DMDM's Hells Rebels

Game Master Douglas Muir 406

I took another look and there are still no posts more recent than about 1.5 weeks ago on any alias.

EDIT: For Kadwyn I should add.

@DMDM: Are we jumping back to before the dinner at Sholti's house? Her parents met Rexus a couple of weeks back or so and loved the guy...

Oh, I missed that! -- This is an "elsewhen" post; the time is ambiguous.

I did a recalculation and it' actually a 25 point buy.

We got an extra trait for 3 and could take a drawback for 4.

Hmm. Is everyone 25 points?

Ah, I noticed the renaming broke the link to the page I'd referenced. Here's the dinner with Rexus page:

Dinner

Sholti will abstain from voting on rebellion type. Since she's left the group she won't be present to weigh in on decisions. Kestrel isn't yet in a position to influence things.

Checked. Stricia is 25 points.

I'm 25pb.

I might need to rework Sera though in light of the fact that damage is still a minor problem for us,

Okay. Going to start a recruitment in a bit then, so we have someone to jump in fast if need be.

Okay, wrt Rebellion that's one "secret" and one abstaining vote. Sera and Zel?

I prefer Secret Rebellion - it's safer.
I'm thinking shifting Sera to like a beast morph vivisectionist instead of Toxicant / Clone. Should still be able to tank but going to be able to do more consistent damage. I think.

I'm planning for Stricia to take Crane Style Feats so she can be the tank. Especially if she gets some buffs!

Oh: before I post a recruitment ad, does anyone want to recommend someone? Should be able to commit, post regularly, etc. etc. If yes, please PM me.

Secret sounds fine!

Can we switch Rebellion Styles later once we get more powerful?

Ya just mentioning that Security is actually better for us based on composition.

Basically: If we are doing actual actions and stuff, optimization wise Security Rebellion is 100% best

If its: Just running the game and not the rebellion and why type of rebellion do you want it to be flavor wise: then Secrecy is best.

This is also what Sera looks like adjusted to be more martial

Note that I may be tweaking the rules a bit. RAW describes the three possible focuses as Loyalty, Security, and Secrecy. I've changes those to Popular, Confrontational, and Secretive. There are both RP and optimization aspects here, sure.

RAW doesn't allow you to switch styles later on but I don't see why not. I'd allow it.

As to Sera, it's your character, but I kinda liked the toxicant / cloner version. It's an interestingly bizarre combination.

Meanwhile, assuming Secretive for now, go on over to the gameplay thread and pick your Rebellion roles!

I like the concept of Toxiciant / Clone. The goals was someone that obviously takes a heck of a lot of punishment and debuffs you all the while. The problem though is that it doesn't actually do any damage (I don't count bombs as Sera really wants to be in melee), which means we rely heavily on Stricia and Sholti to do_all_of our damage. Thats kinda of a tough ask.

Also, Sera might as well take the Spymaster role.

I suggest putting Zeldana in the Statigiest position because while she has the INT for it... She just too naive to be put in the Spymaster spot and we all know it!

Also GM, where is Zeldana right now? When Irin left was she just dropped back into the coffee house without a sound like she's been there the whole time?

The Irin encounter was a sidebar, out of sequence -- "elsewhen". It may have occurred before or after the visit from the dottari.

Patrician fits Stricia.

Can't post today. Will catch up Monday.

I meant Sentinel!

Only time for a couple of quick posts before this evening...

Recruiter or Demagogue would be the best choicest for Kestrel. Demagogue might be a strange choice for a masked personality though RP-wise? It's wandering very close to V for Vendetta territory.

@Sera: I'm not enough of a mathie to say how well damage output matches what's needed by level, but right now (Lv2) Sholti is at +6 attack and +6 damage with Battle Dance going. If she opts for nonlethal damage it's +7.

It should scale up pretty well for a while too. At level 5 she will have +11 attack and +10 (+11 nonlethal) damage with Battle Dance. The scimitar is only 1d6, but has a good crit range. This is assuming Sholti has Lingering Performance at lv3 and Arcane Strike at lv5. It doesn't include any weapon enhancements. I should have enough performance rounds to keep Battle Dance going during all combat rounds unless things get really ugly and drawn out some days.

