Help with a campaign i'm in

[Question]

Basically i feel that theres very little i can do out of combat. Most of the time we just go from point A to B and end up fighting some bad guys. I'm not sure if this is a typical experience...

Some background : In our campaign, we are chasing after a lich who just came back and started messing around in the River Kingdoms along with an evil outsider entity which may or may not be some kind of god.

For the early part of the campaign, we mostly explored ruins and ran into undead or bad guys hired to go after the same stuff we were looking for. When the BBEGs made their appearance, we were then hired by one of the kingdoms to do something about them.

So a very large part of it has been "find X ruins, go there, fight some people, retrieve some plot items and bring them back to a NPC" followed by interactions with people who wanted the same plot items. Kind of indiana jones stuff i guess.

We are now trying to track down the Lich's phylactery which may have been mistakenly delivered to the unsuspecting family of a deceased Pathfinder society member as part of his belongings. Some NPCs are also working on finding a cure for some kind of mind control effect the Lich is using to turn ordinary people into trained soldiers.

Along the way we have run into some pirate ships who want one of the party members dead or alive because he pissed them off. Some other minor issues...like there being a warband of orcs running around causing trouble and the river being poisoned by some kind of substance that makes things in it grow large.

The problem is that it feels like most of the party has very little to do out of combat. While the party face is negotiating or questioning NPCs, we are kind of left on the sidelines. And thats a very large part of the out of combat stuff. To give an example of our last couple of sessions :

We tracked down a pathfinder lodge that might know where the lich's phylactery was. We travelled there, negotiated with some elves we had been working with to get help, hired a guide and found said lodge in a forest (after fighting some animals off). We got the info from the pathfinder lodge, started sailing back home to do something about it and got attacked by some pirates who were looking for one of our party members. We were trying to bluff our way past the pirates, but failed and had to fight our way past them.

So while one or two of the party members are handling negotiations and getting plot info, the rest are kind of left standing around...is this typical? I'm not sure what exactly i should be doing.

[Ciaran Barnes]

What are your character's out of combat capabilities aside from role playing? Talk to your GM about creating some opportunities for the other party members

[tkul]

Need more information but generally speaking a character is usually only good at one of the three types of encounter: Combat, Skill, or Social. Some characters can blur the lines, Paladins make good Combat and Social characters generally but are poor skill characters for example. If you're rocking a Barbarian with a charisma dump stat and your party is doing negotiations you probably should be sidelined. Most parties will pick the best guy for the job if they're not caught flat. If you need to sneak in somewhere they send the rogue, if they need to talk someone down they use the bard, ect. If you didn't build in the skill set needed for the social encounters you're probably best off either standing aside or using aid another actions to help your front line social character. Remember you can use Aid Another for almost every dice based check.

[Question]

Im playing a int based arcane caster. Mostly its been the ninja handling social situations with a bit of backup from the fighter with a shady past (mostly involving the pirates, seems to be a big part of his backstory).

I thought about doing magical research related stuff but that would just means downtime where the rest of the party runs off to do their own thing while the DM does a timeskip and tells me whether my research succeeded or failed...

[ngc7293]

Have you tried to look for situations to do something? If you are a wizard, you have access to all the knowledge skills (presuming you put points into them). Ask questions of the GM of the situations in the ruins to get your character involved before combat.

[tkul]

What int based arcane caster? Being coy doesn't really help when you want advice. If you're a Wizard use divinition spells to help with the information gathering, or you can use enchantment spells to assist with the social interactions. If you're Int based you probably have knowledge skills, start doing regular research on whatever it is you're encountering, while they're off in seedy bars have your guy going around to whatever libraries you can get access to and start researching. If you're a magus with only blasting spells then you're a combat character and not really supposed to be a heavy hitter in the social/skill encounters. Post up your character and it'll be easier to give you more directed advice.

[Question]

Ive got pretty good knowledge arcane, history, planes and nature...but a lot of the plot stuff (history of the lich for example) is hidden till the DM deems it right to reveal it. Trying to get more information on plot elements has so far hit a brick wall.

Also we dont have much downtime. I think the only one we actually had was when i was doing some magical ritual thing for about a day and the rest of the party went off to do some illegal stuff for money.

Im playing a witch, IIRC the only divination spell i have is locate object and i have never had to use it...

