And, posted separately because it shouldn't be lost in the other stuff.
We've been gaming along together now for the better part of two years. If I have, by word or action, indicated that I'm the sort of player to rip into someone else's character in that time, whether ingame or out, I'd very much like you to point it out me. Stuff like doesn't stay unnoticed for very long, even at the level of distance afforded by PbP, so why would you think I'd suddenly do it now, and with no prior warning if it was an IC thing?
(Yes, Pazeek was a bit of a c!@& for interaction, but I also clearly noted at the start of that whole thing what he was doing and why, just to avoid the very issue you're raising now.)
The first line of the post was how I didn't think it was oog malice. Though I was kinda pissed when I first read your ioun stone response. (I was all "that was f&**ing rude.") But then I waited an hour, collected my thoughts, and decided that if you meant it to be rude it was probably a character choice. I thought: be an adult, use your words, make it clear that you don't think he was acting from malice, but seek clarity so that if there is a problem it can be worked out.
I thought it was an in character choice because of Pazeek. Since I didn't think you were being a jerk and I had seen you play an antagonist before, it made the most sense for me. Garidan is a sweetheart, if a bit clueless at times, but not all characters are as friendly as he.
We all have points in time that stretch us thin. Just let people around you know that so they can contextualize mistakes or oversights when they inevitably occur. That way, Thomas might not suddenly feel god's will involves shanking you. He knows better though, having already seen the divine form.
On a somewhat sidebar though, those grind early/hard things are pick-and-choose. You'd probably be able to do just one a lot easier and have time to enjoy your sister's spawn afterward!
Sorry everyone. Some of this may be my fault as I hurried the group along and didn't ask some usual questions like marching order. I just made a decision and placed everyone. Sounds like we've all had a trying week and nerves were a little on edge.
And with these new rules we are all going to be a little unaware of certain power each character has. I didn't expect the whole light thing to keep the monsters away. It was.a surprise to me and likely to Marcusic.
Let's remember this is all for fun!
Val
Oh Dalton, that picture made me laugh.
At the very least, I'm having fun. I very much enjoy our games. I hope that our GM's take away from this is that he should make less executive decisions. Those are so important for a smooth running game.
Important word missing from my last post: "I hope that our GM's take away from that is not . . . ."
I will make all the decisions and railroad the $%!^ out of this game!
Muahaha!
I, for one, welcome our GM over-lord.
@Thomas: Assumptions all around and plenty of asses shown and made from them as a result...
Marcusic is a member of Haemil's regular military, infantry. I had it slated in his backstory that he (by means both fair and foul) wrangled a reward position--something along the lines of giving potential future officers the chance to demonstrate their merits or lack thereof in different places and circumstances--within an expedition/group traveling to Talanor, said location featuring prominently in a number of recent nasty dreams/visions.
Valjoen never got back to me on the specifics of that (-_-), so I was left to assume that Thomas' group was where Marcusic ended up, said earned position being that of an assigned guard (military-issue as opposed to private hireling) chosen specifically because of his small-unit buffing abilities, heavy armor, and cheerful willingness to get up close and messy if a fight happens. So though he sought the position purely as a way to get to Talanor, it's still his assigned task to keep Thomas alive and unmauled.
Clearly, Haemil's military must have discipline and morale issues. :-p
Oh no, Marcusic is a very discplined (LN) and professional soldier, he even has ranks in Profession (soldier)!
That said, he likely does resent being saddled with what amounts to playing sitter for an overbred noble that he further sees--unless Thomas is acting in an official capacity as a Rider and I missed that--as a civilian. A civilian who keeps jogging his elbow while he's trying to do his job. Something to maybe explore.
Haven't fully developed his personality, though I wouldn't play him as a bully, that doesn't strike me as fun. I could see him being ruthlessly manipulative if needed, playing people to get results for what he considers the greater good (that being the success of whatever he needs to get done).
