Protectors of Golarion (Wrath of the Righteous AP)

Game Master Sensen

Hurray, Mythic Tier 2! So now we're level 6/tier2?

Yay for a new tier! I'll try to post my changes this evening.

Also (fwiw), I too did not feel underwhelmed by that encounter. No, it didn't last long, but it did feel (to me at least) like any one of us could be dead by the end of any round.

Uh, yeah, if Demon Chimera had rolled a little better in that first attack Merixia would most likely have been dead. It may have been a short fight but it was definitely a brutal one.

Hurray, Mythic Tier 2! So now we're level 6/tier2?

Yep!

And yes, Merixia's right that it could've gone very bad. Still, I'd hoped for more than a couple rounds. xD

I can see how it might feel underwhelming from the monster stand point with not getting to last long, but it definitely hit like a truck and the flat-footed was a pain.

I think I'll boost Thesius untrained skills and then next level grab mythic spellcasting and endure blessing next tier to get 24 hour mythic heroism.

I would do mythic spellcasting now, but I need to get his spells in a place for when he takes it so he has good choices of what to turn mythic.

I'm glad that it wasn't as underwhelming for you folks as it felt for me - on reflection, I can see why you don't feel it was.

I did hope it might get at least one of you, but well, I suppose I'll be content with this. :P

You're not allowed to kill Merixia until we have access to an NPC cleric who can cast raise dead! Merixia can probably raise the rest of the party with Relentless Healing, but I am very attached to this character and really don't want to try and replace her. I just had to replace a long term character in Rise of the Runelords (lamia matriarch fight kicked our butts, would have been a TPK if the sorcerer and oracle hadn't successfully run away). Now the survivors have to inform the families and friends of the deceased, they're planning funerals, and it's all very depressing.

Okay, Tier 2! Obviously increasing Str for my ability score boost. I'm torn between Faith's Reach and Legendary Item, though. Faith's Reach would let me heal from a distance, which is always handy. A legendary sword would be extremely helpful in combat, though. And of course there is the coolness factor. This is a mythic campaign, what am I even doing as a melee combatant if I don't have a legendary weapon at some point?

This probably wouldn't be the best time thematically, since Merixia didn't get a chance to land a blow on the Demon Chimera. But. Legendary weapon.

That's a good point. I don't think Sosiel can do it at the moment, after all. Not mythic. xD Mind you, I was mostly expecting Wulfric to kick from the breath weapon, so Merixia would've been on hand (possibly) to bring him back.

But yeah, I did momentarily forget you don't have a handy settlement to pay clerics for raise dead, as no one's high enough level to cast it, and you're in the middle of a siege, so you can't actually go out to find one back in Mendev.

Anyways, I have no opinion here, other than the fact that there might be some interesting weapons forthcoming.

While I would like to play Thesius out to higher levels, I would not hold it against you to take him out. He was fighting front line with a beast that could single round him as far as I could see.

If he does go down, I would enjoy getting the chance to make a new character. Although I would wonder how you would have us create the character. Would be create it at the same level and mythic tier?

Alright, I hemmed and hawed about putting my stat bonus in Cha but at the the end of the day my Dex is just too important, so I'll put it there. I don't have the time to update my profile tonight, and I still need to finish figuring out Radiance's upgrades, but here is most of what I will be gaining for tier 2:

+4 hp
+2 Dex (+1 AC, Ref, hit/damage, initiative, acrobatics)

path ability: legendary item [Radiance]

I'm glad that it wasn't as underwhelming for you folks as it felt for me - on reflection, I can see why you don't feel it was.

I did hope it might get at least one of you, but well, I suppose I'll be content with this. :P

To be fair, if it just hung back in the air instead of charging right into melee and very generously giving all of us the first round of full attacks, there's a good chance it'd have killed quite a few people. Thanks for softballing us there :)

Okay, Tier 2! Obviously increasing Str for my ability score boost. I'm torn between Faith's Reach and Legendary Item, though. Faith's Reach would let me heal from a distance, which is always handy. A legendary sword would be extremely helpful in combat, though. And of course there is the coolness factor. This is a mythic campaign, what am I even doing as a melee combatant if I don't have a legendary weapon at some point?

