I wouldn't mind a fifth but that's partly because in my experience of PBP, we WILL LOSE SOMEBODY. At some point. Inevitably. No matter how good the group is and how awesome the players.
This, sadly. Which will really depress me with this group. But I selected a couple people I'd played with in long-term campaigns in my other PbP, thinking they were money, and they still fell by the wayside. :P
I've said elsewhere that five is my ideal party size for PbP, partially so everyone doesn't have to optimize to the bone to cover all the bases. Obviously, with these stat arrays, that's less of a concern. The one area where the party is ... I won't say 'weak' but 'less strong' is ranged combat. Most of the classic ranged spells are in Vhailor's opposition schools, and the range increment on shuriken is only 10 feet; if the bad guys make their Will saves or Banny can't close to melee due to terrain or flight or obstacles or what-have-you, those two PCs may have a harder time contributing in that particular circumstance. But if you guys want to embrace the challenge, that's your prerogative.
Re light: Marikel doesn't have it learned at the moment, either. He'll have to decide if he's willing to devote an orison slot to it or if you're going to go mundane on light sources.* It's not like this is an Underdark campaign, but it's not all going to happen on a featureless plane at high noon, either.
*At least until you can afford magic gear. Please note that Trunau is a small town with a base value of 1000 gp. Paizo APs are generally pretty good about making sure the PCs have a chance to shop along the way, but there won't be much available in this first book.
Yeah, I mean, losing players happens even with great, fantastic players, it's not meant as a judgment on any of us or on Joana's judgment in picking us. Sometimes life just happens.
Hmm, I can pick up a sling, for what it's worth. 50' is a lot better than 10', and it's not like I'm wedded to shuriken (which I'm reflavoring as bits of broken glass anyway if that's cool).
No problem with reflavoring, as long as the stats and cost stay the same. ("I will totally pay you one gold coin for these five shards of broken glass ... because I'm drunk.") A sling is free, so you literally can just pick one up to supplement. :D
Now that the PCs are all done-ish, I'll take a look through the character sheets over the next day or two and get back to you with any questions/clarifications.
Yeah, no changes to mechanics, they just don't look like fancy eastern throwing stars because... yeah. ;)
Slings are free! Sling bullets are not! But I will revise my sheet to include both those items.
Rocks are free, for a -1 to attack and 1d3 damage instead of 1d4. :)
Hell yeah!
Has Vhailor made any plans for relocating and moving on with his life, or is he content for the moment to remain in Trunau, at least until he has repaid Rodrick for saving his life?
He's non-religious - he knows that there are gods out there, he just doesn't revere or worship any of them overtly. He's not taken the time to really dig into detail on any of them either.
Re: Iomedae - probably a slight confusion at the willing sacrifice of liberty; but not any strong feelings for or against. His feelings will probably be driven by his first interaction with a proclaimed Iomedite.
No plans for moving on with his life at present - almost a bit like a 24 year old unemployed and still living at home. He has fun making toys and goofing off around Truneau for now... and needs a bit of external impetus / guidance to drive him. One of those at present is the feeling of needing to repay Rodrick in some way.
I wouldn't mind a fifth but that's partly because in my experience of PBP, we WILL LOSE SOMEBODY. At some point. Inevitably. No matter how good the group is and how awesome the players.This, sadly. Which will really depress me with this group. But I selected a couple people I'd played with in long-term campaigns in my other PbP, thinking they were money, and they still fell by the wayside. :P
I'm an optimist. I still vote 4 but am happy to play with 5. That's the way democracy works. I accept it everything doesn't auto go my way. :-)
Happy to be light bringer if required too. Originally considered it so no probs to change.
My first post got eaten and was more eloquent than this one, so apologies. :-)
Crazy busy day today, and tomorrow might not be much better, but Sunday is looking okay for now (knock on wood). I hope to get the other PCs looked over this weekend, which puts us on track to start sometime next week.
