The Walking Dead

Game Master DEWN MOU'TAIN

4d6 ⇒ (5, 5, 2, 6) = 18

I'm just finishing up my sheet.

I'll post details to my alias when I get home from work but that's me done.

Bel's profile is done. Got Hero Lab working on my new computer which makes things so much quicker.

Hmmm rather quiet in the discussion forum.

So any bets on who makes it out of the Inn alive?

Kragdash has a decent chance. Assuming they are not too contagious his HP and combat abilities should give him an edge. Weighing against him is his stated desire to fight the zombies. Moving towards trouble is rarely a survival strategy in zombie fiction.

Teodor Will have a harder time. Good combat skills but dwarven move speed could become a real liability.

Belvedyr Haverfoot Normally a Cleric would be a favorite to survive and this cleric has some excellent movement spells & abilities, however the evangelists loss of channel energy dramatically lowers his outlook.

Emach Stone is likely to live. Good skills and decent fighting ability. I think the kicker here is the survivalist ability to go for long periods without food and water. He will have to spend less time exposed and at risk.

Jacob Hackler & Fritz a 15' move would normally doom someone in a zombie story but Jakob has those summons to distract and even use as a mount. I suppose Jacob's survival depends on how he feels about using summoned creatures and/or Fritz as zombie bait.

Khron Stonearm Has a tough road. Excellent fighting skills but again the slow move rate comes into play.

Shallowsoul A bit of an enigma as his character does not appear to be finished so I cannot assess how feats, skills, spells known or memorized will effect long term viability. That said he is a full arcane at first level. The odds are not good.

Alfonso Doomed. Strong social skills and a pattern based primary attack spell, neither of which effect the undead mean this first level full arcane is likely zombie food.

Thoughts?

Maybe if we try and split up, but if we work as a group, our survival rates will be much higher.

Anybody who tries to flee and simply outpace the zeds is gonna get eaten, full stop.

True, but I still think I nailed some of the strength and weaknesses. I suppose the best class for a zombie game would be a dex based monk. High AC to avoid bites good acrobatics, climbing and move to get where the zombies can't. If I was going to try to solo a pathfinder WWZ I would try a monk first.
It depends on what kinds of undead we are dealing with I suppose. These look like Romero type shamblers but who knows what is waiting.

Infected animals?
Thinking Zombies?
28 days running zombies?
........

You think Jacob carries his stuff that's slowing him down? Heck no. The bunny carries the gear! Other then armor and crossbow..:)

The survival odds depends a lot on the nature of the zombies, much of which we don't know yet. Do we have to do headshots to take them down? If so, that favors the heavy hitters. One of my combat advantages in sneak attack damage, and we don't know if they are vulnerable to that or not.

We don't know yet how fast they are, if they are shufflers or sprinters; that may make base speeds moot.

And we don't know how they will react to Fritz yet. Will they run right by him, not recognizing the summoned creature as viable food? Will they mob him?

Frankly, I kind of pictured Eamch as the Glenn of the group, if you are familiar with the Walking Dead (I only know the TV show, not the comic). Not necessarily the best combatant, but valuable to the group because he's resourceful.

Honestly, I'm vaguely tempted to try and just bumrush one of them, just to see how tough they really are. But without proper equipment and strategy, Khron would definitely want to have everyone gather their stuff and then come up with some kind of attack plan, if not just "let's jump to the next roof."

But having the bunny means no summon monster SLA. It is a nasty trade-off. Gain an effective fighter loose the eagles and ponies. Tough choice But if you are going with keeping the bunny around then I would have to say survival odds get better. Or rather Jacob's odds get better I expect we will see Fritz torn limb from limb a few times before the campaign ends.

Frankly, I kind of pictured Eamch as the Glenn of the group, if you are familiar with the Walking Dead (I only know the TV show, not the comic). Not necessarily the best combatant, but valuable to the group because he's resourceful.

That is how I see Eamch as well. If we live I can easily see you becoming the supply leader who keeps the rest of us fed.

Evangelists only lose certain levels of channel energy. I get it back at second level. Until then, duck and weave! And pepper them with crossbow bolts.

Honestly, I'm vaguely tempted to try and just bumrush one of them, just to see how tough they really are. But without proper equipment and strategy, Khron would definitely want to have everyone gather their stuff and then come up with some kind of attack plan, if not just "let's jump to the next roof."

I agree it would be useful to know just how tough these things are. I don't think we need to push it however.

We do know some things. They convert people quickly. They can't or at least don't climb. They appear to be attracted by sound and we have yet to see anything other than relatively fresh dead. Note the last could well be a function of the first.

I think the current plan of getting gear back and then regrouping in the attic or a room with a solid door is a good one. Once we have access to a rope and a window escaping from the Inn will be easy. The real question is escaping into what. A street fight will rapidly get far too crowded for our health.

