Welcome aboard!
Hello folks, Grumbaki (Sendi) invited me to come and help fill in for a missing player. I've had a chance to skim through the player's guide, the first few pages of Gameplay posts and the most recent few pages of Gameplay. Seems like a fun group!
I'm planning to put together a nice arcane caster, probably wizard, to round out the team.
Questions for the GM:
- Are the character creation rules in the Recruitment still valid? 4d6 drop lowest, 1 reroll, and all that?
- Starting at 2nd level it seems. What kind of wealth level should I start with? Any restrictions on item availability for starting gear?
- How exactly are you planning to fold in the new characters? Anything I should know for the sake of backstory formulation?
- Anything else I should know?
Nice to meet you all. I should have a character assembled soon, after I hear back about the questions above.
Welcome! I'll let our GM answer all of your questions. Also I vouch for him as a player. He's been great in our Curse of the Crimson Throne group.
Welcome Cellion!
Sending you a PM.
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Ah yes, the good old 34 point buy. Quite a well known variation on the rules. :> Time to whip up a well-above-average wizard.
Thanks for the welcome, all, and welcome to Cellion...guess one of us is the new guy and one is the new, new guy
Alright, she's shaping up slowly.
Phila is a illusionist/abjurationist wizard (with the Mage of the Veil school), opposed to evocation and necromancy.
Her apothecary, the orphanage that initially raised her, and many of her friends and contacts have been ruined by House Thrune's crackdown on the city, and she feels compelled to respond the only way the Calistrian teachings espouse... VENGEANCE!
Need to still fill in some details. Equipment, spells known, etc. But the broad outlines are there.
An elven Wizard...nice. Should round out the party quite well.
That and with a cleric/warpriest combo from Titus (blessings and domain) we’ll have a much needed tank/healer.
Alright, a dedicated spellcaster! Glad to have you.
This is a long shot, but--maybe Titus sees Crady fall and he's able to run and catch him?
Now that'd be a fine intro!
Alright, a dedicated spellcaster! Glad to have you.
Glad to be here. Philacris is ready to go and I'm looking forward to adding some spice to the proverbial roleplaying pot.
Isn't Crady a dedicated spellcaster too, as a full druid?
He is! But druids can do so many different things, I wasn't thinking of him in those terms.
Sorry for the confusion, trying to get my bearings. Did I come up directly adjacent to one of the tieflings?
Alright, looks like for now I'm gonna be in the peanut gallery.
So whats up with these Red Jills anyway? I picked up that they made Marillo disappear, but I guess I haven't dug far back enough in the gameplay thread to work out why else you guys need to fight them. Their leader seems pretty nasty for a small 2nd level party to deal with! 4d6 damage is no joke at this level. Average 14 damage on a hit and everyone has that amount of HP or a little higher :O
So far you've gotten lucky, but man, maybe there won't be a party for me to join in a few rounds.
They work for House Thrune, and are dangerously close to our territory. Plus they did murder Marillo and his family (that probably earned them a nice bounty). So they need to be eliminated.
But yeah...14 damage average and can fly. I literally have no ranged options and am out of spells. Let’s hope that she can’t keep doing that.
Luckily, Crady is a Swiss Army knife of adventuring, able to do anything except jump across bridges. Pakuzzo is a ranged damage dealer. And a Warpriest/Cleric just showed up. So I think we can weather this.
Aha, House Thrune! Sounds like a good enough reason to me. That already gives Phila a more clear cut reason for why she happens to be caught by them / investigating them / infiltrating them, or whatever RePete thinks is reasonable.
As a side note, Sendi has some positively absurd attack roll bonuses for a 2nd level character. That divine favor + fate's favored is working overtime. :>
@Titus: Based on the map the nearest living melee enemy is one of the two across the rickety bridge. Doesn't seem like you're adjacent.
@Titus, I put your token on top of the trap door you came through on the map. I missed Sendi's movement. Thought she was still next to the door.
The strix here is certainly nasty! In my F2F game she almost wiped out the group. She dropped the human in the party in round 1 with a crit on that spell.
The gang isn't directly tied into Thrune, but has been given a free pass by him to terrorize the locals. They have been robbing and murdering citizens in the area unchecked.
The AP is written for a second level party of 4 to do this fight.
Wow, so its just intended to be a toughie to crack! I can think of 2nd level parties that I've been in before that have no answer to a flying caster at this level, other than maybe one or two people having crossbows. I can still remember getting stymied by Erylium in Rise of the Runelords, who despite having no relevant offensive power is a hard counter to some parties.
Glad you guys chose to recruit when you did. With 3 people it could go south FAST (and it still can, to be fair).
Tried posting this earlier, but the site issues ate it...
@Pakuzzo. Not enough left to pull him up, but I'll allow you to use Aid Another this round.
