HP /| AC (T , FF ) | CMD | F + | R + | W + | Init + | Per +
Well, he was relatively new to the forums, less that 500 posts, so it would be pretty hard to go by. If you never apply for a game run by a GM new to the boards, you may restrict yourself a fair bit.
Ironically, it was less my mechanics I was looking forward to playing, than the character's personality. I already knew his mechanics were ridiculous, which is why I tried to tone him down a bit, but I always envisioned this character (I've pitched other builds of him in other games) as a offbeat, non-english speaking (or common) Chewbacca type. Always thought the interplay with others would be a lot of fun that way.
HP /| AC (T , FF ) | CMD | F + | R + | W + | Init + | Per +
It's a shame this game died; it looked like an interesting premise. 18th level gestalt character represent a significant time investment to build as well. Too bad.
If there is, I'd still be interested as well. Graah! Is still fully stated out, and would require minimal fuss to bring in line with the final game rules.
Ah, alas. I thought I had a solid submission. Well, if the original submission standards hold, and any killed characters get kicked back to the submission board, I wish all of you a good, but challenging, and tragically short game, so that I might get the chance to play soon!
Graah!, contrary to the common assumptions about his species, is a thinker. He is a deep well of thought, opinions, and philosophies, and possessed of a ironclad collection of opinions based on firsthand observations. That is not to say he is close minded, but he is perhaps a bit jaded when it comes to new streams of thought. Though he is not particularly old, as creatures on Golarion are reckoned, and neither is his species long lived, he is possessed of a deep and calculating intellect and has been able to study the collected wisdom of many of history's greatest minds, and what is more, understand them.
He does what he does now, as a practically world renowned monster hunter, not because he craves glory or wealth, but because he believes that it is the way of the universe to create a nemesis to each being, no mater how powerful. He has proven to be the superior to innumerable beasts and creatures, and in a way, he harbours a deep seeded and morbid curiousity about what challenge the universe might bring about in order to accomplish his own end.
On a practical level, Graah! is calm, studious, and curiously wise for one of his ilk. He is honourable, as the value of order and law became quickly apparently to him during the early days when he lived among the monks in the monastery. Treat him fairly, an he will deal with you in kind; show you are without honour, and his own will take on a edge of ruthless efficiency, present and observed, but tempered with a distinct lack of mercy or compassion.
Pandorica: I didn't notice the little built and done notation vs. the Alt built you've got at the end of some of the entries. Graah! has been built and done for quite some time, but I suppose I forgot to point it out and make it official.
His fluff and crunch are both on there, though I expect both will get a bit of adjusting if he gets selected. Little stuff, such as what extracts he prepares daily, and his expendable items will get done if he makes the team!
Sorry for any misunderstanding; I thought there was a contradiction in there somewhere as it sounded like you were in favour of iterative attacks in an earlier post, and then changed positions in your later posts to say it wouldn't work.
Also agreed that throwing a shield without the improvised -4 would take a feat; either a thrown shield exotic weapon feat, or the Throw Anything feat.
For the shield on belt thing, I agree, I've never seen it either, but I have seen sword belts worn diagonally over the shoulder - the two part ones I linked to were just an example. In the long run, I don't know if it affects anyone that severely if a player wants to wear a shield on his belt. Alternatively, I don't think it would make a difference if he wanted to wear his belt over his shoulder baldric style. That way he could strap the shield to his back. The belt then does the does the same job, and as long as it still occupies the same item slot, I don't thing it should cost anything different than usual.
Of course, all of this is semantic, as Wivvy has already stated he's going to leave the rules stuff until after the selection. All the hostility floating around does seem totally unnecessary.
Well, I suppose it goes back to my previous point; if there is the slightest room for ambiguity in a description, it seems it will clearly say blue when one person reads it, and yet obviously say red when read by another... In the end only the opinion of the GM running the session matters.
