GM Charles Dexter Warden's In Madness You Dwell - A Strange Aeons Campaign

Game Master MordredofFairy

I present myself for this tasking. I am Kolaiah, at least I think I am. I am unsure of who I was, or how I got here, but I seem to have some meager skills in music, magic, and muggery.

How may I be of assistance?

Thank the North Star that Hero Lab is able to accommodate gestalt rules! It can on my laptop anyways. It does not seem like the iPad version can handle it!

25 point buy, gestalt, race feat at even levels, 2 traits.

I took that Methodical Mind campaign trait. It seemed to fit with my knowledge based character. I don’t know what that research mechanic is all about, but if we need it, I’ve got it!

I PMed the other person who expressed interest. He said he's still interested, but hasn't had time to look into either godlings or how gestalt works. He also said it's fine if we want to start without him.

@Kolaiah: What are you likely to be doing in combat? Relevant in case I want to stick to knowing buff spells.

Welcome, Kolaiah! -
and Granite, thanks for letting us know about #4 - if he or she wants info or help with the system aspects, they can always pop in and ask.

But in that case, we'll see about continuing in a few days - I'll be away over the weekend and have some work to finish beforehand, so I'll aim for early next week to get back to action - your memories are all hazy, and you may not be exactly sure just WHO you are, so some things may be different than you think you remember...or, in other words, it's great if you can finalize until ~Monday, but if there's a need to adapt later than that for better team efficiency, we do have some flexibility.

I figure I’ll trip, disarm, flank, some heals. Bardsong will help your summoned creatures. I can attack, but not for huge damage. Damage will get better over time I guess.

Hi all!

I am the other of Granite's recruits. Like he mentioned I have never played a gestalt character before so this was my first time building one. I use PC Gen instead of Hero Lab and I don't think they have a gestalt build.

Here is my rogue/cleric. When he is not looking for traps or scouting, he will be doing the archer/cleric thing. Please feel free to look him over and pick him apart. Besides him being my first gestalt character, I was not sure the creation rules for this particular campaign.

Any and all feedback is welcome and will not be taken personally!

Also let me know if you feel that he will not mesh with the campaign or current party and I will come up with a concept that will.

If Lothalian is roguing it up, I can back off on the rogue skills and leave that to him. That allows me to focus on drinking and knowing things.

There we go, I am slightly less roguey now. As we grow in levels, I will be more less roguey than Loth. It's hard to be a lot less roguey at 2nd level!

@Kolaiah: I don't want to step on your toes if you wanted to go the roguey route. I just thought a good bowman cleric/rogue will be a good foray into gestalt.

Trust me, there’s no toe stepping, especially between mates!

Some overlap is to be expected, especially with Gestalt.
With each player effectively contributing two 'roles' they can swap between, that's good. It gives flexibility, and makes it less likely there will be a situation in which someone has nothing to contribute.

So as long as people are not 'doubling' up on both sides(e.g. if both your cleric and fighter side, respectively, would be built as tanks) it's all good.

I will take a closer look after the weekend, Lothalian - as said, plan is to reboot early next week - and welcome to the party!

I still wish to keep the godling class for Belrim. Anything I can do/have so sticking around, like the 25-point buy, etc?

We can use the following alteration of build rules:

Point buy gets upped from 20 to 25 points.
Hit Points are already at max/level.
Background Skills are a thing(I think it was in one game, not in the other)
Extra Racial Feats at even Levels for Levels 2,4,6,8, and 10

Thats regardless of Godling or Gestalt. You get to keep the Godling, and up the point-buy to 25 value.(and use background skills and get the extra racial feats)

Added the racial feat. Also ended up swapping two feats and his minor ascendancy, so Granite's more summons focused. Ended up sticking with the summoner spell list since nothing else really stood out to me.

Added the racial feat. Also ended up swapping two feats and his minor ascendancy, so Granite's more summons focused. Ended up sticking with the summoner spell list since nothing else really stood out to me.

Early access to haste doesn’t suck!

I'm back from my family trip - a bit later than expected. I'll try and catch up tomorrow and also do the basic checks.
Either tomorrow or Wednesday, I'll get a post up, just wanted to keep you updated :)

Sounds good!

