GM Kiora's Wrath of the Righteous

Game Master Kiora Atua

Throwing knife builds without Two-weapon Fighting aren't terribly effective. They rely on getting a lot of attacks to make up for a small damage die and lower damage bonuses. Actually, I'm getting 1d4 damage no bonus at all until 3rd level right now. With two attacks, at least I can get 2d4 a round. Flying Blade is a big step up for throwing weapons actually. Precise Throw is wonderful for extra damage.

As for spherewalker... haven't looked at that before now. Interesting.

I guess that's true, but I've always thought that thrown weapon builds should have good Strength. Without that, you should indeed have the extra attacks. Well, another solution is sneak attack, but that's another thing you aren't getting.

Yeah, high strength really helpful. I was honestly tempted to have higher strength, but it would have meant either giving up a lot of skills (which is something that Valaria would logically have) or tanking my Will Save (which is both dangerous and a little nonsensical for someone who I intend to play as a strong-willed character). I'll probably make strength my second physical prowess stat (after Dex) for advancement so that will help a little, but not for quite a while.

The precision damage from Precise Throw and automatic progression weapon attunement will do a lot of good for damage. It just doesn't become really effective until high levels. Fortunately, we're running all the way to 20.

I'm personally just happy to see such an unusual character in our champion spot. :)

We have a lot of 'unusual' in our party. Like, I've seen flying blades in the Trickster portion, rangers in the champion portion, I've never even played with a Warder (but that seems to almost always get the guardian spot, from what I've seen, if allowed). I've also never seen a necromancer of any sort even apply for WotR.

Regardless, I'm liking all of the really colorful interactions so far, as well. :)

Can't argue with that.

*hugs Valaria*

gettin' them low rolls out of your system I hope ;)

I hope so.

*prays to Desna that she gets some luck*

I'm definitely loving the atmosphere of Armasse and seeing everyone's interactions!

If you manage to get some luck from Desna, be sure to send some Li'an's way :p

I pulled out my harrow deck and performed an actual harrowing for Ary, if you're curious ;)

It's nice to get some practice with the actual rules, haha. So far in face to face, I don't know the cards well enough, so I just make stuff up based on the pictures. :P It's way more in depth doing it as you're supposed to though.

*toots own horn*

I'll certainly try.

I've done harrowings too but I don't own a deck - I just use the diceroller.

A little late for it, but I'm wondering, would I be better off swapping my Strength and Constitution scores? Between maximized hit die and the favored class bonus, the extra +1 isn't strictly necessary... and with carrying capacity being a factor, dealing with eventual additional gear might not be feasible at the moment. Heck, Ehren's armor and clothing alone almost put him over capacity... Or maybe in combat, it just won't matter as much?

A little late for it, but I'm wondering, would I be better off swapping my Strength and Constitution scores? Between maximized hit die and the favored class bonus, the extra +1 isn't strictly necessary... and with carrying capacity being a factor, dealing with eventual additional gear might not be feasible at the moment. Heck, Ehren's armor and clothing alone almost put him over capacity... Or maybe in combat, it just won't matter as much?

I'm fine with that. Make sure you finalize a decision before we finish our first combat :) (Probably tomorrow, but possibly later today.)

Actually, speaking of that, I've been contemplating switching my Wisdom and Intelligence scores, and I'm gonna go ahead and do that.

On second third fourth thought, I think if I just buy a masterwork backpack later on, and maybe switch to lighter armor, I'll be just fine. I like me my hit points too much.

Man, I'm really overthinking this.

I definitely appreciate The Harrowing. I thought you'd chosen cards intentionally to fulfill what you wanted. It's very nice, and I think Ary liked the answer, overall... you know, aside from all the screaming. :P

The only time I've ever used Harrow cards was with a specific fortune teller character who performed Harrows for the party as payment for jobs they did for him. He returned in a later campaign as a demigod of fate to pass out inherent bonuses ala Manual/Tome of [stat]... giving out cards that fit the character.

