Intimated above GM Dien has been in touch and extended a hand of invitation to join you for the close of the festival and whatever may be to follow. I know a few of the faces around the fire, so hello to those... and well met to those that I don't.
My original proposal is as per below, a Cavalier with the Huntmaster archetype who swings a big ol' mattock as hard as he can. I'm more than capable to polish him up and get into the thick - though if ACG was available I could also easily remake him as a melee based Hunter.
He was originally spun as a part of the town, so this would give the easiest means for both being absent while also eventually present. I have no issues starting a little down on gold compared to the rest either.
Str: 18, Dex: 8, Con: 16+2, Int: 13, Wis: 14, Cha: 15
Feats: Rugged Northerner, Power Attack
Skills: Climb, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Perception, Profession (Farmer), Sense Motive, Survival
Traits: Thrall, Orphaned
He was ploughing the field ready for the rye crop and the falling sleet meant he was alone bar the farmer's hunds and coos... it was not until the starving iss bjorn savaged a calf that it was seen. It was said that his bellowed challenge was heard across the village... and by the time others responded they found Thrymr bloodied and near broken, and the bjorn dead - mattock head buried to the haft in the bear's thick skull. His jarl named him Thrymr for the cry, and for saving his coos - gifted a bjorn hund to him. Thrymr knows his place and does not fight his station. The snow and cold are his kinsmen, his hund all company he needs and his strength able to be proved on stubborn and unyielding soil.
At his side is a spear with a thick blade for hunting, and the mattock that is used in the field... though the scarring on the weapon's haft indicates that it's use is not limited to peacetime.
However if roused to anger or in the company of drink he is a man transformed. Barrel chest capable of projecting tremendous volume he holds sway with battle cry or skaldic tale, and his strength is brought to terrible effect with mattock in hand. Skulls are split with the ease of a broken stump and limbs cleft like cutting frozen roots.
Níðingr - means 'nothing'. In this case it reflects that as a thrall he is of no clan, and has no bloodname. He chose the name for himself, claiming the insult and turning it to a badge of internal pride.
Thanks for the refresher, Thrymyr! I was just reading the story of the Norse Thrymr recently, too, for use in making up some of the other tale swapping that is going on. :P And yeah, Thrymr having been out in the fields all day is fine.
Regarding ACG classes: I've been a stick in the mud regarding them for months now, as I have a sort-of-lamentable "GET OFF MY LAWN, YOU DARN KIDS" kneejerk reaction to the new classes, but it's something I should probably get over. If you wanted to build Thrymr as Hunter because you like that build better, I'll allow that-- and for the record, that goes for everyone:
Now that the new ACG classes have been finalized, if anyone has a desire to switch from their current class to one of the ACG classes that better fits your idea of the character, I will give you the opportunity to do that. I know sometimes it's like 'aw, but that's so neat and really fits what my character does, if only the GM was permitting it'.
And I should really just break down and learn the new classes, anyway. ;)
Anyway, if anyone does want to switch over, go for it soon-- this is a onetime opportunity, not carte banche to just rebuild your character any ol' time. ;)
Okay, now to get this show back on the road.
Will give people a chance to regroup in game and make it to the hall (if they wish) before moving forward more.
With your hesitant blessing GM Dien, I'll go with the Hunter - but still keeping the hund companion. He'll be a little less of an out and out face-smasher, but will be a mite more flexible in the bargain (and with 18s in Strength and Con... still no slouch ;)
I'll swap his Dex and Int scores as well - and will aim to have him locked down in the next 24 hours or so.
Dex: 13 +1
Con: 18 +4
Int: 8 -1
Wis: 14 +2
Cha: 15 +2
Human (Ulfen) Hunter 1
Current Notes:
12/12 HP, 0/2 1st level spells cast
DEFENSE
AC 15, touch 11, flat-footed 15 (10 +4 Armor +1 Dex)
CMD: 15 (10 +0 BAB +4 Str +1 Dex)
Hit Points: 12 (8 +4 Con)
Fortitude: +6 (2 +4 Con)
Reflex: +3 (2 +1 Dex)
Will: +2 (0 +2 Wis)
OFFENSE
Speed: 20 ft (Hide)
Melee: Mattock +4 (0 +4 Str) for 2d4+6 (4+2 Str)
CMB: +4 (0 +4 Str)
Feats:
Rugged Northerner: treat extreme cold conditions as severe cold, and severe cold as cold weather conditions. You are not impacted at all by normal cold weather conditions. In addition, you do not become fatigued by frostbite or hypothermia.
