Despite the danger of killing one or all of you, I was rather pleased you took an interest in Keldradt. It's one of my own favorite locations in Eldreon, though I hadn't had any plans at the time to lead you there.
I'm also rather relieved I decided the Morbid Dreamer would target Georgi with the attack that killed him (Phantasmal Killer as a spell-like-ability). With the rolls that followed I think it would have taken down anyone.
Hm, seems like a decent item. I could see introducing that to you at some point... though I think I'd make it a torque rather than a ring. I'm envisioning Luca having the sensation of it squirming around her throat when she makes use of it, because I'm cruel like that.
...That's twisted, and I love it. XD
Yeah. Those rolls... even with liannas blessing...
Well. Horl just got 20 percent of a good treasure if you really meant gold, Mercy. Does Timm stl get a share?
Okay, so, sources of income we don't want to forget.
Gemstones in the ceiling
Bronze doors
Silver lines in the floor and walls.
The scrollcases
The scrolls in the scrollcases
Selling copies of the writing (have to be careful about the deal we made with Horl, which promised exclusivity on certain things)
The gems in the rotted regalia.
The stuff we just found.
@Mercy: I like the idea of picking up feats related to the stuff Tyrus encounters on his adventures.
If the Makon stuff around harvesting waste magic can be bought as a Feat, I'd be interested in taking it, sight unseen. I have to admit I'm mostly looking at something usable outside constructed buildings. It is also possible it is just a fancy form of Extend Spell, or Varisian Tattoo. I'm okay if this is just scratching the surface.
Edit: but not if it is "if Tyrus casts a spell he is attacked by a dustmonster" ;P
I feel like bronze doors would be challenging to take back to town. XD
Updated loot what we found so far...
Gemstones in the ceiling
Bronze doors
Silver lines in the floor and walls.
The scrollcases
The scrolls in the scrollcases
Selling copies of the writing (have to be careful about the deal we made with Horl, which promised exclusivity on certain things - see below)
The gems in the rotted regalia.
The devil eater's belt and headband
the pedestal the blood statues had inside them.
"Drop it another 10% and we'll also leave you with the only copy we make of the layout as far as we explore. Even notes on possible traps, paths we can't follow, archaeological discovers we can't take, structure and integrity. Luca has excellent handwriting and I have engineering knowledge. An initial survey might make the Order more amenable to an expedition."
I just got a really good idea for a feat/trait for Tyrus... sadly it'd probably have to wait a few levels. Here's hoping we get that far
This far?
Speaking of feats, I'm all ears if anyone has ideas for Luca. XD Summoners are weirdly free on things like gear and feats, and I'm kind of curious what the rest of you think might be a good talent for her to learn. I might even look at retraining if it fits well enough, since I haven't been burning down too far with my minion army anyway.
You might want to link me to the post where I said that, Tyrus. I'm not sure which point in my notes it correlates to. I'm not the most organized person in the world...
And yes, Timm and Dante will both be getting their "shares" of the gold I'll reduce it somewhat for Timm because we essentially stopped using the character, though.
@Luca: From the GM, suggestions would largely depend on the direction you want your character to grow in. You shouldn't take anything as guaranteed, but I'm definitely interested in seeing Luca become more of an agent in her own fate soon. If you have ideas for homebrew feats which might help push towards that, I'm all ears.
Hmm... at the moment, I think I'm most interested in [Things Luca can do with her turn]. She usually just kind of casts a buff and then hides, and I wouldn't mind something that could be considered a little more active. XD And, not to hammer too hard on the point or anything, but I think it may be harder for her to grow as a person if she remains passive in challenging situations.
As such, I'm definitely interested in feats that provide an active thing to do, rather than a passive boost to one of her numbers. To stick with the ongoing theme, one idea I had was for an improvement to her gaze attack. This could take a few different forms (A hex-like effect such as Evil Eye? An attack similar to that of a crossbow? Probably not any 1/enemy/day effects, though, because those don't really achieve the underlying goal here.) Any thoughts on an "every turn she's not casting/summoning" skill you think would be appropriate?
@Luca: Hmmm. Mesmerists have a whole feat tree built around gaze attacks. I've not looked at it much, though.
