With Shalelu on scout, the caravan can only benefit from 2 more scouts, if that makes it better?
As one of the people who doesn't qualify for much of anything (darn 2 skill points a level), I'm not going to complain when people volunteer to do things I can't.
One mistake I caught: The two drivers that have been hired have a monthly wage of 10 gp each -> total monthly wages so far = 20 gp
Alaric is also a possible Guide.
Some notes/comments:
Melinda – Once I have the slightest idea what a lazy falcon is, I’ll let you know. Or did you just mean an actual falcon who’s kind of sleepy all the time?
Alaric – the general rules for riding horses can be found here. Since you’ll be traveling in a Caravan, there’s probably not a lot of reason for you to ride a horse unless you want to be capable of doing mounted combat. You’ll need a combat-trained mount if that’s your plan.
In addition to the one cargo space for treasure and the one cargo space for glassware, one cargo space should be allotted for “General Supplies” donated to the caravan by Myriana.
In the rota I drew up, which you need not follow, spellcasters would generally function as scouts except when they specifically switched out for another task. As has been pointed out, Traders will generally function when you stop moving, at which point anyone with the proper skills can shift into the role. I didn’t include any Guides in the rota, but there’s no reason there couldn’t be a “switch-out” into that position if someone wants. The rota I drew up contains 3 scouts including Hrithik, but again (a) you don’t necessarily have to follow my rota, and (b) Hrithik or Alaric could take the Guide job on their “switch-out” days if they wanted.
The feats that have been suggested so far are Efficient Consumption and Circle the Wagons. Taking Efficient Consumption at least once is likely necessary to allow people to “switch out” jobs while traveling, so that is highly recommended. Circle the Wagons is a fine feat if you want it. You might want to consider taking Enhanced Caravan in the nearish future.
If Alaric is okay with it, we can probably put him in as the 'standard' guide since a healer is really only needed when we have injured passengers.
I suggest we put Lio & Hrithuk as the standard scouts (even if Myri and Kalimac are trading in) and Myri and Kalimac as drivers, so that we don't have to change the sheet every day or so...
...
For feats: I vote Efficient Consumption and Enhanced Caravan (Mobility & Defense)
Yeah, Alaric's fine with being the designated guide.
Question -- does it say somewhere in the Players' Guide that, specifically, the two Varisian brothers (as opposed to "any drivers you hire") need to be paid?
I couldn't find one way or another...
Then they do not need to be paid.
I have just been informed that Myriana actually donated FOUR cargo spaces worth of stuff to the Caravan.
I would recommend reduced the number of Trade Good purchases from 10 to 5 to compensate.
Myri rechecked her figures, it's actually 152#, so 3 cargo spaces. Which means we only need to drop 3 of the trade goods, and we will still have a 2 cargo cushion.
And we have 180 gp in the caravan general fund with the reduction of 10 trade goods to 7.
|
Melinda – Once I have the slightest idea what a lazy falcon is, I’ll let you know. Or did you just mean an actual falcon who’s kind of sleepy all the time?
I believe that refers to this piece of munchkinry.
Indeed it did. :)
Looking at the rules more carefully, Attatoq counts as a traveler. He can take the role of Scout or Guard.
Putting him on Scout duty could free up, say, Hrithik to be a Guide, if you like.
|
|
Indeed it did. :)
Looking at the rules more carefully, Attatoq counts as a traveler. He can take the role of Scout or Guard.
Putting him on Scout duty could free up, say, Hrithik to be a Guide, if you like.
I actually kind of like the Alchemist-as-Scout as a baseline. If freed up, Hrithik becomes a Spellcaster ... who will most often probably be used to enhance Scout!
I'm also expecting that Ms. Reta counts as a traveler. Part of the reason for the Perilous Pickle Project is to see if she can acquire status as a Cook or a Scout or something productive, rather than just being an enormously disproportionate mouth to feed.
A sense of her skill set, aside from Profession (Get Alaric's Goat), will be good to acquire in time.
Reta is currently assigned to function as a Guard (which is actually one of the more valuable positions, as they go.)
And unfortunately, Hrithik is not qualified to be a spellcaster. Alchemists do not cast spells, and are not listed as having spells under the rules; they use extracts.
