Tyrant's Grasp III: Last Watch

Game Master CrusaderWolf

Our visions from the Dead Roads, on the assumption that they're tied to something we'll see in Book 2 (or later):

Sanduro’s vision

Silvia's vision

Ketra's vision

Garret's vision

And just in case it's still relevant: Wallace’s vision

Fifth level for a sorcerer is not particularly stunning, as Garret still only has access to second level spells. Still there are some nuggets there:

Level 5 Feat: Greater Spell Focus -- Evocation
New Spell Known: Flaming Sphere
New Bloodline Spell: Fury of the Sun
Skills Improved: Appraise, Diplomacy, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device
Solar Bloodline "Friend of Fire" increases to add an extra die of healing if Garret is healed while in contact with flame (already has fire resistance 10)
No improvement in BAB or Saves.

Taglines and profile pages for Sanduro and Zsofia are updated. Apparently, I forgot to apply the bracers of armor and cloak of resistance she has been wearing for a while when she’s ectoplasmic (in theory, anyway), so between those items and her increase to Dex at level 5, she’s got nice bumps to her AC and Reflex save.

Also, Sanduro is just going to start casting extended longstrider on himself and extended greater magic fang on Zsofia every day when the party starts out. With durations of 10 hours, I'm going to leave those effects built into their taglines unless Sanduro decides not to prepare one spell or the other on a particular day. Will post in gameplay shortly.

Level Up Time! Dancer 5th.

Like Garret, this isn't too big of level for me. Due to how Dancer is built as a class (as well as the perks of the EitR house rules), there aren't any must-have feats. So I ended up going with something to hopefully build up a bit of flexibility.

((For my own future reference, the upgraded Dodge feat from the houserules, and the Battle Cry feat look like decent pick ups))

One of Ketra's prepared 2nd level Routines now includes "Inspiring Display", which now grants +2 attack/damage for 1 round for her allies, but not herself. It's like a mini inspire courage. Might have been a bit more impactful while we still had Wallace, but Silvia and Zsofia will still be able to take advantage.

---------
Level up details ->

Level 5 Feat: Deft Maneuvers
+1 2nd level Routine/day
+1 1st level Routine prepared
BAB +1
Skills (6 base points, 1 favored class bonus): Acrobatics, Bluff, Escape Artist, Intimidate, KN Religion, Perception, Stealth.
Background Skills (2 points): Perform (dance), Sleight of Hand
Features: Evasion (Identical to rogue version)

Rough couple of days at work, should be back online tomorrow. Sorry for the delay.

My average attack roll since we got back to town has been 6.4[...]. Bleh.

I updated the loot list with the items we took from the tattooed thugs in the graveyard; Garret and Sanduro each took a +1 dagger (out of 5) and a potion of invisibility (out of 4). Ketra, Silvia, do you want to take any of the remaining daggers/potions? Also, Ketra, they had a combined 15 masterwork daggers between them - do you want any for throwing? Do we want to offer any to Jando (who helped anyway and probably earned a +1 dagger if he wants it)? Or Mirhet (I expect we’re going to be burning some charges off the wand for her, but that’s just being neighborly)?

Yes, I'll take a +1 dagger, an invisibility potion, and all the mwk daggers. Can't let them go to waste.

Sanduro and Zsofia to Level 6:

Sanduro:
+1 BAB
Favored class bonus: +1 skill point
Skills: +1 to each of Heal, Knowledge (Geography, History, Nature, Planes, Religion), Perception
Spells: +1 each of levels 2 & 3

Taking Heal to +15 means he can take 10 for 25, enough to double his Wisdom bonus to the hit points recovered with Treat Deadly Wounds when using the healer's satchel.

Zsofia:
+1 hit die
+1 BAB
Skills: +1 each to Appraise, Bluff, Perception
Feat: Improved Unarmed Strike (Slam)
Class feature: Devotion (phantom gains a +4 morale bonus on Will saves against enchantment spells and effects)

Silvia level up report

Paladin 5
+7 HP (max 46)
+1 BAB
FCB: +1 skill
Skills: +1 to Craft (Alchemy), Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Knowledge (Religion), Perception, Sense Motive
Feature: Divine Bond (Weapon)

As the others awake, he asks hopefully, ”Some of us need more rest and/or healing. Do we have enough people to go work on setting the graveyard the rest of the way to rights this morning?”

