GM_DBH's Shattered Star

Game Master DBH

Cutting our way through. If we were going for a vote, Axton and Vhane are not in favor of having enemies behind them, especially considering it will take four castings of dimension door to get everyone in and out. Elathras seemed in favor of using the spell. I don't think Bharak voted.

Blood and glory! We cut through! And…don’t use that many casting of dimension door.

Sorry, I have to be out and about for business today. No update.

Sorry for my absence, everyone. I was completely swamped in work even through the holidays. The recent promotions unfortunately came with large downsides on free time and work-related pressure. But I'll try and resume pace.

Congratulations on your promotion! Condolences to your free time and peace of mind!

I have to travel unexpectedly for work. I’ll get my post up tonight.

Just leaving this info about Frank here so that I don't have to find it later:

Lantern archon

Archon Subtype
Archons are a race of celestials, or good outsiders, native to lawful good-aligned outer planes.

Traits: An archon possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).
- Darkvision 60 feet and low-light vision.
- Aura of Menace (Su) A righteous aura surrounds archons that fight or get angry. Any hostile creature within a 20-foot radius of an archon must succeed on a Will save to resist its effects. The save DC varies with the type of archon, is Charisma-based, and includes a +2 racial bonus. Those who fail take a –2 penalty on attacks, AC, and saves for 24 hours or until they successfully hit the archon that generated the aura. A creature that has resisted or broken the effect cannot be affected again by the same archon’s aura for 24 hours.
- Immunity to electricity and petrification.
- +4 racial bonus on saves against poison.
- Teleport (Sp) Archons can use greater teleport at will, as the spell (caster level 14th), except that the creature can transport only itself and up to 50 pounds of carried objects.
- Truespeech (Su) All archons can speak with any creature that has a language, as though using a tongues spell (caster level 14th). This ability is always active.

Sorry. Been getting killed at work. 12-hour days and getting home between 11 and midnight has me exhausted. Especially having to turn around and get back up at 6:30 am. Just can't stay awake. This is my first day to simply turn my computer on over the past 3. It's been a beating.

Will get something up here in a bit. I gotta find out what the heck is happening first. :P

@Elathras remember you can roll all attacks twice and take better. Also you have good hope and inspire courage +2.

@Elathras remember you can roll all attacks twice and take better. Also you have good hope and inspire courage +2.

Thank you...

Sorry. Old buff bot habits i suppose. Just dont want them to go to waste.

According to the map, the entryway towards him is 20 ft wide. It is enough space for both Bharak and Elatrhas to go adjacent with the rider alongside the western bison if they wish. The bison is only large and thus only 10 ft wide. That's why I summoned them surrounding the rider instead of blocking access to us, to give them/you that option if you wish.

A little confused with what you're saying, the squares are five foot. Are you saying the staircase going up to the 10ft door is 20 ft?

Besides, Elathras movement is 20ft. From his starting location he would not be able to get to the steps/doorway and still attack unless he kept the haste activated. I'd rather save the round of haste for when he can get in the extra attack.

Elena Neidhardt wrote:

According to the map, the entryway towards him is 20 ft wide. It is enough space for both Bharak and Elatrhas to go adjacent with the rider alongside the western bison if they wish. The bison is only large and thus only 10 ft wide. That's why I summoned them surrounding the rider instead of blocking access to us, to give them/you that option if you wish.

A little confused with what you're saying, the squares are five foot. Are you saying the staircase going up to the 10ft door is 20 ft?

Besides, Elathras movement is 20ft. From his starting location he would not be able to get to the steps/doorway and still attack unless he kept the haste activated. I'd rather save the round of haste for when he can get in the extra attack.

Sorry, you're right. I did not see the door on my zoomed out phone. I thought the 20 ft wide... um, stairs leading up one square was the entryway to his room. In that case, sorry Bharak/Elathras, might have made a tactical error. Though I suspect it cuts through the front Bison quick enough to get to us.

I added some black-lined squares on the map where the bisons are summoned for clarity. If Line of Sight is an issue for the southern one she summons it one place east, which should be visible from her map position.

To keep myself honest, I am not entirely sure if Elena's Fervor effect applies to herself immediately, or that of her Bisons depending on when exactly 'the start of their turn' is. They presumably act on the same initiative as Elena as they attack immediately on summon and are spawned in during her turns. But RAW, Fervor states:

"Each round for the duration of this spell, each of your allies can choose one of the following bonuses for that round at the beginning of its turn (their choice)."

It seems that Raw, as the one casting it, Elena wouldn't get the benefit in round 1 as her turn has already started. Which makes the warpriests using fervor on themself quickened and immediately haste attacking, as I've seen in the paast, a bit sketchy in retrospect. However, everyone acting after her would get the benefit.

