I don't see anything wrong! :) One thing that occurred to me though is at one point Foxy had all of us take a free item crafting feat. Perhaps that same bonus will extend to Bylo as well? Being able to, say, craft the enchantments on his scimitar and armor might save him enough money to upgrade them more.
Maybe once you're out of the plane of fire and have time to actually craft something, I'll consider that. But not to save money on character creation.
That makes sense. Thanks.
I think I'm ready except for fleshing out my history. I'll watch the thread so I know when I can join.
Any thoughts on wishes, Aithaloessa?
Hmm. Well, like I tried to hint at in-character before, impossible insight to how to get out of here would be most welcome. :)
If she were to be more irresponsible and/or selfish, Aith would love something like a book of infinite spells, especially one that really was infinite (i.e., one that kept going after 1d8+22 pages, even if that means, in practical terms, a chance of repeating every once in a while). Oooh, or, given her architectural pretensions, when she's not inadvertently demolishing things, maybe something like the Greatcube of Jayalakshmi?
Or, to get around in style, a chaos cutter?
I mean, with Craft Wondrous Item, gold to hand (which can probably be remedied by time, for a patient mage) and spells known (more frustrating, for a mage less patient with that constraint), are probably the main obstacles to Aith just muddling along pretty happily without any obvious bauble to dream of.
So you want to be a Mythic Archmage? Just use a Mythic point to cast any spell on your caster list, whether you have it in your book, or not, prepared, or not. And add Divine Source so you can cast Divine spells too!
The Greatcube of Jayalakshmi should be found in the lexicon under D like Dumb Ways to Die.
A few other ideas as we're talking of selfish stuff: Gaining the King Midas boon. Wearing gloves all the time might be annoying, but besides getting stinking rich, this might make for a decent touch attack too.
Inherent spell resistance. One has to protect oneself from friendly fire (sideglance to a certain elf).
Banishment as an (Ex) ability usable three times per day, character level as CL (this whole AP outsiders have been a pain in the ass).
Bylo's suggestion also would make a nice wish - turn the whole party into Mythic Heroes(TM). One mythic ascension please.
So you want to be a Mythic Archmage? Just use a Mythic point to cast any spell on your caster list, whether you have it in your book, or not, prepared, or not. And add Divine Source so you can cast Divine spells too!
Huh. I've never played a mythic game before, so I have only the faintest memory of the shenanigans one can get up to there. That is neat!
Alternatively, just wishing for the ability to use her arcanist reservoir to pull a trick like the magus’ knowledge pool. I really like the magus, so I should have thought of that sooner, but I’ve mostly played in lower-level games, or with archetypes that lose that ability. Oooh! Or spell kenning, as a skald of her level, just powered by arcanist slots, etc.
The Greatcube of Jayalakshmi should be found in the lexicon under D like Dumb Ways to Die.
A few other ideas as we're talking of selfish stuff: Gaining the King Midas boon. Wearing gloves all the time might be annoying, but besides getting stinking rich, this might make for a decent touch attack too.
Inherent spell resistance. One has to protect oneself from friendly fire (sideglance to a certain elf).
Banishment as an (Ex) ability usable three times per day, character level as CL (this whole AP outsiders have been a pain in the ass).
Bylo's suggestion also would make a nice wish - turn the whole party into Mythic Heroes(TM). One mythic ascension please.
Is it C.L. Moore with the story about the egg-shaped not-TARDIS and various sword-and-sorcery and robots things that ensue? I'm probably smooshing a whole bunch of things together in my mind. The old pulps have a lot of mysterious geometric artifacts that may or may not be sentient and with their own agenda that should give sane adventurers pause.
And hey! I regularly prepare peace bond! It's just turned out that most of our battles have been too chaotic for it to make much of a difference yet. Maybe I should think about taking Quicken Spell, or finding a metamagic rod, at least. :)
Anyway, if everyone's OK with it, I'm happy to try wishing for a mythic ascension.
