[PF 2e]Age of Ashes Adventure Path

Game Master Simmyish

Welcome to the Age of Ashes Adventure Path Discussion forum.

Notes on Character Creation:

Recommend Alignments: Any non-evil alignment works best, however don't feel restricted by that, as long as your not the type to raze every village you come across.

Ancestry: The core ancestries will have a better chance in having a significant role as one of the major races within the adventure path. You can choose others, but goblins, elves, halflings, dwarves, gnomes and humans will have more personal gain to be made for their people.

Class: Any class

Languages: Common is definitely spoken by most people in the adventure path, but those that speak Dwarven, Elven, Gnomish, Goblin, Halfling, and Draconic will cover most of the interactions, but other languages will also get some time in the spotlight that might be useful.

Religion: Worship of draconic deities might be an issue - PM me if your thinking about this.

Backgrounds: Any Campaign background found in the players guide for the adventure path are permitted. For sake of ease, the ones that the adventure path will give opportunities for from the core rulebook are Acolyte, Artisan, Bounty Hunter, Detective, Emissary, Entertainer, Galdiator, Guard, Hunter, Laborer, Martial Disciple, Merchant, Nomad, Scholar, Scout, Tinker, or Warrior.

If you have any further questions then feel free to drop them here during character creation days :)

The messages have been sent out, and it's all good to go :)

Welcome to you all, Redsevic, Cathirix, Hothfar, Aeral and Nosteo. (Using character names so you guys get to know who has been chosen along with you beforehand).

I'll be posting the list publicly tomorrow/later (depending on where you are in the world) probably sometime between 5 and 6 PM GMT on the recruitment forum.

I already have the first post up for you guys to respond - and like the cliche that it is, we'll be starting in a tavern. So, I look forward to seeing you all post your intros and getting to know each other, and while that is happening, there will be some OOC discussion here, starting with how often people are willing to post.

Now, I am going to personally be checking on a daily basis, but I know not everybody is that available and life can get in the way of such things. So I usually have a suggestion of no more than 5 days between posts. I will be posting a minimum of every 3 days, even if waiting on others, just to remind people we are waiting on them (for example during times in initative), but if everybody can do at least a post daily, I would be OK with that as well.

Also, if there are any sensitive topics that might be a problem for you, then feel free to put it here, as I feel it would be good for the group to know. If you feel uncomfortable doing that, then feel free to send me a PM about it instead, but I highly recommend that everybody is aware of such things.

OK, I think that's it from me on the Out of Character stuff, I look forward to seeing your posts and now it's time to tell your stories!

Hello everyone! Dotting this thread for now before I go to bed, will try to get a gameplay post off in the morning. :)

Greetings

Greetings everyone. Looking forward to playing this AP together with you all.

Regarding my posting, usually once per day when home from work with a bagger post. Small posts during the day could be possible, but I don'te have that much time.

I am fine with most things being talked about as long as it doesn't get too expletive or detailed.

Hi guys. I also look forward to playing with you guys. I see you still can't change avatar pics.

I can almost always post at least once a day. If I'm going on vacation or something I can let y'all know.

Hey GM is it ok if I make a small change before we begin? I was considering taking champion dedication at level 2 and flip flopped before submitting. I think I would prefer to do so, it's too neat an idea I think. Can I swap the armor proficiency feat? I'd probably take the Natural Skill ancestry feat instead of general training.

And thanks for choosing me!

At this stage, I'm fine with that as we're still in basically the introductory period, so if you want to make any changes right now that's fine. :)

I look forward to seeing where things go. :)

Snickers in the flame: Initiative Order

Fire Mephit
Hothfar Stonehand
Nosteo Faustus
Hazard: Town Hall Fire
Aeral of Korvosa
Redsevic Yardin
Cathirix

If the map is giving you trouble I can make another suggestion. Most folks on here use google slides, which also has the benefit of having us move ourselves instead of you having to do it. Of course you'd have to recreate the map on there so I don't blame ya if you don't wanna do that.

I could also PM a roll20 campaign link and do it that way, just for the maps. That's another option... but I'll get everyone's opinion on the matter first :)

For me that would depend on if you have a paid account. I do all my pbp on my phone so it would slow me way down because I'd have to wait til I got home to check the map if you don't. Not that I'm asking you to start paying if you aren't already

I have a plus account on roll20.

