Not sure if I understood this properly - are we (the sleeping ones) allowed now a Perception check to awake (not that Alagor has a lots of chance with DC 17, but still...) or not?
Yes, you've all been awakened by the horses :-)
Just as I thought, did not make the roll :-( It is perfectly logical (and very bad) that Alagor is sleeping without his armor, so he can get proper rest. However, at least Tanladvir is within easy reach.
Computer woes continue. Finally nailed down what is causing the problem, though: liquid cooling system has apparently given out. My CPU is not well pleased (nor am I).
Ordered a replacement, which I'm hoping will be here and subsequently installed by Tuesday. In the mean time, my presence will be less than stellar. Basically, it will only be when I can sneak in updates while at work for the next couple of days.
"Triumphum semper malum, quia bonum est mutum."
"If we are moving to slowly for you," Pyotr counters, "perhaps you would like to take us to Ludicrous Speed!" =P
Part of why I went chasing after mr. Puma is so the action could continue in spite of my computer problems, fyi! I just can't do justice to posts from work most of the time.
Hey, Pyotr went off to gather the horses. Anything could have happened during that time frame. But, you guys decided to stabilize and spare these two. Now, it's a little late to just dispatch them, or leave them for dead.
... you missed your chance...! =P
I suppose I should clarify, the above is not a condemnation on my part about anything happening in the gameplay. I just wanted to give our illustrious DM an easy out for Bonegrit's absence given my own current posting issues. On a lighter note, my new liquid cooling system was delivered today. Assuming it's not too much of a hassle to throw together and attach (by no means an expert techie here) I should be back in business.
No worries people. Training for the new job is really intense, so it'll continue to be the case of posting if and when the opportunity arises for the next few weeks or so.
Still it's all very interesting, and I get to stay in a 5 star hotel during the training. Next week off to the jungle though!
Oh, and I opened Recruitment a year ago today. Happy birthday us!
Oh, and I opened Recruitment a year ago today. Happy birthday us!
Happy birthday!
Good game you got going on here.
When you are 'in the jungle', what do you expect your internet situation to be like?
L8r,
Fabian
RE Internet situation, it's difficult to say until we get there. The days of good wifi might be over, so no more youtube or bbc radio online, but with the regards to our adventures I hope it won't be overly disruptive; I've got a USB modem which should be good enough for accessing messageboards; that doesn't belabour an internet connection too gravely!
Sure Pyotr sure, heal the brigands, who cares about your comrades-at-arms :-P Kidding aside, I am aware that your character did not have any better choice.
Yeah, I was hoping to avoid wasting any resources on them. But, I'm not sure what else may be done. Leaving them unconscious and bleeding on the edge of the Belkzen wasteland, with a hungry puma nearby, seems like it would be a pretty clear violation of the "Code".
Likely I'd only bother healing Tanerit. Commor's injuries (as described) don't seem like they would get worse by being forced to ride.
I'm a little curious/confused about Alagor's gameplan, though. We can't trust Tanerit enough to send him home alive and unarmed, but we can trust him enough to rejoin us (armed, presumably) and to fight alongside us?
Also, on a completely ridiculous sidetrack...! I have to confess that the more and more I re-read it, the more entertained I am by Commor as a character. Would anyone object, or maybe just take issue, if on the flimsy pretext of not trusting Tanerit, we kept Commor around for a while? He's already expressed an interest in joining us.
I debated early on about taking the Squire Feat. I haven't decided one way or the other, for certain. But, I think Commor could make a hilarious foil for Pyotr as his Weapon Bearer or Combat Healer!
Anyway, Squire/Leadership type feats require a lot of indulgence on the part of the DM and the group, so if anyone opposes it for any reason, please say so! (You don't even need to give a reason. Just say you'd prefer not, and I'll drop the idea without comment or complaint.)
So Pyotr gets armor, barding, a magic weapon, and now a sidekick???
Step 1: Collect/Create a whole host of enemies.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit.
