Aimless's page

Dire Elf wrote:

My familiar is now as smart and powerful as I am.

Everyone knows who I am. I have no privacy, and several kingdoms have banned me from entering them.

My first-level offensive spells are mostly good for killing flies.

I miss sleeping in a bedroll under the open sky instead of in an extraplanar mansion.

#level20problems

Now I want to run a game where everyone is playing level 20 characters. The nostalgic wizard gets the gang back together to hang up all their fancy equipment and do some low level quests for old time's sake.

That is a lot of fun. A nod to "old school dual-classing" is also doable. Have the 20th level characters cashier their swag, pick a completely different type of class and go to town in a new AP/campaign. Allow retraining to pick up entirely passive feats (saving throw feats, toughness, endurance, run, godless healing etc) then start over with a big pile of hp, nice ability scores (inherent boni are fun like that) and have a blast. 15 minute adventuring days should be far less of an occurrence. :D

Squooshing up lunch now: Greek yogurt, a banana, 1/8 c peanut butter, 1/8 c brown sugar.

For tan goo, it is surprisingly tasty.

That's all tasty stuff! If it doesn't taste good, blame the yogurt. ;)

Aimless wrote:

Treppa, how is the Soylent thing working out asides from the dreadfully long backorder? I've been curious about it as I find it rather appealing to simplify the domicile's foodstuffs once we eat out the ridiculous backlog of stores in the freezers.

I quite like it. It tastes like thin pancake batter, but taste isn't the point. One packet of Soylent for $7 each day is quick to make and quick to drink. I feel full and healthy and the calories and nutrition are all done for me. A pitcher will last unspoiled for 2-3 days, so if you only want it for, say, breakfast and lunch and to eat a normal dinner, you can use the pitcher over 2 days. Or you can mix up individual meals one at a time with The Scoop.

It's easy. I'm lazy. We're the perfect couple.

:) Awesome. Glad to come across people that have been using Soylent successfully.

6 pages of nothing but the word "yellow". 'tis enough to drive readers mad, MAD I say!

Tangent time.

(a) Somethings Should Not Be A tribe of kobolds that worship Shub-Niggurath are picking off outlying farmers and their families for appropriate sacrifices by stealth, trickery and guile. They leave booby traps behind to thwart nosy neighbors picking up their trail. The kobolds' goal is to "seed" several Dark Young in their turf to wipe out the annoying human settlements.

Depending on the APL, they're going to hopefully thwart the ritual before it is concluded, or they're going to tangle with one or more Dark Young. Best way to run something like this is to establish a timeline, during which other more mundane events are occurring. Let's see how well the players pay attention.

Are the PCs up to the task, or will a thing out of nightmare rampage through the budding kingdom?

(b) Winter is Coming or has Just Arrived. Go all Game of Thrones if you like with certain death encroaching by way of a horde of spawn-inducing frozen undead horrors, or keep it simpler. Especially for groups that lack access to plot-thwarting magic, a massive prolonged blizzard entrapping them in a creepy castle during the winter holidays is prime fodder for setting up a gaggle of "small stories" all interlocking. It snows and snows and snows, dropping a dozen feet of snow during the course of a few days. Combine The Shining, Clue, Castle Ravenloft and The Thing.

Using this for higher level groups it's not a matter of the weather so much as it is a matter of how many important NPCs they can keep alive and well until the weather breaks. If the characters have access to weather control spells, perhaps a particularly nasty creature is able to counter their magic with its own. A hag coven, wendigo or just a yet-to-be-revealed BBET has decided to test the capabilities of his/her/its potential foes with lesser, disposable minions. One may (or may not) possess information that gives the heroes their first clue to the lurking threat.

Will the PCs be able to save the lords and principle players of the realm, or will these persons be murdered by rivals and/or picked off by a hidden horror?

(c) Dead Reckoning An organization of bored gnomes with low moral standards, strong clannish bonds, the Fell Magic racial trait and a surplus of ambition have decided that it's time to take over for themselves. They're fond of Necromancy and during the course of Other Events have quietly been amassing an army of armored and armed zombies (variants as the NPCs are capable of, although brain-eating zombies are recommended). Perhaps these charming chaps are the gnomes that have traditionally taken care of funeral arrangements, wakes and holiday ball/party planning.

