Volcano's Land - Mercury Morn

Game Master Miner Cotren

Got it. Ok, I took a look at everyone's sheets, and really we have among us: 1 player VERY good at stealth/invis ; 1 player VERY good at perception and sense motive ; and 1 player who can take 10 and diplo/sense motive people to the degree that it border on mind control.

So the good news is --- I think you are all "balanced" in that you have niches that make sense for your character. Samen has had his mind expanded by the psychic emanations of Sun, and you have knowledge and language undreamed by elen or man.

I like that all the characters are expanding in power, but we are gaining levels like crazy. It seems like we're all roughly equal in power level, but let me know your thoughts as we continue forward with our campaign brought back ot life.

edit: we are NOT gaining levels like crazy (which I like) . Can't change these darn posts after an hour.

I have a rules question.

Usually, knowledge checks are a sort of instantaneous thing that you don't have time to prepare for. A question or situation comes up, and you either know something or you don't.

In addition to Burst of Insight (an immediate action cast time), there are two other spells I took to enhance knowledge rolls. Heightened Awareness as a 1st lvl spell (gives a +2 competence check on perception and knowledge checks and can be cashed in for a bonus to initative), and Investigative mind as a 2nd lvl spell (gives me advantage on up to my level knowledge checks).

However, both of those require standard actions. Assuming we're out of combat and you ask for a knowledge check, can I cast those before I roll, or do I need to have had them up preemptively before you ask for a roll?

I see that my bardic knowledge is no longer really needed! I'll see if there's an archetype or something that I like to swap it around.

<crying emoji> Yeah, sorry. I didn't mean to step on your toes. I was trying to avoid it by staying away from the buffs. High INT class with all knowledges as class skills, with spells and features to buff it ... seemed too good to pass up.

No worries Samen! I was just used to being the knowledge monkey! I think lotus geisha should stack? Hubristic Efreeti, would you be opposed to Abnaki getting "stupider" considering the sheer magnitude that Samen blows me out of the water in regards to knowledge checks? Here's a link to (what I think is the only) the architype that stacks with Stone Singer (that doesn't also give up versatile performance, because that is also at the heart of the character). It'll basically free up two feat slots, and give me the option to do a single target even more effective performance.

I like that a lot --- could be the latest rebirth short-circuited some of that bardic knowledge. I also like the idea that your newfound power over words and declaring can be focused to a single person.

I preemptively started looking at feats about 3 hours ago, and now I have a list of things I'm thinking about. Might as well put them here, along with my thoughts! Feel free to weigh in anyone, but especially the GM!

Feign Curse: Almost certainly going to be one of the two I pick if I don't start down a feat chain. Just very funny, and seemingly in character for Abnaki to pretend to curse people so effectively. Right now it's a DC 30 sense motive/spellcraft check. Notable for not having a range, or being language dependent.

Insightful Advice: Kind of meh, but still pretty neat. Stacks with inspire competence.

Spirit Ridden: Just super cool. Another flexible power to make up for the loss of bardic knowledge, and very flavorful. The sort of feat that would be a GM's field-day :)

Snake Style: Cons: Eats both my feats to qualify for, and depending on our GM's ruling on versatile performance might require a slight readjustment of my skill points. Pros: I can take 10 on my perform oratory sense motive checks for a 30 AC once a round. Works for touch AC as well. I don't like getting disintegrated. Would narrate it as an almost supernatural understanding of how creatures behave, and just not being where they were going to attack.

Eldritch Heritage: Probably one of the ones that has skill focus perform as a pre-req. Martyred could have some very interesting flavor considering our new "reborn" status, and how much of Abnaki Abnaki has lost in defense of these lands and peoples.

VMC(Variant Muticlass?): If we're using those optional rules, Abnaki could have all the same feats, and also a suite of other cool powers. Notable are wizard, sorcerer, and oracle. All of these could play into different directions the character could go.

Whew! Long post! A lot of formatting! I cut leadership for your sake GM; Abnaki would make a fantastic posterchild candidate on why that feat should be banned. Thoughts?

Real quick Samen -- burst of insight is an enhancement to Intelligence for the check, so it replaces but does not overlap with your (magic item) enhancement to Int, correct?

