Don't we get another saving throw vs the negative level tomorrow?
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Yeah... but until that saving throw (which when I'm STing I always make 24 hours later because I'm mean ;P ) Imix is at -1 caster level.
That means his animation ability is insufficient level to effect large items.
Oh noooo! Oh geeze... that's a boulder-sized wrench in the plans. I"m guessing we don't have access to anything like Lesser Restoration? Not familar with Spheres of Power healing and such.
Nat might have Restore Soul which is the Life Talent that takes care of negative levels.
Nat might have Restore Soul which is the Life Talent that takes care of negative levels.
She does now!
It was not my intent to throw a wrench into you guys' plans.
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As I mentioned, the new AP has a lot of rules about refugees, survival, rationing, etc. It is almost as if they wrote it for our game. Some of this is pretty close to what we're planning on doing, enough so that implementing the following shouldn't impact us in any major way:
considered untrained, with a penalty of –2.
The PCs may also have rescued named NPCs from Shadehome, such as Ogwe, Aktuk, and others. Use the same table below to determine the abilities of these named NPCs, but increase their attack and skill bonuses by 1, and add 3 hit points.
PC-created NPCs and some NPCs will have higher levels and perhaps even PC class levels.
Over the course of this game, the PCs will gain promotions they can assign the NPCs of their choice. A promotion allows an NPC to retrain to another NPC class (most often allowing Commoners to retrain into Adepts, Aristocrats, Experts, or Warriors), or to gain a level in their current class. An NPC cannot retrain into a base
class unless a PC specifically selects that character as a companion with options such as the Leadership feat. An NPC cannot be promoted to be higher level than the PCs.
Special NPCs (player-created, some others) cannot be advanced in this way.
Each day, a friendly NPC can be assigned to perform one task around camp or generally employ skills on the PCs’ behalf. Note: not all NPCs will be friendly all the time. Unreasonable requests can be denied. The most useful such projects include the following.
• Assist: NPCs can assist a PC or NPC with any skill they’re trained in, automatically granting a +2 aid another bonus.
• Build Shelter: Creating a shelter for one Medium-sized creature requires a successful DC 12 Craft or Survival check. For every 2 points by which the result exceeds 12, the shelter can accommodate one additional Medium-sized creature. These shelters are simple and
cold, but enough to prevent a character from being fatigued from lack of shelter.
• Craft: With access to the necessary tools, NPCs can craft finished goods for the PCs upon request, using the normal Craft skill rules (Core Rulebook 91).
• Forage or Hunt: Characters who spend a full day hunting or gathering and succeed at a DC 10 Survival check gain 1 Provision Point. Characters gain 1 additional Provision Point for every 2 by which the result exceeds 10.
• Herd: Shadeholme's pig and goat herds were scattered in the attack, and many were lost in the forest or taken. If any are recovered, captive animals can be maintained with a single successful Handle Animal check (DC = 10 + the number of animals) per day. Neglecting to maintain the herd or failing this check indicates one or more animals have wandered off. A captive animal automatically generates 1 Provision Point every 3 days in the form of milk (and eventually cheese or butter), or can be butchered to immediately provide 2 Provision Points.
• Scout: NPCs trained in Survival or Stealth can scout the area or keep an eye on the refugees encampment or procession for the PCs. With a successful DC 10 Survival check, an NPC can reduce the chances for a random encounter by 5%. An NPC who succeeds at this skill check by 5 or more can identify one danger in the area of the encounter (if any exist). If the NPC fails the scouting check in an area where there is a danger, there is a chance that the NPC will be captured or killed, depending on the threat.
• Stand Watch: An NPC can stand watch, attempting Perception checks and even confronting danger while the PCs rest uninterrupted.
• Support: One or more NPCs can follow the PCs to assist them, carrying equipment, standing watch at temporary camps (see below), and providing skills the PCs may lack. NPCs hold back from combat, but should the PCs lose a fight, the NPCs attempt to drag their unconscious leaders to safety.
• Use Skill: Friendly NPCs can use any of their listed skills on the PCs’ behalf, such as using Handle Animal to train captured animals, Heal to provide long-term care, or Knowledge to answer questions for the PCs, provided it is in their best interest to do so.
Regardless of the refugees’ general mood, specific named NPCs (if they survive) take on a helpful role within the group and provide unique benefits so long as they remain alive and friendly to the PCs, as follows.
