GM Zer0darkfire's Witchwar Legacy (Inactive)

Game Master asdffghjkl01

Discussion Thread

Things I need to know!
Definitely any constant effects your PC has
Any immediate action things they could do in response to an enemies actions
Immunities
Other things you think I should know to make running faster

Shenanigans: True Dragon Familiar who will UMD wands during combat. Daosvaria has a +20 UMD and +6 Init mod. She also has Dragon senses, so 120ft darkvision and 60ft blindsense. She is a true dragon, so has immunity to sleep, paralysis and acid.
Aurelia is a conjuration school Savant Arcanist. Main things about her are constant See Invisibility from Spectral Shroud, constant Freedom of Movement from Ring and she is a Dhampir.
Immediate action stuff is mainly she prepares Emergency Force Sphere

I have 'all day spells' listed as a buff on my character sheet.

My saving throws vary a *lot* depending on the effect I am being hit with, so there is a breakdown of the variable stuff under the 'saving throws' section.

I have Fortune, Mistfortune, Borrow Fortune, and Divine Interference, so my Immediate Actions (when I use them) are frequently taken up by preventing natural 1's on saving throws against things that would kill a PC, or crits from high-damage attacks.

Thank you Zer0darkfire for GMing and getting this going so fast.

Definitely any constant effects your PC has
Perception of +48 but no special senses. If there is a reasonable chance of danger he will keep up Ki Leech. Free to cast for him and lasts 12 minutes.

Any immediate action things they could do in response to an enemies actions
I can take aoos with my bow but only at adjacent targets.

Immunities
Immune to all diseases and poisons. Evasion from a ring. Swarmbane Clasp makes him immune to distraction from bugs.

Other things you think I should know to make running faster
Speed 70 so he will often move at half speed and look around for traps.

Tuwo shoots things very well and has good saves and AC. He has all the archery feats you would expect and some less common ones like Point-Blank Master and Perfect Strike.

Due to poor decision making in the past Raise Dead doesn't work on him but the devs did say Breath of Life type effects do.

Things for the GM to know:
* Rinaldo's armor is Ghost Touch, so protects against incorporeal attacks
* Rinaldo uses a buckler strapped to his off hand. While mounted, the lance is used one-handed, so the buckler's defense counts.
* Rinaldo's archetype gives him a bonded item; this is his glamered cestus. By virtue of being a bonded item, it counts as a "free hand" for spellcasting.
* The Disruptive and Spellbreaker feats mean that when I threaten a spellcaster, the DC for casting defensively is increased by 4, and if they fail I get to take an AoO.
* Between Cavalier bonuses and armor/weapon enhancements, my Aid Another bonuses are much higher than normal. I'll break them down if they come up.
* Colwyn (Rinaldo's mount) has Combat Reflexes (6 AoO/turn) and Improved Evasion
* Colwyn has a Headband of Vast INT +2 (and the necessary feat to use it). He put a rank in Linguistics so that he understands spoken Halfling.
* Colwyn has every trick in the book. In particular he has the "Serve" trick, allowing Messa to give him commands using Rinaldo's Handle Animal bonus.
* Colwyn's archetype allows him to make a single Run or Charge action at 10x normal speed once per hour (500' speed for a 1000' charge or 2000' run).
* Rinaldo has Ride-By Attack and Wheeling Charge, and Colwyn has Improved Overrun and Charge Through. Let me know if you need me to provide the full details on those.
* I have a stack of Runestones of Power for extra spellcasting and several Extend Rods. I will track their use as well as my spellcasting on the spreadsheet linked in my profile header.

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Things for the party to know:
* Rinaldo's archetype takes away Bardic Knowledge and Lore Master, so don't look to me for knowledge checks. #NotThatKindOfBard
* Particularly during combat, make sure to check my posts for active spell, tactician, and performance effects that may apply to you during your round.

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Constant or Near-Constant effects:
* Colwyn uses Power Attack by default unless I specify otherwise. He will nearly always use Vital Strike.
* Colwyn wears a Swarmbane Clasp.
* Lantern of Auras - bullseye lamp that also reveals magic as if by Detect Magic. Anyone who can see the area illuminated can make Knowledge Arcana and Spellcraft checks as if they had cast Detect Magic. (Lantern is hooked to Colwyn's saddle and faces forward by default.)

