Hah alrighty please remove me from this one so I get no further confused.
I didnt read much except this page of discussion. Nothing that gives me a tactical advantage
Good evening. Your younger, fitter Inquisitor has arrived.
And now I have to remember to keep my posts respectable. (Well, probably not. Walther's a much better person than the guy I play in our live game.)
On the upside, we've now got two beatsticks handy to keep Walther safe.
Yep. The one useful thing about so many combat-specced characters applying was that it made finding fill-ins really easy. It just also means that I'm going to have to beef up encounters when they get to them because they aren't half made of paper.
Welcome! :)
@Spooky regarding tools - Ophelia got a +10/12 disable device (with my masterwork tools : ) ) and the possibility to disarm magical traps. I'm sure we will be fine
Edit: Timezones! I don't recall if we went over this the first time - but might as well write them again. I'm on GMT +1
: I'm assuming discussions about rationalising living space might have been ongoing for the last week but nothing has happened yet.
: I too was looking at possibly getting a library, but it seems like something we could share on.
: you said we get a job roll. Is that as per Ultimate Campaign? Should Laznist take a penalty for the day spent returning items?
Now we've got our new folks I'm almost good to go...
Except for feats, spells and power. I didn't want to overlap with some new guy coming in. At the moment Laznist's niche is pretty much Artillery.
So. To 3rd Arcanist, +1 Fort, +1 Ref, +1 1st level spell/day, 2 known extra 1st level spells, spells prepared to 5/3, 6 skill points, +6 hp (+4 base, +1 for con, +1 for favoured), a Feat, and Arcane Exploit.
Spells, Feat, Skills and Arcane Exploit I'm still considering... would like to see if anyone had any opinions on what the group might need.
Simple answer is just Potent Magic, Greater Spell Focus (Evocation) and Appraise, Knowledge:Local x2, Spellcraft, Perception and Sense Motive... but I am very tempted by Dimensional Slide if we might need someone with extra movement modes.
While GSF is a great artillery feat, if there's something we could use I'm happy to consider it.
GMT -5.
@Ophelia: Okay that works too. Long as there is some lockpicking person around. There was only one Rogue applicant and she was needed in the heavy hitter team more than this one.
@Laznist: No, you get a job roll as per the Profession skill or whatever you have that is Profession-like. You have eight days between these two cases, so one is spent on misc. stuff and then you have a full week to do job stuff on the side if you want to. Sitting around with ale and humming Maragritaville until a courier comes by is also acceptable should you lack an applicable skill. I don't think you have to worry too much about spell overlap as an Arcanist, new caster is an Inquisitor.
Silent Image, Vanish and Feather Fall - those are the spells I've got that might overlap : )
Ehm - Could I perhaps suggest Make Whole? If only as a spell in the spellbook for those tragic moments where Ophelia gets Shocking Grasped or fall trough a floor somewhere in the Shingles : P
edit - I'll have to add, I'm not terribly keen on Arcanist exploits so I can't give any input there : )
: I'm assuming discussions about rationalising living space might have been ongoing for the last week but nothing has happened yet.
The level bump let me add a bedroom to my office; other than that I've been assuming that I stay at the inn where a bunch of my contacts are most nights.
: I too was looking at possibly getting a library, but it seems like something we could share on.
I added a Know (religion) library to the office as well. Basically it now matches my original description properly.
: you said we get a job roll.
I never rolled anything earlier. Profession (author) I suppose works since I said I was submitting my Jack research to the Society.
All:Now we've got our new folks I'm almost good to go...
Except for feats, spells and power. I didn't want to overlap with some new guy coming in. At the moment Laznist's niche is pretty much Artillery.
I don't think there's much niche overlap happening with the newcomers. They both seem to be the muscle that we're otherwise lacking. Artillery is good. Ophelia's sugestion of Make Whole makes sense; I believe you're the only one for whom it is an option. You're also the one who showed the most interest in how she works, so I think it makes sense in character as well.
Oh yeah; I'm in MDT (UTC-6)
: Would love to get Make Whole... but Arcanists have a Sorceror spell progression and I don't get it for another level.
