The Ruby Phoenix Tournament

Game Master polyfrequencies

sorry for the silence - got jammed with lots of OT at work, got scheduled for an extra 32 hours this week (above my regular 40)

Geez! I get it, it gets like that for me during hurricane season (Social Media Team for nationwide Cable/ISP company )

We all have rough days. Or months. Or years.

Ouch. Hopefully it was paid OT and this week is much better!

I enjoyed everyone's entrance! And a sympathetic groan for your natural one, Jonovan, I was very worried that After writing all mine up I'd have rolled that as well. I think I'd have left her intro then had her trip right at the end, into the water, and have to be saved from drowning or something horrible like that.

:)

Better a 1 in the intro than when the fighting starts. Especially if saves are involved.

And a sympathetic groan for your natural one, Jonovan, I was very worried that After writing all mine up I'd have rolled that as well. I think I'd have left her intro then had her trip right at the end, into the water, and have to be saved from drowning or something horrible like that.

Well, a natural 1 on skill checks is not automatic failure, right?

Right?!

Hmmm .. seems I got the name of the ship wrong. Sorry, Noro!

Yikes, that is a painful amount of overtime. Agreed with the above hope for good compensation.

---

Good news for Jonovan--natural 1s are not automatic failures for skill checks! (Nor are natural 20s automatic successes.)

---

Great introductions, everyone! I feel like we're starting to cook together ^_^

I'll update tomorrow. Whether you're looking for them or not, some NPCs will find you.

Re-reading the Performance Combat DCs in the module itself, here's where we stand. I said before that you would start off with 4 Victory Points and that crowd would start with a Friendly Attitude towards you in your first bout instead of Indifferent. This initial 4 Victory Points were awarded because of your care in developing backstories and working towards things like a team name, as this was enough for your benefactor to seed the crowd in your favor.

However, I misread a part of the module, which says:

The crowd’s starting attitude is indifferent for each round unless the PCs possess at least 3 victory points per member of the team, in which case the crowd begins with an attitude of friendly.

This is different from the base rules of Performance Combat, which did have it at only 1 per member. So they're not Friendly prior to your arrival on the Island. But I was offering this little mini-game to accrue additional victory points. The base DC of the Charisma check while the crowd is Indifferent is...14.

(This will increase to DC 19 if the crowd is Friendly or Unfriendly, and DC 24 if the crowd is Helpful or Hostile.)

As far as I can tell from the rules, the current Performance Combat check modifiers for each PC are:

Question: Does Circlet of Persuasion add to Performance Combat check?

Knowledge Religion: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5 (including Heroism)

I suppose switching my perform skill to dance wouldn't be a bad idea, nor out of tune with a martial artist

This delicately engraved silver headband grants its wearer a +3 competence bonus on Charisma-based checks.

Whenever a combatant has a chance to affect the crowd’s attitude, she makes a performance combat check. The check is a Charisma ability check modified by the base attack bonus of the character plus any ranks the character has in Perform (act), Perform (comedy), or Perform (dance), whichever is highest.

So yes.

Dropped Perform (Calligraphy) and Artistry (Bonsai) since they were just flavor, and essentially useless here and put those points into Perform (Dance). With my Charisma mod it gives a +13, which should help quite a bit.

I always encourage flavor, and will generally do my best to allow for creative uses of background skills when it makes sense, but I wholeheartedly agree with this decision ^_^

Yeah. In an attempt to make skill and non combat oriented players more useful in the tournament, the actually end up punishing players for not investing in Performance

Totally not worth taking the hit for the sake of flavor in this case

Ok, adding the Circlet of Persuasion and boosting it with Heroic Echo, Jonovan should have a Performance Combat modifier of +14.

I always encourage flavor, and will generally do my best to allow for creative uses of background skills when it makes sense, but I wholeheartedly agree with this decision ^_^

I sure hope Jonovan's +10 in Profession-Merchant comes in useful at some point. =D

Seconds later she leans toward Risha and asks "In those legends, did you also imagine that he will be... how to say... like the sun to your butter?" her brow furrows a little in disappointment as she takes him in.

Could I ask, what does this expression mean?

Makes you melt?

Yep, figured Lua could be forgiven for a butchering since she isn't speaking her native tongue. To teenage Lua enamored with the games the champ would have been an idol.

I see. The last sentence threw me off, as it implied the expression was one of disappointment.

In other news, we have the first blood of the Ruby Phoenix Tournament! Give it up for the Red Petal Ai Lua, as she mercilessly butchers the Taldane language.

