Paizo Games General /pgg/
Have you ever played a construct or something like a construct, maybe an android? How does your party fight constructs, especially ones that go out of control?
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Wouldn't being evil be the best defense against divine stuff? At least smite?
Pragmatic evil I mean.
Like, you're evil, you're kind of an asshole, you've killed before and you'll probably do it again.
But you're pragmatic about it so the paladin hasn't smited you yet because you haven't killed an innocent that he can prove and the local law would stop him if he did.
Similarly antipaladins and evil smite users can't smite you because you are evil.
Man I don't understand the Gun Chemyst archetype. People here hyped it up as the first viable gun class, but I don't really understand what weapon you're supposed to used.
Cardridge Savant gives you much better alchemical cardridges that do additional damage, but the only one that exists is the dragon breath one, and that deals area damage and can only be fired with spread guns, but if you're using spread guns, then what's even the advantage to using bombs anymore?
How would you play a gun chemyst and what damage would you do against single targets?
It's not like I can always shotgun blast around the fighter dude.
Do it online if you can't find anything good. Don't do pfs, that's a terrible idea.
Worst case scenario, start up a new group yourselves. Put up ads in local nerd gathering places or even online in local facebook groups and the like.
I'd love to have a physical group again, but with my schedule and stress levels lately that's almost an impossibility. If one falls into my lap though I won't turn it away, but it would have to really be perfect for my crazy work schedule.
tfw I will never get a girlfriend who wants to play pathfinder with me
Guess we're not free of the bot even on a new thread, report it for now and see if the mods will take care of it.
really?
Girlfriend and I are going to play pathfinder together, any suggestions for fun/effective 2 player combos? I know of butterfly sting, but that's about it. 1pp only, no 3rd party material.
All teamwork feats
Does anyone have the Pathfinder Society Scenario #7–22: Bid for Alabastrine. I need it to run PFS on Saturday. Yes I did check the link it only goes up to 7-21. Please and Thank you.
But they're all taken from /pfg/ threads so they look like legit posts shit
We're being spammed by someone trawling the past /pfg/ archives.
Is it just /pfg/ or Veeky Forums, because the idea that someones hatred of Pathfinder is so fucking virulent that they made a spambot to just to harass the general is kind of hilarious in a sad way.
They're all specifically /pfg/ posts, and it's most likely a bot.
For example:
You'll note the earlier post has a spoiler, which bots would ignore when grabbing text.
archive.4plebs.org
bitch you asked this last thread. The best alignment is TN
you asked this too Nani the Fuck
I remember making that post yesterday, I did not make it this time.
It's a bot or some asshole trying to make pathfinder discussion impossible.
I see that now. That's a new low level to stoop to.
I see that now. That's a new low level to stoop to.
and now its copying me.
I wonder when it will copy me
Just stumbled upon the sacred geometry feat. So there's nothing stopping you from picking that and spell perfection and a metamagic rod.
BTW, do those two feats count for the requirement of spell perfection?
>So there's nothing stopping you
Except your GM.
By RAW it all works, but you'll have to make a pretty tough reflex save the first time you attempt to use it to avoid the PHB being thrown at your head by the GM
Yes yes, but I mean simply by the terms of the rulebook.
What would be some sensible rules to allow this feat at all? Only outside combat? 6 second time limit per intelligence modifier of the caster?
there are none. it's a busted feat
How long does it take on average to get done with book 1 of Curse of the Crimson throne.
We're probably around 80 Hours in Discord together and still haven't gotten done. (Not including actions sent through PM'S)
What kind of different encounters have you had so far? After the initial fishery "dungeon", there's a lot of different encounters to help you get to know Korvosa. It's somewhat freeformish.
We've apprehended Vancasterkin, Sobered up the Captain of the Guard, and just got done finishing business at a place called the Eel's end.
We've had 3 party deaths so far in, leaving us with an assortment of level 1-3 characters.
Last we left off, we'd been summoned to the Citadel to hear whatever task follows this one.
...
By Shelyn's enormous tits, how the fuck do you have 3 deaths? Has your DM been overtuning encounters, or is it just an imbalanced/suicidal party? No, wait. Don't tell me you tried to kick in the door at Eel's End?
