I'm pretty sure this will be the biggest fight we have today, so go for broke!
Cough! Hint! Prince!
And yes, rest and spell prep after that, along with plot RP and just-for-fun RP, if players desire it.
As for positioning, anyone can leap downward to your aid once they take out the boggard's on the deck. The ship rammed through the dock. We can fudge a climb check of DC10 to make getting up to the ship possible.
Did you add a second background skill? (You get +2 SP for background skills if you have a drawback.)
Sorry you got clobbered! I was trying to ease you back into the game, so I had the brute go after Henrietta instead of you. And of course the brute rolls a One while the 2CR regular boggard rolls a 20.
Boggards have crappy DEX (-1) so Feint doesn't lower their AC. But the Feint (succeeded both times—you just didn't beat the 14 AC last round, even with a flank bonus), so the extra damage makes the Feint worth rolling!
You can look up boggards and boggard brutes for Toadie and Bully stats. I modify enemies, but mostly HP and I add or remove abilities. (Added some Summoner Unchained spells for royal frogmen.)
Oh! Haven't actually taken an additional background skill yet, I just like taking drawbacks when they fit the character >>'
As for being clobbered, no need to apologize that's just how the dice roll! It's not a real fight until HP gets into single digits lol. Eventually I plan to take Misdirection Tactics so when she's in danger of being KO'd she can start bluffing her way out of being downed. She probably would have started using the AC bonus from Combat Expertise but given how badly hurt Henrietta is, she opted to just try and finish the toadie off before he crits anybody else. As for the Feint it's primarily for the sake of getting the Hidden Strike damage off then! This build makes bluff my best combat skill...if I could just hit consistently...
Henrietta's fine. I think my damage toll is causing confusion. I displayed damage taken, not HP remaining. So Henrietta is almost at full HP. She only took 5 damage.
I think next time I'll display AC and HP. (All the past games I GM'd were homebrews, so I just displayed a row of text hearts!)
Oops! I thought she was down to 5HP not down by 5HP. That's my mistake!
Cough! Hint! Prince!
I just meant that the frogs on the ship won't be the last fight before rest, since you need to deal with the Prince after the current enemies fall. I wasn't trying to hint at immediate pursuit. That said, I really loved Hunter's thoughts as he swooped in...!
Sorry folks.
Will post when I can.
Cheers.
That's fine. Still 24 hours left.
When you do post, don't forget you can use Brawler's Flurry since you don't need to move. If you do use a flurry and you end up one-punching your opponent, I'll automatically redirect the second attack to any opponent in reach (Anabel's).
Since only Johnny sees Hunter's POV, I'll just tell you one part of it: if you go inside the ship before finishing off the frogmen, it won't solve anything. The toadies and bully will just follow you in.
There's only one round of Rain of Frogs remaining. (It lasts 2 rounds longer than the caster's concentration.)
I'm actually moving at a different pace for inside the ship. It's nothing for those outside to be concerned about.
@Johnny, if you make the roll, Hunter will be safe but unable to leave... because what's on the ceiling is effectively blocking the exit.
@Everyone, those outside the ship might notice a strange writhing blackness blocking the door. They might also hear female voices, though it's not possible to focus on the barely audible words over the sounds of raining frogs and battle. One woman's tone sounds encouraging.
golly, have a long day at work and miss a bit. catching up now.
Also work schedule is getting back to normal now.
That's good. Of course, Sunset probably has an insane work schedule right now.
By the way, Ed, feel free to open the two Hunter spoilers from the posts above my latest. It will add context to the current post even though it's from Hunter's POV.
@Sabrina,
You can still reach every ally. The grease spot was writhin 5 feet of Sabrina, so I had the Toadie strike between slip-fall and channel-healing.
Confession: I was hoping to roll >18 to hit Sabrina, but <9 damage so the channel heals her completely.
The dice are full of surprises. For Hunter, I was going to have more slaves aid the bird's escape. The next attempt would have +6, then +10, then +16. If close to "death" the girls would have channeled healing for a "round." The real surprise was taking a poison effect from the Prince's own spell. That's a bit of a game-changer—especially with Alistair in the slaves' room...! I didn't see that coming. But then, he cast Vanish, so not seeing was the idea!
A new thought on GM pay:
Whatever total monetary reward the GM doles out to each player, that's how much the GM gets.
I don't personally mind my character making less $, but I'm considering the long game:
#2. Fairness. I can't predict what amount of GM Pay is fair 10 episodes from now, but I know linking money to PC rewards is fair. Likewise, paying equal $ to each character means we all progress together and can afford the stuff we want.
