Clarion Quietus (OOC) Part 3

[Exile]

Given how many lengthy disappearances I've staged, I certainly can't complain about your own brief absences.

I've been pondering Amethyst's usefulness in combat (along with her continued fragility against hard / critical hits), and it's interesting how much this system makes some of her Inspiration effects more useful.  Being able to add her Int bonus to a damage roll isn't a huge boost in normal AD&D / Pathfinder (nice, but not great), but under this system a +5 stands a high chance of turning  a hit from a minor inconvenience into something that instantly Fatigues someone, or even breaks a limb.

On which note... I wanted to check: how do magical attacks interact with Vitality and 'damage thresholds'?  Something like a fireball could credibly fry everywhere equally... but how about Magic Missile, which is specifically a small bolt (and is also something Amethyst can create with her cobbled-together magic)?  When throwing one at a foe, should I also roll d10 for location - and stand a chance of snapping limbs or fracturing skulls?

[Ilona Ebonblade]

Ohhhh magic missile head shot!

[Exile]

I don't think that there's any way to do called shots with it - it's an automatic hit, so that would seem unfairly potent.  But still... it does make the whole "throw more Magic Missiles per spell as you level up" thing a lot more dangerous. 

[Luiniel Blades]

You're asking some dangerous, precedent setting, questions there, Amethyst. But they are ones that I'd have to address sooner or later. Yes, each magic missile automatically hits but no you cannot direct them as they do hit at an opponent in random spots, roll 1d10. Potentially this deals enough damage to break bones or the like.

[Exile]

As a corollary.... would something like Fireball have its damage split proportionately between all six locations?  Or just applied to total Vitality, to save on masses of detailed book-keeping?  Not that Amethyst is remotely close to casting anything like that herself (she's only just hit the point of having access to two first-level spells per day).

It's interesting how some of the tweaks to the combat system alter the 'power' of different types of spell (e.g. the higher ACs make Touch spells less useful, and vastly less helpful against specialist warriors, while automatic-hit spells are markedly more potent).  Similarly, brief bursts of high damage have the potential to be more useful - again, helping specialist warriors to crack limbs, but also making things like Sneak Attacks and Inspiration use a lot more dangerous than a mere half-dozen extra HP damage normally would be.


PS: Is Grandmother speaking Celestial?   And... what sort of responses would you like us to post?  Or are you waiting for all levelling-up to be done?

[Luiniel Blades]

Big explosive energy based, saving throw spells will just hit VP. Anything with an attack roll, that deals bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, or yes, even force damage, attacks a specific area.  To further clarify, this means that shocking grasp will likely damage nerves, scorching ray will burn holes in people, and Force Punch is likely to shatter bones in an area specifically.

Also, this is purposeful. Spellcasters are scary in this world. People are taught to fear them or meet them with high suspicion. Because in the case of modestly powerful channelers, i.e. 4th level and up, there is sometimes very good reason. Normal pathfinder makes it quite a bit more difficult for it to feel that way but this system in this world does a great job at showing what a truly enraged person with awesome power can accomplish.

As far as touch attack spells are concerned, it makes being stealthy a lot more important a combat option.

And yes, gold language is celestial. This particular scene was just a placeholder to keep you all interested while I was having another busy night at work. Feel free to respond if you'd like. I'm going to be doing the big 10-day time jump scene with everybody and all of the information you've given me to work with soon.

[Luiniel Blades]

Dunkin, aside from having a bad time during the trip, is there anything else you would like your character to do? I've had some ideas thrown at me from Siobhan and Amethyst.

You have a good amount of downtime despite your hunting and traveling. Any skills or feats you might like to retrain, or further character ideas would be good. But also don't worry, I will have a hook here for you shortly. Also was your 4th level ability score increase to Constitution? Mostly this is for flavor text.

[Pheros]

Dunk got thunderous charge for 4th level. Con or Str buffs at level 5 I think.

Dunk is definitely a little lost. It's such an unfamiliar terrain for him. So, he would want to learn as much as possible to try to improve his understanding of the local area, to help with hunting, finding water, etc.  Since Elrik seems to know what he's doing, Dunk will stick close to him and try to get as much info out to improve his Knowledge(plains).

[Luiniel Blades]

Slightly updated everyone's big private post. In case you were planning on responding to it, do look over it again. (They're not actually that private, just wanted to make it easier on you and myself). Not so much in Dunkin's case as I've started responding to him.

It was quite a bit more involved and I didn't want the timelines to be too specific, unless specifically stated. Mostly so you could all have various reactions, should you desire.

[Luiniel Blades]

At this point it's up to you guys if you feel like reacting to any of your various posts or each other's. I'm going to play fast and loose with these for a bit so you might  overhear a conversation, see someone having a nightmare, or just try asking a question.

I'll keep these up here a few more days and react as time permits.