Oh, yes. Lua is disappointed. In her youth the stories maybe even the posters? Made her picture someone very attractive to her. But here, now, in the flesh, and a decade later, she is not feeling that.

I am on travel for work so significantly less time to post and reread my posts. And that thought the butter part was what you were asking about

I mean, maybe. I have a picture.

Here's Marthysan the Righteous.

Oh, yes. Lua is disappointed. In her youth the stories maybe even the posters? Made her picture someone very attractive to her. But here, now, in the flesh, and a decade later, she is not feeling that.

I am on travel for work so significantly less time to post and reread my posts. And that thought the butter part was what you were asking about

Yes, I was asking about the butter. The reason is the last sentence after the butter line, made it sound like "sun to butter" was meant to express disappointment. But it is actually meant to contrast it instead. Thanks for explaining it to me.

It occurs to me that Noro could save a lot of money if she bought a Flask of Endless Sake.

Background music

Ok, that was quite amusing.

If Jonovan wants to use Shapechanger's Gift to transform someone into a Humanoid or Monstrous Humanoid, what forms would be available?

Any Small or Medium creature of the humanoid or monstrous humanoid types that do not have a fly speed. Per the text of the spell.

Here is an invitation link for the Roll20 game. The actual map in the module for the Grand Pavilion in the module is beautiful, but unfortunately the earlier releases like this were not particularly square, so aligning to the grid is almost impossible. So I'm using the arena flipmat instead.

Once you get in there, you can upload your preferred character art.

Any Small or Medium creature of the humanoid or monstrous humanoid types that do not have a fly speed. Per the text of the spell.

More specifically, must Jonovan be familiar with the form before using it? E.g. could he turn Noro or Hitome into an Euryale?

I wouldn't get too attached to the idea of using spells that substantially alter other PC's.

Rest assured that Jonovan will not do anything without your character's permission. Shapechanger's Gift only targets willing living creatures anyway.

And even if none of you want it, Jonovan has plans to cast it on his familiar regularly, and on himself sometimes.

Yes, you must be familiar with a form before using it, i.e., having had a reasonable chance of encountering it. For instance, I don't let my druid in a Kingmaker game randomly wild shape into dinosaurs because he's never seen one.

Makes sense. But just out of curiosity since we started at a higher level, how do you want to handle what Jonovan is familiar with? Lua is never going to shapeshift since she wants people to remember her not the image of something else.

Unless it is part of his backstory, a percentage roll based on rarity? Or CR?

Like I said, not a concern of Lua's just curious.

I'm not particularly interested in adjudicating what is and isn't familiar. I find it more interesting for players to place limits on themselves and to use their backstories as a launching pad for what they know.

If we have to put a number on it, then it would be whatever Jonovan could take 10 on the appropriate Knowledge and recognize. Humanoids are local, and monstrous humanoids are nature. Jonovan has ranks in neither skill, so he'd be limited to common, low-level monsters. He really only has reliable knowledge about constructs, dragons, and magical beasts of CR 13 and lower.

Okay, I'll limit it to low(-ish) CR forms then.

There's actually a bizarre story in the back of my head on how Jonovan might have encountered an Euryale and lived to tell the tale. But it is so weird that I can't grok it as canon.

Creature Type/Subtype

Senses
Special Defenses (i.e., DR, SR, Resistances, Immunities) (Each of these is a separate question)
Lowest Save/Highest Save
Movement
Special Attacks (e.g. breath weapons, gaze attacks, sneak attack)
Spell-Like Abilities
Spellcasting
Typical Feats
Skills
Languages
Other Special Abilities (SQ)

So what Brine Dragon details do you guys want to know? I'm thinking Special Attacks for Breath Weapon, to pre-cast Resist Energy.

Since the description says it likes to rule over aquatic humanoids, we can infer that it has Water Breathing and a Swim speed. Which kinda makes sense for a dragon of Brine. Although it might have other SQ as well.

Resistance is an immunities are also important for spellcasters to know what to have ready.

Special Attacks? They are usually horrible, and might help setting up resistances of our own.

Weekend at the beach sorry for the silence

I'd like to think that Jonovan can be reasonably subtle. But sadly, the dice say otherwise.

Anyway, it is time for our party to confront a hugely important issue: Who is best girl, and why is it Lady Xhai Zhia? If the vote is evenly split 2/2 how do we break the tie?

I love when the dice tell a story.

But let's worry about tiebreakers once there's a need.

Lua and Hitome are for. Is Jonovan voting against it? I took it as he was more on the fence.

