Into the Stolen Lands (Kingmaker Book 1) (Inactive)

Game Master Chainmail

We may have lost Taddy, this is not the time to be undermanned. To encounter balance, Taddy will have to take out two orcs before he leaves :-)

Lets give him till Monday.

Any chance you can bot Taddy or let two of the orcs run off?

I will update tomorrow without Taddy.

I am in LA on business and will update soon. Hotel services spotty—moving on map from phone is hard.

Thanks for the heads up,

I am in LA on business and will update soon. Hotel services spotty—moving on map from phone is hard.

How's the business trip going?

I will update tonight without moving — Wi-Fi in Monterey now is spotty.

Cool, If you need something moved on the map tell me where you want them and I can move them for you.

I’ll post on my phone today

They were out of options. Antonio flicked a smoke bomb into his off hand and dropped it to the ground where it.

Seeing the eight heavily armored orcs coming up the hallway, Kunala's eyes grow wide. His jaw drops as Antonio moves towards the narrow part of the corridor. Looking towards the coin sisters, he shakes his head. "Unless you've some magic we haven't seen yet, we can't possibly defeat this foe."

He gestures towards the dark hallway, "Do we run into the unknown or try to get up the rope?"

The reason he didn't stand with you in a defensive posture was twofold; one it hasn't been his style the whole game, two, your build is made for making use of flanks, I was trying to provide that.

Besides two fellows in light armor aren't going to hold off eight in heavy armor in rank side by side.

Likewise, with Kunala dropping someone's going to have to delay their advance. Even with smoke cover, the orcs will likely barrel through. I'd rather not risk hasty climb checks or charging into the unknown (and potentially worse than what we face).

If a spear-point keeps biting them from the smoke it might give them pause enough for Antonio and her sister to escape.

Erme will likely attempt to ransom herself (if she survives lol)

Well, not every tale ends in a happy ending. I guess we should have tried to run, but I didn't think Amelia would be able to get up the rope fast enough. For that matter, I think that it's a pretty distinct possibility that Antonio is the only one that survives.

I had asked in game, but will ask for more clarification here.

Recap:

Antonio tried to distract his target and failed, but Erme and Amelia both hit the most advanced orc and staggered him.

Kunala attacked an orc trying to flank him and staggered him preventing an attack. Kunala got in a well placed party before taking a slice to the neck.
gm:
flank first Kunala: 5d20 ⇒ (8, 4, 18, 15, 19) = 64 antonio: 1d20 ⇒ 19confirm: 2d20 ⇒ (20, 18) = 38
Antonio takes slashing: 4d4 + 4 ⇒ (4, 4, 1, 3) + 4 = 16 and clings to consciousness as Kunala falls bleeding.

3 top orcs staggered

order
Party
Orcs

It looks like Kunala was attacked by five orcs with falchions, two would have been crits. It appears the regular attack damage is 2d4+2, which means the minimum damage with two successful crit. is - 20 HP. But no damage was rolled and no stabilize roll was requested. May I assume he is dead?

No, he is not dead.

No, he is not dead.

That doesn't calculate. If were going to play 'Hard mode' roll the dice and let happen what's happening, I don't expect you to 'save him' due to bad rolls.

edit:We're in combat, roll the damage for three successful attacks, two successful crits. if it's not more than 13 HP let me roll the stabilization roll. If it's more than 13 he's dead.

You nullified an earlier attack with an AoO — so you are not dead—one crit was on Antonio.

So the attacks on Kunala (8, 4, 18, 15, 19) the 15.18,19 hit 18 and 19 are crit's with falchions.

So what's the math on Kunala HP before the attack and after? Need to roll the stabilize.

I rushed the calculations yesterday — even after nullifying a single hit looks like more damage than I calculated.

That looks about right. I spent the last couple of days looking at it trying to figure out if there was a chance he was alive.

I remembered a post in one of your other game discussions that we were 'on hard mode' which I sort of like, but just a couple of bad rolls put you in serious trouble.

True he's not dead, but he's down... in the face of a horde of orcs and likelihood is we'll never know if he's still alive or not while they remain standing.

Think I touched on that in gameplay the Emre recognises Kunala is likely for the pot or the bones on a trophy banner :S

True he's not dead, but he's down... in the face of a horde of orcs and likelihood is we'll never know if he's still alive or not while they remain standing.

Think I touched on that in gameplay the Emre recognises Kunala is likely for the pot or the bones on a trophy banner :S

if the one attack didn't hit, then his HP is 8 instead of 1, but he took 28 points of damage, so he's - 20 HP, I'm pretty sure he's dead.

:O Yeah.... -20 is the definition of dead.

