JZ's Carrion Crown - (Wake of the Watcher) (Inactive)

Game Master JamZilla

Discussion is up

Ready to proceed.

GM, do you have a copy of Occult Adventures? I tried to make sure that most of the relevant mechanics are included on my sheet, but if you don't have the book, I'll just buy you a copy of the PDF.

Hello! I am very excited to start this game, thank you for selecting me!

Reporting in!

Thank you for picking me JZ, I've read some of your other games and I'm looking forward to playing in one of your games and to play with the rest of you.

Here I am, thank you for the selection! I'll need to go back and reread everyone's background but I might need to change up the circumstances under which Hazel met the Professor (Raj...I think it was Raj? Had a better 'attacked by thugs' story) unless we want to believe that it took him a couple of different close calls with thugs and bandits before he started hiring bodyguards ;)

Hey. Yes I do have a pdf and bought the data package for HeroLab too. I'm am most familiar with the psychic of all the occult classes because on the surface they are ostensibly similar to wizards and arcanists.

Having said that, there might be some wierdness I haven't come across yet but I'm sure we'll work it out together.

Well there is plenty of opportunity to tweak anything about your characters now. Yeah I guess if everyone saved him from bandits or robbers he'd suddenly seem like a pretty fuddy old guy!

I do have a quick question. Would the kinslayer ability devastating brand allow a weapon to be modified to a 19-20 and then augmented with the keen quality to have a 17-20 crit range? The forums seem unable to answer this question for me.

When the kinslayer attacks a creature that she has branded with her slayer's brand, she threatens a critical hit on a roll of 19–20. If the kinslayer is good, she also gains a +2 sacred bonus on all rolls to confirm critical hits on a branded creature.

It's interesting because it doesn't expand crit range, it just automatically sets all attacks to have a crit range of 19-20 regardless of what kind of weapon or attack is being used.

Yeah I read that conversation on the boards Zed, and whilst I agree that it doesn't seem a really clear-cut case, (I marked it as an FAQ) the wording at least suggests that it simply changes the crit range of a weapon to 19-20.

I can see the benefit, a 17-20 x4 Tetsubo would be pretty crazy, but I just don't think that's the intention. It seems to just replace the crit range rather than expand it.

Raj very happily checking in!

Hi, Hazel. I do indeed have a 'saved by thugs' thing in my background. Given the dangers of being a roving occult hunter/investigator in Ustalav, I don't see why the Doc couldn't have more than one person who saved him.... besides I was technically trying to rob him and had a sudden attack of conscience. Damned inconvenient. Maybe you could save him from something more ominous than random thugs?

Yeah I'm surprised at how little response it got. That is my understanding of the ability as well. I don't plan on changing my build either way (not to mention that a bludgeoning weapon can't be made keen), I was mostly just curious.

Oh yeah, didn't think about the keen/bludgeoning issue. Still, hopefully there will be an official response someday.

Maybe Hazel could have saved him from a disguised you Raj!

Wha?! There is no proof it was me... as long as her narrative doesn't conclude with ...and I beat that thug's punk-@ss to death. The End.

:D

I clicked that cursed link and nearly jumped out of my skin! I did not realize my speakers had been turned up so loud and all of a sudden

DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

shook the walls, ceiling, and floor of my apartment! Gah!

---

In other news, I am here.
Are there any aasimar in the group? If not, I think I'll tinker with Vala here a bit and turn her into one like I'd originally envisioned.

I read mindlink and discovered it's a completely different spell than the original psionic ability, so I'm going to drop that and take remove fear instead.

With regard to other players' questions, I'm playing a human, and not involved with thuggery. :)

I clicked that cursed link and nearly jumped out of my skin! I did not realize my speakers had been turned up so loud and all of a sudden

DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

shook the walls, ceiling, and floor of my apartment! Gah!

And so the horror begins....

Maybe Hazel could have saved him from a disguised you Raj!

