Aubrey's Other Eberron Campaign - The Unbinding (Inactive)

Game Master Aubrey the Malformed

I am completely confused by the equipment system you posted and have no idea how to manage my gear.

That was more for Ashshar's benefit.

Me'mori! It will be good to play with you again.

Guys, Me'mori ran a really good, characterization intensive game that I was briefly part of. Unfortunately I ran into a serious RL time crunch and had to drop out.

I remember Ernesto! It was a pleasure, and my apologies about that. That was in the funky time before playing on the boards was the default, and I was not fond of the format then.

Budget of 31555, got it. I'll account for some of the miscellany that happens with loot. A Turtle-shell breastplate sounds GREAT!

Mythic dragon turtle, to be precise.

If you haven't yet, you should really read that fight. It was quite fantastic between the catapults and the traps and Cole charging around. Also, welcome to the party! I took over Tal after his previous player dropped out after having the character storm out of that meeting with the meeting with the shulassakar.

That was a seriously fun fight. A good read! Two metal thumbs up!

Also, welcome aboard, guys/gals! Me'mori, I think you and I might have been in a game together at some point. Maybe a game where we were all different flavors of monks or something?

That's it. I played Cassadar, and it was a decent game, but something (likely timing) flopped, and we sorta faded away.

Mythic Dragon Turtle Breastplate?!?! *glee*
- Is it allowable to say that he could have taken a claw to make into a shortsword or dagger?

Long day, I'll have it finished tomorrow.

Welcome aboard to both of you.

therealthom wrote:

Me'mori! It will be good to play with you again.

Guys, Me'mori ran a really good, characterization intensive game that I was briefly part of. Unfortunately I ran into a serious RL time crunch and had to drop out.

I remember Ernesto! It was a pleasure, and my apologies about that. That was in the funky time before playing on the boards was the default, and I was not fond of the format then.

Budget of 31555, got it. I'll account for some of the miscellany that happens with loot. A Turtle-shell breastplate sounds GREAT!

No apologies needed. I'm sorry that I couldn't keep up. I'm really looking forward to playing with you again. If we get the chance. Aubs seems set on conk-er-ing now that we've divided ourselves. :-)

@DM: Deep crystal appears in the Expanded Psionics Handbook, but like many things from various supplements it's mentioned as existing in Eberron as well. It is referenced in Secrets of Sarlona.

The relevant rules are here.

Here's Ashshar's workup for approval, gear to follow.

OK, a few comments:

- I think his BAB is +4, not +3 (+1 for humanoid levels, +3 for his stalker levels). His CMB would therefore be +7 (and his CMD 19).
- not sure how you calculate his AC because you have no gear yet. However, his Dodge bonus is +1 at 4th level, and I don't see a +1 in the calculation. I assume the +5 is his natural AC bonus, don't know what the rest are.
- his saves look incorrect. He should get +3/+0/+0 (Fort/Ref/Will) for his 2HD of lizardfolk and +1/+1/+4 for being a 4th level stalker. Add his stat bonuses of +4/+2/+2, that's a total of +8/+3/+6.
- could you recheck his stats? A lizardfolk per the Bestiary gets +2 STR, +2 CON, -2 INT. He's got 6HD so he'll get an additional +1 to a stat, plus his 25 point build.
- could you also clarify what the numbers going into the skill calculations are? I think the order is stat bonus/ranks/class skill + racial modifier, but I'm not sure. Also, if you've given him two ranks in Linguistics so he can speak Common and Draconic, don't worry about it. He can speak Common for free, and he already speaks Draconic as his native language - there is no language "Lizardfolk".

Thank you.
Stalker Class, Brutal Slayer Archetype

- Thanks for the catch on the Lizardfolk Levels. I was not thinking of them as actual levels, more as the antiquated ECL. My fault.
- His AC was including Armor(breastplate), Dex, Natural Armor, and Dodge(class+feat). The Stalker class gets a dodge bonus baked into the class. If I'm not coming in with the purchases, I'll use what exists on the sheet until town is reached. How's the AC, btw? I'm worried it's creeping high without too much effort.
- Saves: Again missed the Lizardfolk levels, was working off of Ashshar's sheet. 2nd Level, the Brutal Slayer gets Defensive Reflexes, that adds half his STR mod to Reflex and Initiative.
- For Stats I was cribbing off of Ashshar's sheet, should have plugged those into a calculator
- Skill notations amended.

