Savage Kirthfinder

Game Master Kirth Gersen

I hope I did, too!

(It was great, thanks! You?)

Pretty great! It snowed in Portland yesterday and actually stuck, which only happens every two to four years here. It's equal parts magical and terrifying, the latter because no one here knows how to drive on snow and ice, and the city doesn't own any snow plows nor salt the roads.

Happy new year to all!

Christmas eve/day was like 80 degrees here in Houston -- after spending the last 3 winter holidays in Pittsburgh, I'm totally fine with that! If I never see snow again, that will be soon enough for me.

Yeah, happy holidays everyone!

Happy new year to all!

Christmas eve/day was like 80 degrees here in Houston -- after spending the last 3 winter holidays in Pittsburgh, I'm totally fine with that! If I never see snow again, that will be soon enough for me.

It was like 60 on Christmas this year. My sister had family over and we just hung out on her deck. It was super weird.

We were in Galveston (the beach). My son was running back and forth into the water with no shoes or shirt.

Gwlybwr: For the "superior" grade of your sutra, resistance/immunity to nonlethal damage seems appropriate...

In a typical campaign, an NPC would be hiring us to track down the monstrous fishman attacking people by the docks at night.

Ha, awesome.

Hey, they attacked me first!

Yeah, yeah. Tell it to the pitchfork Frankenstein. ;-D

Hey guys, I'm having some real life problems right now. Most posting is going to be spotty/ nonexistent for a bit. I'm sorry for any delays that I cause.

Hey guys, I'm having some real life problems right now. Most posting is going to be spotty/ nonexistent for a bit. I'm sorry for any delays that I cause.

Understood. And, again, deepest sympathies. Let me know if there's anything Suz and I can do to help.

You have my well wishes as well. Hope things work out OK.

Good luck, Jam.

Thanks all. Very much appreciated. Trying to catch up on my pbps now.

Ready and waiting!

Looks like an emerald spire using kirthfinder interest thread went up yesterday!!!

Awesome! Thanks for the heads-up; I look forward to reading about it.

Hey all, I've sent a PM to Kirth saying this already, but I'm going to drop this game. It's been fun, but I think it's my time to go. Enjoy your adventuring!

Bye, mechaPoet. Sorry to see you go, but no hard feelings.

Bummer. It's been a lot of fun playing with you mechapoet. Hope to game with you again soon!

I am interpreting that I can just use existing versions of core spells as the ones I have "found" up until now and the moving forward as I acquire feats/time/resources then I would be more likely trying to build more customized versions through the feat manipulation system...does that sound about right?

Exactly. For example:

Pre-Modified Spells: Wizards and archivists might find pre-modified spells that can be scribed into their spellbooks at the appropriate (modified) spell level; this does not require the caster to know the metamagic feat in question. Likewise, a spontaneous caster might gain a spell pre-modified with metamagic directly as a spell known: for example, an incarnate could simply learn maximized searing light as a 6th level spell (with the normal casting time), rather than selecting searing light as a 3rd level spell and also taking the Maximize Spell feat. In this case, neither the unmodified spell nor the metamagic feat (for use on other spells) is available to the caster.

The way it turns out is that most people rely on pre-modified spells (e.g., most of the spells in the core rules and elsewhere), rather than cookbooking their own.

The fact that most spells = one or two base spells + metamagic is a way out from under the low baseline number of "spells known" (2 per level) -- because ones you scribe past that chew up mojo, whereas ones you build yourself using metamagic feats don't.

Excellent. I'm glad to see I am basically grasping the ins and outs because any attempt to move from system understanding to application can sometimes be a bit of head spinner especially since I have only begun to embrace my inner wizard in the last couple of years...

I think I am close to done. I should have something soon.

Awesome! Welcome aboard, Matey!

Welcome, welcome.

Please ignore the rumors that there is something fishy adventuring party. Everything is above water here!

So here is my initial build of Elebrin. I think my stats and stuff are right, let me know if anything is amiss. I attempted to have her start with a magic item, I provided my maths in the spoiler...I think I'm where I need to be?

Offhand, almost everything looks very good.

Got it.

Updated to reflect.

Hi, PirateDevon! Welcome to the game.

Elebrin -- dropping you in the middle of the inn. It's amazing what fortune does for a good adventuring party! That said, think fast -- I've failed to provide you with any obvious reason (partly because I intensely dislike infringing on player agency, and partly because I like to see what people will come up with).

More nitpicky stuff:

More nitpicky stuff:

Bad saves are +1/2 character levels, to help narrow the gap between "auto-save" and "auto-fail" at higher levels. So yours will be Fort +1 (+1 level, +0 Con, +0 class), Ref +3 (+1 level, +0 Dex, +2 class), Intu +4 (+1 level, +1 Wis, +2 class), Will +5 (+1 level, +2 Cha, +2 class).

Evocations are standardized to d6s per caster level, for ease of throwing lots of dice at the table, and for consistency. 0-level ones deal 1d6/level (max. 1d6) to a single target, so your acid splash should be 1d6. However, note that, as direct-damage spells have been moved to Evocation, acid splash allows SR. Likewise, your magic missile requires a ranged touch, but you get 1d6/level (max 5d6) that you can divide among one or more missiles as you see fit.

If your leather coat is the armor listed in Ch 6, it provides you with AC 12 (touch 10, flat-footed 12) even when your mage armor spell isn't active. However, you'd be stuck with an 8% spell failure chance. Alternatively, if it's a soft leather coat that doesn't provide any AC bonus, your AC is correct as listed and you have a 0% ASF chance.

