Please be certain to have your profile updated by March 4th (a week before the official start of the game...)
And in the meantime, please provide the following information:
Player Name (as you would like it to appear on your chronicle)
Character Name
Character Number
Faction
Day Job
Any special tricks and or shenanigans that I should be aware of?
(Trapspotting, Misfortune revelation, etc)
Hey Mythryndyr, nice to see you back at my table. Welcome.
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Just to keep this filled out:
Player Name: dinketry
Character Name: Craggark
PFS #: 30475-20
Faction: The Exchange
Day Job: I have a faction reward, but I also have Craft: Scuplture at a +5. I'll make a decision at the end of the scenario as to which I use.
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Hi everyone! Looking forward to playing with all of you. Katswiri is currently finishing up The Cosmic Captive as part of Retrocon.
Player Name: Geoffrey
Character Name: Katswiri
PFS ID #: 228480-1
Faction: Scarab Sages
Day Job: Craft:Painting +11
Katswiri is a Lore Oracle, and her most stand out ability is to more or less automatically succeed at three out of combat Int based skill checks each day using her Focused Trance ability. She spends standard actions for 1d6 rounds (which usually precludes combat use), then gets to make a check with a +20 circumstance bonus. Her natural divination ability also usually is used to get two skill checks with a +10 competence bonus, for helping to guarantee a few important non-int skill checks. She can also effectively cast Augury 1/day with a 1 minute cast time if we need guidance on how to proceed. I usually flavor all these abilities as either omens or visions of the past or future, as Katswiri is a seer.
In addition to her limited use abilities, she can act as a face with a good diplomacy and reasonable bluff check, and is trained in every int based skill, so can handle a lot of skill checks even once her limited use abilities run out.
In combat, she's less exciting, mostly acting as support with buffing and healing. She's got a -6 initiative modifier, so is almost always last, and is carrying a medium load and medium armor so isn't very mobile. She usually casts sound burst or heals people depending on the situation, though can also do mediocre melee damage with her mace. She gets CHA to AC and Reflex saves in place of dex, so does have a pretty good AC though.
Katswiri has the deaf oracle curse, so she cannot hear. Mechanically, deafness:
--Causes her to automatically fail all perception checks based on sound
--Gives her a -4 penalty to initiative checks.
--Gives her a -4 penalty to opposed perception checks
--Makes her immune to language dependent spells and abilities, audible bardic performances, and some specific spells or situations (like the stun on sound burst)
--Would give her a 20% spell failure chance for casting spells with verbal components, but her curse gives her the silent spell metamagic on all her spells for free with no level or cast time increase.
To help understand the people around her, she took read lips as a language with linguistics as noted in the PFS faq: http://paizo.com/organizedplay/faq#v5748eaic9vhs
More recently, she has purchased magical Spectacles of Lip Reading, which have made it much easier for her to understand those around her without needing ideal conditions (she just needs to pass a DC 0 perception check, modified by distance and conditions as appropriate to understand someone as long as she speaks the language they are using). Most of the time, lip reading is sufficient to allow her to function pretty well, but occasionally events will require some help with someone repeating information or explaining things, like when she runs into intelligent talking objects or there are loud noises out of sight that need to be responded to.
Katswiri is a painter, and keeps a visual journal of her adventures. If she has the opportunity, she will paint pictures of various important events or interesting people/scenery/objects that occur during the mission. Its mostly fluff, but it's fun, and its how she does her reporting for the society.
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Player Name: Aldizog
Character Name: Aroden Reincarnated
Character Number: 108731-7
Faction: Scarab Sages
Day Job:
This wizard has a lot of memories in his head, and he isn't sure how they all got there. Maybe he is partially possessed by a Vestige. Maybe he is the result of some experiment by the Aboleths or other entities. Maybe he is the reincarnation of a High Priest of Aroden... or of the Last Azlanti himself.
In any event, he carries a longsword as Aroden did, he's reasonably strong and charming (no 7-Str 7-Cha wizard here), and one of his usual tactics is the Divine Fighting Technique feat for Iomedae's Aroden's Inspiring Sword. Is he nuts? Maybe. But he can still inspire all of his allies, at will, with a +2 sacred bonus to attacks, saves, and skill checks. It's a pretty nice fall-back option when he doesn't want to cast a spell.
Many of his spells are utility problem-solving options, though he'll keep a few "big gun" spells and use his Potent Magic exploit for them. A 7-die Fireball, for example. He will be very good against enemy casters, with CL8-10 Dispel Magic and Prescience to hopefully get a good pre-roll. He has excellent Knowledge skills, though not as good as Katswiri's Focused Trance.
He'll definitely make some purchases before we start, and can prep spells according to the party and the mission.
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Character Name: Otha
Player Name: Mythryndyr
PFS #: 239913-2
Faction: Liberty's Edge
Track: normal
Day Job: none
Primarily ranged, scout, stealth/trap support (but I do not have trapfinding so magic traps are out of my league)...
Hey GM Uktar, glad to be back at your table! Looking forward to it!
