That's 5-6 Unholy auras, which are 8th level spells. Damn!
Errrr, unless I am once again mistaken than it effects one/creature per level in a burst when cast and then lasts for 1/round per level.
Like Bless, it doesn't matter once it is cast whether you leave the area. The use of "aura" in the name seems to be a bit of a misnomer here.
Oh, you're right. Great spell then.
The reason that you should consider is what Darl's response would be should you start killing his people. Up until this point you get the impression he is trying to avoid killing you for some strange reason. Well, those of you with any sense motive anyway. Admittedly the attack on Ferez was a little more lethal but even that was calculated.
Your forgot the 3 Reflex saves or be knocked prone. Probably a technicality but you could roll a 1.
As a sidenote, win or lose you were going to easily make 17th level. I'll give you the exact xp total later. Go ahead and level up whenever you feel like it.
We could have pulled that fight out, even with all the odds stacked against us, but we made silly mistakes, like ending your turn next to vicious Devil..ahem...Vulcan! :) And then it seemed that no one was using Hero Points but me. So gave up and turned to the diplomatic approach. If we die, it was a nice AP. It's kept me entertained the last 4+ years. :)
Eh, I thought you guys played it fairly well. That's about as tough a setup as your likely to get. Ambushed and silenced right away really hurt the casters. The dice weren't going your way a whole lot. If Vulcan hadn't been there than the devil would have just gone for Valgrim or Ferez earlier or maybe STILL for him (not much less damage with it's vital strikes going on). No guarantee that Vulcan's spells were going to make a difference with so much spell resistance up. It was possible but the dice would have needed to be a little hotter for you guys and less for them.
Vulcan: Yeah, I agree with you, at this level spell penetration as a feat is almost required. Next chapter won't be so spell resistance heavy, assuming that there is a next chapter.
Ferez: You now have a really cool Hand of Vecna scar somewhere on your upper torso, arms, neck, or face. Up to you. A crit with that thing has got to leave a mark! It's just cosmetic but magic short of a powerful miracle or wish (25k variety) prolly won't remove it. Play it up or down as much or as little as you like. Probably acts up when a storm is coming in, the old wound...of course that is ALL the time around Vulcan, lol.
Bub taking a full-attack hurt us and took him out the fight.
Vulcan taking a full-attack ended any hope for us. He has stormbolts, prismatic spray, swift cold ice strikes, a lesser quicken rod and 23 Hero Points to play around with. Imagine after Friar did his Stormbolts, Vulcan did his and a cold ice strike on the genie and then prismatic spray. Would liked to have seen him burst out with his full potential. True the SR was a factor but against SR 25, he had a 60% chance of making it. We had a shot until he went down. He's incredibly powerful. Live and learn.
Bublaka really doesn't contribute in a fight, he's just a buffer. The silence really screwed him over and I was convinced he was dead after that full attack.
You are an offensive force when you cast deafening song bolt. That spell can do a lot of damage.
There were factors. My casting requires a verbal component. Anyone in a silence area is immune to that spell. And I only had one casting available thanks to the curse. And I was pretty sure my invisibility was the only reason I was alive, so my next offensive action was probably my last. I wanted to make sure I had done what I could do for the party before I signed my death warrant. ;-)
I was not referring to that battle specifically. I was saying in general you can be quite powerful offensively with that spell.
You are being generous, but thanks. I still need to consider my repertoire when we level up.
Bublaka: I have been designing a special feat called "Song of the Doomshroud" for you. It will raise the DCs by 1 of any songs you sing that have sadness or fear in their description. Kind of like Spell Focus for bards. The close association with the Doomshroud has opened up your awareness of heretofore untapped depths of sadness and fear. Adds +1 to DC of Fascinate, Dirge of Doom, Frightening Tune, and eventually the sorrow side of Deadly performance. These are my initial thoughts for the feat. Suggestions are welcome. Anyway, just thought I might give you an interesting option for your 17th level feat (or later). Of course, you may already have a plan for your feats :)
On a separate note, now that we have a break in the action, I would like to ask a few things:
What do you like/don't like about how I am running things?
Do you prefer a more 'roll'play or 'role'play type game?
What do you think of the posting rate? Is it good or too fast?
Do you have a desire to continue past this chapter?
I have played in a lot of different types of games - some with you. I think what your doing is great, really.
I have played games with more roll and games with more role. I'm fine in either, it's really the personalities that make it or break it for me.
I like the posting rate, but unfortunately, I am just going to have time keeping up with you guys some times. Some days, I can squeeze in some posting during the work day, but there are days when I will not even turn on my gaming machine. When I can warn you, I will.
I assume we are going to continue.
