I was surprised that I did not receive a Holiday Card in either of my last two monthly shipments this year. Is Paizo not doing the Holiday Card this year? They always brought a smile to my face.
Is there a way to get rid of the hampered condition? It persists even if I start a new character.
Laura Bailey <harp music>
On page 460, it says spending you Hero Points causes you to return yo 1 HP. However, on page 467 it says that doing so onky stablizes you at 0 HP. Which one is thr correct ruling?
The PCs: Dweevil, Human Cleric of Iomedae (Esoteric Scholar background)
We spent a good chunk leveling up the characters and selecting new magic items and spells. One important thing to note is that Scruffy spent all his money on five Rings of Resistance (granting Resist 10 vs. acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic) despite Dweevil encouraging to get Winged Boots or Potions of Fly. He had a little leftover and invested in a +1 Composite Shortbow. SETTING THE SCENE: I began with recap of the events of the previous six parts. As Keleri, informed the party that the countdown clock would reach 0 in 1 weeks time, and it was time to use the White Axiom to unlock the power of the Last Theorem. I used an Abstract Algebra textbook as a prop for the Last Theorem. THE MALIGNANT THEOREMS: Taking a page from Mark Seifter and the Live Play stream, I had the party roll either Perception or Occultism for initiative. McBlasty won initiative and used Recall Knowledge to learn about the giants and learned quite a bit on a Critical Success (most notably that they are Immune to fire). He then opted to open things up with a Polar Ray, but missed. The Rune Giants went next, encircling the PCs and blasting them with 4 cones of electricity as they Invoked Their Runes. The giants took advantage of Air Walk to remain 10 feet above the ground so they could not also blind the PCs. Dweezil cast Divine Aura, buffing the party's AC and providing a blinding effect against evil creatures. Falkon proved quite effective with his Dwarven Thrower (he also used Righteous Ally to add Holy damage to it). Scruffy, on the other hand, was forced to fall back on his +1 Composite Shortbow, and was quite ineffective in the combat, they still managed to do a little damage on the odd high roll or with near misses thanks to Certain Strike. On the giants turn, they began attacking the party, but two failed their saves against Divine Aura and were blinded for 1 minute each. In my opinion, this was the key factor that allowed the PCs to win this fight as the blinded giants rarely managed both to roll high enough to overcome the party's AC AND make the Senses miss chance form being blinded. I tried to use a couple Dominates with them, but after my first two attempts (on their Will saves, Scruffy had a Success and Falkon and Critical Success), I stuck with swinging with their greatswords and scoring an occasion hit while waiting for Invoke Rune to recharge. The other two rune giants hit hard against the PCs with their Destructive Runes, though I never got to destroy any armor. I rarely scored an AoO against the party, but a key one was when I disrupted Dweevil's attempt to cast Air Walk on Scruffy, which would allow him to close for melee with the giants, but I rolled a natural 20 and not only stopped the Air Walk from being cast, but also dropped Dweevil. Falkon revived him promptly on his turn, after smartly provoking an Attack of Opportunity from his Dwarven Thrower so he could Heal without provoking additional attacks. Dweevil would spend most of the combat healing his allies, occasionally assisted by Falkon. Meanwhile, McBlasty (as the name implies) burned through a lot of high-level damaging spells such as Horrid Wilting, Disintegrate, and Chain Lightning to great effect. At some point, Scruffy came up with a plan to get around the Rune Giants Air Walk and Reach. He used his Cloak of the Montebanc to dimension Door on top of the giant and attempted to Grapple the giant, but he rolled poorly and fell to the ground. Naturally, the party focused on downing the two non-blind giants first. Falkon and McBlasty both fell at some point during the combat, mostly from the electricity damage caused by Invoke Runes as it recharged, but each were only down for a short time as Dweevil revived them with his Heal spells. The positioning of the giants after the first two fell allowed for burst healing without also healing their enemies. Eventually, the blind giants fell before the PCs before they could recover from their blindness. The fight ran fairly long but did not drag. Nonetheless, combined with the time needed to update their characters, it was quite late so we had to end the session before they could experience the revelations (and boons!) of the Last Theorem. Until next time....
Let's look closely at this abilities: Improved Grab The monster can use Grab as a free action triggered by a hit with its initial attack. A creature with Improved Grab still needs to spend an action to extend the duration for creatures it already has grabbed. Note that this ability specifically states that the creature still needs to spend 1 Action to extend the duration for creatures it already has grabbed. Improved Grab also references the Grab ability, so let's include that as well for completion.
So the duration lasts until the end of the end of the round the monster (or hazard in this case) hits with a Strike unless it spends a Grab action to maintain. Now let's look at Constrict Constrict The monster automatically deals the listed amount of damage to any number of creatures grabbed or restrained by it. Constrict does not indicate that it extends the duration of the grapple. Now ordinarily this would be fine as most creatures get 3 actions. However, the Spectral Tentacles in Red Flags only get 1 action each. So Round 1, they spend their 1 Action to Strike a PC, then automatically grapple as a Free Action thanks to Improved Grab. Next round, they spend their 1 Action to Constrict and deal their damage. However, without having any additional actions, they are unable to spend any to extend the duration of the grapple, so after getting Constricted, they PC is released from their grasp. This seems counter-intuitive: the tentacles are unable hold you because they spent their turn squeezing you. Note most monsters have three actions (1 Strike with their tentacles or other Grab attacks, 2 maintain existing grapples, and 3 Constrict their grappled foes) so this a problem limited to his particular hazard under the Playtest Rules.
