Reign of Winter

Game Master TwelvePointFivePercent

Well, yikes.

Those of you who're still standing, it's your turn.

The rest of you, try to stabilize.

Luckily, two of three zombies are on fire, so that helps, a little.

Was the damage to Thanata all normal damage? I'm just checking that her resistances don't apply. If so, she is also unconscious.

Yes.

I'm pretty sure I'm the only one still standing and Soliana is about to die outright. So, uhm, TPK? It's been fun, I guess.

Edit: Forgot about Amel. Good old reliable Amel. His head is going to double in size if he gets us outta this mess...

Yeah, let's hope he pulls through here. As an aside, I haven't been keeping track of Kandar's movement, but remember that you can only five-foot step while full attacking, right?

Edit: And he does pull through! Zombies hit really hard at level 1, I see. Good thing I didn't have them power attack.

Edit2: Looking over your sheets, noone brought any healing. That's going to suck.

Right, damn, sorry about that. I always do that since my only other archer was a cavalier and I'm so used to being able to rapid fire and move (I was mounted). Bah, I'll try to remember that from now on.

Edit: However you want to retcon that is fine by me.

I'll definitely be using healing from now on. Dumb Fast Zombies...

These weren't fast zombies. They just 5ft stepped and attacked. I'm fairly certain you can still take free actions while staggered.

The zombie that just now slammed Kandar was using a standard action charge, which you can do if you're restricted to a standard action in one turn, such as in the surprise round or when you're staggered. In that case, you can only move once your speed, and don't get a +2 to hit, but you still get the -2 AC.

Edit: All right, so Thanata and Ahti are stable, and Soliana is bleeding heavily.

So at this point, the whole party is down, two stable. There's one enemy left, at least partly damaged, and one NPC on our side. Unless he can kill the last enemy his next turn, I think this sounds like a TPK.

I'm sitting at 2 HP currently. I got this. ;)

Oh, OK, I did not realize that the damage was already included in your stat bar. Then yes, we as a party still have a decent chance.

Speaking of, I think it's Kandar's turn now. And Soliana can roll a stabilization check.

Edit: Aaand I totally overlook Kandar's post. Derp.

Don't mind me, currently updating.

This sure doesn't look good. Very real chance of TPK here.

So. What school of thought are you guys? We can bail you out. Do the rest of the fight cutscene style, with you finding hidden reserves of strength, and decide that Kandar ends up the last man standing, and you all limp back to Heldren to lick your wounds, see if that priest has some healing stored away for a rainy day, and try again tomorrow.

Or...

We can let Kandar and mister Z duke it out, and let the dice fall where they may.

I don't mind a little fudging, but I would prefer if it's not obvious. For example, I saw what you did with having the enemy turn away from Kandar. That was OK. I'm also OK with things like enemies 'forgetting' to use a skill or power, or a slight fudging of the dice. For example, if an attack fails to hit by 1 or 2 so it's not obvious, saying that it actually hit. I think the bailing out would probably feel cheap and ruin the fun for me, but I'm not sure. This is my first near-TPK on either side of the GM screen, so I'm just guessing here.

In conclusion, since the above meanders a bit, I'd rather they duke it out, perhaps with a little fudging if it's not obvious.

Edit: This is with the assumption that the same players would roll up new characters and keep going with the adventure.

Yes, what happens if we do in fact TPK?

I've never been a part of one, but the dice are a part of the game for a reason. What's the point if there isn't a bit of randomness to it? What's the point if we can't actually die?

If we do actually TPK, I'd be happy to run a new game of Reign of Winter for you. You'd create new characters, and we would start off just before you reached the massacre site. It will be an alternate continuity kind of deal, where this adventuring party never happened. Incidentally, you'd be out there on behest of the city council, setting out to find Lady Thea Argenta, removing whatever is causing the wintry weather being your secondary objective.

If that doesn't appeal to some of you, but others want to continue, we'd try to find replacements for those of you who drop.

Even if we TPK I'd be happy to try sticking with this and coming up with a new character. I did/do like Soli though...might just shelve the general character concept and try again in another game someday, hehe.

One of my friends that has been peeking in on this suggested picking up a 5th player might also make things a little easier the second time around but I also understand if the GM would prefer to stick to 4 players to make things easier for him to manage.

Even if we survive this though, I'm not sure where or how we're going to be buying much healing since I think we're all broke as a joke at the moment...

You're standing on a modest pile of loot, if you aren't too particular. Although admittedly, some of it is on fire.

Soliana, while you're at it, I did short-change you a stabilization roll for last round, so feel free to roll that too.

