Sky Piracy by the Stormborn (Inactive)

Game Master leinathan

Hello all! Thank you for your characters, and it'll just be about a week until we start.

Before we do so, I'd like you folks to discuss between yourselves about a few things.

The name of the ship is still undecided. Have y'all got any ideas?

I plan on having each character get a separate introduction within a small mini-encounter. Any ideas on interesting ways to have your character introduced to the crew of the ship?

Also, there is no campaign for me to take from here, so... any ideas for a few swashbuckling adventures to take us on?

I'm sure we'll have more to discuss later, but that's what I've got for now. Welcome!

I'm eager to start, but just a reminder: I'll be out of town from the 6th to the 14th, and will be off hiking various national parks, so no internet during that time. Afterwards I'll be able to post every day as normal.

I'll think about a possible intro for Tar'jub, ship name suggestions and adventure ideas in the meantime.

Thanks again for the pick!

We need to get a really really big gun. I mean like supremely huge. Theres only one place to get one and that is Alkenstar. I think we should go there.

I'll have to think about both the name and encounter a bit : )

But I do like Silver's idea. Have you seen this beauty? Would be a shame if someone were to steal it ... Sadly, I think it is slightly to heavy for us to mount on the ship, for now. But I'm sure we can think of something (shrink item?)^^

Hello. Thanks for having me.

Since I was chosen I updated and tweaked my sheet a bit. Made it a bit less unruly to find what you need.

Possible ship names:
- Good intentions (as in the road to hell is paved with)
- Seas the day
- Miss Stress
- Relation (ship)

Intro ideas:

- I have a flying chariot (spell) with a air Mephit driver. Thats always a grand way to enter somewhere.

- In a bar that's a cross between the Starwars Cantina and Tortuga. Good old fashion bar fight anyone?

- Sparel might just find them. He's a scoundrel plus he needs money. Lots and lots of money. What better way than a flying pirate ship? He's a diviner after all. Unless it's got some really good protections he can find just about anything or anyone.

I'll post more if I think of them.

YES THAT ONE! Probably too big, but maybe we can get them to make us a smaller one? I would want to steal a large gun like that, but its pretty not possible. Lucrecia have you chosen your cohort yet? Any chance you'd consider making them good with siege weapons? At the moment none of us have any skill with them, but I think we should get some. I could make my cohort good with them too if you don't want too.

Also names. How about Dark Revenant?

- In a bar that's a cross between the Starwars Cantina and Tortuga. Good old fashion bar fight anyone?

I like this idea.

I've added a more detailed description of the ship into the campaign tab. Next is an account of the crew once we've got roles more hammered down. The current quest you're on will also be there, once we get there.

I found

This

This
and This

One of them may work for a map of the ship. Or near enough at least.

YES THAT ONE! Probably too big, but maybe we can get them to make us a smaller one? I would want to steal a large gun like that, but its pretty not possible. Lucrecia have you chosen your cohort yet? Any chance you'd consider making them good with siege weapons? At the moment none of us have any skill with them, but I think we should get some. I could make my cohort good with them too if you don't want too.

Yeah :) Our ship, described in the campaign info, could only carry six shells. The seventh would make it too heavy to lift (and this is before other cargo or the gun itself!). Maybe something smaller then ... ^^

I haven't really given my cohort much thought yet - but it could certainly be done. I'll have to come up with something fitting - lemme think about it : )

As for name, how about the classical "She is one of ours, Sir!". According to the legend, that should buy us a few precious seconds at the start of any naval battle !

Of those maps, I think the third works best, but it still isn't exact.

I forgot something! The engine is on the bottom floor in the center, in a room of its own. I'll add that.

Also, I've added statblocks for two of the NPCs that will be onboard - Praetorius' cohort and the cohort's tidepool dragon familiar.

Of those maps, I think the third works best, but it still isn't exact.

I forgot something! The engine is on the bottom floor in the center, in a room of its own. I'll add that.

Also, I've added statblocks for two of the NPCs that will be onboard - Praetorius' cohort and the cohort's tidepool dragon familiar.

I was just looking for something that might suffice for a battle map. I'll keep an eye out.

I can see Tar'jub totally supporting adding as big a gun as possible to the ship. He'd happily train to run it just for the privilege of pressing the big red button. Mad Imp Master Gunner? Only thing is that he has no reason to have had skill in siege weapons prior to arrival on the ship.