Regarding the feat, I have no plans for my next feat and I like that it would tie into the story. I need to pump up my DCs for those abilities - with the foes we face, I have never even tried most of them because I don't expect them to have any effect.
I think you're doing a great job so far.
While the combat and mechanics are a big part, I'm definitely more in the role play than roll play camp.
The posting rate is ok although it times it gets a bit demanding with requests to skip somone who may be busy, I'm pretty sure none of us is sitting around waiting for a post every minute, and many of us may not always have the luxury of constantly being online.
I'm for continuing. There was a moment where I was considering otherwise, but I definitely would like to continue.
I think you're doing great. I personally like the posting rate, I work at my desk a lot so the site is a click away. A good combination of role and roll is ideal and I think we've come close. I know a high level campaign requires tracking buffs, hps, AC, and you've done really well managing all that. And if you miss something, we're here to help. Of course, I want to continue as long you're into it as well.
Ok so maybe ONE of us is sitting around waiting for a post every minute.
LOL
I'm going to post once or twice a day in the evenings or the early morning. So if you're expecting me to post more frequently than that, you may be disappointed.
To be honest, I thought Black Tom was perfectly in sync with my idea of a good GM -- he posted frequently, but not too frequently, and he did a great job at moving the game along.
I think you're doing a fine job, although I have to admit I get worried when I hear things like "I'm just playing the NPCs intelligently". In my experience, that can be a sign of more GM vs. player adversarialness (? is that a word) than I like, and then the game can get bogged down with the PCs having to be super-careful at all stages. For instance, I don't want it to be compulsory to sleep inside a Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion filled with Alarm spells wearing Rings of Sustenance just to make it through the night; I find that kind of counter-measure upon counter-measure upon counter-measure game sort of tedious personally, but some people love that. Part of it is that the game naturally gets bogged down at high levels where PCs and NPCs get extremely flexible abilities like teleporting, scrying, etc.
At this point, I figure I'll keep playing up until Vug dies and then I'll reassess at that point whether I want to continue.
Cheers and thanks for volunteering to keep the game going!
Your posting rate is fine, Vug. Nobody is expecting more.
At this point, I figure I'll keep playing up until Vug dies and then I'll reassess at that point whether I want to continue.
All legitimate concerns Vug.
I ask about posting rates to see what you all will be comfortable with and to be inclusive of everyone RL needs. The intention is not to press for higher post rates but to settle into a rate which everyone is comfortable with, even scale back if necessary.
I look at the story as a joint effort not a me versus anyone. As too playing NPC's intelligently, I moved beyond anything personally adversarial with the players long ago. I brought that up because, as written, you have a 16 Int, 28 Wis BBEG who is using divinations to determine exactly what you are doing and is trying to do everything in his power to accomplish his goals. I said that because my concern was that maybe the situation was setup as TOO adversarial and I wanted to open up the floor early instead of someone feeling like I was crazy and just trying to kill everyone. Sure, I can have him sit around and wait for you to come beat him up. Is that what you would prefer? I don't tend to be of the static dungeon school of thought. Things tend to react in ways that would make sense for whatever they are but neither do I go out of my way to overdo that either. Balance is key.
No, I have no desire to have you guys micromanage your sleep habits every night. When it becomes important I will give you the opportunity to respond with what precautions you take because I consider your group to be well seasoned. You = "Oh, wait I would have done X and Y." Me = "Yep, that totally makes sense let's roll with it."
The Current Status and other tracking tools I put up with the intention of making our lives a bit easier with so many things happening in high level play. The hope is that it frees all of us to focus on more of the roleplaying instead of spending all our mental energies on keeping straight what everyone else is doing.
I try to accommodate things that Black Tom did, such as the Hero Point system but I have to make the game my own for it to work out. I played in a number of his games and enjoyed his style quite a bit also. I will happily hand over the reins if my style doesn't suit you (I have learned quite a lot about PBPs in my brief stint here so far). I believe we have at least one other GM waiting in the wings who could take over (He even has run Age of Worms in PBP). I enjoyed the heck out of playing the Redhand chapter with you guys, lot's of fun RP there.
My favorite thing is to see characters and their relationships develop and grow. Bublaka's curses legacy, what will it be? Friar Ferez's Hand of Vecna scar... Darl; party adversary, enigmatic dangerous ally, or something in between? Vug Vang's family name? Any of these things can be taken as far as you want them to or not developed at all.
Blah...as usual I have rambled too long...I should learn to be more concise.
I never expected you to be a BT clone and anyone who expected that was unrealistic. I've enjoyed the descriptive Flavor you've brought to the game. As for the gameplay, I think you hand waved some rules regarding scrying (think we get a save) but in the interest of the story I don't mind hand waving rules. It's made Darl more interesting. I enjoy the game and wish it to continue.
