Lvl 4 druid
+1 str
+1 know nat
+1 know rel
+1 survival
+1 swim
+1 heal
+1 climb
+1 spellcraft
+1 craft trap
+1 handle animal
Resist Nature's Lure (+4 saves vs. Fey/plants)
Apologies for the slowness in getting my level up on here. I have it mostly typed up, just need to calculate skills. I'll try to have it on here after I get off work.
+1 Dexterity
Class Features
+7 Hit Points
+1 BAB
+2 Fortitude, +2 Reflex
Deeds (Deadeye, Gunslinger's Dodge, Quick Clear)
Feats
Amateur Gunslinger -> Extra Grit
Skills
+6 Adventuring Skill Ranks (+2 Perception; +1 Diplomacy, Knowledge [engineering], Knowledge [religion], Survival)
+2 Background Skill Ranks (+2 Craft [alchemy])
Sorry for the delay...I've had a lot going on in RL, so I haven't had a chance to sit down and review the level up. I promise I'll do it shortly.
I've gone back and updated the loot list for the first time in a while. Before I was adding up the market value for everything, but I decided to leave that for if or when that becomes relevant. Incidentally, several items are worth a lot more now since we're not using Automatic Bonus Progression. For example, Adara's flaming scimitar is now a +1 flaming scimitar, and is now worth a whopping 8,315 gp. ;P
If we can make it then by all means! Is Adara still with us?
Honestly, I've been terrible at keeping up with this game. I'd like to chalk it down to a disconnect with the character, but on the other hand, I have the same problem in the other game.
Still, I'd like to improve on that, so I'd definitely be up for Book 2 if we have enough people who are interested.
I'll post soon. Also, I have many thoughts about Book 2 and continuation, so I will have a more lengthy discussion post as well.
I am definitely up for book 2 and beyond.
Yep.. I’m in.
Ugh. I meant to get something up sooner. Give me an hour or two. If work doesn’t explode, I’ll post.
So...work chose to disregard my request and explode anyway. Things got a bit crazy these last couple of days.
I'm pretty sure my next level of Adara is all set up in HeroLab at home, so I just need to write it up here.
Sorry for being absent.
Camping this weekend, catch up Monday!
Twenty days later, I'm finally posting something.
So...
The other concern is Adara. I have some mechanical concerns which I will discuss separately, but from a roleplay aspect, Adara wouldn't likely continue on the trajectory the AP offers in Book 2. Finally achieving a return to civilization would precipitate either a strong need to head back to her home country in order to report or a dutiful restart of her pursuit for the criminal which placed her on the ill-fated voyage in the first place. When I first conceived the character of Adara it was for a Reign of Winter AP that died early. I really should have changed her headspace from that version, but I admit I didn't work any of that out leaving her in a place less likely to be inclined to move forward with this story.
This leaves me in a funny position as I feel if I do agree to commit to Book 2, I would need to begin with a different character who would be able to commit fully to the new cause and have the same sense of urgency as the heroes of the tale inevitably require. Of course, this brings challenges as it could complicate the current party composition.
In my honest opinion, Serpent's Skull has some shining moments as an AP, but transitions are not one of them. Aside from some personal closure, I've always found the notion the survivors of Book 1 continuing on as the heroes of Book 2 (and beyond) as quite the stretch. The trauma of being castaways who beat all the odds to survive an island fully in the grip of the Lord of Flies (in this version, they ate Piggy) plus whatever ill-health they would be in just lends to a sense of incredulity the heroes press on in Book 2 instead of passing the torch to new heroes after delivering the dire news upon reaching their port of call after all this time. From my perspective, Souls for Smuggler's Shiv ended up becoming more of a standalone adventure that introduces the "quest giver(s)" for the true start of Serpent's Skull in Book 2. No argument the adventure is brilliant, but either the writer of Book 2 just didn't know how to keep the survival/town-building alive or whoever planned the AP thought of that portion as merely a little gimmick before bringing the game back to reality and the more expected adventure tropes.
Adventure writing analysis aside, my point being Adara is about 96% unlikely to choose to move forward as a character, so I need to decide what I would do as a player without creating too many problems for the rest of you assuming you would want me to try.
If I compare Adara to Durielle in our other prominent game, Durielle has very successfully contributed damage in both ranged and melee something Adara would be very unlikely to match given the penalties blackened imposes on her. The addition of other spells is certainly great, but the weapon penalty coupled with the need to hoard the magic or default to healing only really just tore the heart out of my character. I know that we seemed to encounter a staggering amount of unlucky rolls, but I feel like Adara was required to burn through most of her magic strictly healing almost every combat leaving her incapable of doing anything else.
