What is the source of Panelliar's Pulse Dart? I couldn't find anything in the CRB or the AP, and I know the party's solarian will ask about it when they get there.
thanks
What is the source of Panelliar's Pulse Dart? I couldn't find anything in the CRB or the AP, and I know the party's solarian will ask about it when they get there.
thanks
NPCs often have unique abilities and this is one of them. I would explain it by his ancient elven teachings studying the stars and what not.
SO I see that the PLanelliar is a Solarian. Based on the Core Rulebook the Solarian religion was introduced by the Kasatha (and presumably the fighting style as well) so why is there an ancient elf that is a Solarian?
I understand a monk or other Pathfinder class wasn't really available, but is there a deep story reason for it? Or was it just a simplification to allow GMs (and mod writers) to make the NPC close enough in terms of flavour?
I'm thinking of rebuilding him using the creature rules and to approximate an elven curved blade wielding monk (yes, that means taking away some treasure for the Solarian, however I could make an enemy in Book 3 be a Solarian to make up for it) instead.
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SO I see that the PLanelliar is a Solarian. Based on the Core Rulebook the Solarian religion was introduced by the Kasatha (and presumably the fighting style as well) so why is there an ancient elf that is a Solarian?
I understand a monk or other Pathfinder class wasn't really available, but is there a deep story reason for it? Or was it just a simplification to allow GMs (and mod writers) to make the NPC close enough in terms of flavour?
I'm thinking of rebuilding him using the creature rules and to approximate an elven curved blade wielding monk (yes, that means taking away some treasure for the Solarian, however I could make an enemy in Book 3 be a Solarian to make up for it) instead.
Solarians can be any religion and race. These elves were dedicated to astronomy and communicated with something far far away and it is fitting one would be a solarian. Changing it wont impact the adventure though.
Solarians can be any religion and race.
Totally agree. But from what little I can glean the original concept was first introduced to modern day Golarion was by the Kasatha.
These elves were dedicated to astronomy and communicated with something far far away and it is fitting one would be a solarian.
I dunno. Taking away one of the "cool things" about kasatha seems like it ruins it a bit to me. Especially when you insert that thing before Pathfinder era Golarion (we know when Ukulam was first settled by the elves thanks to the fact we know when the elves returned to Golarion so we have a rough educated guess as to when they left Ukulam as well).
Thanks for the response though. I do appreciate it.
SO I see that the Panelliar is a Solarian. Based on the Core Rulebook the Solarian religion was introduced by the Kasatha (and presumably the fighting style as well) so why is there an ancient elf that is a Solarian?
He might have picked it up during the 70 years after Idari showed up.
Or a solarian showed up in the temple during the Gap and he retrained whatever his old class was.
Maybe the Gap rewrote reality, explaining why all the old classes vanished.
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My first attempt at creating something here. I was concerned with trying to keep up with the environmental checks also and a "travel log" sounded like a good idea. So I made this for the 12 day trek to help me out. Maybe it will help some of you out also or maybe it sucks but like I said first attempt here so be kind :) Feel free to print it off and use if you wish. I printed at as a full page slide and it looks good to me. I also included some of the requirements at the bottom so I wouldn't have to keep flipping back and forth in the CRB and a few spaces to fill in appropriate data for each PC. I tried to color code the pertinent information together so that it would be easier to read quickly.Hope this is useful.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vpnnSQXJ5UK_z1E0fcgHbIBvZUUDqvN3/view?usp= sharing
Thanks for sharing your chart. It inspired me to customize and create my own version. It's "Wilderness Trek Sheet share" in this Google drive folder
It incorporates a few of my house rules, like Lashunta Tempweave being free of the -4 penalty to heat dangers (CRB pg.402).
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My players should reach the Stargazer next session, and in trying to plan how Salask would be a smart sniper, I realize she is basically backed into a giant dead end if she lets the players reach the entrance to the structure. How is she supposed to "find a better location" if there is no way to get out and flank the PCs?
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She can't.
Remember, though, the squares are 10' not 5' and the plaza is difficult terrain and offers little in the way of cover. She'll have time to shoot at them without penalty as they approach. They may be able to tell that the shots are being fired from the Stargazer, but actually seeing her should be next to impossible until they're within 50 feet.
