To heck with pride, Ikto is trying to get some freaking attention from NON Gremlins here!
It's been less than 30 seconds of IC time, so it is reasonable that no one has reacted yet.
However, I do want to bring up a tactics question. This is not meant to be an attack or anything, but Ikto's round confuses me.
He stood, raised a shield, and drew a sling.
But, his sling is his worst ranged attack. His sling is +4 for 1d6 and needs to be reloaded, so it's 2 actions to use once.
His Ignition (the Remastered name for Produce Flame), is at +7 to Hit, for 2d4 damage, and if you do it at melee range, that becomes 2d6.
Given that with either option, you are inside the unluck aura, the better to hit is just better.
He also has Shocking Grasp, which while he can't use this round, is just insane. Tempest Surge is also a good spell for the maul one. I'm guessing he has a lower Reflex save, and if he fails the save making him Clumsy 2 helps Za Minyahil and M'baba tons.
Stand/cast would be more impactful. If you are worried about being hit again, Stand, Raise Shield, Stride to get out of the unluck aura for a cast next round would also make sense.
Again, I am not trying to be critical. I'm trying to understand the thought process. I think understanding how we all make decisions in combat will help us gel and become more effective in combat.
He stood because he was prone.
He raised his shield because every other strike is a crit and he wanted to reduce that chance.
He grabbed a sling because he only had one action left and that takes one action.. which was a mistake but the rest makes sense given his goals. Honestly at this point I expect SOMEONE to go down and Ikto will heal them as best he can.
He has used his focus point for Tempest Surge and cannot cast that again.
His plan has been from the start to stay out of the unluck aura.
Obviously that plan is FUBAR... at the moment.
However if he backs out of the effect again, If I am right, the unluck aura stops affecting him (And will resume if he gets in the area of effect again). He has a chance to hit again so he had a better ranged attack to hit from say 30 feet than he would in melee.
He probably should have used his third action to back away with another stride but then there's the 'someone is going to get critted again and the heal might be needed' conundrum but hindsight is twenty twenty.
That makes sense.
As a support caster, I'm trying to learn how the rest of you like to make combat decisions, as that helps me figure out what spells I want to prepare each day to be in the position to support the group's style.
Regarding Shield Block - I understood and have always run this how ZM thinks in their OOC post, but apparently that was incorrect.
From AoN(emphasis mine): You snap your shield in place to ward off a blow. Your shield prevents you from taking an amount of damage up to the shield’s Hardness. You and the shield each take any remaining damage, possibly breaking or destroying the shield.
I will run it differently from now on, and thanks for the lesson...though I kind of like my way better...
Huh. Okay, good to know!
Bad news, our router at home died so I'm gonna be limited to phone-posting until we get it replaced. Please feel free to bot Za Minyahil as needed to keep the game rolling.
Unfortunate, but thanks for the heads up. Hope you get it running again soon!
I do too. My brain is trash and I live on the internet.
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Good news, new router already! I'm back in action!
That's great. Welcome back!
Have a fun trip!
I am also out of town starting this afternoon through late Sunday night. I may be able to post over the weekend, but may not.
'Tis cool! Have a hoppy Easter too! :D
I echo Za Minyahil.
Will miss updating tonight. Will get the game back on track tomorrow.
'Tis cool! Rest up and we'll be ready for action when you are!
'Tis cool! Rest up and we'll be ready for action when you are!
Thanks for your patience. Game on!
Ambush at the Ceremony - Post Combat Summary
[b]Iovia: 15/18hp remain; all Heal cast, Mystic armor cast, focus point spent.
Ikto: 14/16hp remain; shield 4hp dmg; Heal cast, focus point spent; sling to M'Baba, one bullet remains
M'Baba: 16/17hp remain; has Ikto's sling w 1 bullet.
Za Minyahil: 7/19hp remain; shield broken; focus point spent
Enemies Defeated: 1 Vexgit gremlin.
Experience Points earned: 60xp (more if Kurshkin had not escaped). This is enough to move you to Level 2. Congratulations! You will start at 0/1000 at that level.
