Yeah, that was pretty rough. Orc barbarians with greataxes versus level 1 commoners. Brrr.
The nice thing is you guys are taking the offensive so you can choose how this battle goes down, to some extent. If you want the crew of the Sonder providing support, cover fire, and manning the ship, you guys can personally soak up the enemy attacks.
And hiring some muscle could be a great idea, Brolin! Putting that advanced party wealth to work.
Also just throwing it out there...dimension door.
“You instantly transfer yourself from your current location to any other spot within range. You always arrive at exactly the spot desired – whether by simply visualizing the area or by stating direction. After using this spell, you can’t take any other actions until your next turn. You can bring along objects as long as their weight doesn’t exceed your maximum load. You may also bring one additional willing Medium or smaller creature (carrying gear or objects up to its maximum load) or its equivalent per three caster levels.
A Large creature counts as two Medium creatures, a Huge creature counts as two Large creatures, and so forth. All creatures to be transported must be in contact with one another, and at least one of those creatures must be in contact with you.”
Lvl 6, so Kazador and 2 others can teleport in from 640 feet. Kazador can teleport us out. If we can find a way to do it while being invisible, we can make this into an assassination. No need to risk our ship or the crew.
I currently have a couple bites on getting us a traditional full caster to fill in for Perrin. It's possible you'll have some help before fighting van Beem but I wouldn't count on it being that fast.
Chief Mate Tiyeri - Tiyeri is a orange, brown, and white striped catfolk with a tricorn not unlike Brolin's own, though newer. She talks quietly, but all old hands on deck know to quiet up and listen. As the Chief Mate, Tiyeri's in charge of making sure that everyone's doing their jobs properly and that the boat isn't about to sink.
Catfolk Monk (Sensei) 5
Str 8 Dex 14 Con 12 Int 12 Wis 16 Cha 14
Second Mate Alvin Torval - Torval looks like this. (I stole both his name and character design from a minor character in this comic, who I've always thought was too cool to get so little screen time.) Alvin Torval also has a hawk familiar that usually sits on his shoulder. As the second mate, it's Torval's job to make sure the boat is headed in the right direction. To aid him in his navigatory duties, he's got a tricked out perception score; ~+20 at level two. (The build is buried in a binder somewhere, I'll find it and tell you the exact number.)
Half-Elf Sorcerer (Tattooed Sorcerer) 2
Str 9 Dex 12 Con 11 Int 15 Wis 19 Wis 12
Corona - a middle aged gnome with graying purple hair, Corona is the ship's cook, and put all of her gnomish obsession towards meal cooking. The crew of the Sonder eat like kings. Her personality is modeled somewhat off of Calvin's, from Calvin and Hobbes. Gnomes are never too old for antics.
Gnome Summoner (Fey Caller) 1
Str 6 Dex 10 Con 6 Int 12 Wis 12 Cha 12
Kromnlite - A faun-looking fey creature, summoned by Corona (who is a summoner in order to round out the Sonder's crews' numbers). Personality modeled somewhat off of Hobbes, from Calvin and Hobbes.
Eidolon 1
Str 16 Dex 12 Con 13 Int 7 Wis 10 Cha 11
Brother Nuar Brickenden - Brickenden has an excellent memory and not much else going for him. (rolled for stats, and some people rolled lower than others.) Growing up, he wanted to be a cleric, but was never successful at it and eventually took to the sea. He has the Book of Numbers memorized, and will quote from it if given the opportunity.
Human Expert 1
Str 11 Dex 9 Con 11 Int 13 Wis 10 Cha 9
Peepiceek - a ratfolk with a sword, who is basically Reepicheep from the Chronicals of Narnia, because hilarity. I look forward to writing any dialogue at all from him.
Ratfolk Swashbuckler (Inspired Blade) 1
Str 10 Dex 16 Con 13 Int 13 Wis 9 Cha 10
Benjamin Sliver - Benjamin Sliver's a balding middle aged man with a bit of a gut. (I'm a terrible person, and whenever someone rolled more odd numbers than even numbers I advanced them an age category.) An experienced deckhand, and is happy to help others learn the not at all metaphorical ropes. He works hard, plays hard, and is fond of telling tall tales about his adventures at sea. (He's got his bluff score tricked out almost to the extent of Toral's perception.)
Human Expert 1
Str 8 Dex 8 Con 12 Int 14 Wis 14 Cha 17
Mathis - Mathis is the son of a petty Ilustrian duke, who got fed up with politicking and decided to run away and become a sailor. His ~year at sea has done quite a bit to take the edge off his snobbish demeanor, leaving him rather biting and acerbic but tolerably so.