At any rate, from what I remember, you've done quite a few of the "important" encounters in book 1. There's some stuff you should have picked up in the fishery that leads to some plot stuff, and I think there's a dungeon coming up if you're around level 3-4.
Also, Grau was only Watch Sergeant, not Captain. There should be a small handful of general encounters you guys have had thus far to introduce some NPCs you may or may not meet again, depending on how your DM feels like dealing with the campaign.
One died trying to handle animal a boar, which promptly bit his hand off.
One got his body put on a meat hook and stabbed to death at all the World's meats.
One died in a Player on Player Combat situation.
>One died in a Player on Player Combat situation.
So your group is just full of shitters.
We have one for certain. Our game store we had in town closed down due to lack of traffic, so I haven't found another group recently. Weird thing though: We had a Starfinder campaign before this with no problems. As far as I know this module just brought that side out of them.
I don't even remember boars in chapter 1, which means your party went way outside the city I guess and tried something stupid?
Sounds like it.
"That's just what my character would do!" players are the worst. Either get them to shape up or tell them to fuck off.
And to answer your question regarding party balance: One Cavalier at level 2, One Medium at Level 2, 1 Sorcerer Level 3, 1 GMPC which is some sort of melee fighter at level 3, One Psychic level 1.
Boars were herded in as an event to try and close the level gap. It failed spectacularly.
Jesus, what a level gap. Sounds like your GM is screwing with you guys or doesn't know how to run urban encounters.
Wellp, good luck with that.
Can a lycanthrope be a vampire? Or does vampirism counteract lycanthropy?
Also who is the best evil god and why is it Lamashtu?
TFW you used my post as an example of the bots shenanigans, the same exact post I mentioned the bot copied in the legit thread. I feel so honored!
Thanks I suppose. The game is working better now that the party is at peace again, just we have to grind more since he won't start the following part until we are all APL 3.
You can be a Dhamphir and contract it, or a Skinwalker and contract vampirism.
However, there's nothing technically stopping you from stacking the Lycanthrope template on top of the Vampire template. Lycanthrope ADDS the Shapechanger subtype, Vampire just changes your type to undead.
Technically yes, but you need to be a lycanthrope before you become a vampire. Undead can't become lycanthropes, since lycanthrope template requires the base creature to be humanoid, and vampire changes the creature type to undead.
RAI and flavor-wise, probably not. But don't let the words of an anonymous poster on a Somalian fly-fishing forum stop you from making your players cringe at your Edwacob wannabe character.
Your GM's being a dickhole if he makes you reroll at level 1 when you already have level 3 characters in the party.
It's more the level one wasn't there for all of the sessions, and while was there for a good amount of storyline, was not for combat encounters and quest rewards of exp.
GM'S still a dick though, though I an sometimes see where he's coming from.
>RAI and flavor-wise, probably not. But don't let the words of an anonymous poster on a Somalian fly-fishing forum stop you from making your players cringe at your Edwacob wannabe character.
Well, I'm not really asking as a player, but as a GM. Vampires feature heavily in the campaign I'm planning and I wanted to know if there's any mechanical benefit for them to turn existing lycanthropes into vampires, since that would paint the vamps general attitude towards said shifters.
Use this thread, it was made earlier.
>20 minutes later than this one
"earlier"
Sounds like your GM has a very specific "hardcore" playstyle enforcement. If a player misses a session in one of our games, they "turn into amorphous mist" and follow the party around, occasionally solidifying at the GM's whim if absolutely required for non-combat abilities, reaping exp that the party gains as a group (solo encounters are still tracked separately). Helps people not get blasted for missing one or two games, but we also have actual adults in our group who have real lives and can be responsible and shit.
I was responding as if you were a GM. Go forth and spread the love of Count Wolfgang von Whogivesafuck. Not much of a benefit though. Vampire DR is better, and they can already do the shapechanging trick. Vampires and werewolves have historically hated each other in classical fiction, from what I half-remember from an episode of Scooby-Doo.
No, it was made 20 minutes after this thread was.
Help me out Veeky Forumss.
I am thinking of joining a Pathfinder game as someone that has barely played any DnD or the like in his life.
I looked around and found a piece of the pie that I think I can enjoy, I am unsure however how well it will be taken by others.
