DM Papa.DRB - Darklands (solo) (Inactive)

Game Master Papa-DRB

This will be a Solo Tristalt campaign based on "The Rise of the Drow" trilogy from AAW Games. It will run from Level 1 thru 20 (or so).

This is the discussion thread. All are welcome to ask questions, make comments and in general discuss what is done in the Gameplay thread and the game in general.

Lurkers - Please do NOT post in the gameplay thread, thank you.

Rednal - Welcome aboard.

-- david

Actually, I think my first question was answered, so... posting the other two here in case you didn't see them. XD

1) Any preferences for races? Did you want me to stick with something humanoid, or go for something a bit closer thematically, maybe a drow from a group opposed to the villains of this piece?

2) Background Skills and/or Automatic Bonus Progression? (The latter is good if you don't want to worry too much about treasure. XD)

Copied from recruitment thread.. (I think we just cross posted....)

1) 1st level is good. The first combat set of encounters, assumes that there are others working with you, so there is not a need to be a level up, but as an FYI, you will tend to level fairly regularly at the beginning.

2) Not Drow. My preference would be Core, with Aasimar, Catfolk, or Tieling as possibles.

3) Background skills and Automatic bonus progression are good.

-- david

Right-o! I'm working on them now. I have to fiddle with Hero Lab a bit to get the Pactmaker stuff to show up, and since that's brand-new, I'll be trying to include the relevant information. XD

Aaaand here we go. Is there anything you have questions about, or would like me to change?

(Since it's Level 1, I decided we probably shouldn't start with Mythic. XD)

No, she looks fine. If there is a particular token that you wish to use for her, let me know, otherwise I am going to use one of the six female aaismar avatars at Paizo that looks similar to her picture.

PICTURE

Well, I gave her appearance pic. XD Give me a size and I'll crop it for you.

Same size as the tokens that Paizo uses for its avatars. Token Tool says it makes a 128 x 128 token.

Here you go.

I can add the link to her profile for easy access, if you'd like. ^^

Can you break the Special Abilities into the following categories:

General (not sphere casting)
Pactmaster abilities
Armorist abilities
Incanter abilities
Sphere abilities (ie. spheres and talents)

-- david

How does this look?

(Incanter and Sphere abilities are essentially the same thing, by the way. XD The class has... basically no class features unless you want it to, just lots of talents and extra feats that can be spent to learn more talents, get more spell points, or learn metamagic. It's basically the build-your-own-caster class.)

Much better, thanks. Anywho, off to bed... It is after 2300 my time.

Some personal items have come up over the last few days. I will be off line till Wednesday, September 28th. I will pick this up then.

Understood. o wo/

Thanks for your understanding that I needed time off to figure some things out. Now, back to the game!

Life happens. ^^ It's all good.

It was a good past five days.

Daughter ran her 1st marathon. 5:37:22 in the female 35-39 age bracket.
Packed up and closed up camper for the winter.
Took grand daughter to Bronx Zoo Tuesday
Other than one post, spent the yesterday sleeping while recovering from the Zoo.

Other than a week off in December to visit relatives in Boston MA area, we are home till camping season starts in May 2017.....

-- david

And before I post... here's the update for your review. XD Lemme know if you have any questions about the abilities here.

Levelup Summary:

Levels:
Armorist 2
Incanter 2
Pactmatker 2

HP: 10 + 3 Con
FCB: +1 Skill Point

Automatic Bonus Progression: N/A until 3rd Level

New Armorist Abilities:
Arsenal Trick: Weapon Focus (Greatsword)

New Incanter Abilities:
Bonus Feat: Cantrips

New Pactmaker Abilities:
Binder Secret: Sustenance (Not terribly relevant now, but I figured it would be useful later)

New Magic Talents:
Crystal Blast (Destruction)
Revitalize (Life Sphere)

Looks good.

Levelup Summary:

Levels:
Armorist 3
Incanter 3
Pactmaker 3

Automatic Bonus Progression: Resistance +1

Armorist Additions:
Armor Training 1 (Reduce ACP, increase Max Dex of armor)
Bound Equipment (+1)

Incanter Additions:
Magic Talent x2

Pactmaker Additions:
Pact Augmentation: Dodge (+1 Dodge Bonus to AC)

Feat: Combat Casting

Skills: Various. Most notably, put a point in Linguistics to pick up Undercommon. It seems relevant. XD

New Talents Known:
Time Sphere
After Image (Time)

Looks good. As the last fast zombie is down, please update your alias and the tag line. thanks

Apologies for being away. Many extra shifts at the hospital this week, extra SPCA volunteer canine handling, and just spent all day today at the ER with my wife (she will be OK). I'll get something out tomorrow.

