I plan to kill as many as I can via Malakai and have me a nice army of Shadows, because they are badass.
Would it be ok if I just made Malakai a Greater Shadow? This way I don't have to waste any time building her, as I will just use the base stats out of the bestiary.
Well, as far as I can tell a greater shadow is a 3HD higher than what your shadow should be and over your own HD. So no.
Here's the math to add onto a shadow to change it from 3HD to 6HD.
Edit, should go from 3HD to 6HD. Not 3 to 5.
+2 BAB
+3 HD, thus +19 hp
+6 skill points
+2 Will, +1 Ref, +1 Fort
+3 Dex (Thus, +1 reflex, +1 Initiative, +1 AC)
+1 Feat
other changes
Total CMB: +7
Total CMD: 20
It would seems that hooded man and the knight are the powerful patron quest givers well as all the hero were lv 1 start ups. Good to nip them in the bud but there will be more. Unless of course you manage to defeat these two, but I bet there are more of them too. If you do find yourself losing see about grabbing something of their's some hair or blood would be best. If you get that I'll be able to scry them and you can count the engagement a success. Of course just killing them is better.
Yup that was what that scene was describing. :P Those conversations were actual PC convos from my first 3.5 game way back in the day.
Anyway just a heads up, I will not be able to post Thursday evening (GMT+4) or Friday this week as I am headed back to Jolly ol' England from my home in Africa.
I think this is the part where you think about running. You can early save against their DC's and they seem to be able to make the saves against you easily. Still if you can run away with some blood or something it's a win. Too bad you have only knocked the heros out and don't have time to co de graz them. I guess it might be worth it to get a big area of effect blast spell if you have one on the room might kill a hero or too and keep the Patrons busy stabilizing them so you can get away.
FYI: tomorrow evening I'm headed to brazil until the end of the month. I'm not sure how often ill be able to post. Feel free to NPC me as needed. Thank you.
@Mr Jingle: This week I think we should defiantly send Mister Jingle’s finest and the Spy saboteurs to the battle front. Mister jngle's finest will make the escalation dice d6's and the Spy saboteurs will take away one of the enemies escalation dice. It's a good combination.
Sorry swamped with a couple things coming back. I will post as soon as I can, likely tomorrow at some point.
Yaaaay! <3
This game appers to be somewhat slowing down. How many people do we have traveling at the moment?
I'm just slowing my pace of posting down a bit as I took up a reasonable amount of time and space during the fight and aftermath with the dragonborn.
Just leaning back and reading what the others are up to now, letting them catch up before I get too much ahead.
I'm in Rio at the moment. Headed to Buenos Aires tomorrow.
I'm just waiting on Aurelie and Vaklam to catch up. Since they're the only two behind. I'm hoping the next bit with plans underway in the background the party can then commence on something big rather than the small plans we've got going now.
I'll give it another day, then I'll continue a bit with the rest of the group so as not to stall for too long. We can always come back to other bits by way of spoiler tags and slight retcons.
You know I probably didn't need to send that letter to old Smoky. I do have max ranks in knowledge local.
I have to admit, I'm a little bit frustrated. Having the knight pretty much ruin my plans has pretty much spoiled my enjoyment of the game at the moment. I'm not sure what to do that can salvage my attempting to create some undead. After all, that's kinda my guys focus and I'm currently being prevented from doing that.
What I was hoping for was for this guy to leave and then kill the villagers anyways, via Malakai, and gain me a small army of shadows.
Well you can't expect the world to roll over for you or the world would already be conquered. Still we got some useful information and they don't even know how you look like. So you got more out of them then they got out of you.
Also we're the villains losing happens. The hero's have to win every time where as we only have to win once. Just make sure to have a lot of schemes going the hero's can't be everywhere and we have minions.
We're the villains, yes, because we're evil aligned, but as this is an evil game, we're technically the heroes.
Information doesn't interest my character, he could care less about anything he's learned.
I don't expect the world to roll over for me, but I specially went looking for outlying town, where there wouldn't be any true opposition.
After all, every town can't have heroes watching over it that can actually be a threat to us.
Remember this is kind of a joke game, I've been half expecting you to make some grandiose speech and vanish to try take part of the village with you. I have tried with the knight to offer some sort of challenge otherwise the game would just be the ground stomping off everywhere with no challenge back.
For example in current situation he wants you to leave first. Does that mean you have to let him? The thing that he is threatening Malakai with is only the water, the room is still filled with shadows and Malaki could feasibly just steal them? Leaving him toothless and in the confusion you could kill all the villagers. It'll piss him off and he'll go looking for you but remember he did not notice you nor Malakai until Malakai appeared.
