The amalgam has trip attached to its tail attack. It doesnt look like a trait giv en where it is in the stat block. Is it supposed to be knockdown or improved knockdown?
One of the first questions my group had for Torch was who were the other two Decemvirate members who were likely to flee and what did they do. I had nothing to offer them for this, hopefully it will come out at some point in the future.
Secondly, for running Vahlo, something I only just noticed while running it. He has blindsight 30' for anyone dying or taking bleed damage (such as from the sword) which I totally overlooked in my initial prep. Its worth bearing in mind although my lot negated it with stupid particle form.
The group didnt just want to let Torch go and didnt really want to kill him. They handed him over to the Absalom Guard for trial given his actions during the Siege.
All of them chose to take the Helm but I made them decide in secret and not tell each other as, even if they take it, they dont know who the other members of the Decemvirate are.
I ran this last night, after action report below. A couple of other issues cropped up I wasnt sure about.
1. You get 4 stabilisation points if you disable all 3 pylons. The four player adjust removes one pylon. I assume the group gets an extra point if they disable both of those? It was how I ran it.
2. I was a little unsure how you got a point from dealing with the gangs working for Torch. If you take them out in 1 round you dont get hit back. If it takes longer they are automatically neutralised. Do you have to take them out in 1 round to get the point? If so are these effectively automatic stabilisation points?
OK, on to the after action report. I will pop it into a spoiler just in case.
Report:
The game ran at tier 17-18 with the four player adjustment. The team was:
Level 14 Witch
Level 15 Sorcerer/Oracle Mystic Theurge, grandfathered early entry, just had level 7 arcane spells
Level 16 Monk, full dimensional assault, Justin Thyme, the fastest man alive
Level 15 Paladin, sword and board
Level 18 Ranger, archer turret of death, decent defences
Level 18 Druid16|Monk2, melee monster, persistently in dragon form
Stabilise the Chaos
The group lack the skill to unlock the gates so force them open. Seeing the choas they head to deal with the fire first but get distracted by Janira. They identify what is going on with her, fail to dispel it but convince her to go catalogue all of the pathfinders on the Wall of Names! Entering Starhall two of them wave their VC titles about and they convince the Archon to leave. Heading back out they continue to ignore the undead outside of the Mausoleum and subdue the thieves looting artefacts. They learn about Zurnzal and head there.
Inside the Repository the druid spots the enemies, he has persistent blindsense from dragon form as well as echolocation active. Zurnzal still gives his negotiation trick a go but the Druid is on top of him in the surprise round and trips him before he can pull it off. They end up negotiating and Zurnzal bugs out, telling them where they can find Torch.
The Optional
Then things get nasty. the special turns up and vital strike bites the ranger through the fog for almost all of his health. I sting several people but the paladin, monk and druid are all immune to poison. People are suitably horrified by its vital strike damage, which regularly hits triple digits. I am also mean and tend to vital strike and then burrow away out of sight. Several people take horrific damage before it is finallly brought down. The monk is very sad about the forbiddance effect which mirrors his experience at the end of Part 1. The mystic theurge gets poisoned and has to use a Heal spell to avoid dying. It is a horrific poison. The four player adjustment for this encounter is very weak. The DR reduction is irrelevant and its SLA's are OK but nothing special. I did paralyse the witch for a bit with mass hold monster. Hard mode here would have been a TPK.
Heading outside they deal with the mausoleum. They end up splitting up a bit for reasons which are not entirely clear and the Druid destroys one pylon causing the explosion. He has death ward, the rest do not. The mystic theurge and witch are hiding together in an emergency force sphere. The second pylon is dealt with by the Druid on his own.
Heading out they remove the other two groups of agents. Its worth noting at this point that they only take out one group in a single round, with a combination of lots of direct damage and a prismatic spray.
Battle atop Skyreach
Heading towards skyreach they fly up to the roof. Vahlo ambushes them and drops the Paladin before she gets a chance to act. The Paladin and Monk are both good and get smited making him next to impossible to hit. It takes a round or two for them to negate his greater invis and his SR causes some problems. I do down the Monk as well but against non smite targets his damage is not great, especially considering a couple of PCs now have deathward. He does absorb a couple of spells. Particulate Form negates a bunch of the other threat he poses and eventually he goes down. The four player adjust here does have a major effect. The daemons are a real and potentially horrific threat. Double energy drain in one round for 4d4 negative levels means someone is having a very bad day.
The Wall of Names
They blunt the collapsing ritual a bit and get thrown to the Wall where they meet Janira again. The spirits dont last long, high level archers with ghost salt arrows make short work of them but he is having trouble hitting Vahlo again even with +4 favoured enemy. -6 to hit from weather conditions is punishing. The rest of the group quickly converge on Vahlo, a mixture of dimension doors and telekinetic charge, but that just makes it easier for him to down the Paladin and Monk again, his damage against smited targets is very high.
Eventually he is brought down by Druid dragon damage, he could not overcome high AC, immunity to negative energy and non good targets fast enough. I am dubious about the impact of the four player adjust here, -2 to rols and DCs is a fairly small effect given he starts back at full strength. It did mean one PC made a save against cruelty but it was at the very end.
Overall this was a lot of fun to run and presents a real and serious challenge, even to well built and capable PCs.
I played part 2 today, tier 17-18, hard mode, 5 players. It was a lot of fun.
Decisions, decision:
I wanted to mind blank torch, teleport him somewhere well out of the way and stick him in an imprisonment spell but the party wasn't having any of it so I disintegrated him instead. Killing him was the group majority decision but a couple of people wanted to let him go.
Honestly, a lot of his dialogue came across as some heavy historical editing combined with a great mass of after the fact attempts at justification. I rather suspect as well that Vahlo and the two unnamed miscreant Decemvirate members will be used as scapegoats for all of the dubious stuff the Decemvirate has done over the years which smacks as a bit of a cop out frankly.
The Society is not a good organisation, it has engaged in some very dubious actions over the years and explaining that away as a few bad apples is a pretty weak claim.
I have to say I was also a bit dubious about the ability of the Helm to conceal anyone for very long given it is only providing nondetection and disguise self. That feels quite weak, even at CL20
The Helm gives Vahlo true seeing, this isnt listed in his senses.
He casts non detection himself to get a better caster level (which helps with his tactics). However, the Helm grants the same ability, presumably using its caster levdel as a base? It says it works like an amulet of proof against detetcion and location. It sets the caster level DC base don its caster level. I would expect the decemvirate helm to use its own.
Vahlos caster level is also inconsistent. At 1213 and 1415 it is class level -3 (which is right), at 1718 it is his full class level.
Also, the tactics for the nightshade suggest that true seeing defeats mind blank. I had always assumed it to be the other way around. Is that meant to bbbe specific to this creature or an indication of the regular interaction of these spells?
I have started to prep the stat blocks for this and have some questions/comments.
As previously mentioned there are a couple of references to using Easy/Average/Hard DCs (one in the sword sidebar, love its abilities by the way and one in the ritual, there may be others). I assume we just grab the DCs from Part 1?
The tactics on the Nightshades for tier 14-15 and 17-18 seem to be reversed. 14-15 shows as using quickened cone of cold but it doesnt have it, 17-18 shows quickened unholy blast, it has cone of cold instead. Do we just swop them around?
Vahlo uses his fiendish boon in all tiers but only adds unholy. He gets more than a +2 benefit in every tier. Its worth noting for people running that he cannot add any more as the weapon caps out at +10 effective bonus.
Zurnzals CMB numbers are sort of wrong, or at least if you use them as is they are. The default numbers are correct in a general sense but do not account for the ability to add things like enhancement bonuses for certain types of maneuvers which is important given he uses trip and disarm.
Likewise Vahlo's CM values do not account for his desecrate bonus or the benefit of the locked gauntet which is worth keeping an eye on.
Vahlo's cruelty DCs are not correct in anything other than high tier. They are largely not listed, there is a passing reference to DC27 in his tactics. This is only right for tier 1718. Tier 12-13 should be DC22, 14-15 should be DC24. I assume you dont want us stunning level 12 PCs for multiple rounds with DC27 effects?
For people running Vahlo at mid and high tier that arrow deflecting buckler is an important bit of kit it is very easy to miss.
The advanced daemons in tier 1718 have the wrong devour DC, it should be 27. Looks like the effect of the advanced template on it was missed.
Overall I like the look of this a lot, plenty here to challenge even a well prepared party.
Veteran adventurer now suggests it can only be purchased once but I had already bought it twice and played both characters. Is this change retroactive?
I am interested to learn how these 4 were selected in the first place. Were they culled from everyone who took the Second Seekers boon?
What about the many who didn’t? They have no chance to become First Seeker?
To my understanding that is correct, because it was made quite clear from the beginning that would be the case.
Those who reported having completed the Tier 4 faction boon were contacted by email and asked to provide a short description of their characters. Later they were emailed asking for answers to half a dozen or so questions about their character, views, what was important to them, where they saw the society heading etc.
I have seen goblins played from both sides of the table and have two myself. So far they have gone to great lengths to demonstrate they are pathfinders while remaining identifiably goblins. This is a player issue not a character one.
All in all the play report is really encouraging and interesting, and it looks like high-level play might become much more fun, and much less rocket tag, than earlier versions.
With the caveat abou Scare to Death and one or two spells I can definately say that rocket tag at higher level is no longer a thing. Bear in mind that Scare makes the target immune to all further attempts from anyone for a minute and most such effects have the incapacitation tag so are mostly useful for mooks and I think it is largely fine.
Of course, as more players resources are released this may well change.
Our heroes descend even deeper below ground, entering ancient crumbling crypts filled with shadows and the whisperings of unquiet spirits. They fall into a regular pattern for exploration at this point, Merisiel is Avoiding Notice, Searching and Scouting, Seelah is Defending, Amiri is Avoiding Notice and Investigating, Kyra is Avoiding Notice and Searching while Seoni is just Avoiding Notice as while she has Swift Sneak she only has Master Stealth.
I set a challenge for this part to make their way through the caves without being driven mad by the horrid whispering of long forgotten shades. Anyone who succumbs will start the next encounter Frightened 3 (2 for Seelah with aura of courage) and Confused for the first round of combat. A DC40 (Legendary) Religion or Occult check can avoid it. I don’t add in any other environmental effects, the area is narrow and twisty which is enough of a hindrance. Amiri and Kyra fail, which could be bad for Seoni who is next to both of them.
Their presence has disturbed the spirits that dwell here and they start to emerge from the walls. As they do so a pair of rune covered skulls leap to life and then eyes flick open all around them on the walls, floor and ceiling!
INITIATIVE:
Kyra
Merisiel
Grikkitog
Amiri
Blue Banshee
Green Banshee
Lem
Seelah
Seoni
Orange Banshee
Red Banshee
Purple Demilich
Yellow Demilich
ROUND 1:
Battle Cry triggers at the start of combat. Amiri, confused, targets the red banshee, critting. Its is feared and will also flee. Seoni targets the orange banshee, crit failing with a 1. Merisiel targets the green banshee, getting a regular success. Seelah targets the Blue Banshee and gets a regular success.
Kyra: Kyra is confused, Seoni and Seelah are next to her so she blasts them both with Electric Arc. This provokes from Seelah but she doesnt realise Kyra has lost her wits and in any event wouldnt be likely to take the attack as she would only disrupt the spell on a crit. The frightened condition reduces her DC to 42 and Seoni saves for half. Kyra uses retributive strike to give Seoni 22 resistance, if Kyra is attacking them she will treat her as an enemy for now and Seoni takes no damage, Seelah crits her save. She then shoots Seelah who has interfered with her attack, missing with a Nat1.
Merisiel: Recognising the spirits as being similar to the ones they fought in the city ruins she despairs a little, she is not good at fighting incorporeals. Instead she throws herself at the purple skull. She encounters its telekinetic whirlwind, taking 8 damage (after reduction from inspired defence) and tries to scare it to death. She succeeds and it becomes frightened (lich’s and demilichs dont seem to be immune to death effects). She stabs it, hitting for 54 after resist and it critically fails the masters strike save, being instantly killed.
Grikkitog: The eyes covering the stone blink and then, suddenly, there are mouths everywhere filled with sharp teeth! Amiri beats its perception DC with her stealth but it can see everyone else. It tries to take bites out of Seelah, Merisiel and then Seoni. It hits all three times for 44, 37 and 41 (after resist). Seoni and Seelah fail the save, becoming immobilised and starting to bleed fo 5d8.
Amiri: Confused Amiri has three possible nearby targets, fortunately one is a banshee (red) and she moves to attack it. I dont have her rage as confusion doesnt’ seem to push you to use limited resources. She hits it once for 23 damage due to the fear penalty.
Blue Banshee: The spirit floats up to Seelah, taking an opportunity attack for its trouble, but she misses with a nat 1. The banshee wails, hitting everyone for 41 damage. Amiri and Seelah pass and are upgraded to a crit, Kyra crits and Lem and Seoni pass, taking damage. No-one takes Drain.