Another thing!

For those of you with Leadership or other ways of acquiring little servants (see the downtime Teams rules), which of your followers will be coming onboard the ship as crew members?

You don't have to have anywhere near the same kind of detail as a PC or cohort would have, but for followers that are important (such as crew members) I would like the following:

A name, alignment, ability scores (use the basic NPC stat array, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8), which class levels they have (for most followers this will be 1-6 levels in an NPC class) and where you picked them up.

Ex: Bob Bobson, LN human expert 3/warrior 2, Str 13, Dex 14, Con 11, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 8. Picked Bob up in the Korvosa docks, right after he'd been laid off by his shipmaster.

Those of you with Leadership don't have to have all of your follower slots filled, but I would like you to keep track of, generally, who your followers are and where. For example:

This is, of course, assuming that you want to take advantage of the follower mechanic. Feel free not to, and feel free to tell me that I'm being too demanding.

Oh, and for building cohorts, use 15-point buy, please.

The thing is, I want this to be a largely player-driven game. I want it to be exactly what you want it to be, and I want the adventures to be exactly what you want to do. I'm happy to design them, but you choose what it is that you'll be doing.

HEY GUYS

THESE ARCHETYPES

Wyrm Sniper

and Siege Gunner

ARE REALLY COOL

Also, the idea of a wizard (siege mage)/gunslinger (wyrm sniper)/arcane archer as a siege weapon leader is a really cool idea.

"Oh, I'mma fire my cannon..infused with flaming burst and a fireball spell, and with magical ammunition for free, and also seeking and distance shots for free. Oh, and I'm gonna shoot it through your whole ship directly at your method of propulsion with my phase shots ability."

HEY GUYS

THESE ARCHETYPES

Wyrm Sniper

and Siege Gunner

ARE REALLY COOL

Also, the idea of a wizard (siege mage)/gunslinger (wyrm sniper)/arcane archer as a siege weapon leader is a really cool idea.

"Oh, I'mma fire my cannon..infused with flaming burst and a fireball spell, and with magical ammunition for free, and also seeking and distance shots for free. Oh, and I'm gonna shoot it through your whole ship directly at your method of propulsion with my phase shots ability."

That'd be interesting. A zen archer in the crows nest could be very useful.

Siege mage is a cool and flavorful concept, but you have to give up A lot for a verily little gain.

The entire build can be done better with a permanent animate objects.

I'll probably have my cohort hang out up there. He's a gunslinger built like a sniper. Can hit touch a.c. at up to 1000 ft.

I can animate up to 11 small sized objects and make them permanent for 15K GP.

Some halfling sized wooden statues running around handling repetitive tasks wouldn't suck.

A Medium object counts as two Small or smaller objects, a Large object as four, a Huge object as eight, a Gargantuan object as 16, and a Colossal object as 32

I'm going to solidify my liquid pool of consumables into actual items, then I'll focus on the cohort. If my cohort will be a siege engineer or not remains to be seen, but I'm slightly tempted to take some mid CR (5-8) monster and slap some caster levels on it just to have some more magical resources at my disposal. I will return with some suggestions : )

On the topic of siege weapons, from what I gathered, indirect siege weapons doesn't require that much skill to actually hit with since they target a fixed DC (15) - but they will need to be reaimed almost every round since we or our target will likely to be moving. Doesn't really take a level 13 character to achieve decent accuracy with these.

Direct fire weapons seems to benefit more from a high level character - perhaps Vital Strike : )? I'm not sure if cannons strike touch AC, if they do, they seem like the best choice (to shoot less friendly dragons out of the sky!). Ships touch AC tend to be poor also.

But my main concern is that the ships weaponry is limited to the starboard and port sides, not aft or fore of the ship. But perhaps that is indeed something a cohort could fix ... : )

Speaking of spells - check out this one and this one out. They could provide a handy crew for just a spell slot (until someone hammers down with Dispel Magic that is. Or we hit a dead magic patch in the Mana Wastes ...)

I'm going to use atleast one of my follower slots for my halfling servant that follows Lucrecia around (atleast until combat starts, then she'll hide underneath/inside something solid, hopefully not a cannon ... ^^)

ps I'm not sure if I like that first archetype you linked Ieinathan :P

You know. If we need a siege engineer I can build one...or 50.