As it seems we're sticking with this, Kandar's turn is coming up.

Okay, edited my previous post to add the additional stabilization roll. I think she's got 2-3 more rounds before she'll be Con-dead.

Sure.

Well then. That was a bust.

Are all of you up to trying once more? I shall be rebalancing a little bit, I think. And maybe hope I stop rolling 13+ all the time.

While I normally wouldn't mind starting again, I really like Ahti and this is the first time I've gotten to play her. So... I'm iffy either way.

As I said before, I'm happy to restart with new characters if everyone else is amiable to doing so. Gotta say this is also the first TPK I've ever experienced either, heh.

That's that, I guess. Wow, that was crazy. I agree that we should add another to round us out a bit, if the GM approves, of course.

I put a lot of work into Kandar, so I'm not sure what I'd re-roll as. I guess we should initiate that dialogue. Ranger/Slayer/Rogue come to mind...

It's first level. That stuff happens when the dice roll that way.

I think it's pretty safe to say we need a healer of some sort. How did you feel about adding a fifth?

I want to stay with the fire theme, but I could have a lot of fun making a cleric with the fire domain. If it doesn't seem too goofy/cheap to anyone, maybe even another rejected snowcaster elf, perhaps cast out for worshiping Sarenrae?

Lately when I've made new characters I've been trying to either go with classes I've never played (like the paladin) or take a different tack with a more familiar class (I have a healer Life oracle in a F2F game and a more support/controller Heavens oracle in a game on the forums.)

I was thinking maybe a Nature or Lunar oracle for a decent mix of heals/melee capability plus the potential to have an AC to help out or a druid for similar reasons, but if Thanata would like to go for a cleric then hum...maybe an alchemist could be fun and useful? I've not tried one, same for bards, skalds, and bloodragers. Of the Occult classes, a kineticist or maaaaybe a spiritualist could be fun and still fit within the general campaign themes. No idea on character race but it probably won't be anything particularly outlandish.

Really though, I'm willing to be flexibile and fill in the gaps if everyone else wants to decide on what they'd like to bring first.

I have a Spirit Summoner with the Life Spirit> Combine Samsaran(getting cure spells from the Witch list) and I have healing comparable to a cleric for a while. And a two headed hydra-esque eidolon.

I'd be fine with picking up a fifth player, if everyone wants to. You'd lacking a level behind most of the time, and have a commensurate lower amount of gold availible, but the action economy should probably make up for that.

I don't mind you running another snowcaster elf, Redelia.

Preferably, I'd wait to start recruitment for a fifth guy until I knew what everyone is playing. It sounds like most of you are still in the initial concept phase and wanting to coordinate.

Personally, I like the 'standard' party with someone on the front line, someone who has access to divine magic, and someone with arcane magic, but that's just me, and I've seen less standard parties run as well, if not better, at least at low levels.

There's one place where the rules are slightly grey that has a major impact on the character concept I'm considering. Does a cleric with wizard spells available as domain spells get the ability to use wands of that spell? If I take the fire domain, I would want to eventually use a wand of fireball, for instance. The consensus on the boards seems to be yes, because the spell is added to that character's spell list, but I just wanted to make sure, because I can see the argument for the other side.

Would you allow the Half-Giant race from DSP? I've got a vexing daredevil mesmerist build in my back pocket I've wanted to play for a while. He uses a very, very big sword.

There's one place where the rules are slightly grey that has a major impact on the character concept I'm considering. Does a cleric with wizard spells available as domain spells get the ability to use wands of that spell? If I take the fire domain, I would want to eventually use a wand of fireball, for instance. The consensus on the boards seems to be yes, because the spell is added to that character's spell list, but I just wanted to make sure, because I can see the argument for the other side.

Yes, I'd say it works that way. Keep in mind that the reflex dc on a fireball from a wand is only 14, though. You might want to see about crafting or purchasing a custom staff instead. For comparison, a staff containing only fireball would be 800gp*8*3=19200gp, while a wand would be 750gp*3*5=11250gp.

As for half-giants, eh, all right, sure. Not too keen on psionics in general though.

Alright, I was planning on dropping the DSP half-giant psionics stuff anyway since I've already got the psychic abilities from mesmerist.

So it'll either be a half-giant vexing daredevil mesmerist or an unchained rogue (thinking elf or halfling for that).

Sounds good. What is the mesmerist's general role? I must admit I'm not too well-versed in psychics.

Frontliner with some face-ability.