I will more completely check the aliases when I feel better, as said, I mostly wanted to move on as promised :)

But one quick thing: Lothalian, you picked up "Looking for work" which is a campaign trait for a different campaign with tie-ins for that.
The Faith Traits "Ease of Faith" or "Honest"(if you are), to name just two, would do the same.
Alas, I have to ask, you picked up one trait for +1 to Heal, and another for +1 to diplomacy - both are already Class Skills to you.
I think it was not required to take a Campaign Skill for Strange Aeons, but I feel you could possible do better if you want to have another look
(e.g. there's 2 Sarenrae Religion Traits that give +2 to diplomacy - or another that lets you deal nonlethal damage with slashing weapons without penalty on the attack roll if you want more options.)
Definitely not complaining, just saying you can still adjust.

It looks like Hero Lab isn’t calculating my attack bonuses right. I think it is somehow missing a point of BAB. With 2 fighter levels, Weapon Finesse, and a 17 Dex, my weapons should be getting +5 to hit if they aren’t MW, but Hero Lab has it at +4.

I’ll manually make the change in my rolling macros.

Great! I'll check those out! Thanks!

Ahh, for some reason it was taking the -1 from the buckler, which it shouldn't because that is only for when you dual wield or TWF while wearing the buckler, and I'm not doing that.

Interesting, but glad it was resolved. I didn't know how Hero Labs handled Gestalt, as in, wether it would correctly stack the sides - but it does say BaB 2 -
I think what MAY be responsible is Scholastic of the Lore Warden - it replaces proficiency with medium+heavy armor as well as shields. So it may have given you the proficiency as Bard, then removed it as part of Lore Warden. Rogue has no shield proficiency and you would end up not proficient with Shields, and taking the penalty.

Hmmm, I’ll try manually giving myself shield proficiency as a feat.

I'm a little confused. Have we started all over or are we back at the sarcophagus?

I believe that you are where you think you are, and we addons are catching up.

Yes...If you survive...
Belrim and Granite are exactly were we left off, but I'll not do some lenghty meta-introduction for our two new guys. They get to jump into action "in medias res", as the saying goes. Hoping to unite both sides soon and make some progress :)

Just a heads up that I'm going to be traveling next week and probably won't be able to post either Tuesday or Wednesday (and possibly Thursday).

Sister+Kids of my SO came for a pre-christmas visit, arrived yesterday, stay to tomorrow evening. I'll update gameplay on Monday!

Enjoy your weekend!

I will be visiting family from 12/23 until New Year's Day so bot me as necessary.

And happy holidays.
As for so many others, this time is also stressful and full of family visity and preparations for me. I had hoped to get around to posting earlier, but well, seems it was today.

Anyway, as a christmas gift...you can have a flashback.
Something about your past life. From before all of this. Something...you did not remember before, focusing on a skill you have 0 ranks in currently.
Just write a short vignette of the scene you remember...with no long-term obligations attached.(working with animals in a stable is fine. Working on the family farm with animals in a stable is too elaborate. Talking with students sitting at a meal is fine. Talking with students about the content of a course you are enrolled in is too elaborate. As in, keep it general - something that may or may not have been a larger part of your past, with inconsequential NPC's and no long-term effects. Also, no need for something longer than this paragraph.

As a reward, in this skill you had 0 ranks in until now, you get a +1 trait bonus, it becomes a class skill(if it is not already), and, if you reach 5 ranks in it in the future, the level 5 skill unlock(as if you had signature skill - but only valid for level 5, higher level unlocks do not happen)

Cool deal! Vague memories!

I hope everyone has had a great holiday in the fashion of their own choosing!

Update will come this week.

Many games slowed down over the holidays, this was no exception, with the first week of January bringing a few posts and signaling we are ready to get going again.
I meant to update last week, but did not get to do that.
In the middle of last week, the last grandmother I had, and the one I spent most time with as a kid, passed away. It was not unexpected, her health had been deteriorating a while - due to physical distance, she also was less present in my daily life than she used to - certainly both factors that softened the blow a bit.
But then, one helps clean out the place and it all comes crashing down all the same. I tried to keep going normally, work needed to be done, the kids have needs, and being busy keeps the mind from dwelling on what-if's or memories.

