For some reason, certain players have a hard time taking apes seriously. My group is still early in exploring Savinth-Yhi, in fact only tackling their second district which just happens to be the military district. They captured a couple of said apes from a patrol encounter and outright laughed at them when the apes have the location of their chief and his base with little questioning saying that the chief will eat their brains out of their skills.
The group then did a frontal assault on the fortress figuring it will save them the trouble of a bunch of annoying encounters with patrols. Long story short: we have two replacement characters coming in next session.
If you don't want your group getting destroyed by an entire army, I suggest arranging some minor encounters with patrols or something to get the hint across that these apes aren't pushover and their are a LOT of them.
It sounds like you have some great ideas already. Just wanted to make one additional suggestion:
Thanks to some lucky natural 20 Diplomacy rolls at just the right moment and some ad-libbing that was a little more effusive than I intended, I ended up introducing the threat from Cheliax (at least as a vague danger) earlier in the campaign.
You could do this intentionally and spin Skulls & Shackles as an Adventure Path about freedom fighters trying to keep the freedoms of the Shackles alive despite leaders too involved in their own petty disputes to see the big picture. No need to give away Cheliax's plans exactly, but their attempt to clamp down on piracy shows up as early as book 2. You could even weave in mentions of a Cheliaxian attempt to regain the old colony of Sargava.
That sounds like a really good idea and a lot of fun. It leaves the pirate leadership still in need of a good boot to the head while giving the players a more benevolent reason for doing so other than wanting to be in charge themselves. I will definitely use this if I run the AP.
Lamontius, that's exactly why I'm asking questions. I don't want to force players into a setting there not excited about. BIt since specific concerns were raised by my wife, I wanted to see if they were relevant or not before I ditched the idea entirely. Conversely, there's something to be said for playing in a setting that the GM is excited about.
It sounds like it's pretty easy to spin into something my wife could get behind. They're free to be whatever type of pirates you want to be, and with an emphasis for needing fame and fortune to bring about positive change in the Shackles the whole "greater good" angle is easily adopted. I especially like the Besmersa cult angle someone mentioned in another thread about how the religion was twisted to let pirates do whatever they want and needs to be corrected.
See, it sounds like a ton of fun to me, but my wife is wary of having to be mean. She'd want to be a Robin Hood type pirate making the world a better place.
I'm thinking I'll have to give up my dream of a pirate adventure.
I'll be looking to start a new AP in a couple months, and I've been dying to run or play in Skull & Shackles because, well, pirates! The problem I have is that my wife can't get behind greed as a motive. That is, she has no interest in playing a game that is just about gaining fame and loot.
I understand the first book is about getting conscripted by pirates and mutinying for freedom. Thanks not a problem. But what's after that? Is there an overarching goal to the AP that's deeper than just becoming infamous pirates? If not, how hard would it be to add one?
As a related side note, it IS possible to succeed in the AP without being EVIL pirates, right?
I'm the GM in question, and I think that full BAB with a two-handed firearm is overpowered for the game I'm running. Hence, I banned the Musket Master archetype. Justinthyme insist Lightning Reload gives full BAB with two-handers to all gunslingers, so I need to ban the whole class.
I see the Lightning Reload wording as pretty clearly indicating that you get one reload as a free action each round, but Justin insists it's unlimited reloads. So I've just banned him from playing one.
My DM ruled on the spot that the evil Druid could dispel the elemental I had hijacked. Basically I got a round and a half of use out of it before the Druid spent a standard action to dismiss it.
It was useful, since the alternative was to fight the elemental and druid together, and it make the druid think twice about summoning anything else. It just feels like a waste of a spell since the description implies so much more fun to be had. Tactically speaking though, it helped the party out a lot.
I'd still like to see some sort of concrete rule though since both interpretations seem legitimate to me.
I asked this elsewhere, but thought it might get more discussion in it's own thread.
The spell Control Summoned Creature gives the caster control over someone else's summoned creature. Basically, the creature now acts as if it were summoned by the person who cast this spell.
However, the question came up fairly quickly as to who has control of the summon spell in order to dismiss the creature.
In the game I was playing, I cast this spell on an elemnetal. I then got a couple rounds of use out of the elemental before the original summoner spent the time to dismiss the elemental. I couldn't figure out if that were by the rules or not, so didn't argue the point. The GM agreed to revise the interpretation going forward if we could find clearer rules on it.
Well, so far we can't. Control Summoned Creature says this:
You seize control of a summoned creature by disrupting the bond between it and the caster who summoned it. If the creature fails its save, you may command it as if you had summoned it. The original caster can attempt to regain control of the creature as a standard action by making an opposed Spellcraft check against you. When your spell ends, control reverts to the original summoner. If the summoning spell ends before this spell ends, the remaining duration of this spell is lost.
