If anyone is up to expanding their collection of gaming ebooks, Humble Bundle right now has a tiered ($1, $8, and $15) selection of material from Numenera, with what looks to be most of the corebooks, a good helping of adventures, and an equal helping of splatbooks. 28 offerings in all.
Valjoen, to refresh your mind, here is a list of things I've been waiting on decisions about from you.
Increases from Garidan's latest life essence. The secondary ability has already been granted, as was the bonus increase to an ability score for being his fourth feat essence.
Ruling on adding spontaneous alchemy rules to the campaign, possible recipes for stuff unique to Talanor. Related, giving Garidan access-via the ethereal essence that he took in for the skill bonus to Craft (alchemy)--to a couple of recipes to get him started until you can retreat to your GM Lair and cook up some things for him to find (or not, as the campaign dictates). I'd asked for one general recipe and one alcoholic.
Also related to above, status of things such Ursikka saliva and oil of Vra'lithe (or at least the grape seeds from which it is pressed) possibly being considered reagents. (Or maybe something between reagent and alchemical ingredient, unique to the campaign?)
Bestiary of creatures encountered and examined via Knowledge skills, with information revealed listed for reference purposes (if you need help with this one, I'm sure we'd be willing to chip in if asked).
Modifying his rapier's bane ability, as per the following:
Valjoen, per this comment on Garidan using an essence to modify his rapier's existing bane ability, I'm curious to know if spending an essence in this fashion would count towards the limit (by character level) of essences permitted to weapon abilities. Or would the essence be folded into the one already spent on the base bane effect?
Hey GM, I'm not sure how close the tiger creatures were before they attacked, but would 60 foot blindsense from Malthazir's psueodragon have picked them up?
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Valjoen, to refresh your mind, here is a list of things I've been waiting on decisions about from you.
Increases from Garidan's latest life essence. The secondary ability has already been granted, as was the bonus increase to an ability score for being his fourth feat essence.
I updated the wiki some time ago but didn't post here. Sorry.
Ruling on adding spontaneous alchemy rules to the campaign, possible recipes for stuff unique to Talanor. Related, giving Garidan access-via the ethereal essence that he took in for the skill bonus to Craft (alchemy)--to a couple of recipes to get him started until you can retreat to your GM Lair and cook up some things for him to find (or not, as the campaign dictates). I'd asked for one general recipe and one alcoholic.
I'm good with the spontaneous alchemy. I'll give you 2 recipes to start, your choices. Just post them here and I'll add them to the wiki.
Also related to above, status of things such Ursikka saliva and oil of Vra'lithe (or at least the grape seeds from which it is pressed) possibly being considered reagents. (Or maybe something between reagent and alchemical ingredient, unique to the campaign?)
They are listed on the wiki under Components. I'll be adding items there and recipes under the grimoire, Collecting Parts, Living & Dead.
Bestiary of creatures encountered and examined via Knowledge skills, with information revealed listed for reference purposes (if you need help with this one, I'm sure we'd be willing to chip in if asked).
I'll be adding them going forward, and trying to add the old ones as I can. If someone wanted to make a list for me to reference that would be very helpful.
Modifying his rapier's bane ability, as per the following:
Valjoen, per this comment on Garidan using an essence to modify his rapier's existing bane ability, I'm curious to know if spending an essence in this fashion would count towards the limit (by character level) of essences permitted to weapon abilities. Or would the essence be folded into the one already spent on the base bane effect?
Each essence would count towards the limit.
Hey GM, I'm not sure how close the tiger creatures were before they attacked, but would 60 foot blindsense from Malthazir's psueodragon have picked them up?
Unfortunately, no. Even without their bonus for the environment (let's call it concealment), their stealth check was 33. With a roll of 20, your psueodragon could on'y have gotten a 26 with a nat 20 roll.
They rolled real well on stealth.
Well, the think about blindsense is that it makes stealth checks irrelevant.
Blindsense lets a creature notice things it cannot see, but without the precision of blindsight. The creature with blindsense usually does not need to make Perception checks to notice and locate creatures within range of its blindsense ability, provided that it has line of effect to that creature. Any opponent that cannot be seen has total concealment (50% miss chance) against a creature with blindsense, and the blindsensing creature still has the normal miss chance when attacking foes that have concealment. Visibility still affects the movement of a creature with blindsense. A creature with blindsense is still denied its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class against attacks from creatures it cannot see.
