GM Otha’s The Moonscar (Inactive)

Game Master Otha

@GM Otha - In the box text provided for the combat you mentioned that the Succubi were flying on mounts. Could you please let us know how high up they are from the ground? Also some spoilers for knowledge checks would be nice for both creatures types in the combat. They look like dragons in the slide picture but maybe they are something else. :)

Aye, Flint, I will post that as soon as I get the new map up, hopefully before too long.

Thanks and great job. :)

Full attack actions (especially archery) can be ugly to read but I did my best to make it clear. If you prefer for me to keep each attack roll in a button going forward I can do that. :)

Thanks GM! No rush at all!

Alright for the shantaks. I would like to know Damage Resistance and Special Attacks. You mentioned that they can travel freely in space. What exactly does that mean?

Means they are able to quickly travel between planets—flying from Golarion to the moon, or vice versa, in only minutes, or at most, hours—and they provide their riders with the ability to ignore the hazards of deep space…

They have no DR but are immune to cold and disease. No special attacks but they can do flyby attacks and can grab with their talons…

@Zaarah - All INT,WIS,CHA checks including all knowledge checks as well now suffer the planar penalty (so -4 for us, -2 if your character has a chaotic component). This is really easy to forget so this is a heads up to make it easier on the GM. :)

Ahh thanks. Will edit now!

Flint Firetoe wrote:

Alright for the shantaks. I would like to know Damage Resistance and Special Attacks. You mentioned that they can travel freely in space. What exactly does that mean?

Means they are able to quickly travel between planets—flying from Golarion to the moon, or vice versa, in only minutes, or at most, hours—and they provide their riders with the ability to ignore the hazards of deep space…

They have no DR but are immune to cold and disease. No special attacks but they can do flyby attacks and can grab with their talons…

sounds like we should kill the riders and keep those amazing mounts!!

You know they are probably evil too and we are going to want to kill them. Though Marta did convert a hag one time.

Theodric would never clean up after his mount anyways and who wants to be knee deep in poop in the middle of a mission. :-)

Gosh everyone, I am SOOO sorry about how absent I've been. It's sort of been a perfect storm of real life responsibilities the past few weeks. The good news is that I expect to be able to return to normal on Tuesday. My sincere apologies!

Wow. Interesting mounts!! We don’t have to kill them … ;-)

@GM Otha - You might not be aware of the fact that the succubi and their mounts act on the rider's initiative (so all on 18 in this case). I would recommend that you have a look at the ride skill and the section on mounted combat in the combat chapter of the CRB to get a clear understanding of how this all works before rolling any attacks. It might prevent a retcon. :)

@Agata - You have still missed ... absolutely nothing so far. Your character is not up yet (it is the GM's turn) so you should be back just in time to do something monumental. :)

Thanks, Flint…I read over it and don’t think there’ll be an issue; these succubi have a very high Ride mod and can’t fail any of the basic maneuvers, especially for how they’ll be attacking. But, as always, let me know if I’m screwing it up…

And Agata, while Flint’s right, you’re about to get action shortly. Sorry, this first combat post has taken a lot of time to put together…incoming shortly…

Whew, OK, finally got it posted. Future posts on this combat should be much quicker…

@GM Otha - Exactly how far is pink now? I really do not want her to get away if I can help it. :)

If your archers are going to be moving on their mounts then it is usually a -4 penalty to archery if their mounts double move and -8 penalty to archery if their mounts perform the run action. Otherwise you are golden. :)

She flew outta reach Flint (per the module script); shantaks have 80’ flight speed and after the hurting you put on her, she’d have made sure to put the trees between you and her. And they fired before they moved so I’m assuming there’s no penalty there? If it still applies, only Theodric’s hit would have been affected…

I’m fixing the post as I screwed up and wrote over the initial attack post and then the editing time limit went past before I could get it back…

Sorry for the SNAFU. I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen again…

The summary of my first attack post (which I accidentally overwrote) is now below Theodric’s and Marta’s attack posts…the post right after it has the results of Theodric’s and Marta’s attacks…if you have any questions, just ask. Again, sorry for the confusion…

@Alie: hold monster would be cool here if it wasn't for the succubi also being fliers... makes you wonder why did they even give them flying mounts in this scenario... :P

A winged creature who is paralyzed cannot flap its wings and falls

I would not worry about the SNAFU too much. These things happen. :-)

As for the succubus getting away if it is part of the plot then we will have to live with it.

