I love a good old fashioned maxed primary stat. The empiricist makes the decision so easy. At 2nd level, get your intelligence bonus to Disable Device, Perception, Sense Motive, and Use Magic Device? Hell yeah. At 4th level, spend an inspiration point to get the intelligence bonus to will saves as an immediate action? Oh, dear me YES!
As for combat able... you pretty much have to wait for 4th level to get some nice damage in, but the investigator shines out of combat at the expense of combat. They are competent and the inspiration can get them a good hit in a pinch, but they will be beaten by most other classes. The alchemist extracts help a bit, though, so don't forget about that! Need to spend a precious talent to make infusions or mutagens, but still it's a decent class feature to have in the back pocket.
I also changed out my greater fortitude for some extra inspirations, because 1.5 more uses of 2 inspiration points for +1d6 to any save (or attack roll!) as an immediate action beats it hands down.
Can't wait to see how the investigator pans out. I know it'll work well over PbP, but in real life I'm hoping it doesn't piss everyone off when I take over in any social situation. :-)
So.... Ibid rocks it at range because of his ranger-ness, but it is very feat heavy to make a pure investigator good at ranged (weapon focus + ranged study just to use your class features), then you have to get point blank shot, precise shot, deadly aim and... already it's 11th level. Sure, at 5th level I get studied target (+2 att & +2 dmg) at range, which is pretty awesome... but 9th level before I'm effective at firing into melee? I don't know. I guess I can always squeeze of some of my extra inspirations to counteract the -4 penalty...
... but maybe it's easier to just go melee. I want max inspiration and talents, so I don't want to do a level dip... thoughts anyone?
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Remember the will save bonus works only against illusions...
Melee is much more feat-friendly,true. Getting dex to damage might be worthwhile, I don't know what's the easiest/cheapest way to get it. Slashing grace, or agile weapon...? Is there a way to get int to damage?
Investigators rock outside of combat, but since most scenarios do involve quite a lot of combat, it's better to figure out something to do once the initiative is rolled.
Heh. Not just illusions....
"In addition he can spend one point from his inspiration pool as an immediate action to use his Intelligence bonus instead of her Wisdom bonus on all such saves for one round"
With my stats, that's a +7 bonus!!!
As for combat, yeah, buff with extracts as well as you can, I'd say... and just be prepared to do less well than most.
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You just have to remember that your strength is being an encyclopedia and social graces, so combat suffers because of it. Just don't try to keep up with the barbarian... :)
-Posted with Wayfinder
Sweet build, Damo! That looks like a really cool/neat way to take it! I also would love to see what you come up with, Karma. I'm a big fan of the John Constantine/Hellblazer comics, and that seems also like a sweet way to take the investigator class. For Ibid, I had previously watched True Detective, so for RP purposes I (try) to have Ibid go in for more of a Rustin Cohle type vibe.
Just don't try to keep up with the barbarian... :)
You mean this guy? Couldn't possibly. :-D
Thanks Chris, I'm loving the build and keep thinking about tweaking it. The investigator came a lot easier to me than the kineticist I created. No matter what I do, ranger or gunslinger comes off better. His only ability (kinetic blast) does 1d6+6 damage... and... he's got not much else. Feel like I'm playing D&D 4th Ed.
Could be like the magus and takes a while to shine, but at least I only have one ability score (Constitution) to worry about. Am I missing something about this class? Anyone else had a look at the kineticist?
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Ahhh, I love True Detective! And Rustin Cohle is a great character, too. But who'll be Marty for Ibid? :) Granted, Cyrus does have thing for ladies, but he lacks that certain a@~+@!*ness...
@Damo: Are you sure it works that way?
Unfailing Logic (Ex): An empiricist’s grasp of facts and data teaches him to anchor himself in reality, granting resistance to even the most potent illusions. At 4th level, an empiricist gains a +2 insight bonus on all Will saving throws against illusion spells or spell-like abilities that allow a save to disbelieve their effects. In addition he can spend one point from his inspiration pool as an immediate action to use his Intelligence bonus instead of her Wisdom bonus on all such saves for one round.
(emphasis mine)
Also, taking the Student of Philosophy -trait would help the social skills.
Crap. Not sure anymore!!!
Cool trait. I was going to go for clever wordplay from the PFS primer. Choose any cha skill (I picked bluff). But since I don't plan on feinting in combat, that one rounds it all out very nicely!
