I'm sure I can make due with whoever's left at the end of your drowning spree.
well, best get a list ready of hearts and minds you want functioning. Because lungs are going down starting tonight.
Mr. Chumlett seems pretty clearly hostile, and won't be missed. May the Sharks enjoy him.
Nivian, is this a matter of party discussion? Because if we get together, I could use a scapegoat or two. Dead men make great scapegoats.
Okay, yeah so if purifying the rum helps, then that's cool we can do that each night. :D
As for the killing... uh... yeah is this going to be an in character discussion, cause if so Baltzar (and probably Rhemus too, but I can't speak for him) would object...
Besmara's Code states:
End Your Quarrels on Shore: Whatever disagreements
one sailor has with another, onboard a ship is not the
place to settle them, for everyone’s survival depends on
the crew working together. If one member of the crew has
a disagreement with another, the place to settle it is on
shore—whether this is a port or just a sandy beach.
How many of us are faithful of Besmear? Three?
Baltzar, Rillum, and Rhemus, right?
That's half the party. Of course, it could be argued that the ship's officers (and some of the crew) are not exactly obeying the code either, and are thus not subject to it.
Rillum is not.
Okay, so my hedge witch question...
Spontaneous Healing (Su)
A hedge witch can channel stored spell energy into healing spells that she did not prepare ahead of time. The witch can “lose” any prepared spell that is not an orison in order to cast any cure spell of the same spell level or lower, even if she doesn’t know that cure spell.
This replaces the witch’s hex gained at 4th level.
Empathic Healing (Su)A hedge witch can minister to a diseased or poisoned target, redirecting the affliction into herself. For a poisoned target, the witch must tend to him as a standard action; he makes his next saving throw against the poison as normal, but the witch suffers the effects of the failed save instead of the poisoned creature. For a diseased target, the witch must tend to the sick person for an hour; he makes his next saving throw against the disease as normal, but the witch suffers the effects of the failed save instead of the diseased creature. The witch does not actually become poisoned or diseased (and is not contagious and does not need to be cured), but suffers the effects of the affliction as if she had been. The witch normally uses this ability to extend the life of someone near death, giving him time to recover. This ability has no effect if the witch is immune to disease or poison.
This replaces the witch’s hex gained at 8th level.
Note it doesn't say that you get the abilities at 1st level (as most archetypes do...) nor does it say you get the abilities at 4th or 8th level. It just says you get them and what they replace.
Now, I've always done it as they are basically 'archetype exclusive mandatory hex' at those levels, but I thought I'd double check on your interpretation. Do I have them now, or not until 4th and 8th level, respectively?
Rillum is not.
Doesn't he have a skull and crossbones scar/birth mark thing on his face? I guess I assumed it was some kind of religious mark.
The only confirmed NPC would be Sandara Quinn, an actual cleric of Besmara. Many of the crew are not, although they may utter a quick prayer for her favor, they are not devout followers the way an Inquisitor may be or a witch posing (no disrespect) as a priestess of Besmara may be.
Rillum is not.Doesn't he have a skull and crossbones scar/birth mark thing on his face? I guess I assumed it was some kind of religious mark.
He has a skull shaped like a fly, which is not the symbol of Besmara.
Okay, so my hedge witch question...
Spontaneous Healing (Su)
A hedge witch can channel stored spell energy into healing spells that she did not prepare ahead of time. The witch can “lose” any prepared spell that is not an orison in order to cast any cure spell of the same spell level or lower, even if she doesn’t know that cure spell.
This replaces the witch’s hex gained at 4th level.
Empathic Healing (Su)A hedge witch can minister to a diseased or poisoned target, redirecting the affliction into herself. For a poisoned target, the witch must tend to him as a standard action; he makes his next saving throw against the poison as normal, but the witch suffers the effects of the failed save instead of the poisoned creature. For a diseased target, the witch must tend to the sick person for an hour; he makes his next saving throw against the disease as normal, but the witch suffers the effects of the failed save instead of the diseased creature. The witch does not actually become poisoned or diseased (and is not contagious and does not need to be cured), but suffers the effects of the affliction as if she had been. The witch normally uses this ability to extend the life of someone near death, giving him time to recover. This ability has no effect if the witch is immune to disease or poison.
This replaces the witch’s hex gained at 8th level.
Note it doesn't say that you get the abilities at 1st level (as most archetypes do...) nor does it say you get the abilities at 4th or 8th level. It just says you get them and what they replace.
