Kingmaker (Inactive)

Game Master Dreaming Warforged

So...

Players get one trait, andit must be a campaign trait. The benefit of that campaign trait (as described in the player's guide) is replaced with a feat, selected by the player from the list provided by the GM. Though the player's guide says these traits are linked directly to a mythic path, for this campaign you do not need to adhere to that restriction.

In lieu of a second trait, the player gains a second feat that they may select from the list provided by the GM.

These feats are in addition to the regular feat at first level, and any bonus feats gained from class or race features.

That seems pretty viable to me, and deals with the problems inherent with this particular AP's traits.

I like how you phrased it. I might steal a few lines :)

Again, I'm still weighing things...

Please not that I've put up a recruitment thread for Wrath of the Righteous.

Please not that I've put up a recruitment thread for Wrath of the Righteous.

I would be very keen, but I'm already in a WotR pbp.

Thanks for the heads-up.

After looking at Servayn's and Mal's rolls, I think it's proven the dice roller just flat out hates me. Man you guys rolled a slew of double digit rolls. And ONLY because you busted out with 1's did you fail. Of course, with that many rolls, the odds are high a 1 is gonna pop up.

Stupid dice roller. I hate that worthless thing. And for the life of me I can't understand what reasoning it possesses to hold such a grudge against me. ;p

After looking at Servayn's and Mal's rolls, I think it's proven the dice roller just flat out hates me. Man you guys rolled a slew of double digit rolls. And ONLY because you busted out with 1's did you fail. Of course, with that many rolls, the odds are high a 1 is gonna pop up.

Stupid dice roller. I hate that worthless thing. And for the life of me I can't understand what reasoning it possesses to hold such a grudge against me. ;p

Average would have been 10.5, or 84 total over 8 rolls. With a +8, Servayn needed to roll a 5 to make it, which means an 80% chance of success, which, over eight rolls, means he should have missed 1 or 2. Which he did. Pretty much as expected.

I got 10 above average. Mal only got 4 above average.

You, on the other hand, that's some bad, bad rolls. :) A total of 39, when the average would have been 84? Yikes! At least you got them out of the way on a relatively minor debuff like shaken, although it could suck if some saved their croaks for next round...

What's funny is that everyone rolled a 1.

Anything but a 1 and I pass. Even with a 1 my score beats the DC, just, y'know, natural 1...

Yup. These guys can't touch Kalsgrim with a spell unless he crit fails. Which he has done. Repeatedly.

You, on the other hand, that's some bad, bad rolls. :) A total of 39, when the average would have been 84? Yikes! At least you got them out of the way on a relatively minor debuff like shaken, although it could suck if some saved their croaks for next round...

I know, right?! Thirty-stinkin'-nine! Yeah, definitely glad it wasn't something far more deadlier than shaken.

You know, with that many rolls, it seems the odds are high a 1 is gonna be rolled. I'd have been shocked if one of us wouldn't have rolled a 1. When DW asked for 8 rolls that was my first thought - that no one was gonna be able to avoid rolling a 1.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, there was only a ONE 20 rolled. By Servayn. Everybody rolls a 1 but only a single 20 gets rolled. Go figure.

And before those 8 rolls, Kalsgrim, you have managed two 1's on your past 4 saves. I'm like, "My gosh, you gotta be kiddin' me!" Your rolls are far too similar to my own, bud. That's not good for you AT ALL. ;p

An inherent issue with the d20 system is that pesky d20. No matter how *incredible* you are, you have a 5% chance of rolling a 1 and utterly botching it. No matter how *incompetent* you are, you have a 5% chance of rolling a 20, and acing it.

