A Haramaki is just 3gp, the cheap cost is the main reason I slap it on my Wizards/Witches, just incase they get the Mage Armor Dispelled or get jumped pre-prep.
Ithought the one-hand thing was for wielding a weapon only, though?
Search Posts
I think I had the same set up with Level 17 Krowys. If there's no ACP, then there's no penalty for being non-proficient. I don't think a Mithral Buckler has an ACP? Be warned though, you will need to keep track of Somatic components for every single spell you cast, since after a spell with Somatic components you can't have a shield up! (Pretty sure, for this reason, you can slap a Haramaki on a Wizard for +1 AC)
My Thoughts:
The main reason I put Krowys as apolitical, metagame-wise, is because we don't have much information on Yanmass other than that it's a trade city. In-character? It's because the guy has never had a chance to politic. He's been toiling away gathering information via the documents, conversations, and literally anything he's been paid to translate [I updated the guy's skills to have some Knowledge (local) to facilitate this], so I could see him acting as some kind of guide? He's in the same boat as Kaliban... he'd be an utter stranger to the party, there's no way around it. I imagine you might have heard about him (if not him, then Liber for sure... since it's hard to ignore the singular Arbiter in all of Yanmass), since I imagine he'd translate for anyone he can take a job with, from the foreigners in the tent-city, to the caravans that constantly go through the city, to the purchasers of any kind of foreign artifact with text on it, pushing the culture of the country to have less "pointless extraneous restrictions," and the like. Again, he's largely in the same boat as Kalidan. If he hears about your group's goal, he's likely to offer his services, even if it's at first to help with Yanmass... he'd be pushed along by the promise of changing Taldan politics at large, helping with the foreigners in the tent city that he'd most certainly have worked with/on behalf of. He's, in general, just a guy who's seen quite a lot from his line of work and wants to change everything... but never had the chance until now. He'd be elated to work for Eutropia. But yeah, in general, I'm having the same feeling as Kalidan's player: it's all metagame until they interact.
Oh wait, Catallus/Kittenmancer.. paws, pfft.
Alright, time for the flavourful aspect, along with some stuff about me. I like character-building and roleplaying equally, and I especially like playing out how one impacts the other. I've been on the board for about a year, and have been playing RPGs for about 5 or so years, mainly in a single Tyrant's Grasp campaign that grasped my interest, which is still going. This character was originally in a different campaign, no longer running, at level 17, but this version has a bit different of a build in mind: mainly becoming something akin to a Witch who wants to be a Wizard very desperately, taking levels in Pathfinder Savant to take up blasting spells, Haste, and eventually Veil for roleplaying reasons (fox!). Aside from the required Haste, spell selection is up to negotiation, of course, should I get selected. Backstory:
Growing up in Yanmass with, relatively, poor parents was certainly not something the young Krowys appreciated. He was born with planar influence abound, but not enough to warrant anything outright negative, but certainly nothing positive like the Aasimars get. The boy wanted to be a respect Wizard, more than anything, but his hopes were repeatedly crushed ocassion after ocassion, him being unable to secure any kind of apprenticeship or the like. Given that Yanmass is a trade city, the young boy, instead, took readily to being a freelance translator working tirelessly throughout the city. Languages and linguistics came extremely naturally to the boy, and that was how he earned a living. Translating whatever documents, conversations, or artifacts he could get his hand on at a fee. It was through this work that he came across a tome, working for some undisclosed figure, that detailed essentially selling one's soul for the power granted typically to Witches by their powerful patron. The instructions were in the tome for every outer plane, and the boy spent a good day or two reviewing the options. Pacts made with Heaven, Nirvana, and Elysium to a lesser extent, mostly involved fighting the forces of Evil at every possible turn. Pacts with the Boneyard required primarily the eradication of undead, which the boy was terrified of, and pacts with the Maelstrom wild vary, but very often involved committing to the cause of anarchy... Krowys was a (more-so at this point than after the pact, however) proud Taldan, and while he may not be exactly human, he wasn't going to abandon laws just to get a bit of power from some overrated shapeshifting snake. That left 4 planes. Pacts with Hell were well known, as well as the consequences, so that was the first option the young child eliminated. The Abyss suffered the same deal as the Maelstrom, except with much more suffering and sadism involved. No. That left Abaddon, which the boy also easily eliminated since he didn't want his potential familiar to eat his soul, and Axis... seemingly spoke to the child. It was rare that forces of pure Anarchy reared their head, and only if they actively attacked the forces of Law were pact witches contractually obligated to intervene. Some forces of Proteans didn't even want to attack Axis, and that was to say nothing of Valkyries whose motives varied. So, over the night, and losing sleep as a consequence, the boy contacted both Axis and a familiar, and a rather-typical "give your soul for power" agreement was made with Axis. Once the boy died, his soul was not going to be judged by Pharasma... it was going directly to Axis for the plane to reap its end of the bargain, to collect his soul. Which, for the record, the young boy did not mind. Fast-forward about 15 years, and there was horrid, utterly disgusting chaos in the decadent land of Taldor. Just thinking about it made the transformed Aphorite and First it was the Mysterious Nightmares, then the sudden disappearance of the Taldan Horse company which protected the city, then rumours of horribly anarchic bandit raids and a mysterious, seemingly benign, cult? Krowys's blood boiled, and the mathematics laced into his body flaked, at the mere idea that Yanmass would fall into such disorder, and he felt Axis would not take too kindly if the man didn't make some form of attempt to fix it.
