Level Up
I believe we take 1/2+1 hp?
This always seems more confusing than it should be because of how it's typically written.
I always say average rounded up.
A fighter has d10 hp to add. The 'average' is therefore 5.5 - because the range is: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Rounded up to 6. Then add any modifiers e.g. favoured class.
I'll try to level as soon as I get home from work tomorrow. Life has just kicked me in the gut over and over lately. I'll probably take a back seat on role playing for a couple of days while I try to get my head in order as well... Everything's fighting for headspace, and it's left me feeling completely drained.
Yeah, that's how it's done. When I say 1/2+1, I mean 1/2 of 10 is 5, 5+1 is 6. Some like to phrase it differently.
I hope things work out for you Valeria.
Blurgh. Working out feats is hard when your head is full of nope.
I knew from the start that I wanted to go for a bull-rushing, shield-bashing build. However, I'm looking at my options and I'm swamped. If I want Improved Bull Rush, I need Power Attack, which will do nothing for me as I'm already lowering my attack bonuses enough by using Two-Weapon Fighting. I can't get Two-Weapon Defense, as the shield bonus provided won't stack with the shield bonus provided by one of my weapons being an actual shield.
Practically the only thing I qualify for that fits with the build is Double Slice, allowing me to apply my full STR bonus to shield bashes. Or I could go Shield Focus, increasing my shield bonus to AC by +1 (and hopefully the added defense will give me a reason to be the party's second fighter), which opens me up for... yay, nothing particularly exciting.
This is why I hate making characters.
So I end up with:
- +9 hp
- +1 BAB (CMB, CMD)
- 4 skill points - Intimidate, Knowledge (engineering), Perception, Swim
- Feat - Double Slice (add full STR bonus to attacks made with off-hand weapon)
- Defensive Flurry - +1 dodge bonus to AC against melee attacks when making a full-attack action with two weapons
Mwk battleaxe (310 gp)
20 arrows (1 gp)
Longbow (75 gp)
Mwk chainmail (300 gp)
Light steel shield (9 gp)
Potion of cure light wounds x3 (150 gp)
Crowbar (2 gp)
Fighter's kit (9 gp)
Grappling hook (1 gp)
GEAR VALUE: 857 gp
CASH (including leftover bribe money + payment from Field-Marshal): 1176
TOTAL: 2033
Working on leveling, should finish tonight. I need to pick spells... I was thinking sift and silent image although I might pick something more offensive/buffy for my 1st level (although I might be able to get another spell known via favored class).
Valeria, drawing a weapon is a move action. With a two weapon fighter this can eat your entire first round if you're not prepared. Go for quick draw.
Any character with a BAB of at least +1 can draw a weapon along with movement (so if you take your move action to approach the enemy, you also draw your weapon in that same amount of time and can still take a standard action), you can draw your weapon for free. A character with the Two Weapon Fighting feat gets to draw both weapons with this single action (including using the normal move action to draw weapons):
If you have a base attack bonus of +1 or higher, you can combine one of these actions with a regular move. If you have the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, you can draw two light or one-handed weapons in the time it would normally take you to draw one.
While Quick Draw is still a decent idea for a TWF character, a TWFer does not ever have to take a full round to draw weapons.
Alright, I should be all leveled up (and I finally properly tallied my gold rewards). I also finally noticed I had the wrong CMD noted in my quick statblock.
+1 to BAB, +1 to Fort, +5 HP, 2 new rounds of performance, Inspire Competence, and 1 new cantrip and 1st level spell known, and 1 more 1st level spell to cast per day.
Favored class spent on: 1 bonus spell known (cantrip).
3rd level feat: Weapon Focus (Longsword). It'll eventually become her bonded weapon so she may as well be as good as possible at hitting things with it.
Spells learned: Open/Close (decided was appropriate for former pickpocket, plus have never really played with this cantrip), and Spark (always fun to set fires) for cantrips, Silent Image for level 1 spell.
Skill Points Spent: 2 on Bluff, 2 Diplomacy, 1 Intimidate, 1 Knowledge Local, 1 Sleight of Hand, 2 Stealth. (9 total) She's been using those Interaction skills a LOT and wanted to round out her thiefyness with her background. (She has also used those skills a bit.)
If it looks like I've made any errors let me know!
Now I just have to decide whether I want to go shopping and if so what I want to buy!
There's also the fact that one of my weapons is my shield, which will be 'always-on' unless the situation demands otherwise. Might grab Quick Draw next level; for now, I think I could use the extra offense. I could see it being useful in certain situations.
Bah, my campaign tab wasn't telling me of new posts. Catching up now.
Guys, I hate to slow us down even more, but before we push on -- we've all got a chunk of gold. Before we hit "morning" -- do we want to use the afternoon to shop?
Stuff that could be useful -- potions like oil of magic weapon and cure light wounds, or likewise scrolls. We can even afford a wand or two (CLW, ear piercing scream, maybe even expeditious retreat could come in handy). Alchemical stuff like tanglefoot bags (useful against the guards if our plans fail).
If it's alright, I may at least pick up a wand of CLW and a couple tanglefoot bags. Oh, and some vermin repellent...
