DM NomadSage's Emerald Spire (Inactive)

Game Master nomadicc

Setting up a discussion thread for the new campaign!

Some quick notes to help flesh out character backgrounds... You are traveling north on the Crusader Road, ostensibly to join the latest campaign from Mendev. You are currently passing through the River Kingdoms among a caravan laden with supplies for the war effort. I don't expect a party of paladins and goody 2 shoes, but try to keep personalities on the light side of the spectrum (that is, unless *everyone* wants to play a dark mercenary type -- that works too).

As for the edition, I'm happy to give 2nd edition a go. I'll have to do a little reading, but I think it'd be an easy conversion on the DM side. I'm already familiar with Starfinder, and most of the big changes from PF 1st to 2nd are there. I also think a dungeon crawl is a good place to try out new rules (especially the tactical ones) in a relatively limiting environment. From the JR thread, sounds like everyone was amicable... any strenuous objections or pushes for 1st edition?

Lastly, a warning: this *is* a dungeon crawl first-and-foremost! We all know play-by-post dungeons can be a slog. I'll do my best to keep things moving and engaging, and we'll probably have to lay out some party guidelines to keep from stopping at every intersection: "so, left or right?". That being said, I will certainly work in the NPCs and story elements, and how much you interact with the folks is up to you to keep it engaging.

Off to the Crusades! I was actually thinking of a Low Templar type character.

Original thought was a Son of Brevoy. Born and raised in Restov. Trained in an Aldori dueling school. Ambitious, believer in causes: first the rebellion against Surtova which was little more than talk, then an expedition to the Stolen Lands which fell apart due to fractious infighting, finally joining the Crusade only to be robbed of his prized Aldori blade on the dangerous West Sellen route.

Thrice burned, he doesn't believe in anything now except strong ale and easy pickings... at least that's my thoughts at the moment.

Ill need to soend some time looking at the 2nd ed rules. My character concept was a bit to specific for 2nd ed.

Be back shortly!

Crusader dungeon crawl, I was originally thinking paladin or cleric but now I might go wizard to give the new 2nd ed casting rules a run.

OK, I think I've got the basics on 2ed. I wasn't really planning on adopting it, but I'm impressed. In particular, I like the scalability. A huge prob with the game is that BAB increases while AC is flat which turns it into just a game of who does the most damage per round. Also the skills mods get out of hand quickly. I like what they've done.

Here's my first attempt at statting a PC.

Awesome! I'm kinda busy the next few days, but I should have a good chance to look through the rules next week. I'll focus on the tactical and GM stuff, enough to get the ball rolling.

No hurry, though! Take as much time as ya'll need to get things comfortable.

So we have a fighter type and a wizard type so far? I think I might go rogue to see how the trapfinding works. I'll work at it and post a rough character up soon.

In that vein, I was leaning to a dwarf Cayden Cailen brawler type, but looks like monk is the only real way to make that happen. I'll keep the personality but maybe draw it up as a cleric so we can have some healing.

Drunk healer. Wins for everyone.

A joyful dwarf with a ruddy complexion, Bruno can't say no to a drinking challenge, a party, a bar or even a nip on a cold or somewhat cold or slightly tepid evening near the fire or away from the fire.

Devoted to Cayden Cailen, he believes in individual freedoms above all else, especially if one can drink, and considers undeath a slavery preventing escape to the afterlife.

Profile to come shortly.

Here we go

Forgot how much of a pain it is to make a character manually. I've got a dwarf ready to go, just need to get the stats input.

Have you tried HeroLab Online? It's got all the playtest rules including updates I think.

Yeah I saw HLO for Starfinder and balked, I already have HeroLab for the desktop and buying it all over again is frustrating.

Yeah, I kinda consider them separate entities now. SF isn't ever coming to HL classic, and I presume neither is PF2.

Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.

For a monthly fee I'll continue to resist for now. Lucky for me they have a free Demo that you can use for first level characters.

Here's a first whack at Rodimissimo, my gnome rogue.

Dwarves and gnomes unite!

Short legged squad.... HO!

We need never fear a 5' ceiling.

Gawdz! I'm surrounded by shorties!

I see little people. all. the. time...

...they tell me to burn things...

You guys crack me up! I'm still getting a basic grasp of the rules, but I figure its gonna be a lot of learning along the way. I'll look to kick things off soon.

Apologies for the delay. Having a bit of a week off... I'll look to get something up this weekend.

I kinda hit a wall trying to get this thing kicked off, but here we go! First post is up in the gameplay tab.

Hey everyone, I sent you invite links to the Roll 20 campaign via PM. Let me know if you didn't get it, for whatever reason.

Current map is the western environs of the Echo Wood. For reference, you can find Fort Inevitable in the south east corner.

Working on the map. I'll have something up later tonight.

Hey guys, this isn't necessarily new, but I finally thought to post the link. This awesome person has annotated a pdf of the playtest rulebook with all the updates 1.1 through 1.6 (the latest). Since some of the updates are significant, this is hugely helpful!!

LINK

Hey GM- Do you actually have the Thornkeep module as well?

