What does it say about me that my current favorite character is a forum character with 10 int, 11 wis and 11 charisma..? :o
Wish I could AoE heal, but the situation is still too delicate... it might still be worth it, but ugh.
Nooooo don't do it...
Also, don't worry about healing me; I've got cover vs all ranged attackers, and nobody can reach me without taking a pile of AoOs. Actually, scratch that, I'm tossing a hero point to stay fine.
I still can't take it, as I won't have the Channel Energy class feature until 4th level. I have a spirit ability called Channel, and if Brawler's Flurry and Monk's Flurry are different enough to warrant the better of the two not getting access to the Monk's Flurry feats, then I don't think the weaker form of Channel will. So... I don't think it's an option until 4th.
If it were an option, I'd already have it. :P
I'd ask about it, maybe? Because that is a serious drawback.
EDIT: No, I think you actually can. Life Shaman ability appears worded identical to Life Oracle, who does qualify for Selective Channeling (probably a patch by the devs to make Life Oracles actually useful), but I think you're fine to take it.
I'll leave it to Cave Toad to determine. :p my level 2 feat was probably gonna be an extra tail anyway. :P
I'm sorry for not buffing your AC Teniel. I've been trying to defend you offensively. Nobody's touched me since the surprise round, so I'm still in pretty good fighting form, and our other heavy hitter is about to come back online, so we could be in business soon.
I guess I'll have to end up wasting a round if I want to Mage Armor and Rage, though. Right now, keeping my high AC up is important.
That's fine—just, y'know, make sure to keep dealing damage. Mage Armor makes you immune to non-nat20s (unless they flank, which they're having trouble with), so it's actually pretty valuable here, as long as you're the only obvious target. Once the battle is over, you and Makoto and I can heal everyone back to full; at this point we just want to conserve how much we'll need to use after the battle is over.
Well, with where I'm at currently, I definitely need to switch to dealing damage. I need to take out their healer, who is also probably their biggest damage-dealer just because of its size. Rage would help with that, but lowering my AC while within reach of a heavy-damage enemy is kinda suicidal, especially since once I start raging, I can't stop.
Well... with your current AC, even taking the rage penalty would leave you super hard to hit. I'll stay back and try to either take out a prone/sleeping goat or heal someone every turn; you and Tavros can clean up, I suppose. It might be worth flurrying a few of the smallgoats, since they're already injured, but you've both got flurries and it should only take one.
Tavros is in a better place to flurry right now, since I can't flurry at reach, though that'll ruin his invisibility and what do you want to bet these goatmen are due for another nat 20 against him?
Still, I do have that one little goatman flanked, and one solid hit from my hammer might be enough to take him down.
I'm hoping you guys take out the still up smaller goats next round. That should leave me open to flurrying the big guy.
Well, I can't take them all out, but if that's what you want, I'll start working on that. I can probably do some hefty damage to the flanked one. Or I can get him on the ground.
Finally, the dice are starting to help me out. I don't know how much HP Goatling 1 has left, but that'll hurt him a lot.
Well, you didn't ~have~ to. It just seems like it'd be good if we got rid of the smaller threats before going after the bigger one. Although I'll probably wind up flurrying him regardless.
Does anybody know how flanking with reach works? Namely, am I flanking with the skeleton?
Frankly, I still haven't managed to figure out how flanking works hardly at all. The examples given only show people flanking from opposite corners, but I don't know if that's the limit. Some people say you just have to be on roughly opposite sides, while others are strict about the opposite corner thing, and I honestly have no clue which interpretation is correct. There seems to be added confusion due to the different DnD editions handling things differently, too. It's another one of those things that seems to vary in every game I play.
Flanking requires that you can draw a line from the center of your space through two parallel sides of another creature, while still being able to hit it 'in melee'. That's it. :)
And since I'm large, apparently you can treat me as 4 medium creatures in regards to determining flanking. In other words, you draw a line from your square to the center of any of the 4 squares I occupy.
Oh, well, then, I was in fact flanking that Goatling I just attacked. Not that it matters. I hit it anyway.
Also, Tavros, that is a terrifying amount of damage you just did!
Woohoo! That was an epic victory! Now we just have to figure out how to communicate with this goatling.
Oh, uh, sorry about the triple post here, but is that battle goat humanoid or sentient-looking, or is it more likely an animal companion or something like that?
