I was understanding the swift action as not being interrupted because swift action spells don't provoke but you are right that, RAW, that doesn't necessarily follow. So Mel's arrow hits through the soft cover of Kazador.
That's still solid damage.
Fair enough.
Okay, some tactical thoughts. From the fact that Ev and Kazador can't see the halfling I'm guessing she teleported, and her parting words make me thing she went up to the surface. So our next task is probably to follow her.
Mel and Kazador saved against the cloud, but Perrin and Roet just got a 1 round reprieve from nausea lasting 2-5 rounds. (By the way, did you bot Roet's attacks again?) Perrin's only got one more channel left, and it takes a standard action, so if he doesn't use it this turn he's out of luck.
He does have a scroll of delay poison that would solve the problem for good for a single person. I suppose he could use it on himself and climb back up to grate with the speed from monkey fish and haste. But really, Perrin himself wouldn't be much use against Daisy at this point. His remaining offensive spells and slumber hex all have Will saves, which isn't that great against a caster to begin with, and kind of pointless now that she's at such low hp.
We'd probably be best off just getting Kazador and Mel up there as soon as possible. Which I think means a scroll of dimension door - if we group together Perrin could teleport us up before relapsing. Any other ideas?
As a move and standard I can Dimension Door to the surface
Will do so unless someone has another idea?
Wait, didn't you use up your Teleportation Mastery earlier in the day? If you can use it again that's marvelous.
Yup! 3 points left. A very versatile ability. Will get a post up soon.
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Yaaay! *claps and sings*
We're splitting up the party, the party, the party!
We're splitting up the party, so grab your boots and hat.
I'm very sad to say that we seem to have completely lost Roet. This turnover really hurts continuity, so hats off to the rest of you for being consistent.
I'm considering what to do for a fourth player. We could look at the others in our re-recruitment thread or make targeted invites to people we know are high-quality, reliable players. Thoughts?
Back in June, Vors said his life was going to be topsy-turvy till maybe mid-August or September. Well, that's now. Maybe we could poke him and see if his life has settled? He could jump in as Kelian. He suggested it himself just as he was leaving.
He's a good solid player, and we wouldn't have to invent some reason for a new face -- just pick up Kelian. He's here in the city, though we seem to have lost track of him. Perhaps he had some errands his mother wanted him to run -- pick up a few things for her in the market and ship them back, that sort of thing.
On an unrelated note, the ruffian Mel just trounced took 13 non-lethal damage. I'm going to make a guess that exactly another 6 would have put him out cold.
Good idea, Mel. I'll reach out. Kelian stayed behind in the Guardhouse when you guys headed into the sewers. Forgot to mention it.
Close. He had 16 hp.
Vors is a no for now but might be a yes later depending on stuff with his family/baby in particular. Thoughts on the re-recruitment thread vs a targeted invite? I have a few people that I would recommend fairly highly who might be interested. Anyone have a friend who's a good player that might be interested?
Targeted invite. That almost always ends up with better results.
Agreed. No one jumps immediately to mind, unfortunately.
A targeted invite sounds great! I'm in another game with someone who might be a nice addition, let me know if you want me to reach out to them.
Sounds good, Perrin. Ask them.
GM, just a heads-up on Mel's todo list for tomorrow. She's got 8,782 gp to spend, not counting any income from selling off loot from earlier in the adventure.
- Get her bow enchanted to +1 (it's masterwork already, 2,000 gp).
- Purchase a Handy Haversack (2,000 gp).
- Purchase Pathfinder Pouch (1,000 gp).
- Purchase Healer's Satchel (long term care) (3,000 gp).
- Purchase a potion of darkvision (300 gp).
- Find a good bookstore. I have plans for that.
- Open a bank account with any remaining funds.
If all that is available she'll only have a few hundred gp left. I imagine there may be some availability rolls.
Mel herself is too heartsick and weary to contemplate any of this right now, but hopefully she'll feel better in the morning. Oh, and in case it matters, bear in mind that Mel's Perception penalty for sleeping is halved (only -5) due to skill unlocks.