Please post your Level 2 updates in Discussion so I can be on the same page as we move forward. Note that at level 2, you will be required to choose your primary and secondary branches of the Magaambya. If you already chose, you have the opportunity to reset them now, but you will not be able to reset them later. If you need to hear a bit more about each branch, feel free to ask, or review the Players Guide which is a free download.
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Level 2
Rogue Feat: Trap Finder
Skill increase: Crafting
Skill feat: Inventor
Archetype feat: Wizard dedication
New Lore: Mazludeh
Arcane school: Civic Wizardry
New spells in spellbook: Figment, Light, Spout, Telekinetic Hand
New prepared cantrips: Light, Spout
Branches:
Primary - Emerald Boughs
Secondary - Cascade Bearers
Looking at M'Baba's choices, I am reminded, are we using Remastered Schools or are the original school specializations allowed for our wizard side?
I'll get the profile updated in the next day, but here are the level two additions:
Skill Increase: Trained in Diplomacy to mesh with how I have tried to RP.
Skill Feat: Specialty Crafting (Woodworking). This is pure RP as we'll have to make masks soon, and I think Iovia would want hers to be as well-made as possible.
Class Feat: Syncretism with Chohar, Tlehar's brother. This means I also gain his Edicts and Anathema. I gain Expanded Domain Initiate with one of his domains, in my case Fire, and get its initial domain spell: Fire Ray, and an additional Focus point in my pool.
My typical spell loadout will change to: Bless, Mystic Armor, and Sacred Beasts.
Dedication will be Wizard. The school will be School of the Boundary. The 4 cantrips are: Electric Arc, Ignition, Telekinetic Hand, and Telekinetic Projectile, with EA and Projectile normally prepped.
My offense gets a boost at this level.
Primary Branch: Tempest Sun Mages (after all, I worship *two* sun gods now).
Secondary: This one was harder, but I decided on the Rain Scribes here, though Emerald Boughs was also in the running.
Profile updated.
Alright, I've updated my profile:
Skill Increases: Trained in Religion and Society
Skill Feat: Quick Repair (how timely!)
Class Feat: Force Fang
Dedication is Druid. My Order is Leaf Order, and I've gained Electric Arc and TIMBER! as cantrips.
I've added Shockwave and Fleet Step to my spellbook.
Primary Branch: Tempest-Sun Mages (it's the branch most suited to Za Minyahil's skillset as a magus)
Secondary Branch: Rain-Scribes (to best facilitate their research into updating ghoran biology)
Looking at M'Baba's choices, I am reminded, are we using Remastered Schools or are the original school specializations allowed for our wizard side?
Remastered please
Level 2
Rogue Feat: Trap Finder
Skill increase: Crafting
Skill feat: InventorArchetype feat: Wizard dedication
New Lore: Mazludeh
Arcane school: Civic Wizardry
New spells in spellbook: Figment, Light, Spout, Telekinetic Hand
New prepared cantrips: Light, SpoutBranches:
Primary - Emerald Boughs
Secondary - Cascade Bearers
I have all your changes, but I had Trap Finding as you level 1 rogue Feat. What is the Level 2 one?
I'll get the profile updated in the next day, but here are the level two additions:
Skill Increase: Trained in Diplomacy to mesh with how I have tried to RP.
Skill Feat: Specialty Crafting (Woodworking). This is pure RP as we'll have to make masks soon, and I think Iovia would want hers to be as well-made as possible.
Class Feat: Syncretism with Chohar, Tlehar's brother. This means I also gain his Edicts and Anathema. I gain Expanded Domain Initiate with one of his domains, in my case Fire, and get its initial domain spell: Fire Ray, and an additional Focus point in my pool.
My typical spell loadout will change to: Bless, Mystic Armor, and Sacred Beasts.
Dedication will be Wizard. The school will be School of the Boundary. The 4 cantrips are: Electric Arc, Ignition, Telekinetic Hand, and Telekinetic Projectile, with EA and Projectile normally prepped.
My offense gets a boost at this level.
