Being given the option to speak with something that normally can't is always cool. Few problems with Speaking with insects though.
Vermin (The type Insects are) in pathfinder are stated as Mindless not actally possessing an intelligence score
So Vermin speak would work as Speak with animals but speak with animals bases the responses you get from a creature on its intelligence.
Which a Vermin does not have.
I get the feeling that if GM Ascendance wants to run it by the book I will find difficulty actually using the ability. A baseline would need to be established as to what a Vermin could or could not understand as a question.
Flavorful as all get out to sit in a cave somewhere whispering to spiders and moths learning secrets in ways only the small can. I'm concerned that the actual rules will conspire to make such a mental image unworkable though.
Alexia has stats now. Though looking at it I feel like I might need to shuffle some skill points I'm rather light on knowledge skills for a spell caster. Not sure what I'd get rid of though.
Still tinkering with minor gear stuff (mostly consumable and alchemical stuff) But I imagine I'll be doing that for a little bit, always hard to tack the last few fiddly bits down.
And yes I did blatantly steal Anthony's character organization, good stuff that.
Anthony has a full spread of Knowledge skills, so just chose a few you think will be most important, like Local.
I question how I would justify Knowledge Local, but I can certainly see the value in a city game. Mostly wonder how much information Local would provide that a Gather information check wouldn't
Might shave off a few points from spell craft or K:arcana to make room for a few more ranks in other Knowledge skills.
Trying to keep competetive social/perceptive skills and also have skills for actual spell casting stuff is always annoying to balance.
Hrmm.. also need to actually stat my Familiar. Won't take much though as it is mostly sticking my skill ranks on a Vermin and boosting its AC/Int by a bit.
Does anyone in our group have disable device?
I do, at the moment.
I was kinda excited to take the Hooded Champion Ranger archetype along with keeping Urban Ranger...
And then I realized they both give up Endurance.
Nothing else, just that, a bonus feat. Otherwise, the two archetypes fully stack...
The hooded champion seems interesting but Dead Aim seems to be implying that it only works when making a Standard action attack. Full attacks being the Rangers bread and butter that is exceptionally bad.
This thread seems to agree with that reading
That and with a Cha of 12 you would have 1 panache, you would be nearly required to purchase Extra Panache as a feat if you wanted to be effective assuming you could spend X/panache to make X/touch attacks in a full attack. Perhaps the lowest ones to ensure they land.
The derring do and other panache based boosts to acrobatics and other movment skills is nice but mostly unnessecary unless you happen to be a STR based ranger Climb/swim/acrobatics requiring rather rediculous modifiers to go beyond the mundane require more than Derring do can supply on average.
Cool archetype but no real unity to make the abilitys more than parts taken from the swashbuckler.
Reminds me, there is a non-magical item called a Hunter's sight. It removes the penalties for the first range increment. You might want to pick it up as it comes from the ACG and is open game far as I can tell.
Will also need to invest in a See invisibility scope for you or something. Invisibility seems to be a big thing for ambushes with these groups.
Also think I'm mostly finished with my character/familiar. If you felt like giving it a glance over Ascendant.
Oh and does anyone know the bulk cost of lead? having a history in stealing from mages and magical creatures I figure that Alexia would have a solution to the whole (Scry'n'Fry) combat method. A lead lined box/ chest would serve such a purpose quite well.
May also need to know the costs on bulk purchases of mundane items down the line due to shrink items ability to turn such things into dangerous weapons.
Speak with vermin would have the same limitation speak with plants does. They would be able to tell you something passed by, or scout a room and tell you if there is anything alive in the room. But not provide descriptions of people or things. They could say if there was a light source inside or not, or a source of heat or not, but not much more than that.
I will go through the stats this coming weekend (sending our project for iOS and android certification this week, so work has been really busy).
Kn Local would save some time if you were looking for a specific location (e.g., you'd know where a given tavern was right away, or the home of more well known individuals). Kn Local would also provide more specific details about known people than a gather info is likely to produce.
You could take imp familiar, and just take a standard familiar for now. But that week between dismissing a current familiar to gain an actual improved one could be a bit painful. World time has been running pretty slow in the game.
Depends on how in bulk you are looking, and what the specific items are, but for most common items acquiring 100 such items would be trivial to find in a city this size.
