Devereux's page

Then Devereux’s Silence went off and his casting days were over. Danni and Krim laid waste to the square that Togomor pretty much had to be in. A round later he was dead also.

He died after having his buffs dispelled, he was already beaten beyond recognition at that point. Fortunately it was inside a Silence, no fat man screaming to be heard.

...this time by a Bearded devil and three Barbed Devils.

It was a Horned Devil wasn't it?

I have neglected my armor for too long it appears...the armor we have found is almost always heavy and as you pointed out for the most part I have been last piggy at the troth for loot. Not sure why that is for AC items...just sort of worked out that way

I'm 90% positive I purchased all of my AC items and some of those were right before we left for Scarwall. But when/if you tell Krim what he can/can't have, please give me advance notice so I can make popcorn for the show.

Then they came upon a statue with a bag over its head. They laughed and left it there.

lol, I totally forgot about the statue. Yea, we did kinda point and laugh at the statue with the bag on it's head. I mean short of having some nasty effect like a gaze attack... why else does on put a bag on something's head? It's funny I tell you!

We did check it for magic as well and I believe it was Necromancy(like everything else in the huge undead infested castle), so my thought was that we decided the bag was likely there for a reason and moved on.

Sunday 11/15/09

We need to speak to the dragon I was told previously...

I was the only one who speaks Draconic, not that anyone tried anything else, like maybe common. I proceeded to stumble through negotiations. The conversation went as follows(not verbatim, but close enough)...

Devereux - "Hello there! Sorry about that whole Orb of Force thing, we'd like to talk."

Dragon - "You attack me in my home, now you want to talk?! About what?"

Devereux - "We need to find a special sword named "Blah" and perhaps we can help you with something, maybe a particular undead pest?"

**crRRRUUNNNNccchh... SPLAT**

Krim decides to negotiate with a critical hit to the dragon's skull... as I predicted. So much for negotiations.

Magic Circle vs. Evil is one of my bloodline spells, if it weren't for that you likely would never see it, at least not from me. BTW, I wasn't considering the cloaks of resistance our party has, so the spell provides most of us with nothing numbers-wise. It does still give anti-enchantment and protection from summoned evil though.

A silence spell grounded Altair's flying carpet for 3 rounds... I'm pretty sure the first round should've just been a do-over after discovering all the "oh btw" rules... silence being a full round to cast now and useless for a counterspell, flying carpets needing spoken commands, etc. I wouldn't have bothered if I had went into it with... Don't bother, she is done by the time you cast it and you're just going to screw Altair's movement for 3 rounds. Also, by the time we discovered a flying carpet is needy and has to be spoken to, I was knee deep in 3 bone devils and flanked by a kyton... I took 2 AoOs(attempted) just to get out of that mess, so I was unable to dismiss it and effectively defend myself.

Some how I knew being forced to leave the deck outside would bite us in the ass....lol

That's just Ace and Laori seeing how you taste.

A fully charged Wand of Lesser Restoration = 4,500gp (50 charges at 90gp each). I'm not too worried about going overboard.

Rod of Bodily Restoration (Can be used by anyone)

Otherwise... 1st Rule: CARDIO.

Rule #2: DOUBLE TAP

The Cloud then turned into a Dread Wraith. This was the preeminent fight of the evening, as when the dust cleared the Barbarian had 2 Con left (unraged). It touched him twice for maximum damage both times.

I used my remaining 4 fate points trying to cast Empower Orb of Force on that thing while threatened and still failed. Twice I missed a touch attack, twice I failed to cast defensively... such a bummer as that WAS my final 6th level spell for the day and I didn't know if we were going to get to rest or not. The orc barbarian having no constitution is never a good thing.

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Krim's player made me laugh quite a bit, even after the game once I got home. "Oh man, ghosts (aka ghost-like creatures) suck! I'm not fighting any of those ever again!" At which point I HAD to run down a list of at least 3 other occasions where our various other parties got mauled by Specters, Giant Shadows & Wraiths... where he was never the target, LOL!

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"Ghetto Lightning Bolt" rocks, although the +2 Holy Greatsword helps. :)

*Devereux has been promoted to party moderator*
*Devereux kicks Sial from the party*
*Devereux kicks Sial's cohort from the party*
*Laori has joined the party*

I'm still not exactly sure how that all came about(I was taking a break.), but I don't need 'Detect Evil' to know 'Chain Devils are BAD Mmmmkay'. While Laori may be creepy, she doesn't sport a devil cohort and she actively participates.

Yes, the Celestial Sorcerer has a small problem with a Chain Devil following/camping with the party.

