Oh no :/ Yes, I know who you're talking about, man. My profound condolences and sorry for your loss.
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Agatsu enters his usual unorthodox fighting style, then advances to attack the spider.
Someone had been here, huh? - whispers Agatsu towards Sylvar, and then steps in the room to start looking around and investigating before advancing.
Agatsu nods in agreement to Alistaire and Sylvar, and then proceeds to follow the rogue as he moves to check the door.
Agatsu feels the urge to shake and flee, but still manages to keep his composure.
Sylvar... Will you inspect the way for us? Maybe these closer doors first? - says the brawler towards the rogue, stepping inside the place and doing a brief scan of his own.
Agatsu approaches and tries to look inside from the broken windows by the side of the doorframe. He signs to the others to hold.
Very well. Let's go for it, then. - says Agatsu, also inspecting the building before going for the front doors.
Agatsu taps Omast shoulder friendly, as if reassuring him that anyone could have a lapse, especially in such circumstances. Finally, though, the brawler approaches his other companions. Well, it seems we confirmed our suspicions about the hopeknife. - he pauses - I find the tower graffiti the most odd, like him, but in a world where undead walk among the living and lizards breath flames, I guess we could always expect something arcane to bring the unexpected. He then approaches the window. Unless you have any other point, it seems it's time for us to visit the Plague House. Please, get ready, and let's see the road.
Pulling Allistaire and the others towards Lialda and further from the sergeant's ears, the brawler first answers him. Yes, it's a fine idea... As much as I would want to have some alcohol in my system right now. Omast is a good man, and he was clean for almost an year. I fear this lapse will... Like any little lapse would... Pull him right back. - and he gestures with both arms in a pulling motion. He then turns to the witch. I see your point. - he says, turning his head to Omast, then back to her - And maybe whoever assigned him to do it, also sees it. Yet, I don't see any new bottles on him. I myself find that some hard work for long hours without replenishing my mugs is one way to sober up. Finally, Agatsu scratches his chin. Unless, of course, we have something to control the... Poison... In his system, of at least a very cold bucket of water. Regardless, if we are to get him sober to make more sense, then we might have to stay here and wait for it to run its course.
I'm finally able to get back in as well.
Agatsu approached silently the sergeant. He never, in his lifetime, imagined the situation would inverse like that - but ever since the murder, he hasn't drank, and his friend, sober for an year, is now on this situation. The large man looked at Omast with understanding, and not condescending. He let their eyes cross and stare, before sitting on the ground with his back against the wall. As my companions said... We're trying to get to the root of it all. - he finally broke the silence, now not looking directly at Omast anymore - Your help would be appreciated.
Agatsu stays by Sylvar, shaking his head in agreement with the rogue - the brawler particularly liked the approach to say that it's important to keep him safe.
Best of luck on your future endeavors, Aradesh! JasonX, if you need the help, I can look over the submissions and send suggestions (or, I can reach out to people that play with me on other games to build something to play here with us).
Let's get moving. - says Agatsu, shaking his head in agreement.
So, this hirer of yours just handed you the coins without any warranty you'd carry the job? - asked Agatsu, not too confident - You know, it'd be customary to get half the coins before, half after the job. The half-orc was such a trusting benefactor! The large man approached the assassin menacingly. Unless, of course, you still have the other half to receive... And a place to meet to receive the new bag of coins. Right?
Agatsu steps up to flank with Alistaire and attacks the enemy with his sledgehammer, already in Shikigami Style.
Agatsu doesn't like to be in that situation - prone, with the assassin in top of him - and simply tries to stand up, even if this means being attacked. As he stands up, he pulls anything he can use as a weapon - even a chair! Adopting his shikigami style, as he stands up, he swings the improvised weapon against the assassin by him.
Agreed, young one. - says Agatsu towards Kilien, probably barely realizing she's likely older than him, at least in absolute terms - Let's get some rest and depart again first thing in the morning. Considering the attack we suffered, however, maybe all of us should be sharing rooms and doing shifts through the night.
We might still have time today to talk to her if we press. - said Agatsu, looking to the skies to estimate the time - About Katrezra, though... Even if he didn't skip town, we should probably give some priority to find him. Not only he may be in some sort of danger, but the whole coincidence of his disappearance does sound suspicious and could ar least indicate he knows something.
Yes... - says Agatsu, agreeing with his companions - ... Where can we find Katrezra?
