Era of the Apocalypse (Inactive)

Game Master Codanous

If you've made it here, congratulations!

I have a pretty busy weekend coming up but I'm hoping to start Tuesday, 4/11.

Thanks GM Cody, Stoked about the game! I will dot in game and then delete it so the game shows up in my queue.

Thanks for invite, guys gimme a moment, I'm trying to find my backpack!

GM- Do you mind that I do not worship any deity? I may have read different versions of Arthurian legends, but none of them seem to suggest that Merlin was particularly religious.

In Simon R Green, Nightside series - Merlin was depicted as the son of the devil, who decided to happily go his own way in life.

Ok - I got my stuff in order.

Badahir reporting for duty! Demons to blast to bits and all that.

So, I guess Elek and I will be a mixed front line / switch hitter pair, by the looks of our stats and feats. Should we discuss tactics? I get the feeling that "shoot and wait for the enemy to come to us" will seem very appealing.

Either that or I'll have to embrace the power of the almighty Five Foot Free Step.

EDIT: I just realized that I shorted myself my Favored Class bonus. I could go back and utilize it for skill points or HP, or potentially shift my stats around slightly to make myself a bit better at the violence thing. (-2 INT, +1 DEX). For now, I'll take the extra skill point to bring my skill point total to 8, but I'd love a second or third opinion on whether to take an attack/damage boost or to take an extra skill point.

yeah, discussing tactics would be a good idea. We will need to wait to see what kind of build the inquisitor will use.

When we were building characters It looked like Elek is the only one with disable device. So I went for a dex. build.

If it looks like everyone is a range build and GM Cody isn't planning a game with a lot of traps, I would switch Elek to a two handed weapon build. Switching dex and str. and feats to power attack and furious focus. Either way his melee weapon will be the grosse messer and his ranged weapon a crossbow,

yeah, discussing tactics would be a good idea. We will need to wait to see what kind of build the inquisitor will use.

When we were building characters It looked like Elek is the only one with disable device. So I went for a dex. build.

If it looks like everyone is a range build and GM Cody isn't planning a game with a lot of traps, I would switch Elek to a two handed weapon build. Switching dex and str. and feats to power attack and furious focus. Either way his melee weapon will be the grosse messer and his ranged weapon a crossbow,

See the edit in my post above. I could potentially shift my stats around slightly to be more competent at melee without sacrificing much. -1 INT, +1 STR, for instance. Or, again, +1 DEX / -2 INT.

That or I could go down the vaunted path of "you can't take AoOs against me even when I'm directly in front of you and shooting into your face."

EDIT: Also, I could just drop a skill point into Disable Device each level. 18 DEX + a skill point with no trait is still a +5 to Disable Device.

EDIT 2: Unrelated, but still important... How are the variety of religions and ethnic backgrounds getting along in the Vatican City? Moreover, is it specifically the Vatican City which is protected by the Pope, or does the church retain control of Rome as a whole?

it depends on the type of character you want to play, skill points make you look smart and sophisticated, which is what it looks like you're going for with the 14's in Int and Wis.

I wouldn't change anything till we get more players in the discussion. The Cardinal looks like he is built for support and communication. Lets see what the inquisitor is like, then we can tweak some things, with the GM's permission, of course.

editis disable device a skill you want to use? If the GM permitted, you could take a trait like Trap finder which would let you function like a thief. Lets see what feed back the GM gives.

I'm sure GM Cody will give us more information as we get closer.

For how it looks like were a lightly armored force moving quickly and trouble shooting deep in enemy territory, surviving on our wits and speed.

The 14 in WIS was also because of Grit. Gunslingers love deir wisdom. But yes, Badahir is supposed to be smart, educated (more than most soldiers), AND good at fighting, which made arraying his stats a bit rough - especially after I factored in all the traveling gear I wanted. Dumping STR below 13 is a bad idea for roleplay, too, as you'd expect a Janissary soldier to be strong enough to swing a sword properly.

