"So finally again, I have you to hold and time of mind to set down the events of a fortnight past (though in recollection it feels like another lifetime since). To start at the beginning would be too strange, so to start at the end I can say I have done the very thing that by vow I would never do and commit to you these notes from inside the rafters of the Bastion of Light."
- From the family commonplace book of Robe Leafchipper, Esq.
Reaver's Roar spoiler:
Calistril 13, 4718
The beast died well enough nearly half a year ago and its head hung in me bar for all in town to wonder at, those stopping and going, though who well read the note of warning beside it's ugly maw?
'Not once were here such a paladin
With just cry of havoc so laden
At the beast from afar
Who tore up me bar
Making a coffin for all to lay in.'
You would think one or two would have sense enough to ask, but they have the lot of them the cents of an empty purse -- good looks, fair strength, and we know the foulest disposition to any question of their 'good and greater' purpose -- but they would think one from their bright and shinies or some Sky-Wizard worshipper had reclaimed their holy ground, but would their high-and-mighty tongues even ask whether it could be otherwise that not one from theirs, in fact, took the time to save us?
But I've told you well who did it, that band of murder-hobos for hire, (as much sense in them as well as cents from a spent farthing to charge into such a place, but as they say, 'go tell it to Druman, a sailor's already heard it') -- but they at the least, they could get a job done and find their own path back home instead of loitering among us decent-work folk. So there the head (and wings) of such a monster became a comfort to me and mine to know after night after night of work and pity-filled tips (who among the holy and haughty would recognize, let alone appreciate in coin, a hard day's work when even it bit their armor chapped arse?), to know as I said, that there are those whose good in their world are their works, rather than 'working' for the greater good.
Find in this entry the till and take from the bar and next barrel schedule for the brewery.
I think you will find this strange enough but for a second time in the second decade we have taken shelter in the ale cellars, at least this time not from the Broken Nail, but from that brute so beastly his attacks were as deadly with his claws, broken nail or no. He was for awhile a spectre, the thought of a memory to pass in a moment, but present at any time.
When the rangings of the Reaver became more frequent, we thought we knew down to the alley where he would and would not go, but the livery, the green grocer, the watch house, all destroyed tonight.
I will go out with the next relay to make another run of it for any survivors, although all hope diminishes by the minute. Here catalogued are those saved tonight and last words for those saved too late. I wouldn't think the sky-wizards would curse me twice, but for a stick of lightning to split its middle, what I wouldn't give.
Gozran 6, 4687
At last I enter into my own in the weening thirties of adolescence. The elder 'Cala’Quessë' would have me wait another hundred years or two if they could, but they know equal share of time was not given to elf or man or halfsies, so here I stand my life before me and twelve grand barrels of masterful ale in storage under what will soon be my own bar. On this occasion I find it fitting to officially record the latest news from my Bellflower contact on the Leafchipper maternal line, with confirmation given by two separate oral sources and written records confirming all times and locations as can be found:
Leaferchipper Family Tree (spoiler free):
Maternal Grandparents Meryver Sonbahar (AR 4587 - ??) Corrin Söğüt (AR 4516 - 4590)
Meryver Sonbahar was born free in the Satrapy of Zelshabbar, rising through the ranks of the militia in his youth. He briefly served as a shield bearer for the favorite son and heir to the throne, Elvon Tozmantosu.
The Satrapy left his home largely ignored until a gold mine was discovered just within its border. As interest in trade with the kingdom increased, so did the interests of the Vizier’s companions. Eventually they formed a conspiracy to dethrone the king and replace him with someone directly loyal to the Vizier. In the ensuing battle, Elvon Tozmantosu was killed and his Shieldbearers captured, being denied a death in battle for which they would earn eternity in honor and respect.
Corrin Söğüt was born enslaved along the Golden Path, the names of her parents were never recorded, her surname instead becoming the house who eventually paid to hold her in servitude. It was there that she met Meryver and had one child, Hafira Söğüt. Corrin died soon after childbirth and Meryver was sold to another family one year later along the Golden Path.
Yes, to the point, for all different campaigns, what is the range of effectiveness of a caster on offense when they dedicate their midrange to high range resources to fight.
Do they speed the combat by a quarter, cut it in half? What is everyone’s range of experiences?
From that list alone I’m feeling a strong caster expending a top level spell could consistently account for 1/4 to 1/2 of enemies neutralized in one round (or all in the right circumstance).
Do those estimates seem right?
What about for mid-level spells, reduce enemy effectiveness 1/4?
I'm looking for some ballpark numbers of how a full offense caster can shape a combat.
Looking at paced spell output -- so say a full dungeon with at least six moderate combats and one to two difficult combats, something where casting from your mid to high level resources is the smart decision -- what percentage of the enemies would they likely debilitate or eliminate in the first one or two rounds?
