Rise of the Runelords [Sandpoint's Finest]

Game Master Evriani

What manner of healing are we looking for? While it's still a couple of levels away, if Nico goes into Inquisitor she'll have the healing basics on her spell list and can use the wands for it. Inquisitors don't make great healers via spell use.

EDIT: Oh! Also, if Nico goes with Sniper Slayer or sticks with Bolt Ace, she will have some extra feats and she also has a good Wisdom score. She could probably take the Healing Hands and Signature Skill Healing feats, which get very good over time.

If you go wand, I was looking over the Virtuous Bravo (Paladin). I'd keep several of my panache tricks, gain some saving throw bonuses, and bring lay on hands and channel energy at a later date to the table. No mercies or spells for a bravo but that would be covered by Nico and the inquisitor level. Of course, I would need permission to become a NG paladin of Cayden Caelien or have a sobering moment in the temple and become a LG paladin of Iomedae. It's not too much of a stretch after seeing nightmarish monsters under the city, a demon, a woman trying to turn herself into a demon, the threat of a malfeshnekor, people hung up to be eaten, etc. I could see Alistair headed back and relooking his life and trying to make some changes for the better. A vigil in the temple to atone for what he feels he has done wrong, a vision, and then he walks out a changed man.

My other thought was Detective (Bard), it doesn't stack with swashbuckler but it gives me spells, to include CLW, at 1st level; UMD; and at 2nd level it provides trapfinding like a rogue. Also, it sticks with the theme.

Thoughts?

Oh, if I multiclass out of Bolt Ace I'll be staying there, as in Bolt Ace 6 (or so) - Inquisitor x (end of game).

Bolt Ace isn't bad, but it tends to deliver diminishing returns in the later levels.

Lol- detective bard is what Orin was.

Currently I see Bjorn at (27+6) HP at the beginning of the Nualia fight. He took (-35) Damage from the start to the finish of the fight, bringing him to -2. Lief poured a CMW potion down his thought, which Bjorn had in his pack that healed him for (+7). Currently, that leaves Bjorn at (5/28 hp.) I have removed the CMW from my pack and handed it to Bjorn so he can now consume it and roll for that heal. (Needs to Roll for CMW Potion. (2d8+2)

Based on the header, Lief is currently (9/29 hp.) Alistair has handed over a CLW potion that Lief should consume. (Needs to Roll for CLW potion. (1d8+1)

I have made the corresponding adjustments on the loot chart to reflect the uses of the potions. I’m going to hold off on the bandages until we see the rolls for the potions + rest.

Diego you are a DMs best friend for handling inventory things <3

So before I post I want to clarify -- did you take Nualia back to a cell near Lyrie before resting, or is she lying there unconscious in your impromptu camp on the lower level? I'm not worried about rolling to pass the trap, we can handwave it, if that's the route you're going.

My suggestion is not letting Nualia out of our sight while we rest. I'm not even entirely sure we should be doing anything other than taking her straight back to Sandpoint first thing, then coming back. But Nico isn't raising any objections. I know how much trouble and delay those kinds of detours cause in PbP.

The +6 hp from bloodrage disappear when it ends… so it sounds like Bjorn is still at -1 until someone pours Diego’s potion down his throat?

We kept her chained and gagged with us. The docs need to keep an eye on her.

I spoke with Fern about having Bloodrage apply like the Unchained Barbarian's rage with Temporary HP. So I am conscious.

I still have the wand, Bjorn just rolled really badly and can't use it till tomorrow. Anyone else with Cure Light Wounds or Use Magical Device could use it though, if they wish to. I believe it has 22 charges left on it since I bought it at half-charge.

Bjorn wants to rip her head off and present it to Lyrie but you all are the guard and he owes you his life twice now. If she attempts an escape though, he will definitely go for the kill.

Diego you are a DMs best friend for handling inventory things <3

That's a reflection of being board at work.