Simulacra FTW.

I like the spell suggestions Lucrecia. Plus since they're both a day per level they can be cast on "off days." Unseen crew may be one of my constant contributions.

I thought simulacra had to be the same as you, but with half as many levels?

So a simulacrum of Sparel would be a cleric 1/wizard 3/mystic theurge 3? I mean, I suppose you can make simulacra of an actual siege engineer, but you need the siege engineer first.

So what you are saying is - we should 'borrow' a siege engineer from somewhere =)

Honestly, Simulacrum is one of the more dangerous spells - but just an engineer can't be that harmful, can it ?

Technically by RAW you can make nearly anything with a simulacra. It is most definitely one of those spells that can easily turn into a cheesefest. However, I'm not going for that. I use it for functional things. Exotic mounts, loyal servants, a specialist here or there.

Half the HD of the original creature, but I can make a creature up to 2X my Caster level. It's wonky, but whatever. I won't be testing it's limits.

My personal house rule is that I need a piece of the creature. I always thought that added just the right amount of balance and frankly doesn't make a lot of sense otherwise.

Edit: Although, Making a couple duplicates of myself with just a few HD wouldn't be a bad idea. A little extra low level magic + decoys.

Simulacra make great overseers for lower level operations too. If you can't trust yourself in charge of it, who can you trust? :p

I think permanent animate objects is a great idea to help man the ship. I think having one large for hauling, a couple mediums and three smalls would be pretty handy.

I imagine at some point we're going to want a hard base of operations as well, someplace to be able to berth the ship and make repairs. Simulacra agents are great for that, especially if they have scrolls of sending (or have it memorized).

Another thing to remember is that we have followers. So we can take the higher level ones to man the ship and at some point we may get a base of operations to have the rest of them camp out at. Or as was said we could just say where they are. Maybe ask them to skater to places of Intrest as to assist in the plundering with valuable info.

I've made one follower, Lima my halfling servant. She is a sixth level expert (If it is okay I'd like to switch out one level for a level of Bard). She won't accomplish much in combat, but she can help with a small set of skills and will follow Lucrecia around. Hopefully wont get eaten or shot or mauled.

I've been musing on a cohort - and I've come to like the idea of the half-n-half races, like centaurs, driders or lamias. They have an easy 'in' where I can play up the cohorts desire to also achieve what Lu did, a path into civilisation. Both driders and lamias are fitting for this since they originally had other, less fearsome, shapes. Centaurs not so much, but hey - they are good anyhow so probably not the best fit : )

Since Sparel can deal with almost any spell, Belor can handle the shadowy arts and we have plenty of face wrecking in me, Tar and Praetorius (I assume : ) ) so those roles felt unnecessary. That leaves the discussed role of slightly longer ranged artillery - so I was considering a blaster mage. Since I'm not entirely sure about your build Praetorius, yell if I'm going to step on your toes with this! Bofort (Bofors? :P) will deal with precision ranged work - and my cohort could deal with those pesky mooks and sails that other ship is crowded with.

The main reason I try to take this part instead of the suggested part of siege engineer is quite honestly because I like building casters : )

Considering Drow were deemed unfit for the campaign, a Drider might be too. However, having an oversized spider-person climbing around in the rigging could be fun ... ^^

Of the three I mentioned, only Lamias are left. Ordinary Lamias are cool - but given I'm probably going for blasting, those caster levels (1d6 of damages) are important. Lamia Matriarchs are likable snake-people that could slither around on the ship just as well as a drider - and they have inherent spellcasting. Perfect for my purposes! It's a bit of a hiccup that they already are natural shapechangers, but given their stated goal is 'ending the bestial curse afflicting their people' it is easy to angle one of them ending up on a similar path as Lu.

Here is the basic statblock for them. They are quite scary creatures (good base stats, nice HD) and there might be a chance that the cohort end up a bit too powerful. On the other hand, a firm focus on blasting magic (and perhaps some archery?) should keep it in check. (Here are driders, 1 CR lower, for reference.)

Thoughts =)?

I personally have no problem with a lamia matriarch cohort, at least not balance-wise (and that's always my issue). Interactions with other crew members can be done in humanoid form, so there's no need to scare them or take up too much room in the ship.