Sorry to hit you with all this. Some of the changes, like the d6s for spell damage or all saves at +1/2 levels, seem jarring for people used to PF, but there's a method to our madness -- trying to standardize things as much as possible to eliminate weird rules inconsistencies, so once you're used to the quirks, things are actually easier to remember.

*Hmm transcription error, I have the saves right on my paper notes, lol. I think I was inputting on the sheet as a level one, then hashed out my level 2 stuff byhand and forgot to update.

*Ah thank you for that, I had *something* I wanted to ask about and forgot. That uniformity is part of the appeal, but I appreciate the guidance for SURE.

*For now its just a regular coat. As she works her ASF down (or her mojo up) it will become something "more".

Oh and thank you for the welcome, I appreciate the opportunity.

Welcome aboard Pirate Devon!

I figure we should buy some potions of healing right? We are pretty weak in that area.

So I assume those are basically temporary mojo expenditures like scrolls? I'm curious what the cost breakdown on those would be.

I think that's what I'll do, actually, since Jym is pretty far below numen par. Jym is 305 out of 900, and level 1 potions are 50 gp/numen, so technically, I could afford 11 potions. That seems a bit exploitative to me, so... nine potions? That almost brings Jym to the minimum numen. Story wise, we can say Jym sweet talked them off of the river goddess priestess while telling her how well Gwl is doing.

Kirth, is that legit?

Yes -- you are entitled to spend your numen as you see fit, assuming some semi-halfway attempt to fit the story. So, Jym can declare the river priestess was so concerned for Gwl she pitched in, or that his good eatin' sweet cakes are even better than he thought, or whatever.

As long as you're carrying around potions or other consumables, the numen is tied up in that form. Once consumed, the numen is freed up and you can spend it on something else later on. Alternatively, given sufficient numen, you can "buy" essentially infinite potions using the command-activated pricing: 1st level cure light wounds x CL 1st x 900 (command-activated) = 900 numen and you've got essentially unlimited potions of CLW in some form or another.

I honestly think that if we get to the point that I have another 900 numen sitting around I would want my infinite clw to be the form of some sort of replicating pouch of delicious snack cakes. I'm telling you these things are AMAZING. I feel so much better just eating them!

Uro, Gwl... any shopping that you want to do, or are we good to go?

Uro's Numen is maxed out from his armor, so, good to go!

Gwl is good to go.

OK.

Also remember that non-masterwork mundane gear costs no numen but still might save your lives. For Gwl, this includes a cloak with a big hood, gloves, etc. For the party, light sources, water, rope, maybe some way of checking for traps, some way of navigating a maze, etc. might be good to have.

Jym's magic pastry pants have the food angle mostly covered, and Uro and Elebrin have extra rations. A waterskin holds 1 day's worth, so someone with create water would be handy, or else some extra waterskins.

Uro has a crowbar and 50 ft. of rope.
Elebrin has a blanket in case you need to sleep, and a whistle to sound an alarm.

The alternative is to plan on returning to town repeatedly, if a quick check of the headquarters takes more than a couple of hours.

Were I not a naive wizard I would pack more but Elebrin is a bit of an adventuring idiot so she will claim she is ready, lol.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Jym walks over to Uro's pack and starts rummaging through it.

"A few years ago, my oma's maternal nephew--a fella named Churck Charchrubb--once shined the boots of an unpleasant human guy who called himself an "adventurer," which if you ask me, and I know you didn't but if you did, is just a description you give yourself when you don't want to tell your dad that you've been let go from your third scribe position in as many years. Anyway, this human adventurer once had a crush on this priestess of fertility who wanted nothing to do with him! So he kept trying harder and harder (stop it, I'm not making a fertility pun) to win her affections, but she was married to her career and not interested in a relationship. It turns out that they met a year later at a family reunion! They thought that they were related at first, but while she was supposed to be at the reunion, he was there because he was chasing a pickpocket who lost him in the crowd. Coincidentally, he hated the family due to some political somethingorother and so lost interest in her. Surprisingly, she took it kind of hard and retired from the holy life when she decided to marry a rich guy.

"Anyway the human reminded me of my fourth cousin who used to be a scribe (if you know what I mean), and he now works for a baker's assistant's underling, so he said I could have these!"

Jym finally finds the sack that Uro had pulled out of his pack and tossed aside and upends it on the table. It contains an assortment of failed-scribe/adventuring gear, most notably a shiny red thermos that Jym is convinced must be magical.

• An Everfilling Thermos 1st level create water x CL .5 x 900 (command-activated) x 1/5 (1/day) = 90 numen
• As for the rest of the gear, I'm invoking the "Floating Inventory" detailed on page 602.

Jym puts the thermos in his own pack and stuffs the extra adventuring gear back in his cousin's sack which goes back in Uro's pack.

Gwl is used to making do with little and getting by with less. At the very least, it won't be the first time he's had to starve for a couple of days.

You all dried out yet Kirth?

Ha! My house is fine, but the area is still at risk -- Addicks Reservoir (next to my neighborhood) is still above capacity and they can't drain it without flooding downtown, but the forecast looks clear for the next few days, so that should help.

They expect Highway 6 (that I normally use to get to work) to be closed for another month or so.

Yeah, I can tell they're draining it because Buffalo Bayou is super full, but none of the bayous that run into it have any water at all. (I live very close to Downtown.)

I didn't know that Highway 6 was that bad.

Wow that sounds like awesome times. Hope things at least vaguely move towards "better"

Well hopefully the weather starts cooperating so things can get back to normal for you all.

Also, Buffalo Bayou sounds like a kids board game from the 80s.