WalterGM RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8 |
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The rest of the party is basically standing on a walkway outside the doorway to the second floor, on a narrow five foot wide balcony. My druid, Hale, is in bird form (his usual with Natural Spell), and flying behind everyone. The two skeleton champions are in the room just inside.
So Hale completes the SNA IV he had going from the round before, and summons 4 leopards (thank you Superior Summoning) in the room below us on the first floor (which he can easily see into from his bird's eye vantage point). With my speak with animals, I tell them to wait for it. I use my standard action to warp wood in the room with the skeletons, removing the floor and dropping them prone into a pack of waiting, augmented leopards, who take 12 attacks a round for a couple of rounds and finish them off rather nicely.
I had to fly my team across the missing room in order for us to continue -- but it was well worth it.
WalterGM RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8 |
Wow, what is your Strength when you are in bird form?
Base 10. Muleback Cords for 18. Place Magic on Ant Haul to help make it an all day buff in lower levels. Wind up with carrying capacities of 300/600/900 (light to heavy, respectively). Half that for size tiny -- lets me carry roughly 150 lbs of gear as a light load.
It'll also let me wear that +1 wild stoneplate when I get the fame for it...
Sabre |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
1st steps, part 1. My 1st time GM-ing a Pathfinder game.
I've read up on the forums, and am a bit worried about the whole player-wipe thing. The group's been moving along well, and it's finally time for the main event. Here we go, and here's hoping I don't TPK!
Now, one interesting and key fact is that every single person saw Deandre & company at some point -- which means there's no surprise round. It's game on from second 1.
Obscuring mist fills the air. The party's paladin is the 1st to react (he wins initiative). He charges straight into Ledford, and hits Ledford solidly. I congratulate him on his hit even as I'm mentally preparing a speech on tactics.... Brand new player (1st RPG ever!), brand new character -- standing in range of 3 baddies. Uh oh.
Next up, the party's sorceress, also in her 1st-ever Pathfinder game (she has played some other RPGs). She runs up behind her paladin friend and says "close your eyes". I mentally prep a codicil on tactics for squishies.
The paladin closes his eyes (in person and in game, repeating it over and over "eyes closed, eyes closed!") She casts color spray -- over her pally and the entire evil group. I confirm the pally's okay with this and get "I'm fine -- my eyes are closed!" Pally rolls his save -- rolls an 18! "See, I actually DID close my eyes!" I roll my BBEG saves... and miss all 4. Yes, all 4.
I'm horrified -- it's the big bad evil group fight and it's over before I did ANYTHING! I'm scrabbling, making sure I didn't do anything too overtly wrong....
"Your opponents fall, unconscious."
Cheers break out from the players, and baddies are tied up and dragged off to the authorities.
People from that group still occasionally tease me about the look of horror on my face when I failed all those saves.
WalterGM RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8 |
3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Tossing a quick BOL on this thread, because I don't wanna see it die ;)
I recently found a neat use of lower level spell slots with my druid, even in the higher levels.
While the BBEG was doing her dragon-thing underground, I started summoning. On the subsequent turn, she continued moving into position. I ate a 2nd or 3rd level spell to churn out a small flock of eagles, and, by using speak with animals, told them to fly about the cavern.
She breached underneath the fighter, and started going to town. A fog spell is cast on her, which enabled me to summon more eagles (as only about half succeeded against her frightful presence). The fighter eventually managed to find his way out of the fog, with the dragon close behind.
When she poked her head out of the fog bank, I decided to cast something damaging, so I instructed my bird companions to: "caw wildly and flap your wings -- like this!"
Seven eagles all "cast" the same spell at her, and lightning started dropping out of the sky. She didn't even try to figure out which one I was for the rest of the fight, and gave up on targeting me all together.
Win!
TLDR: Druids don't have mirror image on their spell list, so I had to make one.
nosig |
Tossing a quick BOL on this thread, because I don't wanna see it die ;)
I recently found a neat use of lower level spell slots with my druid, even in the higher levels.
** spoiler omitted **
TLDR: Druids don't have mirror image on their spell list, so I had to make one.
could you summon riding dogs (or other medium creatures) so that she wouldn't be able to tell which creature to "pop up" next to? Just wondering...
WalterGM RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8 |
Walter Sheppard wrote:could you summon riding dogs (or other medium creatures) so that she wouldn't be able to tell which creature to "pop up" next to? Just wondering...Tossing a quick BOL on this thread, because I don't wanna see it die ;)
I recently found a neat use of lower level spell slots with my druid, even in the higher levels.
** spoiler omitted **
TLDR: Druids don't have mirror image on their spell list, so I had to make one.
A majority of our party was flying at the time -- we left the fighter on the ground so he would be the most likely to take her initial attack.
nosig |
nosig wrote:A majority of our party was flying at the time -- we left the fighter on the ground so he would be the most likely to take her initial attack.Walter Sheppard wrote:could you summon riding dogs (or other medium creatures) so that she wouldn't be able to tell which creature to "pop up" next to? Just wondering...Tossing a quick BOL on this thread, because I don't wanna see it die ;)
I recently found a neat use of lower level spell slots with my druid, even in the higher levels.
** spoiler omitted **
TLDR: Druids don't have mirror image on their spell list, so I had to make one.
makes sense - though I could see having everyone go air-borne, after you drop 1d4+1 riding dogs around so that it seems like a bunch of you are still ground bound...
