Arcantos the Storyteller, Warde's page

Huh, not doing the PMing? So we really don't know who is picked and who isn't, and who might be filling that final spot either.

Well, good luck everyone, and I hope I get to play with you soon!

Oh yes, I specifically said 'aside from spellcasting from Investigator' and was referring to all of my static class features vs optional choices. Cuz yeah, I have talents from Scholar's Knacks and such, but the base class features are all extraordinary.

Yeah, fair enough.

I feel like summon monster statblocks are going to be very difficult to keep relevant in a Level 20 Mythic Gestalt Game. Summons do fall off pretty hard with levels, afterall. And Gestalt likely means that the enemies we'd be facing are going to be much much tougher than regular as well.

It might not be impossible, if you're a Skald + Evangelist Cleric with the Suzerain template or some such. But that then brings up another problem: if your buffs are strong enough to boost CR 12 summons to hit level 20 mythic gestalt enemies, imagine those buffs placed on another level 20 mythic gestalt teammate? Things can quickly get out of hand, IMHO.

Well, yes. That's why I was talking about talking Mythic Spell Perfection in general, not for something that is a gestalt game.

Honestly, my rule of thumb is that if a game is gestalt and high level? Don't do summons, as you can't use resources from both classes (generally) to buff them. If it's high-level, or gestalt, then it is likely possible. Mid-level gestalts are still low enough for summons to be strong, while high-level summoning, if it's single-track, allows the higher-level summons to play a role in a fight. Especially when they bring their own magic to play.

But both? Nuh-uh. The more power is concentrated in the PCs, the weaker summoning gets.

Not that I have much experience playing as a summoner, mind you. Just, not even worth building them out imo.

As for spell perfection, it is a machanically amazing feat and Mythic feat. However, I'm less enthusiastic because it has a tendency to set your turn to turn to be repetitive. It makes the draw of spellcasting for me made moot. I mean, intensified (mythic)maximized (mythic)chain lightning with a DC around 43 (or around 55 if you can get mythic spell focuses) doing 450 or half on a successful save. Mechanically great, but if you have that at your disposal, are you going to select another option? I guess I'd find it too boring.

That's why you should try and pick a pretty flexible spell. Summon Monster might have you summoning monsters all the time, but its flexible in what you do summon, giving you a strong array of options.

Plus, Mythic Spell Perfection gives you two spells to use, not just one, so that would definitely help you decide what spells to use action by action and turn by turn.

everything from L. Investigator and Scholar are extraordinary.

Pretty heckin cool!

Well, unless you take SoP talents from the Scholar or spellcasting from the Investigator... but yes, their class features outside of that are all Ex. Pretty useful.

Honestly, the sheer existence of Mythic Spell Perfection makes me want to play around with it some time.

Wonder if Summoning would still be worth it in Mythic if I have Mythic Spell Perfection on a summoning spell? +12 Strength and Con from Augement summoning and +2 creatures summoned from Superior Summons would be pretty nice.

True, those are both very good points. Just a little warry because of the entire 'high-optimised, very dangerous' messaging mentioned at the start of the thread.

Looking over the PCs offered, I find that a lot have gone PCs that function on Null Magic/Psionic fields. And this is something I have found problematic runnings High level games IE epic in the past myself.

As a GM you drop a antimagic/Psionic field around PCs its the Nuffs something but not others.

Deep Breath

Yeeeeeeeah... that's... been a bit of a concern for me. As my character is very, very magical. Illusions and Summoned Companion on one side, Kineticist on the other... my main hope is being able to get outside of an AMF, and between my intimidating and escape artisting, I can make sure people don't, you know, grapple me to keep me inside of them.

@Arcantos: Your character also performed pretty well. Obviously a character built around the heavy use of illusions isn't going to rely as much on the 'normal' combat parameters and one person might utilize those abilities to a greater or lesser degree than another. So that's something to keep in mind when I say that your character performed well. Your other stuff- conjured companion, enhancements, etc- helped your character contribute in situations where illusions were not viable tools.

Oh, perfect! That is honestly great to hear about. I just hope that if I do get picked I get to be creative and effective with my illusions when they are appropriate. But I am glad to hear that my Kineticist side and my Conjured Companion are carrying their weight even when my character isn't able bring their Illusions to bear.

Two neat facts about my PC:

1) He knows 90 languages! Yes, I know magic can give him 'all languages', but it's kinda awesome he knows that many that can't be taken away in a AMZ or other situation where magic is somehow not applicable/can't be used/is suppressed.

2) He has +88 to Heal, which not allows him a heck ton of healing capabilities through his various class features and feats, but is also the skill he uses in place of Craft(Alchemy) thanks to his martial tradition.

