Please direct OOC chatter and queries here!
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If it comes to it, I can swap out Lauranna here for someone who brings down the APL a bit, as I have options, and Lee here was one of the first people to sign in.
Otherwise:
Player Great Green God
Character Lauranna Cindel
PFS # 139009-57
Faction Silver Crusade
Day Job N/A
Lauranna is hard to explain, so I'll let THIS, the beginning of the best (possibly Grammy winning) set of posts ever(!) do it for me. In my (ye) old Red Box, Blue Box D&D games she was a cleric of Adjulates, Goddess of Mirth as a balance for the other party clerics who were always a bit stiff in Lauranna opinion.
While she is a cleric, because of her archetype, she can't ditch spells for healing (when she does she gets bard spells), and her channeling ability is lessened by one die. In exchange, she has some bardic abilities.
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Looks like we’d be playing high-tier with the 4-player adjustment. Granted, playing above your tier is more risky for those on the front lines.
But really, tiers are just another way The Man tries to separate the people, you know? It’s a conspiracy to keep us apart. You gotta fight back! Reject the Establishment!
Player: Hawthwile
Character: Joe Public
PFS #: 264524-25
Faction: Liberty’s Edge
Progression: Normal
Day Job:
Joe tends to focus on enchantments and debilitating effects rather than direct damage. He’s also a huge conspiracy nut, so let me know if my playstyle becomes not fun for you and I’ll adapt it.
Hi Lady L!
I signed up with Lucky Lee here, but I see that we've got a mixed-tier group according to the outpost signup sheet. I do have level 4-5 characters available, but Lee is my only Liberty's Edger in tier so I'd prefer to play him.
Do you have any advice on playing up in this scenario?
Advice? Mm...I will say that this scenario has what I think is a pretty good mixture of social/skill action and some combat. As I glance at the characters signed up it looks - as best as I can tell - like you guys will have a fairly 'balanced' group in terms of melee, ranged, magic, and skills.
For those who've played at my tables before, you probably already know that I'm pretty flexible on skill sections - give me some roleplay and a halfway sound explanation or reasoning behind your choice/action and I'll probably allow whatever you're wanting to do. Unless it's explicitly spelled out to not work for Reasons, of course.
In combat, I don't take any joy in killing characters nor do I intentionally try to go out of my way to do so. But I do try to run my bad guys in a sensible manner (accounting for listed tactics of course). Of course my idea of 'sensible' may not agree with someone else's idea of sensible - if that should happen, please talk to me about it so that we can hopefully reach some sort of agreement or understanding on the issue!
Otherwise, play what you want to play and have fun with it :)
Speaking of fun...
*reads Lauranna's linked posts and Joe Public's character description*
...you know what? I'm into it. Given the current circumstances we're all dealing with to one degree or another, I'm down for some ridiculousness during the journey that will be this scenario. Let's have a grand ol' time :)
I work in healthcare and while things aren't crazy at my particular place of employment at the moment, that could always change. So life is largely business as usual for me - and this means that my posting will remain roughly 1-2/day since I'm not staying home/working from home.
Oh and I'll try and get an intro post up as soon as I can, but I work tonight so it may not happen until tomorrow evening. Given the flow of this particular scenario I should be able to offer a slightly more entertaining 'introduction time' than the usual 'you're all waiting in the VC's office for the briefing' introductions that usually happen.
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I'll stick with Lucky then :)
Player supervillan
Character Lucky Lee
PFS number 75577-12
Faction Liberty's Edge
Progression normal
Day job none
Lucky is a stoic survivor. His job is keeping others alive by putting his own body on the line (though I may have to exercise caution with that whilst playing up). Eventually he'll have lots of halfling-specific feats to support that role, but at level 2 he's a raging monk.
Mechanically the only thing of special note is that Lucky has the Devoted Guardian class feature from the Sohei monk archetype, that means he always acts in surprise rounds.
