Satu Varis's page

I'm here, apologies for the silence, had some sort of technical issue and could not post somehow.

Test

Seeing the others in the water, Satu draws her rapier and then jumps into the water as well, swimming over.

Athletics: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26

Athletics: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19

Satu watches Kheyji hurl a ray of bitter cold at whatever is trying to drown the man, then adds.
You think a creature living in that ice cold water will be concerned about some more cold? Don't you have some fire to cook it?

She then prepares herself with a little warsong and moves towards the water.
Performance: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14 vs creatures will DC.

1 Performance action and 2 move actions to move up to the shore, so i can start swimming next round.

perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9

Quick, we have to help the man! What is he struggling with in the water?

Satu strides to the shoreline and addresses the man.
We're coming! What's your issue? How can we help?

Satu looks at the collar for a moment to find out whether she spots something familiar in the design or not.
Genealogy Lore: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

Hiding a satisfied smile from Hurik she says
Let's see, perhaps whoever was here has left some tracks?

Survival: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

Satu looks to Miriani and Kheyji in wonder.
Huh, i've never heard of a cockatrice before. Turn you to stone by pecking? What a weird yet deadly kind of chicken. And you say someone tamed it for a pet? That someone must be kind of special.
She shakes her head in disbelief.

Awesome deed of strength though Hurik! I'll make sure to remember that for for stories to tell!

Sadly no applicable skills in my eyes.

Well if it were frozen to ice, i would say it's the cold. This seems like a sinister curse though. There must be evil at work somehow. We should be careful!

Sorry site logged me out and i didn't realize.

What? A real animal turned into stone? I don't know what's more appalling, this being a work of art or the work of...well what actually? You mean it was turned to stone by some sort of magic or curse?
Satu looks around, alerted and a big scared, for a possible source of such a curse.

Moved Satu where she should stand, only having moved 30 feet then.

Satu continues her dance off with the gremlin and tries to stab him with her spear as she finishes a dancing sequence.
Dance off acrobatics vs Will DC for Panache: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (7) + 10 = 17

Attack with spear finisher: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 181d6 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 32d6 ⇒ (4, 5) = 9
On failure half damage of 2d6 precision damage

Then she starts the dance from the beginning...
Dance off acrobatics vs Will DC for Panache: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19

Yeah sorry for the rules discussion, but sometimes it's necessary.
Also at least from my side, that is always in a positive tone, just trying to understand the game.

That said, i took this up and turns out i did have it wrong.
The movement trait does not grant any form of extra movement.
Therefore it would be perform - move (then with possible higher speed) - attack.
I think like it's written there it indicates extra movement, but in the bigger picture it becomes clear that it shouldn't, would indeed be strong.

Satu Varis wrote:

Uhm good questions, i just leveled the character with herolab and followed the stuff there. Should it be only 1 feat?

Let me check that in the evening.

And, can't i move while performing? I mean the performance is something acrobatic and even without acrobatics it would be perform dance.
Performance dance has the move trait.

So it's
Action 1: Perform and move, beat DC to gain panache
Action 2: Attack with confident finisher, makes me loose panache, if i have some. If not, ignore that part.
Action 3: Perform and move, beat DC to gain panache

Actually not fascinating anyone, because as i understand the rules that wouldn't really work in a fight.

You can move while performing, but they are two separate actions, just like if you tumbled through a space, you can do that, but it doesn't ADD to the move, it just allows something else to happen DURING the move

So, I think you have:

Action 1 - move 25'
Action 2 (simultaneously) - perform and gain panache
Action 3 - finisher and lose panache again

Otherwise you could move 75' in a round with 3 perform actions thrown in, that can't be right. If you can find a ruling that says differently, send me a link.

First i thought ok, i'm not going to discuss this, but then i had to check it because i also want to understand it for Pathfinder Society games i run. And i do think i got it right, except for the second ancestry feat, that was wrong.

