Echoes of the Sephira

Game Master Red Velvet Tiger

I don't have any innate cold resistance, but I can pick it up as a buff if need be, and I'll mostly be sitting out of blast range unless the range is really really broad.

My favored distance from a monster is about 20 ft, just within bomb range.

Question: Who in this party does close ranged melee? Is any of the meleers nongood? (I have Holy Bombs as one of my options, which damage only evil and neutral beings, so I was wondering.)

A question, RVT: How are you planning to handle combat maps? I would recommend Roll20 if you can.

From the group's build-out it appears Charis and I will be in close combat most of the time. The rest of the group seems to favor mid-range. Both melees are good aligned, so the holy bombs shouldn't be a problem unless the bombs explicitly do damage to undead, which would be bad for my familiar and companion.

I'll also be using cold damage on a regular basis, usually in the form of a 30' cone when I'm in melee and there are multiple targets in range.

In regard to maps, Roll20 is pretty nice. I'd definitely second Trazzle's recommendation.

I picked up some energy resit greater on my armor, as I had some spare cash anyway. I also have immunity to all spells until my Stone goes poof :P

They do not harm undead specifically. They hit evil beings for full damage and a chance of stagger, and hit neutral creatures for half damage.

Don't forget to dot the gameplay tab, guys.

I may not have posted, but I am watching it. ^^

I invisidotted it

also I melee a bit if things decide to get close and im evil. So no holy bombs for thoon please :D

I'll... see what I can do. XD It's not good to attack your teammates, after all.

We've covered combat a bit, but what about skill coverage?

Yukio's got typical thief skills, with Bluff, Disguise and such, Disable Device (although without trapfinding), good perception and a legendary stealth. Only have Knowledge: Arcana, although Aeliastraza can pump up knowledge skills a few times a day to decent levels (+28 for knowledge, +38 for knowledge checks related to creatures)

Trust me, you won't need to worry about knowledge unless you plan to be alone. XD Camiel's got a pretty broad set, thanks to Clever Godling, with a particular emphasis on Diplomacy. I kind of built her as the face for the party, so while she may not be quite as heavily optimized for combat as some characters, I think she'll do pretty well in most social situations...

I'll likely have solid Knowledge skills. Haven't done them yet, cuz I suck and forgot.

Okay, going over my skills, I see I've made a bunch of miscalculations in the numbers, so I'll go back over those, but trazzle has:

Very good stealth capacities, disable device complete with trapfinding, pretty big numbers in Arcana, Nature, Religion, Planes and Dungeoneering. He has a pretty good Use Magic Device skill too.

His Craft(Alchemy), naturally, is stratospheric.

He also has decent Perception and Sense motive.

Of course, he has all the charismatic social skills you would expect a goblin alchemist and witch to have. That is, none whatsoever.

Thoon IS a giant brain......

Appraise (Int) +20
Autohypnosis (Wis) +25
Bluff (Cha) +26
Craft (Int) +39
Diplomacy (Cha) +26
Disguise (Cha) +26
Know Arcana (Int) +36
Know Dungeon (Int) +40
Know Engineer (Int) +36
Know Geography (Int) +36
Know History (Int) +27
Know Local (Int) +27
Know Nature (Int) +36
Know Nobility (Int) +25
Know Planes (Int) +40
Know Psionics (Int) +36
Know Religion (Int) +40
Linguistics (Int) +44
Perception (Wis) +37
Sense Motive (Wis) +33
Spellcraft (Int) +40
Use Magic Device (Cha) +26*

The intro post will be up tomorrow. I've been busy with Easter weekend and playtesting! ^_^

Monkey, check Grimm Tales again. Not sure what happened with PMs or whatever, so I'm making a concession.

I presume no one has any qualms about working for a very powerful, non-evil Outsider, right? Wanting to make sure so there are no 'I'd never agree to that!' moments! As for why you were called in, would you all prefer owing a favor (IS SO, INCORPORARE INTO YOUR BACKSTORY!) or just be a high grade planar adventurers? Again, just making sure it doesn't start off clashing with any preconceived notions you had about your character. ^_^

That's pretty much the job description of anyone who's religious, so no, I don't have a problem with that sort of thing. XD

Honestly? Either or works fine for me. If the group decides to work with a higher power that's cool, or if everybody thinks being planar adventures is better, that's OK too.

i see Thoon as leaning more towards being a planar adventurer.

i'm not opposed to owing someone personally, and could, with effort, reconcile it. that said, i don't see it likely that such an insane brain could really care about fulfilling some contract

also, RVT, wondering about that last PM i sent you. no rush, just figured it should be something that was resolved before the first combat in game

Being indebted works fine for Yukio. I'll add a bit to her background that she was granted knowledge of how to work the shadows her blade is made of in exchange for a favor in the future.

I imagine not everyone needs to be indebted. At the moment it seems like Trazzle, Charis and Thirrian all start knowing each other, and Petrikov and Yukio will have encountered each other prior to the beginning. It's certainly possible for some people to tag along simply because they've been adventuring with one of those who are indebted (or for possible future rewards in Thoon's case?).

that'd make sense. any character who values knowledge and has a relative tolerance for insanity would find a good sidekick in Thoon

So I'm probably not goood with skills.

Acrobatics +22, Fly +22, Knowledge (Arcana, History, Planes, Religion) +23, Knowledge (Other) +7, Perception +21, Sense Motive +21, Spellcraft +23, Stealth +29, Use Magic Device +16.

