Mummy's Mask

Game Master Whack-a-Rogue

Why are you waking us up? They were going **upstairs**.

Several of us have stated we want to rest, both in and out of game. Ya'll just ignoring us?

Unatti is **not** waking up. She has almost no resources left to be of any use. Epperson is the same.

Unless the GM says straight up that 8 hrs have passed, and we get all of our expended stuff back.

um, we are upstairs

The way it was described, it sounded like a group of enemies were coming up the stairs to search the second floor. I figured you'd all rather be woken than left to sleep through a combat-- otherwise, why even set a watch?

I'll say this again, for like the 4th or 5th time:

Unatti no longer has any left HD to cast Cure Light Wounds. She has *one* spell point left for either one Cure or one boosted blast. She also only has two potions left and being potions they aren't exactly super useful in the middle of a combat.

Epperson is out of Strife points, and may be low or out of other expendable resources.

We are literally unable to do much. Either block/barricade the entrance(s) into the room or leave us alone.

I need eight(8) **uninterrupted** hours of sleep in order get that stuff back. If you keep waking me up, that's not gonna happen.

Calm down. Potential combat happens means I'd personally want to be woken, so its a fair assumption. Now that we now your preference we will let your PC sleep. Waking her was not ill-intentioned. If combat happened and she died in a surprise round? That too could lead to hurt feelings.

And we should budget for her to get a ring of sustenance.

So, I get the mechanics. but I don't know how someone would be able to sleep refusing to wake up.

If it's that bad, we deal with whatever this is, go back to town, sleep for eight hours and come back.

I've been trying to give everyone space to resolve things amongst yourselves, but I feel the need to step in.

@Unatti, with the exception of Aerith, the entire party is at essentially full HP, and everybody has the ability to continue exploring without issue if so desired. The AC buffs you recently gave out last for up to 2 in-game hours, so I'm not surprised that some people want to make full use of them. Being at low spell points isn't as big of a hindrance as being out of spell slots, as every sphere has at-will abilities that scale with caster level - including some minor temporary healing. That being said, I know how uncomfortable it can be to play a mage who's low on resources. Perhaps a compromise can be reached that allows for both exploration and rest? I know that Epperson would also appreciate some time to replenish his Strife pool, so despite the danger, sometimes a party split really is the best option.

@Aerith/Mahmoud/Tribim: Like the Tomb of Akhentempi, there's no time limit to these explorations. If the party decides to rest, the upper floor of a haunted mansion isn't necessarily the best choice of location - especially when you suspect there are still hostile creatures on the grounds.
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I'm going to hold off on updating Gameplay until everyone can figure out a better way to handle in-game disagreements, as the way things have been going clearly isn't working. If necessary, I'm willing to skip ahead to the end of this section if people feel it will help. Ironically, this out-of-game issue feels really appropriate for this location. I'm going to leave a minor spoiler HERE without further comment.

So Tribim has floated the idea we leave, go to town rest there and come back after eight hours. Any opinions on that? Or do those of us who don't need a straight eight hours rest just hold the fort as needed.

Also, we are actually resting longer than eight hours, to adjust for the time of the watches.

Hoping we can get it resolved. Unatti I understand the mechanical need to sleep eight hours straight. I was just confused by the 'ability' to do so.

Also, it seemed folks got testy about the earlier situation. Remember something cast on tribim when he was going up the stairs, so no one actually had the time to start to rest.

How do we proceed, it feels like this is just killing the game.

I'm perfectly willing for the group to return to Wati to rest. I think we have to deal with what our esteemed GM is giving us right now, but if tempers are high enough that we aren't having fun, maybe it would be better for us to skip ahead instead of dealing with whatever creature is haunting the house (and probably preventing us from sleeping).

Are we all sure we want to be part of this game? This might be a good time to check in and make sure no one is having second thoughts. I don't think anyone would fault anyone who decided they wanted to bow out.

Is our placement on the map currently correct?? It says we're in B15 of the ground floor.

If that is right, then the enemies are going upstairs, right? To the second floor? Aka rooms B20-B25. The bad guys are the 3 sad faces on the stairs in the smaller right hand pic, yes?