In addition the sky fisher should be attacking them at the same time. It should start at least 100' in the air and attack one of the flat-footed PCs in the surprise round. It might float down to 50' the next round but, with it's attack bonus really shouldn't. If it gets within 15' remember it can full attack with a reasonable chance to hit both times. For a real scare, let it try to escape while still holding onto a PC or two.
Then, once the group has made it through the gauntlet, Salask has allies waiting for them to enter the Stargazer. I'd start with readied actions to throw grenades before shooting then rushing the group.
Finally, the battle weary group makes it to Salask. She can take one shot as they enter B4 then retreat to B6 and shoot at them while they climb. They have to come single file and does any of them have a climb speed? No? Well then it requires both hands to climb, I'd rule that the first PC gets a penalty because they're being shot at while climbing, and Salask gets cover from the climbers and the lip of the well, I suggest soft from the second and improved cover from the rest. Note that even though the squares are 10' the stairs only look like they're only 5' wide.
This encounter does not let up.
This encounter does not let up.
That gives me some really good context and inspiration - much appreciated!
Also she could use a rope to get down from the observation platform
My PCs, after fighting off the skyfisher, cast fog cloud to approach. Climbed up the the side pushed the enemy off the statue. Continued to explore from top down. It was fun.
Fog Cloud is how I handled it, too. Put the cloud between the party and the statue, took care of the skyfisher, then tossed up clouds to cover our approach.
Between that and Life Bubble, my Witchwarper kinda trivialized book 2...
I just ran the sky fisher encounter and I found it to surprisingly be a bit of a push-over!
It has 'good' maneuverability, which means it must spend a move action to fly each round, or a move action to hover each round, or it falls. Therefore, it spends a standard to fire a lasso, but reeling anyone in as a move action effectively takes a full round due to spending a move to continue flying. Plus, it can never attempt a full attack at all! This gives the party all the time in the world to shoot it down.
The sniper in this encounter is similarly a bit of a wet noodle. One shot per two rounds dealing d10+3 is just not that threatening. Since I had a larger group, I let her fire every round, and even so, the party didn't sweat too much. No one even lost HP, just SP.
Yeah... I threw two skyfishers at my PCs, because, hey! two tokens. Five PCs, mostly combat oriented, covering non-combat between them.
They destroyed them in 2-3 rounds, proceeded to walk to the temple ignoring the sniper fire and destroyed the encounter inside.
They were out of stamina points at that time, and had a rough time when I sprung the next ambush on them during the 10 min rest (they did have cover in the stargazer to work from), but they pulled through.
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I think this is going to be a tough encounter. The scale of the Stargazer map is 10' per square, and Salask can hit the whole battle map without penalty (within the first 250' range increment) except for a little bit of the northwest corner. The plaza area itself will be difficult terrain--costing double movement. Sniping every other round until the party is within 70', and then shooting once every round at closer targets. Finding the sniper is hard, taking a move action to perform the Perception search task before the party can even know where to close in on the sniper let alone fire back. Since Salask is an expert sniper, it will be -20 to the perception check at 150+ feet away, and -10 to the check at 50 to 150 feet away to locate her (Natural 20 is your friend here).
To give reasonable challenge to the Skyfisher, I'm thinking its parachute shaped body will let it focus on an action and only fall about 10 feet. This creature also has a stealth of +11, and will go translucent for an additional +10 to stealth. Being translucent makes it staggered (only one move action OR one standard action), thus my parachute idea so it can attack without falling completely out of the sky. Since the filaments it attacks with are like spider webs, damage to those are not causing damage to the skyfisher's hit points. The PCs will have to attack the body itself, and with a total stealth of 1d20+21, the party will have to perform a visual search (move action Perception again) to find it before attacking. Also, once spotted, just because one PC sees it doesn't mean they all see it, I'll give a +5 to the Perception check for each PC that see's it and is helping the others find it. If anyone sets it on fire (for example a critical hit with a laser weapon) the smoke will give a +15 to spot it.
I'll report back after I run this part of the adventure.
The PCs will have to attack the body itself, and with a total stealth of 1d20+21, the party will have to perform a visual search (move action Perception again) to find it before attacking.
Be careful, you can't attack and be hidden. As soon as you attack, you become visible to everyone, unless you snipe, but you do it at a minus 20.
