Iron Gods: Forged into Legends

Game Master polyfrequencies

This is one of the benefits of 2nd edition. Since Recall Knowledge is now an action, it's inevitably separate.

There are ways to get free action recall xD
But that free actions need to be on your turn helps xD

Indeed indeed!

Just to update because it came out piecemeal:

I did state my intent to go back where we came from, the other stuff is in the gameplay post :)

And I think the confusion was with my reading being Perception to notice something is off, which then prompts the possibility of the Knowledge Check...both during exploration - but then it manifests triggering Initiative and deciding on wether you get to act on what you learned/noticed in time before it is active.

As in, even in 2nd Edition I would have seen the knowledge prompt as part of the exploration section, not as something happening post-init. And I may be completely wrong in my interpretation, it being happening so fast that we only had chance to notice and recall our own knowledge, not warn someone else - (albeit in that case I would have expected it to go perception => Init(Surprise) => Knowledge, with those not succeeding on Perception not getting a go during surprise, and thus having to wait on the knowledge, too. :)

I do love haunts, but they were not explained especially well in 1E. I like the order that you propose, Basil, and...well, who knows if this will come up again?

(It will.)

So, yes, when a haunt is triggered, we'll proceed as follows:

Synthesist wrote:

Neither the synthesist nor his eidolon can be targeted separately, as they are fused into one creature.

I think that means that just Gauntlet loses a Con point.

If his con changes to match Gauntlet's, then I agree.

@keldor: got restore eidolon?
I have the people version xD

I think the GM is right.

"While fused with his eidolon, the synthesist uses the eidolon’s physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution), but retains his own mental ability scores (Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma)."

No I have not picked up 'Restore Eidolon' yet.

At the time of last leveling I was still under the impression that normal healing spells could still help him.

Keldor, just a recommendation: if you want, you can channel energy before you leave the cloud. Keldor may not have Knowledge (religion), but he is a paladin. Even if he doesn't have technical information on haunts, he knows that positive energy hurts undead.

Well, I'm not a TRAINED Paladin. I'm a trained Summoner. Technically the Paladin part got thrust upon me mid-game. (Not complaining!).

'Know: Religion' has been something he has considering taking, but he never had much interest in the subject until recently, and he only gets a few skill points each level, even with his intelligence bonus.

So I don't think he would realize what he could do or not do yet.

Consider it like you've seen Thawm and Dinvaya both do it a decent amount recently, and it suddenly strikes Keldor that if they can do it, he should able to as well.

---

Oh, this reminds me! Basil and I were talking in another game about some
flavorful rules that we were interested in implementing here.

Favored Class Bonuses: I don't know how everyone has allotted their favored class bonuses so far, but I want to allow the PCs to gain a bonus skill point and a bonus hit point and their race's unique favored class bonus for one of their gestalt classes each level. Anyone can also choose from this list or the final batch of this list. These possible bonuses include:

Basil:

I have been using the FCB for HP, so this is welcome.
Just to clarify, from your second link, only the final set is valid? So I could not get +5 speed from picking the +1 feet option from the first set 5 times?

If I'm reading it correctly, then the Grit is tempting, but I have few abilities that depend on spending it - and getting more spells known is even more tempting.

So, +3 Orisons known: Oath of Anonymity, Acid Splash, Guidance
+3 Level 1 spells known: Fallback Strategy, Shield of Faith, Burst Bonds
+1 Level 2 spell known: Cure Moderate Wounds

And +7 Skill Points:
5 ranks in Disguise(to better attempt to appear human, at least outwardly, if being recognized as Android would be undesirable).
2 rank in Linguistics(picking up Elven and Draconic, so we can use those Languages freely in-party, having learned them from both Thawm and Keldor.)

Regarding the Story Feat, there is an obvious match for Basil:

Forgotten Past, seeing how she basically only has fragmented memories of her previous existance(but KNOWS she is not a 'new' inhabitant of this Shell).
Between the racial bonus to mind-affecting and eventual Stalwart from Inquisitor, I'll be all but immune to that stuff. :D (Sounds like Mind Blank with extra steps...)
And a bonus to Perception is welcome, always.
As for how it works for her - I think that is already covered by her Inquisitor background and future plans regarding Casandalee - Basil is destined to regain a larger part of her memories at a time when it makes sense story-wise, which would likely also trigger this Feats completion. She did plan to head to Iadenveigh in search for her past, so she's also working on that, not just passively waiting for something to happen.

