No, tattoos are the equivalent of a potion. Power Stones are the scrolls of the psionic world.
Well s@!& guess I'll have to change that around then.
Psion Uncarnate at 10th level gains +wis to his Deflection Bonus to AC.
Telekinetic Weaponmaster gains +1 Deflect at 3rd level, boostable to +4 for one round by expending focus.
Dreads can gain Charisma bonus as Deflection Bonus at level 10.[/url]
Mental Barrier grants deflection bonus to AC (and also would be a usable power to build Rings of Protection).
Psychoactive Skin of the Hero grants +3 deflection bonus, as well as some other powerful abilities (thus it's very high cost).
Martial Kineticist archetype of Psychic Warrior gains Deflectino Bonuses based on Level.
Cryptic gains Dodge bonus to AC.
Any monk dip adds Wisdom if you aren't wearing armor to AC. Monk's Robe adds Monk AC bonus to AC/Touch.
Marksman can learn Defelct Missiles, which grants DR 10/Magic-Psionic for ranged attacks.
Physical Acceleration grants a +1 Dodge bonus.
The Dodge Feat grants a +1 Dodge bonus.
Soul Knife at 4th level can learn to add her Wisdom to her Dodge Bonus.
Wilder's gain dodge bonus automatically as they level up.
Tactician can use Hold Position to grant them and someone else a dodge bonus.
Psionic Dodge adds to dodge, stacks with dodge, and allows you to boost it to +4 bonus for one round by expending psionic focus.
There's some magical items that grant AC vs gun attacks as well, most of which could be simulated with any power that grants defense against ranged attacks or deflection or dodge bonuses.
No, tattoos are the equivalent of a potion. Power Stones are the scrolls of the psionic world.
Right, and Selvan just bought eight 1st-level divine scrolls of healing for an arcane-only party. ;-P He can try to ask Sammark to Use P/M Device on the power stones, however.
I think our best bet (if we all live through this) is to start buffing better. Vigor (5 temp hp), Inertial Armor (+4 to armor AC) and Force Screen (+4 to armor AC). Reaghar's Altered Defense: Deflect (+1 Dodge bonus to AC) works as well. So we armor up Reaghar and send him in...
I'm not suggesting anybody do anything with their character, of course. Play your own character, by all means. I'm just a guy who's reading the PU book at the table while it's not his turn. I was thinking on how to deal with firearms in the future, if mdt is going to be making the really tough bad guys have them. And that opening scene with Larissa 'Deathnote' has me as nervous as anything on how to counter it. Not that our current situation is not as equally deadly!
The important thing with firearms to remember is, do not charge in by yourself.
Honestly, Alister was in a target rich environment by himself.
Getting up close to a firearm user is the way to counter them, hard to fire a pistol when you have a polearm in your face. However, you can't do that one on four. :)
If I'd seen the hallway where it was, and not at the end of the hall where I thought it would be, I wouldn't've charged in quite so readily. :P
Force Screen would've been helpful, but it really would've only helped with a single attack, the boot blade. Vigor would've been nice, of course, but in this particular instance, he'd've been dropped to negatives in the same round, anyway. I'm not saying that buffing is a stupid idea (far from it), I'm just saying that in this particular instance, it wouldn't have helped much.
As for the power stones of Natural Healing, do keep in mind that the power in question is "Personal", so those who have UM/PD can use it on themselves, but it can't be used to heal others.
shield bonuses dont work against firearms either? i mean, they work on force missiles....
but any way, regarding the "Personal" range powers, there are a number of things in the psionic realm that let others "borrow" skill ranks and such. just a bit later for us.
and my "Altered Defense" is one of those 1 round increment, X rnds/day things. Quite expensive in terms of character resources. But as you can see, when life is on the line i do use it. hahaha
once i get my lv6 ability, i will be more up front melee fighting, but for now i will usually need to be at a range.
at level 6 i get my disrupt pattern damage on melee attacks, which will be sweeeeet
I'm just going to pay the extra cost to convert those stones into tattoos. They can be transferred to another character so I'm hardly worried.
