I'm really glad you guys are enjoying it! I hope that it's also helping you get a firmer handle on who your characters are (part of the design of it, which it seems like you've both really embraced, is being forced to think about which things really speak to your characters, which will hopefully really help solidify them in your minds).
Also, I'm really enjoying the RP you're both including in your posts and definitely appreciate the pace we're moving through these at. I've got to head to bed in the next 15 minutes or so, so there's a good chance that was my last post for the night (unless you both happen to have noticed it already), but I'm definitely looking forward to picking it back up tomorrow!
Yeah that's it for me too. I got to call it quits. "After all, tomorrow is another day." ;)
@Gaius- this is completely my fault, and I apologize, but in my haste to post I did a bad job explaining the blessing of community. The spiritual ally looks like one of the ghostly people who was eating/drinking, it has nothing to do with any god. That's different than the spell, I know, and I should have pointed it out much more clearly. You're still welcome to worship Iomedae (and we can talk more about her fluff if faith is something that will matter to Gaius) but the blessing has absolutely nothing to do with any god that you may worship.
Gotcha! Thank you for the clarification.
I don't yet know how important faith is to him, but we'll find out!
If Gaius has a moment before engaging, he will self-buff out the wazoo. Good Hope, Mirror Image, then Anticipate Thoughts and Haste. He can boost his combat prowess significantly if there is any time to prep, or else stagger the buffs while skittering around either flying or spamming dimension door to get distance. He does not want to leave his father as an abomination.
@Gaius- it does appear to be an actual undead creature, specifically a dread lord (a type of undead bound to a specific area/location that draws power from and has some degree of control over the land). If that changes anything let me know, otherwise I'll have you buff up and dive into combat once I hear from Maximus (probably around 3-4 hours if his pattern holds).
It probably doesn't change much. He has no special offenses/defenses against undead because I didn't take the paladin dip I was considering. If the control over the land seems to override Gaius' ability to ignore difficult terrain, he'll take flight.
@Maximus- I took a liberty with your strategy, I hope you don't mind! I was thinking that maybe with all the powers you gained so quickly it might not have occurred to you that it was an option, but now it occurs to me that it might have seemed somehow dishonorable to you. If that's true let me know and I'll edit it right away.
No no! That is perfect! I actually thought about that briefly but just kind of shook it off for some reason.
Man I am glad you did that. I wished I would've put more thought into it. That is absolutely brilliant! I love it.
Shoot, I forgot about the wand... sorry, Poly! Let’s call it 6 charges to get back all but 2 hp (or 7 if you really want to be full).
Six charges it is!
Sure! Works for me.
I gotta say, going through this has been absolutely cool. You talk about defining your character to an even greater degree. So awesome. I totally love how each character "comes into their own" if you will. I love how so very different they are. I can only imagine in which direction the others went.
So freaking cool! Great stuff, Arbiter. Well done. :)
Thanks, the other players seemed to enjoy it as well. This is probably the most interesting trial/attunement/anchor in my opinion, or my favorite at least. I’m a little worried about how the others will translate to a narrative approach, honestly, but hopefully they’ll still be meaningful (at the very least I think you’ll enjoy the ooc stuff that comes right afterwards)
I'll try to tune in as much as possible! Have been out and about most of the day.
And yeah, this has been so cool!
Maximus- don’t forget you can make a bite attack (as a secondary attack) in addition to your weapon attacks, if you want.
Okay, gotcha. And it would be at a -5, correct? Because I've never actually used a bite attack as a PC so I'm a little unsure on that. I know for various animals it kind of works like that but I'm just not real positive when it comes to PC's.
Okay, I believe I found it. It's a -5 to hit, half strength damage and half on power attack.
And then add Good hope and Inspire courage.
Which would be +3 str, +3 PA and +2 per each on the last two. So I got +10 to damage.
If it's wrong, please correct however you see fit, Arbiter. This is new to me so I might have it wrong.
That looks right, yes. Full strength on the attack roll, but half-strength on damage.
Since I have talons, I believe that those would only apply if I wasn't using both of my hands to wield other objects, or if perchance I am disarmed. Is that right?
That’s right Poly- if you’re using a sword and shield you don’t have any hands free to make claw attacks, but if you went without the shield you could make regular sword attacks plus a claw natural attack (as a secondary attack).
I like having a higher AC, but good to know if we end up needing to pour on even more hurt.
Also, I'm crying that I rolled a 1 on my crit confirm.
Sorry that wasn’t faster- I’m on my phone currently.
You both get to pick one of the five types (affinity or ideal or residence or sanctum or totem) and you gain the domain from it that matches the blessing you chose... RL is interrupting but I’ll post your list of options as soon as I can (just for clarity sake, you can probably figure them out on your own though).
Please don’t hesitate to ask questions.
Maximus Options
Affinity: erosion
Ideal: strength
Resonance: protection
Sanctum: cave (the druid domain, not the cleric sub-domain)
Totem: crocodile
Gaius Options
Affinity: earth
Ideal: community
Resonance: travel
Sanctum: aquatic
Totem: eagle
Also, please take note that each category is governed by a different stat (though for some individual domains that might have very little impact).
