Thanks for being willing to take the risk! Going outside of the usual bounds of the game is hard, and like any experiment, can take multiple tries to get right. Hopefully the next try will be able to use the lessons from this game to work better.
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I'm actually more fine with the PvE elements, but I would like them to be more interesting than simple roll-fests. But as I've stated, I know that's difficult to manage.
Kit nods, not particularly surprised by the proceedings nor the answers. He notes the similarity to Azlanti with some interest, but her appearance... well, with that kind of power, she can probably look like anything she wants. Does the concept of a 'true form' even apply to her? "What language was that?" Kit asks as he follows Kabuusah out the door.
Kit tilts his head just slighly, giving Kabuusah a slightly quizzical look. "And do they matter more if the combatants actually faced one another, then?"
Kit says nothing for the time being, simply waits.
Ah, true, I always forget summoning.
Honestly, I prefer it with none of us being casters. I also prefer there being less emphasis on the PvP. My main issue with the challenges is that most of them have just been roll-fests--it didn't seem like most of them had any options to them other than fighting or running blindly into the unknown. It's difficult to say how to fix this, though... more opportunity to scout, maybe? Multiple paths ahead at all times with the time to check out which one has the best risk/reward ratio? Not sure. Most classes aren't even close to self-sufficient. Divine classes maybe. Each other class has glaring weaknesses that they'll just crumple to, and, well, everyone has bad luck every now and again. Not sure what to do about that, either.
Ah, I wasn't meaning skills as in the rules-constructs, but skills as in 'the things we're good at'. :D Basically, I'd like the opportunity for cleverness rather than dice rolls to give us an advantage. Perhaps I just didn't pick up on it, but it didn't seem like the environment in this set of dungeons was conducive to that. But as I said, it's difficult to design a Pathfinder dungeon where there are clever ways to make things easier for yourself (without being ridiculously obvious, at least).
I'd say the second problem with the environment other than just the deadliness of it is that there's not any real choice in them. Sure, some of us had multiple paths to choose from, but without the time to scout out and determine which path best suited our skills (or has the best rewards or whatever our decision might be), it was basically rolling a die. I'd like it if the dungeons felt like some cleverness and careful use of our skills would give us a major edge, instead of just how well we roll in combat. Of course, I recognize that achieving that is much more difficult than simply tweaking numbers to not kill us, so I'm not expecting it to happen, but it would be nice.
We're also almost purely martial classes, which means we don't have ways to handle things like swarms or poison (on a failed save) well. Or, in my case, enemies who roll luck a couple times in a row. :/
Kit glances at the mirrors, then looks away. The casual brutality of this place sickens him, but he dares not speak of it. "I agree with Misriel," he states.
"I see..." Kit says, noncommittally.
Kit nods. "I tried to keep moving, and, well..." He shrugs. "I'm not certain if it was a better idea than standing and fighting or not." He glances over at Kabuusah. "How often do the rules tend to change?"
"Well, when you can be sent into situations that play to your weaknesses rather than your strengths, it is rather difficult to survive," Kit states, looking over at Misriel. "Did you find it similar?"
"As well as could be expected," Kit states, rather than saying any of the other things on his mind, as he follows out of the arena.
Kit groans even as he force himself to sit up. "Well that was rather unpleasant," he comments to himself, wondering as he speaks just what had happened. Clearly he'd been pulled out of the arena, but why? He didn't think he'd been on the verge of death there, though he'd certainly been injured...
"If this wasn't an arena," Kit says as he pushes off from the wall and drops to the floor, "I'd ask what I ever did to you to get you chasing me in the middle of an earthquake."
He lands nimbly on his feet and again draws his rapier, casually dodging falling stones as he does so. "As it is, I suppose I'll just have to kill you first," he states, taking up a guard position.
Kit jumps at the wall and starts to climb, interrupted from time to time by having to swing from a handhold or even jump to another one to avoid falling stalactites.
"Underground is not the place to be, I see," Kit murmurs, with a bit of a humorless grin, as he sidles around the boulder and then starts sprinting towards the exit.