Cost of lead - not actually listed in the rules so far as I'm aware. I'll have to get back to you on that.
Hrmm... I'll have to give how to leverage that some thought then.
Might need some sort of scent or tracking aid I could use to allow insects to specifically follow or inform me about the movements of one creature in a crowd or whatnot.
I'll keep the ability for now with the Caveat that if other extraplanar players are choosing to abuse the Stat boosting racial traits that I will likely be torn in my choice between those two options.
For now I think I'll primarily use my familiar Xabu for the purpose of scouting.
As to knowledge local it also means I don't have to stand like a sitting duck in a tavern for 1d4 hours. Unfortunately my Disguise check is never going to be stellar. *shrug* more skill juggling then. I suppose max ranks in K:Arcana isn't mandatory for a wizard. +15ish check ought to cover most everything. Also have the future option of what other skills I can include as freebies from my int hat.
As to the imp familiar. and waiting a week.
FAQ says nope. Wave your fingers and Bam. Apparently your familiar was an X disguised/poly-morphed/cursed as an X the whole time.
Now I had this idea of one of Alexia's occasional teachers to be a disguised Contract Devil chipping away at her resistances to a contract with him.
Which would likely be where the Imp familiar comes from when it happens.
Mechanically though I'd add the feat to the character and the magic just happens.
My intentions for Shrink item would be many fold but I'd likely focus on making things to serve as distractions or props for combat.
Also might or might not abuse the day/CL length on Shrink item to serve as a dead man switch for my character. Hide 200 gallons of accellerant on the property in the right place and you have the makings of a house fire no one will survive.
Storage of bundled skeletons to snap out of storage and animate in combat also seems a cool idea. Oh and shrunken magic circles in future (pretty sure I'm too poor to afford right now) which I definitely did not steal as an idea from one of Doomed hero's characters at all.
Also having a 5-ish foot wide hollow sphere of lead to act as a faraday cage for me to study stolen books and artifacts without having to worry about the owners divination/tracking spells ratting me out would be good. I fully intend on Alexia stealing spellbooks whenever she can get her grimey little thief hands on them.
I'm beginning to realize that Alexia's intended focus (Polymorph) is going to be very difficult to shoehorn this party into using.
My ability at L9 is pretty much the big ticket item of my archetype and I'm questioning how I'm going to actually apply that sort of thing to you guys.
With the Arcanists painfully limited spells known/day list I'm highly considering just returning to normal Arcanist at this point. With Potent spell as an exploit high DC save or suck spells are basically my bread and butter right now.
Fine by me, though remember the main rule, whatever you play, you gotta enjoy it.
*shrug*
I think I'll manage to enjoy myself so long as I feel like I'm helping all of you.
Trouble being that my limited spell slots mean my abilities to do that for you guys is limited by how much gold i'm able to spend on magic items for effects I'd normally need to spend spell slots on.
I think once I manage to get a decent chunk of gold in game to craft into some more contingency tricks i'll settle down some. Planning for all the various ways one might abuse magic or other clever tricks in pathfinder to cripple or disable you is quite an effort.
Alexia Character Audit:
Please note what skill and language is tied to the circlet of intellect.
You have listed +7 init. 2 from dex, +3 from level, +1 from ioun stone. What am I missing that is granting the other +1?
Appraise and Kn Local are missing the skill ranks/stat breakdown (I'm assuming int/rank/class skill).
I show you having spent 60 skill points of 56 available. 2 + 5 from int + favored class bonus = 8/level * 7. One skill at rank 7 is free from the circlet.
You have stealth listed as +9 total, but the current numbers should give you +11.
You have disguise listed as +7 total, but current numbers should give +5.
Kn Arcana +16 should be +14.
Kn Planes +11 should be +10.
Kn Nature +11 should be +10.
You should know 3 more languages, total of 13 (in addition to common and infernal).
Starting with common and infernal. Int 20 adds 5 more. +1 tied to the circlet. +7 from ranks in linguistics.
With your wayfinder your CMD and CMB should each gain +2 with the rose prism.
You list spending 1000gp on scrolls, but should only be 950. 6 2nd level spells at 150gp each. 2 first level spells at 25 gp each.
You are listed as have a +1 armor bonus, but I'm not sure what this is coming from.
