Conquering the Stolen Lands (Inactive)

Game Master dunebugg

Hello! Feel free to use this thread for all OOC chats. Important things you may want to consider before the game starts on monday...

Diplomacy is very very very important. Having more than one character with this skill could get you through some tough social encounters.

Not every encounter is designed to be winnable. If it looks like something will kill you.. It most likely will. The Stolen Lands are very dangerous at low levels!

Combat is not always the only option. My local party always has trouble with this - don't be afraid to try and talk to somebody that might your seem enemy. You could make an unlikely ally.

I will be able to post all day tomorrow with my phone if you have any questions!

And not to mention, being extremly happy for being chosen! :D

And just a note, I will be able to post more then once a day, with the exception of Friday nights. I am GMing a Skull and Shackles game that night every week. SO fridays I can make a few posts during the day.

Here here...

I too can usually post multiple times a day. I am in New Zealand though so if my posts go up at really really weird times...well, that's why XP

Incidentally, I will not be one of the social people of this group with my -1 CHA modifier...

I'm currently jobless and being relegated to position of 'home maker' so I have more than enough time to post throughout the days - except for Saturday night, when my local group plays. We are currently playing Jade Regent, and it's been a blast! Our DM has been cancelling on us lots lately though which has been getting frustrating..

Well we always have online campaigns, like the Horizons campaign, right Mr. Wildmane? Good thing that campaign has no pvp, or the tavern would have exploded with it.

Also, in a few months I'm going to start running a Runelords campaign once the anniversary book is out, so your welcome to app to that

Stellan checking in.

A witch doesn't have diplomacy as a class skill and I've used the cosmopolitan feat elsewhere. I could make him more intimidating and that is a social skill but not what you're looking for I think. Stellan is a likable sort, more a good guy to spend an evening with rather than negotiate with. He is stealthy and woodsy so avoiding is an option for him. Problem is only one person needs to be spotted for bad guys to give chase. He'd be an advocate for more talk and run than fight unless innocents were at risk, then less so. Don't see a change that would help without a major rebuild. Any advice?

In other events how do we and the DM want us to meet? Did any of us know each other before? Stellan didn't get out much but someone might have traveling the wilderness between Pitax and western Brevoy and stopped at his little stead. Or mutual friend, whatever. Just seems strange that a bunch of people, unknown to each other, are just sent off kinda randomly. That will work OK, though.

Do that characters know that the Sword-lords are going to found a new country? Or do they know only that they are to explore for future development and do not know about a new country and their place it?
Note: I want it clear this is about what our characters know vs. what the players, me in particular, know.

BONUS FEATS!
Moony - Fiendish Facade, Book of Fiends
Caelus Vraie - Your training with the Swordlords taught you how to use their signature weapon. Take EWP(Aldori Dueling Sword) for free. Feat taxes are silly.
Stellan Volkov - Improved Familiar, that your companion may grow with you. We'll work out the specifics later. (Wolf to improve every odd level up to 7)
Elros II - A gifted summoner destined to overshadow his fathers accomplishments. Acadamae Graduate is yours for free (ignore the Korvosa thing).

Roga and Triaxus are proving to be tricky to nail down bonus feats.. Let me think on it a bit.

Like a doofus, I forgot my Book 1 at my other house (living between parents and my partners house right now, getting ready to move into our own place together). Game will start hopefully no later than tomorrow evening! Sorry for the delay.

Tierce, I'll have to keep an eye on your evil group for Eternal Horizons! Seems Chuffy came with the good guys :)

BONUS FEATS!

Elros II - A gifted summoner destined to overshadow his fathers accomplishments. Acadamae Graduate is yours for free (ignore the Korvosa thing).

Neato, I could work with that, we are free to re-distribute our skills right? Have to put some into diplomacy now that you mention it. Couldn't wait to start.

Caelus Vraie - Your training with the Swordlords taught you how to use their signature weapon. Take EWP(Aldori Dueling Sword) for free. Feat taxes are silly.

Then I shall use the oppertunity to purchase another feat tax of Weapon Focus: Sword, Aldori Dueling

I also got rid of my buckler as I was unaware that it was interferring with my plan for my character. Even though it leaves your hand free, it still counts for something in your hand for using the abilities with an aldori dueling blade.

