Ironfang Invasion (Inactive)

Game Master Just a Mort

Dot

Hi!

Practicing the dot

Currently gameplay thread is bugged.

I am trying to get it fixed.

The premise for the prequel is that the party starts as Pathfinder Society members(so they can come from anywhere in Golarion), being teleported in by the Pathfinder Society to deal with a little problem that happens in Phaendar.

Once the problem is dealt with (you get to keep all loot that comes with solving the problem), then the AP starts proper.

Due to the lack of magic mart and general resupply (you're bringing refugees on the run and doing guerilla warfare), after the prequel - you won't gain any levels, but you'll at least get some gear, I'll give you a chance to supply (there will be a huge trade fair in Phaendar), then the AP will start proper.

I will be playing a Ranger with a Goblinoid Favored Enemy. He will be created Tomorrow.

I'll do some digging before I present my character.

This should be interesting ;-)

Hello, there.

This is really awkward. In trying to flesh out NPCs, I have inadvertently increased the difficulty then what the AP actually has. Do I rewrite the NPCs or run on hard mode?

Run them as written. If the NPCs are too difficult, reduce the CR by removing a Hit Die. This is the best advice that I can give.

OK I think I fixed it. You more or less got some recompense for it already. All the NPCs that had nothing to do with the great outdoors decided to take hobbies. And some of them are seriously hard-core.

Think I managed to get the first page unlocked.

Due to me fleshing out the NPCs, the stuff will run a little differently then AP as written. Basically I took away your flexibility for less cookie cutter NPCs, since I gave them goals and motivations. I ran a stimulation, the whole stuff should still be playable. Though difficulty wise, I'm not entirely sure if it's easier or harder then original.

Your first task as a party - will be to get Luke to decide on what character he wants to play.

After that - do any of you wish to start outside town(you'll be teleported in by the Pathfinder Society), or just start within the town itself?

Feel free to adjust your characters(or in your case, Robert - decide which character you wish to bring), but only feats, skills and traits.

Dotted.

Good to be on board for this one peoples! So let's see... We have:

- A Ranger (Robert)
- A Magus (me)
- A Witch (Azmythe)
- A Brawler (Ratel)

@Luke: Any particular ideas in mind? I can think of a few roles which could be useful, but don't want you to feel pressed left or right (nor assume you would be :D) - if you have any thoughts on what character(s) you would maybe like to play, we can take it from there?

Cheers.

Yes, ditto, good to be on board, Thanks Mort! It is a pleasure to meet everyone. Hey Luke :-)

So a couple of choices here, Mort said to choose which character to bring. My only question Mort, are you interested in running either "Bear" or "Lindag" the thrush familiar? I think interaction between Lindag and Hyder would be funny. Always entertaining watching people argue with animals. But describing "Bear" will be a hoot also.

With a Magus and witch in the party, I assume conventional wisdom would say to bring a second meat shield melee character instead of an 'arcane blaster' but knowing Luke, I'm not as worried about it.

It looks like we may need someone to solve this quote:

Also I don’t really need healbots per se, but I do need someone who can remove conditions. As earlier stated – this AP is generally far away from any settlement(at least for the first 3 books), so if you get diseased/poisoned/ability damage/whatever crap that comes with adventuring, the party has to be able to handle it on their own.

I'll resist the urge to ask if Luke can put together a 'divine caster' :-)

I'll be back on in a couple of hours.

Dotting for the dot.

Thanks for choosing me. Hopefully Azmythe and I will live up to your hopes.

Healing patron witch can handle condition removal.

Do remember your GM has unorthodox ways of viewing classes.

That is one way to play it. If that's what the group needs, I have no qualms with that.

Dump it in whenever you need, they're your patron spells anyway so you automatically get them.

Oh btw...uhh I'm not that good at being formal and all that and have a whimsical sense of humor, if there's nothing serious going on.

I'll confess that I have been tracking you guys by the games you've played - I.e. Albion played under Hmm, who is a good friend of mine. (Again, I said I was reading into posting history, did I not?)

And Dax...well I was reading your Serpents Skull game by Navior(that was before I even started recruitment, was just reading for leisure), and was rather sad when he poofed on you guys. You guys were a hoot!

Thank you for saying so. Urza was my first Dragon Disciple that I actually got to play as a dragon disciple. It was glorious. That game, the other's who were in it, awesome. Unfortunately, life gets in the way of a great game sometimes.

My character Azmythe is an eccentric healer that stays at the edge of town. His hut would probably define the edge of town. He's not an herbalist himself, though he is known to partake, and would need someone to actually supply any of those materials. He accepts donations, but doesn't actually charge for his secular healing services. His willingness to treat most anyone free of charge has garnered much good will and the town sees to it that he always has what he needs.

