Mummy's Mask

Game Master Whack-a-Rogue

Oh! It’s only a saving throw? Thanks for the catch. That’ll teach me to go off my memory.

(Aerith has high intelligence, not me!)

I'm going to rule that Extra Blended Training Talent can only grant Combat Talents when flexed with martial spontaneity. Being able to grab Magic Talents through a "temporary combat feats" class feature is a loophole that I don't think the designers intended. ;-)

I'm going to rule that Extra Blended Training Talent can only grant Combat Talents when flexed with martial spontaneity. Being able to grab Magic Talents through a "temporary combat feats" class feature is a loophole that I don't think the designers intended. ;-)

Fair enough. :)

Ok, sadly Elena's last post was a month ago. Her player last posted in may!

We're going to have to replace Elena before we move on. Having the replacement join at the same time as Ryn, however they were upstairs for the last fight and join you now.

So, anyone know someone who'd want to play a healer for the party?

Shattered Star

Currently lvl 12. Down a divine caster. Just had a player join, send by the Pathfinder society. Have room for one more.

Current party:

Bharak Slagsun: Dwarven Horizon Walker. Melee Stealth/Trap specialist.
Lt. Vhane: Dwarven Bolt Ace. Ranged DPS.
Ryn: Human Brawler. Melee DPS.
Axton: Human Arcankst. Amazing mustache.

If either one of you are looking for another game, I’d gladly vouch for you. :)

I’ll give YBD right of first refusal, but otherwise I could put something together pretty quickly!

Thanks for the offer, but I'm a weirdo who prefers GMing to playing. ;-)

I thought about asking Muminofrah for a private audience, but I figured Mahmoud wouldn't want to encourage her too much and isn't savvy enough about politics to realize that it would be a good opportunity to solidify their alliance, plus probably get them access to the archives anyway. And I didn't want to defer to Aerith because she specifically told Mahmoud he could have anything that he asked her. I didn't want her to get jealous of Aerith. ;)

Do you have a reroll ability? Otherwise, it'll be a failure by 5+, which will set off the trap.

Do you have a reroll ability? Otherwise, it'll be a failure by 5+, which will set off the trap.

I can't reroll it since it isn't a saving throw. Aerith is pointing out that Subtle might protect us from it, but probably not if I went and set it off by failing to disarm it. :P

We’re back!

Huzzah!

Hooray!

Waiting to see if Aerith passed the Reflex save. ;-)

As a heads up I’m currently on the road for a conference. Will return home on Thursday. So should have a post up then.

Sorry for quietness. Work exploded. And now I’m sick as a dog. Which has apparently spread to one of my daughters. Posting has fallen because of this

I hope you and your daughter feel better soon, Grumbaki!

All good; the period between the end of November and the beginning of January is often busy, so I've been expecting slow-than-usual posting. Feel better!

I hope everyone had/is having lovely holidays. I don't celebrate Christmas myself but I get the days off of work so I am usually in good spirits this time of year. :)

I think one of us should stay on the barge, but I don't care who it is. My snap evaluation was that Aerith taking our patron with her to shore made sense, and it might improve Muminafrah's attitude towards Aerith. Also, Mahmoud has a rank in Athletics, which might be helpful if the barge is sunk and we need to swim to shore.

Counterpoint: Aerith could keep teleporting servants. And Mahmoud is more effective at range. Even from shore he can continue shooting…

GM, can Mahmoud keep shooting from shore?

If there is no tactical benefit to Mahmoud staying on the barge, and Aerith can teleport him away with their patron, I agree. :)

Mahmoud can attack from shore, yes, but the crocodile will come after him once the daggers deal enough damage to become a threat.

Mahmoud, you rolled your saving throws but didn't post any actions. I'm assuming you want to attack back? ;-)

Sorry, this has been a super-busy weekend-- the show I'm currently in opened last night, and I also had a party scheduled today that started at 6am so I am utterly beat. But I'll take a look at this before I fall in bed! I'm not sure why I didn't take his turn. Maybe I thought Aerith might do something different before Mahmoud or something. Anyway, thanks for your patience!

No worries! I hadn't been sure if it was a partial post that you were coming back to or not, so I wanted to double-check. :-)

*DING* Welcome to Level Eight.

Apologies for the slowness of this Book, by the way. As it's quite research-heavy, there isn't a ton I can do to spice it up aside from the Muminofrah distractions. Fortunately, there's only one more library to go through - once you find its location, of course!