: Ah! got you, thanks.
@Make Whole Ah - I see. As I said, I'm not well read on any of the play-test classes :) But it is okay, I'll got a scroll that should work for emergencies and tools for ordinary wear and tear.
@Walter I asked Spooky if I could use the cheaper option to build my shop, have you done the same? I suspect you will not be offering your bedroom or kitchen for rent, so they doesn't really provide anything but comfy fluff : )
Your older, more crotchety alchemist reporting for duty!
Woah! Okay, so I'm going to need a little help in catching up and bookkeeping.
First, yes, I'll keep the thieves' tools. I'm still eventually planning to go Arcane Trickster, so after this third level of vivisectionist, I'm going to go Wizard.
Second, Craft(Alchemy) checks:
At this point, I'm not entirely sure what I have anymore, equipment and gold-wise, so if I could have some help, I'd greatly appreciate it.
@Shang - you should have some gold from the level 2->3 retcon (2000gp). In addition, you should have 645,73 gp & a set of thieves tools from the Jack's hoard. Lastly, you can roll income for one week of downtime. In addition - there is a small set of alchemical items & the Jack's knife. We have yet to decide exactly what to do with them (except to keep them).
@Useful loot (Alchemical items, healing stuff & Jack's knife):
My vote is that we hang on to the knife as a trophy. I don't really care exactly whom carries it around or if we keep it in storage somewhere : )
Neither the wand nor the potions will do Ophelia any good - so I suggest the other three original members carry one each around. And Walter can probably lug around the wand (since he can use it!). Or if you want, Ophelia could carry it (but she have some CLW scrolls for worst-case scenarios already!).
Ophelia could certainly use a smokestick and a tangle-foot bag, so if it is okay with you guys I'll joink one of each :)
Alright, so a quick summary of what's happened thus far, including the hurried resolution to the previous case so that we can move on.
With the curtain pulled aside, Korvosa's uglier underbelly is bared. Politicians found as the thralls of vampires, werewolves breaking out of the mage academy after being experimented on in ways the academy refuses to divulge, zealous worshippers of evil gods raising outsiders and undead the create destruction in the name of their dark deity. Faced with threats the town guard has no use for, councilman Valiel Domine and East Shore watch captain Alandre Burton spearheaded an effort to bring experts both from within the city and around Golarion into the fold as elite teams who can deal with the new threats the guard cannot.
In exchange for a good salary to cover your cost of living, you have been drafted into the war for Korvosa. When needed, you will be called upon to investigate mysterious cases whose origins are either very clearly suited to your expertise, or which the city watch doesn't even know where to start, as well as to hunt monsters that your skillsets allow you a unique edge over.
In the group's first case, they dealt with the dreaded Spring-Heeled Jack, a fey creature who stalked small groups at night in The Shingles, and with his fear-inspiring visage and strangely shaped knife picked off his victims one by one. Upon finding him, he fled, possessing a remarkable ability to jump over long distances. They chased him into a derelict building occupied by a group of bandits who returned to find the party breaking into their hideout.
After dispatching the bandits, they found the sadistic creature torturing two bandits tied to chairs with his knife, so engrossed in their cries of pain that he didn't realize the party was upon him until it was too late. They couldn't save the bandits in time, whose bodies had been torn to shreds by his knife.
Between the bandits' vault, their possessions, and Jack, the group found a motherlode of pilfered weapons, which they divided up to sell, as well as a few identifiable items, which were returned to their rightful owners. Shang and Walther dissected and examined the body, harvesting him for some valuable alchemical fluids and allowing Walther to write up a book about the physical properties of Spring-Heeled Jacks.
During the week, the group loses contact with both Anastasia and Dara, two members from the first case. Dara doesn't return to Ophelia's house one night after heading out for a drink, and a few guards visit Anastasia's house to find it ransacked, and no sign of the ranger anywhere. Valiel and Alandre send word that they will keep some people on the matter where they can, but for the moment, to be careful.
