Acrobatics probably wouldn't have saved you an AoO here. The bigger they get the harder they get to Tumble by.
But it's nice to have in general.
Benefit: When your hit point total is below 0, but you are not dead, you automatically stabilize. You do not need to make a Constitution check each round to avoid losing additional hit points. You may choose to act as if you were disabled, rather than dying. You must make this decision as soon as you are reduced to negative hit points (even if it isn't your turn). If you do not choose to act as if you were disabled, you immediately fall unconscious.
After the first two claws hit, I'd just choose to go down.
At the beginning of a character’s turn, he may spend 1 action point as a free action to gain the benefit of a feat he doesn’t have. He must meet the prerequisites of the feat. He gains the benefit until the beginning of his next turn.
I take this to mean you can't just switch it on and off whenever.
Tanith may have chosen to let himself black out when he was hit for -36 points, however—it is a choice given in the feat description. I assumed Tanith wouldn't want to do that, but it can be retconned. In that case, Cuetzpalli would take the last eighteen points.
EDIT: What Tanith just said.
Right. I spent the AP to get access to the feat. When the feat triggered and noticed that he was hitting significantly harder then usual, I'd choose to not use it.
Edit: Oh. We're in agreement.
Yeah, I grabbed diehard because I figured the full attack would drop me but not kill me outright. With first two being more than enough to drop me, staying up for the third is a bad idea.
WHAT THE F!*$, MEARLS?
In case anyone was curious, eating two full attacks from Ebon Aspects hurts.
TG?
The loot sheet has been updated though we have a lot of unidentified blank spaces on it.
Also, what kind of pie was made? I have to know?!
Rhubarb. Took the time to make a lattice crust, too, so it looks pretty nice. :)
I demand pictures.
Too late! Half of it got ated. Hungry family.
Bah I say!
So, question: After this fight, the Three Faces of Evil is officially resolved. At that point, the adventurers are faced with a choice.
You have the option of sticking around and trying to settle things in Diamond Lake once and for all—handling business with Wierus, Smenk, and Zalamandra herself, among others.
You also have the option of simply giving the proof of Smenk's wrongdoing to Mayor Neff or the Garrison and letting them handle things.
In other words, we can run a side adventure wrapping up all the loose ends, or just hurry along Carina's reincarnation and move along to the next installment.
Either way, there will be plenty of downtime.
EDIT: The sideventure might be a tad more focused on roleplay. One potential point in favor of it is that I'm heading to Chile early September, and it might be easier if we're not in the middle of a combat-heavy module.
I'd prefer the latter option but it sounds like the former might work better for your upcoming schedule.
I'm open to either one, really!
I'm just wondering what order things are going to happen in... I'm kinda hoping Carina can come back first.
Getting Carina back sooner is my big motivation in leaning toward the latter option.
Note the "plenty of downtime" in either case. Carina getting rezzed will be the first step no matter what. I suggest you all consider a list of actions to take over the three days before her return.
Sounds good.
After just catching up on this, I'm scared to look at the gameplay thread. Damn you being on the road for our climactic fight!
(x_x)*
So, here's what Zal's planning for her three days before Carina returns:
--Priority 1: Make sure there aren't any lingering effects from the Taint Elemental's touch. Can't exactly fight raw corruption without getting a little on you, right? That'll involve going to the Garrison or Wierus (in that order of preference).
--Discreetly inform both Sheriff Cubbin & Mayor Neff of Smenk's involvement with the Ebon Triad, then let Tanith break the fat bastard's nose before he's dragged off in chains.
Eben likely won't have much of a bucket list for the immediate three days; just basically being Zalamandra's aide de camp as she does whatever needs doing in her new role as mine owner and eventual overlord of Diamond Lake.
For the less immediate future, I am imagining a shopping trip to the Free City to pick up some choice magic items/get an already masterwork item enchanted, but that likely falls in the 'plenty of downtime' option.
Step 1: Fix eyes pls
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Watch Tanith break Smenk's nose.
I hope the Garrison will be willing to help us with the after-effects of the Taint Elemental and Farrukh's eyes...
I imagine Wierus' price for his services would be gold, followed by vigorously whipping ourselves for falling victim to such evil. ;p
Well, Astraden can fix my eyes easily herself, if she would be so kind.
There is a church of Heironeous, keep in mind, which is based in Diamond Lake. It's very friendly to the Garrison (the high priest was present when you visited before), and comprises one of the more rational cults in Diamond Lake. You've already seen the cults of Cuthbert and the Old Faith. The other main cult, that of Wee Jas, dwells within the Cairn of the Green Lady. The cult is detailed in the Player's Guide.
