It's in your best interests not to channel for other reasons.
It takes two of your touches/day, still hits me only once for the same damage as your touch (2d6), and offers me a Will save for half (my best at +10).
I always thought Channeling was one of those things you could do as a move action as well? I'm learning quite a bit here. This duel is definitely paying off.
**Edit** Nope. Just googled it. I literally didn't realize quicken channel was a thing until now. Darn.
***Edit*** Posted the 20 out of habit. Apologies. Still it's a real bummer that inflicting Shaken isn't a fear effect. I thought shaken was a fear effect?
Brek lyssandra is in another building entirely, so diplomacizing my PC controled wife is kind of not possible at the moment.
Ouch. Ok I ret con it to Je'drik the other one that scares me despite me knowing he's a 'good' guy.
Hell everyone scares me. lol.
Just remember that if you ever intend to truly come after Dmitri's life, he does still have a rather remarkably brutal ace in the hole in regards to you guys. It's 2 words, and he's got one for each of you.
"Smite Good."
That being said, I only initiated this whole ordeal to make Kori understand that he was, at his core, an evil force with evil powers. I'm pretty sure everyone else had come to terms with that, save for Apollo who seems rather oblivious to it. Kori hasn't managed to grasp the good and evil spectrum, from what I can tell, or at least doesn't care about it.
Though if you or Je'grik interrupt this duel, Dmitri will likely hold it against you. He made the crowd move away from the range of the negative energy blast zone, but now that he's back in close combat with her, he's likely not going to use it.
I don't care about you two hurting/killing each other. I was just worried about the audience and, if possible, countering your channeling with one of my own if needed to do so.
Haha, Apollo knows Dmitri's not good and doesn't agree with his views, but Dmitri's done no harm to him, so Apollo views Dmitri as a friend. Although granted, he's somewhat oblivious to the cult you're probably forming, along with the shrine to Lilith. Maybe he just doesn't overly care, so long as good folk aren't coming to any harm.
If any men forcefully try to take women in the harem, he'd have no objection to their lives being made forfeit. He just doesn't go near your place is all. :)
Btw guys, why have you decided Almah and co are going outside? I see no reason for it lol. She and Apollo have a date in 30 minutes game time.
Brek lyssandra is in another building entirely, so diplomacizing my PC controled wife is kind of not possible at the moment.
Your wife is not PC-controlled. She's me-controlled, Dmitri, read the conditions of you receiving her.
Also, for your own purposes, Dmitri, channeling is just straight-up going to deal less damage that touch of corruption and will take twice as much of your power. It's just a bad choice in general.
Apollo, look a few of my posts ago - there's a Perception check there, which I believe both of them made.
I imagine Apollo may better understand Dmitri and Kori doing this than the other two (Brek and Je'Grik). As such, I would suggest you stop them from stopping us, or getting involved. Both Dmitri and Kori would be VERY angry at someone interfering and would stop playing with each other, and start fighting whoever interrupted us.
Someone has to get your attention. lol
Seeing that something probablely happened. Brek isn't going to go there alone.
Depending on what happens next, I'm not sure if talking to Dimitri's wife is goign to do something or if she's even there else Brek is just going to hope Apollo got his message.
Repeat, Dmitri's wife is not there.
Lyssandra is in the brothel down the street. Not in the battlemarket. I must say, Kori, this has been an excellent blow-for-blow battle.
Dmitri, you are grappled, you can't use anything that requires two hands. It's why she keeps grappling you, that and it's easier to get through your armor this way.
I'd like to point out that I'm not trying to get away with anything dirty here. I'm very alien when it comes to the grapple rules, and I do apologize. I did edit my post, however, if you'd be okay with letting this last mishap slide. I'm kind of making a fool of myself.
In retrospect, I believe we used will saves for the burrowing thing back at the start with my touch of corruption, so I thought I was a bit correct on that.
This fight is both confusing aaand exhilerating. I regret not accepting the healing, but, I prefer character choices to player choices. Care to have mercy, Lein?
**edit**
Scratch that. I deserve it at this point.
Aaaaaand Brofist of the year goes to Aardvark. That was beautiful.
