GM_DBH's Shattered Star

Game Master DBH

@Javell. Yep, it's all Pdf's. I use Adobe reader because I can copy the whole map, or take a snapshot of a small area of the map and enlarge it to make a battle map that people can actually see. :)

@Bharak, but did I get the damage right?

@Javell. Yep, it's all Pdf's. I use Adobe reader because I can copy the whole map, or take a snapshot of a small area of the map and enlarge it to make a battle map that people can actually see. :)

Oh, well, that's cool. And that Adobe reader sounds really handy. Cool stuff. Thanks for the info.

Sorry, redcaps in the room above? Didnt we kill them? Or were those outside the tower and we hear more ofnthem inside the tower now or such?

You spotted that Redcaps were waiting above A1 and went around it to A14. You have never dealt with these pests.

So they didnt react to the gunshots? Interesting. Not that im complaining though.

Gunshots?

Too busy today to update.

That is a good question. I'm curious about "gunshots" myself.

A reference of some kind, perhaps?

Ah, please ignore me. I keep thinking Vhane, as a gunslinger, is using a gun but he has that one archetype that uses crossbows instead.

He uses a crossbow, but as a Gunslinger he does have to go Bang!. Bang! With the bolts. :)

He uses a crossbow, but as a Gunslinger he does have to go Bang!. Bang! With the bolts. :)

That seems reasonable...

Thanks for the correction. I've been assuming he's saying "Pew! Pew!" all this time.

Elves with bows go “pew pew.” Very sneaky ones whisper it when they shoot.

Manly dwarves roar “Bang! Bang!” when they shoot, so that even dense orcs don’t forget to fall over dead. If they can’t hear you then they might forget to, and that ruins the battle for everyone.

Now I finally understand the mechanics behind the Orc Ferocity racial trait.

I'm pretty sure this is how it goes. Sheesh, people, get it right.

LOL! :D

"Sometimes our role involves a fireball, sometimes it involves a dimension door. Just because their role always involves wading into battle, don't think that you're taking part."

LOL!

"Yeah, Elena, don't you dare think that *you're* taking part because you're not! Oh no siree bob you ain't! Not taking part AT ALL! And let it be know that I, Axton, was the first to tell you." :)

Lol!

(Sorry, I couldn't resist. I'm totally joking, by the way. It's amazing how a sentence reads when 1 tiny word - "not" in this instance - is left out). :D

Sorry, feeling too crook to update today.

Axton Vendian wrote:

"Sometimes our role involves a fireball, sometimes it involves a dimension door. Just because their role always involves wading into battle, don't think that you're taking part."

LOL!

"Yeah, Elena, don't you dare think that *you're* taking part because you're not! Oh no siree bob you ain't! Not taking part AT ALL! And let it be know that I, Axton, was the first to tell you." :)

Lol!

(Sorry, I couldn't resist. I'm totally joking, by the way. It's amazing how a sentence reads when 1 tiny word - "not" in this instance - is left out). :D

Yeah, oops! Obviously, I was missing that key word. But... *waves hands dismissively* ...you know what I meant.

Lol! Yeah, I was just messing. Thought it was funny. :)

Sorry for going quiet, I've been in hospital dealing with stomach issues.

Saturday & Sunday were awful so I went into Wellington hospital on Monday expecting to be examined and give a prescription.

Released on Thursday after several different test including a CIT & an ECG. It seems my stomach problems aren't as bad as thought, but were triggering other things.

Looks like the heart flutter might be back. So I'm booked in for another Cardioversion and for a Sleep apnea study as they think this might be something that's screwing me up?

Will be catching up on moving thing forward over the next few days.

Thanks for the heads up, GM_DBH, Take all the time you need. I highly recommend the sleep apnea study, I use a CPAP machine, a solid nights sleep helps improve so much.

Take care of yourself, dbh, and thanks for the updat!

Thanks for the update. The medical issues sound horrible. Wish nothing but the best for you.

Ugh. Concentrate on yourself, DBH, don't worry about this. This ain't going nowhere. Do what you gotta do to get yourself better, bud. First and foremost.

Elena performs and the +2 morale to hit and damage from her flag should be in effect. Adds +5 hit and damage and +1d6 sonic damage to everyone's attacks. Let's call it perform: dog show.

Just curious, Is the moral bonus from the flag always active or does she need to be preforming?

Elena Neidhardt wrote:

Elena performs and the +2 morale to hit and damage from her flag should be in effect. Adds +5 hit and damage and +1d6 sonic damage to everyone's attacks. Let's call it perform: dog show.

Just curious, Is the moral bonus from the flag always active or does she need to be preforming?

Static +2 hit, damage, saves vs fear and resistance bonus to saving throws while within 30 ft of Elena. The perform adds +3 competence hit and damage and +1d6 damage while within 30 ft of her.

