PFS #2-01 and #2-03 with DM Deevor (Inactive)

Game Master Deevor

Sorry for the delay. I will post for Webny this evening.

@Jack, did you mean to heal Webny or Pooka?

Which ever looked the worst hurt.

Traveling to Atlanta tomorrow for a gig, posting will probably be slow until Monday. Bot away if needed.

Things have changed at work, so I'm having less time for the boards, I'll keep this going but might not be quite as often. This week hasn't been great, but hope as I get on top of things I'll get back to daily.

No worries GM, thank you for letting us know!

Yeah thanks for letting us know.

Same! No problem, and thanks for looping us in.

I'm starting a new job next week and hope to have a little more posting time, so I should be able to keep up a bit better than I have been, whenever you post.

Ok, I rolled 10 d20s and it does not look good ;) The threat poison gives +2 or +4 but it helps with the poison and not persistent damage. The best approach is to wait till round 7 and heal him if anyone cares ;)

I used my scroll of healing on the dragon skull, so Rangi is out of options. Mental note: buy healing potions/scrolls of heal.

@Rangi please see my post, it wasn't quite as bad as you suggest!!!

Rangi, you rolled 10d10 ... you needed to roll 10d20s so I'll do it to speed along ...

ROTFL: I was wondering, who did I offend to not break the 10 even :D

Thanks for spotting that. You get 1 Farol point, and Pooka thanks for your willingness to heal Rangi.

Glad we didn't lose you there, mate!

@Webny: This is mostly personal preference, but if you want my advice: At lower levels, it might be better to just roll your own check rather than aid. The DC to aid is 20, and if you critically fail, you actually hinder the person and grant a -1 penalty to them instead of a bonus. When you roll your own check, you rarely negatively affect others with a crit fail; it's usually just yourself.

Aiding another becomes easier as you level, however (provided you're at least Trained in the skill) because the DC never increases beyond 20, barring outside circumstances (the DC might be higher in the middle of a windstorm, for example) but your bonus keeps going up. I generally don't try to aid until I have at least a +7 or +8 bonus because it minimizes my chances of hindering the person's roll.

This is mainly personal preference, as I said; I'm less of a risk-taker than most because I usually roll like a dumpster fire and don't want to get my hot garbage on my fellow players. But if nothing else it's good to know the rules for Aid Another! They're definitely different from 1e.

So just to summarize the rules (since that was kind of longer-winded than I intended):

Aid Another is DC 20 (+/- from external factors, at GM's discretion).

Crit Success: +2 circumstance bonus to the aided roll (+3 if you're Master in the skill, +4 if you're Legendary).
Success: +1 circumstance bonus to the aided roll.
Crit Failure: -1 circumstance penalty to the aided roll.

EDIT: Also should note that in combat, Aid is a Reaction, and requires you to Ready an Action (a 2-action activity) on your prior turn. Can be kind of a pain but sometimes helps in things like setting up a Trip or Grab attempt!

Thanks! Of course, I just attempted an Athletics check to Aid, but that’s more due to Webny’s general lack of skills than anything else. I will think long and hard about my next character’s skill allocations.

I feel you! Ended up having to do the same thing. The only thing Rashid could research is the cursed orb, and he's not touching that.

I'm on vacation for the next week so my posting might be spotty. Feel free to bot me as needed!

Hopefully it doesn't come up, but Rashid is down to one use of his Divine Font today. :S

Man, I do not have any good skills for Webny, it would seem. Duly noted. Pathfinder leans a little harder into its non-combat themes than D&D, it would seem.

Query for the group: is it too early to tell whether I've whiffed a bit on my first character? Or am I perhaps over-focusing on what have been a series of spectacularly bad rolls on Webny's part? Webny has yet to do anything particularly useful, and I wonder if that is a reflection on a poor build or if it's just circumstance in the early game.

I have no idea how to make Webny useful in this situation and am open to suggestion if anyone has one. I can usually ad lib something, but I'm drawing a complete blank at the moment.

From looking at your skills, maybe Warfare or Gladiatorial Lore might work for the mural? Especially since we're getting hints and other information that the cyclopean civilization descended into blood sacrifices and other barbarism; some of that descent may be documented on the mural, along with their rituals and such.

As for your other question...I don't think you've whiffed on Webny, but also keep in mind that I've yet to play a monk myself. Sometimes the dice roller is just unkind and it's easier to remember those unlucky streaks than it is to remember that time you got a Nat 20 right when you needed it most.

On skills...yeah, a majority of PFS scenarios do tend to have at least one or two sections that involve skill checks, sometimes more. Usually though, they're pretty good about trying to fit in a variety of challenges so that characters who may not have any knowledges (Arcana, Nature, Occultism, Religion, Society) can still have a chance to participate.

All that said, you've got until you play Webny as a 2nd level character for the first time to rebuild her and make changes! So if you want to retool her skills after we finish this scenario but before the next one starts, you can do that. Or if you want to change her ancestry or class, you can do that too :)

@Webny - I second what Pooka wrote. First of all, you can rebuild your PC entirely before the lvl 2, you can literally change everything so yeah, go and experiment.

However, and here comes my personal opinion, Monks (as well as Swashbucklers) are one of those classes that are very fight-oriented. The amount of skills is low, and your attributes mean that you will have Acrobatics/Athletics, Stealth and you could go into Thievery (since it is dex based). In investigation parts like this, you simply can't do much.

