Splinters of Faith

Game Master Ayrphish

Let me know that you're here and your character is ready to go.

I'm gonna give you a little bit of time to finish up your character, touch ups, mechanic fixes, etc.

Once everyone is checked in and good to go, I'll put up the first game play thread, shooting for Monday at the latest.

Ready to go, here. I don't think there's necessarily anything I need to change.

"I'm here. I don't do 'touch ups'."

Kidding of course. I just need to fine tune the equipment and make sure I can afford everything I have written down, then I think I'm ready to go.

Here and ready to go, did some small touch-ups on Rasim's story.

Hope the farmer is ok with having his chickens returned feathers, beak, and bones only. Froth may be able to restrain himself at least that much.

I've touched up a bit to do with Froth, mostly in his appearance. Going with a heavy Lovecraftian influence when designing him, given the Qlippoth ancestry.

Here and pretty much ready to go.

@DM, how many tricks does my animal companion start with? Aside from the one bonus trick, can I teach him anything before we start? Should I give you die rolls? Once that's cleared up, I should be good to go.

I'm fine with you starting out with the bird knowing its 6 total tricks.

Ready.

Awesome! In that case, I'm all set.

Roles: What do we need to shore up?

"Blue Eyes" - Human Pistolaro Mysterious Stranger Gunslinger
Froth - Tiefling BSF (Jotunkin Barbarian)
GowWabber - Sylvan Sorcerer (Roc rider)
Rasim - Human Knife Master Rogue
Vlagras - Battle Oracle

Melee: Froth, Wodin, Vlagras, Rasim
Range: Blue Eyes (Froth, once he gets an adaptable longbow...)
Healing: Vlagras (Later perhaps Wodin and GowWabber via UMD)
Face: Vlagras, Blue Eyes
Traps: Rasim (kinda, but no trapfinding), Froth (smash it, or set it off and endure it method.)
Thieving: Rasim
Tracking/Survival: Nope - No Wisdom based characters either.
Lookout (Perception): Vlagras +8, Rasim (+6), GW +5

Feel free to add yourself in, or add another category if you see something missed.

Froth can take survival, I suppose, but he won't be that great at it (+4).

Froth is done barring any changes made for better group function.

Melee: Gow's animal companion can assist here eventually. Kind of squishy right now, though.

Face: Gow's got Bluff +9 if Vlagras/Blue Eyes need assistance (if you want to trust an insane Gnome) :-)

Other: Gow's taking the Veiled Illusionist route and will be more than happy to assist with ghost sound and the various image spells. With some creativity, we should be able to do a lot.

If rogues had Survival as a class skill I would have taken it, though Rasim never really travelled that much outside cities.

I intend to let Rasim do many combat tricks as well, poison and feint for one, though I don't think that's got to be a category. Just to let you know

Edit: I could take the Rogue Talent: Follow Clues to use Perception to track

I am going to switch out Doom and go for Protection from Evil. Both are level 1 spells.

If you noticed an alignment shift from CG to LG during the recruitment play, I would like to know.

Otherwise I am ready. I have classes in an hour so I won't be on until late today.

I just realized: we need someone with read magic and Spellcraft. I'm hurting for skill points, so I can't cover it. Once I get the Veiled Illusionist PC requirements covered (level 5-6), I'll start on UMD if this isn't being handled.

Sounds like we're ironing out some skills and spells. As far as a wisdom caster goes, none applied :\

Wodin's built to be a tough son of a b!&!%, but he's going to be hurting on skills. He has Know (Religion), Sense Motive and Perception, but he's not going to be particularly great at any of them. He IS, however, built to be a brick wall, with good HP, AC and saves (plus DR/Adamantine at level 2) and try and smash things with his Dorn-Dergar to keep their attention off the squishier members of the group.

Wodin's job in combat is going to be planting himself in chokepoints (if available) or just right in front of the rest of the party, and do his damndest to prevent anybody from passing him.

@Wodin, that's a reach weapon, right? That means I can stick an illusory low wall in front of you to keep the enemies from touching you. Gow's all in favor of you (and Froth) getting all the combat attention.

