I don't share Maddok's fear that this game will disintegrate for lack of posts, but I think it's more likely that some players will feel annoyed by overposting and their inability to contribute because things might go too fast.
I think you misunderstood me, I said that I didn't think that was going to be a danger with this game.
He can always reworks his character's story if you've changed your mind on the Abadaran angle.
I'll post the details of Yahirma's fireworks when I get back from work this evening.
Yahirma, that was awesome (again).
I'm not sure what you do now but I think you should consider starting a second profession as a wrestling ring announcer!
I realize in retrospect that Yahirma's more "traditional" speech patterns disappeared after her performance in the 'Six Trials,' and the experience awakened the spark of showmanship already instilled from years of training to become a wendifu (plenty of public ritual). Although she hasn't interacted with Derek as directly as she has with Appario and Maddok, I think she's grown to value and respect his easy sense of showmanship and flair.
It's rather unfortunate that I'll never get access to Major Image, which allows for movement of the illusory zone and intelligible speech.
I apologize for my slowness of posting the last few days; I've been pretty busy.
Thanks to Yahirma for forcing me to at least attempt to raise my game with those colorful announcements!
I'm sure you'll make it up to us. =P
I have a general question about the arena. The rules mention a competitor being allowed to fight as a summoner or as an individual but are competitors that are competing as their own champion allowed to summon as well? If so, what is their win/lose condition?
Can Maddok use his Summon Monster ability or is that cheating/against the spirit of the rules?
He could use his summoning abilities, but then he'd have to compete as a summoner and stay out of the arena itself.
Fighting in the arena and summoning at the same time would be against the rules, but Maddok could change his tactic from this qualifying match to the final match (fighting in one match and summoning in the other), if he should desire to do so.
Maddok could unleash the Beast and compete in that form, if he wants to. That wouldn't count as a summoning.
***
While answering this, I realized there's one thing I omitted from the rules:
- A competitor can at any time surrender, by dropping to his or her knees and dropping all held weapons. A competitor who attacks someone who has surrendered is disqualified, as is someone who has surrendered if they begin fighting again.
Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.
The last names are Antuin Prous, Petri Teriak, Garen Ater, Kurgan Jakovo, Nenak Sagretti, Lillian Liosa, Torgrim Hark, Jonah Kenali, Kellisa Motaro, and Maddok.
That's a lot of fighters. I'm a bit confused on the format for the competition. There are two rounds before the battle with the champion? Is the first round that Maddok is competing in is a four person free-for-all?
Also, that man has a warhorse! That's legal!?
I suppose that's something I should have asked about.
There will be 3 qualifying matches, each with 4 competitors. The winner from each of the 3 qualifiers advance to face Mantrithor Thrax in the final match.
So Maddok will compete in a total of 2 matches, as will the two other qualifying winners, while Thrax only needs to compete in 1 match.
Each match is a free-for-all.
His warhorse will be kept by the aide, with reins through the ally-cage-wall, until he can make his way to take the reins himself, and the aide will be prohibited from influencing the match otherwise. I figured that would be drawback enough to allow it (plus mounted chargers are fun!)
I'm sure Maddok can handle a spirited charge from a cavalier without blinking (or at least without dying in one strike) :)
(I'll get the match started when everyone has had a chance to post, and/or I get up from bed)
I'm pretty sure nobody can survive a spirited-lance-charge.
That said, I have no intention of being lance-chargeable. =P
Derek shrugs and grins a little.
[b]"What can I say? I rub off on people, hopefully only the good qualities. But if you see Yahrima running around rip roaring drunk, with her underwear on her head, be sure to tell me to rein her in.
Ha! You would have to enter Yahirma into several more murderplays to push her to that point.
...don't get ideas.
You guys are nuts.
That's a lot of money riding on Maddok's success. No pressure or anything, right? =/
With a pay-out of 5:1, I feel pretty content win-or-lose. That said, winning would be pretty awesome. Enjoy the time in the spotlight.
