PFS The Waking Rune: Hard Mode (Inactive)

Game Master Matthais777

Hello Victims, I mean Pathfinders!

Your signing up for The Waking Rune: Hard Mode Edition.

Due to the sheer deadliness of this mission, I'm not going to just take first come first serve like I normally do. Party comp is essential. So, I'm going to let people sign up into a basic party comp. I'm not planning on starting this until early June, so you'll have time to hammer things out, make plans, and other such things. You'll want to fill a party comp with at least the following:

Frontliner:
Arcane/Utility Spells:
Divine/Healing:
Skill Monkey:

While you can have multiple of each, having a party of all one or the other is gonna get you all killed, and despite my tagline, I want to kill you all properly, not because of bad party comp.

Also, do NOT sign up for this unless you have A: The prestige for a True Res on hand or B: are willing to accept permadeath on a character. This is a DANGEROUS mission and their is a HIGH chance of someone dying, and I WILL be playing this Hard Mode to play to the bad guys best.

Best of Luck everyone! Let's see who is in for this mess.

Bauble is foolish enough to sign up for anything.

Are you sure you meant true resurrection? That requires more PP than you can get at our level (77 I believe).

Bauble is foolish enough to sign up for anything.

Are you sure you meant true resurrection? That requires more PP than you can get at our level (77 I believe).

There is a distinct possibility of having your body completely and utterly destroyed (I've heard of it happening to others, and it nearly happened to one of our guys in our run). So if you have some way to cheapen that cost, you'll wanna have it on hand (Our group went in with several healing cost reduction boons that we picked up). If you don't, while it is by no means guaranteed (It's not like it happens every time) but your gonna have to accept it's a possibility.

To Clarify- It is not out of the realm of possibility to eat a disintegrate to the face. Or be force teleported into the sun. Or be eaten by some nega creature (Particularly that last one, you are taking on the Rune Lord of Sloth). So just... keep it in mind.

Jurin is willing to take on the Runelord of Sloth. I'll be going over everything chronicle wise, and will post as to other purchases will be done.

Sir Mr. Proudefeets is ready for this mission, no matter how deadly it may be. May the blessings of Chaldira guide us all!

Mr. P is a Paladin 6/Fighter 2/Sohei Monk 2 who rides a flying Griffon. They can do a lot of damage when charging is possible (flying, and with Wheeling Charge, they pull it off quite often). Of the 4 party roles that the GM mentioned above, they come closest to being frontliners, though they actually do much better when they Ride By Attack to charge again the following round.

GM Starson, you've seen him in action during our recent jaunt to the Riven Sky, so you may have some sense of whether he's a good fit for this.

What level? I am guessing up to 11

Bauble is ready. He is, after all, 11th level and I don't anticipate him getting much play after this if he survives.

But I'm going to double check my boons and make sure I know about any of them that might boost a ST! No need to cut the adventure short with an untimely sucky roll.

Personality wise, Mr. P is a perfect fit. :) Fighting wise, my lips are sealed, I'm just here to encourage you to make the best decisions possible and to take into account all possibilities.

Yup @Sobel, up to 11.

Tentatively interested in using a GM star replay for this, depending on my confidence in the rest of the party.

Characters I could play:
level 7: druid (nature fang archetype; archery feats + support caster), wizard (exploiter archetype; general arcane support + save-or-suck), chained summoner (non-combat skill-monkey eidolon; uses SMX SLA in combat and casts support spells)
level 8: mesmerist (melee frontliner + debuffer), shaman of the dark tapestry (summons advanced-templated monsters, divine support spells)
level 9: bard (dirge bard archetype; support/debuffer/archer), arcanist (occultist archetype; summons monsters, casts a mix of support + offense)
level 10: necromancer wizard

Several have improved familiars with high disable device, knowledges, and UMD.

I think I will bow out of this, my high level characters, I prefer not to take that chance of insta death. I do have a level 13 oracle though (I think that is a little too high)

I think I will bow out of this, my high level characters, I prefer not to take that chance of insta death. I do have a level 13 oracle though (I think that is a little too high)

Fair choice, and I will not shame you from backing down. Only mad people take on this challenge. *Points at avatar* and mad is kinda my thing. 13th level would be to high unfortunately.

@Into the Aether, I definitively would recommend taking the beefiest. People tend to take the 11ths into hard mode, and playing a low in high on hard mode is gonna be either a death sentence, or insanely impressive.... which, to be fair, if you pull it off will be a totally great story to tell.

Looking over all my sheets and purchases, as I'm getting a fresh herolab character sheet set up.

Plus, I have the sheet for the 25% reduction for the resurrection to bring to the table!

Or I could bring my level 10 summoner, and have that kind of a fight, haha!

@GM I GMed Waking Rune recently at a local shop on -regular- mode and the party fled without finishing the mission, once half of them were either dead or no longer on the material plane. So I'm familiar with the challenge.