Also the knight can't be everywhere at once and this is just the inn, nothing stopping you from doing a bait and switch, pretending to run off to the rest of the village then killing the villagers.
I do not like no-win scenarios but neither do I like no-lose scenarios, I just try to put some obstacle in your way to provide some dialogue a plot hook or two. I mean raising the level 1 adventuring party could be full of humour by the fact they there are new players who have no idea what to do if they were undead. The knight and the hooded ranger are both plot hooks with their own backstory. What I have been hoping to do with the knight at this current juncture is make him an arch rival. Him trying to thwart your plans while you trying to take things he's trying to protect. That won't be fun if he couldn't at least attempt to beat you.
I understand, and I want you all to know that my previous two posts aren't my saying I am dissatisfied with the game, or mad the GM.
I'm not, at all. I really am enjoying the game. I'm just a little frustrated, and a little stuck. Hence why I haven't posted just yet.
Sorry for being away! I've been very busy recently.
...And I'm also in a bit of a jam trying to figure out what to do. BTW, Smoky, I think you forgot I have Kitty with me as well. I put its stats into Mister Jingles' profile in a spoiler. I'll try and get a post up tonight on what I'm doing.
This a typical superman lex luthor situation. That knight seems fairly close to invulnerable, but you have many other targets. The only relevant difference is that this knight seems willing to kill. Well that and lacking everything vision and super senses.
@Vaklam: Well if you do get stuck just say and I'll give a few pointers, I won't ever roleplay your character for you as it's your baby but I'm fine with helping out my players. After all my job here is for you guys to have fun. Getting frustrated is not always my idea of fun ^^
@Aurelie: Indeed sorry, I forgot the kitty. We'll say he was hiding away in the first round I'll remember him next time.
@Min: He isn't invulnerable really, his high saves is due to him being part paladin with a high charisma. He's been successfully damaged already.
My utmost contingent plan is that if I get captured I can pretend to just be a frightened, messed-up little girl. Bluff skill FTW!
Isn't diabolicus our capital? How can we have a coven in our capital that we can't find isn't that a bit like not being able to find something in your pockets? In any case It would seem that I am going to have do an investigation there after this forest thing.
Erm, secret societies also exist for other factions other than yourselves? Just like in the real world a government can know that there is activity from a group but doesn't know where they are. Like organised crime, computer hacker groups or how freedom fighters have traditionally worked?
Ya. Just doesn't seem fair when it's done against us.
Lol, well I can't have spy vs spy if I don't introduce the opposing spy. ;)
Kind need a team of super spys. The spy master are at home and very good at compiling and organizing data. They can take huge amounts of available data and tease out the important stuff. The spy sabortors are good at breaking stuff.
I need field agents to specialize in being spys. A team of Doppelganger that would be awesome. Unfortunatly the very things that make them such awesome spys make them very hard to find in order to recuit. I can't even think of how to find them. Maybe I should put out an ad. What do you think is a good pay scale for a doppelganger super spy. Of course if I put out an ad everyone is going to know that I am hiring doppelgangers and start taking precautions.
I also need to make a team of researchers. I need to develop my own knowledge not just steal other peoples that's the only way to get ahead.
I guess I should train a few Kitsune and Ratfolk super ninjas then, they should be able to get jobs done as well as any of your sabotage agents.
We already have sabotage agents and if need be I can have the ones I have train more. What we need are spys who are focused on being able to gather information.
Devils are notorious about being able to get information. :-). Succubi and what not. That may actually help to giv emy character a much needed strategic focus.
@Black could I have your help binding a RAKTAVARNA into service. I just need your help with the Ka-ching check I'll do the binding. RAKTAVARNA can detect thoughts at will. I want to get a survy of the capital. I want to it to find all the magic users and everyone who has an int of 18 or higher. Detect thoughts can find a creature's int score in 12 seconds and they don't even get a save.
Detect thoughts doesn't tell you where they are though if you can't see them. The highest level bares them a will save on top of which. All you'll get is a blur, then maybe the raktvarna will get stunned due to it's low int. Not to mention spies in a high magic city will likely have nondetection which makes them immune to detect thoughts, I doubt you'll be able to rat them out that way. By all means you can do a city wide survey though, just detect thoughts will not get you much.
(I'm guessing though you wanted to use detect thoughts just to shortcut into finding the coven, if you want to do that just set a mission for one of your men.)
All it has to do is use detect thoughts for 12 seconds to find the persons int. So if the raktvarna goes around checking everyones int that is a very good way to start. As for not being able to see them. Invisibility is not on the witches spell list and if it was it would only last a few minutes not all day. The raktvarana will only get stunned from something with 26 int or more and in my opinion finding out someone with that powerful a mind is very important. If any spies in the city have nondectect that will give them away by the lack of a reading.