Insinuator Anti-paladin Arena-Bred Half-Orc. I play as if I am a Paladin in the service of some divine Orc-god of justice.
But really I am a BLM activist and SJW.
My skin is grey, I rub green moss all over my body daily to tinge it green. If anyone asks it is part of my praying to my god. I also use moss time to contact my Outsider of the day that I must pledge my service to.
I constantly go on about how evil Humans are and how they need to be taken down and destroyed. How important it is to help Orcs and promote Green power. I tell any Human woman I encounter how important it is for them to have a mixed race baby with an Orc, I volunteer my services, especially if their spouse is around.
Any time anyone asks me of my origins I tell them, "same as any Orc really." If they push beyond I will say, "my father took my mother by force." If anything else comes of it I will point out how racist it is that they thought my mother was a Human, my father ran the breeding pit and took my mother because she was useless in the fighting arena. "It's $CURRENTYEAR, don't be such a bigot."
Speak terrible Orcish, so badly as to be insulting to actual Orcs. Always tell examples of how Orcs are better than anything else, how they created civilization... These are always complete bullshit.
I just don't know if that would get too annoying or if it would be an amusing parody character for those that get it.
Sounds like your GM should preemptively eject you from the group. Unless every player is as cancerous as you, in which case you should all be quarantined together.
On the off-chance you're not being ironically retarded, then yes, that character sounds incredibly annoying and painful to watch anyone try to roleplay. Just absolutely fucking stupid.
That sounds like the character who'd be good for precisely 1 session.
Not a recurring character most likely though.
>Muh vampiric werewolf
Fuck off
Also
>Best evil god
>Not Asmodeus
> Not worshiping Shax
Just kidding, no way could I seriously do that.
Sounds like you should just fucking kill yourself you cancerous fucking /pol/tard, but since it's likely you won't off yourself I'll go with this user
Or you could not be a cancerous fuckwit for a few hours a week and make a character that isn't you projecting your fear/fantasy of black men having sex with women who wouldn't dream of touching you in the first place.
Different user from who you're responding to, but I'm also in a Curse game midway through book 2 and had a question. Our party happens to have a character who is infected with blood veil but is atm convinced that it's a personal trial from their deity and isn't looking to be cured. Question is: are NPCs/guards generally using visual means to detect the condition or are some using magic? Until we can hopefully convince this player/character to come around are disguise checks going to be enough to hide this or is this character just asking to eventually be screwed over by our DM?
when people say "longsword +4" where does that come from ? Is that just
+4 damage ?
Usually refers to it's total enhancement bonus, which applies to damage and to hit.
Is there a monk archetype that attacks pressure points sort of like the dim-mak, death touch of a ninja or yogi?
There's a Ninja Trick that does that, causes STR/DEX damage iirc. Don't remember if the damage stacks though.
I want to make an illithid monk that uses telekinesis to attack pressure points with his invisible palm, but I am at a loss as how to do so.
Convince your GM to use the called shots rules and refluff them as striking pressure points whenever you deal ability damage
What's a viable build that uses plate armor?
Any class that can use heavy armor, or a class that can't with a dip in one that can (sans Arcane casters).
Any build with 3k spare gold
Warder, paladin.
Use spheres of power, don't take drawbacks call you abilities psionic in nature and then just take the ability damage dealing ones.
>Paladin
Really? How do you mitigate that speed drop?
The same way any martial does, you get a caster to drop haste on you.
I use Share Spells to cast my Monstrous Physique II spell on my familiar and cause it change from a small creature to a large one. Does it get +4 strength like the spell says, or more because it started as smaller than medium? I'd really appreciate if you could point to exactly where in the rules this is spelled out. I use to think the answer was that you'd only get the +4 STR regardless of starting size, but one of the other players in the game is telling me otherwise and I didn't actually see anything supporting what I thought was correct in the rules for polymorph effects. Was I just wrong all this time?
Divine Mount
I have what might be a silly question; but how should one use Kytons in any way other than cruel fleshcrafters?
I'm talking about a culture that has had extensive contact with the Negative Energy Plane and the Plane of Shadows as well. I can't seem to find a use for Kytons, I just pity them.