Aside from the coolness factor, I'd probably go for a legendary item too. If you give it spellcasting as an ability, you can probably prevent more damage that way than by healing through faith's reach. Even if limited to spell caster level 4, that still leaves things like mirror image, shield, blur and barkskin on the table. Preventing damage also seems more in line with the goal of having Meri's actions up to attack herself. And there's the issue of us probably fighting mostly large enemies with presumed reach and if you have to back off to cast a healing spell there's a good chance it will provoke an AoO from them or risk losing the spell. This isn't to say faith's reach isn't awesome in its own right of course, and you'd have to determine if a sword with arcane casting is in-character enough.

Still, I can't deny being curious as to how you'd portray that sword :)

I need to pick which spellcasting list she'll have access to... I'm leaning towards paladin (for obvious story reasons) but that does limit her to 4th level or lower spells (right now she'd be limited to 2nd level or lower anyways, but eventually she could get higher level spells).

Paladin seems very appropriate, yeah. I am wondering though how exactly spellcasting would work here on accessibility? At tier 2, the spellcaster level, according to the ability, is level 4. Paladins usually reach spellcaster level 4 at paladin level 7. Does that mean they can select level 2 paladin spells at mythic tier two, which they can normally access only starting at paladin level 7?

@GM Raw, any spell level can be taken of any class but I assume we are taking a sane approach where the chosen spell level must be castable by the caster level of a legendary item? I.E. a legendary item with CL 4 can only cast second level spells at most? Link for reference: (intelligent item ability > spellcasting)

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative-rule-systems/mythic/mythic-magic-items /legendary-items/

Divided in two for length:

@Everyone/GM I am considering taking the legendary item ability as well. However, that runs into a few issues: Righteous Eclipse is already an intelligent item with its own mental ability scores and it gets increased arcane pool from its intelligence modifyer which Legendary item (intelligent item option) can potentially add to. Is that a problem? Then there's the thing of which stat spread would take precedence: its own? The one from legendary item? The higher of both? And does it get both progressions on just one? (seems cheesy to have both)

The safest option here is probably abstaining and getting a non-weapon legendary item to sidestep all of this. Maybe an armor? I think Elliot doesn't really need more damage at present but having additional defenses might be really useful. I.E. there is an armor/shield ability that allows one to spend one use of 'legendary power' to instantly negate a critical hit or sneak attack without costing an action.

-This would be my first question: How many uses of 'legendary power' does a legendary item have? As far as I can tell, it is specified exactly nowhere in the ability description (the same link as above):

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative-rule-systems/mythic/mythic-magic-items /legendary-items/

...Even though it does specify that the item has its own pool of power next to our 'mythic power'. Am I to take that 'legendary power' works exactly like mythic surge for us and that at tier 2 it has seven uses per day?

-Second, is Foe Biting banned as a legendary item ability (though it cannot be taken until tier 3)? It usually is and for good reason; spending one MP as a no action to double the damage of any attack (two on a crit) is pretty busted. It essentially turns any normal attack into a crit and every crit into a x4 damage if you are willing to spend MP on it.

-There are some other options I've been thinking of taking, like Abundant casting:

"Abundant Casting (Ex)
Whenever you cast a spell that specifically targets a limited number of targets (such as “one creature/level” or “one or more creatures”), add your tier to the number of targets the spell can affect. For example, a 5th-level wizard/1st-tier archmage can target up to six creatures when casting haste (five from caster level 5th and one from 1st tier). Alternatively, you can expend one use of mythic power when casting a spell that affects only one target (such as “one creature”) to have the spell affect an additional target. If the spell requires you to succeed at a melee touch attack, you must hold the charge in order to make a second touch attack."

