Seraphine Fiammetta's page

@Mort

Yes, there are various interpretations.

You know what none of those quotes say?

"CR gets thrown out the window and I will probably TPK you"

This is not a way to encourage your PC's, that's taking an antagonistic approach. An ultimatum like that forces a negative approach. Sure, you might get the action you want, but not only have you railroaded your players, you take away freedom, it opens up resentment down the line etc etc.

My suggestion? Make it more attractive to save them. Instead of standing in full attack range, tell us who or what is dominating them, maybe we can take them out instead and remove the domination that way via scry and die. Maybe as gratitude for helping us, they turn on our enemies. Maybe they flee when I start fireballing the trenches and I don't have to slaughter a million of them. Like geez, I don't know anything, I don't have the book in front of me, but don't sit here and lambaste us for "planning poorly" and then complain about us looking at probably the most effective option which involves slaughtering the soldiers from a safe distance. Help us make it a viable option. ATM, it fails the Risk vs Reward test.

And when I asked you to plan properly I also did say to stop trying to solve everything with violence.

Jesus this is extremely unfair. This AP, as written, is very unforgiving about redeeming or seeking alternatives to handling enemies. Despite this, we have always attempted to look for alternatives when available.

You KNOW this, how many times have we waited / delayed / avoided combat for Mr Whiskers or Crummock to talk things down, sort out alternatives. So don't throw around an accusation that's simply not true, we do damn good (IMO) in an AP that largely expects its PCs to murder hobo its way through everything.

You want an effective, low risk plan, then you watch us nova the base while yelling "Good Morning Vietnam". You want us to favor a slightly riskier option that probably gives us better karma or a feel good mojo but nothing much else, then hey, that's good to, promote the hell out of it, help us consider it a viable option, and don't complain about our planning if it goes wrong (like what happened a couple of days ago).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@ Everyone else RE Plan

Been thinking a lot about this.

Einar, I'd rather not approach the front gate directly unless we have fireball it in the morning and scared off all defenders. If they have a passcode, a secret salute, or whatever, and you don't know it, you get rumbled instantly and probably get full attacked. Given the range, Seraphine cannot get down to bail you out / heal you, and I'm forced to probably dump Fireballs to recover your body.

If we want to go with Mr Whisker's infiltration (which I'm ok with provided its done carefully and intelligently, here's the (probable) spell list for me (I spend an hour on this T_T).

Cleric (Theologian) Spells Prepared (CL 13th; concentration +22)
7th—elemental body IV (fire only)[D], holy word (DC 27), sunbeam (DC 27)
6th—fire seeds[D], heal, undeath to death (DC 25), word of recall
5th—breath of life (DC 24), fire shield[D], dazing intensified fireball (2, DC 23), mass ghostbane dirge[APG] (DC 24), planeslayer's call[ACG]
4th—air walk, blessing of fervor[APG] (2, DC 23), death ward, empowered intensified fireball (2, DC 23), wall of fire[D]
3rd—contagious zeal[OA], intensified fireball[D] (DC 23), intensified fireball (2, DC 23), invisibility purge, protection from energy (x2), wind wall
2nd—burst of radiance (2, DC 22), diminish resistance (DC 21), produce flame[D], resist energy (3)
1st—bless, burning hands[D] (DC 21), endure elements, liberating command[UC], lucky number, obscuring mist, shadow trap (DC 20), sure casting
0 (at will)—create water, guidance, light, stabilize
D Domain spell; Domain Fire

Its more versitile than what I usually have, but it also means that I get stretched a little more (ie less fireballs, so less generic power). I'll still pop a maximize incense but that's what I'm looking like at the moment.

Its 1AM now though, so I might have made some mistakes

First: in a world of technology they wouldn't recognize if Mister whiskers is casting. He would look like a child waiving his arms and saying gibberish. So they wouldn't know it's dangerous.

