GM Zer0darkfire's Witchwar Legacy (Inactive)

Game Master zer0darkfire

I have an Arcane Duelist 14. I think one of the feats has come up once for him.

You need to make a real effort with a Bard to be a solid front-line fighter. Rinaldo is a bit too squishy to make good use of the Spellbreaker feat-line. It sits so much better on an Arcane Bloodrager who eats casters for breakfast and lives on the front line. :)

I love Bards but it can be a challenge to be good at spells, skills and combat and all at the same time. Rinaldo seems to fit the typical Bard build of be amazing at buffing and be ok at everything else.

Yea mine is melee, no mount, and uses Banner of the ancient kings + Flagbearer. Eventually I stopped going into melee because even though I hit for 1d8 +30 dmg the +5/+5 I was adding to the party wasn't worth the risk.

Dimensional Steps is the Conjuration school ability at 8th level.

Dimensional Steps (Sp): At 8th level, you can use this ability to teleport up to 30 feet per wizard level per day as a standard action. This teleportation must be used in 5-foot increments and such movement does not provoke an attack of opportunity. You can bring other willing creatures with you, but you must expend an equal amount of distance for each additional creature brought with you.

That's the extent of the language, with no reference to indicate it should act like Teleport or Greater Teleport or Dimension Door. Compare that to the language from Shift, in the Teleportation sub-school:

Shift (Su): At 1st level, you can teleport to a nearby space as a swift action as if using dimension door. This movement does not provoke an attack of opportunity. You must be able to see the space that you are moving into. You cannot take other creatures with you when you use this ability (except for familiars). You can move 5 feet for every two wizard levels you possess (minimum 5 feet). You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier.

As a GM, I've generally ruled it acts like Dimension Door.

I really like the ability of the Bard to cast and do serious damage in melee if you build for it. At mid-levels persistent Confusion is fun and latter on drop Mass Cacophonous Call and watch your GM weep. If all else fails whack the enemy with a big stick. That never gets old. :)

I cannot wait to try out my Quickened Bladed Dash now. With my spell storing sword I can try to pretend that I am a Magus.

Rinaldo is my very first PFS character, and started out as a Cavalier, then moved into Bard. I ended up going more heavily into Bard than I originally intended, so he isn't terribly optimized. He stopped being highly effective in melee several levels back, but with his Aid Another bonuses, he generally does great support. We just don't have another strong melee character in this party for me to back up, so I'm attacking more, even if it doesn't do much damage.

^Understood. At this point having fun with your character is really what matters and being flexible enough to jump from one role to another is really fun and helpful too. That is what Bards typically do. :)

I have noticed that melee characters don't last to Seekerhood unless they have a lot of support along the way. You die once and your overall treasure value is decreased by 5,000 gold. That weakens you just a bit and makes it more likely to happen again.

The barbarians/fighters/animal companions give their lives so that the casters can live long enough to pass that level 12+ barrier.

Anecdotal evidence of course, but of my 5 seekers, the Sorcerer and the Magus are the ones who have died most (twice). My Bloodrager/Oracle, Bard and Arcanist not at all.

I'd say it's more that the non-casters are the most dependent on magic items and wealth to compete at higher levels. Other than her headband and spellbook, Aurelia can be totally effective without any other gear. Take away the fighter's sword and armor, and he's much less effective.

@Aurelia - Arcane casters have a lot of expenses as well. Metamagic rods, pearls of power and maxing out their headband comes to mind. Many of them are virtually helpless without their spellbook.

I have played hundreds of games and I have never had a character die.
Granted I build very tough characters and my casters have a tendency to cast and run out of the room at times. I have only had a character go into negative hit points once and it was a surprise Mimic attack that really could not have been prevented. That was a very close call with a GM that did not pull any punches. Hit point retraining actually saved that character's life.

My luck did run out on my high tier 5th edition D&D Bard who was decapitated by a Vorpal blade. It was a cheap 3000 gold piece fix on a character virtually swimming in gold at the time. I have scores of 1st level D&D characters that have joined the boneyard however. Perhaps it was that experience that helped me build with defense as a priority.

