Nat 20 with perfect timing... always epic!
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Truly not as needed as a caster's sheets. I would like a rogue's sheet for writing down full details on talents. I am somewhat biased as I am in the middle of making a Rogue/Assassin/Master Spy while I'm browsing the boards today.
I've been reading through some archived threads and trolling for interesting ideas for tonight's session and I had a thought. Too many people get upset or depressed when they die. I lost another character a couple days ago and I felt downright happy by the relative coolness and completion of the character. So this thread is to celebrate a glorious death and tell the story of how your character bit the ultimate bullet. I think that many people will be able fill this thread with great tales. ********************************************************************** After traveling to the Plane of Negative energy to fight the Lich mastermind of our struggles, our party fought through a tower of constructs and undead to reach the Lich's personal chambers. We rode an 'elevator' of raising stone which was the only way into the final chamber. Gnarack, my half orcish summoner jungle shaman jumps out of the (large) elevator with his creature, Xuktul, a 6 legged tiger with blood eternally pouring from his fur, right into the Lich's readied forcecage spell. As I do little but obstruct the path for my comrades to wade into battle, my companions quickly destroy the Lich's remaining minions and attempt to close for battle. The Lich triggers a trap and destroys a portion of the floor, creating a 10" wide pit. The party notices that the Lich is immune to all of the spells cast at him thus far and then spots the rod he is holding. I cast "grease" to attempt to disarm the rod and fail. Xuktul begins to attack him and is horribly damaged due to a chill shield and does little damage due to his DR. The Lich casts a spell at the party and also target dispels the Paladin's flying potion with a quickened dispel magic. Our fighter manages to close and disarms the rod, which falls to the floor. I use Maker's Call with transposition (btw, Dimension Door is Astral travel: important to note for future people in Forcecages) to switch with Xuktul and use my move action to pick up the rod and put it in my pocket. As a free action I taunt the Lich in orcish. In return for my audacity, I am the target of a Finger of Death. 140 damage to my 99 max hp. I fall dead. Shortly thereafter, our re-flying paladin manages to smite the Lich doing incredible damage and ending the threat... for 1d10 days at least. ********************************************************************** Anyone else got some epic deaths that made the sacrifice worthwhile?
I think the fade out is intentional, I love the effect. Also, unless I missed something, it appears that there is no Rogue class page. I'm sure it would be a pain, and the only thing keeping this from being my main sheet is the inability to type info into it (i use a sheet now that calculates a lot of my stuff for me) ... so lazy... can't lift pencil for... 10 more boxes... *collapses* Finally, while this would quickly become unmanageable as more books are released, it would be cool to have Prestige class pages.
Combat is over and we were successful. :) Firstly, a quick dedicated scouting gave us some knowledge: The room was 50 by 100 ft with a 20ft+ plus wide river of lava through the middle. (skipping minor pools, not to scale, X is ice demon, blank is entrance) +=====================+
The sorceress cast fly on all members of the party, the rangers buffs with cat's grace and gravity bow, the cleric casts align weapon on the fighter, ranger, and himself. He then follows up with magic circle against evil and divine power. The sorceress (luckily, based on a suggestion above, casts Imp Invis on everyone except the fighter. I, the summoner, dismiss my creature and summon lantern archons (lucky roll, I got 4). The entrance above was rushed by all the characters (and archons) with the fighter bringing up the rear. This gave us the surprise round and the chance to get well into the room. Our luck kicked in and the devil rolled after all characters for initiative. First round had the sorceress casting haste, the archons using light touch (he was still flat footed, the hit rate was very good), the archer using 4 attacks (hit with 3), the cleric casts *and succeeds on* dim anchor. The fighter charges the rest of the way and hits. I begin casting summon monster again. :) More archons! At his turn he is actually 3/4 dead [amazing how a crappy initiative changes everything! Rule for DMs: Boss monsters need improved initiative or enough fodder that it can't be gimped prior to its turn), so he attempts to flee to let regen kick in. He moves past the fighter (drawing AOO) and jumps into the lava pool. He then casts wall of ice to delay pursuit and submerges. The sorceress melts the wall (again, thanks for the idea, she was planning on burning all 3rd level spells on buffs. She held back for that one.), the archons cast light touch into the lava at where the devil was last seen, the fighter starts begging for fire immunity so he can chase it down, and I cast spiked pit. I didn't know how deep the lava was and I figured that even if it didn't help kill the devil, it may reveal his location if the lava level lowered. We don't see the monster, but learn that the lava is quite deep. So I start summoning a fire elemental to find him. We learned thereafter that something got him in the lava. It appears that one of the archon's shots hit him where he was cowering. So, after a weeks planning, he goes down in two rounds. Completely luck I feel. The DM flat out told us that 'if this dim anchor doesn't hit' that he was teleporting away. Being flat footed was a big drop to his AC. Thanks for your support everyone, the ideas in here really helped. In the end we had 12 lantern archons blasting the lava, completely based on this thread. :) (edit, tried to fix ASCI, I give up. lol)