Although regrettable and presumptuous about their fates, Valiel enlists two more recruits to join the team, promising that should they be found, Dara and Anastasia will have jobs as well, but that your work is too important to be sentimental about positions in the group. Navia Zeldan, a Sylph very knowledgeable about lycanthropes, and Tieszla Paavo-Honefist, an Inquisitor of Pharasma brought on due to suspicion of cults brewing in the city devoted to evil death gods.
-Ophelia, Laznist, and Shang need to vote on what is done with Jack's body.
-Also who gets the dagger?
-Actually for that matter who is talking any of those items? Most of them are unaccounted for, I think.
And for backstory boni:
Survivor: You may well have sat on the edge of madness, but you've grown stronger for it. There is a lingering paranoia in the back of your head that lets you react faster to threats. You gain +1 to Initiative rolls when taken by surprise, and a +1 to Reflex saves.
Beacon of Hope: Seeking to redeem monsters is a difficult task, and it can open you up to being led on and lied to, before eventually becoming a meal. You've learned how to detect insincerity, granting you a +2 to Sense Motive rolls.[/b]
You manage to make the oil last for three attacks. The attempt to brew the strengthened Alchemist's Fire doesn't go nearly as well.
And as a result you lose half of the oil, which after fizzling and sputtering, forms into a thin layer of burgundy residue lining the inside of the flask. You may be able to gleam something from this down the line, but now for, you're confused by it.
And for money, you have whatever went unspent from your "3000 at creation", and then the divvied up loot that's listed on the list page.
I vote to send the corpse to the mages as earlier suggested.
I also ninja edited/posted right before Spookys post about items/knife :)
edit: Ohh, another quick question! Is the second group assumed to be working at the same time/city/organization as us - or are they more a parallel dimension deal ?
They're going to be an alternate universe thing. There are other groups in the city that you might run into, but for the purpose of not raising plot holes by having both groups run through the same cases (albeit it one case behind), we're going to keep them apart.
Okay : ) My xperience says that different pbp groups tend to move at vastly different pace, so that might be a wise decision : )
@Shang - you should have some gold from the level 2->3 retcon (2000gp). In addition, you should have 645,73 gp & a set of thieves tools from the Jack's hoard. Lastly, you can roll income for one week of downtime. In addition - there is a small set of alchemical items & the Jack's knife. We have yet to decide exactly what to do with them (except to keep them).
@Useful loot (Alchemical items, healing stuff & Jack's knife):
My vote is that we hang on to the knife as a trophy. I don't really care exactly whom carries it around or if we keep it in storage somewhere : )
Neither the wand nor the potions will do Ophelia any good - so I suggest the other three original members carry one each around. And Walter can probably lug around the wand (since he can use it!). Or if you want, Ophelia could carry it (but she have some CLW scrolls for worst-case scenarios already!).
Ophelia could certainly use a smokestick and a tangle-foot bag, so if it is okay with you guys I'll joink one of each :)
Thank you! I'll work on the new equipment. Also, I have no problem with letting you have the smokestick and tanglefoot bag. Are there any other items you need me to craft in the downtime? Hmm.... Probably some extra potions...
Spooky, I added the backstory traits but the language of the Survivor trait is a little vague. Is it +1 vs. reflex saves all the time or +1 vs. reflex saves when surprised? I have assumed the more liberal interpretation for now :D
I will have to have a closer look at Ultimate Campaign to get a grip on the detailed infrastructure building that this group has embarked upon. I can always bug Walther too; he loves it when I ask him questions instead of reading the books!
For Tieszla, I assumed that she would reside at the church of Pharasma. She fostered there after the fall of Dagmont and is now directly employed by the church in what I envisioned as a "room and board in exchange for services rendered" arrangement. I also thought that her sister would reside at the church although there may be an asylum in Korvosa that would be more suitable. Either way, Astrid never really recovered from the trauma of her family's grisly demise so she has no profession of her own, no family other than Tieszla and can't really get by without supervision. I imagined a good deal of Tieszla's spare time would be spent with Astrid and any extra earnings Tieszla had would be spent on keeping her sister as comfortable and well looked after as possible.