If 1's are always failures, and 20's are always successes (and I know that isn't always the case!), that would mean that the worlds best expert in any given field will totally mess everything up once in 20 tries, and a high-functioning chimp has a 1 in 20 chance of finding a cure for cancer (and is, statistically, pretty much guaranteed to do so, after twenty attempts). 1 in 20 meals end in food poisoning. 1 in 20 speeches end in a riot. 1 in 20 investments end in a windfall. A troop of 100 dwarven soldiers practicing axe chops at wooden posts might lose 5 of their number to people accidentally decapitating the dwarf next to them *each round.* (Yes, absurd over-the-top strawman examples, but examples nonetheless.)

Coming from a GURPS background, where 3d6 are used instead of 1d20, and there is a curve, with a 3 or an 18 being *much* rarer than a 1 or a 20, and a 9, 10 or 11 being much more common than a 9-11 on a d20 (which have the same 5% chance of occurring as the 1 or the 20), I'm more comfortable with a bit less 'swinginess.'

On the other hand, less swinginess leads to games like GURPS, which certainly has it's own issues... :) In GURPS, you can easily go a long, long time between critical successes *or* failures, and that can sometimes seem a bit less dramatic and 'heroic,' as we grow up surrounded by tales of adventure in which amazing feats are accomplished, and things also can go amazingly wrong (forcing even incredibly competent heroes like James Bond or Batman into unlikely challenges that they pull through by the skin of their teeth).

Heck, 3d6, in a game with multiple modifier types, is actually too narrow of a range (as a single +1 to that roll can have a pretty significant impact). 3d10 would probably be better, even for GURPS, although, as they say, that's an idea whose time is long past.

Busy few days coming up. I'm not sure I'll be able to update maps and fight before Monday, but I'll try!

Heads up: I'm on vacation from Feb. 5 to Feb. 18, and will most likely be unable to post at all.

Enjoy your vacation, DW.

I hope you're doing something fun!

Yes!! But unfortunately, far away from computers...

There's nothing wrong with that! Everyone needs a chance to get away and unplug. :)

There's nothing wrong with that! Everyone needs a chance to get away and unplug. :)

So true.

I'm back. I'll try to update for the Royal Rrrrrumble soonish.

Welcome home! I'm looking forward to your next update! :D

One thing... Do the boggard croaks in the background sound hauntingly like T...P...K! T...P...K!

So yeah, this one is making me nervous.

I wish I had saved some spell slots, a few silence enchanted pebbles would be very useful.

Still here! There are a lot of opponents to coordinate. Bear with me.

Yeah, I am with GE; I've been wondering if this is going to be the end of our heroes. But that whole paladinhood thing makes it impossible to negotiate with evil, and I certainly think these guys are all in that category. Of course, luck is against us. When I have to make four saves that I can only fail on a natural 1, and I fail half those saves? Yeah, that is definitely bad luck.

If I may be so blunt, you guys also have had a very bold approach to encounters. I wouldn't name your group The Prudent Explorers...

Finesse and discretion have been a bit sparse, I will admit.

Which is a fear effect? The croaking?

The Shaken bit. The Will saves were against fear.

I was gonna mention that whoever is within 10' of you gets a +4. But EVERYBODY saved vs that. Of course they did, it's the lesser of two evils.

If I may be so blunt, you guys also have had a very bold approach to encounters. I wouldn't name your group The Prudent Explorers...

We do tend to act more like wandering adventurers and heroes, than 'the rulers of Frieland,' guilty as charged. :)

Given the terrain, running was never an option, even if we'd considered turning back at the first sign of resistance. Indeed, it might only serve to embolden the boggards into attacking our people in the area (not that our deaths wouldn't have the same effect). Our attempts at discouraging them, but not pursuing them back to their village and killing them all turned out not to work (and, given their strength, that would have led to us all dying at their village, most likely).

Eh. Strategic thinking (such as attempting to discourage these boggards from messing with us with a 'shock and awe' onslaught, or attempting to tamp down the snow in the Wisp encounter so that we didn't have to fight in difficult terrain) is mostly just an exercise in frustration anyway. It rarely works.

As a caster, I would say that running away and then returning with a good spell load and buffs up can be a great thing.