Arena description, posted here for convenience:
The Devildrome is an immense 100-ft-diameter circular arena, which has been erected within the shell of a block of former apartment buildings. The arena is encased in a 25-ft-high dome-shaped iron cage. The walls of the cage closest to the ground are fitted with inward-facing blades and other serrated implements. In the arena's center, four wooden ramps converge to create an elevated 10-square-ft stage 15 ft above the ground. On the east and west sides of the cage, two 10-ft-deep elongated pits have been dug in the ground.
While the ramps appear to be stairs on the image, they're actually smooth, and thus not difficult terrain. However, since they're steep, 5-ft steps and charges can't be made through those squares.
I wouldn't want anyone to feel they're simply sitting idly by while Maddok is in the spotlight. So, if there's any NPC you would have wanted to talk to in greater detail, or anything you would have wanted to investigate, that would plausibly have taken place during the past two months of in-campaign time, this would be a perfect time to handle that :)
I wouldn't want anyone to feel they're simply sitting idly by while Maddok is in the spotlight. So, if there's any NPC you would have wanted to talk to in greater detail, or anything you would have wanted to investigate, that would plausibly have taken place during the past two months of in-campaign time, this would be a perfect time to handle that :)
I appreciate this. I've been thinking what Appario could/should be doing but haven't come up with much. I think we knew this would likely happen with this fight and it is what it is.
Appario is content to sit and cheer until the fight is over...unless I'm missing something that he should be doing.
I was thinking a similar thing about Whirlwind Attack. Four attacks gets pretty close, though.
Hurray!
Better late than never. Thanks.
Alright email has been sent.
Whenever you have a few minutes go to the site and fill out the creation guide.
At this point I'm going to end rage, up my AC, and just go into endurance mode. Based on the number of lemures left this is going to take a while. Since it's unlikely they can drop The Beast very quickly would it be alright if we started doing a few rounds at a time (say 3).
Sure, although Derek's actions would likely be influenced by how much damage the Lemures are able to inflict.
Thrax is now out of summons, so no more Lemures will be added.
Well it's over.
Thanks everyone for being patient and thanks Are for going along with my plan to power through that.
W2800gp at 5 to 1 (Yahirma, Semenya, Appario)
3000gp at 3 to 1 (Derek)
A'ight. Working on a money division. I welcome your feedback. This is, of course, *pending* DM Are's blessing.
So, the only consumables used were the silversheen (250gp), Pot Invisibility (300 gp), & Oil of Bless Weapon (100 gp), right? 650 gp in consumables. 650/4 = 162.5 gp (splitting costs amongst the 4 of us)
I'd like to have those consumables replaced via our winnings.
Winnings:
Appario: 3000-162.5 = 2837.5 gp (500 at 5 to 1)
Semenya: 1800-162.5 = 1637.5 gp (300 at 5 to 1)
Yahirma: 12000-162.5 = 11837.5 gp (2000 at 5 to 1)
Derek: 12000-162.5 = 11837.5 gp (3000 at 3 to 1)
Appario plans to offer a payout of 25% to Maddok (it was his blood spilt this day). I'll let all y'all offer what you would to him.
2837.5/4 = 710 gp to Maddok
2837.5-710 gp = 2127.5 gp Appario's Take
You can, at your leisure, also tip Appario for his banking and money handling services. If he had thought of it earlier, he might have attached a 3% fee on betting transactions. :)
Working on a money division. I welcome your feedback. This is, of course, with DM Are's blessing.
Money division among the party is the party's business, not mine.. But I would like a tally of how much total wealth each character has accumulated after this :)
Did you want a overall total or just from the gambling?
Also, go to sleep!
Overall, for a general idea of where you're at compared to WBL ;)
Gotcha.
Money division among the party is the party's business, not mine.. But I would like a tally of how much total wealth each character has accumulated after this :)
Okay...working the numbers and assuming my consumables are replaced:
Gold Total: 722.1 (Post Asmodean Knot)
-25 gp Black cloak, gold trim
-250 gp Silversheen
-100 gp Anti-toxin
-3.2 gp 4 whistles
+100 gp Shadowbeast
+2127.5 gp Arena
-212.7 gp Tithe to Temple of Abadar
=2458.7 gp
My HeroLab sheet (pretty much a copy of my alias) shows my Gear Value at 24534 and gold at 2459.