Green Banshee: it can only see Seeah and wants to wail. The rest of the group are around a corner. It silently passes through the wall, approaching Lem and bringing ost of the group into range at which point it wails! Merisiel is out of range, it lacks line of effect to Amiri. The rest are hit for 35 damage. Lem and Kyra pass, Seoni fails, Seelah crit fails and bruns her hero point, rerolling into a fail. Seoni and Seelah are drained 1.
Lem: Lem maintains inspire defence for free, he kicks off inspire courage and, given it is banshees again tries to make is heroic. He crits, boosting the effect to +3. He follows up with a slow on the 3 banshees he can see given how effective it was the last time. These ones are made of sterner stuff. Orange passes, blue crit passes but green fails.
Seelah: She delays to see what Seoni does. She takes 15 bleed damage and it does not stop.
Seoni: She hastes everyone except Merisiel who is out of range. She follows up with Shield, hoping it might protect her and doesnt stop bleeding.
Seelah: She smites the Blue Banshee, attacks it with haste for 5o damage, and again for another 50 and again for 42. It starts to look rather tattered. She reduces Kyras fear value by 1.
Orange Banshee: Floating through the wall it pops out and wails for 45 damage. Kyra and Amiri fail, taking drain 4 as well although Amiri takes half damage Seelah passes, upgrading to a crit and the rest pass. Merisiel is out of range.
Red Banshee: This banshee flees, provoking from Amiri. She hits dealing 39 damage.
Yellow Demilich: It floats forward and blasts Seelah with Polar Ray but misses by miles.
GROUP EFFECTS: Inspire defence, [Inspire Courage: +3 - until Lem round 2], Haste (except Merisiel)
Grikkitog: 280|280
Blue Banshee: 128|270 [ slowed 1 - round 11], [smite - Seelah round 2]
Green Banshee: 270|270, frightened 1
Orange Banshee: 270|270, [slowed 1 - round 3]
Red Banshee: 208|270, frightened 1
Purple Demilich: DEAD
Yellow Demilich: 240|240
ROUND 2 :
Kyra: Recovered from confusion and seeing how badly injured many people are she unleashes a 3 action Font channel, hitting three of the Banshees as well. She heals 70HP to everyone. Green and blue save, orange fails. She shoots at blue with haste but misses with a nat 1.
Merisiel: Warned about another floating skull she sprints back up the corridor but doesnt quite have the speed to reach it with one action. She skids to a halt next to blue banshee, flanking it with Seelah instead. She stabs it with flank but as it is precision damage she cannot do anything with it. She does crit for 82 damage and uses her reaction for a free demoralise (from Battle Cry) which fails. She then stabs it again with her dagger, which hits and dispatches it.
Grikkitog: It has two people grabbed so this time it attacks Amiri, Merisiel and Lem. It misses Amiri as she isnt’ raging yet and the other two attacks go well wide.
Amiri: getting angry she rages, moving in on orange and strikes twice using her speed weapon property. She doesn’t have the space to turn into a dragon. She hits twice for 106 damage after its resistance is applied.
Green Banshee: Reaching out to touch Lem it crits him for 76 damage. He fails the will save, becoming frightened 2. It strikes a second time, missing, and then floats through the wall to flank Amiri and gain its concealment ability.
Lem: He restarts inspire courage although as he is now out of focus he cannot linger it. Drawing on haste he ducks through the group and casts level 4 invisibility on Seelah.
Seoni: Still grabbed, Seoni casts freedom of movement on herself and then escapes. This ends the persistent damage from the Grikkitog feeding. She makes the flat check from grapple.
Seelah: With a shout of anger Seelah tries to escape but a nat 1 leaves her stuck there. Lacking ranged options she glares at the demilich, passing and causing it to be frightened 2. She then battle medics Kyra for 41. She takes 12 damage as the teeth chew on her and does not escape. Aura of Courage helps Lem and Kyra.
Orange Banshee: Slowed but flanking Amiri it tries to touch her and is annoyed when she is not flatfooted. Still, its first attack crits for 56 and she fails the will save, returning to frightened 2. Its second touch misses completely.
Red Banshee: Spends the turn flying back into the fight, emerging out of the wall behind Merisiel
Yellow Demilich: I gave the demiliches greater staves of evocation rather than necromancy. It gains spell turning at the start of its turn and flies forward, hoping to chain lightning everyone. It provokes from Seelah, who crits it for 90, knocking it prone. Angry, it casts a spell at her, and she takes her combat reflexes reaction to hit it again, critting for 70 and disrupting its maze spell.
GROUP EFFECTS: Inspire defence, [Inspire Courage], Haste (except Merisiel)
Grikkitog: 280|280
Blue Banshee: DEAD
Green Banshee: 235|270, wail round 6
Orange Banshee: 94|270, wail round 4
Red Banshee: 208|270, frightened 1, wail round 6
Purple Demilich: DEAD
Yellow Demilich: 80|240, frightened 1, prone
ROUND 3:
Kyra: Drawing on haste she moves into a better position and drops another Font heal, hitting everything for 77 healing. The demilich crit fails and explodes. Green passes but the rest fail.
Merisiel: Stepping up to red she attacks, it is flat footed due to dread striker but there is no sneak damage. She crits for 64 damage and then again for 46 damage. It tries to vengeful spite her but she crits the save.
Grikkitog: Observing the fight it again tries to bite Merisiel, then Amiri and Lem. No-one has yet had the spare actions to try and identify it. It crits Merisiel for 69 damage, hits Amiri for 45 and misses Lem. Amiri is grabbed but Merisiel is not.
Amiri: Increasingly angry she is stuck but directly next to two banshees. She strikes at orange four times but nothing connects. She takes 27 damage.
Green Banshee: Green strikes twice at Amiri, hitting once for 36 damage, and then floats off to engage its concealment but provoking taking 42 damage.
Lem: Casting collective transposition he moves various people about. This has the added benefit of freeing Seelah and Amiri from the grab and putting Seelah into melee range of the banshees. He maintains inspire
Seelah: Freed, Seelah goes to town on the Banshees. Her haste attack misses orange with another nat 1 but her second attack finishes it off. She smites green and uses her last action to attack, hitting for 47 damage. Aura of Courage ends Amiri’s fear.
Seoni: Drawing on her bloodline power Seoni casts a free 5th level magic missile at Red, it takes 37 force damage and silently fades away.
GROUP EFFECTS: Inspire defence, Inspire Courage, Haste (except Merisiel)
Grikkitog: 280|280
Blue Banshee: DEAD
Green Banshee: 103|270, wail round 6
Orange Banshee: DEAD
Red Banshee: DEAD
Purple Demilich: DEAD
Yellow Demilich: DEAD
ROUND 4:
Kyra: With only one enemy in view, and not wanting to waste resources, Kyra opens up a barrage on Green. She hits for a paltry 8, then 7, then crits for 45 and then misses .
Merisiel: Darting forward, through greens space (incorporeals no longer block your movement), she crits it for 74 damage and it dies. With an action spare she tries to work out why the floor is biting them. She crits the occultism check and shouts out that the need to find where the Griktog has implanted itself or it will continue to bite and immobilize people. If they have it people need to freedom of movement themselves!
Grikkitog: The warning comes too late and the Grikkitog strikes again, at Merisiel, Amiri and Kyra. It hits Merisiel for 42 damage but Seelah retributive strikes to prevent 22 of it. It bites Amiri for 29 and misses Kyra. Merisiel saves but Amiri is grabbed again.
Amiri: Raging, Amiri tries to break free. I count the Griktogs ability to attack as meaning Amiri remains in rage. She bursts out of the grab and flies off looking for the annoying creature. Following the “always go left” rules and moving three times with haste she comes into view of it and shouts out to alert her allies.
Lem: Lem is slower than Amiri but doesn’t have to escape anything. He rushes up behind her, getting a look at the creature.
Seelah: Seelah is slower still and rather lags behind.
Seoni: Seoni is also not that fast and rushes up behind.
GROUP EFFECTS: Inspire defence, Haste (except Merisiel)
Grikkitog: 280|280
Blue Banshee: DEAD
Green Banshee: DEAD
Orange Banshee: DEAD
Red Banshee: DEAD
Purple Demilich: DEAD
Yellow Demilich: DEAD
ROUND 5:
Kyra: Sighing at the group having run off without her again she quickly follows behind. Three moves puts her next to the group and she casts shield.
Merisiel: Far far away she casts Haste on herself and moves twice. Her prodigious leaping abilities are not much use as the corridors tend to be fairly short and twisty.
Griktog: Seeing its doom approaching it gives one last attempt at stopping them approaching. It bites Amiri, Seoni and Kyra, it no longer knows where Seelah is.All three attacks miss.
Amiri: She delays for Lem
Lem: Lem starts inspire courage again now they are near the enemy. He moves forward and shoots it once, but misses
Amiri: Able to see it now, but not quite close enough to frighten it to death, she sudden charges in, missing, she growls, trying to frighten it to death. She crits the intimidate check, it fails the fort save and drops dead.
The group father together to patch themselves up again. Drained 4 is too much to be carrying. Seelah has already used her daily restoration. They have one more Moment of Recovery which would remove Seelahs fatigue and reduce drain by 2 across the board.
They choose not to as it will use Seonis last level 9 spell slot and instead Amiri, Kyra nd Seoni employ their restoration wands. A 10 minute rest gets them all back to full HP and allows people to refocus.
A hunt through the area turns up some ancient jewelry and a Wand of Implosion in the crypt of some long forgotten wizard which Seoni claims.
I award Kyra a hero point for keeping the group up through multiple heals.
Just curious, is this a simulation or a report on actual game?
It is a simulation so I can get my head around how the rules work and the differences between 1e and 2e. I have been running 1e for years but also have the Playtest rules, Starfinder, 3.x, 4e and 5e D&D floating about and they tend to get muddled up. If I immerse myself in the new rule set it helps to solidify things.
Anyway, report of Encounter 4 coming up. Things get dark and dangerous and we see the first use of Confusion!
Our heroes enter the underworld beneath the City. Worked passageways give way to twisting and turning caverns, bottomless pits and bad air. The drip drip sound of running water is a constant companion and more and more mould and fungus can be seen growing over the walls and floors. Here the group need to bring all of their survival skills to bear to deal with the environment. I count this environment as a Legendary DC with the Hard adjustment. Each PC needs to make a DC42 Survival or Nature check as they travel or they will suffer various debilitations. Critical success will give them a +2 circumstance bonus on the saves for the Hazard in the next encounter, failure will leave them fatigued and critical failure will leave them fatigued and stupefied 2 from the psychoactive fungal spores until they leave the region.
Seelah is not trained in either skill but has a decent bonus due to clever improvisation (+24). She decides to follow Kyra who provides +8 due to her Legendary Survival. This does mean Seelah is not on defend but the environment seems sufficiently dangerous to justify doing so..
Kyra is taking the lead finding a way through for people. Given she is actively leading he group and helping people deal with the environment I deice she cannot also be trying to Avoid Notice.
Amiri is an experienced hunter, she Scouts ahead while Avoiding Notice and Searching, relying on her own survival skills.
Lem really has had quite enough of this sort of nonsense however he is accomplished knowledge monkey. He follows Kyra’s lead and I allow her bonus to add to his Arcana check which he uses instead of Nature due to Unified Theory.
Seoni does exactly the same as Lem, she has no desire to be overcome by the environment given they are still early on in their explorations.
Merisiel is trained in both skills but not that good at them. This time she lets Amiri take point and Follows Kyra’s lead. She can still Search as she goes and she has Trapfinding in case of dangers.
Kyra passes the survival check. Merisiel rolls a 1, a crit fail! She burns her reroll and gets a crit pass! Seelah fails and is feeling a bit woozy. Seon, Lem and Amiri all pass.
Descending further into the earth they start to move through huge caverns covered in fungus. The massive trunks reach floor to ceiling and only a few narrow trails wind amongst the vast forest. As they push further in both Amiri and Merisiel spot something vast rising up to block their path. Rising up ahead of them in a truly titanic creature birthed from nightmare, meanwhile just visible through the fungal trunks are multiple other large mobile fungus monsters. Battle is joined!
ENCOUNTER 3 (Severe, 180xp)
The whole area is difficult terrain for medium characters
HAZARD:
Lvl 19: The movement of the monsters stirs up the spores of the fungal forest. The air becomes polluted with a form of Hemlock which acts quickly and continues to affect people while they are in the area.
You can become immune to the exposure with 3 successes on a DC41 Survival (Expert), DC41 Nature (Expert) or DC44 Medicine (Master). Success gets 1 check, critical success gets 2. The poison settles if a round passes in which no huge or larger sized creature is active.
Kyra
Red Terotricus
Blue Terotricus
Amiri
Lem
Merisiel
Mu Spore
Purple Elite Wemmuth
Seoni
Orange Elite Wemmuth
Seelah
Green Elite Wemmuth
ROUND 1:
Kyra: She makes the save and alerts the group, the air here is poison! She casts Haste on the group (she has it prepared in her level 7 druid slot) and tries to craft some protection from the poison for herself. She crit succeeds and is close to being protected.
