The Rushlight Festival (spoilers for Chapter 8)

[Paul Zagieboylo]

Having read through the various events at the Rushlight Festival, I have a few questions, mostly involving Villamor Koth (but some of the others too).

Aiming at the Target: Everyone's stated strategies are really not very good (none of them are REALLY good enough archers to make shooting at the red target worth it, even Damanjot), but Villamor's is especially strange. He's not a competent archer, so he only hits the red target on an 18 or better, and even if he hits (without a natural 20), he only manages to beat the Hardness 25% of the time. In practice this means he's quite likely to finish the event with either 1 or 3 points, depending on whether he gets the critical hit on his final shot at the blue target. He would be MUCH better off shooting at the green target throughout. Is the red target meant to be this impossible to hit? Navarathna and Florante can't hit it at all, ever (except on a 20), and even if they could, they can only barely beat the Hardness. Damanjot and Ilraith can hit it with Far Shot, sometimes, but not often enough for it to be better than shooting at the green target (at least Ilraith beats the Hardness half the time!).

Test of the Axe: Is everyone else intended to be competing for 2nd place here? Villamor is GUARANTEED to finish off his logs by the end of his 2nd turn. He never misses, even with his 3rd attack, and his minimum damage is more than a log's HP including Hardness. The extra strategies about what happens if he hits a log but doesn't destroy it are wasted verbiage, because this can never happen. The only plausible way to beat him is to be an equally badass fury instinct barbarian and win initiative, so you get there first. Are the logs supposed to be sturdier? This wouldn't actually help much, but it would draw out the suspense a little, maybe.

Boasting: Does Ankus's ringer actually provide any benefit if he isn't spotted? Obviously this isn't likely as Perception DC 36 is probably pretty easy by this point for at least one of the PCs, and they get three chances, but just in case.

The Midnight Joust: How does Villamor's stated strategy work? He's not planning to Rage because it would prevent him from controlling his horse, but Knockback is a Rage action, so he can't use it. Also, from other circumstantial evidence (specifically his Raging Resistance as well as his proficiency with a non-oversized greataxe earlier), he's a fury instinct barbarian and therefore doesn't qualify for Giant's Lunge. Awesome Blow seems like a good replacement. Additionally, should PCs who actually know how to do mounted combat (and have an Animal Companion minion as a mount) have more of an advantage here? Just getting to use Diplomacy instead of Nature isn't great, since characters with animal companions generally have exceptional Nature skills anyway. Can such a character use a non-horse as a mount, if they choose? Would I want to joust against someone riding a giant tiger? (I know the answer to this last one: definitely not!)

[Phntm888]

Paul Zagieboylo wrote:

Also, from other circumstantial evidence (specifically his Raging Resistance as well as his proficiency with a non-oversized greataxe earlier), he's a fury instinct barbarian and therefore doesn't qualify for Giant's Lunge.

Since Villamor Koth is an NPC, he doesn't have to use any of the PC rules for his build. I wouldn't worry about whether his feats make sense for his instinct - he basically doesn't have one.

Paul Zagieboylo wrote:

Aiming at the Target: Everyone's stated strategies are really not very good (none of them are REALLY good enough archers to make shooting at the red target worth it, even Damanjot), but Villamor's is especially strange. He's not a competent archer, so he only hits the red target on an 18 or better, and even if he hits (without a natural 20), he only manages to beat the Hardness 25% of the time. In practice this means he's quite likely to finish the event with either 1 or 3 points, depending on whether he gets the critical hit on his final shot at the blue target. He would be MUCH better off shooting at the green target throughout. Is the red target meant to be this impossible to hit? Navarathna and Florante can't hit it at all, ever (except on a 20), and even if they could, they can only barely beat the Hardness. Damanjot and Ilraith can hit it with Far Shot, sometimes, but not often enough for it to be better than shooting at the green target (at least Ilraith beats the Hardness half the time!).

