The actual casting time is as written (and that you'd want it to be longer without metamagic makes me worry about you trying to break the system with a weird effect... XD;), though you're free to chant, wave, and manipulate materials without actually casting for as long as you want. Use Bluff if you want to make people think you're casting.
You cannot take multiple levels of the same class at any given level-up.
Basically I want to cast Blood Money as a standard and use mythic power to cast non-combat spells with material components (like scrying). So...I guess I'll be taking a metamagic feat at 9th level.
Given that using mythic power for spellcasting (through Wild Arcana/Inspired Spell, anyway) is a standard action, I'm not sure why you want to make Blood Money a standard action, too.
He was part of the whole thing with Groetus - a way of getting your attention so Death would have the opportunity to talk with you a bit more.
In other news, the beta for the Mythic Mania Hero's Handbook was just send out, and I'll be reading through that soon - I'll let you know if I see anything you might be particularly interested in.
Well he also talked about someone who stole his family's power or something, and he inherited it from "death" or somesuch. And there was a plot to overthrow Taldor's government. None of that ever came up again.
Mm-hmm. And who have you met that goes by that name?
In other news, the Hero's Handbook is now offering Mythic Class Abilities - they can be taken in place of a path ability or mythic feat (though given the scarcity of the latter, I'd suggest going for the former if you want them), and options are available for Sorcerer, Ninja, and Paladin if there's anything you'd like me to pull out for you to examine. Nothing for prestige classes, I'm afraid.
The short version is that Death was using him as a tool for what she was doing behind the scenes - namely, arranging to give you the opportunity to stop Groetus' fall. That's a backstory thing, and I've got most of it written up, but I'm trying to make sure I've covered everything important before I post it. XD
Let's see, among the abilities you might be most interested in...
Mythic Sneak Attack (Ex): The ninja is an expert at creating situations where she can make an unexpected attack. Her first attack each round targeting a non-mythic creature is a sneak attack, even if the creature is not flanked or denied its Dex to AC. Additionally, when the ninja sneak attacks a creature that is immune to sneak attacks (such as an elemental) or negates sneak attack damage (such as a target with armor of fortification), she may expend one use of mythic power to deal her sneak attack damage to the creature.
-GM's Note: Restricted by your amount of Mythic Power if you want to SA things you normally couldn't. Fortunately, it was written that way, since it's be too powerful in this game otherwise. XD Also, note that it's only effective on non-mythic creatures, which means bosses immune to SA will still be immune.
Mythic Bleeding Attack (Ex): The rogue/ninja adds half her tier to the amount of bleed damage she inflicts with bleeding attack (minimum +1), and adds her full tier to the DC of the Heal check required to stop the bleed.
-GM's Note: You seem fond of bleeding foes, and this would be a good passive support. Probably not the BEST ability you could grab, but might be worth nabbing if you can't see anything else you want at a given tier.
Mythic Spontaneous Casting: The sorcerer does not take additional time to cast spontaneous metamagic spells.
-GM's Note: If you wanted to use more metamagic...
...And Mythic Vanishing Trick exists, but for Greater Invisibility, and that's restricted for balance reasons. XD There's better versions of lots of class abilities in here - I can tell you about your options for future abilities, too, if there's any other class abilities you know you want to improve on.
Mythic sneak attack looks pretty awesome. But I might not need it now that I can flank. So I'll have time to see how my adjusted tactics work out. Plus I'm not planning on taking any mythic feats so even more path abilities.
Well, I'm assuming I won't be getting 4th mythic tier any time soon, so plenty of time for the book to come out.
Are people really that rare? Seems like 3rd level wizards are rather abundant. Even a hamlet has someone who can cast 2nd level. A small city - and there are tons of those has someone who can cast 6th. Seems like only casters of 15th level are so rare you can't find them in any sort of settlement.
Depends on how you look at it. Obviously, the larger the group, the more likely it is you're going to have people with greater abilities (of any kind). 2nd-level stuff might be possible in a hamlet, but it's not like every house has a talented caster, right? At most, you could expect only a handful of people with real ability in any small group. Given that the ability to Summon Shadows is generally 8th level minimum (minus shenanigans with levelups and meeting prerequisites), and the fact that your church is very small, there aren't many capable of it right now in this particular group.
