I'm working on finishing the post to get the ball rolling again starting from the attack. I hope I'm not being premature. If there's anything you want to do in town, please let me know.
I do kind of feel I'm moving rather fast considering how things have been going. I am honestly hoping to jump start the game back to life by this, but I have no problems with retcons of things that make sense. Things have stalled (My Fault!!) and I'm rectifying it.
One last thing. I had mentioned it before to consider it, but all would have So go ahead and finish that up to, please. Remember for HP it's 1/2 + 1/2.
Ermergehrd, thirdlevelspells.
I'll be in my bunk...
Ok, so here's the level that things really take off for Xanos.
I picked up Improved Familiar, which I talked to you about a while ago. It's a Crawling Claw made from his own hand. I've made a gauntlet for it which attaches to the cap on the end of my wrist. I've equipped my hand familiar with a Muleback Cord to boost it's carry strength.
So I have my hand back, and I can detach it and let it run around.
I also now have Lesser Animate Undead. I'm using it to animate the rest of the hands I've been collecting as Tiny Skeletons. Each will also be in a spiked gauntlet.
Each of the hands, in addition to being a little minion, is also a Masterwork Tool for different tasks (depending on the skills of the hand's original owner).
So here's a few questions for you-
I'd like to research a version of Mad Monkeys that was Crawling Claws instead of monkeys. Would you allow that? Normally I'd have this be a cosmetic change, but the Deafening effect seems out of place. I was hoping to change it to a Shaken/Frightened effect or something like that. What do you think?
What would the AC bonus for an animated hand wearing a spiked gauntlet be?
When my hand-familiar is attached to the end of my wrist, do I count as wearing the Muleback Cord?
Niiiiiiiiiice to be level 5
HP:
I do kind of feel I'm moving rather fast considering how things have been going. I am honestly hoping to jump start the game back to life by this... LEVEL 5
I'm hugely in favor of the jump-start. Momentum is a killer in PbPs and sometimes you gotta take those de-fib paddles to the game. :)
And WOOT on L5! Very exciting.
Other than a few clarifying qustions in to you, Xzaral, Cain is levelled up and ready to rock.
i picked up Extra Rage as my feat... double that sumb@%!$ up!
Lot of questions in there, so let's look at it.
1) Spiked Gauntlet AC bonus. Since I generally prefer simple fixes, I'd say give it a +2 armor bonus. You could also enchant it as well, but as armor spikes, the spikes enhancement (attack) would be separate from the gauntlet's enhancement (armor).
A more complicated solution I would be willing to discuss would be to consider it along the lines of barding. At it's base, it's not proficient with any type of armor, so armor check penalties would apply to attack rolls. Spiked gauntlets could conceivably be made of a variety of materials, so it would involve choosing the armor type and going from there.
2) Muleback Cords. There's probably some rule somewhere that your hand couldn't wear those, but I like it! As far as you getting the bonus when attached, I see no reason why not.
3) Mad Monkeys. I think Sickened would be fine. At first I was going to go with Shakened, but I worry with the number of paladin types that being immune to fear effects would severely reduce it's usefulness.
Booyah!
Price is fully updated. I took Expanded Arcana for a little more spellish oomph.
Fargo
Teon
Thanks Boss. That answers just about everything but the armor discussion.
There is a rules discrepancy in the proficiencies of mindless undead. The Bestiary skeleton is armed with a scimitar and a chain shirt, and is statted as though it is proficiant with them.
The Skeleton template indicated that skeletons are proficient with the weapons they were familiar with in life, but also says that they "lose all feats"
This thread discusses it a bit.
I'd like to know what your ruling is. I'd like the hands to all wear spiked gauntlets for thematic awesomeness, but a +2 seems like a remarkably low armor bonus for being entirely encased in metal. If the hands are proficient with the armor they could wear in life, then I might be able to get more mileage out of it. Whatever the case I'll go with whatever has the fewest penalties.
Uh, oh boy! Level 5. Odd things may be incoming.
Yep. So I have a fiendish dire bat companion that's somewhere around here now. Somewhere without hundreds of guards with bows. He's just not around. But later, I'll summon him for an awesome mount and everyone will be jealous.
We did just come out of the basement. Basements have bats, right?
Quick refresher-
Who's the one remaining captain?
With the others dead, are they all under the command of the one that's left, or have other captains risen to take the place of their fallen commanders?
Captain Barhold is all that's left.
Captain Varning was killed beyond the Watch Wall by Cain, Shulme and Alaric.