Also, a quick note, when assisting the rogue's player with char gen, I noted a peculiarity in the class feats. One of the Level 6 Rogue Feats, Blind-Fight, requires the Rogue to be a Master in Perception, which rogues don't get to Level 7. Wouldn't it make more sense to include it as a Level 8 Rogue Feat?
Introduction: Just some notes before we start. As my group is experiencing some playtest fatigue, namely from having to create multiple characters that they typically only get to play for 2-3 sessions, it's getting more difficult to for players to get really invested in their characters. I get that different parts of the playtest focus on different areas of the game and thus have different party requirements, but I think things would have been nicer to be able to play the same character throughout at different levels. That said, here are the PCs. Note the lack of names on most of these PCs, as I have mentioned above, player investment is waning from creating these 1-shot PCs. The PCs:
The Nemesis:
A Meeting in Calaphas:
Arrival in Plumetown:
The Gala:
N5. Kadhibat "Kad" Alysamin:
N8. Whark the Alabaster:
N9. Kitchen and N10. Servant Quarters:
N8. Kasbeel:
When asked about Necerion, she not-so-subtly hinted that she would not mind of ill will were to befall him, but she could not assist them in that matter. However, she would not stop them either. They asked her where Necerion went, and I had them roll Perception vs. her Deception DC (a hefty 39, although the rogue succeed nonetheless by rolling a natural 19) to notice her glancing towards the door, as she would not answer the question directly. They then entered the Inner Sanctum. N11. Whark's Nest. The ranger took the lead, and began to Seek the room. He critically failed and triggered the Spectral Tentacle trap, and that's where we ended the first session. TO BE CONTINUED....
While I really like a lot of the new components of the game and the general direction things are headed and am overall optimistic that the final product will be great, I am very concerned about the amount of testing that will be done on the final version of the game. It sounds like there are significant changes being done to the system, right down to the core math of the game. As an engineer, I cannot fathom making this amount of changes without doing another large-scale test on the final product. I know that you will be doing internal testing, but that is a significantly more limited scope that an open playtest. I really want Paizo and Pathfinder 2E to succeed.
The PCs: Merwin, Elf Sorcerer (Angelic)
SESSION 1 ARRIVAL AT THE TEMPLE The PCs found the hidden cache in the study, and learned about the magical properties of the stain glass window and the altar. Despite hints that the window appeared fragile, they immediately cast light on it, so it only negated the resistances of the Slaver Demons, of which they had none. WAVE 1 Event 1: Slaver Demons The slaver demons showed up as indicated (each 10-20 feet from a PC). As their tactics indicate, the started with Enslave Soul, then cast Haste (2 actions). With their Quick action, they closed for melee, but were unable to attack (the stated tactics should have had the demons cast Haste before Dimension Dooring in, or arrived adjacent to a PC and attacked without “charging”). The PCs started burning through their attack spells (such as the goblin cleric casting their 6th-level fireball). A question arose as to whether or not the monk could be disarmed of their fistwraps, which I ruled they could not since it was a Worn item, not Held. The paladin was disarmed of his sword, but he spent an action to pick it up. Since the Slaver Demon had already used its reaction to Disarm it, he could not capitalize with an Attack of Opportunity. Event 2: Treachery Demons
SESSION 2 Note, Sir Scruffy's player could not make this fight, so his PC was run by Merwin's player. Event 3: Ooze Demon and Blood Demons The reverse gravity spell was still in effect from the previous fight (do spells end if the caster dies, or do they still last their full duration). As the Blood Demons approached from the south, the sorcerer once again attempted a Blade Barrier, but a natural 20 on a Dispel Magic check dismissed it once more (poor sorcerer). The blood demons Dimensioned Doored onto the ceiling and engaged in melee, and the Ooze Demon revealed itself with a Stinking Cloud and ranged attacks (although it failed to trap any with its Slime Trap ability). The Stinking Cloud both helped and hindered the Blood Demons, as they could use the concealment to Sneak and trigger their abilities, but as they are not immune to Poison, they were afflicted with Slow and Sick at this point. In the middle of the fight, the Reverse Gravity terminated, dropping all to the ground. I was unsure how this would affect the Stinking Cloud, but ruled that it fell with them. The Monk once again reduced damage with Catfall, and the Angelic Sorcerer avoided falling due to Angelic Wings. The paladin’s blade took one dent from the Slime Demon’s Protective Slime (it might have been more because I believe I forgot to have him roll the save a few times). Once the PCs were on the ground, the Slime Demon closed for melee, but was unable to cast Cloudkill (3 actions; it had 2 after moving). It instead Struck and Grabbed the Monk, but was unable to use Smother as it was out of actions. The Slime Demon did not survive until its next turn to use either of these abilities. 1 HOUR INTERLUDE The party healed using Treat Wounds. The cleric rolled a natural 1 on his first attempt, so he was unable to assist. The paladin and sorcerer were able to pick up the slack and get everyone up to max save the goblin cleric who was 2 hp short. The paladin also used Quick Repair to remove the dent in his bastard sword. I noted the sun was setting, so the cleric and sorcerer cast light on the paladin’s bastard sword as well as one of his arrows. WAVE 2 Event 4: Dread Wraiths The dread wraiths rolled poorly on their initiative, so the party was able to act before they could. The paladin and monk attempted to bottleneck them at one of the holes in the temple wall, but being incorporeal, they were able to circumvent them. The PCs then clustered up and the dread wraiths surrounded all four PCs. However, their Draining Presence was completely unaffected on the party, even with each PC needing to roll 4 saves. Initially, I thought the party might have more difficulty with this fight between the Wraiths Resistance and the fact that they healed 10 HP every time they hit (or was it the intent that they only gained HP on a successful Drain Life). The cleric attempted to use a heightened Spiritual Weapon, but his attempt was foiled by an Attack of Opportunity The sorcerer cast Death Ward on himself, which was really effective against the Wraiths (as it should be, naturally). I failed to inflect a single point of Drain as the Dread Wraiths had a difficult time hitting the PCs and they consistently made the save against Drain Life. As the PCs began using positive energy attacks (plus scoring a few critical hits to overpower their resistances), the dread wraiths fell.