But yeah, I noticed that the Cardinal was definitely built for what you just said, and with a wizard among us we're not lacking in brains.

Looking for someone to be my packmule...I'm at a medium load lolz.

Honestly, with the amount of gold you have left over... An actual packmule wouldn't be a bad idea. They're not terribly expensive, and you could buy feed for it to fit in its saddle bags (and most times we'd hopefully find grass for it to eat instead).

EDIT: Also, wow... I haven't seen our Inquisitor yet, but Badahir, Elek, Celeste, AND Lucius are all in the 25-26 age group. That surprised me.

EDIT 2: Unrelated, but still important... How are the variety of religions and ethnic backgrounds getting along in the Vatican City? Moreover, is it specifically the Vatican City which is protected by the Pope, or does the church retain control of Rome as a whole?

At this point in history the Pope was the ruler of all of Rome (which was quite a bit smaller than it is now) - Vatican city is a creation of the Pope/Mussolini peace accord in the 1920's. When talking about the city walls at this point it means the Aurelian walls, or something smaller but still bigger (and more central) than Vatican City is today.

Anyway, history lesson over, your resident Cardinal here. I'm a skill monkey, but the face kind of skill monkey not the lock-picking kind. :) Also, I'm not as cure-y as a regular cleric because I don't have spontaneous casting so most of the healing will come from channels. Don't rely on me to pick you up mid-fight...

Oh, pack-mules are great. I actually have one myself since my strength is so... not-good... I can share if that's a problem.

Build-wise Badahir, stick with the strength/dex side I think. Dropping 2 INT as you said won't be too bad with a wizard and Mr "I spent all my points on mental stats" Borja over here. :)

Last point - any suggestions for spells? I'm expecting most of my contributions in a fight will be deafening trumpet blasts and aid another attempts since my spellcasting is so limited early on, any good ideas would be appreciated.

On history: I love history lessons. Don't be afraid to say "Well, ACTUALLY!" whensoever I make a mistake concerning historical context. Thank you very much, by the by!

On spells: Given the nature of the campaign we're in, my mind drifts to the Protection From Evil spell. I get the feeling we'll need that, and it lasts 1 hour/level. If we get downtime, using the Bless Water spell to produce lots of Holy Water could be VERY useful for us (since, again, we're fighting demons). And Bless is definitely a useful spell, and while it gets outclassed by other spells quickly, it can make a good pre-battle buff if you KNOW a fight is about to happen.

In the end, I'd probably suggest 1 cast of Protection From Evil (to bolster Elek's defenses, assuming he'll be the one in melee the most) and 1 cast of Bless to make us all fight better 1/day. Clarion Call doesn't have much combat use, but I imagine there are situations where it will come up. (I wonder if there are spells that are based around people having to hear you shout something to be affected...)

Protection from evil does NOT last 1h/ level. It lasts min/level. It makes my ears twitch when spell effects are described wrongly :P

Cardinal - if you have the dosh to - do you mind picking up a wand of CLW? Else there's going to be a lot of downtime.

BTW Im partial to enlarging frontliners - assuming there's space, but it's best abused with combat reflexes.

Protection from evil does NOT last 1h/ level. It lasts min/level. It makes my ears twitch when spell effects are described wrongly :P

...Not my best day, this. I've made this exact same mistake before, too. I think I somehow confuse its spell duration with Mage Armor.

As far as healing goes, there will probably be a lot of downtime but potentially we could bring a Healer's Kit along if we don't have enough money for a wand (which we really don't). We could do without a Healer's Kit, but that'd put us at a -4 penalty. (Badahir has Heal +6, so he could roll to assist the Cardinal's +10 Heal check. That's an 85% chance to provide a +2 bonus. That might help.)

At our level, we'd heal either 1 or 4 hit points on a successful heal check (4 if we rolled 25+). It's not much, and it's not as cost or time efficient as a wand of cure light wounds (unless we don't use a healer's kit), but it could work until we can afford a wand.

