GM Zoomba's Secluded Tomb Siege (PFS 3-09 & 3-14) (Inactive)

Game Master Zoomba

Discussion Thread (You know the drill).

Slides Link (for maps/handouts/etc), RPG Chronicles Link, and Skill Macro sheet (to help me quickly get Secret rolls - hat tip to Hmmm for the wonderful invention!) are above. Please fill them out when you have a chance.

Signed up and ready to go.

1) I have a GM Glyph, so I can give someone an extra hero point. Usually I'll give it to the lowest level PC.

2) I have taken the Fighter Dedication, so I can make AoOs with my whip.

3) Emmanuel is convinced an angel is watching his every move. Her nickname is Shylye. He uses the Illusory Creature spell to "summon" her. Or maybe that is the angel taking the opportunity to reveal herself without raising suspicion. He doesn't know.

Oh, that sounds fun!

Itka is a grouchy witch who hates her current patron, Zon Kuthon, with the passion of a thousand suns. Because of that, she has a complicated relationship with her familiar, which she mostly stuffs in her pocket and ignores.

Signed up and ready to go as well

I have 4 gm glyphs so if we have 1 more gm glyph at the table that'd be enough for everyone to have 1 extra. Otherwise Zenith will opt to be the PC without an extra hero point from glyphs.

Zenith has the champion dedication and most recently acquired liberating step.

Glad to see a few familiar faces :)

Hi, familiar faces! And Hello to new faces!

Player: C. Dragos
Character: Franzine
PFS #: 17148-2002
Faction: Env. Alliance
Slow/Normal: normal
Starting XP: 61
Initial Fame/PP:
Chronicle #: 20
Starting GP:
Day Job roll: Franzine performs in reenactment battles of the Worldwound against the Whispering Tyrant and his demonic armies.
Performance: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (15) + 10 = 25

I have a GM Glyph, so, that makes 2 hero ponts to start for everyone.

Howdy Itka! I was the GM in the recent special. Glad to play alongside you.

Hello Zenith! I've never played with this PC before. I have a level 2 Swashbuckler/Summoner, so I'm always excited to see more Swashbucklers in action.

Excited for this game - some of my favorite folks to play alongside in our little PbP world.

Three Glyph GM, but looks like we maxed out.

Got two PCs who could go, whom happen to be best friends, an elf and a dwarf, both of shady background, sharing as their bond a lust for knowledge and treasure. Which one do we think would be the best asset to the party?

Hammid is a Level 5 Cloistered Cleric of Ng with the Archeologist Dedication.

A stereotypical “cultist” whom many player characters have fought against in various adventures, he leans into the stereotype, lusting for knowledge and power, and using his magic and skill as little more than a glorified tomb raider. To his defense, his penchant for thievery doubles as an appreciation of the culture, satisfying his curiosity as to the origins of his own race (elves), and he plays like a classic cleric / thief, keeping his partymates healthy and healed as a means to further his own obscure agendas.

Knab is a Level 7 Ruffian Rogue with the Pathfinder Agent Dedication.

A former lifelong drug addict whose work of acquisition and smuggling and fencing of stolen goods to different markets used to support his expensive habit. He has dedicated the latter (sober) half of his life to the Society, both to save his own life and to atone for his past. A bit of a “think tank”, he prefers to hold the center of the line on the defensive, slowly weaponizing his knowledge into combat advantage, only rarely straying for the opportune back flank like a more proper rogue.

I believe you said you were saving the archeologist for this so him, yes?

Though Knab is fun and would get lots of flatfooted enemies with the martials and Zenith's combat manuevers.

My general answer is whomever you'd have more fun with ^^

----

Alas, also excited to see some new faces as well! I'll do my full and proper intro IC but for OOC--- Zenith is a kayal/duskwalker who has seen the tyranny of zon-kuthon. They now worship the stars and seek to bring freedom to all. They are a natural gymnast but have spent time becoming a liberator as well. In combat they'll typically try to hold grapples or perform trips when possible.

In Skill Macros, how do i get "Franzine" in title instead of player 4?

Rename the "Player 4" in row 1.

It didn't work.

Oh, you meant the spreadsheet page. I thought you meant all of the "Franzine's Fortitude" macros.

Right click on the Spreadsheet tab and you can rename the page.

Yeah sorry. I should have specified the spreadsheet page. I don't have a computer so I can't right click. :/

Ah, no worries. I'll rename it.

GM - when is our start date?