This Friday/Saturday/Sunday I'm involved in a local Con so will have very limited availability to post. I'm looking over your stuff now Philacris and will get you plugged in. Thank you for joining up and for your patience. :-)
Enjoy the Con RePete! Let me know if you have any Qs about Philacris once you get back.
I survived the con. Trying to recoup now. I always seem to forget how much those things take out of me.
Philacris, I should have you plugging in by Wednesday. I apologize for the delay.
Welcome back. Hope you had a good time.
Sorry if I missed it, but was there damage to Titus?
"You dare call on HER in my presence?! I'll teach you manners!" screams the flying beast as it fires another ball of fire at the new interloper.
Titus is the 'new interloper' she was referring to with the 'HER' being your deity.
Under the GM screen spoiler is her attack roll and damage vs you. Apologies for not making the hit/damage clear. It was 4 fire damage.
Titus, the area you are in, you can see fine. The darkness spell is on the other roof, signified by the black outlined in green.
Thanks GM; figured it was under there, but didn't want to invade the screen
Looks like the caster is out of scorching rays and has massively downgraded to some kind of sorcerer ray power. Nice! Unless she has some other tricks you guys should have this one in the bag.
@RePete: No problem, I'm fine with hanging out until it makes sense for Phila to join.
Dangit; yeah I was completely disoriented. He can do a full move then, out into the thick of it
That's fine GM, and thanks - the "10 feet to the east" came from when I thought I was Crady.
Well, that's one trick :>
Shocking grasp from a presumably 3rd or 4th level character hits like a truck once she lands it. Hope you guys can finish her off this round!
Out working all day. Got home late. Very tired. Will post tomorrow (Friday) after sleeping.
Nice Sendi!
Thank you! Especially for the AC.
That could have ended badly. The Strix cast scorching ray, a lvl2 Spell. So she is at least lvl4. So if her shocking grasp hit that would have been 4d6 damage (average 14). I’m guessing that the tiefling is a lvl1 Rogue, so that’d be 2d6+d damage with a shortsword. Assuming Str10, that is another 7 damage agerage. 21 average damage from both hitting, with Sendi having 20HP.
The Strix went down. But there was a very real chance of Sendi being the one in negatives.
A close win is till a win. Nicely done.
Long rough shift today. Going to give you the chance to RP this interaction a little more, if you'd like.
Will have a post up tomorrow.
I'll be a bit hard to reach Fri-Sun; on a weekend trip with the wife. I'll post as I can by phone.
No problem. Real life comes first.
Philacris, welcome to the campaign officially!
We'll get you to the group, but it may take a few posts to join up. :-P
Other party members, what do you wish to do? As far as rumors go, there is still one you haven't solved. Clenchjaw's tavern has been getting increasingly rowdy at night. The citizens fear Barzillai may order it shut down permanently.
Crady knows that Clenchjaw has always been a no-nonsense proprietor and quickly shut down any hostilities within the bar. You visited it shortly earlier and saw him fall asleep and beers start getting thrown around.
Current time in game: Between 2200 and 2300hrs (AkA between 10 and 11 at night)
Loot time!
Now, I'm assuming that we'll meet the DC checks once we have a safe place to take 20. So no using it until then, but we can discuss who gets what:
Loot
* 5 darts
* A finely crafted spiked gauntlet (masterwork?)
* An amulet with what appears to be a piece of an oread contained within (awesome description for a +1 amulet of natural armor)
* shortsword
* studded leather armor
* light crossbow (with 15 bolts)
* Potion of CLW
* Potion of Invisibility
* 45g
How to distribute?
The big ticket item here is the +1 amulet of natural armor. That's worth 2,000 gold and is just downright useful for any character.
Right now our AC totals stand like this:
Titus: AC 21
Sendi: AC 20
Philacris: AC 13/17
Pakuzzo: AC 16
Crady: AC 14
Sendi gets the amulet, for AC 21.
My recommendations...Titus replaces that light shield with a heavy one. Barely costs any more, and your AC will be pushed up to 22. Throw in an armored kilt for just +20 gold, and your AC becomes 23.
I'd also advise Pakuzzo to sell his leather armor +1 (+3 AC) for 505 gold, and to pick up a masterwork chain coat (+4 AC, +5 Max dex AC) for 225 gold and a masterwork buckler for 155 gold. You gain 135 gold, and get +2 AC, pushing you up to AC 18. You get -1 ACP and 20ft movement...but it's a nice AC boost and as an archer movement isn't all that important.
And as I'm on a roll giving out unasked for advice...Crady can pick up a darkwood heavy shield. It'll boost your AC from 14 to 16. It won't add any ACP to your vast array of skills, but will give you much more survivability. Also, if you can afford the feat...you may want to look into eventually getting stoneplate. It's fullplate, made for druids. That's long-term thinking though.
