Fall of nations Chapter 1 - Refuge

Game Master Wrath

I'm thinking that with the definite Earth theme to Algret, between the Earth Sense feat, the domain and a few preferred spells Earth should be the way to go with her new friend.

If you had a cool idea for Artifice that could work too. Already i like the idea that I can heal the doll using the Artifice domain power.

In regards to the NPC's, I wasn't expecting anything like it either, but I'm finding I really like it, and Algret is developing more depth than I ever imagined. Reminds me slightly of Bruenor Battlehammer.

I like the earth concpet as well Mark. I'd prefer to keep artefice in your hands at this stage but I'm willing to play with the concept later down the track for your companion. They'll get skill points and as they learn from you they may be able to gain new skills.

Definitely the artefice domain will be used to repair these things, as will Milhars new spell.

I'll get stats up for them later this week to reflect your choices fellas.

Cheers

Hey guys, just to let you know I am still here. I am still getting used to my new place, and unpacking. I will return in force when all settled. I will post sporadically while in the process.

Ok, time to put some stats to these companion dolls.

FW

You've chosen the path of healer for your little doll. Given the skill requires wisdom that's going to be its best stat.

St (2), Dex (12), Con (10), Int (6), Wis (16), Cha (3)

HP = 1/2 masters hp rounded down.
Initiative +1
Speed = 20 feet
AC 14 (10+ 2 size + 1 dex + 1 Arcane bonus)
BAB = As masters
Attacks = Fist (BAB +1 dex) Damage 1d4-3 (Will always do a minimum of 1 damage if attacking to damage). 1 per day can deliver a stunning blow to subdue instead. If hits causes 2 subdual damge.

Fort +2, Ref + 3, will +3

Skills = 2 skill points, can be spent in any skill its master knows. All skills known by its master count as class skills to the doll. 5 or more ranks in a skill allow the doll to provide a synergy bous of +2 to its master if within 5 feet.

Special - Living construct. They are immune to poison, sleep, paralyisis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, sickened and energy drain. Only gets half benefit from healing spells and heal checks. Gets full benefit from repair spells and craft checks

Empathic link, share spells, deliver touch. (they don't give the alertness feat). Can use masters saves if within 5 feet. Improved evasion

Mark

You went the path of stone for your doll, which measn its constitution will be its highest statistic. This will make it a little tougher than Milhars

St (4), Dex (12), Con (16), Int (6), Wis (10), Cha (2)

HP = 1/2 masters hp rounded down + con modifier
Initiative +1
Speed = 20 feet
AC 15 (10+ 2 size + 1 dex + 2 Arcane bonus)
BAB = As masters
Attacks = Fist (BAB +1 dex) Damage 1d4-3 (Will always do a minimum of 1 damage if attacking to damage)

Fort +5, Ref +3, will +0

Skills = 2 skill points, can be spent in any skill its master knows. All skills known by its master count as class skills to the doll. 5 or more ranks in a skill allow the doll to provide a synergy bous of +2 to its master if within 5 feet.

Special - Living construct. They are immune to poison, sleep, paralyisis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, sickened and energy drain. Only gets half benefit from healing spells and heal checks. Gets full benefit from repair spells and craft checks

Empathic link, share spells, deliver touch. (they don't give the alertness feat). Can use masters saves if within 5 feet

I'm not sure how well balanced they are against each other. The extra hit points and AC for Marks is countered by Frenchwolves stunning blow ability but I'm not convinced its a fair trade.

Also note that the fort save isn't as important for things like this becasue of their immunities, whereas the will save can be good due to them not being immune to charms etc like normal constructs.

If you could both look over the stats and compare them, then give me some feedback. I'll consider most suggestions as long as we keep them balanced for level. Improved Evasion

Cheers

Actually, the more I think about it, the less it makes sense for Milhars doll to have a combat option.

How about once per day it can roll a stabilize check for a person or let someone reroll a failed stabilize check. It can do this in the same round it makes a heal check if the heal check fails for that round. (assuming of course it takes ranks in heal skill)

That one sounds better and isn't overly powerful. However still open to advice.

Also, Mark, yours has improved evasion as well, I just stuck it in the wrong spot in the text last post and didn't realise until I couldn't edit any more.

Cheers

Looks great Wrath, I'll add the stats to Algret's sheet.

