While she appreciates the thought Tsamara is just happy that she even gets to exist in the first place; anything else is just icing on the cake :)
Totally random tangent but I gotta say that if you ever get the chance to play #9-06 The Shores of Heaven, do it! It's a really enjoyable scenario (I thought) to both play and to GM, especially if you've got a GM that'll put in some extra effort to make the setting come alive and players that'll get into the spirit of things and interact with said setting.
I was lucky enough to get to play Corona for that one and she largely enjoyed the experience. My aasimar arcanist got the GM chronicle when I finished GMing it recently.
If I were to burn a replay to play it again, I'm not sure who I'd play because I've got several lowbie options. Maybe my witch Fran (and Mr. Sunshine!) or one of my leshys :)
Well, you quite literally go to Heaven (no spoilers, it's in the description) which may or may not be terribly significant (as well as awesome or uncomfortable) for certain sorts of characters :)
Yep! I've got it noted in my off-site notes and I see you've got it listed on your condition tracker (thank you!). Apologies for the delay; will try and get us moved forward at some point this evening depending on how busy work is.
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Rant, that is.
Let's talk about Haunts. As a general concept they make sense, they're certainly a part of fantasy and horror stories and myths, and they serve as an alternative to traps. But I feel like they're not built well.
The fact that you have to perceive it and also beat a 10 Initiate means not everyone can even act before it. But that's opposed to a Trap which almost no one can do anything about. Okay, some people can act, but since it's a surprise round few can do much, and there's only a couple things that are effective: channeling, holy water, and the soulblade feat are the only things that come to mind. No one walks around with holy water in hand, and no normal player burns a feat on soulblade :)
So there's not much you can do if you encounter one, but at least the damage typically isn't significant. I guess it's balanced that way.
But, what then? We should be trying to put the haunt to rest, right? Certain religions would require it I presume, like Pharasma. But the conditions to do so are often nearly impossible to ascertain. "Removing the skull from the pit and then dousing it in at least a gallon of water puts this haunt to rest," are the Destruction conditions for an actual haunt from a Society scenario. And that's one of the less esoteric ones. Of course, there's no way to determine what that action should be except guessing. When you encounter a Trap, someone rolls Disable Device and it's resolved. You the Player doesn't have to actually figure out the trick to disabling this particular trap. Can you imagine that? "I remove the spring from the trigger assembly, did that do it? Well, what if I thread a piece of wire through this heirloom ring we found in the last room and then tie off the latching mechanism that way? What do you mean I have to wait 24 hours to find out?"
In a 4-hour session there's simply no time to spend trying to figure it out, especially since there's almost never an immediate in-story reason to actually bother trying to destroy the haunts. There's never a chronicle boon related to them, nor any treasure, and only occasionally would doing so remove the malady that the haunt imposed. In older scenarios, there were some Faction missions related to certain haunts, but you didn't always have that Faction at the table, then those missions went away entirely. In a home game, the players could take the time, and the GM could customize haunts to enhance the story and character developments. But in Society play, why bother putting these souls to rest? "Alright, shake it off. Heal me up, and let's move on."
Haunts serve as excellent story elements, especially when used well to support a narrative like in this scenario here. But I feel like many characters would want to try to put the souls to rest properly. Maybe we need a skill option that works like Disable Haunt would, such as a feat that lets you use Knowledge Religion, or Perception, or just an INT check to figure out the destruction conditions. Obviously isn't going to happen now, but maybe that's something that PF2 can do differently.
[/RANT]
Hmm.
I agree, the haunt rules in PF1e are clunky in practice. I also agree that it's difficult as a GM to communicate the steps to destroy a specific haunt for good because they *do* sometimes require that rather specific steps be taken - and those steps just aren't something that it would make sense for Joe Schmoe to somehow 'know' with a Knowledge check. As it is, your suggestion of allowing someone to puzzle it out with a good Int, Kn. Religion, or Perception is about the best one I've seen in this regard. I'd also allow characters with the right psychic spells/abilities to be able to puzzle such things out as well.
In regards to trying to put the haunts to rest...yes, it makes sense that most characters would probably want to do that. That said, I think that it also makes sense for it to take a backseat while you're still actively investigating a location that isn't just haunted but has also proven to contain flesh-and-blood hostiles.
But I definitely get it. Not just with haunts but I've seen plenty of other situations in scenarios where there's an issue that I just *know* my players will want to try to fix or help with but it's not something that's actually relevant to the rest of the scenario or the chronicle. This is another area where I feel PbP can shine over a F2F game because, if your players are willing, you've got the time to address these little details without being rushed.
(I've also got a lot of thoughts re: my own GMing philosophy about stuff like that but I'll spare you all the rambling :))
At any rate...we will absolutely touch on the question how to make the haunts go away for good before it's all said and done. Promise.
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Hmm.
I agree, the haunt rules in PF1e are clunky in practice. I also agree that it's difficult as a GM to communicate the steps to destroy a specific haunt for good because they *do* sometimes require that rather specific steps be taken - and those steps just aren't something that it would make sense for Joe Schmoe to somehow 'know' with a Knowledge check. As it is, your suggestion of allowing someone to puzzle it out with a good Int, Kn. Religion, or Perception is about the best one I've seen in this regard.
