Curse of the Crimson Throne (complete) (Inactive)

Game Master Whack-a-Rogue

*DING DING!*

The leveling process is basically the same as vanilla PF right now. You'll level up both sides of your gestalt as usual and gain a Background Feat of your choice. Post the changes here and update your profiles accordingly.

Lvl 2!!!

HP: 13+6 (monk) + 2 (con) + 1 (FCB)=19
Saves: +1 (all)
BaB: +1
Monk: Evasion
Combat Talent: Axe Kick

Incanter: +2 spell points
Life Sphere: Taste of Victory

Background Feat: Cunning (+1 skill point per level)

Skills: TBR

I forget, how're we handling HP on levels after 1? Average? If so, half-point rounds up or down?

Yhrrilka's level ups to follow later.

Average rounded up. So in your case, you'd get 6 + CON/etc.

Great, thanks!

From level 2 on I figure I'll be using the FCB we talked about, +1/6 of a magic talent.

Actual write-up of my level 2 changes (and their incorporation into my profile) will happen tonight/tomorrow.

Ril @level 2:

+8 HP
+1 to: BAB, all saves, Caster level, Save DC, MSB, MSD, CMB, CMD, and a ton of other stuff.
BG Feat (Cunning)
Ranger: Sneak attack +1d6, Combat Talent (Fast Feint)
Sorcerer: Tap Chaos +2, Magic Talent (Energy Strike)
8 Skill pts: WIP

Torsten, how did you end up with 2SP/level? Did you load up on drawbacks or something?

Yup! Loaded up. :)

It’s all fun and games until some crits me though.

Question. So I got one more skill point per level with background feat. How are Athletics and Acrobatics different?

I think I got everything squared away. WHEW!

Hey DM, two questions and one not-a-question:

1) Can I retrain my magic talents in Protection? I don't think I really knew what I was doing when I picked that. I'd like to ditch the Armored Magic talent (other choices I made make that useless to me), and also lose the Limited Protection Drawback

2) I had something occur to me, let me ask you if you think this could be a thing, not for right now, but somewhere down the line. Would it be possible to take either a Ranger Talent, or a Sorcerer Arcane Endowment, and have that let me use Spellcraft to track instead of Survival? There's precedent; there's an investigator talent that lets you track with Perception, and IIRC, an oracle archetype that lets you do it with Sense Motive.

As for my non-question, in reading the description of Rangers' Sneak Attack, it says that you can only SA in Favored Terrain or vs Favored Enemies. But your Rangers don't have Favored Enemies, they have Studied Targets, so I'm assuming SA can only be used against Studied Targets? If so, this seems to remove the Slayers' interaction, where if you hit a target with a sneak attack, you can study them as an immediate. Lastly, you might want to make a proofreading pass on the Ranger material and make sure it all no longer says Favored Enemies.

Yup! Loaded up. :)

It’s all fun and games until some crits me though.

Question. So I got one more skill point per level with background feat. How are Athletics and Acrobatics different?

I'm answering without looking, but if I had to guess, Athletics is a roll-up of Climb and Swim, and Acrobatics is the stuff Acrobatics has always been.

@Torsten: Athletics covers climbing/jumping/running/swimming. Athletics is essentially unchanged except for losing jumping. This will obviously change the Athletics Sphere skill ranks a bit, but since I don't think anyone's taken those talents, it's not an issue.

@Yhrrilka: I'm super flexible regarding retraining for the first couple levels. Feel free to change whatever you want (even class selection) as long as the core character concept remains the same. Regarding your other question, I'll have to think about it. Spellcraft is used for identifying/crafting magic stuff, and that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with tracking. The other skill substitutions make thematic sense, but I'm not sure how Spellcraft can help you predict movement patterns or notice footprints. Maybe sensing residual magic auras, but if your quarry doesn't have any magic items or active spells, that won't help. Can you explain your reasoning/motivation for wanting this?

Thank you for catching the Favored Enemy sentence. I clearly missed a few things when I was copying the text over. Extra sets of eyes are a huge boon. XD I'll have the necessary edits done a little later today, but for the moment, feel free to remove the indicated line. Ranger sneak attack should be identical to that of every other class. XD EDIT: Everything should be fixed now. I found three mentions of "favored enemy" and several places that referenced the now-nonexistent Climb and/or Swim skill.