Red Terotricus: It lumbers forward and spits a mass of spores at Seelah. Fatigued reduces her AC but inspire defence is countracting that. The creature just fails to crit but the hit does 35 damage, she fails both the reflex and fortitude saves, becoming enfeebled 2 and reducing her speed by 10. It spits a second batch at Seoni but they go wide.
Blue Terotricus: It also lumbers forward and spits at Merisiel, hitting her for 40 damage. She makes both of the saves. It then shoots at Lem but misses wildly.
Amiri: She fails the save against the poison, she burns her hero point to reroll, passing this time. She takes two actions to counteract the conditions getting a crit and a pass and then rages, turning into a dragon for the increases mobility. She flies at blue with haste, making the save.
Lem: He makes the fortitude save and also tries to counteract the poison, using Arcana in place of Nature. He fails and then kicks off inspire courage, trying to make it linger. He just passes. He uses true hypercognition to learn what they are facing (3 checks on the Mu Spore, 1 on each of the others). He learns one thing about the spore (its regeneration, shut off by sonic), he gets a crit fail on the Tentriculous (I give him the reverse information on weaknesses, presenting them as resistance) and a crit success on the Wemmuths (I give them weaknesses and blood leech). He shoots speculatively at blue with haste hitting for 33 damage (their weapons generally have greater elemental runes so the resistances are often not coming into play..
Merisiel: She makes the fortitude save against the poison. This time they can all start with weapons out. She goes after the plant that shot her, leaping through the fungus but into its aura but she makes the save. Plants also dont seem to be immune to mind affecting things now so she tries to scare it to death, getting a crit success! It makes the save becoming frightened 2 and she stabs it, hitting for 41 damage. It makes her masters strike save, becoming enfeebled 2 and -10 speed for a round as well. She stabs it again with haste using her dagger and is surprised when it deals more cold damage. It takes 56 damage and its regen turns off for a round.
Mu Spore: The giant monster flies forward so as not to catch its minions in its breath and to bring all of the group into its aura. Seelah, Kyra, Lem and Amiri all fail with some terrible rolls and become clumsy, enfeebled and slowed 1 for around. On the plus side for Seelah enfeebled doesnt stack and they are all status penalties so you just take the worst. It then breathes at everyone, releasing a 400’ cone of burrowing spores. Lem passes, Seelah critically fails, everyone else fails including Merisiel but she takes half damage. It deals 74 piercing damage and inspire defence helps a little.
Purple Elite Wemmuth: Burrowing through the ground it bursts up out of the fungal mass and throws a rock at Amiri but it goes well wide. The second is closer but also goes wide. .
Seoni: She just makes the fortitude save against the poison but she must also save against the Mu Spore aura as she starts her turn inside it. She passes and breathes a sigh of relief before hitting every plant in the area with horrid wilting. The Mu Spore passes, Blue Tentriculos fails while Red passes, of the Wemmuths purple passes but the others both critically fail. All of those results become one worse (I am treating fungus monsters the same as plants). It does a rather weedy 55 damage but has the benefit of hitting everything. She then lies into the forest trying to stealth (Stealth 47). She would have done so using haste but it doesnt look like you can sneak with the extra stride from haste She ends her turn in the Mu Spore aura and fails the save.
Orange Elite Wemmuth: It rumbled forward, popping up and throwing a rock at the big dragon. It crits Amiri for 92 damage (reduced by 5 from inspire) and misses with its second lob.
Seelah: She makes the save against the poison but is slowed by the Mu Spore. She sudden charges blue, hoping to get one enemy off the board at least but entering its aura she is again exposed to the spores. Fortunately multiple exposures to a disease effect do not advance the stage. She hits and learns that it is in fact weak to good damage (her weapon is holy) and not resistant to it. She deals 53 damage. Haste is counteracting the slow so she attacks again missing by miles. She fails the save against the Mu Spore.
Green Elite Wemmuth: the last Wemmuth double moves forward and throws a rock at Kyra but it flies well wide.
Mu Spore: 295|350, regeneration 50 (sonic), resist acid (20), all (except sonic) 10
Red Terotricus: 315|370
Blue Terotricus: 77|370, frightened 2, (enfeebled 2, -10 spd, end of round 2), no regen in round 2
Regeneration 25 (cold), weak cold, good, cold iron 15, slashing 10, resist fire 15
Kyra: Kyra crits the save against the poison She loses her haste action to the slow effect. Things are looking a bit grim. She heads into the jungle to get into range of her allies and invokes one of her Font Heals, healing Seelah for 135 damage. However, she also comes into range of the trntriculius spores and critically fails, becoming enfeebled 2. Ending her turn near the Mu Spore she also fails that save.
Red Terotricus: Well out of position it double moves forward and spits spores at Lem. They go well wide. However, Lem and Seoni are now inside its aura. Seoni resists the disease but Lem does not. It does however regenerate.
Blue Terotricus: Blue is put out, it has been stabbed, slashed, burnt, frozen and frightened. It draws nutrients from the surrounding plant life, regaining 200hp and then tries to slam Amiri but she just ducks out of the way, despite being clumsy.
Amiri: Starting her turn in the Tentriculous aura she shrugs off the effect, making the save. She is immune to the poison, having taken countermeasures in round 1. She loses her haste action to slow. Glaring at the Wemmuth that critted her with a rock she tries to scare it to death. She passes, but not critically and it is frightened 2. Determined to finish something off she attacks the tendriculoust twice, biting it for 71 damage but missing with her claw. She saves against the Mu Spore aura.
Lem: Lem makes the poison save. He gives up his haste action to the slow effect. He fails against the tentriculous aura and also becomes diseased, gaining enfeebled 2. Bringing out the big guns he uses 3 actions to cast alter reality, duplicating weird and hitting all of the enemies. He maintains inspire defence for free. The Mu Spore and Red pass, Blue fails, of the Wemmuths, purple and green fail, orange crit fails. Orange fails the fort save and dies. The rest take 55 or 27 damage and a level of fear. He fails against the Mu Spore aura.
Merisiel: She saves against the poison but fails the tentriculous aura, becoming enfeebled 2. Deciding she needs to finish off something she twin feints the tentriculous, critting with her rapier for 134 damage (including some cold) but missing with the dagger attack. She stabs it again with her dagger, missing and then again with her haste action, critting it and finally killing it! Having taken cold damage it does not regenerate. She then fails the save against the Mu Spore aura.
Mu Spore: At the start of its turn the Mu Spore begins to regenerate. Too many of its minions are in the area for it to use inhalation yet. Its breath will be reusable in round 4. It bites out at Merisiel, critting her for 119 damage. Seelah calls out to Sarenrae and uses Champions Sacrifice to take all of the damage. This creates a weird rules interaction around how sacrifice impacts grab. I run it as Merisiel is still the one grabbed. It has improved grab so this doesn’t take an action. Grapple doesn’t seem to move you adjacent anymore either. It the uses its reaction to try and swallow her whole with fast swallow. Swallow Whole has the attack keyword so I assume it takes the -5 despite being an athletics check. With a +41 athletics it swallows Merisiel Whole. Merisiel takes 76 acid damage. It then bites Seelah, hitting for 35 damage and grabbing her with improved grab. It then tries to swallow her whole but fails with a 2. It loses its frightened condition.
Purple Elite Wemmuth: The creature tolls forward and slams at Amiri twice but both blows go wide.
Seoni: Saving against the poison and the trndriculous aura she decides that she needs to buy the group some time. She loses her haste action to slow and casts Maze at the Spore, using her last level 8 spell slot. With a pop it vanishes and I decide that it does not take Merisiel with it. She then stealths off out of sight (54). With the Spore gone its aura is no longer in effect.
Seelah: She makes the poison save but is still slowed. She gives up her haste action. She sudden charges purple as it is close to her allies, she crits it for 90, knocking it prone. She takes 14 damage from its thorny mass for her troubles, after the reduction from inspiring defence. She hits it again, hoping to finish it off, inflicting another 35 but taking 9 herself.
Green Elite Wemmuth: the horrible thing burrows through the ground bursting up next to Kyra and Lem It slams at Kyra with a mass of thorns branches, hitting for 46 damage and grabbing her
Kyra: She makes the poison save. She has been grabbed, this isn’t great but is nowhere near as bad as in 1E. She has a chance to flub manipulate actions, such as spellcasting. She is slowed so she loses her haste actions. She tries to escape but rolls a 1, critically failing. Sighing, she promptly casts dimension door from a sorcerer spell slot, making the flat check ad relocating to a point where she can provide a flank. She loses the effects of the Mu Spore aura.
Red Terotricus: Well out of position it regenerates, spits spores at Lem which miss then shuffles forward to flank him, slamming him for 51 damage (less 5)
Amiri: Amiri loses her haste action to slow. She bites purple with her mighty dragon fangs, hitting for 79 damage, she then rakes with a claw for 78 damage discovering their slashing vulnerability and it goes down. She takes 5 damage from the thorns on each attack as she resists piercing 7. Green Wemmuth has wandered into range of scare to death so she growls at it. She crits her intimidate, it fails its save and dies. She loses the Mu Spore aura effects.
Lem: Lem saves against the poison and is largely on his own with a mostly intact Terotricus. He loses his haste action to slow, flies away from the monster and casts collective transposition, putting Seelah and Amiri into melee with the thing. Amiri saves against the disease aura and Lem loses the Mu Spore aura effects. This is the last round of inspire courage, he will need to reactivate it again next round.
Merisiel: She critically fails the fort save against the poison and screams in pain as she takes 60 damage. Giving up her haste action to slow she leaps to attack the remaining Terotricus (a jump of about 100’, easy for her to make). She tries to scare it to death, passing the intimidate check, making it frightened 2. She then stabs it, critting for 127 damage and applying her masters strike, which it saves against gaining enfeebled 2. Some of the damage is cold so its regen switches off.
Mu Spore: The Mu Spore is in a strange new word, it begins to explore, looking for a way home. It uses its 36 perception but fails. It does regenerate.
Seoni: Seoni delays until after Selah, she saves against the poison.
Seelah: She saves against the poison but succumbs to the disease aura. The group is going to have to do something about this once the battle is won, assuming they do win. Seelah Smites red, hits once for 53 and discovers their good damage vulnerability, hits a second time for 56 damage and then battle medics herself, critting and restoring 67HP (more than lay on hands gives). Battle Medic and Treat Wounds don’t specify you need a hand free to use them.
Seoni: She fails against the poison, taking 65 damage. Damage doesn’t seem to disrupt concentration any more so she sustains the Maze spell. She launches a level 7 cone of cold over the heads of her allies at the horrid plant monster. It fails the sae taking 64 damage but remains standing.
Mu Spore: 350|350, breathe round 4
Regeneration 50 (sonic), resist acid (20), all (except sonic) 10
Red Terotricus: 102|370, frightened 2, enfeebled 2, no regen in round 4
Regeneration 25 (cold), weak cold, good, cold iron 15, slashing 10, resist fire 15
ROUND 4:
Kyra: She saves against the poison. Grumbling that the group has relocated to the other side of the battlefield, well away from her or her ability to heal she shoots at hitting for 42 damage as her bow has frost. This kills it. She uses her the rest of her actions to get into the middle of the group.
Amiri: With no more enemies visible Amiri’s rage ends and she becomes fatigued for a minute which could be awkward. I forgot to add her temp HP from rage on at the start so I add these back on now. She reverts to normal size. Her options are limited but seeing Seoni suffering from the poison she leaps over to her and tries to adjust her clothing to prevent further exposures. She gets one pass.
Lem: Lem saves against the poison. He maintains inspire defence and, knowing the Mu Spore will be back kicks in Inspire Courage again. He doesn’t linger it as he plans to inspire heroics once it is back. He uses a level 5 spell slot and casts Soothe on Merisiel healing her for 41HP.
Merisiel: She saves against the poison in her system, ridding herself of it and against the new exposure. She leaps over next to Kyra in case more healing might be forthcoming and fails to provide any countermeasures to the toxin in the air for herself.
Mu Spore: The Spore gets a 50 on its perception, drawing closer to returning to the material world.
Seelah: Flying forward she applies some first aid to Merisiel, healing her for 56HP and adjusts Kyras equipment, making her immune to any further poison exposure.
Seoni: Neutralise Poison seems to be the only way to get rid of an active toxin, restoration just reduces the stage but not below 1. She saves against the toxin advancing, ridding herself of it but fails against the new exposure, taking 60 damage. Grunting in pain she continues to sustain the Maze spell and casts a 6th level single target heal on herself, recovering 69hp.
Mu Spore: 350|350, en route
Regeneration 50 (sonic), resist acid (20), all (except sonic) 10
ROUND 5:
The poison clouds settle this round, unless the Mu Spore returns.
Kyra: With everyone around her in range Kyra channels (she has selective so I haven’t bothered to track downed enemies). She burns a use of Font healing everyone for 58HP.