Emphasis mine.
If they were completely hidden behind something or more than 60 feet away than blindsense wouldn't pick them up, but one of the main reasons Malthazir keeps a psueodragon on him is to prevent ambushes like this with its blindsense ability.
Thank you very much, Valjoen! Between spontaneous alchemy and Unchained crafting getting added in, my crafting itch is sure be to scratched good and proper. As a reminder, those two systems pretty much cover the house rules for Craft--though more so the Craft (alchemy) house rule than the Craft (armor) portion--that you instituted at my prior request early in the campaign.
As for my two recipes, I'll go with alchemist's fire and longbeard lambic. That'll give me something immediately practical to play with, and an alchemical brew to make use of as well. I don't know if anyone else has a class feature or ability that causes them to suffer from exhaustion or fatigue after use, but if so, please let me know; longbeard lambic can mitigate that for a short period and I'll know to make doses for more than just personal use.
If I wanted to create entirely new alchemical items, what would the process be?
Would I just tell you what effect I want, what category I think it should be in--tool, remedy, brew, etc.--and then let you determine the DC and drawbacks of the item (and recipe, if I want to be able to make it spontaneously as well normally)? Or would skill checks to actually do the research needed be required on my end (maybe with the result determing the potency of the resulting recipe)?
Well, the think about blindsense is that it makes stealth checks irrelevant.
Blindsense lets a creature notice things it cannot see, but without the precision of blindsight. The creature with blindsense usually does not need to make Perception checks to notice and locate creatures within range of its blindsense ability, provided that it has line of effect to that creature. Any opponent that cannot be seen has total concealment (50% miss chance) against a creature with blindsense, and the blindsensing creature still has the normal miss chance when attacking foes that have concealment. Visibility still affects the movement of a creature with blindsense. A creature with blindsense is still denied its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class against attacks from creatures it cannot see.Emphasis mine.
If they were completely hidden behind something or more than 60 feet away than blindsense wouldn't pick them up, but one of the main reasons Malthazir keeps a psueodragon on him is to prevent ambushes like this with its blindsense ability.
I said concealment when I meant cover. I never really defined whether the razor grass was partial cover, cover or total cover. If total cover, it negates line of effect, so blindsense wouldn't work. Otherwise, in the case of cover or partial cover, blindsense would have detected them.
In this case, he may have sensed their presence in the moments before the attack. Without retcon'ing the hold thing, let's give your pesudodragon an action in the surprise round. We can assume he's been noticing a lot of animals the past two days, he sensed them but couldn't pinpoint them until they jumped out.
Going forward, I'll try to be more clear if total cover is involved. Sorry.
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If I wanted to create entirely new alchemical items, what would the process be?
Would I just tell you what effect I want, what category I think it should be in--tool, remedy, brew, etc.--and then let you determine the DC and drawbacks of the item (and recipe, if I want to be able to make it spontaneously as well normally)? Or would skill checks to actually do the research needed be required on my end (maybe with the result determing the potency of the resulting recipe)?
I would let you do research (with a crafting roll) to make some things you've encountered before. For new things, I'll either introduce them through the Collecting Things book or another source for you. Feel free to suggest things you'd like to discover and I'll consider them in the future.
No worries! I appreciate the clarification!
If the psueodragon used its action to 'warn' the others, would it help them be able to act at all? Because if the psueodragon noticed enemies its first action would be to warn everybody with telepathy.
I'm fine with handwaving it for now in order to avoid retconning the entire beginning of the fight. I've been there as a GM.
I may have given the PC's their full AC rather than flat-footed, but the smilodons' attacks still would have hit them. I wouldn't give them actions in the surprise round. That sort of thing totally negates surprise rounds... one pc/ally makes the perception check and all pc's/allies get to move... nope. A bonus is fine, but like I said, their attack rolls would have hit full AC on all three of them.
These kind of abilities make PBP harder. If I had the pseudodragon "react" every time he sensed the presence of something in the wild, we'd be slow moving. Honestly, I didn't consider the Blindsense when making the post, which is my fault since I think you mentioned it several days ago in a post. I'll do better going forward.
That's totally fine if the psueodragon only noticed them as they started moving to attack. They would already be 'acting', so her noticing wouldn't actually help alert anybody. Totally reasonable.
