OMB's Bonekeep 1 - Nostalgiacon! (Inactive)

Game Master James Martin

Check in here, kids, then dot into the Gameplay thread.
I need:

Player Name:
PC Name:
Faction:
Level/Class:
PFS Number:
Dayjob:
Any useful information I should have about your character:

A Google Sheets link will be posted soon. Check in there and fill in the blanks!

Looky here, it's a Bonekeep Slides link! Click me you fine fellows and fellettes!

PC Name: XxCrusaderxX
Faction: Grand lodge
Level/ Class: Bloodrager 5/ Dragon Disciple 1
Day job: None
Vrothum took Rageshaper archetype so his natural claws do more damage and has the ability to double the duration of his transmutation spells.
Im excited and nervous to play this game with you all and thanks DM for stepping up so we can have two tables!

Player: Aldizog
Character: Aroden Reincarnated
Faction: Scarab Sages
Level/Class: Wizard (Exploiter) 7
PFS Number: 108731-7
Day Job: Craft (Sculpture) of the thing from beyond reality that he sees in his nightmares, Take 10: 10 + 11 + 5 = 26

So I'm curious, are we running all three parts or just the first?

As far as I know, we're running Part 1. However, I have all three and would be happy to run them if allowed.

Player Name:Ed Birnbryer
PC Name:Khugron
Faction:Liberty's Edge
Level/Class:Bloodrager 4/Brawler 2/Fighter (High Guardian) 1
PFS Number:66136-8
Dayjob:P:Oratory: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12
Any useful information I should have about your character: Aberrant Blood line, +5" reach when raging, uses a reach weapon, phalanx formation, and toss in unarmed strike for good measure.

Player Name: supervillan
PC Name: Revered Master Poh
Faction: Liberty's Edge
Level/Class: Monk 7
PFS Number: 75577-11
Dayjob: bad advice (oratory): 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 1 = 13
Any useful information I should have about your character:

Revered Master Poh is a qinggong drunken sensei of the four winds - a heavily archetyped monk with some bard-like abilities.

Poh can grant Inspire Courage and Inspire Competence. He can also use his Mystic Wisdom class feature to grant other PCs his ki powers, specifically the following:

true strike
+20' move speed for 1 round
+4 dodge bonus to AC for 1 round
barkskin
gaseous form

Each of these costs Ki, but drunken masters get a bit more ki than other monks as long as they're drinking :o

Poh also has the Bodyguard and In Harm's Way feats, and the (halfling) Helpful trait, so he can hand out +4AC to adjacent PCs with an AoO and if necessary can throw himself in the way of an attack.

Poh's not a heavy damage dealer, but can strike from 10' away using Marid Style and can stack elemental fist and drunken strength for one big punch. But as you can see, he's really more of a support character.

Poh has a magic item called the Gem of Demon Seeking (off a chronicle sheet) that glows whenever a demon is within 30'. Purchasing this item also means Poh has only 2 Prestige - so if he dies in Bonekeep, he dies. I accept the risk.

Also he's a smelly vanara with a prehensile tail and a climb speed :)

"Revered Master Poh welcomes new students! Free beer with first lesson!"

Peeking at the character sheets of the party (including those in high tier in the original recruitment thread), it looks like our only healing capability is wands of infernal healing. Nobody has CLW on a spell list and there's no trained UMD.

In most cases this wouldn't worry me overmuch. But, unless the changes for pbp are accommodating, Bonekeep is supposed to be against the clock and Infernal Healing is very efficient but it's also very slow.

Lack of condition removal is a concern too.

Lack of condition removal is a concern too.

Yes, that is a real concern.

We can try to play this a lot more cleverly than the usual "kick in the door, take damage, heal up afterwards" approach. For example, Aroden will cast Arcane Eye to map the place and identify foes as well as possible ahead of time, and he will use Open/Close on doors from a distance and at such an angle that we are not immediately in line of sight of whatever is within a room. As long as we get the jump on foes, not much would survive three Bloodragers attacking - although environmental effects could still be damaging.