The above problem comes from the fact that Monks to be effective have to focus on STR, Dex, and Con which does not leave much for other stats. The amount of skills 4+int means that you will have 4 or 3 skills from your class.

So it is not your fault that you have little to do in this part of the scenario. But overall PFS scenarios have parts that are skill-checks and frequently those have an impact on the chronicle.

I should have added this before, but I'm working at a local music festival from Wednesday until Sunday inclusive. It may cause a few hiccups in postings...

I think what Pooka and Rangi have said is good advice/analysis.

Yes, maybe bring warfare/gladitorial lore into the mural, that could work. Also the ocularity and perception is an option. When you don't have the skills, in RL it's easier to discuss with the GM how to use other lores in the tests, although the DCs will be more than the given Lores, so the DC will be at least +2 on the Lore DCs. Lore DCs tend to be easier than skills and perception.

So to use gladitorial lore, you shoudl describe the picture you see in the mural with the cyclops and whatever, and relate it to the your lore. If you just say I use gladiatorial lore as the cyclops are fighting will not be enough... I want story/description/imagination that bring the Lore and the object together, so we all understand how it relates.

Thank you all; it’s much appreciated. As if she knew my heart’s turmoil, Webny went ahead and got a natural 20 on her very next roll. I’ll take it.

Forgive my radio silence, I’m moving to a new apartment. I’m almost settled in and will be back soon, but bot me if necessary.

Moving is such a pain - hope everything goes as smoothly as possible, Tonraq!

I also think we're just waiting on the GM, but I know they mentioned that they've been a little busier of late.

Got back from the festival yesterday ...

See highlights for the Wickham Festival 2021 on Google, YouTube. Six days of chaos and mud. The main stage was deemed unfit, electricity and rain don't mix. So the down to 3 stages, Main Stage to the big top, big top to a smallish marquee etc... Oh and the mud... we had lots of it ...

Tractors had to put cars into the car park, as well as take them out.

I'll be with you all soon ... catching up with work and life still.

And good luck with your move Tonraq.

Welcome back, GM!

You are close to the end now .... one way or the other ...

This all seems very busy at the moment,

This weekend my daughter has her engagement party .... lot of travelling ...

The following week I'm GMing (maybe) and playing in the PaizoCon (Europe) online convention, which runs Thursday thro Sunday.

Once August has ended I should have more time to get back to a more normal routine...

Sounds like a good time. Have fun!

@Pooka: Just so you're aware, comprehend language only lets you understand a language you're hearing or reading, it doesn't let you speak the language (unless you're casting the spell at 3rd level or higher, but I believe the wand was as a 1st level spell). So if it can't speak Common, this might be a one-sided conversation. Still, we might be able to at least know for sure that it's hostile (though I suspect we'll learn that as soon as its turn comes up). :D

Ah yes, I'm bad to get Comprehend Languages confused with Tongues. Perhaps Tonraq can figure something out then.

Well to be fair, they are basically the same spell now! So you weren't far off, just off by the spell level rather than the actual spell. :)

I do believe I may make Webny a ki focused monk instead of a stance focused monk. I can make that change any time before level 2, right? Or do I make that change at level 2 and it is permanent going forward?

You can make it anytime before 2nd level! Once we wrap this scenario up, you could change her focus before we start the next one.

I think it's best if I say we'll restart next Monday... as tomorrow is my normal GMing of Fall of Plaguestone (online Roll20) .. and Wednesday is genning up on a few scenarios for the Convention ... then it's the convention ... so not a lot of time.

For any playing in PaizoCon (Europe) Online .... may see you there ..

Thanks for letting us know. Just a question when Jak cast disrupt undead shouldn't it do extra damage due to the enemy being undead? Or is this undead does not have a vulnerability to positive damage?

Thanks for letting us know. Just a question when Jak cast disrupt undead shouldn't it do extra damage due to the enemy being undead? Or is this undead does not have a vulnerability to positive damage?

This undead does not have vulnerability ... will check again in case it was missed, but the creature stat does not include it.

I think it's best if I say we'll restart next Monday... as tomorrow is my normal GMing of Fall of Plaguestone (online Roll20) .. and Wednesday is genning up on a few scenarios for the Convention ... then it's the convention ... so not a lot of time.

For any playing in PaizoCon (Europe) Online .... may see you there ..

That'll work for me, GM.

Ok, going the ki warrior route and dropping her stance training

Enjoy the convention, gm!

So, we seen to have healing pretty well in hand, so I’m thinking of switching out Webny’s Medicine skill for something else. Is there anything you vets feel like we’re lacking? Society? Thievery? What’s likely to be useful to the group?

Please feel free to disregard the above question. It seems we’ve got a wide range of skills and we’re pretty well covered, so I just picked what looked fun.

Between the scenarios, I will swap Rangi Occultism for Society. I think only Pooka has that skill, and it is frequently used.

Haven't decided if I want to swap anything out with Rashid. I feel like he's got a bunch of skills he never uses but that could just be the scenario he's in.

Family crisis ... I may not post for a while ... when you know you will understand ... thanks for staying with me on this ...

Understood.

Be well, GM. Wishing you the best.

Hang in there, GM.

@GM - all the best to you and your family. Take care of the important things, game can wait

Reiterating what has already been said. Hope all is as well as it can be, and don't worry about us.

Just to let you know, my mother has gone into hospital for the last time, I'll be back when all sorts of things are sorted out.

Thank you for you kind wishes.

I'm so sorry to hear that. Please take all the time you need, we can wait.