In the shadow of the Tower (Inactive)

Game Master Giant Halfling

Hey- please don't worry about trying to balance out one of you taking those bracers. There is a second unique item coming later that will take care of that.

Since it's longsword-focused, it makes sense for Gaius to take it, at least for now. But I'm good either way.

I’m not going to force you guys either way but my assumption was that this one would most likely go to Gaius (since the keenness only works on Estarius’ signature weapon and Maximus seems opposed to changing weapons).

edit: I actually forgot a detail too... I’ll post a link to an actual item description later.

re-edit: shoot... I didn’t think to check if either of you had something in that slot... I’ll switch it to a different slot when I link the item description.

Yeah that was my plan. Just roleplaying it out ^_^

Signature weapon for the win! Glad I didn't go EWP for that sweet x3 crit.

So, I don’t think we need to play out this whole trial, but I’d like to try to play out the first room or two if you guys think we could manage another burst of more rapid posting?

I'm down for that.

Per the longsword: Take it, please. I'm not switching weapons. I like the x3 crit from the falcata. And like Arbiter said, don't worry about balancing anything out. It honestly is at the VERY bottom of my concern list. I mean, it's actually below "Do nothing" on my to do list. ;)

I'm telling you, I will NEVER gripe about "stuff". I won't. (I may gripe about other things but never "stuff") ;) Because I flat out don't care. If the team is outfitted to where it helps the team, then that's a win for me. Don't get me wrong, I really like the cool items and handy dandy type stuff but I'm not about to break a game because of them. It's just not worth it. Plus, I really feel like it all works itself out in the end anyway.

So take whatever works for you, polyfrequencies, it's all good, bud. :)

And sure, I can roll with some rapid posting.

Let's do this!

And thank you. A less to-the-penny accounting suits me perfectly, but I like being fair.

Let's do this!

And thank you. A less to-the-penny accounting suits me perfectly, but I like being fair.

Totally understand. :)

I was just looking over some notes and realized that in my haste to get you both caught up to the rest of the party I forgot to somewhat significant details... First, where did you both choose to have your Seeker’s Seal appear on your body? Second, you surely would have noticed by now that after completing the first attunement the innermost pentagram of your mark began to softly glow with faint blue light.

Gaius' is on the back of his right palm.

Ha! That's pretty interesting. Gaius goes right while Maximus 'shoots with his left' as his is on the back of his left hand.

Just caught the gameplay. Yep, done resisting. I was actually thinking he was probably going to get kicked out. So that's a relief. Although, he would've at the very least cheered Gaius on from the outside. :)

I hope everything’s alright with Gaius, and he’s just having a busy day. At any rate, I can’t really advance the trial with one person literally sitting by the door and the other not having acted, so we’re in a holding pattern for now.

Yeah, no worries. It's all good.

Well done, Seekers!

You lose all the penalties and bonuses you racked up inside, but you have gained the Second Attunement. Please chose one of those five abilities as a permanent addition to your character and add it to your profile. Maximus- skill is useless for you because it won't stack with the weapon training you already have. Other than that, please feel free to ask any questions you might have.

Also, after successfully completing two trials, and having dealt with werewolves, bandits, and pirates, you have reached 10th level! Please post whatever new things that adds to your character here in discussion as soon as you're able.

Edit: oh, and I hope that didn't seem too anticlimactic. Fights are time consuming and it wasn't really the point of the trial. Plus, I'm still trying to find the right balance between letting you experience/enjoy the trials some and getting you to the rest of the party asap. At any rate, have fun leveling and picking your new attunement bonus.

Cool! It was a long day. I'll look over the Second Attunement and post again tomorrow.

It was actually a super long day for me as well. Heading to bed now. I'll look forward to seeing what bonuses you both pick (and maybe even, hopefully, your new levels) tomorrow.

Well done, gentlemen.

Congratulations on completing your second attunement!

Thank you much, Gavin and Witness!

10th level adds a few fun things for Gaius. Beyond the automatic bonus progression boosting his deflection and resistance bonuses and all of the usual level boosts, he gets:

Looks good Poly. My version of slashing grace (graceful strike) doesn't actually allow you to make a longsword finessable, so that's not really even an option. If you really wanted to take grace you could do it by applying an effortless lace to your sword but if it ever got lost or destroyed you'd be kind of screwed.

I picked guesses for what I thought you guys might pick for each attunement and I got both of your first attunement choices wrong, so I'm extra curious to see what you both choose this time, lol.

As always, feel free to ask questions or bounce ideas of off me (or each other).

Oh now I'm curious what your guess was!

Per the battle: As far as expediting the combat, you'll get no complaints from me. It's all good.

I'm fairly certain I'm going to go with Rage. Although, I do like the Brawler one as well. I'm torn between the two for sure. Being able to snag a feat out of thin air is pretty handy. Will think on it a bit more BUT it's probably going to be the rage one.

