Here is Vasily's updated stat block, if you want to review further. Made the change to his feat but not much else changed. I think Vasily is ready for opening curtain.
Vasily Stat Block:
Vasily
Human swashbuckler 1
Medium, Human, Humanoid Heritage versatile human
Background sword scion
Perception +5
Languages Common, Hallit, Skald
Skills Acrobatics +7, Athletics +5, Deception +5, Diplomacy +5, Society +3, Survival +3, Warfare Lore +3
Str +2, Dex +4, Con +1, Int +0, Wis +0, Cha +2
Items studded leather, aldori dueling sword[BAT], dagger (2), shortbow, arrows (20), backpack, bedroll, chalk (10), compass, flint and steel, rations (1 week) (2), repair toolkit, rope (50 feet), signet ring, soap, torch (5), waterskin, purse (1 gp, 9 sp)
--------------------
AC 18; Fort +4; Ref +9; Will +5
HP 20
--------------------
Speed 30 feet
Melee [1] aldori dueling sword +7 (versatile P, finesse), Damage 1d8+2 S +2 S/Prec
Melee [1] dagger +7 (versatile S, thrown 10 ft., agile, finesse), Damage 1d4+2 P +2 P/Prec
Ranged [1] dagger +7 (versatile S, thrown 10 ft., agile, finesse), Damage 1d4+2 P +2 P/Prec
Ranged [1] shortbow +7 (range increment 60 feet, reload 0, deadly d10), Damage 1d6 P
Confident Finisher [1] (finisher, swashbuckler) You make an incredibly graceful attack, piercing your foe’s defenses. Make a Strike with with the following failure effect.
Failure You deal half your precise strike damage to the target. This damage type is that of the weapon or unarmed attack you used for the Strike.
Ancestry Feats Natural Ambition
Class Feats Extravagant Parry, Flashy Dodge
General Feats Toughness
Lia, some backstory.:
Use how you wish. I can modify as you see fit to better work into your thoughts on the game in front. Vasily will take more detours with the party away from Brevoy, if it means gaining wealth, power and skill.
Vasily is from the Rostland noble house of Antonov. His father was the thane up until recently. With the disappearance of the Rogarvaians recently, Thane Antonov was opposed to the usurpation of the Surtova's and was eventually dispossessed and his house and lands given to the loyal Lebeda family. With his father ill and broken, Vasily looks to regain his family lands, but the power of the Surtova's is too great. He looks for opportunities to find wealth, power, skill, nd allies to eventually overthrow the false king, restore his family lands, and rule in his father's place. If the opportunity arose to travel to Absalom and gather powerful adventurer's, he would leap at it.
To the group, something you want to start to consider is healing, both in and out of combat.
You have very limited healing options at this point. That is not a bad thing! But you will need to start considering your plans for how you'll work around it.
I want to emphasize I am not saying 'OMG, someone must be a cleric' or 'You all need to get medicine.' What I am saying is during this session 0, which will hopefully move to session 1 within a week, that some chatter and planning around this happens.
So, there is some wiggle room in the build for Chishik and if we feel it is needed, I could take Hymn of Healing at level 2. And I could take the Soothe spell instead of Runic Weapon.
I could also rebalance things a little and take medicine for a little more out of combat healing, but it will never be that great unless I refocus on it more.
I combined two diffferent posts into one and then added more stuff throughout the post, so might be some repetition that I did not catch during my copying and pasting/editing.
Adding more elements to the dragon - I am thinking that during its original life it was an exemplar/thaumaturge.
@Lia:
I think you might have missed that my build plan covers post-combat healing starting at 1st level (eventually being able to Treat Wounds every 10 minutes per person instead of every hour (via the Continual Recovery skill feat she will be gaining at 6th level).
I am making a petition for the rule about only 1 MCD, as there is one other MCD that fits the theme of my character concept, which is Thaumaturge. Not including the intial Scar of the Survivor ikon, the addition ikons as well as the implement could be specific items from the dragon's hidden mini hoards that only work for the dragon's bonded summoner.
Regarding Vow of Mortal Defiance and source of her exemplar divinity source: Do you approve of the dragon eidolon being the source of the divinity for her exemplar powers?
If yes, then Vow of Mortal Defiance would work thematically, as I am not picturing Stari herself to be someone who would take such a vow - but that might be something the dragon did during its original lifetime (and might be why he never went on to a specific outer plane to spend his post-life existence on). The one action (for Vow of Mortal Defiance) would be the dragon (while internal and not external) using it to empower Stari's attack to inflict spirit (or energy damage gained via any Energized Spark feats she has).
Also decided on potential second archetype: Thaumaturge, if you approve of second MCD (as it fits the blended concept of dragon eidolon using whoever his current bonded summoner descendant is to ensure certain items of its original treasure hoard (which over the centuries has spread out to smaller hidden stashed mini-treasure hoards across Golarion and perhaps even other planets in the solar system :)
The additional ikons and the implement she gains being items from the treasure hoards of the dragons (and why they do not function for others).