Feel free to correct me on anything I've got wrong of course, you know the character better than I do.
In order,
Fixed that, Stealth and Necril.
Init= +2dex+1ioun+4 familiar)
Xabu is a greensting scorpion and his bonus to his master is +4 init.
Also the sole ability that I will dearly miss when Xabu assumes improved familiar form.
I completely spaced the diviner bonus. I'll add that.
Will update my skill numbers, I was faffing about with those for quite some time so I'm not surprised that some of them ended up incorrect.
Nice to know that Alexia is able to speak even more languages of limited use.
Wasn't sure how resonance stuff worked in your game, nobody else in this group seems to use them far as I saw.
@Players. You might consider investing in the combo Alexia has if you don't have an ioun resonance. +1 init/+2CMB/+2CMD for 600gp is a bargain.
I'll go ahead and add another two L1 scrolls to the pile then. Just to keep the numbers even.
The Armor bonus comes from a Haramaki which I seem to have failed to write down.
It will often be overwritten by the Wand of mage armor I have purchased and intend to use. (not that it matters as my AC for this level is laughable even with full plate.)
Also wondering if the Arcanist's ability to Immediate action counterspell is going to be worth the headaches it will cause interrupting other players turns.
I'm going to need to finagle some method to make a viable telepathic shortwave radio for the group in the future here. An ancient language is a good means to defend our speech for low level but we are getting to the point where magical language understanding (Tongues, helm of understanding, other sneakier stuff.) Is becoming a common thing.
Because Message is a really bad option requiring line of sight and being easily detected. The only real advantage being it being nearly free.
@Nulmanen
The two in the room are a Human and a Half-orc, so you should be getting full FE bonus.
Telepathic Bond would be our best bet. Not sure when you all get lvl 5 spells though. Sic wont have them until lvl 13 Inquisitor.
Expensive to get permanent*, I have another idea in mind but it will cost some money and have its own limitations.
*I'm assuming that the Blood Money spell is off the table due to being broken beyond belief and not one of the books already mentioned as a source.
Otherwise I just need to finagle a temporary strength score high enough and we are set.
As far as I am aware, you only need line of sight when initially casting the message spell. After that you dont, otherwise the part about what materials block the spell would be pointless (since you cant see through such materials.
@Krast. Of course the spell contradicts itself by saying you need to point at the person you want to hear the message. However if that is the way it has worked up to now I'm quite happy to go with the flow.
If these two have HP anything like the guy on the roof I get the feeling they are now both exceptionally dead.
Hope the girl has some answers.
During casting of message you need to point, once its cast, it just works. So an observer would see you pointed at specific individuals.
So are the magocracy players still hunting us?
With the months of solid posting (I assume they moved on after Thieves group dropped off) they have over us and possible levels ahead of us they are I don't see how such an encounter can go for us but in varying shades of bad.
Much less that the Max HP rules make Synth summoners even more insane then they already are and apparently the one in mageocracy makes Anthony look like a cream puff.
Assuming it to be the case if we want to survive our group desperately needs a way to force them to back off.
So are the magocracy players still hunting us?
With the months of solid posting (I assume they moved on after Thieves group dropped off) they have over us and possible levels ahead of us they are I don't see how such an encounter can go for us but in varying shades of bad.
Much less that the Max HP rules make Synth summoners even more insane then they already are and apparently the one in mageocracy makes Anthony look like a cream puff.Assuming it to be the case if we want to survive our group desperately needs a way to force them to back off.
Yes and no.
Your in their radar of concerns, but are not the only concern.
I've set things in motion to get the two groups away from each other for a while - but player decision is still player decision.
Meh, fair enough.
Just means I'll have to think of something clever.
Also, anyone care to interact with the girl/Desperate man in question? Alexia really shouldn't be involved in the face stuff for anyone we plan to leave alive right now. One of the more powerful aces she has right now is that next to no one is aware she is in town.
Going to a family thing over the extended weekend. Dont know what my internet access will look like, so for now, just assume im gone for the next 3-4 days.
Will do best to get initial scouting and battle plan ready for you by then.
Have a good trip Tony
@Nulmanen
So were you planning on waiting for us to get our plan together or are you just going to blast one of the sentries and expect us to adapt?
Want to know how Alexia will react to this.
