GM Computerpro82 The East Hill Haunting & Inheritors Rite

Game Master Eric Parker 82

Discussion

Oops, sorry GM, I added some notes on the recruitment thread. I'll copy and update them here.

- I have a GM glyph, so I can give an extra Hero Point to the lowest level character here. Hadega E. Scrimsworth can take it.
- I'll take a scroll of >Restoration< as my school item.
- As a summoner, my eidolon is trained in the same skills as I am. I've added my eidolon's skill bonuses on the macro sheet, in the "Notes" section.
- Jiggo took >Dual Studies< so he is Trained in Medicine and Salera is Trained in Deception.
- Jiggo has Battle Medicine. I'll try to keep track of who he tried to help.

No problem Jiggo. I am trying this Macros sheet, but the other version had lines for skills entries for animal companions and eidelons the current version doesn't have. We'll see how this session goes.

Hadega will be taking a minor healing potion as her item.

I have 3 Glyphs to pass out Hero Points as well.

Are there any other GMs with Glyphs to hand out as Hero Points? We are currently at four for the party.

Also, the higher level characters have Mentor Boons that our Level 1 can take advantage of? You only need to be Liked (20+ reputation) and you just have to take it.

Okay, checking in. Sheet filled out. FYI, my PFS number ends in 2003. I might have put down 2002 by accident.

I'm taking Owl Bear claw as my item.

Luz, I fixed the character number so you should be good.

Hey everyone, just want to put out there that if anyone, anytime, wants me to dial back on Hadega's prudishness, definitely let me know. Don't want to cause any real strife within the party or make anyone feel uncomfortable.

Salera finds it adorable. Reminds her of her mother.

All good here!

As a reminder, Areal's 3 extra Hero Points from Glyphs haven't been distributed.

Also, none of the higher level characters have volunteered Mentor Boons for our Level Bump recipient.

Since I am just seeing Diplomacy and Intimidate checks, I will try to make it clear that any skill you can justify can be used here. The example in the scenario is "A PC might use Religion to recognize these incidents as spiritually related, Diplomacy to Make an Impression with the crowd, or Intimidation to keep the citizens from speaking over each other." I encourage you to be creative.

@GM - was wondering if Luz was getting any benefit from having No Cause for Alarm? If not, I would submit that if the scenario authorizes the use of skills that mechanically don't work to calm crowds, shouldn't a Feat called "No cause for alarm" be able to help calm a crowd even if they aren't mechanically Frightened under the "creative use" approach?

Luz made the DC without any assistance from "No Cause for Alarm" but was not anywhere near the number required for a critical success. It sounds like you think I did not award Luz a success, but in fact Luz got the first success in this situation. If the roll had been close but not a success, I would certainly have considered giving a bonus for having it.

Are you asking for some other, future benefit from "No Cause for Alarm"?

I'll provide some "Spoiler like" mechanical information below for those interested who might be concerned about how I'm running this encounter.

I did realize Luz got a success. But you mentioned that the crowd was not Frightened, as if to say No Cause for Alarm has no impact on trying to calm the crowd, which would seem odd, right?

More than asking for a specific benefit, I'm just wanting to suggest that if Skills that are not related to the task can be used to complete it, shouldn't abilities that are narratively similar also be of substantive benefit? Or, what is the difference in the outcome vs having that feat and not having that feat?

I think one of the problems is an inherent game directed approach of giving modifiers, like +1, which can end up having no impact.

I don't meet the requiremnets yet to purchase the mentor boon or I definitely would!

I may not have worded my response properly. Your roll was over the DC regardless, so I downplayed the "No Cause for Alarm" impact.

I guess I don't understand what Send to GM facilitates

"Send to GM" is what puts that particular skill or lore on the GM tab for the GM to use in Blind rolls.

I will point out to everyone that you don't have to check "Send to GM" for all your skills. You might not want me doing blind rolls for some skills, particularly your Untrained ones.

