| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Welcome!
Please post an in character introduction in the gameplay thread, and an out of character one here. Let me know any "shenanigans" your character pulls that might need explaining. If you have a mount, animal companion, or familiar, let me know about them. I'll collect vital stats and day job checks for the chronicle at the end.
|
Hi folks
This is looking like a great table. I have played with or GM'd for everyone but GM Rinaldo before. It's good to be adventuring with Kramac and Flynn once more, even though Kiboko isn't along for it. But this scenario is Quenly's 'homecoming', so I'm looking forwards to it.
Sylvain, our first PbP I think - we've played face to face at GardenCon though.
Quenly is an Elf Ancient Lorekeeper Dark Tapestry Oracle. He's a box of tricks. Here's a summary.
Quenly is built around the the Many Forms revelation. He sometimes uses it for utility of movement, sometimes for melee combat. His form of choice for melee is the voonith. He is able to cast many spells whilst shapechanged (not his level 5 spells though, so no Breath of Life).
Quenly knows both Silence and Deeper Darkness, and is not impaired by either spell. Of course, the likelihood is that these spells could impair his allies, so this trick is very situational. (Incidentally Quenly is OK at stealth, and has the Vanish spell too.)
Quenly uses shadow conjuration to copy the Draconic Ally spell. This gives him a long duration translator/interpreter and sensor. The Ally has blindsense and telepathy. Quenly normally chooses to use the nightmare dragon variety of ally, which gains See in Darkness.
This spell gets its own little note. The spell (range=touch) means that Quenly uses a level 3 spell slot and an ally casts a spell of level 3 or below without losing that spell or slot. Quenly loves to get Heroism from a party member using this. Depending on the situation, Quenly may be willing to use multiple slots to allow a particular buff to be spread around multiple party members.
Quenly has only a smattering of knowledges, but has max ranks in History which is a specialism of his (being an Ancient Lorekeeper and a Scarab Sage it seemed apt). However, he has a few tricks up his sleeve thanks to a spell and a couple of choice magic items. Page-bound Epiphany generates up to a +10 circumstance bonus over 11 rounds, so is good for out-of-combat knowledge checks in a subject Quenly is trained in. Quenly's Scholar's Ring gives a nice +5 competence bonus to Know: History and allows a Legend Lore once per 5/days about a subject that Quenly has used the ring's competence bonus on in the last week. Lastly, the gruesome Lore Needle allows Quenly to apply his Know: History bonus to 3 other knowledge skill checks per day.
It looks like I might miss out on some buffs from this party on account of being Deaf, but that's OK. I doubt I'll need to melee, I'll probably spend most of my time in combat casting.
Wow, that's a lot. What books are Ancient Lorekeeper, Many Forms, and the Voonith from? I'll want to go have a quick look at them.
|
Looks like a good selection of abilities, Quenly!
Kindle Crow and Rosella are a tragic duo that came to be when she died and lost her family. They work together to give her the adventuring life she was not able to have while living.
Kindle will stand either in the back or near melee and generally casts spells to buff the team or deal damage. He is also a pro cook who can take 12 for a result of 32.
Rosella is a Kindness Phantom, so she can aid others for +3 (+4 for aiding Kindle), and has lay on hands at her disposal. Lastly she can use her ability Opening Strike to land a hit on an enemy, then have an adjacent ally use an immediate action to attack the same target at their own attack bonus.
What's the source for Death Druid and Kindness Phantom? Does Rosella manifest physically and is she targetable for attacks or spell effects?
Quenly, do you name your shadow-dragon? And do you have a preferred token for it for the encounter map?
|
|
Flyn primarily provides scouting abilities (searching and tracking) and ranged support in combat; he also has skill with some rogue abilities...
He has an animal companion, an owl named Archimedes; it is more companion than anything, however, only used occasionally for some simple tasks, if at all...
When exploring/scouting ahead, he'll try to conceal himself (Stealth), check for traps/foes (Perception), and also look for any tracks (Survival)...
When encountering traps, he'll attempt to disable it, whether it be mechanical or magical (Disable Device)...
