Generally speaking, noticing a hazard should enable any valid methods of avoiding it - and should give full XP for doing so. Whether that's seeing a trip wire and stepping over it, or not stepping on a particular floor tile, or just jumping over without a check because the jump is within what the rules outline as not needing a check.
Only when it's not "well... roll because I want there to be a roll" situations, such as when there's actually reasonable risk of failure to avoid the hazard even when you know how and know where it is, should a check be called for. And in those cases I suggest using the DCs presented by the hazard as a baseline even if the actions used fall outside what is listed, unless there's considerable reason for a difference in difficulty - it's not actually enabling a "cool idea" if it's significantly harder to pull off than the assumed default method of dealing with something, and anything that'd reasonably make the DC significantly lower probably falls in the "just let that work rather than roll something" realm mentioned earlier.
Thank you for your input. After reviewing the situation, I agree that normally it should not have called for a roll to just jump over the tripwire, but I was building to the theme of a trapped dungeon, and it was the first encounter of the night, so I felt a little more drama would be appropriate. As it was a short adventure/dungeon crawl I wanted to highlight abilities and hazards in play. On a long running campaign I think it makes since to resolve it.
HammerJack wrote:
That being said, these are more Advice answers, not Rules answers. I don't have a rule to refer to for what hazards might be bypassable. This is just applying judgement to the grey area I don't see defined in the rules.
That is exactly where I was. I knew what advise I would give, but wanting to make sure I wasn't missing any explicit rules that would have given guidelines for these situations. I re-read the CRB and GMG and it didn't seem to indicate solutions for resolving/defeating hazards beyond the listed skill check or breaking them, and the topic of avoiding was silent as well.
While playing this last weekend, I ran into some questions about running hazards. Namely, how to handle alternative ways of disabling or avoiding the hazard by using different skills/abilities than those listed in the hazard's stat block. Should these require rolls? Or is simply noticing the trap in some circumstances enough to avoid the hazard?
The first scenario the players came across an Treacherous Scree, which was the only entrance into a cave, so they had to cross it. Two party members attempted the trained survival check several times to disable the trap, but bad rolls had them all fail. so the party wanted to find an alternative solution to resolve/disable the hazard. They determined that they wanted to use grappling hooks and climb checks to attempt to climb the scree. I allowed this, rolling for the hook, and asking each party member to make the athletics check and they all passed. I set the DC for the climb check at 18, as per the DC by level table. I reasoned that by setting up the hook & rope (with the chance to critically fail and potentially trigger the trap) along with all characters needing to make the athletics check (along with the chance to fall and trigger the hazard again) balanced out the higher DC of the survival check to disable the hazard. This also did not disable the hazard, just avoided it, and they had the potential to deal with it again when they returned out of the cave. Does this logic make sense, and was it applied correctly?
The second scenario was inside of the cave, where kobolds had set up a scythe blades trap in a corridor. Again, this was the only route forward to proceed (because kobolds are bastards like that). The players noticed the tripwire, and instead of attempting to using Thievery to disable the trap, they wanted to just jump over the trip wire. One player suggested that it should not have to be a skill check, as often times (in previous editions) just noticing the trap was the "defeat" of the trap, so to speak. I wanted a little more action, so asked for flat athletics checks of DC 10 just jump over the wire, or was open to other suggestions to avoid the trap. Of course, the monk managed to roll a total of a 9 and triggered the hazard. While I don't feel wrong for asking for a roll when there was a skill and a risk involved and probably wouldn't ask for such a thing all the time, I am wondering what other people's takes are, and if simply noticing the trap should have been enough to allow them to defeat and avoid the hazard.
I've recently gotten the urge to create a YouTube series of a group of gamers playing Pathfinder via Virtual Table Top. However, I wasn't sure about what would be acceptable under the current licencing arrangements. I saw the clause on the Community Use page about "referencing dialogue, plots.... in campaign journals and play-by-post games". This would obviously be in the same vein, but it's still an area that I have questions on. I haven't taken enough ranks in Linguistics to be able to speak Legal, so I have some questions.
1) Can I record and upload video of my group playing a published module/Adventure?
2) Can I use the maps associated with the adventure, or maps from other products?
3) Can I use images from the Pawn collections as tokens? If so, do I have to represent them as they are, or can I crop/manipulate them?
I don't plan on making money off of this, I simply want to share our stories with the world. I understand the important of controlling your IP, so I wanted to check before I even began planning anything.