=D
If I was playing my original character submission, Krogar the dwarf/ranger/barbarian, I would have these guys' throats slit and be done with it. :)
Oh, I got to get that PC in a game somewhere.
However, Iomedae worshiping Pellius is OK with sending them back (healed).
On the subject of Commor tagging along, I have no issues whatsoever. I trust the GM will balance things out as necessary. And for balance I mean distribute the limelight around for people to have fun, not necessarily a 'power balance'.
Game on!
Fabian
"Your choice Pyotr..."
Nah... I'm feeling like Pyotr's made a few too many "choices" lately. So, I'm putting the glaive back into the party loot. If you guys want to use it to pay for Tanerit's services, you can go ahead and do so.
Personally, I don't really think we need him, and I don't really want him coming along. We're pretty solid in combat, so far. We only brought food and water for the seven of us. We already have one fugitive we have to keep an eye on, and bringing along a guy that was sent to kill us and kidnap him seems a little iffy to me.
If you send Tanerit on his way, and the glaive is still in the party loot later on, Pyotr may reclaim it. =)
Pyotr, do not get me wrong - this was purely Alagor's in-game thinking. I have absolutelly nothing against you taking Commor as your squire. I think it will lead to some hillarious situations down the line. Although, technically he is another's knight squire at the moment, so I am not sure if there are any problems there or not.
Alagor is not interested in the glaive, so let's see what the other party members will say. Whatever we agree on - I will be fine with it.
Yeah, I got you. There have been a few situations recently that have required some Paladin-ly decisions on Pyotr's part. I know how cumbersome that can become to a group that maybe doesn't share the same "Code".
This, however, doesn't seem like one of them. So, I'm more than willing to take a complete backseat in this decision. And I have no complaints about the amount of loot Pyotr's received recently, even minus the glaive. So, there's no issue, for me, in putting it back if you would like to use it to bring Tanerit on as a hireling. Keep in mind, the Redeemer archetype removes the stipulation prohibiting traveling with evil allies. So, there's no danger to Pyotr just by having him around. (Same applies to Agtharda, whose morality is... questionable.)
Commor's potential inclusion, is almost exclusively tied to his... <_< , >_> ...special-ness. Like I posted, we're plenty effective in combat. So, he doesn't need to be a particularly useful cohort. Plus, sometimes we could use some comic relief, and DM has been hilarious with him so far! =)
If the polearm ends up collecting dust, Bonegrit can use it. He just won't see many opportunities to use it as the party's archer. I think he has swung his greataxe twice so far, if that.
Tomorrow we're driving down to our new home; a small town on the coast of Sabah, Borneo. Not exactly the jungle, but certainly remote. Speaking to people that have spent some time down there today, and apparently the USB modem may not work as I'd hoped. So I may be without Internet for a while. We're rather sailing into the unknown here - it could turn out to be fine, but I may disappear for several days.
I'll try and get online when I can and keep everyone appraised of how the situation develops.
I'm sure it's exciting, and a little bit scary. I hope you get settled in quickly (For your sake, not just for the game! =D).
A couple of quick clarifications:
-Since nobody objected, Pyotr was going to keep Commor. Don't worry! I'll feed him, and clean up after him, and take him for walks! Please, can't I keep him? ;_;
-Pyotr was returning the glaive because Alagor expressed an interest in using it to purchase Tanerit's services (and I really don't want to be the loot hog that I look like, right now). But, Pellius and Delkaneth shot that down pretty hard, and even Alagor seemed to backpedal from it pretty quickly. Lol! Maybe he didn't expect Pyotr to be so accomodating???
But, that aside, I have been vacilating about Pyotr's build ever since the day Thurcytel gave me that silver bell! I think, with the way things are going, I'm going to put aside thoughts of going into the Inheritor's Crusader PrC, and fully embrace the "Bellknight" epithet. This will likely involve a dip into the Bard class, among other things (Have we discussed the retraining rules at all? There maybe some skill points I'd like to reallocate.). The glaive, as it's described, seems to me to be very thematically appropriate to a character of strong bell-type millieu... So, if we're not using it as payment, and if Bonegrit doesn't think he'll get much use out of it, I would kind of like to keep it...
