Reiterating for Party:
I could spend 10,000 to get the banner, which would prevent us from getting fatigued when force marching, meaning we could effectively travel for 22 hours per day without stop.
Alternately, I could get Liette a wand of sanctify weapons which aligns all weapons in a 20-foot burst to penetrate DR/evil.
Was anyone else aside from Liette formerly having trouble with alignment-based DR?
While I can't conceive of a situation where Tiknesr would personally use a manufactured weapon, it seems most of the party does. If most don't have a way through DR/evil then it sounds worth it.
Yeah, Sigmund's gear toned down to an NPC level with the rest paying for his care sounds right.
My regards to Ark. Hope you get better soon.
I will have somewhere between 5k and 10k of diamond dust since no value loss when selling it back.
Alright I'm done with my purchases.
Ring of Sustence 2,500
enhance +1 bow to Holy 16,000
enhance MW silver greatsword to +1 2,000
enhance +1 mithral breastplate to +2 Champion 8,000
enhance +1 CoR to +2 CoR 3,000
Lesser Bracer's of Archery 5,000
Headband Alluring Charisma +4 16,000
60 Durable arrows for my efficient quiver 60
Lets me bank 12,440 if I figured that right.
Crissor, you might want to check Bracers of Falcon’s Aim instea of bracers of lesser archery, even if you have improved critical it would save 1000 gold. Added bonus of +3 to perception.
Anyways I will be making a list of things to do at least possibly. This is mostly to help me remember all things, but comments and discussions are more than welcome.
1. Scrying. In a month we can get vast amounts of intelligence with the spell power we can bring to bear.
2. The mace: Get audition with big wo/man of the church or Mendev. What do we want for it?
3. Figure out if we can get a substitute for Nathaniel for the glider.
4. Library, research the giants and drakes, Sibylle and the terrain involved.
5. If we want to use teleport(likely), how many castings do we need to get everyone and how to go about it? Assuming CL10, 3 Mediums+Caster. 8 Characters so 2 castings assuming we have 2 casters, but adding in the Animal companions will raise that. And Abigails companion is Huge I think, so until CL 12 it can't be moved.(Unless we cantemporarily make it smaller somehow)
Oh and question so far I am thinking of getting Cone of cold as the spell that is the standard choice for my vest. If anyone has an idea for 5th level spell that would be better choice say so.
Re Integrating Tiknesr: Liette in case you missed it, the rat asked you a question in his last post.
All: He's rather suspicious by nature and may have a couple more questions to ask, but he's starting to get a sense that y'all are powerful and care about your companions, which is a good start. Do any of y'all have any questions for him? If not, after asking another Q or two (that I'm holding off until he gives Liette a chance to introduce herself) he'll ask to join y'all.
1. Scrying. In a month we can get vast amounts of intelligence with the spell power we can bring to bear.
...
4. Library, research the giants and drakes, Sibylle and the terrain involved.
I mentioned this upthread but Tiknesr's familiar gives him Commune 1/week, and he has pretty high Knowledge roles: Knowledge (arcana) +19, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +8, Knowledge (history) +11, Knowledge (local) +12, Knowledge (nature) +20, Knowledge (nobility) +8, Knowledge (planes) +18, Knowledge (religion) +8
If y'all bring him up to speed on Sybelle and/or want to suggest Commune questions, he's game.
5. If we want to use teleport(likely), how many castings do we need to get everyone and how to go about it? Assuming CL10, 3 Mediums+Caster. 8 Characters so 2 castings assuming we have 2 casters, but adding in the Animal companions will raise that. And Abigails companion is Huge I think, so until CL 12 it can't be moved.(Unless we cantemporarily make it smaller somehow)
I don't know what the options are for teleporting huge creatures (or shrinking Abigail's companion) but Tiknesr knows Teleport. He plans to keep at least 1 scroll on hand in case of emergencies. He wasn't planning to memorize it most mornings, but that's negotiable as is needed.
