Solstice Scar GM Thread (Inactive)

Game Master Granta

I just got hit with a lot of real world work. I could use some back up for the next 24-48 hours.

I got you DM S

Does anyone know what book the body snatcher (tier 7+ encounter J) comes from?

In particular, while it has one person grappled, can it grapple more with its other free tentacles?

Hmm, I guess that is what the Greater Grappling feat is for, move to maintain/damage; and a standard to either do more damage, or take on another opponent.

Thanks again Tyranius!

In particular, while it has one person grappled, can it grapple more with its other free tentacles?

I'm not aware of any official rulings on this situation, despite the fact that it is fairly common. Because of that lack, I have run it differently in various combats, depending on what would challenge the PCs without being a TPK.

I need a token... I have 2 pc down. One receiv a crit at a level one. I gm fiat that pc survival.

Take it!

Well...I can tell my party is none too excited about facing a Fallen in the tier 5-6. The team's striker got hit with 3 negative levels in the last encounter. With no way to remove them, it has a visible effect on the party's fear factor.

Also, I'm curious how any other 5-6 tables are fairing? The fact that the everyone in melee is in danger of being grappled every round seems nearly insurmountable. As written, there's no reason for the undead to leave the circle.

N N 959 wrote:

FYI, my party had an Aid token which has not been officially passed on. If someone needs it, please claim it.

Pick a table and toss it to them! That's what I did with mine.

A table can only use one token per encounter, so you have to make sure they haven't already used one.

My take is that is that if the players start pounding them from outside the stone circle with ranged attacks, the undead would eventually leave the circle to come after them. Then the melee attackers can go all out.

My take is that is that if the players start pounding them from outside the stone circle with ranged attacks, the undead would eventually leave the circle to come after them. Then the melee attackers can go all out.

Mindless undead sure. But anything with an iota of intelligence is going to take cover and force the attackers to come into a sea of black tentacles. The PC's can't perform the ceremony from outside the circle.

But yes if a GM is going to soft-ball this, they'll need to bring the undead out.

Well...I can tell my party is none too excited about facing a Fallen in the tier 5-6. The team's striker got hit with 3 negative levels in the last encounter. With no way to remove them, it has a visible effect on the party's fear factor.

Remind them that 2 prestige buys a scroll of death ward, and hopefully they'll be better prepared next time.

I've never come across another PC who had a scroll of Death Ward at level 5-6. It's not available to a cleric until level 7. So I'm not fan of expecting PC's to carry around spells above the level they would normally have them.

My reading of the rules is that you don't even get to Save against NL attacks until after 24 hours, so once hit, they are unavoidable. Seems a little over the top to put that on a creature with 3 attacks.

Who want an aid token?

-Posted with Wayfinder

question, from a backup GM perspective...

I know we are getting a GM chronicle for our backup duties... which is great...

But do we get a choice of Core vs Regular on said chronicle?

How is that adjudicated in the case of a backup, who could fill in for either?

Curious.

I am sending some undead out with the intention of them falling back to the stone circle when they get a little more hurt.

I just reported a success and I noticed that there is no option to report successes for part J. Reporting tool needs update?

Non... J don't actually matter in version A.

-Posted with Wayfinder

But do we get a choice of Core vs Regular on said chronicle?

Yes. I will issue the chronicle for whichever character/campaign you prefer.

Non... J don't actually matter in version A.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Yes, in fact that's been something that's bugging me. So regardless of whether my table succeeds in defeating the undead and closing the portal, they would get both prestige points? And even if all the tables fail to clear the last encounter, it would still be a mission success?

The "wild" Babe wrote:

Non... J don't actually matter in version A.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Yes, in fact that's been something that's bugging me. So regardless of whether my table succeeds in defeating the undead and closing the portal, they would get both prestige points? And even if all the tables fail to clear the last encounter, it would still be a mission success?

Yep. That what happen to me when I was overseer. I had to improvise that Medea run to close the portal, just in Time.

My table just took down the Body Snatcher, time for them to close the portal. Wont be difficult for them.

Mine is having all sorts of difficulty with it. Not helped by their major archer going into the circle and being grappled by it.

On the other hand, it would have been over in one round otherwise.

Mine snuck up behind the Archer and tied him up. Didn't want one too be an anticlimax.

