Yorick Presents "The Red Hand of Doom" (Group 1) (Inactive)

Game Master YoricksRequiem

I'm hoping that the hellhounds get taken out quickly here. They are as big a threat (if not larger) than the hobgoblins. 20 damage and it's not down. AND we've got a second one of these to deal with... eep.

I'm hoping that the hellhounds get taken out quickly here. They are as big a threat (if not larger) than the hobgoblins. 20 damage and it's not down. AND we've got a second one of these to deal with... eep.

Yeah they are pretty brutal this early on. One of them still has a breath weapon prepped, too.

Kibrenest the Ratcatcher wrote:

I'm hoping that the hellhounds get taken out quickly here. They are as big a threat (if not larger) than the hobgoblins. 20 damage and it's not down. AND we've got a second one of these to deal with... eep.

Yeah they are pretty brutal this early on. One of them still has a breath weapon prepped, too.

Yeah... that Breath Weapon can be brutal at our level.

Yeah... that Breath Weapon can be brutal at our level.

It's only 2d6, really. And you can potentially avoid it. The Bladebearer that Sznek took down instantly does more than that.

Breath weapon is only brutal if you're grouped. For the most part, against an individual, a breath weapon isn't as bad as a full attack.

Gonna make a post now for this next round. Might get one more in tonight since you guys are usually up pretty late. Either way I'll get one in in the morning around 11am (14 hours from now) but then I'll be away most of the day. Having a bunch of friends over for real-time tabletop gaming. :D

I should point out I'm still targeting hobgoblins because I've been rolling terribly and the favored enemy boost feels necessary! I do more damage and hit better against them and still feel that cleric could be more of a threat than a hell hound.

The Bomb ability is worded a little strangely, do you read it this way:
Target: Dice damage, no save.
Splash 5': # of dice + INT modifier for damage, save dc for half
??

It looks like you did the damage differently than I expected.

Sznek struggles under the evil magics and struggles to overcome the power of hobgoblin Cleric.

1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21

Assuming birthmark trait applies

Sznek struggles under the evil magics and struggles to overcome the power of hobgoblin Cleric.

Assuming birthmark trait applies

Pfft, you're totally fine.

I should point out I'm still targeting hobgoblins because I've been rolling terribly and the favored enemy boost feels necessary! I do more damage and hit better against them and still feel that cleric could be more of a threat than a hell hound.

The Cleric is a Hobgoblin, too, but yeah, those archers have been problematic and there is, after all, only one Cleric.

The Bomb ability is worded a little strangely, do you read it this way:

Target: Dice damage, no save.
Splash 5': # of dice + INT modifier for damage, save dc for half
??

It looks like you did the damage differently than I expected.

Oh, yes, I did it wrong is what I did. Hobgoblin 6 should only have taken 3 (instead of 5), and Hobgoblin 8 should have taken 5, (instead of 9)

Whew! Here I thought I had messed it up.

Sorry guys, yesterday ate up way of more time than I expected. POST INCOMING.

NP, I'm just happy the double digits have come back to me!

Re: Use Rope

You can do opposed Escape Artist checks since you are, in theory, binding someone to prevent them from escaping. For other uses of rope, like to tie a rigging on a ship or to secure a rope to scale a wall, use Profession (sailor) or Climb, respectively. In almost every case, old Use Rope checks can be made by other skills.

There's a solution. Mostly, it's probably a dexterity check, opposed by a dexterity check for binding, and Escape Artist would be relevant in this case.

I hope this helps.

Makes sense. I'll remember that for next time you guys want to kidnap someone.

How are we planning on handling treasure by the way? My preference is always for an even split, where everyone gets to buy loot we've acquired at it sell price - half price. That means record keeping, but personally I think its good to have a record of treasure.

Thoughts?

I am okay with this thought Rellen. I like using a pool, with exceptions for things that help the group as a whole (potions) get evenly distributed among the injured and things of that nature.