How does this bolded bit interact with the magus' Spellstrike?

"Spellstrike (Su)

At 2nd level, whenever a magus casts a spell with a range of “touch” from the magus spell list, he can deliver the spell through any weapon he is wielding as part of a melee attack. Instead of the free melee touch attack normally allowed to deliver the spell, a magus can make one free melee attack with his weapon (at his highest base attack bonus) as part of casting this spell. If successful, this melee attack deals its normal damage as well as the effects of the spell."

Does that mean that if Elliot uses a MP when casting frostbite, all charges of that touch spell now target two targets and that he can now attack two targets with his spell+weapon at once assuming they are in reach?

@Elliot (or anyone making an item)- Legendary items get 2 legendary points and you have to take the “powerful” ability to increase that. I don’t believe you can add the intelligent item ability to an item that’s already intelligent. If/when anyone does make an intelligent legendary item, the first time you spend an ability on intelligent it just gains Int/Wis/Cha scores, senses, and speech; each additional time you spend an ability on intelligent it gains a bonus to 2-3 stats and 1 intelligent item power (so, no spellcasting unless you take intelligent for both of your abilities at tier 2). Also, the spellcasting power limits you to spells whose spell level is equal to or less than your tier- so right now (with intelligent item x2) we’d get 5 spell levels to choose from among the 1st and 2nd level spells for our chosen spell list (and use them at CL 4).

For the abundant casting question, you may need a GM ruling on whether each charge would let you damage 2 opponents, but spell strike specifically only gives you one extra attack, so the extra opponents effected by the spell would have to be targeted by your normally melee attacks.

Here's the basic outline of the Tier 2 changes for Verene. I'll get these into her profile by the end of the day.

Verene changes, mythic tier 2
Mythic tier +1 (now 2)
Amazing Initiative (+2 to initiative, can spend a mythic power for an additional non-spellcasting standard action)
Mythic Power +2/day (now 7/day)
Ability Score +2 (selecting Intelligence, for +1 to spell save DCs and concentration checks, one additional 3rd-level spell each day as a bonus spell, 6 additional skill points, 1 additional language known [Iobarian], and +1 to all Int-mediated skills)
Archmage Path Ability +1 (selecting Mythic Spellcasting)
Mythic spells known +3 (from Mythic Spell Lore feat at Tier 1 and Mythic Spellcasting at Tier 2; selecting heroism, fireball and ear-piercing scream)
Archmage bonus hit points: +3 (now 6 bonus/43 overall)

Thesius: While I think at this point, all of your characters can be raised with reasonable consistency, I would end up giving the new character (if you wanted to make one) a level and tier equal to yours. This would mean we'd need to create a story as to how this new character got access to their mythic prowess, but that's a bridge we can cross when we come to it.

Azira: I know that Radiance is already a legendary item without you taking the universal path ability, but with that said, you can absolutely do it. I'd say Radiance is definitely LG, and paladin spells suit her best. Just do remember you can't give her the upgradable ability, as she's already going to upgrade to a holy avenger in time.

Elliot: I'd say that it's fair to say that intelligent items can only cast spells appropriate to their CL as a rule. For Radiance, that'd be her current effective CL, since her actual CL is 20th... I dunno, now that I say that.

A legendary item has at least 2 uses of legendary power, with more being available if you give it the appropriate legendary ability. (That's Powerful, for the record.)

I'm inclined to say that Foe-Biter is probably banned, yeah. The double-damage is insane, especially since, unlike Vital Strike, it does get multiplied by the crit multiplier. If anyone feels especially strongly about it, I'll consider arguments.

I would say that for Abundant Casting... it sounds like it gives you the one free touch attack, then lets you do another touch with the same spell? I'm not sure if I'm reading that correctly, though. I don't think it'd give you another free attack with spellstrike, since that feels like it'd be really powerful really quickly, and I'm hesitant to allow that.

@Gm All right, that is fair. In that case the choice for me is down to mythic spellcasting vs legendary item (armor).

