Oh, please, no. That's my biggest pet peeve for Starfinder.
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Greetings, brother. No longer based on Dex + Feats (although I imagine it'll still be true that There's A Feat For That), but more situational, so rogues can use Stealth to move into position for an early strike, if they say they're stealthing. By default it's based on Perception, which kind of makes sense. I foresee troublesome (or pranksterish) players saying, "I was making jokes as we walked, so I should use Diplomacy for init".
I just finished listening to the Glass Cannon podcast of a 2e conversion-on-the-fly of Crypt Of The Everflame, and so far I like the rules changes I'm hearing. Mostly. The changes to initiative seem likely to provoke much confusion and argument, but I'll hold my opinion until I can try them myself.
Thanks to everyone and particularly to GM Hmm. One last question -- where does one report/upload the reporting page that lists all the players?
GMOfAnything, here's your Chronicle.
No purchases with gold or Prestige for The Herald.
Right, thanks Hmm. OfAnything, can I get your stats? Ladile, here's mine: Player: Caro Cogitatus
This "rolling of dice to determine a random outcome" is intriguing. Someone ought to create a game around such a grand concept! I'm in. :-)
Well done, Pathfinders! That was a tough battle. @Hmm, how are we handling Chronicles again? I need assistance in creating/finding my event code, etc.
Dr. Quolorum is overjoyed. Huzzah, Treasured Colleagues! You have vanquished our manxome foe with great terpitudinal fortidinalaity! Your courage and expertise will figure prominently in my reports. He immediately sets about taking samples of the expired creature for analysis. Yes, yes, these will be very helpful. Very helpful indeed! Ugh, there is too much for a simple gnome to carry. He takes a long look at you. Would you be so kind as to assist me in transporting the carcass back to the university? In fact, I'd like to invite you all to join me at the Sincomakti School of Sciences so I can study the long term effects of the creature. You will be remunerated with the best tea and crumpets in Ustalav, I assure you. The very best. Elena finds some interesting items in the pit detritus: Several magic items sit at the bottom of the chasm, where the cerebric fungus tossed the objects dead owners’ remains. Among these are a necklace of fireballs type I with only a single bead remaining (3d6 fire damage), damaged set of gloves of climbing and swimming that only grant a +2 competence bonus on both skill checks, and a robe of useful items with several patches remaining. *** With the demise of the dreaming fungus, the villagers report a steep drop in strange phenomena. Storms cease, nightmares subside, and life returns to normal— at least until another terror rises in Ustalav. Fini.
With Elena's slash, the fungus begins to bleed profusely. Where the herbicide lingers, the flesh withers and dries up. The loathsome creature burbles, gasps, wheezes, and...expires.
Combat over!
Mathos' odd, but effective, weapon finds its mark. The fungus shrieks and stares at him.
Mathos and Fran manage to find a weak spot in the tough hide of the fungus. It shrieks wordlessly in everyone's mind at once and seeks an easy target in retaliation.
The doctor's previous misstep brings him close enough for a nasty bite, but he ignores the pain and attempts to distract the fungus by waving his arms. Oww, that hurt! Pick on someone your own size!
*** GM Secrets:
Gulch Daze rounds remaining 2 Round 5
Party is up!
The fungus finds itself in the midst of
Dr. Quolorum takes his chance...
...but he's an academic, not a warrior, and his inexperience shows. I've never seen one up close before. Disgusting! *** GM Secrets:
Gulch Daze rounds remaining 2 Round 5
It wouldn't be so bad if I weren't inadvertently cheating by rolling natural 1's on my Knowledge (Pathfinder) so much. :-)
*** GM Secrets:
Calm Emotions rounds remaining 1 Gulch Daze rounds remaining 3 Round 4
Okee-dokee, thanks to King I have learned again. I had always assumed that the (Sp) designator stood for "Special", but it actually means "Spell-like", and requires a Standard action. I incorrectly had the fungus doing these types of attacks as part of a full-round natural attacks action. So if the fungus wanted to use that ability it would have to choose one target only, and forego the bite attack. So let's retconn that while we're still in the same round.
And Erasmus gains back 4 HP from the bite that didn't happen. Thanks for asking the question, King, and for the answer.
Erasmus lifts and pushes the fungus, opening himself up for a bite attack.
Erasmus is bitten, but manages to push the fungus off the cliff!
It screams an otherworldly shriek and lands with a thud in the midst of a group of ready Pathfinders.