If we buffed Kalsgrim with air walk and a silence effect, plus haste, he'd monster this lot. A floating Kalsgrim putting silence arrows into their casters would help too: and none of these foes can really hit a flying, ranged foe.

Servayn 60 ft up, dropping summons and standing back (summons planned to avoid croaks) would monster them too.

Our problem then would simply be that they might swim away but if we surprised them (drawn out with illusions?) and blitzed the leader and casters then we could come back again the next day and chip away again.

Tactics could make this a frogflambee with the right spells for the terrain.

In retrospect (while out shoveling snow), I realized that it might have been terribly naïve of me to think that we could intimidate the boggards into leaving us alone with a show of force, since they have a fear-inducing croak, and are most likely totally immune to such things as fear or demoralization or being 'scared off.'

Eh. That realization could have come sooner, that 'fear-inducing critters probably immune to being scared off / morale checks...'

Also, walls of fire to keep the leaders and casters on the beach.

I once had a GM who let players burn all of the party's hero points to restart encounters after a TPK.

GM: are our foes immune to entangle and nauseated conditions?

How much is a trained giant bat/eagle anyway?

Also, walls of fire to keep the leaders and casters on the beach.

I once had a GM who let players burn all of the party's hero points to restart encounters after a TPK.

GM: are our foes immune to entangle and nauseated conditions?

You need a knowledge check for that, but they don't act like they are.

Well, I think having a paladin does limit options. On the bright side, once Kalsgrim is shredded beyond recognition, the rest of you can cry "Ransom!" and trade some BPs for the lives (and corpses) of the PCs. And with the way the dice are going, Kal is looking like he'll be first to go down.

HA! On three d12's, I rolled a TOTAL of 7. 7! Out of a possibility of 36. HA!

And on three d20's I busted out a total of 15 out of a possible 60.

Man it looks like the rolls keep falling my way! Whoo!

I just remembered about those Will saves we had to make. Out of a possible 160(Eight d20 rolls I believe it was) I rolled what... like... 39 or something like that?

Ah yes, the good times keep on coming.

Do we have all of our spells back? Is it morning or still night? I can't remember.

Sorry Javell. It is still night.

Needless to say, if the Boggard King accepts the proposal, Kriger won't be our ambassador to them. :)

Level 10!

Congratulations everyone. Poor rolls turned this into a very nasty and frustrating fight...

Needless to say, if the Boggard King accepts the proposal, Kriger won't be our ambassador to them. :)

Lol! Probably wouldn't be the greatest of ideas, would it. ;)

Poor rolls indeed. When EVERYBODY fails the same save... that's just bad.

@markofbane: I would highly recommend changing your mercy to 'nauseated' instead of poison. At least you can still fight while poisoned. (Are you able to change once you've chosen? I don't remember.) Of course, the next thing we would run into would be poisonous creatures. :P

Nauseated and fear. The two things I hate the most. You can't. Do. Anything. They're the worst.

Ranger
Skills: 4 to Intimidate, 1 to Perception and Survival
Bonus feat: Improved Sunder

@markofbane: I would highly recommend changing your mercy to 'nauseated' instead of poison. At least you can still fight while poisoned. (Are you able to change once you've chosen? I don't remember.) Of course, the next thing we would run into would be poisonous creatures. :P

I like the idea, and there is a mechanism to do it in Ultimate Campaign. When we are back to civilization again, I'll check with OM and see if he is game.

I will try to level up later today.

You can change it now. No problem.

I found the terrain thing harder to deal with than the nausea, as stinking cloud (and entangle, for that matter, even if they aren't usually found on the spell lists of a single class) are at least things in the game. That other terrain-manipulating effect that seemed to affect the whole swamp, on the other hand, pretty much kept us trapped in the cloud for twice as long, and once out even of the entangle, kept Servayn unable to 5 ft. step and cast without becoming AoO bait (and getting interrupted), so that, in the entire fight, he got a haste off before combat, and nothing else. I'm not sure how much the extra dose of difficult terrain hampered others, but it pretty much removed Servayn from the fight. And yet, the frogs didn't really take advantage of that overwhelming advantage they had, holding back and holding back and then giving up. Eh. Probably more realistic, that way. They aren't Sun Tzu, and the king probably thought he didn't have to go in personally at first, and then, by the time he was moving forward, Kalsgrim's arrows were messing him up and shaking his resolve, since he personally didn't want to die.

