I tend to see gems in pathfinder as some mystical substance.
Gems greater than the normal amount do exist, but are subject to normal rules for finding rare expensive items - though there are shortcuts.
Anything over the "standard" quantity/quality would probably have a story attached. They are rare enough that mass-produced-magic would run into a limit.
Most of the time for a PC in a Kingmaker game this just means they have to be ordered, then arrive 'between' turns.
Finding the gem component to make an "x of continuous resurrection" would be problematic.
That okay?
I'll work with it. It means I'll be spending basically all my cash on ordering onyx.
Molly will be scouting during the 8-ish hours prep. She shouldn't need much more than that. She can rest when she returns and we go out. She should be back at or before the time we prep spells. In theory anyway.
Simon; Agreed
Sorry; Internet's been down for 24 hours. I have to run out but will post updates when I get back.
All good with the plan.
I was trying to make sure people were underskilled and underequipped for this particular jaunt - it's the reason not to do it now. Sorry Denat.
Real Life just kind of kicked me in the Junk guys. I will probably be AKF for a couple days. Harakani, feel free to 'bot' me for a while. If I can't make it back by the weekend, I will let you know & we can figure out if I should bow out.
This right?
Arioch: Excused
Simon: Night = Nothing,
Denat: Night = Nothing, morning = listen to Speak with Dead
Taerine: Night = Nothing
Anglon: Night = Mending, morning = speak with dead (Seelah), Desecrate and Raise Dead
Grey: ??
Caillus: ??
Night = Oversee lost of Unseen Servants cleaning and beginning renovations on the fort.
Morning = Help Anglon, take control of the undead, animate a few of my own
Grey: When are you using the scroll?
Thanks for reminding me. I'll do it that night while the body is still fresh.
I'm going to go with the "Local" option.
I have two scrolls. Could I use both of them on the same body, picking different options to get more than one map?
I guess.
I'm saying local here is going to be about a day's travel every direction.
Hmm. My gamble was that by making a map to the most valuable thing Kressle is aware of, I might get a map of the enemy stronghold (assuming that's where the valuable thing is)
How far away is the enemy camp?
Another option would be to take the material component from her body, but not actually cast the spell until we are much closer to the enemy stronghold. Then I can use the "close" option which will get a more detailed map. As long as I cast it before 24 hours have passed, it will work.
I have come to the conclusion that I much prefer Fictional drama to real-life...
On the bright side, my own personal drama seems to have receded to manageable levels.
I have come to the conclusion that I much prefer Fictional drama to real-life...
On the bright side, my own personal drama seems to have receded to manageable levels.
over the years, I've determined that the best way of avoiding drama is to avoid people who are prone to drama.
I've lost a few friends, but gained better ones and found myself much happier than I used to be.
Take of that what you will. :)
also ready for the next day
Will make some minor spell adjustments when I get home.
I only have 250 GP worth of Onyx to spend on this, so unless other people want to subsidize the cost, I'm looking at 6 HD of undead.
I'm thinking two 3HD Bloody Skeleton Archers.
However, I can animate a 4HD regular skeleton myself, for free (False Focus and Lesser Animate Dead), so that's what's happening to Kressle.
Each skeleton is being dressed identically to Grey, including face mask. The Kressle Skeleton is being armed with a Totem Spear, like Grey.
All the rest of the bodies are being stored. I can make one 4 HD undead a day at no cost, so I'll just accumulate my horde rather slowly.
So I am at 6/9 HD Commanded and 4/36 HD Animated.
In related news, Grey's highest priority is to get a hold of an onyx mine...
I only have 250 GP worth of Onyx to spend on this, so unless other people want to subsidize the cost, I'm looking at 6 HD of undead.
I'm thinking two 3HD Bloody Skeleton Archers.
However, I can animate a 4HD regular skeleton myself, for free (False Focus and Lesser Animate Dead), so that's what's happening to Kressle.
Each skeleton is being dressed identically to Grey, including face mask. The Kressle Skeleton is being armed with a Totem Spear, like Grey.
All the rest of the bodies are being stored. I can make one 4 HD undead a day at no cost, so I'll just accumulate my horde rather slowly.
So I am at 6/9 HD Commanded and 4/36 HD Animated.
In related news, Grey's highest priority is to get a hold of an onyx mine...
You have a cool character. I may mimic him in a RL game given half a chance. It's a compliment.
Bloody skeletons count as twice their HD for raising, and humanoid (medium) skeletons have a fixed HD.
Animating Kressle would ruin her corpse for the purposes of create treasure map.
(A) She ceases to be dead and becomes undead. if you kill her again then you get the undead's knowledge.
(B) she won't have skin. Skeletons don;t have sufficiently level pieces of body as per spell description .
I was planning on taking her skin first, and then animating her.