The reasons I suggested this plan are 4.
1. I am thinking of starting a research division. I need smart people for that.
2. I was not thinking of finding spys, but thanks for mentioning it. This will help me discover who in the city has nondetection up. It's not proof of course, but a good start.
3. I do want to find the witches covens and I figure that witches will have high int. Also nondection is not a witch spell.
4.If I understand the mission rules correctly a unit can only do one mission week and units can not be sub divided and all my unit are busy this week.
All in all I think that if the raktvanrna keeps going to large gatherings of people and scoping them out objective 1 has a very good chance of success.
I don't know how many people with have nondetection up but if there are any I'll have them tagged for further investigation.
I admit that objective 3 does not have that large a chance of success if the witches live a private life and don't go out much, but even that is information.
If I can send a single person it would make sense for him to go out investigating holding the raktvarna as a notebook. That way it can just focus on detecting thoughts and not worry about walking.
@old Smoky Bill: can I make a petition? Could you change the spy masters special ability to
Mostly because I have been finding that I have many different missions I want them to do and despite the fact they tend to be low risk mission well within their capacity I can't assign any of these little missions because that would be wasteful.
Altho if this petition is granted then soon I will be seeing about getting a new unit of elect spy masters for the hard missions. Actually I was already talking about geting super spys. I guess when I get them that they will be doing the dangerous missions.
Another question is it possible for a unit to gain experience and become better. Sort of level up?
You don't need invisibility not to be seen, as much as just hiding from the Raktavrana's sight is enough. Didn't see they needed to be at least 26 before stunning (Thought it was just +10 int) still though a high enough stealth check is enough to negate you finding them. Yes I do realise nondetection is a 3rd level spell, which is attainable by a 5th level wizard. I also realise this is an evil town where people I'm sure will sell their castings for some money or service (just like in normal towns). Though I ask again don't be too meta on things, just because they are witchs doesn't mean they don't have access to other resources such as allies, or monsters or lots of other things. Just because something is not on their spell list does not mean they don't have access to it in some other way. Not to mention magic items although rare are still there. A group that is able to stay undetected in your capital until now is not going to be a pushover.
Though my question now is how are you going to do the investigation? Just force everyone to stand infront of a raktvarna and scan them? Also in a crowd of people you won't pick up anyone with nondetection because they don't come up on the scan in the first place. (Otherwise nondetection might as well be a ping off to say caster this way.) If you of course stopped every person then looked at them and see if you can detect their int score and nothing comes up then that would work. Would take far longer though.
To the petition I'd say no, their ability is fine. If you want more missions begin thinking of finding ways of hiring new people. The problem in terms to the amount of missions against the time scale at the moment is the campaign has been going only 3 in game days. Stuff like the witches aren't going to up and disappear in one week for example. Also you have 5 other PCs with their own men who you can ask for help if you are stretched thin for resources.
Units don't level up, you will just gain access to more powerful units over time when Ka-ching and more conquering happen.
As I said I don't plan on forcing everyone to stand before the Raktavrana all I'm doing is having in scan gatherings of people. I don't know how many people there are in the capital, but by my calculations it could scan about 2880 people an hour so long as the agent carrying it keeps moving around. That should be enough to get a fairly good sampling. How do they know to hide from the Raktavrana's sight to them it just looks like a pair of glasses or something. If they arn't all shut ins I should get something. Or are they hiding from everyone in which case why even stay in the city?
I sort of plan on picking out an agent and summoning the Raktavrana and saying "met your new partner". The agent walks around gathering place he thinks the witches might be and does a light investigation no asking questions that might make people suspicious just listening and making a note of the people with high int or nondetection.
Example
walks into a bar sits a table looks around scans each section of the room counting the people at the same time to make sure they add up. Once that bar is scanned if nothing unusual showed up then go to the next one. If something did show up memorize the person and see about getting their name once you have enough information for someone else to do a follow up leave for the next bar or cafe.
Of course you pick up people with nondetection on them for the exact reason you just said. Detect thoughts normally gives you the presence or absence of minds in the first 6 seconds if someone does not show up then they must ether
a) be a construct or undead or something else immune to mind effecting effects (I admit not that unlikely in our city but still good to know about)
b) They have nondetection.
So if someone has nondetection you can tell by the lack of a reading. It takes much less then 6 seconds to count how many people should be in your cone. To me non detection seems more like a way to proclaim you are a spy then to hide it. I use it because most people know who I am anyway.
If 5th level wizards are readily available in our capital that is awesome. I can have bunch of them put some buffs on me or do spell trades in order to learn more spells.