Mythic ascension is fine with me!
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"Ooops, did I say wish?" Haleen says followed by giggling.
Foxy, do you have a plan for introducing Bylo and for dealing with Tariq's departure? I wonder if the latter could simply transform into the former, chalk it up to something strange about the genie's magic?
Swap out one of my 5th level spells and plane shift in a little off target?
I have a plan, on how to get Bylo in. But I don't think there is a good way to have Tariq leave. And for sure no evil side effects of genie magic. Shazathared is very careful not to raise the parties anger.
And the magic wave with sparkles hits you too, for some reason ;)
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First idea for Haleen's ascension:
Path - Guardian
Guardian's call:
Sudden Block (Su): As an immediate action, you can
expend one use of mythic power to hinder a melee attack
made against you or an adjacent ally. Add your tier to
your AC or the ally’s AC against this attack. The creature
making the attack must make two attack rolls and take
the lower result. Once the attack is resolved, you or your
ally (your choice) can make one melee attack against
the creature. The damage from this attack bypasses all
damage reduction.
Path ability:
Fast Healing (Ex): As a swift action, you can expend
one use of mythic power to gain fast healing 5 for 1
minute. This ability can be taken a second time at 3rd
tier or higher and a third time at 6th tier or higher. Each
additional time you take this ability, the fast healing
increases by 5.
Feat: Dual Path
Champion’s Strike:
Sudden Attack (Ex): As a swift action, you can expend
one use of mythic power to make a melee attack at your
highest attack bonus. This is in addition to any other
attacks you make this round. When making a sudden
attack, you roll twice and take the better result, adding
your tier to the attack roll. Damage from this attack
bypasses all damage reduction.
I have a plan, on how to get Bylo in. But I don't think there is a good way to have Tariq leave. And for sure no evil side effects of genie magic. Shazathared is very careful not to raise the parties anger.
Maybe Tariq just temporarily ascended to Nirvana then. Sarenrae called him to service elsewhere. :) Regardless, after the wave of magic, can we assume we notice he isn't here any more?
First idea for Haleen's ascension:
1 point of mythic power for 50 hp sounds like a pretty good deal, especially as a swift action Haleen can take during combat!
Mythic is a nice addition if you want to have powerful characters. But there are some serious limitations to that. It's all in one book, and as far as I know has no extensions in other books. So if you find that one thing that fits your character, it is a big boon. But if you're slightly off the trodden path, like a Dex melee fighter it gets hard.
It is a pity, that Tariq left. It generally is, and I think both, for us as well as for him with no time to play anymore. But additionally, because mythic rocks for Warpriest. There is that nice feat chain, where you make only one attack, but roll twice for the attack everytime. Which is an almost garanteed hit. But with limited damage as only the weapon damage is multiplied. But with Mythic Vital Strike that becomes really deadly.
I have a plan, on how to get Bylo in. But I don't think there is a good way to have Tariq leave. And for sure no evil side effects of genie magic. Shazathared is very careful not to raise the parties anger.Maybe Tariq just temporarily ascended to Nirvana then. Sarenrae called him to service elsewhere. :) Regardless, after the wave of magic, can we assume we notice he isn't here any more?
Also from The Gamers - That guy simply standing aroudn idly, ignored from allies and enemies until the player arrives at the table for ten minutes, murders all enemies and then leaves again, leaving the guy standing around idly again. We could have it that way for now?
Mythic is a nice addition if you want to have powerful characters. But there are some serious limitations to that. It's all in one book, and as far as I know has no extensions in other books. So if you find that one thing that fits your character, it is a big boon. But if you're slightly off the trodden path, like a Dex melee fighter it gets hard.
Heroes of Golarion had a few additions for psychic characters, but nothing especially good for Haleen. Champion is probably the way to go, I'd say, with things like Fleet Warrior and Maximized Critical. I also like a Legendary Item for fighting types with no magic. Adding Guardian is really cool too!