Kit nimbly weaves between the falling stalactites, reacting with preternatural speed to each one, drawing ever nearer the exit...
Kit doesn't like what the shaking might mean. He decides that, rather than stand and fight, it might be best to keep moving in case the whole ceiling comes down here. He nimbly tries to duck between the beasts and up the tunnel.
Gritting his teeth against the pain, Kit jabs at the eyes of the one holding onto him.
Glad for his vulpine vision, Kit takes a stand against the oversized insects. "You have far too many joints," he confides in his target, as he nimbly stabs at it. "Your armorer should be ashamed of himself. Why, look here! I can slide my blade right into that!" He proceeds to demonstrate exactly what he means on the creature he'd parried.
Kit doesn't fancy standing here and getting surrounded by the things, though if they can burrow, they can eventually get behind him anyway. It would still slow them down, though, which might give him the edge he needs to take them out. Besides, it would keep him away from that not-water. He springs towards the nearest tunnel, aiming to tumble past one of them into the tunnel, then whirl with his blade at the ready to deflect a blow.
Kit took one good look at the giant insects and decided he'd rather not be bitten by them. He stayed as hidden as he could, hoping they'd pass by him and he could get to one of the other tunnels... but he kept Nip in his hand, ready to parry and stab if one of them approached him. He definitely didn't want to get close to the 'water', either.
Kit doesn't trust this room at all--too many avenues of possible attack, and there's that water at the center. Cautiously he steps into the room, then steps aside, putting his back to the wall, as he sends his dancing lights out over the water, seeing if anything reacts to them. If nothing does, he starts making his way around the room, stealthily peeking down each passageway to see if he can discern a difference between them, trying to stay hidden from anything down them until he's made sure there's nothing hostile in sight.
Kit nimbly makes his way down the passageway, blade out as he keeps his lights some distance ahead of him and his blade at the ready.
NoooooooooooooooooooooooOkay.
Kit doesn't particularly fancy having his back to the unknown when whatever's outside breaks through. He makes his way deeper into the cave, summoning up some dancing lights ahead of him to light his way. He does his best to move quietly, but knows the lights will give away his approach.
Tekumsah, if you're allowed to roll swim untrained, you'd better get an 11, too. Because this is just too funny right now.
Kit is instantly on guard. Warily he takes in his surroundings.
'tis the season. :D
I believe the natural armor bonus from mutagen would stack, as the types are different. No clue what the GM will rule for the second.
In spite of expecting it, Kit still jumped a bit as his surroundings suddenly changed. He watched carefully once he realized what was going on--all of their well-beings might well depend on putting on a good show, which meant fighting his hardest... and his flashiest. He guessed what the clock meant, but having no magic other than his innate Kitsune powers, had nothing he particularly wanted to do with the time. Instead he quickly went through a few of his old attacks and parries, getting himself reacquainted with Nip.
Hope is gone? Kit thinks to himself as he listens. Yes... perhaps that is what all of that before was meant to accomplish... well, I'm afraid I'm a bit more stubborn than that. He glances at the others in the room. "Which means we'll have to fight, then? I suppose if we all put on a good show, we've a better chance of coming back if we die?"
Kit narrowed his eyes. "Who's this 'Tyrant' fellow?" he asks. "I'd guess he runs the games, at least?"
Kit points at the mirror with the female impaled by dinosaur spikes. "That looked rather lethal, wouldn't you say?"
"And all of that," Kit waved at the door, "Was, of course, entirely necessary to ensure we understand the pointlessness of the second option." He managed to keep the acid out of his voice. Somehow. Kit had kept an eye on the mirror-things while speaking... and a dark thought occurred to him. "We'll fight each other." It was a statement, not a question. It fit too well with the horror and degradation of this place. "That's part of the show, isn't it?"
Kit's ear's prick up, and he jogs forward and offers the creature a hand. "We're all slaves here," he murmurs, looking at Flint. "And lashing out at fellow slaves is, let's see... pointless, stupid, and cruel, yes?"
