Travelling back today, so hopefully normal posting can resume for me tomorrow.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Just a heads up to let you know I'll be in the mountains next week on holidays. So pretty much no internet, I guess.
Don't mind the profile picture change, just wasn't too keen on the old one.
|
Waiting on Stian to post his answer before proceeding.
Hopefully his answer will be positive, which means that you will be vested with mythical powers. Since Thorgull and I will be attending the GardenCon (from Wednesday to Sunday), we'll use that pause so that everyone can figure out what mythic path/powers he wants. In fact, you can already start now. You level up to 3rd, and gain your first mythic tier in the path of your choice! (Unless Stian spits in the face of the Black Rider's high expectations, of course ;) )
Awesome! I will get working on that right away. I think Hierophant seems the only logical choice for Zadok.
edit: also, I've never played an oracle before and I have no idea what feats to take. I took Extra Revelation at 1st level but I don't know what to take for 3rd.
Nice! I will go Archmage, of course!
@GM: I'm a little confused with this path ability. Is the 3rd-tier access only for the summoner part of it?
@Zadok: I'd say extra revelation is always a winner in my heart because it lets you play an oracle at his full potential. Now there are other feats :)
Well, most of the other Dark Tapestry revelations are cold damage so they probably wouldn't be as useful for this AP most of the time. And if I take it again I risk running out of good revelations before the 7th level ones kick in. Maybe I'll find a metamagic feat or something, even if I can't use it now....
edit: I guess I should also consider which feats will give me access to mythic versions of those feats. I am not overly familiar with mythic feats and abilities so I guess I'll have to crack the book open later and review it a bit.
Sorry about that. I could have sworn I posted a response.
Stian will go Trickster or Guardian.
|
|
Wonderful, looking forward to see your updated characters, everyone!
Speedy Summons (Su): When you cast a summon monster spell, the casting time is 1 standard action instead of 1 round. If you expend one use of mythic power, the casting time becomes 1 swift action. If you're a summoner, as a full-round action you can expend one use of mythic power to summon your eidolon. You must be at least 3rd tier to select this ability.
@Thorgull: I don't think there's any ambiguity here. The entire ability can only be taken once you've reached 3rd mythic tier. The final sentence that puts a restriction on when you can pick an ability always applies to the full ability. Since you're familiar with oracle revelations, it's the same thing (the same language is used). That being said, it'll probably be the most interesting ability to pick when you reach 3rd tier. I loved using that feat in Destiny of the Sands, it was an absolute blast!
@Zadok: Extra Revelations has its perks, but its usefulness greatly varies according to three factors:
1) What's your maximum level for the campaign.
2) How many revelations you really intend on picking.
3) How soon you want these revelations.
For example if you really want one 1st-level (minimum) revelation, one 3rd-level and three 7th-level revelation, there's no point in taking Extra Revelation early, but you might want to pick it as your 7th-level feat.
If you really want about five revelations and know that your campaign is going to eventually reach the higher levels, then choosing this feat may be an asset early but prove counter-productive in the long run. Let's say you pick two great revelations at 1st level but then reach 11th level and don't know what to pick because all the "leftover" revelations aren't interesting for you, you'll have basically wasted a feat, unless the benefit of having that extra revelation was really worth it for the 10 first levels. A good example of that is my RotRL oracle, who just picked (at 12th level) a revelation that might never be useful, a sub-par choice especially considering he took Extra Revelation early to get both Cha to AC/Ref and Cha to Knowledge checks. I don't regret that choice because it made the first ten levels a lot more enjoyable, though.
Other interesting feats for an oracle vary a lot accoding to your "type" of oracle. Since you appear to be a more caster-oriented oracle, you can't really go wrong with caster feats (Combat Casting, Spell Focus, Augment Summoning if you plan to summon a lot, metamagic feats, etc).
I also suggest looking into the Mythic version of a feat when you choose the base one, because it can strongly influence your choice, of course.
I'll just give you one strong opinion. The Divine Interference feat (requires Clvl 10th) is an absolute must.
Here are the links to my three oracle characters (does it show that I love that class? ;) ) in case you want to look at the choices I've made (which aren't always optimal, but have been enjoyable for me as a player). Time oracle (12th), Lunar oracle (5th), Lore oracle/Evangelist (13th). Hope this helps!