Unless it is ruled that applying the spell to herself overwrites the normal need for a start of turn.

Anyway, if it applies, Elena uses the defensive benefit this round of +2 ac/ref and the Bisons make their haste attack. If it does not, then the two haste attacks of the bisons on my last post do not take place.

The spine flail seems great! +2, reach and can work against adjacent? Amazing. Would anyone mind if Bharak uses it?

Not to mention a chance at blinding on a critical. :)

Go for it :) A very cool item if a bit unsettling, swinging around someone's spine. But probably about par for the course for Pathfinders.

I was slightly worried about the BBEG for a second there until it boldly walked straight up to the Bruise Brothers Bharak and Elathras, the martial Gigachads of this region.

If everyone else doesn’t object then please add my +1 Earthbreaker to the loot pile.

Also is the flail light or heavy? And if it is light is there a way to pay to make it heavy?

The spine flail seems great! +2, reach and can work against adjacent? Amazing. Would anyone mind if Bharak uses it?

Sounds like the perfect weapon for our dwarf barbarian ranger horizon walker.

Guess I should go check in game...

If everyone else doesn’t object then please add my +1 Earthbreaker to the loot pile.

Also is the flail light or heavy? And if it is light is there a way to pay to make it heavy?

It is currently a light flail. It does 1d8 base damage. Heavy flails do 1d10.

I've never heard of anyway to change a weapon from light to heavy?

Why do you wish to change it?

Light Flail: 1d8 damage x2 crit
Heavy Flail: 1d10 damage 19-20x2 crit

d8-d10 is negligible, but this weapon does better with more crits (I want to see it’s special effect go off). I suppose that the Transformative enchantment could be used. Reduce the damage die to d6 but make it 18-20 crit range for 10k gold.

Sounds like a good investment. A reach weapon that crits on potentially a 15+ and can be used adjacent with no penalties should be extremely powerful. Never knew the transformative enchantment existed... that would have saved my paladin some problems during my PFS run when he wanted to respec into a swashbuckler but was stuck with a heavy two-handed weapon.

This is what I envision

And @Elena: the 15-20 sounds nice! But that leaves a question…can I add keen onto the weapon as well or do I need to take improved critical?

This is what I envision

*swoon*

All i can think about now is the infamous nsync/deadpool 3 intro scene whenever Bharak swing his weaponized spine.

I do love me some Deadpool...

Pretty things

And @Elena: the 15-20 sounds nice! But that leaves a question…can I add keen onto the weapon as well or do I need to take improved critical?

You'd have to do either/or because they don't stack. So it would be whichever you prefer. Adding Keen is mighty costly. And Improved crit is costly in a feat sense. Especially, if you have a feat plan in mind.

@Bharak Reading Transformative as a weapon enchant, it reads this at the end:

"The weapon retains all of its abilities , including enhancement bonuses and weapon special abilities , except those prohibited by its current shape. For example, a keen transformative weapon functions normally in the form of a piercing or slashing weapon, but cannot use the keen special ability when in the shape of a bludgeoning weapon. When unattended, the weapon reverts to its true shape."

The question becomes if the keen enchantment can be placed on the Flail when it normally can't be. Since Transformative calls out that switching between states makes enchantments inert that cannot normally be placed upon them, that seems to indicate that you can in fact change the flail to a non-bludgeoning weapon and then have Keen placed on it.

However, I do wonder, would changing the weapon's shape override the ability to use it on adhjacent enemies without penalty? Is that bound to it being a spine? I don't know.

Maybe you guys are keeping this in mind and I've lost the thread of the conversation, but remember that the spine flail deals slashing damage.

Ah, perfect! Then, as a slashing flail, it should probably be enchantable with Keen.

Of course, transformative could still give it a larger crit range. 10 k gold transformative + 10 k gold keen is pretty expenstive though. I can try, perhaps, to take another crafting feat to soften that blow but that would come at the cost of either 1 hit/1 damage on inspire courage or 1d6 damage to all attacks on inspire courage.

So Keen will give it a Critical range of 19-20.

Transformative means you can transform the Spine flail into a one-handed melee weapon that has a greater Critical range.

Expensive, but as GM I would rule that the Keen enchantment does carry over to the new weapon shape.

For example changing the Spine flail to a longsword would give you a longsword that has a critical chance of 17-20, and has a chance to blind.

Is that something close to what you are planning?

It is! Thanks to all of you for all of the thought going into it. I’m actually debating on whether improved critical should be taken instead due to the cost…but my feats are all currently planned for.