Garret, with the extra 5 hp from long-term care, aren't you and Silvia fully healed? Ketra should be down 1hp, and Sanduro and Zsofia are each down 2. I'm not sure about Jando - he was down 24, then healed 3+level with Treat Deadly Wounds plus double his level from long-term care.

Jando would have healed 21hp in total, which isn't all the way up but is pretty close.

Garret would be happy to take the fiery cloak because it fits well into his idiom. That puts a cloak of resistance +1 up for grabs…

Sorry, all - I’ll post tonight when I get back to a laptop. Finally had time & energy to check in but I’m on my iDevices until I get back to my hotel and can’t see the map.

Thanks for your patience, everyone. First I got sick, then had negotiations for my union, and a city election. Wild couple weeks.

Hmmm, the city I live in also had an election last Tuesday. It’s “a certain midwestern town that starts with C, ends with an O, and in da middle is __________.”

Nope, not that one, but I'm pleased with how your city's election went!

Lovely city, but not mine unfortunately.

Falling back, Sanduro invokes the power of wind and storm and pulls a lightning bolt down from the sky to smite the cinder ghoul; sparks and smoking blood erupt from the impact point. At the same time Zsofia lunges towards it, though her haymakers fail to find their mark…

…. For its part, a surge of jealous fury compels the cinder ghoul to round upon Zsofia, smoking claws raking viciously at ectoplasmic flesh.

If a 24 and 23 hit, Zsofia takes 26dmg, catches fire, and suffers 1 temporary negative level. Let me know if her phantom immunities apply to any of that!

1. Which spell did Sanduro-bot cast, GM? Aggressive Thundercloud or Call Lightning?

I had intended it to be Call Lightning, and the damage was Slashing bu not magic so give her 10hp back :)

Just a heads up, I'll be on vacation until the 22nd. That means traveling and probably fewer chances to post. I expect I'll be able to keep up with the games I'm playing in, but if you don't hear from me for a couple of days, feel free to bot me.

Finally remembered to put the reductions to Zsofia’s various stats into her tagline. GM, please remind me when it’s time to take them out again.

Garret’s intent was to send the rats one at a time. One down the first corridor, then one down the second, then the third down the first corridor to see if the trap reset. Sending all three at once was not his intent.

Oh gotcha, that makes sense! Small retcon then--each rat sent down the north & south routes perishes. How long do you wait before sending the final rat?

The summoning only lasts 6 rounds, so send the first rat down 1 hall at round one, second rat down hall 2 at round 2, then third ray down the first hall on round 6 (elapsed time 5 rounds for the first hallway). Garret will also have detect magic up and be watching to see if he can detect any fluctuations in the magic that might indicate a reset.

Good to know, sorry about the mixup!

I'll be traveling for work until Wednesday next week. I may be able to get a couple posts in, but I suspect it'll be pretty slim.

Garret is levelled up. Blood Havoc plus some new spells. Hit points go up, AC is better now with Mage Armor. Picked up Mage Armor, See Invisibility, Fly, and Daylight (Bloodline Spell). Character sheet is updated in Google Drive (linked in character text block).

Alright, all levelled up here too.

The highlights are:
- HP, BAB, skills up as usual.
- 1st level Routines are now at-will
- 3rd level Routines are available. So far I've prepared one 3rd level with repositioning + max damage output, and one with 3x control effects.
- 7th level feat is Experienced Ghost Hunter, so she can give her weapons ghost touch as a swift action. Given the undead focus of this AP, I assume this is going to be worth it, but who knows.

For a class I myself built, I still feel like I'm garbage at optimizing Routines, lol.

As a check-in for the rest of the party and the GM, does the class seem fair? Underperforming? Overperforming? I made some significant effort to balance things conservatively when I originally wrote it, especially to try to keep it within the ballpark of its nearest neighbors (monk, rogue, fighter and bard), but I'm not sure if I'm hitting that mark from the 'pilot's seat' as it were.

Also, those with less than 4 AC bonus from Armor might benefit from Garret’s Mage Armor spell…

Also, those with less than 4 AC bonus from Armor might benefit from Garret’s Mage Armor spell…

Sanduro raises his hand.

Do we still have a Rod of Extend Spell in the party? 14 hours of mage armor for 3 people seems like a good use of it.

I can't imagine we'd have gotten rid of it (or who we'd have sold it to), so I think it's still yours.

Sanduro has been using the lesser extend metamagic rod for longstrider and magic fang, happy to return it to Garret.

