White Cloud City OOC

[Hyperbolic sine]

Off the top of my head you could do something like this:

• Harvested materials need to be treated/purified/etc so, factoring the costs of the tools and reagents, the profit over buying the components is negligible unless you're dealing with bulk quantities (the alchemist guild can, a student at the academy I'd wager not).
• However, harvesting lets you stock up on second-rate material, which while useless on its own can be used to patch up mistakes without any loss in effectiveness of the product (or practice before the real deal, so as to reduce waste). Harvesting lets you gain points (DC 15, +1 point for each full 2 points of success on the check, max=creature's HD?) that go into a pool for later use.
• When an appropriate crafting check fails by enough to ruin some of the materials, the crafter can spend points from the pool (1 points = 5 gp?) instead of having the buy the components again, up to half of the crafting cost (a "waste half" failure can be negated completely, a "waste all" ca be downgraded to "waste half").

This way, harvesting doesn't give extra gold to work with, but it still has its uses (dampening the effect of failures) so there's still reason to do it.

[Rizban]

Good point, Shiori gets healed by Spoils of War so she is back to full health.

Conming (and anyone else who checks) can harvest the soul gems with no issue. Once the beast is slain harvesting the gem is easy and only requires a little training (ie, a random commoner might not be able to but anyone who has been through the academy can). Conming is pretty sure the workers gems would fetch 30gp apiece while the soldier's could sell for 45gp.

Let me think about the idea of harvesting beast components for alchemy. The soul gems will be a regular part of loot from beasts, the alchemical components idea wasn't something I had considered in advance. I think the idea has lore merit (for some creatures moreso than others), but my concern is that fighting beasts becomes an exercise where the party gains X gp worth of soul gems while the crafters gain a bonus share. Extrapolated over a campaign, that means that either A) most of the characters become some form of crafter so they don't miss out on 'bonus' loot or B) one segment of the party gains a persistent wealth advantage. And as a secondary concern, if I do decide to implement the idea I would want to systematize it rather than needing to fiat it each time, so I'd need to come up with a general formula I like.

My main argument in favor of it is that the majority of my offensive maneuvers are going to require consumable alchemy items to use. So, being able to harvest anything that allows me to offset that cost is appreciated. It's not necessary, though it would be nice, especially if we're not going to be getting a consistent income, which I would expect in a low magic/limited magic item setting. I haven't used any yet, because I didn't think it wise to expend my current stock in the first, easy encounter.

I'm also happy to craft items for my allies when I'm able.

[Dorni]

Just going to copy this over from the Discord:

I appreciate the thought and effort from everyone, but after thinking about it I've come around to the idea that I'm overthinking this whole thing.

Its long been a staple that PCs will find things like jewels or art items that they then sell, and are treated functionally as just another form of loot/wealth. Alchemical components fit neatly into that box. These items are fungible; any such items can be sold to translate their value into gp, which can then be spent on anything. While technically such items would be part of the "X gp of materials" required when crafting for the associated profession and thus allow crafting to occur using those gathered materials instead of gp, you're not going to be crafting when you're out in the wild in the first place. There isn't much difference between "I use this 100gp demon-tiger pelt to create a coat with Craft (Leatherworking)" and "I sell this 100gp demon-tiger pelt and buy herbs to craft potions."

This also solves the issue of wealth imbalance since once the realization is made that wealth is fungible, its more-or-less the same as any other form of loot. Further, since the party will mostly be together when they discover such items on screen there's not a lot of reason to worry about PCs getting locked out.

----

So for general purposes, I will be allowing harvesting monster parts and I'll just be abstracting them based on their value. As far as using them for alchemical purposes in the field, yes and no. In the vast majority of cases you'll need to refine the raw materials before they can be used, so you won't find ready-made alchemical items in the field. The exception is if a monster has a suitable anatomy or special attack (ie, you can attempt to extract poison from a creature with a poison attack). In this encounter the soldier ant had an acidic spit attack, so with your Craft (Alchemy) check you manage to extract 1 Acid Flask's worth of acid from the soldier.

[manwithaplan]

Survival to make an Ant Trap (1d20+8)[16].

[Dorni]

Spoiler: Kotetsu

Show

The desperation in those cries for help sound genuine.

Spoiler: Perception DC 25

Show

The sound is distant and muffled by the forest, but you can tell that the racket crashing through the underbrush has two sources. One obviously belonging to the student and another belonging to something chasing him.

[manwithaplan]

Preemptive Leaping Dragon roll so that I don't have to edit for my description.

From T24: (1d20+23)[26].

[Hyperbolic sine]

Does Tsugiharu know something on the giant bat? Knowlege (Demon Beasts) (1d20+1)[10] It is a demon beast.

[Dorni]

Heads up that I'll be advancing the round tomorrow

[Dorni]

Kotetsu Athletics DC 15: (1d20+9)[27] Pass

[Dorni]

Nezu attack damage: (1d8)[3] + (1d6+1)[4]: 7 Damage
Nezu counter damage: Half of: (1d8)[1] + (1d6+1)[6]: 3 Damage
Nezu Fort vs Sonic Screech DC 17: Fort (1d20+6)[18] Pass

[manwithaplan]

Fortitude (1d20+4)[13].