Speed: There is one ancestry feat too much. I sorted Satu into a campaign folder and it somehow had the wrong rules, giving a free ancestry feat. Removing that and i apologize.

Performance: This one seems tricky, but i think it's actually well done and not so complicated.

Satu is a battle dancer swashbuckler, so she gets her panache from performances.

Source Advanced Player's Guide pg. 84 2.0
To you, a fight is a kind of performance art, and you command your foes' attention with mesmerizing motions. You are trained in Performance and gain the Fascinating Performance skill feat. You gain panache during an encounter when the result of your Performance check to Perform exceeds the Will DC of an observing foe, even if the foe isn't fascinated.

Now comes the important part: Performance

When you use an action that utilizes the Performance skill, it gains one or more traits relevant to the type of performance. The GM might change these depending on the circumstances, but the most common performance-based traits are listed below.

Dance = Move and visual

Performance Traits

An action with this trait involves moving from one space to another.

Move trait

Since Satu is kind of acrobatic, she uses the Acrobatic Performer Feat to do her perform dance with the acrobatics skill instead of the perform skill, where she is way better.

Some additional notes:
Satu didn't use her performance to fascinate anyone, just to gain panache. Fascinate as i understand it does not really work in combats, or only until the next character does anything threatening.
It's an important mechanic for the class though, since the swashbuckler needs to do a performance to gain panache, and most/all swashbuckler abilities depend on having panache.

The class gains additional speed with panache. +5 from the start and from level 3 on +10 feet while having panache and half of that without, rising more over the levels.

No worries, most likely the majority of that is made of my sleep deficit, but swashbuckler is one of the more complex classes.
Don't forget i'm not a native speaker either, so i might read things different.

Uhm good questions, i just leveled the character with herolab and followed the stuff there. Should it be only 1 feat?
Let me check that in the evening.

And, can't i move while performing? I mean the performance is something acrobatic and even without acrobatics it would be perform dance.
Performance dance has the move trait.

So it's
Action 1: Perform and move, beat DC to gain panache
Action 2: Attack with confident finisher, makes me loose panache, if i have some. If not, ignore that part.
Action 3: Perform and move, beat DC to gain panache

Actually not fascinating anyone, because as i understand the rules that wouldn't really work in a fight.

Answering here.

+5 feet speed from "nimble elf".
From next level on there will be more speed from Swashbuckler and while she has panache she also gets +5 speed.
Then i'm doing this:

"Battledancer
Source Advanced Player's Guide pg. 84 2.0
To you, a fight is a kind of performance art, and you command your foes' attention with mesmerizing motions. You are trained in Performance and gain the Fascinating Performance skill feat. You gain panache during an encounter when the result of your Performance check to Perform exceeds the Will DC of an observing foe, even if the foe isn't fascinated."

Combined with:
"Acrobatic Performer
You're an incredible acrobat, evoking wonder and enrapturing audiences with your prowess. It's almost a performance! You can roll an Acrobatics check instead of a Performance check when using the Perform action."

I thought as part of an acrobatics check you can move, but i might be wrong.
And gaining Panache calls out moving as part of different performances:
"You gain panache by successfully performing the skill check associated with specific actions that have a bit of flair, including Tumble Through and additional actions determined by your swashbuckler's style. At the GM's discretion, after succeeding at a check to perform a particularly daring action, such as swinging on a chandelier or sliding down a drapery, you also gain panache if your result is high enough (typically the very hard DC for your level, but the GM can choose a different threshold)."

Hope that is ok and i understand everything right.
As GM you can of course always make different decisions.

Satu, her spear in one hand and a throwing knife in the other dances up to Hurik, throws the knife at the nuglub, then dances some feet away again.

Acrobatics Performance to gain Panache against red enemy Will DC: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18

Confident Finisher with throwing knife:: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 91d4 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 62d6 ⇒ (6, 4) = 10
On failure half damage of 2d6 precision damage

Acrobatics Performance to gain Panache against red enemy Will DC: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16

Are you sure the direct way is best?
Satu is a bit thoughtful.
Probably we should set out scouts to avoid an ambush or other unwanted surprises.

