Protectors of Golarion (Wrath of the Righteous AP)

Game Master Sensen

GM Musings:

--Challenging without one shotting is something that is pretty hard to do with mythic.

--My general idea for such foes is that they dont hit super hard (like, Azira could likely one turn most mythic evil PCs of her level) but have significant layers of defenses

--From personal experience, extreme high AC or all the blurs or all the mirror images is more annoying to fight as a PC then a really high HP pool (because its clear that you are doing something), as such, expect enemies to have tricks up their sleeves to not be quite dead yet, or to have "second phases" so to speak.

--There is a significant difference in melee power across the party, even though like, Azira isnt actually that "super optimized", she is just taking completely sensible feat choices, but I strive to have something in climatic combats that is worth doing, other then hitting the boss very hard.

I agree. The new tone is much more what I was hoping for.

That all makes sense. Thesius should get a little stronger as we go on. He's meant to be an all around character while covering skills for the group.

It's called rocket tag for a reason, I suppose. It's anticlimactic to have something happen like with Staunton, where he never even got a turn. But at the same time, I really agree that it's frustrating as a PC to miss or have your attacks negated all the time. I honestly love the idea of having things to do (or having to do things) in climactic combats besides hitting really hard!

It would be interesting to start putting more thought into fights then how to simply burn an enemy down.

I am certainly seeking to fights that have additional aspects.

What I have prepped is

What is a narrative challenge is that, why the stakes are very high narratively, if I do things as written you will bulldoze it while laughing, but I hope my changes are interesting.

Those definitely sound interesting.

I think we might also benefit from setting a standard on how many days go by before someone is botted. That way we keep the combat/story progressing. I think 2 days would be a good amount of time.

Agreed. Let’s get this show on the road! I hope Azira and Elliot are all right, but I’m in favor of keeping things moving for the rest of us.

I will be botting Azira now.

Behold, Plot!

Took me an hour.

I'll get a post up tomorrow. My apologies, I think I asked before but don't recall if I got an answer. I believe you were allowing Merixia to go ahead and just do her retraining.

I've been meaning to retrain a number of skills points out of knowledges and into other skills as a way to show the universe it divinely opening up to him through his various abilities. Am I ok to make these changes or would you like to roleplay those out?

Just do a quick post in discussion what was before and what is now, then I can maybe also reference to it later. Just retrain ahead like Merixia did.

Really looking forward to Merixias interactions with the newcomer.

Will do. I'm in office today so I'll get up a post tonight.

Retraining changes up his skill points quite a lot to focus all his skill points into maxing out particular skills instead of spreading them across multiple Knowledge skills. This in turn makes better use of his bonuses for not having ranks in skills as well.

Removed skill ranks from Knowledge skills except Knowledge (arcana) and Knowledge (religion). This frees up 24 skill ranks.

All knowledges except Knowledge (arcana) and Knowledge (religion) go from +13 to +16.

Apply 8 ranks to Appraise which goes from +13 to +14.
Apply 8 ranks to Linguistics which goes from +13 to +14. (Need to choose languages.)
Apply 8 ranks to Sense Motive which goes from +12 to +13.

Next level I was thinking about potentially taking Psychic Sensitivity to give him creative uses for his skills. Thoughts?

Edit: Posts are up.

Keeping that posting up. I hope you all are having a great Halloween.

I didn't do much today, but I went to the zoo's adult Halloween night with my family yesterday! It was cold but lots of fun. Costumes, drinks, candy, nocturnal animals out and about. If you ever do an evening event at the zoo, make sure to visit the reptile house, lots of animals there were active that you don't usually see during the day.

Also I fell even more in love with Chinese hot pot. Best hot pot restaurant ever, their broth is AMAZING.

Happy Halloween all! Pretty low-key here, just handing out candy to trick-or-treaters.

Things:
--Kalavakus used his enslave soul this turn, so he doesnt have an immidate action
--Azira is disarmed, there is a magic sword icon, radiance is currently embedded in the green brimorack
--Mythic improved init is probably key to getting Azira her sword back.

Noted, thanks GM! Post incoming probably this evening or early tomorrow.

Unfortunately I don't think you keep Protection from Evil after leaving the Circle of Protection.

I'll have a in-game post up tomorrow.

I thought I had cast Protection from Evil on everyone but Azira earlier?

Verene separately cast protection from evil on herself and Thesius when we came in today, for 8 minutes on each. It's been a long time IRL since then, but not in-game, I think, such that we were told round/level buffs were gone before this fight but we could keep the minute/level ones we had up.

I am in agreement that minutes per levels are up

Hey all, sorry! Life has remained busy, and my SO had some health issues come up, but I figured that, since I mentioned I'd had some health issues, I should check in and let you know that I'm still on this side of the grass (ie, not '6 feet under'). I'm about to head out of town for work and probably won't be able to post for a week or two. Please bot me as necessary.

Botting noted.

I do believe that safely removes him from all the threats he had for the moment.

