GM Woran's Rise of the Runelords

Game Master Woran

Do you all feel we still have a hole in the party that needs filling? I dont really see one myself, but perhapst Galadaeros can build toward something (or make certain choices) if he knows what we are missing.

Tough to say. We'll have Justin doing arcane stuff, Hawkshaw working a divine angle, Rataji in a skill/knowledge-based/alchemy support role (with a secondary focus on stabbing guys she studies), me as a mobile puncher of evil faces. I think that covers a lot of ground, no? Galadaeros had talked about wanting to be a hold-the-line sort; you ever done a polearm/reach fighter? I don't know if I would recommend the actual polearm archetype, as it gives away everything a fighter can use to good effect these days (stuff I'm about to outline below, as promised), but that could probably work well.

Things to consider (all page numbers from WMH):

Disclaimer: just my 2XP, natch. I haven't gotten a chance to use a lot of this stuff, but I've left drool marks on my monitor looking at the PDF. Take my advice with the appropriately-sized grain of salt.

• Weapon tricks for Polearm and 2-Handed (p. 8-9). I think you mentioned Sword & Shield as a possibility, and while yes, it can work, I think the Weapon Tricks for it are a bit too scattered. So I guess what I'm saying is, if you wanna do S&S, I would pass over the tricks for it. But that's just me.

• Weapon Styles: Smashing Style (p. 17) looks intriguing to me. Ditto Spear Dancing Style (same page), but I'm not 100% sure how to build for that.

• Advanced Weapon Training: Armed Bravery (p.18) seems ridiculously good at fixing the Will save issue*. Versatile Training (p.19) can net you a few more skills depending on what weapon group you use (free ranks in two skills equal to your BAB, if you already spent ranks on said skill, you get 'em refunded to reallocate, and the skills you picked become class skills if they weren't already). The Advanced Weapon Training feat on p. 19 will get you into AWTs a little faster than simply waiting for the class feature to develop.

• For Melee Weapon Mastery (starting on p.22), Cut From The Air/Smash From The Air/Spellcut looks like it could help you not get pecked to death by arrows, or giant boulders, or not have to block Enervation rays with your face.

• The Magic Item Mastery stuff (p.26), I admit I haven't given a lot of thought to, so I don't have an opinion about that.

I hope I've given you enough to chew on with that overview. If you've got any questions, G, give a yell.

-Redblade/Oskar

*Note that there's a new feat in Ultimate Intrigue, Improved Bravery, that has a similar effect, but has a Cha 13 prereq, so it'll make you a bit MAD unless you roll silly good like Hmm and I did, or you build to certain edge cases.

PS - And Justin, exactly how long-term are these side effects of which you speak...?

With other melee in the party the typical tin can "i stand in front of it and take the hits" just doesn't work. Fighter area control comes from grappling, trips, combat maneuvers, reach fighter of aoe death or specialized penalties to hit other people like bodyguard and a mouser work, but take a little homework and planning.

-If symptoms persist longer than four hours contact your cleric.. and take copious notes.

Well, what do you think would work well with the way we're leaning? I'm just spitballing while heavily distracted by work, and chainsaws/woodchippers running outside my window.

How are we on ranged combat?

Let's see what happens if I build a ranged war priest. I'd like to stick to asimar though. So maybe not a point blank precise shot at lvl one. And I like to explore the weapon of the chosen feat chain

Weapon of the Chosen looks interesting, but its biggest synergy seems to be with the Vital Strike feats. Do they work for ranged?

EDIT: I mean, I know they work, but my impression was always that ranged's best approach was to put a million shots in the air, instead of one big one.

You're right. Weapon of the chosen works better with melee. By the time I have all three feats and the point/precise, I can afford the weapons that do the same damage while missing out on all the cool range feats. So focusing on ranged feats is better. Tinkering on.

Hold on . Sebastian plays an arcane archer. So ranged combat is covered. Finetuning my Oradin. Going to check out what happens if I go two levels paladin first and than some levels in Oracle. That would mean getting a CLW wand as soon as possible though.

Okay, it makes my HP battery waaaay bigger, The rest is pretty much the same.

But what I win in HP, I lose in skills, the abiltie to heal straight away, use my traits well first and second level. So i'm going with what I first worked out: oracle-paladin-paladin-oracle for the first 4 levels.
i'm either going lame (because I'm going heavy armor anyways) or blind if so I get Darkvision, and change out the Asimar darkvision for something equally cool

Do we have an all darkvision party? That can really change things in some encounters.