I'm concerned that you two are getting seriously close to name calling. I think we need to remember that folk are just trying to construct a character for themselves that they can have fun with.
Steven, you seem to have a great grasp of rules, and you've pointed out a few things I was not aware of, but I think you are clearly mistaken in this instance. "immediately after the attack is resolved" pretty indisputably indicates the weapon reappears after it hits and inflicts damage, or misses its target, which would allow it to be used immediately afterwards, for the next iterative attack within the same attack action. The only time that this might not work that I could see would be as part of a TWF attack as they happen simultaneously, or perhaps by extension as part of a flurry attack as they are said to work like TWF... Attack Actions are not mentioned anywhere and adding it in is adding an external limitation that is not intrinsically included in the description.
Second, in regards to how the shield is worn, that is getting pretty nit-picky. If someone wants to wear a shield on their belt, why not? On the other hand, if he wants to wear a two piece belt with a baldic such as this or this, and have the shield over his back, who cares, as long as we agree that the blink belt occupies his Belt slot?
You stated that you need a feat to turn a Shield into a weapon, but that is not the case:
PRD wrote:
Shield Bash Attacks: You can bash an opponent with a heavy shield. See “shield, heavy” on Table: Weapons for the damage dealt by a shield bash. Used this way, a heavy shield is a martial bludgeoning weapon. For the purpose of penalties on attack rolls, treat a heavy shield as a one-handed weapon. If you use your shield as a weapon, you lose its AC bonus until your next turn. An enhancement bonus on a shield does not improve the effectiveness of a shield bash made with it, but the shield can be made into a magic weapon in its own right.
Anyone proficient with a shield can perform a shield bash, what you need a feat for is to be able to do one while being able to retain your Shield bonus to AC. Shields might perhaps be one area your rules-fu is rusty. (Not to disrepect - I think you've demonstrated a more than more than firm grasp in other areas; it is just to demonstrate that we can't all remember every single thing all the time.
Just my two cents, but when it says "the weapon teleports back to its strap or sheath immediately after the attack is resolved" does not sound like the intent is that the weapon appears at the end of the full attack action. The attack is resolved after you find out if that attack action hit, missed, and how much damage is inflicted, if any.
I get that there are different opinions out there, but sometime folk need to remember that even though you can run these rules however you wish in your games, unless this is your campaign, there is a possibility that the rules might be interpreted differently. On occasion, there is an FAQ or an unofficial DEV opinion on a rule that backs up a particular interpretation, but unless such an example can be cited, I think it is reasonable to assume all interpretations are equally correct until the GM running this campaign tells us what rules he (or she) is going to use.
Graah! is from Golarion, born and raised. He has perhaps left a few times, for the length of an adventure or two, but never longer than that, and he's never had much interest (or the capacity to do so) intentionally.
Looks like Machine-Smith and Alchemist are both restricted to Simple weapons... Dr. Buzzard's suggestion is probably your best bet, unless you are looking for something two handed, or to invest feats, or give up a level somewhere for a dip.
Machine Smith and Transmechanical Ascendant are both 3rd party (I haven't even seen them before, and I thought for a second they might be from the new steampunk campaign setting. Did Wivvy sign off on 3rd party stuff?
Ya, I know that in theory, and usually do the same (or type it up on Google Drive so I can switch between work and home), but for some reason this time I didn't. I thought I was being half way smart, and I tried to do a Ctrl C copy of my profile before I saved it, but for what ever reason, this time it didn't take. On the bright side, once you get a story down, sometimes being forced to rewrite it can make it a bit better, since you have to reorganize it in your mind.
I went the Master Craftsman route, and while the feat investment and skill points are expensive, I think it is perfectly reasonable if you want the benefit. I'd wager it is best left alone. Before this whole debate came up, I wasn't aware it was even an issue, I just thought it was the rules...