*** GM Secrets:
Calm Emotions rounds remaining 1 Gulch Daze rounds remaining 3 Round 4
King: Melee bite +5 (1d6+2), 2 tendrils +3 (1d4+1 plus pull) Feats Improved Initiative, Multiattack At will—touch of madness (DC 14) The cerebric fungus may daze one living creature by making a successful touch attack. The target creature must succeed at a DC 14 Will save, or it becomes Dazed for 4 rounds. The dazed subject is not stunned (so attackers get no special advantage against it). This is a mind-affecting enchantment, equivalent to a 2nd-level spell. Two tendrils using Touch of Madness, plus bite. Multiattack allows it to use all three. As always, if I've gotten it wrong, I appreciate the opportunity to learn.
Erasmus, Will save DC14 or:
It's not a loathsome monster, it's a pile of adorable puppies! Soooo cute!
The cerebric fungus may daze one living creature by making a successful touch attack. The target creature must succeed at a DC 14 Will save, or it becomes Dazed for 4 rounds. The dazed subject is not stunned (so attackers get no special advantage against it). This is a mind-affecting enchantment, equivalent to a 2nd-level spell.
Thanks, Hmm. So if the retconn seems fair, I'll just need two characters to roll their 2d6-2 hit points, and up to two characters move themselves either up or down the cliff, as they wish. My suggestions would be Elena and Erasmus for the HP, and Wormling and Gulch for the climb. But don't listen to me, I'm trying to kill you. :-) Mathos, you may have meant Erasmus to make his Save. Gulch already failed, and is Dazed for one or more rounds (Gulch knows how long, but Erasmus doesn't).
Mathos and Wormling take position as Gulch stares, mouth agape, at the fungus. Dr. Quolorum, divining the party's plan, stands up and moves into position, readying his quarterstaff. Let's do this, Esteemed Colleagues! *** GM Secrets:
Calm Emotions rounds remaining 1 Gulch Daze rounds remaining 3 Round 4
Wormling and Erasmus are no longer Calmed. The successful attack this round broke that effect. And Gulch never was. Edit: Ah, I see now. You meant Dazed. Gulch is, in fact, Dazed. Carry on. Were I giving non-PFS experience points, Wormling would get some bonus ones for that observation. :-)
Mathos, you want a Readied Action to throw your tome if/when Erasmus makes his move. Be aware that that will incur the -4 penalty for ranged attacks into melee.
I see what you did there, Erasmus. :-) As I understand it, Gulch provokes an AoO based on using the Climb skill within threatened range. No getting around that. I don't know if it's RAW or not, but I would lean toward ruling that you're prone after completing a climb up to a cliff ledge, so standing up would also provoke. But if Gulch did both in the same round, it would only provoke once since the critter doesn't have Combat Reflexes.
Mathos, you're 20 feet down. The only characters within AoO range at the moment are Gulch and Erasmus. I made the same mistake earlier.
King, Elena posted her actions this round knowing that the strategy was still being discussed, so I'm gonna say those can't be taken back.
Estra's shot bounces off the creature's thick hide, failing to find a vulnerable spot. *** GM Secrets:
Calm Emotions rounds remaining 1 Round 4
Honaire climbs another 7.5 feet, Fran is healed a little, and Elena finds climbing to be more difficult than she thought.
*** GM Secrets:
Calm Emotions rounds remaining 1 Round 4
I would give you the retconn now to either fight on or retreat more safely. I think if you come back "tomorrow" you'd come back at full health & spells, but the fungus would probably have time to work out some tactics against you. If you were my F2F group I would give penalties for trying to sleep with all the weirdness and strange thoughts in your heads, but here I'd probably handwave it away. I'll leave it to Hmm whether that violates any PFS rules. If so, we'll of course need to rethink it. King, the fungus is a Medium sized creature, so your Bull Rush strategy is viable.
I don't know where you got the -6, but that sounds reasonable to me, Elena.
Okay, folks, I have a retconn suggestion for my egregious mistake in auto-hitting the Pull attacks in the Surprise round and Round 1: The party gains back 2d6-2 HP for any two party members, and any two (could be the same but doesn't have to be) were never in the pit and can place themselves on the ledge approximately where they fell. It doesn't fix the screwup, but it hopefully makes it more acceptable. This beastie is a rough one and still has at least one more pretty good trick up its sleeve, but I think you guys can take it down if you work together. I don't want my mistakes to lead to a TPK that otherwise wouldn't have happened. I'm open to suggestions. We're all GMs here, so anything reasonable is up for discussion.
The fungus reaches out to touch the two closest targets.
Both tendrils find their mark, and lick their targets almost sensually. Despite his best efforts to avoid the sticky appendage, Gulch finds that it kisses him squarely on the lips, much to his disgust.
Gulch & Erasmus, Will Save DC14 or:
It's not a loathsome monster, it's a pile of adorable puppies! Soooo cute!
