Since there hasn't been a post in 4 months I am going to assume this game is dead, and I will be marking it as inactive.
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Here, although particularly busy until Tuesday.
I am! And I'm happy to explain :) So Renliat is currently a 5th level caster. A typical burning hands from a 5th level caster would do 5d4 damage. However Renliat has invested heavily in doing damage with his spells. Renliat has the Spell Specialization feat, and he has chosen burning hands as his specialized spell. This means that he treats his CL as 2 higher when casting burning hands, so at CL 7 "But Renliat!" you say, "Burning hands caps at 5d4!" You're right! However Renliat has also taken the Intensified Spell metamagic feat, which allows him to increase the maximum number of damage dice by 5 levels (up to 10d4 at CL 10), at the cost of increasing the spell level by 1. And as you can see by his profile, he has a number of "Intensified Burning Hands" prepared as 2nd level spells. "Ok ok, but what is this +3?" Renliat has the Evocation Arcane School, and one of the abilities is Intense Spells, which allows him to add 1/2 his level to the damage of any spells that do hit point damage. And since his CL is treated as 7 for burning hands, that means he gets to add 1/2 (rounded down to 3) to the burning hands damage, thus getting the damage of 7d4+3. Hope that explains it well :) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now what is really scary is that you can do this even more brutally at 1st level. Take spell focus (evocation), spell specialization (burning hands), and the outlander trait, and you can have a CL 4 burning hands spell at 1st level, prepared as a first level spell. That means your 1st level caster is throwing out 4d4 burning hands, which is an average damage of 10! With the right bloodline or arcane school it's up to 4d4+2 (average of 12!!!). Mind you that's just average, it can get all the way up to 18. So it tends to drop pretty much any kind of threat you would expect to see at 1st level, and even if you don't they're going to be reeling on death's door.
Now in a better tactical position, Renliat moves forward and raises up a palm, drawing a symbol around it with the other. "Valignatir cha'sidic!"
Renliat cautiously moves into the room, waiting for an opportunity.
Quick post: Renliat will not use any more major resources for this fight.
Well I thought about doing a big feels good post but... Yeah. F&!# 2020. Been really hard for those of us with anxiety/depression issues too. Honestly, don't worry about it GM. It happens. I'm excited to be moving again! And keep whatever pace you would like. I would rather have a chill GM posting 1/week than a stressed out high strung GM who feels obligated to post 1/day. Gaming is an escape, it's supposed to be fun and relaxing! :)
A note to all my games: I will be out of town starting tomorrow morning until next Tuesday morning (the 17th). I will be in a location entirely without internet and will be completely unable to post. Please GMPC me as needed.
Thanks for the update.
As Spitter moves to leave, Renliat takes out a small piece of a dark red root from his spell component pouch. "Tairais svern." The effects are minimally noticeable, but potent.
I will be traveling this weekend and completely unavailable until Monday. Please DMPC me as needed. Renliat will cast haste on the party then use smaller blasts to help with DPS.
"Agreed. Hopefully it does not notice you as an animal and think you're a snack."
Renliat lowers his voice. "Fireballs work very well for large numbers of weak enemies. I have a haste spell saved up for you all to be more efficient at fighting a single strong enemy. I'll hit it with smaller blasts that won't catch the rest of you while you engage it."
Renliat sits quietly and picks his nails, knowing his untrained perception check can't get anywhere close to 30.
Renliat inhales, clearing the soot from his hand. He is content to let the others finish the last one.
"Ah yes. The fodder are here. Ixen garmth." With a casual wave of his hand, a red dot flies upwards, then erupts into a torrent of fire!
"Finish a floor before moving on, agreed."
A note to all of my games: My availability will be sporadic from now until the end of next week. Please DMPC me as needed.
The tiny jerboa that hides in Renliat's hood pops out, then jumps forward and lands on Leng's head, scampering about wildly.
Renliat quickly analyzes the allips. "They can drive their targets mad." He says as a warning should any of them turn. He shouts forward to Pavo. "Hey! I hope you like dagger in your back!" Renliat takes out his small fruit-cutting dagger and throws it into the room at Pavo.
It hopelessly clatters to the floor at Pavo's feet.