Without a cleric, we lack not only condition removal, but some of the best defensive buffs in the game (like Death Ward and Freedom of Movement).

I will add that Aroden, like most of my PCs, will not accept the "gift" of Asmodeus even to save his life. I will get some potions of CLW, but if the only way to save his life is Infernal Healing, I would rather he die.

Yes that was a concern of mine as well, I have t updated my gear yet but I have 3 potions of CLW, and 2 Potions of CMW. I believe I have about 2.5k left over so maybe I can pick up a handy haversack and buy out as my cure potions as I can and throw them in it. Myself and Poh have prehensile tails to retrieve them.

There are some good items in ultimate equipment that may prove useful to us, stuff that gives us refills on saving throws with a bonus or if used preemptively give a flat +5 bonus like Antiplague, Antitoxin, smelling salts I think wakes you up from being unconscious or paralyzed I think? Maybe if we pool our money together we can buy several of these things and load in handy haversacks if we can get more than 1, and use our tails to pull whatever we need as a swift action. Let me know what you guys think. I'm gonna thumb through my sheets tonight and see what boons I have as well, gonna need everything we have to pull through this one.
Wait a minute, don't we have an Arcane Duelist Bard in the party??? He should have Cure Wounds on his list and most likely UMD

Alright I have four players ready to go! Excelsior! I see we have until January 10 to begin, so we'll give everyone time to get here and get squared away. I'll make a note on my calendar to come back January 10 and begin the Bonekeeping!

@GM, rules question to get squared away ahead of time - can I use Arcane Sight and Darkvision through an Arcane Eye?

don't we have an Arcane Duelist Bard in the party???

That was one of PDK's PCs, but he's joined the low tier table with a different character.

The original recruitment thread has "Phantomblade" and "Patros Therinor" as high tier entrants, but they've not yet checked in here and the player of Phantomblade also appears to have joined the low tier table.

I'll post in the original thread and ask who's joining us here.

@GM, rules question to get squared away ahead of time - can I use Arcane Sight and Darkvision through an Arcane Eye?

Yes, with the caveat that since you are already concentrating on arcane eye, you cannot use the piece of Arcane sight that allows: If you concentrate on a specific creature within 120 feet of you as a standard action, you can determine whether it has any spellcasting or spell-like abilities, whether these are arcane or divine (spell-like abilities register as arcane), and the strength of the most powerful spell or spell-like ability the creature currently has available for use.

UNLESS you know of a way to concentrate on multiple spells at once. If you do, please share the reference.

If this table isn't full yet, I think I'd like to submit Mun for consideration. As an Oracle, he has the ability to fill some of the divine casting gaps identified above. Oracles are spontaneous, though, and he doesn't know those spells right now, so we might need to purchase wands/scrolls that he can use to cast those spells during this scenario.

We're already full up. I'll keep you on standby if anyone drops.

Player Name: Blake's Tiger
PC Name: Pig the Runt
Faction: Liberty's Edge
Level/Class: 7th Fighter
PFS Number: 230524-2
Dayjob: ...I don't think so. Going to have to check my Emerald Spire chronicles.
Any useful information I should have about your character: Deathless Initiate, Bloody Vengeance (only triggers if a level 7 ally goes down, though)

Thanks!

Player Name:Paul McCrory/grimdog73
PC Name:Patros Therinor
Faction:Grand Lodge
Level/Class:swashbuckler(rondelero)6
PFS Number:125048-08
Dayjob:none
Any useful information I should have about your character:I do a parry/riposte almost every attack...will spoiler it to avoid clutter...

So now we have also lost the Rogue/Bloodrager that we were originally going to have.

Two Bloodragers, a Monk, a Fighter, a Swashbuckler, and a Wizard.

