Please post:
Player Name (optional):
Character Name (required):
Character PFS# (required):
Character Level (required):
Character Faction (optional*):
Downtime (optional*):
I am happy to help anyone who needs help choosing a faction or Downtime activity, and anyone who needs help making characters.
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Hi GM Watery Soup and everyone - thank you for having me on board for this one. I am sure many questions will come up from my end regarding rules, etc. I will do my best not to slow the game down.
Character name: Harsk, the Ranger
Character PS# 58458-2001
Character Level: 1
Character Faction: Horizon Hunters
Downtime: I would need help with this one :)
Player Name: Nicolas
Character Name: Lazzare
Character PFS#: 6533-2010
Character Level: 3
Character Faction: Grand Archive
Downtime:
Watery, what information do you need in the subtitle under our character name?
You can do a bunch of stuff for Downtime, but by far the most popular is Earn Income for 8 days.
1. Choose a skill - any Lore skill, Performance, or Crafting.
2. Make a skill check versus a Task Level of 0 (for Level 1 and Level 2), or Task Level of Character Level minus 2 (for Levels 3+).
The results details can be found on the Earn Income page, but the end result is this: CF = 0.00 gp, F = 0.08 gp, S = 0.40 gp, CS = 1.60 gp.
There are boons and stuff that can alter just about anything there - if you choose Field Commissioned instead of a School, you get 12 days of downtime, but you don't get a school item. If you get a Horizon Hunters boon, you can Earn Income at Character Level instead of Character Level minus 2. If you have other boons/skills, you can Earn Income using other skills (e.g., Bargain Hunter allows Diplomacy).
Note that money made by Earn Income is small compared to the money made from successfully completing a mission (14.00 gp if you get all the Treasure Bundles), so don't wreck your character just to squeeze a few pennies out of Earn Income.
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In the subtitle, I'll layer my requests to be clear.
1. I require that you put your AC, Perception modifier, vision (normal / LLV / DV) and either your character's gender or their pronouns. I look those up a LOT.
2. I additionally request that alignment, ancestry, max hit points, and Fort/Ref/Will saves be put there - that is, they're put there for my benefit (resolving alignment damage, anestry-based responses from NPCs, adjudicating when a character goes to Dying, and botting saves if you forget them in your post). But they're not necessary, per se.
3. It may help you or your teammates if you also include your current hit points, spells remaining, Hero Points remaining, and active conditions. That is, those are optional but for the team's benefit.
4. I don't find it particularly helpful to put skills in the tagline, unless it's something that I have to roll ALL the time. I've considered putting Recall Knowledge skills in my investigator's tagline, for instance, since he has Known Weaknesses and makes repeated Recall checks.
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In the subtitle, I'll layer my requests to be clear.
1. I require that you put your AC, Perception modifier, vision (normal / LLV / DV) and either your character's gender or their pronouns. I look those up a LOT.
2. I additionally request that alignment, ancestry, max hit points, and Fort/Ref/Will saves be put there - that is, they're put there for my benefit (resolving alignment damage, anestry-based responses from NPCs, adjudicating when a character goes to Dying, and botting saves if you forget them in your post). But they're not necessary, per se.
3. It may help you or your teammates if you also include your current hit points, spells remaining, Hero Points remaining, and active conditions. That is, those are optional but for the team's benefit.
4. I don't find it particularly helpful to put skills in the tagline, unless it's...
Thanks, I do that.
As a side note, I have 1 extra Hero Point I can distribute at the start of the adventure. As I prefer to give it randomly, I'll give it to the first one to post after this message.
Don't hesitate to take it, it's for you.
Nope, you get it! There's no refund!
Also, there are nearly only noobs on this table (4 players out of the 5 that can get this Hero Point). So you have the right to get a free Hero Point, too.
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Player Name (optional): Warah
Character Name (required): Mrs. Crinkle
Character PFS# (required): 289224-2004
Character Level (required): 1
Character Faction (optional*): Envoy's Alliance
Downtime (optional*):
Mrs. Crinkle spends a week pretending to be a foreman on a construction site. It...doesn't go well. (2cp. Wahoo.)
It looks like Harsk was helping you with your forest, like a lot.
At least, the sea is the same everywhere!
Sorry for the delay, people. Putting together the slides is taking a little longer than I thought. I'll aim for the slides tonight and first post tomorrow. Also, we're still waiting for thejeff. I'll PM them.