>I have what might be a silly question; but how should one use Kytons in any way other than cruel fleshcrafters?
Dickass genies maybe? They want to "help" mortals but through horrifying practices, like a Monkey's Paw sort of.
Transhumanists focused on enhancement through biomancy and grafted parts instead of cybernetics or other technoligical upgrades. If you plan to keep them evil, go less about torture, more "monster poachers" willing to harvest parts from anything, owlbears to dragons to celestials, whatever is convenient for their plans.
>make a kick-focused Prodigy with spell attack
>spring for electric focus, why not? it's cool
>realize this gives her literal thunder thighs
When was the last time you or your group made a terrible, terrible pun?
It's not a pun, but here's my favorite story from a few years back;
>Two players are stuck outside while noble player talks to local lord
>Decide to sneak in
>"Man, how are we going to sneak past these dickheads?"
>"Don't worry. I know how to handle dickheads."
I don't let that fucker live it down.
Any guy should know how to handle dickheads. Well, unless they're from an oldschool Catholic upbringing or something that makes them so afraid of fapping they've never tried it.
I'm getting into a Starfinder game mostly blind. I'd like to build a Human Spacefarer Solarian. How good would a Dexterity build be in this system? Can I go sword and pistol with solar armor on?
This is a continuation of the previous voyager playtest report ( archive.4plebs.org
Battle #2 of the Latest Batch of Sessions:
• Party: Melee voyager (metronome) and ranged voyager (crossfire, metronome), both 9th-level
• Buffs on the Party: 7-point Inertial Armor, 7-point Defensive Precognition, 5-point Metaphysical Weapon on both weapons, 3-point Concealing Amorpha, 1-point Force Screen, and, in the case of the melee voyager, 7-point Offensive Precognition.
• Enemies: Four supposedly CR 7 nogitsune ( d20pfsrd.com
• Starting Terrain and Positions: cdn.discordapp.com
• Terrain Gimmick #1: The purple-shaded squares on the map were extremely dangerous. If a creature started or ended their turn in such a square (even vertically), they had to make a DC 30 Will saving throw or take 3 Strength drain, 3 Dexterity drain, 3 Constitution drain, 3 Intelligence drain, 3 Wisdom drain, and 3 Charisma drain. Each of these instances of ability drain could not decrease any of a creature's ability scores to 0. These instances of ability drain likewise could not cause a creature with 0 or more hit points to enter negative hit points; if this would have happened, the creature would have instead dropped to 0 hit points.
• Terrain Gimmick #2: A nogitsune who entered a purple-shaded square on the map gained an extra 10 feet of movement speed, which did not count against its fleet distraction (su) ability.
• Terrain Gimmick #3: There were 20 feet between the floor and the ceiling, and the nogitsune started the battle hanging from the ceiling with their climb speeds. Fortunately, given Boots of Speed on top of a massive land speed, the melee voyager was easily able to jump around and strike at the nogitsune on the ceiling.
• Terrain Gimmick #4: There was a girl inside an extremely sturdy cage affixed to the ceiling. Said girl was combat-incapable, but after the surprise round, she begun to sing a special song that granted the nogitsune a +7 competence bonus to Bluff checks and attack rolls. The song could be stopped for the battle by giving the girl a headpat (a combat maneuver against CMD 16), but the girl was inside a sturdy cage, so reaching her was difficult.
• Intended Difficulty: Easy.
• Initiative Results: The players were intelligent enough to suspect that these creatures had some form of Stealth-breaking special senses (scent, in this case), so they began their ambush from a long distance, thereby ensuring a surprise round wherein only the voyagers acted. In all subsequent rounds, the nogitsunes acted first, then the voyagers second.
• Battle Duration: 1 surprise round, then 5 regular rounds.
• PC Who Got Focus-Fired: Similarly to the previous battle, the voyagers were successfully able to kite around in such a way as to render focused fire unfeasible.
• Power Points Expended: Each voyager spent 3 power points on a Hustle during the surprise round, then 6 power points each on various manifestations of Deflect and Sidestep to avoid attacks.
• Notes on the Actual Combat: Although the PCs started off the surprise round far from the enemies (so as to avoid special senses), manifestations of Hustle brought them into the thick of the nogitsune to let them launch their attacks.