For context, we have an all melee party and I'm trying to run the numbers on how many party buffs are too many buffs from my combat oracle given that we don't have a caster on offense.
Not many people alive nowadays know that meister is short for Wenn-ist-das-Nunstück-git-und-Slotermeyer-ja-Beiherhund-das -Oder-die-Flipperwaldt-gersput-meister.
I just realised shaping focus requires a multiclassed
My vote would be ranger multiclass with Shapeshifting Hunter added in too:
Benefit: Your levels of druid stack with your ranger levels for determining when you select your next favored enemy. Also, your ranger levels stack with your druid levels in determining the number of times per day you can use your wild shape class feature, up to a maximum of eight times per day.
And welcome to the Forums! (Don't worry, I post to the wrong thread forum too sometimes.)
I’ve run into this issue consistently and I wonder what our collective thoughts on the matter might be.
First, I’ve never been a fan of prepared casters, so my first solution to the problem of having so much player experience that it conflicts with PC experience — which is to be super knowledgeable about all kinds of situations and backed by thorough studying, both me and my PC can produce an exceptional plan.
The fall back I’ve used is to play super wise characters who work exceptionally well on an intuitive level, so maybe hours in meditation each day or an extraordinary knowledge of the natural world flavor the solution to the problem at hand.
But now I’m playing a charisma character and have landed only on the idea that they are a more than decent story teller and that this imaginative play allows outside the box thinking that surpasses intellect and wisdom.
Do physical stats work as well? Your hammer itself knows when to swing, your body moves first as if it knew what to do before your mind? (No idea about Con).
The spell has a primary target, but also secondary targets of the caster's choosing within 15' of the first target.
In trap form, what are the different ways of deciding who gets hit in which order?
Burning Arc:
This spell causes an arc of flame to leap from your fingers, burning a number of enemies nearby. It deals 1d6 points of fire damage per caster level (maximum 10d6). For every additional target the discharge arcs to, reduce the number of damage dice by half (rounded down). Therefore, at 9th level, your burning arc deals 9d6 points of fire damage to the primary target, then 4d6 points of fire damage to a secondary target, then 2d6 points of fire damage to an additional target.
Each target can attempt a Reflex saving throw for half damage. The Reflex DC to halve the damage of the secondary bolts is 2 lower than the DC to halve the damage of the primary bolt. You may choose secondary targets as you like, but they must all be within 15 feet of the primary target, and no target can be struck more than once. You can choose to affect fewer secondary targets than the maximum.
The oracle is the perfect class for the reluctant hero, and a curse that forced or at least encouraged good behavior would make that easier there does not seem to be any support for that.
Are there any curses that focus on visions or prophecies? Following a lead on those could result in good aligned actions.
Looking to have an equivalent ring for an Oracle that Sorcerers have with the Ring of Spell Knowledge. Is there anything that would make it unbalanced or more powerful for an Oracle than what exists for a Sorcerer?
As advice, there are 1H finesse weapons and 2H finesse weapons. As rules, improv weapons have you work with the GM, so find a weapon that lines up with Light, Rapier, Elven Curve Blade or such.
My angle would be for a Flying V body on an electric and call it the Curve Blade, full distortion but good pick-ups, mash the frets with one hand but play it Spanish on the other.
Extra damage points for stringing it right and playing left like Jimi.
Halflings get the best buffing racial trait, Helpful Halfling. It turns aid another from a last, best resort into a practical and free option.
Going to bodyguard feat path makes for a great addition to the front line, as does the cautious fighter, blundering defense path. On offense, I favor readying an action to aid since it gives you the most bang for your buck, either when an enemy goes for a big attack or when your party really needs to land a hit.
And the +4 from aid is only the start. Lots of ways to increase it from there!
Running into this issue for the 5lbs of silver to make holy water. Great news is that 250sp is a pure 5lbs of silver by the rules. Bad news is that APs give gp to adventurers.
I love full blooded orcs for divine casters since they get used as cannon fodder by other races too much. The idea that an orc has to be half human not to take a penalty was pretty hard baked into 3.5, but mechanics wise with a point-buy it’s not impossible but with rolled stats it’s not a bad option when you roll higher than the rest of the party.
There is one or two orc only feats for summoning IIRC.
That ability is, but you should specify how it can be used in combat before they take it. Same things have been done with other low level items like feather tokens creating an anchor, tree, boat or even siege tower on top of an enemy.
It is a great guideline to experiment with now that players and GM's that use that OGL have lots of system mastery and are expecting 'interesting choices' beyond the big 6.
I'd bet a lot of tables looking for variety in mechanics could come up with a few fun sub-systems to try out and cool ways to stylize it into the setting.
Off the cuff, I'm thinking of trying sessions between lvl 6-8 where the party has access to magical properties like a wizard has access to spells and they can trick out select parts of their gear, either each morning or maybe at certain plot points. Finding new items or blueprints can add to their list and plot allows them to anticipate which ones might be needed in the immediate or intermediate future.