And it's pretty much going to be tomorrow before I can get him fully leveled up though.

@Poly- for the first attunement I guessed that Maximus would choose cave (for the stat synergy and because tremorsense is so amazing) and that you would choose eagle (for the stat synergy and for flying and the bonus to perception). I'll reveal my guesses for the second attunement after you both pick.

@Javell- that's fine. Poly mentioned having a busy day today and I had a very busy one too, so we'll stick to a little light RP tonight and get back to things tomorrow once leveling and picking an attunement are mostly done.

Well I almost picked Eagle! Charisma is less significant to an arcane duelist than some bards, especially since I mostly use spells for buffing rather than attacking. Eagle would probably have helped me be more of a switch hitter as it does some good stuff with range, but I did get flight!

Let me ask you this: Per the Intuition, does it follow it the letter? As if you were an actual Brawler?

The way I read it, we can use it to gain up to eight combat feats per day, with the whole one free, two swift, three move goodness.

Oh my gosh that is AWESOME. Man that just made things WAY tougher. I'm starting to lean toward Intuition now. Oh man. Three feats can be SUPER handy.

But then there's Rage with a potential(combined with Righteous might) 30 Str/22 Con/+3 to Will.(At 11th level of course but still).

You see my dilemma? :P

Lol- they’re designed so that there are no bad options (except choosing one that doesn’t stack with your class or fighting style, I suppose). It just a matter of which good thing you prefer. As for Javell’s question, I’m not 100% sure what you mean but Gaius is right about it using your level (and the whole 8/day; 3 move, 2 swift, 1 free goodness).

Oh, I see the teleport conversation has begun; excellent!

So, I was hoping (since Gaius took the travel domain) that we might make up the time you lost while your ship was being repaired by changing your travel plans. You can teleport to the island where the ship put in for those repairs from Tokelau, and you can teleport from the island to Dalmatien. From there you can reach Estria if you want to make a quick stop (which I was guessing you would), and then you can go from there to one of your stops on the trade road and finally back to Korryn. 5 days plus a day or two in Estria. Even if you just jumped on horseback and road east from there, that would still be faster than sailing around Suderan and traveling west from the coast (like, a lot faster). And on top of that, from Korryn you might be able find a way to figure out a closer spot to teleport to?

I knew I didn't ask it right. But you answered my question anyway. :)

I was just wanting to confirm if the Martial flexibility ability would work for us just the same as it works for a Brawler. As if we were actually a Brawler. I figured it was either that or it works as if we were only a 1st level Brawler.

So yeah, man that is a tough call. Of course, if you do select three feats at one time, you've just gone from 8 to 5 just like that.

But it's still cool. And could prove fantastically handy. Ugh. What a beating of a decision. Will know for sure by tomorrow. Gonna stew over it tonight.

Per the travel plan: Hey, that sounds like a plan to me. Sounds good.

That travel plan is roundabouts what I had in mind as well!

Maximus is already buff, but he could be uber-buff!

So, I’m not going to tell you what to pick, but since you’re both still hemming and hawing a bit I will try to help you both quantify your decisions a bit.

Gaius- the decision between awareness and intuition (IMO) largely comes down to how combat focused you want to be. Awareness provides a nice combat buff (with the bonus to hit/damage) but with the bonuses to skills it also potentially has some nice out of combat benefits; and, the bonus to DCs could be pretty handy if you ever decided to pick up some control spells or something (+3 to the dc of grease, for example, could come in pretty handy from time to time). Intuition, on the other hand, opens a ton of options for physical combat (like potentially picking up an entire 3 feat style tree if you need/want), but only aids in you in physical combat. So one of the two big questions to ask yourself is do you want to improve your overall utility or do you want to improve your physical combat? The other question, I think, is how are you at resource management? Are you going to feel good with pacing when you use flexibility, or are you going to worry so much about running out that you barely use it (or swing the other way and use it every time combat seems possible and run out constantly)?

Maximus- the decision between rage and intuition, to me, seems kind of like choosing metal for a sword... you have weigh the balance between power and flexibility. Rage will certainly increase your power (+6 Str/Con next level is nothing to scoff at), it doesn’t add any flexibility at all though (if you got rage powers it could, but you don’t). Intuition can add some power (by picking up things like greater weapon focus/specialization or improved crit) but also provides more options if you want to do something that you normally wouldn’t (for example, if you find yourself underwater somehow you could pick up feats to fight without penalties, or you could grab combat maneuver trees if you need some battlefield control). Your build currently favors power, and as a fighter with a tower shield that works, so the big question for you, I think, is do you go for as powerful as possible and risk being too rigid to bend in some circumstances, or do you go for the added flexibility knowing that it cost you some power to get it?

I hope those thoughts are helpful for you both.

