Kingmaker: Of Kings and Coronets [OoC Discussion thread]

Welcome everyone.

Davor is here, fully armed, armoured and able.

I will make equipment additions to Ragnor within the day and flesh out the remaining bits.

Ragnor and DM I noticed that we both took Sword scion as our AP trait. I am not wedded to it and can easily change to a noble house if you think we would step in eachothers toes. Probably a good idea to know which house i was kicked out of in any case.

You can keep the trait, it won't make that big a difference. Perhaps you and Ragnor trained together before you left the training school.

You can keep the trait, it won't make that big a difference. Perhaps you and Ragnor trained together before you left the training school.

Before I was kicked out you mean. :7)

Just don't want it to close off any plot avenues to you. Unless I am mistaken we only have 1 noble in the group? Given that more then half the campaign traits hint at politics we might want to be able to explore that aspect more. In fact I think I will change my trait to Noble born, house Lodvoka with your permission. Under Nicos I would have 'unlearned' what the Aldori taught me in any case.

Here is Agnatha. I had some money left over (turns out wizards have very little to purchase, who knew?) and scribed two scrolls. If that is a problem, I'll just delete them.

"Aye, I'm here M'lord, just trying to catch up, the papers had a 5 point discrepancy *mumble* that when factored into the radius *mumble* caused an angle that most likely result in *writes in mid-air* carry the three, gives an erroneous coefficient...." He regains his composure "I mean to say, I'm almost ready."

What are your speech preferences? Bold or just quotations? Are you able to make the text smaller and smaller or just the one time? I tried embedding the codes but it didn't work.

Dot.

What are your speech preferences? Bold or just quotations? Are you able to make the text smaller and smaller or just the one time? I tried embedding the codes but it didn't work.

Not speaking for the DM, but I personally find bold with quotations much easier for people to notice when you're talking or if your character is having a inner monolog. Highlights to the players and DM what is actually being heard so there won't be a mix up. I also put inner monolog in italics.

I think I'll probably use bold for speaking out loud and italics for inner thoughts as well. Seems to work fairly well.

Please look over Tarith and let me know if he needs any modifications. Thanks!

Holbrecht Bastionne wrote:

What are your speech preferences? Bold or just quotations? Are you able to make the text smaller and smaller or just the one time? I tried embedding the codes but it didn't work.

Not speaking for the DM, but I personally find bold with quotations much easier for people to notice when you're talking or if your character is having a inner monolog. Highlights to the players and DM what is actually being heard so there won't be a mix up. I also put inner monolog in italics.

This is normally the way I do it and it would make it easier for me and others to follow along.

Good to know. It is how I usually do my post so that should make things easy.
I was curious on your view on the magical lineage (Acid Splash). I had planned on using intensified spell metamagic feat making it a cantrip capable of doing 6d3 damage. Just wanted to know your opinion on it. I can change it if you are uncomfortable with me doing that much consistent damage with the cantrip

Benefit: An intensified spell increases the maximum number of damage dice by 5 levels. You must actually have sufficient caster levels to surpass the maximum in order to benefit from this feat. No other variables of the spell are affected, and spells that inflict damage that is not modified by caster level are not affected by this feat.

Since the damage dealt by Ray of Frost does not increase with caster level I would say it is ineligible for this feat.

I don't completely agree with the ruling based on the description of the feat but I can go with it. Thank you for clearing it up for me. I will change my Magical Lineage to shocking grasp.

I don't completely agree with the ruling based on the description of the feat but I can go with it. Thank you for clearing it up for me. I will change my Magical Lineage to shocking grasp.

OK, but you won't be able to benefit from the feat until at least 6th level.

Sorry this is taking so long. I'm currently going over everyones characters.

@ Davor Mason: Everything looks good so far.

