Welcome Adventurers! Our final party looks like this:
Errestan playing a Warpriest of Pharasma
Hawthwile playing a Spirit Barbarian
Watery Soup playing a Forensic Investigator
KingTreyIII playing a Linkle inspired Crossbowslinger
Gyrfalcon playing a Turrey Butterhill, a famous Shelynite Bard.
Firstly let me say that if anyone wants to change anything about their character or switch it up entirely that's fine. In particular Watery Soup I thought either of your characters would be a good fit (and I sort of want to see a 16th level alchemist!)
Mechanically speaking I think the group as-is is a good mix of melee, ranged and support. I've gone for 5 players rather than 4 as the adventure is written for mainly to give us a cushion in case we lose anyone. I'll be adjusting the encounters in-line with the GM guidelines, hopefully it will all work out!
Builds
Backstory
I know that some of you have started or even finished your character builds, but I wanted to give everyone a little time from now to get all the mechanical details finalised, and to get your backstories in place. The adventure will begin with you receiving an urgent invitation from Camilia Drannoch, leader of Galt’s Revolutionary Council. Rumours have been circulating that she is gravely ill and desparately seeking aid. For some reason she has heard of you and sent a personal invitation to attend her at home in Isarn. Where are you when you receive this? Do any of you know each other already? Are you already in Galt, or has she sought you out elsewhere in the world for your specific abilities? Whatever the answers, those are just a few things to think about, discuss between you and hopefully inspire you to tweak your backstories.
@Watery Soup; if your loved one lost to a Final Blade might have been in Litran, it could potentially give you some personal connection to the story.
Gear
As I said in recruitment, we'll be using default character creation rules. Anything uncommon needs approval (except for Gunslinger), but I'd expect to say yes to most things, particularly spells.
Starting gear is:
* 1 15th level item
* 2 14th level items
* 1 13th level item
* 2 12th level items
* 3250GP
Please make clear on your character sheets which things you took in which slots, and which were purchased. Regarding the magic carpet I'm not sure if it has been made yet or not, but I did do a homebrew one when I converted Feast of Dust. That was before the Gamemastery Guide came out and I more or less just copied the Broom of Flying, but I'd be happy if you wanted to use it Turrey, especially if anyone experienced in converting items to 2E wants to give it a once-over and help get it into shape.
Item 12 MAGICAL TRANSMUTATION MINION
Price 1,900 gp
Usage Ridden; Bulk 2 Hardness 10; HP (BT) 80 (24)
Immunities Cold, Bludgeoning, Object Immunities
Resistances Piercing 20
Weaknesses Slashing 10, Fire 10
This luxurious, magically resilient carpet is big enough to comfortably seatt two medium creatures. It can levitate and respond to its passengers mental or spoken commands to move. It has a fly speed of 60 feet unencumbered, 40 feet when laden with up to 10 bulk and 30 feet with up to 20 bulk.
Activate (◈◈◈) command, Interact; Requirements You are the lone rider of the carpet and at least 40 feet up Effect You descend rapidly toward a designated target and make a Strike. Make a DC 30 Acrobatics check
Critical Success Your target is flat-footed to the Strike and you gain a +2 status bonus to damage
Success Your target is flat-footed to your attack
Failure You lose your footing and cannot make an attack
Critical Failure You fall from the original height
Character Sheets
I've made a few test 16th level characters to get a feel for it, and I think the most challenging part for me will be remembering your reactive abilities. To that end I'd love it if you could highlight anything near the top of your character sheet I need to remember. For example if you have an attack of opportunity (or more than one!). If you cast Mind of Menace every day and wish to use it as soon as you can, etc.
I'd also like to be able to see which feats you've taken at which levels and when you increased which skills. Otherwise feel free to format your sheets however you prefer.
We can get started as soon as all the characters are ready, but please don't feel rushed. Ideally we'd be ready to start in about a week, but we can go sooner if everyone is ready.
Running the Game
Inspired by another PF2 game I'm in, I intend to record the state of your current hero points in the campaign header to avoid confusion, and to reset hero points to 1 on the first of every month. I'll be making some slides for maps and images, and I'll also throw up a spreadsheet to record what your usual exploration mode activities are.
I have been trying move house for about a year. I had originally planned to delay starting this game until after the move, but after another delay I got impatient and posted the recruitment. Naturally we finally got a move date this week, we'll be moving on November 12th. I expect to be able to post with a somewhat reduced frequency in the week or so leading up to that date, and for some time afterward. Especially right afterwards when we may not have internet. Apologies in advance, hopefully it won't last too long.
And with that, over to you! I'll keep an eye on here for any questions and kick us off when everything is ready
Sweet! Thanks for taking a chance on us.
I appreciate the Carpet writeup as well. I'll keep working on my crunch, and I'm sure I'll have Qs as I go. In the meantime, do you mind opening gameplay for dot-and-delete? It helps me track posts to discussion here from my campaigns tab.
