If anyone is wondering, we are getting close to the end-game in terms of module content~ :)
It seems as though you're kind of split on the matter of whether to attempt to fiddle with the orrery now or try to repower the pools first to see if you can learn more information. I'll wait a bit longer for Adyr and Luurg to weigh in and then we'll roll with whichever option has the most support.
^Adjusted Luurg's HP to account for the negated critical~
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Please don't take this as rules lawyery, its not intended to be, just some questions since grappling sucks!
Maybe you accounted for this, but does the grappler also get the dex penalty? And if so did you account for it on the reflex save vs the flaming sphere?
Also (not that it matters to that roll) I don't think they get the +5 to maintain a grapple if you try to escape. Its likely though that Luurg will realize he's better off stabbing than trying to get out at this point.
Grappled: A grappled creature is restrained by a creature, trap, or effect. Grappled creatures cannot move and take a –4 penalty to Dexterity. A grappled creature takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls and combat maneuver checks, except those made to grapple or escape a grapple. In addition, grappled creatures can take no action that requires two hands to perform. A grappled character who attempts to cast a spell or use a spell-like ability must make a concentration check (DC 10 + grappler’s CMB + spell level, see Concentration), or lose the spell. Grappled creatures cannot make attacks of opportunity.
A grappled creature cannot use Stealth to hide from the creature grappling it, even if a special ability, such as hide in plain sight, would normally allow it to do so. If a grappled creature becomes invisible, through a spell or other ability, it gains a +2 circumstance bonus on its CMD to avoid being grappled, but receives no other benefit.
When grappling comes up I use the flowcharts here which indicates that if you are successful at grappling you gain a +5 bonus to maintain the grapple on your next check.
I did not take the grappled condition into account for the Reflex save so I will adjust the damage taken by the creature.
*edit* Gameplay posted adjust to account for the extra fire damage.
Sure, you can hop up on it since it's just a random map I snagged off the internet :)
Also no worries @Luurg or anyone else. If I occasionally sound terse when answering questions it will sometimes be because I'm having to answer in a hurry (busy) and other times...well, yes, I'll admit that it can be frustrating to have mistakes pointed out. After all, I'm only human.
But I'll also never improve as a GM if I'm not pushed from time to time and I'd much prefer everyone feel comfortable enough to speak up if something seems unclear or wonky rather than stay quiet just to avoid damaging my ego/pride or whatever.
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The grappler gets the usual bonus to maintain the grapple, but you don't suffer a penalty on your combat maneuver check to escape it.
I'm not aware of anything that contradicts that, but it's possible I've missed something in my understanding and experience.
Oh ok. I was under the impression they got the +5 bonus basically as a penalty for you not even trying to escape and attacking them instead. I was wrong, sorry. Guess I'll be trying to escape a grapple even less frequently now, unless is with a character with a great escape artist.
Thanks for the info!
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Grapple builds are strong, once you control the grapple. You get the +5 bonus when in control.
Problem is, most enemies who can grapple have high CMB, get free grapple checks off of their regular attacks (while grappler PCs have to sacrifice their attack actions on a grapple) and the monsters have high CMDs.
Morale of the story: Grease is your friend. I'll have to add that spell, later on.
Hey guys, I'm headed off to AVL Scarefest tomorrow and won't be back until Monday. While my time isn't booked solid I have no idea what the internet situation will be so my posting here may be slow or nonexistent until I return.
(I wanted to try and make one round of updates tonight but noooooo, internet is not being cooperative and my patience is limited.)
I will say that you guys are getting into the home stretch for the adventure so hopefully we'll be able to wrap things up soonish :)
I'm back from beautiful Montreat, NC!
(Technically I got back late Sunday night but spent the majority of yesterday wrenching my sleep schedule back around and visiting with some family who were in from California.)
Had a great time at the convention, though!
Tsamara, my catfolk oracle, got to investigate a temple in Tian Xia that had gone silent. (PFS1 - Shrine of the Sacred Tempest)
Corona got to investigate a spooky haunted house and gained a level and possibly some PTSD for her efforts. (PFS1 - Rise of the Runelords: The Skinsaw Murders)
Poffis, my gnome leaf druid, helped charter a new trade route and then aided in the recovery of a stolen statue. (PFS2 - Trailblazer's Bounty & PFS2 - #1Q2 Unforgiving Flame)
And Pregen Kyra got to join Ezren, Merisiel, and Valeros in unearthing further information about the origins of the Pathfinder Society. (PFS2 - Origin of the Open Road)
I also got to play a bear participating in a honey heist at the convention and as a traveler stuck at a remote Idaho rest stop in a snowstorm. There may or may not have been snow demons involved.
Skinsaw Murders *is* the 2nd Book for Rise of the Runelords AP but when an AP gets sanctioned for Pathfinder Society play they only sanction certain parts of it for precisely that reason. Instead of taking days to play through it ends up being shortened down into something that's more the length of a module and thus a little more doable within one long convention session.
To give you an idea, the Sunday afternoon/evening slot ran from 1:30 to 7:30 and nearly all of the Pathfinder offerings were actual modules rather than scenarios. I'd originally wanted to play Carrion Hill but it didn't have enough players signed up :(
By the way, once we finish up this module it'll be someone else's turn to pick something that they'd like for me to run for them - whether as an applicable League scenario or as a standalone scenario/module for a different character! PF2 content is also on the table now as well.
Larry and Massee (Luurg) have already had the chance to select something, so that leaves chadius (Sheela), Eric (Wadi), Jan/Adyr, and GM Red (Tiffany) left to go...
