Jzero only has the common knowledge and survival, both at d4, so he won't be a font of knowledge on monsters.
yeah Evesk Smarts is currently d4 so not a brainiac either ;)
We may not be the smartest group of men but we bring the pain!
Of course, much of that pain seems to end up on poor little Velrek. Maybe a Smarts upgrade for the future? :)
I will be traveling all weekend. I doubt I will be able to post, so bot me as needed.
Safe travels!!!
For future combats...er, reference...the way to counter magical invisibility in SWPF is with the Detect Arcana power. I have looked ahead, and there *will* invisible creatures in the AP. So someone ought to take Detect Arcana, and with the next Advancement or one after that.
The magic-users (including Ceri) can discuss who wants to take it...
ALL - in combat, I'd like to request that as soon as you roll an Ace, your very next roll is the re-roll for that Ace.
So, if your Shooting + Wild roll is [d8; d6] = 8, 5
Your next roll should be another d8.
If you roll them separately so you first roll d8 = 8
Then your next roll should be another d8, not the d6 Wild die.
Thanks!
Regarding the numbers I gave Crastor that are affected by Blast Templates, I've decided those are for "dense" combat situations (lots of opponents). In "sparse" situations (like this one), a MBT can affect d8 opponents, and a LBT can affect d16 opponents.
Oh when I do the rolls - I was doing them as follows
dice=Attack]1d8
dice=Wild]1d6
then I sumbit the post and if I Ace on either roll I then add the Aces in.
However if that is a problem I can post just the attack roll then see the results then either the Ace or Wild die and then see the results and then the Ace of Ace or Ace of Wild die etc... but that is a bit tedious
Further I always denote what the Ace applies to when I am making the Ace roll and then when completed I give the highest Total for that series
So can I ask why you need the Roll followed immediately by the Ace if it occurs? Just curious here.
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As for the Detect/Conceal Arcana power Evesk can take it at 3rd-Level but I am curious my lion that I plan to get next level would normally have Scent which would allow them to locate invisible creatures as well. However, I do not know if that translates over to SWPF in the same way.
The program that determines the random results always gives the same results in the same order if a series of the same die is rolled.
If one gets a d6 ace in the attack/wild roll and sees that there are 2 d6 aces in the damage calculation, one could position the ace rerolls to maintain the two aces in the damage calculation by putting the d6 ace from the attack rolls after the damage calculation rolls.
So a set procedure for where to roll the ace rolls is helpful to standardize the outcome without the possibility of altering the results by altering the order of the rolls.
It takes a few previews to get all the aces placed in the dice rolls. A player could intentionally or unintentionally get an improved results based on where the aces are placed in the sequence.
Also, as a GM I know it helps when every player posts rolls in a consistent way as it speeds up reviewing the results.
Ah. I have text in my character sheet that I copy and paste in, hit Preview and then add in any extra rolls. Will try to remember to put those xplode rolls after the pertinent roll from now on.
Ah well Jzero that sounds like you are talking about fudging the die rolls which I do not do as to me it is just a game -- and I have found that sometimes failing at a critical point makes for a better overall story. So I have learned to let the dice speak either as a player or as a GM.
Still I can accomodate the GM's wishes as my last set of rolls shows.
Evesk - I know you have a well-thought out plan for your PC's progression, I wouldn't want to mess that up by having to take the Detect Arcana Power. Ceri can take it, and act as a "booster" by casting it on the PC's who need it. That's a good role for her in the group.
The *only* mention of the Scent ability is in the Advanced Players Guide, as an ability that Catfolk have, so your lion does not have it. Besides, Detect Arcana can be given to those who need it, I'm not sure how having only your lion being able to detect invisible creatures would help the group.
ALL - just FYI, Detect Arcana, when cast on a monster with a Raise, tells the caster its racial weaknesses. That's how SW handled that issue, instead of using Skills.
I don't really have a plan. I can probably take Detect Arcana soon as well.
I will try and remember the Joker bonus in the future. Thank you for allowing the correction.
Okay GM_ZenFox42 I actually had it as part of my plan to do an A or B and one of those was take 2 spells which I had not decided what they would be but being able to cast a Power 30 spell might be something I can focus on just in case its needed in the later game.
Evesk - like I said in my previous two Gameplay posts : "unfortunately, SW doesn't allow for further effects past the first Raise *anywhere* (except for Damage), and I just can't see a second (or fourth) Raise allowing you to ret-con your initial action, even with a Benny. That's a dangerous precedent to set".
And, I'm curious - what could be a "better, more effective tactical call" than to boost the skill of the PC who's targeting the BBEG?
What do you mean by a "Power 30 spell"? Was that a typo?
Evesk, Crastor - no, seriously, as a PC/NPC, Ceri is perfect to take Detect Arcana. I should have just said so up front, but I wasn't thinking ahead. That will allow you to progress your PCs in whatever way you want. And only 1 magic-user needs to take it, because it can be cast on other people.
