GM Xavier Kahlvet's Hell's Rebels 2e (Inactive)

Game Master KingTreyIII

You're welcome to it, Chance! We've all still got plenty of investiture capacity to spare, and it never hurts to spread out those skill bonuses.

I think the idea with private sanctum isn't necessarily to hide the entire base, because that wouldn't be practical, but it would at least give us a room we know can't be spied on.

Anyway, downtime: I'm probably gonna spend most of the next few months crafting stuff for us. 2 days of that is to finish retraining a feat, and then my initial plan is to make hats of disguise for the rest of you, which will take 27 to 30 days (assuming no nat 1s). If you want something else, let me know before I get started, especially if it's something I don't have a formula for. Here's what I currently have formulas for:

I may also decide to make a bunch of magic wands instead. There's a whole bunch of 1st and 2nd level spells that are useful even without heightening. Pocket library, share lore, and longstrider stand out in particular. Wands of longstrider at 2nd level alone might be worth the rest of you picking up Trick Magic Item for, since it would basically be an all day 10-foot speed boost.

GM, I have even more rules questions for you:
1) Does Clever Improviser/Untrained Improvisation apply to Lore skills? If so, would you apply the reduction in DC that's suggested for Recall Knowledge checks using appropriate Lore skills?
2) Do the potions from Temporary Potions cost money? RAW, it looks like they do, but that seems completely at odds with the intention of the feat. The line about the potions having no monetary value would seem to be completely pointless, after all, if you have to pay full (or even half) price for the things.

(Was there anything left to do in the Lucky Bones? I looked back and I think we completed all the checks. If so, what would we need to get a wizard or cleric to scan the base for magical threats and scan our gifts to confirm if they are safe or not? Or is this a check we can do ourselves?)

The only thing you guys haven’t managed to get done in the Lucky Bones is the iron door that is statistically improbable for Edrakk to unlock. As for scanning Barzillai’s gifts, I would call that, like, three days of downtime for you guys.

1) Does Clever Improviser/Untrained Improvisation apply to Lore skills? If so, would you apply the reduction in DC that's suggested for Recall Knowledge checks using appropriate Lore skills?

Yes and yes.

2) Do the potions from Temporary Potions cost money? RAW, it looks like they do, but that seems completely at odds with the intention of the feat. The line about the potions having no monetary value would seem to be completely pointless, after all, if you have to pay full (or even half) price for the things.

Holy crap, wow, that’s really bad by pure RAW. Yeah…I’m putting that in the rules document. I’m going to say that that feat functions similarly to the wizard’s Scroll Savant or alchemist’s Advanced Alchemy. That’s to say that you just get them automatically every day (no monetary expenditure or Crafting check).

Magic Wand (1st-level)

Magic Wand (2nd-level)

Funnily enough, that got addressed in the recent errata: the formula for crafting a wand (and scrolls) is a single formula (not separate formulae for the different spell levels).

I missed that, cool! 8 gp back to me and an empty page in my book.

“Parliamentary procedure.”

First thing that came to mind. CW for language.

GM Xavier Kahlvet wrote:

“Parliamentary procedure.”

First thing that came to mind. CW for language.

People take notes, write follow up messages, and create project management flowcharts.

"I-I think I heard the High Inquisitor ask Barzillai to talk immediately after."

High Priest. Barzillai is the High Inquisitor.

EDIT: Hero Points reset in a week

My last night at the conference - will get caught up in the morning. Thanks for your patience.

Are we in downtime again?

Meant to get a post in yesterday, but the whole day kinda fell apart after the morning's news. I'll try and get something in today or tomorrow.

Yeah, same here. Just resolve another week of downtime, if you could.

Thank you for reminding me! I didn't realize that was a playtest thing until recently, and it makes me wonder why they didn't carry it through to the final game. Maybe it'll be in the expanded/variant crafting rules in Treasure Vault?

