OOC (out-of-character)

[Rabbit]

Dec 9, 2009 11:43:54 GMT -5 icnivad said:

And I've thought about the whole killing of the enemy troops, and the more I think about it, the more I think that Sir Grolton would not be ok with this. Since I assume we can't start next session before killing them, I'd like to think that Sir Grolton had nightmares about this that night and considers his actions as ranking officer completely disgraceful and an utter letdown of his command.

Yeah, I think that could have been an interesting roleplay delihma to wok though. But like often with games we get tired towards the end and what ever we do last tends to get rushed.

Sermon would push to kill them all excpet the gnome (until we question him.) It would be the most prudent option; kill them quickly and without ceremony. Perhaps if we can discuss this aspect of warfare, in-character, as we take rest on the grassy hill?

[reefwood]

Dec 9, 2009 11:43:54 GMT -5 icnivad said:

Thanks for running that game, I had a good time with it. Even though Sir Grolton almost died a couple times in the midst of figuring out the new system, it made our eventual victory all the more glorious. That was a perfect difficulty challenge in my book, and easily could have gone the other way if rolls had been different, or if Michael had decided to not join us.

Your welcome, and I'm glad it was enjoyable. Long battles can sometimes drag out to the point of boredom, but like Michael said last night, it seemed like this one did have that problem nearly as much. I think part of it may have been that there were different stages to the battle where the goal each side was trying to accomplish changed as the battle went on. Once a goal was achieved or no longer worth pursuing, new tactics were set into motion, so it was like several battles wrapped into one (instead of just PC 1 slashes, PC 2 casts, PC 3 shoots, repeat) with at least one little side battle (Nero vs swordsman) amidst most others having constantly changing targets. Also, misc factors added twists to spice things up, such as stunning, blindness, and what to do when characters were dying.

And yeah, we would attempt to tie up the gnome after taking all of his possessions as best we could, even searching all of them to see if any of the enemy has rope.

The enemy has no rope.

Also, worth noting, since you briefly mentioned that the horses tried to escape but didn't delve into it. Loyal Steed would not be tied up as the other horses since he is a companion, and I wouldn't tie him up any more than I would a dog or a hawk.

I assumed that none of the horses are tied up because there is nothing to tie them to. There has been the occasional little tree here and there, but none in the immediate vicinity, and you could gather that the trees you've seen thus far may not be enough to keep a horse from running off.

And I've thought about the whole killing of the enemy troops, and the more I think about it, the more I think that Sir Grolton would not be ok with this. Since I assume we can't start next session before killing them, I'd like to think that Sir Grolton had nightmares about this that night and considers his actions as ranking officer completely disgraceful and an utter letdown of his command.

On one side, I guess you could chalk it up to a poor decision made by your character after a long, exhausting battle. It's easy to make mistakes in such a state.

Although, like Rabbit said, rushed choices by players sometimes happen at the end of a long session. I certainly played a part in it by having the scene continue after the battle. Part of me would like to start things a little bit further back than where we left, but I'm not sure if that would be a good idea. Especially since Sermon and Brion want to execute the enemy troops. I'll give it some thought as to where exactly we pick up things next time, but it will be after the enemy troops were executed and after the warforged spent an hour attempting to repair deadly damage.

And I'm pretty sure how I want to answer the system question about attacking through an ally space on a charge, but I want to mull over the rules for a bit before making an official ruling.

[icnivad]

cool, yeah, I figured as much. I'm cool with picking up wherever you want. Should we start the in-character thread? or do you want to give it an introduction?

[reefwood]

Dec 9, 2009 16:29:01 GMT -5 icnivad said:

cool, yeah, I figured as much. I'm cool with picking up wherever you want. Should we start the in-character thread? or do you want to give it an introduction?

I'm going to type up a recap/intro in [The Mystery at Longtree] thread, and you guys can pick it up from there.

[reefwood]

I have decided to go over certain rules in the Pathfinder Rules thread. Each entry will outline the rule and my interpretations. If you have any questions or different takes on it, please post in here as to not bog down the rules thread. Any changes I make as a result with be edited into the original post.

Also, I formatted the Deities entry for easier reading.

[Rabbit]

Spoils of War-

between my two guys: Sermon a longspear (masterwork) and a regular spear. Crow took a regular spear.