• After the surprise round, the voyagers quickly learned that enemies were really quite good at feinting (ranged feinting, at that), which is like kryptonite to a voyager. The feinting did not always work, but whenever it did, the voyager was in for a sharp chunk of damage from sneak attack +3d6 and DC 16 blue whinnis poison. Fortunately, feints do not actually flat-foot the victim, so the voyagers were able to throw up Deflects and Sidesteps throughout the battle to survive. Let this be a lesson: feint-specialized combatants can wreck a voyager.
• Once the girl in the cage begun to sing, it was easy for the ranged voyager to shut down the singing. All the PC had to do was jump up with Acrobatics, declare a combat maneuver check for a headpat upgraded by momentous maneuvers, use Destiny Dissonance to blink inside the cage, and then deliver the headpat. Then the PC used rewind to get out.
• After the singing ended, the PCs and the nogitsune engaged in an extremely dynamic battle that spread out across the entirety of the map, because both sides were mobility-oriented. I was quite impressed, because most party compositions would have resulted in the combat being confined to a single small section of the map. Instead, since the PCs were both voyagers, they were constantly bouncing around the map to build up momentum, take cover from the enemies, and split up their attacks so as to avoid being focus-fired.
• The PCs spammed a routine of moving around to build up momentum, launching an augmented attack, rebuilding momentum from The Skirmisher and dash, and then using pause. The voyagers were able to deny the nogitsune many turns using pause. If we had played this battle after Deimosaur had downgraded pause, then there would have been more variety in this combat.
• The nogitsune put up a decent fight with their ranged feints (allowing them to actually hit the voyagers), but ultimately, the action denial from pause and the high damage from Amplified Momentum pulled through. The voyagers were able to knock all of the nogitsune into the far negatives, rendering their regeneration moot.
On this map, the melee voyager and her afterimage (represented by the green and black token) are the topmost ones, and the ranged voyager and her own afterimage are to the right.
There is really little I can do about token identification and labeling when I zoom out the map to take a picture of the entire battlefield, since I tend to use large set piece maps.
• As an additional note, the nogitsune did make use of their spell-like abilities, such as a Haste to start off combat. Displacement, unfortunately, was not of much use when the voyagers could manifest Touchsight, and the nogitsune had foreknowledge on such a capacity of the PCs and thus simply did not bother.
Battle #3 of the Latest Batch of Sessions:
• Party: Melee voyager (metronome) and ranged voyager (crossfire, metronome), both 9th-level
• Buffs on the Party: 7-point Inertial Armor, 5-point Metaphysical Weapon on both weapons, nothing else.
• Enemy: One supposedly CR 16 qolok sahkil ( d20pfsrd.com
• Starting Terrain and Positions: cdn.discordapp.com
The melee voyager and the ranged voyager were in the center, sharing their afterimages' space. Although the picture might make it look as if the degenerate qolok is underneath several people, in truth, the degenerate qolok was actually floating above them. Everyone else was random civilian bystanders of the Plane of Shadow caught up in a wacky battle.
• Terrain Gimmick #1: At the start of the battle, everyone but the qolok had to make a DC 24 Reflex save or fall prone. They also had to make a DC 24 Will saving throw or suffer from a Symbol of Debauchery for 20 rounds, and another DC 24 Will saving throw or suffer the qolok's gaze attack. The melee voyager passed the Reflex save and the Will save against the gaze attack, but succumbed to the Symbol of Debauchery. In a stroke of ill luck, the ranged voyager failed all of the saving throws. The civilian bystanders were treated as having failed their saving throws.
• Terrain Gimmick #2: Since the civilian bystanders were prone and indulging in debauchery, their spaces could be moved into, but such movement costed double regardless of whether or not someone used Acrobatics to hop around.
• Terrain Gimmick #3: This was an enclosed space, and there were 20 feet between the floor and the ceiling. The degenerate qolok and its 10-foot-space were occupying the upper half of the area in altitude. Fortunately, the melee voyager had enough Acrobatics from a ridiculously high movement speed to jump up and attack the qolok each time.
• Terrain Gimmick #4: The degenerate qolok was denied any extradimensional movement, although it could still attempt to summon pakalchis.
