Rivers Run Red

Game Master fictionfan

Will no one post until I ask for them to post in particular?

I try not to wait that long, checking every weekday to see if it's my turn to post, and sometimes on the weekends too.

I check every day, for what it's worth

Well you can both post. You both come before the enemy. Well not toran he already went.

Only Mallichatti left for this turn. I'll do him tonight if he does not post. I have a fair idea about what he is going to do.

Mallichatti's turn has become more complex now he has to move all attack.

Unles of course he waits for the skeletons to come to him. I've noticed that they move to surround us every round, even closing up any escape routes we manage to open up.

It would be unusual for mindless undead to change their tactics mid-battle...

...Unless something was directing them.

Oh they will come to him I just don't know if he will want to stand around for it.

You are going to get so much xp when this fight is over.

Yay! The sad thing is, Toran can survive at this rate for about another two months irl, as long as he doesn't get critted 5+ times at once or something.

Assuming ~200 skeletons, that will add up to nearly 7,000 XP for the each of us. (This rough estimate does not account for the succubi or child-beast.)

At this point I'm just about willing to just make all the necessary rolls until all of them die. They can barely hurt Mallichatti as it is. Even if he dropped out of rage he'd maintain his dr and does enough damage flat out to knock them over.

I think Vallisa has one 3rd-level slot left. Can anyone confirm whether or not she has used five 3rd-level spells yet today?

I think she has used them all.

Any idea's how to finish this fight more quickly? I don't really want to spend another month on it.

I can conjure my spellbook up and start using burning hands as well.

The only reason I haven't done it yet is because I fear the return of the succubi. I'm not looking forward to losing both spellbooks.

I'll give you some meta knowledge they are gone. If they were still hiding around they would have tried a few more suggestions by now.

Where is everybody this week?

I have no idea.

I'm still checking every day

I'm still checking every day

So are you going to take your round 10 turn?

*I'm checking every day but too stupid to realize I haven't gone yet

Posting tomorrow.

GM?

So, I suppose it's time I went ahead and got down in writing what I've been thinking for months.

I'm more or less done with Pathfinder.

I still find it fun but I find it harder and harder to will myself to get involved with it. Write for it, play it, run it, take the time to even look at the forum, whatever.

The truth of the matter is after over a decade of D&D much of which I've been writing I've little to really show for it in terms of gain and little in the way of a future. Add to the fact that I find it hard to dedicate time in my day (between family, work and hobbies) to this and an even greater lack of desire to post in what seems to be an endless and often pointless cycle of debates over a game and it's just wore me out.

So, I'm calling it. I still have an iron gods I play over skype and I'm continuing my 3pp game since that still has me engaged in. I'm sorry to all of you about this and I appreciate you giving me the time. I did have fun and I have one contractual obligation I should fulfill for a book on polearms but from now on I'm dedicating my writing to other things.

So again thank you, sorry, and goodbye.

You go and enjoy your life, Tark. Thanks for playing! :)

GM, if you go looking for replacement players/character, you may want to consider looking for a replacement for DarkWolf/Valissa as well.

Even if she comes back, it isn't likely to be anytime soon, and will probably always be in a limited capacity.

You beat up the remainder of the Skeletons. Each of you take 18000 xp.

Thanks. It's pretty clear now, I think, that we were going to win, but my God it would have taken forever! I was probably only a day or two away from asking for this myself. Sorry if I prolonged it unnecessarily everyone.

Is that enough for us to level?

Yes. we currently at 55,571 XP. According to my notes, we only needed 51k to level up.

Not sure where our cohorts stand though.

K, so I just leveled Toran, but I didn't touch his cohort since idk if he levels with me.
Here are the changes to Toran: BAB, CMB and CMD all go up by 1, +8 HP, Caster Level/Concentration go up by 1, gained 1 3rd level spell slot and 4 4th level spell slots,, gained the Improved Critical(halberd) feat, Learned Mending, Wall of Fire and Air Walk, +1 strength(increases CMB, CMD, attack bonuses/damage), +1 skill rank in Diplomacy, Knowledge(Planes), Perception, Sense Motive

Got Toran all caught up.