WalterGM RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8 |
Walter Sheppard wrote:makes sense - though I could see having everyone go air-borne, after you drop 1d4+1 riding dogs around so that it seems like a bunch of you are still ground bound...nosig wrote:A majority of our party was flying at the time -- we left the fighter on the ground so he would be the most likely to take her initial attack.Walter Sheppard wrote:could you summon riding dogs (or other medium creatures) so that she wouldn't be able to tell which creature to "pop up" next to? Just wondering...Tossing a quick BOL on this thread, because I don't wanna see it die ;)
I recently found a neat use of lower level spell slots with my druid, even in the higher levels.
** spoiler omitted **
TLDR: Druids don't have mirror image on their spell list, so I had to make one.
I was more terrified of the huge sized dragon grappling the small sized spellcaster and finishing what she started :P
Fromper |
nosig wrote:A majority of our party was flying at the time -- we left the fighter on the ground so he would be the most likely to take her initial attack.Walter Sheppard wrote:could you summon riding dogs (or other medium creatures) so that she wouldn't be able to tell which creature to "pop up" next to? Just wondering...Tossing a quick BOL on this thread, because I don't wanna see it die ;)
I recently found a neat use of lower level spell slots with my druid, even in the higher levels.
** spoiler omitted **
TLDR: Druids don't have mirror image on their spell list, so I had to make one.
Ironically, when I played that one, my barbarian was the only PC in the air (potion of fly).
Alexander_Damocles |
Well, I did fairly recently play the Cultists Kiss. This is more a story "pity the poor GM", because he hadn't had a real experience with high tier play yet.
Anyways, we arrive after the voyage, and promptly set out to find out what rumors, if any, there are about the place. I guess it was supposed to be a hard and nasty bit of searching for answers...but being an oracle of lore, take 10 got me 37 on 6 knowledge: local checks in a row. Kinda nuked the investigation.
As the silly andorans head to a bar, and proceed to start going on about freedom and other silly things, the rest of us head back in from doing other things (split up and do faction objectives first? why not...). As we arrive, we notice people tailing us. I, not entirely sure I like this, cast expeditious retreat, ant haul, and enlarge person, so that I could run while carrying the lighter members of the party. Unfortunately, the town guard shows up to stop the ruckus, and I panic and cast Fly. The rest of the party scatters, as the militia shows up from everywhere.
This leads to a 3 stooges like scene where we run up alleyways, fly down streets with wizards in pursuit, etc. Eventually, our cleric talks down the town guard, I decide to wander back into town, and we meet up. I'm left with explicit instructions: "Just because someone is following us, it is no excuse to go bat**** crazy." I agree, feeling suitably chastised.
We now go to the
Now, we wait for the cultists to show up. We are taken to their headquarters, and Damocles is itching to just burn the place down, still angry about the insult to the Abadarian church in Magnimar during the Auction of the Runecarved Key. He holds himself back from wanton destruction, while other party members accept the rune of lissala, and then its our cleric's turn. The one who had told me to think ahead, destruction isn't the answer. Suddenly, she just attacks the high priestess, and Damocles joins the fray. Its over in short order. We then carve a path of destruction, killing everything in the temple (final boss? 2 crits and a regular hit, 120 damage. Damocles *does not* like Lissalans).
By the end of it, the GM was ready to just toss out the adventure and start free forming it, since we had utterly annihilated any semblance of what the scenario was supposed to look like.
BigNorseWolf |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
- so, anyone got a funny game lately?
A hilarious game of Murder's mark.
I was playing a hedonistic taldan sorcerer, a far cry from my usual heroic characters.
-"Spotting" a fake because
A paladin almost falling because of well flung poo enraging him beyond all sensibilities.
A peasant child was also struck with the monkeys projectile. Fabrizio, who knows prestidigitation, and had used it several times, merely noted "You're a peasant. You should be used to it. "
Punting a poodle...
The party alchemists cry for surrender: You will be imprisoned, not killed. You will receive three square meals a day and lovin' at night.
Jim Groves Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 4 |
Jiggy RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 |
I was playing Assault on the Kingdom of the Impossible a couple weeks ago with my wife.
Later we encountered a statue that animated when we got close. I suggested we pull back (letting it go motionless again) and have my wife's archer stand 30ft away and shoot it to pieces. She didn't have adamantine arrows for the hardness, but she cast gravity bow, activated Ranger's Focus (from the Guide ranger archetype - basically designate one target as your favored enemy) and started Inspire Courage (a level of bard). Now she's using Rapid Shot, averaging ~15 damage per arrow (~7 after hardness), hitting twice per round.
Stealthy? No.
Effective, 100% risk-free, and totally awesome? Yes. :D
Tiny Coffee Golem |
Our group was outside an old decrepit castle full of vampires during the day. My Character (Arcane Trickster) was running along the rooftop and commanding a number of fire elementals to burn the place down via wand of SM II. The plan was going well, but apparently the rest of the party (Oread Ranger, Dwarf Fighter, Oracle/Cleric, and his Healer cleric companion) was getting trigger happy. So they decided to play a game of dash and smash. Basically they ran into the front door of the partially on fire building and started breaking down doors and looking for something to kill, in separate directions...in a castle we know are full of vampires...at least one of which was throwing 7d6 fireballs. ... ;-(. Being on the roof my character has no idea what's happening.
Long story short they break down a few doors then strangely (/sarcasm) start getting dominated by something they cant see. As it turns out an improved invisible vampire sorceress was around.
So the fighter and ranger (who both have low will saves) get dominated. Shocker. (/sarcasm)
Ranger ends up dead and fighter nearly so.