That's clearly more important than a game. o wo/ Please give my best to your wife!

thanks....

*Rubs chin thoughtfully* I'm not sure what the pacing of this adventure is... but is it likely we're going to pass a few more levels before there's some extended downtime?

(The Pactmaker class relies somewhat heavily on being able to research spirits to use, and will be severely weakened without that. XD Fortunately, there ARE solutions you could work in if you so desired.)

Yes. You will be at least level six, if not just seven before extended downtime.

Right-o. In that case, hmm... the easiest solution would probably be finding some Gnostic Tomes - maybe something in the church's library that could be read? They don't have to be obvious to others, either - Pactmakers are good at putting fragments of information together to make something usable from them. XD If you want to ensure bare-minimum functionality, we could even say Merfina's already studied some higher-level pact spirits, but had to get more practiced (i.e. higher in level) before she could successfully pull things off. That'd give her, say, one spirit of each level.

I'm happy to go with whatever works for you, of course. ^^

You will be able to peruse the library when you get back to town, and there will be Tomes. Right now, unfortunately, you do not get back to town till sixth or seventh level.

How often do you need downtime and Tomes for the Pactmaster?

Also, I agree with the Merfina has studied some higher-level pact spirits, and as you gain levels, you gain the benefits. You can pick up additional Tomes in town, and then get additional ones in an underground city that you go to in the "main" adventure.

Most Pactmakers want to learn as many spirits as they can - although I'm sticking exclusively with good and neutral ones, since Merfina won't touch evil spirits. XD Think of them as being a bit like Wizards - you may not learn every possible spell, but you'll probably want a solid selection of choices to prepare from. (They're also spell-like in that a 7th-level wizard with only 1st-level spells would be preeeeeetty handicapped...)

The actual time for research can vary, but for a normal power level... it'd be maybe 4-6 weeks of downtime every two levels. Of course, if that's inconvenient for a campaign, you can (and should) change it. XD Research times can be reduced (say, allowing multiple checks per-day), Gnostic Tomes can quickly provide information, free spirits can be given when new levels are unlocked... there's lots of ways to make it easier if the campaign needs it.

(Just knowing spirits is more of a potential benefit for Pactmakers than anything else. Given enough time, they can learn every spirit on the list anyway, but they only get benefits from those they're currently bonded to. The real power of the class comes from intelligently guessing the situations they're likely to face and picking their spirits accordingly - again, rather Wizard-like - so it's pretty hard to mess things up just by having spirits known, especially because most Pactmakers are going to spend most of their time bonded to a handful of spirits they like anyway.)

You will need to come up with a way to do without the research, or how to do it in days instead of weeks. Anything reasonable, and it will be ok. Perhaps you find a book in the church library that gives you hints, and you only begin to understand it as you gain levels (or something else).

Most of this particular "AP" is keep on moving, with little real down time.

There will be a week or two (max) around sixth / seventh level. Perhaps a week around eighth level, and not much more than a day or two here and there after that.

-- david

*Rubs chin* Maybe she can find some lorebooks and take them with her? Technically, she only needs eight hours a day to do the research, which fits nicely into the normal breakdown of an adventuring day. Eight hours of sleep, eight hours of travel and adventure, and eight hours of crafting/research. XD

*Rubs chin* Maybe she can find some lorebooks and take them with her? Technically, she only needs eight hours a day to do the research, which fits nicely into the normal breakdown of an adventuring day. Eight hours of sleep, eight hours of travel and adventure, and eight hours of crafting/research. XD

This I can work with. I will put some of the Gnostic Tomes in "Treasure" piles.

-- david

Not gonna lie, this is probably the fastest leveling I've ever done. XD

----

Levelup Summary:

HP: 10 + 3 Con
FCB: +1 Skill Point

Ability Score Increase: +1 Int

New Language: Sylvan (Would've been useful a few posts ago... ah well. XD)

Levels:
Armorist 4
Incanter 4
Pactmaker 4

New Armorist Abilities:
Arsenal Trick (Combat Feat: Dodge)

New Incanter Abilities:
Bonus Feat (Extra Magic Talent)

New Pactmaker Abilities:
Bind Additional Spirits (2)

New Magic Talents:
Illusion Sphere
Life: Break Enchantment
Weather Sphere

Aaaaaand various skill points. XD Pretty straightforward. ABP gives her a weapon enhancement (kind of useless since it doesn't stack with her Armorist abilities) and an extra AC on her armor.

Looks good. Update the alias and the gender/race/class lines please, and after you post to Gregor comment in the gameplay thread, we can move on.

