Our group just finished up Skulls and Shackles and the GM was getting a little frustrated by our party's ability to walk through encounters, even after he beefed them up. I think our final battle with the EBG lasted 3 rounds....
That being said, we decided to take on Rise of the Runelords and tone down the characters so that it can be run as written. Our party consists of: Kitsune Sorc, Dwarf Warpriest reach/trip, Sylph knife master Rogue, an Aasimar Bloodrager/Skald with dips into Paladin for Divine Grace and I think a level of Brawler for prereqs focusing on spellsunder and ranged combat, and me. I am playing an Oradin of Sarenrae
All Paizo material is available. 25 pt builds
Here is what I have so far. I am open to any suggestions for change.
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Half-Elf(+2 CHA, Skill Focus: Survival)
STR 16 DEX 12 CON 16(4th, 8th) INT 10 WIS 8 CHR 20(+2 racial,12th, 16th)
Wielding Lucerne Hammer for reach and B or P damage, Greatsword backup for S (Will switch to Fauchard for crits later)
Traits: Opportunistic Gambler(for Touch of Rage), Dangerously Curious, Envoy of Healing, DRAWBACK: Overprotective
1 Paladin 1 - Fey Foundling
2 Oracle 1- Life Mystery - Channeling Revelation, Legalistic Curse
3 Oracle 2 - Power Attack
4 Oracle 3- Life Link Revelation (can now link 3 and use Shield other on Sorc)
5 Paladin 2 - Eldritch Heritage (Orc): Touch of Rage, LoH 1d6+2
6 Paladin 3
7 Paladin 4 - Weapon Trick(2 Hand), LoH 2d6+4
8 Paladin 5 - Divine Bond (weapon) by thistime I should have Ioun stone for EWP: Fauchard
9 Paladin 6 - Improved Critial, LoH 3d6+6
10 Paladin 7
11 Paladin 8 - Improved Eldritch Heritage: Strength of the Beast, LoH 4d6+8
12 Paladin 9 -
13 Paladin 10 - Pushing Assault, LoH 5d6+10
14 Paladin 11 -
15 Paladin 12 - Greater Mercy, LoH 6d6+12
16 Paladin 13 -
17 Paladin 14 - Greater Eldritch Heritage: Power of Giants, LoH 7d6+14
18 Paladin 15
19 Paladin 16 - Ultimate Mercy, LoH 8d6+16
Our party is currently on a ship and is being pursued by a second ship. The rules on setting things on fire are a little sketchy, so I thought I would ask the community for input.
Our DM is very easy-going and wants to work with us, the players, to make things work.
Our current plan is thus:
Use the wizard's air elemental familiar, the goblin firebomber alchemist, and the summoner riding his dragon-shaped eidolon to drop alchemist's fire, oil, and fire bombs on the enemy ship while the druid (wild-shaped as a shark) and rogue (with water breathing on him)attack the ship from underneath with a hand drill and casting warp wood on the rudder and planks of the hull.
The questions are these:
1) Do all parts of a ship count as attended objects and whose saves do they get if so?
2) Is an object or person more likely to catch fire if sacks of multiple alchemist's fire are dropped? How much more likely?
3) Does oil enhance the chances of catching fire?
4) Historically, ships are normally caulked with tar and rigging is often coated in to weatherproof it. Does this enhance the chance of catching fire?
5) Can anyone think of a better way to discourage pusuit or destoy the pursuers? Our party is 8th level with a Wild-shape slanted Druid, a Conjuration specialized Wizard, a Rogue, a Lance-wielding Summoner riding his dragon-shaped eidolon, and a Goliath Barbarian. The Druid's Companion is a wolf with 3 INT and a collar allowing speech and the Rogue has a cohort in the 6th level Goblin Firebomber Alchemist.
The ship we are on is owned and captained by a Cleric 10 and the crew includes a Magus 9 and three other Wizard 6.