Current events have taken a toll on the trained guards et al - i.e., all of the NPCs with respectable armor and weapons training with those that knew how to handle siege engines being particularly prized. Once they feel that they have enough of a force, they stage a coup of their own. A dozen or so 3rd level clerics or 4th level oracles with lesser animate dead can field a force of at least 100-200 zombie shock troopers with skeleton archers providing ranged firepower. An extended clan of 30-50 could directly command a much larger force, especially with access to Command Undead (feat) and command undead spells. Liberal use of desecrate and a choice voidstick makes this a nasty adventure for a lower-level group to contend with. The gnomes don't know the true power of a voidstick, or they'd be bending all of their resources to acquiring a great many of them.

Will the adventurers twig to any discrepancies as Clan Fellgnome prepares its master stroke, or will a horde of brain-eating undead pour into the Holiday Ball with indiscriminate hunger?

(d) Running Amok A supposedly simple premise: a powerful demon able to possess others gets it in its head that the local orphanage or school house is a prime source of entertainment. Not by endangering the children or bringing them to harm ... oh no. By using the urchins as the hands that its skills bring to bear. Sabotage, poisonings, sneaking in to acquire blackmail materials, starting up stampedes, many things are possible.

Can the heroes determine what is going on and stop the fiend before it unleashes a fire in the crops shortly before harvest time? If it succeeds in doing so before they track it down and stop it, how will they handle the potential famine?

Buuurrnn insignificant escapees from the nuthouse. BUURRN!! Lurvs me some star vampires.

Treppa, how is the Soylent thing working out asides from the dreadfully long backorder? I've been curious about it as I find it rather appealing to simplify the domicile's foodstuffs once we eat out the ridiculous backlog of stores in the freezers.

Aimless wrote:

5 players works well too in my experience and in some ways is preferable to only 4. If nothing else, when the RLM shows up and noms on one player, the game should be able to continue with minimal interruption.

RLM=Real Life ?Monster?

We recently added a fifth player to our Serpent's Skull game. I kinda resisted it, because it's supposed to be my "run with minimal prep" game, but it's working alright so far. One of the original players is chronically missing so the fifth player ensures they're always at least at the power level the book expects. But as they gain more system mastery (and assuming the absent player changes her ways), I'll have to add more enemies to compensate.

At least we don't have NobodysHome's scheduling issues :O

Monster, yes. Or Manager. Or Mayhem-and-foolishness. Take your pick.

With newer players, a 5th is no big deal as you've seen. Give them a couple-three AP's under their belt and then you can bring on the pain. ;)

Why does no one listen to me about this thing? It's very useful...

We use those, wonderful things to implement.

If the gaze's range was greater than 30 feet (it isn't), and if it had a speed better than 20' (it doesn't), I'd be more inclined to agree. A DC 15 Fort at 6th level is usually at worst a 50/50 proposition before factoring in basic tactics like averting one's gaze.

The fairness of a basilisk encounter is heavily dependent on the specifics of the encounter and how the dice went for the players. If the encounter's design sets the PCs up at gaze range, the encounter CR is much harder.

Under fairly typical encounter circumstances, the PCs - especially with anything remotely decent in Knowledge (arcana) available to them - should have twigged to the danger and adjusted their tactics accordingly. i.e., fragged the thing from outside of 30'.

They didn't, two characters are now statues and the survivors have to get a little creative to solve that problem. Can we help the OP instead of bickering about supposed 'encounter fairness', please?

He got lucky that Karzoug didn't dispel that maze out from under him. ;)

Basilisks and medusae are mean like that. However, all is not lost.

A creature petrified in this matter that is then coated (not just splashed) with fresh basilisk blood (taken from a basilisk no more than 1 hour dead) is instantly restored to flesh. A single basilisk contains enough blood to coat 1d3 Medium creatures in this manner.

Load your buddies and the basilisk's corpse in a cart and head to a town that has a 9th level cleric lying around. Any distance is doable with the cleric's access to gentle repose every few days (to preserve the basilisk's carcass) and create food and water to provide chow. It's just a matter of how far you have to go. Once there, either hire the break enchantments to be cast or take the plunge, cough up a 5k gp diamond and the 450 gp in cash for the spellcasting service to drop a raise dead on the basilisk. Kill it, drain its shiny new reserve of fresh blood and smear it on your petrified buddies. It would be preferable from a cost standpoint to pay for the break enchantment spells, but those are not guaranteed to work, nor are your buddies guaranteed to make the Fort save to survive returning to flesh via break enchantment. The basilisk blood should not pose that risk, one hopes.