Have to say tho I idea not expect finding a few witches to be that hard. I only need some level one witches you would think there would be alot more of those then higher level witches.
Okay let's pretend someone was behind a wall. An undead say, with nondetection. You cast detect evil, it doesn't come back that they have nondetection it comes back blank as if there is nothing there. So if you cast detect thoughts on someone say behind a wall, by the same logic it shows an absence of thoughts. Meaning there is nothing there as far as the spell is concerned despite there being something there.
You must know the person is actually there to figure out that the person is getting a lack of reading. Walking in a crowd will just show an absence of thought if someone has nondetection, unless you were looking directly at that spot in time and spot someone there thus you can suspect it. If someone is directly infront of you when you cast the spell yes I have no problem with you saying that they have nondetection but if you don't know they are there with just a blanket scanning it will be a lot harder to figure it out.
The stealth checks I was thinking off was just normal blending in the crowds or you know as spies and not wanting to be caught, staying away from people in general?
Also with regards to level 5 wizards most will not have anywhere near the amount of spells as you do (nor as many spells as a PC would have) think of them closer to adepts. For example a the wizard that has nondetection has it as their only level 3 spell. (Also consider that most wizards in the towns know the spells you and Leonard know as you are the heads wizards effectively.) Getting them to cast buffs will be the same cost as asking them normally so if you want to burn consumables doing that by all means but they will last as long as the spell normally does. So I doubt it will be worth your time. Trust me on this one, like I said from the start you will be gaining FAR more spells by conquering than looking in your own towns.
(Most of what I'm saying goes for you too, if you had invisibility and nondetection. A detect thoughts spell cast by the enemy would get absolutely nothing. They could still try to listen for you though.)
That is the great thing about nondetection if you are invisible even see invisibility won't work on you.
In order of a spy to be at all effective they have to interact with people. Are you saying that whenever anyone comes by all the spys start running and hiding? Of course as I said earlier I have multiple objectives so even if only objective 1 gets for filled this will be a good use of my time. Also now that I know about bunches of adept in the capital I can start making my research division. I hope this counter feit scam pulls though I need more ka-ching.
No but some spies especially a witch considering they are not known for their people skills at all, would rather mind control, charm person and just steal objects to scry with. One example of a spy we had in another campaign (different system where magic was ludicrously powerful) was a dwarf that literally could never past a social check, but mind controlled people and made them forgot that they exist. Barring the more mundane version of spies in modern day can be purely observational.
If you were after a group of spies that were bards, yea lots more people would have interacted with them or seen them. They'd also be far better at lying about it though.
Or what happened in one version of this campaign where they had a gorilla spy that only thought about bananas so no one could read his thoughts.
In terms of Objective 1, that with the detect thoughts should be easy, 2&3 are in the same thing as the only spies that are known at the minute are the coven. 4, carrying on from objective one you will likely be able to make a new research team if the gathering is successful and you can pour resources into making a new unit. So you'll get something from it.
No but some spies especially a witch considering they are not known for their people skills at all, would rather mind control, charm person and just steal objects to scry with.
Can't imagine why they would bother seems everyone worth scrying has nondetection. Also it only lasts 1 minute per level you would have to be very luckily to catch the person doing anything interesting. More importantly there are level 7 witches in the capital as in "multiple" that is very alarming. I wonder what smoky ment by coven activity.
As for mind control that would imply that they are killing them afterwards (otherwise there former victims would come forward and tell me about it) in which case I have a string murders to investigate. I'm being to think I don't want to hire these witches after all just investigate them, kill them and bind their souls into soul gems. I could use a few of those was thinking of making an A.I. magic item.
Ah now we're getting somewhere, that line of inquiry will definitely help. I like the soul gem idea too.
Still going to send an agent with a RAKTAVARNA. His cover will be that he's a talent scout which is a very good cover because it's true.
If a RAKTAVARNA turns into glasses and it's master wears them does the master gain a sort of detect magic, detect thoughts vision. Because that is really cool for all sorts of reasons.
I have to say I am a bit interested in how Ka-ching interacts with missions. For example if I send a mission to find something such as don't know raid the lost tomb of blah blah Would I have to roll a Ka-ching on mission success in order to get the thing?
My current plan is to basically distract the knight while Malakai goes around the town and kills/raises as many of the villagers as possible. I next plan on casting Spiritual Weapon, after that, not sure.
Do you want to play out each round, or can we just resolve it more cinematicaly so we can forward the scene and get me back to the Capital?
Do you have any way of killing the villages that does not involve spells? Seems a shame to waste them on villagers.
Malakai is a Shadow, they kill quite nicely, and have a pretty potent defense