Except, they are not entirely ignorant. BBEG has them dominated to look for us, stands to reason they know how to spot an obvious spellcaster. Even if they don't, are you sure they would still consider Mr Whiskers a typical solider? Like, if I was on the look out for infiltrators, and my mate suddenly waved his arms around like a demented scarecrow, I'd consider this unusual behavior. Still, thats just me.

The AP is written to railroad us to sneak in.

I asked my VC about this as well (requesting him to keep this vague). He told me two things. One, is that the AP explicitly mentions that PC's can use either option of clearing the trenches OR sneaking in. Indeed, he ran a party that opted towards force. I clarified with the VC if the AP calls out an instant TPK if PC's do so (as seemed to be the implication), the VC said this is not the case, this is never said or implied.

Seeing as this contradicts heavily with what Mort tells us, I'm sorely tempted just to buy the damn book and find out which persons right, or asking another VC

I agree that we are not escaping with Baba Yaga

Lastly, thanks for that catch Mr Whiskers, I feel a bit more comfortable with the plan now if I prep that spell.

RE Tactics.

Robert, I tend to see us winning a war on attrition. I *think* (if my math is right) I can cast 17 Fireballs of varying Strength, every.single.day.

Crummock, can also cast several fireballs. There is no time limit, we can legitimately pound away from 1,000 range. Sure, they have tanks. We are 1,000 feet away, total range superiority, I can take them out, or we can Wall of Stone (or something like Create Pit) and shut them down. Then if they get into range, its a quick teleport to gain distance, rinse and repeat. They have no counter to this. The GM has mentioned that CR will get thrown out the window and throw everything at us but then again, I assume that everything will get thrown at us regardless, its not like the BBEG is going to run the second well infiltrate.

if we free Baba Yaga, we can fight our way to the hut and leave.

This is my problem. If we want to fight at all, then I want to soften enemies up beforehand (ie blast the night before and do as much damage as I can / reduce numbers), when I have the range advantage, than enter into cramped quarters, and then have a few individuals, run into melee and prevent me fireballing. All the while fighting (probably) several groups of soldiers, with superior range and no issues with AOE. The fact the GM has hyped up the fact we will be standing in close quarters is furthering my concern. The fact Mr Whiskers has said he wants me to take a greater role in combat AND apparently space is also limited, is yet another reason why I am concerned.

Basically, I never want to be in a situation where we have to fight our way out to escape while relying on Mr Whiskers as a lynchpin. Because it means we gave up a tactical advantage (namely, firing attacks in largely unpunished) for a tactical disadvantage (being unable to fire attacks outwards, and being punished at a range disadvantage), for no good reason at all.

I don't mind alternatives to Fireballing, but I have just a couple of concerns with the current plan that I feel would need to be addressed before we proceed, if that's OK.

Firstly, I spoke with my local Venture Captain. He confirmed that Break Enchantment would NOT work (something about how the soldiers are built in the book and I did not press for specifics), but possibly an Area Dispel could work. One problem we would have to iron out, is handling anyone watching Mr Whiskers cast the spell. For instance, he might be able to Area Dispel one group of soldiers, but anyone observing (sniper etc) just saw him obviously do magic, blows his (and our) disguise and immediately attack, which raises the alarm, and then an undominated group of soldiers come along and immediately out-range Mr Whiskers and open fire. So, we can probably dispel one group of soldiers, but if_anyone_observes or if our cover is blown, then there goes that plan.

Secondly, Seraphine (in character) is going to heavily push for Mr Whiskers to protect himself if we sneak in. She does not want a situation that happened in the last encounter where he teleported off on his own, so any method of exiting the base that hinges on Mr Whiskers being around, is going to cause her some anxiety, unless he has appropriate countermeasures, to ensure a repeat situation does not happen again.

