GM Batpony's Season of Ghosts

Game Master Batpony

The year is 7108 IC (Imperial calendar) or 4608 AR (Absalom reckoning), a good 99 years prior to the rise of the runelords. But that's a future problem.

Welcome to Willowshore, a small and rural town (population of around 200) in the province of Shenmen. Being a self-sufficient town, many of the people are known to be farmers, fishermen, woodcutters, carpenters, the odd blacksmith and stone worker here and there. And being populated by forest on almost every side of the town, it's only natural that majority of the buildings infrastructure is made of wood. Simple peoples living simple lives for the most part. It does have one complication not unique to willowshore, but to the whole of shenmen, hauntings. The corruption and death that plague Shenmen during Lung Wa's reign, has caused led to the cursed lands Shenmen is today.

Your character should have some ties to Willowshire (refer to the player's guide), they may not need to have lived in willowshire their whole lives but should have at least been here for a few years before the adventure begins.

I will roll all knowledge rolls in secret, and I will roll them immediately if the situation arises to save time.
I will not roll active player actions as part of the roleplay or encounter, like searching, tracking...etc. If you think there's something you want to do, just state it and roll it :) Sometimes advance spoilers might be added in the event of the obvious options, but spoilers won't be added if it's something the players should be actively considering and might not be the most obvious thing to do.

For the most part I'm flexible with what you choose as a PC, but should be reviewed and discussed , rare options limited. I would be OK with 2-3 rare choices in total. But Being a PFS guy, any PFS restricted / banned options shall also be banned imo. Discuss PC choices below:

You have been selected not necessarily because of the party composition, but more as your ability as players. So feel free to discuss party composition as needed, my personal philosophy is play what you like :)

Timeline to start the game hasn't changed, we'll use the weekday to lock in character sheets, and next weekend 28th Feb to begin the first post on the gameplay thread, but feel free to dot and delete.

Additionally, I would like everyone to vote on two things that is most important to them in an Adventure setting:
- Exciting Combat / Mechanically challenging things
- Main plot / Overall story
- Sub plot / Side Quest
- NPC relationships / Roleplaying elements
- Worldbuilding

Hi, everyone. :)

My two votes:

- Main plot / Overall story
- NPC relationships / Roleplaying elements

party role: secondary healer and secondary ranged striker

Hello everyone,

Short post because I'll have to go soon.

I have read the first post of Discussion with all the way things are done here.

Question for the GM, Are we using any alternative rules like Free Archetype, Gradual Ability Boost or Ancestral Paragon?

Another question: are those rare options only for character creation? Can I hold onto a rare option selection till I reach the appropriate level/gold to afford it? Say if I want a level 4 rare item can I wait till level 4 to cash one of those rare options in?

As for what I prefer as a player:
1. Main story focus. My number one pet peeve is games that spiral into endless sidequests, back to back unrelated encounters or one player running the show while everyone else chills in the background. A strong focus on the main plot helps keep everyone on track, even at the expense of some player agency.
2. Combat. I love rolling dice and taking heads.

As a player, I'm used to filling the gaps in the party. While my Thaumaturge is ready to go, I can change her out for something else if needed. Will wait on other players to finalise before me, if that's ok.

- No alternative rules, mainly for balancing. The combat as presented is easy, so I will be needing to do a bit of extra work in the encounters to make it challenging enough that you guys feel you're not overpowered.
- Rare options are for character building in general. If you wanted to take a rare archetype in level 2, I would count that towards the rare count.
- Rare items would be dependent on the adventure, if the opportunity presents itself naturally, I would not oppose it.

- No alternative rules, mainly for balancing. The combat as presented is easy, so I will be needing to do a bit of extra work in the encounters to make it challenging enough that you guys feel you're not overpowered.

- Rare options are for character building in general. If you wanted to take a rare archetype in level 2, I would count that towards the rare count.
- Rare items would be dependent on the adventure, if the opportunity presents itself naturally, I would not oppose it.