I now have to pick up the quests and campaigns companion, though... the totally worth it. ;-)
What to do about that will save...
Okay, picked up the guide. It is fearsome! Loving the extra traits and feats... except I wish I'd read the additional resources guide first and not second! Only one feat is available for PFS (and it's to do with retraining so I doubt I'd ever waste a feat on that!). Luckily, the traits are fine... which is what I wanted it for. ;-)
Okay, definitely should have read the empiricist will save description better. It's very overpowered for the investigator empiricist using my interpretation of it (especially considering the ability it replaces), which means Jyri's is 99.9% certain to be correct. So, that means I'm still concerned about the will save. I guess as an elf, he has +2 vs enchantments, and has that massive bonus coming vs illusions... what else is there to make a will save against? No seriously, I'm asking. I want to know. Fear effects that aren't caused by enchantment spells / SLAs?
Well, barring some will saving (or fort saving) revelation, Eldalel the Ode to Ibid is done! Thanks for the feedback all, especially Jyri!
Ahhh, I love True Detective! And Rustin Cohle is a great character, too. But who'll be Marty for Ibid? :) Granted, Cyrus does have thing for ladies, but he lacks that certain a@+~!!$ness...
Well, though I wanted Ibid to be more like Rustin Cohle, if I'm being honest with myself, I think the way I've played and RP'd Ibid so far probably makes him more like Marty :)
Yeah, Ibid's definitely less guano crazy than Rustin Cohle... and a good thing, too!
I think I need to have Ibid go off the deep end and take a real dark turn, just for a few episodes... spice things up for our ratings leading into the season finale (I.e. Gencon) :)
Like Cyrus has been doing
You know you play too much PbP when...
You post while driving!
...also...
You know you play too much PbP when...
Someone posts while driving and your first thought isn't "what a madman - posting and driving is more dangerous than texting and driving!" but "wow, that's so nice of him to post and not hold up the combat..."
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Back in action, and mostly recovered from the weekend. Approximately 42 hours of gaming, complete... six of seven slots GMed. Bonekeep 3 survived, fourth star earned during Legacy of the Stonelords (that's my story... regardless of whether I ran an extra scenario in the first slot that made it #101).
Now plans for star #5 are in place.
Heh! Nice work, mate! Congratulations on that 4th star. Get any cool boons at the Con?
Hope you had fun, and welcome back. Sorry about the flaming keister!
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I'll have to look at my boons again, but at least two are going to be applied to Gunari.
I received the following:
#4 Expanded Narrative (allows GM star replays to refresh)
#5 Expedition Manager (spend 2/4/6 pp instead of day job, next day job get an item for 1000/2000/3500gp) plus a 1 time skill bonus
#7 Factor 1) treat 1-5 on day job roll as a 10. If you make a day job roll for the third box in treasure map, you get an additional 200gp/level
#8 (X2): Family Tradition: Each adventure you start with 5*CL gp that can be used for bribes, services, and expenses (not equipment). This is all lost at the end of the scenario. If the character has 6pp from Sczarni faction, it also re-opens the Szcarni prestige boons and awards. One of these is going to Gunari... the other is being traded, I think.
Plus the GM Reward of a Sylph. I can make two of those, now. (woo?)
Probably going to trade the Expanded Narrative and the extra Family Tradition (though, I have to see if the Expanded Narrative can be used for season 7)
So, for sure, I have 7 total replays available... and maybe another 4 starting at GenCon.
Nice! Very nice! Extra Sylph probably isn't that useful... it's a bit of a niche race. I like it for the sky druid class, though.
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Ok, here's a question for those of you going to GenCon... are you wanting me to run the Special for you all?
I ask, because I may have another player for your table (Zack Nagel aka Totenphful) -- don't know what he would have, but he's good people.
What level would you want to play this at? Will make a difference in how I request my assignments!
Also, remember, there are no guarantees that I can run your table, but we'll try, if you want.
I'll likely be at level 3, and be bringing a friend of my own. I'd love to play the special with you running it. Happy to play with your friend, to. That makes 6, right?
However... I most definitely want to play our original characters with everyone. Lort will definitely "appear" at GenCon. That means at least 3 Lort sessions for me at slow advancement so he doesn't outpace our PbP group (not that it's a big issue for me, since I can always just put my GM chronicles elsewhere).
I think John's only there Thu / Fri, and I fly in early Thursday but will miss the first Thursday session...