Things may taper off going into higher levels, I'm not sure, but I'll probably pick up Improved Critical. Dex, Battle Dance, and Arcane Strike bonuses will go up at increments. Sadly Piranha Strike doesn't work with a scimitar.

I doubt this is on par with a melee build using strength and power attack, but it's should be steady damage.

Also, not only is there Stricia to count in, but we'll either have Kadwyn or another PC, potentially a martial character? with us as well.

Like I said, I'm don't know how to figure out whether this is up to what we'll need, but if you're liking toxicant/clone master you can take it into account in deciding what to do.

Only time for a couple of quick posts before this evening...

Comments on your stepfather's story, or shall I just wrap that cutscene up?

Recruiter or Demagogue would be the best choicest for Kestrel. Demagogue might be a strange choice for a masked personality though RP-wise? It's wandering very close to V for Vendetta territory.

V was drawing on an older tradition (now largely forgotten) of anarchists and freedom fighters who were masked, disguised, or pseudonymous. Think Chesterton's _The Man Who Was Thursday_, or Zorro, or The Scarlet Pimpernel. So, there's room to maneuver there.

Just a heads up Sholti but I don't think you can Battle Dance + have Lingering Performance.

Don't worry about your damage, I'm not concerned about this. I'm more worried about being in a mob situation or in a situation where something really has to die now and I cannot "draw threat" or make it die quick enough.

Wait nevermind I can still take mutagen as a discovery and build from there, still works. Might still be able to stay in Toxicant.

O.k this is Sera

Cannot keep Clone Master but I can go Vivisectionist and keep my beloved Toxicant archtype and basically stay in Melee all the time and can still take all the punishment I want to. I'm much happier with this variant.

What does everyone think of using Automatic Bonus Progression? It's a great variant and really helps monks out.

Ah, you're right about lingering performance Sera. That's really too bad. I could still take the extra performance feat if I found I was running out a lot. But it's not nearly as good.

I've never used Automatic Bonus Progression before. The Unchained stuff I have used, namely Background Skills, Fractional Base Bonuses, and Variant Multiclassing I'v ereally liked. I'm game.

V was drawing on an older tradition (now largely forgotten) of anarchists and freedom fighters who were masked, disguised, or pseudonymous. Think Chesterton's _The Man Who Was Thursday_, or Zorro, or The Scarlet Pimpernel. So, there's room to maneuver there.

Huh, I'd never heard of The Man Who Was Thursday before. I don't mind if nobody else does.

Automatic Bonus Progression is ok (used it before), but kinda screws Sera pretty hard since her standard attack would be Bite/Claw/Claw. Under ABP she gets lower bonuses than just buying an AoMF without Automatic Bonus Progression

Ahh, you'd focus most your funds into the Aomf instead of spreading the wealth?

ABP is meant to make up for the big 5 items, cloak, headband, belt, amulet, rings, as well as everyone enchanting weapons and armor.
So, instead of asking players to spend wealth on these items, it gives them to you for free via ABP so you can spend it on other funds - but frequently then encourages lower or less wealth to compensate for the free stats you are getting under ABP

For many characters, this works best. Stricia for instance, is better off because she has 1 weapon to enchant and therefore gets the maximum out of ABP. Sera on the other hand, has no weapons to enchant, until she drinks her Mutagen, in which case she technically has three weapons to enchant (Bite/Claw/Claw). As ABP doesn't account for this, Sera is worse off since Stricia can get her weapon (unarmed strike) to +5, whereas technically Sera gets +4/+3/+0, compared with +5/+5/+5 under standard wealth rules with AoMF.

Like, assuming standard WBL then I know at the end of the AP I'll probably have Headband, Belt, AoMF, Cloak, and probably 50,000gp to spend on rings / armor. I also know, the party fighter is going to do much the same thing (but with weapon instead of AoMF) and we end up roughly equal.

Chuck in ABP instead, that fighter is still sitting pretty, but Sera gets punished because it wasn't designed with respect to natural attackers / polymorphing (which are uncommon). So in this case, I don't like it, but if I was playing an entirely different class, then I wouldn't mind.

