[Spoilers] Questions about Lost Star

[Almarane]

Hi everyone,

I am currently preparing my first session of Lost Star for this week-end, and I had some questions I'd like to ask to GMs who have already played this part :

• The survey seems to imply that you can not encounter the Sewer Ooze, and it's renforced by the sentence "but for now the creature slithers up to attack the moment the PCs get within 10 feet or as soon as anyone takes an action against it" in the scenario. But how can you not encounter the Sewer Ooze ? Is it in a puddle ? Is it in the hatch at the center of the room ? Did your players use Stealth to not be spotted by the ooze ?
  
• More of a roleplay one : how do you sabotage the rope for the Falling Rock Trap ? I'm trying to find a description in my head, but I have no clue. Wouldn't the trap trigger if you just cut the rope ?
  
• When Drakus uses his melee attack, does he use his sword AND his claws, or only one or another per Melee action ? In the bestiary, monsters tend to have multiple entries for their different melee attacks (like the Animated Armor or the Barghest)
  
• How can Drakus inflict flat-footed to someone ? I guess he can use his claw to grapple someone, but are there other ways ?
  
• Does Pharasma's blessing trigger once per character, or once for the whole party ?
  
• Did you tell your players they were blessed by Pharasma ? And if yes, did you tell them the blessing's effect ?

[Cellion]

I don't see a way to avoid the sewer ooze, and haven't heard of ANY group skipping it. I had it in the puddle to the NE of the hatch.

I can imagine that the falling rock trap is activated by pulling the rope, so cutting the rope makes it too high up for the goblins to reach and pull :>

His melee attack is either his sword or his claw. The "melee" action lists his options for attacking in melee.

The claw's grab is the only way he has to do so (the rat in the encounter was confirmed by the devs to have been misplaced and should not be included in the fight. If it was still there, he could flank with it to treat an enemy as flat footed.)

[Franz Lunzer]

Almarane wrote:

...

Does Pharasma's blessing trigger once per character, or once for the whole party ?

Did you tell your players they were blessed by Pharasma ? And if yes, did you tell them the blessing's effect ?[/list]

The Blessing of Pharasma is for every character that helped consecrate the shrine, individually.

I told my players that did receive the blessing (not all parties did consecrate the shrine), right after the swirling souls: "You get a vision of the lady of graves smiling on you. You think that she *will* reject your soul leaving it's body, but only once. You are now *blessed by Pharasma*, blabla Info from the adventure, note this in the surveys."

[Almarane]

Thanks for your answers :)

Will you state that the characters keep Pharasma's blessing on scenario 4 if they did not use it during Lost Star ?

[Palinurus]

Cellion wrote:

I don't see a way to avoid the sewer ooze, and haven't heard of ANY group skipping it. I had it in the puddle to the NE of the hatch.

I can imagine that the falling rock trap is activated by pulling the rope, so cutting the rope makes it too high up for the goblins to reach and pull :>

His melee attack is either his sword or his claw. The "melee" action lists his options for attacking in melee.

The claw's grab is the only way he has to do so (the rat in the encounter was confirmed by the devs to have been misplaced and should not be included in the fight. If it was still there, he could flank with it to treat an enemy as flat footed.)

With regard to flat-footed Drakus could also feint.

[Franz Lunzer]

Almarane wrote:

Thanks for your answers :)

Will you state that the characters keep Pharasma's blessing on scenario 4 if they did not use it during Lost Star ?

Yes, I did read out the full paragraph. It doesn't expire, cannot be dispelled or removed.

Palinurus wrote:

...

With regard to flat-footed Drakus could also feint.

Yeah, a feinting Drakus is very dangerous.

[DerNils]

It is actually better from an action perspective than using his claws, as it doesn't count towards MAP and only costs one action vs. The claws 2. Don't forget that the grab costs an extra action. This is hidden in the monster description in the bestiary, it's not obvious from the statblock.
He can also cause flat-footed if he attacks from outside the players light radius and is unseen this way.

[Almarane]

Grab costing another action : I only saw this after we ended this part... =( I will talk about it in my feedback. But yeah, as a general reminder for future readers : check all your monsters' abilities in the bestiary. Some are called out in the monster stat block (AoO), others are not (grab)

I don't think Drakus could cause flat-footed thanks to the light. Players will either have a torch, or Darkvision.