Intense Variant Rules Gestalt Mythic Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition (Inactive)

Game Master Sebecloki

I think it seems pretty promising too, I do want to still give everyone a chance to get their character introduced before we move to the festival.

I'll start posting some NPC interactions over the weekend if we haven't had everyone start yet in order to introduce some of the local plot hooks like the troubles at Sandpoint Castle, for which I above posted the maps.

This campaign is going to follow the Runelords plot a lot closer than my Dark Sun game to its AP, but there are still going to be opportunities to explore additional hexcrawl sites and local gazetteer items in addition to the AP proper.

Woah, woah, there, just talk about it for a bit, people are still introducing their characters, I'm not ready for you to pop off to the castle right yet. I know particularly Alias ad Tempus and Monkeygod are still getting their characters together.

I edited my post GM, to slow it back down.

Knowing Monkeygod you will be dealing with a load of PMs, so his may take a while.

Don't know about Alias ad Tempus, but happy to wait at the inn until all is sorted. :)

it's fine, I just don't want to jump ahead until everyone's ready. I'm still making up ideas for the castle too.

it's fine, I just don't want to jump ahead until everyone's ready. I'm still making up ideas for the castle too.

No worries, meet greet and plan coming up.

I'm not clear whats going on with Shi'Vatha, could this character's player please PM me or post with the fluff details when you have a chance?

And just to set up the situation -- the Swallowtail festival (the first scene proper of Rise of the Runelords), is the next day. The party has an opportunity to wander around the town a bit the evening before, explore the old castle or do something else.

I'm going to give you the following week in real time to run out any of those options (though, if you go to the castle, that will kick off a longer excursion than a week real time).

Cheers!

PM sent, it's mostly about Shi's background.

Sorry for being so quiet, I work most of the day and have been taking care of my fiancee who's been sick for a little while now. Nothing life-threatening, but it does worry me and sometime I end up passing out before i can finish up a post, only to rush out the door to work the following day. I swear i'm still here, and things should quiet down once for me once she feels better. :)

I'll make a post in a little bit, once I've caught up, and am able to sit and think for a little bit.

Okay, I'm in a serious rock and a hard place.

Aleister would absolutely want to go and investigate this castle with Thassilonian runes(real or otherwise),

But the player doesn't want to take away from people playing Rise of the Runelords, himself included, as its an AP I've wanted to play all the way through for quite some time now.

So why don't we wait until after the festivities? First, it's a party. And second, there will be fewer people after the festival, which means fewer people snooping around...

I get what your saying MG, I feel a little like that is way.

My plan was to keep Shi'Vatha company and while he dose his thing.

Then players can pick tomorrow game play wise which root to take with more info.
The GM could play down what the castle is doing to night, and then play it up again, if they players vote say to go there over the Festival / Rise of the Runelords root.
Or they could be linked at some point.

What I am suggesting is a night of mystery hehe

What you think Gm/gang?

I'll run whatever choices people make. The castle is connected to the Catacombs of Wrath, so it's not a completely separate concept/entity

Well, I will definitely wait till after the Swallowtail Festival(even though in game Aleister doesn't know about that) because it doesn't make sense to rush off to investigate the castle right now, as they just came in off the road. They could use a meal and sleep(soon).

I'll run whatever choices people make. The castle is connected to the Catacombs of Wrath, so it's not a completely separate concept/entity

Sounds like a good seg-way for later

I also suggest saving custom stuff for post-festivities. I've played just a tiny bit of the first book before, and the festivities and aftermath are good for bringing groups together.

Maybe we can use the time to see what everyone brings to the table and what we might be missing or have in abundance.

Pai Song does good ranged damage with her gun, but can also melee as a switch hitter. Paladin level 4 will bring channel energy, she already has lay on hands. I traded away the paladin spellcasting.
Bard brings buffing, skills and some spells. Also ranged spellstrike like a magus from level 6 on.

I also might take levels in life oracle at some point.

Just a note ahead of time, Shi is unaware of Pai's Paladin status. When he finds out, excpect him to turn extremely sour toward Pai and develop a sour distrust of her. Nothing Pai did, just his background. Wanted to make sure the player knew it wasn't anything personal, was in his background from way back that he dislikes Paladins.

Melee + counterspell. Hopefully, Ionacu will shut down enemy spellcasters... No ranged attacks, but with a move speed of 70', getting there shouldn't be a problem!

Curious, how does armor as DR work with the monk's Wis to AC and AC bonus?