WBL for lvl 5 is: 10,500 gp. Uhm...yeah...
Big ticket items are Extortion (valued at 5K), Indemnity (also at 5K+), the belt of giant strength +2 (4k), Boots of Elvenkind (2.5k), and the handy haversack (2k).
But, as an Abadaran, I will argue that I'm actually well below my desired WBL. ;)
Maddok is at 26307 in gear.
In addition he has 16 gold plus whatever people throw his way from their gambling winnings.
Poor wealth-by-level table.
Edit:
It's probably worth mentioning that a large part of the gap in our wealth was caused by our crafting. If Maddok hadn't forged his own armor and Yahirma hadn't made those items for him he'd be around 18k.
I'll have to sort out how much of what I won will go directly to Maddok, but it should be a fair chunk. As I mentioned when first putting down the bet, some of it will likely work its way into Yahirma's crafting costs for the party and various in-character gifts.
I look forward to Maddok and Yahirma's next frank discussion about spirituality.
There's a potion of Shield of Faith in there that was consumed and not tallied for. Did Maddok use either of the Cure Moderate Potions Semenya gave him, and did Derek use any of the Scrolls?
Semenya's gear, not including gambling, but including about 1100 GP in a bank recommended by Appario, is about 26367 GP.
Almost a thousand of it is in healing potions that have accumulated and not been used...
When the opportunity presents itself, Semenya will ask Yahirma if there's anyway to transfer the enchantment of the Hat of Disguise to the Circlet of Persuasion, so that she doesn't have to swap them out to use them.
Derek did you have any input on the offer of bringing in a sixth person? You mentioned chiming in on Sunday. Maybe you meant this Sunday. =P
He's been throwing around the idea of taking over playing Del Vayne. He could advance Del up the group's level and pick up playing him from there (although he'd likely have developed a more aggressive attitude while he was away). Semenya, would you like that?
I would like to see some of the Del/Semenya backstory used.
Del and Semenya used to work as, well, a missing persons location service. We'd recover stolen belongings and return them to clients. Semenya was the lookout, and 'face person' - she'd gather information, and provide cover stories, via Bluff, Intimidate and Diplomacy (and now Disguise...) while Del would do the actual breaking and entering.
Semenya had a crush on Del. Del's prior player was somewhat oblivious to it; sort of a gender-reversed version of the dynamic on the very old TV series "Moonlighting".
That said - B&E is sort of Appario's niche at the moment, so I don't want to take that away from Appario without Appario's approval.
Well Del has apparently gained quite a few levels in the meantime. He could have directed his post level one efforts in other roguely directions.
After talking to Appario it appears I might have been unclear on what you need to do to get your character portrait done.
Go to the AvatarArt site.
Navigate to the Creation Guide.
Get Started > Creation Guide
Fill out the form. Keep in mind that this whole process will return as much effort as you put into it. The more information you include the better things will turn out. Things like references to google-searchable actors/actresses and such are helpful.
Keep in mind that the form cannot be saved and crashes sometimes so I suggest you backup the more lengthy fields before submitting it. Make sure you mention me as your reference and just decline the step at the end asking you to pay.
If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!
There's a potion of Shield of Faith in there that was consumed and not tallied for. Did Maddok use either of the Cure Moderate Potions Semenya gave him, and did Derek use any of the Scrolls?
I missed this question when I saw your post.
The Shield of Faith potion was not accounted for in the consumables calculation. If you'd like it replaced Maddok can pay for it out of pocket.
The potions of CMW weren't used. The scrolls were not used either.
Semenya will cheerfully take a replacement potion - those are her "Oh god, I've got to go in and use Burning Hands" prep spell. :)
No problem. Consider it paid for.
I'm eyeballing what feats to take at 7th level for Semenya.