I am DMing all Saturday (its a monthly thing). Temple of Elemental Evil and that means lots of prep tonite and tomorrow, because I am Pathfindering everything.

Therefore I'll sort this after but my first instinction is that the stabilise ability fits much better.

Cheers

I hate my vitual dice I hate my vitual dice I hate my vitual dice I hate my vitual dice!

I hate my vitual dice!

:)

I hate my vitual dice I hate my vitual dice I hate my vitual dice I hate my vitual dice!

I hate my vitual dice!

:)

Hehehe,

You know Val, I do use the honour system. Feel free to use your real dice. You know, the ones kissed by the goddess of luck and touched by the hands of fate.

One of my friends in my real life game is married to a girl who blessed his dice in a wiccan ritual. He rolls more criticals than I've ever seen someone roll...ever. He won't let me touch his dice becasue I'm the GM and it will break the blessing. My wife would probably just curse my dice, she doesn't really get teh whole roleplay thing hehe.

I trust you Val, use whatever method you want :)

Cheers

My players touch my dice all the time to top me rolling when. It winds them up when I mention that they roll randomly, but I do seem to get fights where mine are hot.

In fact Milhar is proving one of the luckier PCs I've run.

And having a PC that can heal, cast arcane spells and fight a bit without being a bard is great fun. Just to forewarn people I am seriously considering taking a level of paladin next, because the ability to detect evil really fits with being a Source warrior.

Now off to run a game.

Cheers

Val

Thanks! I like to try and keep my rolls confirmable though when I can. I get paranoid if I don't. But you can probably tell whenever I can't access IC...

I really need to get my dice blessed one day. :)

Khal, thanks! Things have been so busy here I really did forget! I'm fixing it ASAP! (kinda pressed for time today, but I WILL get it done!)

Well got the PDF last night with teh new rules. Havn't had a chance to read them yet. The boards have only just started to work for me again too. Will continue the main thread when I've heard frm everyone. Cheers

A few changes in the game so far that I've read, and that's just the class sections. Paladins look really attractive as a class now (this is one class my group have never played...ever).

Khal, not sure if the monk changes in the book are much better than the alternate class you're already working with to tell the truth. If you get the rules, have a look and see what you think. One or the other, I'm happy for you to choose. Certainly the pathfinder version is much closer to your version now, though there's still the issue of spreading the joy across too many stats.

Our casters have lost the at will first level ability, now it's down to 3+main stat mod per day. I feel that's probably more than enough still, but I'm open to discussion on that. In particular, Milhars use of his ability to Heal people is already pretty limited so I'd be open to discussion around this one.

When I get through more of the book we'll discuss other rules as they pop up. I don' want to house rule too much becasue I believe the guys at Paizo have done a very good job of balancing things so far. It's mostly campaign specific stuff that I'll play with (like how magic works, certain monster stats and such.) Cheers

I'll check out the Monk as soon as I get the chance but I did take a look at the preview Monk and I agree with you and am pretty happy with the way Bo-Dan is. We'll see when I can have a more in depth look at Paizo's though.

My thoughts for the caster is that changing it from at will to limited is fair and de-powers the ability sufficiently to make it more rounded and fair to all. The only exception I might suggest is that in that case of the Healing ability of Milhar's healing/harming ray for example would be to say that as attack, it's limited as per new Paizo rules. But since as healing he can only use it once per day per person anyway, and even then only if they're good, is to just leave that part as is.

So in other words, he can still use it to heal without limit, but still only once per day per person, if they're good.

No worries git yur rest. : ) And Wow, that musta been some game!
Space-saving Spoiler for those Interested in AoW

posting this for Khaladon, cos he accidentally put in another ooc thread.

Khaladon said --- Should we take a vote then on where we are entering the jungle? Bo-dan, because of what she sensed from the Totems, (and explained to everyone) will very strongly state that they should not enter near them.
Her vote is obviously Not to. If the majority of the party votes another way, she will still try and convince Paera at least to enter at another part of the jungle and tell the party that if they will wait, she and Paera (if she's coming with) will catch up to them.

If Paera decides to enter near the totems, Bo-dan will not be happy about but she will not leave her beloved and will enter with the rest of the party. (Will Save (1d20+6=23) if necessary) ----

I took some DM initiative and moved you guys into the jungle away from the totems. It seemed three were leaning against breaking that taboo so I took that as a majority.