It would seem the Wis bonus would apply to defense as it's basically just like you Dex bonus, except you keep it while flat-footed.

The flat AC bonus you gain at 4th level is what I am unsure about. I see nothing in the section on Armor as DR regarding what happens with any of the classes that grant AC boosts.

Or are you not using the Defense score part of the system? Are you using the critical hit and defense part as well?

Howdy all.

Show of hands, who all is some sort of mystical(caster-ish) monk(unarmed attacks)

<raises hand>

Bonus points if you have magic tattoos, lol

Obviously the site has been terrible this weekend. My current plan is to allow until this coming Friday to do any more NPC interactions, player-to-player roll-playing, exploring the town etc. and then on Friday I'll assume every sleeps and gets back up and is ready for the festival scene.

HI Vincent Bloodmoon and welcome

A group of monks walks into a bar....

Ynja is not great at any one thing, she is just ok at a lot of stuff,
I made her as a survivor from the school wars long long ago,
Over the years she has adapted to world as it changes around her.
Taking on new things and ways.

I modelled Ynja on Lee Van Cleef

Yeah, took it as my 3rd level feat.

Just spotted Pai Song has done the same thing.

Strength 18, Dexterity 20, Constitution 18
Intelligence 21, Wisdom 20, Charisma 21

We had a whole Chat about it on here, and the feeling was I believed was that even IF you take the feat After 1st it still drops it 1/2 point buy, GM has been clear you lose half points and if you take both you get no points.

If we take this as is,
If you take this feat at 1st level and use a point-buy for ability scores, you get only half as many points (round up) to buy your mental ability scores.

If we take the view that this line ONLY applies for 1t level take, then with the GM giving us, feats at each level.

If I was an elf, I could take both paragon feats, 1 for 2ed and 1 for 3ed level. AND still have a 50 point by.

Giving me.
Str Base 18 +6 [10points] = 24
Dex Base 18 +2race +6 [5points] = 24
Con Base 18 -2 race +6 [10points] = 22
Int Base 18 +2Race +6 [5points] = 24
Wis Base 18 +6 [10points] = 24
cha Base 18 +6 [10points] = 24

Kind of brakes the game for those, Not taking them.

@GM, Could I ask for a ruling on this one GM, if we go with wording then after 1st you still get a 50 Buy for the other stats, which would be grate for me, but, as above, is it fair given how your letting is take feats to players who did not take one of the two paragon feats. But your call.

No, you spend the points at 1st level, no matter what. The feat would then change what you spent the points on to 18s, but you don't add points on to those stats which can't go above 18 before racials anyway. Taking both is a waste unless you want both mythic versions.

cool then if this is the case I can have 25 more points to spend. Which I will now do.

[PC edited]

GM"*50pt. buy. Min/max as per normal rules-max 18, min 7, I believe. Then add or
subtract racial etc. modifiers." can be ignored after 1st level, as your race bonus is

Also cus I would love to know, if you don't mind me asking, I can see where you may you have 20 in Cha and 18wis,
Your race gives, Strength:+2 | Wisdom:+2 |
So I would expect 20 wis and 18cha,
Im I missing something? is there a swich-aroony-cool thing I'm not seeing :)

Ya know,

Maybe ya'll should wait for Seb to make a ruling before you start altering your PCs.

While it might be easy to just change them back, seems a little presumptuous to just make your own rulings, even if they end up being the same as the GM.

Player etiquette is a thing.

I hear ya Aleister, lets wait then and as you say, easy to change back.

Talking of PCs, really can't wait to read you PCs back story, could I ask when you will adding the finishing parts to you alt. He seems to have a fascinating past.

Well, that's something we have the discussion thread for.

I have some important appointments coming up the next 2 das and need to prepare, so i don't have that much time here or to change something up untill then.

I read the "Paragon" feats the same way as Slyness though. If you take it at level 3, your stats just become 18+racials.
So yes, you can put 50 points into the other stat array.
And be young, old or older.
Of course that's hard optimizing, but that's exactly what was the motto of the recruitment as far as i remember.

And to be frank:
I use mainly Paizo only stuff, tracing the 3PP stuff is incredible hard often, you also need to own it or have access, which is pretty often not the case. So i won't really look over others sheets and just trust people.

With so many alternative rules, 3PP and especially HO feats, things are really wonky anyway.

@AC/DR: I would suggest that the monk and similar boni count as DR as well, else all those classes have a problem. As far as i understand it DR will be really important at medium and higher levels. I would also be planning to have no armor and rely on that later.

