PFS2: Breaking the Storm by GM Redeux (Inactive)

Game Master redeux

Okay, so for instance, Vermin Repellant is listed as Standard/Uncommon. Yet, I have access through a Chronicle boon.

Is the boon redundant (granting access to something I had access to anyway)? Or am I missing something?

Well, that access requirement is "Anyone visiting the [Open Road] lodge can stock up on more vials of cream." which is different than "being a pathfinder" So the boon does something. Unless you happened to be in a scenario where you were at that lodge i suppose.

Though, if you ever take a look at the items granted on chronicles (particularly season 1 chronicles) you will likely find a lot of redundant item access. Over time they have gotten better at this by just listing items that are uncommon, or where the early chronicle access is actually useful.

Undead have also been mentioned as possible foes and I'm a bit worried about that. We are at the level that we should begin to see incorporeal undead and those might be a bit of a problem without ghost touch. I see that Quinoline has the ghost charge formula so that should help but if we encounter something with resistance 10 we might have a few issues.

Does anyone know of a spell or item that adds ghost touch to a weapon in a manner similar to that cold iron weapon blanch?

Astrid will take 2 lesser healing potions as her school item and I'm considering selling my returning rune in order to have enough gold to purchase a ghost touch rune and likely one of those cold iron blanches.

I'll have Jakoby pick up a Ghost Touch rune - and will "story" it my next pass on Gameplay...

Okay, I've picked up silversheen and cold iron blanch as formulas, and can make 2/reagent. I have ghost charges, but not all undead are weak to positive. I can make a few - I don't know if it's 2/reagent or 3/reagent, but I'll look it up ... um ... after Lego Masters.

Priorities. :D

It's 3, but I just realized if I Advanced them, they won't be persistent. Since they're only 10 gp, I think yall should get your own, and Quinoline will try to get persistent positive on them.

I'll have Jakoby pick up a Ghost Touch rune - and will "story" it my next pass on Gameplay...

As sad as it is, that does look like its the best option for dealing with ghosts at this level. Ghost Touch plus a fresh +1Stk weapon is only weapon cost +175g. Pearlescent Pyramid Aeon Stone adds Ghost Touch to everything you have as a slotless invested item, but its Item Level 10 and costs 900g. Best option and investment IMO is Ghost Ammunition, which costs as much as the Pearlescent Pyramid per shot but also ignores cover, plus it regenerates between scenarios, so it has other utility; sadly it's Item Level 14 and way out of the level range for current PFS as a result.

At first I thought I might have been onto something with the Ghostly Weapon spell, but sadly it became less than garbage when I reread the Targets section and realized it could only be used on a non-magical weapon, at which point you're sacrificing at least +1 Stk and 2 actions for the cast, which seems like a bad tradeoff to me.

Hopefully they add some more affordable options or at least spells in Secrets of Magic, but yeah, in the mean time, buying a fresh +1Stk weapon seems like the best pickup. So I guess I'll add that to the shopping list.

Actually Ghostly Weapon might be exactly what Astrid needs. She has doubling rings and her main magical weapon is her shield boss. Ghostly weapon can be cast on a non-magical weapon like her short sword or her bastard sword. Then when she wields it along with her shield boss it would gain the +1 and striking properties.

The biggest issue I see with using a ghostly weapon scroll is that Astrid only has a 70% chance of activating the scroll, 75% if I cast guidance first.

If you buy the scroll, Quinoline is an arcane spellcaster amd can activate it for you.

The biggest issue I see with using a ghostly weapon scroll is that Astrid only has a 70% chance of activating the scroll, 75% if I cast guidance first.

If that's the concern, Amada can cast it prior to combat without needing a roll assuming we have at least a minute's notice, or in combat if it looks like it'll be important. Wizard dedication means he can cast it easy. Figured I'd offer it in case that changed your purchasing decisions.

EDIT: Ninja'd by Quinoline.

The characters referenced in my most recent post are two of my old PFS1e characters. The tengu is a member of the Scarab Sages faction who completed the Sages metaplot and served as a template for what I wanted to play when making Amada, while the half-orc completed Scenario 10-23. I won't say anything more than that regarding him to avoid spoiling that scenario for anyone still doing 1e content.

Thought it'd be fun to reference some retired characters for the scenario that is effectively replacing the finale special for this season.

Regarding Astrid's OOC comment: I guess that's why the Spiritsight Crossbow is Uncommon rarity then, huh... This is what I get for seeing Ghost Touch on a unique ranged weapon and assuming that was legal on all ranged weapons as a result. It's fair though; here I was thinking I'd be able to cheese out ghosts' bad touch attacks from 200 feet away.