On the Devil's Advocate side of item creation, there is something to be said for planning out a group distribution of the item creation feats and duties, and working together to make sure they're covered. However, it does kind of require a pre-established group, and we are not sure at this point what GM Wivvy has in mind. However, with the lone wolf approach, Craft Wondrous is definitely the most versatile and therefore valuable, and the most likely for each player to take. The team that gets together may find themselves a lot less versatile when they discover that 5 of them can craft Wondrous Objects, and yet no one can craft Rings, Staffs, or Wands...
As said Goblin Gunslinger, I'd like to weigh in on that topic.
Now, I'm in the process of rebuilding and trying to diversify my abilities a bit, because it is more than clear that I got a little carried away when optimizing for nothing other than damage. That does have a tendency to result in a bit of a one trick pony... I'm doing a few things like trying to buff my Int score to get more Extracts, and gain the Infusion discovery to make them useful to the group, to be more of a team player, while dropping the confluence of damage exploits all simultaneously applied to one character.
All that being said, even as a non-caster, in a gestalt game, at 18th level, even I thought it would a major oversight not to have crafter feats on board, and got the ones I could via the Master Craftsman feat. The feats needed to perform your own crafting are an investment, and represent their own strategic importance to a character, and have been balanced against the concerns of the rest of the character. If you feel that you are left out not being able to get them, take the Master Craftsman feat, and invest in Craft Wondrous Object. About 3/4 of my magical gear expenses came from that category, and having those feats gave me the majority of the savings you mentioned, even as a non-caster.
Noted. So I should perhaps feel encouraged to embrace the spirit of the idea, but perhaps tone down on the 'German Precision' in the mechanics a touch...
also Graaah you have a BAB of +18... your gunslinger gives +16, the monk +1
interesting that with gestalt you don't need to be a full BAB class to get a full BAB bonus (I believe you should have a +17 BAB)
Good catch, thanks. I had him built with two levels of fighter originally, which I later switched out for the two levels of Monk. I'll fix it. Any other errors? Once I get any potential oversights fixed, I can finish on any needed polish and fine tuning, unless Wivvy wants to redirect my efforts elsewhere before that.
Edit: I had an error in my Saves as well, that I think was attached to the same source (Now fixed as well). Sometimes I think I would like using an electronic character builder, and other times I think it would take all the fun out of it.
Oh, I see what you're saying! That every time the book says 'action,' that it means "______ Action!" When you put it in that light, I suppose that interpretation is defensible, though I think you could argue against it on the same grounds just as easily. At that point it is semantics and/or grammar. Of course, experience tells us, that GM's tend to favour the most conservative interpretation, so right or wrong (and getting a response from the Devs on such a minor point could be a crapshoot, instant or never...) let us assume, for the sake of discussion, that the interpretation is correct.
I'm not sure about your math though. If he got off at least half the shots (with the same chance of crits, his damage would tend to average around half as much, not down near a third or a quarter where you estimated it...
He has two guns, even single barreled, he would have 6 duel wielding shots, plus one from his dominant hand. Haste adds 1 more at the start, and if each of the first shots is a double shot, he'd have a grand total of 10.
Now, it is fair enough to say that once you can kill a Tarrasque in the surprise round, you should go home, and if nobody thinks it would be fun to have a guy like Graah! in the group, then I can take the hint. I am excited about the campaign, and I'd really like to get in, of course, so if that is the feeling, let me know, and I'll try to come up with another option - perhaps something a little less optimized...
Basically what you've explained is that everyone else can play a support character while you take care of damage.
Splendid.
That appears to be what you took from it. What I intended to impart was that, in the spirit of the Thread's title, I tried to come up with the wildest, craziest, off the wall high-power character I could think of, and at the same time, I was having a lot of fun with the technical challenge of trying to get all the necessary bits and cogs to fit, which I am still waiting to see if I have successfully done, and/or which bits don't actually work as intended, and need to go back to the drawing board, or get scrapped altogether.
The Tarrasque example was intended as a light hearted tweak of the nose to get folk interested in providing the necessary feedback, as surely such a character shouldn't be able to function like that, should it?