Thanks, Arbiter. That was basically how my thought process was heading. I'm less hemming and hawing and more filling out my spells known while I drift off to sleep. I have been leaning much more towards Awareness for the reasons you specified. Bards are rarely combat beasts, more combat amplifiers, and I see Gaius growing more as a highly-mobile support striker. So I'm choosing Awareness.

Huzzah! My first correct guess, lol. I don't want to jinx it (or skew the result) but my guess for Maximus is one of his final two (unless he completely changes his mind in the course of stewing things over).

Huzzah!

I also chose my new spells! For Level 2, Tactical Acumen. For Level 4, Echolocation and Shadow Conjuration. Further, since we've been traveling in the Southern Isles, Gaius spent some time learning Kono'a. That made more sense than other language choices at this time.

Before I lock in Shadow Conjuration, is that okay with you? I know that some of the rules around shadow conjuration can be complicated, so I don't want to unnecessarily bog things down whenever I cast it. But I like the versatility. I chose the spells not just because they're useful, but because they both feel like representations of what he has seen and experienced at the Anchors so far.

I’m fine with shadow conjuration. One of the benefits of PbP is that if you or I need to look up something nobody else is sitting at the table waiting on us.

Well as the pendulum swings back and forth(I'm definitely a 'hem and haw(er)') going to go with... Rage!

You know, initially I thought about adding a level or two of barbarian to him during recruitment. But I didn't simply to make things easier mechanics wise.

Although it was a tough call for sure.

I was looking at cavalier, paladin, and slayer dips during the build. Getting studied target is very cool.

Still might take that paladin dip if I ever shift alignment.

Onward!

Maximus, are you leveled up too or just decided on your attunement? I’m out running errands right now but I’ll get a post up this afternoon/evening if you’re both ready to go.

Also, that’s 1/4 right so far then (I guessed Max would go with intuition).

No, not yet. Will get that done.

Got him updated.

So, the next trial I'm probably going to do completely narratively, or close to it. The actual trial requires some guessing, and some trial and error but there's not a huge difference in the outcome based on your guesses. I do have one question for you both though: if your character suddenly had the ability to potentially do nearly anything (but no concept whatsoever of what, if anything, the consequences of failure might be) would they complete the trial as quickly as possible or try to do something else with it first?

edit: also, Maximus, I hope you like your new item? I thought it was nice complement to your newest ability.

Sounds good.

Gaius is pretty focused. He has other goals floating around, but they're all subservient to completing this quest. Unlimited power is more likely to focus than tempt him.

Oh heck yeah! That's definitely a cool item. So freaking handy. And I love me some handy. :)

And after some thought per your question: I totally see Maximus completing the trial as quickly as possible. He's a pretty much 'let's git 'er done' type guy. :)

Congrats, you've both earned the Third Attunement! You're options are limited to types of magic you successfully activated, but given your stats there shouldn't be any complaints there, I don't think.

Maximus can chose from entropy, inner strength, or primal might. Gaius can choose from eldritch power, entropy, inner strength, or the song.

This is probably the most complicated attunement, so please feel free to ask questions (and remember that if you want a combo that might lead to arcane spell failure chances, there are options for reducing or eliminating that (including some that you might not even be thinking of yet).

Awesone!

If I were to go for The Song, would that functionally double my spells known and spell slots with bardic magic?

Re: arcane spell failure:
Wearing mithral armor has already made my armor light *and* reduced the spell failure chance to 15% for other lists
Arcane armor training
Choosing only spells without somatic components
Grabbing still spell metamagic to modify everything

Am I missing anything?

I'll draft up my dream lists from each tradition and then make a decision. But at the outset, the Eldritch Power (magus) list looks most appealing for the synergy and increasing versatility.

Poly-
If you choose the song you would (potentially) double the number of bard spells you know (unless you picked a spell you already knew for the attunement too) and you’d be able to cast twice as many bard spells each day, but you would still have to track them separately (since you can’t use the attunement slots to cast your normal spells, or your normal slots to cast your attunement spells).

Since you’re wearing light armor, the only source (available to you) that you’d have to worry about asf for is entropy. If you chose entropy, the methods you mentioned are all the standard ways to handle reducing/removing asf. However, without giving anything away, there is still one more attunement to go and that could potentially open up another option or two.

Tracking separately is perfectly fine! I can manage that. As fun as the bard spell list is, I am still leaning towards eldritch power. Entropy and inner power also have some gems, so I want to check through to make sure I'm making the exact decision I want.

I should have made my final decision by later this evening.

Lol, it is a tough decision (for you, I suspect it will be easy for Maximus) so do what you need to do to be comfortable with your decision. It's not exactly like you can wander back here and switch it next week. If it helps the decision making at all, with ABP your Cha will go up again before you have the option to raise another stat, so that would widen the gap (temporarily, at least) in terms of your DCs and bonus spells between eldritch power and entropy or inner strength.