Hall of the Mountain King's page

I play Yoska, who is a jerk.

As the youngest son of a Varisian family where his mother died before he could know her, family is very important. The mean reason he is a bloat mage is to have enough power to protect his, very vulnerable family.

He blames Sandru for their brother's death and thinks that Sandru is putting Amiko before blood family.

All of this, plus some self hate, couples to make him unpleasant. That much conflicting emotion makes for someone who finds it hard to just let things go.

That being said no one ever thinks any of my characters are likable, they're almost always confrontational.

Ruggers is actually pretty likable. I think Sandru comes across as naive and isolated and not smug at all. Roga is foolhardy but basically a harmless jock.

Keep in mind that this journal is also Thalia's version of events and therefore it's sometimes colored by her being massively prejudiced and sometimes flat out wrong... and that's when the story hasn't been altered for convenience sake. Thalia mostly only cares about how these things affect her storybook romance with Ameiko in my opinion.

There's huge sections of Ruggers being genuinely concerned for Ameiko's safety or the whole Yoska having a crying jag on the solstice that just don't make it into her version of the story.

P.S. Still enjoying the diary!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66907059@N07/6090384723/

This dialog just happened in our game. In case you're wondering how to kick start a rivalry with Sandru, let this serve as a guide.

Oh, and Jason Bulmahn, I'm totally not playing. I'm just here as an observer. You will know when I get the hat.

The whole roleplay during travel and in between encounters has been the best part of this campaign by far. That and the bard's attempts to write epic songs regarding all the other adventure paths and the private journal lurking elsewhere on this board.

I'm actually playing a male with right now. I was switched at birth with the party's changeling cleric and raised by her hag mothers. Needless to say he's somewhat twisted by his upbringing.

More in line with this topic, I haven't had any issues with playing male witches. In play it's not much different from a wizard but with a definite stylistic limit on the style of magic. In fact I think we played Riven Sky with three witches and a barbarian queen who had married all three. Sometimes things turn out unexpectedly awesome.

I have to go with Entombed with the Pharaohs as my personal favorite from recent memory. Dungeon crawl with multiple threats and excellently paced, it felt more like a classic adventure than anything else I've played lately.

I also had a lot of fun with The Skinsaw Murders and the Hook Mountain Massacre.

Outside of D&D, I have to go with Unknown Armies' Jailbreak and Garden Full of Weeds, and Poisonous Ambition for Burning Wheel.

I'm planning to have my application finalized and sent out at the end of this week. I can't even think of a time when this job wasn't my secret wish.

Good luck to everyone applying!

I know we finished a while ago and my regular GM just finished his second group on Wednesday. We're solidly into Serpent Skull and level 6 at the moment.

The last adventure was something of a letdown for my group, although I can see it working for a different gorup of people. Rest of the path more than made up for it though.

Lora as Feiya, Human Witch, carrying on the great tradition of 3 winds greatness.

I played a convicted murderer who found faith in Iomedae in a Chelish prison. After his early release for unjust reasons, he felt he needed to help reform the city where he lived, killed and was jailed. Fun character for Council of Thieves.

Swarms.

In the description of the Specialization schools most schools have an ability that says "at 8th level..." does this mean 8th level wizard or character level 8th???

It means 8th level Wizard. Generally class features are only achieved when the character's level in that class reaches the required level.

I suppose my group isn't typical, but my paladin steamrolled the DoL in Legacy of Fire. Way too powerful? Not nearly.

When blowing glass: don't inhale.

Heh. Maybe abjuration could get the cure spells. But I'm adamant that bringing a soul back from the dead is necromancy BY DEFINITION.

By definition it would be NecroURGY. Necromancy is about divinatory magics having to do with the dead and Necrourgy is about working with or by the means of the dead.

Necromancy is a misnomer for most of the school. =)

1: Incorporeal objects no longer benefit from a 50% miss chance, instead they take 50% damage. Check the back of your rules for more complete description.

2: Incorporeal objects are completely immune to all non-magical attack forms. This means that if the monster in question didn't have a magic weapon, he would swing at it and do no damage whatsoever. So it's still a useful spell against many monsters.

I just thought I'd bring #1 up for when it would be more relevant. Other than that I think the lesson here is not to send a small thing into melee with a raging barbarian with a magical weapon.

First off, thanks for the replies. I'm not too worried about game balance as far as some other player running roughshod over the rules with this house ruling, but rather more interested in whether it's a fair or flavor appropriate skill pairing for me to use. Thankfully I get to play as much as I run.