Event 5: Lich and Ghost Magi As per the rules, the Lich started with Flame Shield, Fly, and Mirror Image. The Ghost Magi as written would have precast Resist Energy, but they (A) did not have the spell and (B) even if they did, it would not benefit them more than their natural resistance to all energy attacks.
TO BE CONTINUED
THE PCs Boblin, Goblin Rogue (Finesse)
FIRST SESSION The party began meticulous searching every hex, which in itself became rather tedious. The high DCs coupled with most of the hexes being empty did not make riveting gameplay (note that for most of the first part, I ran it with only two PCs, Dweevil and Falkon, so they had fewer chances of getting a success than a standard 4 PC party. They encountered the gnomes of first Korlabablin, and I had to improvise some gnome names on the spot since none were given in the adventure (of course, there was plenty of information in the initial briefing that the PCs missed out on because they didn't ask questions, but the gnome's name they inquired about, as always seems to be the case). They learned of the rocs and went towards their nest. Unfortunately, none of the PCs had speak with animals, so their only option here was combat. ENCOUNTER J. ROC NEST I only had 2 PCs. I mistakenly ran it with 2 Weak Rocs (which I had prepared in case only 3 PCs made it), but in hindsight I should have further weakened them (or alternately had one of the other PCs run a missing player's character). The initial fight proved difficult, with rocs snatching and then dropping the PCs from 60-90 feet in the air, but the rocs were more interested in driving the intruders away from the nest so the PCs regrouped. After using Treat Wounds to regain their hp, the PCs returned with air walk precast on the dwarf paladin, but the rocs still managed to down the cleric in the rematch. After returning to Korlabablin and securing their aid, they made their ways through the woods, but did not investigate under the lake even though they were NOT warned of the sea serpent. They then made their way to the cyclopes longhouse and offered to aid against the dragon, then traveled into the tors until they found its lair (due to a short session from outside commitments and only having 2 PCs present, we decided to end things here rather than jump into another combat--the dragon fight kicked off our second session). SECOND SESSION ENCOUNTER L. LIRUTHALL'S LAIR I only had 2 players make it to game night, but I had 2 other PCs ready to go so they were now going at full strength (each player ran 2 PCs). The giant exited the cave first and warned the PCs, and they attempted to negotiate. The dragon (who rolled a natural 1 on his Perception for initiative) then flew out of the cave and unleashed his breath weapon. Early in the fight, my dice were vicious and tore through the PCs quickly. The giant often used flame strike to attack multiple PCs (usually 2 but once or twice he was able to hit 3) with the dragon alternating between its breath weapon and draconic frenzy (with a bite first attack when it didn't need to fly/move before attacking). Round 1, the dragon used its breath weapon; Round 2, fly down and use draconic frenzy, scoring a crit to reacharge; Round 3, fly up and use breath weapon again; Round 4+, land and engage in melee until weapon recharged, at which point only the dwarf was standing. Fortunately for the PCs, my luck had turn with the dragon frequently missing and rolling low damage late in the fight. After the brutal dragon fight, the party revived the fire giant and demanded he join them or die, which due to his highly dubious bargaining position, he accepted their terms. They looted the dragon's horde, made their way back to the cyclopes and secured their aid as well. They then headed down the river towards Ramlock's tower, encountering the dryad and securing her aid with a high Diplomacy check (even without getting into the cyclopes logging operations) as they did not otherwise need to gain her trust. They then found the tower and scouted their defenses. A sending spell to Keleri made arrangements for the final assault, and with their 8 treasure points, they purchased two +3 weapons (paladin and fighter) and two +3 armors (paladin and cleric). Keleri agreed to meet them in 6 to 9 days depending how long the magic items took. In the interim, the PCs decided to check the end of the last river (recognizing the pattern of their being something at the end of each branch) and found the slain cultists. They then returned to the tower and began their final assault with 12 days remaining before the eclipse. ENCOUNTER M: RAMLOCK'S TOWER With 7 ally points, this fight was reduced to the mummy pharaoh, the brain collector, and two cultists. With 2 reseach points, the PCs and the Night Heralds were able to cast buff spells over a minute, so the two cultists spread herosim out to all of their group. The PCs had no buff spells precast. Early in the fight, the PCs made a lot of key saves. The mummy great despair aura failed to paralyze any PCs (although the way the combat shaped out only half the PCs were in range). The brain collector used confusion and phantasmal killer early in the fight, but the goblin rogue saved after 1 round of confusion and the phantasmal killer was wasted against the human fighter. Two castings of resilient sphere only resulted in capturing the dwarf paladin for a single round (since he made the save; the human fighter critically succeeded to now effect) and the human cleric critical saved against enervation. However, on the second attempt by the cultist, he critically failed resulting in enervated 4 and severely nerfing the