• Ogwe: Ogwe is a gifted chef and runs a tight kitchen brigade. He keeps the foodstuffs maintained, making sure the refugees use the most perishable items first and helping people use every edible bit. So long as Ogwe oversees the cooking, the camp saves 1 out of 10 Provision Points each day, simply by good logistical use of the foodstuffs. (so, 100 refugees will only consume 90 provision points).
• Aktuk and Sarre: Though different - and definitely not friends - the soldiers are both capable leaders in their own ways. Any teams they lead gain a +1 bonus on initiative and perception rolls.
• Issy: Issy gathers materials from the woods and waters to make rudimentary potions. Every day, she can make 1 dose of bloodroot poison, one tanglefoot bag, or one vial of antitoxin, but doing so prevents her from working on any other tasks that day.
• Helgya: The hedgewitch uses her herbalism training to find healing
plants and savory herbs while foraging, and treats the small wounds the refugees suffer daily. Characters in the camp heal 1 additional hit point each night while they rest so long as Helgya remains with the group.
NPC Class | Attack Roll | Damage Roll | hp | Con Check | Skills at +5
Commoner | +2 | 1d4+1 | 5 | +1 | Craft (any one), Handle Animal, Perception
Expert | +1 | 1d4 | 6 | +1 | Craft (any two), Knowledge (one of dungeoneering, engineering, nature or geography), Profession (any one), Stealth, Survival
Warrior | +3 | 1d6+1 | 9 | +2 | Handle Animal
EDIT: I'll probably come up with other NPC 'boons' as the game goes on.
Ooooh this is really cool, how fortuitous this AP came along when it did!
So giving NPCs orders- does this apply to the named NPCs, or all NPCs?
Also I'm happy to keep a running spreadsheet on all our NPCs, bonuses, foodstuffs, goods, etc if you'd like BP, but if you'd rather keep track of it I understand.
So giving NPCs orders- does this apply to the named NPCs, or all NPCs?
Also I'm happy to keep a running spreadsheet on all our NPCs, bonuses, foodstuffs, goods, etc if you'd like BP, but if you'd rather keep track of it I understand.
I think we'll say it applies to named PCs and/or teams that are friendly to the PCs and have self-interest aligning with the PCs (which right now, is most everyone - ymmv down the road though, as with more security will come more ambition/alternate interests than just 'let's all be alive!').
I'm happy for you to run the spreadsheet, Istiel, if you don't mind doing it.
EDIT: Oh, and I'll get food rules up tonight. They're pretty much what we're planning on doing, with a couple of additional tweaks.
Food rules below. I'm still digesting this AP and may use a little bit of the first adventures for inspiration. I'll get us moving with part II soon.
Consuming only half a Provision Point per day sustains a character, but leaves that person distracted and irritable. A character who eats only a half portion takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls, damage rolls, ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws until she consumes a full portion. If a person eats half provisions 2 days in a row, she doesn’t have enough body fat to endure starvation for long, and must begin making Constitution checks each day to avoid taking nonlethal damage, and moves at half movement.
To simplify things, if you decide to ration, I'd suggest alternating between populations that are rationing each day, or not rationing, at a 50% each ratio. This would in effect save you 1/4 food each day in return for a 1 in 2 chance that any NPC is currently suffering under a ration, which will be determined randomly as needed (i.e. if a NPC is in combat or making a skill check).
Sleeping without a shelter is cold and often wet, exposing a character to the elements and leaving her fatigued the next day. If she sleeps without shelter a second day, she awakes exhausted,
which persists until she can find shelter to rest in for a night.
Currently, nights are warm and clear enough that characters don’t require a shelter to sleep comfortably unless there is an unusual cold snap or precipitation (GMBP’s discretion).
How does energy resistance or spells like endure elements, if that is still a thing in spheres, play into the shelter rules if at all?
Just so everyone knows my posting may be slowed for a bit, and I won't be commenting on everything like I usually do. I've been having some hand pain lately- could be carpal tunnel, or trigger finger, or something equally crappy, so I'm going to slow down my technology use for a while to try and recover without medical intervention.
Good luck Istiel.
Good question, Drazan. An effect similar to endure elements would work. Does energy resistance count in the regular ruleset?
Feel better, Istiel.
I'm on a spur of the moment trip to Austin. Should be ready to go when I get back beginning of next week.
Good question, Drazan. An effect similar to endure elements would work. Does energy resistance count in the regular ruleset?
