PbP GameDay 2: PFS Intro 1: First Steps—Part I: In Service to Lore (1-2) (Inactive)

Game Master Justin L. Warren

Welcome to your new (temporary) home.

This game is part of the Official Pathfinder Society PbP Game Day. For more information please visit: http://PbPGameday.com

Reporting for duty...

Valik should take a vow of poverty and give his gold to the rest of the team.

I am debating moving to masterwork chainmail or MW compound bow for a bit more range ability. My 11 dex is kinda hurting, but in reality I am spending a good amount of gold for 1 AC. Might be the difference. OR I could go chain shirt, for less slow.

I expect I'll just bank my gold and hope something comes along later in a chronicle or wait until I have enough gold/fame etc to buy something much better.

I got a diff PFS peep in this same scenario, am I allowed to have Valik in first steps as well?

That group is at the Chelish home...meaning 2 more "combats" before being done. What should I do.

I'm not sure, to be honest. These sort of PbP situations aren't really covered in the PFS rules. Since you can replay it unlimited times as long as you use different characters, I imagine playing it in two different games with two different characters at once is still legal.

I don't *think* there's any real issue with playing it with multiple characters at the same time. The rules only talk about one character in one scenario at any given time, iirc.

dotting.

Mel will also buy the wand of BH(CL3) for 180 gp.

Belroar is updated. Added the wayfinder and gold to my sheet. I've been shorting Belroar on rolls. I am at a +5 with my MW cold iron greatsword to attack. My damage was right. I've updated that in my rolls spoiler.

I haven't added the boons yet.

When you are done with any new purchases and retraining, the gameplay thread is now active. I'm going to wait for everyone to make an introductory post there before moving forward.

If you have played First Steps Part 1 before, I ask that you allow the those unfamiliar with the scenario an attempt to figure out any puzzles first, but a little guidance would be ok. If they are stumped feel free to be more helpful.

While I've never actually played First Steps I, I've GMed it three or four times now, so I will definitely take a back seat approach. :)

Played it twice. DMed it once (unofficially for my son).

I believe Belroar and Ophelia have never played it. I don't know about Moadis, but I would guess that he has.

I was in one that died before we finished one of the errands. I won't mention which. I won't try to lead on that one.

My head's been a mess - just noticed this was up. I'm so sorry, guys.

Just got around to any purchases (assuming it's not too late).

Purchased:
-wand of CLW (2 PP)
-wayfinder (free)
-Light wooden shield (3 gp)
-alchemist's fire x2 (40 gp)
-acid x2 (20 gp)
-holy water x2 (50 gp)
-masterwork backpack (50 gp)

Sold:
-backpack (1 gp - not even sure if I can sell this or need to mention it anywhere)

I hope I did that all right - please tell me if I didn't. I'll update my inventory tracking sheet tomorrow, and for now, scootch to the gameplay. Sorry for being such a muddle-headed wombat! =(

No worries, Ophelia, just add the new equipment to your ITS. You can sell anything you bought with gold for half price, so that's all correct.

Please don't forget to change your prepared spells from last game, if applicable.

Sorry it took this long. Got a little stomped by life and all the gameday2 games.
I have played this scenario once.

Before I forget (again):
Bought 20x sling bullets for 2 sp
Spend 2 PP for a wand of CLW
And got the free wayfinder.

Also, GM Harker, I have being told that until you reach level 2 in PFS you can sell your stuff for the full price and change anything in your sheet between scenarios. Is that not so?

From what I understand, you can retrain any part of your character (even change classes) between scenarios until you play for the first time at level 2.

As for equipment, I'm not aware of a rule that says you can sell your stuff at full price until level 2, it is still half price. If I'm wrong on this please point me in the right direction so I can get some gold back for my characters. :-)

Well, some people view it as falling under the rebuild rules, since you can completely rebuild a character (including their equipment) freely during the 1st level. It's a little cheesy to just "rebuild" a character's equipment but I think it's actually how the rebuild rules are by RAW.

After looking up the topic of selling equipment at level 1, I could not find an official ruling on whether or not you receive 100% for selling equipment before level 2. The consensus seems to be that you do receive 100%, so we'll go with that. Note, this does not cover items bought with prestige points or used consumables, including wands if you've used any of their original charges.