The only reason Kib kept one of the potions was it replaced one of his. (He'll be making more when he gets the chance to share with everyone).

Also of note: I will be sans computer (possibly) Friday, but for certain on Saturday and most of Sunday. I'll do my best to get a post when I can. There's a second "event" that will keep me away from the PC, but otherwise I should have few interruptions.

I generally prefer chipping in as a group for cure light wands and other essentials. Honestly I tend to avoid consumables in favor of items that give a long term benefit. I tend to regard getting characters cured of curses and the like as party expenses to since its a luck of the draw kinda thing.

Expendables are far more important for casters as they add to characters flexibility, especially wands and scrolls. As a Ranger you could also greatly benefit from Wands and scrolls (or are you running with Skirmisher?).

That being said I'm not overly keen on keeping tabs on loot as this is essentially only a one shot adventure. If we come across major items we will have to decide who benefits most from it and that char gets it. Oftentimes this will be fairly obvious and on other occasions it will require a bit of discussion.
As to how to handle distribution of potions I don't care. Sznek has by far the highest HPs so he should be alright, however he'll also be doing a lot of tanking and so he might need it from time to time...

Its level 5 to level 13 I believe, if my PBP experience tells me anything its that that will take at least three years to complete.

I'm voting for the system I mentioned, I agree casters benefit more from consumables, but making them pay for them at half value ensures that the ones that aren't party items are used sparingly. I'm cool with paying for a Wand of Cure Light Wounds as a party item, but not prepared to chip in for say a Wand of Fireball which is IMO a horrendous waste of money and not a party item.

If we all get an even share we can spend it on what we like and still get anything we find at half book price. Its fine for people to owe the party, and we know how much of a share everyone has relatively so if two people want the same item the one who has least gets it or if close we simply roll off, etc.

Okay if it's aimed at going so long we need a mechanism of loot distribution. What I like about the system your proposed is that it increases peoples incentive to sell off magic items they don't really need. However I'd prefer we exclude expendables from the list of goods that take out of the party coffers however.

Say we find a scroll of greater invisibility. I don't think it would be fair to charge the spellcaster for claiming it as ultimately once used someone else will likely benefit most from it...

But I also agree buying a wand of Fireballs is a good example of burning money.

In one of my other games, we've got a public GoogleDoc Spreadsheet so that we can track what we find, who grabs/carries it, and what it's worth. So that we can divide loot / money in a relatively fair manner.

I would like to consider the following things "party items:"

Consumables of heal spells and buff spells (So wands of Cure Light Wounds, or Wands of Bull's Strength).

Consumables capable of getting the entire party past an obstacle.

Actually, those are the only specific examples I can think of. My Rule of Wrist would be "If I'm most likely going to use it on an ally, it's probably a party item."

I like the idea of being able to take a "you specific" item by paying into the party pool. Though I think it would be more pragmatic to allow it on a "loan" basis. (example: Hey guys, I can't quite afford to pay in half the cost of this epic sword, but I really think we'll benefit more from having it than having half it's gold price right now. Can I shell out the cash later?)

My groups normally keep a virtual Gp total for each character, which can go into minuses. I think we'll have time to talk about consumables on a case by case basis, but I'd say the Bull's Strength would be little use to our group and better sold - the main damage dealers are all dex based. A Greater Invisibility scroll is IMO a distinctly single person item it makes one person easily able to avoid attacks at the expense of their comrades. I really don't see why other characters should need to chip in for that, it gives little attacking benefit and likely just transfers attacks to other characters.

I also think using healing Wands over first level is a poor choice. You get an average of 275 HP for 750gp. A Cure Moderate Wounds cures an average of 600 HP for 4500gp and sells for 2250gp which would buy you three cure light wands. In combat healing is generally much better left to channeling and spells than expendables which also require an action to draw, etc. I'd rather sell it buy two wands of CLW and pocket the difference.