In my ideal situation, Crummock and I clear the trenches, maybe crack the fortifications / wall, and then we burrow / teleport in the following day. This way, if stuff hits the fan, and (say) Mr Whiskers is unable to teleport us out, we can leave out the front door that Crummock and I cleared the night before, and we can regroup. What I don't want, is getting halfway in, coming across heavy fire, having no resources, everyone wounded / hurt / out of spells, and then basically getting TPK'd.

Also off topic, the way Mort portrays it, the writer of this book is pretty ??? about military tactics. In 1864 the British set up outside a Maori (NZ natives) fort which basically consisted of wooden palisades as a primary defense. The British set up its artillery, and bombed the place for three days straight before walking in with troops. Per square meter, the artillery bombardment was worse than it was on the Western Front in WWI. Yet, if the PC's decide to follow pre WWI tactics, and fireball the place from range, the writer apparently asks the GM to throw CR out the window and TPK them. Feels like "I want my enemies to use WWI tactics but I don't want such tactics used against me" which is a little questionable.

Lastly, I can understand Mort's frustration. As a GM, I'm sure it would suck if we won the encounter pummeling the place into the ground with fireballs, I don't imagine its much fun for Mort or anybody. That said, the way things work, its probably the *smartest* plan, in that it carries the least risk of going wrong (ie, its a cakewalk to retreat from where we are at the moment, but exceptionally difficult for us to retreat from inside a fort full of enemies) and I haven't seen anything from the Fort that looks as if they have a counter to the strategy, - its just not particularly elegant, just a brutal and unsophisticated way of "winning".

Of course, since Mort gave us strong words last time about "freaking planning properly", I'm confused as to why we are being encouraged to look at riskier options, such as try and not kill the dominated soldiers programmed to shoot us on sight, but whatever.

tl;dr I don't mind Mr Whiskers plan, but it needs a heck of a lot of refining because too much of it assumes that he won't get shot in the head the moment you attempt a dispel and reveal that you are a full caster.

And I would agree if we were planning to solve this diplomatically. That said, there is no alternative. Come to Seraphine with a diplomatic option, she's all ears. That said, we don't have one. So Seraphine is coming from a POV of 'seeing as tomorrow, I'll be fireballing regardless, why not use my fireballs now?

GM, there are no satisfactory alternatives. You have the advantage of the book, I don't, so I am asking why CR goes out the window if we fight through the trenches. Did the writers say something along the lines of 'if players fight through the trenches then TPK'? If so, why?

What's the difference of walking in via deception, and having to fight everyone anyway, or softening up the opposition (that you have to face anyway) and then walking through the front door?

Why is the AP, throwing players a curveball by throwing into a modern military, asking us to forfiet range advantage and funnel into a cramped location vulnerable to AOE attacks? Like, why would you give your players even more of a disadvantage when up against enemies that outrage you, outdanage you, and outnumber you? Oh yeah, and they apparently want a diplomatic solution to dominated soldiers that shoot on sight and have 0 mercy or opportunities to negotiate. Tell us what we are missing, or alternatively, I guess I can ask my venture captain what the situation actually is as written, and how he handled it when he ran this AP if it's a point of frustration.

Hey, if you don't want me to do it, then simply rule the consumable wasn't used at the start of the day and I don't have to feel the need to use my nuke.
Like, I'd be disappointed because after a number of combats in tight locations, this is a chance to feel good about something I can do well, and I would be very concerned if we go an alternative routes and my earlier concerns were correct but hey whatever you want.

If we are burrowing then we need to wait until tomorrow anyway. In that case, I might as well fireball the whole place, otherwise the consumable and gp is 100% processed.

Book 5 and BBEGs still don't have dimension locks over a base of operations.
Unless Mr Whiskers packs Emergency Force Sphere I am still reluctant to rely on DD/TP. It didn't help in our last fight and it might not help us again if he gets focused.. Sticking together in an AIE climb still provides even more reason to blow a hole through the front gate for an alternative escape option.

See, the issue is that if we get detected by sneaking in (and eventually we will) we are in the middle of an enemy base with no escape route and no range superiority. So it makes sense breaking the base open first, in case we run into something we need to retreat from and need an escape route.