Fellow players, if anyone wants to interweave backstory, please feel free to make suggestions! I'd love to hear from the rest of yall when you get a chance about your characters as well. (All I know so far about Turrey is in this post in recruitment, and my draft character sheet.)
...And lastly, this'll be my first 2e Bard, and my first non-low-level game. I welcome both suggestions/ideas and corrections from any and all. It's how I learn!
Cheers,
Hello everyone! I felt really inspired this week and got most of Gregoth's character sheet filled out already. It does a decent job of tracking which feat was taken when, but unfortunately it doesn't track skill increases very well . You can check my spreadsheet for his build here, or I can add a "Level-up" section to the profile for tracking those things.
The spreadsheet also shows which items were obtained "for free" and which were paid for. There's one uncommon item I'd love to use - a keen weapon rune (lvl 13 item) - but I understand if that's not available and have a backup item picked out already.
As far as weaving backstories, feel free to read through Gregoth's and let me know if you see a thread that hooks you. I will be the first to admit that it focuses much more on his early adventuring life rather than the career that followed, so it could be fairly easy to pull him into things if wanted.
Regarding the campaign hook/start/letter/invitation - Gregoth has been feeling a pull from the spirits surrounding him towards Galt, so he would probably be in the country already. As for why Camilia Drannoch was looking for him? Perhaps she had heard of the man who could not die, no matter how he reached for death, and perhaps she thought he might be useful.
Checking in, thanks for having me!
My character is an investigator, originally from Galt, who lost a loved one in the revolution many years ago. They've spent years trying to find a way to resurrect them, but have recently given up and succumbed to revenge. They'll start off Neutral in alignment and kind of angry, and hopefully become Neutral Good over the course of the adventure and find a better capstone to what will have been a lifetime of despair.
They'll be a forensic investigator with a medic archetype to reflect the years of research they've been doing. Mechanically, they will be using a shortbow in combat and have 2 Legendary (Medicine and Occultism or Religion) and 4 Master-level skills (Occultism or Religion, Society, Arcana, and probably one martial one [tentatively Acrobatics]) with all the others Trained. They will likely be human, and older than most adventurers (40-50 years old).
I'm okay with the alchemist as well, but I think the investigator has a better reason for being there, and I have concerns about how combat-effective alchemists are at higher levels (bomb expertise only goes up to expert - by my rough calculations they're -3 to hit relative to the investigator). If there's a significant preference for that character, I've worked on it a bit and I've tried to mechanically improve it with a little cheese - making the alchemist a gnome and taking the Razzle Dazzle ancestry feat to extend dazzle times. I'll move forward with the investigator unless someone has a strong preference.
I'm out of town this weekend (like starting 15 minutes from now), but I'm looking forward to the game and may jump in here and there this weekend if I can get decent cell phone reception.
Watery Soup, I like that you have a path in mind for your character's personal development!
Gregoth, I loved reading your background. Do you have a sense of what some highlights are of what he did between then and being 16th level, with an epic flaming sword?
DM, as Gregoth says, no rush on my end. I'm excited to dive in, but I'll need some time to finish Turrey's build up anyway...and in any event, Life Happens for all of us.
- - - -
EDIT: Not mechanically important, but my backstory includes some Snow-White-like conversation with animals. Looking now, I don't think that's a thing Bards can get in 2e. (Speak with Animals is a Primal spell.) If I'm missing something that's not costly, I like it as a bit of flavor...but if not I'll just say that's part of Turrey's legend, not something that happened, strictly speaking.
Took all day, but I FINALLY made my character!
Only really have three things to note to the GM: Bellaluna has Lie to Me, so if someone attempts to Lie to her they have to succeed against her Deception DC instead of her Perception DC; she can attack as a reaction when a creature critically fails to hit her; and unless there’s a dang good reason not to, I’m always using Ten Paces whenever possible, meaning I get a +2 circumstance bonus to initiative (regardless of what skill I roll).
Also, yes I do roll d8s for my hand crossbows, because of Crossbow Terror (which is awesome and the main reason I went into the archer archetype). And if something tries to give me the controlled condition, things get wacky (I have weird stuff against being controlled).
Awesome, a couple of builds already. I'll go over them in the next few days.
The spreadsheet looks great thanks Gregoth! I asked for the choices at each level mainly as I think it will help me ingest the characters and their abilities if I think of their progression rather than trying to take them in all at once. Keen rune is fine by me.
Errestan has told me that he's away for this weekend so we can expect his character next week.
@Gyrfalcon As far as I can tell it looks somewhat difficult for a Halfling. Humans, Gnomes, Strix and Beastkin all have options to get speak with animals, but for other ancestries 2 class feats for a primal spellcaster dedication, or animal trainer dedication appears to be the cheapest way to get it reliably. There's also trick magic item. Perhaps as yo say it's just part of his legend (unless someone else knows an easier way)
@Bellaluna Looks good!
