I don't know if you're looking for feedback or not, but when making high level casters (especially old ones) I generally gloss over the spell book contents. It's assumed I don't have all of them, but all that I might use. Just my 2C.
For wizard spells you can assume contact with most that would be useful.
For the phylactery idea and the concept for the nymph soul - I am more than a bit leery purely from a power escalation perspective... haven't the time right now for a full review and response - so that will come later.
If you're looking for a "back from the grave" ability just make sure he keeps a steady supply of clones somewhere. ;-)
Hell an item of Clone 1\d wil allow him to keep unlimited backups wherever he wanted.
I was actually wondering if we could work out some sort of "unkillable" ability into whatever you have planned for my weapon...
PS,
Since I now have a Soulpoint, do I know anything about what it does, or do I just have to blindly guess and hope its cool?
Well regardless of which way your ruling goes on the magic items I would still like to enlist Gathroc's aid and kill the lich trapping its soul in a gem. Maybe I will make that my characters "thing" jk It would be good to sell in the future even if for nothing else.
I apologize for my silence the past while, I've had a recent death in the family, and many many things before and after that. I'll try my best to get some real posts in, and as far as things are concerned with going ons in game, Grigore doesn't have a problem with whatever you all decide on, seeing as he is the most junior member of this unholy group :P
And if you really want to live forever, Gathroc, just get some meat on your bones and let me turn you.
/wink
No problems Damien - commiserations for your loss and take whatever time you need.
I'll have something in thread hopefully later tonight - old Uni friend in town who has been monopolizing some of my time ;)
Time has escaped me again - apologies for this, but hope to catch up tomorrow.
Ok - few things for me to catch up on :)
Gathroc - 1 soul point can be used to
- Auto-confirm a critical threat
- Increase critical modifier by 1 grade (from x2 to x3) as an immediate action.
- Heal half the damage dealt by a regular attack (but not crit)
For the intent stated up thread, Daemon is putting forward a possible plan to trap the soul of one of the Shadow Claw's minions without consultation or approval. While he is suspicious, you don't actually have any direct causal link to the invasion of the NE outsiders (to avoid using the word daemon :P)... those higher up the authority chain might get a bit miffed if you take that action without their tacit approval... I'd raise it with Sssarvith as a minimum in thread unless you want to go ahead and face the consequences after the fact....
For Gathroc's immortality question - I would posit, does everyone actually need to be unkillable? I know that he's sitting odd one out at the moment, but that isn't a reason in and of itself to provide a regeneration ability to him. Gabriel's ability I saw as being cool more for the fact that he could grow beyond his original shell (as in his essence inhabiting a demon claw, or the like). While I'm not necessarily saying no; I'd just like to see it put forward from Gathroc's view as to whether he feels he really needs the leg-up.
For the Nymph soul gem - the basket of abilities is too much for a single item. I could see it being used to power maybe one of the signature nymph abilities; but definitely not as many as stated.
Re: Nymph Soul Gem, what about using the guidelines from BoD III about what a sould could do based on the creature's HD?
Add to it the ability to be consumed for a one time healing effect like a normal soul gem and that should be pretty good.
I have BoD III if Voiceless does not.
I was just putting forward ideas for the soul gem based on what the nymph could actually do in life, I didn't necessarily mean that it had to be able to do all those things.
The only reason I really thought up trapping the lich's soul was to provide Gathroc the regn ability, therefore if he is not interested I would have no reason to take the lich's soul.
Roger that - intent is to have the lich endure.
Probably an appropriate juncture to do a cross-post to my DM'ed PbPs about an interruption to my posting schedule that is imminent.
My wife is about 37 weeks pregnant, which basically means that the bun is fully cooked and ready to pop at any time. This means that at some point in the next 1 day to 4 weeks I will suddenly and without notice disappear completely from the interwebs. I can't say when or for how long, but it will probably knock me out for up to a week or so before my wife and I get back on our feet and I'm of somewhat sound and untired enough mind to jump back online.
So if I do vanish, please don't fret as I shall return :) I would just ask for some patience for a while as we adjust to the new baby floating around. I'll get ourselves sorted at home first, then recommence with the DM'ing once we're all squared away and back in some sort of a new-born 'sequence' again.