I also used the last of my gold to purchase a light horse, as a few other people seem to have one already

I look like a Half-Elf ^^

Lol...everyone else was saying stuff about how they're putting their feats to work so I felt kinda obligated to join in XP

Looking at my spells, Wondering would anyone here wants an Enlarge person or Reduce person buff on them?

Because if none of you want it, I'll put another spell in my spell-book instead.

Bah, accidentally checked in on the recruitment thread.

Anyways, While it isn't a class skill for me, I have a decent diplomacy modifier, just need to juggle a skill point.

As far as having met before, Triaxus' wanderings before a brief period of settling down in Brevoy took him pretty much up and down the Sellen River, so if anyone was in that neighborhood, we could have at least met.

Caelus was, he lived in Brevoy for a decade or so

Thanks, Dunebugg, very appropriate. Sure we can work it out later, likely won't mean much before a level or two anyway.

The enlarge/reduce spells do not do much for my character so I don't have a use, myself.

As for locations, He's pretty much a country bumpkin, many days travel northeast of Pitax which is the closest the East Sellen river gets, I'm thinking no for now but Dunebugg may have ideas.

Stellan's first trip to Brevoy was to meet the people that got him the charter.

Enlarge/reduce would not be of use to me either...

Incidentally, I suppose that little farm of mine that was burned down by 'bandits' could be off the river. It was a couple of days ride west of Restov on the border of the Stolen Lands...which were vaguely described as 'South of Brevoy' and 'on the border of the River Kingdoms'...which is really not a helpful description, all things considered XP

I use both dex and str, so taking a hit to either is not a good option for me, so I don't need either spell.

And Caelus lived specifically in Restov for almost half of his life with his mother who was an advisor for the Surtova family, so if anyone has ties to them, we would certainly know each other.

Well, if you read my 'enemies' tab...I kinda used the Surtova family as a group that's out to get me. I wrote it that the Surtova family is loyal to the family that Moony was birthed to. The lord of this family (who I've deliberately kept nameless so I wouldn't know them if I met them) has, basically, hired a group of assassins to kill her because of her demonic heritage. The way it stands now, I figured that if Moony were to meet a Surtova, word would be sent back to the guy that wants Moony dead and assassination attempts would follow ^^

Moony does not know of this alliance. She knows nothing of that family at all.

Whether or not you wanna play off that angle...~Shrugs~

Could make for a simple off hand mention at some point as Caelus' mother could have seen to the hiring of the assassins. Caelus isn't the type to rat anyone out as he doesn't care enough to, and has no loyality to the Surtova family, or even to his own family (which is why I have some of them in the enemies list)

I can be down with that ^^

Bonus feats!
Roga - Your time spent learning the ways of hunting at home, as well as your time on the road with Origen taught you much about animals. Animal Affinity fo' free.
Triaxus - Your celestial blood manifests in an odd way, granting you extra abilities. Eldritch Heritage (Celestial Bloodline) - modify the feat wording to allow it usable from level 1, with your Sorc level equal to character level -2 (minimum 1).

With regard to whereabout I live, it's somewhere in the woods north of Pitax. I only stayed in Pitax for a day or two and not long after, I got myself in trouble with the king there, who want's to kill me now.

P.S. To the witch, do you mind if we share our spell book to copy down more spell list?

Gameplay is up! Head on over :)

Stellan's raised in the Mountains north of Pitax, below the tree line so he has some forestry.
For Elros II
Stellan wouldn't deal with bandits kindly, he's an honest sort, I'm not sure how you got your charter, maybe there is a connection there? Possibly Lady Jana brought us together? Who did give you your charter?

If it is possible and Stellan has any reason to trust you at all, he be very willing to help with spells or anything he's that sort of guy. Dunebugg can wizards and witches trade spells? I not sure they can do it without scribing scrolls. I'll look into it later, no time now.

Warning: boards are being a little wonky for me right now.

Waiting on Triaxus and Roga to check in...!

Sorry about the delay in posting everyone, T-storm killed my net access for most of yesterday.

Sorry about being late, I had a busy Monday at work and forgot about you already having selected the group.

I am very happy with animal affinity, a good choice.

As a paladin diplomacy is a class skill, and I have a decent charisma, so I can aid the party here, but be warned I roll poorly. :D

In regards to knowing other characters, Roga lived and travled in the border region and northern River Kingdoms.

