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I wanted to throw in on the warm fuzzies of awesomeness! I love playing with the APL group. In my limited RPG experience thus far, there really hasn't been any close competition. It has inspired me to try and fund the GM mojo - thanks to Sean and ake for letting me abuse you... Thanks to Jason for a great puzzle-romp! And to my table for another fun night. I've realized that with a good table and GM, you can learn alot about the PC you've created and thought you knew all about... my latest bard finally found his true calling... as a "bardbarian"... Can't wait until next time!
Trading out the inspire courage may not be worth it if you are trying to optimize. The archetype is fun though, and may daw the ire of your GM if used tactically. I am at level 6 with mine. I have used my puppets as scouts to thwart ambushes, disposable trap triggers, as corks to plug retreat paths, and many other forms of battlefield control, in addition to providing a flanking companion when it may be otherwise impossible. I have been surprised to see how it has played out, as it has been contrary to expectations. Don't forget your spells you get to add to your spell list as a favored class bonus - wizard illusion spells, such as illusion of calm and color spray. I am playing mine as a dual archetype with arcane duelist. Due to the way I RP with him I am now thinking of him as a "bardbarian", and a level of barbarian may be fitting, or a rage potion or 2. He currently has an intimidate of 24... Keep in mind, your shadow puppet is a standard action to summon, not a full round. Next up is summoning it as a move action. Not only that, but I could choose to drop it and summon another one on the opposite side of the battlefield, as a move action. The number of bardic performance rounds has not been an issue as of yet, and I have no feats or otherwise to boost them. YMMV, but I really like mine. Just make sure you set expectations properly. I generally have to make a point of that so some moron doesn't give me the "whu? You aren't inspiring courage? That's lame..."
And, since I am in the questioning mood... If you put a spell that requires an attack roll in a spell storing weapon, would you be required to make another attack roll to successfully cast the spell from the weapon? My thoughts are that if my sword is inside the enemy, then I have successfully touched the enemy...
Also, I have been playing a bit with some... GMs that are a bit... underwhelming. Sometimes this makes me feel I've been gipped out of a good story adventure. I would love to know what you guys feel are some of the best scenarios so I can make sure to save my plays for when I am rolling dice at the APL.
Sing... did someone say sing?
Oooyyyyuuhhhhhooooooowwwoouuuuhhhheeeeeeeiiioooohhhhuuu.... Still working on the 3rd harmonic of that tea kettle... Perhaps we should wake the sleeper and put him to a deeper sleep... catch him before he has his morning brew. Or steal his secrets and treasures while he still sleeps - a task for one with an ear for adventure and hopefully a valorous few....
Several things - 1) Since the conductive weapon is only once per round, wouldn't that limit it to a single 1d8 attack on a single target using the conductive weapon in question, as each "word" is a separate single attack with a separate ranged touch attack roll? 2) Also - "start a performance as a standard action". Not continue or maintain, but simply "start". This language alone suggests to me this is not an intended application of Weird Words. 3) Also, very important - "This performance can't be performed faster than a standard action."
Seems like the key thing is "cackle madly" directly contradicts "cackle stealthily", "cackle quietly", "cackle silently", or other versions of not madly. Add your touch of madness however you like, whether you want it to be idiotic or sublime or spiritual, but keep it mad or it isn't cackling. The example of published literature using the semantic turn of phrase "quietly cackled to himself" is just plain wrong. The author needs to reevaluate his word usage. It seems like it could be easily determined by defining it as a sonic effect. If it was a sonic effect, I could throw some physics at it and you could determine how loud the person would need to be cackling in order to be heard by the target at the given distance. In any battle situation, it would have to be pretty loud. However, it appears to only be listed as a "supernatural" ability, with no guidance other than that we all know that actual "cackling madly" is a process of making noise....
WAYANG PUPPETEERS NEED ANSWERS!!!! Well, my GM last night decided I had to keep the performance going to keep my shadow conjuration up. I still question this approach, but would like to know the intended mechanic. Also, I realized the range would be limited by your light source used to backlight the stencil. Using my wayfinder, that gives me a 20 ft range, but could I use a bullseye lantern to get a 60 ft activation?
Does anyone have any suggestions for scenarios that would be a good thematic or storyline fit with the Price of Immortality module arc? I'd like to maintain the storyline in some way between Masks of the Living God and City of Golden Death. I searched for various key words related to the storyline but didn't come up with anything by way of scenarios. Any suggestions? Without any good filler, I will probably just use the first Shattered Star AP PFS sanctioned content, and maybe see if I can just replace any proper nouns with Razmir or Razmiran...