Evangelists only lose certain levels of channel energy. I get it back at second level. Until then, duck and weave! And pepper them with crossbow bolts.

2nd? I thought 3rd? Channel goes up on odd levels right?

Khron originally assumed that it wouldn't be possible to regroup in the attic, but it looks like it will totally be doable. So that's probably the number one thing we should do.

Since the fire doesn't seem to be a desperately immediate threat, we can probably futz around for a few minutes collecting gear, putting on armor, etc.

I am guessing one of the zombies knocked over a lantern in its shuffling and that is what caused the fire to start. Depending on the construction of the building, it could escalate quickly. I was kind of thinking we could drop down into two rooms across the hall from each other and work on cutting down the zombies that are in the inn. If we can retake the inn, we might be able to put out the fire and take some time to search the inn for supplies and equipment. Maybe then get a good night's sleep before trying to make our way out into the city.

Retaking the inn is not a bad plan. Once we have gear we could even pick a room with a good door and go through the floor. With some luck we might even be able to block/collapse the stairs leaving a chunk of them stuck up there.

Yeah, that could work. I suppose it's absolutely worth a shot.

The survival of characters after the first will be highly effected on who is the one to fall down before them. I will agree on points about Kragdash, because of high HP and added bumper of rage and orc ferocity he has pretty decent chance. If something gets him killed it most likely will be the result of his attitude than the mechanical aspects. Of coarse there is a decent change anyone dies because of just bad luck with the dice.

Still thoughts, going back to the effect of who dies influences with ripples. If the melee types start falling it will have two effects, first all the other one's need to start picking up their share too. And depending on spesific instance it might also mean it's that much easier for the enemy to get the people in the back lines. Just as one example.

Of coarse one other effect is that once the levels start stacking up things will change considerably. While the arcane casters are very vulnerable at 1st level, in some levels they have options that can almost guarantee imidiate escape for themselves.

tl;dr: Don't leave us behind, casty-types!

;)

Nooo...Not my poor bunny being torn limb to limb! D: That'll make him very...grumpy. Hehe.

I don't know that there is much point in developing strategy past first level. We'll be lucky to make it past first level and out of this inn, much less out of Magnimar. I think in the end CMD will play more of a role than hit points and armor class. Our best chance to make it is to keep from getting surrounded so we can keep an exit to bolt away and too keep too many from aiding another to grapple and pin us.

But I suspect at high levels we will need those knowledge skills to get this thing figured out and stop it. And they can always use some meat shields no matter how powerful they are. After all, they do have limited spell slots each day no matter what level they achieve. And in the post apocalyptic world, there are never enough spell slots.

In Zombie-Golarian, Pearls of Power are currency. :P

Hmm, I must have misread something. I get channel at third level, right enough. However, given that it will draw the dead to us, it would only ever get used as an 'alpha strike'. With the ability to cast two cure light wounds per day plus having two weapons that utilise his high Dexterity and some buffing from inspire courage we should be fine.

I agree that claiming some kind of base of operations should be a priority although I am not sold on the inn. It has already become infested by the walking dead and we would need to make considerable repairs to make it safe once again. Not to mention it has limited utilities. I'd argue instead that we should look for something that's a bit more defended, like a tower.

We also need to raid apothecaries and/or magical supply shops for wands, particularly of the cure x wounds variety to help top up our damage.

Maybe it is just because I'm playing a rogue this time around, but I was kind of thinking a wand of hide from undead would be awesome. Of course, we still don't know if these are actually negative energy undead, of if it is a disease that doesn't kill them and turn them undead, just transforms them into these biters.

Dreams longingly of a wand of Hide from Undead heck even Sanctuary would be lovely.

alfonso....good questions...

a)you cant tell
b)yes
c)need to spend more time looking at them
d)need to spend more time observing
e) no
f) hard to tell
g) spell was just cast, depending on action today, ill post accordingly.

vague...i know

More info on b please. Any missing heads? Or just arms legs?

Well it's a good thing the spell requires concentration then. I'll keep looking.

question to the group...how graphic should i go? should i keep it to "made for cable Walking dead" style, or go more graphic, like HBO/cinemax style?

I'm gonna get creeped out either way so might as well go for the gusto.

question to the group...how graphic should i go? should i keep it to "made for cable Walking dead" style, or go more graphic, like HBO/cinemax style?

I'm fine with whatever. We knew it was zombies when we came in so gore it up as far as I am concerned.

As long as it falls within Paizo's messageboard guidelines, I'm probably fine with it.

Feel free to go however deep you want on my account. I actually prefer the more grim stuff. If I am going to be disturbed it will not be graphic violence it will most likely be when exploring "humanity" for the lack of better word of the survivors and what they are cabable of and I am pretty sure that disturbance will not cross the line I am comftarable with.

and then there were seven.