@ Ragnor Yver: As an Ulfen you receive Skald as a bonus language. You seem to be over by 1 hit point, by my calculations you should have 14 hp's (8 +2 Con +1 Favored Class +3 Toughness).It appears that you haven't applied your Armor check penalty to your skills, also you haven't purchased a Artisan's kit for your Craft: weapon skill (without this you suffer a -2 penalty to your skill check). Lastly, you show a MW longsword as your weapon wielded, and a MW Aldori dueling sword in your equipment, so which one is it?
Edit: Your Swim check should be +0/+1 (+1 Strength/-1 Armor).

I misremembered the human skill ability was treating it like favored class thanks for the catch. Made the necessary adjustments

Sorry for the delay.

Home computer issues, fixed now but it ate the character. Will rebuild tonight.

Sorry again.

~will

Should be fine, but then again I did it with herolab so there's a very good chance that it's okey.

Ragnor, was your father associated with a particular dueling school?

I thought that he might have had some association with the Aldori school because of his trade and location in Restov. Putting him in a good position to pull some strings to get Ragnor in or at least given some lessons.

AJM8665 color me an idiot I looked at the intensified feat again and I can see what you mean about not working with acid splash. I overlooked the part about spells that inflict damage that is not modified by caster level are not affected by this feat.

I thought that he might have had some association with the Aldori school because of his trade and location in Restov. Putting him in a good position to pull some strings to get Ragnor in or at least given some lessons.

So we might know each other or you might know of me as a student who showed up drunk at a public exhibition and was later imprisioned.

I would say its possible we might have even been drinking buddies ;)

I originally pictured Ragnor being a practitioner of the Aldori school with all the bells and whistles but the more I thought about it the sword style was a side line to his real passion of magic and I couldn't see him becoming to invested in it. He took with him some understanding of the style but a true practitioner would probably find his sword work sloppy or a poorly bastardized version of the style since he has fused spell casting with the sword movements.

@ Agnatha: You still have one more ability point to spend, by my calculations you've only spent 19 of your 20 points. Also your AC, Touch AC, Initiative, Reflex save, and all your Dex based skills seem to be off by 1 point.

@ Holbrecht: Your CMD is off 1 point, it should be 13 (10+ 0 Strength+ 3 Dexterity) instead of 14. Other than that it looks good.

@ Tarith: What alignment is Tarith? Your Survival check seems to be off by 1. It should be +6 (3 class skill/ +1 rank/ +2 Wisdom) instead of +7

OK, as soon as Poor Wandering One posts Caelius' profile and I get a chance to review it we'll be ready to go.

Thank you, I had knocked his Str down from a 22 pt buy, I thought I had caught all the things it changed.

EDIT: It's fixed.

That additional +1 to all the dex stuff is coming from the Flexible Enhancement ability from the Wood School. It gives a +1 to dexterity, constitution or wisdom. You can switch it around when you prepare spells. Generally, I think I'll put that on Dex–I calculated AC and so forth assuming that–but I wasn't sure how to represent that on the sheet. Perhaps I'll put all that in parenthesis.

Thanks for the correction on the Survival check. I think I had added extra +1 from the Track class feature, which of course only works for tracking.

As for alignment, I plan on being NG.

Poor Wandering One, if you could re-post Caelius' profile so I could look it over before we get too far that would be appreciated.

And awaay we go!

Caelius Nicos. Rebuilt and ready to get hopelessly lost in the woods!

@Caelius: Where are you getting the +8 Acrobatics? By my calculations it should be +6 (Class skill 3/ Rank +1/ Dexterity +2). I think you are adding in the +2 non-armored bonus. But on the plus side it looks like you've only spent 11 of your 12 skill points. Other then that it looks good.

@Caelius: Where are you getting the +8 Acrobatics? By my calculations it should be +6 (Class skill 3/ Rank +1/ Dexterity +2). I think you are adding in the +2 non-armored bonus. But on the plus side it looks like you've only spent 11 of your 12 skill points. Other then that it looks good.

>facepalm<

Right on both counts. I was adding the bonus and I was short a skill. Refigured acrobatics and added a point to Ride. Not that useful at the moment but very useful once I switch to fighter.