Luz made the ghost a subject of his Investigation. Normally that gives him Devise a Strategem as a free action. Would Devise a Stratagem work against trying to stop the Haunt?

That is a good question.

Since the Devise A Stratagem defines that it is used with a Strike I am going to say no. None of the Disable actions for the Haunt involve making Strikes.

If you find something different, please point it out to me.

What about Clue In?

https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=545

Clue In will work, but it is a reaction and you can only use it once per 10 minutes.

I'll be travelling for the next few days, so posting may be sporadic.

Treat Wounds works on "One Living Creature", but I don't know if Azrael is technically alive or not.

She is considered living. Nothing in the Ancestry states otherwise. Similar to Dhamphir are alive but just have the negative affinity for healing.

But either way that one potion topped off her health.

Your group is lucky somebody spotted this haunt, The perception DC is high. Once when I ran this for a Low Tier group, they missed the Perception and I critted the first person to enter the mist for close to max damage.

Luz searches the area of the haunt, looking for anything that's odd.

Pretty sure inspire courage doesn't boost a trip attack, since it is a skill check, not an attack roll, right?

Trip has the attack trait.

It has the attack trait, so it is affected by anything that changes attack rolls.

Would that mean I could use a finesse weapon to trip with dex? I thought this was clarified in errata that attack trait and attack rolls are separate.

I had to do some digging. The >first errata<, clarified the trip attack is a skill check (see the note about Page 446 in the erratta):

There was some confusion as to whether skill checks with the attack trait (such as Grapple or Trip) are also attack rolls at the same time. They are not.

...

Some skill actions have the attack trait, specifically Athletics actions such as Grapple and Trip. You still make a skill check with these skills, not an attack roll.

The multiple attack penalty applies on those skill actions as well.

So I guess it's a skill check where you can suffer MAP. But it's not an attack roll, so Inspire Courage wouldn't help. I've been doing my whip bard all wrong. Well, I guess we all learned.

Indeed, Thanks for digging into that. I was getting ready to do the same tonight when I got home from work.

The more you know!

I keep forgetting Boost Eidolon gives Salera 2 more damage on her strikes. Oh well, "hands off the chess piece" at this point. Also he's unconscious anyway.

"The enemy is frenzied/loyal/too stupid to live and fights to the death" - morale blocks in a nutshell.

Thank you GM for adjudicating their surrender.

The scenario does say they are locally hired and just there for the paycheck.

I have seen some morale blocks that give other criteria, and they usually depend on whether the boss is still fighting. These guys start pretty demoralized, as they will not enter the hallway while the haunt is active.

My Chronicle looks good. Thanks for running this. I like the combo of skill checks and combat. It was balanced well, and the social interaction aspects were well run. Good job!

------

Locating a dive bar in a shady section of town, Nal listens for people planning big jobs. Once she's heard enough details to track down the potential victims, she slips out to provide them with a warning and offer them her security services.

Underworld Lore DC 15: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10
Failure = 0.16 gp

I personally like the group dynamics of running them back to back. It gives the flavor of one group setting out from the Grand Lodge and handling all matters at that location, which makes sense to me when you are talking about long travel times.

Ditto! I feel like most groups don't really gel until close to the end of a game, and it's a pity to go our separate ways at that point.

FYI: Nal gets to level up to 4th level now.

That is a good reminder that anyone who has any changes (via retraining, leveling up or even first level rebuild) needs to make changes to the Macros spreadsheet to reflect their new stats for the second scenario of the series.

Thanks for the great game. Chronicle looks good!

Jiggo will purchase a vial of Antiplague and Antidote. That costs 6 HP total.

So how do we find the chronicles?

The Chronicle sheet should be in your email, the one you entered on RPGChronicles. For some reason, many systems seem to treat RPGChronicles as SPAM, so if you have a Spam folder to check, please look there. If you still can't find it, please post again and I will find another way to get it to you.

Thank you !

Nal's leveled up, and both her character sheet and the Macros are updated.

Will everyone please complete the RPGChronicles for the second scenario?