Actually, this is an idea with serious merit. In my head, after Raj grew up, he worked with Lorrimor on a few occasions when their - ahem - 'interests' aligned. Raj would do scouting, recon, light security, and (on his own volition as Lorrimor wouldn't approve) 'counter-opposition' work. It's totally conceivable that Raj would infiltrate some band of occultists that they suspected was coming after Lorrimor. The plan would be for Raj to sabotage their efforts, warn Lorrimor, or (in extremis) kill the baddies when they jumped him.

Raj never breaks cover unless it is necessary. So, if Hazel happened upon one of these 'extreme' circumstances and came to Lorrimor's defense... if she was handling the baddies well, then Raj wouldn't reveal himself. He'd make it look good but would throw the fight and take his lumps. It would be proof to the baddies that he was on their side and make his cover that much better.

It could make their first meeting interesting and memorable. :) Whaddaya think, Hazel? Wanna start the game having already beat the crap outta my character and convinced he is a nasty cultist?

I have no problem should you go down this route. It would be useful though if it was kind of a "hmm I'm sure I know that guy from somewhere..." deal to begin with.

Just so I can concentrate on setting the scene early on

Are there any aasimar in the group?

I'm just a human... a devious, conniving, pragmatic, and nasty human. :)

Re: Raj Beatdown - I like it! Once the wires are eventually uncrossed, it will just be further proof to Hazel that Desna has an odd sense of humor sometimes. Also, sure thing JZ; that was more or less what I had in mind anyway :)

Re: Aasimar - Human as human can be!

I have no problem should you go down this route. It would be useful though if it was kind of a "hmm I'm sure I know that guy from somewhere..." deal to begin with.

Just so I can concentrate on setting the scene early on.

Grand! I can remind Hazel where she knows me from (at some point) and put it in context so I won't get brained in the opening scene. :)

Alright, Vala's adjustments are done. She's hardly recognizable as an aasimar at this point with the variant racial traits, but they all serve to blunt and dilute her celestial heritage so that even she herself is unaware of it.

Reporting for duty! I'll have a profile up by tomorrow afternoon.

Thank you very much for the selection.

Galus is a straightforward man whose family fell on hard times in the streets of Courtaud. Turning to petty criminality he did everything he could to keep his young daughter safe and well but she eventually contracted an illness that he could not afford to have treated.

By the time a kindly middle-aged man who introduced himself as a doctor found the pair, all he could do was make the girl comfortable for the end. Galus never forgot the act of kindness even if it didn’t save his girl and he promised that if there was ever anything a lowly street thug like he could do for the Professor he would do all he could to help.

When are you planning on putting up the first gameplay post JZ?

I’m not sure, it really depends on you guys. I’m ready to go so it’s just when you’ve finished making adjustments to your characters I suppose. I think it’s a good opportunity to have a look at eachother’s character sheets, work out where there are overlaps in traits or skills and see if you want to make changes accordingly.

Where is everyone by the way? I’m in Swansea, UK so I’m assuming everyone is about, what, 6 hours behind?

Well I’m in London so GMT too :)

Zed is a hybrid character that's part melee and part skills. He has mostly social skills as well as survival. As his fluff and crunch both go, he will excel at finding, identifying, tracking, and killing undead. He probably won't pick up any healing (since as a dhampir he can't benefit from it, and getting inflict spells would be horribly narrow), living off of inflict potions and maybe infernal healing later. Still not completely decided on that part.

I'm in central time, it's 6:15 am here. My sleep schedule is pretty messed up because I had surgery on Monday and I'm on a lot of drugs.

I'm ready I start whenever!

So healing you specifically might be an issue, Zed. But hey, no one said being a half-undead was easy I guess.