Through his healing services, Azmythe could know or be known by any of the other PCs. Since he's not very powerful (yet), I would assume, that he's more known for helping the less fortunate with their minor to moderate needs rather than the wealthy and powerful who might offer him vast sums to perform feats he is incapable of.

There's someone who goes doctoring the town - he's Vane Oreld, you may know him because he runs Oreld's fine wares - it's like the equivalent of the general goods store(and possibly a place you get your herbalist supplies).

How would you want your relationship with him to be like? I could play it either way, that you guys are sort of splitting duties on 400 people, or there's some kind of rivalry between you two.

There's also a Mwangi guy named Ajobe, who lives with his wife (Zoya) and daugther(Ada), who's Vane's raw materials supplier, if you get my drift.

Azmythe is too laid back to be in competition with anyone. That's the oddness about him. No matter how horrible things are around him, Azmythe is like, you know, no worries, man.

I'll say you know Ajobe since occasionally he'll drop off some forage since you healed his daughter once after she fell off a tree, but mostly he sells to Vane since he needs moolah. Vane knows you but leaves you be, since there's too many people that he can actually take care off, and run the shop at the same time. He thinks you're odd for not charging people, but well, whatever floats your boat.

Hey all, I've been looking for the icon that I want for Ratel, obviously I havn't found it yet :-(

Mort, are we still doing a quick intro adventure?

I know you've spent some time developing NPC's; are you going to list them on the campaign page? OR let us meet them more organically?

I'm figuring Ratel is from Fangwood forest, is it possible that he has traded with the fine people of Phaendar? So he may be known but not 'from there'?

Yes on intro adventure.

I will reveal to you only when you reach the part of it, though interacting around town may give you something.

If you're supply herbs --> Go to Vane Oreld. He's in the market.

Jet, the innkeeper of the taproot buys meat and fish for the kitchen, or you could sell to the halfling butcher Perkins. Daniel the leatherworker is interested in animal skins.

@Robert Henry: Heh. So, Crummock II: Electric Boogaloo?

To be honest, the original concept that I settled on was nixed, on some (quite reasonable) RP'ing grounds, and I figure we probably don't need *yet another* Int-based caster (although I am still quite tempted by the (watered down, back-up option) idea of a multi-archetyped Alchemist, at high levels, having doppelganger simulacra scattered all over Golarion, allowing me to effectively be wherever I want to be, whenever I want to be)...

The other option I am currently toying with is an Ex-cleric of Roidira, with the Channeller of the Unknown archetype, and the Void domain... as well as a (ridiculously over-sized) axe ;-)

Thoughts?

@Robert Henry: Heh. So, Crummock II: Electric Boogaloo?

LOL!

The doppleganger simulacra idea is just scary. And you know I had to look up Roidara bacause I had no clue.

I like the idea a lot, but you know me, always happy to see what ever you think is the most efficient use of a class or archetype!

Oddly, I was saddened by the fact that all of our present armor wearers could only use light armor, therfore not taking advantage of any quaility medium armor we find. So anthing that can use medium armor is a plus in my book...

I read the PFSED version, sounds like fun. I'm interested to see what kind of cheese that's served with :-)

Do you like Ratel's build? The idea came from a very good source...

Not too much cheese please...thanks. If someone takes your place at the front you can go back to your halfling if you like.

Luke, could I persuade you to use a greatsword? =P

Well, regardless of which of the two builds I went with, both would (ultimately) be wanting Full Plate ;-)

It's just whether I want to do natural weapons, or a single nasty melee weapon...

I do, in fact, recognise Ratel's build :-P

Oh btw...uhh I'm not that good at being formal and all that and have a whimsical sense of humor, if there's nothing serious going on.

I'll confess that I have been tracking you guys by the games you've played - I.e. Albion played under Hmm, who is a good friend of mine. (Again, I said I was reading into posting history, did I not?)

And Dax...well I was reading your Serpents Skull game by Navior(that was before I even started recruitment, was just reading for leisure), and was rather sad when he poofed on you guys. You guys were a hoot!

Yep, played with Hmm more than once, and it has always been a blast.

@Ratel: Yeah... Medium armor only at level 7.

@Luke: Just to throw a some sand on the gears, I would ask - why not a Bard? Would be a good boost for the whole team ;) As for the two ideas you've put forth, I have only recently began discovering Alchemists, but they are definitely versatile, and really cool to play with (though I agree we may already have too many Int based casting as it is). Channeler of the Unknown I never heard about, to be honest.

Personally, I was planning on MAYBE dropping the Hexcrafter archetype - I don't think I am familiar enough with the Magus to throw away something like Spell Recall. And since there is no 'magic mart', I may have a hard time coming across Pearls of Power. What do you guys think?