---
Also, Posting this here as I'm not ready to formally post an action yet...
When morning DOES come, Callie will conceal a dagger on her person, just in case Devargo decides to ask for weapons at the door this time.
Exactly how much do we each have to spend?
Spend what you want. It is the afternoon now, we won't be going until the next day morning. I think we can retcon what we need to as far as shopping goes (GM, please correct me if I'm wrong!).
Gwernach already has a wand of CLW and a couple tanglefoot bags. Scrolls might be the only items he'd be interested in adding to his inventory.
That didn't answer my question. I need to know what my budget is. In an ideal world I would have some +5 full plate and a +5 furious keen fire longsword, but I think that's a little above my current pay.
Well, we were just paid 1033gp :) For a more detailed figure, you will have to revisit previous posts for distribution of loot.
If you have something specific in mind and are not sure if Korvosa has it, there is an inventory table Birch can have you roll on.
Wilthorn has been tracking our gp rewards throughout and determining what is our share (thanks Wilthorn), and if you've failed to keep track of what is your share, you can go through this thread to see what you should have earned (I had to double check a few days ago myself). For me with all past income and expenses, I have around 1400 gp. You probably have similar, especially as we came on board around the same time. I am trying to get better about noting our share of gp rewards on my character sheet as soon as we get them.
We could also of course re-pool some of our gold for the 5,000 to buy the pseudodragon, but my sense was no one really wanted to go that route (as it is of course exorbitant).
Gwernach if you have a wand of CLW I won't bother with another.
I'm literally 1 gold short of full plate if I sell my my banded mail. Anybody want to do me a favor :D
Pssh, I'll give you one. I'm not buying anything, saving up for a Mithral BP. Conveniently puts me at exactly 1500 G.
I have to admit I'm a little confused. How exactly did we get from going to Eel's End that night to the next morning?
When we leveled up, those of us who cast need to wait until the next day before we can take advantage of all of our abilities. With this in mind, we decided to wait after our discussion at Zellara's.
If it's okay with Birch, I'm using the afternoon before the morning (I hope that makes sense) to buy
4 vials liquid ice (40 gp each=160)
1 tanglefoot bag (50 gp)
6 vials of vermin repellent (5 gp each = 30 gp)
1 x Potion of Lesser Restoration (300 gp)
1 x Potion of Delay Poison (300 gp)
(840 gp total)
I'll have to do some shopping once I get home tonight. No idea what to buy. >.>
Birch, I would like to sell my banded mail for half price and purchase full plate at full price. Would I be able to do that?
Yes to all of the above. I was surprised you had fast-forwarded the afternoon, so feel free to have used it for anything you wanted to do.
I'm officially broke but have full plate!
Yes to all of the above. I was surprised you had fast-forwarded the afternoon, so feel free to have used it for anything you wanted to do.
We didn't, that I had noticed. I think someone said IC, "Okay, we'll wait till morning to go back to Eel's End" but it wasn't an OOC statement that said, "Let's skip through the rest of the day." We hadn't had a chance to discuss what we were going to do for the rest of the day before you moved us on.
Not criticizing. I'm remarking because you seemed to read us as skipping the rest of the day and I don't recall (unless I skipped right over it) us explicitly saying we were skipping forward. So just making note, to see where any communication glitch might be.
It can be very tough in PBP to sense when everyone is ready to move on and when it is important to prod everybody forward. Defaulting toward the latter is honestly probably the best way to err.
Guys, I don't know what to do here. I've realized that my character is bringing literally nothing to the group that Roran isn't already. Perhaps it would be better if I just left - we don't need two fighters, especially when one has both lower AC and lower damage.
That's only because we're at low levels. In these levels the simple two handed fighter approach to combat is always more effective. Roran is basically an armored barbarian. In a few levels when you start really stacking those feats up you'll have higher mobility and damage than I do. Ask anybody that normally plays fighters and they'll tell you two weapon fighters are always investments for later.
Valeria, I think you are a good fit for the party. You have a good build, especially for an urban campaign, and your character is has a really great background and story that suits the campaign really well. We are a very melee heavy group, yes (for some reason that's happened in nearly every PBP I've played in... all the theory crafters talk about is how awesome casters are and then everybody signs up with a hack and/or slasher). You've got some skills and other things that also can help the party (I don't think anyone else has knowledge: engineering).
And none of this is your fault--Birch asked specifically for a melee character to fill in the gaps left by the people who left and then, nice guy that he is, accepted all comers.
However, if you felt really frustrated (I definitely know how it feels to feel like your character has little to contribute and it can be very hard) I would suggest rather than leaving, checking with Birch to see if you could either multiclass or switch characters--for example, while we've got two "half casters" we've got no full arcane caster in the group, which would be greatly useful (a blasty sorcerer or a battle control wizard could be really helpful).
I really like the posts you've made to the game and you've clearly put a lot of thought into Valeria so I'd be sad to see you go.
Not criticizing. I'm remarking because you seemed to read us as skipping the rest of the day and I don't recall (unless I skipped right over it) us explicitly saying we were skipping forward. So just making note, to see where any communication glitch might be.