Human Aristocrat 1
Str 15 Dex 15 Con 15 Int 13 Wis 12 Cha 8
Murkain - Murkain is an affable dwarf hired on to protect the crew against pirate attacks. Terrible with names, he calls everyone "lad", "lass", or by an honorific. He also does terrible rock puns.
Dwarf Warrior 1
Str 14 Dex 7 Con 18 Int 7 Wis 11 Cha 11
Keith Brickendon - Keith Brickendon is not related to Brother Brickenden, which sometimes causes confusion. No one calls Keith by his last name, though, so it seldom comes up. Brickendon is a prime example of the Dunning-Kruger effect; he doesn't have a mental stat above nine, but he's eager to give unsolicited advice on any number of topics. Also, he never. Shuts. Up.
Human warrior 1
Str 16 Dex 13 Con 13 Int 8 Wis 9 Cha 8
Neji - Neji is a middle aged half orc who's spent most of her life lifting heavy things and doing menial jobs that no one else wanted to do. She spends much of her time staring off into the middle distance, imagining something infinitely more exciting than whatever she's doing. She goes barefoot whenever possible, and is currently in a conducting an experiment to see just how long her toenails will grow if she never cuts them, ever. They frequently get caught on things, which she considers more entertaining then inconvenient. In her free time, she paints the sides of the boat.
Kaery - Kaery is an otherwise intelligent human who believes ridiculous things - she'll earnestly inform you that eggs are fruit, or that spitting over the side of the boat brings fowl weather. She has a trained monkey, which is awesome.
Human Rogue (Carnivalist) 1
Str 11 Dex 14 Con 12 Int 10 Wis 5 Cha 12
Cricios - Cricios keeps to herself, for the most part. She has a rock collection.
Skinwalker Expert 1
Str 10 (12) Dex 15 Con 12 I 9 Wis 13 Cha 9
Walrus - Walrus is either a large cat, a small dog, or a racoon. It speaks to Walrus's general deformity that no one is really sure which. At any rate, Walrus keeps the ship clean of rodents, so there's that. Don't pet her, though, or she's liable to take the skin off your arm.
Good heavens. That's a lot of work!
I like Corona especially, but that's quite the motley crew.
Awesome, Brolin! Feel free to put them to use! As long as they don't take center stage, front lines in battle, or too big of a combat role I won't try to kill them very hard. Love the Reepicheep ripoff. Always.
nd you made Mel like a gnome! That's incredible! She hates gnomes!!
Awesome, Brolin! Feel free to put them to use! As long as they don't take center stage, front lines in battle, or too big of a combat role I won't try to kill them very hard. Love the Reepicheep ripoff. Always.
And you made Mel like a gnome! That's incredible! She hates gnomes!!
True. Not generally a fan of gnomes.
Ok Murkain might draw a lot of attacks...
Happy Thanksgiving, all! No need to worry about getting time to post today.
A merry Turkey Day to you as well!
Death to the Turkeys! May your knives be ever sharp
I've been getting more of and a better feel for Brolin's character while playing him, which is both great and kind of frustrating - frustrating in that I decided not to run with the Spirit Dancer archetype, and now that I've played the guy I'm starting to wish I had. Since this is the first battle, and it hasn't really been joined yet, would I be able to apply the Spirit Dancer archetype and unapply the Relic Channeler? I don't mean to waffle; I swear this is my final decision!
Sure Brolin. No problem.
It looks like we have quite a pool of interested applicants to try to replace Perrin (which is impossible from a story standpoint). I might take two if there are a pair that I really like.
What, are we not supposed to try and recruit the wandering monsters? Grumbaki, we might have been doing this wrong all along. :P
I have no idea what you are talking about ;)
Would you mind explaining your class to me? As you might have guessed from my iron caster, I like non-normal builds, and I’m not familiar with yours
Haha. Recruiting it is fine with me! Just very hard. It's a CE, arrogant creature.
Haha. Recruiting it is fine with me! Just very hard. It's a CE, arrogant creature.
Oh, I get that entirely! I just wasn't going to pass up a joke at my players' expense.
Would you mind explaining your class to me? As you might have guessed from my iron caster, I like non-normal builds, and I’m not familiar with yours.
My build is actually pretty basic, all of the complexity comes from my class, archetype, and spirit. Oh, and one of the feats that I took. So I guess I'm partly to blame.
