Thank you for bearing with me. I'm leaving tomorrow for a legal conference out of state and won't be back until Sunday. I'll have no Internet access. More accurately, I will have no laptop. I'm not nuts enough to try to GM on an iPad. So I'll just see you on Sunday.
Cheers!
We'll be here.
Hi! I just got my Internet connection back after four days of outage. I'll be posting soon!
Sorry friends. I've had a week that kicked my rear. I'm doing my best to catch up, and try to have a post up by the end of today (Wednesday). I just wanted to let my games know I'm alive and kicking the week back as best I can.
Hope it gets better! I've been pretty busy myself.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!
Everyone else, happy Thursday!
I'm curious about the quotation marks. Is it hard to get good Mexican food in Belgium, then?
You know, one thing I've learned from living in Virginia and California and having a Mexican wife is that there are many styles of Mexican food. What most Americans think of as Mexican food is "Sonoran" style or "Border Food". My wife Vivian loves certain Mexican restaurants, but always says they're nothing like what she ate growing up in Mexico City. And it's true - Mexico city is all about the beef. Fewer beans and tortillas.
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"Speaking of "Mexican" food, Thorny, it's nacho turn. I've put your token back."
Hah! Sorry. I saw a list of names and ignored the "Status" label. I assumed it was the initiative order. I was also trying to hang with the game while on vacation so was only giving it half a mind.
Scott -- yes, my family is from the border region and Chihuahua. What we consider Mexican leans what you call border food (Cal-Mex, Sonoran, Tex-Mex) and would be different from what Viv is accustomed to.
When I put it in quotes, it usually means cheese-whiz for nacho cheese and a sandwich wrap in place of a flour tortilla. I can taste the canned jalapenos, too. It's mostly an ingredient sourcing issue. Chorizo is almost always the chorizo from Spain (reasonable) instead of what I grew up with.
Speaking of sourcing, when I was living in San Diego, all the Mexican-themed restaurants owned by Caucasians had Spanish names ("El Palacio", "Don Diego's") and all the ones owned by Mexicans had English names ("Taco King", "Big Taco"). I remember asking the Mexican ladies who owned Taco King where their food came from, expecting them to say it came from across the border. They were horrified. They carefully explained that all their food came from the U.S. and that I should be very careful eating anything grown in Mexico. "Sometimes we use Mexican fish," they said.
I'm sorry for going MIA. All I can say is I'm sorry, and depression sucks. I'll get caught up as quickly as I can.
Hey, CariMac, first and foremost, we want you to take care of yourself. Depression is a serious condition and real life is always more important than our goofy little games here. Second, you're one of the most reliable posters I know. Think nothing of a few days off!
Third, I'm glad you're back!
Merry Christmas!
God Bless Us, Every One!
Merry Christmas, players, party and GM...
Family emergency means I'm going to be AWOL a bit.
Forgot about 5ft steps... dang it.
Apologies for my absence. The pollen count here in Virginia has been kicking my butt. And yesterday I couldn't log in.
New Revelation: Enhanced Cures
Spell: Shield of Faith
Skills Background: Know Geography
Skills:
Diplomacy
Heal
Perception
Sense Motive
UMD
Spellcraft
Feat: Toughness
HP: 28/28
It's really about taking out a bunch of low-level mooks and it turns out that the BSF (Big Stupid Fighter) should be going after the biggest threat, not trying to take out a bunch of smaller ones. I just really think you might want to concentrate on feats that will help you survive contact with big and terrifying opponents. Like "Iron Will" for instance. Or "Furious Focus".
Just an idea.
Bloodline Spell: Obscuring Mist
Bloodline Power: Ectoplasmic Reach
New 1st lev spell: Protect from Evil
New Skill Ranks: Stealth (+12) & Diplomacy (+9)
Adjusted HP accordingly.
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OK, leveled up. I added Rogue (which makes one of my background traits a little redundant, but I think we need the skills, and actually it might help as much in combat as ranger/fighter would have anyway). So, changes are:
+5 HP
+2 Ref save
New feat: Focused shot (will add +2 Int damage in many cases)
Also added Weapon Finesse from UC Rogue, and want to pick up an Elven Curved Blade to use with it.
+1d6 Sneak Attack
There were a lot of skill changes since I added 11 ranks, and a few are now class skills as well.
Do we need to figure out selling off or distributing loot?
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Scott: Not at all. You have highlighted that I misread the feat. As most of us probably are, I'm working from home almost exclusively and by the time I get to this board late in the evening, my reading is lazy.
I misread Cleave as a second opportunity to hit *the same* target. I wasn't after mooks, I was after the same guy :)
I'm replacing Cleave with Iron Will. Thorny can't do his thing if he keeps failing Will saves, and it fits with the narratives I've been writing in the game play posts.
Great!
Valena, please update your character summary. It still shows you as Oracle 2.
Then let's move <Nature Cat>Onward and Yonward!</Nature Cat>
Shoot, I totally forgot about a new Feat...
Took Persuasive. Liam's a bit more evolved and confident, about time to start putting double-digit Diplomacy and Intimidate skills to work...
Do we need to figure out selling off or distributing loot?
Probably should, yes.
Got it.
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This is what I have for our loot:
small suit of chainmail (shaman)
masterwork quarterstaff (shaman)
unknown potion
solid gold (if exceptionally dirty) medallion showing the leering face of a demon
two scrolls
wand of web
cloak of fangs
set of key
2 chests:
-- gold coins (1,895 gp)
-- six large green scales and an even larger black scale.
reward: 12 amethysts each worth 100 gp
Anyone else have anything?
Liam is not holding anything.
Need to ID the potion & scrolls.
I think we all agree the chainmail and quarterstaff get sold.
The wand of webs fits Liam's ecto theme and I believe he is the only one that could use it without a UMD check.
No opinion on the cloak of fangs.
Holyc***p, we are going into the tower! I was jonesing about this back in JULY! (did a search and found the post.)
I say we keep the scales, and sell the gems.
The potion is cure light wounds. The two scrolls are both glitterdust.
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Since selling is usually at 1/2 cost, I say keep whatever we can use. Let Thorny have the cloak of fangs, Liam the wand of web, and the potion and scrolls. Certainly keep the scales for now.
GM - are gems at full value? If we sell and add to the gold and just split even does that work for everyone?
As far as upgrades go, I don't really need a composite bow now as my Int damage bonus is better that strength. I do want to by an elven curved blade just to have more use in melee.
Anything else we need before moving to the next thing?
No.
I took focused shot as my feat. It is conditional, but let's me use my Int bonus to damage if I use a standard action to attack and am within 30'. Won't do much good when I start getting more than one arrow, but it seemed a decent choice for now.
Ah. Not INT damage, but INT -to- damage.
Anyway, I'm open to using the retraining rules later if it no longer is a viable feat.