EDIT: I was wondering on your position of having my horse trained for riding as with the riding purpose in handle animal?

Sorry about being late, I had a busy Monday at work and forgot about you already having selected the group.

I am very happy with animal affinity, a good choice.

As a paladin diplomacy is a class skill, and I have a decent charisma, so I can aid the party here, but be warned I roll poorly. :D

In regards to knowing other characters, Roga lived and travled in the border region and northern River Kingdoms.

EDIT: I was wondering on your position of having my horse trained for riding as with the riding purpose in handle animal?

We'll say anybody with 1 rank in Handle Animal that started with a horse can have taught it one purpose of their choice. So yes, go ahead and make your horse trained for Riding.

I thought a mount would comes with the basic of: Come, Heel, Riding and Stay? and you can choose 3 more tricks, or is it just a mistake from Herolab?

I thought a mount would comes with the basic of: Come, Heel, Riding and Stay? and you can choose 3 more tricks, or is it just a mistake from Herolab?

Only war-trained mounts come with any training AFAIK. And they would come with the Combat purpose, I think. Or at least Riding.

Oh darn it, I guess I'll be walking when all of you are riding, poor me. Or if one of you would be kind enough to train a horse to be ridable for me would be nice too. Oh and "stay", cause we don't want our item to be running loose now would we. (By we I meant me =p)

Riding horses are not war trained at all, they simply have been 'broken' to not buck a rider off. Without the ride trick no one without riding skill could ride the horse at all, the perk would be useless. War training, even for a simple calvary mount, is far more extensive. My character has no ranks in ride or handle animal, an untrained mount would kill me as soon as I tried to get on. Look at a rodeo film to see what a 'bucking bronco' is like. Note: that's the normal behavior for a horse. What's the value in getting a horse you can't ride at all?

Well, I have Handle Animal and I can begin training people's mounts with whatever.

Incidentally, I've never really run a campaign that got to the point of having mounts and never really rolled a Druid before so I'm still a little vague on what, exactly, happens...

For example..."Ride" nor any of its synonyms/similar concepts, does not seem to be a trick, at least its not anything that's listed on the SRD under something Handle Animal does.

You can train them with the purpose of "Riding", but that only teaches them a series of tricks related to riding (come, heel, and stay)...

Likewise, the skill "Ride" only covers a series of maneuvers you can do while riding a horse, not just casually sitting in the saddle and riding all proper like.

What I mean is...I can't find anything anywhere that suggests a horse needs to be 'trained' as a mount. In fact, the SRD entry for Light Horses says:

The statistics above are for a typical riding horse, called by some a “light horse.” Some horses are larger and heartier, bred for labor such as pulling plows or carriages. These horses are called “heavy horses” and gain the advanced simple template, a bite attack, increased hoof damage, and can be specifically trained for combat with the Handle Animal skill.

If the horse had to be trained before one could use it as a mount, wouldn't the SRD point say 'you can train the horse to be a riding horse with a DC x Handle Animal check?

Also, given that I seem to be the only one with Handle Animal as a skill, I presume I'm going to be the one that ends up training everyone's mounts. Is it possible for me to train more than one of them at a time? Or do I need to do each horse individually?

I'm guessing that the default assumption in d20/pathfinder is that a horse that isn't 'rideable' is useless so they assume the horse is broken to ride/pack/plow/carriage trade uses.

If you mean that the horse isn't well trained to do extra tricks, I'm good with that, I just don't want to be dumped by my horse for just climbing on.

I'm pretty sure that a normal riding horse is what was intended by Paizo but if you want to limit it to just 'not buck off a person known to it' I can live with it just fine. Of course its up to GM ruling, I think most GMs just assume riding horse with the riding training predone already, to make it easier for themselves.

No 'wild' horse riding though, experts die doing that. Once again combat training is something else altogether.

Also, given that I seem to be the only one with Handle Animal as a skill, I presume I'm going to be the one that ends up training everyone's mounts. Is it possible for me to train more than one of them at a time? Or do I need to do each horse individually?

Why am I imagining you being the conductor, and the horses as the orchestra, when you mention more than one of them at a time.

*Goes off to track down sheet music for an all equine performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni*

^^

I think it is a legit question though...I mean, you see video clips of trainers doing whatever it is that trainers do with like four horses running in circles. Couldn't Moony do the same thing?

