| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Was finally able to catch up with your stuff...^^
Apologies I haven't taken part in the discussion this weekend guys, busy time in the run up to Christmas.
I think others have covered the salient points of our werewolf problem. I am hoping we can use Wolfsbane to remove the affliction from Janos and Drosil and as for Dantrian perhaps it is too late to remove entirely in which case the medicine he and Petros worked on keeps it at bay.
Glad you're still enjoying it enough to keep following along, Eschie! =)
Also, regarding the acquisition of wolfsbane, I recalled reading something about a lab with beakers or somesuch but didn't remember the details so I read back through the last 10 pages or so.
I was thinking of the room we found Estovion hiding in, with the bars and the pit, here. Maybe there might be some wolfsbane there? <shrug>
Heading out for Christmas. Sporadic posting for the rest of the week. Happy Holidays everyone!
Are the Retrainig rules still on the table? I would like to swap out Weapon Focus for Steadfast Personality.
What mitigation do we get to account for the travel/pace of the adventure? For example, for the retrain I want it would normally cost 400 gold and take 5 uninterrupted days with a trainer. Without a trainer, it would be 10 uninterrupted days and cost the same.
Needless to say, a +6 to Will Saves is much more useful than a +1 to hit with a weapon that I never use ;)
TL;DR:
Can B'yelka feat swap Weapon Focus Whip for Steadfast Personality? What are your guidelines for doing so?
You can retrain, but not as the special one time freebie I offered before. If you want to do it now, you need to follow rules as written.
So exactly like you said, you need either 5 days with a trainer (we'll say you can find someone in any city). Or 10 days on your own. Not sure how much downtime you're going to have going forward, so it might have to wait a while. If you guys hit level 9 before you get downtime I'll be nice and let you swap it out then.
Still debating whether I want to Janos to become a werewolf. Might be fun. Thoughts?
Oh and Happy New Year, everyone!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I say don't do it, Janos!
And I say do do it! I want a brother!
Still debating whether I want to Janos to become a werewolf. Might be fun. Thoughts?
Fun for me.... -wicked grin-
I don't think it would significantly affect things because of the lack of me tracking time. However, it would be fun to occasionally declare it's the full moon and have you wake up naked and covered in blood.
But once everyone's aware of it, they'd presumably tie you up or something.
Well, the chase is on for sure now - we know the Way is only *this far* in front of us, and I have a feeling that we will be 'overcome by events' as the saying goes :) There may not be a whole lot of time for it to matter...
B'yelka would surely counsel against letting it happen: take the damned wolf's bane, you fool!
I would only add "...and try not to come as close to dying as Drosil did!" Yikes.
Anton, unsurprisingly, would be dead against it.
SO I let the dice decide and with Janos' good fort save, no werewolf for me! That's not to say I might not take the next level in Feral Hunter. Maybe it's some side effect with the spirits and the curse mingling. Or maybe it's just a progression of how the spirits manifest.
That is, if Jelani will let me ignore the alignment requirement (Any Neutral) or shift Janos to NG.
That's fine. Janos strikes me as NG anyway.
Guys just as a heads up, I'll be going skiing for five days from Thursday of next week and I expect my posting to be extremely limited.
I love OoTS! =D
And, oh powerful and gracious DM, if you might find a point at which to bestow items of power upon us, it would be much appreciated.
Dantrian's most expensive item that he owns remains the stone of alarm we acquired back in Harrowstone and, while an enjoyable novelty that afforded a rather dramatic scene at the town statue, the thing is otherwise utterly useless. He's at less than 1/3 the typical wealth for an 8th level character (10k vs 33k), and Anton and B'yelka are even lower (each just north of 8k).
Perhaps. I kind of like how low loot this AP is, but I can boost you guys up a little. I am just very wary of mid to high level characters getting too powerful. I've had that ruin a lot of campaigns and I don't want it to happen here.
I completely understand. And I think we've done so well this far thanks to a lot of smart buffs and such, but, I mean, I'm level stinking 8 and I'm still wearing the same janky, old non-masterwork armor I had at level 2. =P
In the spirit of Chinese New Year if you survive this combat, I will reward all of you greatly to bring in luck for the year of the monkey, and to drive away evil.
Happy New Year, Jelani! Hope you and the family enjoy the festivities.
So....
Who wants what?!
