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Gotcha - Smile, You're on Closet Camera!!! Now then, because neither Baerlie nor I have actually done this yet, let's have everyone give me their: Pathfinder number Faction initiative modifier Day Job roll If your character were an ice cream flavor, which would they be? Zorro, you're kinda going to want to add your character sheet specifics to your profile.
Doing it now
-Posted with Wayfinder
C'mon, everyone likes ice cream! Even the Taliban!
Razmand, do you realize you should know many more languages than you have recorded there? In addition to knowing one language for every point of Intelligence bonus you started with (I count 2, but maybe you increased your Intelligence through level gain at some point), and one additional language for every rank you have in Linguistics.
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Let's see then.
Common, Kelish, Infernal, Sylvan, Abyssal, Thassilonian, Varisian, Ancient Osiriani, Osiriani, Azlanti, Polyglot, Skald, Tien, Aklo, Undercommon
He is chelish, so he doesn't get an extra language for ethnicity. His intelligence was 13 in the beginning, so he had Kelish as a bonus language. His intelligence has been raised to 14, so he got Sylvan, maybe. Infernal he got as a freebie from a boon. That leaves 11 languages to know.
He has 9 ranks in linguistics, which give him 9 languages, and guileful polyglot gives another 4. So he is missing 2 languages.
Taking Draconic and Orc.
He doesn't get a language for increasing his Intelligence with levels - that only applies at character creation.
I stand corrected - I knew it granted retroactive skill points, but not languages.
Ball's presently in your court, adventurers. :)
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Kind of wished to have the statues searched for magic, but it appears no one has detect magic (not even Razmand; a mistake done back in the day I regret).
And I dislike to post many time in a row. It already looks too much of a "Razmand & GM" type of discourse.
EDIT: What on earth are those blue dinosaurs and a photo of a man in poor disguise? (If that's you, shame on you!)
No, I do not look anything like him - that's just something I pulled out of the image search tool. Suffice to say, I once unwittingly found myself in a small resort town where they were filming one of the Twilight movies at the time. A waiter at a local lunch joint was wondering if I was one of the vampires from the movie. I was not. I was not wearing any noteworthy clothing, nor any makeup of any sort. That is just how I look.
To answer your primary question: Those are monsters. You can learn more about them by way of Knowledge (Arcana) and Knowledge (Nature) checks.
Honestly, I'm kinda feeling my way across a spiderweb here. The Scenario does not adequately address certain possibilities you have chosen to explore, and, well, it seems that exploring rooms requires walking into them - I've already let you do more than a stricter interpretation of the Scenario would suggest.
Now that the pedal's to the metal, I'd like to explain: The Scenario says "if the shambling mound did not detect the PCs earlier, it attacks as soon as the first PC enters the room" - so the problem's been that, between Elenial's inconceivable! tactic of using Stealth and the fact that you've been hovering just outside the room all this time, you chose to set up camp right in the grey area.
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An obligatory reference to the grab special ability.
Grab (Ex) If a creature with this special attack hits with the indicated attack (usually a claw or bite attack), it deals normal damage and attempts to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. Unless otherwise noted, grab can only be used against targets of a size equal to or smaller than the creature with this ability. If the creature can use grab on creatures of other sizes, it is noted in the creature's Special Attacks line. The creature has the option to conduct the grapple normally, or simply use the part of its body it used in the grab to hold the opponent. If it chooses to do the latter, it takes a –20 penalty on its CMB check to make and maintain the grapple, but does not gain the grappled condition itself. A successful hold does not deal any extra damage unless the creature also has the constrict special attack. If the creature does not constrict, each successful grapple check it makes during successive rounds automatically deals the damage indicated for the attack that established the hold. Otherwise, it deals constriction damage as well (the amount is given in the creature's descriptive text).
Emphasis mine. How I read it, the creature should take a -20 penalty on the grab check unless it too wants to be grappled.
Grappled: A grappled creature is restrained by a creature, trap, or effect. Grappled creatures cannot move and take a –4 penalty to Dexterity. A grappled creature takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls and combat maneuver checks, except those made to grapple or escape a grapple. In addition, grappled creatures can take no action that requires two hands to perform. A grappled character who attempts to cast a spell or use a spell-like ability must make a concentration check (DC 10 + grappler's CMB + spell level), or lose the spell. Grappled creatures cannot make attacks of opportunity.
A grappled creature cannot use Stealth to hide from the creature grappling it, even if a special ability, such as hide in plain sight, would normally allow it to do so. If a grappled creature becomes invisible, through a spell or other ability, it gains a +2 circumstance bonus on its CMD to avoid being grappled, but receives no other benefit.
If nothing else, I pasted them for reference.
Unfortunately Razmand has almost nothing against a large plant creature. And since he failed that nature check he doesn't know anything about it.
Good job, I totally missed that! I did think this thing looked a bit too scary.
