GM Erich's 5-17 Fate of the Fiend (Tier 7-11) (Inactive)

Game Master Thereus, Silver Crusader

This is the discussion thread.

Ranalus is a generalist. I will take a look at the party capabilities and figure out what gear to buy and what spells to prep.

Obviously Blessing of Fervor and Prayer are often welcome, as is Communal Air Walk.

He gets Shadow Conjuration, so that offers a lot of versatility. Some unusual summons from his PrC, as well as DR and some immunities. Bestow Insight to help a skillmonkey out, and Teleport and Fly as domain spells. He's also got a great Perception and the ability to see through doors.

If there are any spells anyone would like me to prepare, I will try to be accommodating.

Hi guys!

I bring Setare who is mainly a defensive melee character and aid another boost for social situations.

Rallas is a combat rogue...hits hard with his ECB...good variety of skills...except social...hey...can't do everything. Can use wands effectively...but would benefit from a tanky type...that way i can move around for the flank...

Welcome everyone, I hope you all will enjoy this scenario. I'll try to get a feel for everyone's level of role-play involvement and interaction and not try to rush the encounters. When combat does occur, I hope everyone can commit to checking and posting on a daily basis.

My own PbP combat style is to try and respect initiative order in resolving actions rather than just simple posting order (unless the sequence of events would benefit significantly otherwise). I'll roll initiatives at the start and some saves (or opportunity attacks) if they will affect my further actions in the turn to keep things moving.

Make sure you roll for your actions in the order they occur in your turn. (Requested saves first and please do critical confirmations either immediately after the threatening roll or at the end of your attack sequence. Just be consistent. I will do the first method.)

Make sure you keep your tagline updated with the current value for your Saves, Perception, Initiative, and Armor Classes, considering your spells cast. Treat it as your verbal response if I were to ask you what the value was in a face to face game, because that is how I'll treat it. But don't worry about conditional modifiers like cover or prone, I'll handle that stuff.

Feel free to ask about anything in the discussion threads or if you think I've ruled incorrectly or made a mistake. You likely know your character better than I will. I'll make corrections as necessary, but I think we all know there are still some rules that are up to the GM's discretion. Also, let me know if you need to take a short break from the game for any reason.

This will be high tier with the 4-player adjustment for this group

Please check in for the game by providing the following (as you wish to see them on the chronicle):

Player Name:
Character Name:
PFS Number:
Faction:

Ranalus has 42,536 GP.
He will spend 36,000 GP to upgrade his belt from +2 Dex (4,000 GP) to +4 Dex/+4 Con (40,000 GP).

He will also get a set of Lesser Bracers of Archery (5,000 GP).

And, he will purchase 50 gp of ruby dust and cast Continual Flame heightened to 5th level. (I have been meaning to do this since I got Heighten Spell and keep forgetting to actually do it.)

That leaves him with 1,486 GP.

I have updated his statistics.

Player Name: Aldizog
Character Name: Ranalus
PFS: 108731-1
Faction: Grand Lodge
Day Job: None

Player Name: I'm Hiding In Your Closet
Character Name: Zeno Loxley
PFS Number: #40025-8
Faction: Liberty's Edge
Day Job: Craft (Cartography): 1d20 + 26 ⇒ (9) + 26 = 35

Ranalus has 42,356 GP.

He will spend 30,000 GP to upgrade his belt from +2 Dex (4,000 GP) to +4 Dex/+4 Con (40,000 GP).

Is there some trick or detail I'm not aware of? How is it you only need to spend 30,000 gold for that and not 36,000?

Editing errors on my part. Fixing it now.
I was going to buy an Orange Prism for 30,000, then changed my mind.
Thank you for catching that.

As a Chronicle boon, I can borrow a +3 Keen Adamantine Heavy Pick with some extra powers.

I see that Rallus, Setare, and Brallenara have adamantine weapons already.
So Fossilblight is possibly superfluous, which is kind of a shame. Unless I want to go the Righteous Might route... but Ranalus isn't actually proficient with the weapon.

Ah well.

I see that Rallus, Setare, and Brallenara have adamantine weapons already.

...and my arrows!

Where are we, geographically?

@Zeno You are currently aboard the Grinning Pixie, off the coast of Cheliax in the Arcadian Ocean (next to Rachikan on the map in the handouts).

Hello GM,
Please note that Setare combines many different class features.

- As a ‘Whirling Dervish’ Swashbuckler she always tries to parry/ riposte and has dex to damage with one-handed piercing weapons and Scimitars. She uses a Chestus.

- As an Unchained Monk she flurries with a chestus as this a monk weapon.

- As an Unchained Monk Scaled Fist her Charisma is used and not her Wisdom for class abilities.