I'm not sure what you mean by "fixed HD"
Bloody skeletons count as twice their HD for raising, and humanoid (medium) skeletons have a fixed HD.
Animating Kressle would ruin her corpse for the purposes of create treasure map.
(A) She ceases to be dead and becomes undead. if you kill her again then you get the undead's knowledge.
(B) she won't have skin. Skeletons don;t have sufficiently level pieces of body as per spell description .
I think the plan is to skin her then raise her.
You have a cool character. I may mimic him in a RL game given half a chance. It's a compliment.
Steal away. I love necromancers. :)
Fixed:
Hit Dice: A skeleton drops any HD gained from class levels and changes racial HD to d8s. Creatures without racial HD are treated as if they have 1 racial HD. If the creature has more than 20 Hit Dice, it can't be made into a skeleton by the animate dead spell. A skeleton uses its Cha modifier (instead of its Con modifier) to determine bonus hit points.
Skin then raise? Hmmmm. I guess technically the skin has then never actually been part of the "creature"....
It's disgusting, but practical. Okay.
Fixed:
Hit Dice: A skeleton drops any HD gained from class levels and changes racial HD to d8s. Creatures without racial HD are treated as if they have 1 racial HD. If the creature has more than 20 Hit Dice, it can't be made into a skeleton by the animate dead spell. A skeleton uses its Cha modifier (instead of its Con modifier) to determine bonus hit points.
Skin then raise? Hmmmm. I guess technically the skin has then never actually been part of the "creature"....
It's disgusting, but practical. Okay.
I suspect Gray is all about "practical."
Since we're all casters we should consider all having at least one fast zombie horse under our control. Perhaps bloody too just for the practicality of never having to raise another one.
Anglon has no desire to raise an army of undead. He has no problems with someone else doing it, but he has no "love" for death.
Anglon has no desire to raise an army of undead. He has no problems with someone else doing it, but he has no "love" for death.
The same here.
But I'll also keep note of the character concept, I like it. ;)
So how many hit dice were the original archers?
Simon is indifferent to the undead army. He sees them as nothing more than tools.
Denat, Communal mount will speed up how fast we can get to the other camp.
Grey's thoughts on the undead will become more apparent soon. Suffice to say his philosophies are quite a bit different than most necromancers I've ever seen. Grey actually has a strong reverence for life.
Grey's thoughts on the undead will become more apparent soon. Suffice to say his philosophies are quite a bit different than most necromancers I've ever seen. Grey actually has a strong reverence for life.
The dead serve the living in order to make the living happier?
The dead serve the living in order to make the living happier?
That's about 90% of it, yeah.
All human skeletons are 1 HD, regardless of class levels, unless you manage to turn them into Skeletal Champions... which no-one knows how to do using Animate Dead.
...oh that's just f!!~ing stupid. I knew they lost all their class levels, but I didn't realize they reverted back to base hit dice. Ridiculous.
Conjurers can crank out level appropriate minions, on the fly, customizing their army for any given encounter, for free, starting at level 1. Summoners can even do it as a Standard Action, and get durations measured in Minutes or longer.
Necromancers have to pay out the nose for minions that can be be killed by a forceful sneeze until 9th level when they can actually start making halfway decent creatures. They have to equip them, and figure out how to house them and travel with them. It's a logistical and monetary nightmare. Their only hope of having decent undead before 9th level is to run into them during an adventure and successfully control them, which essentially boils down to GM Fiat and luck.
Ok, done ranting now. Ignore me.
Looks like I get to be a lot less of a necromancer than I thought, at least for a few more levels. I'll just have a bunch of 1 hit dice skeletons. Maybe I can rig them to explode or something.
So, I have three 1 HD Bloody Skeleton Archers (same cost), and one 1 HD basic skeleton.
I'm casting Gentle Repose on Kressle's body and saving her for later. I'm going to find something better to do with her.
I'd like to get rid of my Bone Razor since I'll probably never use it. I'll swap it out for something more useful.
Undead are basically leadership retainers with a twist.
You *can* get level appropriate undead, but only by raising larger and larger critters (same with Animate Objects).
That said if you launch 20 arrows a turn, one will be a natural 20 and hit.
Lots of necromancer powers are built on keeping undead *up*.
I've had a player who had lots of burning bloody skeletal archers before. At higher levels he had obscene amounts of them, and they were almost impossible to keep dead. He tended to use them as a sort of mobile spell effect. They took up a lot of area, and the sheer volume of arrows they pumped out made them excellent at removing large numbers of low level critters. Meant he could concentrate on the bigger things.
Even he rubbed his hands with glee the day he fought a huge giant because larger creatures are just so much better though.
If you have 250 worth of onyx you can do 10 HD. Don't mess around wtih desecrate as Anglon can do 10HD standing on his head. Then you can get 5 bloody skeletal archers.
How's that?