Say I wanted to make a juggling bard. What skill would accurately reflect a juggling performance? I was thinking Perform: Comedy, but it doesn't seem like the best fit. I also thought Sleight of Hand, but that's not not quite in the spirit of the skill.
IANJ but read the Skill Descriptions: Under Sleight of Hand, it says:
Quote:
You can also use Sleight of Hand to entertain an audience as though you were using the Perform skill. In such a case, your “act” encompasses elements of legerdemain, juggling, and the like.
Say I wanted to make a juggling bard. What skill would accurately reflect a juggling performance? I was thinking Perform: Comedy, but it doesn't seem like the best fit. I also thought Sleight of Hand, but that's not not quite in the spirit of the skill.
Also, what class do you think would fit best for a shaman/medicine man character? I thought either witch, oracle, or druid.
My group is about to start part 4. While I understand how the combat mechanics of underwater fights work, I would appreciate any advice or tricks used to help. 3D combat is already bad enough with flying. Namely, my questions are:
How does speaking/communicating work, especially in conjunction with spells like Water Breathing or Air Bubble?
And do players sink if they don't make a successful swim check? If so, at what rate?
Name: Selds'e
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Magus 4/Gunslinger 1
Adventure: Raiders of the Fever Sea
Location: The Dominator
Catalyst: Overconfidence and Commander Kain
Spoiler:
Selds'e was a recent escapee from the Drow, where he was a slave. Prior to being pressganged, he had made good his escape with the talenets he learned from a stolen spellbook and the Blindfight feat. These proved to be useful when captured by pirates.
Selds'e was well known among the party as the one who deals the pain, having electrocuted Scourge, the manticore, and Whalebone's bell. Unfortunately, the confidence went to his head.
Aboard the Dominator, he created a Fog Cloud, and wandered in to fight Commander Kain and two cronies. They quickly ganged up on him. As the Party destroyed the tiller, Selds'e was fighting a losing battle against the Commander. The party, seeing that reinforcements were arriving every other round, made a break for it, the fog cloud preventing them from seeing Selds'e's final moments. Kain challenged the magus, and brought his axe down in two strokes. The first Selds'e blocked with a hero-point induced Shield spell, but the second was much more devistating. Reduced to negative hit points, Selds'e's fate was unknown to the crew. An agonized captian ordered retreat, vowing revenge. Their ship managed to escape out of the bay without hardly a scratch.
Selds'e woke in the brig as the Paracountess Lorvika came down with torturers to find the location of his crew, but Selds'e was used to far worse at the hands of the drow. Succeeding on a 20 Will save, he refused to give up the location of Tidewater Rock. Instead, he directed them to Bonewrack Isle, hoping to get them all infected with Ghoul Fever. They hung Selds'e until dead off the yardarm of the ship, befitting a pirate like him.
The player for Sel is my GM in Carrion Crown, and he killed one of my characters there, so now we are even.
My group is interested in adding some Concealed Weapon Ports to their vessel. However, we are confused on this wording:
S&S Players Guide wrote:
Each concealed port reduces a ship’s cargo capacity by 5 tons, in addition to the space required by the weapon itself.
Does this mean that a Siege Weapon takes up cargo space? If so, how much?
Finally, if they wish to have a new ship made for them, how long would it take? I'm assuming that the Craft skill is a guideline, but I'm not sure how exactly to represent a work crew creating a ship. Would it be a bunch of aid anothers to the master craftsman? Or is this over thinking the problem, and the answer would be something more like two months?
Also, converting plunder to gp is pretty inefficient unless you can crank out diplomacy checks.
My group has a diplomacy focused bard, and they headed straight for Senghor (metropolis) to sell their booty, selling everything for 120%. They just cracked the Rock, and their individual wealth is around 15K a person, which is way over the wealth by level amount for 5th. They've sold 3 ships so far, despite my best efforts to persuade them to squib them or store them somewhere. They also sailed with 2 of the vessels, towing them to port, so I couldn't easily have a mutiny.
Is this how other people are feeling about their PCs? That they are way ahead on their wealth? Will this present more problems in the future?
My group has taken the idea of officers positions and mixed them with party roles.