That took a long time I was starting to forget my plots.

Have to say I am conflicted about the idea of opening recruitment again. Also don't blame people for leaving during that stupid battle.

What's the other option? I'd hate to see this game stop running, but with only two players it might be difficult to keep going.

It might not be so bad with the cohorts in play, and I do imagine Darkwolf/Valissa will be able to pop in from time to time as real life allows.

That being said, I think I would prefer a new player, one who already knows their way around the downtime and kingdom building rules.

One new player with a cohort potentially means 6 characters on the field (to say nothing of their companion creatures).

It would be doable, given that we're both pretty good about posting on time(barring when I forget I can go), but I do think it would be preferable to have a new player so that it's not just two PCs, since part of kingmaker is about working with other PCs imo

Not sure where our cohorts stand though.

Your cohorts do not get xp they level up when your leadership says they do.

Right, thanks

Ravingdork wrote:

Not sure where our cohorts stand though.

Your cohorts do not get xp they level up when your leadership says they do.

But Leadership says they do gain XP, just at a different rate.

If we each gained 18,000 XP, then our 5th-level cohorts would each earn 12,857 XP. That amount will vary for cohorts who are not 5th-level. For example, our 4th-level cohorts, like Tarka, would only gain 10,285 XP.

The problem is, I don't know how much XP the cohorts had before that (it's not in my notes). Did we just get the cohorts? Or were there other XP awards we need to account for since having obtained them?

Trying to keep track of cohort experience seems like a pain. It says not to follow the table, but I think following the table is the way to go.

That's great for simplicity, but also really staggers their advancement , which seriously weakens the feat. It also makes our cohorts much less useful to us as "PC fillers."

I'm happy to do the math myself (it really isn't that hard to do a simple calculation each time you dole out XP). I just need to know how much XP they had to start with. I'm guessing it's the minimal amount for their level + what you just gave us?

If you want to do it your way though, I guess I shouldn't complain; you did give us the feat as a freebie after all.

Shame you didn't bring Vaelar along, Toran. He would have made short work of those skeletons. :P

Also, I'd like to keep the character, Val, in the game for now. She's far too useful and fun to discard I think--especially since the player might return when things calm down for her in real life.

Alternatively, I can just assume control of Vallisa more or less full time and Dragonflyer can pick up a second PC.

Two reliable posters playing two characters each makes a lot more sense to me than having to deal with new deadbeat no-shows.

Yeah, I'm definitely going to bring him along for the future

Riva and Tarka have been leveled up, as have been Vallisa and her new "little" sister cohort, Allisar. (Please note though that I leveled up the character and created the cohort, not Darkwolf.)

Dragonflyer, I've got your level up changes added to Toran's PDF character sheet. I'm also trying to add your cohort, Vaelar, to the character sheet as well, but I'm running into a lot of apparent inconsistencies in the stats. I was hoping you could help answer a few questions and clear up a few things:

• How did you get your cohort's saves so high? It looks to me like he should have Fort/Ref/Will 6/3/8.
  
• I can't seem to make sense of your skills. You should have 24 skill ranks as a human. It looks to me like you are WAY under spent.
  
• t looks like you are short one feat, being human.
  
• Shouldn't your NPC's hit points be 33? 4.5 x 6 + 6 = 33. Even with favored class bonuses, it would only be 39, not 44. Insofar as I know, NPC characters always have average hit points, and don't get max at 1st-level.
  
• I noticed you kitted him with light equipment, presumably because you want him to be fast moving crossbowman, but he is carrying nearly 80 pounds on 8 strength, which brings down his AC, skills, and land speed.
  
• What are his favored class bonuses?
  