• Intended Difficulty: Hard.
• Initiative Results: The degenerate qolok sahkil, then the voyagers.
• Battle Duration: 17 rounds.
• PC Who Got Focus-Fired: The melee voyager, as she had broken out of the Symbol of Debauchery using Independent Action, and was the only PC to have actually acted during this battle.
• Power Points Expended: The melee voyager spent too many power points to count, as the qolok was constantly dispelling buffs only for the melee voyager to reapply them with power channel and multitask. This battle eliminated an obnoxiously large chunk of power points from the melee voyager.
• Notes on the Actual Combat: Independent Action was absolutely, positively the most valuable feat in the voyagers' arsenal here. It allowed the melee voyager to break away from the Symbol of Debauchery... granted, only after six rounds, in a stroke of misfortune. The ranged voyager broke out of the Symbol of Debauchery only after sixteen rounds, in an even more improbable fit of bad luck. Nevertheless, Independent Action was a top-notch feat here, because it gave the voyagers the chance to actually take action after having succumbed to a save-or-lose. I would strongly recommend Independent Action to any voyager who would like to be able to break free of mind-affecting effects.
• In other words, for all intents and purposes, the battle was an 11-round duel between the melee voyager and the degenerate qolok.
• The voyagers were not the only ones who had poor dice luck. The degenerate qolok had great trouble as well. It failed to summon pakalchi sahkils at the start of combat, and often rolled natural 1s through 3s for its caster level checks (penalized by the quick rules version of the degenerate template) for Greater Dispel Magic. Nevertheless, it managed to push some dispels through anyway.
• This was the battle wherein we had discovered an ambiguity in the wording of multitask. It is a good thing we had pointed it out to Deimosaur earlier, and an even better thing that Deimosaur actually addressed it. The melee voyager was caught without her usual pre-battle buffs, and the degenerate qolok had the annoying tendency to toss out a Greater Dispel Magic every so often, so the melee voyager abused the pre-update wording of multitask to rapidly throw up various buffs to help her in the battle, such as Touchsight to avoid the qolok's gaze.
• Each and every round, all the melee voyager did was use foreshadow as a parallel action, move around, jump up to hit the degenerate qolok, and slash at it with full momentum. They rinsed and repeated every round. The battle took a long while due to the qolok's damage reduction and fast healing.
• The degenerate qolok had trouble inflicting any offensive measures on the melee voyager. Disintegrate's ranged touch attacks missed due to temporal duelist, it could never get into a position to full attack, and even its trip attempts had trouble going through due to temporal duelist.
• Ultimately, the melee voyager's kiting and steady attacks overtook the degenerate qolok's troubled offense, and so the melee voyager single-handedly achieved a miraculous victory against such a dangerous foe. This battle was a lesson in the old, murky wording of multitask. It was also a demonstration of the value of Independent Action (even if the dice luck disagreed), and also a showcase of how a voyager can be nearly untouchable against a lone enemy due to temporal duelist.
Battle #4 of the Latest Batch of Sessions:
• Note: This is an extremely unusual battle that is more of a showcase in how a lone voyager might operate while completely outside of their element.
• Party: Melee voyager (metronome), 9th-level, all by herself
• Buffs on the Party: 7-point Offensive Precognition, 5-point Touchsight.
• Enemy: One supposedly CR 15 locust plague swarm ( d20pfsrd.com
• Starting Terrain and Positions: cdn.discordapp.com
CR 8 plague locust swarms filled every single square of the cavern wherever the CR 15 locust plague swarm was not already occupying it.
• Terrain Gimmick #1: The entire cavern was full of nasty, slippery terrain that costed triple movement to enter and increased all Acrobatics checks DCs by +10. However, the melee voyager circumvented this by bunny-hopping with Acrobatics.
• Terrain Gimmick #2: Due to storyline reasons, it was imperative that the melee voyager had to destroy the CR 15 locust plague swarm right here and now, without it reforming. The reform (su) ability of the swarm was a little different. In order to truly destroy the swarm, the melee voyager had to perform the following steps in order: (1) wear a specific nonmagical suit of Small masterwork full plate with great historical value, (2) get the swarm to devour the armor while the melee voyager was still wearing it, (3) get the swarm to devour a specific Small +4 Collision, Corrosive, Keen, Shocking elven curve blade with great historical value, and then (4) destroy the swarm with a different weapon. Both the armor and the weapon had to be at full HP by the time the voyager confronted the swarm.
