maven009's page

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.

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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.

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Anyone else got some epic deaths that made the sacrifice worthwhile?

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.

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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.

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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.

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Our party (all 9th level):

Human Dexterous crit-hit fighter
Half-Elf Sorceress/Dragon-Disciple who concentrates on blasting fire spells
Reverse Switch hitting ranger (Two weapon fighting path and spending all feats on archery)
Melee combat cleric

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.

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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 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.
However, I cannot find a rule to back me up. I cannot find a rule stating that you do not get a reflex save while dying. Also, despite language to the contrary for rangers, monks, and rogues, shadowdancer's evasion does NOT state that it cannot be used while helpless.

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?

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.

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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.