Blades of honor- warriors of terra

Game Master rorek55

Does crane wing activate snake fang? I know it's been discussed on the boards but how do you rule this oh controler of fate?

Ive never seen things get OP when people let crane activate snake. IMO that's how style masters would work jaha. So yes, it can.

Eira it just means you get to fist things swiftly and repeatedly.
Such is the given duty of monks.
Fisting things.

Oh and for the PVP group, we are pretty much out of time to do the Pvp portion unless Rorek plans to wait the week-ish that it will take to finish the 4-5 rounds of combat completing the battle royale would take.

So what do we want to do for that? As I would still like to huck arrows at you all and I imagine Talori would like to savage the dwarf for giving her such a wonderful nickname.

Thoughts on holy tactician? I know we have someone who can share teamwork feats but more could be helpful.

That's actually a great choice, having two people able to share a Teamwork feat would make for some incredibly nasty combos. (EX: our players with Island of blades and the Paired opportunist and Outflank teamwork feats.)

Dunno if you were considering it but a shield focused build with Roreks homebrew Block and shield specialist stuff would make you nearly untouchable. It nearly made me scrap my build for argus and roll a paladin myself.
If we survive that far combining it with Shield master would make for some fantastic shenanigans.

Devoted spirit's shield block would mean you could also give adjacent allies your stupidly high shield bonus to save them from getting struck by the big nasty attacks and bad guy maneuvers. Iron guard's glare would mean that even if you are getting ignored by the bad guy as an uncrackable nut that you would still be helping.

Plus it would mean the rest of your party loves you forever due to the great bonuses applied from Weal's champion, you could stack that with one of the Sword arts from white raven and become Pala-bard. Our mostly DPS group would be in tears of joy.

Anyone want to double check my changes and make sure it's all legit?

I take that snake fang and Crane wing are your MoMs selections on account of not needing to qualify for them, Crane style and dodge as L1 feats and then the rest of them follow after that.
I think the only issue you will encounter is that snake fang doesn't trigger without being in snake style. so until you get snake style your combat trick doesn't wanna work.
What you could do is drop combat reflexes to pick up snake style, MoMs lets you fuse the styles and gets you the ability to auto negate 1 attack and roll to negate another one. Your primary combat trick of massive numbers of Aoo's wouldn't kick in till 6th though as a L4 swashbuckler gets a bonus feat which you could then spend on it.
Other option would be to keep it as it is, use crane style and pick up snake style as your L6. But then the combo you've got going with zero wouldn't actually get going til L6 in full.

@ Rorek. Back story stuff is done. Argus is updated to the best of my knowledge and I think i'm pretty much set.

So now with snake style, crane wings, and parry. I could potentially negate three hits a round... Oddly enough I'm ok with that.

So at level 6 I'll retake combat reflexes.

Updated Character Sheet, need to put it in the profile.

So im going to guess that a pair of nat 1st is enough to merit sonething weird happening with a brand spanking new trick like this. Hope my explaination of what happened on that made sense, I was posting from my phone with only a few minutes left on the timer before the post locked.

@eira, yes that is the size of things. Now to just got to get you more mechanics to punish monsters who ignore you.

I hope you are still taking applications/characters. I should have mine posted by morning.

Focus/Foible
Strength: 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14
Dexterity: 18
Constitution: 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15
Intelligence: 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17
Wisdom: 8
Charisma: 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11

This is Meilin - the trophy wife of a Hong Kong crime boss. She is as confused as anyone to be in a game world, but figures she will walk out in the end if she keeps her head. Devious and cunning, she is overly competitive and not very trustworthy. She is surprisingly intelligent, but spoiled and accustomed to having her way.

She prefers the real world to the game world for obvious reasons and is a little worried that her husband will bore of her if she stays in the game world too long. She doesn't worry about this overly much however, as it is out of her hands and she certainly has no plans to risk herself to end the game.

She is a ninja and uses what, for lack of a better word, I have called a kukrigama. It is basically a kusarigama only instead of a sickle and weight, it is two kukris bound by a steel cable. You can see an example of the weapon either on my character sheet or in the anime Black Lagoon.

I am familiar with the ToB but need to reread it tonight. As it is very late, I have put together the character and will fill in the sword skills first thing in the morning if you approve the character.

I still have some equipment to buy but don't know your rules regarding max price. I assume I can get a +1 weapon and armor and any other item is 1/4 my gold per level?

Please let me know if the character is okay and I will have the remainder finished asap.