I am thinking to fit the story of the conspirator dragon better: Originally it had one (or a few) treasure hoards. As the hoard(s) were discovered in the time between its first death and first lifetime as an eidolon, the items that were part of its original hoard(s) that it found, it created new mini-hoards of the items the dragon (and current bonded summoner for each 'lifetime') hid the items away in a new 'buried treasure' location. Eventually making such mini-hoards spread out considerable far across Golarion than the locations of the the original treasure hoards.
Updated tentative FA feat plan (if second MCD approved):
2nd: Exemplar Dedication (Scar of the Survivor)
4th: Basic Glory (Leap the Falls)
6th: Advanced Glory (Vow of Mortal Defiance) Storyline-wise the dragon eidolon being the one who took the vow a very long, long time ago, and empowers his current bonded summoner to do the damage. I also like that this extra spirit damage (or energy damage gained via Energized Spark) is not reliant on having a weapon ikon (and I think is the only way to apply Energized Spark that is not dependent on using an ikon).
8th level FA slot: Thaumaturge Dedication (Not a tome implement, as the tome implement fits better thematically for the tengu bard, if J Scot likes my suggestion below as tome fits the concept for a scrollmaster pathfinder.)Potential Implements: Amulet (in stressful situations while the dragon is not manifested, she clutches the amulet of her necklace, and uses Glimpse Vulnerability more for the defensive reaction to keep her and her allies protected from harm); not the bell implement; Chalice implement is a possibility; Lantern implement would be a contender if MC Thaumaturgists had ability to gain the Adept implement ability to make invisible creatures seen, but they do not; Mirror Implement would fit in with the conspirator dragon's trickster tactics (I am envisioning the conspirator dragon as being a combination of exemplar and thaumaturge during its original lifetime); Regalia implement - between this and Amulet, I would chose amulet; Shield implement- though it seems like it could be both an implement and ikon, the Mirrored Shield ikon would be a party AC-buffing I would prefer, as she is more support while she is not melded with the dragon eidolon, though combining both would ensure that the Mirrored Aegis is never destroyed - as the implement ensures it always has a minimum of 1 hit point so it is never destroyed so the Mirrored Aegis' ability to restore itself to full hit points does not need to deal with the question of 'what if the mirrored aegis gets destroyed?' query; Tome implement - no, reason above; Wand implement - this one would interact well with Vow of Mortal Defiance; Weapon Implement - this one if it is also a weapon ikon which would not require Call Implement since Only the Worthy covers that, but considering she does not like to be in/close to melee, this would not be a good thematic option for her. Top contenders: Amulet, Chalice, Mirror, Shield (if also Mirrored Aegis ikon), Wand.
10th level FA slot: Implement Initiative
12th level FA slot: Second Ikon (??)
14th level FA slot: Advanced Glory (Only the Worthy)
16th level FA slot: Advanced Glory (Additonal Ikon - ??)
18th level FA slot: Basic Thaumaturgy (Call Implement)
20th level FA slot: Advanced Thaumaturgy (Thaumaturgist's Investiture) The dragon being unable to personally invest the majority of the items from its various mini-hoards, empowers his current bonded summoner to be able to invest more magic items than a character typically can.
J Scot Shady wrote:
The Scrollmaster archetype fits well and his thirst for knowledge fits as well. Yeah, he is either naive of or ignoring all the issues in the group's history, he just wants to learn.
As I was scrolling (pun intended :P) through the thaumaturge feats that fit my character's character concept, I came across ones that made me think of your scrollmaster concept character gaining the ability of the feats below.
A suggestion for class/MCD that seems to fit your theme well, that gives you the ability to cast spells of any tradition from scrolls and gain free daily scrolls.
Thaumaturge and doing the Scroll Thaumaturgy feat chain. Though MCD you would only be able to gain the first two, and would need to have Thaumaturge as your primary class to gain the two higher level class feats of the feat chain.
Stari, I looked over Meld, and I have to say I'm curious to see how it actually works in-game. It looks like it gives up the 4 actions per turn a Summoner effectively gets, and doesn't give that much in return. I'm very interested to see if that actually holds true, or if gives more in play than it seems to.
Yes, thematically the concept does not benefit from the summoner/eidolon tandem action economy with only using Meld, though there is at least one advantage: Normally if both the summoner and eidolon both take damage from the same source, they take the higher damage (unless the summoner takes the Protective Bond feat so they take the lower amount of damage instead. In essence the Meld into Eidolon removes the default 'roll damage-reducing saving throws with disadvantage' if both the summoner and eidolon are in the damaging area of effect (or both get hit with force barrage missles from the same spell). There might be other advantages besides this one (but do not recall any at the moment).
Edited: only one body 'on the battle map' that can be flanked - so less 'squares on the battle map' that can foes can use to flank 'the summoner or the eidolon'. Concept-wise, the dragon switchs the external/internal with her so that his bonded summoner can not be targeted with any negative effects. And though it is not known to his bonded summoner (at least not in the early parts of their adventures) that the dragon is also taking measures to protect the potential future bloodline descendants of his current bonded summoner from being 'removed from the timeline). Oh..(checking to see if two specific spells from PF1E have been done in PF2E and are on the occult tradtion list...) ...Ally Across Time and Army Across Time I did not find...but there is Temporal Twin.
GM Lia wrote:
To the group, something you want to start to consider is healing, both in and out of combat.
