Zaborjca relaxes a little bit at this. Helping minotaurs to settle near inhabited regions isn't very much in his wheelhouse, but monster slaying is. This is a job he understands and accepts.
In Fallout 2 there is a character named Torr with extremely low intelligence, to the point where he only speaks in short, broken pidgin. If you also have extremely low intelligence, however, it unlocks richly detailed translations for the pidgin language, implying that you understand one another perfectly. https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/4/47/Low_Intelligence_conv ersation_Torr.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20051229114913
I'll go ahead and do that if possible. It should only cost 15gp to get the spell into my spellbook, but it will take two hours plus travel time to find a wizard with it in their spellbook. If it's feasible that leaves me with 376.75 gold.
I have a quest in mind that I can run when we're ready. Given the format, I hardly need to have it fully prepared before we start, so I can be ready to GM for later!
That's a potentially valid reading that I hadn't considered, Tocash. I read the "working longer" line to just cap the working day at eight hours, but it could very well cap the working-day-while-adventuring time to four hours as well.
Also since I'm talking about potions: first, I have Brew Potion, so I can make potions for folks at half price if you want a few particular brews in your backpack.
Second, I have a question about how the group would like to handle item creation rules in conjunction with a Ring of Sustenance, since I plan to make potions while adventuring. This is the bit I'm puzzling over.
The caster can work for up to 8 hours each day. He cannot rush the process by working longer each day, but the days need not be consecutive, and the caster can use the rest of his time as he sees fit. If the caster is out adventuring, he can devote 4 hours each day to item creation, although he nets only 2 hours’ worth of work. This time is not spent in one continuous period, but rather during lunch, morning preparation, and during watches at night.
Would it be fair to say that since the Ring of Sustenance gives me an extra six hours of waking time, that I could use four of them to continue work on an item, for eight total hours of work that would get halved to four hours of effective work? Or would I be limited to the original 4 hours per day regardless of the item?
We should probably turn out these two spellcasters' pockets and find out what they're about. Does anyone have Perception for that?
I didn't think to spellcraft them in combat, so that's behind us, but I've got that and K:Arcana to go over their stuff and I can ID any potions they have. We may get some clues from their belongings.
Maybe I can K:Local their faces?
If they're still alive we can heal them enough for questioning by a social type character, as well.
We've kind of inherently got some nobles to question thanks to the injuries so they maybe shed some light on if they know of these out of place individuals.
Lots of edits on that last post, I think it's right now. I got confused on positioning and also realized after the fact (but within the edit window) that Bartender probably doesn't deserve to get gutted outright, lol.
that's 686.25 for everyone but Maxy. that gets me to 2891.75 gold, which i'll retroactively use to buy a Ring of Sustenance (one of my favorite magic items) and start wearing it. It activates in one week. That leaves me with 391.75 gold.
Excess loot is sold, and a CLW wand is purchased and placed in the party pool. There is 2,745 gold left to be distributed, am I remembering correctly that there are five of us?
0.5 GP A magnet
60 GP Paying a wizard or sorcerer to cast Continual Flame on said magnet
250 GP Traveler's Anytool
200 GP Sleeves of Many Garments
500 GP Cracked Dusty Rose Prism Ioun Stone
2 GP Crowbar
10 GP Smoked Goggles
100 GP Spider's Silk Rope
8 GP Donkey
15 GP Cart
4 GP Saddlebags
50 GP Copied Spells
All told that leaves me with 2,206.5 GP. If there's enough after extra loots are sold to get me to 2,500 GP I'll spend that on a Ring of Sustenance. If not, I'll just bank it until after this adventure.
Suggestion: It may make sense for us to spend 750 GP of party funds on a Cure Light Wounds wand. It's on my formulae list so I can use it, and that'll take care of our healing needs for at least an adventure or two.
1. All unclaimed consumables (except scrolls) have been moved to a party "insurance" pool. I'm going to buy a donkey (8gp) and a cart (15gp) and store party items there. Anyone can grab them at anytime.
2. All the remaining loot has been moved into a to-be-sold pool. Anything still there in 4-5 days will be converted to gold and distributed. If you can use the scrolls please grab them, they're more useful as consumables than as gold I think.
3. There's an item that's just listed as "3x,". Is that anything worth mentioning? It's the only thing still left in the general pool at this point.
4. I went ahead and assigned Ghorza's claimed items to them in the spreadsheet. I also snagged a CMW potion and everburning torch and put it in my inventory.
Of those, only Shield and Fox's Cunning are on my formulae list. I'll copy those with take-10 Spellcraft checks (10+9=19 against DC 16 and 17) and 50 GP. Then I'll put the spellbooks in the remainder pool after confirming no one needs to copy from it.
