MiggidyMack's page

Why not just junk resonance and resolve the issue by adjusting the cost of wands and other items?

If the problem is people using CLW wands all the time, just stop letting players buy them with Prestige in PFS and up the cost. If the issue is nobody using higher level potions, then adjust the cost of potions.

You've already got several balancing options that do not require you to cludge a secondary rule system on top of an already complex game.

It got a pretty good review over at BellofLostSouls.net, which I find pretty exciting!

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2018/01/starfinder-stygian-stars.html

I'm confused. Why is tracking the charge in your battery and buying more charges between sessions "too cumbersome", but tracking the bullets in your clip and buying more between sessions not too cumbersome?

Am I tracking battery charges wrong?

I don't find the downtime system worth it. The primary mechanic is to make a series of checks each week to, for the most part, tread water.

It makes the whole campaign feel like the players are just hanging out, clearing five room dungeons until an NPC waltz's into their secret base and tells them what they should actually be doing.

If, instead, they had tied the adventure hooks to your rebellion system, then it would at least be the result of player actions.

Now granted, we're only in book 2, and I'm the guy handling our sheet, so my experience is certainly not informed by the actual book, so take this with a grain of salt.

When we play, every time the GM calls for us to handle a week, I get out the sheet, roll the dice, everyone talks about what we'll have our teams do, and then we roll more dice to see how well they do it.

So far, this has had no effect on the game what-so-ever. We've earned a little money, we've wondered if our infamy should be lower (it's in the teens, and if it hits 100 we lose, I think?).

Anyway, I don't think it matters. Regardless of our secrecy points people just seem to walk in to our base so they can explain where the next dungeon is.

If you're looking for this to be an intrigue game, it won't happen as of halfway through book 2. I don't know about the rest, but there hasn't really been anything we didn't know.

The biggest mystery, so far, has been "people are dying over here... can you figure out what it is?" and the answer, at least that the NPC suggested to us, is to hang out over there until it attacks you.

So yeah, skip the downtime system unless someone who has played deeper in says "it's super cool and important later."

For those keeping score, here's what happened using him today. 2 encounters so far, we're taking a little break at the moment.

Encounter 1: He survived. The opposing party had a Cleric, however, So I was very careful to keep him outside Channel Energy range, just in case. I don't think the Cleric would have wasted an action to kill him, but she did have Quick Channel, and as a level 9 Cleric (with a few minions, found out stats after the fight) I didn't want to risk it. He got to fight a level 4 warrior for a few rounds, his high AC (I have him in Full Plate) kept him alive pretty well, as did the Bludgeoning DR. He didn't HIT the enemy, but he did stand toe-to-toe with him for a few rounds.

Encounter 2: He died. CR 6 Ceustedaemon caught him in his breath weapon after rolling well on initiative. I suppose if I'd rolled better on initiative we could have spread out better, but he caught 2 PC's and the SC in one blast.

So, I suppose that's that. Oh, we are only 7, he let me take the SC a level early.

I've talked to my GM, we're going to test it out. I'm gonna run the Skeletal Champion until it dies, then replace him with a more mundane henchman-style character if he dies (without taking the dead companion penalty).

We figure the best way to know is to try it, maybe we are missing something, or expecting hits to be bigger than they are in actuality.

It has DR 5 Bludgeoning (which a lot of weapons deal). Which means it can take a 22HP direct weapon hit before it dies (as it is killed at 0hp, without a Con). It has nothing that would protect it from spells.

There's not a lot of things it can survive even a single hit from at level 8 (which is when you can first take it). Compared to 6 levels of a humanoid I don't think it really has defenses up the wazoo. Especially when compared to the class levels it would have, or when compared to Archon's and Ineveitables which only count as a level 4.

Maybe I need to re-read the undead traits. Sure they are immune to a lot of the control and slow death mechanics, but most damage that comes their way one-shots them.

I don't expect them to be a powerhouse in combat, but I'd like them to be able to carry my bag without dying twice a night.

Which is where my confusion comes from. Or am I misreading the rules for monstrous cohorts. I just can't bring myself to take a cohort with 17 HP at level 8. Even if he is just carrying my stuff he's going to die to the first fireball that clips him.

It's made all the more strange when I look at the new Cohorts and Companions book. It values undead at 6ish lvl for 2HD undead. However you can get Archons and Inevitables at 4th lvl for 2 or 3 HD. And those guys have spell like abilities... and truespeak!

That makes them pretty useful all around, and at level 8 I'd still get to toss a couple class levels on them.