Went ahead and looked everything up, to see what was going on with everything. I think Verseda was being really nice to Ary about her future. :p

Good: 2, Neutral: 5, Evil: 3
Law: 5, Neutral: 3, Chaos: 2
Str: 1, Dex: 2, Con: 2, Int: 1, Wis: 3, Cha: 1

Her: Duality.
Past: Cooperation, Humor and Trickery, Harsh Truths
Present: Invulnerability, Doubt, Panic and Destruction
Future: False Dreams/Illusions, Corruption and Decay, Strength through Diversity(inverted?).

Went ahead and looked everything up, to see what was going on with everything. I think Verseda was being really nice to Ary about her future. :p

Good: 2, Neutral: 5, Evil: 3
Law: 5, Neutral: 3, Chaos: 2
Str: 1, Dex: 2, Con: 2, Int: 1, Wis: 3, Cha: 1

Her: Duality.
Past: Cooperation, Humor and Trickery, Harsh Truths
Present: Invulnerability, Doubt, Panic and Destruction
Future: False Dreams/Illusions, Corruption and Decay, Strength through Adversity(inverted?).

Haha, I use the instructions that come with the deluxe harrow deck- I'm not sure if they've been modified from the past? In those rules you select only a few cards to interpret, though you MUST interpret a role card that is revealed (such as Markus' recurring Trumpet), a card that matches its alignment in the spread (Markus' the Forge), or a card that is inverted (The Forge was the only one). Barring that, you pick partial matches, then in lieu of those, you just wing it.

You can interpret all of them but the GM is supposed to try and pick what makes sense. For Ary, I was actually referring to something very specific in your future, which warrants the negative interpretation that comes from the inverted Forge.

The positive spin on the end was meant to come from the Dance, anywho, and the idea that knowing your place in the greater good can lead to good things, but you have to stick to it. :)

That, and I messed up on that strength through adversity. It's actually -diversity-. So it's kind of the 'many are the ways, but straight is the gate', when it's inverted. So... in more manageable terms: 'Just keep swimming'. :)

I also don't know the real rules as I don't own a harrow deck. I just rolled like the other person, or picked out what sounded most fitting. :)

Reading mine optimistically: Presently, I'm immune to doubt and panic. In the future, I'll face temptations and slow destruction, but temperance will guide me through.

I'll copy over Markus's stuff for the same type of thing, because I love seeing stuff like that. (Specifically, the statistics and turnout. If i weren't eating them, I'd count my gummi bear colors.)

As an aside: Markus got a -ton- of chaotic evil, and a lot of constitution, just glancing.

Markus:

Good: 3 Neutral: 4 Evil: 3
Law: 3 Neutral: 4 Chaos: 3
(Special note: All of Markus's evils -were- chaotic, and vice versa)

Str: 2, Dex: 1, Con: 4, Int: 1, Wis: 1, Cha: 1
Him: Diving into Danger
Past: Harsh Truths/Life/Death, Scholars(Spies and Merchants), Strength through Diversity
Present: Untameable Power, Diving into Danger, Unrequited Desire or Treacherous Love
Future: Torture, Imprisonment, Helplessness, Impossible Situations, Traps, Mind Tricks... and eventual Survival of a terrible ordeal beyond hope.

Sounds right up his alley.

The trumpet was about as apt as a card as he could have drawn :P

Is there a particular language you guys have in mind for elven? I'm thinking Ary would probably choose an elven word for Li'an's nickname. :)

I use tolkien elvish (using this translator and this cypher program for any other words I need that aren't in the first translator.

But I don't care much about fantasy language consistency haha.

Elven words for 'sword' and similar things are pretty darn ugly. :(

I could go with Wen for 'maiden'... and the other option gives 'Fen' for Sword.

Or... portmanteau! Fenwen it is! Swordmaiden get!

(Doing the same with Shield, ironically, gives 'fanwen')

Using Tolkien elvish with the cypher program is a clever solution. I'd not have thought of that. :)

Fen'wen ('cause everyone knows apostrophes are elvish :p ) sounds like a great nickname!

Speaking of languages, Li'an's sword, Lleuad-a'r-Sêr, is named in Welsh. In game it's meant to be the pronunciation of a Celestial name, and those who speak Celestial understand it as Moon-and-Stars.