Good to journey with you again Craggark...and Jamir as well...the gang is back together again!
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Craggark! Mythryndyr! This is very exciting! Aroden Re, nice to play with you again as well (last time, I was playing Garduk the Unteachable). Katswiri, I don't think we've played together before, but it's nice to meet you. And thanks for having us at your table, GM Uktar!
Player Name: Tusk the Half-Orc
Character Name: Jamir "Hamstring" Montajay
Class and Level: Swashbuckler (Mouser) 4
PFS #: 199504-5
Faction: Liberty's Edge
Advancement Track: Normal
Day Job Roll:
Profile and tagline are updated, but I will definitely need to make some purchases before we start.
Jamir is very good at stabbing things. He does not enjoy fighting things that cannot be stabbed. He uses his Swashbuckler Deeds regularly, modified by a few tricks from the Mouser archetype:
While the mouser is within her foe’s space, the foe takes a –4 penalty on all attack rolls and combat maneuver checks not made against the mouser, and all of the mouser’s allies that are adjacent to both the foe and the mouser are considered to be flanking the foe. The mouser is considered to be flanking the foe whose space she is within if she is adjacent to an ally who is also adjacent to the foe. The mouser can move within her foe’s space and leave the foe’s space unhindered and without provoking attacks of opportunity, but if the foe attempts to move to a position where the mouser is no longer in its space, the movement provokes an attack of opportunity from the mouser. This deed replaces opportune parry and riposte.
Jamir has two boons that may be relevant in any given adventure as well.
Mantle of the Black Rider (Assuming the Mantle) [Snows of Summer, Reign of Winter AP 1]: You have accepted the Mantle of the Black Rider, which grants you considerable power in your quest to find Baba Yaga so long as you continue your quest. Choose one ability score [CHA]. Once per day as a swift action you may gain a +1 bonus to that ability score for 1 minute. For every additional Mantle of the Black Rider boon that you have for this character, the bonus increases by +1. You may not benefit from more than one Mantle of the Black Rider boon at a time. [Note: this effectively gives him an extra panache point 1/day]
Snowmask Induction [PSS 2-19]: You allied with the Snowmask Clan and returned Jedrek's Shard to its place of honor beside Ranulf's body. In thanks, you are ritually inducted into the Snowmask Clan with the title Snowmask Brother or Snowmask Sister. As part of this mystic ceremony, you gain the permanent benefits of endure elements but only in cold and only to temperatures of 0 degrees F and above; you gain no bonuses in extreme heat. This is a supernatural ability. [Effective immunity to cold environments]
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Alright alright! Rounding the team out at the bottom end of the range ("I'm almost level 3...") is Craggark of the Miusunnit. A frostborn half-orc of Erutaki origin, Craggark travels as a part-time Pathfinder agent and part-time sales representative for his Erutaki people as he strives to spread the gospel of ice pepper mania to the peoples of Avistan and Garund. He's much better at the former than the latter.
Craggark is a brawler and enjoys using his newly-purchased fancy shield (+1 blackwood heavy wooden shield) as part of his attacks (he'll need to purchase this just prior to this scenario). He's surprisingly charismatic for a rough-faced orc, and uses this to good effect in both his business dealings as well as his combat actions (i.e. intimidation). He's learned a few dirty tricks along the way in his brawling that he's happy to occasionally use.
Craggark shares the 'Snowmask Induction' boon with Jamir. Additionally, he has killed a dragon before so carries the 'Dragonkiller' boon as well. Lastly, he has the 'Back to the Grave' boon.
Still plenty of time to get things sorted out, but for those who are ready, (i.e. profile's good to go, and not going to playing PC before Outpost II starts in a couple weeks), feel free to
Click Here
and complete your init, perception and sense motive macros.
Also place yourself in rough estimation for marching order (I'll be using it as guidance for placement at the start of encounters, depending upon situation.)
Thanks
Now set that anyone with link can edit. (Sorry about that--thank for requesting, Katswiri. Totally forgot to open permissions.)
Gameplay thread is open to character introductions. Official start this upcoming Monday.
Robyyn: You can take ten on those Spellcraft checks, so you'll autosucceed.
You can NOT take 20, because there is a cost for failure, but Robyyn and Ayril can find a nice quiet private place to conduct your little ritual, so take ten is an option (i.e. no distractions nor imminent threat)
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Many GMs are unreasonably hostile to Take 10 in my experience, which tends to discourage players from even asking. And while I think there is some GM leeway, I am glad Uktar is being reasonable.
As I tend to say, you Take 10 when you tie your shoes. You can do it routinely with little effort and basically never fail. It does not mean trying 10 times until you get it right (so many GMs think that...). But, if somebody were shooting at you, you might mess it up.
I've encountered it myself, including how you can't take 20 to disable device to open a lock, nor take 20 to use perception to look for a trap, even though the section in the CRB specifically mentions both.
I get the notion that it can potentially take the fun out of rolling dice, having the potential to fail, yadayada. But PFS=RAW.
