A quick update for prospective players:

The game is currently up to:


- One confirmed application (named character, details mostly fixed)
    Character combat role: Tank/DPR.
    Welcome Gron Stonestriker


- One confirmed application (named character, details mostly fixed)
    Character combat role: Spellcaster, arcane (specifics being defined)
    Welcome Aran Kalisar


- One confirmed (if fuzzy) application (multiple concepts and names defined)
    Character combat role: Multiple possible roles (my thanks to the player for their flexibility)
    Welcome Legion (for they are many: none of the characters actually have that name :P)


- One confirmed application (named character, details almost entirely refined)
    Character combat role: Healer (with a side of DPS)
    Welcome Dakash Szagdala


- One advanced application (named character, details being refined)
    Character combat role: Tank/DPR
    Welcome Norroar Milner


You may have noticed a distinct lack of casters and healers: once you are on the  battlefield, things might get a little dicey.

Up to two spellcasters have joined the group, and I can provide some healing through an NPC if needed.

Just make sure to keep her alive: she's the boss's girlfriend and if she dies He Will Not Be Amused.

No, he won't kill you, he'll do much worse: you'll have to pay for the resurrection out of your own pocket :P


One spellcaster, one healer, multiple heavy hitters,  I think the combat roles are fairly well filled.


The game will accept up to five players. If there are more players than slots, players will be accepted in the order their applications are confirmed.


If you are interested, and not yet in the confirmed list, PLEASE send in/complete your application ASAP.

The game won't necessarily start immediately after all applications are sent in, but once they are closed it's very unlikely they will reopen (I was expecting three players: if I get five, I won't reopen applications even if one or two drop off).
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:04, Mon 14 Nov 2016.

Any published race?
Max hp and gold for level 1?

What is WBL?

Any Paizo race. If the resulting character seems excessive, they might be targeted a lot by not-particularly-intelligent (but particularly strong) enemies.

Incidentally, if you want an Outsider race (e.g., an Aasimar), you can give them the Mostly Human racial trait from the Ifrit race.

Max hp, yes, and I don't particularly want to double-check your math, so you can have just about one of anything that fits in your slots, as long as it is reasonable for a first level character; that way, if you want your character to ride into town on a common horse (but not a war-trained one, unless it's your bonded mount), or to have a pack animal trailing behind them, you don't have to work "sold sister into slavery" into their background to afford it :P

Just, keep it reasonable: I do reserve the right to say "no, just no" to anything that seems excessive. Also, if you try to take advantage of this by selling your additional starting equipment, it will turn out... Poorly.

WBL is technically standard, but with some differences that essentially give you more money for... Nice things that don't break the game too much (check the group 1 thread).

Additionally, your characters will be able to afford any purchase of 1 gp or less without having to keep track, plus single or double rooms and meals in adventurer-level inns.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:20, Fri 11 Nov 2016.

A couple of notes about IC, taken from common RPoL conventions:

* For consistency, all posts should be in the same tense and person. It's really jarring jumping from tense to tense from one post to the next.

Now, we are telling the story of your characters: what they did, what they thought, what they felt, what they never realized was a terrible idea until it was too late.

That's third person, simple past (unless grammar overrules me, of course :P).

- What about first person present tense, which is how you play around a table?

Well, when you re-read the thread six months later, to remind yourself how we got here, a story written in third person, past tense, reads more like a novel. First person present tense reads like a log where each writer keeps handing the journal over to somebody else.

If most people prefer the "playing around the table" style, I will of course oblige, but IME the overall result is more pleasing to read and re-read in third person.

* I also strongly advise coloring your "direct speech", choosing a color unique to your character.

It helps people find out what exactly you are "saying" and thinking IC.

As for what you are saying and thinking OOC, orange text at the bottom of the post is a pretty common choice on RPoL.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:54, Sat 12 Nov 2016.

I would like red or purple for my speech, if no one objects. Red because it's easiest to type on my phone (where half my posting comes thru), or purple because I like that color on RPoL. Either is fine. :)

Pick whatever you want, just let us know which one it is.  I'll pick after the rest are done.

Purple works for me then! Apologies if I later slip back into my usual blue color scheme from *every* other game I'm in. ;)

Zhorr, your employer, is likely to post in aqua, and his girlfriend Lia is likely to post in green. If you would like to have aqua or green for your character, I can switch them to darker versions of the same color (blue and darkgreen respecively).

The introduction to episode one, your first visit to Carp on the Wall, is slowly coming up.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:47, Sat 12 Nov 2016.

ARAN POSTS IN RED!

Character sheet, user editable, up for your convenience. Feel free to put your envisioned build, and equipment wishlist, in there.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:06, Sat 12 Nov 2016.

I am used to purple,  but will try dark blue.

Added a feat in the RTJ/rules thread. Multiclass characters rejoice.

Flaws or Drawbacks?

Anything Paizo - which means, up to one Drawback. You get two free traits as well (once again, anything Paizo), but they will need approval.

Chances are they will be approved, because I am willing to allow some serious insanity, but just in case.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:38, Sun 13 Nov 2016.

You using background skills?

Yes.

One drawback.
Is that Minor (gain trait), Major (gain Feat), or our choice?

Paizo only published minor drawbacks.

So I was just asked - seeing how I am willing to allow large amounts of insanity - if I would allow Finding Haleen.

I did not know Finding Haleen.

After reading it, I thought it was unusually powerful for a feat that has no prereqs.

Imagine my surprise when I reread it and realized it was a *trait*.

For those who, like me, are not aware of it, this trait gives you +1 hp and +1 skill rank each time you level up your starting class.

That's *on top* of your favored class bonuses for that class - and worry not, the trait also makes your 1st level class a favored one, regardless of any limitations you might otherwise have, because why not.

1 hp and 1 skill rank aren't going to break the game, but this is a trait that is not only strictly better than a feat, it's strictly better than *two* feats!

By level three, it's equivalent to Toughness and Fast Learner put together, and it guarantees that your starting class is a favored one -just in case you would normally be unable to pick a favored class, or make that particular class into your favored one, or you decided to have two favored classes.

I'll have an answer as to whether or not I am willing to allow this... Thing... When the shock passes.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:22, Sun 13 Nov 2016.

So, I had a chat with one of my old GMs, just to see if I was going insane or the world was, and he suggested I disallow campaign traits that are not from the campaign we are playing.

Since this is not a published adventure path/campaign/what have you, that essentially means I am not allowing campaign traits, even from Paizo sources.

As a compensation, I will allow you to choose a custom trait balanced against other existing one, or granting half the effect of an existing feat, as your trait for the Campaign category.

Which is strictly better even than picking a campaign trait from anywhere you like, and yet still not quite in the same category as a RAW Finding Haleen.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:49, Sun 13 Nov 2016.

A couple of homebrew traits up in the house rules. The race trait is taken from a gnomish one, it can apply to other races on a case by case basis.

Almost done. Just need to decide and record on equipment.

Lol. As a relative noob to this game...this does not surprise me. Probably put in by a disgruntled employee in the same way every update for WH40k nerds one thing and boosts the race that's been getting beat up in their office skirmishes.

To the group: I went with the linguistics ater all so aside from Draconic, which either Mage should have, I'm pretty ok with talking to people.

In reply to Mysterious Ancient Wizard (msg # 20):

Only Trait I found as bad as Haleen was Heirloom Equipment. At least until they rewrote if.

What did Heirloom Equipment look like before they rewrote it? Proficiency in that weapon type and a +1 bonus? Because that's, again, two feats for the price of a trait, so yeah, technically about as bad as Finding Haleen.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:14, Wed 16 Nov 2016.

Proficiency and +1, that's correct. That was a flat +1, too, not just limited to one maneuver.

Edited the house rules, added a section on bending the rules in order to carry an additional/concealed weapon or an extra quiver or bandolier. Note that your first quiver or bandolier has its own slot (and yes it's the same slot).

Here are the things that are supposed to be in your character sheet:
[ ] Ability Scores (and levelup)
[ ] HP (and levelup)
[ ] Feats (and levelup)
[ ] Skills at level 1
[ ] Skill levelup
[ ] Class Features at level 1 (including spells)
[ ] Class Features levelup (including spells)
[ ] Equipment as level 1
[ ] Big Six Wishlist by level
[ ] Other wishlists

Notes:
- HP and levelup: sometimes you won't want your favored class bonus to go to your HP, so your hp levelup isn't always straightforward.
- Skill levelup: for your main skills, mark "every level" (or "full"), or "every two levels" (or "half").
- A levelup list for ability scores will look something like:

STR STR DEX CON CHA

or

L4 STR L8 STR L12 DEX L16 CON L20 CHA

Or something of that kind.

- A levelup list for feats would look something like

L1 Weapon Finesse
L3 Power Attack
L5 Dodge
L7 I clearly have no idea what kind of build I want

And so on :P

- A big six wishlist will look something like this:

Headband (CHA, INT - Fly, UMD) at levels 4 (+2), 10 (+2/+2 OR +4), 12 (+4/+2), 14 (+4/+4)
Belt (DEX, CON) L6 (+2), 11 (+2/+2 OR +4), 13 (+4/+2), 15 (+4/+4)
Ring (Deflection) L7, L9, L13
Amulet (Armor) 7, 12, 15
Cloak (Resistance) 2, 6, 8, 11, 12
Weapon/Armor L3 (+1) L7 (+1/+1) L9 (+2/+1) L12 (+2/+2) L14 (+3/+2) L15 (+3/+3)


Please note: Level-ups and wishlists at least until level 5 would be quite useful, just so I have an idea which direction your character is going and which items you would like to have as they level up. That means you will get certain encounters rather than others, and certain items rather than others as a consequence.
If you have clearer ideas, level-ups up to level 15 are more than welcome. Up to level 20 even, but I doubt we will get that far.

---

Character sheet status:

- Aran Kalisar:
[P] Ability Scores (and levelup)
[P] HP (and levelup)
[v] Feats (and levelup)
[v] Skills at level 1
[ ] Skill levelup (every level, every two levels, ad hoc)
[v] Class Features at level 1 (including spells)
[v] Class Features levelup (including spells)
[ ] Equipment as level 1
[P] Big Six Wishlist by level
[P] Other wishlists

- Dakash Szagdala:
[P] Ability Scores (and levelup)
[v] HP (and levelup)
[P] Feats (and levelup)
[v] Skills at level 1
[ ] Skill levelup (every level, every two levels, ad hoc)
[ ] Class Features at level 1 (including spells)
[ ] Class Features levelup (including spells)
[ ] Equipment as level 1
[ ] Big Six Wishlist by level
[ ] Other wishlists

- Gron Stonestriker
[P] Ability Scores (and levelup)
[P] HP (and levelup)
[ ] Feats (and levelup)
[ ] Skills at level 1
[ ] Skill levelup (every level, every two levels, ad hoc)
[ ] Class Features at level 1 (including spells)
[ ] Class Features levelup (including spells)
[ ] Equipment as level 1
[ ] Big Six Wishlist by level
[ ] Other wishlists

- Leonia Sunstorm:
[P] Ability Scores (and levelup)
[P] HP (and levelup)
[v] Feats (and levelup)
[v] Skills at level 1
[ ] Skill levelup (every level, every two levels, ad hoc)
[v] Class Features at level 1 (including spells)
[ ] Class Features levelup (including spells)
[P] Equipment as level 1
[ ] Big Six Wishlist by level
[ ] Other wishlists

- Norroar Milner:
[P] Ability Scores (and levelup)
[P] HP (and levelup)
[P] Feats (and levelup)
[P] Skills at level 1
[ ] Skill levelup (every level, every two levels, ad hoc)
[v] Class Features at level 1 (including spells)
[ ] Class Features levelup (including spells)
[P] Equipment as level 1
[ ] Big Six Wishlist by level
[ ] Other wishlists

---

This message was last edited by the GM at 12:39, Fri 18 Nov 2016.