Ooh interesting. How does a human so it? I've gone back and forth a bit about human versus halfling. Could go either way.
BTW, my build is still pretty rough, feel free to review more settled ones first...but feedback welcome on my draft if welcome too.
This is my rough build. Some of the feats are out of order narratively, but that shouldn't matter.
She was a young, aristocratic, concert pianist, whose husband was taken by the Gray Gardeners. She took the body and tried to have it reincarnated/resurrected, but by the time she figured out how to do it, the time limitations had elapsed. 20 years later, she's ready to move on with her life, and returns to her native Litran to lay his body in his family's plot.
Her name currently has two special characters, let me know if this is annoying. She will likely go by Félicité, but I can make it Felicity if that makes things easier.
Humans can take two ancestry feats: Adaptive Cantrip followed by Adptive Adept, that gives them a cantrip and a 1st level spell from another tradition. I don't know that I'd recommend it, but maybe you've also got your eye on a primal cantrip?
Turrey and looks great. I do have a few observations.
1) I notice you have a 21 in Charisma. While that is the only way to get 22 at level 20, this module will only go up to 18 so you might want to take one fewer boost in charisma and put it in something like wisdom to get a +1 to will saves.
2) I noticed that all your general feats are also skill feats. There's nothing wrong with that at all, but I wanted to make sure you hadn't overlooked some of the general only feats that can only be taken in the general slots.
3) You have halfling luck down in the 1st and 5th ancestry column. Did you mean shared luck at 5th perhaps?
5) Versatile performance lets you use your performance instead of intimidation for demoralize, which works great with battle cry and terrifying retreat. However Scare to Death requires an intimidation check rather than a demoralize, so your bonus to that would be much lower (if I'm reading it right). Just something to be aware of.
6) Harmonic Hauberk is uncommon, though I'm OK with it as they sell it in the Resplendent Rose in Absalom, a very appropriate shop! Likewise I'm OK with the dweomerweave robe as it comes from Absalom too. The clockwork megaphone is also uncommon and a little bit weirder, but I'm OK with it as well.
Everything looks good. I was briefly confused about where Scare to Death came from at 15, but I see now it's super-late payoff from Raging Intimidation. Spirits interference is kind of amazing, as is shake it off, I've seen sickened really stick around as folks keep failing that retch save
I think you might be able to have another trained skill? You get deception from your background and from your way skill as far as I can tell, which means you can be trained in another skill. Showstopper combined with legendary deception seems like it will be pretty great. Reinforced stocks are apparently uncommon but I have no problem with them
Inevitably I'm going to forget some of your many abilities while we're playing, just shout and we can retcon as necessary.
Also, completely didn’t notice reinforced stocks were uncommon; to be fair, though, they are literally just there to be a last-resort backup weapon, like if I desperately need to deal bludgeoning damage or attack in melee.
Updated. With everyone's (players and GM) permission, Félicité will begin the adventure formally Neutral Evil (she's consorted with and made bargains with some very evil beings in her past), and will find reasons to move to NG throughout the Adventure. I can start her as Neutral, otherwise, she'll just start a little further into her journey.
I've left three hooks in her backstory if you want to hang anything there:
1. 15 years ago, Félicité's husband, Joseph, was abruptly executed by the Gray Gardeners. She does not know why he was targeted, or why she was spared.
2. Félicité has traveled around the Inner Sea, seeking the secrets of mummifcation, reincarnation, and resurrection (in that order).
3. Félicité has made bargains with devils/daemons/demons. When she gives her husband a proper Pharasman burial, they consider her in breach of her agreements.
Félicité, no concerns on my end, if it works for the DM.
New build iteration of Turrey (and some more Qs for our esteemed DM) coming soon. End of my day, I hope.
Oh yeah, I should also state this: unless otherwise noted (or if it would make zero sense), Bellaluna is only wielding one of her crossbows (the one that’s ACTUALLY etched with the weapon runes, to be more specific) while in exploration mode, so she has a free hand while exploring. This’ll be mostly negligible as Ten Paces will allow her to draw her other crossbow as she rolls initiative.
@Bellaluna Noted. I counted your skills wrong, sorry about that. All looks good.
@Félicité I'm a little nervous about starting you as evil honestly. But the redemption arc is appealing, so lets do it. Be warned though, if this were a book there's no chance at all she'd survive to see the end with a story like that; you're tempting the dice-gods to smite her!
Errestan tells me he's hard at work on a character and hopes to have it done by the end of the week, he's switched from a warpriest to a champion as he was worried that only having expert strikes would be too limiting in melee.
If you're nervous about the designation, I can make her formally neutral. But I want to make sure I address any concerns to make sure there's nothing we're sweeping under the rug.