On an unrelated note, Garidan is pretty much a hillbilly. Well-read and -spoken, to be sure, and (for that area) comes from money too. But he might as well have "Backwoods Hick" tattooed across his forehead. That's where a lot of his personality comes from, with the rest being his mental state skewed (and getting ever more so, though he doesn't yet know it) as a result of trying very hard not crack up and lose it. (I'm working toward him eventually embracing whatever residual personality might come with the essences he's gaining, building these fragments up into replacements for his lost family, and making them ever more a part of his own mind in an unconcious effort to shore up his wavering sanity. Pretty sure that won't go horribly wrong!)
Pazeek--the one you knew--was an abrasive bastard mostly by intent and with much forethought, though some was due the xenophobic and isolationist background I had established for tengu in that game. He knew he had no social graces to speak of, and (had that campaign continued) would have used that flaw as a distraction in social situations; drawing negative attention his way, poking and prodding at people to leave them off-balance for someone with a smoother tongue to go in and take apart. It would have been more roleplay than rollplay, so I don't know how far Malthazir would have let me go with it though.
See, the issue here that I see is that if Marc took this as reward position, likely granted directly by an important military figure, who is in all probability the Lady Alessandra Throne (or someone acting on her behalf), then antagonizing her son and insulting his faith seem very interesting choices on his part.
While Thomas does not have a military commission, he does have a diplomatic one as a noble (and a member of the king's court) and a social one as the lover of a member of the royal family. So far, Marc has undercut Thomas with a foreign leader (Katadante: "Speaking for myself, I'll give you my word that I'll try to deliver such a message . . .") in addition to that bit of blasphemy. Since you are conceiving of Marc as a manipulative operator, it might be worth considering why Marc is showing obvious disrespect to a person who could exercise influence with people that could affect his military career. (Not that Thomas would scuttle someone's career over insults. He unlike many of his peers is a softy.) Is it resentment, carrying out a grudge for a patron antagonistic to the Thornes, a lack of respect for people who do not conform to traditional gender roles in Haemil, etc? The reasons could be productive for how you build out his story and his personality. :-)
1) Marcusic offered no insult to Teysura. Unless you're again referring to that light thing, to which I'll respond that it's just a light show to Marcusic until he actually sees it do something more; Thomas still hasn't told anyone IC what it does/is supposed to do. Why should Thomas lighting up like a firefly--and, incidentally, marking their exact position out for anything with eyes to see--be impressive? Marcusic has a stone that does the same thing for less effort, and can be used by anyone.
2a) In the backstory, I kept the specifics of the position for which Marcusic was striving intentionally vague, more for the sake of not straightjacket Valjoen's attempts to use that. So, lets run with that all the way; Marcusic only heard through the military grapevine that a special group was been sent to Talanor, and being that it was supposed to be a pure milk run, there was room for a suitably worthy individual of lower than usual rank to join and maybe make a career-enhancing favorable impression. No further details unless you're accepted.
2b) Any beef that Marcusic might have at this point would be purely along the divide between military and civilian, as I've mentioned before. Maybe throw in some aggravation with beaureacrats on account of Thomas' position as a diplomat. A distant third would be class, what with Thomas being nobleborn and Marcusic very firmly not.
I think social status derived as someone's bedmate would be the last thing to wave in Marcusic's face, that'd guarantee he loses all respect for Thomas. It's telling him that--accurate or not--Thomas slept his way into his honors. With Marcusic descended from those who worked, bled, and sometimes died for what they got, he'd see it as nothing less than a calculated insult from Thomas, I believe.
As for the specifics of whom Thomas is boffing/being boffed by, why would that matter any? If it happens in real-world militaries today, never mind historical accounts of that--Sacred Band of Thebes, I think it was--why wouldn't it happen in Haemil's ranks too, in which case Marcusic would certainly be aware of it. If he has any opinion beyond a personal stance of "boobies are better," it's only in regards to that stuff affecting a fellow soldier's performance of their duties (much like drunkenness or any other unprofessional behavior); so long as it doesn't, what's it matter?
