The Beginning of the End: A Pawn's Dilemma (Inactive)

Game Master caster4life

I'd lean the same way tbh.

I'll stick with the UA version then.

I'll be mostly out of contact from today until Jan 1. Enjoy the holidays!

Merry Christmas all!

Hey DM, can I Cash This In? Hehehehehe...

Also, read the comic it comes from, D20 Monkey if you want some fun Roleplaying comics.

You guys are great and I do like that comic so sure, roll one Christmas present for the party! I'll leave it to you to explain how/why you find it.

Well, that's kinda cool. Thanks!

Who wants to make the roll? I'm always nervous about such because my life long drawback (Dice Hatred) will inevitably activate.

I'll take up that die! :)

1d10 ⇒ 4

A folding boat!

Happy new year!

Sam, it's kind of tricky to know what to do with your awesome options for defensive reactions. I assume that the order you list them in is your order of priority? Is that how you want me to interpret that? Because they don't really happen in a temporal order since the demons attack all at once.

Three things are making this combat really difficult for you guys:

1. Enizver's dice hate him today.
2. You have a lot of non-magical damage these demons are resisting.
3. Your damage is really spread out across these demons. You've dealt enough damage to kill one of them but all of them are still swinging.

Solid analysis. We've been reacting a lot in this fight, which is not good. Hopefully the amulet at least means that we don't have to worry as much about Alain succumbing to demonic wiles. Even if it's potentially devilish influence. Doesn't scream "celestial" to me tbh!

On a note related to 2, I still regret my momentary brain crash when not taking Pike's gear.

Three things are making this combat really difficult for you guys:

1. Enizver's dice hate him today.

To be fair, this is actually much more like I normally roll. I've been reasonably lucky until now in this game.

On the bright side, Magic Weapon is both a Wizard and Paladin 2nd level spell, and I think I remember the DM saying if we survive this we're leveling up.

Sadly, I don't think that I can make the Thunder Cannon magical, as it's not exactly a real weapon. It's a class feature. I will also get Magic Weapon as a spell...but not until 7th level.

That seems a technicality to me but I see the issue.

@Caster, what do you think? Can Magic Weapon be applied to the Thunder Cannon?

Yes it can, imo. It's definitely a weapon.

Sweet, That should help later.

Tried to get a post in before work but ended up losing it. Will update tomorrow morning.

It's annoying when that happens.

I may not be available to post at all tomorrow.

Phew guys. We are playing at a blistering pace for play by post! This is great! I'm getting to update a new round of combat at least once and often twice a day. Gets us through stuff fast! I'll need to homebrew class levels for you beyond level 20 pretty soon if you keep this up!

There's always the easy way 'now you take new classes' method.

Also, whoo! Crit.

Hurrah for crits and pace!

General comments:
- I now have a number of utility-type spells that I expect will be situationally useful: Featherfall, Revivify, Misty Step (if I need to get away quickly), Thunderstep (if I need to teleport with someone else), Tongues, Dispel Magic, Counterspell

- Related, how do we want to handle the 300gp cost of Revivify? Just ask everyone to keep 300gp spare in case I need to revive them?

- Relevant to the tanks, I'm going to stop casting Shield of Faith as my go-to concentration spell in combat in favor of Beacon of Hope which (among other things) maximizes all healing. The one thing I'm debating is if I should start every combat with it or wait until after the baddies have had a chance to go. The arguments for waiting is that it has a shorter duration (1 minute as opposed to Shield of Faith's 10 minutes) and if it turns out I'm the main person who is able to deal damage to an enemy, I either can't cast Hex for extra damage or am losing a 3rd level spell by ending it early. The downside is that I can't cast Beacon of Hope the same round I cast Healing Word since neither is a cantrip. Given how combat seems to go for us, I'm leaning towards playing it safe and starting with Beacon of Hope, but I'm open to others' thoughts.

- I plan to start each day from now on by casting Aid on Horat, SAM, and Enziver (+5 max HP and current HP. Or possibly +10 HP if I cast it at 3rd level instead of 2nd, which might be a better idea). It lasts 8 hours and isn't concentration. I will try to remind people of it

- I've grabbed the Repelling Blast eldritch invocation, meaning that if my eldritch blast invocation hits, I push the enemy 10ft away from me. I'm hoping to combo this with Horat's polearm use to get Horat some extra OAs (though it seems like with Riposte that he's using most of his OAs. Though this one wouldn't cost a superiority die)

Olivia, it looks like you are replacing a bunch of spells. Isn't it normal to replace one spell upon level up per spontaneous spellcasting class? Or is that a re-spec request?