Switched cunning for Robustness (Whenever you are the target of a sphere ability or supernatural ability that allows you to regain hit points that does not grant fast healing, you heal additional hit points equal to your Hit Dice. The increase in healing can not be greater than the original amount of healing granted. When you are granted fast healing, the fast healing heals 1 additional hit point per round.)

So now he heals for 2d8+Caster Level+Hit Dice (so 2d8+4) and if he takes someone out of action or gets a Crit then he can do it as a swift action for 1 spell point. 2 spell points if he didn’t meet the above criteria. It should help make sure that he stays on his feet.

Extra sets of eyes are a huge boon. XD I'll have the necessary edits done a little later today, but for the moment, feel free to remove the indicated line.

That's why I brought it up, and I'm glad it was taken in that spirit. I worked at a publishing company for a while after college, and extra sets of eyes are always a good thing. :)

Regarding the tracking thing, I won't lie, it's a vaguely thought-out idea that probably needs a lot of work. The idea was, instead of following footprints, maybe you were like, following the eddie's the target made as they travel through the ether, or something. :)

The more I talk about this the more I think this might make sense as a Divination talent; I just looked the page over and it bears a strong relationship to the Dowsing talent. I'll table this idea for now and when I'm ready to spend a Talent on it, we'll talk?

Constructive feedback is always appreciated. XD

Other options regarding the tracking thing are the Divine Identity advanced talent and/or Witness the City. Alternately, Scout:Track the Scene is pretty cool. It gives a scaling Survival (track) bonus and gives you a bunch of additional information.

Are you open to a Divination talent that mimics Track the Scene, making the bonus to follow tracks equal to 1/2 my MSB? For some reason I'm keen to have this be a magic thing, have each half of my gestalt complement the other.

How's this?

Sense Trail (sense)
You may spend a spell point to gain a competence bonus to Survival checks made to find and follow tracks equal to 1/2 your caster level (minimum +1). When successfully following a set of tracks, you learn not only what direction they headed but what actions the tracked targets took before leaving the area and during their movement as long as you successfully continue to follow their trail; information gained in this manner is typically quite general, such as whether the targets paused and ate, split up, had an altercation, cast a spell, etc. Detailed information such as what spells they may have cast or items they may have used is typically unavailable, unless the targets left some tangible indication of the act behind or if you have the ability to read magical auras. If you also possess the Sense Magic talent, its cost to activate is reduced by 1 spell point.

@Yhrrilka: I'm super flexible regarding retraining for the first couple levels. Feel free to change whatever you want (even class selection) as long as the core character concept remains the same.

I think my changes will be limited to what I already mentioned about the Protection Sphere, I'll get that written up later.

I strongly considered removing the Deft Maneuvers feat, because I'm taking a talent (Fast Feint) that duplicates the effect I was looking for. But it enables such a broad swath of other maneuvers (disarm, trip, etc.) that I'm thinking I'll keep it in place. Grumbaki, Jereru, does that make sense or am I talking crazy talk?

Oh, and GM, regarding the Sense Trail ability, it's pretty much exactly what I was looking for, so rock on! Soon as I can cram in a Magic Talent to pick it up.

I can't really tell you about maneuvers - I almost never focus on them since they're usually expensive, hard to connect and not very rewarding out of some niche situations.

About Macaria, I still can't foresee a decent way of not ending dead during the first hard encounter. For a Gestalt character, she's quite mono. We'll see.

Maneuvers are cool but situational. The feat changes and whatnot I've implemented make them much more accessible, but Dirty Trick is still the only one that's worth hyperspecializing in. If you're somewhat interested in maneuvers, I'd hold onto the feat. Having options is always a good thing, and it's entirely possible that a well-timed disarm or trip might save the party at some point. XD

As this group seems to enjoy talking about builds, I think that I've come up with an amazing one.

Santa Dwarf
- Lvl 2 Vigilante

Race:
* Iron Citizen (+2 Diplomacy and +2 Sense Motive)
* Conservative Diploamcy (A dwarf can embrace predictable traditions to avoid social missteps. A dwarf with this racial trait can rely upon conservative tactics when attempting a Diplomacy check; this choice must be made before the Diplomacy check is attempted. The dwarf treats any roll of less than 5 on such a Diplomacy check as though she had rolled a 5, but she treats any roll higher than 15 on such a check as though she rolled a 15. This racial trait replaces stonecunning.)
* Craftsman (+2 craft)
* Weapon Familiarity

Traits:
* Emphatic Diplomat (Wisdom for Diplomacy)
* Illuminator (+2 Diplomacy)

Class: Vigilante lvl 1
* Social Grace (+4 Diplomacy)
* Craft Toys
* Stealth
* Disable Device
* Bluff
* Intimidate
* Sense Motive

Feats:
* Lvl 1: Skill Focus (+3 Diplomacy)

Total Diplomacy: 5 (level 1) + 4 (wisdom) + 2 (race) + 2 (trait) + 4 (class) + 3 (feat) = +19

So at lvl 2, the worst that he can roll on diplomacy is a 25 and the best is a 35. Against a Cha10 opponent who is hostile, he can influence attitude against someone hostile!

