It's a good thing I rolled so well for my attack rolls. That could have been a lot worse!
I think Fenna only has two first lvl spells per day at the moment. After resting for the night, Kari will only be down 2 HP, so she should be OK for now. Perhaps she can have a Goodberry for a snack later. :)
Fenna has 2 +1 CHA. So 3 total 1st level spells.
Oops, you're right! I went back and looked and it is actually 1 +1 CHA for 2 spells.
If nothing else, Kari could probably smash the lock with a kinetic blade.
When my players in my home games level, I like to go around and have everyone talk about the cool new stuff they got. Level 2 isn't the most exciting, but it's a fun excercise for me, and lets me familiarize myself with your choices.
Kari, don't forget to give Hrolf his extra tricks for his 6 INT.
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Underwater 3D combat is going to be a fantastic, fun and never difficult part of RoA. Rules on Swimming are things we are all going to learn pretty well. I have been assuming you both take 10 on all checks that are not during combat rounds, and swimming will be no exception. During underwater combat, you'll need to include checks each time you make a move action to swim, and account for the penalties when attacking. Most relevant rules are going to be on those two pages.
The learning curve of this stuff is built in pretty well to the AP. Eventually, spells, items will make all these things less severe, and eventually some will become irrelevant.
I've added links to these rules at the top for quick referance as you type out your turns.
Kari lvl 2 highlights:
Elemental Defense: Shroud of Water (+2 shield bonus to AC)
Utility Wild Talent: Skilled Kineticist (+1/2 lvls to knowledge nature and swim)
Extra orison known: Stabilize
Mystery Spell: Charm Animal
+1 1st lvl spells/day
Skills Ranks:
+1 Climb
+1 Diplomacy
+1 Knowledge Religion
+1 Perception
+1 Spellcraft
Background Skill Ranks:
+1 Craft Carpentry (now she knows how to use her mwk carpentry tools properly!)
+1 Knowledge History
+9 Hit Points
FCB: +1 Hit Point
Hrolf:
Skill Ranks:
+1 Linguistics (common) so he can understand Fenna
Feat: Light Armor Proficiency (RAW it doesn't make any difference for 0 check penalty armor, but that seems cheesy to me.)
Tricks List: Attack, Attack any Target, Come, Defend, Detect, Down, Fetch, Flank, Flee, Get Help, Guide, Menace, Rescue, Seek, Sneak, Stay, Subdue, Track, Watch
+7 Hit Points
Doing my level up now. Are we doing half HD +1 for hit points? Rolling?
Also, Fenna gets versatile performance this level and will take it for oratory. Clockwork, are you allowing skill points to be shifted from skills now covered by versatile performance to others or not? I've seen GM go both yes and no on it. If yes, I'll move her point in diplomacy to something else.
I've done my hit points PFS style.
Do half HD +1 and feel free to adjust your skill point
Alright, Fenna's level 2 changes.
HP: +9
BAB: +1
FORT, REF, WILL: +1
Bard:
+2 Rounds Perform
Versatile Performance (Oratory Subs. for Diplomacy & Sense Motive)
Well Versed
New Spells Known: 0: Mending, 1st: Liberating Command
Spells per day: +1 1st level.
Slayer:
Slayer Talent:
Trapfinding: Adds Disable Device, Trap Finding, Trap Sense from Rogue Class.
Skill Points +7 & +2 Background
+2 Disable Device
+1 Pereption
+1 Stealth
+1 Swim
+1Escape Artist
+1 K Arcana
+1 K Local
+1 Profession Sailor
+1 Perform Oratory
Do we have to make swim checks every round when we're fighting underwater? That would mean no full attacks.
I can see that hydrokineticists aren't very effective at underwater combat, at least at low levels :(
The ranged penalties are a killer, and kinetic blade requires a move action to Gather Power (Kari can't voluntarily accept burn), which you can't do while attacking, because you're swimming (I think).
You only need to make a Swim check if you attempt to cover ground with your move action. If you're next to a creature, you can Gather with your move and not need to make a Swim check. Kind of like the 5-foot step rules.
If you gain a swim speed (which I'm sure down the line you both will) then you don't need to make checks for moves at all.
To avoid being off-balance we need to succeed on a swim check: "Creatures flailing about in the water (usually because they failed their Swim checks) have a hard time fighting effectively. An off-balance creature loses its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class, and opponents gain a +2 bonus on attacks against it." Does that require a move action?
FWIW, according to designer Mark Seifter:
Also, for what it's worth, since I was the one to write the expanded rules for underwater adventuring in Aquatic Adventures, I included it there (exactly like crashcanuck suggests, good thinking!). Not that the book is out yet, but it would be right up your alley if this is something common in your campaign!
Does anyone know if those rules are online anywhere? I think he's referring to water blasts dealing full damage, even though bludgeoning damage would normally be halved. I'm not sure if that would apply to Kinetic Blade (Kari's Kinetic Blade deals bludgeoning, not slashing damage).
That does make sense about the Water Blast doing full damage. For now lets say blast will do full (even though it's bludgeoning).
Kinetic blade has some weird wording, but it states that it does the same type of damage as the blast, which is water and bludgeoning.
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You would not be considered off-balance until you try to move and fail the swim check. Only a move action that covers ground would require a check and risk going off balance; the same moves that don't let you 5-foot step. (with a swim speed, I believe you can 5-foot swim)
I can change the Bond to the Land (+2 dodge bonus to AC in a specific terrain type) gnome racial trait if it proves to be too strong.
Nah, it's fine. 2 AC starts out pretty strong, but attack bonuses rise faster.
Uh, wow, update indeed!