Hi, the skills still look a bit odd. As a 2HD humanoid with an INT of 8 he should have 2 skill points per level, minus 1 skill point per level for his low INT, so (2-1)x2 = 2 skill points. As a 4th level slayer he should have 6 skill points per level, -1 for his IT, so (6-1)x4 = 20. So that's a total of 22 skill points. I counted 27 skill points in his build. Not sure if you added in any skill points for his favoured class (max 4).

*facepalm* Int. reduction using the modifiers, I forgot to adjust the skills. Favored class did go into the skills. This has been corrected.

All good for the gear?

The gear looks fine, although a Ring of Protection +1 only costs 2,000gp. However, you have only got about 27,000gp of spending there against a budget of 31,000gp or so. You might consider either a magical missile weapon (you don't want to be too one-trick with melee) or some consumables.

Hello! I happened to be shadowing this campaign and when I saw there was some hunting for help I took a plunge. This particular character is one that I've played previously in a home game and it is my favorite character ever. I will probably need to make some adjustments (you guys are all higher level than the current version of this profile). In terms of party contribution, Atsu is a taciturn hardheaded do-gooder with some martial skills and some psychic powers. My main contribution in combat will probably be the psychic aura that provides a morale bonus to attack and damage to everyone near me.

Glad to see you found a campaign for Atsu Jesse! And Welcome.

Thank you Shadow!

Still waiting on a yes or no for deep crystal.

Hey, Jesse. Didn't mean to leave you out of the love fest. Welcome aboard again. I like the idea of having a Schlussachar spy with us, but Rehil might not, and I know Wultram won't. Fun RP ahead.

Sorry - deep crystal is 'yes'. For psionic matters I will be deferring to the Dreamscar Press stuff for PF, and it's in the back of that, so fine.

Hey, Wultram's bust buds with a paladin, he's come around.

Considering the write-up for the Lizardfolk (and Ashshar's intelligence), I'm going to be attempting to write towards a bit of a "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra". Let me know if it becomes too obnoxious.

Also- DM, let me know when I can go online with my version Ashshar's sheet. I'll work off of the player's sheet until then.

You can go with it now, as it's your turn in combat.

I'm fiddling with ways to convey the sense of "different", that comes with having a racial memory link here, p 63, so I'm accompanying the posts with a thought-quote that is just a touch on the state of the situation.

Hey, Wultram's bust buds with a paladin, he's come around.

To be fair Wultram never planned to kill Tal, which is very much the case about the leadership of Krezent.(Granted I doubt he will ever get the opportunity to pursue that.)

I hope I get a chance to plant that last lizardfolk bane arrow in Oula. Otherwise I'm going to look pretty damn foolish carrying it around for the rest of the adventure.

Hey, Jesse. Didn't mean to leave you out of the love fest. Welcome aboard again. I like the idea of having a Schlussachar spy with us, but Rehil might not, and I know Wultram won't. Fun RP ahead.

Thanks, glad to hear it!

I'm almost done gearing up. Got my AC to a reasonable place for my level.

Question, because I'm too lazy to dig through the whole Gameplay thread to find it: Are you guys on horses or other mounts, or on foot?

On foot.

Beautiful, I don't need to buy a mount or invest points in Ride for now!

Hi Jesse, I'm thinking of rejigging the Divine Mind class a bit since, having looked at it in the Complete Psionic, it's a bit feeble mechanically (as you pointed out) and you might be disadvantaged compared to some of the other PCs. I've done this for other WotC classes in my games (e.g. the beguiler in my other Eberron game and Wultram's true necromancer).

As an analogy the Divine Mind has maybe the lowest psionic power level of any of the WotC psionic classes, and cannot actually cast until 5th level. That seems fairly harsh, unless one assumes it's trying to be a sort of 'psionic paladin'. However, if that is the case, it is then disadvantaged by the medium BAB progression. Another way of looking at it might be as more analogous to the psychic warrior (which has access to maximum 6th level powers as well plus a medium BAB progression), although the psychic warrior has more versatility and can cast from 1st level.

My inclination is to keep the medium BAB but give the divine mind casting ability (and associated power points) like a psychic warrior. That might require some rejigging of the mantle powers and associated abilities, which we can discuss. However, just as a check, how do you feel about that overall approach?