[Luiniel Blades]

Quick question for my players:

I often try to set scenes up for you guys that there's a lot of things you could interact with, or talk with other people in your respective groups about. But I only occasionally set things up for you to talk with someone directly. I feel like a lot of times I do give you various scenes to play with but then they aren't really looked at.

Is it that I'm going too fast with them? Would it be easier if I were to have people from your groups or other NPC's come to talk with you directly, maybe starting off with various questions or just comments about what's been happening?

I don't necessarily like forcibly moving the story to the next point where you are suddenly forced into a random fight against something or have to make certain skill checks to not die but I could do that.

Siobhan: Knowledge Arcana

Rolled 1d20+6 : 11 + 6, total 17

[Pheros]

Hey LB,  I don't know if it's a pacing issue really.  Instead, I think it's just tough to do a group discussion without the cues you would get in person.  I know sometimes I think I misread a situation as being directed at one character, not realizing it was an open chance for wider discussions.  So I wind up waiting for that to finish, like I would in an in-person game.

Maybe a bit more directed conversation might keep the flow more obvious, and help keep the pace up as well, so we're not all waiting for each other thinking the others are supposed to be leading the conversation.

[Exile]

I agree: it can be very easy for us to wait for one of the other PCs to respond to something, because we think it's for them / they should be first to get the chance to respond / whatever.

Any help you can give with 'things your characters should know' would be welcome: it's very easy for us to OOCly forget things we were clearly told IC - but that might have been posted to the forum (or sent in PM) years ago IRL.  Conversational cues can pass us by because we forget things that would identify them as important.

On a related note... is Amethyst at all aware of Siobhan's struggles?  Her Empathy score's not that great (she's better at reading Shadow agents!), so I can certainly believe that she's been rolling badly enough that she's failed to notice her friend's troubles while distracted with other things.

I've also given Siobhan's player a nudge: as ever, no matter how many posts there are on a thread, you only ever get notified of the first one since your last visit.  It can be all too easy to miss that when RL's being a pain, and stop getting reminders...

[Ilona Ebonblade]

Nudge received and acknowledged. Give me a day or so  and I'll get a response posted. I think it's just the kind of thing to get us interacting again. Been buried under personal stuff lately as well.

[Luiniel Blades]

I generally try to leave it up to the players to decide how much or little you notice or interact with other people's troubles. If you have high perception or sense motive scores, usually without specific instances, I tend to give more clues in description. But it's also fair to say Amethyst has been busy with trying so many things that Siobhan's troubles have been put onto the backburner.

But for this, yes, you have probably noticed your friend's growing troubles. Especially now that something truly ostentatious has occurred.

Also, the book is 100% reactive and will not be proactive.

[Exile]

Yeah, I was about to write in the book when I realised I should check whether Siobhan's troubles were evident - she will trump Amethyst's curiosity about the tome.  But she might well have written at least a little, before realising Siobhan was in difficulty....

[Exile]

Back on the previous page, on the 19th of June, you gave me a list of things that Amethyst found - this seems to overlap at least in part with what's in the IC thread (the documents).  Is the rest of that stuff part of the discovery?

If so, "oh, I found 16 days of trail rations - would these help?" might be relevant.

[Ilona Ebonblade]

Things have been pretty hectic but I should be able put together a solid post tonight and get back into the swing of things

[Exile]

Yay!

=)

[Luiniel Blades]

Glad to have you back, Siobhan.

Amethyst, yes there is definite overlap with what happened.

Everyone:

First, I made the OOC post to decide what happened to everyone and what you found (or lost) with your Karma checks over the course of the time frame.

Then I made an IC posts to flesh it all out with details with what happened and roughly when while the traveling days were happening.

The idea to the broad overview of traveling days was to give everyone minor key moments, or just interesting bits, in time where certain events would occur. Then you could allow your character to react during and after those events while time passed. Of course, if your character took more than a passing interest in what occurred, we would role-play it out.

[Exile]

What does Amethyst recognise the area as?  More the one of us visited both Grandfather and Grandmother's homes, so I'm wondering if this is somewhere she toured in her wanderings as a petty alchemist and storyteller?

[Luiniel Blades]

Linemell is a village that Amethyst once came through years ago as a wandering Storyteller.

It's located southeast of Hornblower's Rest and is a fairly large village with a mixed population of Erenlanders, Sarcosans, and a smaller section dedicated to Gnomes. It was notably managed by a local Sheriff who was a Dorn named Xander. Normally the village did not like having outsiders and gave a wide berth to any who came visiting. Amethyst however, had become something of a secret celebrity who managed to first win the hearts of the children of the village and was then quietly accepted as a member of them.

Linemell had usually been out of your way to come visit too often, but you've come 3 times in the last 4 years.

[Exile]

Gah!

Sorry for the delay.  Apologies for being useless, yet again.

[Luiniel Blades]

No judgement here, I was literally silent for over nearly 2 months.

[Luiniel Blades]

Hey guys, I'm back. Finals kicked my butt and strangled my game running creativity for a while again. Going to try and get this game moving again.