GM Sphen Rise of the Runelords: (Clever Subtitle)

Game Master Sphen86

Apologies for my somewhat absence! Work's been crazy stressful, and I'm not even in one the job sectors where that makes sense during these holidays. My heart goes out to people working retail right now.

Always prioritize warmth over looking 'nice'. Perhaps you can get away with wearing one of those gaudy christmas sweaters...

Sledding! It's been so long since the Dutch weather allowed for something like that... And even then, the place is so flat, there's barely any good sledding to be had anyway..

That's a wonderful lineup of games, by the way, GM. Have a good time!

Sledding sounds nice, hope you had fun (even if you froze your butts off).

And yeah, dressing nice and warm can be a challenge. Different shoes for indoors and outdoors, and a long coat (with a hood) with couple of layers to go. (and still the late 4 AM waiting-for-the-bus is a frozen miseryland :D)

Tell us, how does your company feel about costumes? You can layer a lot of clothes under a costume. Seasonal costume also show you as being in the spirit of things.

And if they question it to much, you can bring up the story about JRR Tolkien and C.S. Lewis going to a party in matching polar bear costumes. It isn't related, but it is funny.

Almost done with cookies! I have one more variety to bake tomorrow, then I just have to pack them up and mail them. Thankfully my sister and brother-in-law came over tonight to help decorate sugar cookies, otherwise Mom and I would have been doing that all evening. It's a lot of work, but it's delicious work. And it brings back good memories of my grandma. Christmas cookies were always her thing.

It's pretty relaxed. Christmas sweaters are common. This year there was actually a costume contest - the Grinch and Wendy Lou Who (spelling?) won one prize and a couple from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation won the other.

There are people that show up very casual and just drink themselves under the table. But I'm old-school - sober as a judge all night, dress shirt and tie.

We dress 'nice' and hustle from car to venue. Not much reason to complain, but I do it anyway to stay in practice.

And if they question it to much, you can bring up the story about JRR Tolkien and C.S. Lewis going to a party in matching polar bear costumes. It isn't related, but it is funny.

I had never heard of this! Fantastic!

And regarding cookies - I'm alternatively jealous I don't live closer and relieved that I don't have the temptation of being around so many baked goods. Sounds delightful! I'm sure the recipients are most appreciative!

Almost done with cookies! I have one more variety to bake tomorrow, then I just have to pack them up and mail them. Thankfully my sister and brother-in-law came over tonight to help decorate sugar cookies, otherwise Mom and I would have been doing that all evening. It's a lot of work, but it's delicious work. And it brings back good memories of my grandma. Christmas cookies were always her thing.

When I was a kid, my family would listen to this album every year. Now, I put it on when we decorate for Christmas. Your story is exactly what they're talking about.

Christmas Memories

I've taken a look at next level for Tarphrex. He doesn't get a great deal, but he does get a spell at a new level - Fourth. And while Dragon's Breath is thematic and very tempting, I get it automatically in a level. I really like Greater Invisibility and Charm Monster could be fun, but believe Dimension Door will be a better choice for the party.

(I love the idea of Telekinetic Maneuver combined with a pit, but our kineticist can do it better at less cost, so I shan't go that route.)

Anyone have a specific vote for a particular fourth-level sorcerer spell? I only get one and I want it to be something with some utility, but I do expect to use a fourth-level slot for casting Haste extended with my metamagic feat.

In reviewing Tarphrex in my character builder, I realized that he had gear in that document that he didn't have in the forums here. In particular, an enchanted mithral buckler that would have raised his armor class enough in the fight with the chieftain to survive the initial hit that had his life flashing before my eyes.

When we allocated gear after the lamia in Magnimar, we started talking about cooking and I never completed the updates to his gear. You might check yours in case you made the same mistake. It appears this was the final allocation: Treasure distribution

I also need to update that spreadsheet - I haven't touched it in over a year.

I've taken a look at next level for Tarphrex. He doesn't get a great deal, but he does get a spell at a new level - Fourth. And while Dragon's Breath is thematic and very tempting, I get it automatically in a level. I really like Greater Invisibility and Charm Monster could be fun, but believe Dimension Door will be a better choice for the party.

(I love the idea of Telekinetic Maneuver combined with a pit, but our kineticist can do it better at less cost, so I shan't go that route.)

Anyone have a specific vote for a particular fourth-level sorcerer spell? I only get one and I want it to be something with some utility, but I do expect to use a fourth-level slot for casting Haste extended with my metamagic feat.

Telekinetic Charge is a personal favorite.

Oooh, level-up! It’s been a while…
Same here as with Tarprex - main thing is lvl4 spell.
I’m considering Freedom of movement or blessing of fervor. Maybe the former as BoF is a “better haste”, and there’s a couple casters with haste already

Freedom of Movement is an amazing "get out of jail free" card that is hard to replicate. Hard to turn that down.

Blessing of Fervor is more broadly useful to the party (I cannot cast more spells by being hasted, for example, but BoF has something useful for me) but you have to prepare your spells, so you could prepare BoF once a day and we could coordinate whether you are using it or one of us that can spam haste all day will use our buff instead.

Telekinetic Charge is a personal favorite.

Fastball special, D&D magic style!

I'm leaning toward letting Ceven own the telekinetic repertoire but I don't know if Telekinetic Charge is in his toolbox. Ceven?

As an aside, I've been thinking that my obsession with and very slow transformation into black dragon would require me to keep my energy damage to that of the black dragon's breath weapon, but I see that as a kobold sorcerer, that doesn't appear to be a thing.