The better more effective tactical call is to augment the spell caster (who has not cast a spell yet) as they will conceivably do a lot more damage to a magical creature than a character using a mundane weapon that has already used their action for this round.
Still you explained you did not want the NPC/PC to take out the boss and I understood the sentiment and that was why I switched targets as you requested.
As for Detect Arcana I am okay with Ceri taking Detect Arcana and being our main go to for that purpose. I just know that I am going to eventually be taking additional spells just do not know which extra ones I will be taking at this point.
Rank: Heroic
Power Points: 20
Range: Touch
Duration: Instant
School: Conjuration
Trappings: Elaborate Ritual with rare herbs, magical amulets, etc.
Perhaps the greatest Power of all is the ability to bring someone back from the dead. It can restore lost loves, bring solace to the grieving, and topple kingdoms. Returning the dead to life requires a reasonably complete corpose no more than a year old. The caster then prays, meditates, chants, or otherwise concentrates on mending the body and pulling the spirit back to it for four hours. Once done, the healer makes a casting roll at -4. If successful, the target returns to life with three Wounds and is Exhausted. With a Raise, they return merely Exhausted.
Modifiers
Greater Resurrection (+10): The boundaries of life and death no longer matter. The caster can restore the dead to life regardless of how long the target was dead and even without a corpse. To resurrect the dead in this fashion requires a twelve-hour ritual and leaves the caster Exhausted as well.
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So as you can see the spell Greater Resurrection costs 30 Power Points to cast. Further Wish is also a spell that costs a base 20 Power Points that could also potentially have a +10 Modifier in order to allow it to do something greater than what it can basically do already. Aka basically a Greater Wish Modifier.
Thus the most powerful spells could cost as much as 30 Power Points but hopefully not more. Further getting 30 Power Points is not an easy thing to do even at the highest levels as it requires a dedication along the way at consistenly increasing your Power Points at each Teir prior to the final Tier. I hope that helps understand what I meant by that.
As a secondary note -- I was working at trying to make this character capable of using magic to make himself as well as others better on a somewhat regular basis thus also requiring them to have more Power Points and heck healing just 1 Wound will usually cost 3 Power Points and thus healing a party, rather than one individual, could get rather costly Power Point wise.
ALL - just FYI, Evesk and Johhann just one-shotted the BBEG for the whole dungeon! Not that there's no more to explore, discover, and kill...
This creature could roll to heal itself *every round*, and required 2 Wounds to kill. Between that and her -4 to hit I thought that she would last at least a couple of rounds. Oh well. Good job, guys!
(BTW, in the AP she could cast Invisibility on herself, but without any way for you guys to counter that, I decided that that was a bit OP, so I dropped it. Not that she had any time to cast it, so it didn't really matter if she had it or not.)
Don't worry, with our dice the next random encounter of 4 kobolds will kick our asses. :)
Yeah I have had this happen as a GM on more than one occassion in fact I had a group take on the finale boss battle and due to extremely poor rolls on the GMs (my) part they walked over it as if it were a minor minion fight and the hurried off to fight the final Boss only to find that they had already done that.
Further it was not just one really bad roll it was a set of 4 extremely bad rolls. The wizard had a wand of Slow and cast it on it the cuzzinart warrior which failed its good spell resistance and utterly failed its good save reducing it to a single attack per round fighter and then they cast it on the general and it too failed its good spell resistance and utterly failed its good save reducing it to another simple fighter. The other minions were easily mopped up without those two having been so severely nerfed.
Evesk - on page 178 of my SWPF Core Rules (version 1.8), it says that B/L Trait costs 3 PP (in SWADE Core it costs 2 PP). I did not know about your Limitation, which brings it down to 2 PP. I will try to remember that for the future, but you may have to remind me again. So you're at 3 PP.
I could send you a screen capture showing that in the SWPF Core Guidelines that it says that the B/L Trait costs 2 PP so I am going to have to assume this is an edition issue again. I will make the adjustment on my end to bring it in line with the more current Guidelines that you have. This difference in Guidelines is sure annoying though.
On the cover page of your PDF, there's a small orange box near the top left corner. When you hover your mouse cursor over it, a small window pops up. At the bottom of that window, there's a version number (like "v1.8") - what's yours say?
If you bought your PDF from peginc.com, they allow you to download the latest version for free, forever.
FWIW, my PDF does not have any such orange box and I cannot find anything that indicates additional document info. What program are you using to view the PDF? That might make a difference.
Just plain old Adobe Acrobat. But, I can't figure out how to determine *its* version number! However, it was updated about a month ago. Maybe if you go to the Adobe website and download the current version, the SW document's version number box will appear?
That SW Documents version number might only be on your version and I know my version is much older than yours as I looked that up a long while back. Further like I said, the first time this version issue came up, I cannot just go to peginc.com and get the latest version as they have nor record of me having bought it as it was a gift a long while back and I do not even remember who gave it to me.
