Anders Keseth's page

I'm just curious what could have caused the whole thing to go down like that.

Asem, do you want to try to interrogate the gargoyle yourself, or bring it back as a captive and let the authorities handle it? Anders would probably vote to turn him in with the explanation that they seem capable of talking, reasoning and even casting spells from scrolls, so he should probably be handled like any other reasoning being, but you caught him so it's up to you!

The site's back! I'm good bringing one of the gargoyle back alive if that's possible. Otherwise just gather up what you can find and we can head back to town.

As Asem corralled the gargoyles back to the opening, a rain of bolts from above pinned them to the ground. It had started rather chaotically, but once the gargoyles had lost their advantage in numbers the skirmish ended quickly.

Anders called down, "How deep does the hole go? Just a simple cave, or more tunnels down there? Can you bring up the pieces of the gargoyles we need, and anything else that looks useful? When you get up here I can heal us both."

I don't have a melee weapon, so I assume no AoO from me. It is time to keep them from fleeing though...

Anders dropped his heavy crossbow and picked the light crossbow up again. He quickly gathered his spirits to him and when he fired his tangleshot bolt was accompanied by a screaming bolt of spirit energy.

Tangleshot bolt + Exhausting Ghost Strike (touch): 1d20 + 8 + 1 - 1 ⇒ (4) + 8 + 1 - 1 = 12

Targeting whichever one is closest to getting away. If there's an opportunity to make one fall back down the shaft that would be great. Spending a spell point to make the target exhausted.

If it hits: DC 15 Fort, Save: Fatigued 1 round, Fail: Exhausted 5 minutes. It's also entangled and needs to make a DC 10 Reflex save or have its wings glued up and fall to the ground.

And I just reread tangleshot bolts, they're naturally touch attacks, so I guess I haven't spent any grit yet.

Definitely a fair question. Being generally chaotic evil ambush predators on the material plane doesn't necessarily have to carry over here. Anders would have preferred to relocate them somewhere that wouldn't bother them, but I had no ideas on how to do that.

There's one gargoyle glued to the bottom of the shaft right? So he's open for a good maulin'? In other news, I'm supposed to be off work next week (vacation got pushed once already), so I think I'm going to finally have time to sit down and draft up my rebuild, and that should hopefully give us a bit more capability.

With one of the gargoyles suddenly electrified, Anders' spirit ally used the last of its energy to thrust out in an attempt to shove the other one into it.

Bull Rush (telekinesis): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

While Asem descended to deal with the others, Anders dropped his light crossbow next to him and drew his heavier repeating crossbow and took a shot at the gargoyle glued to the floor.

+1 Crossbow, DA: 1d20 + 8 + 1 - 2 ⇒ (11) + 8 + 1 - 2 = 18, Damage: 1d10 + 3 + 1 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 3 + 1 + 4 = 9

+1 post count.

Anders raised his crossbow and gathered another spirit to him, this time imbuing his shot with uncanny aim and powerful energy to wrack the gargoyle with nausea.

Targeting the gargoyle that fireballed us, using 1 grit to make it a touch attack, using a tangleshot bolt and adding a sickening cryptic ghost strike (with a spell point for nausea).

Light Crossbow (touch): 1d20 + 8 - 1 ⇒ (9) + 8 - 1 = 16

If hit, the target needs to make a DC 15 Fort save against the ghost strike (Save: Sickened 1 round, Fail: Nauseated 5 rounds). It's also entangled, and needs to make a DC 10 Reflex save or be glued to the floor or fall to the ground if it was flying.

"Stop them from getting those tools!" Anders called down to his invisible spirit companion as he reloaded his light crossbow with another tangleshot bolt.

Can the poltergeist scatter the magical equipment with telekinesis?

"Drive out the thieves of this place," Anders whispered, then clenched his fist and a pulse of something rippled out. As the wave passed, color seemed to shift slightly, and five distinct motes of energy became visible floating around the man before vanishing again. Down below, the mote swelled slightly, then vanished entirely. Just as the gargoyle was looking to swing, a large stone lifted off the floor and hurtled towards it.

Not sure how much I can do within the time frame, but we'll see how this goes. Using the Soul Weaver's bound nexus to transform the soul into a poltergeist for 3 rounds, and it can use telekinesis to chuck a rock at a gargoyle. If we can get that far, telekinesis has guidelines for damage based on the object, likely 1d6 per 25 lbs for a hard dense object, and the poltergeist's telekinesis can throw a maximum of 75 lbs.