Any ideas about the poltergeist? I think we probably have to remove the body from the compartment in the alter, and bury it properly. That's tricky with the fear effect. Kari might not be strong enough to do it by herself, so it could depend on Fenna making the Will save.
Sorry for holding things up. I traveled for work the last couple of day and I'm beat. I'll post tomorrow morning.
No worries. 330 posts in a little over a month; we've kind of been crushing it.
Kari doesn't have a rank in Knowledge Arcana. Perhaps Fenna would know...
I'm going to wait to see if Fenna casts Liberating Command before making Kari's post. I'm afraid Kari has a poor chance of escaping a grapple. :(
Thanks, Fenna!
I now realize Kari should have selected Liberating Command as one of her two spells known at 1st lvl. Oracles don't get another selection until 3rd lvl (Mystery Spell at 2nd).
No problem! I didn't take it at 1st, but with a small party grapples are death so it was an obvious 2nd level choice.
I'm really starting to see the limitations of gestalt builds at this point. Fenna has yet to start a bardic performance because, given the choice of attack vs performance in round 1, attack has always seemed better so far. I'll have to change that up some.
I've very much enjoyed the faster pace of our game with just the 3 of us (4 including Hrolf), but if you would like to add a third player I think that would be okay. Action economy hindrances would still keep things a challenge for 3 gestalt players. If not, I can just use the Advance template like I do in my home games.
I'm good either way, so I leave it to you players.
I love the pace we have maintained so far. I do worry about our ability to survive the combat encounters, however, especially against grapple monsters. Some bad luck could have TPK'd us in the anhkeh nymph fight, and it feels like the adult anhkeg is above our pay grade.
Using Maximum HP for you guys is another option that I considered.
Well, I guess I would slightly in favor of a third player, but it's not a big deal for me. I would like to keep the pace up as we have, and a third would almost certainly cause some slowing. But if the person is committed posting daily it wouldn't be huge.
On the mechanical side we do seem to be at about our limit to handle some of the encounters. Things haven't gone badly, but if we did have someone knocked out of a fight, we would be right on the edge of that TPK death-spiral. If one of us was down and needed to be stabilized, our offensive capability for the round drops to Hrolf only.
The line between cakewalk and "game over" is pretty thin in matching encounters to us.
Those sorts of things can be managed, but I think theres an RP advantage as well. Social triangles tend to be more dynamic and interesting than dyads. A third dramatis personae would give us more to work with. Of course there is some community building stuff and a whole ship full of NPCs so maybe that takes care of things once we get there...
If we do go with a third, I'd prefer to reach out to a few of the original applicants to pick from. I think I would give them an option of going with their submitted character or creating a new one knowing your builds.
Would either of you have a preference of when they are as far as the narrative? They would either be someone else from The Peregrine, or someone already on the island for some reason (maybe a monstrous race), or come on the next ship which is between books 1 and 2.
I would want to make sure any third player has a solid posting history, indicating they can keep up with the pace.
It wouldn't matter to me when/where they join. They could even play Coconut if they wanted to. :)
I guess someone from the Peregrine would be most organic, but I don't really mind one way or another.
I can see two courses of action with regards to the anhkeg:
1. Rest until next day, buff up with Shield of Faith, Bless, Grease and Inspire Courage, and then draw the creature out.
2. Leave it for now and head back to the ship.
Any notes for what you guys would want in a build for a new PC?
Hm, I don't really see any specific gaps that need to be filled. Maybe better ranged? I'd say just about any type of character would do. We mostly just need the extra set of actions and maybe some more dpr.
I agree with Fenna: there's no major gaps. There potentially could be some benefit to having a prepared spellcaster.
True. Fenna will eventually be able to do something similar in a very limited way, but it would in no way be like having the real thing.
I'm Urram and I'll be joining you on this little jaunt into the unknown! Background is still a work in progress and will be subject to GM approval but I thought I'd stop by so you could see the crunch and give me any suggestions you have for how I can best help out!
@Fenna - I come with Trapfiding as standard, is it worth asking the almighty GM Clockwork if you can trade your slayer talent, or do we want the back-up? :)
Welcome Urram!
Once suggestion: I would recommend increasing your Con score. We've been running into high damage monsters.
One of the first monsters we'll be fighting does 2d6+4 + 1d4 acid + grab (we had to run away). On a critical hit, it would have a 50% chance of killing you outright with your current build. We previously prevailed (at 1st lvl) in a fight where the enemies had a total potential damage output of 12d4 per round.
As an elf that's tough... I could get it 12, but that would cost me all my strength... There's a reason I picked a reach weapon! :D
You might want to add Cure Light Wounds to your formula book. Even though we both have CLW, and 8 spells/day between us, we're still running short on healing! I realize that your extracts only work on you.
Good point. I thought you guys would likely have it covered, but MORE HEALS never hurt did they :) I should probably take Infernal Healing actually... more effective.
Hi Urram, welcome!
Yeah, hopefully with a third person combats won't be so drawn out, which will mean less damage taken and less healing needed. But yes, we've been short on healing to the point that we've had nothing to spare for casting our other options. More healing will be good.
Foes have been odd for the very beginning of an AP. Higher damage, grappling, acid, but we've also been having a bad run with the dice :p
Oh, I'll also take a look at other slayer talents, but I'll probably just go ahead and keep trap finding. It's kind of been worked into the story enough now that it would be awkward to drop it.
What time zones are you guys in? I wake up in the morning and find 17 new posts...
I'm in the US, Mountain Time, GMT -6.
We had a good posting night last night, getting closer to add Urram.
Portland, Oregon so Pacific Standard Time: GMT -8.
Vancouver, BC: Pacific Standard Time: GMT -8.
That explains it then. I'm GMT so hopefully I won't slow the posting rate too much!