Sounds good. I think we're going to have a slower pace IC for a few days as you guys decide what to do next. Perrin and Kazador might also want their new items soon. We'll take a little time to explore Helm without too many deadly combats or major plot points in the immediate future.
Luckily, Kazador has a level in monk. If he doesn't have his fullplate, he'll still have an AC of 18. While not ideal, it's not as bad as what it could otherwise have been.
Good point.
Okay, so after selling we should have another 23,625 gp to split between us, which means 7,875 each.
Upon further thought, Perrin will just use Daisy's headband and spend 8000 gold for an ioun stone to boost his Wisdom. That leaves Alric and Elrin's headbands available for use if you guys want them, or for selling if you don't.
Perrin will also buy a cracked dusty rose prism ioun stone (500), a cloak of resistance +1 (1000), a ring of protection +1 (2000), a +1 buckler (1000), a lesser extend rod (3000) and wands of mount and ill omen (1500).
He'll pay the ratfolk for identify, and if it happens to be an extend rod he'll get a +2 cloak instead.
It's a lesser silent metamagic rod.
Perrin, you're clearly on top of the inventory -- could you update the Group Loot sheet, please? I'm afraid I don't recall what those two headbands are.
Sure, I'll put up the stuff no one's claimed.
Another 7875 gold? Whew...will have to think about this.
Yes my campaign to bring you guys into line with WBL is more than over. Loot is going to calm down now, though I do get a little excited about devising rewards so it should stay interesting.
Yeah, I think we're actually a good bit over wealth by level. Let's see.
In the category of weapons, Mel is currently grossly underspent (136 gp out of 4,000 recommended). Maybe I should get some extra weapon property on her bow, or something.
In the category of protective gear, she's at 3,825 gp out of 4,000 recommended, so that's about right.
In the category of magic stuff, she's at a whopping 18,500 gp out of 4,000 recommended. Most of that is the Boots of Haste, which are NOT a cheap item at 12,000 gp.
Looking at Limited Use, I see her at 450 out of a recommended 2,400. But really, there are only so many potions you can traipse around with.
Apparently I'm supposed to have 1,600 gp worth of "other gear". Currently I'm at 30 gp there. I don't know what that would be exactly. She could get some fancy dresses? Buy a town house? It seems to be the category for mundane gear, and that stuff just isn't that expensive compared to all the magic doodads.
She has 16,567 of that is ready funds because she hasn't yet bought any of the things that I detailed above.
Overall, I show her at 38,908.94 gp out of 16,000 recommended for a level 6 character. And that doesn't count the ring of gravity bow, because I don't have a price for that. She's geared more like a 9th level PC than a 6th.
GM, here are some percentile rolls to determine availability of things.
Bow enchanted to +1:
Handy Haversack:
Pathfinder Pouch:
Healer's Satchel (long term care):
Wow, look at that. I'm guessing the pouch and the healer's satchel are not available. Or else the healer's satchel is a different specialization than I was looking for, or not the specialized version at all.
EDIT: GM, could I get the bow made Adaptive and Merciful? The former is a flat 1,000 gp, the second is a +1 bonus equivalent, so it would cost an additional 6,000 over the initial 2,000 for the first +1 bonus.
Mel, those are mostly pretty standard items. No roll required for the Healer's Satchel. But the Pathfinder Pouch could take some digging to find as that is a less common thing to purchase.
Again, upgrades require 1 day of work per 1k gp in the added cost. So Mel, you can get those upgrades on your bow if you're willing to let your bow sit in a shop for a while.
Ring of gravity bow is cool but not actually that expensive as a custom magic item. Really, it's only about +1 damage. But it is fun to roll bigger dice!
7167+7875=15042
15042-6000 (Comfort and +1) = 9042
9042-4000 (Making weapon glamered) = 5042
5042-2700 (Making armor glamered) = 2342
2342-2000 (Ring of prot +1) = 342 left
Yes, I am fully aware that I am spending almost all of my gold on comfort and glamered. Yes! I know that this doesn't give any combat benefit. So why am I doing this?