Getting complicated. Anyway, I'd say assume a tier 3-7 and you can't go wrong, right? :-)
As for other sessions, I'd say you should pick the games you want to run and we'll see if we can join in. Most important thing is for you to enjoy what you're running!
I've still got most of season 6 available for play (since I ran them!)... so I'll probably hit some of that action with my friend when we're not all grouped together.
Suffice to say, in the end, I mostly want to play with you guys, and I should have a fair spread of characters available. Worst case, we all play new PCs at level 1 together!
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Won't work... he's gonna be at 10-11 -- so no big deal.
I'll let you know details as they come around. I will try to get the Friday night special at 3-4, then, assuming everyone else is cool with that. When I know more details, I'll let you know for sure.
I will also see what I am going to play, and let you all know. At least one of those games we should ride together! Hopefully I'll have a guy in tier at that time. :D
My goal is to play the special and everything else is gravy. I should have a 2-5 level characters attending if everything goes to plan. Maybe the new season 7 scenario unless we are saving it for Zed. Slow advancement is great too.
I should have a spread of available leveled characters also, but I was hoping to primarily play with Cyrus, with this group. Cyrus will be level 5 after our trilogy we are about to start, so it would depend kind of on how many more sessions we get get in.
I personally would rather do what we can together at the Con, with our main guys, and we can sort out the aftermath later. It would be great to game at Silbeg's table too, but I don't want everyone's head to explode trying to figure out the details now for something that isn't for 5/6 months... In the end, it will all work out, one way or another :) Damien hit the nail on the head - just plan on what you think will be fun, and whatever we are able to run together we will.
Thats just my 2 cents... :)
Edit: Right now it is looking like I will not be there for thursday at all - hoping to get there by Friday - hopefully in time for the noon session. I don't know if those plans will hold, but that is how it tentatively works out in my head. My hope would be to stay until Sunday morning/early afternoon before I have to bug out. (home is a long drive from Indy...)
Hey, just to pick up after my pregen credit rant in We Be Goblins, Too!...
If Finarin and Miro do get the pregen credit, and then if Jack runs Slave Master's Mirror for us at a later date (applying the credit to someone other than Gunari)... then everyone in the original group will have exactly the same XP!!! This is too beautiful an opportunity to pass up, I think.
We'll go Wounded Wisp after Scions Pt 1. Then Scions Pt 2 should be released. We'll see what's what after that, but I can head back to the "new toons" group for a little while if it's about the right time to be finishing Forgotten Laboratory. That way our original PCs will be free to play Slave Master's Mirror for Jack's game (as a break from the Thornkeepers) and I can head back to run them once Slave Master's Mirror is finished.
All that assumes that Jack doesn't want to run for the Thornkeepers and the Originals simultaneously! If he does, we can just play Slave Master's Mirror straight after We Be Goblins, Too!
We'll then be all leveling up beautifully apace in all groups! Oh, except for in John's game. Ah well.
I am digging how perfect it is all working out...
LOL on the group in John's game - at first I didn't figure it was going to go long term on PbP, I figured you just wanted to get your feet wet with Xull before you took him to a table, so I figured I would offer my one other available toon to run with you. Then it snowballed... :)
Provided he survives, Pooka will level with glass river to 3 - which might distance him from some of the others in the group. I will have a full level chronicle from emerald spire that I plan on giving to him as well once he hits level 4 as well... so I might just end up pacing him out of this group of characters. That is all a ways down the road for now though, so we will see. I could always play out of tier as well, depending on what we do, at least while I am level 3.
Side note - I will have Cyrus' details for level 4 updated today sometime.
only purchase was enchanting my mithril chain shirt to +1. Otherwise, added some skill points, got the Mobility feat, extra ki point, and uncanny dodge.
You were correct about my original aim... but John's a nutter and I love playing with you guys.
Xûll dings 3 after Glass River, too. You can always roll up another character to play, right? ;-)
Depending on what the group thinks, I may do that just to keep us together before playing Xûll again. If you add a full module to Pooka, it could get hairy.
Ooh, there's always slow advancement! Advancing slowly at level 3 could solve all our issues!
John's a nutter and I love playing with you guys.
Um I ....yeah ok.
Tadaa! Posting a promised to get the tracking going. This is Sun Desin, da druid from Glassriver Rescue
Heh. We use real names over here, pal! ;-)
Post in the gameplay thread if you'd like this on your list of campaigns. Welcome on board to the Zedroom!