I've updated the loot and XP spreadsheet so it has a tab for loot distribution. The original drops are in the first column, and the modified drops for what people have already taken is in the second column. Everyone can assign loot to themselves on the spreadsheet, then once we've fully moved on we can convert the leftovers into GP and split it. If everyone can make a pass at it and assign items to themselves, I'll put the remainder in the conversion pool and notify everyone so they can grab the GP. Or you can put it here and I'll update the tab.
Tocash, you're currently GM: do we get time to shop with our GP before we go to the next adventure? I haven't made any choices with it yet. :)
The +x items are in a weird place right now because they exist and are in our possession, but can't be worn due to an ABP bonus we don't get until level 6 or 7. GM has ruled that they can't be used so it may make sense to think of them as money instead, even though the bonus is currently useful.
For the other loot I'll a holy water and two alchemist fires. I recommend we put the healing potions into a community pool for topping up between combats, perhaps. Kind of a community resource to be drawn on as-needed. :)
I can't meaningfully use the scrolls - I can't use scrolls except for learning spells and those spells aren't on my formulae list. GM Caster, if there are any spells in those Wizard's Spellbooks that are on the alchemist spell list I'd like to try to learn them, then put them back in the loot pool.
I think there's actually a great deal of rule ambiguity on whether or not the manifestations are visible while the caster is invisible. There was a huge discussion on that in my "Pf 1.5" working server.
Ah, yeah, I forgot that this is only unambiguous in Spheres. Core is still unclear on the matter. Happy to go with GM ruling on this one. :)
Quick question: I think the summoner cast a spell during that combat. Did we see any manifestations when he did, or was the view blocked by the smoke? They would be visible even if he were invisible, provided there wasn't another visibility issue.*
*That's RAW as I understand it, obviously GM fiat overrides that.
I'm going to just say, after considering this scene for a few moments, that I don't generally play as a chaos gremlin or anything and GM can attest to this. I just genuinely, IRL, as a human person did not think about the fact that we would have to put this fire out afterwards. haha.
oops. >.>
In my defense we really, really needed a way to know which square this guy is in. :)
So as unconvincing as it as after literally setting the scene on fire in an attempt to solve a problem, I promise I'm not a murderhobo. hahaha.
At the moment I don't see more summons coming and the summoner isn't DPSing or making more summons, so I'm focusing on the things that might KO or kill party members. That's my mechanical motivation for focusing on damaging/killing elementals. It's about 50/50 on if this guy is out of spell slots or if he's packing a wand or something, so he's a dubious threat and the elementals are immediate.
Storywise, we need to get the word out to the townsfolk that something is suspicious here and ideally detain this invisible guy. I've alerted the healer type person that came in in hopes that they have a solution of sorts. But it seems to me like our secondary goal (beyond the immediate one of not getting beaten to death by rock guys) is to subdue and capture the summoner for questioning.
The challenge with this plan is that these elementals are really, really tanky, and the summoner has slipped away from us twice now. Killing these guys may take some time IRL, lol. If we go that route then we should try and focus fire on the target me and Tocash are flanking with power attacks if possible and get this crowd thinned out.
Aygavan, I'm guessing you can't really hurt the elementals with your whip? If so then having you switch to elemental cleanup isn't workable. So if the plan is to clean up the elementals then deal with the summoner, then you would obviously keep doing what you're doing.
The other two options I can see us moving together on are:
1. Subduing the summoner, in which case we should accept some AOOs and all move to assist with a grapple.
2. Coordinating the nearby townsfolk into bumrushing the summoner while we clean up the elementals, in which case we should keep tying up the elementals while all the villagers beat up the summoner, except for one person who can gather up everyone and coordinate them.
LOL, I'm also learning just now that alchemist bomb splash damage has a 1/2 reflex save, that should have been obvious in retrospect, clearly you already gathered this but the DC is 14, GM.
This must be my week for missing basic rule details. :P
"Ghorzam, Aygavan, and Zaborjca can confirm that I tend to throw medium to hard combats at my PCs."
Can confirm, there's a reason I suggested to disengage to try and avoid getting KO'd in a bad spot, this would not be the first time I've seen an unconscious PC in a caster4life combat, and for that matter, it wouldn't be the second either. :)
Maeve what is your con? I'm guessing you're less than a minute from death but I don't know how close to the wire we are here.
Edit: Inferring a Con of 16-17 based on the stabilization check. We need to get a 15 DC Heal on her within about a minute, then. I can hit that 25% of the time with a +0 modifier - should I prioritize disengaging from this last monster, or...?