If it's wrong, what room are we *actually* in? Is it a room that can be easily defended? I find it hard to believe a 'master bedroom' is in the middle of the first floor, with four open doorways into it...

As for 'the ability' for Unatti to stay asleep? A simple retcon of Aeirth not waking her is all that's needed, no? If a fight does end up breaking out, well, there's rules for waking.

As for why I want to sleep and am so annoyed atm is that people have been giving me a hard time for not healing the party. Guess who no longer even really has the ability to heal?

As for why I want to sleep and am so annoyed atm is that people have been giving me a hard time for not healing the party. Guess who no longer even really has the ability to heal?

"If I've misread your actions, I'm sorry. I thought I emphasized that I wasn't making assumptions, though in rereading what I wrote I realize I should have asked if Unatti didn't want to heal us, rather than ask if there was a reason why Unatti didn't want to heal us. That was assuming she didn't want to heal us, and I apologize for that. In my defense, I didn't intend it as an insult."

Can we please drop the hurt feelings from healing? An apology was given, and it has been made clear that there was no ill intentions. Likewise, there was no ill intentions on waking Unatti up.

Look, we can easily wake up and walk away. There is no time crunch. Mechanically, there is no issue. However, lingering anger and passive aggressiveness will break this campaign.

Is our placement on the map currently correct?? It says we're in B15 of the ground floor.

And Unatti promptly does exactly that, leaving the others and going back the master bedroom....

The master bedroom is on the second floor, I apologize for not moving myself on the map. It is one of the few times I failed to do so.

As Aerith has pointed out, there is not a time crunch. Let us focus on the task at hand. These are what I see as our three options. Should we skip ahead entirely, stay in the room trying to let Unatti sleep, or head back to town?

I think acknowledging that tribim may not be the smartest person to listen to and running, not walking, running back to town would be the wise thing.

I need eight(8) **uninterrupted** hours of sleep in order get that stuff back. If you keep waking me up, that's not gonna happen.

Rest

To prepare his daily spells, a wizard must first sleep for 8 hours. The wizard does not have to slumber for every minute of the time, but he must refrain from movement, combat, spellcasting, skill use, conversation, or any other fairly demanding physical or mental task during the rest period. If his rest is interrupted, each interruption adds 1 hour to the total amount of time he has to rest in order to clear his mind, and he must have at least 1 hour of uninterrupted rest immediately prior to preparing his spells. If the character does not need to sleep for some reason, he still must have 8 hours of restful calm before preparing any spells.

@Tribim: Unatti's a spherecasting witch, not a wizard, so the rest rules are slightly different. You're correct, though, that the rest requirements aren't quite as restrictive.

A caster’s spell pool refreshes once a day after roughly 8 hours of rest. These hours do not need to be consecutive.

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That being said, in order to move forward, I believe two questions need to be answered. First, do people even want to continue the campaign? Looking back through the Gameplay posts, the party dynamic doesn't seem to be as healthy as it should be. As I said earlier, gaming is supposed to be fun, and if someone isn't having fun, it's not a good idea to force yourself to keep playing. That actually recently happened in one of my other games where a player bowed out due to struggles with the PbP format.

The second question is: How can we address party disagreements in a healthier way? There've been quite a few thus far, both in- and out-of-character. Some have been handled in Discussion, others through PM. Not all of them have been productive. Again, this is supposed to be fun, and it's hard to have fun when people are shouting at each other.

Okay, so Spheres is at least semi different from normal recovery, which I didn't know. However, that above quote is kinda vague, so let's be blunt:

YBD, in your games, what constitutes '8 hours of rest' ?? What exactly can and can't Unatti, and anybody else who needs to rest to recover spent resources, do? Is that '8 hours of rest' also how we get back our HD?

As for the other points:

Let me make something super clear, just in case: I have zero issues with Epperson out of game. The constant raspberries are a little weird and annoying, but I don't really mind. In game, he is pretty much the exact opposite of Unatti personality wise: Dour, grim, fatalistic, almost seems like he doesn't care if he lives or dies.