I don't think THAT far in advance, but you're more than welcome to do what you feel is necessary. The Red Mantis, other than "Cinnabuns", have proved to be relatively ineffective against us. The whoopin' you received last session was them being opportunists and taking advantage of your unarmored situation, nothing more. Besides, what's not fun about ninjas popping up everytime you turn a corner?

The spell on the Plateaus with the Bullettes was Rainbow BLAST(120' line AoE). Rainbow BEAM is single target touch. Both spells are nice additions if you're looking for "kaboom" variety and possibly Celestial/Fairy(etc.) themed destruction. Just a small correction for our live studio audience.
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Oh I assure you there was no poking of Sorcerer heads out of the tent until Stoneskin was cast and Heavenly Wings had been deployed. Though I had not actually decided to fly as it seemed to be rush hour and I do so hate traffic.

For those of you out there playing Celestial Sorcerers, the wings rock! They are well worth the Standard Action to deploy and they didn't change from 'Beta' to 'Final'.

WarmasterSpike wrote:

No No No...you are doing it wrong, your minions shouldnt be Rangers. They should all be bards with perform " Pole Dance "

Geeze do I always have to explain these things......

Oooo! What a subtle way to plant a Suggestion! Just don't confuse "tell me your secrets" with "put silver pieces in my greaves." I'd probably have to send Triana, bards only get Suggestion at lv 6. I don't think I'll get a follower that high before we finish the campaign.

More seriously though, I had something similar in mind for a few NPC Experts. Pillow talk is notorious for causing leaked secrets.

Here ya go...

ACE , his FOLLOWERS (1)(2)(3) & a more likely COHORT

The only real purpose they serve is as damage sumps.

That would be true if they could actually grab aggro, but they cannot.

Brute and I discussed it and came to the conclusion that the summoning lists are off by 1 level. In other words Monster Summoning V's list should be under Monster Summoning IV, etc.

There is no point in summoning a combat "pet/lackey/henchman", if it has the same exact combat stats as the sorcerer/wizard. The difference is that I do a touch attack for 10d6, not 5 attacks totalling 6d6+10; Augment Summoning(+4 STR/+4 CON) makes that quite a bit better(attack & damage), if you're willing to suffer being a summoner/conjurer. As I said above, if you're not spec'd out for summoning, don't bother.

I dont think that any animal companion/ summon works except the druids to be honesnt.

I wouldn't be so sure of that come August. So far from what I've seen of the Druid through Beta they've managed to hate on him and his companion at EVERY turn, primarily on Wild Shape. So now you have a half-assed companion and half-assed wild shape to go with your already half-assed spell list. They should just cut to the chase and say Druids get Entangle & Cure L. Wounds(or Vigor) as a 1st level spell list, lol.

(If I remeber correctly, this isn't a pre-gen'd encounter, it was something Brute hashed together using rumor info, so I will go without spoiler)

1. We need to do Gather Information checks on that dragon(smokeclaw) starting immediately after the arcropolis. I was starting to fade pretty badly by the time we reached the Shoanti (to the point of sleeping & snoring during D&D, I work nights and have a slightly crap schedule.), but I had forgotten to mention that.

2. The Celestial Griffon had rolled(on the die) impressive numbers on its first attack run being something along the lines of 19(bite), 17(claw), 18(claw), 18(rake), 16(rake)... with a +13(w/pouncing diving bite) & +10(all 2ndry attacks)... dragon had a 35AC, you do the math. The rolls only got worse from there, a lot worse. While I believe the Griffon might've been useful in any other scenario, he wasn't even a worthwhile distraction in this one, losing approx. 17-25x2 hitpoints a dive(charge) out of 59 total.(AoO's going in and out, due to flight-type) Fortunately he was within range of the cleric's healing burst twice which made him LOOK tough if nothing else.

I don't fault the Griffon, however I do fault the SUMMONING spells. I, as a SORCERER, have a +11 to hit(+12 in 30') with a bow. Why in the hell would I summon something that has the same or worse attack modifiers as my own character?! I could spend that round casting TrueStrike! I have since opted out of the Monster Summoning V, with the DMs permission and the explanation I used above. Morale of this story: If you don't have the AUGMENT SUMMONING feat, don't bother... your Sorcer/wizard/cleric/druid most likely have a better way to spend a preparation round of spell casting, hell even casting Bless would be better.

3. The Cleric at one point decided I WAS'NT doing my job(out loud), because I slotted out "Dispel Magic" for "Spell Vunerability". As the DM mentioned, without the -10 SR on said dragon, the Dispel Magic WOULDN'T have succeeded.(totalled a 16 SR-roll, the dragon had a 13SR remanining out of 23SR)

MY JOB: I'll say it again, I signed on as the party's sorcerer with the intention to do Appraise/Identify, THAT is my job. If I wanted to be an "answer-monkey", I wouldn't have played a Sorcerer. I am however throwing a decent amount of auto-hit/touch-attack damage down range and semi-frequently crit'ing, THIS is also MY job.