And... We'd like also to inspect the body, if possible. - says Agatsu, complementing Aradesh. He, himself, didn't know much anything about inspecting bodies or finding evidence from them, but he heard there were even some clerics able to speak with the recently dead, and was clueless on how capable his companions were. He was simply bringing it out because they insisted on "going to the body soon", despite the fact that in his practical mind, the dead shouldn't be moving from one day to the other, but the living very likely will do so.
Very well. Let's all march together to inspect the body. - the large human completed, as he dropped his sledgehammer above his shoulder and started moving.
I think you're right, Aradesh... Brinya should likely be our next stop. And we can talk to others tomorrow - especially after we crossed path with that weird pack o'wolves. - says the brawler, silently nodding to thank Sara for her help.
I don't remember Urnsul myself... But we should find her. Would you have an address or wherever she was living? - asks Agatsu.
G'afternoon, Sara. - Agatsu greets her heartily - Always happy to be here, but unfortunately not due to good news as you well know. The large man walks cleaning up his weapon, as Aradesh speaks. We have also the hopeknife that killed Rodrik. - he finally completes, almost as if hearing the skies whisper on his ears, before producing such weapon.
Agatsu pulled his sledgehammer with both hands and immediately moved towards one of the wolves. It was visible - now that combat started - that she adopted his strangely exotic shikigami stance, getting a special grip on the improvised weapon. God forsaken wolves! Gotta enjoy our luck, huh.
Scat, you bunch of overgrown fleabags! - he yells at them, as he pulls back the sledgehammer.
Agatsu approaches with stern steps. Despite all that, and his usual grumpy manners, the kellid smiles openly to Sara - she always treated him well, and Agrit, her companion, was a sort of a pariah like him - she didn't leave Janderhoff in good terms. Dwarves also had a great predilection for good ale, so he felt he was in good companion.
We can split too. Feel free to go to the smith with the elves. I can take Lialda and Alistaire to go talk to Brinya. - says Agatsu, not a fan of wasting much time - Let's meet back here when we wrap.
Melira? - inquires Agatsu, scratching his head - Now we have a name. And a motive, it seems... Whomever is this "Melira"'s lover. Other preparations... It sounds to me as if Rodrik poked at some bee nest, and something else might be going on as we speak.
@GM: My apologies for asking it so late (and let me add, "pretty please"), but could I switch Agatsu to be a brawler instead of a monk? The entire build is pretty much the same, but I think with the Elephant in the Room rules, the brawler will work a lot better. We didn't have any combats yet and just a few rolls, and the character is very similar in skills etc.; I put a tentative sheet here in the profile for you to compare. I will lose mostly in defenses and some of the "special toys" monk gain, but it will be thematically closer to what I wanted to do (the drunk dude hitting people with his tankard) and the damage will scale better beyond level 6-12. Thanks again!
Agatsu picks up the key, but holds before moving to the suspicious guest's room, waiting for Aradesh and Alistaire.
So... No name? - says Agatsu, a little shocked with their finding - What can you remember of that man? Give us details. Where is he now? Agatsu approaches her firmly, looking around for his companions' reactions.
Hm. - Agatsu grunts, looking at Aradesh and Alistaire - Well, I guess I better go inspect the room, then. Maybe the kids found something already. Hmmm... Or maybe I should take a look outside. The ex-monk holds a bit for his two companions.
Greetings, Cham. - says Agatsu in a low tone. The halfling certainly knew the ex-monk well, and the fact he was sober now was a clear sign of how serious he was taking the whole situation. Did anyone hear anything last night? Or saw anything obviously out of norm? - he asked the obvious questions, more interested in shaking his head around with curiosity.
Will do... - says Agatsu, not really investing much on answering Aradesh. The ex-monk was focused in his thoughts, and feeling particularly inefficient being sober. He looks at Alistaire with curiosity. He was one of the recent outsiders around, and in Agatsu's mind could very well even be the culprit! Same goes for the strange short elf, Kilien. Yet, the authorities seemed to trust them even to help investigate.
Hi team! I will be travelling for the upcoming days for work (yes, irk! In Covid times!) and should be back by Friday. I'll try to keep an eye here and update as possible, but don't let me hold the action if I slow down a little bit. Cheers!
