[Finished] PF2 - Big Troubles in Little Otari Extravaganza (Sundays, 8-11 EDT)

General Games Virtual Table Tops
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VTT Client: Foundry
Host Link: subject to change, will provide via Discord or PM

Game System: Pathfinder 2

Voice: OTG Guild Discord - VTT channel

Dates/Time: Sundays at 8 PM EDT through 11 PM EDT, and see below

Preferred Party Size: 4

Current Party:

Player Character Ancestry Class
Ocelot Zanistra Elf Wizard
Quixote Zircon Half-Orc Monk
Stompey Glenden Brewhammer Dwarf Champion
Spoon Mortimer Ashguard Dwarf Cleric
Binazzi Zulli Dwarf Ranger
Party is currently closed.

We’ll be running the following content for the Pathfinder (2) system for this campaign:

There’s overlap in the levels of the content, so the party will have a major to slight advantage as they begin the Abomination Vaults AP at a higher than expected level.

All of the content (conveniently?) takes place in and around the small port town of Otari, a fishing and lumbering town on the Isle of Kortos which lies on the southern coast between the port city of Diobel and the sprawling metropolis of Absalom, the largest city in the world of Golarion.

When we get closer to finishing up this content (a year from now or so), there’ll be discussion then as to whether we continue and with what content.

The Beginner’s Box adventure starts in media res with the fledgling party having been hired by the owner of the local fishery to find out what is eating the fish in her basement and to stop it before she goes out of business!

Troubles in Otari synopsis:

Onward to adventure! This exciting adventure anthology expands the realm beyond the hometown introduced in the Pathfinder Beginner Box and brings thrilling new dangers to the heroes’ doorstep! Designed for use with the rules in the Pathfinder Beginner Box and the perfect bridge to the exciting options of the full Pathfinder Core Rulebook, these adventures take your heroes to 4th level and beyond as they venture further into the nearby wilderness and face fearsome foes lurking all too close to home!

The anthology’s three adventures introduce a number of play styles, including clearing out an abandoned fish camp, a sandbox romp to get to the bottom of sabotage, and a classic puzzle-filled dungeon crawl.

Ruins of Gauntlight (Abomination Vaults #1) Synopsis:

When the mysterious Gauntlight, an eerie landlocked lighthouse, glows with baleful light, the people of Otari know something terrible is beginning. The town’s newest heroes must venture into the ruins around the lighthouse – and delve the dungeon levels far beneath it – to discover the evil the Gauntlight heralds. Hideous monsters, deadly traps, and mysterious ghosts all await the heroes who dare to enter the sprawling megadungeon called the Abomination Vaults!

All character options available from the following official Paizo sources:

No purchases necessary.

Will be using Guild Discord for voice communication and Foundry as our virtual table top. Players connect to Foundry games (for free) via their browser of choice (though Chrome-based browsers are preferred).

Game time is Sundays at 20:00 EDT for 3 hours (ending at 23:00 EDT); 8:00 pm - 11:00 pm for people who don’t math.

Session 0 - party composition discussion and finalization, character creation, last minute prep, and maybe even adventure start (if everyone is ready) will be on Dec 12th.

Session 1 - Official adventure start will be on Dec 19th.

We’ll be off for Dec 26th as well as Jan 2nd, and will resume regular play on Jan 9th.

Abomination Vaults Player’s Guide

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We’ve got 3 of 4 party spots filled and are looking to fill the last spot. First come, first served!

Since we’re starting with the Pathfinder Beginner’s Box, the adventure will ease new players into the game and no prior Pathfinder experience is required. Pregen characters will be available.

If more people are interested I could be convinced to increase the party size to 5 or even 6

We’re not using any variant rules (mainly from the Pathfinder Gamemaster’s Guide) for this campaign… unless I can be convinced otherwise.

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I’m in! :slight_smile:

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And that’s four!

In the event that someone chimes in interest before Sunday, I’ll keep the tag as open, but we’ve got our party and are good to go.

[Edit] Translated into English.

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The four of y’all who are in might want to start posting here your current ideas for your characters just so we can see where everyone’s head is at.

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My original idea was for a Baba Yaga Witch which is an occult spell list witch. I still like this idea as it has a nice mix of debuffs and blasting. It also has access to an amazing 10th level focus spell - Glacial Heart - which is quite a ways off, but its nice to have something big to look forward to. I also like the fact that they can take an inanimate object as a familiar.

I also considered making a Winter Witch which is a primal spell list witch and would lean more into blasting. @Rando clarified I could also get access to Glacial Heart with this patron too if I go this route. They have a nifty little hex cantrip that’s single action and can do some damage and reduce the speed of an opponent. It’s not much damage but there aren’t many single action spells in the game so I feel like it would open up some interesting gameplay choices.

Only problem with both of these I don’t feel like either of them fit in super well with a campaign based in and around Absalom (at least not thematically anyway).

So I also came up with a concept for a Curse Witch which is a witch that is also an occult spell list witch. Evil Eye seems like a nice hex cantrip. Fear/Demoralize is always nice to have from level 1. I had this idea of someone who was from Osirion and had been buried alive and then later returned from the dead - so possibly the revenant background which is really cool but admittedly would be a pain in the butt for a healer to deal with. Still I feel like the theme kind of fits if you assume that Absalom probably has tons of “borrowed” antiquities from Osirion sitting around in museums and private collections.

Finally, I also felt inspired to dream up a Yakuza inspired Mastermind Rogue. I think this is a really cool concept and I think it kind of thematically fits in Absalom if you assume there’s a significant Tian community there. (I remember there were Tian characters in Rise of the Runelords in little old Sandpoint so it seems plausible to me - but I could wrong!)

