Here we go...
Sooo anyone would like to have met a ruthless assassin you can go out for a beer after a murdering, talking about how difficult and/or well-done it was?
Perfectly fine to also be the outsider at the beginning, will make things more... sweet... xD
Continuing Katherine's Q about relative power (from the Recruitment thread) here:
...I played Niche in the previous Wolf game, and he came out as likely one of the more powerful characters in the group. He had a +2 Template that more or less made him a minor god. This version removes the template, and purposely ignores a couple of the synergies/mechanical exploits I used to make him so rediculous in that game. He is still tough, but hopefully no longer to the point where he will out shadow everyone. He is basically a melee damage dealer, with some minor healing ability, so in that respect you could kind of think of him as a Paladin without the baggage in terms of the role he could play in a group. If he turns out to still be too tough, I may fiddle with his stats a bit to make him fit better, or I may just swap him out for a backup character. I'm already trying to think of ideas for such characters, just in case.
To be honest, I find him a bit overstatted, but as immortality as a superpower is not that good also. Problem might be in those base stats, as they give you really high defenses while keeping a good damage output.
Checking against my numbers I have few hopes to hit you with a Dirty Trick maneuver. :D
The trade-off might lay in your weakness, if played well, and putting Niche at constant risk, it can be balanced and also nice to play.
By the way, I love Niche's character concept :)
I don't have an opinion about what the overall power level should be. I do think that games like this usually end up with less balanced parties than 'vanilla' Pathfinder, unless the group decides on norms.
I'm happy to follow Wolf's lead here, and will just say:
- I like playing a character with a strengths and weaknesses
- I'm more invested in RPing Clara in a fun game than I am in her particular power level. If she turns out to be OP in any way, I'm 100% fine with nerfing/rebuilding as needed.
- If we were to do anything, I think the Bench-pressing doc that's sometimes shared on these boards is a useful guide...as is looking for instances where a foe that hits Player A on a 2 needs a 20 to hit Player B (and ditto for our Saves, our DCs, etc.) since that makes encounter design tough on the GM.
Clara, for her part, has a number of VERY high skills (Knowledge(all), Perception, Stealth). She also has generally above average defenses (AC, Saves). These are partly due to me getting god-like stat rolls, and partly due to her At-Will Alchemical Allocation superpower allowing her to keep tons of buffs up all day.
As designed, I'm planning on her keeping the following going all day:
Ant Haul, Ablative Barrier, Acute Senses, Barkskin, Channel Vigor, Comprehend Languages, Delay Disease, Delay Poison, Fox’s Cunning, Heroism, Negate Aroma, Orchid’s Drop, Owl’s Wisdom, Resist Energy (acid, cold, electric, fire, sonic), Tears to Wine, & Tongues.
That said, if any of those are a problem, just let me know and I'll cut them. If I had to guess, the most likely to cause a problem would be the Ability enhancement ones.
I think that as long as we avoid those instances of monsters hitting or saving with 2s or 20s as a group we are balanced.
Party AC seems fine, saves seems more or less good. I think I can hit a high CMD with flanking and debuffs
Superpowers are meant to be super, I have either an incorporeal gaseous form, invisible in dark environments, or a hybrid form in which I have concealment, and invisibility in dark environments.
We'll see how it goes, I chose a defensive/sneaking power partly to give myself some kind of defense, since my base stats were not that high, and because I liked the theme.
I could upgrade it with total concealment, or faster actions between forms, or something else, I didn't want to cheese too much at the beginning xD
Seeing that you can replicate most of it with a permanent blur or other spells wasn't expected. After seeing everyone's power better, maybe Wolf can bring them to the same power level. :)
Just want to say I am enjoying the back and forth so far. Gives me a chance to get into the mindset of the character. I often end up playing devil's advocate in real life conversations, so it is an interesting exercise to but myself in the mind of a character who's viewpoints I dont necessarily agree with.
Niche is meant to come across a bit cocky, verbose, and self assured in a confident, quasi arrogant way. His arrogance isn't the egotistical, narcissistic kind that is paper thin and demands praise, but rather the kind that is so intrinsic to his self concept that he could just not see himself any other way. He can weather critisism and insult easily, because he just is who he is, and who he is is awesome!
