GM Doug's Troubles in Otari (Inactive)

Game Master Doug Hahn

Alright, I've updated my character and put my information in the linked sheets from the start of Discussion.

Only equipment changes were:
Replaced Chain Shirt with Scale Mail
Added Wand of Heal from loot sheet.
Added second Ladder Feather Token from loot sheet.

Changes to character:
Str increased, Wisdom decreased.
Added Athletics skill since both Background and Class give Acrobatics.

Wait, a druid? Did I approve that?

I s'pose that means a pet... hopefully it will be a tasty one :P

Doug --

Bret and I were just discussing the Dromesaur Animal Companion:

Dromaeosaur Your companion is a dromaeosaur (also called a raptor), such as a velociraptor or deinonychus. Size Small Melee [one-action] jaws (finesse); Damage 1d8 piercing Melee [one-action] talon (agile, finesse); Damage 1d6 slashing Str +2, Dex +3, Con +2, Int –4, Wis +1, Cha +0 Hit Points 6 Skill Stealth Senses low-light vision, scent (imprecise, 30 feet) Speed 50 feet Support Benefit Your raptor constantly darts into flanking position. Until the start of your next turn, it counts as being in its space or an empty space of your choice within 10 feet when determining whether you and your companion are flanking; you can choose a different space for each of your attacks).

Could I order it to become the rogue's flanking buddy, or is that support benefit only for me?

Wait, a druid? Did I approve that?

I s'pose that means a pet... hopefully it will be a tasty one :P

Never mind, that rogue is on his OWN.

Ha ha ha ha!

My understanding is that support is only for the companion’s master. You can just direct it to any square to serve as a flanking buddy anyway though.

I know at least Biltri plays a character with an AC; let me know if that ruling seems overly restrictive :)

Doug --

This character won't be ready until sometime on Thursday. It's so weird. I am building a character without a Charisma bonus, since I want to be strong enough to hit with my cool tail. I am probably going to go with the Dromaesaur companion, just to get matching tails.

I don’t mind waiting until Thursday.

Thursday?

Oh, I guess that will give me the chance to make some new bad decisions

Doug has the Dromaeosaur's support right. The companion's character and the companion get the benefits. There are other companions that can provide effects that benefit others (e.g. birds, cats), but they require the companion's character to make a successful strike.

What I'm about to say next is solely theory crafting for our group and merely an idea for thinking about: the characters all have darkvision. The only animal companions with darkvision are cave pterosaur, riding drake, and scorpion (I considered Beastmaster before Blessed One because a barbarian dwarf follower of Trudd with a bear seemed cool). Not carrying around a light source everywhere has theoretical advantages that may or may never appear in this module.

The Dromaesaur has scent. Would that be enough? Also does that mean that we want to be an all stealth group?

My Stealth modifier is +1.

I think it was more about not needing the light.

It was totally about not needing light. And being stealthy.

Far easier to not be seen if you don't carry any lights. Its a dwarf thing.

Scent won't really cut it. With scent, the dino would still be blind in the pitch blackness if we are underground. Scent would only allow it to make a target hidden instead of undetected. It would need to Seek any targets, and any of its targets would need a DC11 flat check, and it would always be flat-footed.

yeah, darkvision options are really limited for AC's.

I'm… fine with your Dromaesaur having Darkvision if it's an important part of the character concept and the party wants to be all night-mode. It won’t break things in this module. Maybe you fed it lots of carrots or something.

Thur is fine. I may put up a character intro prompt on Wednesday if that's OK? The module assumes you have been working together for a while, so we could establish that with a scene before you have mechanics 100% done, then dive in.

Maybe you fed it lots of carrots or something.

Heh heh :)

That sounds great. And I will totally feed it carrots! In fact if you want to put the character intro prompt up today, I will try to get something posted for it. And I guess my last skill that I select is... stealth.

Couldn't get to it last night, but now we're off! I also realized that in Beginner's Box my character had been drinking in the Thirsty Alpaca, but the official gazetteer says the tavern recently collapsed. So I went ahead and burned it down for you.