I'm trying to catch up on the spell lists and make sure everything makes sense :)

And for the rules question ---

the immediate action is fine (burst of insight) when I am spontaneously asking for a knowledge roll. The others - no. Unless you already have them active, you can't spend standard actions charging up for it, anymore then someone can buff with spells in response to needing to make a sudden perception check :)

I think the main use of the "discharge" spells (Invst Mind and Height Awareness) is when you know you are about to go into combat or your are exploring --- you'll have it up for either a bonus to init, or if you are facing something mysterious, you know that you will have a really good knowledge roll to figure out its weaknesses, etc. These really strike me as needing to get into a frame of mind or meditation (which takes time) BEFORE the situation occurs, NOT in response to it.

Okay, thanks. I will plan accordingly!

As for BoI, it gives +8 to int. My item gives +2, so it's effectively a +6, which is effectively a +3 to the skill check.

I lament not seeing Spirit Ridden as that is a delightful feat. I do have one feat left but I'll keep looking.

Feign Curse might be one of the most amusing feats I have seen in a while.

Got it - thanks again for the clarifications!

Abnaki, I'll weigh in on your post later today.

My wife has a mild case of Covid, and it just makes everything tougher when I'm doing 100% of my kids' snack, meals, piano lessons, etc while she is isolating. Very mild so far, she seems to be getting better. I'm very tired and will shoot for something tomorrow.

Officially cutting snake style due to the timing of the abiity not being conducive with a PbP style of game.

Which leaves me with just:
Eldritch Heritage Maestro (I want to be able to say that I literally have a perfect voice at 11th, and skill focus oratory goes a long way on me)
Sprit Ridden + Feign Curse (Works well with Samen's newfound Id Insinuation, assuming they aren't a huge scholarly type.)

Spirit Ridden + Feign Curse seems to pack a ton of flavor. Abnaki is reaching the point where his mere words can have effects on people (Feign Curse).

If you decide to go this route, we can talk more about the flavor or Spirit Ridden. It could be tiny chaotic wisps of elementals that are inhabiting you for the duration, for example. If you want to keep the "spirit" flavor, you would have to get training from Qizzlvutz.

(the mycos are the only elens who have ever successfully summoned an elen spirit / phantom. 99% of elen magic is controlling elements and elementals, and the idea of snatching back a spirit from its rightful place on the god's plane could be seen as blasphemous, depending on the religion)

I love that Abnaki is inventing the idea of "torches" for this poor dull-eyed human to use. Bonus points for basing it on ifrit warriors customs. You guys are all awesome players, and I love this campaign :)

Samen, let me know your thoughts on what you are wearing --- I think in your new form it would be ceremonial garb, but roughspun for traveling. A vague Ra /sun god kind of thing --- papyrus colored robe, maybe one of those collars / mantles on the shoulders, made of gold, etched to look like sun rays.

I want to hear your opinion as well -- my idea is you have some adornments as if you were a cleric of the "sun god", even though you are utterly untouched by any element.

That depends, I guess. How much do I know about Sun? I know it is responsible for my humanity, but am I familiar with its greater aspects? Do I know what a sun ray is, for example?

I think between things like ray of frost and scorching rays, you might be able to conceive of this radiant force shooting light and some kind of heat/rays in many different directions (so much more glorious than Volcano!) . The two strongest impressions you've had so far are 1) being covered in that liquid gold/not gold and the blinding flash of light that teleported you back to aboveground.

In that case, I suppose there would be a grayish base with symbology on it kind of like the New Mexico flag in bright vibrant color.

I'm thinking it should be robes, but also appropriate for traveling, so perhaps some leggings underneath. Someone might mistake me for a priest of a heretical god, but it'd be just as easy for someone to mistake me as someone with no fashion sense.

I have just noticed that Feign curse requires the deceptive feat. That makes it substantially less attractive... I will have to continue to ponder it.

You gain the following ability:

"A Deceptive Gift of the Fey"

-Gain the "Deceptive" feat
-You now have a -4 on Sense Motive Checks when dealing with Fey creatures.

