anlashok's page

If "dex to damage" is allowed, especially if power attack is allowed on a dex build, the str build become a joke.

Dex to damage already exists though and Strength is still king, so this is empirically wrong.

Basically, the main appeal of 5E right now is how easy it is to fix relative to PF. This is huge though.
1. Make advantage and disadvantage "stack" (so two causes of disadvantage cause you to roll 3 dice and choose lowest, etc)
2. Give a feat at 1st level in addition to the normal feats every 4 levels (and maybe go ahead and give ability bumps too on top of that).
There, you're basically done. For Pathfinder you need like 10 pages of tweaks.

I'd say it's got a bit more systemic problems to that. You've got binary skills, the abysmally slow feat progression (which, yeah, 2 fixes a bit, but doesn't entirely solve) all lead to a big lack of granularity which makes a lot of characters look like "race+class" and not a lot more.

Then you have the flatlined character progression which makes martial characters often seem like they ... don't really get better at anything.

I guess the last one isn't a big deal if you like playing a really gritty game, but if you're into epic fantasy (which third, fourth and pathfinder all are) it ends up looking a bit silly.

In the end I think 5e looks like it could really suffer from having too much of that being built into the engine itself, which makes it harder to improve later.

and things like gunslingers and techno babble are anatema for me in D&D.

You'd hate regular D&D then.

Seeing how 1e and 2e were crammed full of sci-fi shit. And Eberron was one of the biggest settings in 3e and 4e. And they're reprinting Spelljammer in 5e.

I've definitely considered this myself, along with Spellcraft. Spellcraft is pretty much a skill point tax for every 6 or 9 level caster.

Just smash Spellcraft and Knowledge Arcana together.

And while you're at it swim+jump+climb into one skill.

It's a tradeoff...a bit of customization is sacrificed in exchange for playing in a world full of believable people.

I'm still not getting how it's particularly more believable though.

If anything I'd wager the Wizard who just happens to have 14 strength because lucky roll even though he's a shut in with no real athleticism is the weird one.

At that point I'd rather just let my player's point buy a more believable and accurate character than some stat-rolled monstrosity =P.

But I'll tell you what is gained: verisimilitude and rarity.

I'm just not seeing how restricting someone from playing a character archetype they'd prefer does anything to improve verisimilitude.

The PCs are believable characters in a way that point-buy characters very rarely are

Or how a physically weak, socially awkward wizard is somehow an unbelievable archetype.

and characters who differentiate themselves from the pack feel special.

Or how any of the above connect to this.

You ever write poetry, a? Maybe you don't, but I do (don't worry...I'll spare you in this thread). In my experience, there are two kinds of poets: those who write in forms (verse, rhyme, etc.), and those who do not. Verse is actually a pretty strong constraint on content. We can't choose just any word to communicate our meaning; we have to choose a set of words that fit together because we need them all to fit inside of a certain number of syllables and maybe rhyme at intervals.

The difference here is that you're choosing to apply those constraints to yourself, not having them imposed on you by an outside force.

Everybody thinks he's a font of creativity when he starts writing, and yet most poets still prefer to write in verse.

Well, there are many other reasons verse and patterns are used, but that's not really relevant here.

"Blank page" creativity is not as good as we're often taught to think.

Completely true. Going from Point A to Point B through an empty room gives you the most freedom, but will rarely lead to interesting results, but you can impose the obstacles later on in the process too, and probably in a less adversarial way.

Starting with a structure around which to build a concept can lead to some very interesting things if you try it.

Possibly, but you should still be able to pick which structure you want to build around.

The fact of the matter is, while I might be willing to play whatever and whenever (in fact that's been one of my bigger problems as a D&D player), not everyone will and I just can't see how it's a good thing to have a player walk up to you, tell you he really is in the mood to play a sorcerer, only for you to say "Nope, only giving you 5 charisma today" and sending him off.

You suck it up and play the character as best you can.

This I can't fathom. How is forcing a player to play something they don't want to do good for anyone involved? What does the other player gain by being told "Nope, you're playing that, deal with it". What do you gain other than getting a chance to flex your DM-muscles and lord over someone a bit?

Not getting exactly what you want is no real objection. You probably want a vorpal sword, too (I certainly do), but the game's no fun if everything is just handed to you.

That's a pretty gigantic man of straw you got there. Seriously there's a huge amount of empty space between "giving you everything for free" and "can't even play the character I want".

You could fit the grand canyon between the two. Twice.

First of all: Technology Guide is a Campaign Setting Guide. Don't use it if you don't want to play with that campaign setting. Just as in 3.5 I wouldn't use Eberron material if I didn't want Eberron stuff.

Then came the Advanced Classes or Hybrids.............

talk about OP and Unbalanced!!!

LOL

I hope you're joking.

The new setting reeks of a vile ripoff of Borderlands, come on!, lasers, bazookas, aliens and motherships??

Those are indeed all things unique to Borderlands.

I changed to 5th because everything became balanced there

And more hilarity.

Spent an hour trying to find that comic where hawkeye wrecks the dark avengers, no luck though.

They did kinda piss all over him in the movie though.

Even as someone who thinks the class is a complete waste of space and not worth the paper it's printed on I have to admit that asking for "fixes" seems a bit sketchy.

It's a solidly effective class and I'd probably like it if it weren't in such a crowded design space. It's more effective than the paladin (unless the paladin can smite constantly, and even then it has vastly better... everything that's not damage) and while I think the Inquisitor is overall a better class, it isn't significantly so.

