@Grum, until you can afford that, some potions or scrolls of Prot Evil?
The main thing that Benedict is saving for is a Banner of the Ancient Kings, to double the Flagbearer bonus and be able to use it on a longspear. That's still a ways away.
Moved a few more things to the "sell" list:
Rod of Lesser Extend: 1,500
Wand of Acid Arrow (15): 675 (not as good as our archers' arrows, and useless against a Black Dragon)
Wand of Magic Weapon (11): 82.5 (useless)
Wand of Reduce Animal (8): 60 (useless)
Scroll of Baleful Polymorph: 562.5 (too much of a gamble)
Apprentice's Cheating Gloves: 1,100 (William already has Mage Hand at will)
Potion of Gaseous Form: 375 (can be very nice, but maybe we can sell this)
Keeping:
Pigments
Wand of Stinking Cloud (13) (pretty potent spell against group)
Wand of Burning Hands (22, CL3) (swarm-killing)
That brings everybody's share from this distribution up to 1,546 rather than 675. So no need for Benedict to loan anything to Amkarang.
I really can't see a way in-character to selling the Pigments (which could make nearly anything the refugees need, even food) to get another numerical bonus here or there. It's up there with Decanter of Endless Water as the kind of thing that is not that useful to adventurers but amazingly useful to a community. We do have them to think about.
Everybody good with that? Benedict will want to take 6 days to upgrade Amkarang's belt. I think we have that much time. If Rhyna can provide the spells, he can craft it with a 4+ on the Spellcraft roll, and can use Inspired on the check. But that happens after 6 days of crafting.
I have no argument with the sell list if those that can use the items don't. I don't have anything specific on my buy list, but I'm interested to see what might be in the trader's 'cart', given the chance.
Sounds fine to me. Had a busy few days, working on getting leveled.
I think we were all healed up when this started. It was a couple days back to camp? And if we weren't, we would have had Aubrin's channeling.
Also, @Aerel, looks like your flat-footed AC is 16 so that crit did not confirm.
Do I have the status line flat-footed AC mis-calculated? Thanks for the check.
If Grum goes all Leroy Jenkins here, is he going to take it as a betrayal if Benedict does not charge alongside him?
Between the NL damage, Sleep arrows, and mistaken accusation, it is clear to Benedict this is not an enemy, but a potential ally. I don't want to kill him. And I don't think he would kill Grum if Grum charges. He could knock out Grum and then we could talk - unless Grum kills him.
But I don't want Benedict to betray a party member by inaction. I'm in a tough spot.
Aerel's update is finally posted.
All saves up by one, of course, and an iterative attack because he wasn't burning through arrows fast enough before.
I took Deadly Aim for his feat. Clustered Shots is probably next.
Hawkeye from his archer archetype improves and gives him a greater bonus to Perception and to range with his bow.
Six more skill points, which were distributed liberally - but Stealth and Survival are still at max.
I looked at the loot list and claimed arrows to replenish my quivers, updated my healing potions based on Benedict's comments in the thread a while back, and picked up five of the alchemists' fires.
Does anyone want to claim the silver arrows or the dragonbane arrows? Are we assuming that William and I each take half?
I am thinking to ask for weapon blanch, as suggested long ago, and wondering if my masterwork buckler might be something we could upgrade.
I think splitting the arrows between Aerel and William sounds good. I would not advise taking too many attack penalties when using those dragon-bane arrows, since it is important that they hit and dragons tend to have good AC.
Just wanted to say that I am quite glad to be in this game. Obviously PbP can keep going while we are all under "social distancing," so that's good. And did you all see the recruitment for Ironfang Invasion at level 4? The party had a near-TPK at Camp Redjaw because they faced all the opponents at once -- and also spent several rounds trying to collapse the guard tower. One PC escaped which led to the new recruitment to avenge the old party (most of the old players were bringing in new PCs but they had 1 or 2 spots open). Anyway, there was huge interest in the recruitment. I consider myself lucky to be in this game, and grateful it has kept going.
Absolutely! It’s no small feat that a party completely comprised of fighters has managed A. to survive in game and B. survive several GM transitions.
Glad you're all enjoying the game!
Shisumo is a tough act to follow.
Amkarang, note that you now have your belt upgraded to +2 Dex/Con.
Ah, cool. I’ve had a crazy few days getting home from the UK among all the coronavirus stuff, so I’m a bit out of it.