Repeat, Dmitri's wife is not there.
Ignore all parts about Brek talking to the wife. They never happened. My bad.
Okay, now that we've had our fun and wasted a colossal amount of time, nooooow would be the best time to come and tell us exactly what's going on. After leinathan wraps it up, I would assume.
Leinathan where does that 2nd bit of damage come from in your last post? I think she already factored in the damage she took from my corruptive touch.
Oh yes, sorry, I didn't notice that you'd actually rolled for damage there. Anyway, yeah, the battle is completed.
Lein - I did actually have a quick look earlier to see if you initiated the Almah thing, but must have missed it.
Kori - Apollo had something along those lines in mind actually, haha.
I just want to apologize if we dominated the thread for a bit. It was a fun little exercise between the two.
At least we were both fairly active and knocked it out without lingering like 1 post a day. It could've been brutal if we had posted any slower.
That was an excellent duel, I must say...but now let's move on to this next bit! Feel free to sit out, Kori and Dmitri. I actually meant for it to be during your duel, anticipating it taking more out-of-game time. Or you can not sit it out.
Dmitri wouldn't mind being included in the situation. As much as I love the idea of us splitting up our events, I still don't trust Apollo without his armor on. Gnolls wouldn't come to the town just by themselves, especially with the information that the previous saviors, us, are still here.
If they've mustered up the courage to come out, they must have a nice, big, ugly ally with some class levels and the "Massive Balls" trait.
I also don't trust Apollo's life expectancy in armor, let alone out of it.
Haha, he's changed in a year. No time to don armour sadly, but trust in how things will play out. He can't die yet. It's not allowed. ;)
I've been getting the feeling something nasty is near also, but the situation he and Brek are in is somewhat different now. He has to watch out for others too.
Besides, there's a bit more support this time on the healing front, providing that happens. I have faith in him. The only thing he's upset about is not being able to use his signature weapon, although saying that, he is right by his house.
Two things - the Tower is not right by the Battle Market - it's on the outskirts of town where it's actually useful as a Watchtower.
Second, it would take several rounds to ascend the tower, grab your weapon, and run down again.
Dunno, maybe I have time to get his weapon. Unsure yet.
I do think this split will do us some good though. I mean Apollo and Brek have had no time to get to know each other. Even after a year, they've hardly spoken, so I think this could make things more entertaining for at least one of our newcomers.
I also feel this gives Dmitri a chance to go nuts with the roleplay, having Kori meet up with Lyssandra. There's a lot to play with here!
The real question is if he wants to take the time to get his weapon.
Haha, well to be fair he did ask, and he really does want it, as he only counts the Gnoll lives taken from that weapon as the ones that honour his family/kind of tribe's name. Armour would probably take too long to don though, I'd imagine. Breastplate - I can't recall. Was it 4 minutes?
It's four minutes, yep. Two for a hasty donning, which I believe provides half of the protection.
If you're sufferin', you could just take the shield and have Brek cast mage armor on you XD I wanna wait a little bit more before I move you guys out, though.
Alright, haha.
Mage Armour would do and I'm strangely interested in seeing how Apollo fares with just this equipment right now, but seeing as we're outside the Northern exit of the Battle Market and the Garrison is outside the Northern exit, my hammer!!! *cries*
Would take 2 minutes to fetch. That'll probably be enough time - Just. I'll ignore the armour as there's no time!
This is interesting though. Apollo's happy to go with just the few that are with him for multiple reasons. One of which is, he knows the Battle Market's in safe hands with Kori and Dmitri being left behind. :p
Two things - the Tower is not right by the Battle Market - it's on the outskirts of town where it's actually useful as a Watchtower.
Read?
Fair enough. I read everything that's posted, so don't know how I missed it. Is that on the previous page or something?
Edit: Yep, completely missed it. Sorry.
Wow, just checked the times. That'd explain it alright. Posting with a minutes difference means that when I'm replying to something, another post comes along in that time, and I miss it. :/
Hi my name's Dmitri and my casual wear is a obsidian black full plate that drinks in the sun and my battle scythe that I carry around 24/7 to smite my enemies.
It's comfy.