Personally, I dunno about the character, but a kukrigama sounds way cool. And as the genre is about style over substance I say let Meilin in!!!

Getting a 404 error on the sheet link though Hilde...

Getting a 404 error on the sheet link though Hilde...

Sorry, it's fixed now. I'm in a hotel in Virginia and their router was trying to limit the bandwidth I could upload. I had to do a workaround to get it to stop.

@hilde Several players have broken the cap on wealth items. 4000gp stuff like +2 stat items are pretty much on every player so far so I wouldnt worry much about keeping your purchases restricted.

Also, thats a pretty awesome character sheet set up.

Oh and far as ive seen nobody else declared their stat selection before rolling. So I doubt rorek is going to stop you if you decide to put them where you want them.

I went with the 29 points cap... But yes, there are many characters with multiple 18's in the abilities...

Busy day yesterday, and today looks the same, light get backstory up tonight

@shadow, yeah way I figure it is this group has been unreasonably lucky when it comes to the d10 rolls. course we must have sucked the luck well dry by the time OceanShieldWolf came by to roll.
Its the trouble with rolls, you can gamble but you ought be prepared to lose just as often as you win.

Eira broke the die generattor with her stats.
>_>
<_< ;

Oh hi baby...wait why did you draw your sword i mean NOOO!!!...*Connection Terminated*
X_X

I have updated Meilin online but have some questions.

1) Lighting Strike - double your attacks for half the damage. What exactly gets halved - weapon damage? What about strength bonuses? Power Attack bonuses? Sneak attack damage? If all these are halved, what is the benefit? If they aren't, this is a really powerful feat. I haven't taken it as of now, but if only weapon damage is halved, I'm all over it.

2) Can we take the feats from ToB that modify the maneuvers? I took two - an extra stance and an extra maneuver. Tell me if this is a no-no.

3) We get power attack or deadly aim for free? I'm not sure I see the point of deadly aim as there were no missile weapons in SOA and they don't appear until GGO in the light novels. Neither is very good for a rogue - can I have Weapon Finesse instead?

4) How much are the healing crystals?

Now that I've made a character, what do I do next? With nine pages of messages, catching up is a bit daunting. Do I go to the Discussion forum? What do I do there vis a vis getting a guild? Is a guild required?

I'll make an avatar if approved. I have about twenty at this point and don't want another unless it's for a game I get to play for a bit. 8)

Lol, I did too. 18, 18, 16, 14, 12.

I wont be able to get my character done till around 1am. I'll post it Asap.

@ hilde.
1) Far as I've seen it lightning strikes halves everything. Its more of a flavor thing to permit the multi-stabbity rapier attack asuna uses all the time.
It can get nasty with rider effects like Blinding critical, and if you happen to scroll up the page I link to something called Flensing strike which lets you peel people like potatoes. Which would also be awesome with Lightning strikes.

2) as of this time we get three. Killing bosses and completing quests give you more. I know, really limited number but it drives that feeling of greed to level and obtain more power. Pick reliable powers that you will use all the time over ones that sound cool, you can fill in the awesome quotient with the corpses of your enemies.

3. Incorrect actually, ranged weapons exist in SAO but they are typically limited to throwing blades. EX: Kirito throws nails and other such weapons at foes several times through the anime, not sure if it happened in the light novels. It should also be mentioned that while we are playing it the SAO sandbox that not everything will be the same.
>_> also, yes I am fully aware that I am bending the setting over its ear to play an archer before gun gale. But then we also have additional races as options in this one (Core+aasimar) so its more an alternate universe SAO then playing the book. We are highly likely to change portions of the story just by being there.

4. Healing crystals are patterned off of potions. the crystals cost the same as a potion of that level. EX:
CLW= 20hp healing crystal
CMW= 30hp healing crystal.
increaing by ten per level of crystal you jump.
they are expensive, but due to the fast healing we have in the game the only time you need to use them is in combat.

5. Most of the game creation stuff is in the Campaign info bar, I compiled it back on page 7-ish I think and rorek has only added one other thing to the pile.
If you happen to enjoy it Rorek runs Crane style in its Pre-errata form.
Rorek is also a pretty nice guy when it comes to letting flavorful stuff into the game, so ask if you've stuff in mind.

6. Oh and groups are absolutely not necessary, but you will want to keep in contact with Rorek if you go Solo as the number of players we have is going to mean he has a difficult time keeping track of everything.

