I am dying.
Every day, with every breath I draw, I am closer to the end of my life. For we are born with a finite number of breaths, and each one I take edges the sunlight that is my life toward the inevitable dusk.
It is a difficult thing to remember, especially while we are in the health and strength of our youth, and yet, I have come to know that it is an important thing to keep in mind -- not to complain or to make melancholy, but simply because only with the honest knowledge that one day I will die can I ever truly begin to live.
The world is full of ruffians. The world is full of people of good character. Both of these statements are true, I believe, because within most of the people I have known lies the beginning points of both seemingly disparate paths.
When I meet people now, they do not have to earn my respect. I grant it, willingly and happily, expecting that in doing so I will come to know even more about this beautiful world around me, that my experiences will widen.
Certainly some people will see this as weakness or cowardice, will misconstrue my intentions as sublimation, rather than an acceptance of equal worth. But it is not fear that guides my actions -- it is hope.
The hope that I will find out what another species tastes like.
Awesome. :-D
I can only make one suggestion-
"The hope that I will find out what yet another species tastes like." :-)
Don't know if anyone else is using HeroLab, but the latest iteration seems to have a bug where it applies the temporary Con increase from raging to rounds of Rage. I just spent about ten minutes trying to figure out where it was getting an extra 2 rounds.
Strangely, while I have it I don't use it to make my character rage. :-)
If you don't have line of sight to the opponent at the start of your turn, you can't charge that opponent.
So she's good. Can't start actually attacking the good guy until next round. Although if its usual opening is to whomp in all invisible and start bellowing about imminent death, I don't think the burden of the misunderstanding is all on the non-celestial-speaking side. :P
Without hilarious misunderstandings the good guys would never fight each other at all. C'mon place your bets!
Considering that, like everything else in Katapesh apparently, the guardian-thing flies, my money's on Nuveril getting humiliated. :P
So, just for theory's sake, since you're denied Dex bonus to AC vs. invisible creatures, would you just add your ranks in Acrobatics and leave out your ability modifier?
Yep thats how I'd rule it.
Not sure if telling Nuveril the enemy is spellcasting is going to do the trick getting her to back off :)
I'm going to bot Arasmes very shortly given I'm not sure whats up with Alex and I think he's just going to say no stop or something similar to what he posted before.
I'm here, just the order of events has confused me somewhat and it feels like i'm now basically waiting for initiative to start? Nuveril's already interrupted me in narrative so Arasmes' intention was clear.
Initiative started with Nuveril's action, which came before yours (12 vs. 11, iirc). And the invisible thing apparently readied an action on his init so he got to react to Nuveril's action and take off before she got there. And then you got the chance to make your Knowledge check after invisible guy and Nuveril acted.
Iow, initiative is already underway, and it's your turn. So Dan wants to know if, given that we're no longer in negotiating stance but in about-to-fight stance, you want to do something other than talk to the invisible guy who's in the air casting spells on your initiative count? Or perhaps talk to him differently given the change in situations? Arasmes would have seen Nuveril charge and heard the thing take off before he had a chance to speak.
Yep although basically lacking anyone being surprised the commencement of Nuveril's action provoked initatives all round rather than a ready.
Arasmes will go into Kirin Style. I think hes already made the requisite knowledge check to get the benefits of it. Other than that hes essentially doing nothing.
Edit: I guess he'll switch to his bow too.
I gather this is only going to go on with Nuveril driving it. The creature will have an action first but if the others warnings are enough to dissuade her I can stop determining in initiative strings and resolve.
Think we are waiting on Nuveril to drive things further.
Oh, are we? I was waiting to see if it responded to Linah at all.
I could have been clearer with Wednesday's post. Initiative and actions get wooly with a lot of delaying and talking but essentially the possibilities were talking vs fight and it was really Nuveril's actions driving that sans some interference from the others.
Oh and not a celestial :)
Oh and not a celestial :)
I have no more clue what it is than Nuveril does. Probably a good thing I don't know how screwed she is. :P
Not sure how Nuveril will react to non-lethal attacks but it doesn't have much choice if it does want a chance of killing you outright given you could be a 1st level warrior.
