Okay, so after writing that last post on Scions, my laptop died - hard. Won't even power up with a full battery - on any charger I have. I had the extreme fortune to back it up this morning, so almost nothing is lost.
However, all of my GMing is done on computer, not the phone. Mostly this is for map updates, but it is also my strongly preferred tool for typing those convoluted GM posts. As such, I'm afraid I'll have to pause the game until I can replace my laptop. I'm thinking 3-4 days max. Sorry!
I can continue to play, but won't have Arturo's profile properly updated for a while (though I can still level him up on my iPad thanks to Hero Lab and Dropbox!)
I'll keep you all updated as things progress. In the meantime, please excuse the typos and autocorrect!
That sucks! Sorry to hear that man!
I will probably survive until Friday, wondering what is going to come through the doors... maybe.
At least we will have the frostfur captives to keep us busy... ;)
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Understood... and I will work to get Frostfur Captives set up. I may be taking a couple of liberties in that one...
please dot in
here
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Sorry to hear about the laptop, Damo.
Well, it looks like the scenario is all but finished. Mr. Namoth.. err Mr. Valacosti I mean is pretty much screwed thanks to Miro's spell. :D It didn't go any better for Zaril when he fought our group, my melee dwarf critted with a waraxe and it was easy for another character to kill him.
Yeah, and that sickened condition is also a killer. He just failed the "last chance save" for hideous laughter. Where are my awesome rolls when I need them? I think the Dice Gods just want me to get on with Reign of Winter. ;-)
Since Mikko brought it up, I changed the identity of the end villain so that you could get a bit more satisfaction from the fight (otherwise, you never get to finally deal with Valacosti!). Mikko explained to me why Valacosti wasn't included (deadlines and respect for others' creations) but I thought I could get around it with a rename and slight re-skin. Hope it wasn't too jarring for you guys to imagine Valacosti as a demon-worshipping inquisitor after the first encounter.
By the way, Mikko's "vanilla" BBEG, Zaril Namoth, is totally bad-ass. One of my favorite yet. The inquisitor powers are cool, and totally work in this situation.
Since you didn't get to see him, here's the cool picture Paizo came up with for him:
I can't tell you how much I was scouring his stat block and the inquisitor class for a way out of that will save. I even looked to see if I could use my shirt for a GM reroll! Turns out, no. But I can use my shirt reroll to help players. Too late for Cyrus's column!
This scenario was awesome, even if Miro nailed it for the BBEG, making the last fight a bit anti-climactic. Pretty sure Cyrus is going to keep trying to knock that coulnm down on him.... :)
I love how the last encounter came in waves, which drew out the length of it. I definitely felt like the decisions we made early had a big effect on how smooth that last encounter went for us. I personally love that. Had we gone all murder-hobo it would have been different.
As frustrating as it was, I also thought it was ingenious how our own paranoia ate away at our resources.
I do appreciate getting to deal with valacosti... Thanks for that tidbit!
All this excitement about inquisitors is making me really excited to get into Ishbaad...
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I too did enjoy it. I got frustrated at the amount of buffs we kept using, but that was a great bit of writing. I always though it would be devious to put the BBEG as the first encounter. Finarin only used his longbow on the kobolds, which I haven't done since I think level 2, saving all my Arcane Pool Points for the end scenario.
I thought it was a great scenario with plenty of choice that mattered. That last part really separates the wheat from the chaff for me. Too often PC are put in a precarious position with little or no recourse, and not by their choosing.
Over all, it is in the top list of scenarios that I have played, and that is not just because you are here.
Bravo sir, bravo!
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Yes, Mikko, it wss a lot of fun. It was great to know that our decisions actually mattered. That doesn't always happen. I also liked the waves, can work really well (such as Way of the Kirin... and this one)
Actually, while it was cool to take down the bastage... I can also see that it would be useful to have him be around as a foil for the Society for some time.
Actually, one of the things that I dislike about scenario designs is the way the big bad is always the toughest guy... instead of being the one how hires the tough guys. With Valacosti still at large, and now with a bigger bone to pick with the Society, we can face the bastard again, and again, and again (like Tancred Desimire through last season).
Just once, I'd like to see a scenario where the first fight is the worst (the guards at the front gate), and that the BBEG has some bodyguards who just fight delaying tactics to let him get away. Or, just be a push over.
You know, Superman doesn't (usually) actually fight Lex Luthor... that's what the mooks, and killer robots, and hired villains are for.
Just my humble opinion. :P
I agree with Silbeg. The "BBEG" is so formulaic and it seems to be built in to Paizo (and other) products. I get that it is also the format for movies, video games and all kinds of things, but the last encounter doesn't have to be the toughest (and logically, it wouldn't always be).
