AmosTrask32's page

With the crazy amount of quarantining going on... I want to say thank you so much for doing this work! It will allow me to move 5 different in person games into remote play very easily.

I ran session 1 last night, and the circus was... well... chaotic, panicky, and full of calamity. A bit of a circus really...

We had an animal handler threaten to feed a magician to his raptors, a bad case of clown lung leaving a lone gnome to try and manage the fumbles on her own, an Iruxi Monk spinkicking audience members in the stands, and of course, lots of people stepping carefully over the old ringmaster.

But by the close of the big finale, we totaled up the points, and with all the critical failures and a couple critical successes, the Circus of Wayward Wonders got a CRITICAL success to their first show! 17 Anticipation, 17 Excitement!

Prestige 5 at level 1, 34 GP to go towards improvements, and some VERY happy players.

Well done, Paizo...

All of the AP material should be usable with just the resources on the PRD, so you don't need to buy the additional books unless you want them!

andreww wrote:

Fairly sure you need to distinguish between hit chance and criticals.

So if you are hitting on a 12 with a 19-20 crit range then your chance to hit is 35% and chance to crit is 10%.

Well, your chance to threaten a critical hit there would be 10%. Your chance to crit would then be (10%)*(45%)=4.5%, and your chance to do normal damage would be (35%) + (10%)*(55%) = 40.5%. (assuming no bonuses to critical confirmation rolls)

Everyone knows that your chance to score a critical hit is not measured by the probability of rolling a certain number on a die, but rather on the dramatic weight of the encounter.

Modified, of course, by the number of giants you have slain, on whose corpses you build a new Dwarven empire.

To the OP:

I don't know who explained spellstrike to you, but they are mistaken.

I'm going to explain slowly, please read for comprehension.

When you normally cast a touch spell, the casting includes a touch attack to deliver the spell as a free action. That free action is important to understanding spellstrike. Remember it.

Spellstrike modifies a touch spell so that instead of a touch attack, you get a single attack with a melee weapon as a free action. This replaces the touch attack you would normally get to deliver the spell.

You seem to be under the impression that Spellstrike adds a second free action to your spell, one to deliver the spell and another just for fun. This is incorrect. An example of the correct usage is below:

GM: Magus, your turn.
Magus: I move 15' up to the orc as a move action. As a standard action I cast shocking grasp. I will be using Spellstrike to deliver this spell through my weapon instead of using a free touch attack to deliver it.
GM: Roll an attack.
Magus: I rolled a 15, plus my attack modifiers is a 20.
GM: You hit, roll damage.
Magus: I do 1d8+2 for my sword and 3d6 for my shocking grasp *rolls* I do 6 physical and 10 lightning damage.
GM: The orc takes 16 damage, next initiative.

Does that clear up spellstrike?
Now for spell combat.

Again, recall that spellstrike modifies a spell. It does NOT modify an attack.

With that in mind, noting that spell combat lets you take all of your attacks in a round and also cast a spell, you should deduce the error in assuming you could cast 2 spells in a round using the two abilities. If the above magus began his turn adjacent to the orc (because spell combat is a full-round action) the following would have been legal:

GM: Magus, your turn.
Magus: I use spell combat. I choose to attack first, then cast my spell. I will also take an additional -1 to my attack rolls for the whole turn for a bonus to concentration checks to cast defensively. I will also cast shocking grasp defensively, and use spellstrike to deliver it using my sword instead of a touch.
GM: Make your first attack roll.
Magus: I got a 15, plus 5 is 20, but with a -3 on my attack rolls that's a 17.
GM: You hit.
Magus: I roll d8+2. I deal 4 damage.
GM: Now roll your concentration check to cast defensively.
Magus: I rolled a 10, plus my concentration bonus is 16, plus 1 for the extra penalty I took on my attacks is a 17.
GM: You cast the spell successfully, now deliver it.
Magus: I roll to attack, I got a 10, plus 5 is 15, but -3 for spell combat makes it a 12.
GM: You miss, but the charge is still held in your blade. You may try to deliver it again as a standard action, but it will dissipate if you cast another spell before delivering it.

note This last bit about holding the charge is an assumption built around some unclear bits of the RAW. Some GMs may rule the spell is lost if a spellstrike misses, others may rule you may only attempt to deliver the held charge as a touch attack, not with your weapon. Still others may say it's not a standard action to deliver it, and it will automatically target the next creature struck by the weapon. Please consult your GM as to what happens when your spellstrike misses.

Thank you for reading carefully!

So, the bad guy wants to escape, doesn't have any of his gear or allies with him... this is easy. He shouldn't fight. Unless he's a mindless orc, his objective is NOT kill the heroes. It's ESCAPE THE PRISON. So... have him bull rush a weaker PC off a ledge or something while he makes a run for it, someone has to save the dangling halfling cleric while the armored fighter tries to chase down the big bad, who is running ahead, jamming doors shut, maybe stopping for a second on the other side to get a cheap shot in on a PC, but spends his move actions fleeing.