Aimless wrote:

jemstone wrote:

Snowblind wrote:

I wouldn't go as far to call it "objectively" better. Character development aside, V is a blaster and an enchanter. Xe* is exactly the sort of wizard who would want to target xir enemies with impunity while hiding behind the safety of invisibility. Whether it is worth the extra spell levels is debatable, but V *could* get good use out of it over invisibility.

*man, writing with gender neutral pronowns feels wierd

Use They/Their/Them.

Gender neutral pronouns that have existed since the modern language was codified. And nearly all of my non-binary friends prefer them, to boot.

They/their/them are plural, correct? What is the gender neutral singular pronoun besides "it" that would work well? I'm really curious in the "I want to know so as to better communicate" form of curiosity.

Originally, "you" was second person plural in English; "thee" and "thou" were the correct singular forms (used in the same manner as "me" and "I"). Using "they/them/their" in place of "it" (which has connotations of non-personhood) is a possible shift in language use for a gender-neutral pronoun that has become more popular.

Coolness, thanks! This is going to take some getting used to, as I agree about "it" being reserved for inanimate objects. "Someone" will suffice for the singular it seems, as "they" and "them" come across as plural, with "their" being both singular and plural. Neat stuff.

What about nearby towns that have access to raise dead? Have them cast it on the basilisk whose corpse's blood you've drained, grease it quickly, drain it of blood and try the basilisk blood thing again on your buddies?

All of the HD cost onyx, based on their "animation cost" in HD. A small or medium zombie has 2 HD (cost 50 gp). An ogre zombie has 6 HD (cost 150 gp), but if you make it an alchemical zombie variant it costs 300 gp (12 HD 'cost'). Stack on fast zombie for an alchemical fast zombie it costs 450 gp (18 HD 'cost').

Does that help?

Some of those lost would be watching/attending a football game today. Honor them all, by remembering the fallen and enjoying a game to spite those that would have us live in fear.

Aimless wrote:

jemstone wrote:

Snowblind wrote:

I wouldn't go as far to call it "objectively" better. Character development aside, V is a blaster and an enchanter. Xe* is exactly the sort of wizard who would want to target xir enemies with impunity while hiding behind the safety of invisibility. Whether it is worth the extra spell levels is debatable, but V *could* get good use out of it over invisibility.

*man, writing with gender neutral pronowns feels wierd

Use They/Their/Them.

Gender neutral pronouns that have existed since the modern language was codified. And nearly all of my non-binary friends prefer them, to boot.

They/their/them are plural, correct? What is the gender neutral singular pronoun besides "it" that would work well? I'm really curious in the "I want to know so as to better communicate" form of curiosity.

"They/their/them" works perfectly well when you want to refer to someone, but you're uncertain of their gender.

Coolness. Seems odd that they/their/them applies to an individual, but I'll happily take it!

uh ... wow ... bearded men, political parties, singing, football, volunteer ax-wielding home savers ... exciting stuff there in Yermany!

Beer, campfire s'mores ice cream, Munchos and whatever random stuff I can scrounge outta the fridge. *hic*

Snowblind wrote:

I wouldn't go as far to call it "objectively" better. Character development aside, V is a blaster and an enchanter. Xe* is exactly the sort of wizard who would want to target xir enemies with impunity while hiding behind the safety of invisibility. Whether it is worth the extra spell levels is debatable, but V *could* get good use out of it over invisibility.

*man, writing with gender neutral pronowns feels wierd

Use They/Their/Them.

Gender neutral pronouns that have existed since the modern language was codified. And nearly all of my non-binary friends prefer them, to boot.

They/their/them are plural, correct? What is the gender neutral singular pronoun besides "it" that would work well? I'm really curious in the "I want to know so as to better communicate" form of curiosity.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Bards are the most OP class in the game.

They can be, especially if they're able to gimp along until they get Versatile Performance.

Starting at 2nd level = convert 1 set of Perform skill ranks into TWO sets of skill ranks at no cost ... hell yeah.

By 10th level a bard can invest ranks in 3 skills and wind up with Cha-based awesomesauce in SIX skills. And they still have 3 other skill ranks/level plus INT bonus (if any) plus favored class bonus (if applied) etc. etc. ... oh yeah, let's bring on some pain.

Lots and LOTS of Extra Performance, plus a few masterpieces ... yikes.

Maybe he isn't the type of player who gets enjoyment from seeing his subtle machinations on party have effect on the enemies as they tear them apart?