Skills wise I guess I'm looking at
* 1 rank in diplomacy
* 2 ranks in linguistics, picking up Orcish and Makon. @GMBP: are those the languages?
* 1 rank in spellcraft
* 1 rank in alchemy
* 1 rank in heal (though it may not be needed anymore)
Plans.
@Kien: I have not taken into account any of your mid-long term plans. Would love to know what you'd like to do.
Proposing (OOC)
* Continue to lootexplore the dungeontemple.
* Head back to Keldradt. Drop Timms and Dante at Keldradt. Offload some of the "easy stuff".
* Head back to Gemny to trade the nice stuff to a collector; maybe Naswel. Get some spells. Order things.
* Grab Forgelight and head back out to the place where magical herbs grow. Dig up whatever is under there.
* Head back to Gemny. Pick up things.
* Head to the Island I can never remember, where a potential cure resides.
@Luca: what are you after?
Mostly, Luca isn't ready to be independent and lacks other legal guardians, so she feels she has little choice but to tag along with adults and hope to be useful so she's not kicked out again. XD She'd definitely like to stabilize the money situation a little, though, and perhaps get some good tools for her profession.
Skills wise I guess I'm looking at
* 1 rank in diplomacy
* 2 ranks in linguistics, picking up Orcish and Makon. @GMBP: are those the languages?
* 1 rank in spellcraft
* 1 rank in alchemy
* 1 rank in heal (though it may not be needed anymore)
That leaves 2 left, dummy!
* 1 rank in Knowledge: Arcana makes sense.* 1 rank in Perception
@Mercy: idea for an item/feat/thing in the future
The Makon seem to have a technique for channeling power using runes, possibly infilled with metal (there is a question if this is decorative, structural or ritual).
This is mostly useless for people.
The closest would be tattoo magic, which "writes" on skin. This makes it subject to easy deformation, and as skin is non-rigid it is difficult for runes to remain perfectly formed.
Thinking about Tyrus stealing an idea from the Paladin we found. Slowly expose his bones one by one and scribe (or have scribed) the runes in question upon his bones one by one.
Honestly at this point I'm not sure why.
I think he could get Torble trained to use it's acid to etch in very exact ways, so long as Tyrus himself were restrained.
I think in theory False Life could keep him alive and not bleeding out.
I think in theory he could stitch the cuts shut, and maybe get magical healing to help close them.
What do you think?
Sorry for calling you GMBP earlier; was writing to two GMs and typed the wrong name :( By the time I noticed the edit window had passed.
What happened to the ruined bits of the book. Tyrus said he was going to try to repair them later, as I recall. In the hopes f a Make Whole one day.
Is there a spell to let you question the skulls of dead spellcasters? Now thinking of making a collection…
Did we settle on Crowns, Ducats and Pennies for coinage?
I think the loot from the first adventure didn’t make it onto the sheet (sorry). I think there should be 18 does of healing lotion (post 297), unknown transmutation potion (post 280), a pewter bracelet, and a sconce ;P
I’ve updated the notes sheet. We didn’t seem to be using it, so I sort of rewrote what was there a bit. Can restore to previous version.
I also updated the loot sheet. I’ve decided to keep all Tyrus’ stuff on there so I don’t lose anything again.
Mostly, Luca isn't ready to be independent and lacks other legal guardians, so she feels she has little choice but to tag along with adults and hope to be useful so she's not kicked out again. XD She'd definitely like to stabilize the money situation a little, though, and perhaps get some good tools for her profession.
Aw!
Yeah, Tyrus ain't kicking you out. He's protective. I reckon that's why the thing that looks out of her eyes leaves him alone.
Stabilising the money situation might just have been done. I've got my eye on some stuff here worth a fair bit to the right person if we can move it... but even just simple collectibles are worth more than all the money we've ever made.
Given Dante was the one opposed to the occasional month of work to build up our reserves, I think we can trade off time for stability now.
As far as feats for a summoner go, playing summoners is my favorite thing in Pathfinder so I'm pretty well versed in that. However unfortunately most of the feats are indeed passive things.