Tiffany/GM Red! There's no rush but be thinking about something that you might like for me to GM for you in the relatively-near-future. Or if you'd prefer to take an IOU and come back to it later on, we can do that and I'll select someone else in the meantime :)
^Actually, on second thought, I'm making this too complicated. Instead of rolling each time I'll just say that you've all basically got an 'IOU a game' from me (separate from the League table) and we can figure out the details and timing as people feel up to it. They don't necessarily have to be scenarios/modules that everyone here is eligible to play, either. So pick what you want and folks here will have first choice of spots if they're able and wish to play; otherwise there are plenty of other great players out there that I can hit up to fill a group.
Doing it this way should hopefully be easier for everyone and there's no pressure to worry about it RIGHT NOW since I know we're coming up on the holidays and at least a couple of you are wanting to keep your plates light.
Sooooo, it sounds like most of the group is rarin' to press on (or are at least neutral about it) right now with just McKieg and Tiffany feeling a little apprehensive about available resources, yes? I'll give you guys a little longer to hash it out before I move you on one way or the other.
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No problem pressing on, so long as the characters who wish to do so are prepared to take on a greater share of the burden in combat, if it comes to that.
McKieg may have missed something that's giving the rest of the team a sense that there's a downside to resting and recovering abilities, spells, etc.
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I think the only real downside to spending extra time on the island was the fact that we seemed to be changing into skum ourselves.
However, Luurg is pretty strong in his physical constitution and would rather go in with everyone at full power than worry about trying to explain why he's got gills to everyone back at the Grand Lodge Bar n Grill.
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Seeing how at least a couple of us need to rest, and we all made our saves, why don't we rest and make the final push in the morning! Perhaps we'll get off the island without any additional risk. I don't want people to need to play gimped, nor risk our chance of success.
Time to pitch a hammock on this rock!
Okay then! I'm working my way around to my games so when I get to this one it sounds like we're good to advance to the next morning after you guys have rested :)
Happy Thanksgiving and/or Happy Thursday! I hope you all have a grand day no matter what you do or who you spend it with :)
No worries; the summoned creatures will appear on Round 4 so for Round 3 you can smear the salve on yourself and then use your wand on Round 4 :)
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I'm looking forward to this fight! The fights have been pretty tough so far, will this one continue that trend or no?
Will the fishy god like fire attacks?
Will he have weird SLAs to destroy the weak willed adventurers?
What tricks does Gerlach have up his wet sleeves?
Are you going to eat that?
Stay tuned!
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Hey folks, current Gameplay is getting into some interesting mechanical territory that is both pretty new to me but also doesn't seem to have a lot of concrete answers regarding some of the rules interactions. As a result, I'm going to simply make my best guess/judgement on a few things:
Do ongoing 'friendly' buffs such as Inspire Courage or Bless still apply to Tiffany in her current state?
Yes, but any further beneficial area effect buffs will not as she's technically considered to be a hostile in her current state.
Will summoned creatures stay on their original targets?
Yes. I'm going to say that summoned creatures that are already on the board will continue trying to carry out their original orders for as long as possible, especially something like a crocodile that only has animal intelligence to start with.
Can McKieg's slippery state help him with the net?
Nothing in the item entry about the Salve of Slipperiness references entanglement or entanglement effects, only grappling effects such as Web. That said...it seems kind of silly to me that it wouldn't help *at all* so I'll allow it to grant a +10 on Escape Artist checks for McKieg to get out of the net, which is half of the bonus it'd give on Escape Artist vs. grapple stuff.
Hopefully all of the above makes sense but I'm happy to hear other thoughts if anyone knows something that I don't or missed.
Hey folks! With Christmas almost here I'm sure all or most of us will be pretty busy this coming week. While I'm not going to put us on official pause - since we're almost done with the module - please do not stress about posting this week. I'll be around (since I somehow got stuck working nights for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day) and will update/respond to posts as needed but in general I'm not going to stress too much about games this week either.
In other news, if you haven't heard about our newest upcoming con - PlayDis Con 2020 - then you should check out the announcement for it here! It'll be run entirely on the Discord chat client but otherwise the games will function much as PbP games do. I won't be GMing any games for this one but I will probably sign up to play at least one, as the PbDiscord format is one that I've not tried before.
(That said, I know that chat clients are non-starters for some folks for various reasons so if that doesn't sound like your jam we will also be doing OutPost this upcoming year as well, a bit later on.)
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Well folks, aside from some wrap-up RP we're basically done with the module - and it only took nearly a full calendar year to do it! Huzzah!
As always, thank you to everyone for playing and for your patience with my posting during those times where life and/or mental health got in the way. I hope that everyone enjoyed themselves; I know things got pretty exploration/dungeon-crawl mode in the latter half of the module and that that isn't necessarily everyone's cup of tea. Hopefully I was able to still make those sections interesting but as always, I'm open to suggestions or constructive criticism any of you may have on how to improve for the future.
This was my first-ever go at running a module and I feel that I learned quite a bit. As much as I enjoyed this for the Lovecraft-factor, I do think the next module I try running will be one that has its RP spread a bit more evenly throughout and/or is more urban-focused. I also discovered that running a good, consistent module experience is definitely much more work than just running scenarios, so I tip my hat to those of you who have GMed such for me in the past or are GMing for me now.
In keeping with my desire to limit my games I probably will not be running another module for a while but when the time feels right and I get that itch again, you guys will be the first to know :)