Huntmaster (dog): +2 on Handle Animal and Knowledge (Nature) with dogs. Treat animal companion as 1 level higher when determining abilities.
Traits:
Thrall: +1 trait to all saving throws, one free skill point per level for Craft or Profession skill.
Orphaned: +1 trait on Survival and Survival is a class skill.
Racial Traits:
Bonus Feat: Rugged Northerner
Extra Skill Point
Favored Class: Hunter - add 1 skill rank to the hunter’s animal companion.
Skills: (6 -1 Int + Human + Trait)
Climb (Str): 8 (1 +3 Class +4 Str)
Handle Animal (Cha): 6 (1 +3 Class +2 Cha)
Knowledge (Nature – Int): 3 (1 +3 Class -1 Int)
Perception (Wis): 6 (1 +3 Class +2 Wis)
Profession (Farmer - Wis): 6 (1 +3 Class +2 Wis)
Stealth (Dex): 5 (1 +3 Class +1 Dex)
Survival (Wis): 7 (1 +3 Class +2 Wis +1 Trait)
Class Abilities:
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: simple and martial weapons and with light armor, medium armor, and shields (except tower shields).
Animal Companion (Ex): functions like the druid animal companion ability. The hunter’s effective druid level is equal to hunter level. A hunter may teach companion hunter’s tricks from the skirmisher ranger archetype instead of standard tricks.
Nature Training (Ex): counts total hunter level as both druid levels and ranger levels for the purpose of qualifying for feats, traits, and options that modify or improve an animal companion.
Wild Empathy (Ex): functions as a Diplomacy check to improve the attitude of a person. The hunter rolls 1d20 and adds hunter level and her Charisma modifier to determine the wild empathy check result.
[spoiler=Animal Focus (Su): can take on the aspect of an animal as a swift action. Can use this ability for a number of minutes per day equal to level. This duration does not need to be consecutive, but must be spent in 1-minute increments.
The hunter can emulate only one animal at a time. The hunter can also apply one of these aspects to animal companion. No duration on the animal aspect applied to animal companion. An aspect applied in this way does not count against the hunter’s minutes of duration per day—it remains in effect until the hunter changes it. The companion’s aspect can be the same aspect the ranger has taken on or a different one. The hunter can select or change the animal foci on both self and animal companion as part of the same swift action.
Bat: darkvision to a range of 60 feet. At 8th level, the range increases by 30 feet. At 15th level, the creature also gains blindsense to a range of 10 feet.
Bear: +2 enhancement bonus to Constitution. This bonus increases to +4 at 8th level and +6 at 15th level.
Bull: +2 enhancement bonus to Strength. This bonus increases to +4 at 8th level and +6 at 15th level.
Falcon: +4 competence bonus on Perception checks. This bonus increases to +6 at 8th level and +8 at 15th level.
Frog: +4 competence bonus on Swim checks and on Acrobatics checks to jump. These bonuses increase to +6 at 8th level and +8 at 15th level.
Monkey: +4 competence bonus on Climb checks. This bonus increases to +6 at 8th level and +8 at 15th level.
Mouse: gains evasion, as the rogue class feature. At 12th level, this increases to improved evasion, as the rogue advanced talent.
Owl: +4 competence bonus on Stealth checks. This bonus increases to +6 at 8th level and +8 at 15th level.
Snake: +2 bonus on attack rolls when making attacks of opportunity and a +2 dodge bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity. These bonuses increase to +4 at 8th level and +6 at 15th level.
Stag: 5-foot enhancement bonus to its base land speed. This bonus increases to 10 feet at 8th level and 20 feet at 15th level.
Tiger: +2 enhancement bonus to Dexterity. This bonus increases to +4 at 8th level and +6 at 15th level.
Wolf: gains the scent ability with a range of 10 feet. The range of this sense increases to 20 feet at 8th level and 30 feet at 15th level. The range doubles if the opponent is upwind, and is halved if the opponent is downwind.[/spoiler
Spells Known: (Wis based spontaneous)
0th: Detect Poison, Guidance, Know Direction, Mending,
1st: Deadeye’s Lore, Heightened Awareness, Summon Nature’s Ally I
Gear: 140 gp
2 x Mattock – 24gp
Handaxe – 6gp
2 x Dagger – 4gp
Hide Armor – 15gp
Cold weather gear – 8gp
Still need to add statistics for the hund, and go through and add conditional modifiers, etc
Looks fine so far, Thrymr.
