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So, we basically have four options. I mentioned them on the Discord, but to be sure we're all on the same page:
1. We switch to narrative-based--basically a fast-track to at least end the story properly.
2. We switch to PF2. I'm fully open to helping people through this system, as well as homebrewing in anything that doesn't translate properly. I've been doing a lot of design in PF2, and I have two friends who are very immersed in it--one of whom professionally--so I feel pretty comfortable making new archetypes or feats where it's needed. Like, the concept of a bloodrager hasn't gotten much official support yet, but I'm confident we could figure something out.
3. We switch to an alternative rules-light game like Savage Worlds. This theoretically works fine, but I don't know Savage Worlds, and I'm honestly not super keen on learning it? Which is obviously a problem for everyone else learning PF2, too, which is why I'm not ruling this out. Rules-light is a better way to end things than rules-none.
4. We either find a new GM or try co-GMing and stay in PF1.
Well this is probably not going to be very helpful but for the record:
Option 1: 8/10
Option 2: 4/10
Option 3: 8/10
Option 4: 6/10
None of the options are optimal, I think, but I'd be happy to play in any of them. Since I posted this on Discord but Jelani can't see it, I should also say that I will only be able to post on weekends for the near future. I am getting reduced hours in November though so hopefully I will have more time then.
I'm basically happy to roll with whatever, because my IRL responsibilities (which just unexpectedly and drastically increased) are so much at this point that I can't be responsible for anything here other than showing up and posting. So, yeah, I'm very flexible on how we move forward.
I haven't leveled up Cuetzpalli yet, or looked at the loot, because I didn't want to do it if I have to then just turn around and remake him under some different rule set.
Does that fact that we're moving again mean I need to figure out my level up in PF 1 rules?
No, don't worry--my promise to myself is to formally decide which option we're taking by the end of this dream conference. X3
Okay, I think I'd like to try co-GMing! We'll try it for a while and see how we're feeling. If it's slowing things down too much, or causing too much of a clash in styles, we can revisit the question at the next level-up. Sound good?
I like the sound of that!
Sure. I'll try to get leveled up ASAP.
It's a plan, then. I'll send Rynjin encounter details--the general outlines of encounters, or the stats, if it's something covered in the original adventure--and leave it up to him how to design it. I've been thinking about putting an encounter pre-"Mournful Song" in the forest, just to get a feel for the balance of powers before we go to the big story fights.
+1 BAB
+3 skill points
+1 Str
+1 fort
holy smite bloodline spell
angelic protection bloodline power, which means I no longer need my ring of protection +2 if someone wants it.
one additional second level slot
Recalculated all my attack routines and realized I'd been leaving hella stuff out
Level 16 (War priest 14)
+10 HP
+1 fort and will
+1 BAB
+4 skill ranks (diplomacy x1, intimidate x1, perform x2)
+1 4th and 5th level spell slots
+1d6 fervor healing
I'll try to get Carina levelled up after work tomorrow.
Working on levelling now.
Level Up Summary
+5 HP
+1 INT
+1 BaB
+1 Fort/Reflex
+9 Skills (+1 Craft *Alchemy*, +1 Diplomacy, +1 Heal, +3 Perception, +3 Sense Motive)
New Discovery: Grand Mutagen
--The alchemist's mutagen now grants a +6 natural armor bonus, a +8 alchemical bonus to one ability score (Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution), a +6 alchemical bonus to a second physical ability score, and a +4 alchemical bonus to a third physical ability score. The alchemist takes a –2 penalty to his Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma as long as the mutagen persists. An alchemist must be at least 16th level and must possess the greater mutagen discovery before selecting this discovery.
New Formula: Heal
I may not be able to post until Wednesday; got a packed schedule tomorrrow with a doctor's appointment, client appointment and it being my day to cook.
Levelup:
+1 BaB
+1 Fort/Will saves
Greater Armiger's Mark
+8 skill points
Honestly, not a super impressive level for me, I thought there was an extra Maneuver known at this level.
I can trade out an old one though, which I'll mull over.
Edit: Traded Iron Shell for Adamantine Shell.
So, Gark is pretty unavailable, so we're running with Schrodinger's Leveled-Up Cleric for now. Here's Astraden's spells for today, treating her as if she's leveled up with an extra 7th- and 8th-level spell.