Agatsu wakes up to the news, shockingly shaking his head. Rodrik looked perfectly fine in the night before! While he found it all fishy, he couldn't really counter the fact that a dead man with cut wrists definitely look like a suicide. A murderer would probably try to kill him a lot faster to prevent cries for help - a good knife in the neck could do the trick, and still give him an agonizing end if the goal was so. Yet, he pushed himself to go around the roped off building. He doubted the militia would let him any close to the body or the scene. In his mind, Rodrik was a friend, and he wouldn't want his death to go without investigation or simply dismissed as a suicide... As painful as it was for him to admit things seemed to suggest it.
The simulacrum of Tar-Baphon was nicknamed Tar-Buffoon by my players.
Book 2 gameplay: Trebelbet has a lot of little RP traps you can walk into if you're not paying attention. Plenty of NPC behaviors expect PCs to act a certain way, so think about what you'll do if your PCs don't follow up on things, fail to call out a lie, or are cagey about their goals. Book 3 prep: Dark Side Tunnels makes 3/3 maps with a broken grid and 2/2 maps that are supposed to have POI markings but don't. Again, easy enough to figure out where the Slicing Barricade trap's control glyph is supposed to be. The trap also mixes up its N/S and E/W axes, so read it carefully.
Book 2 gameplay notes: I showed the Rythes map to the players without worrying about the encounter locations marked on the map. But then they asked questions of Wuli about the closer places. It was easy to explain that the farmer and the Syaandi Camp weren't actually on the map, and the Seabridge and the Crossing were easy to describe, but I hit a snag with the Howling Stones. I scrambled to come up with an explanation that wouldn't give the game away too much. I came up with "People generally avoid it, it's bad luck, not sure why since it's been so long." The players' curiosity got them to explore it anyway, and once they figured out what happened, "It's bad luck" was acceptable as a rumor caused by getting hit by lightning. As for the elementals, I was going to just give them telekinesis as an SLA at their normal attack bonus. But one of my PC's spoke Ignan and talked them down. I estimate travel times being one day getting past Kobec's Crossing and second day ending at the farmer's. Book 3 prep notes: Seems a bit odd for Khedri to get an invitation. I might make him Relstanna's +1 instead. The acid dart traps guarding the gate component require separate checks to find each of them. This has a good chance of getting called out as BS by your players and could set a bad precedent. If you think that's a problem, consider telling them that they notice a second trap if they get 10 over the Perception DC, which could get them to think to keep checking for more. Land mine squares in the warehouse office aren't marked but it's not hard to guess where they should go.
Book 2 gameplay: The day of dealing with Mr. Sarlu and Basher can get very long, so if your group had to spend a lot of resources dealing with the moray eel, you should let them rest before they go meet Basher. On the other hand, my group didn't get into any fights in the emporium, so I sped up the rate of arrival of the klaven infiltrators to every round and they did fine. The ransom exchange is weird. It's incredibly stupid for Basher to agree to make the exchange at Sarlu's place, whatever the difficulty in getting another location is. So I had the tower guards leave entirely, so this became slightly less suicidal. No DC is listed for the doors Geldek has to open to escape with the ransom payment, so I made it 25. Basher's thugs are supposed to flee once he dies, but they can't get the doors open. They ended up trying to follow Geldek and later Riaz out in my game. They didn't live long enough to get stuck at a door, but maybe they can give the ysoki cover. XP note: The group had well over 17k XP (15k is needed to get to level 6) after the exchange. It's a good time to level anyway. I won't be tracking XP anymore. Book 3 prep notes: I'm glad we've played Against the Aeon Throne, so we all have some heist experience. This is a very player-driven scenario, so one group's experience won't be much help. The Thanex Manse map grid is broken. I can't make it square. Annoying, but it's not so bad it's not playable. Really wish the art was labeled. I have no idea which portrait goes with which character. Are there even any tieflings in this book? How are the PCs supposed to find out about the soiree? This is never actually mentioned. Keeper Axater has a sonic dampener, despite not wearing armor with an armor check penalty. Give him a lightwarp inlay or change his armor.
This needs setup. Starfinder game playing Legendary Planet; one of the characters is a chlorvian, a humanoid-plant hybrid. The party has been asked to get hired by a kidnapper in order to betray him during the ransom exchange. Player 1: "This should be easy. We say we're mercenaries looking for work, which we are."
Book 2 gameplay: Why don't they tell us what's in the box? Most players will want to know. I had to come up with something generic, so you might want to plan ahead for that.