Aaand I'll give it a bit more to move us... moar forward. Sorry for the slowdown this week, losing players always sucks some activity from a game for me. I stress that the game WILL continue, but: this weekend I'm GMing PFS at a local con, so I've got prep for that, and visiting family right now too, so bear with if I'm a little slow for a bit, gang. Still committed, still here, just trudging along.
Thrymr is ready to go, there's some cash still unspent - but nothing tangible to the character. Still need to name the hund, but I'll figure that out for the first major IC post.
Do I have leave to enter the hall?
Go for it, Thrymr. I'll ping if I have any questions about the character, when I get some free time anyway.
Okay, guys, sorry for the silence the last few days. Our local convention (which was debuting this year!) turned out to be a huge success, which was great; I had a lot of fun and got to try out the Malifaux RPG. PFS-wise, I ran two games, including being one of the GMs for Legacy of the Stonelords. I also had my first perma-death of a PFS character, a level 2 ranger who got critted when he had 2 HP left. So some highs and lows all around. Anyway, I am rather braindead right now, but we will resume normal game progress tomorrow and get back into things. New week, back on the bike, all that stuff!
What are your thoughts on the Malifaux RPG?
Malifaux RPG was fun, inasmuch as you can judge these things from a 2-hour demo, of course. Character creation seems interesting, a nice blend of randomization and personal choice. Gameplay ran smoothly and organically.
I confess to almost no familiarity with the actual Malifaux game that the RPG developed out of, but from what little I could tell, it's setting-compliant, of course. A lot of it seems to be oriented towards finite character arcs, such as each character having a goal or fate that is determined by the cards, and a set amount of time to play towards that.
I'd like to get my teeth into it more to really judge it fairly and to see what the system is like when you build a char from the ground up rather than the pregens we used, and to see how play goes as well in a longer slot, but I definitely had a good enough time that I would try it again.
I was a kickstarter backer for it - so I've been reading through the RPG for a while now. The aspect I found best was the concept that the DM never rolled / drew a single dice / card - everything was set on static numbers and it was the player who had to 'cheat fate' to defy what was fated to happen.
When they sent me out my KS rewards they accidentally sent me two of everything as well... so if the minor interest stretched into a more cogent one I'd be more than happy to send them on if you kicked in a bit for postage.
Sorry for going silent over the last few days. I got sick as a dog while coming back from vacation and I've been bed-ridden since then. I'll try to catch-up with the game and post within the next day or so.
Whose thrall is Thrymr? Which NPC is enough of a jerk to deny a thrall the one day of festival in a year he's entitled to? :)
I hadn't set who his master was, and was leaving that up to GM Dien's malevolence / beneficence.
Rikka: no worries, hope you're feeling better!
Re: Thrymr. I was actually pondering that just last night but decided to sleep before making any decisions on the matter.
The two most likely are probably Hrolf himself, or Sven Aurigr. Sven is not an evil man, but he is a man who likes to get every bit of coin's worth from his thralls, so he's the sort who might well make his thrall work all day. :P If you want to angle for more tie-in to the PCs, Thorgal Magnisson (Eysteinn's father) is another NPC who is high enough in rank in the town to have many thralls of his own.
If you have a preference between the three, let me know!
If I had to pick I'd say Sven Aurigr.
Sven it is!
Ah - the noble art of Flyting. I would've been up for it myself... but unfortunately I haven't blessed Thrymr with the intellectual fortitude to bend wits and curl tongue as much as I would be tempted to ;)
Though I find it both loses and gains something presented in old Scots:
Like ane boisteous bull, ye rin and ryde
Royatouslie, lyke ane rude rubatour
Ay fukkand lyke ane furious fornicatour
Ah cheers! The site I had found mention of it didn't list the actual name of the activity. :) Good to know, thank you.
Ah, those scurrilous Scots...
Just throwing in a general apology for my slowness lately. I have visiting family and some possible life upheaval on the table, but I'm still here and committed to the game, just not quite managing the post-a-day that I usually try for as GM.