After looking into melee weapon options, I've decided that the Meteor Hammer will be my ghost slaying tool instead. Reach+trip and the Flail Crit Spec is good on its own, but Backswing is a very good trait for a character build designed around getting at least 1 hit in per turn to proc Precision Edge, plus I currently lack a good bludgeoning weapon.

Updated GP spent is 17.2 less, so 198g.

Also, because I forgot to mention it, the Deinonychus was the half-orc’s Animal Companion. He was a Bolt Ace/Hunter mix, and his weapon of choice was a minotaur double crossbow that fired auto-reloading shadow bolts. Late PF1 had some wacky options.

If everyone could go ahead and fill out Slide 6 for any purchases/selling it'd be appreciated. Asking for it there so it's easier for me to hunt down later and know what's 'final'. This replaced the 'which scenario did you play slide -- i got the info i needed from that. Thanks!

Not purchasing anything this scenario as I am down to 17.68 GP. For GM's reference though last scenario (The one I played on Sunday) I purchased a Necklace of Fireballs II and a Decanter of Endless Water.

Concerning the Ritual Greezgux can help the best with these (in order)

Athletics
Occultism
Religion

GM - would Jakoby be able to gauge whether Assurance in Nature @ 22 would suffice to be a successful Secondary Caster?

...

OOC secondary checks are generally done at-level or higher. Assurance is best for tasks done below level or where the DC is known.

IC Nelket has asked for your expertise. Assurance is more akin to the bare minimum effort you can sustain all day.

in either case, probably not a good idea to use assurance if you're wanting a success/crit success.

My purchases have already been recorded on my inventory sheet and they were quite a lot, but listing them anyway. I have a lot to record and think what was purchased before this session.

Zac/all - If you already listed purchases on an inventory from a prior chronicle sheet then don't list them again on the slide. The purpose of me asking is essentially "what do you want me to write on your 2-22 chronicle" -- Filling out the Purchases/selling sections is a player responsibility as of the latest PFS guide but I ask for the info because playing online I'm happy to fill this stuff out as long as I know what to write.

If someone doesn't fill anything out, for example, then I will assume the player is taking care of it.

Quinolin3 has Arcana +18 and I have already put my purchases into my spreadsheet.

Zac has Athletics 15, Arcana and Occultism 11.
Since each check can only be used once, it doesn't hurt to list all of your trained/expert/master skills.

A solid lineup might be:

Quin w/ Arcana (Expert) +18
Zac w/ Athletics (Expert) +15
Jakoby w/ Nature (Expert) +15

** spoiler omitted **

A solid lineup might be:

Quin w/ Arcana (Expert) +18
Zac w/ Athletics (Expert) +15
Jakoby w/ Nature (Expert) +15

Considering our result is only really likely to get worse as more of us attempt it, this seems reasonable. Since there's literally nothing we can do about 1's and crit successes do relatively little to compete.

Um, yes, we can do something about 1's. Hero points. It seems we all have 2, because of many of us being DMs that can hand them out to each other. However, Astrid has a 10 at best, so yea, no attempt.

The cast time is 4 hours. Fortune effects will not be able to be used, nor other effects that aren't able to be maintained for 4 hours

Sorry, but no hero points (a fortune effect) :(

Shoot, didn't realize hero points are fortune effects, darn yes, I had to roll a 1.

Shoot, didn't realize hero points are fortune effects, darn yes, I had to roll a 1.

I could feel it in my gut too, so no worries. With these rules I'm around 70% certain the scenario writers want Sapphire dead, lol

EDIT: Or Dolok Darkfur, depending on the ritual results I suppose.

EDIT 2: Or maybe just us.

Yeah don't sweat it too much. The dice fall like that sometimes.

And the non-spoiler response is--surely Org Play accounted for the possibility of someone rolling a nat1. So it's not like the end of the scenario right at the start.

it's not like the end of the scenario right at the start.

World's fastest scenario!

Step 1. Roll a skill check.
Step 2. If you don't critically succeed, you fail the primary objective.

---

More seriously, is the procedure that we roll for the secondaries, and then GM rolls for the primary? Or is there no roll for the primary and our success totally based on how many support points we gather?

GM just immediately checks boxes B and D on the scenario reporting card...

All good, Rolling failures and Nat 1's are what make the game interesting. It can't be successes across the board :)

Something tells me this ritual is or could be worth 3 treasure bundles. Not one, cause why not, sometimes writers like torture, maybe not always TPK or close to it but, even if it is the torture of missing out on a lot of treasure bundles cause someone rolled a natural 1.

Total metagame, but usually Treasure Bundles aren't unlocked this early. Assuming we group-failed, it'll probably just mean things are harder for the rest of the scenario.

Big post. Lots there. I was going to try to split things up but everything happens at once. Gave a TLDR to highlight the important bits.

