[PFS2_Luke_Parry] 2-06: The Crashing Wave (Inactive)

Game Master Luke_Parry

Questions about the barricade.

1) Would it be possible to leap or high jump over it?

2) Are we talking 'squeezing' as in the exploration mode thing that takes 10 minutes and an acrobatics check or are we talking 'squeezing' as in the difficult terrain stuff?

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Side note, I just realized Bair doesn't qualify for the class feat he took (Raging Athlete requires expert Athletics) so he is taking Acute Scent instead.

You could try to high jump, but given that the Athletics DC to *climb* it is substantially less than 30, it might be easier to try that, instead ;-)

The passage is more of a crawl space - small creatures can just walk through, but medium creatures need to 'Crawl'.

Will wait until after the healers go to see whether she needs to spend a Hero Point.

Of course!

Regarding Resist Harm, I assumed its description meant that if you use the reaction against an initial source of damage that also applies persistent damage, then the resistance it provides doesn't carry over into future turns, not that it can't be triggered by a particular instance of persistent damage. So if Adalan used Resist Harm against the acid arrow itself he wouldn't get any resistance to the persistent damage, but if it's triggered by the persistent damage then that's the "initial effect" and it works (but doesn't do anything against persistent damage from the same source in future turns). I certainly could be interpreting it wrong though.

Yeah, Nashaxian is kind of OP...

I will, however, note that he did refer to being 'trapped' in the tower...

Holy crap! You don't say...

That DC 20 to end the bleed is a flat check, right?

Correct, it is a flat DC 20 check. With 'assistance', it drops to 15...

I mean, the boon for defeating him is nice, but your party would still get full rewards for the scenario (apart from that boon) even if you don't (since you recovered Diggen)...

Also, Deshacerla? Sorry :-/ Unfortunately, the scenario specifically calls him out as prioritising taking down lightly-armoured spellcasters :-(

That said, if you can (somehow) get the glaive away from him, he becomes (somewhat) less frightening, although still a quite dangerous opponent...

I was just looking at that, but it's an Athletics check. Hannah is +9 to-hit with her Glaive, but only +4 Athletics because of the ACP for heavy armor. Which is kind of silly that lightly armored PCs are just innately better at disarming.

Don't you have enough strength to overcome that penalty? Plus even if you don't disarm would get the attack trait and negate the str/dex penalty.

What?? I've missed that this whole time. I guess I assumed what it meant from 1E and glossed over it.

I just posted, so too late now, but next round she'll open with that. Or Bair, since his Athletics is probably higher.

Unfortunately, this guy is probably the most dangerous opponent that I have seen thus far in PF2 (there have definitely been complaints in the GM thread!), so I am trying to help as much as I can...

Adalan, I'm not sure I recall a point where you actually rolled over a 10 on that spell attack. Jeeze, bad luck.

Yeah, it is getting a bit absurd. I guess he must have made a mistake when scribing it so now he memorizes the incantation slightly wrong every time.

Serious suggestion: The devil isn't going anywhere. With him hitting us this hard, I think we should leg it, go back to town, buy some holy water and more healing potions, then try again later. The kobolds are dead so we won't have to clear the rest of the keep again.

Thoughts?

Geesh, he's +18 to-hit?

I'd buy a silvered weapon if I was high enough level =(

Otherwise silversheen should help. But now how to manage to go away to go back then? The foe is very dangerous. He takes down one of us each round and we managed only to make 14 damage. I didn’t hit with a 24. And he has perhaps 130 HP.

So I'm 100% behind Mara's idea but would like to suggest two additional things.

1) We decide NOW to do it or not so we don't waste another round not getting to an area of possible safety.

2) We strongly consider not returning to fight this assbag. We just soak whatever penalty for failure on the mission and move on with our lives. Character death = 25 fame for resurrection. Failure of a mission costs us 4 fame max.

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Also, great work on getting DC back from the brink of death.

Only people that have gone so far this round are Hannah and Mara. The devil can’t leave this room. People can simply run past and away, (maybe with Bair going first as an HP sponge in case he has an AOO). If our GM is exceedingly generous, maybe Hannah could mulligan her actions and run as well.

That does put Mara at risk, but she should be okay if he doesn’t crit. Then next round she takes off as well.

I would prefer to come back when we’re better prepared, but that’s just because I’m a completionist :P

I also would like to come back.

Who said anything about there being no more kobolds? :-P

More seriously, going back to town, and coming back again to the tower, would *literally* take over a week...

As previously mentioned, there is no 'hit' for not taking the Devil down - (apart from missing a boon) because you 'recovered' Diggen, you get full fame / XP / gold.

