The Trials of Ascension

Game Master bbangerter


Unclaimed Loot:

Cloak of Fiery Escape
Elixir of Tumbling
Mwk Morning Star
Mwk Chain Shirt
Shield Cloak
400gp
Bird Feather Token

The Trials of Ascension - Mythic Gestalt Game:

The message came from Gumlat. A plea for help against marauding goblins. A small village, if one could even call it that, lying at the east end of a large expanse of forest, and nestled in the foothills of the Chaggath Spine mountains.

The residents of Gumlat carved themselves a nook within the forest from which to farm and hunt and worship Erastil away from the city of Coran to the east.

Mercenaries and would be adventurers have flocked to the call for help. Not because many actually care about this speck of nothing at the edge of civilization, but rather because of the size of the promised reward for the group that eliminated the goblin threat and returned whatever may be left of the livestock that have been taken - 3000 gold coins.

Several dozen rough and rowdy characters now loaf about the town and surrounding area, seeking riches, fame, glory, or for those more sensitive to it, power. For there is a feeling of power, a lingering aura of it where the goblins raided.

I'm looking to run a Mythic Gestalt game of 6 characters in the PbP format.

Building Your Character:

25 point buy. Starting level 2. No mythic tiers at start.
No stat above 18 before racial modifiers.
You may dump stats as normal, but I highly recommend against it - do so at your own risk.
No custom races.
2 traits. No drawbacks.
Using automatic bonus progression. However, your effective level for ABP is character level + current mythic tier. So a level 10 Tier 5 counts as level 15 for ABP.
Using background skils.
500 GP to start. Starting gold may not be used with crafting, but otherwise crafting feats are available.
Max HP all levels.
Paizo material only, no 3PP without exception.
Use unchained summoners/rogues.
Barbarian or monk can choose unchained or vanilla.
You may multiclass by splitting one side or the other of the gestalt. Same if you take a prestige class.
No templates.
If you use a gun, use emerging gun rules for price/availability of weapons.
Alignment: Any non-good. You may be CE, but not a sociopath. Even evil people have friends and people they care about - your party is among those. (Though you may flee from the dragon to let your friend be devoured if doing so is your best chance of survival). Despite the alignment freedom this is not a game for rape or high sexual content, wanton butchering of orphanages, in depth descriptions of how you torture people, or the like. Think PG-13 rating.

You must be able to post once per weekday (barring expected vacations and the like throughout the year).

Background of some kind should be included. It isn't going to be a big factor in this game, but I want to see something more than a shallow stat block and 2 sentances about how your parents were killed by orcs.

Your character sheet should be in a profile on this site, and should look something like this. The standard stat block format is nice and easy to read. It doesn't have to look exactly like the sample, but if I can't follow the character sheet, I'm unlikely to pick you as a player.

Also include the mythic path you will be taking once you gain mythic powers.

Additionally, if there is a particular type of creature you've always wanted to fight, list it on your character sheet. Even make it part of your background if you want. Always wanted to fight a demilich, or a jabberwock, or even a whole flock of dragons? Let me know. I make no promises I will include any specific creature, but I'll see what I can do.

How this game will run:

Think of it as a mega dungeon, only taking place in disparate parts of the world. Players will gain 1 level (or mythic tier) after clearing each area. The game will largely be focused on combat. Not that role-playing opportunities won't be there, or finding alternate solutions to hulk smashing everything, just understand it will be laregly combat focused.

Each area will contain a APL-1 or APL, an APL+1, an APL+2, and an APL+3 or +4 encounter (or trap). The last encounter will always include one or more mythic creatures. Note that in a few cases where the last encounter is a single creature it may be boosted to APL+5 or 6. In some locations it will be possible to bring multiple groups upon yourself without proper scouting, letting runners escape, etc.

The first area cleared will grant the first mythic tier to all players. After that, each area will grant some players mythic tiers, while all others gain a level.

After each area is cleared players will have 2 days of downtime for every level + mythic tier they have acquired. So for example, after the first area, players will be level 2 + tier 1, so will have 6 days of downtime in which they can craft.