In regard to Nualia. I'm in agreement that she stays with us, shackled with her arms behind her back and gaged. After that I'm not sure. I'm a bit concerned that our friend, the one that we let leave, might come back and find both of them. Even though it might prove to be more work, I think it might be prudent to keep her with us while we finish exploring.

Any suggestions?

That’s what i figured. She’s the reason we came, so we keep the prize.

@Bjorn, I'm curious how you intend to maintain an injury that won't be fully healed by the bandages during down time or a period where we aren't fighting.

From what I can extrapolate, the term Compleat bed rest refers to 24 hours of rest. So (2) HP per. level, per. day. If you rest for (24) hours or receive long term care, you will count your level as (4) levels higher when determining how much you heal. At current levels, you will need to injure yourself for over 6 HP a day in order to not fully heal. That means reducing your HP total, every day, by at least (7) HP in hopes that at the end of the day you recover (6) HP. I'm not following how this is beneficial.

Then there is a successful heal check to determine how much injury you will need to receive in order to keep the bandages from deactivating and an advance knowledge that the bandages will continue to work if you are still injured.

I had missed the 4 levels higher part in the first read-through because speed-running through college registration is bad for one's attention. Guess I just need to beat myself up more :P

LoL, I figured I was missing something when you said you were never fully healed. I'm like, is there some Blood Rager thing that continuously applies damage? It caused me to pause. The bandage description does state multiple days of healing if needed. So, you are correct in the fact they will continue to function so long as you are injured. In that regard they're useful. Knowing how long you have to wear them and when the bandages determine you are fully healed would require some sort of advance knowledge. I don't see anything in regard to that information. I would make the assumption it would be applied the following morning. Problem with that is morning would be different depending on where you are in the world. (Shrug) its ultimately a GM decision. I could see the GM hand waving the details of it, seeing its vague, and simply saying your fully healed and the bandages fall off. That said, if she determines the bandages can be used permanently, I'm down with have a self-healing ragger in the group.

Nah, I would never be so cheesy and I adore Fern too much to ever treat her so badly. The thought is what is hilarious; just kicking my own ass super hard every night so I can keep the bandages going lol.

Sorry for the radio silence. Spent Friday with food poisoning and Saturday with 7th graders at an all day science olympiad competition. Not sure which day wore me out more, lol. Lemme get to posting...

Watch out for that Taco Bell. (my only bout of food poisoning)

Sorry for the quiet weekend, everyone in the house except me is sick.

Hey guys. I have some bad news.

I'm stepping away from doing PBP stuff on Paizo. Personal reasons. I don't want to leave my games in a lurch, I know this one already hit one and I snagged it from Lief, because I know it sucks for a game to end prematurely. I feel awful ruining things for you guys. I don't suppose Lief suddenly has the time to take the reins back over?

I'm really sorry. Never wanted to be the one posting this message.

No worries. God speed. Hope to see you back.

I hate to see you go, but fully understand. Thank s for stepping in and helping out. Taking on an AP is a large commitment for anyone.

I'm sorry to lose you. You did a really great job Fern. We'll miss you, but we were lucky to have you for a while. Take care and I hope we'll see you around again someday.

It was a pleasure, thank you for having me in the game Fern.

Thanks, Fern, and I hope whatever's going on gets better/easier soon!

As for me taking over again... my schedule is, right now, somewhat better than when I had to stop... I could give it a shot? I mean, you all know that I'm already not always good for a player post each day, and GM posts certainly aren't going to be better than that, so we'd have to have realistic expectations about what the posting speed would be like, but I think I could probably swing 2-3 GM posts/week?

I guess what I'm saying really, is that if the options are me picking it back up or the game dying I'll pick it back up (as long as everyone's ok with the game slowing down a little), but maybe we should try running a GM recruitment first (assuming you all even want to continue)?

I'm ok with it slowing. I have been enjoying the game and would hate to see it go away. That said, are you considering keeping Lief active in the game, or sidelining him?

I'm good

Well, that was a pretty underwhelming response...

We've got: 1 clear yes; 1 vote that could mean "yes, I'm good proceeding in that manner" or "no, I'm good with pulling the plug"; and, 2 abstentions.