Honestly i don't know why humans are even alive when they can't see half the day , much less why they go underground where they can't see AT ALL with torches and other ways of throwing out a signal that says "FOOD HERE" for everything in the ground

Here's a related thought. At 9th level, Mutagenic Mauler gets 30ft darkvision. Do we know if that stacks with any the brawler might already have?

Generally they don't stack unless they say they do

That's what I was figuring. Oh well. Here's hoping the difference between Oskar having 60 and 90-ft Darkvision never bites us. :)

Well, here we go:
Vy "Snowflake" Baro

Do we have an all darkvision party? That can really change things in some encounters.

Honestly i don't know why humans are even alive when they can't see half the day , much less why they go underground where they can't see AT ALL with torches and other ways of throwing out a signal that says "FOOD HERE" for everything in the ground

An all darkvision party could be a gas, especially if we all have stealth...

Hmm

Well, here we go:

Vy "Snowflake" Baro

** spoiler omitted **...

You are going with Tongues curse? Lucky for you that I speak Celestial!!!! Here's a question: do you want those skill bonuses to survival and handle animal? If not, you can trade them out!

Otherwise, that looks like a solid build and a great back story. In what faith were you raised? Is there a way the two of us could have met? My dad was a Mwangi scholar bard who traveled all over, so we certainly could have met anywhere. We both stand out in a crowd!

Hmm

Well, what do you think would work well with the way we're leaning? I'm just spitballing while heavily distracted by work, and chainsaws/woodchippers running outside my window.

Anything on the list in a regular game. I'm not sure how well play by post handles something as positioning happy as the pole armer. It would come down to what you'd have fun describing.

Concept isn't complete just yet, but here is what I have so far:

Eldira, a numerian Android escaped from the mysterious Silver Mount, followed by a number of robots, who were intent on bringing her back for some uncertain fate.
Fortunately, she was rescued by a band of traveling pilgrims who took her in, and brought her with them. Their faith was one of the very first things she learned, and it kinda stuck.
While she uses words like "defensive matrix" to describe her spells, and was initially fascinated by the basic ability of a piece of wood, with animal products, to propel another shaped piece of wood (bow and arrow), she grasped the "interface" in quite a short time and is on her way to become a pretty good archer.

After a couple years of travelling, she ended up in Sandpoint, and while she has real problems understanding most emotional responses, at least, she has found a small niche in the town. As it turns out is is very good at "injecting various pigments under the dermal layer to print various graphics" ... however, the locals tend to like their tattoos.

I went for Tongues because Clouded Vision would give Darkvision that I already have, and I could only switch it out for Halo, which gives me light, which I don't need because I have Clouded Vision. Lame was worse than I thought. Armor still slows me down.. The skill bonussses I'll keep. One point gives me huge enough bonusses that I will keep them alone for the rest of my path, and they're the one almost everybody forgets to take.
I choose Eristil, because of my slight animalistic nature, and he's LG.
I was kinda hoping you were the one that explained to me what I was, since your Father could have explained it to you as well.

Woah, looking sharp there sebastian!
Altough you've been in Sandpoint for some time, it has taken the local populance very long to warm up to you. They do see their fair share of other races in the town, but you were just a plain weird thing.
Lacking social ques, you luckily missed out on most of the gossip and painfull remarks in the beginning. And because you apperantly were not going away, they eventually accepted that you we're just going to be there.
You do still get weird glances when walking down the street, and some whispers might still happen, but you made a place for yourself.

I went for Tongues because Clouded Vision would give Darkvision that I already have, and I could only switch it out for Halo, which gives me light, which I don't need because I have Clouded Vision. Lame was worse than I thought. Armor still slows me down.. The skill bonussses I'll keep. One point gives me huge enough bonusses that I will keep them alone for the rest of my path, and they're the one almost everybody forgets to take.

I choose Eristil, because of my slight animalistic nature, and he's LG.
I was kinda hoping you were the one that explained to me what I was, since your Father could have explained it to you as well.

All that makes sense. Will you have trained animal buddies then?

I actually like the idea that I was the one who explained to you what you were! Dad knew that he'd tangled with a Peri. I'm a first generation aasimar. And with me being a scholar, I would have researched all the other aasimar. I would have been horribly fascinated with your fur. And since I'm trying to be good, I would have respected your LG nature, even if I can't aspire to it. I do have a fascination with traps, knowledge of all kinds, etc.