--------

I don't like feat taxes, so I'm happy to help you along the way to a cool feat. I want everyone to be excited about their characters as we keep up on momentum! I think it's a nice balance that are you going to be awful at seeing through "real" Fey trickery/lying - you'll have to make sure someone else does the thinking in the Fey realms!

Let me know if this sounds fun/cool.

That sounds great! I've moved around my knowledge skills, at this point Abnaki knows basically nothing off the top of his head. But he did get way better at spellcraft and disguise! And if you give him time to prepare, he can have max ranks in any skill, possibly through consulting with the Dream Crow to find a useful spirit via the Spirit Ridden feat? Drinking directly from the tap of knowledge, so to speak.

Samen and I have a wonderful one two punch of Abnaki telling them they are cursed followed by an Id insinuation now! Until I get to 10th level and get the ability to target fort saves with enchantments using boost words. That'll be nice.

Abnaki -- yes, tapping into "the great unconscious" of the Dream Crow seems like very good flavor to me. It's like learning skills from tales and madness!

Being able to target Fort saves would definitely be useful. I can effectively hit Will and Reflex, but I don't have any good save or suck Fort spells at this point.

I talked to the DM about some of my capabilities, but I'll give a brief statement about what I expect to do in combat now. It's going to be virtually no damage, but a lot of dazing and confusing folks.

Typical Round 1: Turn on aura of insanity, which gives me a 20 ft radius effect to cause confusion for 1 round, will save DC 17 (I can except three of my closest friends). The aura lasts for 3 rounds. Move into position to support front line.

Round 2 (many small threats, weak reflex): use a sonic scream with dazing spell applied to potentially stun a small area of them for 2 rounds, reflex save DC 18. Potentially use my rod of persistent spell to get it to stick. This is a repeatable option to do 2 more times during the rest of the fight.

Round 2 (many small threats, good reflex): Use a black tentacles to trip them up and separate them.

Round 2 (one or two big threats, weak will): Id insinuation to lock down with confusion, or possibly unadulterated loathing to cause perma-nausea.

Round 2 (one or two threats, good will): Chain of perdition to trip them up, or buff strikers with hermean potential.

Round 3 (fight going well): magic missile here or there to help cleanup.

Round 3 (fight going poorly): Gaseous cloud and float away to safety, then dazing spell magic missile to try locking things down.

sorry for the quiet. the last few days have been alot.

Any post from Kallik / Qizzlvutz is a treasure, as always -- no need to worry if real life is tough right now. Appreciate the updates.

With these new powers, you guys are really going to test my DMing combat muscles. It's a good thing there are so many threats in the campaign right now. :)

At least I won't go around doing 80 dpr to things anymore. :)

I think one of the places I've made things slow/boring in the past (maybe not even this campaign, but other's in Volcano's Land) is "what do we do next?" Because trying to figure things out, or get info from the DM and a council NPCs, etc, just doesn't flow naturally in PbP.

Here is my thought!

Over the weekend, we go over your potential options of where to go next in Discussion. This will also represent getting the info dumps (that I don't want to awkwardly do in character for posts and posts) that can be summarized, etc.

One we hammer YOUR character's ideas (now that you have the info to make such decisions), we head back to Gameplay. In the narrative, the interesting part will be either convincing people to you side, or figuring out how to accomplish more than one task, etc. I think that will be the more fun part to do in-game rather than a long explanatory scene.

We're finally coming out of the weeds of the whole family being sick -- Friday/ Saturday / Sunday were just lazy days of coughing and resting for everyone.

Feeling better now, and thankfully me and the kids get tomorrow off from school. Expect a post tomorrow!

Ok, here is the summary first, so your characters can be informed and start to figure out what your IC opinions would be:

1) you are located at the LINK Quiet Elder that is just south of Tall Oaks on the map. As you listen to the conversations around you, you are slowly convinced that your actions in defeating the "dark branches" of the mycos was, from a different point of view, cleansing the roots of an Elder that has been weak and listless for centuries. Bright red fruit is growing from the Elder, invigorating warriors left and right.

2) To the south (in forest), the Branch library has been overtaken, and the towering plateau known as Uluru is being used as a construction site for a series of lenses that supposedly are going to focus Moonlight and destroy the Dark permanently.

