WotW: A Knot of Thorns The Second Parchment
Game Master Xzaral

I have an idea for a ways down the road that involves having a familiar. The trouble is I already have arcane bond (and just used it in a non-retconnable way)

Is there a way to have Arcane Bond and a familiar, or to swap one for the other later?

Happy 4th to all the Americans. If you're not, then happy... Wednesday?

: Wills Shulme to post. :

Using the Force: Don't Post Shulme, Don't Post Shulme.

Happy fourth of July as well!

The 24 hour point doesn't hit until 1620, and considering a holiday I'll give him until tomorrow morning before I move combat along without him.

oh, you know me... just being impatient, :)

Happy fourth as well. Thanks for the maps info Mark - I'll pass that on. Do you mind if I point him in your direction if he has any more questions (instead of acting as a relay station :P )

Using the Force: Don't Post Shulme, Don't Post Shulme.

Your mind powers will not work on me, boy!

Is there a way to have Arcane Bond and a familiar, or to swap one for the other later?

I have been considering Eldritch Heritage (arcane) for Shulme. That line of feats can eventually grant you an arcane bond; not entirely sure how it would interact with already having an arcane bond, but it might possibly work.

edit: Did some digging; apparently it's not RAW legal. I don't know of any other way other than multiclassing witch (which is rather painful).

Go ahead and send him my way. I'm still pretty novice myself, but I'll pass on anything I've learned so far.

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Let me look at the familiar rules again. If you just wanted to swap Arcane Bonds, you've used it what, once? I'd be fine with switching that out if you just wanted to take that route.

yeah, I saw that too. I really don't understand why you couldn't have both for the investment of two friggin feats.

there was a 3.5 feat called Obtain Familiar.

and I could always just retrain later, assuming Mark is ok with it.

I managed to miss the total-coverness note on the first read. Oh well. Reach weapon AoOs will do as well as ready actions would have, I suppose.

I was wondering how the mist was moving, attacking and moving again. Ignore me if this is how he is supposed to be.

No, it's a good question. The mist has an ability called Blood Gorge. When it successfully makes an attack, it gets a second move action as the blood flows through it. That's OOC Knowledge, but you've kinda seen it do it twice now. It just needs to miss to know it's weakness ;p

Er, sorry. Blood Overdose, not Blood Gorge.

Ok thanks, I was wondering

Let me look at the familiar rules again. If you just wanted to swap Arcane Bonds, you've used it what, once? I'd be fine with switching that out if you just wanted to take that route.

Well, I want to have a familiar, but not until at least 3rd level (I need to take Improved Familiar to pull off what I have in mind)

So I can either use Bonded Item for one level and then switch at the level up, or I can drop the bonded item now and just play with a slight handicap.

Interesting. Very interesting. Methinks you're planning something. I think I'll be fine with you doing that, if for no other reason I can see what your grand designs are.

Better than that 1-damage alchemist's fire!

Quoted for TRUTH! :(

Hmm. Can't edit for some reason. Weird.

diplomacy: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15

I'm going to be slammed with work this week but I'll try to post as often as I can.

This game puts a big stupid grin on my face sometimes.

I'm sorry about the joke. But for some reason, as soon as I read Xanos's post, that's the first thing that popped in my head, and I couldn't let it alone.

Besides, I think it's a fitting scripture ;p

The only thing I have to say, is that if that is the way we are going, Dibbs on Batman.

We're the bad guys. That witch hunter is probably this setting's batman.

Fargo's really a lot more like Etrigan.

gone gone the form of man

Fargo is not smart enough to be batman anyway.

I'm not sure Batman is smart enough to be Batman. I mean, with that intelligence score, he had to dump stat something. I just can't figure out what, because all the others mean a dumpstat somewhere too.

Xanos might be, but he's more of a Brainiac than a Bruce.

Give Price some wings and she's a shoe-in for Hawk-Girl though. (Price totally needs wings)

Hello Advanced race guide for the wings

In terms of Batman, he just rolled well. The non standard wealth also helps. Plus, his charisma is not as hi as you would think. He does not do well in diplomacy, he does not bother to bluff, he just refuses to answer any question he does not want to, and I think he took a feat to boost his leadership score for the cohort. The big thing, he spends a lot of his money on divination, so he knows what he is up against and is always ready. And he always wins. Because he is Batman.

There's also the fact that he has an effectively unlimited bank account. In Pathfinder there's nothing, at all, more powerful than that.

