Shackled City (Pathfinder) - GM_Chris

Game Master Chris Shannon 719

Just spent 18 hours traveling and I've had a lot of whiskey to wind down, I have 45 posts to read then I'll do my best.

@ Toffitt

Move action: move
Free action via quick draw: draw bow
Standard action: fire bow
Swift action: blade
And you're out of actions.

I thought you'd been cured. Back to rehab for you. Do you prefer the facilities on the coast or in the mountains?

;-D

Waiting for Finneas to post, lest we have issues with area of effect or something else.

@ Toffitt

Move action: move
Free action via quick draw: draw bow
Standard action: fire bow
Swift action: blade
And you're out of actions.

I thought you'd been cured. Back to rehab for you. Do you prefer the facilities on the coast or in the mountains?

;-D

Nope.

Move action: move
Free action (or with move action): draw bow
Standard action: fire bow
Free action: drop bow
Free action: draw blade
Swift action: activate spring loaded wrist sheath for wand

Ah, quick draw. So much freeness. I suppose technically he could draw and drop an infinite number of weapons, but that would be stretching it.

But you said "flicks his blade from its sheath" and that threw me. You can't use two sheaths in a turn.

Just got 12 hours of sleep, feeling much better. I need to read through the thread to see my current HP and spells used, so for now I will simply cast Enlarge Person again.

Oh. I threw you? Awesome! I don't even have a white belt.

A couple of suggestions for positioning, etc.:

1) It would be helpful if, as a rule, Toffitt had room at the beginning of combat to step into a line of fire and let go 2 rounds. For that reason, I'd like to propose an order like this, especially when we have a 10' side entry:

T . G
_ . F

or

T . F
_ . G

Even if he was directly behind someone, with his to hit bonuses it'd still be good to make sure he has some line of fire. So not stuck around a corner if we can help it.

Would that mess too much with charging mojo?

2) I will try to back off from the sneak attack trap of always asking other players to set up flank, or trying to make sneak attack happen every round. However, it would really help if folks would put down their destination square in their posts, so that we can keep things moving while GM_Chris puts map updates together.

Is that feasible as a group norm? Glim, is that possible for you, or is there a technological barrier for you to see Chris' maps?

Generally Finneas will always move to the closest and then 5' to maintain his 2 attacks. If I decide to go the Vital Strike route that'll change and if he can move farther without drawing an AoO and help the Doctor he will do so.

That's not necessarily helpful, though. The closest square could often be any of 3-4 squares. Area effect stuff and flanks often depend on a precise sense of placement.

I'll keep it in mind and do my best but 25' sometimes falls short of what you need. In a few more levels I'll have 35' and an extra 10' will give me the leeway to make that choice.

In this case, I'm not actually asking you all to provide flank, but rather to consistently post final position when we post combat turns. Please do go where you need to go or can go. It's just helpful to know precisely where folks end up, so that we can target spells, know if there's cover, flank, etc.

Of course, if you care to help Toffitt's sneak attack potential by flanking, readying or delaying where it's helpful, etc., that's appreciated! But a separate issue, and not something it's fair to expect.

Glimmil is happy to be instructed in combat positioning, and will do his best to get into appropriate positions, unless something shiny distracts him.

I'm not sure y'all are understanding my suggestion. It's about making sure you note your final position each turn, using grid numbers (e.g. AA36). That's all. Is that possible?

Oooh, that's what you wanted? No, totally can't do that, too much work man.

You usually do anyway. Wouldn't be that hard to make it 95% of the time. :-)

Oh, that? I'll do my best!

Toffitt tried to avenge everyone twice tonight--once with an Erinyes--but I stabilized once and was saved by breath if life the other time.

The first time, attacking him with Erinyes was pure malice. The second time with morlock barbarians was the fault of a flying enchanter who cast cinfusion just before GM Chris cast magic missile in two of them...

Yay revenge! Go Toffee!

The first time, attacking him with Erinyes was pure malice. The second time with morlock barbarians was the fault of a flying enchanter who cast cinfusion just before GM Chris cast magic missile in two of them...

Yes. That was not Timmy's brightest move. What can I say? He's a charisma based sorcerer with a single skill point in aracana and no other knowledges. I hadn't realized they were so beefy.

And I even warned everyone like three times!