(Ooc, since Tiknesr doesn't know anything about this mace yet, and I as a player don't know much myself, but) perhaps it can be prepayment of the required gift for a Planar Ally spell (cast from a scroll) that we can use before some particularly difficult encounter.
Re: "Giants? Where?"...good question.
Jelani, do you want to make something up? Or give me a framework within which to make something up? Happy to have these be the same giants that're plaguing the party, or some completely different ones.
Heyo fellas;
Went well, home from hospital, going to be resting up for a few days so I'll leave off posting for a little while if you don't mind. But if you need an urgent or important post for me, ask in discussion and I'll try to get onto it.
Re: "Giants? Where?"...good question.
Jelani, do you want to make something up? Or give me a framework within which to make something up? Happy to have these be the same giants that're plaguing the party, or some completely different ones.
The only giants I've got on my maps of what kind of monsters are in which place are the desert giants. So, yeah, lets make it the same giants.
Heyo fellas;
Went well, home from hospital, going to be resting up for a few days so I'll leave off posting for a little while if you don't mind. But if you need an urgent or important post for me, ask in discussion and I'll try to get onto it.
Glad you're okay. Rest well buddy.
Crissor, you might want to check Bracers of Falcon’s Aim instea of bracers of lesser archery, even if you have improved critical it would save 1000 gold. Added bonus of +3 to perception.
Oh and question so far I am thinking of getting Cone of cold as the spell that is the standard choice for my vest. If anyone has an idea for 5th level spell that would be better choice say so.
O.O And that's why I ask for other people's opinions.
As far as sorcerer spells go it's not always optimal but I have a major soft spot for Baleful Polymorph. Mostly cause you can turn a BBEG into a kitten and took em' as a replacement for a slain familiar...or just a pet.
For Viorel specific look at Fire Snake it works with your bloodline boosts, and is thematically cool. http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/f/fire-snake
I thought about Baleful Polymorph (and it's about as flavorful as can be for a witch!) but decided to aim my spells more toward battlefield control & utility since my hexes are so good for single target save-or-suck attacks. (Ice Tomb and Slumber fill the niche of Baleful Polymorph quite nicely.)
That said, I'm brand spanking new to witches, or really high level full casters of any sort. My build is even more complicated (in a good way!) by a ratling familiar who essentially functions as a free rod of quicken, casting spells from scrolls on my turn.
You can see Tiknesr's spells and his purchases (including scrolls, many of which I expect Aroden to use) below (pasted from his profile). Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated! (Y'all certainly know the party and the terrain better than I do...and likely know witches better too!)
Witch Spells Prepared (CL 10th; concentration +17):
5th (3/day)—shadow evocation (DC 22), feeblemind (DC 22), magic jar (DC 22)
4th (4/day)—black tentacles (x2), shadow conjuration (DC 21), confusion (DC 21)
3rd (5/day)—sleet storm (x2), stinking cloud (x3) (DC 20)
2nd (6/day)—false life, web (DC 19), blindness/deafness (DC 19), vomit swarm (x3)
1st (6/day)—mage armor, enlarge person (DC 18), command (DC 18), obscuring mist, delay disease, mount
0 (at will)—stabilize, detect poison, read magic, dancing lights
Witch Spells Known
5th—cloudkill, feeblemind (DC 22), magic jar (DC 22), magic creation, shadow evocation (DC 22), teleport
4th—black tentacles, confusion, death ward, enervation, neutralize poison, shadow conjuration (DC 21), confusion (DC 21)
3rd—clairaudience/clairvoyance, deeper darkness, fly, remove curse, remove disease, sleet storm, stinking cloud (x3) (DC 20)
2nd—false life, web (DC 19), blindness/deafness (DC 19), darkness, glitterdust, hold person, summon swarm, vomit swarm, web
1st—beguiling gift, hex ward, ill omen, infernal healing, delay disease, ear-piercing scream, mage armor, enlarge person (DC 18), command (DC 18), obscuring mist, remove sickness, silent image, delay disease, mount
0—arcane mark, bleed, daze, detect magic, guidance, light, mending, message, resistance, spark, tough of fatigue, stabilize, detect poison, read magic, dancing lights
Gear amulet of natural armor +1, bedroll, cackling hag's blouse (2 swift cackles), cloak of quick reflexes +1/+2, familiar satchel, handy haversack, headband of vast intelligence (know: nature and planes) +4, mess kit, mithral buckler +2, pearl of power (1st), ring of protection +2, ring of sustenance, scroll - death ward x2, scroll - delay poison x3, scroll - freedom of movement, scroll - ill omen x40, scroll - neutralize poison, scroll - pro evil x10, scroll - remove curse, scroll - remove disease x2, scroll - restoration, scroll - sanctuary x10, scroll - teleport, scroll - vanish x20, scroll box x8, spell component pouch, 580 PP, 25 GP
Hey guys, just a heads up: December is shaping up to be a real bear at my office as law firms get in their billing in advance the end of the fiscal year, so I've been pulling overtime and generally working harder than usual. As such I've been pretty burned out when I get home so I may miss a day or two of posting here and there up through New Years. Please bear with me and any slowness to respond to stuff.