I do agree that a specialized spell list would be nice, it's always nice to give a 6th level caster some early access and high level stuff rather than a pure 6th level list. At the very least you could give it a hybrid list like the Hunter.

Inquisitor list doesn't help much though. Plus the inquisitor gets a lot of social stuff and tracking stuff, neither really make sense on a warpriest.

Very very unlikely but I hope they say something about Feral Hunter still gaining bonus tricks for a pet they don't have and Bolt Ace still gaining Gunsmiting as a bonus feat. Super unlikely but it's messy and both archetypes could use an extra feature.

Pummeling Style is not a big deal because the RAI is pretty obvious.

Tricks and Plume and the Mastermind and Animal Domain Inquisitors is important though.

Why should the mere mortals get to use the stat they want?

Meanwhile orc witches can cast with con...

Well there's your problem. Stop comparing NPC classes and PC classes.

Clustered Shots is "too good" only from the perspective of feat balance (insofar as every archer has absolutely no reason to not take it)... but if that's the point we're arguing from there's a dozen other archery feats that are just as bad (and a big chunk of them would be better off baseline).

As it stands though even with clustered shots archers are mostly just pretty good. Melee hits harder and has better utility at their disposal and neither can compare to full casters. So I don't see what the big deal is.

Archers killing things too easily is a problem of rocket tag, and if you try to make archery terrible so that it can't, the Barbarian will just be the one doing it instead (and so on).

Frankly - the feat that bugs me the most about archers isn't clustered shot, manyshot, or any of the other feats that let them do extra damage.

It's point blank master.

If archers were just the machine-guns that they are, but weren't able to get rid of their Achilles Heel, it wouldn't bother me.

Sure - that archer did the most damage. But he'd have been hosed if he didn't have his sword & board buddy out front keeping him from being charged & boxed in. Nope! With point blank master - he doesn't really care much.

Or the archer could just five foot step...

The issue is that it the Warpriest isn't significantly better at combat the Inquisitor

I'd say the biggest issue is that the Warpriest isn't significantly better at combat than the non-war Priest. Giving up ninth level spells for only a marginal increase in martial power isn't a very compelling trade.

Paizo sort of wrote themselves into a corner. With Arcane casters, full casters get half bad, 6th level casters get three quarters BAB, and 4th level casters get full BAB.

But with Divine, the ninth level casters get 3/4ths BAB. And you can't give the 6th level caster full BAB or they make the paladins look even lamer.

So silly stuff happens.

Maybe there's some big drawback I missed though.

Well, the big drawback is that the swashbuckler is fighting Einhander, probably the worst combat style in the game. Adding level to damage every round is more the fighting style playing catchup with THF than a true advantage.

Action economy issues suck too.

The biggest thing I see though is less that the swashbuckler is terrible and more that people are disappointed by it. I see a lot of posters that were clearly looking for a mobile, dynamic martial character rather than another full-attack turret.

And I see a few posters who feel like they were sort of spit on by Paizo when they were told that Charmed Life as a passive +cha to saves would be overpowered right before Paizo turns around and hands Oracles Divine Protection.

So it's equal parts class issues and bitterness. If you're just comparing it to other martial characters it's not particularly bad though.

I find it funny when people on the messageboards say things like:

"The devs hate the monk."
"They ignore their customers completely."
"The devs don't want martials to have nice things."

Do you listen to yourselves? Do you really belive what you are saying?

When all the evidence points toward something being true...

If you want to boost the rogue make more dynamic trap encounters.

Also make sure that your adventures reduce rocket tag. If a party has a 15 minute work day. The caster using spells to deal with traps is no big deal. Make them miss that wasted spell slot on something the rogue can do for free.

This post is based on two false suppositions.

First, that trapfinding is both unique to rogues and the only aspect of a rogue that matters: Many other classes can gain access to it in some form or another, there's a trait for it too. Beyond that, even if we did ignore those other options, this solution only creates needless tokenism, where you have to bring the rogue along to deal with the thing, rather than having a rogue because of some meaningful value he actually has (also creates the issue of forcing you to have a rogue if you're in a campaign that relies on those mechanics).

Second, that a caster can only invalidate the rogue with a 15 minute workday. I'm not really sure where the "15 minute day" meme started around here, but it's largely silliness.

I think the rogue talent "Convincing Lie" sort of sums up the class' issues overall.

In terms of capabilities you overlap very heavily with the bard (without having any clear cut advantages over him but plenty of holes). That's the big one I can see comparatively.

The class itself isn't completely unsalvageable, it just doesn't really have anything particularly shiny or eye popping in its repertoire but doesn't have the strength of versatility of some of their competitors.

Where did this house-rule where you roll diplomacy to speak come from? I see it everywhere and it's pretty strange. Diplomacy has four uses outlined in the rules and "I'm speaking so I roll diplomacy to see how good I spoke" isn't one of them... and never has been.

In any case, the OP's statement is misdirection and therefore bluff.

I do agree it's better than most feat choices you could make. I just don't see that as a problem in this particular case, because as mentioned, everyone can take leadership.

That makes it pretty fair, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's good.

It's still significantly distorted in power compared to basically every other feat in the game and snaps normal balance in half.

Sure, you can homebrew a lot of fixes for it like you and others have suggested, but that's more highlighting the problem than dismissing it.

