[CORE] #4-09 The Blakros Matrimony

Game Master Ilmakis

After rereading the scenario, the "RP" part difficulty doesn't change much from high or low.

But if a fight breaks out, it changes a lot.

I think this is the part we interpreted differently. if suggests the fight can be avoided by doing good in the social encounters. If it had been when we might have gone low tier! :-P

Still, I accept the consequences of requesting we play up. If Aurus had not been blitzed like that this fight would have been a lot different. Bad luck I guess.

Uldar? Is there anything else you can do? Maintaining a performance is a free action, isn't it? I'm just getting a bit antsy now that the two archers are apparently the front line...

If you can't, that's fine; I just thought I should ask :-)

Uldar? Is there anything else you can do? Maintaining a performance is a free action, isn't it? I'm just getting a bit antsy now that the two archers are apparently the front line...

If you can't, that's fine; I just thought I should ask :-)

There's really nothing Uldar can add to the combat unless someone calls out that the clouds are illusions. Then Uldar and Cloudia could actively disbelieve them with a +4. I think this might even stop Cloudia's nausea...

Jack Malcolm Thorpe Churchill wrote:

Uldar? Is there anything else you can do? Maintaining a performance is a free action, isn't it? I'm just getting a bit antsy now that the two archers are apparently the front line...

If you can't, that's fine; I just thought I should ask :-)

There's really nothing Uldar can add to the combat unless someone calls out that the clouds are illusions. Then Uldar and Cloudia could actively disbelieve them with a +4. I think this might even stop Cloudia's nausea...

After Travail kills the Babau that is, else the Babau can save too and prevent the sneak attack.

Hmm... we could have done a bit more damage if we applied buffs before attacks (haste and inspire courage). It's hard to coordinate this on a PbP. :-(

Also just noticed Aurus forgot to add Bulls Strength to his claw attacks two rounds ago, which would probably have resulted in a hit.

Aurus will have hit the babau, but only jack’s arrows hit the threshold limit to make the demon goes away. At most the additional damage will have kill the demon on jack’s turn, witch doesn’t change anything here.

Lets see how the fight turns now.

AFAIK Elemental dice don't double on a crit, so that's 1 less damage for Jack!

Also I'm wondering if Jack couldn't just have 5 foot stepped to the SW as a tent doesn't necessarily imply a hard corner...

Why it will no double? It’s not additional damage, but the base damages of the creature...
I’ve asked myself before doubling, but if you have a rule somewhere that precise it, I’m ready to remove this 1 point ;)

Why it will no double? It’s not additional damage, but the base damages of the creature...

I’ve asked myself before doubling, but if you have a rule somewhere that precise it, I’m ready to remove this 1 point ;)

The base damage is d6 for the claw and d8 for the bite. The plus d6 cold is additional damage and that doesn't get doubled on a crit.

Sometimes you multiply damage by some factor, such as on a critical hit. Roll the damage (with all modifiers) multiple times and total the results.

Note: When you multiply damage more than once, each multiplier works off the original, unmultiplied damage. So if you are asked to double the damage twice, the end result is three times the normal damage.

Exception: Extra damage dice over and above a weapon's normal damage are never multiplied.

I’m good with that :)

As a note, there are special bonuses like shocking burst for a magus, or if the attack itself is elemental damage like shocking grasp, that will allow extra elemental damage on a crit; however, if you have a flaming weapon or Deliquescent Gloves, no dice (couldn't resist the pun).

So if we recap the current situation:

Jack manages to get one arrow in before falling down.
Travail heals up Jack to -1.
Uldar vanishes Jack (4 rounds of invisibility) and tries to bluff the ranger is teleported away.

If the demon falls for the ruse, we only need to heal Jack, so he can stand up and pick up his bow.

Then next round Uldar will ready to vanish Jack again after he fired his arrows, so Jack can 5 foot away and the demon has to guess where Jack is and even if he guesses the right square, he still has 50% miss chance.

If Cloudia is back in the game, she could help by providing a bit of extra protection with mage armor and protection from evil.

You will have 50% miss chance to touch Jack with wands or touch spells as he’s invisible.

You will have 50% miss chance to touch Jack with wands or touch spells as he’s invisible.