Telekinetic Rock: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

Well, I guess damage doesn't really matter this round.

Anders checked his potion of fly in his wrist sheathe, then nodded. As Asem cracked it open, Anders raised his palm and a dim light began to glow as a tiny wisp of energy coalesced. He turned his hand, and the wisp began to descend into the dark pit.

Using my bound nexus to send a spirit down the pit. Might give us an idea on the depth.

Fair enough. We might get chopped up by a whole nest of gargoyles, or not! Worst case, we die horribly but in exciting fashion.

Let's go cave diving!

I think we were able to just open the lid, it was hidden, not locked. Inside is a shaft straight down that works great if you can fly, not so great for the thoroughly grounded though. You would be able to fly down into the unknown, but I'd be forced to climb down a rope, or expend my only potion of fly.

"Let's head back to town and see if we can get some supplies to help stake out the entrance. We can stop by the entrance to the vault to keep the guard informed of our findings and our intentions to further investigate."

Heading back to town to buy an appropriate hunter's stand with camouflage blind for 60g, unless someone disagrees or something happens along the way.

Would it be possible to buy a local version of a hunter's stand in town that would blend in with the stones instead of mounting in a tree? With the camouflage blind we could have total concealment while we stake out the entrance.

Reporting our finding to the captain of the guard for the vault is probably a good idea, but we should probably verify that it's actually gargoyles coming and going there first.

Plan on scouting alone and retreating into the wall if needed? Or can you shapeshift me too?

Hmm... we could head back to town and see about getting some oils of rope trick, though there'd still be the rope for a perceptive gargoyle to find, and we'd be gambling on how long before something passes by since they'd only last 3 hours a piece.

Is there any suitable terrain nearby to hide in, preferably some kind of overhang that would shield us from view from flying gargoyles that we could use to hide and stake out the place?

Flickering Step from Planar Adventures is a really cool entry to the Dimensional Agility chain. Comes online pretty late, but for certain characters in games that go high enough, could be really cool.

I was happily impressed with Planar Adventures (especially after being disappointed in Wilderness Adventures). The Planar Infusion line of feats seem really fun, though the Plane of Earth's benefits don't seem particularly interesting. I need to actually sit down to stat out my revised character using spheres of might, but it looks like I'll have more flexible feat use after I do since I won't be locked into the massive obligatory ranged combat feat chain any longer. So short answer is yes, they look cool.

"Well, this is something. Probably not a great idea to just jump into a pit of unknown depth filled with unknown numbers of who knows what, but just reporting a secret entrance probably won't be enough to grab the king's attention. We could try to find a spot nearby to hide and watch for any gargoyles coming or going. Any other ideas?"

I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but I'm still thinking of how to approach this.

Anders squatted to investigate the markings, then began a careful search of the surrounding area. "Could be a hidden entrance, or could have stopped to rest momentarily. Look carefully, perhaps we can find which direction it headed."

Take 20 Perception for 30 looking for evidence. If we can figure out what direction to take, the following for tracking/traveling.

Survival: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24
Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16
Survival (if it becomes relevant): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24

Doesn't look like I have any abilities that will last long enough and don't require continued concentration (and even that ability only gives +1). Your shifter stuff should be useful though.

Can't remember if I mentioned this before, but my spare light crossbow is currently loaded with a tangleshot bolt, not the grappling bolt I had in before.

I figured scent might help increase the chance of detecting them as we searched, in case they were hiding in a cave whose entrance was blocked from view along the path we took.

Perhaps you can pick up scent and try to sniff them out as we explore?

"Of course not. I'm sure your security is quite thorough. Since it seems possible that the gargoyles may have nested here, we'll patrol for a bit and see if we can uncover anything. We just wanted to make sure you folks were properly informed about why we're here. Thank you for your time. Asem, shall we? How about.... that direction?" Anders pointed off in a random direction along the globe, away from the vault entrance.

How big is the vault. Is this the same with local gravity on the sphere, so we could potentially walk around the entire surface? Given an opportunity it'd probably be a good idea to search the exterior of the globe for any small entrances or anything.

"Well, it's certainly impressive looking." Anders approached a guard (one that looks to be in charge, if possible), and asked, "Excuse me. My friend and I are investigating the gargoyle infestation plaguing this area, and we're following up a lead that suggests they may be hiding here, using the lead makeup and any wards of your vault as protection from being found. Have you heard or seen anything unusual? Crunching rocks, or unusual piles of gravel and dust? Are there any cracks or caves in this area that aren't part of the actual vault itself that could be benefiting from the protections simply by proximity?"