Personality:
Krowys is... fairly rigid, as one should expect from someone with such extremely heavy ties to Axis. He has, however, never actually been to the plane, which is something he feels immense worry over. As a result, he is horribly afraid of dying before he's able to actually visit the plane he's selling his soul to. He does believe in following the law, but when the law is an unchanging force that invites for anarchic rebellions? As long as it doesn't conflict directly with the laws of Axis itself, he's more than okay with a little bit of mortal law breaking to further law in general. He's relatively bland on the outside, but knows how to manipulate people with his words rather than pure charm. He will somehow convince a crowd of people by merely talking with a relatively flat expression, the content of his words doing the talking rather than his actual body language or inflection. He very much likes it this way, as he would rather his intellect and linguistic savvy be in the driver's seat concerning his ability to convince/lie/intimidate than something as innately uncontrollable as "Charisma." Liber, on the other hand, is an extremely expressive disaster of an Arbiter who's only recently transformed into the metal orb that she is now. While, yes, that comes with the unequivocally good thing of "being able to talk to anyone and everyone," the sudden change in body has been wrecking absolute havoc on the poor girl, and she misses quite a lot about being a fox. She hasn't even seen another Arbiter, and only gets a vague directional sense of where the nearest inevitable is should she ever need to report. She's, to put it lightly, an absolute disaster orb of metal and magic.
I'll create a profile and a character sheet for Liber if I get selected, but the plan for her is just a Sage familiar, albeit things get a bit screwy since Pact Witch familiars keep the mental scores, meaning she'll have a different WIS and CHA than your typical Arbiter.
Alright, thanks for the summary :) I finally found a way to poach Haste onto the Witch spell list at only 7 levels (I thought I could poach it from Sorcerer/Wizard and make it a 4th level... but I lose a level of spellcasting, so I don't have 4th level spells yet.). Turns out, both Medium and Chained Sorcerer have it at 2nd level. I need to expand the background a bit more, since this would be the second time I submit the character, but this is the character sheet done. I am rewriting the background and reasoning why he'd be joining the party, but he 100% supports Princess Eutropia and the party's goals. He's far more accepting of Axis's perfect system of rules and regulation than a decadant nation living off of its former glory like Taldor. He's also getting fed up with the goings-on in Yanmass (disappearance, nightmares, bandits, and the cult). He is also horribly skiddish, and will run away the moment he gets frightened. He does not want to die yet, even if there is literally no doubt his soul will go to Axis. He sold it. Character Sheet: Krowys Axillensis Male Aphorite (Planar Envoy) Witch 5 (Pact Witch) / Pathfinder Savant 2
DEFENSE
OFFENSE
STATISTICS STR 7 + 2 (Race) = 9
Traits: Clever "Word"play (UMD), Magical Knack, Young Reformer, Frightened (Drawback) Feats: Magical Aptitude, Craft Wondrous Item, Skill Focus (Linguistics), Orator 0: Common, Celestial; Infernal, Abyssal, Protean, Sylvan, Aklo
Gear:
That night, Krowys and Liber lost a bit of sleep discussing spell selection, but they prepared a minor variation on their usual spell selection. However, for once, the pair has actually decided to utilize the ability to call on the forces of Axis for their aid, with a price of course. Or, if it's to deal with a Protean, the cost would be heavily reduced. "Well," Krowys deadpans upon the group waking up, "we may not be able to turn you to ashes with a mere thought, but we could transport you to someplace that can do it for us." Krowys silently notes to remember the ability to merely planeshift threats away, since it's not something he usually remembers to do. Liber, somehow still the more emotional creature of the pair, lets out a laugh that sounds oddly reminiscent of a fox at the joke, before responding, "nice one! But as Mira asked, what do you want us to do?"