Shield bonuses don't work on firearms, or force missiles. The Shield spell blocks Magic Missile, but Force Screen has no such thing.
There are, but there aren't many. Vitalist and Tactician can do this, I know, with some powers, but other than that, I don't know of many. I suppose a Metaconcert could allow it to be done, if only for the conductor.
Well after a while firearms won't be as big a threat as they are now.
They're a big threat because our touch ac's are small adn they deal consistent damage.
In any case it sounds like our msotly melee group should really focus on means of getting concealment at range....
Getting up close to a firearm user is the way to counter them, hard to fire a pistol when you have a polearm in your face. However, you can't do that one on four. :)
Round Ten:
McIntyre team: 3 for 1Bad Guys: 1 for 3
Mintakia/Assassins Guild team: A BIG FAT ZERO :)
I think it's pretty clear who needs to needs to step up to the plate here. ;-P First Alys swings and misses, Sam's got a point-blank shot if he will take it, and Selvan's just arrived on the same floor...
Maybe Connor should send that last Astral Construct in before Reaghar charges the guy in the back. Of course, if Elrohir could take out the guy in the back, it'd be one less max-hitting pistol to worry about.
Put some pressure on the bad guys from the other side of the room, Mintakia team!
honestly you should be worried that we might come after you
You have to understand that we don't know you or of you. We jsut know we walked into a firefight taht our target is involved in. And if the smart thign is to leave no witnesses....
In any case marking the 250gp off my sheet now to get tattoos instead of stones.
Reaghar ain't chargin' nowhere. Guerrilla warfare!
Let's see, Connor can tell Elrohir what Hero and Reaghar spy down the hallway. Elrohir can take the shot, followed by Connor's last Astral Construct with Reaghar behind it doing a 90-degree turn into that room. As long as those hallway guards don't give Kol any backup, we might be able to get Reaghar within melee range of Kol.
thing is, i do more damage at range. 1d6+4 vice 1d4+1
I do 1d8+2, if I choose to use Deadly Aim, and if I use one of my two remaining daily uses of Wind Reader, I gain a +11 to hit.
*whistles*
makes me kinda regret trading away Wind Reader on the Marksman I am playing in another game.
mdt has told Reaghar (but not Elrohir or Connor/Hero) that the guy in the back has 50% cover, therefore a 50% miss chance. And even True Strike won't get you out of the GM rolling that 50% miss chance.
I can try to bum-rush the guy in the back with my last Astral Construct. It will probably take two gunshots and could take another gunpowder-augmented Alchemist's Fire, but then Kol and the guard would have to reload. That might give Reaghar time to get to one of them.
Anything that applies to one, applies to all. :) It's not just Reaghar, but he's the only one who's asked. Hero would know the same thing.
Gotta get stuck in sometime. :)
If I knew at Char-gen what I knew now I definitely would not be running around with a polearm-combat reflexes set up. My fault for not reading the docs more closely and noticing that guns are falling from the sky.
Still...I like polearms.
Meh. Firearms didn't transform battle overnight. Not when limited to powder and ball-and-cap. Not when Pathfinder has something called a "battered" condition (try searching that on Pathfinder's PRD). We're in the American colonization days, or fantasy-movie Jack Sparrow the pirate, not the Napoleonic War or Revolutionary War yet. Hence the feats needed to work a blunderbuss properly. Or feats needed to just use a firearm found! Like an exotic weapon.
In the words of Wonder Woman in Justice League Unlimited, "Those were the biggest, slowest, bullets I've ever seen."
Gotta get stuck in sometime. :)
If I knew at Char-gen what I knew now I definitely would not be running around with a polearm-combat reflexes set up. My fault for not reading the docs more closely and noticing that guns are falling from the sky.
Still...I like polearms.
I also didn't expect that nearly everyone would be toting around a gun. I might have built my character differently as well.