The character was presented in a spirit of fun, and I hope it is received that way; the way a group of nerds might puzzle over a particularly interesting math puzzle, that's it. If I get to play him, great! I think a group could have a lot of fun with him along. If there is no place for him, or the GM thinks that, while legal, he should be relegated to the realms of theoretical curiosities, like a mild Pun Pun, I hope he'll give me the time to come up with another submission.
Response time: Responces for Dr. Buzzard, Edward Sobel, and Rynjin. Question for Rynjin.
Spoilered for length:
Dr. Buzzard First.How does he keep a hand free for loading? I was about to start feeling very happy and satisfied about my very cool and elegant solution to this very basic problem, when of course I discovered my first oversight with my character's construction, probably the first of many, unfortunately. As I said a while back, this is the first time I have ever put a hard effort into putting together a completely polished 18th level character, and this one is a gestalt character to boot.
The solution I had put in place worked perfectly well during an intermediate version of the character, back when he had four arms, via two uses of the Vestigial Limb discovery. He had a Glove of Storing on one hand and used a Pistol of the Infinite sky in that hand (which never needs to be reloaded). The glove could make that pistol disapear as a free action, leaving an empty hand available to reload the other guns, which with a combination of Rapid Reload and Alchemical Cartridges could be done as a Free action, which are not limited in number per round. After finishing reloading, he could summon the stored weapon back to his hand again as another free action, and have all four guns loaded and ready to go again for the next round of Iterative action. Of course, after reading a little further, I discovered that I was not going to be allowed to actually fire four guns simultaneously, and nixed the extra limbs (darn game designers and their strange dislike of game breaking mechanics...). I kept the glove of storing, kept two double barreled pistols, and my brain omitted the other extraneous details. Stupid brain.So, in its present setup, you are right, it wouldn't work.
Solution 1: There is a very easy solution though; when I dropped the extra limbs, I only reassigned one of the discoveries - if I put the free one back into Vestigial Limb, voila, he has a fulltime free hand for loading. I think I'd have to do some shuffling though, as I'd want him to have the full four, for the summitry (and the awesome Lilo and Stitch vibe).
Solution 2: Another potential alternative would be to ask the GM if he would allow Weapon Cords to be used with Quickdraw. There is no specific ruling on the matter that I'm aware of, but when initially introduced, weapon cords allowed you to drop the weapon (free action) and then grab it as a Swift action (later changed to a Move action, likely to avoid abuse). Drawing a weapon requires a move, grabbing a weapon off your cord is a move, is drawing a weapon off your cord drawing it? Does Quickdraw apply? No official ruling, GM's call.
Solution 3: Rearrange some feats to get the Gunspinning Deed feat. It allows you to holster a weapon as a free action. Once holstered, Quickdraw definitely applies to draw it again as a free action. This is the most expensive option, most likely, since it would require both Weapon Focus, and Dazzling Display, which is not particularly useful to a character with such an amazing charisma.
Solution 4: Switch his guns to Pistols of the Infinite Sky. Same price range as his present guns, but not quite as tailored to his niche. No more double barreled shooting, but then, they never need to be reloaded. Not quite as fun, or as stylish, and he'd lose out on his Ranged and Keen enhancements, but still comparably effective.