That being said again I know your version is much more current than mine, I just find this version issue to be minorly annoying but not enough that I am going to go out and buy a new copy for something I already have.
About picking directions...
It took 5 IRL days, and 3 prompts from me for a direction to be picked! What happened???
Evesk (if I'm recalling correctly) and Jzero have said they're abstaining from voting (and obviously Ceri can't), so that leaves Evesk, Crastor, and Johhann to decide.
Saying "I don't want to go that way" does not contribute to a positive decision.
With only 3 PCs making decisions, I'm tempted to go to a "Rule of One" - the first person to pick a direction, that's it.
Thoughts? Comments? Feedback?
I'm for whatever keeps things moving. We're going to visit everything eventually and I'm not detecting much of a pattern that would make certain direction logically preferable.
I'd suggest once one PC has suggested a direction, the other two with a vote have 24 hours to offer an opinion (with the rule of 2 in effect). If no posts from either after 24 hours, go with the first suggestion.
I like Jzero's resolution -- now why he acquiesed being the party leader I do not understand -- perhaps the burden of leadership was just too much for him to bear ;-)
Also Evesk is following the others because his observation ability is pretty poor and as long as we are trying to eradicate the evil that is down here he is fine with whatever path we take.
I thought we were just going with the vote of two. I am fine with the GM taking the first suggestion and moving on. If the goal is to clear everything I do not think it matters a lot which way we go first. If something changes about that, we can always discuss it in character about which way we would like to go as a group.
I was considering abandoning the Rule of Two because it was taking so long for even just one person to post a choice. But I'll use Jzero's suggestion in the future.
But Velrek, Crastor, and Johhann - please respond reasonably quickly when I call for a "which way to go" vote, thanks!
Benny and PP check : another Joker has come up, so everyone should have 5 Bennies, except Velrek, who should have 3.
I have Evesk as having 2 PP, and Crastor as having 13 PP.
Anyone disagree?
That looks right for Crastor.
Looks right for me -- hey I can spend a Benny to gain how many PP or did I mishear that?
Also I will be away from my computer for the x-mas holiday have a wonderful season
Evesk (and Crastor) - you can spend a Benny at any time and "magically" (sorry, had to say it) get back 5 PP.
Do they have to say the Magical word for it to work?
Like "Abracadabra!"
or even better... "Please!?"
:)
You obviously call out "I have the Power!"
Hah!
Only if you also hold your sword above your head in a majestic pose!!!!
I love this group, y'all are awesome.
On that note, Merry Christmas and happy whatever holidays you celebrate!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Happy holidays! I won't expect much posting for the next few days, enjoy your family and the food!
Seasons Happiness to all and hope you all have a great time with family and friends.
Miscellaneous musings...
By RAW, all attacks are to the torso, unless the player specifies a Called Shot, which invokes a penalty to the attack roll.
But, I'm getting real tired of saying "the PC hits the bad guy in the chest", and there's only so many ways I can riff on that.
So, what about this : if an attack roll (Fighting, Shooting) is 2 or more above their Parry, I can describe that they were hit in the arm or leg. And if it's 4 or more, I can say they were hit in the head or hand (and this kind of hand shot cannot invoke a Disarm) or heart. And if they're going to be Incapacitated on this attack anyway, I might say they're being thrown back (like a Push). It's just to add some flavor to the damage descriptions.
Also, anyone have any problems with gory graphic details, like "his brains are splattered across the wall"?
Thoughts? Opinions? Feedback?
Sounds fine to me but.. to be fair, it would apply to us as well. :)
Huh. Hadn't thought of that. But since it's purely descriptive, and has *no* effect on the game mechanics, that shouldn't be a problem?
Funny that I bring it up, being the group punching bag thus far. :)
"Oh, there lies poor Velrek with his brains splattered across the wall! At least he didn't lose anything important!" ;)
Years ago, I was amused by a sequence of comic book panels in a very futuristic story with an alien who looks human. At one point, an enemy slashes a knife across his throat, producing lots of gushing blood. He falls but a panel or two later rejoins the fight and takes out the enemy. When his companions look at him in amazement, he merely said, "Nothing important in throat."
The players can also choose to be descriptive in their attacks as long as they don't say the words "Called Shot". Or not, and leave it up to me.
Were either the 'red hot sowed' or 'gleaming dagger' from the three armed Goblin anything usable or interesting?
Thanks for the reminder! Please check my most recent post...
ALL - there's a SW RIFTS game that could use some infusion of new players. For those who don't know, RIFTS is a high-tech world where everyone is as powerful as many Supers, but mostly from tech or psionics. There's many races, and the PC's belong to an organization that fights a totalitarian regime. Google "savage rifts" "world" "description" (with the double quotes) for more information.
If anyone's interested, you'd have to buy the SW RIFTS book (only $10 PDF). The link to the recruitment page is HERE.
Did you mean for that last post to go to recruitment?