The question arises by whether the creature is the spell and control gives you full dismissal authority over it, or whether the creature is different than the spell that summoned it and therefore the original caster can still dismiss it. Either way, it greatly affects the power level of the spell. Either it's weaker than expected in that rather than contest control, the original summoner can just dismiss the creature as a standard action and be done with it, or the spell is much more powerful in that on the last round of the Control spell, the Control's caster can dismiss the creature and not worry about left over duration.
This just came up in a game I'm playing, but more formally by using Control Summoned Creature. If you take control of a summoned creature, can the NPC caster who summoned it then dismiss it? It's a little unclear since you're controlling the summoned creature, but not the summoning spell.
But then, it says you sever the bond between the creature and the one who summoned it. Does that mean the spell can't be dismissed then?
Has there been anything close to an official ruling on this?
It also depends on party make-up. I'm running a group of five PC's through Harrowstone right now and while there haven't been any deaths yet, it's only because the players are playing very smart and extremely cautious. They have no divine caster so no Channel Energy which means all undead fights are done the old-fashioned way. Healing is done by the bard and the alchemist, which isn't bad but isn't great either.
I've found that either using several optional encounters more than once helps increase the tension and up the party's XP, or just dividing the xp by 4 instead of 5 will keep the leveling at the correct pace.
But yes, I agree that this AP seems harsher than most. I'm not going to say deadlier, just that they seem to expect players to be a lot more cautious than normal since a few bad dice rolls can turn things ugly very quickly.
Race
LG Human Gunslinger (Musket Master) 1 | HP 15/15 | AC 17 (T 14 FF 13) | CMB +3 CMD 17 | F +4 R +6 W +2 | Init +4 | Per +6 SM +2 |
Classes/Levels
grit 2/2 | ammo 25/25 alchs 7/7 | BPB: 1/1
About Jungle Jack
With a harrumph and a bellow, a musket in one hand and a machete in the other, Jungle Jack is ready to cut a swathe through the wilderness! He's the epitome of the grizzled pulp novel adventurer!
Name: "Jungle" Jack Almas
Race: Human (Varisian)
Alignment: Lawful Good
Class: Gunslinger (Musket Master) 1
Age: 29
Abilities: Str 14 (+2), Dex 16+2 (+4), Con 14 (+2), Int 9 (-1), Wis 14 (+2), Cha 7 (-2)
Hit Points: 15/15 (1d10[10]+5)
Armor Class: 17 (+3 armor, +4 Dex)
Initiative: +4 (+4 Dex)
Speed: 30'
Size: Medium
Saves:
Fort +4 (+2 base, +2 Con)
Ref +6 (+2 base, +4 Dex)
Will +2 (+0 base, +2 Wis)
Human Race Traits: Bonus Feat, Heart of the Wilderness
Heart of the Wilderness: Humans raised in the wild learn the hard way that only the strong survive. They gain a racial bonus equal to half their character level on Survival checks. They also gain a +5 racial bonus on Constitution checks to stabilize when dying and add half their character level to their Constitution score when determining the negative hit point total necessary to kill them. This racial trait replaces skilled.
Favored Class Bonus (Gunslinger): +1 skill point
Traits: Black Powder Bravado (can reroll a 1 when using deeds 1/day), Boarded in Cheliax
Deadeye (Ex): At 1st level, the gunslinger can resolve an attack against touch AC instead of normal AC when firing beyond her firearm's first range increment. Performing this deed costs 1 grit point per range increment beyond the first. The gunslinger still takes the –2 penalty on attack rolls for each range increment beyond the first when she performs this deed.
Quick Clear (Ex): At 1st level, as a standard action, the gunslinger can remove the broken condition from a single firearm she is currently wielding, as long as that condition was gained by a firearm misfire. The gunslinger must have at least 1 grit point to perform this deed. Alternatively, if the gunslinger spends 1 grit point to perform this deed, she can perform quick clear as a move-equivalent action instead of a standard action.
Steady Aim (Ex): At 1st level, as long as a musket master has at least 1 grit point, she can take a move-equivalent action to increase the accuracy of a two-handed firearm. When she does, she increases the range increment of the firearm she is firing by 10 feet. This stacks with other abilities that increase her range increment.
Equipment: (375 gp total) acid flasks 4/4 (60 gp), backpack, bandolier (.5 gp), battered musket (free), bedroll, belt pouch, black powder 25/25 (in horn, 25 gp), bottle of firewhiskey (1 gp, in hip flask), canteen (2 gp), cold iron dagger (4 gp), crowbar (2 gp), explorer's outfit (free), firearm bullets 25/25 (2.5 gp), flint and steel, gunslinger's kit (25 gp, no waterskin), gunsmith's kit, hip flask (1 gp), iron pot, machete (10 gp), map (free), masterwork studded leather armor (175 gp), masterwork survival kit (50 gp), mess kit, paper alchemical cartridges 7/7 (42 gp), powder horn, rope, torches 10/10, trail rations 5/5
Appearance:
Jack is rotund and bearded, and his dirty brown hair has begun to go prematurely gray. He generally speaks with a tremendous bellow, and has a bombastic and affected colonial presence. He says things like "I say!" and "Eh?" and "Cheerio old sport!" even though the dialect sounds old-fashioned and entitled.