Keldor already has been taking the +1/4 extra evolution pts.

The rest I can look at later once Im at home.

Unforgotten makes the most sense.
Planar Traveler could also work very well.

Protector of the People and Nemesis might also work, but I don't know of the Nemesis and I didn't promise a golem for Torch or Scrapwall xD

@GM: do any of those 4 make plans for you easier or more fun? Unforgotten would add the least, story wise, since that's already the reason for my campaign trait and saves are fickle things xD
On the flip side, changing the story the least makes it the best fit xD

I'm open to the speed increase, especially because it seems thematic for a nanite-infused android to be getting super-humanly fast.

I am getting so excited for y'all to learn more about Casandalee. I'm trying to keep the reveals a steady drip instead of a high-pressured hose, buuuut yeah. I can definitely weave Forgotten Past even more into Basil's arc.

For Thawm, let's see...

XD

I'll stick with Unforgotten, then.
It's basically Thawm's story. No idea what happened to her parents. Maybe alive or dead. She blames the technique league and has the trait xD

D4+1 small elementals would be very smexy

Take out the cameras in just a few rounds xD

The more I think about it, the more I feel like more spells is what Thawm needs...

The more I think about it, the more I feel like more spells is what Thawm needs...

Don't forget, though, that you can learn more via acquisition of scrolls - in other words, that part COULD be remedied with spending gold on it. By all means, you do you, but the "plus spell known" are usually best for spontaneous casters.

Thawm will get +1 to channel positive energy and then spells xD
Obscuring Mist @4th
Levitate @5th
Pyrotechnics @6th
Slow @7th

Some stuff...

I was already doing:
Half Elf Favored Class (Summoner) Bonus (+1/4 Evolution point): 7/4 (+1 Evolution Point gained @4th)

I will take the +7 Skill Points and +7 HPs easily/.

Story Feat:(possibilities)
Magical Enigma
Prophet
Protector of the People
True Love
Truth-Seeker
Unforgotten

I feel the best choices are Magical Enigma and Protector of the People...although Craft(Robot) might be a possible choice too rather than a Golem on the Protector Story Feat?

That would be funny too...crafting a secret robot protector for a group of people who hate and fear technology! That would be...yikes!
=)

In that case, I should be good to upgrade.

FCB racial boni:
+5 feet speed.
+1 Level 1 spells known: Shield of Faith
+1 Level 2 spell known: Cure Moderate Wounds

FCB skill points:
5 ranks in Disguise(to better attempt to appear human, at least outwardly, if being recognized as Android would be undesirable).
2 rank in Linguistics(picking up Elven and Draconic, so we can use those Languages freely in-party, having learned them from both Thawm and Keldor.)

Story Feat: Forgotten Past

Haunts do not get to save against channel. It would be 3d6 direct damage if you have one fewer dice. Plus 2d6 from Keldor...don't forget most haunts around our level have like a dozen HP but are difficult or impossible to damage except by positive energy.
It's player knowledge but we should not disregard positive energy abilities in-character so swiftly.

In Thawm's case she generally doesn't use it offensively xD

But she knows smashing one camera pointed at our direction will fix the issue, so she's aiming at that :P

Well, it's a pity. Because while here we have cameras, other times we may not.

Then it could be "swat those diabolic flys with AC 30 to cause one point of damage each to the Haunt" while we get fried by chain lightning every round.

If only we could simply channel energy and give the 10-HP Haunt an instant infusion of positive energy it could not refuse... :)

No, it's perfectly fine, I do accept yours and Keldors reasoning for not using it. I am not happy to hear it but I'll work around it. Unfortunately Basil failed to identify the Haunt so she has no idea a single healing spell would kill the whole thing, you could at least let her know after we are done with the cameras-

nice xD
I don't think you can target the cloud, though...

Don't need to - haunts are anchored in physical objects. I assume healing a camera would do the trick. But as said, we can have a chat after this in-character, and if I'm right and it's not the only haunt we face, I'll gladly try my best next time.

Usually, yes! Unless you have a Wandering haunt, but those are uncommon.

I think haunts by themselves are uncommon. Wandering ones are downright rare :D
But true enough...just saying against most if not all, any positive energy(including healing touch spells) will be more efficient than any other option.

Just gave me an idea…Misc magic item that activates a minor Haunt when you throw it! Portable Poltergeists!!

