So that didn't go quite as expected, I had some nice dice rolls, Benaiah didn't, and I took some liberties with some movement.
No matter - you emerge victorious. This gives me a better handle on adjusting CRs and what not, and you learned a bit about each others' abilities.
One melee, one ranged, 2 spellcasters. Interesting.
We are moving into the story portion now of the official adventure. Hope you are as excited as I am. Off to reread the background doc.
If you haven't already - get those taglines and dice rolls updated!
Cheers.
Since I didn't take my necromantic army 'pre-made', my build won't come into its own until I start to get a bit of 'horde action' going. I'll see what buff / crowd control spells I can get that I'll be effective with until we're ready to start animating the dead.
Oh, and if you need it, the tagline template we tend to use remains available here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V2YuW2sHXPAht85kmdhGd7Ay02Yln-7BeBnmCKp 433Q/edit
@GM: sorry for not asking this earlier today (still in DC), but I was wondering about raising Raim. Would it be bad from a story perspective for me to start raising an undead army? Does Arimar know if it is legal or illegal to animate dead in Absalom?
I just wanted to start getting a possé together because I suck in combat without one. :-)
If you want me to wait, I'll wait. I don't have to make Raim my first zombie or skeletal creature doing my bidding.
Interesting question. Obviously it would be frowned upon in the city. yet Absalom i the largest city so lots of crime/undesirable activities would slide.
I also believe that Mistress shared her opinion.
Up to you on that one, you will have to do it eventually.
Some of you have been traveling so I will hold off moving this along until tonight.
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Ok, Benaiah's profile is updated with the straight Hero Lab Dump. I still need to make it look pretty, and make sure I have all of my notes in there for all the buffs I can give myself.
Couple of notes:
I screwed up the power attack in the last fight. Thankfully I Lort'd it, and so it didn't matter.
I also (apparently) changed my mind on my skill points between originally posting that profile and... well... the last time I edited Benaiah in hero lab. Instead of an 18str and a 14wis, he has a 20str and a 10wis. I'll make sure I do my best to take proper will save precautions...
I also apparently never finished my purchases. I didn't add a ton, just a few potions. My scythe is actually magical, instead of mundane, and I switched to a heavy flail for my bludgeon backup instead of an earth breaker. Heavy flail just seemed more hellknight-esque.
I also found a very interesting spell I can have as an alchemist extract, called blistering invective. It basically makes my demoralize check a billion times better.
Anywho - please let me know if you have any questions! If this isn't the same character file I already sent you GM, let me know and I will resend this.
Nice extract - very thematic and useful.
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Couple things I want to mention to make sure our GM knows about some of the subtlies of Benaiah's abilities. I will of course do my best to keep up on them and remind you so that you don't have to do so much work on your end.
When Benaiah is under the effects of his mutagen (provided it is a strength mutagen, which is will almost always be) he gets a +6 to strength instead of a +4. This, however, comes at a cost.
Furthermore, while under the effects of this mutagen, whenever the alchemist takes damage, his rage grows, with detrimental effects. At the end of each turn that he takes hit point damage, the ragechemist must succeed at a Will saving throw (DC 15, or DC 20 if any of the damage came from a critical hit that turn) or take a –2 penalty on Will saving throws and to Intelligence. These penalties end 1 hour after the mutagen ends and stack with themselves. If the penalty lowers the ragechemist's Intelligence score to 0, the ragechemist is comatose until 1 hour after the mutagen expires. This ability replaces poison use.
So I need to remember to track that during a fight. (this is also one of the reasons that being able to wear full plate with the aristocrat npc class makes this build synergize so well)
There are other things, but we are doing a tornado drill apparentlly...
right now...
The more I know the better. Thanks for that!
looks up creatures that require will saves
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Benaiah is pretty buff dependant (which makes sense for a melee based alchemist...)
Buffs I will make an effort to have up when it looks like the fit is going to hit the shan...
- Mutagen (lasts 40 minutes)
- Phantom Blood (lasts 40 minutes and will always be taken with my Mutagen - it is a spell that specifically "fixes" rage deaths)
- Shield (lasts 4 minutes)
- Bull's Strength (lasts 4 minutes)
- Enlarge Person (lasts 4 minutes)
- and finally - Rage (6 rounds to spend)
None of these buffs make much sense to "cast" in combat, (save the free action of going into rage) so I am pretty sure I would only be doing that if I couldn't specifically attack, or couldn't use a standard action to set myself up to be able to attack the next round.
So this is part of what makes this build a challenge. It won't always make sense to be fully hulked out. When we can plan ahead enough, Benaiah can make himself a force to be reckoned with. But there will likely be many other times when he may not have any of those buffs active.