Thanks for the clarifications!

You know what, I will lock in the Thaumaturge after all. It's my favourite class and I so rarely get to play it since I keep filling holes.

I will choose a Rare Archetype - Chronoskimmer dedication. It will save you the trouble of rolling Initiative for me since I'll always get the same amount.

We shall see about the rare item - I'll prompt you when it potentially comes up.

Hi everyone! I have little time right now, so I haven't ready everything yet.

Still, my vote goes to combat + main story.

FYI, this isn't my final avatar, it just takes me forever to find things again in the avatar library.

At the age of eight years--weak, hungry and cold--Yue Baihe wandered into Willowshore. His family had been traveling from Karahai with plans to stop at Willowshore to rest and restock before continuing southward. Yue Baihe did not understand why they were traveling less than he understood the monsters that attacked his family near Gourd Lake. In his mind, they were angry spirits. The townsfolk found neither spirits, bandits, nor oni when they went to search for his family. All they found were the empty, bloodstained cart.

The foundling was raised by the people of Willowshore, picking up various skills here and there. As he grew, he developed an affinity for the Graveside Manners and a preoccupation with spirits and the afterlife. He spent so much time with You So-Ji that he began to follow her example of caring for the monuments of those past and her interest in medicinal plants.

AP Background: Outskirt Dweller

Heirloom Choice: (2 minor healing potions and 1 piece of gear <= 2 gp) or (chunk of cold iron)

Mechanical Considerations:
Vindicator Ranger, focus spells and melee combat

I believe that I can use Religion as a face skill in Willowshore since it has a shrine to Tsukiyo. Since this is a bottle adventure in one town, that relieves some of the pressure for someone to focus on Charisma in the party.

Most important to me in an Adventure:

- Exciting Combat / Mechanically challenging things
- Main plot / Overall story

@ GM Batpony

Do you have one of the Google Sheet macro makers? There are more elegant, updated versions, but this one does the trick: Macros 3.0. It is invaluable in PbP on Paizo's board. The players can update it, and it generates the code for block initiatives and groups of skill checks as well as saving throws.

I assume the AP backgrounds don't count toward the Rare limits.

If you're open to some advice, see spoiler:

@ Zhenzi

If you're open to some unsolicited advice, see the spoiler below, else carry on:

...I believe that I can use Religion as a face skill in Willowshore since it has a shrine to Tsukiyo. Since this is a bottle adventure in one town, that relieves some of the pressure for someone to focus on Charisma in the party.

Wow, you're right. This might be the one AP where the Vindicator dedication does something useful.

Noticed that it doesn't cover Demoralize or any of the Deception or Performance skills. I'll be happy to scream at or lie to people as much as possible.

Unsolicited Advice for Zhenzi

Thanks for looking out.

I am aware there is no mechanical benefit (usually) - the juggler dedication is for thematic/roleplay element - being able to juggle two nuts and still be considered to have one hand free (for his elemantl blasts, innate healing plaster cantrip and other impulses) - as well as instances, if there are any, in which he will have backup improvised weapons should anything prevent him from accessing his go-to primal magic. Also, who expects a squirrel (they are not familiar with) to throw nuts at them. Squirrels are known for hoarding nuts, not throwing them away... :P

The juggler archetype will be delayed though. I originally had him as a single-gate wood kineticist, then realized making him an earth/wood kineticist means he always has access to earth/dirt as the material component needed for healing plaster. As he tends to climb up trees/buildings, he will not always be within reach of the ground.

At second level he will be gaining the other wood impluse from the single-gate build: Timber Sentinel (hazelnut trees!) - by the time we complete the AP there will probably be a hedgemaze composed of hazelnut trees near Willowshore, and possibly hazelnut bushes throughout Willowshore.

At 4th level: safe elements.

So I will probably use one of the higher-level class feats for the Juggler dedication feat.

