Sleeper in the Tomb of Dreams
Game Master FabesMinis

Welcome to the Discussion post for Sleeper in the Tomb of Dreams. Some basic posting guidelines:

Posting

In the PbPs I GM, I ask that posts are written in the third-person, present tense, thusly:

"Matrak Sen checks the undergrowth for traps."

NOT

"I check the undergrowth" or "Matrak Sen checked the undergrowth"

I dislike using bold for character speech and never do it myself (it always seems to me as if the PC is shouting).

Thoughts are represented in italics

Combat

I accept any form of rolling; the board's dice roller, Invisible Castle and home rolling are all fine.

Time

Please try to contribute at least once every 48 hours. In combat, when it gets to your turn you have 24 hours in which to post, or I will take your turn for you.

Please let us know if you will be away for an extended time.

Just getting a dot, nothing to see here.

Likewise.

Akahale breathes the familiar air of home and treats himself to a selection of new notebooks.

Yay!

Are we in Drachenholme, by the way?

Any details on the setting or anything for us newbs? :)

One background of dubious quality has been written. Also, my sheet is done.

The setting is Points of Light, so Nerath, Arkhosia, Bael Turath etc - the general canon as per the books.

The original group from Last Breaths of Ashenport was based in a town called Drachenholme, where they are prominent members of the community.

New folks coming into the game, I'm toying with you 3 being a seperate adventuring group who team up with the Drachenholme gang.

Otto is going to love Akahale's notebooks.

Fabes,
Can Grafire retrain enlarged dragon breath feat for armor proficient scale and a lvl 6 utility guide the charge for Stand Tough. Is that ok? I also kept my old hand me down magic items in to see if you would allow me to get 1 lvl 10 item - helm of heroes.

You can retrain as many things as you like, so go for it. Helm of Heroes is fine - make sure you have a power that grant an ally a basic attack, to get the full use out of it.

I only have the three core rulebooks, so I'm not sure where any of those places are. Is there a book I should rush out and grab?

Honestly, no. It's the assumed background from those three books, with the deities, races etc as presented there.

I have 2 hooks to have both groups involved, 1 for the following:

Hadarai
Otto
Amy's PC

and 1 for the others:

Akahale
Grafire
Manny

Ok, so my mini group has a leader and defender. So, I'll work on a striker, I think, or a striker/controller mix, since that would have made the most sense within it.

If it helps at all, the Ashenport group was thus:

Martial Defender
Arcane Striker (ranged)
Primal Striker (melee)
Martial Leader (melee)
Divine Leader (melee)
Arcane Controller

and so far we have:

Martial Leader (melee)
Arcane Striker (ranged)
Arcane Controller
Psionic Leader (melee)
Divine Defender
? Striker/poss Controller combo

Looks like a good mix again.

Amy - how close are you to posting a new PC? Just so I can think of when to start the game thread.

Amy - how close are you to posting a new PC? Just so I can think of when to start the game thread.

Today. Probably within the hour.

Just wanted to share this with you all:
Automated character sheets for excel -Character sheet

I have been using this for some time now. It has great drop down menus for items and it will auto config the atributes. One of the best sheets I have ever used. This one includes the updates for PHB3.

I use iplay4e - it's pretty fun.

All set, went with Eladrin wizard, though with nice damage capability.

Excellent, I'll try to get the game thread up later today.

GAME THREAD is up!

I just got PHB 2. Can I switch out Blade Opportunist feat for Weapon Expertise feat?

Yep.

In the interests of full disclosure, I've run this adventure (drastically altered for the Spellgard crew as their second outing). Davi and Amelia may find a couple of NPCs slightly familiar as a result - a factoid I only just thought of when I was setting up your fourth outing.

Neither of you were in the group at the time, so it won't affect your player knowledge at all, and I'm just looking forward to being a player on the other side of the table. It's over a year ago since I ran the thing and I'm blowed if I can remember much about it as I changed very large amounts of it. I hope nobody minds and I promise faithfully to keep player and pc knowledge quite separate.

Ah hah, HERE'S where we're hiding! ;P

So, I tried for almost 3 hours late last night to update Manny, but couldn't get the character sheets I found online to work,... (probably operator error, but still) And I just can't bring myself to pay for the WotC subscription.