In combat, he prefers hanging back and attacking with his Magic Composite Longbow; however, he can also fight in close quarters with his bow when threatened and not draw an AoO (Point Blank Master). He'll generally use Deadly Aim and Rapid Shot when possible; he keeps a variety of arrow types in his Efficient Quiver to use when DR creatures are faced/known. In addition, he has the Clustered Shot feat that when used against a single creature, all damage is totaled before DR is subtracted...and the Improved Precise Shot feat which ignores all but total concealment and total cover. He has five uses/day of Perfect Strike; he usually saves those for the nastier creatures or when he or a friend are in a pinch...
He'll use Acrobatics in combat if needed when moving to avoid an AoO...
Flyn's favored enemies are the Undead (+4 attack/damage/Knowledge) and Outsider (Evil) (+2 attack/damage/Knowledge).
He also has modest skill in the Knowledge Arena (All Knowledge Skills +6 +1d6 due to Inspiration)...
As an Infiltrator, he can use Darkvision (60') 60 minutes a day, in ten minute increments...
On another note, Flyn has shared many previous adventures with Kramac, as well as once with Zaarah. Also, he has journeyed into the Tapestry several times...and Aram Zey is not exactly enamored of him, to say the least...
|
|
What's the source for Death Druid and Kindness Phantom? Does Rosella manifest physically and is she targetable for attacks or spell effects?
Death Druid: Horror Adventures
Kindness Phantom: Psychic AnthologyShe does manifest physically and is targetable for attacks and spells, and can also go Incorporeal (Full round action from Kindle I believe, its been about 6 months since I last got to play these two. I'll double check later today.)
|
|
Quenly's stuff:
Ancient Lorekeeper from Advanced Race Guide. Quenly has the nerfed alternate favoured class bonus for +1 level for his Many Forms revelation.
Many Forms is from the Dark Tapestry mystery in Ultimate Magic.
The Voonith is a small magical beast with a nice Dark Tapestry feel to it. It's in Bestiary 3. Quenly doesn't get its Howl ability, but does get Pounce.
Quenly calls his dragon his 'creature' typically. Its main role is to serve as 'interpreter' and sensor. I have an alias for it (have posted in gameplay) with all its stats on its profile. It uses a pseudodragon token.
Btw, Quenly does not conform to the typical view of the Dark Tapestry. They are certainly not gribbly alien entities that want to eat everyone and/or drive them mad. Oh no, sir! They are the Original and True Gods of the Elves, who chose him because he was clearly the most worthy recipient of their vast wisdom ;) (Quenly has WIS 8 - he's a bit vain).
|
|
Kramac is mainly a front-line melee fighter and tank. He rides his animal companion, Beak. Beak is a Yolibilis Heron. The character makes heavy use of teamwork feats. The main ones that might cause confusion are Outflank and Broken Wing Gambit. If you'd like me to give you a rundown on those, I will, but enough GMs already know the schtick that I'll wait for you to ask.
Kramac and Beak support each other defensively in combat - Kramac with Mounted Combat, Beak with Bodyguard (Beak nas the Bodyguard Animal Companion archetype). I'll roll mounted combat under a spoiler each round for you to look at if needed. I'll do the same with Beak's bodyguard rolls.
Between Bodyguard, Combat Expertise, and Litany of Defense, Kramac's AC can change a decent amount from turn to turn, so I'll try to put an accurate summary of his current AC in each combat post.
Finally one thing I'd like a ruling from you on now, as I have experienced a large amount of table variation. The feat Escape route is a teamwork feat that says:
An ally who also has this feat provokes no attacks of opportunity for moving through squares adjacent to you or within your space.
My reading of that is that if I have that feat, and am mounted on a creature that has that feat, neither of us provoke any opportunities as we are always moving through squares within each other's squares. But some GMs haven't liked that and say it doesn't work for a mounted pair. I don't use it super often, but as I am now in a higher tier with more plus size enemies, it is coming up more and more often.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You have a Heron now Kramac? This I have to see :)
Hah, yea. Turns out being able to fly at higher levels is pretty important. I know it is a little crunchy (and shows Kramac lacks the devotion of Kiboko to his animal companions), but being able to have a flying mount is pretty important.
I'm sure someone else has it as well, but for what its worth, Kramac does have Heroism for your channel the gift if you'd like.
Kramac, I am aware of that interpretation of Escape Route with a mount, and don't agree with it. The point is that while one creature moves, the other protects them. While you are mounted, you are moving together, and I just don't see that is being intended to mean you never provoke AoO for movement.