Then what should I use for Abyssal? :p

You guys are shaming me with your posting rates. I'll have to play some serious catch up once things hit the fan. Because I mean, they kinda have to, right? :P

I have no life right now :P My posting rate is as often as appropriate for Valaria to do something, and will probably stay that way for a while.

Stuff grinds to a halt during combat, even with fast posters. If you have slow(er) posting rate, and are jealous that you aren't getting to RP as much, take advantage of some combat banter ;)

You guys are shaming me with your posting rates. I'll have to play some serious catch up once things hit the fan. Because I mean, they kinda have to, right? :P

Paizo festivals are kinda like Shakespearean weddings...you can count on something interesting happening

Um. I think that has the Swallowtail Festival beat. O_O;

Goblins aren't mythic enough, duh ;D

The bigger the festival, the nastier the foes? Better make sure no one schedules anything bigger than Armasse ever, or that might be the end of Golarion then and there :p

Ary's pretty sure your blasphemy is not going unnoticed. Her birthday -and- a day to celebrate Aroden being overshadowed by anything? Only Cayden could manage such a feat.

Demonology 101

All of your characters are at the Worldwound to kill demons. It was a requirement of the recruitment process. Even Markus, who has the least experience in the region, was educated in a highly selective and prestigious arcane Order, and would have likely taken at least a class on the creatures.

So, it stands to reason that they would know the basic demon types. We will be going by the assumption that your characters can identify on sight the following common demons and know the following information sans skill checks:

• Babau - Blood demons, born from the souls of murderers, excellent assassins. Their blood is a potent acid that can eat away at metal and flesh. They use magical darkness to disorient.
  
• Balor - Fire demons, often wield whips of flame and massive swords. Incredibly powerful, combat is to be avoided. Khorrmazadeh is not just a balor, but a Lord among balors. Balors are born from the cruelest souls, unlike other demons, it takes an army of evil souls to form a balor.
  
• Dretch - Sloth demons, the lowest demons of the Abyss, favored by cultists as they are easy to control.
  
• Glabrezu - Treachery demons, born of traitors and liars, they are both physically and intellectually daunting foes. A glabrezu lives to deceive, often offering twisted wishes to make mortals the agents of their schemes.
  
• Hezrou - Toad demons, born from the souls of poisoners, evil alchemists, and polluters. Magical silence can be employed to counter their ability to utter dangerous blasphemies. There are alchemical solutions to counter its nauseating stench.
  
• Invidiak - Shadow demons, born from the souls of envious sinners, invidiaks lack bodies and seek to possess others. Once freed from a mortal prisoner, they are weak to bright light and ghost touch weapons or force effects.
  
• Marilith - Serpent demons, always female, formed from arrogant and proud evil souls. They can project illusionary images through which they create barriers of whirling blades, manipulate objects and creatures telekinetically, and their multiple arms make them devastating at melee as well as range.
  
• Nabasu - Gargoyle demons whose death-stealing gaze can transform the slain into ghoul slaves. Nabasu vary wildly in power, as the older and more prolific they are, the more deadly they become.
  
• Nalfeshnee - Nalfeshnee are pig demons, and are rarely found in the Worldwound, as they do not serve Demon Lords. They consider themselves above such petty scheming.
  
• Quasit - Quasit are unusual in that they are not formed from dead souls, but from a living soul sacrificed by a spellcaster seeking a familiar. When encountering a Quasit, the real question is - who does it serve?
  
• Succubus - Lust demons, risen from souls who were slaves to the sins of the flesh in life. The problem with facing off against a succubus is realizing that you are fighting a succubus in the first place. They employ mind control and their kisses drain their foes' lives from them.
  
• Vrock - Wrath demons, these are violent, vulture-headed winged creatures. The exude virulent spores that take root in the flesh -- holy water can cleanse these painful growths. Vrocks can work together to unleash devastating storms of electricity. Vrocks use telekinesis to disarm their foes.
  

General Demon Information

• Demons come from the Abyss, where they spawn from the souls of sinful souls. The sins of the soul influence the demon it becomes.
  