You have very limited healing options at this point. That is not a bad thing! But you will need to start considering your plans for how you'll work around it.
I want to emphasize I am not saying 'OMG, someone must be a cleric' or 'You all need to get medicine.' What I am saying is during this session 0, which will hopefully move to session 1 within a week, that some chatter and planning around this happens.
See my previous post about Stari having post-combat healing covered.
So, while considering the Druid vs Ranger, two things pop out at me. 1. The Ranger is MUCH tougher in the Melee combat area...an area we might be lacking. But, 2. The druid's animal companions "mature" 2 levels earlier than the Ranger's. Could be important.
Looking into Ranger with Druid Dedication rather than Beastmaster, but not sure yet. For the record, NOT min/maxing here. Looking for balance that aids the party, if that makes sense.
With the only 1 MCD rule in effect, would that prevent a human character from taking the Multitalented ancestry feat?
for ones newer to PF2E: Multitalented human ancestry feat gives the character a MCD, even if they normally do not qualify to take a new archetype dedication feat yet. 'half-elves' can ignore any Attribute modifier requirements for the MCD chosen.
So, while considering the Druid vs Ranger, two things pop out at me. 1. The Ranger is MUCH tougher in the Melee combat area...an area we might be lacking. But, 2. The druid's animal companions "mature" 2 levels earlier than the Ranger's. Could be important.
Looking into Ranger with Druid Dedication rather than Beastmaster, but not sure yet. For the record, NOT min/maxing here. Looking for balance that aids the party, if that makes sense.
More later...
I have not verified yet, but I think the Beastmaster archetype uses the same levels as the druid for how quickly the animal companions can 'grow up'.
To the group, something you want to start to consider is healing, both in and out of combat.
You have very limited healing options at this point. That is not a bad thing! But you will need to start considering your plans for how you'll work around it.
I want to emphasize I am not saying 'OMG, someone must be a cleric' or 'You all need to get medicine.' What I am saying is during this session 0, which will hopefully move to session 1 within a week, that some chatter and planning around this happens.
So, there is some wiggle room in the build for Chishik and if we feel it is needed, I could take Hymn of Healing at level 2. And I could take the Soothe spell instead of Runic Weapon.
I could also rebalance things a little and take medicine for a little more out of combat healing, but it will never be that great unless I refocus on it more.
Not to worry, my kobold's going full-support with Cloistered Cleric, baybee! ;)
So, now I am rethinking things a bit. Thaumeturge fits the idea but is a little more personally combat oriented than I was thinking, but I think I might be able to work with it a little more and see. I'll see what I can present tonight.
Mature Beastmaster Companion (Feat 4) Same as Druid
Incredible Beastmaster Companion (Feat 8) Same as Druid
Specialized Beastmaster Companion (Feat 14) Same as Druid
I'm not doubting ya, but I went and confirmed it myself. What I had been reading before was a comparison between base Druids and Rangers.
So, along with all the conversation about healing options that's transpired, I think I'm going to keep Khalaros as a Ranger. (Eventually he'll get access to the Warden Healing Mist spell...such as it is.)
So, now I am rethinking things a bit. Thaumeturge fits the idea but is a little more personally combat oriented than I was thinking, but I think I might be able to work with it a little more and see. I'll see what I can present tonight.
One of the main decisions if deciding between bard and thaumaturge as his main class, is if you want to gain the adept and paragon implement benefits, since those are not acessible via the MCD Thaumaturge route. The MCD only grants a single implement. With Thaumaturge as the main class, you gain additonal implements at higher levels. Is there more than one implement that fits your character concept? ----taking another look at the artwork that inspired your character concept....He has a bell on his belt! He is also wearing an amulet.
If going with the Scrollmaster/Thaumaturge FA archetype route: which order of gaining the dedication feats do you feel best fits your concept?
Do either of the two archetypes not have enough lower-level archetype feats that you want as part of his concept build that you would feel you have to take a 'filler feat' until you can take the the dedication feat for the other one.
As Thaumaturge Dedication and Impement Initiative would cover 2nd and 4th level. I would suggest Call Implement for the 6th level feat, if you decide on taking keeping bard as your main class and taking the MCD before the Scrollmaster dedication. Storyline-wise it should create more opportunity to receive a field commission to join the Pathfinders as opposed to the typical 3 years (I think) of study to become a pathfinder agent by enrolling and studying at the Grand Lodge.
I have the 'side quest' to Iblydos while your tengu is studying at the Grand Lodge - that can easily be 'that was the plan when we both arrived in Absalom, but then someone from Brevoy (DoctorEvil's PC) recruitment efforts result in the two of us deciding to travel north with him.
One of the fun beneifits you could have by taking Thaumaturge as your main class and taking all the scroll thaumaturgy feats...is you can make spell scrolls of ANY tradition and up to 7th spells at the high-level end.
It is only 1 spell scroll of each spell level per day...but I do not think there is a way in the game to beat that versatilty for having the ability to cast spells up to 7th spell level of all 4 traditions. Even MCD with three different tradition spell casters I do not think would gain that versatility unless the FA or dual-class variant option is being used.