I could be wrong and it won't kill Atol this time, but I want to clarify something about Shield Other before it comes up again. Atol will be taking damage from the trap, plus half of Finneas's damage. Potentially, enough to knock out Atol (39+19=58). This would appear to also be the case if they both got caught in a fireball or, let's say for fun, an unholy blight. Am I wrong? So you typically want to be within 55' of each other, but not closer than 40' to be safe from a 20' radius fireball or blight. Of course, then he's not within 30' for a channel. And breath of life in a couple levels is a touch spell so Atol will want to be 20' away. Oh the choices.

Just let me know how far I should typically keep Atol from Finneas.

Ahhh yes, I forgot about that sorry - I'll plan on more healing for Atol once we know what's up with Finneas. But quite true.

In general, when coming up to a door or other clear obstacle, Atol will stand outside the radius. He can always close in later. I always figured Atol is lagging a bit behind with his slow movement anyway.

If it's enough to kill Finneas in one go even with Shield Other, Atol will likely be dead too so Breath of Life won't matter. :D

Agree with your assessment, Chris. Although if Finneas makes his save, that would mean that Atol takes 9 damage and Finneas 10.

Dyrant examines the panels, but concludes that they are not in the place depicted. The throne is different and there is nothing to correspond to the cipher.

Dyrant is going to wait to hear from everyone before proceeding, yep, even you Atol. Roll checks and think things and interpret stuff.

Not doing anything on this throne until all y'all chime in.

Dyrant strikes me as the kind of guy who would do his best thinking on the throne.

Dyrant looks around his "throne" room, looking for any of the Cauldron 5 to aid him.

Surely, steady Atol is around. ::looks:: ::crestfalls::

Brave Glim? He loves sticking spoons in hard to reach spots! ::looks:: ::crestfalls::

Finn? I didn't see him drop his sword...if he's alive he'll help! ::looks:: ::crestfalls::

Doctor? DOCTOR?!! ::looks:: ::crestfalls::

Dyrant sits alone.

GM Chris--

Clarification needed.

Suppose a big fireball were to hit the hags, the skellies, poor dear Cog, brave Glim, and Finn.

Firstly, would that count as an attack? (I think it would as it's much like breaking invisibility.)

Secondly, would Atol also be attacked? (Shield Other)
a) Yes, by Dyrant, the source of the fireball.
b) Yes, by Finn, the confused babbler in the fireball's path.
c) No, he'd go back to acting confusedly, rolling random.
d) Something else.

Definitely would count as an attack.

I've been expecting the question about attacks, and my reading is that a confused person will attack the last person to attack him. So, your attack would override Atol's attack.

At to whether or not it would count as an attack against Atol, I'd say no unless the fireball hit him directly.

Are you sure? Glimmil gets one diagonal on a charge?

Not sure where you're getting this idea from.

I think I'm taking it from some other aspects related to drawing lines in the game, like the ability to have a line spell jog over one square. I seem to be mistaken, now that I read the charge rules. Sorry. :-p

And what I thought was another cake-walk encounter goes horribly wrong. Maybe I should have an erinyes or a group of archers stop by just for fun.

Well, their spell DCs *are* quite high. That and complacency will work wonders for the DM. :-p

And what I thought was another cake-walk encounter goes horribly wrong. Maybe I should have an erinyes or a group of archers stop by just for fun.

Not sure I agree with this sentiment, there, Bubbo.

It might have been cakewalk if we were metagaming or powergaming to ruin things. But I think we choose (completely correctly) to play our characters as our characters and that sometimes leads to some silly and fun (and sad...sorry Cog) stuff happening.

In addition only 1 of the 5 caught in the confusion made their save...that was a thing. The Hags alone don't have much power to hurt us, but we can hurt ourselves.

To call it cakewalk when there are factors of luck or providence involved seems...uhm...less fair than it should be.

We play our characters to have situations like this and then overcome them.

-D

p.s. Also, please no Erinyes.

As it turns out, getting us to hurt ourselves is a quite deadly ability, especially when you add weakening touch for anyone they don't confuse...

Chris, If I get another action one of my options is Spell Immunity.

If I were to cast that on myself or Finneas (making one of us immune to Confusion), would it stop an ongoing spell - or would it only work against new spells?

Just planning ahead for my first breath of freedom...