How do you plan on making use of magic jar?
Confusion is listed twice.
Stinking Cloud (x3) in spells known? Just a copy/paste I guess.I like the list, but you're very low on buffs, group buffs and defensive buffs for yourself. As we often meet many attackers, I'm worried, for your AC won't matter much. Can you get something like blur, displacement, mirror image, improved invisibility for defense?
I didn't check, but are you targeting the three saves for debuffs?
Thanks for your thoughtful review -- and for catching those typos! (I like that I had some confusion confusion.)
Sadly, the witch spell list doesn't have any of "blur, displacement, mirror image, improved invisibility". There may well be good defensive options on the Witch list that I've missed; I hope there are! If not...I suspect Tiknesr will often need help from others to stay alive. The buffs I'm planning to use regularly are: Mage Armor and False Life.
Otherwise I expect Aroden to often use scrolls defensively on Tiknesr (Pro Evil, Sanctuary, and Vanish), Ill Omen cast on the attacker by Aroden as a readied action when Tiknesr is attacked, plus the ratling's 3/day Dimension Door SLA as a get-out-of-jail-free card. Aroden can, for instance, cast Vanish immediately after Tiknesr acts each turn, burning a 25GP scroll each time, so expensive to do all the time but cheap enough to do semi-regularly. Casting Sanctuary when it's time to get off the battlefield (hopefully) won't be needed as often...but it when it does it'll be very useful.
Some options for improvement I've considered:
- 4.5K wand of Mirror Image >> which'll take a round of Tiknesr's time (since it has a range of personal) and will require UMD so will fail 20% of the time, but is likely a worthwhile investment...for encounters where he can act before foes are in range if for nothing else. I'd probably lose the +2 enhancement bonus on my buckler if I
- 20K ring of invisibility >> good but too pricey
- 24K cloak of minor displacement >> good but too pricey
- 50K cloak of displacement >> great but even pricier
Thinking about this, I could trade my ring of pro +2 for +1 and thus afford the wand. That seems worth doing!
Any other suggested purchases? Does anyone in the group have buffs/protection that you'll be able to offer?
Tiknesr's main buff to offer will be Fortune (best of 2d20 roll, once/round for two rounds) which he can extend throughout an encounter if he can keep cackling (and if his allies stay within 50').
Re: Magic Jar, I haven't ever played with it honestly but I was thinking about trying it here. One example would be trying to possess one of the giants and then start attacking them from within...assuming we could figure out a safe place to stow Tiknesr's body within 200' feat of them. It seems like it has some great potential...though it clearly needs a lot of prep too, and won't always be applicable. Comments/thoughts welcome here.
I didn't check, but are you targeting the three saves for debuffs?
I've got great options vs Will and Fort. I don't have good options vs Reflex...but against those foes I can focus on debuffing with Evil Eye buffing allies with Fortune.
> scroll - ill omen x40
Wand?
