Tora no Senaka - The Back of the Tiger (Inactive)

Game Master Dreaming Warforged

That would be cool. Or if you don't mind my temple sword losing the trip ability to look like one of the Chinese swords in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

The Eberron feats require Weapon Proficiency and Weapon Focus to be able to get the feat to flurry. I would think that your suggestion is better. Please go ahead.

Bought a temple sword and tonfa for now for 31 gold.

Dreaming Warforged,

Let me know if you come up with something that can let me use a katana. That would be really sweet. Then I'll eventually tie Raith's hair back and buy him a kimono. I can show his slow metamorphisis from young, country bumpkin handyman to supernaturally quick and badass Eastern swordswman/martial arts fighter.

About the katana, I would like to bring it as part of the story. You'll have to get proficient in it to get to learn to flurry with it though. You would meet a master at some point later in the story. What do you think?

I guess since three of us are guards, I'll end up driving. So it's pointless for me to own a horse.

You don't have to drive. Feel free. One can always use more guards. (And if there are more guards... I can put more monsters!!!)

Raith Shadar wrote:

Bought a temple sword and tonfa for now for 31 gold.

Dreaming Warforged,

Let me know if you come up with something that can let me use a katana. That would be really sweet. Then I'll eventually tie Raith's hair back and buy him a kimono. I can show his slow metamorphisis from young, country bumpkin handyman to supernaturally quick and badass Eastern swordswman/martial arts fighter.

About the katana, I would like to bring it as part of the story. You'll have to get proficient in it to get to learn to flurry with it though. You would meet a master at some point later in the story. What do you think?

Sounds cool. I always like it when things are worked into the story. Makes it more enjoyable when I feel like something came about in an organic fashion.

I'll go with guard duty or scouting, then. Guard duty can give us a bigger bonus on Offense and Security. Being a scout, I would provide my own food and either secure more for the caravan or raise Security. So, either sounds good to me and you can have up to three scouts.

I'll also mark myself down with a Cure Moderate Potion and Lesser Restoration, since it seems Garand is the better choice to have the wand.

Dreaming Warforged,

When you're working up the angle for flurrying, can you work it so that Raith can obtain some Samurai levels? I was thinking it would be pretty cool if Raith became a Samurai/Monk in service to Ameiko. She would be his lord and master. He learns how to serve her as his sworn oath.

No problem, though that's in a few months... Feel free to remind me.

No problem, though that's in a few months... Feel free to remind me.

Will do. An old Ronin whose master died or a retainer of the Kaijutsu family we find on the road is how I picture. Teaches Raith how to serve a lord and be a proper retainer for his queen.

I don't see Garand on the job list, chief.

Ouch! Sorry about that!

Garand blushes as everyone stares at him wandering out of the woods. "What? I had to pee!"

You can find both weapons, but you can't 2-hand flurry, unless You can find convincing arguments. You can also find chicken swords.

In case this hasn't been addressed, you can carry both weapons, and even use them both in a flurry, but you don't gain extra attacks. Also, you can mix unarmed strikes in even if both your hands are full. I realize this is probably common knowledge, but just wanted to put that out there.

Also, for the sake of transparency, I sold the aforementioned gear in town for 36.5gp.

That's how I understood it as well.

One of the guards should either go forward and talk to the caravan or at least move to protect whoever talks to the other caravan. Not many of us are apparently suited for social interaction since no one is approaching to talk to the other group. I know Raith with his gruff, introverted demeanor (Cha 8) isn't best suited for chatting with another caravan. Maybe Pavel is, though he stutters. I would think Izumi would most likely be best suited to interact with the other caravan.

After Pavel's roll, I expect the next post to include initiative rolls. Haha. Something to do with Pavel deeply offending the Varisians in the other caravan.

I would like to confirm:

brown circles=tree trunks
green stars=bushes (difficult terrain?)
pavel and izumi are on horses

the wagons are somewhere down the road to the south because we walked forward to clear the tree trunk off the road.

