Yeah, I'd heard that KotS was light on treasure... And giving extra XP for PbP "time served" doesn't help. Not that I'm objecting, mind you; it just puts us even farther behind a hypothetical wealth-by-level curve.
I think I'm reasonably happy with Dyrnwyna mechanically at this point.
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I give you Gran 2.0
Unaligned male medium natural humanoid
Initiative +2 Senses Perception +7;
HP 39 (15+24), currently at 39, temp 0; Bloodied 19
Healing Surges 11/day, currently at 6; Regain 9 hit points
AC 21; Fortitude 15, Reflex 14, Will 17;
Speed 5
Action Points 1
Aecris, +1 longsword (At-Will) * Weapon
+7 vs. AC; 1d8+4 damage
Critical: +1d6
Power (Daily): Free Action. When you drop an undead to 0 hit points, gain one healig surge.
glaive (At-Will) * Weapon, Reach
+5 vs. AC; 2d4+3 damage
short sword (At-Will) * Weapon
+6 vs. AC; 1d6+2 damage
shortbow (At-Will) * Weapon
Range 15/30; +4 vs. AC; 1d8+1 damage
Divine Mettle (Encounter, Minor Action) * Divine
Close burst 10; One creature in burst; The target makes a saving throw with a +4 bonus.
Divine Strength (Encounter, Minor Action) * Divine
Personal; Apply your Strength modifier (+2) as extra damage on
your next attack this turn.
Divine Challenge (At-Will, Minor Action) * Divine, Radiant
Close burst 5; While a target is marked, it takes a –2 penalty to attack
rolls for any attack that doesn’t include you as a target.
Also, it takes 7 radiant damage the first time it makes an attack that doesn’t include you as a target before the start of your next turn.
Lay on Hands (At-Will, Minor Action) * Divine, Healing
1/day; Melee touch; You spend a healing surge but regain no hit points. Instead, the target regains hit points as if it had spent a healing surge. You must have at least one healing surge
remaining to use this power.
Ardent Strike (At-Will) * Divine, Weapon
+9 vs. AC; 1d8+6, and the target is subject to your divine sanction until the end of your next turn.
Special: When charging, you can use this power in place of
a melee basic attack.
Enfeebling Strike (At-Will) * Divine, Weapon
+9 vs. AC; 1d8+6. If you marked the target, it takes a –2 penalty to attack rolls until the end of your next turn.
Virtuous Strike (At-Will) * Divine, Radiant, Weapon
+9 vs. AC; 1d8+6 radiant damage, and you gain a +2 bonus to saving throws until the start of your next turn.
Special: This power can be used as a melee basic attack.
Eldritch Blast (Encounter) * Arcane, Implement
Ranged 10; +5 vs. Reflex; 1d10+4.
Shielding Smite (Encounter) * Divine, Weapon
+9 vs. AC; 2d8+6; Until the end of your next turn, one ally within 5
squares of gains a +1 power bonus to AC.
Invigorating Smite (Encounter) * Divine, Healing, Weapon
+9 vs. Will; 2d8+6. If you are bloodied, you regain 6 hit points. Bloodied allies within 5 squares of you also regain 6 hit points.
On Pain of Death (Daily) * Divine, Implement
Ranged 5; +5 vs. Will; 3d8+4. Once per round, the target takes 1d8 damage after making any attacks on its turn (save ends).
Miss: Half damage. Once per round, the target takes 1d4
damage after making any attacks on its turn (save ends).
Virtue Paladin (Encounter, Minor) * Divine
Effect: You spend a healing surge but regain no hit points.
You instead gain temporary hit points equal to your healing
surge value.
Second Wind (standard; encounter) * Healing
Spend a healing surge and regains 9 hit points. Gain a +2 bonus to all defenses until the start of its next turn.
DIVINE SANCTION
Until the mark ends, the target takes radiant damage equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier the first time each round it makes an attack that doesn't include you as a target.
You can use divine challenge to mark one creature and use divine sanction to mark others.
Feats weapon focus(heavy blades), skill training(perception), pact initiate
Alignment Unaligned Languages Common, Elven
Skills religion +5, diplomacy +10, endurance +7, heal +7, insight +7, perception +7, arcana +5
Str 14 Dex 13 Wis 13
Con 12 Int 8 Cha 18
Equipment Aecris (+1 long sword), Heavy Shield of Protection, glaive, holy symbol, plate armor, short bow, short sword, standard adventurer’s kit, 5gp
Sorry for the delay; I was out of town this weekend and among the many threads I posted that to, I managed to miss this one. Thanks for the NPC.