No ABP at this time. I don't love the Big Five, but IMO ABP just substitutes a different set of problems (as Sera points out above). It's a sidegrade, better for some characters, worse for others.

Also, with 25 point builds, I may keep WBL a little low. You're all pretty amazing already.

Oh: before I post a recruitment ad, does anyone want to recommend someone? Should be able to commit, post regularly, etc. etc. If yes, please PM me.

Oh, I missed this the first time through. PM'd you.

At this point it looks like two players have approached three people in other games; one of those three has contacted me; nobody has confirmed or come back with a character yet.

If that's still the case tomorrow, I'll post on recruitment.

Meanwhile, Sholti, I think your options are now "keep the one level of vigilante" or "never mind go straight bard". Pick one, and make any adjustments accordingly.

Various business things:

Okay, if Sholti can get the hat working and can buy a Disguise Kit the Masked Persona option should work just fine. This assumes a total disguise bonus as follows: +8 skill, +5 hat, +5 minor changes, +2 disguise kit = +20.

As I understand the Masked Persona rules, Sholti only needs to make the check against those who know her normal identity and she can take 10 on the check. Opposed perception checks would need to reach 30 for discovery. Looks like nobody in the party can beat that so just as secure as the Vigilante ability. I might even take the -2 on the check to make Kestrel human. Stricia could beat the check on a 19-20 then, but that's still pretty safe.

I'm going to assume I've figured the above correctly and update my sheet to Bard only. Just let me know if I have something wrong with the above and I'll figure it out then.

I'm not leaning strongly toward any particular Rebellion role. One of the charisma roles would be the best fit of course. It looks like everyone else is best suited for INT or WIS roles, with the coming new player a wildcard. I'll leave it up to DM_DM to choose the better role for a PC if the other CHA role is going to be filled by an NPC.

The potential player I contacted likely won't respond until sometime tomorrow.

Judging from previous costs in discussion, Sera takes Spymaster,
Zeldana takes Strategist, Sholti takes a CHA role and I think
Stricia is up in the air

Sentinel for Stricia.

Secretive means slow growth, so you kinda need a Recruiter. Sholti for that, then?

Sounds good.

Hi! I'm the potential player Sholti mentioned above. I'm already GMing a Hell's Rebels game and playing in a second one on these boards, but I love the campaign and would keep my knowledge separate from my character's.

Speaking of which, I'd be going with a Masked Maiden vigilante (Adventurer's Guide, p. 82).

Let me know if my knowledge of the AP disqualifies me; otherwise, I'll work on my character ASAP.

Hello, I am home. I had contacted the GM a bit earlier, and I am another potential player that was contacted ^_^. I'm working currently on a character concept, in particular, a Tiefling Gray Paladin (NG.)

I'm having a bit of fun coming up with the concept but I can understand if you guys would prefer a Vigilante or other characters.

For the sake of disclosure, if it isn't completely obvious I totally ripped off the lyrics used and even the opera's name is stolen.

I stumbled across this on youtube and got the idea from it. Chelish opera will always be like this in my head from now on. If you haven't seen it, it's a gem.

Orkestra Obsolete performs Blue Monday

I'm sorry for the posting delays everyone. My job occasionally requires me to appear in court. The prep for that, along with the time spent being there, adds up to a very big chunk of time. It's about the only time I have to take work home with me.

I had to go at the end of this week, and now I'm sick with a fever. Hopefully I'll be getting back to normal tomorrow, but today I'm just sleeping.

Go ahead and bot me as needed of course.

I'm curious -- what are the court appearances about?

It's cool Sholti.

I'm curious -- what are the court appearances about?

I work for the Department of Human Services doing foster care related things like certifying foster homes, child placements, and checks to make sure care agreements are being met. A lot of the stuff goes through family court. Most of the time written reports are sent for that, but sometimes I have to go to give evidence at hearings. Usually it's about a change in parental rights.

Ah, interesting! Thank you. I had a very brief career as a public defender many years ago, but I didn't have much to do with DHS.