Ditto, I also apologize for my slowness this week. We're running a debate tournament this weekend at my college, and there's been a lot of work for it. I'll get up a post tomorrow at the latest, but hopefully tonight.
Been having a busy weekend. Will post in a few hours. Sorry.
I'll be jumping forward a bit soon (just winding up things with Halla really!) and you will all wake up a tiny bit stronger, cooler, and tougher- yep, it's level up time.
Hit points: You may choose to take half, rounded up; or you may choose the risk of rolling (if you choose to roll, do so in this thread) and be stuck with whatever you roll. Same applies for animal companion.
Spells: You gain access to spells/extracts as normal upon a level up for your class, but as everyone more or less passed out after extensive partying, drinking, and in Knute's case, bangin', you are not considered to have had the chance to study to regain spells or formulas used in the first day, or to learn new spells/etc gained on the level up, yet.
If you have any last minute changes or tweaks you want to make to feats, traits, skills, etc, now is the time-- things are about to start in earnest, but I'll let tweaks slide under the radar until then.
Any questions, hit me! I hope everyone is having fun.
Unrelated to leveling up, but this is a great reference for what houses in the village are actually like. The great hall can be considered a really big version of that, the 250-foot long version-- wider than average too, to accommodate fire trenches and tables, but still following that basic structure.
Level-up... woot! I'll roll for HPs cuz I'm old school. :p
+1 Sorc Level
Aw, yeah!
12 HP (total)
BAB +1
Will +1
CMB: +1
CMD: +1
1st Spell - Cast 5/day
+2 cantrips (1 level, 1 favorite)
> Mending
> Mage Hand
Concentration +7
5 Skills
Spellcraft (1) +5
Use Magic Device (1) +7
K:Dungeoneering (1) +2
K:Planes (1) +2
Craft:Tattoo (1) +6 (Karl Bonus)
Lazy Sausage HP:6
Character sheet updated.
I never realized how many Alchemist discoveries are actually disgusting body mutations.
I think I'll take Infusion.
+1 BaB
+1 Ref, Fort
+7 hp (I'm taking half)
poison use, poison resistance +2
Infusion discovery
new formulas: deathwatch (bonus), and another TBD
+9 skill points (4 class, 2 int, 1 human, 1 thrall, 1 favored class)
also, I knew I wanted Knowledge (local) as a class skill and acted as so, but I didn't settle on which trait to get do so. I finally decided to go with affable.
I'll take my chances rolling for HP:
+1 BAB
+1 Ref, Fort
+9 HP (total of 20 now)
Taking Archery, naturally, as my combat style.
So I'll take Rapid Shot as my feat
+9 skill points (6 class, 1 human, 1 karl, 1 favored class)
- Craft: Bows (1) +4
- Handle Animal (1) +4
- Kn: Geography (1) +5
- Kn: Nature (1) +5
- Perception (1) +7
- Profession: Hunter (1) +7
- Stealth (1) +8
- Survival (1) +7
- Swim (1) +5
Updating Char sheet now.
I always roll for HP, but Rikka and Knute just hogged the good rolls.
Oh well, when the party healer's unconscious, I'm taking the rest of you with me. ;P
FCB to hit points, considering that roll.
Oracles suffer from the same fate as clerics as regarding being terminally boring to level up. She gets a level 0 spell and 6 skill points to distribute. We'll go with read magic or she'll never be able to cast from a scroll. For skills, Bluff, Diplomacy, Heal, Knowledge (local), Perception, and Sense Motive.
GM, was Sven or Thorgal Halla's master before she came to Old Palli? I was thinking there was a post in the first couple of pages that was explicit about it, but I'm not finding it.
That is because it is sneakily hiding in the discussion forum, not the actual gameplay.
Tada, it was Thorgal.
I'll update probably later tonight/tomorrow with What Happens Next!
I'll take average HP and increment all skills on Thrymr.
He also gets Outflank, Track, CLW, Stabilize.
For Gifr he gets +1 Str, +1 Dex, +2 Natural Armor, 1 skill point (Survival), Evasion, Outflank and a bonus trick (TBC).
Phew! Okay, posts made. I recognize this is going to be a large and sort-of-incoherent combat, what with things happening all over. I promise you that most of the fights in the game are not going to be this disjointed or large-scale. (Mostly because it's like 6 times as much work as a normal fight, ahem.)