There is the inherent anticlimax of "we've already done it so why bother".
Actually... I remember one session of Kingmaker where the random encounter was tougher (and even had more trolls) than the one we were on the way to at the time. The random encounter involved wide-ranging, open-field combat and some really interesting tactics (how would you handle 8 trolls, some with class levels, at 7th level?). In the end, ride-by attack and some precise movement, buffs and heals really saved our butts.
I think the encounter happened like that because we're in a sandbox, and we wandered into the hardest part of the map. However, for balance, the author shouldn't have put (potentially) more trolls in a random encounter than in the troll keep. We also didn't face the troll keep trolls all at once, like with the random.
So, I guess, yeah, I can totally see why the end encounter is always the toughest. I just wish there was some other inventive way of doing it. I may work on it for Reign of Winter since I'm no longer constrained.
Oh, and my favorite part of the written adventure? Something the players would never see:
The basilisk is used to the blind kobold’s company and doesn’t understand why most other creatures that see it turn into food—petrified creatures are a basilisk’s main source of nutrition—and may subject the PCs to its gaze inadvertently.
It really made me want the little guy to live.
You know you play too much PbP when you have 3 characters to level up in a week.
Is it just me or does it take the rest of you forever to level up too?
Depends on how much crap I have on my ITS. Still doing Arturo's paperwork!!!
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Good job, Mikko! It was an excellent scenario! Some nice surprises, the basilisk, we being fooled into wasting our buffs. It was quite horrifying (in a good way) scouting the temple after having seen the petrified aspis agent. Credit goes to Damien for keeping up the mood, too...
I don't know how bad the bbeg would have been if he had succeeded in saving Miro's spell, but now the combat encounters were a bit unchallenging (a trend in season 6?). But as the basilisk case proves, the suspense can exist outside combat as well.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Thanks for the comments, guys! I'm very glad to hear that the paranoia, the amount of choice, the surprises, etc. worked as intended. :-)
Damo did a great job at GMing the scenario. The RP and additional details provided really brought the location and characters alive. By the way, how do you extract the images from the PDF? I love the art in Paizo's products and want to make a wall collage (or something), so the technique you're using would be useful.
I agree that the bbeg doesn't always have to be the toughest opponent, but I'd argue that the last encounter in any scenario should be more challenging / epic / intense than anything that precedes it, otherwise it'll be a bit of an anti-climax. Though there are many different ways to make an encounter feel epic, tough opponents are usually the most obvious and admittedly, the easiest option. Sometimes, though, the illusion of danger or not knowing what is going to happen next is enough to make an encounter memorable. (Karma and I recently played a scenario where the fear of the unknown was used to great effect in an encounter that was otherwise not very challenging.)
Speaking of anti-climaxes, I fully intended the last encounter in my scenario to be challenging, but I think most groups can quite easily get enough DPs to make Zaril sickened and he won't be much of a challenge. Balancing the level of difficulty in a scalable encounter is not easy, it seems.
Like Damo, I'm glad Stinkeye survived the encounter. It's is easily my favorite NPC in the scenario even though it can't even speak. :-D It was fun to deconstruct the typical basilisk encounter and build something completely different.
Ok - Going to take some group-think here if you don't mind helping me out. I could have swore I had a plan for my feat progression, but for the life of me I cannot find it.
I had planned on getting spring attack, but I won't be able to take that until next level (ninja trick: combat trick will allow me to take that, and at level 6 I will have the base attack bonus prereq of +4)
Right now I am considering taking disorienting maneuver for this level.
Other feats/ninja tricks that could be useful:
shadow clone - basically mirror image for 1 ki point.
Ki Pool - give me 2 extra ki points so I can do more vanish/2 attacks a round combos
opening volley lets me start a combat with a ranged attack (crossbow) then my next melee attack gets a +4 bonus to hit... Which theoretically could be against a FF AC with my shiney new 3d6 sneak attack damage.
I really feel like I am missing something though... there must be another feat that stacks/synergizes well with what I am doing... The disorienting maneuver works well with the daredevil boots, and so far everything I have done has revolved around a stupid high acrobatics check so I can dance around the battlefield. anyways, I am open to suggestions and thoughts. Thanks in advance!
Also a top priority is getting the agile weapon enchantment for my blade as soon as I can afford it.
@Mikko: I use Photoshop to extract the PDFs. Very, very useful. Of course, the additional maps now included in the back of scenarios makes that less necessary... but since I do it all at once, it still works out very well for me - and allows my players a glimpse "behind the screen" for NPC faces equivalent to me allowing a peek at the book.
I have Photoshop through a previous work license (which was assigned to me personally for odd reasons) but there are other ways to obtain it.