It is a pity, that Tariq left. It generally is, and I think both, for us as well as for him with no time to play anymore. But additionally, because mythic rocks for Warpriest. There is that nice feat chain, where you make only one attack, but roll twice for the attack everytime. Which is an almost garanteed hit. But with limited damage as only the weapon damage is multiplied. But with Mythic Vital Strike that becomes really deadly.
That sounds like a lot of fun to play!
Also from The Gamers - That guy simply standing aroudn idly, ignored from allies and enemies until the player arrives at the table for ten minutes, murders all enemies and then leaves again, leaving the guy standing around idly again. We could have it that way for now?
Sure thing!
I'm planning for Guardian with dual path Champion to get the DR5/epic from guardian at 3rd tier. The maxed critical sounds nice, but Haleen only has a 1d6 weapon and no real chance to improve on that. So I'd only take that if I run out of ideas what else to take. There is also the automatic crit confirm that would match Haleens crit happy build. But with already +5 on the confirm roll, that is also not that helpful.
I was even pondering to just scrap the combat improvements and take mythic skill focus on my crafting feat.
I'm planning for Guardian with dual path Champion to get the DR5/epic from guardian at 3rd tier. The maxed critical sounds nice, but Haleen only has a 1d6 weapon and no real chance to improve on that. So I'd only take that if I run out of ideas what else to take. There is also the automatic crit confirm that would match Haleens crit happy build. But with already +5 on the confirm roll, that is also not that helpful.
Doesn't Haleen get Advanced Weapon Training as a fighter? She could take the Focused Weapon option and get warpriest-comparable damage with her rapier. I think that's 1d10 at our current level, but it'll increase to 2d6 at level 15.
I am really intrigued to see how Haleen guardians. I don't think I've ever played in a game where someone chose the Guardian mythic path. (Well, I take that back, there's a Guardian/Champion in a Wrath game I'm in, but they just had to drop out of the game and I don't know if they'll ever come back. But I don't remember ever seeing them do any cool guardian stuff.)
Guardian has some interesting options that incerease survivability by providing additional HP. And that's why Haleen was around (beyond being able to give really good hints about the way to go). And guardian is really good at that. DR5/epic plus fast healing 5 with high AC makes her a really good tank.
Issue is, that only works if someone is around who does the damage dealing. I didn't want to go heavy there, to leave that for the other characters to shine.
We'll see if that works out, now that Tariq isn't around to deal big damage anymore.
But the Focused Weapon sounds like an interesting option.
I added a 'missed' Plane Shift after the history on my character sheet. "Travel to Katapesh" Should I post it in the play thread?
Personally I love the Mythic rules for higher level characters. It adds a level to the variety of what they can do. However, I've also tried to GM WotR to the end, and around level 15/Mythic 7 the characters pretty well steam rolled everything, including the also powerful mythic Boss monsters.
It depends a lot on how well the players optimize and prepare. Same for the GM. I'm often not mean enough in setting up the fights in favour of the monsters, or didn't know how to best use their abilities.
As for posting in gameplay - you can. But you don't have many options what you could do that don't include dying.
I've made adjustments for how I think I want Yasmeena to gain her mythic tier. As a bard, I really want her to be a Marshal, but unfortunately most of her abilities kind of work against that. She wants to be full attacking with her bow as often as possible, and she doesn't really do things that help the rest of the party besides spells. Trickster might be a good fit, but she's not a rogue and she doesn't have sneak attack so the base powers she would get don't really do much for her.
I decided she should be a Dual Path Champion/Marshal, though just like for Haleen there isn't much for her in the "Strength" path. The Distant Barrage champion's strike is pretty good, but that might be the only thing she takes.
Unfortunately, there isn't much for her in the Marshal path either. I chose the Marshal's Loyalty path ability for her first tier, which gives her the Leadership feat and a cohort. I'm hoping another bard in the group can pick up some of the "boosting everyone" slack that Yasmeena leaves in favor of pew-pew-ing.
