Advice on survivability items

[IdiotDogBrain]

Hi,

we are currently playing the Carrion Crown campaign and my group just made the step to level 12 characters. My wife is currently struggling with her character, since her bard died much to often over the past few gaming sessions. Raise dead has been a good friend of hers lately but last saturday she got increasingly frustrated over the situation.

My wife is a solid player and knows the rules but she is not so interested in character optimization. Normally she relies on me to come up with ideas to fix problems like that.

My problem is, I never had a character that got so easily killed before and cant offer a simple solution. We have a busy week coming up and I will not have the hours to flip the books and search for stuff until our next game session on saturday. I fear without a solution the frustration will lead to dire consequences...

Does anyone on the messageboards has ideas for magic items and spells available to 12th level characters that enhance survivability, in particular when the fast hit point loss you experience at higher levels is concernded? I am not talking about healing potions or +x AC items, I am taling about the real stuff- like a shield other spell in item form.

The party consists of a 12th level rogue, 12th level paladin (who plans on using shield other more frequently in the future) and the Beast of Lepidstadt as my wifes bards cohort (leveled down to be the equivalent of a 12th level character cohort).

I am happy for any suggestions someone of you might have...

[VRMH]

What's killing her Bard all these times? AoEs? Melee combat? Environmental hazards? All of the above?

[Gauss]

Yes, there is a Shield Other spell in item form. It is called Ring of Friend Shield (CRB p481) and costs 50,000gp for a pair of rings.

Or just get a wand of it.

An item that may help: Determination armor property (APG p283). It casts Breath of Life 1/day on a person who reaches 0 or fewer hitpoints. Price: 30,000gp.

- Gauss

Edit: Tell the paladin to pack Paladin's Sacrifice (APG p234). That can save the bard in a pinch. A Pearl of Power II (4,000gp) can reclaim this for a later battle.

[IdiotDogBrain]

VRMH wrote:

What's killing her Bard all these times? AoEs? Melee combat? Environmental hazards? All of the above?

The first two. She insists on playing her childish halfling that fears nothing and always peaks around the next corner first. The resulting damage was not a problem below 10th level, because it always left her barely living but since 10th level damage output of opponents, spells and effects evolved so much, that she cant make it out of the danger zone , before she is dead.

She could adapt her chars behaviour but since she is more of an roleplayer and not a rollplayer this is not really an option and below 10th level thos near kill situation and resuce missions where always the source of a lot of fun.

[VRMH]

Sounds like she could use a Ring of Evasion and probably one that casts Expeditious Retreat.

[Ascalaphus]

A Ring of Invisibility? It's a lot safer to peek around a corner if the big bads don't see you doing it...

[Unklbuck]

Belt of Con +6 an extra 36 HP and +3 Fort Saves helps a lot.
I have no pity for PC's who die because they used Con as a dump stat.

[Matt2VK]

Couple more suggestions -

+Stealth items, lots out there. As it sounds like she wants to be the party scout and these will help her avoid being detected.

Wand of Mirror Image. More targets of her, less chance she'll get hit.

[IdiotDogBrain]

@Gauss: Thanks for the determination hint, that was definately something we searched for and will be considered as one of the next things to hoard gold pieces for. Your Paladins Sacrifice idea also helped a lot. I made that suggestion to the player and due to his reaction found out that he doesnt want to be the partys tank and healer even though he should be in the current party constelation. Instead he wants to be the monster slaying Paladin... I think thats a big problem I havent considered before. Since I never had a high level Paladin in any of my groups I did not know that he could be that big help for the current problem...

@VRMH: Expeditous retreat is frequently used by my wifes character, the Ring of Evasion is considered even though she wants to track how much of that "killing damage" is area damage first.

@Ascalphus: Constitution is not really the weak spot, since its already at 15. She was considering the belt but I fear its not flashy enough. I would have opted for that solution though...

@Matt2VK: We really liked your Mirror Image idea. A long forgotten low level spell that should come in handy. Wife happy...

@Ascalaphis: She is using invisibility from time to time but cannot rely on it to much because she must be seen by the beast to keep him under control...

All in all, thanks for the great suggestions. There are some options my wife can and will check out sooner or later (depening on gp costs) and that already took away some frustration. I also now know that there is a completely different problem with the partys paladin, which might be the real problem we are dealing with. Thanks for all the very quick advice!

[Gauss]

Fearless Halfling that suffers death mutliple times? Sounds like a roleplay reason for the Fearless halfling to learn from her ways. This is not a difference between Roleplay and Rollplay. If she keeps dying from this either the halfling likes dying or the halfling should learn from her experiences.

Just my opinion of course.

Edit: I have a player in my group who likes to play the 'high risk' sort of characters too. By mid levels his character usually undergoes an evolution in behavior where it is not quite so high risk anymore. Repeated near-death experiences solves that. :)

BTW, for AC does she have a shield? If not I strongly suggest a buckler. A mithral Buckler has no Spell failure and no armor check penalty. Get that enhanced as high as she can afford.

- Gauss

[Heaven's Agent]

Gauss wrote:

Fearless Halfling that suffers death mutliple times? Sounds like a roleplay reason for the Fearless halfling to learn from her ways. This is not a difference between Roleplay and Rollplay. If she keeps dying from this either the halfling likes dying or the halfling should learn from her experiences.

Just my opinion of course.

I have to say I agree with this. If your wife is focused on the RP aspects of the game, she needs to consider that characters are supposed to be living being that adapt to change over time. A rogue in this situation should be learning from past mistakes and change its behavior accordingly. This is the expected response from a roleplayer's perspective, and by doing otherwise she is actually rollplaying: She has stopped considering her character's responses as an intelligent being and is sticking to her own preconception.

[Ascalaphus]

Eh, I think it's a shame if you really have to stop playing a wild rogue and have to start playing a tiptoeing rogue. I think an epic rogue (on par with the equally epic casters) ought to be able to dance away from sudden danger in ways perhaps only monks can compare to. Unfortunately, that might not be practical in this game system.

[Gauss]

Ascalaphus:

It is practical but you have to make it work. Based on what the OP wrote my guess is that the player is 'roleplaying' this without also balancing out that roleplay with the equipment necessary to stay alive. She is probably saying things like 'I am not going to optimize this character because that is rollplay'. Fact is, if you play a character that lives that dangerously and do not do the mechanical things you need to do to keep your character alive, your character will die.

In the early levels you can get away with a RP concept without the mechanics to back it up. By about level 9 or 10 that starts to fade fast.

- Gauss