She'd only have four class levels, I'd assume in sorcerer, so she's be two CL behind a regular cohort, if ability scores, hp, and spell-likes above. I'm fine with it.

As for Praetorius, he spends most of his time two-handing a greatsword in melee combat, though his spells are, I think, all buff spells, flight spells (like feather fall, fly) and electricity-damage-dealing combat spells (like shocking grasp, lightning bolt, and ball lightning).

I also like monster characters because it makes it feel more plausible to me that there are so many high-level characters on the same ship.

Instead of five epic adventurers, there are three epic adventurers and three creatures that were just born like that, you know?

Ok so it sounds like a combination of animated objects and followers is our best bet. I might have my cohort take the siege related feats and if I do then maybe a simulacrum of him. I like the idea of a Lamia cohort, they are pretty cool monsters. Who is Lu though?

Oh and my cohorts name is Beaufort Collignon. I ended up using a french name generator when I named him.

That is nice to hear : )

Yes, sorcerer. With the Magic Knack talent, the CL would catch up but still only access fifth level spells.

Good to know : ) Then I can fit some of the lower level buffs on the cohort too, like perhaps Haste.

I take it Driders are off the table? They have a certain appeal with their Web-throwing and (potential) wizard casting. You didn't explicitly mention it, but I just want to make sure.

Also - regarding crew and scariness - will that be a problem ? I mean, Lu might want to fly around a bit too sometime :P

Lu is Lucrecia when I get tired of typing her long-ass name :P

(Bofors is an arms-manufacturer that make, among other things, recoilless rifles and anti-air artillery. Felt fitting but alas ^^)

Oh gotcha. When you said path of Lu I thought you were referring to something in universe besides your character. Now I feel dumb. Oh well. Also totally didn't know that Bofors was arms company. Pretty cool.

Yeah, sorry - I didn't really think about mentioning it. My followers name originally started with Lu**** too, but I caught that ... : )

Okay, as for the follower, an expert 5/bard 1 is totally fine.

About the drider...I don't think I want to allow it if I haven't allowed drow.

And about scaring crew...after awhile, they'd get used to the sight of the Large-sized monstrous crew. Of course, they'd probably be shaken or frightened the first few times they see you, but once it becomes clear that you mean them no harm, it should cease to be a problem.

A lot of the reason why having larger crew is a problem is because the lower decks don't allow enough room for that.

And actually, with cohorts and followers, they don't get traits. Unless they take the Extra Traits feat. Only PCs automatically get traits.

Roger =)

I understand, just wanted to make sure. They also have this *appearance* problem, which the Lamia dodges.

So I'll save the 'dramatic reveal' for a non-critical moment then ^^

Huh, hadn't thought of that actually!

I'll replace Toughness with Extra Traits then. Traits are to fun/useful to pass up : )

Hey y'all, would you mind taking a look at Aiesha and Sstituk, in the Campaign tab, and tell me what you think? Praetorius' player didn't have an idea for a new cohort after he became evil, so I built Aiesha for him and Sstituk is her familiar.

That Plane Shift might come in handy, either as an adventure seed or a way for us to escape after we screwed something up!

If I were out to save money, I personally would rather go for an Lesser Metamagic Rod of Extend instead of bracers of Armour (1000gp cheaper and you can have Mage Armour up for a long time : ))

I might consider Flyby Attack since it allows spells or ranged attacks. But it won't work with Expeditious Retreat.

I assume the electricity and wind theme is to match up with Praetorius and our flying ship respectively? Pretty nifty : )

Reach spell to let her attack at range - good thinking : )

Both look good to me.

Though if the ship is powered by electricity it wouldn't suck to have a lightning elemental familiar. I considered it, but I didn't want to build Sparel specifically for this ship. Though if my familiar dies and I summon another we'll see.

Built a draft of the cohorts statblock. She is heavily focused on Fireball but have a few other tricks. Thanks to Spell Perfection (which she can qualify for due to her extra HD) and Metamagic Master (Wayang spell hunter, thanks to extra trait) she can slap both Empower and Intensified on it for a bucket of dice.