character. Another key spell was cast by the brain collector, who cast paranoia on the goblin rogue, which even on a success, prevented him from flanking and getting his bonus sneak damage. The cultists took to the air and mirror imaged while the brian collector remained on the ground for melee (although he also cast mirror image early in the fight) with the goblin rogue and human cleric while the mummy pharaoh engaged the human fighter and dwarf paladin. The cleric attempted to dispel magic on the enervation effect, which I was not sure would work or not. It seems like the spell lasts for 1 minute and grants the condition for that length of time, so I ruled that it would. He failed the dispel check (since he took a -5 penalty for using a Level 3 dispel magic vs. a Level 4 enervation). A couple blindness spells from the cultists were also rather ineffective. One target made the save and was only blinded until the start of his turn (I think it was the goblin rogue) whereas the dwarf paladin was inflicted with blindness for 1 minute, but he was able to remove it with his mercy on his turn as well. The cultists used their last third level spells to haste themselves so they could use their crossbows (2 actions to Strike, 2 actions to reload, using the hasted action for one of the Strikes). The mummy pharaoh was the first to fall--he got two sandstorm wraths out, but was largely ineffective with her longspear (he only hit twice I believe, and infected the human fighter with insidious mummy rot). Then the combat began to drag on. The cleric cast air walk on the goblin rogue who engaged the one cultist in-the-air. This cultist switched to his mace (I forgot that he could still use his crossbow in melee range without penalty under the new rules), and the two engaged in a slap fight with both sides did little damage each round to each other. The brain collector downed the enervated cleric and then moved on to the dwarf paladin, and with the aid of some true strikes (which actually didn't help him any), downed the dwarf paladin as well. Hero points and healing would allow both to recover and rejoin the fight. The other cultist used most of his 2nd-level spells to soothe the brain collector and keep him going as he was their main offensive weapon, and combined with the mirror images, kept the Night Heralds going for several rounds. I had lost track of the rounds, so I began hand-waving when things like Fly, Enervation, Paranoia. I also had the insidious mummy rot trigger its second save by fiat. I wished I had been more meticulous with my bookkeeping here, but some of the PCs beneficial effects were also ended this way (namely the cleric's fire shield spell which he cast in the first round). From hero points and self-healing, the human cleric and dwarf paladin rejoined the fight, and eventually winnowed down the brain collector. The human fighter withdrew from melee, switching to his shortbow and taking pot shots at the one cultists while guzzling potions for several rounds. The human cultists realized they need to take out the cleric first and began focus firing on him (as the combatants had all gathered near each other by this point), but one by one they fell as well. Note that I intentionally did not replenish the mirror images as they ran out as I felt this would only prolong the fight even longer, and it was already starting the become a tedious game of attrition with mummy down and all the big spells spent. This is the first fight where it really felt things dragged on in the Doomsday Dawn playtest.
One suggestion I tried with Undarin...write down when each effect expires and just track the round...much easier than tracking each effect separately. The bolstered thing needs work though, especially since it is not clear if it applies to all similar effects, effects of identical monsters, etc. It seems to vary from ability to ability.
As has been posted on another thread, I can describe what would happen with reverse gravity (I am a professor of dynamics, ao this is literally my field of expertise). The PC would accelerate upward 40 feet, then decelerate 10 feet before hitting the ceiling with the same velocity as if he had fallen 30 feet (15 feet). For simplicity, we will assume the collision with the ceiling is completely inelastic and the PC does not bounce off it. At this point the PC will accelerate 10 feet downward theb declerate until he reaches 30 feet from the floor, then accelerate back upward towards the ceiling, traveling between the ceiling (with negligible impact) and thr 30 feet height in roughly 3 second cycles (I have actually worked out the exact math). Unless it is dispelled early, the spell expires after 1 minute, at which point the PC would be at 30 feet with neglible velocity, so he falls another 30 feet as normal (taking another 15 points of damage). I would imagine it would be hard to use ranged attacksand cast spella while in this cycle of alternating gravity, and would suggest having the PCs make a flat check to succed (probably DC 5 should suffice). They might also get quite motion sick, and might suggest having them make a Fort save or gain the Sick condition.
Mark mentioned thst the ability should cost two actions on Pathfinder Friday. Should we make this adjustment if we rn this encounter as part of the playtest, or should we run it as written in the Playtestiary (1 action)?
I imagine PCs thinking the dragon has become a mummy dragon.
Please tell me some of those Heritage Names are placeholders: Unburdened Dwarf, Keen-Eared Elf, Sharp-Nosed Gnome, Gutsy Halfling, Nomadic Halfling, Skilled Heritage, Versatile Heritage don't really sound right.
