right on brother barth! I cant wait to feel an axe in my hand again and the taste of dwarven ale once more.
Armor. Armor is the thing I miss. Stout dwarven manufacture means NOTHING is getting through!
Axes... well, as long as that axe is at the end of an 8-foot pole, we're in good shape. Prefer to keep the monsters at that end of it, after all.
Nowhere in Khazads character description does it actually present statistics for the axe; only its name.
Merciful acidic burst I believe were it's powers but I'm not sure. I'll try and find the post where it was introduced.
Kib's profile has information on all of the items that he had in his inventory, which now lay on the floor soaking up his blood.
Merciful acidic burst +3 greataxe
I've read the entire adventure thus far.. and I must say loving the "Dwarven Diplomacy". Im surprised on how you've had to change party members so much, i guess ppl online are just as hard to keep as in rl for a group. Brask/Joan awesome! Hon is a great oddball character, will have to see how my dwarf thinks of him... after all my character is a little odd as well Ghanrik grew up with elves for a few years and secretly likes the elven ladies, travelled the world with my father...but convinced him to go back when I came of age to train and be as dwarf as a dwarf could get!
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^Oh the shame that is Ghanrik. Let the shunning begin. ;-)
I purposely left Hon's backstory vague to fill in as a "Big Reveal" much like the undercommon linguistics check. And allows Chainmail to tie in plot hooks as desired. I do miss Brask and Kib. Eh. Hon might still die a glorious dwarven death and bring pride to his family name. Hon could care less about that as he has other factors driving him.
I wouldn't worry, if and when Joan dies, I already have another character in mind, and that character should be even more entertaining than Brask.
Yeah, I have to say, Hon is awesome. Not super dwarf-y, but then neither is my character. We've got kind of an odd group overall, I think. That said, Barth really likes to think he's as stereotypically dwarven as anybody - just doesn't see the point in being right up next to monsters when you've got enlarge person and polearms at your disposal.
Something along the lines of "I'm not cowardly, just pragmatic!"
Plus the wand of knock. Can anyone down there use it?
Any prisoners that can roll an escape artist DC15 can begin freeing the prisoners below. Two dwarves and two gnolls share captivity.
The two gnolls are breaking out. If one of you can't hit the DC, the ignominy of being freed by gnolls will be out there.
Well now you're a whiffle ball for polar bearmen. Whoops.
Is my new character down there or will he join later?
You're fully dead, or just very close and dying?
Maybe it was nonlethal and they're planning on eating you alive later.
Hon, definitely a crazy set of rolls for the timing of it all!
All new characters are in the prison!!! If they have a background :-)
Wasn't planning on switching to the paladin until this is over so no background yet but will have it once Kragg falls again.
but hon is awesome even if the dice gods and the other dwarves don't like him! :P
I will throw it out there that a gnoll is now an option now that you have unlocked it here.
Gnolls are +2 Str, +2 Con, and -2 INT.
Gnoll druids are awesome, but I'll have to stick with Gallak.
What weapons and gear do you all plan on using from here on out. Trying to decide for my paladin to go sword and board or two-handed weapon. Plus we will have some weapons available from those that have died or are retiring to dole out. I think I may be the only one wearing heavy armor besides BigMug. All of the gear that Kragg had can be reused outside of the Urgrosh. Asking now so we don't have to decide after the combat is over and slow down the campaign.
Ideally, Gallak would have an assortment of throwing axes, along with a shortbow and a massive Dwarven Axe. Unfortunately, he would NEVER give up using his father's heirloom axe, so that restricts him to the Greataxe short of modification.
However, soon the throwing axes will be his primary go-to, as he will gain claws and a bite.
I have one lvl in fighter and plan on wearing plate. and using a tower shield and waraxe probably switch the tower shield with a hvy shield in different situations. Oh and got to have dwarven arrows(lt. hammers) :P.
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Thanks for the offer CM. Hold that thought.
Just curious, while we did not have a TPK, we tried our hardest. ;-) Did previous groups make nice with the gnolls as successfully as us? Just curious.
