PFS #5-21 The Merchant's Wake (Inactive)

Game Master cmlobue

Discussion thread.

Are we going to have familiars and animal companions act on the same initiative as the characters?

If you are having a familiar act (which I have seen rarely), it will be on the PC's initiative. Animal companions and mounts act on their own initiative.

Ok, Makras is leveled up and ready to go. After the miseries of "scaling the Dragon" in the Fog Peaks, he has spent 2,500 gp for boots of the winterlands (to be reflected on this Chronicle).

Does anyone have a chronicle sheet for Scenario #5–01: The Glass River Rescue on their character?

Any questions after the wall of text?

I think that spending rolls to discover what alternate skills we can use is not the best use of our limited actions. Even unskilled characters can hit the Aid DC or even get lucky on a good roll.

I think there's likely to be at least one more "influence phase". Also, for a character with no Diplomacy training and a negative CHA mod, using an action to Sense Motive a different skill option potentially hugely increases the odds of success for the party overall.

Agreed. With no diplomacy skill to talk of, better to help others.

Too late to join with an Exchange Rogue?

I don't mind. Looking forward to see you roleplay showing up late to a prominent individual's funeral.

Okay, just confirming this is tier 1-4? I also need to double check I haven't leveled up to 5. Don't play these PF1 characters as much.

It's a tier 1-5 (and we are playing subtier 4-5).

Awesome. I'll get something up by tonight.

Do the VIPs only have one other influence skill or can we learn of others?

Only one each.

@sleeping sword was that the aid another Ari was asking for on sense motive?

No, I rolled separately. I'm not sure Aid Another is appropriate on this kind of Sense Motive roll. How would you help someone else have a hunch?

Sadaf passed the DC though, I expect his actions reflect that.

You help someone have a hunch by talking about what you see and getting someone's feedback on how they interpreted someone's look, or statement or tone, etc.. I'm not sure how/why that's confusing or non-obvious.

Please bot me for next 24 hours.

@cmlobue - Are there any guests that require rescuing? I do not see any on the map.

Guests have made themselves scarce. It's just you and the corpse.

I am really feeling like a junior pathfinder here but better that a dead junior pathfinder. Hopefully the other opponents will not have paralysing auras. :)

Your reach weapon is your friend!

(Also, raging and/or enlarged your damage output will be just fine I am sure).

^Generally yes. The paralysing aura is a concern for my character who is likely to fail the Will save and it reaches out to 30'. My rule #1 of Pathfinder is to always be able to act and to act first if at all possible. It is better to run away then to push a bad position.

If my character was level 4-5 then she would be able to fall back on her spells (or a spell cast from a scroll like Haste to help the party out). Playing up is risky but with the limited time left in 1st edition PFS I will have to take some risk in order to move this character along.

Sorry, that should be a Folio reroll, not Hero Point

My rule #1 of Pathfinder is to always be able to act

This is a great rule of thumb. In this case though it might be better to take a round or two of paralysis when you're in the back, protected by two or three other PCs or summons, so as to be able to bring more effective attacks to bear afterwards.

We have the advantage of action economy, but we do not have a great deal of strong attacks.

Anyone got fire or holy water by the way? Sleeping Sword will accept splash damage from alchemist's fire (and isn't hurt by holy water).

No I am going to stick to my rule. Placing your character especially an under-levelled character into a situation where they are very likely to be paralysed and then desiccated does not make any sense at all. In fact it is fool hardy.

No character is in any danger of dying and the summons will overrun the monster soon enough. The Druid can continue to pump out one a round as long as he sees fit. From a tactical standpoint the battle is over. The only real question is if any of the character are going to be carrying around a cursed disease after the combat. Hopefully the answer to that is no.

That's fair enough Rogarch.

I suspect it might take a lot of summons unless the dice are kind to us - but we can always kite the thing if I keep it staggered.

Sorry, Ari-Ani's second attack should be 15 points of damage. Only +2 on damage

How fitting that Makras of all the characters should be afflicted with a cursed disease. This is good fodder for RP I think. :)

It is a well known tradition that Pathfinders provide the means for their own healing after their first game. Please check the thread for Pathfinder Society or play live at any lodge once covid is over. Your character might not know it but as a player you need to know this fact.

You're conflating the convention of having a way to heal yourself with expecting to be able to sit in the back, play up, and contribute absolutely zero to the encounter.

You're ridiculous if you think you can hide out of danger and then contribute nothing, while playing up. Whenever I play my investigators, I always offer to heal the frontliners. And think about it, are you better off healing someone to stand between you and Mummy Rot or would you rather stand there yourself?

And the same goes for my archery Ranger who does more than his share of damage. If there characters who are willing to protect me from harm, I am willing to heal them and keep them standing. It's called cooperative game play.

I am not going to discuss this any further with you in or out of character. We can simply agree to disagree about this point and be respectful of the other players who just want to enjoy the game.