Edward Sobel: Pistols each take -4 to hit when using both barrels. Yes they do. They are also required to fire at the same target. However, since he is firing at Touch AC, and a AC 7 in this case (more on that later) it was worth the risk. Graah! is a Dex character, and has to hit bonus to spare in this situation, so he felt comfortable letting loose, and taking every possible penalty, because even with those in place, so long as he was in Touch AC range, he could only miss on a natural 1. Actually, your question made me notice a second error of mine; Pistols are not typically considered "Light"weapons (though debate rages on the forums), and therefore, the penalty for dual wielding should probably be -4. He was also using Deadly aim which adds another -5 penalty to the mix, so he was not shooting at his best. The range increment for his guns is 40 ft (20 ft is standard, but they have the Distance enhancement), and his Deadshot vest (or equivalent - it's built into a combination chest slot item [for +50% of regular cost as per the rules] allows him to extend his Touch AC targeting for primitive guns out to 2 increments, which is why he closed to 80 ft (which is why he rides on a carpet driven by his improved familiar instead of flying under his own power). Being out at 80 ft gave him an additional -2 on his attack rolls. All together that's -4 for double barrel firing, -4 for duel wielding (incorrectly entered as -2 in the example, but it would still not affect the outcome), -5 for Deadly Aim, and -2 for Range, for a total of -15 vs. his total bonus of +42. Even against his lowest iterative attack, in this case, only a natural 1 would miss, and surprisingly he didn't roll any. (Spotted another error on my alias. I forgot to enter any TWF penalties at all on my max penalty line, which got repeated in the example entry above, and forgot to account for the haste bonus. Instead of +31/26/21/16 it should have been +28/23/18/13.)
Each barrel reload is a separate action It is. In this case, each is a separate free action. In the equivalent entries on crossbows, when reloading reaches a free action, they state that they may then be fired as often as you could when firing a bow. Free actions are not technically limited, and are said to require virtually no time at all. One imagines an action that is so fast and instinctual that it can be performed without thought. Of course, the GM is always free to impose practical and plausible restrictions on the numbers of free actions performed in a round, and I am by no means defending the amount of reloading going on here by as by any means realistic. Hell, reloading a muzzle loader in a 6 second round at all stretches credulity pretty far, let alone the idea of doing it 16 times, in between aiming and shooting... Of course it is also being done by a guy with magically augmented reflexes that perform faster than a chemical impulse should technically be able to traverse a given space along a nerve ending, done while he talks to his extra dimensional invisible tumour familiar, while sitting upon his flying carpet, so, who knows... If the GM decides to squash his nigh-impossible reloading ability, I will adapt. Such is the nature of things.
also explain the +7 weapon? Sorry for the confusion there; one of the other players here PM'd me the same question. All I meant by that was that Graah!'s weapons enhancement bonuses, plus their Weapon Special Abilities added together total an enhancement bonus of +7. They are technically +5 Ranged Keen Pistols, not +7 Pistols. Magic Weapons are permitted a max raw enhancement bonus of +5, and Graah!'s are no different. They are however allowed to have a combined enhancement and ability total of up to +10. At +7, Graah!'s are well under the max. I totaled them together only as I thought they pertained to DR/Epic, which I may admittedly be confused about, as I have never played an Epic level campaign.
PRD wrote:
DR/Epic
A type of damage reduction, DR/epic can be overcome only by a weapon with an enhancement bonus of +6 or greater. Weapons with special abilities also count as epic for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction if the total bonus value of all of their abilities (including the enhancement bonus) is +6 or greater.
*Emphasis added.
I looked up the rules to DR/Epic, as I was unfamiliar with them, and the way I interpreted them was that Graah!'s +5 weapons with 2 +1 features (so a total of +7) would be sufficient to overcome this kind of DR. That is the way it looks on the surface, and since I have never seen a weapon with a raw enhancement bonus of greater that +5, I made the assumption that it was the correct interpretation. As I said, I've never played Epic. If they do +6+ raw enhancements... well, cool, good for them. The DR wouldn't have bothered Graah! anyway. Clustered shots.
Also since I am not an optimizer mathematician, and cannot make a character that can solo everything I will probably be bailing on this game. I guess I prefer games were I actually earned my levels and grew as a character as I advanced and build fun memories along the way.