Also, I didn't think it would be right to say all - or even some - of your church out-leveled you. XD The only one likely to keep pace with you is Fhanys (because, in part, I want to have someone to send with you if there's ever anything that needs more than one person to do), and you can expect rest of the church to lag at least several levels behind. However, once you reach higher levels, you can expect your church to be large and experienced enough that a significant portion of them will have advanced enough to summon shadows of their own.
Oh, you can absolutely take Improved Familiar if you want to. Outside of a few balance-related things, how you build Sevia is entirely up to you - I'm simply presenting an alternative option that you might or might not decide to go for at some point.
(That, and I highly encourage - but do not absolutely require - making thematically appropriate choices. The Raven Queen exchanging a raven for, say, a skvader just seems odd... though you could probably talk me into letting you have an improved familiar that just happens to look like a raven, or even have Epyon remain as your familiar but gain those new abilities himself instead of being replaced. Unless, of course, you specifically want something other than a raven as your familiar. Again, the choice is yours to make.)
Well, what I wanted was a Faerie Dragon - because it's got a lot of features a Raven...just can't have (it has telepathy, is a 3rd level sorcerer, greater invisibility self, it has hands so I could use it for action economy)
I mean...its a really strong option for a familiar. But...yeah I guess that clashes thematically...
A raven can have whatever I say it can have - and given that they're both flying creatures, I say you can have an improved familiar with the stats and abilities of a faerie dragon and the appearance of a raven if you want it.
...
Except that it would still be an animal instead of a dragon. Y'know, anything of that nature would still to be tweaked, but unless you're planning on a lot of dragon-exclusive buffs and abilities, I don't think this will be a problem. o.O
Uh, okay. I mean yeah the subtype really doesn't matter imo. Mainly I wanted to have a familiar that could...basically hand me things (like rods) and having a familiar with sorcerer levels means they can use staves and wands.
So I should just alter my familiar's base stats then?
Just give me a list of the spells you'd like to have and I'll look over them to be sure there's no weird balance issues. I'm not expecting there to be - not with just first-level spells - but it's always worth checking to be sure. ^^
For 0th - Mage Hand, Open/Close, Acid Splash, Disrupt Undead, and Prestidigitation
For 1st - Magic Missile or Burning Hands, Mage Armor or Shield, Reduce Person or Protection from Alignment (still not sure between the group)
I'd go for Protection from Alignment and Burning Hands - the idea of a raven flying over a group of undead, shooting a stream of flames at them as it passes by, amuses me. Besides, fire is a traditional weapon against the undead. XD
Well I just figured reduce person would be more useful, since y'know more Dex for me = deadlier. Also I could squeeze into really tight places. Magic Missile vs Burning Hands is harder since anything is guaranteed to save for half vs BH.
By the way, do diminutive creatures draw ops when they move through threatened squares?
Don't worry, this will come up again later. There is not, however, anything for you to gain right now by continuing to talk to him. (The book's quite clear on that part.)
I do believe you've already gotten more than one today. XD The short version, though, is that I try to post when I can. 1/day is the minimum you should expect, anything more is whether or not I can get to it.
You're by the southern door in E3 - I should probably update the map soon - and the creature blocking your way is on the inside of that room, intentionally blocking you from going past. At minimum, you'd need to make an Acrobatics check to slip past it, use some kind of teleportation magic, or otherwise get creative. You cannot walk past it as you'd normally go.
(It's a, uh, big creature. And not a corpse. It's very much alive.)
Kind of, and yes. Fortunately, you do have knowledge of these types of matters, and have seen enough to understand what's going on. The monster is some kind of divine (if unholy) guardian, set to protect this place by a greater power. These creatures are employed by all types of gods, either as reward, punishment, or duty - you may have set some up yourself, though whether or not you actually did in the past is up to you - and possess both agelessness and the ability to revive after death. However, they are limited to the bounds of sacred sites, and cannot leave.
Divine guardians are not common, and no power has more than a handful active at any given time (else every little out-of-the-way cult would be guarded by an effectively unstoppable horror, and that's obviously not the case). This one is on the weaker end for such beings, but would still be a major threat to most humanoid mortals.