Well I'll wait for everyone else to check in whether they want to change anything and possibly put the first post up tonight so you guys see it when you getting from work etc

Being a warpriest, Hazel is basically going to be melee (or more specifically, tanky). She won't be getting many skill points, but her Diplomacy and Sense Motive are both decent so she can be a back-up/assistant face and lie-detector. And should it come up, she does have Kn. Engineering as a background skill. This is my first warpriest character but as best as I can tell, they seem designed to be somewhat self-sufficient by being able to self-buff and heal in combat if necessary.

As far as location and posting goes, I live in the US, CST (GMT -6) but when at work, I'm on EST (GMT -5). On the days I don't work, posting multiple times should not be a problem. When working, I will post as I can but some days it may not be until I get home at night (12 hour shifts).

*edit* I think Hazel is good to go unless anyone needs to me to alter something :)

I'm ready to rock, post at will!

I'm in Brooklyn, NY so only 4 to 5 hours behind GMT depending on whether or not we are exercising the idiocy of 'Daylight Savings Time'.

To make it easier to reference:

+8 Acrobatics
+3 Bluff
+6 Climb
+4 Escape Artist
+5 K: Dungeoneering
+5 K: Local
+5 Perception
+5 Sense Motive
+8 Stealth
+5 Survival
+6 Survival (Tracking)

Background Skills
+5 K: Geography
+5 Sleight of Hand

Just looking at a couple of character sheets - we have tracking, survival, and dungeoneering amply covered.

One of the things I most love to do in Pathfinder is to have the narrative and story inform my mechanical decisions. To that end, I'm not one who's going to bleed every fractional point of damage out of Vala's spells or to jack her DC's into the very heavens. I'm not saying this as a judgment toward those who prefer that stronger focus on optimizing, but rather just so everyone knows what to expect from Vala. She's probably not going to have the perfect spell all that often, she'll likely pick up odd, sundry and ultimately unhelpful skills as we adventure, and her hexes might not all be dazzlingly tide-turning, but I hope by that to ground her more tightly to the story and other characters.

Given that I like to drop a skill point in skills that are rolled often during a character level arc, I fully expect to have max ranks in Piss Pants (horror) by level 2 =P

As far as party roles are concerned, Vala's a classic, squishy caster. She'll be much more versatile in book 2 and on, provided she survives that long of course, but Zed, Hazel, and Vala will definitely want to coordinate spells known/prepared and such to prevent unnecessary overlap. Probably wouldn't be best for each of us to run around loaded up with bless and nobody have protection from evil =P

OK, so I've thrown everyone's posted skills into a table, I just find it easier to view it that way. Here is what I'm seeing...

WELL-covered skills (3 or more people having it):
Diplo
K: History
K: Local
K: Religion
Perception
Sense Motive
Spellcraft
Survival

THIN Skills (only 1 person has it):
Acrobatics (not really a problem, just mentioning)
Disable Device (I didn't take it but I could re-reroute a point if folks are worried about this)
Escape Artist
Handle Animals
Heal
Intimidate (only one person took it but as an everyman skill, it probably isn't a problem)
K: Engineering
K: Geography
K: Nature
K: Nobility
K: Planes
Linguistics
Sleight of Hand
Swim (as intimidate)

ABSENT Skills (no one has a level in it):
Appraise
Disguise
Fly
Ride
Use Magical Device

Thoughts? Concerns? Personally, I'm OK with that distribution and I don't see anything major we don't have at least covered once. I suppose the only things that MIGHT be worth taking are Appraise and UMD.

For anyone curious about the most over-represented skills, we have...
Diplomacy (with 5 of us taking it)
Sense Motive (5 people)
K: Religion (4 people)
Perception (4 people)
Spellcraft (4 people)

I'm not suggesting anyone should re-allocate their points (certainly not in the case of Perception or SM), just pointing out the interesting data.