The cerebric fungus may daze one living creature by making a successful touch attack. The target creature must succeed at a DC 14 Will save, or it becomes Dazed for 4 rounds. The dazed subject is not stunned (so attackers get no special advantage against it). This is a mind-affecting enchantment, equivalent to a 2nd-level spell.
Erasmus, now within biting range, feels the fungus' teeth close around his arm briefly. This hostile action breaks the enchantment on Wormling and Erasmus, and the party finds itself buoyed by Rhasuel's inspiration once again. The fungus continues to hum rhythmically, seemingly unaware that the effect is now nullified. *** GM Secrets:
Calm Emotions rounds remaining 1 Round 4
Party is up!
Mathos, the critter is at the edge of the cliff so you can ranged attack from the far side of the pit. It's smart enough to move out of the way, though. Elena, yes you can attempt that. I'll let you know the DC when you do. :-) FWIW, I see that I screwed up again with the tendril Pull attacks -- they should have required a CMB roll. Apologies for that.
Dr. Quolorum attempts to help. I say, Mr. Gulch! You may wish to go slightly to your right. There's an indent that would make a good handhold.
*** GM Secrets:
Calm Emotions rounds remaining 2 Round 3
*** GM Secrets:
Calm Emotions rounds remaining 2 Round 3
*** GM Secrets:
Calm Emotions rounds remaining 2 Round 3
Looking forward to the answers to those, because I have no freaking idea.
Round 3! The fungus considers whether to follow Erasmus and try to pull him off into the chasm, but considers Gulch the greater threat and levels both tendrils at him.
The first strikes Gulch, bruising him, but lacks the pushing strength to cast him off the cliff. The second tendril continues to have difficulty touching him. It continues its strange rhythmic humming. *** GM Secrets:
Calm Emotions rounds remaining 2 Round 3
Party is up!
Thanks, Hmm. Your guidance is much appreciated. I've been playing PbP for years and GM'ing in person for several months, and I'm discovering how little I know and how easy it is to get things wrong. Thanks, everyone, for working with me and for your own GM efforts.
On another note, another question for the GM Hivemind. When characters move in and out of a spell's area of effect, do they lose the effect when moving out, and do they make another Save when reentering? This spell-like ability is similar to Silence in area, but it's a mind-affecting effect so it's not a simple question of acoustics. If a character is outside the effect when it first appears, but later moves in, they should require a Saving throw, yes? But the general rule is "once saved, saved for good against that casting of that spell" so moving out & in would not require a new Save every time, I think. Thoughts?
GM Secrets:
Calm Emotions rounds remaining 3 Round 2
Elena, deepest apologies. It's a fine line between moving the combat along and allowing everyone every chance to chime in. This time I seem to have gone too far in the "moving it along" direction. I'll try to remember that in the future. And thanks for speaking up! This is a class and feedback is a big part of why I'm here. From the other side, I'm finding it hard to reconcile asking for a Saving throw or an action, and having that player post in Discussion but not in Gameplay so I feel like I'm being ignored. And I get it -- we all have busy lives and I'm just as guilty of skimming the thread and missing an important plot point as anyone. But it's still a little irksome to me at times. I think if/when I run a session after this, I will have to be up front in the Recruitment thread that I like a fast game. I'll slow it down for the remainder of this adventure. :-) Edit:
*** GM Secrets:
Calm Emotions rounds remaining 3 Round 2
The rules for Heal say it's usable untrained, but you need a healer's kit. But then it gives a rule for the cumulative penalty for not having enough healing kit uses. This thread indicates you can Treat Deadly Wounds without a healer's kit, albeit at -4. As I read the rules you can try (I wouldn't allow it during combat) using your Wisdom modifier and a -4 penalty, so unless you have 18+ Wisdom it's impossible. Wasn't there a rule that you can't try an untrained skill for higher than DC10? I can't find that now. If so, that answers it.
Dr. Quolorum shakes off the calming effect and fires his crossbow.
Take that, you overgrown mushroom! The bolt glances off, doing minimal damage. The fungus spies Gulch climbing up and reaches out a tendril to lick him.
Gulch manages to avoid the unwelcome advance thanks to the distraction of Dr. Quolorum's attack. *** GM Secrets:
Calm Emotions rounds remaining 3 Round 2
Sounds perfect, Wormling.
Elena stows her sword and shield and prepares to climb. Fran grants Fortune to Gulch and moves near Estra. Mathos stands up and picks his way across to where the cliff is clear to climb . *** GM Secrets:
Calm Emotions rounds remaining 3 Round 2
Honaire slogs through the bones and detritus toward the bridge. *** GM Secrets:
Calm Emotions rounds remaining 3 Round 2
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