I'll have to think about long-term residency in temporary housing.
I don't have any templates picked out for anyone. It's up to you (and your questing companions) how you handle all that.
Though the Wolf Pack makes a fine point...
I'll grant you that the Heroes get an 'F' in preparing for this encounter.
For me, I feel like this was simply a case of a totally botched Kn Religion roll. I know all the usual vampire lore in real life, but apparently my character doesn't know a thing about them.
Which is weird because vampire lore should abound, considering how dangerous and common they are but with fairly extensive research, trained skill checks, and above average rolls, we got absolutely nothing we couldn't tell from less than a minute of simply looking at one fight.
Well it's not even so much preparing for an encounter with a vampire as it was preparing for an encounter at all. What if you'd shown up to this dark, creepy castle and there was no vampire to be found, but instead some dark stalkers? Did you bring Daylight? What if there was just a mad wizard? Did you bring Dispel Magic? Remove Curse? Did you bring cold iron, silver, or adamantine weapons? Vermin repellent?
There are lots of general "good to have"s while adventuring, and nobody brought any of them (not even the villains, and technically this is their quest).
Well, atleast I can feel safe in the knowledge that none of that would have helped me atleast. Dont you need something like Break Enchantment at the very least for that?
Protection from evil suppresses the effect. It's not permanent, but it's long enough to, say, kill the vampire and thereby end the effect. And it's a first-level spell.
That mostly comes back to the botched Knowledge Religion rolls and fruitless research though.
Well, true, but Protection from Evil is a good spell to have as a hero anyway, even if you're not planning on being dominated.
Poor Milley. She should get a chance to run away.
Killing me I can understand but why does the pony have to die? ;_;
Hey...I let the woman and the bear live. I gotta maintain my villain standards somehow.
Pretty much. That's what I get for listening to Victor, the jerk. I have started discussing the Dominate ability with DM-Kal many weeks ago, for exactly that reason. There has been no resolution as of yet, but since I'm here and you guys would be the most affected, I'll go ahead and discuss with you guys.
The gist of my talk with DM-Kal was this: It would be no fun for a hero to get dominated by me and basically become an NPC at that point (although there are certain things that would trigger another save). My proposal is this (assuming DM-Kal is on board): I don't mind nerfing or even outright eliminating the dominate ability, but I would like my one glaring weakness to be shored up a bit. Not Daywalker or anything, mind you, but something that allows me more time to escape sunlight or a similar boon.
Also, keep in mind that I am a full divine caster that is giving up two levels for this template. That's a lot of spell casting capability I'm foregoing to have the template. Also, DM-Kal has indicated that he has offered your group similar 'upgrades' with a goodly bent, so there is always that option.
Been thinking about this. I think I'd be fine with something along the lines of takes half (or 1/4) of your max HP in damage each round exposed to sunlight after the first round. Plus still being staggered as normal.
This does bring up a question for me though. If Crystal and Marcello have both been granted their +2 CR template then they are effectively level 5, while everyone else, both heroes and villains, are still level 4. If it comes out to a straight up fight between the groups after the vampire is dealt with, that is a decided advantage to the villains. (Not really worried about it DM-Kal, I'll leave it to you to balance that sort of thing).
Not only that, since CR works differently than the old Level adjust, its even worse.
Marcello hasn't received most of his template actually. And while Crystal is currently, everyone else will catch up at the end of this combat.
Let's spin up a new week (if anyone remembers how). Also, level up!
Did anyone try to take Victor's book back?
Ive been quietly awaiting the end of this arc, since I was still unconscious. So I atleast didnt.
New level you say, well hot diggidy!
Yeah Fethryth tried to take the book back. She stole it first! ;)
Not that I expect her to succeed in getting it.
Anybody want to donate 85 gold towards my getting a mithril shirt?
Or, since Payet ran off, does that mean we get his stuff?
Mithril shirt? You planning on taking the arcane spell failure feat? (cant remember the name)
I can lend 85gp. I've got almost 1k I haven't decided what to do with.
For now I'd rather have that 10% failure chance than worrying about getting my teeth kicked in. At some point I need something without the failure.
DM-Kal, go ahead and remove me as a player in Save the City, for now.
Thanks!
Feth, maybe I'm missing something here, but what's wrong with good old mage armor?
I know I'm being paranoid. But I'm afraid of being one-shotted. With mage armor I get to 16 AC. With Sarcon's attack bonus and my low HP he could take me out in one round no problem. I very much want to be harder to kill.
A mithril shirt will make your AC 16. They're both armor bonuses, so they don't stack.
Gonna have to agree on the shirt. Its a nice thought, but in any situation where you wouldnt be able to cast Mage Armor, you would be at AC 14 for being flat-footed. You wouldnt really be much harder to hit at all.
Id suggest getting a lesser Extend Rod. Pop a Mage Armor at the start of the day and that sucker will last through most of you waking hours. Then you have another two extend charges for other things.
I'm going to be out of town pretty much all week with limited/no access to internet.
I think people need to start posting in the game play thread though to get things moving again. What are the plans for this coming game week end?
To help you all get back on the right track.
Weekdays (job):
During the week, you have 3 choices of activities-
1) Day Job: You have a legitimate business that brings in money. You earn the result of your Craft or Profession check each week in gp. As a hero, you can also use Heal to represent a more honorable trade.
2) Crafting: You may spend your time crafting mundane, alchemical, or magical equipment if you have the appropriate craft skill. See the crafting skill for more information. For our purposes, a "full week" is five days (weekends are for questing!).
3) Loitering: You spend your time crawling local taverns or making grand public appearances, generally having your meals paid for. Either way, your lifestyle doesn't really cost anything (but doesn't profit you anything either).
Weekends (questing):
On weekends, you quest. You may choose one of the following-
1) Out of the City: You may quest for a specific artifact or objective (a mind-control device, an altar of great suffering, a wizard that will grant you a wish, whatever) or quest randomly.
Roll a [knowledge local/diplomacy gather information] to find something (item or spell effect value up to [check result] x [50gp] x [level]). Then roll a [survival + knowledge geography] check to track down the location.
2) In the City: You may attempt to infiltrate and occupy the Finders' Keep. Although this may change later, at present I plan to make this a shifting environment resulting in a randomized quest each time (so you can't just "come prepared"). It will probably be 1.5x the CR of a standard quest, so be ready.
3) Up to some good: You may attempt to intercept the villains in their quest. If your tracking check total equal theirs, you arrive at the quest site at the same time. Each 1 by which your check totals differ represents an hour of disparity between your arrivals (so if the other team beats you by a total of 10, you arrive 10 hours after they did). You can try to confront them directly, lay traps for them, steal their treasure, turn the locals against them, etc. The only limit is your imagination (and the game mechanics)!