Kit watches warily. He suspects that Flint's actions will win no information, only pain, but he does not intervene.
Kit bares his teeth just slightly. "Or to fight. Though why the ridiculous privation beforehand was necessary for either option, I don't know. Maybe that's part of the entertainment," he says, bitterly.
Kit notes his inability to change forms with no real surprise. He hadn't really expected that to change--he wasn't free, just being used differently, now. The sight outside shocks him, however. "So many..." he whispers to himself involuntarily. Bad enough that he had been tortured so, but that so many others had been, too... who could do such a thing? And why would they? Was it truly possible for any being to be so... unfathomably evil, so amused by suffering that it would do such a thing? Well... yes, apparently. The kitsune shakes his head slightly. There had to be... something he could do... some way to change this... and that meant keeping his wits about him. Learning about what was going on. Watching. Waiting. There were three others here with him, and he thought he'd heard some of them speak. He'd been so wrapped up in the horrible spectacle before him that he hadn't really listened, though. So Kit turns to his fellow-prisoners, and gestures at the four-armed figure. He tries to speak, but it takes him a moment to clear his throat after so long with only himself to talk to. "It doesn't seem like we have many other choices, does it?" He at last manages to say, nodding at the insectoid man, then turning to go to him.
Kit was glad he had fur. It was an inane thought, yes, but he'd found the stupid thoughts were the ones that lasted. Clever thoughts took too much effort after... however long it had been. At some point he'd quit trying to keep track. Another thought that made its weary way through his head yet again was that this was beyond ridiculous. Deprivation of this sort he could understand as a temporary measure--it was probably amusing to the sick sorts that kept crazy prisons like this, at the least. But for this long? Any enjoyment it might have given his mysterious captor at first had surely long since worn off. The idea that someone would want to do something like this to him, or anyone else for that matter, was just so beyond outrageous that it became laughable. He'd stopped laughing a long time ago, but that thought still had a memory of black humor to it, so he held onto it for a while whenever it came by. The kitsune was on his feet and wary as soon as the door had opened. The long, slow torture of imprisonment had dulled his edge, but wariness and speed were so deeply engrained in him that some remnant of them pushed him to react even as his thoughts struggled to catch up with the sudden break in the monotony of existence. Warily he considered the rags, decided they were something, at least, and so he did the best to cover himself that he could. The door was still open, which meant Kit might finally be able to find out what madness was behind all of this. More likely for someone who could... what had that been? It was as if they'd fractured fate itself... whatever the case, he had little hope, but his stubborn core refused to just sit around. After a moment's consideration, however, he decided he'd rather face whatever was next as a fox, rather than an embarrassingly-clad kitsune. And so he reached for his innate magic to change forms before leaving the little cell.
All right! I'm ready for Kit to be miserable about having to do this! >:D
Please read the rules - in this game it also affects things like concentration and caster level checks, for instance. You don't want the crowd against you. That might be more effective if it actually decreased effective caster level, not just caster level checks. Against other PC's, you're not likely to make a caster level check (it's pretty difficult for PC's to get effective spell resistance, though there are exceptions), but... Actually, you know what, never mind. I don't want a spellcaster who managed to get the crowd on his side to hit me with a spell at +2 caster levels.
Kit Vulpik, Kitsune Swordsfox, at your service!
Oh, whoops, forgot the campaign trait requirement. I'll have to fix that.
I didn't have 1800 left after my higher-priority purchases. XD I've been debating back and forth... I *may* drop the plus by one on something so I can afford a Handy Haversack, which I could then use to carry a lot of other useful gear... it's just hard to decide which one I can most afford to drop the plus by one on. +3 weapon means it can penetrate several types of DR, my non-Reflex saves are low so I don't want to drop the plus on my Cloak of Resistance, I *really need* AC so dropping the plus on any of those seems unwise... Although... If I drop the plus on my armor by one, I could actually afford an Amulet of Natural Armor, and have enough left over... There! I have a plan now!
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