The Garrison itself doesn't house any priests.
A shopping trip would be awesome. I think we're all pretty flush with cash at this point with no way to spend it.
Tanith's priorities:
*Pummel Smenk before turning him over to the Garrison.
*Assist Astraden in pawning the remaining loot.
*Recreationally drink/brawl to pass the time until Carina’s return.
I imagine the latter is going to be harder to come by with Smenk’s goons out of town for a while.
If the party leaves without doing the sideventure, they won't be able to pummel Smenk. He won't be arrested within the three days. Those are meant to be very much a short pause for people to rest, go over the loot (nobody's even started deciphering the Faceless One's spellbook yet), and say their goodbyes to Zalamandra—at least as a member of the party.
I think we're on board for staying home and pummeling smenk.
Some interesting facts:
The Whispering Cairn took 32 days (IRL) to complete. Three Faces of Evil took 87.
TWC took up 33 pages on the Gameplay thread and 14 pages on the Discussion thread. 3FoE took up 58 pages on Gameplay and 26 on Discussion (indicating the posts-per-day ratio was also way down).
Both adventures ended with a fight against elementals.
By the way, it just occurred to me that Cuetzpalli wouldn't have been able to crit the taint elemental anyways. Not important, since he didn't confirm.
*shakes his head in disappointment*
Don't forget--the adventure really began with Carina's death and almost ended with Tanith's death.
Kinda like how Whispering Cairn really began with Erip's death and ended with Farrukh's near-death experience.
Well, guys, I think it's time I go buy the next issue. We're not quite ready for Three Faces of Evil, but it'll make things easier if I can go over what's coming next.
So, congratulations! You've (basically) completed about 8.3% of the total adventure path. And in really impressive time, too.
I'd like to take this little milestone as an opportunity to ask: What can be done to improve? I'm not exactly the most experienced GM, in PbP or otherwise, and I know that things aren't exactly perfect. I want to be better. I've been having a blast, and I want to make sure everyone else is, too.
Don't be "polite" about it (well, do, but not to the point of not saying anything). My feelings aren't going to be hurt, and it's not like I'm going to get mad and shut everything down. If there's something you think needs to change, post it here or PM it to me.
So, time to repeat this question. What would you prefer I focus on fixing before the third installment starts?
Also, what did you all think of the Three Faces of Evil? There were definitely some mistakes made in the adventure (and more than a few from outside it, too). Was it more challenging than the Whispering Cairn, do you think?
I think you handled things very well considering the book was essentially one big dungeon crawl (something that typically doesn’t work well in PBP).
Personally, I would have probably nixed the whole Vecnan maze. I understand it’s a big thematic set-piece for the dungeon but it just felt overly complicated and too much work (especially on your end).
I appreciate the fact that you’re taking pacing more seriously and NPCing people sooner rather than later when it feels appropriate (rather than waiting some arbitrary amount of time). Gark, I don’t know if you’re a factor in this but if you are thanks. =)
The Aspect was the most dangerous encounter in the book but that was entirely mostly a factor of it being a big multi-attacking creature. If it’d have been four creatures with one strong attack each it would have been a much more manageable encounter. Single monsters with tons of hit points and lots of attacks being ‘swingy’ is just a weakness of d20. Again, I felt like you handled well.
On the subject of the maze... yeah, I'd have to agree--it took too long and just created a bunch more work for you.
The Erythnulite wing of the dungeon was better, if only because it was much easier to work with.
The Hextorian wing was well done, despite whatever bias I have. ;)
Incidentally, in case anybody was wondering about the "second endboss", the reason was simple: The adventure recommends two Ebon Aspects for a larger party. I thought that seemed a bit bland.
Of course, the Aspect was definitely nastier than the elemental, which kind of defeated the point. Either the elemental is underpowered for CR 7, or the Aspect is overpowered for CR 6. Gee, I wonder which it is.
The Aspect was not otherwise modified. Imagine how a normal four-person fourth-level party would have fared. ;P
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This is something KC agrees with Tanith on, but I like powerful solo bosses with tons of hitpoints. It's always felt more thrilling to have a tough battle against something that is way beyond any individual's ability than to have a tough battle against multiple monsters that, if separated, would be on par with the average party member.