Quite frankly, if the author wanted an encounter run the way he mentions, he needed to weaken the current enemies. It's rocket tag at the moment when if we win init we nuke, if we lose init we get destroyed. As written, it's difficult to manage them as a threat (and therefore look at alternatives) when they have such a large advantage over us.

They have hundreds of forces Mr Whiskers.
Like, I guess you can try a dispel, but we don't know if its a magical effect dominating them (in which case they might get dominated right after a dispel) all the while they happily use lethal force.

I'm not particularly happy about burrowing in without anti firearm defenses. If you are set on burrowing and waiting until tomorrow, then I might as well Fireball just on principal - otherwise I burnt the incense for nothing.

Nothing he has said doesn't make him a spy, just saying.

Sure, with the proviso that if any stay, fight, and get in our way then I *will* crush them.

Self Destructive Orders are not carried out - ergo, if we drop fireballs on a particular area, they will leave (self preservation) dominated or not.

=]

Seraphine nods in agreement with Crummock. "You have an excellent grasp of tactics. I can cast my own Fire Seed if you like, I only have one, but its stronger than usual, and should also cause destruction. I can also follow up with a number of fireballs if you like, assuming we want to go for Shock and Awe. I think it is time to show them the power of our weapons."

I'm not without mercy, they can always surrender =]

Yeah, thats a lot of trenches.

I think we have a fair shot of razing it. There is no time limit, we can sit back and nuke this place day after day with Fireball after Fireball. I can fill every single one of my spell-slots (3rd level or above) with Fireball, or even Fire Seeds and just pound away. It is, after all, the main tactic of Modern Warfare.

Assuming we don't want to though, then I'd prefer clearing out the front gate and nailing the buildings that look like towers, and probably have men in them.

Thanks for proving my point then, that the only way to spot the ambush, was to already know that its there.. Otherwise, why cast a round level spell when nothing is in sight?
(Oh yeah, and have it beat a DC 30 Perception check)

Looking at Trenches now.

Love to, I have several Intensified Maximized Fireballs I can drop, or a couple of Maximized empowered Fireballs, or a maximized Fire Seed(s). Let me know any preferences and I'll respond in character.

Like, I can understand you running it the way you did, if you claim thats how the books make a GM run it. I'm also ok with the near TPK too, its how the encounter was run and things happen that are unplanned for. Stuff happens, its fine. So all of that is water off a ducks back.

What I hate though, is a GM running an ambush, that we had no reason to suspect was in place, and no tools to spot it (Perception), and a brand new enemy we had never faced before, that required ooc knowledge to navigate successfully (such as knowing their orders, or knowing the ambush was there to summon something) and then you sit there and post this:

Please don't screw up with the military camp, and freaking PLAN properly, and stop trying to solve everything with violence, thank you very much.

Thats the thing thats ticked me off. Its smug, its borderline gloating, and its grossly unfair, and that's why my last couple of posts have been annoyed.

Why would we even summon something? We don't know anyone's there, because you removed the best way to actually spot something concealed!

Its an ambush.

Here's the definition:

ambush
ˈambʊʃ/Submit
noun
1.
a surprise attack by people lying in wait in a concealed position.
verb
1.
make a surprise attack on (someone) from a concealed position.

Also just saying, the soldiers doesn't have to fire on it. If our Perception checks don't work, why would anything summoned?

It could have been avoided. Either by Hut, or just sneaking by.

Oh right, yes we could have metagamed and avoided the ambush.

Also I have seen nothing to indicate that I shouldn't fireball them from miles away and raze the damn thing to the ground.

But this battle was NEVER meant to be fought.

Please don't screw up with the military camp, and freaking PLAN properly, and stop trying to solve everything with violence, thank you very much.

You're fighting an army that has been dominated to fight you guys, so think HARD about the morality of blowing them all to bits. Sure, some things need killing but..not EVERYTHING.