So speaking of planning, let's take stock of our resources:
Benedict used a fair amount of buffing potions in the Battle of Camp Redjaw, but had Rhyna brew him a few after that (quite a while ago now) and hasn't used them. Plus what we have found. So he has this fairly extensive stash for the Battle of Fort Trevelay:
Guidance
Owl's Wisdom
Aid
Shield of Faith
Prot Evil (2)
Bull's Strength
Cat's Grace
Invisibility
Resist Fire
Resist Acid
CLW (2)
Given time to prepare, he will certainly use many of these, or give them to other PCs if requested. Thinking about that... William, can you prepare an Enlarge Person? An Enlarged Amkarang with Bull's Strength, Combat Reflexes, his meteor hammer in Fortress Mode, and 20' reach would wreck a lot of opponents. Grum could do well with those buffs too, but Amkarang's greater reach and Combat Reflexes are a nasty combination if the terrain allows.
Also a Scroll of Haste that he got from the Darklands trader. He'll give that to William.
You all may have some potions on your own sheets, I am not sure.
In party loot: 1 CLW, 3 CMW, 4 Remove Fear, 2 Delay Poison, 2 Blur, assorted alchemical items. Blur probably to Amkarang and Grum?
Wands: Magic Missile (11 charges, CL 1), Magic Missile (elm wand, 12 charges, CL ??), Prestidigitation (31), Grease (5), Hold Person (8), CLW (46), Snare (14), Stinking Cloud (13), Burning Hands (22, CL 3)
Grum has the CLW, and has a good chance to use most of the rest, but of course William is the best to use any that are on his spell list. Sadly Hold Person didn't get Scarvinious, but if it does land it's a save-or-die (if one of us is nearby to CdG).
Grum is definitely doing well. I do see your point on potions. Benedict is so woefully underpowered for combat (having spent most of his feats and much of his point buy on skill things) that he rather needs the boost.
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Speaking of which...all you need right now for a serious boost is this:
(1) A spear or halberd with a flag on it.
(2) Power Attack
(3) +2 Str
(4) Knight’s Penant get battle as Heroism is +2 Hit and Damage for an hour. Very useful for a fighter and offsets your lack of Furious Focus
At which point you keep your AC due to Unhindering Shield, and get a giant spike in DPS. Plus, how cool would it be to fly the Red Banner of Phaendar?
It's not explicitly clear that Flagbearer works with the flag on a longspear unless you have a Banner of the Ancient Kings.
So I was holding off on switching to a 2-handed weapon until I could craft that item.
Anything on the bloodrager spell list I can use. I can switch out Magic Missile for Enlarge Person. The wands on my spell list are: Magic Missile Prestidigitation, Hold Person, Stinking Cloud, and Burning Hands.
William would also benefit from Bull's Str with the adaptive bow. Resist acid would be good for everyone.
As to the NPCs with us:
We had 2 general promotions here with later posts settling on allocating 1 to Ramtan (making him Expert 1 and trained in Stealth) and 1 to Rhyna, making her Adept3.
Additionally, both Jet and Rhyna got promotions from finding their things at Camp Redjaw. So that makes them Arist3 and Adept4.
We would bring, I think, the following 12 NPCs (with my best guess at how the promotions play out):
Aubrin the Green
Cierio
Jet, CG human aristocrat 3 (hp 10?, AC 14, att/dam +2/1d8, Con +0, Know: local +6, Sense Motive +6, Survival +6)
Rhyna, N human adept 4 (hp 14?, att/dam +1/1d4-1, Con +0, Heal +8, Knowledge (religion) +7, Spellcraft +7) (Assuming Wis went from 13 to 14 at L4) (Spells 3 0-level, 3 1st-level, 1 2nd-level)
Mershan, N human warrior 1 (hp 6, AC 14, att/dam +2/1d8+1, Con +1, Handle Animal +4)
Andrum, CN human warrior 1 (hp 6, AC 14, att/dam +2/1d8+1, Con +1, Handle Animal +4)
Toriya, NE gnome warrior 1 (hp 7, AC 11, att/dam +2/1d4, Con +2, Handle Animal +5)
Likolm, LN half-orc warrior 1 (hp 6, att/dam +2/1d6+1, Con +1, Handle Animal +4)
Yangvit, NG dwarf adept 1 (hp 4, att/dam -1/1d4-1, Con +1, Heal +5, Knowledge (religion) +4, Spellcraft +4) (spells 3 0-level, 2 1st-level)
Ramtan, N halfling Expert 1 (hp 4, AC 12, att/dam +2/1d3, Con +1, Perception +6, Stealth +9, Survival +4, Climb +6, Acrobatics +7, Sleight of Hand +7)
Minshiel, CN elf commoner 1 (hp 2, AC 11, att/dam +2/1d8, Con +0, Craft: armor +5, Handle Animal +4, Perception +6) (Good Perception and bow proficiency)
Varesha, NE tiefling commoner 1 (hp 3, AC 11, att/dam +1/1d4+1, Con +1, Craft: paintings +5, Handle Animal +5, Perception +4) (Just in case we need to use the Marvelous Pigments)
Enough allies to help us with Aid Another, some scouting, and holding ground after we take it. And some healing.
