Even Aerel is having some success this time!
How close are you all to fifth level? The spriggans were a pretty good amount for everyone -- to the tune of 960 each.
By my count, Benedict is at 13,000 exactly. 5th level is 15,000.
Because we have 5 PCs, we are probably a bit behind what the AP would have for a 4-person party.
Given that it seems like we'll level once I'm gone, I'll put my fifth level stats in my profile.
William hasn't posted in a while. I'll send him a pm.
Rewards!
600 xp each(?)
58 arrows total
75 gp total
masterwork chain shirt (3)
magical hide armor
masterwork longbow (4)
masterwork longsword (3)
masterwork sickle (2)
flask of alchemists' fire (8)
potion of cure moderate wounds (4)
magical cloak
vial of oil of magic weapon (2)
Amkarang-bot is a beast!
I would rather have just killed the hobgoblin, but since Aerel gave him a chance to do something to save his life, I offered him a thing he could do - take back our 'warning.' I am hoping that an ordinary hobgoblin won't have the Sense Motive to see through the Bluff - while the commanders might, that's the benefit of using an intermediary to convey the message. Mostly hoping to decrease morale, get some desertions, and maybe get the shamans to waste time on a wild goose chase.
I don't imagine anybody will want the hide armor unless it really awesomely good, but maybe the cloak is useful. We'll need William to identify. Lot of stuff to sell in the future.
I don't think we know much about the Blight in character, although there is a bit in the Player's Guide.
Well, given that Benedict's Bluff was too close to an actual thing that the hobgoblin knows about, I say we just kill him. There is no point in letting enemies live if we can't use them to spread misinformation.
I don't care if he survives or not, but Aerel thought to possibly get some information from him while he's weakest.
It's up to you if you want to interrogate him some more. I didn't roll a Sense Motive on him, since I thought it might be nice to use that opportunity to provide a bit of foreshadowing for future books in the AP.
There's almost no way we can let him live, and he probably knows that.
He's a soldier in an invading army. We're a guerrilla force without the capacity to keep POWs. I think even Good characters can have 'no quarter' as their policy in circumstances like this.
Maybe an outstanding Intimidate could have him clutching at straws, telling us everything, and swearing a blood oath to Asmodeus that he would abandon the Ironfang Legion and run away... in which case Benedict would let him live... but I don't think we will get much information out of the enemies overall.
Aerel wasn't expecting to get much out of him and certainly wasn't planning to let him live long. He was just hoping that catching the hobgoblin in a weakened state might translate to some new information. And maybe it did.
Really just saying that I am ready to move along.
Okay, no other attempts to intimidate? Just going to kill him and move on?
I'll try to get a post up this evening.
No further intimidation by Aerel. It's not his bag, I should stop trying.
Hey y’all, I’ve just found my way out of the woods. I’d love a recap on what’s happened, but if not I’ll have to take a few days to get back up to speed.
We were traveling with a group that turned out to have plans to have us killed when we reached the fort. I think you were here for that.
Trying to find the fort on our own, we encountered a rain-swollen river and rather than risk crossing it, we rested. After crossing it, we found that the trails around the fort were very difficult to figure out and stumbled into a hobgoblin ambush.
Finally finding the fort, there are creatures we failed to identify (gray-skinned, drunken, and cavorting) that appear to have wiped out a contingent of hobgoblins and hung them up to bleed dry.
Benedict was preparing to treat with them rather than assume they were a problem (enemy of my enemy kind of thing) and the archers were trying to climb one of the fort's towers from the outside to provide him cover when we were ambushed by a plant creature.
Roll a fortitude DC 16 save and if you fail, roll a d6. There are spoilers in the game thread for each of the 6 possible results.
I think that hits the high points, but I confess that I didn't go back through the thread to make sure.
Totally alright. Thanks for the refresher.
Also, Amkarang-bot wrecked the hobgoblins that ambushed us. He took 3 attacks and hit every time for 16, 17, and then 18 damage.
Benedict was dropped in the first full round of that fight before he got to act.
(So Benedict took it out on the hobgoblins as Amkarang-bot.)
Amkarang is up now - as Aerel said, first roll a DC 16 Fort save vs poison, and if you fail roll 1d6 for the effects (see spoilers in gameplay).
That's a level!
Do we get the benefits right away?
@Grum - Amkarang had the suggestion of everybody taking Linguistics (Minatan) so we could have a secret language for communication. Can you spare the skill point?
@All - anybody else who has a spare skill point, in addition to Linguistics, a point in Knowledge (Nature) might be useful even if it is not a class skill.
For Benedict:
HP: +7
BAB: +1
Skills: +7 (Linguistics-Minatan/Undercommon , Knowledge-Nature, Bluff, Diplomacy, Sense Motive, Perception, Spellcraft)
Saves: None
Class: Tactician 1/day (5 rounds) (Lastwall Phalanx)
Feat: Craft Wondrous Item
Sure, go ahead and level. I'll also say that the archers rejoin the melee types easily enough.
You are going into the front doors, right?
Correct, the front doors.
HP: +9
BAB: +1
Skills: 7 (Linguistics-Minatan, Craft: Bows, KN: Arcana, Dungeoneering, Nature, Perception, Spellcraft)
Class: Spell casting as Ranger with Bloodrager spell list. In Spellbook: Enlarge Person, Magic Missile, Magic Weapon, Shield, True Strike. Prepared Magic Weapon, Shield
Feat: Weap. Spec. Longbow
HP +9
Bab +1
Skills: 4 (Intimidate, Perception, Survival, Swim)
Feat: Combat Reflexes
I’m out of town, away from my update, so there will be a delay before I can level. Should be tomorrow evening easy enough. Bot me as-is, please.