Do you have any idea what I could do with the item-creation rules and no GP limit? It happened in a game I was in once. Here's a few of the highlights-

"This cannon fires a hundred heart-seeking dire sharks."

"Remember that Shoggath I hit with the Heightened Trap The Soul? Remember how I Fabricated the gem it's stuck in into a bullet? Good. Quickened Truestrike, and then I shoot him with that."

"Well, we did the math. It looks like it hits with the force of somewhere around 3500 Hiroshima's. The only thing we can use as an analog is some stuff out of D20 Modern, and then extrapolate from there. By our guess it deals about 3.7 Billion d6 damage. Save for half."

And a second level rogue with a lucky roll can emerge unhurt.

Our best guess calculation for the DC based on the D20 Modern Explosives rules, was around 190ish.

On the other hand, I think natural 20s always save. :)

yup

Does Fargo/Teon recognize the squire?

You do not.

What do I know about Sir Eldon from when he captured me.

I figure with this big old bonus to Intimidate I have, it can't hurt to add my own roll to Xanos's, and see if he can't be convinced to stop clapping his hand over his mouth when things are getting interesting ;)

Teon, I think I resent that. I was being very nice.

Xanos doesn't like torture. When it comes to interrogation he'd prefer to ask nicely and if that doesn't work then just kill them and cast Speak With Dead.

Right now he can't do that, so he's resorting to exasperated rhetoric. :)

Fargo has never dealt with torture, but as far as he is concerned, if they think he is friendly, they are more likely to answer without issues.

Book 2 actually has some rules on the use of torture, as well as Profession (Torturer). It basically works out that Intimidate is the skill used to gain information from someone (torture equipment just giving a bonus), while the Profession skill prevents 'mishaps' that my hurt/maim/kill the victim.

It all starts off with someone strapping them in for the first check, no actual torture needed, which I was giving as part of mentioning it for Timeon.

I really thought it was a nice little addition.

About to head to my Tuesday game (also Way of the Wicked, by the way). If you guys figure out what you want to do with Timeon, let me know. And feel free to ask him more questions, he's pretty pliable at present.

Teon's little moment makes me think of Zengief about a minute into this.

Man I have high hopes for that movie.

I'll be out of town for a week starting tomorrow. I'll be able to post from my phone but it will be less frequent. Don't let me hold up the game.

I rearranged the map to make this work. If you guys don't like it just change it back.

here's how it goes-

Cain readies an action to shut the door. The snake comes through. Cain shuts the door behind it.

Teon takes an AoO and grabs it (he has a high AC, so this should be ok).
If he hits, Grumblejack joins the grapple to pin.
If he misses, Grumblejack attempts a grapple, but doesn't take the AoO unless the snake has Combat Reflexes.

Once it's pinned Price just bags it.

Shulme's on standby to heal in case things get out of hand.

Xanos supervises (because Summon Monster is the only spell he has that even effects these things)

Then we just rinse/repeat until we have three snakes in bags, ready to be mailed to the next guy who pisses us off.

Waiting until I get confirmation on how you guys want to handle it.

If the mechanics of this work for you, Mark, it's fine by me. Remember in that case that any spell that adds to attack rolls (such as Bless) also adds to CMB.

I applaud the real-world, salt-of-the-earth sense of this plan... but this isn't exactly the real world and these aren't common snakes. What's to keep these mithril (assumingly bladed in some form -if only in fang) constructed snakes from sundering the bag or the door? I mean, what's the hardness on a sack? Can't be much, then all we've done is moved the fight into the hall (which negates our ability to flank them) and had Teon eat an AoO or two.

I'd love to hear he answer to Shulme's question.

Waiting on viability of plan.

Mechanically speaking, yes it will work.

I would require a CMB v CMD check to shut the door as the three snakes would be attempting to rush through together. Ever tried shutting the door when three dogs try coming in all at once? I imagaine robot snakes would be worse, lol.

Otherwise the mechanics listed by Xanos are pretty much dead-on.

After in the sack there is the issue as Cain pointed out. These are constructs and don't exactly tire out. And a sack has hardness 0, 2 hit point. They aren't bladed, and their teeth are considered B & P for damage types, not the best for sundering a sack. It'll depend what you do with them after capturing them.

Of course, topping it all off is my favorite part. It's a creative solution and I like those. Plus plenty of places for it to go wrong (failed check to shut the door, failed grapple).

Then I remain skeptical about the plan, but am happy to try it out. I just won't' be posting until my turn comes up in combat. (The damn snakes got me beat!)

:(