Neelah is a Flamesinger, which means her bardic performances don't conflict with Yasmeena's. I'm sort of having her riff on some of what I was suggesting for Bylo but that Bylo seems to have decided not to do-- mostly nonlethal fireballs, or sonic fireballs thanks to Choral Support, or even nonlethal sonic fireballs. Might be a dumb idea, but I thought I should probably have her avoid melee combat if possible because she'll be way too squishy anyway.
There is always the universal path, or the legendary items if there is nothing else that piques your interest.
If you are going Dual path but only see one thing useful in one Path Ability that is useful in one of the paths, Dual with Trickster and take the Path Ability that let's you cherry pick a Path ability form any path.... Can only be taken once, but there are a couple of abilities in Trickster that are generic enough (or duplicated from others) to be useful. Fleet Charge or Surprise Strike both bypass DR but I like Fleet Charge 'cause it gives you the move.
Aim for the Eye? Blind the enemy temporarily. Non-Mythics don't get a save.
Path Dabbling: This is the one that lets you cherry pick from any other Path.
Sniper's Riposte: You no longer provoke AoO's in melee.
Tier 3: Mirror Dodge to just not get hit, and Vanishing Move to disappear whenever you are moving.
There is always the universal path, or the legendary items if there is nothing else that piques your interest.
Very true! I hope I don't sound like I'm complaining-- there's plenty of cool stuff available in the universal path.
If you are going Dual path but only see one thing useful in one Path Ability that is useful in one of the paths, Dual with Trickster and take the Path Ability that let's you cherry pick a Path ability form any path.... Can only be taken once, but there are a couple of abilities in Trickster that are generic enough (or duplicated from others) to be useful.
That's also very true, but I don't like the Surprise Strike trickster attack as much as I like the Distant Barrage champion strike. I mean, Surprise Strike isn't bad, but generally making her enemies flat-footed isn't as useful for Yasmeena, compared to ignoring cover and total concealment. Plus Surprise Strike must be within 30'. I'm not opposed to taking a power I might not use, of course, but I think a swift action bonus attack would best fit into her attack sequence. She's a pretty reliable damage dealer except for how she has fewer attacks than martials.
And there are a few things in Champion that are good for a ranged character. Fleet Warrior works with any full attack, and though she doesn't really have to move it could come in handy for staying out of melee. Unstoppable Shot is kind of an edge case, but it might be a good thing to do with an extra standard action from Amazing Initiative. Champion gets Sniper's Riposte. And Perfect Strike is great for boosting damage, which Yasmeena is always trying to do. Granted, I'd probably take Mirror Dodge and Aim for the Eye if I could, but it's fine if I don't.
Sorry for disappearing for a hot minute! I still need to wrap my head around the mythic stuff, and in the meantime, of all the embarrassing things, I took a pratfall on the way to the library.
As far as I can tell, it's my dignity that got the worst of it (I honest-to-goodness faceplanted, which must have been a hilarious sight), but it did leave me battered and bruised and in desperate need of a restorative rest.
I'll work out the details over the weekend, I hope, but Aith will definitely be going the Archmage, wild arcana path. In the meantime, I'll try to get back to posting more regularly.
Ouch! Sadly, been there done that! Mine wasn't very hilarious though. After I got bandaged up I was the one that had to go back and clean up the blood....
Maybe this will help with your Archmage. It points out some interesting ideas on the Mythic rules. And Aith? according to the author of the site, you will now wield the "ULTIMATE COSMIC POWER"!
Archmages are super-fun! Here's another guide that just goes over Archmage options, which you might find useful. I suspect Eldritch Breach, Energy Conversion, or Flash of Omniscience would all fit Aith very well for 1st-tier path abilities.