Also, I'd personally enjoy seeing Color Sprays cover all the enemies. Everywhere. Color Spray is a beautiful spell. I'm glad you took it.

Sorry, colourspray is NOT an easy spell to use, so I will need corporation from the group to do it. Due to the campaigns emphasis on demons - I decided to go evoker route this time, though generally I'm a conjurer at heart.

Sorry, colourspray is NOT an easy spell to use, so I will need corporation from the group to do it. Due to the campaigns emphasis on demons - I decided to go evoker route this time, though generally I'm a conjurer at heart.

I thought the build looked a little different, If Elek goes with a more melee build he will be happy to pick up combat reflexes.

You see when you're going conjuration focused - if the GM does not allow summon smite to penetrate DR, which going by RAW, it doesn't really, but I give it as a freebie when I GM, it's really hard to get through that Cold Iron DR.

Demons generally have two weak saves either reflex, or will. Its a good bet either way, but when things get bigger it's usually easier to target reflex instead of will.

One of my favorite cleric spells is cause fear, though if there is a lot of melee/archery, bless gets very nice.

GM - do we get much(if any) crafting time? I'm happy to pick up some item creation feats.

A wand of CLW is a bit out of even my price range right now - I have got a couple of scrolls for emergencies.

I'll be happy to take crafting feats too if we get the opportunity - clerics LOVE stuff that gives them versatility.

Oo boy you guys are excited and active to start, logged on this morning to 17 posts in the discussions. I'm glad everyone is jazzed to start.

The inquisitor should be joining us this weekend, she is an inquisitor of Michael, uses a long spear and has the Strength domain with the Ferocity subdomain. So I think their intent was to be the front liner or help with the front line. They went back and forth between Warpriest, Inquisitor and Paladin, ended up going with Inquisitor to help provide versatility.

Let me try and answer some questions too. I'm at a work but taking a quick break to post.

@Celeste, I don't mind if you don't worship a deity, I can flesh out the Order of Merlin for you, but essentially Merlin founded it and created a sort of demiplane city existence to separate arcane magic from the plain world. This demiplane was attacked and sacked as well by a powerful prince of Hell, Belial. Only a few masters and their apprentices were able to escape in time. You are one of those apprentices.

-Is summon smite a feat or are you talking about the inherent smite evil that Celestial creatures get when summoned? I agree that its fine if it bypasses DR, I probably wouldn't have questioned it if you tried it.

__________

In regards to healing, as long as you guys can make it back to the Vatican City and are caught out in the city you guys can reasonable expect to be healed by those priests that are present. They can probably spare a cure lights wounds or two since you guys are braving the demon hordes.

That'll certainly help then. I assume we're spending our first couple adventures near Rome anyway, making it very reasonable to backtrack and get healed. A Healer's Kit and Channel Energy should cover the rest for now.

I'm gonna go ahead and do the thing where I take away 2 INT and get 1 more DEX, and I'll just spend my favored class bonus on skill points.

Hey guys, I'm playing Maud a French apprentice inquisitor of Michael. Her main job before the whole apocalypse thing was tracking down people who were possessed and getting priests to them.

If waiting wasn't an option than we would sometimes have to provide a more final solution unfortunately.

Her master and her made their ways through enemy territory to try and return to the Vatican City but was caught right near the Gates by a band of Demons. They fought but in the end her master sacrificed himself to buy her time to make it to the gates and safely into the city.

I'm excited to join you guys.

Thanks for reminding me - I need a healers kit! :D

Thanks for reminding me - I need a healers kit! :D

While I don't have much gold right now, once we get more wealth I'll gladly help pay for healer's kits and wands of cure light wounds.

Hey guys, I'm playing Maud a French apprentice inquisitor of Michael. Her main job before the whole apocalypse thing was tracking down people who were possessed and getting priests to them.

