Diablo 2: The Lord of Terror (Inactive)

Game Master Groundhog

Welcome around! This thread is for talking out of character. I'd like you to roll in spoilers in the IC thread though, along with a mechanical description of your actions in that same spoiler.

I.e. something like this:

----

<Awesome combat fluff!>

---

Or something along those lines.

I've also set up a loot list that you guys can keep updated if you like. You should probably keep track of xp individually.

The Campaign Info tab has lists of what merchants have available for sale. I'm also putting the houserules there.

Other than that, have fun!

Cheers for setting up the game Groundhog.

Those guidelines seem fine to me.

A quick question: would you like us to set up an online sheet with our xp that you have access to?

Fellow party members: Fredric will be able to buff ye a little bit at 1st level, the teamwork stuff kicks in at 3rd. I'm thinking Lookout so that combined with Defensive Strategist, we shouldn't be surprised often if at all. But that's a way off yet.

You don't have to do that - so long as you keep up with it, I'm happy.

The first gameplay post is up, so there is that.

I think that I myself will be making posts for XP (and for daily spells) in this thread...
Also thanks for the loot sheet ^^

edit: also, time to update Timothy's Alias xD

By the way, in a similar fashion to ninjas & rogues getting tri-bladed katar proficiency, paladins gain tower shield proficiency.

Amazons may potentially find the Shield Brace feat interesting.

Hi! Thanks for picking Nioku.

First of all, I'd like to roll Nioku's trait, Numerological Gift, which is rolled once when the character is created.

3d6 ⇒ (1, 5, 2) = 8

So from now on, once per day, Nioku can treat a roll of 8 as if it was a natural 20.

As for feats, for archers I'd recommend Exceptional Pull . Since bows have the problem of coming with a set Strength Rating, the feat allows you a bit of freedom in a random loot environment.

Also, I don't feel my avatar is as cool as I wanted. If you don't mind, I might change it now that we're still just beginning. I'm really looking for a blond pale-skin gal, like the amazon from D2 (mine was called, you guessed it, Nioku :P).

I don't mind at all.

Something I just noticed while fixing up Timothy the familiar's alias, Ravens normally get Weapon Finesse. Should he just not get anything? or should I trade it out for a different feat? (I think I'll check out those familiar feats...) xD

If it's his regular feat, then you can change it out, potentially for one of the familiar feats. If it's a racial bonus feat for being a raven, then he just loses that bonus feat.

From what I read, the Raven entry isn't supposed to have two feats so it couldn't be a bonus feat.
Hilariously: the prd lists the Perception as +3 and +6 as well as having both feats
I think the feat was removed and the +6 was dropped to +3 (even though +6 is correct, not to mention it's still +6 at the top), but then the feat was added back in xD

In any case, after looking at the familiar feats, I've decided that Skill Focus (Perception) is the only feat I'd want him to have anyway xD
I'll just bump Tim's perception upto 9 ^_^

So in looking at the party, I am noticing that our one "cleric" is a necromancer, and otherwise we have only a warpriest for healing. Is there going to be a form of "regenerating hit points", and/or will Cure potions be dropping in frequent supply, as there was in Diablo II? Those two aspects of the game made a "priest" character rather unnecessary, but if we lack a strong healer, we might find the endless horrors ahead more than a bit troublesome.

As such, I realize I have been selected to bring forth an amazon ranger, but I would be happy to change directions and make a healer cleric that would offer a good deal more survivability to our party.

Good call, wanderer. I think the flavor of Diablo 2 would mean potions dropping like candy so we can stay alive. But I'm open to whatever. Thank you for being open to switching as well.

Consumables should be available enough to see you through most after-fight healing. As for having an in-fight healer, maybe it would be good for you? I'd advocate you try this setup initially, and see how it goes before you decide to reroll.

Cheers for bringing that up Wanderer, and for the offer.

Fredric will have lay on hands from next level onwards, but that won't be a massive amount of healing for a eight-person party in constant combat.

But let's see how the current setup goes for now.

I could see an offensive Channel Energy-focused cleric being a good fit in the setting, but I say play whatever's going to be most fun for you. After all, we're all gonna die.

Once I get enough magic, the enemies will have too many obstacles in the way to use up our healing :P
Also, who knows? we might find an arcane scroll of infernal or celestial healing and we'd get an extra refreshable source of healing xD

Actually, spells are the one thing I didn't make tables for. If you want non-core spells you're probably going to have to buy them with your level-up learned spells, at least for the moment.

I've made loot-generation tables for everything else - by the time I was done with all the actual magic items, I got lazy and went with the nice ones already written up in core.

Hey. Getting an alt created and will post shortly in the gameplay thread.

Since you made the loot tables, as you said, I am curious to know if you've included bows with strength ratings, and how will you manage that. Only to plan for the future, you know.

Yeah, composite longbows have a str rating ranging from 0 to 5, shortbows from 0 to 3, and orc hornbows from 1 to 6.

One fun option for a future healer: Oradin. The combination of lay on hands and life oracle's life link means constant healing with few to no actions in combat. I used that guide to create an Oradin in another campaign, so looking forward to seeing how well the healing goes in practice.

There's also the Pei Zin Practitioner Oracle archetype from Healer's Handbook.

Groundhog, how much do we know in character about the events in Tristram?

News travels slowly in these lands. There's been a few refugees out of Tristram, and you might have spoken with those. The town's burned down.

I've seen a Pei Zin practitioner played once, it was fairly ridiculous. That said, it had trouble taking too much damage through shield other and life link. Sure you can heal it back up, but not if you're dead or unconscious, so you need a deep hp pool. 14 con + 1d8hp per level + FCB didn't really cut it in the case I saw. Once they got a belt of con +2 and the toughness feat it started working better, though.

