For all players, if you have a significant event looming it is wise to advise your party and GM, even if you think you will be posting during that time.
I do this a lot when I am travelling. I will post that I will be travelling from X day to Y day and expect to be able to post as normal but there is the possibility that I may be delayed or absent during that time.
Glad you made it back Dorian and I hope you and your family were able to enjoy Easter.
A few notes about Exploration activities:
Apart from Scouting, which (counter-intuitively) requires no skill to perform, yet is tremendously beneficial to the party, here are some common choices.
Rogues typically choose to Avoid Notice in order to roll Stealth for initiative and get Surprise Attack in the first round of combat.
Casters might chose to Detect Magic. This is only rarely useful but when it does find something, it's quite useful indeed.
Shield users might choose Defend, as it allows them to start combat with their shield raised, which saves an action.
If there's a possibility something might need to be perceived (e.g. Hazards), someone with good Perception should take Search as their Exploration activity.
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What is the GM Screen spoiler for? I remember GM Hmm said something about it but i don't remember.
GM's need to make rolls too and often those results should not be known by the players. This would be rolling behind the screen (or similar) in a face-to-face game.
In PFS2 with some group secret rolls (such as to detect a hazard) the GM will make those automatically for all players and place them behind a GM Screen spoiler. Other times it may have to do with random choices in the game or actions by opponents.
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Played around some more with the map. I somehow moved the entire map out from underneath the black rectangles and the PC tokens. I think I fixed it. Will everyone see this if it's not fixed or can it only be seen on my end (i.e. my device)?
I keep trying to scoot the map over so I can see where our PCs are but it moves the entire map instead & knocks everything out of whack. A little lesson on how the maps work would be greatly appreciated.
Depending on your device and your input method, yeah you can definitely accidentally move the map. I fixed this problem by simply setting the map as a background image so it can't be moved at all. Your tokens are still movable, of course.
I see Redd's moved to the doorway of B2 and by Dorian's description he's generally exploring the area, so I moved him to a place where he could see more.
Everyone should feel free to move their own tokens on the maps. If you are using a device where that is difficult for you, just describe where you want to be and I'll move you.
Don't worry about it! :)
Looks like Redd's done a Stride and a Diplomacy check, which gives her one more action?
Redd can do a Stride, and 2 skill checks (total 3 actions).
There's nothing currently on the map that you can attack with a weapon (other than the hapless Tavvar and her 3 assistants, I guess). The flaws [white triangles] themselves are not creatures and can only be addressed with skill checks. However, this may change shortly...
Dorian: Drawing a weapon is an action. If you didn't have it out while exploring, that will count as 1 of your 3 actions. (Total: Draw, Stride, skill check.) As your Exploration activity was Defend, you start Encounter mode with your shield raised and do not have to spend an action to Raise a Shield.
Should I go ahead and do another skill check or wait til next turn?
Go ahead, Redd.
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Sorry for the delay folks. Kiddos birthday on Monday so arrangements and much baking was done yesterday.
May also be tied up Monday so not me if I hold things up. Ornaculus is going to solely focus on repairing the flaws. Unless directly threatened. Then he will fight the attacker before going back to repair.
Dorian, your AC is 17/19 with shield raised, but though it's correct on the main body of your sheet, the stat line under your name says 16.
AC = 10 + 1 (from Dex) + 3 (proficiency including level) + 3 (from Scale mail) = 17 (19 with shield raised).
Yep, Redd's diplomacy fixed a flaw.
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Mediiiiic!
A burst (3-action) heal might be helpful here...
(I originally forgot about Ornaculus' Shield Block and he went down from the hit, but logically he'd probably want to spend the spell to prevent that, so I edited.)
And yes. I will always use the shield to mitigate any damage taken.
I was hoping I could use it against the negative energy damage from the fort save. I'm fine either way.
Good point. I'm not entirely clear that the ritual's damage counts as "physical damage" for the purpose of Shield Block (the wisp attack is a melee attack, so there's somewhat stronger justification that it does), but when in doubt, rule in favor of the player.
Retconning to say Ornaculus blocked then instead, so have 3 hit points back.
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I don't see where Shield only blocks physical damage. But do see where it block Magic Missile. And if it can block MM, it can block anything! haha.
TIL: Specific rules around the Shield Spell. :)
Thank ye sir!
