[PFS2, Outpost04] 1-03 Escaping the Grave (GM Watery Soup) (Inactive)

Game Master Watery Soup

@GM Watery Soup, I have a question about the damage that Nubie took last round and the use of Heal and Harm spells. This is completely metagaming and I may be completely off target because I don't know for sure what spell/effect the Necromancer used.

My hypothesis is that the Necromancer used a two action Harm spell on Nubie. If that is the case, my understanding of the rules is that he should have only taken 1d8 and not 1d8+8.

I was listening to a second edition podcast the other day and the GM talked about Heal and Harm spells when they are used to harm either Undead (for the Heal spell) or Living Creatures (for the Harm spell). He said that the two action spells had different effects when you were using it to heal or harm. This was completely new to me as I had assumed that both versions of the Heal or Harm spell were have the same numeric effect.

From what I understood, if you use a 2A Harm spell to heal undead, it heals 1d8+8 damage, but if you use it to harm living, it only deals 1d8 damage. In both case, it has a 30 feet range.
This is the same with the Heal spell when used for healing living or harming undead.

Irrespective of what happened to Nubie, am I reading the rules correctly in your experience ?

You are correct on all accounts.

1. It was a 2A Harm spell to harm the living.
2. I also assumed they had the same numeric effect as Heal healing the living, and have been using (and allowing) Heal 1d8+8 to hurt undead at 30'.
3. My assumption is not supported by a reading of the rules that I just did. My reading is that the spell should be 1d8 damage at 30'.
4. My assumption is also not supported by a thread I found when I Googled this issue.

I'm retconning the damage to Nubie to be 1d8.

You are correct on all accounts.

1. It was a 2A Harm spell to harm the living.
2. I also assumed they had the same numeric effect as Heal healing the living, and have been using (and allowing) Heal 1d8+8 to hurt undead at 30'.
3. My assumption is not supported by a reading of the rules that I just did. My reading is that the spell should be 1d8 damage at 30'.
4. My assumption is also not supported by a thread I found when I Googled this issue.

I'm retconning the damage to Nubie to be 1d8.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question.

In my case, I think it was because Heal and Harm are spells I looked up so long ago that I assumed I knew how they worked. One of my characters is a divine sorcerer who has cast a 2-action Heal maybe 50-100 times, so ... it was [princessbride]Inconceivable![/princessbride] that I was wrong about how it worked.

Sorry about having to be botted, I'm organizing a trip to another city in order to fix some papers, I'm an immigrant in the country I'm living in and I want to go back and visit my family, so things have been more hectic than I would have expected :/

Try to post when you can, but don't worry about it. Family is more important than a game.

If you want to post some of your favorite moves, I can use those to bot you instead of guessing.

An OOC note regarding Oiyeron and the necromancer: no choice that you make regarding the situation will materially affect the outcome of (or the rewards from) this scenario. This is purely for roleplay and to (hopefully) give Oiyeron a personal quest.

I love it :D

Well done! I love seeing the roleplay aspects come thru in these scenarios. Makes the subtext of the underlying story that much more powerful.

I do the same thing with several characters of mine.

My -2006 (who will likely make a cameo at the end since he's getting the GM credit) is a lovesick orc who's either investigating the abduction of the love of his life, or a weird stalker who's strangely infatuated with a human woman he barely knows. I haven't decided which one it is yet. haha

Agreed, this completely changed the fight and gave us motivation to try more meaningful things.

Well done! I love seeing the roleplay aspects come thru in these scenarios. Makes the subtext of the underlying story that much more powerful.

This has been lots of fun, thank you for playing along with me and Oiyeron so much, everyone. There have been so many times over my 20+ years (off and on) of organized play/living campaigns that I'll have character backstory and personality all over the place and the other players and GM are like "can we just move along?" (And some of that is the limits of the 4-hour convention format, I know). So, I appreciate it when people really want to ROLE play, not ROLL play.

I do the same thing with several characters of mine...

My Kobold Cleric from the frozen North-East was taught Medicine by my Paladin and her Cleric husband from the Wrath of the Righteous campaign my husband ran years ago. They've 'retired' from being near-demigods to have a family and serve in the Temple of Sarenrae in Kenabres. I want to play one of their kids some day, but as of 4721 AR they're kinda still babies.

Relics:
[X] Census records (chapel)
[X] Flaming Wheel sign (Flaming Wheel)
[X] Champion's armor (Flaming Wheel)
[X] Dean's painting (main hall)
[X] Ceremonial sword (classroom)
[X] Acts of Iomedae (study room)
[X] Statue of Jingh (Dean's quarters)

Primary Objective:
[X] Recover 5 relics

Secondary Objectives:
[X] Correctly identify two Pathfinders and bring back their bodies

Envoys' Alliance Bonus:
[X] Return Larraz alive

Treasure Bundles:
[X][X] Clement's wayfinder (fountain)
[X] cold iron buckler (guardhouse)
[X] spices (apothecary)
[X] purse (Flaming Wheel)
[X] Brigyan's wayfinder (offices) don't ask why this one is only 1 TB!
[X] channel protection amulet (offices)
[X] jewelry / holy water (dorms)
[X][X] defeat Ralthiss

Your Chronicles are posted here. Please let me know if any corrections are needed!