But just to triple emphasize everyone's concerns -- please read slide 7 and discuss the Aspiration Points together. Rather than detail all that out in the post, those were things that the secondary casters learned from channeling the ritual with the offered totems.

Question about healing: how do combat-level healing actions (healing spells, consuming potions/elixirs, Battle Medicine) work in this action economy? Can we, for example, drink an elixir as a "free" action since each round represents a larger chunk of time than two combat actions?

As a side note, I'm weirdly happy for all these fire-based attacks. Quinoline picked up a ring of fire resistance at Level 6, and had not used it (except for downtime roleplay) as of the beginning of this trilogy.

I was on the verge of selling it to buy something more useful. Finally I'm getting my 230 gp's worth!

Question about healing: how do combat-level healing actions (healing spells, consuming potions/elixirs, Battle Medicine) work in this action economy? Can we, for example, drink an elixir as a "free" action since each round represents a larger chunk of time than two combat actions?

Think of the action economy as normal other than you're running full speed amidst the rain of fire. Once you get on a map then you'll have to worry about striding/etc as well.

Do I get the impression that using spells that would make us harder to detect like Invisibility would be useful here? If I need to make a knowledge check for this information I'm not against attempting one.

It would feel like the fire is raining from the sky and randomly attacking. Zac was able to dodge out of the way quick enough, and some of you are now successfully finding cover. You'd recognize this as an environmental hazard and being invisible may or may not help. I'd take any magical skill (arcana/nature/occultism/religion) for a recall knowledge check to know more.

As far as the aspiration points go it looks as though we really want to hold 3 in reserve. One to retrieve Dolok and two to sever the link between Sapphire and the spirit. We'll just have to power through everything else.

Strategically, since we have 4 points, that means we have an "optional" point that we can use to buff.

Should we use one point on "give everyone good damage" at the earliest opportunity (getting the most use out of it), or save it to reduce drained on one key person?

Strategically, since we have 4 points, that means we have an "optional" point that we can use to buff.

Should we use one point on "give everyone good damage" at the earliest opportunity (getting the most use out of it), or save it to reduce drained on one key person?

Definitely at least want to make sure we're targeting something weak to Good before we use that, but I'm partial to saving the last point for recovery. The fact that it allows someone to reduce Slowed or Drained by 2 makes me incredibly apprehensive about what kind of foes we'll be fighting, to say the least.

Re-reading through the Aspiration points, the points to reduce the spirits defense and offense are independent of each other. So 0-2 points to reduce offense, and 0-2 points to reduce the spirit's defense. I've updated the slide and apologies for the confusion!

Before anyone checking my spell links asks, Perseis's Precautions is available to all members of the Pathfinder Society. The intro text for the "Secrets of the Pathfinder Society" section in the LO Pathfinder Society Guide book states the following important text that AoN didn't list in the spell description since it wasn't listed in the description of the spell itself, bold-ed for emphasis;

Whether stored in the vaults of the Grand Lodge, hidden in the minds of various agents, or lost to time from the Society’s ancient past, the Pathfinder Society is rife with secrets. Some take the form of unusual magic items; others are spells or special techniques. Agents who discover and use these secrets gain an edge that can help them as they undertake Society missions. All characters affiliated with the Pathfinder Society have access to the uncommon options in this section.

Seems legit Character options page says all options are standard availability unless specifically noted otherwise. I see no specific note for that spell so it should be standard availability (Which AoN notes). Then as you said, the chapter heading gives access to options in the chapter.

edit: will try to get an update this afternoon (gmt-4). 2nd/4th saturdays i run Abom Vaults

How close can we get without breaking cover? Would it be possible to circle around to the other side of the building while staying under cover? I'm assuming there must be some sort of cover or we would all be able to see the cyclops.

I will be traveling this week. I won't be checking much more than once per day but will be checking 1-2x/day. Internet status unknown, but it's good enough for streaming TV so I am optimistic.

And as far as actions go -- assuming you are rushing in, everyone except Amada would've had 1 round of actions while waiting (before Amada communicates) and 1 round of actions as you run in (this includes any recall/hunt prey done previously). Amada would also have 1 round from the approach (before seeing the details of the monster), and 1 round after seeing them.

The monsters were on the ground when Amada arrived but they (slowly) getting up and likely will be on their feet by the time most of the party arrives.

The picture is coming together for me: it seems as though the cyclops, even as they become aware of us, are sort of stuck, essentially unable to respond beyond continuing to slowly get up...

...posting now with that in mind!

If an effective hit of 33 was enough to crit with the True Strike trident, the Cyclop's AC will be reduced for the following round due to Trident's Crit Spec. (Clumsy 1 for 1 Round)