Howdy and welcome! Your character definitely adds the melee component we needed. If we keep things as they are, Badahir and Elek can alternate between ranged and melee combat as needed, but it looks like you'll be our primary melee warrior.

I'll try to help out a bit via Charge attacks - since it takes a Standard Action for Badahir to reload his gun right now (that'll change at level 3) unless he uses an alchemical cartridge, I'll probably open most fights with a few gunshots before rushing in and smacking something in the face with my yatagan sword. +1 STR isn't much, but +2 attack for charging and +2 damage vs. demons should make it work out just fine.

(Speaking of which, I CAN craft my own alchemical cartridges, so eventually I'll be shooting a lot more, but that'll have to happen in downtime at town. I have access to the materials I need there.)

And while we're discussing all this...

is disable device a skill you want to use? If the GM permitted, you could take a trait like Trap finder which would let you function like a thief. Lets see what feed back the GM gives.

It's up to you. If you want to be the trapsmith, that works for me. If you'd rather not do that, I'll drop a point into it (I can divert pretty easily from something). We don't necessarily NEED to have it as a class skill, either - a +4 bonus from DEX and a +1 from the rank is still a +5. Besides, we can't disable magical traps without an appropriate class ability.

In your case, even if you switched to an STR build you'd do just fine at Disable Device. Assuming 14 DEX, that's 2(ability)+3(class skill)+1(rank)=6. Tack on the Trapfinding ability you can get from a Slayer talent and... that's perfectly reasonable.

It's up to you. If you want to be the trapsmith, that works for me. If you'd rather not do that, I'll drop a point into it (I can divert pretty easily from something). We don't necessarily NEED to have it as a class skill, either - a +4 bonus from DEX and a +1 from the rank is still a +5. Besides, we can't disable magical traps without an appropriate class ability.

In your case, even if you switched to an STR build you'd do just fine at Disable...

I will look at it tonight, I'm on EST but work at night so do most of my actual stuff at night, but I check during the day fairly regularly.

Here

Special Attacks The creature may smite evil 1/day as a swift action (it adds its Cha bonus to attack rolls, and a damage bonus equal to its HD against evil foes; smite persists until the target is dead or the celestial creature rests).

Celestial template stacked on summoning.

It does not say it gets by DR, so it doesn't, RAW.

Is it okay if I dot Gameplay?

I doted and then deleted it so it would show up in my queue

Yes yes, please Dot in the gameplay.

Celeste, I'm fine with that smite overcoming DR. If it sounds like smite and works like smite it might as well just be Smite, no need to make things harder :).

@ GM Cody, Hey GM since we have a gunslinger, and Maud looks like she will be using the long spear, do you care if I change Elek's build to a two handed weapon style? I would go str 17, dex 16, con 14, int 10, wis 10, cha 8. Then replace the feats with combat reflexes and power attack, the second trait I may change also (not sure what) He would still deal with traps and such...

I've altered those numbers a little, if I were to do Elek as a str. build these would be the numbers:

Sorry about all the questions GM Cody.

Are you ok with the str build instead of the dex build. I don't want to change the character after selection unless you clearly ok it.

Second. Is this the 'general' invitation the pope sent out and only five from the whole of Europe answered. Or are we just the ones that showed up this morning.

Or is this a more specific invitation sent out to us five?

It was a general invitation to anyone in the crowd, kind of like a "those of you who are willing to attempt a suicide mission, step forward,"

perhaps more will step forward after being emboldened by your guys heroics.

Yeah I'm fine with your character change. Don't forget to add your damage to your weapon attacks.

cool, I will alter his page

I reckon there hasn't been enough time to stamp out old hatreds and put aside the history of Christian and Muslim fighting, so even in the face of Hell on Earth Badahir isn't joining this group with a smile.