Can we scout ahead?

Satu, apparantly already some time there, greets the companions after she listened to their words and goodbyes.

It is good to see you again, friends! Even in such dark and dire times! I will join you once more, hopefully adding my flame to yours will make the light shine brighter!

But how have you been!
She gives everyone a hug or a pat on the shoulder up to their taste.

Yes i'm here^^

Happy new year!

Just wanted to let you know that from tomorrow on until the end of the year i'll be away with less to no computer access.
Have a merry holiday everyone!

Truly, the hardcover edition of Crimson Throne is the favorite AP I have run so far. Lots of variety and possibilities to play off of.

I liked Runelords, but have never had a group make it out of the second book yet. I played Kingmaker (did not run it) and I thought it was long and cumbersome with little in the way of unifying story, but maybe that was my GM?

There are a few I'd really like to run still but need a regular group to get it going, and there's only so much PBP on can do. As I said when I introduced this game, I might really like to covnert an older PF1 AP to PF2 as i like the ruleset better. Maybe someday.

That might have been your GM, i found Kingmaker a blast.

Kingmaker exists now for PF2 :D

Rise of the Runelords, Shattered Star and Return of the runelords are kind of the iconic trilogy, everything else depends on who you talk to.

Kingmaker is very popular because of the PC game and the new edition for PF2 and 5E.

Personaly, i really like Mummys Mask, but they are all good.
Except Second Darkness, that one seems to have some issues. The story still isn't bad.

Ready you can check on the sheet.

Hello there and thanks for having me rejoin.
Need to remember the plan for this character and level up then.

I'm really sorry to hear that as well Miriani. I hope you can find the inner strength needed and enjoy the time you have left somehow.

Satu eyes Tharkh, who she thought good with animals.
Tharskh, isn't that a task for you? I thought you were good with animals? Or is that only hunting them?

I could try something...Perhaps they like dancing and music...
Satu begins an impromptu performance, singing nonsense in a soothing voice and moving her body in slow, friendly and soothing patterns.

performance: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14
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Ah well Pakano, of course we will carry the water. Nobody would want water spoiled by you, especially not for ceremonial purposes!
Satu snickers and thinks herself especially funny after her comment.

She then grabs one of the baskets.

What's that? Oh i see the porcupine, but i can't see any babies, Miriani. A mother defending her children is always fierce though. We need to calm her down and show her we are no threat! Any idea on how to do that?

Satu claps Hurik on the shoulder.
Don't be worried, that will make for a totally good song and story! I'll make it a heroic one! Hurik the dragon slew the burnmarked evil poison using strangers with the help of Miriani, the brave cat!

Back after a nice week of flu^^

Apologies, i got sick while alone at home. Slowly getting better though. Will catch up, but feel free to bot me when i'm not fast enough.

Satu sits by telling some old stories and watching Tharskh and Hurik trying to soothe the tapirs.
Seemingly, she doesn't have the patience for it.

At the mention of poisoned traps and footprints she stands up.
What's that? Footprints? Well, if someone set poisoned traps, they're either nearby or will come check on them soon. This is our territory. We should set a surprise for them.
She looks eager and determined.

This is absolutely unheroic and cowardly. Will the tapirs survive and be alright?

Tame animal is fine and probably a good idea!
Not sure how i can help there though.

Satu looks at the younger girl with a confused expression.
She clearly has no idea what she is talking about, but holds one hand to her head as if it would hurt quite a lot.
And she seems tired.

Let's get on with this. Even if anyone doesn't agree with the tapirs sacrifice, the elders will just send someone else or some predator will eat them anyway. And should they alert a predator, that also gives us the opportunity to protect the herd and slay the predator. That way we get something to eat and a nice fur. Isn't that so?

