Check-in!
We will start Dragon's Demand in a few days to a week, once everyone has checked in!
Here are my feat modifications:
All martial characters are considered to have the Martial Versatility feat, which means that any weapon specific feat is treated, is treated as a fighter weapon group feat (e.g. Weapon Focus would apply to Heavy Blades (fighter weapon group) not Greatsword). This is to promote the use of various drops and not pigeonhole fighters and other martials into a single weapon.
All characters will also get one free skill point in Profession, Craft or Perform that describes the summation of their personal history. Example: Ben the Fighter takes his free skill point in Profession(Miner) due to be a miner at the local mining company.
Weapon Finesse and Power Attack are free feats that you gain when you meet the requirements.
All crafting feats have their caster level requirements increased by two levels.
Crafting is no longer a 50% price reduction, instead crafting will cost 80% of the value of the item.
Two-Weapon Fighting is now a single feat that advances to Improved and Greater when you meet the requirements for those feats.
Vital Strike is now a single feat that advances to Improved and Greater when you meet the requirements for those feats.
Whip Mastery is now a single feat that advances to Improved and Greater when you meet the requirements for those feats.
All Improved combat maneuver feats are grouped into three feats and no longer grant +2 to CMB/CMD.
Improved Warrior Maneuvers: Bull Rush, Drag, Overrun, Sunder
Improved Thief Maneuvers: Dirty Trick, Disarm, Steal
Improved Wrestler Maneuvers: Grapple; Reposition; Trip
There are no requirements for these feats.
Greater Combat Maneuvers feats remain the same and require the lesser Improved version.
Weapon Focus now scales at 8th level to Greater Weapon Focus and gives a total of +2 to hit
Spell Focus now scales at 8th level to Greater Spell Focus and gives a total of +2 to the DCs of that school’s spells.
Weapon Specialization now scales at 10th level to Greater Weapon Specialization and gives a total of +4 to the damage with that fighter weapon group.
Leadership is banned. (May be given out as a bonus)
Khelreddin here, checking in with Lukas Kains. Thanks for the selection, Strider! I'm looking forward to this game very much. A couple of things I wanted to mention:
First, I'll be camping next week from Tuesday to Saturday with no cell signal to speak of. I'm happy to post some intro stuff, and if there's a need for a little botting to move the story along, feel free. I hope that's okay. After this trip, I will be very reliably around for the foreseeable future.
The second thing was about your feat changes. I like them a lot. They're definitely geared to help overcome some of the feat taxes that are out there, and make a lot of sense with that in mind. My situation is a bit different, and I'm hoping we can work something out.
The changes to the combat maneuver feats actually make Lukas less effective, rather than more. His focus on tripping means that losing the +2 to CMB/CMD makes him less effective at the main thing he does, and his strength is low enough that he's not really able to make up for that with easier access to grappling attacks and the damage they can do. Would it be possible for him to stick with Improved Trip as originally written, with the idea that he really focused on that maneuver in learning to fight, rather than the general set of Wrestler Maneuvers? If there's some other approach you have in mind that might address this, I'd be interested to hear your ideas on it.
On Weapon Finesse and Power Attack, I'm very happy to hear we can get them automatically - I was thinking I would have to take Weapon Finesse and then Piranha Strike to do any decent hand-to-hand damage, but getting Power Attack automatically at second level makes that much easier.
Also, little tiny details: Should we handle HP and starting gold per PFS rules, or did you have something else in mind?
Fit...need to finalize gear once I know the wealth rules but looking forward to it :)
Hi.
Merck's alchemist here, looking forward to this game. Let me know if everything is kosher DM Bold. What are the starting level wealth rules for this one? Average or full?
Uhh... starting gold... max gold sounds good.
Feel free to take Improved Trip instead of the Improved Wrestling Maneuvers.
As to your absence, no worries. I am wrapping up my stint in Tokyo and leave in two weeks. So my posting will be sporadic. Heavy on some days, not at all on some other days. Just a heads up to everyone.
Okay, sounds good.
Thanks for being easy about the absence. I spent a week in Tokyo in February coming back from a work trip elsewhere - it's a great city, and so much good food!
Its one of the places I want to visit someday but its so far away... Did you guys liked it? Was the communication with the locals easy using english? I am not planning on learning japanese lol.
I loved it there. A huge city, tons to see and do, a subway system so well designed that I felt like it made me feel smarter to use it... Communication wasn't a problem, struggled a little bit but people were eager to help me - and my sushi vocabulary is very good, so that helped a lot.
Agree with everything said by Khel. Most signs for government-related stuff (subway, major roads, safety, etc.) are in Japanese and English. The Japanese are extremely friendly, so even if they don't understand you, they will try to find someone who will and plenty of people speak English. I recommend getting Toritamadon which is chicken skewers, vegetables and ground chicken over rice. So good.
Another question on feats, having re-read your modifications a bit: Lukas has a 12 Str, so doesn't qualify for Power Attack even when his BAB is +1. Is there room for Piranha Strike in your feat changes, so he can choose to take a minus to hit in order to do more damage?
I never tried toritamadon, sounds tasty. I was there in the winter, so I ate lots of ramen. Man, it was delicious, so different from the cheap, packaged crap we call ramen in the US.
Sure, include Piranha Strike, but realize that Piranha Strike can never gain the -1 to hit/+3 to damage ratio.
Heya. Sry for missing this was already getting started. I have to make a profile for my char. I hope I can get it done. Otherwise I will be lagging as I'm goin on holidays tomorow. While I'll likely have internet there I'm traveling for till tuesday.
Sure, include Piranha Strike, but realize that Piranha Strike can never gain the -1 to hit/+3 to damage ratio.
Yeah, I know that about it. I'll mostly just be using it to give my unarmed strike a little more juice, not becoming a two-handed weapon master. Thanks.
