GM Blake's PF2 Extinction Curse Campaign

Game Master Blake's Tiger

I am trying to decide which skill to boost for Song. Occultism is the normal choice for spell casters, but I'm not sure that is the best choice for Song. Should I go with one of the Social Skills? Athletics or Acrobatics?

We have two people expert in Athletics, Clover and Rulean.

I suspect that Leaf may become Expert in Acrobatics in which case we would have two people expert in that.

I would say either Occultism or one of the social skills would probably be better.

Nabi is expert in Deception, so either Diplomacy or Intimidate for social skills.

One thing I like to look at are the Master-level feats at level 7+.

- Arcana has Quick Recognition which leads to Clever Counterspell.
- Occultism has Disturbing Knowledge which I have found a lot of fun.
- Intimidaiton has Battle Cry and Terrified Retreat
- Crafting has Impeccable crafting
- Diplomacy has Evangelize and Shameless Request
- deception has Doublespeak and Slippery Secrets
- Acrobatics has Kip Up

Some of these are better than others.

(Actually if Song doesn't go Occultism Ephie may take that Disturbing Knowledge track. I can imagine him whispering terrible secrets in Mr. Splinters voice.)

Re: Occultism and Song, your Bardic Lore (eventually) improves based on your Occultism proficiency, so you'll want to set yourself up to be able to achieve Legendary in Occultism.

Alright, I'll go with Occultism.

Think I’ve got Rulean updated to 5th correctly now.

I have also updated the macros sheet.

I have experienced some personally unprecedented challenges at work that has decimated my non-work time, so I have, unfortunately, not be able to move you through the epilogue like I wanted.

I will try but cannot promise to tick you along slowly during my vacation. It's really just me telling you things, but I wanted to give you time to react/interact between each one.

With the hopes that the epilogue is finished and when I return, I can hop right into Book 2.

...of course, if my daughter's behavior today is any indication, my children may enervate me while I'm away. :S Awake at 4 AM? Really? Why!?

No worries, the holidays tend to be a hectic time of year.

Hope things work out well for you with work.

Enjoy the holidays!

Maybe we can put the game on hold till after the new year ?

Still haven't leveled up

We're definitely not starting Book 2 until after the new year. Like I said, the end is just me telling you things as you check in with people.

But that reminds me to generate chronicles before I leave. I think Ladile's data was all that was missing but can do hers later.

While we wait, will we be able to do any shopping as well in town? I don't think Ephie has much on his list but I would like collecting scrolls and expanding the spellbook.

A good new for our skills: I forgot Skill Heritage (Medicine) makes me Expert at level 5 automatically. So I can use my L5 skill increase on another skill.

I took Natural skill as a Racial feat for Religion (T) and Intimidation (T)

Maybe I can use my L5 skill increase to get either Diplomacy or Intimidation to Expert?

It looks like I forgot (since the beginning of the game) 1 skill to be Trained: I should have 14 skills (out of 19!) Trained at level 1, and I find 13

Background Thievery, Underworld Lore (feat Subtle theft) (2)
from Thief class & Racket : Stealth, Deception, Diplomacy (3)
Starting skills 7
Int bonus 1
Skill heritage Medicine (1)
Total 14

But my starting Skill list was Athletics, Acrobatics, Deception, Diplomacy, Lore (Antiquities, Circus, Underworld), Medicine, Performance, Society, Stealth, Survival, Thievery (13)

So, I'd like to add Craft (T) to that list

Hugs to GM Blake, and everyone else in this group.

Happy First Night of Hanukkah!

While we wait, will we be able to do any shopping as well in town? I don't think Ephie has much on his list but I would like collecting scrolls and expanding the spellbook.

Not in Abbarton (Level 0 + very limited Level 1 and you've pretty much bought them out).

However, Escadar, where you'll be at the start of Book 2 can accommodate Level 6 Common items. So you can plan purchases, but they won't apply to the impending Downtime and any related checks you might make.

So we as a group may want to plan runes for the characters.

Everyone should want a potency rune for their armor / explorer’s clothing.

Most of us will want striking runes on our weapons.

Those that don’t feel they need weapon runes will likely want an item to give an item bonus to one of their skills or a wand.

I doubt we have enough to get everyone all of the above.

Whoops, got my info up on RPG Chronicles finally. I'll just apply it to a -2007 blob and figure out a character to go with it later.

I probably won't get Clover updated until Tuesday at the earliest but if I get a chance to get it done sooner, I will!