"I'm pretty sure it's a 'stand' of gargoyles."

Anders and Asem headed out early the next morning. After a quick stop for specialty ammunition, they set out on the road towards the rumored vault.

I agree, I liked the shop earlier.

Updating my character sheet now, then I'm all set to go scout out the place. Asem?

Let's just mark down 167g for each of us remaining, and Will took the small (166) share to make things easy.

Do I need to do anything special to find a suitable ammunition shop in town? I'd like to pick up 5 tangleshot bolts, and then load one up in my light crossbow since it's easier to reload.

Sounds like 500g, split, 3 (4?) ways for the 2 gargoyle heads we were able to return.

I should be able to pick up a couple tangleshot bolts (20gp a piece, if standard prices hold up here) that might help us ground a few of the gargoyles before we head out.

Anders dug around in his pockets for a moment before pulling out a few small coins. "I'm not sure we'll find much that could be able to help us with the money I have left. Let's just check the place out. If we get attacked by a gargoyle, we can probably fight it off. If two... still probably fine. If we see more than that gathered up, we should probably head back anyways, since the information that there are bigger groups of gargoyles hiding there could be valuable on its own."

Did I miss the distribution of bounty from the earlier gargoyles? I don't think I spent anything except for the money for a room. And let's just see what's there and be ready to run.

"Yeah, I never really practiced sneaking about much either. Most of my military time was spent patrolling or fighting with a heavily armed and armored troop of soldiers. Seemed like a waste of time practicing moving unseen when they can hear you from three blocks away."

Anders woke early and blearily began gathering his gear. As he was checking his pack, a hastily scrawled note fell to the floor. After a quick read, Anders woke Asem and handed him the note. "It looks like Will decided to try his hand at solo gladitorial combat after all, rather than continuing the gargoyle investigation. Do you think you and I can sneak into the warded area and determine if the gargoyles are hidden there, without getting overwhelmed by their numbers? Even if we can't deal with the threat directly, delivering the information about where they're hiding might be valuable enough information to attract the king's attention."

Yup, I'm all good continuing for now.

I'll let you know when I have made adjustments that I like, and post a stat block here so you can take a look, then I'll swap out the character sheet whenever we get to an appropriate place in the game to make it official.

Haven't had any time for the last few days. We can go check out the vault that may or may not be hiding a gargoyle nest in the mean time, then see about retraining when we get back to the material plane.

Ah. It's a bit confusing the way it's written since it doesn't specify between Sentinel's Reserve and Second Wind. Or how it interacts with archetypes that allow you to spend points.

Does Diamond Aegis do anything for a Dimensional Defender that does not get the Sentinel's Reserve ability?

Looks like there might be a mistake on the Sentinel page with the Diamond Soul ability. As written, it doesn't seem to do anything, and my PDF copy calls it Armored Aegis. Was Diamond Aegis the playtest version?

Sweet. That will open up the ability to get him some armor. He'll probably end up fighting with a heavy wooden (kite) shield, and either a morningstar, shortspear or longsword, depending on proficiency.

Damn, the website ate my post.

I started prototyping some of the changes last night and ran into a question.

If I have a companion with the Martial Companion archetype, add a second instance of Battle Creature, then trade away the martial proficiencies to gain a Martial Tradition, the companion is still proficient with simple weapons, correct? This is relevant because 2 of the 3 traditions I'm considering don't provide any weapon proficiencies (current front runners are Shield Master, Phalanx Soldier and Knightly Arts).

For changing out Gunslinger, I think I'm leaning to Conscript the most. I haven't worked out exactly how many talents are needed to make it work, but it looks like there could be some cool combinations with the Sniper, Dual Wielding and Fencer spheres, using a pair of hand crossbows, feinting with the offhand and then following it up with a single powerful shot by stacking Deadly Shot, Fatal Thrust and Dual Attack, possibly with Sneak Attack from the Conscript.

If everything works, at level 5 a single shot could be something like:
1d4 + 2d10 (deadly shot) + 1d6 (sneak attack) + 2d6 (fatal thrust), plus applying a (snipe) and (exploit) talent if I have any.

This might end up being too limited though, since it shuts down whenever I can't feint, or if the target is immune to sneak attack. I'll have to keep messing with it for a bit.

