Animal companions typically have their own initiative scores, but most hunters/etc prefer to get their animal companions on their own time so they don't have to really worry about the complications and can coordinate properly.
Just popping in real quick to say that I've just re-done the Carrion King as a bloodrager (among a few other adjustments to his ridiculous 3.5 statblock) and he is TERRIFYING.
I plan on using the playtest classes a few times in this campaign - right in this encounter area's the first one.
^^^ Oh boy....bloodrager?
We have Dmtri and Apollo and Kori....and Je'drik....and Aeris.
I should probably point out that if Dmitri ever dies, I'm making a slayer with feint that lies like a gem and happens to be NE with no deity, but given his ridiculous constitution, that probably won't be a problem.
I don't really think he needed to be adjusted, but if you wanted to make him more powerful, then I think it's safe to say that's been done lol.
Apollo's chances were slim at best, but now they're non-existant, so it was nice knowing you all.
Now to check out bloodrager...
It occurred to me that if we got wishes I really don't know what I'd wish for. Higher damage output, Nom to grow full sized as a gargantuan t-rex. Hmm. Would be a tough call what. to choose.
Hey, he's the same CR as he was before. For a 6th-level party (which is what you'll be when you face him) he's of an appropriate difficulty (CR 9). Your chances rely on your tactics. I promise I will never face you with an encounter that you both must defeat and cannot.
I'll move us forward when I get home.
I'm not afraid, however, to say that he puts out an absolutely ungodly amount of damage. There's certainly no question about how he united dozens and dozens of gnolls under his banner.
I'd better hope for a max HP roll I think! ;)
Was going to get Spirited Charge next level but seeing as I messed the order about I think I'll look into some Archery feats that I haven't already selected for my Ranger Level up's.
If I wished for all Gnoll's to be extinct, I'm pretty certain Apollo's alignment would change. XD
Still, that'd be a bit of a wasted wish when I can just keep killing them and not only that, if they were never alive to begin with, Apollo would lose his memory for the past 5 years or whatever and just be like "why am I here?"
Haha, well I look forward to your post tonight Lein. :)
All those mounted feats are kind of going to waste - I don't understand why you didn't just buy a horse or something back in Kelmerane, as you can't ride Nom until you're at least 8th level, assuming all of your levels from here on out are Ranger.
Yea, I won't be riding him until level 9 I think it is. I think my feat order was pretty much the only way I could fit everything in, seeing as how all of my Archery Feats come from Ranger Combat Talents. That's my reasoning behind it all. Sucks a little, but that's what happens when you try and cram as many useful feats in as possible.
Ungodly damage you say? Hehe...
Tiefling(trade darkness to weild oversized weapons)
Abyssal Bloodrager
Large Greataxe
+1 Impact on Greataxe
Rage(Grow Bigger)
Vital Strike
12d6
My players would've pitched a fit if I'd stuck to my plan and started sundering their stuff.
Time to check what can I do.......I'm probably going to need Kori for this to work properly.
Oh? What do you have planned, Brek?
A rather simple plan in theory but maybe difficult to put into play and puts you in danger.
You Grapple, I blind.
The rest can wail on him until he's down and out for the count. Your grapple checks may stop him from doing his damage but if he uses natural weapons or light weapons, you'll be taking that damage. Not all of us are Dmtri.
Of course, if Nom can grab as well, that'll be great. Forcing him to spend actions to break free is quite good.
The problem becomes the rest of the gnolls. I don't have a lot of disabling spells other than mudball. Maybe our newly recruited wizard can suggest other options?
I do have Enlarge person on a wand which I plan on using on both Dmtri and Apollo.
I was hoping you'd say that Brek, though a Gnoll Bane Hammer with that would have been wonderful. Still.....