Zhēnzǐ was named by the children of Willowshore before he was awakened...because he was rarely seen without a hazelnut in his mouth or hands, so they named him their word for hazelnut.

3rd level general feat: Adopted Ancestry (human)

5th level ancestry feat: Clever Improvisor (his people-watching for so long has made him much more adept at being able to mimic what he has seen the people of Willowshore do).

@ Zhenzi

What's your reason for taking Safe Elements?

@ GM Batpony

I can make (eventual) actual use of the cold iron chunk, so I'll just go ahead and put that as my choice, since multiple people are going for the 2 minor healing potions.

@ Zhenzi

What's your reason for taking Safe Elements?

Zhēnzǐ does not like permanently hurting others.

It also has the great tactical benefit of when he uses stances that heal/support or harm/hinder to be able to exclude certain amount of foes or allies, as well as when he uses area impulses - which he will be gaining one specific one, so when he gains the Tumbling Lumber (unrooted hazelnut trees) impulse at the next level up (5th level), he can do nonlethal damage/knock out enemies without harming allies who are in the path of the rolling trees).

He likes that the townsfolk have accepted him, but he has a fear that if he does not continue to provide being a useful contributing member of Willowshore the residents might shoo him out of town... he is scared of being too far away from the safety of Willowshore...the thing that killed his family is still in the deep woods...though, if part of being of service to the town requires him to go deep into the words, but not alone, he will.

He has been mimicking wielding weapons the villagers use, but always via his vitality weapon infusion - so his attacks have always been harmless (damage-wise). The safe elements will allow him to use earth (bludgeoning or piercing) elemental blasts that are nonlethal - so will be able to help the group in his role of secondary striker with his attacks (if they drop a foe) knocking them unsconscious instead of killing them.

He usually makes a bow when using weapon infusion.

I was curious if you were going to take an AOE impulse or aura stance.

@Yue Baihe - Thanks for the Macros and the advice!

AP backgrounds don't count toward the Rare limits.

I have gone ahead and prepped some slides and the Macros sheet, If you feel pretty locked in with your character at level 1, go ahead and fill up slide 2 of the slides. That way I can have an easy consolidated review of the party.

@ GM

You'll need to set both of those to link access with edit privileges. :)

@ GM

You'll need to set both of those to link access with edit privileges. :)

Well that was silly of me. Done!

Well, I'm excited to see who our fifth member is. Right now we've got:
2 melee strikers
1 healer/ranged striker*
1 arcane blaster

Skills wise we've got:
2 charisma characters
2 pcs with good strength
2 with good wisdom
1 with good dexterity

We're missing someone with intelligence and someone who can cast Heal multiple times a combat. Its a rather narrow Venn diagram of classes that fit all missing holes so I don't expect our fifth to fill all of them.

*Non-lethal damage

We're missing someone with intelligence

The burn!

Hey all, late #5 here. I'm pretty flexible on what I end up playing - seems like there'd be pretty considerable overlap with any of my initial choices, and I fear none of them were planned around int, though my sorcerer could cast heal plenty. I was angling for metal elemental, so I'd have the primal list. 3 charisma characters may be a bit ridiculous, but it really is just a very useful stat. I don't mind going back to the drawing board if we're uncomfortable with that gap though.

As for what's more important to me, I must admit I'm a bit crunch brained. My first GMs were all wargamers and I never quite grew out of that. Otherwise, especially with how much some of my friends have hyped up the module, I'd say I'm pretty interested in the overarching story and the NPCs, who I've been told are really well done in this.

Hey all, late #5 here. I'm pretty flexible on what I end up playing - seems like there'd be pretty considerable overlap with any of my initial choices, and I fear none of them were planned around int, though my sorcerer could cast heal plenty. I was angling for metal elemental, so I'd have the primal list. 3 charisma characters may be a bit ridiculous, but it really is just a very useful stat. I don't mind going back to the drawing board if we're uncomfortable with that gap though.

