Fiendish Fire Giant

Macharius's page

Goblin Squad Member. Organized Play Member. 265 posts (3,122 including aliases). 1 review. No lists. 1 wishlist. 1 Organized Play character. 15 aliases.


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Hi, everyone!

I'm just posting this here because this is where all four of my favorite Paizo-nians are (sorry we haven't met before, Patrick, but you can disregard this particular post :) ) and wanted to say that I miss gaming with you guys and regret how things went down with my disappearing early in the summer. Regarding that, my wife and I check into our local hospital in less than 8 hours for the planned delivery of my second son - so some of you may not even see this until after he's arrived! It's been a whirlwind summer and then autumn of... well, everything - but just because I abandoned my friends doesn't mean I've forgotten them! There's not much else to say to that, I suppose, but I do hope that you're all doing well.

~Macharius/GM Horror/Maegge Weissam/etc.


Aelryinth wrote:

Getting the assortment of legendaries that will really up damage is going slow, however. My best combo is Ring of Jordan (cold) and frost bracers, I really don't have anything else that is stacking the damage.

I've got an Andariel's Helm that buffs poison, and a belt that buffs lightning. It's REALLY annoying.

Enchant so it's all the same damage type? Admittedly I've spend more gold than I "should" on it, but when it comes to legendary items that have almost everything you need but that one thing on it could be better... it's worth it (especially to get a socket in a Warmonger, say).


I don't know, Ael. Given the Magic Find rate on Normal, you're probably fine... which comes with the caveat that I got a "lego" two-handed sword last night while playing Normal for one set of bounties. The random number generator failed me hard on the stat rolls so it's basically vendor trash, but if I can get a socket after two or three rerolls of Intelligence I may consider having my crusader use it. It will be hard to give up his Mortal Drama, though!

Speaking of, my crusader found Odyn Son a couple days ago. I gave it to my barbarian, who now has two legendary one-handed maces which both needs to have stats rerolled to get a socket... which is ungodly expensive in gold I don't frigging have!!

Which proceeds to the question of what people find to be the most efficent method of gold-farming. Bounties on Normal, Campaign on Master/T1, T2 rifts?


Aelryinth wrote:

Last night was a bunch of Torment 1 or 2 Rift runs, and like 12 dispersal bounty hunts.

I'd never been on the latter. What you do is take the bounty down to low difficulty so you can kill things fast (esp with 4 people doing this).

Pick Act 2 bounties, because they are generally the quickest to do.

Everybody picks a different bounty. You race off in all directions to do the bounties as fast as possible.

This usually means everybody gets a bounty done, and then teleports to the last bounty, which is usually a 'Find X dungeon, run through it to the end, and clear level 2' type. You generally pick up no loot except stuff which stacks, because you get too full too fast. As soon as you do the last bounty, you teleport back to town, talk to Tyrael, everyone logs off, and you repeat. Generally, you can get a bounty set done in 10 minutes or so every time.

Don't forget to check the other areas for any stars on the map!

I took a short break from homework last night to do a bounty on Torment 1 with my crusader. It went pretty well, I only died on the Act 3 Keywarden. It was slow going, though, so I will continue doing rifts to build up gear before playing solo.


Yeah, we like blowing through rifts. :) Especially with three or four people, it's a really fun way of

Over the course of the weekend, my Crusader went from character-sheet Damage of 110,000 to 305,000 - mostly due to having a Mortal Drama drop. I'm going to try Torment 1 solo and see how it goes next weekend; he's still weak on crit chance/crit damage so will probably get smoked.

Macharius#1984 for friend request or profile search/views.


I am extremely sadface that I have so little time to play this/next week; I managed to play through half of Act 5 with my wizard last night. I'm using Fire because Cold is too easy, Lightning sucks, and Arcane is boring. I actually increased the difficulty after enchanting a couple pieces of gear to do Fire damage because Expert was getting to be too much of a cakewalk; I think my actual Damage is about +75% of my sheet. Even Master isn't difficult; killing Adria was very long and tedious because of her digging/teleport thing which prevented my Meteor/Meteor Shower and Black Hole/Blazar from having significant effect (Explosive Blast would've been better to have on my bar than BH/B). On the other hand, I had a special event trigger to kill 100 enemies to get a bonus chest: I killed 267!

I may end up having to do Adventure Mode until 70 so that I my guaranteed Legendary from Malthael is a level 70 item instead of level 68 or 69.


I have to wonder, though, how useful all the level 60 Legendary items will remain when characters reach the new level cap of 70.


