<It's_a_trap.jpg>
Don't worry Kka, I'm happy to put some distance between myself and this thing once my turn is up! XD
Two questions for you all:
- How does the difficulty feel? I'm running the adventure as-is, no alteration to encounters, and to me it kinda feels like on the easy side right now. Not that there's anything wrong with that, and maybe you're just lucky (the string of crits certainly help), but I was just wondering if you felt properly challenged. I think APs are written with four people in mind and we have five, so that's certainly a thing in your favour. On the other hand, this is play by post, so maybe it's a good thing that combats end quite quickly. We keep the tempo up.
- I had a thought. Say you're being targeted by something that forces a save (say, a Fireball). What would you prefer? I roll for you all, or would you like to roll yourselves? If I'm rolling for you, everyone immediately knows the results of the party, and can act accordingly. No need to wait to see how other people roll. On the other hand, hero pointing your bad rolls retroactively becomes a bit weird. That doesn't happen if you roll yourselves, but then it's the delayed response thing again. What do you prefer?
|
Q1) "Difficulty"
Not feeling strong either way. That said, I wouldn't mind turning up the difficulty. However, I know about a year ago you changed the Dying rules to be less lethal as a houserule. I also wouldn't mind tuning those back to normal. I think I am okay with more "danger factor" than your typical player. Willing to go with the majority here in either case.
Q2) "Pre-rolling Saves"
Not feeling strong here either. If you pre-roll the saves, I think that would speed things up, especially if the outcomes of the saves are lower stakes. Maybe if they are "higher stakes", you could "slow down" and allow us to roll our own saves? Something like 80% / 20% as a breakdown for an example. Again, willing to go with the majority here in either case.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The main thing that I like about PbP is the opportunity it affords for role-playing and character development; even more so that in-person play where the pressure to keep things moving does not encourage this.
As such, the difficulty of encounters is not a concern of mine except in that an increase in uncertainty of the outcome and an increase in the risk of death might provide slightly more drama and thus slightly more role-playing opportunities. Figuring out the best strategy and tactics to use in encounters is an interesting mechanical exercise but not what brings me to RPGing.
As to having the GM roll for the players under certain circumstances? Again, not sure I care either way: Dice have to be rolled and who rolls them shouldn't matter. So if the GM feels like rolling certain saves to speed things up, that's fine with me. If a player wants to Hero Point a reroll, then let them do so; it shouldn't happen that often that the weirdness becomes an issue.
Q1: Difficulty
This is a difficult one for me to answer. I think difficulty is fine. We've had some players coughkkacough go down, but generally have been fine. Most fights seem to be over in two rounds or less. I could see increasing the difficulty slightly. Considering that we have eliminated some the "trash" encounters by GM discretion, hand-waved healing in-between most fights, and lowered the dying difficulty due to crits.
Though I don't feel that Kvit is particularly contributing well to combat in the "direct damage" category. He also hasn't got hit much only one or two times for any significant damage. So I hesitate to ask for more difficult combats. Especially if that just means the enemy saves are higher. The fighting in the vaults has been *very* tight quarters almost every fight, so lightning bolts or even just a color spray is difficult to get off.
It seems like a crit one way or the other makes things very quick. Seems like I don't usually have much of a chance to use anything crowd-control-wise. Last fight I used web (borrowed spell) to great effect, but most fights setting up warped terrain or other sustainable spells isn't effective. Even the haste buff only trades 2 actions from Kvit to maybe 1-2 actions for an ally.
Overall, not sure. I wouldn't mind more difficulty, but am worried that Kvit won't be able to pull his weight.
Q2 GM rolling saves I'm all for this in PbP if you as GM want to speed things along. If it's a required roll, it doesn't much matter who makes the roll. As long as you're good with retroactive hero points when it really matters. Though I'm fine with either way overall.
Difficulty: I'm of the "Hurt Me Plenty" side of RPG's. I agree with Kka that facing challenges fuels dramatic tension in TTRPG's, and I'm all for playing for slightly higher stakes. A party of five definitely spins the odds in our favor by a bit, so adding an extra mook here and there or giving something the Elite template (so long as it isn't a solo fight; those are already harder to hit and easier to be crit by because their level is generally equal to or higher than ours) to spice things up. I say we go for it.