Seriously, why don't people like playing buffers more often? :D

I was pawing through the masterpieces the day I posted the above comment. With the several that can benefit from Lingering Performance and that some of them just look like a lot of fun, I know my back-up plan if my current character gets turned into toe jam. Especially once you hit 7th level, the fun really gets going!

" Lemme get this straight, you let loose a riff on your git box as a move action that sets all the bad guys on fire, doing something else nasty as a swift, take a 5-foot step and STILL have a standard action?! " "Yep."

A wizard with evocation and counter-spelling capabilities. Seems pseudo-divine to me. ;)

Surprised that Deady McDeadDead doesn't roll up a bard themed to whatever musical taste suits his fancy. Then he could make himself useful ramping up the rest of the group's ability to bring on the pain with assorted reactive abilities (countersong, distraction, et al) - and wait until he gets within range of those awesome masterpieces!!

The gunslinger built on all 10s - the player had only applied racial ability score modifiers having entirely forgotten about the character's point-buy pool. Dangit I can't remember the name...

5 players works well too in my experience and in some ways is preferable to only 4. If nothing else, when the RLM shows up and noms on one player, the game should be able to continue with minimal interruption.

remove fear, just for one suggestion ;)

I lost track, but whatever happened to Mr. Mediocre?

Found Nationwide to be pretty reasonable pricing-wise, quite a bit better than GEICO, Progressive, Allstate and Liberty Mutual. No idea how they handle accidents/car wrecks, which is a trend I fervently hope continues until they pull my drivers license for being too old and crotchety.

Edit: Ragadolf, insurance companies are gonna bone us no matter what. Usually they're gentle about it, sometimes they're not... ;)

Aimless wrote:

World geography questions do not imperil the Presidency. Lunacy and greed do. ;)

Not recognizing the largest city in one of the biggest current conflict zones that he'd have to be deal with as President isn't a trivial "world geography question".

Of course, if they'd asked anything that tough of Trump in the forum last night, maybe we'd be able to judge between the two.

Considering many Americans are pretty bad at geography, this should not come as a surprise. Syria may not be trivial in terms of foreign policy, but it's also not the #1 geopolitical concern.

Now, if he couldn't pick out China or Russia on a world map, it would be a much greater concern.

A week (as outlined above).

Spellcasting services costs suggest that a timely arrival aboard the Kelpie's Wrath elsewhere to return him whence he came via the Eye of Abendengo - i.e., delivered by Besmara's Herald itself - would be but a portion of the plunder 'tithed' to Besmara by the PCs.

A bit of fun could be had with the divinations used to track him down going squirrely as they indicate multiple plane shifts before his whereabouts start 'pinging' closer and closer to wherever they're calling port.

YARR!!

World geography questions do not imperil the Presidency. Lunacy and greed do. ;)

The DCs are low enough that use of the Heal skill could alleviate the diseases (not sure about the infestations). The worry I have is how long it is going to take a group to get through. It looks like they only have a week...

Oh joy! A n00b?

Been here a while, just fired up a new forum ID to get away from unwanted baggage.

Now we know what happens to all of the barely-worth-it zombies Necromancers cut loose once they have access to ogres. They wander off, join a Zombie Union and eventually strike.

In what way?

Aimless wrote:

Slumber Hex characters are in for a bad time in this chapter. I hope that trend continues throughout the rest of the AP.

One of my players will be running a sleep-casting mesmerist capable of stacking up to -6 on saves vs. sleep (at level 1). Worse: mesmerists can take away mind-affecting communities from NPCs... even undead, constructs, etc.

So I have that to look forward to.

Well ... at least not until 3rd level it looks like. So you can enjoy that not being an issue for the first 2 levels! ;)

Put with the link where the _ is, then close with to complete the link. In between the two put in however you want to name the link.

Like so. :)

Slumber Hex characters are in for a bad time in this chapter. I hope that trend continues throughout the rest of the AP.

For starters:

Sap Master Rogue.
Grab a level of Snakebite Brawler and 5 of Scout Unchained Rogue. Take Dragon Style by way of rogue talent(ninja trick(style master)), Sap Adept and Sap Master, Bludgeoner, Power Attack and a +1 merciful Earthbreaker. Charge (through allies and terrain.) Assuming your hit connects, you should be nailing your target for 2d6 + 1.5(Str) +6 + 2d6 + 8d6+8 nonlethal damage, or 12d6 + 1.5(Str) +14. Assuming an 18 strength, you're hitting for an average of 62 nonlethal, plenty to OHKO most any 6th level appropriate foe, provided it's not immune to non lethal or sneak attack.