Cheers

No worries git yur rest. : ) And Wow, that musta been some game!

Space-saving Spoiler for those Interested in AoW
** spoiler omitted **

Khaladon, it was a great session thanks for asking. I have to say that DMing at level 20 is very taxing though, especially for 10 hours. We've gotten quite good at speeding up our game play but the maths and sheer number of possibilites makes it hard to keep it all together.

The campaign took us about 2 1/2 years to complete, but it was really the last 4 magazines that dragged it out for us. We could only manage one game a month for the last year or so, and that was depsite me having six months off work and trying to get things sorted nearly every weekend, hehe.

To really add to the fun, the guys were playing a predominantly evil party with only two characters in eight possibles that were neutral. It was a great campaign, and I highly recommend it to anyone who gets a chance to play it through. It has some very dark moments though.

Cheers

The Whispering Cairn and The Three Faces of Evil are great adventures, I haven't used the rest much. My party are now adventuring at their highest level, 8th, and I'm already feeling drained the next day from DMing.

As for which direction we go, Milhar follows Vik. Frankly not bothered by the totems either way at the moment. I figure I can always say I told you so later on.....or sweep it under the carpet if the others were right.

Cheers

I have the Pathfinder book now and I did see the changes to celestial sorcerer's healing power alongside the downgrading of all the first level bloodline abilities as kind of okay. A shame for Milhar but it was always a bit of flavour rather than the whole dish. Let's leave it at 1d4+1 and trust Jason....for now.

Cheers

Thought I'd better pop this up in here to see what people's thoughts are.

Given the current situation, and the general nature of DnD I'd like to ask people's perspectives on character death in a game.

Milhar was dropped to negatives not long ago, and Bo Dan is facing a pretty tough situation now, Vik was droppped very low on two occasions.

I like to make a game risky and tense (ie dangerous to your characters health). It increases the excitement as far as I'm concerned. This means the risk of character death is very real.I do not go out of my to try and kill characters, but I try to make for challenging scenarios. It's a tough thing to balance.

I'm very happy with the group of players I have in this game, given the regular posts and the game play we've got going. I don't really want to lose a player if their character dies and they decide not to reroll, however I also don't want to water down the risks in the game as I believe it reduces enjoyabilty if you know your characters are immune to dying. So far we've been pretty lucky but sometimes the dice just work against you and a charcter dies.

What are your thoughts on charcter death. Feel free to spoiler them. I'll not make any promise about changing my perspective on risks, but I do need to know where people stand.

Also note, so far we haven't actually touched any pregenerated games. All the decisions you guys have made have led to untapped areas and I've had to create this stuff. It wasn't where I thought we'd be going but it is pretty enjoyable to watch the game develop this way. It also means the scenarios haven't been play tested for balance and I'm really relying on experience and gut instinct to see how things go.

Cheers

I've always been a big believer in the High Risk/ Hig Reward style of play, it's how I run my games and my players love it. I've found that a very real chance of character death makes people work as a team, you find things like characters breaking off combat to protect a fallen comerade which only serves to elevate the story.

Kill or be killed. I can always build another and hate it when a DM fudges to keep PC's alive.

As a DM, I have wasted parties and characters aplenty. Generally, I try to only kill PCs if they do something stupid or if the dice truly misbehave.

I'd be surprised if everyone didn't recognise the danger that charging into the vine represents. But now we are fighting for our lives and that is what the game is all about. There are lives at stake.

Seventy seven different combos of PC in Pathfinder plus I have Tome of Secrets now so you kill Milhar and I'll just come back bigger and stronger again. Maybe without a doll though?

Cheers

I like the risk. If Vik dies he dies, no big loss and if he does hopefully it will be in battle. This is a game to have fun and has several options if disaster strikes and I always have an idea or two in my head if I need roll a new character so be it. Wrath keep the game as it is. Thats my vote and 2cp

I very much like your GMing and writing style Wrath, it is chock full or tension, drama and realism. No worries or complaints whatsoever on my part. The fact that you have just been making all of this up yourself just makes it even more impressive.

I'm not sure I agree with or even understand FW's opinion that we shouldn't have charged the plant. As it was a surprise attack and none of us are high enough level yet to have any significant ranged or magic attacks, I'm not sure how much choice we had.