CHildbirth is no excuse to shirk your DM duities. For shame!
Kidding. No worries.
He claims he's of sound mind...hahahahaheehehehohohoho!!!
As my grandfather was fond of saying "take your time but hurry up" lol
No problem.
Wife and new Bub continue to do well and all things considered should hopefully be back in our own home as of tomorrow. Will see how the home-life settles out before committing to a specific time for wading back online so will keep you posted on when that occurs and we'll start this wee beastie back up.
Wife and new Bub continue to do well and all things considered should hopefully be back in our own home as of tomorrow. Will see how the home-life settles out before committing to a specific time for wading back online so will keep you posted on when that occurs and we'll start this wee beastie back up.
Congrats! Glad it's going well.
Wife and new Bub continue to do well and all things considered should hopefully be back in our own home as of tomorrow. Will see how the home-life settles out before committing to a specific time for wading back online so will keep you posted on when that occurs and we'll start this wee beastie back up.
We will see you soon! Hope everything goes smoothly to bring you back to us quickly [/greedy]
Wife and new Bub continue to do well and all things considered should hopefully be back in our own home as of tomorrow. Will see how the home-life settles out before committing to a specific time for wading back online so will keep you posted on when that occurs and we'll start this wee beastie back up.
Congratulations. Glad to hear everything's going well for you.
Hope the bundle of joy is living it up, but not killing you guys.
Back home with wife and baby boy and things continue to go well. You might have noticed that I've stepped back into the PbPs that I play in; and if things continue to go well I'll be back DMing in the next couple of days.
Just want to make sure that when I do re-start that I'm able to commit wholehearted and get things rolling with the quality and focus that I'd like.
So if I can test your patience for just a mite longer that would be much appreciated.
Back home with wife and baby boy and things continue to go well. You might have noticed that I've stepped back into the PbPs that I play in; and if things continue to go well I'll be back DMing in the next couple of days.
Just want to make sure that when I do re-start that I'm able to commit wholehearted and get things rolling with the quality and focus that I'd like.
So if I can test your patience for just a mite longer that would be much appreciated.
Congrats! And no worries, take your time.
Not a problem, take all the time you need.
Take your time and enjoy the new family addition :)
And we are a go for restart - might be some delays here and there as I've visitors in town for another couple of weeks, but we are back on track and active once more.
Many thanks for bearing with me through the addition of the wee one to my family.
Sounds good to me. Glad to have you back, and it's good to hear you're settling back in well.
I'm still here, just waiting for others to post, I dont want to run off with the show again.
Today, Thursday the 3rd, I will be attending the Mighty Marvel Marathon, watching Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man II, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers. I will therefore most likely have spotty attendance in my games, though I will try to post when possible.
One of these days, Voiceless is going to send us against some sort of semi important NPC who doesn't have a high Sense Motive, and I'm going to actually be able to play up the Betrayer aspect of my character and it will be one of the happiest days in my PbP history....
One of these days, Voiceless is going to send us against some sort of semi important NPC who doesn't have a high Sense Motive, and I'm going to actually be able to play up the Betrayer aspect of my character and it will be one of the happiest days in my PbP history....
You could put points into Bluff and/or get an item of it.
To be fair, rolling a 3 probably did not help...
...although a +12 modifier at this tier probably does not help, either :-/
I did put ranks in Bluff lol, but yea, rolling a three didn't help.
Plus I like to pick on Voiceless. I am actually hoping that I can in fact play that up. Especially since its not something I would do with the PCs.
Betrayal is the violation of an expressed or perceived trust by a person or persons with whom a person relies upon for some aspect of his or her life.
I don't see how that really would have applied in this specific case in any way. This seems to just be a pure deception, not betrayal in any tangible regard.
As a note - an elf travelling alone in Geb while acting humbly is a flashing red sign that something is not as it seems. Mechanically I'd class that as at least an unlikely lie if not a far-fetched one, which carries between a -5 and -10 modifier.
Lastly - regardless of the fact that you rolled a 20, a simple repetition of the same lie with a new Bluff check doesn't cut it. The arrivals already suspect you are more than you let on, and are only going to be more suspicious of you as you've offered no reason for your attempted deception.
