Wrath of the Righteous for Paladins (Inactive)

Game Master trawets71

Wow, that's a shame... Pity we don't have anyone in the group that could carry a whole bunch of stuff and not effect their movement...

:)

I didn't know Fley was overloaded! Leothar will offer in the future.

Hi guys! Posting it on all my pbps.

Our offshore team at work is very affected by the pandemic at the moment and with the fiscal year approaching to an end, our reduced capacity is terribly affecting my time. For the next several weeks it will likely impact me in such way that I simply won't be able to keep up with the forums, things normalizing only as we start approaching mid June.

For the games where I play, GMs please feel free to bot the characters. If you don't desire to bot me for so long, I completely understand, apologize for the late notice and wish you all the best of fun. If you hold me around, though, I should be back after this storm.

For the games where I host, my sincerest apologies to the players - I won't let you hanging so if you stick around until my return we will give it continuation as normal. Otherwise, please message me and once I'm back I'll recruit replacements.

To everybody, I'm sorry for the late notice and I hope we will continue playing together once I'm back!

Cheers,

Archlich

It looks like it is going to be 6-7 weeks based on what Donnen has said. Do we want to bot him for that long or recruit a replacement? All thoughts are welcome.

If we just had him in the background, "off-screen" fighting other foes, and you didn't scale up the encounters quite as much, would that work?

I think Leothar has a good idea.

Donnen is an anchor for our offense so I don't particularly want to lose him and I don't like slowing down for recruitments.

However making someone 'Bot' another character doesn't sound like a lot of fun.

If we get in trouble someone could 'bot him' to get us out, but with the ability to scale stuff, we should be ok.

DM Trawets, which would be easier for you, scale the encounters or 'Bot him'?

Yeah, I don't like recruiting a replacement. I would much rather bot Donnen.

Given that the GM has had to scale up encounters to challenge us, I think reigning that in a bit and having Donnen in the background works for the next 6-7 weeks.

1) Donnen in the background
2) Bot Donnen
3) Recruit short-term fill-in

Bot or background. I’d hate to lose him and recruitment would kill our momentum.

We will drop him back to the background. I don't want to bot him for 6 weeks and I don't know anyone else does either. I'm having difficulty with all his "moving parts". I am going to keep maxing HPs but will add fewer bodies.

Sounds fair to me!

Sounds good to me as well. A lot of his abilities are focused on body removal, so that works well.

EDIT: How does the creature's movement affect the lighting? I know I'll have to move in order to get line of sight, but I'm trying to figure out how close I'll need to get.

Yeah, that works for me too.

Knight's Pennon: Grants heroism 1/day
This narrow cloth flag is made to attach to the end a knight’s lance, though it can be flown from a spear, polearm, or even a staff. It has no effect if not mounted appropriately.

Anyone here want to use a polearm? Or, in the alternative, there is this: Versatile Design for 500 gold. Modify your weapon to be able to carry the flag. I'd say that it would be worth the gold.

any chance we can use a Flag of some sort?

My PFS cavalier uses the Pennon, but obviously he has a lance.

I can't really visualize how to modify a warhammer, axe, longsword, or kukri, to accommodate a pennon without the pennon getting in the way. But I could imagine affixing a pennon mount to the top of a longbow without impairing the weapon's function. Or attaching a pennon mount to the handle end of a dorn-dergar. A pennon isn't that big. The top of the longbow seems most suitable aesthetically.

The Flagbearer feat is an option to get extra benefits (although possibly redundant since it would not stack with Power of Faith). A flag mounted in a bracket in armor could be possible; the War Commander's Field Plate has this feature but I am not sure if it is intended to be available to armor in general (like a sashimono) or only to that item.

Well, Leothar has craft metalwork. So if he would help modify Dadna's dorn dergar to accommodate the flag, then I'd gladly use it. Especially if the flag is of dwarven design. This was a temple to Torag, so perhaps there is a forge within it that we could use?

This assumes, of course, that our GM will allow us to use versatile design. (?)

Yes, it was my vision for Leothar that his Craft (Metalwork) would be the ordinary things of everyday life - buckets, brackets, pots, hinges - rather than the "adventuring items" of weapons and armor. A little RP element to ground him in the lives of regular people, and not just having war and battle be all that he is about.