Wow, lots of good ideas Lithrac! Yeah, I already loosely planned out which revelations I wanted to take. There were several lower-level ones I wanted before the better ones kicked in at 7th level, etc so I was only planning on taking Extra Revelation once.
And you're right, I'm focusing on casting which is why I decided to pick up Spell Focus (enchantment) and made my mythic feats and powers both mythic spellcasting to get Mythic CLW and Mythic Sun Metal, which I think now makes his formerly meager 1st-level castings pretty powerful. Also Zadok would be very interested in wielding cosmic power through his divine casting so having the most powerful spells seems in his nature.
Can't wait to try it all out! I've wanted to try oracle (and mythic) for so long!
I should be sorted now. Took weapon finesse and mythic weapon finesse so my combat effectiveness should increase.
-Posted with Wayfinder
|
|
I'm really sorry for you, Virgil. I hope things will turn out okay for you.
Don't worry too much as far as the game is concerned, Thorgull and I were at the GardenCon last week, we just only got back. I'll leave everyone a few days to sort the Mythic stuff out, and hopefully we'll be able to continue as soon as that is out of the way!
Sorry to hear that, Virgil!
I'll update Thorgull's sheet today.
Not for me.
Stian's perception bumped to +7 (+8 for traps), his Init stayed the same.
Stian also took Favored Terrain, Cold.
Hey Lithrac, if it's not too much hassle when you get a second, could you change my map token to match my new avatar?
|
|
I wanted to tell you that I haven't forgotten you, and I'm still around. These past weeks have been as busy as hell for my work (the extra responsibilities I've taken have eaten most of my free time), so I haven't found the time to read the last part of the scenario yet. What's more, I'm GMing for the timed special in the PbP day, so most of my GMing time goes for that. Moreover, I'm GMing for the Flaxseed group a complex PFS scenario that I didn't remember half as well as I thought I would, so some time has also gone that way.
The good news is that I'll be on holiday (no trips this time) in two weeks' time, which will give me ample time to prepare the next part. Incidentally, the timed special will be near its end at that time too, which will free up more time for GMing for you. Until then, I prefer to let you know that I put things on hold, but with the clear intention to resume things seriously after/at Christmas.
I hope you won't be too disappointed by this, but I preferred giving you clear news than leaving you without any.
That's fine with me; thanks for keeping us updated. This semester has been devilishly busy for me as well but I'm in the final stretch of my plant breeding class which wraps up next week and after that I should have a lot more time.
Fine with me either, of course :)
No problems here. I'm not going anywhere!
I'm still here, albeit fairly quiet atm.
|
|
Hi everyone,
Moreover, I must regretfully announce that I would like to close this campaign, effective immediately. As some of you know, I've been feeling increasingly burnt out about PbP GMing for the last few months. I think that has been showing in my much slower posting rate, the abysmal quality of my posting (as GM and player alike), and the general lack of enthusiasm from my part in way too many games. It's not a lack of time anymore (it used to be when I had more than 20 ongoing games at the same time, but it's hardly the case now), it's a problem of motivation. "Burnt out" would be one way to put it in words, it's that situation when you know you have to do something, but keep postponing it indefinitely because you don't feel like doing it, that the simple idea of doing it is a huge problem for you. For example, I can't bring myself to read the next part of the Reign of Winter game for weeks (months?) now, and the simple sight of the AP volume on my desk fills me with mixed feelings of powerlessness and guilt.
I've overcommitted to PbP, and now comes the price I guess. I just don't enjoy it anymore, save for a couple of games. The situation isn't new, as you surely have noticed, and has grown much worse over the past few months. So in order to stop dragging this any longer, I prefer to bow out. I'm really sorry about how things turned, but I'm the first person to be surprised by the difference between my overly enthusiastic self when I started PbP and the poor poster I've become...
I think all of us here completely understand, Lithrac. It happens to the best of us now and then. I'll be sorry to see this campaign end but it was fun while it lasted. I'm glad I got to experience my favorite AP from the player's perspective for at least a while and got to try out the oracle class for the first time, which was a lot of fun.
Thanks for the time you put into the game, GM! See you all around!
I appreciate the effort you've made so far. From a persona perspective the games you ran 18 months ago were the games that got me into PFS and PbP, so you have my gratitude for that.
|
|
Soooo... due to popular demand, it looks like RoW is back on track! I would greatly like to continue where we left off, and it looks like all three of you (Virgil, Zadok and Thorgull) are up for it! The only thing is that Stian (Tektite) has completely vanished from the boards, so we'll need to replace him, ideally with a combatant (melee or ranged) of some sort.