I might switch up some skill ranks a bit maybe.

Ok, simple enough, those who are indebted will go, their allies will likely follow them, and Thoon would likely offer services as an adventurer for some type of esoteric knowledge.

Sounds good. I'm fine with adventuring or debt, but Trazzle would be very careful when taking on any kind of debt.

Charis is probably ok with some debt, though he'd be very suspicious and also try to keep tabs on who he owes it to via Divinations and such...

So long as it hasn't been used to screw him over, I doubt he would care that much, though he would seek to get rid of the debt as soon as physically possible.

I don't think you have much to worry about in that regard. XD It should be fine... and if not, we'll just take care of it in-character!

Hmm... I should probably think about my other mythic ranks, too... XD

So my final skills are as follows:

Acrobatics +32, Craft (trapmaking) +27, Escape Artist +22, Fly +25, Knowledge (Arcana, Planes, Religion) +27, Knowledge (History) +20, Knowledge (Other) +11, Perception +21, Sense Motive +21, Spellcraft +27, Stealth +32, Use Magic Device +16.

Everything else is at base modifier.

So, I'm planning on trapping my demiplane with a Teleportation Circle and something to toss people out of it, with special permissions for those I like.

Any recommendations for how to make that a thing?

I ran into a point of confusion while recalculating my skills.

Overland Flight says that you fly as the Fly Spell, with a bonus to Fly checks equal to half your caster level. Fly gives you a maneuverability of Good (aka +4 to fly checks.)

Does the caster level bonus from Overland Flight stack with the +4 from Good, or override it?

Fly actually also gives you a bonus to Fly checks, however since neither have a type listed(spells or the bonus from Good maneuverability), I would say they do indeed stack.

In fact, I am almost 100% positive they do, based on the wording of the spells. Each list your speed/maneuverability first, and then both also mention getting a bonus to the check. Seems like it would be pointless to include if they didn't stack.

Wise observation. Thanks for your insight!

... I'm really getting antsy to start the game, haha.

Well, we were told we'd be starting yesterday, so yeah... but I'm also quite eager after all of this work. XD

SOrry guys, you have just been in the longest april fools joke ever. Congrats! lol.

Except that I think it started on the 2nd. XD

I, too, am itching to start

Must... achieve... apotheosis...

For everyone who thought we were starting yesterday, I forgot it would be Thursday! Regardless, the first gameplay post will be up soon, as in less than 24 hours. In the meanwhile, work out who is with who at the beginning of the game. The intro will begin as the PCs are phased to a wondrous palace by strange Lantern Archons who seem to know everything about the PCs and who speak in tinkling and melodic, yet strangely powerful, voices. The last part before the first post should be their vision being filled with white light after agreeing to meet with their mistress. There is one per PC. If anyone has questions about this, let me know. I would be happy to explain.

Can you tell me more about Roll20, Trazzle? I was planning on posting maps in campaign info. Is Roll20 interactive? Also, Monkey is right about the Fly bonuses stacking.

EDIT: Ugh, so many grammatical mistakes and not enough willpower to fix them! -_-

Go here: http://roll20.net/

It'll explain well enough all on its own. XD

Oh boy, I'm etrrible at explaining this stuff.

This should explain it better than I can, I believe.

For PbP, generally the only function used from it is the actual map; you can make the player tokens movable by us, so we can move on our own turns. The rest is best conducted here on the forum.

Can someone explain it better? My own understanding of it is very summary.

Well that's pretty cool! I'll need to look over it more before I decide if we use it, obviously. Can we upload our own tokens and such? I ask because whenever I see a 'premium' option, I automatically think 'what are these people, nutters? I'll use the free version!'. I'm sure you can relate, my gilded Goblinoid friend! No one likes spending more than is necessary.

No, no, I think that pretty much covers it. ^^ Though you do have to be willing to make all of the maps - it's not so bad if the game takes a relaxed pace, but a full map every few days could be a bit much. XD It might be best to only use it for combat.

EDIT: I believe you are allowed to upload your own stuff - I've used it in another game, and they had my character's picture, so... ^^

Excellent. I've got a friend who is an amazing artist, so that's why I ask! ^_^

What of THOON's staff?

roll20 is indeed interactive.

You can upload your own tokens fine. I've been using it myself for the campaign I DM, and I haven't had any issues. (I haven't paid a cent.)

Roll20 is most excellent, I've been using it for my own campaign, and it can work with pdf maps if you have time. Grids are also available, but they might not work as well depending on how you make your maps

I'd expect that Charis would be on his own, resting in his demiplane.

I'm thinking Trazzle would be franctically fleeing his nemesis Sveraderika as he gets the call, and agrees immediately just because anywhere is better than near a mythic frost elder wrym empress.

I figure Yukio and I are probably together, possibly up to no good.

There's always a need for more magic and rituals, and plenty of places to get them, one way or another!

Just saying. We had better kill this frost empress at some point :) lol.

Oh yes, the empress will be featured later... >:D

As for my question? No one has problems dealing with Archons, right?

As a personal favor, those of you that are religiously inclined, can you all pray for TSP's friend? He found out today she's got a bad set of neurological disorders after they did an MRI on her. You don't have to reply on here, just doing it is enough.

I expect nothing less that her being quite mythic to challenge us.

No issues here, but they might have issue with Trazzle's chaotic nature.

My heart goes out to TSP's friend, and I will be keeping a hopeful heart for her.