Re Horat's attacks of opportunity: Well he could always retrain his fighting style to tunnel fighting. But that's up to him. ;)

Oh whoops, didn't realize that. This means I've been playing spellcasters wrong in every 5e game I've been in. :-x I'll figure out my spells then later today.

This does kind of make me wonder what the point of being a spontaneous caster is in 5e though since as far as I can tell, it's strictly worse than a prepared caster. A comparison between a sorcerer and a cleric shows that as long as the cleric has as least a 12 Wis, they will always know at least as many and later more spells than the sorcerer with the added benefit of being able to change all of them after a long rest. :-/ Oh well, I guess in the future I'll know that.

Edit: Turns out it wasn't that hard to fix my spells
Sorcerer/Cleric
+ Beacon of Hope
Prayer of Healing => Aid
(No revivify)

Warlock
+Counterspell
Arms of Hadar => Thunderstep
(No Tongues or Dispel magic)

I'll take that into consideration! :)

I'll have time to level up properly tomorrow. Proficiency bonus at +3 is handy.

The reason to play sorcerer is all of the fun tools they get. First and foremost by a long shot is twinned metamagic as a way to get around the all-important concentration economy of 5e. Twinned haste alone can make it worth playing a sorcerer. "Hello, I'm the sorcerer. Would the martials like shield of faith+expeditious retreat+adv on dex saves+a free action surges?"

That's an argument for a specific class based on a specific class feature. That's not an argument for prepared vs spontaneous casting. I would feel better if I knew for a fact that when 5e was designed, they tried to balance out how much worse spontaneous casting is now by giving them better class features than the prepared casters, but I still think they should have it made a tradeoff with prepared casters having one benefit and spontaneous casters having another. Like prepared casters being able to change spells more easily but spontaneous casters having more spells known. That's just my opinion on the system though. :-)

I totally agree that prepared is way better in 5e, as a rule. And that's unfortunate. It's nice how they made prepared casters spontaneous within their prepared spells and streamlines the game somewhat. But it's a total slap in the face to spontaneous casters.

Now gestalt is different. Cha is the spontaneous stat and also the easiest mental stat to gestalt over, imo.

Sorry for the confusion. I wasn't sure how to fit the level into the game mechanically. So at this point, do we have level 5 abilities, but have to long rest to attain them? In my case, it doesn't matter much because I'm out of casting resources. But if I get an extra spell slot at level 5, that slot isn't 'filled' at the level up until I rest, correct? So if I go from three 1st level slots before the level to four 1st level slots at 5th level, do I now have an extra spell to use before I rest and regain all of them? The reason my HP bar wasn't correct and the reason my spell slots were all filled was because I thought the level up had replenished all the resources, not because I wasn't updating.

You gain level 5 abilities between fights but it doesn't heal your wounds or refresh spent slots. So your current and max hp increase by the same amount. Your current and max spell slots increase by the same amount too. Etc.

I suppose spell slots are weird for the warlock when you gain a spell level. But I think the most reasonable way for that to happen is:
Level 4: Two expended level 2 spell slots
Level 5: Two expended level 3 spell slots, regained on a short rest.

Now if you're a prepared caster, you have the new slot(s) but haven't prepared any new spells yet.

Yeah it's an automatic instinct to have every instantly refresh upon level up. That's what they do in video games, partially because it makes sense. But resource consumption over the course of the adventuring day is important to me for many reasons.

Understood. Thanks for the clarification! I'll update my HP and Paladin slots accordingly. @Liv: I can prepare Revivify and Dispel Magic if nobody else has them.

Dispel Magic is up to you. It's one of those situationally useful things, and it'd be one of the warlock spells you know, as opposed to one you can prepare/that is more easily swapped out.

Are we saying that for gestalt having 3rd level spell slots from warlock grants you access to 3rd level paladin spells? Because if not, a 5th level paladin doesn't have access to 3rd level spells yet, so you couldn't prepare Revivify. If you can though, it's the more useful of the 2 spells to have on hand in case of an emergency. I'm generally able to heal people before they get to that state, but it's also a rather deadly game, so I could very easily see us needing it if something went wrong/the dice decided we're too closely affiliated with Enziver.

