[GDX, PF2/Farol] #2-19 Enter the Pallid Peak (Inactive)

Game Master Farol

I've got another positioning question.

The room is octagonal, which means that there are corner squares that are cut in half. Can we move through or stop/strike from these squares as if they were normal squares or are they off-limits?

Let's say yes to both. It is cramped space so you need some space to move

@Kornel - Just a confirmation, you cast 1st lvl animate dead with Zombie Shambler right? Higher lvl has zombie as well

2nd level as I am, all my spell slots are 1st-level spells, yes.

In this fight, the zombie's primary function is to act as a meat shield, while we're backed against a literal corner.

It sure is getting crowded in this room. Pretty soon there will be no place left to move :)

Hello. I will be away in nature and away from computers and the ability to post this coming Saturday and Sunday (11/6-7). I will return and resume posting late Sunday (US/Pacific time).

Hello. I will be away in nature and away from computers and the ability to post this coming Saturday and Sunday (11/6-7). I will return and resume posting late Sunday (US/Pacific time).

Thanks for letting us know. Enjoy your time in nature. We should be done this or early next week.

Sorry for not posting yesterday, coming back from the weekend was way tougher, then expected!

I'm going larping tomorrow, so I probably won't have time to sit down and post. If need be please bot me!

I'm going larping tomorrow, so I probably won't have time to sit down and post. If need be please bot me!

Larping, nice! Have fun with that. I never did that...

I was asked to report the game, this fight (due to high HP pool) may last couple of more days. We still should wrap up everything before the end of gameday. However till now I can't see it in my games as reported, when I will, I shall ask you to check that you can see it as well. I double-checked your data, by trying them on the reporting sheet and it looked ok.

Ok and that concludes our adventure!

I would like to thank you all for playing. I know that it took longer than (at least I) expected. But I hope that you enjoyed it. I tried to put some more content into certain parts and do not rush it.

I always appreciate feedback, so please let me know your thoughts.

The game is reported and you should see it in your PC list of scenarios already, I will prepare the chronicles at the beginning of the next week.

Thanks, Farol! It was fun!

Thank you for running! It was a great scenario, I'm going to turn around and GM it.

Yes, thank you GM Farol. Great job. Despite my ambivalence about Mandoo as a character, the scenario was an enjoyable romp. I'd also like to thank the other players and their great RPing for making it even more enjoyable than it might otherwise have been. I hope to play with you all again.

FWIW, I think Mandoo's build is off to a good start.

MAYBE I'd shift 2 points from CON to CHA in order to better use Ki, but that's not necessary. Nothing wrong with Mandoo's build so far.

Monk archers are a solid build. Even better if you move into Eldritch Archer eventually.

Thank you as always Farol. Arfsnarf would be bored if not for your call to mission :P

FWIW, I think Mandoo's build is off to a good start.

MAYBE I'd shift 2 points from CON to CHA in order to better use Ki, but that's not necessary. Nothing wrong with Mandoo's build so far.

I presume that you meant that I should shift CON to WIS as that is the stat that monks use for the the DC of their Ki spells. When I was putting him together I played with different relative values for those two stats and decided to lean towards CON as it was more immediately useful when the only spell Mandoo has is Ki Strike.

Monk archers are a solid build. Even better if you move into Eldritch Archer eventually.

Yes. Thus my ambivalence.

I started with a STR monk build, then switched it up to a DEX monk and finally an archer. All were solid builds, but I didn't really enjoy playing them as much as I'd hoped. They're all one-trick ponies who do fine when a situation arises that allows them to use that one trick, but who otherwise sit around staring at the ground with nothing to do.

I am beginning to suspect that my main problem is that monks in general don't gel well with my preferred playing style, which leans towards high CHA characters who tend to be multi-trick ponies. Monks are so MAD that it is almost impossible to make an effective high-CHA monk build. I don't think it would be fair to the other players to bring a deliberately broken character to the table, so I end up a little frustrated at times and my enjoyment level drops. Perhaps this will improve with time as the monk goes up in levels and picks up more abilities and dedications etc., but I'm not sure I want to spend that time on a character I don't like to play that much when I have several others that I love to play with.

With this scenario I will have 12 XP and can bring Mandoo up to 2nd level. Once I play him at 2nd level he's pretty much set in concrete. My choices are (1) to go ahead with him as a monk and hope for improvement in the future, or (2) take those 12 XP and build a new level 2 character from scratch that might work out better for me. If I go monk, there is a good chance that I may never play Mandoo again, so I'm leaning towards a complete redo.

Sounds like you have a plan! I hope it works out in a way you enjoy.

Are you wedded to ki? Why not just go DEX/CHA and pick up a spellcasting dedication?

Ah, do I know that pain well! I had a 1e character who went through so many iterations during level one. Started as a Kineticist, then kinetic knight, and then I completely rebuilt him into a crazy blind mesmerist wayang for a repeatable with odd builds and then finally at level two made him a dual shield wielding vigilante. It was less abilities and more personality though for him. He was angry and malcontent and just hard for me to play over a month or two for pbp. But now that's just his social identity.