With Argoni unable to make it at this time I've reached out to a sixth player. Hopefully they'll be in here shortly (bringing a level 7 ranger to my understanding).

Assuming that, let's aim for a start date of 5/1!

Reporting for duty. Thanks fo the invite. Ready to go whenever. I've got about 580 gold. I welcome any suggestions on what I could buy.

Welcome!! You were my first GM for PF2. 1-00 over at mythweavers.

if it was me i'd save-- resilient 340gp at lvl 8, and elemental property runes for your sword at lvl 8 are 500gp. if you will have extra gold beyond those then look into an item bonus.

Of course society characters are wealthy compared to normal PC standards so you don't have to buy those things as soon as you level up.

I hope it was enjoyable. I haven't GM'd another PF2 game since. Thanks for the tips on purchases. Just turned lvl 7, so seems like I should get something in the 300 range as I will probably amass another 450 by lvl 8.

If you can cast magic, spell level 3 wands are available for 360 gp. They are level 7 items.

I believe you said you were saving the archeologist for this so him, yes?

Alright, going with this. Because it is true. Lower level (5th) Cleric at the back of the party (shadily) keeping tabs.

Players,
Hammid is a high skill character, but usually uses his Ancestral Longevity to pick up one of the missing Tradition Skills from Arcana, Nature, or Occultism. A quick check on the macros looks like nobody is trained in Arcana.

GM,
Hammid has the Trapfinder feat. Let me know if you would like me to unpack the spoiler in his character bar (spoiled to consolidate space).

Also, on your macros sheet, his 3rd Lore is unable to "report" to the GM - I tried copy-pasting the consecutive code but it pulls from Lore 4 instead of Lore 3, so I "Undo"-ed everything to leave the problem unmolested. Perhaps someone with greater Sheets skill could fix that for me? (Herbalism Lore).

So, looks like we will be High-Tier (low high tier, 19 CP with Hammid and Anjo) so Hammid will get a level bump. Does anyone else in the party have any Mentor boons that may also apply?

Anjo - could you please also sign in on the RPGChronicles sign-in sheet and the Slides doc when you have a chance?

Finally, does anyone have any Glyphs to spread about?

I hope it was enjoyable. I haven't GM'd another PF2 game since. Thanks for the tips on purchases. Just turned lvl 7, so seems like I should get something in the 300 range as I will probably amass another 450 by lvl 8.

It was! One of my most memorable sessions. Even if it had us on the edge of our seats for a while.

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RE: GM Glyphs.

We have enough at the table for everyone to start with an additional hero point (from discussion above we have at least 8 glyphs but max benefit is one additional hero point from glyphs).

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RE: Mentor boons.

Zenith has Protective Mentor and is admired by Radiant Oath. So 6 additional hit points

This week and Monday of next week my posting might be off a bit. I'm proctoring AP exams, so I don't know if/when I'll be able to post each day. Please bot if necessary.

Itka has the Combat Mentor boon.

I didn't see the sign up link in the thread? NVM, found it.

Playing a high skill character, I would love an Envoy's Alliance mentor boon - Emmanual or Franzine?

Hammid will definitely mentee with Itka for that bonus to strikes - perhaps in morbid curiosity to study her relationship to her patron more closely.

As he will tend to hover towards the back of the party, and has other defensive contingencies available, Zenith's Radiant Oath mentorship would be my third choice.

Adding a bunch of +1s to my character bar now!

@Anjo - let me know if you need a hand filling out the macro homework?

Manny can offer the >Skillful Mentor< boon.

Help low-level PCs at your table with skill checks. Must be Liked by Envoy's Alliance to obtain.

Players,
For the life of me I can't seem to wrap my head around the Poison rules during Encounter Mode.

For example, if an injury poison says "Usage: held in 2 hands" and "Activate: ◆◆, Interact", and a character is currently wielding a 2-handed ranged weapon, what would be their sequence of action?

Is there a chance I accidentally poison myself?

Can you apply poison to the bolts way before combat? Like, beginning of the day?

Also, I'll have to pick up some of those mentor boons. They seem pretty cool.

Hammid will definitely mentee with Itka for that bonus to strikes - perhaps in morbid curiosity to study her relationship to her patron more closely.

Oh, I can't post what she'd *actually* say about Zon Kuthon. But suffice it to say that she is working to earn the patronage of another powerful being so she can ditch his sadistic posterior ASAP!

@Rainzax, I believe I already filled it out.

Quick temperature check.