Thanks for the update, Aerel!
So we found 19 Alchemists' Fire at Camp Redjaw, had 7 left from earlier, and then got 8 more in the archer ambush on the way to this Fort.
We have a lot of this stuff and everybody should have some.
I will do a better job allocating our loot going forward, probably splitting out new tabs for each PC.
Will also look to craft a Swarmbane Clasp for Grum, as swarms are among our weaknesses. Along with haunts and incorporeals. Barroom Brawler is also a really good feat to pick up, can deal with any of those.
Also, can Grum 5' step into the square where the dropped construct was? That way I think we should be able to attack the far square of the swarm which will be 10' away from Grum and we won't take the -4 penalty.
@William - we got you a scroll of Shield and a scroll of True Strike back here and I don't think you ever used them. I could be wrong about that. But if I am right, you wouldn't need to take those as starting spells, could just scribe them from the scrolls.
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Yeah, swarmbane seems like it would be downright useful.
Also...switching my feat from advanced weapon training to barroom brawler, as AC hasn’t happened yet. Why?
Because 1/day Grum will be able to use Barroom Brawler to get the feat Advanced Weapon Training. This will net him for 1 minute “Item Mastery: The fighter gains an item mastery feat as a bonus feat, which functions with any magic weapon he wields, even if the magic weapon does not meet the feat’s normal requirements. He must meet all of the feat’s prerequisites.”
This means that Grum will have, 1 time per day he can cast 1 of the following:
+2 enchantment bonus to a stat that lasts 24 hours
+1 Resistance bonus to saves for 5 resist to 1 Element for 24 hours
Targeted Dispel
Shield AC bonus equal to 1/3 Fort save
See Invisibility!
Burning Hands
2x CLW or 1x CMW
Item Mastery is not the only thing to pick up if you flex into Advanced Weapon Training -- you can also get the fantastic Warrior Spirit ability. So many good options.
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I know, right? It’s too bad the limitation is 1 per 5 levels. Getting on demand Bane is amazing!
But for the party...at lvl6 Grum will also be able to cast dimension door and Lessor restoration. Things we may desperately need.
A question though. Is there any way to get more uses out of barroom brawler? GM, would you allow extra martial flexibility?
Abundant Tactics is an Advanced Weapon Training option that gives extra uses per day of feats with limited usage.
Ok, with scribing those scrolls I added Expeditious Retreat and Ray of Enfeeblement.
Hit Points: +7
Base Attack: +1
Skills: +5 (Linguistics (Minatan), Craft (Traps), Know (Geography), Know (Nature), Stealth, Survival)
Feat: Weapon Specialization (Longbow)
Class Abilities: Expert Archer +1 (+1 to hit and damage with bows)
I still want to take Focused Shot once my sneak attack damage comes online, but that's a bit down the road still. Is anyone familiar with a feat (available to us, not third-party) that 1) allows a ranged character to make attacks of opportunity or 2) allows ranged attacks without provoking attacks of opportunity.
That would be Snap Shot and its sequel to make AOOs with a bow (though the range is very limited).
Point Blank Master removes the AOOs for using a bow, but requires Weapon Specialization (which is I think a very good feat for Aerel to take).
Stabbing Shot is an elf-only feat that works if you are caught in melee.
Generally I have seen archers annihilate everything with the machine gun of Weapon Specialization-Deadly Aim-Rapid Shot-Manyshot-Clustered Shots. The "one big hit" build using Focused Shot is intriguing for disrupting enemy spellcasters and could be fun tactically but is pretty far behind on damage. Overwatch Style closes the gap a bit.
As to your Sneak Attack, would Benedict using Greater Feint cause an opponent to lose his Dex bonus against the entire party's attacks? That could be a really good way to make use of his Bluff skill... and Aerel could even be using Rapid Shot rather than just a single attack... it would be three feats for Benedict to get there, so Level 8.
Thanks for the information, Benedict.
My sneak attack is not going to be a major source of damage, so I would not want you to invest so many feats.
I did settle on Weapon Specialization after some false starts, if you saw my post before I made my final edit. Deadly Aim is high on my wish list and Clustered Shots isn't a bad choice in the near future.
Ah, but my archetype trades away weapon training in favor of it's focus on bows. But we don't want everyone taking the same feats, right?
Stalwart, I'm back, but you are rolling way better than I do, so please, carry on.
Yikes! I don't want to run you off!
Anybody got a preference on tactics here?
We try to talk - Diplomacy or Bluff?
Or Aerel snipes the guy and runs back up the stairs, leading him into an ambush?
I think we have figured out IC that these guys have DR/Cold Iron, so there's that.
The ones that were halfway sober (that we fought outside) were pretty hostile. The ones that were totally drunk we could Bluff. I don't want to rely on the same trick too often but it has been helpful.
We could improve a Bluff with Benedict using his Alter Self ability to take the form of a Spriggan like we met earlier. That is only 1/day, though.
That's assuming he wants to do anything but sit there and drink. I can try to tick him off - I'm better at that than bluffing - and flee into your waiting gauntlet.
Figured I'd save the Alter Self for a situation with more foes (it also has combat benefits). Benedict should be okay here without it, but we'll see.
And if he wants to just sit and drink, we can have Aerel tick him off.
Grum, I think you are still upstairs lying in wait.
Benedict went downstairs to try to lure this guy up but it seems like no luck there.
So Benedict will take the attack and then withdraw upstairs.