War for the Crown #3 - The Twilight Child

Game Master Kittenmancer

Posting this to all my games.

I'm sorry about the delay in posting working a lot of OT to try and keep up with inflating prices. And on top of that the apartment office (which my apartment is attached to) is under heavy construction so, given that I work nights, sleep is hard to come by.

I should be able to post tomorrow as it's my day off.

What will everyone's Lvl5 look like?

Marius is sticking with Inquisitor, so he'll get access to 2nd level spells, his first sneak attack die, and his Diplomacy bonus from Tactical Leader goes up by one.

Paladin for sure.

Rose will go Vigilante 5, retraining one level of rogue for stalker vigilante. Level 5 is where the really fun social/infiltration talents start, along with a second +4 skill bonus. Which admittedly I'm probably going to use on a skill that is very flavorful and less useful, like tailoring, but eh :) I hope that's also where Velvet gets to make her actual first appearance.

On the combat front I was hoping to pick a combination of features that would make Rose and Velvet really good at unarmed combat, also mostly for flavor and coolness factor though it has good subterfuge use (the unarmed girl in the dress just punched out the bandit/guard for a surprise 30 nonlethal damage!?) but I am as yet 4000 g, one feat or level short for that. So meanwhile I will probably stick with ranged combat and pick something like volatile arrows as a vigilante talent - so that her arrows can now explode a certain number of times per day, adding an alchemist bomb on top of the arrow. Not very subtle but then again it's meant for Iron Lashes.

Ah, well definitely Oracle for Lisa.

She'll be grabbing the Fortune Revelation thanks to her Archetype.

Her Feat will be Spell Penetration.

As for spells... that's tricky

New 1st level will be Shield of Faith for some much needed extra defense.

The second level... I was planning on Death Knell but with a good party, especially with a paladin in the mix that could be hard to pull off.

So maybe Instant Armor instead?

Difficult choice. Shield of faith is always good, of course. If you're looking for suggestions on other spells, on a full divine caster I like to take Obscuring Mist and the lesser known Ashen Path as a level 1 and 2 spell at some point. Make a/multiple? gigantic cloud(s) of magical fog that the party can see through, but the enemies can't. Tons of in combat and out of combat uses. Stops ranged attacks, allows infiltrations or escapes, activates sneak attack for those who have it (Marius and Rose), etc. The best thing about Ashen Path is that it's a buff that lasts 10 minutes per level dividable across targets so you can fairly reliably pre-cast it, and it also works vs other magical clouds/obscurement.

Recentering Drone is also a really good defensive level 2 cleric/orcle-only spell. It supresses multiple crippling conditions while it is in effect, like blinded, fightened and nauseated. On multiple targets at once. I think it's arguably the best spell for how to deal with bad conditions in a fight.

Wow that is crazy good o.o

I'm thinking Obscuring Mist and Ashen Path for starters then and now I'm also gonna look for more vision obscuring AoE spells for oracles for future levels xD

Level 5 will mean Exploits for Lotti! She’ll get Quick Study so she doesn’t have another experience like in the woods where she doesn’t have the right spell for the situation prepared, and then Potent Magic gives her spells a bit extra “umph” when we really need them to work.

Part 1 is a wrap!
You get two persona phases before we dive into Part 2, and some Meratt-specific operations are available:

Ask Around (Genius, Heroism): Your agents subtly ply your reputation to learn what needs fixing and win resources. With a successful DC 15 operation check, you gain either gain a lead on a possible mission or reroll one randomly available magic item in a town before the start of the next persona phase (your choice).

Community Organization (Charm, Sacrifice): Your agents stir up hometown pride, encouraging citizens of Stachys to chip in. You attempt an operation check and generate a number of gold pieces equal to 10 × your check result in capital that can be spent only on town improvements.

Infiltration (Sagacity, Subterfuge): Agents inserted into a noble's staff report back on that aristocrat's attitude and habits. You can attempt an operation check in place of a skill check as part of a discovery check against the targeted noble.

Catallus, could I ask two things for this persona phase?

First, are we level 5 now for the sake of this phase? As the system states we cannot have a stat rank that is higher than our level. Rose for instance cannot level charm up to 5 if she isn't level 5. I don't mind, but it would affect what she does.

Also, what does the 'admirers - indifferent' agent trait do when you reach rank 4 of a facet?

Increase Charm facet, diplomacy vs dc 23: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (5) + 20 = 25

increase charm facet#2, diplomacy vs dc 25?: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (15) + 20 = 35

If attaining rank 5 is not allowed yet, she would instead do the Organize Community mission for charm, which would generate 350 building points for the town. Which to be fair is probably more flavorful.

Actually, the second roll wouldn't work that way as it'd be an agents' operation I believe, with a much lesser bonus.

Instead Rose would start working on subterfuge via disguise. She has a +29 bonus to not appear as herself (which the system calls out) so she automatically attains rank 1. I feel bad about no one going for Heroism, but subterfuge is what I'm aiming for in the long term next to charm.