But yeah, keeping a creature with blindsense on his shoulder is one of the ways Malthazir deals with his paper bone syndrome. Remember the time I decided to stop being invisible for one round? :P
I would let you do research (with a crafting roll) to make some things you've encountered before. For new things, I'll either introduce them through the Collecting Things book or another source for you. Feel free to suggest things you'd like to discover and I'll consider them in the future.
Nifty.
I'd like to look into creating something that grants the restoration of one or more panache points, limited to one dose/use per 24 hours, otherwise it'd be broken as all get out. This item I think should be a drug of some sort, not terribly addictive--if at all--but with a suitably nasty drawback attached to each use (the drawback being commensurate to the quantity of panache restored). It's very much meant to be a desperation use item, where the drawbacks are either worth the benefit, or can be ridden out for their duration in the hope that they'll pass before someone or something makes them unpleasantly relevant.
I'd also like to create something that restores a quantity of stamina points, either permanently or temporarily. I'm thinking this might be something alcoholic in nature, with either a moderately bad side-effect on a permanent restoration or a minor bad side-effect (along with limited duration of beneficial effect) on a temporary restoration.
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I'm thinking for future reference, the razor grass is 5' tall and thick and sharp. I'm going to treat it like Obscuring Mist, but as Cover rather than just Concealment since it is a physical barrier. So, anything in the grass gets partial cover if you are within 5' of them. If beyond 5', they have total cover.
This would make the events that just played out, plausible. They got within 5' of the path and your pseudodragon sensed them just as they attacked.
If you want to take him up in the air, I'd give him a range equal to his height, max 30'. This takes into account the angle of observation (since looking down has less cover), but it also takes the sphere of his range into account.
Remember the time I decided to stop being invisible for one round? :P
Yes, haha.
This is copy/pasted from game thread posts, first to most recent.
Prior Knowledge Check Results
While in incorporeal form, it can be harmed only by other incorporeal creatures, magic weapons or creatures that strike as magic weapons, and spells, spell-like abilities or supernatural abilities. It is immune to all nonmagical attack forms. Holy water can affect incorporeal undead (which this is).
While in corporeal form, it is a swarm made up of 300 tiny rats. They take +50% damage from AoE spells and splash weapons. They take full damage from blunt weapons and 1/2 damage from piercing and slashing.
A distance voice in Malthazir's head reminds him that the disease the Shadow Rat Swarm carries is Filth Fever which has a frequency of 1/day and an effect of 1d3 dex and 1d3 con damage. It takes a standard action to move from corporeal to incorporeal form. It prefers corporeal as it can feast on the flesh of the living and cause hp damage, but takes incorporeal form to avoid impediments or to escape. It also has Shadow Blend which allows it to disappear into the shadows gaining total concealment in all levels of illumination save bright light. Strong necromatic magic would be required to create such an undead.
Special Attacks: Engulf as previously described and Moan which can take many forms, including; fear, naseau, stupor (hold monster) or unnerve which is a -2 to attack and damage that can lead to helpless condition. Special Defenses: Shadow Shift which allows the cloaker to take as a free action to cast Blur, Mirror Image, Silent Image, darkness or dimension door. Once per day, they can Shadow Walk or cast Maze as an SLA. Movement is 10' or Fly 40'.
I should also note that the Cloaker has a 10 foot reach. You would have known this from your knowledge check as well as witnessing its tail lash out at Garidan.
Your knowledge check was sufficient to fully understand Haunts. Let me know if you have other questions. It is clear that you have temporarily subdued it, but you know that given time it will regenerate.
These are Flame Drakes. Sense: darkvision 60', low-light vision, scent. Weaknesses: Vulnerability to cold.
Flame Drakes can infrequently breath nasty (5d6) fireballs at a long range, 180 feet (Fireball Breath). Also, they have an extraordinary ability to take an extra move action 3/day. (Speed Surge).
And that covered up to game thread page 27. I'll get more noted in another post.
Prior Knowledge Check Results
its claws can paralyze and its bite can both paralyze and infect with ghoul fever.
Screaming Skull, otherwise known as a Cacophony Golem. It has DR/5 Adamantine and is immune to magic. It can cast magic missile at will and can scream whenever it detects movement within 40' of it. It can be heard for 1,000'
it is created using both evocation and enchantment spells and could release both types of arcane essences.
