Way of the Wicked

Game Master Megan Robertson

Welcome. Any questions we want to discuss between players go here. I will put up the gameplay thread Soon(tm).

Good to be selected. I know it was a difficult task for you. I'll get up my alias here soon.

Heya...so this is me, checking in. My alias is mostly done, but I'll have to swap out my sin from Pride to Envy. I'd do it now...but it is nearly 5am in NZ and I require the sleep XP

Also, thanks for picking me and congratulations to everyone else who was selected ^^

I am just checking in. My alias will be largely complete after I do a bit of cutting and pasting.

Treize, I think the idea was to have each of the seven sins represented. That's why (I think) he chose the group of seven.

I spent an hour going through the avatar images. That's always the hard part. :P

Oh yes, and I'm a very fetching fetchling.

Thanks much for the invite, DM Flykiller. I have a potential final change. Based on Zyphus being Mordred's new diety, should his alignment swap from LE to NE? Zyphus is NE, plus I believe NE fits more along the Sloth theme than LE.

I am creating the alias now. Currently neck deep in avatar images. I have a very particular look in mind, so I hope I find it.

I wanted to have all seven sins.
I promised to give higher priority to the people who helped me to refine the sin rules before I opened this thread.
I still had to give a chance to those who haven't.
I wanted to have a balanced group.
I wanted to have fun characters with little reason for infighting or refusing to cooperate. Not pansies and not utter maniacs.
I wanted to have good players.

I nearly cracked my head around all this stuff, I've spent several hours staring at the spreadsheet and rearranging selections. In the end I'm afraid the balance went halfway out of the window with only one arcane caster and an overabundance of skills and divine spells. But I hope we will work it out :)

One so rarely hears complaints about an overabundance of divine spellcasters. I just spent some time looking over the party, and it seems we'll be in perfectly 'good' shape.

It is hard picking players when a lot of people have interesting backgrounds.

I will have my character up today. The avatar selection is what will take the longest.

This is my 3rd or 4th time trying to get into a WotW game. :)

Sigz checking in. Thank you, DM Flykiller, for giving me the chance to pitch in for team Evil :)

A question regarding consumables 'cause I'm the half-vampiric glutton; Does a human count as a consumable for me?

Alias is put together. I am not sure I'm missing anything. This will be my first PBP on these forums, so I am trying to make sure I follow the community standards on stuff.

Once I get to creating/controlling undead, I can create aliases for them if desired.

Dark Netwerk checking in.

Sheet done, anybody want to discuss planed progression or skill overlaps? I plan on taking the next 3 levels as rogue, then another as a fighter and then (hopefully) straight into assassin. I plan on doing damage, poisoning and flanking.

Thoughts on maximizing the use of sneak attack; Combat Expertise -> improved faint, smokesticks, sneezing powder, marbles, flash powder and flanking.

I'm planing a melee character with 2 weapon-fighting, probably a sickle and a flail for tripping and disarming... Not sure, might just go classic long/shortsword...

My current skills; Acrobatics +6, Bluff +5, Climb +7, Escape Artist +6, Profession (Gambling) +5, Sleight of Hand +6, Stealth +8

I plan on maxing those with the fighter levels and adding Disguise, Disable Device, Perception and Sense Motive with the extra four ranks from rogue. I'll probably switch from Profession (Gambling) to knowledge (local) though as gambling is mostly for fluff unless the DM advises against it.

I'm pretty flexible though so please tell me your thoughts.

I should compare notes with Targi. However, my game plan is good for everyone to know.

I'll be going straight cleric, unless character growth occurs in a way I don't plan on (which has happened with me before).

Most of my spell selection will be dedicated to debuffs and buffs (probably in that order). Once I get to creating undead, I will be spending gold on onyx and gear for my minions. I don't intend to create hordes - fewer, stronger undead. I will NOT be melee - I will probably keep a dagger or two for utility purposes, wearing at most light armor (remember I'm Sloth and armor is heavy) - though of course my undead can be (will probably dive into the variants to get spellcasting undead and whatnot). Early on, most will be melee.