Another question for approval: The pre-errata version of the amateur swashbuckler feat? They took out opportune parry and riposte which was the only reason to take it in the first place. Improves the survivability of the build a bit (which sounds like a very good thing, considering the circumstances).

Hmm. Sure.

Alrighty then. I'll leave those two options on the table for myself until the others weigh in with what they're building. I will say that the hypnotic stare mesmerist ability makes casters who target will saves very formidable, indeed. Just food for thought. ;)

As it stands a melee mesmerist, fire cleric, and spirit summoner sounds very interesting.

^It does indeed; seems like it would cover frontline, divine, and arcane fairly well plus the eidolon can do pretty well as another frontliner, damager, scout, or whatever else eidolons can do that I'm forgetting :)

With that sort of a setup it seems like an alchemist or a bard/skald might work fairly well but I'll have to give it some more thought.

I think it's kindof ironic that the one time I use 'death' as part of the name of my character, the whole party dies in the first combat.

I actually have another suggestion, instead of recruiting a fifth player. In an AP I am GMing, I gave each player one valuable item (my choice, not theirs) to help them survive level 1. I think I gave out a wand of cure light wounds to every character who could use them, a wand of magic missile to the arcane caster, and a custom ioun stone that helped with one skill for each skill monkey. The items make a huge difference at level 1, although they don't seem overpowered, but in later levels they will mean less and less, and most will even get used up. Perhaps there is something along these lines TwelvePointFivePercent would be comfortable doing? Two wands of cure light wounds in the hands of Soliana and Kandar might have been enough to get us through that encounter. However, they're beyond what first level characters can purchase, unless they pool their resources.

Hmm. No. But I am not opposed to buying a partially charged wand or something like that with starting money.

One of the players in my first RoW game took rich parents and bought a full wand of cure light wounds

May we roll stats now? I'm considering eclesitheurge, but that requires 2 very high stats to be workable (wis and dex). If the stats I roll aren't right for that, I would have to stick with a normal fire cleric.

Yeah, stat rolls are a good idea. Remember the fallback 20 point buy - you can have dual 16s, at least.

We'll start you off with maximum gold for your class this time.

4d6 ⇒ (3, 5, 6, 2) = 16->14
4d6 ⇒ (2, 6, 4, 1) = 13->12
4d6 ⇒ (1, 6, 2, 6) = 15->14
4d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 3, 5) = 12->11
4d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 2, 5) = 11->10
4d6 ⇒ (4, 2, 2, 3) = 11->9

Well below a 20 point buy. I think I'll adjust a few numbers to get to a 20 point buy, but try to mostly stick with what I rolled.

4d6 ⇒ (4, 5, 1, 3) = 13 12
4d6 ⇒ (4, 4, 6, 4) = 18 14
4d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 5, 1) = 11 10
4d6 ⇒ (6, 3, 6, 2) = 17 15
4d6 ⇒ (1, 1, 5, 1) = 8 07
4d6 ⇒ (6, 1, 1, 2) = 10 09

Ouch. Yeah, going with the point buy.

Do you consider an aasimar overpowered?

Nah. It's fine.

4d6 ⇒ (3, 3, 1, 5) = 12 11
4d6 ⇒ (5, 6, 5, 6) = 22 17
4d6 ⇒ (2, 5, 3, 4) = 14 12
4d6 ⇒ (2, 6, 4, 2) = 14 12
4d6 ⇒ (5, 3, 2, 1) = 11 10
4d6 ⇒ (6, 5, 1, 2) = 14 13

4d6 ⇒ (2, 4, 4, 6) = 16 14
4d6 ⇒ (2, 5, 1, 2) = 10 9
4d6 ⇒ (6, 2, 4, 2) = 14 12
4d6 ⇒ (6, 5, 3, 4) = 18 15
4d6 ⇒ (2, 2, 3, 4) = 11 9
4d6 ⇒ (3, 6, 1, 6) = 16 15

I think that's a 19 pt buy so I guess I'll be going with the 20 pt buy option this time around. Still kicking around character ideas, but analysis paralysis seems to be a very real thing. Think I've got it narrowed down to bard, bloodrager, or alchemist though...

Also not sure on race either but given that people have proposed half-giants, samsarans and aasimars this time around I'm tempted to go for something a bit more...unusual, myself. From what little I've heard about it it seems like RoW is one of the few APs where a party of oddballs isn't likely to cause as many problems as they would in most of the others. Maybe a gnome, one of the geniekin (with Sylph or Ifrit being the most likely), a Catfolk or even a Kitsune assuming they're allowed. Similar to trying new classes, I like to try new races too...