drbuzzard's page

You're gonna make me feel like I'm picking on your family.

Good thing as a GM I'm immune to remorse.

You can use firearms

I know. There's just two things.

If you would prefer me to indulge in the firearms, I can. It would make for an easier build no doubt.

As background skills are pretty limited, I'm not the biggest fan. They are very common these days, but they don't really solve the issue of skill disparity, especially on the 2/level classes.

How about we just change classes with 2/level to 4/level and call it good. Won't help the skill god investigator, but should aid the poor cleric/fighter (or wizard.)

Damn shame that jerk of a GM already nixed background skills.

Took a while to go through all the submissions. Thanks to all who went to the trouble of making a character. Gestalt builds aren't trivial.

I picked people on the basis of trying to make an effective party. For example there had to be a cleric(or oracle) since I am going to beat you all like red haired stepchildren. I also picked other classes which could offer supplementary healing. I think the party should be fairly balanced in covering all the important bases.

And since you've been waiting:

Grumpy, a giant hunter
Orthoon Kegstalker
Kurgan Kegstalker
Crastor Deems
Biruta Rovelsdam
Dolgrym Giantfoe
Kaalul Bazt

I'll be opening the discussion and play forums up shortly. Those selected please head on over.

Submissions are now closed. I will now feed the data into Deep Thought and come out with the party. As you know it will be seven members because that is a factor of 42.

I should have an answer faster than in the book.

(if you do not get the references above, for shame)

Well, I tried drbuzzard, I tried to resist the urge to make a backstory for Brunner. Sadly, I failed. However, I did resist the urge to put it here, instead only posting it on his page. For what it's worth, it's really short.

It's OK, I won't read it.

Drbuzzard, it looks like the rules for Knowledge checks about Giants are that they're covered under Knowledge (local), because that's the category that covers "humanoids." I'm just checking to see if that's how you're planning on doing it, because the PC I'm creating leans heavily into skills, and giants feature so heavily in this campaign.

I saw that some GMs cover Giants under Knowledge (nature), which covers "monstrous humanoids."

Skills are as listed, so locals covers giants.

So, Dwarf and one side of Gestalt is Fighter. Just to make sure, that's fighter, not any full BAB class like ranger, paladin or cavalier, but Fighter yes?

Keeping fighter in mind, I'm leaning towards fighter/unchained rogue. Everyone needs a burglar whether they realize it or not.

Edit: Drbuzzard, how long are you leaving recruitment open and how many dwarves are you taking?

I knew I must have forgotten something. Six characters will be selected. I'll keep recruitment open at least 2 weeks.

As for the fighter side, yes, fighter, not martial in general.

After being convinced of the humor value, make that seven dwarfs.

That's what hero points are for. Use one and get a reroll at +10

Praetorian Roy Cobb wrote:

Good to here the recovery is going were. Take care of yourself, we're not going anywhere.

Yeah, tha's a type-o, I wanted the recovery to be going 'well'

Damn, I though he was gonna turn into a werewolf.

Rock will toss a mind probe at the serpent to see what we're not being told.

Looking at my sheet, I do have +4 presence, so I guess I can try.

"My friend here has a good point in that there's no cause for violence. We are sort of a bunch of independent trouble shooters, and we're available to help you both with your problems. If you explain the situation, one at a time, we will see what we can do. "

diplomacy: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

Rockhead, can you read Roy's thoughts so if he desired to communicate back?

Rock generally sets up a telepathic link between the party so they are in a sort of chat room.

Switching back into human form, Rock speaks "Sure, a room would be nice. I'm not hungry as yet. Can I smoke in my room?"

Right as soon as she says 'engaging' Rockhead shifts to stone because he doesn't trust this rather dubious technology.

Martian Manhunter is a very powerful telepath in the Justice League. During the Grant Morrison run of JLA in the late 90s they had MM act as a telepathic go between for the team while Batman figured out tactics. You can get trade paperbacks of this period. They are quite good.

It's basically what I planned Rockhead to do. He will coordinate during combats, and perhaps offer intel gained by mental probes.

Is this Denver or Grand Junction? That's a hell of a lineup for a small con on the western slope

SJ will truck around in a JLA trinity T shirt and jeans scoping out the displays and getting autographs from Fillion and Reynolds.

I still need to figure out how to do my shapeshifting. I'm getting a fair number of points banked by now.