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Player: Larry Smith
Character: Santiago del Fuego
PFS #: 67083-18
Faction: Silver Crusade
Progression: Normal
Day Job:
Santiago del Fuego is a charming, basically good man, but he's also a bit of a hothead, diligently working through some anger issues.
He was a Qadiran street urchin taken in by Laqat, an old crone but an experienced bard and successful information broker. Laqat, for reasons known only to herself, secured a place for Santiago with the woman Matviyyah, a devout and loyal dervish of the Dawnflower, both a warrior and a priestess, and one of the most prominent of Sarenrae’s faithful in Katheer.
Laqat and Matviyyah eventually told him the truth: that though he was ‘mostly human,’ he is, in fact, an ifrit, with at least one ancestor an efreet, a being from the elemental plane of fire.
Santiago isn't really a cold-blooded killer. He uses his scimitar to demoralize his foes and beat them into submission or unconsciousness, whichever comes first.
He's had his eye on a masterwork harpsichord crafted by the world-famous master artisan Martin Skowroneck. He plans to buy it with the gold he earns on this mission--if, Dawnflower-willing, he survives. He enjoys dancing, but he feels objectified when folks slip coins in his pants when he's belly dancing. He trying hard to be taken seriously as a professional musician, but the transition to respectability has been tough, and the money's not as good.
I still need to prep Santiago's tagline. A task for tomorrow.
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Player's Name: Otha
Character's Name: Wymarc
Faction: Grand Lodge
PFS #: 239913-10
XP TRACK: normal
Day Job roll:
Oh and I'll try and get an intro post up as soon as I can, but I work tonight so it may not happen until tomorrow evening. Given the flow of this particular scenario I should be able to offer a slightly more entertaining 'introduction time' than the usual 'you're all waiting in the VC's office for the briefing' introductions that usually happen.
Sounds awesome, GM! You made The Haunting of Hinojai very thematic and I'm looking forward to playing under you again...
Hey folks, apologies for the delay on that opening post. I've been a bit out of sorts on my end but I've made good progress getting all my stuff caught up and as such I'm about to start working on a post for you guys now!
It looks like everyone has checked in but yogadragon; I'll shoot them a PM and hopefully they'll be able to join us soon.
@Wymarc - Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed Haunting and I hope you guys will enjoy this one as well :)
Alrighty, intro post is up so feel free to check in and begin posting at your leisure! Slides are also up and linked at the top of the campaign page as well as in the header of my GM posts.
The slides should be set to be editable but please let me know if that's not the case.
When everyone gets a chance, please fill out your information on Slide #2 and place your tokens in a preferred marching order on Slide #3.
(Optional) - If you wish to set up botting spoilers for me in the event that you're unable to post for an extended stretch of time, please feel free and I will execute them to the best of my ability. Otherwise I will likely place you on delay during any combat rounds that may or may not occur.
Slot number 2 was left blank, so it looks like someone dropped.
Using the Pregen gunslinger. He will either be the level 4 version or the level 1 version depending upon the tier. I'd rather not mark everyone up.