Cleric spells prepared (CL 15th, concentration +19)
- 0-level (4) - create water, guidance, light, stabilize
- 1st-level (4+1+D) detect law, liberating command, obscuring mist, protection from law (D), shield of faith, shield of faith
- 2nd-level (4+1+D) calm emotions, invisibility (D), lesser restoration, owl's wisdom, shatter, silence
- 3rd-level (4+1+D) dispel magic, magic circle against evil, magic circle against evil, magic circle against law (D), magic vestment, prayer
- 4th-level (4+1+D) - blessing of fervor*, communal resist energy, communal resist energy, death ward, divination, --(D)
- 5th-level (4+D) - breath of life, communal air walk, dispel law (D), plane shift, --
- 6th-level (3) - greater dispel magic, find the path, wind walk
- 7th-level (3) - greater scrying, summon monster vii (2)
- 8th-level (2) - spellscar*, antimagic field
If anyone has alternative suggestions, let me know.
Of these, wind walk, communal air walk, communal resist energy (2), death ward, blessing of fervor, prayer, magic vestment, magic circle against law/evil, invisibility, owl's wisdom, shield of faith and protection from law are the buffs of note.
Notably, it's about five hours' walk through the forest to get to the center where you heard the music. You could fly over, but it's a tall, thick forest canopy, and the journey down isn't necessarily easier or safer than the journey through. You can see things crawling through the canopies, and an aerial approach is a lot less subtle.
This is my Subtle GM way of suggesting you walk and do the atmospheric forest crawl, but if you want to air walk, we can definitely roll with that.
I'll figure out the buffs once I know the plan of approach.
I was hoping for bear's endurance, otherwise looks good to me.
Amended list:
Cleric spells prepared (CL 15th, concentration +19)
- 0-level (4) - create water, guidance, light, stabilize
- 1st-level (4+1+D) detect law, liberating command, obscuring mist, protection from law (D), shield of faith, shield of faith
- 2nd-level (4+1+D) invisibility (D), lesser restoration, owl's wisdom, bear's endurance (2), silence
- 3rd-level (4+1+D) dispel magic, magic circle against evil, magic circle against evil, magic circle against law (D), magic vestment, prayer
- 4th-level (4+1+D) - blessing of fervor*, communal resist energy, communal resist energy, death ward, divination, --(D)
- 5th-level (4+D) - breath of life, communal air walk, dispel law (D), plane shift, --
- 6th-level (3) - greater dispel magic, find the path, wind walk
- 7th-level (3) - greater scrying, summon monster vii (2)
- 8th-level (2) - spellscar*, antimagic field
Buff Durations:
1 hour/level: wind walk (6 targets), magic vestment,
10 minutes/level: magic circle against evil (2), magic circle against law, find the path, antimagic field
10 minutes/level (split in 10-minute intervals): communal air walk, communal resist energy (2)
1 minute/level: bear's endurance (2), owl's wisdom, shield of faith (2), death ward, invisibility, protection from law
1 round/level: blessing of fervor, prayer
Clunk will take magic vestment, since that's what he did last time. Cuetzpalli is looking for bear's endurance, but remember that you have an overland journey to worry about. You might not want to take the 16-minutebuffs just yet!
Also! I'm actually talking in the Discord about implementing a new house rule for buffs, since those are a major slow-down for us in general. The house rule is meant to standardize buff durations. Borrowed from a friend:
SPELLS CAST AT CASTER LEVELS 1-4
24 hours: all day
1 hour/level: 1 full dungeon (or a journey to a destination that spans no longer than 8 hours)
10 minutes/level: 3 encounters (or uneventful half-hour periods, such as while on a journey)
1 minute/level: 1 encounter
1 round/level: counted normally
SPELLS CAST AT CASTER LEVELS 5-9
24 hours: all day
1 hour/level: 1 full dungeon (or a journey to a destination that spans no longer than 8 hours)
10 minutes/level: 3 encounters
1 minute/level: 2 encounters
1 round/level: 1 encounter
SPELLS CAST AT CASTER LEVELS 10+
24 hours: all day
1 hour/level: all day
10 minutes/level: 1 full dungeon (or a journey to a destination that spans no longer than 8 hours)
1 minute/level: 3 encounters (or uneventful half-hour periods, such as while on a journey)
1 round/level: 1 encounter
Extend Spell increases the spell's duration by one step. Spell durations split between multiple targets (like water breathing) are reduced by one step, or two steps if split between more than six creatures.