That might be a point of conflict, but only in that Thomas lets his personal desires override good sense, leading to the party facing danger that a different (but longer approach) could negate or reduce purely because it's a straight line to his partner.
2c) Ah, but Marcusic can't promise to do anything beyond try to deliver the message. He doesn't know what conditions are outside Eastgate, but he did catch the bit about Baerwynnd's assistant flying out; why do that if the roads are passable? So, rather than guarantee a delivery that he might not be able to come through on, he promises instead that he'll make his best effort, and that the others aren't bound by his level of effort.
And further, it was no formal meeting of any sort; Thomas did not offer his diplomatic credentials, nor did Katadante enquire after them ( I read back to confirm this and you can too :p). It was four guys at a gate getting permission to pass through, with a request made of them by the guy in charge. So Marcusic was entitled to speak his mind as a free man under the circumstances. Unless that's a status that Thomas plans to change, Marcusic will ever do as such.
On the other hand, had it been a formal meeting, duly marked by presentions of titles and suchlike? Then Marcusic would have stood his ass in a guard position at Thomas' back, kept his swordhand ready, his eyes and ears open, and his mouth shut. Just like he's supposed to do under those circumstances -_-.
So this point of contention is not applicable in any way.
"The Sacred Mother's light does hold many mysteries. Some can protect against foes."
He told you. Then you compare the blessings of a goddess to a busted magic rock. That's an insult.
But you may justify it however you like.
Leaving aside the unfortunate connotations of "just a light show" and "like a firefly," I think you are coming at this from a game-ist rather than a character perspective.
When a mortal prays and a god answers that prayer by changing the world, that is a miracle. (Definitionally) In the midst of a horrifying and inexplicable darkness, Thomas called out to a goddess for hope and there was a light. It was a (very minor) miracle. Marc responded by going "nah brah, my 75 GP rock, that is a recycled magic item, is much better. See anybody can use it and its less effort."
But I truly doubt that people in world think "pish, that's a 0 level spell/the base ability of the Light Sphere" because the people in this world do not know they are in a game.
You do though, and you aren't impressed by a 0 level spell. Don't worry. I am not either. Where the role-play issue comes in is where you let your oog disdain bleed into your character's actions, and he denigrates the power of a goddess to the priest of that goddess. To make matter's worse from Thomas' perspective is that he had just told you that the light was part of an sacred revelation of Teysura. (The religious definition of a mystery for the curious.)
As for the rest of your post, I fear you missed my point. The point is not that there would be reprisals. There won't be. The point is not that Marc isn't free to do as he pleases. He is. My point is that I find it curious that a character who is being portrayed as savvy and able to navigate military politics isn't considering how browbeating a noble and blaspheming against that noble's goddess creates advantage/disadvantage in the political sphere, which, again definitionally, state-militaries inhabit. Manipulative people are by their nature as being manipulative always thinking in terms of advantage/disadvantage.
1) Oh, for...
If it really does chafe your ass that much, then mention it appropriately ingame, and Marcusic will duly apologize for comparing holy Teysura's incomparable shining blessing to a cheap-ass, repurposed bit of salvage taken from some artificer's failed projects refuse pile.
I'll even use those exact words, if you'd like :D.
2) But... Marcusic can do magic too. It really doesn't impress him, it's just a skill. The difference between him singing and someone else playing an intrument, but the crowd's entertained regardless. Oh sure, Teysura is of the Ealintaine, and that's something. But Marcusic has a patron too in Calledrym. So again, no real difference there either.
That Teysura thinks enough of Thomas to grant him some of her power to use as he needs? That is something that Marcusic would acknowledge as meaningful and impressive. But, from his POV, how is it any more or less so than reaching into himself and turning the very essence of himself and what he feels into something that strengthens his allies, hampers the enemy, and even draws forth minor spirits at need?
