Motteditor's Ironwall Gap Must Hold PBP (Inactive)

Game Master motteditor

OK, gentlemen (and ladies?), here's the discussion thread.

Let me know when your character's ready, and I'll give it a lookover.

The adventure's set in a campaign neutral setting. Let me know if you'd like it to be in Golarion, and I can set it there instead.

Your characters will all know each other at the beginning, or at least be traveling together, but you don't necessarily need to be part of a military group or anything. You can simply be adventurers on the way back from an adventure.

Any questions, please feel free to ask.

Checking in. First thing I'll need to figure out is my partner, so I can coordinate some back story. Anyone interested in being Han to my Chewbacca?

Wanted to know what your view was on the Leadership feat and having a secondary character. I'm happy either way...

Reporting in. Alias to come.

I think I'd prefer to go without the sixth character if you don't feel it's critical for you build. I really like having five for PBPs -- feel like it's an optimal number.

I did put the cohort into my character's history, but I don't feel like it's essential for the game. One less thing to worry about. Perhaps his cohort is off doing an important piece of research in a library and they plan on meeting soon; then the PCs get side tracked....

Graah, I'd be happy to be your Han if no one else takes you up on the offer. Your background is charming.

i missed how we are doing HP? avg per dice? half+1?

And my character could be your Han. He will intimidate anyone who has a problem with you. Hahahaha

Half+1 works for HP (full at first level of course).

Galvrin checking in. Tenro's submission, ready for GM check.

History: Galvrin has always been a bit of a drifter, mostly out of necessity. When he started having the episodes, it quickly became necessary to move from place to place to avoid the torches and pitchforks of the local populace. So, he kept moving on, keeping his powers under wraps as best he could. Every now and again, something would cause him to tip his hand and he would have to leave again before suspicions arose.

He spends most of his time as a scout-for-hire, occasionally he will work for a local merchant trying to force a customer to make good on a payment. His last job as advance party for a merchant caravan went sour, and he cast his lot in with the remaining defenders of the caravan. Over the course of a few months, some coming and some going, the adventuring party is what's left.

Appearance: Galvrin is a charming man with medium-length straight brown hair and an omnipresent five o'clock shadow. His hazel eyes are often considered initially attractive, but there is something somewhat unsettling about his presence, and his eyes hint at a predatory nature beneath. He often wears dark colors useful for sneaking, but wears his clothes in cuts conforming to current trends in clothing, so as not to stand out. However, when he is "on duty" he wears his hood up, with a fanged mask for added effect.

Checking in. First thing I'll need to figure out is my partner, so I can coordinate some back story. Anyone interested in being Han to my Chewbacca?

I have two spare languages, so could take Goblin - perhaps my journey here was via your village and I was one of the party that you finally befriended?

Happy to defer to Tenro if it works better with him. I saw youas the one that was intimidating, not the other way around!

Alias created. Still tweaking equipment and will round-out the back story once Chewie gets settled...

Yeah I only have one spare language and I picked orc so maybe I shouldnt be the Han

Looks like we're waiting on Garabott. I'll give him a little bit longer, but if he doesn't post, I'll pick someone else.

Otherwise, I think all the characters look fine.

Corvus looks like a decent match. I'm not sure how much rounding out is even required. Presumably, after Graah! started trailing the team, Corvus was the first one to take an interest in the tiny killing machine, and recognized his usefulness as a very effective archer. His ability to climb and cover escape routes may have made him an invaluable backup upon dealing with many a deader. (Like a sniper covering the close up operative when she goes in to deal with the mark. Anything goes wrong, and he starts pinning everyone down or flat out killing them so the point gal can make a quick exit.)

The too would have formed a tight unspoken bond in the years since, and having travelled and work together innumerable times, know each others methods and tactics pretty well.

One issue is that I had hoped my partner might also have an Orc vendetta to give them a common interest in missions, and excuse Graah!'s rather impressive over-specialization into killing Orcs. One possibility is for me to rebuild him as a Fighter (archer). It increases his average damage considerably, but takes his incredible effectiveness in dealing with Orcs down a few pegs as well. He could still have an Orc vendetta over what happened in his village, but he wouldn't have the same mechanical focus. This would however lose him most of his skills, so he would not be the premier scout he is now, and he'd lose his animal companion as well (which is a medium size Roc, allowing him to fly and cover the battlefield from the air, which is a pretty useful ability as well. Thoughts? Opinions from others besides Corvus are welcome as well, as builds and what roles and skills are covered affects everyone.

