Rise of the Runelords

Game Master Kevin O'Rourke 440

I'd rather he didn't yet... but once you're finished Thistletop and level feel free to take it! Languages are an easy thing to forget.

Okay. I went with Common, Cyclopian, Draconic, Elven, Gnomish, Infernal, and Sylvan.

Thassalonian was already on my sheet... do you want me to switch it out as well?

Well Azalia was in the Catacombs, she could have picked it up since.

Ok...choke point battle. So, I got up and put my foot in the door. Ferocia can get behind me, and next turn I five foot step further in so she can do the same and full attack.

Do we have a bless left, or any other buffs?

Marten pushes himself forward down the hallway so that he is standing behind Azalia in the hallway. Quickly taking in the situation, he casts grease on Nualia's sword, hoping that it will slip from her grasp.

Reflex to negate, DC 15

And this is why it’s so great to have a Wizard around! If she drops it, would it provoke if someone else picked it up? I’d go out on a limb here to say that she doesn’t have Improved unarmed strike.

Between Anneka buffing and Marten rebuffing, I think we can pull this off. :)

Which is good...because an 18 missed flat footed. So numbers time...

+11 to hit? +5 (BaB, as she only had 1 attack) +4 (Str?) +1 (Weapon Focus) +1 (+1 bastard sword?)

Assuming she isn’t power attacking, as modules tend not to fully optimize enemies, but that she has Weapon Specialization:

1d10+9 damage.

——

Now, an 18 also missed flat footed. So AC16 from Breastplate. 17 if it is +1. Which means she needs +2 from somewhere. I’m guessing +1 Deflection and +1 natural armor, for a 19?

Throw in dex, and I assume she has about AC21-22.

This means she can probably hit hard and is going to be really tanky.

So for the moment I’m going to use the Silver Earthbreaker to kill the hound, and then flank her. Figure with +11 Hit flanking, I can probably hit on a 10+

Drazh... if a dwarf were to spend his move action to stand on the dropped weapons blade it would be even more awkward. It would definitely provoke an AOO for her to grab it but she'd need a CMB check to get it...

I think that I have a plan then, so long as she does indeed drop it. :)

Unless of course Ferocia wants to try and pick it up herself.

If she does drop it, I advise against trying to pick it up since it will be greased and require a reflex save to do so. Maybe just kick it out of her reach?

Good idea! What would the skill check and DC be to kick it down the hallway, away from her and towards the rest of our party?

"Beware its howl!" she cries, drawing her wand and then covering her ears with her hands.

Isn't Anneka deaf?

lol woops

Clearly she's not taking any chances.

Mumble grumble stupid nat 20 trip. CMD24 vs trip isn’t bad, right? :p

Anyways, at least Nualia is now unarmed and has a less than stellar reflex save. :D

She's got a claw attack but it's far less deadly.

Any objections to Miron taking the breastplate?

Drazh has his agile breastplate and is looking to make his fullplate asap.
Ferocia can’t wear metal.
Marten is a Wizard.
Azalia is a rogue

So the only other person who could wear it is Anneka, who has cloak of darkness. Though the breastplate would be better AC... I personally think her class feature is much cooler. :)

I'll stick with my creepy shadow, Miron. Take the armor :).

Cool, will mark. :)

Is Nualia dead or just unconscious?

Unconscious and bleeding out.

Seriously, I'm not trying to portray Marten as not confident. Quite the opposite, actually, although I recognize that there hasn't been much opportunity to roleplay Marten's character. The only thing I can think of is the first impression Marten made when he didn't want to intrude on the party awkwardly saying goodbye to the departing party member, who nobody seemed to like. Marten really didn't want to get in the middle of that.

Anyway, it seems that I'll just have to ramp up Marten's arrogance. For Miron's benefit, of course. ***spreads hands helplessly***

Also, that molten orb couldn't have played out more perfectly! A 20 to hit and max damage!

Indeed! That Molten Orb was perfect. Though I think grease was the real game changer. +11 to hit with a +1 bastard sword? Well she spent the entire Combat trying to pick up said blade. We got off really light because of that spell.

I agree about the grease spell. In fact, I normally try to play my spellcasters strategically, focusing on (de)buffing and battlefield control. Kevin can attest to that with my arcanist in the other campaign we're in. I wanted to do something a bit different with Marten, though, so he'll be a combination of strategy and firepower, which is why I went evoker.

So... sorry in advance!

Btw, on the topic of debuffing. I’m in an all Fighter campaign. The average will save at lvl3 in the party is +1. The average reflex save is +3.

We are getting our arses handed to us by a single casting of grease, combined with fearing us. DC13? Yeah...we’re struggling bad.

Miron has a unique take on people, and doesn't always read them well. ;)

If anyone intends making use of the heal skill, those tools would be handy. Otherwise sell them.

I’m an idiot! The beast has magic DR. We have a +1 bastard sword. I should have used that.

Next round, I’ll need to use it. Not sure who has it though? Can we assume that Str18 Drazh was carrying the loot? If not, what actions are needed to equip it?

Unless Ferocia wants to use it. Not sure on your proficiencies, but I don’t think your claws will punch through.

I think our elven rogue has a +1 longsword...any other magic weapons we have?

My claws currently ignore DR/cold iron, DR/magic, and DR/silver. I'll harm him just fine.

Awesome. We’re set then. Luckily I rolled well enough to overcome DR/stupid, so in future rounds we can burn the beast down.

I think it makes sense that Drazh would be carrying that bastard sword. Miron has little interest in such large weapons, unless they offer reach. He's much more dextrous than strong.

Speaking of daft, I forgot that I had refreshed my 1st level spell slots and judgement. So ye can expect a bit more oomph from Miron for a while.