In that case anything is fine with me.

We are to here in the initiative yes?

Aeral of Korvosa
Redsevic Yardin
Cathirix

Yep

Sorry for the absence, at home we were trying to organise something for a birthday for my cousin who is sick at home. Not sure yet if it a common flu or not, so we'd had to improvise.

I have an idea but I don't know if it will work outside encounter mode. If I wanted to use Deception to create a distraction and then attack the dude would we need to roll initiative first?

That'll require an initiative roll, but I'd allow you to use Deception for the roll. Also, do remember that the council want him alive, for questioning.

It's time to roll initiative methinks.

Yep :) And just a reminder: You have been asked to bring him back to Breachill alive for questioning.

Hey Everyone, Sorry I haven't been around the last week and a half or so - my computer's charger decided to catch fire so I had to order a new one which has turned up now so things should be back to normal - New post is incoming now.

Sorry guys, I have to bow out, IRL responsibilities limit me incredibly in participating. I would have loved to play Hothfarr to his potential and play on the arc I had in mind for him, but as of a few weeks ago, roleplaying has taken a back seat to taking care of my family.

I wish you all the best and have fun completing this story.

Best of luck and take care!

It is kind of amusing to visualize half the party just popping out of existence one by one...

heh, with only two I can open up recruitment but its difficult to do in the middle of a fight, so what do the two who are still around want to do. We can:

Continue on with two, at least until the end of this combat.

Open up applications for new players to join (this would most likely still incorporate the first one).

Open up applications for new players to join, but start it as a new game.

I'm personally also fine with bringing in new folks and pretending they've been here the whole time. I wouldn't want to start over but I'm not crazy opposed to it. I think two of us can probably take on this one dude though if necessary.

Same here.

Well we'll see if that's the case and I'll get recruitment open for the them to join in after.

You know, you might want to send a pm to some of the folks who applied originally.

Also, maybe I was wrong about being fine 2 on 1. Cuz that crit just did me in.

:P - I did send some out, just whether they've been received. And in this game - crits are brutal... :P

In response to Nosteo's post, I'm going to post the reply here rather than the gameplay because it's not going to be a short reply to answer. That being said, I hope this helps explain things.

So, how dying works - currently you are Unconscious at dying 1. You can use all of your unspent hero points to come back with 1 hit point. As this is done at the start of your turn, you can then take your turn as normal

Now would be a good time as to explain how I'll be using hero points during a Play by Post, which is a lot harder to do than if it were played by session. I was thinking for each chapter, that will be when you get hero points (not part, so during burnt offerings, you would get a total of 4 hero points, one for each chapter - unless you do a really good post and I give one out for that moment. For those, you can nominate other players for a hero point if you also feel they deserve it - in an OOC comment before your post, explain why, and then if I agree, the player may be awarded one.

Of course, everybody always starts each chapter with 1 hero point, and as you currently haven't spent any this game yet - you still have them.

Now, as for if you decide not to use your hero point when it comes to dying. You are now unconscious at 0 hit points, and as long as you are not hit again, you are not dying. Once you regain hit points, which won't happen for a little bit, you'll become wounded 1. If you use a hero point, you do not gain the wounded condition.

Sorry about the long OOC for that, just thought it would be good to get these little rules things out of the way now - considering one is going to be working a bit differently from RAW, as that way is just not possible in this style of play. Also, not a dig, but just to help with keeping the gameplay chat in game, if you have rules questions, feel free to drop them here.

I forget that hero points are a thing.

So if you're letting me go back and use the hero point to get to 1 hp, I should have two turns I need to put up. I'm going to do that and if it's incorrect ignore it. I think now is a good time to use the point, otherwise Red might be in trouble.

Yep, sorted :)

So, I've been thinking and wanted to get the groups opinion. Do you want to throw a couple of new people in the deep end to come as reinforcements, or wait until after the combat?

If this dude is still a long way from going down we might oughta add new folks as reinforcements.

Seriously, I feel like he's taking too many hits to still be stabbing away! Is this Second Edition?

I say, bring in the heroic new party members to rescue us and sweep us off our feet. Red can sing weakly to spur them on.