She gets one bloodline feat from the following list:
Blind-Fight, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Quicken Spell, Skill Focus (Fly), Skill Focus (Knowledge [arcana]), Toughness
Blind-Fight: If she's fighting something in melee with her current spell selection, with her STR of 10, in a darkness she can't see through, we've done things to the pooch that would make Larry Flynt blush. If she were a specialist in doing melee touch spells...
Great Fortitude shores up one of her two weak saves.
Improved Initiative lets her act earlier in the sequence - useful when throwing lightning bolts and area effect spells around.
Power Attack: STR 10. BAB 1/2 character. Um, no.
Quicken Spell: Can't use it at 7th, likely going to grab it at 13th when she has 6th level spell slots to use.
Skill Focus (Fly): Not sure how useful this will be.
Skill Focus (Knowledge [arcana]): Yahirma has this as her schtick.
Toughness: Moahr Hit Points on the character most likely to have healing potions spoil like milk past the expiration date. :)
Beyond that, I'm considering the following ideas for feats with her non-bloodline feat:
Forge Ring: It's one nobody else has expressed that much interest in, and there are a lot of big ticket "wanna have it" items. Including for Semenya and Derek, Rings of Wizardry.
Craft Magical Arms and Armor: I assume Maddok is picking this one up - it's his schtick. :)
Elemental Spell [electricity]: This lets her cast any of her damage causing spells and doing electrical damage with them. The thought of doing Electrical Acid Arrow as a very long ranged range touch spell that A) ignores spell resistance and B) does the one damage type devils are vulnerable too appeals to me. A lot. :) Being able to do an Extended version of it at 8th level, well, that's just icing on the cake.
Intensify Spell: This is a feat she sorta grows into; right now it's for Burning Hands. It could be postponed.
Dodge: +1 AC is useful!
Ironhide: +1 AC is useful! However, not sure if it stacks with the AC she gets from her bloodline; I'd think it would, but the wording is a bit touchy.
Ironhide: +1 AC is useful! However, not sure if it stacks with the AC she gets from her bloodline; I'd think it would, but the wording is a bit touchy.
I'm fine with the feat stacking with the bloodline ability.
But in general, I'd say a +1 dodge bonus would be more useful than an additional +1 natural armor bonus.
Poor wealth-by-level table.
It has certainly taken a beating :)
It appears that everyone is at around 25,000, which makes all the characters fairly balanced with eachother. That's good.
I suppose it won't be necessary for me to add in many extra items beyond what the modules suggest though!
Semenya--
The gold breakdown is above.
I'm very hesitant to give character creation advice...to me, it's a very personal decision. Please accept mine with grains of salt and then more grains of salt.
In order of preference:
1) Imp Init: No brainer from the list.
2) Quicken Spell: Now or later, you're going to want this. Getting off two magic missle spells in one round is nice.
3) Toughness: If you absolutely need to take something.
4) Great Fort: At least it's not useless (like the below).
Never:
Blindfight: meh.
Power Attack: meh.
Skill Focus (fly): meh.
Skill Focus (arcana): too bad this isn't SF (spellcraft), because I wish we had more of it. Meh.
7th lvl:
In order of preference:
1) Elemental Spell [electricity]: because if your main schitck is fire and that's useless against devils in a devil dominated AP, you're probably doing it wrong.
2) Forge Ring: this one appeals to my quirky side. I like it.
3) Intensify Spell: it's not awful.
Never:
Dodge: when are you ever in combat?
Ironhide: see above. If this is an issue, you should get far far away...at level 7/8, you should have access to DDoor instead of wasting a feat on AC.
Craft Arms & Armor: not the right thing for you.
-Appario
p.s. Btw, I've been thinking over your Pally/Shadowdancer build for PFS, I think going straight to Pally5 is wrong. With PFS, there is quite of bit of RP built around skill points. As you know, Paladins are awful at skill points. I think dipping early into rogue for a sweet sweet burst of skill points (and opening up some additional skills) is better than putting them off to 5.
Pally 1
Pally 2
Rogue 1
Rogue 2
Pally 3
Pally 4
Pally 5
Rogue 3
Rogue 4
....