Yeah, not seeing how you can really argue that lying to your players about core gameplay information and intentionally sabotaging their build choices behind their back is anything approaching good or fair or reasonable.

Imagine this type of problem applied evenly between players and monsters across all the levels, if it isn't an obvious problem to you then you may want to increase your understanding of how pathfinder is balanced.

Your problem is with the druid, not dex to damage (indeed your problem has very little to do with it at all. Like, literally nothing).

The fact of the matter is that dex-based combat styles are strictly inferior to strength based ones in melee combat. The fact of the matter is that, mathematically, easy access to dex-damage conversions still do not leave that option with a clear edge in any fashion over basleine.

And really the most hilarious fact here is that dex to damage already exists in numerous forms yet is never an optimal choice. The entire premise that dex-to-damage breaks balance in half when it already exists and doesn't is just silly.

Seriously, let's repeat that. It's already in the game, and does not do the thing you say it does. The premise falls apart under any logical scrutiny or math.

I've played in games where people think that Dex should be added to damage, some adding it as a bonus of weapon finesse some as a separate feat that requires WF. Both ways are horrible in game, it creates so many situations that are unbelievable or cause balance issues.

What situation is that? Be specific. Vague nonsense like "it created a ton of issues" does nothing at all, especially when it's already been demonstrably proven that even with dex to damage strength based characters still win more often than not.

Seriously you're going to need something much better than "It's really bad trust me guys" as an argument.

Sure they are. Look up the spell " enchantment (compulsion) [mind-affecting]"

We're talking about a piece of metamagic. Which has none of those descriptors tied to it.

It's trivial to trade the rogues for ninjas and ditch the street performer for either a third ninja or an archaeologist and have a strictly superior stealth party in which the sneak attackers don't need a specific ally next to them to handle the invisibility.

Are you really talking about optimizing right before suggesting they replace the bard with a ninja?

Any class feat that (directly) depends on any ability score would be useless. Casters is a no-go.

Not sure why you say that. Starting 12 is annoying, but as long as you avoid stuff that relies on a save you're dandy. items that increase your primary attribute are key, but you're still mostly fine, at least considering the limitations. Realistically a caster of some sort is probably your best pick for the role.

Scratching my head at the mentions of fighter or barbarian though.

Frankly I've always seen gnomes as the tinker gnomes or arcanists etc.. But I read a lot of dragonlance and played a lot of Warcraft, so that might be why. But gnome bards sound scary and like something I want to kick.

Oversight?

Also kinda weird in general. Warhorns are very Skald-y even without the archetype.

There seems to be a general opinion on this board that defeating opponents by any methods other than hit point attrition is overpowered and must be prevented at all costs.

I love these absurd and intentionally duplicitous logical leaps people like to make here. Somehow "I think this metamagic is too strong" turns into "anything other than damage is cheating". Come off it.

Seriously. You accomplish absolutely nothing by trying to mock people like that.

My vote is for intentional. Most likely, the devs realize that the moment they release an Int/Con race, unless it is godawful beyond the stat bonuses, it will become the optimizer's go-to option for most arcane caster builds.

That explains the lack of a con/int race. Doesn't explain why the str/int races are so esoteric.

Str/con is pretty rare too. Think that's only lizardmen and gnolls.

Basically every Investigator archetype, since all but one replace swift alchemy.

The Dazing build is a one-trick pony, just like the others. Any one-trick pony is annoying. But they have their weaknesses that should not be discounted. Usually it's doing anything that doesn't involve blasting. Try taking them through a dinner party or a wedding, or just trying to capture somebody alive. Their metamagic rod won't be able to help them much there.

Calling a build that only needs one feat/one magic item to function a "one trick pony" seems a bit hyperbolic.

That's a ton of extra resources left over to do... everything else. Even a sorcerer is going to have a lot of extra spells known after they get some dazing fuel.

So I'm the only person who thinks this is weird?

Discovered this while looking for good races for a Slayer and Cyber Warrior.

Pretty much every race with a dual bonus seems to be dex/int or int+another mental stat.

There are no regular races with both str/int or con/int. Instead we have two variant races (Jiang-Shi Dhampir and Scaleheart Skinwalkers) and one gender specific extra race (male lashunta) for str/int. Two of those are splat races.

Then on the other side.. there's absolutely nothing that gives constitution and intelligence.

Just unexplored design space or an intentional gap?

Again, every character has a weakness. I'd find it much more immersion-breaking for a character to not have an Achilles' heel of some sort. Invincible heroes are as unbelievable as they are boring.

Good thing the person you were arguing with said literally nothing of the sort.

Seriously that's an absurdly disingenuous statement to make.

Can anyone give me a good reason as to why this feat chain needs to be slayer only?

On the surface it's a pretty cool way to flavor up an intimidate based character but... It requires slayer levels and I simply can't figure out why.

Granted, the idea is very fitting of a Slayer, it's thematic as hell... but it's just as apropos for a barbarian, inquisitor, antipaladin, several flavors of fighter and so on.

And I'm just not sure why Paizo made the decision to block the option off from the rest of those classes.

Is there something I'm missing here?

I think the problem in the example is actually a mismatch between real world appropriate behaviour and mechanics appropriate behaviour.

That's more a problem of you trying to apply real-world constraints and rationalizations to a character in an explicitly fantastical setting who is explicitly superhuman.

You know what gets me more than anything else in this book?

The Killing Flourish feat chain being Slayer only.

Why? Just why? I literally cannot fathom a single reason as to why this class requires Slayer levels.