Damanjot is planning on cheating, so if no one catches him cheating, the hardness of the red target is less important - he only needs a 2 or better on the damage die to beat it. If the PCs catch him cheating, feel free to modify his tactics to focus more on the green target. Florante's flavor text specifically calls out that she needs luck to stand a chance, and that she isn't as skilled, so her tactics make sense in that vein. Same for Navarantha, who's called out as a show off with a stubborn streak. Ultimately, if you think their tactics don't make sense, feel free to adjust the tactics, AC for the targets, or even move the red target closer by 1 range increment.

Paul Zagieboylo wrote:

Test of the Axe: Is everyone else intended to be competing for 2nd place here? Villamor is GUARANTEED to finish off his logs by the end of his 2nd turn. He never misses, even with his 3rd attack, and his minimum damage is more than a log's HP including Hardness. The extra strategies about what happens if he hits a log but doesn't destroy it are wasted verbiage, because this can never happen. The only plausible way to beat him is to be an equally badass fury instinct barbarian and win initiative, so you get there first. Are the logs supposed to be sturdier? This wouldn't actually help much, but it would draw out the suspense a little, maybe.

I suspect this event didn't copy over from the 1E book very well - you're absolutely right that basically everyone else is competing for second place. Since his tactics call for him to rage first, it should take until the first action of round 3 to finish off all the logs. If he doesn't rage, you should probably lower his damage a little bit, although it likely won't make a difference.

Paul Zagieboylo wrote:

Boasting: Does Ankus's ringer actually provide any benefit if he isn't spotted? Obviously this isn't likely as Perception DC 36 is probably pretty easy by this point for at least one of the PCs, and they get three chances, but just in case.

The ringer does not appear to do so, but I would give Ankus a +1 bonus as though from a successful Aid on each check if the PCs don't catch the Ringer.

Paul Zagieboylo wrote:

The Midnight Joust: How does Villamor's stated strategy work? He's not planning to Rage because it would prevent him from controlling his horse, but Knockback is a Rage action, so he can't use it...Additionally, should PCs who actually know how to do mounted combat (and have an Animal Companion minion as a mount) have more of an advantage here? Just getting to use Diplomacy instead of Nature isn't great, since characters with animal companions generally have exceptional Nature skills anyway. Can such a character use a non-horse as a mount, if they choose? Would I want to joust against someone riding a giant tiger? (I know the answer to this last one: definitely not!)

The use of Diplomacy specifically refers to if the charcter has Wild Empathy or the ability to talk to their mount (such as speak with animals), as opposed to being trained in mounted combat. It's basically a way to ensure that if the PCs' champion had higher Diplomacy than Nature, they could use that instead. Otherwise, it would appear that being trained in Mounted Combat does not give any benefits. If someone had the Unseat feat out of the Cavalier archetype, though, you could probably give them a circumstance bonus on the Athletics check to Shove their opponent.

Nothing in the rules says you have to ride a horse. If the PC is riding a giant tiger, feel free to apply a Frightened 1 or 2 condition to their opponent (note that frightened does not stack with sickened, as both are status penalties).

[Paul Zagieboylo]

Phntm888 wrote:

I suspect this event didn't copy over from the 1E book very well - you're absolutely right that basically everyone else is competing for second place. Since his tactics call for him to rage first, it should take until the first action of round 3 to finish off all the logs. If he doesn't rage, you should probably lower his damage a little bit, although it likely won't make a difference.

Why? He gets 3 actions per round and he doesn't have to move anywhere, so he makes 5 attacks by the end of his second round after raging. There are only 4 logs, so unless he somehow managed to roll two natural 1s in 5 tries (not very likely!) the logs are done for. Even if he needs to take a 3rd swing at -10 on round 2, it still hits on a 2, because he's just that awesome.

[Phntm888]

Hmm...for some reason I thought there were 6 logs, not 4. Must have just thought there were 6 logs because there's 6 contestants. Or maybe there were 6 logs in the 1E version of the contest?

Either way, you're right, he'll be done by the end of Round 2, then. Like I said, I don't think this event came over well from the 1E adventure path - the damage dealt at high levels is just too much for a simple log.