• Demons are always chaotic evil - they are evil made manifest.
  
• Some demons can possess mortals, especially Invidiaks.
  
• Some demons can walk among mortals in disguise, especially Succubi, Glabrezu and Mariliths.
  
• Most demons are weak to cold iron...but not all of them.
  
• Most demons are weak to holy, good and axiomatic weapons.
  
• Demons are immune to electricity, and are resistant to acid, cold, and fire. This is because demons are accustomed the chaotic elemental energies than manifest wildly in the Abyss.
  
• Demons are immune to poison, and are fond of using it against their enemies.
  
• Advanced demons can summon more demons.
  
• Demons are telepathic. They can move in unison and alert nearby allies inaudibly.
  

I'll be copy/pasting this onto the campaign tab shortly under a spoiler.

....This is only a small sampling of demons in this campaign. There will be plenty that you will still need K.Planes to identify, I assure you.

Yay, first combat! Getting a feel for what you guys are capable of. The battlemap and initiative order are in the campaign description. I try to keep it updated with whose turn it is, but obviously if I'm not online I can't keep it 100% up to date so don't view it as infallible or anything haha.

I intend to keep combat moving in initiative order. While this slows things down, I want you guys to be able to make tactical decisions (like readying/delaying actions). I want you guys to react to something that happened earlier in the round. I want the power to introduce more enemies in the middle of a round. Stuff like that. So it is worth taking a moment to talk about post rates.

On Post Rates

You have 24 hours after the last combat action to get your action in. If you do not, I'll bot you, using your previous actions as a guide as for what you should do.

If I am forced to bot you 3 times in this manner, you will be replaced. (Within reason. If the campaign goes on for 3 years and you are botted 4 times spread out amongst those 3 years, you are fine.)

If you vanish and do not post anything for a week, regardless of if we are in combat or not, you will be replaced.

If something is going to keep you from posting, then please let us know. Vacations, illness, exams, whatever! PM me or post something in discussion, with a hard date of when we can expect you back. If you do this, you are safe from getting da boot. However, do not expect for the game to wait on you. This just gives me the ok to bot you and keep chugging along.

If something happens to me that causes me to not meet my 1 post/day I will let you know. For example, I have a 1 week vacation planned in August. I don't know when (because my leave hasn't been approved yet) but once that is ironed out I will let you guys know.

Sorry if this seems harsh, but even with fast posting, this whole adventure will take several years. So we need to keep moving forwards.

On experience points

I totally forgot to include this on the houserules during recruitment, but I will not be using experience points. You will level up when the AP says it is appropriate.

The wonky power levels that we will be dealing with due to using a 6 member party,3pp stuff, mythic rules, and just having a group of players with high system mastery in general means I need to be given the freedom to adjust encounters to keep things challenging. I also want the freedom to add in my own encounters and adventures without needing to scale the whole rest of the adventure up due to you guys leveling up early.

It is not my intention to make this a meat grinder by any means. I just don't want you to run up and one-shot Khorramzadeh when you get to him, which is what would have happened if I don't adjust the AP at all.

On Pre-rolling actions

Let's say you log on at noon to check on how a combat is going. It doesn't look like it'll come around to your turn til later in the evening, and you won't be able to post an action until tomorrow at noon. While still well within the 24 hour window you have to post, this still slows combat down. In this case, you may pre-roll an action in discussion. Do this under spoilers, please. If/then styled commands are fine.

In general, try to post in initiative order so that you can react to things as they happen. But this will not always be possible, so pre-rolling accommodates that.

On Immediate Actions

Try to come up with some if/then statements in your alias if you have a lot of immediate actions you want to employ. Check out Ary's alias for a good example of this.

I imagine Hrut will eventually have a lot of this going on too.

I'm pretty laidback if something unforeseen happens and you want to retroactively use an immediate action (ESPECIALLY if this is a life or death scenario) - but try to come up with some general protocol for these things to make life easier.