I’ve kind of also toyed with the idea of creating a wizard but I gotta admit its gonna hurt leveling up a wizard again!

The one thing that all of these characters have in common is that they are all pretty high in intelligence - which I assume we’ll need at least one character to be. I’m not super fixated on any of these ideas though (at least not yet anyway) so open to discussing other possibilities depending on what everyone else wants to do.

Also, welcome @Spoon !

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I am new to Pathfinder 2e, but not Pathfinder itself. I was looking at druid stuff mostly last night and was kinda leaning into a wild druid. Flexibility with what I can do (wild shape and play in melee or use utility forms for flight/scouting/whatever) while still being a full caster (primal) is attractive. Trying to get a RP picture of the character with the anathema in my head is harder for me though, since I am not normally a nature person.

I was also looking at Gunslinger some, but I guess we don’t have access to that book currently. I’ve been watching a lot of Cowboy Bebop lately, so i’ve been picturing kind of a Spike type. Rogue or maybe even a tracker focused Ranger would work.

I was also trying to figure out a storm tempest type caster. That would be a divine caster, so maybe oracle or cleric/warpriest (but i guess warpriest isn’t so good?)

hmm the more I look at your ideas, it seems we have similar tastes in characters. I normally play utility casters or skill monkeys.

I am interested to see what everyone is playing, maybe it will help me narrow down some more. I am kinda buried in the options and ways to customize it. I do like how the attributes work in character creation though.

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^ From the synopsis of the first module of Abomination Vaults. Read into that what you will!

The following three archetypes are described in the three modules of the adventure path:

  • Ghost Hunter
  • Eldtrich Researcher
  • Drow Shootist

Also read into that what you will! I’ll get these (along with other stuff) into a handout when I can.

[Edit] Nevermind. All three archetypes are posted at Archives of Nethys.

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Ohhh right, this is a James Jacobs adventure!

Oops I forgot it’s a actually a Ron Lundeen adventure!

Hmm…

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Okay, I think I’ve definitely settled on an occult spell list witch (Assuming nobody else is jonesing to play an occult caster - if so just me know and I’ll adjust.) and specifically Baba Yaga patron (unless @Rando is willing to grant an inanimate object as a familiar to a Curse witch - in that case I might prefer to go with the curse patron.

I’m currently in SF on a business trip and I guess the local Asian ambiance has inspired me to lean towards a Tian character. Her familiar will be an inanimate object and specifically a Kitsune mask and I’m thinking I’ll take Katana Wakizashi with the unconventional weaponry feat (kind of sucks that she won’t get expert profiency until level 13 but oh well).

So basically in combat she will focus on providing a mix of debuffs and AoEs and the occasional melee strike when the necessity arises. Out of combat she’ll provide INT based utility.

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I have pretty much figured out i want to do an archer. I am still trying to flesh out exactly how i want to start him and a rough idea of where i want him to go.

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Three martials could be a powerful combination. I think I can provide sufficient in combat healing. … We’ll want to be super careful starting out though. I’ll have access to Soothe which is a solid healing spell though probably not ideal for a primary healer.

I think @Stompey is planning to take battle medicine so that will help.

I’m kind of tempted to play a Bard now. IMO they don’t really make sense in party with only two martials. But with three… that’s a different story. :thinking:

@Quixote , @Spoon , what are y’all’s plans regarding taking darkvision or not?

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@Spoon Welcome! :slight_smile:

I’m looking into to my Halfling Swashbuckler. that’s right, Nimble Dodge is back!!! (DEX focus here to help with flanking and off-tanking kind of stuff. If we’re going to have a ranged specialist with the archer and some then I can focus a bit more on the thieving, stealth, flanking kind of stuff. That seemed to help a lot once I learned how to play it right on our last romp.

The Halfling gets Low-light as a racial trait… I might have to look at my stash of Randobucks to see if I can sweet talk our benevolent GM into a boon.

@Spoon - I binged the Cowboy Bebop last week and really kind of liked it. the real bummer is that I hear Netflix is killing it with only the one season… to borrow a rando-ism, sad panda face… looks like I’m back to Altered Carbon

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I was going between either a half-elf cavern elf(via elf atavism) or going full elf (either whisper or cavern).

I was also looking at taking battle medicine with the thought of having more people that can treat wounds would be good, but if that is covered i can look at a different way to spend skill feats.

@Quixote I really like Altered Carbon as well!. That is a bummer if they are cancelling Cowboy Bebop already, the anime is really good as well. I may have to give that a rewatch as it has been a long time since I’ve watched it.

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Alrighty, we’ve got our four players. I’m going to go ahead and close the game.

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@Rando how will you be adjudicating Telekinetic Projectile?

Can we assume that there will always be an object nearby for hurling? Or do we need to carry our own supply of objects?

If we carry them, do we have to use an action to drop them first so that they are “unattended” or will it suffice just to have a pouch of objects handy?

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Like I’ve always done.

No. I mean, you can assume, but you might find nothing suitable around.

If you don’t want to look for something and possibly come up empty handed, yes.

The latter.

RAW, unattended means unattended. RAI, I think the intent is you can’t Telekinetic Projective something being carried by a hostile (or potentially hostile) “person”. Thought it would be funny.

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Thanks for the clarification. I couldn’t remember how you did this.

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OMG I can see you replying!!!

You left your browser open in edit mode didn’t you…

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Well, I keep comparing the witch to the bard and with the current party composition Bard feels like it might be a more impactful class choice than witch. Their class cantrips are really good and really useful for a party that is going to be making lots of attacks every rounds and I’d still have access to the same amount of healing via Soothe.

Int based skill checks would take a fairly significant hit though - but there is Bardic Lore that might help make up the difference… maybe?