I think just by virtue of being able to block off our exit, though, the Aspect was definitely the most dangerous fight. Theldrick's death pit was a close second. The most fun part for me was the Erythnulian temple, but overall the adventure was not nearly as enjoyable as the Whispering Cairn.
The good news is, the next adventure is written by Sean K Reynolds. I just bought the next three issues (and I happen to own the fourth by chance), so I'll start reading when I have time.
By the way, those who placed orders for things, like Tanith's cloak and Cuetzpalli's bident, get them over the next few days.
I think you misunderstood me. I don’t mind powerful solo monsters. Dragons are an iconic monster for a reason.
The problem is that solo monsters can become artificially difficult because, for them, focusing fire is a natural behavior. Four monsters at +15 to hit doing 1d8+11 is significantly less dangerous than one (even if the four somehow shared a pool of hitpoints) because the four monsters would be splitting up and attacking different characters.
I’m currently running book four of Rise of the Runelords and the party is fighting their first dragon. In order to keep the encounter reasonable, I make it a point to split its attacks across the party’s melee (with the current ‘big threat’ getting a little more attention than the rest). If I piled all of its attacks on one PC at a time it’d make the dragon far more lethal than his CR should allow.
Actually, the difference I've found is more along the lines of: Solo monsters cause more lone deaths, while groups are more likely to endanger the party as a whole.
The reason for this is action economy. A single deadly entity might kill a PC or two, but is unlikely to win the overall fight (though having many attacks helps). Meanwhile, a group of monsters is less likely to cause fatalities, but may come closer to actually winning.
Right but, at least for me, endangering the group as a whole is exciting. It’s tactically interesting. There’s lots of moving parts and stuff to do.
The dragon that does 200+ damage per round and instantly kills one PC isn’t exciting. It’s just an exercise in stacking buffs so that one PC can feasibly tank the thing long enough to kill it or it someone finds a way to save-or-die it.
(I think we're actually saying the same thing.)
I had fun overall. My experience for Whispering Cairn was purely outside looking in, but that did seem a significantly more clever dungeon than this. But it was still fun in spite of the numerous 'screw with the players' parts that seemed to be hardwired into the adventure.
So... does the way things break down basically fall under the following timeline?
3 days... downtime, brief wrapping up, set up for sideventure. We all give a big Frosty-style 'Happy Birthday' to Carina.
Sideventure happens, Tanith punches Smenk in the nose.
More downtime and potential shopping trip to use up our hard earned cash.
That's about right.
I enjoyed it. Theldrick was a bit of a t@%*, but interesting regardless.
After just catching up on this, I'm scared to look at the gameplay thread. Damn you being on the road for our climactic fight!
(x_x)*
That should say "Damn me for being on the road..."
Whoops!
I actually liked this better than the Whispering Cairn. I think the themed dungeons for each cult was cool, and the BBEG boss at the end was great (despite me being on auto-pilot for most of it). The only annoying part was the maze aspect, and that was only annoying because it was a little too complex in my opinion. It would have been better with slightly fewer passages/secret doors. That and the Kenku felt a little weird.
Cuetzpalli will pick up his bident, and assess how much money he has now. Enchanting it would be a priority, but that will likely require the sale of his axe. Other than that, he'll just hang out with Astraden and try to help her with whatever she's doing. He'll also probably say goodbye to Wierus and tell him that he's converted to Kord. Lol, that conversation is going to go well I'm sure.
Nice!
First 24 hours (until about noon on the 4th of Planting):
Astraden spends her time sulking up at the Lands' residence (not sure how many days are left to get it into shape). After sunset, she prepares remove disease and make whole, and casts them on herself and the last moldy piece of leather armor, respectively. The next morning she heads back into town to buy breakfast and talk business with Tanith (over lunch).
(Will post Spellcraft/Appraise checks in thread if we still need any?)
Second 24 hours (noon on 5th to noon on 6th):
Astraden and Tanith potentially sell off the unwanted loot - unless we want to speed along Carina's revival in out-of-game time, which is totally fine. They go around to Taggin's, Venelle's, and that fellow in the Emporium, spending most of the early afternoon. She returns home to work (but perhaps goes back into town for a few drinks around sunset).
The next morning she spends on the house, creating food and water with Olidammara's blessings.
Third 24 hours (ends at noon on 7th):
Astraden hopefully finishes work on the house, making it sturdy enough to preserve her progress if the group does decide to go to the Mistmarsh. The next morning she conjures more provisions and heads into town to join the group at Carina's un-funeral.