Yay! My table just completed it! Things were look hairy when the two front-liners got grappled, but they managed to break free. The cleric channeling and alchemist bombing then subsequently turned the tide. And with an investigator in tow, success of the portal-closing checks were never in doubt. :)

Go, go, go! Gambatte!

Mine finished it as well. I'm kinda stringing them along for dramatic tension but they already got all of the successes. 2 of them got double successes.

Yep, we finished too. It seems weird to have the rules for successes and then that's it... we can go ahead and give out chronicles, right?

we can go ahead and give out chronicles, right?

I don't see any reason why not.

I'm having my characters make 'checks' to hold the closed rift until Friday. Consequently those checks are boon roles made in RP fashion.

I'm having my characters make 'checks' to hold the closed rift until Friday. Consequently those checks are boon roles made in RP fashion.

Here's the rolls for all non-table GMs:

EM±GM: 1d20 ⇒ 15
Granta: 1d20 ⇒ 7
Lorenzo: 1d20 ⇒ 2
Qwerty: 1d20 ⇒ 20
Turmoil: 1d20 ⇒ 10
Tyranius: 1d20 ⇒ 7

Does anyone know what book the body snatcher (tier 7+ encounter J) comes from?

In particular, while it has one person grappled, can it grapple more with its other free tentacles?

Hmm, I guess that is what the Greater Grappling feat is for, move to maintain/damage; and a standard to either do more damage, or take on another opponent.

Sorry for responding so late!

The body snatcher is a custom monster, not out of any book. That said...

Creatures with the grab special ability still gain the grappled condition when they grapple opponents. This means that they gain all of the nasty side effects of being grappled, including losing the ability to threaten any squares. However, creatures with the grab universal monster ability have the option to take a whopping -20 to their grapple checks to not have the grappled condition. So, if you have an easy target grappled, you can take this huge penalty and not focus on that creature as much.

Greater Grapple: What is it for?
This allows a creature to maintain a grapple as a move action instead of a standard, effectively allowing a creature to maintain a grapple twice on their turn: once as a move and a second time as a standard.

If you do not release the grapple, you must continue to make a check each round, as a standard action, to maintain the hold. If your target does not break the grapple, you get a +5 circumstance bonus on grapple checks made against the same target in subsequent rounds. Once you are grappling an opponent, a successful check allows you to continue grappling the foe, and also allows you to perform one of the following actions (as part of the standard action spent to maintain the grapple).

- Move: You can move both yourself and your target up to half your speed. At the end of your movement, you can place your target in any square adjacent to you. If you attempt to place your foe in a hazardous location, such as in a wall of fire or over a pit, the target receives a free attempt to break your grapple with a +4 bonus.
- Damage: You can inf lict damage to your target equal to your unarmed strike, a natural attack, or an attack made with armor spikes or a light or one-handed weapon. This damage can be either lethal or nonlethal.
- Pin: You can give your opponent the pinned condition (see Appendix 2). Despite pinning your opponent, you still only have the grappled condition, but you lose your Dexterity bonus to AC.
- Tie Up: If you have your target pinned, otherwise restrained, or unconscious, you can use rope to tie him up. This works like a pin effect, but the DC to escape the bonds is equal to 20 + your Combat Maneuver Bonus (instead of your CMD). The ropes do not need to make a check every round to maintain the pin. If you are grappling the target, you can attempt to tie him up in ropes, but doing so requires a combat maneuver check at a –10 penalty. If the DC to escape from these bindings is higher than 20 + the target’s CMB, the target cannot escape from the bonds, even with a natural 20 on the check.

So, I imagine that the body snatcher would do whatever is "scary" for the PCs. Dragging them into the circle sounds like a great idea! Once there, it can "tie up" the target by snapping its own tentacles off.

Speaking of the circle... it has some nasty effects of negative energy and black tentacles, but these can be countered by neutralizing the portal temporarily with positive energy. A channel from a cleric seems like the most obvious way, but a paladin could also use lay on hands, or someone could use a wand with a cure spell (particularly on low subtiers). I've heard of someone hurling a potion of cure moderate wounds at the portal to suppress the hazard for 1 round.

Hope I'm not too late to help the GMs and their PCs. Good luck!

I hope the body snatcher makes it to a bestiary at some stage. I liked the feat that let you use another character for cover. It didn't work out, but I had a lot of fun with writing him using the grappled archer for cover from the other archer.

Boon: 1d4 ⇒ 1

We are officially finished, which means it's time for feedback--good and bad. How did we do?