Renliat finally snaps out of the trance with the help of his allies. He refocuses his eyes, narrowing them at what threatens their lives.
Renliat continues to stare in abject wonder.
Renliat is utterly distracted from his surroundings.
In response to Wilfried, Renliat suddenly snaps. "There is nothing good to be said about it!" He catches himself and shrinks down. "Oh I'm...please pardon me just...I have some bad memories underground." He pulls his collar up. "Let's just keep moving."
"Insulation, discrepancy on size and shape, weather and pest resistance, aesthetics." Renliat lists off.
Renliat takes out a small grey sphere from his spell component pouch. He draws invisible symbols in the air with his other hand, then points up at the rafters. "Ixen garmth." The grey sphere burns up in a flash, and from his pointed finger shoots out a tiny pea-sized bead. It hits the top of the rafters, then explodes violently in fire!
Renliat follows Wilfried's gesture. "Ah."
Renliat enters the room, mostly distracted by what kind of "window" they might have to be dealing with later.
After Renliat gets over his shock of hearing Wilfried say a four syllable word, he attempts to identify the magic items.
"Not in obvious ways, but they still collect expensive artifacts." Renliat muses to nobody in particular.
Renliat absentmindedly nods; he seems good with whatever decision is made. The main building first sounds just fine.
"Although it does fall under the branch of necromancy which I've never cared much for studying, I believe I could activate the scroll should we need it."
"Uhh, yeah, sorry. I found this scroll that if used with similar magic would allow for these to be used as guardians. Continue on." He mumbles.
Renliat places one hand on his spell component pouch, stepping away from the statues. "These might...these might be enchanted to come to life and attack." He murmurs. He scans them for any magic.
Renliat finds the scroll on the ground and picks it up, casting read magic. After a moment he looks inquisitive, then he goes even paler than normal. "Uhh, these...uhhh...statues...statues bad." He stammers.
"Pink-skin is generic to the majority of civilized land-dwelling races, it's like being called a two leg. But leaf-eater is decisively a comment about elven diets." Renliat watches, somewhat amused, as the topic invigorates Spitter. "Hmm, I did not consider a lesser dragon using the illusion of Aeteperax, that could certainly make sense. But I would also not underestimate the charisma of powerful mages. Although my discipline is learned, there are many whose power is inherent. Sorcerers can make potent binders and tricksters."
Renliat makes a skeptical noise. "My gut still tells me there is only the illusion of a dragon." He stops, frowning. "Did you just call me leaf-eater? I feel like that's...really lazy racism." He stares at Spitter for a moment, then chuckles. "Come on blue-scales, let's keep going today. We've hardly even used any resources."
"Murals and paintings..." Renliat murmurs quietly to himself. He shakes his head. "I will need access to the appropriate reading material in order to dispel something. Although I'm not sure if the town will have it available, it may be a special order that will take some time. Perhaps the ruins themselves will contain the information, as a safety measure." He advises. "We could move forward now and hope we get lucky, perhaps at least clearing the area out of hostiles, or we can retreat until I can learn this spell. I am fine either way."
Renliat looks down in concentration. "I know of dispelling magic, in the abjuration discipline. It's not something I've personally tried to master...but I think I could do so, given the correct reading materials."
"Well...it's vague. Hunclay had a lot of research material that covered a broad array of topics. I suppose my best theory, if still pretty raw and including a lot of guesswork, is that a mage is pretending to be a dragon in order to terrorize the locals and gather funds required to summon an extremely powerful outsider, likely some kind of devil or demon. But, there's a lot of assumptions."
Renliat has no idea what Spitter was yelling at them, but obviously it worked. He was glad to not have made enemies of them. Acid breath, a black dragon for sure. Renliat pales when he hears about the overlap with Hunclay's books. Oh no. I only skimmed those... He clenches his teeth, just imagining how his father would berate him at this moment; surely he would know just from hearing this what is being planned. "Then it sounds like the sooner we strike, the better, before any more power is gathered." He says quietly.
Gotcha. Sounds good. Then I will follow and conserve resources.
Yup I'm here. Vaguely confused at the plan so I'm just following Spitter.
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