No worries, we ain't goin' nowhere. In any case I need to cohere all my Banny rambling into a version for her profile. *goes to do so*
For some reason, I forgot about the bonus languages for high Intelligence. I'll add those. As for the Disable Device skill line, Alicia does have thieves' tools on her as part of her rogue's kit, so that was an oversight. I will fix this.
Alicia was taken into Trunau at 12, which is generally the age at which a child receives his hopeknife. Would you like her to have gone through the ceremony or not?
Vhailor and Alicia are both pretty far over a light load if they're carrying everything they own. Obviously, being based in town, there's no reason they have be carrying everything they own wherever they go. I'm assuming that things like iron pots and toymaker's tools and trail rations will be left back in their rooms when they're just moseying around town?
Banny and Marikel also don't have to be carrying everything they own, but they have the Str to do so if they wish. ;)
Personally, I hate tracking encumbrance. It's a fair assumption that Alicia doesn't carry around everything she owns, and definitely drops her backpack first-thing when she enters combat.
As for the hopeknife--does Ruby have one (or has she gone through the ceremony, at least)? I can imagine social outcasts not even being given that particular honor, but if they are, then Alicia wouldn't turn it down.
The adventure actually opens on Ruby's 12th birthday and hopeknife ceremony day.* The only difference would be that Ruby has been a resident of the town for six years now and can be presumed to be a permanent fixture whereas Alicia's long-term disposition might have been more up in the air for a while.
Still, from Alicia's point of view, it's a free masterwork weapon for agreeing to go through with the ceremony. From the town's point of view, they want everyone they think may be willing to help defend Trunau armed. At the point that it became clear that there wasn't any family anywhere else that was going to claim her, the Council probably would have offered her the hopeknife, just as they did Banny when she became integrated into the community.
Vhailor would indeed keep the most of his gear in a somewhat undignified pile wherever he's staying. I probably should nominate the 'field loadout' so it's clear which falls into which category.
Huhmn, not sure where that missing 5 GP factors in. It is indeed possible I bought things then regretted it.
In any case: woo, I have now bought more crap! Including a fishing kit, so that when Banny is not wasting time in the bar, or wasting time sittin' on a dock in the bay on the cliff edge, she can waste time half-assedly fishing.
I'll grab an traveller's outfit for warm days, I suppose, so the cold-weather gear will be the freebie, and I'll spend oh so much money on the traveller's.
Yeah, we'll go ahead and have Alicia sign off on the whole "here's a free weapon so you can defend yourself and the town the next time orcs show up" thing.
All right, either change one of your 3 daggers to her hopeknife and give yourself back 2 gp or add it as a separate masterwork dagger, whichever you'd like.
Done.
Paizo's scheduled downtime tonight will eat up most of my habitual posting window. We'll wrap up the details tomorrow, after the site's back up, and hopefully start the gameplay thread by the end of the week.
Assuming Vhailor has a room at the Ramblehouse and everyone else is at the Iomedaean temple, correct?
Marikel is indeed at the temple, but shall be a little quiet over the next week as I'm taking off over and after Easter to visit rellies. Will try and make the occasional post, but my mother's house is in a black spot that gets random and infrequent reception for internets.
All good for the next few days though.
I assumed Banny is no longer dwelling at the temple, actually, probably too awkward with the low-level tension between her and the Iomedans. She's either renting a room/a patch of floor in someone's home and/or working for room and board-- possibly at Rabus's?
(When it's warm enough to get away with this, she actually prefers to sleep out of doors, on a rooftop looking up at the sky. Something about tight, enclosed spaces... But I'm guessing summers are short, in Trunau.)
Vhailor is indeed at the Ramblehouse... occasionally rambling.
(When it's warm enough to get away with this, she actually prefers to sleep out of doors, on a rooftop looking up at the sky. Something about tight, enclosed spaces... But I'm guessing summers are short, in Trunau.)
Then again, you're a dwarf with a cold weather outfit. :)
Locals who don't own property in Trunau proper and who aren't a member of the Patrol are required to pay a 'siege fee' to guarantee them a space within the walls and access to food and water when the orcs attack. What if we say Rabus pays Banny's siege fees as her wages for what work she does around The Killin' Ground? As it's as good as an open-air pavilion, I presume Rabus has a room of his own somewhere nearby. Suppose he lets Banny sleep in the bar during inclement weather so she doesn't drown or get covered in snow?