Now, I've always done it as they are basically 'archetype exclusive mandatory hex' at those levels, but I thought I'd double check on your interpretation. Do I have them now, or not until 4th and 8th level, respectively?
You would get them at the earliest level defined. If no level is defined, then you get them at level 1.
Rillum is a follower of Urgathoa. Skull yes, no crossbones. Surrounded by a crude fly or moth.
Rillum is a follower of Urgathoa. Skull yes, no crossbones. Surrounded by a crude fly or moth.
Gotcha. It is religious. I was just wrong about which one.
And not really devout, more intrigued and impressed by.
I wanna see you use Empathic Healing on a werewolf. :P
Yeah, I mean Baltzar won't be punished by loss of her abilities if she violates her faith, but it still means as much to her. Kind of like how a wizard can run a temple of Nethys and he has just as much authority as a cleric. That's kind of how she sees herself. As Besmara is her patron, she's a priestess (even more so since there are really no temples of Besmara, just each priest(ess) has their shrine) The only reason she smirks when she says it is she knows others might not agree, and that she IS a witch and not a cleric.
That's kind of why I see False Focus as working for her, her faith is real, even if her magic itself isn't divine.
So I'm really waiting on Nivian here to find out how she's going to handle Rillum waking her up at 3am while covered in blood, but Sandman, same question since you seem to be lurking around...
Oh cool, so then I have the two abilities right away.
As for Empathic Healing on a werewolf, I imagine it would only work before the 1st full moon, after that the disease is gone and only the curse is left.
And on that note, how do you interpret me gaining immunity to disease and poison working with Empathic Healing (not sure how I would off the top of my head, just wondering off hand?) Is it that I do the healing but I am unaffected, or is it cross the entire ability off the character because I can't use it?
Well, the last sentence basically prohibits it.
"This ability has no effect if the witch is immune to disease or poison."
Ah, lycanthropy. It is my hope Rillum gets to experiment with that a bit before he becomes completely immune to disease. He'd make a great wereshark, or even wererat; though that would be a bit obvious.
So I'm thinking about doing combat slightly different this next fight. Keeping with the us vs. them mentality, those that win initiative (basically score higher than the bad guys) get to go first. Those that score less, basically don't go in the first round. It sounds a little harsher than it is, but after the first round, I'm not going to worry too much about keeping people in order. Surprise rounds may through another monkey wrench into this model, but I'm looking to streamline things a little bit. In my experience, after round one, combat breaks down into we go, you go, we go, you go. Fairly high level encounters skew this a bit, but we're a good ways away from those.
It got fairly confusing the first time around. So I'm looking for feedback and/or questions.
I usually use Block initiative when I run PbP games. It's pretty much how you ran it last time, but the order people post in is the order of the action. If we want to get fancy with coordinating actions, that's up to us.
One more thing to keep in mind, as you guys work to sway crew members to your side, to influence them and diplomize them to helpful and friendly, the officers are doing the same thing to keep them under their command. In particular, you guys are doing really great.
** spoiler omitted **
While I like the cut scene, what exactly are you trying to do? Are you casting a cure light wounds spell? treating deadly wounds? first aid? or what exactly?
First aid to stop the bleeding. We'll call it Treating Deadly Wounds.
I'm having trouble with the site right now. It isn't letting me edit for some reason so I keep having to copy-paste and repost. I don't think that changes my dice rolls, but just in case, the current post reads 26.
I'll add in the treat deadly wounds stuff now.
Yeah, we're good, on the same page.
I'm glad the mask finally got to interact with someone. Kind of an ideal way to introduce it as a character, really.
Thanks, Rillum.
Slight retcon on the spell list because of Rillum's scene the night before. I didn't realize how badly hurt he was.
I'll go with Sow Thought and Cure Light, which I'll cast on him be down one spell.
With Treat Deadly Wounds, that's a total of 6 healed. With a night of rest that should take Rillum back to full.
So I'm really waiting on Nivian here to find out how she's going to handle Rillum waking her up at 3am while covered in blood, but Sandman, same question since you seem to be lurking around...
sorry, I ended up sleeping. silly europeans, i know...gonna head on over to gameplay but it seems things got resolved already?
Also, regarding ending quarrels on shore. I have no quarrel with them. They are simple in the way.
I had planned to befriend members of the crew until we have a strong enough group to try and overthrow them. But last night I learned that the crew will resist aligning all the way with us.