I got sick yesterday and tested positive for COVID, have been knocked out all weekend. I got most of Sanduro’s level up done before the symptoms really kicked in, but haven’t even looked at Zsofia yet. Hopefully tomorrow.

Level 7 Druid
FCB +1 skill rank
Hit points +5
BAB +1
Saves no changes
Feat Healer’s Hands

Skills
Handle Animal +1
Heal +2
Knowledge (Geography) +1
Knowledge (Planes) +1
Knowledge (Religion) +1
Perception +1
Survival +1

New spell slots
Level 1 +1, Level 4 +1
Spells/day Level 1, 5; Level 2, 4; Level 3, 3; Level 4, 1

Druid (Death Druid) Spells - Default Daily Preparations(CL 7th; concentration +10)
. . 4th—crypt call lightning (DC 16) or crypt burning entanglement (DC 16)
. . 3rd—greater magic fang, resist energy, communal, {empty slot}
. . 2nd—aggressive thundercloud[ACG] (DC 15), barkskin, crypt burning sands, {empty slot}
. . 1st—cure light wounds, longstrider, produce flame, remove sickness, {empty slot}
. . 0 (at will)—detect magic, guidance, read magic, stabilize

Zsofia

HD +1 (6d8+6)
BAB +1 (now +6)
AC bonus +2 (now +8 natural when ectoplasmic, +6 deflection when incorporeal)
Skill +1 to Perception (now +6)

Did Garret make any of those saves?

Edit: Whoops, apparently mixed up the gameplay thread and the discussion one. Sorry about that! Regardless:

Hey everyone, nice to meet you all!

I was graciously invited by Crusaderwolf to join the campaign, knowing him from a long running war for the crown PBP here on the forums. We're in the process of statting out a former NPC to become a PC due to storyline reasons. I'll try and get them statted out fully tomorrow as I understand said character joining is pretty much imminent (depending on party choices).

Tentatively, the build is a main healer Inquisitor using the Ravener Hunter archetype to gain healing abilities from the life domain. To boost the combat potential a bit outside of healing, it will have either the sacred huntmaster or sanctified slayer archetype and fight with either a pet or to try getting flanks for sneak attacks. Out of combat it can be built to have thievery skills and trapfinding. The build should be fairly decent at what it tries to do. My only real concern is it is a bit MAD and might be spread a bit thin, espcecially the one with an animal companion.

Are there any specific wants/requests from the team for a new character to shore up any obvious holes in the group?

Hey there! Glad to have you.

No specific requests from me. I'd be happy to have another flanker to join me. The AP has been pretty mean so far with tough saves and ability damage, so ways to clear that will be helpful.

My only suggestion would be a gentle nudge towards sanctified slayer over huntmaster, but a gentle nudge is all it is and you're free to disregard if you prefer. Reason for that is that that some later encounters in the book are very very hard on anyone who doesn't have the special heart macguffin

All right. I've pretty much finished the build from my end, decided to go without the animal companion and went Sanctified Slayer as that seemed more true to the character, was simpler to make and seemed better suited to the AP.

I just wanted to ask something to Sanduro, mostly:

Do you mind particularly about the new character having powerful healing abilities? Looking at your sheet and feats, you seem to be fairly invested in that front as well. I could remove all the healing abilities to not intrude on that niche and instead spend those abilities on more accurary and damage and/or some more added tankiness. Personally I strongly prefer the build that has the healing (and I don't see an issue in us both having it, more flexibility I'd say), but I wouldn't want to intrude on the niche of an established player if you preferred I didn't.

If a handsome mysterious stranger is allowed to weigh in on this situation: couldn't someone just walk into the room with their eyes closed, feel around for the ropes trying this guy to the floor (?), cut them and drag the body back out? The symbol, from the description, seems to be below their body. Since he was right on top of it without it triggering, that seems to rule out that the rune can be activated by touch. Even if it can be and he was attuned to it or such, it feels as if doing this should be possible without touching the floor below him.

That could be done, yeah! Assuming no combat breaks out it wouldn't even be all that difficult, just time-consuming since the actor is effectively blind. If a fight did break out, Jando is at Str0 and the person closing their eyes in standing in the middle of a trap with their eyes closed.

I'm not saying a fight *will* break out but it's a risk.

Edit: Whoops, apparently mixed up the gameplay thread and the discussion one. Sorry about that! Regardless:

Hey everyone, nice to meet you all!