Dragon's Breath with the ability to switch up the damage type and the breath shape is going to be very cool if I can live that long. Getting my AC correct will help with that.

Here's the thing: aren't there actually some kinda cool RP/Exposition opportunities here? Wouldn't it be neat if Tarphrex expressed that they were into Aether/Telekinesis and they worked with Ceven to practice form & technique or something? One of us sweeps up the trash, the other takes it out? Something like that?

Just a thought

I need more reason than that. Spells for a sorcerer are a limited resource and duplicating someone else’s schtick for RP feels like a wasted opportunity when I could pick up something that we don’t have (such as teleportation via dimension door) or that enhances Tarphrex himself (greater invisibility would almost guarantee a bonus to his spell save DCs).

Fair enough. Teleportation for sure.

Oracles are like sorcerers, limited known spells. So in that regard a rarely used life-saver spell is not the best option as such…
Other 4th level spells I’ll be getting:
CCW
Restoration
Black tentacles

So there could be some use for lvl4 slots even if FoM never gets used. But BoF is certainly better bang for the buck.

Oracles are like sorcerers, limited known spells. So in that regard a rarely used life-saver spell is not the best option as such…

Other 4th level spells I’ll be getting:
CCW
Restoration
Black tentacles

So there could be some use for lvl4 slots even if FoM never gets used. But BoF is certainly better bang for the buck.

Ah, I forgot Sherman is an oracle, I was thinking him to be a cleric. I cannot fault those spell choices.

@Sherman: For humans, the alternate favored class bonus for Oracles is +1 spell known. It does need to be of one level below the highest available spell you can casat, but it really pads out the spell list.

Well, those three spells are not exactly choices, as they come automatically (via mystery and spirit).
And yes, I've been using the human FCB - a really nice addition as we come to higher spell levels.

Happy Holidays / Merry Christmas, everyone! 24th is the big day here, so I'll be moving to x-mas things.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!

Sorry for missing out, as you might expect the season has been busy, but Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all as well!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday break. This is a friendly reminder to finish leveling up and tell me anything you wanted to do before setting out to Turtle Back Ferry.
Tomorrow I'll post the continuation of the story.

Wow, apologies, I did not have that one the radar.
I'll get to it.

Sherman leveled up. I ended up taking blessing of fervor instead of freedom of movement.

holiday season starts to be over, so lets getting rolling!
Did we loot the whole place?
I think there was a couple of unidentified items from the boss loot. Since we're about to move out, can we just take 20 on the spellcraft to identify them? And get the loot sorted out if there was anything anyone wanted.

Tarphrex has been leveled up. There were so many errors on his character sheet! Things I forgot to update from previous levels. Took Dimension Door - two allies, 720'.

If you have time to review what we've found, please post it here and I will add it to the spreadsheet. The link is still at the top of this page.

Oh! So we are actually leveling up? Excellent. I'll get on that.

@Sherman: Yes. Feel free to read all spoilers for loot and keep/disperse what you'd like.

@All: Turtleback Ferry is to small to buy or sell magical loot. They would have basic adventuring gear available, things that could also be used in everyday life (rope for example, a dagger but not a sword).

Also, yes to everything being looted.

Working on my level-up today, apologies for the hold-up!

Alright, that takes care of that. Quick overview:

- Fortitude and Will boosts,
- BAB boosted to +6/+1. Multiattacks!
- New spells: Delusional Pride (according to Pathbuilder I had a lvl 1 slot left) and Cure Serious Wounds
- Controlled Inspired Rage now goes up to +4 for STR, DEX or CON... OR +2 to two of those!
- Improved Uncanny Dodge: I'm now impossible to flank and near-impossible to sneak attack.

I would love some input: telekinetic maneuvers at this level is actually pretty amazing given that Cev gets to use CON for his CMB ... but I am also willing to take Healing Burst if we think we're shorter on healing than we should be. Thoughts?

I've been making sure I have the Cure Wounds spells in my repertoire, though I could probably stand to use them more often. However, single-target heals is all I've got. I don't know how much healing Healing Burst offer, if it's good stuff then an AoE heal could be pretty huge, but if it's just OK heals you might get more mileage out of the maneuvers, I think.

I concur with Estella.

Whichever you prefer, really.
I suppose Sherman is the main healer at the moment, with life link and channel from life spirit on top of standard CxW spells. But I can switch to another spirit any morning for other things.

Thank you all, that was super helpful. I'll go with TK Maneuver since that's a little more Cev-like, and we have a lot of healing all things considered (and can afford potions if needed also)

Whichever you prefer, really.

I suppose Sherman is the main healer at the moment, with life link and channel from life spirit on top of standard CxW spells. But I can switch to another spirit any morning for other things.

I'll also try to keep track of things better and offer healing more. If there's ever a need for it, feel free to request heals from Estella!

Tarphrex is probably our weakest healer because he relies on UMD and a CLW wand - but he has it!

@GM Sphen: Good to note for the future in case Tarphrex is separated from Ceven and a crossing can't wait.

I simply wanted to share that this gave me the mental image of one of those river crossing riddles, you know, a wolf, a sheep and a cabbage need to be ferried over the river, but with the party instead. It amused me.

I know! I had the same thought as soon as the river scene was described.

I was thinking the crossing over, just in case. At this level, I can carry two allies at a time and have enough castings per day to move four people across the river. I think Tarphrex would have been talking about the possibility before Ceven said there was no need. Or maybe he hasn't told anyone he thinks he can do it - or maybe he doesn't know yet - RP possibilities!