I'm 100% a noncombatant but will use illusions for battlefield control/support stuff. When I can, I'll pick up magic missile, but for now, my only damage-dealing spell is acid splash. My Roc, on the other hand, currently has the best AC in the party, so he'll either be up front with Wodin or flying me around so I can do the crazy color spray thing that all Gnome Sorcerers are required to do. ;-)

Yeah, it's a reach weapon. I can use a move action to make it a non-reach weapon, though, so you'll probably want to use the wall to funnel them to me, instead of trying to protect me. Taking hits is absolutely not what Wodin will be worried about, it's trying to keep them from charging at everyone else. :)

Even better. :-)

Well, we're probably as well covered as we're going to be. Unless there are any suggestions for Froth, I don't think any changes are forthcoming.

As far as combat goes, he'll be a better meat shield than a tank, but he will most certainly two handed giant sized kill anything in front of him. His specialty is definitely damage output. When he's raging he'll also have a 10 ft reach, so he could even stand behind Wodin, if needed.

Wodin won't turn down someone standing on the front lines with him. It'll likely help him overcome his prejudices about you (which he won't be able to avoid having, considering you are a giant orc-y tiefling).

We'll have some BACK TO BACK, BROS 4 LIFE stuff later on though, no doubt.

Just realized I have an extra skill point and I will take Spellcraft (plus it is a class skill). It is +5. I also bought a healer's kit.

Ranged:Vlagras (I have a shortbow)

After we gain a few levels, Rasim will be joining you guys up front. Because I don't have Two-Weapon Fighting yet, damage output is low, but that will soon be fixed.

Traps:Rasim (if we need a real trapspotter I'll get the Trapspotter Rogue Talent)

Still thinking on changing a few Feats of mine, taking Skill Focus (Bluff) over Weapon Finesse, cause I can get that via Talents. primarily because I want to feint in combat to get sneak attack

@Rasim, I play a Two-Weapon Rogue in PFS with almost identical stats. You definitely want Weapon Finesse as soon as possible. Save the Rogue Talents for things like Offensive Defense (totally broken with TWF).

Since Charisma's your dump stat, Feinting will be a little rough. I'd take Skill Focus (bluff) instead of (stealth). Gow can provide cover/distractions to help you be sneaky.

Ranged:Vlagras (I have a shortbow)

Why not a longbow? Cost?

@Gow, thanks for the suggestion, I had Offensive Defense on my wishlist from Rogue Talents, however I might switch some talents around if it is needed for the party.

I'll stick with Stealth though, it seems more in char for him, Feinting as a second option to gain sneak attack will have to suffice.

First campaign playing him got me interested to take a dip into Feint skills/feats as well.

DM Ayrphish? I think we are all ready to go. You can start when you're ready.

DM Ayrphish? I think we are all ready to go. You can start when you're ready.

I second the motion.

Same here, I think we are ready to begin our adventure

Wodin is ready for action. :)

Vlagras raises her longsword,

Onward!

Excellent, I will try to get a gameplay post up this morning :)

Before I get a gameplay post up, I wanted to give you an idea of how I would like to format things, and how I want to run the game.

This isn't mine, but I like it a bunch, so if you've seen it before... forgive me for my plagiarizing.

1. I roll Initiative for everyone to save some time. As long as you don't skip any enemies, you can take your turn anytime. (Example: Allies Bob, Henry, Fred, and Steve are at 20, 15, 10, and 5 respectively. Enemy goblins are at Initiative 13. At the beginning of the round, Bob and Henry can go. The goblins go next at 13. Following the goblins, all four of the characters can go in any order because no enemies would be skipped.)

2. Everyone rolls their own to-hit and compares it to the AC of the target. The same goes for saves. Both will be provided for all enemies, as will hit points. This puts a lot of responsibility on y'all to write good combat narratives and not rely on me to do so. The description is a common-sense sort of thing; 3 hit points will not cause the enemy's head to explode - but 30 might if it puts them in the negatives. This is also very trust-based. I expect that if someone gets something they don't like on the preview, they'll have the integrity to leave it there instead of modifying it based on the roll.

