DM Voomer's Age of Ashes

Game Master Voomer

Icll drop a post tomorrow. Some 14 hrs. Was really waiting for others to share thoughts.

Sorry for my silence. I spent the morning in the ER and found out that I have a 4.7mm kidney stone. I will be more cognizant tomorrow. I've been on a lot of pain medication today.

YIKES. Feel better and I hope it passes or is exploded ASAP!

The ER doc says I gotta let it try to pass on its own...5mm is the threshold for surgery. Hooray! /s Thankfully, I can keep the pain under control with ibuprofen and very low-level narcotics.

Ouch! Good luck!

I think I read that riding on roller coasters helps.

I'll be traveling for the next few days without my laptop, so my posting ability will be more limited (and I'll be busy). But please go ahead and continue sharing your leveling up and make your strategy for addressing the violet pillar, and we can put the plan in motion next week.

Duly noted.

Also, I think that Yasami meant Isger. Irrisen is a little too far north and a bit too cold for this party.

Duly noted.

Also, I think that Yasami meant Isger. Irrisen is a little too far north and a bit too cold for this party.

Oops. Yes.

Do you think Produce Flame might be the most economical spell to burn that sucker up from afar? Maybe if we hit it with a vial of oil first? (if someone has that)

Probably. It's still 4d4+stat. Depending on the material, I guess.

Usually the 'kill things from maximum range' cantrip is Ray of Frost. Produce Flame with Reach might be good enough.

Or Longbow.

That isn't a spell.

I was thinking because Produce Flame causes persistent fire damage on a critical success, and maybe there's some way to buff up Lisi's hit to make sure it keeps burning.

Hi, folks. I'm back! It would be great if people wanted to put posts in the gameplay thread kind of introducing the group to any significant changes from the gain in level. If there's nothing all that significant, then may just mention so here in the discussion thread and it is ok to skip it. I believe Yasami at least had a significant change to introduce.

Once we are through with that, I will move the action to the edge of the mining pit, because it seems like you have a plan.

Oh, already? I thought it would take a while narratively. Not an overnight thing.

But I can get on it, if I get an okay to do so.

Also, welcome back!

Catalina's only real big thing is the halo and I described it, Catalina is lit up like a torch right now ;P

I will put it here in the Discussion for sure! Not sure if there's anything narrative for Lisi.

Nothing really noticeable narratively for Oren, other than he's slightly faster. His Level 7 upgrades just allow him to hit harder, be more Athletic, and do better at Fortitude saves.

Heads up, everyone!

A week from this moment, I am leaving for two weeks.

Availability online? Maybe.
Regular keyboard? Absolutely not.
Botting needed? Depending on the situation, I guess.

Just letting you know in advance. Leaving on the 20th, and coming back on the 5th.

I hope it's for something fun!

The part of PF2e that makes no intuitive sense to me is how the rules handle surprise attacks. What makes intuitive sense to me in this situation is that you all have time to do your buffs and then you can each take a single simultaneous action to attack the pillar (or some other single action at the same time). But I realize that is the PF1e surprise round way of doing things. Nevertheless, I'm inclined to proceed that way unless someone can explain in a way that makes sense how this is supposed to work under PF2e RAW...

I haven't heard any better way of handling it than that either. Spellcasting is allowed during exploration. It at least makes narrative sense that making attacks is possible during exploration too - though that will trigger starting combat.

My other question is what is our current range to the pillar?

I think our party's maximum effective range is about 60 feet. Some of us can hit things from farther than that, but not with everything and not always without penalties.

The mine is 50ft deep and the pillar is at the bottom, so we are within 50ft if we're at the edge.

I put the map up again and I'm counting 85 feet -- 50 feet down and 35 across to the pillar. Maybe it's a bit less on the diagonal through the air -- I don't have the right kind of brain to figure that out.

Pythagoras says about 61 feet then.

Gotcha, you'll need to retcon my post then. Range is 60ft for a shot, so she'd have to move down first. Why people put math in my games?? :p

Looks like my response to Caiten yesterday disappeared! Since 61 is so close to 60, I'll just round down to 60 and give it to you and say it is barely in range.

Bless you, DM.

Happy Father's day to all of y'all who have spawned. :)

Thanks! We still don't have an action from Oren (we can retcon his action as needed, and he doesn't do ranged attacks anyways), but I'm going to go ahead and resolve your actions and roll initiative.

FYI, I've had a crazy week having to buy a new (used) car unexpectedly, and I'm leaving tonight for a few days (happy Juneteenth all!). But I hope to be able to post on my phone.

I also just realized today ISN'T father's day but it is father's day soon in the USA? Time isn't real during the summer.

I hope things calm down for you soon! Been there with the unexpected need to get a car FAST...it's very stressful.

Damnit, woman! You had me going for a sec thinking I scheduled a live game for father's day. It's tomorrow, everyone. Remain calm.

Good luck, Voomer. With whatever that is.

Or the day after tomorrow depending on where you are relative to the international date line.

I had early Fathers Day as my partner will be outta town on the actual day. Here's to those who spawned and in particular, raised their kids well. :)

There's nothing really that Oren can do in this surprise round, unfortunately. The limited ranged options he has are all within 30 feet. Next round though, he can get in the action.