I'll try again tonight with the char sheet posted above.
Wish me luck! ;P

OK< between the 3 (working) char gen sheets that I am trying to use, one works great, but isn't updated to PHB3, one is updated, but doesn't give feat/power descriptions, and one is the WotC generator, which lists everything, but again, won't give me descriptions because I do not have a membership.

SO,... if I were list a couple,... few,... dozen,... (Just kidding, mostly) feats & powers here, would anyone mind giving me the descriptions for them?

Actually, I would only need a few powers. I don't know which feats to ask about! (And it seems there are a lot now!)

I think I'm trying to turn Manny into the 'Ice Mage'(OR the 'Storm Mage'), That Ice Hand was fun! So, any suggestions for feats (besides Burning Blizzard) for Manny to use, or magic items? :D

I can take a look for you. Roll out those powers.

Chilling Cloud is a nice At-Will power. It's a burst 1 within 10, is enemies only and has the auto-effect of reducing enemy attack rolls by -2 to the end of your next turn. If it does hit, it does small damage, but it's worth having. INT v FORT

Feats is harder as there are a lot, but I'll have a sniff around for you.

OK< between the 3 (working) char gen sheets that I am trying to use, one works great, but isn't updated to PHB3, one is updated, but doesn't give feat/power descriptions, and one is the WotC generator, which lists everything, but again, won't give me descriptions because I do not have a membership.

SO,... if I were list a couple,... few,... dozen,... (Just kidding, mostly) feats & powers here, would anyone mind giving me the descriptions for them?

Actually, I would only need a few powers. I don't know which feats to ask about! (And it seems there are a lot now!)

I think I'm trying to turn Manny into the 'Ice Mage'(OR the 'Storm Mage'), That Ice Hand was fun! So, any suggestions for feats (besides Burning Blizzard) for Manny to use, or magic items? :D

Go to wizards.com's D&D section, fire up the compendium and drop cold into the search field. I don't think you need DDI subscription to access it. DDI is very much worth it, though. It's the same cost, really, as a single movie and I use it much more than an hour and a half per month.

Thx Rev! Appreciate it.

Amelia, thank you. Indeed, You do not need the subscription to ACCESS the compendium and see the lists, but unfortunately you DO need it to access DESCRIPTIONS. ;P

Here you go: Feats for the would be ice mage.

Arcane Fire
Heroic Tier
Prerequisite: Int 13, any arcane class
Benefit: When you hit a target with an arcane fire power, that target gains vulnerable 5 cold against the first arcane attack power you use against it before the end of your next turn.

Student of Moil
Heroic Tier
Prerequisite: Con 13, Int 13
Benefit: You gain a +1 feat bonus to damage rolls when you use a power that has the cold or necrotic keyword.
At 11th level, this bonus increases to +2. At 21st level, it increases to +3.

Bitter Cold
Heroic Tier
Prerequisite: Wizard
Benefit: When you hit a creature with a cold wizard power, that creature also takes a –2 penalty to its Fortitude until the end of your next turn.

Blighting Power
Heroic Tier
Prerequisite: Shadar-kai; bard, sorcerer, swordmage, warlock, or wizard class
Benefit: You gain a benefit with any of the following attack powers you know.
Booming Blade (swordmage, FORGOTTEN REALMS Player’s Guide, page 27): If the target starts its turn adjacent to you and moves away, the damage dealt is necrotic and thunder damage. This power gains the necrotic keyword.
Dragonfrost (sorcerer, Player’s Handbook 2, page 139): If you hit with this power, the damage dealt is cold and necrotic. This power gains the necrotic keyword.
Hellish Rebuke (warlock, Player’s Handbook, page 132): If you hit with this power, the damage dealt is fire and necrotic. This power gains the necrotic keyword.
Ray of Frost (wizard, Player’s Handbook, page 159): If you hit with this power, the damage dealt is cold and necrotic. This power gains the necrotic keyword.
Vicious Mockery (bard, Player’s Handbook 2, page 69): If you hit with this power, the damage dealt is psychic and necrotic. This power gains the Nncrotic keyword.

Burning Blizzard
Heroic Tier
Prerequisite: Int 13, Wis 13
Benefit: You gain a +1 feat bonus to damage rolls when you use a power that has the acid or the cold keyword.
At 11th level, this bonus increases to +2. At 21st level, it increases to +3.