What's our wealth for level 1 characters? Rolled, Max, or Average?

Also, what do your notation (P, v) mean?
This message was last edited by the player at 12:52, Fri 18 Nov 2016.

"v" is actually a poor man's checkmark, so it means "done". "P" means "Partial".

Your wealth for level 1 is "up one item for every slot you have, as long as it's not magic; any reasonable carried items; all your meals and stays in inns are considered paid".

I don't want you to count pennies. Just avoid having stuff that is clearly not meant for level 1 characters, and don't try to sell any extra equipment.

So this means no scrolls?

A reminder, please.

What are The Big Six?

From the players-only OOC thread:


The big six bonuses are the bonuses that tend to be most unbalancing, as well as suck the fun out of the game, since players tend to focus on those rather than more interesting (though less deadly) magic items.

They are also the bonuses addressed by the Automatic Bonus Progression, which is what we use to determine at what level, roughly, a certain bonus is appropriate.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:05, Fri 18 Nov 2016.

No scrolls on the first day, though the wizard gets one single solitary scroll of a spell she knows, that she crafted herself as a final exam of sort.

You may ask your employer for some consumables when he assigns you the first mission, and he might be willing to distribute about 200 gp worth of consumables.

Added a house rule (under RTJ) for fast crafting for cheap items to account for that. The wizard is likely to like it. The sorcerer might like it too. :P
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:14, Fri 18 Nov 2016.

Can I just hang on to my starting gold, then? There's not a whole lot I want to spend it on at the moment, unless you have any suggestions.

I should mention that any serious purchases in Carp on the Wall will go through your boss, who, if you read the IC thread so far, is the village's closest-thing-we-have-to-a-Mayor.

Your starting gold is as likely as not to be useless to you, since you will essentially get gold rewards scaling with your level that will often happen to match the amount you need to close the gap between what you have and what you need :)

Bottom line: don't worry overmuch about your starting gold. If you need mundane items, chances are they will be made available to you through a gentlemen's agreement.

I would suggest looking into the standard starting kits just to see if anything catches your eye.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:35, Fri 18 Nov 2016.

These "black holes" in RPoL's service are killing me. And they always seem to happen during the 2-3 hours that I am available to do serious writing. I hope they get the issue fixed cause this is three times now.

It seems jase also removed the status.rpol.net site (which was, believe it or not, hosted on his own private ADSL at home) that would let you know if rpol was up.

Not sure what's going on, RPoL never struck me as excessively needy, in terms of resources, and they always kept the server reasonably up to date, which usually meant it had plenty of horsepower to handle a normal load.

Recently there have been several unexpected black outs, not to mention severe slowdowns, and no announcements as to what caused them. Hope they figure it out soon.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:11, Sat 19 Nov 2016.

Me likey....

The good news is, pages that yesterday were generating in 400 to 4000 ms are now generated in 42-96 ms. The bad news is, not sure how many people are around to take advantage of that :P

Updated the crafting house rule so that wizards and alchemists can no longer make 20 to 40 items per day. It was a bit much.

---

Edit: Well, here's hoping RPoL is back to full functionality. Most pages are now generating at less than 0.1 seconds for me, so whatever the problem was it seems to be gone for now.

---

If you can find the time to complete your charsheet, please drop me a line afterwards so I can have a look at it, and ideally and mark it as done.

The important bits for this month (i.e., the ones needed so that we can start the game) are:

- Ability Scores (and levelup)
Ideally you already figured out your stat level-ups while assigning your ability scores, so saying "DEX DEX DEX CON CHA" or something of that sort that shouldn't be *too* hard.

- HP (and levelup)
Here the question you want to answer is: "where am I you putting my favored class bonuses"? Everything else is a fixed value, so it should be fairly simple to write down your hp advancement, even if just in the form of (+x/lvl); even if they change, it should be fairly easy to figue out. Say you pick up toughness at L3, and raise your CON to 14 at L4, and get a belt of +2 CON at level 6: you can write:

HP 10 (+7/lvl) [27 +8/lvl @L3; 39 +9/lvl @L4; 63 +10/lvl @L6]

That is fairly reasonable, and it covers you all the way up to at least level 12, even if for some reason you focus your ability score increases and magic items purchases on CON. Since nobody is playing a scarred witch doctor, I'm not sure why they would, but there you have it :P

- Feats (and levelup)
Ideally, you would know where your character is going. Figuring out what you want to spend your first 3 or 4 feats on shouldn't be too hard. Remember you get two free traits, and can get an extra one if you pick a drawback. Incidentally, if you have a caster level, consider picking up craft arms and armor at level 5, and/or craft rings at level 7, so that the entire group can benefit from some additional discounts. I will remind you that your local blacksmith cannot craft magic weapons, only magic armor, so you don't get a discount there unless somebody in the group picks up the feat.

Example time again: a melee-type non-fighter might do something like

L1 Power Attack
L3 Furious Focus
L5 Cleave
L7 Great Cleave

It doesn't seem that bad, does it? It should be fairly simple for you to figure out something like this for your own character, since you probably know what you want to do with them.

- Skills at level 1
- Class Features at level 1 (including spells)
- Equipment as level 1
This is the bare minimum to start the game, should be pretty self-explanatory.

---

The scary stuff, explained:

- Skill levelup
This only *looks* bad, and that's because you probably don't realize that, by and large, you've already done it.

Here's how it works:
* Some skills you will want to keep maxed. Just put (full) at the end of the skill line.
* Some skills need to keep leveling up, but one rank every two levels is enough. Put (half) at the end of the skill line.
* Some skills are important because they are a prereq for something. For instance, you may want to pick up Dervish Dance at some point, and you need two points in Perform. For those skills, put a short reminder at the end, e.g. (L1, L2).
* Some skills you want a single rank in (e.g., swim and climb, or maybe a Profession skill for flavor). You don't have to do anything there, put in the line as normal and don't add anything at the end.

Do note that, if you have skills that you want only a single rank in, you will be left with some unused ranks after the first few levels. If you want to add one "flavor" skill per level with a single rank, maybe put the level you are going to pick it up at after the skill line, as a reminder for yourself as much as anything else.

That's is. It's nothing new, and you probably have a fairly clear idea of what you want to do here, I'm just asking you to formalize it a little :)


- Class Features level-up (including spells)
This is a bit more complex, but again, by and large you've already figured it out: your character needs to make certain choices as they advance in level, but presumably you know what those choices are going to be, at least for the first five to ten levels. Note that five levels of class features, for most classes, amounts to three, maybe four choices, one of which you've already made at level 1.

- Big Six Wishlist by level
This is probably the most complicated and easiest list of all - because you're not really used to it, but the Automatic Bonus Progression table pretty much spells it all out for you.

For instance, it says "3rd Resistance +1", and then the next time it says "resistance" it's at level 8, and then at level 10, so you can list:

Cloak: L3, L8, L10

And you are copying the table. Since you get a discount, you will usually be able to afford objects one level earlier, so you would write

Cloak: L2, L7, L9

And since it's a Big Six item, we know that the cloak is actually a cloak of resistance.

So, why am I asking for it? Mostly because the list says "physical prowess", and maybe you want DEX, maybe you wnt ST, maybe you want CON. The list says "mental prowess", maybe you want INT, maybe you want WIS, maybe you want CHA. The list says "+2/+2 or +3" (btw, if you have a +x shield, you get to keep it when you level up and get a +y armor: you don't have to trade it in for the additional +1) and I need to know what exactly you would like that +x to be.

Also, some armors and weapons are special (e.g., Celestial armors, or weapons with a special, non-+x bonus), and we will have to discuss those: not springing them on the GM will result in you actually getting the closest reasonable thing to what you want (which may be the exact thing you wanted, or maybe even something stronger).

You may have noticed that, if I cannot give you what you want, I try to give you something better - if in a different way.

So, tell me what you want, and see if I end up giving you something better ;)

- Other wishlists
This should be the fun part. You get to kit out your character with magic items that aren't in the big six list. Some of them will be consumables (scrolls/potions/wands/other), some of them will be useful items, some of them will be things that you looked at and said "hey, this sounds fun!"

As an example of useful stuff... Would you like some Muleback Cords*? A Handy Haversack? Maybe a Circlet of Persuasion?

Your WBL at levels 2/3/4/5 is 1000/3000/6000/10500; you need to spend half of it for non-big-six stuff, so you have 500/1500/3000/5250 gp to put here.

You get a 40% discount too, so Muleback Cords only cost you 600, a Handy Haversack 1200, and a Circlet of Persuasion is a steal at 2700 gp.

If you add them to your list at levels 3, 4, and 5 respectively, you will also have some money left over for consumables.

And here comes the other funny part: you can choose your consumables using whatever money you have left over from buying other cool items, and you get to 1) keep them as you level up and 2) refill them after each adventure for free. Yep, starbucks-style potions, you get free refills :P

At level 2, you pretty much have 500 gp worth of consumables, and it only gets better from there.

Good times.

Now, you might be thinking: wait, didn't I spend 600 for that cloak of resistance?

Well, I already mentioned I don't want you to count pennies, so, to keep things simple, half of your WBL goes to consumables and fancy items, even if technically you spent a little more than half on the big six bonuses.

If you get a little more WBL than you strictly should, the Sun will still rise in the morning.

Just try to be sensible: if something is supereffective, you should probably try to limit its use to big encounters, otherwise I'll have to make every encounter big enough to warrant its use.

A good rule of thumb is "try not to start an arms race with your GM, because the GM always has more arms than you do" ;P

* Muleback cords aren't necessarily useful for our game, given the special rules for carry weight that I apply, but 1) I will actually try to find a way to make them useful if you do in fact want them, and 2) it's a good example of a relatively low-level item that is normally both useful and just expensive enough that they make you think "I have to save up for my cloack/belt/headband/whatever, I can't afford those".
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:30, Sat 19 Nov 2016.

Where can we find this Automatic Bonus Progression table you speak of?

Same as everything else:

Here

or

Here

I meant to ask this at the start of the week, but are we putting our [memorized] spells on our character sheet, or in a separate thread that we will update after each rest period? Either way is fine with me, but I understand some GMs get nervous when their characters keep editing things on their sheets every day. ;)

Did you want progressions in the same area as level 1 stats, or separate section?

A heads-up: between family and work, my time and concentration for RPoL are both pretty well shot, so expect a bit of a slow ride:P

Spells: I will create an additional thread for everything that relates to your daily stuff as well as your consumables. That does have the unfortunate side effect of having to constantly update that thread when, for instance, you shoot arrows, at least for the first few levels (until you get an efficient quiver and we stop counting them unless they are magic), but tracking potions and wand charges and whatnot is always going to be a pain regardless of how you do it.

Progression: Each player has a different character sheet format; as long as the information is in there it's fine :) I just want to be able to find it when preparing the next event.

Random rant: every time I re-read the ABP rules and try to figure out how to factor special abilities into a proper bonus progression, I want to bang my head against tha wall.

This gem in particular makes me want to throttle the author: "In this system, adding bonus-equivalent special abilities to items costs significantly less because you are paying only for the special ability, not for a base enhancement bonus (see the table below)."

Then he makes an example where a 20k sword would instead cost 18k. And if that were all, well, a <10% discount is *not* what I would call "significant", but that would still be sort of OK.

However, that is not all. Not by a long shot. See, you have to pay for the special ability out of your own enhancement bonus, even though you already paid for it out of your WLB.

Which effectively means that, to get a +3 sword with a +2 special, you pay the full price of a +3 (from your ABP), *plus the price of another +3* (from your WBL), minus the price of a +1. Effectively, you pay 190% the base price of the weaponn.