He is a demi-god amongst mortals, but rather than needing worship or praise, he is the humble type of godling that is happy to help the young birds he encounters to take their first flight.
I would hope it would be assumed, but I've found in some games people can take criticism of their characterizations as attacks on the player, so I'll say it outright: Niche is a character and all his comments are meant to be taken as his viewpoints and nothing more. I'm finding the portrayal of the various characters so far very well played and internally consistant. Well done all.
I’m having fun too!
I’m definitely getting more into her character than I otherwise would. And its interesting to explore what being LN as a Druid means. She believes in the natural order and that the ends justify the means (my interpretation of neutral in this specific case.)
I don’t take anything personal - part of the fun of role playing is to explore these sort of things and absent external forces, parties tend to end up bringing up these sort of discussions.
Just edited my last Gameplay post (if you'd already read it).
I'm enjoying the RP...though of course Clara takes everything about fizzy beverages VERY personally. ;0)
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For DM Wolf:
- We have one or two more players yet to join gameplay, yes?
- Any comments on the relative power conversation? (As I said above, what I care about is a fun game...and not making your life too tricky when you're designing encounters.)
RP part is always fun :)
Thanks for pointing out, Niche, but usually I won't take RP parts personally, maybe my character could, but ooc is always there in case.
About powers, I won't refuse power-ups :P
Sorry took so long. Character was just approved. Don’t think he will be over powered...saves are low, but decent (compared to some others). His AC is on par. Damage output should be pretty high. And he has weaknesses (-2 Dex hurt a lot, +50% damage from cold and it turns off his regeneration).
If anyone has anything they see in this character that looks broken or needs addressing please feel free to bring it up. Best to discuss it now than have it be an issue later.
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Katherine, want to have our characters know each other? I see Rurik as being an almost amoral mercenary. So long as it doesn’t hurt his people, and he is getting paid, and it doesn’t interfere with his projects, then he’s got a job. Perhaps the two worked together before?
It's fine for me, could be some war, raid, escort, assassination or whatever you see fit. Might have worked together on the same mission. Depends if you see more fit to have worked for the bad guys or for the good guys.
I have to tell you being away for three days has been killer for me, I have been trying to catch up with all the posts but alas time has evaded me.
Anything else?
By the way, this is a rebirth of a previous campaign, yes? Other than the fact that it ended in Brevoy, is there any other history that I should know, either in or out of character?For the other players, any particular hooks that you'd like to build connection around?
The previous campaign did not end in Brevoy... it didn't really end. We are leaving it open ended as possible, allowing for player embelishments and open for how each of them viewed it. You likley know that some of them were on an adventure before. The previous campaign has little effect on this one, some altered characters but that is about it.
Rosa looked like she was not going to join because you were using Rurik, please let me know once you make your choice. Mistaken identity, sorry. Rosa you may join when you are up to it or bring in another character of your choice.
Just edited my last Gameplay post (if you'd already read it).
I'm enjoying the RP...though of course Clara takes everything about fizzy beverages VERY personally. ;0)
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For DM Wolf:
- We have one or two more players yet to join gameplay, yes?
- Any comments on the relative power conversation? (As I said above, what I care about is a fun game...and not making your life too tricky when you're designing encounters.)
It looks like there are two more to make an appearance, Rurik and Rosa. Though I will likely get us moving once I finally get caught up. It only took me 3 hours yesterday and one today!
We will see about the power levels, I plan on playing on your weaknesses by throwing more enemies geared to them once you figure out where you are going.
Sooo anyone would like to have met a ruthless assassin you can go out for a beer after a murdering, talking about how difficult and/or well-done it was?
Perfectly fine to also be the outsider at the beginning, will make things more... sweet... xD
Totally up for this. I am the silent NPC... PM me for more information!
Sorry about being a bit scarce this weekend so far, it's pride weekend here and so many friends are in town. I thought I'd have more time to post.
Rosa has arived
No worries Sharda, post when you can!
There is one more PC, but he might not make it. We are going to move on as if we didn't have one more coming.
Okay, back from pride and at work, I'll catch up on gameplay during work today and contribute this evening.
Can we have a bit of OOC discussion of where to go as well.