That would almost always be the right choice here, but many of these scrolls (and the Ill Omen ones in particular) are there for Aroden to use, and ratlings can automatically cast any scroll (or any level and any class!) where he'll need to roll UMD if he uses a wand, and will fail 40% of the time.
Vanish is personal only right? Does he have a way of casting that on Tik?
Happily for me, it's:
> Range touch
> Targets creature touched
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/v/vanish
Cool. Don't forget that unless you pay for higher level versions its only going to last 1 round.
Abigail (belated) thanks for mentioning that Trickery grants some nice defensive options. That's worth a second look, though I really like the flexibility of shadow evocation and conjuration.
Robert, I liked Liette's reaction to Aroden. It would be a shame to waste a very creepy familiar on a party that didn't get a little creeped out by him. ;-)
Thanks. That thing is nightmarish. The picture.
THE PICTURE. 8(
Hehehehehe. I had fun drawing that one. I think I'm going to have fun playing his as well. I was really happy when I started playing with the (mental) image of a man-faced ratling familiar who was caustic and on the south side of neutral. I knew I wanted his name to be more human-sounding than Tiknesr's...and decided that Aroden would be delightfully offensive.
I don't think I could play a PC quite like that...but playing a familiar that sticks his ugly face out to kibbitz from time to time, but is largely kept in check by the more moderate rat witch...I think I'm going to have some good times here.
Speaking of RP, not sure I've said it, but I've *really* appreciated seeing y'all RPing your characters' grief around Nathaniel, and how they're dealing with it, and the encounter with Thaddeus.
Looking forward to more.
I won't have a chance to post here until tomorrow night, guys. Just so you know! If you're waiting on Liette presume she recommends the group go together to see the Knights of Ozem. Mostly because she wants to not have to deal with them alone.
Thaddeus, feeling any better man? I'd like to get you accepted into the group ASAP as well. Then all we really need to handle is the mace before heading back into the Wound.
Heyo; feeling better, been easing myself back into a few games, held off a little on this one as it requires a much higher standard of post.
I'll start work on something for Thaddeus; basically he's going to come down in the morning and ask to join up. I'm not fussed by you fellows handling the mace before then.
I guess so, I can be a Knight of Ozem. What are you going to tell them exactly?
Thanks for bearing with me while I'm crazy busy guys! Really, I appreciate it :)
Traveling tonight...and then on and off til New Years. I'll have my laptop with me, but will be intermittently slow to post.
Just time for a quick ooc post, but...
Jelani, SLAs don't have material components, right? Aroden's Commune is a 1/wk SLA.
Team, we get to ask six Y/N Qs in quick succession (that Tiknesr's patron will answer if it knows the answers). We can ask six more next week. We can use some/all to learn more about any of the mace, the giants, or the swamp nymph, (or something else, that I'm not thinking of?). I'm not sure we need to learn much about the mace, but if folks want to ascertain its ownership, we could ask:
- Is this mace the property of the Hellknight Order of the Nail?
- ...Anything else folks want to ask about it?
What about the giants? They seem like our next big threat, so it's probably worth finding more out about them. We need to craft Y/N questions. I've read some of the thread about them, but y'all probably know it better than I do. If we were to go out after them now without the benefit of Commune, what would we do?
My only other thought about Qs would be to see if someone is spying on us, e.g.
- Have the giants, and/or the swamp nymph, and/or their minions been spying on the party in any way since we've returned to Kenabres?
- (If yes, we presumably need to use more questions to get more detail -- e.g. which foe, what means -- so perhaps this is a good first Q)
Feel free to propose any Y/N, or comment on the ones above. I suspect I won't have time for in character discussion of this until Sunday at the earliest.
Oh, also, now that Tiknser's integrated into the party, he can add his Knowledge skills to finding out more about the swamp nymph and the giants. His Know skills are:
Knowledge (arcana) +19, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +8, Knowledge (history) +11, Knowledge (local) +12, Knowledge (nature) +20, Knowledge (nobility) +8, Knowledge (planes) +18, Knowledge (religion) +8
...and I suspect he can take 20 in the library on those foes. Any answers to those Qs might help to shape our questions too.