That's the thing though. Other than the spellbook, all the caster's expenses are to help him/her be better at their job, not required to do it at all. The math means the melee character requires them to do it at all. That extra +1 or +2 is the 5-10% additional chance to hit that makes the difference between being effective or not.

As a 12th level Arcanist/Wizard, all I need to be able to contribute/do my job is my Spellbook and a +6 headband, costing a total of about 45-50k gold, compared with my expected WBL at 12th level of 108k.

Compare that with a 12th level fighter or barbarian. Realistically, they need a +5 equivalent armor (25k), a stat belt(36k), and +4 equivalent weapon(32k), so a baseline to function at all of 93k.

There's very little slack to deal with the resource loss of multiple deaths and still be functional as a melee.

It's an unfortunate effect of the system that was inherited from 3.5. I don't know how much it's been mitigated in PF2, but it's a real disparity in 3.5/PF.

PF2 actually favors martial characters. Spells are weaker in general and you get less of them. Martial characters have a better chance of connecting and critting with their attacks the casters do of hitting with a spell or the monster failing a save vs a spell. And it is harder for casters to have good defenses in 2E. No +4 AC from Mage armor. The Shield cantrip helps some but it eats up one of your 3 actions for the turn and can only be used once per combat.

Despite what they say on the boards I find martial characters to be very effective in PF. This is especially true at Seeker levels where you will find energy resistance, immunity and spell resistance galore. Outside of combat sure casters are better for utility but when it comes to the beat down use a big stick. Better yet be a caster and a melee character and have the best of both worlds. :)

@Tuwo - I am not a huge fan of pf2 but I do like the Electric Arc cantrip. Finally I can indulge in my Dark Force fantasies at level 1. :)

Sorry about this, but we have a major upgrade happening this weekend, and I have a lot to do today and tomorrow to get ready. If I happen to get free time, I'll post, but otherwise it could be Sunday before you hear from me. Bot me as seems appropriate.

Wow, these are some very unusual events. I'm going to look up what the will save would be for an appropriate leveled fire-type elemental and roll it a will save...twice, taking the lowest. To your advantage, the highest level fire elemental is an elder, and they only have a +7 will save. I'm going to give it a +5 bonus from being from Baba Yaga's major curse spell, but even then, it is not likely to pass.

Since this is on the fly, me making stuff up, I'd like to confirm with at least Aurelia (who is casting the spell with a save) that this seems reasonable before I roll the saves.

Sure, that seems fine to me.

Out of curiosity, how did the author seem to have envisioned us tackling this, just killing the dragon because it's evil?

The book does allow you to avoid fighting her by negotiating but doesn't expect you to try and remove her curse. The issue is that there isn't any reason why you couldn't remove the dragon's curse since Baba Yaga has a stat block with the DC of Major Curse being 33 (38 to remove it). However, I'm a fan of this roundabout curse removal where you banish the main crux of the curse in the form of that fire elemental.

FYI to all of my games: This will be a hectic week at work all the way through Sunday, with me alternating between sitting around waiting and being buried. I will be posting erratically, so if I am a player, bot me as needed. If I am the GM, be patient and I will update as I can.

My work has been hella crazy this week as well and looks like it will continue for at least the next week, possibly two, so please bot me as appropriate.

Things are going on schedule here, so with luck I'll be done with the craziness by late Saturday. :)

I'm a teacher, so I've been running around a lot right now. Sorry for the delay on my end.

Unless this creature is extra tough I think that is enough damage to put it down. Clustered Shot really pays off at high level where DR/- shows up pretty frequently.

Hilariously, if this is indeed even a 'normal' shoggoth, I don't think it is *quite* enough to put it down ;-) They have a *lot* of hit points, and a surprisingly high AC for an ooze.

@Gaius - Almost. I did not want to meta-game too much and throw on every buff before breaking the ice. As a player I knew it was not a black pudding with a fortune in treasure but my character would not necessarily know that. Also letting the GM have the monster attack once is a bit of a mercy. He deserves to have some fun with his creatures as well.

