I gave her 1350 gp to start with.(MoFF gave 200 gp, current path gave 1000 gp therabouts, no? Then +150 gp for character starting gold). How she wants to use it is up to her. To be honest, under all that cold weather clothing, how would Izoze know you're wearing a haramaki? Heavier armors are more obvious.
You can get a scroll of mage armor at Mother Theodora if you want.
Any ideas for what the personality of either of the options would be?
If I was going Alchemist, I was looking at two different personalities which would be fun to roleplay (especially as you gradually enter into Master Chymist), one when she is out of her mutigenic form, someone more shy, less confident, might shifts into someone with higher confidence etc in a mutagenic form.
Bombs are nice because they affect swarms (which is a constant issue in PFS, but maybe not in this AP) and they default to fire damage. Fire damage appears to be a big deal in this AP. On the other hand, it is easy to run out of bombs during an adventuring day.
I thought long and hard about that but when someone mentioned like a -4 to ranged attacks - its really put me off doing anything with ranged, at least early on. I doubt its going to be like that 24/7, but I don't really want to be a burden if I'm relying on ranged attacks.
I also missed that the Vivisectionist has evil flavor and I don't really want someone really associated with an evil alignment.
EDIT
Oh wait I need Cold Iron as well? Ugh.
The -4 doesn't matter, what matters is we have already fought multiple flying creatures and have no reason to believe that is the end of them. Just treat them as having AC 21 instead of 17 if that helps.
It would be great if you could come in with some plan to deal with it. Archery or spells seem like the obvious answers. Summoned flyers have problems with the DR after their first smite.
Melee against flyers does not work well.
Feel free to read the ROW players guide, ginganinja. I keep assumimg that thats the first thing people will do when playing an AP, but assume spells makes an @ss out of you and me.
This is pretty sick for archers. Improved precise shot. For a trait><
This for dealing with wind conditions.
Note that with snow there will be visibility and wind issues, but again, since I only have read the first book, I am not sure how prevalent that stuff will be.
not that Mort didn't give us a big old hint when she posted these!
The snow reduces visibility by half, imposing a –4 penalty on Perception checks and ranged attacks (Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook 438).
Actually more on visibility. Mehhhh. But ya generally I give delicious, delicious hints. Just need to pay attention.
I'm concerned though that at L1 a melee has a better shot against a flying opponent vs an AC of 17, than a ranged character has vs the same opponent against an AC of 21, short of going like, pyrokineticist.
It would be great if you could come in with some plan to deal with it. Archery or spells seem like the obvious answers. Summoned flyers have problems with the DR after their first smite.
Best way to handle this (I suspect), is Feyspeaker Druid with the Arctic Domain, abusing Call Cold which would be fun to play but I'm concerned caster overloading would be risky.
Actually....if you really want to see through it - Winter Oracle.
Snow Sight (Su): You can see through falling snow and sleet without taking any penalties on Perception checks as long as there is enough light to allow you to see normally. At 11th level, in cold conditions or in icy or snowy terrain, you can learn about your surroundings as if using the commune with nature spell. You can use the commune with nature ability once per day at 11th level, and twice per day at 15th level.
But winter oracle spell selection is meh, and unlike clerics(just go worship Erastil/ketaphys), oracles don't get to start with bow proficiency.
Hmm yeah, or you just go Flame Oracle / Theologian Cleric, ignore worrying about range penalties, and drop a burning hands spell via fire domain. These critters might sound hard for a martial, but a heck of a lot easier for a mage.
Burning hands has a range of 15'. That wasn't enough in the battle vs. Izoze -- even when I pumped two of them to second level.
Einar isn't built as an archer but was able to hit. Get someone built for it and you will do better, especially with the trait that helps against winds. We now know that we need magic to hit, so we will not be wasting time at the beginning trying to figure out what is needed.
In the end, it is up to you what to play. Find something you will enjoy playing that will help the group.
Ehh, Einar hit on a 19 (iirc). Sure, not built for it, but even someone fully built around archery is still requiring probably about a 14/15 or so just to hit. Also, I don't know of Storm Hunter works here since its more snow causing problems :(
I got it though, I'll play a Verminous Hunter with a Giant Mantis companion. Not only have I wanted to play that archetype in forever, but it should still harass Izoze with its flight speed! Hopefully its something that helps against this thing we are having trouble with, while being fun to play.
Magic Fang will be your friend.
Small race if you want to fly on your mantis right on onset. Problem: can any of you link me sources to show that Mantises can exist happily in cold climates? If not, it won't have bonus of automatically counting as wearing a cold weather outfit.
But don't just build to counter Izoze, since you have a whole AP ahead of you. I'm pretty sure with some prepwork in town you can make pretty short work of her...