Nivian believes only truly helpful characters who are willing to take risks for us will be of use in a mutiny. Casual friendly characters would look out for themselves first and foremost.
Since she fails to get people to be helpful rather than just friendly, she is rethinking her tactics. If the goal is to have more people on our side than the current officers have on theirs, then the failed option is taking people from them and shifting their alliance to us. The option left is taking people from them.
Since we are undercrewed, in Nivian's eyes that means they will have to take on new crew in another port. If they press-gang those, we can look out for them and gain their alliance.
At the same time, we can get rid of some hostile hardliners who are in alliance with our oppressors.
All in all, I will not pick out anybody I had a quarrel with. And I might not do it every night lest they discover me. But expect deaths to happen.
So in other words, I will not break Besmara's Code even so. Because if you take that literal, Piracy is nothing other than a Quarrel between 2 complete crews, and asking your prey to follow to shore would seldom work.
So to sum it up...
"First, their return to shore was not part of our hiring negotiations nor our agreement to work so I must do nothing. And secondly, you must be a pirate for the pirate's code to apply and I'm just a humble Undine. And thirdly, the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules. Welcome aboard the Wormwood, Miss Baltzar."
Also, regarding your Archetype Question, Baltzar, I was at first going to say it would have to replace them at the approbiate level, but indeed, the SRD almost always mentions the level at which they come into effect. Since that is omitted here, it would seem that you indeed start with both abilities fully active, which makes sense considering their nature- :)
Busy night here. I'm heading home now and will catch up on the IC thread and post. Geez, people, 53 OOC posts in less than 12 hours!
All I have to contribute to the alcohol debate is that the average american colonial drank a gallon of rum a week. That does not include beer consumption as that was the staple drink since Europeans did not drink water. Knowing that, there are no such things as alcoholics in this day and age. The only caveat to that is that people today should not drink and drive. The colonials had the advantage of independent thinking rides who knew the way home and could steer just fine on their own.
@Nivian - However undines define themselves, they are first defined as humans with descent from the Plane of Water. As for ages, yes, Undines can possibly outlive an elf by 100 years, but they mature much faster than do elves (60 years vs. 110 years). Coupled with their physical resemblance to humans, Undine could have more in common with humans. Maybe they could have more in common with elves, but certainly undine have more in common with humans than do elves with humans.
As for the Azlanti language, it is listed in the Inner Sea World Guide as an ancient language, but none of the listed ancient languages are stated as dead languages. The older campaign setting book did state it was a dead language, but the newer source trumps and it is still in everyday use in at least one country, thus not so very dead after all.
Are you referring to the Linguistics skill entry in the core rulebook? No world specific languages are covered under the skill entry as it is, ostensibly, a setting neutral book. What is your reasoning in mentioning that it is not listed under Linguistics?
First, Linguistics:
I am referring to the Linguistics Skill entry in the SRD.
The SRD pulls from many different source books, so if the Azlanti Language at some point was to be available, it should be there.
I admit the problem may be with this being a setting-specific Language they may have to omit, but regardless the pathfinder-wiki site lists Azlanti as dead. So if it is out of date, thats fine.
So, may well be that Azlanti is actually a widespread language still in common use. In that case it's not really interesting, because it's nothing special. But I admit I may have jumped to conclusions on that one. Possibly because I hoped it was something special, rather than just another local language. It's fine, can play out exactly as it started. Nivian actually expected the original Azlanti to be different from the one spoken in Cheliax, and is disillusioned by it being the same thing.
Secondly, Undine:
Just a few things I meant when I said Elves are closer to Humans than Undine:
Undines by default have a swim speed. Elves and Humans don't.
Undines always have a connection with Water(=one element), through their racial traits, even if you swap them, it's still connected with water. Elves and Humans don't.
Undines are native Outsiders. Elves and Humans are humanoids.
Undines are surface-dwellers with Darkvision. Elves have the weaker Lowlight-Vision, Humans neither.
Undines have no specific crossbreed with either Elves or Humans. Elves and Humans have Half-Elves as a crossbreed.
Undines have no representatives among the Core Deities. Elves and Humans do.
If you go merely by "mature age", then Tengu have more in Common with Humans than Half-Elves with a Human parent, while human-borne Dhampirs are identical to Elves.