Book 1 gameplay notes: Lomrick went down easily. The minions were effectively neutralized after one round thanks to a good grenade and a hurl forcedisc that successfully hit all five targets it could. I'm not sure it would have made much difference if they were still relatively hale, as they'll fall victim to Lomrick's grenades even more easily than the PCs will. He's likely to last several rounds (five in my game), at least, so it's not like he feels like a chump. Won't do too much damage, though. If your party is above average (or you let them level up to 5 early—see XP note) and you want a tougher final battle consider replacing two of the klaven with warbeasts. Do NOT give Lomrick deathblade poison. It's a level 20 item. Not only is the DC high for this level, but if it's recovered, it can be sold for over 13K credits. Make it blue whinnis instead. Much more reasonable. XP note: If you've done all encounters to this point, the party will pass 10,000 XP to hit level 5 after killing Aardregghr. After killing Lomrick, they will have 11,500. If you skip the coliseum fights, they will only have 9,900. I'm going to keep tracking XP at least through level 6, but after that, the advancement track is clear enough. Going to need to switch to it anyway after book 3. Book 2 prep notes: The Witchbreakers repeat a mistake from the CRB, making their weapons ethereal when that fusion doesn't exist and should probably be ghost killer. The Veleate guardsmen use the Tower Guard stats, which means they have a magic weapon with their paralytic machine guns. While it's one thing for the Witchbreakers, having normal guards have magic is too much hypocrisy that I don't think the Baroness actually has. Just take away the fusion. I haven't looked closely at the armor that's been in the adventure so far, but if I can help it, I won't let them have level 7 armor before the Isle of Orange or it'll negate the radiation threat. I plan on having the towns on Rythes only have items up to party level -1 or even -2 to reflect their relative poverty. Another answer might be to say that the tech in this AP isn't up to the same level as the Pact Worlds and reduce the radiation protection armor gives. I'm wondering why the warwagon doesn't have the Drawn ability that the sarlu aquarium does. It makes it seem like it has an engine when nothing else in the adventure backs that up. I may just allow my PCs to use Piloting or Survival to pilot to keep it simple. Also vehicle weapons don't have arcs. The Pelicole Pass map makes no sense whatsoever. There's no mention of what seems to be a door to G8, and there's no point to the G7 area. I might make the unexplained holes in each room be part of a tunnel between them, or just say G8 is below G7. The gnolls are a complete joke if they're attacking PCs. I'll have to come up with something to spice things up.
Book 1 gameplay notes: The adventure deliberately leaves the pacing of the information gathering to find Lomrick up to the GM, but simply going from one thing to another causes an unsatisfactory moment. If the only info the Avaar Coterie agent can give them is Kaetrix, that seems like poor payment for their services, so I had to change things so that he gave them Kaetrix and Lomrick's location. Book 2 Prep notes: The Kobec's Crossing guards inexplicably have no statblocks. Tempting to just make them all Tower Guards from Sarlu's, but that's a CR 8 where they all have cover against a level 6 party. Could be unpleasant, and I'd prefer to use a CR 7 group there. May make them Tower Guards with the shaken condition. Lucky for me, my group is likely to use diplomacy. False St. Albat is a weird one. It's a solo CR 3 encounter against a level 6 party, but does 1d4 Charisma damage on a hit with no save. I think I'll just make him a marrowblight (CR 7).
My last two sessions dealt with Zel-Argose and the investigation to find Lomrick. The book already gives pretty good advice, and any RP you do that results in a particularly useful source of information (like finding the psychic detective agency on Morpheum Street) should be understood to feed into the gameplay mechanism of the DC reducing over time. I tried to use the downtime rules to expand on the weekly Profession checks to earn a living, but Zel-Argose is so large that those bonus checks are impossible. In another game, I'd have limited the effects to the neighborhood, but it didn't really work in this circumstance. Skills side note:
I created my own version of Pathfinder Unchained's Background Skills for this campaign. I gave everyone two extra skill ranks per level: one for a Profession and one for a choice among Computers, Disguise, Piloting, Sleight of Hand, or another Profession. I did this so they would have profession skills for this section and some piloting for book 2. You might be tempted to skip the Coliseum fights, but the extra income might be handy for gear. My players bought very little after coming to the city initially, but after three fights the soldier bought some new armor that came in very useful for the Daytaar safehouse. Also, use the Performance Combat rules from Pathfinder. I plan to have them face the champion once they're level 4, but the crowd will be fully on his side. Speaking of the safehouse, Veelan Iron-Hand is pretty scary if your PCs are still level 3. His tactics to full attack often will wreck your players if your dice are hot. I gave him a shield (I want to add them in occasionally since they didn't exist and had him full attack less frequently. The soldier went down but the mystic was prepared with spell gems of mystic cure to keep him up with her own HP. XP note: My party had 6500 XP (level 4 is at 6000) after three coliseum fights, the Dirty Deals encounter, and clearing the Daytaar safehouse. If you want to skip the coliseum fights, you will not have enough XP to hit level 4 before entering Lomrick's Manse, so you should either give an extra story award or use fiat leveling for this part. Prep notes: Incredibly bad conversion work in this volume. Besides more weapon references I didn't mention last time, there's a major screw-up with the plasma elementals in the Howling Stones. The text says they try to get the PCs inside the circle of stones with their telekinetic throw ability, but their statblock doesn't have it. They're only CR 3, so they'll never succeed at bull rushing. I'll have to give them something else when the time comes to run this. Also, the Syaandi leader is supposed to cast a spell to start the combat and signal his allies, but during conversion he became a solarion. That's at least easy to work around with a different signal.
