Protectors of Golarion (Wrath of the Righteous AP)

Game Master Sensen

Hopefully they'll return soon. I'll get up a post later today. Thesius will assist with detecting magic.

I hope everyone's week is going well. I'm ready for heading to Gen Con next week. I still plan to post while there.

Have fun, Thesius!

Unfortunate about Azira. I'll try to reach out to them today.

Sorry- had another burst of busyness at work. Just got a gameplay post up (before the GM messaged me, I think, but my phone is weird about PMs so maybe not). I really like Thesius’ idea about posting everyday in discussion just to get back into the rhythm (I feel like I was also really struggling with that), so I’m going to shamelessly steal it (though, I may skip posting here on days that I post in gameplay).

Oh yeah. The overall goal is to post in one or the other. Sometimes it's just saying hi and giving well wishes too though.

It's definitely been helping to be a bit more active in one form or another.

Hey, welcome back Azira! Good to hear from you, I hope your work clears up soon.

Have fun at Gen Con, Thesius!

Good morning. I hope everyone has a fun weekend ahead.

Thanks Verene! It should be good. I'm excited to see Matthew Lilliard.

Sorry- had another burst of busyness at work. Just got a gameplay post up (before the GM messaged me, I think, but my phone is weird about PMs so maybe not). I really like Thesius’ idea about posting everyday in discussion just to get back into the rhythm (I feel like I was also really struggling with that), so I’m going to shamelessly steal it (though, I may skip posting here on days that I post in gameplay).

You did, indeed, preempt me! I totally didn't forget what I said I was going to do. That idea sounds good to me. I might try it, but I'm not sure it'd work for me as much. So many things to juggle...

Yeah, have fun Thesius! I’ll be driving for 17 straight hours starting tomorrow, so my weekend will not be so much fun. (I’m doing that to get home from a vacation though, so it’s mostly worthwhile, lol.)

Oof, 17 hours in one go? I hope you have a driving buddy to switch off with!

@Thesius: Have a great time at GenCon!

Wow yeah, that is a crazy long drive. Most I've ever done in a day solo is 14 hours, and it was miserable. I hope you have either a buddy or some good playlists, podcasts or audiobooks to listen to on the way, Azira.

I appreciate you hanging in there with us, GM. After this room I have a bit of a proposal that could maybe speed up the processing of this upper floor of the dungeon... Not till we have resolved the important Armor Upgrade, though!

@Merixia: I didn't know that kind of helmet design was a thing. You've taught me something today!

@Merixia: I didn't know that kind of helmet design was a thing. You've taught me something today!

I spent so much time combing through Wikipedia, YouTube (did you know that it’s possible to dance in full plate?) and various museum collections trying to find something that would work with horns and also protect the face. Because Merixia is a spellcaster, and the smart thing for an enemy to do would be to hit her in the mouth so she can’t speak clearly. Pathfinder doesn’t have rules for that, but it would be something she’d think about IC.

…And apparently autocorrect strikes again. It’s a falling buffe, not a falling butte. Sigh.

I do have my SO with me, so that’ll help. My longest solo drive was 16 hours (which I did twice in 3 days), but I’ve done 39 hours with 1 other person, and 41 with 3 others. Those last two were like 20-25 years ago though; I don’t think I could do that now.

Definitely do what suits you GM Worldwound! We appreciate what you do and habits help me keep more consistent so this was definitely me trying to put the effort into a game I enjoy.

Thanks everyone! It should be a good trip. Met up with my best buddy this morning so we could talk some before we head out on Wednesday.

Oof...have a safe trip Azira.

So if I ever get full plate for LARPing, I need to learn how to dance in it is what I'm hearing...

So if I ever get full plate for LARPing, I need to learn how to dance in it is what I'm hearing...

For your viewing enjoyment: cha cha real smooth

That’s a funny video. Also, the 17 hour drive has been safely vanquished!

Hurray!

Glad to hear you made it through alright Azira.

Sometimes you just got to dance.

Hurray! That’s a very nice suit of armor. I don’t suppose the paladin lay on hands and MP properties would work for a cleric with channel energy?

Hm... how do they measure up, mechanically speaking? I'm disinclined to go with it by my gut, because I feel like the channel energy is more advantageous than lay on hands for multiple people.

Awesome armor for Merixia! Since it already magically adjusts itself to the wearer, and is intended for religious characters, I see no balance reason why it shouldn't attune itself to a cleric as well as a paladin, making the MP ability work straight-up. As for the extra Lay on Hands vs. extra channel, channeling definitely provides more total HP of healing, but Lay on Hands can be used as a swift action (for the paladin) and at higher levels can remove conditions as well, which is extremely valuable. To me it's kind of a wash. But if you want, possibly a less powerful replacement might be one extra cure spell per day of the highest level the cleric can cast, to preserve the scaling?