Sorry to have been so quiet! Today’s the big day - Karzoug’s finally going to squash those vermin from Sandpoint … I mean, Karzoug’s finally going to get what’s coming to him, starting in less than 5 hours, I expect it to run loooong.

Edrakk’s player will be similarly occupied.

Let us know who wins.

Karzoug is no longer rising - and the session felt appropriately epic. I'll get caught up on this and my other PbP games this evening, but for anyone interested and not worried about spoilers,

here are some pictures of the set (all credit for building the pieces goes to my wife (the party cleric), all I did was assemble them).

That looks amazing.

Thanks, Vitalis! We had a great time. 7.5 years is a looong time, especially considering that the youngest player had just turned 11 when we started, and we were all very excited about the conclusion.

I like the idea of using a favor from Captain Sargaeta to get 3 scrolls of uncommon spells, but we're too close to the publication of Dark Archive for me to decide which spells, so I'll wait for our next downtime.

Jisara, you're going to take the staff of divination, right? Should Chance use a day to sell the staff of enchantment to pay for the hats of disguise (with something like 55 gp left over to split) and make other purchases?

Yes, I'm taking the staff of divination. Selling the staff of enchantment makes sense.

Chance, I noticed you leveled up to 7. Please make a post in Discussion regarding what's changed so I don't have have to figure it out myself.

Also, and I feel a bit obligated to mention this, but there is still that one door in the Lucky Bones y'all haven't opened because it was locked with a VERY good lock. With that, you have three options: wait until a higher level so you can attempt to unlock it with some better consistency, have someone Force it Open (which will very likely break the door, meaning y'all won't as easily be able to reuse it for your own purposes), or cash in a favor with Captain Sargaeta to get someone with enough skill to open the door for you.

Chance, I noticed you leveled up to 7. Please make a post in Discussion regarding what's changed so I don't have have to figure it out myself.

I did finally update Chance’s taglines and the stat block on his profile page, but I posted the changes a little while ago: Link.

Also, my vote is to cash in a favor from Captain Sargaeta to get the door open. We don’t know how long he’ll be around - what if Barzillai orders all ships to leave the harbor at some point?

Edit to add: Yes, Chance would have used loremaster's etude for Consult the Spirits, thanks for catching that. I didn't mention it because I thought it was unavailable, because it's a Fortune effect and I was primarily posting about Downtime activities, but of course Consult the Spirits actually has the Exploration trait.

Correction: I've already got a hat of disguise, so I only need to make 3, not 4.

With the Ring of Discretion, I probably don't need a Hat of Disguise as well.

Correction: I've already got a hat of disguise, so I only need to make 3, not 4.

Got it - that gives everyone an extra 3.75 gp (total of 10) from the sale of the staff of enchantment.

With the Ring of Discretion, I probably don't need a Hat of Disguise as well.

Up to you, Vitalis, but I'd note this from the description of the ring:

The ring doesn't change your appearance beyond concealing weapons and armor.

I'll take the items Chance offered: minor healing potion, lesser antidote, and lesser antiplague, as well as his +1 silver dagger.

And I'll take a moderate Juggernaut Mutagen from Edrakk if I can use it.

I think I'll be suitably prepared with that.

Edrakk can give 2 juggernaut potions, and he'll throw in 2 lesser elixirs of life for a bit more healing.

The potions are okay as a last resort. Unfortunately, in the duel, using them is going to be too action point intensive. I need to spend one action to draw the potion, one action to drink the potion, then a third action to put my hand back on my weapon. Meanwhile, the enemy will get a whole turn to potentially attack me three more times.

The potions are okay as a last resort. Unfortunately, in the duel, using them is going to be too action point intensive. I need to spend one action to draw the potion, one action to drink the potion, then a third action to put my hand back on my weapon. Meanwhile, the enemy will get a whole turn to potentially attack me three more times.