This is what it looks like we have for a team:

Galvrin - Human Dread
Corvus - Human? Rogue
Graah! - Goblin Ranger
Dyalg - Human Battle Oracle
garabbott - Lore Warden/Arcane Duelist

We have no traditional Arcanist, but I imagine Galvrin will sort of fill that role; I don't know much about Dreads...

Healing will be at a premium, as only Dyalg has any, and it is not a focus of his. We should make sure he has a wand at the least, so we can heal up between fights.

Skill Monkey is Corvus, and it looks like she has that covered, particularly in the roguish type stuff.

Knowledge Skills appears to be another gap, but hopefully it won't be an issue if we are primarily fighting orcs.

Scouting is covered by Graah! and the little dude can sneak pretty well when he wants to.

Didn't notice their was an offer from Dyalg as well. Either of you think that your character is the better fit? I notice that Corvus can take Goblin language, which at present Dyalg cannot. That may be a deciding factor in itself...

Dread is like a hyper-specialized "caster". Like Witch or Magus but even less versatile. He can be a scout also, he has maxed stealth plus shadow armor as well as maxed perception.

Basically all of his abilities focus around sneaking, and imposing conditions on the enemy like shaken, frightened, stunned, cowering, sickened, etc. He is also an intimidate monster so that plus bluff are his social skills. Unfortunately not much in the way of healing until I take one more feat and get an item that gives a good amount of power points. Sadly even with my CHA,use magic device is not a class skill.

Dreads, like Magi, only get up to 6th lv spells. But like witch, they get Terrors, which are kinda like hexes but focus more on imposing conditions whereas a witch's hexes are more versatile.

Also "ok" in melee, 19 ac, +9 to hit and 1d6+1d4+7 dmg.

Dyalg’s possessions are finished. I took Graah!’s advice about the wand, choosing a Cure Moderate Wounds...though would two Cure Light Wounds be better? I don’t know.

I also thought that Dyalg’s cohort (a cleric) could be with the group to provide some extra healing. He’d be quiet. Under a vow of silence unless praying. I don’t want to add to your workload GM, so whatever you decide I’ll accept.

Finally Graah!, switching Dyalg’s language from Elven to Goblin isn’t a big deal at all, but Corvus and Graah! make a good pair. I don’t mind if they have the Han and Chewie partnership.

Cure light wounds is usually a better value, as long as you are not intending to use it in combat. At 7th level Cure light, or even Cure Moderate for that matter, is not likely to be healing anyone enough to turn the tide of battle.

Sure, a cure moderate gives you twice the healing, but then it does so at 6x the cost. Ask yourself which is better, 1 wand of CMW, or 6 wands of CLW? 100d8+150 HP over 50 rounds or 300d8+300 HP over 300 rounds? The time factor does play a role, so I am not saying CMW is without value, but the numbers do bear consideration.

I would say that if you do buy a CMW wand for use in combat, you should probably also have cheaper CLW wands as well to use when time is not a factor, and save the expensive wand for when it is. All in all, I would probably just buy 2 wands of CLW and spend the rest on something else.

BTW Dyalg, who is your deity? I can't spot it on his character sheet.

I could chip in some money to a wand of cure. I bought 9 potions of CLW.

Graah! I'm liking the way this is working out. Initially I saw Corvus' history being urban and only now was she off adventuring. I can change it around to make her recent exploits Orc-based encounters - and change languages and back-story as appropriate.

Graah! - please check out my back-story to see if it works for you.

If we don't hear from Garabott by the end of the day, I'll ask someone else to join us. Hopefully we can get started soon.

Graah! Thanks for more suggestions. I’m happy to get advice. I think 2 CLW wands and a ring of protection +1 will be a good substitute for 1 CMW wand.

As far as the deity goes, I wasn’t sure if we were using the standard Golarion pantheon (in which case Irori will be his deity) or something else.

OK, I think I got a replacement for Garabott (though he can't post until tomorrow), so I'm going to get started.

We are going to use the standard Golarion pantheon, but I think we'll actually take place in a more-or-less campaign neutral setting. While the original concept for the adventure was based in Golarion, I made a few changes once I wasn't using it and I want to see how people feel about it as is.

You'll be in the kingdom of Cor Rheale:

I'm posting the campaign thread now, even though I realize being the weekend could get us off to a slow start.

Also, Dyalg, do you have your cohort statted up?