I was graciously invited by Crusaderwolf to join the campaign, knowing him from a long running war for the crown PBP here on the forums. We're in the process of statting out a former NPC to become a PC due to storyline reasons. I'll try and get them statted out fully tomorrow as I understand said character joining is pretty much imminent (depending on party choices).

Tentatively, the build is a main healer Inquisitor using the Ravener Hunter archetype to gain healing abilities from the life domain. To boost the combat potential a bit outside of healing, it will have either the sacred huntmaster or sanctified slayer archetype and fight with either a pet or to try getting flanks for sneak attacks. Out of combat it can be built to have thievery skills and trapfinding. The build should be fairly decent at what it tries to do. My only real concern is it is a bit MAD and might be spread a bit thin, espcecially the one with an animal companion.

Are there any specific wants/requests from the team for a new character to shore up any obvious holes in the group?

Welcome, Trevor86! I meant to say this earlier, but +1 for a build that includes trapfinding & disable device. Our current trapfinder is Sanduro's phantom who finds traps by going incorporeal and sticking her head through solid objects and disables them by turning corporeal and kicking them really hard. This strategy has had limited success (but we can absolutely continue it if you want to go in a different direction).

Trevor86 wrote:

Edit: Whoops, apparently mixed up the gameplay thread and the discussion one. Sorry about that! Regardless:

Hey everyone, nice to meet you all!

I was graciously invited by Crusaderwolf to join the campaign, knowing him from a long running war for the crown PBP here on the forums. We're in the process of statting out a former NPC to become a PC due to storyline reasons. I'll try and get them statted out fully tomorrow as I understand said character joining is pretty much imminent (depending on party choices).

Tentatively, the build is a main healer Inquisitor using the Ravener Hunter archetype to gain healing abilities from the life domain. To boost the combat potential a bit outside of healing, it will have either the sacred huntmaster or sanctified slayer archetype and fight with either a pet or to try getting flanks for sneak attacks. Out of combat it can be built to have thievery skills and trapfinding. The build should be fairly decent at what it tries to do. My only real concern is it is a bit MAD and might be spread a bit thin, espcecially the one with an animal companion.

Are there any specific wants/requests from the team for a new character to shore up any obvious holes in the group?

Welcome, Trevor86! I meant to say this earlier, but +1 for a build that includes trapfinding & disable device. Our current trapfinder is Sanduro's phantom who finds traps by going incorporeal and sticking her head through solid objects and disables them by turning corporeal and kicking them really hard. This strategy has had limited success (but we can absolutely continue it if you want to go in a different direction).

Hey again, Sanduro and thanks for the response. I think at this stage of the development that's a bit hard to include. Due to a combination of factors, like lowish point buy, fighting by mainly by yourself rather than an animal companion and the underlying character serving as inspiration i ended up as a str-based build in heavy armor. Which given the massive acp to DD + mediocre dex will never be good with traps unfortunately. As such it seems to be a waste of resources. I can however take dispel magic at some point to help with magical traps.

Edit: there might be an edge case here by taking the scaling trapfinder class feature as the level 8 slayer talent. The cost is fairly high though as it removes 2 hit from every attack. (Requires giving up furious focus).

I don’t quite understand. Garret is in the initiative order before Quietus and the clawed thing. Doesn’t he get a chance to act before they do? I was going to post his first round actions, but I didn’t want to jump Initiative order. That would have given his fireball a chance to affect foes before they moved out of the way.

Yeah, looks weird to me. Seems like the crypt thing shouldn't have acted yet?

Well, that was a terrible round for Garret...

Apologies - what exactly does the evil artefact do? Is there any benefit in turning it over to Vigil for study before destroying it?

That aside, would casting Bless on the water here work if we want to destroy it or do we need the actual Create Blessed Water spell?

The artifact makes the poison cloud dome. If it is soaked in holy water for an hour, it can be destroyed by a sharp blow.

If we make it through the long rest, I think Garret needs to make some saves on those negative levels, right? Anyone have buffs that might make him more likely to succeed?

Rosa can cast heroism, but only after a rest, and it only lasts 70 minutes. I don't think she can help you unless the heal skill is allowed to grant some bonus. By RAW, it isn't...

Garret could use just about any of the magic items (and put a fun spell in that dagger if you like). The bracers aren't as good as mage armor, though, so that is less helpful. The ring and/or the amulet would help his AC, but only if a frontliner doesn't want one or both--best shields for Garret are typically the frontliners.