Wolf, it seems like you're offering us a custom take on Kingmaker, if we're interested. Is that right? I know you'd said in the Recruitment post that
You could travel to the Stolenlands and make your own kingdom, stay in the city of Absalom, travel to Katapesh to find the Legacy of Fire, travel to the frozen tundra of the Lands of the Linnorm Kings to the carnivorous jungles of the Mwangi Expanse, and from the dervish-filled deserts of Qadira to the elven bowers of Kyonin or even the devil-haunted metropolises of Cheliax, or many other locations... we will be starting in Brevoy and a bit in the past as most know it. The Royalty have all vanished and being vassals of that reign you might want to move quickly.
That's QUITE a big sandbox. Do you as DM have any preference for where we do or don't take this?
Everyone else, what are you as a player looking to do here?
Speaking personally, Clara doesn't have any intrinsic reason to build a kingdom (or much reason to join sides...though there's some useful-to-Clara info that Lady Carona Orlovsky has, and she is a staunch supporter of house Rogarvias and opposing selecting any Lord Regent...so if Clara were going to back any horse it would be that one...at least long enough for Clara to learn whatever Orlovsky knows.)
...But really she's out to discover the Ultimate Fizzy Pop Formula, and figures that exploring new areas, learning new ingredients, and perhaps coming across lost journals of her great-grand-papa will help her to succeed.
Yourself?
While I used the last campaign to hit the background goals...I’m still fleshing out Rurik. But briefly...
Rurik knows he is different from other dwarves. It is why he left his home, afterall. But what he wants to do, someday, is to earn his place within society, and within history. He seeks to obtain an obscene amount of gold, for the dream of raising a force large enough to take back a lost skyhold. Crazy? Yes. But it is a dream. And it is his goal. As to do so would imprint his name in history as being a great hero of his people, which means defacto acceptance. As such, when dealing with anything outside of his people’s sphere of influence, his main motivation is obtaining money and power.
I am completely letting you the players deciding what you do. I can do kingmaker, a variant kingmaker, see how you help a noble gain power, or grab your gotten gains before going elsewhere.
OK, Clara's vote is do what we need to (i.e. grab gains) and then leave and go exploring. She's pretty willing to go wherever, but isn't so inclined to hang around and build a Kingdom.
How about others?
Katherine would grab her gains, then try to build a kingdom for personal power.
Kingdom building, in practice, tends to kill campaigns. It’s a lot of non-adventuring work. I think it makes the most sense to run a few adventures first, so the party really gets to know each other first.
Niche would not really be into getting tied down at this time either. He is still on his quest to improve himself by finding creatures too tough or different for him to defeat, thus giving him new areas to focus on. Kind of hard to do that if he gets bogged down in matters of court.
In a few hundred years, sure he might be up for some king-ing, but at present it would get in the way of what he wants to do.
He will probably advocate going the heist route for now while things are confused. Once we've got what is owed us, we can play it by ear.
In terms of senses, Clara just drank an extract of See Invisibility.
Also Fizzpup (the yellow-eyed wolf she arrived with) is an Elusa Hound and so has 120 ft radius Arcane Sight, meaning:
- if something is magically invisible within 120', he sees the magic aura moving around,
- knows instantly who is a spellcaster, and
- anything else you could normally know with Arcane Sight
I am posting this to all my games, GM and Player
For the next week I will be off on holiday.
Once back I will get things going, post actions.
GMing Players please carry on as you see fit, Im just going to have to hold combats and feed back until im pack.
As a player GM's feel free to bot my PC.
Swish Swish :)
Oops I forgot to change the type, I am so used to it being set to edit. Fixed now.
Niche correct me if I am wrong, I thought mage armor was s personal spell.
Given its INT and that it's a Magical Beast, I don't think training via Handle Animal would apply...but tell me how you want to handle it since its my bonus CR 3 Mount (so not covered by regular rules that I'm aware of).
My assumption was that it nudges her leg and points or growls about arcane auras.
OK, i've moved Clara into position on the map.
Re: Mage Armor, yeah, the wand can only be used to cast it on oneself (but anyone with sufficient UMD could borrow it to use it).
That is true anyone else could use the wand with the UMD skill or if the spell is on your list. Though him being invisible could make a new problem as well. ;)
Please do move your character and furniture as you like since you have 8 rounds. Also add your mounts/animal companions if they are in the tavern.