For those not in John's other game, "Red Fang" plays a druid over there. Thought we'd invite him along to chat about the madness. To preempt everyone else, you going to GenCon?
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So, for the Friday special... I am going ask for the 5-6 tier... I'll be able to prep for either side, but this should be about right.
I think it'd be cool to have our primary characters play, but we could also work around the Thornkeep characters. We'll see.
And for the others... we'll find a way to make it work.
Sounds good to me!
Sounds cool. Would love to play with Lort... and would love to play a season 7 with you at the helm. If you do a season 6 and a season 7, I'd say try for a high level one for 6, and a low level one for 7... that should keep overlap to a minimum. Oh, I guess you're GMing at GenCon anyway. I meant for playing. As always, though, do what you feel will be fun! RL > PbP (just!).
So... why do you need to sign up now? Has the call for GMs gone out? Should I sign up?
Many new season 6 scenarios announced!
Check out "From Under Ice" - Land of the Linnorm Kings and Grand Lodge faction. This one has Lort written all over it! Only a 1-5, though. Jack, you willing to take the reigns for this one? Late April release... hope we're not too high level to play!!!!
Also featuring, a sequel to Trial by Machine (back to that Red Redoubt for some robot action!), something for our Scarab Sages (and strange Dwarven monk fans) and what looks to be a "file it away quick before the water level rises" adventure (anyone want to escape their daily life in a roleplaying game to play a filing clerk? Me either).
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We may yet be able to do the (forgot the names already) scenario featuring lort before we hit level 6... As long as we do it right after slave masters mirror (and this trilogy) or just put off the last part of the trilogy if it is going to be 3-7 (forgot already what the third part of that is already also)
I would love to do the scarab sages mission, seems like there are so few of the scenarios that contribute to that factions story line...
-Posted with Wayfinder
Hey boys! My regular Google+ GM (a good mate from Australia) is flat out like a lizard drinking at the moment and is unable to run any Pathfinder for me (or my other mate who's coming to GenCon). As such, I'll be running for him. However! We need more players to make a legal table. He'll probably be able to bring a friend (maybe two), but we need at least 3 players to make it legal (with one GM pregen). I'd rather not recruit people I don't know so...
Who'd like to play some PFS over Google+ this Friday or Saturday 7-8pm? (flexible) onwards for probably 2.5-3 hours. If you're free on either of those days, we can play then. Let me know if you want in, and we can hash out the details over PM or email.
We'll be playing PFS, starting with the First Steps / Confirmation / Wounded Wisp chain to get to level 2, and then running through (probably) season 4 scenarios. I'm flexible, though, and am happy to run 0-3, but it's trickier and deadlier because they don't have 4-player adjustments.
That sounds like an amazing time, I'd definitely do it, but I'm not sure I can fit it into my schedule currently. If you get three other people who want to fill the seat, great! If you can't get three additional people, I'll keep trying to see if I can make it happen.
Cool bananas, Chris. Would be awesome to play with you regardless... so try to make it happen. As a man with no children, you're my prime target. ;-)
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Many new season 6 scenarios announced!
Check out "From Under Ice" - Land of the Linnorm Kings and Grand Lodge faction. This one has Lort written all over it! Only a 1-5, though. Jack, you willing to take the reigns for this one? Late April release... hope we're not too high level to play!!!!
Also featuring, a sequel to Trial by Machine (back to that Red Redoubt for some robot action!), something for our Scarab Sages (and strange Dwarven monk fans) and what looks to be a "file it away quick before the water level rises" adventure (anyone want to escape their daily life in a roleplaying game to play a filing clerk? Me either).
I'd be happy to run that for you all, Damo!
As much as I would love to... I can't. I want to stay married :)
I'd be happy to run that for you all, Damo!
Woo! Thanks Jack!
As much as I would love to... I can't. I want to stay married :)
Seconded - I will be at an elementary school sock hop. Super!
Nice! Though if he looks like Kreighton Shaine in real life, I'm going to freak out.
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I suck at playing it cool when around moderately well known people. Sorry in advance Mr. Garringer.
In my head we chat, we laugh, we game, become best friends and suddenly we are all the main characters in a new pathfinder comic series because of our fantastically amazing PbP gaming and new connections.
In real life I'll just try not to pee my pants and everyone around me will leave feeling a little bit more awkward than before.
Why is that guy so weird? No wonder people laugh at the gamer stereotype...
Ok maybe not that bad.
Maybe...