No notes from my last gameplay session (the ruin and making it to Zel-Argose) other than the adventure gave plenty of wealth during this first segment. Maybe above average even for Paizo's APs, but I didn't do the math. Most of it is useful gear instead of cash. Players ended up with mid-900s in credits after selling gear, so didn't buy much besides consumables as weapon upgrades compared to what they found aren't worth it at this level. More prep notes:
More sloppy conversion work: Basher's henchmen's tactics say they go invisible to sneak attack. Operatives don't need to do that. Come up with a more inventive use for the invisibility or don't waste the turn. Also the half-elves that show up for the exchange are described as having bows but have rifles in their stats.
Thanks, Nimor. Random notes while I enter the second book into FG: The Tower Guards for Sarlu's Compound have thermal capacitors in their armor, and so should have 5 cold and fire resistance in their stat block. The paralytic weapon fusion is listed at level 12, but placed into a level 4 item, which is not allowed. Just make it level 4, even if it is strong for that level. Cost depends on the weapon it's added to, so that's not an issue. Side note: the highest level fusion Paizo has made is level 10.
I want to like this, but I'm really going to miss the "highlight everything that changed in the last month" button.
Do not force your players to fight the Tauslek Matriarch until they've been able to gather the equipment on level 2. I gave my group a glimpse of her entering level 1 as they were starting to climb up from the sublevel, and they were all too eager to avoid her for a while. The Matriarch is going to be a tough fight, and without good luck it's possible that only her desire to poison everyone and drag off anyone she grabs, both inefficient actions, will save the party. Also note that her poison is potentially fatal in SF. You may want to limit its end state. The fascination effect in battle is a bit wonky, so I had it break on anyone who was attacked and gave a new save every round. My group finished her off by dropping a grenade down the elevator shaft as she fled. Very satisfying. Andretta is useless in any fight in the prison except for casting daze on klaven. This is by design, but I felt the need to swap out one of her spells for mystic cure. The rest of level 2 (before the Matriarch fight) went smoothly. I was worried about the mimic fight, but it was easier than a Pathfinder mimic would have been. My group may have gotten lucky with the die rolls, though. Make sure you pay attention to how the doors are locked in the battle pit trap room. XP note: My players reached level 2 after killing the Matriarch and clearing everything on the first two prison levels, with 1350 XP.