Laznist, I don't think you need to worry about any overlap or conflict with our spells. I will be focusing on buffing and healing more than anything else. Tieszla will not be a blaster or bad touch caster.
One last thing: I haven't got any rations listed in Tieszla's gear because I assumed that we have no need to carry such things while working inside city limits. If this is not the case, I can add some. If we leave the city, I will definitely add some.
Oh, whoops. Yeah, it's Reflex all the time, Initiative when surprised. I had to write up eight batches of traits so I wasn't taking as much care as I would have liked.
Okay, so:
1. Gain 2645.73 gp.
2. 7 days spent researching crafter's fortune for future downtime help. Total cost: 100gp, DC 12 Craft(Alchemy) check. Roll: .
3. Potionmaking takes me 2 hours per level 1 potion. I can make one per day. Seven days in a week, so I make 2 CLW potions (so each of us living members can carry one), and 5 potions of Anticipate Peril at caster level 3, also to be passed out to the party. Total cost = 2x25 + 5x75 = 425gp.
Total gain remaining: 2120.73 gp.
Of the remaining equipment, I'm taking the tools, I'd like a flask of acid, and a smokestick, and I'm willing to carry Jack's Dagger. I can cast comprehend languages myself, so someone else can take the potion.
@Walter I asked Spooky if I could use the cheaper option to build my shop, have you done the same? I suspect you will not be offering your bedroom or kitchen for rent, so they doesn't really provide anything but comfy fluff : )
Cheaper option?
Ophelia crafted her own rooms at half price, on the grounds of she's not using a bedroom for profit so it's not something I'd want her to have to pour a lot of her funds to have.
What the skull in the nice hat said : ) But what I originally asked him was something along the lines of 'is it okay if I use the crafting cost instead of the buying cost for the rooms, since I won't really be using a lot of them for anything. Especially since I envision the shop as it always had been there, and not something she clobbered together recently : )'
I can't drink the potion of Comprehend Languages (and I have a scroll of it, just in case : ) ) (ie, I won't be carrying the Potion around.) Laznist, Walter, Tieszla or Navia?
I'll take it if no one else wants it, I've got plenty of left over space and carrying capacity. Tieszla is more of a smash first, ask questions later kind of girl though.
Walther shouldn't need it given the number of languages he speaks, but I suppose it makes sense for me to carry it just in case. I'll take the CLW wand as well; if we need to use it in a fight, it's better for Walther to do it while Tieszla smashes whatever is making us need it.
I spent the full gold cost on my rooms; never really paid any attention to the stuff about them generating income. I certainly don't intend for them to be rentable.
I'd advise whomever's got the best Sense Motive take the potion, since they can get just a bit more potential mileage out of it that way. And in that case, yeah, go ahead and refund a bit of that.
Tieszla and Navia, can you please modify your race field to read the same numbers and such as everyone else has? It makes reference a lot easier on my end.
I'd advise whomever's got the best Sense Motive take the potion, since they can get just a bit more potential mileage out of it that way. And in that case, yeah, go ahead and refund a bit of that.
I'm pretty sure that'll be Walther. And I'll put back half the cost of my office rooms; that'll come out to 440 gp. I'll just save the money for now; Darkwood quarterstaves are expensive.
Equipment:
Realising that the fight with Jack would have been much easier with some better scouting capability Laznist hits up contacts at the Uni for a Homonculus.
Homonculus 2050
Scroll of Mage Armour x4 200
Scroll of Infernal healing x4 200
Total: 2450 of 2645.73
New Spells:
Infernal Healing
Expeditious Retreat
Feat:
Spell Specialisation: Magic Missile
Exploit:
Arcane School: Admixture
It's starting to look like hitpoint-damage isn't going to be a problem : ) Atleast not after the fight is over
Okay, I think Laznist is ready to go.
I'm GMT+11 by the way.
Gameplay is now live. You have until the first die roll to finalize your sheets.
