I'll actually be traveling later in the month myself, so I know the feeling. XD I'm hoping I'll stay available but I'll say if it looks like I won't be.
Sounds good. Have a good trip, we will be here when you get back.
Yep. We'll be here.
I'll be at PaizoCon Thu-Mon. If any of you are going to be there, maybe we can meet up. Let me know.
Sorry I've been a bit absent lately, folks. Life's been a little busy. Catching up now.
Just making a quick post so that this forum doesn't go inactive.
Regarding the lightning breath - my understanding is that a supernatural ability doesn't necessarily cause an AoO, unless it involves a ranged attack. I suppose one could argue that there was no attack roll, but I was still thinking it was clearly a ranged attack.
Anyone have more insight?
I've never seen a dragon take an attack of opportunity from using a breath weapon, but admittedly that's just saying "I haven't met any GM who interprets it that way."
Deep dive but I think there is no AOO thanks to the wording of a feat. God I love Pathfinder.
Using a breath weapon is a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Oh yeah. Sami is dead which is sad, I wanted her to work to make up for her father. Still the dice have spoken. I have a few ideas for characters.
Yeah, always sad when one bad roll like that kills you off, but that's low levels for you. Hopefully we're not headed for a TPK.
A crit charge can kill at most level really if the charging creature is built around the charge. It happens.
So we have two in close fighter, one of which is arcane, and an oracle who can make with the heals. I am thinking about characters and what would be a good fit provided this isn't a TPK. Any thoughts from you guys?
Well, maybe a bard? Gives us some buffing and a face.
Actually, Vulpidin has really high Diplomacy so we don't need that from a Bard.
I've never seen anyone play a skald. Maybe that would work for our party. I think that the swashbuckler and magus are not quite full melee like a fighter or barbarian so maybe adding a skald would give us 3 partial frontliners. The skald can buff like a bard and the oracle can heal. Both the magus and the bard will give us arcane magic.
I don't know. Just thinking.
My first thought was an Oversized Goblin melee slayer. Really quite exceptionally fat and always carrying food. Strong with a sword and shield but that was just my first thought.
I did wonder if we need some sort of ranged option, no idea what that would be at this point.
Technically, my archetype of Magus uses psychic casting, and at any rate, Lucien’s limited spells known are pretty heavily focused on offense. So a support-focused Arcane caster would be a good add. Given that we know we’ll eventually be facing off with a Runelord, have you considered a full caster, whether wizard, Sorcerer, or arcanist? If you want ranged, maybe an Eldritch Archer Magus?
Yeah, not sure if we want another melee character, though it can be interesting to have a melee-heavy party. A full arcane caster wouldn't be a bad idea, but it's really up to you, we have the absolute necessities covered.
Well I play a Eldrich Archer in giant slayer. A caster does sound cool, I will roll that over.
The main idea behind the slayer was purely the idea that a big fat giant goblin would be fun to find while in where their layer. I debated a Handy Haversack full of an enormus amount of food.
Now that idea is out of my system and I will keep working.
You *could* be a big fat goblin sorcerer. :D
I'm listening.....
I guess the fat goblin really only works if you all don't die though. So... don't die.
I do love how the town would hate him/her despite the high charisma. Really most of the 1.0 world would not like a lot. Hmmmm.
Of course we have to finish up this combat ourselves without dying...
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As much as I loved Sami it is possible that Sarh might turn out to be my favorite character in years. She is at once revolting and compelling to me. I did not even think about how her general presentation plays into some of the themes I know exist in RotRL.
I'm travelling for the next few days, so I may be a bit spottier than usual in posting.
I'm not sure if we're unlucky or badly optimized at this point. XD
Maybe a little of both. This is a tough encounter (even more so if you consider that the howling has now alerted everyone near by to your presence! As a 4 person group, you don't have a lot of cross coverage, and things like DR are really hurting you here. One of these would have been dead by now if Lucien had had a silvered weapon.
A little of both I am sure. Sarh's spells are not really great at this moment. Stone floors stop her from dropping the dogs in a pit.
Expeditious Excavation is fun but not fun in here.
Well... things look bad for our heroes. I suggest that anyone that can run away do so. Get back to town and recruit some new members.
A shame I thought Sarh had potential but I selected the wrong spells for what we are dealing with.
I'm currently running away but I don't have a choice. Looks like by the time I regain my senses, there won't be a party to return to. In fact, being panicked might have saved my life.