[Dorni]

Hanyangi Fort DC 20: (1d20+8)[10] Nope! Asp has stung

[Hyperbolic sine]

The Hanyagi likes its 2s on Fortitude saves.

Belated Knowledge (Martial):

DC 11 (1d20+3)[18]
DC 12 (1d20+3)[22] Yeah, well, I guess you'd recognise one of your own brother's disciplines.

[Rizban]

Rolling
K-Demon Beasts - (1d20+9)[10]

Of course.

[Dorni]

Hanyangi is less than 16 hd. Iron Gaze bonus will apply

[Dorni]

Heads up that I'll be advancing the round on Thursday

[Rizban]

By my count, assuming I haven't missed anything, the damage taken is:

• Nezu 6
• Izuka 12
• Shiori 10

Congming's 8 points of healing should be going to Izuka.

[Dorni]

Yep; I keep all the damage recorded in the Status Tracker in post 2.

[Dorni]

Totally not a bluff check: (1d20+5)[6] And if it were, Nezu is the best bluffer ever

[Dorni]

Spoiler: Kotetsu

Show

You get the impression that Nezu is satisfied with regard to the gem so long as he gets his share. Odds are pretty good that the story is going to grow in Nezu's bombastic retelling, but you don't get the sense that hes malicious or trying to steal all the credit.

[Dorni]

I'm just going to point it out here since its a houserule, but remember that Healer's Kits can also be used to cheaply restore HP.

[Rizban]

I'm just going to point it out here since its a houserule, but remember that Healer's Kits can also be used to cheaply restore HP.

That requires having a Healer's Kit and ranks in Heal... I planned on taking a rank or two when we next level up, but being trained in healing isn't something that made sense to me with Congming's background. So, he doesn't have any ranks in it at the moment... He's never needed it before.

Edit: Also, if he does use the cure moderate wounds scroll, he plans to try to extort some of those soul gems in exchange for the healing...

[manwithaplan]

Spending Inspiration: Which method (hunting young Hanyangi vs. going to block the tunnels) is best for minimising danger for other students?

[Dorni]

Alright, Inspiration incoming! For the record, when an Inspiration is invoked I'll default to spoilering it for the person who spent the VP, but the player can always choose to declare it public information.

Spoiler: manwithaplan

Show

So, your best guess is that the choice that minimizes the danger to other students is to hunt the young hanyangi.

Nezu is right to point out that the hanyangi are already roaming the forest. Based on the current combat you can estimate that while the hanyangi are dangerous, they probably match up unfavorably to a full group of 5 students working together. So long as they're not caught totally unaware a group might take some wounds but should probably be able to hold off one of the creatures. Its a different story for the students who are alone, or if multiple hanyangi attacked at once.

Adarata has the option to use his great speed and endurance to try to run back to Sensei alone, but the group first heard Nezu running through the forest somewhere behind them. Ergo, the hanyangi are roaming the forest between the group's current location and Sensei. Adarata would risk encountering the creatures on his own if he made the attempt, and it would be difficult to race past them with their sonic attack. This option would be very dangerous for Adarata and is probably best avoided.

The risk that the adult hanyangi might bring help is real; you dimly recall hearing about how hanyangi live in colonies. While they hunt in smaller groups, you can't be sure how long ago the hanyangi first encountered the ants so its possible more hanyangi are on the way. You figure this is a low possibility; the hanyangi likely cleared out all the ants before they thought to alert the colony, and Nezu's story makes clear that he stumbled on the hanyangi recently, not hours ago. And if the adult hanyangi is currently feeding, it probably isn't going to be leaving the ant nest right away and so probably isn't an immediate threat to the other students like the ones already in the forest are.

Still, the odds of more hanyangi showing up are not zero. Closing the tunnel immediately forecloses that possibility but means you'll encounter the adult hanyangi right away and you'll be trusting the other students to handle themselves against the young hanyangi.

Rescuing the other students reduces the risk to the students, but could mean that help shows up for the adult. It also means you'd be planning to engage in multiple fights. However, it could also be possible to recruit other students to help in taking down the adult.

[Dorni]

I'll allow you to carry over unused healing rounds to a new target. It makes sense to me that a healer should be able to split their effort between multiple patients if they're all together.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Aye aye. I'll edit my last post to heal some more people, then.

EDIT: ...I'm glad I did. I don't think I've ever posted something with so many typos without immeditely noticing.

[Dorni]

Nothing to see here (1d20+10)[27]

[Rizban]

My grandfather and one of my best friends both passed away just recently, so I haven't been online lately. Sorry for not being around.

[tonberryking]

I'm sorry dude. I hope you get through this okay...

[Dorni]

I'm also sorry to hear that. I hope things get better and you get through this alright. Don't worry about posting - if you need time I won't wait on Congming