OTOH, Inquisitor Solo Tactics says you don't need a partner, so I have no problem with Kramac moving around freely (assuming you haven't traded away Solo Tactics), though Beak will still provoke.
I'm familiar with Bodyguard and Outflank, but not Broken Wing Gambit.
Also, just because I like looking at things I haven't seen before, what are the sources for your archetypes? I'm not familiar with any of them.
|
|
Sacred Huntsmaster trades away Solo Tactics for Hunter Tactics - ie Beak gets all my teamwork feats.
Sacred Huntsmaster is from Advanced Class Guide.
Snakebite Striker is from Advanced Class Guide.
Drill Sergeant is from Pathfinder Player Companion: Melee Tactics Toolbox.
Whenever you make a melee attack and hit your opponent, you can use a free action to grant that opponent a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls against you until the end of your next turn or until your opponent attacks you, whichever happens first. If that opponent attacks you with this bonus, it provokes attacks of opportunity from your allies who have this feat.
I typically activate Broken Wing Gambit most rounds I can with both Kramac and Beak - if a creature attack attacks one of us, it provokes from the other, which then also provokes from the original target of the attack thanks to Paired Opportunist. Kramac has a Fortuitous weapon, which will often trigger a 2nd AoO if he hits with the first, which can trigger a 2nd AoO from Beak. I typically roll all of these in a spoiler (boy, I am realizing this is more complicated than I remember and probably should have just put this all in the original post).
One other bit of rules clarification (this has only ever happened once, but worth getting clarification now since we're getting into the nitty gritty) - I had a GM once tell me 'I'm going to attack you but decline to take the Broken Wing Gambit bonus so you don't get an AoO. By my reading of the feat, the bonus is not optional
Checking the forums I found a single thread from 2012 on the topic. Based on that discussion, I have to agree that the target can't choose not to take the bonus, but if they have reason to know what's going on (like they have seen you do it before), they can choose not to attack you. If an opponent has a particularly high Sense Motive I might give them a check to realize what's going on in combat, but in general you'll get at least one use out of it if someone was attacking you already.
|
|
Yea - choosing not to attack because you know I'm pulling something and will get clobbered back is totally fine- this guy just didn't want to take the AoOs and still get to hit me.
One last thing - I have the Tapestry Vanguard Boon which gives Kramac the Favored Terrain (per the ranger ability) ability (at +2) while within the Tapestry.
|
|
Wow! It really gets complicated at higher levels! :-)
Zaarah is a bladebound hexcrafter magus so she can fly, has the slumber hex and an intelligent black blade “Mesh”. Her build is not very creative and she uses has a scimitar with intensified shocking grasp.
She has an evil aura from a cursed ion stone that she carries and that changed her alignment from ng to true neutral... and Mesh is not amused about that which leads to some schizophrenic outbursts.
She has a level of swashbuckler and parries/ripostes.
I realized two days ago that she is already 9th level so I will need to level her up. Unfortunately, I’ll only be able to do that on Monday.
I realized two days ago that she is already 9th level so I will need to level her up. Unfortunately, I’ll only be able to do that on Monday.
That's fine, we still have one more person to check in, and then the mission briefing to go through.
|
I'm here! Sorry for the slight delay. Thanks for having me at your table!
Shamak is a bard with the arcane duelist archetype. He buffs and fights in melee.
The only important stuff is that he has the Disruptive and spellbreaker feats.
Sylvain, our first PbP I think - we've played face to face at GardenCon though.
Yeah! Pleasure to play with you on those boards! :)
My very first PFS character is an arcane duelist bard! Nice to see someone else using the archetype! ;-)
Zaarah, I will be doing some knowledge checks a bit later.
|
|
Actually, best that I ask GM questions here I think since I have a couple.
I could now activate the Legend Lore function of my Scholar's Ring regarding the Tanglebriar (or possibly Treerazer) since I have used its bonus on a relevant skill check.
I'd like GM's advice on activation time for this - the Legend Lore spell can take days or weeks to cast, but activating a magic item is typically a standard action. I lean towards saying that using the Ring in this way is always a standard action, especially because it can be done once every 5 days.
Of course, pfs scenarios rarely account for use of Legend Lore, so if it wouldn't give anything useful or interesting (or if you can't work out how it might given what you've got to go on in the scenario) no worries.