"I know I'm just a dumb jock and all, but it seems like we put a lot of people at risk for just a test. "

SJ's dad pipes up in his head "Oh yeah a slingshot..."
science: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (11) + 11 = 22 Insight is the same roll for the sidekick

We all want to be proper Justice League members, so we continue with the test as if it were real. Calling out the tester is not an option if we wish to remain in the group. If we don't trust as prestigious a hero as Martian Manhunter, we might as well just form our own group.

Didn't even notice my roll, so that dialog is between him gagging in nausea

"I'm pretty sure Atlantis is no more, so we can't get sent back there. I think we better get to the ship out of here. This place is crawling with soldier. "

Straightjacket is lost in hero worship and simply stares and at best stammers if asked a question. It's the big blue boy scout after all.

OK, I have a really stupid idea for dealing with the guy. We rig up a karaoke machine, and challenge him to a contest, putting his name backwards in the middle of a song. Yes, this is stupid, but it is par for the course of general solutions for this guy.

Extra points if MINOTAUR is the karaoke machine.

Not the worst point buy so far, but impressively bad non the less!

There was worse? Now I gotta go back and look.

Oh yeah, the 6 and 7 are -2 each, so 4 point buy.

Ooh! I have a character that was all ready to start this campaign when the rug got pulled out under him. Sea Ranger is my half-elf druid. I might need to tweak him a bit to fit your standards, but otherwise he's pretty much already set to go. I'll roll his stats though, to see what I can manage to get.

[dice=Ability roll 1]4d6 6 (Drop)
[dice=Ability roll 2]4d6 13
[dice=Ability roll 3]4d6 12
[dice=Ability roll 4]4d6 6
[dice=Ability roll 5]4d6 12
[dice=Ability roll 6]4d6 13
[dice=Ability roll 7]4d6 10

Wow... not a single '6' on the die and a whole lotta low scores. I'll have to look and see if this is less than the point buy and go from there.

That's a six point buy unless I'm off on my math.

OK, came up with an idea. Oddly enough, it ties into the initial hero I had in mind (which I built up at PL 10 just to see it).

Fine. Nevermind. Bows are more accurate than rifles if you say so. I'm really convinced. Really.

Now since you're not actually interested in the game, you can stop lecturing me.

Going to spare everyone this discussion.

The main advantages of a lever action rifle over a single shot rifle is the eight round magazine and better range increment (110).

OK, thanks. I guess the key question is availability of a rifle and ammunition to start. Not much point in having a rifle (lever or not) if I can't feed it. I'd be better off with the muzzle loading smoothbores if that's all I could get ammo for.

I was thinking a gun tank. I'll need to read the player handout for that AP so I can figure out how a lad from Alkenstar would get involved. A long time ago I offered Rise of the Runelords where the premise was a team of Alkenstar agents trying to keep a lid on a major eruption of ancient magic so everyone was gun oriented, and no magic classes (alchemist was allowed).

drbuzzard wrote:

Also, the range increment for a rifle is really rather silly. 80 feet for a rifle when bows are appreciably higher (100) is simply stupid.

Welsh Longbows were reasonably accurate for direct fire up to around 350 yards (1050 feet), but only by the best. They weren't even composite bows, but simple stick bows, but they WERE Strength bows as far as how the game engine handles these things. Archers pressed the bow away instead of drawing the string, because the draw weight of the bows were so high. They had draw weights up to 150 pounds, and some think higher!

Reference

Muskets had about 1/3 that range. "Muskets of the 16th–19th centuries were accurate enough to hit a target of 50 centimetres in diameter at a distance of 100 metres."

reference

Musketmen didn't beat archers with range or accuracy. They beat them with sheer numbers. Proper use of a Welsh longbow took years of training. Muskets were only slightly more complicated to use than crossbows, and anybody can use a crossbow!

There's a reason Archers dominated in warfare since the Egyptian chariot archers (well, until the newer tech made expertise less important). And the Welsh longbowman was the king of foot archery units.

Sorry, archery history is a minor interest. I always hate it when people think early firearms were more accurate or had better range than a good bow. They simply did not. It wasn't even close. Firearms are just so much easier to use. Still true today, when the firearm technology has made them more accurate and with better range than even the best archery equipment can be. But that's with modern technology.