Yes! It has a lot more info on the Echo Wood region, and the two link together nicely. The adventure part of Thornkeep is somewhat usable... I may use it, or oarts, depending on what you all decide to do.

This is a dungeon crawl campaign but I'm trying to establish the region as your sandbox. Referencing bits of the River Kingdoms book, too.

Excellent! Thornkeep sounds... intriguing.

The Emerald Spire dungeon crawl is the centerpiece of the campaign, but the surrounding area is totally open to you guys to explore and interact. I'm happy to dig into Thornkeep, if you guys decide to visit, and any of the other local attractions, like Mosswater etc. And how much you want to get involved in the local politics, too. =)

To Hell with the Hellknights. Mikos for Mayor!

I updated the campaign log and added a rough quest log. Let me know if you want anything else added, or whatever you think might be useful!

Didn't see rules for drunkenness yet in PF2. Anyone else?

Didn't see anything specific, but I'd likely rule that it would be an affliction with a Sick 1 result. Interval of an hour. So -1 on all rolls until you make a save attempted after each hour. Max duration of four hours.

There is this, which sounds fun:

You can spend an action retching in an attempt to recover, which lets you attempt a Fortitude save against the DC of the effect that made you sick. On a success, you reduce your sickness value by 1 (or by 2 on a critical success).

BTW, the last change to channel energy has broken my build a bit. We will see where it goes, but currently a cleric has to have a 12 or higher Charisma in order to get at least 1 channel energy.

Good news is Treat Wounds is stronger and I can cast with weapon and shield in hand.

Note, Perception is no longer a skill. Its just a roll anyone can make.

Perception modifier = Wisdom modifier + Perception proficiency modifier + circumstance bonus + conditional bonus + item bonus + circumstance penalty + conditional penalty + item penalty + untyped penalties

Your class determines your proficiency.

Ah, thanks. I didn't have the rule book with me and I wasn't remembering it. I should be an expert +1 Wis = +3

Where is Treat Wounds described? I'm not sure that I even understand channel anymore... sounds like you'd have 3-1= 2 channels/day which are basically casting heal spell twice per day?

No, version 1.3 (get the change document, not just the core .pdf) added treat wounds to the medicine skill. Theres no real.limit under than the 10 mins of time and the level based DC.

Channel allows you to cast heal. Version 1.6 changes it from 3+Cha mod to just Cha mod. So I lost the ability to channel. And for dwarves in general it's near impossible unless you max Cha (14) at creation (including picking the right background)

Spontaneous healing doesnt exist any more. But I can still memorize heal.spells, so for now we will do that. It just sucks away a bit from th build but this is a playtest right? We see what we like and what we dont and give it a review.

huh, well that's just stupid to kill a core class feature that uses an ability which isn't even a key ability. sounds like it's the same as resonance now? not even, bc at least resonance is based on level, right? i'd house rule channel back to what it was. that's just ridiculous.

Yeah, I haven't been following the playtest forums, but it seems like they thought channel was too powerful so chopped it back. While it may have been slightly too good for healbots, the nerf really hurt the secondary healer builds like Keg. Plus, having the number of channels per day based on a secondary stat is just salt on the wound.

For this game, I'm happy to house rule it back to the 3+Cha, at least until (if) they update the rule in a later iteration.

My limited observation so far... action economy is completely changed! Being able to make 3 attacks (albiet with crippling penalties) at level 1 is going to take some getting used to. I mean, if you aren't moving or doing something else, why not roll the dice and hope for a 20? Compare that to spell-casting, weapon combat seems really powerful. EDIT -- this goes for foes too... goblin rider here could have done 3x spear attacks out the gate. It seems really deadly to PCs. Maybe that's on purpose, but I feel like I'm missing something.

Flip-side, both PCs and the monsters have more hit points. Makes sense, but then the nerf to healing is doubly harsh. A 10-minute 'cast' skill is obviously useless during the fight!

Ditto on the hp. I miss the old one hit 6 hp goblins, but the extra hp for players isn't awful. Goose and Gander, I guess.

I see the point on channeled healing getting out of hand. I just had a cleric join a long running game where we just had an Oracle available and it totally changed combat with wave after wave of hp refreshing.

If they wanted to nerf that I could see maybe a min 1 channel/ day as the floor with Cha bonus added on, but totally taking a way a class ability based on a secondary stat is weak.

I dont entirely understand since heal is still a single target spell. Is there a channel feat to multiply it?

At least the version in seeing in the orig. PF2 rules expands it with each spell action component added: s-touch; s,v- reach; v,s,m-30 foot burst.

It sounds to me like the 'channeling ' class ability works just like bonus castings of the heal spell at whichever of these levels you wish. VSM for the old channel effect, but you could just touch some one for a quick 1-action heal.

I dont entirely understand since heal is still a single target spell. Is there a channel feat to multiply it?

8 dont see the VSM part of heal for the burst heal. I'll check again

Ah, found it. Helps to read to the top of the column on the second page.

So given that and NomadSage's House rule. Allow that heal to apply to both Mikos and Rodi then.

Hey, all. Family vacation time. I'll be out this week.

I'll check the map when I get home this evening.