Checking in. Working on character amidst prepping for GenCon and overseeing a bathroom remodel. Hope to have something on paper before Wed.
Tektite's rough draft....
He's too tall, Tek. Gotta be a halfling, remember?
Folks I'm travelling as of today so I'll prolly be a bit slow...
He's too tall, Tek. Gotta be a halfling, remember?
I thought it was only a suggestion. How come your not a halfling?
I'm kind of of a halfling, the way a boy raised by wolves is kind of a wolf. I'm quite small for a human, and have the Racial Heritage (halfling) feat. My background in my alias explains why this is so. It's part of why the GM said you had to be a halfling, methinks.
But I also think you're fine as you are, it was mostly meant as a joke.
Well, at least the avatar will work for a halfing as well....
I was just teasing about the halfling thing. You can be whoever you want to be. Since people are on holidays/GenCon, I will postpone the start until after the weekend unless there are objections.
Update:
Please format your alias profile as follows:
Race: Fighter 6 HP: 39/39 | AC 20 | T 16 | FF 14 | Fort +7 | Ref +11 | Will +3 | CMD 18 | Initiative +6 | Perception +10 | Sense Motive +3 | Knowledge(Arcana/Local/Nature/Religion) +13
Class: [ spoiler=Resources]Bombs 11/11 | Extracts - 1st: 6/6; 2nd: 4/4 | CLW Wand - 43 charges[/spoiler]
Gender: [Blank]
The first will let me easily reference your Current HP/Total HP | Different ACs | Different Saves | CMD | Initiative | Perception | Other Highly Used Skills (Not Appraise or Profession)
The second will let me keep track of your daily expendables on the fly without referencing your character sheets.
Archetypes are unnecessary. Abbreviations of the classes are ok (Alch/Ftr/Wiz/Sorc/etc.) for space reasons. If you multi-class, please put your class as follows: Monk 3 / Pal 2
Will do so but might take me a day or two...
All done
I think I got everything in there :) Let me know if I missed anything :)
Sorry for the absence, all. Was at a local con and very busy. I usually post beforehand about such absences, and failed to do so this time.
So as we lack any healing whatsoever I was wondering if I should rebuild Jebediah to some sort of priest. It would work fluffwise and we'd be better off on a whole...
To repeat what I said in my last post I don't think this is gonna work out without any sort of healing. Since a Rogue isn't really needed(Iralynash has that one covered it would seem) I'd have no problem with contributing some form of divine caster.
It's up to you! I don't mind if you would like to rebuild.
Sorry not to respond to that post, Jeb. I think your rebuild suggestion is a good one, and he's already devoted to a god, so it does fit well, as you say.
Okay I'll look into an Oracle me thinks. Makes most sense for a halfling.
Ahh too slow...
Actually. Jebediah is an oracle now!
I was thinking the following: Jebediah rises after being shoked by the elemental. He is totally flustered and his hands are blackened and burned. He sees the lifeless Lucas lying on the ground and tadaa!
Hmm... I can do something like that and fit with what I just typed...
Can we assume the original Jeb left behind the fancy mithral dagger we found, out of remorse for abandoning us?
Sorry. I was away this weekend on a family camping trip. Preparations tool longer than expected and I was not able to put a blanket message out. I will be catching up this evening.
No worries Tek!
Updates will occur tomorrow! That is when I get back to Dublin from Amsterdam. Sorry for the lack of posting, internet access has been terrible.
Hmm and I'd a thunk brain access might have been a problem in Amsterdam...
Okay Jebediah has nothing left to do here. Not sure if he is willing to diband however. Then again guess that's what a halfling would do...
Thoughts?
The key floated over?! Grab the damned key then book out the door?
If we have two "up" peeps, grab a body and drag backwards. Someone is s.o.l, I will sacrifice my PC for the greater good.
The key is in the construct's back, so I'm not sure we'll be able to grab it at this point. But Celes' plan might work, to get two of us out and heal up. Celes has -8 hp, compared to Lukas at -2 and Iral at -1, so Lukas or Iral has the best chance of surviving and perhaps regaining consciousness if left behind while the party is gone to rest and heal. So unless you want to rebuild Celes, she's probably not the best choice to leave behind.
Once the party is healed, they could come back and grab the character they left behind and zip out again, then rest again to get ready to fight the construct. Or we could try to find this crest that it asked for, and avoid the fight altogether.
Wirking off the presumption that whoever is left behind right now will be killed as they are a "threat", I have no qualms reworking Celes into something new altogether. Perhaps a fighter or medium sized barbarian. Sword and board fighter perhaps, anything tanks really.
I vote for find this crest thing and bypass altogether when/if we come to that point.
You could be right about whoever is left behind being killed, I was imagining a mindless construct who attacks any obvious threats (i.e., someone standing up who doesn't have the right security clearance) and that an unconscious person would just be left alone. But maybe the clockwork servant has cleaning duties as well, that would require it to tidy away any bodies left around.
Either way, I agree, we find the crest and avoid the fight next time.
Another bit of prep we could do is make a sacrifice to Randomiel, the Goddess of Automated Dice Rollers - she has not been kind so far.
Not sure if we can pull anyone out Jebediah has a STR of 8 and Felazel is an Arcanist.
Does Jeb know about any of the potions? I think no so this would be strict OOC knowledge.
I think the biggest difficulty with this encounter has been the dice.
Celes missed three attacks. Lukas only landed a single unarmed strike. Jeb's Burning Hands was halved.
Whereas, the clockwork construct has had like two natural 20s and a lot of full damage attacks.
Here's what I bought: flask of acid, belt pouch, fishhook, hemp rope (50 ft.), sack (2), string, torch (3), trail rations (4), waterskin