Through team work the healer cleric tells my character via message what's going on. Luckily I had the foresight to have a scroll of teleport on hand. Long story short The oracle and I run in and grab the dwarf, ranger body, and their heirloom weapons and teleport away. The oracle's plan is to run the hell away during the day to meet up with a group of Pathfinder's we had been traveling with earlier.
We teleported back to the city. No loot. No Kill XP. And having wasted several days traveling then dealing with the vampires.
Now we're back where we started and none the richer. My arcane trickster is not happy with the outcome or the actions of his compatriots.
The "Proud" moment is surviving the encounter with a little forethought and a big set of heroic cajones. (unsure of spelling)
CanisDirus |
I was playing Assault on the Kingdom of the Impossible a couple weeks ago with my wife.
** spoiler omitted **
This reminds me of when I played it a few weeks ago myself.
WalterGM RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8 |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Jiggy wrote:I was playing Assault on the Kingdom of the Impossible a couple weeks ago with my wife.
** spoiler omitted **
This reminds me of when I played it a few weeks ago myself.
** spoiler omitted **
We had them lead us downstairs, past that statue, to their leader, who we convinced to join the Pathfinders. The only fight we did was the first one, that we intentionally lost at in the first few rounds. The entire game was something like 1.5 to 2 hours long. Half the team never made an attack roll.
Beautiful.
Steven Huffstutler |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Storming the Diamond Gate
We get into the statue room and the statues come to life and begin waling on our barbarian and monk. My life oracle channels them back up to full and after some positioning, I am forced to cast sanctuary on myself which was a good idea because one of the statues charged me and was met with a sword to the face by the barbarian as it left a threatened square. We mop them up with no more damage being dealt.
We go into the back portion of the temple, the Teenock(sp?) shows up disguised as a gnome. We diplo it and everything is going well until my life oracle figures out that its evil, we hand it a holy greatsword for a test. It drops the sword and the monk non lethal flurries it to nap time. We detain it.
We head off to the dog room with the guards playing cards and notice them playing through the door, my character passes out some aspis consortium badges, hers obviously being the highest rank, and walks in the room. She bluffs them that our group is here to relieve them with a bluff of 25+ again and begins handing out some spending money and they head off to a local oasis or where ever I tell them they need to go towards.
We search the room finding the lesser planar binding scroll and we summon a Half Fiend Minotaur who after some bartering agrees to the terms that if he kills the boss person downstairs he gets some gold and to go back to his native plane. So he runs downstairs and proceeds to solo the encounter by casting Darkness on his path and once the boss person gets in range he jumps and grapples her slamming her into the chasm floor below then standing up and bellowing in victory. The rest of the Aspis Agents surrender.
Scenario finished with ONE living creature dying.
TwoWolves |
Our group was outside an old decrepit castle full of vampires during the day...
While not a Pathfinder game, a nearly identical thing happened to us in an old 1st ed AD&D game. My druid had become cursed with what, for any other class, would be a minor, bearable curse: plants within 60' of her would wither and die. I suffered long with this, years of real time, keeping to cities and rocky mountain areas or coastal cliffs etc to limit the damage, but I'd had enough. I researched a way to lift this curse, and wouldn't you know it, the secret belonged to these vampires in this castle...
So off I go, an 11th level 1st ed druid, a 4th level cleric, a 9th level ranger, a 9th level magic-user and a 13th-ish level agnostic cleric. Yeah, an agnostic cleric, which meant only 1st and 2nd level spells. :\ Ok, he did have scrolls, and I think he might have been working the Gauntlet/Girdle/Hammer of Thunderbolts thing. Anyway, the upper levels were dealt with by wildshaping into a gecko, scaling the outer walls, and Stone Shaping the roof off (lots of castings, time was no issue) during the daytime. Bye-bye spectres etc. On to the dungeon!
The dungeon is a big, twisty-turny maze full of wraiths and spectres etc. Hmm.. one scroll of Find the Path later, and the DM looks at his map, looks up the spell, looks at his map, and starts swearing. Just so happens, there is a path that walks us right past everything and straight to The Door...
The Door is trapped all to hell, multiple magic and mundane traps, like Slay Living and level draining glyphs etc etc. Hello Transmute Rock to Mud! *GLOP* Now there is a trapped-all-to-hell door standing in ankle-deep mud where a wall used to be. On to the battle!
Four vampires with class levels stand on a dais opposite the room in front of a lecturn that holds the book I need. One was a fighter, one a wizard, one a monk (this DM ruled that monk fists also level drained, ouch!) and I think the other was a cleric. Weeeeellll the fight goes... poorly. The ranger is down thanks to the vampire fighter, the wizard is trapped in a Maze spell, the 4th level cleric is cowering in fear/stabilzing the fighter and nearly out of spells, the agnostic cleric has run away in Boots of Striding and Springing due to some Fear effect, and my druid has been level drained down to 5th level or so and is almost out of spells, resorting to fighting with a Flame Blade. Meanwhile, the vampire quartet is at full hp thanks to regeneration and bearing down on us. The low level cleric looks at my half-dead druid and says:
"Maybe we should cut and run?"
To which I defiantly shout:
"Run? We've got them right where we want them!!"
And we did! You see, the last spell I'd gotten off before being drained to mediocrity was a Dispel Magic, stripping the bloodsuckers of their buffs (including an Acid version of Fire Shield). The Hammer of Thunderbolts weidling agnostic cleric had fled with a Regenerate Critical Wounds (home researched spell) spell going, so when he came back on striding and springing feet, he was fully healed and smiting fanged faces with much fervor. The wizard escaped the Maze spell about this time, and laid into them with blast-tacular goodness, and flaming touch-attacks worked well even from a little ol' druid. Two vampires dropped, two more fled, and the book was ours! Huzzah!