And keep in mind, I'm not dead-set on keeping Commor permanently. At 3rd level, I'll have several big decisions to make... Bard or Paladin being the most significant, I would think. But, also, whether or not to take the Squire feat... If I don't at 3rd, I likely won't ever do so.
@GM: moving is always fun. I moved countries twice with my wife and have recently moved states (now with wife and two kids). So good luck but you sound like the type of person who thrives in that. Just keep us informed as I don't want this game to end anytime soon.
@Pyotr: Like I said before. Not worried at all about you (or anyone else) being a 'loot hog'. You can actually take the 'perceived unfair distribution' of loot and roleplay it out to great effect.
Please enlighten me why you would take a bard level instead of continuing with paladin. I'm always interested what people want to become and how they perceive that in PF terms. What type of knight are envisioning for Pytor?
@Pyotr: Please enlighten me why you would take a bard level instead of continuing with paladin. I'm always interested what people want to become and how they perceive that in PF terms. What type of knight are envisioning for Pytor?
Ha! You asked! Now you have to endure the random, nonsensical ramblings that are my disorganized mind's process towards character creation!
A couple of years ago, some friends and I embarked on an ill-fated Carrion Crown adventure. My first character in that group was an dhampir necromancy-focused wizard named Yuri Half-Moon. If you have played through the Haunting of Harrowstone, you may know that it is pretty deadly. Yuri made it nearly to the end, but alas...
He was followed shortly by an incredibly strong full-blooded orc barbarian named Gan the Undying (so named because, well, you'll see...) He was a lot of fun. But, in spite of his ability to stay alive...
... he was responsible for a TPK that left him completely possessed with no possibility of resolution.
So, when we reset the group, I created a Sczarni Oracle/Harrower named Lilya Oftwrong. As we adventured along, Gan the Undying, fully possessed, made an appearance to attack the group. Fortunately, there was a very simple spell to end the whole thing, and Lilya had it ready! So, what else to do with a past character I really enjoyed who had suddenly resurfaced? I took him as a cohort, of course!
Now, in truth, there was never any sort of "relations" between the two. But, when you have a group of silly, juvenile friends... you know how things go. And thus, a young half-orc named Pyotr came into the world. (If you ever wondered why he had a slavic-sounding name...)
Then everyone died again. After that we moved on to a new adventure, and so poor Pyotr became an orphan living on his own in the wilds of Ustalav. When I chanced upon a play-by-post game that was starting in Lastwall, I immediately thought of my wayward progeny! And since he was the child of melee and divine, he naturally began life as... A BARD! But, as I began crafting the background and building the character he pretty quickly changed into a Paladin.
Now, on to your question. To start with, my plan is to take the Buccaneer archetype. Not to turn Pyotr into a pirate, of course. But, that archetype seems the most fitting. It removes Bardic Knowledge, which seems character appropriate for the rather non-worldly Pyotr, and replaces it with Hilt Bash, which allows a the character to do non-lethal damage with no penalty to attack. Just about perfect for Pyotr, don't you think?
My intention would be to take a two-level dip. The gains are pretty solid. Firstly, bardic performance is pretty nice to use in any round when I can't attack. Secondly, the numerous skill points are great and would allow me to round out Pyotr a little more than he is, right now. The big winner there is Versatile Performance. Perform (percussion) to substitute for Intimidate and Handle Animal. How terrified will our enemies be to hear those bells...? Lastly, spells... It's a little tough there, because I want to keep using the full-plate. There are still some options - feather fall, solid note, and timely inspiration have no somatic component, so are not affected by armor check, while other spells like alarm can be used whenever I'm unarmored and we're making camp. Still seems pretty worthwhile.
It's tough to measure the benefits against the cost... the cost, in this case, being every other choice I could make instead. But, I would be very happy to hear any critique of these choices, and any recommendations you would make in their place. =)
Wild Empathy: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23
Nice one! I think you just made a kitty friend!