Captain: Bard, the one with the plan, party face
First Office/Boatswain: Rogue, keeps track of crew compliment, secondary face
Quartermaster/Master Gunner: Magus, keeps inventory (including PC loot, selling prices, etc), and keeps up to date on siege weapons
Master At Arms: Barbarian, keeps crew in line, entertainment
Sailing Master/Carpenter: Druid, sails and keeps the ship healthy
I'm the Oracle in this campaign, and my wife is the Witch. Both she and I, Ulmaxes and I, and Ulmaxes and her have talked about it. We're also going to talk about it before our next session starts. I wanted to give my opinion on what has happened, and what could be done in the future about situations like this.
As as player, I feel that we were not given sufficient information about this particular situation. We were aware that the child had been taken, but I don't recall learning that the child was being taken here. There was also no information that the child was in the room; there was no description on the room at all. It would have made the situation different if the baby had been crying, or even if the cultists looked like they were trying to silence the child. I believe that if the wizard had known the situation, he would not have acted that way.
From a role-playing perspective, however, it fits. The wizard was the only character who could see into the room (the barbarian was fleeing, and myself and the witch were still around the corner). He has been playing his character as getting more reckless and impulsive, even taking Opposition Research to gain access to Necromancy spells, something he once abhorred. It was a sobering moment to his character, especially when my oracle and his still active Spiritual Ally turned on him, preparing to kill him for the errant spell. I'm prepared to continue with our actions, because this is a real possibility.
Ultimately, I feel that the issue lies in the fact that our mindset was not prepared for this. Despite this being a horror game, we have not been playing it as such. Players and GM have been acting more pleasantly, with jokes and such flying around the table. I believe it was the abrupt change in tone that shocked us. The mood was not right for such a serious thing. I'm glad Ulmaxes is taking it seriously, and I know it will not disrupt our group's friendship.
Is it just me or is this adventure path excessively hard?
"Holy Grappling monsters Batman"
** spoiler omitted **
Spoiler:
The swarms are almost too mean. When my group came across them, they had nothing as well. I let them dive in the bog and made them hold their breath until the swarm moved on.
My group just finished our first session with the Ship to Ship combat rules last week. As the GM, here are my thoughts:
The rules themselves were not bad. My group had fun. The biggest issue we had with it, is that it is basically one person rolling for a while. Sure other people can fire siege weapons and such, but it really puts the spotlight on someone.
The Upper Hand is critical to making the combat exciting. Without it, it plays off as just rolls to match the other's maneuvers. With Upper Hand, you really need to get some strategy, especially as the GM.
Don't forget to add the pilot's Profession Sailor check to things like AC, CMB/CMD, etc.
The fastest way to win the battle is to destroy the sails/oars. "If a ship
or its means of propulsion becomes broken, the ship’s maximum speed is halved and the ship can no longer gain the upper hand until repaired." If you can get the sails to the broken condition, it is much easier to catch up to prey.
That being said, the rules are rather complicated. Now that my group has a better handle on them (having run 3 ship-ship encounters) we should have fewer problems.
Character sheet app would be awesome, especially if it allowed me to add buffs, debuffs, etc on the fly. Also have a spot to indicate how many x/day use things I had used.
Spell book would be great. For prepared casters, the ability to add to a list of what is prepared that day would be awesome. For spontaneous, the ability to mark off what has been cast would also be good. It could also autocalc DCs and the like.
Initiative app that could be shared to all players. It'd hold everyone's initiative, their spell/power duration, etc.
Is anyone else considering leveling up some of the key NPCs along with the party? My group is interested in continuing relationships with people like Sandara, Roise, and Fishguts, and they want them to get key positions on the ship (Sandara especially, because we don't have a healbot in the party).
Right now, I've houseruled that they can level up as cohorts just like the leadership table describes using the Captain for the leader. However, I've ruled if they want to actually take them on adventures, someone will need to actually take leadership. Does this sound fair? What other options are there?
I've got a couple of players that both want to romance Sandara, and one who wants to befriend Rosey. I'm not entirely sure how to go about it. I know that there is a relationship mechanic in Jade Regent, but not having played it, I'm not familiar with it. What suggestions do you have?
We just did our first session Saturday. I've got 5 players. They are all either TN or CN. We decided on "commonplace guns", and I've homebrewed some rules concerning proficiency with guns and cutlasses.
