PFS First Steps II - To Delve the Dungeon Deep (Inactive)

Game Master Derek Weil

Ok, so here's the discussion thread. I'm sorry I forgot this, please bear with me through my learning experience.

I agree with Mez that I want to give everyone at least a day to post. Mutliple posts are great, but I understand some folks have different schedules. I'll try to keep OOC stuff here unless it applies directly to the game.

As an aside, there may be times when I post a spoiler that is only for certain players, or for players who roll a certain skill check. Please use the honor system, but feel free to share anything your character learns in character as you see fit.

Hello! Sorry for being somewhat late to the party - I'm Australian so it seems you were all posting in the early morning for me. I am here now though. :)

Thanks for checking in! I'll look for your post in gameplay. We should be able to move things into exposition pretty soon.

Hello,

Some information about me: I can post multiple times per day as I'm pretty much always checking on things here. That said, if I'm getting overly chatty and taking away from peoples fun by constantly talking, just lemme know and I'll tone it down.

I'm east coast US, and am usually asleep from 10:30pm-6am, so don't expect much from me then.

On Mez: With the fact 0 level spells can be cast freely, I'm pretty much going to be casting Guidance on everyone as needed, unless they say otherwise. Listening at a door, May Cayden guide you! Checking a box for traps, May Cayden guide you! Looking around a room, May Cayden guide you! See a beasty coming, May Cayden guide you! You get the idea. GM: If that seems cheesy to you and you'd prefer me not to do this, just say so. Some GM's are OK with the ability to cast enough light spells to line an airport, or constantly guide people when they make intentional checks, others aren't. Don't want to anger people with zealous 0 level spellcasting, lol.

Actually, I like a little cheese now and again, and a follower of Cayden seems like a great fit for it! That said, if it's really annoying you other folks, we can play it however makes you comfortable.

My own opinion is that you should use the abilities you have. Level 0 spells are part of that. Just remind me of what guidance does.

I live in Utah, so I am on U.S. Mountain Time. I will probably check in a lot when I can. During the week this means probably when I first get to work, during lunch, and then in the evening.

I want to keep the game moving, while giving everyone a chance to participate. If we are doing one of these roleplaying parts, and I've heard from four or five of you, I will move on to the next part unless you ask me to slow down, which is totally fine with me.

When it come time for combat, I plan to roll initiative for everyone. I will post it, and you should check my math. I will be sure to give you a full 24 hours to post your combat actions. After that, I will run your character through that turn.

I am new to this, so please bear with me if I do something differently from the way you've seen it before. Post any issues here, and let's have fun!

Guidance is a +1 to most d20 rolls. In other systems it was fairly weak because it only lasts a minute, but with the ability to cast it at will, you can suddenly give anyone a +1 for any check with a few seconds of prep.

It last a minute or until used. its only good for 1 check. but yes a nice little buff.

Mez: I, also, like to stand behind people and keep tapping them on the shoulder with Guidance ("May the luck of Desna be with you!"), and will surely burn out my Detect Magic circuit one of these days.

It also seems possible to stack someone up with Virtue temporary HPs: adding one per round before some dangerous task (like disarming a trap), you could stack up to 10 temp HP on someone, each one lasting 1 minute and there being 10 rounds to a minute.

We could possibly coordinate orison choices once we get to know each other and start planning the adventure.

How do you get that little stat bock at the top of your posts?

Well, given that I'm an Inquisitor, my orison's are set and can't be changed daily.

Hadn't thought about the Virtue temp HP stacking, every GM I've had allows 1 source of Temp HP, just like you can't stack bonuses of the same type on AC or stats. I've always had it ruled if you cast Virtue on someone with Virtue active, it just replaces the previous casting.

Now, it doesn't specifically say that in the rules, but I've never felt motivated enough to argue it, lol. Derek, your thoughts on that one?

In your alias profile, where is has Class/level, you just write the [ spoiler=stats] blah blah blah[ /spoiler] after the normal information.

example: Mine says Inquisitor 1 [ spoiler=Stats]HP: 12... etc [ /spoiler]

You can leave out the spoiler tag and just have it always visible too, that's personal preference.

Also, Whtknt, gratz on getting into Trips Kingmaker, My bard, Will, was rejected ;_;

Also, Dracothis has detect magic and know direction among his cantrips (also mage hand), just FYI.

So as far as Virtue is concerned, I'm going to follow what your prior GM's said Mez. It seems consistent with similar rules, and will keep things a bit simpler (a big plus for me since I'm new).

re the Inquisitor: Ah, I haven't read all of the classes yet. New to Pathfinder. Still, I could potentially adjust accordingly.

WhtKnt: I usually take Detect Magic, so that would be good to know.