Also, if you have an existing magic item deliberately increased at a higher level for duration purposes, you'd feel free to retcon in the extra gold if it's not quite at one of these cusps.
In this case, cast at Astraden's level, a spell like bear's endurance lasts you for up to an hour and a half of travel, or three encounters if you're clearing a dungeon with encounters right next to each other. Meanwhile, magic vestment is just treated as an all-day spell.
Thoughts? Unless there are any strong objections in the next day, I think I'm going to implement this.
Not sure how good I'll be at tracking it, but sounds reasonable to me.
We can hold off on the short duration buffs until we get there, yeah.
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I'm going to be pretty out of the swing of things for the next couple days, but I'll try to make at least a tiny bit of progress every day. Today it's listing Astraden's buffs on people.
all day: magic vestment, magic circle against evil (2), magic circle against law, find the path, antimagic field, wind walk
1.5 uneventful hours: bear's endurance (2), owl's wisdom, shield of faith (2), death ward, invisibility, protection from law, communal air walk (assuming 6 targets), communal resist energy (2)
30 minutes' travel or 1 encounter: blessing of fervor, prayer, and all the communal spells if you include everyone plus Clunk
Astraden will cast magic vestment on Clunk, magic circle against evil on herself, and find the path on Cuetzpalli to find the quickest route to the forest's center.
She plans to cast communal resist energy (sonic) and when the group is closer to the center, along with most of her support spells.
Cleric 6/soul warden 1/cleric 1/soul warden 1/cleric 2/soul warden 3/cleric 1
New Feat Spell Penetration
(5+2+1)x2=16 hp
BAB +1
Fort +1, Ref +1, Will +1
Spellcasting: CL +2 (+4 vs. SR), concentration +2, +1 8th-level spell, +1 7th-level spell, +1 6th-level spell, +1 5th-level spell
Channel damage +1d6
Channel energy +1d6 to undead
Trickery domain copycat +1 round (+2 with robe), master's illusion +1 round (+2 with robe)
2+1+1 skill points in soul warden class: +1 Bluff, +3 Knowledge (religion)
2+1+1+1 skill points in cleric class: +1 Knowledge (religion), +1 Linguistics, +1 Perception, +1 Sense Motive, +1 Spellcraft
New Language Celestial
Harvest +1 use per day
Undead imposition12 action points
It's been four years since last level up, apparently. Mind completely f+!*ing blown. (Last time we leveled up I was apparently in the middle of moving - not to our current apartment, but to the apartment before that!)
Anyway.
Cleric 6/soul warden 1/cleric 1/soul warden 1/cleric 2/soul warden 3/cleric 1/soul warden 1
Ability score increase +1 Wisdom
5+2+1=8 hp
BAB +1
Spellcasting: CL +1, concentration +1, +1 8th-level spell, +1 7th-level spell
Trickery domain copycat +1 round with robe, master's illusion +1 round with robe
2+1+1 skill points in soul warden class: +1 Knowledge (religion), +1 Linguistics, +1 Perception, +1 Spellcraft
New language Ignan
New spells from channel casting Disrupting weapon, halt undead, searing light. Astraden can now also prepare command undead as a 2nd-level spell.
Corpse whisperer +1
Bonus feat Channel Smite
Harvest +1 use per day
Undead imposition +1 DC, +1 round duration
13 action points
Had a very busy day, but I'll try to get the encounter launched proper tomorrow!
Well, I wound up spending literally my entire day in the kitchen and my last few hours of "technically today" catching up on NaNoWriMo, so... well, tomorrow should be fine. Monday and Tuesday are always my busiest days. Tomorrow will be fine, unless I get absolutely terrible news on my RPG Superstar entry. :P
So, Rynjin and I are planning to move things to Roll20! I think we delayed because people's phones couldn't handle it, but Rynjin has some sort of premium thingamabob that should make that work, I guess? My focus is on getting that rigged today.
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Yeah, as long as I'm GM people should be able to access via mobile. Then I can give KC GM privileges as well.
