I find myself using manuevers far more often than what is healthy lately. I have a Cavalier in my friend's Jade Regent game who has probably made more bull rushes and overruns than attack rolls, which wouldn't be so much of a problem, but without the relavent feats he sucks up quite a few AoOs and we've reached 3rd level without finding any full plate so his AC could use a bit of tuning up (luckily if we ever do get any our gnome friend the pocket paladin will have the skills neccessary to resize it).
I only have a few feats spoken for with Jaiyana (Power Attack and the Vital Strike tree) so I'll probably invest in a wide variety of manuevers what with having a heavy flail (disarm/trip weapon) and Combat Expertise already (and with Power Attack soon to come for its extensions).
Heh, sounds a helluva lot like me, Jaiyana. I like to justify it on my high AC characters as soaking up AoOs for my flanking buddies.
The more tripping fun, the better! I have a feeling I won't have feats to spare for a while for teamwork stuff--monks tend to rely on their feats heavily to keep up as levels increase. That being said, Precise Strike is pretty cool.
The larger implication that this group is in for the long haul, that maketh me happy. I've had a few PbP's fizzle on me recently; pretty good ones, too, but this has to be the best one I've been in.
We are off to a pretty good start, aren't we?
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I can honestly say this is the best group I've ever GM'd for, ever!
You're too kind. :D I'm having a blast so far, and things can only get better once we're out of the sewer and Lucon gets a chance to learn everyone's names.
Since the current situation will probably require most or all of the group to participate I had a question for a few of you. This is purely for information and to satisfy my curiosity, so don't think I'm preparing to make some GM-ly declarations of horror and woe. That'll come later ;). The question is, how can a lawful good monk, or a lawful good oracle, justify killing a helpless prisoner (who had surrendered) or knowingly leave a helpless prisoner (who had surrendered) to certain death?
No wrong or right answer here, but the question came to me during that last scenario and I thought it'd be an interesting one for the group. If you'd rather spoiler or PM me instead of a group discussion, I'm 100% fine with that. I'm excited to see your responses.
I shall write an essay soon enough!
10pt font, college rule please. Refer to the spoiler for my complete list of essay expectations. ;)
I. Essay as a Whole
1. The writer has limited. topic to something she can do justice to in the assigned length. (Focus)
2. The writer has a clearly stated thesis which is adequately developed. (Thesis)
3. Everything in the paper contributes in some way to the development of the central idea. (Unity)
4. The content falls into clearly distinguishable parts. (Organization)
5. The writer has provided transitions within over-all structural pattern. (Coherence)
6. Paper shows effective use of detail. (Development)
7. The student has demonstrated perceptiveness in dealing with the topic. (Insight)
II. Paragraphs
1. Each paragraph fully develops one main point. (Paragraph Unity and Development)
2. Each paragraph is coherent within itself. (Paragraph coherence)
III. Sentences
1. By utilizing coordination and subordination, the writer has structured sentences for the greatest clarity. (Emphasis)
2. The writer has employed subordination to eliminate wordiness and needless repetition. (Economy)
3. Sentence patterns are varied enough to avoid monotony. (Variety)
4. Paper is free of the following errors: (Grammatical correctness)
a. Fragments (To return to school or to stay out.)
b. Run-on (Fused) Sentences (The little girl dashed into the street and an on-coming truck swerved abruptly to avoid hitting her as a result it side-swiped a utility pole but fortunately nobody was hurt.)
c. Comma splices (He is discouraged about doing the work, therefore I think he will drop out of school.)
d. Faulty parallelism (He arrived in a sports car and wearing a straw hat.)
e. Shifts of tense, mood, number (We wondered what they think of it all.)
f. Pronoun shifts (When one gets through with a three hour exam, you are exhausted.)
g. Dangling and misplaced modifiers (Walking downtown, a streetcar jumped the tracks.)
h. Faulty subject-verb agreement (Cutting classes are against university regulations.)
l. Faulty pronoun antecedent agreement (Either of these woman may lose their temper.)
j. Indefinite use of this, that, which, it. (John married right after graduation, which changed his life entirely.)
5. The writer has avoided weakness resulting from excessive use of the passive voice (Travelling across the country, the grim reality of poverty can be experienced) and the expletive (There are two papers due today.)