Hmm...with using FA and without using FA...Is the Scroll Thaumaturge feat chain the only way for a character to gain ability to cast spells of up 7th level that can be from any of the four traditions? - This is an OCD-ish spoiler:
2nd level - 1st dedication
4th level - class feat and FA feat to take 2 archetype feats (including Basic Spellcasting)
6th level - using class feat to take new MCD and FA to take feat Basic Spellcasting of 2nd MC
8th level - class feat - take 3rd archetype feat of 2nd MCD and use FA to take the 3rd MCD
10th level - FA to take Basic Spellcasting for 3rd MC, class feat - open (possibly the 'Breadth' feat for 1st MC)
12th level - use class feat to take Expert Spellcasting (1st MC) and FA to take Expert Spellcasting (2nd MC)
14th level - FA to take Expert Spellcasting (3rd MC), class feat - open (possibly the 'breadth' feat for 2nd MC)
So at 14th level, they would have be able to cast spells of up to 5th level of each of the four traditions. At 16th level, that becomes 6th level. Need the 18th level Master Spellcasting to cast 7th and 8th level spells. Can they get all?
16th level - FA (open) possibly taking 'breadth' feat for 3rd MC, class feat - open
18th level - FA for Master Spellcasting (1st MC), class feat for Master Spellcasting (2nd MC)
20th level - FA for Master spellcasting (3rd MC).
Conclusion. the Scroll Thaumaturgy feat chain does not give the only way to be that versatile IF using free archetype (or dual class characters), though it does it with considerable less number of feats need to get there for the thaumaturge (who only has 1/3 the 'additional spells' that spellcaster with 3 spellcastsing MC archectypes.
Baseline (no FA or dual-class)
spellcaster
2:1st MCD
4: Basic Spellcasting (1st MC)
6: feat for 1st MC
8: 2nd MCD
10: Basic Spellcasting (2nd MC)
12: Expert Spellcasting (1st MC) OR Expert Spellcasting (2nd MC)
14: Expert Spellcasting (2nd MC) OR 3rd MCD
16: 3rd MCD OR Expert Spellcasting (1st MC)
18: Basic Spellcasting (3rd MC) OR Master Spellcasting (1st MC)
20: Expert Spellcasting (3rd MC) OR Master Spellcasting (2nd MC)
Conclusion: ONLY the thaumaturge using the scroll thaumaturgy feat chain gains the ability to cast a 7th level spell from any of the 4 traditions each day.
What about a Thaumaturge as main class with the scroll thaumaturge feat chain and the MCD spellcasting feat chains....with goal of gaining a MCD
Regarding party healing: Looks like the two draconic characters have it covered - the cleric during combat and the summoner after combat.
Regarding melee: the dragon eidolon can flank a foe with a single ally for the first 9 levels, then 2 allies starting at 10th level, and 3 allies starting at 12th level.
Combat tactic of dragon eidolon will default to flanking a foe with an ally (which causes that foe to be off-guard to the dragon and the ally) and to trip another foe that is in melee with the dragon (to make that foe off-guard to all of the PCS).
For ones that are unaware of how effective Assurance (Athletics) is for the Athletic attack trait combat maneuvers (which ignores the -5 and -10 MAP penalty when using Assurance)...here you go. One of the PF2E devs confirmed that this is the intent for the Assurance skill feat.
The more I look at it, the more it does seem to work out better with Thaumaturge as the main, and keeping Pathfinder Agent into Scrollmaster for the FA. Scrollmaster doesn't really have much to do with scrolls, so I won't likely go down that road. I likely will take Trick Magic Item as a feat at some point but not at first level obviously. Still working on it though, for now.
@everyone: I think I already mentioned before, I am merely making suggestions for character options. One of the reasons is knowing there is a lot of game material and some options that fit a character concept a player has, that the player might not have read about specific options that fit the their character concept.
"What If...?" was one of my favorite comic series. Please consider my suggestions as "What if...?" possible options that you might or might not have already thought about yet.
@J Scot:
I do not recall if you have given any indication in the discussion or recruitment threads if you are new/new-ish to PF2E. So if I am boring you with this, I apologize. If not...read on! :D
In case you already read the above post, I did not want you to miss this addition (as well as by the time I finish typing this up the previous post will probably have its edit time window ended). - it did, it expired about 20 minutes ago.
If you decide to go with thaumaturge as the main class and use the artwork that inspired your character concept for the other implements he will eventually have...
The artwork has three implements: tome, bell (on his belt) and amulet.
A thaumaturge only gains the initial implement benefit for the third implement (that they gain at 15th level). They eventually gain both the initial and adept implement benefits for their 1st and 2nd implements. One of those they eventuallly gain the high-end paragon implement ability - so that could be the initial implement they started out with at 1st level or the one they acquired at 5th level.
The tome implement clearly fits your core character concept and makes sense as the initial implement.
So amulet or bell for second implement? Which of those two is the one you would only want to gain the initial implement benefit of? - that is the one to put as the 3rd implement you gain at 15th level.
For the 'What if...' version I personally think would be cool and fit your concept as well as match up to the artwork that inspired it, is as follows:
Tome (initial, adept and paragon benefits) - becoming legendary in two skills of your choice each day - what two monster lores do you want to be a penultimate scholar in for the day? As well as gaining the +1 to +2 bump for the Recall Knowledge checks.