(In fact, an arrogant Marcusic who really does think nothing of Thomas' connection as you seem to believe would argue that his is the more impressive magic, as it doesn't need to handed out like a treat to a child after they plead for it to their parent.)
What would your reaction be if Marcusic was a cleric himself, and pulled the "my patron loves me just as much as Teysura loves you" card? Would you still argue blasphemy to someone who then knows the specfics of how the system works and can squirt out his own miracles, but still professes that same mindset you keep assigning to Marcusic?
3) I said that I could further develop Marcusic as a manipulative sort, based on unspecified backstory actions taken in pursuit of something that would get him where he wanted/needed to be.
I see no point in discussing this further as you seem committed to your position after I both explained how you were being dismissive out of character and extremely rude in character. So be it.
Very well. Consider Marcusic withdrawn if this is such an insurmountable issue, with apologies both in- and out-of-character for whatever insult you believe Thomas to have suffered.
Valjoen, go ahead and write Marcusic off to some glorious death or whatever.
That's remarkably melodramatic. I'm certainly not calling for your dismissal or the murder of your character. I just don't see much of a point to continue to explain the hows and the whys of the situation from my perspective.
No, it's no melodrama. Your absolute and unyieldying insistence that Marcusic was blaspheming when I've repeatedly pointed out that he was neither intending nor doing anything of the sort has pretty well drained the fun from this character.
I'm going to constantly be second- and third-guessing every interaction he has with Thomas now to make sure I don't wander into a similar interactional minefield, not to mention how I'm going to be constantly examining my posts themselves to make sure that I don't say or do anything that I don't exactly mean--and that is one interpration of Marcusic's whole thing with that damned light you never once entertained; that I simply didn't write my post in a clear enough fashion.
So how am I supposed to have any actual fun here with all of that foremost in mind now?
I don't think being mindful of others is necessarily a bad thing.
When you said you were upset yesterday, I considered your position and how my actions and inactions affected you. I explained what my thought process was and then apologized. Admitted fault. Said I was sorry.
I also explained why I found the subsequent interaction upsetting -- with the oog implication that my contributions to the party could be replaced by a night light and what I took in character as blasphemy. I acknowledged that you likely intended no offense, but that I wanted you to know that it struck me.
My hope was that you might say something like, "Oh, wow, that's totally not what I meant, but I can see how a reasonable interpretation could see that. I'm sorry that my hastily chosen words had that affect."
See, no admission of great villainy or calumny.
However, from my perspective, given our most recent exchanges and the words you have chosen, I thought "huh, he really doesn't think a reasonable person could have that interpretation, and, in fact, I think he may be annoyed that I was in anyway upset in the slightest."
Then seeing no gain for either of us in litigating emotional responses to words, I thought "I enjoy playing this game with this set of people. There is no profit for anybody continuing this line of conversation. I'm upset and he is annoyed, but in a week, I doubt it will matter to anybody."
I still think that in a week it won't matter to anybody, and I encourage you not to quit in moment of pique.
Guys, let's take a breather and step back.
This is a game and should be fun. We rushed into this one get a little play test going to check out spheres of power and sphere of might. There was little set up with backgrounds and discussion of roles... I'll take all the blame for that.
Because of this, in my opinion, we have had some miscommunication and offense taken when none was meant. That is often the difficulty with PBP. We can't read inflection and meaning behind one's words in a post.
I'm having a lot of fun in our main, epic campaign. And I hope all of you are as well.
I'm not interested in killing off anyone's character. What I am interested in doing is playing a game and having fun.
If everyone wants to, let's pause the combat and talk about the characters, their roles and what we want to accomplish in this adventure.
So, I'll start with a quick overview of the group as I see it.
(In alphabetical order...)