Ah yeah, I missed that it was an SLA. So no 500 GP incense required.
I'm not sure how to adjucate what your patron would know. What is your patron anyway? I forget and I'm not seeing it on your sheet.
Well, we talked about it a touch in PM when I was building Tiknesr and decided to just keep it nebulous at the time. If (now that we're talking about Communing with the patron and not just getting spells granted) you'd like to make it more specific, I'm fine with that.
About all I know about the patron:
* They grant me spells, including the shadow spells
* They gave me a (evil) ratling familiar
* They are into me crusading in the worldwound for some reason (unknown to Tiknesr) and sent Aroden to me only after I took off from Cassomir for the 'Wound.
I don't know too much about Count Ranalc, but he seems a plausible patron, or some other being from the Shadow Plane.
Of course, a separate question is how much does Tiknesr (who isn't evil, though is on the self-interested side of neutral) know about who his patron is, and why the patron supports him. I'm flexible in that regard as well. If you have an idea that you think makes an interesting potential story point, have at it.
I'll do some research and let you know.
So, relative to my character-
Day 1, meet everyone
Day 2, you fellows go buy mace.
Any issue with my making my post when you fellows return to the inn on the evening of Day 2?
As far as I understand it you talked to the group on day two or three in The Watchful Blade and then it's been a month already since then. After the month of relaxing they went to deal with the mace.
Ah aye. So either retcon me into the mace conversation, or just say Thaddeus had to be elsewhere?
Yeah, you were busy grieving or something. You can meet back up with them after the mace stuff, or seek them out at the Watchful Blade.
Tiknesr - Okay, I've picked a powerful denizen of the Plane of Shadow to be your patron. I'm not going to tell you who, since the Witch class says, "This patron is a vague and mysterious force, granting the witch power for reasons that she might not entirely understand. While these forces need not be named...."
PS: Aroden is eeeeevil...
Ratlings are carnivores. While they can subsist on prey less able to defend itself, such as grubs, other rodents, and carrion, they much prefer the warm flesh of living food. Children are their preferred meals, not only because such targets are easier to catch and generally safe to chase, but also because the sadistic ratling enjoys the purer sense of fear a screaming child might offer as dinnertime entertainment. The elderly and infirm are also common targets, both because of their lessened ability to defend themselves and simply because older victims are often in high supply in the places ratlings prefer to dwell.
Also missed this bit...
A ratling who serves as a familiar gains the ability to use commune once per week as a spell-like ability. A ratling can serve a spellcaster as a familiar if the spellcaster has the Improved Familiar feat. In order to gain a ratling familiar, the spellcaster must be chaotic evil and at least 7th level. A spellcaster with a ratling familiar typically carries numerous scrolls on his person for the ratling to access during combat.
I suppose with my house rules on alignment in this game that the CE thing for you can be ignored, but Aroden should definitely still be CE. He's a magical creature, not just a "person". The fact that no one in this group has noticed they accepted a CE creature into their party, while also getting their panties in a knot over the possession of an "evil" artifact is hilarious to me. I expect you to play up Aroden's wickedness, if you don't, I will.
Yeah, you were busy grieving or something. You can meet back up with them after the mace stuff, or seek them out at the Watchful Blade.
To clarify, I presume the commune spell will take place back at the inn.
Re Patron -- cool! I'm curious...
Re Aroden, oh yeah, he's definitely chaotic evil. Just look at him! I tried to capture his cruelty both in that drawing and in the way he ridiculed those who died in Tiknesr's first party. (And as a player I named him Aroden because...if you're going to have a chaotic evil man-faced rat for a familiar, what better name can it have?)
His CE nature will be mostly in check because he is a familiar, and wants to stay one:
While many creatures might balk at the concept of becoming a familiar, ratlings quite enjoy the role. Not only does being a spellcaster’s familiar give a ratling the security of having a powerful guardian who seeks to keep it safe, but also the ratling familiar has all but guaranteed access to texts and scrolls to read and study. Most spellcasters who take on ratlings as familiars also allow the ratlings to sup on their blood, giving their familiars an even greater reason to remain loyal and devoted to their masters or mistresses.