I don't want to make a blanket statement that drinking all of his extracts is going to be an SOP, because that will be pretty situational. However, I do want the group to have a bit of a say in it (in character of course would be a cool way to do it) if you think I should go all Mr. Hyde.
Also a couple things from a visual/story standpoint. Benaiah uses a Feral Mutagen as well. Which means he gets two claws and a bite attack. He will still look mostly human...oid, though with distended hands (claws) and a vicous muzzle (bite), and the obvious muscle ball park frank effect (plump? get it?)
So when he is fully buffed he will be an oversized, slightly demonic looking beastial thing that happens to be as strong as a cloud giant. Kind of a twisted way to define his manhood, but thats what happens when your daddy doesn't love you... :)
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Sorry for the thread blast, I knew there was another one...
So in addition to the Phantom Blood, which will save me from rage deaths, Benaiah also has an alchemist discovery called spontaneous healing.
The alchemist gains the ability to heal from wounds rapidly. As a free action once per round, he can heal 5 hit points as if he had the fast healing ability. He can heal 5 hit points per day in this manner for every 2 alchemist levels he possesses. If the alchemist falls unconscious because of hit point damage and he still has healing available from this ability, the ability activates automatically each round until he is conscious again or the ability is depleted for the day.
The second part of that is probably the more important one. So Phantom Blood keeps me from rage dying, and Spontaneous healing gets me (potentially) back on my feet, at worst in two rounds. Of course I would be fatigued from being forced out of rage, but that is what the potion of invigorate is for... :)
I really need to get a stash of medlances... standard actions to apply all this stuff is just to much... :)
Few notes
- Thanks Damien for figuring out the air speed of both the African and European swallow. As we are still in the Prologue phase, I don't want to spend valuable time haggling on the retainer so if everyone agrees with Mistress Lanvi's offer, we can move on.
- Opps, wrong portrait. Fixed.
- Thanks for updating the Roll Table - your time and effort saved me a ton of time and I truly appreciate that. Benaiah I know is finishing his character tweaks so all good there.
I am going to gloss over a bit here and there, leave it open for you to fill in as you desire. We should be in Chapter 1 by May. I hope.
Thanks again everyone :)
Heh. I didn't mean to make haggling a chore... but you should never accept the first offer. Arimar wanted to negotiate. Damien is fine to move on with the offer as-is.
:-)
Oh, and nice pic for Lanvi.
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Very nice updated pic for Lanvi... Right on with my original thoughts! We either think alike now, or I did a halfway decent job describing her, or who she is anyways. Very appropriate.
Aaaaaand Benaiah is actually a dufus and forgot that he had to update the roll table. The voice in his head has chastised him properly and it is now complete.
Another note that kinda goes along with some of my notes above - Benaiah has the "Bruising Intellect" trait, which allows him to use his INT instead of his CHA for intimidate. Now pulling that off in character will be a challenge... He also has the Intimidating Prowess feat, granting him his STR bonus to his intimidate roll.
This will make his intimidate check fluctuate with his buffs. Most of his buffs just increase STR, and therefore increase the intimidate modifier. Mutagen increases STR but also decreases INT, not to mention the extra potential INT decreases when I fail a will save after getting hit in combat.
Anyways, its going to be a somewhat squishy number, and I will do my best to stay on top of it so you don't have to Mr. GM.
Been stewing on the "end" of my backstory for a bit, I really want to finish revealing it relatively soon. Super excited to get this thing rolling!
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Hey, Caerador just texted me, he had some stuff at work today. He is itching to post, but hasn't been able to. He said he would get one together tonight
-Posted with Wayfinder
Thanks for that. Posting note - spotty for me until Monday.
Enjoy the weekend, we might have 70 plus here in Chi town.
Sorry guys, I've had a hellish week... I am off of work in two hours. When I get home I will put a post together. Apologies for the delay.
You all must think I am awful. I am sorry I have not been posting. Truth is I have been having some problems with my wife and some problems at work, and I have been stressed and unable to focus. I have tried to come up with something clever with skills and I just haven't been able to. Hopefully you can give me a pass and I will spend a bit of time tomorrow when I am off trying to get something in. Again, I am sorry. I know this game is very important to you all symbolically and I appreciate the invite. If you can just give me another day I should be able to get back on course.
No worries, RL is always greater then Role Play. Take your time. Let us know when you're ready.
In lieu of Caerador, we are going to modify the Skills Challenge a bit, successes are now at 6, Failures at 2 for success conditions.
Can I just say that from my point of view, that was so much better than I expected. I really enjoyed reading your narratives there and I hope you enjoyed the creative licensees you all took as much as I did. Skill challenges will be an occasional part of this AP, and I am excited for the next go around. Well played everyone. Any feedback on this and, any house rule, to improve is always appreciated.