Frivry, are you sure you wouldn't rather play a barbarian, or maybe sorcerer, rather than a rogue? Your play style doesn't seem to be well suited to rogue tactics. I can't remember ever seeing you move to flank an enemy, or use stealth to gain combat advantage. Both of which are kind of essential to playing a 4e rogue.
You seem to be more interested in just moving forward and hitting whatever's in front of you. Which is fine; that's a perfectly valid way to play, but a rogue will never shine with that kind of tactics. You'd be hitting more often, and doing more damage, as a barbarian. A sorcerer would be similar, but using mostly ranged attacks instead of melee.
Anyway, just a thought.
Frivry, are you sure you wouldn't rather play a barbarian, or maybe sorcerer, rather than a rogue? Your play style doesn't seem to be well suited to rogue tactics. I can't remember ever seeing you move to flank an enemy, or use stealth to gain combat advantage. Both of which are kind of essential to playing a 4e rogue.
You seem to be more interested in just moving forward and hitting whatever's in front of you. Which is fine; that's a perfectly valid way to play, but a rogue will never shine with that kind of tactics. You'd be hitting more often, and doing more damage, as a barbarian. A sorcerer would be similar, but using mostly ranged attacks instead of melee.
Anyway, just a thought.
I'm a little inclined to agree with this after a year of playing. We need more damage output. If Quinn passes away in this fight (a strong possibility) then I'll probably come back as a warlord who can help gain extra attacks for some more damage. It just seems like spamming one at-will isn't helping all that much anymore.
Now I'm going to go see if Quinn is dead yet. :)
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All,
Frivry just went down. Barring a minor miracle, this is looking like a TPK. At best, Dyrnwyna might escape if she's willing to leave everyone else behind. We can keep playing it out, or we can call it. I'm ok either way.
There are places where tactics and character choices figured in, there are places where luck figured in (that force pulse was devastating), but the real answer is that the module is a meatgrinder, and especially this section -- I've heard of more than this party that ended their run in this room. That's not helped by the fact that the treasure is terrible (and y'all managed to be unlucky enough to bypass most of what little treasure there was, save Aecris).
Thoughts?
I could maybe see Dyrnwyna ditching her dying comrades, but not unless she's the only one left and it looks really hopeless. And if she did leave them to die, and managed to and get away, she probably would just go back to her family and not go adventuring again.
If it's a TPK, then so be it; we came by it honestly. I'd heard there were some meat-grinder spots in this module, and I can certainly see how this could be one of them. We were definitely in trouble when the reinforcements arrived.
So, what's next? Roll up new characters and carry on, or throw in the towel? I'm game to carry on, if others are.
It's all good to me. I have a dozen contingency characters. I wouldn't mind playing a controller or a striker instead though. I'm a bit burnt out on leaders as I'm playing 3 of them right now in different games.
After having made my previous statement and given some thought to our situation, I would like to say that I would prefer to move on to a different adventure. Over a year has passed since KOTS was published and the quality of modules has increased drastically since then. Most of us have already heard enough about the module to know that it's a decent dungeon crawl, but its time has passed.
I had a lot of fun playing through it first hand but after a year of it, I don't know if it has anything else to offer us as players. This, of course, depends heavily on whether our wonderful DM would even want to run something else. Personally, however, I think that after over a dozen magazine issues, a brand new monster manual, and two magic item supplements, that we can find something more engaging.
Paragon tier perhaps? Although I don't know how that would workout in a PBP. :)
Rhianis here. I'd be delighted if I can join you guys on another adventure. Pat's one of my favorite DMs here on Paizo, and you guys are great fun to play with as well.
I'm fine with concluding the adventure here. Though I wish Rhianis went down in a more spectacular way, screaming "Spartaaa!" before igniting the crate of TNT while surrounded by hordes of hobgoblins.
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First off, thank you for the kind words.
My thoughts on the future. This group has some of the best 4E players on Paizo, and I'd hate to see it disintegrate. I've actually got a waiting list (of one!) to join in whatever replaces it. This has been the longest-running (if often slow-paced) 4E game on these boards.
That said, I agree with TGZ. KotS is a weak adventure, to be blunt. It was developed before many of the guidelines for adventure design were in place, and breaks WotC's recommendations in several places. It was more designed, I think, to introduce novices to the different elements of 4E than to be a grand adventure.