I doubt the Council approves of Banny camping out all over town, but as long as her siege fee is paid, there's not really much they can do to stop her.
Banny and Alicia have their hopeknives; I'll be providing a bit of extra equipment for Vhailor and Marikel during the course of the adventure to even things out.
*shrug*
You don't have to. We already have 30+ point characters and lots of starting gold.
Speaking of which- I'll upgrade my holy symbol to Silver. I bought first, then rolled for money, so tried to keep costs down. And that wooden shield will become a metal one too.
I feel a little guilty that instead of making those simple changes to the text, I updated Herolab, then copied and pasted the entire stat block again.
Wages = siege fees is a good idea. Banny's awful with money, so if he paid her directly she might not manage to remember to pay her siege fee properly, tsk.
(Duties: serving drinks, cleaning the bits that don't get cleaned by the rain, head-butting the rowdy.... there are worse lives.)
But yeah. A roof over your head is not a bad idea in the rain/snow even if that's basically all it is, a roof. A roof and hopefully a fireplace!
Gameplay thread is live. We might get off to a bit of a slow start with Easter weekend upon us, but we can get in some establishing shots anyway before the real action begins. :)
It has begun :)
Happy Easter to everyone who gets it (it being one of the very few holidays that is not celebrated in Malaysia).
Woo! I'll go check in, but, yes, likely to be spotty for the next few days, as I'm spending one night out of town, and then, well, Easter.
Hopefully people don't find Vhailor's 'peculiarities' too annoying or confusing. I'm finding it somewhat liberating to put together stream of consciousness posts from a viewpoint as bizarre and left of center as his. Lord knows I don't get the same degree of linguistic freedom when putting together a Thrymr / Qhude / Phillip post ;)
I agree. One of the things I love about Braddon is his ramblings which can be used for humour, sillyness, or even to try and direct the story in some way. And so it's also one of the reasons Marikel is so much more serious. Enjoy. I'll cope. It would be hypocrisy on my part, otherwise.
A small advanced warning - starting Wednesday (my time so roughly 48 hours from this post) I'll be in geographical flux at these highlighted locations.
Fly out of KL on Wednesday night, two days in Kota Kinabalu, one full day in transit in Singapore then about eight days (through to Sunday 19th) in Adelaide before returning back to home location. I should retain interwebs connectivity throughout (though with tablet + keyboard rather than laptop), though my access and verbosity might be moderately curtailed at times.
Just to get the talk on illusion limits out of the way early... Joana - what's your view on Silent Image's capabilities?
The text states it creates the visual illusion of an object, creature, or force, as visualized by you - does that mean that for the duration of the spell (concentration) it's limited to essentially that single illusory concept, or is the spell mutable in terms of what it can display over time?
Asking the same question a different way - if I use it to create an illusory orc... does the illusion need to conform to being an orc for the duration of the spell, or could I have it change into an illusion of a wall, or a swirling vortex? - and then on and on until Vhailor stops concentrating?
Pausing mostly because it's after midnight and, dang, boxed text takes a long time to type. Feel free to post a reaction, but the Hopeknife Ceremony will continue tomorrow.
Mark, my first impression is to say you can change the image within the duration, but let me take a look at the line of spells and get back to you for certain. If anyone else has feedback on the issue, feel free to post in the meantime. My RL group has never done much with illusions so I don't have a wealth of anecdotal experience to lean on.
Just so you can see where the rabbit hole leads - the line of illusion spells all have a duration of 'concentration'. Which in most cases requires the application of a standard action each round to maintain.
Except Vhailor has some hefty class abilities and feats to leverage.
A feat he intends to take is Effortless Trickery - which allows for an illusion to be maintained as a swift action.
At 4th level I can transfer the concentration on a spell from Vhailor to his familiar.
That means that for a 'relatively' low investment, Vhailor could have two effectively permanent illusions. If the shape and variety of the figment is mutable - then it means that he gets carte blanche.