I am well aware that muskets are not at all accurate. You can't expect much from a smoothbore and a round ball. I said rifle since he mentioned lever action weapons (while there are lever action shotguns, we aren't talking shotguns).

You might learn some firearm history to match the archery history. Once rifled weapons became standard on the battlefield (the American Civil War was the first big event where the Minie ball saw use) a great slaughter ensued since muzzle loaders which were only really accurate to 50 yards suddenly became accurate to 250 (as much as 500 by the best) because of rifling and the tactics did not change.

Actually since a lucky horseshoe gives a different bonus to saves than what is provided by ABP, it ought to exist. The ABP bonus is a resistance bonus to saving throws. A luck bonus is different and would stack.

Things which wouldn't exist in an ABP world would be those that don't stack (cloak of resistance or the ioun stones which give that bonus for example).

Though it really is up to the GM, the above is how I interpret it in games where I use ABP.

Sitting around the HQ on watch, while doing some homework (which means watching TV while typing on his laptop once in a while), Straightjacket comments on the odd news bit "Seems like a lot of trouble to shoot a blank. "

Take your time. Life is far more important than a mere game.

Upon careful deliberation between saving the world in a quick and efficient fashion, and a beer slide to the bowels of Golarion, the trailer trash wizards make the obvious choice- beer slide.

Of course summoning and binding an elder beer elemental is no small thing. The lot of the wizard council packed into their rusty pickup truck, with the most moderately inebriated driving and the others yeehawing from the bed. Off to the local stop'n'rob they tore to pick up their material component.

In short order they arrived back with a massive stack of PBR cases which they unloaded around a large bonfire (prepped by their apprentices) since no drunken magic can be done without an out of control blaze.

With all preparation complete, the wizards started, each shotgunning a beer by puncturing the base while popping the tab for the fastest chug possible. Each completed beer was followed by a voluminous belch.

This procedure appeared to be utterly random, as the pointy eared rednecks just went through the PBR as fast as they could grab it, but as it went on they appeared to come into synch. With the chugging and burps coming into a rhythm.

The last round of PBRs was grabbed, chugged and a thunderous beclh erupted from the council. With that the uptapped keg ruptured and a huge golden humanoid shaped figure with golden translucent body and fizzy white capped head appeared.

"Hey yinz! Whatcha need?"

Then one of the boring normal wizards did some stuff and summoned an alder earth elemental as well.

Between the two elementals, and some instruction from the queen, a hole is opened into the depths of Golarion, the sides fizzing with fresh brewskis.

The Queen, in her hippo like majesty looks at your party "Well, what're yinz waitin fer? Git yinz a going!"

One thing I failed to mention in the first post, is I expect a post every day during the week and at least once on weekends would be nice. If someone fails to do that without warning me, I will give them a little warning (2 times) and then they are dropped like a hot potato.

Also, I do initiative calls by players before combat starts. This makes sure everyone is around so I am not left waiting for people do go in the middle of combat (in theory). If someone goes 24 hours without posting initiative, they take '1' on the roll.

If this all sounds harsh, it is to keep the game moving. If games don't move they die. WotR has quite the history of dying on these forums (I've been in at least 5 campaigns of this as a player which croaked. I never made it past the first book in fact-I intend to finish this, so if you don't really care if you finish, don't apply).

Um, well, I got nothing.

Lick, lick, miss, miss

and of course the tongue action has him (and the GM) demoralized.

I refuse to encourage you.

Have not had a chance to update the BBEG, and on vacation until next Tuesday. Should have him worked out by then.

Yes, nature. You think it is a sea monster.

No, they are not getting cover. They just have a decent AC and you are rolling lousy.

Given that you are one of the PCs, yes.

Because the author really likes to be detailed, I'm imparted with "16 hours of travel" and no maps.

Under the big pile on, the critter finally goes down.

Obviously being jungle critters, they have no treasure. However the tribe throws a grad feast for you and the witch doctor cures all your maladies (including the negative levels).

If you warm up your axe does it no longer count as cold iron?

As the one fighting Ivar is dead, no it doesn't provoke.

"I could have sworn that I read somewhere that trolls lived under bridges, not in caves. "

drbuzzard wrote:

"I know not. Look I like CSI?"

Sorry, I thought all the screaming and people being dragged off to their death may have woken someone...

It is a village of very heavy sleepers with good sound proofing.