Crap. I've being spelling Dmitri's name wrong all this time. My apologies.
Did I ever get get to Almah? I know I was headed that way when I started talking with Brek.
Lein asked if you were attending with us, so if you want to be, just roleplay your entrance at any point from where we're currently at.
Apollo's calling people over. Brek's accompanying him with the NPC's, so you could turn up just as we're about to turn and set out?
Roleplay where you want to be. :)
Does that include me and Kori? Half dead or not it wouldn't hurt for us to actually be there.
I'm not excluding anyone. Just following what Lein said as he wanted this to go on while you guys were in the Battle Market, but seeing as you guys don't know where we're gone it makes sense to stay there and you never know, Lein might have stuff going on there with you guys too. ;)
This isn't on me. I'm just going by what Lein does.
A bit out of place, Lein, but I'd like your guys's opinion on this little debaucle I've got happening on Friday. I'm afraid I'm about to kill 7 different players.
They've got a CLW wand with 23 charges left on it, but other than that they've not got much, and the whole ordeal promises to be an ocean of damage taking. They're gonna get supplied with energy resistance potions prior, however, so it may not be so bad, though I highly suspect they'll use them early before the real fight happens.
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qw3b?The-Alchemical-Foundry-Encounter#1
I'm rather proud of the Alchemical Golem fight, however. I've ran it in tests before, and it typically gives the melee guys a good thrashing regardless of their fortitudes.
The real gem however is that level 10 Antipaladin. He's a complete monster.
Just a couple of thoughts - count alchemists as basically 1 CR higher, especially if there's more than one of them - their damage output is SO RIDICULOUS.
Also, the alchemical golem, being mindless, should NOT target the character with the lowest touch AC - it should target the closest enemy, or something else equally logical.
It would take 6 uses of touch of corruption to use channel energy twice on one round - two uses of channel energy (which is 4 ToC) to use it as a move action, and then one more (which is 2 ToC) to use it as a standard action.
Another thing is that you ought to find a way to warn your players that they'll be facing a lot of spellcasting enemies in the place, and provide them with ample opportunities to retreat and head in there again the next day. Are they on a time-crunch?
It's just the thing is - all of these encounters seem to be keyed to be very difficult, and if they have to face them all during the same day, they'll have a problem. Also allow them a chance to purchase consumable healing items (or just encourage it). Not only that, but spellcasters are typically trickier than martial characters when it comes to encounter-building.
I read quickened channel, yes, but that's just that, he doesn't use Touch of Corruption as much as Dmitri does, if only because he's used to two-weapon fighting. He's got the staple 6 touches so if he uses it once, he's using it twice, but he's not going to do it unless he knows it's got a good action economy.
The team is more than aware that they're about to be facing multiple magical opponents. I'll finish typing this.
Sorry I had Critique.
The group is well aware that they're about to come into contact with a plethora of magic users. The enemies inside are easily alerted, but at the same time there's a good spot where they are capable of hiding for the night.
The players have the cure wands, the cleric, and the bard's healing, so as far as healing between fights, they're fine in that regard, it's surviving them that might be a problem for them. They're rather ridiculously equipped, and every character has a 20 of a stat in their choice, so they're not completely hopeless.
The Dwarf has a 28 AC, and that's before he even casts his buffs, or gets buffs cast on him. That's why a hefty amount of things in here have touch.
The Alchemists and the Antipaladin and whatnot will definitely register that Paul and Caleb are casters, but he's rather complacent with his saves and CMD. No one in the group uses combat maneuvers at all, which I've told them is bad.
This is the first game where they're going to go against optimized enemies, because I helped them pick their feats for the last 2 level by giving them "Growth choices" basically. For example the Fighter had the choice of Toughness, Furious Focus, or Great Cleave, and picked Furious Focus.
The Ninja took flurry of stars the prior level and has been abusing it since, and is especially deadly with her throwing stars.
The real situation here is the wizards and Ark'tor, who will definitely do damage even if they manage to die in the first turn. Ark'tor has fought the players before, but the last time he did was 5 weeks ago when they were level 5, and he was level 8. He was promptly embarassed by the fact that 5 of the characters are ranged attackers, and if they're not, they're casters.
