GM Choon presents The Witchwar Legacy (Inactive)

Game Master Choon

Oh man, vitals. But hmm, am I the only one with armor?

@Armour - indeed!

When I was building I was planning for ranged, so I brought fun stuff instead of armour. Then I figured I'll get by on Magic Vestment instead and didn't go all out for that +5 bonus. And Righteous Might provides an Natural Armour bonus, so no need to invest in that either :P

Once combat starts, Eaglesoul will most likely trigger for +2 at the very least and I did update my morning routine to yell in anger at my armour (which provides a CL boost sufficient for a +4 bonus instead of +3).

But honestly - when I benchmarked most CR17-18 critters have an to hit bonus around ~30 so I figured I probably couldn't get it high enough to really matter. Might be enough to trouble the minions. Or if we face a Marilith lol ...

edit: But in hindsight, I think I missed a few cheap options - namely that ioun stone as well as gluing the hat of luck/crit negation to my Circlet. The dex-boosting ioun stone is quite nice too, +1 AC/Ref for 8000 is a good deal.

Oh and Boots of Speed provides an extra +1 once combat is joined - and I got those.

edit2: And Celestial Plate Mail would be an upgrade too, AC wise. But the Bolstering enchantment is really nice and saves tend to matter more around this level I find : )

Typical rule of thumb is that AC tanking requires an AC greater than CL + 20. I sort of went halfheartedly into it, but there's not much AC on this team. (I've got a few of those tricks on my character, hence the armor)

Yeah. I figured I wasn't going to reach that the way the budget looked - both point and money wise - since it would require a better Dex (running on Str Con & Cha sucked away a few points :P). The Lunar mystery, the other one I was looking at, would have allowed it since it has one of those nifty Dex->Cha revelations. But that one doesn't have so much synergy with the barbarian/rage prophet part sadly.

But really, the most important part is avoiding eating full-attacks. And we do have some mobility and tricks to do that : )

Sorry my posts are so short. I live in Australia, so this thread explodes during the hours when I'm unable to post. I like the plan; I hope Johnne can survive (for now); and Oliveo, I'm glad you're enjoying my descriptions! I'll be a bit weird knowing I'm under scrutiny now, though :P

re: tanking
I like that our best tank is--amusingly--our arachnosorcerer (especially since you also have +3 HD on the rest of us)!

As for myself, my AC can climb with:
+2 : bodyguard from Petal, my mongoose familiar (which she'll succeed at on a 2 or higher)
+1 : haste
+5 : dance of the 23 steps masterpiece if I really need it (costing 1 round of performance / 3 rounds of dodge bonus...though it limits my ability to do other performances, but could be a nice option a few rounds into combat if the folks on the front line need a breather, or just if I'm cornered and in rough shape.)

Also, since Petal has the protector archetype, she can be a bit of a HP battery for me, using Shield Other to keep me alive a bit longer if I start getting desperate.

re: our plan of attack
I've heard oliveo, rosaline, johhnne, and asselus have voiced support for the clamor plan. A couple mentioned combining that with freeing the mammoths. If we manage to blind 90% of them that might be more hassle than it's worth but if someone has a vision for doing it I sure don't object.

What other details do we need to plan? Anyone else want to be on my carpet with me? (with gear I'm just under 220 lbs. I can hold up to 180 lbs more at 40' speed or 580 lbs more at 30' speed).

Choon do you use maps for combat? Should we place ourselves on one, or just tell you we're ~180' from the pen the giants and animals are in. Also, did you see my Q about the Veil spell, last night?

Johnne no worries, that's how PbP works, right? I hope you always feel free to go back in time a bit to add to the RP or to share an idea.

as to ac... to be truthful I dont plan on being seen much as i can always leap into shadows and hide in plain sight. that being said, its why i went the route of the animated arrow catching shield, during integral parts of the fight i can probably boost my ac up to low 30's but to be honest it seems the bane of stealthies to have no ac so I did what I could.

I did see the question. I'm researching a bit now as I've never heard of people illusioning themselves into gnats.

oh yeah.... spells ;)

level 1 ranger spells memorized - Charm animal, Sun metal
level 2 ranger spells memorized - Iron skin

Me, I dn't have any nifty tricks or anything. I just cast spells, and get my phantom to drag everyone down.

Though I'm really wishing I'd picked up the feat that allows a phantom in incorporeal form to damage corporeal enemies, because right now, I'll be doing a lot of recalling and manifesting :/

Ok, after some reading I think you couldn't turn into a gnat with veil. The language is totally not clear, but I think the fact that it is a glamour and the involvement of the disguise skill in the text implies an intent for it to be employed within a size category of the targets (as the disguise skill). This way it doesn't intrude on transmutation's territory.
Could you look like ogres, totally. Gnomes, go for it. Gnats? That's taking it a little far, IMHO.

On the bright side, I think only the initial casting needs to be grouped. As long as you maintain concentration and have line of effect (and stay within range of the caster), I don't see anything limiting you from spreading out.