Areas are not intended to allow resting within them, that means the party needs to deal with all 4 encounters at a single go. The party may choose to try and rest anyway if a string of bad luck results in a greater depletion of resources then expected, but this will result in reinforcements or other consequences such as harassment during the night preventing actual rest, etc.

Custom Rules:

Metamagic
Metamagic rods do not exist.

Metamagic feats have been altered as follows:
Metamagic feats may be applied to spells spontaneously and do not increase the spell slot used, however, if the level increase would have increased the spell slot beyond what you can cast, you cannot apply that metamagic feat (or combination of feats). For example, if you take quicken spell, you can only apply it to 1st level spells if your highest caster slot is 5. When you get 6th level slots you could apply it to 1st and 2nd level spells.

You may apply the metamagic feat up to 2/day.

You may take a metamagic feat multiple times to increase the uses per day for that feat, up to a max of 6/day.

Metamagic feats do not increase the casting time of spells regardless of caster type.

Disallowed Feats/Traits
Leadership is not allowed, nor is the trait Finding Haleen.

Limitations on Certain Forms of Magic
No form of magic, racial bonus, class feature, feat, etc can be used to gain any form of flight or levitation. (Feather fall is fine).

Likewise no form of magic, racial bonus, class feature, feat, etc can be used to gain teleportation, dimension door, or like abilities.

There will occasionally be potions or wands or other limited use magic items to grant these abilities. I promise not every encounter will be against flying creatures, but some will, so buy appropriate weapons even if it is not your characters strong point.

Automatic Bonus Progression Changes
At the time you gain +1 weapons and armor, you may also buy (or craft) a +1 non-enhancement bonus for the equipment without taking the penalty against the enhancement bonus. This increases at each enhancement bonus progression. So, at level 4 you may attune a weapon to be +1, and also make that weapon flaming, or keen, or whatever +1 equivalent with the appropriate cost (6000gp in this case).

Legendary gifts starting at level 19-30 will grant 3 per level instead of the amount listed in the chart. For a final total of 36 gifts if you survive to level 20/Tier 10.

Casters may spend 1/2/3/4/5 gifts respectively to increase their spell slot cap (for purposes of metamagic application). So for example, a caster with ninth level spell slots may spend 1 gift to effectively have 10th level spell slots (no slots are actually granted) and therefore cast metamagic spells as 10th level adjusted level. The same caster may then spend 2 more gifts to increase to 11th, 3 more gifts to increase to 12th, etc., to a max of +5 effective slots.

Mythic Vital Strike
Mythic vital strike is not based on the number of dice rolled, but rather on the sets of dice rolled. So a weapon that does 2d4, using vital strike to get 4d4, with mythic vital strike the multiplier on the strength and other bonuses is x2, not x4.

Killing Mythic Creatures
When a mythic creature is killed "something" will happen. It might be a buff to the party, a buff to the slayer, or a debuff to either.

Killing mythic creatures is how the players gain additional mythic tiers. It will not always go to the player landing the killing blow as the intent is to keep the players fairly even with each other on tiers and class levels.

Dealing With Traps
Disable device will not simply de-activate a trap. Rather instead it will give clues how to disable or avoid the trap. Some things will be obvious. Pit trap? The obvious solution is jump over it, or go around it if placement of walls permits. The higher the roll the better information on options for disabling or avoiding the trap, eg. place a torch or other sticklike object in that hole there to prevent the counter-weights from moving.

When Does Recruitment End?:

It closes June 3rd. I will take the following week to make selections. I will actually be out of town much of that following week, so be patient that week.

Recruitment is now closed

Will I Stick Around to Run this Game?:

Yes. There have been a number of gestalt and/or mythic games open for recruitment on these boards over the last year. Most of them never got started, or got a week in then the GM vanished, or quit.
1) I'm not starting at the high power levels those games did, so I'm not going to get burned out just going over character sheets.
2) I've been running several games on these boards for 2.5 years now. Short of unexpected serious problems in real life, like a family emergency, I'm here to stay.