LIRIANNE Female half-elf gunslinger 4 (Ultimate Combat 9) CG Medium humanoid (elf, human) Init +5; Senses low-light vision; Perception +8 DEFENSE AC 19, touch 15, flat-footed 15 (+4 armor, +1 deflection, +3 Dex, +1 dodge) hp 40 (4d10+12) Fort +6, Ref +7, Will +4; +2 vs. enchantment Immune sleep OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee longsword +5 (1d8+1/19–20) Ranged mwk pistol +9 (1d8/×4) STATISTICS Str 12, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 11 Base Atk +4; CMB +5; CMD 20 Feats Gunsmithing*, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Skill Focus (Perception)*, Weapon Focus (pistol)* Skills Craft (alchemy) +7, Intimidate +7, Knowledge (engineering) +7, Perception +8, Sleight of Hand +10 Traits elven reflexes*, killer Languages Common, Elven SQ deeds (deadeye, gunslinger initiative, gunslinger’s dodge, pistol-whip, quick clear, utility shot), elf blood*, grit (3), gunsmith*, nimble +1* Combat Gear oil of silence, potion of cat’s grace, potion of cure light wounds, alchemist’s fire; Other Gear +1 studded leather, longsword, mwk pistols (2) with 30 bullets, ring of protection +1, adamantine bullets (5), backpack, dagger, gunsmith’s kit, hemp rope (50 ft.), paper cartridges (15), powder horn with 10 doses of black powder, silver bullets (5), sunrods (2), waterskin, 29 gp * This ability has already been calculated into Lirianne’s stats. SPECIAL ABILITIES Grit Lirianne begins each day with 3 grit points. Her grit goes up or down throughout the day, but cannot go higher than this maximum. Lirianne can spend grit to accomplish deeds (see below), and regains 1 point of grit each time she confirms a critical hit with a firearm or when she reduces a creature to 0 or fewer hit points with a firearm. Deeds Lirianne can spend grit points (see above) to accomplish the following deeds: Deadeye: Lirianne can resolve an attack against touch AC instead of normal AC when firing beyond her firearm’s first range increment
for a cost of 1 grit point per range increment beyond the first. Lirianne still takes the –2 penalty on attack rolls for each range increment beyond the first when she performs this deed. Gunslinger Initiative: As long as she has at least 1 grit point, Lirianne gains a +2 bonus on initiative checks. Gunslinger’s Dodge: Lirianne can spend 1 grit point to avoid a ranged attack by moving 5 feet as an immediate action, granting her a +2 bonus to AC against the attack. This is not a 5-foot step, and provokes attacks of opportunity. Alternatively, she can drop prone to gain a +4 bonus to AC against the attack. Pistol-Whip: Lirianne can make a surprise melee attack with the handle of her pistols as a standard action costing 1 grit point (+7 [1d6]). If the attack hits, she can make a combat maneuver check to knock the target prone as a free action. Quick Clear: As long as Lirianne has 1 grit point, she can, as a standard action, remove the broken condition from her pistol, if the condition resulted from a misfire. If she instead spends 1 grit point, she can perform quick clear as a move-equivalent action. Utility Shot: If Lirianne has at least 1 grit point, she can perform a number of utility shots as described on page 11 of Ultimate Combat. Each utility shot can be applied to any single attack with a firearm, but Lirianne must declare the utility shot she is using before firing the shot. Killer When Lirianne confirms a critical hit, she deals an additional amount of damage equal to her weapon’s critical modifier (+2 with her longsword or +4 with her pistol). This additional damage is added to the final total and is not multiplied by the critical hit multiplier itself. Pistol Lirianne’s pistol attacks resolve against the target’s touch AC when the target is within the first range increment of the weapon (20 ft.) and have a maximum range of five range increments. The guns can each hold a single bullet at a time, and reloading one of them is a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity. If a pistol attack is ever a natural 1, the firearm misfires and gains the broken condition. While it has the broken condition, it suffers the normal disadvantages that broken weapons do, and its misfire value increases to a range of 1–5. If her broken pistol misfires again, it explodes, destroying the weapon and creating a 5-ft. burst from one randomly determined corner of her square, dealing damage to any creature in the burst (including Lirianne) as if it had been damaged by the weapon—a DC 12 Reflex save halves this damage. Point-Blank Shot When Liriane shoots at a target within a range of 30 ft., she adds +1 to her attack and damage rolls. Precise Shot Lirianne can shoot at a target engaged in melee without taking the standard –4 penalty on the attack.
Edit: let me know what tier we are using, I put in the stats for the 4th level gunslinger, cause that is what I think the tier is, otherwise, I rewrite the gunslinger for pregen 1
edit: Chronicle info
Player: doublegold
Character: apply to Tusk Aran 2
Number: 135676-12
Dark Archive
Yep, I heard from yogadragon who thought he'd dropped out on the sign-up sheet earlier. Since I see that DoubleGold has already jumped in to claim the empty spot then it looks like we've got our full crew.
