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I knew it! The moment I read that spell I knew someone in this party would grab it!
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"Are we visiting a queen or a witch?
Por que no los dos?
I knew it! The moment I read that spell I knew someone in this party would grab it!
Ha! Is that good or bad? I actually completely missed it the first time I skimmed through the book, and found it yesterday while looking through the list of common arcane spells to see if there was anything that might be handy.
He is equally confused by the bizarre doorman. "I didn't think this was a costume party. I can't tell if the ape suit is intended to make him more intimidating or more welcoming. Or maybe our host just has a sense of humor."
Whoops, should probably clarify: "monkey suit" is a derogatory phrase for a tuxedo or other formal attire worn by men; the doorman is not literally dressed like a monkey.
That's too bad. I liked the idea of a golem in a gorilla costume.
"It is better to remain silent, and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."
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Neither "There is no way anyone would confuse you with her." nor "I can see the resemblance." would end well.
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Was a bowl of soup placed before the dead husband too?
I meant to mention that; a serving of soup was indeed put in front of the skeleton.
I meant to mention that; a serving of soup was indeed put in front of the skeleton.
How well did he manage eating?
A couple of questions:
- Does Loremaster's Etude require that it be cast before rolling the Recall Knowledge check or learning the result? Or could Chance decide to cast it again now to reroll his Bardic Lore?
- Depending on the answer to my first question, if Chance joins the conversation and would make a comment about the Cheliax Covenant and infernal contracts generally, would I be able to roll Occultism for the check?
- Does a Diplomacy check in the conversation phase count as using the “Make an Impression” action for purposes of getting a bonus from our fancy duds?
I meant to mention that; a serving of soup was indeed put in front of the skeleton.How well did he manage eating?
He doesn’t.
- Does Loremaster's Etude require that it be cast before rolling the Recall Knowledge check or learning the result? Or could Chance decide to cast it again now to reroll his Bardic Lore?
You do have to state that you’re using it prior to rolling; it’s not a reroll ability, it’s one where you roll twice and take the higher.
- Depending on the answer to my first question, if Chance joins the conversation and would make a comment about the Cheliax Covenant and infernal contracts generally, would I be able to roll Occultism for the check?
Occultism? No. I could see an argument for some other skill checks, but definitely not Occultism; infernal contracts more fall under the purview of Religion.
- Does a Diplomacy check in the conversation phase count as using the “Make an Impression” action for purposes of getting a bonus from our fancy duds?
No. That circumstance bonus from the outfit is essentially baked into the initial BP you got when you started.
Thanks. The first two are pretty much the answers I expected, and the last one makes sense to me as well.
If I’m using Bardic Lore, which DC am I aiming for - Cooking Lore, Nature, or Society?
Cooking Lore
Cooking Lore
Got it, thanks. Chance still didn’t make it, but good to know for the future.
Rough couple of days at work, should be back online tomorrow. Sorry for the delay.
Hero Points reset in a week
So…because Vitalis critically failed to Recall Knowledge on the dish, he actually misidentifies what the dish is (he thinks the invisibility is just a eccentricity of the dish), so would Vitalis still ask Edrakk what the dish is? And, follow-up, if he misunderstands the dish, would Vitalis still abstain from eating it?
You know what, I still would ask Edrakk. And here's my reasoning.
1) Vitalis has not been able to identify any of the dishes so far.
2) Vitalis has noticed that Edrakk seems to know what every dish so far is and has been exceptional at eating them.
3) Edrakk is sitting next to Vitalis, not across the table.
So, even if Vitalis thought he knew what the dish was, he would assume that Edrakk definitely knew what the dish was, so it wouldn't hurt to ask. And he could ask discretely. Maybe give Edrakk a nudge to confirm his thought. "So is this just invisible pie?"
If you think that's not okay, and Vitalis thinks its just invisibility cast on a pie, then he'd probably eat the pie.
Yeah, that logic holds. Just wanted to make sure.
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Short PSA
I do not wish to make things heavily about politics, but if you live in the US, I have one thing to say: Vote. I don’t care for your political leanings (though I’m sure I can guess them), I don’t care how pointless it might feel to do so, go out and vote.
That is all.
Hero Points have reset
Voting is great! I love democracy! In many states, you can vote early in-person, which is very handy if you don't feel like waiting in line on Tuesday.
On that note, I'm helping out a friend who is running for office, so I may be swamped with work for the next week or so.