If the shape and variety is 'relatively' fixed for the duration of an individual spell - then it means he needs to be a bit more cautious about when and how to spend his spells on the figments.
I'm leaning more towards the restriction camp (as much as unlimited illusory power would be nice) - but with general leeway. As in he could modify an illusion of an orc to be a giant or a wolf or a statue, but couldn't shape it into a wall or make it a swirling vortex, etc.
I'm very much against the idea of mutable illusions. Your later shadow spells let you duplicate a single spell and I'd follow the same process.
So, I'd allow an illusion of an orc and let it move and run and fight (so long as it didn't hit anything or get hit) but wouldn't allow it to turn into a giant without a disbelieve, or an obvious reason as to why it might change.
I think Silent Image works best as a still effect such as Wall of Stone, a door, a bridge, Create Pit and so on.
A chance to disbelieve any change in the illusion is pretty much a given in my book.
"She tripped," Alicia says. "On her way to the stage, along with the others. Where they should be going now."
That's pure gold. I'm going to love roleplaying with you. :-)
I do aim to please. ;)
So, the potential for abuse would come from preserving spell slots by, say, casting the spell when you get up in the morning and merely modifying it as necessary until time to set up camp or until your (or your familiar's) concentration is disrupted?
I'm going to say no, on the premise that, once you've summoned a creature, you can't switch out creatures within the duration; if your summons isn't effective against whatever you're facing, you just have to work with it or use another spell slot.
Out of interest, when you can switch your concentration on an illusion to Carbonel, does that mean you can have two illusions up at once? With effortless trickery, can you do the same by using a swift action to maintain one spell while using your standard action to concentrate on another one?
Back in KL now, so warming up to keeping a regular pace.
On the illusions, roger roger and understood - the initial fabrication of the 'illusion' involves shaping the intent of the obfuscation and the subsequent chicanery is limited by that initial driving thought.
On having multiple illusions up - it's a bit of a gray (or grey) area. I'm very confident that he can get two illusions up at once by shifting one to Carb to be maintained, and then maintaining the other himself. The third falls a little bit inbetween rules.
The wording of effortless trickery suggests that it's possible to maintain two separate illusions through Vhailor's will alone - but that's contradicted by the wording in the magic section of Core.
I'd like to think he could maintain two illusions personally, plus a third through Carbonel - but I'm not sure if there is an explicit FAQ or comment to support.
Just a heads-up that I have several big work deadlines hitting right now, and a bout of sickness in the family, so I'll probably be a little slow for several days. Sorry about that, but I'll try and squeeze in a post here and there. If you need an action from my character and you're waiting on me, feel free to GMPC.
You're eating humble pie.
I won't disturb you. :-)
Rodrick is watching the dispute with more amusement than consternation. He shrugs. "This is the first I've seen of it. I suppose it's for Banny to say."
Kerst is overwhelmed, looking to Banny for the rules and by-laws of the sacred dwarven tradition of competitive pie-eating.
With Rodrick's partial reply, Vhailor also turns to regard Banny with a slight tilt-headed query.
...AND we've just effectively thrown a spotlight on a player who gave us advance notice she might be too busy to post for several days. ;)
No pressure, dien. If you don't have the time/energy, I'll move us along tomorrow.
Heh - that's good plannin that is ;)
Re Effortless Trickery, I see clarification has been sought on the forums, but there's been no developer input. The feat specifically says you can use your standard action to maintain a second spell, but the CRB says you can't cast another spell while concentrating, so I don't see how it's impossible to maintain two at a time, as once you cast a single illusion, you're now concentrating and can't cast another. (Obviously, Vhailor will bypass the problem by handing the concentration off to Carbonel, but the School Familiar archetype didn't exist when Gnomes of Golarion came out.)
Clearly, the feat allows you to use your standard action to move or attack or drink a potion or activate a wand or whatever while concentrating, but it specifically references maintaining a second spell. I have to believe that it was intended to overrule the inability to cast while concentrating, whether it actually does by RAW or not.