BLESS
School enchantment (compulsion) [mind-affecting]; Level cleric 1, paladin 1
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, DF
Range 50 ft.
Area The caster and all allies within a 50-ft. burst, centered on the caster
Duration 1 min./level
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
Bless doesn't have a saving throw. What kind of save does she have to roll? Will? Fort?
Saving throw? Why?
Superstition (Ex): The barbarian gains a +2 morale bonus on saving throws made to resist spells, supernatural abilities, and spell-like abilities. This bonus increases by +1 for every 4 levels the barbarian has attained. While raging, the barbarian cannot be a willing target of any spell and must make saving throws to resist all spells, even those cast by allies.
Don't know if it applies to spells without a save, however.
Nope. It just affects you. At least, Bless doesn't require that you be willing and doesn't include a save. If you gained saving throws against spells that didn't normally allow them, it would be an even more potent rage power than it already is.
That would be awesome. "Natural 20 on an enervation!" "Yeah, sorry, rolled my on that, so no negative levels."
I'd gladly roll saving throws vs. bless for that perk. :)
Fair enough. I got as far as checking whether bless had a save but didn't consciously think the next part through beyond hey wait shes raging and needs to save against beneficial spells. I did just check to see whether we'd been doing it wrong with haste but nope it does have a save.
I agree the penalty from superstition does not include giving you a free save against hostile spells :)
Sigh, I can't do anything right :/ Would a Cure wounds spell be subject to the save?
Bless is OK, Joana and AK corrected my error.
Channel is OK, Cure spell requires a save.
I didn't expect her to win, but I did hope she might at least be able to put up a respectable fight and feel halfway decent about herself. Pretty sure Grall hits with those natural 10s; they're 23s for him. And he's doing a minimum of 16 points of damage, instead of a maximum of 17. And he crits on an 18 which was the original plan to make up for her Small weapon damage before she picked up the pugwampi hammer.
But the Paizo dice roller has been brutal to my characters lately. It's gotten to where I dread being given something cool for my PCs to do because I know they're only going to fall flat on their facees in the spotlight. I'm on the verge of quitting several games because I no longer have any affection for characters who repeatedly fail at the stuff they're supposed to be good at. I think it's pretty telling that in 6 levels of play, she's only confirmed 6 crits while two-weapon fighting. :P
{Edited for mathiness. There's a reason I use HeroLab to keep up with her bonuses.}
Small characters as melee fighters start at a disadvantage for sure. You were obviously going for a roleplaying angle vs. a purely maximized BBN.
Grall is pretty heavily Maximized...the Gnoll in him giving him his only real RP opportunities. I try to make him a little more interesting than your common tank, but only just barely.
Yeah, to be honest I don't have that many more crits. I do a fair amount of normal damage but I can't tell you the last time I critted either. I just usually role in the 10-17 range which helps with his big + to hit. Stick with it, the dice roller has got to warm up to yo eventually.
Maybe you should roll out some d20's to shake out the cobwebs??? :]
But the Paizo dice roller has been brutal to my characters lately. It's gotten to where I dread being given something cool for my PCs to do because I know they're only going to fall flat on their facees in the spotlight. I'm on the verge of quitting several games because I no longer have any affection for characters who repeatedly fail at the stuff they're supposed to be good at.
Add "unable to create a functional character" and "lacking grasp of the rules" and you have me :)
But the Paizo dice roller has been brutal to my characters lately. It's gotten to where I dread being given something cool for my PCs to do because I know they're only going to fall flat on their facees in the spotlight. I'm on the verge of quitting several games because I no longer have any affection for characters who repeatedly fail at the stuff they're supposed to be good at.Add "unable to create a functional character" and "lacking grasp of the rules" and you have me :)
Think your being a bit hard on yourself Patrik. Theres nothing wrong with Linah's build and to date her healing/buffing has been a major force multipler for the group. If you still want advice on things you've mentioned some hesitation about before like spell selection and scroll making you've got several heavy hitters in your fellow players that I'm sure would be happy to help.