[tkul]

Yeah you may just have to tuck in for the ride during the social encounters then. Check with the DM each time you get some piece of information you should be able to make a knowledge check to see if it "jogs your memory" and spits out additional info, libraries are just nice for the check bonuses. Liches are bad dudes they generally don't just sit at home baking cookies, there should have been some interaction with the world at large in their past that you can use knowledge checks to pry loose.

[EldonG]

It sounds to me like the biggest issue is you really don't have much downtime to begin with...and that's up to the DM. If you've got time to do things...but can't figure out what to do...well...does your character have any goals? If not...maybe come up with one?

[Question]

What do you mean by not enough downtime?

[EldonG]

Question wrote:

What do you mean by not enough downtime?

Time not directly devoted to the scenario... time for your character to do whatever it is he might do.

[Weirdo]

Any character can contribute in a social encounter. If you're negotiating, state what you are willing to contribute to or want to receive from the deal. If you're bluffing, assist in some small way. If the ninja is pretending to be a noble, call him/her "sir" or "milady." Knowledge can help with this. For example, if you're trying to convince the pirates you're just simple fishermen, tell them that it's salmon breeding season nearby (Knowledge Nature).

[Question]

EldonG wrote:

Question wrote:

What do you mean by not enough downtime?

Time not directly devoted to the scenario... time for your character to do whatever it is he might do.

Oh i think the DM stopped doing that because it left the rest of the players hanging.

For example there were times when we would be in town and the DM would ask if we wanted to do anything, and you had people all going off to do their own stuff.

Unfortunately that also meant that while, say, one player was describing his solo encounter with the local thieves guild, the rest of the players were doing nothing.

[Question]

Weirdo wrote:

Any character can contribute in a social encounter. If you're negotiating, state what you are willing to contribute to or want to receive from the deal. If you're bluffing, assist in some small way. If the ninja is pretending to be a noble, call him/her "sir" or "milady." Knowledge can help with this. For example, if you're trying to convince the pirates you're just simple fishermen, tell them that it's salmon breeding season nearby (Knowledge Nature).

Hmm thats an interesting idea. I didnt do anything like that because i thought that it would be bluffing, but i suppose that doesnt apply if its true.

[EldonG]

Question wrote:

EldonG wrote:

Question wrote:

What do you mean by not enough downtime?

Time not directly devoted to the scenario... time for your character to do whatever it is he might do.

Oh i think the DM stopped doing that because it left the rest of the players hanging.

For example there were times when we would be in town and the DM would ask if we wanted to do anything, and you had people all going off to do their own stuff.

Unfortunately that also meant that while, say, one player was describing his solo encounter with the local thieves guild, the rest of the players were doing nothing.

It can be tricky to balance. Obviously, you can't give too much time to any individual, or the game suffers... sometimes you can get groups involved...say if you were going to the thieves guild, having a ninja handy would be a good thing. See if you can work out a compromise with your DM.

[ngc7293]

Next time there is a downtime (or if there isn't, suggest it) have the players team up to go to different places instead of alone. Even if the Wizard doesn't want to go to the 'Sword Emporium' with the Fighter, it will promote interaction. Then the Wizard can drag the Fighter to 'spells-R-us' even though he doesn't want to.

One last thing, on your next level, put a point into a skill that isn't on your list like stealth or something. It will broaden your skill range and let you interact out of combat.

[Weirdo]

ngc7293 is right. PCs can get involved in interactions that aren't their area of specialty. It's an excellent bonding activity that adds depth to the party and keeps anyone from getting bored. At the very least you can split the party into two pairs/trios to do things instead of having every single person go off in different directions.

Even if you think the hangers-on won't be able to contribute, you might be surprised. In my last session the ninja and the summoner ended up doing most of the talking to the fighter's commanding officer because the fighter didn't feel comfortable disobeying a direct order. It was great.

Question wrote:

Weirdo wrote:

Any character can contribute in a social encounter. If you're negotiating, state what you are willing to contribute to or want to receive from the deal. If you're bluffing, assist in some small way. If the ninja is pretending to be a noble, call him/her "sir" or "milady." Knowledge can help with this. For example, if you're trying to convince the pirates you're just simple fishermen, tell them that it's salmon breeding season nearby (Knowledge Nature).

Hmm thats an interesting idea. I didnt do anything like that because i thought that it would be bluffing, but i suppose that doesnt apply if its true.

It's basically an aid another check using a skill other than Bluff to assist a Bluff roll by making the lie more credible. I often allow characters to do a good cop/bad cop routine using Diplomacy to assist Intimidate or vice versa.