Primary Branch: Tempest Sun Mages (after all, I worship *two* sun gods now).
Secondary: This one was harder, but I decided on the Rain Scribes here, though Emerald Boughs was also in the running.
I got all these changes. Iovia is good to go at 2nd level
Alright, I've updated my profile:
Skill Increases: Trained in Religion and Society
Skill Feat: Quick Repair (how timely!)
Class Feat: Force Fang
Dedication is Druid. My Order is Leaf Order, and I've gained Electric Arc and TIMBER! as cantrips.I've added Shockwave and Fleet Step to my spellbook.
Primary Branch: Tempest-Sun Mages (it's the branch most suited to Za Minyahil's skillset as a magus)
Secondary Branch: Rain-Scribes (to best facilitate their research into updating ghoran biology)
I am not sure where to find all the spell in your Magus spellbook? I have the ones you have prepared, but what about the others? Other than that, ZM is ready for level 2.
BTW, I will be out of town starting tomorrow through Monday afternoon. I will most likely be unable to post during that stretch, but should return to the game on Monday PM.
Looking at M'Baba's choices, I am reminded, are we using Remastered Schools or are the original school specializations allowed for our wizard side?Remastered please
Okay, switching Ikto to remastered with the help of Free Pathbuilder use :O
With Rival Academies not allowed I'm thinking Mentalism to increase his non lethal options.
Enjoy your trip
I have all your changes, but I had Trap Finding as you level 1 rogue Feat. What is the Level 2 one?Sorry abou that. I'm going with Nimble Dodge.
thanks, M'baba is ready for level 2 now. LMK when you are using that reaction, or shall we assume you are always using it if attacked?
Sorry, house guest that I thought was here for just one day is staying the whole weekend so I am a bit behind on Ikto's update.
Druid Feat: Poison Resistance
Skill increase: Arcana
Skill feat: Battle Medicine
Archetype feat: Wizard dedication
Arcane school: Mentalism
New spells in spellbook: Figment, Bullorn, Prestidigitation, Daze
New prepared cantrips: Figment, Bullhorn
Branches:
Primary - Rain-Scribes
Secondary - Uzunjati
(REALLY came close to flipping those Branches)
Ikto, you also get another prepared Druid spell each day.
Well, if it's not too meta-game-y, I'd only use it when I know that the bonus will prevent a hit.
Just help me remember when you can
Ikto, you also get another prepared Druid spell each day.
I agree. Ikto is checked off when he adds one more level 1 druid spell
Odd, okay, for some reason Pathbuilder isn't letting me do it I'll try manually
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Campaign appreciation post:
Hi GM, I am enjoying this campaign very much. The academic focus is really cool and a great break from typical campaigning. I do feel, however, that the PbP format is not ideal to fully enjoy it. Or maybe it is and I don't know how to make full use of it. Also, combat with the gremlins is frustrating, but I think that's on purpose. M'baba was not built with combat as a focus, and combat is not the focus of the campaign either, so that's a good fit, I feel.
I am also very happy with my choices of primary and secondary branch. I'm going for Nantambu Lore for my specific settlement lore.
About specific interactions, I think M'baba would really like to get to know people. He understands that serving the community starts with knowing the community. With that said, I think I will gravitate M'baba towards being a bit more social, in addition to his crafting. So skill increases and skill feats will start to cover more of that, also to sort of fill the gap left by our bard. Opinions on this (and everything else) are welcome.
Odd, okay, for some reason Pathbuilder isn't letting me do it I'll try manually
Go to the spells tab in Pathbuilder. As Druids have access to the full list, and not a spellbook or repertoire, there should be an empty slot in your Rank 1 spells that you can click on and fill in with whatever you typically want to have prepared.
Re: The game.
I am loving the game. The flavor is awesome, and so is the group. It does suck we lost two players, as they also were awesome, but, unfortunately, that does happen.
I think that PbP will be a wonderful format for the AP, especially now that we are past that first week. I think the format will give us ample room to write creative RP posts, especially on weekends when DrEvil has to travel, and we can just make flavor posts to help with world-building.