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Harsk, don't be shy about taking the Hero Point. There's no big secret on how to use them properly - most people use them to reroll crit fails (you get to know whether you CF/F/S/CS before you decide whether to reroll). Some people keep 1 on hand in case they're about to die, but ...
My character would have made the third character death had I not back-to-back succeeded two difficult checks, I had intended for him to sacrifice himself so the other 3 could run away.
Don't feel bad using your Hero Points at important-but-not-critical junctures - a failed Power Attack early in a combat can reroll into a crit success and alter the course of the entire combat. Just my 2 cp.
Mrs. Crinkle, don't sell yourself short - it's 1 cp per day for 8 days, so a whopping 8 cp total. :D
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No worry, we are not in a hurry. And we are meeting everyone in the meantime (and are not even all there).
The PbP format is also really great for more complex roleplay and/or backstory material. I GMed a game once where a character roleplayed a diplomacy check by arguing about the price of lumber from a certain region in Tian Xia, I went and Googled reasonable prices and delivery times for imported lumber. In F2F or VTT play, that would have just been a curt "okay, make a diplomacy check."
Some things, like the Rending question in Gameplay, I have an opportunity to look up on PathfinderWiki, or, if I had other source material, could look through my PDFs before answering. Unfortunately, in that specific case, I couldn't find any public information, and I don't have a lot of lore PDFs, so I couldn't answer, but at least I had a chance in PbP (whereas I'd have no chance in F2F/VTT).
You are not required to participate, but the group will pass a challenge depending on the number of successes accumulated, not the percentage of successes. Not attempting will be equivalent to an automatic Failure.
The skills are relatively open, so you're free to skin your commiseration however you see fit (and use your best skills), even as a rat who smells like sewers. It doesn't have to be relatable to humans, you could even bemoan how humans mistreat you just because you smell like the sewers (which is a positive thing in your eyes).
My goal was to wait outside and only intervene if the party fails to convince the half orc. Then, I'd storm inside and threaten him as Intimidation is as much of a valid way to acquire information than Diplomacy (just one you keep for the end as there's no way back).
But, well, as usual with skill challenges, you can't really do the way you want. Nothing on you, but I really think the game was better when they were not a thing. Stating that the party has to convince the half orc and that they need X successes at checks and you let them do the way they want is far enough, there's no need to force a way to handle it. We are used to convince NPCs for ages...
Can I do like I'd like to do? Waiting for the others to convince the prospector and only intervene if they don't manage to, going for a more coercive approach?
No, you can't generally use any skill. This is a pretty permissive encounter, and (whispers softly) I'm a pretty permissive GM.
My philosophy is that I want to maximize the times I say yes. It makes for some crazy situations, but that's kind of the point of RPGs. For example, I was GMing a home game for my kids and they had to impress a king. For whatever reason, the most impressive thing they could think of was ... pretending to saw each other in half as a magic act. So, uh, okay, make a ... Performance check? Deception? Athletics? Arcana? Acrobatics? Stealth/Thievery? I might have just asked them to make a flat check so my head wouldn't explode with trying to figure out a DC.
In PFS scenarios, usually there are 2-3 skills listed, and writers try to put in skills based on different ability scores, e.g., Diplomacy (CHA) and Nature (WIS), or Occultism (INT) or Religion (WIS). Sometimes there is a line about how other skills can be used at higher DC.
As long as you make a good faith effort to have fun and help those around you have fun, I'll frankly entertain everything. If you make a single-skill character and then try to use that one skill repeatedly in every situation, I'll probably run out of yesses and say no at some point.
Can I do like I'd like to do? Waiting for the others to convince the prospector and only intervene if they don't manage to, going for a more coercive approach?
Yes, but to expedite PbP play, can you go ahead and roll? You can spoiler the roll/result if you don't want people to open it before everyone else has gone, or if there are conditions.
For example,
+7 Arcana
+4 Deception
+0 Performance
Done.
I wasn't expecting combat that early. I'm not sure we are really ready. Who can handle frontline in the party?
I am still trying to figure out if I can flurry with an heavy crossbow. The answer is no, right? :P
The answer is, indeed, no. Given your position at the front of the pack, I'll leave it up to you whether you had your crossbow out or melee weapons.
Then it feels slightly counterproductive (in terms of character mechanics) to use one, right? Or is the issue the same with any missile weapon?
I don't know Harsk much, but I know our party and we lack frontliners. In my opinion, if you have the choice, it'd be better to choose a melee weapon than a ranged one.