This seems a suitable application of that skill, if the modification is allowed. He's not a master weaponsmith, but he is a generalist, and that skill could come in handy.

Ian, are you going to be able to use Power of Faith this combat?

yes

Okay. Was trying to decide if I should cast Bless or use Wild Arcana to switch a Bless for Protection from Evil.

I will attempt to Aid Leothar if it's allowed. Is it, GM?

Honestly, I would feel rather cheap benefiting from it, because when I am a GM, I tend to disallow Aid Another on passive Perception checks. But whatever the GM thinks is best for the game.

I am not going to allow aid another on passive perception checks either.

How about passive aggressive perception checks.... um on second thought, nevermind...

Passive aggressive perception checks?

"I just love how you feel the need to stop and stare at the ground ever five seconds."

Were the scrolls of dispel magic arcane or divine? Trying to determine if I need to make a Use Magic Device check or just a caster level check.

Probably divine. Can you remind me where you got them, I'm a bit brain dead currently.

so does either the halo or the power of faith do anything against the darkness?

"Those that can see the demon see darkness surround him and then move toward them quickly. Ian and Fley are quickly enveloped and can't see. Dadna can see the two of them with her darkvision."

Sorry, I misread that. I thought that as the darkness surrounded the demon and "then move toward them quickly" that we could see the demon as well. Also, I read it as "standard action darkness, move action" so it didn't occur to me that there was some kind of invisiblity. I'll rethink the attack action :P

I hate having to become a rules lawyer researcher in the middle of a fight. The PoF writeup is vague.

At 4th level, a warrior of the holy light learns to use the power of her faith to bolster her defenses and aid her allies. This class feature replaces the paladin’s spells class feature. A warrior of the holy light does not gain any spells or spellcasting abilities, does not have a caster level, and cannot use spell trigger or spell completion magic items.

At 4th level, the warrior of the holy light gains one additional use of her lay on hands ability per day. She gains one additional use of lay on hands per day for every four levels she attains beyond 4th. She can spend a use of her lay on hands ability to call upon the power of her faith as a standard action. This causes a nimbus of light to emanate from the warrior of the holy light in a 30-foot radius. All allies in this area (including the warrior of the holy light) receive a +1 morale bonus to AC and on attack rolls, damage rolls, and saving throws against fear as long as they remain in the area of light. This power lasts for 1 minute.

At 8th level, the nimbus of light heals the paladin and her allies, curing of them of 1d4 points of ability damage, as per the spell lesser restoration. A creature can only be healed in this way once per day.

At 12th level, the nimbus of light is treated as daylight for the purposes of affecting creatures with sensitivity to light. In addition, the nimbus grants allies in the area resistance 10 to one type of energy, selected by the warrior of the holy light when this power is activated.

At 16th level, the nimbus of light grants the warrior of the holy light and her allies protection from critical hits. There is a 25% chance that critical hits made against the warrior of the holy light and her allies in the area are instead treated as normal hits. This does not stack with other abilities that grant similar protection (such as light fortification).

At 20th level, the nimbus of light increases in size out to a range of 60 feet. In addition, all of its bonuses increase. The morale bonus to AC and on attack rolls, damage rolls, and saving throws against fear increases to +2. The amount of ability damage healed increases to 2d4. The energy resistance increases to 20 against one energy type. Finally, protection against critical hits increases to 50%.

After doing some searching I found a FAQ for this.

Paladin: For the "nimbus of light" ability of the Warrior of the Holy Light archetype (page 118), what kind of light does it count as for the purpose of overcoming darkness effects? Is there a limit to how often a paladin can activate this ability? Does the 12th-level ability affect the paladin, or just her allies?

The ability counts as light up until 8th-level, at which point it counts as daylight. Activating the "nimbus of light" expends one use of her lay on hands ability. All effects of the nimbus affect the paladin as well as her allies (the game considers you an ally of yourself).
The APG update will include these clarifications.

What this means is that when it encounters a darkness spell PoF does not work in the areas of darkness. Kinda like not being able to cast a spell in silence. Darkness and light spell interactions can get a bit funky. Light spell is a 0 level spell and doesn't overcome any darkness spell. However that doesn't mean it doesn't work at all. Imagine two overlapping circles, one the radius of darkness the other of light. The light spell will work in its radius that is not shared with darkness. I've put an example in the map. In our current situation Leothar and Ardriel would benefit from the PoF, no one else would until they leave the area of darkness.

