To Rappan Athuk (Inactive)

Game Master brvheart

Yeah, my apologies. As I said, the season picked up for me, and I haven't really had a chance to sit down and contribute.

Are there any other must-haves for our excursion? I've got 188gp left and they aren't useful once where down in the dungeons.

GT, need me to cover something?

I am a bit overwhelmed by the information dump. If we decide on a course of action, I will jump right in. I suppose we should just head for something to do.

So, I guess we leave it to Aggrammar to decide on whether he wishes to take the arcane role. I think for now, we should be okay with our current set-up to make a run at Mouth of Doom. That will give us time to work out the arcane/divine/support role. Also give us chance to find any flaws in our party tactics/build. I'll have Zoey ready and slowly get an arcane build together just in case.

Sorry to overwhelm you there Lars! I think I only gave you about half of what I posted for the other group. It is all from the Players Guide for Rappan Athuk. There are 14 pages of this:) I used to buy all the Players Guides but to get the players to actually read them? I think my wife is the only one who has read it in our home group and then they complain they don't know what is going on, sheesh. This is a small one. FGG is known for their players guides and most are 60-120 pages. If anyone is interested, it is available at the FGG website.

People, I will be away on work from the 11th to the 18th June. I should have access to the internet, but my schedule is so packed, I'm not sure I will be able to post at all - feel free to bot me if needed.

As for the arcane role, nothing has been decisively put forth, so I am sticking with Aggrammar as is. Besides, if I go Arcane, we lose the divine - might even be worse.

@Aggrammar you have the option of filling the Arcane role. Do you want to do this or have you decided to stay Cleric? Please answer yes or no so we can plan how to proceed.

If Aggrammar chooses to go Arcane
Jark will become his Life Oracle (as he volunteered to)
Thomas will stay Thomas

If Aggrammar chooses NOT to go Arcane
Jark has mentioned being willing to go Arcane
If that happens Aggrammar may want go Cleric/Evangelist
Thomas stays Thomas

@everyone I hope you do not feel I am overstepping my bounds. I am a fellow player in this campaign like all of you. I am just trying to clarify the situation so decisions can be made.

@Thomas this is all predicated on you wanting to stay Thomas instead of becoming Illirio. Do you want to stay Thomas if
given the option?

Not leaving my chair. Someone might take it:)

Apologies for not having followed the pace here in Discussion, but I think I wasn't getting the notification on new posts. Only after Sorek's last post did I realize I was missing most of the debate :P

I'm good on both accounts - staying Divine or going Arcane. I like Aggrammar but our chances may be better if I move to a blaster.

However, for pace sake, I say we stick with what we have - the characters are cool as they are methinks ;)

So yes, I stay cleric, and I think the group should remain as is.

Ultimately we are going to need a full arcane caster doesn't necessarily have to be a blaster.

Ok Aggrammar has made his decision. He's staying cleric.

@brvheart are you OK with Jark taking over the Arcane role? And would you prefer for any changes to happen now or are you happy to wait until after the mouth as some have mentioned as a possible option?

No desire for your chair. I'm very happy on this side of the dice ;)

I was just kidding with all the talk of musical chairs trying to inject some levity:) You guys may eventually get used to my poor humor! I am fine with it either way.

I took it the way you meant it. . Just wanted to be sure. .

Apologies for not having followed the pace here in Discussion, but I think I wasn't getting the notification on new posts. Only after Sorek's last post did I realize I was missing most of the debate :P

I'm good on both accounts - staying Divine or going Arcane. I like Aggrammar but our chances may be better if I move to a blaster.

However, for pace sake, I say we stick with what we have - the characters are cool as they are methinks ;)

So yes, I stay cleric, and I think the group should remain as is.

My only question is Aggramar, what pace is that? You all had set a pace of 1+ post a day, but of late it has been more like one every 2-3. I know you are out for a week and Koan is swamped so do we need to put this on hold for a week?

I missed a bit of stuff, and am unclear on if we're just prepping to hit RA or going to hit the little local dungeon.

I think we are going to get our feet wet a bit in the local dungeon. There is also a connection between the two dungeons that might be useful.

@lars. We're prepping to hit the local dungeon "the mouth of doom". . We're not ready for Rappan yet.

We're also trying to fill our arcane position and and that's been a little difficult.

@Jark can you take over the Arcane role. . Aggrammar wants to stay as he is. And we've not heard from Thomas. . So in the interest of speeding things up so we stop chasing our tails can you take that over for us? That way we can start RPing our way over to the mouth of doom.

