GM Rednal's Northlands Saga Complete (Inactive)

Game Master Rednal

Actually, you didn't need bigger guns... but better armor.

Or healing those last two hit points before the obvious boss fight...

These guys are basically glass cannons - low AC, not particularly impressive health, but very bad if they hit you. XD Totally designed to be dangerous, but not something that would result in an extended battle that you'd DEFINITELY be at a disadvantage in.

Another full caster wouldn't be bad, either—but I guess now we get to go revengey.

But daang those enemies do enough damage to kill themselves in a single hit. Daaang.

Notice how big they are. XD PCs aren't the only ones who can cast certain popular martial-buffing magics...

Also, Hakon, you can't charge from there - notice the large standing stone right in front of you, blocking your path. Would you like to change your action?

Also, *Coughs*.

If you die, you can make an attack or a Death Speech, but not both. You are, after all, in the middle of dying.

Sorry, I thought that you mentioning destructive blast and this section from the Death Speech meant I should do both, since I wasn't laying a curse or geas.

First, they may take one standard action in order to complete a task interrupted by their demise or make an attack, after which they slip the mortal coil and go to meet their ultimate fate. Second, they may make a death speech, a long and usually poetic summation of their lives. If the dead man is a PC, the GM should award a bonus to that player’s next character based on the quality of the speech, usually an XP award or a story-appropriate magic item.

Well, back to being human I guess. Damn.

See the previous sentence in that paragraph:

If a PC or important NPC dies, they may as a free action regain consciousness to do one of the following things.

I was mentioning that Destructive Blast was an option, not that it was required. (Incidentally, the blast is probably not the best use of a death action. I don't think Hakon and Eindrid will have much trouble with this guy, so if you want to take the boon for the Death Speech instead, that's more of a long-term gain for the party.)

Yeah, especially given that I probably missed there touch AC with a 12...

But what's posted is posted. Not much I can do now.

I can always say the blast fizzled. XD Besides, you did give the speech before attacking - so even from a totally neutral and unbiased view, I don't think it would be hard to claim that's what counts for the purpose of the rule we're using.

It's up to you, I suppose. I tend to go for the option that's least friendly to myself when in doubt.

Go for the speech, keep the boon, make the character you want to make. XD The point of the game is to have fun, after all!

And to kill Sibbe.

If anyone's wondering why I'm being a bit slow, it's because I'm helping the new character get made, and I'm hoping for them to join in... pretty much as soon as I've approved them. Like, before Sibbe's next action. XD

Is the next PC gonna be Runa?

No - although that is an awesome idea. But I assume she's too plot relevant. The new PC is...around. I'm finishing up skills and Spheres - oh dear lord so many Spheres - and then I'll send it for approval. Sorry it's taken this long. I've been distracted by trying to organize my own game and things breaking at work.

No worries!

I just caught up with the game I GM, in which our average-NE party contains a fallen angel AND a fallen azata. Being the troll that I am, I sent the outsiders on a quest to learn about their past lives, then randomly rolled backgrounds.

... turns out, the party LE Erinyes Warlord used to be a bronze dragon from Taldor who died fighting by Iomedae's side in the Shining Crusade. Turns out random character background generation is wacky!

It often is, yes. XD

(The best way to narrow down the Spheres, by the way, is to figure out what you WANT to do with magic and focus on that. Just say "It would be cool if I could..." and go from there. Also, the Destruction Handbook came out, and I am semi-seriously considering revising a character in one of Laralai's recruitments to compensate. It's basically the choice between lots of little nomming attacks, or one big arm-transforming bite.)

Yeah, my eyes kinda lit up when I read the Improved Energy Blade feat. Combined with Vital Strike should make for fun times. Fun times where things implode.

*Coughs*

As a note, I generally discourage stacking means of offense. That usually results in a bit of system-breaking and characters doing much more damage than they ought to be, so I might have to deny certain combos for the sake of fairness after running the numbers. In general, Gestalt should not be used to stack things not meant to stack.

I know. In this case it was more to help Vital Strike keep up with full attack, and occasionally pouring spell points into doomsday spear assaults. If it's a no go I'll drop that plan.

Update: We're still working on the character, trying to make sure everything fits together. XD

(I'm the first to admit that this game is a bit harder to make characters for, and among other things, both of us want to be sure they fill the right niche and don't invalidate anyone else's concepts. ^^ Thanks for your patience, everyone!)

Yeah, sorry. I screwed the pooch fairly royally, and it's gonna take longer than I'd like to fix it.

Eh; I already had the concept, I just had to filter it into the system. But maybe that made mine easier.

I usually have a very hard time making characters until I have a concept. Once I know what I want them to be like, though, everything just kinda falls into place. XD

(I build mainly for flavor, with little regard for actual power as long as it seems reasonably competent. 'S worked pretty well so far.)

I usually start with a concept, mainly in terms of weaponry and abilities, and build the character around that. So I knew I wanted Laralai to be a grappler and a caster, and White Witch fit that bill nicely even without the Hexes (which sucks...one day I'll have hexes) and monk was an obvious compliment, although I kept looking at Brawler too.

In this case it was actually reasonably simple. It simply didn't work, so I'm busy cutting pieces off to drop the potency a bit and looking into new ideas if I can't cut enough and keep the character I want.

Brawler might also be a thematic way to add some grapple

Eydis, the witch is more than 30 feet away. You sure you want to try hurling from there?

...how fast can she run? I was standing right next to her...

OK, I didn't use my move action, so I'll move to thirty feet and then throw.

With a Withdraw Action? Twice her move speed. XD *Gestures to the map* We're using that, so move where you'd like to be. ^^

Done.

...*Sweatdrop*

Uh... *Coughs*

You know she's still more than thirty feet away, right? Every other diagonal counts as double for range purposes and all that?