As for rules not one of us maintains perfection there (plus I think this group in its various games keeps a pretty high bar for that compared to pbp generally).
Khalid and Linah: believe that's your cue. (Linah especially). :)
^. Arasmes has already contributed as best he feels he can, with sagely advice rather than honeyed words...
But Tal's pretty much AFK until monday.
Pft. Doesn't matter if you don't have a Diplomacy bonus; you know you'd roll a natural 20 anyway, AK. ;)
Linah and Khalid have the most pluses, however.
At the risk of sounding girly...
We get a Lammasu companion! Squeeeeeee :-D
Think your being a bit hard on yourself Patrik. Theres nothing wrong with Linah's build and to date her healing/buffing has been a major force multipler for the group.
The problem is that I rarely achive what I envision. With Linah I wanted someone good at healing and able to handle herself in a fight. The first critera succeeded but her scimitar is pretty much just for show. The half-elf ranger I play in a Serpent's Skull PbP isn't much to look at. The witch I play in a Kingmaker PbP doesn't do much difference (other than to soak one high roll per combat as the enemy makes their save:). The freehand fighter I play in a Savage Tide PbP is ok but it took 5 levels and I'm pretty sure he's going to get his ass handed to him sometime soon. The characters I've played in a RL games (rogue and bard) didn't do much good. Although now that I think about it the dwarf barbarian I made as a replacement for the rogue wasn't that bad, but I only got to play him one session before the campaign ended.
Next time I create a character for Pathfinder I'm just going to hand a concept to one of my powergamer friends and see what he comes up with :)[/ooc]
Having imperfect characters is fun. The bow and arrow build for Zeladiel has been executed so poorly, I redid it as a Pathfinder Society character (Variel) when I discovered Gravity Bow. Now I have two quite different characters, and while Variel is the more 'effective' character, I think I enjoy playing Zeladiel more. I love having him 'fire' spells from his bow, which happens less with Variel who's a Transmuter/Enhancer.
Power gamers often find a weak section of the rules and exploit it, and while some of them do make very powerful characters by knowing the rules, there are some who make powerful characters because they missed a limitation or drawback and the GM hasn't picked up on it.
But getting a powergamer to give you stats while you give the character personality does sound like a good idea. Just don't play that character while the power gamer is around lest they play it for you. :-)
So sorry for the delay. I had a busy weekend, and then my daughter was sick Monday and Tuesday. I got way behind on my threads. Trying to catch up tonight.
Personally, though, this seems like A Bad Idea. Walking into battle against multiple vampires with 2 barbarians prime for dominating, no silver weapons, and no time to prep spells for the occasion sounds like suicide to me.
That's why you keep protection from evil on them :]
Your adventurers. Practically everything you do is suicidal.
BTW I will be on vacation next week. I can't stay away from the PBP's so I will be checking in at least once a day but won't be posting quite as much as I normally do.
Apologies for the slow posting from me guys. Partly sheer business and partly becase I'm preparing for a trip to Dubai for the rest of the week. We're about to hit a heavy combat portion and I'm disinclined to launch into it until I get back and can regularly update.
No offense, Linah; it's just this AP leaves an abysmal impression of Sarenrae on any character not already familiar with her organized church. Maybe if we ever run across a temple of hers that's not a charnel house overrun by evil and sealed off from the outside world for their own protection. ;)
Checks AP .... hm could be problem.
Sarenrae's paladins and priests basically keep Solku from being overrun by gnolls and they have a tendancy to end up imprisoned after trying to flee slaves in Katapesh. Thats all off stage however.
I guess I'll have to make with some non undead ones.
Yes, priests of Sarenrae who aren't huecuva or vampires or evil jann in disguise would be nice. Heck, just an actual shrine staffed by adepts that hasn't been corrupted into a hideous mockery of itself by unspeakable evil would be a step in the right direction. ;D
Surely Katapesh would be filled with temples to Sarenrae.
Nice, safe temples, collecting donations and keeping the priests fat and happy.
Or maybe the profits go into building wilderness temples to get sacked, ravaged and desecrated to create more evil for wandering adventurers to destroy... :-)