I guess we just let it die then? If I'm misreading things let me know and I'll see if I can get us moving some again, or if someone wants to try running a GM recruitment please feel free; otherwise, thanks for letting me tag along through the rest of book 1 and happy gaming.

Oh! Sorry! I thought I'd posted. I often post at work when I get a chance and sometimes if something else comes up I'll blip due to the interruption.

I'd like to continue, and I don't mind a slower pace. I was always surprised that this game kept the pace it did for so long.

My post was meant to be a yes.

Yep, let's do it.

My apologies on my silence folks, this week has been hectic and schoolwork on top of it has just eating up my time a lot.

I am going to be pulling back for now; my posting is already erratic and I haven't found that good ol' life/play/work ratio yet since starting school. It has been a pleasure playing with you all though for the short time we had. <3

Sory to see you go Bjorn, I hope to see you around when things slowdown. It was a pleasure.

Sorry for the delay. After being violently ill the last few days, I’m finally starting to feel better but now one of my kids is having the same stomach issues I had, and the other one has Covid.

I was planning on switching Lief over to an NPC (either moving him back to night shift or, possibly, having him partner up with Brodert on an in depth study of the ruins), but that would mean we’re down to 3 players… I guess I could have him tag along as an NPC/GMPC, or we could try to recruit someone else? Or, I could do something creative to bump your power level a bit? Thoughts?

I might know someone who'd be interested in joining.

I hope everyone in your family is well soon, and not too sick until then.

Hang in there.

Sounds like a plate full. Get everyone well has to be first priority for sure. Good luck.

Thanks everyone. We seem to be through the worst of it, so hopefully things will be back to normal in the next couple days.

@Nico- if you have a potential new player in mind, please feel free to ask if they're interested and even invite them to jump in the discussion thread here to introduce themself. Ideally, I'd like for a new player to have some background in law enforcement (to stick with the game's theme, and also to be fair to all you original players and the limitations you had at character creation) but now that having been sent up from Magnimar is a legit entry option there could be a little bit more flexibility in available classes (and, obviously, now that you're higher level multiclassing would be more of an option too).

@Everyone- speaking of being higher level, why don't you go ahead and level yourselves up to 4th! Please post your changes here (and don't forget the stat bonus). I need to figure out what this elf's deal is (and refamiliarize myself with the end of this book/beginning of book 2 in general) and then we'll get moving again in a couple days.

@Bjorn- I don't know if you're still reading this but if you are, I hope you find that balance (I've been there). I'm not sure if I can control the campaign tab anymore/again or not, but if I can I'll mark you inactive in a couple days to clear the game from your campaign tab.

1 Level Bard Arcane Duelist
Cha +1
HP +7
Skills (6+1+1): Acrobatics +1, Diplomacy +1, Escape Artist +1, Intimidate +1, Know Local +1, Perception +1, Perform +2
Bonus Feat: Arcane Strike > replaces Bardic Knowledge
Bardic performance 7 rounds; rallying cry, distraction, fascinate, inspire courage
Bard spells 4 0-level 2 1-level: 0-Detect magic, Light, Read magic, Resistance; 1-Cure Light Wounds, Expeditious Retreat

Trying to make all changes to profile but it is timing out on me. Will get it done.

I'll be finishing up on Diego tonight and have it posted soon.

4th Level Bolt Ace

+1 Dex
+1 BAB
+1 Fort, Ref

Bonus Feat: Rapid Shot

Skills: +1 Bluff, Heal, K Local, Ride, Sense Motive

Background: +1 K Geography, K History

I sent a message to the person who might be interested yesterday, but haven't heard back yet.

Forgot background skills: +1 Sleight of Hand and +1 to perform mixing with regular skills

Don't forget to update your banners too, please.

If Nico's lead doesn't pan out, how do we want to proceed? We could try to recruit someone else (if anyone else knows someone who might be interested), or we could talk about the creative option?