1) Denenor - a bright elven enchanter who was hired to come to the Vale of Talanor to teach some local farmers his trade secrets. Out of desire to leave the unground of Eastgate, he joins up with the group.
2) Maddok - a human mageknight hired by Thomas's mother to escort him to Talanor.
3) Marcusic - a human skald from Haemil with unsettling dreams who has finagled his way into escorting Thomas to Talanor. He has been given two messages for wizards at the Bright Tower. (I wrote this part and never sent it to you. Totally forgot. I'll send it along if we move forward.)
4) Thomas - a half-elven priest of Teysura, who has been assigned duty at the temple in Talanor and whose lover is an apprentice to the Hazard in Talanor.
If you want to continue, please give us a bit on your personality and how your character sees his companions. I'd like us to start fresh here... assuming everyone is game for it. If not, no worries, we'lll just focus on the epic campaign.
You have Denenor mostly correct. He sees this life as a necessary interval before his time in the forever after, so he has a more aloof, if somewhat diminished perception of events. This catastrophe is monumental enough to shake that, however.
His upbringing was mostly sheltered from martial strife and personal malice, so his journeys will necessessitate a lot of maturing for him. He views his companions as people more weathered and streetwise than himself, and his curiosity about their experiences will cause him to learn from them. Thomas and Denenor may spar over what constitutes appropriate effort toward "good" behavior in this life and which actions are commendable in the eyes of the divines. With Maddok and Marcusic, he does not understand what would drive people to an occupation so alien to him and stay in it for so long (though he doesn't know Marcusic's history).
As stated previously, I believe it would be a shame for misunderstandings and against-the-grain diction to put a damper on this story.
My hope was that you might say something like, "Oh, wow, that's totally not what I meant, but I can see how a reasonable interpretation could see that. I'm sorry that my hastily chosen words had that affect."
...
Had you straight-up asked, clearly and unambiguously, if I meant the offending portion the way you took it, we could have saved a great deal of frustration, effort, and wasted weekend; the answer would have been, just as unambiguously "lol, no, just trying to make sure unarmored bro is safe by not having reason to ride in the point position to light our way."
For future reference, if you--any of you, for that matter--have issue with something I say, DO JUST THAT, just come right out and ask, in plain language, what I meant. I won't be offended by a blunt, to-the-point question, I promise! Do not frame your problem as character development or interaction, which is how I took everything you were saying. Do not further obfuscate the issue by throwing in side discussions about interactions with other characters (or who Thomas is sleeping with). You will only confuse and frustrate me when I quite obviously don't understand what in the Hell you're talking about or why you're having a problem.
--------------
I'm going to rework Marcusic's background a bit to use Valjoen's messenger service suggestion, though I'll keep the details about his doing things that weren't entirely decent to secure that assignment. Supposed to be a simple job, low-risk and suitable for a single person to do.
No bodyguarding anyone, no special position or any of that, and no links in any fashion to the Thorne family. His only connection to Thomas and co. will be that they came from Haemil to Talanor at the same time and by the same route, and traveled sort of together as a result. He's aware that Thomas is a cleric of Teysura, knows he can heal, and likely some basics about the Thorne family, that's it.
. . . I did. Repeatedly. From the very first post. I do not know how I could have been more clear that it bothered me as both a player and a character. It was not merely the one thing or the other. The character interaction posts were to explain how it was a problem in character as well. One was not being used to obfuscate the other. They were both things together.
If I were in a field throwing rocks into the sky at imagined dragons and someone else was by walking and was accidentally struck, then I would (at the very least) apologize. It would not be my intent to have harmed them, but they would still be hurt. Our actions do not devolve on intent alone. (Consider the difference between manslaughter and murder. It rest solely on intent. While manslaughter is not intentional, it still constitutes a harm. Though, of course, the actions in that analogy are of far greater scope and consequence than our difficulty on Friday. :-)) The effects of our actions are important too and under our responsibility.