I think if I ever have a player who takes this curse, I might tweak it so the spells gained from the curse are actually SLAs. I feel like this would broaden the ability of the oracle to contribute martially while not depleting the precious store of curative powers which, as shown by our game, quite literally were the only thing preventing PC death on a number of occasions. I have many thoughts on how that would work mechanically, but no need to elaborate here as Adara will not likely be moving on after escaping from Smuggler's Shiv.
I don't write this to initiate any type of required response or support from the rest of you. I know we're all here because we enjoy the gaming and possibly the writing, but most likely don't have as much time as we'd like to do the gaming in person as we may have done once upon a time. I find myself reflecting on that much more of late. I can't even recall the last time I was actually at a table rolling dice. And since this medium has become my only source of roleplay, I must vehemently apologize for my abuse of your trust in being present as a player. I hope to make up to you, but if I fail, I do not expect you to tolerate my long absences and offer to you I will bear no hard feelings should you choose to remove me from the game.
I appreciate your patience.
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First of all, congrats on the impending parenthood.
Second, I tend to agree with the opinion that Book 1 is a really fine stand alone adventure but a bit wonky as the start of an AP. That being said, I'm still committed to contining on as long as the majority of the players are still interested in doing so.
If you are wanting to retire Adara following Book 1 - after getting off of the Shiv - that's fine by me. I am also willing to work with you on a new character, provided the rest of the players feel the same way.
As far as your attendence so to speak, while occasionally frustrating I know its not a case of you continuing with other games while ignoring this one (or DM BG's Kingmaker). I would ask that you make an effort to check in more frequently though. I know neither game moves at a break-neck pace, but they do move (even if it is slow). Not every post has to be an epic piece of exposition. Even if you just post a quick little one liner, it still provides others the opportunity to RP with you, and that may even provide the inspiration to make a post more to your liking.
I have no problems with Adara, but I would much rather see a player running a character that they are enjoying, both mechanically and in the context of the game. I don't know the arc of the AP well, but it sounds like beginning book 2 would be a great place to transition to a new character, and for Adara to gracefully bow out.
Also, congrats! Sleep now, while you can...
Thank you for the response.
I see Adara is up, and I will be trying to get something posted a little bit later. I still haven't updated Adara's profile with her level 4 info, so I'm at work and not sure of any new tricks she might have yet.
+1 Charisma
Class Features
+7 Hit Points
+1 BAB
+1 Fortitude
Spells (0: create water, 2: cure moderate wounds, oracle's burden, resist energy)
Skills
+5 Adventuring Skill Ranks (+1 Acrobatics, +1 Climb, +1 Knowledge [planes], +2 Perception,)
+2 Background Skill Ranks (+2 Knowledge [geography])
I apologize for the abrupt return to silence. My partner's pregnancy had a major complication, so I have been greatly preoccupied. Things have settled down, so I should be able to make good on my promise to be more regular.
Don't be silly. You can't possibly be held accountable for something you had no way of knowing.
Please don't. It certainly looked bad on me coming in saying I would be better than complete silence for several days following.
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Good job taking advantage of my inability to ever make a saving throw, team! :D
OK...Spell Resistance.
I'm very unclear how this looks inside the gaming world. I understand the mechanical aspect is essentially whether or not magic succeeds against a creature, but I never really get a good picture of how that looks from a character perspective.
For instance, how would failing to succeed against a creature's SR appear v. not exceeding a creature's Energy Resistance? If Adara blasted something with fire that had high resistance, would it look pretty similar? The fire just washes over the creature? Or would there be a fundamental difference?
I guess what I'm trying to determine is how this looks/feels to a character whose senses incorporate the magical. If we live in a humid climate everyday, we notice it. The mugginess is all around us in the air, and it's just something we easily perceive. Similarly, we also notice when the air around us is unusually dry and arid. In Golarion, magic is a thing which exists and can perceived as evidenced by the lack of such in places like the Mana Wastes having a tangible effect on the ability to use magic at all very much like the air being pregnant with water and thus humid...or not.
Which brings me back to...how would a magic user perceive the effect of failing to penetrate a creature's ability to innately nullify magic?
I suppose that is an assumption on my part...I see Spell Resistance as a form of magic nullification in essence. But perhaps that's not how I should see it.
- Does Spell resistance represent a push against the spell user's ability to form the spell in relationship to that target like walking in tar or heavy mud?