Well, summoners can normally get great action economy, so it doesn't surprise me that most of their class feats are passive. XD Imagine what you could do with, like, a firing line stocked with Wands of Scorching Ray or something. Allowing the Summoner themselves to be too strong would be overkill on what's already a potent class. Fortunately, most of those concerns are lessened in this game - I don't expect us to be dripping in disposable magic items and aberrations tend to learn towards "weird effects" more than pure combat power. Given that, an "all day" sort of feat shouldn't be out of line.
*Taps chin* Maybe Ghost Strikes would work. That's kind of curse-y, void-y stuff. Call it a feat investment to get started, and then additional feats or up to one spell known per level for additional talents, and no spell points means there'd be no worries about the stronger ones...
Perhaps some sort of "Sacred Summons" that instead has a more void flavored template?
Well, they already get the Entropic template instead of a good/evil one, and Sacred Summons would feel a bit like cheating since her summons have adjusted alignments. XD She'd be able to call more things with that particular feat than really intended (and that doesn't really help her with my main goal here, i.e., non-summoning actions to do on her turn that are useful, yet balanced enough for unlimited use each day).
Also! GM, I think you should take a look at some of these. They're horrible, and as such I feel like they're right up your alley. XD
@Luca: still waiting on my book, so was interested. Ritualist seems like a great Wizard archetype - much more how I see Wizards working.
Scribe Scroll seems appropriate given her Calligraphy, but I'm not sure it will have any real utility.
She could learn to pass as a wizard, I guess - doesn't seem good for the concept.
Elritch Heritage could get you a 3+cha/day SLA, if you get the right one. Protean maybe?
Crossbow is not too bad - more damage good - but we'll pale compare to other ways of doing damage.
For the Mythos stuff? Yeah, Ritualist is pretty interesting. Great if you enjoy putting long-term buffs on the party or casting a lot of symbol/rune/glyph spells. I don't advise actually doing the rituals, though. XD Most of them are "apocalyptic cult" sorts of things.
For Eldritch Heritage... well, with her history, the Starsoul bloodline is easily the most appropriate, given her story as written. It's also, uh, kind of trash for just Eldritch Heritage. XD Definitely not worth the two feats.
*Rubs chin* Inflicting Dread on foes could be pretty cool, though...
Perhaps a stronger version of overstimulate that prevents death no matter how far into negatives the target goes? When the spell ends, if the person is far enough into negatives that they would otherwise die, t restores them to just barely pre-death (negative con +1 point) and stable. The excess is added as World Weariness.
Does something like that work for what you were thinking? Pretty powerful, but I could see it as a 3rd level spell with the right caveats.
Alright, I've put the spell research rules in the notes doc.
@Mercy: I'd love it... but this is a straight up improvement on the 4th level spell Deathless, making it at least 5th (I think). That'd need a lot of caveats. I might have to talk to you in 4 levels.
In the meantime...
Could I get a combined Delay Pain and Overstimulate that grants Ferocity, resistance to pain effects, and immunity to nonlethal? Add in "blindness" to anything touch related, and maybe Heal checks to know how injured you are.
Something that just basically keeps the body moving until you die. I'm thinking something that numbs the nerves, stills the blood, forces muscles to move anyway, etc. It'd be a tweaked version of Delay Pain, but probably at 3rd level.
I'd like it to be necromancy, but could be transmutation. Please not enchantment though!
When he gets some time I'm going to try to research a tweaked personalised version of false life that can be used on others.
I've caught up on the posts (love all the possibilities being tossed around). Won't be posting answers until I return later this week, but wanted to say @Tyrus: You're probably right on that spell idea.
And @Luca: You're absolutely right, Luca needs something proactive to do when she isn't summoning/buffing. I'll think on it and review the above suggestions.
Sounds like a plan. ^^ And I can look for a few more ideas if you don't think anything above is quite right.
Hmmm. I have been very tempted by Fly, but I know that Mercy is not keen on spells that let wizards just ignore challenges altogether ala Mount.
I've actually found myself tempted by a spell from the new Blood of the Ancients. It basically makes 50 lbs of material float at CL*2 ft for CL hours. The material can carry up to 50lbs more. So while it would help with reaching high places or overland journeys it does not simply negate the challenge. A floating wagon might be easier than a normal wagon, but it isn't a flying machine.