I got the idea of 'Nature Shaman Familiar' from various descriptions.
Hmm... Tavros and I assumed the goat was a witch's familiar.
Nobody has Comprehend Languages (let alone tongues)...I figure we can cycle through our massive language list, then try using Bluff to communicate messages? I could also attempt Perform (Acting) to use hand puppetry...
Yeah, basically, I wanted to figure out whether it's worth it to try to stop the thing from running off.
Probably. I'm sure it will come back to bite us if we let it go... and come back to bite us if we kill it. Capturing it is an option, I suppose.
But it's less important than getting these guys stable. Maks could just channel... but that risks waking them all.
As for how to get them to not follow us: I suggest we make sure they're all stable, and then proceed to put flowers in their fur and stuff. They will be -so- confused they won't even think of tracking us down.
Its a regular looking goat, albeit pretty rough and tough looking.
It seems to be somewhat intelligent at least in the actions you have seen it perform, although it appeared to take some direction from the leader.
Tracking US down? I was thinking to go tracking THEM down? Still, a limping goat should leave an easy trail to follow, so I'll let it go.
If we wanted to keep the goat, I could maybe knock it out with a non lethal punch. Even if it withdraws, my reach means it still provokes once for moving away from me.y
This is true. Also, who's good-aligned and needs healing? I've got a ton of super weak, barely-better-than-useless healing abilities to burn through.
I'm injured and good, as is Makoto. I think my mount might unfortunately be neutral.
ALSO I'm leaving tomorrow for a last-minute road trip to Vegas, so I might have limited internet this weekend.
Giant, Infernal, and Abyssal are also possibilities! Wee.
So, in case this game moves along without me, a few thoughts:
-We need to find out what happened to the other groups. Maybe the golem will check back, and hopefully he's got info on what are enemies are or their general movements. I'm also guessing that we've left, by far, the least dead goatlings of any group.
-We can't just leave these guys here, unconscious but stable, as they'll be up again in half a day. We should absolutely take their weapons—the ones we can't carry, we could snap and throw into the river, keeping the heads as potential crude tools.
Most extremely, we could chop off a few fingers, but that's probably far too savage. We could trim their hooves, toenail style, to keep them from off-balance (and maybe not 5' stepping) for a few weeks, but without knowing their hoof anatomy well or having the right tools that might be unduly cruel. Possibly taking their weapons and fleeing will be enough.
I think we should leave some sort of visible mark on them—a small tattoo, if we had some ink, or in this case possibly a very small, even scar in one corner of their face or on their wrist. We can use stabilize and whatnot to get this to scab over before they wake up, and as unconscious they wouldn't feel pain—it still feels somewhat savage, but less than the other options, and from a "we need to survive in this jungle of tribal murderers" standpoint it might very well give us a lot of information in the future, especially once we can talk to them more easily.
-In other news, I still support the "swim the lake/river where it moves slowly" idea—we've got nothing to weigh us down, and can take 10, etc. It definitely puts distance behind us (and Teniel can't Pass Without Trace the whole group for a few more levels).
-I also think we should consider resting during the day and sleeping at night, since we've mostly got superior darkvision and the goatlings likely don't (especially because we won't see them from more than 60' away anyway, so it gives us the advantage). If we slow down to resting 12 hours and traveling 12, we can take four-hour watches, and put two people on each watch (with Makoto keeping watch alongside Miyu, Pamburu, and her familiar).
Oh and also: I think the mind flayers (not in our group, but...) have Detect Thoughts. And someone with Bluff could try to use it to communicate (or someone can roll acting for me if it comes up and is relevant)
The Goatman technology seems suspiciously post-apocalyptic; proximity to water might explain lack of a waterskin, but the lack of provisions is troubling on its own (maybe I was right about "what if there are cannibals!" back before the groups split)
Also, everyone but Tavros can use the javelins (I'd throw them two-handed, which is actually not bad); the mace might be too large to use, but if not it would be a damage boost for Lucina or Makoto. If we get a crude hammer, we can start hammering the extra bronze spearheads into cutting knives and maybe even a crude lumber axe.
Re: disfigurement: Maks votes no.
Re: Marking: Makoto has arcane mark, that will work 'branding'.
Re: Mace: The goat had enlarged himself. It is likely our size once more.
Re: Fording: Should be safe, unless there are any murlocs.