That will do wonders to my self esteem. :-)
Yah, that was pretty much my thinking. I was sort of trying to give you a chance to surrender thinking maybe Tiyuvi could bring back an army, but that was a long shot too....
This is a tough section and you all just really weren't well prepared for it. Also, I am not sure a party of 4 can ever be well-rounded enough to survive some of this.
Interestingly enough, you have actually managed to avoid a lot of combat in this place.
So maybe Vulpidin can escape, but those hounds are fast... and Nualia has negative energy channeling. And I left out the 3 hound that was hanging with Nualia...
I am afraid out band of intrepid heroes have met their match and perished.
So - options from here:
1. Call it a story that didn't end well. Vulpidin had already expressed interest, and I have to admit with work ramped up so much this year, I have over committed myself.
2. Try a new party, maybe bigger, maybe more optimized. (I am open to this, despite my schedule, but know that the pace is unlikely to improve...) I am sure we would get some takers.
3. I have another game that I rescued and they are a little ahead of you (beginning of book 2). If only 1 or two of you are interested, I could probably introduce you to them. They also had a poor time of it - in fact, when I had taken over the game, there were 6 players and they had 6 1st level town guards helping them fight!
I am good with any of the three thought I would really like to finish Runelords some day.
I am very happy to make a much much more optimized character and hit this one again. Honestly, because I have an overactive mind, I have come up with three different concepts today that range through almost every roll.
I am also happy to jump into a different game if no one else is keen on keeping things rolling.
Of course all this is dependent on the GM. I do not mind a slow game, I am running three at the moment, but I would not want to stretch the powerful Fuzzfoot.
Honestly, I think I'm best bowing out. I'm remembering now why I didn't care to finish Rise of the Runelords before, and honestly, I need to be in less games. Especially if I start working on a novel like I'm planning to--my writing time is going to become a precious resource.
Discretion is perhaps the better part of valor; it wouldn’t hurt me to be in one fewer game. But this is *Rise of the Runelords*! The *original* Pathfinder AP! I’ve always wanted to play this one, and across 3+ attempts this is as far as I’ve gotten. So I’d really like to keep going. I’m fine with either option for continuing.
I would definitely like to keep going. Playing RotR has been on my PF bucket list since I learned that there was even a such thing as an adventure path. That means I'm good with option 2 or 3. Of course, I won't force the GM to keep playing so I guess that means I'm ok with option #1 too. :-)
It sounds like there are 3 of us who can keep playing. BTW, Vulpidin, I peeked at your profile which led me to your web novel. I read a bit of it and I thought it was great. Got it on my list to come back to. If you are going to focus on a novel, I think that's a great option for you!
Since there are only 3 of us continuing, we'll need to pick up at least 1 more. I'm ok with up to 6 players. In PbP it's not so bad to have that full of a table.
As for pace, I'm flexible. I'm currently in 5 APs on PbP so I get enough PbP action on a daily basis. If this game runs a little slow for a while that's ok.
I do think that we should spend some time on party composition once we pick up some more players. Also, should we pick up here where we are or start over? I'm good with picking it up here.
It sounds like there are 3 of us who can keep playing. BTW, Vulpidin, I peeked at your profile which led me to your web novel. I read a bit of it and I thought it was great. Got it on my list to come back to. If you are going to focus on a novel, I think that's a great option for you!
Aww, thanks! :) Honestly, that web novel needs... so much work. It was fun, though. The one I'm plotting now is unrelated, and hopefully will be higher quality since I plan on actually going through multiple drafts instead of just posting my first draft...
OK, I think our best bet here is to let you decide what you want to play (start at 3rd level), and then recruit for roles to round out the group.
I feel like this one may need old school party balance. I was thinking about this last night, because Sarh makes the forth character I have had die in this AP, and I am of two minds. My first impulse is to make a very survivable front line person, either fighter or slayer. The other thing I am thinking at the moment is ranged damage deal, mundane damage most likely not casters.
I have a long term game where I am playing a healer so I don't really want to go down that rout again.
All that said I am flexible what do you guys want to play?
I’ve had a build kicking around my head for a while that I’d like to try out. It’s a TWFing, Mage-killing Slayer. Seems like a good choice for this AP. But honestly, a more straightforward Magus wouldn’t go amiss either. Lucien was an odd build because of the whole psychic magic thing, but I mostly chose that archetype to have INT-based spontaneous casting, because I don’t like the guesswork of deciding what spells to take any given day. At 4, a regular Magus gains Spell Recall, which basically obviates the need, as long as I’m careful not to take a bunch of Arcana that require my pool points or something.