A good chase scene can be cinematic. Especially if there is some interesting terrain... a locked door to smash through, an overturned washtub spilling soapy water over a stairwell, a closing drawbridge to leap, maybe they even make it outside and have to quickly mount a horse and spur it (see ride skill) to catch the fleeing villain!

The PCs have 0 chance of dying to this tactic, so you can give him a little extra juice so you don't have to worry about "you lose initiative, you die" if they successfully catch him, hooray they feel great about the win, but if they don't, now they are responsible for freeing a new bad guy, and maybe feel guilty about it, compelling them to track him down while he rebuilds his (evil empire, crime family, gang of bank robbers, death cult) et cetera

I didn't have extreme problems with the poisons when I ran this adventure. Maybe my players were just luckier than yours on saves. Make sure you are using poison rules correctly. The biggest mistake I've seen made is the following:

PC is hit by poison dart, DC 16 fort save or take d2 con dmg/rd.
PC fails save, takes d2 con dmg
PC is hit by a second poisoned dart, same poison.
GM asks for another saving throw, PC fails, GM starts dealing 2d2 con dmg/rd to PC.

The correct mechanism for being exposed to multiple poisons is that each additional dose increases the save DC by 2 and the duration by 2 rounds (or minutes, or hours depending on the unit used in the poison)

This CAN make a poison very hard to fight off if multiple exposures increase the DC to a high level. HOWEVER, it also means that your cleric's Heal check, that emergency antitoxin, and your sorceror's Touch of Destiny all apply to the ONE ROLL needed to fight off the poison. I found most of the PCs focused on helping eachother recover from poison quickly enough that they rarely took ability damage more than twice from one poison.

As a long-time GM, I've seen hundreds upon thousands of magic items pass through my stories, some into the hands of adventurers and some left undiscovered in hidden rooms. To me, a SUPERSTAR item is one that the heroes would never buy from a shop like an extra pint of lantern oil, nor one that would be looted and sold for scrap. It should be an item that will be used time and again when the story most demands it, a dramatic tool in the storyteller's kit. When I read an entry, I imagine how I would narrate the effects to the heroes as either the targets of its power or as its controllers. I vote up the trinkets that I think would make for a story worth re-telling, and for items that would become a part of a character, not just part of an inventory.

I begin by saying I fully recognize and respect caution. It has a role to play in all things. However, in my experience, many more battles are lost and many opportunities squandered by meekness more than boldness. so...

There is no saving throw against confidence.

(In less quotable terms, this means that players should use declarative sentences instead of asking questions of the GM. If you have an awesome idea that requires a 30' wide chasm with a fallen tree across it, do not ask, "What do I see around me?" say "Esteban spins around, catching sight of an old oak leaning precariously over a muddy ravine. He runs up the sloping trunk, and his weight tears the last of its roots free, knocking it down over the chasm as he leaps and rolls to his feet on the far side. He turns as he draws his elven curveblade, smirking and beckoning the armored hellknights to follow.")

Your character cannot do anything you think it can't.

(never say what you can't do. The second you throw your hands in the air and say "I don't have any spells that will effect this demon!" or "I don't know how to use wands" you limit your character.)

Take control of the enemy's actions.

(You don't need dominate person to control an enemy. You just need to know what you want and what they want. Do you want them to walk through a door? Open a box? Call for the guards? Step onto a trap? Some basic creativity can turn bluff checks, minor illusions, ghost sounds, or just good battlefield positioning into a huge advantage. Every round you make the enemy do your job for you is a round in the right direction)

Know thine ally.

(Watch your friends. Pay attention on THEIR turns, not just yours. If you know their habits and strategies, you can choose your action with much greater care. If you know your druid is fond of fogging up the fights, then you know where to stand to either take advantage of or avoid the mist. If you know your rogue likes to use hes hat of disguise to impersonate enemies that split off from the group, lure one around a corner or through a door for her. Does your wizard like using summon spells? Give him some cover so he doesn't get hit while casting for a round. Barbarian with Great Cleave? Dimension Door her into a pack of enemies and watch a tear come to her eye.)

Terrain Mastery. It's not just for Horizon Walkers anymore.

(DR doesn't protect you from drowning. Spell resistance doesn't reduce falling damage. Even golems take a penalty for squeezing. Zombies can't use doorknobs. It can be hard at times, but try to remember that the world isn't actually made of blank 5' square grids. It's made of loose floorboards, chandeliers, fireplaces, steep hills, patches of poison ivy, loose boulders, apple carts, and the clouds of biting flies. Use the terrain to your advantage and to hinder your enemies at every juncture. stand on the bar to take high ground advantage while kicking a pewter stein into some mook's face. Move to the favorable places, force enemies into the bad ones. In conjuction with confidence, teamwork, and creativity, every fight can be epic.)