Good question on the scrying. Some behind the scenes trivia that you may be interested in then is Darl recovered Krekie the tengu assassin after you killed her, they were checking in daily. He used speak with the dead to determine what happened and recovered certain broken bloody discarded crossbow bolts (or blood from the ground) where Ferez fell. He used scry to track Ferez (admittedly your will save wasn't as high at the time because of the missing resistance cloak bonus you eventually fixed). So the DC with modifiers was 30 for the first scry (that night) and DC 35 after that (the saves were rolled). I did make an Int check for Vug whenever she cast See Invisibility to see if she noticed the invisible sensor (which is why I kept saying she had used that spell, lol). You were probably like, "Why does he keep reminding us about that See Invisibility?!" Some rolls were made and some hand-waving did occur but I tried not to give him TOO much of an advantage, just what made sense. One funny side note was you kept outdistancing his Greater Scry sensor with your Wind Walk speed. It would chug along steadily trailing behind you until it caught up but often it missed most of the action wherever you were at.
At this point, I figure I'll keep playing up until Vug dies and then I'll reassess at that point whether I want to continue.
Just to clarify -- I think you're doing a great job GMing. I'm just more of a "let's beat up some monsters" kind of player.
Sure, I can have him sit around and wait for you to come beat him up. Is that what you would prefer?
Probably. :-)
Does anyone else have any thoughts on the feat TWTW suggested for Bublaka? Is it fair? Is it balanced? Is it sufficient for a 17th-level selection?
I definitely enjoy the intrigue and rp elements introduced and I think you're doing a great job.
The feat sounds pretty good. At this level, anything that boosts DC's is practically a must to keep abilities effective.
Thank you all for your words of support. I am curious as to what your plan is now. Nothing immediately happens by the morning. Are you planning on trying to hunt down Darl? Waiting to see if he returns after getting what he wants? Or something else entirely?
Level 17 hp:
If we knew his location, would we want to do a tactical strike on Darl and his team, a la usual suspects? You can get to us, we'll show you we can get to you. Or should we leave it alone and wait?
I imagine he would expect that from us or at least prepare for the eventuality. I don't think it would help anything other than salve Valgrim's pride.
I'm curious what he meant when he said if the curse remains, the tree's not truly dead. Am I carrying the tree's essence by carrying the curse?
Okay, no surgical strike. I think buffed, we would kick their a$$, but maybe another time.
17th level: Cleric
HP:
Skills: Knowledge (Religion), Diplomacy, Heal
Feat: Improved Initiative
Ranger level
Feat: improved critical (falchion)
Skills: perception, survival, stealth, tbd
Bloodline spell Whirlwind, 1 7th level -Ice Body 1 8th level - Horrid wilting.
Feat: Spell penetration
Level 17 feat: Improved Initiative
Leveling process complete.
+8 hps (3 rolled +4 Con + 1 FC)
Ranger Combat Style Feat: Great Cleave
Normal Feat: Improved Critical (Falchion)
+1 Fort, +1 Reflex
Skills: Acrobatics, Perception, Survival, Stealth, 2 ranks in Spellcraft
Extra 4th level spell
Profile updated.
Favored class: Extra 5th-level spell (Greater Dispel Magic)
New spells: Arcane Concordance (3rd) and Irresistible Dance (6th)
Skills: Perform (Act, Dance, Oratory, Percussion), Knowledge (Arcana, Planes), Perception, Spellcraft
Extra castings of fifth- and sixth-level spells
Normal feat: Song of the Doomshroud sounds cool, TWTW
EDIT: Inspire Courage is now +4 and Lore Master can be used 3/day
EDIT: The profile is not updated yet.
Best spell choice!
Which one? Arcane Concordance? What would be the preferred metamagic - I'm thinking Extend or Enlarge, which would you prefer? It will probably depend on what we as a group are trying to accomplish, of course, but is there a default preference?
Greater Dispel. Avoid that damned silence trap again.
Agreed. I thought Arcane Concordance was a good one, too, for such a low level - anything where I can boost you and Friar's spells is a good thing.
Awesome choice, Bub. Too bad, the spell has a V component so it doesn't work in a silenced area. We need to get you a Silent Rod when we get back to town.
I have always understood that bard spells required a verbal component. In my games, the bard is not able to cast a silent spell. I guess I should have checked to see if that was the case here, as well.
Ummmmm.....never thought about how odd it would be to have a bard casting silent spells...
I'd say it's definitely ok according to RAW but your more than welcome to play your character as you see fit. If you don't see it in his particular idiom than go with your image. I could definitely seeing a bard being NOT ok with it.
Friar forgot this part from Silent Spell Feat:
Bard spells cannot be enhanced by this feat. Sorry, Bub, no dice.