I don't want to push the latter but I'm bringing it up again now because it might affect Alistair's decision to take bard levels. In a nutshell, I'd grant you all some innate casting abilities as a side effect of the strange ancient magicks you've been exposed to (and possibly some other goodies down the line if it seemed like you were still behind the curve after that). Thoughts?

Could post an invite in the other game I invited everyone to. Maybe one or two of those players would like to join in. Both the other players in that game seem like they would be a good fit here. I would suggest we find out about Nico's +1 before doing that though.

Diego Level (4)

+1 Level Unchained Rogue
+1 To Strength
+0 BAB
+2 Reflex Save
+8 HP

Included
Trap finding
Finesse Training
Sneak Attack +1d6

Skills (9)
+1 Acrobatics
+4 Disable Device
+1 Perception
+1 Escape Artist
+2 Stealth

Background Skills (2)
+2 Appraise

Aggg, ok still not locked in on the rogue. Going to hold off on committing to it for tonight. That way I can look through all the options.

Diego Level (4)

Switching to 1 level of Ranger (Trapper). This will give me the boost to disable device without reducing Diego’s BAB. A few less skill options, but I think is a better option.

Ranger (Trapper) 1
+1 To Strength
+1 BAB
+1 Fort
+2 Reflex
+9 HP

Included
Favored Enemy (Giants)
Trapfinding
Wild Empathy

Skills (7)
+4 Disable Device
+1 Heal
+1 Perception
+1 Stealth

Background Skills
+1 Handle Animal
+1 Profession Soldier

Other people would be the better option. If we decide to move forward with three, you could do gestalt. Removes the need for multiclass and provides the cross-capabilities we feel we lack

My thought on dipping was specifically because Diego has been the point man thus fare. Discovering a trap and being able to deal with it quickly, allows for the game to move forward a bit quicker. With the ranger class, the only downside is not picking up weapon specialization until next level. In trade, he gets a couple extra skill points, disable device as a class skill, a +2 to reflex, and a favored enemy. Straight fighter, he would get an addition +2 to weapon damage from specialization, taking damage from +12 to +14 and an additional Feat. Straight fighter, if the other areas where covered, would be preferable. But I say Bha to Min-Maxing, so I'm ok with a small dip to round out the group.

With disable device covered, we could use heal, knowledge, and arcane spells.

I'd second the idea that we could run with three gestalt characters if needed. In my experience subtracting one from the party number approximately compensates for the extra class on the other three. Gestalt doesn't improve action economy, and feats are a constraint unless a class grants some bonus feats.

Given where our ability scores are at, we could do something like this:

Diego - Fighter / Rogue (He could also probably pull off Inquisitor, Warpriest, or Jinyiwei Investigator if he started investing in a wisdom bump).

Alistair - Swashbuckler / Bard, Skald, or Oracle (He could also pull off Sorcerer, but he would lose armor)

Nico - Gunslinger (Bolt Ace) / Cleric, Inquisitor, Warpriest. (Sorcerer is also possible with the Empyreal bloodline and Nico needs armor less).

where would this put us in covering our gaps?

1. Healing: The greatest potential for full divine casting is Nico, with her 16 Wisdom. There are a couple of Sorcerer bloodlines that can do some healing that Alistair could take, but I'm not sure they could keep up with our needs over the long haul.

2. Traps: Rogue is probably the best option? Slayer doesn't seem to help anyone much except Nico, and she should probably be casting. Nobody has the intelligence for Investigator, and the Jinywei archetype loses trapfinding, though it could be bought back as a talent. Also worth mentioning that Traps can be handled by taking a Mummy's Mask campaign trait.

3. Knowledge: This is actually the toughest one to solve unless Alistair chooses Bard. None of us are set up well to do Knowledge checks without some sort of class booster. Aside from Bard, Investigator gets inspiration, Jinyiwei Investigator moves most most Investigator abilities to wisdom based, but not Knowledge checks. All knowledge skills are at least in class though.

4. Arcane Magic: Also tough except with charisma based casting, Bard or Sorcerer. Also possible with Empyreal Sorcerer for Nico, but she can't heal well then.