I am going ranger, then two levels of archaeologist bard. Then I plan to go ranger all the way. I will also have ranks in disable device and perception.

As for skills I am looking at
acrobatic
disable device
knowledge nature
knowledge religion
knowledge planes
perception
sense motive
spellcraft
stealth

climb, swim, linguistics will share the last skill rank

I might drop acrobatics also, but I don't know what I will replace it with.

I've opened the gameplay thread, feel free to introduce yourselves and have the cordial death row chat :)

Targi - The runeforger ability replaces channel energy, not domain power, so I don't think the Dwarf bonus should work on it. It does apply to the Artificer's Touch ability, though.

Mordred - yes, I approve changing your alignment to NE.

Jack - Gluttony also gives you 'accelerated drinker' trait. As for humans, I will have to think it over. I don't think it can be applied 'as is' mechanically, but having it work in some way would be really cool.

I am dropping knowledge(religion). My character should be up in about 10 minutes

First of all, I should point out that I had every intention of going either pure Rogue or splashing one or two levels of fighter. I also had intended to focus on melee combat and flanking, and trap disarming. Going pure kukri the improved crit line and so forth (taking knife master for d8s on knives, etc).

But it seems we have no shortage of people to do that XP

So, if we are light on Arcane casters...I have been working on a concept for the Arcane Trickster. Basically, Magus/Rogue/AT focusing on Magus and AT. I'd take Spire Defender for the bonus proficiency with the whip, and the scorpion whip would become my main melee weapon. I'd take subsequent feats to maximize trip and disarm.

Upshots would be another (half) arcane caster that can sneak from a distance with spells. Also, you'd get some more versatility as opposed to another straight up 'flank and poke until it dies' type. There will be a lot of that, don't get me wrong, but now there will at least be some versatility.

Also, as a completely unrelated follow up, can we take two of the campaign traits as our traits? Basically, I'm looking to be convicted of high treason (for fluff mostly) and murder (for crunch) if I keep Treize as a rogue. If we decide Treize should go the AT route, non-issue because Magical Knack will be my friend XP

Here is Kyrul. Now to report to the gameplay thread.

I strongly favor enhancement magic and item crafting. There are no plans to branch off from cleric, but one never knows what the future holds.

I also plan on staying a Sorcerer of Lust all the way. Maximizing Bluff and Diplomacy for various purposes. Focusing on scorpion whip as main weapon since the Sorcerer of Lust has bloodline feats that grant proficiency and skill, and subsequent feats to maximize parry and drag attacks. (Mainly to get opponents in touch range, where my spells will be more effective.) Also plan on taking Leadership eventually, if that fits with the campaign. (Sedition provides a bonus.)

@Flykiller; I added the trait. How about some save to resist draining people dry if I bite them? A will save or addicted perhaps?

@Treize; The assassin pc doesn't realy offer options for a ranged assassin and that's where I'm heading but I don't think that an overabundance of melee types is necesarily a bad thing.

We've got;
Melee; 1 Anti-Paladin, 1 cleric, 2 fighter/rogues, 1 ranger.
Ranged; None that I can see.
Casters; 2 divine, 1 arcane.

We've got an anti-paladin, a ranger and a fighter at first level, all with high bab and proficient with a bow, I'm sure we'll manage if the need strikes us, you don't need to change for me anyway, I can go more tactical easily with tripping and disarming, high crit threat d8's on a kukri sound awesome and way more deadly than what I had in mind.

Treize - I am happy for you to go the AT way if you feel it meshes well with your character and the party. But the decision should be yours, of course. I picked you as is. The Daggermark Poisoner PRc adds smoke bombs and trap launching, but perhaps the same effect can be achieved with multiclassing. There is a myrmidarch magus archetype which allows ranged spellstrike, if that could be of any use.

My plans are to dip a level of Oracle of Bones to get the Bleeding Wounds revelation, and focus on certain Channel Energy feats for when Tragen hit's 4th AP. Things like Shatter Resolve and maybe the Aasimar Channel Force line. But then again, he'll have to survive that long first.