...But he'll express his opinion plenty, and may do more than that from time to time. (Oh, and Tiknesr was very aware that he was bringing a CE beast into a temple of Iomedae, which is why he made sure Aroden didn't stick his nose out of Tiknesr's sleeve.)
Tiknesr for his part is someone who has collaborated (warily) with evil allies all his adult life. (As he mentioned when he introduced himself, he's had plenty of business dealings with Corgunbier -- a pretty evil part of the Darklands, under Cassomir -- as the head of his former coven.)
To quote from his Personality notes,
Tiknesr has a dark sense of humor leaning toward schadenfreude and tends to titter with joy in his foes’ defeat. When it comes to morality, Tiknesr is…practical. He’s calculating and methodical, using whatever means he can to forward his (and his allies’) ends. He’s come to the Worldwound looking for esoteric knowledge and power, and more generally to rebuild his life after losing his status in his coven. While he’s motivated primarily by personal gain, his life in the ratfolk subcity of Cassomir’s sewers taught him the necessity of coordinating closely with those around him -- he knows he’s lost without allies. On the other hand, having been betrayed and usurped in his coven, he has cursed his past naïvety and vowed to watch his back more closely. In the end he’s very aware of the bind he’s in: many will seek to betray him yet without allies he’ll never prevail, and so he’s looking for a crew that he believes is worth trusting.
He plans to use the opportunities provided in the Worldwound to gain more knowledge and power than was ever possible for him in Cassomir. He’ll seek to be of great use to his new companions, knowing that if they aren’t able to work together as one swarm and aren’t willing to risk their lives for each other, there’s no other way for him to gain the knowledge and power he seeks.
One of the things Tiknesr's been trying to assess is if the group has room for shadier tactics, which is part of why he chose to mention his dealings with Corgunbier when he introduced himself, and was relieved to hear about the strategic alliance with the swamp witch.
So far no one has really poked at his morality, which is fine...but folks are welcome to do so. I'm confident I've crafted a character who has cause to function well within the party...but the opinions he expresses around things like alliance with evil entities will be quite different than that expressed by the paladins.
As far as whether a Neutral caster can have a CE ratling improved familiar (even without your alignment houserules) I think there's room for debate.
You may choose a familiar with an alignment up to one step away on each alignment axis (lawful through chaotic, good through evil).
This seems to say pretty clearly that N chars can have C and E familiars. Of course, the Ratling text contradicts that, which perhaps overrides the text in the feat.
Re Thaddeus, and Communing
Why don't we go back to the Inn now, run into Thaddeus again and have him ask to join the party, and then all retreat together to somewhere private to watch the evil ratling commune with his shadowy patron.
That works. Thaddeus?
Hmm, I can run it as Thaddeus requiring a month or two to sort himself out, make arrangements and ask to join up
Barek - You haven't posted in 19 days, with no warning. This is your 24 hour warning. If you don't post that you're still here and ready to begin posting regularly again, then I'm going to phase you out of the game.
EDIT: Of coarse NOW that I posted and edit one little typo in the profile it starts working mysteriously. So feel free to ignore first paragraph.
Why I am posting is that profile is somehow messed up. I have checked multiple times and I have the spoilered stuff at the end of the post but for some reason they are in the middle. Well not the end of the world.
So since I am posting might as well get a few things out of the way.
I will be rather busy untill 26th as most probably are so not much posting happening.
I decided to go with Icy prison instead of cone of cold for the vest as standard choice. I allready got scrying(btw I got the mirror so I can share the focus), Prying eyes and teleport as scrolls too so I can change if the need arises and teleport is a pretty nifty Oh s%!& button. If there are spells that people would like to have access to now would be good time to say.
I'll be rather busy till 1st january. I'll try to post in this time.
Everyone is busy now, no worries. Barek messaged me, he won't be returning.