Ha! You asked! Now you have to endure the random, nonsensical ramblings that are my disorganized mind's process towards character creation!
Thanks for the comments. CC is awesome; I'm GMing it in a PBEM since August 2012 and we are about 3/4 into the 2nd book.
Now, the rest of this message is only my opinion so here we go. :)
Whenever I multiclass, I always try to make sure the best properties of one class don't contradict the other class or at least try to minimize that conflict. For instance, I really want Pellius to be 'more religious' but I realize that neither paladin nor cleric mesh well with magus so I just 'roleplay' it out.
That being said, I don't think paladin and bard mesh well either (maybe ranged...). I wouldn't trade levels 3 and 4 of paladin for levels 1 and 2 of bard, especially if all you want to do is be able to hit and cause non-lethal damage. Just eat the the -4 and roleplay out that Pyotr is just not as able to use his big weapons to deal non-lethal damage. Make it a roleplaying element.
The bells, that will be something more difficult to do but you can also roleplay that out. I mean, not every herald that plays a charge trumpet is bard?
Maybe it's just me but I don't think the mechanics make sense and the roleplaying aspect also don't make sense for Pyotr to change from paladin to bard. Did Pyotr suddenly become musically oriented and gained innate arcane magic?
But, like I said before, this is only my humble opinion.
Game on!
I prefer fluff to follow function. It's all a balancing act.
I'm a little surprised you don't think Pally/Bard mesh well. The most cheesy/min-max optimized bards use a two-level paladin dip for smite, loh's, and divine grace. I don't think it's quite as strong dipping the other way, but I don't think it conflicts.
Side by side comparison:
Paladin vs. Bard
2d10 vs. 2d8 hp
+2 vs. +1 BAB
+6 vs. +14 skill points
F +1, R +1, W +1 vs. F +0, R +3, W +3 saves
Aura of Courage, Skilled Rider, Mercy, Channel Positive, +1 Smite, Spells vs. Hilt Bash, Bardic Performance, Versatile Performance, Well Versed, Spells/Cantrips
-2 avg. hp is nothing in the long run, really. -1 BAB is significant. +8 skill points is significant. Bard wins out on saves hands down. Pyotr's already got a decent Fort.
So, before the comparison of class abilities, I would give the edge to Bard.
Aura of Courage is great, and with the helm we got in the tower, gets even better. Skilled Rider (Shining Knight Archetype) is really good. Mercy is... meh. There is a really good feat chain with mercies, but there's no chance I'm taking them. Channeling is a weak option for a cleric... it's a terrible option for a paladin. Another Smite per day is great, but I've never even used one in a day! (that'll change, I'm sure) Paladins have good spells, but the 1/day I would get wouldn't be that exceptional.
Hilt Bash is a weaker option, I know. It's thematic, though. Sometimes that's worth doing. Bardic Performance is just great. Sometimes you just can't charge in the opening round, and you'd be surprised how useful countersong and fascinate can be in the right hands. Versatile Performance is strong. Percussion isn't the best one... dance probably is. But, what are you going to do? Well Versed is... meh. Spells/Cantrips - I'll take the Bard's over the Pally's, at level 1.
All in all, I'd say it's a toss-up. I'm not set in stone. But, it has to be at level 3. Level dips are as much about the "when" as anything else. After level 3 it stops being a worthwhile trade-off. Mainly because Divine Bond is crazy-great! I like my characters to grow organically. We'll see when the time comes.
Thanks for your insights!
Guys I'm not into discussion on "mechanics" of the game, but I have to say this - I loved the story about Pyotr's "parents" (in a way). It really helps add even more depth to an already well-rounded character. Now being a Slav myself, I really have to ask - why the Slav sounding name?
