Well guys, we've dropped another 1k posts. Your diligence and long-suffering under my cruel whims deserves a small reward.
You each gain a Rank in a skill of your choice. It can be a new one or one that you already possess. Furthermore, you may exceed the Rank Level = Class Level limit... so you can pop X skill to Rank 4 even though you are 3rd level. PLEASE note on your character sheet somewhere that this is a 2k Rank Bonus Skill. Whether or not you put your ranks above 3 with this particular skill right now - you will ALWAYS be able to max it out as one level higher than normal.
So, if you take the new skill of Underwater Basket Weaving (Rank 1), you have the potential in future to drop points in it until you have {Class Level+1} Ranks in it, whereas all your other skills will top out at {Class Level} Ranks.
Hopefully that makes sense. If I'm writing it poorly, let me know.
Fin's 2000-post skill point is going into Stealth since that's what she's been doing the most of.
Sounds good to me. Perhaps note that next to Stealth on your sheet so I know that skill can surpass it's normal limit. Thanks!
Nah, I'm just a lazy bastard who was firing off the idea without checking beforehand if you had ninja-character-modded before I asked. Clearly your new Stealth score is working! :)
Ushari will put hers in Escape Artist, as that really came in handy, he he.
Haven't noted it yet, but I'll be taking a rank in perception for Jayse! The Percepticon!
:: staggers into room ::
"I'm puttin' my point in Disable Device, Mommy!
:: staggers out ::
I've updated the Party Matrix with everyone's choices. It is denoted by a (X+1) for the skill ranks.
So I'm guessing that most everyone playing uses either FireFox or Chrome. Well, for some time now there has been an auto-linker (for PfRPG keywords) for FireFox. Well, now there's one for Chrome too!
Topic Auto-Linkers: [ Chrome | FireFox ]
The FireFox version requires you to also install GreaseMonkey (a scripting extension), but the one for Chrome is ridiculously easy to install. You pretty much just click on the link, OK the install and bam — it's self-contained.
Once setup, refresh this page, and you should see the following words (among others) underlined and linkified to their appropriate rules...
cleric
magic missile
run
perception
staggered
XP time for all those bloodthirsty pirates.
You guys are now at 9390 so... LEVEL UP! Congrats.
You are now at 4th level. You know the drill - roll HP, yada yada yada!
Your Destiny Items will be upgrading as well. I'll send you the details on the changes as soon as I have them all baked.
Woot! I'll try to get it done today or tomorrow!
No surprises in classes, though.
Ok here we go...
HP
Heh...so she gets 5 HP right?
Character is updated.
5 HP is correct. Where did you put your improved stat point?
5 HP is correct. Where did you put your improved stat point?
Wisdom, from 17 to 18.
Gonna take a while before I can get to this as I'm trying to finish work on a dress commission this weekend. The only reason I knew we dinged is because Eric just told me. Neither RSS nor the new post indicator on the boards showed anything new in here since my last post about the auto-linker. >.>
Mike - not a problem. I've got to finish tooling up your destiny items, update Straehan, and do a bunch of non-D&D stuff, so do it when you can.
So Ultimate Magic finally arrived at my place Friday. Even though the Magus looks cool, it doesn't look like the right fit for Fin. Why? They ended up making it a spell-preparation, Int-based class which is rather contrary to how I see Findelgwing. :-\ Oh well, my apologies for all the fuss I raised over this class in the past...
At any rate, I noticed that they now actually have a Djinni sorcerer bloodline. Since Fin's father was a Djinni, I'd like to change her bloodline to reflect this. The interesting thing is there is a LOT of overlap between the Elemental Air and Djinni bloodlines. In fact, as of 4th level, the ONLY difference I can see between them is the bloodline spell gained at 3rd level: burning hands (as electicity-only for Air) vs. shocking grasp (for Djinni).
Since I've already used Burning Hands (and if Fin's close enough to touch someone she'd just use Whoosh), what I'd like to do is switch to the Djinni bloodline while keeping Burning Hands (as electricity only). Please let me know if that's cool or not.
Also, after looking over the Ranger archetypes for some time now and thinking on Fin's ineptitude when it comes to communication, the spirit ranger is really appealing to me. Since the skirmisher's replacement abilities don't start until 5th level and the spirit ranger's start a 4th, that means there are no pre-existing abilities like spells, etc. to reconcile. As such, since there's nothing to retcon, I'm just going to officially make the choice (finally).
- +1 Dexterity
- +1 BAB
- +1 Fort
- +2 Ref (Dex up)
- +1 Will
- +13 HP:
- +7 skill points (6 ranger + fave)
Ranger
- Spirit Bond
- 1× 1st-level spell slot
Sorcerer
- +1 0th-level known: Prestidigitation
- +1 1st-level spells per day
- +1 2nd-level known: Fly (swift)
- +4 2nd-level spells per day (3+bonus)
Skills Points
- +1 Acrobatics (2)
- +2 Perception (4)
- +1 Sailor (2)
- +1 Sense Motive (3)
- +1 Stealth (4)
- +1 Survival (4)
Right now I've got the skill points and ability score changes noted on the party matrix, but I'll have to update her Paizo profile when I have more time. Hopefully I'll finish this dress Sunday and be able to resume posting more...