Ok. Kill someone in a frightening way to demoralize their allies. Cool. Very fitting for a slayer. But it's also something I've seen the Evil Bad Guy Monk in kung-fu movies do when he kills the protagonist's master. And it's something I've seen the evil monstrous overlord do to someone the hero knows in books and video games and a movie or two. And so on and so on.

So why can't a Barbarian or Inquisitor or Rogue or Fighter or Monk or a friggin' Antipaladin do that?

Why?

I seriously want to fly down to Paizo HQ and angrily ask why you need Slayer levels to do that.

It's worse than Divine Protection. Worse than the Swashbuckler.

yeti1069 wrote:

Also, any feat that essentially just modifies an attack action (Vital Strike, for example), but is listed as a standard action, should be changed to simply be an attack action, so these feats can combine with stuff like Spring Attack.

The reason Vital Strike and the like are not attack actions are to prevent them from being used in a full attack. That said, there is no reason not to put in a line saying that such feats can be used with Spring Attack other than martials can't have nice things.

Not quite, attack-actions and attacks are separate things.

Also, vital strike is an attack-action.

Restricting it to unarmed strike doesn't fix Pummeling Style, reverting the damage addition back to the Dead shot standard from which it was generated fixes it.

The problem with this argument is that Dead Shot is generally considered to be kind of terrible unless your DM is fiating away your ability to full attack with a firearm.

So saying "The best way to fix it is to make it like that ability that's really bad" doesn't sound like a fix.

I mean. I get why they're in the heavy blade weapon group. They're basically greatswords (in fact the name is literally greatsword). Cool.

But why are they also polearms? Like. I don't see why they're in a group of weapons with Glaives and Halberds. At all.

I fail to see how a single feat, which only works for Unarmed Strikes and is effectively the equivalent of the Vital Strike feat tree

To be fair, Pounce (beast totem) is the better comparison point here.

It's really pounce, clustered shots and dead shot all rolled into one.

It's a nice trick for a pair of classes that aren't very good in the first place, so eh.

i have no problems with people who play bards as commanders or skald-like battlers, but if you try to RL bard with a pathfinder bard, i lose a lot of my fun right there.

I think the mention of real life bards is just to dismiss the idea that bards are "sissy" or "unrealistic".

Honestly you shouldn't be conflating real life anything with Pathfinder anything. Wizard literally means "wise man" and yet wisdom is a viable dump stat for one. Druids were wandering holy men, advisors, storytellers and so on, tree-huggers that can turn into bears aren't even on the radar. The Pathfinder Inquisitor is more derivative of Warhammer than anything in actual history. etc. etc.

With the benefit of hindsight I see all you clowns for what you are. Go, all of you, pile back into your tiny car and crash it into a balloon factory.

Weren't you the one talking about "contemptible weaklings" only two lines above this statement?

I mean... those were your words, but it seems like a fairly accurate descriptor of someone who would, say, start sniveling about a few people on the internet not being nice to him and disagreeing with him. Someone who'd, for instance, tell people he wants to see them go get hurt rather than actually put forth any effort to discuss the topic or defend his position in any meaningful way.

I mean come on man.

And there are manyways to get to the caster without going through thr meat shield.

Missile weapons are good just to start. And giving the bad guy a caster of their own is nice, not to mention mobs tnat fly or burrow. A barbarian or monk can often get to a caster on an open map because of tneir skills and abilities. One of the people I play with has a monk design just to take out casters and just slide past or around enemy meat shields

No I meant in reference to targeting Drizzt first.

That's what you were getting at, right? Because that's who I'd kill first.

Lets say a party comes across 4 drow. One is wearing plate and carrying a two handed sword, another has mace, is wearing chain and has a holy symbol on her shield, the third has two scimitars and is wearing leather and the last has a staff, a bat on his shoulder and is wearing everyday cloth.

Now who is the party going to try to turn into a pink cloud on turn one?
So should not the drow try the same thing if they get the drop on the party?

But what if our party doesn't have a Ranger?

The AoO is always the lesser of two evils from level 5 on.

So if we're taking the assumption that eating a single (or two) attack from an AoO isn't a particularly big deal, why then are we assuming that the single attack from the monster is going to completely win the day against the wizard?

It seems honestly likely that the enemy reaches the wizard, makes a single attack and then the next turn the enemy finds himself completely cut off from his allies surrounded by extremely well armed, extremely displeased martials and an even more displeased spellcaster. At which point he dies miserably and team monster is down a member with no meaningful gains.

Do you make it a rule to only throw beast totem barbarians and pummeling style monks at your party?

Which works if you can actually pull it off. But if the Barbarian if the melee guys are doing their job right separating the caster is going to mean jumping into a blender of blades.

Yeah. I don't think anyone was suggesting that if the caster is open you shouldn't go for it. Only disagreeing with the premise that it's somehow always a winning strategy when A) Not every enemy is going to necessarily identify the caster as primary threat and B) A caster may be very well protected.

Suck? No. The Cleric is still a definitive T1 monster and the Oracle isn't that much behind. Both classes are amazing and have quite a few awesome spells.

What you can complain about is that a lot of their spells are pretty bland and that while there's enough good options for a cleric to take, there aren't enough good options for two or three clerics to take.

That is to say, if I'm a wizard I can take XYZ if I'm looking to do battlefield control but if I'm looking to blast I might only take X and take AB instead and a buffer might take CDE instead of any of those.