• I can't seem to find that stats for half of your followers, namely the guardsman, traveling scoundrel, storytellers, and the buccaneers. I'd like to add links and/or page numbers onto the character sheet for easy reference.
  

I seem to have undersold myself on skills/feats, but the rest of it is correct barring HP, which is wrong because I treated it like a PC because I'm an idiot haha
-Saves are due to the bonus from the Protection Domain
-I did miss the extra feat, no idea how, and I'm also apparently down 7 skill points
-My bad, I thought 1st lvl was still max HP, and that afterwards it was half+1, which was 8+5x5+6+5=44
-Most of his gear will be carried by the horse, he'll only be carrying the crossbow, bolts, armor/shield, and his wand of CLW. That should have him at 37 pounds, which is medium encumbrance, but I'll have to live with that since it's mainly due to the armor.
-All of his FCBs went to HP
-Those are just the names of NPC stat blocks, they can all be found here

Thanks! :D

Some of your skill modifiers still don't make sense to me though. How can you have a +3 Diplomacy if you have a 14 Charisma? Where is the +1 coming from? If you put even one rank into it, wouldn't it be +6 for being a class skill?

Could you break down your rank allocation for me?

Also, are you shorting yourself on spells as well?

You should have the following number of spell slots:

3rd-level (4/day)
2nd-level (5/day)
1st-level (5/day)
0 level (at will) - 4/day

You do seem to be correct, on that as well! I just added rank numbers in parentheses to his skill section.

Some of your final modifiers still seem a little off. With your rank allocation, this is what I came up with:

Appraise +5, Diplomacy +6, Heal +7, Knowledge (arcana) +6, Knowledge (history) +6, Knowledge (nobility) +6, Knowledge (religion) +7, Linguistics +6, Perception +8, Sense Motive +7, Spellcraft +8

Also, do you have a cool image you'd like me to use for your cohort? I've not had any luck finding one I think is suitable yet.

I recommend keeping Mal's +1 agile breastplate with mwk armor sppikes for your cohort. It weighs the same as his chain shirt, but offers better protection.

The DM Cheat Sheet has been updated to account for all of the level increases and new characters.

Here is Toran's updated sheet, which includes Vaelar's stats. Please let me know if anything looks amiss.

I will be creating new aliases for Vallisa and her little sister, Allisar the Giantess to use during board posts.

I haven't been able to find one either, sadly. I'm afraid I never know where to look for that sort of thing.
That breastplate would be fantastic for him, do you know of anything else Mal had that might come in handy for either him or Toran?

The new alias profile pages for Vallisa and her sister Allisar, are ready.

Mallichatti had the following gear at the time of his death:

• +1 agile breastplate with masterwork armor spikes
  
• +1 bardiche*
  
• acid
  
• adventuring kit
  
• alchemist’s fire
  
• Badaxe (intelligent +2 courageous furious greataxe)
  
• belt of giant strength +4*
  
• chakram (6)*
  
• cloak of resistance +1
  
• cloak of resistance +3*
  
• folding boat*
  
• potions/oils (bless weapon 2, water breathing)
  
• silversheen
  
• string
  
• wire
  

The items with asterisks have already been added to my characters/cohorts. If you would like one or more of them, we will work it out somehow. Everything else is free game as far as I'm concerned. Anything we can't use will likely be put into the kingdom's treasury.

"I want the bardiche and belt! Such powerful tools will bring me much glory!"

"That cloak of his is just my color! And what a cute toy boat!"

Dragonflyer, what would you say to making your cohort the new Viceroy? We could call Toran the "Lord Mayor" of Allania, and Vaelar the "Mayor" of the newly established Vandoran.

Akiros and Vallisa will retain their positions of Secondary Ruler and Consort, respectively, but will be considered "Deputy Mayors" to Allania and Vandoran, respectively.

That will boost our kingdom's numbers and allow "Lord Mayor" Toran to still hold dominance over the lesser mayors of other communities.

What do you think?