First we need to survive long enough to heal him :-P

That’s true :p

That’s true :p

Also, as a GM you could waiver the 50% misschance for Uldar as he has poked Jack with a wand last round and Uldar is quite sure the ranger hasn't moved since!

About block action/initiative
I know that if Jack act, it is before everyone else. But I’m also ok to say that you could have heal him up before he acted (both Uldar and Travail).

This fight is nasty enough for not letting you act as much as you can as a team.

Again, if you think it’s not the right way to do it, I’m good with that. I just want to give you this opportunity.

Well, in a face to face game we'd have a bit more tactics before people decide to act :-)

Just Healing Jack so he can provoke more attacks of opportunity this round is not the way to go forward (or backward in this instance). I think we need 2 (or 3 as haste is running out) more rounds of Jack's full attacks to take out a CR7 incorporeal (no crits and halved damage).

That’s my point. That why I propose this.

Ok, so now Uldar will try and cure Jack if that succeeds, Jack gets up 5 foot steps to the South and picks up his bow (puts it in his hand, but doesn't lift it off the ground yet as a floating bow will probably foil the ruse), then next round Uldar will ready to vanish Jack again after he finishes shooting, so Jack can step away invisible.

If Uldar doesn't manage to locate the invisible Jack, Jack probably needs to cure himself first.

Tip: You can fighting defensively with a ranged weapon, but without 3 ranks in acrobatics the payoff might not be worth it.

Travail needs to keep alive as long as possible. Total defense would probably be best as that is a +6 to AC due to ranks in acrobatics.

Cloudia needs to move back to the rest of the party so she can buff or shoot heavenly fire at the enemy or good aligned partymembers

Agreed?

Cloudia has been just running around until the nauseated condition runs out. She's nauseated this one last round but she can take one move action to get into place for next round. Thing is she cannot see Jack. How out is Aurus? Can Cloudia save him?

Next round she can heal, cast protection from evil, or magic missile the guy for a little damage. Can someone use Aurus' weapon and smack the guy with it?

Cloudia has been just running around until the nauseated condition runs out. She's nauseated this one last round but she can take one move action to get into place for next round. Thing is she cannot see Jack. How out is Aurus? Can Cloudia save him?

Next round she can heal, cast protection from evil, or magic missile the guy for a little damage. Can someone use Aurus' weapon and smack the guy with it?

Magic missile will have a hard time to get through spell resistance.

Aurus’ weapon is magical, but not cold iron, so unless wielded by a smiting paladin will have a hard time getting through the DR.

Aurus had two attacks against him while he was down already, so he is very very dead.

You’ll need to be in position and ready to cast spells on Jack as he will only briefly be visible! Mage armor being the best protection spell as that works against the incorporeal attacks.

Cure was succesful!

Travail should ready to go total defense as soon as the shadow demon attacks him. Going total defense beforehand might make the demon disinterested.

I think the GM waiting for Travail to officially say he steps between Jack and the demon and ready to go total defense if it attacks him?

Yes

Are we botting Travail so we can continue?

I will do that.

So... Jack steps away to somewhere, Travail steps into his spot, again readying to go full defense, Cloudia moves closer and shoots a ray of heavenly fire at Travail to do a tiny bit of curing?

Looks like this round was reasonably successful as we did some damage and we didn't suffer any losses. If the dice to continue to work in our favor we might live!

If I am correct we are currently waiting:

* For Cloudia to do either a Mage Armor on Jack or a UMD check to active her wand of CLW.
* For Jack to decide to use his reroll for his 2nd arrow.
* For Travail to do a stabilization check if Cloudia either decides to go for the mage armor or if the UMD fails.

NB: Travail has 3 damage less, as the Cloudia's 3 HP curing light seems to be left out in the last total.

Have taken into account Cloudia heal of Travail.

Have taken into account Cloudia heal of Travail.

-20-22=-42, not -45

Uldar, I already used my re-roll, back on February 10th...

Uldar, I already used my re-roll, back on February 10th...

Missed that one!

Well done Pathfinders ! You did it!

Before turning the chronicle, Aurus condition need to be cleared.