Thank you!

My favorite tool for extending those fights that I felt needed more drama was in the World of Warcraft tabletop RPG rules. The template for "Elite" in that system was like a modification of "Advanced." Instead of a +4 on all stats and a +2 to natural armor, it modified as follows:

Quadruple HP
add Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Great Fortitude.

I still sometimes do this for fights I find exciting. It doesn't increase offensive potecy at all, which I find useful. When you just increase ALL of a monster's stats, you run the risk of actually SHORTENING fights by making every round a HUGE damage fest.

To explain:

In one game where I got to be a PC, the GM had allowed 25 point buy and gave everyone an EXTRA 20,000 gp on top of starting wealth by level... everyone was out of control powerful. To compensate, the GM just started giving monsters extra class levels. By increasing firepower on both sides, we came to a mutually assured destruction scenario in almost every fight. The barbarian had such amazing weaponry and strength that he could probably 2-hit kill a boss, but he was only lvl 5, so the CR 9 boss could easily 2 hit kill him as well.

My character died in that game at lvl 5 because the cleric in a group of 6 evil kobolds happened to be lvl 9 with access to flamestrike.

SO I guess, in the end, mechanically I support the idea of a template that DOESN'T increase offense, and instead heavily increases defense. That way, your party is still encountering level-appropriate spells, save DCs, and attack/damage rolls, but you get a chance to use all your monster's cool abilities, strategies, and of course, BANTER!

Okay, so that's a 20 point array, I can more reasonably see Battle Oracle with a high powered game like that. I hope your first session went well, I really like Jade Regent.

If your GM does let you switch to lame, I should point out that you still go from 20' to 15' in medium/heavy armor until you get to lvl 10. The real reason it's so common for Battle oracles is they get Ride/Handle Animal, and horses aren't too expensive :) At higher levels

I also see it a lot with Rage Prophets (of course, fatigue immune rage omnom) and Oracles of Nature (Because of the intelligent mount revelation)

Best of luck, and don't listen to anything OmegaZ says, he's a witch!!!

hehehe... Haunted fire oracle... hehehe.

Happy to elaborate. I suppose first you should clear with your GM whether or not weapons count as "stored items in your gear." When I GM, I made it clear that they do, and so our haunted battle oracle in Carrion Crown (Hat Hat Johnson)has a nasty habit of finding his sheathed sword on the wrong hip, or his morningstar getting tangled in the 50' of rope hanging from his backpack.

Especially if you plan on going sword and board with a heavy shield of some kind, you will eventually want to be able to drop a weapon to pull a potion/scroll/rope/bag of magic beans from your backpack. That moment is the worst day of your life as a haunted Oracle. I'm sure we've all been at low health and thanked the gods for five-foot step, drop sword, draw potion, drink.

The "your item flies 10 feet in a random direction" is bad enough when it's a wand, scroll, or healing potion. But when it's your +2 adamantine flail of dragonsmiting... and you're on a bridge/ship/treetop/back of a flying dragon... It's a huge risk for not much reward.

Also, don't forget even a huge CMD and careful planning won't guarantee you never drop an item. Stunned, Panicked, and even falling unconscious all make you drop whatever you're carrying.

Haunted is great for caster Oracles. Ones that solve problems with magic usually have time to get what they need out of melee, or, even better, just walk around with that wand in their hand, just in case.

All that said, those are silly rule-based reasons. If you have a cool Haunted backstory, you go for it! Ruleswise, your most comfortable curses as Battle are usually Wasting or Lame. Lame makes that super-heavy armor a breeze, and Wasting helps you wade through those pesky noxious clouds, stench monsters, and can even turn your next rancid garbage chute into a slip 'n slide!

Tongues is neat, but since most GMs suck at enforcing "no talking in Common in combat" at the table, it's usually not really all that roleplayed so it makes me sad to see it used as a "not a curse" curse.

Also, I love Toughness at lvl 1 :) Glad you're taking some physicals as primary stats. I assume you're STR > CON > CHA > DEX > INT > WIS? Who needs a super high CHA as a buffer/basher anyway, right?

While the conversation is a bit stale on this topic, I wanted to throw in my two cents regarding Svetlana's Moon Radishes. To make the quest a little spicier, I put a timer on it. She pulls the adventurers aside as they head out to track down bandits in the narlmarches, and asks if they'd be willing to look for radishes while they are out exploring. You see, it's her and Oleg's anniversary in 3 days. If they can bring her the radishes by then for his favorite soup, she'd gladly give them the money she has been saving up for months to buy him a present.

Also, I have run most of book one twice now, and can I just say how happy I am about the Hot Springs encounter? In both groups, the adventurers' first response to "you find a giant hot tub in the forest" was to strip down and jump in for a steam. Hilarious nude frog wrestling ensued. Bravo!