Yup, I've been really happy with the various Spheres products, though this will be my first attempt building a character with Spheres of Might.

I'm aware that they don't mix. Ghost strike is a standard action, while most things in Spheres of Might require Attack actions. On a round where I use ghost strike, I would only be getting 1 attack and no special benefits beyond passive things. That said, perhaps the death sphere/ghost strike aspect of the character isn't exactly working out as originally planned, so it might be better to move those talents into the conjuration sphere or a more dedicated spell casting sphere instead. When we started this campaign, spheres of might weren't around, so Cryptic Strike helped fill the gap of making a spirit bound crossbow shooter.

As for the gunslinger side, I spent a bit of time reading up, and it looks like perhaps Armiger, Conscript or Paladin (with Dirt Spattered Angel and Warrior of the Blind Faith archetypes) could be a good fit. Crossbow skills would come entirely from talents.

Pros for each:
1. Armiger. This one could fit the theme of mixing in melee and ranged combat really well, potentially switching between a light or heavy crossbow with Barrage, twin hand crossbows with Dual Wielding and Sniper, and a longsword and hand crossbow in melee. Weapon swaps could mean running around firing off attacks all over the place.
2. Conscript. Can't go wrong with the "build your own X" option. Top contenders for options are Sphere Specialization (Dual Wielding) and possibly Evasion, Resolve or just keep some bonus feats.
3. Paladin. The two archetypes help fit the theme of having lost faith, then recovered a new form of connection that fits the story. The loss of smite evil doesn't bother me since it helps separate this character from Vincent, and the loss of spells is not a concern since the other half of gestalt handles that. While this option hits a lot of good story points, mechanically the benefits of paladin (namely lay on hands, channel) overlap a lot with Soul Weaver, so perhaps this is not a great fit for this character.

Sphere/Talent-wise, I'm thinking about picking up a mix of Dual Wielding, Sniper, Equipment and possibly Barrage talents, to fix reloading with no hands, fast loading, then branching out to get cool skills like Mixed Assault (Dual Wielding), Following Strike (Dual Wielding) or Hindering Projectiles (Sniper). It looks like a lot of the standard required ranged combat feats have been rolled into base spheres now too, which is nice.

Any preferences, suggestions or thoughts?

2) It's mostly for when I want to use Cryptic Strike to apply a ghost strike from the death sphere and I really don't want to miss, especially if I'm burning a spell point.

3) That sounds fine. I'm sure if I'm not doing enough damage we'll find out. A combat capable companion might be enough anyways.

That's totally fair. There's only a few parts of the Bolt Ace I care about.
1. Recovering grit using crossbows instead of guns.
2. The deed for spending a grit to make a touch attack with a crossbow.
3. Using crossbows with the level 5 ability to get DEX added to crossbow attacks.

I'll do some digging when I get home, but do you know off hand of any ways to accomplish those things (or something close)?

Maybe it would be best if I just scrap gunslinger entirely and try building a crossbow user with a different class.

1) The gunfighter archetype looks fantastic, and the Bolt Juggler martial tradition seems tailor made for my character concept.

Is there any way we can get the Gunfighter and Bolt Ace archetypes to play nice together? By the book, they conflict in the following locations:

I... had no idea. Those things sound perfect. To your wiki!

Would it be possible to do some retraining when we have some downtime and possibly retrain some feats into Spheres of Might abilities? There's some cool stuff in the Dual Wielding and Equipment spheres that lend themselves well to Sword + Crossbow combat.

For a Conjuration sphere companion, are Spheres of Might available as feats?

We talked a bit before about making a portable paladin, but there were reservations about making a combat capable companion. I figured with only 2 PCs, that restriction might be relaxed a bit?

After a quick look at the conjuration sphere, I was thinking of something along the lines of:
Lingering Companion, Armored Companion, Battle Creature (1 or 2, probably Spear/Crossbow if 1, longsword/longbow if 2), Shield Bearer, and Magical Companion (for Lay on Hands type abilities)

Exact order of talents are undecided, but the basic idea would be an extra warm body to soak hits, and fill in 'second string' levels of melee combat and healing/support.

Story wise, Anders would be manifesting a reflection of Kovin's spirit more fully than the spirit motes of his other companions that accompany him.

I could potentially pick up the conjuration sphere, which could give a summonable ally to fill out the group a little more, provided Rednal is cool with it. Of course, we need to progress a bit farther so we can level first.