*Sniffs* Alone and unloved, by dice gods and mortal alike.

Ah, good catch. I don't have access to Revivify, but could theoretically use that Warlock slot for a Paladin spell I have prepared according to my paladin level.

Also, plot-wise, I think one of these is in order:

NOOOOOOOO

Level 5 Fighter (Battlemaster)//Wizard (War Wizard)

Proficiency Bonus: +3

HD: 5 / 1d10+2

HP: +8 -> 44

Extra Attack (x1)

Spell Slots:
1st: 4
2nd: 3
3rd: 2

Cantrip Learned: None

Spells Learned:
Counterspell
Magic Weapon Sleet Storm

Ability Score Improvement: None

@Horat: If you're not learning Magic Weapon, I would strongly suggest you try to find a scroll of it to copy into your spellbook.

Related, @SAM, I would also suggest after we rest you prepare Magic Weapon.

Or alternatively, you can both try to find magic weapons.

I feel like gameplay has implied that we'll be facing more demons/things resistant to non-magical damage plus we've already faced one enemy that was flat out immune to non-magical damage.

*looks*

I'll be removing Sleet Storm and inserting Magic Weapon.

Cheers for the reminder, Olivia.

I did just learn/remember that Sam's pact of the blade weapon counts as magic for bypassing damage reduction/immunity.

Olivia, you're using hexblade for attk and damage on your crossbow, yes? But doesn't that attunement not work for two-handed weapons?

Plot: Yes this has been a slow burn from day one that has been suspected from time to time.

I have the invocation that gives me an advanced pact weapon which lets me turn it into a crossbow among other weapons. And gives me an extra +1 to hit and damage.

Ah gotcha. Thanks.

S. A. M. 3.0 level up

Comments: I have been generally underutilising my melee cantrips from the warlock class. I have updated my profile's Spellcasting section to be comprehensive. I did take Dispel Magic. The bottleneck for me will be concentration: Shield of Faith, Vampiric Touch, the two Smite spells, and Compelled Duel compete for concentration in combat. Let me know if you have questions/suggestions!

Format: OLD>NEW
Warlock and Paladin Levels (4>5)
Proficiency bonus (+2>+3)
AC includes p.b. (19>20)

Paladin class features:
+Extra Attack
+1 1st level spell slot (3>4)
+2 2nd level spell slots (0>2)
+5 Lay on Hands HP (4*5>5*5)

Oath Spells learned:
+Warding Bond
+Zone of Truth

Warlock class features:
+1 spell known (5>6)
+Dispel Magic
+Vampiric Touch
- Hellish Rebuke
Slot level increase (2>3)
1 more Eldritch Invocation (2>3)
+Improved Pact Weapon

I find green flame blade a nice way to add damage against secondary enemies who you can't quite reach yet.

That said, cantrips like green flame blade and booming blade now need to be weighed against having a second (mundane) attack.

Spirit Guardians will be great for damaging mobs when you have access to it with Oath of the Crown.

Yeah spirit guardians is a decent use of concentration since you can cast it before combat and never look back. My war cleric in my F2F game with S.A.M. has started spamming that.

Enizver is mostly done. The biggest change is Sneak Attack and Thunder Monger have both gone up by 1d6, and Uncanny Dodge which allows me to half the damage I take once per round.

I also get a new magic item, although I haven't decided on which one I'll take yet.

The contract basically seems to be "do this thing which is in your best interest and I'll give you a magic item," which basically screams "trap" to me. I'm pretty much of the opinion that if it's in our best interest to do something, why do we need a contract to do it? If I'm the only one who feels that way, I'll have Olivia sign the contract, but I fully believe that no matter what stipulations we add, she has more information than us and will find a way to make us regret the decision. As such, I'm against signing it. We can continue to try to safeguard the lodestones without it. If it is truly in her best interest, she will help us with or without the contract.

Sure! You guys can collectively decide not to sign. That is a legitimate option that I'm intentionally leaving in front of you. Now there are downsides to not signing:

1. You don't get the items.
2. There is no contract constraining Fierna's behavior, leaving her free to lie to and manipulate you however she wishes.

So you really have three options:
A. Sign
B. Don't sign
C. Try to re-negotiate the contract. Of course, if you add terms, she will probably want to add terms as well.

The name of the game is literally dilemma. If there were only one allowable choice, then it would be a pretty dumb dilemma.