Gonna miss Hon. I had plans for him. He was a loyal, "the ends justify the means" kinda Dwarf. He never lied. For some reason he just couldn't hit the ground without a gravity assist.
I've two PCs drafted up:
1) Gnoll ranger. Really a bad ass that follows but not quite adheres to the bestiary desciption. His background gives me the heebiejeebies. One of those PCs you always want in front, but lose track of him, your hackles force you turn slowly to find him stal... um, guarding the rear. I think Boog Boog would have mixed feelings about him being set free from the holding cell. Not sure how he'll play out beyond gnoll territory, ie a PC destined for NPC if he lives that long.
2) Dwarf Cavalier(bodyguard). Decent background, fits in nicely, playable beyond these caverns and serves as an excellent meat shield. Much less diplomatic than Hon, yet with his teamwork feat synergy should prove advantageous to our Dwarven meet and greet policy currently endorsed.
First: this campaign was created for players who were jaded and clearly wanted a challenging campaign. The difficulty is meant to be set on hard with character death a real concern.
Two groups ended up fighting the gnolls, one outside and one with the giants, and it turned into two brutal TPKs.
Two groups ended up bringing the gnolls in and making it clear they were out to kill giants from the beginning. Unfortunately the gnolls are very suspicious, and don't officially resist the giants until they see the party take the lead. The party has to lead the gnolls (kind of like the Stargate movie). They had it the easiest as the gnolls drew the giants out into the open, making the fight much easier. I thought you were headed this way until the doors got spiked. The first giant you fought drank a potion of haste, making the fight very much harder. Once again, other groups fell in love with the maul of the titans using it to bring down doors in an instant or used the staff to turn walls into tunnels. You didn't have those options. When an item ignores hardness and does massive damage to inanimate objects, I think it has a very good use in its limited role and it still makes a solid weapon. Two party members had the required 18 STR, but I don't think anyone really wanted it. The maul was sold for the gold and converted to useful items, but I would have kept it.
Two groups were like you and didn't want to trust the gnolls to end their submission. They took heavy casualties like you did, but prevailed. The hammer turns out to be of limited use given the strong FORT saves of giants. Under old AD&D rules the hammer had a limit of stunning based on HPs, and the giants exceeded the limit. Still, a +5 giant bane returning hammer can put some damage on the giants.
Finally, given the core only slant, the stat block I gave for gnolls is much more in line with core race power.
JJ himself suggested
+4 Strength, +2 Constitution, –2 Intelligence, –2 Charisma
- +1 to natural AC
- darkvision
- immunity to pugwampis' unluck aura
but I liked +2 Str, +2 Con, -2 Int
+1 natural AC
darkvision
ferocity (as half-orcs)
A 5 INT gnoll can't be dropped to more than one skill point/level, so the min maxer in me would want a 5 INT gnoll picking a two skill point class like fighter.
Playing a gnoll is tempting, but then I would have to change my mind off of wizard. Hmmm....I'll see if Hon bites first...
Good to know Ghanrik that you are going tower shield I thought about it myself but will refrain then. If Gallak uses the greataxe then new Kragg can go either way. Maybe will go rech weapon for added tactical abilities for the group and have sword and shield available as well.
Was going more defensive with my guy, protecting the less armored and healing the ones who get damaged, I even took extra channel so i can channel 6x a day.
Any Dwarf worth his weight will have Selective Channel. Them goblins fight close and dirty, and there's wee room in a tunnel.
Gallak's going to be almost pure offense when in that "mode". The rest of the time he'll just try his best to "avoid" combat. Woe betide any who mistake him for a soft target.
I'd really like to get some Mithral Breastplate, or an equivalent. Right now all the hits will be landing on my (admittedly ample) hit point buffer. It remains to be seen if a buckler might be worthwhile.
Its hard to get a high Cha to use selective channel unfortunately....
You can choose whom to affect when you channel energy.
Prerequisite: Cha 13, channel energy class feature.
Benefit: When you channel energy, you can choose a number of targets in the area up to your Charisma modifier. These targets are not affected by your channeled energy.
Normal: All targets in a 30-foot burst are affected when you channel energy. You can only choose whether or not you are affected.