"can we just move along?" (And some of that is the limits of the 4-hour convention format, I know)

I mean, I guess I'd understand if a game had so little wasted time that roleplay needed to be cut to get through all the material.

But that's not been my experience. My experience is that games that run out of time do so because people spend inordinate amounts of time arguing about the rules/strategy, or reminding That Guy watching a movie on his phone that it's his turn every turn, or rehashing the entire plot to That Other Guy who disappears whenever a social encounter begins and magically reappears when combat initiative is rolled.

Some of my most memorable moments would fall under the broad umbrella of "wasting time."

- Standing on my chair and yelling, "BOW BEFORE ME, I AM YOUR MONKEY GOD!" and all the craziness that led to that declaration.

- Naming cakes at a bakery that the players declared to be an erotic bakery (while the GM emphatically repeated it WAS NOT an erotic bakery).

- OOC pointing at the GM while IC accusing the BBE (at a murder trial) of selling substandard rugs, and rehashing every successful Appraise check from earlier in the scenario, before sitting down, and then standing back up and adding, "also, murder."

More memories, fewer rules arguments, IMO.

Thanks for the game, and for encouraging roleplay! :D

I'm quite sad I lost my chance to take part in the finale and I feel my character interactions with the group left a lot to be desired. Kei's wife and his leshy familiar form an integral part of his character, but it's hard to put it into play in PFS; that or I'm terrible at roleplaying. This is my third PFS game and overall, my third experience as a player, like, ever... I'm a forever GM.

I had a good time with all of you and I'm glad to had been able to take part in a group of memorable adventurers :) They left an impression on Kei and he'll strive to be on par with them.

That said, something always confuses me: what do I do with my chronicle and what do I need to modify on my character sheet after a session?

Kei, I apologize if you had wanted a little more interaction with Kei's family. Due to the revolving nature of PFS groups, I'm always a little unsure of when I'm allowed to intrude a little into stories that other people are writing, so I tend to avoid it unless I'm sure it would be welcome.

I PMed Oiyeron to ask for permission to include him in the story, and only because the opportunity was really ripe. I'm sorry I didn't get to do that with you this time, but if we play again, absolutely let me know what's in bounds and what's out of bounds at the beginning of the scenario and I'd be happy to oblige.

---

Your Chronicle should be saved. Since most of my play is online (VTT / PbP), I save mine electronically, in a Google Drive.

I don't need to sign your item purchases, but you should track them either on the Chronicles or on a spreadsheet.

Some of my most memorable moments would fall under the broad umbrella of "wasting time."

Yeah, I've got some of those, too. Mostly from back in Living Greyhawk, we had a really good local community who had a lot of fun together (I first met my eventual husband at a local LG weekend gaming con):

- A Special Interactive event where a Royal Wedding was crashed by monkeys and apes of all kinds, where I got to mini-LARP the crazy druid commanding them.

- My halfling infiltrating a lawful-evil noble's dinner party disguised as one of their halfling slaves and getting to move freely around the mansion while the rest of my mostly chaotic-good tall folk companions were forced to mingle (ha-ha!). ...And then stumbling upon the big bad monster fight all alone.
(Luckily, she was a cleric 3/rogue 5 and always had an Invisibility prepared!).

- Me as a GM getting to use the Hand of Vecna on a character at a high-level table of good friends and Nat 20 critting him with a Disintegrate... After rolling every d6 at the table (80d6 is a lot of dice) I was apologizing profusely... But he actually survived, by the small amount of temporary HP he had gained from the Vampiric Touch he'd used on BBE the round before (the action that had led BBE to target him with the Disintegrate).

Thanks for the game, and for encouraging roleplay! :D

I'm quite sad I lost my chance to take part in the finale and I feel my character interactions with the group left a lot to be desired.

I'm sorry. I had planned to have Oiyeron reply to Kei's earlier comments about keeping the Necromancer alive, while they rode out of town on the cart (and even had it written up) but Paizo's website decided to crap out on me when I tried to add it to my post. Then I realized it was time to close up shop (business is really slow right now, so I can often catch up on RPGs during my work day), and by the time I got home, everything had wrapped. :(

Can I ask: was the clock timer purely a device t inject a little urgency into the gameplay, or was there a consequence if we tarried too long?

I am a big believer in visible game clocks / countdowns, as they have in Blades In The Dark for example. I find face to face PF / SF can get bogged down in planning - you need a sense of time being limited to encourage people to prioritise / act !

Thank you all - especially GM WaterySoup for running this game. I have many hours under my belt as a PF2E GM, but thius was my first as a player. You did a great job moving us on where necessary and playing up the story to encourage RP.

And once again thanks to the rest of you for spinning our story together!

was the clock timer purely a device t inject a little urgency into the gameplay, or was there a consequence if we tarried too long?

There were consequences.