Thanks for the comments. I wrote a nice long post but the board ate it :( The game starts in 1.5 hours so I'll be sure to check back before then. The main points of my long post: Greater Teleport at will This monster is smart enough to leave for a minute and come back if lots of buffed people enter or it takes high damage. If it really flees, the DM has a <3-on for monsters teleporting in during camp. Barring those, it may simply leave to another area in the room (assuming large enough) and make us spend precious rounds chasing him. AC/CMD My sunder is nerfed by the high CMD. I need a nat 20 to hit. His high AC means the cleric needs a 19 to hit (prior to buffs), the rhino is about as good as the cleric for that, a lot of the other summons require nat 20s as well. Also, due to lava pools, I'm assuming that charging will be unusable. We weren't able to see details in the quick look last second, so this could be incorrect.
I've used a succubus as an attractive commoner. Her lair was a simple and clean peasant hut. She was dating almost the entire guard and nobody questioned when a single guard simply stopped showing up. She was the mastermind for years in a suburb of a major city. In the end the entire guard was slaughtered because one of them started 'getting religion'. mwahaha.
Actually the death attack bonus from master spy kicks in immediately as you progress. I <3 the master spy / assassin combo. It really is the only way to get those last levels for your death attack DC. Without the increase its usefulness gets left behind.
I'm looking for advice on how to approach an upcoming combat. We have the opportunity to rest and be at full strength when we enter combat. The party is looking at me as the tactician and I'm flat out of ideas. --------------------------------------------------------------- Our last session ended with a cliffhanger in which our party was able to see down a pathway into the next room in the dungeon complex. The room is a large cavern with 50% of the floor being lava, and the other 50% being stone. The sole creature in the room is the 'boss' of the dungeon: an Ice Devil. The DM has expressed doubts regarding our ability to overcome this threat, and I agree with him. Our paladin player (irl) left the party after we started this adventure and his character walked into the sunset. Unfortunately, we were unaware of devils in the dungeon and were not prepared for the fights we have thus far overcome. The sorceress in the party rolled a good enough Knowledge: planes that we are allowed to use all knowledge in the Bestiary for prep. --------------------------------------------------------------- My character was a diviner, who was committed to the local asylum by my party after botching a contact other plane Int Check (house rule: nat 1 counts as a -10, DM ruled that my resulting negative Int check has me Feeble-minded for the next few months). As such I am bringing in a new character (a summoner) who will be joining the party tonight. I could use my unique situation to save the party by purchasing just the things everyone needs, but I don't want to. This summoner is potentially a temporary character (depending on party mesh and if they save my diviner) and is joining directly at a large fight. I would really prefer not to. Its just cheap and would reduce the playability of the summoner if it becomes my permanent character. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Our party (all 9th level): Human Dexterous crit-hit fighter
and my new character, a summoner. The sorceress: I don't know her full spell list, but what I recall of her known spells include Haste, Fly, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Scorching Ray, and Fireball. Most of her wealth is tied into 3-4 metamagic rods. The fighter: uses a keen rapier and weapon finesse. He has a 24 dex and wears light mithril armor. His AC is approx 30. The ranger: uses a +1 falchion and non magical short sword in melee. His ranged attack uses a nice bow (+2 or 3, +4 str mod). He has rapid shot but not many. He is primarily a ranged character. The cleric: lawful neutral (God is a homebrew: god of Resurrection and Revenge, domains chosen are strength and healing). He uses a Glaive +1 Keen Greyflame and Rhino hide armor. He tends to not buff but instead heal after combat. Usual spell mems are unusual spells that are useful in the right situation. As the day progresses he drops them for healing. The summoner: CN 1/2 orc jungle shaman who calls his 'totem'. Uses adam. keen falchion and improved sunder in combat. Stats are high due to epic rolling method (18 Str, 20 Cha, no dump). Creature is quadruped: large faux tiger with pounce and rend. He has flight(wings) and wing buffet to max attacks. No caster has spell pen. Neither fighter has power attack. ---------------------------------------------------------- I've been puzzling over this all week and can't come up with a winning strategy. Our single melee character plus my pet won't be enough to hold him in place and his SLAs are going to be quite effective against us. Any suggestions would help. :)
I've personally used it to make a stalagmite in a cave (which I promptly hid within), the illusion of an extra 5 feet of room at the edge of a cliff, a picture of a character's ancestral home, and the image of my character walking across a bridge (drawing out bandits) Ideas that I've had that didn't get actual playtime: caltrops
Jimmy, that was exactly what I needed! Woop!
