Mo the Felonious Monk's page

Yes. I want to play the PCs wizard opponent with the appropriate level of threat from an intelligent, controlling caster, but I don't want to arbitrarily make the encounter too difficult by misinterpreting rules. I do feel that having both a pit and BT together should be significantly more difficult to overcome.

I'm leaning to having the BT stay where it is, and extend in a 20 foot radius up from the original floor. Anyone who falls in won't be grappled, but since they have to climb up, once they reach the top they will face an immediate grapple check. I'm still mulling over how being grappled would affect anyone who failed the reflex save versus falling, since the BT can't be 'dragged' into the pit

Mo the Felonious Monk wrote:

Arrows need to be bought in units of 50. Therefore you wouldn't be able to purchase slaying arrows until you amassed 202,000g.

I'm pretty sure that slaying arrows are priced per each and can be bought one at a time.

You are correct, and I misspoke (miswrote?). I was confused between purchasing +X equivalent ammunition, which I believe must be purchased in units of 50, and buying named items (e.g. Arrows of Slaying).

Arrows need to be bought in units of 50. Therefore you wouldn't be able to purchase slaying arrows until you amassed 202,000g.

I am no longer allowed to roll 4 threats in a row on the mythic boss the GM has promised will one-round us.

Doesn't matter what Mr. Gatling gun zen archer is capable of when he's so busy thinking about he's next speech he's not paying attention to what he's doing. Especially when the honorable villain challenges him to a personal duel over a tea ceremony or flower arrangement.

I resemble this remark.

Grats Jacob! Well done.

There are alternatives. The scenario specifically mentions that PCs could, should they so choose, attack Ploog to gain access to the Slave. In fact, it is easier to do so later in the scenario, after bringing back (or failing) at the Bulette acquisition; the scenario specifically mentions that there are less guards present when the PCs return a second time to Ploog.

So, given that the PCs are in a CE city where the 'law' as it were is the priests of Rovagug, there is an alternative that does not involve 'murder-for-hire,' although it exposes the PCs to greater risk in order to accomplish their mission this way.

I felt useful when the scroll of Breath of Life, which I had brought for the group, saved our rogue from death. I felt like Hannibal in the A-Team. Of course, then we split the party and pulled 3 encounters by accident at once. Smart and dumb, in the same scenario!

You should be very

But seriously, it was a fun scenario to run.

However, the only issue i had was the environmental effects during the hunt. In our case, With 11 hours after Survival rolls (and rolling 2 fives in a row.. ouch), I felt that there was a significant resource drain, without much opportunity to avoid (or role-play).

There wasn't any real risk of death, given the hour between each event, but having the same character step on the 'land mine' twice in a row, wasn't much fun.

Aside from that I had a lot of fun watching the players interact with the orc inhabitants. Also

GMs in my neck of the woods will check to make sure that prior chronicle sheets are calculated and that players (especially) new ones are carrying over information correctly.

Character sheets aren't audited per se, however 'unusual' actions / damage results / saves are queried from time to time, just as 'sanity checks' when players announce unusual results. I find this method has the least possibility of creating an antagonistic atmosphere, but also requires a lot of system mastery to not do it too often as to hold the game up.

As a funny aside, I use Herolab, and my sheets, AND an excel sheet to track gold expenditure (chronicles are the 'system of record' of course).

When I leveled my oracle to 7 I noticed that Herolob said I had 4K gold more then my sheets added to.

Apparently, in the excitement, I managed to record buying a +2 charisma headband... twice, on 2 separate sheets.

So yeah, not only the GM, but players should also check their sheets.

For some reason the perception DC to discern the trap in the office goes down from 25 to 20 when going from 5-6 to 8-9.

This is just my take, and YMMV, but...

In order to conceptualize why people keep mentioning that you should own your own WCLW, you must first analyze how and why healing takes place in scenarios. To do this you need to first separate in-combat (IC) versus out-of-combat (OOC) healing.

IC Healing should be done when it is the best use of an action, relative to alternatives, or will prevent catastrophic failure (e.g. character death). Since the group make up in PFS is essentially arbitrary, you should provide for said eventuality yourself (e.g. potion, etc.). However, in situations where the group takes AOE damage during an encounter, with threats present and needing to be dealt with, it may be the most efficient use of an action for a class with an aoe channel to use it. I'm assuming in your example that your group was not asking for you to use your wand during combat as opposed to a cleric's channel. Likewise, a higher-level cure spell might be useful in certain situations (e.g. healing a character at a chokepoint who provides cover against multiple hard hitting enemies).

OOC, you should be responsible for providing healing for yourself, as doing so provides the greatest strategic stockpiling of resources to overcome later obstacles in a scenario. Given that scenarios can (and often do) have 3-4 combat encounters during a single 24 hour period, using any channel or prepared spell to heal OOC significantly diminishes a divine caster's ability to contribute effectively during combat, when compared to using a wand. Using spell slots for a prepared divine caster diverts precious resources from controlling / support / buffing spells, which will have a greater impact during combat. Likewise, channels should be saved for the aforementioned 'mass aoe.'

Additionally, the cost of a WCLW is so cheap as to border on being overpowered from a cost/benefit analysis. It provides 50d8+50 healing for full usage, for 750gp or 2pp. This is NOTHING relative to your wealth. And, OOC, it would seem strange that you would expect others to provide this for you, as it is healing independent of class ability.

To give you some idea of how this scales, my ZA Monk, in addition to a wand of CLW, also has an 8 charge WCCW, and a scroll of Breath of Life, which he hands off to any character able to use it, with the instructions 'to use on ANYONE in the party who needs it during combat, if they see fit.' By providing these resources, at my own cost, I estimate I have a greater chance of success in any given encounter. However, the flip side is that I also expect other party members to recognize the calculus of IC/OOC healing and provide WCLWs for themselves for OOC healing, regardless of their class.