(1) With glamered weapon, it can change shape. When Kazador isn't using his hammer, he can wear it. It will change shape to be an arm-band. This way he will never be without his hammer again. It will also mean that he can take this large hammer anywhere. Going to see the king? Great. He's just wearing jewelry. And it isn't an illusion that someone can detect, it actually changes shape.
(2) Glamered and comfort armor? Why? Easy. It is suspicious as hell to see someone walking down the street in a suit of armor. Imagine seeing someone strolling down main street with a rifle, a helmet, and a bullet proof vest. Would you want that person in your store? Probably not.
This will let Kazador wear his full plate with it feeling like a suit of normal clothes. He can also make it look like a suit of normal clothes.
Sadly, it isn't mithril. If I had planned all of this out perfectly (spoiler: I didn't) I could have gotten his ACP down to 0. But, as is, I see these enchantments as being the perfect enchantments for an adventurer who is afraid that someone is going to steal his ancestral artifacts, and who doesn't want to get kicked out of polite company for looking like he is going to war.
And to be fair to you, you didn't get starting gold to start with mithral armor.
Right-o. I make that 9 days worth of enchantment -- 2 days for the +1, 1 more for Adaptive, and then 6 more for Merciful, at an expense of 9,000 gp.
I may invest in a spare masterwork bow to carry around while Mel's is being enchanted. Given recent events, she doesn't want to be weaponless.
Gravity Bow is more like a +3 to damage, on average. An average roll on 1d8 is 4.5, while an average roll on 2d6 is 7.
Oh right. Haha. Apparently I don't cast enlarge person on people wielding longswords often enough... I thought d8 went to d10. Anyhow. Still not as crazy as other permanent level 1 spell items, like a ring of constant long arm.
On a side note, I upped my panther's damage at Gencon from d8 to d10 whenever I enlarged her... Was selling poor Shalazat short...
Perrin, you can order those fate's shears to be made for you, btw. Any interest from your friend?
I'm still kind of boggled that you turned your panther into a squid. I wish we'd gotten roll that fight out.
But afterwards I went and looked at my notes, and apparently I supposed to have had Shemayet cast Communal Resist Energy [acid] on you all -- I built the damage dice on those breath weapons so that there'd be a little bit of damage coming through on a passed save with acid resist 20 up. So I'd probably have murdilated the party because I didn't do that.
XD That was very fun. It's great to cast beast shape on an animal companion through share spells!
Haha yes the acid was really hurting a lot! Significantly more than the physical damage as AC and reach was keeping that at bay.
And 2880 xp each for defeating Daisy. She is a CR 10 creature but her animal companion is part of that, worth 20% of her xp budget imo. So you get 90% of the xp from a CR 10 creature/3. That puts you 178 xp each from level 7. Defeat a nasty flu virus and you'll level up!
Ooh, nice, I'll order the shears instead of that ring.
I've sent them a message to see if they're interested, and I'll let you know when I hear back.
So close! Does defeating a large breakfast count?
Hahaha. It could under the right circumstances! Winning an eating contest, having a vital conversation, etc.
Btw, leadership is on the table at level 7 but with some requirements:
1. Don't use your cohorts in combat much or they'll be dying a lot. Even if you get an incredibly tough cobort. That's too much from one feat.
2. We'll RP the acquisition of cohorts. You'll mostly have mechanical control and get the followers you want but there will be no instant, completely free, 100% subservient followers.
3. As always, play should be party and story oriented.
Person is definitely interested in joining! Shall I have them check in here?
Yes! I'll PM with them to make arrangements.
So what does a trade book cost? I want to program it into Hero Lab so I can add it to my inventory properly.
In the real world these things tend to be either free or very cheap, because the businesses that want people to know about their services pay for the production and distribution of the list/book/etc.
Yes that's why it's 5 gp.