OK, thanks for the research and ruling! In that case, it seems we could take the appearance of the giants we (presumably) defeat...other than Charlotte, who is Small so I assume could only take on up to a Medium veil disguise. (If Charlotte mentions that she has the ability to Alter Self then we could all be giants. Otherwise she could perhaps take the form of an witch from Irrisen. That could be interesting too...either we play it as she's our captive OR that she's charmed all of us and taken *us* captive.)

Or, y'know, ignore veil and do other things. I'm open.

Tricks: Decent damage, both ranged an melee

A dozen and a half ways to Bull Rush people. And with Greater Bull Rush, that means free AoO's for everyone! Yey!

Additionally Pilfering Hand leads to some nice options allowing a few more Combat Manoeuvres at range.

Rage-cyclable Strength Surge greatly improves both above.

Divine Interference allows for limited party-wide crit negation by simply forcing the pesky monsters to reroll an attack.

Accept Affliction + Cleanse allows some conditions to be easily dealt with, while Breath of Life cures the worst one.

Grace or limited Dimension Door allows easy repositioning to be more of a nuisance.

Martyr's Bargain will hopefully allow some sort of epic last stand, just when Choon thought his evil magics did us in :P

Capable of surprisingly nasty magics, conditionally. For example while angry at someone whom broken a promise, the DC to resist Rosaline's plane shift straight to the heart of the Negative Energy Plane is 32!

@magic carpet - I think Rosaline is too heavy and will force you to take the slower speed. Besides, she thrives in combat : )

@veil - I like the steal their appearance idea! Can, as mentioned earlier, become really fun : )

I dont have any cool tricks that I can share with you all, minus the spells, I have all the solo cool tricks, Also, I will not be joining you on the carpet, im better off down here anyways . Besides... they will never see me coming :P

I can try and hit stuff :(

I have a feeling that you can try and hit stuff very well though so its all good!

Barbarians "trying to hit stuff" usually leads to stuff dying before it knows what happened.

But try and hit stuff is like the most important one, the bread and butter. All Rosaline's little tricks make her a little worse at just hitting stuff (since it spends resources elsewhere!) so I think Toska will be the champion of hitting stuff : )

Besides, the most reliable/useful of the tricks are the Bull Rush one - and that one happens to make it easier for other to try and hit stuff by serving them up on a plate (complete with complimentary AoO and all)!

(And Bloodragers have spells n stuff too? Despite their somewhat limited spell levels they have some tricks to make the DC useful. And stuff like Blade Lash is always fun!)

And on that topic, I just noted how nice the Mad Magic feat would be to have ...

Charlotte's normally large, currently alter self'd into small, but she's not about to mention that. Also, she did just mention being able to turn invisible and fly.

Oliveo is *very* happy to be around folks who like to hit stuff. As I've said, he may not deal a point of damage this whole campaign.

As for tricks to know about...oh goodness, that's quite a list:

Discordant voice: whenever I'm performing (almost always) yall will get +1d6 sonic damage to your attacks
Flagbearer+banner of the ancient kings: +2 morale bonus to hit, damage, saves vs fear/charm

When I inspire courage (which I'll do lots of the time, but not while I'm doing this Clamor of the Heavens thing...though I could shift over at some point if we're mostly mopping things up): +6 competence bonus to hit, damage; +6 morale bonus to saves vs fear/charm

Some spells worth knowing about / requesting / planning around:

brilliant inspiration lets me let one of you take the better of 2d20 on any attack roll, ability check, or skill check for 17 rounds (or until your first 20).

heroic finale lets me end a performance in order to grant one of you an extra Move or Standard. Let me know when you need one!

song of healing stacks with a performance that I have going, granting each of you fast healing 2 while the performance lasts +1d8+15 healing when I end it (plus curing you of any of the following conditions: exhausted, fatigued, nauseated, paralyzed, sickened, or stunned).

gallant inspiration lets me grant you +2d4 competence bonus to a failed attack roll or skill check retroactively (as an immediate action).

saving finale lets me end a performance to grant you a reroll to a failed save (as an immediate action).

mass feather step lets us all move fast on difficult terrain, if that ever arises

versatile weapon will let your weapon count as a different damage type for overcoming DR (e.g. a bludgeoning spear vs skeletons)

...That's probably the bulk of them, though feel free to read over my profile for others.

Gallant Inspiration (and that line) are among my all time favourite spells. So useful!

So, Johnne has a few tricks up his sleeve. He's picked Spell Perfection for crushing despair, so that's pretty much his bread and butter. His spell selection focuses on fear and emotion effects, so if we come up against things that are immune to those, he'll basically be a sitting duck. If he's within 50 feet of Rosina, she can deliver his touch spells for him, regardless of whether she's in ectoplasmic or incorporeal form.