I'll be voting. My job actually gives us a half day to vote so I'll take advantage of that. I don't actually have strong political ties. I like to think I vote for what I think is best for Americans rather than just blindly along party lines. Honestly, I wish we had more than two choices to pick from. The two party system sometimes feels like voting for the least bad choice out of two bad choices.
Okay, so I'm going to be frank: no matter how oblivious Edrakk was in the moment of the Queen of Delights asking about a “private conversation,” it WILL be obvious what her intentions are soon. So here is my question to Edrakk’s player: does Edrakk accept the Queen’s sexual advances?
I'm somewhat concerned that there are gonna be repercussions for this, but as he said earlier in the banquet...
One—the scantily clad gnome—speaks next. ”Well, I would have to say chastity. Just…no!”"...maybe some people aren't really interested." Edrakk mutters quietly to himself.
...he's going to have to decline.
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It's pretty funny that the lower a party member's Charisma was, the better they performed here.
So, an interesting bit of lore that can’t comfortably come out during play, so I’m telling y’all out-of-character: Norgorber is one of the Ascended: mortals who did the Test of the Starstone and became gods. Because he’s the god of secrecy, basically nothing about his mortal life is known, and he basically has a standing divine decree to stay the hand of any mortal who attempts to make art of his face (even if the depiction wouldn’t be correct, because then mortals could figure out what he looked like by knowing what they COULDN’T draw). Basically, Norgorber just seemed to appear out of nowhere and became a god.
Anyway, my point to all of that is that something that was revealed in the GM stuff of this book is actually something about Norgorber’s mortal life: apparently he lived in Vyre. And given Vyre’s culture around personal privacy, it makes sense that that would translate to Norgorber becoming a god of secrecy.
Molly appears to have not fully made the connection that Hei-Fen was one of the people who ruined her life all those years ago; would you tell her about that?
I think we should tell her. We should probably warn her to keep her head down about the returned deed until we are able to deal with Hei-Fen.
Agreed.
Sorry for not posting recently - two 18-hour work days in a row, Captain Jack (our 9 month old kitten) diagnosed with FIP this morning, then drove 3 hours this afternoon to visit my son at college for the weekend. I'm fading fast but I’ll catch up tomorrow morning.
Chance's decisions for leveling up to 8 are:
- 1 new level 4 spell
- 1 new ritual of level 4 or below
- 1 new skill feat
I think I'm going to take Dimension Door for the new spell. Even with the 2nd edition nerf, it's the best teleportation available at this level, and Chance is a teleporting kind of gnome.
Questions for the GM and the other players:
- how far is the Menador Gap from Kintargo? If it's ~350 miles from Kintargo to Egorian, it looks like it has to be less than 250 miles to the Gap, right? I'm thinking the new ritual Chance should learn is Mystic Carriage. We cast it once for the trip there, then cast it again for the trip home.
- @GM: The class feat Chance took at level 6, Assured Knowledge, says,
Whenever you Recall Knowledge using any skill (including Bardic Lore), you can forgo rolling your check to instead receive a result of 10 + your proficiency bonus (don't apply any other bonuses, penalties, or modifiers). As long as you are an expert in a skill, you meet the prerequisites for the Automatic Knowledge skill feat in that skill, even if you don't have Assurance in that skill.
I read this as saying that as a master in Occultism, Chance can take the Automatic Knowledge skill feat in Occultism without taking Assurance first. HeroLab seems to disagree, and I want to confirm your understanding of the rule before I override the validation error and take Automatic Knowledge as Chance's new skill feat anyway.
- how far is the Menador Gap from Kintargo? If it's ~350 miles from Kintargo to Egorian, it looks like it has to be less than 250 miles to the Gap, right? I'm thinking the new ritual Chance should learn is Mystic Carriage. We cast it once for the trip there, then cast it again for the trip home.
(Unless anyone else has a better/faster/cheaper way to get there and back?)
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- how far is the Menador Gap from Kintargo? If it's ~350 miles from Kintargo to Egorian, it looks like it has to be less than 250 miles to the Gap, right?
(Man, I’m glad I still have my old Roll20 game of Hell’s Rebels where all these maps are properly scaled so I can actually answer this question)
As the crow flies, the distance from Kintargo to Menador Keep is about 160 miles. But you have to actually travel up/alongside the Yolubilis River (the difference between up and alongside are negligible), so the actual distance is closer to 250 miles.
Also important to note: at the head of the Yolubilis (about 40 miles from Menador Keep) is the Oakrib Inn, which was specifically built to cater to people coming and going though the Menador Gap.
