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Zanzeti, the harrow-themed medium wandered into the second dungeon in the Emerald Spire with mostly the same companions: a 2nd-level melee wizard, a 2nd-level evocation arcanist, a 2nd-level telekineticist, a ranger 1/druid 1, and now a 1st-level pyrokineticist (all human). My fine medium had recently hit level 3 and had begun some serious slow-track action.
As usual, Zanzeti called upon The Demon Lantern, and he was very proud to report to his comrades that he could now grant his seance bonus to all of them. The trouble was that The Demon Lantern grants a bonus on Sleight of Hand checks, which might be really fun for a group of rogues. With the exception of the telekineticist (who did a small backflip), nobody else was trained in the skill, so the impact was rather flat. It would be nice if the seance for trained-only skills allowed an untrained character to make the checks untrained at the cost of not receiving the +2 seance bonus.
We ran into some preliminary trouble with a pit trap and a moon spider. By some trouble I mean a lot of trouble. Zanzeti had acquired Inexplicable Luck (the ARG faux hero point human feat), so he smashed open the sealed pit trap that contained our dying Shoanti battle wizard before he could be eaten. For most of the rest of the adventure, Zanzeti served as the back-up melee threat while trying to give the ranged characters clear lines of fire.
From a strictly medium perspective, The Demon Lantern performed well. Dancing lights allowed us to have normal light rather than only dim light, and a healthy number of mindless undead meant I had three combats in which at least one creature was foolish enough to swipe at the Fool's Lantern (see other Zanzeti playtests for my concerns about the lantern's lack of "threat"). Because the lantern counts as a creature, we were able to use it to trigger an alarm-based trap without any negative repercussions.
Trancing left something to be desired (though it seems I had confused its exact benefit with that of dual vessel), but it made for a pretty good "secretly buff while talking to the undead villain" tactic.
Overall it was a good game, and my playtest group's growing familiarity with Zanzeti and everyone's love for his little lantern (they think it's rather cute) means that I have a bit more control over when we try a circuitious and tricky lantern approach over just busting in a door. Perhaps the most exciting part is that I just hit level 4, which means a more impressive spirit bonus and actual spellcasting. I'm hoping that this is when Zanzeti really begins to click mechanically, which in turn will make the medium class's flavor feel much more real.
How did your Medium cast Dancing lights at third level ?
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How did your Medium cast Dancing lights at third level ?
It's part of the Fool's Lantern lesser spirit ability. I typically have four dancing lights active in a tight formation with the fool's lantern hovering somewhere else that needs light.
Frankly, I'm amazed at how much I've done with a light-emitting cantrip.
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If a trap kills your wisp, does anybody take damage? Thirty miles away, an elderly kobold bursts into blue flame...
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If a trap kills your wisp, does anybody take damage? Thirty miles away, an elderly kobold bursts into blue flame...
That would be a lot of fun, but I suspect the effect only damages direct attackers rather than indirect trap-makers. Perhaps an arrow trap's firing mechanism would sizzle if the wisp triggered it.