Yeah, quick-win stuff doesn't seem to fit this game in general. XD
I have returned and mostly restored my life to working order, and will hopefully be answering various questions and such over the next couple of days.
Great to have you back! ^^
Glad to hear!
Re: Studying the 'efficient' or 'recycling' effects of Makon magic for a feat - absolutely a possibility. I'm not sure offhand how we might approach it. Perhaps a secondary effect that you are able to cast when casting other spells, or even a way to gain strength when other spellcasters use magic. Perhaps a spontaneous healing effect a la channeling when another spellcaster uses a spell? Might get complex in practice... either way, it's something to think on.
I'm afraid I don't have any notes on what that feat I was talking about all those years ago was. :( My apologies. I'm sure I must have written it down, but I can't find where I did so. Hopefully I'll stumble across it again, or remember what it was.
Re: Languages - Orcish is useful as orcs are fairly widespread (and I haven't differentiated their language at all yet, so we'll just use a 'racial' language for them). Makon is a dead language, comparable to Ancient Aztec in the real world. Certainly something you could take, but it is particular to this region of the world and descendant languages are only spoken by a relatively small and isolated group of peoples.
Re: Bone-inscribing thing - this seems like a long-term project, but fits very well with who Tyrus is and where his knowledge lies. I could see it as an outlined multi-level project, basically having effects that grow as you level. We'd certainly have to come up with a reason and a direction for it - I don't imagine bone-scribing being an art very conducive to improvisation. :)
A "speak with dead" type of spell exists for divine spellcasters. Reaching beyond the veil of death to the departed soul is generally in the purview only of the divine.
Crowns, ducats, and pennies seems fine with me.
I'm very much of two minds on the Fly spell, but I'm trying to be less picky overall - and it does, after all, only last for a few minutes at your current level. I'll allow it if you decide to pick it up.
A response to most of Tyrus's stuff. If I missed something please ask again!
Fantastic, thanks :)
Addressing things from easiest to hardest...
RE Heritage Feat; I understand, it was a long time ago!
RE Coins; great.
RE Orcish; awesome.
RE Makon; understood. I think this is going to be something that has a long term impact on Tyrus, and is something he'd dealt with twice. Happy to spend a skill point on it :)
RE Bonescription: I like it! I'm tempted to combine that with the Makon idea, basically doing what they did with the temple writ small.
RE Feats; okay, then Alchemical Affinity for sure. I think it acts to show Tyrus is mastering an aspect of magic. I'd be interested in Extend Magic, as Tyrus ends up practicing casting spells that don't "leak" as much and thus last longer (at the cost of being more difficult to cast). With its "detection" built in the temple is probably a good place to have trained for that. I do want to check that (A) I am right that Rods are going to be very rare though; wizard feats are precious, and if I can get the same effect with a spell I'd be very happy to do it and (B) this is a bit showy.
RE Speak with Dead; I might have him start saving skulls in case he ever learns enough necromancy to make it work, but understand this is a very long term proposition.
Other stuff follows...
RE 5th level spells; still a bit torn. Clay Flesh is looking good. The Floating spell from the new book seems more interesting than Fly - but Fly is very good. I'm prepared to commit to the "Resist Pain, Greater" I posted above if you want to give your spell creation rules a spin.
RE Archetypes; how do you feel about that Ritualist archetype in the link Luca posted? I sorta like it as more 'wizardy' - and would go VERY well with Extend Spell.
Can you mark me as inactive in the player's tab?
Alright I think I'm good to go.
I'll pick up Clay Flesh (got to keep our frontliner alive ;p) and try for the improved delay pain if you are willing, Mercy.
Luca is in favor of anything that keeps the front-liners alive. XD Up to and including regular use of her new healing skill.
Meant to post last week, but have also been catching up at work and such. We'll get underway again soon. Tyrus, I'm happy to take a stab at the new spell creation rules if you are!
@Luca: If I get two spells to enhance survivability, and I use Bear's Endurance as well, and you use your healing... I'm confident Kien could break a hundred damage before his soul finally gets to leave his body.
@Mercy: Sweet!