On a side note, should you have failed, you would have met some resistance upon entering the Docks, which in hindsight this group might have preferred.
Onward and upward. We approach the end of the Backstory Prologue. I still have a surprise or two in store for you all.
Off to post on RoW.
No resistance at the docks is fine by me... until I get my army together. ;-)
I like the skill challenges, too. Do you adjudicate the DC on a case-by-case basis or is it constant? Eg. if we use acrobatics to get across the ledge, is it easier than using spellcraft to spot an illusory wall that allows us to bypass it?
Also, action points. I can't for the life of me remembering how many we have (though I have Reroll: 1/1 on my tagline, so I assume one) or when the regenerate (I seem to recall it was something along the lines of 'per chapter'... but roughly how many chapters per level?).
Thanks mate, and it's been awesome fun so far.
On the campaign tab:
Acquiring Action Points
A beginning (1st-level) character starts the game with 5 action points. A character above 1st level starts the game with a number of action points equal to 5 + 1/2 his current character level.
Every time a character advances, he gains a number of action points equal to 5 + 1/2 his new character level. Some prestige classes might allow a faster rate of accrual, at the GM’s option.
Action Points and Existing Games
Adding action points to an existing campaign is easy, since characters don’t need to make any special changes. Each character simply gains a number of action points equal to 5 + 1/2 his character level. 9 Action Points
Not sure about leveling pace. Working on that.
Thanks for that! Campaign tab has some great info. Nice work. I feel I've seen it before, so I must have peeked at some point. You mean 7 action points, right, and not 9?
Anyway, I assumed 7 and updated my tagline.
Oh and static DCs
9 since we are prolonging it. :)
Oh and static DCs
Nice. Are the DCs the same for an ability check vs a skill check, or are the ability checks easier to pass?
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Oh and static DCsNice. Are the DCs the same for an ability check vs a skill check, or are the ability checks easier to pass?
Yes, I was curious about this too. I would like to throw strength checks in for thematic reasons mostly - It fits who I (think) I want Benaiah to be.
I had an idea at the start to describe how I "jump started" the coach by picking up the back end and pushing it forward, spooking the horses pulling it into running hard (and easing their load from taking off) I chose not to for a couple of reasons, one is I don't want to belabor the strength thing (or beat everyone over the head with it and "wear it out") and two, I wanted to try something different from the first test skill check we did.
Anyways... curious about what Arimar asked as well. Sorry for the extra ramble. :)
Good questions. Ability checks should be lower than skill checks mechanically.
So ability checks will also have a static DC but will be different (lower) than a skill check.
Perfect, and thank you. Good to know.
For a myriad of reasons, I am going to tweak some things around to give Caerador a bit of time to get things squared away.
In the meantime, why don't we heal Mistress up, and head to her hired ship. Basically I just wanted to know if you are leading the curative process, assisting, or waiting for one of her retainers to help.
I should be good to go now. Thanks for the pass on being AWOL. I don't want you to have to change things around too much on my account. But the work situation has eased up a bit, so I should be good enough to get back into the pbp rhythm.
So glad to hear. Happy to have you back. :)
Ok, so first and foremost, huge thank you to Arimar. He ran the finest game I have ever been a part of, Isle of Dread, which really opened my eyes to what Role Playing could be and really changed my perspective.
So the cast and crew of The Audacious is his creation, I will be posting it soon, and he deserves all the credit for the NPCs.
In thinking about this adventure, we have had a combat, and a skill challenge, but we have been light on RP opportunities and I wanted to give you all a chance to interact. I will be posting the complete crew of The Audacious, minus the characters that the players created themselves [ooc]I created a comic foil to my character for instance.[/i]
We are still in Prologue mode, so feel free to take liberties and what not. Even when we enter the Proper Adventure, feel free play a large role in world building.
As always this is your adventure. I am just here to copy and paste box text. This time I wrote it, for better or worse. ;)
Would you like the BBCode for my crew list?
And you are too kind with Isle of Dread. That game was madness. Sheer, joyful madness... but way too many PCs for PbP. ;-)
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Just for timeline reference, I am guessing this voyage on The Audacious is before our Isle of Dread characters are found and hired in Magnimar? (based on the storyline we created in the document)
The way I see it is we are on the voyage that brings The Audacious into Magnimar, just before the prologue of the Isle of Dread campaign, right?
So much fun... :)
That is the correct timeline. Before IoD
So just posted the NPC list for the crew, minus the toons we created that shouldn't be there yet. Might have made a mistake or two. Feel free to create or delete as you see fit. Interact with any and all the NPCs, do whatever. Sand box on the sea :)
Scheduling note, another tough weekend for me, can post during work today but nothing this weekend until Sunday if I am sober enough. In-laws.