That might exist somewhere in the ruleset. I think Haunt Collector Occultists can do something like that.

Thank you all for playing along with my minor obsession with linguistics. I used to be professionally involved in research associated with linguistics, so it's still very much there. I am very likely going to play around with what does and doesn't make sense in Taldane, Elven, Andfroffan, and other languages that come up ^_^

Nice roll, Thawm!

Right?
I want to let Keldor roll too, since he has an extra +5 xD
But... no pressure if you don't quite get the nat 16+, Keldor ^^
Thawm can eventually spit it out xD

Eventually ^_^

Y'all are playin' knowledge close to the vest. I guess I'll have to just...

...keep playin' the chess game.

Truly, though, Keldor should absolutely try that roll.

I'm always game for fun with linguistics.
So if you want to play, count me in :D

On a more serious note, I do think it's fascinating how language influences our way of thinking about things. While technically thought is abstract, we formulate ideas in words and patterns familiar to us. It is basically the mental set of lego bricks we get to use to construct a concept. And different language groups have a different emphasis on how bricks are formed, or how many of a certain type are there etc...yet as sullivan put it, form ever follows function, so there is mutual influence. The language influences thought patterns, and the thoughts evolve the language. Fascinating stuff, really.
Mind you, every person is their own person, but I think language is a large part of certain "tendencies" that are ascribed to certain native speakers and people speaking it well enough to form thoughts and ideas in the language.

What Basil said. The more I learned about the neurological underpinnings of language, both receptive and expressive, the more I was utterly baffled. Obviously the morphosyntactic alignment and word order are part of it, but there's far more going on underneath the hood.

My research was focused on prosody (the so-called "music" of speech, typically expressed in pitch, volume, and duration relative to each other across syllables, words, and phrases). (For example, the difference between record and record or between "I didn't say that" and "I didn't say that".) I was more focused on the neuromotor coordination of the speech apparatus than the psycholinguistic components, but the latter is fascinating to me as well. It was always tricky for me to cite stuff in other languages, because American English prosody has different components from--for instance--Czech, German, and Dutch. Heck, there are even prosodic differences between different dialects of English >_<

More on the way that language influences our thought (and vice versa), I was recently visiting some friends whose dialect has been strongly influenced by Pennsylvania Dutch. When one friend was talking about his cat and say "The cat needs washed," I smiled and made reference to how I forgot about his dialect. I then compared the dropping of the Copula in PDE to the same phenomenon in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), and that was when I think I lost him.

Oh yeah, it's a fascinating area, but I only dug into it out of interest in the topic, not as part of actual research work, so I'm certain you have more insights on the finer points of what's going on "beneath the hood".

I do speak(or rather did, some of them are so rusty I couldn't even hold a short casual conversation any more.) a couple languages, and just found it very curious how their flow, their grammatical structure, their word-building in my inner eye aligned with the archetypical native speakers.

Absolutely not scientific and half of what gave me the impression was probably confirmation bias, but it did prompt me to look a bit deeper and see if there was any basis to it.
(I do like to do my own research...after fetching peer-reviewed scientific articles and books and reading them.)

Is the "copula" the "to be" part of the sentence?

Yes! A copula is a connecting word, linking the subject of a sentence to the predicate (the subject complement). In English, it is the verb "to be" and all of its conjugations, but that changes depending on the language.

Yay.

Tune in again next week, kids, when we talk about liminal spaces.
:)

w̵̦̃H̵̱̞͑͠ä̶̝͎̅T̷͍̱̀'̴̻̉s̶̡̜͌ ̷̜͓̂T̸̛̗̅ͅȟ̴̯A̷̯̟͛t̷̠̝͑̓ ̷̥̲́A̸̪̼͂̅b̷̩̍͜O̶͙̹̎͌ų̷͐T̵̖̒͜ ̸̮̣̌l̸̫̤̈́̋I̴͜͠m̵̭̟̿͝Ĭ̴̝n̴̠̥̉A̵̫͑͑l̴̨̀̂ ̶͉̲̈́S̸͖̍͘p̸̼̚A̴͇͌č̸̖̹̃Ȩ̸̍̋s̷̬̫̑̏?̷̬̦̇