Lets assume Drazh us using the bastard sword. I moved him and Ferocia up to a point where with a five foot step this round they'll be flanking the sparkly one.

We’re cutting this close. The suspense!

We did it!

Over 70HP. 3 attacks, all with good Hit and damage. Invisibility. That was quite a tough fight. Did not expect that at lvl3!

Drazh finds two hidden alcoves on the wall to the south. The eastern one contains only dust. The western one still holds some valuables.

Two racks contains 30 eternal candles (60 candles in all), minor magic candles that burn eternally without heat, similar to a continual f lame spell but shedding only shadowy light in a five foot radius. Each eternal candle is worth 25gp.

A single silver coffer sits on its side on one of the shelves in the western alcove. The coffer itself is worth 100 gp, but the real treasure sits inside, buried in a bed of fine white sand—a ring of force shield. When activated, the shield like pane of force generated manifests as a sevenpointed star—the Sihedron rune.

Looked it up, Ring of force shield

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/rings/ring-of-force-shield/

So rules question. Can it be used with a two handed weapon? If so it’s an amazing item that I’d love to use. My build doesn’t get shield AC, so it would be a great boon.

If not...I think it is something to sell. A Mithral Buckler +1 is 2005 gold, gives +2 shield AC, and has no ACP or arcane failure penalties. Also doesn’t take up a ring slot. In almost every way better.

Oh dang, you're right. Aside from a few specific spell attacks, it's no contest.

So guys, I never play rogues, so can you explain why I would get sneak attack on the barghest when he wasn't flat-footed? Or how I could have flanking when a wall was diagonally across from me, straight-line through the barghest? I don't get it, sorry.

@Drazh sorry man it's 'wielded' like a heavy shield. An animated shield perhaps?

@Azalia I might have gotten confused, I think someone said you were flanking and didn't even go looking at the map.

@All: Well done us! I'm a bit irked that I didn't have Miron tossing out 1st level spells from round one but one to bear in mind.

@Drazh: Since you can't use with with 2hw, I have no objection to it being sold for gold.

@Azalia: there are ways to get sneak attack without flanking. Feint for example if you're pumping bluff.

A heads up. Between Friday 1st June and Sunday 3rd June, I won't be available at all. My availability on the Thursday and Monday is also likely to be very limited.

So realistically, I'm not likely to post much from Thursday May 31st until Tuesday June 5th.

Fair enough ruling. I’m sure like the dagger it will net us a fair chunk of gold.

Okay, I just thought of something with the ring. A wizard could make use of the ring just fine. They could also cast spells with a +1 mithril buckler because there's no chance of arcane spell failure. However, they could not attack while wearing the buckler--including ranged touch attacks required by some spells--without suffering from the -4 to attack penalty from not being proficient in shields. Correct?

Negative. You only get the proficiency penalty for attacking with the weapon. So, for example.

(1) You aren’t proficient with a longsword. You attack with the longsword at -4

Now, with armor, you take the ACP as a penalty when holding/wielding it.

(2) Drazh currently has medium armor proficiency. If he were to wear normal fullplate without proficiency, he’d take a -6 penalty to attack
(3) This is the same for shields. That said, a mithral Buckler has -0 ACP. So long as it isn’t being used as a weapon, you take no penalty for using it.

——

An abusable/fun build:

(A) Unchained Rogue with Light Armor Proficiency only
(B) Armor expert trait to reduce ACP by 1
(C) Mithral Breastplate and Masterwork Heavy Shield.
(D) A Breastplate usually has -4 ACP. Mithral reduces it by 3 and armor expert by 1.
(E) Without medium armor or shield proficiency, your Dex20 Rogue now has AC23. No penalties at all because -0 ACP.

Oh, and just throwing it out there. For mages who want to be armored.

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/arcane-armor-training-combat/

Mithral Kikko Armor (+5 AC, -0 ACP, 10% arcane failure rate)

Swift Action with the above feat makes it 0% arcane failure rate.

Then strap on a Mithral Heavy Shield (+2 AC, -0 ACP, 5% arcane failure rate)

Likewise reduced to 0% arcane failure rate. So you’ve now got a battlemage, who no longer worries about casting mage armor or shield on himself.

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/arcane-armor-training-com bat/

A waste of a feat! An intelligent mage would make better use of his resources by surrounding himself with armored people to take the hits in his stead!

***Manages to sip tea with nose well in the air. Pinky out, of course.***

Also, I agree about the mihtril shield and spell casting. I wasn't thinking it through.

But does this intelligent mage manage to look so posh? Full suit of Mithral armor just screams style

Sometime Friday Evening I'll be disappearing til some point Monday. I might see if I can get on but it's doubtful.

Sounds ominous! Thanks for the heads up.

----

So, according to the loot sheet our individual split of the loot is 1038 gold.

This takes into account us holding onto the Sihedron Amulet, Miron getting the breastplate, Azalia holding onto the bow, Marten getting his spells, and us selling the rest.

------------------

Ok, so far I have saved up 3016 gold. Which isn't bad! With my traits factored in, my WBL at this point is about 2650 gold, just under what a lvl3 character should be at. So not bad, all things considered.

According to our GM's ruling "I'll let you build it [mithral fullplate] for half cost rather than a third at the same rate you'd make a magic item. IE 500gp and a day means 1,000gp of progress for the day."

At lvl 4, with my familiar, that means 10.5 days of crafting and 5,200 gold. At the moment I am about 2000 gold short. That amount will be lessened after we clear Thistletop.

If I am right that we will have an in-game break in adventuring long enough to actually craft the armor, would anyone mind spotting me the difference in gold? I'd happily pay it back out of my future shares. I'd just hate to miss an opportunity to actually make said suit of armor...as in these APs adventurers rarely get over a full week of down time.