That is... Not significantly less. In fact, that would be the polar opposite of significantly less.

Which is why I did not actually go for this system and instead used it as a guideline for what you can get.

(In case you're interested, the minimum price you could pay for a special weapon would be based of something like a +1 keen, which you could then carry all the way to +4 keen using your own bonus... But even then you would still pay the full price of a 5 (from your ABP), plus the price of a +2 (from your WBL), minus the price of a -1. Which is still a 12% price increase, so "significantly less" my shiny metal axe.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:02, Sat 26 Nov 2016.

To be fair, when our city raised property taxes from 3.4% to 4.1% there was an uproar, but when the water bills went up 28% must people just shrugged. Yes the end dollar values were different, but clearly the later percentage hike of utilities was 'more significant' than the other.

Probably not the kind of analogy that helps this situation. ;)

Once upon a time, in a country that shall remain unnamed, a certain prominent politician built his presidential (*) campaign on the promise of lowering taxes. Upon being elected, he set out to do just that.

Now, as you probably know, from a budgetary standpoint, every law or decree that requires a financial backing (such as, say, funding hospitals and schools, or building new infrastructure) is required to provide said backing in some form. You can't just say "we are hiring more teachers", you have to explain where that money is coming from in your budget.

Similarly, when you are proposing a reduction of your income, you have to explan how you plan to compensate for that reduction.

So, he proposed his tax reform, which was promptly approved - by the same parliament and senate that had been elected with him, and had therefore campaigned with him on the same platform.

The key point of the reform were the tax cuts, which were exactly as he had promised. The required financial backing? It was procured by raising taxes, of course. And yes, they were, by and large, the same taxes that were being cut on another page of the same reform.

If you don't quite understand how that is possible, well, during that same term, the Minister of Economy was able to make the same money appear in the budget of two (possible three) fiscal years.

Oy vey...


(*) Technically, I suppose the correct term would be "prime ministerial" or some such, but that's a bit of a mouthful.

The game starts in the little hamlet of Carp on the Wall, which each of your characters will be visiting on the same day, each for their own reason.

Carp on the Wall, which some old stories refer to as Ship Stay, is a bit of an oddity: strange stories have bgun circulating recently, about the unusual prosperity the village has reached in recent years, but the amount of factual information in these stories amounts to "a friend of a friend of a friend of my cousin's girlfriend sayd that they heard".

Whatever your character's interests, chances are you heard some story that convinced you to visit it.

The world is Golar-ish, so if yo look at a map of Golarion Carp on the Wallwould be located around the chitterwood area, on the Cheliax side of the river... However, an earthquake caused the flow of the riverbed to change a few centuries ago, so the proper border is kind of contested.

"Kind of" because... Nobody really cares about Carp on the Wall.

Yet.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:22, Sat 26 Nov 2016.

If we are starting the game within the town, that will push me to memorize 'non-combat' spells at the beginning of the adventure. If we are just doing a narrative and moving immediately to a wilderness or dungeon setting after some minor research/diplomacy/conversation, then I'll start with the battle setup. :)

You are assumed to be arriving to the village on this particular day; you'll presumably be travelling by road, but bandits are a thing, and so are monsters, so you probably want at least a mild combat setup, since you will be traveling through the wilderness.

Leaving an open slot is an option, but at first level you migt want to pack as much firepower as possible.

Not that divine casters have much in the way of fire, unless they take an elemental domain :P

So, aside from that forward-list of magic items you want from us, and the 8-slot thing for our character items, [or are they the same thing?], I am ready to go, right DM?

Aside from the advancement stuff yes. Note that the lack of advancement stuff means you won't serendipitously find your advancement stuff and may have to wait a while before it becomes available :)

Knowing your planned feats and class features would be good as well.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:50, Wed 30 Nov 2016.

So, are we good as far as my planned advancement is concerned? Tried to layer in anything I could think of.

Right. I put those in a private message to you last week but haven't transferred them over to the sheet yet. I'll do that before Saturday night. Tabletop gaming tonight and time with family tomorrow night.

So, to review...

- Leonia is pretty much done.

- Aran should be OK for the next 5 levels, and still mostly OK for the following 6: I assume we'll know more when we get there.

- Dakash needs a little work in terms of figuring out his wishlist, but we could start with him as-is in a pinch.

- Norroar is missing more than a few bits and pieces, starting with his starting gear, including weapons and armor. After that there is some math to be done (attack bonus and damage, AC, save throws), and of course the advancement.

- Gron... Has base stats and a description.

So, if we start now, Norroar cannot enter combat, and Gron cannot do most things (he cannot roll much of anything without a skill set or a defined class).
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:59, Wed 30 Nov 2016.

I got skillsd up, working on equipment.  Been hecktick.  Sorry.

Two posts up in the "for the players" thread, one of them being hooks for your characters' reasons to be in that particular place at that particular time.

It's completely appropriate for Aran to just be FROM the area.

From Cheliash in general, absolutely; bear in mind, Carp on the Wall is tiny and out of the way, most people will never go anywhere near the place, unless they have reason to, for instance, cross the border without being noticed, or are looking for something in particular in that area.

If Aran were, for instance, considering leaving Cheliash (and why would he ever want to do that? :P), he might decide to explore his options, and stop by Carp on the Wall for the night as he does so. Maybe talk to the people there, get a better idea of what to expect, possibly prepare for the trip for a couple of days...
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:13, Thu 01 Dec 2016.

So, to recap:

- Aran is from the region and probably heard some stories about Carp on the Wall. People might be able to cross the border there, maybe move to a place where non-humans aren't automatically considered as potential slaves.

- Leonia will probably come from the other side of the border, having heard stories from a scholar about a lost spell, said to be especially useful for wizards caught in close combat, allegedly having been "found again" by somebody who might or might not now live in Carp on the Wall.

- Dakash heard stories about legends, and legends about stories, tied to the place Carp on the Wall was built upon. Trying to find out why that place would be special in the first place only served to make things even more vague, so he decided to check it out himself.

Aran, if you could please start on your introductory post... Check out the IC thread for an idea; it should essentially be your character arriving near the village, with a brief description so that we start getting to know him.

Now, Leonia and Dakash could have met by chance; for instance, one of them might have been asking an innkeeper about Carp on the Wall when the other overheard. So, if you would like to arrive in Carp on the Wall at the same time, please get a private thread going to work out a joint introduction.


* You will all arrive on the same day. This isn't coincidence, it's destiny ;) *

Dakash, that's a powerful Class ability (empower healing). What archetype or domain is responsible?

It's the Lv 1 Blessing for the Healing 'domain', straight from the PF page of the Warpriest. Again, though, it's only 3 + 1/2 lv times a day, and it is a shared ability with the one from Magic, which is the thrown weapon attack blessing.

Yes, though, very nice to have that in the back pocket. :)

Minor edit to Dakash's post, I think it's slightly clearer if the uses of the Blessing ability are moved into their own header, since they are shared.

Also, you are level 1, so it's 3/day not 4/day.

Actually, doesn't entry say 3+ lvl/2 (minimum +1)? Most abilities in this game have that 'minimum +1'.

Slight change of subject [as I'll take either the 3 or 4 but thought we round up in favor of the PC]...what are the official "magic item slots"?

The list I found is kind of weird: Belt, Body, Chest, Eyes, Feet, Hand, Head, Neck, Shoulders, Wrist. It does not include weapons, has two spaces for the torso, and I am a bit confused. I thought there were only 8, but again this is my first PF game so I've only read and watched others play.

Also, what if it comes to pass that two of us have listed/requested the same item? When we find it in a hoard or as a reward, I'm sure the DM has worked out how we'll distribute these things, but it seems that it would make for a realistic awkwardness at first. ;)

Dakash, you distribute items as you see fit, with a bit of roleplay and some realistic evaluation of your characters' needs and abilities. The rules for equipment you foud are the ones we are using, you also get two slots for your weapos and the other slots described in the rules,

Leonia, AFAIR most abilities actually have "level/{number} + {modifier} (minimum 1)", not +1, because an attribute modifier might otherwise make your total 0, or even negative. This entry is not based on an attribute modifier, so it does not have a minimum.

Ah. Apologies for the assumption.

So can (should) I post to the game thread? Or am I waiting for a specific lead-in post from you, DM? Wasn't sure if this adventure was going to begin focused on our fire wizard and the rest of us would be brought in separately.

If Aran is done, go ahead and post. I thought you and Leonia were working out a joint post though?

I responded to her pm but haven't heard anything back, though it's only been a short time since.

I have all day tomorrow off and a couple hours open tonight so I'll post something in the very near future to kick me (us) off if she doesn't first. :)

Please do, I think Aran's scene is good enough for now. In fact, if you guys were to arrive at the inn right now it would probably be an excellent interruption.

Apologies...my "day off" consisted largely of inspecting the house my evicted tenants left behind and then filing a police report for all the stuff they stole and the damage they caused, then cleaning it out. Ugh.

I'll get on a post right now, but am behind my own schedule in other things now in this game. :(

If you have knowledge local you can attempt a DC 20 roll.

I'm off Larping for the weekend. See you Sunday!

Seriously folks, if you want to switch to present tense just say so. I told you, I do tend to prefer past tense, but I am not married to it.

As long as our tenses are consistent.

Gah. My fault.

Haha I always use the same tense in one post but sometimes switch between posts. It's a creative gene I can't easily suppress. But I'll try!

I understand completely, it's just that six months from now we'll be reading back through old posts to figure out exactly how we got in this mess^W^W^Wto the current point in the story and having consistent tenses is going to make swimming through the ocean of posts much easier.

Oops I saved my wishlist to my scratchpad instead of putting it on my character sheet. I'll fix that tonight after work!

So I was reading a FAQ for Change Shape and hats of disguises and... Yeah, no.

1) Hats of disguise provide a continuous effect once activated: you do not have to reactivate them every ten minutes or less. That was a dumb answer.

2) No matter what the text says, Alter Self *can* be used to take the appearance of a specific individual - it just doesn't work flawlessly. Essentially, you are transforming into a creature that matches a detailed description of the individual you are trying to imitate. Not quite as good as veil, but good enough for government work :P You get the +5 modifier for "minor details only", and the normal penalties do not apply.

3) Related: you can always retake the appearance of a previous shape you took with alter self, even if alter self technically does not allow you to take on the appearance of a specific individual: that alternate form is your "normal" or "base" form for the characteristics you imbued in it when you cast the spell (or used your special ability if applicable); you always take that form when you use that spell or that ability in that particular way. If you can choose multiple different shapes (i.e., if you are using alter self as a spell or a SLA, or you have a SQ that gives you multiple different shapes), you can take on a different form by focusing on a slightly (or entirely) different template, and that template will also always look the same when you try to use it.

Good grief, was it that hard?
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:24, Tue 13 Dec 2016.

I swear, if the MAW trots out the phrase "I'll be a monkey's uncle", it'll go hard for the gm.

Am I the only one who remembers the advertisements in the back of the comic books that let you order a live spider monkey as a pet?

Now now, my puns are much worse than that :P

Sorry for the delay all.  Busy time.

Gron, remember you get two points from your background skills, to be assigned to background skills.

The list of skills considered "background":

Appraise
Artistry (NEW)
Craft
Handle Animal
Knowledge (engineering)
Knowledge (geography)
Knowledge (history)
Knowledge (nobility)
Linguistics
Lore (NEW)
Perform
Profession
Sleight of Hand

Hmm. I must have missed the Lore one. Seems like it would be right up my alley! Hmm.

What does Artistry & Lore do?

They are "background" versions of Craft and Knowledge, respectively. Artistry focuses on creating works of art, while Lore is essentially Knowledge, but with limited scope.