Well

T̸̩̞͖̣̟̪̰̘̳̝̳̉͋̊͆͆̾̓̐̿͜͜͠͝h̴̗̖͖̪͔̮̰̄́̆̋̅̇̃̉̀̓̈́͗͗̏͝e̶͔̜͙̬̳͛̌͂y̵̡̯̼̌̎̇̑̊̄̓̍̍̓ ̨͍͚̺̖͓̞̼̞͜ ̵̼̜̽́͛̄͆́͐̐̎̽̈́̆͝͝a̸̝̠͓͓͕̳̮̭̝̮̳̍̀̋́̔̀̽̑͑̓͋r̴̢̥̤̬͇̥̝̻̝͇̈̇̑̇̈̐̇̓̊̄̅̐̕͝e̵̋͐͊̈̍̌ ̛͉̲̮̲͙͙̙͊̑̓̀̈̔̕͝ͅ ̷̢̲̺͇̙̥̯͚̱̯͓̝̀̇̀͆̄̿̏ͅi̵̯̿͊͌̀̀͆́̏̍̅̊̾͂̈̕n̵͚͂̇̋̓́͑̃͊̔̇̚t̸̨̛͖̻̓̄̈́̃͛̏́͝e̸̋́̄͒̅͐ ̨̰̞̙̞̻̱͓̦͇͇̳̉͑͊̔r̸̢̡̫͔̳͖͖̖̥̗͕̙̥͇͛̔e̴̡̟̘̩̖̘̬͉̩̠̠̣̫̒͜s̸̻̼͙̯̼̱̩̺̺͚͚̈́̈́̈́͗͌́́̾̃͘̕ ̥t̸̼͖̙͊̈́̇̇́͒͘͠i̴͕͎͇͚̤̤̎̈́̂̉͐̀̆̒̔͑͝n̴̨̛̥̟̦̼̙̗͕̙̰̘̦͓̋͒̉̿͌͋̍͌͗̚͜͜g̶͎͑,̶̢̝̝̝͛͐̉̃ ̖ ̸̝͔͙̼̈͋̾̍͆ẁ̶̡̛͍̼̗̟̯͓̳̝̤̟͓̜̗̓͐ͅò̵̡̲̬̯͇̮͇͛̄̍̇̃͒͋͐̏̒̌̀́͘͜u̶̮̤͑́̿̑̇́͋͊͆͋̀͐͂̾̚ ̢̠̤͍̜̜̺͔̭͇͔̻̺l̷̛̞̙̞͇͇̼̭̏̚͠d̷̨̢̗̮͓̣̽͌̀̕ņ̴̛̲͍̹̬͇͉̹̻͍̠̫̆̆̍͝'̸͇̏t̵̝̘̬̪̲̀̎͒̄͋̃̋ ̱̮̹ ̸̮̙̯̪̥͇̞̭͍̬̺͖͎͖̆y̴̹͔̪̞̥̜̾́̃̐͛̈́̃̈̇̀̿o̸̢͓̯͍͎͈̠̥̟̖͚͂͜ȗ̶̜̖̀̂͗͒͒̂̏̓̾͝͝ ̸̛̳̯̥͎̙͇̫̯̳͍̯͈̭̱̬͑͗̆̆̔̈́͠ą̴̧̞̦̗̯͎́g̷͓̫̞̐̓̊͋̒̊r̷̖͈͑̆̓͂̀͂̆͂̔e̶̛̻͍̹̫̭̙͈͍͎̭̊́͋e ̷̧̻̤͔̤̳̠̼͓̈̆̿?̵̨̛͙̱͇̬̼͓̹͖͙̓̉̊̋͑͊͆̂͗

Lol Cthulhu

Unrelated:

I'm thinking now is a good time to give Keldor my adamant dagger xD
Your str + d4 damage bypassing hardness xD

Outsider. She said Outsider.

Why do I only see blatantly obvious errors after I hit published and walked away from the computer for an error?

---

Adamantine daggers make great lockpicks.

and Camera deactivators :D

My only regret was not starting combat with an eroding ray against the two cameras xD

You'll get your chance ^_^

Buuut surprise round xD

Edit: also positions seem pretty good xD

No surprise round for you!

On 15d6 for the three breath weapons, I rolled a total of 64, which is well above average. The good news is that they have a long recharge on those breath weapons, but that hurt. I have been excited for this combat, but didn't expect the caustic stalkers to be quite that effective out the gate! Good luck, y'all!

Im at work and will post later tonight.

@Basil: Didn’t we give you a grenade launcher and a laser gun earlier in the game? They may be time worn…