Also, you'll probably want her to get some mythic spells, either via the 1st-tier Universal path ability Mythic Spellcasting or the mythic feat Mythic Spellpower. I can strongly recommend mythic haste, mythic holy smite, mythic magic missile, and mythic fireball as good choices if those are spells you'll be casting regularly. The mythic versions generally do the same thing but with a little more oomph-- for example, mythic haste gives everyone affected an additional move action each round.
From the one game that I played and the one that I GM'd, Mythic spell casting should come a bit later. Mythic Magic Missile is fun at the 4th level augment where you can snipe enemies a mile away if you can see them. But the MP cost hurts.... Check out Mythic featherfall too. The fourth level augment turns it into a scary good weapon!
Not until you can cast 6th level spells, but check out the Ascendant Spell metamagic feat. It isn't a Mythic feat though so you don't burn one of them, but with Wild Arcana you can cast the first level Mythic version of the spells without having to burn the +5 level slots. Mage armor and Endure Elements are just a couple that get pretty cool enhancements.
The 6th Tier Archmage power channel power is what truly makes the mage shine though. (my opinion) +50 to damage, double the duration, increase the DR by 4, and ignore spell resistance!
Thanks for the link to the guide. Hadn't seen that one.
Before you plan a character til mythic tier 10. This is no mythic adventure and therefore has no set storypoints to get additional tiers. You might try blackmailing/torturing genies to get additional wishes, as that has been proven to work. But otherwise I haven't decided how many additional tiers there will be and when.
LOL! Understood. I never plan anything beyond the next level. But I do enjoy reading people's ideas and options.
From the one game that I played and the one that I GM'd, Mythic spell casting should come a bit later.
I disagree, but that doesn't mean I think you're wrong, just we have different priorities. :) I've had several mythic characters through the years, and if they weren't Dual Path, I think I took Mythic Spellpower as their first feat on all of them. For me, that's usually been for mythic heroism (I can't get it on Yasmeena until 2nd tier, boo!), but I remember one character long ago that was specialized in mythic color spray.
I seem to recall that Cockroach Tea Party recommended that there's only a few mythic spells that you will really want, so you never want to take more than one set of mythic spells, but that must have been somewhere else. The Mythic Magic section of that GITP forum post is kind of misleading because it doesn't list mythic spells that don't have augmented effects. Generally speaking, though, if you're a dedicated spellcaster then mythic spells will make your primary thing much, much better, so why wouldn't you get that improvement as soon as possible?
Once everyone's sleep cycle is aligned and the group walks back - There is a new map with the nice labyrinth of rooms with flame curtains painted.
Entry is at the bottom left marked with an arrow. Each room has four numbered passages. Between the square rooms there are connections. If there is no adjacent square room to a passage, then there is a wall behind the fire curtain. The only exception is the double headed arrow, that leads to the river of lava.
I assume, you remember the order of passage to not get burned, so there is only one path that would lead to the river of lava. So I'll railroad that too.
(If I had noticed that in time I could have saved myself the hassle of painting the thing)
I guess it would be a lot of fun to play all of that out step by step if we sat at a table. With a lot of discussions where to go next as there is always someone who doesn't get it and walks into the wrong curtain, ruining the perfect order that would lead through all the rooms with the following discussion how to get back to a route that includes all the rooms and the fights of brass constructs, that come to punish wrong orders of passing.
But on the boards that would a) be tedious and not fun and b) Bylo would die of boredom in the brass boat in the meantime.
So, sorry for dragging you through all that, without asking your opinion, and I hope it is in your best interest too.
Now as the final travel point is defined and reached, please handle retroactively the findings in the new rooms.
So, sorry for dragging you through all that, without asking your opinion, and I hope it is in your best interest too.
No problem here! I appreciate the thought that went into this, but I don't mind being railroaded in the interest of advancing the story. :)
That's an interesting map. Now reading back through the thread it makes more sense....
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Ouch! Sadly, been there done that! Mine wasn't very hilarious though. After I got bandaged up I was the one that had to go back and clean up the blood....
Maybe this will help with your Archmage. It points out some interesting ideas on the Mythic rules. And Aith? according to the author of the site, you will now wield the "ULTIMATE COSMIC POWER"!