New AC Values:
Titus: AC 23
Sendi: AC 21 (jumps up to 23 at lvl3)
Pakuzzo: AC 18
Philacris: AC 13/17
Crady: AC 16
-------------------
Possible Teamwork Feat
Now, as I'm waxing poetic on some possible optimization, how would everyone feel about sharing a teamwork feat? As I keep advising for more armor...
Stealth Synergy (While you can see one or more allies who also have this feat, whenever you and your allies make a Stealth check, you all take the highest roll and add all your modifiers to Stealth.)
Example: We are trying to sneak past Thrune Guards.
What would happen? The entire party would have crept quietly...and Titus would have tripped and fell down a flight of stairs, alerting the guards.
With this teamwork feat, we'd instead look like this:
Much better! And if we can Titus' breastplate masterwork and get him a darkwood heavy shield, then his -5 ACP gets reduced to -3. So with the teamwork feat, we can have a fairly decent chance of sneaking around as a group.
I appreciate the gear suggestions, Sendi. Unfortunately, due to the Roof Runner archetype Pakuzzo doesn't have medium armor or shield proficiency, and with my +1 leather armor and 20 Dexterity I already have a base AC of 18. Plus, thanks to Animal Aspect: Tiger I usually have my Dex bumped up to 22 more often than not, meaning I can take advantage of that +6 Dex bonus that leather armor allows me. Also my build is geared toward jumping, climbing, and acrobatics, so I kind of want to keep my mobility as high as possibly can; I'm much better at avoiding hits than taking them.
And speaking of teamwork feats, as a hunter I get a free teamwork feat at 3rd level (and an additional one every three levels thereafter) that applies to both me and my animal companion, and I can swap it out for a different teamwork feat as a standard action a number of times per day equal to my Wisdom modifier. I can add Stealth Synergy to myself and Vinz without burning a feat for either of us.
Ah I see. In that case your armor choice is pretty optimal. Though I think anyone can use a Masterwork buckler without penalty.
And seeing as how you get a free teamwork Feat, I’ll burn my lvl5 Feat on Stealth Synergy. I’d use the lvl3...but I remember now that I need Feral Combat Training (+1 Attack each round...)
Fine advice Sendi, and I appreciate it. I'll have a shopping list for when we get a chance
Apologies for my lack of post Tuesday. Been a rather hectic day.
I'll get one up this morning when I get to work.
Slide 1 has a picture of Nox on the 'Combat Maps' link above.
I should have had the foresight to put a skill point in intimidate. Philacris is trying to subvert an authoritarian regime, of course intimidation is the best way to trick people into submission (they're used to it anyway). Oh well, I'm getting mega-mileage out of disguise so it's all groovy.
Next level then. Plus if it all falls apart, it could make for a fun combat/introduction for the characters.
Philacris, for what it's worth, as a player I had no intention of actually attacking you at any point, and all I meant was for the others to cause you to drop your disguise; in hindsight I should have been much more clear about that to everyone in OOC.
I play my character as paranoid, and if given an ambiguous situation I'll tend to have him take it in the worst way. However, I let that get in the way of welcoming you as a new addition to the party. I could have stopped this whole thing from going south way earlier, but I didn't, so it's my fault that things ended up this way. You have my apologies for that, as does everyone else for having led them into this scenario. I would just as soon have everyone get along, both in-character and out of it.
Nothing like this will happen again, I can promise that. Again, sorry. I hope we can be cool from here on out.
No worries Pakuzzo, there's nothing to apologize for.
While you *were* putting me in a tough spot role-play-wise, it was a pretty cool scenario! Unfortunately, it was turning out pretty challenging to meet the twin goals of staying true to Phila's character and trying to figure out how to get the group all on one page in a logical/natural way. I was trying to defuse the situation by having Phila act clearly unlike Nox, as I felt it was not in her interest to show her real face to some possibly dangerous strangers.
Of course it didn't help when I misunderstood Sendi's last post as her making a pre-emptive attack!
Originally I had a post ready to go with Phila getting blown away by Sendi's attack, but I spent about 30 mins just kinda mulling over what to include to defuse the situation and couldn't really work anything out. After all, she'd just gotten attacked! Defending herself seemed like the most logical action in character, but obviously OOC it was a no-go. And any attempt to defuse the situation (shedding the illusion, more talking) seemed like way too much of a risk IC based on the events thus far. Plus, I couldn't work out how to roleplay Phila joining some people that just rearranged her internal organs...
Then I realized I was misreading Sendi's last post. (￣▽￣)ゞ
So, thankfully, no need for that dilemma.
I think it’s less your reading comprehension and more my poor writing.
But...all’s well that ends well, I hope?
Great. I'm good if you all are.
*thumbs up* looks like we're movin'