Amiri: She adjusts Seonis equipment, getting a pass then a crit on her survival to render her immune to new poison exposure. She drinks a moderate healing potion, regaining 26hp.
Lem: Lem continues both of his compositions. He casts level 4 Soothe on Kyra, restoring 29hp
Merisiel: Remembering that the spore nearly grabbed her she casts freedom of movement on herself and skulks into the shadows (41 stealth)
Mu Spore: Sensing it is near the world again it snuffles about. With a 9 it just succeeds and returns from where it left t find all of its minions dead. Its aura is once again in effect and everyone must save. They all pass. With two actions remaining and no minions in the way it takes an enormous intake of breath, sucking the entire group towards it. Everyone saves but only Kyra, Amiri and Merisiel crit. The rest are all drawn towards its enormous maw. It promptly gets a free chance to swallow whole.
This does have the attack trait so they take MAP as far as I can tell. Seelah and Lem are swallowed but Seoni narrowly avoids it. They take 72 acid damage. The poison is now once again in effect although it wont affect people who have been swallowed.
Seoni: She saves against the poison, getting rid of it. Seoni tries to demoralise the Spore, hoping to reduce its saves. It seems likely that scare to death wont work well given how tough it is. She fails burns a hero point to reroll and succeeds. She follows up with a slow and it fails due to the demoralise. She saves against the Mu Spores.
Seelah: She needs to get out of the creatures stomach. She loses her haste action to the slow and tries to escape. Her mace isn’t any good at cutting through thick fungus walls and she doesn’t want to drop it to draw a different weapon. Her athletics is +34 while enfeebled, the DC is 51. She fails, then crit fails and is stuck. She tries to draw a scroll (of freedom of movement) but ends her turn in the stomach and takes 69 acid damage after her 10 resist.
Mu Spore: 350|350, frightened 1, [slowed 1-round 15]
Regeneration 50 (sonic), resist acid (20), all (except sonic) 10
ROUND 6:
Kyra and Merisiel delay, hoping Lem has a plan. Both are immune to the hazard. Both save against the Mu Spore aura.
Lem: Lem does have a plan, trapped in the belly of the beast. Unfortunately it fails when I read the rules and discover that dimension door requires line of sight. As does collective transposition. He switches to inspiring courage for free, tries to boost it with inspire heroics but crit fails with a 1, he uses the reroll from his greater persona mask, getting a crit and boosting it to +3 for the round. He draws his rapier and tries to stab his way out of the beast. He crits for 48 damage and bursts out, covered in fungus juice and flat foots it for a round. For good measure he restarts inspire defence. And saves against the aura. The Spore is taking 2d10 persistent fire ignoring its resistance but is not slowed (I start remembering he benefit of greater runes on crits here)
Kyra: She casts true strike and takes a free shot at it with haste, Sh connects for 19 damage and then hurls a level 8 chain lightning at it. It fails taking 63 electrical damage after resist. She fails against the spore aura becoming slowed, enfeebled and clumsy again.
Amiri: Unable to rage Amiri leaps into melee with the thing. She uses her haste action to strike, hitting for 44 ignoring its resistance to her with devastator and greater corrosive. She attacks it again, hitting for 36 and then swings a third time hoping for a lucky shot and missing (losing rage is a big damage reduction). She saves against the aura but is grabbed on hitting it.
Merisiel: It is all down to Merisiel. She saves against the poison and leaps into melee with the thing. It is flatfooted to her in every conceivable way. She hits once for 37 applying Masters Strike but it saves, getting upgraded to a crit due to the incapacitation tag. She does enfeeble it and reduce its speed. She stabs it twice more but they go wide. She saves against the aura but is also grabbed.
Mu Spore: It regenerates 50 damage. With only two actions available it it does not maintain the grab and instead breathes again, hitting everyone except Seelah who is swallowed. Merisiel passes and upgrades to a crit, Amiri crit fails, everyone else just fails. It dals 87 slashing damage. It takes 13 fire damage and doesnt go out.
Seelah: Still trapped inside she tries to activate the scroll. She makes the flat check, spends an action on trick magic item and makes the religion check. Unfortunately she is out of actions to actually escape and takes 58 acid damage.
Seoni: She casts true strike and follows it up with a 9th level disintegrate, hoping to end the menace. The arcane list is singularly lacking in sonic damage and I could not find a summon that would do it either. Her spell attack is +36, inspire takes the roll to +39. The spores AC is 45, she could really do with a crit as it is likely to save. I roll a 2 and a 3. I would reroll with a hero point but true strike is also a fortune effect. The spell misses entirely. To add insult to injury she fails against the aura.
Mu Spore: 140|350, [slowed 1-round 15] , 2d10 persistent fire - no resist, flat footed until start round 7, [enfeebled 1,-10 spd, end of round 7]
Regeneration 50 (sonic), resist acid (20), all (except sonic) 10
ROUND 7::
Lem: Lem fails against the poison, taking 82 damage. He quails as he reaches near single digit health. He again tries to inspire heroics for courage using his last focus point and sets up inspire defence. He criticals, boosting the effect to +3. He then launches a 9th level phantom pain at it as the spell does full damage even if it saves. Unfortunately it critically passes with a 20 (it does so on a 17) and is unaffected. He resists the spore aura.
Amiri: She strikes once for 50, getting grabbed, and the rest of her attacks miss badly. Not being able to rage is causing lots of problems. She fails against the Mu Spore aura.
Kyra: She delays until after Merisiel.
Merisiel: She makes the poison save and goes to town on the Spore. It is still flatfooted to her due to Gang Up. She hits for 42 damage and then for 49 which drops it after which she stabs it a couple of extra times for good measure but its wounds continue to close.
Kyra: Coming out of delay she invokes a Miracle to cast level 9 sound burst. The spore makes its save but the remains explode like a ripe peach and it dies.
Seelah: With freedom of movement she escapes from the beasts stomach. Seeing Lem badly injured she battle medics him, restoring 54hp.
Seoni: Getting to Lem she also battle medics him restoring another 43hp. Lem saves against the poison on his turn bringing the encounter to an end. The group have burnt a lot of resources and if they are to continue they must be much more conservative.
POST COMBAT:
I award Amiri a hero point for having battled through fatigue.
The group get out of the area and settle down to treat their wounds. Most of them are also diseased. They can get rid of the enfeebled condition for today but that wont remove the affliction and it will take a use of restoration, which can only be used once per day. They have access to remove disease up to level 7 from the staff of true healing Seoni and Kyra carry but that is far from certain to work. Given their level the disease effect is probably level 9 or 10. As the Terotricus are level 19 it is in fact level 10. A level 7 remove disease would need a critical counteract check to work. Seelah uses her wand of restoration, the rest live with the disease for now. She loses the Stupefied condition as they leave the area but remains fatigued.
Twenty minutes is enough time to get them all back on their feet with Seon’s ability to cast a free level 5 Heal spell every minute and Seelah’s Legendary treat wounds skills. Whilst they work Kyra checks out the area. She finds several fungal growths which possess magical properties, one acts as a True Elixir of Life and the other as an Elixir of Rejuvenation. They hold on to it in case someone dies or they suffer yet more conditions.
Those with focus pools also get to regain a point. Looking at how refocus works I notice that you can only ever get 1 point back between encounters unless you invest in one of the class feats or have some other ability to do so as Refocus requires you to have spent a point since you last gained any.
I actually went mining for useful long duration spell wand combos like this, but then I fell asleep.
I'm glad someone was hard at work.
As far as I can tell it is pretty much:
Longstrider (2nd)
Endure Elements (5th)
See Invisibility (5th)
Spell Immunity (4th - more limited due to the counteract check)
Status (4th)
False Life (2nd)
Undetectable Alignment (2nd)
Water Breathing (4th)
Mind Blank (8th - expensive but very useful, a big bonus to mental saves)
Everyone may as well also pick up a wand of restoration eventually as you can only benefit from it once a day anyway.
Fantastic work, thank you for making this! Definitely seems a lot easier to run/play than PF1.
Certainly I am finding running the monsters quite a lot simpler, there is less fiddly stuff to track and what conditions do is starting to fall into place. Monster attacks are easier to handle when you are maybe making two and doing something else and not having to check and recheck what its power attack modifier is in the middle of a six natural attack routine from a dragon.
While much of that doesnt impact too much as I largely run online using roll20 2E does make it much quicker for me to put together a simple online character sheet and macros for monsters so tables are quicker and easier to build.
These are a great read. Two things though: if the rogue is legendary in sneak and has the legendary sneak skill feat, she is always sneaking if she wants, allowing her to roll stealth for combat
This sort of thing is always subject to a degree of GM fiat. Yes, you can stalth while also doing other things but if those other things are incompatible with being sneaky then I wouldnt expect you to be able to roll stealth for init.
Quote:
and master strike and debilitating strike cannot be used on the same attack, as they have the same trigger, if I remember correctly.
I thought this was the case but then couldnt find it. Going back I fond it in the stuff on triggers and reactions. Thanks.
Personally I love playing at high levels, but unfortunately, I can rarely achieve this goal ...
Well, seeing this, I ask, and I ask, would you have these lvl 20 character sheets that you could make available?
It would be of great help!
Thank you!
Out of interest why were the non human iconics switched to human? Was it for consistency?
I like humans and I couldnt be bothered to make up new names. I like multiclassing and the human racial helps a lot with that. I found myself taking rogue dedication on multiple characters just to have more higher ranked skills. Its a waste for a combat test but I wanted the characters to feel like actual characters rather than just combat bots.
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And what is Seoni's intimidate bonus? 20 + 8 (legendary) + 6 stat gives +34. But the DC suggests +36 so where does the final +2 come from? A buff or an item?
Seoni is at +37, 20+8legendary +7cha +2greater mask of terror. Her DC may have been 36 when she was suffering a condition or it may be a typo. These are quite complex to keep track of when you are tracking everyones situation.
I have just finished running another severe encounter, a Mu spore, a pair of Terotricus, three Elite Wemmuths and a persistent level 19 poison hazard. It ran for 7 rounds and was quite brutal. Kyra ending up using a Miracle to ensure victory. The group are currently rather depleted on resources and only three encounters in. I will post the fight tomorrow.
One thing to note, after Encounter 1 I award Seoni a hero point for taking on the Skulltaker alone.
The group pass on, heading further up into the city and then into the mountain beyond. Here the devastation was even more severe. The underground city which was once a bastion of the Empire has been ravages, whole floors have collapsed leaving little more than a tangled, ravaged mess of twisted metal, jagged stone columns and bottomless yawning voids. Navigating the area is a nightmare if you cannot fly or climb. Deep below they hear howling winds and the crackle of electricity.
Seelah remains on defence, her high level skill in acrobatics and flight speed means she handles the environment without a problem.
Kyra lacks a long duration flight spell. Air Walk is on her list but it has no extended version. She has not committed either of her level 7 spell slots to it and so is forced to Follow the Leader. At least she can continue to try and Avoid Notice.
Amiri returns to the shadows Avoiding Notice but she also continues Searching due to Expeditious Search.
Lem again doesnt fancy lots of physical exertion, he expends another level 7 spell slot and flies alongside Kyra, annoying her with his chatter. He continues to Investigate, noting the older architectural style present in the underground. I later notice that Lem has a ring of climbing. Given the encvironment here he still uses Fly but would not have needed it earlier. I give him a level 7 spell slot back.
Seoni also takes to the air this time (Fly is her level 4 heighten choice). She Avoids Notice, hoping not to be spotted.
Merisiel continues to take point, Avoiding Notice is second nature to her as is Searching from traps. As the group has slowed down she also starts to Scout.
At this point it is worth noting that all of the group have Darkvision through various magic item choices. Most have Greater Darkvision from the Major Goggles of Night.
As they reach a particularly barren and desolate section of ruins their presence draws attention. From all around them the very air itself begins to crackle and roil, enormous elemental forms appear as if from nowhere, drawn through the nearby rift to the para elemental plane of electricity. High above the disturbance also alerts a pair of mighty dragons who make these caverns their lair.
ENCOUNTER 2: (Moderate: 120xp)
Rocky platforms are about 60' apart and at varying heights. The platforms are greater difficult terrain and uneven (DC35 Balance). There is a 500' drop to the floor below and the central section forms a Planar Rift to the elemental planes. Falling in is a bad idea.
CREATURES
Lvl 18: 2 ancient blue dragon (1spellcasting, 1 frenzy)
Lvl 16: 8 Double elite uthuls
INITIATIVE:
Kyra (55 stealth)
Amiri (50 stealth)
Seelah
Dragon Caster
Merisiel (40 Stealth)
Blue Elemental
Dragon Melee
Seoni (36 Stealth)
Lem
Green Elemental
Red Elemental
Yellow Elemental
Purple Elemental
Pink Elemental
Orange Elemental
Brown Elemental
ROUND 1:
This time there are targets in range for Battlecry. Amiri, Seelah, Seoni and Merisiel all have it. Each chooses a different target (orange, brown, pink and yellow). The elementals will DC is 36. Seelah and Amiri critical and I have just noticed the critical reaction effect. Their targets are frightened 2 and fleeing 1. Seoni passes leaving hers frightened 1. Merisiel critically fails with a natural 1 (her intimidate is +34).
