Sadly the one lower on the attack roll is going to spoil that max damage roll.
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As much as I'd like to join a Zeitgeist game, I was taking a look at my current time expenditure and I just can't fit another game in right now. Have fun those who apply and get chosen!
Hope that's not one short
That's my assumption. My build for Brennus, the awakened raven arcanist, is coming along nicely. :)
All right, I'll see about a Brennus build then! :)
Ooo, seems fun to me! I've been known to wax a bit poetic with my characters myself. :D Speaking of my characters, I'm definitely leaning towards the awakened raven. I was thinking of either a Sphere Arcanist or a Theorist, or maybe a multiclass of the two--so some specialized spellcasting with some skil focus, too. Hopefully that wouldn't overlap too much with Gauntlet? I don't think it should, but he *would* have a lot of investment into Knowledge (Arcana) and Spellcraft, so if it feels like too much overlap I could go with a different idea.
That's fine, take your time, we know it's a hard time for you.
Oh, I have many ideas of what I want to play. XD An awakened raven, who gained intelligence and magical power over the course of being a familiar to a wizard and then a witch, and now hungers for greater arcane power and knowledge. A huge lion-man haunted/semi-possessed by the spirits of four bloodthirsty monsters (the Sphinx, the (Nemean-style) Lion, the Chimera, and the Griffon), trying to channel their strength for good while fighting against their influence. A shape-shifter following dreams of a being calling itself "The Eye-Spotted Leopard", claiming to give her power to break every chain that would hold her back, including such things as gravity and conservation of mass. A displacer-beast-taur, the product of a mad wizard... who treated him as a beloved son, only to accidentally kill himself because he was, well, mad, and couldn't make himself follow proper laboratory safety procedures while experimenting, leaving his creation to find a place in the world. A minotaur oracle of metal, who took up mercenary work to pay for materials for his ever-more-elaborate pieces of metal artwork. I could go on. XD So basically I have an idea for any kind of party slot that needs to be filled.
Oooof, that's terrible. :( Definitely take all the time you need.
Oh, hey Shadow! It's been a while. Anyway, Way of the Wicked... not my favorite, but templates are tempting. :D Maybe I'll rebuild my one werewolf who considered himself a Hound of Hell?
Hmmm, with that background I'm not as opposed to Throne of Night. At least it sounds like the drow aren't as... well, stupidly self-destructive evil as the Forgotten Realms ones are.
I'd lean more toward War of the Burning Sky simply because I rarely want to play 'evil campaigns'. Drow in particular don't interest me as a possible PC.
I would be *very* interested in Zeitgeist, and to a lesser degree War of the burning Sky, but have no interest in Throne of Night.
@Almonihah: What form is the telepathy apparatus going to take? Just curious since you could potentially make it take some cool forms: an embedded cosmic gem, some kind of strange starmetal that lines the First Flame's feathers, or what have you. It's not really a huge deal or anything, I just found myself wondering about the visuals. I'm still debating to some degree. My first inclination was to make it some weird part of its anatomy--a heart made of electron-degenerate matter like a white dwarf, or something like that. I liked the idea of it having some part of it that reflects different stages in the life cycle of stars that would also be something insanely rare and valuable the unscrupulous might covet. But I just had an idea about how maybe The First Flame was voiceless when it came to be. The young gods of its universe didn't recognize it was actually a sapient at first because of this, until one inventor god realized just how intelligent it was and created a strange and wondrous device that, when fueled by the stellar phoenix's plasma, could attach thoughts and words to the light it shed. So I think I'm leaning towards some bizarre contraption made of celestial bronze tubes that's implanted in its chest.
I'm probably going to go with the Apparatus idea for the telepathy, I realized there's a way to make a Spheres of Power item an implant, so I could more-or-less make it an innate ability that way. Still going to cost a lot of gold, though. XD I'm just pretty settled on Holy, Advanced, and Titanic for templates. This is my calculation for the telepathy apparatus:
Cost: 128000 That said, I *think* I'm done with the build now. I just need to transfer it to a profile...