I do think that the book, as written, wants the PCs to win the Rushlight Tournament, so as long as they're doing well in the other events, a second place finish isn't the worst outcome for this event.

[Paul Zagieboylo]

Honestly I'm not sure there's any way to redesign the Test of the Axe so Villamor doesn't win it automatically, without changing the event beyond recognition. He's 2 levels higher than the PCs, he's an axe specialist, barbarians have pretty good single-target DPR anyway, and this event is a test of who can wield a greataxe to do the most DPR to a small number of relatively tough targets. If he didn't have Giant's Lunge he would probably have Whirlwind Strike instead and could murder all the logs in a single round (especially if he found a way to Rage beforehand!).

Any ideas about Villamor's Jousting strategy? It just doesn't make any sense as written. I would definitely allow a cavalier with Unseat to use that action in place of the jousting described in the AP (the main difference is that it doesn't allow a defensive Reflex save on a successful hit, which seems like a good advantage to give someone who actually knows what they're doing).

[Mr_Shed]

Paul Zagieboylo wrote:

Boasting: Does Ankus's ringer actually provide any benefit if he isn't spotted? Obviously this isn't likely as Perception DC 36 is probably pretty easy by this point for at least one of the PCs, and they get three chances, but just in case.

I would assume his published stats for rolls already include any intended bonus his ringer is supposed to be giving him (they did in the 1e version), as the two conditions here are basically that the PCs spot the ringer and he's disqualified or they don't spot the ringer and he makes his rolls as stated.

Phntm888 wrote:

I suspect this event didn't copy over from the 1E book very well - you're absolutely right that basically everyone else is competing for second place. Since his tactics call for him to rage first, it should take until the first action of round 3 to finish off all the logs. If he doesn't rage, you should probably lower his damage a little bit, although it likely won't make a difference.

I agree with this event not copying well, including the fact that the MC's spiel for the events (on pg. 339) describe it as "a test of strength using handaxes or greataxes," despite 2e's version not allowing for handaxes like 1e's did. I don't honestly see how to quickly fix it either since the entire nature of the event has changed from 1e where it was a contest to see who could destroy the greatest number of logs spaced 10' apart in 1 minute, rather than it being fastest to destroy 4 logs that are functionally adjacent.

[Phntm888]

Reverting to the 1E format would help increase suspense, but Villamor still wins automatically. He has enough damage/high enough to hit that he can still wreck a log in one hit, he just now has to Stride in between logs. Rage lasts the entire time, so figure he destroys one log every odd-numbered Round, then 2 logs every even-numbered round, for 15 logs total by the time it's over.

Paul Zagreboylo wrote:

Any ideas about Villamor's Jousting strategy? It just doesn't make any sense as written.

I would just ignore the recommendation that he use Knockback, and have him focus on just doing harm to the PC.

[Mr_Shed]

Phntm888 wrote:

Reverting to the 1E format would help increase suspense, but Villamor still wins automatically. He has enough damage/high enough to hit that he can still wreck a log in one hit, he just now has to Stride in between logs. Rage lasts the entire time, so figure he destroys one log every odd-numbered Round, then 2 logs every even-numbered round, for 15 logs total by the time it's over.

That appears to be at least in part an issue with how 2e handles damaging objects, namely that materials seem to have a fixed HP rather than it being based off their thickness - the logs in 1e had 120 HP each (10 HP/in x 12 in thickness) rather than the 20 HP they do in 2e, so they were more difficult to destroy with Villamor expected to destroy 4 and damage 1 and Dizon and Timsina coming in a close second by destroying 4 each.

The other issue is that Villamor just does so much more damage per round than his competitors. While in 1e Dizon and Timsina did nearly as much as he did and (if the GM actually rolled the dice out fully) could possibly beat him, in 2e even if they use a fully optimal strategy (which their given Strategies aren't) they can't out-damage Villamor and I'm not familiar enough with 2e to say if this large of a damage differential is because they're built "poorly" compared to Villamor or if Villamor is just over specced for damage.