And to this day, "Run? We've got them right where we want them!" is an oft-repeated battle cry in our group when things look their bleakest!
Alexander_Damocles |
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For sheer chutzpah: Running one of the levels in thornkeep, and a character goes down from a crit and is now poisoned. Extra bad, because he was the cleric. As he slowly bleeds out, and the poison keeps poking him, he's getting a bit disturbed. Comes around to his turn, and he is 1 point of damage away from -con. So, he has to both stabilize *and* beat the poison DC in order to survive.
"Malloch, your turn."
"I delay...."
Table stopped for a solid minute, because no one could breathe for all the laughing.
Steel Forged Games |
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So this was last week. I think the scenario was from a season 0, just remember the overall plot was investigating whether or not someone was embezzling from the Society. I play a character named Tacheon Pulse, a character who is from a noble family in Andor. Recently he has earned his commission as a Lance Corporal in the Eagle Knights. I mention this for he has recently acquired himself a squire and herald to honor his new position. It plays into the story.
So the party arrives at the lodge to investigate this Venture Captain, so naturally Tacheon feels there should be a proper introduction. So he turns to his herald and hands him a trumpet. At which the party freaks out and tackles the Herald, prior to his introduction. Tacheon is upset over this and an extended conversation occurs about the proper time for introductions. At this point Tacheon is flustered, after all he is no common thug collecting a gambling debt he is a member of the Society and an esteemed member of the Eagle Knights. Turning he yells, 'SWORD BOY!!!!' to get the attention of his squire, who carries his sword.
Later the party is investigating this odd machine in the laboratory. It is creating very bright light, almost the same as the sun. Tacheon was classically educated and that meant many hours studying many topics, engineering being his principle course of study. The problem is this machine is very complicated, more complicated than he has ever seen. However he will not admit that, ever. He closes the door to the room, so that the rest of the party cannot see him fumbling with the machine.
Moments later Tacheon notices that the machine is behaving badly. It appeared to be overloading. It was time to leave, he throws open the door and announces to the party that the machine was booby trapped. It is at that point that he sees a fight has broken out. He advised the room that all parties should probably vacate and proceeded to leave the room.
Sadly not all parties felt the same way and were intent on continuing their engagement. Soon after there was a rather large explosion. Luckily Tacheon was able to roll with the blast and took minimum damage. This was even more impressive when you realize he was in full plate.
All of the Pathfinders survived, their enemies however were not so lucky.
The night just got better for Tacheon. He decided to climb down a chain to explore a cavern. Remember how I mentioned he wears full plate, yeah that is not very conductive to climbing. So yep Tacheon loses his grip and plummets 40 feet, through the boat that he was supposed to ride. Yeah full plate plus 40 foot fall = Missile. Luckily he had a ring of water breathing. YAY!
All in a days work for the Champions of Freedom.
Zahariel |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-09: The Quest for Perfection—Part I: The Edge of Heaven
I was playing my Cleric of Iomedae. We... were not at out best that day, and decided to dig in for the night before exploring the temple. I'd ran out of spells and channels.
We kind of forgot that we had a gunslinger in the party, and whacking those 2 residents that came out to greet us probably alerted the BB of the scenario. Like I said, we were not at our best.
So while everyone's sleeping, BB comes looking for us. The fighter (lvl 2) was keeping watch, low on HP, and gets taken out in a single hit. Some of us wake up from the scruffle, and we're all prone and not wearing armor. BB proceeds to plow right through us. We get nearly massacred. In the end, everyone is down for the count, the BB has taken some damage, and I'm the only one left standing.
He hits, I go to 2 HP (thank you 14 Con and Toughness!).
I (in-character) call out to Iomedae and (OOC) roll to hit. Natural 20 with my longsword. Blessed Iomedae, I confirm the hit and roll maximum damage. And the BB goes down.
Then I went on to stabilize the dying. Went from near TPK to exhilarating victory.
Akinra |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
My favorite moment so far:
Jezebel has had enough of demons. Yes this is her first encounter with the foul beasts. None-the-less, she is done with the nasty creatures.
"I believe the proper Chelaxian method of pacification is through brute force. . ."
To Hit: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26
Confirm: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7
Folio Reroll to Confirm: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22
Damage: 4d6 + 4 ⇒ (1, 3, 2, 6) + 4 = 16
Glaring at the imp, Jezebel asks, "Are you done misbehaving, or shall I reload?"
MiniGM |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Faced with a Celestial that required us to submit to his Zone of Truth or detect Lies or it would attack us, in addition had to drop all spells cast on us. My Bard, master liar, had just cast an extended Glibness and didn't want to waste it.
So I dropped the Acute senses I had cast and some other spell I had cast, but not Glibness. and it askes me. Is that all? Yes. yes it is I replied. Celestial fails his check and does not detect that I am still lying to his face. Beautiful
I got my comuppance later when there was a statue that gave out a reward or punishment based on the 7 deadly sins. I watched one player get Heroism for 11 minutes then another get SR, so I said sure why not?
I promptly got PRIDE which resulted in a Phantasmal Killer coming for me. Luckily I made the save.
WalterGM RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8 |
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While playing at RadCon, I got to sit in at a game of First Steps, pt 1.
We had done alright throughout the game, but during the notorious end part...
Our group was headed for a TPK. But my GF's Fetchling dark tapestries oracle saved the day...