Leaning hard into the elven aloofness / superior complex, hopefully in all good fun, with the added irony of being the level bump.

If anyone is made to feel comfortable or would prefer I tone it down a notch, feel free to PM me, PM GM to PM me, or hit up the discussion.

Cheers!

I'm fine with Moonlight doing the superior elf schtick as long as you don't mind Manny's sarcasm. Then again Moonlight will probably consider it a compliment.

You can certainly try. Itka might respond contemptuously (to varying degrees) to anyone's attempts at self-superiority, unless you or anyone else feels that's crossing a line. I'm also open to adjusting my RP if it makes anyone feel uncomfortable.

I think I'm a bit confused how reactive shield works. So, I'd have to use shield block to absorb blow. How do I do that with reactive shield? Use shield block as an action on my turn? Wait... Shield block is a reaction.

Man, shields & their feats are weird in 2e.

Ooooh. Just discovered I can get Quick Shield block at level 8. Cool.

So normally you wouldn't use them together as they would both take your (typically 1) Reaction. So having both the Shield Block feat and Reactive Shield gives you the option to either:

- Spend one action (◆) during your turn to get the AC bonus and then be able to React to Shield Block a hit...but the con is that if no one attacks you you've 'wasted' that action

or

- Not prep the shield and then only if you'd be struck use Reactive Shield to raise your AC in response...with the con that you then can't Shield Block to absorb the damage

Essentially Reactive Shield gives you a different option on how you use your actions and shields, but those options don't necessarily synergize. Reactive Shield is typically better for those PCs that mostly care about shields for their AC bonuses, but for PC with the gear/abilities to Shield Block without their shield just getting obliterated in a hit or two they would likely more often Raise a Shield on their turn and prefer to then be able to spend the Reaction to Shield Block.

Quick Shield as a feat would start letting them synergize by giving you the 'extra' Reaction to snap a shield up and Block it at the same time (or perhaps instead if your shield is already Raised due to Raising it on your turn, giving a bonus chance to Block while also being able to still use your Champion's Reaction.

Does that make sense?

@ Franzine

I use Reactive Shield as essentially an action cheat - on an early turn, before you properly hunker down, you can use three actions to position yourself, maybe even get an attack in, even if you have a slow speed, and still enjoy the massive defense boost that +2 AC provides (both against regular and especially against critical hits)!

There is some subtle but powerful math the feat allows you to take advantage of.

@ Manny

As HPs are currently high, while I realize your defensive layer is more universal, at your option you could switch to offense to help penetrate these Resistances? Either way left in the redundancy to give you the option...

Good point. With a Champion and a Champion Dedication in our team, our defense is pretty well set. Let me switch to Inspire Courage.

I'd love to use my anti-undead whip, but there's only 1 undead enemy and 3 statues. Nonlethal damage would be a problem with my whip. Back to my sword!

One more useful point for you Manny: your party's highest level character is level 7, not 8, so the DC for lingering would be 23 (which that last one still just missed, but it should be easier going forwards!)

@ Franzine

When I have played multiple-reaction characters, I find a little "ooc" text helps GM adjudicate smoothly, with only a little pre-thought added to a "bot me" section or simply pre-scripted for quick copy/paste/modify in my profile. I'll post an example in the spoiler, ordered in a rough priority chain.

=)

@ Franzine

When I have played multiple-reaction characters, I find a little "ooc" text helps GM adjudicate smoothly, with only a little pre-thought added to a "bot me" section or simply pre-scripted for quick copy/paste/modify in my profile. I'll post an example in the spoiler, ordered in a rough priority chain.

** spoiler omitted **

=)

This is awesome! Thank you so much!

@ Anjo / Franzine

In a pinch, Moonlight has prepared the Disrupting Weapons spell, if you wanna stick close by - notice the touch range!

@ Anjo / Franzine

In a pinch, Moonlight has prepared the Disrupting Weapons spell, if you wanna stick close by - notice the touch range!

Duly noted! I shall stick to you like glue.

Any questions or concerns about what exactly's going on here Gameplay-wise at least; Plot details may be spoilers :P please don't hesitate to ask!

...since grabbing their focus and vanishing aren't quite a perfect match - it certainly will help come into play very soon :)

The idea is to slip past them, and then grab their intention....and then wait until they enter the room before vanishing.

GM - if DC 22 if insufficient (and/or Ageless Patience does not apply and 20 is insufficient), Moonlight will chance another re-roll too!

Sorry Zenith. I think I'm absorbing your luck with these dice rolls.