Do you bring an equal share of your final reward for the cost of his Raise Dead and Restaurations ? What the method do you want to use ?

Well done Pathfinders ! You did it!

Before turning the chronicle, Aurus condition need to be cleared.

Do you bring an equal share of your final reward for the cost of his Raise Dead and Restaurations? What the method do you want to use ?

We would like to use the loot of our opponents before the final distribution. Due to us playing with 5 characters of which 3 are playing out of tier we should have quite a bit of 'overcap'.

That sounds fair to me. Unless he wants to spend some of his prestige to cut the costs.

By my calculations, we only need to 'pay' 1944gp with the 5 of us, so 388.8 gp per person, which means that playing up payed off, even with the raise. (except for Uldar, cause he was always out of tier...)

The chronicles gave OoT 2218gp and 3180gp for In Tier

The chronicles gave OoT 2218gp and 3180gp for In Tier

It is my understanding you can’t leave a scenario with more than the gold on your chronicle, but you can use loot to erase conditions before it is capped by the max gold on the chronicle.

I don’t understand what you mean by that ?

I don’t understand what you mean by that ?

Every encounter gives a certain amount of gold. You add up these amounts. This assumes a 6 person party, so each encounter has a bit of extra gold. Furthermore playing out of tier adds a cap on the max gold you can take away from an adventure for people playing up, but you can still spend the gold above this cap to remove negative conditions as this happens during the adventure.

No the gold is per player.
Yes, you can use it before the end of the game but the gold (gained) you use during the adventure will be deducted from your total.

No the gold is per player.

Yes, you can use it before the end of the game but the gold (gained) you use during the adventure will be deducted from your total.

Yes, we all agree that the gold is deduced, but I'm saying that you can deduct it before you apply the Out of Tier max gold threshold.

@Uldar, that was certainly the case in 3.5, and *was* true at one point in PFS, but that language was removed from the Guide a long time ago.

The most recent Guide says the following:

Determine the Max Gold for the adventure based on the PC’s advancement rate and the subtier played. If the PC’s level is not within the subtier played (such as a 1st-, 2nd-, or 3rd-level character in Subtier 4–5), circle the Out-of-Subtier gold value or calculate the Out-of-Subtier value for Seasons 0–4 by taking the average of both subtiers and rounding up. This value represents the total gold piece value a character receives for defeating all enemies and finding all treasure in an adventure.

(Emphasis mine.)

There is no longer any reference to 'over cap'.

My head-cannon for why this is the case in-world, is that whatever we find whilst adventuring is the property of the Society, which then gives us a level-appropriate 'stipend' (depending upon how well we did), and access to purchase the equipment that we found.

@Uldar, that was certainly the case in 3.5, and *was* true at one point in PFS, but that language was removed from the Guide a long time ago.

The most recent Guide says the following:

Determine the Max Gold for the adventure based on the PC’s advancement rate and the subtier played. If the PC’s level is not within the subtier played (such as a 1st-, 2nd-, or 3rd-level character in Subtier 4–5), circle the Out-of-Subtier gold value or calculate the Out-of-Subtier value for Seasons 0–4 by taking the average of both subtiers and rounding up. This value represents the total gold piece value a character receives for defeating all enemies and finding all treasure in an adventure.

(Emphasis mine.)

There is no longer any reference to 'over cap'.

My head-cannon for why this is the case in-world, is that whatever we find whilst adventuring is the property of the Society, which then gives us a level-appropriate 'stipend' (depending upon how well we did), and access to purchase the equipment that we found.

Yes, I read that as "you can't leave the adventure with more than that gold amount", but maybe that's a bit liberal.

At the same time, going against the written tactics of opponents is also a bit liberal. :-P

I've never heard anyone having this understanding of the rules... and I'm playing since season 3 and have been to thousands of conventions.

Another thing to consider, is whether Aurus has Prestige that he wants to spend on the Raise Dead and/or Restorations.

(Frankly, if he doesn't, I will probably spring 4PP for a Restoration, at the very least, as part of my 'share' - in CORE there is relatively little to spend PP on, so I would prefer to conserve my gold.)

Currently, we are looking at 1602gp each (4PP and 322gp for the first two people to chime in to each pay for a Restoration!).