That's why I specified that you had a juggernaut mutagen in hand at the start of the duel. By the way, your HP calculations are presuming that you drank it before the duel started; that's not the case. Duration wasn't long enough and Octavio is insistent against buffing before the Test started (with the caveat that you could do it if it was prior to the one-hour ceremony). If you wouldn't want the mutagen in-hand at the start, please tell me so. Note that the drawback for that mutagen is a -2 to all initiative checks, which is actually pretty detrimental in this particular combat (since initiative is rolled every round).[/ooc]

Also, Edrakk, could you update your hotbar to level 7, please?

I misunderstood about the potion and thought I could drink it before the fight. I also didn’t realize it had an initiative penalty, so I’ll just forget it and not use it. I’ll adjust my header when I get a chance.

Question. If I do need to use my Hero Points to avoid dying and stabilize, am I able to use my Lay on Hands to heal myself?

Question. If I do need to use my Hero Points to avoid dying and stabilize, am I able to use my Lay on Hands to heal myself?

I…don’t understand the question.

Under Hero Points:
Spend all your Hero Points (minimum 1) to avoid death. You can do this when your dying condition would increase. You lose the dying condition entirely and stabilize with 0 Hit Points. You don't gain the wounded condition or increase its value from losing the dying condition in this way, but if you already had that condition, you don't lose it or decrease its value.

So if I stabilize at 0 Hit Points, am I able to take an action to use Lay on Hands?

Probably not, because you'd still be unconscious.

Under Hero Points:

Spend all your Hero Points (minimum 1) to avoid death. You can do this when your dying condition would increase. You lose the dying condition entirely and stabilize with 0 Hit Points. You don't gain the wounded condition or increase its value from losing the dying condition in this way, but if you already had that condition, you don't lose it or decrease its value.

So if I stabilize at 0 Hit Points, am I able to take an action to use Lay on Hands?

Technically speaking, no. At 0 HP, you are unconscious, no ifs, ands, or buts.

However, for this one specific combat, I'm going to modify that. Rather than stabilizing at 0 HP, I'm going to say that you can spend all of your Hero Points to avoid falling unconscious and stay at 1 HP. Again, just for this one specific combat.

I've just played 1e (and D&D 3.5) so much longer than 2e that I'm usually in that mindset, so excuse me if I still have some questions about the rules. In that version, you got an action at 0. Thanks for the clarification. This is the longest 2e game I've ever played.

I'm very nervous, but also cautiously optimistic!

I'm very nervous, but also cautiously optimistic!

I thought I was dead.

”Vitalis Tanessen! Your vows.”

OOC, Are the vows written somewhere that I can repeat them?

Sabinas wrote:

”Vitalis Tanessen! Your vows.”

OOC, Are the vows written somewhere that I can repeat them?

Nope, you make them up. It’s not something that’s recited, it’s more like something personal to the situation, like wedding vows (hope I’m not butchering that example).

Edrakk has a +1 hand crossbow that could use a striking rune. Not sure where to put the +1, though we could always put it on my staff or Chance's, though with our very low Strength scores they'll never be reliable as melee weapons.

I'd like to move the +1 armor rune to a runestone. Right now, my wand of mage armor gets me the same benefit, but soon-ish we'll all be picking up resilient runes and I'll want to switch to explorer's clothing.

So that would return a +1 striking halberd and a +1 full plate to the pot for selling. Or if anyone needs the runes off them, they can take them.

Glaive. Vitalis’s old weapon was a glaive. If you are switching to the halberd, note that it deals d10 damage but doesn’t have deadly and forceful (but does still have reach and has versatile P).

Vitalis added some of his old gear to the inventory sheet, so I added the +1 armor potency rune that was on his full-plate (as he bought that himself and it thus never hit the inventory sheet).

Okay, going through the inventory sheet, I noticed something really weird with the staves and wanted to see if I could rectify it.

A while back, Chance purchased a staff of divination. Because Chance purchased it himself, it never hit the inventory sheet as that's primarily for loot.

You found a staff of enchantment from Ughol-Pagh. Jisara later implied that she would take the staff of enchantment (if only for a short time) to use.