I am fine with it: "My assumption was that it nudges her leg and points or growls about arcane auras." Though please specify point or growl.
It would have seen Wolf an arcane user walk around the room touching everyone once. Not sure how that would take in effect, my guess is that it got between him and Clara so he did not touch her.
Any ideas on how I can get the map on google slides?
Rurik, I'm not sure I understand. The map is editable now, and I think Wolf set it up to be editable by anyone. Are you having trouble editing it? If so, are you logged into a Google account (e.g. gmail)?
You mentioned slides but Wolf is using a Google Docs Drawing, not a slide.
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Wolf, lets assume that Fizzpup typically points at casters (or unexplained auras)...and nudges Clara as needed, if she's not otherwise paying attention.
I updated myself and added my dino on the map.
I'll add my cheetah to the map as well.
How do I add some darkness to the map?
Sounds good Clara.
Thx Sharda, Katherine, and everyone who updated.
Kathrine I would use the cloud 'shape' make the fill transparent and the outline black. I might be able to edit it for you later tonight when on my laptop.
Usually when I open the link it goes right to my google slides app, and from there I can edit. For some reason it goes to google drive site, which I can’t edit on phone. I’m trying to figure out why. :(
Niche correct me if I am wrong, I thought mage armor was s personal spell.
Ya it is.
OK, i've moved Clara into position on the map.
Re: Mage Armor, yeah, the wand can only be used to cast it on oneself (but anyone with sufficient UMD could borrow it to use it).
Lets assume that's what I meant, and not that I forgot how personal spells work. ;)
Mistakes make us learn and remember. ;)
Rurik, I can't edit it on my phone soooooo, I am in the same boat as you.
My issue is I don’t have a computer at home, and my work computer blocks sites like gmail, google docs and Paizo.
If the maps have axis labeled like a grid, or like battleship, I could report my moves that way. “Rurik from A4 to C6.” That would be one workaround
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"You sunk my Rurik!"
I'll try to put that up, so the others can place themselves according to it also. Don't know how to make them transparent, though
Yes, hopefully someone can get the grid in, I wont be able to until tonight. Hopefully I get time tonight. Yesterday I was just going to take a nap and woke up 12 hours later...
Alright, I added a janky set of coordinates. Hope that helps!
You are awesome!
Rosa, I'm afraid I didn't understand your attack post (possibly just because there's so much interesting crunch going on with all of our superpowers &etc).
Why did you mention Blindfight? And did you just roll to hit with two swings, or reroll a to-hit roll? You spoilered the rules for the Blindfight feat...but those rules mention that one can reroll an attempt to overcome concealment...and I didn't see you roll 1d100 to overcome concealment (or see something in the fiction to make me think one of the demons has concealment vs you).
They are invisible, which in pathfinder adds 20 to any Vs Perception check eg concealment, but I see what your using [Special Invisibility]
The ability to move about unseen is not foolproof. While they can’t be seen, invisible creatures can be heard, smelled, or felt.
Invisibility makes a creature undetectable by vision, including darkvision.
Invisibility does not, by itself, make a creature immune to critical hits, but it does make the creature immune to extra damage from being a ranger’s favored enemy and from sneak attacks.
A creature can generally notice the presence of an active invisible creature within 30 feet with a DC 20 Perception check.
The observer gains a hunch that “something’s there” but can’t see it or target it accurately with an attack. It’s practically impossible (+20 DC) to pinpoint an invisible creature’s location with a Perception check. Even once a character has pinpointed the square that contains an invisible creature, the creature still benefits from total concealment (50% miss chance). There are a number of modifiers that can be applied to this DC if the invisible creature is moving or engaged in a noisy activity.
Over 50% to hit
Miss
If miss
Miss
I have noticed that the randum dice on this site roll the same number often when you cut and past dice code. Odd but ture.
I think I missed that Babaus were invisible, my bad.
I should have rolled for miss chance.
Over 50 to hit for me
Over 50 to hit for pet
I am posting this to all my groups,
I am sorry that at the moment I am in hospital having tests,
I have no idea when I can post again.
When I have an update will let you know.]
GM Panic
That’s horrible. I wish you the best!
I hope it turns out alright! You have my best wishes!
One of my other GM's was in a car accident a couple of weeks ago and ended up with a concussion - I hope it isn't as serious as that.