I just thought i should let you know, given your botting rule, that from 2pm on Saturday to 2pm Sunday I'll be at a Humans vs. Zombies LARP event and will have no internet access. If my turn comes during that time, that'll suck and there'll be nothing I can do about it until about 5pm on Sunday.

Also, you were right about my initiative - it is -1. It's right on my alias but it was wrong on my header. It's been corrected.

I just thought i should let you know, given your botting rule, that from 2pm on Saturday to 2pm Sunday I'll be at a Humans vs. Zombies LARP event and will have no internet access. If my turn comes during that time, that'll suck and there'll be nothing I can do about it until about 5pm on Sunday.

Consider pre-rolling an action under spoilers, as added to the above post, sometime before you leave. :)

That sounds crazy awesome by the way, have fun!

I'll actually be heading out to do face-to-face RP in about an hour and will be back in about 6-7 hours. I'll -generally- do this every friday.

Also, @map: Li'an and Valaria are not allowed to move. Their pictures in that position looks far too epic.

I know I'll meet the posting speeds, but I don't want to hold up anyone so:

@Markus

Go ahead and move your token as you wish. I don't think there is a way to get to Nestrin's side without triggering an AoO.

I guess I'll wait until next round, then.

Then what should I use for Abyssal? :p

I use the aforementioned cypher program with the following model text:

Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,

ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.
agh ash at bagronk búbhosh búrz dug durb ghâsh gimb glob gûl
hai ishi krimp lug Lug-búrz nazg Nazgûl oghor-hai olog pushduh ronk skai sha sharkû snaga thrak u ûk ul um uruk Gu kibum kelkum-ishi, burzum-ishi. Akha-gum-ishi ashi gurum.

Yields a bunch of nonsense that is nice and harsh and throaty.

For example

"And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor, shall be lifted—nevermore!" transforms into

"Ank ra shârz birb azg bozg boghil bozg pul burzak ush bi bum, bot di pashug—glukhushishi!"

I love the pace of fresh games!

@Hrut

You can only utilize Broken Blade Maneuvers using broken blade discipline weapons (close/unarmed/monk). However, they do get an extra +2 damage to the attack (which it looks like you factored in).

Furthermore, the mythic nerfs listed out in the original post state that as a house rule, for this campaign, you cannot make more than 1 extra attack at full BAB for any reason, regardless of what stacking abilities are going on. The mythic nerfs DO apply to non-mythic abilities (so, for example, rapid shot + haste would no longer stack as well)

So the net effect is that Hrut could use Flurry Strike for one extra full BAB attack with his shield (or an unarmed attack, or his gauntlet).

If this changes the way you value Flurry Strike you may retrain it out for a different maneuever.

I'm gonna be adding the nerf list to the campaign tab in a second.

I think the only other mythic nerf that really applies to non-mythic abilities is that it is impossible to just fully ignore DR, spell resistance, immunities, etc using an ability or buff (using the right tool for the right DR still works - for example cold iron will ignore all DR). Instead, it only ignores a portion of DR/Immunity/whatever that scales with mythic tiers. This is mostly relevant to smite which no one has.

Also, all enemies on my side of the screen are subject to all those nerfs also, with the sole exception that the mythic Agile template works as normal on them. There are actually a few buffs to enemies on the list, but they are all ONLY for mythic enemies and ONLY defensive (nothing that lets them hit harder).

Weapon group adaptation feat added axes to all of the discipline groups I can use.
Here

Weapon group adaptation feat added axes to all of the maneuver groups I can use.

Here

Oh, nice! I missed that, thanks.

Still, the nerf is still in effect. Do you want to flurry with axe or shield?

And, are you going to keep the maneuver or retrain?

Well I get 2 attacks, which is 1 more then I normally get, which is 1 more at fully BAB, isn't that already what I am allowed?

Well I get 2 attacks, which is 1 more then I normally get, which is 1 more at fully BAB, isn't that already what I am allowed?

Oh, man you're right. I've played it as 2 extra attacks in the past. Then no big deal =)

I have someone at my table who is a cheaty face!!!! (I kid, but still.)

No biggie, call me out I'm not trying to be malicious and you are quite meticulous which is a breath of fresh air ;)