Old school party balance is exactly what I was thinking too. Like Sarh, I already have a long running healer so I don't know that I want to do a cleric again right now but maybe...
Just for clarity, old school balance means what to you guys? For me it is:
- healer (cleric or oracle)
- skill expert (rogue or investigator)
- front liner (fighter, barb, slayer, magus)
- arcane caster (wizard, sorcerer)
Is that what you guys are thinking? Of that list, I think the one I'm least interested in at this time is the skill expert. I'd be fine with any of the other categories.
Slayer can make a passable skill expert as well. I can even pick up trapfinding. I’m fine with that role. unRogues and Alchemists are also fun, and you can do skill expert with either one of those as well.
There are a few classes that can sub in for different categories.
Ok so it looks like Blue is leaning towards a slayer, I am assuming that is melee/skill. Not knowing your build would we still want a heavy front liner?
I can make pretty much any of the others work though being either a front line heavy or ranged damage is my preferred at the moment. I like Sarh so I am having trouble getting myself to a good caster at the moment.
GM are you think we roll with four or five this time? It looks like one recruit will need to be heals of some sort.
It kind of depends. The Slayer build would lean more DEX-based TWF. The Alchemist would be more of a STR-based natural attacker. I could go either way, though the more I think about it the more I’m leaning Alchemist.
I'm a bit intrigued with the idea of stepping in as a healer. I currently have a PFS character that is a straight-up cleric. I don't know if I'd want to reprise role that right now but maybe. Hmm. What about a druid? As a druid I could cast healing spells so as long as we keep ourselves with wands I think we'd be good.
A druid would also be able to help with combat and with wildshape I could help overcome some obstacles.
If you go healer I will very happily run a sword and board. Probably a fighter but maybe one of the others that can do it. In 30+ years I have never played a fighter.
I think a druid would be a cool healer/versatile class to add to the mix.
I'm working on a dwarven druid with a giant porcupine for an animal companion. After I'm done advancing it to level 3 I'll see if I like it and I'll post more details.
If that works out then we have:
Sarh -- fighter
Tiyuvi -- druid
Blue -- alchemist
That gives us a front liner, some healing and divine casting, ranged attacks (bombs) and skills. The only thing we're missing is an arcane caster.
BTW, I told my son about what we're doing here and he said I should look into a white mage. Maybe I'll do that.
How much starting gold do we have to build our characters? The book suggests that a 3rd level character has 3000gp in wealth. Should we start with that?
OK, I love the druid porcupine concept - what a prickly pair!
I think Lucien could certainly make a slayer work for skills + fighting. Never played one myself, but the concept seems sound. But I have a personal preference for alchemist, and they can be very versatile and good in a fight.
I think the place you all have had the most trouble is in pure combat coverage. So having everyone with some decent fighting makes good sense.
As far as arcane support goes, I do think long term that can help, but honestly I think it is hard to pull it off at lower levels. But go ahead and decide what you want first, and then we will recruit 2 or 3 more with an eye towards what is missing.
3000 gp sounds fine for wealth.
From a story line, I am thinking the new party is just passing through when Tiyuvi comes running back to town. (So actually, since he survived, he could continue...but he may be too frightened as well.) I want to keep the evens close in timeline otherwise goblins will regroup and move back in :)
For the Alchemist, I was actually planning to lean into the “substitute Rogue” thing a bit; make sure to pick an archetype that gives Trapfinding (there are at least three) and also Vivisectionist to get sneak attack (but that replaces bombs). So less ranged and more flanking melee.
I don't mind if Tiyuvi survives.
I have thinking of a hook for getting my guy, Druamin, into the story. What I was playing with was that Druamin is an independent type living in the forest outside of Sandpoint. However, all of the goblin activity recently has been bothering him. He avoided the festival (cause he is more comfortable not being around crowds, but he's not grumpy) but now that it's over, he comes into town to ask around and see if anyone knows what's going on.
Getting sneak attack is a good thing, even if it means losing some ranged offense. I will have limited range spells and a sling. Maybe for our 2 or 3 more recruits we will look for someone who focuses on ranged attacks.
I'll also pick up an alchemist's fire in case we run into a swarm.
I can make those for you cheap. :)
That's right! So I won't buy any.