Thanks, you have good eyes.

Just waiting for Holbrecht to respond IC before advancing the story line

Now that the characters are out of the way, how do you want to handle initiatives? do you want to do individual initiatives or block initiatives? Roll for yourselves or have me roll at the beginning of the action?

I am really enjoying how block initiative is wofrking in TarkXT's City of Thieves. I think it is better than personal rolls for pbp's. In any case please make the rolls whatever you choose. It really helps to keep thinks smooth.

I would also recommend rolling damage with your to hits and including critical rolls as well.

ex

"Right, shooting the third Richard Nixon from the left. Attack 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (17) + 6 = 23, Damage 2d6 + 4 ⇒ (1, 1) + 4 = 6. Confirm? 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24 killer trait. Ctit damage 2d6 ⇒ (5, 1) = 6"

It seems to speed combat up.

If I may weigh in, individual initiative is an absolute pain in PbP that slows an already slow way of running combat down to a literal crawl.

I don't know any groups who still do individual initiative.

I agree with DM rolled Initiative in one post, it speeds up things more than one would imagine.

Also, when rolling for skills, attacks, damage, and such, should also be done in the same post.

Sometimes, just precede it with a "if it hits..."

Also, for any that may not know, if you preview your post before you submit, it shows you what you rolled. I do it as a DM and player to flavor up the results in the same post where I made the roll. With a preview, you can skip bothering with damage if you fumble/roll low, and add crit if you see that you crit.

I enjoy individual initiative but I know it can be a bit of a pain to DM from personal experience. I have never seen the group initiative in action is the order adjusted by a characters initiative modifier?

The way I do it in mine is I roll seperate for each with their modifiers. All I do is write the 'dice d20' command then copy paste it for each combatant, then I adjust for each player.

Once I've done it once, I just reply to my own post, and it has it all right there. I just adjust the mods if they changed since my last post.

Then again, I do all my DM rolls on posts behind a DM rolls spoiler. So for me personally a few more rolls in one post, to speed up waiting for all 7 players to post is no big addition.

Now if that means group initiative over individual, that I'm not a big fan of. I think what we are talking though is DM rolled individual init?

The way you have been talking about will work fine and dandy but I was talking about true group initiative.

The DM rolls all the PC initiatives with mods and averages them.
Then the same is done for the other side

Highest average goes first actions executed in order of posting.
It sounds odd but it seems to work in practice. At least at low levels anyway.

In most of the other games I've played in, the DM has rolled initiative. That works fine for me, but I am comfortable with whatever is easiest for the DM.

Here's what I was proposing:

I roll for everyones initiative
Adjust initiative scores for individual, then break the results into groups
the first group consists of all characters who have a higher initiative score than the monster(s)/opponent(s), while characters in the remaining groups have a lower initiative than the monster(s)/opponent(s).
Characters in first group react in posting order.
Monster(s)/Opponent(s) act
The remaining characters in the remaining group(s) react in posting order.

Tell me what you think.

Here's what I was proposing:

I roll for everyones initiative
Adjust initiative scores for individual, then break the results into groups
the first group consists of all characters who have a higher initiative score than the monster(s)/opponent(s), while characters in the remaining groups have a lower initiative than the monster(s)/opponent(s).
Characters in first group react in posting order.
Monster(s)/Opponent(s) act
The remaining characters in the remaining group(s) react in posting order.

Tell me what you think.

I think this is an excellent idea.

I am sure that can potentially speed up posts but I can see that leading to one sided battles a whole round of one side or the other going can be pretty devastating. The idea of the GM rolling for everyone sounds pretty good. When I DM I have everyone role initiative and tell me their actions once everyone has posted I do a summation of the actions for the round making the adjustments necessary giving the players the benefit of the doubt in situations where the actions have become defunct but I am not an expert by any means with play by post. Coarse the DMs job is a hard one so I can get behind stuff that can make their life easier. Having said that are their any jobs that can be done that will make things easier for you AJM8665

Here's what I was proposing:

I roll for everyones initiative
Adjust initiative scores for individual, then break the results into groups
the first group consists of all characters who have a higher initiative score than the monster(s)/opponent(s), while characters in the remaining groups have a lower initiative than the monster(s)/opponent(s).
Characters in first group react in posting order.
Monster(s)/Opponent(s) act
The remaining characters in the remaining group(s) react in posting order.

