OOC (out-of-character)

[reefwood]

The Mystery at Longtree (concluded)

Thanks again to everyone for participating in another session of War Stories. Things went somewhat longer than I expected, but my time guesstimates weren't nearly as off as they've been in the past And the beeping you may have kept hearing from my phone were alarms to help keep me on pace Also, you did a good job with the challenges faced, despite the loss of NPCs and the second PC casualty of the war. I'd say not as well overall as the first adventure (Storming the Beach) but an improvement from the second one (Marching Inland).

I'm working today, but when I get home, I'll work on a little something to put in the story thread (including what the gnome told you) that can be followed up with discussion between PCs and/or reports to command. What is reported will determine how high command acts. Other things on my agenda are:
- Figure out 5th-level PC starting packages
- Figure out rewards for surviving/returning PCs
- Inform players how the war effort is going on Hydrahead Peninsula

It sounds like most players are veering toward moving away from things at Longtree (small village). If that is the case, the next adventure will probably be related to the siege of Verdas (major city). Especially if urban is the next direction you want to take. Of course, I know that what I post for the info listed above may influence decision on direction, so we don't have to set a course until after your PC options are presented, and other options may arise based on player interest/ideas.

And if there are any other questions or things I'm forgetting about, just let me know.

[Rabbit]

woo! I had fun even though my guy died.

"Look how slow they are... we can do this."

I think the above are the last words of many an adventurer and horror movie victims.

[icnivad]

hah. I think your last words were, "You guys go deal with that halfling, I can hold them off"

I found out that there's actually a lot more options for animal companions, they just aren't compiled anywhere convenient. The only way to actually know what your list is is to go through every animal one at a time and look at their description. Ugh. Does give some more options, though, like Dire Bat, and nearly every dinosaur (albeit a weaker version). Reefwood, what are your thoughts on riding more unique animals? Like a dire bat(which becomes large at Level 7), or an Ape, which becomes large at level 4? Would riding those into battle work if I had a custom saddle made?

[Rabbit]

Feb 3, 2010 12:58:13 GMT -5 icnivad said:

Like a dire bat(which becomes large at Level 7), or an Ape, which becomes large at level 4? Would riding those into battle work if I had a custom saddle made?

please, ride a large ape into battle!

[michael]

Reefwood, what are your thoughts on riding more unique animals? Like a dire bat(which becomes large at Level 7), or an Ape, which becomes large at level 4? Would riding those into battle work if I had a custom saddle made?

Charging on the back of an Ape? Coolest. Thing. Ever. You could even give it lance proficiency as a feat. Just be this hideous living totem pole running pell-mell at the enemy, with two giant impalers for arms.

[reefwood]

I hadn't thought about the horror movie aspect to Sermon's death, but yeah, that totally fits! Sermon and Brion had a good strategy against the zombies on the hill, and a similar plan seemed to be holding the slower village zombies back too. The key seemed to be staying 5 ft away, so they had to move to reach you but didn't have enough room to Charge (the only way they could move & attack on their turn). The last Channel Energy by Brion broke that system because all the zombies in front were destroyed, so in the next round, the ones further back were able to Charge.

As a whole, the slow zombies weren't meant to be a serious threat. The faster zombies were more like a dangerous nuisance (probably wouldn't hit the PCs often but could box them in if not taken out quickly) with the half-orc and halfling being the main challenge (who both under the right circumstances could deal a lot of damage but probably not for long - I knew the half-orc would probably be targeted fast and the halfling needed to be hidden, which he did better than I expected based on how circumstances played out). One thing that I was curious about was whether or not you would try to loot the bodies because in that instance, the remaining zombie horde was intended to pose a possible danger. Whereas outrunning of them was easily once a path was cleared. And there were only 50 zombies, so if you did wipe out that horde, you would have had a break in the action to do whatever for a bit (i.e. loot bodies).