Spontaneous casting is enough of a difference between the Sorcerer and Wizard to justify choosing one over the other. The real problem is in differentiating Sorcerer's from the Bard and other spontaneous casting classes such as the Oracle that is sure to come later. Bloodline Powers are a step in the right direction, but Sorcerer's might need a bit more of a signature ability, something that when an NPC uses it it screams sorcerer. Something along the lines of Druid's Wild Shaping, Cleric's Channel Energy, Bard's Inspire Courage, or even just the Wizard's Spellbook. Several posters have suggested Metamagic is probably the way to go here, though I'm not sure how to implement this. Limiting metamagic to sorcerers seems to much of a nerf on other casters, and just changing the mechanics of how metamagic works won't really change the feel of the sorcerer. Others have suggested Arcanist-type powers, but these might be a little too strong without dropping Bloodline Powers (which are thematically appropriately). On the other hand, clerics get Channel, Domain Powers, and Spells, so maybe not. What about something like a Bloodline Mutation, similar to Bloodline Arcana in that it's a constant ability, but that also changes the sorcerer's appearance. For instance, a Draconic Sorcerer might have scales, the provide a +1 conditional bonus to AC or some such.
They should really be called something else, such as Scouting Points. Research Points sounds like they are, you know, actually researching things in a library or some such.
Okay, so it's not just me thinking it was supposed to be up at 3:00 Eastern
So after reading this thread over a few times, I think I am understanding this correctly. The penalty applies to CHECKS (i.e., attack rolls), but it applies the full amount to DAMAGE rolls.
As per Page 299:
The rule is saying they range from 1 to 4 is a general rule. Any rule that says they go higher is a specific rule (or can stack to reach a higher value) and overrides the general rule.
I still don't understand how the OP is having so many TPK. I could understand 1 or even 2 given the number of different sessions, but thanks to Hero Points, I have not even killed a single PC. I am following RAW (to the best of my ability--we all make mistakes) and have not fudged a single dice roll.
I have no idea why your party is consistently dying, the fights are difficult but not "always a TPK" Couple thoughts for the OP (1) Are you giving out Hero Points? They can be essential. (3) Are you remembering the multiple attack penalty on your monsters? If not, this would result in them hitting more often, and make them more deadly.
I think we would all appreciate a confirmation that our thiughts and concerns are being heard.
The party continued to explore the earth and water elemental chamber. I had the earth elemental pop-up behind them as they descended the stairs and Shoved the melee fighter into the water. He wasted several turns trying to escape the water elemental first by Climbing (only to get sucked back in by the Vortex Pull) then by swimming away and then climbing (and again being sucked back by the Vortex Pull). He eventually succeeded and got out of the water. One precularity arose in the first round, however, when he failed to make any Swim checks and thus went underwater. According to underwater combat rules, Bludgeoning attacks take a -2 penalty underwater, which the Water Elemental incurred since its attacks were Bludgeoning. One would have expected the water elemental to ignore this penalty. Meanwhile, the remaining PCs focused on the Earth Elemental. He managed to also Shove the halfling ranger into the water, but he escaped easily since the Water Elemental was busy dealing with the melee fighter and could only use Vortex Pull as a reaction. Once the earth elemental was dealt with, the party lured the Water Elemental to the edge and finished it off, but not before it succeeded in knocking-out the melee fighter. After exhausting their healing and resonance for the day, the party decided to rest even though they knew the Night Heralds were scheduled to arrive the next day. I asked if they wanted to work on the puzzle before resting, but they declined thinking that solving it might release something nasty, and they were in no shape to face it. The next day, the cleric went about solving the puzzle as he was the only one trained in Arcana (with low Ints, they all only had a +2 or +3 and were at risk of critically failing the DC 15 Aid Another check). The first three went in quickly with only one failure, but the last one took like 8 attempts before the cleric finally rolled high enough to make the last check. The mummy fight was scary for the PCs but was relatively for three reasons: 1) Obviously, its appears that there are 8 mummies at first, not 4. 2) The PCs had no fire spells or alchemist fires, which would have made the fight easier; 3) None of the PCs were Charisma-based, so the Lesser Mummy Rot was a non-issue; of course, they did not know this, and were scarred when I started asking for Fort saves. Anyway, the halfing ranger landed a crit in the first round and dropped one of the four mummies, and the party easily handled the rest in the following couple rounds. The room confused the PCs as they though that the room itself was the countdown clock, but I emphasized that it was 1) not finished and 2) the item they were looking for was described as a gemstone. There was then some debate on what to do about Mabar, as they have no way of knowing if he was friend or foe. The ultimately decided to wake him, and he provided some backstory on the tomb (Auran was the one bonus language the PCs took as only the cleric got one). After he revealed the secret door, they told him that bad people were coming to kill him and that he should leave, which he did via plane shift. The halfling ranger's player was the first to ask about the mirror in the secret tomb, so I had him roll the Will save, which he made. The party decided to leave the mirror behind, but looted the tomb, at which point I had the Night Heralds make their grand entrance. This was a tough fight, but with some luck and good tactics, the PCs prevailed. Henah took point and engaged the melee fighter while Motek cast bane on the group. The ranger and melee fighter engaged with Henah while the ranged fire focused his attacks on Motek. The cleric made a great move by entangling Motek with a tanglefoot bag; Motek would make 5 attempts with his Athletics before he was able to free-himself and cast unhindered. Meanwhile, Jibar might a surprise appearance, but missed all her attacks against the cleric despite him being flat-footed from her being invisible. Renwick then cast web on all but halfling ranger, which was largely a non-factor in the fight. A touch of corruption dropped the melee fighter, allowing Henah to focus on the ranger, but she missed her touch of corruption on him the following round. The cleric healed the melee fighter, but then goofed and attempted a cone spell (not sure which one) that would hit the melee fighter as well as Motek and Henah. However, the Night Heralds both made their saves (the cleric and anti-paladin have good Will saves, who knew), so he only succeeded in stunning his ally. Henah got a surprise vengeful strike against the halfing when he crit her. Motek, one free of the tanglefoot, downed the melee fighter a second time with a touch harm, then used a ranged harm on the ranged fighter. Meanwhile, Renwick and Jibar had downed the cleric, who used a hero point to revive and spammed Heals the rest of the fight (while laying on the ground I might add). The halfling ranger finally bested Henah, and Motek was brought down to 3 hp from the ranged fighter's continued efforts. Jibar, at this point, decided it was better to flee (since she was not a believer in the cause), but Renwick, seeing the dire states the PCs were in and wanting to impress the Night Heralds, fought to the end. Unfortunately for her, once Motek was down, the PCs made short work of her. The fighter was still unconscious (although he stabilized form his recovery checks) and the rest were all down to single digit hit points. Conclusions:
Between additional damage no longer being able to increase one's dying condition and the hero points, the PCs are practically immortal.