3. At the beginning of any in-combat post, I expect everyone to include the round/initiative count, current hit points, current AC, current saves, and remaining spells or resources. (By current, I mean following whatever action is in the post.) After that section, I like a section breaking it down into standard/move/swift/whatever actions with appropriate rolls. This way, I don't have to go hunting for that information and check if it is right. Here's an example.

===========EXAMPLE===========
Round 1, Initiative 20
hp 10/12; AC 14/12T/12FF; CMD 14
+4F/+2R/+2W
Bardic Performance: 5/6

SA: Inspire Courage
> Perform: String: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16
MA: Move 15', avoid AOO
> Acrobatics: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14

The narrative would go here. In this particular case, the bard begins playing the stringed instrument to inspire the others. (This roll is technically extraneous, but I've always done them on my bard type characters.) He then makes his Acrobatics check to move while avoiding attacks of opportunity. With a 25, he succeeds and ends where he intends to go.
=============END EXAMPLE=============

4. Calendar notations: You can use the Golarion calendar to note when days pass. And I will put the first day/month/year in the first gameplay post. As days pass, I'll let you note them.

===========EXAMPLE===========
24 Abadius 2413

A new day begins and bob rises from his furs. blah blah blah..
=========END EXAMPLE==========

Anyone have any questions or feedback?

Understood, I like the idea that we can roleplay the result of our own actions, brings out our chars a bit more.

What happens if we need a skill check from the enemies? like saying I try to Feint and I need to know if my opponent has Sense Motive, will you roll those checks yourself?

@Rasim Until we get things down, and working smoothly, make your bluff roll, and then an a) if successful this happens and b) if unsuccessful this happens. I'll try to put their sense motive in the stat blocks so you'll have a general idea. If I forget, we'll adjudicate it as soon as I can.

Last bit of background information...

We are going to assume that the 6 of you are new 'adventurers' in the town of Lessef. You arrived last night and had evening in the tavern, Blue Eyes played the guitar, and new friends were made.

The first gameplay post will take place the following morning, as you awake and leave the comfort of your room and enter Lessef in the light of day.

One of you, however, has had a disturbing dream...

In regards to point #3, might I suggest doing this? I've added a spoiler under the Gender slot on the profile page. It puts the note right there under your name, and can be used as an easy reference. It is up to the player to keep it up to date.

I like to add in Perception and Initiative bonus to save the GM the trouble of having to look it up on the profile page all the time as well.

I like that a bunch Froth.

That's part of the reason I tacked all the info on for Wodin, and partly because it means I don't need to keep looking it up on the profile page, too. ;)

Sounds good so far, though DM. I'm ready when you are.

So the deity from the adventure is not a Golarion deity, the closest that i can determine would be Pharasma, with a little less death emphasis, a little more re-birth/harvest/etc.

In the text, the deity is Freya.

So we can go with whatever suits you all.

I don't mind either way.

I'm ok with either, keep it with Freya if it suits the campaign better. As long as we know what each god/goddess stands for in this campaign.
We don't want to accidently help the evil god of necromancy....

Are you by chance inspired by the Norse gods?

We'll call the deity Freya then.

(Not my name, not really my inspiration lol)

Here is a little info on Freya

Deity:
Freya, goddess of fertility, prosperity, nature and rebirth
Worship domains:
Animal, Good, Healing, War

Fine with me either way. Froth isn't big on the gods.

Perfectly fine with me. I may find the war domain a positive in this campaign.

@Froth and Blue Eyes, we have already started gameplay, just so you know.

Sorry guys, snowpocalypse has separated me from my flashdrive, which has all of this games information on it. I will get a post as soon as I can.

'S'alright boss, we'll be ready when you are. :)

I'd just like to say, you guys are awesome! I love reading your in character chat, and you're keeping things moving so well.

Sorry no post yesteday, one of those days...

Something you guys can get in on if you're bored. A short, overpowered one shot.

Gestalt Killathon