Bottle-necked in the alleyway, that color spray knocked myself and another party member down, leaving the oracle and an out-of-spell-Ezren to tango with Ledford and the rest. I forget what the wizard did, because her oracle basically soloed the encounter.
Round 1. Her oracle goes. "Murderous Command!" Ledford fails his save. Ledford kills the enemy cleric, the rogue attacks and misses due to the mist.
Round two. "Murderous Command!" Ledford fails the save. Ledford cripples the rogue. The rogue starts to retreat.
Round three. "Murderous Command!! Ledford chases down the rogue and murders him.
Round four. Ledford is out of allies. Her oracle uses her alternate racial: Memory Lapse!" Ledford fails. "Oh thank the gods you're alright, I saw these brigands attacking you in the alley -- you must have blacked out during your rage, my friend!" Oracle rolls her bluff, nat 20 for a 30 Ledford scratches his head, looks at his former comrades. "The bastards!" And proceeds to beat his former comrades bodies some more before thanking the oracle for her help and wandering off to get a drink.
One of the best TPK saves I've ever seen.
nosig |
I was running an older scenario, and the PCs had just located a suit of magical Plate armor... their Wizard ID's it as +2 plate and the tank in the party promptly starts into pulling his armor off.
.
Unknown to the PCs, the next encounter is going to happen in (rattle-rattle dice) one minute.
Me: "hay, how long does it take to switch your armor?"
Player A consulting CRB: "it'll take him 1d4+1 minutes to get it off, half that if he has help & another 4 minutes to put it on. OH! and he has to have help to put plate on."
Player B: "Martin will help him switch armor!"
Player C (the tank): rolling a 1. "In a hurry to get this suit off!"
...
Me: "So, no sooner than you get the first set off, ..."
Player C (the tank): "I grab my shield and yank out my sword! Hay, at least my movement got better!"
Me: "Anchient Celts used to fight naked, with just a sword and shield... "
Player A: "Tank, I think it's your Ghoul friend again..."
Player B: "I tell you, he gets his armor off and Ghouls just pop up from nowhere!"
Matthew Morris RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8 |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Well I GM more than play it seems...
First Steps part II:
Sanos Abduction
First Steps part I
Failed moment of awesome for me. The Disappeared.
Sabre |
Devil We Know Part 1
6 PCs (lvl 1 pally; lvl 2 magus, ranger, cleric, and sorc; lvl 3 rogue) playing up to 3-4.
The cleric and thief go up to escort someone off the boat, just in time to see a new friend.
Cleric casts Disguise Self -- as a badly injured half-orc. Her evil badness is yelling curses at him, he's pointing at wounds, killing time while the rest of his party is charging up towards the deck.... An amazing (nat 20!) disguise roll and a pathetic (1!) perception check = Her evil badness healing the cleric acting as her flunky. Surprise!
Time passes.
Pally, thief, and magus are down. not dead, but down. It's sorc and then Her Evil Badness is going to drink the cure crit wounds pot she's got and crush this party of do-gooders.... or not. Stupid Laughing Touch!
Castilliano |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Not a great moment, but a definite 'proud' moment, with eccentricity being the cause of much worry.
1st: Party is a family of Halflings running through the PFS modules.
2nd: Said family has vowed to not use blades.
Crypt of the Everflame
So, yeah, there's a shadowy undead thingie. Against beginning PCs, it couldn't be an actual Shadow, right?
Fighter gets whacked and zapped for Str.
Stunned silence.
Nobody has great strength, we're Halflings.
And nobody dares to use the one weapon that can hurt it, it's a blade!
Sigh...
The warriors back up, they can't hurt it.
The other casters would become immobile if struck.
So it's up to me, a buffer Oracle who's only weapon is a spiked gauntlet. Str? 10. One crit from death, and being turned.
Round after round, the Cleric channels, rolling minimal damage, with the shadow saving mostly at that. I can't hit it with my CLW, and the Disrupts aren't connecting from the Sorc.
Swipe...one round
Swipe...two rounds
Swipe...three rounds
It's taken maybe 5 damage.
I'm having a bit of anxiety at this point. We are not really hurting it and my touch AC isn't too grand. I should be a shadow by now.
Swipe...swipe...swipe. I'm about to burst. But we've chipped away a bit more.
I've become resolved to die and go PvP. It can't miss this much.
It does.
One solid CLW lands from me and the Channel (Thank goodness that was his focus) hits strong against a failed save and whew...
I made it out unscathed.
So yeah, a messy situation, but I was proud. My little gal stood her ground.
WalterGM RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8 |
9 people marked this as a favorite. |
It's been a long month on these boards: lots of "hot topics" with some passionate perspectives and debate. And it seems to me like people might be missing out on the best parts of PFS by getting all tangled up in the fine print of the rules. So here are some feel good stories from my last few tables.
This story isn't so much hilarious, as it is one of the best "hit and run" missions I've ever been a part of.
For those unfamiliar with this scenario, it essentially involves you essentially breaking a pirate captain out of prison so that he can lead you on a daring journey into the Eye of Abendego to recover a sunken treasure! But the first part -- breaking him out of a Chelish bastion -- can vary greatly based of party decision.
We had a smaller table of four: duelist (me), gunslinger, cleric, and barbarian. We decided to approach the bastion with a two-pronged assault, two in the front (cleric, barb), and two slinking in the back (myself and the GS).
What the gunslinger and I did.
We scaled the rocky walls along the back of the fort, slipped in the back of the bastion, avoid the dogs and guard patrols, until we found ourselves near the top wall of the keep. There were a half dozen guards and one dwarf, who appeared to be in charge. We whispered out a plan, and were about to attack when over half of the guards up and left...