In this case, all I am trying to do is lure them into the barn, so we can spring the trap on them.
My comment was that I am hoping I can at some point during this game betray or back stab at least one semi important NPC...
In this case, all I am trying to do is lure them into the barn, so we can spring the trap on them.
My comment was that I am hoping I can at some point during this game betray or back stab at least one semi important NPC...
We'll work on your strategy and make that happen. ;-) I would consider it a real life complement to the content of your (presumably human) character that you are having difficultly pretending to betray someone.
Gathroc - I'm going to ask a very basic question that is not shrouded in any emotion:
Are you going to continually question and complain for every single instance where you don't get your way?
I am getting tired of the constant passive aggressive tone from you in this PbP. It drains any enjoyment that I get from DM'ing the game and makes me question whether it's worth continuing it.
My problem is twofold at the moment:
Clearly, we're attempting to implement some sort of plan here, which revolved around using the sun to our advantage. The GM can either assist us or not. In this case, it was not. Mild grumbling, but I can't change what your doing, especially since it makes perfect sense for sunlight vulnerable villains to seek shelter with plenty of time to spare.
Beyond this, I had asked Vesta and Gabriel to slow down our enemies, to which they both agreed to. Yet, they did nothing. Now, we're an hour before sunrise and I am feebly attempting to buy us some time and when I feel I have come up with a solution to fixing the problems caused by Vesta and Gabriel not attempting to slow down the vampire and co, you shoot me down and blow my cover.
This is a great game and you know I love ya as GM. However, lately there's been some frustration as it seems like everybody we go after is bigger, meaner, nastier and more powerful than us. Which means we're regulated to bit roles among the vastly superior powers that be...
Instead of us being the "heroes" PCs are supposed to be.
I can't remember the last time my Fighter swung his sword...during that invasion of the the Shadow Claw's lair?? Which was how long ago??
If you really feel like ending this game, then I can't force you to continue to run it. I would however, like to try and figure out a way for all of us to get back to enjoying this game.
I am not trying to patronize or exacerbate any problems that may be brewing (or existing)
I for one am still enjoying the game, I feel the pace could be a little faster post wise but I see no problem with how things are playing out.
Had we killed all the spawn by knocking down the barn it would have been 5 undead vs two (possibly very powerful) NPCs which would be no real challenge for our group. Even less so after my buffs/debuffs took affect on our already very powerful party members. As it is I still feel that this group wont pose much of a threat unless the DM is super buffing them.
Sometimes PC plans work and sometimes they don't but if the DM is asking specific questions about what is going happen and they are ignored in favor of conversation I feel that it he is perfectly within his right to railroad the game along especially when considering the amount of time that has already been spent on this opening conversation.
Clearly, we're attempting to implement some sort of plan here, which revolved around using the sun to our advantage. The GM can either assist us or not. In this case, it was not. Mild grumbling, but I can't change what your doing, especially since it makes perfect sense for sunlight vulnerable villains to seek shelter with plenty of time to spare.
This broke down at this point:
If you wanted to spring a trap - then appearing in plain sight before the quarry actually moves into the kill zone is not a good idea.
Better option would have been waiting away from the barn - or with Ignac in the rafters rather than in plain sight. I was attempting to push this I clarified more than once that Gathroc planned to stand in plain sight as they approached - and that was the heart of the bad move that brought everything else crashing down.
These guys are going to go down cheaper than a two dollar hooker once you start swinging... which is part of the problem I'm having with putting together a tangible and real challenge for you. Take a moment to figure out how much damage the party outlays in a single round, as well as the issues of having to deal with a permanently invisible ethereal character that can possess opponents at whim and realise it ain't easy to try and come up with something suitably challenging.
In this instance - your tactics were not great, and that's why they broke the gambit to pieces.
Yea, but I don't know any of this...all I know is there's a vampire and mohrg that are blinged out in magic items.
But that's not really the point I was making. The two main problems was Vesta and Gabe doing nothing to slow them down after they agreed to, and the fact that we seem to going up against what could best be described as demigod like undead, at least that's how they seem to me
We seem like we're tiptoeing our way through this game, hoping we don't upset anybody too powerful cuz they'll snuff out our unlives, no matter how invincible we think we might be.