But the two games I GM have been suffering as a result, since I simply could not find the necessary focus to post in them. (I did 2 long posts in games, both were a mess in retrospect).
Most things are taken care of, the burial will be on Wednesday. After, things should return to normal - I will update in the next few days, then proceed with the previously achieved steady rhythm. Apologies for any inconveniences.

Hey, families and real life are most important. I’m very sorry for your loss.

Sorry for your loss. No rush, come back when you are ready.

My condolences.

Just checking in. How is everyone doing?

I took my time, and this week I was on a 3-day mandatory training with little private time, and had car troubles. I figured I'll restart this weekend or monday/tuesday.

Thanks again for the patience, but we should be back to regular schedule from the get-go. I did manage to keep most of the games I am a player in going - it takes little effort to do a filler post - but now feel ready again to boot up those I GM and the solo games.

So, just a headsup - again, apologies for the inconvenience, and thanks for the condolences and patience.

No apologies necessary.

Found gear:

Pathfinder Chronicle (+2 for Knowledge(Arcana)) - 50 gp
Disguise Kit - 50 gp

Between the girls having been ill, workmate having been ill(more work for me), problems with my home PC, and a family visit on the last weekend I've been pushing posting off again and again, missing last weeks update deadline.
Apologies for that, but your regularily scheduled weekly update should come in within 36 hours.

@Lothalian: When I said familiar things, it was a way of saying you know instinctively which of those objects belong to you - and that you recovered your gear.
Plus some 100 GP worth extra - anything purchasable, but mundane objects(including alchemical creations but not potions) - that's to represent that you would not only take exactly what you feel is yours, but also some of the other stuff that looks like it could come in handy.
As far as the state of the facility is concerned, you doubt somebody would file a complaint.

Welcome back Mordred!

Thank you :)
When it rains, it pours, as the saying goes.

@Granite: Aye, the Heal Check was for the Doctors notes - so you did take a closer look but failed to understand what that was about.

Or simply failed to decipher the doctors handwriting *grin*
(J/K, that would of course have been linguistics-)

I'll have to read through Gameplay when I have some time but glad to see this is still alive :-)

It's alive, but several rough bumps - hopefully a bit smoother sailing henceforth.

Random off topic gaming geek thing: So, if you've never watched "The Expanse," you're missing out. First of all, it's excellent Sci Fi, and as my pedigree for watching Sci Fi goes back to watching Star Wars on screen in 1977, I've watched some good (and terrible) Sci Fi. Ok, so the TV series (3 seasons so far, and season 4 is coming) is based on a series of books. Naturally there are differences between the shows and the books, these things happen.

Ok, here's the gamer geek part! What a lot of people don't realize, is that the books are based on the authors' home Sci Fi RPG. So, it's a little funny that a home RPG game turned into a series of books, and then a TV series, and then an actual RPG. Oh, and I've RPG'd since 1978, so I've been around that block too.

Now the really funny part, to me at least. While reading book 3, there's a scene where the characters, whom I view as "the PCs" are about to go into the final fight against the BBEG and the minions, etc. One of the PCs turns to the other (in the book, but I don't think I recall it from the show) and asks, "so if you die, can I have your stuff?" I nearly spit out my drink at that point. How many times have I heard that line, and ones nearly identical to it come out at a gaming table? And to have it copied right from, I'm sure, their gaming table into the book was priceless.

Anyways, enough off-topic geek speak from me!

Apologies to anyone in multiple games with me that is forced to see this twice!

Just a heads up, going to be traveling/visiting a friend Friday-Monday, so may not have much of a chance to post during that time.

Hehe, I'll add it to the backlog.

We only recently started watching series again in the evening - have quite a lot of catching up to do.
Before, it was too likely one of the girls would interrupt - which makes it not fun to watch something immersive.

Also amusing, because I did start a similar thing - just never got to polish the journal up into a book.(but did change writing style halfway through to make that easier - figured after the campaign ends, I could do a limited print run and gift it to my players - then kids happened)