I'm not sure. Reading the environmental rules, I'd venture to say energy resistance does protect against extreme weather conditions like cold (40 degrees or less) and heat (90 degrees and up) because those conditions cause damage. But it sounds like shelter rules are something different maybe?
It certainly makes sense to me - one wouldn't expect a fire elemental to pass out from a desert because it is hot.
@Istiel: good luck, and take it easy. I have friends who went down this path. Voice Recognition is just not good enough for most purposes.
Makes sense to me too. We'll say energy resistance counts. But note - we're not using the shelter rules yet.
I hope to get us moving along to act II tomorrow. Just about caught up on life and work.
I hope to get us moving along to act II tomorrow. Just about caught up on life and work.
OK, so I'm still thinking about how to do this. We're going with two groups, right? Istiel and Drazan as scouts and the rest of the PCs with the flock?
Imix animates the logs, then lies comatose on a Keelboat. We load the logs down (their carrying capacity should be pretty spectacular). The logs are tied to the Keelboats, but with the understanding they may also be pulling. The logs will need to be secured long enough for him to rest at night. He can burn his excess spell points (7) to create food for breakfast, if we find some fruit trees (and we should definitely have at least one in a pot in case that turns out to be something the lowlands don't have)
We spent N days having the laborers make rowboats.
We fill the keelboats with Goods and food, sailors, and people who can't walk or use a rowboat/canoe.
Rowboats and Canoes have ropes to connect them to the keelboats. They also have people to steer them.
Let's say rafts can be built easily enough - 1 team of laborers can build one in one day, provided they have the goods to do so (you'd have to bring them, or use capital to generate them). 2 goods to build a raft.
Rowboats will be 5 goods.
How many rowboats are you making?
So we have 75 people that are too young, too old, or too mentally scarred to walk/be useful. If this were an evil campaign I know what we'd do with them, but our group tends towards Lawful and Good so they're getting put on boats.
During the cordel we will have all able-bodied members walking or helping pull. This allows us to carry 675 more food on the keelboats for the first two days, which we will eat 400 of if Imix does not supplement it with his casting. It's probably best they do eat it though, because those people are going to need that space to ride on the keelboat when we start downriver.
This is the last bit of food/goods planning I've been able to find, but it doesn't take into account automatons or rowboats:
We have (not taking into account those that will stay behind, or the prisoners):
*200 people
*300 Goods
*12,000 food units
*6 keelboats
*7 canoes
This calculation does not take into account those that will wish to stay behind, those that cannot be moved, or the new prisoners, but:*Keelboats Dedicated to Goods: 1
*Goods Carried: 45
*Keelboats Dedicated to Food: 2
*Food Carried: 900*Sailors in Food/Goods Keelboats: 15
*Keelboats Dedicated to People: 3
*People Carried in keelboats: 150*Canoes dedicated to People: 7
*People in Canoes: 35*Total People: 200
*Days Worth of Food Carried: 4.5
Number-crunchers: Once we determine how many rowboats you're building, I'll need the food/people/goods breakdown.
I believe rowboat production was contracted out to Suriname Inc.
I'll try to get up a spreadsheet to keep all this straight when I have some time.
Did we heal our negative level and missing hp by chance? Did I miss that?
Yes and yes! And only partly. I never mentioned the healing.
The paizo forums really crapped its pants yesterday afternoon- it was spectactular. Entire campaign threads disappearing!
The paizo forums really crapped its pants yesterday afternoon- it was spectactular. Entire campaign threads disappearing!
Yeah, that was scary
Crazy! I was working away from internet but jumped on my phone to check in, and was like, well...
... nothing to be done about this.
I has gotted confuzeled.
Imix's neg level is healed, so he can animate the crocodile-boats, right?
What are we using them for? We decided they were the same speed so we were using them as outboard motors and extra carrying?
Exhaustion wise, Imix can maintain one spell (and 5 boats) as a single concentration action. Presumably this is the same as walking (one action).
If he's maintaining 2 spells (and 10 boats) or 1 spell and anything else, I think he's hustling. Barring someone's clever magic trick, that won't last long before he collapses. Okay to do it if needed, but good to know.
Either way, Imix needs to stay pretty close to the animated objects, I would think.
Currently (ironically?) in the middle of moving.
Will still post at work probably, but it'll be a while before I spreadsheet everything.
