True re: clearing out the tower, though I thought that was more meant to be in case we needed to make multiple forays. I don't know that we've actually used all that many of our resources, have we?
I'm up for whatever's easiest for the GM in terms of another player. I'm happy to suggest some names. They could certainly come in here -- it might be fun to take over Bartelby (which could be fun to do his redemption story, assuming he's not still going to come up elsewhere in the adventure) or one of his henchmen, or any other number of ways. Or they can come in later too.
I'd say we're probably looking for a frontliner of some sort?
I do like having a flanking buddy, so I would agree that having another frontliner would be nice, especially one that might be able to take a hit or two.
I would be in favor of inviting someone rather than opening up a new recruitment. Easier for everyone and should yield a higher quality player.
I would prefer a full BAB class, if possible.
Liam is okay to keep going today. He has used most of his 2nd-level spells, but still has all the 3rd and most of the 1st. The main reason for delaying would be to prepare spells specifically to deal with the ichkoh.
Also agree on full BAB. Hopefully one with a decent AC or other means of defense (like Parry). I'm saying this as the healer. It seems in PFS the plan is often "Focus on offense, take lots of damage, and heal up afterwards," but Liam has reduced healing ability and we don't have the dirt-cheap 2-PP wands of CLW. I don't want to have to fill all my slots with Cure spells (don't have spontaneous healing).
I am happy to use my abilities to boost the offense of a defensive build (and that will be quite potent next level, giving everyone +4 or +5 to hit and damage from Round 1), but my ability to do the converse is rather limited.
Other treasure's also available: potions of cure moderate wounds (2), +2 glamered breastplate, mwk light crossbow with 20 bolts, mwk sword cane, circlet of persuasion.
I'm also fine waiting until tomorrow to tackle the tower. Waiting to hear the results of Katria's Knowledge check.
The breastplate would probably be good for whoever may join the group, though I suspect the DM may just give them a set amount of gold. If nothing else, we could sell it.
Also, as far as what exactly we're looking for in a fifth, I agree a defensive character would be preferable, but I also don't want to overly restrict prospective players. I know I've been turned off by recruitments that were looking for something very, very specific. If the main concern is heals, I don't mind chipping in for a wand of CLW. We're probably going into a new book, so the need for one may increase anyway.
I'm cool with you guys sending recommendations for new players who would be interested in joining. They could join before the end of this book.
Sounds like you guys need a paladin! :P
Sorry - I like dropping in to see how the game is going and couldn't resist a cheeky comment. :D
The sooner we can get the new person in, the better. Katria, if you have some candidates in mind, I'm cool if you want to go ahead and ask.
I'd be happy to offer a Virtuous Bravo Paladin for your amusement if that would help. :)
I sent some suggestions to the GM.
Sounds good, Katria. Thank you!
So are we waiting for our new player, or are there things we should be doing to move things along? I am fine either way.
I imagine there are things we can still be doing. It's Memorial Day in the United States, so I suspect that's slowing things down at the moment. I imagine we'll be back to doing stuff tomorrow.
Yes, I will post in the morning.
So my thought in hindsight is that it would have been better for Maya to have been using Vanish or Invisibility on Doritan rather than Grease.
Doritan hits very hard when invisible but his AC is poor. That can be a combat tactic going forward. Maya uses Vanish or Invisibility on Doritan immediately after he strikes.
I think Maya is now out of 2nd-level slots but may have a 1st-level left?
Maya has one 2nd-level slot left and two 1st-level slots. Assuming she can safely get in range of Doritan, she can cast Vanish on him next round. Good strategy idea for the future.
I haven't reached to anybody as a replacement player yet. Katria's player said they spoke to somebody in person who was interested, but they have yet to contact me about joining the game. I will send out some inquiries later today or tomorrow. If anybody wants to try to directly contact somebody they recommended about joining, I'm cool with that to.
I'll reach out to the one person again. (Otherwise, I do recommend the other folks I PM'd you and think any of them would be a solid addition.)
I sent a note to one of players I recommended and asked him to PM you if he is interested.
My thought on spells for the day - any suggestions?
0 (4): Light, Stabilize, Create Water, Guidance
1 (4+1): Shield (D), Cure Light Wounds (x2), Shield of Faith (x2)
2 (4+1): Barkskin (D), Align Weapon (x2), Protection from Outsiders (x2)
3 (3+1): Protection from Energy (D), Good Hope, Prayer, Dispel Magic
Since we think the sakhil has SR based on Katria's Knowledge check, I am avoiding the direct spells like Spear of Purity or Burst of Radiance.
Basically the idea is "buff Doritan to the moon, make sure everybody else is reasonably well protected, and fight it."
We don't happen to have Cat's Grace, do we? Potion or scroll?
