Discuss!
I think that this pbp is the last refuge of my sanity. Wrapped my car around around a telephone pole Monday night. No one was hurt, but my car was totaled. The only way for me to buy a new one is for my fiance and I to cancel our wedding and get some of that money back.
Also, finals in college coming up.
So yeah, I'm here to stay.
Dot.
Sorry to hear about your car.
First impression of the characters:
Arrenopos
Android Aldori Swordlord fighter. DEX-based. Really good disable device (better than mine), and he can use it on technology (local ties trait).
Valeria Starr
Human Pistolero. Obviously DEX based. Decent variety of skills, though none particularly stand out. +2 damage against technic league guys (trait).
Adrien Belmont
Human or half-elven summoner (his sheet says both races). Has an Eidolon that looks like a robot (who has Perception +12!). The robot also has the best melee damage in the party. Great CHA but his physical stats are weak so I imagine he will mostly avoid combat (he has a sling). Very good diplomacy and UMD. Timeworn items are less likely to glitch when he uses them (trait).
Harrash
Half-Elf inquisitor. Has an archetype that trades out judgments for an animal companion - he has an ape. STR-based fighting, and he wields a shield so his AC is very good. Perception +12! Also has an inquisition that makes Diplomacy, Bluff, and Intimidate work off of WIS, and with the skill ranks he gets I'm guessing he will be something of a face (Adrien has a better CHA but less ranks to throw around). Robot slayer trait.
Skivven
Me! Ratfolk investigator. Big knowledge guy and trapfinding skill monkey. I may spread my points around a bit but inspiration will probably give me a real skill edge. Damage is quite weak and will probably stay that way until I get studied combat and two-weapon fighting. Even then it won't be amazing, but I'll try to keep up. Extracts will give me some buffing utility. I will probably take the Technologist feat at 3rd level, which kinda hurts as I don't get bonus feats, but it will make my skills a lot more useful. Stargazer trait lets me identify aliens.
Let me know if I am getting the gist of your character or there is something I missed.
Harrash: one suggestion: you can have leather armor made for the ape at double the normal cost (20 gp). There is no armor check penalty for wearing it so the Ape will not take any penalties even if he is not proficient.
Your assessment is about right. The character is best at social skills, buffing and melee (though he'll probably rely on flanking with the companion or other players because of his low to-hit).
I'll take the suggestion about armor into account. I have to look at the ape more closely for how to build it, but I noticed that the hunter animal companion (the one my archetype uses) allows taking skirmisher tricks for the animal companion. I would take the "Sic 'Em" talent, but since it basically gives a free attack twice a day, I thought I should ask before taking it.
That sucks about the car, I did something similar last summer. I passed out behind the wheel and rammed my car into the guardrail on the side of an overpass.
As for Adrien, he's definitely not intended to get anywhere near combat if he can help it. Ozymandias is intended to get up close and personal instead. However, how we develops in the future depends a bit on the GM. Would you allow him to take the Tentacle Mass/Tentacle and Claws evolution despite them not being available to his eidolon type? I see no reason why a robot can't have claws, and I imagined the tentacles as being something like pnuematically launched cables that he used to grapple enemies. Ozy was originally intended in the first game I played this character in to function as not only damage but battlefield control; he would take the Grab, Reach and Pull evolutions with the tentacles and Push with the Slam along with increased size to be able to move creatures around the field. If that won't work for you I'll need to think out a different plan for him going forward.
Also, are you alright with the Half-elf FCB that grants extra evolution points?
EDIT: Also, Adrien is only really good at Diplomacy and I plan to leave it that way. I mostly took that via trait so that he'd have something to use his high Charisma with.
I'm fine with all the animal companion and eidocompanion as long as the prereuisites are met. And I'm fine with the FCBs.
Alright, cool. Inevitable eidolons are so perfect thematically for Iron Gods but without a few tweaks they're... kinda crappy. I'll stick with that idea, then.
I added the armor and skirmisher talent to the ape.