As for what's more important to me, I must admit I'm a bit crunch brained. My first GMs were all wargamers and I never quite grew out of that. Otherwise, especially with how much some of my friends have hyped up the module, I'd say I'm pretty interested in the overarching story and the NPCs, who I've been told are really well done in this.

I think you should play who you want. If you're crunch focused enough to want to fill all gaps, go for it. Remastered Witch, Investigator and Alchemist (Bomber) are perfectly good classes. A Dex/Int Rogue would also fit well, as would a similarly stated Rascal Swashbuckler, Starlit Spam Magus or bow Fighter/Ranger.

If we want to stack our charisma classes, that would be fine too. Tome implement lets me temporarily have proficiency in the same skills an Int class would anyways.

Good to see that all of us can agree on the same things - the main story being important. Most of us are combat brained too, which is good.

Welcome to the fun, OgreEye!

Zhēnzǐ is only capable of healing hit point damage, as he is not trained in medicine, and his healing capabilities are limited as follows:

During combat (once every ten minutes) he can only heal each specific individual once (though that healing does auto-scale up as we level).

Post-combat, it takes him 10 minutes per person he attempts to heal using his 'magic dirt' he turns into healing mud (plaster) then spends ten minutes 'molding' it on the injured person.

At 4th level he will have Assurance (Nature) so can auto-succeed at baseline DC 15 to heal 2d8 hit points; and at 6th level he will auto-succeed at the DC 20 check to make it 2d8+10 hit points.

When we reach 5th level, and Zhēnzǐ gains the Clever Improvisor ancestry feat, and aquires a healer's kit, he will be able to Treat Disease and Treat Poison.

@OgreEye:

So, someone with the ability to be able to do group heals multiple times during combat would be good (like a primal/divine sorcerer), and spells that could help with non-hit point negative conditions. --> which aligns with your elemental (metal) sorcerer (with primal list) you are thinking about.

When he gains Safe Elements at 4th level, he will be able to include all four you to be the ones he keeps safe from his harmful area effect impulse he will gain at 5th level.

Yue will also have medicine and eventually Battle Medicine.

@ Zhenzi: you might consider the aura junction over resistance junction as something more regularly useful to your teammates. It may not look like much, but every little HP helps.

@ OgreEye: if you play something with divine casting, I could take Warden Boon at 8th to share my bonus to divine casting (and a focus spell). Don't feel compelled, though. I have plenty of feat choices. :)

Yeah, sounds like the sorc would work out pretty well then. The core concept of the build is using an amusing interaction to (occasionally) temporarily become a massive glass cannon - that being Dragon's Presence and Cathartic Mage(Fear). Dragon's Presence also combos nicely with the blood magic benefit of elemental sorc to let me drop some big demoralizes.

@Yue Baihe:

I had already considered that route - the route I decided on (uses the lifeguard principle) means Zhēnzǐ will be more resistant to damage, allowing him to continue to help reduce damage to his allies without needing to be within his 10 foot kinetic aura, as long at they are adjacent to the currently active timber sentinel (protector tree) he can make multiple times (with no cooldown time) within 30 feet of him.

The resistance applies to damage from poisoned food and poisonous creatures - and ties into the character backstory of the thing that killed his family with its poisonous attacks.

I was debating taking the aura junction at 9th level instead of the impulse junction, but went with the lifeguard principle again.

Zhēnzǐ cannot continue to refresh the damage-blocking trees if he goes down, so the lifeguard principle approach is the better sustainable build to better protect/reduce incoming damage to his allies.

Your link for Cathartic Mage (Fear) is not working properly.

Ah, copied it wrong. Should be fixed now

It is..which is why I just deleted my post letting you know it wasn't linked properly, lol.

Ok, so what I can do is use the very useful Tanuki 3 stat array to give myself +1 Int in exchange for -1 Wis. This should, in addition to other build choices in the very far future, help us not completely suck at Int based checks.

