Yeah, the people who talk about wizards being overpowered seem to assume that the wizard has the perfect spell selection. Fighters may be less spectacular, but pretty much everything takes damage from a magic weapon.
Energy fails on a lot of creatures.
Heaps of things are immune to mind controlling.
Necromancy doesn't affect some things (or only affects undead)...
There's a few spells that are generally overpowered, but not many. Wonder if they'll fix them in 2nd ed. Starfinder seems more balanced, to me.
Str to Kien, for now.
When prepared, no one beats a spell caster. I feel like melee fighters are better against single targets and mages are better against masses of mooks.
"When prepared" are the magic words here, I think.
When prepared, indeed. As I've said, I'm of the opinion that most GMs are far too sparing in the difficulties they throw at spellcasters.
A high-level wizard who knows exactly what they need to prepare for, and has the time/wealth to do so, is nigh unbeatable. But what if the enemies get to prepare for them too? What if the threat is more amorphous? What if they can't get enough sleep for a couple nights?
And of course, as you guys well know by now, I don't create adventures to reliably shepherd players from level to level. I want you to feel like you're defeating the world around you when you advance. (though as I've mentioned, I might have been a bit stingy on leveling speed, and that is in the process of being fixed. :) )
I'm just looking forward to 7th Level - that's when the summons will start to get truly interesting. XD Prior to that point, Aberrations are kind of blobby cave monster creatures. For Luca's Summon Monster IV, though, you start to see things like Nightgaunts, Rust Monsters, and Vampiric Mists - all muuuuch more interesting on the battlefield, and I plan to tie them showing up to Luca finding her confidence and starting to command her power, rather than being commanded.
As for Wizards... a big part of their power comes from the fact that they can fairly easily get a number of spells that are so generally useful that it's really not a question of if they have a spell for the issue, but which one they want to use. XD Enlarge Person, Invisibility, Stinking Cloud, Summon Monster III (*Luca glares*), Fly, Haste... all fairly solid picks in general, and rarely likely to be a bad choice.
Of course, casters who step away from the more optimal spells are much less of a concern, power-wise. XD
True - those are pretty much the best picks.
Just remembered that awhile ago I was trying to think up a new name for the campaign. "Glorious Thing" only really referred to the pirate island adventure in the beginning. Obviously it's not particularly important, but anybody have any ideas?
Hmmm. Tempted to go with the theme and reference songs from Gilbert and Sullivan?
Given we're nicking stuff... "With catlike tread"?
One of my very favorites.
I've also been giving some thought to Timm. I really don't want to spare the time and attention to constantly steer him around, so I think the best route here is the least satisfying to me story-wise: just disappear him as if he were never around. As you had him along partially as a divine healer, I could replace him with a limited-use healing item (basically a wand). World Weariness would still apply to damage healed by the wand. Sound good enough for you guys?
It hurts my sense of verisimilitude, but oh well.
Some item-based healing to tide us over until Luca levels up and gets that eldritch Lay on Hands would be handy, yeah. XD
He's already being treated like he's not there anyway. He was missing the whole last fight. I actually forgot he was supposedly there.
Yeah, I feel weird using him as an NPC for this long. I thought it was going to be temporary until some story factor could come along.
I'd be okay if he was behind the Force wall, and some trap over there took him out.
Hey - How about he's caught a jungle disease and is semi-delirious back at base camp ("he'll be fine - just needs a few days"). Time if against us, so makes sense we might keep adventuring, and he might have enough clarity during the evening to heal us if needed.
I thought of those possibilities as well, Tyrus - but it would still require us/me to remember him and handle his disposition until this adventure is over (and also... would you leave him alone, delirious ,back at a questionably safe base camp? You monsters! ;) ). If that's what you guys prefer we'll go with it, but I was gonna opt for the easiest method on this one.
I guess I can go either way. My need for verisimilitude can be put aside for gameplay :)
I have returned!
Yes casters often suffer from "Batman Syndrome". Theoretically they are stronger than any threat you could possibly throw at them...but only with the proper prep time.
As for the problem of the vacant healer (which is a constant problem throughout gaming), that can often be patched up with some generous healing wands and a friendly cleric back in town for removed limbs and curses and such.
That feels like more magic than we can expect from this particular game. XD ...I'm not sure how many clerics there actually are in this world, but it feels low? (Not, like, totally absent - but my sense is you won't find too much magical healing outside of bigger churches.)
Infernal Healing would solve a lot of our problems, assuming we could get devil-blood. Say - isn't there an infernal corpse in the next room?
Yes, the overall number of clerics is lower in this world, though I imagine that pretty much any town would have at least one or two clerics who will gladly cast a few healings spells for a small price. Plus, by the time you get back to town you're probably safe enough to just take a few days off (assuming no time pressures) and heal up, given the higher nightly healing rate in Eldreon.
I've also been considering creating a few more common alchemical alternatives. Basically healing potions that heal-over-time instead of all at once. Slightly less ass-saving in dangerous situations, but that's kind of the point.