Is there an existing item you're thinking of? I can't find anything called a trade book. There's a piece of gear called a Blue Book which is vaguely similar, yet is pretty definitively not what Mel's looking for.
Hello everyone!
I'm the person Perrin PMed about joining the campaign. They said I could post on the discussion thread at any time, so that's what I'm doing.
I haven't finished reading the gameplay thread yet (still on page 17, as of writing this), and I've only read this one page of the discussion thread, though I have read the second recruitment thread (well, the first few posts, the ones after that struck me as somewhat superfluous) (pawns can be promoted, by the way.) and have gotten a synopsis from Avoron, but from what I've read I love everything about this campaign.
I have a few questions about party composition and character introductions and such.
Looking at the party’s current characters, it seems you’ve got skills, spell casting, and restorative magic covered, so the essential bases all have someone standing on them. I’m not current on the gameplay thread yet, so I don’t know how well the three of you fight together. What would you like my character to be able to do? Just looking at the statblocks, it seems you could use a secondary frontliner to protect the two ranged characters. What’s all of your take?
Avoron said that the build rules from the second recruitment thread have likely changed a bit, on account of the players coming into some wealth and a few experience points. To Brookside GM, what are the rules for character generation?
As to character introductions, I'll copypasta something I wrote before I learned that the party had left Brookside and I got a synopsis of the story:
Regarding the introduction of the character: I’m only ~halfway through the thread, so I’m not sure where the party is, geographically. But if my character was a Brookside resident, and is almost level seven, one’d think they’d have helped out against the orc invasion. I’m thinking perhaps my character spent their formative years in Brookside, but left as a young adult to join the military or an academy or a military academy, and just returned in time to see the current state of affairs? Or I could play a spiritualist or a sorcerer or someone whose power could feasibly come all at once with no warning. Thoughts?
Or I could be from somewhere else in the Bishopric of Helm. I really don't have a solid idea for a character yet, personality or build -wise, I only know that I want to be a part of this group. So what kind of character would you all like to play with?
Looking at the party’s current characters, it seems you’ve got skills, spell casting, and restorative magic covered, so the essential bases all have someone standing on them.
What we don't have is an arcane caster. Perrin can manage a few arcane spells if he takes the right wandering spirit, but the selection is limited. Kazador can cast a handful of spells (mixed arcane and divine) but he rarely has access to more than one or two at a time, and switching between them requires a full minute-long cooldown.
Among other things, that means we don't have regular access to invisibility or teleportation magic, both of which are extremely useful.
And as for Knowledge (Arcana), neither Perrin nor Kazador have any ranks in it, and it's a comparative weak point for Mel (who neglected the field because she found other things more interesting).
So an arcane caster of some sort would be most welcome.
I don’t know how well the three of you fight together.
Tolerably well, I think. Kazador handles melee, and Mel shoots things, and Perrin is fairly versatile at buffing, debuffing, and healing.
Note that for RP reasons, Mel refuses to accept any of Perrin's spells or supernatural abilities, which has made her life harder (but more interesting). The biggest issue from that is the he can't heal her. So far she's been lucky not to take too much damage. Kazador can do a little bit of healing, which she'll accept; but don't worry about that, I have a plan for dealing with the issue that will go into effect when we hit level 7, shortly.
I could be from somewhere else in the Bishopric of Helm. I really don't have a solid idea for a character yet, personality or build -wise, I only know that I want to be a part of this group. So what kind of character would you all like to play with?
We're well out of Brookside at this point, and it wouldn't really make a great deal of sense for you to have come from there. If you really want to, you grew up in Brookside but were away traveling for some reason when the assault came.
However, I have a suggestion: you could be referred to us by the Bishop of Helm. We've just met him and agreed to assist him with things, so it's entirely reasonable that he might recommend someone to join the group -- someone he already knows and trusts, who has skills the party could benefit from.
You could be:
- Just someone the Bishop knows;
- The protege of someone the Bishop owes a favor to;
- A member of the Bishopric's intelligence agency.
