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Even so, in the second undead encounter, Flyn got the stuffing knocked out of him in just two rounds...if I hadn’t been fortunate enough to take out both undead archers before either could get off a second attack, they would’ve taken me out. And then, as the second phoenix showed, Flyn was like the abominable snow monster in Rudolph; he’s nothing without his bow. Flyn’s had a couple of very close calls at the mid to higher levels where he was only a hit away from death...
As for most fights lasting only a few rounds, that seems more realistic to me, particularly at higher levels. I remember watching the old Gunfight at the OK Corral movie as a kid and I loved it; the namesake gunfight in the movie had lots of action and lasted about 15 minutes. The actual historical gunfight lasted just around 10 seconds. In a more modern western, Appaloosa, the sheriff and deputy get into a gunfight with 4 villains; it lasted about 6 or 7 seconds with everyone either dead or wounded, ‘cept for one who ran away. The wounded deputy lying next to the badly wounded sheriff said, ”Damn, that was fast,” to which the sheriff replied, ”That’s because everyone could shoot...” That’s kinda how I see fighting at higher levels in PFS...
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There's just not a lot of reason to hard counter PCs.
Well, it's funny. I'm very pro-player's rights, but when I GM, I'm amazed at how I quickly feel a need to offer some resistance when I encounter players taking too many liberties, or throw out interpretations that trivialize encounters. And as a GM, I kind of feel an obligation to keep abilities/feats, etc, true to what is written, for the sake of the other players. But, at least for me, it's not black and white. In this game, I felt like you navigated that easily.
Well built ones have so many more paper options to counter NPC rocks while NPCs just don't have enough scissors to matter.
Hmm. I guess I haven't felt that way from 1-6 as a GM. In truth, I think it's pretty easy to kill players as a GM, (though I haven't) and the scenario frequently have to dumb down the opponents with either sub-optimal tactics or limited abilities. IME, I think most PFS GMs do some softballing at lower levels (which I think is necessary in this environment).
So many of the encounters in this one just didn't have the mobility, skills, or abilities to do anything special.
Well, I felt like they did, but you know....Flynn + Haste + Bard+ ManyShot ...lol. And if somehow they survived Flynn...Aericus and Laara were too much. It's hard to do much when you're dead after two rounds. This is why PF2 nerfed a lot of stuff.
If the dice had favored the unraveling undead more, it might have been closer, but saves at this level tend to be academic. (Laara's Fort and Will being the exception. ;)
For some. :) I've noticed that Will saves are always dangerous for Martials. It's caster that laugh off all that save or suck stuff.
Being able to play with a creature that had the stats and abilities to effect the battlefield was the only reason the second phoenix was at all interesting.
And that's what I enjoyed the most. IMO, it's unfortunate that Paizo's method for ramping up mission difficulty is to add hit points and higher DCs. Facing better tactics is, imo, provides for a better experience. I thought disarming Flynn was brilliant, but is such a rare occurrence IME, that it felt meta-gamed. I also loved the cat-and-mouse. Carving up the battle field and cutting us off from the bard was also brilliantly done. I think the combats would be more fun if the NPCs were less deadly, but more crafty.
There's no real guidance on how to handle PCs targeting squares based on other PCs spotting, so I could have been much harder about Flyn and Ajax shooting blindly based on Ammen and Aericus' instructions. The call lightning spell was probably the best tool you had for accurate targeting through the walls.
I thought you were very fair with this (but maybe I'm not objective in this case). This is one of the problems with PF1 and PFS' play-as-written. PFS kind of makes the GM put on blinders.
A perfect example is one I encounter a lot. With Shield Companion, some people interpret it such that if either subject moves out of range, the spell expires. Outside of combat, Ara and Ajax move together...no problem. In combat, we have to move one at a time, and some GMs insist that the spell is broken, even if I intend to move with her. And that makes no sense. If the two of us can move together outside of combat to maintain the spell, then it should be allowed in combat so long as we both end up in range at the end of each round. But, the combat movement rules make it impossible for two people tied together with a 10' rope to double move together. I think PF2 tries to alleviate some of this by giving more judgment calls to Gms.
