The Crucible of Freya (Inactive)

Game Master Grimmy

I think you misread the undead scourge.

Smite evil affects all evil creatures. For undead scourge they deal 2hp per level vs undead on first attack INSTEAD of 2hp per level for FIRST attack vs outsiders. Smite evil still gives you CHA bonus to AC and to hit and level bonus to damage and bypasses most DR.

You should be smiting much more, probably at very beginning of this combat for the buffs. You should also use swift action lay on hands, as this is one of the best paladin abilities.

Sam is extremely correct. Your smite still affects all other evil creatures, it just has a little more kick against undead.

This fight is your chance to make a very strong argument for the pious life :)

Oh, and don't worry about going straight paladin. It's probably the toughest martial class out there! At least in the right circumstances.

Yeah you're right....

<smacks forhead>

OK , so I can attack and either activate my smite evil on demon-boy, a swift action OR
use my lay on hands on myself, also a swift action.

Choices, choices :)

It will likely depend on how badly demon-boy smacks you this round...

You have not used your swift action this turn, I think you can try to convince DMG to let you lay on hand.

Hmmm, what say you DM?

We're still in Round 2...
Still learning the nuances of this system, don't let Kevezyat become demon kabob over my mis-reading of the rules ....please....pretty please ? :)

Was that pathetic enough?
Maybe I should have added more pleases....

No totally Kev can still do that and Damien can still 5' step.

And guys the fact I'm bringing up the new books and options has nothing to do with how the fight is going. I don't care how optimized anyone is or isn't, and a build isn't the main trick to success in this adventure anyway. I only brought it up because we were adding up XP. Totally off-topic.

Case in point if you hadn't got that ogre drawn out into the courtyard that would have been nasty. See my point. Builds didn't save you there.

The reason I say the elemental may speak celestial is I think some summons come from the celestial plane when the good caster calls them.. for animals at least. If this thing only speaks Terran than Leo really can't direct him.

Yeah, I really like seeing things like the plan with the ogre paying off. It certainly makes me feel better about taking our time.

And only animals get the celestial template so it looks like the elemental is on auto-pilot. Should just find the nearest enemy and lay into it. Int 4 means it might be a little tactical about it at least.

That is the kind of play-style that these adventures seem to be written to reward. Everyone hears "necromancer is so tough" and brings their best optimizer build but it's a different kind of hard. I run these things the same for every table and I have had young kids do well with terrible pregens.

Powerful builds don't hurt... they are one tool in the toolbox. They make direct confrontation an option at different times when it might not have been otherwise.

So f'rex maybe the more optimized party goes "ogre, pffft" and they don't bother to divide and conquer. They still conquer. But then how much tougher is this fight with Nazalgub after how many resources were spent on beating an ogre and 6 orcs all at once?

It's pretty tough already you know?

There are lots of other examples like that.

Leo can you drive the elemental for me? Just make him do what you think an elemental would do.

Apologies on the lack of posting gang - was busy with work and then had a family shindig - back at the coalface now

As for Vhillish - I'm not an optimiser as a player - more into the role than the roll, so the crossbow hate of paizo doesn't really bug me.

No problem. Vhillish is worth waiting for. I know you give this game your all when you can.

Lol about Paizo hates crossbows.

Kev - we have an undead scourge of Pharasma in our Rise of the Runelords game on Mondays and I'll find out about his build for you. It is our prime warrior who regularly solos the bad guys.

At level fifteen now, he took out a nightwing in one round, put it straight to -140 hits before it could use a single nasty attack. We were hasted and loaded with spells but still..

Cheers

When one guy can solo the bad guys do the others still have fun? How does that work does the DM just give them other challenges to deal with instead of fighting?

Single bad guys don't work in PF, at high level the monster can solo a PC or the PC can solo a monster unless something have been done to avoid it.

Oh! I thought he meant the paladin sol'd the whole encounter. I understand now.

I'm afraid it was pretty much just the paladin. We all get a chance to shine in other encounters and without giving too much away, the paladin has been itching to come to this undead area for a month or more. He is very happy.

Tomorrow night we start an encounter facing a devourer backed up by a lich and our party is arrayed how we started this fight against the fiendish ogre. I expect much pain.

However our party includes six or seven veteran gamers so characters tend towards the "tooled up". The dwarf ranger (with clustered shot, etc), in particular, is ridiculously good in combat.

For me the excitement went out of the AP a while ago when we hit about tenth level. Since then it is an arms race.

Cheers

Jerrid I think there was a good few minutes of exploration in between fights since your casting of blur.

Discovering the well, armory, etc.

I would say subtract at least 10 rounds for that but I should have pointed that out sooner I suppose.

Let's say you have 3 rounds left?

Okay, I did make a guess and deduct 5 rounds. 3 left it is.

Cheers

Oh okay I didn't know you already subtracted some. Meet you in the middle then, lol. 5 rounds remaining. lol

Nice shot Vhillish!

Thank you sah. Hopefully more of those up my sleeve whot-whot!

back from my trip...I was wondering if I did post i was going to be away this weekend...I looked...yeah I did...anyway looks like I got some actions to take. give me a bit to catch up and see what i can do.