Basically, just continue to play like we've been doing-- let me what you're doing, if you're leaving your current location to go somewhere else (and where), and I'll narrate what happens to you en route/if you get there. Actual combat locations will run like 'normal' combats.
If there is anything confusing to you about what is going on, please ask me and I'll try to explain it more clearly.
As far as IC knowledge about orcs, and the attack, goes: it's extremely unusual for orks to attack in deep winter and in numbers like this. In the warmer months, small groups of orcs (5-20) may strike at hunting parties, fishermen, and farmsteads to raid food and slaves alike-- but nobody in living memory recalls an assault like this, on Hofn itself, with scores of orcs attacking. Deep winter is a time of relative peace-- at most, a hungry band of orcs might leave their caves to try and steal food, but as a rule, orcs don't like trying to fight in the deep snow any more than humans do.
A leveling note: I realized when I was updating Halla's profile that I hadn't put the skill point she got from the Thrall trait into her Profession, so I switched a point from Sense Motive.
No worries! I didn't really get around to the last-minute sheet-auditing I meant to anyway. ;)
But yeah, remember to allocate your freebie profession skills for those of you who have that benefit.
Sorry about the snow-fusion GM Dien - I didn't go back and edit the flavor text, but the intent was just a wander along the road and ready attacks just in case the orcs come forward.
I edited in the confirmation rolls at the end of the post so they'd both be fresh rolls rather than re-ordered ones.
Rules question: Mattocks are fragile, do they still break if the natural 1 being rolled is on a confirmation attack roll?
don't mind me ... just reading along.
Latest in my list of Kickstarted receipts
The merino and steer are my favourites... but the guys really need to get a triceratops or a pachycephalosaurus...
Looks like Halla's at the bottom of the initiative round. I'll wait and see what the orks succeed in doing before acting. If they break through the second door, the state of the battlefield is going to be a lot different than if they don't.
Unless I'm reading it wrong, Joana, the orks have already gone for round 2 and the main door held. Or are you delaying in case they get through at the top of round 3?
Oh, I'm sorry; you're right. For some reason, I was thinking it was Rikka with the 18 init and the orks were sandwiched between her and Halla. Will go post.
Latest in my list of Kickstarted receipts
The merino and steer are my favourites... but the guys really need to get a triceratops or a pachycephalosaurus...
Oooh, cool skulls.
To answer your nat 1 question: I couldn't find a definitive ruling one way or the other, so I'm gonna go with yes, partly because I think it's narratively cool that you hit the enemy so hard you snapped your mattock. Louisville slugger splintering on the home run, or something! I'll describe it in my actual post update. *goes to do so*
No problems with that ruling at all - in fact Disposable Weapon is on my to get list as far as feats go too :)
Just to clarify something (I think it's obvious, but just in case not), everyone is basically getting their own 'rounds' as apply to their combats. You don't need to worry about your rounds matching up with actions in anyone else's.
I moved my own token on the map for the 5-foot-step. Is that kosher?
Joana, yeah, that's fine. I think I also had moved you, but I'm not gonna be too arsed about stuff like that right now. There will be fights where I'll be a little more attention to the rules-ish but on this one I figure fast and loose chaos of a raid is likely.
Everyone else: sleepy GM is crashing, will update the rest of your fights once I wake up. I think I'm still reeling from a PFS mod today where my level 3 character used 20 charges off a CLW wand...
You might add coordinates to future maps. It's easier to say "I move to C 16" or "I shoot the orc in J 21" than saying "I move three squares up and two squares to the left" or "I shoot the orc next to the door; no, not that one, the one next to him."
As long as we're 5-foot-stepping, it's not a big deal, but combats with a lot of moving parts can get confusing in PbP, where it's easy IRL to just point at the map on the table.
Hm, I've run a few PBPs and never had too much trouble until now doing it without coordinates. Usually I stick colored markers on enemies to distinguish between them when there is more than one option for PCs, and letting PCs move themselves on the map and just trusting that they'll notify me honor-system wise if their movement path provoked AOOs generally works out.
That said, if people would find it easier to do grid coordinates, I can toss in grids, that's not a problem. If you all have a preference, just let me know.
I'm happy any which way - for the small maps not having references are probably fine - but when it comes time for bigger maps it might get a bit more interesting.