Was worried that hefting his corpse would be super encumbering, but @ -20 it'll likely be more like this:

Érme sighed when she saw the cloven body of the fallen swordsman. Knowing time was of the essence she gestured toward Antonio;

"You take his bottom half. I'll take the rest. Makes sure we don't leave any parts behind..."

I have exactly one potion of cure light wounds.
It's not a "rules as written", but it is a common house rule that a healing effect given the same round as the fatality can prevent death; is that the case in this game?

You mean administered after lethal damage??

I have exactly one potion of cure light wounds.

It's not a "rules as written", but it is a common house rule that a healing effect given the same round as the fatality can prevent death; is that the case in this game?

I've played with one GM (possibly out of dozens) who did that and it was an RA game. Even having said that Antonio dropped the smoke and moved away, a little late to change the actions now.

I've been thinking about it, don't worry about Kunala's body. This early in a game if I have someone die, I leave them dead. Partially due to the cost and partially due to the character. I've not invested enough in the character or the AP to get really attached. If he was sixth or seventh level maybe. But not at second.

It has been on hard mode and the reincarnation was budgeted into the calculation. With Drektan having returned his, it is still a good possibility and having cleared the top level you are set up for a solid reward and solid push through level 2.5.

I've got mixed feelings. I don't like bringing back low level characters that get themselves killed.

With the size of the original group I thought a non-traditional melee (15 pt buy) character might be OK for Kingmaker. With a group of four instead of six, a low AC low Str character is not the prime melee character, not for kingmaker, and especially not for this cave.

Would you be open to me bringing in a more traditional full melee character? I think (with the 15 pt buy) a barbarian or bloodrager would be a better combat fit. Maybe a cavalier or slayer.

Sadly, I tend to want to play characters that I have a little history with and those are few. Like I have barbarian who's a sailor, but he wouldn't fit here at all. I'd need to build something from the ground up for Kingmaker.

I'm going to ask for a respec. We need some oomph and Amelia's not got the juice needed as is. It probably wouldn't have hurt us with six, but if we're down to four, we're going to need a more traditional party, I think.

No problem.
Drektan declined the full reincarnation benefit--quote from before in the discussion thread.

"You will laugh, but Drektan is a halfling with a telepathic link to Sarah Jean. He also adds this bonus feat — spirit of the reincarnated +1 untyped bonus to all saving throws and AC (flat footed and touch too)
Some (including me) might say worth the 5K gold alone"

We can also move the aldori sword to Antonio that was exchanged with the Captain if Kunala is moving away from the dexterity build it requires. The sword will turn out to be very useful. Amelia can respec too while we are recovering. You will lose some of the cred developed with the Brevan's with Kunala, but some of that can transfer to Antonio with the named sword.

this Aldori sword is made of cold iron, and two entwined pikes (carnivorous fish) adorn the length of the blade on both sides and heatless flame begins to burn along the blade and shed light brighter than any torch you have seen. Masterwork, cold iron, Continual Flame permanent

Other properties have yet to be revealed.

We will have a quick stop at Sarah Jean's and move to the Kingmaker portion. On the way to Oleg's Trading Post you can swap out characters.

No problem.

Drektan declined the full reincarnation benefit--quote from before in the discussion thread.

"You will laugh, but Drektan is a halfling with a telepathic link to Sarah Jean. He also adds this bonus feat — spirit of the reincarnated +1 untyped bonus to all saving throws and AC (flat footed and touch too)
Some (including me) might say worth the 5K gold alone"

We can also move the aldori sword to Antonio that was exchanged with the Captain if Kunala is moving away from the dexterity build it requires. The sword will turn out to be very useful. Amelia can respec too while we are recovering. You will lose some of the cred developed with the Brevan's with Kunala, but some of that can transfer to Antonio with the named sword.

So would your recommendation be to let Sarak Jean reincarnate him, use the 'spirit of the reincarnated' and hope he's med sized so he can use the sword?

I'm less worried about needing a full-time bruiser if we're not going back into the mine.

Antonio can use the sword. Just make a character you like at 2nd level with appropriate WBL

5K will be saved. Drektan turned down the feat to stay a catfolk, so maybe my two home groups and I overvalued the feat.

We played APs with 4 char 15pt buy as that was how they were constructed— seems EIR and high fantasy and even gestalt is more popular than our old school ways. The rogue slot is sometimes another class with trapfinding, but often full rogues are used too.

I think we did Carrion Crown with 2 of 4 as clerics.

5K will be saved. Drektan turned down the feat to stay a catfolk, so maybe my two home groups and I overvalued the feat.

I thought Drektan came back a halfling. My concern would be keeping Kunala at least medium size. And Antonio is a Taldan rogue with a rapier. Won't he have to take a feat to use the sword? I'll see if I can find someone who's backstory with a little tweaking can put them at Olegs.

