Discussion thread for Honor's Echo
Please could you supply:
Player:
Character:
Pathfinder Society Number:
Faction:
Slow Track or Normal:
Day Job Roll:
Please also nip across to the Gameplay tavern and acquaint yourselves
Hi Redelia - that's no problem. I think as long as people lay out their characters in a way I can understand and don't mind helping me understand any unusual or unfamiliar moves clearly then I'm all for it.
Hi everyone, welcome and thanks for playing. Once everyone has their characters done we can get started but feel free to dot the gameplay thread in the meantime.
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Hi GM, my human bard here uses the Flamesinger archetype
At this level the only real significance is instead of inspire courage she adds 1d4 fire damage to allies' weapon attacks when she sings.
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Hello everyone!
Player: Mat_H
Character: Alina Vladinescu
Pathfinder Society Number: 341357-4
Faction: Dark Archive
Slow Track or Normal: Normal
Day Job Roll:
I know you mentioned you only have the CRB, and Alina is a Cartomancer Witch. At level 1 that really is no different than a vanilla witch other than the fact that her familiar is a deck of cards instead of an animal. The archetype doesn't start getting fancy til level 2 and higher.
I should also mention that I'm on the road this weekend, so until Sunday I can only get online about once a day. I'll still get posts in but won't be excessively chatty til next week.
GM, which would you feel more comfortable with?
- Anime emo tiefling magus
- Overly enthusiastic leshy bloodrager
They both sound delightful so whichever you prefer :-)
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Player: Redelia
Character: Garsita
PFS number: 184425-15
Faction: Silver Crusade
Normal Track
No day job.
The only unusual or difficult thing about Garsita is that she uses a glaive, which is a reach weapon. The only thing beyond what is in the core rulebook which you as GM should probably be aware of is the FAQ which states that reach weapons do threaten the second diagonal square, even though it's technically 15 feet not 10 feet away.
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Hey Gang!
Player: chaosorbit
Character: Tholl Sjogunsson
Pathfinder Society Number: 90071-16
Faction: Silver Crusade
Slow Track or Normal: Normal
Day Job Roll:
Will post some Skald details in a bit. Went from an 8 hour drive to the ER with my wife....so kind of a crazy day.
Looking forward to the adventure
No problem - great to have you around! A witch, Bard and an Orc. Two more to go then we’ll get started :-)
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Well my wife was convinced she had a bad kidney stone, after 4 hours in the ER, they told her it was a bad pulled muscle in her back instead. So all is well. LOL
Okay so a Skald is a barbarian/bard and from what I can see not a very popular class (and likely not that good)...so I thought I would try it, flavor-wise it fits the Ulfen Tholl's back story well.
Skald's have bardic knowledge like a bard and a worse (in general) version of inspire courage, that sort of works like barbarian rage. It's meant to inspire his allies to feats of strength and ferocity. It boosts Str/Con, but at -1 AC. The PCs can choose to use it if they do they can't use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except Acrobatics, Fly, Intimidate, and Ride) or any ability that requires patience or concentration. These restrictions do not apply to the Skald itself. So really they only boost front liners. The nice thing is unlike the barbarian’s rage ability, those affected are not fatigued after the song ends.
They also have a little bardic spell casting.
I'll try to make my posts detailed, so you know what I'm doing.
Also I've never played or run these quests so I'm looking forward to them!
Great - sure we’ll all learn from it! Just waiting for one more and then we will kick off
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Sorry for the delay!
Player Name: Hawthwile
Character Name: Angry Magic Tree
PFS #: 264524-17
Faction: Grand Lodge
Normal/Slow Track: Normal
Day Job: None
Angry Magic Tree is, much like his name suggests, an angry magical vine leshy.
Vine leshys as PCs have almost no traits left from being a plant other than not being valid targets for spells like charm person. No immunity to mind-affecting effects, no sonic resistance, nothing. Oddest things are the ability to turn into a vine and goodberry as a SLA.
A level 1 bloodrager is much like a barbarian except that they have a bloodline power like a sorcerer. Angry Magic Tree's bloodline power makes it more difficult for opponents to cast defensively near her. He also has the feat Raging Vitality to help her stay alive longer by adding more Con bonus while raging and allowing rage to continue even when unconscious.
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A bloodrager excellent -- so this will likely come into play...
If an ally has her own rage class ability (such as barbarian’s rage, bloodrager’s bloodrage, or skald’s inspired rage), she may use the Strength, Constitution, and Will saving throw bonuses, as well as AC penalties, based on her own ability and level instead of those from the skald (still suffering no fatigue afterward). However, inspired rage does not allow the ally to activate abilities dependent on other rage class abilities, such as rage powers, blood casting, or bloodrager bloodlines; the ally must activate her own rage class ability in order to use these features.
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Excellent. So if Angry Magic Tree uses Tholl's Inspired Rage to avoid the fatigue afterwards and not use up his own rounds of rage, her Disruptive Bloodrage won't be activated and casters near him will not suffer a -2 penalty to their concentration checks.
Question though: I think it would be relatively painless to switch from using Tholl's Inspired Rage to Angry Magic Tree's Bloodrage (as characters make the choice each round whether they want to accept the Inspired Rage), but I don't know if switching from Bloodrage to Inspired Rage would be as easy.