I would like to confirm:

brown circles=tree trunks
green stars=bushes (difficult terrain?)
pavel and izumi are on horses

the wagons are somewhere down the road to the south because we walked forward to clear the tree trunk off the road.

I wrote the encounter in a rush this morning and forgot to add those clarifications, but you got it right (difficult terrain also)!

Sorry about that. thanks for asking.

DW, before I do act, I need a ruling on Tactician and Escape Route.

The first question is: Is Tactician able to grant feats to those that cannot understand me? It only says they must be able to see and hear me.

Second question: As per the feat Escape Route, if both my mount and I possess the feat, that should, in theory make it impossible to provoke attacks of opportunity.

If we read these rules as RAW, then yes, I can grant the feat to mounts AND never provoke attacks of opportunity as long as I'm mounted. This seems a bit powerful to me.

Also, how long have we been travelling? Need to know if the katana is battle-worthy.

Third question is easy: 8 days.

Second question (tough!): For now, I would allow a mount that has Int 3+ to learn it, thus making it and its rider move without AoO from moving.

First question (tough!): As long as they can theoretically learn the feat (Int 3+), I'm ok with it.

Of course, I'm open to discuss other options or rulings.

Alright, so then you said 2 weeks for the katana, and we had... 5 days before leaving? Total of 13... close enough?

As for the rulings: That sounds fair, which means at the moment no, though when I get the actual mount ability, I would be able to.

Close enough!

I've never done Mounted Combat before (one of the reasons I was hesitant to take on a horse) but I BELIEVE I did everything right. Let me know.

SO close to a critical threat too :(

Pavel, found all your good rolls. I wasted them on ride checks. My bad.

Geez, 21 AC and can't catch a break. >_<

Geez, 21 AC and can't catch a break. >_<

I thought that ogre would have been dropped by now with 29 points of damage. Extra tough ogres these are. I guess Shalelu's tales were correct.

If I survive till next round, probably gonna spend a hero point to try and kill this thing.

Are we using hero points? I thought Dreaming Warforged said we weren't.

No hero points. Sorry.

I'm good with you enlarging Pavel and Izumi, Sorin. They're the tanks, I'm the extra damage guy. Keeping the attention on them gives me a chance to do surprise bursts of damage. Though it may be cool if we make it high enough where a 1st level spell will substantially increase my unarmed damage. That'll be a while.

Nah. Next level! Bull strength! I can't wait until Mage armor lasts longer, so I can keep one on you most of the day Raith.

I really do appreciate well played monsters. Unless driven by some other motivation, most creatures will flee from the threat of death.

Thanks for the feedback.

Which reminds me: as I wish to move through the module focusing on the main story arc, as this is PbP, I have to forgo XP and such. So please don't be surprised if at one point it seems to take longer to level, while at others, it seems too fast. I am prioritizing getting you through the story at the right level so it presents a fun challenge, thereby cutting some encounters and grouping others. I know we've discussed this before, but I just felt it was worth reminding.

Of course, feel free to let me know how you feel about this. I can always adjust.

Totally fine with that. Combat is where pbps can slow down a lot, so avoiding extraneous encounters is a good thing.

I'm with James on this, except to note that I do love the tactical aspect of pbp combat. It's alot easier to take some time and decide what your character WOULD actually do, and whether or not it's a good idea. (For example, a level 2 character charging a CR3 creature alone? Probably a bad plan. >_>)

It's definitely more difficult to coordinate tactics on PbP. I'm so used to over the table coordination that it feels a little strange that we are five moving as individuals with very loose coordination. On these lower level fights with non-caster physical mobs, we can do ok. But if we make it to higher level, separating as we've done is likely to spell our death.

I'm sure you all are the same. At higher level when parties spread out they get destroyed. Get separated by walls and other control spells, then picked apart. Divide and conquer is a powerful tactic.