Let me take a look at Djinni and Spirit Ranger... But I suspect they will both be fine.
I guess that means the new monk variants are on the table from UA? I'll have to check it out if that's the case.
You are correct. I can't very well allow Fin to retool and deny you guys the chance to at least pitch an idea.
Oh, definitely meant Ultimate Magic (UM), not Unearthed Arcana (UA) in my earlier post.
QuiGong monk was interesting, and I'm tempted to play around with it, but I"m not sure it's right for Jayse. Not only would I have to sacrifice the Weapon Adept abilities, but some abilities that come free i'd have to re-pick up, but only on a ki-use-dependant role. Which I don't really like.
I'll be sticking with Jayse as is, leveling him up as such.
Level 4
- Monk 4/Soulknife 4 (Favored Class bonus: +1 PP)
HP -or- .
+1 to STR (up to 19)
+1 BAB (pushes up CMB, CMD)
+1 to all base saves
+1 to Acrobatics (4), Bluff (4), Perception (5), Perform (4), Sense Motive (4), Stealth (4), and Swim (2)
Class Abilities:
Ki Pool (6) - extra attack, +20 speed, +4 Dodge bonus
Slow Fall 20ft
Unarmed Damage 1d8
AC Bonus +1 (improves AC, FF AC, Touch AC, and CMD)
Bladeskill: Mindshield (+2 shield bonus when mindlbade is active)
Let me make it official, he he:
Level up:
Rogue4/Cleric4 (Favored Class bonus: +1 SP)
HP +1d8+1 = 24+(5)+1 = 30 HP .
+1 to WIS (up to 18)
+1 to Spell DC
+1 BAB (pushes up CMB, CMD)
+1 to all base saves (+2 Will total)
+1 to Acrobatics (4), Bluff (4), Climb (4),, Diplomacy (2), Disable Device (3), Heal (4), Knowledge, Religion (4), Perception (4), Sense Motive (3), Sleight of Hand (2), Spellcraft (2), Stealth (4)
Class Abilities:
Uncanny Dodge
Rogue Talent: Stand Up
+1 to 1st level spells (Shield of Faith)
+1 to 2nd level spells (Spear of Purity)
'Spear of Purity'? What is it with Ushari and these sexually suggestive spells! I'm guessing that's a UM spell, I'll check it out. :)
Fin - Djinni bloodline, Spirit Ranger, and Fly (Swift) are fine.
Cool, thanks.
De nada.
FWIW - I'm still working on Ushari's destiny item updates and a few other things. I'll post again as soon as I have some stuff squared game-wise and life-wise.
OK, you all should have your Destiny Items now. I'll get on to updating Straehan.
HPs:
Party matrix is updated for Fin, Jayse, and Ushari.
Gentlemen,
I am well and truly swamped right now. We'll be taking a short break (probably until after the long weekend) before I'll be able to forward our plot here. I apologize for the delay.
Straehan change minus spells since I'm still thinking about those...
4/4 Sorcerer/Scholar
HP:37
CHA: 21
Reflex: +7
Will: +5
BAB: +4 (+3 BAB, +1 Size)
CMB: +0
Concentration: +17
Scholar Abilities
- Trap Spotter
Lore (increase) - ALL Knowledge skills +1
Know: Untrained +6
Know: Arcana +13
Know: (all others) +10
11 Skill Points
Disable Device (+1 +2k bonus) [5 ranks] +13
Perception (+3) [4 ranks] +12
------> Trap Spotting +14
Craft: Alchemy (+1) [2 ranks] +9
Sense Motive (+1) [3 ranks] +7
Bluff (+1) [2 ranks] +10
Intimidate (+1) [2 ranks] +10
Spellcraft (+2) [4 ranks] +11
------> To ID Magic Items +15
Prof: Courtesan (+1) [2 ranks] +8
Hey Guys, work continues to be 'highly intrusive' so I'm putting my DM stuff on hold until things lighten up - hopefully by the weekend.
I gotta say, I'm pumped to try out Jayse's new stuff.
Where are those dang pirates?!
Justin: Do you want us to start waiting on you to ask for rolls? i.e. Is us rolling initiative a policy/conventions change?
I'm answering this here in case it creates more conversation on the subject. No reason to clutter up the main thread.
This isn't exactly a policy change. Here's what drove it:
- Ben mentioned that he enjoys making his own proactive rolls and I have no objection to that particularly when I can call for them as needed to set up an encounter. It saves me some typing. If you look back through the thread you'll see that I have asked you guys to make different rolls from time to time. I try to balance the frenetic action where you guys throw your moves down in bold blocks with a bit more structure at points where action isn't imminent. I find it makes it easier on me to write up a narrative when not everything is a variable I only see when I preview.
- I want to avoid the appearance of biasing the dice. Letting you guys roll your own Init seems a simple enough way of doing that particularly when it isn't an immediate clash of good guys and bad guys. Now if the bad guys had jumped you, I probably would just do a whole set of initiative rolls so I could set the order, write a solid narrative, and kick the action off quickly.