My skill bonuses are to Spellcraft and Knowledge Planes, but with no way to detect magic I won't be able to identify magic items anyway, so I'm planning to trade for Truespeaker and get 2 languages for every point in linguistics.

Hmm

So Oskar's profile is coming along nicely. The key things left are to finish his gear, and write up his fluff.

Woran, I think Oskar's been in Sandpoint a bit on the shorter end of the range you mentioned, maybe 9 months, a year tops. He's originally from Averaka, and accompanied Councilor Bravok on one of his trips abroad, staying on in Sandpoint after Bravok had been there to visit the site of the new Cathedral.

I love how this is coming along <3

Redblad: looks awesome!

I poked Galadaeros about his character. It will most likely be a Dwarf, so that all Darkvision party looks like a thing :P

What do you expect to be the starting date?

Hmm

Once galadearos finishes his character, we can start.
Everyone exept him has a build (altough sebastian wants to tweak a bit but that is ok).
Most of you have a background allready, so that is ok too.
You can work out the details of your travel with hawkshaw as much or little as you want. I dont need to supervise that.

He's a dwarf? Has he looked at the Stone Lord Paladin archetype?

Words cannot express how cool I think this Paladin archetype is... It's very different from a normal paladin, while still being very holy and dwarven!

Hmm

EDIT: Though any kind of Dwarven fighter / ranger could also be cool. I can't wait to see what he builds!

I linked him the stonelord. Its very cool. Almost a whole new class!
Last thing I heard he was oogeling an inquisitor.

It was very, very close between the Stone Lord and the Foehammer. After weighing the options I am going to go for the Foehammer. I rarely play Fighters, and I have played a lot of Paladins. I was already eying Dwarves so I am glad to hear it fits our burgeoning strategies ;-)

I will finish my build tomorrow and then we can start rolling.

Thanks for all the advice, everyone!

Exelent! Galadaeros is working on his character and online profile.
So if everyone can make the last tweaks, we can start once Galadaeros is finished :)

I do believe this is our Team's skill list:

Acrobatics +4 (+1 rank, +3 class, +4 Dex, -4 ACP)
Acrobatics +7
Acrobatics -6 (-10 to jump)
Acrobatics +1 (-3 to jump)
Appraise +1 (+1 rank)
Appraise +8
Bluff +0 (+1 vs. giant subtype creatures)
Climb +4 (+1 rank, +3 class, +4 Str, -4 ACP)
Craft (alchemy) +4 (+1 rank, +3 class)
Craft (tattoo) +7
Diplomacy +8
Diplomacy +7
Disable Device +4
Handle Animal +9
Intimidate +7 (+1 rank, +3 class, +2 racial, +1 trait)
Knowledge (arcana) + 9 (1 rank +3 trained +4 int +1 trait)
Knowledge (arcana) +7
Knowledge (dungeoneering) +8
Knowledge (dungeoneering) +5
Knowledge (history) +6
Knowledge History +9
Knowledge (local) +8
Knowledge (local) +4 (+1 rank, +3 class)
Knowledge (religion) +4
Linguistics +7
Linguistics ( Varisian)+8
Lore: Bathing +8
Perception +4
Perception +6 (+7 vs. giant subtype creatures) (+1 rank, +3 class, +2 Wis)
Perception +6
Sense Motive +2
Sense Motive -4
Sense Motive +2 (+3 vs. giant subtype creatures)
Spellcraft +7
Spellcraft +8
Spellcraft +8
Stealth +4
Survival +7 (+9 to avoid becoming lost when using a Mapmaker's Kit as you travel)
Swim +2
Use Magic Device +2
Use Magic device +8

Since we're close to starting, I've opened the gameplay thread with some general information about sandpoint.
You can dot it if you like.

I ninja-dotted with great stealth and panache! (I'll need to fix this one up, but this is the avatar I'm planning to use.)

Something I find very important: is someone willing to be the party loot tracker? Things get infinitely easier if someone takes on the task of keeping an eye on things found, gold found, ect.

A google excel sheet will do (altough if someone wants to go all out, I'm not stopping you ;) )

PbP has the ease that you can always read back, but once you're several months in, that's just not feasable anymore.

Test test testing
In the place to be

Rodrak Murdinald, Foehammer

Looks good Galadaeros.

I'll give everyone a little bit more time to finish up the details, and then we can start.

sandpoint information

I was looking for the most efficient way to share large amount of info with you all, so I made a google site. So far the detailed info of sandpoint is up. I made it all spoiler free, altough some of the info is only known to those from sandpoint, or those who've been there for a while. Most of it is the local gossip, so its not exactly 'big secrets'. It was easier for me to put it in, then to leave it out and make separate briefings for people.