Hi Jesse, I'm thinking of rejigging the Divine Mind class a bit since, having looked at it in the Complete Psionic, it's a bit feeble mechanically (as you pointed out) and you might be disadvantaged compared to some of the other PCs. ...

But not all the PCs.

I'll be traveling for a few days. Posting should return to normal Saturday.

Hi Jesse, I'm thinking of rejigging the Divine Mind class a bit since, having looked at it in the Complete Psionic, it's a bit feeble mechanically (as you pointed out) and you might be disadvantaged compared to some of the other PCs. I've done this for other WotC classes in my games (e.g. the beguiler in my other Eberron game and Wultram's true necromancer).

As an analogy the Divine Mind has maybe the lowest psionic power level of any of the WotC psionic classes, and cannot actually cast until 5th level. That seems fairly harsh, unless one assumes it's trying to be a sort of 'psionic paladin'. However, if that is the case, it is then disadvantaged by the medium BAB progression. Another way of looking at it might be as more analogous to the psychic warrior (which has access to maximum 6th level powers as well plus a medium BAB progression), although the psychic warrior has more versatility and can cast from 1st level.

My inclination is to keep the medium BAB but give the divine mind casting ability (and associated power points) like a psychic warrior. That might require some rejigging of the mantle powers and associated abilities, which we can discuss. However, just as a check, how do you feel about that overall approach?

Whatever you wanna do is fine, though I personally am not convinced that the divine mind is as under-par as people say. Folks look at the divine mind and go "it's a psionic paladin but it has a 3/4 BAB so it sucks" and forget that you're always supposed to be floating your psychic attack aura, which gives you a morale bonus of... +1/5 your level to attack and damage. That effectively makes up the shortfall in your BAB (at level 20, BAB is +15, psychic aura gives +5). The main drawback there is just that you will have fewer iterative attacks than a fighter or paladin, and in the odd case of getting a morale bonus from a spell or power from someone else it won't stack with your aura. And having a morale bonus to damage is pretty nice. Right out the gate that means that as long as I have that aura up, which should be almost always, my attack totals will match a fighter or paladin's, and I have extra damage on top of that to all my attacks.

As far as powers, that's why I asked about deep crystal. I have two powers, both cost 1 CP, and I use them at manifester level 2 right now - but I have 10 power points. Being able to burn power points to get +2d6 damage out of my weapon is a big deal.

There's also the "hidden" benefit that as a manifester I can take psionic feats, which are really good. You'll note I have Psionic Weapon and Ghost Attack, both feats that are good; if I were a fighter or paladin, I'd need to take Wild Talent as a dead feat (getting 2 PSPs that a fighter or paladin can't use for anything) just to unlock the ability to get those. So I have a menu of special options that the other classes don't normally have.

Compared to a psychic warrior, the auras are the divine mind's big special draw (and divine grace, of course). My power suite is small so I'm not expected to self-buff through powers. Instead I fight like a psychic warrior but with an inherent bonus, and at higher levels (10th+) I can switch auras on the fly or stack multiple auras for extra goodies.

In Pathfinder terms the class is an underperformer simply because every class from 3.5e got a strict upgrade when migrated to PF, so if you want to tweak the class, that's where I'd do it - possibly with a small number of bonus feats at certain points, as it would be a ton of work to create a new mechanic like rogue talents.

(For reference, the main spells that are sources of morale bonuses to attack are good hope and heroism, which are usually deployed by bards. So there's unlikely to be any overlap, meaning my bonus from my psychic aura will almost always be useful.)

Yes, I agree the Divine Mind is on a par with the 3.5 paladin, but not so much the PF paladin. I will take your views on board and cogitate.

I think I have my equipment locked down.

A few more thoughts on the class:
* Compared to the paladin, the main thing I don't have is smiting and lay on hands.
* Another useful comparison is the magus, which has 3/4 BAB and a selection of powers. The magus doesn't get heavy armor for a long time (and never gets shields), and most of its buffs are self-buffs to self-damage-bonuses, so that's weaker than the psychic aura. It has far more spells compared to the divine mind's psychic powers, and also has that small pool of arcane energy for a few tricks. Conversely, the divine mind has divine grace, a better hit die (d10), auras, and access to psionic feats. The divine mind is a little behind here as well.