For a cleric, there's far fewer extremely good options, so chances are even something as wildly different in goals as a control cleric, blaster cleric, and melee cleric are only going to have a couple different spells in their arsenal.

I've run into that problem a lot with my oracles too. Barring Mystery and Curse stuff, my melee oracle even by level 15 or 16 is only going to have four or five spells that my caster oracle doesn't and vice versa.

Granted, every class has that issue where there are must have spells and "Who thought this was a good idea?" Spells, it just feels more pronounced with the cleric list.

So basically if the martial doesn't have combat reflexes and if the martial doesn't have a good AoO and if the martial isn't within 10 feet (15 feet with a reach weapon, heaven forbid they're enlarged) of the caster and if the caster doesn't have any defensive buffs or features ready the tactic is flawless.

Eh, maybe.

Flavor matters. A bonus to hit and a penalty to AC might end up producing the same end result, but they are not the same thing.

That's not flavor

If a player can show me OOC how a comedy performance during combat would work in a deadly serious story, I'll consider it. But I'm not going to try to mix Lord of the Rings with Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

Spiderman taunting and mocking his enemies is occasionally played for laughs, but not always.

Lord of the Rings you said? In the film edition Gimli and Legolas jeer and joke back and forth with one another about their own prowess and abilities and fight harder because of it. Not quite comedy, but in a similar vein.

Only way I can see this not working is if by "deadly serious" you mean "grimmy grim dark grim dark".

A dead caster is no threat at all.

You're clearly not familiar with clone and contingent resurrections then.

You will notice that I did not roll for treasure until after you made it back to town -- I did not want to have to think about encumbrances :P

Sorry, this is very long, but I wasn't sure if people were keeping track as we went along, and I needed to compile this for my own notes anyway.

Moonshae Treasure Hunt (BMG-MOON-1-1)

Loot
Magic
Warhammer +1 named “Spellbook” (from Witwulf’s grave in Blodvahrer)
Amulet of Health (19 CON) (silver locket from a goblin near Highrock)
Blunderbuss +1 (from the pirate, Boris Blutovich)
Rod of the Pact Keeper +1 (from Bulak, hobgoblin lieutenant)
Gem of Wrath: As a Bonus Action, enter into a wrathful state, 2/day. Grants advantage on attacks and WIS saves for 1 minute (transformed Goblinwrath, from Bulak)

My plan here was to have these items gradually increase in power/abilities as the campaign continued, but I didn’t have a clear path for that.

6 1 potion of healing
1 potion of climbing
1 potion water breathing
1 potion of advantage

Spellbook (from Ferdeth, 1st mate of pirate ship): (C) Fire Bolt, Mending, Prestidigitation; (1) Burning Hands, Detect Magic, Shield

Mundane Gear
Breastplate

Cash and Gems
2,100 cp
1,400 sp
280 gp
7 gems worth 50 gp each (total: 350 gp)
Bag of small gems (100 gp value)
Silver picture frame (5sp)

Important NPCs Encountered
Sister Barley, prophetess and druid of the Earthmother
Poppie Logan, Captain of the Shantu
Gulli Gormsson and Yrsa Gormsdottir, 15yo twins, probably sorcerers; and Gorm, their father, Initiate of the Flame (Olafstaad)
Winnow, clan Rustfire (Highrock)
Boris Blutovich, pirate captain of the Devil’s Regret (secret pirate island)
Antola Pilark, Great Druid of Alaron (Lehigh)

Plot Hooks
- Clan Rustfire in Highrock is making plans to drive the orcs and goblins out of the Fairheight mountains, and plan to eventually clear their way through the Tunnels of Dwarvenholm and reclaim the isle of Gwynneth.

- A silver-framed drawing of a Ffolk woman with the inscription “Dearest Sandra Taggard, Lily of Moray.” Found aboard the pirate ship.

- There’s a war against evil fey in Dernall Forest. Where did Goblinwrath come from? Did someone give it to Bulak?

Story Awards
- Witwulf’s “Spellbook”: You have retrieved the spellbook of Bronal Witwulf. The spellbook turned out to be an iron warhammer with an inscription that reads, “My Spellbook.” From the archives in Blodvahrer, you have learned that Bronal Witwulf was an adventurer infamous for acts of extreme strength and equally extreme lack of judgement. For a short time, his name featured prominently in the cautionary tales off Gnarhelm, but his fame has completely faded.

- Twin Destinies: While visiting the town of Bloodvahrer you came across a pair of twins, Yrsa and Gulli, who have arcane abilities. Blodvahrer is not a hospitable place for arcane casters at this time, and when the twins approached you for help in leaving town, you gave it. Traveling with the twins, even if for a short while has shown you that their powers are quickly growing in strength, but that unfortunately their control of them is not growing at an equal speed. It did however give you the chance to witness an actual rain of frogs. The twins left your company in Olafstaad to be reunited with their father who has joined a group called the Initiates of Flame. What the future holds for these two is anyone’s guess.

- Friends of Rustfire Clan: Friend of the Rustfire Clan. You have assisted Winnow Rustfire on her mission to attain a red pearl. She now considers you a trusted friend. This story award may come into play in future Moonshae adventures from Baldman Games, particularly CCC-BMG-MOON3-1, 3-2, and 3-3.

- A Debt Owed in Silver: You defeated Captain Bluto, and now he and the pirates of Silver’s Blade seek you out for revenge.