Moreover, the Devil is no 'threat' if left alone - heck; if you literally sealed off the way from the lower level with masonry, he would be left quite impotent on the upper level, and the tower could otherwise be taken over by the Pathfinders (although Diggen would obviously be disappointed; that said, at this point, I don't think anyone in the party seriously cares about that).

And Dran’Thor knows stonemasonry well. That could be done. That costs a boon but that saves our lives at the same time. That’s somehow quite important as well :)

32 damage thus far. If we were to guess based on wounds, how much does he look hurt so far?

that's a good question

I'm fine with retreating if everyone's on board with that. Adalan would prefer killing the devil, but he seems powerful enough that it might just be too risky to keep fighting. Going all the way back into town and then returning to try again doesn't really seem worth it.

Bair just ran out, so I think now we'll have to retreat. Was hoping maybe he could disarm the Devil.

If he really does have 130 HP (or in that range), then we'd probably have to retreat anyways.

Wish we had some sense to go off of.

But if he's in the middle of his HP we could have a chance.

From a metagame perspective, he is not below half hit points, yet, but his maximum is south of 100...

Disarm is not that effective. A success only loosens the grip. You need a crit to remove the weapon and then would need an action to pick it up and then would probably have to play keep away since the devil could probably take it back easier than we got it.

Bair did what he did because four of us had supported the idea of a retreat and at that point there weren’t any dissenting opinions other than that some wanted to come back to try again.

But if we decide to negate all that and finish the fight it isn’t like Bair got that far. He’s in the same hallway as everyone else right now.

Well, still waiting on some declared actions...

FYI, to be clear, 'off the map' is outside the Devil's reach.

Well I dislike the idea to miss something, and knowing how to get it. But at the same time, it's difficult to get it.

Well, one other option might be to retreat to the lower level, heal with whatever consumables / battle medicine you have, and take another 'shot' at him... but that would be your last chance.

Apart from that, your fall-back option will probably be to brick-up the top floor, leaving him frustrated and impotent.

So you think that we can win the fight?

*shrugs*

Anything is possible.

Whether you feel trying would be wise is up to you...

(Although right now, with half the party badly injured? Pretty unlikely. I would strongly recommend trying to heal up with consumables / spells / medicine, and taking a crack at him whilst he is still injured, *if* you are going to try at all.)

I can't imagine he has the ability to heal as fast as we do. I would rather retreat downstairs, heal, and try again than run back to town and come back a week later.

My vote will depend on what our resources look like once everyone's made it out and been healed. I'd like to try again, (damn completionist tendencies!), but not if there's a good chance someone will permanently die if we do.

I think the same as Mara. Let's heal everybody.

I'll give everyone a chance to chime-in in the Gameplay thread before advancing, one way or the other.

Is the Treat Wounds DC still 20 rather than 15?

The Infernal Wound condition has been cleared, so it is back to 15 :-)

As I said the three without wounds can treat wounds from the three others. So we spent 10 minutes. Then there still 2 lesser potions (more?).

Hannah used her potions earlier.

I'm with Mara in liking to be completionist, but I'm also with Bair in not wanting to risk anyone's death. If we rest overnight to recover all of our abilities, how does everyone feel?

I still vote no. Too many variables and we are obviously outmatched. Hitting it is just not going to be a high percentage thing and it WILL be hitting and regularly critting us back. If it didn't roll a 3 and a 10 on those two attacks against Bair, he would have been down... in one round... without even a full set of attacks against him.

If the point is to prevent major risk of player death then the only way is to walk away. We go back in there and even if we win, I think we lose one or two.

I have the fame for a resurrection, but I'd prefer not to have to burn it on an avoidable fight.

Fair enough. I will vote "No" then, as well.

I think healing up to full, sleeping, then trying again in the morning is a reasonable idea. He'll heal too, but unless he has healing spells (seems unlikely) or healer's tools and the Medicine skill (also seems unlikely), it should be limited to Con Mod x his level. I doubt that'll be enough to get him back up to full, so we'll have more of an advantage.

That all being said, I won't protest if the majority vote is to leave. IC that could represent us recognizing we're in over our heads and letting the Society know we need higher-level agents for this job.

Edited to add: Just saw Bair and Hannah's posts. That makes three votes for no and three votes for 'well we could maybe try again.' To avoid a stalemate, I will also change my vote to no. Majority says get the hell outta Dodge!

Alright, chronicles have been sent out.

Hopefully, the next adventure will be a little better balanced :-/

Is it possible to begin with the quest? I would like to play the 1-15 with Dran’Thor as it concerns druids and verdant wheel and have to check which character to play instead for the 1-4 tiers.

Sure :-)

Traveling for work. Be back Friday. Still need to update Hannah to Level 2. Originally I'd finalized her build but this fight has me rethinking some options.