Unatti is all about celebrating life, having fun, living in the moment, caring for those in need, etc.

Regarding my annoyances, saying something like 'If I wanted to signal to my fellow players I didn't want to heal them, I would take the drawback that halved the healing' really didn't sit right with me.

I know Mahmoud apologized, but every single battle we've since gotten into, I feel like I need stick solely to healing more often than not, cuz I'm apparently not willing to heal the rest of my party. Saying sorry doesn't erase the comment or the memory of it.

Also, this whole potential combat seems like it was meant to punish us for wanting to rest:

On Aug 5th, ooc, Epperson said he was out of Strife points and wanted to rest.

On the 18th, he then made a comment as 'Paul, the player of Epperson' that he wanted to rest now.

I have said several times that I don't have the resources left to feel I can be useful. Sure, I can keep blasting, but if the dice continue to hate us, who is gonna heal the PCs if they're seriously hurt?

So yes, right now, I'm not really having fun. I feel like we made a mistake wanting to rest, and while it might be part of the module, it's also entirely up to the GM to keep running encounters or not. **Especially** when the PCs and their players have stated they don't want to keep fighting.

Overall, however, I am enjoying this game. I like our group, I like our RP and dynamics, our GM is rather fair and helpful, and most importantly, I too would like to find a way to keep playing.

@Tribim: Unatti's a spherecasting witch, not a wizard, so the rest rules are slightly different. You're correct, though, that the rest requirements aren't quite as restrictive.

Spheres Wiki wrote:

A caster’s spell pool refreshes once a day after roughly 8 hours of rest. These hours do not need to be consecutive.

So I was wrong but I was right. You would not believe how often that happens.

@ Unatti, I'm sad that, even though I wasn't any part of the 'heal' frustration, you didn't address my question about moving the game forward.

@ Epperson, you're being very quiet about all this, you doing ok?

I don't have much to add here. I'm enjoying learning this game; I'd like to keep playing.

I'm not sure what to say. I don't feel like I should get involved in discussions about how Unatti is played. I'd like the game to continue, as long as everyone can go forward without resentment, both in-character and out of character. I'm not confident we can do that as things are now. :( I really appreciate YBD taking the time to help us resolve these issues, as uncomfortable as they are.

@Unatti: To the best of my knowledge, the specifics of what rest entails are left vague because each character rests differently. It generally involves remaining mostly stationary and refraining from any task that requires more than a tiny amount of physical or mental energy. A real-life example would be mindlessly browsing Reddit for an hour before falling asleep. From your question, I can infer that you've played with a previous GM who was a real stickler about aspects of the rules that I prefer to brush to the side. I also don't make equipment roll saving throws when a player is hit with a fireball; randomly generate the 4d4 minor magic items, 3d4 medium magic items, and 1d6 major magic items that can be purchased in Wati; or require detect magic and a successful Spellcraft roll to identify a cloak of elvenkind.

Ultimately, though, none of this matters if we can't figure out how to peacefully resolve in-game issues. That's an out-of-game issue, so let's table the topics of healing, rest, and in-character roleplaying decisions for now. What do the players need in order to resolve the current conflict in a productive manner that won't lead to resentment and future problems? Regardless of how much everyone wants to keep playing, if that can't be figured out, the campaign will end up leading to either players quitting or game dissolution.

Apologies for not my silence the last few days. I was trying to collect my thoughts and figure out how best to address everything. It took me a few days, but it finally came to me tonight:

When Mahmoud made that accusation(regardless of intent, that was *my* interpretation) about maybe not wanting to be the party healer, he not only called into question my role in the party, and my play style, but he was also basically accusing me of wanting the party(and thus the game) to fail.

After all, if I don't want to heal people, and they die, and can't come back to life, it means game over. Or at least to an extent. Sure, YBD apparently has some homebrew ways for a PC to continue on after death, that might not always be an option, or it might not be what the player wants. And even if it is, does it even matter if I still not interested in healing them?

I'm super new to Spheres, which I believe I have said several times. I'm still very much learning not only that system, but the GM's homebrew stuff as well.