*digs through inventory*
Ah, no Cat's Grace on my part. I do, however, have a potion of Bull's Strength, though. That should be handy. I suppose I should start doing math now for what my attacks will be like.
Substituting Barkskin or a Protection from Outsiders for a Communal Protection from Evil might be good, depending on the sakhil's long range capabilities. We have the wand of Cure Light Wounds, so probably no need for the cure spells now. Maya can carry the wand, if you don't think Liam will get a chance to use it. Remove Fear could also be useful, since fear was mentioned in the DM's description, perhaps substitute that for the Cure spells.
Katria, evil-outsider Bane would be incredibly valuable if you could provide that again.
I also have an oil of keen edge, and with a potion of bull's strength, good hope, prayer, +1 bane, invisible and Inspire Courage, I might be looking at a total of +19 attack bonus against flat-footed, dealing 3d6+3d8+21 damage on a hit, with a crit range of 17-20. Hopefully I don't roll a 2 again.
Liam can't swap out the Barkskin (domain spell).
Remove Fear is a good call.
Sure, that's easy enough, though I may tweak my focus and may only be able to do it twice (it lasts 1 minute).
I figure I'll use my scorching ray wand. I do have a couple scrolls of invisibility if needed.
I think 1 protection from outsiders is probably enough.
Dropped one CLW for Remove Fear, and the Prayer for CSW. The wand just won't do it for in-combat healing, whereas CSW might buy another round for Doritan. Prayer is too short-duration to count on, since we don't know it will be right there as soon as we enter the tower.
So here's what I can offer:
Protection from Outsiders (Sakhil) on Doritan (+4 resistance, +4 deflection, 6 minutes)
Shield of Faith on Liam and Katria (+3 deflection, 6 minutes)
Align Weapon on Doritan (6 minutes)
Good Hope on everybody (+2 morale to saves/skills/attacks, 6 minutes)
Shield on Liam (6 minutes)
Barkskin on Doritan (+3 enhancement to natural armor, 60 minutes)
Doritan should then be at AC 25 - not great, but not awful. His saves will be +10/+14/+12, I think. Liam will be at AC 24 and +10/+8/+12, willing to go in and flank.
Saving the Remove Fear if somebody is actually affected (since it would then entirely suppress the effect instead of merely granting a save bonus)
Saving the Dispel Magic for whatever tricks the thing has
Keeping the second Protection from Outsiders and Align Weapon in case the thing can Dispel or can evade us for a while. Maybe I'm being too cautious here, but it is a possibility.
Ready to go whenever everyone else is.
This sort of thing is not our strength, but if properly prepared I think we can manage...
Sounds good. I think we're ready. I might tweak my mental focus build-out when we wake, but that's quick and easy to do. (Probably a little less transmutation, little more elsewhere.)
I can give Doritan's sword a 1-minute boost when we go in; anyone else want one?
I'm in talks with a potential fifth player, so I'll wait a day or two to see if he can get ready quickly and join you before you begin your adventuring day.
It occurs to me, we could try to buy/sell some magic items before we face off with the sakhil if we want. We've got a fair amount of loot if anyone wants to try to claim it...
Other than the wands, I think there's nothing I really want.
Hail friends! It appears you are the people who Lady Lotheed said would be helping me on this operation. Fear not, should you stand by me, your purse will never feel light and your parties shall never be dull.
I am excellent with a bow and equally as excellent with my spike here. No, there is no need for thanks, Taldor requires and I serve her humbly.
--
I was told you needed a frontliner with social skills and also had a problem with ranged combat so I built a switch hitter here. Unfortunately the Bow eats a lot of resources off the bat so my AC won't be as up to snuff as Liam (and I) would like. Not too many Bard defense spells at 1st but I will be grabbing Mirror Image and such to help offset.
I've always wanted to build the Lucky Tree on a Human so I'll be doing that as I feel this is the perfect campaign for those kinds of shenanigans.
I will be catching up as much as possible in the thread but thankfully I've been given a pretty brief overview.
Welcome!
I will endeavor to keep you alive until you get Mirror Image at 7th (and you also bring some of your own healing). I also love the human luck feats.
Timely Inspiration won't see much use in fights, as Liam's Inspire Courage will overlap it, but it will certainly have use for skill checks.
Besides handing out a ton of buffs, Liam also has Craft Wondrous Item. After we finish our immediate task he may take some downtime and do some crafting. Hopefully.
I can rejig a little and grab myself some CLW Scrolls for the time being to ease the burden on you then. I just started getting more and more extravagant gear because I ran out of ideas.
I had forgotten Liam's Inspire is a Competence bonus and not Morale. I'll see what else is on the Bard list then.
Oh, sorry, I meant to say "I see that you are bringing a bit of your own healing with your 2 spell slots," not "You need to do more to bring your own healing."