The perform also increases the morale bonus of saves vs fear to 3 I guess but that almost never comes into play.

Oh! So Bharak should have added the +2 then. I’ll really need to remember that, as it would have caused the crit to confirm.

Static +2 hit, damage, saves vs fear and resistance bonus to saving throws while within 30 ft of Elena.

Really? I did not know that.

To clarify the breakdown:

Elena has the flagbearer feat. This grants: "As long as you hold your clan, house, or party’s flag, members of that allegiance within 30 feet who can see the flag (including yourself ) gain a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, and saving throws against fear and charm effects."

The +1 morale bonus above is doubled to +2 since Elena's flag is the Banner of the Ancient kings.

This is the static morale bonus (+2 hit, damage, saves vs fear and charm) that is always active.

Elena's inspire courage is calculated as if she is an 11th level bard. Her helmet and the flag add 10 levels to the normally level 1 inspire courage, which makes it a +3 bonus.

Finally, the Discordant Voice feat adds: "Whenever you are using bardic performance to create a spell-like or supernatural effect, allies within 30 feet of you deal an extra 1d6 points of sonic damage with successful weapon attacks. This damage stacks with other energy damage a weapon might deal. Projectile weapons bestow this extra damage on their ammunition, but the extra damage is dealt only if the projectile hits a target within 30 feet of you."

TLDR:
-Always +2 morale to damage, hit, fear and charm saves while within 30 ft of Elena - assuming you can see her.

-Inspire courage adds +3 competence bonus to hit and damage if you can see or hear Elena, and if you are within 30 Ft you also deal +1d6 sonic damage.

Also, for future reference: If would like to ask if everyone would assume Elena's first action every fight is to grant everyone her inspire courage bonus. This is done as a move action through her Shelyn feat, Divine Expression. It should very rarely affect what else she does that turn and the buff is so large that it would have high priority to use anyway.

Interesting to know. Thanks for the breakdown. That explains a lot.

I’d like to make that assumption. I’ll make a note in my character sheet to remind myself.

The last unexplored areas are those above A15 & A16.

You've done nearly all this level, aside from A10 which you can't get into yet. Now to explore the other upper levels you need to return to A16 where there are two sets of stairs going up. One to A17, one to A18.

I take it you are going to A18 as that is the southernmost?

Not yet, I was talking about the other tower opposite the one we are in, where the giant Elathras still stands, I moved the black tile it was numbered A6

Still around. Just busy with other things at the moment I'm afraid. A day or two to get things settled and hopefully back to more regular updating.

May I ask what direction the locked stairs at A10 are going to? Up or down?

Way on down.

Just to double check did we explore A17 or A18?

Nope. They're at the top of the stairs you decided not to go up while you had more to explore this level.

Nope. They're at the top of the stairs you decided not to go up while you had more to explore this level.

Cool, so we can still do that, maybe we'll find a key :)

With this spicy combination of elemental damage on each hit, I'm starting to envision Bharak as wielding a lightsaber flail. :)

Ha! Just need to get the brilliant energy enchantment on it. Between that and the elemental damage, all that would be needed is a cool robe to become a Jedi.

It reminds me of this Flail

Had all the elements AND poison when it was fully upgraded.

Such a great game. :)

If the flail of ages dropped (all elemental damage + slow + freedom of movement)…that would be game breakingly good.

On an unrelated note, I loved having Minsc with 2 flails. Flail of Ages in main hand and Defender of Easthaven in the other. It felt so Minsc!

You know, I never thought of that. I always had him using a 2-handed weapon.

Hm. Interesting. And I don't recall the Defender of Easthaven weapon. Of course, I never did finish the game.

Can get them on iPhones and the like now. Was $10 each game when I got them if I remember correctly.

Merchant at the Coppor Coronet sells the flail. Defender of Easthaven is a +3 flail, that gives +1 AC and +20% physical resistances. It stacks with Armor of Faith, one of the few ranger spells that is worth casting. Pair the two flails together and Minsc goes from being “meh” to a power house. It just takes awhile to get the items + the proficiency points. Even if Minsc doesn’t use it, it’s worth giving it to someone else.

Naturally my favorite is a dwarven defender main character. Hammer in one hand, flail in the other. With defensive stance he can tank dragons, something no other martial character can reliably do.

I actually have both games on GOG. Enhanced Editions.

Now I'm gonna have to go check that out. Last time I played was about a year ago.

And lol! That's awesome! A dwarf defender tanking dragons. That's just freaking amazing.

My main guy was an Elf Ranger. Just hitting all the time from range. But he wasn't able to tank Dragons, though. That would be cool if I could've pulled that off.

I also used Crom Faeyr and Axe of the Unyielding for two-weapon fighting for him.

But with my bow, I'm a -24 THAC0! (I loaded my old game and am checking it out.) Lol!