Increase Subterfuge DC 23: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (10) + 18 = 28
Increase Charm DC 19: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (13) + 18 = 31

Posting this to all my PBP's, I'll be on a one week vacation starting tomorrow. Please don't wait for me to move things along. Have fun all and I'll see you when I get back :)

So what's the plan with Persona? Are we still using rounds to Boost Stats and Do Things(tm), or is it more a "when the narrative wants it, we use it" system now?

Level 5 changes summary:

Stalker vigilante 5
+6 hp
+9 sp
Feat: no change (lose 1 from.retraining rogue, gain 1 from level 5)
Bab +0.

Class features: hidden strike 2>3 dice, startling appearance, volatile arrows, mockingbird, social grace second skill (craft?)

Skills: knowledge nobility +1, craft: clothing +6? (social grace +4?, 1 rank, 1 math error as i forgot rising star), +1 bluff, +1 perception, +1 disable device, +1 sense motive, +3 stealth.

Marius got all the bonuses mentioned before in this thread, plus a whopping 10 skill points (+6 class, +2 Int, +1 human, +1 FCB) which is how he upgraded most of his skills plus added Acrobatics and Survival to the list.

Minor edit: forgot to add the FCB on a skill point. I'll pick diplomacy, as you never know :')

So what's the plan with Persona? Are we still using rounds to Boost Stats and Do Things(tm), or is it more a "when the narrative wants it, we use it" system now?

You can use the rounds to increase facets, and the Do Things is more on a narrative basis.

Paladin Level 5

+6 hp
+1 BAB
+2 Skills (Diplomacy, Perception)
Feat: Extra Lay On Hands
Divine Bond (Enhance Weapon)

Oracle level 5

+4 hp
+8 Skills (Diplomacy, Intimidate, Know (Local), Know (Nobility), Know (Planes), Perform (Sing), Profession (Courtesan), Sense Motive)
Feat: Spell Penetration
Revelation: Fortune
Curse Increase: At 5th level, you gain a +3 competence bonus on Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive checks while talking to an individual one-on-one.
New Spells: 1st - Shield of Faith
2nd - Disfiguring Touch

Judging cases in Stachys

'Inheriting' the Betony estate means that you are now formally established as the tribunes of Stachys (Marius in particular) and must take over certain duties, the most notable of which is judging criminal cases that are brought to your attention.

Holding trial takes a day and takes place in Onora Piscum's pub, with most of Stachys coming to watch. The acceptable punishments are generally a time in the pillory, a fine, dismemberment (especially for theft), or death; Stachys isn't equipped to imprison anyone, and with only Onora as acting sheriff, the village can't oversee anyone performing community service, unless you deputize and pay someone for the task. Of course, other resolutions are possible, if you come up with something creative.

Please keep in mind that the resolution of each case will influence the attitude of the inhabitants of Stachys towards you, and possibly the attitude of nobles in the area, including Count Lotheed.

Good luck!

A heads up that I'll be travelling from October 24th until November 10th, so my posting rate will decrease.

Seems the site ate my post here... I wanted to ask just in case, how many persona phases have we had since arriving in Stachys? It was called out that we had a new one recently, so I will roll that one below for now.

Diplomacy, increase charm, dc 25: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (12) + 20 = 32
Disguise, increase subterfuge, dc 21: 1d20 + 39 ⇒ (6) + 39 = 45

I'll add the new recruits to last ones' when I get the chance to.

You had two, out of eight possible for Part 2.

Two since Stachys, so three in total for book 2? Or two in total for book two?

Two since Stachys, so with the two rolls you just did you have 4 more until the end of Part 2 of Book 2. I'd say you've covered about a third of the content in Part 2 so far.

All right! In that case Rose raises Subterfuge twice with the second phase. She can't fail the rolls for disguise.

Harvest festival preparations:

1. (Optional) Help the inhabitants of Stachys bring in the harvest - 3 days, K. nature skill checks
2. Prepare guest accommodations for visiting nobles, and a nice dinner for the evening before the festival. Opportunity to influence key NPCs.
3. The day of the festival - farmer's market, fair, big celebration in the evening with food, drink and dancing. More opportunities to influence key NPCs.

The festival costs 2000 gp, and you get a +2 circumstance bonus to influence visiting nobles.

Is there a roll needed for 2 and 3? I figure Marius will be helping more in a paperwork/planning/logistics capacity plus ending out letters to invite all the influencable NPCs

No rolls needed, you just spend a bunch of money and resources.

I would like to speed up this part of the book a little, as it's starting to drag a bit (not your fault!).

For that purpose, we can handwave some details, and also here is a list of items that can help move the needle on the loyalty gauge to a point where the confidence in a confrontation at the Palace of Birdsong would be rather high.

- Solving the curse on Baron Telus (a cleric from Oppara has been requested)
- Solving the situation of the people in Beggarwood
- Investigating the village of Sotto
- Finish buttering up Baroness Voinum

Since I can't figure out how to roll a dice in discord I'll just rumormonger here

Rumormonger: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23

Hey folks! Thanks so much for the invite. I’m just about to start a two day drive home from an internship I’ve been working this summer, so I should be able to get Barcos set to jet by tomorrow evening.

