Masters of Golarion II

Game Master fnord72

Who are you believing is a legal target for atavism?

My character, due to the Animal Soul feat.

But since the spell grants the Advance Template (for a while), I thought I'd check by before I use it : )

We only banned it on monster race characters last time I checked. Besides, that was taking it on a permanent basis. In your case, it would only last a handful of minutes at a time. As such, I see no issue.

You could use the spell on yourself.

You would not be able to have a magic item provide it though, it would be charged as an enhancement bonus like a belt or headband.

Nice =)

(Using at a continuous magic item isn't my stick - I prefer command word/user activated ^^)

I'm going to do some research on the topic of staves and share spell to see how useful it really is : )

Some more fiddly bits and small magic trinkents remain to be fixed, otherwise my character is basically done on the mechanical end. Will require that I fix up my spirit animal (and to a later date - a cohort : ) ) and my fluffy bits, but the lionshare of that is done.

I'm attending a dinner tonight but I aim to be up and running by Sunday, should no unforeseen obstructions come up!

Edit: I thought I'd include the link to the character again, if anyone wants to take a look (please do : ) )

Chthonia Nyx

Note/Question: Another thing I thought of - how do people feel about Staves enhanced/used as weapons?

Specifically, would having a bow/staff combo item be silly and over the top? (using either the additional item multiplier [x1.5] or the slotless multiplier [x2] on either of course!)

Edit2: On smacking people over the head with staves - there is plenty of staves out there that can be used as magical quarterstaffs. Making them into the melee weapon of choice is simple (simply add the transformative quallity), but I can't find any doubling for a ranged weapon

There is a magical effect, transformative, that applies to melee weapons. It allows the weapons to change shape. There are times where some properties won't work (for example, keen on a club). The ability does restrict the handedness of the weapon. This has a flat cost of 10k.

For fluff I don't see too much issue with it, you would be spending a serious amount of coin to do it.

What mechanical benefits? One less item to be stolen/broken, hidden with magic aura...

I'd probably want to change the switch time from command word to full round if going from/to ranged and melee. It could remain command word for switching melee type or ranged type.

I would also be inclined to restrict the enchantments to only those usable by all possible shapes (no keen, but holy and bane are fine). Nothing restricted to slash/pierce/etc.

Charge 10k for transformative, select a melee handedness (light, one-handed or two-handed).
Another 10k for improved transformative, select another handedness (light, one-handed, two-handed, ranged)
Another 10k for greater transformative, works on all weapon types.

A transformative weapon made from a special material pays the cost for the most expensive option. (Can't pay for a light mithral dagger that transforms into a two-handed mithral axe.)

I don't know how much difference it might make but I'm already playing a full divine caster with a vital strike build (and a transformative weapon, though I bought a separate bow, but quickened divine power will be a go to for me too)... It's a solid build and I'm sure there will be lots of differences between our characters, but I thought I would mention it before you finish in case you wanted to add some more variety...

Also, I was just checking out your sheet to see how much we actually have in common and I noticed that it looks like you've prepared spells as if quicken spell had a level adjustment of +3... It's actually a +4 modifier (unless you know of a way to reduce that... And if you do please share because I want to use that too)

@Super-Transformative - Mkay. The second price-class seems exactly what I'm looking for :)

@Divine Caster with Vital Strike + Quickened Divine Power - I wouldn't worry, the Shaman and Cleric lists are rather different and it looks like Areniel is planning to spend much more time in close combat then Chthonia : )

@Quickened Spell - Yeah, that is merely an aberration of me making spell list adjustment way to late at night. But (Wayang) Spell Hunter and at-least one more trait exists if you want to reduce it, but that is on a spell by spell basis (and I think you were thinking of a blanked trick for cheaper Quickened spells. I don't know how to do that, sorry^^).

I was mostly joking- I was pretty sure there wasn't any blanket feat that did that, lol. and I was aware of wayang spell hunter and magic lineage, the latter of which I have ;)

@melee combat- I wouldn't say 'planning'... but preparing, yeah :)

I apologize if my last gameplay post was unclear at all... I have 2 permanent telepathic bonds... When I stack bold and italic tags (ie think out loud) I'm always 'talking' to Katja. When I use "quotes in italics" (ie thinking to 'myself') I'm always 'talking' with my simulacrum. so, I'm waiting on responses from Katja and Tessara.