Background skills selected.

Gron, I must confess I am having a hard time parsing your introduction. Did you post from a cell phone or something? It seems like some words are not what they should be, and I can't quite figure out which ones:

"which echoed that his son would have severely after his death, a terrible wound in service to a dead king."

Er...is my wishlist for items an acceptable format? I haven't heard back from you if you want it pared down or if you're happy being given more choices.

In reply to Mysterious Ancient Wizard (msg # 92):

Sounds like the auto-correct I have on MY phone, hard at work.

DYAC [Damn You AutoCorrect] is one of the most hilarious sites I've visited in several years. Top ten for sure.

Did I... Accidentally link you to TVTropes or something? There goes an hour of my life. And then another :P

As for the wishlist... It kinda works and kinda misses the point at the same time :)

It's quite literally supposed to be the list of things your character would wish for on each given level, knowing that if they wish for things that are too powerful for them they will not get them.

I can use it as-is, but it won't be quite as good as it would otherwise be when your reward turns out to be the thibg you least wanted instead of the thing you wanted the most.

Also, just pointing out: if you find magic weapons with special abilities, they will be +1+1 at mid levels (e.g., +1 keen or +1 agile), +1+1+1 later (uncommonly +1+2), and at high levels +1+1+2.

+1+3 will probably never happen (unless you craft the weapon yourselves, of course), and a +4 special ability requires a +5 weapon: I doubt we'll get to that level.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:14, Tue 20 Dec 2016.

Ok, so I will go through and slash out all but one thing in each location for each step increase in power levels. I'm just not comfortable with the whole concept of pre-building my treasure rewards like I am my level-up bonuses. It makes it feel like I'm...eh, I don't know. Like I'm dictating what my character's worth is, or like telling Santa "I said I wanted a bb gun, not a hobby horse!" You get what you find and make the best of it, or trade/sell in a big city to get what you want, in my limited experience.

Since you brought up the Santa analogy, let me remind you that you are actually supposed to ask something specific in your letter, not just reassure him that you've been a good kid all year ;)

That said, Christmas does not come every day, and your wishlist isn't automatically guaranteed to happen. It's just a list of things your character would very much like to have so that, when a reward is being handed out, they do in fact get the present they asked Santa, instead of a handmade sock :P
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:10, Tue 20 Dec 2016.

We wish you a merry Xmas, we wish you a merry Xmas,we wish you a merry Xmas, and the Efreeti cackles maniacally.

Roll call: who's still playing?

Because if I have to retune the adventure for two/three characters I would like to know before I introduce the first challenge :P

Me!!

Here!

Here.

Dakash, I think you misread that post: what Uldus was saying is that, in this setting, Asmodean (the LE ruler of Hell) is giving followers of Iomedea (the LG goddess most Paladins pray to) more freedom than he gives to pretty much any other religion.

There is no latent hatred or special bigotry against Paladins, at least paladins of Iomedea. On the contrary, her followers are viewed more favorably than those of pretty much any other god - except of course Asmodean himself.

(And in canonical Golarion, Iomedae the LG goddess of law and justice and all that is pure and good speaks to exactly one evil god. One guess who that is, and no prize for getting it right :P

That's not to say that she trusts him any farther than she can throw him, but at least they are on speaking terms.)

Despite this, you find more hellknights than paladins in Chelian, even if you only consider the LG ones.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:29, Thu 29 Dec 2016.

You're right, that is not how I read the post you made. I'm kind of feeling lazy, though, so maybe I'll just let it stand and we can assume Dakash also misunderstood the woman's remarks. :)

Dakash is starting to look like a rather absent-minded character. Fair enough.

Oh, and Uldus is a dude :P
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:12, Fri 30 Dec 2016.

No, he's definitely full-minded. He's just trying to sort out what's currently real and what's historical real. ;)

Just re-affirming it. ;)

It looks like we've lost Aran then, and Gron doesn't seem to have anything to add. I was hoping to justify his presence at the morning meeting, maybe get some player-to-player interaction...

Anyway, I will assume that you are all taking a room for the night, and adjourn to the morrow. If anybody has anything to add, speak now or forever hold your peace.

Uldus will not add much to the conversation, he was a bit confused by Dakash's reply and he's not the smartest Vanara in the village to begin with. Feel free to ask Zhorr for clarifications later on.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:09, Fri 06 Jan 2017.

Cast says Aran logged in yesterday, unless that was just to PM you that they're out. Bummer.

It's been a while since I GM'd on RPoL, I occasionally forget some of the things you can do (e.g., seeing when a player last logged in :P).

No PM, I guess he missed the roll call.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 13:05, Fri 06 Jan 2017.

I've actually gotten flak from people who think I'm spying on them when I remind then how often they log in and don't post. Um...get your shizzle together and I won't feel compelled to point it out. ;)

That said, unless there's a chance for purchasing special/unique/historical items I've always just hand waved the shopping experience. My apologies if I seemed uninterested because I didn't jump into the 'pay for the room' conversation.

It was more about the ale, really - giving your characters get a chance to get inadvertently plastered :P

Like Aran, who thought he could easily down three meads... He just found out that these are actually ice-distilled drinks, and he will need some help to get to his room :P

Also, since nobody seems able to kep posting in past tense for two posts straight, I am going to open a new thread, and this one will be in present tense.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:22, Fri 06 Jan 2017.

Yeah, I just missed that you asked for a roll call. I'm still here!

I'll post tonight after work and/or dinner.

So Dakash goes and fondles (the statue of) a naked angel. Uldus is not going to stop him. Does anybody want to respond to that?
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:07, Sun 08 Jan 2017.

I couldn't think of a more descriptive adjective than caress, at that moment while I was writing. I mean, if it's marble or porcelain-like, then yes, that's what I did. If it's rougher but only looks smooth, he's somewhat less impressed.

The statue is as smooth as marble can get (which is to say, quite). It's also very realistic, to the point that if it actually came to life you wouldn't be surprised. So far, however, it hasn't moved. If it's alive, it's not ticklish.

If Gron decided that he would like to meet the mayor (e.g., due to an off-screen conversation with Tessa), he has been included in the group, and can politely (or less politely, if he so desires) point out to Dakash that marble doesn't react well to skin oils. As far as I know nobody else has knowledge in stone working - Gron is a dwarf, so he has some knowledge regardless of skill ranks, just by virtue of having been exposed to master stone workers in his youth.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:20, Sun 08 Jan 2017.

Wanna make sure I have this right. Statue floats in, while he is in armor and talking. Either a Still, Silent telekinesis spell with no arcane failure , or an Unseen Servant.

Yes, you got it exactly right. The doors also opened on their own, and with the way he took the statue your best guess is Unseen Servant.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:31, Tue 10 Jan 2017.

I'll make an appropriate repines tonight. I've had long days at work and a birthday yesterday but didn't want to let too much go by in the scene without posting once. What looks like a snub of the offered figurine is not; I'll elaborate later in my post.

Lia is (loosely) based on a Japanese girl stereotype. The operative word being stereotype: the less you know about actual real-life Japan, the more she will match your expectations. If you have in-depth knowledge of Japanese culture, you are better off imagining her as an alien from outer space.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:28, Fri 13 Jan 2017.

Does PF use a Passive skill set like 5e D&D (10+bonus)? If so then my general perception is an 18 but I'll roll now and post later for the actual result, if it's higher.

You may take 10 on any check(*) while not threatened or distracted, but if you do that's your result. You don't usually know your target for things you don't already know either IC or OOC (i.e., you know that, for instance, crafting a certain item has a certain DC, or that identifying a certain creature usually requires a result of 10+CR, but you don't know the Sense Motive result to detect someone's Bluff, partly because you don't know if they are bluffing in the first place).

(*) Technically, there are a couple of exceptions, the big one being Use magic Device.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:45, Fri 13 Jan 2017.

I rolled exceptionally well for perception but am not sure what it was for, so I suppose that just means you can tell me/us what I spot? Didn't want to make a post stating "Dakash looks around and sees..." Lol

I think you missed the latest post :)

Whoopsie! You're right. I'll get on it now.

I have a flight today, so I'm not sure I'll be able to post anything.

I just read Gron's description...he was a Rogue? Highwayman? Burglar?

Is there a chance to get a henchman/hireling/NPC to fill his boots if he skips town?

This might make me change some of my future plans for skill point allocation.

He was a ranger.

Originally, in case we ended up without a trapfinder, the role was supposed to be filled by Lia, but right now she's way too high level (a side effect of adjusting stuff so that I can set you guys up with Nice Things - and Nasty Things to use them on :P).

I will send somebody your way when traps start to be a thing...

Probably a quiet support character with a Trapfinding special rather than a proper rogue, one who will stay in the background doing support-y things while you guys do main character-y things :P

Incidentally, check out the variant multiclassing rules from Unchained: if you are interested, they are available to you before you reach level 2.

Also, Lia will bring a wand of Gentle Repose (as a 2nd level spell with a CL of 3) and ask one of you to do the honors.

All of you can use the wand without having to make UMD checks, since spell trigger items don't make a difference between arcane and divine, regardless of who created them, and gentle repose is on both the cleric and the sorcerer/wizard lists.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:35, Wed 18 Jan 2017.

You'll have to point me to it on the Unchained multiclass thing, because I've scoured the OGC fairly well and can't find it anywhere [unless you mean the section with 4 unchained classes on the middle left, with Barb, Rogue, et al]. But I did see the Automatic Progression table you were talking about a while back, again.

It seems they are not on d20pfsrd and you have to go directly to the Paizo site to get them.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG...ntMulticlassing.html

They look rather underpowered, but then again so does most of Unchained, and they might have some useful stuff.

Note that you don't get anything other than what the variant specifies: if you variant-multiclass a wizard, for instance, you don't get spell slots. Or a spellbook.

They do offer a way to build a full caster gish with spellstrike, so, you know, there's that. Critting your spells on a 15-20 is always nice.

In Akane's case, it's a way to turn the local low-level Bard into a roguish asset for your group.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:51, Wed 18 Jan 2017.

I'll look thru it this weekend.

So...have we leveled up yet? ;)

Lol

I'll give you two epic encounters, then level you up. This is faster than the normal fast advancement, but if I stick to fast advacement we'll be here until our great-grandchildren's graduations.

In fact, if the first encounter takes too long to complete I might even skip the second one.

Basically I want you to have a chance to get aquainted with your character's current abilities before unlocking the next tier, and see how they work out overall, so I can tailor the next step to the group's abilities.

I've never been a fan of double-posting, so I'll let Leonia discuss what she's found or seen [or not] before I post again, if you don't mind.

No problem. I made a few rolls from my phone, but until I get to a computer, I cannot cut/paste the rolls themselves. Possibly later tonight.

I have a feeling I forgot something... Please let me know if something seems amiss.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:09, Sat 21 Jan 2017.

Do please note: wands are spell trigger items, which means that if the spell is on your list you don't ned to UMD them. Spell trigger itemsdo not have specific requirements for spll type (arcane/divine) caster level or spell level, as long as the spell is on your list.

That's why the warpriest entry specifically indicates that cleric spells higher than 6th level are not on the warpriest's list: without that entry, warpriests could use a staff of a spell of 7th level or higher without UMD.

This being pathfinder, spells from an opposition school are still on your list, so you still don't need to UMD them.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:46, Sun 22 Jan 2017.

I know, but emulating the Priest class to trigger the wand adds flavor and a bit of roleplay. Looks impressive too.

And is just as effective as smacking the *actual* priest in the group in the back of the head.

"Look at me! I be priesting!"  :P

Does anybody want to add something before I bring in the lizardbird? :P

I am also waiting on a potential new player to replace the MIA Gron, a Half-Elf Hunter to share tanking duties with Dakash.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:30, Mon 23 Jan 2017.

