The Seer's Journey - DM Downrightamazed

Game Master downrightamazed

Aylaeth Brely'an wrote:

I totally envisioned this response from you

You did? Oh man, that's really depressing. I need to do better :-(

Aylaeth Brely'an wrote:

boards think the class is not that great? Ah well, I'M having fun! ^-^

That's cool, and in the end it's all that matters. From my perspective, the main reason it's so frustrating isn't because I can't beat up on you, because that's never my goal. It's because I feel I can't even challenge maguses! How can I when they can just barf up an AP point to get AC 99 and their weapon +100 nuclear vorpal, whether their build is vanilla or chocolate or rocky road; as you say, it's hard-baked into the class.

But you raise a good point; being challenged in combat isn't every player's idea of fun. Some like that, but others prefer to go through a fight untouched and unhurt and just mash every bad guy, and I'd do well to remember that. *shrug*

Regardless, I feel my lack of ability to effectively challenge a given PC reflects poorly on my skills as a DM, and I will definitely endeavor to rectify this. Time to hit the books again, in my copious free time.

I hope it was intended because I have to say that your first paragraph, with the "barf up AC99 and +100 nuclear vorpal" honestly made me have a great LOL. In fact I just did it again as I typed that. : )

Did I make a point that I prefer to go through combat unchallanged and unhurt and just mash every bad guy? If I did it was certainly unintentional as I don't feel that way at all. I guess the way I see the DM-Player relationship is as a friendly adversarial one. Like when we were kids and the challenge was to do an even more more crazy and insane stunt with your bicycle than the last guy (or was that just my crazy group of friends?)

So0, in general, the DM throws up progressively bigger and badder meanies ,trying to stomp the players down a notch or two, and the players get progressively better at stomping right back. But as you say, you are far less homicidal than many DMs out there are (like the one in one of my games here who often, and gleefully, tells us how he can't wait until we enter the next room where we have no hope of surviving at all. Or how his mission is life is ensure our ultimate grim and gruesome slaughter...ok, I may be exaggerating a smidge for drama points but that's the essence of it. And he's a great DM and it's a pretty darn awesome game!)

And That's just the combat part. I like a fair bit more the puzzle bits, as I love trying to figure out clever ways to do things or achieve things or work around things (eg, it was particularly satisfying figuring out how to get into the tapestry sub-dimension). And then last but certainly not least for me is the RP aspect of things, which you happen to have a particular master talent in DRA. This is what does and has always drawn me the most to PbPs; the communal story telling part of it all, which this game is easily one of the best examples of that I have ever been fortunate enough to be a part of (and this due to Everyone in this game, for while DRA is the genius Time Thief who has created and somehow(??) manages to run it all, it is All of us who contribute to make it what it is.

Also, I certainly wouldn't say that you're not good at designing combats DRA, in fact quite the opposite. I can't even say how many times now I pooped my pants when I saw what you had lined up against us. And almost every time I was amazed that we not only survived but usually kicked ass. But guess we're just pretty dang ass-kicking groups (especially the Mariansu gang. I mean, as much as I love Jorzan and all his Seer cronies, like, c'mon, we all gotta admit that in a fight the Skyknights would Whoop Their Asses. Especially with Mr "one-hit and your Down bee-atch!" and his lance and Mrs "Machine gun Lilly" on her bow both on Our side...?? Fo-get about it! Plus, you know, we have a Dragon, oops, sorry, make that Two. Exactly. and That's not even including the fact that they All can fly.)

So, bottom line, I think you're doing you're job fantastically my friend. More than that even. And have been since day one I started playing with you. If you're feeling you'd like to challenge we Magi even more, then at least as far as I'm concerned, Please Do! BRING IT ON BEE-ATCH! As they say in da 'Sherwood Forest' (get it? Robin HOOD?? ah, never mind) LOL ; D

And really it shouldn't be too hard to challenge us I think (sorry Mai, please forgive me for this) because Magi are pretty much one-trick-ponies in a melee fight. If they're fighting something with a high SR or that's immune to magic they're not gonna do much more than tickle their opponent. As least I know Aylaeth won't. So maybe she's just been lucky enough to not go up against the wrong opponent yet. And also, it should be kept in perspective that this is actually only her third battle so far! She's been around for a little while now, yes, but the majority of that time has been spent in purely RP scenario's (which is Awesome) so, all in all, don't worry mate, I'm fairly certain that you'll be getting a chance to lay some hurt, oops, sorry I mean 'challenge' her sometime in the near future. X ]

I suppose I just feel like a man among giants so to speak.