- A Dark Gem: You have recovered a mysterious gem named Goblinwrath for the Great Druid Antola Pilark. This gem carried with it an enchantment that caused goblins to become ferocious and feral while being biddable by the bearer. The origins of the gem are unknown, but Antola intends to find out and may call upon you to help her.

Going forward
I don’t have time to continue with this right now, but for anyone who’s willing, I purchased a bunch of the subsequent modules that I can send to you. We’ve just played Moon 1-1, and I also have 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 3-1, 3-2, and 3-3.
Unfortunately, I bought them in numbered order without knowing that they don’t necessarily connect that way. More information about this campaign and how the various modules connect can be found at Moonshae Rising Shadows Story Paths.

Is it mock combat or practice or real blood and gore?

The blood is definitely flying!

Seems like the group wants to fight! I will roll up some initiatives

Since initiative order turned out that both goblin groups went first, they will have just attacked each other. Braith, I moved you up to attack the closest goblin baddy (G1). I've updated the map -- hopefully it isn't too confusing.

Two goblins among your temporary allies immediately fall beneath the furious onslaught of Bulak's thralls.

Round 1
Baddies:
- Bugbear (-6)
- Goblin Boss
- Goblin 1
- Goblin 2
- Goblin 3 (-4)

Temporary Allies:
- Hobgoblin
- Goblin 4 (-4)
- Goblin 5 (-8)
- Goblin 6
- Goblin 7 (-8)

Party:
- Braith
- Jaylen
- Jacka-Lope
- Gideon
- Toki

Everyone may post their actions!

Braith spends a a couple of silver pieces on 1d100 ⇒ 28 = a dragon's bony talon hanging from a plain leather necklace.

The merchant tells you that Lehigh isn't very big, so just ask around when you get there, but the Silver Eye is a good bet, it being the only decent place for a meal and a drink.

I planned a couple of longer trips this year, rather than many small uses of my vacation time. Unfortunately, I also took on some freelance projects, which have been taking up my evenings and weekends prior to the vacation!

Glad you had fun at Origins -- one day I'll have to go to a game convention (other than our small local one, that is).

Oh nice! Some of our local boardgame designers will be at Origins -- have a great time! If you see games like Diceborn Heroes or Creature Comforts, you will be in the company of some Alberta gamers :)

I should also mention that I am going away at the end of next week and work is going to be a disaster between now and then (as evidenced by my still sitting at the computer at 10pm). I think I need to put the game on hold until I get back (July 15) -- I hope that's alright! Feel free to plan your next moves and RP a bit.

The adventure as written isn't really to find specific items; in this case, helping Winnow leads to a plot hook later on. I just thought it would be fun to have a little prize at the end of each mini-adventure :D

That being said, unless you are waiting to see what the others are doing, you can post your action at any time, and I will adjudicate them in turn order. It ends up being faster if everyone just posts their action when they can.

Oh no, that's absolutely fine! I appreciated your post, actually. In this medium, it's a bit hard to tell if someone has nothing to say at the moment or if they just haven't had time to post yet. I just trying to find a happy medium where I can accommodate both!

Sweet, loot!

I should have made it a bit more random, but I wanted you to each have a healing potion :)

As you sail away from the Olafstaad, Captain asks: "So, where are we headed?"

Thanks, everyone!
Spending yesterday on the couch with hot-water bottles and a large Naproxen helped a lot. I think I might have exacerbated it by trying to walk it off too soon.

Anyway, feeling somewhat better today. It's hard to not be annoyed by (a) hurting my back while not doing anything; and (b) it taking so much longer to heal than other times. I mean, I know I'm not 20 any more, but this is ridiculous!

Oh! Sorry, Braith, that's my bad -- I rolled up 5 damage for you, but in the end Witwulf missed you (three times!). You're still at full health.

I'm back!

It was a great weekend in Vancouver -- ate some great food, watched The Boy and the Heron, and met up with a friend from undergrad and drank too much beer. Well, just enough beer.

How do Tempus followers view the Earthmother?

Since Toki just made a Religion check, he can let you know that most followers of Tempus don't have a lot of time for the Earthmother -- one group is interested in glory through battle and the other with maintaining balance in nature, so there's not really any overlap in their beliefs. Still, with the mixing of Northlander and Ffolk communities, they have learned to tolerate one another. For example, there are temples to both Tempus and the Earthmother in Blodvahrer.

lol -- yeah, I pinged him privately. He hasn't used Paizo very much and I think forgot to check the Gameplay tab.

As you near the end of the dock, the older man, Blodder, holds his cane out horizontally to bar you from walking past him. Blodder's grey-haired, probably in his mid-sixties, wearing a loose, faded green shirt. He's got real "5'9-but-lists-his-height-as-6'-on-his-Tinder-profile" energy.

"And where are you off to? Not trying to skip out on your docking fees, are you?" Tapping his cane for emphasis on the ground at Toki's feet: "It's five silver. Per day."

Yeah, I don't know much about the Moonshae yet either (though I grabbed some of the novels from my local 2nd hand shop on my lunch break today). It's fantasy British Islands, for the most part.

The adventure that I have (thanks Aeshuura!) says "four 90-minute adventures" -- basically, four one-shots strung together as a longer adventure. But there are a bunch more in the series online, which I will purchase if this goes well, and we can string it along into a longer campaign.