I'll be dealing Huge damage with my hammer against him because I go up to Large with Enlarge Person and then with my Lead Blades spell, that increases my damage category again. I think it'll go up to 4d6 base damage plus whatever my Strength and Favoured Enemy bonuses increase to...of which next level, that increases by +2, so it'll probably be something like 4d6+22 a hit or something. 36 damage a round isn't too bad...though by that point I'll have 2 attacks if we reach level 6, so 72 damage...hmm. Hopefully that's respectable with those buffs. :)
Actually, I figured I would be grappling anyways, especially if he two-hands. As we learned with Dmitri, it's the best way to shutdown a two-hander. Also, I have Enlarge which I plan to use on myself. My grapples and armor spikes do a lot better when I'm bigger.
You're gonna thank me for that life-lesson in-game, later.
I can fireball and web some gnolls, I can also try to blind and reduce the big guy as well. I also planned on enlarging Dmitri.
I feel like every gnoll within 400 feet just heard that display
That said, I prepared "Blood Blaze" for today.
Lol, possibly that last bit, but it was through anger entirely he stated it. It was passion too.
Fairly okay hit to the ground but a massive fail on the intimidation front!
I'm not too sure what we're waiting for, so if nothing's progressed soon, I think Apollo's going for a walk straight towards the House of the Beast.
For now, I'm gonna wait a day or two for other player responses and then I'm going to move you guys forward to much closer forward.
Even if he just walks away from the rest of the part, Apollo isn't going to be able to outrun all of them.
That's to be expected, but Apollo hasn't seen anything yet. That's why I used he and Nom's tracking abilities to hopefully track where they are before they find us. ;)
Trying to work out how to best create a spontaneous caster (Sorcerer) who can channel pretty much as effectively as a Cleric (maybe not for this campaign but just an idea I have) and although I've not used Prestige Classes....ever.....Mystic theurge looks like the best option.
Expecting to die, then?
Apollo, you do realize that if I am to commit any atrocity here, it will be keeping your character alive. Dmitri thinks, in full strength, that after Apollo is done killing Ghartok, whether Apollo lands the killing blow or not, that the man will have absolutely no purpose in life whatsoever.
So, the way I see it, the most evil thing Dmitri is capable of doing is force him to live that kind of life.
I've been expecting to die from the very beginning, as should we all lol. Trying to take on an entire race alone is a one way ticket to the afterlife annnnnnd, well...Apollo will just have to prove Dmitri wrong then. If we come up against any female Gnoll's, Apollo is likely to murder them also, in front of Dmitri or not. In fact if Dmitri gets in his way with Ghartok, he's more likely to kill evil women just to antagonise him, much like Dmitri is wanting to kill Ghartok to antagonise Apollo.
I won't be able to solo Ghartok, definitely not. My life has made that much apparent but for such an intelligent character, Dmitri's views (much like all of our characters) are flawed. Apollo still has Almah. Almah likely has more objectives for the man and so he'll develop new purposes, but right now revenge is his only purpose.
Also, killing Ghartok would be nice for me ooc. He killed the only halfling I ever played who sacrificed his life for the party who died straight after anyway. He was a two-weapon warrior called Isaac who in the battle market killed so many Gnoll's he had to climb on a table to continue killing the rest. He also insta-killed hurvunk, walking up behind him and stabbing him in the back. The whole group found it hilarious. Isaac was interesting as someone knew to our table kept making their character bully the little guy and being a totally broken Zen archer, Isaac would have been able to do little against him...especially as we later found out he was cheating, but yea having your character kicked through doors, tripped up and thrown down holes by another PC became annoying fast. Isaac was an ex slave and the other PC.....Zen archer eventually lost his monk powers for a few levels due to trying to enslave my guy and trying to force him to do things.
Isaac still gave his life for the party though. He smiled in the face of death. Cool guy for only 2'10 in height!
The thing about that is, is Dmitri's religion strictly speaks out for purging female abominations. Gnolls were brought into life by Lamashtu, the mother of all monsters, among other races. As Gnolls fall under the category of "Abomination of the female figure" he's probably even more bent on killing them as to him they are "Wrong".