@Theodric - The mounted succubus looks great in her illustration. Is that not reason enough? Personally I would have made the mounts dragons. :)

Definitely more game of thrones style if those would have been dragons!! ;-)

Exactly. There is a lot of historical precedent for beautiful women on mounts in and out of literature. I guess some things never change.

Shantaks are better than dragons. You can hitch a ride from planet to planet... some dragons have spaceflight, but equipping a horde of minions with dragons would be a stretch.

Come on who has ever heard of a shantaks before? They have zero name recognition. A succubus on a dragon is just the coolest thing I can think of. :)

I do get the point you are trying to make.

Yeah, "branding" is important. I mean come on ... it is calles D&D! DRAGON!

Wait. You got the wrong game.

;-D

I'm on the plane enjoying some blissful time to myself for the first time in weeks. I see that it's my turn and I'm catching up on all the stuff now. Should have a post in gameplay in a bit.

Blissful Planar Posts: the best kinds! :D

Just caught up on the gameplay thread - I had gotten so far behind that I was a bit lost and had to go back and read from the start. I'll need to also post an update here in Discussion about my various buffs for myself and the rest of the party but I think the plane is about to land so I'll try to do that later. Sorry again for delaying things!

Don’t worry all good!

Will have variable connectivity during Thanksgiving weekend, which starts now and may last well into next week! :)

Bot me as required.

Regards,
PDK/Theodric

@Agata

Marta has heroism and regularly casts an extended version on herself so you need not worry about her. Speaking of the heightened continual flam ioun stone, can you put that on an ioun stone for another PC? and does that transfer to other games?

Marta has a pearl of power, level one, which she would like you to use to case an extended mage armor on her each day (that is what she bought it for). She will also supply the rod to do the extend.

As an inquisitor she can switch her latest teamwork feat to Duck and Cover, which she will do, so you have another teamwork buddy to consider.

I don't think I ever replied to this - sorry!

The continual flame was cast by another character in another game - it's not on the witch list. But as long as you pay the cost (can't remember how much it was) it is one of the few effects that continues from one game to the next.

And sure, of course happy to cast Mage Armor for you each day.

Re Duck and Cover, this will work as long as we stay adjacent to each other, and I think it would effectively mean that if we are targeted by a Reflex save we (Marta, Agata, and Sweet Mawd) would be able to roll 3 d20s and choose the best result - pretty handy. If you are not flying, however, it will knock you prone, or staggered if you are flying. Still worth it in my opinion.

PS: this is the last time I'll ask I swear -- do we have a way to mass conceal or mass fly? @Agata/@Alie? thanks!

Late response: no way to provide mass fly but yes Agata has Communal Mind Blank which can aid if we decide we want to do some group stealthiness.

Our cruise has been extended two days till the port reopens due to the hurricane but we are safe. The internet was out most of yesterday so if I do not post, please not me as needed since it’ll be because I’m not able to…

So you were out at sea during Ian!?! Wow, that sounds scary. Did you have to stay inside or were the storm effects not so intense where you were?

Now that I'm caught up on the gameplay thread, I'm also trying to catch up on the discussion thread and get my buffs etc. posted.

* Sweet Mawd can cast Commune (6 questions, 1/week). If anyone thinks of questions that they would like to consult the gods about please let me know. I rarely use this ability of hers because I usually can't think of good yes/no questions.

* If anyone has wands/scrolls/staves that they are unlikely to use for action economy reasons, feel free to temporarily hand them off to Sweet Mawd. Her UMD is high.

Buffs (everyone):
* Major Ameliorating Hex - at the start of each day Agata uses this on everyone on the party. Any effects that cause blindness or curses are suppressed for 17 minutes.
* Extended Delay Poison Communal - 34 hours total duration, split among the party members. Cast when we passed through the portal.

Buffs (only Agata):
* Heightened Awareness (10 minutes, from wand) - will activate her wand anytime we enter a situation in which danger seems likely.
* Alchemical Grease (4 hours - applied when we spotted the fire giants)
* Clear Ear (6 hours - applied when we spotted the fire giants)
* Defending Bone (17 hours from when we spotted the fire giants)
* Extended Investigative Mind (340 minutes from when we spotted the fire giants)
* Extended See Invisibility (340 minutes from when we spotted the fire giants)
* Overland Flight (17 hours, cast each morning)
* Extended Heroism (340 minutes from when we spotted the fire giants)

Buffs (Agata & Sweet Mawd):
* Mage Armor (1 spell slot & 1 pearl of power) - cast each morning for 17 hours duration. Will also cast on Marta (and anyone else who needs it, using their pearl of power or one of Agata's if they don't have one).
* Merge With Familiar (17 hours, cast each morning).