Bumpetty bump bump. I am going to be playing my Wayang boon character next weekend and would LOOOVE to have a rules clarification for when my GM looks at me sideways when I start throwing out shadow creatures. My first reaction to this when I realized they were giving us a lvl 4 spell with specific limitations was WOW. So, it may make sense if it is a bit tamer than what I hope it to be. Also - would shadow play require at least low light or shadow somewhere to be able to use it? Here are my thoughts on the matter - The spell description states that they "resemble" monsters from the Summon Monster list but otherwise work like shadow conjuration. So, that would suggest we are restricted to the list of things we can summon but otherwise they are not restricted by the spell duration of "summon monster" which is 1 round per level. I see no reason you couldn't also have a summon monster spell active at the same time. One spell would actually be "summon monster" and the other spell would actually be "shadow conjuration". Throw in a "silent image" for extra fun. Perspective 1:
Perspective 2:
I imagine starting a performance for shadow puppets, using the harmonic spell feat to switch performance and cast a spell, engage in combat until the puppet goes "poof" and then use harmonic spell to cast a spell and switch back to shadow play. I imagine my wayang wearing a wayfinder on a thong around his neck along with his shadow puppet, so he can easily activate a light source and just take hold of the puppet and have an instant puppet show. I think the main impact the rules clarification would have is helping me decide which feats to take. If it works like I imagine - I would stick with harmonic spell as my first feat. If it is something that has to be maintained or lose the shadow, I would use lingering performance as a first feat. I am multi-archetyping multi-classing so it may affect the overall effectiveness of the character. Awesome flavor but we need some help executing please!
Woot, good timing for lots of questions, but if RainyDay had held off a minute he could have put up the slam dunk! Maybe it was good karma for offering to GM. What say you regarding the other Part 2 scenario and should we have another non-sequential on the schedule for the 22nd? I am imagining a large stuffed purple golem and some cotton candy...
Thanks for the advice! I still may make my Nagaji into a Invulnerable Rager barbarian with a death wish. The Arcane Duelist/Shadow Puppeteer is an unusual case where the archetypes combine without canceling each other out. The level of oracle allows using your charisma modifier as a bonus to AC instead of dex and using charisma for knowledge checks. I think I'll keep this one to a one level dip. I really like the flavor combination with the 2 archetypes though - neither of which really got my interest on their own.
I'll put the TL:DR at the top here. Any advice on multi-classing? General "don't do this" or "avoid this" type of advice? Or is it best to stick with the hedonistic approach - if it feels good I'm on the right track? My inner geek is overflowing so I just thought I'd share (and bump the thread count!) my recent discovery of (what I believe to be) awesome...
And then I made a wayang arcane duelist shadow puppet oracle of lore!. And my brain exploded. Then I made a nagaji archaeologist. Then I realized... I might be that guy. That guy that only plays bards. I might have wasted those GM credits I put on my witch... Really? Now I want to make a songhealer... Someone send help!
There is a chronicle sheet, currently downloadable. I have not been able to find anything stating which section of the AP to which it applies. The chronicle says 3-5 for the tier, so I would have to guess some portion of the second half, but looking forward to getting the details.
I was looking at the games for Dec 22nd... Are Shadow's Last Stand and Heresy of Man best played sequentially or does it matter? Trying to figure out what to sign up for as the high tier game is not an option, but don't want to blow a good story arc by jumping the gap. I couldn't find a clear answer out on the interwebs...
I wanted to throw another idea out there for tying this into PFS play. Rather than use the coming of age story, I tied it in with the PFS agent in town already (in the NPC section). The premise is that Abrus Valsin has sent the rookie PFS agents to assist insetting up a PFS outpost in Kassen. The challenge is convincing the townsfolk who are as a majority very wary of Pathfinders. Mayor Uptal is on good terms with Ambrus, and suggests that the PFS agents make good with the townsfolk by reviving an old historical tradition - the quest for the Everflame. From there, the rest of it works, and the townsfolk can pull off a good practical joke on the Pathfinders. I believe it went over fairly well with my group.
RainyDay - I put in a request, albeit a selfish one, for a scenario (Devil We Know Part 2) in the evening slot on the 8th, as I will not (ever) be able to do a full afternoon/evening module game. I am ok to delay if preferred. Also, I would be up to running it in the future if there are others that wanted/needed to play it. As it is, I'm not sure there will be enough warm (or cold) bodies for a table considering the modules are running. And I would be more than happy to play a different scenario if delaying Devil We Know is preferred. And for anyone else considering it, I believe the first two parts it doesn't matter the order, but the second two parts are sequential. |