Sense motive seems like a winner as haunts are very often linked to powerful emotions. Also, taking a page from other more horror-centric RPGs some research down at the local hall of records or perhaps the town church/temple (which often stood in for the same marking the births, weddings, and passings within a community), or talking with that ancient, nosy neighbor might be in order. I kinda wish that Pathfinder had stolen the Research skill from d20 Modern, because it is made for this sort of thing.
Research (Int) Check Researching a topic takes time, skill, and some luck. The GM determines how obscure a particular topic is (the more obscure, the higher the DC) and what kind of information might be available depending on where the character is conducting his or her research.
Information ranges from general to protected. Given enough time (usually 1d4 hours) and a successful skill check, the character gets a general idea about a given topic. This assumes that no obvious reasons exist why such information would be unavailable, and that the character has a way to acquire restricted or protected information.
The higher the check result, the better and more complete the information. If the character wants to discover a specific fact, date, map, or similar bit of information, add +5 to +15 to the DC.
Try Again?: Yes.
Special: A character can take 10 or take 20 on a Research check.
A character with the Studious feat gets a +2 bonus on all Research checks.
Computer Use can provide a +2 synergy bonus on a Research check when searching computer records for data (see Skill Synergy).
Time: A Research check takes 1d4 hours.
As for putting them to rest, unless they are really tied to some central objective within the plot of a particular adventure, I think you can usually just pass on them once defeated, like any other defeated dungeon minion, or disabled trap. If you are not planning on returning to the site there might not be a reason to clean them up. If you are going to return because you are like my Pharasmin Inquisitor, Coiger, and have a sort of mania about the things--and remember, some haunts are just emotional or magical residue left over from horrible events (like Slimer from the Sedgewick Hotel in Ghostbuster) and not actual souls, you can always come back with a passel of like-minded priests, and holy water (or insane cultists with eldritch items that bleed magic from such sites) and purify it an appropriate ritual. I'm sure Yuna from Final Fantasy X, and X2 would know how to do it.
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Haunts, mechanically, feel like you either have a bunch of clerics who can ignore it or the party is screwed because they don't know how to deal with it.
Especially in PbP, where we are never returning to this creepy mansion to permanently get rid of them. So they become annoyances or "thou shalt bring a cleric" party mandates that I'm not a fan of.
Yuna would be a great example of someone who dispels haunts before they become a problem, hehe.
Sorry for the sluggish posting guys; moving, work, and winter malaise got me busy and feeling a little down. At least the moving part should be largely done after Saturday. That said, you guys are currently my #1 GMing priority and I'm not working tonight so I will get an update posted before the evening is through.
That said, the FFX & X-2 talk made me smile. Fun games!
Happy Thanksgiving and/or Happy Thursday (or maybe even Happy Friday for Akazim at this point)!
Apologies for the continued delays; unpacking into a house is more exhausting than I anticipated and we only just got our internet turned on Tuesday evening right before I had to head to work. Bleh.
Additional apologies to Abaal, as I don't get any jollies from killing characters :\
Regarding Malusha's Gift of Life question, I'd allow it to be used on Abaal during this fight if you wish but he'll die again after 8 rounds pass. Though the reading of the ability seems to make it pretty clear that you can't heal Abaal during this time to prevent him from dying again it *would* buy you guys a little more time to try and bring him back if anyone has the means to do so.
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Maybe wait until Abaal can be brought back with more than 4 hit points. It seems wiser than revivifying him heavily wounded, prone, without a weapon in hand, and in the middle of a sword fight where he's threatened by every foe. He doesn't want to die again within the first 6 seconds for nothing. The party is probably going to need you to use Malusha's actions for optimal effect--otherwise he is probably going to be revivifying more than just Abaal, so don't waste time with me now.
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Akazim will be off-line for about the next 36 - 48 hours. He has to follow along in Nomadical's flight bag on a back-to-back Pacific round trip, Tokyo-LAX-San Fran-Tokyo with about 2 hours per stop and no inflight wifi. Plus sleeping in Tokyo at each end.
If combat commences before we return to sanity, he'd like to cast Haste just before we enter the boss fight. He could even be the door kicker using his standard action to cast, then his move action to open, and then he'll grant Bane (B$%%+?) onto Ingrge's bow next round.
Otherwise, as they say here, "Ganbate!"
Thanks for the notice; hope it all goes well and that you're able to get enough sleep!
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Yeah, still busyish with new home stuff somewhat.
And even though I generally try to avoid self-diagnosis (I work in healthcare and my experience is that a lot of healthcare workers are hypochondriacs that self-diagnose waaaaay too much) I suspect that I'm starting to suffer from SAD and/or a generalized, low-level depression when fall and winter roll around. Whatever it is, it sometimes makes it hard to get more than the bare minimum done IRL and stuff like PbP tends to fall by the wayside for varying gaps of time.