Further posts in a bit if work is quiet~
By the way, I hope the multi-posts aren't too confusing. Since there are two or three different conversations happening (and I don't want to overlook replying to someone) it's easier for me to reply to one or two at a time, tagged with the headers so people will know that I'm addressing or referencing their character specifically in some manner.
Obviously this is all happening in the common room so everyone can basically hear all the chatter unless you specify that you're speaking more quietly to someone in particular, but it's easier for me as a GM in this case to do posts directed at individuals instead or one or two really big TL;DR posts.
Also, given the rather amusing topic of conversation I will apologize to Joe in advance if I slip up and address him as 'Joe Pubic'.
Okay, so without me, the party level average would have been around 3 right? According to my calculations, that is what it seems. If it would have been 2 or less then I'm marking the party up by using the pregen 4 instead of 1.
Assuming everyone's alias headlines are up to date and noone posted with the incorrect alias..
Joe 2
Santiago 4
Lucky 2
Wymarc 3
Laurana 4
2+4+2+3+4=15 15/5=3
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Okay, so without me, the party level average would have been around 3 right? According to my calculations, that is what it seems. If it would have been 2 or less then I'm marking the party up by using the pregen 4 instead of 1.
Assuming everyone's alias headlines are up to date and noone posted with the incorrect alias..Joe 2
Santiago 4
Lucky 2
Wymarc 3
Laurana 4
[NPC 4][SubTotal 19]
[Subtotal/6 = Total = Even more 3]
Sure, so long as you bring someone with hit points and a BAB who can get into people's faces somehow. Wymarc Otha is already consistent ranged damage, Joe is a caster (sorta), Santiago seems to self-buff so, so long as he can do that he'll be okay, Lucky will have to be both skilled, and lucky if he faces anything big with multiple attacks, and Lauranna is both a sub-optimal bard and a sub-optimal healer, neither of which are great for the front line, though she does that too at need.
While dealing damage precisely from afar is good (and who knows the big bads might all be ugly, small-eared, hunchbacked, carnivorous pegasi, who spit from afar), but having one of the largest two pools of party hit points not standing somewhere near the front seems tactically a bit off.
That's just my opinion. Lauranna is not particularly in a bad spot regardless. Were I playing in the lower-level-tier though I would probably have some concerns about my character's durability, and chances of success based upon my reading of the other PCs in the party, and I would probably want to see either a burly tank, or an extra support class character for when accidents do happen.
Again, that's just me. I haven't looked at everyone's choices that deeply, and really don't even know what a Pea-sich-ic(?), Pea-sick-hic(?), a whatever-it-is that Joe is, is. If Leary Anne can do something for the party that it needs, great. If you just want to play her because she's cool (even though she's a half-elf--"the Drow rangers" of Golarion), that's cool too. If all she's bringing is more ranged damage though (and again, I didn't look too deep into the statblock above out of fear that it might look back) that's just not high on my personal first-pick radar.
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To be absolutely blunt about it, Lirianne is a very weak level 4. Minimal damage, no special attacks of note, average AC, limited skills, poor equipment. She has good hp and decent saves, that's about it.
I note "Silver Bullet" is supposed to be a male human - that would give an additional feat (eg Deadly Aim) in place of Lirianne's Skill Focus, but then he wouldn't be a pregen.
I'm not trying to tell you what to play DoubleGold - play the character you want to play. (If you are open to suggestions though, Crowe or Oloch would beef up this party ;) ) That Silver Bullet character sheet is extremely difficult to read though.
I'm willing to play up if Joe is. I can blow some PP on scrolls of Bulls Strength that'll help Lucky's melee damage output. Lucky's AC is ok if he has time to activate his wand of shield, and I'll buy a potion or two of Shield of Faith.