That is quite impressive, yes. Arcantos only knows 24 languages (which likely covers most languages we'll run into, let's be honest,) and his max skill bonus is +54.

But, to be fair, I do have a +12 bonus to all skills, so even my Climb/Swimm Skills, which have 1 rank and have a Strength modifier of 1, have a respectable +17 modifier. I certainly took a more 'Jack-of-all-trades' approach when it came to skills, but specialistion certainly has its strength as well.

Vibes are important, both for the PCs and the Players behind them.

Take your time Pasha, there's no rush. We might be eager to know the results, but in a game like this, it's only fair that you make your choice carefully.

@Arcantos: Fair enough, Arcantos it is!

I'd be down for sharing those amusing anecdotes at some point.

Thanks, looking forward to it.

I would certainly be curious to know how The First Flame fared in playtesting, whether or not they get in. I feel like I was a bit undertuned, but I haven't played enough at this kind of power level to have a good intuitive feel for whether or not that's actually right (and I didn't go and try to playtest myself to find out XD).

Not sure about being undertuned myself, but I have to agree, I haven't had much experience playing at this level. I've done plenty of character building, but actually playing is an entirely different matter entirely.

I went on the complete opposite direction as I do not want to spend 1h to make a post looking for something, so I've made Qeetan as simple to play as possible.

Exactly my thought process. With 10,000 options, I'll likely forget 99,000. I'd much rather keep things as simple as possible so I can actually remember what he can and can't do.

Part of the reason why I'm glad I didn't pick up any of the Surreal Feats. Create Reality already gives me a considerable amount of flexibility. Able to pull out any Destruction blast or Alteration traits out of my ass, even manipulate the Weather itself with my Illusions. Adding on the Surreal feats would just make it worse.

Really, when dealing with things like this (such as the old summoning), it's best to have a short list of options that you refer to, and look at the extended list only when you feel it is an emergency.

Just remembered I forgot to grab Goz masks for me and my companion! Quickly added them to the sheet.

@Arcantos the Storyteller, Warde

You can just call me Arcantos you know, don't need to remind me of my mistake every time you @ me.

Oh these are actual encounters in the game I've ripped out and used to test characters and their ability to contribute in various situations. I'm chucking the characters in to test them myself since it would kind of spoil things if players take part in a grand playtest that they will later repeat in the actual game, not to mention it would take a lot longer that way.

Yeah, that's fair. Seems like a pretty good array of encounters you picked for the playtesting as well. Really does sound fun and I really do hope I get picked just to get to try them out!

I've taken characters with less-defined abilities like yours into account and have tried to use them as intelligently as I can in these tests. There have been a few amusing anecdotes out of that, I will admit, but suffice it to say that this isn't just me testing for numbers, but overall effectiveness.

Understood. Any chance to hear those amusing anecdotes post-play testing and selection?

Long story short, Arc Zeon should be more than capable of contributing to any encounter. Moreover, he should also be able to help others in the party contribute as well.

Same here, I won't go though how I think Arcantos would act in each fight. Like I said, his powers are very open-ended and creative, so it depends a lot on the context and what he decides to do. But between his Inspire Courage/Thunder Stuck and Challenge, he's able to help the party contribute, while also bringing debuffs and CC to help wrangle the enemies into a more manageable fight.

Just a matter of waiting patiently for the character sheets to be looked over and reviewed. The playtests sound like are fun honestly, are we running through them, or are you taking our characters and chucking them in yourself?

A decent way of getting an understanding of what we can and can't do regardless. Though I am a little concerned if you are running them. Thanks to being a Fey Adpet, an Illusion with the Create Reality ability, a lot of my character's power is going to be linked to creativity and what I can convincingly pull off. He has more direct combat options with all the Kineticist shenigans, but the Illusions are just as important.

Then again, us doing the playtests would just take longer... so yeah, I get it.

Well. I have an idea already. But if it's not okay'd I'll give it a skip. Not because it's a make or break idea. Just that I won't be able to come up with an idea to make such a complex character :P

Yeah, trust me, this is a game where your character sheet is best done on a Google Documents sheet where you can lay everything out, and it will likely take a few days just to actively decide how to fill in all the different choices, let alone actually fill out the character sheet.

Sucks to miss this, but good look next time.

Well, I'm happy to say that Warden Arcantos is now complete.

He doesn't have the most detailed or elaborate backstory ever, but I believe it does more than enough to flesh out who Arcantos is and what great deeds he has done in the past. If anything, I prefer leaving it open-ended, as it allows me to potentially fill it in the future, during the RP itself if I get selected.

Also, I clearly need to get up to 10 posts so I can put the Google Document on my profile and edit my name, seems I ran right into the character limit...