Track: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (18) + 3 = 21

Ah yes, i see them too. What do we do to catch them? Will you wrestle them to the ground? That might be fun to watch.

I think it's pretty cool. More options are always more fun in a game and it doesn't give the characters to much power.
But if course I roll a 1 :D

Will Save: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

Satu is unable to follow the boring talk, her mind wandering off and she feels like she's getting a headache.

Oh that must be very hard. Rest of my family will be on a vacation at the other end of the world for 2 weeks soon and i'm already panicking, not knowing what to do during that time^^

I will try to get a post up tonight to answer questions and provide a few more details.

Tharskh - tapirs are herbivores and love to munch on the sweet grass and plants that grow near watering holes or streams even more than the sere grass of the plains.

Wait a moment, so we are in still green plains, not arctic environment?

@Hurik: no apologies needed^^
Just facing such discussions often over here and feel the need to point out that some things aren't necessarily bad.

Well, in the 2 games i'm running there are deadly crits from all sides on level 3.

I feel archetypes and the free ancestry feats add a lot to the game without making characters more powerful. Also i don't think you can minmax this game like the first edition. Using the free archetype and ancestry feat rules in both my games with great fun so far.

I have to add, minmaxing is no bad or evil thing. I prefer people who minmax their characters and have a good understanding of the game to someone who has no blue and wants to "roleplay" everything.
Rolls are no substitution for roleplay though, ideally it should go hand in hand, and wonky rules interpretations or munchkinning isn't good either.

But yeah, sometimes you just have to pick something and check it out.
Did the same with my character here, including the whole class :D

I agree, cloistered cleric sounds weird, but it's just a more caster oriented cleric.
The warpriest cleric doesn't quite have the power of the old cleric though i think. We'll see, never saw one on higher levels.

I don't think there are real build traps, but some stuff is certainly more fun than other stuff.
Age does play a part :P feeling that as well.

Not sure if it's more restrictive, it's very different though.

Did you play a warpriest cleric before?
I played one as first PF2 character and found it to be quite different from 1e, also lacking compared to other things.
Just works very different and you're neither fish nor meat.
Think i would either play champion or cloistered cleric, but that's just my 2 cents.
Curious how you will like it!

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14

Did you just hear that? Satu asks the ones close to her, shaking her head.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next morning...

Embry speaks true Hurik. I agree with you, his actions are becoming more and more troubling, but we can't just beat him up like that without reason. That would get us into trouble and it seems we are on a good path right now! Let's not get that spoiled by this fool! He can mutter to himself about his muscles and how strong he is and how everybody should kneel before him as much as he wants to. As long as he keeps his hands by himself i don't really care.

Now what is the plan? Mirianis idea sounds good. I'm not the best with animals myself though and never herded some. How will we do it? Are they hostile beasts when herded or more complacent? Do we just chase them into a dead end and gather them there until the rest arrives?

I'm pretty much only checking once or twice a day in an evening, I admit it's sometimes a little frustrating when folks have already posted in response to something you'd have liked to weigh in on, but that's pbp (and with my shy quiet persona it's often tabletop as well lol). Don't really know what you can do about it.

You'll be missed, though.

Just add your mustard on top.

So, while this is really on me for not enquiring about the expected/desired posting frequency beforehand, I am finding that this game just moves too fast for me to keep up with. Therefore, I think it's best if I bow out now before the adventure kicks off in earnest and my character's absence becomes more difficult to account for. My apologies to you all; here's hoping you will conquer the Realm of the Mammoth Lords all the same. :)

I can relate, had that with another game lately, which was restarted with some newcomers who then outposted everyone else with like 5-10 posts a day, advancing story and relations. Was impossible for me to keep up with. Also felt like a hostile takeover^^

This seems slow or normal speed compared to that, but that's probably a very individual opinion.
Sad if you go, but hope you can find another fun game more up to your comfort speed.