As such, I'm trying to be conservative with my expendable resources, at least while I'm still trying to get the hang of things. It's also tricky keeping track of who has been hurt, especially in a PbP where not only might it take time for people to reply to me asking, but the post for who got hurt might be buried a page or so back from what's current.

This was the case with Aeirth just now. I scrolled up through most of the posts, but between all of our attacks and the one or two the GM made that didn't hit us(and thus dealt no damage), I clearly missed our mage getting hurt.

Please, just bear with me, and offer me a little grace and support as I try to figure all of this out. If I haven't healed somebody it's likely due to one of three things:

1) I completely missed that they got hurt. See Aerith above.

2) I'm being conservative with stuff, just in case we run into something else after a given encounter. This happened at least once in game.

3) I'm not entirely sure you need/want healing. I've been in some games(even if I'm not the healer) where some of the other PCs didn't want to be healed till they were almost dead. They would rather the healer focus on killing their foes.

I don't exactly have any solutions or ways to move forward atm, other than to ask that you don't jump to any conclusions about me, my PC, or my play style. I'm not a bad person/player, and I'm definitely not willfully or maliciously not healing people.

I chose the role of a healer because that's what I felt like playing. It's not always glamours, but thankfully with Sphere I can still contribute to combats offensively as well as supportively. Believe me, if I didn't wanna play a healer build, I wouldn't have picked it....

I am enjoying the budding Epperson - Unatti romantic brouhaha. I would be sad if it didn’t play out to its inevitable steamy conclusion.

Kidding not kidding. Nevertheless, I’ve got zero problems with you, Unatti. Keep on rocking it. I’m here for it.

Look. MG, I like you. You’re fun to play with and I’ve been at your table before. So I say this from a place where I’m not against you as a person.

———

“Unatti sighs heavily(and rather dramatically) when Tribim asks for healing. "You're barely hurt. Stop being such a wimp." She teases her friend, even as she heals him.”

“"How Tribim?!? How did you manage to bungle that lock?? If I didn't know any better, I would say you had went and got yourself pregnant. I suppose you're gonna want me to heal you, *again*, huh?" She asks, a bit annoyed, but still playful in the teasing of her friend.”

“Well, if I have ever have the misfortune of being stuck with you on another delve, I'll be sure not to waste any of my healing on you.”

“I suppose I could heal the little b@st@rd. Though that would deny him that cherished oblivion he so desires."”

———

And that leads to:

“ I'm not making any assumptions about what Unatti is doing, since only her player can decide and post what she chooses to do. I don't think you've offered your healing concoctions for general consumption, so I don't feel comfortable just posting that Mahmoud drank some. Likewise, if you were going have Unatti heal up any remaining damage before we continued, I think we need you to post that you're doing that.

It seems to me that so far Unatti only heals other characters when she is specifically asked, but maybe I'm misremembering or that is a bad read of what's going on. Based on that impression, I had Mahmoud buy healing potions when I had the chance so that I have something I can do to heal him in an emergency, and I think Epperson bought a wand for the same reason.

If I were building a character and wanted to signal to the other players that I wasn't interested in being the primary party healer, I would take the drawback that halves hit points healed. If I'm misreading that, I'm sorry. Again, I don't want to assume that Unatti will heal us when we are injured because that may not be how you want to play the character.”

——

His post says he isn’t making assumptions, that he didn’t feel comfortable assuming how you’d spend your resources, and he asked for clarification.

We aren’t at a physical table. Mannerisms and tone of voice can’t be heard. Based on all of your posts regarding healing, they can be taken as both playful jabbing and as frustration. Based on the above can you see how a misunderstanding could arise? I don’t take anything you’ve said as being malicious or wrong, and I honestly don’t see it from anyone else either. But I think it is best that we all give each other the benefit of the doubt.

Can we please accept that no ill meaning was meant? That the two of you read what was happening differently and we can move on without being upset at each other?

To try to address the current problem, it seemed to me that Unatti's player was annoyed that we had to disturb her rest, and that might have been part of the character's refusal to wake up. If that's correct, is it because of this healing issue, or something else? How can we resolve this going forward?

