Motteditor's Superstar 2012 Round 4 playtests (Inactive)

Game Master motteditor

Here's the discussion for the playtest of Superstar 2012 Round 4 encounters. Let's figure out what characters we're going to have and then hopefully we can get started on this tonight, when they're posted.

Okay Group 1, let's see what we've got so far:

Bombadil: Fighter (Net/Trident)
Hodge Podge: Witch
Mathias: Cleric
Me'Mori: Magus

Not a bad group. Seems we lack a skill monkey though, so I could switch to Bard/Rogue/Ranger. Or would you like a caster/secondary healer in the form of a Hedge Witch? I guess it depends what sort of Magus Me'Mori wants to be.

Ooh. Or I could be a Ninja, since I've never been one. We're allowing that, right Jacob? If everyone's okay with that, that's the way I'll go.

What are all your feelings on team feats? Take them or leave them?

I'm fine with that for ninja for this playtest, Chris. Sounds like a good mix for group 1. I'm fine with whatever you all decide on team feats.

Bombadil, on team feats:
- Outflank: I unfortunately can't take this until level 7. If we do an encounter at level 7 or higher, let's take it.

- Coordinated Maneuvers: You might be doing some combat maneuvers, but since I'll need to be flanking, we'll probably not be adjacent that often.

- Precise Strike: This is doable, but if you have other feats you'd rather use than a circumstantial +1d6, then do those instead.

I can't think of any others that we two specifically could use together.

(yeah, I'm in Team 2, but I have questions)

Question: Are we trying to go in 'optimized' or 'average' for this things? What kind of power level are we building for?

I just assume we want to be near the 'middle' of the curve, but could be wrong.

What are we aiming for?

-Pain

Pain, I figure average-plus. I think all players, even those that focus on more characterization, do some optimizing to try to get the best build. I don't think we want people dumping charisma to a 5, though, so they can get a +whatever for some other "more important" stat.

OK, I created the thread for Group 2 (Painlord, Verdigris, Mort the Cleverly Named and PhineasGage): http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/campaigns/playByPost/mottedi torsSuperstar2012Round4PlaytestsGROUP2

Just FYI, please feel free to let me know if there's a scenario that strongly appeals to you. I'm going to check them out as quickly as I can once they're posted and will try to decide which one(s) I'm most interested in, but I'll certainly take feedback, especially if I don't have strong feelings.

So we're allowed to read them? I was just going to let myself be surprised. :p
Character's almost done.

Up to you, I guess. We'll have several days to vote after the playtests are done, I suppose, so you can look at ones we don't run afterward to decide which get your votes.

At this point, barring objections, I'm leaning toward running The Hungry Mountain Dragon first for Group 1.

The Hungry Mountain Dragon encounter works for me, really any of the 8 are fine, I'm just glad to be part of the playtesting.

Here is my character edited to level 6, point buy at 15, wealth set at 16k distributed as Sean suggested:

OK, since we seem to have four players statted up, let's get one group running. I'm going to switch Kyson and Kazmuk to Group 1, along with Bombadil and Hodge Podge (giving us a figher, witch (or ninja?), cleric and oracle).

Group 2 will now be Mathias, Me'Mori, Mort and Phineas. If none have posted by this evening (Eastern Standard), I'll start taking replacements. Sorry to have to be so quick, but we've only got a week.

Gotcha. Character will be up later today. I see our group has a cleric, what are the other two, so I know what spells she would likely have?

Kyson has been fixed for Lvl 6 and is ready to rock.

Memori -- Looks like Mort prefers cleric, and Phineas sounds like he's got an illusionist, so I'd go with more combat-focused spells, but I'd say do whatever. I think the idea is something that could be done for PFS play, which could have four random characters of random classes together from what I understand.

Are we getting traits?

I still want to buy a bunch of minor mundane items with my leftover gold, and write out the special abilities in full, but this is basically it:

Two traits.

Ah! I can't believe I missed my name in that post about group two. Walden will be up to level six by the end of the evening!

Just FYI, group 1 gameplay has started in the appropriate tab (though obviously combat may have to hold up until characters are all finished).

Phineas, glad you're still aboard.

Thanks for that, I wasn't aware (first time!).

I have my traits and various equipment minutiae picked out. Posting...

Finishing up for Myrie now.

I should also add to my list of "Other" items: one immaculate fundoshi. :D
(You know, just for authenticity's sake.)