@everyone Or is this just a bad week for everyone and we need to put this on pause this week and start up strong next week?

lurches away from brvhearts chair as the merely touching it has left his hands badly singed

-Posted with Wayfinder

I'll be out this weekend, but I'll get an arcane build over lunch. CAn introduce this afternoon and be ready to commit Monday (after a few possible changes based on DM approval).

@Jark let us know when you have a rough idea of your character. All we need to get started would be his race and gender rough appearance. Hell we dont even need to know what class (wizard, arcanist etc..) to get started at this point. General magic user is fine.

I think a good entry would be for you to arrive on the same boat that brought in Bjorn the cleric of Arden.

At least by doing this we can have our party roster set and MAYBE even leave the Ferry and begin making our way towards the Mouth.

I'm not even near the CHAIR and yet a loud humming noise has begun, like a great well of pent up energy looking for a victim. Seeing the power now awakened in the chair I back even farther away from it.

Any other items we may need? I know demons were mentioned. Should I bother with cold iron arrows?

"Demons" were mentioned by Pappy. Couldn't hurt to pick some up if you don't have anything else you need to spend your gold on.

The class and build has had me hung up a bit. Probably going female (half)elf if wizard or witch. Wasn't sure if it is he utility or blasting potential we need more. I guess biggest issue is do I want all knowledges and be bookish or be more supportive. Thoughts?

Rough appearance: Raven-haired (half)elf with a fondness for the color green.

I don't like witches. That sleep hex is broken AFAIC.

k, well to make things easy, wizard it is then, lol!

Rappan being a temple of Orcus I figure the main adversaries are probably going to be undead (immune to mind affecting), demons (various resistances and SR), priests (maybe undead) of Orcus.

I am not familiar with Witches as I've never played one or been in a party with one. If you were asking about Wizard vs Sorcerer I would definitely say Wizard because of the possibility to cast a wide range of spells. Arcanist may be something to look into. Being able to change one of your spells on the fly to Rope Trick when we are outmatched and need to escape might be hugely important for us.

I don't know if Witch has the same flexibility that Wizard or Arcanist has. Another thing to keep in mind is we will need your Knowledge skills to let us know monster weaknesses and whether we should RUN. Apparently to keep from dying in Rappan. Knowing when to not engage or run is very immportant. For escape being able to cast Create Pit or a Wall spell will be more important to us than a Fireball.

We have 3 primary melee characters:
Sorek
Good Thomas
and Lars (I consider Warpriest melee)

and Koan primary ranged

I think our damage output will be pretty good.

<Jar'k

Going elf Male wizard. Have him fleshed out soon. He is going to be from a fishing town. Main concern now is Abjuration VS Conjuration. Conjuration better, but it sees more love than abjuration school.

(I know. I can be very indecisive at times).

Elf? Cool that +2 to beat SR is big once we start running into that.

Conjuration is regarded as a better school to specialize in over Abjuration. I've never seen a PC Abjurer.

That 1rst level swift action teleport school ability can be an absolute life saver for the Conjurer plus its just pretty cool to swift action out of the reach of the bad guys and then orchestrate the battle from safety (if there is anywhere safe in Rappan)

I would go Abjuration then. Never know what you might get in a demon held area and who might take control of them on you! I am partial to evokers, but that is me. Darnegal is a town to the north, about 800 miles. These are huge 50 mile hexes! Well, looking at the rest of the spell list conjuration is ok also. I just would not count on summoning!

Hmm... I'll sit on it over the weekend. But definitely male, elf wizard. Debating on using longbow or longspear (or whip) basically how close I want to go. If I go abjuration, will probably want to stay up close because of the deflection bonus to AC to allies within 10 feet ability.

They have really nerfed the whip in Pathfinder. Not what it was in 3.5.

Aggrammar Deepdelver wrote:

Apologies for not having followed the pace here in Discussion, but I think I wasn't getting the notification on new posts. Only after Sorek's last post did I realize I was missing most of the debate :P

I'm good on both accounts - staying Divine or going Arcane. I like Aggrammar but our chances may be better if I move to a blaster.

However, for pace sake, I say we stick with what we have - the characters are cool as they are methinks ;)

So yes, I stay cleric, and I think the group should remain as is.

My only question is Aggramar, what pace is that? You all had set a pace of 1+ post a day, but of late it has been more like one every 2-3. I know you are out for a week and Koan is swamped so do we need to put this on hold for a week?

I don't think we should put this on hold, at least not regarding myself - I am away and busy, but internet access seems fine and stable, so I should be able to post brvheart.

I don't want to throw sand into the gears or anything, but I meant that when I said the group should stay as is, in my opinion. I dropped the Evangelist Archetype exactly because Jar'k was coming in as a bard, and I didn't want to overlap abilities.

But now Inspire Courage is gone again - but if you more martial people are fine with it, then I am also.