As I mentioned, your team should be established before the start of the adventure. This post is just a scene for your introduction and to get to know one another with some optional hooks. How you met is up to you; perhaps your new teammates are friends or acquaintances or have a reputation as local private eyes or problem-solvers.

We will try to move on shortly after intros; you'll have a "mission briefing" as well, so if Nandipha needs another day that should be OK. I don't think we'll be rolling initiative till the weekend or so.

"Nandipha and her companion Carrots be ready for adventure. Give us a few minutes, and we be posting in Gameplay."

A cognosathus looks up, hearing his nickname. It snorts softly for a few minutes, and then chirps, Snirp?"

Nandipha raises a fist to the GM. "And now I have to ask you... Where I be selling these hides now? All I wanted today was a place to eat fish stew and rest my feet, but you had to go burn it down!"

You may have to find work with these strangers hanging out in the ruined tavern!

We doing hero points like PFS?

If so, I would like to give my 2 glyph tokens to Biltri and Bauxite (since Dethor knows and tolerates the two).

Also, was there a sign in sheet or macro sheet you needed us to fill out?

This is Campaign mode so no glyph hero points, though we'll all start with one and I will give them out on an "hourly" basis.

Macro sheet was above; lemme link it in the description too. Character reference on the slides; we can sign in for PFS credit later on — we'll be a few months on this module so it's simpler to decide about credit near the end.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qzpNZ14Alm6EKsGlYLevZzNN1JmP--xi_X8 NYXv0huI/edit?usp=sharing

Cookware is expensive.

It's been a while since I gave up on the Order Explorer path, but I don't think Nandipha should have Wild Morph. If she started as Animal and went Order Explorer, she only gains the Wild Shape feat and not the rest (trained in Intimidation and Wild Morph). She should have Heal Animal.

If she went the other way: Wild into Animal, she'd have Wild Morph and not Heal Animal.

I think.

It's been a while since I gave up on the Order Explorer path, but I don't think Nandipha should have Wild Morph. If she started as Animal and went Order Explorer, she only gains the Wild Shape feat and not the rest (trained in Intimidation and Wild Morph). She should have Heal Animal.

If she went the other way: Wild into Animal, she'd have Wild Morph and not Heal Animal.

I think.

Yeah, that's how I read it too. "You gain a 1st-level feat that lists that order as a prerequisite, and you are now a member of that order for the purpose of meeting feat prerequisites." I'm not even sure how you GET that focus spell at a glance, but I'm sure there's a level 4 or 6 feat somewhere.

I also missed this on your profile, Nandipha!

Let's move along with the combat, for now, as-is, but let's resolve it after. (if the suspension of disbelief is an issue, can retcon the scene as daggers instead of claws).

Looking at it, you need the Order Magic feat in order to get the other order's spell.

Assuming she went Animal Order and took Order Explorer feat to get Wild Order, she would get the Animal Companion feat, Heal Animal spell and the Wild Shape feat which gives the Wild Shape order spell.

Assuming she went Wild Order and took Order Explorer to get Animal Order, she would get the Wild Shape feat which gives the Wild Shape order spell, Wild Morph spell, and Animal Companion feat.

She should give up either Heal Animal or Wild Morph. I would personally give up Heal Animal since a regular Heal spell can heal the creature. The advantage of the Heal Animal is she could refocus and do it again.

I have no issues with retconning it as daggers if she wants Heal Animal.

Looking at it, you need the Order Magic feat in order to get the other order's spell.

That’s the one! Thanks.

As much as I'd like to keep those extra 15 hp, I'm pretty sure that was a critical hit unless I did math wrong somewhere. :/

My base AC is 19. The (20) is with clan dagger's Parry action.

But it's fine. It just makes Biltri angrier. ;)

Damn. I misread that Order Explorer does not allow for that. Oh well. So should I drop that druid feat, or keep it and make myself wild first with an animal companion second?