May I ask how far along Elliot is in his retraining process of his wand-wielder arcana? It was stated to take 5 days as a class feature. Elliot approached Aravashnial to help him in this process the day we found the potions in the abandoned temple I believe. Which was... 3 days ago? 4? The thing with this choice is that mythic spellcasting on its own doesn't really help Elliot in any way until he both reaches level 7 ( level 3 arcane spells become accessible) and finishes this retrain of his never used arcana (which allows him to cast Mythic Heroism). So if he is projected to finish the retrain soon, he will take mythic spellcasting. If he isn't, he probably takes Legendary Item.

@Merixia I am considering, partly since we are light on divine magic and heavy on arcane, to pick spellcasting as a legendary item ability and pick cleric as the casting class, mostly for additional buffing spells. On the flavor side Elliot is fairly religious and each of us was blessed by the gods. This would give him a small pool of cleric buff spells (4 level 1 and 1 level 2 spell at CL 4 on mythic tier 2). However, I'd understand if you wished me to pick something else as that might intrude upon your niche?

@GM- yup, I did remember about upgradeable, thank you. And, iirc, I think there was something when we first hit mythic about how Radiance is legendary but only has the base legendary power until/unless I took the legendary item path ability to awaken more (it seemed like the writers of the AP were kind of hoping the wielder would do that, and I like the ability so it sounds great to me). I do need a ruling on spell level though. RAW we can pick spells with a spell level equal to our tier (or lower) and our caster level for them is equal to tier x2, but if you’re going to add an extra restriction that we can’t pick a spell until our CL (tier x2) is equal to the level a member of that class could pick that spell, then I’d only have access to 1st level spells if I went with paladin (and would probably switch to cleric or wizard to avoid the issue). If I have time this afternoon I’ll try to put together 2 potential spell lists (1 for pally spells and 1 for cleric or wizard) so I’m good to go either way, once you decide.

@Merixia I am considering, partly since we are light on divine magic and heavy on arcane, to pick spellcasting as a legendary item ability and pick cleric as the casting class, mostly for additional buffing spells. On the flavor side Elliot is fairly religious and each of us was blessed by the gods. This would give him a small pool of cleric buff spells (4 level 1 and 1 level 2 spell at CL 4 on mythic tier 2). However, I'd understand if you wished me to pick something else as that might intrude upon your niche?

That's totally fine with me! The more buffs the better. Since Righteous Eclipse is explicitly a Sarenite weapon, I wonder if you could get some of Sarenrae's domain spells? Add a little flavor. Specifically, Sarenrae offers the Glory domain with the Heroism subdomain. Glory gets you bless weapon and Heroism gets you heroism in the future.

Elliot: It looks like the day that you found the potions at the temple was the 12th of Rova, so you've still got three days-ish to retrain.

Azira: I'm not seeing anything that automatically gives it more Legendary Power, except via the usual means of taking the powerful quality for the item. I think that the RAW with spells for intelligent items is fine, I misunderstood Elliot's question.

Azira: I'm not seeing anything that automatically gives it more Legendary Power, except via the usual means of taking the powerful quality for the item. I think that the RAW with spells for intelligent items is fine, I misunderstood Elliot's question.

Sorry, I wasn’t trying to say that Radiance got more legendary power now (you’re right- that would take the powerful quality), I was just trying to say that the 2 points of legendary power are the only things Radiance got that were legendary until/unless I took the legendary item path ability. And, cool- if you’re comfortable with spellcasting working by RAW, I’ll stick with paladin spells and have something posted for Radiance later today.

Elliot, the Red Heron wrote:

@Merixia I am considering, partly since we are light on divine magic and heavy on arcane, to pick spellcasting as a legendary item ability and pick cleric as the casting class, mostly for additional buffing spells. On the flavor side Elliot is fairly religious and each of us was blessed by the gods. This would give him a small pool of cleric buff spells (4 level 1 and 1 level 2 spell at CL 4 on mythic tier 2). However, I'd understand if you wished me to pick something else as that might intrude upon your niche?