...I wonder, is there a soulgun archetype?
Anyway, at least my AC is mostly touch, so I think i will be okay. And I still have quite a nice damage outpuit going for me. That is if I hit something in the near future.
Cryptic -> Grammaton (Cryptic Gunslinger)
Marksman -> Kaigun (Marksman Gunslinger)
Soulknife -> Soulbolt (Soulknife ranged person, can fake being gunslinger)
I wouldn't get too upset right now, as pointed out, guns tend to be rather powerful at lower levels, but not so much at higher levels. You're at the Cap & Ball level, which means it's harder to reload. Revolvers, like in the wild west, are the kings of the battle field, due to being able to reload all 6 chambers by switching out your cylinders with pre-loaded ones. But it still takes a bit to do so unless you spend a bunch of feats (fast draw, rapid reload, EWP(Firearms)). This applies to both Rifles and Pistols with cylinders. Shotguns don't come with Cylinders, and just require reloading normally.
We are allowing the campaign down time rules, so retraining is an option if you want, but I wouldn't let one major fight be the deciding factor. Remember, guns are still expensive, so people with money use them. And smuggling magic artifacts makes good money. :)
yeah i was thinking of going with Kaigun or Grammaton, but went with brutal disruptor instead.
One day the mintakia group will roll well. One day.
yeah probably when you decide to attack one of us
Yeah. Than it'll crit. :P
I play a full BAB class and the only way I could have more strength would be by playing a race that can get a strength bonus. Sure I'm power attacking, but I should have hit something by now.
Somebody flank that guy!
That soulbolt archetype actually looks fun. And using it with a short range bolt would fall in line with my ability scores nicely. I just imagine a huge ghostly revolver, the size category of a .454 Casull gun.
Man, the dice are not with the Mintakia fellows. I mean, Alister got the short end of the boomstick, but he certainly hit something before he went down.
If it makes you feel any better, the NPCs can't get a break either, and they're just trying to hit touch AC.
BTW: Sorry about the extended non posting period Alister. Glad to see you're still here and reading.
Nah, it's fine, don't worry about it. I'm enjoying the combat.
Ok, the rogue who was outside the door frame that Selvan stepped up to is now inside the room with Kol.
If Elrohir can shoot Rogue #3, Astral Construct will form next to Kol, Kol blasts the construct to smithereens like usual, but this will give both Selvan and Reaghar the opportunity to run at Kol. The half-orc's got a double-barreled shotgun and 2 alchemist's fire, so somebody's still going to take potentially a lot of damage, from full single to double hit points.
Of course, Elrohir can miss, Selvan can get shot at by the other Rogue in his room, and Kol can do a crit on the Astral Construct. Which would leave us where we were before this round. That double-barreled shotgun means Kol doesn't have to reload each round.
And mdt, the map does look better now. Thanks.
I swear I've never seen a string of misses like the one you guys are having.
Yeah, I was going to ask if this was a Minnesota Twins baseball game with the Chicago White Sox. More swings and misses than we've ever seen before. Usually at the gaming table, I'm unloading new dice at this point to replace the previously-thrown dice.
Just a clarification, it's Rogue 1, not Rogue 3, who Selven was engaging.
"Gold 1! Rogue 1's lasers are down!"
"Red 3, Gold 1. Rogue 1 has them clear now!"
"This is Rogue 3, I'm making my trench run!"
To be clear, I'd like to take my shot without stepping into the hallway of death and standing there like an idiot. Might have to take a partial cover penalty to do so, but if it means keeping my 9 hp, so be it.
Connor begins summoning a construct. I'm not sure you can put him on the other side of the room, you don't have line of effect. I think the best you can do is put him at the entrance to the Hallway of Doom and send him down it to attack Kol. You can retcon your action if you want.
I'm open to discussion.