EDIT: Wow, I just read mystic carriage and I now realize why you were so particular about 250 miles.
Yay, level 8! For my feats, I'm taking Incredible Familiar and Quick Recognition.
For new spells, I am still considering my options. I'll get back to you.
Well, I have to say I'm not totally thrilled with the level 4 arcane spells that I don't already have, but I'm going to go with fly and enervation. Fly because I am a team player and it's definitely a gap in the party's abilities, and enervation because it's sick as hell. It also happens to be a great fit for my future plans.
Gained Sense Chaos (Hellknight Feat)
Gained Quick Climb (Skill Feat)
I have to say my choices of feats is disappointingly slim. There really wasn't anything I could take that I really wanted. I'm kind of settling on Quick Climb for lack of anything else worthwhile. I'm Master in Athletics and Expert in Intimidation and Society. I've taken the Athletics feats but there aren't anything great under Intimidation or Society to take. And the basic level 1 trained feats feel underwhelming at 8th level.
Sense Chaos is also kind of useless now but it will be somewhat useful at level 12 by allowing me to know if an enemy is chaotic if I want to use the Blade of Law level 12 feat.
My Lay on Hands/Protector's Sacrifice got heightened to level 4.
My Mental Resistance went up to 5 and Bludgeoning Resistance up to 4.
Not to be super contrarian, Vitalis, but…
Sense Evil is more useful in this campaign since you’re dealing with a lot more evil stuff than chaotic.
Advanced Deity’s Domain gets you another Focus Point as well as protector’s sphere
You’re not excluded from taking earlier feats, so you could dip back and take Smite Evil or Fiendsbane Oath.
And if you’re dead-set on increasing the Hellknight resistances, you could take Order Training to basically get Liberating Step (as I detailed…TWO YEARS AGO?! Jeez, time flies).
Armiger’s Mobility to basically increase your Speed by 5 feet.
As for skill feats…yeah…at a certain point skill feats are just there for niche stuff. But I’d rather have them exist in their own category so they’re not competing for other feat categories (like how those niche feats worked in 1e).
Also, your focus spells heightened to level 4 last level; they increase at the odd numbered levels.
Thanks. I was in the mindset of taking Hellknight feats but I guess you're right, I don't need to take those exclusively.
Advanced Deity's Domain sounds pretty good. But I think I'll go with Order Training.
So minor revision, I'll take Order Training instead of Sense Chaos.
Everything else remains the same.
Short bit of clarification that I meant to say a long time ago about that particular Order Training: Retributive Strike is still your "Champion's Reaction," so stuff like the exalted class feature or the Fiendsbane Oath feat won't modify Liberating Step.
I'm back! We won pretty handily, but I was up all night on Tuesday and so slept for most of yesterday.
I'm back! We won pretty handily, but I was up all night on Tuesday and so slept for most of yesterday.
Congratulations!
Chance's decisions for leveling up to 8 are:
- 1 new class feat: Flexible Ritualist (a level 6 feat, but it leads to Assured Ritualist at level 10)
- 1 new level 4 spell: Dimension Door
- 1 new ritual of level 4 or below: Mystic Carriage
- 1 new skill feat: Automatic Knowledge (Occultism) (Recall Knowledge as a free action, using 10+proficiency bonus instead of rolling {10+14=24})
Other changes:
- +1 proficiency to everything
I'll post the updated statblock and taglines this evening.
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Nice! Hey, mystic carriage is even a ritual I can actually help with.
Nice! Hey, mystic carriage is even a ritual I can actually help with.
Yup! I think we’re going to get a lot of mileage out of that ritual.
Sorry, dealing with a lot of stuff this week, and got a bit stuck on the leveling up, but I think I've got it.
Skill Feat: Treat Condition
Class Feat: Perpetual Breadth (Acid Flask, lesser)
Alchemical Formulae: Acid Flask, lesser, Bloodhound mask, moderate
Basically, I’m wondering if you guys want to do it immediately, or do some downtime stuff before that.
Since we are back in Kintargo, I think we should take a week or so down time. Maybe try to sway a few more noble families before we head out.
I forgot to set aside enough money for a wand I want to make, so I don't have any particular plans for a week of downtime, but it can still be handy. Is there any more work we need to do around the hideout or is it all set?
Is there any more work we need to do around the hideout or is it all set?
I mean, that's for y'all to decide. The Lucky Bones is currently manageable as a hideout, so anything further is just up to y'all.