Maybe everyone has access to the same items all of the time or maybe there is a limit to how many items the party can have particular items active at once. Or maybe it will fail horribly or maybe just expect table variation.
I had a character a while back who studied combat as a profession, but I just got to thinking, the fact that the Platonic solids constitute most of the dice and societies are capable of doing their own data collection for thousands of years, it seems like there should be a cult that worships d4’s to d20’s as the ultimate arbiters of fate.
The party on its own could definitely clean up faster, but we are talking hordes of unintelligent undead, so a scout or just someone with a potion of fly could strafe to the center of their cluster, activate, move to another position nearby, wait for them to get to close again, and rinse and repeat.
Again, a wand of fireballs could be used in the same manner, and up to a certain point would be way more cost effective.
Run that math by me? Selective is an option but can it heal friendlies?
But I don't really think this is the most effective spell, since it only works once on any creature in 24 hours. I would much rather go with a permanent wall of fire (granted, that would hurt everyone), a permanent one. Even without maximizing it, you're getting 2d6 + 15 (assuming CL 15) and that doubles against undead passing through it. It's less if they're standing near it, but still doubled.
The party on its own could definitely clean up faster, but we are talking hordes of unintelligent undead, so a scout or just someone with a potion of fly could strafe to the center of their cluster, activate, move to another position nearby, wait for them to get to close again, and rinse and repeat.
For effectiveness, I wonder -- who is reading the HP limit of Symbol of Death applying to Symbol of Healing?
My hot take is that the limit is overridden because it's subordination to the spell effect of killing creatures:
"When triggered, a symbol of death kills one or more creatures within 60 feet of the symbol (treat as a burst) whose combined total current hit points do not exceed 150."
"functions as symbol of death, except [*when triggered*] all creatures within 60 feet of the symbol of healing instead are bathed in positive energy and heal 2d8 points + 1 point of damage per caster level (maximum +15)."
Symbol of death specifies which creatures by HP total, Symbol of Healing specifies all creatures.
Not sure if I'll actually get to do this with our own adventuring party, but it could be fun to plan out and then have the NPC's use it for dramatic effect:
Symbol of Healing (Permanent 10k gp, CL 10)
CL 15 for 2d8+15 positive energy
persistent from metamagic gem
empower from collaborative thaumaturgy (spellcasting services in large town)
?? maximize and widen from other collaborative thaumaturgies??
(not sure if these is legal or GM would prohibit)
Are there other ways to up the effectiveness against undead?
Small and Medium are the standard character sizes, but what about in a town of Cyclopes? (let's pretend they invented the spell millennia ago):
Their magic always performs at the scale of a medium creature, incurring a -2 penalty for using the wrong sized ranged weapon with their standard large ammunition and, on impact, it deals damage as a medium sized weapon.
Conversely, if a Halfling learned this spell while staying with them, the spell would fail to fire a bolt from a crossbow or an arrow from a bow because the two-handed ranged weapons are outside of their size capacity.
This is not how magic works in game, or how many GM's would describe the spell failure to a lvl 3 Small caster, and that in total could never be the RAW and automatic spell failure for small casters depending on the ammunition is far from RAI. There has to be something else.
3d6 flameblade is nice. Coinshot could work too. Then there is instant weapon.
looking for spells that can get close to the Sledgehammer improvised weapon with 2d6 damage.
hmmmm. Is there a usable interaction from weapon shift with natural weapon part of a base Monk's UAS?
"A monk's unarmed strike is treated as both a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons."
The improvised weapon shifts with wildshape into the UAS, which isn't lost as an attack option in any of the forms, but does keep the die progression which can be further increased by increasing size.
Edit: And of course there is Shifter to be investigated if we are talking UAS and Wildshape
Yeah, there is room in reading the choice of the word 'properties' in the wording of weapon shift, if only a little.
It lists after using 'properties' three weapon 'qualities': disarm, double, fragile. 'Qualities' is the word used exclusively with weapons under the rules section of equipment with no use of 'properties', so if you and your GM (or just your GM adamantly) decide that the author of the feat refers instead to weapon 'qualities' that loophole is closed. But...
If your GM and you want to allow something crazy and willfully interpret 'properties' in the broader sense, then 'improvised' could be a 'property' allowed by weapon shift and then Shikigami feats all now apply to your natural attacks.
Balance-wise, giving Druids more combat power in this way probably isn't needed, but at the right table with other OP options being used by other players, could be really really fun to smack an enemy with multiple 4d6 attacks or crank a vital strike bite into an ungainly number of dice.
I am repeatedly failing my save against Decision Paralysis so I'm looking to crowd source as many combinations as I can for the following party comp and the abilities that follow!