OK, players invited - will wait until I've got the two of them confirmed before I post anything in recruitment to say in case either of them can't do it anymore.

Hello all! Appreciate you calling me in on this one.

For the record, I have very little knowledge of how this game works but I'm not completely ignorant about it. But it's still going to be a learning experience for me. What better way to learn than to play, right? I hope that's cool.

Now where are y'all at within the game? I was in an Ashes game a while back(lasted a month I think. Two tops) so I'm curious the extent of how much you've covered. I read a little of the gameplay thread and it looks like y'all are in combat with a halfling, I think?

I don't remember any halfling encounter in the game I was in so that's why I'm curious how far y'all have gotten. I would suspect not too far considering this game is only about 3 or so months old.

Edit: By the way, I'm going to be running with this guy: Joran

Hey everyone! Really excited to get to play with all of you. I'm going to finish reading through the gameplay thread so far and then when the GM is ready to drop us in, I'll be good to go!

I've played a decent amount of 2e, and I've GM'd a whole 2 sessions of it, so I am generally pretty comfortable with the system. If folks would like, I can try to offer reminders about abilities and things like that, but I don't want to seem bossy.

The one thing I always like to remind people about if they're coming from 1e is that Demoralize is hugely powerful! It's only 1 action, and the Frightened condition doesn't just hurt their attacks, saves, and so on, it lowers their AC too! If you're good at intimidating and have a spare action on your turn, it's definitely worth a try.

Hey, Enara(Firefly? Totally makes me think of her) ;), PLEASE let me know if I miss something. I'll take any and all "bossiness" in that regard. :) Heck that goes for any of you. Any reminders from anyone if I'm missing something or doing something wrong will be appreciated. That's really the only way I'm going to learn this thing.

And I love intimidation so I'll definitely be keeping an eye on that.

Also, whenever you need us to pop in the gameplay, Simmy, just let us know. Will try and check out the gameplay here in a bit to figure out the setup. Which would probably answer my initial questions as far as that goes. Duh. :P

Take a look at this Post

Okay, this roll was a natural 20. Which I would gather is still a crit. And the damage was 9. Now is it simply doubled to 18 or is there something else you should do? I know each weapon has different type abilities so that's why I ask. It doesn't have to be more than 10 over the AC to be a crit, correct? It can be a nat 20 or 10 over the AC?

And there's no rolling a "crit confirm" any more, is that right?

Right, a natural 20 increases the degree of success by 1, so even if the numerical result would only be a success, it becomes a critical success. Or a failure becomes a success, but if your attack roll's nat 20+modifiers is still a failure, you should probably run!

Generally for a critical hit you double all the damage rolled, though you've got stuff like the Deadly or Fatal traits where you roll more dice and add that to the total (but those specific dice are not themselves multiplied).

A nat 1 works the same, but in reverse, turning a critical success into a success and so on.

You are also correct that crit confirms did not survive the transition either.

Right, a natural 20 increases the degree of success by 1, so even if the numerical result would only be a success, it becomes a critical success. Or a failure becomes a success, but if your attack roll's nat 20+modifiers is still a failure, you should probably run!

Okay, hold the phone. You're telling me that if a nat 20+modifiers does NOT hit the target's AC, it's a miss? Seriously? Please correct me if I am not reading that right.

And I'm not understanding how a nat 1 could be a success in any form. Shouldn't that be a massive failure?

Welcome gang. We are not very far in at all and we are fighting a halfling, yes.

I enjoy helping people learn games so that is no problem from me, though I can be wrong too (especially in 2e I'm still getting the hang of it). I think I sound bossy sometimes too though I am not trying to be, if I forget something please do tell me.

That is correct from my reading that a nat 20 isn't an auto success. I think they did that because they got rid of the confirm roll. I'm pretty sure nat 1s are the same, if you still succeed then cool. A note: even in 1e this was true for skills. Nat 20s and 1s only auto passed/failed on attacks and saves. If you are really good at picking a banjo you won't fail playing a simple song no matter how badly you roll for example. I like it that way myself. Why should a fighter who's swung his sword 40,000 times miss some dude with a crappy armor class? Makes more sense if you think of it that way because more often than not if you roll a 1 and hit anyway there is probably a ridiculous level difference.