In the previous fight I ruled that you got the benefits of the PoF even if you didn't get the light. That was wrong. Spellcasting's Achilles heel is silence, PoF's is the darkness spells.

I hope this is clearer than mud.

"Those that can see the demon see darkness surround him and then move toward them quickly. Ian and Fley are quickly enveloped and can't see. Dadna can see the two of them with her darkvision."

Sorry, I misread that. I thought that as the darkness surrounded the demon and "then move toward them quickly" that we could see the demon as well. Also, I read it as "standard action darkness, move action" so it didn't occur to me that there was some kind of invisiblity. I'll rethink the attack action :P

There is an option other than invisibility. I don't think you could see the demon from where you where at the time so you wouldn't have seen what happened. Ian and Fley would have seen the darkness appear and then move toward them extremely fast. You would have just seen your darkvision kick in but there was no demon to be seen.

Were the scrolls of dispel magic arcane or divine? Trying to determine if I need to make a Use Magic Device check or just a caster level check.

Looks like that came from the final fight in the worldworld incursion. Those are divine.

I hate having to become a rules lawyer researcher in the middle of a fight. The PoF writeup is vague.

Hey at least you went and looked, that's better than I did. Thanks for the info. So 8th level it changes to daylight, I make sure I that noted. Thanks.

Ardriel Zinro wrote:

Were the scrolls of dispel magic arcane or divine? Trying to determine if I need to make a Use Magic Device check or just a caster level check.

Looks like that came from the final fight in the worldworld incursion. Those are divine.

Thanks GM. Let’s see if I can get rid of the darkness.

I found out on Friday I am going to have to have surgery. It hasn't been scheduled yet but should be in the next few weeks to a month. I was told I'll be in the hospital 1-2 nights and recovering for 4-6 weeks. So I won't be posting for a couple days and then be laying around in bed for a while. I will keep you all updated on this.

I have been kicking around the idea for a while of running another game and would like some input. I am planing on running an all wizard party. The question is what to run. An AP (which one)? A series of linked adventures (Falcon's Hollow for example). A larger module or maybe a series of modules. Suggestions on what you think a group of wizards could survive would be appreciated.

Best of luck with your surgery.

I imagine an all-wizard party could work for any AP, but it would be important for the players to all be on the same page. There is such a huge range in power level and in playstyle for wizards.

When playing a wizard, I personally tend towards a lower degree of optimization, no dump stats, and having fallback options so I am not just blowing through my spells and forcing the 15-minute adventuring day on the party. That's just my style and it's not for everyone, but I don't think I have had to play any of my wizards alongside the higher-optimization versions.

I would not look to add another game to my plate, but I think you could make it work with the right group of players.

Yikes, I hope everything goes ok in the meantime. Just let us know when things will slow down, RL has to come first.

As for an all wizards group, not my expertise at all. Would you include witches or sorcerers? I would think the group would survive better at higher levels than lower. So point build and races available would help with lower level survivability. I'd imagine an elf with a longbow or a half orc with a falchion or Changling with natural attacks; that sort of thing to fill roles early on then archetypes to add skills.

I'm hoping at adding a certain "core" run through "Emerald Spire" with a barbarian. But I'm not sure I'd be much help in an all wizards game.

Seconded on wishing to you the best on the surgery!

As for the all Wizard group, I also think it would balance better to have Wizard/Sorc. Because Sorcs can provide healing via some bloodlines and it means more diverse stats. That, and a dragon disciple can be great in melee which would fulfill the front line. Regardless a good group can figure things out regardless and if they can survive the early levels should end up just fine.

It would be the opposite of this group. Can’t take a hit and can’t handle long adventuring days, but can nuke encounters and can counter nearly anything with prep.

Yes, hope the surgery goes well! Take your time - real life should come first.

I've only played one and a half books of RotRL but hear it's pretty good for wizards. Unsure about other APs or modules - haven't played any others really.

I think for AP it should be something involving research/discovery. Ruins of Azlant might be appropriate. Or second darkness? I could see a band of wizards being called in to investigate.