Cloak of Resistance +2
Ring of Protection +1
Belt of Dex +2
Custom Goggles (Eyes of the Eagle or Goggles of Minute Seeing, move action to switch between them)
+1 chain shirt
Amulet of Natural Armor +3
Iron Fangs (Unique item. Must be placed over canine teeth, once put in place can only be removed with a Remove Curse. Count as face slot item. The fangs cause a creature's bite attack to count as cold iron, silver and for overcoming DR. They also enchant the bite to +1 keen. At level 10 it becomes +2 keen. At level 12 +3 keen and overcome all kinds of material DR.)
Belt of Physical Might (Str/Dex +2)
Celestial Armor
Greater Mask of Disguise (I presume this is a variant hat of disguise?)
Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds 50/50
Wand of Cure Light Wounds 50/50
Hairpin of Charisma +2
Boots of Striding and Springing
Ring of Protection +2
+1 Animated Large Wooden Shield
Bracers of Falcon's Aim
---
The amulet of natural armor won't stack with Dantrian's own elixir of barkskin, so that would do him little good. The chain shirt, belt of physical might, or boots of striding and springing would suit him well, though.
And dang, that celestial armor is nuts! That armor is sweet!
The mask is a variant of a hat, yes. It could be worn with say...a hairpin.
Just on the bus to work so posting quickly from my phone.
Anton already has a pair of Bracers of Falcon's Aim so the new pair should go to Janos if he wants them.
The Celestial Armor is probably most useful for Drosil given his reliance on Dex.
The frontliners should take all of the AC and save boosters and Drosil benefits from the Belt of Dex most since he gets attack, damage, AC and skills from it.
---------
Cloak of Resistance +2 - Drosil
Ring of Protection +1 - Drosil, Dantrian, Janos
Belt of Dex +2 - Drosil
Custom Goggles (Eyes of the Eagle or Goggles of Minute Seeing, move action to switch between them) - Janos
+1 chain shirt - Dantrian
Amulet of Natural Armor +3 - Janos, Drosil
Iron Fangs - Dantrian
Belt of Physical Might (Str/Dex +2) - Dantrian
Celestial Armor - Drosil
Greater Mask of Disguise - B'yelka
Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds 50/50 - party
Wand of Cure Light Wounds 50/50 - party
Hairpin of Charisma +2 - B'yelka
Boots of Striding and Springing - Janos, Dantrian
Ring of Protection +2 Drosil, Janos, Dantrian
+1 Animated Large Wooden Shield - Janos
Bracers of Falcon's Aim - Janos
Very nice loot drop all told!
Ok, here are my thoughts after some time to think it over.
Belt of Dex +2
Ring of Protection +1
Celestial Armor
Cloak of resistance +2
Drosil’s saves increase by 2 and his AC improves by 6 (AC=28)
Bracers of Falcon’s Aim
Goggles
Amulet of Natural Armor +3
Animated Large Wooden Shield +1
Janos gets a great boost to perception which will help his tracking and being our general ‘eyes and ears.’ The Bracers give him a boost in switch-hitting and his AC increases by 6 as well (AC=25)
Ring of protection +2
+1 Chain shirt
Belt of Physical Might
Boots of Striding and Springing
Iron Fangs
The fangs are obviously right up Feral’s street! The belt helps his attack and defense and the ring and chain shirt just add to that. I think I’m right in saying that Feral will eventually get a pounce attack so that extra ten feet of movement is going to be amazing for him. AC increase of 4 (AC=19 before buffs)
Hairpin of Charisma +2
Mask of disguise
The increase in Charisma improves B’yelka’s DCs for offensive spells, skills in diplomacy, intimidate, UMD and perform as well as the number of rounds for Bardic Performance and the Mask gives her great utility and also a potential defensive/offensive buff with alter self
Anton is reasonably self-sufficient and although a number of the items would be useful for him, others can make far better use of them. He will just take Drosil’s old Chain Shirt +1 if we go with this proposed loot allocation.
Aside from Anton depriving himself of items, I'm fine with this distribution. That said, if there is a chance for him to buy things that will actually prove useful, then I say he can have whatever resources we have available to him.
Not really depriving myself. If that Hangman Tree is anything to go by I think things are going to get tough. And having two frontliners with 28 and 25 AC is just the smart thing to do for the good of the party.
It was actually supposed to just be a random encounter with zero loot. But after Dantrian's request I felt bad for you guys. Hope it helps you guys feel a little more powerful.