The point of the little blurb above was not to discourage anyone, it was just to have a little fun, and to stimulate folk into poking holes in my build, if there were things I had overlooked. Ya, you read that right, I wanted people to pick it apart, and nobody seemed to be commented on each other's characters so far. I haven't made a character at this level before, so I'm pretty sure I made mistakes. I found about 4 so far, and there are probably more. Some are easy fixes, others are going to be more challenging. That's cool. Part of the challenge of the game. The title of this game is "HIGH POWERED,HIGH LEVEL, GESTALT, BATTLE HEAVY, DO-WHATEVER-THE-HECK-YOU-WANT CAMPAIGN." I took it to heart, and tried to to something I have wanted to do for a long time, and make my dream Gunslinger Goblin!
If you can, at level 18, take out a CR 25 creature in the first init order... there is no need for others to be with you. perhaps the GM can pick only you and the rest of us watch. Since when did being able to kill one big bad make you a solo party? Yes, this happens to be a very big bad, but, even if his mechanics do manage to stand up to criticism (we'll see), this is pretty much the ideal kind of bad guy for this character to defeat. Big, dumb, and impossible to miss. The GM is never going to challenge this kind of character with this kind of opposition; it's like only throwing low level zombies at the Undead-Slayer Undead-Bane Holy Weapon Wielding Paladin. Of course he's going to curb stomp them. GM's don't throw Colossal solo beasts at gunslingers, they throw high Dex invisible flyers, swarms, and mind control monsters. The point of the example was not to say that, "You can all go home now." It was first to invite mechanical critiques, and second to present an option for a strong range based damage dealer for our eventual party. But he would need a party to go with. He would not be able to handle a great many challenges on his own. I'm here to have fun, just like everyone else, and I designed Graah! with that in mind. He's not supposed to steal anyone else's fun, or rain on any parades!
In any party, how well does the damage dealer do all by himself? Graah! is not a face, a diplomat, a trap expert, a knowledge guru, wilderness guide, an arcane force, a healer or half a dozen other things a near epic level party is going to need. Starting at level 18 is different than starting at level 1, but it does have some interesting challenges.
Rynjin:It's actually not super challenging to build a character that powerful at these levels. Plus, his ability to mulch a single creature doesn't make him a solo party. You can't balance a game around single creatures because they are simply NO challenge for a group of PCs anywhere near their weight category. I totally agree.
That said, he actually only has about HALF of those attacks. Double Barreled Pistols give an extra shot PER ACTION, not per shot. So he'd get one extra attack once per full attack from the DBP. Could you point me to your source on that? Usually when I make gunslingers, I talk the GM into letting me use Revolvers, so I've never used the Double Barreled Pistols before. There is nothing in their description that would indicate that they couldn't be reloaded and double fired again...
That's not counting the fact that he has provided himself no way to reload those pistols. He doesn't have Vestigial Arm or Tentacle, and his Monkey Goblin tail doesn't allow that, plus Weapon Cords were nerfed hard, so cut the attacks in half again. You are right about this, but it's addressed above, and easily fixed. Graah! is actually a regular Goblin, the Monkey Goblin version of the character was an old version that I kept under a spoiler in case I decided to use him again (it's a recycled alias). Every once and a while a few details of the old character accidently got mixed into the new character on the profile, just due to doing so many edits. I'll go though again and try to make sure it's clean of them.
A rather silly and highly contrived sample combat:
Graah vs. the Tarrasque
This is a contrived fight, no question. I have no idea if there is a "smart" way to GM a Tarrasque to make them particularly deadly to fight, I just picked the biggest thing in the manual and ran with it. It's just for fun.
Graah! is flying along on his magic carpet over a vast, empty wilderness when a Tarrasque appears 100 ft in front of him, ripping into being as though thrust there through some dimensional rift. Wherever it came from, it seemed to be just as surprised by the situation as Graah!.
Initiative;
Graah!:1d20 + 19 ⇒ (9) + 19 = 28 Tarrasque:1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24 Graah! is not surprised! He goes first!
Graah!'s familiar draws a wand from Graah's pouch and pilots the carpet in closer, flying to a range of 80 ft from the beast.