No new player, unfortunately... Which means the encounter will have to be slightly easier than originally intended.

At this point it's up to your characters to decide when they want to go out: the longer they wait, the harder it's going to be to find the swarm; by the early afternoon, Zhorr will have enough vermin repellent for everybody, and one antitoxin as well - but no more than that, since they don't usually stock more than one and it takes a long time to make.

That's ok. Once I hit 4th I'll be unstoppable! Er...for a few rounds.

Might not post til tomorrow. At work now and plans after. Will see.

The scent we followed was on the corpse, correct? We've theorized that the scent led the swarm to the victim?

You know that the scent was in the area, it may or may not have been stronger on the body, but there is no way to tell. It was a mostly eaten corpse after all...

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG...lls/negateAroma.html

"Finally, prestidigitation lacks the power to duplicate any other spell effects."

So, unfortunately, Prestidigitation is not enough.

It can wash away acquired odors in the same way taking a bath would, but I'm not sure what the purpose would be here.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:37, Mon 30 Jan 2017.

Damn......

Quoted from edit: It can wash away acquired odors in the same way taking a bath would, but I'm not sure what the purpose would be here.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:38, Mon 30 Jan 2017.

Trying to not smell like corpse after examining it. Dont want to attract the swarm,too.

You might be able to make your clothing smell like something unattractive to the swarm?

You can clean your companions, but you followed the smell that attracts the swarm: either this is where the swarm lives (so the smell you picked up was from the swarm itself), or this is where the herbs/flowers/whatevers that were used to attract the swarm were gathered.

Either way, since this is where the smell comes from, it doesn't seem like cleaning up the smell you acquired from the corpse would help overmuch, other than not to smell like dead people.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:17, Mon 30 Jan 2017.

So, are Dakash and Leonia going in there? Is Aran following?

Aran's totally following!

Well I don't have an actual oil-soaked torch baton like adventurers usually use here. As long as I'm assured that the makeshift torch of mine won't fall apart unceremoniously then yes I'm good to go. I'll make two backup torches so the other folks can carry one unlit for now.

You will be attacking with an improvised weapon. It would also be fragile, but you aren't really *hitting* anything.

I have successfully removed the rolls of 1 and 2 from the dice roller. Someone else can now claim success in these two skill checks.

So...the problem inherent in the world of play-by-post rears it's ugly head. I announce my actions but go last. A comrade is injured, and could use healing to remain conscious but I've already rolled and posted my actions. So, despite the reality that Aran is hurt, I am forced to continue with the [seemingly] selfish act of protecting myself with a SoF, instead of walking over and curing the wound(s).

Perhaps something can be done to remedy this. Burn the B/Disarm spell to cast CLW on him, instead of SoF. I think this will be a recurring issue unless we address it early on.

Made my WP test, so I wouldn't have been shaken and unable to do this.

You didn't necessarily see Aran get wounded: you started casting your spell, and by the time you were done the entire thing had happened.

Some RPG have the players declare at the beginning of their turn, or even deliver notes to the GM instead of declaring their actions aloud, specifically to simulate the fact that everything happens at the same time and the characters would not be able to coordinate with the precision you see players display on a DnD table.

Roll Intelligence. If you get a 12 or better, Dakash remembers that swarms ignore SoF anyway, and rethinks his action before he starts casting - and, in the time it takes him to remember that information, he notices the swarm attacking Aran, meaning he can now swap out a spell and cure him instead.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:36, Fri 03 Feb 2017.

I'm not particularly a fan of 'Everything happens at the same time'. It undermines concepts that revolve around adapting to your situation and being reactive, and in the middle of a combat is the worst time to figure out that you're running that way (though, I will say we have had lots of opportunity to ask).

One of the ways I've run initiative in PBP is that everyone rolls initiative and you take the average initiative of the PC's and NPC's, and whichever group has the higher average initiative goes first. If the enemies go first, PC's are still considered flat-footed if their individual initiative score is lower than the NPC initiative and vice-versa.

I suppose there's no way I can make this look like an unbiased assessment considering the situation, but that's my two-cents.

Is it possible to do a free action between the moment I finish casting a spell while staggered and before I fall unconscious?

Is this an Enchantment effect?

11:37, Today: Dakash Szagdala rolled 20 using 1d20+2.  intel check.

Leonia: it's [emotion, fear, mind-affecting], necromancy school.

Aran: I'm more "running with it" than "running it that way".

I'm not particularly a fan of that method, it's an artifact of being in a PbP more than anything else, but it also maks its own kind of sense: in the middle of combat you don't have much time to think. You see something, start reacting in a certain way, then something else happens, and you change your actions completely? It's possible, but it's something you'd espect from a seasoned veteran, not a newbie.

On the flip side, you can certainly prepare for certain contingencies. On the first round of combat, you can decide your reactions in case certain events happen. Just put them in a PM, and if those event take place then your chosen reaction overrides your stated actions for that round. And you can of course decide to revise your stance at the beginning of each turn, to adapt to the new circumstances.

Also, Aran, you are not unconscious: you are at 0 hp, which means you are staggered and cannot take strenuous actions. If you do take a strenuous action (essentially anything harder than a single move action per round) you take one point of damage and become unconscious. That happens at the end of the turn, so if you decide to cast a spell and make all the requisite rolls it does take effect.

Finally, if you don't pass the will save, the "shaken" condition gives you a -2 to a number of things, but does not otherwise impair your ability to act.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:28, Fri 03 Feb 2017.

Yeah, if you have flint and steel, you can still light a,torch.

Stupid question. Would swarms be affected by color spray?

Swarms are mindless so they are not affected by color spray. They do, however, take 1.5x damage from splash weapons, and while by RAW this could be interpreted to mean that they take 1.5 point of damage from alchemist fire and flasks of acid... Nobody in their right mind runs it that way.

Aran, as an elemental bloodline sorcerer you get burning hands at level 3, As such, you, quite rasonably, did not put it in your list of spells known at level 1.

Unfortunately this means that you don't have it for this particular encounter.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:59, Sat 04 Feb 2017.

I have it once per day as an SLA because I'm an IFRIT!

My bad, completely forgot about that. Good job then :)

Burning hands gets an additional 50% damage but it's d4 not d6.

If you can somehow put together 16 points of damage, the swarm will decide it has better things to do than getting burned, dissolved, and otherwise maimed. The mite contemplating the hardness of the ground doesn't seem particularly inclined to continue fighting, either, and will try to run... Or, rather, limp away. Its brethren would very much like to see you all dead, however,

So, to revise the first turn: Dakash was preparing to cast Shield of Faith, then realized that the swarm was going to be completely unaffected by it. By then, Aran was wounded, so Dakash opted to convert a spell to a cure light wound instead (please roll d8+1). This means Aran does not automatically fall unconscious at the end of this round due to casting burning hands.

The swarm is mindless, so it won't "seek revenge"; rather, it will just pick a random target on its turn.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:15, Sat 04 Feb 2017.

Reminder: scimitars are not really meant to be thrown.

This doesn't mean that it's impossible to throw them, of course, but they aren't thrown weapons and don't act like they normally do when you throw them. Rather, they act like a piece of metal that you hurl as an improvised weapon: -4 to the attack roll, crit on a natural 20 only.

There is no automatic proficiency for improvised thrown weapons: you need the Throw Anything feat.

Also, Dakash ventured in with a torch rather than his primary weapon: he needs to drop the torch before he can throw anything.

So Dakash's turn is: free action to drop the torch, move action to pull out a weapon, standard action to throw it. That works.

Dakash has 18 Wisdom: if he didn't, I wouldn't feel obliged to point out that daggers have a range increment, meaning they can be thrown at no penalty. And Dakash has one sitting on his belt. Right next to his big, bulky, entirely non-throwy scimitar.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:54, Sun 05 Feb 2017.

Or the torch, which Leonia already pointed out is good against swarms.

So, how does one damage a swarm?

Fire is generally the go-to method. A flask of alchemist's fire, burning hands, just about anything that can set an area on fire.

A torch works, if only because the exact definition of "weapon damage" is left to the DM. My definition in terms of game mechanics essentially boils down to: stuff you can apply a DR to.

The exact limitations of damaging a swarm are:

1) no weapon damage (swarms essentially have DR 1Z/-)
2) nothing that requires a single target

You swing your torch at the swarm and set on fire a number of bugs, with the net result of causing that much fire damage to the swarm as a whole.

Above this line there is a "private to GM" section with a solution to your current predicament.

It's not a disc one nuke, but it's guaranteed damage on the swarm. It requires cooperation between the two casters in the group. There is even a solution that disables the swarm completely for one turn. You'd still have to deal with the mites, but once you remove the swarm from the equation everthing looks much better.

It would be nice if you could generate a few ideas, now that you know that there is at least one solution.

Hint: Leonia has all the hints to arrive at the "disable" solution. Aran has the key for the "damage" solution.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:31, Sun 05 Feb 2017.

Um...no? I can carry the torch in my shield hand's hand, but then I can't use the shield for defense, correct? That's part of the reason I asked if it would fall apart or be usable.

It's a heavy shield.

"You strap a shield to your forearm and grip it with your hand. A light shield's weight lets you carry other items in that hand, although you cannot use weapons with it."

"You strap a shield to your forearm and grip it with your hand. A heavy shield is so heavy that you can't use your shield hand for anything else."

A buckler and a light shield would work, but with a heavy shield you have to actually drop it if you want to use the hand for something else. Dropping a sheld is a move action. Dropping a held item is a free action.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:05, Sun 05 Feb 2017.

Ok gotcha. Didn't know PF had a rule like that, this being my first time here. I'll be home in a few hours.

So, I have received questions about how Prestidigitation works.

The first answer is: very well, thank you very much.

The second answer is: Prestidigitation is exactly what it says on the tin - prestidigitation, only with magic.

IRL, there are two kinds of stage magic: one is called the Great Illusion; that's the David Copperfield stuff, "I shall make the Statue of Liberty disappear".

That is *not* the kind of magic Prestidigitation lets you do.

The other kind is micromagic, or prestidigitation. That is the kind of magic you can perform with Prestidigitation.

Prestidigitation is "least wish": if you can do something with mundane methods requiring neither special skills nor special tools, you can probably do the same thing with prestidigitation, in a comparable amount of time.

Examples:

You can add salt and spices to your food without needing actual salt and spices, or you can grab that pesky salt shaker that is just an inch out of your grasp.

You can take a shower without soap. Or water. And you can clean your clothes the same way.

Or, conversely, you can apply soot or dirt to an item, or to a person, without needing actual soot or dirt.

You can throw a shower of petals, or confetti, or other similarly small and delicate items, without needing the actual items beforehand.

You can summon an endless stream of napkins, or a bunch of flowers.

You can change something's color without needing paint. Or something's smell without needing perfume.

The limitations are mostly the same you will find in real world prestidigitation: that bunch of flowers you summoned is made of paper. So is just about everything else you summon, in fact. The sturdiest items will be made of light cardboard.

They may look very realistic from a distance (especially if you are a specialist in conjuration, transmutation, or illusion), but on close inspection that bunch of gems you summoned will prove to be made of sugar. Conjured sugar, at that, meaning it doesn't even provide sustenance - though the kids will surely love you :P

You can use minor illusions, such as making the ace of spades look like a jack of diamonds or something.