If Johnne gets hit by a mind-affecting effect, he can immediately call Rosina back into his consciousness and shunt it off to her, effectively negating it, but he can only do this once per day. Still a very nice thing to have. She can also take hit point damage that would drop him to negs - also good to have in a pinch. Other than this, he's mainly a caster, dropping nastiness on the enemies.

Rosina gets a few more tricks. Since she's usually in incorporeal form, she has a 40 foot fly speed and can't be heard with Perception checks unless she wishes it (which is handy, but she has a lower stealth than Alessus, so he'd be better at not being seen). All enemies within 10 feet of her take an automatic -2 penalty to saving throws thanks to her aura of despair (not a fear effect!). She gets a +2 bonus against foes suffering fear or despair effects, and can mimic crushing despair three times per day. She has Combat Reflexes to stack on the hurt in ectoplasmic form, and any creature hit by her slams takes a -2 penalty on attack and damage rolls for 1 round. She has Dazzling Display, and can increase the severity of fear effects, which is really nice.

So, both are rather supporty characters, with an aggressively depressing spellcasting selection.

"Artistry (criticism)" <- wonderful! I love it : )

...I know that's not technically what it's supposed to be used for, but, eh. It was that or Perform (acting).

Time to party!

I know I suggested not burning any spells during this fight...but I couldn’t help tossing in one (which should help us clean up faster and therefore keep me from spending more bardic performance on blinding the remainder than I have to).

I don't expect to do any more casting unless Something Goes Wrong. Future rounds I suspect I’ll just fly around intimidating the ones that can still see or (after that) tripping the poor blind/deaf fools.

Don't forget to incorporate both Haste and Flagbearer benefits into your attacks! (See my post for details).

Psst Choon spoiler!

Bump!

@Buffs - Will try to keep those in mind : )

Rosaline, Exalt of Radiance wrote:

Psst Choon spoiler!

Bump!

Oh, ya. I doubt you'll need it, but sure.

Heads up - I'll be on mini-vacation until the 26th and I'm unsure how much internet access I'll have. But I should be able to update in the evenings : )

Also - at this level stuff isn't about need really. But the synergy was so nice it was hard to resist : )

Johnne, I'm happy to make sure we stay within 40' of Rosina. I'll assume you mentioned that as we flew over.

Thanks for not punishing my forgetfulness. :D

Update to come tomorrow. Today was a 14 hour day for me.

Awwww. Have a digital hug. That sounds hellish. =(

*nods and offers hugs*

Yo, Choon! Just a reminder that Rosina is incorporeal. So she takes no damage from nonmagical weapons, half damage from magical weapons, and full damage from ghost touch weapons.

Please don't tell me every enemy has ghost touch weapons >.>

-Posted with Wayfinder

Ok. No damage then.

Here's a good spot to say that I'm not going to pretend to keep track of all your modifiers and conditions. I can't do that and keep track of the enemy. So, if you have some mitigating factor go ahead and inform me when it applies and act add if it works. If there is something bypassing your defence or visa versa then I'll let you know and we will slightly retcon. I prefer that to driving myself crazy. I'll try to remember the obvious ones, but no promises. Rosaline's immune line helps.
:)

Derp. I just noticed that Bull Rush is +1 size only.

Are the Giants Large or Huge? : )

(Thinking of slamming the ogre + giant distracting Toska from the leader, so he don't have to eat their full-round-attack [and it is their turn next anyway, so they have to waste it getting back :P])

@Effects - The only (special) effects I can't run from my end is the Constant Detect Evil and the fact that Eaglesouls autotriggers if Rosaline tries to stab any evil outsider.

So, it's coming into summer here in South Australia, and that means it's fire season. We've had several Catastrophic danger levels this month. (The scale is Low - Moderate - High - Very High - Severe - Extreme - Catastrophic, because Australia does not f$#% around.)

Today, we had a fire start out near my place of employment, which is in a rural area. Even though the wind was blowing away from us, we evacuated the whole site just to play it safe. And because it's a primary school, that resulted in 350 terrified kids and stressed teachers being kept indoors and taking drink and toilet breaks in pairs, while every member of leadership and support staff rang the parents of every child to evacuate them. I'm home now, and all the main roads near me have been closed off. I'm safe, but shaken, and it's made me realize that there may well come a time when I'm affected by a fire and won't be able to get online and let everyone know. If that happens, I'll try to get a real-life friend with a Paizo account to spread the word.

GM, how about I include the 'cheat-notes' of the incorporeal subtype in a spoiler tag with Rosina's vitals? Would that be useful?

o.O

Do your best to stay safe though!

in my time with the army i was called upon to help fight more than a few wild fires in oregon and washington state, Be super careful man. Fire is not a very nice playfriend. As Toska said do try to be safe.

Johnne - sure. Thanks. :)

Rosaline - the giants are Large.

Bushfires in Australia are terrifying, and too many of them are started by idiots. A stray cigarette butt, an angle grinder... Anything can set it off, and it gets out of control before you know it.

I'm taking the steps I need to make sure I'll be safe if anything happens.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Good to hear.