Again, welcome! Let's have fun killing monsters and stuff.

Yes in 1e the natural rolls were not auto fails/crits for skills. I like that as well. If you're good enough you're good enough. Totally makes sense.

Okay so what you're saying is, if it's a natural 20 and it hits the targets AC, it IS a crit. Doesn't have to exceed it by 10, correct?

And what you're saying about a natural 1 is, if you have a modifier of +20 say, and you actually hit the dude, then that's a hit?

Is this accurate? Because it sounds really weird to me. Having a hard time wrapping my head around that one. :P

So what if you roll a natural 1 and you miss? Is that a "crit miss"? Or do you have to miss by "10"? As in the opposite of a critical hit.

Crits are either or. If a dude has AC 15 and you add 10 you would crit on a roll of 15. If a dude has AC 27 and you add 10 you only crit with a nat.

The nat one thing is just like skills now basically, if you're good enough then you're good enough. Think of it like this. I've never even watched an entire boxing match, let alone train. If I tried to box Mike Tyson in his prime there ain't no way he's missing me and there ain't no way I'm punching him and doing any damage. Because if you can hit on a 1 we're talking that much disparity in attack bonus and ac. Maybe even more.

I don't think attack rolls have a crit miss. Only some things have critical success/fail. For things that do have a crit fail, which is usually saves on spells and stuff like that, it's exactly like a crit succes. Either 10 less or a fail with a nat 1.

Okay, hold the phone. You're telling me that if a nat 20+modifiers does NOT hit the target's AC, it's a miss? Seriously? Please correct me if I am not reading that right.

And I'm not understanding how a nat 1 could be a success in any form. Shouldn't that be a massive failure?

Oh no, not at all. If the numerical result of 20+modifiers isn't enough, but is still more than the DC-10, then a nat 20 would change it from a failure to success. If your nat 20+modifiers is still a failure by 10 or more, then it moves from a critical failure to a failure.

Example: You're rolling against a DC 30, and your bonus is +5. Rolling a 20 gets you to 25, which is still a failure. But because it's a nat 20, it increases your degree of success from failure to success.

Same modifier against a DC 40. A 25 fails by 15, so it's a critical failure, but the nat 20 increases it to just a failure.

Then, let's flip it around. Say you're rolling against a DC of 10 and your bonus is +10. Rolling a 1 gives you a result of 11, but the nat 1 moves it from a success to a failure. If your bonus is +20, result itself is a critical success, but the nat 1 takes it down to just a success.

Nosteo is right that generally there's no added effect on a critical failure for an attack, but there are some abilities that trigger on someone rolling a critical failure against you. One example would be the Swashbuckler playtest: if someone critically missed against you, you could Strike them as a Reaction.

A really easy trick that works in most cases is to just think of it like this: a nat 20 adds an extra +10 bonus on to the roll, and a nat 1 applies an additional -10 penalty. It doesn't work in extreme cases, like a low modifier against a DC in the 40s or a single digit DC where your roll has a bonus that's 30+, but those are rare enough that it is a good rule of thumb.

So - to summarise all of this

10+ the target number (AC/DC): Critical Succes (for attacks - double damage).
Natural 20: One degree higher than rate of success
Natural 1: Lowers degree of success by 1
less than 10 the target number: Critical Failure

Javell, how well acquainted would you like Joran and Enara to be? Your backstory has him pretty well-established in town, but Enara is very much a newcomer to Breachill. I can roll with anything from "new drinking buddies" to "two people Warbal literally just rounded up off the street" to whatever you like.

Per the 20/1 roll: Oooooooh okay. Thanks for the breakdown. That helps.

Per Joran and Enara: Let's see, let's see. Okay! After the reading the thread, I like the drinking buddies type thing. I'd figure after not getting chosen for the Call of Heroes, Joran would probably just smile and offer to buy you a drink to help drown out their disappointment and talk about how they got robbed.

But even though it's a disappointment, he's still smiling. Because that's what he does. Odds are he'd probably be smiling in death too. Yeah he's kinda crazy. (By the way this is NOT a cue for the DM to test that 'smiling in death' theory. Please. And thank you.) :P