Kn: Arcane:1d20 + 30 ⇒ (13) + 30 = 43 "A Tarrasque? How the hell did it get here?"
Graah! uses a swift action to use his boots of speed, activating his Haste effect. He quickdraws his double barrelled pistols and starts firing, unleashing both barrels from each. He takes careful aim, risking a few missed shots to make ever one that hits inflict maximum damage (Deadly Aim). As soon as the smoke flies he is already reloading, firing again, and again, and again!
Breakdown: Graah! fired both barrels of his pistols 8 times. Out of the 16 slugs fired, he had 16 hits, no natural 1's, and 4 confirmed criticals. Each hit inflicted 1d6+27 damage, +10 damage from deadly aim and an additional 4d6 precision damage, which Tarrasques are not immune to. The 4d6 precision dice are not multiplied by critical strikes, but all other damage is increased by a factor of 4. The Tarrasque has DR 15/Epic, which since Graah! has the Clustered Shots feat, would only applied against his damage total a single time, making the total inflicted as 1326. However, Graah!'s guns are +7 weapons, which are sufficient to overcome DR/Epic, so it doesn't apply anyway. Applied against the Tarrasque's typical HP total of 525, it ends up at negative 816; pretty dead, even for a Tarrasque.
The monster's torn and ripped body went still, the massive, building sized legs going stiff as the whole colossal creature's balance subtly shifted, then as the body began to pitch to one side, the slow fall gradually picked up speed until the beast hit the ground with the force of landslide. Dust and wind shot out from under the monster, blasting down trees on all sides and casting up a massive cloud of dust.
Looking down, Graah! sees the body and corpse of the beast is so thoroughly ripped to shreds that in its current state, scholars would likely require generations to identify the pieces.
Graah! wonders to himself what it might of wanted with him. Then, spotting subtle movement among the pieces, he sees the numerous wounds start to stitch together, healing.
"Oh, right. They don't die. Damn it." The diminutive gunslinger looked down at the thing from where he stood on his flying carpet. "The only way to get rid of these things is to find a way to put them to sleep, imprison them, or banish them to another dimens... Damn it! That's where it came from! And now it's suddenly supposed to be my problem? Damn it!"
He turned to his familiar, willing his desire across the bond to the creature for it to become visible.
He sent it his thoughts, "I'm probably going to have to send you to fetch some help. I'll have to stay here and keep this thing down until you can make it back. See if you can find someone that can banish it for us; or failing that, some sort of gate, and something to aid us in reducing this thing to small enough pieces to get it through said gate. At the rate its regenerating, a shot about every 30 seconds should keep it dead. Well, deadish... Maybe I can rig up something to dump a cauldron of acid on it every time it tries to move?"
In response, the tumorous creature only looked at him impassively, but didn't move.
"GO!"
The creature vanished, turning invisible again, but the sound of its flapping wings could be heard fading away.
Graah! looked back at the stirring Tarrasque. He reloaded his pistols, took aim, and shot it once more through the skull.
HP /| AC (T , FF ) | CMD | F + | R + | W + | Init + | Per +
Thanks mott. The game was good fun while it lasted. I'm not sure if I just never noticed or if it wasn't disclosed, but in future recruitments, I would suggest making sure that applicants are aware that this module, or at least the first parts of it, are very mass-combat oriented. Suggesting that the group have a Diplomancer of some sort, or military commander type would probably aid things a lot too. This disclosure would have made a difference for me, as I tend to have very little interest in mass-combat in general, and the set up with a primary group leader and such contributed to major lack of immersion for me. This is of course my bias, and no bad reflection on you, but there is a big reason I play Pathfinder and not Risk.
As a bit of constructive criticism in regards to either the writing or GMing of this module, the situation felt very scripted, and that there was very little I could do to influence the situation. After most of the ideas Illa and I came up with to alter the dynamic ended up being fruitless, or resulting in at best a very minor mass-combat adjustment, it just felt as though our efforts were at best being dismissed, and at worst, discouraged. After the second or third plot that appeared/felt to be brushed off because it did not fit into the story as written, I became discouraged and resolved to wait out the mass-combat portion of the scenario, as you had mentioned that there would be opportunities for more individual action, and individual scale combat later.