Wintertouched
Heroic Tier
Benefit: When attacking a creature that is vulnerable to cold, you gain combat advantage when you use a power that has the cold keyword.

That's the lot from the heroic list :)

Also note with Wintertouched - or any other power that says 'has the X keyword' if you use a weapon that makes makes damage into that type - like a flaming sword, for instance, any power you use with the weapon grants that keyword. It matters more for melee than casters, since implements rarely have those sorts of abilities, but there are builds around Frost Weapon, Wintertouched, and other feats that play off the cold keyword.

I was remaking your character in the Character builder, and, well, how did you get Pact Initiate? It requires 13 Charisma, which you don't really have.

Also, depending on how often you use your at-wills, some of the White Lotus feats might be appropriate. (You get a bonus to defense against every enemy you hit with an at-will/take damage if they attack you/etc, depending on which feat you take.)

Well, I never spotted that. That's a good idea, Davi of making Manny in character builder.

Yeah, I noticed that the other night myself. Apparantly I missed that TEENSY little detail the first time around! ;P

I discovered a coupon in my boxed set of PH/PH2 books, and it expires at the end of this month! Si I MIGHT just have to get myself a subscription to D&DI.

Thx for the List Rev! I had seen most but not all of those.

And thx Davi too! I haven't heard of the 'White Lotus' feats, If I get teh subscription I'll have to check those out.

Actually, the couple of trial builds I have made so far I have been playing around with multiclassing him as a cleric, giving him the Healing Word power. (AND the feat that gives you 2 more Healing Surges!) ;)

Durable is a good pick for any squishy.

The White Lotus feats also have potential. The subscription is really worth it I think. Having all the information to hand and being able to play around with builds is just ... wonderful :)

Mind you, like Amy (and I suspect Davi too), I'm a CB junkie.

<Sigh>,...
I went ahead and did it. I forked out the money to pay for a years subscription to D&DI.
Went to go re-build Manny,...
AND the servers are down. I can't update, still using the 'demo' version. ;P

I would like to postpone Manny's move until he actually EXISTS! (Otherwise all I'll be able to do is a Magic Missile. As that's one spell I will never change!) ;)

See you tomorrow, Hopefully?

Joy.

Actually, it will be, once you have it up and running. Looking forward to seeing the new-look Manny.

It honestly is worth it, Rags - it means that you need never buy a 4E book in order to have access to new feats and whatnot, you also get Dragon magazine and Dungeon. You can also access the compendium, which I find invaluable running and playing in a game online.

Okay, TWO days in a row that the WotC server will not allow updates/etc of the Character Builder. I can NOT get it installed & running. Keep getting 'Servers not available' message.

I'm not really all that difficult to impress, but so far,... I'm NOT. ;P

Rags, I was able to run the updater this afternoon, so the servers aren't completely down. You might try customer support; they're pretty responsive on such issues.

Thx Pat. I'll try again.
(WHen I tried to reach Customer support earlier today, I got the 'Servers unavailable' message again! ;P)

In fact, I'll try again right now! :)

Hey hey hey!
FINALLY Got it to work today!
I feel like a kid in a candy store.
I tested out Manny as both an Ice mage, and a storm mage. (One is more obviously dangerous, but neither are slouchy!)

Put the 'short' descriptions up on the top of the profile. I'd welcome any comments/ideas/etc.

OKAY, NOW I get to get back into the game!

(Tomorrow. I'm going to crash. Tired!) :)

See you on the inside!

Storm seems more appropriate thematically, echoes of both King Lear and Victor Frankenstein.

(Another day, another hotel room that has wifi, thankfully)

Both seem equally viable. I say go with either.

Staying with the frost version. Not as diabolically powerful, but plenty of opportunities for bad puns!

On my side, Just a note to let all know that I will be traveling on a family visit this week. I may have occasional internet access, but nothing consistent. If so I will post when able.

I should be back to 'normal' by next Sat, or Sun at latest.

Have a happy 4th!

~Rags

New errata Rags, they changed Magic Missile to 2+Int+(Implement bonus) automatic force damage and made some changes to Dispel Magic I don't really care enough about to mention, among other things.

I was going to say the same thing. I'm a bit flabbergasted, I have to say. Magic missile goes back to be the autohit spell of yore. I must confess to having trouble keeping up with the errata.