If Hrithik wishes to keep on scouting duty, Attatoq should almost certainly be made a Guard instead.
|
|
Guard is a good role to have. Between Attatoq and Reta and however many others, we'd have some serious staying power.
And unfortunately, Hrithik is not qualified to be a spellcaster. Alchemists do not cast spells, and are not listed as having spells under the rules; they use extracts.
If Hrithik wishes to keep on scouting duty, Attatoq should almost certainly be made a Guard instead.
Even if the Infusions discovery is taken at 4th level? Or is that just "passing out gobs of potions/extracts" rather than "casting spells"?
You are totally going to drive me to take a feat to get that Magic trait that would let Hrithik cast a flipping cantrip once per day, just to qualify him as a spellcaster! :-)
Looked it up, and Infusions wouldn't count -- it's still an extract-based power. It even says under the description of the Alchemy ability that "the alchemist doesn’t actually cast spells", I'm not trying to be unfair here.
And, alas, the Trait I think you're thinking of allows for cantrips as a spell-like ability, and again, under the description of spell-like ability it specifically says that "they are not spells".
Basically, Spells are what are cast by characters who have a class or have a race that is listed as getting "Spells". So an alchemist (who has Alchemy instead of Spells and gets Extracts), or say, a gnome or rogue with Major Magic (who get spell-like abilities instead) wouldn't count.
A nymph would count because they get "spells as a 7th level druid", as would a dragon ("knows and casts arcane spells as a sorcerer"), but a pixie would not (all of their powers are spell-like abilities.)
In character, Kalimac and Attatoq would prefer scouting to driving and guarding, and would be eager to trade off into those positions as often as they are available.
Out of character, I can see the value of not switching it up too much, for bookkeeping's sake. But I had been angling for the scouting positions, not realizing how few could do the driver bit.
As long as the "basic set" of positions remains fairly constant, there's a lot of switching off that can go on within it. I strongly feel that every PC should be able to take the position they want, as often as possible.
So what seems fair would be Hrithik and Attatoq on paper as "one guard and one scout", and I'll just switch them off in-game however the situation calls for it. Similarly, if Kalimac, Liothonae, and Myriana are down as "two drivers and one scout", I'll do the same. It works out the same mathematically, after all.
So I can consider those "quantum positions" to be resolved by what the story calls for rather than a strict day-by-day duty rotation, and you can assume in your mind/the story that you're mostly doing the one you prefer more, if people would like to do it that way.
On paper, we can write this down in any way that is simple and convenient, as long as we all "know" this is what is going on in game.
OK, that works for me.
So ... any strong opinions about the Caravan? Positions seem largely sorted out, I think ... Anyone have comments on the proposed purchases or feats? Approval or disapproval? Alternatives or questions?
I like how the caravan is sorting out. And I'll second Mel's feat proposal.
Thirded.
I take it there were no GM vetoes to my shopping list? If so I'll add the purchased gear to my sheet.
I believe all shopping lists are as of this point set/approved. If I didn't say anything about yours and your didn't get anything out of a weird book, it should be fine -- no one wanted to purchase anything unobtainable.
Fourth.
Bloody hell. For some reason, buried on page 50 of the bloody module is a small note saying that Relationship Scores with certain NPCs will increase for all PC's when certain things happen.
I'm just going to include everyone in this, including Hrithik and Tollin, so as not to unfairly penalize them for joining late.
For giving Ameiko the letter, everyone increase your Relationship score with her by +1.
For adding two wagons to the Caravan, everyone increase your Relationship score with Sandru by +1.
For ending the Goblin raids on the Lost Coast Road, everyone increase your Relationship score with Shalelu by +1.
Also, I can't figure out how you did the insta-long-term-care thing ... Can you explain that? I'm not seeing any item on your sheet that does that, and if one of the extracts I don't recognize does it, surely that wouldn't have been possible without Infusion, right? Just let me know if there's something I've missed. Thanks!
Everyone: So, quick note -- I'm going on vacation for about a week, starting Tuesday of next week. If the hotels haven't lied to me, I should have internet access, but realistically I'll be Out Doing Stuff a lot and will probably only be able to post once a day or so.
My plan is, frankly, to try to get the party into a nice juicy combat right around then, as that tends to slow things down considerably in a natural way, and once-a-day resolution posts should be a reasonable amount.