Can one of the adepts use the CLW wand so we aren't wasting charges to a bad roll?
Can we clean up the spreadsheet so we aren't scrolling through all of the things that have been allotted and used? At least make a new page with the old stuff removed?
I have noted 5 dragonbane arrows and 5 alchemical arrows to Aerel and the same allotment to William; I do not know if William has actually recorded his on his sheet yet.
I did not obtain any weapon blanch from the trader officially, but that was my intention. Maybe next time.
Benedict, that NPC arrangement works for me (I've already got Cireio, Aubrin and Kining, selected but I'll switch out the dwarf).
The way I figure it, I'll let you control the NPCs whenever they're near but I won't roll their initiatives and always have them going at the end of the round. That way, they're "taking your cues" as you need them.
@Aerel, I have substantially cleaned up the loot list. There may be more to do in checking back through previous posts if something was claimed. The good news is, as we get higher level, a few hundred GP here or there do not matter much. Agree on the adepts using the CLW wand, although charges are not actually wasted on a fail as far as I know - the main risk is Grum rolling a 1 and getting locked out for the day.
@All - I have included columns on the loot list for what you all got from the found stuff. This does not include what you might have expended (other that CLW/CMW potions, which I am pretty sure about). Nor does it account for stuff you bought from the Darklands merchant.
@GM - my assumption for the NPCs was that they would work as in the early part of this game.
Also, you now have followers! While they are accompanying you, on the second or later round of any combat, you can make a Diplomacy or Intimidate check, DC 12, as a free action to get an Aid Another bonus to your AC or your next attack, to have someone hand you something, to have someone make a First Aid attempt, or to have someone drag a fallen ally away from a battle. With a DC 17 check they will make an attack for you, but even the warrior is likely to go down fast if someone actually attacks them.
My hope is that the archers can make Aid Another attempts to distract the enemy (even though that isn't how Aid Another normally works), without putting themselves in direct danger. It kind of hand-waves the NPC actions and gives the players a bit of reason to invest in a social skill even if they are not "the face." I am not sure if this was the actual rule from the AP, or just for Book 1, or just Shisumo's addition. I do realize that in some situations we may need to place icons for them and have them be less abstracted. Do let me know when that is the case.
Kining was rather surly and not all that useful for our mission (other than Stealth) so I figured to not make too many demands of her.
@Aerel, I have substantially cleaned up the loot list. There may be more to do in checking back through previous posts if something was claimed.
Wonderful, it looks great!
Agree on the adepts using the CLW wand, although charges are not actually wasted on a fail as far as I know - the main risk is Grum rolling a 1 and getting locked out for the day.
Ah, very good, you made me look and it was my misunderstanding of the rules here. You are correct, sir.
Hey, I feel like I'm way overdue to say this. I know a lot of people that I share a virtual table with are involved in the healthcare industry.
This is to all the doctors, nurses, technicians, eldercare specialists, all of those folks that spend their lives caring for the health of their fellow man.
Thank you. You need to hear this more often, but in this time of world-wide crisis more than ever, I want to say thank you.
And please, please take care of yourselves.
Hear, hear!
I would also like to thank the food producers, truck drivers, grocery store workers, utility workers, and the gnomes who make the Internet go. Everyone keeping our world functioning close to normal.
And my heart goes out to those thrown out of work by this.
I am in neither situation. I can work from home and have projects to keep me busy for months. And a family in my quarantine buble with me, the kids being young enough to not really mind. I know how fortunate I am.
Hope you all are doing okay.
@William - you do have that CL3 wand of Burning Hands.
Though as I said I would prioritize destroying the Large spider husks that do 2d8+12 damage.
HOld person and magic missile but no burning hands. I don't recall one either but I'm lucky I remember yesterday these days.
That wand was from the troll.
So speaking of planning, let's take stock of our resources:
Wands: Magic Missile (11 charges, CL 1), Magic Missile (elm wand, 12 charges, CL ??), Prestidigitation (31), Grease (5), Hold Person (8), CLW (46), Snare (14), Stinking Cloud (13), Burning Hands (22, CL 3)
Somehow I missed that. Most of those I can use. Did we distribute them or sell them or do we still have all of them. If we had them I would have them on me.
So the plan is that we set up in the path of the patrol, with:
Amkarang as a fake prisoner
Benedict disguised as a hobgoblin
Aerel in hiding presumably
Grum, you really want to be hiding rather than a fake prisoner? I guess if you are behind a boulder or something there is a huge penalty to Perception (-10 per foot of thickness for a wall) so that might work. And you can use your Ironfang Survivor trait to roll twice on the Stealth check.