Since no one has responded, I guess that means we are at an impasse. What do you think we should do, YBD?

I've been dealing with some pretty rough IRL stuff these last few days, so I just didn't have the spoons to come and post here.

@Aeirth, all four of your quotes were things Unatti said in game, as the character I am playing. Thus, if somebody likewise had an in game issue with her and her healing, it should have been handled in character.

That's not what happened, though, was it? Mahmoud posted here, in the discussion thread, which means he's coming after me, the player.

This is where my issues lie, and what I've been trying to convey these last several posts.

Considering Mahmoud has stated he 'doesn't feel like he should be involved in a conversation about how Unatti is played'. Which ya know, is how we got here in the first place.

On July 25th at 10:49am Mahmoud said: Is there a reason Unatti doesn't want to use her healing powers before we engage additional enemies?

Which is weird, because on July 24th, at 6:04pm, I said: Just remember it takes an hour to spend a HD for healing. I have no problem taking that time, just a reminder. I'll make a few potions in the last ten minutes(cuz they gotta be used within an hour).

And then less than an hour later, YBD replied: Taking an hour to rest and heal is perfectly fine.

Did Mahmoud just not read gameplay, and poorly and incorrectly assume I wasn't gonna heal ya'll?

As for 'not healing people until I was told to do so':

On July 19th, Unatti placed the shield around Epperson to try and keep him safe. Nobody told her to do that.

On the 20th, the centipede bites Epperson for 17 pts of damage.

On July 22nd, Tribim asks for Unatti to 'look after Epperson'.

And finally, later that day(7/22), Unatti does indeed heal the sour dwarf. Which, mind you, was 3 days after my last IG post.

Did I not heal Epperson until I was told to? Or had I not gotten around to posting just yet?

Again, bad assumptions being made about me, the player, as they were stated out of game.

So idk what to tell you. Maybe I'm just a bad fit for this group, idk.

Mahmoud seemingly won't take responsibility for us being here in the first place, and I've tried to explain myself as best I can.

I would very much like to continue on with this group and this game, but I'm at a loss as to how best to resolve this.

I don't want to escalate the conflict, so I'm not going to respond to Unatti's post. I will point out that it has now been a week since we had to stop the game, and we seem no closer to resolving the issues. So, it seems like we will either have to let the game die, or do something else to get us back on track. Anyone have any suggestions?

Wow, can we all be adults? That was wrong, I'll try again.
We get it, RL being rough makes it difficult to be patient here.

Monkeygod, you're still rehashing stuff that happened a f*ing month ago. Get over it. Right or wrong, the issue was addressed here between players instead of in game. if it was that big of a deal you should have addressed it then and cleared the air.

Instead, it has festered and effected in-game and out-of-game posts. I've asked repeatedly what we can do to move forwards, you keep coming back to it. Can we admit we can try to communicate better and move on?

At times, You're playing Unatti like a jerk. Stop. We get that Unatti and Epperson are opposites, but let's pretend like we're playing characters that want to be part of a group. That's why they joined the team. Keep the in-game comments to fun and cute. Keep the out of game comments polite.

But please, this rehashing is killing the game.

FYI the last game we finished with YBD was two players gestalt. You all ask yourself, if YBD is dropping this game to two players, if you should be one of them. If not, play like you should be.

Edit:I was ninja'd by Mahmoud, I will leave the post be, and maybe address his comment after I've calmed down.

I just got home from work, and it very much looks like things have escalated to a level far beyond where it needs to be. I'm going to ask everyone to pause while I read through everything and decide what to do.

The reason it's a big deal now/still is because it's tied directly to our current in game impasse:

Mahmoud, and maybe others, think I'm not willing to heal my fellow players unless I'm told to.

Now, in game, we're about to apparently get into another fight, when I no longer have the mechanical resources to heal my fellow players, period.

I'm dreading this upcoming fight because I fully expect to be scolded/taken to task for being unable to heal you guys. Despite expressly saying I lack the means.

Why? Because it literally already happened. I said I would make potions to heal people, and then the next day, I get accused of refusing to heal people.

