Old School Greyhawk II - Baltron’s Beacon (I7) PFRPG (570CY - Southern Keoland) (Inactive)

Game Master ALLENDM

Map should be editable now for everyone.

Drew some lines on the map to illustrate what I'm thinking. Also put a firepit at the bottom of the chute. My thinking there is that it would be unlit. Once the dogs start to enter the chute, we light it to keep them from getting to the cabin. We distribute the remaining pits for light and use the remaining barriers to reinforce weak points. Perhaps use a pole or ladder in the front of the cabin to get up to the roof.

Feel free to edit or put up something entirely different.

Edit: According to my reading of the topography, the 5' and 10' lines meet to essentially form a cliff or wall that runs kind of southwest to northeast about 50' north of the cabin. This will help funnel the dogs into the chute as well.

Threw up a bunch of stakes to simulate Thanim's proposal, does that seem about right? Assuming the south and east side of our cabin is safe, I think this basically creates a single narrow pathway into the cabin.

I adjusted it a little bit and added in some firepits. Feel free to modify...

I made a couple of slight adjustments to widen the opening to the cabin front area. One thing we could use is an escape route in case we get overwhelmed, which I put in at the left side of the cabin where the privy is located.

Feel free to veto these changes if you want.

If we want to have the opening be that large, we should probably use the top right barricade elsewhere. My concern about the escape route is that if it's an exit, it's an entrance. We'll need to have someone specifically defend there.

Edit: According to my reading of the topography, the 5' and 10' lines meet to essentially form a cliff or wall that runs kind of southwest to northeast about 50' north of the cabin. This will help funnel the dogs into the chute as well.

It is a topographical map. The lines represent height the width from one line to the other represent slope. So lines right on top of each other would be a cliff or steep incline. Lines with greater distance between each line represents slope. I put some notes in pink for you to see. You are essentially in a small glade/valley between several hills and a stream. Nice and private but not easily defensible.

Remember the trees have trunks so if you put a barricade in the same square as a tree you get some additional fortification.

Also just a note...fires outside the barricades will need to be supplied with wood throughout the night.

I have had a family emergency come up. My posting will be sporadic for a while. Please Bot Harry here thanks!

The flaw with my approach, as AllenDM pointed out, is in keeping the firepits fed. That would require people periodically leaving the protected area and feeding the fires. With so few people, that is problematic, so I have significantly modified the design. Please review and make alterations. The idea is to keep them to the northeast.

Looks good Thanim. I like the escape route to the SW, easy for us to wend our way to the stream, yet tough for the wolves to follow.

All,

I would like for us to get our momentum back on track these next few weeks. So I would like for everyone to get your post rate back to ONE POST (meaningful/game related) a day. I am going to post hard and heavy to get us on track and get this game rolling a bit stronger.

If you are going to be out of pocket let me know so I can BOT you to keep the flow going until you are back on.

Thanks!
Jack

I know I just proposed the lame idea of tying Harry up. I don't actually want to do that at some level because that could simply take a player out of what looks to be our first combat. But it does kind of seem like Harry could turn on us.

So we could decide to tie him up, but be ready to cut him loose when the attack comes and we confirm Harry is still in control.

Thoughts?

I would be OK with Harry being tied up, if the shoes were reversed then I would take the same position. There are so many unknowns here with this Plague and the effects then caution is indeed called for here.

Thanim is not ok with tying up Harry. He's been caring for them, and though there have been some unusual symptoms, there is nothing that has made him afraid for his own (or anyone else's) safety. He is philosophically opposed to such restraints unless there is an obvious danger or escape risk. He just wants Harry to continue his recuperation.

I'm not entirely sure I understand the strategy, but I moved Maja to what seems to be the larger opening--the trio of fires to the west.

Perri's Heal is only a +7 (not a class skill), but he carries a mundane healer's bag in his kit. Seems relevant as he's getting better and Thanim is falling ill.

Under CURRENT EVENTS in the Campaign Short Description, I have set up a COMBAT MANAGER spreadsheet. There is a tab for the Baltron's Beacon Campaign and any complex or large encounter will be handled through that so everyone can look at it and tell what is going on as far as Initiative, which round it is, who has gone, and the status of the players, NPC's and such. The YELLOW HIGHLIGHT on ROUND column tells you which round it is. Each round that is completed and the current one will be marked in yellow. The YELLOW HIGHLIGHT in the COMBAT MANAGER # indicates who has gone. Once it has fillup we start the next round. If a PC or NPC Ready or Delays it will be noted along with the action (if needed). To the left are the PC, NPC, and Encounter initial initiative rolls. I will add the link in at times as well during combat so that you can get to it easily.