This is excellent! On first glance, I am most strongly drawn towards either the Travel domain or the Eagle domain. I'm in a meeting for the next hour, but I'll make my decision ASAP!
So Eagle looks like a blast, but I have played a bard with a familiar and haven't quite figured out how to best manage the familiar. I love having Alertness, and having an extra scout is a joy. But with few touch spells that I would ever want to cast (on either enemies or allies), I feel like I would frequently have the familiar in a bag.
So I can't deny the awesomeness of being super-mobile. Soul Resonance: Travel Domain--I choose you!
Nice. That you can add to your profile permanently, and then try to remember you have them to use!
Okay, going through them now. Will let you know.
That will definitely be nice!
Done and done.
Okay, going with 'Ideal: strength'. I think that one works well.
Pretty freaking cool. :)
I'm thinking we should've invested in a wand of clw's. :P
Nice, add it to your profile. I thought of this because of Maximus’ choice, but it applies equally to everyone: I will allow you to take the quicken spell-like ability feat if you want it (it’s listed under the monster feats).
We did! I have a wand of CLW with 44 charges remaining.
But presumably we'd be able to rest to recover the remaining hit points, right? No need to use all these resources when we're set to travel!
Well that's cool. Yeah I just caught that it's a standard action. Will definitely have to keep that in mind about the feat.
And the attunement has been added.
@Poly: Cool. And you know, while I knew about resting regaining hit points(I believe it's 1/level per night) I'm thinking to myself, what if there are encounters the next day? And the next? I'm only getting 9 back a day and I'm down roughly 45. So you're talking about 5 days before I get all my hp's back.
But then I remember this is more narration than anything else. :P
But then I'm torn with: Am I cheating because it's mostly narration? So I ultimately decided to approach it as if we were dealing with encounters like normal.
I still got 10 potions left so it's all good. Once we rest overnight, he'll get nine more hit points back and for the most part be at max. Down a couple or so but that's no biggie.
We got this. :)
(And will definitely now keep the wand in mind). ;)
Oh, I forgot something! Your bodies are exactly the same when you emerge as they were when you entered (no damage/scars/etc), and the items that you used inside were not consumed. Any spells you used are used though.
Oh really?! Well that DOES make a difference. That's good to know. Will have to go back and fix my potion list then. Sweet!
Rock on. I'll restore my charges!
Is it 2065 gold for each of us? Or is it total?
Edit: What is your take on Scaling items? Would those be allowed? Or possibly some of them?
Good question! Either way the next item on my wish list costs more than that even if were per, so I'm not sure if there's anything further to spend on just yet, except maybe a potion of Touch of the Sea in case something happens at sea.
2065 total. We’re not using scaling items from the books at all, but I may give out items that improve at certain points (never as something you can just buy though).
Sounds good.
So you take 1033 gold poly and I'll take 1032. Just to make it simpler. :)
You can each take 1035. What’s a couple gold pieces between friends.
I was going to say, are we going full Abadaran?
Actually, very technically, depending on how you count it...
If I take the Page of Spell Knowledge Lv II (worth 2,000 gp) and one potion of cure serious wounds (375 gp), that's worth 2,375 gp. If Maximus takes 2,035 gp and one of the two potions, and Gaius takes the remaining 35 gp, then we both get 2,410 gp of a total 4,820 gp haul.
That is if you want to consider the page of spell knowledge from Gaius' permanent stash instead of a party resource. I can see the argument either way. Keep on going turtle style and you may need to be the way to get more healing anyway, so all healing is good for the party.
Popping in to congratulate you both on completing your first attunement!
Huzzah!
Actually, very technically, depending on how you count it...
If I take the Page of Spell Knowledge Lv II (worth 2,000 gp) and one potion of cure serious wounds (375 gp), that's worth 2,375 gp. If Maximus takes 2,035 gp and one of the two potions, and Gaius takes the remaining 35 gp, then we both get 2,410 gp of a total 4,820 gp haul.
That is if you want to consider the page of spell knowledge from Gaius' permanent stash instead of a party resource. I can see the argument either way. Keep on going turtle style and you may need to be the way to get more healing anyway, so all healing is good for the party.
Honestly, I say we just take the 1035 each. It's just waaay simpler. I don't sweat having to make it all 'even' or whatever. That'll never be an issue with me, I promise you. I'm never going to use Page of Spell knowledge so I wouldn't care if you had a million of 'em. :)
And the potions I'm fairly certain will be used for whoever needs them. And they'll be used out of combat for the most part. AND, I've got 16 CLW potions so I don't even really need those.
But even if I didn't have all those potions, we'd still find a way to manage.
No worries here. We got this. :)
Thanks, Witness!
And rock on: I like establishing party loot practices early on so that everyone is satisfied! We can probably each hang onto a potion for emergencies, but I agree that whoever needs it takes it.