And more players _should_ take ten when the situation warrants. (And not abuse taking 20...while you can search for traps this way, it is very slooooow going, at least 2 minutes per 5'. But if you find the one secret whatsit in the middle of a thieves guild, it makes sense to take 20. TWICE.)
There is too much bad word of mouth/not liking the rules and making houserule (which is NOT supposed to happen in PFS).
Ooops, who put this soapbox under my feet?
No worries, Craggark. And congratulations!!!!
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Every game I've ever played, tabletop or PbP, speaking has been a free action that anyone can do at any time.
In general, speaking is a free action that you can perform even when it isn't your turn. Speaking more than a few sentences is generally beyond the limit of a free action.
Knowledge itself doesn't use up an action (representing what the character already knows).
Action: Usually none. In most cases, a Knowledge check doesn’t take an action (but see "Untrained," below).
Is there something I missed in the rules that prevents a character from sharing the results of their Knowledge check in this way? I'm happy to adjust if there is, I've just never seen it. Thanks!
PS - sorry for moving the tokens; I won't do that again.
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I think you have to see the thing that you're referencing in order to do a Knowledge check on it, Robyyn. You're not in visual sight of the foes.
Also, I agree with Jamir - initiative at the top of a round is for a reason. It indicates how quickly you react to a threat, either by acting or reasoning about it.
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Agreed about line of sight. At the time I posted, I had (erroneously) moved tokens and Robyyn had line of sight. (We weren't in initiative between rooms, so I figured we'd all followed. I understand that I was wrong about that.)
In general, though, (if you do have line of sight) I think that with Knowledge not requiring an action, and speaking being allowed outside of your turn, it's possible to yell "Hey, that's a blurgh and it breathes feathers!" as soon as you've rolled the dice. Literally every Pathfinder game I've played has done it that way, and I think the rules support it.
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Ultimately, it’s for our GM to decide, right?
At a home table, for sure. In PFS, though, there's supposed to be as little table variation as possible, by follow RAW.
(Note: it doesn't affect this combat, as I made other errors in that post that made the knowledge check impossible at the time I made it. Any further discussion on this is purely academic. Also note: I'm not trying to be contrary, just trying to clear up my actions; I'll be changing my behaviour in all games if someone can show me a rules reference or FAQ that addresses this.)
Can anyone identify any RAW that states Knowledge checks can only be performed on a PCs turn in combat?
I'll be honest, this has never come up for me in 6+ years of playing pathfinder. Not locally, online nor at cons. It's pretty much been the standard I've always played with.
Taking the time to consider it, I'd fold this under you're flatfooted and can't take any actions until it's your initiative.
A character who has not yet acted during a combat is flat-footed, unable to react normally to the situation.
So, if anyone has special abilities that they're not flatfooted at the start of combat, they can make their knowledge checks at any time. And if something pops up while in combat, knowledge check can happen any time.
Make sense?
Indeed, it was misfortuned, and had to roll twice taking the worse of the 2 attacks...which was the 12 on the die, which was good enough to hit. I usually do not add modifiers to attacks and saves when I roll, just showing the raw die roll.
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Going to take the OOC discussion here to the discussion thread.
Yeah, I suppose I could have edited that down a little. I sometimes have a tendency to run wordy on the talking in combat.
I think you might be right about not breaking Craggark's hands, but it would be pretty dangerous to test. If he does take damage, he'll basically shatter them on impact; if the Shatter Weapons ability does enough damage to potentially breach the hardness on anything short of adamantine, its maxing out in the between 15 and 19 damage range.
If his hands don't take damage, that might work out but I'm worried about hardness. None of us IDed their damage reduction or lack thereof, but constructs very often have it, and these are made of stone. They could easily have weaker DR than the hardness on actual stone (especially if there is some magic messing with them like we IDed on the shattered examples in the previous room), but we're going to have problems if it turns out they have DR 8/adamantine or something.
Regardless, Katswiri is probably going to have issues contributing other than by healing or taking total defense actions and blocking the path. Anyone have any thoughts on what tactics we might want to employ for the fight?
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Well, Craggark could flex into Dedicated Adversary (Construct) for another +2 to hit and damage to help overcome DR or hardness.
Ranged weapons are a good option as you said.
Some of our basic weapons are expendable - for example, Robyyn carries a club that Craggark could use. And Jamir has a club. We could also see if there are any intact weapons in the previous room, or broken-but-usable ones.
Alchemical items also work, and bypass DR (though not hardness).
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Katswiri does have two vials of Alchemist's fire. If it has DR and not hardness, that could help. Her morning star is fairly expendable, since she doesn't usually use it much and its non-magical so does not really cost a lot. I'm not sure she can do much damage to it though.
EDIT: We do have three weapons, actually; the masterwork longswords from the skeletal warriors. They should still be stacked in the other room if we need them.
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Craggark would not think that his fists wouldn’t break against these statues that chipped other weapons.
Craggark is not attacking it. He is 2nd level and just took more than 1/2 his HP in one attack. Also, I’d like to play my character without other people yelling out feats for me to take.
Thanks. I know y’all are trying to be helpful.