Kien personally would be indifferent to infernal healing. He doesn't get wrapped up too much in the good vs bad dichotomy.
*Raises hand* Spheres has some interesting options there. On the magic side, you can get effects that provide Fast Healing - pretty shoddy in battle even at its best, but well-suited to healing between fights. World Weariness discourages over-use. XD On the mundane side, the more-recent Spheres of Might has the Alchemy sphere, and an option there allows creating what are basically herbal medical packs, limited by the number that can be carried, the number any given character can benefit from each day, and a half-hour crafting time (so you can't endlessly stock up during downtime). If you're not totally sure on the numbers you want to use, either may provide a good reference point.
Infernal - or Celestial healing, if we find a Celestial - might be enough to stop us from becoming overwhelmed with decision paralysis.
One of the strange issues with Pathfinder is that if the Barbarian and Wizard both lose half their hit points, the wizard will - generally - recover first.
Pathfinder already has Troll Styptic. 100gp for 4d4 hp is a lot (averaging 10gp per hp) but makes sense at time.
I'd be keen to get one of these - except for the price.
There are items and consumables that can restore another hp/level under long term care. In theory two of these can be combined for a serious increase to healing speed.
There's also at least one Feat Tyrus can take to help, but I believe Luca already has Eldritch hand-laying in mind?
Yup. It's nothing like being a proper Cleric or Oracle, but once we level, I can provide at least moderate restoration after battle. Or during it, if anyone wants to risk that. XD (As-written, it works, but I wouldn't go as far as calling it "safe"...)
I don't have much use for my feats - Summoners are weirdly free in that regard - so I'll probably grab Extra Lay on Hands to improve my ability to recover our HP.
I'm feeling like I should probably get Tyrus some crafting feats when he gets to level 5.
@Mercy: At the start you said you were going to firm up item creation before we got to level 5. How is it going?
With a little downtime crafting feats are always worth it.
Mmm - maybe. Up to now we've not even had sufficient gold to make scribing scrolls a reasonable investment. To be fair, though, this is the first time we've really raided a dungeon and stuck with it.
You've been a real asset, Kien. Normally we end up turning back because someone has injuries that will take a week to heal on adventure. Three casters made for a very soft party.
With his False Life, Tyrus was the tank.
Think about that for a second...
Hmm - what were people's opinions on Skeletons, Zombies and Constructs again please?
In town, people probably dislike the first two and might be okay with the third, depending on its looks. XD Luca has no particular objection to any of them as long as they're not hurting her - she's got her own weird beasties to deal with, and might be more relieved than anything else at seeing minions that can be controlled.
I should add Luca's meat shields summons were invaluable at keeping us alive.
Kien will be generally distasteful of the first two but could reasonably be convinced.
Hm... I DID say that about item crafting, didn't I? Uh, I honestly don't remember how far I'd managed to take it. I'll have to look up the notes I had. Should have time for that sometime this week.
I remember that, in order for things to jive with the general nature of the world, magic items tended to be less powerful than average DnD AND usually work only for the creator (which would partially explain their dearth, as many powerful magic items would lose their power once their creator died).
Beyond that, I'll have to get back to you.
Is Untrained Appraise possible?
I rolled K:Planes for knowledge of anything we could take from the dead demon or the maggots that might be of value.
Apologies for missing that, Dante. I'll address it today.
Tyrus: Yep!
Thinking for spells
1: Enlarge Person, Mage Armour, Mage Armour, Chill Touch, Burning Hands, BLANK
2: Bear's Endurance, Acid Arrow, False Life, BLANK
and happy to go back when spells (and some hp) are recovered!
Wait, where are we now? The room with the blood beasts had only the door right? And we aren't going that way. Don't need to fight demon maggots.
You aren't? I missed something. I thought you were going back to that spot to enter the devil room?
GM confusion worst confusion. :|
Yeah, that's what I thought. Next stop demon maggots.
I guess technically it was not agreed either way but I thought there was no point to fighting them beyond experience and I never prioritize that cause it's meta. We can't do anything with the body in there. Knowing it's there is worth more. All we'd be doing is clearing it out for the next team. That's assuming we got everything. More might spawn soon after we leave anyway.
You guys don't often come to a full decision before posting seems to slack off, so I've been trying to go with what the overall consensus seems to be. If Dante is against continuing into the room, by all means raise the issue with the party in gameplay! :)
I'll wait until tomorrow to post in case the group changes its mind.
Oh, by all means, feel free to push us forward. XD More than you have been, even. PbP really does need a bit of railroading.
Devil's blood - if it is devil's blood - allows Infernal Healing.
I'm fine with it. Just confused.
A good chance that's 44 damage - quite respectable for a first turn while under haste!
Have a busy work day and am in a show that goes up this weekend, so my time is limited. Won't get a post up today but will try to do it this weekend!
Right-o. ^^
I sleep, every night, in a bed of lies. New post up later today. :)
Hooray, new posts! XD And hey, things happen.
Let the haste round begin!
These things are like the opposite of glass cannons.