We should always maintain easy heal range as much as possible. Within one move. Draw the enemy to us. Control their movement rather than them controlling ours. Use cover as well against missile users. Attack from range when we can to soften enemies before engaging.

Maybe Izumi, Pavel, or Sorin can have us practice some unit tactics.

Dreaming Warforged,

It seems to me the focus is more on keeping the pace going and focusing on combat. I'm fine with that. But I'm not going to do much role-playing with Ameiko if that's what we're doing. I'm going to make my daily check to take advantage of my trait and have you assume they go through the common flirtation, chatting, and behaviors a person like Raith would display towards his lady love Ameiko to elicit the favorable response to activate the trait. That is what I've been trying to do with the role-playing.

If there is someone attacking Ameiko, I'm sure you'll let me know. I'm assuming if I'm getting an attack bonus against creatures attacking her, Raith's feeling for her must be very strong. So that is something he would look out for on a constant basis.

I feel given how the role-playing between them has been handled to date, this is how to best handle the trait. So I'm able to take advantage of it, while not causing the GM to focus too much time on one character. Then I can imagine their interactions in my mind rather than having you spend too much time describing them. Hopefully that works for you and makes the mechanics of the trait easy to handle.

Those are good points. I find it challenging to keep a balance between all of these (combat, storyline, interaction with the world, interaction with chosen NPCs). I'm still finding my stride and will try things to see how it goes.

Also, the Four are higher level than you and make handling combat more difficult. Then they'll be lower level than you, which will also complicaye things. In a way, the bonus mechanics of the trait doesn't work so well... Something to look into over the coming days.

On the topic of interaction specifically, I would wish you keep at it, for it also motivates me, but understand that there will be times when I'll play along, others when I'll shift to the story. I must say that, so far, I had focused on the other aspects. I'll try to explore this dimension further.

Thanks for the input!

Once per day, you may attempt to earn a kind word or a smile from the NPC whom you have a crush on by making a DC 15 Charisma check. If you’re successful, the elation and joy at the attention gives you a +1 trait bonus on all saving throws for the remainder of the day. If you’re ever lucky enough to win the NPC’s love, this +1 trait bonus on saving throws applies at all times, as long as your relationship remains active.

This is the part of the trait I was attempting to activate. The combat bonus I can see being a problem with our different levels. You think the save bonus will be a problem as well?

We can try with you and Izumi adding an explicit reference. That will help me stay tuned.

It is also a problem that PBP has where characters can't really "interrupt" one another as they might in RL. Which means Ameiko can't really get a word in edgewise between Raith and Izumi. (Also, she might be purposefully ignoring us). I don't see an easy way around this problem. Would you like to us to leave more cues in our posts if we expect a full response from Ameiko? (Some things can be assumed, but others need to be played out). It's not JUST the trait bonuses I'm worried about, I'm worried about how both Raith and I's characters are going to grow and how the relationship with Ameiko will affect that.

As far as combat goes: The NPCs do outlevel us now, yes, and according to the AP, they fall behind in levels as we go up. This is designed to make the PCs the "heroes"... but also leads to some of the problems already mentioned. How to fit them into combat? Right now there's nothing can be done. They're all ex-adventurers and the like, while we are just starting, so they are going to be higher level. However, as we go on, here is what having more "party" members allows: tactics.

From looking at their stats, the four primary NPCs form a pretty good group on their own (bard, rogue, cleric and ranger), but other than a ranger, we don't have a single one of those in our group. What that means, DW, is that you can throw larger encounters at us with more tactical meaning.

That's just my thought anyway.

The thing is- yes, he can throw bigger encounters at us with all the NPCs helping out. But that makes more homework for DW than really necessary, adding so many new factors. We could try to get around it by assigning an NPC to each player to run as a second character in combat.