School necromancy ; Level Tyrus 3
CASTING
casting Time 1 full round
Components V, S, M (a drop of anaesthetic), F
EFFECT
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one creature
Duration 1 hour/level
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell resistance yes
DESCRIPTION
You deaden the target's sense of pain and touch and infuse their bones and muscles with negative energy. For the furation of the spell The target acquires Undead immunity to Nonlethal damage, is unaffected by Pain effects, and the Ferocity special ability.
As the target has no sense of touch or pain at all they take a -2 penalty to any roll requiring fine dexterity such as picking a lock. They require a Heal check to discover the extent of any injuries.
If a target dies while under the effect of this spell they instantly become an uncontrolled Zombie with the Fast Template until the spell duration expires.
As a general reminder, my healing is bad for use in-combat, and should be avoided there when possible. (An intentional limit, since healing others isn't usually a thing Summoners can do. .....I get weirdly obsessive about specific details of balance and fairness. XD Fortunately, we haven't had people lose that much HP too often.)
@Luca: Wow - that's pretty impressive. Added to the Heal I think that's enough you actually healed Kien all the way up.
Whew, feels good to have some healing. I forgot how painful being a frontliner can be without it.
Mm. I think it's one of the things this party really needed, so... I'm glad it's finally online. XD Luca's no Cleric, but it's definitely better than it was.
@GM: So, any thoughts on options for Luca? If anything else is gonna change at this level, I think I'd like to get it done before we go into combat again. XD
I've been thinking on it, but haven't arrived at anything I love yet. Been toying around with ideas like giving you increased uses of Look Into the Void or other debuff-focused powers, as your minions already add to pure damage output (and also soak quite a bit, most of the time).
One of the stranger ideas I had was to give you a power called something like "Step Into the Void" that both applied a random debuff on a touch attack (identical to Look power) and had a chance to randomly teleport the target. Maybe also some damage? Kind of a kitchen-sink ability but it sounded fun when I though it up.
@Tyrus: Looks like a good spell plan, I'll finalize the rolls and requirements for it soon.
I'm not sure the minions have added too much damage - low accuracy - but they are good at soaking up damage when they can get enemies to target them. Which is, of course, the point. XD They are highly disposable and Luca will be delighted if people treat them as such.
Hmm... maybe something along these lines?
The Void Looks At You
Prerequisite: Void Caller archetype, Summoner 5
As a standard action, a target you can see is afflicted by a penalty (as the Evil Eye Hex of the Witch), with a Will saving throw equal to 10 + 1/2 the Void Caller's Summoner Level + their Cha Mod reducing the duration to 1 round. This is not a mind-affecting effect, but it is a supernatural curse effect and does not work on creatures immune to curses.
As a swift action, you can cause one target suffering a penalty from this feat to also suffer the effects of Look Into The Void (with the same saving throw as this feat), but each target can only suffer a successful use of this secondary effect once per day.
Explicitly looking at
* get the whip
* try to use it as a key on the temple doors
* Peek inside,
* Be prepared to run.
Kien is pretty much at 100%. Luca and I are at 50%. There's meant to be a ticking clock on this adventure I think, and we've lost a lot of time.
I also don't mind sleeping (and levelling) if that is what people want.
@Mercy: What is the deal with World Weariness? You were rewording it for % weren't you?
@Mercy: Re spell - looking forward to it.
@Luca and Mercy: Look, none of my business, but I like the idea that Luca's powers are a tiny extension of an Elder God Thing trying to affect our universe through a keyhole, and desperately trying to protect that keyhole.
Summons = Protect Luca
Luca gets mortals who protect her, but who keep getting injured so she risks herself to save them = Heal Mortals.
Truth be told, I've never even written what the Void is. XD It's as big a mystery to me as it is to the rest of you, although it's not hard to see the underlying theme. I kind of like it being something I (as a player) don't understand.
Yeah, Elder God Thing as a vague description, rather than one of the Mythos deities.
Need to remember the point of this is so you have something to do in combat rather than just summon.
Yyyyyup. That's my hope, anyway. XD In fact, if my Eidolon is out, I can't summon more than once, so my major desire is finding something Luca can actively do aside from that. I feel like every character should have an all-day thing to do, y'know?
(The specifics of this are less important to me than having something in the first place. My goal is to figure something out that we all agree is fair, appropriate, and acceptable.)