Now, why lvl 2? Why a vigilante? Because the Social part of the Vigilante is Santa Dwarf. A kind, wise and well loved toy maker. He keeps a list, and checks it twice. He sees who is naughty and nice.

And this is where Vigilante really comes in. Because the Vigilante identify is Krampus. He is a dwarf, and indeed he keeps a list. Where the world knows him as Santa, he gets revenge against those on the naughty list. And just like the Santa of myth, he wields chains. Or in this case, a Dorn-Dergar. By night he sneaks out with a demonic mask to protect his identity. And who would ever suspect someone so nice of being capable of such horrific violence...

Torsten and Yhrrilka look fine. Just waiting for Macaria, and we should be good to move on. Assuming everyone's staying the night at the unhaunted house, of course. XD

Forgive me for butting in, but @Yhrrilka, you might not be aware that there is a system in Spheres of Might that associates certain feats with different talents. If you gain the associated feat from a class feature, you can take the talent instead, and it still counts as the feat for requisites and so on. Deft Maneuvers replaces Improved Feint, and Improved Feint is associated with Fencing: Fast Feint. So you can take Fencing: Fast Feint instead of Deft Maneuvers, and that would give you an extra talent.

Hi,

Actually, yes, I am aware of it. I initially took DM for the +2 to feint checks, and b/c I didn't yet have Fast Feint. I might still keep it, though, so that if the edge case comes up where a disarm/trip/dirty trick, etc. would be what the doctor ordered, I can take care of business. (I probably wouldn't have kept it except that it covers such a broad range of maneuvers at one shot, and with Combat Expertise removed as a prereq, I feel like this feat's opportunity cost is much more palatable.)

We're good, right? Ready to try and get seen at the castle, ideally without getting ourselves killed? ;)

@Grumbaki, I love that character idea. Safe to assume that for Vigilante, he'd take the Avenger specialization, right?

(I kept meaning to comment on this during the week, but I've just been low on available brainpower with the psychotic hours my job's had me on.)

I'd meant to comment on that as well. XD Reminds me of the Christmas megamodule I ran last year. Santa was a Mythic Sacred Huntmaster Inquisitor with a reindeer companion. Krampus is actually fully statted in Bestiary 6. HERE'S the rather terrifying statblock. XD

Safe assumption. And glad to see that it was enjoyed. Though psychotic hours? That’s not fun.

——

And man, that Krampus is terrifying. And to think that with such overpowered stats it still picks on children. Come on! They aren’t worth that much xp

Joking aside, I do like the take on krampus. The twisted morality fits it quite well.

Yeah, my company (I'm in the IT dept of an insurance company) is switching consultant companies. The existing group is giving a bunch of Knowledge Training/Transfer sessions to the new guys, and because most of the people involved are based in India, the sessions all start at like 5:30am, which means I have to be up at 5, and ready to rock by then. I know people do it, but in the words of Chris Rock, "You can do it, that don't mean it's to be done!"

EDIT: to add, that Krampus statblock, Jeebus that's harsh! O_o

(nothing statty or buildy, just character fluff)

So I've been trying to decide what types of tattoos Ril has. God knows, plenty of times you'll see folks with skulls or pentagrams or crap like that, meant to signify one's badassitude. But I don't think she'd go there; Yhrrilka would have strong reservations about putting that sort of symbol all over oneself.

One idea I'd had was that the key images she puts on herself are pictures representing signs of the Cosmic Caravan. I definitely think she's only just started the work, and has only a few of the signs done. I think she thinks that each sign has to be in a very particular spot on her body, that in some crazy-a** way makes sense to her. (This also means that Torsten's help will be needed, as I'm sure some places can't be done on her own.). What do you guys think, does the idea float? Any other ideas along these lines, if you've got them I'd love to hear them.