It's a strange idea- one that is likely completely impractical- but we could also get other posters to play the many NPCs we're toting around. Granted, perhaps Koya isn't the best choice given her age and support role, but Sandru, Shalelu and Ameiko are all experienced adventuring types. Some or all could start joining in in some capacity, becoming PCs.
Probably a bad idea, but I thought I would throw it out there.

I completely understand not running the NPCs. That would be difficult in a PbP. Easier to handle in a narrative fashion as Dreaming Warforged has done. I like progress over getting bogged down in minute details.

Thursdays kick my butt as usual, and the group almost falls apart haha.

Also, Izumi sure can be a smarmy bastard.

You all gain a level from the adventures and the experience gained while traveling north. Let me know what you do with it.

Considered a level of either rogue or barbarian (I like the idea of Pavel flipping out in a fight) but I think there's more benefit to just staying focused on the ranger class.

HP: 1d10 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5
Okee doke, so that's going with the average of 5 to get 7 hp.

Any input on favored terrain? Seems like narratively it would make the most sense to take either forest or mountain/hill given the path we've taken and Varisia's geography.

So we have now gone through our "forming" and "storming" phases of group building. CB is right that while we would certainly still have tensions, that the petty stuff is all straightened out by now and we would typically be more accepting of one another and our various viewpoints.

Bull-strength...woop!

Wizard
1d6 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3hp
average of 3 to get 4hp

Learn Spells: Protection from Arrows, Bull Strength

Feat: Eschew Materials

Skills:
Spellcraft +2 = 3
Survival +1 = 2
Lingusistics +1 = 2 (Skald)
Perception +1 = 1
Knowledge (arcana) +1 = 2

Garands hp 1d8 ⇒ 7

Woo! A blessing from the dice gods!

Considered a level of either rogue or barbarian (I like the idea of Pavel flipping out in a fight) but I think there's more benefit to just staying focused on the ranger class.

HP: 1d10+2
Okee doke, so that's going with the average of 5 to get 7 hp.

Any input on favored terrain? Seems like narratively it would make the most sense to take either forest or mountain/hill given the path we've taken and Varisia's geography.

Skills- 6 class + 1 Intelligence +1 human= 8

Feat- Endurance (bonus), Shield Focus

I always forget that humans get an extra skill point... which means I've had 2 unspent skill points this whole time >_<. I thought about getting Mounted Combat... unless I have my Mount class ability, my armor check penalty is too high to really make use of the feat.

HP: 1d10 ⇒ 4, so 5 plus 1 for Con = 6 more HP + 1 favoured class.

Feat: Power Attack (Also considered Gang Up or Improved Disarm... thoughts?)

Class Feature: Cavalier's Charge

Skill Ranks:
Ranks gained: 4 class + 1 int + 1 human + 2 unspent = 8
Craft (Weapons): +1 = 3
Craft (Armour): +1 = 1
Diplomacy: +1 = 2
Handle Animal: +1 = 1
Knowledge (Nobility): +1 = 2
Perform (Oratory): +1 = 2
Ride: +2 = 3

Kay, updating Garand.

HP +8 (rolled 7, +1 for Con) = 22
Added Improved Initiative for Init Mod +6
Added 1 rank to Handle Animal (to +6) and Perception (to +11), and 2 ranks to Linguistics (to +3, +Elven, +Terran) and Survival (+11?)
Added 2 2nd level spells (flaming sphere and lesser restoration, currently)
Gained Trackless step and another minute per day of the Totem transformation I haven't used yet. :)

Bear-spirit gained +2 natural armor (now 19) and +1 Str and +1 Dex (now 16) upping his BAB, attacks, Reflex save and damage rolls by 1 each. He also gained evasion, 'cause nothing says 'WTF?' like a bear nimbly evading a fireball.

Numbers may be squiffy, I'm doing this from memory because my computer is slogging and doesn't want to have two windows open at the same time. Shoulda restarted after logging off SWTOR. :)

There was something wonky with the number of languages I had, and some mention of a Cosmopolitan trait or feat that I must have had left over from another draft, so I axed that.