Tell me what you think.

That seems a reasonable compromise.

Here's what I was proposing:

I roll for everyones initiative
Adjust initiative scores for individual, then break the results into groups
the first group consists of all characters who have a higher initiative score than the monster(s)/opponent(s), while characters in the remaining groups have a lower initiative than the monster(s)/opponent(s).
Characters in first group react in posting order.
Monster(s)/Opponent(s) act
The remaining characters in the remaining group(s) react in posting order.

Tell me what you think.

I'm just trying to clarify for my own understanding

i.e. PC group roll is 13 and have modifiers of +2(x4), +3 and +6, which results 15(x4), 16 and a 19. The enemy has +4, so they only split the group with an 11-15. Until the levels get higher and the inits really start to spread out, wouldn't it mostly end up with only 2 groups, PC's and Enemy?

Now if you are not doing group init, then disregard my questions, they are based off 1 roll for all the PCs.

If the point you are making is
PC1 18
PC2 16
PC3 13
Enemies 12
PC4 10
PC5 7
PC6 3

PCs 1-3 go in any order based on whoever posts first, and PCs 4-6 go in any order based on whoever posts first.

If that's the case, do they maintain that order, or does it stay as whoever posts? Round 2, start over with whoever posts first out of PCs 1-3?

Sounds reasonable, and could speed things up. I personally am not a fan of 1 roll for all PC's, but I'm not the one running it, so if it makes it easier for our GM I'll just suck it up and drive on.

I agree with block initiative as you don't have to wait for everyone to post initiative, though certain classes to have their iniative change drastically like inquisitor adding Wis to it at 2nd level.

I think what our DM wants to do (could be wrong of course) is to roll everyone's individual initiative (that's six rolls with individual modifiers), and then group the party based on the initiatives. Once in groups, posting is first-come first-serve within that group.

I think that'll work well and will keep the battles running smoothly and relatively quickly.

I think what our DM wants to do (could be wrong of course) is to roll everyone's individual initiative (that's six rolls with individual modifiers), and then group the party based on the initiatives. Once in groups, posting is first-come first-serve within that group.

I think that'll work well and will keep the battles running smoothly and relatively quickly.

Yeah that's what I assume he meant sort of like what I do in my campaign.

I think what our DM wants to do (could be wrong of course) is to roll everyone's individual initiative (that's six rolls with individual modifiers), and then group the party based on the initiatives. Once in groups, posting is first-come first-serve within that group.

I think that'll work well and will keep the battles running smoothly and relatively quickly.

This is what I was trying to make sure I understood. If you are correct in the intent, I have no problem with this (in RL, I would, but for PbP it would really speed things up.)

Also, Davor, I'm reluctant to answer your question in game yet. This is my first AP, and I'm not exactly sure what the mission is, so I don't know why I'm on it.

Tarith Ordin wrote:

I think what our DM wants to do (could be wrong of course) is to roll everyone's individual initiative (that's six rolls with individual modifiers), and then group the party based on the initiatives. Once in groups, posting is first-come first-serve within that group.

I think that'll work well and will keep the battles running smoothly and relatively quickly.

This is what I was trying to make sure I understood. If you are correct in the intent, I have no problem with this (in RL, I would, but for PbP it would really speed things up.)

Also, Davor, I'm reluctant to answer your question in game yet. This is my first AP, and I'm not exactly sure what the mission is, so I don't know why I'm on it.

Could make something up by giving the kingmaker player's guide a read. Should give some inspiration.