Okay, it was pointed out to me that I could buy some Wishes to boost The First Flame's wisdom, so I just need to figure out the telepathy thing.
All right, I have a nearly-complete spreadsheet version of The First Flame here. Still need to finish deciding on equipment, but other than that it's a complete draft. I'm rather pleased I was able to settle on a perfectly balanced ratio of Destruction, Life, and Light talents. :D It's pretty straightforward for the most part. If people need some healing, it can heal 12 creatures within 85 feet of it for 7d20+125 damage, and if it needs something to die it can throw out a ray of burning light that deals 224 damage which ignores spell resistance and fire resistance and does such fun things as blinding, setting on fire, or exposing the target to radiation. Or it can blow up a 85' radius area within 3500' range with that damage. It can also radiate light that gives a bonus against fear saves... or 50 damage a round. Oh, it can also bite you, but that's not really very impressive except for the fact it can add that destructive blast onto its attacks. Is it the most optimized damage-dealer? Not by a long shot. It feels like a gigantic sun-phoenix, though, and that's what I was really going for. Let's see, remaining issues... * I'd still really like it to be telepathic, but building a long-range telepathy aparatus was getting expensive. The Helm of Telepathy is not really how I want its telepathy to work, though. Ideally its telepathy would actually work through its Light--the concept I have is that it actually communicates through the light it sheds, but obviously there's not going to be anything for that in the rules...
It's almost like templates are intended to make brutish monsters suitable for slaying after a dramatic battle, while all paragons of goodness, cunning masterminds, and devout priests are assumed to be humanoids with class levels. :D It's a sign of the inherent humanoidcentricity of the rules! Down with speciesist systems! Full support for sapients without opposable digits! Err, anyway... I'll probably go with the idea of two +1 CR templates that add up to +8 Wisdom. So far that's looking like Advanced + Holy, though Holy is kind of iffy... The First Flame *is* neutral good, but it's a bit more Neutral than Good, dedicated more to the preservation of Life in the abstract and on the large scale. Oh, that does bring up a question. The Titanic template on its own (plus a +2 from ABP) gets The First Flame to 40 strength, so taking Advanced would break the stat cap. Should I just ignore anything that would take a stat above 40, does it mean I can't have another template that adds to strength, or some other option?
It's a species, not a template, but you can find it on the Spheres of Power wiki here!
I just realized there's no reason I can't just pick two +1 CR templates that add up to +8 Wisdom. XD I'd still be grateful if you could take a look. And thanks for the suggestions, Grumbaki. I might go with Holy + Advanced, but I'm keeping Titanic (look, stars are big, so it needs to be too :D). I was thinking I should write out my full backstory/description and design goals for The First Flame. It's going to be kind of long, so spoilers it is! :D Backstory & Description:
On one small material plane, the first creator gods got a little overexcited when igniting the first star. A flare erupted from its newly-burning surface when they ignited it. This flare split from its parent star, charged with the excess power of creation the gods had poured into the star, and formed great wings and keen talons, becoming the first and greatest of all phoenixes (for its plane, at least). The gods were a bit surprised by this, but it knew its purpose. It would go forth to bring light and warmth to the coldest and darkest corners of existence, and since that time it has flown the void, bringing its fire to those who need it most.