Long story short and in the words of Clint Eastwood, "SHUT YOUR FACE!!"

4. Apologies for falling asleep at D&D, but after the TWO lengthy Sredna competitions and then a story of must go here, go there... I was done. Unlike Bloodpig, Sredna is one player vs. one NPC... not a group event, sorry not very exciting for the Sorcerer in the party even if he does have a 14 STR, but I could've summoned a Griffon for him to Sredna with! LOL! (Sredna = Surrender? aka Mercy)

5. CORRECTION: The Rod I mentioned in my last post is actually a "Rod of Substitution", not Transmutation. *apply super glue liberally*

As there should be, but at nine levels the Barbarian with over hand chop has outshined the rougues and a dps built Sorcerer for more than half of the life span of this campaign.

I'm really not High DPS, never even intended to be. If it NEEDS to have a title, I would call it an Auto-Hit Sorcerer. The only time I've ever MISSED with a spell was due to DR or SR, and technically those aren't misses, they are simply being ignored by said target.

On several occasions if I had been a DPS Sorcerer I would've been slightly more effective squeaking through some damage here and there. However along with that comes the world of rediculousness that is Resistance to Fire/Electricity after CR6 or so. In which case I would've super-glued(it exists, its in the DMG!) a metamagic "Rod of Transmutation"(Magic Item Compendium) to my off-hand so I would've been able to avoid the above resistance situation.

I've already planned out my new tricks come 10th level with my 5th level spells. It should be fun, leaning more towards Celestial than Force this time... for now. :)

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Brutesuad07 forgot to mention that we had contemplated luring a few more ships into the 'Symbol of Sleep' by using a 'Ghost Sound'(at 9th level) fog horn noise. But I think our group as a whole realized that to be a bit too MMO grind for our liking, not to mention the smackdown we would've eventually received once our DM stopped being amused by it.

The discussion of Cannonless Pirate Ships, Spell Jammer Ships and Heavy Warhorses with pulley-sliding 'Symbol' panels(or barding flaps) was quite entertaining also. :)

I also think there are possible applications for this in the future.

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And yes, the thought of the Orc playing Blood Pig with a privy goal was game-stoppingly funny for all involved.

Even with sneak attack going off he often beats me by 15 or more per swing and he gets more of those as well. I love the new rogue to pieces, but I will not be entirely shocked if either Overhand chop or the barbarian or both get toned down a little bit in the final cut.

The extra damage you mention (10-15) is coming purely from Overhand Chop as it's granting him approximately +12 EXTRA damage while Raging. There is nothing wrong with the Barbarian, and his being Pure Orc only gives him a +1 modifier (potential) bonus over a Human or 1/2 Orc.

Overhand Chop SHOULD have pre-requisites is the problem. That wouldn't stop a Human Fighter from taking it at 1st level though unless you placed a BaB/Level requirement on it.

Something like ...Power Attack/Cleave/Overhand Chop/Backswing ... with a likely +3 BaB and +4 BaB on the last two accordingly.

What it SHOULDN'T be: Fighter-Only. That whole train of thought is crap coated crap with a crap filled center and leaves Paladins/Rangers/Marshals, etc. hanging out to dry late game for cool combat tricks. I'm talking about you SHIELD MASTERY!

You did manage to blast your party with the rod of wonder a handful of times.

Oh I forgot about that. Yea, that was tons of fun... Stinking Cloud, Lightning Bolt, etc. However when your Sorcerer/Wizard decides to 'open fire' with a 'Rod of Wonder' round after round you can be pretty sure he's either completely out of his mind, completely humped and grasping for straws, or just plain having way too much random fun.

I can assure you, unless that Rod gets "misplaced", you will most certainly be seeing again it in the near future. I am not inclined to sell something that has "unlimited" number of uses.

Notice the Sorcerer doesn't even get mentioned until he had leveled up(9th, after resting) and started using Orb of Force. That would be due to several issues that basically said... "Devereux, you should take the day off and make your party some sammiches."

1) +1 Seeking Composite Longbow w/ adamantine arrows... I had roll a 17+, when I did, they all had DR that made even magic adamantine arrows look stupid.

2) SR 18+ Good luck with that! My dice don't generally roll that well consecutively and I wasn't trying to WASTE spells every round. Ya know incase the monsters that weren't basically immune to everything might show up.