Having played (as a player) encounters where you can't see your opponent and the DM just asks for Perception checks to succeed, I can tell you it's really annoying. It looks fun at first glance, but from the player point of view, it's not at all. You feel like a moving target... And if you don't have points in Perception, then, you can just run away, as you're pretty useless.
@ThermalCat: Don't forget that Sniping itself imposes a -20 penalty on the stealth check - Salask's expert sniper ability merely counteracts or partially counteracts that penalty. That means she's effectively rolling a d20+13 for Stealth while the party is far away, and a d20+3 when they're closer. Since there are no perception penalties for distance in Starfinder, she's actually rather easy to spot.
The PCs will have to attack the body itself, and with a total stealth of 1d20+21, the party will have to perform a visual search (move action Perception again) to find it before attacking.Be careful, you can't attack and be hidden. As soon as you attack, you become visible to everyone, unless you snipe, but you do it at a minus 20.
Thanks SuperBidi and Cellion, I missed that rule. After one of them was hit by a shot, I let the PCs figure out that it came from the general direction of the statue. It turns out that starting in the southeast corner, they decided to run along the southern edge, to avoid the difficult terrain, which brought them to the shortest route over difficult terrain to the head. With the diminishing sniper stealth bonus as they got closer, they spotted the sniper at about 90 feet away. By staying off the plaza to minimize difficult terrain, they made quad moves toward the head end of the stargazer.
There were a few hangups with skyfisher lasso's along the way, which pummeled and slowed a few of them (large party at 6 players). I saw that it was a bit frustrating for the players not to see the skyfisher, but eventually one rolled a nat 20 to see it, and got a crit with a laser rifle, which set it to burning enough that the steam trail made it much easier to see. I had decided earlier that the dark circles in the skyfisher illustration were buoyant hydrogen sacs. I gave a +15 bonus to the others to find it once that happened. The burning crit also made the creature flee sooner (as per the morale guidance), so it could go off and smother the flame. I reasoned that it would want to land somewhere safe where it could roll up (stop drop and roll) and then take off again.
The party did something extra for the Hardscrabble Collective in book 1, so was rewarded with a pair of Falcon Boots. The PC wearing them walked vertically up to the windows and did enough mind thrust damage to Salask to make her retreat. I described that the ceiling over the stairs from the shoulder to the hand of the statue had fallen in (leaving that stretch open to the sky, and vulnerable to the skyfisher). He then dropped a rope from the shoulder and the party entered there, with hazards from skyfisher lasso attacks.
Salask took her healing serums and joined the cultists in the main hall. The Solarian in the party made the mistake of charging in to the main hall two rounds ahead of the rest of the party. She was knocked down to 0 HP in two rounds. Despite her healing serums and staying out of the way, she barely survived because lots of grenades were used in the ensuing firefight.
I believe the Moon Crystal, introduced in Alien Archive 3 will become a must-have for anyone travelling through Ukulam:
Level 3; Price 200; Bulk L
...It also provides 4 days of environmental protections as if it were armor, and it can be activated and depleted in the same way.
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Can anyone explain why Panelliar fights to the death to me? He's under the effects of command undead not control undead and that spell specifically states an intelligent undead will never obey suicidal or obviously harmful orders. Getting into a fight with the party is a gray area given some players to attack anything that might move or contain loot. However he's stated as (a) if freed from the spell as aiding the party and (b) stopping combat at half hp's to talk if he hasn't already.
While dying in combat is a possability I don't see why he would fight to the death just to please Tahomen when he has no other reason to keep the PC's out?
I kinda feel like 'fights to the death' is the default in the template they use for statblocks, and a lot of writers forget to change it.
There isn't really a good reason for him to fight to the death in my opinion.
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I kinda feel like 'fights to the death' is the default in the template they use for statblocks, and a lot of writers forget to change it.
There isn't really a good reason for him to fight to the death in my opinion.
I thought that might be the case thanks. It really doesn't make sense given his situation and the way the spell is actually meant to work.
Can anyone explain why Panelliar fights to the death to me? He's under the effects of command undead not control undead and that spell specifically states an intelligent undead will never obey suicidal or obviously harmful orders. Getting into a fight with the party is a gray area given some players to attack anything that might move or contain loot. However he's stated as (a) if freed from the spell as aiding the party and (b) stopping combat at half hp's to talk if he hasn't already.