Nice! I like Roll20
I will aim to get the combat started properly by around the end of the week, now that the map is all set up! Thanks to StormDragon for that. NaNoWriMo's just keeping me busy and it's a bit of a balancing act. Yesterday I spent all day baking a birthday cake and dinner for a roommate and had to cram until 11:57 to hit my nightly wordcount goal. I'm tired lately!
I'm going to take today specifically off from PbPs, so I'll get back to work on the update tomorrow! I just need fewer plates spinning in my head. :)
Sorry, all, Thanksgiving sort of wrought havoc on things, and it's been all I could do to keep up with holidays, NaNoWriMo and work. Now that things are beginning to quiet down, I hope to resume things soon.
Yeah, this is turning out to be a bit of a valley, but I'm working on fixing my routine now.
As an update to everyone (I always forget that not everyone's in the Discord), I'm slowly inching my way back into PbPs and everyday life in general. Fixing my sleep schedule has been the real trick. I went to bed at 4 last night, by entirely my own fault.
As a second update, I've just about got everything but this game under handle. I'm hoping to be back to the swing of things by the end of the week.
One of these years I'll learn that NaNoWriMo is just going to be a month off. XD
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It's the end of the weekend, so gonna hit everyone with a prompt, but I know things are about to slow down as the holly-days approach.
I'll probably get the next post up on the 30th or so, when the holidays are past and I'm done decompressing from it all! I know everyone's probably pretty worn out.
I'm lowkey hoping to get caught up on everything by tomorrow as a birthday present to myself, but my other birthday present to myself is not to commit to that as an obligation, so no promises.
Got a bit of the post done, but this was a big day for executive dysfunction. Not sure how long it's gonna take for me to get everything "back online".
Alright, I'm gonna turn back to updating the game tomorrow!
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Oh, this is a silly little thing, but I'm going to be taking Sundays "off" from now on. It feels super weird to describe a game as "work", but PbPs actually stress me out more than work sometimes. They're worth it--most of the stress is entirely just from perfectionism--but if they're causing me that much fuss, they probably also need a formal day off.
Had to fix a misunderstanding on the Roll20 from memory, so let me know if anything seems out of place! I'll get the next batch of ankou actions up tomorrow.
Sorry for how badly things have slowed down! Things have been pretty hectic since... well, since November, but especially over the last couple of weeks. Since February, we've been navigating multiple moves, multiple dramas, and a few (minor) health scares. I'm very eager to get things rolling, and I think things are starting to ease up at long last. I sure hope so. I could use a break!
Things have finally started to slow down. Still some hecticity, with some friends' move into town being complicated by an incredibly toxic outgoing roommate and one of those friends basically having to camp out here until the person is gone, and we have a big furniture shopping day coming up, but overall? Better. It's nice to slowly return to normalcy!
So, literally within two days of that, I got sick. Half the household; nothing too serious. We're recovering now. It's just been a hell of a year.
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The sickness is passing, and I'm hopeful that they'll all soon be employed and housed and out of our hair.
Right now, my hope is that 2024 is just getting all of this out of its system now and the rest of the year is going to be super boring. Please don't remind me about November, I'm suppressing that for now.
Anyways, I have the next post drafted, I just need to find energy to put it all together. I'm actually extremely excited by my games right now, I just haven't had enough structure with everything going on to really keep up with any two tasks.
I'll NPC Astraden tomorrow if Gark isn't able--I've been frankly swamped as well.
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So let's see--my next few days are fairly clear, aside from some stuff I've been pushing back, like cleaning out the chicken coop and getting our new table in the house. I should be able to get things rolling again this weekend.
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I've been making incremental progress, it's just slow. I got a lot drafted up yesterday, but today wound up being occupied with a solo mission chicken coop cleanup, a scheduled eye appointment, and baking someone a birthday cake when I found out today was their birthday.
I appreciate everyone's patience!
Doh.
Yeah, totally missed that. Pink is almost dead, so I don't really want to move. Just drop 4 from my to-hits and 2 from damages I guess?
Sorry, all, I've been neglecting things lately. Things probably aren't slowing down anytime soon, so I'm just going to have to get better at getting a lot done in a little time. XD
I've suddenly gotten hit with something fever-adjacent--best guess is a vaccine-reduced flu. It's taken me pretty much entirely out of commission for the time being.
I'm hoping to be back in working order by Monday.