Connor is not in the hallway. The best he could do would be to look around Reaghar and put the Astral Construct 25 feet north down the hallway. But Connor is cheating by using the telepathic link with Hero. The psicrystal does not have a full picture-sight-smell-sound link at Level One however, just a words-telepathy link. So I imagine Hero is saying "Yeah, the half-orc's right in front of me, there's a room here, the half-orc is against the opposite wall, facing the hallway you will come in from." That kind of stuff.
So I fully understand if the ref blows the whistle on Connor expertly placing the Astral Construct exactly 25 feet north of him in the empty 5-foot square right inbetween the corpse of the human guard and Kol. I think the best Connor can do without the 13th Level Sight Link would be to put the Astral Construct just before the human's corpse. Hero can aid Connor by sending "Yeah, have it turn right! No, your other right! Yeah! Not go forward and swing hard! That's it!" kind of guidance. Probably a half-movement penalty because of the relay in talking.
Yeah, it's less about the placement than Line of Effect, you still need line of effect to summon the construct, unless I missed something in the psionics. So yeah, looking past Reaghar, summoning it in the hallway, and then sending it north to attack Kol is fine. You know where he is (roughly) and can certainly give it commands to go attack the big ugly half-orc, it's smart enough to know what that means.
As far as I know. ... line of effect can go around corners. .. It's line of sight that can't.
Page 62 of Psionics unleashed :
A line of effect is a straight, unblocked path that indicates what a power can affect. A solid barrier cancels a line of effect, but it is not blocked by fog, darkness, and other factors that limit normal sight. You must have a clear line of effect to any target that you manifest a power on, or to any space in which you wish to create an effect. You must have a clear line of effect to the point of origin of any power you manifest.
A burst, cone, or emanation power affects only an area, creature, or object to which it has line of effect from it's origin (a spherical burst's center point, a con-shaped burst's starting point, or an emanation's point of origin). An otherwise solid barrier with a hole of at least 1 square foot through it does not block a power's line of effect. Such an opening means that the 5 ft length of wall containing the hole is no longer considered a barrier for the purpose of determining a power's line of effect.
So no, the construct can only be created where he has a straight line of effect to, in the hallway of doom, and then sent north. A construct can leave line of effect after creation (and line of sight, or even range of conjuration), but it has to be created in the line of effect.
Took me a few minutes to find it. :)
dang, been playing that wrong for years.
Elrohir is holding action again, so Reaghar's up before I post?
Ok, Reaghar and Elrohir: with Connor's last Astral Construct this is the best we're going to have if we three all rush Kol the half-orc. He's already shot once, so it's only a 1-in-3 chance that one of us will hit.
If Reaghar agrees to rush Kol, Connor can use his spiked gauntlet. We won't get a flank this turn, but probably one the next turn. Of course, that shotgun is doing 2D8 damage, which is a one-shot-kill for all three of us. But we gotta move before Kol reloads.
Ok, I have no idea if Reaghar stepped into the hallway, or fell back. But Connor will move up to do his only ranged 0-point attack, Energy Splash. And I rolled a 20 and hopefully confirmed. Whoo-hoo! Too bad it's only 1 point x 3. I should have gone with fire for 2 points x 3.
I wonder what hitting the half-orc with electricity would do to those bags of gunpowder Kol has on his Alchemists Fire?
Edit: And it occurred to me just now that if I had used the light crossbow, I might have done more damage. Oh well.
Round Ten:
McIntyre team: 3 for 1
Bad Guys: 1 for 3
Mintakia/Assassins Guild team: A BIG FAT ZERO :)
McIntyre team: 4 for 1
Mintakia/Assassins Guild team: 1 for 0.Now to see what the bad guys do...
I have another "working weekend" that starts tomorrow (ugh). I don't anticipate any problems, but just in case you don't hear from me, I will be back on Sunday evening.
Reaghar was just being cautious because he could see/hear strange other entrants into our game of death and doesnt know what side they are on.
That looks like one heck of a round for Connor. Hopefully those hit.
It'd be about time, given what's happened to Team McIntyre and how often we've missed shots.