- As an Unchained Monk Softstrike Monk she can deal nonlethal damage without penalties and uses this with the Enforcer feat to intimidate as a free action. She can also deliver a ‘stunning fist’ with a weapon when dealing nonlethal damage.

- She has the Bodyguard feat and uses 3-4 AoO to give +4 AC to allies with the Adopted (Halfling) Helpful trait.

- She usually fights defensively and has the Crane Style, Crane Wing, Osyluth Guile feats for +4 dodge bonus in general, +8 dodge bonus vs. melee attacks and + 13 dodge bonus vs. a single melee opponent.

- She has a Ki pool and uses that with ‘tea of transference’ to regain smite evil uses.

Thanks again for GMing.

Player Name:The Mage of the Wyrmkin
Character Name: "The Rock" (Druid 9)
PFS Number:115226-8
Faction: The Exchange

I still need to update my character sheet. I have it done on paper but I need to update my electronic copy. I will do it today.

Just need Brallenera's faction and I am good to go with reporting at the end...

Player Name: noral
Character Name: Setare
PFS Number: 314670-3
Faction: Scarab Sages

PLayer Lil Eschie

Character Brallenera Thalkham

PFS 133884-3

Faction Siver Crusade

To hit calculation for your convenience GM:

- To hit flurry of blows and boots of speed +14/+14/+14/+9: BAB +9, Dervish Finesse Dex +7, Enhancement Bonus +1, Cracked Pale Green Prism Ioun Stone +1, Haste +1 (-3 Piranha Strike / -2 Fighting defensively)

- Damage d4+8 [+4 precise strike, +6 Piranha Strike]; 17-20/×2): Dex +7 to damage from ‘Whirling Dervish Level 4’ ability, Enhancement Bonus +1

Setare, I think I ninja's your post with my edit so you might not have seen it. I'll repeat my question here.

Is there a way you are getting the Fighting Defensive bonus without using a standard action? If not, I think the second monster attack might have hit (18 damage and a fort save vs poison).

Ahh, sorry. You are right. No fighting defensively without attack. I’ll save in the gameplay.

@GM Erich - I am just wondering if my Dinosaur would get an attack of opportunity on one of the Morlocks?

Most GMs agree that Large sized Tall creatures like a T-Rex would have 10' reach. The rules could be more explicit in spelling out which animal companions have reach and which do not so it falls to GM's discretion.

I don't know much about your build, Setare, but it seems quite effective..

@The Rock I would agree that T-Rex would get 10 foot reach since a full grown (gargantuan one = 20x20) has 20 foot reach. However, since he was doing total defense last round, no opportunity attacks unfortunately.

I messed up as I forgot that my pet is not trained to use armor. I guess the Ice Armor is being chewed off after this combat. :)

I don't know much about your build, Setare, but it seems quite effective..

Well, I tried to combine three class archetypes that synergize well. Her AC and saves are kind of high but she can only smite once in a battle so let us see how things unfold.

Triple-stacking Cha to AC is pretty advantageous (monk, Smite, Osyluth Guile).

Crane Wing is no longer as insane as it once was, but still quite good... I guess the +4 goes away for the round once it prevents an attack? (That is, once you get missed by 4 or less?)

I like the fact that you get Osyluth Guile through an evil item. Seems fitting.

Yeahh, sorry, I forgot to mention that about crane wing and that the bonus vanishes if hit by 4 or less but also forgot to apply Osyluth Guile and also forget I have +6 to charisma now.

So effectively AC is 45 vs. orange bullette with smite and 45 vs. yellow bullette with osyluth guile. Versus the morlocks it is AC 39.

If hit by 4 or less at any time all these ACs are reduced by 4.

I don't think there are much CR 9-11 creatures easily able to hit AC 31+, or able to beat your saves, or your initiavive

And you pack quite some punch too, litteraly.

I am not sure of the legality of double dipping Charisma to AC. You might want to check out the FAQ on that to make sure that all the working parts are legal.

All stack as one is a Charisma modifier, one deflection and one dodge.

Now I somehow feel bad about the build. :-/

I am a full Bab level 9, and I got a +15 to hit total...
My highest characteristic is 19, then 18 (with a +2 belt)
Highest save a +12 Fortitude, your lowest save is 2 points highter, your best save is DOUBLE that (+24)

I do have high HP for my level (122 HP, with DR 4 as an invulnerable rager)

I did died twice in my career, and so had less money to buy magical boosts

I wouldn't be able to hit you (hitting max AC 35), doing at best 1d10+6 dmg, as I would have to forfeit my Power attack

You would hit me easily (AC 23), and even with 122 HP and DR 4, I don't think I would standmore than 5 rounds against you, and that might be optimistic. My build isnt optimal, I agree. But then I didn't want to optimize (and no, that's absolutly not a shot against you! Everyone is entitled to play as he likes, and it might be fun to see how far you can go with certain characters concepts!)