I am going to assume "battle that was never meant to be fought" is referring to something else and not the battle we almost got TPK'd in, because that battle was 100% all in how the fight was written, and how it was GM'd. If it was *avoidable* then it was handled extremely poorly because there was nothing we could have done.

Also like, theres no point appealing to morality about blowing them all to bits with Fireball. These are the soldiers that opened fire on an unarmed, unarmored female trying to save someones life. They opened fire on us without warning, focusing down noncombatants with 0 hesitation. Its really hard for them to then ask us to hold back.

Furthermore, its doubtful we even can hold back. It was almost a TPK, and Mort, you want us to pull our punches zzzzz. Its not like they want to be open to diplomacy considering the 'shoot first and full attack' as opposed to 'ask questions later'

This feels like a Deux Ex Machina to me :/

I was hoping that Seraphine could survive long enough for me to pick her up. That didn't happen.

I'm about as frail as you are. It was never going to happen, unless I watched Einar and Crummock bleed out (or you know, just flat out die to the follow up AOE).

did my best guess on the Wall of Stone. It looked like I could force the gunmen to move or wreck the tank. With 2 HP, I then die to whatever is left.

Yeah IDK about wall placement, I'm bad with that, and maybe they just lob things over it, but TBH you dying wouldn't have been as big of an issue. The strategy would have been Channel Einar, you and Crummock, if you die then Crummock then Breath of Lifes you, I can breath of Life Geist, and then we all Dimension Door out. Even if you and I both die, Crummock Breath of Lifes me, I breath of Life you, and we still DD out. I can still Rezz Geist the following day provided we have the materials. I'm probably missing something obvious though that would have prevented that working.

Irrelevent.

I have to be in touch range for Breath of Life / Heal / Plane Shift, and at the time, we had one dead tiger, and two more people low on health, bullets flying, it made sense to be in touch range (plus, I have Plane Shift options then as well). Mr WHiskers unfortunately did not communicate his strategy, and so the only plan or "option" Seraphine has is to try and keep everyone alive as best as she can. Her hand was forced.

I understand your warning GM, but there's nothing I can do about it. I have to be that close to be able to use Heal / Breath of Life next turn, which would have been Seraphine's intention. Yes, OOC I know that I'll probably die, but there's nothing I can do to help this, its where our chosen tactics have left us, Seraphine needed to heal Einar and Crummock once Mr Whiskers left, and in the process this puts her in harms way.

And I meant earlier GM, using it at the start of the day and triggering it now, but I guess its always going to be a toss up as to whether the day you use it will turn lethal.

I think using the Getaway scroll and then bringing in the Hut immediately after would have been a much better tactical option :/

I think Einar uses earth glide to escape and stay out of the way of fire, and then (I'm assuming), Seraphine and Crummock promptly die to gunfire?

Also I updated my position on the map, I should be a lot closer to Einar, Crummock and Geist, due to wanting to be in touch spell range on the off chance I survived.

Considering they opened fire on us without warning, and in the service of (probably) the BBEG, I think thats a risky idea...

I do share Mr Whisker's earlier point though about the encounter. I find it hard to believe the writers set up a CR encounter this high AND wrote in a guaranteed "gotcha" moment. One or the other maybe, but not both.

On the plus side, I can AOE Empowered Dazing Maximised Fireball them from a distance of 1,000 feet (40 feet x 15(CL) + 400) which should wreck them. Heck, with how close two of them are I can probably hit them together.

HMM

15d6 Maximised is 90 damage, plus Empowered so probably 45 which is 135 damage, but they can reduce that by 50% with a successful reflex save. Still, I bet that blows a hole through them if they fail the saving throw.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (19) + 17 = 36
Guess Seraphine knows that Mr Whisker's used Dimension Door, but doesn't know if he is coming back.

Seraphine walks up and channels to heal.