Excellent! Have fun.
Ah, competitive relationships are fun. Glad I only took two of them, though, I feel like I'm already coming across as a jerk a bit, with all that insulting. ;)
Nah, it's when you start insulting the other PCs that we will dogpile you :)
Bloody hell. For some reason, buried on page 50 of the bloody module is a small note saying that Relationship Scores with certain NPCs will increase for all PC's when certain things happen.
I'm just going to include everyone in this, including Hrithik and Tollin, so as not to unfairly penalize them for joining late.
For giving Ameiko the letter, everyone increase your Relationship score with her by +1.
For adding two wagons to the Caravan, everyone increase your Relationship score with Sandru by +1.
For ending the Goblin raids on the Lost Coast Road, everyone increase your Relationship score with Shalelu by +1.
|
|
I can't figure out how you did the insta-long-term-care thing ... Can you explain that? I'm not seeing any item on your sheet that does that, and if one of the extracts I don't recognize does it, surely that wouldn't have been possible without Infusion, right? Just let me know if there's something I've missed. Thanks.
The intent wasn't for it to be "insta" long-term care in anything but the sense of being resolved mechanically in one post to avoid tedious roleplay of repeated check-ups for each affected character over the course of the following game day. I fully expect it to have been "just alchemically-flavored long-term care, using the Heal skill".
For the full narrative richness of the many Deleted Scenes of long-term care in the direct-to-DVD Director's Cut, there would be:
- the extended version of the depicted ointment-applications and dressings before bedrest
- undepicted wound-washing and examination after bedrest
- undepicted insistences the next day concerning adequate food intake
- undepicted final examinatory care at the end of the following day before boarding the caravan
- repeated demonstrations that all-the-while everyone is observing strict adherence to the long-term-care requirement for no heavy activity in the entire 24 hour period
But I didn't want to bore everyone to tears posting six or seven more long posts doing nothing but delve into painful medical minutiae (possibly involving Test Swabs), solely to justify two characters recovering a whopping extra 2hp apiece, during downtime when it likely didn't matter anyhow.
Hence, "insta" long-term care: skip tedium, mark as done on the character sheet (barring GM override), mechanically move to end of next day with a roleplay proviso.
Apologies for not being more explicitly clear, out-of-character, about all that at the time. I blame the U.N.
Lio could also be a guide, if needed.
I'll give a retroactive note about that, and if you want to avoid tedium with it in the future, it needs a "Hrithik spends the day tending to his patients" comment, which can be left at that.
Note to all: There was a bit of confusion about what Hrithik was doing with regard to long term care, and what he did really wouldn't have been possible unless he stayed up all night. You can assume that he provided first aid instead, and that further healing was provided by Koya.
Liothonae, Scouts are generally more useful than Guides, so it might be better for you to stick with that.
I'm declaring the 2nd level Caravan Complete at this point. Melinda, if you could fill in the blanks and link it on your character sheet, that would be awesome. Post when it's done so I can glance over it, please -- thanks!
Kalimac, I'd been thinking the easiest way to keep the sheet might be to create another alias for it, but use whatever method is easiest for you as long as there's an URL I can go to, to see it. Since Melinda's version is almost done, once she's posted it would probably be easiest just to copy the info over.
Hrithik, I think two copies will be enough for now, so there's no real need for you to make an additional back-up.
OK, the Caravan has been written up, checked, and linked on Melinda's character sheet.
Now all it needs is a name. The floor is open to suggestions.
Sandru's Terrific Expedition and Various Explorers
or S.T.E.V.E.
The Wheeled Worm?
|
|
long-term care requires a lot more time and effort than I judge you'd have been able to give, given your activities of that night and the following day. It pretty much requires you and your patients to spend a full day on it, or you to have stayed up all night for it, which would have resulted in forced march checks
My experience (which is more D&D on this particular skill, so I could well be off), is that long-term care is, like most "spend the day" activities, actually about spending 8 hours in a 24 hour period. The people involved in my experience haven't had to be shut-ins, and have had several hours of time each day to do other low-key stuff around town, like shop, roleplay with NPCs, and attend to assorted camp tasks, where the doctor can obviously do higher-impact efforts than the patients. That is pretty much my perception of the level of Hrithik's activity that day - glassworks buy, scroll buy, snack with Shalelu, lunch and loading with Sandru, fortune from Koya, loading and chat with Ameiko, with hours of time between all of that free for bandage tending.