The AP's were written that way, and the newer classes have a little more umph with power creep, so I don't think the AP will be a problem; not if we make sure the bases are covered. But the mine was brutal, that's why I asked in game if we should look for another option. An unknown number of orcs in their natural habitat and a 200 ft rope climb, well, anyway, glad to see were headed for the AP.

You good with the 2nd lvl character having the starting 1,000 gp? I'm leaning towards cavalier, ranger, slayer, barbarian or bloodrager. It really depends on what backstory I can fit into the location.

From the discussion thread:
Drektan loses all catfolk traits and racial adjustments and replaces them with halfling traits and racial adjustments plus the fully reincarnated feat OR he can keep all his catfolk traits and just change the stat adjustments.

The feat only applies to those fully reincarnated.

The stats for halfling are -2 Str +2 Dex +2 Cha

Drektan then chose to keep all his catfolk traits. But, as the point is moot, we can move on to Oleg's. Reincarnation does not come with many guarantees.

I will move the story along.

I had forgotten that, and moot it is :)

Trying to work on the fluff for a character, but I wanted to solidify the crunch first, let me ask the other players. Would you prefer a very dumb very strong barbarian with a two handed weapon. Or would you prefer a weaker wiser switch hitting ranger?

GM, can I respec as a straight sorcerer?

I can pick up and use Kunala's Aldori Duelling Sword as a basic longsword, but to use it to it's full effect I would have to pick up the Exotic Weapon proficiency feat. I can use the General feat at Level 3 to do that.

When I had originally built Kunala for another 'Kingmaker' game, that recruitment had a main character and a 'cohort.' Kunala's 'cohort' was a half-brother named Iradyiel. Iradyiel was a ranger raised with Kunala and adventured with him. Obviously for this game, Kunala didn't need a sidekick, but I did leave Iradyiel in his backstory. So I have a built-in replacement to inherit his gear.

I'm thinking I'll just put Iradyiel in the game. I'll assume Iradyiel had planned on meeting Kunala at Oleg's. The PC's can then tell Iradyiel how his brother died.

GM Tribute is that ok?

Yes, ranger is a top Kingmaker recommendation

Yes, ranger is a top Kingmaker recommendation

Cool, I was planning on making him a Divine Marksman, leaning a little towards the bow, but still planning on being a switch hitter. Now I have to decide if I'll take advantage of the half elf trait Multitalented. Considering a few levels of swashbuckler and eventually going aldori swordslord. But Iradyiel doesn't have the charisma to do the swashbuckler well, and swordlord is too feat intensive without it.

This is the basic character without the shopping list totally done. I need to determine if I want to spend the majority of the money on weapons or armor.

Ok, I've got Iradyiel finished, I've decided to multiclass. The plan will be four levels ranger: Archetype Divine Marksman and four levels Swashbuckler Archetype: Rostland Bravo. Then he will take at least one level in Aldori Swordlord. May I assume he'll 'inherit' Kunala's gear?

The plan is for him to be waiting at Olegs for Kunala and his friends. I assume he wouldn't know about Kunala being dead and they get to tell him?

Sounds about right to me.

Since Antonio is melee primary, the sword will ‘adopt’ him.

Consider building with 2K gold as you are at 2.5 level.

And yes, Amelia can be full sorcerer.

Thanks. I'll have her sheet updated in the next day or two.

Since Antonio is melee primary, the sword will ‘adopt’ him.

I don't know if you remember the conversations we had about swords and dueling styles from earlier in the game. But at that time Antonio was very much a 'rapier' guy. I'm saddened that he has not stuck to his characters 'original' preference, but the offer of a magical McGuffin would tempt all of us.

I'm more saddened that I'm not able to pass the 'gear' my character won on to a legitimate inheritor and I think it's in very poor taste not to let me do so.

Considering this, and the other things that have been gnawing at me, I believe I will step away from this game. Good luck and good gaming everyone.

Please place Kunala under 'Previous players'

Just trying to optimize party fighting capability.

We will continue with 3 as Antonio can handle melee capably now for the long term. Erme is no slouch in melee either. Amelia will be pure arcane.

Antonio can retrain feats on the way to Oleg’s as you will be riding with the guard captain from before. That is, if he wants to become Aldori wielder.

Just trying to optimize party fighting capability.

I thought adding a full BAB switch hitter would help do that.

It frustrates me that you rewarded Kunala's weapon to a rogue, who isn't trained to use a longsword/dueling sword and who expressed disdain for the fighting style. While I took the time and energy to create a character to be able to carry on Kunala's legacy.

Thank you for removing the game from my que, I do appreciate that. I will try to resist the urge to post in your discussion thread.

I've got Amelia updated. I'll post in gameplay later today.

Remember your Amulet of Natural Armour +1 folks :)

Thanks for the reminder! Got that up to date now.