You are free to proactively make some rolls but not a whole block of them. I'd prefer if you gave me a sense of what you were planning to do and rolled for the initial step. So, for instance, if you said "Fin will go stealthy. Her plan is to scope out the scene and possibly charge the biggest bad guy". You can throw in a Stealth check at that point. As you all do your thing and your tactics come together, I will likely ask for anything additional I need - Perception checks, Acrobatics, Initiative or what have you. That way, I'll have a basis for the narrative and you can act on the scene as it develops.
OK, gotcha. Just for the record then, I'm perfectly OK with you making reaction type rolls for Fin, etc. that's actually part of the reason why I put the Party Matrix together for all the games we've been in.
Whiiich I just realized I need to update with Straehan's changes. (Doh!)
Not a problem, I keep an offline rolls cheat-sheet on my PC anyway with all the code conventions built in. I love me some copy/paste on rolls.
OK, I've finally added Straehan's changes and addition. Here's the discrepancies I'm trying to resolve:
.
.
.
.
- CMB/D appear to be off.
CMB = 3 BAB + 0 Str - 1 small = +2
CMD = 10 + 3 BAB + 0 Str + 3 Dex - 1 small = 15
I suspect what is happening is that his size modifier got added to CMD rather than being subtracted from it. (Armor and Natural bonuses shouldn't add to CMD as far as I can tell.)
- Perception already showed Strae as having 3 ranks. If that was incorrect then there's a +2 bonus that I'm missing:
4 ranks + 3 class + 1 wis + 2 gnome = +10
- Sense Motive looks like it only had 1 rank in it peviously, not 2. I've set it at 3 ranks to maintain the +7.
- By my count it looks like you should have 1 more skill point to spend on Straehan (assuming you spent +2 on SM instead of +1).
Copypasta eh? Too good to hang out with us ShortKeys junkies is that it? ;P
"These are not the droids you are looking for..."
Thanks for the double-check. I'll take a look at his character sheet in HeroLabs and do the math by hand. HL doesn't do gestalt characters well and I could have screwed up when I eyeballed the changes I knew HL would get wrong.
OK, compleeeetely off-topic, but...
Do any of you guys have familiarity with the Savage Tide adventure path?
I just finished running my local group thru Everflame and I was thinking about modding STAP for them. Basically, I was thinking that just like the Rumble crew went to Sargava/Dafar with Alis, that these guys might go towards Arcadia/Wildethar with Alexis. The thing is, the setup in the first couple issues with Lavinia Vanderboren would need a fairly major rewrite. The whole premise of the family fortune being locked away and the murderous sibbling obviously wouldn't work out.
Any ideas, or are all of you unfamiliar with the plot?
To quote Butterfly McQueen, "I don't know nuthin' 'bout birthin' no babies!" i.e. I am totally ignorant about all of the APs.
Like SR said so...ummm...colorfully there, I am not familiar with the AP either. I suppose you could just have your players run across Lavinia in some way, perhaps maybe there is another group of NPCs helping her out in some way.
Kinda hard to be more specific without knowing more about it. Isn't there a STAP forum around here somewhere though...
HAH! Nice quote there. ;)
Yeah there probably is a STAP forum, I just figured that since you guys know who Alexis and Alis are that it made more sense to ask you first. :)
Psh. I always know what i'm talking about. Unfortunately, I don't really know what you're talking about. :)
My old DM tried to run us through (what I think was) the first installment of Savage Tide. Very shortly into it, however, he either got sick of us or the game, and forced a TPK on us. This is not just sour apples. He had me and my friend Jimmy continue playing when we were two characters down when we went up against what was supposed to be an already difficult encounter. We literally had no exit and over-whelming numbers of zombies backed by some kind of wight evil cleric in an underground cave… yep, against the two of us.
So no, i really don't know much more than some of the set-up flavor for the game, but this was also years ago.
Regarding rolls, I'm actually fine having the DM roll stuff like initiative, perception, saves, etc. when it will speed up play. My only suggestion for proactive rolls was when we did something intentionally, like stealthing or bluffing or acrobating or attacking.
Well damn! So I take it you never played with that guy again? O_o;
As for my conundrum, I may have found a solution. The twins do have that evil uncle after all — might be able to leverage him.
That adventure was actualy the first time i ever played with him. I continued to play with him, but decided to step away after a while. He was a good guy, and a good story-teller, but over time it became obvious that we had different expectations on what the game was about.
Okay, just for my own edification, what kind of armor is the two-headed guy wearing that he has an ac of over 13 when flat-footed and blinded?
It be called a thick hide, my man. His flat-footed AC is pretty much his standard AC since his AC bonus for DEX is already a -1... so the Glitterdust knocks his Base AC down by 2 total. I sort of thought it would do more and then I checked out 'Ettin' in the book.
Yah, after asking the question i re-read your narratives and noticed a number of attacks being turned aside by his 'pebbly hide'.
Stupid thick-skinned brute! Or stupid dice-roller... whichever you prefer.
I feel for ya. When I cast glitterdust, I was thinking it might turn your second shot into a hit... no such luck.