I will have a some posts up later today for us.

I would like to cast web on my portion of the battlefield to pin down group 3 without hitting torches. Any ideas?

Not sure which group is group 3, but throwing a web spell on the ledge between the path and the ravine (in the NE corner of the map) seems a good call to me.

Next spell glitterdust on the other upper group and then fireballing the last group to the south.... Battlefield control baby

I just re-read Stinking Cloud and learned the nauseated effect lasts for rounds after leaving the cloud. As a result, I would have had Maja use Twist Away based on knowing how that thing works. Which means she's staggered. Which means her movement to the door ended her turn.

Sorry to complicate things, but trying to be fair. She's pretty useless anyway while this remains a ranged battle.

I just re-read Stinking Cloud and learned the nauseated effect lasts for rounds after leaving the cloud. As a result, I would have had Maja use Twist Away based on knowing how that thing works. Which means she's staggered. Which means her movement to the door ended her turn.

Sorry to complicate things, but trying to be fair. She's pretty useless anyway while this remains a ranged battle.

You made your save so you are fine this round.

I got the flu and really bad sinus infection sorry about the delay in posting. I am feeling better. Will have some posts up tomorrow and throughout the weekend. Sorry about that...I have not had the flu in a long time so this kind of slammed the door on me.

Just a heads up next Friday I am flying into Corpus Christi to help out a football team work on defense for an upcoming national tournament so I will be on the field coaching all weekend. Sunday is also the Super Bowl so I am sure my wife and family will be watching the game so I doubt I will get much of chance to post even when I get back home :)

I will have posts up for us tonight.

AllenDM - I have a spell, Bless Weapon, available to Thanim as part of the Glory domain. Part of its benefit is that it automatically confirms crits. Since that already happens, I was wondering if we could house rule it to instead provide an increase to the critical threat range by 1 that would stack with other increases, but not with the keen enchantment. What do you think?

@AllenDM - What is your take on communal touch spells? As in, do all the recipients have to be adjacent at casting? Or can the caster use his move action to run around touching allies? My understanding of the rules is that to touch more than one, they must all be adjacent, and it takes a full action (combining the casting and multiple touches). But I wanted to check with you.

Ok, I have some time after being on the football field all day :) Lost my voice and still have another day left before I head back to Dallas.

AllenDM - I have a spell, Bless Weapon, available to Thanim as part of the Glory domain. Part of its benefit is that it automatically confirms crits. Since that already happens, I was wondering if we could house rule it to instead provide an increase to the critical threat range by 1 that would stack with other increases, but not with the keen enchantment. What do you think?

That has been our baseline so I have no issue with that. I will add that to our HR's.

Bless Weapon - Critical Threat Range increases by one. 20 to 19 - 20, 19-20 to 18-20 and so on.

@AllenDM - What is your take on communal touch spells? As in, do all the recipients have to be adjacent at casting? Or can the caster use his move action to run around touching allies? My understanding of the rules is that to touch more than one, they must all be adjacent, and it takes a full action (combining the casting and multiple touches). But I wanted to check with you.

They need to all be adjacent at casting unless otherwise noted in spell description. With it being PBP lets keep that simple. :)

Enjoy the Super Bowl AllenDM (and any other football fans) - will be tuning in at stupid o' clock as is my want since the early 80s.

Did the fireball hit?

Sylas would need to wait until the next round to cast Fireball. You cast Summon Monster III in the 3rd round (1 round). Glitterdust in the 2nd (1 standard action), and Web in the 1st (1 standard action). 4th round you can cast Fireball (1 standard action).

I assumed that would be your move on the 4th round.

Ok sounds good

The air elementals were ingenious...It changed the complexion of the entire encounter with one smart spell :) I would also add that placing yourself on the roof was smart it helped to control environment.

Seriously! Sylas is our savior!

I am only doing what wizards always should do. Tactical battlefield equalization and strategic team assistance. I should mention I have been playing wizards for almost 35 years and they are my favorite class. I just try not to type cast myself and play them all the time!

I am only doing what wizards always should do. Tactical battlefield equalization and strategic team assistance. I should mention I have been playing wizards for almost 35 years and they are my favorite class. I just try not to type cast myself and play them all the time!