I'm even more leery of playing Bonekeep without a Rogue than I am about playing without a Cleric. Traps can do worse things than just damage.

Yes, I have to agree, I'm not one to complain on a party but we are asking for a TPK. DM I dunno how you feel about it, but I mean could you talk to Redalia and see if one of the two original high tiers would want to come back? I know you guys want to be fair but for party balance sake? I would swap characters but I have nothing else in tier...

This is a very unbalanced party as is.

I could swap out Poh for Malachi, perhaps. I'd have to slow-track but that's no problem.

Mal is also a front-liner, but he's got 4 levels of druid so that opens up a lot of useful consumables.

I'm going to leave it to you, the players, to petition the other table for swapsies.

Posted in the original thread.

I think good players can succeed with nearly any combination of PCs, but it does mean adapting our tactics to what we have and actually trying to work as a team.

If we don't have anybody who can disable traps, then we still try to find traps with Perception (I will buff Aroden's Perception before casting Arcane Eye), then go around them, or Dispel them, or (as a last resort) set them off from a distance.

If we don't have a healer, then we get some potions, and try to use reconnaissance to avoid taking damage. If someone does get beat up, we rotate them out of the front line and hand them a reach weapon.

I'm up for the challenge if we don't get offers to switch.

Aroden is quite low on gold (425), and I think I need the following:

Antitoxin (50)
Antiplague (50)
Borrow access to Darkvision and scribe spell (20+40 = 60)
Borrow access to Arcane Sight and scribe spell (45+90 = 135)
Potion of CLW (50)
Remaining: 80 gp
Sell Scroll of Dispel Magic (+187.5)
New total: 267.5
Elixir of Vision (250)
New total: 17.5

I can spend 2 PP for another wand of a 1st-level spell (such as Heightened Awareness, or True Strike for the bolas), or a scroll of 2 castings of a 3rd-level spell (such as Haste or Heroism).

With the Elixir of Vision plus Heroism, he should have a +23 Perception when using Arcane Eye, plus Darkvision and Arcane Sight. Note that he will be using most of his higher-level spell slots on this effort (1 4th, 2 3rd, 1 2nd). He'll do this recon which hopefully is of high value, then have some situational problem-solving spells, but mostly use Inspiring Sword (unless you buy scrolls that you want him to use).

Alternatively, if you have characters in the low tier you'd like to play, we can swap characters to that tier? It's up to you folks, and I'll run a table of whatever tier you decide to play.

EDIT: Also Zin Z'arin has an oracle. He's offered to play, but that would mean losing one of the players who has already signed up. Your choice.

(Also, for the sake of giggles, I should note that Bloodragers make excellent trapfinders. Open door, insert bloodrager. Wait for explosions to stop, open door, see if bloodrager survived. Loot room.)

CROSS posting from low table:

Supervillain: "Well our high tier table is looking problematic. It's 5 martials plus one wizard, no divine casting at all. There doesn't seem to be much availability, if any, of alternative characters amongst the high tier players. Would anyone on the low tier table be up for a swap to high tier? This is surely a scenario that needs balanced parties."

Me:

"I will but I prefer to play a paladin? I have a cleric but she's 8th.

EDIT: I also have a tengu ninja 7, gnome summoner 6, elf wizard 6, and a gnome inquisitor 7, a grippli archer ranger 6. But prefer the paladin.

I have a dwarven fighter 7 but he's clearly redundant.

And YES I have a lot of PCs LOL. I'm recovering from PFS 1e LOL"

In case you guys ask about my gnome inquisitor - I basically fight with an AC of 24 and buff a little but he does very minimal damage. But I have the feat Righteous Healing.

If you can play out of subtier for Bonekeep, I could bring Pig to the low table if it doesn't throw off the math. He's all I've got for Bonekeep.

Worst comes to worst, I can drop for Zin Z'arin. I don't want the whole table to fold.

If you can play out of subtier for Bonekeep, I could bring Pig to the low table if it doesn't throw off the math. He's all I've got for Bonekeep.