Amulet (initial and adept beneifts) - the resistance you give yourself or an ally lasts until your next turn (so multiple strikes/sources of the same damage type are reduced) as opposed to the extending the bell's 1 round debuff to 3 rounds.
Bell (initial benefit) - whereas the amulet is more defensive, the bell is combat control, and as you mentioned the thaumaturgist was more combat oriented that you envision your character being, this would be the one of the three implements of the artwork inspiration that is the more 'combat' one.
Part of Stari's early life training (decided by her mother and the owner of the school) was with the goal of Stari becoming a healer (not a geisha) who tended to the injuries sustained by the geisha and students of the school. She continued her training as a healer, though her time was split between that training and the dragon training her in spellcasting. Her mother and the owner of the school knew that Stari was developing more of a wanderlust desire while her body continued to be affected by changes brought on by puberty. Few people that do not live or teach at school are aware of her being a 'were-dragon'. Stari's mother and the owner of the school knew that having her complete her healing training could help to ensure that Stari and her tengu friend, Chisek would have better chances of one day returning home, when the budding wanderlust in her fully bloomed and she set off to become an explorer of the world alongside Chisek.
@J Scot: Do you approve of the following: Chisek, being Stari's best friend, was one of the first people to know that Stari became a 'were-dragon, and more importantly, knows that the dragon is not Stari herself, but rather a distinct individual who shares a bond with Stari. As there are a few years between Stari's first encounter with the eidolon and when Chisek and Stari leave the Isles for Absalom, if you want, part of the various lore you have collected during the past few years was from conversations you had with the dragon (both while it was internal with Stari being the conversation go-between and while the dragon was external while Stari was internal).
Possibly some of the times (with Lia's approval) that Stari was 'sleeping' while she was internal and the dragon (which I have not named yet, still have not read up on Minata fully) was external and entertaining you with tales of various creatures of the world.
The left hip bag of the Hero Forge mini of her is her 'backpack', with the small pouches and iron vials that are part of the harness (is that the correct term for one a human wears?) are her healer's toolkit. The right hip smaller pouch is her money pouch.
The iron vials contain various things, such as antiplague and antitoxin ingredients (the kind that come with a healer's toolkit that are required for Treat Disease and Treat Poison).
Lots to catch up on. It was a busy Sunday on the thread!
In somewhat reverse order, I want to start with Assurance(Athletics). It is a trap, specifically for combat maneuvers.
It looks good on paper until you actually start comparing it with actual monster stat blocks. You only get 10+level+your Trained/Expert/etc to it, nothing else. No penalties, no bonuses.
What starts to happen fairly on, and becomes very common at mid-high level is that most Athletic maneuvers just fail, and can often crit fail, with Assurance. The loss of item bonus, and attribute score bonus, as well as the loss of a Hero Point reroll, is pretty vicious.
Now, Assurance (Athletics) with Climb, Swim, Jump, is very good starting around level 3. But, using it for Trip, Shove, Grapple, etc, falls off really fast. That doesn't mean it can't be effective, it's just not the auto-success button people seem to think it is.
I think with Assurance, people forget that you get very few additions to it, and assume you get a 10 plus everything, not a 10 with fewer things to add to it.
This is not meant to be a 'don't take it', but more of a note that it has a better reputation than the numbers actually support, just for informational purposes.
Re: Stari and out-of-combat healing:
Yes - and no. Yes, Stari has Medicine, and you plan to take the feats to support it. That's awesome!
But, at the moment, her Medicine is 3. That means she needs a 12, and so has a 60 percent failure rate on something with a massive, at this point, cooldown.
So, at level 1, which is all that I am looking at at this point, Stari is an out-of-combat option, yes, but you might want more. And you might not.
Also, you do have a Cloistered Cleric. Yesterday, I was quickly going over character profiles and not player posts about characters, which is my bad; I should have looked at everything!
re: MCDs.
It's still staying 1 for now. Down the road, after some play, I may - and I may not - revisit it. I want to get play in before making any calls like that so that we can see where the story takes the character.
re: Animal companions:
Thraben_U just like Friday did a nice deep dive video on them, and I can link it if people want.
Later today, I'm going to post covering some of the ways I run things like with RK, rests between fights, etc.
Regarding Assurance (Athletics): I was not as clear as I could have been:
To clarify up front: I am aware that assurance only uses a character's proficiency rank and no other modifiers (such as Str, status, item, circumstance bonuses and multiattack penalty).
My intent was to point out how effective Assurance (Athletics) becomes when using it instead of rolling when a character has a -10 multiple attack penalty.
For Assurance (Athletics) to be as effective as it can be for combat manuevers, a character should have Athletics proficiency maxed out.
note: Using Assurance (Athletics) to prevent outcome of critically failing the check where rolling has a chance to critically fail; I am treating 'no chance of critical failure' as being 'better' than 'no chance for critcal success'.
