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I'd like to submit Dravik Seldon, a human Fighter 10 / Bard 2. He's a full plate / greatsword fighter that can mimic an archer in a pinch. The bard splash is mostly used for skills & saving throws. He's at 33 xp. Dravik is the captain of the Wind Song and most recently aided in the Society's victory in the Ruby Phoenix tournament. --- My other option is Valeria Nelael, a Cleric of Shelyn 12, also at 33 xp.
I've been talking with another player from my area about the faction cards, and our general consensus is that the Sovereign Court faction card from season 8 is really bad. Perhaps unbearably so. What I'm trying to figure out is if anyone out there thinks differently. Perhaps I'm missing something. * Practiced Diplomat is awful in my view. It gives a minimum result to a skill check of your choice, but for many of the skills the minimum provided is too low to be of any use. It would be a *very* dedicated member of the Court to get their minimum up to 17 in a time frame where that sort of skill check result was of any use for, say, Diplomacy. Knowledge (nobility) could perhaps work, but the same card encourages Court members to put points into that skill as they complete their goals. * Advocate is similarly bad. I just don't make enough prestige point purchases to make this trait worthwhile. I could perhaps imagine someone purchasing a whole lot of vanities, but the savings wouldn't be extreme even then. * Spymaster is pretty decent. If the whole party is having to make certain skill checks, this could help. But if you select Stealth, for instance, the heavy armor guys are still going to blow it 90% of the time even with a bonus. A better use might be to boost a party member that's good at a skill to make them even better. Overall, I consider Spymaster to be good, but not nearly good enough to be the only worthwhile reward on a faction card. Am I missing something? Or should we be making some noise to get a better card for season 9?
"I will have a Vudrani tea, please." Nobility 15:
Dravik's uniform is meant to evoke the style of Taldor's Second Army of Exploration without directly copying it. Local 10 (DC 5 for Sovereign Court):
You know of Dravik mostly by reputation, as he seldom spends time at the Grand Lodge, instead plying the seas on the privateering vessel Wind Song. Local 15 (DC 10 for Sovereign Court): Dravik is an accomplished Pathfinder with an inconstant reputation. His early career was marred by several serious errors and you've heard rumors of a recent disastrous episode in Ustalav. Balancing these are several impressive victories, notably a story of him captaining the Wind Song into the Eye of Abendego and returning with his vessel intact and the relic sought by the Society in hand.
My story is actually from Living Greyhawk, but the 3.5 rules base is close enough. We were fighting a group of orcs, including a wizard, a cleric and a pair of tweaked out warriors (22 strength at apl 2) with spiked chains. The casters weren't doing much, but the warriors were tearing through our party. My sorcerer/paladin gish and my buddy's ranger were the only effective combatants left (a druid was riding around trying to keep everyone alive), but we found ourselves in a situation where my sorcerer/paladin was prone and unable to take another hit & our ranger was within the orc's threat range and unable to take another hit. (note: spiked chains were WAY more OP in 3.5) My turn was up, and the next in initiative was the orc fighting my ranger friend. I tanked on what my action would be for a while. I could attack the orc standing over me at a penalty, but if I didn't kill it, I would die. So instead I cast defensively, passed my concentration check, passed my spell failure chance due to my chain shirt, and shot the orc threatening my ranger buddy with Magic Missile. His orc went down. His turn came up and he killed my orc. We both stood up, laughed at the joke cleric & wizard, and defeated the encounter. *** Later, the same sorcerer/paladin gish character entered a running combat with multiple waves that kept us in combat for over 40 rounds. Early on, our Hexblade entered a 5' doorway where she was planning to fight a group of duergar. Our wizard decided it would be a great idea to cast Enlarge Person on them. A round later, our Hexblade's not-great armor class was completely shot due to being large size and squeezed in the doorway...probably something like AC 12 or 13. Epic fail. We defeated the dwarves in that room & healed the Hexblade, but ... yeah. |