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Immediate actions:
* Timely Inspiration to grant a retroactive +3 to a failed attack or skill check (1st level spell)
* Gallant Inspiration to grant a retroactive +2d4 to a failed attack or skill check (2nd level spell)
* Saving Finale to grant a reroll of a failed saving throw (1st level spell and ends Bardic Performance)
* Aegis of Recovery to heal for 2d8+3 when going below 0 hit points
* Mounted Combat - use a Ride check to negate a successful attack on Colwyn
* Indomitable Mount - use a Ride check in place of a saving through for Colwyn. This is particularly relevant for Will saves (+20 instead of +5!)

@Tuwo - I had a quick look at your sheet. Both Diamond Soul and Purity of Body are swapped out for Zen Archers. So unless you have some special shenanigans they should be removed from your sheet. I suggest that you review your sheet carefully as I was not even looking for errors. :)

On that topic, yeah, my tetori build did the same thing. I dropped some later feature for Diamond Soul via Qinggong, but now he is the Champion of Irori you see before you. Turns out, grappling, especially Tetori grappling, is OP as hell, so I picked up a rebuild boon to be little less of a Menas to my local lodge.

Don't worry, I have all knowledges covered, with Daosvaria able to give me a second roll, albeit with a lower bonus.

If GM Zer0darkfire will allow, I can also make the Kn(Arcana) and Spellcraft checks for Rinaldo's lantern - taking 10 will give me a 40 Kn(Arcana) and 45 Spellcraft.

That's actually why I have the lantern - so that anyone with those skills can check without having to cast the spell *and* can take 10 (since they don't have to be concentrating on the spell).

I did not realize that we were live until I clicked in by accident.
In terms of constant abilities I would say that he does not have much except for Evasion from his ring and Stone Cunning as he is a Dwarf.

He will be putting up a considerable amount of buffs that I will be tracking in his status bars once I put them up tomorrow morning. He has eight level of Zen Archer plus eight level of Inquisitors so it is a fair bit to track.

I have finalized Flint's shopping before the meeting. He will be making a short stop in-game to pick up a discounted scroll (Overland Flight), spell casting services and sundries.

In terms of buffs we should coordinate a bit. Generally I pick up Delay Poison and Ablative Barrier as spell casting services as they are cheap and last long. Protection from Arrows is also quite good for the cost.

It might be a good idea to either put up Life Bubble on the party or pay for it as a spell casting service. 280/6 gp is a pretty good investment in my book unless it is a free cast.

Edit - We might want to talk party tactics. My character makes a great scout as his Stealth, Perception, Survival are all very high.
He can also turn invisible. His KS for monster identifications are quite good. He can See Invisible,has Darkvision and Stone Cunning plus he will have Echolocation (Blind Sight) up a good amount of the time.

I've got +30 on the big six knowledge except local, which is a 31, so should be covered there. Daosvaria can back me up with +17 on all the big six.

I can cover us with a Life Bubble, extending if we need the extra time. I can also hit us all with Mass Fly for 160 minutes of flight once we teleport in and assess the situation. Daosvaria has Blindsense to 60 ft through Dragon Senses.

For combat, I can do Haste if no-one else can. Daosvaria also has wands of Cure Light and Cure Mod that she can use if needed. If anyone else has wands that might be useful here in or out of combat, she can UMD them, for action economy. I intended to buy a Wand of Haste, but opted for the +4 Tome instead since I had enough gold.

Mass Fly is great for me. A scroll of Overland Flight even discounted is expensive. So thanks. I would cast it before teleporting.

I'll spend 2 prestige on a wand of endure elements, which I seem to have neglected doing on this character.

I can cover your character as well if you like for 1-2 days.
Not to mention that Life Bubble includes Endure Elements as an effect. Save your PP to spend on something good like retraining or followers.

Lol, between the prestige rewards from passing the torch and the little I've spent so far, I have plenty.

I also have my dark archive faction card which will give me up to 3 consumable items with a total value up to 1600 gp. Is there anything particular the group thinks we need?

A scroll of Hunter's Blessing (5th level) is always good. My seeker level Druid always casts it. It would cover the entire party and lasts 9 hours.

A scroll of Feather Step, Mass would be handy. We are bound to hit difficult terrain and we might be grounded due to a storm.

Scrolls that create extra-dimensional spaces like Create Pit or Rope Trick have great niche utility.

Mind you the party might have it covered already. Bottled Yeti Fur is good and lasts 24 hours.

Messa usually preps Hunter's Blessing, and she has a wand of Endure Elements with a lot of charges.

Mass Fly is great!

Messa's main shenanigans are
- Bit of Luck: for the next round, target rolls all d20s twice and takes the betters
- Dimensional hop: 30 five-foot increments
- Door sight: look through doors or walls

She's Exploration Domain, so she has some teleport spells and Locate object/creature, too.