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The reason this matters is that the use of Shield Block with the Shield spell is predicated on the definition of the general Shield Block, except with the specific called-out exception that can be used against Magic Missile (which is a Force effect - note that both MM and the Shield spell have the Force trait). It is unlikely that it's intended to be usable vs. all possible effects, e.g. as a somewhat silly example, I would not be inclined to rule that it can absorb damage from Wail of the Banshee.
In this particular encounter, there is a unique factor in favor of the ritual damage being considered physical - principally the fact that the specific encounter mechanics specify being able to use a Reaction to step in front of someone to take the Fort save (and the ensuing damage) for them, which does suggests a directed physicality.
Anyway. This boils down to a rules interpretation in the specific situation, so you should probably expect table variation on what the Shield spell can and can't do in general.
Do I need to be adjacent to the flaw to repair it?
Yep.
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Also just a heads up, Running and playing some games in a online Convention this weekend, so might be a bit delayed in posts .
On a side note, Logsig I think you are running a game or two as well? SacOPF TakeTwo Con? I am Justin B over there xD
Yep, just two on Sat. I'd say "see you there", but I don't think I will see you at all :P
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Just so happens there was a long conversation about shield blocks on the VO server just yesterday. We are allowed to share rules clarifications even though we may not speak about much else.
A shield blocks damage from physical attacks, which is to say, it blocks things with the attack trait that are dealing you physical damage. The Reflexive Shield feat would block Reflex save effects, though.
Swarming Bites is a basic Reflex save. It is not a physical attack, as it does not have the attack trait. Same as if a giant rock explosion happened, dealing 10d6 piercing damage (basic Reflex)
As you can see, the conversation was started around swarms, specifically a spider swarm, but the clarification regarding physical attack/physical damage may help here too.
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Thanks for that, Numbat!
The phrase "with the attack trait" is helpful. We have to assume that the trait is intended to be absent in all cases where it isn't explicitly specified, such as here in this scenario with the ritual's "shadowy energy" negative damage. The quote from Mark doesn't clarify whether negative damage counts as "physical damage" or not, but the lack of an explicit attack trait is enough in this case to exclude it regardless.
But, having given the 3 HP back, I'm not going to take it away from Ornaculus again, so carry on... :P
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Yep, just two on Sat. I'd say "see you there", but I don't think I will see you at all :P
Hear yah there? :D hehe . Though, I am on the other table of Bandits of Immenwood, and GMing Lost on the Spirit Road, so I think you are right.
Hope you have a good time, and thanks again for signing to GM at the Con! I'm excited to get a good weekend of gaming in, with everything going on. (all the physical Cons getting canceled.. etc)
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Initiative got out of whack somewhere. I noticed Ornaculus and I think Filtune posted yesterday before I was able to.
Edit: Ornac posted this morning, before I got the chance to.
It's okay, I'm resolving actions in posting order rather than strict numerical order, for blocks of PCs between enemies. If we do strict numerical order in PbP it either gets very slow (we have to wait for everyone to post in exact order) or else confusing (people post whenever they are free to post, but then the GM resolves things in a completely different order).
Now, it's a different story if you have a dependency on someone that's before you in the initative order (i.e. you actually need them to do an action before you do something else) - in which case you should state that when you post before them (or wait for them to post first).
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Initiative got out of whack somewhere. I noticed Ornaculus and I think Filtune posted yesterday before I was able to.
Edit: Ornac posted this morning, before I got the chance to.
It's okay, I'm resolving actions in posting order rather than strict numerical order, for blocks of PCs between enemies. If we do strict numerical order in PbP it either gets very slow (we have to wait for everyone to post in exact order) or else confusing (people post whenever they are free to post, but then the GM resolves things in a completely different order).
Now, it's a different story if you have a dependency on someone that's before you in the initative order (i.e. you actually need them to do an action before you do something else) - in which case you should state that when you post before them (or wait for them to post first).
Ok, cool. Thanks for the explanation.
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Yeah, I had meant to cover some of the differences of how games run in PbP but we ended somewhat rushing into starting with the convention and I just didn't finish covering everything I wanted.
I knew the GMs working with you guys are great and able to make up for my deficiencies.
Read what GMs write about their expectations and plans though as there is some variance.
This is a real nail-biter (not helped by my hallucinating about what the rolls are and having to read them 3 times then go back and edit my descriptions after the fact).
He GM did you miss the first attack Dorian made?
attack warhammer: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12
There may be something behind the scenes that prohibited a hit...but in case it was a slip I wanted to bring it to your attention
My bad! Yes, Dorian does do damage on that one.