Happy Hannukah Hmm

Happy Hanukkah! :)

Happy Hannukah and Tranquil Solstice, folks!

Leveling stuff(proposed, please check math?)

Leaf-On-Wind L5

Dex/Con/Int/Wis (new numbers 18, 14, 12, 18)

Acrobatics and Medicine already Expert, so Nature(?)

Trained in Religion (From Boost to Int)

Ancestry Feat: Storm's Lash

Language from INT boost: Sylvan

Leaf-On-Wind kinda needs a Striking on Bow to remain viable with it, based on apparent damage output this first book. Willing to wait. Also, since we have time for it, maybe we can revisit him using a longbow instead of a short bow since most of the 'misses' were not even 'close'?

Will there be striking runes coming, GM, or should I keep having Magic Weapon on my spell list? As it is, I started switching to cantrips because they are higher damage than my arrows.

Also, since we have time for it, maybe we can revisit him using a longbow instead of a short bow since most of the 'misses' were not even 'close'?

The volley trait on the longbow is the problem. You would get a -2 to your attacks most of the time — anytime they are within 30’ of you. You would miss even more with the longbow. It isn’t if your misses were close, it is if any of your hits were close because Volley would have likely turned them into misses.

Since you need a stance to be able to flurry with your bow, I don’t think even the Point Blank Shot stance would help with that.

Composite Shortbow is now a better weapon for most people. You can get half your strength bonus to damage from propulsive and it lacks the volley trait while still having Deadly d10.

——

Yeah, I don’t think we are going to be past the point of needing Magic Weapon Song.

Blake, can you wait on getting us those chronicle sheets until the 28th? The character that I am applying them to is scheduled to be in level one bounties on next Wednesday.

I am fine with waiting the additional time for my chronicle. Might want to wait until the 29th just so that there can be no question of which happened first.

Sure :)

Ephie is leveled, GM macros are updated. Added a spells macros link to spellbook, which you can use to bot.

Song is leveled with a full botting spoiler, some primal cantrips and a brand new feather fan! GM Macros have also been updated.

Clover & Snowy's profiles are now updated for 5th level~
Macro sheet has been updated accordingly~

I'll whine about my travel woes later, but I wanted to get you your Shoonies--I mean Chronicles. The game is reported, so you should have access to all the boon fun.

Link to Chronicles

Everyone gave me an email address, and I'm pretty sure if I emailed them they'd only have your own and mine on your email, but I didn't want to accidentally give away someone's private information.

Thanks!

Having looked at the Twisting Tree Magus / Staff Acrobat combination, I decided that would work better in a home game with free archetype. Hopefully I will find a Strength of Thousands game to do it in.

Current plan is to make the shoony a staff wizard and decide later if they will do Staff Acrobat as well or just keep to the staff wizard.

Going to need to think a while on the name and where they come from. I honestly don’t know where on Golarian the Shoony live.

Potential feats for Nabi:

Lie to Me (Deception-T): use my Deception bonus instead of Perception to see through lies

Group Impression (Diplomacy-T) Make an Impression on multiple targets
Hobnobber (Diplo-T) Gather Info quickly

Group Coercion: (Intimidation-T) Intimidate a group

Alchemical (or Snares) Crafting (Crafting-T)

Cat fall (Acrobatics T) with Expert, can fall 25 feet

Battle medicine (Medicine -T) Heal in battle (could be useful to have 2 people able to do that without using magic)

Continual recovery-(Medicine E) treat wounds more often

Multilingal (Society-T) 2 more langages, could be handy

Of those, I think Catfall or Battle Medicine are most likely to be useful to you.

Rogues have the best progression in Perception of any class and your Wisdom and Charisma bonus are within one of each other. Given that, I don’t feel that Lie to Me would be worth it.

You might want to consider taking Intimidating Glare. It would allow you to use your Intimidation to demoralize creatures that you don’t share a language with.

I'd think about what areas you want to specialize in, Nabi. Right now you are posting options in deception, diplomacy, intimidation, crafting, acrobatics, medicine, society… even though the rogue gets more skill increases than most other classes, you should still focus on only a few areas of expertise. This is because you will need to increase skills to Expert and Master to unlock feats later on. (and don't forget you get to increase skills to Expert every level at this point, but you want to plan ahead to make your initial Master skill choices impactful).

Many rogues choose Stealth so they can Foil Senses; Acrobatics so they can Kip up, etc.

When I build characters, I like to look at the skills on AON and choose Master-level feats to build towards, as they often have prerequisites I need to meet.

