Benedict will take the Boots of Elvenkind if nobody minds. He's got a fair Acrobatics already, so it could help him with tactical maneuvering through threatened areas.
Let's also split up the new potions we found and put them on our character sheets. My ideas:
6 potions of Magic Weapon - 3 each to Amkarang and Grum. Benedict has the warhammer.
3 potions of Owl's Wisdom - 1 each to Amkarang, Benedict, and Grum.
2 potions of Bull's Strength - 1 each to Amkarang and Grum.
2 potions of Shield of Faith - 1 each to Amkarang and Grum.
2 potions of CMW - 1 each to Amkarang and Grum.
2 potions of CLW - Benedict.
1 potion of Aid - Benedict.
Make our heaviest hitters able to hit harder and stay in the fight longer.
Sounds great.
Does Grum want the Warhammer? Okay. Then I don't think he needs oils of Magic Weapon, and Benedict will take them instead.
I was going to take it. With Arcane Strike, you can already bypass DR/magic.
I wrote a couple of players from the other table, but no reply. Actually I've had a few PMs go unreplied lately, wonder if people are seeing the notifications.
Anyway, time for a re-recruitment?
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I like Orianna, the tiefling archer build. Looks viable and the character is a female tiefling...while we have a male aasimar. A nice balance there.
Also does this AP take us into dwarven lands? If so I’d lean towards a dwarven submission if it comes up. That and dwarven fighters are iconic, so it’d be nice to have one in an all fighter group.
I'll PM my opinions once the recruitment is closed.
Yeah, a dwarf would be cool. I like dwarves and they are iconic fighters.
In terms of geographic origin and background, I'm hoping we get a Nirmathi submission. Somebody with ties to Phaendar or the Chernasardo Rangers.
Maybe someone else who was in Phaendar and escaped before we did.
I've officially closed the recruitment. Please feel free to review the submissions and let me know (through pm, preferably) which ones are your favorite. Benedict, thanks for your thoughts.
Hello all
So to immediately start with the questions: How is HP done?
And my second question: Would it be ok for me to carry large supplies of food stuffs with me on the ox? It would basically be enough for an entire trade caravan to reach Almas, Andoran's capital, so that you'd only have to restock on perishables along the way (so It'd be mostly things like dried meats and sauerkraut).
As for where Hama stands now, she's still very flexible. She carries a bunch of Dwarven Ram Hammer, basically throwing hammers, and she has a Dwarven Giant Sticker, so an enormous spear.
At the moment she's made to switch between throwing hammers and hitting people with them. If needed I could throw that around next level by swapping out Point-Blank shot for something else.
If I do fully commit I'd have to decide between dual wield, and putting my lvl 4 or the level 8 stat advancement into Dex for it, and getting a two-hander, the Dwarven Sphinx Hammer (I might actually buy one of those before we start as I don't think I'll be able to get my hands on one later).
So yes, the only thing I'm sure on is her dedication to Dwarven weaponry and that she will be picking up Dwarven Hatred Style once she has some more experience fighting hobs.
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For HP it is max 1st level and then 1/2+1
This is just me, but if you are going pure throwing build then I’d swap dodge for Precise Shot (otherwise hitting anything will be hard). From there rapid shot and Deadly Aim become must-haves.
As for switch hitting, it’s much easier to go two-handed. Str18 and power attack is all that is needed to do maximum damage in close combat. That’s pretty feat light.
If you are going dual wielding, I’d go with two dwarven warshields. Why? Once they are both +1 bashing, then they will do 2d6 damage each. Throw in Improved shield bash with two weapon fighting and you’ve got +2 AC as well! It’s a dwarven fighting style where you hit like a truck and tank as well.
Sadly you can’t throw those shields. But it’s hard to have everything.
Welcome!
The throwing build looks cool - and a bludgeoning weapon with Ricochet Toss is something I can wrap my head around. That can get rather feat intensive, but as Grum said you don't need any feats other than Power Attack to use it effectively in melee.
Or, you could use a dorn-dergar and be a dwarven version of Amkarang! Reach is a nice advantage to have. Strange that the dorn-dergar is not a trip weapon, though. In fact none of the dwarven weapons are? Odd.
Dwarven Hatred Style should be great for this AP (and if you wanted +4 bonuses, you could take Dedicated Adversary - goblinoid).
As to the stuff on the cart, that's up to the GM. How much food you have, and how many other supplies (like for crafting). Tracking our ragged band's food supplies is a big part of this AP so I don't imagine it's going to be a huge windfall - but even bringing a decent amount of food would let our band get over our paranoia and accept you. (The last random stranger who happened across our camp got beheaded.)