3) Heavenly Fire... Hey, its a Touch Attack! Win! Not so much... Hey its FIRE and does a maximum of 10 damage aka squat against every monster in this dungeon! (see above #1)

Final Tally: SR + DR + AC = Sorcerer player who could've skipped a play session and not hindered the party in the slightest bit.

So I took 'Orb of Force' and now with adequate in-character reasons to pull such a spell out of my nether regions. Also being Force-based which is the character's entire theme spell-wise.

Those of you who think this spell is broken, you can bite me. When the monsters have a triple stacked defense and you watch your friends play D&D for 5 hours, you let me know what spell you would pick. ;p

While I don't always expect to shine or be useful, it would be nice to do SOMETHING to earn my keep in a 5 hour gaming session before the last 20 minutes other than drink iced tea and urinate. Yea I know... go make sammiches! *sigh*

Asgetrion wrote:

Agile Maneuvers -feat allows you to use DEX instead of STR with CMB.

Yea, saw it. Didn't like it. Made my own version. The thing I don't like about the feat is that I feel that Dex should be part of the calculation already.

Yep, Agile Manuvers is what I would call a "Feat Tax", because saying that Grappling, Disarm and even Trip rely solely on Strength is extremely incorrect. If we were to go down the road of only one stat, the choice of STR or DEX should be the character's decision at the time of necessity, not because they were FORCED to have a feat to exist.

Traditionally(real world)...
Grapple = STR > DEX (with Heavy use of "Esacpe Artist" a DEX skill)
Disarm = DEX +SPEED
Trip = DEX > STR +SIZE
Bullrush/Overrun = STR +SIZE +SPEED

Point being not every manuver is STR-based by default... as I said above, Agile Manuvers = Feat Tax.

Monks, Rogues, Swashbucklers, etc. suffer in the STR-ONLY CMB world. Judo, Kung-Fu, Tai Chi are all real world examples of non-STR based fighting styles.

Not only that, but have you seen the rediculousness that is an Otyugh? A common monster in Korvosa, which is based on grappling prey to survive. Otyughs should be endangered or kept as house pets, cuz their grapples are now laughable.

The second I see a small creature or smaller on the board I would just grapple it. You'll take it out of action almost everytime.

I hadn't even thought about the small creatures in that aspect, but on top of that, don't get spotted casting a spell by the enemy barbarian... 40'+ movement and a rediculous grapple check later... it's over. Our group saw this in 3.5E(Female Elf Cleric vs. Human Male Wizard), Pathfinder Beta's CMB pretty much knocks it out of the park.

Lets look at our Sorcerer's CMB situation with my rules... Devereux, feel free to fix my math, as I don't even have a rule book here with me, and while I had the Orc and Bad guy stats on my computer, I don't have yours...

My Rules Sorcerer CMB = +10
Beta CMB = +5

My Rules Sorcerer DC to Grapple/etc: 20 (Baddies CMB +9) = 11+
Beta Sorcerer DC to Grapple/etc: 20 (Baddies CMB +6) = 14+

My Rules Baddies DC to Grapple/Trip/Disarm: 19 (Sorc's CMB +10) = 9+
Beta Rules Baddies DC to Grapple/Trip/Disarm: 21(Sorc's CMB +5) = 16+

*wanders in and looks at the piece of paper on the table*

Wow! I have a 14 STR, 20 DEX, +3 BAB for a total +10 CMB! Wait, what's this... only 56 Health?!

*reaches for a pencil with an eraser*

(( LOL, Your figures are correct. And yes, CMB with STR+DEX+10 is extremely more fair than STR+15, especially to Monks, Rogues and Dex Fighters trying to use manuvers.))

Dear Ask a Shoanti,

Our Cleric, I will call him 'Bob', has decided to further embrace his faith and somehow managed to talk the Blacksmith into altering his grieves so that they are missing the posterior plate. Our only saving grace is that Bob tends to move last in initiative and is not the speediest of fellows wearing almost-full plate, so he's usually not in front. I've lost my appetite numerous times during camp and find it extremely difficult to gather information while people are gawking at our Cleric's bare backside. We understand his need to be close to his deity, Calistria, but at what cost to the rest of us?

Going Blind in Korvosa

*Aids Altair's "perception" check and points to the Yahoo Group*

Dr. Davalus having been brought up again in discussion between Brutesquad07 and I. I decided to post a few Peter Lorre pictures, in reference to how he portraited him. The first two fit the bill exceptionally well! Enjoy!

Peter Lorre 1

Peter Lorre 2

Peter Lorre 3

Peter Lorre 4

*Admires the Bloody Stumpy Pig Trophy on the mantle while resting in his comfy chair*