Yes, I'm also on the American server - although apparently that doesn't matter anymore. I'm with <Crew>, but I don't actually know most of them as it's the Clan that my several friends from my World of Warcraft guild (even though most of us have long since moved on from WoW). I'll probably switch to PFS, though, because I have all of them as Friends and we're on Ventrilo anyways, so the alternate grouping with you fine folks is just fine with me! I've only played with Ariaspinner last Saturday when she joined in.

I logged in for half an hour this morning just to check it out, and played through Act 5 to the main "town" where I can access the crafters. I got a legendary belt drop off the intro mini-boss for my barbarian.

Also, Aelryinth: if you reset your quests, you can't access Act 5 until you've killed Diablo again which I found out the hard way for my Wizard and is why I played it on my Barbarian instead.


I've had two legendary shields drop; I don't recall either increasing my damage over another weapon, though the second added +19% Fire damage so it may be worth skilling into Fire damage where possible.


Played a bit with Aelryinth and Ariaspinner on... um, Saturday, right? Finished A3 and blew through A4 on Torment 1 like hot butter through a knife. My barbarian got a few legendary items over the weekend: almost exclusively 1-hand weapons, when I'm really looking for a Skorn. Not much in the way of armor upgrades, though. Damage has moved up to roughly 60K from 40K last week.

Wizard has had two legendary wizard hats drop, and a legendary belt. I'm still soloing Torment 2 as Cold with her because Rare/Elite packs in Torment 3 just slaughter me. Damage has held steady at 120K.

Also, crafting. If you have mostly Rare items with a few legendaries or just hit 60 recently, take a look at what you can get from the Blacksmith. Crafting Exalted Fine items can provide both my Barbarian and Wizard with possible upgrades - but it really needs the right mix of stats across all six bonuses to be worthwhile. Exalted Fine items are plan drops, but they're not particularly uncommon and I have that level for almost all armor categories - though not as much for weapons. Unfortunately, they're all Bound to Account: so no item trading with other players which is huge BS for those of us with long-standing gaming guilds/clans/etc.

If/when you make a Crusader, all the Crusader-specific items are already available with the Blacksmith as well.


My sorceress has popped a couple 2 million crits as Fire, but I've gotten several items that give a boost to Cold damage so that's what I'm running with right now. Cold is Easy Mode; she can handle Torment 2 solo right now at ~120K Damage, though I've noticed that this Damage rating doesn't seem to include the effect of type bonuses from items. Blizzard, Glacial Spike x5, Arcane Orb/Frozen Orb, GS x5, rinse/repeat. It's rather convenient that Arcane Dynamo (or whatever the Passive is) that boosts damage on the next non-Signature is maximized right when the Arcane Power from using Signature spells increases to the point I can use a bigger one.

My barbarian is having trouble, though. He can't kill stuff in Torment 1 by himself, but Master doesn't drop upgrade items to allow him to play Torment. I should be able to group with friends this weekend to play Torment and hopefully get a bunch of upgrades.


Werthead wrote:
Stuff

Hi, Werthead. Fancy, meeting you here after so long at wotmania/RAFO!


Sign me up! This is the perfect AP for my Imperious bloodline (ARG) sorcerer idea I've had since I first discovered the bloodline. Would obviously take the Blood of the Pharaohs trait, seeking to find proof of his descent in the various tombs.


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Gorbacz wrote:
CORPORATIONS AREN'T PEOPLE!

Correct, they get more beneficial income tax treatment.


pennywit wrote:
I particularly like the mythic weakness and the way it ties in with your fairy-tale theme. But if this is Papa Wolf's weakness, look for your players to use it against Nyrissa, too.

Oddly enough, this is already written into the adventure if the PCs are able to find Zeddigar's Picnic (or whatever the book is that describes Thousandbreaths).


Hooray!


Douglas Muir 406 wrote:

That would work mechanically, but... this is a guy who's been standing in the woods for a century or two, guarding something. Kinda hard to explain how he gets monk levels.

Also, alignment.

"Standing in the woods for a century or two, guarding something" to me is precisely why a Treant would have levels in Monk. That's a long, long time to be doing this task: the obligation to do so would certainly be a difficult task to maintain (indicating a change in alignment to lawful), and if it's going to take that responsibility so seriously one could reasonably assume it practices some type of combat technique - particularly one that explicitly mitigates its own natural weaknesses as much as possible.