One thing that came to mind this morning is that no one cast detect magic on the sleeping PCs to see if any magic was affecting them. That may have provided some insight.

As for the NPCs soldiers you lost, after giving it some more thought, I can definitely say that losing them was not intentionally built into the game, and even though I knew it was a possibility, I didn't expect you to lose them before reaching town. It just came down to circumstance, though. For example, if they made their Will saves, they would have not left. Also, if the soldiers hadn't been all executed, you wouldn't have had as many zombies to fight on the hill and maybe could have made more effort at restraining the NPCs. Or if you hadn't camped near the bodies, the zombies wouldn't have been an issue, or even if they caught up, it wouldn't have happened later in the night instead of right when the NPCs were leaving. And if some of the horses made their Will saves, maybe having more mounts would have changed your battle strategy in the village too. Oh, and Grolton's companion didn't get a free pass, but there is a reason why it didn't run off...and again, not something I had planned from the start, but the numbers just worked out that way in the end.

And as always, it is interesting to see what angle the players take with the clues I put down. Uncovering some clues were based on skill checks, and you didn't get the best result on all of them but did pretty good for the most part. I can say that some of your assumptions were correct, but not all of them.

Okay, back to work for me.

EDIT: Will answer questions after work.

[icnivad]

Yeah, I did not think that the zombies were too much of a threat. Sir Grolton ran entirely because of the halfling. I think that was the chink in our armor. Especially since he was essentially trying to fight the halfling all alone, while the entire party was split up by the zombie hoard. I know(as a player) that I got some unlucky rolls that kept me from lancing the halfling, but as a character, all Sir Grolton knew was that he and his horse were getting beat up by some-thing with poison they could not seem to see, and when they did see, not seem to hit. I don't think he hit the halfling once.

It was an interesting challenge, though, and even though we did not come away entirely victorious, I don't think it was too hard of a challenge. I keep thinking about things we could have done differently. Mostly, I think we should have stayed together a little more. Maybe we should have worked to get Enric's character back to the group earlier. And leaving Sermon alone in the hoard was clearly a bad idea in hindsight.

[Rabbit]

I like zombies/goblins/ and other 'weak' but ample threats mixed in with some true threats. it can really break up a team and provide some obstacles that require teamwork and good tactics. even though my guy died (I wonder if he would have survived if he kept his tower shield on) we did pretty good.

and yeah, as characters I think they would see it as a successful mission (even if their supiers do not.)

[reefwood]

I have made starting packages for new 5th-level characters but want to make some quick test characters to see if these packages are balanced. Will probably post them tomorrow.

As for the state of the war, the current focus will be on the army/battalion/huge group of soldiers that landed on Hydrahead Peninsula. Maybe once you're badass enough, you'll be deployed to fronts in other parts of the world. Anyway, this army was split into three main parts. You are with the part that was sent to capture the city of Verdas in the central part of the peninsula and small divisions of this group were sent out into the countryside (like the one led by Nero). Most of the divisions reported no problems, and aside from the trouble at Longtree, there are a few pockets of resistance holding up but they are scattered and just on the defensive right now, so not considered a major threat. Small units (like the one led by Grolton & Sermon) were sent to deal with them.

The battle at Verdas is at a stalemate. The defenders could be seen as slightly winning since your army has yet to breach the defenses in any significant way, but they're nowhere close to being driven off either.

Word has not yet come about the sieges of Ione to the north or Min'tath to the south.

I still have to work out some details for Verdas, but if there's anything in particular you'd like to be pitted against, let me know. I, of course, don't want you to know exactly what you will be facing in your specific encounters, but I may be able to work in some details into the storyline at least (i.e. you want to fight wizards, there'll be some sort of magic angle tied into the city).

Although, it would be good to know by the end of next week whether you all want to keep involved with Longtree, or move to the big city, or bring up other options.