Any of those would provide ample reason for the Bishop to wish you to be involved, a reason for the party to trust you, and some potentially interesting backgrounds. As a more urban type, you would doubtless know more about the day-to-day realities of politics in the the Bishopric than our current rag-tag assortment of a small town doctor, a foreign scholar and a recovering alcoholic with a tragic past.
Welcome, Scholar! Glad to have you on board!
Mechanics: Build a level 7 character (as the party is likely going to hit level 7 before you can even finish building) with WBL equipment. 20 point buy. Two traits. No 3rd party without special permission. I think you should build something that you'll enjoy playing, though I find feeling useful a big part of that! :) Two traits or three with a drawback.
Mel has good suggestions, all of which would be great. I do think it would be ok to be someone from Brookside. I like the idea of someone who left Brookside years ago to study, fight, etc and came back to find things in great upheaval. I wouldn't be opposed to an existing Brookside resident or NPC gaining powers suddenly but it would have to be done well. You and I will PM about how exactly to introduce your character to make things more fun.
Some world info added to campaign info. I'll add things here that you should know as I organize/devise them. Map of the City of Helm coming soon.
Mel, the 5 gp is my price. It's not a listed item. And I realize that a blue book isn't what you're asking for. XD
For another 15 gp, you can get a pretty detailed city map.
Alrighty! I still don't have a solid idea for the character's personality in my head, though I'm somewhat closer to current on the gameplay thread now. I want to build a character who fits the mood of the campaign, which means that they have to be a seventh level character with a boatload of cash . . . but also they have to be an ordinary person thrust into extraordinary circumstances.
Right now, I'm sorta leaning towards Mel's idea:
However, I have a suggestion: you could be referred to us by the Bishop of Helm. We've just met him and agreed to assist him with things, so it's entirely reasonable that he might recommend someone to join the group -- someone he already knows and trusts, who has skills the party could benefit from.
Being recommended by the ruler of the nation sounds like a good way for a highish level wizard or cleric (trickery and travel domains for invisibility and teleportation?) to not have a great deal of adventuring experience; they probably reached their level of power through study rather than monster-slaying. Though, I'll have to finish off the gameplay thread and get to know the Bishop before I decide whether I want to build my character around him. There's also the problem of being in cahoots with such a politically important NPC, my character might simply not be that important at this point in time. What's your take, Brookside DM?
I regret to say that I have little more idea for the build than I do for the character. I know that I don't want to be a squishy backliner, because when the backliners outnumber the frontliners it gets pretty hard to hold the front line. But the party also needs a general utility caster with an arcane spell list. And the party needs someone with healing magic who doesn't pray to a demon lord.
. . . perhaps I should play a mystic theurge melee combatant? Or, more seriously, perhaps a bard. I'm really at a loss for what to play, mechanically. Anything anyone can say to narrow down my options would be much appreciated. Actually, if someone wants to just tell me what class to play, I can read though a few guides and a list of archetypes and probably come up with an idea for a build, which in turn will inspire a character, which in turn will inspire the build. I'm just at a loss for where to start, is all. :)
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Yes I understand that there's iterative momentum for character creation. Totally get that.
A connection to the Bishop is fine.
I like what Mel told you mechanically. Skills are her area. If her area, she sees the party could use more K arcana.
Perrin, in the realm of spellcasting, where would you like assistance? Arcane powerhouse? The breadth of a MT? Etc.
Kazador, in the realm of front-liners, what kind if assistance appeals to you? A striker? A tank? A tripper or debuffer?
This could give some ideas.
Cleric sounds like it might feel a little redundant just because the casting style is so similar to a shaman. And I don't think out-of-combat healing will be a huge concern, because Kazador can always UMD a wand on Mel if the need arises.
But I like the bard idea. I could also see someone with psychic casting being useful, like an occultist or a mesmerist or a medium.
Sleep is for people who don’t have reading material; I’m current on the gameplay thread. Would anyone mind if I dotted and deleted to add it to my campaigns?