Skill-wise, the focus is on Intimidate, with other points scattered elsewhere.

And now that I'm looking at the character, I realize I haven't completed the crunch yet.

Speaking of Divine and Arcane casters, how are the guards preventing us from casting spells? What's to keep me from charming our way out of here. I imagine that we haven't had an 8-hour rest in a long time, so that could prevent us from regaining spells. Or is there some other method at work here?

Off the top of my head - don't you have to have free hands to cast spells? If you could use a Stilled Silent charm, maybe it could work. (but still at a penalty since if there's one thing these guards know, it's that the convicts should not be freed. You'll have a chance to meet them soon ;) )

The spells that have somatic components do require hand gestures. Yes. Good point. Sorry, I just woke up and wasn't thinking straight at the moment. But Shalastar has such a low Int/Wis that he may try to do it anyway. :P

Sigh, oh great and powerful headband of mental prowess, I will be with thee soon.

My skills of choice are roughly the same that I have now: Appraise, Craft (jewelry, armor, weapons), Know (history), Know (nobility), Linguistics, Perception, and Spellcraft. I will go anywhere I'm needed in a fight, but my ranged options will be fairly horrendous.

It's this trait, right? I'll try to keep it in mind. I don't think it works through the walls though, since a Perception check wouldn't reveal it anyway in this case.

Ironbeard is an awesome spell though :)

Oh, and Mordred, it looks like we are acquiring Knowledge skills without any overlap without even trying to coordinate. Thumbs up

Sorry, not parry, I meant feint above. I've somehow replaced that in my mind for a few days now, and have even said parry in my real life campaign.

I've been looking at the duelist prestige class and I can't help thinking it would be a great fit for Jack so I'm wondering if I would be allowed to switch around his strength and dexterity and pick up weapon finesse in place of two weapon fighting?

I'd take the first level when we hit character level 9 (with hopefully 3 levels of assassin under the belt) I believe but it's always nice to have something to aim for.

Jack - Right now it's not a problem, we didn't even have the first combat yet. But if you decide by level 9 that you don't want to be a duelist anymore, by that time I won't allow retroactive character rebuild. By the time we hit the first level up, you'll have to settle on your build once and for all.

If you're going duelist/assassin, Jack, I'm inclined to think the Magus/AT build makes even more sense. And I'm not saying that we have too much melee, as much as I'm saying we could use some more of the arcane. With the Magus/AT build, I still get proficiency with the kukri and I can blow a feat on making them improved crit. We just get some more arcane options than we otherwise wouldn't have especially since our sorc looks like they're going for more control/influence spells(which makes sense). As pretty much all Magus spells are offensive in nature, I can help fill in that gap.

So I think I will go the Spire Defender route after all.

I intended to resolve the events with Mordred via PM's, but it looks like the dice rolls do not work there. I'll copy-paste the exchange so far into the gameplay thread.

You can use invisible castle to roll dice, and provide link to the site

@DM Flykiller; Cheers and no worries :) It's just a different approach to killing people, Jack is still the same.

Note; When I was switching the stats around I found I was only at 22 point buy instead of 25, fixed it.

Ok. The crunch is pretty much complete. Moved the skill point in Sense Motive to Craft (armor), since I expect to be in heavy armor at some point, and the craft skill can make the armor into the kind of pretty I'd like it to be.

I'm looking at the Scion of Humanity alternate racial trait which allows an Aasimar to be affected by effects that work on humanoid(human) as well as outsider (native), and doesn't need to use Disguise to pass for human. I'm actually not sure how this is a benefit. Does anyone have an idea how this could be helpful (apart from say being allowed to be affected by an Enlarge Person spell).

And I'm an ass...

Missed the -2 to con when I was looking over my stats again so now I'm at a 28 point buy. Thank you Tragen for pointing that out to me, re-calculating.

aaand it's done.

How far does this path go level wise? 18? 20?

Edit, reading through the gluttony sin again I see that I gain the fortified drinker trait for free so I'm missing a trait.