The concept is that she's spent a decent amount of time making deals with evil creatures. She's not sympathetic towards them - as a matter of fact, I've selected her item-based resistances (fire, acid, negative) around the assumption she's been fighting them (per the end of her background narrative, my assumption is that deals with daemons and demons are not straightforward). She's far more sympathetic when it comes to humans, probably borderline neutral good (I tend to drift towards NG naturally, personality-wise) - she's got a lot of nonmagical healing and the ability/willingness to help PCs. From the PC-facing side, she'll probably be indistiguishable from a N/NG character.
I hope she does wrestle with a very bad decision she's made in the past. :)
If anyone else has concerns, I'm totally willing to put an N in her tagline - and more importantly, willing to change some of the concept if that's a concern as well.
Hey DM Pudding, thanks for your notes (corrections and suggestions).
1) It seems that at 20 Dex, no base armor is really better than Explorer's Clothes. For Turrey, a Harmonic Tunic (same item but subbing explorer's clothes for the chain shirt) would be amazing. Is there a chance that Turrey could've had one made for him over the course of his career? If not, I'll stick with the Hauberk. (Aside, I'm missing some advantage of the armor over the clothes, please let me know.)
2) While I'm talking custom magic items, what do you think of a hat or broach that allows Speak with Animals? If that seems like a reasonable item, I see that a Hat of Disguise (Greater) gives a 2nd level Illusory Disguise At Will and costs 340 GP. Does that seem like a good price equivalent? (If you're reluctant, no worries on my end. It's really more of a flavor thing...and as discussed can just be part of Turrey's legend...I'm sure he embellishes generously for the benefit of a good story.) ;-)
3) Just FYI, I realized that Helpful Halfing doesn't really do much, now that I can auto-crit on Aid anytime I can Inspire Competence. While I'm sure there'll come a time when I can't manage to sing or dance when I want to aid, I've traded out that, and a few other feats.
I still haven't picked spells, but wanted to share the latest build so DM Pudding (or any of yall) can comment/suggest/correct. Here's the latest sheet, and here are's my draft gear
BTW, Félicité, you mentioned earlier that you were deciding between going Legendary in Occult or Religion. If it matters to your decision, I plan to go Legendary in Occult next level (and will never get near that at any other knowledge skill). Of course, if Occult fits your image or build better, it'll be fine for two of us to be Legendary Occultists.
@Félicité That clarification makes me feel much better; I was just concerned that she was going to start off being actively evil toward other party members or NPCs. As you've described it is totally OK
@Turrey I'll have a look over that tonight thanks. As far as I'm aware if you have 20 Dex there's no difference between armour and explorer's clothing (provided that you meet the strength requirement to avoid the check penalty). I don't want to homebrew any additional items, so we can stick with the Hauberk and the animal speaking just being embellishment.
As a self-identified rules lawyer, I do have a few things to weigh in on:
At 20 Dex, all armor is effectively the same. The “armor bonus” (I’m aware it’s actually an item bonus) plus the Dex cap of almost all armor equals +5 (not accounting for potency runes). The exceptions being padded armor (which totals to +4), and all heavy armors (which total to +6). If one isn’t proficient in heavy armor and has a decently-high Str, then which armor you actually choose to wear is primarily up to: the total Dex you have (since medium armor is more keyed for use by those with lower Dex to reach that +5 as easily as possible), and the traits on the armor itself (and obviously which armors they are actually proficient in).
TL; DR: at 20 Dex it doesn’t really matter which armor you pick; you might as well go with explorer’s clothing for the comfort trait in the fringe case that we get attacked in the middle of the night.
I personally chose an invisible chain shirt (upgraded with a greater resilient rune, because I am allowed to do that with specific magic armors) because I like the flavor of appearing to be unarmored, and because it gives the armor the comfort trait.
Side note: harmonic hauberk is…real clunky by RAW. It requires ALL auditory effects to attempt to counteract it in order to affect the wearer, and (as defined in the composition trait) all composition spells with a verbal component (which is most of them) are auditory effects. Thus, Turrey must roll to counteract his (assuming gender) own armor every time he casts inspire courage or it just won’t affect him (the same is true of the armor’s own Activation). To be perfectly fair, though, this just seemed like an oversight from the person who wrote the armor, and it would be a fair house rule to say that only hostile auditory effects need to counteract the armor; just thought I’d bring it up.
@Turrey: A few notes looking over your character sheet: 1) How do you have a class DC? Spellcasters don’t (or at least shouldn’t) normally have class DCs. 2) Do you have a feat that lets you add your level to untrained skills? I’m not seeing any of the usual ones that grant that. 3) I would put “polymath” in parentheses next to Multifarious Muse to avoid confusion.
A reason that you might want armor even with +5 DEX is in case you get Clumsied. If you have, say, leather armor, you still have full AC at Clumsy 1.