Things we know about the dead.

React to visual and auditory stimulus.
Go for grapple vs armed opponents.
Able to help each other but that might just be a side effect of all trying to grapple at once.
They moan, at least when alerted/attacking.
Continue moving with crippled limbs/organ failure.

This is not going to end well, no sir.

betting pool for first player death!

Sorry 72 but I think that race has run.

We are accepting wagers on the second player death however.

I'm not gone yet.

I need to know how a 31 came about.

Is possible with aid other actions I beleive. Not by the books so am unsure, but I beleive it's a +2 for each assist. (Anyone remember the nanobot build from 3.5? *shudder*)

It looks legit to me. You should get your Aoo though.

The 33 grapple check. CMB +8 plus 3 zombies aiding other to grapple (see multiple attacker rules in grapple section) means an adjusted Cmb of 8+6 or +14 then add the d20 roll of 19 and there is your 33.

The zombies cmb. 8 is very high but there could be a +2 from charging and a +2 from flank in there meaning a normal +4 cmb. Which is reasonable CMB for a 1-2 hd creature. Especially considering our 8 person epic built party.

At least that is how it could have come about. Rizzen has the only word that counts.

Is possible with aid other actions I beleive. Not by the books so am unsure, but I beleive it's a +2 for each assist. (Anyone remember the nanobot build from 3.5? *shudder*)

"Multiple Creatures: Multiple creatures can attempt to grapple one target. The creature that first initiates the grapple is the only one that makes a check, with a +2 bonus for each creature that assists in the grapple (using the Aid Another action). "

Crowds are deadly.

I summon lots of finite size creatures, all in my square. And I mean lots. I have all of them aid me this action. +soemthing stupid to this action. Including To hit/damage/AC. Ahh, so much forbidden (RaW)knowledge. xD Anyway, back to this game. *Grabs popcorn*

Re: Kn. RAW. Yeah metagamy but that's why it's in the discussion thread.

I can see the summon little things for help working well. Think a handful of starlings fluttering madly and pecking at the eyes of an attacker. Sounds like aid other to attack or ac to me. Mind you aid other never applies to damage.

Even in 3.5? Never seen this build in action(Of course), but ok. Having a friend who's a 3.5 lawyer.Has books nearly memorized, and for a college project created a massive excel of every single 3.5 feat and item and rated each one WoW style. The Optimizer he calls it. Not fun to have a player, but his games are epic. Just ended his 8 year campaign. 3rd level to 24th + divinity levels...Yeah. Epic. Hehe...*Offers Alfonso some chedder popcorn*

*takes popcorn. Offers some micro-brew rootbeer*

I don't know that much about 3.5 but in Pathfinder aid other can only go to ac/cmd, to hit/cmb, or skills. I suppose there might be edge cases where it could go to damage. Maybe a group trying to use a battering ram against a dragon?

I don't see the micro minion master build getting abusive the tiny things that one could use as minions have pretty poor defenses one create pit/burning hands/flaming sphere and the problem is solved.

Sounds like a good campaign.

It was. Forgotten realms, a 3.5/pathfinger MIX. We cheesed out/optimized like crazy..(Throwing 4 spells in one round for one((Mystic Theurge and multiple twin spell))...Or bard/Warblade giving us +11 to hit and damage with bardic music, etc). But the DM kept up with us, kept it a challenge...And man..The storyline...Was awesome...Now he's running a shadowrun campaign! Not quite as cheesy..In fact we all began as normal civilians...Heh. *Drinks the rootbeer* Here's to awesome games and t he fact it's friday! :D

from the srd website
Multiple Creatures

Multiple creatures can attempt to grapple one target. The creature that first initiates the grapple is the only one that makes a check, with a +2 bonus for each creature that assists in the grapple (using the Aid Another action). Multiple creatures can also assist another creature in breaking free from a grapple, with each creature that assists (using the Aid Another action) granting a +2 bonus on the grappled creature's combat maneuver check.

Not a huge fan of optimization, i'm playing an abyssal sorcerer for monkey's sake, but that campaign sounds like a place where it fit.

So looks like you are in a nearby time zone. I'm posting from Seattle you?

Arizona here myself. Which means about time for me to go home. Another hour or so. Then off to a 3.5 Dawnforge game.

Ouch +8 racial to grab! RUN AWAY!!!!

I thought I had sussed it with charging and flank but this means we simply cannot get into combat with these at all.

Example 2 z's charge to attack. One hits ac 10 for the aid other (bonus for charge means it cannot fail) second goes for grapple with a mod of {8Racial+2flank+2charge} +12 not counting BAB/str. That ought to cut the PC numbers down pretty quick.

Not your ordinary zombies that's for sure! Well, how about the bunny stays on the roof and uses his 15 feet reach to behead them? xD