"Shirking work and claiming it is womanly is lazy and foolish.I will be a complete hunter and scout thanks to Wipa's training, not some one whose only skill is sneering at my fellows and then boasting over my pretenses." He too learns how to clean and dress the kill. His mother and one of his sisters will make good use of this hide later if others do not

Now this is what i call a man.

She then goes on to shoulder herself a bit more than she can actually carry, giving it her all, knowing they will arrive warmth and safety soon and she can afford to be exhausted.

Once back, she gathers the children and other willing listeners around her.
Listen, to how the land blessed us truly and led us not only to this great beast, an enormous and noble moose, but also how we were tested and challenged, and how we overcame the obstacles!

At first we saw nothing in the snow, but then we caught the track of the moose, following it until we could close in on this giant of the woodlands and plains. It was a dangerous situation, so we used our wits. Circled around it making sure it could not escape, blocking his paths with obstacles. After that, we made sure it could not sniff our scent. Then i imitated the mating call of a female moose.
Satu repeats the sound.
The moose heard it and immediately was agitated, looking for a female moose, but seeing nothing, it was confused. Then we started the real hunt and Tharskh was the first to bloody it with his bow. Only then it became apparent that not only the moose was confused by my call, but also one of ours, who charged it to no avail, but at least distracted it some more. It was a dangerous and foolish action though, since it could have gone horribly wrong. Luckily with our combined might we were able to bring it down quickly and Ebry called to sister Cinder for her mercy, healing the wounded, while my spear gave the moose the last goodbye it needed. Then Wipa taught us how to get the most out of the prey and we brought everything we could back here, so you and we all together can have a glorious feast!

Performance Impression: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19

Yeah, women's work, because men like you Pakano are too clumsy and vain to do it! Satu scoffs at Pakano, then kneels down next to Wipa and starts to learn from her and help to her best ability.

This is amazing. I didn't know one animal can have so much meat! But why do some have to be so vain?

Just before the moose goes down, Satu strides towards it with quick steps, her cheeks glowing with the thrill of the hunt.

Finisher with spear.: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 251d6 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 32d6 ⇒ (5, 4) = 9

As the moose goes to the ground, she puts a foot on his neck, pulling out her spear and shaking it in the air in triumph.
We got it! The gods are praised, we caught the moose!

With a sour expression she looks down to Pakano though.
And all that despite your foolish actions! You endangered yourself, us and the whole following! Hopefully you learn from that! We must cooperate, now only further our own glory at the cost of others!

To the others she cheers though
We made it! Together we hunted down this great beast and can proof ourselves as scouts! This is great!

Embarrasingly, i made a mistake.
Acrobatics for performance comes from a skill feat, acrobatic performer, which i wanted to take, but don't have - yet. So it's just a +5 from normal performance.

I did not throw the spear, but took 2 actions for a performance dance action, during which i can move.
So move close, attack, move back.

The moose does not make a will save. It has a will DC, typically 10 + will save modifier. My performance check has to beat the DC, then i get panache.
In this case i would correctly have had a roll of 7 +5 for 12.
If the moose has a will save modifier of +2, i would have beaten his will save DC of 12.

But yes, no panache, no finisher. Hence i rolled that damage extra.

Anyways, second roll for panache was a 19 then, hope that beats the DC and i have panache for the next round^^
I think a lot of my combat rounds will look like this:
Performance dance move - strike with finisher - move.

I also realize for the throwing daggers i urgently need Quick Draw somehow and best 1-2 returning runes.
Else i'm going to be busy drawing them all day and need more than i can carry probably.

Hope i made this right.
I need Panache, which i gain by tumbling through or making a performance check against the will DC of an opponent.
They don't need to be fascinated or something, just need to hit their will DC.
When i have panache, i gain +5 move speed and +2 damage. Also can make the finisher, which adds +2d6 precision damage or half on a failure, but let's me loose panache.
So i need to gain it again.
Performance dance has the move trait, meaning i can move around during that and use acrobatics for it because of a skill feat.