Pirate Rogue, Elf, daughter of a famous Master-At-Arms
Buccaneer Bard, human, who has never been on a boat but wants to seek his destiny as a pirate lord
Magus, human, recently escaped from Drow, trying to get somewhere open and not dark
Aquatic Druid, Samsaran, trying to find details about his past lives
Brutal Pugilist Barbarian, human, on the run from Chelixain authorities
I think it's just a case of under-estimating Mr. Plugg. Harrigan assumes that his fearsome reputation will keep Plugg inline. He thinks that Plugg is kowtowed into following his orders; that Plugg doesn't have the courage to defy him. Obviously, this comes back to bite him.
Amusingly, Plugg is the same way with the PCs. He thinks that he can kill them/keep them down. We all know better than that.
Master Scourge has the following items in his pockets:
- one wedding ring made of silver that is valued at 25 gp
- forteen platinum coins in loose change
- twenty gold coins in loose change
On Master Scourge's stat block, it lists him having a silver wedding ring worth 25 gp, 14 pp, 29 gp. I'm assuming that it's a typo and only worth 25 gp.
The first thing that struck me as I read through the adventure was that 30 NPCs is alot to keep track of. Even with some of the crew being un-influencable future villains, having the crew spread out over several pages and then a few focused on for several pages, and then the appendix of several pages again was a little inconvenient. Without a chart to print out, I had to make a spreadsheet.
The contents of which is being transferred to index cards with notes on description, mannerisms for roleplaying the NPC, job, actions that can modify influence checks (and their modifier), locker contents, and a color coded post-it strip to indicate their current attitude toward the PCs.
The plan is the cards will enable me to keep track of where on the ship the NPCs are with having to move around 30 miniatures. I can also pick up the rigger stack or the swab stack and have a good idea of who the PCs are interacting with during their daily tasks. This should help to build up the NPCs as people and give the players a better sense of the future crew members they are attempting to turn friendly or helpful. Also, anyone who is indifferent at the end of the adventure will still throw in their lot with the PCs (should they win), but could be people the PCs need to keep their eye on.
Hopefully this works works out as well as the only other time I've ever resorted to index cards (Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil). I look forward to this being as fun for me as it is for the players.
I was thinking of doing something similar. There's a ton to keep track of. I'll be glad when someone becomes captain at the end of the book, and I can pass off some the responsibility to them!
The afternoon sun beats down on you; the air is hot and still. The sparsely settled lands of the Elsir Vale are starting to grow monotonous, with a seemingly endless line of dusty flyspecks of towns. The town of Drellin's Ferry lies a few miles ahead of you. It's a settlement hard on the borders of the Witchwood.
Your reasons for heading to Drellin's Ferry are your own. Whether you plan to stop there, or if it is simply another resting point on your journey is up to you. However, you have joined in with some other travelers along the way. You've struck up simple conversation during the dull travels, so you know something about the two others with you.
Please introduce your character, giving a bit of a physical and social description.
Three nobles souls passed on yesterday during the grand finale of Trial of the Beast.
** spoiler omitted **
Spoiler:
As the player of Sarrek, the Beast was on his way when the first two died. He arrived, but failed some grapple checks and was held by the Promethean for two rounds. That didn't help. However, Sarrek provided some aid anothers and was able to help the Beast escape. Unfortunately, that lead to his *sunglasses* downfall.
Ok, now that my capstone is 99.9% wrapped up, I can focus back on this.
Character creation stuff
Starting level: 5
Ability score: Roll 4d6 (drop lowest) 7 times (drop one set)
Starting wealth: 10,500 gp
Pick two traits (none from the campaign traits)
Background info:
You are journeying to the village of Drellin's Ferry, located in the sparsely settled lands of the Elsir Vale. The Elsir Vale is a small valley tucked in between the countries of Isger, Cheliax, and Molthune. It is technically part of Cheliax, but they have been largely ignored due to a lack of anything interesting.
Why you are headed to Drellin's Ferry is your choice. However, along the way, you have come across some other travelers, and decided to travel together for safety's sake.
Some reasons to travel to Drellin's Ferry
-delivering a note or package to someone important
-a friendly cleric or prophet of some kind has sent you here to try and avert a disaster
-you found a treasure map detailing there may be something of value yet undiscovered in the area
-anything else, I can work with you
Hey guys, glad you could make it! We'll get this kicked off here quick.
It's pretty cool, we can set up aliases for characters, allowing us to post as them for a little more immersion. If you need help with formatting or alias creation, let me know.
How would you like to do stats? Should we rolls? Point buy? Let me randomly assign numbers?
Any ideas on classes?
Anything you need to know?
Once we get some stuff stated, I'll throw up some rules for generation and we can get going
