be there or be square
Well, here is Vaniâs most recent portrait. Hopefully it wonât be her last:
In hindsight I guess I brought that drop on myself by attempting to kite. I did call those bars right though.
I guess I had better start mentally preparing myself for another go against Ralldar.
Well it is what it is. Tonight would have been good to have Malinar in there as he could have used his champion reaction to mitigate some of the damage others where taking if they where within 15 feet. That is of course if he was actually in the fight by turn 4. He might have still been outside with you.
Mith
Ironically, we might have actually been better off with the undead sorcerer last night. I wouldâve had access to Sudden Blight for remote blasting and False Life for a decent bit of ablative armor.
I made another big mistake by replacing Nimble Elf with Forlorn. I had a 2nd level burning hands prepared but I was one square too far away to get in blasting range.
Is it gonna be another addition to the obituary thread?!?!! Stay tuned listeners!
I got 6 nat 20âs in 4 rounds of combatâŚ
I blame Cyberpunk 2077. It got jealous of the time you where spending on our game so it Hacked your version of Fantasy Grounds and rigged the Dice rolls against us.
Mith
Last night was disappointing. It felt like the dice rolling algorithm or something for Fantasy grounds was just plain FUBAR. If I came off sounding unhappy by the end of the session itâs because I was. That was not what I was looking to come back to after the previous week. Iâm not blaming any of you fellow players or the DM, it is what it is, but what it is really irritated me something fierce last night. Sometimes Pathfinder just really kills my desire or interest to play it and last night was one of those sessions. Getting destroyed by what I would consider to be trash mobs/adds just soured me. Part of it is because I am just coming out of the mental/emotional state I was in and looking to get back into the swing of things only to end up dying by the end of the session.
Iâm not looking to be babied or have my hand held, just expressing my frustration and disappointment with how FUBAR things were going. I know itâs random, but it felt like the Fantasy Grounds dice were purposely screwing us over in favor of the DM rolls. Again it is what it is. I have given up on Magus for now, it is gimped. I honestly donât care if I am dead next session; I have no Hero Points to use so it is quite a possibility. If Maedrhos dies next session he stays dead, no resurrection. Heâs already died and been reborn once being a Duskwalker, and heâs a gimped class so he doesnât want to be brought back. Already planning a second and third character now. Either a Ranger with Eldritch Archer archetype or Beastmaster archetype combined with Ranger or Druid.
The more I think about it, the more I feel responsible for last nightâs fiasco. Dice rolls aside, I shouldâve followed the group into the breach. At the time I was more worried about getting stuck in melee at the rear of the group but I clearly misjudged how devastating short bows can be. Had I been in melee though, at least I couldâve cast burning hands which wouldâve made a big dent in the trash mobs.
@Rando was that crit on Vani from a nat 20 or from +10 over AC?
As much as I love Pathfinderâs critical rules, I think they hurt the PCs more than help b/c most of the on level mobs actually have quite high AC and to hit bonuses.
You made a poor tactical choice, but you were not responsible for last nightâs clusterfudge. Personally I feel like Pathfinder was designed to punish players and I am finding it progressively not enjoyable.
I think the best way I can put it is that I enjoy showing up to play with you guys and play with Rando, but I am enjoying showing up to play the Pathfinder system less and less the more I play it.
Conversely I am enjoying the Starfinder game a lot more.
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I actually really like Pathfinder 2e. The difficulty level is daunting at times and I really should be paying a lot closer attention to what the entire team is doing.
What I like about 2e is that I can mechanically execute just about any character concept I can imagine. All the different feats, classes and ancestries open a lot of possibilities. Also, I find the combat mechanics to be similarly interesting and usually there are at least a couple of different things I could do each round.
I think the problem with the Magus is that itâs still a work in progress. Hopefully the bugs will be worked out by the time Secrets of Magic is published.
In addition to the ranger, I know you liked your kobold sorcerer @Ryuken, so you might want to consider that again too.
PS - I will add that if the group frustration levels are such that itâs a matter of keeping the group together for the Thursday night sessions then Iâd be willing to swap over to another fantasy role playing system (e.g. PF1, 5e, etc).
Iâm not quitting the group by any means regardless of my general growing distaste of Pathfinder. I enjoy playing with you guys and playing games under Rando as the DM, I just am becoming less and less of a fan of Pathfinder. Or maybe itâs just the Fantasy Grounds die roller that should really get my enmity or Fantasy Grounds dice roller and Pathfinder rules that combine to form one mega-suckness.
@ocelot I really donât know if I like d my kobold sorcerer or not, I played it for all of one session and then was dead the next session I wasnât even there for.
Letâs do some roleplaying flair
The battle is pitched and on the brink of disaster for the adventurers; then things begin to spiral out of control for the worse. Maedhros, seeing VanimĂłrien run off in a panicky state, shouts âVanimĂłrien, NO!â and becomes distracted as he is brought down by the final blows from the enemies. GingeeBlue is also felled as the tides begin to turn against the heroes. Aiden steadies his verves as he quickly glances around, surveying the carnage and readying his healing magic to try and even the odds in the hopes of once again snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Will the Duskwalker Magus rise once again to live in gimped misery? Will VanimĂłrien be spending two weeks recovering from resurrection sickness? The tension is palpableâŚ
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Cool, whoâs the NPC Aiden that is coming to our rescue? 
Iâm pretty sure that is me getting your character names mixed up.
You know, Aiden, one of Synjenâs distant descendants from a distant land know as D&D, a fellow cleric. It will be like a crossover episode.
Dammit, thatâs twice I hit the âdâ key and not the ârâ key and didnât notice. I think I need about a weekâs straight sleep.
Donât worry, youâll find as you get older, youâll get that sleep whether you want to take it or not. Nap time claims all. Especially when we go long on Friday nights.
@Ryuken - I feel ya⌠Itâs tough to invest the time, energy, and, at some level, some emotional piece of ourselves into our characters. I do like the bounce back teaser for ânext week on, The One Encounter Knights!â 
it gets the blood stirring for a swashbuckler for sure
Iâd say that last week was an anomaly with 6 nat crit rolls from Rando, but (chuckles to himself) I cant. Heâs had hot dice for like 6 months now! I think we need to petition to have his signature tagline from âGuild Memberâ to âTPK Grand Master - 6 crit roll levelâ
Anyway, that being said⌠I love getting together and spending time exploring with you all! If the group wants to shift to something else, Iâm cool with that and Iâll go along. However, I thought about it and realized that, while it stings a bit to see our comrades fall in combat, Iâm kind of enjoying the game/story/adventure. I mean, its not like weâre not a bunch of 15 year olds in mom & dadâs basement! No! weâre 45 year olds in mom & dadâs basement!!! (kidding, I couldnât resist 
) and I appreciate that Randoâs trying to put together some challenging encounters and mental puzzles so that this isnât a total âwalk throughâ grind type of adventure. There some real risk, itâs going to require some strategy and tactics. This is something that we discussed following our last romp. So, rather than jump ship, Iâd like to see if we can learn and adapt to the situation⌠stock up on Heal potions, improve our battle tactics, work with or figure out how to remove de-buffs⌠ya know⌠Gain XP. Rando⌠can we plead for leniency from the gods?
If my character dies this week, but some of you survive I am fine with that. I will have a new character ready to go and leave the burden to the DM to figure out how to introduce my new character into the game. If some of us survive and we keep playing this campaign I wonât be quitting.
Iâve got a few ideas kicking around in my head as to what to do next. We can discuss on Thursday in Discord. Itâs way easier in chat than in text to discuss stuff.