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For everyone's consideration:
Santiago is prepared to be a front-liner and is a pretty effective fighter. With decent Perception and Initiative modifiers, he ought to act early in most rounds. To take pressure off the lower-level PCs, Santiago would take the heat to, and draw the heat from, the toughest guy he can.
When battle-dancing and raging, Santiago is +11 to hit, dealing d6+8 nonlethal damage, with a free Intimidate (+10) attempt to demoralize his opponent with each successful attack, leaving the baddie shaken for a number of rounds equal to the damage dealt, suffering a -2 penalty to attacks, saves, skill/ability checks.
He's good, but he's not going to steal the spotlight from the rest of the team, nor will he steam-roll over them.
Out of combat, he'll be a help with Knowledge (+6 all) and skill checks, including Diplomacy/Intimidate (+10) in social situations. He's got 43 charges in his wand of CLW, and he's happy to use it on his friends, if for some reason they don't have healing of their own.
He's not going to leave you hanging.
I'm not trying to tell you what to play DoubleGold - play the character you want to play. (If you are open to suggestions though, Crowe or Oloch would beef up this party ;) ) That Silver Bullet character sheet is extremely difficult to read though.
There are a lot of pregens to read through to find names, what classes are you talking?
On another note changed my init to +7, because of gunslinger's init. It is +5 when I have no grit and I start with 3 grit.Edit: Fixed his race and gender, since it is suppose to say pregen.
I don't read from my character sheet, cause it would take forever to sort it out and organize it, I read from the level 4 gunslinger pregen sheet. The good thing about a pregen is if anyone has questions about how I did X or what allows me to do Y, all they have to do is read the same pregen sheet I read.
Crowe is the bloodrager pregen and Oloch is the warpriest pregen. While I've not had the pleasure of adventuring with Pregen Crowe I have done so with Pregen Oloch and he was kind of a beast. Apparently Crowe is much the same, from what I've read.
While I don't want to give too much about the scenario away I will gently remind the group that you're currently within a pretty big city and so you just might have the opportunity to do some shopping once you have a better idea of what your mission will be - should you feel the need to do so.
Otherwise, all I can say is that I played this scenario last April in the high tier with my witch and while very fun, I don't remember finding it unusually challenging.
Now, Silver Mount Collection? That was another story entirely... *shudders*
On another note, I can keep both my guns preloaded between combats right? Not sure if you can do that with the earliest guns, if that would ruin them, or if that is realistic.
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And again my only concern is having the back row being most of the party. If Lirianne can switch-hit, and get in close when needed then that's fine with me (not that I actually have much if any say). It is just by their nature most (non-pregen) ranged combatants I have seen focus on ranged damage output to the exclusion of most other things, and avoid getting within 10' of a melee, which again is fine so long as there is at least one or two meat shields in the mix.
Arby's, we have the meat shields!™
I picked Lirianne because she can be both melee and ranged. Gun when trying to hit plate mail or really high ac targets. But usually in all other cases fire from 10 feet away or step right up and use the sword.
^I really think you guys will be okay with the group that you have and I also don't want to pressure anyone to play a character, even a pregen, that they don't want to play. As I said, there'll be plenty of opportunity to pick up supplies throughout the scenario as well.
In other news, spent part of the weekend doing yard work; I'll officially get us rolling here in a little bit!
We're really only just getting started but I'm really enjoying the characterization and humor that you guys are putting into your posts. My department at work is currently being subjected to reactionary scheduling (yaaaay /s) depending on how busy we are (or aren't) and between that and the (understandable) level of stress floating around in general, I've needed the laughs.
Working on an update now; as always, thank you for your patience :)
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GM, I've not yet updated my character sheet but I'd like to add the purchases I referred to earlier: 2PP for a scroll of 5x Bulls Strength, 50gp for a potion of Shield of Faith, plus 50gp for an oil of Magic Weapon and 50gp for an oil of Bless Weapon.