How the Medium works, is you pick a spirit at the beginning of the day to channel. This gives you a couple benefits, notably a Spirit Bonus and the ability to Spirit Surge. The Spirit Bonus scales with level (it's a +2 at level seven, but I took a feat to raise it to +3, at the price of one influence) applies to different things depending on what spirit you're channeling. For instance, Champions apply it to hit and damage, Tricksters add it to skills and reflex saves. This is what makes the Medium so versatile - they can imitate any class, as long as they know to do so ahead of time.
The Spirit Surge simply adds +1d6 to a failed roll at the cost of one influence. Mediums have five influence total to spend this way. At three influence, they take an assortment of penalties. At five influence, the spirit they're channeling possesses them and they become an NPC under the control of the DM until the end of the day.
The Marshal spirit applies it's Spirit Bonus both to Charisma skill checks, and to Spirit Surge rolls. So, if I Spirit Surge on a Charisma skill check while channeling the Marshal, I can double dip, and get +6 above and beyond my roll and Surge die.
The Spirit Dancer, my archetype, instead of picking a spirit at the start of the day, can pick them on the fly - but in return, they can only use their Spirit Dance for a limited number of rounds per day, much like a barbarian's rage or a bard's performance. Upon leaving Spirit Dance (and no longer using rounds per day) they take a -2 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, and skills for a minute and can't reenter their dance until they're back to normal.
The feat I mentioned that adds complexity to my character is, for the most part, doing it's thing behind the scenes - the feat in question is Legendary Influence, which lets me pick a different feat for each of the six spirits. I can use these feats when channeling the appropriate spirit, but it costs one of my five influence. For most of the spirits, I chose Spirit Focus - a feat that increases my Spirit Bonus by one for a specific spirit.
And that's the build!
Interesting! My first time seeing a medium in action. Thanks for the breakdown
For sneaking I did the math.
Fulllplate -6ACP
Masterwork -5
Comfort -4
Nimble -2
With Dex16, Kazador has Stealth +1
Exact same as wearing chain shirt. Better than I thought! Bought the comfort for RP reasons. Turns out it is pretty useful!
I’m thinking next Level I’ll throw a skill point into Stealth. Make it +4 so this won’t be a problem in the future
So, it seems we have a new player in the group. Hello, Fyrtor!
At first I was a bit puzzled. "Why is the GM throwing yet another plot hook at us in the middle of this fighting-pirates mission?" I thought. But then I noticed the typo in Fyrtor's first post which didn't look like a typical GM typo, and observed that lately the GM has taken to tacking "-NPC" on the end of the named NPCs. Then I checked which account Fyrtor was tied to, and observed that it wasn't the GM's. Hence ... new PC.
Yup! Welcome! You’re quite lucky to be here. Not often one finds a GM so dedicated to bringing out player backstories and encouraging character growth.
So, it seems we have a new player in the group. Hello, Fyrtor!
At first I was a bit puzzled. "Why is the GM throwing yet another plot hook at us in the middle of this fighting-pirates mission?" I thought. But then I noticed the typo in Fyrtor's first post which didn't look like a typical GM typo, and observed that lately the GM has taken to tacking "-NPC" on the end of the named NPCs. Then I checked which account Fyrtor was tied to, and observed that it wasn't the GM's. Hence ... new PC.
XD
I mistook him for an NPC at first too.
Haha. What do my typos usually look like, Mel? ^_^ I didn't realize they were unique. No guarantee I'll always have "NPC" listed at the end. It often depends on which aliases are useful to recycle as I'd rather keep them in the double digits or low triples if I can...
Agreed. You guys have plenty of plot hooks going on at the moment!
Welcome from me too, Fyrtor! Looking forward to playing with you.
All: Note that there is another PC who will be joining us as well but he or she has to wait a little longer until the plot is appropriate.
Hello All :)
I'm glad to be joining, sorry about my typos, it's a bad habit of mine I'm working on. I'm glad we did the intro the way we did, it made it feel very organic. Props to Brookside GM for setting it up to play out as he did. Please feel free to let me know if there's anything I need to change about my posts or frequency. I don't want to mess up the groove you guys have had thus far.
GM, your spelling is just fine. Your typos tend to be autocorrect "helpfully" fixing words it doesn't recognize, mostly on posts in the evening. The giveaway in Fyrtor's first post was "gobilns" for "goblins". That kind of typo tends to be a symptom of someone who's a very quick typist working on a keyboard, and their fingers got a tad out of sync. I haven't noticed that particular sort of typo in your posts.
Mel, I wish I could claim to be a very fast typist, but that is exactly the kind of typo along with poor spelling that I tend to have. I guess the years of playing piano didn't help as much as I would have wished. lol
Ah typing. 99% of my posts are on the iPhone :(
That must be painful. Paizo's site is not especially mobile friendly, even after the updates last summer.