While dying in combat is a possability I don't see why he would fight to the death just to please Tahomen when he has no other reason to keep the PC's out?
Panelliar spent an eternity guarding the Temple of the Twelve from intruders. He would have killed Tahomen if not for the spell. Tahomen then tells him to defend him and the temple at all costs, essentially the same orders. I would say if the PCs remove the influence of the spell and perform sufficient actions to calm him, he could stand down.
However, if it were me, I would have Tahomen's arrival be punctuated with killing him outright in a display of power.
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Can anyone explain why Panelliar fights to the death to me? He's under the effects of command undead not control undead and that spell specifically states an intelligent undead will never obey suicidal or obviously harmful orders. Getting into a fight with the party is a gray area given some players to attack anything that might move or contain loot. However he's stated as (a) if freed from the spell as aiding the party and (b) stopping combat at half hp's to talk if he hasn't already.
While dying in combat is a possability I don't see why he would fight to the death just to please Tahomen when he has no other reason to keep the PC's out?
Panelliar spent an eternity guarding the Temple of the Twelve from intruders. He would have killed Tahomen if not for the spell. Tahomen then tells him to defend him and the temple at all costs, essentially the same orders. I would say if the PCs remove the influence of the spell and perform sufficient actions to calm him, he could stand down.
However, if it were me, I would have Tahomen's arrival be punctuated with killing him outright in a display of power.
My issue is more with the whole "I have been ordered to fight to the death so I shall do so." when the spell specifically states a subject wont do that. Killing him in a display of power doesn't appeal to me but it would make more sense.
Here I am, rolling in years after the fact, to dig this thread up and ask: Where's the 15th member of Tahomen's expedition? I keep finding 14 on my read-throughs. I feel like it must be staring me in the face.
From the smugglers, the PCs can learn that the expedition consists of 15 people: 11 lashuntas, 2 humans, 1 kasatha, and 1 shirren.
The kasatha is Dr. Solstarni, and the shirren is Salask. Done and done, set them aside.
Unidentified Corpses: 1. One killed by the vracinea. 2. One killed by the ksariks at the Stargazer. 3. One killed by a dart trap/mountain eel combo at the Temple of the Twelve.
Since no human cultists turn up in combat encounters, safe to assume they both go in the "unidentified corpses" pile, along with 1 lashunta. That just leaves the lashuntas.
Surviving Lashuntas (10): 1. Tahomen. 2. Avissa. 3. Ralkawi. 4-5. Two cultists accompanying Salask at the Stargazer. 6-7. Two cultists accompanying Avissa at the Temple. 8-9. Two cultists accompanying Tahomen. 10. ?
Who am I missing?
Likely killed by a random encounter or natural hazard.
Man, it's been years.
I know I am behind the times here, but I am running this Qabarat portion of this adventure tomorrow and I am wondering if anyone knows whether the 2,500 credit stipend that Professor Muhali offers the PCs to track down Solstarni in Ukulaum is supposed to be 2,500 per hero, or just a lump sum for the whole party?
Lump sum.
Doh! I told the each tonight. Oops!
Anyhow, thanks for the answer.
Thanks for sharing your chart. It inspired me to customize and create my own version. It's "Wilderness Trek Sheet share" in this Google drive folder
It incorporates a few of my house rules, like Lashunta Tempweave being free of the -4 penalty to heat dangers (CRB pg.402).
ThermalCat, if you happen to see this today, is that spreadsheet still handy by any chance?
I couldn't find it on the link and my group is starting the Ukulam trek tonight.
I would go with perfect, myself.
Thanks for sharing your chart. It inspired me to customize and create my own version. It's "Wilderness Trek Sheet share" in this Google drive folder
It incorporates a few of my house rules, like Lashunta Tempweave being free of the -4 penalty to heat dangers (CRB pg.402).
ThermalCat, if you happen to see this today, is that spreadsheet still handy by any chance?
I couldn't find it on the link and my group is starting the Ukulam trek tonight.
Sorry, missed this by a mile. Hope you were able to find it on your own, but this was in the folder "Dead Suns AP GM resources". The direct link is