Watery Soup, that's interesting to know, thanks!
Bellaluna, thanks for the review and notes! 1) I used pathbuilder2e.com to build Turrey (who uses he/him, yes!) an it just added the Class DC. I assume it means my spellcasting DC. 2) That's from Eclectic Skill. 3) Good call. I think I can edit the PDF it outputs, so I'll do that next time around.
GM Puddling, take your time looking over the latest build. No worries about not homebrewing anything else. I'll stick with noncustom gear (other than my awesome Carpet of Flying). When you get a chance, can you clarify how you play the Hauberk? Does Bellaluna's "non-hostile" clarification make sense to you?
Any other suggestions are welcome. Yall are helping me bone up on my proficiency with 2e.
Cheers,
A reason that you might want armor even with +5 DEX is in case you get Clumsied. If you have, say, leather armor, you still have full AC at Clumsy 1.
You…you are aware that clumsy doesn’t actually lower your modifier, right? It just imposes a penalty to stuff that includes Dex.
A reason that you might want armor even with +5 DEX is in case you get Clumsied. If you have, say, leather armor, you still have full AC at Clumsy 1.
I'm not certain that that's how it would work - Clumsy doesn't reduce your Dexterity modifier, it applies a penalty to the things you add your Dexterity modifier to.
Your movements become clumsy and inexact. Clumsy always includes a value. You take a status penalty equal to the condition value to Dexterity-based checks and DCs, including AC, Reflex saves, ranged attack rolls, and skill checks using Acrobatics, Stealth, and Thievery.
@Turrey - what spells are you looking at?
Wait, so your AC is not lowered when Clusmy, or having a +1 item bonus wouldn't help it?
Wait, so your AC is not lowered when Clusmy, or having a +1 item bonus wouldn't help it?
You're AC IS lowered, but having an item bonus to AC doesn't do anything to clumsy; you take a penalty to dex-based stuff (including AC) equal to your clumsy value, period.
Huh, I've always thought that you took the penalty to DEX, but I just re-read the Clumsy rules, it's a penalty to Dexterity ... based checks.
Welp, good thing I didn't take leather armor for Félicité on the assumption that it would work.
My read on the Hauberk is that the author almost certainly didn't intend for it to be incredibly punishing for a bard to wear, so I'd say you can choose to forgo that particular "protection" whenever you wish.
For our PF2 experts, counteracting is one area I struggle to get my head around. Would you use the level-based DC for the Hauberk's counteract DC (Level 13 = 31)? This came up during a game a few weeks ago where a creature's constant true-seeing needed to attempt to counteract the invisibility from a cloak of elvenkind, and I couldn't find concrete rules on the DC, just:
...The GM can also calculate a DC based on the target effect’s level...
And then for the counteract bonus, it's not always clear to me what to use. For example if a Harpy's song targeted Turrey, would you use the DC of the effect -10? Or the the Harpy's performance skill? Something else?
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My read on the Hauberk is that the author almost certainly didn't intend for it to be incredibly punishing for a bard to wear, so I'd say you can choose to forgo that particular "protection" whenever you wish.
For our PF2 experts, counteracting is one area I struggle to get my head around. Would you use the level-based DC for the Hauberk's counteract DC (Level 13 = 31)? This came up during a game a few weeks ago where a creature's constant true-seeing needed to attempt to counteract the invisibility from a cloak of elvenkind, and I couldn't find concrete rules on the DC, just:
...The GM can also calculate a DC based on the target effect’s level...And then for the counteract bonus, it's not always clear to me what to use. For example if a Harpy's song targeted Turrey, would you use the DC of the effect -10? Or the the Harpy's performance skill? Something else?
It's pretty subjective, but this is the general steps I go through:
If the effect lists a counteract level/bonus, then obviously use that.
If neither of those are listed, then the counteract level is equal to the level of the spell (if it is a spell) or half the creature's level rounded up (in the case of the harpy's song, it would be a counteract level of 3). For the counteract bonus/DC, if it's a spell then just use the spell DC (or 10 - the DC for a bonus). If it's not a spell, then use the DC of the effect (or 10 - the DC for a bonus; for the harpy's song that would be +11). If a DC isn't listed, then use the level of the effect alongside this table to determine the DC (for a bonus it would be 10 - this DC).
So for the hauberk, it would be a counteract level of 7 (13/2 = 6.5, rounded up to 7) and a counteract DC of 31* (since the table shows the standard DC for a level 13 thing is 31).
TL; DR: It's honestly kinda subjective and a case-by-case basis, but there is a bit of a process to determining the counteract stuff.
*Though an argument could be made that the counteract DC would be 30, since later on in the item it talks about counteracting silence and lists a counteract bonus of +20.
That's great thanks for the help.
@Turrey I've looked at your character sheet and your gear and everything looks great to me. The crystal ball is uncommon, however it's a great item and I don't think this module will be ruined by throwing in some scrying, so I'm good with it.