I realize that Bo-dan will only have a few hp before Algret's healing kicks in, but I agree with the others that Death is an integral part of the game. As much as I like Bo-dan and wouldn't want to loose her, I have to play her the way I see her and she would not hesitate to risk or even give her own life if she felt it would help save her allies (and of course especially Paera).

So, in short, Bo's actions remain the same. I'm certainly not planning on or hoping that she won't survive this, but if she happens not too, I would very much like to continue in the game however I can.

And, after all,

Perhaps today is a good day to die!

I think we are all in agreement with your style Wrath

oh, and to have a little fun from Forums are Way To Long thread
Boot to the head we all need a little joke now and then. enjoy

Thanks for the replies all. Glad to see we're all on the same page here. It's very easy to write in new characters as the need arrises. There's plenty of people in the refugees and a few other randoms that can be dropped in as needed if a character death happens. Not that I plan for it, but it does happen. However its hard to get players of this quality, so I'm happy to know you're all willing to start new characters if needed.

In that fight some things popped up that I made some DM calls on. I present them here for transparencies sake and we can discuss them so we have a common understanding if similar things arrise.

1st - The Assassin vine can instigate a grapple if it hits with its vines slam. I didn't do this in the surprise round becasue the vine also activated its free entangle effect. I felt that would be too much action for a surprise round.

When Bo Dan got hit the second time, she was dropped well and truly into unconciousness so I ruled the vine automatically succeeded on the grapple. (helpless target). That's why no roll against Bo Dans CMD was included.

2nd - The vine does onstriction damage if it has an opponent grappled. Some critters can do this immediately a grapple starts but it wasn't written that way in the MM entry that I could tell. I ruled it could constrict next round if Bo Dan hadn't broken free. If you hadn't killed it that round then it would have constricted BoDan for another 13 damage (I rolled to check) and that would have killed her next round.

3rd - Viks action said he charged the creature but his attack roll didn't include this. I ruled he had charged as it made sense for the action and Viks character. It made a difference to him hitting or not, (Vines AC was 15). This one is the one I feel most guilty about as I acted for another players character. Appologies there Vik. It was done for expedience rather than anything else. The side effect would have been a lower AC when you charged for the AoO, but with the roll I made for the vine, that was really irrelevent in the end.

4th - The vine did an AoO on Vik as he charged, but it was grappling Bo Dan at the time. If Bo Dan had been concious and struggling, I wouldn't have allowed the AoO, as its main attack was preocupied. Given she was limp and unconcious, and the Vines strnegth is so high, I allowed for the attack to happen. In indsight, I'll impose a penalty if this was to happen again, to take into account the added weight for the attacking appendage.

Feel free to discuss those decisions, either agreement or not. Normally this type of thing would happen around the table while the battle was occuring, but PbP makes that a bit harder.

Cheers

I have no problems with any of that as it all seems logical. I also appreciate your transparency, not all DM's do that. And I'm happy Bo survived! (Even if it was almost literally by the skin of her teeth. And besides it had the added benefit of allowing me to write a near-death scene. ;-)

A little bit excited here. Just ordered my copy of the hardback from my local FLGS. It's set to arrive in the next two days. I'm as giddy as a school girl.

And just in time for Gen Con brisbane.

WOOT!!

On that note, I'll be at Gen Con most of the weekend. I'm booked in for 4 games to play, so 16 hours of roleplay in the world of Golarion for me. I wouldn't expect too much from me from about Friday night my time.

Cheers all

I am on holiday from Thursday evening until Monday evening. No internet. I'm going cold turkey for four days.

Wrath, have a great con.

Cheers

Heading off to gen con, but wanted to get a bit of a headcount before then. Havn't heard from sone folk for over a week now. Just checking if we've still got everyone.

Cheers

I'm here

Is there any reason we might want the Bugbear alive? cuz if not, Bo-Dan will make sure the horrid monster is dead with a coup-de-grace. That will be her action Wrath unless others disagree.

Hey all, Im off on a last minute camping trip today. Will be gone till Sunday morning Brisbane time (GMT +10). We shall resolve this little skirmish by then hopefully.

Cheers

Well I find myself in the interesting position of wondering what to do with the campaign.