Spell List posted, was worried I wouldn't have enough money for Pact Witch's ability to use Planar Ally and its ilk, but I should be fine to use them, so long as it's only 1min/CL. Swapped out a few of the not-really used healing spells for some enchantment spells, as well as the Planar Ally spells. I'll have the morning posts within a minutes at least.
Will do sometime today.
Not yet, haven't had the time to rewrite Krowys's Spell List properly. I'll update it today or tomorrow, I've just been busy.
"While I may not need sleep," Liber says, "I'm in agreement that the rest of you should get some rest. I'll discuss spell selection with Krowys once the rest is over." Krowys nods, affirming that his familiar is saying the same thing that's on his mind. "I can confirm. Rest is a good idea, if only to rearrange spell selection now that we have some idea of what we're going up against."
A sage can attempt all Knowledge checks untrained and gains a bonus on Knowledge checks equal to half its master’s class level.
"Ah, the Shadow Plane. Spells should be unaffected," Liber notes, "as long as they aren't light or fire-based. Isn't that place basically impossible to map out, though? How would you suggest we navigate the plane to do anything in that case?" She speaks with far more emotion, oddly, than Krowys does.
Liber speaks up on to why the party killed the Ravener (and Liber attempted to help, but the Spell Resistance of the creature foiled the plan), "Well, it posed a threat to civilization and law! You can't exactly feel safe with a rampaging Ravener going around. Doesn't matter who it killed, it could always have gotten worse, so we," she says as she points a clawed finger at the group, "had to deal with it."
"No offense taken. Given the potential consequences of the device, we had to look into the contract itself to make sure it was Axis's doing. I... am unsure if Tria would drown an entire island, but I do not have any questions," Krowys says, with his familiar resting her wings on his shoulder.
"I concur," Krowys says, and Liber rotates her body to indicate some form of nod, no longer applicable to her current body.
I just realized how terrifying the grand hexes are. 18th level will be... something, when we reach there.
Krowys follows Lazur, with Liber floating silently behind him.
Same with Krowys. Any healing spells he casts, as well as his backup weapon and the bag of holding it's in.
"To Hrifgard it is, given we are already under a mountain!" Liber adds with some modicum of emotion present in her voice, followed by what can only be described as an imitation of a sound a fox would make. "Here is to hoping its famed unpredictability," Krowys adds, "does not affect magic to aversely."
"Here is to hoping your idea works, Lazur," Krowys says. After a few seconds of deliberation, Liber nods and, on making sure they time it right, says "One, Two, Three" in her Truespeech granted by her transformation into an Arbiter.
Liber looks at Krowys and just sighs, or whatever the equivalent for an Arbiter is. "Krowys, you look exhausted. I can tell this isn't your best work. When we finish this exploration, get some sleep, please."
Krowys and Liber examine the runes as closely as possible exchanging silent stares.
"Hopefully... pushing an ominous button of the sort does not lead to any dire consequences," Krowys adds in his usual monotone, albeit with an added wince as the button is pressed.
I'll post later today or early tomorrow. I've been a bit under the weather.
Ack. Forgot I was up, and then my monitor broke. I should get another monitor today.
"Perhaps you," Krowys says as he retches, "still have a use of a spell to remove poison?"
"This is... certainly something," Krowys says as he takes in the sights. Even if he was quite the powerful spellcaster, he didn't exactly live like Mirabelle did.
"I'm with Ariston," the Arbiter resting on Krowys's shoulder says, "healing should probably come first, before you get into any other altercations or magical traps."
"As long as it wasn't sent to Axis, oh for Axis's sake the paperwork would be a nightmare if they knew we were involved in that!" Liber jokingly frets. "I believe that is that problem dealt with. Most of my spells would have been useless on it, so thank you for allowing me to save my resources," Krowys adds.
"I have not healed yet while our group has been together, and given the presence of undead that would be harmed from the action, this might be the best course of action," Krowys monotones as he enters near the center of the group to cast Mass Cure Critical Wounds on everything except the Ichor. The thunder still rages on above the serpent's head as it crashes down with a sonorous BANG, with the Serpent seemingly unperturbed by the literal storm above its head.
"The Ichor might pose a problem for us, but we can exhaust our most taxing spell slots in concert with Mira to deal with it relatively quickly," Liber says (with more emotion than her spellcaster) as she hovers about the Aphorite's head.
Area a 30-ft.-radius spread, centered on you How is this a weird inbetween? I'm not the GM, just curious.