The combat uses of Prestidigitation are relatively limited (with the one exception I already mentioned, which requires two casters to pull off anyway), and include:

- Conjuring a pebble to throw at an enemy spellcaster to force them to roll Concentration (you have to hit with an improvised weapon, it will not really do much damage, and you could do the same with an actual pebble or copper piece, so this is really only useful if you are all out of pebbles and copper pieces to throw and damaging cantrips to use)

- Distracting, demoralizing, or otherwise tricking an enemy (requires Bluff, which means you could do it without prestidigitation, but you might get a circumstance bonus if you are an enchantment or illusion specialist, or just a very creative player)

- Conjuring a cardboard weapon - which does so little damage you'd be better off using an unarmed strike, but sometimes you don't want to hit things with your bear hands, perhaps because you are a wizard, not a druid, and therefore do not have bear hands, only humanoid ones

That is the kind of thing you can do with Prestidigitation.

Addendum: Specialists are better at their kind of prestidigitation:

Conjurers can conjure better items, such as a creating cardboard table can actually hold a cup of water without falling apart. They can even conjure the cup, and the water, and the cup will hold the water! Amazing! Essentially conjurers can make items out of thin balsa wood rather than cardboard. Note that when I say thin I mean it: most items created with prestidigitation have 1 hp and no hardness, if you are a specialist conjurer, and spend a full round action conjuring the item, you get 1 hardness on top of the hit point for that item. It can still be set on fire, however, and will happily burn to ashes in a matter of seconds.

Transmuters can do nifty things with flavors and colors and shapes and things. Everything they transmute with prestidigitation is done faster and better than normal.

Illusionists can do all sorts of cool tricks, like making a proper animated picture  off a stack of cards that looks almost like a real image.

Evokers can do nice tricks with elemental prestidigitation, like creating small fireballs that almost look like the real thing, or creating a light mist that actually feels cool and moist, or putting up a lightning show.

Enchanters can use prestidigitation in performances, getting a circumstance bonus to all perform and profession checks, as well as being able to put up a very effective distraction, even in combat.

Necromancers... They are said to be able to actually empower prestidigitation with their own life force so that it can emulate other cantrips, but that's probably an urban legend. Besides, casting from hit points is rarely a good idea.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:50, Mon 06 Feb 2017.

Just checking in before work...I'm good for this round, correct? Healed last round and hit this round, next round use torch to burn swarm unless something happens before my extremely slow initiative.

"Cleric speed" has a whole new meaning here.

Will you go with the 18 Wis option of using your dagger instead of the scimitar?

Alright, my bad: I had not realized that Dakash is expending a use of his warpriest Blessing "Hand of the Acolyte", which means he takes no penalty from using the scimitar, and the scimitar comes back to him after the attack.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:13, Mon 06 Feb 2017.

Whew. Thanks! At first I thought I missed a requirement to use light or finesse weapons on that blessing. Glad it isn't.

Seems like mythweavers Ste my sheet. Must rebuild.

Please ensure you keep a copy of your character sheet on rpol.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:24, Wed 08 Feb 2017.

Well, round 2 is done. That didn't take long at all.

You now have a viable strategy to deal with the mites and to stall the swarm, assuming nobody dies to a stray dart on the next turn.

I suggest considering a contingency plan in case Leonia gets hit by a dart and becomes incapacitated.

Righto. Since I go last and we aren't sitting around a table rolling dice, I'll just let the two faster people post and then play off their strengths or tactics. I'm getting an easy workday tomorrow so I can check in several times during the day.

If I take a 5-foot step while continuing the flower shower, can I generate soft cover against the darts of the mites(the swarm providing the cover)?

The swarm isn't really solid, so it doesn't provide cover in the way a normal enemy would: the mites aren't aiming to avoid it, and if the dart hits the swarm it will just go through and catch you instead.

Not that there will be many mites left by the end of the turn... Aran has already downed two, and Dakash a third, so there is only one of them left, and he's strongly considering a tactical retreat by the end of Aran's turn.

Then can I move-action draw a vial (acid) while keeping the flower shower going?

Yes... But then you cannot guarantee that the swarm will stay distracted.

Also, you need at least a standard action to keep the flower shower going, so even if you do get that  vial out and still manage to keep the swarm distracted, you cannot actually do anything with it unless you decide to let the swarm take a full turn.

I will point out that, right now, you are using a full round action to, essentially, heal a random party member for an average of 7 hit points per turn. Were you planning to do anything better with that vial?

Incidentally, that is a rather generous result for prestidigitation, so expect the next swarm to get a save or require a skill check :P
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:26, Thu 09 Feb 2017.

I'll be home from work and posting within two hours. :)

In reply to Mysterious Ancient Wizard (msg # 188):

I hope the next time I have my own Summon Monster spell to bring in Mites on MY side.

Well, the mites have 3 hit points, a once per day SLA, and a bunch of darts that do d3-1, or d3 from point blank range because point blank shot.

Not exactly "ohgodohgodweareallgonnnadie" material.

So, now that you have the mites running away (for some values of running), just tell me what you are going to do in the next few turns. If you can set the confetti on fire without using Dakash's torch, he will cause an additional point of fire damage (requiring a touch attack) on his turn.

Is there a roll I need to 'shoo away' the wasps? Dakash believes these were either summoned or under the [unnatural] control of the mites, and doesn't see the need to destroy them if they are part of the ecosystem here.

Although in the real world, wasps serve no purpose other than being annoying little shits that sting AND bite, because they can. And because they are jerks with nothing better to do. So maybe I want to burn them anyway. Heh.

It's a swarm of angry wasps.

It's a  swarm of angry flesh-eating wasps.

It's a swarm of angry, hungry, flesh-eating wasps.

It's a swarm of angry, hungry, flesh-eating wasps with three appetizing targets in sight.

It's a swarm of angry, hungry, flesh-eating wasps with three appetizing targets in sight, which just lost the only thing that was giving them a modicum of intelligence that you could possibly have used to "convince" them.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:03, Mon 13 Feb 2017.

Burn it is!

I'll just cast spark on some of the confetti.

Well, you two go before me in initiative order, though GM has said to give him an idea of what we want to do in the next few rounds.

Once you two have confirmed that you aren't about to pass out or die, and the swarm is dispersed, I'd probably check out that thing in the middle of the clearing, assuming the mite who fled isn't lurking and wiggling his fingers.

OK, so, that's 1d4 per turn, including Dakash-s efforts.

Start with 31 hp, roll 1 2 3 4 for a total damage of 1 3 4 6 = 14.

A minute of concerted efforts should suffice. Expect a post later today (CET).

Cool. Thanks for covering that. I'll check in tonight after work.

Aran, I hope you'll forgive me for putting a big grin on your character's face but... While vengeance may be a dish best served cold, this particular bit of payback is  rather on the hot side :)

Edit: Also, this trick does work on normal enemies, but it's kind of expensive (two standard actions from arcane spellcasters, with one of them at close range) for its effect (1d3 fire, reflex half).

On a swarm there is no reflex half and it's 50% more effective, but most swarms aren't under the effects of LSD flowers and mite control, and will get a will save to ignore the distraction.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:55, Tue 14 Feb 2017.

No, it's cool! Or, I suppose 'Hot' in this case.

I've still gotta remake my sheet from scratch. I'm somewhat confused as to how I got the stats I did in the character info I gave you, so I'm having trouble remaking things. Also, is there a preferred sheet template you like?
This message was last edited by the player at 17:54, Tue 14 Feb 2017.

From the edit to the previous post in case you missed it: Also, this trick does work on normal enemies, but it's kind of expensive (two standard actions from arcane spellcasters, with one of them at close range) for its effect (1d3 fire, reflex half).

On a swarm there is no reflex half and it's 50% more effective, but most swarms aren't under the effects of LSD flowers and mite control, and will get a will save to ignore the distraction.

I don't have a preferred template, you can use the standard one available on RPoL, your own favorite one, or just a simple plain-text list of everything.

Leonia, since you are an Elf, roll Knowledge Arcana.

Dakash, roll Willpower (DC 15) to be able to examine the pewter things again. if you succeed, roll fortitude (DC 15) twice or take a negative level each time you fail.

Third time's the charm, as they say.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:19, Fri 17 Feb 2017.

Nope. Guess that means I don't pick it up then, huh.

You can still pick them up along with everything else, since their aura of "we don't matter, leave us alone" has faded twice. Had you died, they would have lost it entirely, but then there would have been the matter of having to reincarnate or resurrect you.

Well I'm at work now so feel free to narrative the scene forward for the others if you like.

I don't really have much more to add. I honestly just want to set stuff on fire.

I'll have to make sure you get some wood golems... And some fire elementals, of course :P

Leonia can confirm that those wasps aren't particulaly useful to the local ecosystem, and can be destroyed without causing problems. Were they bees, of course, it would be an entirely different hive of stingers.

The only risk in actually setting the hive on fire is that the trees are probably going to catch on fire as well, resulting in the destruction of several centuries worth of wood, overall.

Also, the nest does have that peculiar shape that you couldn't quite explain...
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:36, Fri 17 Feb 2017.

Crystallized mana is a good way to make money, if you can find it, as those who use it are mostly high-level item makers. Crafting spell-trigger and spell-completion items of the same spell level as the crystal becomes essentially free if you use as many crystals as the item has charges.

Say you are a 20th level wizard making a 20th level scroll of a first level spell: expending a first level crystal means you don't need any other expensive component to make it 20th level - assuming the spell has no expensive material component of its own.

The crystal costs you 200 gp, and the scroll would have cost you 25x1x20 = 500 gp, so you are saving 300 gp on that scroll. Higher level crystals work similarly, though the higher the level the less you save (the cost of the crystal grows quadratically with the spell level, while the cost of the scroll/wand/staff grows linearly), and at some point it's cheaper to use the normal components, since higher level mana crystals are incredibly rare and therefore incredibly expensive.

They still have their uses, however: a 9th level mana crystal costs 16500 gp, and it is said that it can be used to activate a Ring of Three Wishes with at least one charge left without expending that charge, though the exact activation method is not commonly known.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:35, Sun 19 Feb 2017.

Ugh... Being sick sucks, get well soon. Remember that Lia offered you all a room at the manor, and dinner.

On day four of the chest congestion and weakness but the fever and chills only lasted three. Haha small miracles.

Should I (or we) post our questions to each other IC or will there be a gathering in the morning with our employer(s)?

You were all invited to dinner. Did you want to skip it?

Real Life demanding some attention, I should be able to post in a couple of days.

Real Life demanding some attention, I should be able to post in a couple of days.

You will wake up tomorrow (in your queen size bed) with an extra level under your belt.

There will be a few more posts before this session is closed; I will also introduce an additional party member (a trapfinder NPC, since all the trapfinders dropped out) before finishing the thread.

On the day he makes your ioun stone, Zhorr will ask you to prepare the cantrip/orison you want it to contain, unless it's on the Magus or Druid list.

Ohh...so I don't necessarily have to choose one from my class list? I could choose an arcane one? And it's a 1/day bonus spell, basically, not one I can use my own cantrip slots to cast, right?

Edit: duh...I can't prepare a cantrip for him that I can't cast. Nvm. :/
This message was last edited by the player at 18:29, Fri 03 Mar 2017.

Are we doing full HP per hit die for level up?

Standard is half die face + 1 (so, +4 for half-BAB classes, +5 for three-quarter-BAB classes, and +6 for full-BAB classes, with the exception of barbarians who get +7).

This slightly favors low-BAB classes, since that extra half point translates to +10 hp at level 20, which are proportionally more for a class whose (rolled) average is ~70 hp at level 20 compared to a class whose average is ~110.

You can still train hit points normally afterwards, just remember to write it down.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:19, Mon 06 Mar 2017.

Dakash, I wanted Akane to be able to reply to you directly, so I changed Zhorr's statements a little: he now says "a friend" during the first dinner, and describes Akane as "our bard" only when she is present. As a consequence, I also took the liberty of swapping the order of paragraphs in your post so that it flows better.