I think it went really well. We still lost some tokens, but I'm not sure how we could better handle that. Maybe add a date to when tokens are passed to a table, so we can see if they have lingered for a while?

Maybe add a date to when tokens are passed to a table, so we can see if they have lingered for a while?

For the second session, here is what we're trying. Hopefully it works better, but I don't really know what to expect yet.

Congrats all! And thanks to Granta and all the sub GMs and other helpers out there. My table had quite the successful run and I think this is one of the best specials Paizo has ever done. I think it all went great.

Re: tokens -- they are a problem to manage in live games too. Getting stuck or lost...so glad to hear you are trying a different approach.

Yes, I really enjoyed this. Especially had most players who were very active and we could push things along quite well.

I must really thank Granta for organising this. I felt everything was really well-prepared and so moved very smoothly. Like the google form submissions and tracking so I could always see how we were doing overall. And also a big thanks to GM Lorenzo for all the pre-formatted posts which really saved me a lot of time! Something I should adopt for my other games to speed up my posting rate.

Thank you Granta for overseeing this!

I really liked that we seem accustomed to the backup GMs, they were used a lot more for short periods.

Thanks Granta for all teh work that must have gone into this.

The preformatted posts were awesome!

Regarding Tokens, I think it's partially because th tokens weren't exactly tracked where they were sent too though I know that Tokens may have being used far too quickly.

The second run should look easier to manage.

I got you DM S

You really saved my hide sir. I'll need to take it easy with games for a while, but I'll make sure to save you a spot at any table I run.

Reported. Chronicles ASAP.

I always forget how draining it can be to run a special and just toss it on my calendar like a regular scenario.

Also, those Ragewights are horrifying... LUNGECLEAVENERGYDRAIN!

That's almost as bad as when I gave a Cairn Wight Swashbuckler levels in a home game... and combat reflexes. I still feel a bit bad about that one.

Anyhow, I got my game reported and chronicles sent out. Granta, know that you've got a saved spot at any table I run. If you see me post recruitment for something you're interested in, the seat is yours!

Same goes for GM Lorenzo for his shared prep pages!

And if Andrew Hoskins decides to jump into PbP, I've got a saved seat for any author who is willing to dive into a PbP thread to answer our questions!

If you ever see me post recruitment and I see your names on the signup list anywhere, you're all bumped to seat 1.

That also applies to overseers/organizers of the previous specials. You know who you are.

As previously mentioned, I have a PC at my table who has 3 negative levels. The player wants to know if he can buy a scroll of restoration and whether someone can cast it on him before the NL's become permanent. No one in the party has the spell on their spell list.

As previously mentioned, I have PC who has 3 negative levels. The PC wants to know if they can buy a scroll of restoration and whether someone can cast it on them before the NL's become permanent. No one in the party has the spell on their spell list.

I'd say GM's prerogative. If the PCs have been nice to the NPCs maybe they're first on the teleport train back home? Maybe Medda will even read the scroll for them? Maybe they have free same-day shipping from Mwangi.com? Maybe their prestige spent for spellcasting services calls in the favor or a nameless high level character from another table? If the PC's offended nearly everyone at the Blakros Museum AND at the council, maybe they'll be forced to wait in line like everyone else and deal with it the hard way? Who knows?

I've always ruled in specials that there are plenty of fellow agents to find spell casting services for clean up. Just pay the fellow pathfinder cleric of serenrae.

This is a special and there are plenty of other pathfinders present, there must be one who can cast the scroll: I would allow this.

Since the party did successfully diplomatize Medda back in Part 1 and the fact that she can cast the spell, I'll go with the player buying it off a fellow Pathinder and Medda casts it. It's the least she could do.

Gayel Nord, please report to your Session 2 table. It's time to start.

That's almost as bad as when I gave a Cairn Wight Swashbuckler levels in a home game... and combat reflexes. I still feel a bit bad about that one.

Fortunately, I wasn't involved in this game, but one of my favorite PFS GMs did something similar in his home game: he gave Spring Attack to an incorporeal and set the fight in a maze.

I've done that before.

Readied action (especially magic missile) is your friend!

And if Andrew Hoskins decides to jump into PbP, I've got a saved seat for any author who is willing to dive into a PbP thread to answer our questions!

Awe.... thanks! I'm glad you all had fun.

What's the Chronicle info for this Special?