Jonovan is actually against the idea. We already have a ship. And he is concerned such an act might be viewed as an undue influence or an unfair advantage. He would rather not attract any untoward rumors, at least, not without some benefit.

But if he is outvoted 3 to 1, he is prepared to follow along. By which I mean he won't stubbornly stay on the ship, if everyone else is sleeping in the suite.

You still out there, Noro?

I am out of town over the weekend, so I may be slow to respond, but we're just a few posts from officially starting the Tournament itself. I don't want to lose our momentum!

Very excited for our first fight. Will the die roller might decide to hate us and it will be poop or will the heaven's sing about THIS is the first day of legends!!! (and grant us at least a crit each)

I say we take the offer. The active majority votes yes, the passed out pirate abstains for now.

I guess that sort of makes sense.

Jonovan will want to coordinate team tactics. And whether to take up the Slay Huwanyo quest if it gets offered again this tournament. Do you want to do that IC?

I'd go with here personally. While I love character-building and in-game banter, without them we would be able to work through things faster.

Are there any particular strategies you want to work out?

Lua's norm would be buffing as much as possible before the battle (good hope being the most important) with bardic performance and haste (unless Jonovan gets to it first), followed by intimidating attacks

With all of that subject to what seems the most crowd-pleasing and what else is going on (like if there is a mage we need to distract since Lua has several feats to help against them).

I am back from my holiday as well. Still hoping to hear from Noro again soon, but I will not delay for too much longer.

The group will go to stay with Marthysan and I will make a post to that effect shortly. If there us anything that the team or individual characters want to do before moving to the next day, feel free to do so in the Gameplay thread.

Hitome's is much the same. Self buff and engage. She would target opponents that seem to be the most trouble unless one of the others in the group is more suited to facing them.

Jonovan is largely focused on Battlefield Control. Typically, in the first few rounds, he will aim to lock down or disable enemies (Wall of Force, Black Tentacles, Stinking Cloud, Battering Blast, Dispel Magic, Glitterdust, Grease). For this tournament, he will use Versatile Spontaneity to prepare a single casting of Create Pit.

So Ai Lua is free to cast Haste.

He will loan his teammates (i.e. your characters) each a Cracked Gamboge Nodule which protects against Stinking Cloud. That way, he can cast Stinking Cloud (Normal or Persistent) without friendly fire. However, it is still a cloud and provides concealment and all that. This is doubly tricky in a spectated fight, as it means the audience can't see what is going on, and you can't make Combat Performance check either. As such he will likely reserve this tactic only for serious threats*.

*There is a joke somewhere in here about how everything is a serious threat to a paranoid lunatic.

He can cast the following buffs on teammates, and will do so depending on what he thinks will best help the situation:
-Mage Armor (this can be precast as a day-long buff, but I don't think anybody needs it other than Jonovan himself)
-Shapechanger's Gift (typically only 1/day from Mnemonic Vestment)
-Shadow Conjuration-Slipstream (obviously, forgo your Will save. This will usually give +10ft land speed, and grant 20ft swim speed)
-Heroism (redundant if Ai Lua is casting Good Hope)
-Resist Energy
-Fly
-Enlarge Person
-Grease (to avoid grapples)
-Moment of Greatness (whole party, works well with Good Hope)
-Greater Invisibility

Let me know if there is any buff you would dearly love, or any you want to avoid. In particular, those who invested significantly in Combat Performance (everybody except Noro) or those who LOVE to be seen (Ai Lua), may not want Greater Invisibility, unless the situation is dire. Those attached to their meat popsicle forms may not want Shapechanger's Gift.

For Enlarge Person, Hitome should be an Outsider and cannot benefit. Ai Lua as a Dex fighter probably doesn't want it. So I think only Noro can make full use of it.

So between the impact on visibility for everyone, and the negative effect it'll have on crowd response which is apparently a big factor in this AP, stinking cloud seems like a pretty bad idea except in the most emergency situation, especially since enemies first action would be to leave the cloud, And if we stayed in it to use it for cover it becomes a fireball target.

And yeah the emphasis on visibility and crowd response really hampers the usefulness of greater invisibility as well.

Haste is good any battlefield control that hampers enemies rather than focuses on allies probably better courses of action, especially if we can one two combo haste and slow in the same round..

He told me it would likely spend the first couple of rounds buffing, then start tearing into opponents. She has at least minor resistance to four of the five energy types, deals acid damage with every strike, can add additional damage types as needed, and can cover a lot of ground very quickly when needed with short-range teleporting.

If we end up facing chung-po again the grease would definitely be welcome