@Cyrus: A skill focus on acrobatics might help. ;-) You need the mobility feat for what you are doing, but that's already a prerequisite.
Feats that are cool with the mobility chain:
- Canny tumble
- Combat patrol / combat reflexes (at a later level)
- Gliding steps (ninja specific, needs nimble moves also)
@Damien: I do have mobility - I snagged that to eventually get spring attack.
Skill focus is an interesting thought, I hadn't considered that...
Gliding steps is cool, and nimble moves would be a great way around difficult terrain when trying to do full attacks... terrain hasn't come into play very often so far, which makes me hesitant.
Canny Tumble is nearly identical to Disorienting maneuver, but seems to be more versatile. Canny Tumble lets you go through any threatened area, DM only lets you go through an opponents space. Same bonus to hit. It also mirrors my new daredevil boots. Would those bonuses to hit stack? The feat gives a "circumstance bonus". the boots just say "+1 to attack roll"
Seems like they should stack...
Combat patrol looks awesome... will have to wait a few levels for that since I need BAB +5...
Thanks for the input!
Circumstance bonuses don't stack with each other (if I recall correctly, but my record isn't great on this so look it up), but a flat "+1" is an untyped bonus, and they always stack.
If at first you spend way to much time trying to find something.... Type it into Google. :) maybe I should just do that first next time...
So I searched for circumstance bonuses to see if that would work and this is what I found:
A circumstance bonus (or penalty) arises from specific conditional factors impacting the success of the task at hand. Circumstance bonuses stack with all other bonuses, including other circumstance bonuses, unless they arise from essentially the same source.
I would link it but my link-fu sucks from my phone. You Cyrus'd me on the suggestion to look it up... Should have just done that before I posted my wonderings....
Similar circumstances would be like two tools that do the same thing to pick a lock, while stacking bonuses would be mw tools and goggles of lockpicking (if those existed)
-Posted with Wayfinder
It was a great scenario, Mikko. Thanks for stalking along with us! I'm glad I finally got to totally nerf somebody for a change! :)
First up, in case you missed it: no wand charges used during the last Drongos scenario. Sharrowsmith's wand had more than enough.
Secondly, sorry Cyrus for getting that circumstance stack wrong. I knew somewhere in the back of my head that it would be like that. I was probably thinking of competence bonuses (like those granted by the bardic performance), which definitely don't stack with other competence bonuses.
Expect more soon for some... planning / scheduling! I'm a sucker for knowing what's up next.
Who is up to GM the next Drongos' scenario, and what is it?
I've been playing around and updating the Scenario Planner. Both with games we've played recently, and also my own personal descriptions. I'm putting whether or not I've GMed the scenario vs playing the scenario. This is important, since you can GM and play once each.
I've put "G" for GMed and "P" for played. Nice and simple. If everyone else is interested in doing it, that'll work well for us in the future for determining games to play.
I have also changed it to our names, rather than our Drongo names. That should help even further as we change up characters all the time these days.
Finally, I've made the "evergreen" scenarios permanently green to indicate that we can replay them at will. I'm still really interested in playing (or running) First Steps > Wounded Wisp > Confirmation with a set of completely new characters. It's such a great way to start a PC off for PFS.
Anyway, feel free to update your games if you like (I notice lots of you have been anyway). I've already done Scions Part 3 for everyone.
More planning posts to follow.... (trying to keep it one topic per post).
Who is up to GM the next Drongos' scenario, and what is it?
From memory, I think Jack was going to GM Slayers and Drongos and alternating which group we play based on scenario / module demand. I believe that if someone else wanted to GM a scenario, they'd step in and GM instead of Jack.
I'm partly basing this on our chatted about plans, and my own inference from the last survey's results where it was voted 3 votes to 1 that we play only 2 concurrent games with the PbP Superstars (sorry, I'm including Bob's Beasts as a separate group for now). 3 of us didn't vote at all.
So, based on those votes, we should have two groups going:
This group is currently playing The Frostfur captives. The idea for this group, if I recall correctly, was to have a rotating GM chair, with whoever makes the most sense to run the scenario (based on previously played / GMed scenarios) runs it.
I love the voting mechanic. Why don't we vote for the "next" scenario with this group, and then whoever wants to GM can do so. Preference will be given to the person who hasn't GMed Group 1 for the longer time (eg. for the next scenario, first option to GM would currently go to GM BobJones since he's never GMed this group, followed by GM Karma then GM Silbeg). The exception to this will be is if someone has already played it and needs to be the GM (eg. Slave Master's Mirror, where Jack has played and needs to be the GM).
Does that sound fair and workable?
Mostly this group will be playing through the Reign of Winter adventure path. If the group would like to take a break at any point for me to run a scenario, then I'm happy to run a scenario for the Drongos, Slayers or Alts.