I said I was going to take out the sentries in game. Nobody stopped me. Thus, I was under the impression it was OK to go and do that.
No you said you were going to 'Look for a spot to take out the sentries' leaving me to assume that you were setting up an ambush point on the sentries hiding in the three buildings around the house.
Not that you were going to start killing them as soon as you got up there.
hey guys, sorry for being absent lately. Work has been the biggest headache. Trying to catch up. Do we have a map of what we can see?
Not as of yet, we still have the one GM Ascension provided us.
Xabu scouted, and we got this information.
I'm assuming that the back and fourth of room sizes in rough numbers is possible for Xabu/Alexia to manage.
A window on the north casts light into the street, and a quick climb up to the seal Xabu looks in to see a spacious dining room. Four humans and two drow are speaking with one another. The humans bear a familial resemblance to one another. One is older, in his late 50's. The others, two male, and one female, are likely his children. Doors lead out of the dining room on all three walls.Xabu then seeks a way in. Better constructed then the old house on the beggar's road it takes several minutes to find a suitable entrance in the stone foundation. Xabu squeezes through into a sitting room on the south side of the building. A short hallway to the east leads to the front door. An open archway on the north leads into a hallway that runs west to the far end of the house. Two doors on the south wall, and three on the north, a set of stairs leading up at the end. The hallway is well lit, and human and a half-elf stand guard outside the dining room hall doorway, dressed in breastplates and carrying bows and swords.
Was the first bit of info.
The first door on the north wall leads into a kitchen area. A single bored looking drow sits in the dark near a door leading to the dining room.Scuttling back to the hall, it takes Xabu a minute to slip past the guards, waiting for a moment when both are looking away so as not to see him in the well lit hallway. Xabu skips the south doors for the moment and moves to the far western door on the north wall.
Beyond the door is a richly furnished study. A bookshelf covers the western wall, filled mostly with books, but also with several rolled up parchments, a couple of ink vials, and several stacks of papers. The room is empty of people.
Crossing then to the south doors Xabu finds a bedroom, empty of people, and a door leading back east in which is a washroom, that also connects back to the central hallway.
Upstairs finds another hallway running the length of the house. Four richly furnished bedrooms, empty save for the master suite on the northeast corner. The sounds of someone snoring come from the bed.
Was the second.
Unfortunately my brain is getting turned around from the direction changes in the description to be able to build a proper map out of the information.
Xabu told Alexia this
Alexia waits silently as the lights flicker in the house, He ought to be fine, few are paranoid enough to mistake a scorpion for anything else than dangerous vermin. Though if a normal guard attempts they will find this one frustrating to catch.
With a verminous equivalent of a polite cough Xabu appears near Alexia the tiefling lowering a hand for the scorpion to perch next to her ear.
"There are four similar looking humans, two drow in the table place eating food. Two more armored ones guard the entryway, one human, other is an elf-half breed. Bows and swords.
With that the insect rubs a pincer over a mandible while looking toward the house.
"Drow in the kitchen, likely cook. building well lit, guards difficult to avoid notice of.
A study place, many books in it in western portion. Bedroom to the south with a bath attached.
Second floor is just as well lit, less guards though. Four beds, unoccupied except for largest one in northeast sleeping person in that one."Alexia nods before snapping a few arcance words and drawing a map of Xabu's movements in the dirt of the ground. The Tiefling asking various questions about room sizes and other things in order to put together a proper floor plan.
"Xabu says there are two more guards inside the building along with the ones outside. Human and a half-elf. It sounds like the father of the family his son and two daughters are talking with a pair of drow in the dining room. There is another Drow in the kitchen, likely the cook. The only other occupant is sleeping in the master bedroom."
Alexia gives a small hum of thought.
"A mostly useless gesture at this point but perhaps the Drow we seek has some form of identifying marks? Scars, Tattoos, missing fingers or such?"
Which I feel is enough information to suss out a map. My brain just doesn't want to work for me right not.
Also that question about identifying marks for our target Drow was never answered.
I'd like to thank those that played in this game over the past two years. I hope everyone enjoyed things overall (I know there were some also rough spots).
I'm shutting this particular game down (although I'm also rebooting the thieve's guild group with a fresh set of players).
Happy future gaming to everyone.