What had happened at the gate.
"Halt, you're not allowed in here!" said the guard at the gate.
"But it's raining, and we're cold," explained the cleric.
rolls a 17 for diplomacy, gets a 42.
"Well then come inside sir, have some dinner!"
The cleric started cooking dinner for them all, encouraging them to get their friends and join in on the feast. The barbarian starts up drinking games, and begins to get all the guards good and drunk. Some more guards, the ones that had been guarding the prisoners and such, come in out of the rain and join in.
Back at the top. Not wanting to pass up this opportunity, we time our attack with a boom of thunder, effectively shrouding the gunslingers opening shot on the dwarf, as I closed distance and knocked him out with a lucky crit. The two remaining guards surrender. We shackle them together and put them in a cell. The gunslinger breaks out the pirate captain and heads down to the docks to steal a ship. I briefly interrogate a guard, figure out the dwarven commander's name, and start throwing on the guards clothes....
Back at the party. The party is roaring at this point, and everyone (minus the cleric and the barbarian) are several sheets to the wind. The cleric has been stirring everything he can find into a stew that's now more alcohol than water, and the barbarian has taken to dancing on tables, drinking with the crew. The mess hall door opens to this chaos, and a nondescript guard calls out that the commander wishes to see the newcomers. The cleric sees right through my pitiful disguise, grabs a solider, hands him a ladle and tells him to keep stirring. "Don't worry, it's almost done."
The three of us regroup at a skiff that the gunslinger and the captain have made ready for travel, and sail off into the night while the guards get drunk till dawn. The whole event was, for lack of a better word -- perfect.
No listing of stories could be complete without the "hilariously bad decision by PCs" game. This one happened to be during Lyrics of Extinction.
Things really got started about halfway through, as the PCs were approaching the ruined and probably cursed ziggurat. "It's very scary looking and there are spooky noises coming out of it," I told them. "Lets camp for the night right out front," they said.
faceplam
As the barbarian's curiosity got the best of him during watch, the PCs awoke to him screaming and running off into the treeline. The four ghosts then proceeded to slap the magus around for a bit before the party was able to stabilize. At this point, someone finally got the attention of the deaf oracle, who had been meditating and facing the river. It was hard fought, but the PCs managed to pull through without much sacrifice of party resources. A few rounds after the fight, the barbarian finally made it back through the clearing. "So, what'd I miss?"
Their bad luck continued as they sent one person down into the sub-basement to investigate. As the beetles overran and then proceeded to smash the magus's body into mince meat, the rest of the party started dripping into the chamber. The oread sorcerer was forced to morph into an earth elemental to escape what the PCs had affectionately started referring to as the "death box." The oracle of time blinked an unconscious ally out of existence to save his life, and the rest of the party managed to blast down the beetles until only one remained, which the oracle walled off into a corner. They scrambled back out with the bodies and decided to rest again before proceeding.
Luckily, the ghosts did not re spawn in time to take advantage of their bad choices. The beetle, on the other hand, did burrow his way to freedom, only to be captured by the BBEG and used as a throw-away minion in the final fight...
Fully rested, and "ready for anything," *famous last words* the party redoubled their efforts and set out to finish clearing out the tomb. The reached the final chamber without much difficulty, buffed a bit, and threw open the doors to see a buried cathedral with vaulted ceilings, a classic mad-man villain floating up by the rafters, and a giant beetle charging towards them.
They made short work of my beetle this time, but the distraction gave my invisible BBEG (courtesy of a mislead more than enough time to get into position and drop what has to be the funnest spell ever. I wish those 14 rounds could have lasted forever. Watching all the PCs flail around for a good hour was pretty humorous to everyone involved. One of them had to retreat all the way out of the dungeon to heal up, causing the raged and hasted barbarian to start beating the magus to death. The oread dropped acid fireballs on the party every round while the oracle of time tried to keep everyone alive, or failing that, teleport their corpse a few rounds into the future. Eventually, the PCs crippled the BBEG enough to force him to retreat, but they were too busy attacking one another to kill him off, so he got away to fight another day.
At that point, I let the PCs take over initiative order and combat as the last rounds of the spell wore down while I started filling and handing out chronicle sheets. Watching a flying barbarian chase his friends around a room, all the while crying and apologizing as his hammer almost kills one with each blow is something every GM should experience at least once.
The best was that everyone that dropped got hit with a breath of life or similar spell just in time, so at the end of it all -- the resources lost were pretty slim considering how much worse it could have been. All in all, a good game to watch, but terrible for the poor PCs.
God I love my druid, and this scenario just about did it for me as one with the most "I love being a druid" moments. We were light on front liners, so I cast liveoak, which gave me a treant companion for the entire game. I then buffed him with some protective spells, like communal air walk and protection/resist energy (fire), on him and he became our tank. My only regret was that I left my treant miniature at home!! :(
We tromped down into the first few rooms of the furnace and aggroed the amorphous construct fight. My treant easily smashed through the waves of coin and glass and before too long, we found ourselves staring down a river of lava. I left my treant in hover mode while the rest of us flew down to investigate some smaller caves.
The party parlayed with the naga briefly, and as combat was about to start, I dropped a save or ferret on her and turned her into a cat. After a few rounds interrogating her via a casting of speak with animals, it was decided that she was pretty evil and whatnot, so I picked her up in my eagle talons and dropped her off in the lava. Encounter over.