The cleric has 6 level-2 spells because they include both his channel energy (4 harm spells) and his regular spells. They just aren't listed separately.
My group:
To start, I had the martial characters role-off for a magic weapon. The halfing one, and received a +1 short sword. All players received 1 hero point, with the cleric getting an extra one for hosting the game at his house. I also made the PCs role Nature checks to mount the camels the first time, which all but the ranger critically failed, so I had the camels spit in their eyes the first time they attempted to mount just for a little extra fun. The party made good time on camels on the first three days, with halfling ranger succeeding at his Survival check the first day and critically succeeding the next two days. They reached the base with about 3 hours left in the day and decided to press on wards. The hyenas got the drop on the party, with the hyenadon knocking the cleric of his camel. The hyenas initially focused on him to make use of pack attack, but the fighter and ranger soon drew their attention. After the hyenadon and one of the hyenas were slain, I had the remaining hyena turn tail and run. The terrain had little or no effect on the combat. They continued to press onward on their camels. The ranger spotted the ankhrav mount and attempted to Sneak towards it, falling prey to the quicksand hazard (since he has not Seeking for traps as per the Exploration rules). The ankhrav then emerged on began tearing into the cleric and fighter with its armor-rending bite on the cleric followed by a spray acid on both the following round. The cleric moved to help the ranger out of the quickstand with his staff (using Athletics to aid in his check) while the fighter fought off the ankrav. The creature had taken enough damage that it retreated into the sands for safety. They then investigated its den and found the healing potions (with the cleric taking 10 min to identify them with Quick Identify) and the thieves' tools, though nobody had trained in Thievery. The player's recognized that the ankhrav was an ankheg and were confused as to why it was renamed. The fourth player had arrived and finished up his character; I hand-waved that he was with the party the whole time for ease of introduction. The party encountered the gnoll camp. They secured their camels on the far side. The cleric and the melee fighter attempted to engage in Diplomacy with the gnolls from across the river while the two ranged characters Sneaked to the sides. The melee fighter also gathered some river tiles for the encounter, which earned him a hero point. I ruled that their check would take a -5 penalty since nobody spoke Gnoll (the cleric was the only character with a bonus language, and he chose Auran). The critically failed the check and the gnolls drew the shortbows and began shooting. The party was well equipped for range combat and focused their attacks on a single gnoll, who then feigned surrender to lure some of the party to the other side so he could gain the aid of the giant scorpion. They PCs tied a rope to the melee fighter who swam across, at which point the gnoll drew his battleaxe while the giant scorpion emerged and joined the fight. The halfling ranger joined him on the gnoll camp side while the others provided ranged support. The scorpion never landed a single hit despite flanking with the gnoll, mainly thanks to a fear spell from the cleric (it took some research to see if he took frightened penalty on attacks, but after a bit of sifting through the rules we did find that Attacks are a type of check so the penalty applies). By now, it was the end of the third day so the party rested before climbing the mountain. I had them roll Perception checks during their watch, and the ranged fighter spotted something large flying over the mountain, foreshadowing the manticore. The ranger failed to spot the easy path, but the melee fighter managed to succeed on the survival check to negate the need for Athletics checks to climb up the mountain. They found the slain gnolls, but nobody thought to investigate the quills and attempt to identify the creature. As they continued to climb, the ranger made use of his Terrain Stalker feat to freely Stealth while Seeking for hazards/traps. He spotted the manticore flying in and combat was joined. I had the manticore hold back on its Spike Volley somewhat, only using 1 per turn as I reasoned that it would want to conserve its quills by only using them at the highest attack bonus. This allowed him some greater maneuverability, which helped somewhat by imposing some range penalties again the PCs. The PCs began a bit of meta-gaming, debating whether it had poisoned quills or a breath weapon, but I put a stop to this by pointing out that this was a new edition, so they didn't know what it had. The cleric used the scroll on the melee fighter who engaged the manticore, who continued to target the ground PCs with spike volley while using its claws on the melee fighter. The cleric was felled by the manticore before the ranged fighter finished it with his only hit of the fight. One PC fed him a minor healing potion to revive him. Scouting ahead, the ranger spotted the gnolls seeking cover by the door, and the PCs correctly surmised that the gnolls were seeking cover under the overhang from the manticore. With a little backtracking, the retrieved the manticore's head and approached the gnolls, and Zakfah proclaimed them honorary members of the Al'Chorhaiv tribe. Zakfah even gave his scorpion necklace to the melee fighter, as he assumed that as he was carrying the head that he was the one who slew the beast. The gnolls then departed without incident. The party then rested before entering the tomb. I followed the recommendation on the boards and head Lady Vord contact them via sending to inform them the Night Heralds were expected to arrive the next day (despite them initially be scheduled to arrive in four days). With detect magic, the cleric spotted the trap, but the party lacked anyone even Trained in thievery let alone being an Expert in it, so they couldn't disable the trap. The cleric attempted to