@ Dyrant & Toffitt: I'm not saying the party messed up. I'm saying I was surprised at the results and failed to see the potential consequences. I too have been lulled into a sense of overconfidence about the abilities of the party. I thought I was being nice when I didn't try the two full-round dominate spells while invisible.

@ Atol: No clear answers and I can see it both ways. Pro Evil makes you immune, but only gives you a save against current. Slow poison stops the affects, but the condition remains if not healed. If you were on fire and gained fire immunity, you'd stop taking damage. Hmmm. I'm going to say it works. Considering the spell is ongoing veruss instantaneous and it didn't permanently lobatomize you, it could be dispelled. And finally, looking at the spell it give you spell resistance. Looking there it says, "If the creature has voluntarily lowered its spell resistance and is then subjected to a spell, the creature still has a single chance to resist that spell later, when its spell resistance is back up." Since the spell resistance for immunity is unbeatable, than you'd resist. So, in short, it would work.

Question: if Toffitt has taken 18 STR damage and has 13 STR, once he reaches 0 STR is the damage considered to spill over? This is pertinent if he then activates rage and gives himself + STR.

I would guess it would still count against his rage-boosted strength, in the same way that ability damage isn't quite a reduction in the ability score. But it's worth asking.

Yes, but not +4. I edited that out. Are you sure you don't want to continue swinging at a Cuthberite?

Yes, please reconsider this. Atol might be appreciating the gentle breeze your Kordite efforts create.

What I want and what we need to do are two different beasties.

Question: if Toffitt has taken 18 STR damage and has 13 STR, once he reaches 0 STR is the damage considered to spill over? This is pertinent if he then activates rage and gives himself + STR.

I would guess it would still count against his rage-boosted strength, in the same way that ability damage isn't quite a reduction in the ability score. But it's worth asking.

You'd have to be conscious to use the rage--unless you have some ability in that concoction of Toffitt. If you do, or if someone got you up to 1 STR then I don't think the other STR damage would be hanging around. You can't go into negatives for abilities. You've hit bottom and can only go up.

Well you're still conscious when you're at 0 Str. Just paralyzed. So, right now Toffitt can do some of his abilities just fine, like heal, rage, lapse into suspended animation...

True. Paralyzed. Not unconscious. I think you're good to try it. I'd definitely allow supernatural abilities.

@ Glimmil. Are we resolving Cog via a hero point it the old fashioned way?

And what I thought was another cake-walk encounter goes horribly wrong. Maybe I should have an erinyes or a group of archers stop by just for fun.

I for one am looking forward to 8th level paladin and aura of resolve. Our 8th-9th level abilities could really change the flow of some of these!

This feels like a fairly strong EL. It's got to be EL10 (if not EL11-12?) to have the pair of hags and the 4 spell-weaver skeletons... which is about our breaking point as a 7th level party, right?

@ Glimmil. Are we resolving Cog via a hero point it the old fashioned way?

I didn't quite realize I had a hero point. Or do we all have a hero point that we've been carrying around? Are you using the stock rules?

Not sure how to answer yet. Would using the hero point be just giving Cog a chance to re-roll the failed Reflex save earlier, or something else?

Worst case, next level or 30 days (whichever comes first) is a chance for Glim to get a new 2.0 companion.

Aralynn bubbles and jingles and tinkles delightedly. Whatever she is talking about, she is *loving* it.

Swimming. Once you get her started, she can't stop jingling and jangling on and on forever about it.

Erm...

It looks like Glimmil (and Cog) may have missed leveling up to level 8 back in October.

On the bright side, that'd mean enough HP for Cog to be alive in negatives.

How do you want to handle this Chris... someone needed to cudgel me on the head, I was really busy back in Oct/Nov!

Here's Glimmil's Level 8.

Level 8: Paladin 7
+10 hp (6 for class, +1 fav, +3 con) => 82!
+2 Skills: +1 Disable Device, +1 Ride
+1 Strength
+1 BAB
No change to saving throws
Smite Evil up to 3/day
Channel Energy up to 4d6
+1 2nd Level Spell (Paladin's Sacrifice)

Now, here's the twist. Cog, as a Wolf companion, actually advances to Large sized, which could make him difficult as a riding dog.

I'll need to do some research here to see if he can be kept Medium sized and how much that affects his usefulness. He looks pretty darn useful now going through the advancement, but I can see how this would be a problem for dungeoneering.