• Terrain Gimmick #3: In other words, the melee voyager had to cripple herself by wearing masterwork full plate, which denied her Speed of Thought, further reduced her speed, and applied a nonproficiency penalty across her initiative and attack rolls. Fortunately, she got to wield a Small +4 Collision, Corrosive, Keen, Shocking elven curve blade to make up for it.
• Terrain Gimmick #4: As a reward for previous efforts in a noncombat scene, the melee voyager was blessed with a temporary aura that caused her to deny the usage of mythic power on mythic feats. This evened the playing field and gave the PC a fighting chance against the swarm and its Mythic Dodge feat.
• Sneaking in Plate: The melee voyager entered at a time when the CR 8 swarms were sleeping. She was entitled to six Stealth checks (with the armor check penalty for masterwork full plate) to creep past the CR 8 swarms' Perception +1. However, she suffered an additional -20 penalty on her Stealth checks due to the threat of stepping on a locust or two. Despite the armor check penalty and her further -20 penalty, she was able to use her accomplished accomplice parallel action to improve her Stealth checks and successfully land all six of the Stealth checks.
• More Sneaking in Plate: Finally, the melee voyager was entitled to a seventh Stealth check to gain a surprise round against the CR 15 swarm's Perception +24. For this last check, rather than a -20 penalty, she had a +8 bonus for the heavily distracted (though not sleeping) swarm. Despite the burden of her masterwork full plate, she used accomplished accomplice to once again boost her Stealth check, beat the swarm's Perception, and earn a surprise round.
• Intended Difficulty: Hard.
• Initiative Results: A surprise round with only the voyager acting. After the surprise round, the CR 15 swarm acted first, then the CR 8 swarms, then the voyager, then the CR 15 swarm again due to dual initiative.
• Battle Duration: 1 surprise round, then 3 regular rounds.
• Power Points Expended: 6 power points, both on uses of Hustle.
• Surprise Round: The voyager expended psionic focus and used her parallel action to mark her afterimage with her current hit point total. She then used Hustle and Boots of Speed to build up momentum even while in plate armor, then smashed into the swarm with Amplified Momentum and the heavily-enchanted sword. The Skirmisher and dash subsequently built up further momentum.
• Regular Round #1: The CR 15 swarm entered the voyager's space. This provoked an attack of opportunity from the voyager, who spent momentum to deal heavy damage to the swarm with the help of the hyper-magical sword. The swarm dealt its automatic damage, heavily wounding the voyager but also destroying the Small armor, which liberated the PC from its heavy penalties. The PC suffered more damage from the CR 8 swarms. Then the PC used Hustle and Boots of Speed to replenish momentum and swing at the swarm, finishing it off... or rather, placing it under an akashic Symbol of Mercy. This triggered the destruction of all the CR 8 swarms and prevented the CR 15 swarm from taking action. The voyager subsequently used rewind to replenish their HP to full.
• Regular Rounds #2 to #3: From here, it was simply a matter of using a standard action to dispense a command of "Devour this sword" to the CR 15 swarm, which it did. Naturally, the plague swarm then tried to move into the voyager's space, but the voyager's subsequent attack of opportunity with their regular sword finished off the swarm once and for all.
• Accomplished accomplice was a great boon in the leadup to this battle, because it helped the voyager cross the veritable ocean of CR 8 swarms and then earn a surprise round against the CR 15 swarm. However, we did note that the rules were unclear on whether or not the afterimage would have been spotted, which is why we are still confused by how afterimage Stealth actually works.
• Although it was not necessary in the combat, rewind's "mark your hit points" function was a healthy safety buffer against anything going wrong in the fight. In the event that the voyager had missed with any of her attacks, the plague swarm would have had another opportunity to devastate her with automatic damage, so it was important for the voyager to stay fresh and at full hit points. It was somewhat inconvenient to use, but there is no doubt that it would have been a life-saver if any of the voyager's attacks had missed and prolonged the fight.