You've stumbled your way into your first encounter! They won initiative, so gimme a moment to take their turn before you post real quick.

So, Erodin and Fredric took 2 damage each. Your turn starts now, and I'll update around this time tomorrow, botting anyone who hasn't acted by then.

It's good to be getting going!

yay!
Also, I hope you don't mind me asking, but:
How exactly does "group initiative" work?

Fight!

Just to note, Fredric can't be caught flat-footed in a surprise round in case that makes a difference.

yay!

Also, I hope you don't mind me asking, but:
How exactly does "group initiative" work?

Each group rolls with the average of their init, rounded down. Each character with improved init in the group adds a flat +2 to the group's roll. Each side goes in turn.

RE: flatfooted, the thing did a nat 20, so it auto-hit regardless of AC.

That's fine, I looked here first. Defensive strategist will come in handy yet!

Groundhog, do you have any opinions on salvaging materials? It's not necessarily true to the Diablo style, but I imagine there will be less loot than the game (the Blood Moor probably won't be littered with cracked daggers and bolt quivers). At low levels we might make do with scavenging. For example, would the quills be usable as thrown weapons?

Almost forgot, Frank's current spells after casting color spray:
. 1st Grease (DC 16 Ref), Color Spray (DC 16 Will) [x3]=>[x2]
. 0 (at will) Light, Open/Close, Prestidigitation

Groundhog, do you have any opinions on salvaging materials? It's not necessarily true to the Diablo style, but I imagine there will be less loot than the game (the Blood Moor probably won't be littered with cracked daggers and bolt quivers). At low levels we might make do with scavenging. For example, would the quills be usable as thrown weapons?

Not to worry. The blood moor shall provide.

Also, re: Frank, I do indeed prefer ooc spoilers, but a single line of ooc tagged text here and there won't make me go ballistic or anything.

Either way, I think the spoiler tags are growing on me ^_^

Also, Frank's spell book.
I had a different 8 spells planned originally (read: I was lazy and just grabbed CRB spells), but when you mentioned that I can only expect core spells from loot, I decided I should change 4 of them:

1st Level:
Anti Haul
Color Spray
Grease
Identify
Infernal Healing
Protection from Evil
Snapdragon Fireworks
Vanish

edit:
@Groundhog: (and anyone curious about "Perc: +1\3 & +9")

It occurs to me that it's easy to forget about my familiar when making perception checks.
The bird has 6 Int and +9 perception, so I'm guessing that he is able to help spot ambushes.

With that in mind, in Frank's info line (the thing at the top of every post) I typed "Perc: +1\3 & +9".
It looks odd, but it just means that for Perception checks Frank gets +1 without Timothy and +3 when Tim is "in arms reach" & Timothy gets his own check at +9 (and the bird has lowlight vision in case that ever comes up) ^_^

There we go. I think Fredric took 10 damage from that.

I've updated early as I happened to have the time, and everyone has posted already, so that's nice.

Yeah, Fredric's AC with charge is 13 so - ouch!

And it's great to see player enthusiasm!

A question. If resurrection isn't so easy to come by, particularly at lower levels, what is the plan if/when PC's die? Will we be able to bring in replacement characters? A pyromaniac druid or specialist healer could be handy to fill a near-future vacancy...

Folks, I've used weal's champion. Check out the spoiler in my gameplay post for details, it gives ye a buff versus Q6.

I was thinking that players get to come back in with a new character. If they don't want to, we'll recruit replacements if the group wants to.

Q6 very much got killed by that swordstroke, so no buff for the rest.

Actually, there's no standing enemies at this point, and the two color sprayed foes are down for 7 more rounds, so I think I'll end combat.

Huzzah! Victory! Even if Fredric is a little mangled. ;)

<3 Color Spray <3

edit: thanks for taking those hits so that Frank didn't xD

Okay, so each of you gain 225xp to put towards the slow xp track to lvl 2. No-one needed to be botted, so that number includes full bonus xp for everyone.

Here's an opportunity to get Fredric healed up, or at least stable, and to loot the monsters and the dead rogue they were eating.

This is where we hope there are potions to be found, and quickly.

Loot Found
1000sp
350gp
Backpack, common
2 Smokesticks
Flint & steel
Chainmail
Masterwork Tri-bladed Katar
Falchion
Scroll of Animate Dead & Magic Circle Against Evil
Wand of Cure Light Wounds (42 charges)

I would love the chainmail. Falchion if no one else wanted it, but mainly the chainmail. I'd understand if another melee'er snagged either though.

Is the scroll arcane or divine? (Or are we ignoring the distinction?)

Loot Found

1000sp
350gp
Backpack, common
2 Smokesticks
Flint & steel
Chainmail
Masterwork Tri-bladed Katar
Falchion
Scroll of Animate Dead & Magic Circle Against Evil
Wand of Cure Light Wounds (42 charges)

Lol wut? Did you seed the loot with targeted items or is that legitimately just sweet luck? I'm not upset in either case.

I'm interested in the falchion. But speak up if you want it as it's more of a side-grade for Erodin.

Groundhog wrote:

Loot Found

1000sp
350gp
Backpack, common
2 Smokesticks
Flint & steel
Chainmail
Masterwork Tri-bladed Katar
Falchion
Scroll of Animate Dead & Magic Circle Against Evil
Wand of Cure Light Wounds (42 charges)

Lol wut? Did you seed the loot with targeted items or is that legitimately just sweet luck? I'm not upset in either case.

You got lucky. That said, Cure light Wounds is weighted pretty heavily on the wand generator list. The Katar too, although less so.

Is the scroll arcane or divine? (Or are we ignoring the distinction?)

I think we'll allow you to ignore the distinction.

I'm far more keen on the armour, given recent events!