It's true mate, we are the 'Ant Men' in our group of Avengers ; )

Actually! lol that's pretty apt! Let's see who we've all got!

if you roll Captian America and Thor together you get Damian

Livian is obviously Hawkeye

If you put Min and Lin together that kinda makes Iron Man

Not quite sure who Belsarious would translate too? Maybe Scarlett Witch??

and that leaves the Ant Man and the Wasp and for you and I : P

I love the magus. I think that they're the best-balanced and best-designed class in the history of 3.5/PFRPG. They can nova pretty fast, though, with ample usage of the Arcane Points.

Really! Interesting. I guess I remain dubious.

And it's not the nova-ing that stymies me, it's the randomness. I mean, I know it's not random, what the class can do, but it feels random to me in gameplay. I read and re-read the class deets and feel like I got it, then someone who's playing a magus does something and it's so outrageous I have to double-check the rules to make sure it's real. Like Aylaeth's AC thing that she just did. I read it and was thinking "where the hell did that come from? that can't be an actual thing." But of course it is. Thus far, In my experience with them both in PbP and at the table, Maguses have the highest WTF factor in that regardless of how well the class is or is not designed, the things they can do, when utilized, often just feel like someone threw a bunch of powers in a grab bag and yanked them out and tacked them on to the class and said "you can do any of these things, just spend an arcane point."

Meh. Again, like I said; my frustration here is solely with myself. I just need to come to better grips with the class and be more creative and effective in my encounter design. Sharpening the saw, you know; the usual.

Anyways. Tally-ho.

Oh, and thanks for the kind words, y'all, it is much appreciated. I was definitely not fishing, but I thank you all the same. ^_^

If I never see another frakking thing with the following frakking abilities:

Immunity to Fire
Immunity to All Energy Damage Types
Immunity to Magic
Spell Resistance over 25...

I'll be a happy Blasty Half-Orc.

I do agree that the Magus Arcane Point pool is obnoxious, having outshone by two of them at tables at a con. They get the spell selection (mostly) of a Wizard, with nearly the same spells per day, plus anywhere from 4-6 "spontaneous" spells per day, or an at-will weapon buff.

And the Summoner is broken in ways that defy imagination.

Let's make a Bard with a MORE USEFUL spell list, fewer skill points, and give him a modular monster that can generally outclass a fighter as a tank, and with a spell, can be turned into a trap-monkey, or even a Knowledge-monkey.

I agree that the Legacy team blows the doors off of the Seer-team combat wise. You are mostly APG classes. We're mostly CRB classes.

I suspect the Legacy team is SUBSTANTIALLY better equipped. We're right around 28,000 GP per character, give or take some.

This isn't a complaint, by the way - y'all are Big Damned Heroes bashin' in the Gates of Mordor, while we're the ones impersonating hobbits sneaking in the dark.

Ha! Love that analogy Karthan. 'Sneaky Hobbits' works for me. They did save the world after all ; )

Anyone notice there is now a private messager now?

No! I didn't! But thanks for pointing that out Mai. Cuz that's great, been hoping for a while they'd do that. Now they just need to make private spoilers available

Yeah Rpol has that private spoilers, its nice. =)

I just saw the messenger today and its kinda of nice, sent a test mail at DRA :)

@Karthan: Jorzan pretty much has you covered in terms of possible next moves for you. There's nothing I can add, really, that wouldn't be redundant or hell of metagame-y.

So Karthan's sort-of holding, Kelne is heading into the tapestry, on we go...

DRA you have an email heading your way.

Hey a few questions DRA if I may?

-Have any of us knowingly yet seen the big wolfguard who delivered the ultimatum to us back at the inn?

-We do still have the soul gems, right? (I also wonder who's crown that emerald was from, perhaps we'll never know...)

-Since neither Kelne nor Justahl claimed it and we didn't sell it, I'm assuming it's safe to assume that, as he is the one who took it off of Tanel, Jorzan still has the rope of climbing? ( I have a sneaky idea! heh heh ; )

aaaand that's it. For now ; )

No
Yes
I guess that's up to you guys, yeah?

DRA, now that we're specifically looking in the chests, can you please give us a breakdown of what all is in them?