If I only gave you half price for selling something on The Confirmation chronicle sheet, feel free to refund yourself to the full price. I can send a new chronicle sheet if you think it's necessary.

Surgery update: teeth all out. Apparently I did a crocodile roll as I was waking up and yanked the needle out of my arm, so I have a nice bruise there. Mouth full of stitches, everything's bloody and very sore. Really groggy, but they gave me good drugs.

My mother's been looking after me, and my boyfriend's been great. He bought me chocolate custard so I can eat, and he's fetching me drinks and tissues. Currently snuggled down on the couch watching Black Adder.

Can't get into character, so Ophelia will just be compliant and hand over the medicine. Up to the party what happens, I'll go along.

I am doing wisdom teeth on 25th so I will be drugged the weekend, bit as needed

I had my wisdom teeth removed ...sheesh 20 years ago? Apparently, I was in mid-sentence when I went under, the surgeon folks said when I came to, I finished my sentence.

Since then, I have had 2 root canals and they get easier each time. The stuff they gave me barely affected me, but I iced my jaws pretty well and didn't have a lot of problems. Of course YMMV.

I've been trying to figure out how to really play Belroar's low Charisma but how he really can be diplomatic and such, and not insult his intelligence and higher wisdom. Maybe being a bit crazy is the way to go. Or maybe it's just not caring about social norms, that would fit his alignment. He's not quite the opposite of Moadis, only being Chaotic Neutral.

Also, you just never know how he's going to react, probably that's it in a nutshell. He might just be apathetic in some places, but hopefully his actions at the orphanage might have been a bit of a surprise.

Yeah, he's a trip. It was perfect.

I've got a human warrior that has 7 for both his wisdom and charisma. Exactly like you just suggested above, I had decided he was not ugly; just socially inept. Take Sheldon Cooper from big bang. Replace his sci fi addictions with an unhealthy obsession with blades and cutting things. It is really fun finding innocent ways to be horribly rude. The only problem is that I feel like I need to accompany everything he says with an ooc to make sure no one takes personal offense. Still fun though. I'd say Belroar is just fine :)

-Posted with Wayfinder

Now that we're nearly halfway done with this scenario, it's time to start thinking about the next. Has anyone played #2-11 The Penumbral Accords? It ties into a Season 4 scenario that comes up later, and should be fairly quick to run so I think it's a good choice.

After this current and then the upcoming scenario, we'll move to the Season 4, as promised.

I'm happy to play that one!

works for me. I've only played the Siege of Diamond City, The ones we've played here, First Steps 2 and The Prince of Augustana

Sounds good to me.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Works for me :)

I have not played #2-11 so its fine by me. Sounds like a fun scenario.

@Mel, I recommend that you closely check the actions in your class description. It's really important for a magus to be on top of all that because they potentially have so many small actions every single turn.

The class is really complicated, so make sure you understand the mechanics well...

Arcane Pool is a swift action. Arcane Strike (a feat many maguses will take) is also a swift action. So chaining these in the right order is important.

Spell Combat is a full round action, but even if you didn't have to draw your weapon, you take a -2 penalty on all attack rolls made that round. Not to mention you'd have to make a Concentration check to cast defensively if you didn't want to provoke an attack from the rats in this case. You can willingly take penalties on your attack rolls to get a bonus to concentration checks.

You can also take advantage of the fact that you can 5-foot step freely during a full attack, so you could cast a spell, 5-foot step in, and then take your normal attack(s). If you cast a touch spell, you get a free touch attack that round, so you could cast shocking grasp, 5-foot step in, and then attack with your axe and your touch spell (each with a -2 penalty).

And then spellstrike comes into play at level 2...

@Melufiuos, I factored in both the arcane pool bonus and the strength damage bonus into your attack against the rats.

I believe Aurelia has some good advice for you there, I had noticed that you needed both a concentration check for the acid splash and penalties on your attack rolls but since it ultimately didn't matter in this particular situation I didn't mention at the time because I was on my phone. I'm not an expert on Magi by any means either, so I was going to confirm by looking it up in my books later.

In any case, I'll try to do my best to judge things appropriately, but reviewing the complexities of the class might make things run more smoothly.

I will be traveling later this afternoon for a few hours, then back on Sunday afternoon. I'll have internet access but family obligations may prevent me from posting much this weekend.