I won't be getting back home to my Core book to dig into Pathfinder's healing time rules until you are on your way to awesome vacation time, but I think my concern is best summed up this way: I understand that one PC can't simultaneously fill two caravan roles on the same day: not Healer and Trader both, for example. But it is clearly established that even a Scout has full roleplay access and camp-support time despite spending "a day" in the wilds around the caravan.
My perception of Hrithik's activity on the day of preparation is much closer to the latter than the former, as shopping in a very small town for straightforward yes-or-no purchases is a lot less activity than I envision the Trader role to take (no bartering at all, just gold on the counter), and even a daily Healer role should not give up the ability to roleplay and camp support freely.
Do we have to put up a watch rotation, or will that all be handled as Security checks?
Yes, you can absolutely do long-term care on someone and still have time to roleplay/shop/etc.
However --
1) You told them they would heal overnight, meaning you would have had to stay up all night tending to them.
2) Even if this were not the case, you made no arrangements to spend eight hours with them the following day if you wanted the healing to take place the following night, and the other two characters went off and did other things. Given the mutual activities, there *wasn't* time for all three of you to get together for eight hours.
3) You left everyone with the impression that you had some kind of magic salve which provided the effects of long-term healing after one application, which I needed to correct. (Everyone genuinely did think this is what was going on. I originally asked what is was because I had several other characters ask whether they could buy the salve or whether it was an alchemist-only thing.)
4) I decided to correct that impression without telling the other two characters "Actually, you need to completely revise your activities for that entire day because it turns out you needed to spend eight hours in bed that you weren't told about."
All good?
Watch rotations will be handled as Security checks.
Is rice a staple crop in this part of the world, or not? I was assuming not, but I should ask.
...and finally, just in case it comes up, Rhost sleeps in his armor. And assiduously cleans his cookware with soap every night. I will subtract the uses from my character sheet when (if) we arrive at our destination.
|
|
Sorry for my thickheadedness, and sorry to over-flowerfy the aesthetics of the initial Heal check to cause confusion elsewhere. With alchemists doing almost absolutely everything, including many skill checks, with quasi-potion-like substances, I can see how that would be confusing and lead to the belief that actual game-mechanical potion effects were being used. (It's going to be even more confusing when Hrithik takes the Infusion discovery, and starts whipping up and handing out "special rules" quasi-potions on the fly.)
I'll make sure future declarations come with a bigger block of "ooc" explaining the implications of any future infused-extract or non-combat skill use, and try to make it more clear which quasi-potions are window dressing and which quasi-potions are potion-like.
That said ...
The quasi-retcon most easily addressing the first night and the prep day, I believe, would be to have Hrithik put in the hours of salve-tending while Kalimac and Rhost are sleeping, figuring that his sleep schedule was off from theirs due to his arriving in town that afternoon, and that he had rested several hours until the adventuring groups started getting back in the evening. Hrithik can then catch sleeptime at odd hours during the prep day in between shopping, roleplay, and camp assistance.
Rice is not a staple, but it is not unknown.
Hrithik has asked me to amend the note above; instead of doing first aid, he would have spent the night staying up tending to the wounded as the slept. He will make appropriate checks to see if it did any good. Might as well just make them here -- Hrithik, please give me two DC 15 Heal checks.
(Actually, it looks like you can take 10 and succeed. All good.)
Kalimac, I'd been thinking the easiest way to keep the sheet might be to create another alias for it, but use whatever method is easiest for you as long as there's an URL I can go to, to see it. Since Melinda's version is almost done, once she's posted it would probably be easiest just to copy the info over.
I've copied her sheet over to this shiny new alias. Mel, let me know if you make changes to the sheet, and I'll make sure this is also updated.
Looks good to me, except that the bbc coding for the primary statistics is a bit off.
Just a warning in case we go with one of the other, less appropriate names, once you've made 10 posts with an alias, you cannot change the name.
Looks good to me, except that the bbc coding for the primary statistics is a bit off.
Good catch. Fixed.
Just a warning in case we go with one of the other, less appropriate names, once you've made 10 posts with an alias, you cannot change the name.
LOL