She carries a LOT of utility scrolls that she's collected over her career. One of her favorites is Nap Stack: the party only needs to sleep for 2 hours to regain abilities.

Messa also uses Dweomer's Essence to help with SR, and different reagents as power components for different spell schools (from the Alchemy Manual).

Messa also currently has components for:
- 2 castings of Raise Dead
- 4 castings of Restoration (level 4, with 1k diamond dust)

He will be putting up a considerable amount of buffs that I will be tracking in his status bars once I put them up tomorrow morning. He has eight level of Zen Archer plus eight level of Inquisitors so it is a fair bit to track.

Tell me about it. Cavalier 4 / Bard 13 has a lot of stuff going on.

Aurelia: Mass Fly would be awesome. I keep scrolls of Air Walk around for emergencies, but always appreciate nonconsumable ways of flying. :)

Flint: I have Mass Feather Step as a spell known and will cast it as soon as seems relevant. Extended it's good for a bit over 4 hours.

I can also hit the key combatants with Heroism, also extended.

When danger seems imminent, I will drop Good Hope (for 13 or 26 minutes, depending on if it seems worthwhile to extend) which doesn't stack with Heroism but adds bonus to damage and ability checks (including initiative) and applies to the whole party.

I have a number of "remove conditions" spells as needed: Liberating Command, Suppress Charms and Compulsions, Purging Finale, and Joyful Rapture. I also have a bardic performance that uses my Intimidate (+28) as the save vs fear for every ally who can hear me, and another that does a Mass Cure Serious Wounds and removes fatigue and sickened.

My Cavalier Tactician teamwork feat is Escape Route, in case we need to maneuver in tight quarters without provoking AoO.

GM: I need a ruling in advance in case it comes up:

Exquisite Accompaniment (3rd level spell) says "you do not have to expend rounds of bardic performance from your daily allotment to maintain an effect".

Virtuoso Performance (4th level spell) says "While this spell is active, you may start a second bardic performance while maintaining another. Starting the second performance costs 2 rounds of bardic performance instead of 1. Maintaining both performances costs a total of 3 rounds of bardic performance for each round they are maintained. When this spell ends, one of the performances ends immediately (your choice)."

If I were to have both spells active, would I be able to negate the 2 rounds of performance cost for the second effect?

(I just found the Exquisite Accompaniment spell when leveling up this round, and then thought of the interaction.)

Before I forget spells that allow you to bypass traps would be useful as no one is good at disarming them. So Create Pit, Stone Shape or Passwall etc.

Enemy interruptions:

Messa has divine interference, which lets her sacrifice a spell to force an enemy to reroll an attack roll. The level of the sacrificed spell level becomes a penalty on the reroll (e.g., if she sacrifices a 3rd level spell, the enemy takes a -3 penalty on the roll).

In most combats, she'll try to force an enemy to reroll a 20.

@Messa - Aurelia is a Dhampir. Please do NOT target her with Cure spells as they will not have the intended effect. Please do exclude her if you are channeling to harm undead. She does carry a wand of Inflict Light Wounds in a wrist sheath for use in emergencies.

No life-dominant soul? At least you can cast repair undead on yourself.

A few questions for the GM.

1)As we are in Absalom I am assuming that we can just go out and purchase spell casting services with virtually no appreciable time delay. Is this correct?

2)Is it possible to purchase individual durable arrows of special materials like adamantine? I see that Tuwo has done so but I am not sure if it PFS legal. Generally adamantine arrows are purchased in lots of 50 arrows but I can see the argument going either way.

3)My character has a Suggestion ability based on the Deific Obedience feat. Would this SLA be based on Charisma? This is my assumption but is it correct?

1) You are currently in the Grand Lodge in Absalom, purchase whatever you need.

2) As far as I know, durable arrows are always purchased individually. The entry for them is "Arrow, Durable" instead of "Arrows, Durable". Because each durable arrow is purchased individually, you can apply special materials to them individually as well.

3) The standard DC for SLAs is 10 + Spell Level + Charisma Modifier unless otherwise stated.

GM: I need a ruling in advance in case it comes up:

Exquisite Accompaniment (3rd level spell) says "you do not have to expend rounds of bardic performance from your daily allotment to maintain an effect".

Virtuoso Performance (4th level spell) says "While this spell is active, you may start a second bardic performance while maintaining another. Starting the second performance costs 2 rounds of bardic performance instead of 1. Maintaining both performances costs a total of 3 rounds of bardic performance for each round they are maintained. When this spell ends, one of the performances ends immediately (your choice)."

If I were to have both spells active, would I be able to negate the 2 rounds of performance cost for the second effect?