I've got a question, since I don't see those two things on a map, but are they flying in a line one behind the other?

I will get a post up ASAP today. Every time I checked yesterday I got a timeout error. >[

Reminder that I am leaving tonight. Will let you know if I am able to go online in some 36 hrs.

I have access to the boards, but zero energy. 27 hrs of traveling sucked me dry and gave me elephant legs, apparently.

I don't like telling people that they are doing things wrong. It is hard to do. I'm always worried that it will come across as annoying and badgering instead of helpful.

I think Catalina meant to announce the weakness to Law damage instead of Good. I also think the static damage bonuses need looked at - it looks like they are supposed to be Implement's Empowerment and Exploit Vulnerability, but they are out of date for current level.

It should be +4 for Implement's Empowerment since the weapon has a striking rune and does 2 damage dice.

The weakness from Exploit Vulnerability is now +5 and probably shouldn't be added to the damage dealt. It gets added to the damage the enemy takes - the main difference between the two being that on a critical, only the damage dealt gets doubled. Weaknesses don't get doubled. Also, the +5 value is only for Personal Antithesis. Mortal Weakness will use the value that the enemy already has. Which Catalina should know the value of if she succeeds at the check.

And Catalina should have +3 more damage from Caiten's Stoke the Heart that is still active until the end of my turn at least.

So: 2d6 pistol +ImpEmp +StH => (2, 4) +4 +3 = 13 +? law weakness

I didn't realize there was a difference between Law and good, so yes - definitely meant to announce the proper weakness haha

I super missed updating my macros for weapon rolls *facepalm* - I'll fix that soon. Thanks for looking out, Caiten.

Thanks, Caiten. I'm always still learning, so I do appreciate you speaking up if you see something that does not look right or if you have any suggestions. The weakness to law is indeed 5, and I will try to remember to give the value when Catalina succeeds on her check.

I know Lisi's player has some very major life stuff happening right now, so I will bot Lisi for now, and I think we will also continue at a slower pace given Lisi's player's unavailability and Yasami's limited availability.

I will resolve the attacks and do the botting later today, as well as update the map.

Concussive will do whichever type the creature is least resistant to.

So with Versatile, the player chooses when making the attack which damage type to use. With Concussive the attack looks at the target and chooses the better one.

No problem with a slower pace. I have been less around than usual because my sleep schedule has been really wild due to no structure during the summer, and I'm trying to adjust that back a little lol.

Hope things settle for you soon, Lisi!

Hi folks--yeah, I'm still at a very touch and go phase right now. My mom is declining. We're really not sure what will happen on a day to day basis.

Caiten, your caveat at the start of your suggestion is very kind. I think you can start posts with something like "I have a suggestion" or "May I give some advice:" and that will be well received. :)

Oh crap, man. Hoping you all get through fine. Take your time.

I don't like telling people that they are doing things wrong. It is hard to do. I'm always worried that it will come across as annoying and badgering instead of helpful.

I think Catalina meant to announce the weakness to Law damage instead of Good. I also think the static damage bonuses need looked at - it looks like they are supposed to be Implement's Empowerment and Exploit Vulnerability, but they are out of date for current level.

It should be +4 for Implement's Empowerment since the weapon has a striking rune and does 2 damage dice.

The weakness from Exploit Vulnerability is now +5 and probably shouldn't be added to the damage dealt. It gets added to the damage the enemy takes - the main difference between the two being that on a critical, only the damage dealt gets doubled. Weaknesses don't get doubled. Also, the +5 value is only for Personal Antithesis. Mortal Weakness will use the value that the enemy already has. Which Catalina should know the value of if she succeeds at the check.

And Catalina should have +3 more damage from Caiten's Stoke the Heart that is still active until the end of my turn at least.

So: 2d6 pistol +ImpEmp +StH => (2, 4) +4 +3 = 13 +? law weakness

The weakness bit not being doubled is definitely accurate, but I wanted to go through my understanding just to make sure I'm clear between what you're saying and what my class info is saying.

With exploit vuln, even with a critical success, thaumaturges exploit either the mortal weakness (I will definitely need to know level of weakness when it applies to exploit vuln checks to make sure it gets included in damage calcs) or the personal antithesis. It'd be just a regular +5 damage with personal antithesis, mortal weakness would use whatever weakness to damage they have--and if they don't have any, the +5 from exploit vuln comes into play.

My base formula has 2d6 + 2 + 4. The +2 is from my weapon specialization with the pistol and doesn't include the weakness +5 usually because it really depends on exploit vuln and the success/failure. I need to remember to include that on my own when I'm rolling and edit some of my macros.

And I can include the +3 whenever it applies. So the formula would look more like:

Striking Dueling Pistol + ImpEmp + Weap Spec + StH: 2d6 + 4 + 2 + 3 ⇒ (4, 2) + 4 + 2 + 3 = 15 Then +5 if Personal Antithesis applies or whatever weakness applies, in this case, Weakness 5 to Law

At least, that's my understanding. Also, Caiten, I'm never upset with this type of thing - if I'm wrong, I wanna know :) I appreciate your directness.