Also, I have some daily routine stuff that i didn't include in my initial post because I didn't want to bog it down... certain spells that I'll cast every day (and a staff charge I use then replenish when preparing spells) and whatnot... I'll make sure that all those things are accurately reflected on my character sheet.

Regarding the dream/vision- I got the sense from your post that everyone (or anyone who wanted to) had some version of that... If that's not the case I apologize if I stole it from the intended recipient... Either way, were there any holy symbols or other clues visible that might allow a knowledge[religion] check (or further research) to identify what church/religion the priest belongs to?

That's the problem with dreams, you can never read anything in them...

The scene was for anyone wishing to act on it.

On another note:

At this level I really need the players doing more in the sandbox style.

1) this is home brew since there really isn't a plethora of pre-made modules for epic characters.

2) all the players are separated

3) the players are all too powerful to always hang around the same tavern waiting for some half-dead messenger to die at their feet.

Any expectation that I will provide 90% of the scenery, NPC dialogue, background, etc, while players provide a 1 or 2 line response/question before the next chapter from the GM reads more like a choose your own adventure. I think there has been enough background information for everyone to have a solid understanding on what they can free-form write about. If in question, go ahead and ask. Every character has their own interests. As the GM, I'll drop in clues, hints, an npc message, the odd dream or vision, to point towards the mystery/mission/etc. However, this does require a strong commitment of indepth story telling by everyone.

Fair enough, Fnord. The holidays, plus my workload, have so far kept me from being fully active.I'll be posting my response to Arenial later today and plying out my string from what I've already setup.

Any recommendations for good pieces of gear? Purchasing it is always the hardest part of these high level characters.

Without knowing much about the specifics of your guy it's really difficult to make suggestions... If you post (or repost) what you have done so far it would make it way easier to come up with meaningful suggestions...

After picking a few of my personal must have's (haversack for one!), I just go through the wondrous items list by location. No reason to not have something enchanted in every slot. (I can always re-fluff to have a matching outfit.)

Caught up in the general holiday mayhem, sorry for the delay.

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Merry Christmas/have a nice day!

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Items: Any-Tool, Pearls of Power/Runestones, Diamonds (various sizes and shapes) and plenty of scrolls :)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Hallelujah chorus.

Merry Christmas everyone. :)

Grandma got ran over by a reindeer...

Just a test...

9d6 ⇒ (4, 1, 5, 6, 5, 6, 1, 3, 3) = 34

Everybody run!! Fnord's just rolled up a terrasque for us!! :p

Everybody run!! Fnord's just rolled up a terrasque for us!! :p

Really? We already fought one and subdued it.

@vixen/Katja- is that really what happened in Rahadoum? That seems like the kind of thing you probably would have told me about but ooc I'm not sure how to answer Tessara's question...

@GM/original players- are we retconning some of the new characters into that fight? This was an unintended consequence but given my telepathic bond with Katja (and ability to teleport) with a battle of that magnitude i have to think Areniel would have been there (or been in another plane where the bond wasn't working... which I could incorporate into his story if you'd prefer).

Storm was a Spawn of Rovagug, not much unlike Terrasque. But with miles of destructive storms surrounding it.

No need to retcon who was there, half that team has left for parts unknown. It was a small group that effectively subdued the creature.

Currently, Storm is residing in a special demiplane prison.

Rahadoum had another event. It has co-mingled with another material plane, one with more than one sun. Water conjuration and some teleportation spells were not working. A large creature was encountered, but the group was unable to cause significant harm before it escaped.

While the incident in Taldor was handled (Storm). The one in Rahadoum is still an issue.

Sorry for the delay in starting up, everyone. What with the holidays and family matters, I've been more than a bit busy to start crafting a sandbox post. Will start very soon.

sorry i've been slow to keep our conversation rolling... i was kind of hoping that Katja would chime in with what exactly she's told me about those events (and whether she's free for dinner in Cassomir), but i'm sure she's been busy with the holiday and whatnot... i'll post something later today either way.

happy 2015 everyone.

sorry i've been slow to keep our conversation rolling... i was kind of hoping that Katja would chime in with what exactly she's told me about those events (and whether she's free for dinner in Cassomir), but i'm sure she's been busy with the holiday and whatnot... i'll post something later today either way.

happy 2015 everyone.