Roll typically beats Assurance for the first attack trait action of a character's turn (with rare exceptions - such as having a negative Strength penalty (or an effective negative Strength modifer via the Enfeebled condition value). One notable exception regarding using Assurance for the first attack action of the round, which it can give you a quick gauge of whether or not a foe is going to be easier or more difficult to control with Athletics combat manuevers - as Assurance (Athletics) is weighted to result in a success or failure and not a critical success or critical failure when you do not not have a MAP (and it becomes even more weighted against not resulting in a critical failure as opposed to rolling when a character does have a MAP).
Depending on what the various modifiers are Assurance can result in a better average result while having a -5 MAP (if the non-MAP modifiers provide less than a cumulative +5 bonus) - which means chances are you might not succeed with assurance (and will most likely not critically succeed) but you will also most likely not critically fail either. This is working with a character having Athletics at maxed out proficiency for the current level.
Where Assurance (Athletics) beats rolling is using it when you would have a -10 MAP if you rolled the skill check instead of taking assurance. You would have to have a total of +10 or more from non-proficieny bonuses for rolling to beat Assurance. If there was no circumstance bonuses and no penalties except for the MAP, with a +3 status bonus and a +3 item bonus, you would need a +4 Str bonus just to tie with having an average roll netting the same chance as success as using Assurance when rolling would have the -10 MAP.
Conclusion: Using Assurance (Athletics) as an opening attack trait action greatly weights no critical success/failure occurs. Kind of a physical equivalant of using the Recall Knowledge action, though has the negative consequence of giving a MAP for subsequent attack actions of the round, so it is not a good opening use of Athletics unless it is the only attack trait action a character is using for the round, though if Assurance resulted in a success, the character using Assurance for the remaining actions (against the same foe and targeting the same defense) guarantees auto-successes for those type of combat manauevers for the character's remaining actions of their turn.
When a character has a -10 MAP, using Assurance for the last action instead of rolling, Assurance has the benefit of 'gauging' a foe's defenses against combat maneuvers is almost always better than rolling - as there is usually no chance of critically failing the check using Assuranance when a character has a -10 MAP and would have a higher probability of critically failing at the Athletics check if the check is rolled instead of using Assurance.
Please provide a link for the animal companion deep dive video.
I am experienced with 2E from the other side of the screen but limited as a player. And Thaumaturge is not a class I have played before. With that said though, yeah, I was already considering Tome. It is the perfect implement for the character concept.
I also should clarify one thing. I didn't mean all combat, I was specifically referring to thaumaturge being more focused on "weapon" combat more. Strikes vs. Spells mostly. But looking into it more, while I still feel that the build isn't perfect, it is more like what I was envisioning. Using Recall Knowledge (and similar information based things) to help in fighting monsters.
Also, the idea of the focus was specifically monsters, and that is entirely what thaumaturge does. Bard is very similar, but less focused.
As for secondary implements, I was thinking wand for the second one but not sold on that. There is time to see what works for the build as well as what works for the group.
I should have the build posted later tonight. My brain was a little fried last night. Being sick and living in my office (to keep from catching Covid from my wife), I got burned out. I have a lot of the details down, just need to type them up.
Regarding post-combat healing. Stari also has the Soothe spell, though that is a very limited daily healing resource.
An additon to her story background - (after she already bonded with the dragon) - that she critically failed at a Medicine check (and caused damage - oops) but then used the Soothe spell to heal the damage she unintentionally caused. So she has already learned that it is better for her to attempt non-magical healing first, and to keep her magical healing in reserve for such potential future blunders she might make while mundanely tending to someone's wounds.
@J Scot: As Stari would be monitored by more proficient healers while assisting with healing duties at the school, are you okay with Chishik being the one Stari did the healing blunder on? Maybe while the two of them were hiking, Chisik twisted his ankle and mildly sprained it, and while Stari was trying to gauge how much ankle rotation Chisik temporararily lost, she agrravated the injury and made it a moderate sprain. This could be the day that Stari was planning to tell Chisik about the dragon, and due to the botched injury, Chisik gets surprised when Stari says some words in Draconic and her hands start to glow as her touch heals the sprain completely.
Also keep forgetting to mention: Stari speaks Tengu.
Male Ghost Poppet | HP 13/13 | PER +6 | AC 15/17 | Speed 24 | Size Small Psychic / 1 | Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +6
going to be a bit limited in posting this week... but should be able to keep up... just not expound on things too much.
Myrp is basically waiting till you guys figure out what brought you to Absalom before joining the conversation as he's never strayed more than a few blocks from Master Glynn's shop in Absalom in his short life.
Swapped out Stari being trained in Deception for Athletics. For Dual Studies, the dragon gains Deception instead of Athletics.
For the 6th level FA feat going with Lightning Swap. Though she does not typically brandish any weapons (though she does have a concealed corset knife), the dragon typically does the fighting, the feat gives her an action economy benefit of stowing two items in her hands with a single action.
When all of you can, please get up a posting profile for once we start the game itself, with at least the basics of the character, so I can quickly check things in combat, but there's no rush on that.
I want to touch on a few GM things, as every GM runs things differently. If you have questions about these or any other questions, please ask.
Hero Points: While I'm still trying to figure out the best ways to award Hero Points in PbP, given the lack of traditional sessions, the way I run them is simple - you take the best roll between the first and second roll. Or, in other words, rolling a hero point never makes your final result worse.