Also, so long as attackers don't catch Drosil flatfooted, his Parry/Riposte will mitigate a crap load of damage! :)
I have updated B'yelka with her items, but HeroLab did not have the grater mask (from a Module, so I don't even know what their policy is on publishing from minor sources...)
You could just type it in manually (either in HL or on your alias). That's what I do when Hero Lab doesn't have what I want.
If anyone can make better use of that ring of protection +2 they are welcome to it. Anton could have it or B'yelka could use it and pass her hand-me-down +1 ring to either Anton or Dantrian perhaps?
Janos? Your thoughts on the spoils, sir?
Sorry, crazy at work today. My first thought on the spoils was, "holy s&%+!" I'll try to get a game post in tomorrow, though I'm equally interested to see what happens to Dantrian with those teeth.
As for the allocation, I'm also concerned about Anton not getting much. He could benefit from the Belt of Physical Might (Str/Dex). I could also see Drosil getting the Amulet of Natural Armor +3. Both Janos and Dantrian can cast Barkskin, and it with won't stack with the amulet. Janos can take the Ring of Protection +1 instead.
If Drosil takes the amulet it pushes his AC to 30 which is awesome so if Janos has the time to get off Barkskin it seems a good way to go.
Antons bow has a fixed draw strength so the Belt doesn't benefit me as much as Dantrian. Also he and B'yelka are at the back most of the time and are not drawing the aggro so either of us having the +2 ring seems a waste
I'm happy for you guys to take the loot. Like I said the allocation is the most optimal and therefore best for the party as a whole
Fair enough. We need to get you an Adaptive Bow.
I'm good with the distribution as detailed. Janos can always cast Barkskin on Drosil instead.
Edit: I just realized that Bracer's of Falcon's Aim provide a +3 competence bonus to Perception, and the Goggles give a +5 competence bonus to Perception. It's not worth it for Janos to wear the goggles, when he also benefits from the bracers in other ways too. So the goggles should go to Dantrian who also has our Disable Device skill. I envision it as a pair of spectacles with flip lenses.
Agree. Perception and Disable go together like Forrest and Jenny.
Oh man. I've got some goggles now too? I feel greedy!
I'll try and bring our inventory log up to date this evening.
I just realized Furious Focus doesn't apply to one-handed attacks. Hasn't been a big deal until now with Janos getting the shield, though I bet my attack bonus inside the tree was wrong.
Time to crunch some numbers.
So, I was just thinking about the fact that this game has been running for four years and 3+ months! I think that may be the longest lasting consistent gaming group I've ever been in. So good on us for that at least.
However, it also has me thinking that we're less than halfway through this AP. If anything we've slowed down the posting over time. I'm starting to feel a bit burnt out with CC to be honest, and I'm certainly not sure I want to commit to running this for another 4+ years to the conclusion of book 6. So, I'm wondering where you guys see this thing going? Has posting slowed because real life is busier, or because you guys are fatigued with the game as well? How would you feel about ending the game at the end of Book 3? It will close up the stuff which brought you originally into all this back in Ravengro, and thus would be a good place to stop if there ever is one.
I want to keep PBPing, but I have limited GMing bandwidth and I have a lot of ideas for other games I'd like to run. When I started this I wasn't really expecting it to survive this long, much less the full AP, but I feel kinda obligated to keep running it now that we have been going so long. Thoughts?
First...wow, that's a long time.
To answer your question, though, I know that my RL commitments have grown significantly since we began this AP (new job, another kid, etc.). While I am not fatigued with the game, per se, I am fatigued in general.
I have enjoyed playing with this group, and would enjoy continuing to do so, but I certainly understand that interest will flag as time goes on; it's hard to keep interest in an AP via PbP unless all of the players involved are driving things forward, and I am likely the worst in the group at doing so.
While I would, of course, like to see how this AP ends, I don't think my curiosity should take precedence over you running another game you'd prefer. Also, while Drosil has turned into a fairly effective character (thanks to your generous rebuilding/retraining opportunities), I wouldn't be devastated if he were to be retired at the end of this book.
For my part I have loved playing Anton, as I mentioned he was the first character avatar I had to get over 1,000 posts.
I have really enjoyed this game and the excellent players and GM and would really like to finish it. The likelihood is that you are right Jelani, and at the current pace we are looking at a minimum of another 2 - 3 years, which is a commitment I personally am willing to make.