Also, it is hilarious and fits well with Verene's whole deal that she saw (through the arcane eye) this incredibly flashy and unique gold-washed mithral full plate covered in sacred Iomedaean designs, and was like "Eh, there's some armor too I guess," instead of insisting we come in here ASAP.

Awesome armor for Merixia! Since it already magically adjusts itself to the wearer, and is intended for religious characters, I see no balance reason why it shouldn't attune itself to a cleric as well as a paladin, making the MP ability work straight-up. As for the extra Lay on Hands vs. extra channel, channeling definitely provides more total HP of healing, but Lay on Hands can be used as a swift action (for the paladin) and at higher levels can remove conditions as well, which is extremely valuable. To me it's kind of a wash. But if you want, possibly a less powerful replacement might be one extra cure spell per day of the highest level the cleric can cast, to preserve the scaling?

Also, it is hilarious and fits well with Verene's whole deal that she saw (through the arcane eye) this incredibly flashy and unique gold-washed mithral full plate covered in sacred Iomedaean designs, and was like "Eh, there's some armor too I guess," instead of insisting we come in here ASAP.

What Verene said! The extra MP is more important to me, I can live without an extra channel or cure spell.

And yes, it's very Verene to totally dismiss the obviously expensive suit of full plate.

Current AC: 10 base + 10 armor + 1 Dex + 2 deflection (magic circle vs evil) + 5 natural (ironskin) = AC 28

Channel Energy is intrinsically more powerful than Lay on Hands which is why Paladin has to expend two uses of Lay on Hands for Channel Energy.

I guess paladins also tend to get more uses of LoH per day than clerics do channeling (1/2 level + Cha mod vs. 3 + Cha mod), which makes a single extra channel more valuable to a cleric than a single extra LoH to a paladin.

Yeah. I'm totally fine with whatever is chosen, was just addressing the question as asked.

And good morning. A little 24 hours until I hit the road.

Awesome armor for Merixia! Since it already magically adjusts itself to the wearer, and is intended for religious characters, I see no balance reason why it shouldn't attune itself to a cleric as well as a paladin, making the MP ability work straight-up. As for the extra Lay on Hands vs. extra channel, channeling definitely provides more total HP of healing, but Lay on Hands can be used as a swift action (for the paladin) and at higher levels can remove conditions as well, which is extremely valuable. To me it's kind of a wash. But if you want, possibly a less powerful replacement might be one extra cure spell per day of the highest level the cleric can cast, to preserve the scaling?

That sounds fine to me.

Also, it is hilarious and fits well with Verene's whole deal that she saw (through the arcane eye) this incredibly flashy and unique gold-washed mithral full plate covered in sacred Iomedaean designs, and was like "Eh, there's some armor too I guess," instead of insisting we come in here ASAP.

I totally didn't realize how fancy it was, but it absolutely fits her, yeah.

I have numbered the rooms on the southeast corner of the map in the order I think we should hit them, up to a point where I'm not sure if we should be able to continue or there is another impassible blockage and we may have to backtrack and go through the hole in the wall Merixia made yesterday with stone shape. But if we take each room with individual posts, waiting for everyone to agree to proceed and so on, we'll still be on this floor by Christmas IRL. So my proposal is: let's outline the standard operating procedure for entering a new room, and then declare a stretch of them, and if we have an encounter, we stop our progress to resolve the encounter. Otherwise, you summarize what we find as we go, GM, and then we declare another bloc of rooms to explore with that same procedure. Does this sound good to everyone?

@GM: Uh, which option sounds fine? The cure spell?

@Verene: Sounds good to me! Exploration can take ages in PbP, so I’m all for speeding it up. Maybe Perception checks on the door in case of traps, open the door, Perception checks in the room for hidden enemies or interesting things, detect magic from Verene, Detect Evil from Azira, rinse and repeat with the next room?

I would suggest they backtrack quickly to where they came in and head south from there. If they can take the entrance, they'll have more readily available reinforcements should they need it. That will streamline claiming both sides.

The suggested course of action for Thesius is fine. He'll take the lead looking for/disabling traps (Trapspotter means DM Worldwound can roll for him when he's within 10 feet), unlock doors, search/listen for monsters, and open doors for Azira (I assume) as they breach rooms.

I can try to consolidate his current bonuses for these types of actions if it helps as well.

Merixia: Oh, sorry, I was unclear. The cure spell sounds fine to me, yes.

Verene & Thesius: Sounds fine to me. Many of the rooms should probably be clear, given how many enemies you slaughtered the day before.

Nice. Thanks, GM.

Thesius, that's fine with me. If you can just move the numbers on the map to where you think they should be, so that Worldwound GM knows where we're going and in what order to resolve what we discover/encounter, that would be great.

Okay, so we have a plan. Verene will keep detect magic active, Azira will keep detect evil active. (Verene also has see invisibility up currently.)

- We approach a closed door to a new room or hallway.