Creatures that just want to kill you are one thing. Creatures that want to infest you and blow your brain out are quite another. XD And yes, immunity to disease blocks them.
In other news, I'm finally done writing up the setting background stuff for you!
Note that most of this doesn't apply directly to the game. It's approximately the same relevance that changes of leadership in Tian Xia have to PFS games that remain in Absalom. Might get noted in the background information of a scenario eventually, or an item brought as a result may be the focal point of a plot, but it's mostly just setting and flavor instead of something you need to be directly concerned with. Still, it should help you get a better sense of where you fit in and what's going on.
Ooooor you could not read it and just allow yourself to be surprised. XD There are no spoilers for the main plot of the game, but it's the kind of setting information you can't easily forget once you know it. Your choice.
Spoiler:
Cosmology:
The Forgotten God takes place within a fractal-like reality. There are several key themes here that have an impact on the world and how important beings react.
Layers of Reality: The fractal of reality allows for an exceedingly complex multiverse. At any given time, an essentially infinite number of different universes exist. Some of these universes are very similar - thus, all tables of The Forgotten God are canonically true, regardless of the events that happen - but differences become more pronounced as the universes get further apart. There is a breaking point where each world becomes a different one - Golarion's variants are in one part of the fractal, but other worlds and settings also exist. These alternate realities are unreachable through powers accessible to normal gods and mortals, but can be accessed by higher-level beings.
Different areas of reality exhibit different characteristics. Some are extremely high-magic, some are low magic, some have no magic at all - they may even have no true gods watching over them. In short, any type of setting can work with the cosmology of The Forgotten God. The actual impact of this varies with the table - Table 4 is the 'Planar' version of TFG, for example, and is actually visiting some of these alternate realities. For now, though, Tables 1-3 are all staying within their own reality. In short, this matters only as much as your GM wants it to matter for any given game. In most cases, it's fine to simply note that other worlds do exist and not worry too much about the rest of it. After all, this is true even on normal Golarion and standard games of Pathfinder.
Progression of Souls: The universe exists for the purpose of progressing souls through different experiences and guiding them deeper into the fractal. Not every soul will go deeper in any given incarnation - in fact, it's not uncommon for a soul to go through several universes before it's amassed the experiences it needs to go deeper into the fractal. Why they're going through this progression is unknown - some have speculated that there is a final destination and an ultimate deity who waits to welcome souls as companions, but if this is true, such a being is so much further in that there is literally no contact between it and the 'outer' layer where The Forgotten God takes place. True souls are indestructible - the absolute worst that can happen to a soul in a reality is being effectively 'frozen' until that reality ends and a new one replaces it. No known power is capable of permanently damaging, destroying, or sealing a soul.
Hierarchy of Beings: Each level of reality has deity-like beings that oversee its actions. Most of these beings take the form of the gods recognized by mortals, but there are also higher deities who act as administrators and oversee the flow of souls throughout deeper levels of reality. Death is one such higher being, responsible for overseeing many different realities and ensuring that everything goes as it should. There is little contact between these beings - mostly, they just do their jobs.
Outsiders: The Outer Gods of the Dark Tapestry are the only known exception to the standard hierarchy. Entities like Yog-Sothoth and Azathoth are active in multiple realities at the same time. Most beings aren't entirely sure what - if anything - they're trying to accomplish, but they don't interfere with the greater gods, and in turn, they are not interfered with. Note that this applies mainly to the greater cosmic entities - lesser beings of the Dark Tapestry (Cthulhu, Hastur, etc.) are still limited to one incarnation, though they have the unusual ability to move between realities by their own will.
Incidentally, Yidhra is a deity of the Dark Tapestry, and her alignment is both Lawful Neutral and Chaotic Neutral at the same time. As the Goddess of Paradoxes, her power derives from not making sense while still being true, and that makes her fairly weird even by the standards of Lovecraftian gods. Her presence was not guaranteed - had the ritual calling her resulted in different gems being destroyed, a different god would have appeared (this was part of that particular module, and in the interest of maintaining the value of free will - see Morality, below - I kept it). She's also an excellent source of information on other aspects of the Dark Tapestry - creatures, deities, and the like - should you ever find yourself needing or wanting to study them. Such knowledge is usually well-guarded because of its danger, and even most gods can't handle it very well (see: Zon-Kuthon), but Yidhra has no such problems because she's a native of that pantheon.