The ship we are being chased by is crewed exclusively by undead with enough Skeletal Champions to work the rigging and I suspect are commanded by a Vampire Anti-Paladin. The big bad guys are supposed (I think) to be recurring villains and are statted out like full PCs. Our DM also gives full HP to NPCs/monsters and summons instead of average, in order to challenge our party. (We are fairly unorthodox in our methods and tend to roll over most encounters with very little wasted time, effort, or resources. This is our first encounter with this group of NPCs and I suspect that they were created specifically to challenge us and put a fear of dying into us.)
EDIT: I also forgot to mention that the Rogue is carrying several boulders that have been shrunk that could be dropped on the deck.
Let me preface this by saying that I am aware that all of my questions below are answerable with, "It is for game balance." I get that. I am a big fan of game balance. That said, I want to know what the IN CHARACTER answers are. If my wizard were trying to explain these things to a fighter, what would he say?
We all know that it costs an amount of gold to write new spells in a wizard's spellbook. My question is, where does the gold actually go? Is it for special inks and quills? If so, why is there not an option to purchase them specifically?
How do other DMs handle this? Do you allow wizards in your group to simply deduct the gold and write the spell or do you require them to actually "purchase" the materials needed, much like what you would do with crafting feats? How is it handled if the wizard is nowhere near a settlement? Can you purchase these materials in advance so, if you happen across a new spell, you can write it in your spellbook?
On a related note, how do you handle the new spells a wizard acquires upon advancing a level? Do they magically appear in his spellbook? Does he go to the local wizard's guild and acquire them? Is it simply the result of his off-time tinkering with the laws of reality? Why are these spells written for free versus spells that are found by other methods?
These questions lead into spell research... Again we all know that it costs to conduct spell research, but where does the money go? Does it go into buying materials to be tried out as different components/foci, access to a research library, or what? If a wizard can figure out the spells he gains every level on his own, why would he need help with other spells, especially if it one that already exists and that he could have taken with his last level if he had chosen? Can the spell research fees be paid in advance of heading off into the wilderness so that only the time requirement needs to be met?
Would it be possible for a wealthy wizard to purchase all the GP requirements of spell research and the costs of writing them into his spellbook for several years and go hole up in a tower in the middle of nowhere and be able to expand his spell knowledge? If it is, what would the size and weight of these materials be? Could he carry them in his saddlebags? Would he need a wagon? Would he need a fleet of wagons?
Now that I write this, I suppose I have the same questions about crafting. If the same hermit wizard decided that he wanted to be able to craft magic items for several years, how would the weight and bulk of his crafting materials be measured? Would he need to decide in advance what he was going to craft or would the appropriate amount of GP in "crafting material" be sufficient? I assume that you would need different actual materials for a Headband of Vast Intellect than you would need for an Ioun Stone. Does anyone actually track this?
My last question is does any of the above ever really matter or are people more concerned with killing monsters and acquiring treasure than roleplaying in a logically consistent setting?
So... last session we kill off a necromancer who had an unusual spell book. The book has infinite pages and folds down to about the size of a phone. Nifty, but not terribly powerful. The kicker is that you can scribe scrolls into it as well as recording your spells. Three times per day, the magic of the book allows you to cast one of the scrolls as a move action. The DM has said explicitly that this allows the bearer to get off more than one spell per round, much like a rod of quicken. We are 7th level and he priced the book at 22,000.
This can obviously be quite powerful, but I am not sure that I fully understand all the implications. This is obviously less powerful than a greater rod of quicken as it uses a move action instead of a swift action, preventing me from moving (outside of my teleportation school power) or directing a previously cast spell like aqueous orb. Also, I will have to spend the gold and time to scribe the spells in the first place. Normally, I would scribe spells that are too situational to memorize on a daily basis, but this makes me think that I should be scribing more useful spells in order to break the action economy in combat. Also, we do not get a lot of downtime, so I will almost never get to use it more than once per day due to not being able to scribe more than one decent level scroll per day.
So, for those of you with experience playing wizards, what is the best way to use this item to the fullest extent? Also, what are some good one-two punches of spell combinations to use with it?
School necromancy; Level sorcerer/wizard 2, witch 2
CASTING
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (a dead wasp)
EFFECT
Range 20 ft.