Fair enough, we can cross that bridge when we come to it as far as specifics. I just figured I'd set out some rules of wrist.

Out of interest what does "rules of wrist" mean exactly? I don't think I've heard the expression before.

It's like a "rule of thumb," but a little broader I suppose. I just use it in place of "rule of thumb." When I use it, it's a reference to the movie "The Boondock Saints" where a character, upon being told the origin of the term "rule of thumb" (That being that it was ok to beat your wife as long as you used a stick no wider than your thumb) said "But'cha can't do much damage with that now can ya? Should'a been rule of wrist!"

Something I meant to mention and forgot:

My other group is just now starting up, and one of the players asked how far they are from Skelt. I played the beginning pretty fast and loose on distances and times because I really just wanted to get you guys together. Part of the problem with gauging distances also came from the fact that I've seriously altered the map to fit it into Golarion.

But for reference, the distance that Edgar did, going from Canorate to Skelt, was actually roughly 170 miles, which even on horseback is a good 5 days of travel. I'll care more about distance now that you guys are together, but I didn't want to spend 5 in-game days bringing you all to the same place.

At any rate, I'm going to revise the map this weekend to include a distance scale.

No problem DM Yorick, that's more like what I originally supposed it would be. Arrow much faster than a horse though, twice as fast and obviously can avoid terrain features.

What do we want to do about mounts for the small guys? We could potentially have them ride with Edgar and Rellen, but that's probably a bit awkward. Arrow could carry the whole party weight wise, but he would probably have to do so in a net, since he is basically horse sized, so I would not advocate that course - unless we have a real urgent need for speed.

Golarion Goblins hate nothing more than horses...

And dogs too I believe, well hippogriff a aren't horses and they are further away from them than goblin dogs are from dogs. That said how fast is Sznek he might be able to keep up without a mount if he has fast movement?

Sorry to point this out but looking for Sznek's speed I note he has 2 different totems. There is no way to do this, Totem Warrior does not allow it and this has been clarified,

Ultimate Combat seems to imply that the Totem Warrior archetype (from the Advanced Player's Guide) allows you to take more than one type of totem rage powers. Is this an erratum for the Totem Warrior archetype?

No, the line in Ultimate Combat is in error. We will get that fixed in the next printing. Until then, the restriction on only taking totem rage powers from one group remains in place.

S%%*e... had googled that all over but not found anything, I'll have to make some changes to Sznek then. But no Sznek does not have fast movement due to being an urban barbarian...

Riding a hippogriff would prolly be alright...

Okay looks like Sznek will have to save up for a Helm of the Mammoth Lord...

I'll likely replace the fiend totem with reckless Abandon which leaves my 5th level feat open. I'll have to ponder this for a bit as there are no obvious choices here... most likely Iron will or additional traits.

My other alternative would be to rebuild Sznek slightly and make him a ranger 2/barb 3 this would add a bit more flexibility and allow me to maintain 4 natural attacks.

Any word from your part Yorick?

Its an easy one to miss because essentially its an archetype which does nothing otherwise, but it is one I'm glad they've corrected because I don't see why any barbarian would be without it - it would be totem or suboptimal. The actual write up says nothing about two totems, its only in the totem rage powers section that being able to take a second with it is mentioned. Essentially they put in a bit of flavor text for a line of rage powers and should never have called it an archetype, seems to be a case of poor editing.

I'd been reading a lot about natural attacks in the Advice forum. Those discussions were older than the FAQ which is why I missed it. D20PFSRD didn't help either...
It make more sense this way cause why else introduse totem powers in the first place...

I have my takes on natural attacks but I'd rather not say except that I don't allow certain things in my home games becuase of it.

I'd much rather not worry about it as long as we are all having fun. and I can refrain from putting a bullet in the goblin's head. or learn a silence spell for when he talks.

I definitely see how losing one of the totems will impact how much damage you do. I'm okay with you rebuilding with a Ranger 2 / Barb 3 build if you'd like to.

