Aubrey's Wrath of the Righteous (Inactive)

Game Master Aubrey the Malformed

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I see Sol has leapt completely out of initiative order - again. And Kira. Ah well.

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In my defense, work is a bear this week. I didn't want to hold things up by waiting to post. Also, it was the surprise round, so the enemy wasn't going to do anything.

That said, I should have spoilered my post. I'll try to remember next time.

So many people to go before me....

Sorry for being a bit detached lately - work has been a bit busy.

Also, as a heads-up, I will be on holiday for two weeks commencing Saturday 4th July.

Ideally we could use the entry to the room we came through to bottleneck them so that only one opponent can get to us at a time. Also, while Ghroth does have reach and could be in the back row he also has an AC of 23 at the moment and 27 if he needs to fight defensively. When he isn't at reach he has 3 attacks instead of two, and the most important feature- he can be banished by damage, but he won't die. Let him eat up some attacks for now while our paladin is severely wounded and we have very little in the way of healing resources.

Hannik might be full of opinions, but she's not a tactician. If you guys want to go with the bottleneck maybe Kira or Rhok will bring that IC.

It's possible I have misunderstood and that is what Mulluq is already suggesting, but from the coordinates listed I got the idea he meant for the wounded to be in there and the rest of us to fight in the open area of the current room.

Sol- you could use that alter self scale to get a +2 dex or strength for 19 minutes.

Thanks, Ithuriel. I completely forgot about the ability boost from alter self.

No, Mulluq isn't really a great tactician himself. As a paladin, there were so many other areas he needed focus other than the thinkin ones.

Ideally, I did want to bottleneck them, but it would mean getting everyone out into the other room and having the enemy come out 1 at a time. It may be a much bigger undertaking than we have time for before the enemy arrives.

Also, it allows us all to be productive to finish the fight sooner.

What is your method for HP at level? Never had to worry about it with Arakan.

If you roll less than half hit points, you round up to half. Thus, if you roll 1-4 on your d10, that becomes 5.

Sorry, didn't look here. If someone's going to grab Jod's arm to prevent him moving to the far wall, he won't fight it. He's not necessarily a indoors-tactics guy, either.

That's Kira leveled.... Those HP and Init boost will be very useful....

Huh. While looking at evolutions I found an FAQ regarding the reach evolution. It only applies to one single attack, not attack type. So only one claw would have reach and it can't be selected again to give them both reach. It was meant for use with a dragon type build where the bite might have reach. First I've heard of it.
Anyway, one long arm is a little weird so I'll reshuffle that for something else.

Hannik HD: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8
Ghroth HD: 1d10 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 + 1 = 8

Sol HP roll 1d8 ⇒ 3

So that goes to 4?

BAB +1 Good Saves +3, bad +0

Uncanny dodge, and he's now got mechanics for being the trap guy.

New cantrip is mage hand and 1st level spell, TBD.

Kira took Cure Light Wounds for her extra spell.... ;)

Also put some skill points into spellcraft and knowledge religon, so may not totally suck as some of those checks now.

One long arm is freaky but kinda memorable - maybe an extra-long arm and killing claw with a more normal hand.

Sol HP roll = 1d8

So that goes to 4?

Yes.

One long arm is freaky but kinda memorable - maybe an extra-long arm and killing claw with a more normal hand.

It's not the arm being longer, it's that he uses a lunge that to recover from requires him to fall back on his heels, causing the second swing to be shorter.

That's my theory.

I like that theory. I might switchit to bite with the same idea. He lunges forward with his whole body length to get reach, briefly dropping to all fours for support as he does so.

Or maybe he has a long, retractable neck?

Or, even better, he has a 10' long Alien-style tongue-striker? Scary!

So, roll or half, whichever is higher? Okay, got it.

HP 1d10 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 2 + 1 = 8 (+Con+FC)

I clearly decided to buck the system, I'm going to take the average of half and my roll.

Spent all 2 of my Skill points on Diplomacy, at +8 now

Updated status bar, but will update profile when I can get to my HeroLabs.

Once we are all good I think mulluq is up.
I'm more or less done.
Ghroth upgraded various numbers including AC (with buffs at 25 right now) and got evasion. I'll move the bleed evolution over to his bite since it has the reach now.
Hannik picked up enlarge person and acid splash.

Kudos, guys on working the flavor on Ghroth. Totally awesome.

Silent image for Sol's new spell.

New skill points in

Acrobatics
Diplomacy ,
Disable Device ,
Escape Artist ,
Perception,
Stealth,
Use Magic Device

I still have 1 skill point open which I thought I'd drop into a knowledge skill. Are we missing any? Sol's got know(local) already. Maybe something less popular like Know(engineering)?

Other than that skill point Sol's good to go.

As you know I'm on holiday at the end of the week. As usual, I've got stuff to do at home (or more specifically, in the garden, where I bought a load of plants and need to stick them in the ground before we go on holiday, lest the heat turn them into little withered sticks in their pots by the time we get back) and to a lesser extent at work (though that is largely done). Sorry for being a bit quiet the last few days. I'm hoping to set things up properly in the games before I go away.

OK, I'm outta here! See you all Sunday after next.

We'll be in Crete for a couple of weeks starting tomorrow afternoon. I imagine I'll have wifi and be around at least once a day, but if you find yourself waiting on me be free to take my turn.

Once Ghroth can get in, Hannik will enlarge him and let him power attack his way through the mob. Other than that, guidance spells for allies and possible crossbow attacks if the opportunity presents itself.

