No spells, no Ki, class skills are ok.

Good luck.

No ki? Oh, I was hoping to waste some of it recklessly and pretending we didn't think there'd be a battle of some kind in the near future.

Faustus will not be participating in such... frivolity. Plus, he's got a -5 Acrobatics and move speed of 20.

Ah. I'm driving can't post properly right now for the race. Will do as soon as we stopped for lunch this looks so awesome.

-Posted with Wayfinder

STOP POSTING AND DRIVING!

We will be here, I will post lunch tonight and then fun starts Sunday night/Monday!

Ouat Monk

Cool thanks. Couldn't find it in the PRD or d20pfsrd. So 40' speed seems correct.

FYI - Faustus is now fully updated... including fixing his tag line. I should be able to keep it up, now. ;)

moves curtain aside

So more than 1/2 of you passed Menkha's impression DC, so you have earned 1 Trail Point. Should you choose to accept Itephta's trail, you will earn Trial Points for successes. We will go into that in more detail tomorrow. Slowing down a bit so we can concentrate on RoW.

Please don't slow down for RoW! This is the game with a deadline. RoW won't be done for 1-2 years minimum!

TEST OF TAR KUATA

So this is how it will work, in a bit you will have a guide that will conduct a series of test on you. Most will be a skill check of sorts. If one persons passes, you get 1 Trial point. If at least 1/2 of you pass, you get an additional 1 Trail Point.

Your goal is to get at least 7 Trial Points, but bonuses await for 12 or more.

I could do this like the chase scene, but there is too much good RP.

So RP your test, the add in your skill check afterward. I will provide you with what skills you can use, but not DCs. I will tell you when the tests are done how many Trial Points you accumulated. There will be hints in the RP, so read what I write.

I will start the trials as soon as I can get a proper post up.

so read what I write.

Also a good general rule for players and GMs alike when reading the posts of other players and GMs alike! ;-)

I love reading what you guys write. This is awesome.

There is reading vs Skimming. I know I am guilty of the later too much when I get behind.

So, I sort of knew that Lort and Faustus would likely be at odds (are you sure Lort is NG? He feels more CG to me). But this is kind of fun!

Playing my alignment has never been my strong suit - largely because I think that having an alignment sucks some of the fun out of roleplaying. I usually choose as neutrally as possible for my character's philosophy. For Lort, he's probably chaotic good by nature, neutral good by deed.

I do like that the two are at odds. Lort has nothing against Faustus, but as a half-orc, he's definitely more likely to stoke the fire than put it out (so to speak).

Understood. Faustus probably doesn't really care that much about the rantings of Lort, either. He's more interested in upholding Law, worshipping the Prince of Lies (and avoiding his attention at the same time).

That's kind of what I was getting at with the "found wanting" remark... I assume that the church of Asmodeus is a bit... harsh. And he also knows that his "reward" will be even harsher.

I should probably start figuring out a way to play up his Conversion Inquisition... like buying a bunch of Asmodean pentacles, and handing them out at opportune times. Not to mention contracts. Oh, just wait... he's done it before... he'll do it again.

How to play the Conversion Inquisition? I think branding a halfling would be a great start! ;-)

**Hint 2**

You need to decipher the meaning of the text. Please do this in character. If you RP the correct meaning, I will count that as a successful roll.

If you cannot figure out what it means, or you are pressed for time jet setting around Europe, Knowledge (history) or Knowledge (religion). Remember one PC success equals 1 Trial Point, 50% or greater of the PC succeed equals an additional Trail Point.

I edited my last post with a thought/epiphany that could potentially be interpreted as interpreting the meaning of the text...

Probably is a good idea to roll, even if you take a guess.

"Perhaps Nun was into other men..."

Rereads what the book should mean, reads comments, rereads what the book should mean, reads comments.

::Huh::

Ha! Nailed it.

Ok so as Damien knows there is not text for the GMs to use in the Mod. I used the Nun creation myth (Egyptian) and tweaked it a bit.

Totally enjoyed your thoughts on what it meant.

Alright, the following clarifications are not really official, but I'll see what I can do to help sort things out while we wait for the Paizo guys to stop by (perhaps).

Monkhound wrote:

Would taking 10 be allowed on the trial checks?

I don't think allowing a character to take 10 would be that much of a problem. In the first trial, doing so would possibly cost them the extra Trial point. The second trial does not involve any skill checks, so taking 10 is not possible. In the third trial, I'd say being blind counts as a form of distraction, so taking 10 is also not allowed. In the fourth and fith trials, I guess it would be ok (though they cannot take 10 on saves). So they'd only really get three chances to Take 10. That's my interpretation, at least.

From the author. You all completed the 4th Challenge except for Amaranti. Strikeouts mine

Oh, I guess we also should have checked to see what the balance checks were ;) That's probably right out of core, isn't it?

Remember depending on if you saved the DC scaled for the balance challenge. So maybe Take 10 on the first check and see where your save landed. If you have a cruddy save, the DC just went up +5 and taking 10 would most likely be a bad idea.

Yup. Totally understood, and totally generous of you.

Was going to bot Amaranti but I see that all his saves have a modifier and a modifier in (). Any idea why? I will push this along soon, you passed the challenge, so it would be for flavor only.

I would just use his un-bracketed saves. Probably something to do with being close to his eidolon or something like that.

Ok, so taking 10. As I ruled earlier totally cool with that.

However, this mod has taken some liberties with the skill checks to make it more flavorful.

There's one thing to keep in mind, though, which is not really in the text but was discussed during development: if you take the balance and the climbing tests, for instance, these take place during a certain timespan. The spire is VERY high (200 ft. if you go check Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Osirion, Legacy of the Pharaohs), so it would require a ton of climb checks, which would get really boring really quickly in gameplay. So, the Climb checks, much like the Acrobatics checks in trial 4, are simplifications to represent the task as a whole.

[EDIT] Regarding the Climb: a character with a speed of 30 ft. would need 27 successful checks to Climb the spire.

So because of that, Climb does not work like normal, i.e. not making progress, catching yourself while falling, accelerated climbing.

So here is the official rules clarification, Can I take 10? Yes. If you fail any of the 3 climb checks, you fall, no rolls.

So I have Lort with a 15 Take 10 Climb check, and Cyrus with a 16 take 10 Climb check.

Due to the rules clarification, you have 2 options, proceed with a
15, 15, 15 for Lort; OR Lort Rolls x3
16, 16, 16 for Cyrus; OR Cyrus Rolls x3.

Please continue to discuss or clarify as needed.

That's how I thought it would work... except (as per standard climb rules) don't you only fall (and therefore fail) if you don't make your roll by 5 or more?

ie. As you wrote:

If a PC fails a check by 5 or more, he falls and fails the test.

Nothing from the author seems to countermand that (or the normal climb rules, which match the trial rules).

A Climb check that fails by 4 or less means that you make no progress, and one that fails by 5 or more means that you fall from whatever height you have already attained.

So, if Lort makes no progress when he takes 10 the first time, he'll switch up to rolling. Is that cool or not?

Ok, I am totally waffling on this... But with that explanation I think I might rather take my chances with the roll... Odds are I won't hit 10+ three times in a row, but I suddenly don't like the chances if just a 16 working. Pretty sure this may affect Cyrus' next choice of Ninja tricks... Maybe...

-Posted with Wayfinder