Barzillai presented Chance with The Dischordance. Because this is Chance’s personal staff, he decided to use that instead of his staff of divination. Chance and Jisara decided to give the staff of divination to Jisara and sell the staff of enchantment.

HERE'S where the issue is: somewhere along the way two separate staves of enchantment (both seemingly from the same source of Ughol-Pagh) somehow managed to end up in the inventory sheet. I’m not sure if it was an error on my part (where I forgot to delete the one in the Inventory page when I moved it to the Sold page) or if Chance accidentally added one in when he meant to add in a staff of divination. So, for clarity: Jisara, you wanted the staff of DIVINATION, yes? If so, then I’ll modify the one on the Inventory page as needed.

Yes, I wanted the staff of divination. I quite like the basic staff of enchantment, but its spells are a bit more situational, plus the higher versions are either jammed up with incapacitation spells, uncommon, or both. Wish there was some way to mitigate that trait on magic items so they weren't DOA. As it is, the only spell on the staff of divination that's no use to me is the 2nd-level darkvision, and I can live with that.

Random question: If I'm Crafting a magical item, can Edrakk Aid me, even though he doesn't have the Magical Crafting feat? Or vice versa, but with Alchemical Crafting.

RE: Your tangent: I agree! It's a huge help for when I forget some minor (or major) detail.

That all sounds right to me.

Sorry - exhausting day. Will post in the morning.

RE: Your tangent: I agree! It's a huge help for when I forget some minor (or major) detail.

For example: How many of y’all forgot that Barzillai had access to the Book of the Damned? Because that’s still a major plot point! (I remembered because I'm the GM and have a pseudo-eidetic memory, but still.)

Glaive. Vitalis’s old weapon was a glaive. If you are switching to the halberd, note that it deals d10 damage but doesn’t have deadly and forceful (but does still have reach and has versatile P).

You know what, I didn't even realize it was a different weapon. I'll give the halberd a try. I feel like it would be disrespectful to accept the Lictor's gift and then immediately trade it in. Besides, I could always use my Shifting weapon property to make it a glaive again if I really wanted to.

You might also want to give the fauchard a try. It trades out the glaive's Forceful trait for Sweep and Trip, but is otherwise identical. Being able to trip from 10 feet away is pretty handy.

The glaive is the favored weapon of Shelyn and the halberd is the favored weapon of the Order of the Torrent. The fauchard doesn't really has any significance for Vitalis. But maybe I'd shift to it if a particular enemy needed a good tripping.

Definitely! Was just throwing that out there in case you wanted other handy uses for your weapon's shifting ability. Something fun that came to mind with it would be using the fauchard to trip someone, shift it to a glaive, and then hit them while they're prone. Pretty action intensive, of course, but it would let you get the bonus damage out of the glaive's Forceful trait while mitigating your MAP.

Definitely! Was just throwing that out there in case you wanted other handy uses for your weapon's shifting ability. Something fun that came to mind with it would be using the fauchard to trip someone, shift it to a glaive, and then hit them while they're prone. Pretty action intensive, of course, but it would let you get the bonus damage out of the glaive's Forceful trait while mitigating your MAP.

Trip still contributes to MAP. A weapon having the trip trait just means that: you can use the weapon to trip instead of needing a free hand, can add the item bonus from the weapon's potency runes to the Athletics check to Trip, and if you crit fail to Trip, you can Release the weapon to make it a regular failure. That said, you are actually correct about the forceful thing, because that only mentions "attacking with the weapon," and Tripping is still an attack.

Sorry, I think I skipped a step. It would mitigate the MAP because, while you'd still have the full penalty, the target would be prone and thus flat-footed, so you'd be at a net -3 instead of -5, which is better than you get with an Agile weapon.

Obviously, you could also just keep hitting the poor schmuck, but sometimes you want to dunk on your enemies, not just kill them.

Apropos of nothing, I really like Swashbucklers!