What's really wild is that the GM literally said 'hey, it's cool if ya'll wanna take time to heal up' the day before, and Mahmoud still makes his accusation the next day.

This is why I am still on edge and was making a big deal out of not wanting to get into another fight without being given the time to rest and restore my spent resources.

Because I do not trust Mahmoud to not make that same sort of weird, bizarre claim again.

"Why didn't you heal us during this fight?"

"Idk bro, maybe cuz I said I literally can't?"

YBD messaged to say I am removed from the game. I'm only going to say this:

Overall, I rather like Eriktd. We have been in several games together(both as fellow players, and him in some of my games I've ran).

I am not entirely sure why he felt the need to call me out in the discussion thread, but he did, and so I tried to reply in kind.

This game was great, our group and characters were great, and for the most part, so was the GM.

I don't have any issues with ya'll, in or out of game.

Happy gaming all, I'll miss Tribim's grandmother's cooking <cries>

Removing a player is something a GM never wants to do, and making the call was very difficult for me. Ultimately, it came down to the health of the game, as this was an out-of-game issue that was stuck at an impasse. Hopefully my doing this will allow everyone to move on without further issue. I have no issue with Monkeygod and hope that we can share a table again at some point in the future.

If possible, I'd like to consider this matter concluded for everyone. Any further discussion about this can be done through PM with me, but overall, I'd prefer to close this chapter now. I'll make an in-game update after I finish work tomorrow. In the meantime, please decide whether or not you wish to continue. If anyone feels they can no longer be a part of the campaign, there'll be no hard feelings from me, as this has been a difficult and emotional time for everyone.

Thank you, everyone, for your patience.

The only thing I'll say is that I hope MG's personal life becomes less stressful and I look forward to gaming with him in the future. That, and my thanks to YBD for his handling of this. What we do here is supposed to be fun for everyone, and as a GM this kind of drama is the opposite of fun.

With this out of the way, I look forward to continuing this campaign. This campaign is wonderful and our group is great. Perhaps it would be best to have our party retreat for the night. Unatti can exit stage left, and we can come back in fresh in the morning? It seems like the cleanest way to move forward.

Wisdom on all counts Aerith.

I'm good with retreating. We will need to get past whoever is on the steps.

Maybe we can get our third 'area' in the morning. Finish up here, then head directly there?

Thanks, YBD. I'm sorry this happened, and I'm glad you were able to find an amicable solution. Hopefully we can all go forward with no hard feelings.

I'm fine with whatever YBD wants to do. It might be better to skip past this encounter so that we can resolve whatever we are going to do about the party's composition, and then either return to the House of Pentheru or continue to the third location as the Four of Shadows?

With Unatti out we are down a healer and our party lacks a front line. I’m actually considering making a rage prophet who purely goes down the life sphere, thus acting as a front line combatant and a party healer. We have so much ranged right now that it seems Aerith is duplicitous.

I think with that new character we won’t need to pause the campaign for a recruitment. We can just power on.

Hopefully a recruitment is avoidable. I was wondering if tribim needed to multiclass or not, it would be easier to pick up something that helped cover healing.

I think with that new character we won’t need to pause the campaign for a recruitment. We can just power on.

If you don't want to entirely change characters, I think Tribim and Mahmoud can hold the front line, if Aerith wants to pick up the sphere of life.

YBD anyway for a non-caster class to pick up magical sphere's and spell points using feats?

Edit: Wouldn't be hard for Tribim to take levels in oracle.

As far as healing goes, we might be able to struggle forward with a few wands of cure light wounds. I intend Mahmoud to take ranks in Use Magic Device, but I haven't taken them yet. If I can switch a rank or two over he might be able to ensure that we are all healed up between fights by throwing money at the problem. But I suspect this adventure path is very undead-heavy, and so having a character in the party who is Life-focused would be very smart. I think Epperson's fighting style is frontliner, and as soon as Mahmoud can throw daggers without provoking attacks of opportunity there is no reason he has to hide behind anyone else. But of course it's fine with me if you want to change characters, Aerith. We do seem to be missing a strength-based heavy damage dealer, which your concept would address. :)

Nah it’s fine. Multiclass can ruin builds, and I’d enjoy making a new PC.