(I should add that I find the mature age parts utterly stupid by themselves. How does it take an Elf 110 years to grow experienced enough to make his own path in life? When humans die at 70+ years, any Aasimar or Tiefline Children they had will likely still be children, seeing how they take 60 years to become adult enough to be by themselves, despite being raised by human parents who may try and accelerate that process)
Also, you will find that they often state that Humans are just used as a generic filler. Not every "Half-Something" automatically descended from Humans. Not every Aasimar or Tiefling automatically has Human parents.
And even those races that they claim are in some form touched-humans(mainly the four elementals and the fetchlings) I believe there was a designer statement that claimed it's mainly to give them a vaguely humanoid form rather than create something too alien for players to identify with.
So either way, regardless of WHAT they are, it's pretty clearly stated what they CONSIDER themselves to be.
And that is that they define as a unique, proud race.
Because, you know, in game they won't care about what a rulebook in another world says their origin story is. They believe they are Undines. They may even argue they got their own Race Entry in that other rule set rather than being a subtype of human. And if it states that they consider themselves a race of their own, I will not change that to make their own world-view comply with a rulebook it would at the same time contradict(If they acknowledge their far-ancestor origins are humans, they would no longer see themselves as a unique race which is ALSO stated in the same flavor text).
So yeah, while not a great fan of the design-basis that originally they were humans which in some weird way got influenced by the plane of water to turn into aquatic waterspirits, I can work with that. Even if the Creature Type says outsider and not Humanoid(Human). But in-character, she will go by being a unique race, and take offense if anybody says something different, like that she's a human, or humanborn. As she is trueborn, like basically all Undine she knew, you're basically calling her a mongrel/bastard in her eyes.
DM, was that the beasties turn? Are the second init group free to post actions?
If you go merely by "mature age", then Tengu have more in Common with Humans than Half-Elves with a Human parent, while human-borne Dhampirs are identical to Elves.
(I should add that I find the mature age parts utterly stupid by themselves. How does it take an Elf 110 years to grow experienced enough to make his own path in life? When humans die at 70+ years, any Aasimar or Tiefline Children they had will likely still be children, seeing...
Well, in the case of Aasimar and Tieflings at least, the chart in the ARG contradicts Bastards of Erebus, Blood of Fiends, Blood of Angels, and even makes one of the villains in Rise of the Runelords impossible to exist (without too much spoilers, she's only in her 20's... not 120's) For this reason, James Jacobs has, in a rare case of him saying rules, he's said that the aasimar/tiefling ages will be changed in the next printing (though when that will be, who knows) because when the rules guys made the chart they didn't realize how that contradicted the established lore from the past books. In my games I treat them as half-elves (which does sort of contradict Blood of Fiends, but not as strongly as the ARG chart hehe)... though I don't know what JJ and the rest of Paizo will actually do in the next printing, we will see.
The other races though, it does sort of make sense in that being longer lived they age slower. Actually, if you want to know what it's like for an elf growing up in human society look no further than the Pathfinder Iconic, Merisiel
Merisiel is one of the Forlorn, only now emerging from decades spent as a child of the streets into a young adult ready to make her own way in life. A master at stowing away on ships, she's called dozens of cities home, leaving one for another when her companions outgrew her or she outlived them. Life has been hard for Merisiel, made more so by the fact that she's always found it difficult to master skills that come easily to her companions. Never the sharpest knife in the drawer, as the saying goes, Merisiel has learned to make up for this by carrying at least a dozen of them on her person. When things go wrong with her carefully laid plans (as they almost always seem to do), the knives come out and what needs to be done gets done. To date, Merisiel hasn't met a problem that can't, in one way or another, be solved with daggers.
Merisiel's life experiences have taught her to enjoy things to their fullest as they occur—it's impossible to tell when the good times might end. She's open and expressive with her thoughts and emotions, and while she's always on the move and working on her latest batch of plots for easy money, in the end it comes down to being faster than everyone else—either on her feet, or with her beloved blades.
She wouldn't have it any other way.
Then as for Azlant language, I see it as similar to how Latin is today. It still exists, many people speak it in varying levels of fluency, but most people don't have it as their native language, if any. The Mordant Spire elves know it, just like Catholic priests know Latin.
Aye. Exactly what I mean.
The point I meant was that even if they grow UP slower, it's not like they will be retards until suddenly they turn 110 and have full mental acuity allowing them to "keep up" with shorter-lived races.