Played through the mining and exploration tutorials; exploration seems like a lot of fun and I could definitely see combining the two and mining in gravitic signatures! In that vein, I moved my Venture out to a 0.5-sec system and tried to mine. I was instantly set upon by Guristas who jammed me immediately. They weren't doing a lot of damage, but since I couldn't fight back (not being able to target-lock them) I had to head back to the station and dock and research the best way to augment my sensors - either boosting the Venture's magneto-? sensors or getting a different type altogether. I've got T2 drones to defense myself which won't be a problem... as long as I can target them!


I put some stuff up on contract for a week at roughly 10% below market prices; I'm not sure how well it will sell but we'll see (maybe should have done 25% below?). I was able to fully strip the fittings from my ship, and otherwise toss everything valuable in my cargo hold (excluding missiles!). I then made 25 jumps through null-sec in a completely un-fit Drake without incident! Probably the highlight of my EVE "career" so far. :P

I finally docked on the edge of Amarr space in a 0.5 sec system and logged for the night. It's 25 more jumps to Jita and there rest of my assets, but I can autopilot on that since nothing in between is below 0.7 sec.


It's funny you mention going back to high sec... because I didn't when I quit. So now I'm stuck in Period Basis, 30 jumps away from even medium sec, and apparently they removed the 7th High slot on the Drake so my fitting with 7 MLs isn't allowed to launch to space. I'm corp-less so don't have access to the Fittings facility, so am quite literally trapped in TPAR-G.

I may try and sell all my stuff and then pod myself so my medical clone wakes up in Jita instead of trying to fly out. On the whole, the situation is hilarious. I'm such a nub :P


Threadnomancy! because I re-upped and wanted to get an idea of the player/paizo landscape in EVE right now.


Liz Courts wrote:
And Swords & Wizardry Complete is now free on Paizo.com. :D

Downloaded.


  • 1. Be normal and fight off the undead apocalypse
  • 2. Be normal, become undead, fight off the undead apocalypse as undead
  • 3. Launch and "win" the undead apocalypse as the undead overlords
  • 4. Be normal in a post-apocalyptic undead world

For myself, I'm most partial to #2 and #4 since I think they offer the most Roleplay opportunity; #4 in particular as it has both "internal" (emotional, behavioral, spiritual) and "external" roleplay (survival, evasion, escape, fight-or-flight, resource gathering).


Any updates on our favorite lizardman-pirate?


What's the allure of playing a game in which the PC is a Mary Sue, able to effortlessly overcome every encounter? Obviously it's not and either/or proposition and most people tend to want something in between, in which characters are challenged and threatened but are able to overcome.

The commentary that follows is 100% speculation based on what's been posted to these forums by [primarily] Turin and one or two of his players:

Having read the entirety of the CoT/Kingmaker mashup it seems that Turin was expecting a similar level of player creativity/inventiveness/adaptability as in the previous game whereas his more-strict character creation requirements suggests that this game would focus more on the theme of the AP rather than having to BAMF the various monsters. On the other hand, a CR 4 encounter at an APL 1 group is APL+3 = Epic encounter, suitable for end-boss fights but probably even more challenging (nominally-speaking) given the limited feats, spells, and hp pool of first-level characters.

I haven't been playing nearly as long as Turin or his players, nor do I have the personal experience to derive any particular insight on the gameplay events of a group of people whom I've never met and that live ~2000 miles away from me - so feel free to take that with a pretty hefty grain of salt. ;)


Disappointing, but given the controversy surrounding recent events outside Harrowstone Prison - hardly unexpected.

Hopefully you are all still friends!


Turin the Mad wrote:
To quote a previous CJ post (by Macharious IIRC): "E-mail, where all the real role-playing takes place".

Yup, that was me. Those exchanges are hilarious!

Turin, KGM, and any other players that show up here since I recall some posted in your CoT/Kingmaker journal, I'm very much looking forward to how this proceeds.


Jam412 wrote:
Wow, late July. Bummer.

Sadface, indeed.

Also, no Kadrilkasta? Disappointing (and, IMO, somewhat misleading) since she's on the product cover. Yes, I'm aware that there is a Huge-size Adult Blue Dragon in the "Designed for use with the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary Box", as well as the dedicated Battles "mini" for her.


ferrinwulf wrote:

Dead easy. You run smuggelers Shiv up to the cannibal camp and have them recused by a ship...the Wormwood...part 1 of skull and shackels then starts with no problems. It means chopping certain parts out of the shiv adventure though

Or you could just carry on with the island and then have them rescued as above but chance the sub plot of the temple. Of course if you did this the players would be 3 levels higher than they should be when they start wormwood.