My party's ultimate plan for everything is "Send the Impenetrable dwarf in and kill anything that gets near him." but just like that, anything that gets around always manages to do damage. The strategy has worked so far, however, because a lot of the places they've been through have been servants quarters and sewers, which are narrow, narrow corridors. The Alchemic chamber has it's share of small spaces, sure, but the room with the Wizards and the Golem will be the largest rooms they've ever fought in. The Paladin fights them in a rather well-sized chamber, however, and makes it a point to drink his protection from arrows potion as soon as the fight starts in light of his previous loss. He also drinks a bark skin +2 potion giving him an effective AC of 23 for the fight.
The paladin is effective at alleviating the dwarf's impenetrableness with smite good, as well as making the Fighter useless with his combat maneuver to disarm.
His feat Progression is Quickened Channel, Combat expertise, Improved Disarm, Two Weapon Fighting, and Greater Disarm. He's human.
Seems to me that the enemies are well prepared to face your party. have it such that the party is humilated and the bad guys leave them injured and pride broken. Having had their stuff stolen might give them something to go on improving their tactics. Unless they're all dead that is.
Have them learn from this encounter instead. I'm not sure if you'd have someone to bail them out but it seems to me that this could showcase the bad guys ability to plan ahead and prepare to neutralise them one by one.
Are your Casties starting off with buffs and debuffs?
A Dispel magic might just shrink down the parties buffs while making your bad guys even harder.
Sunder or things like Chill/Heat Metal might make things tough for the dwarf.
Make use of terrain spells like wall of stone and then cloudkill. Deny them terrain and make them fight on your own ground.
Just my own thoughts on it.
I like the encounter. It's... suitable, hehe.
I've the feeling that my casters will be starting the fights with buffs, but the Antipaladin fight will very likely tucker them out as far as those are concerned.
The Heavy handed goal here is to make the players realize their weaknesses, so that in the future they'll properly cover them. Every 2 games I've upped the required skill level of them, and the last game I incorporated combat maneuvers, which turned the 2 handed fighter into a punching bag for a monk. (Maneuever monk. Flurry of Maneuvers turned her into a rag doll. Disarmed, then tripped, then AoO'd when she stood up, AoO'd when she went to get her weapon, and AoO'd when she picked it up as a result of the step up and follow feat line.) He was the main boss of that quarter, however, and other players were dealing with the antipaladin.)
The monk had died, but Ark'tor had fled from that moment, and is more than just a little bit sore about it. He's returned with Quickened Channel, however, so the gameplay is much worse for them.
The Alchemists at the front door will be launching their touch attacks, but frankly it will take a whole round for them to really get into the swing of things. Most of them will want to cast bomber's eye, and they all have the move action drink feat, but the ones in the back will likely buff while the others will throw and run back.
The problem is that my players are amateurs that like to dote on their actions for a solid 30 minutes, so this time we're imposing a 2 minute action decision timer, or the initiative goes to the next person in the row. Is that too harsh?
No, I don't think so. I actually really like your kind of thinking - it encourages smart, realistic play. You should not have 20 minutes to consider a 6-second period of time. Your actions in combat should be immediate, knee-jerk reactions.
I do think 2 is a little short, but no more than 5. All the same, they are amateurs, and as such may not be absolutely clear on how every rule/ability works. You should not only encourage taking less time, but that they be looking up what they intend to do while others take their turns. Also, make sure that if they don't have a book available, they know where to find the PRD.
I gave them a hearty rundown of the rules for this next game day. 3 Minutes is the most they're going to get, and they shouldn't take terribly long to get done with any of it. I'm giving them a lot of places to explore within the foundry, and there's a select few other encounters that can take place, but they're against CR 6 experiments that probably won't amount to much unless they straddle off the beaten path alone.
So yeah someone will probably die.
Sounds like a plan.
Even if death is part of the lesson plan, I'd say go for it. Take Lein's and Kori's suggestion though since they're amateurs so I suppose you can cut them some slack. Get an NPC ready though or mmake it into a sidequest for another plot hook?
In Short, give them hell. The enemeies most likely would hear them coming in and can thus buff up first.