An Elf at age 50 still has 50 years of life experience past him. 50 Years of seeing people visit, of seeing or hearing art, of daily training.(Imagine a Human Child training since they were young to be a Fighter, and an Elf Child. By virtue of sparring, perfection and training alone the human should never stand a chance in comparison).
Or imagine they both learned to play an instrument when they were children, until they were adults and became bards. The Elvish performance should make the Human sink into the ground in shame.
Unless, of course, one argues that they also learn slower, grasp concepts slower, can't become better for some limiting reason. That would not really fit with their Int-Bonus, but also throws up the question why this changes so suddenly when they turn 110? From 90 to 110 they could not learn to play the guitar in addition to the flute, and then from 110 to 111 they will easily learn 5 new languages, 3 new instruments, and a dozen spells?
It's really...really weird for immersion.
I always like elves (and other races) to grow to adulthood at a very similar pace as others, and then just stop aging.
Having a 25 year old "Young Adult" Elf not know of a major historical event in the area he grew up in 100 years ago is fine. Having a 150 year old elf not remember it because Knowledge(History) is not a class skill? weird.
Everyone's mileage on that may vary, and sorry for the rant, but the weird age-handling really seems like it needs a serious redo.
Aye. Exactly what I mean.
The point I meant was that even if they grow UP slower, it's not like they will be retards until suddenly they turn 110 and have full mental acuity allowing them to "keep up" with shorter-lived races.
An Elf at age 50 still has 50 years of life experience past him. 50 Years of seeing people visit, of seeing or hearing art, of daily training.(Imagine a Human Child training since they were young to be a Fighter, and an Elf Child. By virtue of sparring, perfection and training alone the human should never stand a chance in comparison).
Or imagine they both learned to play an instrument when they were children, until they were adults and became bards. The Elvish performance should make the Human sink into the ground in shame.
Unless, of course, one argues that they also learn slower, grasp concepts slower, can't become better for some limiting reason. That would not really fit with their Int-Bonus, but also throws up the question why this changes so suddenly when they turn 110? From 90 to 110 they could not learn to play the guitar in addition to the flute, and then from 110 to 111 they will easily learn 5 new languages, 3 new instruments, and a dozen spells?It's really...really weird for immersion.
I always like elves (and other races) to grow to adulthood at a very similar pace as others, and then just stop aging.
Having a 25 year old "Young Adult" Elf not know of a major historical event in the area he grew up in 100 years ago is fine. Having a 150 year old elf not remember it because Knowledge(History) is not a class skill? weird.Everyone's mileage on that may vary, and sorry for the rant, but the weird age-handling really seems like it needs a serious redo.
Well, no they aren't retarded at 25 years old any more than a 5 year old human is retarded. But, they are lower intelligence due to their age, same as the 5 year old human.
The suddenly learning everything happens to humans too... at 15
That is ALSO why Paizo has the feat "Breadth of Experience" which reflects exactly what you are saying. The elf that actually started their education at an earlier age than usual.
Although still young for your kind, you have a lifetime of knowledge and training.
Prerequisites: Dwarf, elf, or gnome; 100+ years old.
Benefit: You get a +2 bonus on all Knowledge and Profession skill checks, and can make checks with those skills untrained.
But otherwise, an elf training a 25-50 year old elf to fight, that's the same as teaching a 5 year old to fight. Let them be children first.
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DM, was that the beasties turn? Are the second init group free to post actions?
Yes. The beasties have acted and taken their turn. They are readying their actions to form voltron, if you must know.
Well, no they aren't retarded at 25 years old any more than a 5 year old human is retarded. But, they are lower intelligence due to their age, same as the 5 year old human.
The problem is not that they would be retarded at a young age. The fact is that 110/15 would mean about 7.3 years equal one human year, assuming with 15 years human in pathfinder are "of age".
so then, the elves spend their times for over 21 years with the mental capacity of a 13/14/15 year old. But are unable to learn anything? Grasp any concepts of the world around them? Make something of this time?as for breath of experience, I am well aware of it's existance. AND it's shortcomings. Feel free to visit: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2sdog?Breadth-of-Experience-for-other-Races#1
Because as written, it's racist. Also, still does not cover it to an extent that makes it believable to me.
I already said, everyones mileage may vary, but I know if I would have had "35 years of being a teenager" I would definitely not be content playing around with cantrips only for all that time, while my human wizard friends go out to become powerful mages and adventurers. Even those friends who were born after I started in wizard school, they graduate and become widely known mages before I even learned a first-level spell.