That's totally fine with me! The more buffs the better. Since Righteous Eclipse is explicitly a Sarenite weapon, I wonder if you could get some of Sarenrae's domain spells? Add a little flavor. Specifically, Sarenrae offers the Glory domain with the Heroism subdomain. Glory gets you bless weapon and Heroism gets you heroism in the future.

All right, cool :) And yeah, good points. The only issue is that Righteous Eclipse is already sentient and cannot be picked as his legendary item. The spellcasting would have to come from some other/new piece of equipment. To be fair his sword already kind of is an artefact of sorts. Still, picking Sarenrae domain spells is very flavorful and i'll try holding to that at least to a degree. It reminds me of a mythic ability down the line, divine source, where you actually gain select domains and can use their domain spells as bonus spells once per spelllevel per day. Also, it straight up makes you a god on the flavor side. Maybe Sarenrae blesses his armor or such? Or Maybe Merixia can teach Elliot how to do divine magic even if that's not mechanically how it works?

@ Aganhei Ok, thanks. I'll pick something else then as it feels as though we'll have conquered most of Drezen in the next four days and might have completed the module by then. Is retraining a mythic path ability at a later time allowed?

If so, I think I might do a controversial pick here and go General path ability > Extra mythic feat > extra feat > outflank and save Legendary item for later. The reasoning behind this is that at level 7, which I hope is soon, using Shared training through a mythic point would allow sharing two teamwork feats with the entire party. This is the only way to get another feat until then and sharing both outflank and paired opportunists with our melee heavy setup is pretty nice. Also, perhaps either Thesius or Verene is willing to cast Mythic heroism on Elliot when we start assaulting the city, at least until he qualifies himself?

My profile should be fully updated now. I added a spoiler for Radiance (labeled "Legendary Item"). The only thing I wasn't really sure about was her ego score? There's no base cost listed for the sword, so I calculated its current value and used that. If you want to use the effective value for the fully awakened sword obviously that would significantly increase her ego score (although, legendary item specifically says that my legendary item won't try to become dominant against me unless my alignment changes, so the increased ego would really only effect other people that try to pick her up).

@GM: If I take Legendary Item now with the intention of having it be a bastard sword, would you be willing to delay the actual in game acquisition until a dramatically appropriate moment? I want to take this and I think Tier 2 is a good time mechanically because there isn’t much else I want at this tier, but in terms of narrative it doesn’t really feel right.

I decided to go with protection from evil instead of ear-piercing scream. Otherwise, Verene's changes are done and updated in her profile. I also decided to leave Harmonious Mage for later in favor of getting more mythic spells early. It's what we're here for, after all. For the Mythic Spellcasting universal path ability, I'm assuming that "you must be able to cast the non-mythic version" includes being able to cast it through Wild Arcana.

It will cost Verene two uses of mythic power, or one use of mythic power and two spell slots, to cast mythic heroism, but it can be done if needed. Generally speaking, I would preferentially cast it on Merixia and Thesius though, and only on Elliot or Azira if they start to struggle to hit things. Thesius can cast regular heroism at least 4 times per day, I think, so hopefully could apply that to the other three of us if we were e.g. starting out fresh for a dungeon crawl.

I also wrote out the skill changes in more detail, for completeness and because I was starting to get confused about how many ranks were where and what their sources were. From now on I'm tracking ranks of skills with superscript in Verene's profile. All of the superscript numbers added together should currently equal 78 (12 class, 42 Int, 6 favored class, 6 human, 12 background.) Since you can't put more ranks in anything than you have class levels, meaning her max is 6 for any of the important skills, I chose some flavorful adventuring things she's been doing lately (Stealth, Ride, Fly.) At next level I plan to put the background skills in Appraise and Craft.

Skill Upgrades / All Changes: 6 additional ranks, for 78 total ranks; other increases are from increased Int.