Imix- Your negative level is healed as far as I can tell. How many rowboats did you want to build?
If they were doing long haul work, I was planning on just 5.
I need to spend 7 spell points first, and was figuring that'd be on making food or somesuch. First day would be on animating some objects to help us load (10 medium objects animated for an hour or so)
Currently (ironically?) in the middle of moving.
Me too! Just got our house at the end of last week. Good luck with the move.
@Imix, I'd thought you were doing 5 for the haul work. I've been thinking about this, and with the surplus of food that you can take, you could use the logs as draybeasts for that surplus in addition to hauling the keelboats. I was going to have your people/teams make con checks to avoid exhaustion, but the log haulers are a nice workaround. There will be enough people left to rotate the remaining cordelling duties to relieve exhaustion.
So, for the first leg of the journey, up the canal, you don't need to use any food nor will you make checks.
I'm at a conference starting tomorrow, which means no distractions at home and no working off-library on this project I've been working on. I should be able to post all week at night, and perhaps one in today.
Hope everyone had or is having a great Easter weekend.
Hope your carpal tunnel is healing Isitel!
Oios: In your most recent post you meant Iseult, not Istiel, correct? (Damn all these similar, made-up names)
I am definitely feeling better. It took about a week of minimum electronics use but it's mostly passed. Honestly, I think it was my smartphone that did it. Holding the thing all the time, texting, writing posts,etc.
The folding bluetooth keyboard I acquired has helped IMMENSELY with the strain, and just flat-out makes it easier to post. Best 12 dollars I ever spent.
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Yes, I meant the NPC girl who might be the most important character in the story not the crazy monk!
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Yes, I meant the NPC girl
:D
who might be the most important character in the story
:|
not the crazy monk!
D:<
Oios, I don't think your AC or HP is nearly high enough to survive this campaign. Istiel will demonstrate.
haven't updated the statblock, or crossed off components. When we've an encounter we can work out what condition he's in - he'll be losing a lot of components on this trip.
We're using the new rules, rather than the old ones, right? So not Goods and Food at this point?
Downtime rules still apply so you'll perhaps want to bring some goods. Food rules are little different, but they're largely the same rules. You'll have all the food you need until you get to the river and the automatons (I assume) can't be brought with you, at which point we'll begin tracking food. People will still use 1 food/day, unless rationing, and can forage for food as before. Foraged hexes will still also get a malus for each day spent in them, and foraging moves the group along at half-speed (effectively half boat speed, or 10' if walking, as the not able-bodied walk at 20').
This was in a spoiler so perhaps not everyone saw it, so I thought I'd bring it over here
this might be a problem for Oios going forward though. Can't be a leader and an adventurer at the same time... unless you do some Kingmaker like shenanigans where you spend months 'in the capital doing ruler things' and then go out on an adventures occasionally while NPCs hold down the fort.
Part of a larger conversation about adventure structure, and how Oios in particular (but all of you) may feel tied to people/places/etc.
I'd like to avoid KM rulership shenanigans, and I think this is a good reason to not always be tied to people/place/etc from a narrative reason: if you need something done right, you four are the ones to do it. Once you establish a safe zone, assuming you do so, I'm not going to burn that place down while you're not around (burning it down while you're there is another matter altogether :)
You can give NPCs things to do and if they like you and their interests align with yours, they may even do it. But, if you need some diplomancing, or scouting, or a threat taken care of...
There's a reason why Dom went on the journey and the Mayor got wacked and Telowo lost his powers - and that's from a narrative perspective, you guys are the heroes. If stuff needs doing, you can always ask the NPCs to get it done, but they don't possess your skillsets* and the end result could be... grisly
So, that should be the inspiration to adventure, I hope. Shadeholme2 will be safer with you all being proactive heroes than hanging out at home delegating rations and such. We'll mix it up a bit with at-home action and away action, and you all can feel free to split the party as is standard operating procedure.
I hope that you all do what feels natural for your characters, but if you're ever feeling like your PC is losing out on action, we'll adjust, and feel free to make excuses to get your PC out of Shadeholme2 on occasion regardless!
*Well, most of them. And those that do, may not be interested in doing those things.
Hey GMBP,
My reading from the above is that you don't want to use something like the secondaries that DM Nerk did.
I'm all good with that, but in that situation I'm keen for us to end up with NPC administration/rulership. Hopefully rulers that are advised by the heroes.