I realized that I only gave myself two formulae known instead of two+Int Mod so I fixed that up. (Edit: Plus one more for leveling up!)
Also I forgot that I need Infusion to give my Extracts to other people and I already regret not having it. I unfortunately do not have a way to stabilize Maeve.
Hey folks I made a mistake on my sheet: I do not meet the prereqs for Outflank so I'm changing it to Precise Strike.
That said, I have the Precise Strike teamwork feat, and I can grant it to the party every so often, but if anyone wants to take it and be my permanent flanking buddy that would be neat. :)
I'm still learning this character, I should have thrown a bomb or maybe drank a mutagen on that turn rather than double moving without my weapon drawn. :) I should probably also prepare my extracts!
Also just a quick FYI for DM and everyone else: I'm describing my weapon as a longsword for RP but it's actually a scimitar on-sheet and mechanically, just a cosmetic description thing hope that's ok!
Edit: I also realized I didn't pick a slayer talent so I fixed that, which involved shifting my feats around a little.
\/ Oh I thought it took a swift action to ready a shield/draw a weapon as part of a move but apparently it's free cool then I'm armed!
1. In a Paizo alias, a well-formatted character sheet.
Hope this format is OK: https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2720939
Zaborjca is a Vanguard (Slayer)/Beastmorph (Alchemist). He is a professional monster hunter, like that's literally his job, taking contracts for things like clearing dangerous beasts from trade routes or clearing ruins for recolonization and things like that. He adventures for a paycheck to care for his family - at the end of the day he's a family man first and foremost. But he's very confident in his abilities and will go into great danger with utter confidence in his ability to get back out of it again.
Mechanically, he can craft weapons, armor, and potions, and has a solid mix of knowledge skills and spellcraft. In combat he'll be moving into melee flanking for sneak attacks, can self-buff with mutagens, and eventually party buff with extracts. Beastmorph let me add on some fun shapeshifting effects like Pounce, Fly, and Darkvision, and Vanguard lets me grant the Outflank teamwork feat to the party every so often.
2. In a Paizo alias, a nice backstory.
Spoiler:
Zaborjca's workload was getting out of hand.
Usually a lot of work was a good thing. Monster slaying for hire is kind of a feast or famine profession, after all, so steady work is a nice change of pace. And the Kortos Consortium was a pleasure to work with: prompt payment, professional mannerisms, and generally manageable contracts. Kobolds, goblins, and the like. But lately the contracts had involved more monstrous, aquatic foes, and well... Lea hated it when he came home wounded, and it worried little Elly so.
Many thought that he had married out of convenience, what, a professional monster killer married to a doctor and surgeon, and with their daughter quickly following in her footsteps, but nay. The two had truly married for love.
Zaborjca shakes his shaggy red hair and beard as he snaps back to the task at hand. A letter, from the Kortos Consortium. Zaborjca takes a deep breath. It's gonna be another long workday.
3. In the application post, a brief description of what kind of quest you
would run when it’s your turn.
Spoiler:
I'd have a couple things I'd like to do. One is that I'd like to have a caper/heist scenario where the party can't let another group know they're also going for an item, and they can split up to either go for the item themselves or hinder the other group. Another fun scenario I always like is to do a reverse dungeon crawl where I have the players spend some time deciding how to defend a location and then have it attacked by monsters that are trying to get something from it.
4. In your application post, a brief description of your GMing philosophy.
Spoiler:
I like to subvert things a bit or have them play out in an unexpected way - I try to make scenarios where each character has a chance to individually shine or use their abilities in a cool way, and try to provide a lot of fun/cool action scenes to describe to keep things exciting.
5. In your application post, a brief description of your philosophy for GMing
PBP, specifically.
Spoiler:
I don't have one yet, never done it before. I think the general PBP philosophy I have is to be present and timely but not overpost so as to not drown other people out if they can't be present as often.
6. (Optional) In your application post, link to a campaign in which you were a
good PBP player or (even better) GM.
Although Cookie keeps to himself outside of his business persona, he has a few close friends and allies in Absalom, largely decided based on a lack of potential interest in eating him or a lack of ability to do so. His favorite person is Hiss (Blaster archetype Armorist), the mad goblin "inventor" and "engineer" that has a workshop in the slums of the city. Hiss is absolutely adamantly insistent that he's created a new, technological form of armor and weapons that will revolutionize goblin society, including claiming that he is working on personal flight systems, but anyone who takes a single look at the amalgamations of junk he's cobbled together can immediately tell there's no rhyme or reason behind it. Hiss wholeheartedly believes in his work, however, which amuses Cookie to no end. It also helps that Hiss is so caught up in his "engineering" projects that Cookie is pretty sure that he barely notices food at all, much less that his friend is highly edible.