Don't worry, Robert and I are old friends. Even if my attempts to make a wizard out of him have failed miserably ;)

Sorry it took so long, but I finally have Elek's physical description and personality on his page.

I listed the 'Meyers-Briggs' personality that I would consider him before the fall. Not sure how it will be reflected through his grief and possible sanity issues... I guess we will have to work that out together :)

Sorry, I'm in a bit of a pickle sorting out some stuff today. Might not be very active.

GM - I can't see the maps really. Even on computer. Could you please relink?

I mean I would be happy to input on which way to go first, but I can't comment on a map I can't see :(

GM - I can't see the maps really. Even on computer. Could you please relink?

I mean I would be happy to input on which way to go first, but I can't comment on a map I can't see :(

picky, picky, picky,

:-)

Yes, yes, you've been tweaking my nose the whole day :P

Elek stops long enough to make eye contact with the musketeer, looking for reassurance then continues. ”zen only vee und it vill be lost. But if vee know of za other routes back into za city zen all vill be lost.

My god, that's cold...I'm not sure how to react to this...you know me, I like multiple escape routes.

I'd really would like to get out of this in one piece...and the implications of that statement - means you'd rather we die then we betray the city.

Elek wrote:

Elek stops long enough to make eye contact with the musketeer, looking for reassurance then continues. ”zen only vee und it vill be lost. But if vee know of za other routes back into za city zen all vill be lost.

My god, that's cold...I'm not sure how to react to this...you know me, I like multiple escape routes.

I'd really would like to get out of this in one piece...and the implications of that statement - means you'd rather we die then we betray the city.

ummm, if were captured by the demons then were going to betray the city and die anyway, no one can hold out indefinitely. But if we only know of one entrance and we miss our contact or they see the demons coming they can blow it and the other exits would be safe.

Oh, and yes, I think it would be better if 'the suicide squad' dies than the last bastion of humanity goes up in flames...Just sayin'

*shudders*

But I don't want to have...

My head smashed in
And my heart cut out
And my liver removed
And all kinds of atrocities committed on my person!

Intellectually, I do understand. It's just that one hopes one can weasel out of trouble...

Maud - depending on your fighting style, you may consider this as well. But that feat gets use only if you're hiding behind someone(i.e Elek).

Hey, I am not always a casty...but usually if I melee I fool around with reach weapons primarily.

Reasoning: Murderhobo them before they get to murderhobo you ;)

Celeste- yeah that is a pretty good one, ill have to keep it in mind :)

Maud - does archangel Michael give you longsword proficiency? Otherwise the inquisitor weapon proficiency reads as follows:

An inquisitor is proficient with all simple weapons, plus the hand crossbow, longbow, repeating crossbow, shortbow, and the favored weapon of her deity. She is also proficient with light armor, medium armor, and shields (except tower shields).

info on Michael The thing that surprises me. Since the bible talks about 'the armor of God' and the weapon is a sword, and the 'Spirit of God' is like two edged sword; how can any cleric of Christianity not be automatically trained in a double edged longsword, then also given the weapon of their patron saint or angel if they are Catholic? There needs to be a perk for catholic clerics, I mean Rome is saving the world from the apocalypse right?

I have no clue...as I said I'm not a fighter. Weapons are meant for you to stab the pointy end into people.

Just making sure that we have all the ducks in a row.

And what you do between you and your god is really your business ;)

no it doesn't but my inquisitor stuff would work for it

info on Michael The thing that surprises me. Since the bible talks about 'the armor of God' and the weapon is a sword, and the 'Spirit of God' is like two edged sword; how can any cleric of Christianity not be automatically trained in a double edged longsword, then also given the weapon of their patron saint or angel if they are Catholic? There needs to be a perk for catholic clerics, I mean Rome is saving the world from the apocalypse right?

Because most catholic churchmen also swore oaths not to spill blood unless it was of the enemies of the church - so they tended to practise (if they practised at all) with bludgeoning weapons which never 'spilt blood'.