Not all ranged weapons have reload 2; even a regular crossbow has reload 1 and can benefit from flurry, but bows (reload 0) are the classic example of flurry attacking.
What I have seen some players do is keep the heavy crossbow out and reloaded; when combat begins, it's treated as a single-use weapon (fire once, and then drop it as a free action).
Honestly, it's going to be fine any way. Choose one way for this combat and a different way for another combat if you wish. It's all good.
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Then it feels slightly counterproductive (in terms of character mechanics) to use one, right? Or is the issue the same with any missile weapon?I don't know Harsk much, but I know our party and we lack frontliners. In my opinion, if you have the choice, it'd be better to choose a melee weapon than a ranged one.
Well, once Mrs. Crinkle stops gabbing and pays attention, you'll have a frontliner. For how long, I've no idea. Depends on how hard these things hit.
Well, once Mrs. Crinkle stops gabbing and pays attention, you'll have a frontliner.
As just a FYI, Mrs. Crinkle is listed as a backliner in the default marching order. You can change that after this combat if you'd like.
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I thought about that. Despite her class, she's an old lady who prefers not to hustle if she doesn't have to. She prefers to hang back and chat, kind of taking it easy until something happens. It's a choice I haven't made lightly. RP is more important than tactical advantages with this character, as you can tell.
My azarketi that lugs around a 6 Bulk barrel of water approves!
How do you handle Hardness regarding multiple damage types? You apply it once for each damage type or once in total?
I believe hardness reduces every type of damage by the hardness amount. So, for hardness 5, 6 piercing plus 3 fire would 1 piercing and 0 fire. I tried looking for a reference for this, but could not find one, so if you have a counterexample, I'd be open to flip-flopping.
Is the damage 2x14, or should I roll double the dice + STR damage?
It's definitely not double the dice + STR. The STR gets doubled.
It can be either of the following ways:
Method #1: 2 x (1d12 + 3)
Method #2: 2d12 + 6
For PC rolls, I don't care which you use, as long as you're consistent. That is, don't roll one die (Method #1), then see whether it's a low roll or high roll before deciding. Most play-by-post players use Method #1, because you don't need to revise posts.
For GM rolls, I use Method #2 in scenarios with Level 1-2 PCs. This warrants a little explanation:
Part A: Method #1 is much swingier than Method #2. Your chances of rolling 30 damage with Method #1 is 1/12 (the probability you roll 12 on one die), while your chances of rolling 30 damage with Method #2 is 1/144 (the probability of rolling 12 on both dice).
Part B: There's an obscure rule called the "massive damage" rule where if a monster ever deals more than double a character's maximum hit points, the character instantly dies forever.
Because Level 3 monsters are readily capable of applying Massive Damage to Level 1 PCs, I minimize the frequency of it happening by rolling twice as a rule.
How do you handle Hardness regarding multiple damage types? You apply it once for each damage type or once in total?I believe hardness reduces every type of damage by the hardness amount. So, for hardness 5, 6 piercing plus 3 fire would 1 piercing and 0 fire. I tried looking for a reference for this, but could not find one, so if you have a counterexample, I'd be open to flip-flopping.
It's part of these few rules that are under the GMs choice. Unlike Resistance, there's no "apply Hardness" phase in damage so I think you can apply it both ways without being outside RAW. Personally, I apply it once because Hardness can be very punishing for anyone with multiple damage type (and Precision is a damage type so it is a lot of people).
Anyway, it's fine, I'll stick to mono damage spells, then.And I'm fully with you for Massive Damage (I nearly lost my Sorcerer to it, my Shield saved my life).
As a side note, rolling twice is supposed to be an optional rule. The basic rule is to roll once and multiply by 2.
After this initial combat, I wanted to ask - is combat always like this? Feels a bit more 'rocket-tag' than PF1e at such a lower level. Is it just my impression? With the automatically confirmed critical, and the possibility of multiple attacks right off the bat...
Low levels are extremely swingy. Combat takes a bit longer after that and stabilizes itself around 3 rounds per fight on average at level 5, roughly.
But overall PF2 feels harder than PF1. Monsters are dangerous and can really threaten PCs. Get used to tough fights (this one was an easy fight from my standards).On the other hand, death is rare because of all the dying system, unlike PF1 where a x3 critical hit was putting you right at -20 even if the fight was not especially difficult.
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Considering your sequence of actions, yes, you should only regain one Focus Point. But I'm pretty sure Watery won't punish you from not knowing the game much and allow you to refocus between your 2 castings and as such end up with your 2 Focus Points.