Graah! - how do you want to play speech? Do you speak common all the time and goblin at specific times? Do you speak goblin and I speak common back? Is it just our secret language?

The second option is the way I would like to play it. Graah! dislikes using the longshank's tongue, and so will generally only speak it if he has no other choice. Most of the time he will just talk only to Corvus, and leave it up to her to pass on anything if she thinks it is important. Of course, the whole group will be aware that he understands common just fine, and will be able to talk to him anytime they want, as long as they don't expect an answer they can understand.

BtW, the backstory looks just fine.

GM, I asked a while back if you allowed the Boon Companion feat, but I never got a response.

I did this pretty quickly; essentially a 6th level Cleric of Iori with minimal, non-magic gear. If anything seems amiss please let me know.

I know I wrote he took a vow of silence, but I'm not sure how he'd communicate with me (or the others) then. Point and pass him notes?

[EDITED - Cohort sheet removed]
Oh 5th level! I missed that part in the feat description. Same thing with the Creating NPCs link too. Just disregard what I posted for Marmoth for now.

Isn't the max level of a cohort two levels below the character level? Shouldn't he be level 5?

Boon Companion seems fine, Graah!

Attempt #2

Hello.

Motteditor asked me to fill in for the player who couldn't make it. ^^ Pleased to meet you all. I just need to fill out my equipment list...

Alright, equipment purchased, spells prepared... let's rock! ^^

Welcome! Glad somebody has knowledge: arcana that hasn't taken a vow of silence.

am i the only one without a mount?

Me too. If everyone else has one, I have enough gold to buy one

I don't mind someone riding shotgun behind me, especially if they have ranks in Ride. ;)

i'd have to lose some cure potions to afford one.

also, i don't imagine horses would be too liable to like someone with an Aura of Fear (although nothing mechanically gives me a penalty to handle animal) and it isnt really his style.

buuuut i dont want to be the only one on foot slowing everyone down.

OK, need to decide what you guys want to do regarding mounts before we go any harder. It's up to you, though I will say they're not a critical part of the adventure.

as long as it isnt an issue, i'd prefer not to have one.

Growing up in a city, there was limited reason to ride and since she met up with Graah! I would say that we've been on foot - so no horse for Corvus.

OK, no horse for Galvrin and Corvus.

Combat: I run combat in full rounds -- I'd like each of you to post your actions, then I'll adjudicate the round once you've all done that. I find that's the least confusing, though it can be a little more stilted than if I had each action's results as they happen. I will sometimes change your actions if they don't make sense based on some of the results (i.e. your target died).

I like to set it up so that the creatures will always go at the end of the round so that way you can post your actions in response to what they do. That means the first "round" of combat may actually be a sort of half-round. I'll have everyone who got a higher initiative than the antagonists post their actions, resolve them and the first-round actions of the antagonists, then go into full rounds starting with the remaining characters.

So, for example, in this first combat, our initiatives were:
Corvus: 27
Dyalg: 19
Galvrin: 6
Graah!: 9
Illa: 15
Antagonist: 13

So we'll do a half-round with Corvus, Dyalg and Illa. Then the antagonists will go. Then the full Round 1 will start with Graah and Galvin before cycling back to the top with Corvus, Dyalg and Illa.

This first combat's a little odd, since they're so far away to start (you've basically got 10 rounds before they potentially reach melee range if you don't move any closer), so you can give me a list of several rounds of actions to start. If you move toward them, you can reach each other in about 5 rounds, though they are of course flying about 60 feet up.

Please feel free to ask questions/point out mistakes -- especially starting at higher levels, I'm not going to know your characters well so I may miss things.

sounds good. not sure what i will do at this point in combat. i might pull out a ranged weapon or i might move in closer if they descend to attack.

Since you asked about the horses, Dyalg uses his mount for transportation. If attacked while riding it, most likely he’ll stay mounted, firing arrows if possible.

I added a combat map link that you should see at the top of the page. It's very rough (sorry, there's great art for the fort itself, but not this part) but hopefully it'll help give a little idea in terms of tactical actions. Not that the square's are 10 feet in the map.

I added in Graah!'s animal companion, Tasty Chicken, on his profile as I didn't have him set up before.

Just FYI, I expect to be away Sunday and Monday.

yeah i buy the durable arrows because i hate keeping track of remaining arrows on here. its easy enough to erase off of a paper sheet, but having to click edit, find the arrows in a mix of codes, and erase it, then save, etc etc.... yuck