One of the things I most love to do in Pathfinder is to have the narrative and story inform my mechanical decisions. To that end, I'm not one who's going to bleed every fractional point of damage out of Vala's spells or to jack her DC's into the very heavens. I'm not saying this as a judgment toward those who prefer that stronger focus on optimizing, but rather just so everyone knows what to expect from Vala. She's probably not going to have the perfect spell all that often, she'll likely pick up odd, sundry and ultimately unhelpful skills as we adventure, and her hexes might not all be dazzlingly tide-turning, but I hope by that to ground her more tightly to the story and other characters.

Given that I like to drop a skill point in skills that are rolled often during a character level arc, I fully expect to have max ranks in Piss Pants (horror) by level 2 =P

As far as party roles are concerned, Vala's a classic, squishy caster. She'll be much more versatile in book 2 and on, provided she survives that long of course, but Zed, Hazel, and Vala will definitely want to coordinate spells known/prepared and such to prevent unnecessary overlap. Probably wouldn't be best for each of us to run around loaded up with bless and nobody have protection from evil =P

I have no issues with this as I tend to do the same. For example, my witch in another PbP recently put a point into Diplomacy though she has no Cha modifier or anything to make her naturally better at it; she had just attempted enough checks that it made sense to me for her to have become ever-so-slightly better at it.

Regarding spells, I definitely agree and am more than happy to coordinate as needed!

Regarding skills, I do think it would be a good idea for at least one person to have some UMD ranks at some point. Most of the other important ones seem to be covered, thankfully.

Don't worry about Appraise, I can't remember a single time it has come up in my games.

Right, so I better take 3 ranks in it. :P

As I level up, I intend to put ranks in intimidate, heal, and various knowledges. I may put points in disguise or swim depending on what challenges we face.

My spell list is what I'm most undecided on. Right now I have shield of faith and protection from evil, both purely defensive spells. I'm open to suggestions, as this is only my second time playing an inquisitor (and being honest, I was pretty bad at it the first time).

Zed, I think you absolutely need to get the various inflict spells. You'll pretty much be left to your own devices as far as healing is concerned, and one of us prepping an inflict instead of a cure leaves everyone else in a bit of a potential bind =)

You think so? Normally I'm one of those people that always picks up a cure spell when I have the option, but in this case I could only self heal. I'm kind of weighing my options of putting inflict on my spell list versus picking up some potions to get me through the first level or two.

If I did decide to pick up inflict light wounds, should I replace shield of faith or protection from evil?

I'm not playing a spell-slinger this time around but I'll throw out a few thoughts for you to mull over as you make your decisions.

First, Vala's opinion makes a lot of sense.

For your 0 Level spells, I'd consider having at least one offensive spell that you can drop when you've got nothing left in the tank. Given this is Ustalav and undead are plentiful, I'd consider taking Disrupt Undead. If you want something that is a bit more of a general hitter - consider Acid Splash. Though the damage is weak, at least it will effect most things whereas Daze is almost useless against the undead.

I've only played an Inquisitor once (and she was a LE sociopath working for Asmodeus) but here is my thinking. The great thing about spontaneous casters is their ability to cast the same spell multiple times. But that means when picking spells, you want to select ones that are 'general enough' that you are likely to use them more than once a day and they have to serve a variety of purposes. Also, I personally like a mix of spells at all levels - offensive, defensive, and miscellaneous. That's sometimes a hard goal to meet with spontaneous casters but that's my philosophy. Based on that, here are the 1st level Inquisitor spells that I like.

Protection from Evil (gives a good defensive bonus, can break mind control, useful multiple times in a single battle or throughout the day)
Bless (nice AoE and useful team buff at the start of any number of battles in a day.)
Shield of Faith (does not stack with Pro from Evil so don't get both... I'd go with Pro from Evil unless you expect to be fighting a lot of neutral or good creatures)
Ear Piercing Scream (Ranged Damage works on everything, and non-undead may be Dazed as well)
Magic Weapon (this is a hard choice but I'd probably take this over Divine Favor or Wrath. I like this spell because you can cast it on an ally's weapon whereas the other spells are only good on you. If you plan on being a front-line fighter, take Divine Favor... otherwise, take Magic Weapon and buff the tank in front of you)
Inflict Light Wounds (good for healing yourself and damaging any bad mortal creatures we run into)