- If you sped through the investigation (or just crushed the checks), you could have fought just the necromancer and the skeleton without anyone carrying the statue, and I think the encounter would hae been rated Moderate.

- You hit the intermediate window where he ambushed you on the way down from the upper floor, which meant two extra zombies plus the statue bit, and a Severe rating.

- If you had tarried just a little bit more, there would have been more zombies - 6, I think - making the encounter Extreme.

- And had you been there when the GARGANTUAN ZOMBIES arrived, I would have been heavily hinting to flee (and leave all the remaining artifacts).

There were actually mechanics if you wanted to ignore the hints and fight the zombie horde:

Round 1: Every PC that hasn't fled takes 4d6 damage.
Round 2: Every PC that hasn't fled is permadead.

Well, then...cheers to not being permadead. :D

Thanks for the game, Mr. Watery Soup. And thanks to all my fellow players for putting up with Elien's longwindedness. Until our paths cross again.

Interestingly enough, I believe this gives Elien enough credit to level up. It's his 3rd full scenario completion. So, is there anything special that the leveling process requires within PFS play? I had planned on taking him into the Wizard Dedication archetype.

Cheers !

Thanks for the game, GM Watery Soup. It was a lot of fun with the clock ticking, especially without knowing what was ithe goals. This added more tension and forced us to do the forbidden: split the party :)

It's not easy to make society scenario feel personalized, but with the character cast, backgrounds and interactions, as well as the personal touches added to the scenario, it really felt that way. So, well done every one!

Elanna will be like Elien, having enough credit to level up. I will take the Scout dedication archetype and get a little more training on healing as well.

The chronicle is good for Nubie. Thanks for the game!

Sorry, I forgot to add that the chronicle was ok from my side as well.

Thanks

I noticed a discrepancy on my chronicle sheet. Starting XP should have been 8 and final XP after this scenario should be 12 so Elien can level up.

I noticed a discrepancy on my chronicle sheet. Starting XP should have been 8 and final XP after this scenario should be 12 so Elien can level up.

I can put that in. Is there anything else that would be helpful - starting GP or the Chronicle number (presumably "3")?

Elien Psirec wrote:

I noticed a discrepancy on my chronicle sheet. Starting XP should have been 8 and final XP after this scenario should be 12 so Elien can level up.

I can put that in. Is there anything else that would be helpful - starting GP or the Chronicle number (presumably "3")?

Elien is raising a good point. I've looked a my previous chronicle sheets and the before/After XP are not filled most of the time. But for this one, as Elanna is gaining a level, I think it would be better to add that in.

Could you also add for Elanna the Chronicle Number (4), the XP before: 9 and after:13 and the gold before 19.04 GP and after 33.12 GP

Thanks,

I will get Elanna a revised Chronicle as well.

The start/end values are not required (only the grey boxes are), so many GMs don't do it by default (in Season 2 they started removing certain fields because of low usage). But it's very easy to add, so I am happy to do whatever is most helpful to you - they're your Chronicles, not mine, after all.

I'm also happy to record purchases (so the end gold of one Chronicle and the start gold of the next Chronicle match), if that would be helpful. In a F2F/VTT setting it's difficult to do because players have to decide on the spot what they want and there's time pressure from another game needing the table or people ready to go to bed. But in PbP, you can take your time, read through books, get advice from other players/the GM, and I can issue your revised Chronicle with final decisions.

I generally leave the campaign open until there has not been amy activity for 72 h.

Elien and Elanna's revised Chronicles are in the same folder. Let me know if you'd like any further changes.

BTW, re: travelling with everyone again, if you see a good adventure that's recruiting, let me know. Probably not going to see many until all the other Outpost adventures finish up though. I've only been playing PFS2 since GenConline, and I've mostly played Quests/Bounties (the non-repeatables I've played are this one, 1-02, 1-05, 1-07, 2-01 and 2-05), so I'm open to playing whatever I can!

Edit:
Chronicle looks great. Not much to figure out on a Chronicle 1. ;)

Is there anything else that would be helpful - starting GP or the Chronicle number (presumably "3")?

Starting GP was 29.07...so, just update me with that and my final GP, then I'll figure out if I want to make any purchases. Thanks.

New revision in the folder.

From my side, Elanna chronicle is now fine. Thanks again for all the work.

BTW, re: travelling with everyone again, if you see a good adventure that's recruiting, let me know. Probably not going to see many until all the other Outpost adventures finish up though. I've only been playing PFS2 since GenConline, and I've mostly played Quests/Bounties (the non-repeatables I've played are this one, 1-02, 1-05, 1-07, 2-01 and 2-05), so I'm open to playing whatever I can!

Edit:
Chronicle looks great. Not much to figure out on a Chronicle 1. ;)

I will do it, if I see something coming. I started PFS last summer/fall and I've played 1-02, 1-03 and 1-10 plus Q13. Elien/Neil PM'd me to coordinate for this scenario, that's why we ended up together for the 3rd time.

Closing this thread. If you need to reach me, PM me, or E-mail me at pfswaterysoup at gmail.