(I just found the Exquisite Accompaniment spell when leveling up this round, and then thought of the interaction.)

The first spell will play a single performance for you but you can cast it again to play a second performance at no cost from the second spell.

A general question. I have noticed Tuwo with two Efficient Quivers. Is there any point at all of using this magical item (except for the obvious weight reduction) and the fact that it looks cool?

I generally use two quivers (40 arrows total) myself with a divider in the second one for specialty arrows and have the rest packed up. I have always struggled with the usefulness of this item (unlike the Handy Haversack) so any insight would be appreciated.

I don't have much comment there. I've never fired or purchased a bow in Pathfinder, even after 3 years of playing. I've never seen anyone do any sort of tracking with quivers either, so no idea from me, hopefully one of the players can help you out there.

Understood. I guess this sort of detailed tracking is abstracted away in this gaming system. As long as you have the carrying capacity you can carry as many weapons (even pole arms) as you like and not worry exactly how they are positioned on your body. 40 arrows is modest even by real life standards so not a problem IMO in a Pathfinder setting where the iconic characters are bristling with weapons.

Realistically combat should be at most 2-3 rounds. Often it will be over before the slowest person can act. At least that has been my experience at other high tier tables so it is likely a very academic point.

Simple. My EotT GM complained about how "unrealistic" it was to have a bunch of quivers on my back and insisted I buy a second one when he audited my character. With no other GM options locally I did so.

Tracking arrows and "where" that gear is just seems like a waste of time in my opinion. The game can take long enough as it is, I don't need to know where or how your carrying 80 arrows.

I agree with this GM. Abstract is good. Why worry about how many quivers it is realistic to carry when your character can jump 40 feet straight up or shoot beams of energy out of their behind (which my Druid does in Wild Shape when he is feeling plucky).

As for the Effortless Quivers. Sure they were a waste of Gold but playing EOT is much better than not playing it. Also there is a sort of cool factor of pulling out arrows from nowhere. Out of all my characters I only have one with a Handy Haversack but I still find it incredible that you can fit all that stuff in one bag. It is one of the items that I would love to have in real life.

Durable arrows are in Elves of Golarion and Alchemy Manual, and are PFS legal, purchased in lots of 1. A single durable Adamantine arrow is 61gp.
https://www.aonprd.com/EquipmentMiscDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Arrow%20(durable)
https://www.aonprd.com/SpecialMaterials.aspx

@Messa - Aurelia is a Dhampir. Please do NOT target her with Cure spells as they will not have the intended effect. Please do exclude her if you are channeling to harm undead. She does carry a wand of Inflict Light Wounds in a wrist sheath for use in emergencies.

Ah! Good to know!

Do we need to grab some scrolls of Inflict Serious or Harm for her?

The first spell will play a single performance for you but you can cast it again to play a second performance at no cost from the second spell.

So if I have Inspire Courage going and cast Exquisite Accompaniment, it stops costing me rounds of performance. If I then cast Virtuoso Performance, would I then spend 2 "rounds" per round to maintain the second, or only 1? (Either way, I am ahead, but I want to see how far ahead I am. ;-) )

And then if I were to cast Exquisite Accompaniment again, I could maintain both at no cost (other than having used two 3rd level spell slots)?

Just FYI: Messa casts at base CL 18: cleric 15 + 2 for Magical Knack, +1 for orange prism ioun stone. When the ioun stone is slotted, she adds 1d4-1 to her caster level.

For transmutation, creation, divination, and teleportation spells, she has reagents to increase the caster level by 1 (mainly for duration or range only).

She also has the Wanderlust racial trait, so she treats her CL as 1 higher "when casting spells or using abilities that provide or enhance movement".

GM Zer0darkfire wrote:

The first spell will play a single performance for you but you can cast it again to play a second performance at no cost from the second spell.

So if I have Inspire Courage going and cast Exquisite Accompaniment, it stops costing me rounds of performance. If I then cast Virtuoso Performance, would I then spend 2 "rounds" per round to maintain the second, or only 1? (Either way, I am ahead, but I want to see how far ahead I am. ;-) )

And then if I were to cast Exquisite Accompaniment again, I could maintain both at no cost (other than having used two 3rd level spell slots)?

Yep, that sounds accurate to me. No idea if there is an official answer, but I don't see why this wouldn't be the case so that's how we will play it.

Question for the group: How many people would benefit from a +10' enhancement bonus to base land speed? I know the monks already have an enhancement bonus. I can use 1 round of bardic performance with a minute "casting" time to give that to everyone it would help for 1 hour. If enough people benefit, I'll do it.