William hiding with Grum?
I'll be in hiding ready to rain arrows on them.
William's plan of trapping the next bunch has some merit. I am not sure how much effort it would involve, but it could prevent them from escaping.
Realistically, I don't think we can trap them in a way that will prevent escape, it will just slow them down enough that the option to escape comes with the lack of being able to defend themselves and that we can probably kill them even if they tried to get through the barricade. Besides the barricade provides a focus for them and I would think that is where they expect us to be and we end up surprising them from behind.
I think you could accomplish that without Aerel's contribution. It's possible that he could go full-stealth to check out the unguarded bridge while you deal with thinning out the hob-herd.
I've got a range of 35 feet and a weight limit of 5 lbs so here couldn't be a grapple and I don't think I can use mage hand to tie a knot but maybe I can. I've always thought of mage hand as moving things not manipulating them, after all there is an open/close cantrip to open a door which some I am sure are less than 5 pounds.
I was envisioning more like the process you use to get a heavy rope over a tree branch. First a small stone tied to a long string, then get the string looped over, get the stone back, tie the rope to the end of the string, and use the tree branch as a pulley to get the rope over.
Here, we would do that horizontally. Use Mage Hand to move a 3-lb item with a long string on it across the 30' gap and around a tree. Pull the item back and you now have a loop of string crossing the chasm. Tie a silk rope to one end of the string and pull the silk rope across, so it now forms the loop. Tie it off securely on both ends. Go hand-over-hand on the underside of the silk rope.
It probably wouldn't take more than a few minutes to set up.
But as I said, throwing a grappling hook on a tree branch hanging over the chasm is more mundane and a classic action movie trope.
Using the Marvelous Pigments somehow would be a high-magic solution.
Aerel could potentially create a diversion at the unguarded bridge, drawing away guards from the guarded bridges or at least distracting them from an assault by the rest of the party. However, these guys are pretty professional and might not fall for it.
I am inclined to go upstream thinking that the river grows as it moves downstream. Aerel is willing to scout either direction or both for a mile to see if there is any improvement in the odds of crossing safely.
Ok, I learned something. I always thought you had to be able to cast the spell level, but it turns out it is caster level. So even though I can only cast 1st level spells my CL is 5 and I can activate spells off of a scroll. The only problem now is I need to decifer the scroll with a DC 23 Spellcraft check since I don't have read magic prepared and I need to be able to read the scroll which requires light.
It's not dark; we ended up doing this in the daytime (early evening).
But I should have given you the scroll earlier so you could decipher it. Bad planning on my part.
If you can't make the Spellcraft check then we face the dragon without Haste.
Sorry everyone, but my internet has been down for hours now. I'll post an update once my computer can talk with the world again.
If their call for help does bring the dragon, I have a few ideas.
One is run into a building to get some cover. Risks triggering another encounter.
Another is specifically run to where the dragon came from, to loot its lair - and thereby lure it back to a place we can fight it in melee.
And the third, which I like but is risky, is to fight it in the open. We have two skilled archers with dragon-bane arrows (and I think the flag bonuses apply if the archers are within 30' of Benedict, even if the target is not). Benedict has 1 Tanglefoot Bag himself and there are 3 more in the party loot. He can use Barroom Brawler to pick up Splash Weapon Mastery for better range. I imagine the touch attack isn't too hard, but the dragon will probably pass the DC 15 Reflex save. If it fails - and it might, if it gets hit with a few of these - then it crashes to the ground and Grum and Amkarang can kill it.
I like the looting its lair angle.
Sorry for missing my post. The store I work at has been getting set up to reopen, and I'm one of the people helping to get that done. The past few days have been mostly occupied by manual labor, so I haven't had much energy to do anything but fall asleep when I'm back home. Fortunately, opening day is tomorrow and I should get back to normal.
Benedict will move out towards the trebuchets and assist Aerel next round. He is not a great archer and these guys are quite to hard to hit with the cover they have, but we need to clear them out.
I'd really like to do some retraining if possible after this book is over. Benedict evolved organically and tried to cover a lot of gaps, more than he needs to now I think.
Good to hear, Am! Take your time if you still need a break after getting back to normal. There's a lot of that going around, I hear. Hopefully we'll all stay safe.
Benedict, that's fine. There should be some downtime (not much, since it is a war after all) for some retraining between this book and the next.
Benedict will move out towards the trebuchets and assist Aerel next round. He is not a great archer and these guys are quite to hard to hit with the cover they have, but we need to clear them out.
Sounds good!
Glad to hear your employer is able to ramp back up, Amkarang. Take your time!