Kyra: She doesn’t really want to attract attention but she is in a vulnerable position as she cannot currently fly and there are multiple huge enemies around her. She casts air walk on herself followed by shield and she is now visible.
Amiri: She rages, growing wings with 1 action due to mighty rage, and swoops off to engage an elemental and get into a position where she might breath on a bunch next round (move to engage and draw a weapon). The uthuls aura makes the air difficult terrain but she still manages to get there (her base speed is 50).
Seelah: Not wanting to spread the group out Seelah also descends on orange, flanking with Amiri (sudden charge). It seems that elementals are no longer immune to flank or critical hits or precision damage. She hits once for 33 damage. She persistently flies so can explore with weapons at the ready. Amiri needed her hands free to climb.
Dragon Caster: In the darkness above the dragon casts disappearance on itself. It then takes wing and descends to learn who has invaded its lair. It already has mind blank active (it lasts 24 hours) and that counteracts everyone's see invisibility on anything but a 1. None of them see it approach.
Merisiel: Merisiel leaps to the platform which yellow has formed over. She quick draws her rapier (she is also climbing and so needs both hands free) and stabs it It is flatfooted due to her surprise attacks class feature. She hits for 57 damage and applies her masters strike. It crit fails the save and promptly dies. Lacking another target in range she leaps from one platform 60’ to the one brown formed over.
Blue Elemental: The creature transforms itself into a whirlwind and sweeps through Seoni, Kyra, Lem and Seelah. While it did not see Seoni she simplys happens to be within its path. Its movement does not provoke so Seelah is denied her opportunity attack. Each of them takes 26 damage (after 5 resist from Lem) and Lem is snactched up and carried off with it.
Dragon Melee: The second beast takes flight, descending with its massive fly speed to menace Kyra. All of the group become affected by its frightful presence. Lem and Seelah critically pass and are unaffected. Merisiel passes, upgrading it to a crit. The rest get regular passes and are frightened 1. It then breathes on Seoni, Kyra and Seelah dealing 73 electrical damage. Seelah passes, Seoni fails and Kyra critically fails.
Seoni: Turning on the dragon next to her she snarls back at it, trying to scare it to death. She crits her intimidate roll (54 versus its will DC of 43). It rolls a 6 for its fortitude save getting a 38 versus her intimidate DC of 46 while frightened. The dragon drops dead of shock at the tiny woman screaming at it. Seeing there are still lots more targets Seoni invokes a level 9 spell slot and casts Weird. She would prefer to use something lower level but they are very spread out. Weird hits all seven elementals at DC44 again due to fear. With a +26 they need a 9 not to critically fail, more for those already frightened. Purple passes, Red, Green and Orange crit fail the will save, Pink and Blue just fail. It deals 61 mental damage. Red makes the fortitude save, green and orange fail and both die. Red takes 122 damage, is frightened 32 and fleeing, pink and blue take 61 and are frightened 2. Purple takes 30 damage and is frightened 1.
Lem: Still trapped by blue and whizzing around like he is stuck on a spin cycle Lem strikes up his inspire courage and keeps going with defence. He crits his attempt to get courage to linger so it will last 4 rounds. Lem escapes the whirlwind but is hurled away by the powerful winds and spends his last action flying back to keep everyone in inspire range. He recovers from his dragon fear.
Red Elemental: Badly injured and angry it hurls a mass of debris at Seoni. A lump of masonry smashes into her dealing 53 damage, the others sail off into the darkness.
Purple Elemental: Transforming into a whirlwind it sweeps through Amiri, Seelah, Kyra and Seoni dealing 21 damage (less to Amiri due to resistances). All of them avoid being caught.
Pink Elemental: Unleashes a powerful bolt of lightning at Seoni, Kyra and Seelah. Kyrah ducks under the bolt (good time for a crit), Seelah and Seoni are both caught taking 18 after halving. Seoni is looking very pale. The thunderous sound may also stun four of the group! You cannot fly if you have no actions to use! Merisiel crits and is unaffected. Lem passes and Seoni fails. Kyra passes but only because its DC has been reduced to the the frightened condition on it. However, as it has the incapacitation trait and the PCs are higher level their results get bumped up one, Seoni is stunned 1.
Brown Elemental: Flees down into the rift. It will return next turn, maybe.
GROUP EFFECTS: Inspire defence, Inspire courage (3|4)
Dagon caster: 370|370
Dragon melee: DEAD
Red: 186|290
Blue: 238|290, frightened 2
Yellow: DEAD
Green: DEAD
Orange: DEAD
Pink: 238|290
Purple: 264|290
Brown: 290|290, frightened 1
ROUND 2:
Kyra: Delays to see what Amiri and Seelah do.
Amiri: She growls at blue, hoping to frighten it to death. She crits the check but this one makes the save, becoming frightened 2 and fleeing 1. She sudden charges it for 61 damage.
Seelah: Seeing Kyra and Seoni in trouble Seelah sudden charges Pink, hitting for 43 and taking a second attack hitting for 28. She lacks the actions to raise her shield this turn.
Kyra: She and Seoni are both badly damaged. She places a hand on Seoni and casts Moment of Renewal on both of them, restoring 160hp to each of them. It can affect 6 people but the range is touch and everyone else is too far away. Reach spell on this would be great but she doesn’t have it. She then recasts shield.
Dragon Caster: Enraged by the death of its mate the dragon swoops down and bites and claws at Seoni. The jaws savage her for 45 damage. Seelah is within reach of Seoni now but the dragon is out of range for retributive strike. The group are now aware the dragon is here but also that their see invisibility spells are not functioning.
Merisiel: Merisiel leaps to another platform to attack another elemental. The platform is some 60’ away but with cloud jump, quick jump, powerful leap and an acrobatics of +38 she can long jump 135’ on a 2. I assume cloud leap lets you ignore the limitation on jumping your speed or there isn’t much point to it. Even if she rolls a 1 the DC for her to reach the other platform is only 15 (15’+5 for powerful leap tripled for cloud jump) so her worst result is a critical success which a 1 would push down to a success. Landing on the platform next to red she tries to scare it to death. She succeeds but not critically and it becomes frightened 2, which also makes it flatfooted to her. She hits, critting it for 95 damage and it critically passes her masters strike save. She applies -10 speed and enfeebled 1 from debilitating strike. It looks very unwell.
Blue Elemental: Blue has been terrified, it flees back into the rift for a round. Unfortunately for it this provokes from Amiri who crits it for 120 damage.
Seoni: Losing an action to stun and with an invisible dangerous enemy flying somewhere above her Seoni is in trouble. She casts glitterdust in the space above her but the dragon makes its save, it becomes visible but only for 2 rounds.
Lem: Maintaining inspire defence for free his actions are his own this round having lingered. There are still a lot of enemies about, including a new big dragon. He flies into the centre of the chamber, floating above the rift, and casts wail of the banshee, hitting everything except brown. All of the elementals fail, red and pink critically so. The dragon saves. The spell deals 37 negative damage and I roll a 4 on the drain failure. Red and Blue wither away to nothingness, Pink nearly expires on the spot due to drain, Purple also looks very unhappy. The dragon shrugs, taking no drain but you take full damage even on the save.
Purple Elemental: Dismissing its whirlwind it unleashes a lightning crash against Seoni and Kyra. Kyra crits the reflex save taking no damage but fails the fortitude save. As it has the incapacitation tag this gets upgraded to a pass and she is just stunned 1. Seelah crit passes the fortitude save and is not stunned. Seoni fails the reflex save and I decide the incapacitate only applies to the stun. She fails the fort save but again it gets upgraded to a pass so she is stunned 1 again. She takes 25 electrical damage but this time it is in reach of Seelah who wards Seoni giving her 22 resistance. She also takes a swing at it, hitting for 37 damage. Angry at having been hit it throws some debris at Seelah who opportunity attacks it with her combat reflexes reaction. Seelah is hit for 28 slashing, reduced by 5 by her armour specialistion and strikes it back for 32 damage.
Pink Elemental: Transforming into a whirlwind it sweeps through everyone except Merisiel, dealing 13 bludgeoning and 14 electrical. Inspire defence reduces the bludgeoning by 5 and some of them are resistant. Everyone makes the reflex save.
GROUP EFFECTS: Inspire defence, Inspire courage (2|4)
Dagon caster: 337|370, Visible (2|2)
Dragon melee: DEAD
Red: DEAD
Blue: DEAD
Yellow: DEAD
Green: DEAD
Orange: DEAD
Pink: 8|226, drained 4
Purple: 98|226, drained 4
Brown: 290|290
ROUND 3:
Amiri: She sudden charges Pink and surprises herself by missing (on a 2). She hits it with her hasted attack from her speed property killing it and turns and swoops back towards the dragon with her last action. The turbulence from the elementals means she cannot quite reach it.
Seelah: Smiting the dragon she then beats her powerful wings and just manages to get into reach of the beast. She strikes once hitting for 48 damage, making the flat check as glitterdust now just changes you to being concealed rather than invisible.
Kyra: She is stunned so loses an action. The dragon has Seelah in its face so she is less concerned about that. Not wanting to waste resources she shoots twice at the dragon, the first misses due to the volley penalty and the second misses due to concealment.
Dragon Caster: The dragon snarls at Seelah and casts a spell. Seoni recognises it as Maze (with quick recognition) and warns Seelah. Seelah takes her opportunity attack. She crits for 41 damage which disrupts its Maze and also knocks the dragon prone. Flying creatures knocked prone fall and the dragons crashes into the platform Kyra and Seoni are standing on! It takes 10 falling damage and Kyra and Seoni both critically pass the reflex save to get out of the way. Righting itself it snarls up at Seelah but is now out of her reach.
Merisiel: Leaping across the gap to the platform the dragon just crashed into Merisiel grins at it. Her attempt to scare it to death fails but she still flat foots it due to gang up and also because a failed scare to death imposes frightened 1. Unfortunately the nat1 on her attack roll doesn’t help.
Seoni: Stunned again and with a dragon literally on top of her Seoni’s options are limited. With a shrug of apology she unleashes a cone of ravaging death magic at all three remaining enemies, but it also catches Merisiel. She casts level 8 vampiric exsanguination. Purple crit fails due to drain, brown, the dragon and Merisiel all also fail. It deals 72 damage and Purple simply ceases to exist. Seoni is significantly strengthened by the stolen life force, Merisiel is less than happy.
Lem: Seeing that the battle is nearly over Lem maintains inspire defence for free, flies over to a platform so he doesnt get stunned and fall into the rift and launches a faerie fire at the dragon, negating the concealment and, when glitterdust runs out, preventing it from becoming properly invisibile again.
Brown Elemental: Flying up into position it launches a bolt of lightning at Seoni, Kyra and Merisiel. Kyra and Merisiel crit the reflex save, Seoni passes absorbing 27 damage with her temporary HP. Seoni fails the fortitude save and is again stunned 1, this is becoming annoying. It then tries to shove Merisiel off the platform as she isn’t flying and would fall into the planar rift! It succeeds! Merisiel tries to Grab the Edge, due to steady balance she can use acrobatics and gets a crit success, grabbing hold before she plunges into nothingness but finding herself dangling over the pit.
GROUP EFFECTS: Inspire defence, Inspire courage (1|4)
Dagon caster: 176|370, Visible (1|2), frightened 1, faerie fired
Dragon melee: DEAD
Red: DEAD
Blue: DEAD
Yellow: DEAD
Green: DEAD
Orange: DEAD
Pink: DEAD
Purple: DEAD
Brown: 218|290
ROUND 4:
Amiri: She sudden charges the dragon, critting for 122 damage. She attacks twice more with her speed weapon but misses both times.
Seelah: Dropping out of the sky onto the dragon she lashes out (skipping divine smite this turn, I am rather dubious about this talent). She crits it as well for another 64 damage and it slumps down, slides off the platform and disappears into the rift.
Kyra: With only a single elemental left and assuming the others are likely to deal with it Kyra loses a few speculative arrows at it. She crits once for 78.
Merisiel: Leaping from her position hanging off a cliff she lands on a different platform next to the elemental. Unhappy at its attempts to cause her to be lost forever on another plane she tries to scare it to death but fails with a 1! She quick draws her dagger and stabs it for 33 damage but for the first time does not have her enemy flatfooted. She should perhaps have feinted instead.
Seoni: She loses an action to stun again. She might have used her bloodline mastery for a free 5th level spell but she cannot as it is an action. She slows the elemental. It fails and is slowed 1 for a minute.
Lem: Flying back to the group to get everyone in range of inspire he restarts courage
Brown Elemental: Seeing the position as hopeless the elemental makes one last speculative attempt to shove Merisiel off the platform which fails and then flies away into the rift never to be seen again.