You are the one who has tried to lecture me both ic and ooc. My original ic post was not directed at you either directly or indirectly as you have neither spells nor channel healing. Nevertheless you, who told us all of your refusal to expose yourself in combat felt it necessary to tell others how to play. Yes, bring your own healing says the person who let's others do the fighting.

Then you try to come at me ooc as if you've got some moral high ground to not too offer your heal wand, nevermind I never asked you for it. Now you are trying to pretend you are not the one who started the bullying? Lol

Yes, let's just stick to IC.

I hope this discussion is mostly over, but I want to say a couple things.

I don't think it's unreasonable to ask to use renewable resources like spells first during a scenario. I also don't think it's unreasonable to say that you don't want to because they may be more helpful later and everyone should use the wand they likely bought after their first mission. Things escalated quickly, but I hope this is just a resource management question gone too far.

(Of course, in-character arguments are acceptable, but they need to stay there, and they need to end if any players are not comfortable.)

PM me if you think there is a bigger problem to work through, but otherwise do your best to cooperate for the rest of the scenario.

I think it would be great if it ended right now. I am fine with the two characters disliking each other (why wouldn't they after the back and forth) but they should do it in a way that is not disruptive to the game or disrespectful to any of the players.

Also, Lo did mention that he has a brand new shiny CLW wand that anyone is free to use charges on to heal themselves.

He would have to UMD it. :)

Sleeping Sword will activate anyone's CLW wand for them. (I'm sure Makras or Sadaf would do likewise).

Yes, and if you have an arcane wand (say Mage Armor) on the Bloodrager spell list my character will be happy to activate it for you as well. If you are out of combat/chase actions you can simply include it in a post and assume that it is done.

Ari-Ani

Your conduct at this table is detracting from other players' enjoyment of the game, including mine.

It's fine to disagree with another player's tactical choices. It's fine to offer advice about actions in combat. It is not ok to tell another player how to play their character, nor to become aggressive when you don't approve of another character's actions.

Stop.

Ari-Ani

Your conduct at this table is detracting from other players' enjoyment of the game, including mine.

It's fine to disagree with another player's tactical choices. It's fine to offer advice about actions in combat. It is not ok to tell another player how to play their character, nor to become aggressive when you don't approve of another character's actions.

Stop.

As far as I am concerned, the issue is done. The "shoulder rub" was role play, and the GM specifically allowed for discord IC. I openly acknowledged that it can be ignored if it takes the role play too far.

Sorry to hear your game has been impacted. So has mine.

Actually, with the GM's permission, I will withdraw from the game and we'll say this never happened. I don't know if the majority of the players here want to hold Rogarch faultless, but I'm not going to force the others to take sides.

Apologies to the GM. Appreciate the opportunity and I certainly had no issues with the other players.

And thanks Lo Pei, I appreciate you embodying the spirit of PFS.

I'm not going to force anyone to play the game. Ari-Ani, if you think bowing out is the best solution, that is fine. You were here for little enough that I will not issue you a chronicle sheet. I'm sorry I was not able to make this work.

Does anyone have a chronicle sheet for Scenario #5–01: The Glass River Rescue on their character?

GM, I missed this question somehow, sorry. Sleeping Sword does have the chronicle for 5-01 but it was GM xp - I knew I recognised those merchant names. If it's too late to incorporate this please don't worry.

There's no mechanical bonus to having the sheet, just some different dialogue.

@cmlobue - You have our characters scattered outside the room. For sake of counting movement can we assume we are at the door or at worst one square back as we were just trying to break down the door?

Yes. You are in a hallway, and that was an approximation of where you stood. 5 feet will get you to Makras' square, regarless of where your token is.

Yes. You are in a hallway, and that was an approximation of where you stood. 5 feet will get you to Makras' square, regardless of where your token is.

know.religion: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

It's a lich!

Sleeping Sword wrote:

know.religion: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

It's a lich!

A CR 1 creature. Perhaps a mini-lich? :)

You would think that melee characters would be better at locking down opponents but without building for that specifically it is difficult to do. There is nothing really stopping the undead from moving ahead and attacking their target despite the fact that my character is right in front of her.

@cmlobue - I just wanted to confirm my understanding of how the Bead of Force magical item works before I take my turn. My understanding is that I can target an intersection of squares (AC 5) and it will trigger and do 5d6 Force damage (no save) to all within a 10' radius. Those within the radius will need to make a Reflex save DC 16 or be trapped within a resilient sphere spell. Is this correct in your opinion?

@cmlobue - I just wanted to confirm my understanding of how the Bead of Force magical item works before I take my turn. My understanding is that I can target an intersection of squares (AC 5) and it will trigger and do 5d6 Force damage (no save) to all within a 10' radius. Those within the radius will need to make a Reflex save DC 16 or be trapped within a resilient sphere spell. Is this correct in your opinion?

That is correct.

Makras tries to add a fresh layer of gore to his never-washed heavy pick!

Attacking the Blue zombie.

attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

Can someone throw a prestidigitation on Makras' weapon?

^If it was only his weapon that needed a good cleaning I would be ever so grateful. :)

Good job GM Jhaeman on bringing such a colorful character into the game.