Having said that, I think as your personal responsibilities have grown we have seen a gradual slowing in the necessary pushing posts from the GM to move the game on. I think our roleplaying between characters has been fairly consistent throughout but we can't necessarily move the plot on through that alone.
If Book 3 seems to provide a nice closure to the plot we have encountered so far then that's fine although I have to admit I will be sorry to see Anton's awkward paladin morality come to an end!
Wow, 4 years, 3 months and over 6700 posts. That's the most successful PbP game anyone I know has ever done. Hat's off to everyone, especially Jelani!
I think our commitments have grown over the years. I'm no less interested in the game, but my ability to do in-depth, character searching, high-intensity RP posts has waned (if it was ever there in the first place!) While I would love to continue gaming with you all for the next 4 years, I understand fatigue and changing demands. I'm very happy with how Janos has turned out.
If we are to stop before the end of the AP, it sounds like this is would be a good place. To me, being able to wrap up our stories would be preferable to just grinding to a halt one day.
I have grown more busy yes, but I also think it has to do with my investment. I find myself posting in my other game more frequently, where I have more creative control.
I’m pretty sure that with a bit of minor rewriting on my part that the end of book three (still quite a ways from now) will make a satisfying ending to everything that’s happened so far. Like Janos said, I’d rather have all the threads tied into a neat knot than let this slowly grind to a halt in the middle of somewhere.
Thinking about this as I can during the day...
1) TL:DR. I really like the game but it has lost a lot of it's steam. We could quit it (soon-ish) but I would miss the opportunites we did not pursue.
2) my new job means I work pretty consistenly 0800-1600. I can check during the day, but usually from my phone which inherently limits posting.
3) It has been a long time (three, not four years ;) ) and it has been a good run. I think a lot of what we were doing has lost the powerful head of steam it had in the first year. This was my first PbP, and it has been with a good (Or, in Tony the Tiger voice, "Grrrreat!") group. I have meet one of you in person and have added as facebook friends one other. (Kind of reminds me of a time 15 year ago when I was making what are now lifetime friends with folks on a 40K discussion board (the Millenium Gate, now defunct though it's pale shadow exists on Facebook...)
4) The end of Vol3 *is* a good place to tie off loose ends. (Or, set a Tourniquet)
5) I don't think B'yelka is done growing up. If we were to quit at the end of book three, chances are she would move on to Taldor (better weather and there is not a hateful haunted hamlet at every crossroads!) She would pursue her Opera Career there, get into a sham marriage with Tibi, have a public affair and revel in the notoriety and finally become a great teacher of protégés in Oparra. (She would also really enjoy how her family chaffed at her totally independent success!) But, if we were to continue she could sort out her confused emotions about Dantrian and Anton (although Feral has pretty much resolved her feelings about Mister Almaeus!) Also, she could finish her growth from totally spoiled girl-child to an empowered and independent woman.
6) Conclusion: It is your game to end, Jelani. I say keep on, if you're willing (and it seems you would like to bow out gracefully). But, don't keep on if it's a pain or a chore. Gaming (and the company we keep for it!) should be a pleasure, not 'work', don't feel obligated to continue simply for our sakes. That would violate the social contract we implicitly entered when we started as a group: "We're here to have fun!"
Well, I won't decide now. Let's see what kind of pace we can generate, and I'll look at it again as we end Book 3.
Also yes, three years. Calendar math fail -blushes-
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Lol the only reaso i knew it was three was i already had my daughter and she just turned four this month :)
Awww, I will be sad if/when your game ends. The Ravengro Six were more a family than an adventuring group, IMO.
But I totally understand, and will continue to enjoy your stuff till the end!
I've been having a bear of a time posting anywhere of late given the new rules that have come down from on high regarding us no longer being able to have our cell phones at our desks. Been very frustrating.
My biggest lament with our current pacing has been the leap from fight environment to fight environment, which leaves little opportunity for me to get Dantrian into the mix. And also, I really think things haven't been quite the same since Tibi had to bow out. Be sure to tell your wife she's been missed, Jelani!!
Regardless of when we decide to wind this down, Dantrian and Feral ruling over the Shudderwood packs is my uber dream. =P
----
But yeah, you guys are some of my favorite folks in all the boards. I'm happy to see this through to whatever end we may find whenever we might find it. =D