That's fine. Thank you.
What are your thoughts on Undead Swarms? They count as one creature, but are actually many. How would they work with Animate/Create undead?
Grey: how far is what?
Having looked at animated swarms before I am reluctant to make them easy. the combination of swarm and undead makes them incredibly hard to kill unless you have a cleric, in which case they become trivial to kill.
Is there something specific you are after?
How far away is the bandit fort?
As for swarms, not at the moment. I remembered a swarm of undead ravens in one of the adventure paths. It got me thinking about them as an option.
How far the bandit fort is is unknown. Feel free to make it a question.
At the moment Molly has told you where the bandits were (just) camping. 24 miles directly, or 30 miles through plains.
Damnit - turns out I got raven speed mixed up. Molly should have gotten back much later. Molly is exhausted. Adjusted the time she found the camp.
Okay, after some significant calculations, for those who want verisimilitude the figures are...
PLAINS (trackless)
For the record at 30ft 30 miles is 13 hours travel
at 20ft 30 miles is 20 hours travel
at 40ft 30 miles is 10 hours travel
at 50ft 30 miles is 8 hours travel
Hustling reduces the time of course
FOREST (trackless)
For the record at 30ft 24 miles is 16 hours travel
at 20ft 24 miles is 24 hours travel
at 40ft 24 miles is 12 hours travel
flying at 40ft 24 miles is 6 hours travel
And I believe that everyone is ready to go at 4am when molly returns.
Molly arrives back at 4am.
Misc prep done by 4am.
Spell prep done by 3am.
Group mostly awakened by 2am.
She spotted the camp at 12pm.
Most prep was finished by 6pm.
She started travelling at 4pm.
The party arrived about 4pm (simplistically)
Most bandits had left by 2pm.
The bandits attacked at noon.
Molly passed two small groups of bandits on her way to the camp - some almost at the camp, and a group who had camped on the plains. These are probably the ones who couldn't hack the forced march or hustling, and will hopefully slow the bandits from departing in the morning.
Simplifying that wall of numbers...
It looks like if you leave now and are limited to 20ft the bandits move at least as fast as you.
If you leave now and travel at 30ft over the plains you might catch up to them while travelling the next day if you force march, but probably the day after that.
If you leave now and travel at 40ft over the plains you'll almost certainly catch up to them over the next day.
If you leave now and travel at 50ft over the plains you might just catch them before they leave.
If you leave now and travel at 30ft (or greater) through the forest the bandits will have a lead that will take days to catch up.
If you leave now and travel at 40ft (or greater) through the forest you might be able to force march into the bandits.
If you leave now and travel at 50ft (or greater) through the forest you should be able to catch up to them over the next day.
If you find a way to fly through the forest at 40ft or greater you should catch them before they leave.
Grey:
this is a little counter intuitive, but the main advantage of a skeleton army is speed.
a 30ft skeleton can hustle every hour for 24 hours. That means they can travel about 6 times faster than a human.
a 40ft fast zombie can do about 8 times faster.
a normal zombie can do 3 times faster than a human, simply because they can force march every hour forever.
The advantage of undead, much like dwarves, is in their speed.
Good to know. :)
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The advantage of undead, much like dwarves, is in their speed.
While mechanically correct, that phrase is just so very very wrong to me.
:)
It is intriguing that sometimes on the army level a race's characteristics change massively.
Dwarven armies with their ability to carry more, resist disease, march harder and penetrate fortifications are quick and agile
(Pathfinder) Elven armies, with their better ability to ambush, hide and strike at range, combined with their trouble with forced marching are excellent - if slow - defenders.
Because the same amount of land can support more of them Gnome armies are quick (forced march) and large.
Okay - it has been a while now...
QUESTION ONE
In which way are the undead being raised (recommend Anglon does not desecrate)
QUESTION TWO
Questions for Seelah please
QUESTION THREE
Is anyone doing anything to aid travel?
QUESTION FOUR
By Plains, or by Forest.
I need answers pretty quickly please - I don't want us to stall out, and I'm getting the feeling a lot of players are over this part.
:)
It is intriguing that sometimes on the army level a race's characteristics change massively.
Dwarven armies with their ability to carry more, resist disease, march harder and penetrate fortifications are quick and agile
(Pathfinder) Elven armies, with their better ability to ambush, hide and strike at range, combined with their trouble with forced marching are excellent - if slow - defenders.
Because the same amount of land can support more of them Gnome armies are quick (forced march) and large.
Dwarves are good marching armies for the reasons you mentioned.
Elves are good at Guerrilla warfare. Hiding, firing from range and generally haranguing. Plus their naturally and cultural penchant for magic is monumentally useful. Average Elven Int is 12. Having an army/culture where a great many can cast low level magic is extremely helpful.
Forest makes sense to me; gives us more cover and makes it harder to see us coming.