I remember playing Emerald Spire with Pig.

This is a very unbalanced party as is.

Someone mentioned that you don't have divine casting. Don't you have Mun?

Someone mentioned that you don't have divine casting. Don't you have Mun?

We don't. Mun offered but both tables already had 6 players.

(Also, for the sake of giggles, I should note that Bloodragers make excellent trapfinders. Open door, insert bloodrager. Wait for explosions to stop, open door, see if bloodrager survived. Loot room.)

As a long-time player of various RPGs, there's a reason I said that traps can do worse things than just damage. So I generally prefer to avoid setting them off if at all possible.

They can alert enemies.
They can destroy loot.
They can close off passages.
They can scatter the party with Teleports.
They can bestow curses or afflictions.

It depends how interesting the author wants to make it. Certainly if it is just damage, it is not all that problematic (nor all that interesting IMO).

Qstor wrote:

Someone mentioned that you don't have divine casting. Don't you have Mun?

We don't. Mun offered but both tables already had 6 players.

oh okay...If I "move" to high tier who's moving down?

Like I said, I have a gnome inquisitor or tengu ninja but prefer the paladin but that doesn't help I guess?

I'd like to be clear, I will never vote to tell someone they can't play, like Aroden has said you can change your approach to a scenario and most times come up with creative solutions, that's the fun of these types of games. Bonekeep is entirely different, that's the only reason I'm concerned, any other game I'd be fine with any party make up. If someone voluntarily wants to switch tiers that's fine but I don't want Pig to just bow out for party sake. We'll ride it out and see how it plays if it comes to that. I'd much rather see players change tiers to bring party balance then for someone to bow out and not play.

Aroden Reincarnated wrote:

Qstor wrote:

Someone mentioned that you don't have divine casting. Don't you have Mun?

We don't. Mun offered but both tables already had 6 players.

oh okay...If I "move" to high tier who's moving down?

Like I said, I have a gnome inquisitor or tengu ninja but prefer the paladin but that doesn't help I guess?

The paladin can help with healing, which is one of our gaps. Even just being able to use CLW wands is huge.

We can maybe muddle around the traps issue somehow. Aroden should probably be able to spot them with the approach I am planning to use.

Pig (the Unbreakable Fighter 6) offered to play lower tier.

And I agree with Vrothum, nobody should have to drop out.

Paladin brings plenty of utility to the mix Aura of Courage, lay on hands(condition removal) Cure Wounds, detect undead etc. Not to mention with a name like bonekeep you can assume undead somewhere in the mission so smite away.

One of the reasons I posted my interest in the first place is OMB didn't list the method of player selection for this table (FCFS, lottery, or GM choice), so while there was already a table's-worth of interest, the table still looked like it could be open. I don't want to push anyone out, of course, but if Mun is a good fit, I would definitely still love to play; Bonekeep is one I never thought I'd be able to play (I only play PbP), so the opportunity can't be passed up.

If I had the stars, I'd offer to run a table myself, but that's a few years off in the best case. :)

I'll continue to monitor this thread, and if it makes sense for Mun to join this table, I'll be happy to do so. I'll also gracefully and quietly walk away if that's not the choice. Thanks for thinking of me in either case.

It also occurs to me that--in general--PFS allows up to 7 players per table. They encourage 6, but 7 is allowed.

Of course, Bonekeep might have specific rules that contradict this, but in general 7 players is acceptable if the GM and players are willing.

Legal Table Size

The minimum table size for a Roleplaying Guild Organized Play session is four players. The recommended maximum is six players. In cases where you simply cannot seat four players, you may run a table of three players, and play an appropriate level pregenerated iconic character in order to meet the minimum table size of four PCs. Pregenerated iconic characters are available for 1st level, 4th level, and 7th level (see the Pregenerated Characters section on page 6).