------------------------------
Thomas is devout to his goddess and deeply passionate about the people and things in his orbit. I think of him as being kind, but occasionally blind due to his privileged upbringing.
He likes and respects Maddok as a professional, but doesn't know him that well personally, the other man seems extremely guarded, and thus far has not pressed the man to open up.
He has difficulty understanding what Denenor is saying. The elf's speech patterns are hard for him to parse the meaning from in their brief interaction thus far.
As for Marc, I'm going to act as if the whole Friday kerfuffle just didn't happen in its entirety. Marc is a fellow traveler who they met on the roads from Haemil once or twice. In all likelihood, Marc probably outpaced them on the road, since he is a messenger traveling at speed. They bumped back into him traveling through Eastgate and it was only happenstance that he was next to them when Thomas spoke to Katadante, much like Denenor. I doubt that Thomas has thought much about Marc except that he has sympathy for the man's job. It must be a dangerous and lonely life traveling alone and bearing things of import.
2) Maddok - a human mageknight hired by Thomas's mother to escort him to Talanor.
I'm not really fond of the class name but that's right.
Sidenote: IRL, I'll also be doing a pseudo-playtest of the spheres systems. A friend of mine is doing a campaign and will be using them. He has a small fetish for the Byzantine empire, and the campaign is largely themed around it. Besides us being sacked by the not-Ottomans, I might be able to glean some sort of deeper understanding of this systems workings - which I'll be happy to pass along.
Great! Have fun!
Perhaps I'm missing it: Where is the map for this encounter? I'm curious how far Denenor & friends are away from this foe and how much terrain lies around him.
It is below my name when I post... "A Journey Interrupted - Battle Map"
Marcusic - Does Resilient Momentum effect you or just allies? All I'm finding says "allies" get blah blah blah... I'm not sure that applies to you.
Well, Paizo says that a character is always their own ally. And Marcusic has a few sphere-related things that specifically call him out as being his own ally as well. So I believe that it--and momentums in general--can be used by him as well as eligble others. I just didn't use it when he took that first hit because it wasn't needed.
Well... you're gonna need it this time! My apologies in advance.
-_- Gee, thanks ever so much. Will I have the satisfaction of having at least mangled that overgrown bastard with that crit?
In light of Marcusic getting repeatedly hammered in this fight--and still treating the character as more than a game test dummy--I think I'm going to dip into the Conjuration sphere for a companion that will, eventually after much talent investment, become an ersatz tor linnorm. Between songs, totems, a couple of momentums, and that thing, Marcusic should be better able to support.
Invisible to fight or invisible to flee? We shall soon find-out!
Have two more Steam coupons available: 50% off Bayonetta and 75% off Total War Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai.
Ok... its about time we get this thing wrapped up. I'll be posting on Monday or Tuesday to get us restarted.
Somehow this campaign has moved to being inactive?
Yes, just noticed that. I'm guessing it is b/c we haven't posted in it for a bit. Let's see what happens when I make a post.
Whoooo, reading up on Marcusic's tricks to get reacquianted with them was fun. It's noted in the rage power rules that spirit totems don't benefit from the effects of a raging song, and I'm assuming this holds true for most of the effects Marcusic can generate via his spherecasting as well. Totem of Screaming Skin, however, applies the effect to enemies and so the spirit totems' attacks will trigger the effect (nifty trick, that :D).
Moving this from the Gameplay thread.
Basically...
Default to Pathfinder 1st Edition to start with possible conversion to 2nd Edition once it is released next year.
If/when it converts to 2.0, I'm open to either making custom classes or developing custom feats to replicate some classes or class features that people want. For example, Witch sounds like a custom class to me. It could be the blending of Material & Spiritual Essence in 2.0 terminology to create a fifth casting tradition... a charisma based, prepared spell caster, in my opinion. Oracle, on the other hand, might work like an archetype or a bloodline for sorcerer with the bloodline power giving the mystery & curses, and it casting from the divine spell list. Investigator and Swashbuckler should be easy to replicate with a few custom feats. Same goes for warpriest and magus.