IV. Diction
1. The writer has chosen words from the level of usage appropriate to the subject matter and the intended audience. (Level)
2. Wording of the paper communicates meaning. (Clarity)
3. The writer has avoided the following:
a. Cliches (hook, line and sinker; ugly as sin; to add insult to injury)
b. Hackneyed terms (very, great, nice; organization, situation; viable alternative; contrary to popular opinion)
c. Jargon (Schizophrenia is a maturational lag at the embryonic level characterized by a primitive plasticity in all levels.)
d. Overinflated Words (Although I cannot truthfully say that I was acclaimed during my high school career as a prodigy, being what is generally known as an average student, yet I was able to survive the rigors of academic pursuits and to achieve graduation.)
e. Use of ambiguous words and phrases (Souls in this context refers to the inner deepness that lies inside the mind.)
f. Redundancy (These are traditions we share in common.)
9. Deadwood (I believe; I consider; it is my personal opinion that.)
h. Wrong words (I was adapted when I was three years old.)
i. Non-idiomatic expressions (He jumped off of the table.)
j. Mixed metaphors (The crux of the matter hinges on the pedestal of beauty.)
V. Spelling and Punctuation.
No rhetoric teacher can ignore poor spelling and faulty punctuation since such errors mark a writer as incompetent and uneducated. An instructor in a writing course cannot tolerate inferior work on the grounds that “some people can't spell” or that “it's the thought that counts.” Elementary errors should be eliminated immediately. Their continued occurence will inevitably lower the grade of papers which contain them.
EDIT: Also the campaign comes first! :)
How about bbtext and a very lenient rubric? :D
Enko would have preferred to leave Racker. However, under the circumstances, there was no place to guarantee a bound and gagged goblin wouldn't make noise or escape (they are very nimble humanoids, remember). In this case, one has to think of the greater good--to kill a creature in order to work on the redemption of Westcrown is regrettable but necessary.
Here's the thing about a lawful good monk; they aren't paladins. They can kill, even stealthily, and they can kill prisoners if they must. Furthermore, The Children of the Upper Reach are ostensibly servants of Iomedae, who does not parlay with fiends and evil creatures. (I just looked this up to double-check.) If we are going with the 'goblins are always evil' thing, that unfortunately includes all goblins. I'm pretty sure that within the laws of Golarion that an LG character would follow would include "sorry, prisoner, you die now." No Geneva conventions exist, and when I looked up what medieval donjons were like, they were pretty much holding chambers for the soon-to-be-executed. Not sure if a paladin would agree to killing a prisoner, but both Enko and Amon are Iomedaeans and recognize the futility of parley. Maybe even a paladin would agree, since they are so dead-set on smiting evil.
I'm modelling Enko to be sort of a Buddhist, but obviously not entirely as he's not from Tian Sha. He's taken no vows beyond standard monk disciplines (ha, AC, you got your answer!)--Truth would be no good in this campaign, as I'm sure we will have to lie, Peace would force him to tie up everything, Silence diminishes the strategic nature of Perception, and so forth. Actually, a Buddhist can lie and kill if necessary, if it helps the greater good. I just happen to have taken a few classes with a Tibetan Buddhist Rinpoche and have talked about this stuff--not a prerequisite for playing a monk, but it helps. ;) He's a monk, and he does not kill lightly (and he didn't push over the slab), but he's also a Chelaxian freedom fighter and a follower of Iomedae.
I did add the fluff that Enko feels that any creature can attain redemption, even devils. That is my own little mixture of Buddhism and Eberron (well, ok, devils can't change their stripes in Eberron, but you know what I mean) and I don't expect it to affect gameplay. There's what, one redeemed devil in the whole Golarion canon? It's his own little idea, possibly a schism in the greater view of Iomedaeans.
Enko will still, no doubt, go back to the Upper Reach and ask his masters questions about how to maintain a path of peace and honor while killing under these sorts of complicated circumstances.
** spoiler omitted **
As for the Goblin, Lucon is taking a backseat role in the decision-making department at the moment. Cheliax is a very tiered society, and a commoner like Lucon is hesitant to tell a Viscount what to do. That said, Lucon probably would not have been much kinder. He's not exactly about to let a monster notorious for eating children loose under his home without a particularly moving plea. Perhaps he's read through "Burnt Offerings" when the GM wasn't looking? :P
20-40 mph winds, too. I'm going to get some gaming on to keep my mind off things, as I can.