The entire point of swapping Wormwood Mutiny out for Smugger's Shiv is to avoid the Wormwood; starting with Smuggler's Shiv only to have them picked up by Harrigan places the PCs in exactly the position you were running Smuggler's Shiv to avoid in the first place.

I really like Lord Fyre's suggestions; an important addendum to them is

Spoiler:
Having Harrigan antagonistic toward the PCs later in the AP is a logical extension of Harrigan being a Chelish tool, since there is no longer the backstory of them "stealing" his prize ship out from under him and "mutiny-ing" on him.


All of the above?

Have Sheila tell them to find Natalya and the shard, and not come back until they do - IF they can get it before "another, more trustworthy" team. Natalya will still be in the city, somewhere else that they'll have to hunt down all over again. It offers the chance at redemption, while putting the pressure on to force them to work together. And, if they fail, they can be the "other" Pathfinder team.

Alternately, have Sheila fire them right off the bat. The Scarzni can find them, who Natalya will have banded together with - and this sets off the chain for them to find her and the shard all over again and go back to Sheila so you can get them back on script.


Brother Faust the Elder wrote:
3/4ths casualties with an 87% fatality rate is pretty commendable.

Huzzah!

What were your players' reactions to this, and what are your afterthoughts now that the game has come to a close?


And the other chromatics? The regular Battles minis are outside my price range, but I'll definitely be buying the dragon set(s).


What kind of conversions have you had to make so far to accommodate having only two PCs?


Turin the Mad wrote:

The bad news: they're running out of hero points...

More details later!

How is that a bad thing? :D


A partial short answer is that "numbers" are something easier to talk about, that can be discussed on an objective basis.

Subjective stuff such as role-playing can't be fairly debated due to the tremendous variation in individuals' feelings about what makes something "good" or "bad".... the only thing that matters there is if everyone at the table is having fun or not.


Who's running CC, by the way?


Oh man, Shattered Star and Carrion Crown? I love it!


Hee hee! When's the next session?


P.H. Dungeon wrote:
I noticed that Frog God games has their Slumbering Tsar AP available in both Pathfinder and Sword and Wizardry formats. You might check that out. It's got a very old school vibe that I think might be up your alley- plus you could run it with sword and wizardry if you wanted to, and then not have to deal with all the shenanigans that come up with an option filled system like Pathfinder.

Slumbering Tsar is not available in a Swords & Wizardry version. It's the exception to FFG's "available in both PF and S&W" product line rule. :)


I mis-interpreted the Dread Wraith's negative energy damage to mean "negative energy drain". I nuked two cohorts and a PC in successive rounds before the rest beat feet. The players forgave me for it, though, since I'm still pretty new to the GM-trade.


Yup, until Adeptus Technicanus Jr. comes along!


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Congratulations Nick, Lou, and all the Frogs!


Orthos wrote:
Welp, there goes another $20.

Indeed. And however much the add-on for HeroLab/d20Pro will "cost" if it gets there... if I knew how much that would be, I would increase my pledge now to help make sure it happens. *nudges the Frogs that be*


Joe Wells wrote:
How much will Heart of the Razor be to add-on a print copy? I'll bump my pledge ahead of time if I know what it'll cost.

Similarly, how much will it be to add on as a PDF for us lower-level pledges?


GM Arkwright wrote:
@Wyam Marshaal- I like. Your character is a paladin so I feel obligated to ask how he would cope if some other members of the party had a more 'screw you I'm looking after number one' attitude and ignoring the poor, or maybe came from a background where they'd done some evil things in the past.

Regarding selfish characters, Wyam would take the "enlightened self-interest approach" where encouraging the character to help him and/or the [rest of the] party is in that character's best interest as well. If Wyam is able to build enough trust with this character, he would try to get them to change by showing how honestly being out to help others can be more rewarding than merely making it through another day with hopefully a few more gold in the pocket. For characters that have done evil in the past, it's no big deal to him so long as the character regrets what they did and is trying to make things right or has already done so and learned from it and is now doing the right thing.

In general, I see Wyam as being very self-aware in the sense that he's not perfect and that, as a mortal, has committed his own sins and will continue to do so despite his desire to be good. This could especially arise if his family or friends are tortured, kidnapped, etc: Wyam's as easy going as it gets until you piss him off (which will take a lot), but once you do that it's "war to the knife" which will always be a challenge for him to not succumb to and lose himself forever in. Wyam is a character who could lose the war by winning every battle, and it will take all he has - and the rest of the party as well - to prevent that.