He's definitely still flawed though.
Ah fair enough. I thought he strictly wanted all women to survive, hence bedding Undrella. :-P
Check the edit btw, haha.
Good response Kori, I'll have my response a little later. :-)
Apollo, I'm not being too hard on your character am I? This sort of thing has culminated toward a likely extreme ending, but story wise it's delicious.
Ha, I think when people didn't feel you were being evil enough, you took up the challenge and enforced it with everything you had to be honest.
You have an evil character and you're making his intentions crystal clear to Apollo, so my only thought is that Dmitri and Apollo might end up facing off and everyone else in the party is most likely against that. Still, it might make for an interesting end of game fight.
Apollo can hit pretty hard and Dmitri can take a lot of punishment. Dmitri can't hit very hard and Apollo can't take much punishment....so, it'd be an interesting one if it came to that, but right now Apollo isn't too worried about Dmitri either. He has the Carrion King to deal with, alone or not.
Apollo is half expecting the Gnoll Chieftain to cleave you in two though, feeling you deserve to witness the devastation of that creature first hand, for mocking him. Surviving an encounter with the beast is pretty admirable in Apollo's mind, so he's pretty interested in seeing how the events unfold, even with his own life in peril.
I was going to hold off, but if you were going to try and lure the Gnoll's out without violence, they would have fired eventually and firing an arrow at them just sped things up.
The same amount of Gnoll's would have attacked us, regardless of how we provoked them. Even still, getting the first shot off gives us the advantage in that I can take several turns firing arrows with whoever else that wants to fire projectiles, switching only to melee when they get too close for comfort. :)
We should have a couple of rounds for them to catch up to us with the 100ft distance they are away from us (providing we're still taking that into account).
Wait. S#+!. I got a heavy steel shield. Alright, fixed it.
So it seems we've lost Je'Grik - he PMed me about not being able to keep up a good enough posting rate to play in this game.
Ideas?
Also, the loot sheet is updated with no Je'Grik and with Aeris' items.
I'll take 500 gold for wandered off in the wee hours of the night, phil.
Okay, so, we're gaining a druid, then? She looks like a druid. Is she a druid?
Wait. Wait a minute. She's a druid.
Oh man
Just in case any of you are confused, that latest recruitment post is a friend of mine, coming to save us from lacking a divine. Yes, Dmitri, she's a druid.
It'll be a bit before she enters, though. I've gotta kill Je'Grik off first, at least :D
I'm actually not up for being the one that kills Je'grik. Sarenrae worshiper or not, he had his fun in the brothel, so, he's cool in my book.
Oh, I don't think you'll have to be.
At least give him an interesting death.
I mean, he's not gonna die unless he has to, but because Dragonborn is gone now, I'm essentially regarding him as disposable with regards to the rest of your fates. If his death means the rest of you live, he's going to die.
Ouch, if that had have hit, the damage would have destroyed it. *Crosses fingers Apollo and Nom survive another round and can kill it.*
Dodge its next trip attempt Apollo!
This. Is gonna be close.
WOOHOO I'm alive! I If they'd done max damage and all hit I would be dead, but this was even better than I could have hoped. Now all I have to do is survive 2 more rounds, and hopefully between myself and Apollo and the rest, we'll be able to kill these things.
Brek we're gonna need a few charges from that Infernal Healing Wand...
Them first.... Infernal healing later...
Time to make use of your Diehard feat Dmitri!
Heart of the Wilderness would have really helped you about now. :p
I MADE IT INTO A RISE OF THE RUNELORDS GAME WITH SOMEONE WHO WASN'T BLACK LICORICE EVIL!
Congrats!
Congratulations, you earned it!
Hey Guys! Looking forward to joining in! Still have to chip away at some stuff. Juggling a bit so far with other things I need/want to do.
She's a druid.
Indeed. ;)