I only have a 12 Cha and could change one point away from wherever I added it at 4th lvl to get it to 13, even so that means I could take one person to target out of it... so quite useless unless you can have a high cha, cause even a 14 means I could take two opponents out. I get a -2Cha for being a dwarf though which makes it even harder. And yes I could've went battle dwarf but then my wisdom would be so low I could barely cast my cleric spells.. lol so I didn't get it, just have to heal 'em all when time comes and hope we get more healing out of it then them.
to make it a 16 with a 15pt. buy so I could exclude 3 enemies and be battle dwarf and able to cast all my spells as I get them as a cleric I'd have to start with a 15 Wisdom and add my point to it every 4 lvls.
STR 10 +2 Battle Dwarf
DEX 10 -2
CON 12 +2 (2 pts.)or swap this for STR
INT 7 (-4 pts.)
WIS 15 (7 pts.) +1 4th lvl
CHA 16 (10 pts.)
STR 12 or 14
DEX 8
CON 14 or 12
INT 7(yay a dumb cleric..)
WIS 16
CHA 16
that's the best I can min max it for that feat. But I don't want to play dumb and I want to be strong and stout not one or the other and I want to be able to cast my touch spells ok and be able to throw dwarven arrows or shoot a crossbow ok.
ps. sorry if I'm posting too much about a feat lol, but I had given thought about it before.
Checking in per Chainmail's PM. I will read back to catch-up.
Conner, if you up for a challenge, the party has just met up with a gnoll rogue.
You can stat him up and make him yours.
Since we are doing core only (no archetypes), the rogue is the classic skirmisher.
Anyway, the party is changing, so you can get into the discussions.
Gnoll dragon - blood sorceror may work.
Gnoll Barbarian would be neat :P
Edit:
We need another dwarf though so far we have
Me, Kragg II, Gallak, Barth
we have human Joan
and don't know about Nar's possible wizard / Hon and now Conner(who is human atm)
I am liking the Gnoll Barbarian idea, if everone is ok with that?
I will stat up the big fella based upon the following post from Chainmail.
but I liked +2 Str, +2 Con, -2 Int
+1 natural AC
darkvision
ferocity (as half-orcs)
A 5 INT gnoll can't be dropped to more than one skill point/level, so the min maxer in me would want a 5 INT gnoll picking a two skill point class like fighter.
well dang, if we have a fighter/cleric, a barbarian and a fighter bard I don't know if I will need to change to a paladin anymore. Maybe will still stay with the ranger for skills to complement Joan. Will have to think about it now.
the bard is going ranged as a previous post of Gallak said, paladin is fine lol. I'll defend the casters as a shield and can throw weapons or shoot acid darts from afar. be what you wanna be.
Gallk said: Ideally, Gallak would have an assortment of throwing axes, along with a shortbow and a massive Dwarven Axe. Unfortunately, he would NEVER give up using his father's heirloom axe, so that restricts him to the Greataxe short of modification.
However, soon the throwing axes will be his primary go-to, as he will gain claws and a bite.
Being Magnum's Student you could rework your character to learn his style and throw weapons like crazy.
Switch from Battle Dwarf to normal so you don't take the hit in dex.
swap around something like this
STR 12 (2 PTS)
DEX 17 (13 PTS)
CON 12 (2 PTS)
INT 8 (-2 PTS)
WIS 10
CHA 10
add 4th lvl stat to dex, with your belt you end up with
STR 14
DEX 18
CON 14
INT 8
WIS 12
CHA 8
Change your style to ranged take point blank shot. Change power attack to deadly aim. and add far shot as your 5th lvl feat, may help with throwing your weapons further. Just an idea, maybe chainmail will let you do the same style as magnum and throw a ton of weapons.
Hmm, I'm tempted to stat out a dwarven barbarian now, but I think Joan is the only one that can reliably hit anything at range, so I think I'll be refraining for now.
actually u can stay two-weapon fighting build and benefit for ur dwarven urgrosh and two throwing axes/hammers. you can throw two weapons each round. and take quick draw instead of far shot.. d'oh! lol been up many hours...