I honestly don't want to hold auditions for the replacement spot, but would prefer to have someone recommanded first-hand, or better, someone I know and like. I wanted to ask Bold Strider - EF, have you got any idea if he already played it? Do you have other ideas of great players to ask?
Regarding the pace of the game, none of us are still posting every day, so I intend to pursue a more relaxed game, with people ideally posting once every other day. If we can push it occasionally to once every day that's even better, but I don't want to ask too much at first. Let's see how it goes like this, if you agree.
I wanted to ask Bold Strider - EF, have you got any idea if he already played it? Do you have other ideas of great players to ask?
I'm pretty sure he hasn't and I'm also pretty sure he would love a chance to play this AP especially since it's mythic. I would expect something absolutely ridiculous from him, haha.
---
I'm also fine with a more relaxed pace. It's a great AP and I don't mind taking our time and really enjoying it. Every other day is a good pace to aim for; it won't be too fast for anyone and shouldn't be so slow as to stagnate (I would think).
|
|
Outstanding! I've just PMed him.
There's one more thing I wanted to discuss: since we've started one of my favourite PFRPG books has become available - Pathinfder Unchained. Since we're restarting, I'd like to submit to you the idea of including some Unchained rules in the mix.
The rules I'm usually using in my home games nowadays include:
- Background skills
- Skill Unlocks
- Stamina and Combat Tricks (the Combat Stamina feat is free for the fighter class)
- Wound Thresholds
- Poisons and Diseases
- Innate Item Bonuses (although not for armor/weapons, only for the other items - cloak, ring, belt, headband, amulet)
I've never tried Variant MultiClassing (VMC) but I understand it's a rather popular rule, so I'd be open about trying it out if you are interested.
Of course, adopting these rules would allow for a complete rebuild right now.
Too excited for this! Already got the character ready save the Mythic part which I am still working out the kinks for.
If I read it correctly, I get a Path Ability and a Mythic Feat, correct?
Giri is a melee bruiser with a bunch of support/offensive spells. He will probably prepare very few control or healing types spells, relying on his spontaneous conversion for immediate healing.
I was thinking of going Hierophant for the spell stuff. I know that Zadok is also a Hierophant, so if that is bad, then let me know, however I think our characters are very different.
As Hierophant, I was thinking Mythic Eldritch Heritage to get the Boreal bloodline to maximum and Legendary Item Path Ability. If possible, I would like to leave the (in the future) artifact's abilities up to the GM, but my idea is that it is a religious artifact of the Yamatsumi temple in the Chenlun Mountains. Anything works for me! :D
---
As for the other Unchained Rules, I am in support of nearly all of them as I think they all have merit, but they add a lot of paperwork, tbh.
---
As always, I am open to ideas, critiques and compliments! ;-)
Oh, the flavor.
Giri is a Tien man who has lived his entire life in the Chenlun Mountains in Tian Xia. When he was a small child, before he can remember, he was sent to be a monk for a Yamatsumi temple deep in the snow and ice of the mountain tops. This temple's protector took a special interest in Giri and began to show him the ways of a temple protector.
The temple's protector is growing old and is passing on his mantle, but first he believes that Giri must pass a great test in order for him to pass on the mantle. To this effect, the protector has given Giri the sacred (insert temple's artifact) to guide him on a quest and the protector imbued Giri with a small portion of his mythic power.
Giri left the temple and has traveled to Taldor in search of this quest, knowing that a great trial lay before him, however he still awaits the sign from Yamatsumi.
Yayyyyy!! I'm so excited to play this campaign and Thorgull again!
I'll take time later today to look at his sheet.
As you know Lithrac, I'm all for the unchained rules since we're already playing in face to face with them and I'm getting used to them. :)
I haven't read through the Unchained rules yet but from hearing about some of them I'd be willing to try them. I was planning on sticking with oracle through everything so variant multiclassing doesn't affect Zadok at all.
For Giri's benefit:
Zadok is primarily a caster and has been serving as the party healer as well. I'm sticking with oracle and Hierophant with a focus on boosting his spellcasting abilities. It sounds like Giri is mostly melee, which is probably good because Thorgull is our arcane expert and Virgil needs another melee buddy to replace Tek's character.
|
|
I'm very excited about it all! It looks like Giri will fit very nicely into the group. However, for story reasons we have to assume that your mythic power came from the same source as all the others (with a slight change, see the PM I'm sending you).