Basically, what irks me the most is that they start with "I'm 110 years old but can't do anything better than a 15-year old human" and then raise in power exponentially. Over the course of a campaign, even if there are downtimes, the human may age a few years. same with teh elf.
Only, if we use 5 years, then the human is now 20, has spent all her adult life and a quarter of her total life adventuring, becoming way more powerful than when she started.
And the Elf? He is 115 years, has not spent even a 20th of his time adventuring, but in that time grew much more powerful than any member of his species could ever be after 110 years.
This sharp transition is what irks me.
Well, no they aren't retarded at 25 years old any more than a 5 year old human is retarded. But, they are lower intelligence due to their age, same as the 5 year old human.The problem is not that they would be retarded at a young age. The fact is that 110/15 would mean about 7.3 years equal one human year, assuming with 15 years human in pathfinder are "of age".
so then, the elves spend their times for over 21 years with the mental capacity of a 13/14/15 year old. But are unable to learn anything? Grasp any concepts of the world around them? Make something of this time?
Well, look at a cat (and I don't mean catfolk) then. 2 years they are an adult. They usually live 15-35 years (Figuring 15 +1d20 since odds are they aren't going to get anywhere near Cream Puff, much less beat her.) So, then a 2 year old cat compared to a 2 year old human, the human is much slower developing and then goes to college and after 4 years is much more 'powerful' than any human could ever be after 15 years while meanwhile the cat is venerable if not dead.
It's scientifically sound that the longer lived a species is (and incorrect D&D terminology aside that's what an elf is; another species not another race) the longer it takes for them to develop to their full potential. But once they get there, they learn faster because their development is complete.
As for the feat, yeah I know it needs to be updated officially for races beyond the core book. I myself do allow it for other races
The age mechanics don't really make sense. The limitations are all there for mechanical reasons, not because they make thematic or realistic sense.
The only game I've ever seen that has multi-race age mechanics that make sense at all is Burning Wheel.
I think it's more of a society-based rule of thumb than it is physical gestation of maturity. Elves and dwarves tend to be more family oriented than humans and their half breeds. I don't see it as elves become emotionally stable until over 100 years old. I see it more like they spend the same amount of time being educated, but then donate a few decades to the society that helped raised them and protect them. I see dwarves the same way. Humans tend to pop out kids and put them to work as young as possible to get rid of them, pawn them off, earn a dime off of em, whatever, but I personally see it more of a society acceptance issue than a physical maturation process. Otherwise elves would be the dumbest creatures on the planet. "You mean to tell me it took you 87 years to learn to cast magic missile but it took my half-orc brother 3 weeks..."
Baltzar, the problem I see is this:
Elf "trained" is 110+10d6
Human is 15+2d6
So if both a Human and a Elf(with a racial bonus to intelligence) train to be a wizard, at the same school/academy...
Even if the Elf roles PERFECT and the HUMAN worst, the Elf takes 10 years and the human 12 to finish their training. That would seem reasonable. But lets switch the roles:
If the Human rolls perfect and the Elf worst, then the Human graduates with 17, after 2 years at the school. Meanwhile, the Elf will take 60 years to learn to cast spells. In fact, at that time the human casters KIDS will likely have graduated from wizard school and THEIR kids be about to enroll.
But thats extremes, right? Lets look at averages.
So the human takes 3.5*2 or 7 years at the academy, and graduates with 22 years.
Meanwhile, the Elf takes 3.5*10 or 35 years on average. Meaning the human can be born 5 years after the Elf starts training, grow up, enroll in the school, take his average time to graduate, and be out adventuring for 8 years by the time the Elf finishes school.
It's sweet you are trying to defend the mechanics, but no, they don't make sense. Also, Turtles. They easily outlive us by 100+ years. They don't exactly learn much faster after their development is complete, though.
Also, if they learn faster once their development is complete, thats fine, but by all we know about that process, it is a gradual transition. You don't "finish development" at a certain age point, then zoom, you suddenly learn 7 times as fast as before. Which is represented here.
The problem is that they use a scaling mechanic that does not make sense. If they had an even longer-lived species, lets call them "the Ageless", who lived to be 3000+40d100 years, by their rules definitions they would be children until they are around 700 years old. And then kickstart their personal development to be about 46.6 times as fast as it was before.