And yes all you people broke the dice generator, so did I.
Perhaps thats why its been giving me so much crap with my flurry. Made the poor thing Bi-polar I think.

Been a hectic day at work. Will post a bit on an hour and will be able to give detailed answers after 10 EST.

Well. As movin said we aren't following the sao plot point for point. Its more of the setting, with a few tweaks.

1. Yes, it is all halved. Its a fluffly feat that actually works well for crit fishers. I am considering allowing precision damage to remain as normal damage though. I think I will change that.

2. No, stay away from feats that give extra ToB stuff.

3. Ranged weapons are there. Just rather limited.

4. Just as movin said.

5. You can read through the discussion thread if you so wish, though I believe everything you need to know is in the campaign info.

All application with a background and or there characters views on the real world/ VR world and there morales are accepted.

Guilds are not mandatory, to be honest I am still working on how I want them to run. Going solo is fine but its dangerous and death is death.

Did I miss anything?

I'm going to point for point so I'm putting my response in a spoiler to not add extra pages.

Yes. I think I will allow presicion damage to be full damage with lightning strikes anything else is halved. As this shows you can strike precisely at the enemies weak points in rapid succession.

Gameplay thread is up, and the first post as well.. it was a bit of a doozy, and I hope I remembered everything O.o.

phew......

*grins* Oh this should be interesting. Are we going to keep the discussion thread as the Beta until everyone is finished with their combats and such?

Also holy crap. that is a load of ground to cover in a single post.

We can if we wish though most combats were close to over.. if only the dice roller had liked a couple of ninjas. Though soon it will need to become the place for somewhat ooc talk and well, discussion. lol. (like, of this sort)

maybe. But you have a lot of freedom with it. That aside, I felt it was one of the better ways to "set" the setting. Forgive me if I troubled some. It's really not that much though :3 lol. (your combat posts coupled with cursing were longer than what you need to start your story!) Hell, you could simply say I joined Blank guild in Blank faction and have been fighting for them sense. And I would have the perfect hook for you. Make it as long or short as you want, Just have fun with it! (as that is the most important part)

EDIT: Anywho, I am off to bed now. That one was a killer haha.

P.S edit: If you wish for more info on then guilds, I will be putting slightly more descriptive entries in the campaign info sometime tomorrow. Also feel free to finish up any IC talks from discussion if you so wish before moving to the gameplay
Just wanted to get it up there.

Aye sir, so shall it be done!
I figure that you only really need to expand the guilds that people decide to join in the first place so why don't we just have everyone decide on that little issue first.

Just from background I figure most of our players will be joining the assault factions. Many of them have lives they would very much like to get back to in RL. Argus is less as much of that but I've tossed a few hooks into his background to ensure he dances to that tune even if he personally couldn't care if he gets back home. Not much to come back to.

My suggestion would be any story weaving for players that want to group up should be done quickly and efficiently on the recruitment/discussion thread. That way we can avoid cluttering the gameplay thread with too many one sentence confirmation posts.
I assume that on reassuring Argus that she does in fact have a spine the he joins Eira's Night Ravens.
Adventuring and slaughter is had as the troop of players tromp all over killing things and taking their stuff.
potentially gaining more players as they get a name for being good at their job.

Before I post in Gameplay, I'll just say this:

I'm swapping out my two Bastard Swords for a Greatsword to use, since I realized that a greatsword really would help me better in combat and seems to fit the roleplay of Talori more.

So you just want me to do one of the two swords for Talori? If so which one?

The red one.

Also, since Jotunheim effectively adds an extra hand for me to use regarding weapons, I can use a 3-handed large greatsword in two hands, right?

It only allows you to count 2-handed swords as 1 handed at a -2 penalty

But the creator of the archetype did have this to say..

WalterGM wrote:

Jason Nelson wrote:

seekerofshadowlight wrote:

Honestly I am not sure on the intent. I feel it was not meant to break the size limits. If it stacked with Jotungrip it would be a bit less of an issue however as it would allow large one handed weapons in one hand.

The intent WAS to break the size limits, but I forgot to address the existing rule on oversized weapons and so the RAW ends up with an ability that is not very useful. Mark it as a FAQ question and perhaps at some point SKR, SRM, or JB will issue an official errata clarifying the issue from a RAW perspective.

Any update on this?