Thanks, Chris, I can never unsee that image now...

dude, I couldn't not look after Jacob's post, that ain't right!

At this point we post in initiative order? So it will be: Kazmuk: 20 , Kuri: 13 , Marcelio: 12 , Kyson: 7 , Hull: 5

Bombadil, please post whenever you can. I'll run the events in initiative order, though.

Also, everyone can/should feel free to make any type of knowledge/whatever checks they'd like as well.

Ah, great. I was actually waiting for initiative order too. Can we give conditional actions then? "If Marcelio doesn't drop enemy X with his attack, I'll attack it too. If he does, then I'll attack enemy Y."

Also, I just noticed that my "Trip Arrows" are a fan conversion from a pre-CMB version. May I use them? I've been re-reading it and it seems a bit too powerful. My thought on this is that it should allow a trip attack at range, but give no additional CMB.

Also also, I see you rolled our initiatives. Do we make any of our own rolls? (attack/damage, skill/ability checks, saves...)

Chris, yes, you can certainly give conditional actions (normally, I'll sometimes change actions if they don't seem like they'll fit, but I obviously don't want to do that this time around.)

Hmm, if the trip arrows aren't actually a Paizo item, I'd probably forego them altogether. I definitely won't allow a CMB bonus on it, though.

You can make your own rolls. I generally do initiative just to speed things along. (I'll also do passive Perception and other checks, though you're free to make your own at any time.)

Thanks for all the clarifications. :D

It was released in a Paizo product (Elves of Golarion), and is in the SRD:
Arrow(s), Trip

Ah, here's a small discussion on it: Rules Discussion

In any case, I'm fine not using them, since this is a test play and we want to stick to core rules. I'll switch out for something else.

(But for discussion's sake, if I ever use the arrows in the future, I'd probably use them the same as bolas, allowing the strength modifier to CMB only if the bow is composite. The problem, of course, is the disparity in range — 10 ft. for bolas, 100 ft. for a longbow —, which may or may not be balanced by the 25g price of individual trip arrows, their chance of breaking, and the requirement of a bow. That would be a GM call.)

Interesting -- especially in that it was created by a Superstar top 16 competitor... : )

I think I'd actually keep it as a CMB+5, with nothing related to the shooter's CMB. It's basically 1d20+5 on the trip attempt after you make the attack roll (which I could however see being ranged touch...).

Yeah, I noticed that too. Still hope for us yet! :D

The only issue I could see with a flat bonus would be that it would start to be less effective as you advanced in levels. +5 isn't horrible at level 6, but as enemy CMDs increase later on...

Luckily, touch AC wouldn't be an issue, since it's vs CMD.

I think the arrows would probably get less effective, though. I don't think they'd do all that much against a terrasque, for example.

My thought was the arrow first has to hit, and then see if it succeeds in tripping the foe. I don't know, maybe that's overthinking it, but otherwise it seems really advantageous to me with the ranged trip. Maybe that's just me, though.

Our Game:
Oh, you allowed their use. Thanks!

I think your interpretation will suit our purposes just fine. It'll be harder to connect with it, but if it does, then the benefits are substantial. Game on!

General Rules Discussion:
Hmm, as far as I know, at least using bolas as a reference point, is that it's just a CMB vs CMD, the same as a melee trip attempt, except that you cannot be tripped back if you fail. There normally wouldn't be a roll to connect followed by a roll to trip.

But, as I said above, your current interpretation will work just fine, especially considering the balance issues arising from the sheer distance at which I can use the thing. :)

(Now I know how the judges feel when they go through all those wondrous items...)

EDIT: Also, I'll get on making the alias now. I just figured out how to do it. :p

All right. Did I make it correctly?

All right. Did I make it correctly?

Definitely.

Looks good to me, Hodge.

Now, let's get him into combat and kicking butt (translation: saving Kyson's scared butt).

Hmm, how do I post as the alias though? :p
Sensei's voice rings in Seiharu's ears: "You still have much to learn, young one!"

EDIT: Oh.

alias...

I'll wait until tomorrow to post, since I'm not quite sure where I am on the map. One thing about my Acrobatics check: The numbers for the skills I have on my stat block are the ranks only, and not taking my ability modifiers or +3 for class skills into account. I can put the total number on there if you prefer. (I just find it easier to calculate on the fly during combat, when modifiers are changing all over the place, if I have only the ranks there.)