This awkward mechanic just is used to cover up that technically, longer lived races taking things slower would also not level at the same speed as, say, a Ratfolk starting adventuring at 13 and living at most 60 years. But that would be no fun for a party, so everybody levels and learns at the same speed, with humans as a baseline. But that, then, breaks the age mechanics for most of the longer-lived ones, immersionwise.
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If they had an even longer-lived species, lets call them "the Ageless"
You mean these folks?
If they had an even longer-lived species, lets call them "the Ageless"You mean these folks?
Kind of, just not truly immortal :) When true immortality enters the playing field, several rules are often thrown overboard and reevaluated(such as here. they just never change their age category, they simply pop into being. never being children or eternally being one.)
But yeah, wouldn't want to know how long THOSE study to be a wizard...imagine they popped into life as venerable and decided to go wizard for greater age resistance...probably would end up studying a couple 100 years at least before they can pop out a magic missile, but then in 2-3 years they can be there and cast age resistance, greater, finally :)
I think a bit of record keeping is going to be necessary. Reform combat is great, but requires a bit of bookwork to make sure everyone knows what the situation is. For example, here's a trick I picked up in another game:
The initiative blocks and environmental information are put down like this:
Then, as people take actions, the blocks are adjusted, like this:
It's clear by removing the bold and adding a description writing who has already acted and who hasn't. Changes to the environmental effects are added in bold.
Let's complete the round:
Then, because Sandman is the only one at the end of the round, his action gets shuffled up to the top of the next round. This has no actual effect on gameplay. It's just to make book keeping easier.
The new round looks like this:
Things continue on from there.
When working with enemies with different initiatives, the book keeping remains essentially the same, but the characters acting in the last "block" of round 1 are only shuffled to the top of round 2 if they are allies with the people in the fastest "block"
For example, if an initiative was laid out like this:
Then the next round it would look like this:
The reason this system works so well as because as groups of enemies (or pcs) get eliminated, the initiative order naturally progresses toward having only two blocks of enemies. You can see from the example that if Enemy 2 were taken out, there would effectively be only two groups left to keep track of.
I'm a bit confused. Are we on round 2/3 already? Did I miss the beasties turn? I see some posting their 3rd round actions and I'm still on round one waiting to dance out of the reach of rat-teeth.
"The Dire Rats swim and hide under crates and debris and bilge pump equipment." was their first round action.
"Round 2...begins
Sandman hurls a crate over the ledge and as it crashes into the bilge area, water splashes, the crate splinters, and dire rats scurry for cover.
Aerel takes advantage and launches his net at one of the rats but the net sails wide.
Nivian fires a crossbow bolt at a scurrying rat but the water alters the flight of the bolt just enough to miss the rat.
Rillum climbs down and retrieves a few hidden things.
Rhemus needs to take his turn.
Aerel needs to take his turn."
were the second round actions DM took notice of.
Inmediately after him, both Rhemus and Aerel posted, then Baltzar.
So the party is done for round 2, only the rats are left to go.
As a result, I had posted my round 3 action because the night before you guys were mighty busy, and I ended up not being around to heal you. So before knowing what rats will do on Round 2, I took a step ahead in case Round advances and you guys would have had to wait on me for the next round to resolve, later.
But yes, technically we are at the end of Round 2 and waiting for GM to resolve rats and open Round 3.
And I think Aerel accidently posted a Round 3 action because GM called out for an action from him when he already had a Round 2 action registered.
Oh, I missed round 1 then. I'm caught up now, thanks.
I think Round 1 was Rhemus handing out Knives, then Rats Hiding.
Start Round 2 so the rats are not in the middle of Initiative but at the end of it.
So instead of
Rhemus: 20
Enemy: 19
Aerel: 19
Nivian: 13
Rillum: 8
Baltzar: 8
Sandman: 7
I think this got transferred into the following format to prevent having enemy interrupt our actions, because then we would end up having confusion about which round which action happens on again(like in first combat when sandman tried to hex someone he thought was misfortuned from me, but did so a round early because his init was after enemy.
R1
Rhemus
Enemy
R2+
Aerel
Nivian
Rillum
Baltzar
Sandman
Rhemus
Enemy
(exactly same sequence as Init says but we can all post and delay and plan as we wish, with the enemy going last and the round resolving before another round of posting from us. Basically we all auto-delayed until the start of round 2)
No, again, Aerel jumped into the hold in Round 1. Everyone seems to have missed that part of my post. His round 2 action was to slash at one of the dire rats with a dagger.