This is a thing that needs doing, so here it is. I've just started this campaign, and will be leaving notes here as I go for future GMs' reference. Anyone else is welcome to add your own. My party, for reference:
Vesk blitz soldier
Human drone mechanic Aasimar witchwarper Chlorvian xenodruid mystic I tried to encourage them to have two melee weapon wielders considering the theme and the loot, but it didn't work out that way. The mechanic may make his drone into one when it gets more durable, but for now it's not. Side note: I use the Fantasy Grounds VTT, so I loved the art folio to share images with my players, especially tagless version of the maps. But for some reason, a couple of the maps didn't have tagless versions, so I had to delete them myself in GIMP, which is never pretty. Now to the actual adventure. I was concerned about an adventure originally built for level 2 Pathfinder characters being converted for level 1 Starfinder characters, but it works well...mostly. The initial fight against the baghra is going to be really bad if no one in the group has natural weapons or attack spells. Even with my group that had both, it was a rough fight and I wished I had given the baghra the sickened condition. It's entirely possible that your group stumbles upon the klaven before they get their equipment, so make sure they find the gear first. It's supposed to be dark in that center area, so maybe have a flickering light visible through the malfunctioning door of the storage room. The klaven fight is tougher then it looks since your group is likely to get flanked. I was originally going to hold off on giving the mechanic his drone until BR-N3R could become it, but I saw during this fight that that wasn't going to work, so I retroactively gave it to him with the rest of his gear like the adventure said to. Even so, they were out of spells after healing from the two fights, and needed to rest after clearing the rest of the rooms and meeting Andretta. Speaking of Andretta, this is the first instance of sloppy story conversion. The adventure says that faulty equipment knocked the baghra in the room out, but then says they spoke to her and she recognized the language as Ultari. It looks pretty strongly to me that in the Pathfinder version, she knocked them out with a sleep spell, but sleep doesn't exist in Starfinder, hence the quick change. I went with saying she used magic to knock them out anyway, since it was the end of the game session and her recognition of Ultari is the first important detail that the information-starved party will be getting, and knowing my players wouldn't question it. Use your own judgement for that one. It could also work to have her not know anything more than they do until they see Ultari on one of the other levels.
Isn't half of the maelstrom an ocean of entropic water?No so much half as the sum of 1/2 + 1/3 - 2/5 + 3/8 - 5/13 + 8/21 - 13/34... This is entirely too rational. The maelstrom is the source of all those old recipes that tell you to add a dash or a smidge of something.
I can give it a shot. First off, the guards are lax to begin with. If your players haven't alerted anyone during their investigations, they can say almost anything and be believed as long as most of them look Azlanti. Just follow the guidance in each room and they should be able to get clearance to the normal prison cells without issue. If your players try anything, just assume they're on camera and have to make a Stealth check. Increase the tension a little when they actually get to the cells. They guards will check their clearance, and have them make a Bluff check even if the guards will still believe everything. If they want to check out the room where Cedona is, I would have the guards at the hub warn them that the warden didn't want to be disturbed, but be easy to convince that the warden can deal with the PCs. The warden's room is soundproofed and she won't raise an alarm, so that's not an issue. But coming out with Cedona is odd, so that will almost certainly lead to a fight. There will probably be reinforcements coming as they free the other prisoners. The robots patrolling the hallway can be fooled easily if disguises are still up. If they missed hacking any cameras, then the security station will be waiting for them and may get the robots to attack them anyway. If they didn't, then they could get away without any more fighting. The right disguise or attitude could get the guards at the airlock to let them pass without stopping them, but that last camera at the airlock probably didn't get hacked, so you could have any guards that were bypassed come running up for another fight, a chase, or just a narrated escape as they ineffectively shoot at the party's ship.
Give them a Crafting DC, and if they pass the pillar's save result becomes one degree worse.
Week 2! Mostly investigation this week. Still, there was some fighting. I made a determined effort to use my revelation spells this time. First fight was a group of bloodseekers. This seemed like a good time for incendiary aura, since I knew they were going to come straight for us. Unfortunately, they didn't have enough hp to even get to take the persistent damage. Minor curse now activated. Next was a boar fight. We started about 70' or so away from it, so it was concealed from me. I didn't want to risk wasting fire ray. So I spent two actions to get closer and my last to try to Demoralize it, failing even without the -4. Next round, the ranger's badger was down, so I stabilized it. Next round, the fighter was down and the boar was running on ferocity, so I finished it off with fire ray. Crit too, which was pointless but satisfying. The curse and my revelation spell are clearly pushing me forward into near-melee, but I'm a pyromancer and want maxed Charisma, leaving my AC pretty weak. Concealment from the moderate curse helps, but I don't think it's enough. I'm really missing medium armor right now. I'd like the revelation spells to have more oomph to make up for the gameplay changes they force on me. Flaming fusillade looks pretty good, and maybe fire ray will too once it has a chance to improve its damage compared to produce flame, but they're not so hot (pun retroactively intended) at level 1.