trigger it using a force missile, but after some internal debate, I ruled that it would not trigger the trap as it did not meet the triggering condition ("A creature grasp the door latch directly or with a tool") as he was technically not grasping the latch and the force missile was not technically a tool. The halfling ranger elected to open the latch anyway and take one-for-the-team, earning him a hero point. The party began to explore the tomb, finding the earth and water room but electing not to enter it (and play "water-hopscotch" as they termed it) and continued into the main chamber. They quickly recognized the chamber as being a locking mechanism for the ornate doors, and that each of the four nodes were associated with one of the four elements (no checks needed--they figured this out from the box text alone). They then elected to explore the remaining side chamber, the fire and air room. The entered the room, trigger the two elementals to appear. The melee fighter received the brunt of the fire elementals attacks the initial round while the ranger engaged the air elemental. The cast ray of frost on the fire elemental, but kept missing due to the elementals Touch AC 20. As the melee fighter fell back, the ranged fighter switched weapons and took his place, ultimately falling unconscious to a crit while being on fire. The cleric finally managed to land a ray of frost, drawing the ire of the fire elemental, and he too was also unconscious while on fire. The halfing ranger, meanwhile, had finished off the air elemental, although the player incorrectly pondered whether it was hurting it as it dispersed every time he struck with his +1 short sword. He and the melee fighter then flanked the fire elemental to finish it off. The ranged fighter had just "died" and used a hero point to return to 1 hp instead, so when the explosion happened, he was knocked back unconscious, though he was soon revived with a healing potion. The cleric, meanwhile, was at dying 3 when the explosion triggered--I was going to check to see if he would still get a save while unconscious, but the player rolled a natural 1 so it was a moot point. He "died" and used a hero point to return to 1 hp. The party then wanted to rest, but I reminded them that the Night Heralds were expected to arrive tomorrow. It was also late, so after healing up, we decided to end the session and pickup there next week. ---- The fire elemental was the MVP of the night, "killing" two PCs and getting three of the four knockouts. I am not crazy about the hero point system as all the players simply hoard them to ensure that they can make their Recovery Saves. The dice were not on the PCs side this fight, and combined with the persistent damage rules, this fight would have been really deadly without Hero Points. Not a fan of the that drops you to Dying 4 so your dead--nope, I'm fine with 1 hp mechanic--it takes a lot of the drama out of having to role recovery saving throws. No problems with resonance, though, as it never became an issue (assuming all the players were tracking them correct) as the cleric's innate abilities and lesser staff of healing provided most of the healing all night. Other than a couple healing potions, I don't remember any of the other PCs using any magic items other than their weapons and armor; a couple had stocked up on oil of magic weapons, but I don't think any PCs actually used them. I also don't think I was using the Terrain Stalker feat correctly. After reading it after the game, it still requires a Sneak action, the PC just doesn't have to roll to see if it succeeds or not. Also, as have been pointed out, a strict interpretation of the rules means that riding a mount without the Ride feat or similar ability is a Fatiguing action and cannot be done for more than 10 min. I imagine the intent was that you needed to Handle Animal and Command Animal as two separate actions IN COMBAT, but they can be ridden as mounts in Exploration Mode. The lack of bonus languages is also a problem in the new rules, in my opinion. As instructed, I informed the PCs that they should take Auran, Gnoll, or Ancient Osiriani as bonus languages, but only the cleric qualified for one (Auran) whereas no other PC had an Int 14 or above. There also doesn't seem to be a way to pick up any as they level either (such as a General Feat). The fact that you get Common, one based on your Ancestry, and at most one other bonus language is really limiting. The cleric's player voiced his displeasure about this. Don't get me wrong, we had a lot of fun and there's a lot I like about the new system--I love how modular the feats are and the three-action Encounter Mode system, for instance, just want to point out areas that might need a little more refining.
Have the devs commented at all on the issue?
Okay, I was juat reviewing the Sneak action, and realized that the quasits should, when invisible, automatically get a 20 on their die role (and thus have an auto success against Lvl 1 PCs) when Sneaking.
Well let's agree to disagree for now. Hopefully Paizo will clear up the issue. Who knows, maybe it will even be addressed in the errata they are releasing today.
I stand corrected. Mark Seifter has stated on another thread that quasits do NOT need to co concentrate to maintai change shape. http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2vbif?Yet-another-playthrough-of-The-Lost-Star# 4
Just want to point out a couple things I noticed while prepping this encounter. First, he quasits have to use an action each round to Change Shape as it has the concentration trait. Two, knockdown is not automatic with each Strike and requires a followup action. Thus, to attqck in wolf form, the quasit can either make two Strikes or a single Strike and then Knockdown.These were not very obvious.
I agree, my group completely avoided the centipedes and the mindfog fungus (or as Talga called them "manylegs" and "dum dum fungus"). For some reason they still tackled he skeleton room, in part because they did not want them joining the fight later and probably because they were undead and therefore evil whereas the other encounters were natural creatures.