Alternatively, if you're happy with your build otherwise, it's entirely possible that a Helm of the Mammoth Lord could be... acquired. I know exactly how I'd introduce such an item, and would even be able to do so relatively soon (before you hit 6th level)

I'd prefer you not have to do a reconstruction, but I'm okay with either decision.

Well this is also an issue of game balance and as you had concerns over that Yorick I wanted to hear you out...

With the current party makeup Sznek is the only real tank so it prolly won't hurt the rest of the party if he handles business efficiently. But judging from the last encounter it seemed like he might be a bit too efficient with 4 attacks.

true being the only tank you need to be efficient. at the games I normally DM we usually have at least three tanks becuase thats what they want to play and then we start having balance issues as each tries to be the top dog so-to-speak

so we had to nerf certain combos to keep things relatively normal among them

but one of these days your gonna say "man I am sure glad you had that grappling hook!"

Well this is also an issue of game balance and as you had concerns over that Yorick I wanted to hear you out...

With the current party makeup Sznek is the only real tank so it prolly won't hurt the rest of the party if he handles business efficiently. But judging from the last encounter it seemed like he might be a bit too efficient with 4 attacks.

That's true, but he also saved the day. If he had not been as efficient as he was, someone may very well have ended up, you know, dead.

Let's do this: Play him as is for now, without the 4 attacks. We'll see how it goes up to the point where I would drop the helm, which is a few encounters away. At that point we can make a decision then if we need an extra oompf or not.

Sound solid?

I'll leave that decision up to you...

I'll have to figure out a new 5th level feat in the meantime. My default choice would be iron will but there might be something I forgot.

For clarity, Edgar has already headed off to the library. When he gets there he's going to hit the books, unless another player presents him with a reason to direct his attentions elsewhere.

I was thinking it was nearly night, but I'm not sure that's accurate. My assumption was Edgar was going then and that the stores, etc., would be closed. Is that right or is it earlier?

there is at least one store that may be open

at least it will be when Shishka gets there

Did the Bladebearer and cleric have better stuff? Is this shoddy gear thing an adjustment to wealth from the conversion or something? Because I've never known Wizards or Paizo to use gear worth less than full value that does not have serious penalties when used by the bad guys to - which it did not seem to. I guess I'm worried that if we don't grab and sell all the gear at full value we will end up seriously under wealth per level since most modules pretty much assume you do that. If its going to be made up for else where thats cool, its just making me a little apprehensive - Scrooge McDuck is my idol ;).

I don't think that the Module intended for you to take every piece of armour from every hobgoblin, haha. But even so, the town is definitely going to be in need of armour, and it should be pretty quick for the smithy to fix it up, so you'll be able to get a pretty penny for it.

It's for story purposes that I made the gear somewhat shoddy. These hobgoblins were the advance group, sent to test the city's defenses. And as far as wealth goes - my tendency as a GM is just to drop the loot that you would want, rather than having you buy it. But I don't think you'll have any shortage of gold, all the same.

I was thinking it was nearly night, but I'm not sure that's accurate. My assumption was Edgar was going then and that the stores, etc., would be closed. Is that right or is it earlier?

It's probably about 8pm now, maybe a little later. Most stores are definitely closed. But since it's not a very large town, I'm thinking that the church and library are probably attached to each other, so Edgar should be able to find a fellow monk who is still awake.

Yorick! Any chance there's any city goblins left in Skelt?

Yes, you'll absolutely find one!

Okay, my posting ability has changed a bit. I'll likely get one post on in the evenings now or, if I get up REAAAL early, I might get one in the Morning. My work schedule shifted... fairly significantly (I work 4 hours earlier than I used to). I'll work it out, but I wanted to let everyone know what happened until I get my own bugs worked out.

Sorry guys. I've been super sick all week long. I'll have a post up tomorrow morning and we'll be able to move along.