If I were going to take a stab in the dark at the divine mind, I'd probably start by giving it bonus feats like a magus (5th, 11th, 17th), selectable from the combat or psionic lists.

The Plains XP:

Yay. My count says 19,657, btw did we get XP for the stampede/flame thing?

Have another 200xp each for the stampede.

You're leaving out the T-rex (1600 XP.) I make our total 21,457. I'm not sure how important it is. I imagine Aubrey will even out the XP totals between the two halves of the party once we regroup.

I'll try my best to even them out, though you have had quite an eventful trip on the surface so far.

I think I have my equipment locked down.

A few more thoughts on the class:
* Compared to the paladin, the main thing I don't have is smiting and lay on hands.
* Another useful comparison is the magus, which has 3/4 BAB and a selection of powers. The magus doesn't get heavy armor for a long time (and never gets shields), and most of its buffs are self-buffs to self-damage-bonuses, so that's weaker than the psychic aura. It has far more spells compared to the divine mind's psychic powers, and also has that small pool of arcane energy for a few tricks. Conversely, the divine mind has divine grace, a better hit die (d10), auras, and access to psionic feats. The divine mind is a little behind here as well.

If I were going to take a stab in the dark at the divine mind, I'd probably start by giving it bonus feats like a magus (5th, 11th, 17th), selectable from the combat or psionic lists.

Interesting you raise the point of hit dice. Paizo has a rule that your hit dice are determined by your BAB progression, and the 3/4 BAB progression get D8s. My inclination would be to stick with that - even the psychic warrior gets d8s under the PF conversion.

That said, I think I agree that a wholesale change might impact on the feel of the class. I still haven't cogitated fully yet, but I wonder if tweaking the auras a little (I'm thinking of effects that trigger when you expend your psionic focus) plus some extra feats might do the trick.

But having nonstandard hit dice can be a class feature - the barbarian's d12 is not standard for a +1 BAB progression.

The barbarian is, so far, the only exception to that rule. I don't really see why the divine mind should be when the psychic warrior isn't, since that seems the nearest analogous class.

Aaah yes your count is correct acording to my notes.(aka I don't have a note regarding the T-rex fight), I was probably too focused on animate dead part.

The barbarian is, so far, the only exception to that rule. I don't really see why the divine mind should be when the psychic warrior isn't, since that seems the nearest analogous class.

Sure, though it puts me in the uncomfortable position of getting worse at frontlining. Not a hill I'm going to die on, though. (Would probably just spend a bonus feat on Toughness.)

Aubrey the Malformed wrote:

The barbarian is, so far, the only exception to that rule. I don't really see why the divine mind should be when the psychic warrior isn't, since that seems the nearest analogous class.

Sure, though it puts me in the uncomfortable position of getting worse at frontlining. Not a hill I'm going to die on, though. (Would probably just spend a bonus feat on Toughness.)

I would also intend to compensate you for your loss.

Atsu Tzolotl wrote:

Aubrey the Malformed wrote:

The barbarian is, so far, the only exception to that rule. I don't really see why the divine mind should be when the psychic warrior isn't, since that seems the nearest analogous class.

Sure, though it puts me in the uncomfortable position of getting worse at frontlining. Not a hill I'm going to die on, though. (Would probably just spend a bonus feat on Toughness.)

I would also intend to compensate you for your loss.

Compensation?

Not like that.

So good to have Cole back!

Always good to be appreciated. :)

I'm sorry, that's just unnecessary force. My poor dolgrims.

Hey, don’t hate the bruiser. Hate the bruise.

… or something like that.

Travelling again. Should have internet access, but if I am silent feel free to play Yodi so that the game doesn't slow down. Back Friday noon EST at latest.

Nice, Eben.

:D

And safe travels, therealthom.

Hi Me'mori, I was quite surprised Ashshar's To Hit bonus is only +4 in his last attack. I had a quick check of your character sheet and your basic attack with the Two-Handed Sword should be +4 (BAB) +3 (STR) +1 (enhancement bonus) for a total of +8, which when Power Attack is brought into the mix (-2 for a +4 BAB) gives you +6. I notice your damage, but not your To Hit bonus, is written in your character sheet so you might like to amend.

You still miss, by the way...

Appreciated. I was getting the -2 AC for the stance confused with Power Attack.