Stay safe, Brayden/AC. I well remember the Station Fire here in Southern Cali...it got within a mile of my mom's place. I hope your home remains unscathed.
Thanks. 700 turned into almost 4000 in the span of a few hours. 31 mph winds and the dryest conditionsin 5-8 years = no bueno.
3 cheers for fire insurance!
Hip hip...
Biweekly Jade Regent tonight - I'll be on an off here until about 3 pm (GMT -6), then I probably won't be heard from again until midday tomorrow; just a head's up.
You'd think the devil summoner would be proslaughter. The Viscount has layers, like an onion.
Or cake? How about parfait? Mmm everybody loves parfait. You ever walk up to someone and say 'Hey man you wanna go get some parfait? and they're like 'No man I don't like no parfait.'
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A parfait has visible layers, though; it needs to be invisible layers. Like a turducken.
Amon, you want to check on Lucon again? I reckon Enko has already left with Tavi and Jaiyana down the passage, but it seems Lucon isn't well and we haven't addressed it in a bit.
Meta: Lucon's done taking damage from his disease for the moment. A sufficient heal check... the next time the disease may or may not flare up, (aka: tomorrow) will give him a bonus to his save at that time.
Congratulations, you're were temporarily all-knowing, like ME! mwahahahaha!
I critically hit so many times last night in my friend's Jade Regent game. Double 20'd twice, once with a heavy flail on an attic whisperer, and once wight with a halberd on a plate-wearing wight. Which is a good thing, considering that, as a half-elf cavalier, I'm the only front-liner in the party of six (halfling oracle, elven witch, elven wizard, Str 8 gnome paladin, and, a now dead, halfling rogue). Fun times; we have a ridiculous amount of magic weapons that I'm turtling along with too, since I'm the only Medium party member proficient with martial weapons.
Hope that luck continues into this game!
Shall we go forward and into melee (or sneak attacks), or avoid it?
Or lure them back to the rest of the party?
Saves the trouble of lugging corpses--bring them over live, then...you know.
I swear I am not evil. We can actually speak truthfully to them and they will still chase us.
Heck, we could ask them for help. (ha)
Out for a bit today. We can douse the lights and then turn them on when the goblin gets near and ambush her.
Heh, sweet. (Also it's super cool to see the attic whisperers used in another adventure path. I always had trouble fitting them into Runelords in a way that I liked).
I am fine with killing them and carting their bodies back. Besides I hate leaving a foe alive behind me.
I agree, Tavi. The faster and quieter the better, although that's probably not possible to do as quickly and quietly as we'd like. After that, we can grab a body or two and run back.
We are dumb. They could see us standing there in the dark. Oops.
I plan to trip each one in succession.
** spoiler omitted **
DRINKALITY!
The one you just came from would be the 'third fork'. Although I don't think fork is the correct term.
You got it Corneleous, as far as them following you, that's a possibility, but it's certainly not pre-destined. As before the oozes don't go that far once in the sewage, it's pretty slow-flowing. But it did add to the time and difficulty of what you were doing, getting them farther up the 'wrong' fork before you can break away, having to deal with more stragglers, etc...
So...raise your hand if you trained Heal.
I even spent that ungodly amount on that healer's kit.
Not Lucon! Although I'd like to drop a rank in it at some point. With a healer's kit of my own thats a nice tidy +5 bonus. More than enough for a few scraped knees, I think.
No trained Heal, but my big ol' Wisdom gives me an untrained +3.
Better to roll a 1 on Perception than in battle!
I'm sorry, clearly this is due to an imp on my shoulder, but the Viscount's name reminded me of something Beavis used to say... :0 (will 'Butthead' get censored?)
HEy all, back from a vomit inducing migraine yesterday. I am happy to report that *today* I can look at the light coming from a computer monitor without going into dry heaves! I'll catch up on the readings, and hopefully I was botted as needed.
If we keep fighting in cramped quarters I am going to have to invest in a bow, hand crossbow maybe.
Welcome back, AC! Timely move to get us back our AC. Wait---that 'rhymed'.
Tavi---there needs to be a feat where halflings can slide between people on the ground and strike while prone. "Anklebiter Style"?