I'm currently running three games, some of which some of you are also in. "Deathless" is not out of a module, and "Wrath of the River King" is out of probably the best 4E published adventure to date (certainly the best I've seen).
Honestly, I'm probably better off time-wise running two games, as my players probably recognize before I do ;-). This is especially true over the next 4-6 weeks. But Wrath will probably be ending soonish (on pbp timescales), and I'll be looking for one game to replace these two (Deathless is pretty open-ended).
Possibilities:
* Resurrect "Refugees." This was my first 4E homebrew, set in Golarion. It fell apart when a number of players left it simultaneously. This might not be a good sign, though at least in part it was due to it being 4E in the early days. I'm not sure I've got the juice to run two homebrews simultaneously, though.
* "Halls of the Mountain King," which is another Open Design project (like Wrath). Dwarves, as you'd expect, and lots of weirdness. I patronize the project, and expect to see it published Real Soon Now. It should be a very good adventure, and is set for levels 8-10.
* "Something Paragon." No idea, and I've found it really difficult to jump into higher tiers without bringing my character "up through the ranks." Others may find it easier, though.
As I look at this, Halls seems the obvious choice if people are interested. Let me see if I can find the blurb.
Spoilered for those who don't want any hints:
Plot and story have been worked out collaboratively in the private Open Design forum. The dwarves are a hard-working group, whose mining of adamantine lured them ever-deeper and whose pursuit of ore led them into dangerous territory. The vertical dungeon goes from the depths of the earth through the great halls and works of a vanished clan, up to a snowy mountaintop spire and an (optional) airship dock, as suggested by Kobold Quarterly's recent article on airships.
Thoughts welcome, as always.
Halls of the Mountain King would be awesome. I'm already thinking about a dwarf rogue. All his life he's tried to get out of working hard, preferring to cheat or steal from miners and craftsmen. He sees the abandoned halls as the perfect opportunity to retire as wealthy as a king.
I vote that we give Pat a breather for a week or two and then those of us who are still interested by then can jump into Halls of the Mountain King. I've heard good things about it and would enjoy a chance to play some higher level stuff.
Over a year of 4E and the highest level character that I've consistently played is still only level 6. :D
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Ok, I've got two votes (plus my own) for Halls, and a standby player who will be interested.
I'm calling this game now -- there's really not much point in playing it out.
When Halls is published (possibly in September), I'll alert y'all here. Please don't think too much about character options before then, if you can help it. Let's wait for me to have the player intro to the adventure in hand.
I want to thank y'all for participating in -- again -- the FIRST 4E pbp on Paizo :-).
See you in a week or three.
I'll chime in as well for Hall of the Mountain King. High heroic tier is one of the few level areas that I don't have at least a little experience playing in, and it would be great to see some of the deeper end of the pool, when it comes to published adventures. :)
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One caution I should make. I realized that I'm talking about starting Halls when Wrath also ends. There may not be room in a new game for everyone who wants to keep on from both. I'll accommodate as many as I can of the interested players, but there may have to be a selection process (probably involving dice).
He was a great experience for my first PBP's game. I won't be in the Hall PBP, because I will be more concentrate in my real life activity and school.
I'd be interested in joining the new game - either as Elias or someone new.
Big interest. Eglantine or whatever else although ideally not a cleric or shaman unless there really is nobody else willing :)
ideally not a cleric or shaman unless there really is nobody else willing :)
Ditto. :)
I might be interested in a shaman. I like playing leaders, and haven't tried one of those yet. It looks pretty tactically complex, which I also like.
Catriana from the Wrath campaign (half elf bard) will continue gladly to another adventure. If needed, I can switch characters as well.
I would also like to continue if I survive and if you'll have me. Thanks for all the effort and fun so far. Bmars3
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I fear I must stop keeping you in suspense. "Halls of the Mountain King" was released late last night, or early this morning, depending. It's huge.
At this time, I'm simply not up to running another long-term game. I've been trimming back on my GMing at home as well, and feel it both wiser and more fair to renege now than after we get started.
Sorry, folks.
Understood. Let me know if anything changes.
Folks, I am planning to run a reduced version of Halls if any of you would be interested. I have two places pre-booked, but am posting this here, on Pat's River King thread and on my own Winter is Coming housesit before opening it up to gamer connection. Reckon I can take up to seven and will happily field alternates.
There's no immediate pressure as I need to do a little work on the thing first, but post on River King if you'd like to be considered.