Rolling Saves: I'm already used to the GM rolling saves for us in PbP, but to be honest, I don't think it actually saves any time, really--especially if someone crit fails or fails, and wants to hero point it, because then you have to go back and potentially retcon multiple turns. For example, if Fuin takes a fireball to the face, crit fails his save, and goes down, then Kvit and Lough both post turns after based on Fuin going down, but then I hero point to reroll, Kvit and Lough would basically have to completely re-write their turns. I've seen it before. In 1e games where hero points are not the norm, rolling saves in the GM post makes a lot more sense. In 2e, I think GM rolling actually has the potential to bog the game down further, so I'm going to vote against. But of course, if I'm outvoted I'm happy to go with the group's decision.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Good to hear most people are fine with how it is right now, means I'm doing things right. :) I suddenly had this fear of "what if my players are bored," and wanted to know.
If I were to increase difficulty, I wouldn't slap the Elite template on things. I'd usually add a mook or a weak version of the main enemy. That would also help with Kvit's crowd control comment, but he's also right that spaces are kinda small here, so I don't want to crowd the dungeon too much.
|
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Hey PbP folks!
I am headed to the hospital to have my first kid, and so my posting may be a little spotty today and the next few days. Some of my characters have better botting instruction than others, so I apologize in advance for that. That said, I may be able to poke in here and there at reduced posting capacity, probably requesting assistance with Maps, etc. To the games I am running, I will do my best to prioritize those first, best I can.
See you all on the other side.
Cheers!
Congratulations!
Congrats, Rainzax!
Good luck Lough! See you when you get back!
Congrats!
Huzzah! ^_^
Thanks gang!
Still in the hospital poking in here and there.
We are on the mend and the baby is healthy!
Aww little baby Lough
I'm not familiar with childbirth and such. I thought you had the baby, stay for a few hours to make sure everything is all right and you're sent home, but you've been there for several days now. Everything all right, or am I just incredibly wrong?
I dunno about anyone else, but when my kid was born, we stayed another two days for observation. They didn't lead us to believe anything was wrong, more that it was standard procedure. I think it probably depends on the hospital and/or doctor.
|
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Birth can be in-and-out a few hours on the short end - an easy birth with few to no complications - or it can be a multi-day affair - with complications leading to interventions that increase recovery time and engage the hospital to monitor mother and/or child until discharge. We had the latter experience, as our Birth Plan (think: a character sheet for birth preferences) went continuously sideways.
But!
Today my partner and baby and I were discharged, and finally home, and doing okay - and beginning another nesting period as we figure out how to incorporate all the changes to our lives.
=)
To all my GM's,
My stepdad passed away this morning. I will not be able to post for a few days. I will check in when I can but my posting, if any, will be spotty. I hope you understand.
I'm sorry to hear that. My condolences. Come back when you feel ready.
Sorry to hear that, Good luck to you and your family that all of the arrangements and activities go smoothly during this time.
I'm not particularly good at either congratulations or condolences, but congratulations to rainzax on his new child and my condolences to Fuìn on the death of his stepfather.
I am also very bad at both, and having lost my father relatively recently, I know how that can change so much.
Fuìn I hope things go clearly for you.
I am not sure what Erastile, or Cherry's druid nature, feel about that.
Erastil probably doesn't care about basilisks too much. They are not domesticated animals and are more likely to be a threat to the small farming communities and hunter-gatherers that worship him. This would make them valid targets for hunting.
It seems that Cherry is a Leaf druid, so is generally more interested in plant life than animals. If they were an Animal druid that would be another story.
Yeah, I'd mostly agree with Kka. Erastil would see them as threats to the community. But from the Druid point of view, they're not harming anyone here. You're the only ones (as far as you know) that go down here and you can avoid them. Killing them would be wasteful.
It's up to you how you resolve that dilemma. But I won't punish you for making the wrong move.
It's a creative challenge. Your skill checks definitely help, but how you solve it is open-ended. One or two more skill checks will convince them to leave by themselves, you can guide them out, or you can just fight them.