I checked skills and it seems that we all have the same knowledge skills (almost everyone has arcana and/or engineering or both, and only dungeoneering, geography, and nobility are covered apart from those). It might be worth considering spreading the skills between the members of the group.
Dotting for future shenanigans.
Valeria is going to be more range oriented, resorting to the longsword when "Nuking from orbit" isn't feasible.
All set :)
I added the armor and skirmisher talent to the ape.
I checked skills and it seems that we all have the same knowledge skills (almost everyone has arcana and/or engineering or both, and only dungeoneering, geography, and nobility are covered apart from those). It might be worth considering spreading the skills between the members of the group.
So we need Planes, Religion, and Nature?
Skivven can throw some ranks around next level. I'm not sure if any of those fit with his background for him to have at first level. But I do intend to focus on knowledge skills since I can use inspiration for free on any knowledge skill.
Would you allow him to take the Tentacle Mass/Tentacle and Claws evolution despite them not being available to his eidolon type?
I like the tentacles idea. And there is an inevitable that looks like he has tentacles (I forget which one).
Do you want claws in order to get a different damage type than slam? Otherwise, a Slam does more damage than a claw, and you only get one attack per limb. What about a bite?
So we need Planes, Religion, and Nature?
Skivven can throw some ranks around next level. I'm not sure if any of those fit with his background for him to have at first level. But I do intend to focus on knowledge skills since I can use inspiration for free on any knowledge skill.
Also local. I'll switch out my arcana for nature, so that will be covered. I'm not sure if the others are as needed in this AP.
Valeria has knowledge (local). I don't think that one is a huge priority so we can probably leave her as the only one with that skill.
I'm surprised you didn't go for knowledge (religion) though as you are an inquisitor.
I missed Valeria's skill.
I actually think that nature fits the character's background better than religion, but I might be able to switch dungeoneering for that instead. I'm just not sure if there's a need (it's not mentioned in the player guide).
Gameplay thread is up.
I don't remember undead being a big part of the campaign, at least not until the third book.
Knowledge (local) might be a big part of the second book.
Adrien can probably handle Dungeoneering, if you want to swap for Religion.
Also, as far as natural attacks go Ozymandias will be grabbing an additional set of limbs for his claw attacks. At the moment I plan to have him end up with a slam, two claws, and the tentacle mass. I could technically get four claw attacks by attaching them to his feet, but that's not really what I'm after. I may poke around at getting another attack or two somewhere in the future, but especially considering Ozy will be benefiting from Haste once I get the ability to cast it I'm not super worried about it. We'll see how my evolution points end up panning out in the long run.
I was going to say that Knowledge(local) is usually an important skill. It is also used to identify the abilities of all humanoids, so....
Also, Arrenopos is only taking 3 ranks in Nobility, after that he switches to Dungeoneering.
If undead don't show up until the third book, Harrash will probably wait on taking points in that, at least for the next level.
Happy Easter fellow gamers.
Happy Easter to you also!
I was going to say that Knowledge(local) is usually an important skill. It is also used to identify the abilities of all humanoids, so....
Also, Arrenopos is only taking 3 ranks in Nobility, after that he switches to Dungeoneering.
* Usually humanoids don't have too many things you actually need to know about them. And many of them are common creatures which reduces the DC by 5. Basically giants are the only ones you really need this skill for.
* Keep in mind that Knowledge (nobility) is a background skill and (dungeoneering) is not. I doubt that (nobility) is that important in this AP, but the ranks you use on it come from a different pool which can't be applied to (dungeoneering). You could always put them into knowledge (history) though which may be relevant.
Hey GM, it's not a huge deal, but would you mind bolding where characters are speaking? It's just the formatting I'm used to on the boards and it makes it a little hard for me to follow on occasion. It'd just make it a bit easier on me when I'm looking at your posts and stuff.
Okay. I'll try to keep that in mind.
Thanks!
Like I said, not a huge deal, I'm just so used to that formatting that not seeing it is a little wonky.
So there actually are some undead in the first book. And they could be a pain to deal with without knowledge of undead.