Her bonded object is an Rod, with the power of three lesser elemental spell metamagic rods (50% extra on two of them, for stacking abilities on one item) that allows her to switch Fireball to acid, cold or electric damage. It is also an +1 spellstoring club. Made out of living steel and hardened by a 12th level wizard (paid via spell services) to avoid pesky sunders.

The rod is loaded with Touch of Idiocy - which comboed with her natural touch in the other hand - allows her to nuke the will saves of anyone closing with her. This and Forceful Strike gives her a decent shot at not being eaten by the first stompy monster charging her : ) Round two would be a Deep Slumber or Suggestion.

Her fifth level spell is Wall of Sound, a nifty toy to put infront of an enemy ship or horde. At the lowest level, it can block incoming projectiles and damage crew but with a bit of synchronization it could - potentially - shatter apart larger objects.

Monsters have decent defences and brute force, monsters with casting is a bit like having the cake and eating it.

Your thoughts and comments are welcome! If anything appears out of line - I can scale her back a bit, I'm sure : ) Or upwards - if needed ^^

ps - one feat is not picked yet. Might end up with Power Attack just to have the option open. Or Improved Spell Focus (Evocation)

I see no real issues with the companion's crunch. I don't see her overshadowing any PC in any real way.

EDIT: Oh, save some stuff about your fireball. Intensified, Empowered, Persistent fireball is a 7th-level spell, and the trait reduces it to 6th, which means you can't cast a fireball with all three of those metamagics.

Beyond that, an intensified, empowered fireball should deal 18d6 damage. (10d6 base fireball, plus 2d6 for extra CL and intensified, 150% of 12d6 is 18d6).

OH! And about traits. You can't actually have two magic traits at the same time.

Spell Perfection (Fireball) allows her to apply one Metamagic for free (ie Empower or Persistent).

It also doubles the Caster Level bonus from Mage's Tatoo (Evocation), which makes Fireball a Caster Level 14 spell. Thus - 10d6 base, 4d6 intensified and 7d6 from empowered.

Metamagic Master is a regional trait, so she only has one magic trait - Magic Knack.

As stated, a lot of eggs in one basket - but that basket is filled with fiery little d6!

(For a little extra unneeded omph - she also has Death Knell via the 'Cleric spells as Sorcerer spells' Lamia ability so she can up the CL one more for that precious last die : ) )

Damn. it's only one trick, but it's a good trick.

Oh! Nice, thank you for explaining all of that.

I didn't want to encroach on Sparel's 'master of every magic' stick nor the buff n smack people of Praetorious - so I kindof made an extra cannon/mortar :P

She has a few other tricks, but they are mostly in the 'oh something scary is next to me - better fix that!' category.

I have a seminar/workshop/convention to attend tomorrow - but I should be able to finish the fluff in the evening : )

ps I just noticed the datasheet I uploaded was the second-to-last version, the only change I made afterwards is switching the Named Bullet spell to Forceful Strike. It is an evocation for knocking people away : )

It's never a problem to have more fireballs available.

Tomorrow, I hope to finish off my Carrion Crown campaign. If it doesn't happen, it'll be another week before we start.

Crossing fingers that they can get through two high-level encounters in one session, though :) I kinda wanna get going on this. Because Tar'jub is unavailable until the 14th, I think I want to do his introduction last.

I think I want to do it in this order, then:

-Belor, Praetorius, Beaufort, and Aiesha

-Sparel

-Lucrecia

-Tar'jub

The intro for the first four is fairly simple and obvious, and just requires a really long write-up on my part, but do the rest of you have formed ideas about how you want your character introduced? Keep in mind that you can do almost anything - you don't need to approach the airship peacefully/mundanely, saying "Hey, I want a job!" (although feel free to do so).

Also, consensus on a name? I don't want to start until we have one :D

Fireballs are great, can dump them on Tar'jub when he's surrounded by foes . Even better when we have meteor swarm or delayed blast fireball (Imp + Delayed Blast = smart bomb).

As far as the name goes, I thought Good Intentions was pretty clever.

I have an idea for Tar'jub's intro, will send it in a PM.

how about something like The Dirge of Glory or Besmara's Lance, Dirge of Aroden, Razmir's Tears

I second "Good Intentions."

Regarding intro's. I believe I will go with my actively seeking them out. If they're in port when I find them I'll just find the captain and talk to him. If they're in transit I'll come riding up in the phantom chariot with my familiar driving.