Regarding the potential 6th player:
I've given it a lot of thought, and I've decided not to invite the additional player at this time.
The pace of the game is good, and it seems to me that the biggest issue is to make sure everyone gets a chance to participate. It appears more likely that the game will move too fast than too slow. Adding another player could potentially lead to some feeling left out.
As was said by several of you already, I think the party dynamic is good. Each character has their place in the group, and I wouldn't want to threaten that dynamic unnecessarily.
Maddok: I'm going to be sending you an email.
Since people are talking about their characters' future advancements, it seems like a good time to actually make an advancement (even though you're not quite there yet, it seems better to advance before Delvehaven than in the middle of it).
So, everyone can advance their characters to 6th level. Post here when you have.
In addition, the party has earned 3 additional fame points; 1 for defeating a shadowbeast with visible proof, and 2 for winning the Hellcaller's Cup and subduing Thrax in a peaceful manner.
From your list of bloodline feats I like Improved Initiative the best. Going first and blasting the enemies before everyone is stuck in melee seems like a good idea overall. Great Fort and Toughness aren't bad either though and I wouldn't discount them as useless.
For your non-bloodline feat I would suggest Spell Penetration. Spell resistance has stymied your casting on a couple occasions now and, although you do have some SR-ignoring spells now, a bonus to punching through it when you really need to wouldn't be a bad idea.
***
That's unfortunate Are. He's going to be bummed to hear this.
Is it safe to assume that he has first dibs if someone ends up bowing out?
Edit:
Are, did you not sleep or did you get up early?
Yes, he'd definitely be my first choice if a replacement player is needed at some point :)
Maddok and Shu-Ak’eh-Di are both leveled to 6. The Beast got a lot scarier this level.
Yahirma, did you need suggestions for things ask Ghaelfin? I think we've gathered all the information we could possibly hope for. Whatever we get out of him is a bonus at this point.
Edit:
I noticed there is no way to get Powerful Charge as an evolution. What kind of minotaur doesn't have powerful charge?
Are, would you be alright with the Beast getting Powerful Charge as a 1-point evolution in the future? Pounce only costs one point and it's quite a bit more powerful.
Semenya has leveled up to 6th.
+1 rank to Spellcraft
+1 rank to Stealth
+1 rank to Perception
+1 rank to Knowledge (arcana)
+5 HP
Favored class in Fire damage, because one of these days we'll face something I can burn. :) Damage to Burning Hands and Flaming Magic Missile updated to suit.
Added Mending for the 0 level spell and Lightning Bolt for the 3rd level spell.
Yahirma, when there's a moment for downtime and crafting, I'd like for Yahirma to look at Semenya's Hat of Disguise and add its functionality to the Circlet of Persuasion. (As near as I can tell, this would cost 47.5% of 2700 GP, or 1283 GP)
This would let her sell that Hat of Disguise, or perhaps someone else in the party (Derek or Appario?)
Bloodline Feat will likely be Improved Initiative. I agree it's the best choice of the set for 7th.
Regular Feat is still up in the air.
Revised list:
Elemental Spell [electricity]
Forge Ring (benefits the party, fun RP potential. Imagine everyone in the party having a ring of spell storing with Semenya casting Flaming Magic Missile into them during some down time. You'd like a one-shot rechargeable never miss attack that does 4d4+20, right?)
Penetrating Spell (Metamagic +1 caster level, subtracts 5 from SR)
Toppling Spell
Expanded Arcana (picking two spells of 3rd or lower to add to her list)
Spell Penetration (For Semenya, the Penetrating Spell metamagic appears to be better)
Silent Spell (She is the de-facto scout and sneaky-git)
Extra Traits (This is my favorite feat ever)
Cosmopolitan (Less useful because Semenya has 4 skill points per level.)
on Agda (the Pally/Shadowdancer build):
The temptation to do some rogue dipping - just to get some sneak attack and a rogue talent, plus, well buckets of skill points - is quite high. Right now, I don't see Agda taking a favored class option other than extra skill ranks for Paladin, though the option for taking energy resistance is amusing.