Another favorite of Cookie's is Mert'lel, a wood elf ranger. Besides the fact that he helps keep his restaurant safe, he has also sworn an oath to only ever eat raw meat, to be closer to and better embody the red tooth and claw of nature. Eating Cookie's beef tartare may not be *exactly* in the spirit of that oath, but it's close enough, and Cookie is willing to pay him handsomely for security, since, after all, he's the only human guaranteed to not betray and eat Cookie.
Backstory errata:
Spoiler:
Cookie was born late by Ghoran standards but he has some memories of evading human hunting parties in his youth. Once ghoran-consumption was illegalized, he eventually grew to trust humans and joined in their army, eventually leading to his experience with the starving Nexian rebels.
Character sheet (in progress, but this should only change in details rather than main mechanics): https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2683950
Backstory:
Cookie: Level 3 Ghoran Iron Chef
Zriak'rie (aka "Cookie") began his life in the nation of Nex, serving with distinction in the Nexian army as a capable and powerful infantry soldier in his early life. Although he was a ghoran, he liked and trusted the humans around him, forming strong bonds within the Nexian military. He was deployed to contain a rebellion in the Shattered Range, where the military cut off food imports from Geb in order to starve out the rebels. This strategy worked, but in the fighting Cookie was captured by the Nexian rebels. Close to starvation and already outlaws of the Nexian government, the rebels had no problem breaking the law against consuming Ghoran flesh, and began to use Cookie as their food source in a gruesome display of ongoing cruelty, lasting for weeks until Cookie could transfer his consciousness to a planted seed and escape. Although his body was reformed, his mind was scarred by the PTSD of the experience, and he was discharged with honors from the military when it became clear that he could no longer perform his duties.
Cookie's experience led him into an obsession with food and cookery. Having been traumatized by starving men, he theorized that there was only one way to keep himself safe: make sure that everyone around him is well-fed enough that they will feel no need to consume him. He immigrated to Absalom (bringing only his soldier's armor with him as a keepsake) with his closest friend Nethelhaim to study under the greatests chef he could find - and in a nation with ample food security. Soon he and Nethelhaim started their own restaurant, Cookie's Gourmet, with Cookie providing the cooking and Nethelhaim providing the business expertise. It quickly became popular both due to the high quality of the food and the oddly low prices. Cookie, after all, is willing to cut into his profits, if it means the people near him are decidedly not hungry...
Cookie is now a successful chef and restaurant owner, although he drinks often to cope with his PTSD. It was on a particularly drunken night while returning to his restaurant that he encountered his first zombie, which did what zombies do, and attacked Cookie with the intention of consuming him. Cookie killed it with a meat tenderizer, then went to his room, and strapped on his armor. It would seem that he was no longer safe from predation... and he'd have to fight to make himself safe again.
"No... not again. Never again. I cannot let this happen."
Playstyle:
Cookie is a heavy armor melee frontliner/tank in combat who focuses on sundering manufactured or natural weapons and armor with his oversized kitchen implements (a two-handed meat tenderizer and a giant rolling pin) in order to debuff monsters for the rest of the party to finish off.
Outside of combat, Cookie is proficient in crafting and repairing weapons and armor, and is very good at providing good food and drink for everyone. His signature recipe, brown-sugar crusted red meat with roasted potatoes, increases the party's constitution and fortitude saves, and reduces the duration of negative effects on them. He can also re-work found weapons and armor into other types so that folks can more easily use them.
Personality:
Cookie is fairly guileless and emotionally open, albeit suspicious of others, especially humanoids in the grips of starvation. Since he knows from experience that he might become prey to them, he considers them to be an existential threat, and his relative lack of guile means he disguises this fear very poorly. He's obsessed with the food security of his immediate community as a matter of self-preservation and terrified of finding himself in the midst of a humanoid famine. He drinks often to cope with the memories of his capture or with the stress of current situations. He isn't terribly bright at all and often struggles to understand complex topics that aren't related to soldiering, equipment maintenance, or cookery.
(As an aside, the loss of the Surprise Weapon trait hurts, lol.)
Neat on retraining. It’s something that can really only be done with enough time in your backstory devoted to it, but if you can pull it off then it’s a big chunk of HP. How much did it cost you all together?
990GP for 10 HP, so almost exactly 100GP/HP.
Quote:
Also look forward to seeing your final build. You obviously put a lot of thought into it, so it’ll be enjoyable to see what the final product is. (I love making characters, so it’s enjoyable to see what others come up with)
Thanks! Looking forward to seeing yours as well. I've played an armorist (blaster archetype) and it's a really fun class, it'll be fun to see what your take on it is!