Captain Eddarly was cut down by Captain Mott in anger.
Captain Mott was sent to Branderscar for Dueling unto Death.
Above them is Lord Thomas Havelyn, who also is still alive.
would it be strange for us to be dressed in uniforms of different factions?
The uniforms are effectively the same for each, the major differences being in armaments/training. Someone wielding, for example, a greatsword would be an oddity and may have someone ask about it. One of the captains (Either Mott or Barhold, will have to check) did wield a greatsword though, and would not necessarily draw attention to that alone.
Ok, I think both of them are fully leveled.
About the Mad Monkeys spell. You mentioned Sickened. The spell already applies Nauseated, which is the worse version of sickened. Was that a typo?
Mwa ha ha...
Man, we're not playing around with our HP rolls.
Heh, yeah.
And now fully leveled up.
I rolled kinda mediocre. But then, I get to roll twice.
So I think taking and holding the gatehouse as a chokepoint is a good idea but past gaming traumas have left me with an intense phobia of cramming the party into a confined space with an enemy arcane caster outside. Think we could kill him first?
That sounds like a good idea. How about Teon and Xanos hit the raven tower, then fly down and meet the others someplace else then we can hit all that we need to hit and kill what we need to kill.
All right, everyone should be able to move their own tokens now on the map. If for some reason, you can't move yours, try moving someone elses. I may have mixed up names.
Well, we know that we'll have (roughly) 1 hour between the signal going up and the bugbears arriving at the front gates.
So maybe Xanos/Fargo go after the tower first. Send up the signal when it's neutralized. And then go after the barracks.
Then the rest of us go head-hunting first; looking to take down the caster (hopefully while he's sleeping). We should have an hour-ish to do take care of him, disable the gates between the bridge and the main keep, and then head over to take the gatehouse.
And honestly, even if killing the mage and disabling the gates takes an hour (and the bugbears arrive), the bugbears will be an excellent distraction for our team to sneak/disguise our way into the gatehouse control room.
That sounds like a good idea. How about Teon and Xanos hit the raven tower, then fly down and meet the others someplace else then we can hit all that we need to hit and kill what we need to kill.
It sounded like Xanos had a plan for locking down/taking care of the Barracks... which was my other concern for holding the gatehouse. Xanos, you wanna weigh in?
Good to go. I can move both Fargo and Teon. I have put Fargo to the side of the board.
Holy crap!
Okay, so the magister sleeps on the 3rd level of the keep itself. If we're wanting to try to take him out before we hit the gatehouse, then I'd strongly suggest we try to plant that team on the Keep roof and try to make our way down from there.
This means we may run into the Main BBGG at the very beginning... which could be either disasterously dangerous or hugely helpful. And then we immediately have to run into a fight against the mage a floor below him.
Though, in all honesty, I really like this plan. >:D
Cause if we can get everyone but Xanos and FArgo up there, we can take out two of the highest priority targets before they know we're here. Unfortunately, I dn't know how we'd all get up there... though an Enlarged, Invisible, Spider-climbed Cain coudl carry a few of the team at once up the side... he just has no way of getting us safely back down... which could be an issue.
An enlarged invisable Teon can airlift most of the party. Enlarged Teon can carry up to 1600 lbs.
The barracks plan is simple. After we kill the birds I'm going to raise them as Bloody Flaming Fast Zombies and send them after the barracks. My familiar will go with them to Arcane Lock the doors, sealing in the soldiers inside while they burn to death.
Teon, I have Muleback Cords, which you can borrow for this.
This seems like as good a time as any to introduce myself.
Nice to meet you.
: high five :
Well played, Sir. Well played.
Did you just create a one use profile to make a dirty joke?
:D
This coming from Sir Eldon's Head...
The man's got a point.
That was not dirty, just tasteless.
We didn't get a report on whether Price was able to slip my terrible concoction into the stew earlier tonight.
On my phone here so checking the thread isn't easy but I recall Mark saying he poisoning was effective killing around seven guards and sickening many others.
I must have missed that.
I'll be responding to stuff this afternoon. Just an FYI
Teon, you didn't mention making yourself invisible. Was that a typo, or am I supposed to be handling that?
For some reason I thought you knew it. Ok, you're invisible also. You get the actual spell rather than the scroll. This is already expensive enough.
I'll update later tonight. Did have to mention that I just realized Xanos's left hand is a right handed picture.
Cool. And I hadn't noticed that. Maybe he picked up and used the wrong hand?