We needed to fill the Arcane role and Jark has jumped on that grenade. Thanks Jark We might have gotten away with not having an Arcane caster at first but eventually we were going to absolutely need one.

Now that we don't have a bard, Evangelist would be great. With us being melee heavy Inspire Courage will come in really handy, but if you don't want to rebuild again (sorry bout that) I'm sure we all will understand.

Sorry that things have been such a clusterf*&^K.

Hey, at least the core of your party has stayed intact. I had eight start my Razor Coast game and I am down to two original players. Some spots have swapped a couple of times. Then 20 months is a long time for a game these days.

I think I can drop the Travel domain - shouldn't be that much of an issue as far as the character of Aggrammar goes - lets go :D

@brvheart: 20 months is almost 2 years - was that on PbP?

Yessir, We started here Sept 3 2013

Razor Coast Texas Style

I'm hoping we go at least that long. I imagine it will take a long time to complete Rappan.

Rule 0. Note on ranged attacks: Cover: When firing through your allies they provide a +4 cover to the enemy. This is in addition to the -4 for firing into melee. Precise shot removes the latter only. Improved precise shot is needed to get around this. Now here is the kicker. If you miss by the cover, you hit the cover. Meaning you have a 20% chance of hitting your ally!

That's what the -4 for firing into melee is supposed to do (make it so you don't hit allies when firing into melee, this used to be explicit in 3.0 as you could forgo the penalty and have a chance to hit allies)), but of course it is your house rule.

Not going to make for a lot of goodwill towards archers.

We have been using the rule since 3.0 in our house games with all DMs without the archers having a real issue. I removed the exploit by adding this and it has worked out well:) It is just a matter of making sure you move to a point where you get a clear shot. The only person if ever really created an issue for was my wife as her characters seemed to used to insist on firing through her allies. After constantly annoying her other party members she finally learned how to do it properly. I have and have had some very effective archers in my games and it actually gives a reason for taking improved precise shot. Tactically, it makes sense, you want to move to a place where you can hit the enemy w/o hitting your friends. Once you get used to it, it really does not create an issue for the archers. My Inquisitor in my Tsar game is one of my top damage dealers with his bow. I am usually pretty lenient with enforcement until you get used to it allowing you to move to get a clear shot.

Ouch... I'm already picturing cold iron arrows in my back side

That deflect arrows feat is starting to look pretty good right now ;)

Well I'm not going to get worked up since I'm not playing an archer.

@lars the fact that you've got a pretty nice ac gives you less to worry about. . My heads on a swivel. . Hope we've got good maps so I know where to move to avoid those firing lanes
Lol

Most are yes Sorek. But they are old style maps, B&W.

@brvheart you mentioned that your resident power-gamer was going to take a look at Pathfinder Unchained. Has he given you a report on it yet? Doesn't look like it will impact any of our characters, but I'm curious none the less.

There are many different ideas in there. Not all of them have to be implemented. One that comes to mind would be the Stamina System. Specifically giving Fighters automatic access to it, I think it would be cool for Thomas.

James came back tonight with his report on Unchained and it sounds like it is worth taking a look at. He was going to leave his copy here so I could look at it. Don't wish to rush into it, but I trust his judgement on game balance issues.

Maniacal cackling!
Watch your backs!

Noting this review it looks like I need to really go through it and see what is and what is not appropriate for this campaign.

It definitely is something to pick and choose from.
From what I have seen in some Recruitments ,

Many are making
Unchained
Summoner mandatory
Rogue recommend
Monk ooptional

Background skills easy to implement

Stamina system looks interesting but haven't seen it implemented yet

The fractional bab and saves has been in use since unearthed arcana 3.5. And is the only way to multiclass sanely

Removing the big 6 items such as cloak of resistance etc opens up slots for more interesting items that wouldn't normally be taken

If everyone is wearing cloaks of resistance it just feels redundant

I don't want to comment too much site unseen, but a couple of comments:

Anyone that thinks a rogue is weak does not know how to play a rogue. My rogue player in my LL game is kicking butt and taking names at level 2!

I have never used UA or AU and never will so this is unlikely.

There are too many nice cloaks, amulets and rings for everyone to be cookie cutter. I think this is way too over played so no, I will not be using this. I find very few of my players actually will have a cloak of resistance.

i just signed up to roll20 for the first time

but when I click on the roll20 site link i get the not authorized message

any ideas?

Yeah, I'm also getting the not authorized message.

hey thomas are you getting notifications now of new posts to this campaign?

if not my suggestion is to copy your profile over to a new alias ala Good Thomas! note the exclamation mark and add him to the campaign. and move the thomas w/o the ! to the old characters