#3. Incentive to GM. I have at least one player who is PC-only. My concern is other players will not want to GM if it guarantees they cannot afford that next enchantment, which they certainly can afford if they receive the better $ reward that a PC gets in a single episode.
#4. Incentive to Set Up Success. Originally, I wanted GM pay to be less than what a successful party earns, but more than what a failed party earns. The thinking was (a) adventuring is risky and (b) the benched PC's business wouldn't flourish or flounder based on how well the adventurers fare.
But I was being a schmuck. From a gaming perspective, this is really the right move. If I set up challenges that the players overcome, I think I deserve to benefit. I might even gage if the reward is too good or not appropriate for the effort based on what I can do with the amount. If I can equip Addy with two +1 stilettos, that's about right. If I can equip her with two +1 Fortuitous stilettos, I will realize I'm overpaying you all and will scale back the number in my head.
Likewise, if I set you up to fail and you get nothing, I don't get paid either. And while bad rolls might cost us some missions, the party can only remain unrewarded so many times before the game becomes too frustrating to enjoy. The GM taking the hit too means we all share the misery as much as the wealth.
#5. Incentive to Avoid Favoritism. The GM's pay is only what each player gets. (That is, each player who plays every part of the episode that grants a monetary reward.) So if I pay all of you 5000gp, I get 5000gp.
For GMs who like giving RP bonuses, I suggest giving consumable items instead of additional money. Something like a ~500g item if the party earned 5000g each.
But I personally will not give bonuses, as I don't think it's necessary. Strong RP'ers don't need a reward, and shy RP'ers won't RP better because they see other players earn more than they do.
I should note that in both LARPs and PbPs, I was always the guy getting the most RP bonuses—armor, magic weapon, XP, Starbucks gift card... But really, I RP'd well because it was fun to ham up my characters.
Until I am able to edit the Campaign Info tab (next update, says Paizo), this is noted as Rule #6 in Addison Lane's profile. (See spoiler under her backstory.)
EDIT - I added a note to clarify that having a cohort or humanoid familiar does NOT entitle a player to an extra share of the reward. Since I'm the only player so far with a humanoid sidekick (who might not show her person-form until Ep.3), I want that to be very clear. Addy gets money. Hanako can either get paid nothing or the GM can choose to reward the tiny person with an item. (Or have the NPC chase her away with a fly-swatter. Either way.)
@Sabrina,
Confession: I was hoping to roll >18 to hit Sabrina, but <9 damage so the channel heals her completely.
That's OK! I've wanted to hurt my players too. Sabs is very tanky but has some glaring deadly weaknesses.
It's not even about wanting to hurt Sabrina. I would find it humorous if she was hit and immediately healed herself.
I love it when my baddies' plans blow up in their faces, but I don't force it. I don't hide die rolls. So Jack getting blasted in the worst way, the Toadie's failed Acro check, the Bully's fumbled weapon and the Prince getting hit by Rain of Frogs (twice had I not made him go indoors)—all were unlikely (5-10%, except Russian Roulette, which has a 51.77% of finding the bullet within 4 pulls of the trigger IF you spin the barrel every time)—and pleasantly surprising.
...
Also, please note that Addy Lane's profile page includes 7 Rules (7th is Sidekick Char-Gen) and one SUGGESTION. I'm not dictating how much $ GMs should pay players, but I simply did the math. Paizo suggests players at Lv.3 have 3,000gp and 6,000gp at Lv.4. Therefore, episode #1 "should" pay the difference ($3K) if the party succeeds. Since failure results in zero gold, an extremely successful party should be able to earn about double. (My opinion.)
When you GM, feel free to take or leave the suggestion. I'm using that as a guide for myself, though I won't necessarily use the exact numbers. You can expect to earn a total of $4K or $5K this episode, if you save all the innocents (this encounter) and succeed at the final encounter (day two). There may be a bonus condition to earn a total of $6K, or you could all make a big goof-up and get no pay for the second half of the episode.
Hypothetically speaking...is the passage way or Captain's cabin small enough that a toadie under the effects of Enlarge Person would take squeezing penalties? Asking for a friend.
Wow... I thought Enlarge Person only grew a willing target. My first PF game, I played a druid. Enlarge Animal has the willing condition, but I see that Enlarge Person does not!
So... yes.
You can't hit anyone who is indoors at the moment, but if cast while they are indoors, squeezing applies. Basically, they would need to crawl on their bellies. But that isn't really the best part—which is: no frogman can fit through the door while enlarged.
...
Also, I'm using boggard stats with fuzzy math for HP. It's 22 hp for an ordinary boggard, but you may have noticed one or two of them dropped at 20 damage. I won't lie. I keep HP in my head and round numbers are easier. (This is why I should never attempt GM'ing more than one PbP at a time!)