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Alas, it is not, but New Zealand is somewhere I'd certainly like to visit one day. Home is in the southeastern US and for the most part I'm happy here, though I could do without the high-humidity summers we have!
Haven't had cable TV in years and I don't miss it one bit. No social media either except for Facebook, but even that's really only so I can keep up with a few long-distance friends & family. Oh and for all the cat and vacation photos.
Fall used to be (and I guess still is) my favorite season for similar reasons that you mention. I mean, Halloween happens in the fall and I love Halloween! I could just do without the increased apathy and lethargy that seem to go along with it as of the last few years :|
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We have humid Summers too. Can't say I indulge at all in Facebook, but I watch a lot of youtube. ;)
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From the Great Northwest. This time of year is what I refer to as the double dark days of winter. I leave for work in the dark and I return from work in the dark... But I don't really mind it. One of my favorite things is driving through falling snow at night -- I feel like I'm jumping to hyperspace. Sadly, we don't get much snow here so my jump to hyperspace only happens rarely but every time I'm driving in the dark, I'm always hoping. :-)
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Yeah, still busyish with new home stuff somewhat.
And even though I generally try to avoid self-diagnosis (I work in healthcare and my experience is that a lot of healthcare workers are hypochondriacs that self-diagnose waaaaay too much) I suspect that I'm starting to suffer from SAD and/or a generalized, low-level depression when fall and winter roll around. Whatever it is, it sometimes makes it hard to get more than the bare minimum done IRL and stuff like PbP tends to fall by the wayside for varying gaps of time.
It probably doesn't help when one of your players boasts thoughtlessly about his latest excursion to a beach in Thailand during the winter season in North America. In light of that, I'm not gonna reveal where I am now unless y'all ask.
My ex-wife suffered from SAD, and the winters when we lived in Seattle and Germany were the hardest on her. Short days denied seeing the sun by the eternal overcast take a toll on the spirit. I'm thankful that it didn't bother me, and on top of that I got regular breaks away from it for work.
One of my favorite things is driving through falling snow at night -- I feel like I'm jumping to hyperspace.
I wish everyone could see and feel what it's like to do that in a climbing banking turn at almost 300 mph!
It probably doesn't help when one of your players boasts thoughtlessly about his latest excursion to a beach in Thailand during the winter season in North America. In light of that, I'm not gonna reveal where I am now unless y'all ask.
There's nothing thoughtless about it because you didn't know! But that sort of talk also doesn't bother me - to be honest, I think it's fascinating because I don't personally know anyone that's gotten to travel around in Asia to any great degree. The consideration is definitely appreciated but please, don't worry or feel bad about sharing your travel adventures!
In a broader sense, I enjoy talking about not-game-stuff with my fellow players because it's nice (and sometimes a good thing) to be reminded that we're all actual, real people behind the avatars and characters that we play. Oftentimes folks - especially those that I've gotten to know a little bit thanks to playing together multiple times - cheer me up just by being themselves.
At any rate, I appreciate you guys letting me share/vent a little bit. Generally I try to keep my OOC posts fairly positive and out of oversharing territory but I've also finally come around to realizing that there's no shame in speaking up if I'm feeling depressed.
Because that's how you wind up with vorpal weapon shenanigans and characters who now rule over small nations and go by 'Reginald, Duke of Thingly'.
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300mph barrel roll/banking/flying.. no thanks!
Driving through the snow at night is overrated, trust me I live in Maine.
These games are great for everyone in multiple ways. All of which come up for each of us from time to time. Talking about it is always a good thing so please feel free to talk about anything.
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And Cirri's body molds into the form of a Gargoyle.
While her fraternal twin takes on the shape of an icy-slick puddle! ;)
Could... not... help myself....
Well, that was a bit anticlimactic but such are the will of the dice! Even with some protections in place (because she totally knew you guys were coming) Ingrge almost one-rounded her so I knew it'd probably be a pretty short fight after that :P
Anyhoo, we've got a little wrap-up RP to do and some business to take care of (Seiko & what to do with Abaal) but for all intents and purposes we're done with the scenario so I'll try and get your chronicles out to you either later this evening or tomorrow!
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Cirri, I realized some time after I had posted that I have Liberating Command as a spell known. I should have used it on Riddy as my immediate or swift action. Sorry.
But I think we had it in hand. You were gonna get Bane Undead next round too, and between you and Ingrge being hasted and Baned, plus 2 channelers, and I still had 4 slots to cast liberating command left plus some other fun class features. I think we'd have been okay.
Even without the decorative paperweight in the other room. ;)
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As he makes his way over to the writing desk, he considers Abaal's future. I do wonder if he has made arrangements with the Society to be raised from death. If not, his sword would make a fine addition to the Museum's collection....
This comes to mind...
Hokay, for the purposes of chronicles it sounds like Abaal can afford the cost of a Raise Dead on his own. Abaal, please let me know how you wish to pay for it, whether with PP, gold, or the combination of both.
In regards to clearing Abaal's two negative levels from the Raise Dead it'll take two castings Restoration which I understand Hanlin is offering to cast. Please let me know who is covering the 2,000 gp worth of diamond dust that it'll cost for that.