This was released just in time for a Fall of Plaguestone game I was in tonight. I hurriedly converted a fire domain cloistered cleric over, so I didn't have all that much time to mull over the options, plus I know this will never get past level 3. Also this is the first spellcaster I've played in PF2. The other characters in the party are a fighter, monk, and ranger. Human Acolyte Flame Oracle
So, that's a lot of fire. Maybe if I did it again, I'd take the sun domain or a different feat for more variety, but I decided to stick with it because there's not actually such a thing as too much fire. My other 1st level spell was heal, and among my cantrips I grabbed daze for fire-resistant creatures. In the wagon attack, I hit a wolf with produce flame, then burning hands on the boss wolf and another (one-shotting the weaker wolf). The boss would have been a good target for fire ray, but I stopped to Battle Medicine the fighter after he took a bad hit. The wolves were dead next turn, and I never used a revelation spell to start my curse. That's the only fight of any significance we had tonight. So, I have a somewhat overkill mix of fire attacks with a cantrip, focus/revelation spell, and area attack spell. And incendiary aura seems like a great combo with fire spells (anyone who takes fire damage within 10 feet of you catches on fire). But I didn't find an opportunity to use it in the first fight. I'm really not sure when I would. I don't want to get within 10 feet of anybody unless I'm casting burning hands. I could cast it at the start of a fight and look for opportunities to run forward and light someone up at the edge of a fight, but then there's the problem of that it's a revelation spell. Once I use my first revelation spell of the day, my curse begins, and I can only cast one revelation spell per fight after that. I'm generally going to want to save that for fire ray, or dazzling flash for the sun domain. I'll keep reporting as we go. Can't comment on the curse yet, so for right now, it's a fun magical nuker but incendiary aura looks to be really hard to use at low levels.
I have to brag about my players' creativity. Nine Eaves library. Wasp swarm. Players have realized that it's guarding the nests and won't pursue. One player applies the vermin repellent that he just happens to have bought at character creation and goes in alone. He climbs on a chair and starts hacking at the nests. He only gets about halfway through before the swarm starts making the save to be able to attack him, so the other players have to come in and help. They cut the nests down, force open the balcony door, and throw the nests outside. The swarm's written as defending the nests, so I decided it was fair to reward their tactics and had the swarm follow the nests outside. They were able to manipulate who got attacked by who was handling the nests and got out with only moderate damage (which means no resources spent because we're using the Strain/Injury rules), and only one PC was poisoned badly enough for a lesser restoration to be needed. The alkalai flasks from the greenhouse were the only damage source they had and they wouldn't have been enough.
Nothing to do with the rules or reality, but I think that would be a nice niche for crossbows. They could be easier to use than bows while Taking Cover (including when prone) but you'd be sacrificing mobility.
I like the idea of spending a hero point to get the card of your choice. I liked the markets of Mummy's Mask, not only for the extra chance to get a good card, but also because it gave more incentive to spend resources to get cards you didn't care about but could use for trade fodder. I can see how an extra thing to do at the end of the scenario could be too much for a lot of people, though.
What are you, crazy? That's what an LG abolitionist would do, and Double C is CG! Seriously, it's probably fine.
We ran into a similar situation last night with a caster wanting to use a cantrip with a saving throw (electric jolt or something) against an invisible creature we knew the location of. We looked around and saw nothing that would prevent the spell from being used against the creature, as long as the flat check succeeded.
If you want to simulate this, you could get rid of Perception entirely and have everyone roll Nature to be perceptive in a rural environment and Society to be perceptive in an urban environment. Do some more work and that could make an interesting house rule. Bad simulation for separating book learning from practical experience, but nothing's perfect.
I think you're reading your knowledge of PF1 into an imagined gap in the PF2 rules, when in reality something like that would be explained if it actually existed.
1) They're level 2 because rogues can become expert at level 2. They get skill increases every level starting at 2. 2) They wanted to put the monster rules in the Gamemastery Guide (arriving Jan-Feb next year), I believe so they wouldn't feel obligated to republish them in every Bestiary. In the meantime we have to take similar monsters and adjust them to fit. 3) I think NPCs built like PCs are the same level for XP as their class level. Not sure. There are humanoid enemies in the bestiary you can modify or you can build them like PCs. 4) NPCs like the Goblin Warrior use the stats they need to use for their role and level, so it doesn't matter how they got there.
Wouldn't this just be a list of everyone? :P
I'm strongly reminded of the first book of Spice and Wolf, where there was a scheme based around rumors of changing value in a country's currency, and people buying up a lot of the coins to get favors out of the king. Could be a good intrigue plot in this game.