Is there anyone who doesn't (yet) have Heroism cast on them? Agata has additional preps of it available to cast on anyone who needs it.

Zaarah would love heroism.

When you think it is appropriate you can cast at your leisure. :-)

I am just going to push the party to the next clearing and if we do not trigger an encounter we can rest for the night. I was hoping to find a better place to rest but it looks like we will have to make do in the jungle.

Yes. Resting makes sense.

@Agata
I'm going to give you the same advice Flint gave me. Cast the spells that may be extended more than 24 hours the night before. It gives you more flexibility, though not as much so for a prepared caster as for a spontaneous cater. I typically have extra charges in my 5 rods of extend if you need them, one of which is not a lesser.

I wish I had a wand Maud could cast a decent combat spell on Marta with, but I don't. I'm betting you have a bunch of useful wands anyway.

I'll tick Delay Poison off of Marta's list since you are doing the honors. That will save her one spell slot. But you should have Agata use one of Marta's rods to cast it so it will last 34 hours. No reason not to if you do it in the evening and she has the charges, which she will, particularly when you are saving her a charge by casting it yourself.

Agata already needed to cast the spells earlier in the day so she cannot take advantage of this fact today/tomorrow. What is done is done. However this is a powerful trick to know that you can apply to every caster going forward in PF1.

Prepared casters can use open spell slots to eke out some extra spells/day on a multi day adventure but there is the downside of perhaps not being able to use those slots in a pinch. In practice, it is a little tricky to pull off with multiple spells. On the upside when you do fill the slot you have a much bigger list to choose from. This versatility advantage cannot be overstated.

Also Delay Poison, Communal is a good spell but the time is split among everyone using it and thus not really an efficient spell to cast overnight on the entire party.

Tweaking spell slots at this level is not really necessary as the characters are likely never going to be able to cast all their spells/spell slots anyways but free spells are always a fun thing to have.

Well, dang. I thought I read the description and noted that the DP spell was not divided. In that case, Marta will continue to cast it on herself.

@Marta - I don't know if you know this but you cannot fill a cracked vibrant ioun stone with a wand. It is treated the same as a ring of spell storing so you either have to cast a spell into it or use a scroll. Considering that several party members can load it up for you in between combats it is not the biggest deal but it will cost you more per use. Using scrolls also gives you more flexibility than a wand. There are a lot of fun first level spells that your character cannot cast that can be UMD into the ioun stone.

I have seen this issue come up at least a few times already. :)

Never have I come up against the no wands rule. Where does it say that?

The vibrant purple prism works as a ring of spell storing (minor). If you look up the description to the ring of spell storing you can see that you can either cast a spell into it yourself or use a scroll to put a spell into a ring of spell storing (minor).

Unfortunately there is no mention of using a wand to recharge the ring or ioun stone so you cannot do this legally in PFS.

Generally scroll casting is considered to be like casting a spell. You can cast defensively and you use it to charge up spell storing weapons and armor as well as obviously rings of spell storing. The same cannot be said for wand usage which simply triggers the spell and is not like casting a spell at all.

I always thought of using a wand the same as casting or how would a personal spell work? Is there an official ruling on this?

I did find out at one time that the stone always casts the spell at the minimum level and not the caster level.

I will take all your points one at a time.

1)I can find no official ruling for PFS for how you can fill a ring of spell storing but this is not surprising as the description for how to fill the ring of spell storing (hence the ioun stone) is so clearly stated in the item description. Without a stated FAQ/exception by leadership we should go with PF rules as written. This is the default assumption for the vast majority of the rules in the game.

2) A wand, scroll or a cast spell can have a range of personal. The mechanism for casting a spell from a wand is not the same as casting a spell from a scroll nor is it the same as casting a spell yourself. However the game effects of a cast spell can be similar for all three. It can be argued that casting a spell from a scroll is much closer to actual spell casting than activating a wand.

3) Yes, you are right in saying that the minimum caster level is used for the ring or ioun stone.

Thanks for the explanation. I'm not sure how I would rule as a GM myself, but I can see your points and why many would rule against using a wand. At our level subbing scrolls for a wand is not that big of a deal, and if the GM permits I will just sub in the wand charges with scroll uses if that is how he wishes to rule it.

How do you shoot 5 arrows beyond haste Flint?