If therenwas a sudden burst of light shown directly in tou eyes, yes, but thats not a fair representation. The PC are shoving the torch right in the goblins eyes. This would have to apply to all times someone in darkness looked into the light, not just in the firsr round or so while your eyes adjust. If I stood outside the radius of a fire for 30 min lookimng at it, I would have no more difficulty seeing the people in range than if I were within the light radius.
Respectively disagree. The first sentence says creature without dsrkvision et al may still see into lighted areas. The second sentence elaborates on this on says it trests target as concealed. Since they both reference seeing into a lit area, the c9ntext makes the intent clear, even if it could be worded better. If we look just at the last sentence, out of context, it never even mentions hat the creature is in darkness, so any creatures looking into a lit area would be have concealed.
As per the rulebook:
This paragraph as a whole make it clear that it is talking about creatures without darkvision (or blindsenses/blindsight).
I am a little confused on how light sources work with low-light vision a. So a torch as a 20-ft. bright light radius. Is everything outside 20-ft. considered darkness and only darkvision applies? When is something dim light then? Doesn't this make low-light vision highly situational in usefulness?
This has been the longest week ever...and its only Tuesday!
After some consideration, I do not like this. I thought the whole point of going from races to ancestry was to get rid of subraces, and that's just what it feels like having half-elves and half-orcs be feats. It also makes listing such characters weird (i.e., instead of having a half-elf bard you instead have a human [half-elf] bard). As someone who's currently playing a human sorcerer with the orc bloodline, I'm like technically I am a human, but I'm sort of a half-orc. It's very weird. Also, this feels like a huge downgrade for half-elves and half-orcs from first edition. My suggestion: have a base half-orc and half-elf ancestry with their own unique ancestry feats. You could then have different heritage ancestry feats that allow you to take ancestry feats of other ancestries (i.e., a Human Heritage feat that allows you to take Human feats, Elf Heritage that allows you to take Elf feats, etc.). This gives the half-races more flexibility without front loading them, or have other non-standard half-ancestries like a Dwarf Heritage feat for half-elves. This would give you the same flexibility and not lock players into playing a character with one human and one elf parent.
I like the action list clearly spelling out what a monster can do on its turn. I would like to see standard tactics listed as well to help out new DMs or even experienced DMs unfamiliar with a given monster so they know how it's supposed to be played. One question I have is how easy is it to customize monsters? Let's say, I want an ogre with a greataxe instead of an ogre hook, or say a torturer who is more specialized in Intimidate than the standard ogre. How easy is it to change and recalculate the relevant stats?
Greeting Pathfinders. My name is Devan (Brian W.), and I'm a human urban ranger. My story begins when I found a Harrow card amongst my lockpicks. On the back was written a note about Gaedren Lamm, the bastard who got my fiancee Julena hooked on shiver. Naturally, I went to the address and met several other like-minded individuals. Amongst was Doc (JJ), a human witch who just survived his own brush with a shiver overdose; Hulk (Brian Z.), a dwarf barbarian who's nephew was kidnappped by Lamm; and Cuthbert (Mike), a human cleric of Desna who was tormented by Lamm as a child. Our host was a Varisian fortuneteller named Zellara. Zellara has her own tale of woe as Gaedren Lamm stole her Harrow deck and murdered her son when he attempted to retrieve it. She reveals that she has learned that Lamm is laired a at the Old Fishery on Westpier. Naturally, we headed straight there to bring Lamm to justice (well, after Doc tried to proposition Zellara). Taking him out would certainly help on my application to the Sable Company. On the way, Cuthbert sang a song about the days of the week. I started to check out the main door and got my lockpicks out to enter stealthy when Hulk just busted the door down and started shouting for Lamm. A guard dog started barking. I tried to calm him down, but Cuthbert mercilessly killed the dog. Hulk barreled into the next room trampling an orphan in the process. A gnome was hiding amongst the orphans and ordered them to attack. I knocked out one of the children and the rest scattered as we took out their gnome taskmaster. The next room has an anoying half-orc that incessantly giggled lording over some more orphans. I had to knock out a second orphan when he too ordered them to attack while the others took the half-breed out. We then found a human hiding in an office. Hulk and I quickly rendered him unconscious and tied him. Once revived, we questioned him about Lamm's whereabouts, but he refused in spite of our threats so I knocked him out again. Having cleared the fishery, we made our way down the dock to a rickety ship in the back. Cuthbert slipped on the deck, but recovered and pretended like he met to do it all along. Hulk scouted the ship, narrowly avoiding a collapsing section of the rotten deck before heading to the aft. Inside, we faced a spider that I subdued before heading below deck. There we faced four more spiders, which we each dispatched on our own save Cuthbert who needed help from Hulk. I found a concealled door in the ship's hold that lead to a crawlspace under the fishery. We all made our way across to a door on the far side, although Cutherbert crawled hugging the deck and began crying as a jigsaw shark began nuddging the deck. That caused him to hurry along. The crawlspace led to Lamm's lair. Hulk and I took the fight to Lamm while Cuthbert and Doc provided spell support. Lamm's mistreated crocodile Gobblegut showed as between him and Lamm's dagger, I was heavily wounded, but by then so was Lamm. In its fury, Gogglegut turned on Lamm and bit off his leg. Cuthbert and Hulk were forced to put the crocodile out its misery. We looted Lamm's office and found a hatbox that intrigued Hulk. Open opening it, we found Zellara's head, and it was evident she has been dead for weeks! What is going on? |