So, speaking of tough questions, since I am new to PBP, how is combat done? Will there be a map somehow? Sometime, I would like to download and figure out MapTools for this kind of purpose.

Yes, I'll be using Maptools. I have downloaded your avatar pictures to use as tokens on the map. I copied the image directly out of the scenario pdf, but for some reason the grid isn't staying consistent from one room to the next. What I'll do is post an image of the map and update after each round.

Norine, Inquisitor is the happy medium between Paladin and Cleric. Not quite as fighty as a Paladin, not quite an utilitarian as a Cleric in the spell department, but more skill points. It's kind of the divine skill monkey.

As far as combat goes, generally how it works, is the DM rolls init for everyone. Those that beat the monsters go first, then all the monsters, then all the PC's, etc... Most GM's ignore initiative order between PC's, and just let them act as they post. It helps speed things along so that everyone isn't waiting for the top guy of the init to go, then the 2nd, and so on. However, this is Derek's game, and he can run it however he wants to, lol. Derek covered how he'll be doing the mapping.

Derek, I'm giving you permission, if I haven't posted, and am holding up a round, to auto-pilot my character. Standard MO will be to move up and hit the bad guy with either the rapier or mace, depending on which would be more appropriate.

Good points. As I said at the end of a post above, I plan to roll everyone'e initiative. Mez's suggestion about taking action as you post sounds good to me - I've seen that work pretty well. Just like he said, players, monsters, players, etc. each round.

That means if you're at the top of the order and the monsters went, you can go ahead and post your second action. I'll make sure to count the effects of all turn 1 people first, then proceed with the early turn 2 folks, and so on.

Also, I do reserve the right to auto-pilot anyone if they don't post within 24 hours of the start of a given round. Follow Mez's example if you want to give me general guidelines to follow just in case we need to do this.

Thanks!

I LOVE MapTools. Put it to good use at home when my father wanted to join our game (he lives three states away).

For autopiloting, assume that Draothis will try to stay out of combat as much as possible, using his rapier to defend himself only if pressed.

Thanks, Mez, for the congrats and the info on the stat block. Very useful stuff! Sorry that you won't be joining us in Kingmaker. :(

Guys, please forgive me if it feels like I'm railroading you through these early RP encounters. If we were at a table, it would be easy to go back and forth with the NPCs. I'm trying to give you each a chance to interact, but also not spend time waiting for everyone to post and decide when a given conversation is over. If you'd like me to adjust that style, I can.

I wouldn't mind it if things went a little back and forth in time, either, especially to better accommodate people with less flexible schedules and those in other time zones, like Calanthe.

I agree, never be too afraid to push RP along, we can always just note stuff we said before the NPCs shows up, and then what we say to the NPC just introduced.

Doesn't bother me either way. I'm flexible.

Luckily Calanthe is the type that doesn't generally have much to say, so if the NPC comes and goes while I'm in bed it doesn't bother me toooo much. :)

For clarification:

Bold will be used when Dracothis is speaking aloud in Common.

If he switches to another language, I will post it with a spoiler tag, such as...

Italics will be used to note things that he is thinking, but does not say aloud. This is mostly exposition for role playing.

I will precede out-of-character notes with a spoiler, thusly...

The using a 'spoiler' for speaking in another language is a good idea. It seems that we are all settling on a similar system.

"Bold" is for speaking.
normal is usually for descriptive actions.
italics is for thoughts.
is for out of character things.
and tho Ebon knows Shoanti he only speaks in common, so no other language usage for him.
XD

Works for me, it's pretty much what I've been doing already

Actually, I found an even better system.

Here

Note to self: Buy Knowledge religion at level up, I seem to have forgotten to buy it. I am a religious follower who hasn't a bloody clue about what it is, lol.

It just means you know about Cayden but not a lot about other religions. Or zombies.

I guess you slept through/had a hangover during your "shared faith" classes.

I don't have any ranks in religion, either, but a cleric doesn't get many skill points (Profession (Sailing) made more sense for a traveler in the Inner Sea Region, and I needed something for my gnome "Obsession") and my character is an idiot. Next level, perhaps, or a point towards Spellcraft...

By the way, I should ask all of you something. Do any of your characters wear any sort of emblem or insignia identifying you as Pathfinders or ID'ing your faction? This doesn't often come up in scenarios, and I've never thought about it before, so just let me know.

Obviously, your choice will affect this game. Either way will work, just differently.

Mez has an ID in his bag, but generally, any adventurere around Absolom is assumed to be a Pathfinder. Nothing visible though.

Dracothis doesn't wear any such identifiers.

Derek, Do we know the layout of the inside of the keep, then? I can see it shadowy and wasn't sure if we and/or our characters are supposed to know that or not. I could play it like we know it or not.