Strange Aeons might work for an all-wizard party, as well, although Spell Penetration basically becomes mandatory for that one.

I think the biggest hurdle to an all-wizard party is that one of the main ways for wizards to get some extra support lies in Summon spells - particularly when you need bodies to soak hits at low levels. Too many summons can slow down PBP, thought, so it's a hard balance to find.

If you do an AP, I might allow them to start at level 2, just for a bit of extra survivability. Giving out something like Toughness as a bonus feat couldn't hurt, either.

Thanks for the input guys. I am leaning towards maybe running the Falcon's Hollow series. It goes from level 1 to 8 through there is a gap in there I will need to fill. I was planning on taking 6 to make sure the roles are covered and to improve survivalist and not increasing the encounters. Any wizard going the melee route I would expect to have toughness and maybe arcane strike at first level. I'll be a little freer in the rules than I was for Wrath but I want to keep it to wizards I think to see how it goes. To me at least that is part of the interest and challenge, how can we make this work.

I'll keep an eye out should you decide to run it. If you allow tieflings and/or changelings, I think that I've got an idea on how to run a wizard that can stand on the front lines without instantly melting.

I am going to allow the hardback books not just core for this. I am unsure on races though. Tieflings and aasimirs (both stock) are probably in; I'll probably allow featured races but not uncommon.

Worried about his companions in dark and silent room, Ian turns to Fley and asks. "Should we go out through the courtyard to the northern room and see if everyone is ok?"

I'm almost as befuddled as Ian, I will get an actual action post up later.

No one in the silence rooms could hear those sounds.

I assumed since Ian was south of the silent room and the sounds happened in the northern room, he couldn't hear them either. But he did no like the idea of going through the silent dark room to try and communicate with anyone. Thinking going through the courtyard to try and get the others attention, either those in the north room or the south room. He has no idea where anyone is. The last he saw of Ardriel he was in the north. The idea was to go around and get back with them. In my mind he had no idea that there was darkness or an issue in the north room.

From Ian's perspective the winged creature was in the south room then darkness appeared in the middle silent room but Ian didn't see the creature go past. When Ian moved to the south room the winged creature was gone. Things Ian knows. There is darkness in the silent room inferring the creature attacked there. Ian's light doesn't work, some of his friends were in the north, He can get to the north going through the courtyard.

Sorry, just thinking aloud, Ian's comment wasn't due to the darkness and noise. that's why I didn't roll perception It was due to the fact that the north was where his friends were, outside of the silent darkness. He can't yell to them to see if they are ok, so he could go that way and regroup with them.

So I'm finding this challenging, not sure what to do, nor what Ian would do. Hard to fight what you can't see or hear. So staying out of the silent room seemed like a good idea. I realize I'm rambling. I just wanted to explain that Ian's (nor my) motivation wasn't based on what was happening in the north room. It was trying to avoid the middle room and regroup.

What makes it especially hard is the difficulty in communicating with each other. If it was just sight we could yell to each other instructions. Even harder, we are separated from each other in different rooms, meaning that just miming what to do isn't guaranteed either. Given Dadna's personality, her fall back is to stand her ground and take a defensive posture. Hence her readied actions.

Also loathe to discuss tactics in discussion, given that it undoes one of the main challenges of the silence.

Right, it wasn't my intention to discuss tactics, here. Just to let DM Trawets know Ian wasn't reacting to the 'darkness' in the north.

I truly have no idea what Ian should be doing, so he asked Fley what he thought. Hoping Fley gives some insight in game, and then I will post an action. IF it takes too long we will assume Ian delayed this round. Either way I will post again in game before I go to bed.

I wasn't second guessing your reasons. You were in a bad place. Deaf and blind (I'll leave the middle one out until I hit you with a feeblemind) :). I don't blame anyone without darkvision from leaving the meditation room.

I wasn't second guessing your reasons. You were in a bad place. Deaf and blind (I'll leave the middle one out until I hit you with a feeblemind) :). I don't blame anyone without darkvision from leaving the meditation room.

Yeah, I kind of went of on a tangent, just thinking out loud. And like a dummy I didn't have my chakrams cold iron.

I've put my recruitment up here if anyone was interested.

I was hoping to see your sword thrower Leothar but I understand not wanting to go too thin.