But, needs moar damage and less points of failure.

Standard Shocking Grasp Magus.
With a +1 spellstoring pointy object (with empowered intensified shocking grasp loaded), cast empowered intensified shocking grasp, walk up, spellstrike to deliver. Conservative estimation assuming level 8: 1d6 + Str + 1.5(10d6) + 1.5(10d6) = ded target most of the time. That's around 104 average electricity damage.

What if I want my party to get in on the fun?

Dazing Fireballs.
Take the metamagic reducing traits of Wayang Spellhunter and Magical Lineage, selecting Fireball. Take Dazing spell metamagic feat. Pump your Fireball DC with everything else you've got. Cast Dazing Fireball from a 4th level slot. If they fail their reflex save, they're dazed for three rounds while you finish them off at your leisure. If you need more rounds to mop up, cast another Fireball. In addition to the usual (arcane) suspects, this can also be done effectively by certain species of Cleric (Theologian, Ecclesitheurge.) Make sure to grab Selective Spell to avoid nuking (and dazing) your allies!

Now I want to see a party of all three of these run around...

I mean, monsters have hit points. How you want to deplete them in a round is up to you. Save or Dies work, buckets of damage work, action denial effectively removes the 1 round restriction... Just stick them with the pointy end.

Out of curiosity, how is an 8th level Magus attaining CL 10th on his shocking grasp?

Truly impressive, Comrade Ankelbiter.

Players (including GMs) that can't eat with their mouths closed. Is it no longer considered polite for people to not hear each other chewing? Ugh!

Hmm. So many delicious immigrants.

I'm betting that when the zombie hordes shamble forth they will agree. ;)

Some of the encounters are a cakewalk ... some decidedly are not, even for 5 PCs, as written.

You revisions look quite challenging. Be sure to let us know how many bodies hit the floor in the obits thread! :D

Aimless wrote:

I lower the bar further with The Howling series. ;)

I have to disagree...

The first The Howling was state of the art for it's time and looked 100 times better than most of the Underworld movies.

Fair enough! I concur that the first Howling is well done even for today's standards. The rest ... not so much.

I lower the bar further with The Howling series. ;)

Ordinarily I go with using the quick-n-dirty method of XP for groups of 4 or 5 in an AP, i.e., don't change anything, divvy by 4 and award it to all 5. Where it says each character gets ## xp, give 'em that xp. It is more important that the characters attain levels on-track than not.

The treasure deficit balances itself out over time in my experience. Just go with the flow. If you feel they're lagging, adjust as necessary.

Alternatively, use the automatic bonus progression system from Ultimate Campaign, removing/modifying treasure accordingly (usually by stripping magical enhancement bonuses off of everything). This is probably the easiest method to keep PC gear on track.

Well ... if your your players like their characters and you don't mind some handwavium, perhaps their Serpent's Skull characters get mind-swapped by Yithians for 5 years and wind up gibbering and gearless in an asylum to kick off Strange Aeons?

Aimless wrote:

Out of curiosity, where does Questioner come from? I'm not having any luck finding it.

Magic Tactics Toolbox.

Ah, found it, thanks.

Tacticslion wrote:

It's sad that, in either presidency, a strong argument could be made for dictatorial governance. After all, with "this is what happens when the people govern..." as an opener, I could even see such things being compelling. I'm never going to buy it, of course, but it still makes me sad that it could be presented and used to make a reasonable-looking case.

I'm personally hoping that, once whatever major abuse happens does, regardless of the candidate, impeachment and dismissal are handled quickly, and that the Vice is better. I'm not holding my breath. Similarly, I'm hoping that the weight of the office gives pause to whomever wins it, and maybe causes them to change course so the inevitable abuse doesn't occur. I'm similarly optimistic about results. (I'm not, in case it wasn't clear, at all optimistic.)

LOL. NobodysWife feels the presidency should be chosen by lottery. "OK, who wants to be president? All of you guys? OK, you're excluded. Now, everyone else? The person with ticket #1356256 is now dictator for 4 years..."

I like it, except it wouldn't be so easy to exclude those who WANTED the position.

I would say that affirmation is by way of strenuous protestation by the lottery recipient. Perhaps by requiring threat a lawsuit if the lottery persists in assigning office.

Of course ... one has to wonder whom oversees the Presidential Lottery... ;)