Channel: 7d6 ⇒ (4, 3, 2, 3, 3, 2, 4) = 21

C'est la vie

O.k, still leaves us in the situation, where if I heal Crummock, we promptly still eat a full attack, because Mr Whiskers bails out with DD. Of course, thats assuming I can even get close enough to heal you (and doing so means I instantly die next round anyway.).

I can heal everyone, heck, I can even try and Rezz Geist tomorrow (too bad we don't have a diamond, access to downtime, or a salesperson for about a week though). However, I cannot heal anyone without receiving protection, and the only person who can do that, just bailed out on us with DD.

Mr Whiskers, at the end of the day, your action is your action, but you possess the only means of escape, so if you DD out, Seraphine and everyone else pretty much dies. Now, maybe you know that and have a back up plan, idk, but I'd prefer you casting like, wall of Stone or Create Pit (I can channel or have Heal if required) or something that allows me to survive for a round, so I can Breath of Life Crummock, who can Breath of Kife Einar, and then we can all DD out together next round.

Can you dimension door others as well?
I can Heal / Breath of Life / Rezz (tomorrow) but don't have mass teleport options.

No Perception checks to spit an ambush?

Sure.

Do you have keep watch Mr Whiskers?

Its really late now, and I'm too tired for a debate so lets do this. If I'm unaffected by swarm due to Air Walk then I'm targeting derghodaemon with the following spells. If I'm affected by Swarm then move upwards in the air, and then do the below next turn. Either way (be it decided the below happens T1 or T2), my turn is done.

Spell Resistance Cold Ice Strike DC 26: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (7) + 17 = 24
Spell Resistance Dazing Empowered Intensified Fireball DC 23: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (5) + 19 = 24
Cold Ice Strike Damage: 13d6 ⇒ (1, 5, 1, 3, 2, 6, 4, 2, 5, 4, 2, 5, 6) = 46
Dazing Empowered Intensified Fireball: 15d6 ⇒ (4, 4, 2, 5, 4, 4, 2, 4, 6, 2, 4, 3, 3, 4, 1) = 52
Empowered adds 26 so 78 damage from Fireball before applying resist.

Uh, I'm Air Walking (since I have it up permanently to last an entire day). Just how tall is this swarm? Does it have a fly speed?

Still waiting on what mirror entity thing does before I go to bed.

That is, unless we wait for 8+ hours for my morning.

There's a slight difference Mr Whiskers. As an arcane caster, your spell list is far more flexible and versitile, having access to buff/debuff/damage both single target and AOE. I don't have that level of range. I'll take what I can, but the Cleric spell list has far less options than the Wizard list - it has other strengths instead.

I have a finite amount of buffs I can drop, some of them situational (ie Death Ward / Deathless / Freedom of Movement), so that when we need them, we have them. Case in point, My Invisibility Purge the moment these dudes turned Invisible. I have Blessing of Fervor for emergencies, for instance, if I went up against something immune to cold and fire (ie a Golem), so I can still contribute. I can only do this for a small amount of combat encounters, I cannot do it every time.

If you want me to contribute meaningfully, I can, there's multiple resist energy spells I take every day, that anyone can have, I purchased a selective rod, and an elemental rod. I'm saving up for an extend rod so I can keep my buffs active on everyone. I am /trying/ to work around this issue, and if we only have three combat encounters a day, then there are no problems. If however, we have multiple encounters, and everyone is standing in an AOE zone every time then its going to limit my options.

Now, I don't have any issue with how our tactics are at the moment, all I'm saying is that if you want me to take more of a decisive role in a combat, we are going to need to adjust our existing tactics slightly.

Seraphine, seeing perfectly in the darkness, immediately casts Invisibility Purge/

Everything in 65 feet has its invisibility countered.

EDIT

Nevermind Trixians don't even get dark vision. Man what a terribly designed race. So, I don't see the creature, but my Invisibility Purge will make it visible to everyone else that has darkvision.

