GM Rednal's Northlands Saga Complete (Inactive)

Game Master Rednal

When the storm passed, the longboat was completely out of sight.

...I suggest clearing this place somehow before you run out of food. XD

*Sighs* The one time my character isn't loaded down with food...

I'm okay generally progressing, if there's something obvious my character is missing. PbP never lent itself well to carefully-mapped dungeon-crawls.

It's not always about obvious or not, even - it's just that without that kind of quick reaction, it's harder to really 'get' the dungeon. XD Fortunately, there aren't many sequences like this in the AP.

I'm OK with progressing so long as we aren't missing anything cool/interesting/shiny.

I wouldn't take away your shinies just because we were speeding things up a little. XD The last thing I want is for you to feel like progressing could mean missing out.

And we all know Jon likes his Sparklies.

*Is also easily distracted by shinies*

Considering that IIRC book one was created as a prequel to the rest of the AP? I'm okay missing out on anything it might provide. Strong ABP helps a lot in that regard too.

Also: Eydis is favored by some mystery god, and Eindrid has limited ability to divine the future, so I'm okay using charges of that ability to fish for "divine hints from the GM"

Well, technically, you're not even into Book 1 (of 10) yet. XD Adventure "Zero" was indeed created as a prequel for the rest of the content, though.

(And don't worry, the books aren't always as long as this, either - especially when they're more roleplaying than room-by-room adventuring. I expect things to really pick up once we're done here.)

So...we're literally in book 0 of 10.

Huh.

I feel intimidation and shame now.

So umm! Detect Magic I think requires divination sphere in SoP?

Also I can apparently detect the former decomposed insignias, banners, etc. on corpses. Don't know how I missed that before, could be useful at some point. But I'll worry about it next time; let's loot our treasure room and go fight the big boss!

Yes - Detect Magic is one of the basic Divinations you get. Note the 10 Minute casting time since you don't have the talents to speed it up, though. XD

I keep forgetting it's not included in the Cantrips feat, sorry.

Yeah, it was a deliberate change. XD In Spheres, it's possible to scan for magic traps and the like, but it's a lot harder to do in a hurry unless you make a serious investment in it (either by taking the Fast Divinations talent or spending a Spell Point). So in a more reactive area, for example, you may find yourself being hit by more patrols or giving enemies more time to prepare for your arrival if you stop to scan every little thing with the full casting time. Basically, it was a countermeasure against the way that Detect Magic could often be used to quickly and easily render magical challenges all but worthless when you're under a time limit. One way or another, you have to make a real payment to do that now.

'Course, it's still pretty easy when you've got all the time in the world. XD But then, most things are.

Sure... I'm just running low on spell points right now (dunno if I'll ever have the space for fast divinations, but I might actually dump all my future talents into it, it's got so many useful options). I actually took Divination tree for the combat bonuses, but it is a pretty cool tree, especially with the Precogniscient feats.

*Whistles and watches* o wo~

You can go tell us that Hakon's face melts off because he put on a Mask of Acid or something now.

When this thing deals Profane damage—does that mean necrotic? Profane is not a core PF damage type; AFAIK it's only in Path of War, where it deals +50% damage to good-aligned characters. Should Hakon and I be taking extra profane damage?

The book calls it Profane Damage and offers no further explanation. I'm treating it largely as Unholy/Evil damage, except only creatures with an evil alignment and/or the evil subtype are naturally immune to it. Good and Neutral characters both take full damage - you do not take extra damage for being Good. If you did, don't worry, I'd have said so. o wo/

Incidentally, I did a search, and I think this is the only creature in the entire book with this damage type - so, uh, don't worry about regularly seeing a damage type you have little defense against. XD It's more of a one-off challenge.

Hmm. My personal rule as a GM is usually to award full exp for avoiding an encounter *with the caveat* that the easier it was to avoid, the less exp they get regardless; so if I only think there's a 50% chance they'd need to fight the town guards, based on their own competence, they get 50% of the exp *regardless* of whether or not they fight the guards, as long as they get past them somehow. It's a system that I find generally rewards creativity/roleplaying, since the incentive to avoid combat is getting to the goodies faster (though killing people nets them those people's stuff).

Dunno how well that approach balances with APs, though. It also tends to lead to a more... cinematic game. (My PbP party only gets into combat about once per level, and usually after they've come up with a clever way to murder half the enemies beforehand).

The Lost Lands is a little weird sometimes. XD Suffice to say that murdering isn't the only way to get XP - in fact, the end of each section of this AP has some notes on bonus awards for accomplishing certain roleplaying things.

This is the most dungeon-like area you'll be seeing for awhile, I think, and I'm actually quite looking forward to moving on.

Yeah. I've never been much of a dungeon crawler, and Eindrid is a lawyer, not an archaeologist. o.O

It feels like we've exploring ice corridors for an eternity! I too am ready to mix things up.

In case it wasn't obvious, through the now-open northern door is most definitely the big encounter of this area. XD Go there to wrap things up. Go elsewhere to try and level up first, if you'd like to have that added cushion.

...Yidhra says "heal first".

Oh... I assumed you were trying to railroad us into the "anything else." Someone else, take us exploring in a different direction by divine inspiration or something I guess.

Railroad, no. Advise... yes. You're close, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to do it, given the generally high danger level of this game. XD There's a number of unexplored areas, including to the northeast and southeast.

Would offing the imprisoned undead we just left behind push us over?