Sure thing. CG believes in personal liberties. ;)

Also, I redid the math on the crystallized mana, because something was bothering and I couldn't tell what.

After checking the rules, I figured it out. The details will be posted in the house rules thread.

But we still need the three days of training per HP, which you'd have to provide in the narrative, right?

Yes, you would still follow the normal retraining rules, so 3 days per extra hit point.

That's up to 6 days per level for a half-bab class, up to 9 days per level for a 3/4 bab class, and so on, to max out your hit points.

Also, money, which you may or not have in abundance at that point :)

---

"Crystallized mana" has been added to homebrew items in the RTJ/House Rules thread.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:09, Tue 07 Mar 2017.

Training to get hit points? Never heard about that before. Is that a house rule?

Nope, it's an Ultimate Campaign rule, found here:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/basics...-options/retraining/

Or on the official Paizo site here:

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG...tems/retraining.html

It's actually a dangerous option for us. If we are given the time to train up our HP to their max, then that probably means our opponents will be tougher as well.

You are an undersized party with no real tank: an extra hit point per level on the tanking warpriest is honestly warranted, IMO, just to ensure that you can go up against normal CR enemies.

Pure casters, on their side, are not really supposed to be anywhere near actual melee range anyway, meaning hit points are pretty much irrelevant to them: as long as they can survive a stray hit from that one ranged enemy that the party couldn't quite disable in time, they should be fine, and, if something goes horribly wrong, an extra hit point per levelis not going to save them anyway.

Which is why I wouldn't be against giving you the time to train up an extra hp per level. I would prefer not having to reincarnate the entire party until your WBL is at least above the cost of the material components :P
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:32, Tue 07 Mar 2017.

Given the values of crystalized mana, the chunk I found is what level of purity, and how many charges?

If it's worth enough, it might be able to pay for Dakash training up his HPs.

I'm down for more beef if we've got the resources. I'd also like a fourth living person in the group, so with the NPC we'd have five again. But for now two blasters and a bashy healer with a singing trapsmith might be ok.

So, maybe my favored class bonus ought to go into more skills, or alternate bonuses?

It depends... While I do stand by my statement that, *as long as everything goes well*, hit points on a pure spellcasters are irrelevant, bear in mind that *that single solitary ranged attacker* that I mentioned in my example *could* be a caster tossing an empowered fireball at you.

I would suggest going for hp at the lower levels, you can always retrain your choice later if you find that your hp are overkill.

Sometimes players make choices that make perfect sense at low levels, but are highly suboptimal at higher ones. Forcing players to live with those choices "just because" is something that I personally find distasteful.

The retraining rules give me the option to let players adjust their characters to changing circumstances, while still keeping the overall feeling of progression - you still try to choose the best option, but if it doesn't work out you don't have to keep going with a broken character.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:48, Tue 07 Mar 2017.

Haha I am sure that I will NEVER feel this way about HP. :)



Yes, which is what I was going to mention between now and Level 3. I've noticed that I want to change one of my choices already for my Lv3 Skill selections, so I'll edit that change on my progression chart soon. But for the later feats, knowing that retraining will be good to go in most cases helps quite a bit. And with this ability to retrain [up] HP, I will probably change two of my Stat increases as well, from CON to WIS.

So if I wanted to retrain my levels 1&2 favored class bonus, and further retrained my HPs to maximize them, the final result (14) would remain the same. But it would take 12 days to retrain, and upwards of 400 gp or so?

Can we sell blood in this world like we do in real life? lol

Leonia: I couldn't actually find any retraining rule for favored class bonuses. Which means technically you cannot retrain those hit points.

If, however, later on you find that your character would be better served by moving those bonuses somewhere else, there will be a special quest at the end of which you will be able to reallocate as many favored class bonuses as you want. And since you will all get xp and gold it will still serve "bring something to the party" as well ;) So, consider your options, but don't fret overmuch about them.

Dakash: You might be able to sell blood. Especially in devil country. Are you entirely sure you want to try? :P
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:58, Wed 08 Mar 2017.

So...knowing now that we are going to be allowed to train up our HP, when we find the time and resources...can we [meaning I or any others] choose to retroactively change our selection of Favored Class bonus from +1 HP per level to +1 Skill Point per level? I'm fine if we don't, I'm slightly happier if we can. Won't change my opinions or enjoyment of the game either way. :)

Well, I would strongly advise the party's only front-line combatant not to pursue such an option regardless :P

For those who decide to put their favored class points into skills, with a single solitary hp from level one, the first time they train hp they will also move their single solitary favored class hit point to skills (resulting in an unchanged hp total and +1 skill rank).

Here's a different suggestion: it is possible to train additional languages separately from your Linguistics skill.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. going to  get some work done and try and catch up today.

I am mainly thinking that the extra skill point will go into the remainder of my class skills that I have not pre-chosen in my character build up to level 7, giving me the important +3 on those things I *should* know at an early start, making me more effective in my class and in the event we start to need assistance to beat DCs.

I already get +7 HP per level, so the ability to train for 3 days to gain +1, assuming it's available even once or twice per level, is decent enough for me to seriously consider it.

Yes, I've seen the rules for learning new languages, but I'm not sure I should anticipate that much downtime 'inbetween adventures'. I'm so very used to a frantic pace of trying to catch bad guys, or save captured people, or stop the plans before they hatch evil, etc.

Well, you can certainly assign the point you got from this level to skills. When you retrain for hp, you could also move the point from level 1 to skills. How much do you want to move that extra point from hp to skill ranks? You could talk to Zhorr and Lia and do some training before the start of the next session... But Akane might grumble a little.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:18, Thu 09 Mar 2017.

Does that mean we aren't going to advertise for another warrior-type?

I have had bad experiences in the past with bringing new players into a group, even after just one adventure.

Poll: do you want me to reopen the game to new players?
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:37, Thu 09 Mar 2017.

I don't want to die, but the possibility exists between now and a level where we can resurrect/raise/revive each other that this will happen. Would the group continue on with just two PCs? Would the dead player make a new character at the same level they were when they died? Or would the GM make yet another NPC to fill the void?

I think it's good we have three players who interact well, but personally think a full party is the goal of most games like this. And if that person [or one of us] turns out to be a dud/ghost/loser, then drop him/her and get another rtj going. :)

I'd also prefer bringing in someone new, especially since we are moving into a new chapter. New players don't just mean new characters, but new ideas, and new energy. The three of us as a party could synergize excellently and have all sort of fun together, but adding someone new into that mix could grant us insight, perspective, and challenges that will prevent our adventure from getting stale.

OK, I reopened the game to new players and rolled back the changes to the RTJ thread, so that new potential players can actually see the entire thing. Stay tuned...

Got three RTJs so far. At least one of them is potentially very interesting... And potentially OP as hell.

Should we continue? It's disheartening to join a game and find out you're posting more than the established guys.

Well, in theory we are done with the current episode. The new one should probably introduce the new player(s), so there may be a short lull.

I thought we all joined a new game at the same time?

Pretty sure Leonia was referring to the guys who are going to come in :)

Yes...I've already been told several times my Gift of Gab is only really appreciated by myself. :P

Oh, I doubt even  you appreciate it.

Please welcome our newest player Levithian. Remember when I said I was wiling to allow non-unchained Summoners even though they make Baby Jesus cry? He decided to take me up on that :P

Game is no longer accepting new RTJs. If you have already RTJ'd, you are still being considered, this only applies to new RTJs.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:00, Sat 18 Mar 2017.

In reply to Mysterious Ancient Wizard (msg # 255):

I shall bring it up next time I go to confession.

Hello everyone, it's not so bad, promise.

So you're saying I'm still the front-line fighter of the group? Can I get train to a bonus free action to bore or taunt the enemy?

In reply to Dakash Szagdala (msg # 257):

Still front line fighter? Yes

Alone? No

Suddenly so quiet... =/ I hope I did not offend.

Your GM has been having connectivity issues from work (rpol is blocked, so I cannot connect form my work computer, and I've had to do some time consuming troubleshooting and upgrades).

Which is why I have been posting very little in recent days.

However, the new thread is almost ready for the first post, and the new  character sheets are coming in.

Dakash has no feelings to hurt or filter for his thoughts. He doesn't just believe in reincarnation, he actively lives it. So I'm playing him a bit like Tom Baker's Dr. Who. Smart but silly, with a dash of unceremonious and a bit of irreverence [except for his patron deity of course].

Hello newcomer! I tend to spend weekends gaming heavily, so they're my most quiet times.

I can just hear you saying it....
"Leonia...No More Janus Thorns!"

This message was last edited by the player at 14:33, Mon 20 Mar 2017.

As much as I'd like to visit the Adept, I think Dakash would prefer to see Maron's family and discuss his life and afterlife. Anyone want to join me, or shall we divide and conquer [the town]?

Not up to making any alchemy items, and my advancement studies will be with Zhorr. Might as well join you.

Ah yes. Retraining of hit points. Three days each? What was the cost, Mr. Gm sir? :)

"Unless stated otherwise, retraining costs gp equal to 10 × your level × the number of days required to retrain." and "Retraining hit points takes 3 days". 60 gp to retrain 1 hp at level 2.

The good news is that Zhorr qualifies as a fighter, so he can be your trainer.

Ok so I'll have to look at my finances. Definitely see the family day one. Then either train once and do something else or train twice.

In reply to Dakash Szagdala (msg # 269):

So with time and gold we can stay at max HP?

You'll need it! Although I am happy with my ability to heal on this character. Very reminiscent of my priest in WoW. ;)

HP... A live or die stat...

Levithian arrives at the end of the week, hence why there are two distinct threads.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:54, Wed 22 Mar 2017.

Oops...didn't see the difference between those threads on my little phone screen. My bad!

Flying to Italy today, I'll arrive late-ish this evening and probably won't post anything until tomorrow.

In reply to Mysterious Ancient Wizard (msg # 275):

sicura di viaggio

I am now very curious as to what you fed google translate in order to get something that can roughly be translated to "gun safety for travels" :P

Bing Translator says it is exactly the phrase "Travel Safe". Just because Bing doesn't understand adverbs end in -ly is nothing to be concerned about. ;)

=3 the only Italian that I can really speak is "feed me I am hungry, I am going to die of hunger" Because... they do food right. Cant write it, just know the phrase.

Didn't know Bing was Dutch... You learn something new every day :P

"Nederlands is gemakkelijk"... Pull the other one, it's got bells on.

But I digress :P A lot :P
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:55, Thu 23 Mar 2017.

Cook: We know how to cook a meal that even dragons enjoy.

Levithian:

I should have time on lunch break to whip up some conversation with the widow, if Lia doesn't get to it first.

Lia gave you a description and some pointers, but she won't be there with you.

Well, this was not the direction I thought the conversation with Maron's family would be going...

Let me remind you what the dilemma is here: Lia has offered to reincarnate Maron. It is going to take her several days to collect the materials, since buying them outright would be rather expensive.

During this time, the family has to make the decision: do they want Maron reincarnated or not? The sticking point is, this isn't a straight Raise Dead: 500 gp, a few days of work, and a 5th level slot, are something Zhorr and Lia can provide out of pocket, given a few days; 5000 gp, plus the services of 9th level cleric, are not.

Since this is Reincarnate and not Raise Dead, Maron would quite likely no longer be human, he would certainly no longer be the same age, and, legally speaking, he would no longer be the same person.

For an adventurer it's kind of an obvious choice: reincarnate and keep adventuring, this kind of thing happens all the time.

For a family man? How do you explain to your kids that this halfling girl that looks like she could be their younger sister is actually their dad?