DM Flykiller, how do you feel about the Iron Liver trait for Jack, seems fitting.

Gluttony gives you two free traits - accelerated and fortified drinker - in addition to other bonuses/penalties. The Iron Liver trait looks good.

Cool. Added.

Jack, to answer your other question, it seems like Way of the Wicked goes to 20 levels, at least that's what the preview document says.

The most recent part (Part V) which is now available for preorder is for 16th level characters.

EDIT: After looking at firemountaingames website, I have a pretty good feeling what the campaign is all about. This will be fun, I think. I've decided to notch up the fun factor for Shalastar, which means well, enjoying being evil. Expect more licentiousness and, well, lust in general, though as per Paizo policies, nothing too profane or vulgar, just highly, highly suggestive. If someone feels uncomfortable with my character, or the way my character is communicating with their character, or anything of that sort, please let me know and I will tone him down.

Since it does seem like we will be dealing with angels and devils in the future, Shalastar is going to keep the fetchling Skilled quality instead of replacing it with Worldwalker.

Angels and devils will not be your only enemies. In fact, devils (not demons) will probably be your allies more often. From what I can see so far, this AP has a pretty diverse selection of standard enemies, the only exception being that where a party of heroes would usually find a devil, you might stumble upon a celestial.

I meant deal in both senses of the word. Practicing my double entendre skill.

So before I actually go through and put more thought into this...what do you guys think of going Spellblade Magus instead of Spire Defender for my Magus archetype?

For those who aren't keen to read it, the Spellblade basically swaps out spellstrike (Magus ability to deal their spell damage through their weapons) for a force dagger that can be used for the purposes of TWF or spell combat (Magus ability to cast with one hand and attack with a weapon in the other in the same turn). Of course, I'd lose the whip proficiency from Spire Defender, but I think it leads to some seriously interesting possibilities: a dual-wielding SA damage dealing spell-casting melee/spell striker.

I'd take the normal TWF feats you'd expect a DPR Rogue to take, use the athame blade to do the off-hand stuff with, wield a high-crit weapon in the main-hand (rapier or kukri probably) and then flank and poke 'til it dies. Further, through AT stuff, I can just declare spontaneous sneak attacks and pretty effectively pew anything that needs pewing. That seems pretty handy...

Also...something to consider but would probably need a GM ruling on...I could take Knife Master as my Rogue archetype. Essentially, it allows for d8s with sneak attacks from daggers (and similar weapons) but d4s when attacking with "other weapons." While I know that a ray is a weapon, that does not seem to apply to other spells that don't require a 'to hit' roll (eg. fireball, magic missle, etc). If that's the case...this build would still be dealing d6s with non-ray/attack spells while dealing d8s with dagger-like weapons thanks to the Arcane Trickster surprise spells ability that allows for SA damage on any damage dealing spells.

Of course, the other way to read 'weapon' would be to call a spell of any kind a weapon in which case Knife Master becomes significantly less epic for this build.

Anyways...thoughts?

I, personally, think you are putting way too much thought into this process, but if that is what you enjoy about the game, please continue to enjoy it. My characters usually turn out more organic since I don't plan every single level ahead of achieving them, and I allow my character to respond to the campaign and any developments which arise (or fail to arise) over time. If I do any future planning, its based primarily on how I know the character will develop over time due to class abilities, and I usually look about 3 levels ahead of where the character currently is to get a feel of how he will play out.

However, that being said, I've only told you how we have differing playing styles. You play what you feel most drawn to, and what you think will be the funnest to play, in the process that you find the most entertaining.

Now I will step back and allow someone else who shares your methodology to make a comment, as I'm sure that's who you were aiming your question at anyhow.

Disclaimer: This was intended in an entirely light and playful tone, and I hope it is accepted in the same way. No gravity or interpersonal drama intended or desired.

I have GM'd a magus at the lower(below 9) levels and spell recall was nice to have.

From a usefulness point of of view the spellblade seems to be in last place.

I would either go with the base magus or the spire defender, but I don't know how you view your character.

With that said you should go with whatever fits your concept. :)