As you will have noticed, I've been a bit quiet the last few days. Nothing wrong, just chilling. I'll be back to it tomorrow.

Fun trick question for you Aubs. You let us level mid-combat. I had two spells active that are 1 min/level.... Do they extend? ;)

I'm assuming not...

If you were 1st level when you cast them... No.

I thought you'd say that, but best to be sure!

I'm tracking them in rounds, but I don't know if you skipped any while we waited for the next batch of enemies. It doesn't matter for the judgement, but if you want me to bump the duration of Shield of Faith and Magic weapon, let me know.

A reminder that Ghroth and Mulluq have guidance running to add +1 to a d20 once within the next 8-9 rounds

Aubrey-

Assuming Hannik finishes casting enlarge person but there are not enough free squares for Ghroth to expand into how would you resolve that? It seems almost certain that it will be the situation and I don't know of any rules that really address it. At this point ending the casting will result in expending my last spell slot to no effect, but it might be the thing to do depending on what is going to happen.

I looked around a little and some people suggested squeezing rules, others that you might attempt a strength check to force allies and opponents back (as per bursting enclosures). In the end it all looks like DM's call.

I think I'll just move people as seems appropriate, based on your description.

Also, discussing Hannik: the summoner has been given a bit of a rewrite in the Unchained rules. Basically, the original summoner appeared a bit over-powered (which doesn't seem entirely unreasonable - Ghroth pretty much owns this combat and Hannik will get access to spells like Haste at 4th level under the current version). I'm wondering if you wouldn't mind converting Hannik and Ghroth to the Unchained version, albeit that it's basically a nerfing? You can find it on the PFSRD (or just type the appropriate query into Google. I'd be interested in your thoughts.

I do like the image of people fighting and being forced out of the way by the growing beasty

I haven't read the unchained version but I don't have any problem converting to it. The summoner was my most (only) hated class when running PFS for the same reason. I thought maybe I hadn't given it a fair chance so took the opportunity to play one here. Part of the problem here was the bottleneck locking other people out of actions but it seems like without even trying he is just too overpowered at least at low levels, especially in a large group.

I'm also considering a story reason for a full conversion to sorcerer at some point. For example whatever entity Ghroth represents may have made a pact of service for 100 years or something and as it expires the link is severed. She reclaims all of her own arcane energy invested in the link and reinvests it in herself. I thought I might give the summoner a little more play time before deciding but I'm leaning that direction. Might as well use that time to see the unchained version.

I probably won't start the conversion until after this fight because it would hold things up.

It's up to you. If you are going sorcerer don't bother because it becomes more obvious at higher levels and you might not get there. Effectively, they made some quite potent spells lower level for the summoner - like Haste, which is 2nd level for a summoner, meaning it is available to a summoner at 4th level, but including plenty of others. In the Unchained version, these are put up a level, so Haste is a 3rd level spell again, available at 7th level. So these things won't come into play for a couple of levels.

That said, I am a bit torn about losing the summoner. A sorcerer would have much greater flexibility, and as a primary arcane caster having spells available up to the highest levels in the party, instead of capping out at 6th as both Sol and Hannik currently do, would be important for facing down some epic baddies. But... I kinda like Ghroth, albeit I don't necessarily welcome an overpowered version.

If you are going sorcerer, we can come up with some sort of reason, maybe when you have your mythic apotheosis. Maybe your essence can merge with Ghroth's, creating a more powerful gestalt blah blah blah. Something like that, anyway...

Not decided yet on the sorcerer thing. I thought I'd give it a couple more levels to see. It looks like psychopomp is the closest match in form and alignment but I'll look a little more later.

Just my 2cp, but I'd say if one of us were converting to unchained, we all should.

I say that having not actually looked at unchained *at all*.....

I don't think that's necessary. The reason I'm interested in the Unchained summoner is because it's a nerf of an over-powerful class to bring it in line with the baseline (whatever that is). I'm not interested in change or experimentation for its own sake. If people want to go Unchained, I'll certainly consider it - I don't own the book, however I've been gleaning information from the PFSRD.

On the eidolon thing, I wondered if a water elemental might be appropriate for Ghroth since he looks like the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

I like that idea. I overlooked elemental a because I always think of them as animated water or fire but it does give you a little room for interpretation. I

In the rebuild I see that the biped form gets 2 claws as before, but the elemental type gets a slam attack. I think I could have the claws be on his feet and the slam represent powerful punches. Or I could say that the claws and slam were both with his arms and the slam has replaced the claws as an evolution.

Sound right? It is difficult to search through message boards on a phone.for answers

Not sure, let me check - I didn't look in a lot of detail at the Unchained eidolon rules.

I think we can go with claws on his hands. The slam can be his tongue attack (which isn't exactly in the spirit of the rules but is legal in the letter) - sort of a beefed up frog tongue, perhaps, but not sticky (yet). If you want you can add his 1pt evolution to his tongue to give it reach, like he has now.

Ok. Sounds good. So his three attacks come built into the base form. Ghroth mostly stays the same. He loses the bite attack and bleed damage but gains slam and some immunities. I might be able to finish it tonight.

It would be a horrible, logistical nightmare, that I don't suggest for one minute that we try. But I do like the idea of an eidolon that has subtly different stats every time it's summoned......

When I get the transmogrify spell he starts being autos more malleable. Until then you can rebuild each level.

Ghroth is unchained now so I'll go forward with that from now. I haven't looked to see if I need to alter anything for hannik yet.