First:

Thank you all for playing. As always you did not dissapoint. Nice RP, good team dynamics, I dragged some parts of the scenario to both practice them as well as don't make this a simple dungeon crawl.

I am glad that you enjoyed the scenario, I like it even that I think fights are a bit to easy. Especially the one with mephits and mold. The hazzard hits really hard but after one PC succedes with clearing the floor the fight is more or less over. Maybe for lvl 1's it would be a challenge.

THe fight with the guardians seems fine, the hardness makes it an interesting encounter, but well positioned Hornbori made it relatively straightforward.

With the last fight I had few troubles:
- Thanks WaterySoup for ideas how to handle invisible foes, I was wondering about that...
- There are 4 duergars who have alarm spell on both bridges leading to their 'island'. None of you was detecting magic so you missed the spell, the enemies cast invisible on themselves and awaits you. Invisibility makes them undetected which means that you can still attack the squares as they were hidden (50% miss chance) and GM makes attack and conceled roll in secret to not let you know if you hit or miss (and why did you miss: were they not there, did you rolled badly etc.)
- So I went ahead with planning where they are and putting them on the map when they were localized. I also made the initiative more granular to let you a chance to search them, cast fearie fire or other spell => that is why the fight dragged for a bit (not mentioning that they had 50 HP and 20+ AC)
- I had troubles with their lightblindness, duergars who go to the surface to catch slaves should be aware of that. So since they were inviisble I was wondering if they would look at your torch to go through the blindness before the fight. But I wasn't sure if the encounter accounted for that. So I went with: half of the enemies went through the blindness before and 2 did not.
- I wanted the last fight to be a fight in cramped space, when I was thinking about it, dwarfs would try to do it this way, short legs and everything. They hit rather hard, but due to my low rolls the fight went without much problems (Kornel fallen 1 round before the fight was over).

A wall of text, sorry about that.

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@Mandoo - yeah I personally don't like Monks, I feel like there is to little to them beside fight. Maybe with higher Wis you could make them a Tracker. Whenever I come up with the build I am bored about it even before playing :( To some degree I feel the same with Swaschbucklers :( Nice fight potential, and a bit of Cha, but the fact that most of players just tumble through until it gives them panache annoys me a bit.

But at least they get more skills.

I sooo want to make a battle dancing swashbuckler, it's a fairly reliable way to get panache, and I'm thinking of making a goblin from Varisia with a bladed scarf at some point, with extra garish makeup. But I'm still only planning it, I haven't actually made one yet.

To some degree I feel the same with Swaschbucklers :( Nice fight potential, and a bit of Cha, but the fact that most of players just tumble through until it gives them panache annoys me a bit.

Interesting. One of my favorite characters is a swashbuckler. She's a great personality and really fun to RP with her flamboyance and witty repartee. Even in non-combat situations there is something she can contribute with her CHA-based skills. On the other hand, Mandoo just seems like a leaden weight to me most of the time; with no INT or CHA he's hard to play in any other way than as a stoic bit player with minimal personality.

So maybe part of the problem is that I don't like the personality that I've developed for him. I've tried to mix things up but always seem to fall back into the old patterns. I'm just not personally invested in the character enough to make an effort. On the other hand, I'm really enjoying playing the goblin gunslinger Zakzak in Head-Shot the Rot, so I'm seriously tempted to turn Mandoo into something similar.

Chronicles are here! Take a look if everything looks ok.

Potipher I pasted your whole essay on your downtime ;)

I will close the thread on Wednesday or when I get confirmation from everyone that they downloaded the chronicles

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Re Swaschbucklers, I am a bit disappointed by not that many options:
- Stats are basically set from the start: Dex, Con and Cha for most styles. The only difference is the one relying on STR. The light armor means that you need to pump your Dex. There is not a lot of range for variations
- The amount of weapons that they can use effectively is narrow -> most run around with rapiers. If you want to cover all 3 types of damage (B, S, P) it means light hammer and dagger/short sword. Now at least there is also a bladed scarf ;)
- And when you are fighting creatures that are immune to precision damage you can do very little, as the whole kit of swashbuckler is relying on precision damage

I feel like they are solid damage dealers but I would like a bit more options within the class and equipment. At the same time, I agree one can create a solid PC with a cool personality and totally enjoy playing them. And giving them 6 skills at the start goes a long way towards being useful outside of combat

Chronicles are here! Take a look if everything looks ok.

Got the chronicle. Almost a slam dunk except that I guess we never did manage to put the spirits of the dwarves who died in the rending to rest.

Poor sods.

Chronicle looks good. Thanks again!

Looks great, thanks!

Looks good. Danke!

Looks great, thanks for running this it was fun to play!

Awesome, with Kornel liking my post I think it means that he got his. Closing the thread

The soul hazard when disabled would still reactivate after a week (I think). And it was not a reportable component so I assumed we are fine leaving it as it is.