Holidays will do that to you. I will be resuming posting by Saturday and begin crafting a post for Katja. Hope to have it done by this weekend.

Sorry- sleeping meds are kicking in surprisingly fast tonight for some reason... Post will come tomorrob

Happy new year to all!

Let's get a roll call, and for those finishing up, an ETA.

And I have a post up.

I have a New Year's resolution: I will not catch the flu from 'friends' on New Year's Eve! Tessara herself should be good to go, and if I need to respond to the latest posts, I'll take care of it today.

I have made a response.

Do I need to provide more direction?

Are we still in post holiday recovery?

I'd like to be able to make 2-3 posts per week in game.

I have several things I'd like to post but I'm waiting on Tessara to share what she knows about Visceroth in Nidal (or who has that type of magical map)... I think she might be waiting for you to tell her what she knows...

Katja has written herself all the way to dinner and is waiting for me to catch up...

I think that's everyone who has already posted... I'm not sure who else is still finishing a character and planning to post?

I can write in an interim post dealing with during the day while I wait. I'm very tired today so it will likely be up tomorrow at the earliest.

Still building my character. Who knew that gear purchasing at this level was so tiring?

@CDL- lol, if you post a link to your character sheet (so we can see your build and what you've bought so far) i would throw in my 2cp on potential good purchases... i actually have today off if you happen to see this soon, otherwise post it when you get a chance and i'll find some time to try and be helpful

@Tessara- it occured to me that the GM might not have posted any info on Visceroth because he assumed that ooc you already knew, or the info was readily available... so i took the liberty of looking for it. turns out that's not homebrewed at all, its Golarion canon and here's at least some of what you know.

The best place to post links to the character is going to be where it shows up under your name.

That way, from the game thread it is one click to pull up your character sheet.

Having the link requires opening your alias page, then clicking to your character sheet.

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If you have, or can easily make a 30 in a knowledge skill you probably know just about anything on the wiki that isn't obviously supposed to be GM info. This includes who Visceroth is. Brownie point to Areniel!

Katja is most likely to know a bit more about who and what Visceroth is.

Does anyone belong to any organizations? i.e. Pathfinder Society, etc.

per my background, I hold the largely ceremonial title "High Templar" in the church of Iomedae. when crusades are officially formed I imagine/assume that either this title confers some official position within the leadership of that crusade, or that i accept some other position within it. if there's any kind of standing crusader leadership in between official crusades I would think that my position is somehow related to them.

other than the church/crusades (and the custodians) and don't belong to any other organizations.

Officially, Tessara has been affiliated with the Mendev Crusaders since the first outing. Near the end of the Second Crusade, she broke off and started her own independant company. Since then I have worked (unofficially) for the Pathfinders and the Crusaders. My spie...I mean, my scouts ;P have worked with various organizations over the last fifty years or so. If you need a mouth piece, I can probably craft one on the fly that had worked with contacts for which ever organization you need to plug in.

@nate: May I use Areniel's character sheet as a base for mine? It's very well formatted.

of course, anything i can do to help :)

@Areniel High Templar is quite all right with me. I see two primary options with that. 1) a type of official position within the leadership, 2) a detached roll.

The official position avenue may tie you down too much as you will be too integral to the church to go off gallivanting around the globe and planes (The Pope doesn't get out of the Vatican very often). Queen Galfrey is 'a' leader of the church of Iomedae, having the title "Sword of Iomedae".

A high-ranking advisory roll may make more sense. Ordained by a previous head of the church, sustained by those that have come after, etc.

This makes a lot of sense when you consider the ages of the different races and that members of any race may worship most of the gods. Having an elf for the head of a church has considerably different pro's/con's than having a human in that position.

We can certainly look at working something out for the church.

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From what I gather, the Mendev Crusaders are either "do-gooders" from all over hoping to make their make driving back demons / or hoping to find goodies while avoiding said demons / extra nobility sent off to avoid issues with inheritance, etc. Those that join as part of the formal organization are led by the Queen, IIRC.