Hey Azira, good to hear from you and that you're still hanging in there. Have a good trip and hope to have you back soon.

Good to hear from you Azira. I hope you and your SO get to feeling/doing better.

Indeed!

Hi everyone!

I think its best if there is a quick and dirty summary for currently active party buffs in particular. In live play or over discord, its much easier to remember what buffs are currently on, but with days or even weeks passing its much harder to remember what has been cast on you.

As such I have added a "buff list" to my profile so its easy for you to reach.

Please collaborate and put your buffs in (especially those cast on others), equivalent to the kind of format I used for what I know from Wulfrics and Thesius buffs.

The good thing is that imho, this is more transparent (there is one document for everyone, and you can quickly check which buffs are active on your party) and pretty likely less of a hassle to upkeep (compared to copy and pasting all buffs each turn).

Note, I am tracking buff durations semi narratively. Rounds per level are generally speaking good for one combat, minutes per level for a few combats, 10 mins per level will likely last a long time.

I'll aim to get Thesius' buffs added this weekend.

I unfortunately think we're also at the point where Elliot and Azira should be botted for now until we hear back from them. Would love to see everyone active again, but feels like building up momentum again is kind of important.

It looks like I need edit access to the buffs list? Currently it's read-only. To clarify, what should we add - buffs applied to ourselves, or just those applied to others?

Everyone should have edit access now.

In my experience, it is easiest to forget buffs cast by others, so those would be a priority. There is a case to be made for adding all buffs, but I think what would help with posting the most is a quick and dirty lookup for "what else affects my character?".

I will proceed with the bottery on the weekend.

Sorry I haven’t got to the buffs list yet, I have an interview on Tuesday and I’ve been freaking out preparing like the cool, confident, and competent professional I totally am. (Or that I pretend to be when people are watching, ha.)

I think I've now noted all the ones applied from party members to other party members, but have not listed everyone's individual buffs cast on just themselves. So there's a lot that applies to people that is not noted in that list.

Hey, we're back!

Hurray! :D I think that's the longest I've had to go without PbP-ing since this campaign began. I was going through withdrawals.

I'm definitely ready!

Same haha!

Quick note regarding the munagola devil:

She is:

--A plot dump device

--A bit of a moral curveball for mostly Merixia, the eagleeyed may have noticed that she seems to be almost suspiciously fair, reasonable and decent for a high ranking devil.

--If she survives, she is a way to handwave certain "the AP posted these 3 mostly meaningless fights here to pad out exp"-encounters, which, in a play by post, would take weeks to resolve.
You could basically, once she is fixed level drain, point her at such fights and she will resolve them.

She will soon recognize an in universe explanation for not wanting to go alongside you directly (this is also due to powerbalance, she has fast healing, with armor a fairly high AC, and DR 10 good, which very very few demons can get through, Azira probably hits harder, but defensively she would be an obnoxiously good tank).

Ill get around botting elliot, azira, and making the devils turn today or tomorow.

Okay, cool, so now Azira has her sword back and Elliot took the black gem. How did Merixia's attempt on a gem shake out?

Protean gem is still in, mostly because the second attack missed, even with him being grappled.

Amazing initiative is a thing Merixia could do though.

Unfortunately it does seem that Azira still needs to be botted for the time being. I hope all is well with her player.

I hope so as well, proceeding to bot her.

I am currently moving between two cities, so the post is going to come when that is mostly done on tuesday.

Midterm, botting a total of 3 characters is a bit of an extra strain to be honest.

Would you like for us to maybe assist with that? I was kind of thinking about that as well. We could perhaps handle the botting so you can focus on the rest.

That would be awesome!

Because:

A) I dont want to take player character actions, thats like... talking or playing with myself, and takes out a lot of fun. Like, I rolled a dice on which stone Elliot tried to steal because I didnt want to make a significant decision for him. It also reduces the element of being surprised at player actions, which is something I greatly enjoy while GMing. I expected a different reaction to a significant devil professing that she works for Ragathiel, "Son of Dispater and Lord of righteous infernal asskicking of demons", from merixia then "huh, strange bedfellows" but it makes total sense from her perspective, and me being a bit suprised at her relatively easy acceptance, coupled with a "Uhhhm, you are cool but there is something I really need to tell you after we are done fighting", is actually awesome, in character and cool.

B) I have no issues forgetting a bonus for my bad guys, but I feel very bad whenever I forget a bonus from a player I am botting.

I am totally fine with stepping up to help with botting, but as a matter of due diligence I feel we should reach out by PM to see if we can hopefully get permission for other players (not just the GM) to bot Elliot and Azira. And if we don't hear back quickly, I guess we just go for it.

Haha, Merixia really doesn’t want to add another powerful enemy to the mix right now. She is understandably wary of Irathiel, but right now she’s helping with a difficult fight and that counts for a lot. They can sort everything else out later.

I agree that us botting Elliot and Azira would be the best option right now. I hope their players are all right.

Who would want to bot who?

I will send out the PMs as well