Hi Fredrik, ThunderingDawn, Deevor, YeunglingDragon - discussion thread for our playtest.
If you haven't seen it yet, read Sean's post.
Reading through the entries, I think we will be best off with 4 level 4 characters. That will let us play one tier from each entry. Then if we have time we'll change level and replay them.
So:
- 15 point buy - check and adjust if necessary.
- 16,000 gp of equipment (balanced somewhere close to the assumptions in Sean's post).
- We will collectively decide which scenario to play first, with mine being the casting vote.
Anything else? Let's try and get going tomorrow.
Don't you mean level 6? I'll make a Tudan for that first, since I'm pretty sure (and your wealth level confirms). I'm avoiding looking at the scenarios, to be as much of a wide-eyed innocent player as possible, so whichever.
I'll have to go over and check against Sean's post, but have both Monk and Paladin builds at 4th level. Just let me know if you want any changes etc and which you want to come along for the ride.
Hi Fredrik, I guess that depends on whether we want to test these out as average encounters (APL+0) or hard encoutners (APL+2/3).
Slaver's End: CR 4 or 7
Brike Isle: CR 3 or 6
Mushti's Beguiling Oddities: CRs between 4 and 9
Eightfinger’s Tomb: CR 6 or 9
The Sequestered Palace Sumptuous: CR 4 or 7
Crimsondale Villa: CR 6 or 9
The Hungry Mountain Dragon: CR 6 or 9
The Thanatopic Amphisbaena: CR 6 or 9
So at APL 4 we can play 5 of the encounters at APL+2, which is spot on for a hard encounter. at APL 6 we're all over the place from APL+0 to APL+3, which might make it harder to give balanced reports
If we go with level 4 you're right that wealth should be 6000 not 16000.
Okay, level 4 it is then! :) Just so you know, I haven't played a level 6 game since before 3rd edition. So I'll do my best, but a hard encounter could actually be hard for me.
Gideon is ready for level 4. I'll finalize level 6 before we're there. One of the first two on your list looks best for level 4.
Just dotting for interest as I follow along.
Happy with whatever you decide for the playtests, though it seems sensible to start with the slightly easier ones first, so Slaver's End to start gets my vote.
Alright, my wizard Sharadon is up for inspection and correction.
As far as what we should start with, might as well start from the top and work our way down.
Still here, and still working on my guy. Will finish tonight if at all possible!
Awesome. So we have:
Tudan Davken (Aasimar Oracle 4) - Currently at level 1
Gideon Hawke (Human Magus 4) - Looks done
Surveen Walsh (Undine Paladin 4) - Looks done
Sharadon Vos (Human Wizard 4) - Looks done
Note: I haven't checked the characters in detail, and I won't bother.
By popular acclaim, we're off to Slaver's End. Thread coming shortly.
Game thread's up.
Sorry that took so long! I discovered that I really have no idea how to kit out a 4th-level character. Fortunately, I finally have a day off, so I was able to spend all morning on it. (I'd still be working on it if not for Hero Lab and the adventuring kits in the Pathfinder Society Field Guide.) I welcome suggestions for the next encounter, if anyone sees a glaring omission for what a character like mine would probably have. :)
@Will Cooper: In the weapon proficiency feats, I took "type" to mean just one weapon. Sharadon took the whole category. I'm all for compromise and consensus; how about we split the difference, and say that a "type" of weapon is one of the weapon groups listed under Weapon Training for fighters?
Hey Tudan, if we were playing a campaign I would make a ruling, because the trade-off between versatility and specialisation makes a difference when I'm controlling the treasure found over time. In this case for these encounters it won't make a difference. Happy for you to assume broad proficiency, you're only likely to use one weapon per encounter anyway.
Refined Surveen's gear to be closer to Sean's post.
@Will Cooper: Never mind, you're right, it won't make a difference. Sharadon and I each only have one weapon that requires the feat taken, and the chances of that changing over the course of a single encounter are vanishingly small. ;) I should've thought of that.
So, I've been resisting it but I just have to say: "if we were playing a campaign". Now there's a thought! When we're done with this, we'll have some experience playing together, and maybe we'll want more. Maybe we'll be satisfied that we had a good time playing together and it was enough. It could go either way. 8)
Okay, I just figured out from seeing Gideon Hawke's initials that I can edit the map. You should see "TD" in F13 now. Did it work?
Sweet. 8)
@Fredrik: hold that thought :)
Ugh, apologizes for the mishaps with the map so far. Trying to clean up muh posts.
I'm trying to avoid posting right now, since I can neither edit nor delete at the moment, and I typically write hasty posts that need to be cleaned up after the fact.
Never mind, it's working now.
Sorry guys, family issues. I'll be back properly tomorrow.
Gods, dem some ugly initiative.