... If someone takes your place at the front you can go back to your halfling if you like.

Well, regardless of which of the two builds I went with, both would (ultimately) be wanting Full Plate ;-)

It's just whether I want to do natural weapons, or a single nasty melee weapon...

I do, in fact, recognise Ratel's build :-P

Good, no wasting any plate we find. So Ratel will also be using natural weapons, it sounded like the second build would use a particular large weapon. Hopefully anything we find will be put to good use until we can trade it.

Yeah, I didn't go through with the gladiator, the build didn't jell well with that idea. Here, a tribe of skinwalker's hiding in fangor forest who use alchemy to control then eventually enhance their shapeshifting seems like a perfect fit. Of course they would interact with the animals of the forest, so an animal companion is practically a given. So Ratel is part of that small tribe. He could have several reasons to be away from home.

I'm not a local, by the way. I'm a caravan guard / scout that came with some merchants all the way from Magnimar. Just to be a bit different. :D

Im not as fluffy as Hmm unfortunately.Some events occurred that made me fall to the dark side become less fluffy.

It had to do with an unavoidable water trap in PFS and the GM declaring that my spellbook was ruined...

Anyway the way I see it actually the group has more or less all grounds covered so Luke can play whatever he wants.

Generally I prefer two front liners in case any accidents happens, especially so since these are an army so focus fire is a thing. If it's all animals I can just randomly have them attack the closest guy.

Ok gnome, my bad. You didn't have rainbow coloured hair so you don't count as a gnome ;)

But no one needs teleports from a certain blue haired, green eyed elven wizard with a steam mephit that has 4 white socks right?

BTW - any of you want pathfinder chronicles for Ironfang invasion?It's PFS legal and all that.

If so, remind me at end of first book to ask for your PFS numbers.

I like hexcrafters of all magus archetypes really. Losing spell recall isn't all that bad since you can endlessly spam hexes, if you wanted to. But that's just my opinion.

Channeler of the unknown. Might not be PFS legal. Not sure, not bothering.

Only played with Hmmm for a little bit, awesome RP while it lasted.

Good, by seven we should be finding some quality armor, no reason to let it go to waste. I'm a firm believer in using what you find, unfortunately my build is limited to light armor and monk weapons. But it's something new for me.

Sorry not going to be much help on the Magus front, never played one. I don't think I've even read through the archetypes. I tend to stick to vanilla melee characters, so Ratel is a bit of a stretch. The good news, if your not sure what to do ask the peanut gallery Cheese factory. They won't steer you wrong.

Or read a guide...

If you ask real nice Luke may be able to build a familiar that craps pearls of power... of course you may need to have 'improved familiar'

Ninja'd by Mort,

Ok gnome, my bad. You didn't have rainbow coloured hair so you don't count as a gnome ;)

Personally, I was planning on MAYBE dropping the Hexcrafter archetype - I don't think I am familiar enough with the Magus to throw away something like Spell Recall. And since there is no 'magic mart', I may have a hard time coming across Pearls of Power. What do you guys think?

He had hair on his face, not on his feet, it seemed obvious to me...

See what I mean Hedran, help is arriving as we speak.

@Hedran: Heh. I appreciate the suggestion, but my answer is a resounding no, because the one class that I loathe (with a passion) is bard (and have done so since AD&D)... I have played precisely two - one that was an Archaeologist (and did not, therefore, do anything musical, and IC, he denied that he was a Bard!), and one in the CORE campaign (because I was trying to play one of everything), who has never actually used any bardic abilities (apart from the occasional spell), and runs around in full plate, with a longsword and shield :-P

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The advantage of Channeller is that I would have free weapon proficiency with the Butchering Axe, no deity, and spontaneous casting of the spells from the Void domain (but apart from that, I would only have Diplomacy/Perception). Damage output is reasonable, but is mostly front-loaded.

The advantage of alchemist, is that, in addition to being fairly versatile (with a reasonable pile of skills, and some other tricks), by the end of the AP, I would have four arms, and Bite/Claw/Claw, with wings, pounce, rake, and blindsense, which is active whenever I have a mutagen active (which is nearly six hours 'per dose' by the end). However, that build's damage output is more mid-to-late AP (It really only becomes reasonable from level 6, good from level 10, and amazing from 14).

To be honest, I am still leaning towards the Alchemist build, even though it has been toned down by 'removing' Vivisectionist (and therefore full progression sneak attack) ;-)

A butchering axe is a not PFS legal weapon that does 3d6, but if you don't have 19 str as a medium character, you take a -2 to hit.

I told you I didn't care for vivisectionists since they had an evil flavour to them.

Channeler of the unknown. Might not be PFS legal. Not sure, not bothering.