I guess my advice (which you are free to ignore) is to take one defensive and one solid 'general purpose' offensive spell. If it were me, I'd go with one of these combos:

Inflict Light Wounds + Protection Evil
Inflict Light Wounds + Bless
Protection Evil + Bless (risky for your health)
Protection Evil + Ear-Piercing Scream (risky for your health)

For your 0 Level spells, I'd consider having at least one offensive spell that you can drop when you've got nothing left in the tank. Given this is Ustalav and undead are plentiful, I'd consider taking Disrupt Undead.

A very good point Rajuna! However, that exact suggestion is covered by my inquisition.

Disrupt Animation You can use disrupt undead as a spell-like ability, adding your Wisdom modifier to the damage. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.

As far as the rest go, since my wisdom mod isn't terribly high that means my DCs won't be either. However the biggest point for swaying me is that I spontaneously cast, which is a huge difference. Right now I'm definitely leaning towards replacing shield of faith with inflict light wounds.

Yeah, I think the inflicts are a must-get for dhampirs. Better that you have the ability to self-heal in your pocket than to rely on consumables as your only means of recovery. Between Hazel and me we should be able to cover the need for heals well enough that you can dedicate one spell from each of your spell levels to a self-only heal.

Inquisitors are pretty selfish with a number of their spells and abilities anyhow. =)

As for the other pick, I think shield of faith is less situational and therefore a better pick for a spontaneous caster.

Yeah, I'm sold on the inflict spells. Need to live after all!

Shield of faith is less situational, but against an evil opponent protection from evil is better. I suppose it depends on the campaign and how many evil vs non-evil opponents you are fighting.

A very good point Rajuna! However, that exact suggestion is covered by my inquisition.

Fair enough. I didn't check your Inquisition. Having said that I'd still consider swapping out one of your other O levels for either Daze - to mess with any humanoid living baddies - or Acid Splash. But that is just the way I roll. :shrugs:

re: Shield of Faith vs Pro Evil

I'd go Pro Evil. The odds are we'll be facing more evil creatures than neutrals in Ustalav. And while both spells give a +2 to AC, only Pro Evil also confers a +2 on saves, a second save against enchantments/charm effects (from evil casters or monsters), and can thwart evil summoned creatures' attacks. Personally, I think that makes Pro Evil the Swiss Army Knife of 1st level spells. YMMV.

Ho ho! Our illustrious DM has added a few spoilers to the Campaign tab.

I made my Perception check apparently. :)

Just a little bit of prep :)

I am in the middle of our tabletop game and whilst the guys are arguing about what they are going to buy I thought I'd pop in and let you know I will put the first gameplay post up tonight before bed.

While psychics don't get healing spells, I am planning to at least pick up stabilize at level 2.

Beyond that my character is mechanically built for some support and some blasting right now. I tend to like having a selection of utility spells and as we go on I'll probably pick up a lot of psychic divinations (also my Lore discipline gets bonuses with that kind of thing).

I live in California, Pacific time, PST +8.

Nifty map of ustalav up in Campaign Info now too. I will periodically add to that throughout the game but will generally draw your attention to any updates there.

Very nifty map. Hey, I can see my house from here!

When you are ready, the first gameplay post is up!

With a vry limited spell selection, I intend to go mostly for utility. Since Constantin and I are working from the same list, I will try to fill gaps - as we level, i will probably wait until COnstantin selects spells, if that is not too meta fro everyone.

Also, as we level, i will be branching out on the knowledge skills, so we'll pick up more of those as we go along.

I am in the Pittsburgh, PA area - Eastern time, so same as Rajuna. Generally, a couple of posts a day is not difficult.

See you all in Ustalav!