Total:
1 longspear (masterwork)
2 spears

[icnivad]

Oh, my bad. I thought took one for throwing.

[reefwood]

Nonlethal Damage has been added to the Rules thread.

It's great to see all the activity in the story thread! I expected to only type up a short recap/intro and spent way too much time on the final product but am happy that the posts that followed are so in-depth and varied.

---

Also, I thought it might be useful to share the objectives of the previous mission. It could be useful in presenting some goals of the army:

Your main objective is to make known and enforce the change of power that is sweeping across Hydrahead Peninsula. You are expected to meet with village leaders and inform them that allied forces now control this land. This is to be done under the spirit of cooperation, and concessions within reason may be made to form bonds of good faith, but hostile resistance is to be put down. Secondary objectives are to keep an eye out for enemy troops, take note of resources, report any new settlements, and investigate any matters relevant to allied forces' success.

These objectives were given to those in command of divisions sent out to survey the countryside, so not necessarily the entire force Storming the Beach earlier or marching toward Verdas now. Nero was a level-headed and diplomatic fellow and had proved himself on the battlefield as a commander, so a good choice to lead such a division. Players can decide how much their current characters know about such aims.

As to your current assignment, the primary objectives are to find out what caused the men in Nero's division to go missing and determine if the cause poses a danger to the invading army. Secondary objectives are to find out why Longtree was abandoned and what is causing zombies to rise. All these objectives may be interconnected, or not.

In general, hostilities should be met with force or any other means necessary to quell them. One other thing to keep in mind is that if you all die, you will fail to complete your objective, even if you find out the answers because you won't be able to report them back to your commanders.

[icnivad]

How much do we know about the war as a whole?

[reefwood]

Dec 10, 2009 20:45:54 GMT -5 icnivad said:

How much do we know about the war as a whole?

I have purposely left the overarching details of the way fairly ambiguous. It is a large scale war (multiple factions/nations/kingdoms/continents) that has been going on for a while (years? decades?). There is no particular criteria to determine victory or goal that will end the war.

A couple misnomers I want to address are about the way I have referred to your side. I have called it the "allied army" pretty much just as the result of that term popping into my head, but it isn't meant to infer that your side has more allegiances or diversity than the other side. If anything, the PCs and those they command have been mostly humans. I think the warforged have been the first non-humans on your side in play. Whereas, the other side has had elves, dwarves, half-orcs, half-elves, humans, and a gnome. Too be honest, this has much more to do with my desire to dabble in the various races and find good class/race combos than any intent on making the other side more diverse. And just because the PCs have been human heavy, it doesn't mean that the other units and divisions on your side are like this.

The other term that may be misleading is the "main army" that is marching to Verdas. As I mentioned above, this is a large scale war, and this isn't the only large force on your side. This is the force that stormed the beaches of Hydrahead Peninsula and is now moving inland, but there are other large armies on your side in other parts of the world. Feel free to go back and read the Storming the Beach intro to refresh your memory about that background info.

Finally, players are welcome to add details related to their small sliver in it and how they wound up in the military. Maybe...

...the place you come from has a long history of conflict with one of the places on the other side.

...the place you come from got dragged into because a) it has a treaty with one of the powers that initiated the conflict or another one that got dragged into it, or b) it was attacked by one power and had to join forces with the other side in order to not be overrun.

...your people swore a blood oath generations ago to serve the ruler of a kingdom in the conflict in times of need.

...your people were conquered long ago by a participant on one side, and your service is a result of a longstanding servitude to that side, or maybe you were freed by the side you now serve and are fighting for revenge.

...you were convicted (rightfully or not) of wrongdoing, and service is your punishment, and perhaps freedom will be your reward.

Or some combination of these or other reasons. There are unlimited options as to why your character (and his people/nation/etc) is fighting in this war.

[reefwood]

Misc things...

1) Horse stats have been added to the OOC info in [The Mystery of Longtree] opening post.

2) Please calculate your Ride check if you haven't yet. I know some people don't plan on doing anything that will involved a Ride check, but you never know when it will come up unexpectedly.

3) Also figure out your CMB and CMD.

4) Sir James still provokes an attack of opportunity when making an unarmed strike. An unarmed strike is a simple weapon, and anyone can make an unarmed strike. Being proficient with it simply means you don't take the -4 penalty to attack for not being proficient, but it is still a regular unarmed strike, so "you are considered unarmed when attacking with an unarmed strike, and you can deal only nonlethal damage with such an attack," and "attacking unarmed provokes an attack of opportunity from the character you attack, provided she is armed."