She'll be relying on the wiser members of the party to actually do any Wis based checks though - hopefully I won't have to do any Will saves or Perception checks.

I also have the gold to bring along a Healer's Toolkit, so you all can save on that in your starting wealth. What I do want from the heirlooms are the two minor healing potions and one piece of common adventuring gear worth 2 gp or less of the PC’s choice. She probably left her Disguise Kit (aka make-up kit) at home in Northridge and wants it back.

Starting at 5th level, Zhēnzǐ will be able to add his level -2 (-1 from Int flaw) to all skills he is untrained in (which is most of them), increasing to his level (-1 from Int flaw) at 7th level, and (starting at 5th level) be able to do any skill check that normally requires the character to be trained in.

He's going to be a 'very smart squirrel' despite having a below average intelligence. :D

Does anyone else have the the followng set of treasure as their #1 choice? (It is my #1 choice for Zhēnzǐ.)

One predictable silver piece and a vial containing one dose of oil of potency.

The silver piece would be something he juggles aside from hazelnuts. One of the rest of you would be gaining the benefit of the dose of oil of potency (he's not going to pour it on his teeth, after all :P )

I'm considering switching to Flurry Ranger with the Spirit Warrior archetype, it gives me a similar flavor. I could do Spirit Warrior with Vindicator, but that does delay when I pick up Spirit Warrior and ignores most of the Vindicator edge's benefits.

I'm considering switching to Flurry Ranger with the Spirit Warrior archetype, it gives me a similar flavor. I could do Spirit Warrior with Vindicator, but that does delay when I pick up Spirit Warrior and ignores most of the Vindicator edge's benefits.

I think Flurry with Spirit Warrior is a better idea tbh and probably as thematic due to the Tian Xia elements. It also frees up our Sorcerer to choose non divine bloodlines like the elemental one.

Since this adventure happens entire in a little remote village of 200 people, I gather we won't have the shopping access of other APs to essentially customize our gear and will be more dependent on what we find (or the magical crafting feat).

What is the purchase level limit? I'm most interested in the ability to purchase hand wraps of mighty blows for feat consideration.

Also, how do you rule Hunted Shot with shuriken? It is not critical to my build, but I'm trying to figure out what to pick for a 1st level class feat with Natural Ambition...

Since this adventure happens entire in a little remote village of 200 people, I gather we won't have the shopping access of other APs to essentially customize our gear and will be more dependent on what we find (or the magical crafting feat).

What is the purchase level limit? I'm most interested in the ability to purchase hand wraps of mighty blows for feat consideration.

Also, how do you rule Hunted Shot with shuriken? It is not critical to my build, but I'm trying to figure out what to pick for a 1st level class feat with Natural Ambition...

Purchase level limit as a start in Willowshore would be level 4.

Hunted Short with shuriken, I don't see why it wouldn't work RAW. So I'll say yes it works.

On a general note:

As fate would have it, the PCs are chosen this year to play the role of the town’s abductees—reasons for their abduction are built in to the various Season of Ghosts backgrounds, so if you don’t use one of these backgrounds for your character, work with the GM to create a reason similar to those presented there to explain why you’re among the festival’s abductees

This is going to be a very important starting point for the campaign, being part of the re-enactment festival. So if you don't it built into your character background do make sure you've considered your characters motivations to partake.

Once everyone has updated slide 2, I will review everyone's character, less focused on the character sheet (unless you specifically want something reviewed for accuracy/check), but more focused on your character background.

Additionally, this is somewhat a horror themed adventure, so if there is anything that does not have your consent / off-limits for your own safety. Please personally message me.

Additionally, this is somewhat a horror themed adventure, so if there is anything that does not have your consent / off-limits for your own safety. Please personally message me.

Nothing that that Paizo would publish.