I suspect we're actually being summoned to a crime scene. But I may just be watching too many police procedurals.
To prevent further clutter on the gameplay forum I will respond here: yea, I figured it was either a crime scene or the party meeting up before heading to the actual crime scene. Looks like I bet on the wrong horse :( Hope my edit is more suitable and I will avoid taking creative liberties from now on.
The quality of writing in this game is frankly intimidating!
I've been thinking about advancement from here. My original plan was 3 levels of Vivisectionist Alchemist, followed by 3 of Wizard, leading into Arcane Trickster.
The wizard levels were originally going to be Diviner. However, in the interest of story and preventing me from simply casting a couple spells to solve the mystery, I'm wondering if I shouldn't take Necromancer, instead.
So, what does everyone think? Would you mind if your little old apothecary also doubled as a necromancer?
Ophelia wouldn't mind whichever path you decided to go, although others - especially those with strong convictions on the topic *cough* Inquisitor of Pharasma *cough* might : ) But that probably depends on if you will be the shambling hordes of undead necromancer or debuff necromancer.
Another thing to consider is that Spell-Like abilities can be used to fulfil PrC requirements. Aka - if you take a Wizard school that grants a 2nd level spell or higher (Scryer, for example) you would be qualified to enter Arcane Trickster at level 5, RAW. However, not everyone agree with the faq and the interpretations of it, so you should probably ask Spooky real nice first if you decide to take this route : )
As for breaking mysteries with Divination spells, Laznist could probably learn and use those too - so the issue will probably have to be resolved anyhow : ) Ophelia might also pick up choice divinations if they are found to be agreeable (Scrying, Legend Lore ect) :)
Oh, goodness, debuff. No plans to raise my army of dead to aid us. And, well, I still don't believe in the SLA ruling.
Mkay! Then all you need to worry about is the fact that most of the lower level Necromancy debuffs are either touch-attacks (Ray of X, X Touch) or HD capped (Scare).
And I guess you have no need to ask Spooky either then, if you dislike the ruling. Personally, I'm a big fan of it since it lets you get onto your 'real' build faster (ie Eldritch Knight & Arcane Trickster asap). And those PrC tends to not be that strong, so the power gain in relation to other party members are usually fairly minor : ) But I can see why people dislike them, since they force you towards certain path!
Debuff sounds good. Divination would definitely make me iffy, just because of how trivializing those spells can make investigation.
I had thought Spooky was checking spells on a case-by-case basis anyway. There are plenty of divinations that won't be an issue (True Strike) and other spells that will (Speak With Dead).
I guess if this is a procedural these sorts of spells are the special CSI lab stuff. If that is true then the problem is not their utility but their instantaneous nature. Even Speak With Dead might not be so bad if one has to wait a day or two to get the results (long enough to mean we keep investigating in the meantime). Given that is the case maybe we want to look at getting an NPC to do them.
There are countermeasures for most of the bad spells as well. In theory any intelligent opponent could have the knowledge to know what to do (eg to prevent Speak With Dead you remove jaw) but if we go down that path it will constrain stories a little.
Up to Spooky though, I think.
I could definitely do some f!+#ery with spells to make them less gamebreaking, but at that point it sort of removes the point of specializing in them, doesn't it? My problem isn't in taking those sorts of things (except Detect Alignment because no, never) so much as in focusing on them only to find out that a lot of the useful things are going to be nerfed and f&*$ed with.
Is there an alley or some other way to get behind the house without actually crossing the property itself?
I have started a new job where it is not possible to post during the day anymore. Any posts I do make will reliably occur between 20:00 and 23:00 MDT from now on. I'll do my best to post every day.
Heads up: I got elected to host Easter dinner on Good Friday but no one told me until yesterday so my schedule is jam packed until Saturday. I'll do my best to get something up but I can't make any promises.
At absolute worst I'll bot you for any combat you get into, no worries.
Still having that busy (extended) weekend, visiting my parents and folk back home - things will get back to normal by Wednesday at the latest : )
yeah, my parents are still here but i am trying to check in.