I can vouch for the fact that it is PFS legal, for what it is worth (although I was admittedly surprised that it was made legal, given that it means you can play a cleric with no deity) - I immediately built an 'Ex-Cleric' of Roidira after playing a certain PFS scenario ;-)

A butchering axe is a not PFS legal weapon that does 3d6, but if you don't have 19 str as a medium character, you take a -2 to hit.

I told you I didn't care for vivisectionists since they had an evil flavour to them.

Re: Butchering axe, correct on all counts. That said, -2 to hit for an extra +1d6 damage (at least until level 4, when you bump strength to 19) is not a bad trade off.

Re: Vivisectionist, I completely understood, which is why I removed it from the build. It also, conveniently, reduces the high-level damage output from horrifyingly effective, to simply very good, which is undoubtedly a good thing, RP'ing considerations aside ;-)

Hey, I've played two bards also...

and that my friends is the most I've played of any spell casting class...

Alchemist is certainly ok in my book, it looked like Azmythe may have diplomacy covered. As long as someone can waive a wand of CLW I'll be a happy camper. As far as I'm concerned Luke, play which ever you would like.

As for me, I really like Ratel and I'm looking forward to playing with an animal companion, but if the group wants another caster I'm willing to play Hyder, I think he will be fun as well.

I don't know the witch, alchemist or Magus classes well enough to know which of my characters would fit the party's needs better. Would you guys take a look at them and share an opinion?

Your GM says it's all cool and will work out fine. You see I'm quite happy to leave things as good enough =)

Just downloaded the Archery Ranger Guide.

My time today is about up. See everyone Tomorrow.

Im not as fluffy as Hmm unfortunately.Some events occurred that made me fall to the dark side become less fluffy.

It had to do with an unavoidable water trap in PFS and the GM declaring that my spellbook was ruined...

Eeeesh, that's harsh...

Anyway the way I see it actually the group has more or less all grounds covered so Luke can play whatever he wants.

Generally I prefer two front liners in case any accidents happens, especially so since these are an army so focus fire is a thing. If it's all animals I can just randomly have them attack the closest guy.

Hmmmmmm, I actually don't see Hedrak as much of a frontliner at the moment tbh, buy hey, living and adapting.

I'm not a local, by the way. I'm a caravan guard / scout that came with some merchants all the way from Magnimar. Just to be a bit different. :D

Hedran is supposedly visiting Phaendar after a couple of years - he departed from Crowstump and is travelling perhaps via Tamran. Maybe we could have gotten to know each other on the same caravan?

BTW - any of you want pathfinder chronicles for Ironfang invasion?It's PFS legal and all that.

If so, remind me at end of first book to ask for your PFS numbers.

I like hexcrafters of all magus archetypes really. Losing spell recall isn't all that bad since you can endlessly spam hexes, if you wanted to. But that's just my opinion.

I may want that chronicle yeah GM Mort - will remind you. And yeah, I've heard a lot of good things about Hexcrafters.

Sorry not going to be much help on the Magus front, never played one. I don't think I've even read through the archetypes. I tend to stick to vanilla melee characters, so Ratel is a bit of a stretch. The good news, if your not sure what to do ask the peanut gallery Cheese factory. They won't steer you wrong.

Or read a guide...

Yep, been through those already - the debate on STR Magus is endless :D

@Hedran: Heh. I appreciate the suggestion, but my answer is a resounding no, because the one class that I loathe (with a passion) is bard (and have done so since AD&D)... I have played precisely two - one that was an Archaeologist (and did not, therefore, do anything musical, and IC, he denied that he was a Bard!), and one in the CORE campaign (because I was trying to play one of everything), who has never actually used any bardic abilities (apart from the occasional spell), and runs around in full plate, with a longsword and shield :-P

Gotcha - Up to very recently Bards have been my preferred characters. Just so you know, I've never played a singing or dancing Bard however ;)

Just downloaded the Archery Ranger Guide.

If you mean Lastoth's one, it is VERY good.

I've only read a couple of the guides, honestly I'm not very cheesy, but I like to be effective. I've copied builds I like and it helps if I can talk out character builds with someone who is familiar.

I'm headed to bed. I'm off today and tomorrow, so I won't be posting at night, EST, I'm 12 hours behind Mort... but I work third shift and can usually post from there.

edit:
Hey Mort, I'm going to need to add food for "Bear" may adjust my gear to get him a harness as well.

I used to read them for fun, but these days I don't roll characters so I stopped reading. I still have a huge gap where occult characters are, I have some idea how to play a Kineticist, but medium, psychic, mesmerist... Zilch.

If I play bards, I'll sing!

I also have quickened sla (speak in rhyme).

Why aren't you creating characters anymore Mort?

My last Bard was a sergeant - he barked orders and grumbled a lot :D