Okay, I think I need to be more clear about the chests; each one is very large, 6' wide, 4' deep, and 4' tall. One is filled with armor, one with clothes, one with weapons, one with treasure, and they are all cram-packed. Each one probably weighs close to a half-ton or more, depending on what's inside. So you can't just glance in it and see all of its contents; wading through these things will take time. Min can tell that all of them have magic stuff in 'em, but the auras are blurred and overlapping and confusing, just like the contents.

So! I'm more than happy to give you a rundown, but be prepared to pay the price in terms of time; going through one full chest will take at least 15 or 20 minutes, and that's if you really rush. Obviously I wouldn't normally be this picky, but Kelne is about to start smashing prisons, plus the Red Dragonflight is approaching, etc. And yes you can just go through like one layer of treasure or whatever, or spend like 5 minutes instead of the full time, just let me know.

Oh wow lol! That is a big chest >.>;, I was assuming frmo your earlier description that detect magic was garbled by all the aura's now I have a complete understanding as too why! xD Thanks for the Clarification DRA.

Alright, no time to dig through them, probably need to perform a smash and grab..... >:)

Wow! ya big chests, had no idea. OK

So here's what I'm thinking, at the moment, Jorzan will grab 5 items from each chest. Assuming there's 5 chests, that should 150 seconds, or 2.5 min or 25 rounds. Plus with moving from chest to chest let's make it an even 3 minutes.

If Kelne can't or chooses not to wait that long, then we can taper the amount of items grabbed from each chest accordingly.

Assuming Min has been able to come over and point out which items are magical, Jorzan will obviously be grabbing those first. If not, he'll just go with whatever he thinks best (rolls in the IC)

If this needs to be adjusted in any way, just let me know.

Well, we must have a fair number of bags of holding of one sort or another between all the characters (By my count, our group has three haversacks and Tanel's old type I bag, and the Skyknights have two haversacks). There's always the option of everybody piling stuff into their bags and sorting it all out later.

Counting it all up, that's 610 pounds (66 cubic feet) for us and 240 pounds (24 cubic feet) for the skyknights. Assuming 2000 pounds in a ton, that still only gives us most of a single chest between us. Alternatively, two strength 18 characters, working between them could simply carry one of the chests through a tapestry with them. Something for the Skyknights to consider, since they're going to the safe location of Stormfare.

In other words, I think we can and should loot everything. Once all the prisoners have been freed, of course. No leaving treasure or captives behind for Ormir or the Red Dragonflight.

Agreed, Min has strength 26 when it comes to lifting/carrying (Muleback cords are awesome!) Between Lin and him they could easily move one of the chests, at least I think. >.>;

But first we need to get the others in here. :)

Hmm who al should go in the room? I'd like to but my attacks will barely scratch the construct. Livain can more or less blast through its damage reduction.

I'd love to help with the golem, but since it's not Evil the only hit I put on it did little but scratch the paint.

@DRA: I should have asked this before, and you can be all mysterious DM if you want since I didnt officially ask. ;D

Are all the prisoners in the gems awake? Or are they in various states, wounded, sleeping (appears to be...)?

Just wondering and happy weekend everyone!

In other words, I think we can and should loot everything. Once all the prisoners have been freed, of course. No leaving treasure or captives behind for Ormir or the Red Dragonflight.

Agreed, but let's Loot First and free prisoners/enemies/allies Second because, again, we have no idea if some, any or all of them may be hostile to us as well (demon??) . With the whole gang present looting the chests will only take moments. As for the prisoners, they've obviously been in there for some time so a few more minutes isn't going to harm them any. And once they're free, dealing with them could potentially take a fair bit longer with no guarantee of time to loot afterwards.

I vote treasure first prisoners second.

So here's what I'm thinking, at the moment, Jorzan will grab 5 items from each chest. Assuming there's 5 chests, that should 150 seconds, or 2.5 min or 25 rounds. Plus with moving from chest to chest let's make it an even 3 minutes.

Jorzan, are you going ahead with this plan regardless of what you and Kelne decide? Or is this gonna be set aside in favor of mass looting of all the chests? Just need to know if I have to provide "five-of-everything" descriptions or not, and obviously if you luck out and find an adamantium weapon(s) right away, that'll affect things, too.