I'm playing in a game where it is reasonable for our characters to pick up Leadership. Not all of us are going to take it, and I might not, but I'm considering it on my Oracle of Bones (it's an evil campaign). I don't have the "Raise the Dead" as a revelation, but I do animate undead. So far, however, I don't use them in combat so much as to carry my palanquin or walk blindly into areas I think are trapped. It's a lot of fun.

So my query, is about Monster Cohorts. I'm looking at a Skeletal Champion, who is a level 1 warrior with a total of 3HD. However, he counts as a level 6 Cohort. Comparing that to a standard companion, who would be a level 6 Fighter (or other player class) and it just doesn't seem to stack up.

Am I missing something about the Monster Cohort rules? I feel like I must be misreading them, or maybe a 3HD Skeletal Champion is awesome in a way that makes up for his +7 to hit and 17 HP.

Thanks in advance for the advice/wisdom!

Much appreciated BzAli, that certainly explains it a bit better! It means he assumes we took it from Harrigan, but Harrigan doesn't know yet. That's a much tighter explanation than I was assuming! Thanks!

At this point she wants to know how Pegsworthy could know too. She hasnt purchased the next book yet and is curious if he knows for a reason or not.

I just asked her about it, if she was sure. She told me to tell you to look at the bottom of page 13. Apparently the AP says, in no uncertain terms, that he knows about the theft from Harrigan. That is impossible unless magic is involved, given the timeline.

There are 9 people who should have known about that before we got to Rickety Squibs... all of us onboard the Man's Promise. Here we are now though, and some guy who just showed up knows that it was stolen from Harrigan. Hell, he asked to christen our ship. Our GM is running pretty close to the book (we have 2 players who want that) so I trust that she's running as it's written.

I have no reason to believe that she is lying when she reads things to us from the book! :)

I'm guessing I just need to let this go, it sounds like it's just strange writing choices.

Are you sure? Because most of this was from read-aloud text. After we questioned the boars she read the bit from the book about both sides of the path. And the rum thing was just pure rules shenanigans.

As for Pegsworthy, that's possible. Although she was adamant that the book said he knew about the theft from Harrigan. She looked it up to double check when I mentioned him knowing the impossible to the rest of the party.

Salutations!

I'm currently playing in a Skull & Shackles campaign, and I've hit upon something that I feel compelled to ask about, because I feel like I run the risk of damaging the suspension of disbelief for the other players pretty badly. So I thought I would ask here, although I know it's going to be tough for anyone to answer without spoilers.

Also spoiler warning, I'm gonna talk about the events in book 1 and the start of book 2.

During last night's adventure, another captain and his crew (Pegsworthy) sailed into Rickety Squibs. They recognized the Man's Promise, knew that Harrigan had stolen it, and that it had then been stolen from Harrigan.

This, combined with the strange creatures on the island has me thinking that either A) The writer didn't think some bits through, or B) It's hinting at something pretty fun. And I want to know if this is just more handwavium in the books that I need accept, or if I'm right to want to run off and seek out the Oracle/Diviner that is tracking us with magic.

Pegsworthy somehow knows about our ship... and beyond magic I don't see how. The Man's Promise was attacked at sea, so while it's possible they didn't make a rendezvous and someone out there knows they are missing, I don't know how they know Harrigan did it. Maybe he showed up somewhere else with the crew and someone put it together. That's an awful lot to have happened in the 2 weeks since we took the ship though.

But we just managed to pull off a mutiny. We then went to the exact location Harrigan expected Plug/Scourge to take the ship. Nobody left our ship, and no ships left harbor from Rickety Squibbs. How does anyone know that we took the ship at this point? If anything, Harrigan expects the ship to be here, he wouldn't have any way to know of our mutiny (which at this point is just about 2 weeks old).

It might have gotten around the town we are in, sure, but Pegsworthy just got here... we SAW HIM ROW UP. So I've been assuming he has access to a powerful fortuneteller, and that we need to kill his crew and interrogate him about their location.

But then the boar fight on the path UP to the watch tower... how is there a cliff on both sides of us? Looking at the map we were shown... that exists nowhere. Also it couldn't logically... and how would a pair of boars get up to such a location anyway? They aren't goats. Our first response was to attempt to break the illusion trap we had walked into. It's this event that makes me question whether or not the bit with Pegsworthy is awesome foreshadowing or not.

Long Post Longer... is this just something I should accept, or will I be excited to have stumbled onto a very cleverly hidden hook? After the whole "you're pirates, be terrified of rum!" system in the first book, combined with odd encounter locations like the boars... am I just expecting things in this AP to much sense? Is this haphazard handwavium just the style of the adventure?

I'm willing to shrug it off... I just don't want to get screwed because I don't know what to shrug off out of character!