While not super combat heavy I enjoyed the book. It was a change of pace, and it makes finding the information earned. Also, in retrospect I’m very glad I built Aerith to be so good with knowledges. It unintentionally paid off!

Also, Lvl 8!
Chosen Benefit: Ability boost x3 (Dex/Con/Int) background feat (alertness)
Other Benefit Attunement +2 (shield she is buying)

HP: 6 (class) + 2 (Con) + 7 (retroactive con) + 1 (FCB) = +16
Saves: +1 All
Skills: +7 (retroactive) +7 (this level)
BaB: +1

Spell Talent: Telekinetic Sphere - Floating Shield (When using your telekinesis to lift a shield, you may apply its shield bonus to the armor class of anything in its square, though this does not stack with any shield bonus they already possess. A shield sustained with Sustained Force still grants its shield bonus, and may be directed to follow a given individual or target. If you possess the Orbit talent, you may choose a single shield in orbit of you and add its shield bonus to your armor class. If you possess the Dancing Weapon talent, you may apply shield related feats and combat talents (such as Shield Focus) to any shield you are lifting.)

Combat Talent: Iron Grip - You gain a +1 competence bonus to your grapple combat maneuver checks, as well as to your CMD vs. that maneuver. This bonus increases by +1 for every 4 points of base attack bonus you possess.

Shifter Ability: Pounce

Purchases: Darkwood Heavy Shield (with +2 for attunement that will be +4 AC)

——

Will need to double check it all. Should be updated by Monday (this weekend is 2 full days of wrestling meets)

Her being a combat monster is taking form. Pounce and being able to use a shield are huge additions.

I've got a little time this morning so I will try to update. But I might not finish until late tonight because I have two shows today.

All right, I think I updated Mahmoud.

Ability boost: +2 Con/+2 Dex/+2 Wis
Background feat: Acrobatic Steps
attunement +2

HP: 84
BAB: +1
saves +1 Fort/+1 Wis
skills: 5

blended training talent: Demoralizing Momentum (ally can spend momentum to attempt to make a struck enemy shaken, frightened, or panicked)

combat talent: Blowback Barrage (Reflex save or target struck twice is pushed back 5' or knocked prone)

cleric abilities: domain power (Dead Sleep), fervor 3d6, sacred weapon +2

fighter abilities: Advanced Weapon Training feat (Warrior Spirit-- can give a weapon special abilities for 1m)

Woken up by baby and can’t sleep. Profile should be updated now.

Apologies for the delay; I've been sick for the past few days but am taking advantage of a brief window of alertness to check in on my games. :-)

Aerith: There's still quite a bit of Book Three to go. You still need to locate the Vault of Hidden Wisdom, and then there'll be some hexcrawl.

I took Demoralizing Momentum because I think Aerith and Mahmoud might occasionally use it against creatures that they can demoralize. Mahmoud can affect undead because of his granted power from the Repose domain ("Undead creatures are affected by your mind-affecting fear spells and effects as if they were living creatures."), and though he usually keeps his immediate action available for Punishing Cross, he can spare it if Aerith has locked down enemies out of melee range. Aerith can also use it against non-mindless enemies if she isn't using her swift or immediate action for something else like Slam or Snag, perhaps because she's fighting with her Bludgeon.

This might not work very well with Johnsonfinder rules, though. The talent says that they can "try and demoralize that enemy with their Intimidate skill." How does that adapt to the Psychic Maneuvers rules? Mahmoud has an incredible Intimidate total because he substitutes his Dexterity-based Perform (dance) for Influence. He has a crappy PMB though, because he has a poor Charisma score. Perhaps he should also use Dexterity in place of Charisma for Demoralizing Psychic Maneuvers? (He also apparently gets a +2 to demoralization attempts from the Gladiator sphere, but I can't figure out why. Was this a house rule that I have forgotten? It would make sense if Gladiator gives bonuses to PMB instead of ranks in Influence.)

I suspect Aerith's PMB is also pretty low, even in dragon shape, because her Charisma is also unimpressive. She has an amazing Influence score because she uses Intelligence instead.

If Demoralizing Momentum doesn't work well with either of our builds, we probably won't use it, and I should probably select something else. But I thought I'd ask about it and see if we can figure out a way to adapt it to your awesome ruleset. :)

A quick check-in before I go back to resting. This sickness is a nasty one, and I'm still recovering.