I hope to be able to try out 2E and see if the band of effective characters is less wide ranging as 1E. It may bring back a lot more joy in running for strangers if so.
I am too. But it's a double-edged sword. Despite the "crushing victory" it's fun to see people's builds at this level, doing what what they are good at. As you level up in PF1, your character really feels like it's capable. Even for my Ranger, I feel like my character agency is great. It's fun to have lots of options.. PF2 has dramatically reduced that scope. The upside is there's less infringement. I'll have to play it to see what/how I feel about it. But on paper, it feel so limiting.
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For some. :) I've noticed that Will saves are always dangerous for Martials. It's caster that laugh off all that save or suck stuff.
Yeah, that's one of the reasons why I ended up mulit-classing Flyn into Zen Archer; I could keep ranger the primary emphasis but draw on some good ranged bonuses and staying true to an Archery build while substantially increasing his saves, primarily Will but Fortitude increased a bit as well....
PF2 has dramatically reduced that scope.
I only played during the Playtest, but we got our asses kicked by kobolds. One character nearly died, my ranger was knocked out, and several others were close...and it was kobolds for Pete's sake. Ultimately, I think PF1 will fade away...I hope it takes a couple of years before it does so but I fear it'll be earlier and then I guess I'll have to decide on either PF2 or 5e...
Enough of that though. Want to say again how much I enjoyed playing with this group. Laara and Aericus with their daring charges against some pretty scary foes, Ammensura's and Deno'thar's casting, knowledge, and awesome support, Ajax giving Flyn some new ideas on archery, and some excellent GM'ing by TOZ. Thank you all for a great time!
Glad to hear that everyone had fun with it all. I passed out before the overseer announcement last night, so chronicles will be up soon. I learned a few new tricks myself, especially that Spiritual Guardian exists!
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Really just echoing what everyone already said, but I want to really thank you again TOZ for running this with us. You kept a quick pace but we’re enhancing and fair and I had a blast.
Also really fun playing alongside all of you and your characters. Especially at high levels it’s always great to see fun high level character builds and I think the six of us meshed fairly well together
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Many thanks for the game all, we worked together well. High level games are almost defined by how well you support each other and share the use of buffs. I have seen games go very badly when people forget that idea and run around as individuals just doing their own thing.
Many thanks to Toz for running it really well and keeping us well paced and getting through loads. Hopefully my dazing shenannigans were not too bad. I try not to make too much use of it because it is a stupidly powerful feat and I try to keep it to single target stuff.
I just appreciate that the fight reached 5 rounds. We don't normally see that happen. :)
I also appreciate there being no dazing chain lightnings. ;) I'm thinking my witch will be needing that as we get into the endgame of Rise of the Runelords.
After immolating a whole squad of goblins trapped in a hedge maze, burning sands is apparently mine's signature spell.
Edit: to add, Deno's gas tank is running sort of empty (and was last time too) [ Spells L1-1/7, L2-0/5, L3-0/4 | Bardic Performance 7/23 ].
You know, at the end of Siege of Gallowspire Champion, my paladin was pretty spent as well. We beat the ritual room then went back to try and take on the relic path. Damage was pitiful, we were getting fairly wrecked and ended up backing off and just waiting for time.
Rather than worry about marking off the boons, I left it clear for you all to cross off the companions you didn't choose. Let me know if there are any errors.
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I just appreciate that the fight reached 5 rounds. We don't normally see that happen. :)
If that bloody bird hadn't carried away Flyn's bloody bow it might not've reached 5 rounds. ;) Taught me a good lesson though; as I felt useless and had a hard time coming up with anything constructive to do either for the party or on my own, I discovered how complacent and dependent Flyn was on his bow. His first purchase after this will be a good backup bow as I figure higher/seeker level foes might do the same tactic in the future...