No, it’s not. I’ve learned to copy my posts before hitting submit.
Ah yeah makes sense, Mel.
I'm worth you, Kazador. Can get brutal!
Just to make sure this is clear, the plan was to take the ship and then send it back to Helm under a prize crew.
A question for the DM; how do you rule fireballs and flammable boats?
If it helps I could cast sleet storm right after a fireball landed to put out any fires along with other fun effects. That I can do from a LONG ways away :)
I could also light up a particular target if they could be pointed out to me with faerie fire.
My other spells will require me to be closer.
I can:
Dimension Door myself and up to 3 people
Cure wounds/ability score damage
Dispel Magic
See invisibility/cast darkness
So I’m still up for trying to assassinate the pirate captain.
* Throw Fireball
* Pirates Rush up to deck, we spot the captain
* I cast dimension door. 3 comrades gank him
* I cast dimension door again and get us out
There's only four of us right, aside from the crew? I'm down for an assassination attempt.
Here's a list of the relevant spells I have prepped. I can also convert spells into cure spells or summon nature's ally.
3rd (3/day)- Ice Spears(1) (DC 16); Nauseating Trail(1) (DC 16); Sleet Storm(1) (DC 16);
2nd (4/day)- Fog Cloud(1) (DC 15); Ice Slick(1) (DC 15); Summon Swarm(1) (DC 15);
1st (4/day); Faerie Fire(1) (DC 14); Heightened Awareness(1) (DC 14);
I can also do melee pretty handily especially if I have a chance to prep a bit which we should be able to do just fine.
Following assassinating the captain I could cast some of the vision obscuring spells to give our ship time to approach unseen as well.
Hm . . . if I want to fireball something, I'll be locked in to Archmage for the whole fight. Problem there is that Archmage is good for two DC 16 fireballs, and then not a lot else. I was toying with the idea of lobbing a fireball or two and then retreating into the forest to wait out the minute before I can re-enter Spirit Dance, but I think the odds are too high that the pirates would decide to leave rather than fight a mystery wizard.
Archmage and Heirophant are probably best used for pre-combat buffing, in this case. Does anyone have any cleric or wizard spells of third level or lower they'd like cast on them? Duration has to be longer than the minute it'll take to wait out the Spirit Dance timer, though.
Btw, off topic. But your VMC Cleric keeps bothering me. So many feats gone!
GM, I have a solution. Since inquisitions are generally tied to inquisitors, how about instead of channel energy it gets replaced with judgement?
It would look like this:
Judgement: At 7th level, he can use the judgment class feature as an inquisitor of his character level –6
Improved Judgement: At 11th level, improves to character level – 4.
Improved Domain: At 15th level, he gains the additional domain power of his chosen domain, treating her character level as his effective cleric level.
Greater Judgement: At 19th level, character level – 2.
———
Thematic, useful, and he won’t lose a whopping 3 feats.
Btw, off topic. But your VMC Cleric keeps bothering me. So many feats gone!
GM, I have a solution. Since inquisitions are generally tied to inquisitors, how about instead of channel energy it gets replaced with judgement?
It would look like this:
Judgement: At 7th level, he can use the judgment class feature as an inquisitor of his character level –6
Improved Judgement: At 11th level, improves to character level – 4.
Improved Domain: At 15th level, he gains the additional domain power of his chosen domain, treating her character level as his effective cleric level.
Greater Judgement: At 19th level, character level – 2.
———
Thematic, useful, and he won’t lose a whopping 3 feats.
That would be nice, but to be honest I think it's worth the cost. I don't feel the pinch quite as bad because of all the slayer talents I get.
As far as buffs, a couple I can think of, heroism, longstrider
There are three problems with assassinating the captain.
1. That's not what we were asked to do. The Bishop wanted her captured.
2. It wouldn't solve the problem. Suppose we pop in, kill Van Beem, and pop back out. Great! Next day her first mate announces that he's the new captain, and they're going straight back to business as usual.
3. Mel's not down with assassinating people. She's not a pacifist by any means -- she'll fight to defend herself or her community, and she absolutely wanted to kill Elrin for his crimes, which she had personally witnessed. But popping out of nowhere, killing someone, and then fleeing is not something she'd agree to. So if that's the route we go, Mel is going to decline to participate.
Also ... VMC cleric? What VMC cleric? *blinks*
There are three problems with assassinating the captain.
1. That's not what we were asked to do. The Bishop wanted her captured.
2. It wouldn't solve the problem. Suppose we pop in, kill Van Beem, and pop back out. Great! Next day her first mate announces that he's the new captain, and they're going straight back to business as usual.