@Félicité I've looked over your sheet and it looks great, however I think you might have too many items? Could you break them down by which ones are the free ones (1x15th, 2x14th etc), and which ones are paid for? For example looking at what you've listed, the ring of resistance and one of the +2 greater striking weapons would be 2 14th, the winged rune is a 13th, the greater fire resistant rune is a 12th, grim sandglass the other 12th, which leaves another +2 greater striking weapon as the 15th level item, but then there isn't enough money for the remaining gear.
Errestan tells me he's hoping to have his character ready for Sunday, and since everyone else is ready or nearly ready I'll get to work on opening gameplay up for character and adventure intros
Because I've revised my items quite a few times, it's possible that I forgot to delete some items on my character sheet from past iterations. I'll do an audit this weekend, but the spreadsheet is what I've been working on, so if there's a mismatch between the character sheet and the spreadsheet, please favor the spreadsheet.
I just noticed that Felicite (my laptop can't do special characters easily) and I both have Incredible Scout, which is, well, redundant to have two people with it. I think it would be best if Bellaluna kept it (and made Scouting her exploration activity) while Felicite switched to Searching (legendary in Perception lets you see a lot!).
I can switch out the feat. Any suggestions? I think my second choice was either Thorough Search or Expeditious Search. I could take them both, and drop, say, Fleet.
Félicité's name with the accents is in her tagline, you should be able to double-click it and copy-paste. I've tried to keep from making 10 posts so I can change her name if people find it annoying.
Copy-pasta works for me, Félicité. (I reserve the right to sometimes just type it without the accents from my phone, but I like that you used them.)
Also, while we're optimizing our builds in context of each other, did you see my Q to you upstream:
Félicité, you mentioned earlier that you were deciding between going Legendary in Occult or Religion. If it matters to your decision, I plan to go Legendary in Occult next level (and will never get near that at any other knowledge skill). Of course, if Occult fits your image or build better, it'll be fine for two of us to be Legendary Occultists.
...
And Gregoth asked about spells. I hope to pick those this weekend, but I'd love suggestions. I'm still reading through them all, and this'll be the first caster I play in 2e. (I've been looking at the three guides listed on Zenith's Guide to the Guides as well.)
Félicité, I think the problem is with your property runes. A +2 Greater Striking weapon is a level 12 item, but a Greater Fearsome rune is itself a level 12 item. So you'd either have to use two slots for both of those things, or pay for one of them with cash. Similarly with greater acid resistant, thundering, winged, returning and brilliant; they all need paying for separately.
Turrey choosing spells will be a challenge for sure. I've not played a high level spellcaster either so the only advice I'd really give is try to find good spells to put your low level slots to work. Low-level damaging spells are unlikely to be effective against anything you'll face, as well as anything with the incapacitation trait or that relies on spell level like dispel magic. They're still good candidates for heightening though. I don't want to recommend any in particular because I know what you're going to face, but I will say that I think inner radiance torrent has been marked for errata because it scales too fast; if anyone picks that I'll probably have to look at addressing it as we're at the level where it will affect us. (I think it's 56d4 damage for the 2 round version heightened to level 8!)
@GM: Oh, I see. I'll need some pretty dramatic revision in my items, then.
For clarity, shouldn't the +2 greater striking weapon counts as a Level 12 item (greater striking rune) plus a Level 10 item (+2 rune) plus a Level 0 item (shortbow)? Or do the fundamental runes count as a unit?
---
@Turrey: I'll do Legendary in Religion, instead.
Yeah the magic weapons are a little weird; they're in the treasure table both as the rune itself, and as the magic weapon. I suppose the idea is by the time you get magical weapons the price of the weapon is negligible.
Félicité's name with the accents is in her tagline, you should be able to double-click it and copy-paste. I've tried to keep from making 10 posts so I can change her name if people find it annoying.
*Facepalm* Why didn’t I think of that?
Yeah the magic weapons are a little weird; they're in the treasure table both as the rune itself, and as the magic weapon. I suppose the idea is by the time you get magical weapons the price of the weapon is negligible.
From this area: “If the player wants armor or a weapon with property runes, they must buy the property runes separately, and for armor or a weapon made of a precious material, they must pay for the precious material separately as well.”
So from the sounds of it, the fundamental runes and the item they’re attached to count as a unit, so a +2 greater striking shortbow would be a single level 12 item (rather than a level 12 rune, a level 10 rune, and a level 0 weapon), but a +2 greater striking brilliant shortbow would be two level 12 items (“one” level 12 weapon with fundamental runes, and one level 12 property rune).
This brings up something interesting: GM, do you want me to treat my invisible chain shirt with a greater resilient rune as a single level 14 item, or as a level 13 item (the invisible chain shirt) and a level 14 rune (the greater resilient rune)? Basically, it's a question of if I get an extra level 13 item or not.