IIRC, boggards are demon worshippers. That's going to make integrating them into a LG kingdom trickier than the LE kobolds (who had the advantages of being weak, impressionable and already prone to following rules), and we might be better off weaning the boggards towards a less nasty faith (over time, that being a generational sort of project and not a one-and-done), or perhaps having more of an alliance than a full merger.

I'll think more on this later. I normally plan long-term stuff out in advance, but this seemed like such an obvious TPK-in-progress, my only really thought for 'after' was 'maybe I'll play a cleric, next time.' :)

I tried to play the Boggards as Boggards, meaning they made a few good choices regarding the use of terrain and compatible spells (sorcerers with Fey bloodline for Entangle and Enlarge Person, and rangers with Lead Blades and Entangle).

The King was indeed overconfident. He cast Raise Water and then buffed himself.

The Entangle and Stinking Cloud works both ways, and in retrospect, staying in was probably the safest place to be, unless they had started raining fireballs or others.

The two rangers (lvl 5) and two sorcerers (lvl 5) really locked you in (with awful rolls on your part), but they couldn't press their advantage that much.

Someone need to teach Kriger about surviving...

Paladin 10
Hit Points +9 (6 class, 2 con, 1 favored class)
+1 BAB, +1 Fort, +1 Will
Skill Points: 3 (Diplomacy, Sense Motive, Knowledge (religion)
Spells: First 3rd level paladin spell!
Changed Poisoned mercy to Nauseated. Thanks OM!

It was certainly a brutal scenario, but Kriger wasn't the only one who needed to learn about surviving. We were pretty arrogant thinking we could chase off the boggards like that. Though I suppose if they were just a loose tribe rather than part of a more cohesive kingdom, it may have worked. And having a paladin can certainly be restrictive on choices.

I am hoping this won't have alignment/paladin code reprecussions for Kalsgrim. The successful integration of the Sootscales made him think redemption was a distinct possibility. I guess time will tell.

@Set: The terrain was nasty, 'tis true. But even if we were on plains, Servayn and Malaswyn were still both done for 5 rounds! All either of you could do was move. So, even if the terrain hadn't been an issue, the nauseated still shut y'all down. But with the terrain involved, it most definitely was a "double dose of shutdown".

And let's face it: Five rounds in combat at this level... is FOR-EV-OR. Any combat at this point is more than likely gonna be decided within the first five rounds. There's just too much power on all sides to be able to stop it.

+1 fort, +1 will
+1 bab
+1 5th level spell
hit points: 1d8 ⇒ 5

And let's face it: Five rounds in combat at this level... is FOR-EV-OR. Any combat at this point is more than likely gonna be decided within the first five rounds. There's just too much power on all sides to be able to stop it.

Yeah, if I hadn't been so worried about rolling yet another natural 1* on saving throws, I would have just moved to the center of the cloud and the entangle to wait it out. I haven't been in a game yet where I've seen someone hit with nauseated that lasted so long. You can bet my wizards (which about half my characters are) will be picking up stinking cloud if they don't have it already. And I'm looking at things that help mitigate difficult terrain. DW and I are in a Age of Worms game together that is regularly submitting us to difficult terrain.

*I know it is supposed to be a 5% chance of a natural 1, but it feels like a 25 or 30% in practice. :p

I'm away for the weekend and will most likely be unable to post.

I got to call it a night. Not sure if I can just walk in or what, but just let me know what I gotta do and will take care of it tomorrow.

If anyone feels they need to go as well, feel free to volunteer. It's all good to me.