Concerning character creation, all rules are posted here, except you'll start at level 3 / MT 1 with level 3 WBL. One house rule of mine that'll affect you is the 4+Int mod skill points per level for cleric (and fighter), on top of the Background skills rules. Yay, extra skill points!
For the other group members, you may rebuild as you like your character, with the new Unchained rules in mind (assume all the rules above will be implemented). This means 2 extra skill points in Background skills for everyone, and the need to calculate your Wound thresholds (keep in mind that the Endurance feat reduces the pain penalties by 1 - priceless for frontliners, still a great choice for most other characters).
As for mythic abilities, you gain the following at 1st Tier: Hard to kill, mythic power (5/day), surge +1d6, one mythic feat of your choosing, your Mythic Path's base ability (Archmage's Arcana, Champion's Strike, etc.), as well as one Path ability.
I'm thinking my Path Ability will be Legendary Item.
A +1 tetsubo with the abilities of Upgradable, Foe-Biting and Intelligent (Spellcasting). Giri will unlock Foe-Biting for his first tier and he will use Hierophant for Inspired Spell and take Mythic Eldritch Heritage as his feat.
Any thoughts on the build?
---
As for the Upgradeable ability, I was thinking that the +1 Tetsubo could upgrade itself by consuming other magical weapons to gain their abilities. For example, if we find a +2 longsword and no one wants it, then Eruption's Blaze could consume it after 24 hours and turn into a +2 tetsubo.
Thoughts?
|
|
I love the Legendary item idea! Let's work a bit on it.
First, allow me to say that the AP will take you to level 17 with 5 mythic tiers, just so that you know where you're headed.
Secondly, your choice of abilities is great and would make a very interesting item. Let's think a little bit about fleshing it out more. Any ideas on its personality, goals or even its name? Was it a legendary item that belonged to a mythic master of your order, or will it become mythic alongside you?
A sidenote about your Eldritch Heritage choice - Boreal is a both a boon and a bane in this campaign. Many opponents you'll face are immune or resistant to cold, and you may very well feel frustrated by your Eldritch Heritage bloodline's 1st-level power. However, the resistance to cold will be very useful on many occasions.
The changes to the Upgradeable ability sound very interesting, and would be a good way to allow your weapon to remain on-par with the other PCs' weaponry. Of course, that would go well beyond what an ability like Upgradeable would do (or a lower-tier legendary item), so here's what I propose to you: Upgradeable remains as written, and we'll create a different power, "Devourer" (or any other name we deem worthy of this ability).
Devourer: This weapon gains the ability to consume other magical, non-mythic weapons to gain their abilities. The bonded creature can improve her legendary weapon by performing a special ritual that includes the draining and permanent destruction of a magical, non-mythic weapon. The ritual lasts 8 hours. Upon completion of that ritual, the legendary weapon gains either the enhancement bonus of the drained magical weapon (provided it's higher than the legendary weapon's enhancement bonus) or a single special ability belonging to the drained magical weapon.
If the bonded creature chooses to drain the enhancement bonus, it replaces the legendary weapon's enhancement bonus with that of the drained magical weapon.
If the bonded creature chooses to drain a single special ability, it immediately gains that ability. Drained abilities must be legal for the legendary weapon's type. For example, a melee legendary weapon with Devourer can't drain the seeking special ability.
A legendary weapon is limited in the amount of magic it can drain. As a result of the ritual, a legendary weapon can never gain an enhancement bonus greater than the mythic tier of its bonded creature, nor can the added bonuses of the legendary weapon's special abilities go beyond the bonded creature's mythic tier. For example, a 3rd-tier mythic character possessing a +2 holy longsword with the Devourer ability could drain a +3 longbow to become a +3 holy longsword, but it couldn't drain a +4 longbow, because he's only 3rd mythic tier. The bearer of the same weapon could drain a +1 evil outsider bane morningstar's bane ability (holy and bane add up to +3, the mythic tier of the bonded creature), but it couldn't drain a +1 speed morningstar (holy and speed add up to +5, well above the bonded creature's mythic tier). Upon making the choice of draining a special ability, the bonded creature can choose to have her legendary weapon "lose" any number of special abilities she had before she learns a new one. Thus, a 5th-tier mythic character wielding a +3 holy longsword could choose to lose her weapon's holy special ability in order to drain the vorpal special ability.