Just as an incidental thing I just noticed...we have no trap monkey...

Horses you purchase have been "broken in" and are suitable for riding. War-trained horses are able to carry their rider INTO BATTLE, and know the Riding purpose (which incidentally does nothing extra for riding.) They simply know the Come, Heel, and Stay tricks.

That's what I would assume, or else buying a horse would be pointless

*Goes off to track down sheet music for an all equine performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni*

^^

So you're the one who did this? Good show!

OMG! that is the best thing I have ever seen

Amazing.

Amoonrann Stormheart wrote:

*Goes off to track down sheet music for an all equine performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni*

^^

So you're the one who did this? Good show!

The Bark side, thats quite clever :P

If needed I have a decent handle animal and would be more than willing to help.

In regards to riding I think anyone can ride a trained animal, but to guild with knees etc. a ride checks is required. An animal can be ridden as soon as it is reared but does not know any tricks, the riding general purpose teaches it 3 tricks.

Lol...congrats Roga, your actual CHA score trumps my -1 making you our official animal trainer! Hurrah! ^^

And yes, I am responsible for that video. I am also responsible for those Christmas Cat videos =P

Incidentally, my comment about lacking a trap monkey have gone...ignored. I am unfamiliar with this AP so I have to ask...is that wise? I mean, what if this AP is super mega death happy about traps. Shouldn't we...you know...have a rogue of some kind?

I am happy enough to use a Rogue eventual Magus/AT build I've been keen to try out...as its always a good idea to have someone of the roguey arts. Mind you, I do like playing Moony's asocialness. It just seems if we are gonna swap out characters we should do it now before we get super committed and realize 'oh f~!%, we can't do anything without a rogue.'

Rightio what we have here is:

Stellan Volkov, Human Male Winter Witch
Amoonrann Stormheart, Oni-Blooded Tiefling Female Storm Druid
Caelus Vraie, Human Male Aldori Swordlord Fighter
Triaxus, Aasimar Male Ranger
Roga, Male Human Paladin of Erastil
Elros II, Elf Male Infernal Binder Wizard

Hmm I think the Ranger could fill the trap-monkey role later on in level couldn't he?

Anyway I'm aiming to fill the role of support/battlefield controller at early few levels, and later I'll also be assisting battle with summon monster.

I think only certain Archetypes of Ranger get DD as a class skill (Trapper and Urban and I'm not sure if Triaxus is either of those archetypes).

But for another option: I can swap out to Metal Oracle. They get DD as a class skill. I remember that there was somewhat of a concern we were lacking on the 'healer' side of things...Metal Oracle kills two birds with one stone.

Character can follow the same basic back story except instead of being Oni Spawn, she's Rakshasa spawn. Swap out the targetted race on that Infernal Heritage feat I have from Half-Elf to Catfolk, and presto changeo: instant healer and trap monkey.

Should wait to see what dunebugg says, but it is a good idea to get this all sorted before we start combat

From what I understand Kingmaker is wilderness oriented not so much full of dungeons, I think traps are limited compared to most AP's. Some recuitment threads had people bring up similar concerns and some DM's have responded to the effect of "not a big problem". Metal Oracle doesn't appear to grant Trapfinding as a rogue so even with DD they can't disable magic traps.

Of course how Dunebugg views the issue and runs his campaign is what's most important. We'll see what he says.

This is true...anyways, was just thinking out loud. If its not a big deal, 'tis not a big deal and we can get along having stuff 'splode on us every two minutes ^^

And its not just traps either...picking locks is also usually a helpful thing.

As I said, happy enough to play any of the three. The AT build, however, would be an Elf so the backstory would have to be tweaked somewhat.

...and just because my academic side that has to go out and research pointless crap kicked in...

Click this link for a discussion of basically this very problem...or don't...

So the consensus seems to be the rogue is not critical, and everyone seems to suggest swapping out the trapfinding (the magic DD) ability for something else anyways.

Hmm interesting link, got me into looking up some wizard stuff and found this:

"Mount: utility. Situational--sometimes, you need a horse to get somewhere quickly. The real use of Mount, though, is to combine it with Disguise Self and Magic Aura, get rid of the mount's magic aura, disguise yourself as someone else... and sell the horse to someone."

I think we got ourself some money maker, btw Roga you didn't hear this.