I might try the SF2 rule for them at some point, which is if you roll less than a 10 on the d20 for the hero point d20, it becomes a 10.
XP: I will likely use milestone levelling. I find that it better fits narrative flow, and, well, as I'd be deciding the milestones, I can just decide that I think it's been long enough, and you can all level.
Recall Knowledge: I love RK. I think it's a great element of the system. How do I run it? You roll the dice, and I'll add the most appropriate skill and let you know what you find out.
But can't this lead to metagaming? Sure, and I don't care. Metagaming is normal once players know a system, just normally, and I'd rather have the dice in players' hands as much as possible.
If you use RK and do not ask a question/questions, I will give you information about Immunities/Resistances/Weaknesses first. If you ask questions, I'll answer them. You can ask the question(s) when you make the roll.
Initiative: I stole this from Dr. Evil. I roll all of them, PC and NPC, and then we resolve in groups in whatever order people post.
I have updated the profile for Chishik. Went Thaumaturge. I still need to add a bunch of the details (such as what abilities he gets from Thaumature and such) in order to make reference easier, but I will work on that later. The decision are there though.
Melee: Shears +5 (Deadly d8, Finesse, Uncommon, Versatile P), Damage 1d4 S
Melee: Club +3 (Thrown 10 ft.), Damage 1d6 B
Melee Fist +5 (Agile, Finesse, Nonlethal, Unarmed), Damage 1d4 B
Ranged: Hand Crossbow +5 (Crossbow), Damage 1d6 P
Ranged: Alchemical Bomb +2 (), Damage Special Varies
Unleash Psyche: Trigger Your turn begins. Requirements You’re in an encounter, you Cast a Spell on your previous turn, and you aren’t stupefied. You call on the depths of your mind and let psychic power flood through. Your Psyche remains Unleashed for 2 rounds or until your fall unconscious, whichever comes first. You can’t voluntarily quell your unleashed psyche. While your Psyche is Unleashed, the following effects occur.
• You’re constantly surrounded by the visual manifestation of your psychic magic.
• When you cast a damaging spell, you gain a status bonus to its damage equal to double the spell’s level. This applies only to spells that don’t have a duration and that you cast using psychic spellcasting.
• You can use actions that have the psyche trait. After your unleashed psyche subsides, your mind must recover from the strain of channeling its full power. You can’t use Unleash Psyche again for 2 rounds, and you’re stupefied 1 for 2 rounds.
Calculate Threats: (Mental, Psyche, Psychic) Your subconscious automatically calculates vectors and forces when your mind is unleashed, showing you the likely path of incoming attacks to avoid. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to AC and Reflex saves until the beginning of your next turn.
Occult Known Spells: DC 16, attack +6;
* 1st Force Barrage, Kinetic Ram (1 slots);
* Cantrips Haunting Hymn, Needle Darts, Daze
* Focus Spells (2 points) Telekinetic Hand (Amped)
Telekinetic Projectile (Amped)
Telekinetic Rend
@Dr. Evil: I have no preferences for format as long as the key bits of information are there.
The three characters are all looking good.
I want to talk about posting real quickly, and then ask something, and touch on how the adventuring part of the story will begin.
For posting, it will vary when you are in RP and combat. For RP, as long as things aren't lagging, I'll be a lot more lenient, as I won't want to cut off RPing with each other, and/or getting information.
When it comes to combat, I'm going to be a lot more strict. Combat can drag PbP games to a crawl, so you have 24 hours to get a combat post up. This will not apply over holidays, naturally, but we can talk about how we want to handle those in November.
If there's no post in that time, I'll bot the PC, and you can have a botting preference in your profile. If you do, I'll use it. If you do not, I'll try to play your character the way that you have.
Getting the group together: I'm thinking that we will do this narratively, just to let you all figure out your characters' IC voices. However, if people want to skip it and just get to the adventure, that's also fine. I don't think it needs to be super involved, unless the group wants it to be.
The adventure start: It is a long way from Absalom to Brevoy, and we're not going to play that out as anything like a hexcrawl. Most of it will be Indiana Jones style dots on a map, as I explain your route and all.
However, it will not be without events:
There will be a skill challenge along the way (in the River Kingdoms);
There likely will be a challenge that can be overcome by combat or skills (likely at the Brevoy border);
There may be a combat challenge.
There will not be any dungeons until you get to your goal.
Human Swashbucker 1 / HP 20/20, Perc +5, AC 18 (20 w dodge), Fort +4 Ref +9 Will +5 / Active conditions: none
Will take cues from Lia and the others as far as getting the group togehter etc. I don't mind the role-playing of that but not sure the setting or hook yet. Happy to hand-wave it if the others want that approach.
I am good with the posting requirement, and will keep you updated if I cannot make it.
The journey and accompanying challenges are fine with me also. Half the fun is unexpected detours.
Here's the link to Thraben's video on Animal Companions. The whole channel is solid, and his videos are on the longer side, but he goes into a lot of detail.
Male Ghost Poppet | HP 13/13 | PER +6 | AC 15/17 | Speed 24 | Size Small Psychic / 1 | Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +6
Rules are good with me.
Perhaps we could invent or find a situation where the remainder of the group come across Myrp in a dangerous situation and somehow resolve things.