…or so one legend says of its origin. But legends about it are as numerous as its names: The Sunwing, The Beginning of Phoenixes, The Stellar Eagle. When asked, the name it gives for itself most often is The First Flame, but it acknowledges the others, as well. What is certain is that The First Flame is a being of great compassion, but also terrible wrath. At times they descend on a darkened corner of a world and bring hope to a dying people, using its power to rekindle life where it was almost extinguished. At other times their coming is marked by vitrifying entire swaths of land with its flames--sometimes because of an obvious threat, other times when no danger can be seen. Still other times it descends in its smaller, anthropomorphic form, to speak to and guide individuals or nations that were lost in metaphorical darkness. Also certain is its incredible age, having lived to see the cycle of life and destruction that stars go through, seeking in some way to emulate in itself the way stars are the ultimate source of all warmth and light in the universe, yet simultaneously the most destructive forces in existence... and how that destruction births new worlds and stars. It came to Hyraeatan recently, by its reckoning, meaning it's 'only' been in the city for a little under a century. It is officially a member of the Ashlords faction, though they are known to also have some ties to the Cocoon Pact, sometimes serving as a liason between the two factions. Its belief in the cycles of destruction and creation are well-suited to this position, though it does draw some suspicion from the more 'orthodox' members of the Ashlords. In its natural form The First Flame is a titanic mass of stellar plasma in the vague shape of a great eagle with a 400' wingspan, its plummage glowing in shifting hues of yellows, oranges, and reds, its eyes churning orbs of brilliantly-burning flame. While in Hyraeatan it more frequently appears in the form of a humanoid bird with the same fiery plummage. In either shape, it never speaks aloud, instead the very light it sheds seeming to form words or images in those it wishes to converse with. Build Goals:
The core ideas of The First Flame are, roughly in order:
* It combines the rebirth theme of the phoenix with the way stars can be formed due to the deaths of other stars
From these core ideas come some essential goals and some nice-to-have goals. Essential goals
* It needs to be capable of incredible destruction via fire. Current plan is to have a lot of talents in the Destruction and Light spheres to make it roughly capable of causing small nuclear explosions or simply radiating enough heat to incinerate its surroundings. * It also is a source of life. Current plan is a lot of talents in the Life sphere. * It must be immune to fire. This is where the Light Immunity from the Lightbringer deific talent comes in. * It must be able to traverse space, meaning it needs to be able to survive and fly in vacuum. Surviving vacuum means not breathing (probably via the Universal Mythic Path ability) and being able to resist any cold damage involved (note this means I do *not* want it to have the Fire subtype, as that gives cold vulnerability... and what kind of star is vulnerable to cold?). Starflight is harder--the only way I've come up with so far is to get Mythic Transformation so it can have a 'space form' that includes the Starflight ability from the Star-Spawn Body Alteration talent. Not my favorite solution. Nice-to-haves * Its mere presence should be able to cause positive effects, like how warm sunshine can be comforting and hopeful. Some Light sphere abilities will help here. * It should be dangerous in melee. It *is* a giant bird after all. Currently thinking of Mageknight abilities for this plus being able to use Strike talents. * Its presence should also be capable of causing great harm. Light sphere abilities here again. * It should be capable of long-range telepathy (preferably as its only method of communication). It's a space bird, it needs to communicate by something that doesn't take an atmosphere, and preferably at a longer distance than 60' or 100'. My current idea here is a very, very expensive Spheres of Power Apparatus. ...I'm sure there were some others I was thinking of, they'll come back to me probably. My current draft build is Titanic Holy Advanced Fenghuang Incanter 20/Mageknight (Sun Warrior) 20 Spheremaster/Guardian 1.
If there's any other template that gives +8 to a mental stat (preferably Wisdom, Charisma isn't my favorite pick for casting stat for The First Flame) and is thematic for a stellar phoenix, I'd be glad to not pick the exact same thing as everyone else. :D
That's painful for sure :( I was going to write this big post about thoughts for The First Flame, but it's late now. XD So I'll just say, I'm thinking of swapping templates, keeping Titanic but having its other template be Sublime, because I want to lean a bit into how stars in Pathfinder cosmology usually contain portals to the Positive Energy Plane. Also leaning towards its second Boon being Boon of the Apex Entity, picking up the Lightbringer sphere and the Cosmic Power and Immunity to Light talents. If I do go with a Radiance instead, the ones I was looking at were the Radiance of Light and the Radiance of Perpetual Life.
All right! And yeah, I thought there were some winged species out there that I could use, I just didn't know them off the top of my head. It'll save me a template, which will probably be used if I can find some +1 template that grants Spaceflight... Another question, if I picked Boon of the Legend-Wielder for the other boon, would a Radiance be an acceptable minor artifact? I'm sure I'll have more questions when I have time to sit down and actually work on the build. XD Edit: I'm probably also going to want to know about Spheres of Power Oaths, if that hasn't been covered already.