3. Mel's not down with assassinating people. She's not a pacifist by any means -- she'll fight to defend herself or her community, and she absolutely wanted to kill Elrin for his crimes, which she had personally witnessed. But popping out of nowhere, killing someone, and then fleeing is not something she'd agree to. So if that's the route we go, Mel is going to decline to participate.
Hmmm. Frytor would rather not kill anyone if he had a choice. IF we don't have to kill these pirates, that's great, how should we go about capturing the ship? 4 against the entire crew of a frigate is probably not good odds, but we might be able to keep them busy while reinforcements arrive.
Also ... VMC cleric? What VMC cleric? *blinks*
lol. Yeah, it's an odd mix, but it works :) I just don't get any of the channeling because I dumped charisma.
Longstrider isn’t a wizard or cleric spell, so I can’t cast it. But I will cast haste right before we engage. (I have that one as a Medium spell, so I can cast it outside of Spirit Dance.)
I have, while channeling, two third level spells, four second level spells, and five first level spells. One of the second level spells was already cast today, and another is needed for haste. So, really, I have two second level spells.
I’m thinking casting fly and protection from arrows on Mel would be useful - that way she can stay well out of melee range and still keep up with the boat if it starts moving. Actually, it might be worth casting protection from arrows on everyone, what with the number of combatants, few of which are likely to have magic weapons. Heroism is as good a contender for the other third level spell as any, if no one has anything more specific they need; who here can do the most with it, do y’all think?
EDIT
Mel has a merciful bow, which should help in capturing the captain. I wouldn’t count overmuch on reinforcements coming; the Sonder is a merchant vessel. There’s a few more marines on board, but taking them along makes it harder to retreat with d-door if we are outmatched - and I don’t know how much of a difference they’d make. Am I allowed to ask their level?
How about dimension door into the ship, the bottom of it. Have some druids cast Shape wood from within so it fills with water at a rate too fast to fix and dimension door out. No ship means no pirates...for awhile.
So we have to take the vessel ourselves then, so shock and awe?
How about dimension door into the ship, the bottom of it. Have some druids cast Shape wood from within so it fills with water at a rate too fast to fix and dimension door out. No ship means no pirates...for awhile.
I thought we wanted the ship... otherwise this is a great idea. I and Captain Muse could provide plenty of distraction above board to keep them occupied.
The other thing the Bishop mentioned was evidence. If we send it to the bottom of the sea, any physical evidence goes with it. Plus it's valuable. Ships are expensive.
4 against the entire crew of a frigate ...
And that's why we have Captain Blackskull and her group of marines. They're combat-ready sailors who were sent along to help take the ship and to serve as a prize crew once we've secured it. So it's not just the party versus an entire ship of pirates.
You know, unless we want to be extra heroic and really, really dead.
Well they are celebrating right? Here's my idea then. Why don't we wait until nightfall, hopefully some of them will be passed out drunk or similar. We get several druids to cast obscuring mist/fog cloud, it shouldn't be too out of place at night and with several of them casting it at the same time we should be able to create quite a fog bank. Then the Sonder approaches with the marines unseen. When they get to where we are ready Kazador teleports us in and we have a good old fashioned throwdown with the marines coming aboard while we distract the crew.
I do really like the general tactics described by Captain Muse regarding the buffing up.
EDIT: If we do I it right we might even be able to be sneaky about the whole thing.
Good to see so much scheming going on. If Fyrtor is happy with VMC cleric, I won't adjust it. If he would like to adjust it, perhaps according to what Kazador helpfully proposed, I'll look into it.
For your reference, here are the stats of the other three marines: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/npc-s/npc-4/longboat-captain/
Errde is the same but with 20 more hit points. You've seen them training on the Sonder for a week so you have a rough idea of their capabilities.
They can take the ship back assuming you capture it in one piece. Mel's right that it's worth 10,000 gp if it's just a normal sailing ship. Potentially more.
Fireballs would set the deck of a ship on fire, yes. The deck of the ship counts as an unattended object, imo.
Did I miss any questions directed toward me?
What's the pirate ship's name, by the way?
I very much like the idea of land-based druids conjuring fog banks around the pirate ship so that the Sonder can sneak up. The less time they have to prepare for the fight, the better.
It has some downsides -- for one thing, if Mel can't see her targets, she can't shoot anything. And it would impose a miss chance on our melee types. But, of course, the pirate crew would suffer the same miss chance, and they'd have no archer support either. On balance I think it'd be worth it.
Fyrtor, perhaps you could suggest it in-game? No one knows your capabilities.