We proceeded down the lava river until we were attacked by a huge fire elemental. Being the natural predator of treants, the two went toe to toe. The rest of the party and I retreated to a safe distance, protected by a couple of force walls (thank you heavens oracle), and watched the two titans battle it out. My protective spells kept the treant healthy for most of it, but it quickly became clear that he was outmatched, so we decided to chip in, blasting the fire elemental with a few spells and securing victory for our Demonbeard! (By this point, we had named the treant)
The final fight lay behind a set of large, magnificent doors. We steeled ourselves for the battle ahead, conjuring up some summons and dropping haste and other standards before charging forward--right into a fake set of doors. >.< We were just about to take the side path, until we remembered that between the lot of us, we had the ability to bend the fabric of space and time to our whims. Puny rock held no power over us!
What that BBEG must have experienced before the end was nothing but a blur. The wall at one end of his chamber disappeared, followed by a bright flare of light as his eyes adjusted to the red glow from the river of flame outside. The phalanx of summoned cyclopses that surrounded him were overshadowed by a living tree, its charred branches full of spellcasters. Then the surprise round was over, and he took 385 damage on my turn.
We then suppressed the mind controlled girl, and were able to take her back to town via my transport via plants ability. Demonbeard, sadly, couldn't make the return trip.
But I like to think that in his final days of animated life he found his way out of the Forbidden Furnace, maybe to an oasis with a small grove of palm trees, and settled in for the long sleep. At peace once more with his brethren. Or maybe instead he used his animate trees ability to uproot those palm trees. Maybe now, enraged at his abandonment, he is slowly forming an army of trees that will one day march back to Absalom to extract his revenge on the Pathfinder Society!
Either one would make me happy.
RainyDayNinja RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16 |
4 people marked this as a favorite. |
When Markus Gael tried to barter information for his freedom from the oubliette, the players didn't want to let him go. So Reiko used her Vanishing Trick to convince him that her water flask was really a potion of invisibility, and poured him a dose to escape with. When they returned from the portal after rescuing the Paracountess, they heard a scuffle coming from the cells, and were prepared for another fight. They opened the door to discover the Hellknights dragging Gael back into his cell, while he raved about how he was invisible, and they shouldn't be able to see him!
Matthew Morris RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8 |
Well it didn't do the job, the proud moment from last night.
Veterans Vault
Funny (at least to me) moments.
Before game:
Player: I'll play an iconic, since my (bear) Druid is only first level.
ME: Darn, she's Ulfen right?
Her: Yes.
Me: I was so hoping to get to play Ksenia alongside her tonight.
(Ksenia is a Jadwiga Winter Witch with the Jadwiga scion trait.)
During Mission briefing:
Venture Captain: Do you have any questions?
ME: Sewers? Is the Society going to reimbuse me drycleaning costs?
WalterGM RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8 |
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Below the Silver Tarn is a great, challenging scenario for anyone looking to spice up their 7-11 careers. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a unique final fight.
I played through it last night and it was easily one of the most exciting and creative fights I've ever seen.
As we sailed out to the ritual point at the center of the lake, something monstrous attacked us. In the surprise round, half of us were paralyzed for a round from blasphemy, and on the subsequent round we got blasted by a well placed horrid wilting. As my cleric's body became a pincushion for level 8 damage spells, I remembered why having two castings of shield other up at a time is a risky proposition. We rolled well on our saves, with a couple of rerolls, and I ended up only taking like 73 damage -- dropping me to around 10. At this point, we finally got to act in combat.
My imp dropped his standard first-round haste (best wand purchase I ever made), as the blasphemy hadn't affected him, and the wizard summoned some celestial eels. They shrieked in pain as the corrupted water started to burn them alive. The rest of us looked on with faces paralyzed in fear.
On round two, the elemental surfaced, smashing into the wizard who immediately popped his emergency force field, probably saving his life (and mine, since shield other was still up. The wizard dropped a major image of himself over himself, and then teleported up above the storm - leaving the rest of us to deal with Nicoroux's wrath. The shadowdancer took his ingot over to the water, and started prepping it for the ritual. The barbarian did the same, courtesy of an imbue with spell like ability and cure light wounds -- as did my imp with his wand of cure light wounds. Finally able to move, I went into immediate support mode. Bardic performance and prayer went up as I dropped my shield others. Any sort of healing would have to wait.
Angered at his inability to get the wizard, Nicoroux's avatar submerged himself into the tarn and started a vortex under our skiff. The sorcerer and I tumbled into each other, and I drew perilously close to death. The imp, shadowdancer, and barbarian dropped their stones into the ritual zone. Three down, three to go. Unable to escape the vortex myself, I leapt into the flying barbarian's enlarged arms, and screamed "save me!"
We had no idea what the wizard was up to, as all we saw was an image of him cowering inside his force sphere.
On round four I quaffed the shadowdancer's potion of fly and skirted to the edge of the map, hoping to evade death because in my case, coming back might be a problem. The barbarian readied an attack, eager to finally square off against the elemental. The sorcerer prepped an acidic fireball, and the barbarian's attack went off, taking a chunk out of the beast below as it rose to meet him. The sorcerer's fireball fell flat, failing to break through the creature's spell resistance. The avatar declared a smite good against his foe (as he had seen the barbarian cast a cure spell >.<) and pummeled the barbarian to true-death in two hits.
Uh-oh.
As the barbarian's body started to glide towards the water, a bralani divebomed out of the storm above, ignoring the fight and smashing into the water like an egg into concrete, splattering in a minor explosion of gore. It's broken arms unfurled as it sank into the water, revealing a charged silver ingot -- the wizard was doing his part after all! Four down, two to go.