At least in the case of the praying mantis, the answer is no.
Don't leave a praying mantis outside overnight; it may freeze to death if you live in a cold climate.
As for tactics, I am not focused only on Izoze. We have had other flying opponents and none of us has a heavy ranged attack.
I'll go Human actually, I'd like Eye for Talent so I can boost its intelligence and actually take feats for it. I'll ride it eventually, but I'm happy waiting until Level 7, and I don't want to make it a main feature in case there are lots of urban / indoor / cave areas in future books.
As for tactics,
Thanks, but really I need no introduction!
Instead, I'm going to cross-post this:
PART TEN~! YAY-YAH~!Oh! And reminding FaWtL to sign up for taig's Twelve Days of Third Partymas Year Two! Make it less likely (statistically) that I'll win anything and more likely (statistically) that you will*!
*
You guys (except for you, Hmm!) aren't FaWtL, but it doesn't matter~! Get hype! Sign up for free stuff! Decrease my chances of wining! It's the right thing to do~!
And Merry Christmas, early!
Plus...
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(Careful; he uses harsher language than I generally prefer. But his videos are great!)
|
ting turns into the attack so the bite tears part of his shoulder and the claws rake his back. Glaring at the cat for a moment he Lifts the bastard sword off his shoulder he swings it at the obnoxious kitty, "Oy, at was uncalled fer, does ya kin? Maybe you's has hoid o' bein' spayed, Wroight?" slashing toward the kittens tail.
Probably the early grab @ Hmm.
Also cockroach animal focus is probably a little better for my companion to protect it from the cold.
Stat wise the Rock is probably better tho
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Rocs I can give cold weather gear, since there's a pathfinder module having rocs being ridden by frost giants at high altitudes. Its bloody cold out there, so Rocs should have some kind of cold protection.
Don't mind me, I'm probably like no GM you've ever seen.
The more important issue is to make sure you get something that will work out for the long haul, ginganinja, as opposed to selecting race + class just to deal with an Izoze shaped threat, which is just a temporary one.
I have absolute faith that the party will find a way to get her!
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The more important issue...
The more important issue is to play someone and something you will enjoy! That and someone that can bake cookies, or bring cookies, or barter for cookies...
C is for cookie and that's good enough for me, C is for cookie...
Everybody sing!
C is for cookie...
You are welcome to go for human, but we *are* trying to keep an 'all darkvision' party - I suggest taking the 'Draconic Heritage' alternate racial feature (which gives you Low Light Vision, and 10' Darkvision, instead of the +1 skill rank per level).
This one better! Oooh Shiny!
Dimdweller (2 RP): Whenever characters with this trait benefit from concealment or full concealment due to darkness or dim light, they gain a +2 racial bonus on Intimidate, Perception, and Stealth checks. Humans can take this trait in place of the skilled trait, also gaining darkvision to a range of 60 feet.
C is for cookie and that's good enough for me...but Cook People hex really adds new meaning to it.
Hmm ok, I'll do a last quick run through then and avoid worrying too much about Izoze.
Recapping that (aside from playing something enjoyable) we want
1) Darkvision
2) A way to beat flying enemies
3) Also Mr. Whiskers outlined the need for a heavy ranged attack.
I'll have something up and backstory written in 24 hours, since this has dragged on my part for far too long imo.
take your time, were not going anywhere.
This is what I have.
Just trying to write up a backstory at the moment that links with where we are.
Cadence said she knows lots of people so you don't have to start from Heldren you can just pop from anywhere you want to be :o There will be a caravan bringing you in.
I wonder if being from Irrisen (and maybe having a bit of an exe to grind against the Winter Witches) might be useful here.
There is lore of Winter Witches often having a hand in snowcaster half-elves - its probably not unrealistic for Ziva to resent an absent "mother" - or provide a possible hook later on. IDK if this is outside of the realms of the AP though since I don't know much about it besides whats in the Players Guide.
I only read the first book and the second. Let me think. Yes...something could be done....:)
well, at least Einar can pass off the MW thieves tools ;)
Also just as a heads up, Long term, Ziva will probably be attempting to (ideally) open up with a sniping shot first in combat, before casting like a Darkness / Deeper Darkness spell to continually get Sneak Attack. Obviously, I'll have to be careful about using the latter spell, but that's a fair rundown of her tactical thinking. I thought that since we all have Darkvision we might as well abuse Darkness superiority when possible.
EDIT
GM how quickly has the cold weather started?
Is it realistic for Ziva to have heard of it yet and thats why she is in Heldren?
Please caveats on playing around with vision blocking effects. Its not allowed. It makes combats very hard to adjudicate on the GM point, so I did not allow it. If there are existing effects in play, feel free to abuse, but you may not create vision blocking effects except for evasion of combat.