The next topics I will go over in the Rules section are Injury & Death, Stabilization, Combat Maneuvers, and Detect Magic. I know Charge still needs to be hashed out, but I'm tackling the easier ones first, and everyone is welcome to suggest others.

[icnivad]

quick question:
I think this is how this works, but want to verify:
wands are cast at the caster level they are created at.
scrolls are also cast at the caster level they are created at.

Or are scrolls cast at the reader's caster level? I wasn't sure if spell completion used the caster's level or creators.

Edit: And this won't come up till I gain 2 levels, but I'm going to have questions on wild shape. Specifically: can I wield weapons while wild shaped into an animal with oposable thumbs? like a monkey? What about an earth elemental?

and "A druid loses her ability to speak while in animal form because she is limited to the sounds that a normal, untrained animal can make" Does she lose her ability to speak in an elemental form as well?

and Beast Shape says, "When you cast this spell, you can assume the form of any Small or Medium creature of the animal type. " What happens to gear, weapons, and armor? Does it meld? fall to the floor? my choice? What about a shape that can use the gear?

edit again:
Do I keep armor bonuses? and item bonuses if the items meld?

[reefwood]

Dec 11, 2009 16:46:27 GMT -5 icnivad said:

quick question:
I think this is how this works, but want to verify:
wands are cast at the caster level they are created at.
scrolls are also cast at the caster level they are created at.

Or are scrolls cast at the reader's caster level? I wasn't sure if spell completion used the caster's level or creators.

I didn't look it up, but I'm pretty positive that scrolls and wands are cast at the creator level. Staffs can depend on the caster level of the user. I'm sure all this is clearly stated in the Magic section.

Edit: And this won't come up till I gain 2 levels, but I'm going to have questions on wild shape. Specifically: can I wield weapons while wild shaped into an animal with oposable thumbs? like a monkey? What about an earth elemental?

A monkey can wield a weapon. I'm not sure what happens to proficiency, though. And you would have to drop the weapon before wildshaping and spend a move action to pick it up once in animal form.

Not sure about an elemental, but off the top of my head, I'd say it can't hold a weapon, and it's probably not proficient either.

and "A druid loses her ability to speak while in animal form because she is limited to the sounds that a normal, untrained animal can make" Does she lose her ability to speak in an elemental form as well?

Elementals have languages, so unless they're telepathic (which I doubt), I assume they can speak. If they can speak, then yes, you can speak, but it would only be the languages you can normally speak. You don't get their brain.

and Beast Shape says, "When you cast this spell, you can assume the form of any Small or Medium creature of the animal type. " What happens to gear, weapons, and armor? Does it meld? fall to the floor? my choice? What about a shape that can use the gear?

This is explained in the Magic section under Polymorph. It melds into your body.

edit again:
Do I keep armor bonuses? and item bonuses if the items meld?

Read up on it, but no to armor.

[michael]

Dec 11, 2009 16:46:27 GMT -5 icnivad said:

Beast Shape says, "When you cast this spell, you can assume the form of any Small or Medium creature of the animal type. " What happens to gear, weapons, and armor? Does it meld? fall to the floor? my choice? What about a shape that can use the gear?

edit again:
Do I keep armor bonuses? and item bonuses if the items meld?

Not sure if things have changed in Pathfinder, but in 3.5, anything you're wearing melds into you when you use wild shape. You don't keep any bonuses from armor or items unless that item has the Wild enhancement on it. If you're wearing Wild armor, you keep its AC bonus, as well as any other enhancements it adds.

[icnivad]

Dec 11, 2009 17:24:14 GMT -5 reefwood said:

Not sure about an elemental, but off the top of my head, I'd say it can't hold a weapon, and it's probably not proficient either.

Why would your proficiency change? You don't lose any feats or class features while wild shaping. Proficiency is a knowledge, rather than a physical trait.

This is explained in the Magic section under Polymorph. It melds into your body.

Yeah, I remember that being how it worked in 3.5, but in pathfinder the Beast Shape spell doesn't say anything about being based on Polymorph. In fact the opposite, polymorph is based on beast shape. In either case, polymorph doesn't say anything about melding into your body either.