I think the biggest key to the final encounter though was the communal fire resistance Ammensura cast at the start and that Ajax could cast when the Phoenixes dispelled it...with all the firewalls, firestorm, and proximity fire emanating from the Phoenix, we could move around pretty freely and I highly doubt we do anywhere near as well without it...
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Thanks, GM, my chronicle looks good!
My first time playing in one of your sessions; I'd heard from others that had played under you and now I can tell you, their praise was not overstated. Really enjoyed the pace and the humor, as well as the knowledge and fairness, you displayed in running this. Thanks again and hope to get to play with you again some time.
In fact, hope to get to play with all of you again...see y'all on the forums!
The walls of fire were still useful for screening movement and taking full advantage of Flyby Attack. I usually don't have spellcasting monsters with it, so realizing it could fly forward, cast whatever horribly unfair effect it wanted, then duck out of sight again was a big game changer.
I honestly didn't expect the disarm to be as big a deal, but I'll admit that my archers also don't have a backup option, so I'd have been in the same boat. I was waiting to hear you had a weapon cord and throw everything into chaos, but thankfully we didn't have to puzzle that out. (Another table ruled that the phoenix's aura crisped it, since it was in a wierd attached but unattended space and thus not protected by resistance.)
The banishing bite effect was also highly amusing if not as effective as expected. :)
I appreciate the praise and will still be running online when I can. My presence on the forums is why I can be so swift with games, but it does take up a lot of my attention, so I have to manage it carefully for the sake of my relationships. My wife is very understanding and it helps that she shares the hobby as well. So I may not take on very many at once, but I will try to continue being consistent.
For the bow, certainly. The weapon cord is a separate item.
The phoenix fight also allowed me to justify a little bit of metagame. While there is no suggestion of hiveminds with the phoenixes, I did act on knowledge of what your characters had done in previous fights. Mainly that the birds you weren't fighting were seeing that Flyn's hail of arrows was to be avoided and that if Ammen can see them they are going to get messed up. There was also the fact that they had +26 Knowledge planes and could realize Aericus likely wasn't naturally flying, so a targeted dispel could neutralize his threat. It was a fine line to walk and it sounds like it worked well without being TOO frustrating.
Really just echoing what everyone already said, but I want to really thank you again TOZ for running this with us. You kept a quick pace but we’re enhancing and fair and I had a blast.
It was great fun to get abused by Laara as opposed to abusing alongside Laara. Being able to cameo my own characters alongside y'all is one of my favorite parts of PbP and having history with some characters makes it even better.
For the bow, certainly. The weapon cord is a separate item.Not sure I undrestand that? Were other GMs ruling that a weapon cord would not have been protected by RE?
Once the weapon was disarmed, yes. It was a weird corner case that was ruled as "CR14/16 creature trumps 1sp item".
I also wondered if/how you were using the "Constant" [i[detect magic[/i]. Would that still require a creature spend the rounds to get the information?
I actually didn't use it at all. It had no Knowledge Arcana/Spellcraft, so it couldn't ID the spells you had in effect. It just judged who had magic in effect and targeted them. (Aericus' flight, Ammen's flight and offense.)
We only get ONE of the boons, correct?
That is correct, one denizen of the tapestry joins you.
I feel like Deno'thar and Bolt need to follow this idea with a bunch of 7th levels. :P
Campaign will be marked inactive tonight.
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Looks like I never added my Faction attempt (in lieu of dayjob).
Forgo your Downtime to nonviolently fight for the cause of liberty by spending time organizing protests, freeing slaves, or distributing revolutionary material. Doing so requires a successful Disable Device, Knowledge (local), or Stealth check (DC = 15 + your character level).
Taking 10 on Stealth, +10 = 25.
So I auto succeed.