Safe trip, Simeon!
If you use Discord, please PM me your username so I can send you an invite to the server we're using for nobbing and hobbing and general chatter, as well as quick questions and OOC planning.

Hello all, I will make an alias posthaste, but if there are any changes you’re interested in seeing in the character - please let me know. There’s quite a bit of flexibility in skills and abilities for a skald.

Welcome both! I am currently babysitting the kids so I don't have the opportunity to respond until the evening. @Lite I can't check the build again atm but if you want to make any adjustments to a skald, I'd suggest looking at what skills are missing from the group. Also both Marius and Rose/Velvet are dex-focused as melee/archery respectively so a Skald vatiant that eithet buffs weapons or dex instead of str might work better for the group overall. Also Marius bas stated in recent past he'd like a flanking partner for when we do fight so some investment in AC might be good idea. Those are just suggestions though.

If you're looking at something that buffs weapons, the weapon-song archetype (Spell Warrior) is a ton of fun! That being said, perhaps the Urban Skald archetype would make more sense with the existing character idea? This certainly feels like a campaign where that would work well.

As far as Lotti the character is concerned, anything that keeps enemies from paying attention to an old grandmother is welcome. XD

So far, after consideration, I’m almost certainly going to drop battle scion. Having a small edge to verbal duels and intimidate is not great, the combat feat instead of rage power thing has a lot of drawbacks, and the geas ability is very cool but you give up two very good things to get it (and it’s better for a ruler anyway).

However, I would like to keep her as a court poet, which would continue to improve intelligence and charisma scores, given your inclinations towards talking out of situations. Tying it to a oratory means Faenia can happily chat with everyone and boost their stats while also aiding them (she has helpful so she’s inclined to aid everyone else more often than not). I agree that spell warrior is great, and so is urban skald, but I have actually played or played with *both* in some form or another, so I think it would be interesting to try something a little different I think.

Out the gate she will have a decent AC, and will be a melee fighter when the situation warrants.

She also has spellsong, allowing her to cast spells with a bluff check, but I didn’t really do much to her spell-list to account for that. We may want her to have a few enchantments or illusions that she can cast during social encounters on the sly. With spell kenning still in there she can grab some on the fly, but I recall there are a few on the bard list which are cool with spellsong. If anyone has any particular spells they want, let me know.

Regarding skills - she has almost every skill, and a good number of skill points (skilled and FCB investments), but not infinite skill points. That’s one reason I’m dropping battle scion - bardic knowledge at full power will help, and in circumstances where she can talk, she can aid other’s knowledge checks as well. I will take a look at the skills tab on the spreadsheet. She will never be as good as a social character as Rose (or any vigilante) but with versatile performance she can hold her own if cornered.

I intend for her to have bodyguard if possible as well, to synergize with helpful.

Note that her background isn’t purely urban, and I’ve already got some different branching paths for how she can progress as background elements that are unknown to others in the party (at the start) come into focus.

Also, Kittenmancer/Cattus noted that I can retrain if it doesn’t work out. I agree completely that only spell warrior, urban skald, and court poet are viable for this group.

My journey home has been…eventful. My van’s tires have decided they do not want to exist anymore, so I’ve had two tires disintegrate on the highway in as many days. That said, I’ll probably have the alias set up tomorrow rather than tonight.

Alrighty, alias is ready!

Reused one of my old aliases that only had one post. Please take a look.

Hey folks, I’m heading for a short camping trip. I’ll be back Friday night, but please bot me as necessary.

Enjoy your trip! Hopefully when you return we can introduce you and Faenia to the game.

Congratulations on level 6!

Let me know if there are any aspects of your characters you'd like to retrain or adjust.

Marius is leveled up! No increase to BAB or saves this level, sadly, but I do get an extra Lvl2 spell known (Cure Moderate Wounds) and of course the Bane ability is fantastic.

FCB went to an extra skill rank and I was able to get everything except Bluff and Acrobatics increased.

Velvet's level up:

+6 HP.
+11 SP with favored class bonus and backgrounds (took a point in Slight of Hand instead of craft clothing for this level. Recently learned you're not locked into the same background skills and can select any two at every level).

+1 BAB/CMB/CMD, +2 deadly aim/PA damage, +1 all finesse weapon melee damage.

+1 all saving throws

Class Feature: Inspired Vigilante (inspiration pool of 6/day, never free).

+1 Heal
+1 Perform (string)
+1 intimidate
+1 knowledge: Nobility
+1 disable device
+1 perception
+1 stealth
+1 bluff
+3 Slight of Hand.

Please check your WBL as well, and let me know if you're under or over. We're using standard WBL, so for level 6 it should be 16 000 gp.

Counting everything including found/claimed consumables, i'm just shy of 17000g. This counts dignity's barb as having the price of a +1 crossbow which it currently acts as.

Interesting, it felt as if the gear was lagging behind a bit. Guess it's due to all the skill-related items and outfits/accessories over the usual combat ones.

Level is done, just gotta port it over from Hero Lab, should be able to do it once I'm back home from class at my desktop.