How much would keen cost? It would naturally come after transformative.

It is! Thanks to all of you for all of the thought going into it. I’m actually debating on whether improved critical should be taken instead due to the cost…but my feats are all currently planned for.

How much would keen cost? It would naturally come after transformative.

I generally go with the Keen enchantment rather than Improved critical, as it's only good for one weapon type. Unless you have a super weapon that you won't be changing. Then Improved critical is worth taking.

Keen enchantment is also 10,000gp.

So yes it will be expensive. :)

If nobody else has a strong opinion otherwise, let's head to C9 and take out the Nuckelavee.

I have two strong opinions. First, let's talk in character in game. Elathras asked you a question, please answer it. Second, why are we killing monsters we don't need to kill? If they've not attacked with all the noise we've made, I don't think they're going to. Can't we get the shard we came for and leave?

Edit:
IF it helps any to understand my motives.

Elathras is having a moment questioning his belief system. Raised by the order of the pike, he happily embraced killing evil monsters to protect people. Now, while in Kara Maga he's worked with trolls and other creatures, realizing the 'kill them all and let Pharasma sort them out may not be the right thing to do. Also, they are not on Golarion, there in some pocket dimension where there are no innocents to harm. There is no one to protect but themselves. He'd just as soon live and let live, get what they came for and get out.

But this is really a conversation (if wanted) to be had in game....

Fair enough!

Fair enough!

Thanks :)

Vhane, you still with us? Any opinion about what the group should do?

Sorry, no update today. I've got the Monday illness.

No update sorry, car problems have kept me rushing around all day trying to get if working again. Stinking hot day as well so I'm really washed out. :(

Did get the car working thankfully. Though it will need to go in and get a serious servicing.

Nice post in game Elana, but sadly I was humming you can call me Al while I was fixing lunch, so that's the tune I heard it to....

Now I'm envisioning Clark Griswold as our cleric.

I enjoyed the prayer. It makes her really feel like a cleric, well done. :)

Thanks guys. It's actually an old Poem from Lord Byron in 1832. I thought it suited Shelyn surprisingly well.

And haha, Elathras. That would indeed ruin any dramatic tension. I now can't help picturing Elena instead doing this :)

@GM Unless something stops this from happening, Elena would stand behind the frontline and will start performing Inspire Courage right before Axton uses mage hand to try grabbing the shard.

@Axton Elena can have you reroll the save if you want to, by using Saving Finale as indicated in her post. Unless you want to pass on the reroll in case Elathras fails it i guess?

Thanks, but I'm not sure this is crucial. Axton doesn't take a lot of damage (I say, now jinxing myself), so I think that this can hold until we get backt o Kaer Maga and we can do a remove curse spell somehow.

Thanks, but I'm not sure this is crucial. Axton doesn't take a lot of damage (I say, now jinxing myself), so I think that this can hold until we get backt o Kaer Maga and we can do a remove curse spell somehow.

It would have been funnier if you were still a Sorcerer and relied on your charisma. :)

Axton Vendian wrote:

Thanks, but I'm not sure this is crucial. Axton doesn't take a lot of damage (I say, now jinxing myself), so I think that this can hold until we get backt o Kaer Maga and we can do a remove curse spell somehow.

It would have been funnier if you were still a Sorcerer and relied on your charisma. :)

It would have made his mustache fall out.

I went ahead and updated the loot we found for the second 2/3rds of book 3. Unless I missed something, the treasure feels a bit 'light' on the value (maybe this final caulborn has something, though). The unclaimed loot (I didn't bother pricing big six items or known claimed items since i know they are either already claimed or will be claimed) seems to amount to just under 17000 gold each if we well everything currently not claimed. I guess there might be some skewing of 'wealth distribution' going on as Bharak both used the manual of bodily exercise and has the spine flail weapon, which combined are worth over 43000 gold in item value. But as no one else was able or willing to make good use of those I'm unsure if that should play into the further gold distribution among the party for the book.

As an Aside I am also unsure how to price the spellbooks if Axton doesn't need those now that he is an arcanist. And we will probably get a little bit more for completing the quests upon returning to Kaer Maga (the poison from leaving the hand on the market, and returning with Golem parts).

And I might have missed some basic valuables; I scanned the GM posts for blue text treasure but at some point I noticed some treasure was marked among the normal post in normal black text. but I *think* I got everyone.

Anyway, since Elena can't make good use of pretty much anything else here she would like to have the Amulet of natural armor +2 along with the boots of striding and springing; it keeps her slightly safer on AC and able to reach the melee for Bit of Luck touch range granting. She hasn't claimed anything else for the entirety of book 3 I think.