So, what kind of character do we need, if Belroar is dead (and not mostly dead). I have a Ranger that has 2 scenarios under his belt, so he would be the same level(ish) as the rest. I know normally PFS is mostly play what you want, but the group seems to be committed to staying together for the most part. I figure might as well make sure we have things covered.

I am leaning toward NOT creating another inquisitor, just I dunno, Belroar 2.0.

Anyway, got a bunch of ideas running around and looking for ideas to trim down the noise of all of them.

The group has the basics covered, but it still lacks someone capable of disarming magical traps or a character that has potential mastery of a number of knowledge skills like a bard. Another face character wouldn't hurt either. None of those of absolutely necessary, however, so I'd suggest playing a class/role you know you'll enjoy.

Yeah..that didn't help. I just can't really think of anything. I am not a huge fan of the rogue class. Bard..maybe, doesn't help our magical traps issue. Was thinking of creating Belroar's brother...a crazy Barbarian? That doesn't really solve much though...

Barbarians' high damage tends to solve many problems.

Solved the Belroar problem quickly.

The greataxe with its x3 crit is the real culprit in this case. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to fudge dice rolls in PFS and really couldn't when using the paizo dice roller.

Isnt Valik a sensei archetype monk? They swap flurry of blows for bard's inspire courage. It would overlap with vanilla bard.

It would appear that Sensei do lose flurry of blows, Valik is there something on your character that I missed that allows you to keep that ability?

I thougt I lost stunning fist, crap sorry bout that. I will remember for the future :)

So I asked a few of the people I play some other games with to give me some ideas. Since we have a few holes that may or may not make a difference, I thought I might try to fill some of the holes.

Their advice was Trapper Ranger and Alchemist. Both seem pretty interesting. I do have a Ranger who is 1.2, so there's that, but he's not a Trapper Ranger, he's just vanilla.

I am not opposed to being behind some, but of course being closer to your progression would be nicer. Just thought I would get some feedback on those two ideas.

Alchemist is one of my favored classes. I like ranger too but not the trapper archetype. Imo you trade the good stuff for bad replacements with that one. I am a big fan of the guide archetype.

Huge fan of the ranger class, back since AD&D, even the vanilla guy.

My experience of PFS is that magical traps are not too common and we can use creative solutions to deal with them anyway. (Send in a summoned pony first for example), so I would honestly just prioritise whatever you like first.

We are a little lacking in some Knowledge skills.

Arcana : Aurelia, Mel (I may not max Arcana if Mel is going to though)
Dungeoneering : None (decent skill worth getting some ranks in)
Engineering : None (Not worth maxing)
Geography : None (Probably not worth maxing)
History : Valik (I may put a rank or two in this myself)
Local : None (a very useful skill to have in PFS)
Nature : None (A good skill to have)
Nobility : None (I will be putting a point or two in this, but it's not worth maxing)
Planes : Aurelia (I will be maxing this)
Religion: Moadis, Ophelia

Ranger would be good for more DPS purposes and some "wilderness" skills (Survival and the like), we are lacking in that kind of thing.

Alchemist would be good for getting some more Knowledge skills and arcane magic (since we have two 3/4 casters and no full caster), you can focus on using your mutagens to be a pretty beastly melee combatant too or else go with the bombs at range.

I was thinking bomber for ranged and since Disable Device is a class skill, could go that way.

Ranger is nice and does have the Dungeoneering/Nature/Engineering class skills.

I've played some ranger, although the one who is in a campaign that is very slow. I may just bring my 1.2 ranger, since as a vanilla ranger gives another person who can use the CLW wands and does provide some sort of wilderness type skill.

While it would be nice to play alchemist in a group with another player who loves to class to pick the brain of...I am not sure we need another melee person and bombing takes some time to get to precise bombs, so I would end up losing my bombs once everyone is in melee.

Of course if someone brings up a huge reason to go something else, I am open. One of my favorite characters is the character I had my GM just assign me class and race..It's fun just coming up with an idea from that.

I do want to thank everyone for their pretty epic reactions to Belroar falling, hopefully he was an interesting character.

Race: 1d10 ⇒ 6 Halfling
Class: 1d31 ⇒ 7 Paladin

:P

Or maybe you'd prefer...

Race: 1d10 ⇒ 10 Tengu
Class: 1d31 ⇒ 8 Ranger

Hehe, it's really fun to come up with ideas like this.