Sorry, my message board coverage is a little spotty lately, as I am banging away on an upcoming AP adventure and the deadline is looming. My short and wholly unofficial answer is that I'd probably leave the Jotungrip ability as is, since that ability is really more about using a regular TH weapon in one hand than using overly large weapons. However, the Massive Weapons ability is the one I'd probably change, to read like this:

Massive Weapons (Ex): At 3rd level, a titan mauler becomes skilled in the use of massive weapons looted from her titanic foes. At 3rd level, she can wield melee or thrown weapons sized for creatures one size category larger than her own size, with a -2 penalty on attack rolls. Such weapons are always considered two-handed weapons.

For every 3 levels beyond 3rd, a titan mauler may choose to increase the size of weapons she can effectively wield by one additional size category, with an additional -2 cumulative penalty to attack rolls. Alternatively, she may choose to reduce her attack roll penalty when using oversized weapons by 1. This choice must be made every 3 levels when the ability is gained and cannot be changed. This ability replaces trap sense.

I think using a hunormous sword or throwing a giganticulous spear fits the theme of the titan mauler. Walking around with a cannon or...

So, are we doing RAW or RAI with this?

IDK that'd be a DM question :)

Clearly he has answered the question. So go ahead.

* chuckle* a sword that big is awesome but the -4 penalty to hit with a huge weapon sounds painful.
I'd suggest picking up a few other weapon options honestly.
Oh and if you still want bastard swords but don't want to pay the proficiency for them lemme know. I can link you a magic item that gives you weapon familiarity with one weapon of choice.

Hang on, if Khode wields a Large greatsword in two-hands, is it only -2 to attacks?

Also noticed I haven't taken two-handed into account for bonus damage...

Nor provided myself with the Power Attack option info . I think because it is a free feat I forgot to list the attack/damage info under Offense.

normal people can't weild a 3-handed weapon like a large greatsword.
what you can do is weild a Large one handed weapon in two hands by taking a -2 penalty. Like a large bastard sword/katana, or a large Falcata.
Talori is a archetype of barbarian that is specialized in weilding huge weapons, so she can break that cap.
Its unfortunate that the actual Archetype didn't get that included though. As it stands the RAW titan mauler is a bit of a sad archetype as the best it can do is wield two handed weapons in one hand. Cool, but the buster sword archetype it is not. Fortunately Rorek is awesome.

And yes you probably want to count in your 1.5 str+PA stuff as it makes life much nicer.

Well if yu use the creators intent it would only be a -2 for a large greatsword.

Oh, I'm familiar with the Titan Mauler, just trying to work out what my options are.

So like Argus is saying, doesn't the Pathfinder iconic Barbarian Amiri wield a Large Bastard Sword in two hands? And she only takes a -2 penalty?

I don't need exotic wp to do that do I - you only need exotic wp to wield a bastard sword in one hand, right? Which I couldn't even do with a Large Bastard Sword anyway... ;)

Technically a martial bastard sword is two handed to begin with. The exotic training is to make you able to use it in one hand.
There are likely a dozen forum posts on exactly this topic but I get the feeling that if the bastard sword is a two handed weapon for you that you run into the same problem of it not being an available weapon for you to increase in size.
Seems like one of those corner cases to me.
the exotic training for the weapon is what gives you the ability to wield the weapon a size larger than everyone else.
Or you could burn the feat on a large Falcata and soak in that sweet, sweet 19-20x3 crit.
Of course you render the entire issue of proficiency moot for 1500gp if you are proficient with marital weapons.

STONNNEEEZZZZZ!. (you want to look at the Cracked one.)

one more thing, would you prefer me to just say "level up" when you need to, or do you guys wish to book keep your own exp. points?

I prefer the oh by the way you leveled up style especially since it means I need to calculate less...but as this is an actual video game I'm not sure how I feel.

Hmm. I do believe I have a great way to tie this all together... should prove interesting.

What you could do rather than an actual number is go with a %.
EX: alight you guys killed the lich, thats worth about 30% of a level.
Basically means you can give out EXP without all the book keeping, it becomes one simple number and you can just eyeball where you want the party to get to by plot point X.
My chart is as so.
APL-1 5%
APL 10%
APL +1 10-15%
APL +2 15-20%
APL+3 20-25%
Higher- Typically I cap EXP %'s around 30 unless the party pulls off something truly spectacular.

It would also satisfy the "Leaping EXP bar" visual for the MMO feel.
Cuz I get the felling that with the open nature of the world that EXP differences are going to happen. its a mechanic of an MMO, so I can't help but feel that Fiat leveling skips some of it.

Also, Rorek. Do i get to pick one of the rewards from the dragon or did my request eat that option?