You can play characters from the Isles if you want, or you can be visitors (willing or unwilling). There are backgrounds for the Moonshae Isles in the Regional Guide that are probably fine to use -- I'll have to review them and post a summary, if you are interested in that.

"What?! That damned 'king' was out here casting all sorts of spells -- had me go after Gideon, an' all. And then I got blasted by a dragon. I dunno how any of this is my fault..."

Go for it!

Also, feel free to take the Standard Array if you prefer.

My irl friend is planning to join us as well -- he's thinking of a cleric build (I mentioned that Gideon is thinking of continuing as a Light Cleric, so if he does, he'll pick something different to keep it interesting). (Aeshuura, you DMed his character Tana for a little bit in The Black Hand when I was playing Jarprax, the Tempest cleric).

Enemies:
- 2 Enlarged Duergar (Green and Teal)
- 2 Regular Duergar (Blue and Pink)
- 5 Furries (Dark Green, Orange, Purple, Light Green, Blue)
- 1 King Duergar (Black), east of Baldrick

Allies:
- 6 PCs
- 1 Duergar (Purple), north of Baldrick
- 1 Fire Spirit, north of Mell
- 1 Flaming Sphere, east

Unknown or Neutral:
- 1 Large Fungus Creature (Myconid?), east centre
- 2 Duergar (Orange and Yellow), north centre

And I'm back! Hope you all had fun while I was away :)

Hey gang, I'm leaving Monday until the 22nd (heading back east to visit my mom). I'll have internet access, but probably not enough wits to remember to post, so please bot Baldrick as needed.

(Baldrick, buddy, try not to make too many bad decisions...)

Baldrick, still sulking a bit, shuffles his feet, kicking up fine dust from the floor.

Sleep 2nd level
HP affected: 7d8 ⇒ (8, 8, 5, 6, 7, 8, 7) = 49

Damn! I've never rolled that high!

Nice!

My buddy just got a position at a community college in Oregon (which finally gets him out of LA, which he hated)

Ah crap -- I do always forget that... Thanks!

Sooo... I can cast Invisibility once, then lol. Everyone else is on their own!

"Yeah, or maybe even another way in?"

Sounds good!

Final tally is:

Mead Hall Irregulars: 4
Icewind Irregulars: 3
Forgers of Good Will: 2
... and like seven others at 1 vote

I know Mellaina was hoping for something a bit more alliterative (me too, tbh), but for now the group has a much stronger connection to Good Mead than to the rest of the Dale, so I think this works out well.

Thanks to everyone for participating in my little voting experiment!

Per Umikh's request, compiled and alphabetized.

EDIT
Okay -- I've removed the list from here. Let's try voting on this Google Form and see how that goes: Choosing a group name

I've used check boxes so you can vote on more than one name because with something like 25 choices, it would be very easy for us all to vote for something else. I'm going to suggest that you try to limit your votes to say your top 3 choices (probably there's a way to do that in the poll, but I've never created one before, so I don't know how to do that).

That's what I was thinking, but as I've started playing Pathfinder again, I'm getting a bit muddled about which rules apply to which game!

Just so I know, if I drop the warhammer to use the bow, I imagine it'll be an action to retrieve the warhammer again, right?

@Aeshuura -- I finally had a chance to look through stuff. I emailed you a Word doc with more NPC Notes!

"He's a plant man
Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub
Yo da dub dub"

:D

That about sums it up, have we really been playing this game for like 3 years>

This thread only goes back to 2021, but there's a (now inactive) thread where Greycastle first started us off -- that was the Mother Tusk adventure -- which started in October 2020 :)

Back then, the group name was "Ice Road Truckers" :D

I don't know if we need more suggestions of names, I just had some amusing thoughts:
- Ragtag Townies
- Forgers of Good Will
- Meader Maids (Good Mead seems to be where we spend most of our downtime...)
- Black Ice Busters
- Heroes of the Spine! Heroes with a Spine! The Spinies!! Spinal Tap!

Looks like the necromancer and Helaman pulled out. For ease of reference, here are the six applicants (hopefully I didn't miss any):

Isagoras: Human Cleric (Light Domain)
Avendryl: Elf Wizard
Lanyssa: Human Sorcerer / Warlock
Orrlis: Leonin Cleric (Life Domain)
Mellaina: Human Druid (Circle of Wildfire)
Gideon: Human Cleric (Tempest)

@Greycastle: Are you thinking we should take two of them?

As the others have suggested, maybe one divine and one arcane caster would work best. I'll have a look at their stories in more detail tonight and try to help you narrow it down.

No doubt.

Elven chain isn't really a major magic item or anything, but it would be very unusual to find in your current setting. I don't know if Greycastle has any thoughts on the matter, but we could work something out. I haven't done it before, but I like the idea of an adventure that satisfies a need or fulfills a desire.

I think if you can come up with some story ideas about why this is important and / or how you would work toward something like that (given the constraints of the current setting and party members).

So, for example, why is getting elven chain (or whatever) important to Rodalas? Does he know about something that needs doing or someone who need help in the Feywilde? How would he convince the party to go there?

Feel free to roleplay any conversations, but that about wraps up this adventure. Stokely rewards you all with magic armour from the dwarves' armoury:
* You receive +1 armour. Pick either a shield or light or medium armour.

Everyone also gains one level (I think that brings everyone to level 6)

As long as he's not out of spell slots, lol

lol

Well, I did think about getting Reegah to just chuck rocks at the archers, but then Turq was all "look at me!" so...

but yeah, Hrugh is down to like 10hp or something, so Reegah will have to wait before eating his Turq-wich

Oh right -- remembered to Rage and then forgot the damage boost. And I'll adjust Netzer's damage taken as well. Thanks!