Are all the prisoners in the gems awake? Or are they in various states, wounded, sleeping (appears to be...)?

They were all awake, but only the demon seemed to notice someone else was looking in. The rest were either in a meditative state or staring despondently at the floor.

Jorzan is doing this until either Kelne, or someone, smashes a gem or others start helping to loot. I can only speak for my guy so until 'mass looting' starts, he's sticking to his plan. From what I can guesstimate, he should have been at it for at least a min now.

Looks like the plan at the moment is two minutes of searching / looting by those present, followed by either a direct attack on the golem or gem smashing, depending. I'm actually leaning towards just going straight after the golem, as I think on it. Those extra attacks while it's still dormant can't hurt.

Now that makes sense! Why wait for it to activate first?

True that! Let me at least buff us again if good hope has expired so that we get an extra +2 on attack/damage/skills and such. Its a great spell =)

If anyone needs healing Min still has plenty of strength left although he is saving some of his strength for whichever tapestry they head through next... ;)

We should still have around 4 min left on Good Hope once we're finished looting mate. That is a good spell! Aylaeth will likely cast Haste before we attack as well.

Jorzan and she are all healed up now.

Min Bein'Meleth Rámalóce wrote:

Are all the prisoners in the gems awake? Or are they in various states, wounded, sleeping (appears to be...)?

They were all awake, but only the demon seemed to notice someone else was looking in. The rest were either in a meditative state or staring despondently at the floor.

I can't wait to smash some gems, although... That demon continues to nag at me... Free it or let it rot until Armageddon. Hmmmmm...

DRA you are a trickster! >.>

Although that Wyverling sounds neat. =)

@ Aylaeth: haste + Good hope was the combo I had hoped for! Hence why I picked it over haste... for now! ;)

It'll be nice to get the drop on the golem for once!

Okay, cool; I'mma list just the adamantium weapons for now since that's what everyone's focused on, but will assume the "skim off the top" technique is in effect and everyone's getting a bag of goods prior to assaulting the golem. Also, I have noted everyone is spellcrafting and read magic-ing, etc. etc. so I'm assuming everyone's trying to snag magic stuff first, which is of course to be expected.

:-)

Cool, plus Jorzan had about an extra min of searching, so, you know=More Stuff! = D

Hey Min, I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the tapestry that we all entered into this prison through is a different one that the several tapestries that Kelne has pointed out to us. I still yet have no idea whether any of them could be moved or not, but I'm pretty certain that Karthan was only referring to moving the tapestries within this room, not the one that leads into the promenade from the hallway out of this prison room.

Plus, you may have missed Aylaeth's last post. That sometimes happens to me when it's at the end of a page and I'm posting around the same time.
(did that even make sense? Time for bed! :P )

I find it dreadfully amusing that Kelne is now contemplating stealing the entire extradimensional space. Let nobody say he doesn't get into the looting spirit.

@ Aylaeth: true, I thought that Karthan was meaning take the one from the Promenade. Because it'd be only logical to remove any entrances to the prison that they can actively enter. But Min is being annoyed only because he wants to get moving and get Lin out of the LoF from the approaching RD and their siege weapons.

Also I did miss your posts! Yargh my mobile is killing me lately! I've updated it, used different programs and my internet pages keep coming up all screwy or half loaded. ._.; Its bothersome...

@Kelne: I say we take them all so we can divy the loot without impending doom hanging over us. ;) Lin and Min are still up for a little heaving and hoeing though if need be! :D

Karthan may not be a scholar. But he has his own...low cunning.

Plus, if these things CAN be moved...oh, the caravanning he's going to do!

Seriously! They're obviously a big clue and part of the Baron's vast trade network and wealth. Any interest in starting up our own consortium anyone? ; )

If it's determined the tapesties can be moved, then all we should need to do is take a good look at the location we wish to head to, preferably one outdoors (just in case it's another pocket dimension) and then the majority can go through the tapestry and then one or a few can teleport there.

@Min: ya no worries mate, figured that was the case. And ya, I know, happens to me too. Kinda grrr

Weapons found in your skimming run have been listed. There's lots more, of course, I just listed the Adamantine stuff and the most powerful stuff. Anything else in there is +1 or masterwork or lower.

Understood boss man! Thanks =)

@Jorzan: Min and Lin wouldn't mind starting a trade consortium or some type of business~, I had been planning on figuring out how to make something similar to these tapestries. I had planned on Mimicking a doorway we found doors.