Triple Time

Tuwo does keep a couple of regular quivers with just cold iron arrows on his back then. Would be really awkward if we hit an antimagic feild and all of the archers couldn't access those extrademensional spaces.

Everyone in the party is at least part caster except for you Tuwo. We do not speak of the dreaded anti-magic field except in whispered tones. ;)

My character is still recovering from his stint in the Mana Wastes. He was healing the party with his Heal skill and Treat Deadly Wounds and a healing kit of all things.

For what it is worth, I would benefit from the movement enhancement...?

Tuwo is a caster. His spells are all self buffs or self healing though.

I'll be spoilering my combat spam but to shorten it I'll break down the current ongoing modifiers and just list situational modifier in the post such as range, point blank, haste, prayer, etc...

Sounds good! From what I've read, this isn't a super hard scenario, so don't be surprised if you steamroll it.

My character has the same philosophy with Deadly Aim. Unless there is a good reason it is always on. I am surprised how close the two characters are in offensive capabilities considering the divergence in build.

The Veil of Frozen Tears is a waterfall formed of magically frozen ice. This ice is much more resilient than normal ice, with the physical properties of hewn stone (hardness 8, hp 540 per 10-foot-square section, Break DC 50) but much more slippery (Climb DC 40). In fact, the icy floors of the frozen necropolis are so slick that attempts to run or charge require a DC 15 Acrobatics check to avoid falling. The tunnels and caverns were quarried out roughly enough, however, that the usual ice movement penalties (Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook 442) do not apply. Ceilings heights are 20 feet unless otherwise noted. Doors are made of the same rock-hard ice, but are hinged and can be easily opened and closed. All of the ice is opaque, preventing anyone from seeing details in adjoining areas, though light sources will appear as diffuse glows from up to 50 feet away. During the day, no light sources are necessary as the daylight suffuses the thick ice and provides normal visibility. Arrow slits are 1 foot wide and 3 feet high, and have no shutters.

The ice of the waterfall does not melt unless exposed to fire damage sufficient to overcome its stonelike properties, and it constantly radiates freezing temperatures such that the interior of the waterfall is considered to be extreme cold (–25 degrees F), dealing 1d6 points of lethal damage per minute (no save). The extreme cold further requires a Fortitude save (DC 15, +1 per previous check) each minute, or it deals another 1d4 points of nonlethal damage and exposes the individual to frostbite and hypothermia (treat as fatigued). See page 442 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook for further details. A simple endure elements spell will negate these dangers, as will any amount of cold resistance

No Life Dominant Soul. She's a primary caster with a half-dozen different ways to get away or avoid being attacked, so if she's in melee, I'm doing it wrong.

I've a wand of Inflict Light and the UMD to use it if needed in combat, Or I can just spam some False Life. Daosvaria can also UMD my wand if needed, or my wand of Infernal Healing.

We can discuss here if we want to attack the giants or not. Jumping into combat before we have a plan and before all the players have actually posted in the mission thread is not the best idea.

Edit - As we are not in combat you can actually take 10 for the knowledge checks if you like. Actually most characters will be able to take 1 as the Knowledge DC is so low.

This encounter feels like a bit of a throwback to the original Giant series modules of 1st edition. I have not played them in many years but the feel is the same.

Rule question.

Perfect Strike: "...You can roll your attack roll twice and take the higher result. If one of these rolls is a critical threat, the other roll is used as your confirmation roll (your choice if they are both critical threats)..."

As a Zen Archer: "At 10th level, the monk can roll his attack roll three times and take the highest result. If one of these rolls is a critical threat, the monk must choose one of his other two rolls to use as his confirmation roll."

And Messa possesses Bit of Luck: "You can touch a willing creature as a standard action, giving it a bit of luck. For the next round, any time the target rolls a d20, he may roll twice and take the more favorable result."

Would I roll 2d20 3 times or something else?

Also how do you want to deal with Tuwo's Ki Leech?

I regain a ki when I "confirm a critical hit against a living enemy or reduce a living enemy to 0 or fewer hit points."

I won't know if I did either during my turn. But I tend to do both of those things often. Do you want to tell me how much ki I regained each round or are you good with the idea that I'm regaining ki often enough that it isn't worth tracking?

I am not sure if the game allows stacking of rolls in this fashion. I would be inclined to say no. My character could for example put up Fallback Strategy (1st level spell) and then choose to re-roll either of his attack rolls from Perfect Strike or benefit from Messa's Bit of Luck as well.

It would be nice to see if there is any evidence allowing/disallowing these kinds of situation on the boards. I would start from there.