+1 Bluff (now +9/+4: 2 rank, 7/2 AS)
+1 Diplomacy (now +22/+17: 6 rank, 3 class skill, 7/2 ability score, 3 familiar, 1 trait)
+4 Fly (now +6: 1 rank, 3 class skill, 2 AS)
+1 Knowledge (Arcana) (now +16: 6 rank, 3 CS, 7 AS)
+11 Knowledge (Dungeoneering) (now +11: 1 rank, 3 CS, 7 AS)
+1 Knowledge (Engineering) (now +11: 1 rank, 3 CS, 7 AS)
+1 Knowledge (Geography) (now +16: 6 rank, 3 CS, 7 AS)
+1 Knowledge (History) (now +16: 6 rank, 3 CS, 7 AS)
+1 Knowledge (Local) (now +12: 2 rank, 3 CS, 7 AS)
+1 Knowledge (Nature) (now +13: 3 rank, 3 CS, 7 AS)
+1 Knowledge (Nobility) (now +11: 1 rank, 3 CS, 7 AS)
+1 Knowledge (Planes) (now +16: 6 rank, 3 CS, 7 AS)
+1 Knowledge (Religion) (now +16: 6 rank, 3 CS, 7 AS)
+1 Linguistics (now +16: 6 rank, 3 CS, 7 AS) (Language chosen: Iobarian)
+0 Perception (now +9: 6 rank, 1 AS, 2 Alertness [familiar])
+1 Ride (now +3: 1 rank, 2 AS)
+1 Spellcraft (now +16: 6 rank, 3 CS, 7 AS)
+3 Stealth (now +8: 6 rank, 2 AS)
+1 Use Magic Device (now +13: 6 rank, 7 AS)

Thamyris changes
+3 Stealth (now +23: 6 master rank, 2 AS, 3 CS, 12 size)

I will get my changes and a post up later today, but that might be later tonight so please don't hold off on continuing because of me.

Thesius will finally have at least a +10 bonus in every skill.

Azira: Yes, that's correct. Sorry, lots of misunderstandings abound for me these days. As to Radiance's cost, I'd say definitely treat it as its current effective cost - which is as a +2 cold iron longsword, that'll increase as time goes onwards, increasing her ego as it does.

Elliot: For the mythic path ability retraining, I don't see why it shouldn't be allowed. We might have to look into homebrewing the cost and the training time, but I don't object to it in principle. Level 7 is, indeed, coming soon - very soon, actually.

Merixia: Sure, that's fine by me. I'll try to keep an eye out for when that might happen, but feel free to have it happen whenever you feel it fits as well. I'll make suggestions, but it's definitely in your hands to determine when that actually triggers, as you're already Tier 2.

Verene: That's a helpful choice, I appreciate it.

Thesius: Thesius continues being the skill-monkey of the group.

Alright, I believe everything should be up to date. An additional +5 to initiative is not bad. +2 mythic tier, +2 mythic paragon raising tier, +1 dex increase.

Skills should be updated as well. That was some quick Google sheet adjustments to do the calculations for me.

Speaking of banned Legendary Item powers, what about Undetectable? I think this is really cool and would like it, but I wanted to know if you would prefer we stay away from that one as well.

Lol, I just realized that Radiance is already smarter than Azira. Maybe, at some point, I'll have to take the item ability that gives Radiance some skill ranks so she can give Azira informed advice.

@GM: Are we waiting on any kind of in-game event that signals what happened, or are we free to start posting in gameplay once we're done with our changes? If the latter, should we just be making RP posts until we get more information about the rest of the battle, or are you waiting for us to post if/when we're charging in?

You can post in gameplay when you're done - just to keep things moving. I would say that you can err on the side of RP posts, before I settle on whether or not you'll actually be fighting in this next battle, or if it'll just be narrative.

Undetectable seems like it's a reasonable power, yeah - especially since it won't swing combat as hard (as no one has sneak attacks or easy and repeated access to invisibility without costing resources). That being said, I probably wouldn't allow it on a weapon - it feels more like a worn item sort of deal.