I'm up for working Benedict's backstory into yours if it would be helpful. It's a long journey from the Mindspin foothills to Absalom, so he could have joined up with your caravan multiple times. He'd have been escorted by a Pharasman priestess as a child on his way to the great city about 15 years ago, and by himself on trips back and forth every few years since then.
Thanks for the invite. The alias should be done. I do wonder if I should switch over to using the bow primarily instead of the quarterstaff, it would give more of a ranged option.
The dual wielding would only be a thing with the throwing weapons. I would not make a pure melee build with that purely because I already have a melee dual wield guy running around elsewhere.
As for the Dodge, I'd keep that. It's a requirement for Close-Quarters Thrower, with that I won't provoke for making thrown attacks in melee. The only question whether I'd take that or Precise Shot at lvl 4, the other would be at 5.
As for two handed throwing, that would necessitate grabbing the Two-Handed Thrower feat because without that throwing a two-handed weapon is a full round action.
Ricochet Toss is on my list of things I want to get.
As for tripping, Heroes of the Fringe does offer feat chain that allows me to make ranged trip attempts with a thrown bludgeoning weapon but that would require a bunch more feats as well (Dirty Fighting and Improved Trip to qualify for starters)
As for the Dorn-Dergar, Amkarang is the reason I didn't go for that. I didn't want to double up, it's more fun if everyone has their own shtick.
If I'd go pure two-handed melee I'd stick to the Dwarven Giant Sticker I have now.
I did forgot to get a Dwarven Boulder Helmet though.
EDIT: Hello William. I'm not sure how useful using a bow as a CoAA is. I do know the Shielded Mage feat is pretty good for them, if using a shield.
As for tying background together, I'd be all for it.
Hama travelled between Kraggodan and Katheer for the last 30 orso years of her life, stopping at all mayor cities along the way (and Absalom as that allowed avoiding awkwardness at the Taldor-Qadira border). You might even have met her parents and brother ans those also worked this route before switching to others several years ago. Hama would probably have remembered you as well, considering you are an Aasimar.
@William - welcome! As I said in the recruitment thread, we can adapt our tactics according to the capabilities we have. So it is up to you. With too many melee types, there is the risk of some of us not being able to find a space to attack from if we are in a confined space, though much of this AP has been in more open areas. And Benedict can move back to be a ranged combatant if space is tight.
If you want to be a frontliner, I might suggest longsword (both Aroden's and Iomedae's weapon) and shield rather quarterstaff. AC is more important than in some other games since our healing is limited. Shielded Mage lets you cast with a hand carrying a heavy shield (your Armor Training lets you bypass the Shield Focus requirement). We have at least one MW longsword lying around I think.
Also, willing to tie Benedict's backstory into William's if you want, but being from Phaendar, William probably knows many of our NPCs so would be trusted.
@Hama - great. Benedict used to try to disguise his aasimar nature, but probably had at least a few bad Disguise checks on his various trips.
With 3-4 frontliners, we could probably make sure you usually have a safe space to throw from (or could 5' step and throw, or just make a melee attack), so Close-Quarters Thrower might not be essential right away. But Dodge is useful anyway. Keep in mind that at level 5 you can take the feat Advanced Weapon Training, which has some great options.
Welcome to the game William and Hama!
Welcome, William and Hama, and I'm glad you're already getting acquainted and your characters finalized. As expected, this has been a busy day and a half! I'm going to need a little bit longer to go over all the character info once they're finalized. Feel free to make whatever adjustments you need to feel comfortable with your characters.
I'm not sure how much you've looked at the gameplay thread so far, but we're at a pretty good point to add a couple new players. I've also got a plan for why Jie and Amelie will be moving on. Hopefully, I'll have a gameplay post up in the next day or two.
I actually have another idea on how to build Hama and that is as what some call a "power turtle". I'd stick to the Giant Sticker but instead of wielding it as a two-handed weapon I'd grab the Shield Brace feat and use it one handed. That would also require me to get Phalanx Formation so that I can stab into melee from behind you guys without any issue.
It might also involve me switching to Tower Shields and the associated Mobile Bulwark Style. Basically she'd be a walking fortress and a good person to hide behind if needed. Oh, and a ridiculously high AC.
That said, this option is mainly interesting if William decides to focus on archery.
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Shield Brace: “You can use a two-handed weapon sized appropriately for you from the polearm or spears weapon group while also using a light, heavy, or tower shield with which you are proficient. The shield’s armor check penalty (if any) applies to attacks made with the weapon.”
You don’t use it one handed. You use it two handed and have a shield, so you get full benefits of two handed fighting. It’s an amazing feat.
One of our original PCs used Shield Brace, though I think she used the polearm one-handed like a Phalanx Fighter would or a PFS fighter.