If I have to wait till after the party for this, that's fair too.
Nah that's fine, you can go ahead and have those now.
@All - Apologies for the continued delays. I've got my reasons (see the spoiler below) and it absolutely has nothing to do with you guys or the game itself. As I've got plenty of time before I have to head to work tonight I'm working on getting caught up on games and such now.
Life is weird right now and it's a slightly different sort of weird as an essential worker compared to the folks currently stuck at home. The two best statements I've seen to describe it are as follows (quoted verbatim):
'Trying to square my own life rhythms that are so close to being business-as-usual with this tremendous worldwide disruption is so psychologically uncomfortable.'
'Not that I’m not intensely grateful to have a job and to have the option of continuing to come to the office, but the sense that there’s this massive shared experience going on that I’m not part of is definitely present as well.'
Life for me is allllllmost normal...but just enough things are Not Normal that it's throwing me off-kilter. I'm very thankful to still have a job and to not have to worry about trying to WFH or figure out how to keep kids schooled/entertained, or how I'm going to pay the mortgage for the month but I'm also not chilling out doing YouTube yoga or getting involved in creative projects or learning a new language or whatever. I'm still working my FT hours at a job where things are changing day by day, where the scheduling has gone from, "Oh we're not busy, gotta cut hours" to "All hands, no vacation time, at least 2 people on shift at all times, even at night" in the space of a week, where everyone is on edge and tense and tempers are short. Heck, my coworker I was partnered with Monday night got into an argument with an employee from another department (I missed it as I was doing something elsewhere) over whose job it was to do what because up to that point there had been no concrete guidance on the matter.
It's definitely been affecting my sleep patterns and I've had a low-grade headache off and on for days (feel as fine as can be expected otherwise, thankfully). Concentrating on writing has been hard.
Blargh.
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I sympathize, GM. No pressure from me to push through this stuff. Take 20, drink water, sleep. Come back when you're somewhat refreshed.
The disease itself continues to exact a heavy toll in human (and ferret?) lives, and the world's collective reaction has devastated the livelihoods of many millions more. I'm not sure we'll ever be able to accurately measure the second- and third-order consequences and costs of this latest pandemic.
Hope this won't be the new world norm for reacting to every nasty bug that comes out of that or any other part of the world.
Apologies for the massive post-dump but after a week's dry spell I have to take advantage of the creative urge when it strikes. I'll give you guys a breather to catch up, comment on/react to what's been posted thus far, and then go from there - as well as respond to the Perception & Diplomacy checks some of you guys made.
@Silver - Nah, Zig's the little goblin kid that's helping out at the inn. He basically performed an 'Aid Another' action to help you with your check! Though if you want to take it as him trying to flirt with you, feel free to run with it :3
@Lauranna - Sorry for that. It sort of depends on the group as to whether I set scenes myself or just run with what my players post. I've had players that do need a little more scene-setting in order to really get into character and post/respond to something and I've also had players that will take the tiniest prompts and head for the hills with them so I try to be flexible.
Thanks!
For those who made extra Diplomacy (or Perception, in Wymarc's case) checks, I've finally got those addressed over in Gameplay.
Also, even if you don't feel that you've got anything to do/say right at this moment, please pop in here so that I know you're still here and that you're still getting post notifications for the campaign. Sometimes the forum software gets weird and stops showing new posts for folks, especially if there's a bit of a gap or slowdown.
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Poor Lucky, he don't get no respect!
I'm about to have to head out the door for a few hours but I'll look to get an update posted later this evening/tonight.
It seems kinda strange but I couldn't find any indication that becoming Dazed would negate the Total Defense condition. While it'll probably be a moot point before Red gets a chance to act again please let me know if there's a clarification or something that I've missed somewhere.
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I think Lucky was saying that since total defense is a standard action, Red won't be able to maintain it on his next turn.
Okay, that'll work.