Well, Bauble, Mr. P, Jurin, and Aether make 4. I'll post again in flaxseed and see if we can get 5 and 6.

I am interested and have a variety of characters in range. What levels are people?

Bauble is ready. He is, after all, 11th level and I don't anticipate him getting much play after this if he survives.

But I'm going to double check my boons and make sure I know about any of them that might boost a ST! No need to cut the adventure short with an untimely sucky roll.

Hi Bauble, I think we have played together before. I was looking to see what people were using and I noticed you had arcane deed. Unfortunately it got massively nerfed with the ACG errata so your swashbuckler level for the deed you choose is treated as 0. Precise doesn't do anything with it now I don't believe.

I am interested and have a variety of characters in range. What levels are people?

I think our greatest need is probably a divine caster esp for healing and status removal. We have (I think): mounted paladin (me, basically a cavalier with no levels in cavalier), a wizard, a magus, and (I think) a ranged specialist.

I have this character, which is a level 11 bard. I'm working on getting his profile updated with his character sheet now.

Not sure if you have any openings but Rognak is available.

Hi Bauble, I think we have played together before. I was looking to see what people were using and I noticed you had arcane deed. Unfortunately it got massively nerfed with the ACG errata so your swashbuckler level for the deed you choose is treated as 0. Precise doesn't do anything with it now I don't believe.

Wow! that is a supreme nerf! I went dex based and took two deeds to get that bonus to damage and *poof*, gone! Is he allowed to at least retrain the deeds, then, as it is the ONLY reason I took that path. At least I got to play him with the original wording up to level 11!

Then again after reading it, it does seem like if he has 1 point in his arcane pool it counts. It seems to be addressing points in other pools. Are you SURE he looses the +1 damage per level provided he has one point in his Arcane Pool?

I'm potentially interested. I have previous played on hard mode (successfully), and GMed this about 7 times including twice on hard mode. Although all of this is at least 2 years ago if not longer.

If that's at all an issue I'm happy to step aside, if playing would use a * replay for credit.

I have either a level 11 negative Channeling Cleric or a level 11 Champion of Irori (Monk/Paladin)

Both have very potent action denial and would be appropriate to play in Waking Rune Hard Mode.

I should mention I would be using a GM * to replay this as well.

So, I need a GM ruling on Bauble. If Bauble has 1 point in his Arcane Pool, will he benefit from Arcane Deed (Precise Strike)? If not, I will withdraw my application; otherwise, he will go merrily to his death.

Sadly, as much as I disagree with the change (Seriously, it's a multi-feet dip and build around, why nerf it?!) those are da rules and it seems pretty clear that since you don't gain a panache pool, and even if you get it another way it's still not counted towards having any remaining panache in pool, it wouldn't work. :( I couldn't in good conscious rule it in favor, even if I would home call it that way.

Not sure if you have any openings but Rognak is available.

Still got plenty of openings, and people hammering out what they want to bring, ect.

That's fine. I'll bow out then.

As far as what Vos' role would be (from the four above), he would fit nicely into any of the roles except frontliner, although you could best fit me into support. I'm about turning on the green light of murder and then wielding my party as weapons against my enemies.

For a taste of things I bring to the table:

Haste, Heroism, and Tactical Acumen

Inspire Courage +3 to hit and +1d6+3 damage (the 1d6 is sonic)

all the cure spells up to critical

A bevy of useful consumable items.

Hi GM Starson,

Sorry it's taken so long to post, but I have been travelling and don't get home until Friday. As mentioned in the Flaxseed Lodge I am interested in your game.

I would prefer to play Eadie my Fighter 10, but also have Antonella, a Champion of Irori 9 *Snap* Pirate Rob!

This is the Necromancer I (into the aether) would most likely bring. Spell list to be adjusted, of course. I'm not opposed to purchasing, slaughtering, and animating a bloody skeleton wooly rhino and/or dire tiger.

My Lyrakien Azata familiar has first aid gloves and an 80' fly speed. She can disable magical traps via Aram Zey's Focus. We have a big pile of utility wands she can auto-UMD (yay for partially-charged wands!), and a ton of scrolls she can activate with a reasonably good chance of success.

All righty, let's do a roll call.

Tomb of the Waking Rune, Starring:

Into the aether as Yazdan Al-Ashraf
Vrog Skyreaver as Vos Alavane
Ed Birnbryer as Rognak
Yours is mined as Eadie Navhelan
Abraham Z as Sir Mr. Proudefeets
Michael_Hopkins as Jurin the Cold-blade

Pirate Rob, since you voiced a willingness to step aside, I'll take you up on that offer. Looks like these are our victims! I'll set up the discussion thread and main thread and give everybody a reminder PM.

Gameplay Thread
Discussion Thread

Good luck all.