What do you mean? You've already rolled a critical hit, now you roll damage.
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This is your first PbP game you're running now, right,
I'm DMing In Your Closet? I think I should take time to commend you for the time being, really like the way you run it! On time, precise, and well-formatted.
Something I try to tell almost every GM, even the weathered ones; restrain from telling faults and missing information regarding the scenario. In case some information is not included in a scenario, or some detail is not explained, it asks for the GM to fill in the void. The main point would be to make the issue seem irrelevant; local flora and fauna? Describe ordinary plants and flowers, and the sound of crickets and other insects suitable to a swamp environment. By telling the scenario doesn't specify I begin to imagine the surroundings as an endless mass of grey void.
But that's just an advice, I'm unsure whether you prefer to explain things like that to players.
Yes, this is my first time DMing online.
I guess I tried to do both - if you'll recall, I did say you found some nice flowers and a Venus flytrap, but I also told you there was no real information on the local wildlife so you wouldn't go too far on a wild goose chase (which you seemed poised to do at the time); then there was this thing with the present fight, which I felt I owed you an explanation for since it was hanging in limbo for a while there. I'll take your advice, though.
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I cannot count the number of times I have over-detailed the non-given descriptors such as flora and fauna. It seems it is best to be generic when detailing unimportant things like ambience and the like while leaving the details for something worth following.
(Point of reference, I once named an NPC Red Herring, and the party either didn't get the blatant clue or were just playing along a little too well.)
-Posted with Wayfinder
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Rules question: Is the water considered difficult terrain? If so, does Razmand's surefooted ability work in it?
I'm not positive, but I don't think so - it's just that you have to swim.
"Wait up, I'll go trigger the eddies."
I was a little worried about that - did I not convey that before?
So, here I am struggling between too heartless and too helpful as I watch you deal not particularly well with this challenge. Allow me to at least try to make sure you know what you should know: That these eddies are simply visible signs of what you suspect to be pit traps somewhere beneath the water that are like the pit trap you already faced in the first room....
What do you think? Am I maybe being too interventionist? The strictures placed on an Organized Play DM make it harder than it otherwise would for me to be sure what's kosher....
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No no, that was good. I think the game had stalled primarily because we felt lost. Imagine running a game to a live table and when things look tough the whole table turns silent and no one does anything, just fiddle books all over trying to come up with something. To keep up with the momentum (or restoring it), it requires intervention.
I forgot entirely that the water isn't clear water. I'll add in an effect that I believe would aid him in seeing the trap from close range, accompanied by his outrageous perception bonus.
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Again, I try to perform this deed just to get the game going on again. The instant we encountered swarms and realized we're underequipped, no one posted anything, waiting for some miracle to happen. What Razmand does is out of desperation; I hope this someone eliminates all swarms as once and lets us continue on the dwelling, roleplaying, and adventuring. The last time Zorro posted (as some other character) was 10 days ago, so I think this is getting out of hand pretty soon. The game was advancing well before, though.
The problem here was primarily fourfold:
- I was struggling to help you without spoonfeeding it to you, and had to make stuff up several times, which I'm not sure Society DMs are supposed to do much of
- this part of the Scenario was not particularly well-written, or at least not in light of the specific methods you chose to pursue
- your party is more poorly equipped than most to deal with swarms
- leech swarms are exceptionally dangerous, and 4 of them is a CRAZY F#%$ING B&+$@ to throw at you, even at this level (the lower tier only throws one) - and did I mention the yellow mold trap you would have triggered if you'd tried messing with the further-away trap?
15 was right on the nose!
Elenial would be apple flavor I think :D
This has been haunting me - is apple ice cream a thing in Germany? I've never seen or heard of it here.
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I don't know if they know it in Germany. Actually I'm from Austria. :D
Here they have all kind of ice cream. If you are able to make a strawberry flavored ice-cream, why not make apple, tangerin, fig, marzipan, white chocolate or even apple-cinnamon and chocolate-mint. Of course it depends on the size of the ice-cream shop. Well, Italy is not far away.
And I just found out that Apple was ice-cream-flavor-of-the-year 2013 in Austria.
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Dammit, now I want ice cream... The apple ice cream intrigues me. Though something tells me American ice cream and European ice cream are two different animals.
-Posted with Wayfinder
I don't know if they know it in Germany. Actually I'm from Austria. :D
Whoops, I missed that.
Anyways, it's your turn - make like Sigmund Freud and take your aggression out on your mummy!
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I agree that 'normal' ranged weapons do not suffer from a low strength score, but unfortunately Elenial is using a composite longbow with a +2 strength rating. As far as I'm informed that means that if she has a strength modifier of +1 or less (which she has at the moment) she suffers from a -2 penalty on attack rolls too, not only damage.
...If your Strength modifier is less than the strength rating of the composite bow, you can't effectively use it, so you take a –2 penalty on attacks with it....
Ah. That's different.