I'll be making certain other races playable if it goes to 2.0 as well.
Spheres isn't really playing into the cosmology I've developed, and I wasn't a big fan of the system. So, we'll drop it.
I was going to go with 1st level characters, but I could go with 2nd so the characters here don't regress too much.
Essences will change a little. I'm working on a change to the system that I'll share a little with you now and more shortly. Life essences will remain and continue to have secondary effects. We already had primal and arcane essences, but I'm adding in divine essences... and occult ones. Building towards the 2.0 casting traditions, divine essences will represent essences derived from the bestowing of power from the Greater Spirits. Imbuing divine essences will grant powers associated with the domains. I'm still trying to work Occult essences into the cosmology and magic system. They will probably be derived from patrons that access the power of the ether through the Demi-planes. Imbuing these essences will grant powers associated with different demi-planes. The goal is to make every essence valuable to every type of character. So, an evocation arcane essence is equally valuable to a wizard as a fighter. The wizard may imbue it to get a +1 to the DC of his evocation spells, while the fight might imbue it to get a +1 bonus to attack.
I'm also working on how essences will scale in power and their frequency of occurring. More on that later. As for distribution, I'm going to continue to roll percentage chance of occurrence and require them to be extracted. Although extraction from items and conversion will be locked away with Niyut and the Liber Sanguinem. If you are essence starved, I will adjust the frequency so that you scale in power appropriately. I will also random lottery the essence as soon as extracted, tracking each type of essence seperately so that all characters progress equally.
More to come.
Hmm, okay, sounds interesting. I'll put in a vote right now, however, for sticking to 1E PF for the duration. I'm no grognard, it's just a matter of what I have the money and mental energy to keep up with these days.
Perversely, I did like aspects of the Sphere system. While some of the stuff was confusing or bothersome to figure out, the ability to add totems to Marcusic's songs was pretty useful.
Thanks for the game GM! I'm interested in picking up a second long-term campaign with you guys but I don't have the bandwidth right now. I'll probably just lurk for a while. =P
It was fun experimenting with spheres but I'd really like to do a deeper dive. I don't know that I'm convinced that traditional Pathfinder spellcasting won't continue to skew the game alongside your essence system beyond the first few levels. Spellcasting is already super powerful in d20 and it scales too well with essences.
Even with the example you gave, an essence to increase spell DCs by +1 is an extra 5% chance to instantly end the encounter. For the fighter it's just an extra 5% to hit.
I'm not fan of spheres either. I think its kind of lame, but when I was reading the sphere rules I think I noticed that they can be incorporated into the base system. If people wanted a hybrid approach . . .
I agree with Marc that I would prefer to stick with P1 until P2 is well established. I also concur that system switching mid campaign is a huge hassle.
Incorporating spheres alongside traditional spellcasting kind of defeats the purpose of the system. It's intended to limit the options of spellcasters while improving their sustainability so they're in line with martial characters.
Meh. I was trying to provide an option for Marc. I'm unmoved by the spellcasters are too powerful furor. I would be perfectly happy playing either character type. Martials can be super cool.
Though, I would ask that we start at level 3. That way anybody who wanted to continue their character wouldn't feel diminished and starting out at 3 is way more fun. The first two levels are kinda rough.
We did level 3 last time to get an extra feat for everyone with Spheres. I think this campaign, where characters will be refugees from Haemil, the Vale of Talanor, Eastgate or some other random traveller that was caught in the Shaping, starting at low levels will add to the feeling of desperation.
I'm more interested in getting everyones backstory well thought out and integrated than what level we start at.
Spells Petitioned Level 1
Spells Petitioned Level 2
Spells Petitioned Level 3
Restoration Lesser
Spells Petitioned Level 4