On round five, my imp swooped down as the barbarian started to feather fall, unrolling his scroll of breath of life and bringing him back into the positives. I flew over, passing my ingot to the shadowdancer and shouting at him to finish it, before touching the barbarian and the sorcerer, and dimension dooring us out of the fight. The elemental did nothing...until the second bralani started to plummet from the sky, triggering his readied action as the elemental attempted to bullrush the creature off target with a mighty blow. Lucky for us, he missed (by only two)! Five down, one to go!
The shadowdancer tapped his wand to the stone, smiled, and dropped the final ingot into the waters -- completing the ritual! The black waters started to lighten as the elemental dissolved back into the tarn, ending combat and stopping Nicoroux's corruption in it's tracks.
Go team!
David H |
My players' crits in First Steps made for some memorable moments.
First time PFS GM'ing and the 5 man party consisted of an illusionist, a half-elf fire sorceress, a sacred shield paladin, a martial artist, and a sap rogue. They get to the ambush and the party wins initiative and immediately charge through the fog and start a lot of whiffs. Forgetting the tactics, the party got its first taste of color spray and the paladin and rogue go down. I roll poorly for the debuff so in a few rounds they get back up! And the sorceress, the last one standing, color sprays again, this time only taking the paladin down once again. He was not pleased that he didn't do anything the final encounter.
Fast forward to the end of First Steps pt2. The rogue, wary after the last color spray, bought smoke goggle, but took them off to work with the kobolds. As soon as they got into the skulk's room, the entire party, clustered together, produced an 'Oh $&*!' move from the creature and used the party's now least favorite spell! EVERYONE but the paladin failed their will save, to the shock of everyone.
Seeing one person still standing, the skulk books it and is about to dive into the exit well. Desperate to try and stop the creature, the paladin throws his heavy pick and crits the guy. 4d6 + 8 later, the skulk dies rightout with a pick lodged in its chest, thus saving the primary mission, which the mostly unconscious party would have failed without the amazing Nat 20 at the right time.
In another group's run through the First Steps series, a party with a high strength scythe fighter is making the exchange when the party rogue notes that the item seems off. Battle happened immediately and initiatives are rolled. The fighter immediately cuts into the first enemy and crits with a 2-handed power attack with the scythe. He then proceeds to roll more 4's than probability should allow, setting a record of 63 damage in 1 hit for a level 1 character; and amount that would literally kill its target almost 4 times.
TetsujinOni |
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Gregor "Butters": "Hey Bob. Sorry we have to try and beat through you again today" (they were on their third day of trying to fight past the first encounter...)
Planar Allied Angel: "Morning, Gregor. HALT, TOMBROBBERS..... oh, you've heard it. I hate to have to kill you again, Greg."
Having the party have fun while they're failing? Priceless.
CanisDirus |
4-24, the Price of Friendship.
I wasn't GMing, but having been witness...
One of the characters had a faction mission that required a "song" of sorts...
The player, playing a very low-charisma barbarian proceeded to spend one hour of real-time composing an epic and scathing five-stanza song which he performed at the top of his lungs while the rest of us banged on the table keeping time.
The GM still had him roll for the mission...and even with a massive RP circumstance bonus, he failed. One of the players at the table used a shirt reroll to let him try again since it was so awesome, and he got the DC on the nose.
The song's lyrics will be posted to the 4-24 GM/Spoiler thread as soon as I can get them from the player (or convince him to post them there himself)!
BigNorseWolf |
My main is a druid with a velociraptor of rampaging death. I play at a lower game and take my undead controlling cleric... who proceeds to take control of a two headed skeletal velociraptor of death.
Same scenario one of the bad guys has a high armor class and is a little hard to hit. He tries getting away, so low on HP i have my gnome deliberately provoke an attack of opportunity to be grabbed, then channeled negative energy.
Then the Zen archer went and just barely nicked him because of the -2 ac penalty.
Then the paladin went... and just barely hit him from the -2 ac penalty. SMITE!
Matthew Morris RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8 |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Two moments from Saturday.
Among the gods. Riftwarden in the party hits the LBEG with a snowball. Rolls well for damage. Ksenia's comment? "You cast like a witch."
(Irrisen, the only nation where "You throw like a girl" is a compliment ;-))
My own moment came later, BBEG is staggered, so he move into the room to channel negative next round. I look at the map. "Tovyu Matz! Spats na Paloo!"
Down he goes. First time in 5 levels slumber's worked on the BBEG. Does happy witch dance.
morbon Venture-Agent, Indiana—Bloomington |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
4-24, the Price of Friendship.
I wasn't GMing, but having been witness...
One of the characters had a faction mission that required a "song" of sorts...
The player, playing a very low-charisma barbarian proceeded to spend one hour of real-time composing an epic and scathing five-stanza song which he performed at the top of his lungs while the rest of us banged on the table keeping time.
The GM still had him roll for the mission...and even with a massive RP circumstance bonus, he failed. One of the players at the table used a shirt reroll to let him try again since it was so awesome, and he got the DC on the nose.
The song's lyrics will be posted to the 4-24 GM/Spoiler thread as soon as I can get them from the player (or convince him to post them there himself)!
You need to strike that. My Barbarian is low in Wisdom. He has a 16 Charisma! =) And I really am crazy and had lots of fun trying to come up with an actual song, the last stanza mostly written in the last 5 minutes of my timer while the rest of the party was talking with the target of my song.
Also loved that I was the pretty one in the party and our rogue started pimping me out to all the orcs and half-orcs we came across in town!