*Sighs*

There are days I hate Pathfinder. 'Use thrown weapons, Jon, it'll be cool! And you can make it zoom back.' Bah.

Change it to a magic spear attack, and I'll spend a point to up it to Medium range. It'll be a ranged touch attack dealing the 1d6 damage part.

How to play a throwing character:

1. Be full BAB

2. Startoss Style. Dear god, dude, that chain is amazing.

Eh, we're all a bit weird when using a character for the first time. XD Don't worry about it. You can still throw the weapon as normal (without using the zoom-back power). To increase the range of your Destructive Blast, you need the talent for that (which doesn't cost a point, btw).

Well, mostly they're just stabby. Throwing is a bonus option.

OK, since I can't reach her, I'll just hold action.

Hmm. I might actually have Eindrid pick up a bow. Not sure, but they sure ain't cheap in this setting.

Could also buy some heavier armor (Eindrid could benefit from a breastplate or kilt) but I'm not sure if it's worth the penalties to speed and movement in snow, and Mithral is probably a pipe dream.

Funnily enough, it's not. XD Mithril's one of the materials available in a High Middle Ages region (which Halfstead is), and Halfstead explicitly possesses stores that cater to adventuring types.

It's a town of 4,750 people or so, and the largest settlement in the Northlands. All of which, y'know, makes it easier to accommodate a variety of PC backstories and purchasing choices. XD What you're playing right now is the prologue adventure - the campaign originally began with a different adventure at a higher level, and the 'home base', as it were, was designed to accommodate this.

Heh, yeah, I remember the first two pages of that adventure...

Well, one of these days I'll wind up with a mithral breastplate, then (or something similar). Certainly no in-character rush to get there.

Also, vikings had legit bows, but the weather wasn't ideal for constructing composites (though they might have been imported through trade).

Odin even had his own superbow, Ichaival, which was said to fire ten arrows with each pull.

Hello everyone, I'm going to be traveling tomorrow, so please feel free to bot me if needed!

Say, Eydis—how are you getting the +6 on your weapon damage? Is that from including power attack?

Yup. +3 from Strength, +2 from Power attack, +1 for Magical. It's why I'm not that great at actually hitting things. +3 from strength, +1 from BAB and + 1 from Magic and _1 for Weapon Focus, but -1 to Power Attack leaves me at +5 to hit. My basic build will be a Vital Strike/Weapon of the Chosen combo, with some additional Sphere Magic to up Vital Strike's damage. It'll be horribly random in terms of damage output, though. I think I worked out at level 20 it would range between 20 points and 120 points per hit.

I've never done Downtime before (which, given the amount I RP, is just plain weird) so I just want to be sure I work out exactly what I'm doing.

First, and mostly for fun and flavour, can I use more than one skill? I'm thinking of doing mostly healing, but spending a month on a fishing boat to practice those Profession (Sailor) Skills.

Secondly, we roll for each week and then choose Good, Influence or Labour, right? Over 10 earns 1 point, over 20 earns 2 points, etc.

I think that's all I need for now, since I don't have the materials to build or buy anything...

Ooh—if there’s one actually accurate thing I know about vikings, it’s that they love carrying multiple shields into battle. Guess I’ll be saving the dented-up old buckler too.

Eindrid, of course, rarely spends more than a year in one place, and is not interested in property (yet!); but I assume this might change. I think I can find a reason for him to stay two or three more seasons…

Does “one income check per week” mean “it takes the whole week,” or “you can only spend one day a week on income, but the rest can be spent gaining influence?” Note that Profession checks are *normally* earned per week, though Perform checks normally earn a smaller (and exponentially scaling) amount on a daily basis instead (not sure if they’re run like profession in this campaign).

Or are we using the downtime rules (you get your skill check in sp per day + 10 if you have a business, but here converted to per week, which is less than normal for Profession but more than normal for Perform?) In this case, does goods/influence/etc also get earned 1/week instead of 1/day?

@Eydis: Profession (Fisherman) is a genuinely separate skill. XD Sailor, in this campaign, is not being used for income - it's used for something else entirely, and there's actually a reason I don't want you at sea right now. ^^ The main "work to earn" skill is Profession (Farmer) and any Perform skills, although I'd accept Fisherman if you actually put points in it.

@Eindrid: One income check per week means you spend the whole week doing it. So you could earn income or G/I/L.

@Both: Everything is earned weekly. This is partly a reflection of the fact that the Northlands is not particularly rich, and partly because there's actually quite a bit of downtime available, and a slower earning speed makes more long-term sense for the campaign. XD

(Crafting is done at normal speed, by the way, although there's a cap on how many materials can be purchased each week. <- *Mostly relevant later*)

So we make 28 rolls, right?

Would Heal and Survival for hunting be acceptable? Eydis doesn't have a farm of her own at 28 so I figured she probably should do Farmer yet.

Just a quick note that I'm back and am going to spend a little time absorbing the downtime rules and writing a proper response.

Whoops, I mean 24 rolls. Sorry, I was watching House.

You don't need to work your own farm - you can work someone else's (like, say, the Jarl's).

And if you don't feel like rolling, you can just Take 10. XD Otherwise, yeah, one per week and tally stuff up.

Perform (oratory): 24d20 + 240 ⇒ (19, 17, 16, 1, 8, 10, 1, 8, 18, 5, 9, 11, 20, 13, 16, 9, 7, 11, 3, 3, 16, 12, 5, 3) + 240 = 481

Whee! 48 gp! That's enough to buy SEVERAL javelins.

Guys, apologies as life continues to be hectic. Had friends visit from out of town this weekend. Tomorrow should go back to normal. Thanks for your patience.