All right, making a post now. Also Edited Elliot's stat sheet. Fairly simple improvements:

+2 dex, +3 hp, amazing initiative, outflank (through general path ability: extra mythic feat > extra feat > outflank).

Been catching up on conversations that were being had.

Thesius has been keeping his heroism spells mainly for himself to help him to some degree be able to keep up with Azira and Elliot. I think he would be more apt to share it with Merixia as he is starting to get more 2nd level spell slots as our main line fighters are not generally lacking in attack or damage.

For now, Thesius will continue to not have mythic heroism. I'm looking at him investing more fully in it next tier when he will have the ability to likely cast it on everyone and it would last for 24 hours.

He has one or two more feats to invest towards skills and then will likely start devoting them more towards combat abilities. I would like to have him eventually switch over to a starknife he can switch between using as a melee and ranged weapon.

If Undetectable is allowed, I would likely aim to have him acquire a ring of invisibility at some point which he would turn into his legendary item. Quite suiting for a item with Undetectable as one of it's abilities.

Are we being allowed to retrain outside of downtime? I know we have had some exceptions so I figured I was needing to have Thesius wait until we have downtime for retraining a good number of skills and spells.

Oh man... I just had an idea for the most outrageous WotR magus. It would be kind of a slow starter, and you'd have to plan for it way in advance, but once it hit its stride it would be pretty deadly. I don't want to clog discussion with nonsense, but for anyone who might be curious...

Azira, I didn't notice until now, but with regards to hero's defiance, mythic characters automatically get Hard to Kill, if that sways your decision.

So you auto-stabilize regardless. I don't think it obviates the use of the SLA, though, so feel free to make your choice there.

He has one or two more feats to invest towards skills and then will likely start devoting them more towards combat abilities. I would like to have him eventually switch over to a starknife he can switch between using as a melee and ranged weapon.

If Undetectable is allowed, I would likely aim to have him acquire a ring of invisibility at some point which he would turn into his legendary item. Quite suiting for a item with Undetectable as one of it's abilities.

Are we being allowed to retrain outside of downtime? I know we have had some exceptions so I figured I was needing to have Thesius wait until we have downtime for retraining a good number of skills and spells.

Undetectable is allowed, I'd say, and sure, you can go looking for such a ring or commission it come Drezen's reclamation.

Retraining is allowed outside of downtime, but note how long things tend to take when we're not in downtime, so keep that in mind.

Oh man... I just had an idea for the most outrageous WotR magus. It would be kind of a slow starter, and you'd have to plan for it way in advance, but once it hit its stride it would be pretty deadly. I don't want to clog discussion with nonsense, but for anyone who might be curious...

** spoiler omitted **...

If you have to wield a light or one-handed weapon, I don't see what in that build turns the ranseur into a light or one-handed weapon to allow spell combat.

Thesius Monteblanc wrote:

He has one or two more feats to invest towards skills and then will likely start devoting them more towards combat abilities. I would like to have him eventually switch over to a starknife he can switch between using as a melee and ranged weapon.

If Undetectable is allowed, I would likely aim to have him acquire a ring of invisibility at some point which he would turn into his legendary item. Quite suiting for a item with Undetectable as one of it's abilities.

Are we being allowed to retrain outside of downtime? I know we have had some exceptions so I figured I was needing to have Thesius wait until we have downtime for retraining a good number of skills and spells.

Undetectable is allowed, I'd say, and sure, you can go looking for such a ring or commission it come Drezen's reclamation.

Retraining is allowed outside of downtime, but note how long things tend to take when we're not in downtime, so keep that in mind.

He has a good chunk of retraining in front of him, but I have the feeling we're about to hit downtime pretty quickly after we siege Drezen and I don't see that taking more then a week. So I may just keep it in mind for later should I find he can't achieve all of his retraining within the downtime that is coming.