Re: knives: Just a large flat rock can hammer bronze, if I remember right.
Arcane Mark wears off, though.
As for why they aren't carrying provisions, I suspect it means they have a camp nearby where they keep their food and such. No need to carry extra weight into a fight.
Personally, I'm in favor of trying to find the goatling settlement and trying to befriend them. They're likely to have access to more resources than us.
We should definitely take their stuff, though. Mlinzi will be an excellent javelin thrower (it'll be a lot better than Acid Splash as a ranged attack), and our party's carrying capacity is insane.
I definitely think that disfiguring the goatlings would be a bad move. This could all be an unfortunate misunderstanding.
The problem I see with traveling at night is the cold. Once we get to a warmer altitude, it might be a good idea, though Makoto would kinda be SOL unless we want to give away our position by producing light.
Arcane Mark's permanent until dispelled (for example, targeted by the erase spell)
Maks can see just as well by moonlight as sunlight.
I also think seeking out their settlement (possibly returning them to their homes) would be super neat.
The only ones that need to worry about cold are Lucina and Teniel, and it will be summer soon.
Endure Elements is a spell I'm really coming to appreciate a lot.
Also, since I've got so much Heavenly Fire, we can use it as a rudimentary way of detecting alignments if Makoto's Detect Evil doesn't give us enough information. 1d4 healing isn't a lot, especially against an outnumbered foe, and if it's an evil creature, 1d4 damage isn't such a bad thing. If it's neutral, it will do nothing, and who really cares about the lawful-chaotic spectrum?
Ha, sorry to steal your thunder. Great minds think alike? :)
What does your heavenly fire look and feel like? :)
I tried to describe it... It's like a golden fire. I guess if I had to come up with a specific description for how it feels, I'd say it feels like you're being purified, which is why it hurts evil creatures, but heals good ones.
Alrighty. I'm going to try to be a bit more descriptive and ask about various sensations more with this character. It fits for her to notice and care about such things. :)
Well, at the very least, it should be quite pretty. ;)
Arcane Mark wears off of skin in two weeks, just like permanent marker. Maybe it would work on horns, though... (we could also trim an inch off of one side of the horn—google tells me it's all keratin over the last three inches, and wouldn't injure a real goat)
...a flat rock can flatten bronze. Well, *two* can. Not quite the same as shaping it.
Hmm. I don't think if ever read the single month clause. Strange, that. Guess it's assumed they she'd what you'd placed it on by then.
Summary and Housekeeping Post:
===================================
1. I leave for camping on Friday June 26 and return Thursday July 2. During that time I have basically no internet, aside from very spotty phone reception that drains my battery like crazy and there is no electricity to recharge my phone. I carry a ton of recharging devices and even a solar charger but they don't all work that well. Plus its not fun to GM via phone. So I will be out a week. I bring my notepad though and will be working on storylines and adventures.
2. Everyone gains 1400 XP for the battle. This will place you at level 2. You do not get the XP until you decide to 'rest and reflect'. This basically means several hours in a safe spot, not walking around or exploring or travelling. Staying at the campsite will count despite being the wilderness and maybe more goatlings around etc. The group will have to decide if they want to level up and pause for a few hours of in game time where you can't do much other than chat and relax. You need to be conscious and reasonably unwounded.
3. Since there is the slight potential for interaction with other groups, in the short duration after the battles, I would prefer people do all their level ups on an alternate sheet (offline perhaps), and have it ready to go, keeping your level 1 version on hand, and then just swap it in when time moves ahead. This gives you time over my vacation to get your character updated and brainstorm your future, or even adjust based on party needs.
4. Remember at level 2, you gain a feat from your item. This is a combat feat if its a weapon, or an combat amulet. It is a spell caster type feat or skill feat if its a caster-y item. I know this can be a little vague yet, and I will allow a redo of this feat once I have a solid rule-set soon after I get back. Refer to the rules I laid out so far for the items in the original rules.
5. Take some time for feedback, within your group and to me. Feel free to message me privately as well if you have concerns about anything that you don't want to share openly. This is also the time to decide if the table you are with is right for you. I feel like most of the tables are meshing well. We do have a few new recruits, and table 2 is at 6 people, so there is the possibility of some retooling. I think 5 is my target number for all tables.