But of course it's fine with me if you want to change characters, Aerith. We do seem to be missing a strength-based damage dealer, which your concept would address. :)

yes, we're all good if you want to change characters, I just don't love change. I do think a primary caster (like a sorceress) will be needed further on.

What if Tribim goes oracle of life? He's already associated with a temple. both classes are 3/4 bab characters, take the next two levels oracle, then every other. We need someone who can deal with traps but we don't need a full blown rogue. His primary attack style would still be feinting.

Ninja'd by Grumbaki

Nah it’s fine. Multiclass can ruin builds, and I’d enjoy making a new PC.

Ninja'd by Grumbaki, Tribims build isn't that far thought out. If you want to make a new PC that's understandable. I'm just worried about Higher Level Magic. Maybe with sphere's it's not as big of a deal.

I support you, GM, with the tough decision you made to keep our game going. Thank you.

I hope Unatti’s player finds some peace and a chance at a reset.

I am all about preserving the narrative, so I’d be keen to see how the current situation plays out with Unatti not waking up to aid the team. We can then reconfigure as people would like to do. This could be a seminal moment in the history of the Five of Shadows.

That said, it’s purely my opinion and I’m not married to it.

I agree with Tribim that Aerith switching from a high-caster to a low-caster is worrying. We'd have no primary casters in the group. I don't think that Tribim diluting his rogue focus with oracle levels is essential, but of course if you want to do so that's your decision. :)

If you want sphere powers, you can always take the Basic Magic Training and Advanced Magic Training general feats. But you might need Extra Combat Talent more, so you can get Unlikely Feint. ;)

Well, the plan would have been rich girl Aerith being wounded and noping back home. She’d decide that being stabbed was a *really* bad experience and that she wanted no more part in this. A very logical reaction!

So the new character would be two handed weapon, high AC, and pure healing, character. Ticking off the missing parts of the group. Because right now we have nobody who wants to be on the front lines. An issue we have is that aside from Epperson, none of us are built for getting into an enemy’s face, and we struggle with punching past DR.

But if Tribm wants to move towards Oracle be my guest. Aerith is still fun, so no matter what no tears from me!

Well, the plan would have been rich girl Aerith being wounded and noping back home. She’d decide that being stabbed was a *really* bad experience and that she wanted no more part in this. A very logical reaction!

I was thinking a similar theme. Once the 'shadows' are done dealing with whatever is on the stairs, Tribim recommends, as a joke, going back to town leaving Unatti to sleep there. The next morning, he wakes cursed and Unatti is gone. He would assume the curse was from Bastet because he abandoned a fellow believer. The event overall would make him more serious.

Just food for thought.

Well, I bow to you on this. If you want to take Tribm that way, then I’ll happily continue with Aerith and will likewise continue to hide behind the party and avoid damage whenever possible. She will bring her telekinesis and teleportation to the party.

If you don’t want to explore that? Aerith will decide that she’d rather be a rich noble than a dead one and will go home. I’ll bring a rage prophet with life sphere who will be damage/tank/party healing.

Tell me where you want to take Tribm and I’ll go in that direction.

I'm torn, you know I trust your judgement. I'd like a frontliner, but I'd like a full caster. Tribim is support, Oracle won't slow down his feinting too much. The rest of Rogue is nice but not necessary.

YBD, Epperson, Mahmoud, any opinions? I'm really good either way.

If you want to pivot Tribim into an oracle instead, Unatti leaving is a good catalyst. We could always use more support. I like Aerith as a character and I would be sad to have her leave, even if we are joined immediately afterward by someone else.

I'll take that. Aerith stays and Tribm goes oracle-ish. Thank you for liking the character and for the vote.

I'll take that. Aerith stays and Tribm goes oracle-ish. Thank you for liking the character and for the vote.

hmmmm, we will need to figure out how to stay healed until we reach third level....

I've never noticed the Expensive Locus drawback before! Very thematic.

We're more or less full strength right now, aren't we? We can always return to town or try to heal up with Epperson's wand if we get injured.