The group gather together to sort out some healing. They take 10 minutes to rest and refocus. Seelah has Ward Medic and Continual Recovery so can treat up to 8 people at one and also treat wounds every 10 minutes. Kyra cannot fail to aid but is only trained so provides +1. With a base +34 she sticks with the DC30 check. After 10 minutes she has restored 45HP to everyone and Seoni has cast 10 free level 5 single target Heal spells which easily gets everyone back up to full.
Merisiel spends the time leaping about the cave searching for loot, after all dragons normally have a hoard. She is not disappointed and she finds a mass of coinage and jewelry on a ledge high above them as well as a vein of orichalcum ore with enough material to make a set of high grade armour.
I award Seoni a Hero Point for frightening a dragon to death.
MC bard, pickup Dirge of Doom at 12th level, run into crowds, sing Dire of Doom, cast a big evocation AOE at guys nearby and add your Elemental Tempest focus spell for extra boom in a 10' radius.
In additon to the Endure Elements mentioned above each of the party uses wands of See Invisibility (5th - 8 hours), Longstrider (2nd - 8 hours) and False Life (2nd - 8 hours). Seelh uses Status (4th - 8 hours) and they all also have Water Breathing (4th) just in case. Others carry a few different ones. Each has a Restoration (4th). If they cannot natively activate a wand then they have trick magic item. The temp HP for Amiri wont stack ith those from Rage but they are useful in case she gets hit before she acts.
ENCOUNTER 1 (Severe)
All ground areas are difficult terrain (2 squares).
All rubble areas are greater difficult terrain and are uneven terrain. Creatures on uneven terrain are flat footed. Moving across takes 4 squares and forces DC30 Balance check or fall prone. If hit or you fail a reflex save while on uneven ground you must make the balance check.
Ultimately these had very little impact on the encounter. Seelah flies everywhere as does Amiri during rage, Merisiel bounces around like a lunatic with cloud jump and the rest largely stayed where they started.
Flying above the roof level requires a Maneuver in Air check, DC35 acrobatics. All flight deals with difficult terrain
The astradaemons have lost their devour soul ability but gained the ability to see through snow and fog.
Removing the Hazard has reduced the encounter xp budget by 30, it is now between moderate and severe.
INITIATIVE:
Seoni
Blue Banshee
Seelah
Geen Banshee
Red Wendigo
Lem
Skulltaker
Blue Astradaemon
Kyra
Red Astradameon
Merisiel
Amiri
Blue Wendigo
Orange Banshee
Red Banshee
Green Astradaemon
The creatures are colour coded to identify them on the roll20 table.
Several of the group have battlecry but sadly no enemy is currently within view and so it does not trigger.
Round 1:
Seelah: Having no enemy in sight, for now she delays, hoping whatever made the horrible scream shows itself.
Seoni: Unsure what is going on but knows she can be vulnerable. She casts shield and moves, slipping into the shadows to avoid notice (53 stealth beats all of their perception DCs, foil senses means she is assumed to be taking precautions)
Blue Banshee: The first unquiet spirit floats out of the wall of a building. It turns and hisses at the living creatures disturbing its rest. It lets out its mournful wail, hitting all of the PC’s inflicting 39 negative energy damage. Seoni and Kyra critically pass, taking no effect. Merisiel and Lem pass taking the damage but no drain. Seelah rolls a natural 1 which fails, becoming a critical fail. She uses her hero point to reroll getting a pass which becomes a critical success. Amiri also passes which counts as a crit for her.
Seelah: With a target in sight Seelah comes out of delay. Pointing her flail at the unquiet spirit she smites it and flies forward, lashing out with all of her strength. Her blade ally has given her the ghost touch property given the likelihood of undead being involved. Her blow tears through it, critically hitting for 82 damage and driving it to the ground. She manages the DC5 flat check for concealment. Incorporeals don’t seem to be immune to crits now although they remain immune to precision. I will generally not mention the flat check unless it forces a miss.
Having been critted it shrieks at Seelah, invading her mind with Vengeful Spite. Seelah critically saves and is unaffected.
Geen Banshee: A second Banshee emerges from the building and also wails. It is within Seelah’s reach but doesn’t have any of the traits which would trigger an opportunity attack. It deals 53 negative damage. Amiri and Seelah both pass, becoming critical passes and taking no damage. Merisiel critically passes. Lem and Seoni pass, taking damage but Kyra fails. She also uses her hero point to reroll on the basis that fort save effects are bad, getting a critical pass.
Red Wendigo: From the skies above comes another mournful howl, this one much louder and much closer. Wendigo howl has the incapacitation trait meaning the PCs treat their level of success as one better. Everyone saves except Amiri however her fail is upgraded to a pass due to incapacitation.
Lem: Lem dislikes fighting the undead, many of his best spells do not work on them. He has also taken a fair beating from the two wails so far. He continues to inspire defence for free and adds in inspire courage (he has the symphony talent). He tries to make it linger, just passing (on a 3). He then weaves extra magic around the group, giving everyone Haste.
Skulltaker: With a beating of powerful wings the skulltaker leaps into the air to investigate sounds it has not heard in these ruins in many years. Fighting against the storm it emerges above the ruined buildings and is surprised to find mortals here. Landing on top of one of the buildings it waves a huge claw and splinters of bone erupt out of the ground.It uses the Splintered Ground ability. Sadly it will have no effect.
Blue Astradaemon: With a flicker of light a hideous daemonic creature appears on top of a nearby building. It lears down at Merisiel in an attempt to frighten her. (Two actions for at will level 4 dimension door, then intimidate). It just fails to beat her will DC due to the bonus from Lem).
Kyra: Calling upon Erastil she unleashes a torrent of holy water over the Skulltaker and two Banshees (Level 7 holy cascade, 6d6 bludgeoning (24), 12d6 positive (37)). The skulltaker passes taking 61 damage, but both of the banshees critically fail taking 110 damage. She then casts shield. The second Banshee also reacts to Kyra, driving its pain and hate into her mind. She passes and her resolve increases her result to a critical success, having no effect.
Red Astradameon: A second horror teleports onto a nearby building and lears down at Amiri given her poor stealth roll. It fails to intimidate her.
Merisiel: She has options but is surrounded by very dangerous terrain covered in deadly sharp bones. Spirits are not something she is good at dealing with so she decides to go after one of the daemons. With a single leap she vaults onto one of the buildings (thank you Cloud Jump). Unfortunately she has no weapons in hand, having been engaged in disabling a trap. She growls at the creature, and it pales. Crit success on demoralise means it is frightened 2 and fleeing 1 due to terrified retreat. It is also flatfooted due to dread striker. She quick draws her rapier and hits (displacement doesnt save it) dealing 45 damage and she applies her masters strike ability. It critically fails the fortitude save and, even though the ability has the incapacitation trait, the daemon dies as it is too low level to benefit from it. Score one for the good guys. She could use haste to stride but being up on the roof there isnt anywhere she can go. Stride doesnt seem to include leaping.
Amiri: Roaring with anger she transforms herself, growing wings as she enters a rage. She chooses not to turn into a dragon as that probably means entering areas with deadly bone shards. With a surge of speed she launches herself at the other astradaemon, flying around behind it (sudden charge) and takes a mighty swing. Her first blow connects for 56 damage and she takes a second from the haste spell which goes wide due to the displacement effect around it.
Blue Wendigo: In the skies above the second wendigo sees the howl have no effect. It drops like a stone, crashing onto the roof of the building near to Merisiel. It snaps out with its jaws but the snap shut a moment too soon (thank you inspire defence), and Merisiel easily ducks under a clumsy claw swing.
Orange Banshee: A third banshee floats into view through a wall and lets loose its wail dealing 43 negative energy damage. Seelah and Lem crit save, Amiri fails but juggernaut turns it into a pass so she is not drained, Kyra and Merisiel pass so take damage, Seoni fails, takes damage and is drained 1
Red Banshee: The final banshee floats into view and also wails, for another 39 negative damage. Amiri saves turning it into a crit, Merisiel crits, Seelah fails taking damage and drain 1, Lem Seoni and Kyra pass taking damage
Green Astradaemon: The final astradaemon teleports onto the roof trying to flank Merisiel but is foiled by her deny advantage. Its slavering jaws just miss her (again due to inspire defence).
END OF ROUND 1
Seelah: 260|288, shield, HP spent, drained 1
Amiri: 329|348, resist piercing 7 while raging
Kyra: 197|268, shield, HP spent
Seoni: 80|218, shield, stealthed, drained 1
Lem: 148|266
Merisiel: 197|268
ALL: Resist Physical 5, HASTE, +1 AC and saves (status) [Inspire Defence], [Inspire Courage] +1 attack and damage (3|3)
Blue Banshee: 58|250, prone
Geen Banshee: 140|250
Orange Banshee: 250|250
Red Banshee: 250|250
Red Astradaemon: DEAD
Green Astradaemon: 240|240
Blue Astradaemon: 184|240
Red Wendigo: 315|315
Blue Wendigo: 315|315
Skulltaker: 259|320
Splintered Ground [one-action] The skulltaker causes splintered bones to erupt from all solid surfaces in a 100-foot emanation, except for surfaces of worked stone. A creature moving through the bones takes 10 piercing damage and 10 negative damage for every 5 feet of movement. The first time each round a creature takes piercing damage from these splintered bones, it must succeed at a DC42 Reflex save or take a –10-foot circumstance penalty to all Speeds for 10 minutes, or a –15-foot circumstance penalty for 24 hours on a critical failure. The bones remain in place until the skulltaker uses this action again or the bones are manually removed, which takes 10 minutes for each 5-foot square.
Round 2:
Seoni: She is badly injured and cannot afford to have the spirits continue to wail. She slams her staff into the ground and bright white light illuminates the square, washing over her allies (except Merisiel and Amiri) but also catching all of the Banshees. (She casts level 9 Heal with three actions for 40 healing). Three of the banshees pass, one critically (with a nat 20) and Seoni begins to look worried.
Blue Banshee: The banshee rights itself, triggering an opportunity attack from Seelah who would have dispatched it if not for the distraction of the driving snow (failed the flat check). Blue steps forward and tries to trail its spectral claws through Seelah's flesh but she is too quick for it (Seelah still has the benefit of raised shield from exploration and inspire defence making her AC50). It snarls in frustration.
Seelah: She strikes at blue again, critting it back into non existence. She flies to engage green, critting it for 82 damage and knocking it to the ground. Her haste attack goes wide due to the driving snow.
Geen Banshee: The banshee rights itself taking 39 damage from an opportunity attack for its trouble. Striking twice at Seelah it fails to connect.
Red Wendigo: The second wendigo descends from the clouds to menace Amiri. They are powerful flyers and the winds bother them little. It is however disconcerted that Amiri doesnt seem to be flanked by it and its daemon ally. Its jaws snap into Amiri’s shoulder but in her rage she is resistant to its attack and she shrugs off the cold damage, mentally thanking one of the magic rings she wears. Amiri takes 25 damage
Lem: Continuing to inspire his allies defence Lem has his actions free due to lingering composition. He quickly begins to sort through what he might know about these enemies (he uses true hypercognition to make 5 recall knowledge checks, two on the skulltaker, one on each of the other enemies). He learns of the skulltakers ability to doom people, the wendigo’s regeneration (stopped by cold iron) and weakness to both cold iron and fire, the astradaemons devour soul and essence drain but nothing about the banshees. He promptly casts a spell, altering the flow of time around all enemies except the skulltaker and one of the wendigo’s. He casts slow with a level 6 slot (it is one of his level 6 spells). The banshees all critically fail (they are slowed 2 for a minute, that will ruin their day). The astradaemons both fail and are slowed 1 as does the wendigo. He then uses haste to take a pot shot at the astradaemon Amiri is fighting but it goes well wide due to the distorting field around it.
Skulltaker: Unimpressed with these mortals it tries to snuff out their puny lives. It casts horrid wilting. Seoni recognises it (she has quick recognition) and warns her companions although there isnt much they can do about it. It deals 54 negative damage with a basic fortitude save to everyone. Amiri passes and upgrades to a crit, Seelah and Seoni fail, Merisiel and Lem pass. It then throws a javelin of bone at Seoni hoping to finish her off but it deflects off the roof (I gave her cover, he just misse)
Blue Astradaemon: The monster snaps out at Amiri, connecting and draining her life energy. She takes 32 damage, it heals 5 and then she fails the save against its essence drain becoming doomed 1 and drained 1.
Kyra: Smiling at Seoni she says, You want to heal dear? This is how you heal and suddenly the ground is sprouting with fresh grass. Kyra uses one of her heal spells from Font healing 53 damage, again hitting the banshees and the four PCs on the ground. One Banshee saves, one fails and one crit fails. Green (who crit failed) fades away with a whimper. She uses haste to shoot the Skulltaker but the arrows sails off into the distance.