Hmmm well that...kinda wrecks her ability to get Sneak Attack off. I knew Mask + Mist was out, but I assumed Darkvision + Darkness would be ok. Ummm, yeah I don't know how to get around this and still make her work. Darn. Maybe I'm better off with going something bland like a Zen Archer or something.
Start with whatever gear you want to. Party has a nearly full wand of CLW, no worries on that one.
Cadence would have told you its snowing here, so feel free to get whatever you want.
Unfortunately, I'm having a tough time now finding something enjoyable to play, that can handle the environmental conditions within this AP (handling the cold, ranged + movement penalties, multiple flying enemies) and still meet what we might need within the party (be ranged, darkvision, martial). It's very much my problem, and I'm a little upset with myself actually, since this has never been a problem before, but I may have to withdraw unless I can get inspiration to strike shortly.
I'm aware that going ranged is a very feat intensive path, and all I really want is to not be an inconvenience in combat. You really want Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot as early as possible - which really only leaves Human as a viable race option - which doesn't have darkvision unless you trade out skilled for it. Without Precise Shot, you end up waiting till 3 for it, which means if there's a tough melee encounter I'd be taking -8 on my ranged attack roll. Of course, you can switch hit and take a melee weapon, but unless you are a rogue - you don't have the feats for Weapon Finesse + PBS + Precise Shot and are heavily dex focused to offset the penalties you have to deal with by going ranged in this environment. Archer Fighter solves the issue pretty easily I think, but I don't really enjoy playing a class that is one directional or plain, it's why I favour a bit more utility but unfortunately, probably means 3/4 BAB as well as no bonus combat feats.
See, the only rule is supposed to be "Play something you will enjoy"
Now I know Mort has said don't cast darkness to defeat stuff in combat, and we have to listen to her; everything else is gravy.
Don't worry about the cold or ranged and movement penalties; we all have to deal with that. Or the multiple fliers; that only happened with fairies and Mister Whiskers cast a sleep spell on.
Were not great on ranged, but if we all pick up a bow we'd be better.
Martial or Martial-ish and Darkvision would help but aren't essential. You,ll just look funny hiding behind Mr. Whiskers and then needing to hold his hand when we walk around in the dark.
If Cadence was staying the only thing she would have covered off of that list was the "Darkvision" and the "Martial-ish."
Seriously play something you will enjoy! We'll sort it out.
Hmm, ok I feel a little better about that now.
I had to laugh visualising my character holding onto Mr. Whiskers hand though.
"I'm.....I'm just so scared for the dark...sniff"
I'll stick with my Hunter with the Giant Mantis then that I posted earlier - its something that I still always wanted an opportunity to play.
Wow! Woke up and you had gone through two characters already!
First level characters suck. You shouldn't worry that your first level character doesn't come in with every ability. In other words, you don't need to have Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Weapon Finesse all at first level. Either the hunter or rogue should work fine, although the hunter is nice since it can get the Precise Shot at level 2 ignoring prerequisites whereas the rogue would have to wait until level 3.
With equipment, you should always be buying Cold Iron arrows instead of normal arrows. The 1 gp price difference doesn't matter. In addition, almost all of my characters carry a cold iron dagger and a silver light mace. That way you have at least one weapon to get through the normal special material DRs.
The silver light mace is especially good since:
- Simple weapon, pretty much everyone except wizards and druids are proficient in them
- Blunt weapon, no penalty to damage for making it with Alchemical Silver
- Finesse-able weapon
I had completely forgotten about the snow-caster elves and other snow racial variants! They look really nice.
I can't do anything about the visibility. I am sorry, but as GM I have to run mod as written.
If you really want to ignore it, you can run as a human winter oracle, heirloom weapon longbow, get point blank and precise shot.
Or any animal companion class with a flying animal companion, or possibly run a mauler familiar(not useful till 3).
Hitting touch AC may not be too an bad idea(bombs, guns) etc.
Oh and about the multiple faeries...? Falling down from 60 ft above the ground because of a sleep spell never ends well...yeah they made very nice impact craters in the snow.
Oh, I understand about the visibility thing, and no apologies are necessary. I don't really consider Winter Oracle an option though, it was less about getting around snow and more a way to use darkvision + darkness spell as a way for a ranged rogue to leverage Sneak Attack where it would otherwise be unable to (since it's hard to make enemies lose their DEX bonus to AC via ranged attacks) - otherwise it really does next to no damage and you might as well play anything else. It was more a way to make a ranged rogue viable than to play around with the environment.
I'll probably just play a Melee Hunter with a Giant Mantis I think, provided I can find a way to keep it alive in cold terrain.
we have a bear hide rug that we turned into a coat, your Mantis can wear it ;)