If seven players show up to an event, rather than turning someone away, consider adding a seventh person to the table. Check with the players to determine their preferences before running a seven-person table, as seven-person tables often overpower otherwise challenging adventures and limit the amount of time each player gets to shine in the given scenario.

Tables may not have eight or more players.

Bonekeep--with its reputation--seems like a case where 7 might be to the table's advantage.

hey guys...I'll back out so Mun can play...better all around for party survival I think...

Grimm you earned your spot fair and square so don't feel like you need to back out man. Last thing I want is for people to feel discouraged to play. If we run unoptimal so be it. party balance or not if you were here first and accepted, then you have every right to play and with whatever character you want. I kind of feel bad that I spoke up now, letting my worry get the best of me, but at the end of the day it's just a game and it's supposed to be fun for everyone.

Paladin brings plenty of utility to the mix Aura of Courage, lay on hands(condition removal) Cure Wounds, detect undead etc. Not to mention with a name like bonekeep you can assume undead somewhere in the mission so smite away.

Yeah with a name like Bonekeep one can "assume" undead.

My paladin is Oath vs. Fiends but I'm assuming he's more survivable. If we have a swashbuckler and other melee types an a wizard maybe we can dish out a lot of damage and power through but we'd get hit with any traps. And the paladin could use folks CLW wands out of combat?

hey guys...I'll back out so Mun can play...better all around for party survival I think...

Can you play low tier?

I can play HIGH or LOW.

Maybe we should see who can play either HIGH OR LOW. I think PDK and I can?

I don't mind swapping tiers either, as long as a level 5 is good for low tier.

So I can play -

Poh (sensei) in high tier
Malachi (kraken caller) in high tier

OR

Lucky (mouser) in low tier

Whatever we end up with in terms of table mix, I much approve of planning for the expedition to Bonekeep.

ok...had a thought...if i'm in low tier, I have a lvl 5 priest I can bring in..heal bot with some offensive spells...aka fireball and burning hands...

ok...had a thought...if i'm in low tier, I have a lvl 5 priest I can bring in..heal bot with some offensive spells...aka fireball and burning hands...

If I move "up" and you move down? I think we're at five for the HIGH table?? Maybe I'm wrong.

Crusader Bloodrager/ D Disciple 6
Supervillian Monk 7
Aldizog Wizard 7
Pig Fighter 7
Qstor Paladin 6?
Khugron Bloodrager/ Fighter/ Brawler 7

That would be six for high tier and Grim bringing a Cleric to the low tier I think balances that table out as well. Low-Tier seems to have
Psychic 5
Barbarian/ Hunter 3
Hunter 4
Cleric 4
Magus 4
Paladin 6?
I'm unsure if the Paladin has reported yet but I think that swap looks relatively balanced across the boards does anyone object? We trend more melee heavy they trend more caster heavy but nothing too crazy. Also though we may want to check with lower table to see how they feel about it.

I have a level 7 feat left to choose. Nothing's looking particularly exciting so I'm taking suggestions. Default goes to one of the save feats, toughness (what's 7 hp, though?), or improved initiative.

I also have PP to spend and already have a CLW wand.

@Vrothum - looks good.

@Pig, save feats are good, especially Iron Will on a fighter. If you want a combat feat but can't decide, then Barroom Brawler lets you get a combat feat 1/day as a move action. I like it for things like Blind-Fight, Step Up (vs archers/casters), Rat Catcher (vs swarms), Soulblade (vs haunts), or Ghostslayer (vs incorporeal). Note that you need some Knowledge ranks for the last three.

Since Unbreakable keeps Armor Training (at least partially), you can take Advanced Armor Training. There are some decent options, like Armored Sacrifice, Armored Juggernaut, Steel Headbutt, and Adaptable Training.

I would favour Iron Will, Pig.

Confusion and Dominate are bad news for damage-dealers. Likewise Possession and its variants.

I should check the price on the aeon stone that protects you from possession in a wayfinder.