I remember we'd had a discussion about Intimidate, Influence, PMB, and the like a while back due to Mahmoud's Perform (dance) skill substitution. I don't remember exactly what we'd worked out and don't have the time to look back through the discussion thread at the moment, but I think we'd decided to move away from Psychic Maneuvers because they weren't actually fixing anything.

I do know that the various social-skill-granting Spheres were changed to give scaling bonuses to specific things. I think Gladiator was intimidation, Fencing was lies, and Warleader was leadership? Something like that.

Sorry I can't be more helpful at the moment, but hopefully this is enough to go on. If there's still confusion when I'm recovered from this illness, I'll go back and find the discussion we'd previously had about it.

Thanks, YBD! My sympathies on your illness. I hope you recover without too much discomfort. Lots of folks in my circles are getting sick from what seems like a nasty flu this season too. I've got a persistent cough that just won't go away from like a month ago!

Indeed, my sympathies on your illness. That is never fun. I hope you get better soon.

I totaled up the loot we can sell since the last time and updated the treasure tracker. It comes to 2,130 gp, or 1,065 gp each. Not very much, though it looks like we both still have a lot of gold left over. According to the spreadsheet, Aerith now has 11,349.76 gp (that doesn't include the cost of the darkwood shield mentioned in her level up), and Mahmoud has 7,057.26 gp.

I think the next big purchase Mahmoud should look at commissioning, if it is allowed in this campaign, would be leather armor made of stable shadowstuff. It is unique in Pathfinder in that it is armor that is so light that it counts as not wearing armor, which means it can be worn with Unarmored Training. It is also not very expensive-- a human-sized suit would only cost 4,010 gp to craft, if Mahmoud can find someone who can do so.

If he can't, maybe instead I can get the cruel magic weapon quality added to Quicksilver. I think that would cost 6,000 gp.

Thanks for totaling it up!

11k? That is a decent chunk to play with. Not sure what to get though…

11k? That is a decent chunk to play with. Not sure what to get though…

I try to keep a wishlist for things I see that would be good for my characters, but most of the stuff on Mahmoud's is pretty expensive (aring of evasion is 25,000gp, or a minor cloak of displacement is 24,000gp). I have been toying with putting conductive and spell hurling on his dagger, which should allow him to use his Gentle Rest domain power on creatures he hits with a ranged attack.

I don't know what to suggest for Aerith, though. Maybe an implement of power? A +2 CL Telekinesis implement would cost 8,000gp. I'm always tempted to just save up gold, but honestly spending it when we can is smarter because we will probably larger amounts of gold as we level up, so just carrying it around in coins is kind of a waste. ;)

I was tempted to save up 30k for the determination enchantment. 1/day when go below 0HP instead go to 0. Meaning on her turn she can teleport to safety. It seems like a good way to avoid a TPK.

The issue is that it is 30k gold.

Another good one is bastion. It is a +3 enchantment…but it allows a failed will save to be delayed. And again, that can be game changing.

Mahmoud: If that persistent cough comes with intense fatigue and a ton of hacked-up mucus, that's exactly what I have. Seriously not fun.

Equipment made from stable shadowstuff isn't available in this campaign as flavor-wise it screams Nidal. The cruel weapon quality is fine to add. As you calculated, it'll cost 6,000gp to add to Quickspiral. It'll also take a few in-game days, so you'll want to take that into advisement as you'd be without the weapon during that time.

How we feeling on moving forward?

I'm good to move forward whenever everyone else is. You have the name of the next library but don't know the location, and the Dark Depository doesn't have the answer.

I'm ready to move forward... though, I do not know the way. ;)

Just a quick check-in to see how everyone's doing.

Had planned to post today, but things got away from me. Traveled throughout the weekend and today had a vomiting baby (once on my bed, once on me, and all over the car). She is doing better though. When I’m at my computer tomorrow I will get my post in, if I don’t get to it tonight first.

I'm here, I was just delayed. Sorry it took me so long to post!

I updated our loot sheet with these new treasures.

I don't think either of us has spent any gold yet; Mahmoud because I don't want him to be without his dagger for ten days, and Aerith because she hasn't decided what to buy. :)

Just checking in with a question. Does it bother anyone how I switch between profile pictures to show what form Aerith is taking in a given scene? If it does, I could just stick with one.

I think it's cool!

I like it! It helps me remember what you look like at any given moment, which would sometimes affect enemy targeting during combat if you weren't so good at staying between Mahmoud and hostiles. ;-)

Glad it's working out. Thank you both. :)