Remember that the shield's armor check penalty applies with Shield Brace, on top of the Tower Shield's -2 penalty. And although there are ways to reduce the -10 ACP from a Tower Shield, they take a while to come online. Unhindering Shield with a buckler is another option that gives you less AC but more flexibility.
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For shield brace, armor expert trait with a darkwood heavy shield (or fighter armor training) reduces acp to 0.
For tower shield at -10 ACP, best I can think of is darkwood material (-8) armor expert (-7) Tower Shield Specialist archetype (-4) Sash of the War Champion (-3) Tower Shield Specialist Feat (-0 ACP)
Boom! 0ACP. Use shield brace and you can get two handed bonus as well, for solid damage output.
Still -2 to Hit for using a tower shield, but that goes away at lvl5.
For style use a two handed spear. Thrust over the tower shield. Look cool while impaling people.
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Furthermore, wear fullplate (-6 ACP), Masterwork (-5) Fighter (-4) War Sash (-3) Armor Expert (-2) And Comfort Enchantment (-1)
The most heavily armored character, traveling in comfort :)
Well, it's been a year and a half and we've almost gone up three levels. So I tend to look at what comes online sooner. The Tower Shield Specialist feat requires Ftr8? And the archetype gives up Weapon Training. It's certainly an interesting build, though.
I don't know what feat to pick up at 4, or whether to retrain the Ftr2 feat. Thinking of Dirty Fighting and Barroom Brawler. Or another Skill Focus (as his archetype lets him do). Barroom Brawler is great for things like swarms, haunts, invisible foes, etc.
You can do better than the Tower Shield Specialist, mainly because it trades away a lot of good things for something any fighter can get via feats. The biggest thing is that it trades away Advanced Weapon Training. it also trades away Bravery, which I need for later when I want to add that as a bonus to my initiative.
The Tower Shield Specialist feat you listed allows you to apply armor training to your Tower Shield. Should I take that asap it will reduce the penalty from -10 to -5. Make it Mithrall and we're at -1 (since it's masterwork as well). That means that by level 11 the thing is at 0. Only 1 feat and no equipment needed beyond the shield itself.
As for the standard -2 penalty, the Mobile Bulwark Style chain fixes that while at the same time allowing you to apply it's AC to CMD vs bull rush and overrun and half of it is added to Touch AC. In addition you can get total cover vs attacks and grant total cover to an adjacent ally.
If going that way I'd look at using a heavy shield for this moment though. Perhaps a darkwood one (assuming the GM is fine with me still swapping out a feat and some gear).
As for the weapon, it'd be my Dwarven Giant Sticker. It's a polearm that looks like a spear with a massive blade and it does 2d6 damage.
EDIT: Barroom Brawler is great in general. It's THE feat to fit in if you have room somewhere (together with Improved Initiative I think).
The mithral ACP reduction already accounts for the masterwork reduction, since it is assumed that many special material items are always masterwork (adamantine, mithral, darkwood, many others). That's why the mithral BP + Armor Expert combo is needed to get a rogue to 0 ACP. Mithral BP alone is still -1.
The Sash of the War Champion that Grum mentioned could get you to -0 by level 11... but level 11 is a long way away. Even level 8 is. And we can't count on being able to buy the gear we want. Benedict has planned on taking a crafting feat (under a prior GM's ruling that SLAs let you qualify), and maybe William can take one as well. That doesn't guarantee we'll have enough mithral for a tower shield, but the materials for a Sash might be easier to get.
A darkwood shield and polearm would work for now. +2 AC and 2-handed weapon damage with no penalty to attacks. That's +2 AC for one feat, whereas Dodge and Armor Focus would take 2 feats to give the same bonus. Once you can get enhancement bonuses to the shield, it can be up to +9 AC with just a heavy shield.
I don't think we need to wring out every possible advantage on AC, attacks, and damage. We're pretty good on those things. We need to look at shoring up weak points and dealing with things that fighters have trouble with. Like that damn wasp swarm. So, I guess Barroom Brawler is Benedict's L4 feat.
As far as making armor and shields goes: I intend to pick up the Master Armorer Advanced Armor Training. That way I get free "ranks" to Craft (Armor) equal to my BAB and can make magic armor.
William should be complete now. I have switched over to the bow being my primary. I have Point Blank, Precise, and Rapid Shot. Debated between that and deadly aim. I picked up a MWK Longsword and Mwk Buckler.
@GM, let us know if you want us to do anything to move the story along. We're moving to the caves ASAP, then hopefully spending the next day hunting and replenishing our stocks.
I thought you might like to do some "goodbye" posts. But I can move things along if you're not interested.
DM, how do you feel about Hama bringing in more resources for the refugees? The idea would be that she arrives with a single pack ox still bearing part of it's load.
Another question: Did you guys save the alchemist from Phaendar?