Oterisk wrote:
Tshilaba Vadoma- Rogue Scarni, Aberrant Tattooed Sorcerer/ Sandman Bard. Illusion based tattooed Sorcerer, checkered past face man likes to go with the flow and not make too many waves like he did that one time.

Heh, I remember Tshilaba... and that "one" time!


Character Name: Wyam Marshaal
Race / Sex: Human Male
Classes: Cavalier / Paladin
Alignment: Lawful Good

Backstory:
Wyam Marshaal was born into the family of a minor noble in rural Varisia. His early years living on a manorial estate put him in close contact with the peasant tenants, the children of whom were his friends and playmates. When he was big enough, his mother was able to persuade her second cousin in Korvosa to take him on as a squire. A strong boy, Wyam excelled at armsplay and, due to his country upbrining, horsemanship. In the big city, however, Wyam always felt out of place: his many happy memories of playing with the peasant children were in stark contrast to how the nobles of the big city treated the lower-born. When he reached his majority living in his uncle's House and had passed beyond further obligation to serve, Wyam requested to join the Church of Iomedae.

Far from being disappointed or upset, Wyam's request appealed to his uncle's eternal hunger for power and prestige: as a Marshaal, anything Wyam did would only increase his own standing as well. And so it did, for Wyam's skill in the training salle and lists within the Church's militant arm quickly rose. Within the Church, however, Wyam remained unhappy. While the elimination of the undead, evil wizards, demons, and devils was all well and good, the Church seemed - to Wyam - to be neglecting the welfare of those they were so busy proclaiming they protected. And so Wyam took up his own banner as a knight-errant, roaming Varisia to protect travellers from bandits, villagers from goblins, and doing what he could to aid the common folk of the land. He eventually found himself in the town of Sandpoint, taking up with a small group of like-minded adventurers and serving with them to shield and serve the townsfolk.

Personality:

Wyam is cheerful, outgoing, well-mannered, and considerate of others. He extends the benefit of the doubt to all, and cares for the plight of the poor more than many of the "enlightened" born of higher stations. To those that betray his trust or who seek to harm his friends or family, he is a tireless, implacable foe that will unrelentingly harry an enemy into submission.

Character Sheet Draft:
Init +0, Per +2

Defense
CMD 15
AC 20 Flat 10 Touch 20 (+8 armor, +2 shield)
Fort +4 Reflex +0 Will +4

Offense
Speed 20'
BAB +1, CMB +5
Melee +5 attack, +4 damage
Ranged +1 attack

Stats: Str 16+2, Dex 10, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 16
Feats: B-Skill Focus (ride), 1-Mounted Combat
Traits: TBD
skills: *Diplomacy, *Handle Animal, *Knowledge (nobility), *Ride, *Sense Motive (4+Int+FC, *=Class Skill)

Class Features: Aura of Good, Detect Evil, Smite Evil 1/day, Challenge 1/day, Mount, Order, Tactician
Mount - horse
Order - Dragon
Tactician - Lookout

Equipment: Heavy steel shield (20gp), lance (10gp), dagger (2gp), longsword (15gp), morningstar (8gp), shortbow (30gp), half-plate Armor (600gp)

Long-term PbP Experience (3 months+): I'm currently active in 8 other games, all of which have been running for longer than three months. One game is over 3000 posts with another closing in close behind it. I was recruited as replacements in both of these games. Two games require daily participation, and two more nearly-daily, with the other four a little more slower-paced. Obviously, I am able to maintain this rate of posting.

Writing Sample: As I'm active with 8 different games, I think there's plenty of material to demonstrate the quality of my writing 'in situ' rather than contriving an artificial situation.

Extras: I can and do post daily (if not several times a day).


Lonely Warrior: make the barrow Unhallow-ed with the silence effect, and add in some skeletal champions (Warrior was entombed with his bodyguards). If you're feeling extra-mean, make them Wraiths or - even worse - Dread Wraiths. PRD Wraith/Dread Wraith. I'd suggest you could use a Banshee instead, but at CR 13 alone I suspect it would be too much for a APL 8/9/10 party. You could use Greater Shadows, though.

Forest Drake: a weaker [dragon-kind] of the opposite sex as a mate is usually suggested on the Advice and General Discussion for making [dragon-kind] encounters more challenging, as is making the most of environmental conditions. I'll have to read up on the encounter and think about it some more before offering up anything more specific.


Drew and Thaddeus,

If your players really want to play evil characters, check out Fire Mountain Games' 'Way of the Wicked' Adventure Path. It is likely a better fit for your players.

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