---

Feb 3, 2010 12:58:13 GMT -5 icnivad said:

I found out that there's actually a lot more options for animal companions, they just aren't compiled anywhere convenient. The only way to actually know what your list is is to go through every animal one at a time and look at their description. Ugh. Does give some more options, though, like Dire Bat, and nearly every dinosaur (albeit a weaker version). Reefwood, what are your thoughts on riding more unique animals? Like a dire bat(which becomes large at Level 7), or an Ape, which becomes large at level 4? Would riding those into battle work if I had a custom saddle made?

It is strange that all the animal companion options aren't listed together somewhere. Anyway, starting with the simplest question to answer...

1) You can have any kind of animal companion. I'm not going to worry about restricting access based on terrain/climate. It's not like we're playing a game on an icy continent where it wouldn't make sense to have a dino because they just wouldn't exist. Who knows, maybe the army even has a "zoo" of sorts to give druid soldiers these kind of options. Of course, if you had a dino and took it into an ice castle, it would succumb to cold effects easier/faster than mammals, but then again, endure elements could take care of that.

2) "An exotic saddle is designed for an unusual mount. Exotic saddles come in military, pack, and riding styles." I'd say the one thing to consider are creatures that would make this impractical, such as one with long spikes all over its back or a back that would not support a rider. A something thing that affects all creatures is their carrying capacity. I will address this perhaps sometimes fuzzy subject through the two examples you provided.

3) Ape - This animal falls into a funny dual category in my mind. It has two arms and two legs, so it's not a quadruped, but it is usually walks on all fours, especially when moving at more than a slow pace. Based on this and the Str 22 (13 +8 Large +1 Drd5) that the Large animal companion ape of a Drd5 has, I get this for its carrying capacity - Light 346 lb / Medium 692 lb / Large 1,040 lb. Riding it won't be a problem, but I'm going to say that the exotic saddle goes on its back, and one thing you may want to keep in mind is that an ape is much slower than a horse. Also, barding for a Large creature costs x4, whereas armor for a Large humanoid costs x2 and armor for a Large non-humanoid cost x4. I know I said I would let you buy ape armor for the Large humanoid cost, but after looking at photos of them, I'm going to say that you can get Large ape armor for x3, so it falls into the middle ground of requiring more effort than humanoid armor but not as much as for a creature that is very non-humanoid.

4) Dire Bat - On a similar note, I'd say this creature has two wings and two legs, so it's not a quadruped either. The first thing to point is that "Flying mounts can't fly in medium or heavy barding." I haven't been able to find the rule yet on how load affects flight, but in 3.5, anything more than a light load also prevented flight. Carrying capacity for this one (Str 9 +8 Large +2 Drd7 = 19) is Light 232 lb / Medium 466 lb / Large 700 lb.

Anymore mount questions? Just ask away.

[Enric]

Okay, some things I'm interested in:

1. Aerial insertion

2. House-to-house fighting

3. Enemies of varied strengths, much like the slow zombies and fast zombies in the last session.

4. Specific combat objectives: disable a weapon, rescue someone, capture a specific point and hold it for a certain number of rounds, etc.

5. Breaking things. Or having the environment otherwise change in drastic ways mid-combat.

If I think that about covers it.

By the way, I picked up a print copy of the rules the other day, so we'll have that on hand next time. I'll start figuring out my character in the next few days.

[Rabbit]

Feb 5, 2010 2:20:42 GMT -5 Enric said:

Okay, some things I'm interested in:

1. Aerial insertion

2. House-to-house fighting

3. Enemies of varied strengths, much like the slow zombies and fast zombies in the last session.

4. Specific combat objectives: disable a weapon, rescue someone, capture a specific point and hold it for a certain number of rounds, etc.

5. Breaking things. Or having the environment otherwise change in drastic ways mid-combat.

Actually, these are all things I am interested in as well. (I like the idea of aerial though am not building my character for that)

And I am going to build a Elf Rogue3/wizard2 for my new character. It will be very sneaky and should be able to be a decent fighter, especially if he can tag team an enemy with someone else.