The drained weapon is completely destroyed by the ritual, and can't be reconstructed by any means short of a wish or miracle.
Mythic, cursed, or intelligent weapons can't be drained in this fashion. Artifacts can't be drained either.
A legendary weapon must be a minor or major artifact to have this ability.
Prerequisite: The Upgradeable legendary ability.
Thus your legendary weapon could look like this:
Base: +1 Tetsubo
1st Tier: Foe-Biter
2nd Tier: Intelligent (spellcasting)
3rd Tier: Upgradeable
4th Tier: Devourer
5th Tier: ???
What do you think?
It's been a while so I'm trying to kind of remind myself about what I had planned for Zadok:
For mechanics, I'm keeping things fairly simply as a caster oracle and hierophant. I honestly don't think I had many complicated mechanical plans, or if I did I have forgotten them.
Zadok was pretty much a wandering apocalyptic preacher, preaching the power and chaos of the outer spheres as the inevitable outcome of Golarion's future. As he gains in power, he grows closer to those powers and gains direct connections with the Dark Tapestry and Great Old Ones, etc, perhaps granting him power but probably also wearing away at his sanity as well.
I'm leaving the details purposefully vague as sometimes things that happen in the campaign can radically shift the character's trajectory and that's usually more fun anyways. Just like in Giantslayer where I started out playing a simple stableboy with a yak (Hunter) but after his yak was killed and we didn't have the resources to bring it back, a Mindspin ram wandered into camp and convinced my hunter that Gozreh is watching over him. I didn't actually change his class or anything, but I roleplay him as a much more devout now and it adds some depth to his character that wasn't there before. I'm hoping Zadok will develop in the same way.
Outstanding! I've just PMed him.
There's one more thing I wanted to discuss: since we've started one of my favourite PFRPG books has become available - Pathinfder Unchained. Since we're restarting, I'd like to submit to you the idea of including some Unchained rules in the mix.
The rules I'm usually using in my home games nowadays include:
- Background skills
- Skill Unlocks
- Stamina and Combat Tricks (the Combat Stamina feat is free for the fighter class)
- Wound Thresholds
- Poisons and Diseases
- Innate Item Bonuses (although not for armor/weapons, only for the other items - cloak, ring, belt, headband, amulet)I've never tried Variant MultiClassing (VMC) but I understand it's a rather popular rule, so I'd be open about trying it out if you are interested.
Of course, adopting these rules would allow for a complete rebuild right now.
How many and which of these would you be looking to implement? I'm certainly not against the idea, but implementing all of them will involve a lot of learning on my part as I've not really researched the variant rules. I'm quite happy for a rebuild as a few of the new books might call for the odd feat or skills review on Virgil.
Also, good to see you all again.
|
|
That's a fair point. While my two face to face groups had no problems learning all of these small rules in a relatively short time, I don't mind hand-picking a few of those and leave the rest aside.
The ones I'd really want to use are:
- Background skills. Basically you get 2 extra skill points per level (retroactively, as far as the rebuild is concerned), which you can spend on certain skills only (profession/craft/perform/more obscure knowledge skills/etc.).
- Innate Item Bonuses. Again, you have everything to gain from this rule, because it frees up the slots that are usually taken by the "big six" (ring of protection, amulet of natural armor, cloak of resistance, belt of [physical ability score], headband of [mental ability score]. If you don't want to use this rule it's fine by me, it's the party's loss.
However, I'm open to the idea of leaving aside Skill Unlocks, Stamina and Combat Tricks, as well as VMC. They're basically just more options for the PCs, but I understand that some may find their sudden availability overwhelming, especially if you've never heard of them before. That being said, I'll leave these rules as "available", meaning that if a PC is interested in using one of these (for example, picking Signature Skill (UMD) for his character), he's welcome to do so.
As for the Wound Thresholds and Disease/Poisons, leaving them aside completely isn't a problem for me. They're probably the rules that will change your character's life the most, and they usually create a more gritty atmosphere (for the PCs as well as for their opponents) in combat. Since Reign of Winter is more epic than gritty, those rules wouldn't fit too well in there, I guess.
Since it's a holiday weekend and we are traveling, I'm having trouble keeping up with my games and won't be able to catch back up and update Zadok until Tuesday or Wednesday at the earliest.