Target 1 creature
Duration special (see below)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes
DESCRIPTION
You create a dark whip-shaped field of energy that wraps around an enemy’s neck, leaving everything except his head paralyzed until you let go of the whip or it is destroyed. You must make a ranged touch attack with this spell. If you strike your target, he takes a 1d6 penalty to his Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution each round. This penalty cannot reduce any attribute to less than 1, and once any of these attributes reaches 1 the target collapses and his body, except his head, becomes paralyzed. While paralyzed in this way, the target retains full use of his senses, including the ability to feel pain, and can speak (including casting spells with only verbal components). The whip has a maximum length of 20 feet, 15 hit points, and a hardness of 5. The spell ends immediately if you let go of the whip or it is destroyed. When the spell ends, all penalties the target took from this spell also end.
So... the awkward wording seems to be, "...once any of these attributes reaches 1 the target collapses and his body, except his head, becomes paralyzed."
I find this strange since the target is already paralyzed upon the casting.
I surmise that the spell was changed before publication and the two versions sort of got mixed together. It seems awfully powerful for a second level spell in that it allows no save (although it does allow SR) and completely immobilizes the target. It's just a shot in the dark, but I think one version of the spell allowed for a save and upon failing it, you were immobilized and another version had no save, but you did not become immobilized until an attribute fell to 1, thus allowing you to try to free yourself by attacking the whip or caster.
I only noticed this after my wizard found the spellbook of a necromancer we defeated and I was familiarizing myself with the new spells. The Necromancer (6th level) used it to completely neuter a 10th level Minotaur fighter that was going to chew him up. After reading over the spell, I felt that it would be really cheesy to use on my own spell list, but I thought I would get the opinions of folk who are more experienced at playing casters.
So... I guess my questions are these:
Do you think that it is overpowered as written?
If so, how would you change it?
So, my gaming group got into a discussion about spells with alignment descriptors and their casters. Can anyone point out anything in the rules to answer the following questions?
1) Can a good aligned character cast spells with the Evil descriptor? If he can, does it negatively affect his alignment?
2) Can he summon monsters from the Summon Monster lists with an evil alignment? Does this affect his alignment?
3) Is casting a spell from a wand any different from casting it using your own spell slots? ie: Wand of Infernal Healing
4) Is being the recipient of a spell with an alignment descriptor directly opposed to your own alignment detrimental to you in any way? ie: Summon uses a Wand of Infernal Healing on a Good character.
Either I am missing something or the Page of Spell Knowledge is missing some errata:
Ring of Spell Knowledge
Spoiler:
Aura moderate or strong (no school); CL 7th
Slot ring; Price 1,500 gp (Type I), 6,000 gp (Type II), 13,500 gp (Type III), 24,000 gp (Type IV); Weight —
Description
This ring comes in four types: ring of spell knowledge I, ring of spell knowledge II, ring of spell knowledge III, and ring of spell knowledge IV. All of them are useful only to spontaneous arcane spellcasters.
Through study, the wearer can gain the knowledge of a single spell in addition to those allotted by her class and level. A ring of spell knowledge I can hold 1st-level spells only, a ring of spell knowledge II 1st- or 2nd-level spells, a ring of spell knowledge III spells of 3rd level or lower, and a ring of spell knowledge IV up to 4th-level spells.
A ring of spell knowledge is only a storage space; the wearer must still encounter a written, active, or cast version of the spell and succeed at a DC 20 Spellcraft check to teach the spell to the ring. Thereafter, the arcane spellcaster may cast the spell as though she knew the spell and it appeared on her class’ spell list.
Arcane spells that do not appear on the wearer’s class list are treated as one level higher for all purposes (storage and casting).
Construction Requirements
Forge Ring, creator must be able to cast spells of the spell level to be granted; Cost 750 gp (Type I), 3,000 gp (Type II), 6,750 (Type III), 12,000 gp (Type IV).
From reading the description, it appears that the ring can learn ANY spell of it's level, however, only arcane spells are bumped in level. As it is written, it APPEARS that a Summoner could teach the ring the 2nd level Paladin spell Saddle Surge and cast it as a second level spell. For my son, who's Summoner rides his Eidolon while using a lance, this would be a huge advantage.