Thanks

Ebon doesn't wear any such symbol, but he does have, in addition to his tattoos, a Greatsword shaped birthmark on his right forearm. Per the Faith Birthmarked trait.

Norine,

I am not sure - at this point I think you shouldn't know it. I will black out the unexplored areas on my next posting, and include grid coordinates to help with positioning.

Calanthe wears as nondescript clothing as possible, so no, she doesn't have anything that would identify her as a Pathfinder. Although a tiefling being accepted amongst other "normal" races would probably be a big hint that they're an adventuring party. ;)

Ah witches, where even if you save, you don't! lol Between it being flatfooted and the evil eye hex, I'm hoping I just skewered me a ghoul!

So, just to clarify, the rocks in the southeastern point of the map are flat on top, but they are 10 feet high. Sorry I didn't mention that before. Targost, given this, I left you in your current position. I took a -4 penalty to hit due to your target being engaged in melee, and another -4 because Mez and Ebon were giving it cover. You still beat its hexed touch AC, so that should be fine for now. I hope my interpretation is at least reasonably accurate.

This is my first witch... the hexes are pretty fun. I feel that every single feat I take will be Extra Hex at this rate. *lol*

I consciously decided to avoid Slumber though. That stuff just isn't fun at all.

Yeah, Witches look fun, and the fact you still get an effect if they save makes them fairly potent debuffers. Some people just don't like not seeing big #'s from themselves, but the -AC and such can allow the big DPS monkey's to really shine.

Yeah, I'm beginning to see how useful witches are. In my local group we had a guy playing a witch, and he would cast Misfortune at every opportunity (and then cackle to extend it for a round). Forcing the baddie to take the lower if two dice on every roll - Amazing!

I plan on taking Misfortune as soon as I can! A witch in a game I run here on Paizo used that all the time, and oh boy did it frustrate me. ;) I just felt like it wouldn't be as useful at 1st level without Cackle (since I wanted to grab Healing mostly for flavour reasons) so I went with Evil Eye instead. So many cool choices though.

I'm a big fan of "support" characters in video games and such, so a witch debuff machine is pretty perfect for me. :P

I was reading about the witch and the hexes seemed - with due deference to Calanthe - too powerful, at least if I am reading it right. In particular, the Slumber hex is basically a Save or Die-level spell - assuming that one has friends ready to finish off the "Helpless" sleeper. Woe to the unlucky - or 'Misfortuned' - single baddy who runs into a party with a witch.

Fortune is like a ranged version of my class's Luck domain feature (with unlimited uses per day?), albeit once per individual.

Unlimited Healing would likewise outclass the regular Cure Light Wounds for a party, at least at low levels where the Cleric can't cast many spells.

Yep. It's the nature of powercreep. Wait till you find a cheesed out summoner. I had one in my home game until I realized he could effectively solo encounters difficult for the other 4 party members combined.

Do any of you have much experience using maps from the scenario pdfs in Maptools? I just saved and pasted the image. I am having one heck of a time, as I said before, to get the map grid to align with the Maptools grid. I'll get one square sized just right, and if they were all squares, they should then all fit, but they don't... That's why I can't show gridlines on the current map - It would obscure the squares on the published map. So anyway, any suggestions?

There is indeed a reason why witches are considered a top tier class with wizards and the like. I'm not sure that hexes are in total much stronger than arcane bond + school powers, though.

Hexes are hurt by their short range and a witch's relative lack of most defensive spells. In addition, as you said, many of the hexes are once per day affairs, although if you can afford to cackle every round that becomes slightly less of a problem. On the other hand, that's still only one fight where you can buff the fighter with Fortune, whereas you can do it in every single fight if need be. It's a definite trade-off, but I don't know if I'd really call that overpowered--after all, clerics get a second domain with accompanying powers as well.

But I do agree that some of them (slumber and ice tomb in particular) are incredibly powerful. I also feel that more of the hexes should be mind affecting... I avoid using sleep and colour spray on my wizards because I think it's a huge cop-out. Likewise, I'm avoiding the save-or-die hexes because it's seriously not fun to just abuse that.

Derek, I don't use Maptool anymore, but I know that Roll20 has an ability to scale images to the appropriate size to meet a grid size that you trace out, if that makes any sense.

I edit all my maps in Photoshop, so I'm not really much help on this...

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Mez, the problem with Summoners is less that they are super powerful (they're generally considered to be on the same power level as a Sorcerer I believe) but that optimising them is so easy. Even someone who doesn't optimise can easily pick out the best options for the class and wind up with a combat beast.

A related problem is that Fighters and related are much harder to optimise for the casual player and so really stand out as being inferior.

(FWIW, the only Summoner I've played to date uses an eidolon with only a single natural attack, and I've taken a couple of utility evolutions like Scent and Skilled. I think it makes things a little more even that way.)