Cosmic Laws: In addition to self-imposed rules, there are certain cosmic laws that all beings are bound by. These are the rules that preclude things like open, reality-destroying warfare among the gods. They also limit the amount of interference that beings from 'deeper' in the fractal can have. There are a few more things to know about these laws, though...
The cosmic laws are essentially benevolent, and this is the main supporting argument used by those who think that the theoretical ultimate deity is essentially a kind entity (or at least not an evil one). Souls are never forced to advance deeper through the cycle, and indeed, have the opportunity to try again in a new universe as many times as they want. There are no truly 'eternal' punishments (or rewards), as all souls in the afterlife are released when a reality ends. That's the most common time for souls to advance through the cycle, but those who don't get to live again in their current level of reality.
The Great War: Few beings in mortal realities understand the true nature of the multiverse - generally, only the highest gods have a decent grasp of what's going on, though even they have no idea how large the multiverse truly is. However, that alone is enough to have started something known as the Great War. In summary, souls are naturally drawn towards certain ideals - souls with particularly strong ideals are part of what result in things like chaotic, independent-minded thinkers appearing in a decidedly lawful society. Not every soul that advances through the cycle is 'good' - souls of all alignments can advance, and a number of deities are interested in effectively stacking the deck by trying to manipulate how fast certain souls advance. The theory, as it goes, is that the deeper levels of reality might be influenced by a large number of souls from a certain alignment, and this in turn could tilt the natural alignment of the entire multiverse in a given direction - theirs.
Good souls are more likely to advance over the natural life of a universe, but their progress can be halted by the premature end of their universe. Thus, most apocalyptic groups are actually being very discreetly nudged into their activities at the behest of beings who consider the life and death of entire universes to be the smallest action worth noting on their metaphorical scoreboard. This is what actually drove Sevia's encounter with Groetus, though most of those involved had no idea that greater forces were at work - and the counter to this plan was indeed orchestrated by Death.
It's worth noting that Death did not force Sevia's actions - among the cosmic laws is a mandate for free will, and deeper deities are not permitted to force others to do certain things. In short, the attempt to end the universe had to be freely made - as did the attempt to save it. The establishment of a new deity who can stop Groetus from falling until his appointed time was her rebuke to those trying to end Sevia's reality early. Death does not take sides, per se, but her role as overseer obligates her to try and ensure that realities begin and end as intended.
The Great War may drive some events of the game, but it's primarily a background event rather than one players need to concern themselves with. The war - or game, as some would call it - is played on what's more-or-less an incomprehensibly vast board over a period of time most beings can't even begin to grasp, but cumulative effects - such as Sevia's actions - have a very real impact that reverberates for uncountable ages to come. In short, she did make a positive difference, though the actual effects are difficult for any being to see.
There's little communication between sections of the fractal. Those who choose to involve themselves with the Great War have no idea how many others are playing, who's ahead, or even how long this has been going on for. However, a focus on their personal ideals often motivates them to try anyway, and the only ones who understand what's going on aren't saying anything.
Powers and Effects: The fractal of reality operates on a kind of tier-based system. Mortal magic is unable to affect godly magic, such as artifacts or many of the actions a true deity takes. In the same vein, standard godly magic is unable to affect deities from deeper in the fractal - thus, no god of the game's world can do anything to affect the powers of a being like Death. However, this doesn't come into play very often - the gods of a given reality are responsible for that reality, and overseers like Death are strictly forbidden from interfering too much. No moral arguments will sway them in any direction - it's not their business to say that some things are good and others are bad, or to try and tell gods how to run their universe. The closest they get to interference is nudging things onto a different course, such as when the cult of Groetus tried to get him to fall and Death encouraged the participation of a being who could set things back in order. They're closer to being engineers and maintenance men, rather than rulers, and their lack of direct interaction with mortals (or need for worship) means they're arguably not gods at all, despite certain similarities in power and ability.
Morality:
One of the cosmic laws is that applies universally is the mandate on free will - essentially, sentient beings must be capable of making moral choices in order to be judged as being part of a moral alignment. Non-thinking beings (such as mindless undead) do not have this restriction.