- Is it more like a moment of invulnerability the world grants the creature (picturing some MMO mechanics here), thus nigh undistinguishable from say energy immunity?
- Does it actually represent a "failure" to even cast the spell as if the creature's essence had essentially dispelled it?
I am just confused as to how Adara would perceive what happened to her spell. Would she be able to determine a difference in effects based on the nuances of having senses which have always perceived magic in a magic-filled world, or would this situation be as opaque to her as it is to my non-magic filled life?
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Good question. So I have given it a bit of thought.
I'm not sure there is an official answer to your question, but in my view, there would a visual, but subtle difference between how energy resistance and spell resistance would look.
In the case of burning hands, you would see the fire make contact with the target, but the fire would have either no effect or a diminished effect.
In the case of spell resistance, I would say that you would see the flames bend around the target (assuming you had a cross-sectional view). Regardless of any visual cue, the caster would be able to feel the supernatural resistance to the spell they had cast.
Long and short, yes a caster would know that they are dealing with a creature with SR upon casting an applicable spell (i.e. a spell that can be countered by SR).
Does that answer the question? If not, I can elaborate more.
Thank you for answering my question, DM Talomyr.
I must again apologize for my absence. On April 12th my partner and I were subjected to the horrible situation of premature labor and delivered our son. He was not able to survive.
This last week has been one of immense sorrow, and my attention has been elsewhere as you can imagine. I encourage you to bot me as needed. I am not certain when I will return, but I aim to provide you with information as to my future in the game once I have made that decision.
Please continue and enjoy this slice of fantasy imagination away from the often harsh reality we must endure.
I am terribly sorry to hear of your loss. I hope we will see you again in time.
I can't imagine what you're going through. I am so very sorry to hear it.
I am going out of town for a few days. I will be back Sunday. I should be able to post some, but feel free to bit me if needed.
I am feeling up to returning, but my computer at home is currently disconnected since the apartment management required some furniture to be relocated while they affect some repairs on our building. I hope to have that situated again shortly.
I will keep you advised.
Moved into the position indicated by Dereje on the map!
Sorry again. Computer is still not hooked up. I will be back, I promise.
I've been really slacking on our loot list, but as far as I know, it has just about everything on it. Well, except the number of healing potions we have. At some point (in the village?) we got a bunch of them at once, and I'm not sure of whether I've deducted each use.
Once we get to Book 2, I figure that I could wipe the slate clean - everyone claims whatever, and we track stuff based solely on who grabs what.
@DM Talomyr: You're certainly welcome to simply narrate the events of the last few days if you want to push on, of course. :)
I just didn't want Dereje's request to get lost in the shuffle.
And I guess this is the time for me to decide what to do with Adara. I think I'm still leaning towards having her exit the game...
I'm somewhat familiar with the beginning bits of Serpent's Skull, and one of the bits that I believe to be a big oversight on Paizo's part was that early on in "Racing to Ruin" the PCs are sent to subdue/kill a barbarian who is a local figure of the indigenous independence movement. This seems like a very non-heroic thing to do - basically helping the oppressive racist local government to maintain its sovereignty over the local people - so it always rubbed me the wrong way; I considered either replacing the character with some kind of other monster or a dangerous individual without the undertones of "yeah you are totally beating up an indigenous civil rights leader," or the hard version, letting the people side with the indigenous people as a faction and introducing them as a sixth choice of factional ally, so that the PCs can decide to help the local people to find Saventh-Yhi and claim its treasures as part of their historical heritage and a tool to throw off their chains of oppression.
Do as you will with the adventure - I know it's a lot of work to rewrite things - these are just ideas that I had last time I messed around with it. :)
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I suppose we'll see how all this plays out.
Sorry for the sporadic posting, I’m out of town (got married!) and will be back on the regular on Wednesday.
Congrats!
I've been pretty busy as well... GF in the process of moving in - getting the house ready and such. I've been putting off posting always thinking I'll have more time tomorrow.. yada yada...
Congratulations!
Congrats!
So Adara is off, and I have been working on my replacement character, but I feel like I am just terrible about selecting spells. I'm attempting to build an Archaeologist Bard. I see a lot of fun spell choices, but I don't want to be horrendously useless which always seems to be the direction I go when I build characters who don't have an obvious martial tendency.
The following spells have been selected, but I still need 3 additional Level 1 and 1 level 2 spells.
1st: cure light wounds, spirit share
2nd: cure moderate wounds
I beg for your input and assistance!