Warpriest
Paladin (with Unsanctioned Knowledge)
Ranger (No AnC)
Oracle (Battle)
I'm playing the Oracle and (mainly) for utility spells the GM has greenlit Dreamed Secrets to open Wizard arcane spells as an option, but there are two catches.
First, at lvl 10 I will have access to Lesser Spellcasting Contract which will allow 1st and 2nd level spells to be shared with the party indefinitely, as if with Imbue with Spell Ability, without the school/tradition limitations. (We have reworded it to allow spontaneous casters to use it.)
Second, by lvl 10 I will have Echoing Spell on Channel the Gift at only a +1 spell level, so each 4th level slot (or higher) can be split into two sharable castings of 3rd level or lower spells, with the limitation that the 'free' spell cast after Channel the Gift has to have a casting time of one full round or shorter.
It is a resource light campaign, so my first thoughts are to pump our gear with Magic Vestment and Greater Magic Weapon (either off Dreamed Secret or Paladin 3), then see if the Paladin will choose Good Hope for 3rd level Unsanctioned Knowledge as a prebuff.
For Lesser Spellcasting Contract I have very few ideas of what to suggest other than Shield and a pocketful of pearls of power.
Thanks in advance and if you have ideas on the party build itself, that's great, just throw in some spell combos with that as well!
Honestly, I’m suggesting to our group that we do a few sessions between AP’s to do just that. Start at lvl 8 aristocrat or expert with NPC gold and just build stuff. Adept wouldn’t even be bad, but I’ll have to look into it.
Depending where we place the sessions it could make for a great backdrop for the next AP.
Edit: this is not a sailor’s forum and I can’t use some of their lingo.
I thought I would start a thread for whichever questions might come up later, but right now I am wondering if anyone has knowledge ranks to answer this:
Ruina Montium was a gold mining technique of digging chambers inside a mountain side then flooding them to cause the whole side of the mountain to crumble and fall, which I now desperately want to do in game with Polymorph Any Object, but it occurs to me that water isn’t the only option here.
What if the spell instantly filled large chambers inside the side of a mountain with mercury? Would it cover a larger area? Could it break thicker sections of stone?
Also, rules related, can dispel turn it back into stone or a different casting turn the mercury to water? Flooding a valley with thousands of cubic ft of toxic metal seems bad all around.
Showing up (un)invited at the doorstep of a merciless Witch is usually a bad idea, but when you make a deal with a Genie to film the downfall of said Witch, it is a much worse idea to show up without the recording device in hand. Such is the fate of our Cleric of Abadar, Talerrio, whose difficulty overcoming the chaos of the First World was briefly reduced, but then doubled upon failing to meet the terms of the agreement.
That Witch, however, did meet her end at the pointy/slashy/blugeony ends of our weapons (and rays) quickly. With her minions kept at bay by Talerrio's magic, we worked our way in and out of corridors to close in within reach and ready our attacks to time with her spells. Giving up on those, it became a boxing match between our cavalier King and her, but far from a fair match.
Searching that floor and the others, few foes we met lasted more than a round or two, with the notable exception of a Worm That Walks that stepped back just far enough on a raised walkway to avoid the 20' reach of the Large, long-armed, lunging Gnome Anne. Perhaps bad luck, or just plot armor. The tower was now cleared completely and the entrances to a world-within-a-world were secured on all ends.
Our enemy had hidden herself inside a Fable of her own creation, where her powers were at their greatest and we at the greatest disadvantage. We paused long enough to Commune with Texts within her private library before proceding inside.
Unless a switch hitter Paladin fits the party composition better, I would go Warpriest since high AC and self-healing means less from the back/midline.
If you go that route, Ring of the Ecclesiarch and the Suzerain Scepter will together triple the base number of followers. Had a cult following the size of a Large Town in my kingmaker game.
I would add that even superheroes start out normal people and that the nature of the game really changes as you level up so that a 1-20 campaign can be divided into: 1-5 leaving the mundane, 6-10 first epic conquests, 11-15 encounters leading up to the greatest villain, 16-20 final adventure and return to normal.
Campaigns could start at lvl 11, for comparison, and the initial rivals and counterparts to the PCs are similar levels to start, but it is very rare for the world to level up along with the party in my experience. More normally I’d say the PCs outgrow their opening settings so whenever they do return, they are seen as someone different with different responsibilities from when they left.
Is there a specific rule against a cohort taking a cohort? I know they made Cavaliers that make second and third cohorts who report directly to you, but that itself doesn't seem to override a chain of cohorts.
I had a Vellemancer Witch cohort in Kingmaker for the Invested Hex ability, granting the party access to more spells, and watching over the coven of followers while we were away. She also had a level of Loremaster to expand the range of spells she could supply.
One thing that kept coming up for my character was going to and from the coven, so a cohort with reliable teleport method can bring their spells to you (or any gear from the forge).