Thesius might have to hit up Verene some time for a Ring of Invisibility once we get more wealth.

Verene also has couple of basically useless feats to retrain into item creation or metamagic feats, so we're going to be feat retrain buddies when real downtime arrives, Thesius. She'll certainly make him a ring of invisibility once she has the appropriate feat and/or takes that archmage path ability, Crafting Mastery. (Then she could retrain Craft Wondrous Item into metamagic too...) I would have done it in the days we had between the Gray Garrison and the army arriving, but there were wondrous items Verene could already craft, and no point in delaying crafting them.

@Azira: Ah, I see.

@Verene: He might need Verene as a teacher for some spells.

I'm looking at getting Thesius Improved Improvisation and Psychic Sensitivity later on.

With that in mind, I was looking at retraining the majority of his Knowledge skill ranks into maxing the ranks for Arcana and Religion and investing the others into skills that have Occult unlocks.

Beyond that, I want to retrain some spells to prep him for when he gets mythic spellcasting.

@Verene: He might need Verene as a teacher for some spells.

Absolutely! Looking forward to it. :)

Oh man... I just had an idea for the most outrageous WotR magus. It would be kind of a slow starter, and you'd have to plan for it way in advance, but once it hit its stride it would be pretty deadly. I don't want to clog discussion with nonsense, but for anyone who might be curious...

** spoiler omitted **...

I like the crazy flavor of making the ranseur of the gargoyle actually useful by becoming a four-armed gargoyle. I will say, I have not been enjoying trying to be a reach weapon fighter in the other PBP game I'm in on these boards. Coordinating in small spaces is just too hard over PbP, and it's really easy for someone else just doing their own thing to mess up your turn.

I've played a couple of reach weapon users both in TT games and PbP... how well they work in PbP games (in my experience, at least) depends a lot on how the GM runs combat, and on your teammates (which is also true in TT games, but around the table its a lot easier to ask other players if they could maybe try a different tactic so they're not blocking you). I had a polearm wielding bloodrager on the forums here and I very quickly gave up on trying to maximize AoOs and just treated her like a normal 2-handed weapon wielder. It worked fine for her but would have been rough if I was planning to be a caster with AoOs for melee damage.

I guess my gargoyle build is sort of situational based on how combat is handled and how tacticly-minded the party is. Although, flying does help with positioning, once you're being a gargoyle whenever possible.

Finally got some time to formally write down my Hierophant 2 changes.

+4 HP
Amazing Initiative
Str +2 (bastard sword attack +11, two-handed damage 1d10+9)
Legendary Item (weapon tba once Merixia actually manages to damage a reasonably powerful enemy)

Sorry for the delay, folks. I’ve been a bit under the weather, and stressed out (among other things). I may be able to get a post up today, but I can’t promise it. Stress and all, and this is a big ol’ post that’ll need to be coming.

Take your time, GM! Stress is a killer, we'll be here whenever things improve for you. :)

Hope things improve for you, GM! I'm sure we'd all rather have you take it easy than burning yourself out.

I appreciate it!

Yay, level 7! ...oh no, does this mean I have to pay more to retrain?

I'll be generous and say no, you're good.

Sweet, level 7!

Elliot's level up:

HP +8 (FCB)

SP: Knowledge: history +1, perform: stage +1, +1 intimidate, +2 stealth, +3 perception. (Skipping getting sense motive and diplomacy for the first extended downtime, probably).

+1 BAB, +2 level 3 spell slots.

feat: paired opportunists (teamwork)

Spells learnt: Keen edge, haste.

Class feature: medium armor proficiency, knowledge pool.

Not too much flashy stuff but the second teamwork feat along with the Keen Edge spells and ability to share two teamwork feats through shared training should be really good for us. Especially since we have a lot of mobility and repositioning abilities between things like Azira's rally, Azira's and thesius' swift charges and things like (potentially) mythic haste giving us extra move actions. That should make getting consistent flanks fairly realiable.