So depending on where Tessara finds herself, she may be more secularly inclined, or divine. If divine, she and Areniel are likely pretty much in the same organization.

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I wanted the information on organizations to have likely avenues for information to get to the players as needed. Not to mention knowing how to flavor said information as those organizations would likely be the first source a player would go to in seeking new information.

Avoiding being tied down is a big part of the reason for my simulacrum... he doesn't pretend to really be me, so its not really a defensive investment- his chief purpose is to be my eyes/ears/mouth within the church (and with our permanent telepathic bond we have constant near-instantaneous communication). That said, I'd still prefer it to be more of an indirect leadership position...

The name 'templar' comes from temple (in the case of RL templars a reference to Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem)... a templar is basically someone who defends a temple- so i pictured the position of High Templar to primarily be the chief defender of the temple/Cruciform Cathedral, which is probably the most important church in Golarion in terms of the battle against the Worldwound. Areniel kind of extended the scope of the position by proactively training people to empower them to 'aggressively defend' their borders ('the best defense is good offense' after all). If you want to have a small order of Templars that I oversee as well, I'd be glad to help put that together.

In addition to providing physical protection and training/guidance, I assumed he'd be called on sometimes to serve in an advisory role, and I assume that he'll sometimes be expected at certain things in sort of a symbolic role. Unless you want to use me in that way, I am not the mouthpiece of Iomedae and would resist any efforts by other leaders to use my presence somewhere as a sign of her divine support. During periods where actual, official crusades have been called I imagine he'd probably be called on to take a more active role in leadership as a battlefield commander (and an inspiring and effective combatant).

Unless you take leadership, I'd rather see you as an auxiliary, outside the church's chain of command. More of a troubleshooter, conflict resolution specialist, involuntary asset redistribution agent, left hand, etc.

Being in the chain of command effectively gives you the ability to give orders to a group of individuals with an expectation they would be followed.

That's really what I was going for too, that's why I hadn't come up with any organizational stuff! He has the capacity to lead I suppose but I kind of picture Areniel preferring to be a warrior rather than a general (the best way to protect others is by fighting yourself)

Another option (if you wanted to do something with Templars) would be to have each major church/temple have a handful of (regular) Templars who answer directly to its bishop/Cardinal/high priest/whatever... My position would be related to theirs but there'd be no chain of command connecting us ("High Templar" wouldn't refer to extra authority but to extra responsibility because does more than just protect that one church- he tries to protect them all by fighting back the demon horde...)

Tessara would be more on the divine side. That being said, she did not like seeing how the corruption within the ranks had spread during the Second and Third Crusades, which is why she broke off from Gallifrey (with the Doctor's blessing, of course. Sorry, whoever called her that is obviously a Whovian...).

I'm pretty happy playing Tessara as a troubleshooter type; that's what spies are for...among other things.

I sometimes get the feeling that religions are not as hierarchical as they are on earth. Probably because gods are more visibly active.

Paladins are likely to follow divine instructions as they perceive them directly from their god rather than from a bishop/father/rabbi.

Therefore, I would expect that it would be easy to have each of you see yourselves as independent agents for your deity. Your titles are accepted under the premise that your god would let you know if they thought you were "taking on titles" unearned. Probably with bolts of lightning.

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STATUS UPDATES
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Tessara was left in limbo by Areniel when discussing a vision.

Areniel has discovered that someone is collecting disks of an unknown purpose or origin.

Katya is in Cassomir looking to expand her merchant empire, currently waiting for Areniel for a dinner date.

Cosmic Dream Lord, Nate lange, and aceDiamond are still finishing updates to their characters. ETA?

Areniel=Nate Lange...

And I apologize if I left Tessara in limbo... I thought we had agreed that I was leaving for my afternoon meeting at the cathedral and she was going to contact the Custodians looking for info on other worlds/alternate material planes that we could potentially be experiencing some sort of conjoining with in Rahadoum...

As for my dinner date, I had intended to include that (or at least the beginning of it) in my post last night but started falling asleep at the computer... I should have that up today.

ps- did the man in the vault look at all like the one sent to speak with Visceroth?

Thanks for the clarification.

They are the same individual.