Curious how that will be ruled as well... Also used Mental Paragon. Another 25 pts on the physical side wouldn't hurt.

It also takes away from the balance of the Paragon feats (compared to other Paragon feats), so I'm not sure that's a good thing. But if it is ruled that way I'll happily increase my HP and Fort saves.

The way I read it, the RAW is that we could choose to take it at level 3 and still have the points stacked on the other side, but that the RAI is probably that if you take it *at character creation* you only get half points. Technically, as written you could even get more than 50pts for the other half, because your level 1 stats could be all 7s on the side you are paragon-ing, so that you would have an effective 58pts for the other three stats. Given the max of 18 on any given stat, you wouldn't even be able to spend all those points, as 7 7 7 18 18 18 is only 39pts. That would mean that anybody who takes one paragon feat, if ruled the RAW way, could get all 18s with just the one feat.

I'm doing the feat RAW as per Morgan's description above.

Are Ynja and Shi'Vatha waiting for something from me for their exploration?

Everyone else, just keep going, on Friday we fade to black on this evening in game.

No, my Sunday was just very busy, as was my work day, so couldn't post until now.

Thanks GM, for the ruling.

and I think we are good, Ynja and Shi'Vatha can keep themselves entertained I suspect.

Henric won't really change at all, since I forgot about keeping the stat to a max of 18; no more health for me. I'll leave things as is.

What are the rules considerations in terms of Cha score and related skills if the Knights are not heterosexual?

There are no real rules as such, but she has just miscalculated their Sexual orientation, so they would just not respond in the way she hopped. In other words, A dud. Now they can act as they see fit, but her attempt at manipulating them by means of desire will just fail. All cha rolls to gain that effect would fail.

But as she has not sort to do more than hide what they where doing its till a Sense motive tech Vs DC20 I would think.

For those who havent' gotten them all already, you can get your library for about $18 via the humble bundle.

Yeah, I'm planning on picking that up -- there are several of the beastiaries and later splats like ultimate intrigue that I don't have yet that make it worth it, even if I already have a lot of the stuff in pdf.

It's also the Starfinder book in there as well as a complete AP!
Totally worth it!

Might pick it up even though i have everything in there just to give it away.

I know it's the complete AP! It makes me want to start a crazy Shattered Star campaign, but I don't know if I can handle another. That's one I get the sense is rarely played on these boards.

People are still concluding introductory discussion, so I'm going to hold off until monday to do the 'lights down' and start the festival day. Try to tie stuff up in a neat bow over the weekend if you can.

Yeah, I'm hoping to get the funds together to get the humble bundle, as I currently lack a job. Might be able to sell a few things, we'll see.

Would be awesome, since I lack a few of the bestiaries, and a few other books. Plus, I'd love to get PDFs of the books I only own hardcover copies off.

Would love to eventually play in a Shattered Star game, and then a Return of the Runelords one.

The PC concept Aleister is based on is a character who seeks to awaken the Runelords, murder them for their power, and remake Varisia into New Thassilon, which apparently might be possible in Return.

Funnily, I had this concept before I ever of the Return AP.

Did I miss something and this is an evil campaign?
Looks like there are quite some different motivating in the party r right now which might not go together.

Did I miss something and this is an evil campaign?

Looks like there are quite some different motivating in the party r right now which might not go together.

Not sure if this is directed at me or not, but Aleister is not the PC I mentioned above.

He's semi inspired by that character, in that they are both rune using Lissala worshipers.

But no, he's not interested in awakening the Runelords, stealing their power, and remaking Thassilon, lol.

Only semi directed at you^^
Shi'Vatha mentioned something about a dislike of his character for paladins and what i read in gameplay didn't strike me as exemplary good.
Wouldn't want to play the paladin in a mainly neutral or evil party!

On the other hand i mainly took paladin because it's nicer than live oracle and gives channel and healing, what was kinda asked for.
Main defining characteristics of Pai Song are being a warrior poet samurai and bard.

I have yet to add wordcasting, but i'll familiarize myself with it over the weekend+ and then add it all.

Was a bit on the brink wether i should go ninja and monk, but i play those too often. Bard is something i play often as well, but it's at least varied here.

Shi is LG, he just has a background reason for not liking/trusting paladins.

I read your backstory, it's interesting and offers a good way to interact over time :D
You can find back your trust and appreciate Shelyns art^^