I'll put the link in the campaign info so you can easily reference it when needed.

Something I find very important: is someone willing to be the party loot tracker? Things get infinitely easier if someone takes on the task of keeping an eye on things found, gold found, ect.

A google excel sheet will do (altough if someone wants to go all out, I'm not stopping you ;) )

PbP has the ease that you can always read back, but once you're several months in, that's just not feasable anymore.

I can be one of the notetakers. I don't want to do it alone, however. Vy, should we figure out our background together?

I just decided to be proactive and dump Last Light, the game that was limping and slowly dying. Really, the only people providing life support to that game were me and Redblade.

Hmm

We could do that. How shall we do that?

new list, I think I've got every body:

Appraise +4
Climb -3
Craft (Smith) +4
Handle animal -1
Knowledge Engineering +0
Profession (Caravan Guard) +1
Acrobatics +4 (+1 rank, +3 class, +4 Dex, -4 ACP)
Acrobatics +7
Acrobatics -6 (-10 to jump)
Acrobatics +1 (-3 to jump)
Appraise +1 (+1 rank)
Appraise +8
Bluff +0 (+1 vs. giant subtype creatures)
Climb +4 (+1 rank, +3 class, +4 Str, -4 ACP)
Craft (alchemy) +4 (+1 rank, +3 class)
Craft (tattoo) +7
Diplomacy +8
Diplomacy +7
Disable Device +4
Handle Animal +9
Intimidate +7 (+1 rank, +3 class, +2 racial, +1 trait)
Intimidate -1
Knowledge (arcana) + 9 (1 rank +3 trained +4 int +1 trait)
Knowledge (arcana) +7
Knowledge (dungeoneering) +8
Knowledge (dungeoneering) +5
Knowlegde (Dungeoneering) 0
Knowledge (history) +6
Knowledge History +9
Knowledge (local) +8
Knowledge (local) +4 (+1 rank, +3 class)
Knowledge (religion) +4
Linguistics +7
Linguistics ( Varisian)+8
Lore: Bathing +8
Perception +4
Perception +6 (+7 vs. giant subtype creatures) (+1 rank, +3 class, +2 Wis)
Perception +6
Perception +6
Ride -4
Sense Motive +2
Sense Motive -4
Sense Motive +2 (+3 vs. giant subtype creatures)
Spellcraft +7
Spellcraft +8
Spellcraft +8
Stealth +4
Survival +7 (+9 to avoid becoming lost when using a Mapmaker's Kit as you travel)
Survival +5
Swim +2
Swim +1
Use Magic Device +2
Use Magic device +8

Anyone care for an analisys?

We could do that. How shall we do that?

Let's start by where we met. What country do you want to meet in? Where did you travel when you were away from Varisia? My background as daughter of traveling / scholar bard allows for a wide range of possibilities. I'm good with anything.

If you don't have other ideas, we could have met in Osirion when my dad was touring ruins there. Otherwise, where would a wolf boy go? Absalom? Andoran? You pick, and I'll spin some story for both of us.

Hmm

double check...yeah, statblock looks okay

Hmm, I PM'd you

Analysis of skills:

PHYSICAL:

No one climbs, so we'll need to use rope and our good acrobatics. Or ladders. We don't really swim either, so we'd better hope that the GM doesn't flood the festival. Our acrobatics is pretty good though. Maybe we could put on a show! "We are but humble circus performers..."

FACE SKILLS:

We've got two diplomats and one intimidator. We could do good cop, bad cop! We better hope that we never need bluff... In addition, none of us can sense motive well. I should be able to be really good at this at level 3, but for now we're gullible.

PERCEPTION:

Four out of five of us have it. Yay!

SPELLCRAFT and APPRAISE and UMD:

Not bad for level one!

MONSTER KNOWLEDGES:

We're missing Knowledge Planes and Nature entirely. Planes is not as worrisome as Nature, since we're unlikely to hit demons at level one.

HISTORY and THASSILONIAN:

We're covered!

SURVIVAL:

Good enough.

STEALTH:

Only one of us is trained in it, but we've got dex on our side as a party.

Hmm

Depending on how we decide to play we can skill up towards a Darkvision / Stealth build party.

Depending on how we decide to play we can skill up towards a Darkvision / Stealth build party.

You're already making some monsters cry ;)

Tell me you guys also get exited about spreadsheets?

If not we can use something simpler.