3) To the north, the huge stone Amatshe is beginning to move, casting shuddering earthquakes in its wake (think "Taaraasque" level of threat). This happened shortly after so many Fey died in Hearth --- there is some kind of imbalance in Feyhome (on the Forest homeplane) that is likely to blame for this problem.

4) Moon still claims Light as a stronghold of alchemy, magic, insanity, and laughter.

Kallik would recognize both Umik (her great grandfather) and Hakka (who was an unfriendly NPC back in Hearth, who has also done some traveling).

Did I meet Umik at the moot? I had a moment with the assembled mages there.

Qizz is just happy to tag along with whatever. Kallik is more inclined to check in on the Fey and figure out what is going on with Krz.

Also wasn't expecting grandpa to show up. :)

Yes, you did Samen! You would have been in the shadow of Amatshe together, all the magicians gathered to keep the great old thing in slumber. You would recognize him.

Samen, reading through your combat ideas and spells up above, I was struck by the idea that as a psychic, your spells should LOOK different (black tentacles being an example, where your abilities are neither shadow-based, illusory, nor demonic). I usually lean toward transparent force effects as a manifestation of "psion" type abilities, but I want to hear your thoughts as well. It's an opportunity to show this new "mind magic" that you are bringing into the world.

(I'm not talking about mechanical differences, just appaearances and flavor)

The other brief question I had Samen --- you have an ability to affect "undead", which we interpreted as darkspawn. I'm willing to have that cut a pretty broad area of bad guys that would otherwise be unaffected (I'll even say elementals that would normally

The two things that it won't cover are:

1) Constructs, so silver golems are going to be particularly effective against you.

2) Spellcasters who specifically have defenses against mind-effecting. So while your "spells" can penetrate the natural immunities of many mindless darkspawn and brutal elementals, anyone who has high level magical defenses will still be immune.

Those are the only 2 cases I can think of.

Overall, does everyone feel like their character sheet and tagline is up to date? Give me a quick YES when you get a chance.

Yeah, I believe my tagline is up-to-date.

Constructs makes total sense; that's what gaseous cloud is for.

I have a clarifying question about the spellcaster immunity, though. You're not saying that spellcasters, simply by virtue of being casters, would have immunity to mind affecting spells, but that things like Protection from Evil, Mind Blank, and Spell Immunity exist, right? The phrenic amp wouldn't do anything to counter those spells. Likewise, it wouldn't negate immunity to an effect gained by having made a save. Do I have the gist of it?

As far as spell appearances, I'd say most of the time there would be no visible effects. One of the advantages of psychic casting is the lack of verbal and somatic components, so I generally imagine most casting and effects to be internal and subtle. Perhaps my eyes glow with the light of Sun as I do a 1000 yard stare.

The few spells that make an enduring physical manifestation, like the tentacles and chains of perdition, I like the idea of it being a transparent force, but unpleasant to look at. Sort of like a writhing migraine halo, if you've ever experienced one of those. Likewise Silence might be characterized by extreme tinnitus to those who are under its affect.

Yes, exactly --- "spellcasters in general" won't be immune, but there will certainly be people who are 1) high enough level and 2) savvy enough to have those kind of spells (Mind Blank ,etc) at their disposal, and then you will need to rely on your other methods.

And to all --- as we are coming up with these new visual effects and character ideas, etc I appreciate these being put somewhere in your actual character sheet/alias --- using spoilers means that we can have a ton of info in one spot (because I never willingly look back at old Discussion pages, etc on this site)

I'll admit, I'm feeling kind of lazy today, and I hate paperwork, I'll get it done in the next couple of days, is that ok?

Yep, no worries :)

To recap, I would love an update by Sunday:

1) sheet
2) tagline
and

3) A goal for you character, now that you are newly risen

Might need to update description but gabe should be mechanically updated

and a new/updated character goal?

Samen's goals right now are twofold: 1) Using the new pieces of information at his disposal, figure out what happened so long ago to get the world to its current state. 2) Work to achieve some sort of equilibrium in the world, ideally restoring it to its former state if such a thing is possible.

A tertiary goal would be to see if he can get other Elens to embrace humanity.

Should be up to date, Abnaki has changed so much in such a short span of time that he's a bit confused, and may have some mutually conflicting goals.