DR/5 Adamantine; Construct Traits; Immune to Magic - immune to any spell or spell-like ability that allows spell resistance & certain sell effects function differently against the creature
Small chance that these golems go Berserk and enter a Rage while in combat. Also, the golem can cause strength damage to those it hits.
The cube is immune to electricity.
It has standard undead traits and DR5/-. It's special attack is mummy rot; a curse and a disease that will cause both constitution and charisma damage that cannot be recovered naturally.
And that bring us up to (but not including) game thread page 47.
I'm thinking for future reference, the razor grass is 5' tall and thick and sharp. I'm going to treat it like Obscuring Mist, but as Cover rather than just Concealment since it is a physical barrier. So, anything in the grass gets partial cover if you are within 5' of them. If beyond 5', they have total cover.
This would make the events that just played out, plausible. They got within 5' of the path and your pseudodragon sensed them just as they attacked.
If you want to take him up in the air, I'd give him a range equal to his height, max 30'. This takes into account the angle of observation (since looking down has less cover), but it also takes the sphere of his range into account.
Ah, a very reasonable ruling. Thanks GM. In that case for future reference, while we are in such environments the pseudodragon will hover up at the optimum height to get its blindsense at 30 feet.
You know, I had a thought in regards to the applicants for the new campaign. The finished applications are all pretty darn good, and just the right number to party up and start playing too. But there's still two pending and two dots (though the last have shown no further interest). If the pending get sorted out in a timely fashion--I'm pretty sure the dots aren't doing s@%@ in regards to characters, their loss--that'll leave Valjoen with some choices to make, however.
I was wondering if it might be feasible to take in one of the unchosen applicants over here after Valjoen gets through with them.
Another thought, this time regarding the bestiary. This one would take a little time to get done--and I'll certainly be willing to help out with it--but perhaps filling out the entries as Paizo-style entries would make it look nice and clean.
The things that we know for certain via knowledge checks can be filled in, the things we've observered in fights but don't have exact details on (such as DR) can be partially added (for example, DR ??/bludgeoning), while the unknown bits can be left blank.
Ah, a very reasonable ruling. Thanks GM. In that case for future reference, while we are in such environments the pseudodragon will hover up at the optimum height to get its blindsense at 30 feet.I'm thinking for future reference, the razor grass is 5' tall and thick and sharp. I'm going to treat it like Obscuring Mist, but as Cover rather than just Concealment since it is a physical barrier. So, anything in the grass gets partial cover if you are within 5' of them. If beyond 5', they have total cover.
This would make the events that just played out, plausible. They got within 5' of the path and your pseudodragon sensed them just as they attacked.
If you want to take him up in the air, I'd give him a range equal to his height, max 30'. This takes into account the angle of observation (since looking down has less cover), but it also takes the sphere of his range into account.
Sounds good.
I think it would be difficult to insert someone into this campaign unless absolutely necessary.
I plan to do the bestiary up pretty when I have time.
I plan to do the bestiary up pretty when I have time.
Well, I'm willing to help if you need it. You do solid work already, just running things here (and soon enough, in the other campaign as well), so why leave it all on you. I won't promise speed, because damned if stuff suddenly doesn't need doing around here every time I try to kick back for more than 30 minutes, but I can do some.
I don't want more players. I think the best number is between 4-5. Honestly, I'm glad that we no longer have a sixth, simply because the greater the n, the more difficult to coordinate.
Personally, I hope there are only five chosen for the other campaign, but it is not my place to make such decisions.
@GM: Do you want to roll for whether I got anything from the book last night? or should I?
I also don't want more players. I think we're very good where we are at, both roleplaying and mechanic-wise. Not to mention how immensely difficult it would be to get another character built and brought into the campaign at this stage. I do not envy the first one of us to die and not be resurrected.
Niyut - Looking at Shadowmind, it's not on the oracle spell list and doesn't have the requisite shadow sub-school or darkness descriptor to fall under Dark Secrets revelation. What am I missing?
It's on the oracle/cleric list. On the d20 site, they occasionally note it as cleric. I also have the original document if you would like that. But I believe all spells on the cleric list are choose-able by oracles unless specifically noted.
If you check the archive of Neyths (the now official prd), it is listed under oracle spells.
Perfect. Thanks.
Will Gruskorb get botted?