Reegah seems very amused, seeing his companion get pummeled by dwarves -- he's much less amused when Turq's axe chops into his legs!

He retaliates with blows of his own:

Attack 1: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17
Damage 1: 3d8 + 5 ⇒ (3, 6, 7) + 5 = 21

Attack 2: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9
Damage 2: 3d8 + 5 ⇒ (8, 1, 3) + 5 = 17

Round 2
Netzer (-8)
Khitt
Quominor
Rodalas
Umikh
Hrugh (-63)
Turq (-21)
Reegah (-24)

The dwarves have their own established watch system, so you'll all be on watch with at least one other person.

Hey gang, we are almost finished this adventure, but I think this is a good place to take a break for the holidays.

I'm going to suggest that we pick back up on January 2, but please feel free to RP amongst yourselves or with the dwarves. I'll still be checking this site semi-regularly.

Sorry for the slow posting -- I'm on vacation for the next two weeks, so between neglected chores and holiday baking, I've forgotten a couple of things :)
EDIT: Forgetting things like hitting Submit Post after I wrote this yesterday, for example!

Once you've exited the gorge and turned a corner or two, you deem it safe enough to increase your speed. Khitt's spell still works to hide you from sight while it lasts, though the sound of your marching is more evident now.

The dwarves keep pace with you, though it's obvious that the increased speed is having a toll -- you don't hear any grumbling, but those of you familiar with dwarves can read the strain through their body language -- the clenched jaws, the rhythmic march. As Turq rightly judged, they are exhausted. (In terms of game rules, they have 1 level of exhaustion)

It is well past midnight when you reach the clump of small trees; you are all exhausted.

I assume the plan is to take a long rest here...?

Didn't the rope give a lower DC? I think you are fine...

Yeah, DC without the rope was like 18 -- just trying to balance what's logical with the adventure as written.

EDIT: Did we have enough time for a short rest?

You haven't mentioned it so far, so I assumed you weren't taking one. If you do take a short rest, you will miss the opportunity to sneak past while the ogres are distracted. Which is totally fine, just let me know what you plan to do.

It's really, I think, to prevent damage to get too far out of hand (as it is, the amount of damage this group does in a round is impressive!).

It is a bit counter-intuitive, though -- you'd think as you become more skillful / proficient, you would be able to inflict more damage. Though I guess in D&D, that's accounted for by accumulating other kinds of skills, rather than straight damage (and damage goes up if you can hit more often).

I actually really enjoy the OSR way, where your damage is reflective of your training. So, it doesn't matter what weapon you wield, whether dagger or crossbow or 2H sword, the amount of damage depends solely on your class and level. Which makes sense, in a way -- if I'm a wizard, why would I be able to do as much damage as a fighter with the same weapon; if I'm a fighter, presumably I've had basic training with a variety of weapons or, minimally, that training is applicable across weapon groups (maybe I've never used a scimitar before, but it's a bit like a curvy saber...).

So, the weapon your fighter uses is suddenly just a matter of flavour -- if you want to play a Drax the Destroyer-style character, you don't have to worry about letting your party down because you want to use a 1d4 dagger instead of a 2d6 greatsword.

I mean... it's your funeral

:P

I'll take Rodalas's 22 Survival he just rolled and run with it, unless someone has a different plan. (i.e., I can't post right now :P )

lol -- I guess I could have just looked at the map (see link in my profile). Looks like there are trees mostly in protected areas -- where you are is a bit more exposed. You'll be near some trees as you continue south, but not where you are at the moment.

Oi, beardlin', o'er here! Do ya know what the meaning is o' this is? Turq sys as he shoulders his pack, clearly ready to go.

The younger dwarf's hand reaches up self-consciously to pull at his short blond beard. Shaking his head: "Dunno, sir. Master Stokely says 'run' and I run. But things are hopping in the Cairn -- we should go!"

lol -- this is how we write Rodney out: he slept in and missed all the fun!

Baldrick, with perhaps a few too many mugs of ale and mead in his belly, attempts to look down his shirt, but his beard bunches under his chin, obscuring his vision.

Struggling to pull or lift his shirt: "Hey Umikh! Is there hair on my chest too?! Rahaha!"

A sorcerer!?

How dare you, sir! I'll have you know that arcane magic is extremely dangerous and borderline evil. I mean, think of all the times we've been in combat and some weird magical stuff started happening!

Baldrick is good and loyal soldier, and nothing you can say will convince him otherwise.

@Aeshuura: Not sure if you want to wait for any others to chime in. If you're ready to move on, let's go with this:

- Dog sled: Party treasure for now (minimally, we'll use it to carry our stuff on the return to town)
- Goats, lantern, beads: Return to rightful owners
- Armour / shields: The dwarves decide it's of inferior quality and leave it behind
- Javelins: Netzer restocks his ranged weapon of choice
- Picks / warhammers / daggers: Sell in town for 20gp (Baldrick will claim one dagger)
- Kits / tools / fishing gear: If nobody wants them and they can't be sold, we'll leave them behind
- Healing potion: Baldrick has 3 already, but he'll take it if nobody else is interested
- Chardalyn: If nobody else wants to carry them, Baldrick will add them to his collection for now

Cash = 19gp, 7sp, 8cp each