How was pittsburg?

good trip..went to vist a place called Falling Water. a house specially designed by Frank Lloyd Wright it is now a an architectural museum.

has some original art by Piccasso and Andy Warhol.

got rained out when we were going to see the Flight 93 memorial so we missed that

I brought home a lot of my Aunt's Vietnam war memorabilia. and some photo albums from my wife's Great Grandfather when he was stationed in China just after WW I

Sounds like an amazing trip, especially the art. Welcome back.

Yeah, that sounds really cool. It's sad you had to go under those circumstances but at least you have some good memories.

Glad to have you back.

If Nazalgub used a spell or a spell-like he provokes from Kev and Damien unless he casted defensively.

Ok yup it is a SLA. I always get them mixed up with SU.

So I will roll his concentration check.

Very beautiful writing in your posts lately spas.

Imprecation, new word for me. Love it.

:) thanks.

Funny, that word 'impreciate" has been rattling around in my brain since I was a kid. Meaning to appeal, supplicate etc.

But your comment made it look a little funny to me, so I looked it up.... it's actually not a word. LOL. Brains are strange.

Well I took it for a typo, and looked up "imprecate". Actually means kind of the opposite. To curse.

I have a sneaking suspicion we both read it in something like conan. Would make sense, since he has that "backwards" way of "praying" to Crom.

Anyway, that word aside, your writing has been conjuring nice vivid imagery for me for some time. I sure enjoy it.

So I asked our Undead Scourge what his build is and its "nothing special" in his words.

His feats are as a human:

Exotic Weapon Proficiency
Power Attack
Shield Focus
WF (Bastard sword)
Combat Reflexes
Stand still
Imp Crit. (Bastard Sword)
Blind Fight
Furious Fight

Fighting the lich last night, the paladin came out with, "51 pts of damage, yeah, that's my minimum!"

He excels in combat, especially with saves that we joke about every session - they are that good.

Cheers Kev

I can't find the furious fight feat.

Good to know, Jerrid.
Thanks :)

-Posted with Wayfinder

I assume he meant furious focus?

That's a solid build for creating a stopgap.

does he use a shield when the combat start and then drop it to use the bastard sword two handed? furious focus don't work in weapon used with one hand (a silly rule but a rule).

On the other hand, the feat selection is not optimized for damage, but perhaps his spell selection is.

Furious focus that should be and he fights with sword and shield exclusively. I'll mention your point Leo.

Spells like "effortless armor" get used alot.

A 2-H build is solid for a paladin, and Kev has some great options. I would consider a reach weapon (glaive) and combat reflexes.

Power attack is one of the best feats for a martial. Furious focus is amazing for 2-hander and one I would take next as it negates a -2 penalty at fifth for power attack.

I would look into the bodyguard feat after combat reflexes if you want to switch to a two handed reach weapon like a glaive:
Bodyguard (Combat)
Your swift strikes ward off enemies attacking nearby allies.
Prerequisite: Combat reflexes.
Benefit: When an adjacent ally is attacked, you may use an attack of opportunity to attempt the aid another action to improve your ally’s AC. You may not use the aid another action to improve your ally’s attack roll with this attack.

I think cleave is somewhat useful, but the fact that it leads to cleaving finish is even more useful. If you keep the greatsword as your primary, I would pick up these two feats.
cleaving finish Benefit: If you make a melee attack, and your target drops to 0 or fewer hit points as a result of your attack, you can make another melee attack using your highest base attack bonus against another opponent within reach. You can make only one extra attack per round with this feat. To make sure you get both cleave feats at once, I would retrain toughness into cleave and pick up cleaving finish at level 7 after furious focus at 5.

All really good stuff Sam, though I imagine Kev is going to be keen to stick with Valkyria as her main weapon. It's not every day you get handed a holy relic to carry into battle :)

I am a-ok with retraining btw guys. I think the ultimate campaign system is the good one to use right?

I think so? I've not really used it before but I understand it's fairly well done. Good to know it's on the table, I'll keep it in mind as we progress.

Oh, and great job with the fight guys. I think we really did well here!

The glaive idea's interesting, but yeah can't give up Valkyria :)

But definately combat reflexes, and the cleave combos are an interesting option as well.

Posting from me will be scarce thursday, friday, and sunday. I will be online tomorrow and saturday.

Retraining sounds more interesting with the other options you have mentioned. I am not entirely wedded to Jerrid as an arcane trickster, it feels like the party needs more arcane and less roguishness in the longer run.

I hardly ever play combat focussed characters however we are probably rolling Ironman stats for Giantslayer so my PC may be anything...

Cheers

Don't forget to recap your current hp after Leoven's channel

Sorry for the delay guys, I'll have a post up in the morning.

Just popping in to read posts. Buried alive at work, might manage an update later.

take your time

I am having BBQ today and testing some new recipes (family make good lab rats)

Daughter has fifth birthday tomorrow and its a bank holiday as apart of school half term. All this means that family comes first over the next few days.

Off on the bank holiday too - our Norwegian company follows the English bankies rather than the Scottish ones - go figure!

Enjoy the day FW :)