I've found that I have trouble offering great counsel about builds and the like. I think I'm probably close to Pyotr's thinking in most regards: I try to ride out a concept where it takes me, and avoid coloring outside of the lines as much as possible within that concept. Bonegrit's stat array is far from optimized, for example. On the other hand, you won't see me picking up Skill Focus: Cobbler or taking a porcupine animal companion with three amputated legs (awesome as that would be). I intend to stick to him being a competent archer. He's developed into a bit of an animal whisperer throughout the gameplay thread, though, which will likely impact some selections down the road. I'm sure Boon Companion will occupy a feat slot at first opportunity.
On optimization (and admitting greatly to generalizing a great deal) I have found that, quite often, those builds are made in a vacuum. They take a lot of things for granted—favorable circumstances not the least of which—and don't have much else to answer with when this vacuum doesn't exist. Sometimes it's something as simple as a ranged damage powerhouse crumpling when opposition gets close, or a ranger who's a monster in combat but can't track his way out of his own house .
This is turning into one of those posts where I lost track of any point I may have been trying to make. Typical symptoms of not enough sleep and not enough coffee. I will leave off with a final note: we seem to have struck a good balance with this group. Part of the strength of non-published content is the ability to react to your Players (both strengths and weaknesses) as necessary. Given that, there's way more wiggle room on sub-par character builds that are true to concept (and fun!).
Guys I'm not into discussion on "mechanics" of the game, but I have to say this - I loved the story about Pyotr's "parents" (in a way). It really helps add even more depth to an already well-rounded character. Now being a Slav myself, I really have to ask - why the Slav sounding name?
Just location mostly. Born to a Sczarni in Ustalav. Made sense to me at the time... maybe it's not so clear, though.
I'm delighted to see you've found some internet! I hope the move is going smoothly, and you are both starting to settle in! =)
So, uh... Bonegrit's been back for a while, hah.
Lol! And that is why it doesn't pay to be stealthy! Cover yourself in shining silver/gold platemail, and hang bells off of every available spot. Then everyone knows you're around!
I am away from home and won't be back until Sunday night. I should be able to post but don't be surprised if I am away.
Getting online has been a nightmare these last few days, hoping to be able to get an update up today or tomorrow.
I'm delighted to see you've found some internet! I hope the move is going smoothly, and you are both starting to settle in! =)
We're making progress on the settling in, we've found an idyllic bungalow by the sea which we're thrilled about. It's fantastically rustic though!
As for Internet, that's perhaps more of a challenge! The landlord seemed positive enough about getting connected when we were viewing, but now we're fully installed he's backpedalling a little. We'll have to see. I can get Internet in the office (which is where I'm at now) and sporadically on the USB dongle, so we'll manage somehow, but the pace may remain slower than normal for a little while to come.
Overall though, Borneo's a beautiful place and we're really enjoying the new adventure.
Sorry for the disappearance, all. Been sick with the flu and hiding in bed for all I'm worth. Bonegrit's probably the best candidate for climbing up and fastening a rope, I think—after the rain subsides (and he can make a survival check to pin point when that might be) he can succeed by taking 10 on the climb. He was raised in the mountains, after all.
Would have interjected something sooner, but for fevered indisposal.
Sorry guys, I have considered jumping down like Delkaneth, hoping to crush one or two of them, but taking everything in consideration I do not think it would be prudent. Probably I'll just end up unconscious or bleeding...both probably.
Ugh... Del... I always believe that in a long enough run, the luck factor balances out. Yours has been one of the worst I've ever seen on the boards. You should get a rapier, because you've got a loooong string of 18's coming your way! =)
Meh... He nearly died at the very start. He was tough for a while. Then they spent the majority of the movie running away. It wasn't until the very end that he started really kicking butt. That's kind of the way action movies always go, though.
No run of bad luck can last forever... can it?
We need to have some kind of plan in place, because I think Del has the wand of CLW, and Pyotr is all out of LoH's. Hopefully, we kill off this last ghoul quickly, and Del is able to make his stabilize roll on his own.
We can force a potion down his throat and maybe Agtharda has some skill. I keep thinking of her a s witch.
... Sliding Axe Throw...
I have never seen this. Holy crap! That looks amazingly fun! I hope I get to see it in action.