So visiting my in-laws in another country with 2 children who they hadn't seen in 4 years (thanks pandemic) left me with less time to think creatively than I thought I'd have. And the children can't sleep past sun up, no matter how late they stay up, apparently... But it was a good vacation.

Until the airline delayed our departure so late that we arrived in ATL and immigration at 10 PM--with tired and cranky children--desperately trying to find a bed to sleep in for a few hours before our rebooked return.

Anyhow, I'll give you the opportunity to respond to your characters' promotions, and then I'll prompt the Downtime segment.

I am sorry to hear about the travel woes but glad to hear it was a good vacation until the airlines did their thing.

Leaf-On-Wind should be updated, if anyone sees any issues please let me know!

I have an Earn income calculator you can use for downtime.

AoN has one too.

The link to your Earn Income Calculator is broken.

Doh! Updated.

Ephraim, it seems you forgot to roll for one week (4 weeks out of 5)

I suppose I get double income for Critical rolls? (all Task in Expert Acrobatics)

Week 1: normal success Task L5 so 1 GP
Week 2: crit success task L3 so 0.5*2=1 Gp
Week 3 Crit task L2 so 0.3*2=0.6 Gp
Week 4+5 normal success task L1 so 0.2*2=0.4 gp

Total 1+1+0.6+0.4=3 Gp

Spank me if I'm wrong!

Crit success bumps you to the next task level, it doesn’t double your gold. Yeah, needlessly complex and why I like the calculators.

I read 4 weeks, but maybe 5?

You have 5 weeks of Downtime to perform here until coin and interest dries up.

First week you can attempt up to Level 5 Task.
Second week you can attempt up to Level 3 Task.
Third week you can attempt up to Level 2 Task.
Fourth and Fifth week you can attempt up to Level 1 Task.
After that, not enough people are interested in seeing the show to make a profit, and you will realize that you need to find a bigger town (next book).

Either way a few gold isn’t a huge deal to Ephie, I enjoy the role play of it more!

Nabi,

Your earnings would be:
Task Level 5 success: 10 sp
Task Level 3 crit success becomes level 4 success: 8 sp
Task Level 2 crit success becomes level 3 success: 5 sp
Task Level 1 success: 2 sp
Task Level 1 success: 2 sp

27 sp x 7 = 189 sp, almost 19 gold.

@ephraim: Fourth and Fifth week you can attempt up to Level 1 Task.

While you are busy not reading the fine prints, could you please sign up these for me? Nothing important...Really!

L5 Feat: Battle Medicine

For the next levels, I think I'll take (in no particular order) Cat Fall, Assurance (Thievery), Assurance (Acrobatics), Assurance (Stealth)

When Master in Stealth (L7): Foil senses and Swift sneak
master in Thievery will give Quick unlock

Was wondering if you had suggestions for feats from other books, I only have the Core one.

Based on the way that traps are generated, Assurance on Thievery is going to fail reliably. Going to have the same problem in many cases with Acrobatics. I am less sure on Steath, but there are Stealth feats like Terrain Stalker that make it so you automatically succeed under defined circumstances.

Assurance is great on Medicine skill and often good for Athletics, especially since you get to ignore penalties and MAP applies to using Athletics to Escape.

I will say Assurance Acrobatics pairs nicely with steady balance as the DC is usually on the easy side, and we've had a lot of uneven ground.

I've used athletics to jump more than trip in PFS, only weak mooks get tripped reliably with it but when it works, it is fun.

True, with Assurance Acrobatics you will be able to traverse uneven ground easily.

There is some disagreement as to if Steady Balance requires a roll in order to get a success turned into a critical success.

True, with Assurance Acrobatics you will be able to traverse uneven ground easily.

There is some disagreement as to if Steady Balance requires a roll in order to get a success turned into a critical success.

Yeah. I’ve always allowed it as its a 2-feat investment but worth checking with the gm.

I've run into a psychological block that's impeding my creativity (on top of having a paucity of free time). I suspect that it's the result of an unfortunate conflux of physiologic, psychologic, and environmental factors.

If I don't get this moving again before the weekend, that's why.

No hurry. Get yourself to a good place and we will be here waiting.

I appreciate you letting us know about the delay.

Sometimes you need to take a break and recharge. Enjoy your break!

I would have supposed a Tengu would say "enjoy your beak!"

But take care anyway! A few days are nothing!

"It's not fair to tell him to enjoy his beak when his is not as magnificent as mine."

Song pauses to preen.