Understanding that everybody's tastes differ:

I personally tend to prefer a lower level of optimization so that I have to use good tactics to succeed, rather than just overpowering everything. The best example here is that I took a Core Rogue through all of Bonekeep. Timed out in each case, but he cleared a lot of rooms, survived everything, and killed the BBEG of one level.

Ranalus is a sub-optimal generalist, as is my Archvist bard. My PFS wizard took a 12 Str and 13 Cha for no real reason other than I was tired of seeing a parade of 7-Str 7-Cha wizards. I don't dump stats very often. I find that PFS doesn't really need a very high level of optimization for the most part and I consider it more enjoyable to aim lower in that regard.

But then again I do have a human fighter who is fairly close to Setare in AC, saves, and damage. His trick is teamwork feats plus solo tactics; adjacent to allies, he was hitting AC 33 and saves of around +15/+12/+12 at 5th level. I have avoided buying stuff to improve his AC and saves because he is "good enough." At level 9 his saves might be +20/+16/+16 or so. This really was a case of, as Brallenera says, seeing how far I could go with a particular character concept - specifically, can the fighter compete in all-around ability with a human FCB Superstitious barbarian?

Now, my fighter's defense falls off a lot if he is not adjacent to allies (and falls off a fair bit facing non-Evil foes). Setare's defense falls off a lot vs invisible foes or if she is feinted.

Ranalus is more of a problem-solver than a combatant, so I do not have an issue just hanging back and doing very little. I can see why a very highly optimized character might make others in the same role feel a bit redundant.

@Brallenera - it does look to me like your character is optimized enough to deal with foes that you should expect to face. No doubt some could find ways you could be more optimized, but I think you look fine. Your saves vs spells are +16/+10/+10 (+2 more vs fear/death)? That looks quite solid for level 9.

I have good saves now with Steel Soul feat, took at L9.

I enjoyed making Brallenera able to do more than just soak in damage, using feats to get more traits giving access to skills (UMD & DD, Know planes & Linguistics) that would set her apart from other Invulnerable Barbarians , more for RP purpose than to get an edge in combat

Her highest ranking skill? Profession-Tailor (9 ranks).

And yes, she did the blue robe over her armor herself. ;-)

@Zeno, you do take dim light penalties, but dim light starts twice as far away for you, depending on light source. So for example, on a night with a full moon where dim light is "everywhere", you see as if it were normal light. For a torch (used in darkness), which is typically normal light out to 20 and then dim light to 40 - it would be normal for you to 40 then dim to 80, dark after that.

@Zeno I don't think arrows would be treated as magic weapons per the hardness rules based upon the same reasoning from this FAQ.
Unless they had an inherent bonus themselves, (i.e. a +1 arrow).

As a player I’m totally confused that they aren’t using their SLAs!

They seem quite competent at physical attacks against anyone who doesn't have a 39 AC.

Rallas, I might have used Withdraw if I were you. We'll see how this goes. I do have a Breath of Life prepped.

They do have very melee heavy tactics for this scenario, but that might be about to change since they are having some trouble hitting.

I've taken the liberty of giving us all a more distinctive and individually-fitting (and slightly bigger) color border; hope everyone likes them (and the DM doesn't have some personal system I'm inadvertently messing with!)!

EDIT: Okay, nevermind - but almost anything but YELLOW! :S

Okay, what IS with Setare's speech impediment?

Setare has very low wisdom and I wanted this to be expressed somehow.
Thus, she is naive and believes in the good of people but also suffers from stuttering or stammering which means that the flow of her speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds or syllables as well as involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which she is unable to produce sounds.

Only during combat I usually stop the stuttering as adrenaline, excitement or anger lead to focus and her intimidating aura which is mechanically backed by her enforcer feat and intimidate skill.

I am familiar with how stuttering works, believe me - not sure how/why low Wisdom would relate to it, though.

@DM: My initiative roll should be 5 higher; that's what anticipate peril is for.

I am familiar with how stuttering works, believe me - not sure how/why low Wisdom would relate to it, though.

It’s fantasy / role playing. :-D

Not worse than starting all your sentences with "Awwww.", IMO ^^

i always took Setare's stutter as a social anxiety thing...

Not worse than starting all your sentences with "Awwww.", IMO ^^

Yeah, I wondered about that, too - sometimes makes sense, even overly often as a quirk, but why every time? It almost makes it seem as though your larynx is made of ship's timber....