Point is, the eagle's 18 damage nearly dropped the only uninjured frogman. All remaining boggards have single-digit HP! At this point, don't miss and you can all board the ship next round!
For the Rain of Frogs, Hunter's number (9), the Prince's number (10) and the Bully's number (20) hit eagles. 20 hits the dad, 9 hits the mom, 10 hits the kid.
24+ hours to go before I post Round 6.
The indoor encounter is over (aside from talky RP stuff, if players want to), and it's basically Round 10 or 11 in there. Once combat is over, there will be Black Tentacles writhing along the ceiling inside the ship, which are blocking the door completely. Anyone who tries cutting them will see that more tentacles ooze into place like a beheaded hydra—but you literally would have to walk into them to get attacked, so they post no real threat.
As soon as the battle outside is over, Caledon can tell the party what he knows through the emphatic link with Hunter.
The tentacle spell will fade after that. (Like Rain of Frogs, the Black Tentacles spell duration is concentration +n rounds.) With nothing blocking the door, you can see for yourself how things went for Alistair and Hunter.
(I mean... if you didn't peek under the spoiler tag!)
Caledon can tell the party what he knows through the emphatic link with Hunter.
The link is very limited in what it can communicate. That's why Hunter had to take action before.
Empathic Link (Su): The master has an empathic link with his familiar to a 1 mile distance. The master can communicate empathically with the familiar, but cannot see through its eyes. Because of the link’s limited nature, only general emotions can be shared. The master has the same connection to an item or place that his familiar does.
Nice... I'll trust you to take what's in that last post and interpret what emotions you decide Hunter felt and communicated to Cal.
Sabrina just pre-rolled a really painful hot-foot! So that means if both frogs survive this round, gang up on the Bully. Toadie will drop from Sabrina's attack if he makes it to round 6.
while they are indoors, squeezing applies. Basically, they would need to crawl on their bellies.
Does that mean large, squeezing, and prone penalties to AC and attack rolls?
Well... I can definitely say that the Prince will not be able to cast while enlarged.
Again, sorry for seeming to be dragging along on my end folks.
Al work and no something...makes Jack a...something, something.... (-_-)
@Sunny,
Your pacing is fine. I give 72 hours on weekends, and also, if you miss a deadline you just take two turns later. I knew your job would keep you busy at times before inviting you to the game, so no worries!
@Everyone,
I did decide to push ahead to complete Alistair's action of freeing the slavegirls. In part, I did that because I already had NPCs with channel-healing before Sabrina joined, so bringing them out now means Sabrina can handle healing that you will likely need at some point in the next in-game minute.
And in part because there's more to react to if NPCs are there to reveal what two players already knew: the Prince ate the demons seeds that were meant for the slaves.
he guys, looks like my new schedule will put me unable to post on Mondays (except if Monday is a holiday) that is my new game night.
Thanks for the update. Missing Monday's shouldn't be a problem. I don't expect people to post every day.
I was iffy about semi-botting Alistair, but figured there was only one obvious move for him. Yeah, chaining the Prince in his room will do absolutely nothing—not for a reason like which way the door goes, but for another reason that you may have already figured out.
Yup... GM initiative rolls: nat.1, nat.2, and now a nat.20. I feel like to save time, I can just toss a coin to see whether my badguys go first or last.
Nat.20 is not auto-win though, so some of you might roll 21 or better. Tie still goes to the player, even with nat.20. (When I'm GM'ing at least.)
Good news: Paizo updated, so I can finally edit the campaign info tab! (I did.)
Bad news: if I use the forum on my phone, I have to read through a semi-transparent image.
Having the same image issue. I think its chrome because firefox doesnt have that issue but it does have others.
Captain's actions should Real Life preclude actually posting them in order.
Having seperated one chain... Now leaving two girls connected by one length, Cap sizes up the situation and sighs.
"Appologies ladies." He says before simply lifting a pair over each shoulder and then running for the end of the peir.
Any one else with a strength can get the other pair out of the danger zone as well. Clear the helpless combatants then we can go to wailing on the monster.
Preemptive TL;DR translation of everything below: killing the Prince is the only way to prevent innocent deaths.
...
I don't want to discourage outside-the-box thinking. In fact, I love it when players find unconventional ways to thwart my evil NPCs. So far, I DID anticipate that someone would figure out that the sleeping dock workers would need to be moved and the green lanterns would be moved or extinguished. The only way to save all 20 innocents was to do both.