The posts that led me to believe you had fast-forwarded were:
Gwernach - "As dawn breaks across Korvosa, Gwernach rises and prepares for the day."
GM, I think we can move along to any point you'd like between Zellara's and returning to Eel's End...
I then checked - "I just need to check something. You prepared 'stuff' for the remainder of the day and are going to Eel's End the following morning and not going to see the Field Marshall. Is that correct?"
There is no problem here - I was just following what I thought was the flow of actions...
However, if you felt really frustrated (I definitely know how it feels to feel like your character has little to contribute and it can be very hard) I would suggest rather than leaving, checking with Birch to see if you could either multiclass or switch characters--for example, while we've got two "half casters" we've got no full arcane caster in the group, which would be greatly useful (a blasty sorcerer or a battle control wizard could be really helpful).
I really like the posts you've made to the game and you've clearly put a lot of thought into Valeria so I'd be sad to see you go.
I'd echo these comments. If I have a weakness...one of my weaknesses is that I value role-play over the rules. Party balance is something I tend to ignore if I'm enjoying the interaction between characters.
Feel free to multi-class or even re-imagine your character's skills (and dare I say it class) if you can retain the core of who Valeria is. I've played a character before that I loved but felt I could not add to the party (actually I have a mage like that now - the cleric jumps first for all of the magic related tasks and the fighters step forward for the battles and I'm wondering what her role actually is).
I guess I'll keep soldiering on for now... if things will pay off in the long run, I'll stick it out for a while. It's just that right now, I'm kinda bummed. It all comes back to the fact that I just can't build characters worth a damn. I mean, look at my go-to character, Horatio - amazingly fun to roleplay, but damn near useless once we start rolling initiative. Valeria was one of my first attempts at building a character that would be useful in combat, but it's not going so well.
On a more personal note, depression has apparently decided to kick me in the gut again, so damn near everything is screwed up for me right now.
Not criticizing. I'm remarking because you seemed to read us as skipping the rest of the day and I don't recall (unless I skipped right over it) us explicitly saying we were skipping forward. So just making note, to see where any communication glitch might be.
The posts that led me to believe you had fast-forwarded were:
Gwernach - "As dawn breaks across Korvosa, Gwernach rises and prepares for the day."
GM, I think we can move along to any point you'd like between Zellara's and returning to Eel's End...I then checked - "I just need to check something. You prepared 'stuff' for the remainder of the day and are going to Eel's End the following morning and not going to see the Field Marshall. Is that correct?"
There is no problem here - I was just following what I thought was the flow of actions...
Somehow I thought you'd moved us on before Gwernach posted. Sorry.
Having two fighters in the party is really useful. As Roran says, once we get further in, Valeria's feat path will kick in. Combine that with a little co-operative tactics and the two of you can really clean up. I for one am looking forward to seeing Valeria and Roran teaming up.
On the personal front, very few of us have perfect lives. When ever I have a bad day, I look forward to logging in and reading some posts! Take Valeria out of this AP and not only will you have one less thing to look forward to, you'll also be left wondering if you made the right decision. Hang in there Val!
Agreed wholeheartedly, Valeria. I'm just about to do something that will make Eltanin a fixed-position artillery emplacement. Having heavies around to keep her safe might be useful.
Ok, after another couple of weeks worth of morning brain, I'm finally posting Eltanin's gear. My interpretation is that Ellie didn't really want to spend any money yesterday, so her shopping spree will happen the day they cut the pseudodragon loose, however that happens.
Careful observers will note that it doesn't include any alchemical items atm - I have a question about that, I don't recall it being answered before. Even with Swift Alchemy, the crafting check for alchemical items will be measured in days, by the book.
DM Birch, how hard and fast are you going to hold to this? I'm setting up a fully stocked alchemical lab, possibly even with for-profit intentions, so just how closely do I need to keep track of the time involved?
Eltanin - I hate rules, as a rule. Common sense should always prevail.
Does that help?
Works for me, thanks.
This guy has at least mid 30's hp, which is a little concerning. At least if we make a move now he'll be down 32.
Agh, the way this went down is infuriating (In a good way), because I came up with the same plan as what Devargo pulled off! Oh well, maybe next time.
For clarification for everybody's sake... Are we waiting for everyone to agree or not to fight, or for Birch to react/roll initiative? (it would be interesting to hear Devargo's reply to Callie, but waiting for that might blow the advantage.)
I will join the fight if it starts (I did after all have Callie nudge Roran to see if he wanted to). If folks DON'T want to do anything now, I will also go along with that.
Roran is definitely throwing the feces knot some large rotating blades, I just wanted to know from the DM if we had a surprise round or not.
Rock on.
Arg! Forgot to bold my speech! And yes, Eltanin's action was all she did in the surprise round. Sorry about that.
Tomorrow I am going away to a conference through Sunday. While I don't expect to be entirely without Internet, I am going to be on the move and access will probably will be intermittent at least. Please bot me as needed.
Coincidentally...am in the same boat but I won't be at the same conference :D Back Saturday.
I am back but now catching up with post vacation stuff. Will post as soon as I can.