Merisiel: Looking over to Amiri she shouts out, You Ok hun?, Grinnign she shouts back, Sure, take yours down, I’ve got mine. Merisiel steps lightly across the roof (elf step to step twice), growls at the daemon with scare to death (she crits her intimidate but it is immune to death tags so it is frightened 2 and fleeing 1 and flat footed). She then stabs it with her rapier using her haste action hitting for 57 damage. She applies masters strike and it critically fails the save due to the -2 from fear. It dies (while they are immune to death effects masters strike lacks the tag). Having no more enemies in range she leaps across the gap between the buildings to join Amiri.
Amiri: Now with a flanking partner Amiri growls at the astrademon she has been fighting. A nat one turns her otherwise successful attempt to intimidate into a fail. Frustrated, she lashes out with her axe. The first attack goes wide (nat 1), the second connects for 62 damage and the third would hit if not for the strange distortions around the creature.
Blue Wendigo: Annoyed by the bard making the noise the wendigo flies down and tries to savage him with its massive teeth but he is too quick for it.
Orange Banshee: Slowed limits its options, it flies towards Kyra so it can attack her next round.
Red Banshee: The spirit also flows towards Kyra but this one must provoke from Seelah to get there. She hits it for 36 damage.
END OF ROUND 2
Seelah: 287|288, HP spent, drained 1
Amiri: 256|328, resist piercing 7 while raging, doomed 1, drained 1
Kyra: 268|268, HP spent
Seoni: 119|218, drained 1
Lem: 214|266
Merisiel: 171|268
ALL: Resist Physical 5, HASTE, +1 AC and saves (status) [Inspire Defence], [Inspire Courage] +1 attack and damage (2|3)
Blue Banshee: DEAD
Geen Banshee: DEAD
Orange Banshee: 157|250, wail in round 4, slowed 2, ends in round 12
Red Banshee: 168|250, wail in round 6, slowed 2, ends in round 12
Red Astradaemon: DEAD
Green Astradaemon: DEAD
Blue Astradaemon: 69|240, slowed 1, ends in round 12
Red Wendigo: 315|315
Blue Wendigo: 315|315, slowed 1, ends in round 12
Skulltaker: 259|320
Splintered Ground [one-action] The skulltaker causes splintered bones to erupt from all solid surfaces in a 100-foot emanation, except for surfaces of worked stone. A creature moving through the bones takes 10 piercing damage and 10 negative damage for every 5 feet of movement. The first time each round a creature takes piercing damage from these splintered bones, it must succeed at a DC42 Reflex save or take a –10-foot circumstance penalty to all Speeds for 10 minutes, or a –15-foot circumstance penalty for 24 hours on a critical failure. The bones remain in place until the skulltaker uses this action again or the bones are manually removed, which takes 10 minutes for each 5-foot square.
Round 3:
Seoni: Feeling more alive after Kyra’s healing Seoni levels her staff at the Banshees and spits words of power at them. Lightning erupts, leaping from banshee to wendigo to astradaemon to yet another wendigo. (Seoni casts shield followed by chain lightning from a level 8 spell slot). They all fail save for one banshee which crit fails. She deals 92 damage and the red banshee fades away into nothingness while the last astradaemon simply explodes.
Seelah: With the banshees largely dealt with she turns to the skulltaker. You are next she calls, pointing her fllail at him. Raising her shield she flies up to engage the monstrosity expecting it to swing at her on the way in but it seems not to be very quick. She does however enter the mass of swirling bones which surround it, taking 4 physical and 8 negative damage (she makes the save). Sudden charge gets her into melee and she strikes twice with the benefit of haste dealing 75 damage, which, as bludgeoning, it does not resist.
Red Wendigo: The creature flaps forward to engage Amiri. Its wounds from the electrical strike are already healing (they regenrate). It sinks its teeth into her flesh for 15 damage but its claw attack just misses (again due to inspire defence)
Lem: Seeing his encouragement working he continues to sing a ditty, looking around he mutters, Err, people, you seem to have left me with a Wendigo to fight on my own. Shrugging he invades its mind. I made the wendigo’s undead so they wouldn’t take damage from the wails. Interestingly it seems that undead are not immune to nonlethal damage or mental effects or fear. Mindless undead are immune to mental effects but it is not part of the undead trait. Lem grins evilly at the Wendigo, intimidating it (he crit passes with a 46 but he doesnt have terrified retreat, it becomes frightened 2). He follows up with a level 8 phantom pain which it fails to save against and he then shoots it with a cold iron arrow for good measure but misses with a 2. It takes 38 damage, 8d4 persistent damage and is sickened 1 as well.
Skulltaker: Having seen Seelahs use of reactions it eschews the use of spells and tries to tear her apart with teeth and claws. Even against her prodigious defences the bite connects but the claws fail to find purchase. Seelah takes 29 damage and saves against the energy drain.
Kyra: Considering this battle nearly won, she doesnt want to use too much in the way of resources. She sends twin bolts of lightning at the remaining Banshee and the Wendigo threatening Lem, follows it up with a true strike and sends a cold iron arrow at the Wendigo as well for good measure. Both critically fail the save against the electric arc, taking 62 damage (less resist for the Banshee). The Banshee reacts by trying to tear apart her mind but she easily resists. She crits the Wendigo for an extra 83 damage.
Merisiel: She again lacks a target, things die too quickly aroud her. She leaps back over between the crumbling buildings to take on blue Wendigo. She tries to intimidate him but it seems unaffected (they are immune to fear). She switches to feinting the poor thing and beats its perception DC easily. Stabbing it with her haste action she crits because of the sickened condition and runs it through the throat. With its regeneration inactive due to Kyras arrow it dies.
Amiri: She turns to the Wendigo that dared to bite her. She growls angrily and it quails (their will DC is rubbish, she crits and it is frightened 2 and fleeing 1). Her first strike crits for 90 damage, her second hits for 67 and her hasted attack hits for 52. Despite the punishment it has taken it is still standing.
Orange Banshee: The spirit is screwed, slowed 2 means it gets a single action. It tries to touch Kyra finally connecting for 40 negative damage but she easily makes the save against the fear effect.
ALL: Resist Physical 5, HASTE, +1 AC and saves (status) [Inspire Defence], [Inspire Courage] +1 attack and damage (2|3)
Orange Banshee: 27|250, wail in round 4, slowed 2, ends in round 12
Red Wendigo: 44|315, frightened 2, fleeing 1
Skulltaker: 184|320
Splintered Ground [one-action] The skulltaker causes splintered bones to erupt from all solid surfaces in a 100-foot emanation, except for surfaces of worked stone. A creature moving through the bones takes 10 piercing damage and 10 negative damage for every 5 feet of movement. The first time each round a creature takes piercing damage from these splintered bones, it must succeed at a DC42 Reflex save or take a –10-foot circumstance penalty to all Speeds for 10 minutes, or a –15-foot circumstance penalty for 24 hours on a critical failure. The bones remain in place until the skulltaker uses this action again or the bones are manually removed, which takes 10 minutes for each 5-foot square.
Round 4:
Seoni: Not wanting to waste too many resources, she expends a level 7 spell slot and sends a swarm of magic missiles at the Skulltaker, dealing 54 force damage. At this point I remember that she has dangerous sorcery.
Seelah: Starting her turn in the shard storm, she takes 1 physical and 8 negative damage. She smites it, tries to intimidate it which fails and strikes at it twice. She hits once for 51 damage.
Red Wendigo: He must flee in terror from Amiri which is unfortunate as it means it also provokes (she has opportunity attack). She crits it, dropping it and we forget that it exists as someone will put some cold iron into it before it can do anything.
Lem: At the start of Lems turn inspire courage ends so he starts it again while continuing to maintain inspire defence. He sends a triplet of arrows in the general direction of the Banshee just to be rid of it but to no effect.
Skulltaker: It is beginning to be concerned for its existence. If only it can be rid of this damn paladin it can take its time draining the lives from those other mortals. It attacks and the bite criticals for 99 damage but again the claws cannot connect. Seelah fails the fortitude save becoming doomed 1 and drained 2. Fortunately the drain does not stack. Suddenly things look more serious.
Kyra: Frustrated about the difficulty of moving with all of the bone shards everywhere she delays to see if Merisiel or Amiri deal with the monster.
Merisiel: She leaps from the building she is on to the building Seelah is fighting the skulltaker on (she has +38 acrobatics, quick leap and cloud jumper, she is very jumpy). Entering the aura she crits the reflex save taking no damage. Landing in a flank she stabs the monster, hitting for 34 damage after resistance. She applies master strike but the Skulltaker is made of sterner stuff, it gains enfeebled 2 and also -10ft spd from debilitating strike. She stabs it again with haste hitting for 29 and then quick draws her dagger and stabs it again, missing.
Amiri: Seeing Seelah in trouble she sudden charges the Skulltaker. Entering the aura she takes 13 negative damage but crits it with her axe, sending splinters of it scattering all over the place. Reversing direction she flies down to the remaining Banshee with haste and puts an end to it.
The group gather together to bind their wounds. Not wanting to spend too much time hanging about in case the battle attracted notice, and wanting rid of the doomed condition, Kyra casts Moment of Renewal on the group. This gives the benefits of 24 hours of rest (recover 2x con mod x lvl HP for 160hp each and in particular reduce drained and doomed both by 2). This gets everyone back to full save Seelah who is quickly topped off with a free heal spell from Seoni.
This post is designed to provide a test of how high level encounters work in PF2. It is explicitly a combat test and not really much of a test of the rest of the system although it will touch on exploration and hazards. It it not looking at downtime at all.
One of the selling points of 2E was that the game would be easier to play and run at higher levels, that you gained extra breadth of options without adding as much extra complexity and that speed of play would not be reduced by as much as happens with 1E. This looks to see how true that likely is.
I have chosen level 20 as that should be the pinnacle of 2E complexity. I have put together a party of six heroes and constructed a set of challenges for them to face. I built a simple roll20 table for them to speed things up and automate my rolling. I decided to avoid trivial and low encounters as they tend to play into an attrition model of adventuring I don’t have much interest in. Instead we see if our heroes can face a mix of moderate, severe and extreme encounters. I plan to make liberal use of the various terrain rules as well as the elite adjustment as there simply are not enough high level enemies to do this without it becoming very samey.
To give a bit of background and context I set up a typical scenario for a high level game. The PC’s homeland has come under assault, blood raining from the sky, the dead rising from graveyards, the sun failing to rise, that sort of thing. The sort of portents which suggest that something big is in the offing. Our heroes answer the call to action to find out what is going on and put a stop to it. They are:
Seelah: A Human Champion (Paladin) of Sarenrae, a paladin of the old school, shield and stupid flickmace. Heavily invested into fighter for mobility (sudden charge) and threat (attack of opportunity and combat reflexes). She flies all the time and protects her allies. She has a fair amount of personal healing and is legendary with athletics, intimidate and medicine.
Kyra: A Human Cloistered Cleric of Erastil. Mistress of three different schools of magic with full casting abilities from sorcerer and druid as well as cleric. She has all of the spells and is handy with the longbow. She is legendary in nature, stealth and survival. She has spent time with the elves and gained the elf step ancestral ability.
Amiri: A Human Barbarian of the Black Dragon instinct. She is multiclassed into Rogue to improve her skills and get easier access to more skill feats. She can turn into a dragon when she gets angry, you don’t want to make her angry. Legendary in athletics, intimidate and stealth.
Lem: A Human Bard. A master diplomat, spy and changeling. Lem has also invested in the rogue multiclass, it certainly seems if you want to be good at skills it helps an enormous amount. He is the groups main knowledge provider with Unified Theory and is Legendary in arcana, performance and society. He has trained with the goblins to pick up very very sneaky and he whistles a jaunty tune at all times, maintaining inspire defence with eternal composition.
Seoni: A Human Sorceress of the Imperial Bloodline. Seoni is a mystery, she changes her appearance as others change their clothes and can go unnoticed by almost anyone. She seems to command both arcane and healing magic but her multiclass is again heavily into Rogue for extra skills. She is Legendary in arcana, deception and intimidate, While only a master of stealth she has also trained with the goblins to gain their very very sneaky talent. She has her own Unified Theory. I imagine she and Lem argue about whose theory is more true.
Merisiel: A Human Rogue of the thief persuasion. A master of the thieving arts but also in command of powerful wizardry having taken the full Wizard multiclass. Her magic supplements her extensive mundane skills, many of which certainly approach or exceed mundane limits. She has also trained with the elves to pick up elf step and is legendary in acrobatics, deception, intimidate, stealth and thievery.
INTRODUCTION
Our group gather together and teleport to the northernmost settlement of their homeland. They buy extensive supplies which they store in various bags of holding and set off into the trackless wastes of the northern mountains. They have learned that somewhere up there are the ruins of an ancient empire, the source of the terrible events plaguing their homes is somewhere beneath the ancient capital city. They must make their way through the mountains in the dead of winter, find the entrance to the caverns below and stop whatever menace is seeking to bring down civilisation. Their research suggests that they have but three days before whoever is doing this will unleash The Annihilation Orb on their capital (a variant of the Armageddon Orb which does negative damage and raises those killed as free willed undead monstrosities). The journey into the mountains will take two of these, leaving them little to no time to rest or recover. What they bring with them is all they have.