All in all, it was still fun, and I enjoyed the game, though I think it is worth trying to keep in mind that not all players think the same way, and that some might come up with ideas you did not anticipate when writing the scenario. This alternative thinking needs to be rewarded in some fashion that keeps the players engaged, or they might end up feeling too much like the game is trapped on the rails.
HP /| AC (T , FF ) | CMD | F + | R + | W + | Init + | Per +
Presuming that there are the typical barrels or pots of pitch or oil on the wall for repelling climbers...
Graah dashes straight up one of the courtyard walls, gaining the defender's positions once up at the top. Casking his gaze around for what he is seeking, he snatches up a bucket of pitch from near the cauldron that is slowly simmering more of the same viscous goop.
HP /| AC (T , FF ) | CMD | F + | R + | W + | Init + | Per +
The half-blind longshanks seemingly unable to find anything, Graah! decides that he ought to take a look around the engines himself, to see what someone competent might be able to make of the situation on the walls.
He first stalks about the siege area looking for any hint or sign of tracks, checking for any sign that someone who might not have supposed to have been there might have been sneaking about.
Survival:1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16: 20 total if Orcs are involved.
He then looks over the walls nearby, and the device itself, trying to determine if there is any sign of scaling on the wall, such as tool marks, gouges from grappling hooks, or again, any sign that the foul Orcs have been there...
Perception:1d20 + 13 ⇒ (9) + 13 = 22: 26 total if Orcs are involved.
HP /| AC (T , FF ) | CMD | F + | R + | W + | Init + | Per +
Given the lack of siege engines, Graah! will deliver the powder near their front lines, a few ranks in, just as they close from bow range and begin to press forward to attack in melee.
HP /| AC (T , FF ) | CMD | F + | R + | W + | Init + | Per +
"Gotcha, boss lady."
Graah! fetches the bag of dust from wherever it is at present. Doing so, he hops up on Tasty Chicken, and launches them skyward in the protected airspace behind the keep. He'll climb to a safe altitude before crossing over above the Orc army, looking for a point where a little dose of chaos might have the greatest impact.
HP /| AC (T , FF ) | CMD | F + | R + | W + | Init + | Per +
Graah! needs no further preparations. He mounts Tasty Chicken and will head out with her to accompany the parley group, landing close, but not too close to the talking group. Keeping an eye on Corvus and Illa, he watches for an agreed upon signal in case he is to attack, and start killing all these disgusting orcs.
HP /| AC (T , FF ) | CMD | F + | R + | W + | Init + | Per +
Graah! retrieves his bow from Corvus and draws an arrow from his quiver. He tests the tip with his thumb, as if to be sure it's sharp. The jagged, barbed tip looks particularly vicious.
HP /| AC (T , FF ) | CMD | F + | R + | W + | Init + | Per +
Graah! wrote:
Graah! stoops to collect the fallen wands from the floor, as well as to grab the magic ring (Ferocious Action). He grabs the collection of vials, and pulls off the rings and amulet for magical identification. When complete, he moves back to the room's exit, and sits down in the middle of the floor, with the objects arranged on the ground in front of him.
He grabbed the wands, the vials, the rings, and the amulet.
HP /| AC (T , FF ) | CMD | F + | R + | W + | Init + | Per +
Will Save:1d20 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 2 = 22
Graah! stoops to collect the fallen wands from the floor, as well as to grab the magic ring (Ferocious Action). He grabs the collection of vials, and pulls off the rings and amulet for magical identification. When complete, he moves back to the room's exit, and sits down in the middle of the floor, with the objects arranged on the ground in front of him.
Waving to Illa, he invites her over to have a look at what he has collected.