Dance is interesting but doesn't seem to quite fit. It would be neat for a possessing spirit that could use the players as marionettes. But that's neither here nor there.

Use Magic device sounds cool, with the idea of puppets with wands causing general mayhem. Though I'm not sure if it makes sense in the same way as a Drum being used for intimidate though, as we're talking about a skill that focuses on the character using their force of will to use a device beyond their normal knowledge.

Disable device is a bit troublesome as you could then make a plausible argument about disarming a trap from 20 feet above the device. It does make a lot of sense however.

Sleight of Hand is definitely in, I'm glad to hear that totally unrelated people see the way that fits in to the world. Assuages my guilt somewhat at being silly enough to pick people's pockets with a marionette.

I just think this general form of perform is almost too good to not use as part of a character idea. I appreciate the extra points of view.

Of course now that I have a copy of the current rules I felt the need to needlessly complicate matters by coming up with a general idea for a Bard character not specifically covered in the rules.

I know that you could easily assume that Puppets/Marionettes could count as Acting or Comedy for the purpose of Versatile Performance, but these choices don't really catch the feeling that I was looking for with the character. I was thinking of a character trained in a proper school on the inner sea capable of both crass street performances of Punch and Judy (clearly covered by Comedy) and with the more artistic Marionette performances in say, Chelish Opera or in a play performed entirely through puppets.

I ran this by my regular group, one of them a professional puppeteer, and I got the response that there should be a separate skill. The general consensus on associated skills were Disable device and Sleight of Hand. I'm not entirely satisfied with that, thinking it a bit too out of flavor compared to the other performance types, and maybe a bit too mechanically advantageous. (Though, I do find myself enjoying the thought of those skills being used for a Bard in a party short a rogue, especially when used with ranged legerdemain from Arcane Trickster.)

My general question being, what sort of skills would people recommend for this sort of performance skill?

My Half-Orc w/his Great Axe can get you a Half-Dwarf!

More Seriously Didn't the Dark Sun setting have a Half-Dwarf? The "Mul."

I love Dark Sun, but you're reminding me of a particular horrible novel with a half-elf/half halfling with MPD, psychic powers, a pet sabretooth and a steel sword in a setting where steel is more rare than giant insects.

I've been playing something similar in a "War of the Burning Sky" campaign. Maybe more than similar in that I opened as a barbarian and progressed into Sorcerer for one level in order to qualify as a Dragon Disciple.
Character viability in an uncertain party makeup might be an issue. I tend to eat a lot of damage over the course of a mission and without some dedicated heals I would be long dead, so in Organized play you may run the risk of death if your party lacks a willing/capable healer.
That said, Barbarian certainly makes the character build survivable. For me it clarified my party role as primary damage dealer. I've chosen a spell load-out that focuses on buffs, and sometimes find myself holding one side of a battle while the other at the table take on a single opponent. (Which may be why I need so much healing.) That being said, with a friendly party ready to buff you up and set you loose, you may find yourself capable of handling just about anything. The only weakness in the build was in transition from Beta to current rules, you lose the ability to rely on your claws indefinitely, so keep an axe handy (spell storing of course.)
Feat wise, Arcane Strike and Power Attack are a must for this sort of build. I've also gained a decent amount of use from Enlarge combined with Combat Reflexes. Most of this is basic stuff, but if you wanted to hear another viewpoint saying "This build works" then you have it here.
I'll also say that I probably have more fun playing this character than any other at the moment, and my regular gaming group is unusually prolific.

To be honest in my group that has been running for other twenty five years

no one ever plays the bard.

even thou the new rules give it a bit more it just has never worked as the jack of all trades.

I think it still is way off in terms of effectiveness and what it can do.

Can anyone please tell me if you would play one why?

1: Bardic Knowledge.

2: Countersong.
There are a large number of language/sonic based effects that can wipe a party due to poor rolls. This becomes even more useful with a Barbarian in the gorup, where there's the danger of confusion effects meaning your heaviest hitter isn't just out of the fight, but possibly working against you.
Nevermind some sonic based save or die effects I've seen.

3:Buffing.
Nothing here that other classes can't do as well, but that's assuming you have the right class makeup.

4: Skills.
Once again rogue is theoretically better here, but he is reliant on other classes for spell support.
Also note that the ability for Bards to use their performance skills instead of select others allows for skill focus and other bonuses to really shine. Imagine a bard with perform dance using his very focused skills for a fly check. Is there really any other class that's going to be able to match that?
Bards also make superlative party faces.

I can continue at some length on the subject, but the short answer is that they have very useful abilities that are unique to them, and have the ability to fill in a large number of positions in a party.