Beyond some gold saved to possibly spend on the resources mentioned above, Hama is done. I swapped out Dodge for Shield Focus (probably grabbing Dodge again later) and Point-Blank Shot for Shield Brace. I also sold the throwing hammers and turned the heavy steel shield into a heavy darkwood shield.
I don't have any problems with you bringing additional supplies. That's fine.
The alchemist was not saved, however.
Welcome! I'll get you into the game in short order!
Ok, I'll just post the resources she'll bring here as they will become communal and as such it's not that useful on her sheet. It's all quite cheap. The list below cost 52 gp and 2 sp. For those interested in booze, she dumped that days ago as a distraction for hobgoblin soldiers that were trailing her. It worked.
The ox she brings is packed as heavily as she could without slowing down too much. It used to be one of four pulling her wagon but she lost the rest and the wagon itself to the hobgoblins.
200 lbs of beans
100 lbs of cheese
50 lbs of oranges
50 lbs of nuts (hazel and walnut)
500 lbs of potatoes
100 lbs of turnips
5 lbs of salt
20 lbs of sugar
2 lbs of honey
50 lbs of bread
half filled barrel with 8 gallons of water
It's a shame the alchemist didn't make it, that would have been a major asset for a group like ours. Just means I'll stock up on some more alchemical goodies at the start.
Benedict does have a rank in Craft (Alchemy) for a +6, and can take some more ranks or a Skill Focus feat if needed. Because he is a Tactician, he can take Skill Focus feats with his fighter bonus feats - and then retrain them out every 4 levels if no longer needed.
We have the components for 600 gp of alchemical items but have not had any time to craft. Even our NPCs with Craft haven't had much chance to do so, it's been very tight just gathering enough food to get by so we've been putting everyone we can spare on Survival.
Do we have enough to pay to get a +1 meteor hammer from Navvi? It seems like we won't have another immediate chance to get one, and stumbling across a magical meteor hammer out in the wild seems unlikely.
Sure, if she can have one made.
I started adding up on the loot list stuff we can sell that is worth a decent amount. The biggest items are two sets of +1 Bracers of Armor. Selling them back for half-price, that is 500 each, for 1000 gp. These are magic items that we don't need.
Then there is actual coin and gems, just over 1000 gp.
Then various jewelry items (which I think sell at half price?) and some (but not all) of the masterwork armor and weapons.
Take a look at the loot list and add the sale value for items you want to sell. Right now I have it at 3,375 gp.
Jewelry and gems sell at full price. Weapons and armor and magic items sell at half price.
Unless anyone particularly needs them, I'd be fine with selling the two pairs of bracers of armor. Being fighters, we don't really seem to need armor alternatives.
Selling:
2 sets of Bracers of Armor +1 (1000 gp total)
2 MW Battleaxes (310)
MW light shield (79.5)
The hunter's MW longsword (157.5)
MW Buckler (77.5)
MW light crossbow (167.5)
Electrum Serving Tray (110)
Engraved Jade Scarab (85)
Razmir Holy Symbol and Mask (175)
MW Quarterstaff (150)
2 MW Spears (302)
MW Stone Morningstar (150)
That is 2,764 gp.
Buying:
+1 Meteor Hammer (2,310)
Potion of Bull's Strength (300)
Potion of Shield of Faith (50)
That leaves us with 104 gp still to spend. And we have lots of coin, and lots more we could sell.
William, feel free to negotiate with the crow if you want. I'm done with it.
Benedict isn't going to go far. Not beyond the first bow increment. I'm not going to interrupt negotiations, but if you want us to kill it, say the word.
The loot list has the items you could try to barter with the crow.
I removed the ones we sold to the trader.
Remaining magic items that we probably don't need:
Wand of Magic Missiles (William can use these, but we have two, one with 11 charges and one with 12; unsure of CL)
Magic shirt of Vortiga the (formerly) Unbroken, the hobgoblin monk Grum slew on the bridge. We don't know what it does.
Pearl of Power (1st-level spell) (William can use this soon)
Potion of Hide from Animals
Oil of Magic Weapon
Bandages of Rapid Recovery
2 strange smooth stones from troglodyte room L7 (think these are magic)
Gang, where do we stand on players? I've sent pm's to Hama and William and haven't heard back from them (though, sometimes the notifications that you've got a pm waiting is a bit wonky).
We're also heading into the height of the holiday season which is often busy and can cut into posting time. I don't want to make any drastic changes in the game yet.
I'd appreciate a quick post to update your status and let me know if you're still in this game. Once the holiday season is past, then we can assess how many players we've got left and what to do from there.
I'm here. I've been checking my PM's even when there is no notice and just checked again. I have no PM. I'm sorry I dorpped the ball on the crow. I read the post and then had to leave before replying and I forgot. My CRS is in overdrive currently.