Oh, I hadn't seen this. I could probably build a version of The First Flame, my solar phoenix born from the ignition of a plane's first star, using this rules. Slapping Avian, Element-Infused (fire), and Titanic on a character should be able to turn pretty much any medium-sized PC species into a gigantic firebird. :D (Yes, this is me asking if that combo would be allowed--and I would make sure the character could be effective in more human-scaled surroundings, as well.)
That's not good XD
I'm still in-progress on Rahlmaat, my sphinx Legendary Wizard/Prodigy. She, uh... may prove that thing mentioned earlier about primary spellcasters not needing gestalt to be ridiculous at 20th level, so I may see about toning things down...
I haven't spoken up much, but I'll be making a Prodigy/Legendary Wizard.
Choosing is always hard, yes. :D
My Rahlmaat build, on the other hand, is leaning towards "I can cast any spell or combination of sphere abilities a few times per day". XD
I decided to rebuild my dragonkin technomancer for this, hopefully I'll have him done tomorrow or Friday.
Hmmm... maybe I'll rebuild Rahlmaat as a Prodigy/Legendary Wizard, using my tried-and-true "With Transformation and Improved Transformation you can play any monster you can fit into a few Alteration traits" hack. :D
Oh, a Starfinder game! Hmmm... is it time for me to build an ilthisarian?
Yeha, there seems to be plenty of people who haven't played, so I think I'll withdraw my interest.
1) You know me, I'll want to play some monster class. :D Probably Spheres on top of it. 2) Fine with me. 3) Finishing play-by-post campaigns is already hard enough without making them longer. I'd rather play it as-written, maybe with adjustments to the difficulty of encounters if it feels like they're needed after the first couple, than add in some extra things and end up losing momentum and joining the vast graveyard of unfinished campaigns.
You know my tastes for games like these :D
Hmmm, I'm very tempted to make a tengu witch, possibly beast-bonded or jinx witch, but I *have* played through all of Hell's Rebels before so it feels like I should let people who haven't played it play.
Have fun everyone!
Have fun all of you!
Have fun you six! I will eagerly await the formation of the other party. :D
Welcome Shulfenth. You are an accepted applicant. I don't know much about the Lirgeni so far, so we will see how that plays out at the Magaambya. There's not a lot about the Lirgeni, since Lirgen was destroyed when the Eye of Abendego formed and most of the survivors fled. Just about the only thing mentioned about them in the setting books is that they were eager astrologers--which is probably why they get along well with the less xenophobic lizardfolk, since lizardfolk also look to the stars for guidance frequently. There's more information on the lizardfolk of the Sodden Lands than the Lirgeni, in fact. :D I'm thinking Shulfenth's clan, being more willing to work with other species, was probably driven out of the Sodden Lands by the Terwa Lords, meeting some surviving Lirgeni as they went and banding together for protection at first, then deciding they were strong enough to challenge those who had already claimed Jaha for themselves. Of course, when they found the city abandoned, figuring out the strange writings and such in the city became a high priority lest the same happen to them. Oh, I have looked at the names of the modules in the adventure path, and Spoiler:
I saw that one of them is "Doorway to the Red Star". The Doorway to the Red Star is actually not far from Jaha, so that might be a way to link in Shulfenth's history to the adventure path... In terms of Shulfenth himself, to expand a bit on what I said before, I see him as being pretty young--around 16 (lizardfolk reach adulthood at 15). But since most other humaniods can't really tell lizardfolk ages by sight, he likes to act older and wiser than he is. The facade pretty quickly falls apart when you get to know him. He's kind of caught between honoring and respecting his people's ancient traditions and thinking they're outdated since they haven't really helped the Iruxi prosper in the past few thousand years. He kind of consciously tries to view human ways with an open mind, but subconsciously still falls back on ancient lizardfolk tradition in moments of difficulty. A couple other notes:
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