FWIW, in PbP, I'm used to the GM rolling everybody's initiative (like this). It can save a day (or more!) of waiting for each player's next chance to post. ;)
That's actually not a bad idea. Especially on a time crunch like this.
GM Will Cooper: Sent you a PM.
Also, I'm working on statting out favored summons for Tudan's summon monster spells. It won't happen right now of course, but presumably someday.
Here's that roll Will:
What was it that Gideon said earlier? Ah, thats right!
Oh balls...
I can't roll sh*t.
I can't roll downhill.
I do not like this dice roller sam I am.
Oh, right. I can't roll well unless I'm attacking you. Maybe you could just be the bad guy for this encounter?
aww, just think when we come up against something really nasty, you'll start rolling high again ... I believe in averages ...
You guys have definitely got the short end of the dice roller so far!
Is there any interest in running another of these concurrently rather than consequtively? Perhaps at level 6 so we can keep ourselves more organized? I know it's a lot of work, but at the rate we're going I'm worried we won't playtest much otherwise.
Edit: Nope, Gideon only gets the one attack. I used Spellstrike instead of Spellcombat since it would only be a standard action and that way Gideon could go to whichever skelly was still around. Spellstrike just lets you make your touch attack with a weapon roll, it doesn't grant an extra attack. If I was sure I could target the one closest to me when my turn comes around I could have take a 5' step and done spell combat giving me a weapon roll and a touch attack but I wanted to be sure I could make a move and not slow us down.
PS My conference calls are over so I'm back and monitoring closely.
Is there any interest in running another of these concurrently rather than consequtively? Perhaps at level 6 so we can keep ourselves more organized? I know it's a lot of work, but at the rate we're going I'm worried we won't playtest much otherwise.
I would play but not DM. I'd go with Surveen as a Monk to make it more interesting, he's speced out and ready to go. Unless you want me to remain a paladin.
Sorry Gideon, I was cheap and got my scrolls at minimum caster level, so your protection from evil is just 1 minute. I'll be able to cast it myself next encounter, since I've come to realize just how useless magic stone is with a +1 halfling sling staff. ;)
I would be up for playing a second encounter at the same time. Even when I have an internet connection at work, I'm hard-pressed just to get in one brief post; but then I have lots of time at home. So, it's pretty much impossible for me to play anything very quickly, yet I have no trouble playing multiple games at once.
In fact, I'm in three other PbP games: PFS (First Steps), AP (Serpent's Skull), and homebrew (the Acadamae as a kind of Korsovan Hogwarts). I'm hitting this one as soon as I get home due to the time issue; but I'm still posting consistently to the others, and could add one more.
I will go ahead and make a 6th-level version of Tudan tonight, just in case, but I'm personally indifferent as to which encounter we play or at what level.
I see that voting has begun. FWIW, I'd prefer to complete the encounter, even if we don't finish in time for the end of voting. It's enjoyable so far.
I see that voting has begun. FWIW, I'd prefer to complete the encounter, even if we don't finish in time for the end of voting. It's enjoyable so far.
I agree with that
Same here - I am confident that we will finish Slaver's End before voting ends. I'm not confident that we can start and finish another encounter before voting ends.
May I interpret magic stone to increase the damage die by one step, or does it actually make a Medium +1 halfling sling staff worse? Not that it matters right now, with a skellie in my face; but since the map has more than this ship, it might before we're done.
I wish I'd thought it through before choosing the spell, instead of after. Would've just taken something else. ;)
I've been thinking about what we do next, assuming everyone wants to continue playing in this group.
Options that occur to me include:
- Pick another RPGSS round 4 encounter with these characters - unlikely to finish before voting ends, but can still keep playing anyway
- Pick a published module of about level 4 and play it with these characters
- Pick an adventure path and create new level 1 characters
Thoughts?
To the question at hand: I had fun but it was too short, so no to the first. Option #2 would be great, if that's what the others prefer; but I think that option #3 would be even better. To me, we often felt like 1st-level characters given 4th-level powers -- which was kind of the case. It takes time to learn how to be yourself IRL, and it takes time to learn how to be a character. Now for my reaction to the end of the encounter...
Wait, that was it? Wow. Huh. It works well as a teaser; now I'm really determined to go clean out this place and make it safe again. But I didn't get at all that the transparent idol was a haunt caused by an altar that used to hold an artifact; I took it as a mere reflection of an idol somewhere else, probably nearby. I have holy water and the noonday sun happens every 24 hours, but I would've been looking for the actual idol, not trying to sanctify the altar. How were we supposed to know?
Just to throw this out there, what about an option 2.5: running various modules, starting at level 1? For PbP games, I'm already in an AP (Serpent's Skull), and a PFS scenario series (First Steps), and a homebrew campaign. The one thing that I'm not in -- that I haven't even noticed being run on these boards -- is a patchwork campaign of the same characters growing over time through modules. It could be different and fun.