GM Breakdown, episode 30 - Who You Gonna Call?

When something seems to good to be true, it probably isn't. We are all gms, and we are used to making calls on the fly because we think we know the spirit of the rules, rather than the actual rules. When an ability like flurry of blows (which we all know very well) says to combine the damage before applying weakness or resistance, why wouldn't spellstrike? Sadly, nowhere in the wording of Spellstrike does it say that you combine the damage before applying weaknesses or resistances, so when someone like the Stone Ghost has resistance 5 to ALL DAMAGE, it should probably apply to both the strike and the spell.

This could have been an entirely different encounter. Stone Ghost was coming up next in the turn order, he had a summoned elemental he could activate, and he could probably drive home some serious damage with that morningstar as well. We did have a lot of healing capabilities left between Yshkol and Wully, so we probably weren't in danger yet, but who knows? SG could easily have turned the fight around had he survived to a third round.

In any case, we finally end the threat to the Magaambya that we've only heard about for so long now. We have been talking about in the group what the overarching plot will be for the adventure and what we think will happen. Most APs don't reveal the end game until at least the end of book 2, sometimes 3, so we still have plenty of time to speculate about it, but so far the only real info we have is that we will probably be moving up in ranks at the school, eventually becoming teachers ourselves (or so the player's guide says), but will it all be studying? I'm assuming there will be some sort of field promotions happening as we take longer excursions outside the school. Will that happen alone or will we be chaperoned by teachers or other companions? Dylan has promised some revelations as we close out book 1, but we will see.

In any case, we are very close to ending book 1, and we are being told book 2 is even better!

Cheers,

Ejnar