As a further possibility, I may occasionally want a break - or maybe two GMs really want to run something for Group 1. In either of these cases, I can stop the AP for a week or so while someone else runs a PFS scenario.
This is clearly the easiest group to plan for: Reign of Winter except by exception!
I would really like to do slave master is near as soon as it makes sense. Haha voice to text made me roar mirror hey I got it that time dot dot dot
-Posted with Wayfinder
Yeah, I think Slayers and Drongos (and Alts) are rotating - unless GM Silbeg wants to run only Slayers and keep them running (in which case, it's just Silbeg and I running, and Drongos... gone!).
The Drongos are indeed al level 5 now, so yay! to tier 5-9. Unfortunately, this means we're "out of tier" for Slave Master's Mirror. Have to wait a little while.
Since we've started the Frostfur Captives, it's time for a new "What's next" poll!
What's next? A PbP Superstar Poll
I've got the question order on shuffle so as not to appear like I'm showing any kind of preference. If you want something added to the poll, let me know! You can always edit your responses when / if we add something.
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By the way, how do you extract the images from the PDF? I love the art in Paizo's products and want to make a wall collage (or something), so the technique you're using would be useful.
Mikko, an open source solution would be xpdf, especially the pdfimages command. Works really well!
There are also things you can do with ghostscript such as splitting off pages, etc.
Been leveling Finarin up today, found some awesome battle field control synergy.
With this Neat Spell
Gonna make Finarin a pain in the ass, well more so.
Add in spring attack and a move speed buff (like expeditious retreat) and you've really got something there!
I'm good with waiting until we are all 6th for slave masters mirror... Would be worth it for the upper tier.
In that case... Lemme go vote :)
-Posted with Wayfinder
I've been playing around and updating the Scenario Planner. Both with games we've played recently, and also my own personal descriptions. I'm putting whether or not I've GMed the scenario vs playing the scenario. This is important, since you can GM and play once each.
I'm updated.
Add in spring attack and a move speed buff (like expeditious retreat) and you've really got something there!
You mean like This to move 30 feet in ANY DIRECTION, such as UP, (which I should have used in Kaava Quarry, over chasms, just not through walls.
Gunari all you need is 2000 for pretty shoes or some ranged weapons ;)
Decent. Would be nicer if you didn't provoke, but that costs 3 feats!
Anyone having trouble voting on the poll because they require a Google account? Just thought I'd check. Got 4 responses so far (including mine). 3 more to go.
Reread it, it doesn't provoke, and no feats.
So sweet.
And so it begins...
I am starting the process of moving downstate and starting my new job (Monday!) So I will be posting from my phone for a bit. I have no idea what my availability for posting will be like when I start my new job. I will try to keep everyone up to date if I expect to be afk for more than a day, and I will always do my best to make sure I don't hold anything up!
I am really looking forward to what we have coming up!
-Posted with Wayfinder
Hey Steve! Good luck with the move mate. I'm sure your posting rate will be fine. If you drop from 9-10 / day per game to 1-2, I think it will be fine. ;-)
Speaking of... busy weekend all? I'm camping with my daughter and I've managed to check a few times. Only the dude who's moving and the guy with six (?) kids have posted! Hope you're having as much fun as I am. Oh, she's coming out of the restroom now... happy weekend!
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Yeah, sorry about my not posting anything on Saturday (today), but... I might actually have a decent excuse for my low posting rate ;)
I'm the best man at the wedding of my good friend, coming up in a month or so, and this weekend I flew to North Carolina for his bachelor party (which I had to try and put together from Michigan). Thus me posting in the middle of the night, when normally I would have been asleep for 6 hours by now :)
Daughter's 11 bday and my dad turned 73. I am going to vomit IPA, Bailey, and cake after I watch Game of Thrones. Not my best weekend ever.
Lol. I dunno... Bach party and family celebrating... Doesn't sound to bad to me!
-Posted with Wayfinder
Good luck with everything going on Steve. We will be here, so no worries.
Thanks!
It is all going to be a grand adventure. Scary at some parts, exciting for most of it, and in the end... well... is there ever really an end?
I am glad I will have this group to keep some level of familiarity during all of the change as well.
It did just dawn on me though that I will be without hero lab for about 2 weeks though... Glad I got all my leveling done before this weekend...
My new computer just arrived. Posting will be sporadic at best while I play with my new toy.
Can't wait to test it out properly. So... so... super fast.
Been in training all day.... Will be able to catch up hopefully in a few hours
-Posted with Wayfinder
Got me a MacBook Pro 13" with all the upgrades. So much faster than the one that is currently dying. Rather than do the full restore, I've been painstakingly loading everything from scratch. Less bloat that way, I'm hoping!