I beat Irenicus and am in Throne of Baal. A previous save I had WAAAAY back in the day there was a spot I got to and never could get past in ToB. That was a couple of computers ago, and when I was switching out disks all the time. Ah, the not-so-good times when you had to switch out disks. :P

I got Minsc switching between the Silver Sword(25% chance of decapitation with a -2 save vs. Death) and Lilarcor. He's got several other weapons I have for certain situations. I do remember one time, that he had a Vorpal halberd(can't remember the name), but I was fighting this black dragon, and all of a sudden, he died! Like quick. I'm like, "What the heck?!" Sure enough, I lopped off his head. Man, that was awesome. :) And that was after several reloads because he kept killing a party member or two every time. Just irritated the crap out of me.

Absolute fun, though! :)

Yeah, elven archers are a load of fun. I haven’t done a play through with them but they just melt things. And your Minsc build is very solid.

Lol! That is freaking AMAZING! It's nuts but amazing. I freaking love it. I have got to check that out now. Might be time to dust off the ol' game and start with a dwarven fellow. ;)

Also, I got 2 Rings of Gaxx. Which stack. ;) Online had a way you could get 2. I've completely forgotten how I got them both, but I did. :)

And I've never heard of Siege of Dragonspear?! Why haven't I heard of that?! Are you kidding me?!

Okay, I'll be looking into that for sure. Can't believe I've never heard of that.

It’s fun. Beamdog made Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Editions. Fixed old bugs, ported the game to iPhone (it runs great). Added new NPCs. Who are…hit and miss. Each come with their own quests.

Neera: Half-Elf Wild Mage. Hunter by Red Wizards of Thay. Some people hate her voice / personality. Others love her.

Dorn: Half-Orc Blackguard. True CE. I loved his story line. Hits like a truck.

Rasaad: Human monk of Selune. Searching for his brother, who was taken by Sharran monks.

A secret character only gained from beating a new game mode where you create a party and fight increasingly harder enemies.

——-

Siege of Dragonspear.

They made an entire new game between BG1 and BG2. When it came out some people threw a huge s#&%fit over it. I’ve played through it several times and really enjoyed it. Centers around an Aasimar Paladin creating a crusade with the stated plan to open a portal to the Hells to rescue damned souls. Her army of zealots is ‘living off the land’ and is causing a huge refugee crisis. Cue your character getting involved.

Lots of huge combats, including armies fighting. New companions just for this stand alone game (Human archer-ranger, human skald, gnome rogue/illusionist, goblin shaman)

It is highly recommended.

——-

BG2:

Neera, Dorn and Rasaad are back. Quests involve teleporting into Thay, fighting your way through heaven (gorgeous map) and freeing a conquered Dwarven hold. They also created a vampire character (who is so poorly written and designed that I wrote an entire hate post about her).

Also comes with another new game mode. Once more making a party and fighting through progressively harder enemies.

Overall? The EE are worth trying for the extra content alone. And Siege of Dragonspear is worth it for an entire Baldur’s Gate game.

Hm, good to hear that. I've played the original BG games with a lot of QoL and content mods back in the day. Was probably the first D&D like game I ever played as a kid back in High School as well. Good memories, I remember playing a Kensai Mage with the flail of ages. Nothing really stopped that :)

Maybe I'll give the rerelease and that new expansion a try. That said, I've read a lot about how supposedly 'man-hating' the new characters and NPC's in Siege of Dragonspear are, is that true? As honestly I really do not want to waste any money or time on a game that would try to shame me for being male or such.

I’ve played through it 3 times (Human Paladin, Dwarven Defender and Elven Fighter/Mage) and never got that feeling. And this is from someone who adored dragon age origins and finds veilguard to be cringy.

When it came out SoD got review bombed. One NPC has a line where if you ask her about why her name sounds weird she says that she was raised as a boy and changed her name. People flipped out. I’ve personally not seen said line of dialogue, but apparently it was enough to get lots of people angry.

Aside from that? I can’t think of anything. Maybe Safana? I think she is a companion, but I’ve never used her (Glint is a rogue/mage and she is a single class rogue). In BG1 her personality was “obvious seductress who uses men for her own ends” so maybe it references her? Maybe Viconia as a female Drow?

That aside, I personally liked how they fleshed out Khalid and Jaheira. Khalid really comes into his own as a character, rather than being cowardly comedy relief like he was in BG1.

But yeah. It feels like Baldur’s Gate to me. It plays like Baldur’s Gate. And if nothing else, having actual armies fight was a wonderful experience that you don’t get in 1 or 2.

(Note: BG2 has Hexxat. The worst written character I’ve ever had the misfortune of seeing. The only character I’ve killed every time I see her. I’d recommend taking her in one evil play through of BG2 just to see the beautiful maps. But otherwise? No redeeming features)