I'm enjoying things so far!

I think we should try getting to the next encounter by tonight/tomorrow morning. All we can really do after this is try to convince the gnomes to fly back, and possibly finally kill Hull in his coffin back at the chalet, which isn't expressly covered in the encounter description. (And we're pressed for time.)

Agreed. I think we're there. It was fun, though.

uhm...I had several errors in the stuff I posed for Kazmuk. Can I do a slight rebuild of that before we start?

Ah, and Jacob seems to agree. Good. That was fun (mostly from a characterization standpoint, but still! ;p)

What's next!? :D

By the way, I totally have a mirror, which surprisingly would have been helpful in this situation. But Seiharu didn't know that.

So, what'd you all think? There were some issues I had as a GM that I'm planning to post about in the Superstar forum tomorrow, but in general I thought it was a fun, memorable scenario -- or at least could be with a little guidance from the Paizo developers.

The gnomes are supposed to be part of the crew (not sure if I explained that well enough, but I'd also picture them scurrying around more), who per the Vehicle rules can't take actions in combat outside of (though you could've killed them had you so chosen) piloting the ship. Of course, there's supposed to be twice as many crew, so I'm not sure why Russ chose to halve that.

Per Kazmuk and Kyson's talk, the casks were, I believe, there for fuel, and as Kaz noted, spilled because of the ship's motion.

I do think it could have been more challenging, but it didn't help at all that the die roller decided to just start sucking for VonTeado -- I don't think he made a single save or hit one of you. I thought the motion of the ship creating the trip hazard was a fun addition, but the acid aspect didn't do much for me.

The ship was set to basically disintegrate within 20 rounds, but of course combat didn't even come close to lasting that long.

I'll set up the next scenario tomorrow.

Verdigris, please feel free to rebuild. I won't get the next one up until tomorrow.

I had fun and appreciate the chance to play within it. I think that thread should definitely go into the record someplace.

That said, I'm going to tweak Kyson slightly (he really should speak Celestial by now) and jigger with his spelllist.

I'm happy to do the next.

I'm as excited to find out what the next encounter is as I am to find out more about our previous adventures together.

Yeah, my absolute biggest problem was that the gnomes really didn't have any purpose besides the vampire or a PC killing one of them, causing the ship to plummet. And I'm sure the gnomes are excellent air-sailors and all, but why would they not need to make reflex saves to keep from falling over too?

Any ship worth its salt is going to have these barrels tied down, too. This villain really didn't plan this through...

I would have liked to have been able to explore the chalet more. Some of those rooms looked interesting.

EDIT: I like how Kuri's working so far. He seems versatile enough (15 ki + forgotten trick is ridiculously useful). If I had to abandon ship, I would have been able to cast the ninja version of feather fall. (Sorry Kaz. :/)

When this is all over, I vote that our party continues questing, perhaps visiting a certain bee hive and flower kingdom.

I think scurrying would have helped with the "gnome question". I really enjoyed the motion issues.

edit: I enjoyed the play in general, but the motion stuff isn't something I've run into much in my regular games.

It was good fun, thanks for my intro to PBP, I'm a fan already. The encounter seemed to be more about the airship than anything else. My biggest concern about this encounter from a GM perspective would be the party gaining possession of an airship at level 6, especially if that wasn't the focus of the campaign.

No worries, Hodge. He'd go down fighting, I had the lyrics to "I believe I can Fly" all queued up!. Kaz will quest if there is questing to be done. I'm definitely sold.

My biggest concern about this encounter from a GM perspective would be the party gaining possession of an airship at level 6, especially if that wasn't the focus of the campaign.

This.

I had some thought about the parachutes: I don't think any of our characters would know what they are for or why they exist.

In magical land, all "parachutes" would likely be potions of Feather Fall or feather tokens (feather fall...custom item), right?

It's a stretch for me to think that a person could craft a magical flying vessel, but not have the ability to craft tokens/potions, etc. of Featherfall.

Secondly, a ship? What advantages are there to the ship that are better than say, a large flying carpet? Or a the Mass Fly spell? Or...

But maybe it exists to prove the power of Alchemy without magic...which might make sense inside the Mana Wastes or in a magic deprived area.

Anyhoot, enjoyed the game and the progress we made as a roleplaying team and am happy to try another.

Remember the vows we made after the BeeHive fiasco: never trust left-tentacled inquisitor flumphs...it nearly killed us all.