The ones on Gruskorb and Truk are more than 30' apart. So you can get yours and either of the other 2. Which one... Truk's or Gruskorb's? Truk's is nauseated FYI.
Tactically, I'd recommend Gruskorb's. It's the most hurt, and anything that significantly debilitates it will let me kill it that much faster, at which point I can move up the path to take on Niyut's beastie, if it's still a concern. Plus, Gruskorb can't take another rake like that, so if I can't kill it fast it enough, having it (think it's been) blinded might be enough to keep it occupied and off of him.
What nauseated the one attacking Truk?
Truk'tosh overwhelming awesome :D. It's just too much for tender murder-kitties to handle :p.
Malthazir’s spell. Stinking cloud.
Ah. I missed the results of those rolls.
Gruskorb's.
@GM: Do you want to roll for whether I got anything from the book last night? or should I?
I'll roll after the combat. It's a Intelligence Check DC15. You were reading about the first Leyline for the Plane of Water.
I plan to do the bestiary up pretty when I have time.Well, I'm willing to help if you need it. You do solid work already, just running things here (and soon enough, in the other campaign as well), so why leave it all on you. I won't promise speed, because damned if stuff suddenly doesn't need doing around here every time I try to kick back for more than 30 minutes, but I can do some.
Sure, I'll try going forward to write up the knowledge checks in a prose style to be added to the beastiary. If you wanted to go back to some of the early encounters and write them up, that would sure speed up the process.
@Everyone - would anyone be interested in writing up a short (and I mean like 1-2 paragraphs) synopsis of the events surrounding the defense of Earthenwork and departure to the First Lands for inclusion in the wiki? I'd like to do this going forward after every encounter to be used in the campaign summary.
Lastly, I'll bot Gruskorb later this morning if he doesn't chime in. His first action probably has to be grappling or escape artist to get out from the smilodon's clutches. So, not much choice unfortunately.
And, yes, I did forget about Raektov or he would have been a legit target of the smilodons. Keeping him alive here is a crap shoot.
Goat avatar is best avatar.
I deem this goat token acceptable :D.
As usual, I'm giving about 24 hours before botting characters.
Alrighty. Hope he's okay though.
@ Garidan & Truk'tosh - Please check your inbox for a PM.
Thanks for the notice, I don't know why this site doesn't want to tell me when I have a fresh PM waiting >_<.
Truk - I did a real bad job of describing Storm Strike on your Axe.
The original ability comes from the Storm Hag:
Storm Strike (Su) Each time a storm hag makes a successful attack with her bite, claws, or when she uses a weapon that is predominantly made of metal the attack deals an additional 1d6 points of electricity damage.
I'm basically giving your axe this ability 2/day for a round. So this round you get an extra 1d6 damage for all attacks that hit.
So, 3d6. I'll add 2d6 and use the 1d6 from your 4th attack.
You don't get a 4th (free) attack. Sorry, for the poor wording. I'll redo it better on the wiki.
Is this the first time you've used it? If not, I didn't catch it before. But still, that was a massive round!
Prior Knowledge Check Results
The creature appears to be a Phantom Armor from the stories you heard from your mother as a child. But this one seems more powerful. He radiates a light that penetrates the shadows that normally surrounds you.
It is a relatively weak undead. No special attacks. It is a bit resistant to channels. It's armor is protective but can be damaged by non-magical attacks normally. The main difference you see in this one is that it is radiating a bright, clearly magical, light from its armor.
The phantom before you is a Geist. It is an incorporeal undead with a nasty bite that deals negative energy and constitution damage.
Strengths - Channel resistance, incorporeal and standard undead traits.
Weaknesses - Sunlight powerlessness
The three women are storm hags. They can fly and have spell like abilities.
Special Attacks: 1) Storm Strike (Su) Each time a storm hag makes a successful attack with her bite, claws, or a weapon that is predominantly made of metal, the attack deals an additional 1d6 points of electricity damage. 2)Whipping Winds (Su) As a standard action, a storm hag can use gust of wind to trip her foes. This ability can only affect one target within 30 feet, and the storm hag uses her normal CMB. The gust of wind doesn't create its normal effects. The trip attempt does not provoke an attack of opportunity, but casting the spell-like ability does as normal.
Special Defenses: Immune to electricity & high SR.
They're only effectively killed by fire attacks.
And that brings us to page 70!