Thanks all. Will kick this off later this evening. Just to let you know:
1. I’m on UK GMT time.
2. This is only my second time GM’ing so please to let me know if you think I’ve missed anything. Similarly, please I’ve as much detail as you think is needed to help me understand your actions. I’m bidding on a copy of Advanced Player Guide on eBay so hope to have that soon!
3. Have fun! If you think there is anything in your characters backstory you want me to be aware of, let me know
D
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@Angry Magic Tree - right so you could use your rage bonuses (better I think) while using Inspired Rage and I presume non-activated abilities, and not suffer from fatigue. So I guess on a case by case see what makes sense. Not sure about switching between the two...I think if you drop out of Bloodrage you still suffer from fatigue.
@GM Darren -- since your in the UK do you follow football (world not American) and if so who do you support?
I'm an Aston Villa fan and am fortunate enough to work in football aswell :-)
Apologies - should be fixed now. let me know if not working
Hi - I initally rolled a saving throw and it rolled a natural 20 anyway but then I checked the rules. I'm not sure where it says it isn't mind-effecting - let me know. I'm basing it on this
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/witch/hexes/hexes/common-hexe s/hex-misfortune-su/
Happy to be corrected and would come in useful - this is a tough first fight...
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I'm happy to be corrected, but hexes like Evil Eye clearly state they are mind-affecting effects. Misfortune is lacking that text.
My spouse plays a mean witch and always gets mad when we find constructs because all she can do against them is Misfortune.
Thanks guys and girls Alina - I will let you roll it again next round if you want to call it a GM Folly bonus.
Also, couple of other things/questions- do you want me to be strict on withdrawing weapons as standard actions or assume you are always holding them? Secondly, I assume you are tracking your own HP - let me known if otherwise
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No worries - there's a reason for all the jokes about how you never really master the Grapple rules!
As I understand it, since Angry Magic Tree doesn't use Dex to hit with her dagger she only takes the -2 AB penalty to her attack roll. The scorpion, meanwhile, is taking a -4 penalty to its Dex from grappling (don't ask me why a tiny plant makes it hard for a giant scorpion to move), which equates to a -2 penalty to its AC. In effect, the AB penalty is cancelled out by the AC penalty as long as the two are attacking each other.
If Angry Magic Tree were using Dex to hit, he would take a -2 AB penalty for being grappled plus an additional -2 AB penalty for having his Dex lowered for a total of -4 to hit. I'm not certain if such an opponent exists, but one that doesn't use Dex for AC could potentially not take the AC penalty for grappling as well.
And for extra funsies, there are many creatures that can grapple an opponent without being grappled themselves. Thankfully, they will explicitly state that. Otherwise, any creature can attempt to grapple an opponent without gaining the grappled condition themselves by taking a -20 penalty on the Maneuver check.
tl;dr - Grapple penalties usually cancel each other out between grappler and grapplee.
Okay so if the scorpion is now grappling Tholl, I need to apply a -4 penalty to AC? I can't see that in the CRB?
Also, it's not clear from me from the Stat block for the scorpion whether I should be attacking once with each claw? or is that only a full round action?
How I graduated from GM school I'll never know...!
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Sorry, I didn't make that very clear. Short answer, no.
So if the scorpion is holding AMT in a claw, it is grappling. This gives it a -4 penalty to Dex, which translates to a -2 AC. No other AC penalties happen.
As to the second question - if the monster has stats like so...
2 claw +5 (1d6+1), bite +4 (1d4+1)
...that means that if it can make a full-round attack, it can use all the listed attacks (much like a PC with iterative attacks).
If the monster has stats like this instead...
2 claw +5 (1d6+1) or bite +4 (1d4+1)
...that means it can pick one side of the "or" and do all the attacks on that side.
Now, it gets a little trickier. If the scorpion is grappling AMT in one claw, it can do a few things:
1. Maintain the grapple on AMT (dealing damage, repositioning, or pinning) and attack with the other claw.
2. Release the grapple (free action) and attack with both claws.
Clear as mud?
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Helpful suggestion, it's often helpful to place a Status section at the bottom of your GM posts, it helps both the GM and players keep track of where the action is and who's up.
I use something like this:
Round 1
AMT
Alina
Tholl
Garsita
Scorpion
Aylanna
Aayef
I'll bold whose up, typically allow the rounds to roll, to keep things moving. So like right now in this game I would do this.
Round 2
Aylanna
Aayef
Round 3
AMT
Alina
Tholl grappled
Garsita
Scorpion
You can also note conditions or other info you don't want to forget or don't want the players to forget.
Another options I've seen just puts it on one line.
Totally up to you, but it's really helpful.
Great suggestions! Thanks! Re the -4 to Dex when grappling - can you point me to the page on the CRB as I can’t fine it and it’s driving me potty
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I can see exactly why I passed you from GM school. You care about getting the rules right, even if you don't know exactly what they are, and you are being honest and careful about dealing with anything you don't know. ;Q
I agree 100%. A good GM knows what they know, what they don't know, and is open to discussion on things they are unsure of. With a game as complex as Pathfinder with so many rulebooks there isn't a GM out there who knows ALL the rules off the top of their head. Just the fact that you are willing to take the time to get it right means you're on your way to being a great GM.
No problem - hope you feel better soon!
Cousin it is! Will post tomorrow (GMT)you fine Pathfinders