Haha I wonder what it is you mean? Of course Dakash wants to know as much as he can. It seems logical to him that these mites may have killed him for finding, unearthing, or 'stealing' their silver trinket. Maybe being magical creatures themselves they didn't get affected by it like we did. Maybe they made it. Maybe it's a relic to them. Who knows?

As for the slight wound...it would have been, if it had been on Dakash. Other people shouldn't be so squishy. ;)

Also, I think there's an error in who is doing the reincarnation. Lia is our second-level companion; she is not casting create water every day or casting a 5th level spell to bring Maron back. Right? Wrong, apparently!
This message was last edited by the player at 01:42, Thu 30 Mar 2017.

He could also get a 00 on the reincarnation and come back as something reallllllyyyy good.

Actually, I'm Leonia, not Lia. I may choose to make one of my newly acquired spells Expeditious Excavation, just to help with the planting and irrigation while Maron is....unavailable.

Real heroes take time and effort to help the little guys. I shall cheer you on with the most masculine of pom poms!

Oh I think my brain just assumed Lia was the nickname or shortened version of your name. Maybe I am channeling my forgetful character in real life.

You forgot Zhorr's beautiful half-elf girlfriend? The druid with the dinosaur familiar? And here I thought I'd made her introduction memorable...

Levithian will arrive in the village at the end of the week, along with our other new character... Assuming we still have one :P His player has presumably had one of those weeks, since he hasn't replied in a while.

Thought I had made a post last night but see I didn't. Guess it changes nothing, since I got a 1 for my Knkwledge Religion. The Priest got a 1. I must've been dead longer than I thought last time!

you guys ok?

So the good news (?) is that we apparently won't have another player :P

Looks like this group is never going to have a pure tank.

On the flip side, it also means I don't ave to set up another introduction, which is going to save us a couple of aeons :P

E sports rappid fire posting needs to be an event. =3

I was reading a thread on the Paizo forums about staves and what level slot one has to expend to recharge them, and there was some confusion about spell levels that appear on different lists.

Funny thing is, there can be no confusion, and here is why:

Reckless Infatuation is a 2nd level spell for Bards, but a 3rd level spell for Wizards. A Bard makes a Wand of Reckless Infatuation, and its DC will be 10 + 2 (spell level) + 1 (minimum CHA of 12) = 13.

Does anybody expect that, if a wizard gets hold of the wand and uses it, the DC of the spell will suddenly become 14, just because a wizard is using it, and the spell is 3rd level on the wiz/sor list? Of course not, that would be ridiculous. What if a rogue UMDs it? What level is that spell on the rogue list? That ruling would make no sense.

Which means, the level of a spell in a spell-trigger item *must* be a fixed number set at creation, as it determines the DC of the spell, not just the cost of the item.

The only confusion comes from the fact that most stock wands and staves don't bother specifying the DC of their spells, which means a GM has to reverse-engineer their costs to determine the spell level... As well as the DC of the spell when it's used.

Rather inconsiderate, if you ask me.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:43, Mon 03 Apr 2017.

Flying back to Brussels today, back to work tomorrow, expect irregular posting for a day or three.

In reply to Mysterious Ancient Wizard (msg # 297):

Safe travels.

I'll check in on this around lunch I think.

It seems we have a quandry. I do not wish to change this woman's beliefs. She has a right to them. But I hate leaving her bereft.

It would cost Lia and Zhorr both magic and money to reincarnate Maron. Might be easier to create a permanent Unseen Servant to help her manage the farm. Opinions?

How about suggesting a way for her to contact him across the veil from time to time? A ritual like a Ouija board that actually works, or a limited Speak With Dead for her and the family (like a candle that changes colors based on his responses or a chess set that animates or something). Some way they can put his spirit to rest without losing contact with his 'self' or essence.

I will point out that nobody's suggested that Maron's spirit is not at rest. Esta certainly believes Maron to be at peace, in the boneyard or wherever he is; in fact, she is quite certain he's heaven-bound. You could talk to Evelyss, the village adept, and see what she thinks, maybe.

Remember, Zhorr and Lia are (former) adventurers, and they see death the way adventurers do: a silly inconvenience you should find ways around as soon as possible, so that you can go back to important things, such as finding piles of l00t. :P

A permanent Unseen Servant would be twice as expensive as a reincarnate, and would require different components... But you could always go look for some of them :)

I expect to be somewhat busy most of tomorrow and absolutely crushed Monday. Tuesday will be a bit of a breather and Wednesday will probably be another crushing day. Thursday I have off, so...probably more demo work on the neighbor's house.

Just a heads up if I miss something in the coming week.

Happy Easter everyone... And if you happen not to celebrate Easter, well, have a happy day regardless :P

Fun fact: in about 2 minutes, Lia can cast purify food and water on some 8 tons of food, as long as it is stored in a convenient way. That should cover the yearly need of all 4 farms, so that's good news.

In reply to Mysterious Ancient Wizard (msg # 305):

That's a lotta grain!

So now that Maron's fate is resolved, we're just waiting to join together as a group, right?

Well, you have still the option to talk to the people I was actually expecting you to meet (the local smith, general trader, and adept) but I can wrap up your thread in a couple of days, and I think I can deal with Levithian's thread in the same amount of time, depending on how you guys want to do it.

In reply to Mysterious Ancient Wizard (msg # 308):

Currently the most unlucky dragon ever. X.X

I wasn't sure how much of this downtime had been chewed up with the back-and-forth discussions with the widow. Seemed like it was a resolution that came after hours or days of soul-searching. I'm game for being moved to the Adept.

Of course, I still have to explain things to Lia and Zhorr,  unless you want to hand-wave that conversation.

The conversation with Zhorr and Lia will actually be rather straightforward: they will simply accept Esta's decision, as personal freedom is rather important to them (the irony of owning slaves is of course not lost on them, but at least Zhorr isn't a Paladin :P).

Incidentally, do let me know if anybody is going to bring up the whole slavery business at some point - bearing in mind that your characters did already get an explanation of the whole "owning slaves in order to protect them from abuse" thing.

Next post will take place on the following day; your characters will need the rest of the day for various things, including levelups (charaters are assumed to do the required training to properly level up between adventures, and while you will be able to use this downtime in the future to get some downtime points, you don't currently have enough money to pay for them).

Slavery is always an issue, but when you are an island in the ocean, you don't make war on a nation.

What are downtime points?

Goods, Influence, Labor, and Magic, are four types of "currency" that can be earned during downtime, They need to be paid with gp, but they can then be redeemed to, among other things, double the value of the gp invested.

This is especially true of Magic Points, which can be used in item crafting.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG...mpaign/downtime.html
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:17, Mon 24 Apr 2017.

Until further notice I will be stockpiling magic points. It's going to take millions to get what I want X.X

In reply to Mysterious Ancient Wizard (msg # 315):

Unless you invest in building a structure that generates such points. Scriptorium is good for that I think.

In reply to Leonia Sunstorm (msg # 317):

Earnings: This entry indicates what bonuses the room or team gives to its building's or organization's checks made to generate capital. Buildings and organizations act like characters in that they can attempt a check each day to earn capital performing skilled work (without costing you any downtime). You must pay for capital earned in this way as normal.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:03, Tue 25 Apr 2017.

In reply to Levithian (msg # 316):

Step 3—Determine Capital Attrition: For every 7 days you were away from the settlement (whether downtime days or normal days), reduce your Goods, Influence, Labor, and Magic by 1 each (minimum 0). This decrease represents spoilage, theft, allies moving on or having higher priorities, workers finding other employment, and so on.

Example: Laura's character has 9 points of Goods, 10 points of Influence, and 7 points of Labor saved up in Sandpoint, and she owns a shop, a tavern, and a small house. After 40 days of adventuring away from Sandpoint (during which time she didn't try to keep contact with people there), she returns to town. She has no costs for her buildings, so she skips Step 1 and Step 2. Because of her 5 weeks of absence, in Step 3 she reduces each type of her downtime capital by 5, so she now has only 4 points of Goods, 5 points of Influence, and 2 points of Labor saved up in Sandpoint.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:04, Tue 25 Apr 2017.

Since you are all spellcasters, visiting Eve on the following day seems like a decent idea. She will be the main source of magic points in the future, as she has several things she needs help with that actually literally produce magic components. She can also craft divine scrolls, and with Dakash providing the actual spell she isn't limited to the adept list.

Note that, if Leonia crafts a scroll with a spell provided by Dakash, it will be an arcane scroll of a divine spell - which *might* be useful to witches, but not many other character types.

Elda can provide you with better weapons and armor; she can also provide you with magical armor later on, but not magical weapons. If you want the special discount, you will need to do a favor quest for her, or something; at the very least, you need to meet her and chat her up :P

All your other special needs (alchemical reagents, material components, unusual equipment...) can probably be satisfied by Mandy. Very special needs may take some time.

Additional info that may come up as you ask about them: Eldamere is in her 40s, married, with two daughters in their late teens. Eveliss is in her early 20s, Mandala is in her mid 30s, and neither is married. All of them come from a family line that had the same job, going far enough back intime that their family name literally is their job (Eveliss Preacher, Mandala Trader, Eldamere Blacksmith); Elda kept her maiden name when she married; her husband comes from a family of brewers, no prizes for guessing his family name.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:04, Tue 25 Apr 2017.

I'm good with helping on the dual-type scroll. I am, though, still planning on training up some HP if we have the funds.

Your Pungeon Master is slightly sick. I shall try to post something meaningful in a reasonable time frame.

In reply to Mysterious Ancient Wizard (msg # 322):

Time for a regeneration my good doctor?

Well this is annoying... Levithian rolled the highest encounter in the table, and now there is a decent chance this paticular character will not get to play :P

His picture looks like a flesh golem. Wouldn't that immunize him against paralysis?

Alas, his race is rather peculiar but not that peculiar.

In reply to Leonia Sunstorm (msg # 325):

I always go for story over stats. So 99% of what you see with any character I make is fluff for story. He does indeed look like someone murdered him within a thread of his life and then he healed.

I could play a god and bet your back side he couldn't win a fist fight with a wizard. He would, however, have a bag full of tricks that makes it seem like he could fight the entire pantheon himself.

It is why Lev went ahead with this, he thinks he is a dragon dragon so he thought he would be immune. Super unlikely he ever had to deal with this before.

That could have gone very differently if the fight had lasted a round or two longer, the ghouls had all the rolls lined up to kill a gremlin or three, at which point the remaining ones would have left Lev to die. The destroyed ghoul had exactly 0 hp at the end of Arbr's round.

Also, playing for both sides is very time consuming and not particularly fun. After the conversation with Eve, I think we will speed up the reunion process.

Work permitting.

Sorry boss =(
 I didn't mean to spoil the fun.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:32, Wed 03 May 2017.

Not your fault, just bad luck. I probably should have cut the table down to one third, instead of just half... And then you would have rolled a CR 1/8 encounter and steam rolled it. Meh.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:52, Wed 03 May 2017.

Luck... I need to find lady luck and marry her, so she can stop throwing rocks in the works XD

Remind me. What is the cost and time of retraining the favored class bonus,  and of training up a hit point?

Unless stated otherwise, retraining costs gp equal to 10 × your level × the number of days required to retrain.

Many choices you make about your class features can be retrained. It takes 5 days to retrain one class feature. Training requires spending time with a character of your class whose class level is at least 1 higher than yours and who has the class feature you want. For example, if you are a 5th-level illusionist wizard and want to become a necromancer, you must train with a necromancer of at least 6th level.

That help? Did I do a good?
This message was last edited by the player at 00:21, Mon 08 May 2017.

Class bonus not feature. Gah! Sorry

Number of days to retrain is 3 days I believe. So retraining both Favored class bonuses of +1 hp would cost me 60+60=120 gp, and 6 days. Neither of which I have at the moment.