Perhaps a gang of street kids are pelting him with garbage and trying to pull the weird doll apart? Perhaps Myrp is struggling to pull a wagon loaded with toy parts and a unicorn head along the street and a wheel breaks?
Male Dromaar Ranger 1 | HP 20/20 | Perceotion +6 | Low-Light Vision | AC 18 | Speed 25 | Fort +7, Ref +8, Will +4| Young Bear Companion
Likewise, the rules work for me as well. No issues.
I'm open to starting like that, Myrp. If no one else volunteers, Khalaros isn't a fan of bullies. Funny how being a semi-outcast half-blood brings that out in a person, eh? I'm sure he'd step into help out.
Archpaladin Zousha, back with a name for my PC and backstory for her. Meet Jikah!
Description:
Jikah is a lean kobold of average height, with shiny bronze-colored scales, with small patches of bluish-green scales near the end of her tail, as if a patina is starting to appear there. She dresses in humble, but durable robes and around her neck she has an ornate amulet of an illuminated sword clutched in the claw of a dragon. She carries a sturdy staff topped with a similar dragon's claw curled into a fist.
Personality:
Earnest and cheerful (though her family would instead call her "stubbornly opinionated and annoying about it"), Jikah never wastes an opportunity to speak on her beliefs and connect them to the current situation, praising the Wyrmknight or thanking the Waybringer for his wisdom. She strives to teach her creed through example, acting as a beacon of justice tempered with mercy, and only resorting to violence when all other options have been exhausted, and minimizing it to restore peace as quickly as possible.
Background:
Jikah hatched into a tiny clan of tunnelfloods in the Puddles who mostly found work repairing buildings damaged by the perpetual flooding of the district and rebuilding collapsed ones. Jikah was largely expected to join her siblings and elders in the family business, learning construction and living quietly. However Jikah found she didn't have a strong arm for carrying beams and hammering nails, and her natural affability made her more useful on the public-relations side of things. Her family would often have her meet with potential clients and discuss plans and payment. It was on one of her many journeys around the Puddles to such a client, she first encountered members of the Platinum Band.
She noticed them helping rebuild a damaged building and providing food to poorer locals. She struck up a conversation with the seeming man in charge, Khonsu-Rho, and before long she'd been invited to the Consulate to discuss contract work. She eagerly shared her plans with her family, who, while grateful for the steady, reliable work, grumbled that charitable organizations didn't pay well. Jikah's family became favored contractors with the Platinum Band's aid efforts in the Puddles. As the go-between, Jikah spent much more time at the Consulate, absorbing the doctrine of the god Apsu and finding it resonated with her. She saw the similarities between dragons and kobolds and felt a paternal warmth from his teachings.
Occasionally she would also meet followers of other goodly gods who came to the Consulate to coordinate their own efforts in the Puddles with those of the church, and found inspiration from the stories of Iomedae, a mere mortal who achieved seemingly divine things. Then she learned about the great dragon Peace Through Vigilance, who seemingly referred to Iomedae as "Mother," and she came to the odd conclusion that it must mean Iomedae was in fact a dragon herself. She began researching both Iomedae's Acts and The Draconic Apsu for evidence to support this hypothesis and it was not long before she was ordained as a priestess herself, much to the chagrin of her family who would miss her negotiation skills.
Jikah's ambition caused her to develop ideas out of sync with her mentors. She knew the work her fellow priests did in the Puddles was important, but it was also a perpetual struggle against entropy. Until true systemic change was made in Absalom, the Puddles would continue to fester. And to make that kind of change, you had to change how people thought. And to do that, you had to show them another way was possible. So she gathered what gear she could and began looking for opportunities to aid the downtrodden in dramatic ways she could use to spread her beliefs and inspire others. In short, she'd become an adventurer.
Given Jikah's busybody nature, it'd be pretty easy for her to jump in and intervene encountering Myrp being harassed too. And she'd want to take the poor poppet under her metaphorical wing almost immediately upon hearing their story.
@scranford: Which district of Absalom is Master Glynn's store in? Which district contains the home of the family that bought Myrp? Do you have a particular district in mind for where the street kids are pestering you when some (all?) of the rest of our characters step in to help Myrp?
Unexpected stuff on the homefront came up, that took up most of my free time today and will take up some of my free time for the next few days. Will try to get Stari completed tomorrow.
Male Ghost Poppet | HP 13/13 | PER +6 | AC 15/17 | Speed 24 | Size Small Psychic / 1 | Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +6
GM_Drake wrote:
I will get Stari's profile completed tomorrow.
@scranford: Which district of Absalom is Master Glynn's store in? Which district contains the home of the family that bought Myrp? Do you have a particular district in mind for where the street kids are pestering you when some (all?) of the rest of our characters step in to help Myrp?
Master Glynn's shop was in the Coins between the Grand Bazaar and Mudhaven. It is scheduled for demolition in the next couple of weeks. The rascals who were harassing Myrp were recently kicked out of the Crystal Palace and are trying to get the attention of the "Family Dogs".
Myrp was acquired by agents of Lord Yamthar for his daughter but quickly discarded for more "interesting" toys. The noble house is House Ormuz.