Yes, it would. Since they're generally clustered together and rolling saving throws for large numbers is a pain, I'm willing to accept three hits of channel energy (...or two hits and some decent area attack...) as being enough to finish off the lot of them. XD

We could also just go stab some guys through the bars, on principle. It's a principle Eindrid would be okay with.

I'm happy to finish them off with three pulses. It'll leave me without Channel Energy for the boss fight, though, unless levelling up reloads our spells and abilities too.

*Coughs* Well, checking your profile, I noticed you only had two left... so yeah. A plan for the last group would be good. o wo/

What if we level up and the take an 8 hour break, so we hit the final challenge refreshed?

I'm kinda loathe to do that. It's a little iffy to be wandering around, hunting XP, but when the GM drops an anvil-like hint you listen. Taking a nap because we know the bossfight is coming up smacks too much of metagaming.

Yeah, fair enough. You're right on that score. Following Eindrid's lead into the situation it is!

Oh, I mean, I posted that before hearing that "random body" meant "huge boss fight" when we're on the verge of leveling. As loathe as I am to metagame, I try not to take GM warnings lightly. And we could always have divine intervention advise us to recover or something.

HP - +10
BAB - +1
Fortitude +1
Reflex - 0
Will - +1
Automatic Bonus Progression - +2 Wisdom

Spheres
Thorn Blast, Greater Healing

Warpriest Channel
Sacred Weapon +1

Incanter Bonus Feat - Extra Spell Points

Skills - Diplomacy +1, Perception +1, Swim +1
Bonus Skills - Linguistics +1, Profession +1

Heh, and here I thought I got my inspiration from Tyr.

Also, it looks like I apparently am supposed to have Str 13 to power attack, so I shouldn't have been using it all along? I guess I can get Piranha Strike in a few levels, although man there's a lot of feats I want right now.

(Although! Advanced Versatile Performance is now a thing, and would apparently get me Weapon Focus for free when I hit level 6, so I guess that gives em a feat to retrain)

So umm...

HP +12
BAB, Fort, Ref, Will +1

ABP Cha +2
Ability Score Dex +1

Sphere: Foreshadow (reserving 2 SP to cast 8 hours/day, for +1 AC, +2 Init, +2 Ref, and AC bonus during surprise round)

Skills (7; saving favored bonus) - (P) Sing +1, (P) Oratory +1, Acrobatics +1, Swim +1, Climb +1
Background Skills (2) - (Kn) Engineering +1, (Kn) Geography +1

Cavalier:
+1 to sense motive (order)
+1 challenge/day
-Panache (4 points)
-Dodging Panache
-Precise Strike (add level to damage)
-Swashbuckler Initiative (+2 init)

...well so my initiative is a wee bit higher now, hmm.

HP: +11
BAB, F,R: +1
APB: Dex +2 (consequent +1 bonus to AC, certain skills, initiative, etc.)

Uncanny Dodge
Rogue Talent: Combat Feat (Weapon Focus: Longsword)
Fighter Bonus Feat: ?

Skills +1: Acrobatics, Climb, Diplomacy, Knowledge Local, Perception, Sense Motive, Stealth, Survival, Swim

This build is broken, looks like. Weapon Finesse doesn't stack with my new longsword, which makes the -2 Two Handed penalty all the more crushing. I'm at a +5 to hit with a +1 longsword as a Lvl 4 fighter. Awful.

Any suggestions on the combat feat? I scanned the list but am coming up dry.

@Eindrid/Eydis: Looks good. o wo/

@Hakon: You'll be able to switch weapons... pretty soon, actually. Are you sure you wanted to invest things like your Rogue Talents in using a Longsword instead of the weapon(s) you'd rather actually use?

If nothing else, you could probably go a bit further down the defensive route with Shield Focus, giving you another +1 to your AC. ...Actually, let me put it another way. What would you like to be doing right now? What do you wish Hakon could be doing?

I've got to admit to being a bit in the weeds. This is my first time playing a gestalt character and my focus hasn't been tight.

I committed earlier to going two-handed with shield bash, so I should keep going in that direction. Which means giving up wotan's sword for a 1d6 handax again in the near future, unfortunately.

Shield Focus makes sense. I'll look at the rogue talents for something that might help me maximize my chances of using sneak attacks.

Well, the easiest way to sneak attack is probably to flank with Eindrid or Eydis. Things that can help you get into position are good.

If you want to go for a flanking focus, one option is Weapon Focus (Heavy Shield), which sets you up Outslug Style next level. It's a bit of a long payoff, but when you finish the feat chain (which also requires Lunge), you wind up getting a net +2 to damage/AC, 10' reach on attacks, and the ability to 10' step (which doesn't need to be in a straight line, and can thus get you pretty neatly behind enemies).

Hmm, my INT isn't high enough to take Combat Expertise, unfortunately, which is the base requirement for that chain.

But see here is the secret: Combat Stamina! As long as a fighter has >0 stamina, as of Unchained, they can qualify for Combat Expertise (free campaign feat), and feats that require it with the same Int requirement; however, if you run out of stamina, you can't use the feat until you get it back.

Also: Automatic Bonus Progression has to be into a mental score at this level (the +2 enhancement to physical is next level), and don't forget the +1 to any ability score for hitting level 4 (I think Eydis may have missed this as well).

Ah! Perfect. Going to add that in then and run with it. Thanks!

Yup, forgot about the +1. Thanks for the reminder.

*Hums and waits for a finalized levelup* o wo~

Should be all done. +1 for lvl 4 to Dex, +2 for ABP to wisdom. Feats are Weapon Focus (Heavy Shield), and Shield Focus.

Sounds good. o wo b Go ahead and update your profile.