Sure, we can lead with that next time, or alternatively I have Resist Energy for anyone that wants to fight in melee.

I think though, that when the party all goes as one, then Mort resolves action as in, first in, first served, which means that I usually post after we have entered melee and therefore delay to avoid Friendly Fire.

I don't mind delaying though, Einar is going to outclass anything I do for single target damage, I'm better suited against multiple opponents when I can get the damage + possible stun lock on most of them.

Delay, Cannot fireball with everyone standing in an AOE range.

Seraphine takes full withdraw action and sits behind Einar.
Guys I cannot stunlock if you are all sitting in an AOE like that, its blocking every crowd control spell I have :(

Just a sec GM, heading home from work now, but with the terrible weather, traffics nasty. Home soon

I don't have Russian, because even though I suspected it would come up, it would be pretty hard metagaming if Seraphine had picked it up.

Yeah I read that post and then further down

Yes it would, now let me go look up on what I can throw at you from the plane of air ^^

/shrug

Anyway I can craft two incense, which costs 2450 each.
Total 4,900 for 2 blocks crafting

26980.45 starting total
After crafting I'm left with 24,530
Buying in bulk is 4900 each

I should be able to buy 5 more in addition to the two I craft giving me 7 blocks of Incense.

Now I rolled once for the individual item last page, unsure if Mort wants me to roll again for how much of the item he has in stock.

Dice: 1d100 ⇒ 51
Dice: 1d100 ⇒ 63
Dice: 1d100 ⇒ 52
Dice: 1d100 ⇒ 93
Dice: 1d100 ⇒ 74
Dice: 1d100 ⇒ 30

Are we skipping elemental plane?
Can I get an answer GM if I managed to buy incense.

I'm pretty much ready, but will probably spend most of my money on Incense.

That mention about Time Stop on Ethereal plane is actually mentioned in that thread you linked GM =]

Rollin: 1d100 ⇒ 88

I don't mind weed being mentioned in-game (like, if someone started smoking it, I don't have an issue), it was more just an unfortunate association with something sacred in my Mass.

Sorry :/

Screw Robots though, just...go away.

Also, you can Time Stop on the Ethereal plane (makes it permanent apparently) so you can. Also

On some planes, the flow of time is consistently faster or slower. One may travel to another plane, spend a year there, and then return to the Material Plane to find that only 6 seconds have elapsed.

Its still abusable for like, infinite crafting.

Mr Whiskers is right though, I have full access to Plane Shift any time we like.

Moral of story: For AP work, do not build your character around a specific item, unless you start with it, otherwise you may not ever get it.

Which is why I take craft feats.

My bf conjectures that AP monsters are actually weaker then similarly tiered PFS creatures because PFS assumes you have gear, APs assume you don't. So in a way it's already been compensated for.

Not /entirely/ true. AP monsters are often designed with gear available in the AP. You can even take this AP as an example, which had a wand of scorching ray very early on, to help against the ton of fire vulnerable enemies. PFS does the exact same thing, although sometimes its worse than AP's*.

*I played a PFS Scenario that incorrectly expects a player to have the WBL to buy a weapon of a particular mineral. Because no-one in the party had the WBL to afford this, we got TPK'd the first encounter. I have not played PFS since.

Anyway GM, if I have 26980.45 gp, I have the time to craft two incense (part way of a third but since I don't get any more time, its pointless starting something that won't finish). Can I just spend the rest of the gp just flat out buying it?

Also um, I don't really know how to say this well. I'm not really heavily religious, but as a Catholic I do go to Mass, and part of the service does involve incense. So drawing a comparison between an illegal drug, with Sunday Mass, really makes me a little uncomfortable every time I read it. Like, I'm sure its just a tongue in cheek remark, and I'm not hyper offended by it, but can we cut down on the number of times that we refer to incense as weed because it really makes me uncomfortable :(

Sorry to be a buzzkill.