I am sure the intent is that it can only learn arcane spells. Please show me where I am wrong.
So... I was looking at several magic items to help out our party's Summoner and ran into the following two items:
Page of Spell Knowledge - This page is covered in densely-worded arcane or divine magical runes. It contains the knowledge of a single arcane or divine spell (chosen by the creator when the item is crafted). If the bearer is a spontaneous spellcaster and has that spell on her class spell list, she may use her
spell slots to cast that spell as if it were one of her spells known. A page of spell knowledge is priced based on the spell’s cleric or sorcerer/wizard spell level, unless the spell doesn’t appear on either of those spell lists, in which case it is based on the highest spell level as it appears on any other spell list. For example, a spell that is on the 4th-level inquisitor list and the 2nd-level paladin list is priced as a 4th-level spell.
and
Runestone of Power - A runestone of power is a small chip of polished stone etched with a rune. Traditionally, this rune is one of many Thassilonian runes for magic, but more recently created runestones of power often substitute runes from other cultures—the nature of the rune itself has no effect on the runestone’s actual powers. These objects are potent aids to all spellcasters who cast spells spontaneously (bards, inquisitors, oracles, sorcerers, and summoners, but not to spellcasters like clerics who have the option to spontaneously cast certain spells). Once per day, a spontaneous caster can draw upon a runestone of power to cast a spell—doing so is part of the spellcasting action, and expends that runestone’s power for the day rather than one of the spellcaster’s actual spell slots for the day. An expended runestone of power recharges its capacity after 24 hours. The spell must be of a particular level, depending on the runestone.
It appears that a spontaneous caster could have a page of spell knowledge that grants him a spell known that is higher than any spell slot he possesses. So far, no problem. Just like a prepared caster can have spells in his spell book that he can't currently memorize. However, when combined with an appropriately powerfull runestone, could a spontaneous caster know and cast a spell far above his actual ability to cast?
I know that it would be expensive in terms of GP, even when crafted. But, if this is the case, I could craft pages and runestones for my faerie dragon familiar that would allow him a greater selection of spells as well as our Summoner.
For reasons that I will explain in a moment, my group is about to attempt to destroy a goblinoid military outpost while outnumbered 20 to 1. What follows is the background that led to this point, a description of the known enemy forces, and our plan to deal with them.
What I am looking for is constructive criticism of the plan and suggestions to improve our odds of surviving and pulling off this improbable feat.
If all you can do is point out how unrealistic the whole thing is, how bad the DM must be, or how munchkinish the players are, please do not post.
Thank you.
BACKGROUND:
A planar anomoly has opened a rift between planes near a city that is a large trade hub. Formian (extra-planar ant-centaurs) have come through the rift and established a colony and are setting about expanding and conquering everything in reach. The PCs have been recruited by the city to serve in the militia to help protect the city and, ultimately, deal the extra-planar threat.
The city has enjoyed hundreds of years of peace and prosperity as a major trade hub and has relatively few defenses. They are in the process of building a wall around the city, but that will take months and months to complete.
Small raids have been made against the city and caravans have gone missing recently.
The Formian have goblinoid allies (most likely thier first conquest on our plane) as well as other races. All attempts to parlay have been met with violence.
The party rogue, while out on patrol one day, discovered a large goblinoid encampment several hours away from the city. During his observation, he noticed a large group (200+) of goblinoids with lots of siege weapons and more under construction. With no wall around the city, they could easily destroy it with this size force. Thus, the need to eliminate it with a pre-emptive strike.
The encampment is laid out like a capital "T" that has been cut off at the knees. The perimeter is a wooden palisades with sentry towers every 20-40 yards. The only observed entrance is at the base of the T. Behind the entrance is the camp for the Orcs and the behind them are the Bugbears. The right side of the T is for the Goblins and the Hobgoblins. The left side of the T contains workshops where siege weapons are constructed and the walls of the palisade are lined with completed siege engines.