(Crash damage would have been rolled, potentially killing some slaves and the Toadie on the crow's nest—4d6 to him, 2d6 to the rest, some slaves have 8 hp. For dock-workers, the demonseeds would have been triggered by crash damage. Basically, you'd have "gutbusters" and frogmen to deal with, albeit with lower hp than Biff.)
I did NOT anticipate that the Prince would trigger his own demon seed (20 damage or CON damage... but there was only a 2% chance he'd both hit himself and fail his fort save!) So the one-minute transformation was triggered early—which made saving the slaves harder. Except Alistair turned invisible and followed the Prince in, and he's the one guy with a toolbox, which allowed him to free the slaves 5 rounds before the Prince was finished transforming! They are well out of the reach of those tentacles you can already see. (I wonder if anyone guessed the monster...?)
...
Short version: you're on track to get the extra cash for protecting the innocent.
...
As for how the slaves are chained, feel free to peek under all those Huntr/Alistair spoiler tags for details (and a typo-ridden dialogue... damn editing window), but basically the chains would form a wagon-wheel shape if the girls spread out. Every left arm is chained to a right arm—not 4 pairs. A circle—and every left ankle is chained to a left ankle—pairs in this case, but...
...like this:
The "north" slave's ankle is chained to the "south" slave's ankle. And wrist-to-wrist, "North" is chained to "NE" and "NW." Hope that makes sense.
...
Short version: rolling DC28s* three times would free ONE slave. There aren't enough rounds, and multiple attempts will force the group to stop moving away from the Prince.
*(GM hand-waving on my part since no current PC can make the strength DC28 for breaking chains. Decided Escape Arts could use that same DC for assisting escape through a manacle.)
...
As for the Prince, bear in mind that he is going to emerge as a huge rampaging creature. I'm talking elephant-and-a-half huge, based on weight. Elephant-and-a-third, technically, but the point is that you will NOT receive bonus pay for protecting the innocent if this creature kills by the dozen and plants demon seeds his victims.
(Maybe the villain will tell you how that^ works tomorrow... not that I mind if you all just beat the hell out of him while he's monologuing.)
Yes, I do realize you're Lv.3. D&D stats to make froghemoth possible—you'd lose to the PF version (+20 to hit and forget about breaking grapple). Also, assuming you don't flee in terror, you'll see I have other plans to make this fight winnable. This is, after all, the Ep.1 "miniboss." Not the "end-boss."
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The demon flavor had me thinking Shrroth, so I'm feeling a bit better now. Is he standing in water or dry deck?
Pressed against deck, so melee fighters can hit. It should go without saying that if the whole party flees melee range, the dock-workers are prone targets and if they all die, you'll end up with 13 infected creatures killing people in town.
But certainly, the wizard and gunner can stay more than 20 feet away. He can hurl, but the hurled decbris is less damaging. You can choose to keep just within 30' so slave girls won't get hit by hurl attacks that miss you. As the girls widen the gap, around Round 3, you can safely stay within 70' so the Froghemoth won't have the option to charge the wizard.
...
Oh... and now you probably know why I was kind of non-answering your Enlarge question. You had no way of knowing at the time what the Prince was going through behind that locked door, aside from Hunter sensing the Prince died. (The guard was smothered to death, then crushed into bloody paste, as the Prince rapidly expanded in size. He could not unlock the door fast enough to save himself, and was too loyal to consider fleeing until it was too late.)
Now that you've seen the result of his metamorphosis, you obviously won't cast a spell that turns a huge 8-ton froghemoth into a gargantuan 64-ton froghemoth!
Pressed against deck, so melee fighters can hit. It should go without saying that if the whole party flees melee range, the dock-workers are prone targets and if they all die, you'll end up with 13 infected creatures killing people in town.
But certainly, the wizard and gunner can stay more than 20 feet away. He can hurl, but the hurled decbris is less damaging. You can choose to keep just within 30' so slave girls won't get hit by hurl attacks that miss you. As the girls widen the gap, around Round 3, you can safely stay within 70' so the Froghemoth won't have the option to charge the wizard.
(Oh... and now you probably know why I was kind of non-answering your Enlarge question. You obviously had no way of knowing at the time what the Prince was going through behind the locked door. Now that you've seen the result of his metamorphosis, you obviously won't cast a spell that turns a huge 8-ton froghemoth into a gargantuan 64-ton froghemoth!)
Thanks for the clarification. I had figured that there probably wouldn't be enough humanoid left to qualify for Enlarge Person anyway. It's just that I have it prepared and realized it would actually be debuff to most of the party in the context of the battle.
As for the current round, oddly enough for water Caledon's go to summons is an electric eel.
Every time I summon eagles I think of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miomuSGoPzI
You can certainly summon an electric eel. The more players taking advantage of the monster's elemental weakness, the merrier!