6. Once you level your characters you are out of trial phase and we will move ahead. No more reworks, no more changes without formal retraining. Only if I find an illegal combo or build will I have someone change (in theory I should have caught these already, but eh, I'm human, mostly).
7. While I am gone, its a good time to firm up tactics and strategies. I realize you are still in the wilderness, and mostly gearless, but that will change eventually.
8. Feedback, analysis, discussion, critiques, strategies, ideas, amongst each other or for me are welcome. I hope the battle was a fun, perhaps tense, learning experience. Trial by fire sort of thing. Most combats will not be so brutal, save for the really epic ones perhaps, but those are suitably rare and special.
9. Everyone having a mini crunch really makes a difference, and those with special status spoilers for running effects, and other trackables really speeds things along, so if you don't have these yet, take a look at what others do, and get one going. It helps for minions too.
I'm happy with this table. I'm thinking of swapping out Prophetic Whispers for Misfortune as my final re-build (my AC goes down to 14/12, which is looow without Mage Armor, but it also protects everyone from enemy crits and nat 1s—I'll take whichever I don't have at level 3, but Misfortune seems slightly more useful for level 2, unless the group disagrees).
Awesome pile of experience! I'll get on that secondary sheet thing, then.
EDIT: Makoto, in the grand tradition of Sir Bearington, I designate you and your moderate bluff skill our resident Tarzan.
...also, I think we should probably camp somewhere else to level up; maybe across the river, or on a more defensible stretch of beach behind a sand castle.
1: @Cavetoad:
2: @Cavetoad: Am I able to take a non-combat feat with my weapon since it is technically also an instrument? Either a metamagic or skill focus or performance feats or the like?
3: @Everyone: I intend to focus on buffs and the like, as well as really cool things that target the senses of things directly with my spell selection (somewhat like Teniel). I was hoping to take things that would be useful without too much overlap. I'm very open to suggestions for what spells would be neat. I think picking up spells that aid in communication would also be nice.
I would like to point out on the channeling front that I've seen Life Oracles, who have an identically worded channel ability, allowed to take Selective Channeling (not sure about other channeling feats like Alignment Channel) in PFS games.
@Makoto: I was going to take Charm Person this level, but if you think your tail will suffice for now, I'll take Color Spray instead and replace it at level 5 (my Color Spray would be DC 20, which is intennnnse). I have no idea what Oracle spell to take. I'll be picking up Purify Food and Drink and Spark, which should solve all our group's cantrip needs.
@Cavetoad: Do our companions get an ability score increase every four levels, or every three? (I assume four, but it doesn't hurt to ask).
I just want to make sure I've got this right before I go building my Level 2. We get a regular feat AND a special item feat at level 2, correct?
Yes welcome to featsplotion may I take your feat order
1: @Cavetoad: ** spoiler omitted ** Does this qualify me for channeling feats? I assumed no, but it was suggested that I ask.
2: @Cavetoad: Am I able to take a non-combat feat with my weapon since it is technically also an instrument? Either a metamagic or skill focus or performance feats or the like?
3: @Everyone: I intend to focus on buffs and the like, as well as really cool things that target the senses of things directly with my spell selection (somewhat like Teniel). I was hoping to take things that would be useful without too much overlap. I'm very open to suggestions for what spells would be neat. I think picking up spells that aid in communication would also be nice.
1) Yes, for all that I can read it works the same as the cleric's and its a granted class ability
2) Yes, but if you choose the 'non-combat' path your item can only ever have non-combat feats. This may be tweakable in the future as I fine tune the system I have in mind.
I would like to point out on the channeling front that I've seen Life Oracles, who have an identically worded channel ability, allowed to take Selective Channeling (not sure about other channeling feats like Alignment Channel) in PFS games.
@Makoto: I was going to take Charm Person this level, but if you think your tail will suffice for now, I'll take Color Spray instead and replace it at level 5 (my Color Spray would be DC 20, which is intennnnse). I have no idea what Oracle spell to take. I'll be picking up Purify Food and Drink and Spark, which should solve all our group's cantrip needs.
@Cavetoad: Do our companions get an ability score increase every four levels, or every three? (I assume four, but it doesn't hurt to ask).
companions work just like regular companions, the only houserule I have made is they get max hp.
I just want to make sure I've got this right before I go building my Level 2. We get a regular feat AND a special item feat at level 2, correct?
Yes sir :)