I'm sorry if Valeria comes across as a little callous. I'm playing her slightly mercenary. I mean she doesn't know any of you from Adam and she's been "on the run" from the Technic League for a long time and being on the run means cash.
Once she gets to know and trust everyone she will mellow out.
Actually, It wouldn't be in character for Skivven to bring that up, but I'm glad someone did.
Is everyone okay with me making rolls like Initiative and saves in advance? My group did that to get keep the game moving the last time I ran Iron Gods.
Maps have always been the hardest part of running pbps for me as most of my updates are via phone. I don't know of a good mobile friendly way of handling yhem.
Maps have always been the hardest part of running pbps for me as most of my updates are via phone. I don't know of a good mobile friendly way of handling yhem.
Tricky... I don't know.
In other games I am in I find that often I end up moving other people's character icons for them because they post from phones and can't move them around.
If you have access to a computer sometimes, maybe you can set up the maps in advance?
I have no problem with initiative and saves in advance.
And it's possible to play without maps, but that would make it difficult to handle movement speed and flanking. It's still possible to do it, just with modified rules, if there's no possibility for maps.
You can feel free to use my Roll20 account, although I can't say how good it is on a mobile. I've taken the liberty of setting up the first map for us.
It can be found Here
How would you all prefer me to set up the maps? I have a roll20 account from an old skype group, but I've faced resistance to using that in the past for pbps. It's also abyssmal for phone use.
Previous groups used some google powerpoint equivalent. I don't like doing it that way, but I can. It's also slightly less of a hassle for phones. Only slightly.
I prefer Google Drawings/Whatever over Roll20 mainly because there is no sign in process necessary. But there's not a lot of difference.
If you are able to use a numbered grid then you can have players use grid coordinates, which means that you can get someone else to move things for you easily.
I'm OK with whatever you want. I can just as easily do it through text descriptions if needed.
Hey, GM Matt:
Any way I can convince you to put the link to the current battle map under your avatar name the same way we have our stats under ours? That would be real handy.
Absolutely. I'll do that after work.
I set up two hyperlinks just below my alias name. The first one will take you to the page where you can see the combat map. The second one will give anyone who hasn't joined the game yet permission to see the maps.
Hey all, this upcoming week is my final week of classes for my senior year of college, so posting may be a little sparse (or non-existant, really) until Saturday or so. I will do my best to keep posting and I will at the very least be reading what happens, so I'll be caught up, but I may not be too active. If I find free time (unlikely) I will post in when I can. Otherwise, expect to not see me unless I'm lucky.
Yep finals week for me too.
Same here, but I'm only going part time, so it's not as much of a struggle.
If you get a chance, you could put any recommended actions you would want your characters to take when it's your turn in combat here and I'll do any dice rolls.
Recommended actions:
Adrien remains behind front lines, particularly he tries to be adjacent to Ozymandias as much as possible. If an enemy starts or moves next to him, he takes a 5-foot step/withdraws at the first opportunity. If Ozymandias takes a significant amount of damage, he'll heal him with a spell. If a fight looks tough, he will cast Mage Armor on Ozzy.
Ozymandias should hit things, and hit them hard. He prioritizes enemies that are closest to Adrien, but if Adrien is safe he will assist whatever party member looks to need the most help. If no one seems to be in danger, he'll simply attack whatever looks the nastiest.
I'm done with the big one now. Just have one paper to finish for Thursday.
Sorry I didn't post yesterday. Had a busy day and then I took my fiance out to the movies.
Since I have a single map up for the entire dungeon, could one of you guys tell me if I got the fog of war right?
Since I have a single map up for the entire dungeon, could one of you guys tell me if I got the fog of war right?
Yeah, looks good. I can only see places we've been.
yep, looks good
Awesome. My finals are over. I don't know when Adrien's finals are over, though. I hope he didn't forget about the game because of them. How long do you guys think we should wait before reopening recruitment?
I'd say give him until the end of the week and then shoot him a PM to see if he's still interested.