When DMing, I completely agree. The wizard argued his point to the DM that the shadowdancer ability could function as a minor "shadow jump" where the character literally isn't there for a moment. Thus being helpless wouldn't automatically prevent that. I am hoping someone can direct me to where unconscious character cannot make reflex saves period.
I completely agree, unconscious characters should NOT be allowed to do this, but I cannot find it in the rules. Pathfinder Core
It does NOT mention being helpless in the shadowdancer evasion.
Correct, but shadowdancer's evasion does not have that wording. Unconsciousness -> Helpless Helpless -> Treated as though one has a Dex of 0. I still do not see anything that does anything other that give me a penalty to the roll.
I am thinking that I may have missed a rule and I figured that perhaps someone could point me to what I missed. I am/was playing a halfling bard/shadowdancer. During the final fight of our campaign my character was hit for 60 points of damage. My max HP being 58, I am dropped to negative in the single hit. The wizard, seeing half the party dropped in one attack, hits the BBEG with a maximized fireball, targeted on my bleeding corpse to try and avoid the bleeding cleric. Skipping to the meat, the fireball kills the BBEG, the cleric does not get hit by the fireball and lives, and, the kicker, I live. I truly feel that at that point, I am toast. Pun not intended.
I had a suggestion for the message boards. When using the search functionality, it is difficult to locate new(er) posts. Would it be possible to sort search/messageboard results by date? Or have an option to search only specific date ranges?
Good call out, actually character is starting at level 3. This is most likely going to be a 3-15 level campaign. For my personal usage, that is my target range. I was more looking ahead at long term play and comparing a 10 Rogue 10 Assassin vs 20 Rogue. An *assassin* should be better at assassinating but I don't think that it does.
So I was looking at making a character and going with an assassin type of character. This is my first time as a Pathfinder player looking at a rogue type build. (Disclaimer: long time 3.5 player. I've only had a few Pathfinder characters thus far, I tend to DM more often than play) My initial thought was that the perfect assassin build would be a level 5 Rogue who then went Assassin. Now I'm not so sure. I'd like feedback from others as to their thoughts on this. Firstly identical character at level 20, the rogue master strike beats the crap out of the assassin's death ability in most all situations. At lower levels, the need to sit out of combat for several rounds is a significant hindrance for the PC assassin. Also, compared to straight Rogue, Assassin does not get the favored class bonus and gets less skill points. *** My opinion thus far is that the assassin class is best for a non rogue who wants to play an assassin, like a monk, ranger, or even as a single class dip for a fighter. I am eager to see others opinions on this.
I actually agree with an earlier comment liking some old school poisons. That said, also agree to not bring back old school save or die poisons. If we have a hypothetical 30 HP poison with a single save (old school) and replace it with a 6 HP 5 rounds poison with no cure, you have a poison that kills commoners almost without fail, threatens the hell out of low-mid level characters, and is a slight effect against high level characters. CON damage can't have that effect. Most commoners have a higher CON than my wizard. I think its somewhat appropriate to allow HP healing against certain types of poisons (from a rl look at how poisons work). In my campaigns I use a mixture of both. There is nothing like the look on a new player's face like when they realize you have things that aren't in their book. :) If I had my god-mode:I-am-the-designer type way, all poisons would do HP damage and have secondary effects of other stat damage. |