@GM Zer0darkfire - I hope that Tuwo can put it down with a snapshot but how many people will need to save for Trample if he does?

The AoO would occur at it moves into your square so anyone it passes through needs a save until it gets AoOd and dies. In the case of Tuwo, everyone listed would need a save except Tuwo.

@GM Zer0darkfire - I did not include Good Hope in any of my damage rolls. This would be an additional 12 points of damage before Fast Healing kicks in.

I apologize if I am delaying anyone but it would make the difference.

It does; the Shoggoth dies before it gets to do anything.

OH, well then. I rolled several saves for nothing while getting ninja'd by the GM. :-)

@Rinaldo - The GM was kind enough to allow all the buffs to last through the combat. I do believe that the party (and your character especially) will need another casting of Good Hope to avoid being engulfed by the really big monster. The monks will probably be fine but a DC 36 Reflex save is no joke at any level. I mean my character can actually fail it (and not only on a 1).

@GM Zer0darkfire - Not to be overly pedantic but what is the time spent in game so far?

I'll go with 28 minutes since the arrival. You're the elite strike force, you don't waste time scouring every crack in the wall, your eyes spot everything immediately anyway.

I've never been a fan of riddles. Are any of you abstaining from the discussion due to already knowing the answer?

Yeah, I'm surprised by the lack of interaction suddenly. If you guys are stumped, I can give some hints or allow for linguistics checks as your characters figure out the riddle instead of the players.

I thought I posted a suggestion in the IC thread, and then we decided to go off after the ooze first?

So touch the broken link and the doll to the clock? Anywhere in particular on the clock? Remember that as we approach we only have 1 round to do something before caryatid golems attack. So we need to be fairly confident of our actions.

Sorry - my work has been totally crazy the last week or two, so my time to think about things has been very limited.

I thought I posted a suggestion in the IC thread, and then we decided to go off after the ooze first?

You did, I saw it, but no one is really discussing it currently now that you are back at the clock.

Sorry. I have been distracted with the entire world falling apart.
I am literally in shock.

I am not a huge fan on riddles either so if someone else (like Aurelia) would like to take the lead I would appreciate it.

Sorry, I've also had a busy time at work, as has Messa. I would appreciate any skill checks that might provide hints, as I have found that I rarely have the same mindset as the authors when they create riddles.

Would you allow Aid Another on Linguistics? Both Rinaldo and Messa give extra bonuses, and they are both trained.

Aurelia figured it out. We now know how to get in. The issue is that one of us is supposed to stay behind as the guardian. I doubt they planned for a disposable animal companion to be in the party so there is probably a workaround. Remove curse maybe.

Any particular reason why someone would want to be reincarnated? I am giving it until tomorrow morning until my character lets the arrows fly. :)

I mean, I have plenty of PCs that would love it just because it would be fun; my cleric of the lantern king most of all.

I wasn't aware of the rule about getting a non-legal race, so there are quite a lot of "misses" on the reincarnation table that would mean instant death at the end of the scenario without a wish.

Yes, this is the disconnect provided by PFS-play, as opposed to a home campaign.

In a home campaign, it provides an interesting roleplaying twist... in PFS, it is just terrifying :-/

I think since the reincarnation happens immediately Tuwo is eligible. And Dwarf would be an upgrade. But I don't want to risk the illegal options.

Yep, so let the arrows fly; just wanted to offer the chance since you might miss it for basically being too strong and I don't want "being too good" to be a possible bad thing.

So who wants to fight baba yaga for fun now that the scenario is near it's end?

How about fighting her once we finish the adventure? It can be a no consequence battle with no actual consumables used. Just my 2 cents. :)

Yeah, it won't count for anything!

Is that it? I was expecting a massive showdown at the end...

(I mean I know we will have our off the books combat with Baba Yaga but that is not part of the script)

That was the massive showdown. You get to fight a level 20 witch that uses two-weapon fighting with kukris, mean hexes, and 9th level spells. Unfortunately, she has no protection from arrows in any way.

Well, there is potential for one more encounter, but I doubt it will be much harder.