Second GM question: what terrain type does the Tanglebriar count as? Forest, Abyssal or both? I ask because I will cast Hunter's Blessing
I read the Scholar's Ring as allowing you to do a Legend Lore, but it doesn't change the time. If you are in the place in question, it takes 1d4x10 minutes, otherwise 1d10 days. If the 1d10 is less than 5, you still can't use the ring again until the 5 day reset period.
That said, you are correct that there really won't be any additional useful information to gain beyond what you can get from the basic knowledge checks, so it's not really worth using in this instance.
For Hunter's Blessing, despite the Abyssal taint, Tanglebriar is still "forest" terrain.
|
|
Sorry about my silence there. Had a few days off and was cleaning mostly.
My comments on the party buff questions are in my Gameplay post here.
@GM Rinaldo If you have any questions about any spells, feel free to ask me and I will clarify what they do with their sources.
Sorry about my silence there. Had a few days off and was cleaning mostly.
My comments on the party buff questions are in my Gameplay post here.
@GM Rinaldo If you have any questions about any spells, feel free to ask me and I will clarify what they do with their sources.
How does Kindle have Breath of Life, Speak with Dead, and Calm Spirit?
Soul Magic: A death druid adds the following spells to her druid spell list at the given spell levels: 0—grave wordsOA; 1st—sanctify corpseUM; 2nd—calm spiritOA, false life, ghostbane dirgeAPG, spiritual weapon; 3rd—speak with dead; 4th—speak with hauntACG, spiritual allyAPG; 5th—breath of life, call spiritOA, mass ghostbane dirgeAPG; 6th—circle of death, undeath to death.
Source: Horror Adventures Page 50. Archives of Nethys link provided.
|
|
Who wants a Barkskin from Kindle+Quenly then? I believe it's a +4 bonus Kindle, at your CL that's for 100 minutes, 200 if you Extend.
Quenly will take one, especially if it's Extended. That leaves me 3 level 3 slots I can still burn on Channel the Gift if folks really want. I prefer to keep the higher level slots.
GM, Hunter's blessing is giving us all +2 initiative so I think everyone but kindle is acting before the centipede.
OH right, I missed that. You are correct.
I seem to have a cold. I slept most of the day and plan to be a zombie for the rest. I'll be back tomorrow. :-)
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Apologies for the offtopic post - this is the easiest place for me to talk to both Flynn and Quenly (and maybe some of you want to hop in too)
Flynn and Quenly - would the two of you be itnerested in trying to sign up for Siege of Gallowspire with Kramac, Flynn, and Kiboko, assuming this mod is finished by then?
|
|
I played Siege of Gallowspire at PaizoCOn UK last summer, and at tier 10-11 so it'd be identical if I replayed.
I think I'll look for another high-tier game for Kiboko though, he'll have some catching up to do and it doesn't look like we'll be doing Giantslayer together if BP is still away.
Cool - I'd still like to play Eyes of the Ten with you guys, even if it is someone other than Pony. Maybe he'll show back up while we are all headed to level 12 though.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Cool - I'd still like to play Eyes of the Ten with you guys, even if it is someone other than Pony. Maybe he'll show back up while we are all headed to level 12 though.
When you get there, if you need a GM let me know. I just finished running it for a group a few months ago, and have all of my prep.
|
|
Cool - I'd still like to play Eyes of the Ten with you guys, even if it is someone other than Pony. Maybe he'll show back up while we are all headed to level 12 though.When you get there, if you need a GM let me know. I just finished running it for a group a few months ago, and have all of my prep.
Thanks a ton for the offer- might take you up on it. Flynn, Kiboko (one of Quenly's other characters), and Kramac played in our first adventure together and have had a number of them together through the last few years, and I think we all like the idea of playing the capstone together.
It's a lot of fun, and I will say that the PbP format works well for it, despite the slower pace. There are places where having a digital map gives a superior experience from having a printed one on the table, and being able to pass secret notes via PM/Email is handy. ;-)
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Thanks for the offer, GM! Much appreciated. I got my intro to PFS and PBP here with those guys and would like to continue on...
And Kiboko, let me know if there are some 7-11 scenarios you’d like to play...I can run a couple or more for you to help you catch up, if needed...