I realise the crocodiles are sort of tying Imix down - it's why I was originally trying to set up a PC expedition to secure the falls - but I'm hopeful that will be a temporary thing.
I'm not sure on the secondaries yet. I've considered it, and we could go that route if folks would like to. If we go the secondary PC route, I'd probably ask that we do like Nerk did and keep PCs limited to two groups at any given time, so that we don't have 4 or 8 different story lines going at once.
What do you all think? Would you be interested in introducing secondary PCs? It wouldn't happen for a while, but when it does we'd take them from a list of existing NPCs, which means they'd be less powerful than primary NPCs (and I'd build them). They'd start off with 2 NPC class levels (maybe 3, depending on when we introduce them), with the option to retrain those class levels as time goes on and mentors make themselves apparent. They would not have the extra level that the primary PCs have.
You could then mix and match the PCs and PC2s into two groups that would / could be out in the world and at home base at any given time depending on skill sets and desires of the players.
--------------------
As for NPCs in rulership, some NPCs will have important roles, but I don't know if any one of them is going to be "king" or whatever. We'll see when we get to that point, and how things develop between now and then...
I don't think I've got the bandwidth for a secondary PC.
I think I prefer the approach that the people are self sufficient enough that they don't need us to be hanging around all the time. The PCs are pretty well established as legendary heroes already, what with holy light and fire exploding and ancient creatures being reanimated and beating things to death with fists, so who else would deal with weird things?
and you all can feel free to split the party as is standard operating procedure.
Haha, yeah we should really stop doing that... it'll get us in trouble one of these days.
What do you all think? Would you be interested in introducing secondary PCs?
I'm not interested in secondary PCs honestly, even though that's the origin of Istiel. As Oios said I don't really have the time to be playing another characte, and more importantly I'm enjoying intepreting this world through Istiel's perspective. I don't really feel the need to have anyone else in it.
I'm not worried about having at home or away parties. I agree with Oios that I don't think we need to be around all the time, people can take care of themselves while we tackle the big, scary problems.
beating things to death with fists
Speaking of which, excuse me while Istiel engages in good ol fashioned d6 diplomacy with the natives.
OK, I'm inclined to agree. No PC2s.
Oios, just checked your Desnus 3 spoiler tag and nothing's there, FYI.
Is it okay if I look at the spoilers if I don't act on the knowledge? Kind of keen to know what happened.
I'm okay with or without secondaries.
If we're going without though, I want to set things up so we have NPC leadership, at least for day to day stuff. I'd also like us to stop splitting the group so much - it can cause problems when one group flashes by a time period, and the other group takes a while to work through it. Don't mind if we're all doing things in the same time period (like splitting up to go through a house) but I'd prefer to try to avoid it going on.
Of course! Read away! I feel anything after the fact is fair game, and usually, unless I'm trying to build suspense, don't really mind either way.
I've been reading it since Day One myself :). Too much good writing to go to waste.
BTW Oios will be pretty angry if he finds out Drazan and Isitel didn't bother to tell him there are other of the Three People who still survive. :)
I don't really like to read spoilers, I feel it causes me to unconsciously metagame. Though sometimes it's hard to resist, because as Oios said, the writing is too good...
BTW Oios will be pretty angry if he finds out Drazan and Isitel didn't bother to tell him there are other of the Three People who still survive. :)
I"m not sure what you're referring to here?
^That's cause you didn't read Drazan's spoiler! :)
Oh yeah, I meant Drazan only there!
Haha, oops... Well then it's just Drazen Oios has to get mad at :p
It's Drazen's in-character decision to desiminate that information or not in my opinion. He's played one of the (ironically) most consistent chaotic characters I've seen, so I wouldnt't be surprised if he doesn't say anything.
BP, anything on that untrained knowledge nature check? We already decided on a course of action, but every bit helps.
Oh yeah. I'm not second guessing Drazan at all. Dannet deserved what he got.
You mentioned Dennet and my curiousity got the better of me, so I read Drazen's spoilers.
WOW, nice job Drazen, that was great. You did that piece of excrement a mercy leaving him still breathing, honestly.
The quesiton is, if Istiel had been there too, could her and Drazen have taken on Dennet and 20 soldiers...? It sounds like an even fight :p
I'm amazed you guys aren't reading spoilers. Some of the best stuff in the game happens in there.
I did for a while, but I stopped when GMBP asked us not to for the Boydak fight.