- Thesius and the whole gang pause a round to listen for occupants. If Thesius ever passes within 10 feet of a trap, his Trap Spotter ability means he doesn't have to actively try perceiving for it, he just gets a secret Perception roll to detect it at whatever his current total trapfinding Perception is. (I think it's +31 regular and +33 for traps? Base 25 + 2 heroism + 2 heightened awareness + 2 tears to wine + 2 trap sense for traps? Correct me if I'm wrong, Thesius. I'm assuming he doesn't use Archeologist's Luck for every door, since we'll have to open far more doors than he has rounds of it for the day, and it's valuable for fighting.)

- Thamyris will also perch on his shoulder and help him listen for occupants, rolling at a total of +18 for both checks with tears to wine. Verene will help too, total bonus +17 — making a Perception check is usually a move action and she'll be using her standard to concentrate on detect magic through the door. Elliot and Merixia may want to attempt these Perception checks too, since they are at +15 and +19 respectively I think, with heroism and tears to wine. Up to you guys. Also up to Nurah if she wants to participate — I don't know what her Perception mod is, but I assume it's high.

- If nothing, Azira moves up and Thesius opens the door for Azira to be in the lead. We enter the room or hallway, everyone rolls Perception for a round to find hidden enemies/interesting things, at (I think) +31 Thesius, +19 Merixia, +18 Thamyris, +17 Verene, +15 Elliot, +7 Azira, +?? Nurah. If we find loot we take it and move on quickly, if nothing we move on quickly. If anything else, we pause to react as a group.

- Rinse and repeat.

- I think we're not trying to be particularly stealthy, since even in the mithral armor with heroism up, Merixia will be rolling at +0. But Verene at least will be talking in her message whisper at all times, since she doesn't want even enemies who might hear our presence to be able to overhear our plans and thoughts about what we're finding.

Sounds good to me.

Unfortunately I'm having trouble with the adjusting the slide from my phone. If it's easier for us to come back to them, that's fine. I believe Thesius' bonymus is 2 less than that. Goggles and one of those bonuses won't stack.

Trap sense also does not give a bonus to finding traps or disarming them. Archaeoligst also doesn't get Trapfinding per se. The way their ability work seems to add directly perception and disable device as opposed to being situational.

Ah, I see what you're saying, Thesius, thanks for the correction. I misread what Trap Sense does - the bonus is applied to Reflex saves and AC against traps, not Perception checks against them. And heightened awareness is a competence bonus which doesn't stack with the eyes of the eagle competence bonus. So, his Perception bonus is currently +29 for all purposes.

I think we will likely be coming back around to this corner of the fortress anyway when we leave, and I suspect we've already fought all or almost all enemies that are here. So for now, let's go with the rooms in the order the numbers are currently listed.

Verene and Thesius' plan sounds good to me. Onward and upward!

Posting just to keep in practice. Hope everyone had/is having a good weekend.

Thanks and likewise! I've made it successfully back home with far too many dice in tow.

Is there really such a thing as too many dice?

Nope. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Welcome back, Thesius, I hope you had a great time at the con as well as adding to the dice collection. I did have a good weekend and a nice dinner with family tonight. Hope yours was good too, Azira.

Hey folks. I'm sorry to spring this on you, but I'm seriously having some doubts as to my ongoing enjoyment of the game. It's not a burden, or anything, but it's also not nearly as fun for me as it used to be. The effort it takes to post isn't huge (until we get into a combat again, I guess), but I'm also not having as much fun as I'd like to.

I don't want to stop this thing - we've been going for awhile - but I'm also not sure I want to continue.

I'll do some thinking about it, see if I can figure stuff out. This isn't an announcement of ending the game, but it is an announcement of that possibility.

Is there anything we can do to help make it more fun for you?

Same, GM. I'm sorry to hear you're not enjoying the game. I asked a while back what sorts of scenes you had enjoyed the most in the past - what was fun and inspiring to write for - because I feel that's what keeps all of us coming back to post. Like Merixia, I would love to know what if anything we can do to help recapture the magic.

When I look at how much I spent...maybe...

Thanks! Glad to hear your weekend went well Verene.

Sorry to hear that Worldwound GM. I second Merixia's sentiment. Is there something we can do to help? Is there something in particular that is pulling from your enjoyment of running the game?

Yeah, what they said- I’d be glad to do whatever I could to help make it more fun again.

Checking in. I hope everyone is doing well today.

I'm doing fine, hope you are too Thesius.

Thankfully the day was pretty good. It will be a fun weekend. Get to hit that next level up point. I hope you all have fun plans for the weekend.

I’m in a TT mage game and we’re playing tonight, so that should be fun. We usually play 1-2/month and I missed the last session so I’m looking forward to playing even more than usual.

I have a big annual event coming up at the end of next week and am hosting a friend for it, so I'm looking forward to that. Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

I’m currently in beautiful Idaho Springs, CO! A little overnight trip with my sister and brother in law. Fortunately the AirBNB has decent wifi.

Somebody left a bottle of tequila in the fridge! Free tequila, nice.