A few rules-lawyer-y things to throw around the table (gonna organize it a bit strangely to keep each talking-point contained within a paragraph):
@GM: So, uh, this hasn’t been addressed, but Night of the Gray Death is sanctioned for PFS. Are we doing this for PFS credit? (All PFS2e stuff is run in Campaign Mode, so it shouldn’t be a huge bother to add credit to this)
@GM: Some weird rules ambiguity with Grim Swagger that I want to get your input on. Do I roll a single check and compare that to the Will DCs of applicable targets (technically not a “target” effect, but beside the point), or do I roll separately for each such target? By RAW, it’s the latter, since it doesn’t specifically state that I only roll a single check (like how it says it in Showstopper), but I could definitely see some table variation and would like to see how you read it.
@Félicité: Completely unrelated to everything, but you are aware that Chopin’s first name is actually spelled “Frédéric,” right (as in more special characters)?
@Félicité: Not sure how the GM wants to handle this, but you do speak 6 different uncommon languages; you usually gain access to one such language based on the region you grew up (Hallit in this case). Not sure if the GM wants to heavily enforce that whole thing, but I thought I’d bring it up.
@Félicité: This is just me nit-picking, but the adjective form of Galt is “Galtan,” not “Galtian”; there isn’t an i.
@Turrey: You might wanna swap out Incredible Initiative; with me Scouting I already grant a +2 circumstance bonus to initiative.
@Turrey: My only real note with regards to spells is to remember that signature spells exist, and that they work both ways (you can freely heighten and un-heighten signature spells). i.e. if you put magic missile in your repertoire as a 5th-level spell and made it your signature spell for that level, then you could still be able to freely cast it as a 1st-level spell.
@Gregoth: Your class DC is off by 10.
Apologies for backseat-GMing; it’s difficult for me to turn it off at times.
As always, comments welcome!
Barring any corrections or suggested improvements, I *think* I'm done. (Nope, just remembered languages. Prolly other a few small things. Can't do more now though.)
EDIT: Just saw the suggestion to swap Incredible Initiative. I'll do that too. Thx.
From this area: “If the player wants armor or a weapon with property runes, they must buy the property runes separately, and for armor or a weapon made of a precious material, they must pay for the precious material separately as well.”
Ah thanks I knew I had read that but I couldn't find it in the book.
This brings up something interesting: GM, do you want me to treat my invisible chain shirt with a greater resilient rune as a single level 14 item, or as a level 13 item (the invisible chain shirt) and a level 14 rune (the greater resilient rune)? Basically, it's a question of if I get an extra level 13 item or not.
I would say that since it's a special level 13 magic item that is permitted to have its fundamental runes upgraded, that we should call it a level 13 item for the invisible shirt and then a level 14 item for the greater resilient rune. Sorry!
@GM: So, uh, this hasn’t been addressed, but Night of the Gray Death is sanctioned for PFS. Are we doing this for PFS credit? (All PFS2e stuff is run in Campaign Mode, so it shouldn’t be a huge bother to add credit to this)]
I addressed it in the initial recruitment post, but yes I'll be offering chronicles for PFS credit.
@GM: Some weird rules ambiguity with Grim Swagger that I want to get your input on. Do I roll a single check and compare that to the Will DCs of applicable targets (technically not a “target” effect, but beside the point), or do I roll separately for each such target? By RAW, it’s the latter, since it doesn’t specifically state that I only roll a single check (like how it says it in Showstopper), but I could definitely see some table variation and would like to see how you read it.
The text to me suggests that you only make one check, and compare it against multiple DCs, and that seems like it would be the easiest to run at the table so let's do that.
On the topic of languages I actually ignored everyone's languages when going over character sheets (shame on me), but I would prefer it if we followed the rules as much as possible, so if you want to access an uncommon language not available in your home region (or a region your character has lived for some time), then you might consider the multilingual feat to access those. Without wanting to spoil anything I will say that the language barrier is not going to be a focus of this adventure, but that if you wanted to invest in a language you'd probably have the most opportunities to use infernal.
Apologies for backseat-GMing; it’s difficult for me to turn it off at times.
No problem! It's a great help. Don't be afraid to let me know when I'm getting things wrong during gameplay either.
Finally a question for you all for no particular reason. You've settled on your starting gear and are ready to adventure. Is there a single common item of 16th level or lower that your character would be especially happy to find on a monster or receive as a gift? No worries if not, just an idle question ;)
I suspect many folks would be happy to find a +3 weapon potency rune - or at least the folks who use weapons. XD
@GM: So, uh, this hasn’t been addressed, but Night of the Gray Death is sanctioned for PFS. Are we doing this for PFS credit? (All PFS2e stuff is run in Campaign Mode, so it shouldn’t be a huge bother to add credit to this)]I addressed it in the initial recruitment post, but yes I'll be offering chronicles for PFS credit.