But! DRA's Awesomeness beat me to it. I guess I will have to decipher what spells make these tapestries at some point and see if I will be able to make them down the road. Because they are seriously cool!

The one question remaining is whether the entrance tapestry to the extradimensional space can be rolled up and teleported safely with everyone and everything still in it. That would pretty much eliminate all time concerns. At least so far as the Red Dragonflight is concerned.

Min: It's Karthan who's the trader. :) He bums around as a caravan guard. :)

Being able to load an extradimensional space into a tapestry carried on w a wagon is a huge advantage for trade volume. And smuggling...

I believe there's a few questions/issues remaining.

-Unless I missed it, I think we still need to know if our large size mounts can fit inside the medium sized hallway. If they can't, we could always bring one of the inside tapestries out to the promenade and they could travel through those.

-If everyone is

-Unless they weigh more than 250lbs, and as they are transportation and not extra-dimensional space themselves, I believe that the rolled up tapestries should all be able to fit inside Karthan's bag of holding. DRA, any confirmation possible on this?

-We also still need to determine where exactly we're going to go, which tapestries we're going to go through.

-Finally, at some point we need to have a discussion as to who the tapestries are going to go with. I have characters on both teams so I have no bias, but it seems to me that as this is the Seers Journey thread, and the Baron is pretty much their enemy, that perhaps all the tapestries should go with them. Also, as the Mariansu team is going to Stormfare, while they could use that tapestry, they can't take it with them. And as well, we Mariansu folk have our own world shaking stuff to take care of. We basically just showed up here to get a hall pass. (
And don't worry Min, between you, Mai, Bel and Aylaeth, I'm pretty sure that we'll be able to figure out how to remake one of them ; )

Plus, there's one more personal issue I'm not going to bring up in IC until after the fight-Jorzan's not leaving the castle until he's looked for Grippen. He'll do it by himself if necessary, but if there were at least one brave other <cough>Karthan!<cough> to accompany him it'd be much easier.

After all the rest of you have left, he could roll up the tapestry in the promenade, use Karthan's borrowed bag of holding and stuff it in there, then look for Grippen and use a teleport scroll to join up with the rest of his gang later.

And @Karthan: Min mentioned trading to Jorzan because the wily rogue was the first one to bring it up. But if you ask real nice I'm sure they'll allow you to join their soon-to-be-booming start-up. ^-^

@ Karthan Aylaeth/Jorzan: Jorzan and Karthan can be the brains and Lin and Min can be the muscle :) Between my dragon and her rider they can carry nearly a ton lol. Mind you it wouldn't be fun nor comfortable but they are tough little SoB's.

@ Aylaeth/Jorzan: I agree about the Tapestries and disagree, it would be nice to leave the option open for both groups as there is the possibility of multiple tapestries we could all access. What I suggest is find some that are linked to areas/towns we are friendly with and then we clear this room out and turn it into a headquarters. Setting up the tapestries in a way where we can easily enter and exit places and make more use of our time between adventures. ;) I understand that the Seers group has first dibs on Ormir but this is an opportunity that we shouldn't pass up!

Our extra-dimensional fortress of Solitude if you will. Set up wards to make sure no one but us could access it and we have ourselves an awesome hang out. xD

I agree with Damian though, destroy any we can't take with us and secure what we can before the RD get to it.

-Unless I missed it, I think we still need to know if our large size mounts can fit inside the medium sized hallway. If they can't, we could always bring one of the inside tapestries out to the promenade and they could travel through those.

Well, that hall is only 5' wide and has a low ceiling; don't remember the number offhand but it was no more than 9' I don't think.

-Unless they weigh more than 250lbs, and as they are transportation and not extra-dimensional space themselves, I believe that the rolled up tapestries should all be able to fit inside Karthan's bag of holding. DRA, any confirmation possible on this?

They won't fit in a Type I bag, but if anyone has a Type II bag they'd fit there. Your problem isn't weight so much as volume; the smallest of these tapestries -- the ones in the "gem prison" is well over the 30 cu. ft. limit of a Type I bag.

Being able to load an extradimensional space into a tapestry carried on w a wagon is a huge advantage for trade volume. And smuggling...

Well, the tapestry's just a door. It can't store things, unless you're referring to storing things in the location to which the tapestry transports you, which of course is fine.