Vaarsuvius is my favourite part of the Order of the Stick. :)
Augh, option paralysis is real. After agonizing for a bit, I’ve finally settled on Wild Arcana for archmage arcana (that part was easy), universal path Mythic Spellcasting (haste), and Mythic Arcane Strike.
Probably not as gonzo as doubling down with Mythic Spell Lore or going with that instead and one of the archmage-specific path abilities, but since I was mostly tempted by some of the counter/dispelling things which I haven’t really dabbled in so far, this seems a bit more suitable and in character. Haste is one of Aith’s go-to spells, and Mythic Arcane Strike gives her a bit of flexibility when she’s not casting and saves one of her regular arcanist discoveries/feats that I was planning for.
I don't know which of us was keeping track of our loot (I can't edit the Loot Spreadsheet document linked above, but it hasn't been updated since book one!), but since Yasmeena loves treasure, I'm willing to take the responsibility on. I read back through our adventures since we left Kelmarane and wrote down in Yasmeena's profile all of the treasure we found along the way. Some of it I'm not sure about, for example there was a lamp with a ruby set into the lid in the fire curtain maze that Foxy described as 3' tall. Assuming we grabbed everything that isn't nailed down, like good little adventurers, how would we carry it? Would it fit in a bag of holding?
In doing this, I was also reminded that we found a ring of minor fire resistance, which would protect Neelah against the fire without Aith having to cast a precious, precious spell slot. ;) We've also got quite a few things that are good for fighting fire elementals and other denizens of the plane of fire, including 10 flasks of ebon flame.
I suggest someone who is typically on the front line (Haleen?) should wear the ring, in case we face things like burning hands or fireballs in the future.
... but since Yasmeena loves treasure, I'm willing to take the responsibility on. I read back through our adventures since we left Kelmarane and wrote down in Yasmeena's profile all of the treasure we found along the way.
Thank you.
Indeed, thanks so much!
I could have sworn we did some accounting before that, though? I thought it was mostly Kakishon and after that needed tidying up? I'll take a look to see if I can help out later this weekend.
As for the ruby-studded lamp, are there any Shelynites around or collectors that would be offended if we just keep the lid to sell the gem later? XD
Oooh, or I just double-checked, and Aith has shrink item in her spellbook, so she doesn't even need to misuse her newfound COSMIC POWER! as an archmage to fake it, if we decide that the whole lamp would really tie a room together. :)
It looked like Yasmeena had stuff on her sheet from before we read the scroll and wound up in Kakishon, but none of the stuff we found there. But we still haven't traveled anywhere that we can sell the things we can't use (multiple magic falchions, for example!), so it makes sense we're just carrying it around.
It seems like these areas we are currently traveling through are all treasure vaults of some kind, so maybe the lamp is valuable for some other reason that will become clear later? When we opened it, it was obvious that it had once held a genie but no longer. Maybe it was Jhavul's lamp?
"I am Bylo Afir, Apostate of the Dawnflower."
Apostate? Was that an autocorrect gone awry? :)
Ouch! Yes.... Was trying to say Apostle, as in Angelfire Apostle.... not sure what I typed but it wasn't that!
LOL! I've renounced the Dawnflower and I've barely even started the game!?!
I thought I'd better check before I responded. ;) Bylo seems incredibly well-spoken, unlikely to make a mistake like that.
Very true. Bylo is very well-spoken, +18 to Diplomacy and all that. Unfortunately the player probably has a negative score for Diplomacy! ;-P
Know that feeling, sadly. :/
It was a rough weekend on my end - and not in a fun way, barring catching up with some reading with some brilliant, scathing satire - so I haven't had a chance to go through loot lists again.
But if we're concerned about what might go wrong if we leave the fancy lamp behind, I'm perfectly happy to cross off a spell slot and a couple reservoir points to allow us to have shrunk it down to fit.