My opinion on metagaming is basically, if the player knows the PC knows. Mostly because I've seen too many players go out of their way not to act on common RPG-er knowledge because the character didn't specifically obtain knowledge.
If I *really* feel it's game-breaking for you to find an elemental weakness on the first round, I'll just make up creatures. I'm doing that now, honestly. But the electricity weakness is straight outta DnD.
Happy Turkey Day to those who celebrate it!
Happy Regular Thursday to those who don't!
Happy Thanksgiving! Won’t have time to post till tonight or tomorrow, but I am glad I cast shocking grasp now!
You can certainly summon an electric eel. The more players taking advantage of the monster's elemental weakness, the merrier!
My opinion on metagaming is basically, if the player knows the PC knows. Mostly because I've seen too many players go out of their way not to act on common RPG-er knowledge because the character didn't specifically obtain knowledge.
If I *really* feel it's game-breaking for you to find an elemental weakness on the first round, I'll just make up creatures. I'm doing that now, honestly. But the electricity weakness is straight outta DnD.
I usually prioritize: Eel -> Octopus > Shark for water fights and had never heard of a Frogemoth until I googled it earlier. I was a little relieved there wasn't water on deck yet because I didn't think you'd buy that I really wasn't metagaming.
I wouldn't accuse you of metagaming. By all means, summon eels. His feet are in the water, and electricity has an insane effect! Lowered AC, less movement, and he gets one attack—hit OR grapple—instead of that plus two hit-and-grapple attacks!
Alistair is within 30', so he gets the +1.
The forum double posted when I submitted. In the preview 3 eagles where summoned. I didn't realize the numbers where different between the one i left in and the deleted post. Discount Wind Rider if you wish.
You had 1 eagle first round, 2 more next round makes 3 total so it seems right to me.
In any case, have the three. The site said there are 3 new Gameplay posts, but I see 2, so it's apparently counting your deleted double. The algorithm Paizo now uses probably adjusts your rolls if you delete a duplicate post.
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You had 1 eagle first round, 2 more next round makes 3 total so it seems right to me.
In any case, have the three. The site said there are 3 new Gameplay posts, but I see 2, so it's apparently counting your deleted double. The algorithm Paizo now uses probably adjusts your rolls if you delete a duplicate post.
In my original post, I rolled a 2+1 and not a 1+1 on my second round.
Oh... I see now. When reading on my phone, I somehow only noticed three eagles total, not four. Well, as I said, the new post alert certainly backs up the accidental double-post, and I'm sure that when you deleted one, you didn't notice the rolls changed.
Yeah, just leave it.
Pushed ahead a few hours early, since I have a busy weekend and the monster was very likely to survive round 2 anyway.
@Lobster, I displayed damage to Hank, but I am familiar with the Mounted Combat feat. You might be able to negate the damage to Hank. If you do, the grapple also misses. Since you can roll two rounds, I'll let you choose:
NORM:
You attack in Round 2.
The monster attacks, and you make defensive rolls to protect Hank.
You attack in Round 3.
ALT:
The monster attacks; you make defensive rolls.
You attack twice in Round 3.
(...as if your reaction is delayed in R2, then the monster's is in R3.)
...
@Ed, see PM.
Okay... so maybe you guys could have handled the PF Froghemoth after all. It would have landed every attack, and I think electricity doesn't disable attacks, so maybe it would have dropped a hero or two.
But aside from me botching the to-hit (should have been +10, not +9, which would have made no difference), I didn't nerf the D&D version at all. LINK
...and I'm just gonna go to round 4 since there's only a corpse to hit at the moment. You guys did 186 damage to a 184 HP monster in 3 rounds!
I decided to just tell you the AC, including touch, and the DCs needed for the saves. More repeating 13s!
Also, @Johnny, I wasn't trying to nuke your eagles from the fight! Odds were that I'd likely roll 7-13 damage, meaning that they would survive the acid splash with successful reflex saves. Less likely rolls were 3-6 damage (which 7HP eagles survive even if they take full damage) or 14-18 damage (which... er... happened).
Oh... and in case anyone is wondering, "Vomit Twin" is an actual spell from the Summoner spell list. (It doesn't let you puke a harpy after licking a woman and biting a bird though.) It is also on another list shared by "Rain of Frogs" and "Black Tentacles," which is the list of Magical Girl Vigilante spells that my character will NEVER know!
You guys did 186 damage to a 184 HP monster in 3 rounds!
7 PCs cutting loose and using everything can do a lot of damage. I've seen someone do 70 damage in one hit at 4th level not too long ago.