When I ran this for my home group, I found that the leveling up was fast, even with a four person PC group. The Prologue, this part of the AP which lasts till you get back to Rybalka, just needs to have faster than normal leveling, and with a two person PC group, I have had to modify encounters as some of them would just be too much for the Merfina & Gregor alone.

-- david

Got back last Thursday from Boston / Cambridge and brought home a major head / chest cold. Last night was the first that I have not spent most of the night hacking out a lung. Will have a post out late this afternoon / early evening.

Our dog, Amarillo, crossed the Rainbow Bridge this weekend, and my wife and I are still grieving. I'll have something out tomorrow.

Picture On the left is Mercer Man, her rough and tumble playmate who crossed a little over a year ago, and on the right, Amarillo. The cancer she had a year ago, came back with a vengeance.

Sorry. I missed the last step on the stairs from the 2nd level to the 1st floor and fell Thursday morning. Put my elbow thru the wall (nice hole), thankfully missing the studs, but wrenched my back badly. Other than a few minutes sitting, I have spent the time l laying down. Feel much better today and am getting caught up on my PbP.

Oof! I hope you can fully recover soon.

After the snowstorm (2 feet here) a week ago Tuesday and the dig out Wednesday, I came down with the flu. Finally got a nights sleep without chills / sweats so I should be on the mend. My wife just told me that if I am well enough to sit at the computer, then I am well enough to take her our for our weekly lunch date (which we missed last week), so I will do that, then come home and nap.

I'll have an update tomorrow (Thursday).

What is up with the missing new post numbers?

There was a glitch on the site, and it, uh, knocked all the notifications flat for awhile. XD; It should be fixed now, though.

Levelup Summary:

Levels:
Armorist 5
Incanter 4
Pactmaker 5

HP: 10 + 3 Con
FCB: +1 Skill Point

New Feat: Improved Energy Blade

Armorist:

New Bound Equipment: Chain Shirt

Improved Bound Equipment: Bound items get a cumulative +1 enhancement bonus for every odd level past first, giving us:

> +1 Keen Greatsword
> +1 Light Fortification Chain Shirt

Incanter:

Magic Talent: Illusion: Invisibility
Magic Talent: Telekinesis Sphere

Pactmaker:

Binder Secret: Undying Aid (Basically just self-healing, but prerequisite for something more useful later - spirits letting her know if something gets close while she's sleeping, which sounds useful underground)

And technically she can bind third-level spirits but, y'know, she needs to have actually researched them first. XD

Incanter 5, right?

Oh, yeah. XD Incanter 5 - I might've been a bit, uh, tired last night.

lol..... Completely understand.

Oh, Gregor is a "traditional" spell caster. He won't be around after this level (maybe 6th) so I am not going to create him as a sphere ranger.

Also, it seems like Merfina is becoming quite self-sufficient. After this chapter, and getting 6th level at the start of the main adventure, I will drop an npc follower, and let her go off on her own. That ok with you?

Hey, you're the GM. XD Whether to keep or remove an NPC is entirely your choice - but it is true that I'm trying to make it so she can take care of herself. Between not really needing food and having a regular alarm spell (in the future), she should be pretty good at traveling on her own.

As far as magical gear goes, hmm... well, Merfina's offense is fine, but I do worry about her defense. Things that are annoying for one member of a party can be crippling for a solo character, so things that can help her avoid nasty conditions and such are probably good.

Between Mothers Day weekend activities with wife, daughter and grand daughter. Also Camping Opening on Monday, I will be pretty much off line all day Saturday 13 May thru Monday 15 May. Back to semi abnormal on Tuesday.

This coming weekend is the Independence Day holiday in the USA. As normal, the campground WiFi will totally stink, starting sometime Thursday (early arrivals), and since the 4th of July is actually on Tuesday, probably thru Wednesday morning (late departures), so if I seem to disappear, it is because of no WiFi access. Heck, it is only Wednesday and WiFi is starting to slow down already........

We are picking up our 5 year old grand daughter Saturday, 07/29, and will have her till Monday, 08/07. Sunday 07/30 & Tuesday 08/01 & Wednesday 08/02 & Saturday 08/05 & possibly other days will be jammed packed with doing things with her, while the kids are on an adult vacation to the west coast. While I will try to keep up, but don't be surprised if I miss a couple of days during this time frame.

New Levels: Armorist 6, Incanter 6, Pactmaker 6

ABP: +2 Charisma

FCB: +1 Skill Point

New Armorist Arsenal Trick: Improved Materials

New Incanter Feat: Extra Magic Talent

New Magic Talents:

Destruction: Stone Blast
Light Sphere
Telekinesis: Flight

New Pact Augmentation: Initiative

Aaaaand varous skill points. XD