Sorry for the radio silence, I had a long flight and getting around was a lot more messy than I was hoping for. I'd like to take close ties for my background, so if you have ideas for what NPCs you'd like for that to be with, I'd like to hash that out with you - I've got a few I could go between if you don't have anything in particular in mind. As for the starting things, if I may be allowed to take the repeat, I have preference for also getting a cold iron chunk for needle darts purposes, but otherwise I don't mind too much. Otherwise, I've got the character tentatively planned out to level 10 here barring spell choices, which I've only done for level 1. Once I finalize things for backstory, I'll fill that out both in pathbuilder and make a character sheet proper on my profile, I've got to read through some of the pbp guides again for formatting but I don't imagine that'll be too bad.

Since there are 5 of us, we're allowed one duplicate on the heirlooms.

No phobias for me, but I'd like to introduce some elements of body horror if people are ok with that because...

I'm going to change my Heritage to Reflection. Reflections are messed up, uncanny clones of an existing person. They get feats to transform themselves to scare others, as well as gaslight themselves that they are the real person and not the clone. I'll still have a human form with the Everyday Form ancestry feat. The plan is to combine both Chronoskimmer and Reflection feats to mechanically represent that eldritch forces around the village are physically and mentally warping my PC.

This build plan does use up like 2/3 of our Rare options. Please sound out if you plan to take a Rare option so I don't hog all the fun choices. I can drop Reflection, but Chronoskimmer is non-negotiable.

The only thing I would consider requesting access to, assuming there’s real opportunity for crafting, would be Medical Researcher, though it was intended to be taught by a very different NPC than You So-Ji.

I don't plan on eating any rares unless I find some item or spell that seems really interesting to me down the line, and I don't think anything like that would be super key to what I want to do, so I don't mind yall takin em.

The only thing I would consider requesting access to, assuming there’s real opportunity for crafting, would be Medical Researcher, though it was intended to be taught by a very different NPC than You So-Ji.

I'm going to say no for now, unless there is a real lack of availability of resources that we observe in the 2 chapters. (Progression is going to milestone levelling with the rate of 1 level per chapter). Without spoiling the adventure, it does consider the fact you start in a level 4 settlement and ensures there is means for the appropriate access to the items as you level up.

Oh hang on, I suppose there's just one more thing. Are we running this off the pre-master version of the AP (4 books) or the Remastered compilation version of the AP, with the supposed improvements and updates based on player feedback?

I don't think it makes a huge difference though.

@GM: Is the 2-3 rare options per PC or as collective group?

Zhēnzǐ has one rare option used for his ancestry.

My IRL player got the 1st book pre-master, but once we're done with chapter 2 I'll grab the rest of the remastered. But reading the feedbacks there's not much difference.

The rare option is as a collective group, but it's a soft guideline not a hard one per se, I'm happy to discuss if there's something specific someone wants that could make sense setting wise. I just didn't want it to be an unlimited amount of rares where everyone goes crazy.

Ok, I finally get to post!

I do cover some face, but otherwise I am not planning this character as much ahead as you guys. Should I?

Ok, I finally get to post!

I do cover some face, but otherwise I am not planning this character as much ahead as you guys. Should I?

The goal is to have fun, some people really like seeing their character concept flesh out, I 'loosely' plan ahead. As a GM, I'm not here to punish fun builds vs clearly min max ones. But I'm also going to be "fair" to the campaign material.

I loosely remember something like this cause it was almost 10 years ago, but in my giantslayer campaign, optimized min max players, overconfident at cruising a fair amount of battles at level 6 or so, decided they wanted to hunt down a level 16 dragon even after multiple warnings, near TPK. So the warning really is, don't try to do ridiculous and you'll be fine in my book.

For me, I plan my PCs out so that I can contribute to faster group level ups. But that's just me, planning out your PC isn't strictly necessary.

I've filled out all of the slides and am ready to go.

Thanks!

Yeah, I like arcane casters and this is my first 2e sorcerer. I think I'll cruise for now and let my build flesh out on the go.