As far as the gremlin fights go, the first one had us at a disadvantage. In the second, we just played sloppy, and DrEvil did have a nice string of crits at the start. We'll get better at combat synergy as we level, I think.
Much like M'baba, I like to organically grow a character based on the game and RP, hence some of my own choices at level 2.
Doc, please let us know how we can help with some of the work on things like flavor and world-building. I don't think it should all be on you.
Odd, okay, for some reason Pathbuilder isn't letting me do it I'll try manuallyGo to the spells tab in Pathbuilder. As Druids have access to the full list, and not a spellbook or repertoire, there should be an empty slot in your Rank 1 spells that you can click on and fill in with whatever you typically want to have prepared.
Already tried that days ago, as I said, it did not work. However I have entered Gentle Landing on my sheet here manually. I suspect as I am using the free version of pathbuilder and had to enter in Free Archtype it has hit some limits for the program.
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I am glad you are appreciating the game. I think it is well-written so far, which makes it easier to run. I am a bit anxious about entering this new more open-ended phase as it is harder to run via PBP, so please provide feedback etc.
I will let you know if there are things players can help with, but so far it has been very straightforward.
As notes the gremlin fight, the last one was Severe, and there is at least a half-expectation that the bad guy lives to fight another day, so don't feel too badly about it. The unluck aura is a pretty powerful debuff especially when there are multiples like in the first fight. I did get some very high crits with a deadly weapon against 1st lvl PCs which made that last combat feel very rocky from the get go.
I am also enjoying this game more than I thought I would based on the synopsis of the AP, so I give you guys the credit for that!
Campaign Appreciation post and 2 cents:
Despite developing a nervous tic about Pugawumpus ;) I've enjoyed much. I agree with M'Baba that the PBP format can throw the flow off a bit given Strength of Thousands is clearly meant for academic RP and school hijinks in large part. BUT we're I think we're getting our feet with it. The loss of two players did leave a hole but I think we're getting our groove.
I love the setting. Honestly the Mwangi Expanse is one of my favorite supplements in recent years and I like what this School tries to stand for. I do worry that Teacher Ot and the others are coming across as a touch uncaring but that can be hard to reflect well as we jump from scene to scene.
The fact that I STILL wonder if I should have swapped branches is actually a testment to how much I like MANY facets of the setting. :)
I think I might shoot some RP scenes or summaries subject to your approval in spoilers in the PBP in part to help me get the flavor of the place if that's okay. I don't want to take too many liberties though. I find many of the NPC students amusing and flat out fun, and Ikto hopes to make many of them friends.
Again, thank you for running this
Thanks for the support and feedback. We can RP as much in-between time as you see fit. Chapter Two is mostly made up of a series of vignettes with some Downtime checks in between.
We will see how it goes...
Hey, sorry for not following up sooner!
I've got to echo what everyone else is saying, I'm enjoying this despite the hostile dice roller.
To make it clear, I'm not upset the way Za Minyahil is. I do feel I kind of didn't have give them much personality in character creation beyond "they're a ghoran" (that's always a bit of a risk when you're playing one of the more "unusual" ancestries), so it's kind of started to take shape through play and while I like the idea that they're a very uptight and self-critical person who needs to let their vines down a bit, I worry I may go too far and wind up coming across too harsh and alienate the other students, especially the NPC ones. So please let me know if I need to ease up, and I promise, I'M not mad at people when my character is.
Hey, sorry for not following up sooner!
I've got to echo what everyone else is saying, I'm enjoying this despite the hostile dice roller.
To make it clear, I'm not upset the way Za Minyahil is. I do feel I kind of didn't have give them much personality in character creation beyond "they're a ghoran" (that's always a bit of a risk when you're playing one of the more "unusual" ancestries), so it's kind of started to take shape through play and while I like the idea that they're a very uptight and self-critical person who needs to let their vines down a bit, I worry I may go too far and wind up coming across too harsh and alienate the other students, especially the NPC ones. So please let me know if I need to ease up, and I promise, I'M not mad at people when my character is.
It's all good! I understand that its character driven, not player driven.