[icnivad]

Nice. I look forward to seeing the new character. Do you have a figure yet?

There are a lot of cool mount options for me once I hit druid level 7, but at druid level 4 it looks like I can either do a horse, a camel, or an ape. After much consideration, I just can't picture Sir Grolton riding into battle on an ape so I think I'm going to release my horse, and attract another horse. (I basically want to redo his poor feat choices now that I know a little more about how charging works in pathfinder.)

[icnivad]

Another question for you, Reefwood. This one about feat requirements that are met when wearing an item.

If a character meets a feat requirement (say, 13 Int) while wearing an item, can he take that feat? The way I've seen it handled in forums is that you can take it, but lose the usage of it (and anything that requires it) if you are not wearing the item, just as you would lose it if your intelligence was lowered by any other reason. I'm not sure if this is an actual rule, or just a makes-sense rule that people were using.

[reefwood]

Feb 5, 2010 13:34:16 GMT -5 icnivad said:

There are a lot of cool mount options for me once I hit druid level 7, but at druid level 4 it looks like I can either do a horse, a camel, or an ape. After much consideration, I just can't picture Sir Grolton riding into battle on an ape so I think I'm going to release my horse, and attract another horse. (I basically want to redo his poor feat choices now that I know a little more about how charging works in pathfinder.)

Sticking with a horse will also let you save income pool instead of spending it on a new mount now, and then again at level 7.

So, mainly is it just the hit points and feats are going change for the new horse, right? Along with whatever extra stuff it gets for Grolton's increased Druid level.

Feb 5, 2010 15:19:19 GMT -5 icnivad said:

If a character meets a feat requirement (say, 13 Int) while wearing an item, can he take that feat? The way I've seen it handled in forums is that you can take it, but lose the usage of it (and anything that requires it) if you are not wearing the item, just as you would lose it if your intelligence was lowered by any other reason. I'm not sure if this is an actual rule, or just a makes-sense rule that people were using.

That's how I read the rules, and this is the exact wording:

Prerequisites
Some feats have prerequisites. Your character must have the indicated ability score, class feature, feat, skill, base attack bonus, or other quality designated in order to select or use that feat. A character can gain a feat at the same level at which he gains the prerequisite.

A character can't use a feat if he loses a prerequisite, but he does not lose the feat itself. If, at a later time, he regains the lost prerequisite, he immediately regains full use of the feat that prerequisite enables.

So yeah, even if magic is what lets you meet the prerequisite, you can take the feat.

[reefwood]

I know I said at the end of last session (and on here too) that the siege at Verdas was at a stalemate, but I may want to backpedal a bit and say that the major siege hasn't started yet.

What I may say instead is that the smoke your characters saw was from small skirmishes caused by:
1) Your side testing out the defenses, and
2) The defenders prodding at the invaders (you) at their doorstep

And I'll post these rewards in story thread too, but this is what returning PCs gain from The Mystery of Longtree (along with spoils picked up along the way):

1) Minor wondrous items (1500 gp limit)
2) Potions and/or scrolls (500 gp limit, CL 6)
3) Potion of cure serious wounds (750 gp)
4) 5 days of 3rd-level income pool

I know this isn't much compared to the first session, but I was probably way too generous with those rewards (i.e. special ability to weapon, wand of fireball). Which is fine now, but I do want to scale back the pace a bit. Also, you didn't score as well with this adventure (i.e. losing half the unit & mission horses, not figuring everything out), and there were a fair bit of spoils up for grabs in this one, even if they weren't all obtained. Speaking of which, the remaining wand taken from the gnome is a wand of cure light wounds (10 charges, CL 1) that one of the returning PCs is welcome to keep.

And I realize that these scaled back rewards will now leave Brion Shaw behind the group in terms of loot, but I think things should balance out as the next adventure gets underway.