I’m completely blind, apparently.
@Turrey: I would recommend having at least one damage-dealing cantrip, just in case. Otherwise, it’s a very interesting spread for a support bard.
Hmmmm. Right now I used a L14 item (Singing Shortbow) to get a 3d6+2 (piercing) + 1d6 (sonic) shortbow attack.
Should I have a damage dealing cantrip (e.g. Telekinetic Projectile: 2 actions for 30' range 8d6 spell attack via throwing random objects at people) in addition? Instead?
My thought was that 2 actions might be too much to spend on 8d6 damage, when I could do 4d6+2 with one action...but perhaps that's silly. I could imagine that maybe I should trade in the bow (getting some other L14 item) and rely on my cantrip, when I don't need "bigger guns". Or maybe I want to keep both, and have some rounds where I shoot an arrow AND fire a telekinetic projectile?
Whadda yall think?
Follow up: Wondering how useful Shield will be for me, and whether I should trade that for TK projectile, to keep that option open?
I know Bullhorn will probably rarely be practical, and Prestidigitation may not be crucial either...but both feel like they fit Turrey really well.
(And hey, if I can manage to make great use of Bullhorn, how cool will THAT be??)
As far as languages, my default are Common and Halfling, and I've added Sylvan and Elven. (The former to talk to my summons--and because there must be some great songs written in it--the latter because how else could he have been "a rare invited non-elven guest musician in Kyonin performing The Starfall Sonnets on an outdoor stage in the enchanted Fierani Forest"?
...And I hope to intro Turrey in gameplay by end of day!
@Bellaluna: Félicité's languages on her sheet are wrong, although I think she still has too many Uncommon languages. I could not figure what language daemons spoke and what the local language in Galt was, so I put in a bunch of placeholders. Turns out a lot of extraplanars speak Draconic so she currently has (Galtan local = Hallit?), (mummification local = Osirion?), (daemon local = Draconic), and the rest are TBD.
@GM: Can I have both Osirion and whatever the Galtan local is? I've been meaning to look it Galtan in LOWG but I've been working on items. They'd be Uncommon but regional human languages. Never mind, I'll pick up Multilingual somewhere along the way, I have lots of skill feats.
@Bellaluna: The familiar is a placeholder right now, I will spell his name appropriately in the final version, although I am not 100% sure it would have the two é's. I think there's a Polish spelling and a French spelling. Edit: Polish is Fryderyck, French is Frédéric. Félicité is likely to go with the French spelling.
@Turrey: The nice thing about TKP is that it can deal B, P, or S. Bows only deal P.
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Hi everyone, sorry for not posting much yet. It's been a really hectic couple of weeks. I'm nearly done with my character now, just a few more items of gear to sort out.
I will be playing Kaldren Aster, a human Redeemer of Pharasma with a few Cleric dedication feats thrown in. I'll post some back story and some more details soon. Buf for now, here are my item choices for the free items.
Level 15: Greater Flaming weapon property rune
Level 14: +2 Greater Resilience Half plate
Level 14: Ring of Cold Resistance, Major
Level 13: Winged armour property rune
Level 12: +2 Greater Striking War Flail
Level 12: Fortification armour rune
If I've made any mistakes or anyone has suggestions, please let me know. I am still unsure about the elemental damage type, resistance element and the fortification rune (as it puts me right on the edge of being encumbered).
Good to meet you, Errestan. Looking forward to learning more about Kaldren Aster.
Nice to meet you, Errestan.
Félicité's revised sheet is up, she took Multilingual and went Legendary in Society. This will give her four Uncommon languages, mummification = Osiriani, reincarnation = Vudrani, resurrection = Celestial, Daemonic. I know the GM said Infernal would be more useful, but it's way more in character to have gone pleading to Urgathoa's daemons; Félicité has no interest in selling her own soul.
If the items are okay, I think Félicité is good to go.
I always forget to mention this until it comes up, but I avoid posting on Sundays for a combination of religious and mental health reasons.
Also (and I’m aware that I’m being excruciatingly nit-picky when I say this), but…
The manor of the Camilia Drannoch is a short walk from the Monolith, the blackened fortress and prison that serves as the seat of government in Galt. Those of you who know the city may choose to take a longer path around the monolith, because the Final Blade "Madame Margery" that stands in front of it never fails to provoke dread in those that witness it.
Galt’s infamous guillotines are (as far as I can find) always referred to as “final blades” (meaning italicized and non-capitalized). And I believe that the final blade in Isarn is “Madame Margaery”; you were missing a second “a.” (I only mention this because Madame Margaery is part of Bellaluna’s backstory.)
Side note: I believe Madame Margaery was actually named after the inventor of the final blades: Margaery San Trayne.
I’ll try to have something up in Gameplay later today.