EDIT: As for how the plan broke down, it never did. The entire point was to be BAIT, forcing them to come into the barn and try and remove/kill me. At which time Vesta would cause the barn to collapse, which would also bring Ignac tumbling down as well as sunlight to come streaming through.
However, that would have only worked if it was almost sunrise. Instead, we have an hour to kill, because two of the PCs never implemented the actions they agreed upon. So I then had to try and stall for time, though with the out of game revelations above, it may not be necessary but Gathroc doesn't know that...
"Sounds good. Gabe and Vesta can handle the scouting, if the two of you can concoct a way to slow them down, that doesn't give us a way, that could be helpful as well. It's not too important however."
The main purpose of the scouting mission was scouting - to determine numbers, approximate composition of the force, et cetera.
'Slowing them down' was never a primary goal - it was phrased, by Gathroc, as a *not too important* secondary goal.
That said, let's move on :-)
Where did I say that the mohrg has magic items?
And what NPC with class levels would not have magic items at this level?
The only time that you've been pitted against something beyond you was the demilich - but that was after I had warned you several times that the leaders of the various groups were at a similar power level to your own patron. However I facilitated you going after him because that was what your characters wanted to do.
Would you have preferred I had him take advantage of that and outright destroyed your party? - instead I offered you an exchange that let you walk away from that encounter with at least some degree of victory.
Do you really want this to be a ten pin bowling game? - where I just set up some pins and you knock them down repeatedly?
I feel that, by reading through his last two posts Gathroc's two main complaints are being unable to use his fighter as a fighter (i.e. he wants to swing his sword more at enemies to watch his destructive power.) which should soon be rectified, and other PC's are not doing what he thinks that they should be doing (Vesta and myself not going after enemies but instead the portal back in the attack on the ziggurat, Vesta and Gabe not slowing down the vampires.) Which there really is nothing that we can do about, everyone sees situations different ways and reacts differently to them. If we end up in a less then par situation because of some others actions we will just have to deal with it.
An open letter / question to Vesta:
As a DM I'm finding it difficult to reconcile the Malevolence ability with putting together a competent challenge that doesn't seem contrived. As you posted on your attempt on the mohrg - it was a 50/50 call to completely remove a foe from combat... and as written it costs your character absolutely nothing to attempt.
And your stated round 2 action is to attempt the same on the vampire - which again has a 50/50 or better chance to completely eliminate him from the fight... which while it's a perfectly valid action, I'd find it a little anti-climactic and trivializes the role of the other characters as well as the threats.
Taking it to the extreme - there's no reason why the first attempt for any fight it to have you sink into the ground invisible and attempt to possess your enemies with pretty much zero chance of the action resulting in a negative outcome for your ghost.
It really is one of those times that a monster ability that is meant to make an encounter difficult become overwhelmingly powerful in a PC's hands.
So my question to you is: What is a reasonable way to manage the ability without me needing to build every single NPC with Iron Will and Improved Iron Will as their first two feat selections?
For what it's worth I can only attempt it once per day per target.
We could have spell resistance apply. That way I have another chance for them to ignore.
Also, I don't intend to use it on the BBEG every combat. Usually one of his lesser minions.
From a RP perspective vesta's a creature of pure emotion so she's not all there in the head. Her tactics aren't going to always be optimal. She's just as likely to posesss a minion then dance through the battlefield for a few rounds as anything else. If the target is living she would revel in being able to feel again, even if only for a moment.
We can add a mechanical effect or we can just talk about how you want me to use it. She's got plenty of options, so if you want me to use posession sparingly I'm happy to do that.
Sparing use is best I think... it's a very cool ability and I don't want to neuter it, but similarly don't want to construe every enemy into epic will save territory.
Sparing use is best I think... it's a very cool ability and I don't want to neuter it, but similarly don't want to construe every enemy into epic will save territory.
No problem.
What about a delay effect ala breath weapon? Can't use it again for 1d4 rounds?
Then maybe at a later level have her able to obtain an ability or feat that lessens it to just a one round delay.