I think we can assume we've lost Valkyrie, and Vik hasn't posted for a while (though he is patchy at times due to school commitments).
That potentially only leaes us with 3 players.

Are the rest of you interested enough to keep this going?

If so, should I recruit another couple of players into the thread?

If I recruit, do you have any one you think would like to join before I offer it to the public domain?

I'd like to get back into more regular posting (at least every second night) if we keep this going. It helps me keep the story fresh.

Cheers

I most definitely would like to keep this game going!

While I am less than pleased at the idea of going on without Val and Vik, as I very much enjoy the RPing, and would ideally like to leave space for them to come back, I at the same time understand that it would be difficult to carry on with only 3 players.

If the decision is made to recruit new players, than I most certainly would be able to recommend several good potentials. One of the things I most dislike about the Paizo board though is that is does not allow PM's so an invitation to any one player would be most likely visible to anyone reading the thread.

Any thoughts on how we could selectively recruit? This has been a quality game with quality players and I'd love to be able to keep it that way.

If I recruit, it will only be for two new slots really. This still leaves room for Vik and Val to come back. I suspect Vik is still out there, he just might be too busy atm to post regularly.

While I hope Val is going to come back, I get the feeling she needs a fair bit of time for her personal life at the moment. I had to take six months from the PbP boards myself last year, so i understand if that's what she needs.

If we get two new players, and the others come back, I can happily still run with 7 players. I'll just make the fights tougher :)

Cheers

Sounds like a plan. I can also think of one or two people I'd reccommend. I think if you're in a game with them, a spoilered post on a discussion thread is the way to go to notify them of this game.

I hope Woodraven and VP re-surface. The group was working well. As for players, most of the guys I game with are max-ed out.

If we get a couple of good new players that would be fine in my opinion. The game is good and should attract the right sort.

Cheers

Well, if this works for everyone, how about Mark and I each select a top pick and an alternate in case the 1st can't/is not interested?

Well, if this works for everyone, how about Mark and I each select a top pick and an alternate in case the 1st can't/is not interested?

That works for me Khaladon. Feel free to invite players to read our OOC thread and get a feel for the game and expectations. They can drop a post in here if they're keen and we can get the ball rolling. I can introduce players with relative ease at the moment.

Will post more in game after dinner (when my kids have gone to bed and I have time to be more creative hehe).

Cheers

If I may.

TherealThom

You could assume that, but I would be passively lying if I let you. I saw FW's post on Val and Woodraven a couple days ago and have been lurking since. (Shameless, stalking, opportunist that I am)

If Mark and Khaladon have others in mind as their first choice, so be it. But if their candidates don't pan out, please consider me.

Hey Wrath. mark asked me to drop by and take a look see at your game if I was interested. I've only had a quick flip, but it looks like a solid game.

I'm definately interested. I'll look over the Character Creation rules and get back to you. It probably won't be until early next week though. I'm just getting back to the Boards after a week away and I'm taking a lttle to get back up to speed with everything.

Hello Wrath,

Following in Flash's (and TherealThom's) feetsteps. :)

MArk dropped me a note asking me to check out your thread, that you might need some new players. I've only had time to look at a few pages, but it's very much an interesting read.

You may color me interested. IF you would be willing to consider me, of course! :)

I would like to catch up on a few more of the pages, (ANd your creation guidelines), get a better feel for the game and characters so I wouldn't inadvertently muck things up. Will next week be alright? IF you don't want to wait, I completely understand of course.

tt AND Rags? Yee Gods! What happened to the neighbourhood, so the guys I know aren't max-ed out at all...

Good choices, I say.

Cheers

And Flash-cxxi whilst our paths haven't crossed, I wish you well with this.

Cheers

tt AND Rags? Yee Gods! What happened to the neighbourhood, so the guys I know aren't max-ed out at all...

Good choices, I say.

Cheers

Heheh, good to see you too FW! :)

As far as max'd out,... I guess time will tell,... ;P

Wrath I am still here. last couple of weeks have been hectic, tests in all of my classes, and my car finally crapped out last weekend (a crack in the head, blown head gasket, and one of my spark plugs possibly got hot enough to arc and weld itself to the engine. I will try to get back to a regular schedule.

*edit*
Great to see so many people interested in the game. Flash missed you for a little while glad to see that you're back on the boards.