And Grumbaki, I am still absolutely into the idea you mentioned about tattoo magic items. A tattoo that becomes a bladed belt just seems too hilarious to not do. :D

"...of the Burning Sky tribe..."

Is the error there the DM's or the NPC's? (I said Burning Sun) :)

Error on my part. It has since been fixed. XD

On a similar note, just because Jereru was slower on the draw today doesn't mean we can handwave a smidge, say he gave some manner of name to be back-filled later, no?

If Jereru wants to, most definitely. XD They didn't give a name in their last post and have mentioned that 'Macaria' is an alias, so I'm currently under the assumption that the character is trying to remain anonymous.

Sure, but I just don't want the sometimes asynchronous nature of PBP to make Macaria miss a chance just because the rest of us had more slack time to post today. Glad we're on the same page here. :)

Don't worry, that's one of the detrimental things of PBP and I have to live with it. If I want to add something to a previous moment, I could use my (poor) writing skills or just put it in a spoiler :p

Sure, tag it back to that moment. I just felt that was a point that warranted addressing. Kind of split the difference, move us forward without leaving anyone behind.

Vermin Repellent x7

Shiver x20
Fist-sized scrimshaw carving of a kraken with garnets for eyes (worth 300gp)
Ivory figurine of two entwined succubi (worth 500gp)
Adamantine Arrowhead
MW Dagger with key-shaped blade (worth 750gp)
Abalone-shell Shelyn holy symbol (worth 300gp)
BEJEWELED BROOCH (worth 2,000gp)
400gp in assorted coinage

Ok. Vermin repellent can be split up between us. Maybe it will come in handy? For the shiver, Torsten isn't into drugs. Either for use or selling.

300+500+750+300+400+2000

So before we try to get a reward, that's 1400ish gold each. Not bad!

The guard (Sabina, apparently) retrieves a small silver chest and hands it to you. Inside the red-velvet-lined interior rest 12 gold ingots imprinted with the royal seal of Korvosa. (each bar is worth 100gp)

Brooch on the market is 2000 gold

So did we lose money by turning it in?

Think of it as the price of goodwill?

Assuming you could find a buyer who would be willing to accept stolen royal property while still being honorable enough to not murder you and take it off your corpses, the brooch would have sold on the black market for 2,000gp. XD

Lawful Poor!: 300 + 500 + 750 + 300 + 400 + 1200 = 3450

1150 each. I’ll save mine for now.

It's hard to be the good guys. XD

Such is the price! It’s good to know that good doesn’t always pay. :)

I’m thinking that it doesn’t make sense to spend all of my gold just now. Story wise Torsten would want to rebuild his business. But I am thinking that the next big expense will be a Ring of Sustenance. Because after being homeless it just sounds like a good long term investment.

Macaria will probably buy a Cloak of Resistance. The rest will be put in a fund for the orphans.

As she's going to be assigned to a dangerous post, it seems, makes sense for her to spend on being ready and prepared. Also, she hopes her gambit with the Queen to result in some more funds for the matter (or imn her losing her head, but then these trivialities won't matter anymore :P).

Quick reminder that due to ABP, Cloaks of Resistance and the rest of the 'Big 6' don't exist anymore.

Interesting gambit. XD I'll write something up after work.

Right, ABP. Wonderful, forgot about that. :)

Indeed, it just about makes me like, "OK Felix, what do you want to spend this gold on?" And I'll be damned if I have an immediate answer. :)

Remember how I said adding in Warleader was gonna blow my mind?

[blown]my mind[/blown]

Torsten and I can just chew guys up like they've been caught in some manner of heavy machinery. :D

:D

Agreed! Looking forward to really putting these builds to the test.

I'm sure your build is so tight it squeaks, but do you think it might be worth it to look at feats like Paired Opportunists or Outflank?

I'm still not 100% on my choice of feats/spells, or their order. But I think that for the most part the build works, and if the AP requires more fine tuning, then we're all in trouble. :P

As for paired opportunists...I think that the problem with it is that it requires being adjacent. In practice that isn't always easy to pull off. Not without making it easy to get nuked.

Outflank has more merit...would need to think about it. The issue with it being that I fear we will be the ones who will usually be outnumbered. But against bosses, it would prove useful...

Fair nuff. We'll talk particulars as the opportunity arises.

DM, the Warleader talent Preparation, any idea exactly how that's supposed to work? You don't really have actions to spend on activating a Tactic until after initiative drops, by which time having a bonus to initiative no longer helps.