Unable to see anything. Hexes might thus fail, but I know the rough location of the Serpents. Therefore, Greater Aggressive Thundercloud is likely my best bet, due to the continuous damage that has to go through Spell Resistance each time, Krowys thinks to himself. Krowys, after approximately one second of quick thinking, pulls out a piece of bark of a tree struck by lightning, and casts Greater Aggressive Thundercloud, pointing at a spot where he knew the Serpent was last, and calling down thunder from the sky. Then, both he and Liber back out of the vision-obscuring area to get their grips.
Ack! Knew there was a campaign I forgot to post in. I'll have a post some time tomorrow. Will likely just blast cold at Serpents.
Same here on the squishy front... d6 go brr.
Minor insubstantial correction: Liber isn't a combat familiar, so it won't come up: but the Constructed trait means she benefits from most Construct traits, including immunity to exhaustion. Good luck with whatever travels you do have!
It isn't much, but it's [Air Geyser fall damage x2 for hitting a ceiling ] possibly better damage I have on the Ichors except for Wail of the Banshee. Will probably target the bone Serpents first.
Okay. Quick question. How high up is the ceiling?
I think Resist Fire and Overland Flight would have already run out by now, but otherwise looks fine. Forgot to update my status. Also, since my turn is last on the initiative order, remember there's a +5 bonus to AC and Flatfoot AC since the Buckler is raised, and only is lowered after casting a somatic spell.
"Spells seem best targeted for the Hollow Serpents, and Hexes for the Immortal Ichor. Do any of them have some kind of resistance to magic?" Krowys asks quickly. Neither of them know the first thing about these monsters, but they go off of what they know of Skeletons to formulate a plan for the Bone Serpents, combined with Mirabelle's knowledge. They're far better at identifying extraplanar threats, evidently.
Krowys casts Detect Magic in as well, to see what is going on.
Yeah, three of my groups (both my VTT games and one PBP) have been extremely flaky, which is what led to me going with a bit too many campaigns. Unless an Iron God opportunity comes up, no more campaigns for me (I have a character that I've had ruminating for literal years that I've never gotten a chance to properly play).
Funding for an MA degree in Linguistics. I don't need a break, but I do need to stop overloading myself and signing up for games because some are slower than others, as I think I've finally hit my limit in terms of number of games.
Received no funding, so I have been low on motivation the past few days. I should be fine now.
I'm good as well. Will update with a post today.
Krowys, for a long time, says absolutely nothing, as he is heavily conflicted on the idea of a permanent residence. It feels as if it would be abandoning whatever shred of his humanity he hasn't forked over to Axis, so he speaks with uncharacteristic emotion and inflection in his voice as he sighs while everyone discusses the plan for the building. "I... don't think I'll be needing a permanent room. It'd feel like I'm giving up too much of myself to do so. What everyone else has suggested seems fine, but... I would like to add a library just in case I run out of space within the bag of holding to put tomes, dictionaries, and the like but," and then he cuts himself off. "After this is all over, Mira, do you think you could spare a casting of Veil for a particular idea I'd have in mind? Axis does not grant me the spell, and I would like it for a particular purpose, but I... I'd want to make sure that it's not depleting the amount of spells you can cast." As he says this, he looks at Liber for a few seconds, saying to her in Speak with Master, Speak With Master (Mix of Infernal, Celestial, and Fox Noises):
"I know how much you miss your old body, Liber. Hopefully someone can spare a Veil casting to help remedy the situation temporarily."
Krowys, returning to his usual monotone and lack of inflection, adds whatever information he can. "I am in agreement with Ariston. If you can trust this person, that should be enough for now. As long as we are not scammed out of an inordinate amount of money, it should be fine. There would presumably be consequences if they were to try to do so, as well." When responding to the exploration, Krowys adds in words as well, perhaps because of his silence earlier, "I am indeed curious of the kinds of treasures that would be present there."
I'm with Mirabelle here. The adventure was highly focused, while the new direction is incredibly open, so it's a bit of choice paralysis. I can't exactly Cone of Cold a house.
Oh that's fine. I just try to keep in mind that a Pact Witch familiar was originally a typical familiar (fox) when roleplaying, is the only thing I'd mention. I'm still feeling the campaign, I've just been caught up in waits for a few other things in real life and on the boards (A potential chance to join a Starfinder campaign, and linguistics funding, mainly)
I've just been coming down with something lately, I'll try to have a post up by tomorrow. No clue what it is, but I have not been feeling my best whatsoever lately. Sorry for the delayed posts as a result. |