But you should take into account the chances of adventuring getting you killed. If there's a 1% chance per day of death, then on average it will take 100 days of adventuring to kill you. Pfft. Only other (stupid and less handsome) adventurers get killed. I'll be fine. Math Aside: At that rate 100 days of adventuring has a 63.4% chance of killing you. 99% chance of surviving to the hundredth power is 36.6%. You hit a 50% chance of death on the 69th day, and it takes 459 days to have a less than 1% chance of survival.
You'd heighten it so higher-level darkness spells can't stop it.
But would be able to implement those monsters easily? Can't answer that until we see the ruleset. But for PF1, it parses the monster's attacks, AC, saves, resistances, and some other stuff automatically for you (and I expect the same from the PF2 ruleset). Things like breath weapons I have to manually code. Spells get parsed with mixed results. Spells that are pure damage or inflict a standard condition usually get parsed properly, but more complicated ones need manual work. There's a user-made extension for PF1 that lets you just drop a text statblock in a box and it codes the monster or NPC for you. I expect someone will come up with one for PF2 eventually.
I love the "about a week" phrase on the blindfold. It's a perfect fit for the kind of person who'd make or wear this item. I can just see the shrug of the shoulders and the "whatever" expression you'd expect to see on someone who's sociopathic enough to wear this thing in public.
Here's a list of 50 mostly minor effects I came up with for my PFS spellscar oracle.
My favorites are "Caster must respond to everything in rhyme," and "Caster's mother uses a sending to complain that she doesn't have grandchildren."
Is there a way to bookmark not the whole blog but just your post? You can click on a post's timestamp, and that gives you a link that takes you directly to the post. Glad you found it helpful. You should see if the Hornblower or Aubrey-Maturin series are translated into Italian.
Let's see what I remember from reading Hornblower. Reefing means shortening your sails by folding or rolling them. Lowers your speed but also reduces strain. Balancing speed vs. strain is really important with sailing ships. The courses are the biggest, lowest sails on the masts, and the topsails (or tops'ls) are the ones right above them. Above that are topgallants (t'gallants) and royals if your ship has them. Foretopmast is the second segment of the fore mast. Where the tops'ls hang. The mizzen boom is like a side arm on the rear (mizzen) mast, I think with a staysail (attached to a stay, a line running fore or aft from a mast), and jibbing it just means moving it to the other side of the ship. Since it was presumably tied down, the storm had to rip things to move it. The crosstrees are where the shrouds (lines that support the mast) meet the mast. Probably near the tops (platforms on the masts, where topmen hang out). So decently high for the whale to reach. "On the beam" means the waves hit right on the side of the ship. Very bad. You want to steer into waves. Confirmed some of this with the internet, but it's confusing stuff.
Why am I so excited about variant rules before the regular rules are even out?
You guys have clearly run out of things to talk about, so it's time to give the blog slot up for PF2 previews. Spoiler: Quinn looks cool and I'll probably use him on my first CotCT game.
And it's an extra $5 off the Fantasy Grounds version!* *Not that it matters since I'd be buying both the PDF and FG versions in any case.
I normally go for the 20s/30s, but in Mummy's Mask, I'm playing a Pahmet dwarf who's an uncle to most of the rest of the party (all dwarves plus a related oread). He was experienced at clearing undead out of tombs, but he also needed to be 1st level. So I had him run afoul of wights and get drained, get saved by the spirits of his ancestors, and now he's a Speaker for the Past battle shaman.
On the gripping hand, since old-school multiclassing doesn't exist anymore, it's a little safer to front-load archetype features even for a class that doesn't have much to trade out early.
I was really pleased to see that "spoiler." Arcane Trickster is my favorite archetype (in the literary sense) to play.
Darn it, now I want a goblin-dictated version of the entire rulebook.
I'd bet you're talking about the mirrored numbers puzzle. I've seen that one multiple times in puzzle games.
"Ezren!" Valeros's voice rose, hitting the octave of a man at least partially on fire. Bravo.
It took Aroden a few centuries to stop directly interfering. Even after that, the last thing we need is an enormously more powerful Whispering Way.
Hope you like TPKs. I ran him unchanged against a party of five and he still dropped two of them.
I will repeat my elsewhere-stated lament about the misuse of the term "forensics." Ah well, another thing we can add to the list to blame on CSI. Goblin Song being a feat is both hilarious and terrifying.
[pedant] Forensic means "used for legal purposes," not "I did science on a crime scene." Some form of Medical Examination would be better. [/pedant] I otherwise agree.
It'll be interesting to see the difference between, say, a wizard taking rogue and a rogue taking wizard.
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