Background Questions:
1) I'd like 5+ points that capture the concept and story of the character. More are welcome, but no less than five.
• Jack grew up as the son of an alderman in Andoran, raised to follow in his father's footsteps and living in Almas. He hated politics, however, and never excelled at the job, instead going hunting and fishing and other wilderness activities.
• He was married briefly to a woman named Kate and had a son Jack Junior, but both of them died in an outbreak of Chelish Flu. In rebuilding his life afterward, he decided he wanted to see the world, and tame the wild lands south.
• He applied for membership to the Pathfinder Society, but was rejected because of his lack of scholarship. (He only speaks Common and reads and writes very slowly.) He is embarrassed about this and doesn't like academics because of it.
• He inherited his musket from his grandfather, who taught him how to maintain and handle it. He believes that only a true man of the wild can handle the mysteries of black powder and firearms, which is also how he remembers "Bompa." He suspects he will learn a great deal from the natives of the Mwangi Expanse.
• Because he is so attuned to the wilderness, he distrusts magic as unnatural. It makes him uncomfortable to rely on healing spells and buffs, and often plays up how they improve his innate strength.
2) Two goals that you'd like the character to accomplish in-game.
• Jack wants the prestige of hunting big game while he is on his adventures. He would particularly enjoy tracking and killing a creature that is Huge or larger.
• He wants to see if the Mwangi people are as innately skilled as he is with firearms. He would love to introduce guns to the native population and see what happens, hang the consequences!
3) Two secrets, one the PC keeps to himself, and one kept from the PC. I'll come up with a third that both the character and player aren't aware of, in hopes of shocking surprises within the storytelling.
• Jack believes he has divinely-inspired dreams from Erastil, who he thinks first told him to go to the Mwangi Expanse to fight a growing primal threat to all of Golarion. The idea that he is a pawn of the gods bothers him, so he doesn't talk about his dreams or his fears.
• His wife and son are not dead-- she faked their illness to escape her unhappy marriage. Now that the boy has come of age, though, he has been asking questions and wants to meet his father.
4) 3-5 people that are tied to your PC by blood, love, rivalry, honor, etc. I'd like at least one enemy in a set of three or four, with no more than two for a set of five.
• Jack's got a rival, an alchemist doctor named Kanves with whom he's crossed paths with a few times before. It always galled Jack that Dr. Kanves got the credit for capturing a herd of dinosaurs when Jack basically flushed them out first.
• Jack's father funded his expedition, more to get rid of him than anything else. Mr. Almas is a respected leader of the community, and he cares for his son. Jack doesn't like him interfering and wants to do things on his own, however.
• Jack heard that an old school chum had gone off to the Mwangi expanse years ago to start an imports/exports business, a young Kelishite man named Dawah. He always had an excellent head for numbers and was nice enough, though a bit avaricious.
5) Three key memories that define your character as the person they are at the time of submission.
• Jack remembers shooting his first deer, the smell of the powder hanging in the air and the retort echoing off of the mountains. "They go where I shoot them," he bragged to his friends, and they toasted him in the lodge that night over smoked venison and liquor.
• Once when he was out hiking by himself, a freak snow storm basically trapped him in his tent for two days, and he kept himself busy by singing revue songs like "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Chelish Officer" and "My Longsword Is Broader Than Yours".
• The only time he's ever cried is when his grandfather passed away and left him his old battered musket. He vowed to fix it up someday and inscribe "Bompa" on the side of it in his honor. His mother scolded him for carrying it around at the funeral and pointing it at the corpse, and he got grounded for weeks after he almost gave the priest of Pharasma a heart attack when he jumped out of the empty grave with it.
Roles:
Jack is a switch-hitter gunslinger, firing his musket from range until enemies close and then drawing his machete to fight in melee. He's pretty tough and can handle a charge or two, though he's better as a striker than as a tank. He's also excellent at Survival and Perception.
About me:
I've been running and playing Pathfinder 1st Edition since around 2010, and I've participated in PbP games for about three years now. I'm a native English speaker, and I've written professionally for several roleplaying game supplements published in the United States. I enjoy the character interactions as much as the mechanics of the game-- I perform amateur theater as a hobby and RPing scratches my acting itch. I promise to post at least once a day if you invite me to your game!