I also missed that clan daggers were different from regular daggers. This is what happens when I rush a build.

Okay, as much as I like the idea of just growing claws, it's probably better action economy to have weapons instead -- clan daggers or maybe gauntlets. And probably get at least one long spear.

Is it okay if I do a quick rebuild right now? I'm keeping Animal Order first, and letting go of Wild Morph and Intimidate.

Yep, go ahead and rebuild now, it’s fine. You can rebuild however you want.

Thanks, for clarifying, Biltri. I re-read your statblock last night and realized I missed that too. Baux can definitely heal you this round if he wants, considering this new information.

Fighting this boar isn’t too exciting [insert bore / boar pun here] so it’s a good time to get a groove for our characters.

Thanks, for clarifying, Biltri. I re-read your statblock last night and realized I missed that too. Baux can definitely heal you this round if he wants, considering this new information.

Gladly took the retcon.

Thanks!

Conveniently, I don't even have to update the stat block now because Baux's healing undid the crit's damage :)

Okay, revised. Nandipha has more weapons now. I thought the claws were fun and cool -- sorry about missing that they did not come with Order Explorer.

No problem. I missed it too. This is a great encounter to work out the bugs and learn.

Speaking of which, I have no idea how to play this character lol

Still working that out for my own Investigator.

When there are multiple enemies, it becomes easy. Devise a Strategy, if it is a low roll attack someone else.

When there is only one opponent, I plan to try using Intimidate. Still trying to work out what else might work as a second choice action. I will also often use Recall Knowledge in those cases.

And so that initial stratagem just goes to waste, like a missed attack roll?

Yes.

After this battle, you might want to set "the Fishery" as your current investigation.

Quote:

And so that initial stratagem just goes to waste, like a missed attack roll?

Yes.

After this battle, you might want to set "the Fishery" as your current investigation.

I think you need to start with Pursue a Lead activity, which means you have to actually have something to start the investigation with.

This is the start of an investigation.

To do so, you need:

You spend 1 minute examining the details of one potential clue, designating the subject related to that clue as the target of your active investigation. This subject is typically a single creature, item, or small location (such as a room or corridor), but the GM might allow a different scope for your investigation.

And it wouldn't have helped here.

I wouldn't think of it as wasting a roll for Devise a Stratagem.

If you had just attacked, any further attacks would have had a MAP penalty. This way it is roll, if good use it. If it is no good, find something else to do and roll for that.

And if it looks close enough that adding your Intelligence to it will make it a hit (or even upgrade hit to a critical hit), then that's a gain over if you had just rolled a straight Strike.

Also good for talismans; for example, DaS --> knowledge you will crit --> activate potency rune and strike.

You should let me know what you're actively investigating right now.

Also good for talismans; for example, DaS --> knowledge you will crit --> activate potency rune and strike.

Thanks for this! It is a trick I hadn’t considered yet.

That is a good trick. I'll have to use it with my investigator!

Also note that this doesn't preclude you from attacking a different target by rolling.

I really need to build an investigator... But I think I am building a bomber alchemist first.

Bret and I will be AFK for part of today doing a vaccine road trip. Bot us as needed!

Hmm

Congrats!

Also good for talismans; for example, DaS --> knowledge you will crit --> activate potency rune and strike.

You should let me know what you're actively investigating right now.

You know my tactics all to well. It's almost as if we've talked about them offline nearly every day lol

I don't know what lead Lucius would be pursuing right now other than the fishing camp. Is that too big of a location? He's also interested in the ghosts, if they make more sense to pursue.

"Blue Finley" might be a lead (the ghost); I think the "Fishing Camp" is rather too big a location (Pursue a Lead: "This subject is typically a single creature, item, or small location (such as a room or corridor)).

Once you're at the camp, however, you may be able to narrow things down to a more specific lead (for example, "who/what is causing trouble at the camp").

You don't have to have a lead right now either!

Random chance takes and gives. Heh heh.