Don't worry about that, I'm happy to be the healer. We do have a CLW wand, and I have Channel. I just can't do the spontaneous casting so I need to have a little more foresight about how many to prep for in-combat healing.
Welcome! You'll fit right in with the low AC and slightly weird build (coming from the guy who's trying to make intimidation a viable tactic). This AP does seem to be the place for it, after all. Good to have you join the group.
My deal is basically "stab stuff." Granted, I stab stuff really well if I'm invisible or having a flanking buddy, and I'll soon be able to hurt all our enemies at once when I stab someone, but Doritan doesn't have much mechanical complexity.
Hello there! Glad to have you. : )
Looks like we'll have three people with one bard ability or the other, so it's probably more important than ever that we try to coordinate spells. Especially with spontaneous casters, we don't want to double dip for the most part.
Even if you take hits, Amelia, we've got ways of mitigating the blows (Liam's healing, my Satire Performance, etc). I think it'll be a good mix, especially now that we have another character that can dance around more consistently in melee when the need arises.
Amelia, you can go ahead and post your introduction when you are ready. You'll meet up with the others as they are getting ready to return to the palace and finish their task there.
Welcome. Nice to have an addition.
I think Katria's idea of selling gear and divvying up the gold is good. We don't have to do it now - can clear out the Palace of Birdsong first - but I haven't gotten any gold since the end of Book 1. We did sell the harp, ring and bracers, and used 1,000 of that to buy a Page of Spell Knowledge. But there was gold leftover. And then there's all the stuff since then.
I can try adding things to the list. I don't really want to be the full-time bookkeeper but I can do this part to catch us up.
Then I'd like to do some crafting once we have some downtime.
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I don't mind taking over loot once you settle up this book here.
I have this thing for spreadsheets.
There is a lot of useful loot that we got well before the palace fights and forgot about.
Like a fully-charged wand of CMW.
And a Ring of Protection +2.
And a +1 Returning Chakram.
Edit: loot sheet is updated. Assuming we keep the following:
Most of the scrolls and wands from Titus & Friends and Bartelby
Ring of Protection +2
+1 Chain Shirt (Liam took it)
Eyes of the Eagle
Circlet of Persuasion (not really useful for Maya since it is the same kind of bonus as the Envoy ring)
Wand of CLW (34 charges)
One of the two Cloaks of Resistance +1 (Liam and Katria have class resistance bonuses, and Liam already made a cloak for Doritan, so only Maya needs this)
What we sell comes out to 17,203, or 4300 per person. Everyone take a look and if there is anything you would rather distribute than sell, remove the "sale value" entry.
The big-ticket items we are selling are the +1 returning chakram, the fully-charged wand of CMW, and the +2 Glamered Breastplate.
The Breastplate could be useful for Doritan, although he'd already be beyond its max Dex (since he got the Belt of Dex +2, his Dex is 18). Or Katria could use it. Liam would need a feat to use it.
We knew we liked you, Amelia.
Also, nice first post. Very evocative. :)
Thanks. I wanted to introduce the character and get a grip on her inner thoughts and dialogue so I figured that was the best place to do it. I'm glad you liked it!
I can't wait to get into this, seems like an interesting campaign (and Verbal DUEEEEEELSSS).
I'm glad some people are given the gift of liking spreadsheets. Keeps the rest of us from going crazy.
Distributing gold sounds like a good plan. I've been wanting to get Maya a Charisma headband for quite a while now. If we have some downtime after clearing the tower, it would probably be better to wait and let Liam craft one. Then Maya can make her armor or weapon magical as well. I'll also definitely take a cloak of resistance (updated my stats and profile to reflect the addition).
Is it too late to swap a few spells known? I only just realized that Archives has EVERYTHING and there are a whole slew of new Bard spells that seem really flavorful that I only just knew existed.
Daivon's Parry will help the survivability and Lucky Number just seems in character.
Go ahead, Amelia. :)
I'll be out of town from Friday through Monday and won't be able to post much during that time.
Thanks a lot!
I also just noticed due to your weekend post warning popping up in another thread that we are in another game together. I found that quite funny actually.
I had not realized how tight the PBP community is.
Yeah, that happens a lot to me. Especially because once you get people who keep up and play well, they start recommending them or recruiting them for other games. I have a few folks I'm in at least three games with.
I find it odd when someone says they'll be gone because of something unfortunate (illness, death, etc.). Do I look like a jerk if I don't reply to it in one game because I've replied in another one? :)
It's not huge, that's for sure. At least, the long-lived games tend to attract basically the same hundred or so people over and over again, it seems. I'm in three games DM'd by Braniac, and playing in a third.
It does make meta-discussions quite... interesting, that's for sure.