I'm trying to not reveal too much of the mechanics to avoid breaking immersion (and also because I'm making this up as I go along), but if you need more guidance, feel free to speak up.
Lough, just wanted to make sure you know you're Enfeebled 2.
You know it goes down by 1 every hour, and let's say about an hour has passed since then, so you're at Enfeebled 1 by now. But I hadn't seen anyone comment on it so either Lough's fine with it and just trucking on, or people seem to have forgotten/don't care.
|
|
Still down to move in under non-ideal conditions!
And yes I missed that / forgot to update Lough's status bar, probably because I had a lot going on that week ;) but can assure you it isn't a lack of caring just a change in the amount of time / attention I can give PbP generally through my life transition.
I'm still having a blast fwiw!
Ah great, just checking. Didn't mean anything by it, you're understandably busy. Good luck to you, your partner, and the babby!
Sorry for the lack of posting this weekend. It was the viewing and funeral, so I was preoccupied. I'm more or less back, though I might remain a little spotty on my posting as I'm working on a writing gig that's due in a few weeks. The first half was pretty easy, but the second half is giving me serious pause.
Anyway, I'll try not to hold things up if we get into combat (I feel like that's where this is probably headed) but feel free to bot me if I'm up and you don't hear from me within a day.
Anyone good at Intimidation want to go for a Demoralize?
I've got color spray and hypnotic pattern but neither will work on such close quarters. I have a haste I can put on someone and forbidding ward.
I am going to try a produce flame this round.
Should we try getting him outta that room so we have more room to maneuver?
|
|
GM - checking my math, I forgot to remove the frightened -1 on his last Snagging Strike.
When he was hit with frightened 2, it was immediately reduced to frightened 1 (Bravery), which plagued him the turn before this last one, where it should have wore off for his most recent turn.
I forgot to remove it when cutting / pasting the dice expression (kept enfeebled) - meaning that 25 to Snag should be a 26!
Whoops, missed that as well. Thanks for the correction, 26 is a hit! That caused Cherry Berry's spell to connect as well!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
For Kvit: Chafkhem's "spellbook" contains the following spells:
Cantrips: Chill Touch, Daze, Detect Magic, Shield, Tanglefoot
Level 1: Command, Mending, Ray of Enfeeblement, Unseen Servant
Level 2: Blur, Dispel Magic, Hideous Laughter, See Invisibility
Level 3: Glyph of Warding, Grim Tendrils, Haste, Mind Reading
Level 4: Freedom of Movement, Invisibility, Phantasmal Killer, Spell Immunity
For Kvit: Chafkhem's "spellbook" contains the following spells:
Is the spellbook or rituals worth anything on the resale market, or is it merely of interest to Kvit?
Officially, there are no rules for how much a filled spellbook is worth. If I treat it as a collection of formulas (spell level times two is formula level), it'd be worth 182.5 gp, whil sold at half price would be 91.25 gp. I'm fine with that.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Welp, I'm taking the dive. At level 6 Cherry is picking-up a familiar. More specifically, it is time to add tiny Leshy familiar.
I could use some suggestions on Type and name through, (the types doesn't really mean anything, but can be used to set appearance.)
|
|
Lough will be picking up Piston Punch for this crowded dungeon.
Updated stats, deciding class feat and skill feat atm.
=)
I'm fine with Cherry Berry taking a leshy through a normal familiar feat, but if you feel like Druid isn't adding much anymore, I don't mind you respeccing into Familar Master.
Also, there's still the basilisks to deal with, so don't jump the gun just yet on leveling. Or are we fine with them lurking over there?
Right now I'm looking at the following for leveling-up Kka to Level 6 (whenever the GM gives the go-ahead):
Skill Increase: Deception
Class Feat: Gang Up
Free Archetype: Dual-Weapon Warrior Dedication
Skill Feat: Treat Condition
Kka will lose her useless shortbow and instead wield two shortswords as part of her Dual-Weapon Warrior Dedication. To make the Double Slice effective, she will need to purchase a set of Doubling Rings for 50gp. Hopefully she can also pick up a Ghost Touch Rune for 75gp since it seems that the incorporeal are going to be a continuous source of encounters in the Vaults.