THE MOUNTAINS (Exploration)
Heading into the mountains most of the group can take on several tasks given their various class and skill feats. However, they are in a hurry and so cannot afford to move at half speed. The mountains are difficult to cross and exceptionally cold. They are subject to rock slides, avalanches and blizzards and are full of wandering monsters. Our group has various ways to deal with these issues. Most of the group have picked up a Wand of Endure Elements (5th), this gives you immunity to extreme heat and cold for 24 hours. It is a great high level pick and not that expensive. Lem knows Magnificent Mansion so their nightly rest is not disturbed. I set the travel through the mountains as a very hard survival check requiring Master level proficiency (DC40). Three checks are needed to get to the city, each fail means some sort of extreme environmental hazard. I don’t bother with wandering monsters.
Seelah is the most limited on skills, she has no tactic she can use and so is just travelling normally, what my group has dubbed “Tourist Mode”.
Kyra is a Legendary Survivalist and Sneak. She takes point using the Avoid Notice tactic. She will lead the group in any survival rolls. She could use a second tactic but it would force the group to move at half speed.
Amiri is also a Legendary Sneak but also comes with Master Survival. She will be Avoiding Notice whilst also assisting Kyra with any survival checks. With +30 survival the worst result she can get on an assist is a success (31 is a crit versus DC20, a 1 takes that down to a success). Amiri also has the Expeditious Search feat so she will also be Searching as they go.
Lem would normally use the Investigate tactic while travelling to make use of his Unified Theory feat but it forces you to move at half speed and there doesn’t seem to be a way to reduce that currently. Lem hums a jaunty tune as he travels in Tourist Mode, giving his allies +1AC and Saves in case they do get ambushed.
Seoni also has Swift Sneak but not Legendary stealth. She is Avoiding Notice moving at full speed. Like Lem she might also prefer to Investigate but doesn’t want to take the speed penalty.
Merisiel is the Master of Skills. With Legendary Stealth, Legendary Perception, Swift Sneak, Trapfinder and Expeditious Search she is able to Avoid Notice and Search while moving at full speed. She would use another tactic but again getting slowed down is something to avoid.
With Amiri’s help Kyra easily leads the group through the mountains, getting two critical success (her base survival is 37, +3 from aid from a master). Her lowest roll was a 45 so even if I had set the DC to a hard legendary task she would have passed but that seemed a bit much for navigating the mountains in the middle of winter.
THE CLIFFS (Exploration)
The group reach the sprawling ruins of the ancient capital of a lost empire. They rise high into the mountains and they will need to climb much further up, in howling winds, to get there. This is a test of athletics or it may force some of the group to employ magic. I set the difficulty as a hard task at master level difficulty (DC35). Failure will mean some sort of mishap or condition, probbaly fatigued. I have yet to find a way to remove fatigued other than rest. While the last exploration was a group activity (don’t get lost) this one is individual. I set the climb as likely to take several hours meaning if people want to bypass it with magic low level flight won’t cut it. The distance is over 1000’ so level 4 dimension door won’t do it either.
Seelah can fly permanently (thank you level 18 class feat), has Legendary athletics and a climb speed. She takes the lead for the group, others may well Follow her Lead gaining a +4 bonus and adding their level if they are untrained. She chooses the Search tactic while climbing so she can spot potential dangers.
Kyra is trained in Athletics and will be Following the Leader. She continues to Avoid Notice while doing so as she can do it for free.
Amiri also has Legendary athletics and a climb speed. She makes her way easily upwards. She can continue to Avoid Notice and Search for free. She also begins to Scout ahead.
Lem is not a fan of the great outdoors and while he is also trained in athletics he has no wish to risk his physical safety or fine clothing by doing anything as mundane as climbing. He casts a level 7 fly spell (it is one of his heightened spell choices) and just flies up. He continues to hum a jaunty tune but as they are travelling at half speed anyway he also starts to Investigate.
Seoni is also trained in athletics but is more protective of her spells than Lem. She could fly up but instead chooses to Follow the Leader and climb. This prevents her from also avoiding notice.
Merisiel is also Legendary in athletics and has a climb speed. She easily makes her way up the cliffs whilst also Avoiding Notice and Searching. A Amiri is Scouting ahead and there is limited benefit for having two Scouts Merisiel begins to check for magical energies, Detecting Magic as she climbs.
Both Kyra and Seoni manage to make it to the top of the cliffs, although not without help in Kyra’s case (she got a 36 including the +4 assist). Continuous inspire competence from Lem would be really useful in exploration but he doesn’t have the Cantrip. His class feats were in high demand.
THE CITY (Exploration)
Having reached the ancient ruins the group now need to find the entrance to the catacombs below. There is no doubt that they will find them, if they don’t then the adventure is over and we are all very bored. I have set our first encounter here so this is more about whether the group has a chance to detect and disarm the Hazard element of that encounter or if they have to deal with it whilst the fight is ongoing. This is a Severe encounter and the Hazard is Level 19 so removing it will be a significant benefit.
Seelah switches to the defend tactic, they have entered a hazardous area and are likely to be in danger, she wants to be ready.
Kyra slips into the shadows, Avoiding Notice. Her perception is decent so she could be searching but she prefers to strike from surprise should things kick off.
Amiri also returns to the shadows Avoiding Notice but she is also Searching due to Expeditious Search. Unfortunately the Hazard they are facing requires Legendary perception to spot and she only has Master.
Lem is intrigued by the architecture on display in the ancient ruins. He is Investigating as they travel, commenting on the choices of style, materials, craftmanship and cultural relevance of various choices.
Seoni could also be Investigating but Lem has that covered. Given this is a dangerous place and she is arguably a squishy arcane type she sticks to the shadows Avoiding Notice.
Merisiel takes point, Avoiding Notice is second nature to her as is Searching for traps. As the group has slowed down she also starts to Scout. Only she has a chance of detecting the Hazard before it activates.
As the group make their way carefully through the ruins the weather grows worse. The wind picks up and it begins to snow heavily. The ground, already broken and slick with ice becomes more treacherous. The entire area becomes difficult terrain, sections of it are greater difficult terrain as well as uneven ground, the snow will make all creatures concealed and the strong winds force DC30 maneuver in air checks as well as making all flight difficult terrain.
The Hazard is an Elite Banshee Trap with a DC42 Perception to spot it. I increase the DC by 5 to account for the weather conditions. Merisiel still spots it with a 51 (her perception is +33, +3 for visual perception). Holding her hand up she points out the mummified form of a long dead inhabitant encased in ice in a city square filled with rubble. The group huddle together to decide what to do. They could try and go round although that will cost them even more time. They could try and disable it but it looks rather fiendish. Merisiel has Legendary thievery. Amongst the rest of the group Kyra, Amiri and Lem are trained, Seelah could help if needed due to Clever Improviser and Seoni is a Master. They decide that Merisiel will try and disable it and Seoni will try to aid. I have set the proficiency level to disable before it activates to Master, only Legendary thievery will work if it activates.
The Hazard DC is 44 and it requires three passes to disable. Seoni fails her first assist but passes the next two. Merisiel starts off trying to disable the trap but her fingers are stiff from all the climbing and she fumbles about with her tools (first fail). Blowing on her hands to warm them she hunkers down and quickly inserts a pair of thin needles into the throat of the mummified corpse, neatly slicing its vocal cords and preventing it from screaming (two crit successes). Merisiel has +35 thievery with +1 for her picks. Even with a +3 aid from Seoni she can still critically fail, although only on a 1. Even if I had added a circumstance penalty for the conditions I would have to make it Incredibly hard to push a critial fail to anything other than a 1 if Seoni managed to aid.
As she stretches her arms to relieve the tension above the group comes a hideous shrieking. Something is attacking them from out of the storm! I decide that as Merisiel and Seoni have been working on the trap they cannot use stealth for initiative, both are out in the open and will have to use perception. Seelah and Lem will also use perception while Kyra and Amiri remain potentially hidden. Merisiels scout activity will still give them all +1.
Combat Gear cold iron arrows (50); Other Gear hide armor, buckler, dagger, longbow, morningstar, backpack, spell component pouch, winter blanket, wooden holy symbol of Erastil, 1 gp, 5 sp
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Special Abilities
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Camouflage +4 Stealth in marshes and forested areas.
Climb (20 feet) You have a Climb speed.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white only).
Monster Lore +2 (Ex) +2 to Knowledge checks when identifying the weaknesses of creatures.
Point-Blank Shot +1 to attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at up to 30 feet.
Stern Gaze +1 (Ex) +1 to Sense Motive and Intimidate.
Summon Monster I (5/day) (Sp) Cast summon monster spells as a spell-like ability.
Grabble:
Animal Companion CR –
Wolf
N Medium animal
Init +2; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +1
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Defense
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AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 16 (2d8+7)
Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +1
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Offense
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Speed 50 ft., climb 20 ft.
Melee bite +2 (1d6+1 plus trip)
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Statistics
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Str 13, Dex 15, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Base Atk +1; CMB +2; CMD 14 (18 vs. trip)
Feats Toughness
Tricks Attack, Attack, Attack Any Target, Combat Riding, Come, Defend, Down, Guard, Heel
Skills Acrobatics +2 (+10 to jump), Climb +13, Survival +1 (+5 when tracking by scent), Swim +5; Racial Modifiers +4 Survival when tracking by scent
SQ attack any target, combat riding
Other Gear military saddle
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Special Abilities
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Animal Companion Link (Ex) Handle or push Animal Companion faster, +4 to checks vs. them.
Attack Any Target [Trick] The animal will attack any creature on command.
Climb (20 feet) You have a Climb speed.
Combat Riding [Trick] The animal has been trained to bear a rider into combat.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in dim light, distinguishing color and detail.
Scent (Ex) Detect opponents within 15+ ft. by sense of smell.
Trip: Bite (Ex) You can make a trip attempt on a successful attack.
Gribble and his people have lived in the Verduvan forest for many years. He has hired on as a caravan guard as he sees his role as a protected of the local communities along the trade route. He happily provides healing for those in the area who need it.
I liked the ITS, much easier than having everything recorded on individual chronicle sheets. I shall continue to use mine as a google sheet with everything listed is far simpler.
Since you needed a total on the chronicle sheet everything wound up on the chronicle sheet anyway
You only need the values on the chronicle sheet. That is a pretty straight forward transposition.
I liked the ITS, much easier than having everything recorded on individual chronicle sheets. I shall continue to use mine as a google sheet with everything listed is far simpler.
Maybe I am overreacting but the notion that all of this can be handled with spreadsheets and ingenious bits of prep here and there sort of concedes the central point here doesn't it?
Yes, I think it does a bit. Personally I am a bit disappointed that Paizo has kept the over complicated method for filling out chronicles and has added Starfinders rep tracking requirements to it. I dont think I have ever had anyone fill a starfinder chronicle in for me fully and I dont expect to see that happen with 2E either. It's not as if these issues haven't been widely known about for a long time either but someone seems to be really strongly in favour of lots of acconting but it isnt a preference most of the community seems to share.
The descriptive section of Charm on the spell list specifies that it only works on humanoids. The playtest version had a heighten option at 4th to affect any creature. I suspect this may require a clarification given the contradictory information.
I was a bit meaner. I allowed them to make opportunity attacks as the group explored and then triggered initiative giving them a chance to tranport to the material plane and pehaps do something on the off chance they actually grabbed someone. However, at this level freedom of movement or a talisman are pretty much everywhere.
It doesnt really help that we do not know what some of the boons actually do. River Kingdoms Excavator just lacks any sort of information about what it does.
I thought I had seen somewhere a suggestion that the Oragnised Play team were more involved in the development process and that therefore sanctioning of material would happen at around the same time of release. I had thought that would also apply to adventures and modules. I was looking for chronicle information for the new AP and the Fall of Plaguestone but there is nothing there.
Is there a plan for AP's and Modules for 2E to be sanctioned? If so is that a priority or do they sit behind the outstanding sanctioning for 1E AP's?
As a note, I am reading The Absalom Initiation, and in this one, at least, they are providing Critical Failure information for the Gather Information/Recall Knowledges that are called out in addition to the success/critical success information. So if that trend continues, at least some of that load will be reduced - and I can already see how the examples here will help guide me on monster identification Recalls down the line.
I have been trying to decide how to deal wit critical failures to avoid metagaming. I dont really want to be making dozens of secret rolls so am thinking of two options:
1. Preroll a load of dice and put them in a random table. Pick a random dice toll and use that for them to speed things up.
2. Let the players roll their own checks but explain that if any of them get a 1 then I will give them all of the information in a combined lot without explaining where the 1 came from. The players will know something is up but not necessarily which piece of information is false. This obviously doesnt work if only one person is rolling or if there is a 1 and no other successes so I may use a mix of both methods.