Rangers and fighter/Wizards are my favorite classes but my all time favorite character was a half-elf Cleric. Was the only cleric I had ever played as a PC.

1)

Apologies.

Camp out with the Scouts last weekend took far more out of me than I expected. Then the normal Scouting schedule, some extra demands from work, wife's been sick, etc.

I'm seeing what I can catch-up on and get through tonight.

2)

I enjoy grunts. Rangers and Fighters are my go-to, currently. One of my all-time favorites was a Fighter-Rogue multi-class dual-wielding bastard swords with no thieving skills, but so much stealth that he had a positive modifier in his full plate. We developed a stock tactic, where the heavily armored, extremely dexterous fighter would charge THROUGH the enemy to the back lines, and then accept incoming spells from the party cleric, like, Silence 15' radius. Emasculated a LOT of enemy spell casters that way.

It seems that Paizo is finally back up from their "2-4 hour" maintenance. They are getting as bad as the cable companies.

I will have a post up later tonight.

Got me looking over the character again in greater detail, and either I'm not seeing something now, or I took a Feat I shouldn't have. Martial Mastery. It has had no effect to this point, so a correction shouldn't cause a paradox.

Am I missing something now, or was that a mistake I made that wasn't caught?

If I read the chart correctly, it requires the Weapon Group Focus feat, which I don't see anywhere, but I could certainly replace it with on a one-for-one basis. Maybe. The feats at 3+ all look to be placed where they are based on pre-reqs. Might have to look for something completely different.

The new feat is MARTIAL MASTERY which merges Weapon Focus, Weapon Group Focus, and Greater Weapon Focus into one feat.

To gain the feat you simply need to meet the prereq for Weapon Focus. Weapon Group Focus means at BAB+3 you gain WF on the entire group (no additional bonus is granted for the individual weapon. The +1 Attack is simply applied to all the weapons in that weapon's group now. Only fighters gain the additional ability at 8th level of Greater Weapon Focus which is another +1 to attack roll for that specific weapon.

I am seriously considering changing the prereq for Weapon Finesse... We had that in place (BAB +2) based on some old notions in our RL group and to be honest I really like the idea of just requiring a DEX14 and no BAB restrictions for WF but have the BAB+2 to gain AM.

The original reasoning was to give the edge to Rogue and Monk builds early on but honestly the more I review the rule the more I don't like it. If a fighter wants to start a finesse build I really think they should be able to do it at first level. Any thoughts on that from anyone?

Weapon Finesse/Agile Maneuvers -

Prereq - WF: DEX 14
AM: BAB +2

[edit] Just so you know the reason I bring this up is I am going back and forth with one of my RL friends I game with about this as he is getting ready to start a campaign up with his local group and they are using our House Rules. We are debating a few topics and this came up.

I second your opinion AllenDM. I would set the BAB requirement to +1 which allows the fighter to start the build at first level while still excluding rogues and monks to picking it up at second level.

Check. I got tripped up by the fact Paizo has published a feat called Martial Mastery with some VERY hefty pre-reqs. Human Level 16 Fighter is pretty specific . . ..

Yes, I encourage the availability of Weapon Finesse early. Agile Maneuvers has always struck me as a pointlessly weak feat. If you are already using a Finesseable weapon (and you have Weapon Finesse), then it gives you nothing. So, it only matters when using a combat maneuver that doesn't use a weapon, which in my experience is pretty rare, unless you are already playing a Strength build.

Rogues and Monks get Weapon Finesse at 1st level under the unchained and house rules, so there is no restriction there. The 14 Dex requirement is fine, but honestly, anyone wanting to spend a feat on Weapon Finesse will have at least a 14 Dex. I don't see a big reason to hold back either Weapon Finesse or Agile Maneuvers in and of themselves; however, since they have been combined into one feat, I understand delaying one of them until BAB +2. I would consider letting the player decide which one to take right away, and which to delay until BAB +2.

I second your opinion AllenDM. I would set the BAB requirement to +1 which allows the fighter to start the build at first level while still excluding rogues and monks to picking it up at second level.

Rogue, Monk, and Swashbuckler get weapon finesse at first level.

The original intent in our rule was not to weaken those classes but in all honesty, it really doesn't weaken them... And those classes get the AM.

I don't know if it changes anything for our party, but unlocking Weapon Finesse seems fine to me!

I will have a post up tomorrow morning for us.

Sorry about that. I had to jump on a work call in the AM and have been going all day.