Next week Magnimar, gods willing.
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Got a few ideas for some fun interactions on the ship while we sail to Magnimar over the weekend. I'll drip feed them through with the intention of wrapping them up by Sunday.
I'll try to toss out some feelers also so any of you can feel free to just jump right in to the mess I make. Should be fun to play around with. :)
Enjoy the weekend with the in-laws! It can't really be that bad, right? I know I will be slaving away on the golf course, chasing that little white ball around, trying to make sure I consume enough beverages and not get too much sun. It's tough work, but someone has to do it.
Malgrim will probably be pretty quiet on the voyage. He's figuratively and literally out of his element ;)
Sad lunch when I have time and there are no posts. :(
Lunch meeting :( My "during lunch writing time" has been cramped down on, sadly.
Taking a page out of my mom's book - guilting you into posting :)
As for the varied questions regarding what you have done/prepared - I rule common sense.
First, you get a new spell allotment each day, so feel free to prepare more nautical type spells and or extracts.
As for the ships larder, it would only make sense for them to have potions of touch of the sea (or scrolls for $ conservation), buoys, possibly air crystals for emergencies, but those would be limited to one per Companion. Stuff like that.
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Updated my prepared extracts list - it is in my profile. Nothing major, just as we mentioned, a few others that might make more sense.
I've got a busy morning, but I want to get some things out there (including agreeing to the Colonel's request and letting everyone know what the stuff is). Super excited to see what you have in store for us here!
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Figured I would bring the extract/spell buff discussion here...
So the choices I made for my "starting extracts" in my formula book I basically picked the buff spells I would want. I only have 2 level 2 extracts that I could prepare, bull's strength and blistering invictive.
So pardon the wall of text, but here is a bit of a mind dump: My original plan was to always have a short list of extracts prepared for myself.
So there is really two considerations here - I can prepare those in order to free up your spell list - for maybe something like cat's grace or owl's wisdom for one of the others, or some other buff that I am not thinking of that I couldn't prepare.
The other would be that I find a different buff that isn't on the divine list, and let you cast either/both EP or BS on me.
Enlarge person v bull's strength - If it comes to casting that in combat, enlarge person is a full round so we would lose a bit of action economy by having Arimar cast it, but all of those spells can also be cast ahead of time (min/level durations)
The more I mull this over in my mind, the more I realized I picked my extracts in order to "not be a burden" and have to rely on others to buff me. As I consider that now, I think "how silly, thats what this group is all about"
So I think the right answer is whatever makes the most sense for the group. It might make sense to prepare cat's grace instead of bull's strength, and cast that on Malgrim so he has a better chance of hitting with his attacks. If you prepared one or both of those spells for me, that would open up some other things I might be able to do with those slots (false life, barkskin, ironskin, etc)
So the short answer is I'm open to however we want to do it. Visually I like the idea of Arimar buffing me (and others) - It kinda has a "We are the brains, this guy is the braun" feel to it. The more buffs I prepare for myself, the more it opens your spell slots to buff others. I think the difference is minimal in regards to an "optimal" play - so it comes down to flavor I think.
Once we get to Magnimar I will add a few more formulas to my book to give us that flexibility. If you want to cast those spells, I will adjust my list for it! I like synergy :)
Cat's grace? I'm afraid not. Every caster except cleric seems to get that one. I get bull's strength because it is a domain spell (and it's nice to have that occupying my domain slot). If I free it up, it'll be lesser animate dead.
In any case, I'm very much happier to be a buffer. When my undead horde hits (or I at least get a decent undead minion - and I really want to wait for the full animate dead spell before I animate much more), I'll be a buffer anyway.
A lot of the 'damaging' level 1 & 2 cleric spells rely on my attack rolls (which are pathetic), and many of the other spells are self buffs or crowd control. I definitely need to be out of the action... so buffing you guys works perfectly.
I can get bear's endurance as well as the charisma and wisdom buffs (but not intelligence, go figure). As an ecclesitheurge, I can also memorize multiples of any of my domain spells, which is nice. I can change my secondary domain also, which gives even more flexibility. In a pinch, I can cast any cleric spell within my level range once per day.
Short of it is this: keep your extracts for non-buffs (or other buffs), Benaiah. I'll grant you Bull's Strength and Enlarge Person as required (though I don't have the latter memorized today, I'll get it after we rest).
Looks like there's very little way around this. I can keep us walking on water for 50 minutes total, but that's nowhere near half a day's work hacking at these things (unless the half day's work was for climbing on and off them and shooting through).
A spiritual weapon only lasts for a number of rounds, so that's not going to be so useful.
So, what is our strategy for cutting through this s*@& then?
Open to ideas here (in character or in discussion)!