This is what makes it possible for an angel to fall or for a demon to be redeemed. However, most outsiders understand the nuances of this quite well, and have deliberately chosen to follow the path they walk, which is why changes are so rare. They're not entirely unknown, though, and one entity who has undergone a major change may appear at one of the tables... though I haven't decided which one.
With free will, of course, comes responsibility - because individuals can make the choice, they have to accept whatever consequences (good or bad) come about as a result.
The main thing I really wanted to know all this is because I feel like I have been making assumptions about the world (based strictly on PF setting) that I felt my character would know, only to be wrong or outside the scope of my assumptions. Basically, if my character should know about some of this, then I don't want my character to look stupid by basing my actions on assumptions I made contrary to fact. Anything I genuinely should be either surprised about or mostly ignorant of, I can still behave as if I didn't know it (I can segregate player and character knowledge - I just don't like being surprised by a curve ball).
I guess the only question is, how much of this would be stuff Sevia would know of and what isn't?
And for my own personal curiosity, what other deities could have been summoned? (And was preventing the summoning possible?) Based on what was trying to be accomplished, I would bet some deities would have been far less likely to pop up than others. Gunna throw out a guess that Yidhra was not a likely candidate.
Sevia would know about the cosmic laws - all deities do, though most have never bothered to ask where they came from and simply accept them as fact. They wouldn't be much use otherwise. XD She would also know of the importance of free will, and that violating it too often, or on too great a scale, would be a Bad Idea.
As for the deities, that basically depends on the combination of smashed gems. Honestly, I would've just looked at the results, dug through some pictures, and made something up on the spot. XD Creating a deity for every possible combination would've been far too much work, given the relaxed rate of PbP games. (This is, incidentally, more-or-less what the module suggests doing.)
Preventing the summoning was also possible, and could have been done by destroying enough of the gems.
Okay, numbers are definitely getting complex. Tbh I'm not even 100% absolutely certain I measured out all bonuses. Normally I use an Excel spreadsheet to calculate this sort of thing on home games.
Here is a sample list of sources where my bonuses come from. I'll list this in my posts with the relevant bonuses that currently apply listed.
sample d20 Calc:
Base Ability Score Sources:
+8 Dexterity
+6 BAB
+1 Enhancement
Spell Effects:
+2 Morale from Heroism
+2 Untyped from Invisibility
Magic Items:
+4 Untyped to Sneak Attacks (Blade of Subtlety)
+2 Insight to Sneak Attacks (Headband of Ninjitsu)
Status Effects:
+2 Flanking
For a CMB checks which can be substituted with an attack rather than using a standard action (such as trip, disarm) simply use the regular attack roll. The trip attack I did was essentially a normal attack that did not get the benefits of sneak attack (it also didn't provoke an AoO because I was invisible).
Some of the problem with doing this is that the bonuses change depending on the attack. Iterative is -5 BAB, my off hand does not get the +4 bonus to sneak attacks from BoS, only the first attack that round gets invisibility bonus,etc. I guess I can label each bonuses as to applying to which attack, with no label meaning it applies across the board.
Having the math done for me is one of the main reasons I love my building program. XD For output, I usually create a list of the most common forms of attack, like so:
My main concern is temporary modifiers. Maybe something like...
Melee Shadow Stryker +15/+10 (1d6+9/15-20x2 P or S, Deadly) Wyroot Primary
+1 Keen Wakizashi +15 (1d6+9/15-20x2 P or S, Deadly) Adamantine Secondary
Primary Attack Bonuses: DEX +8, BAB +6
Temporary Modifiers:
-Fleet Charge (Mythic): +3 Attack/Damage bypasses DR
-Invisibility: +2 Attack
-Smite Evil: +7 Attack/+3 Damage
-Sneak Attacks: +4 Attack/Damage (Shadow Stryker Only), +2 Attack (All - Headband of Ninjutsu)
-Two-Weapon Fighting: -2 to all Attacks
Or thereabouts? Then you can just quickly list which temporary modifiers you're using, plus temporary effects like Heroism that aren't permanently in your profile. So, for a fairly normal attack, you might put...
Think that'll work for you? I don't want you to have to spend a ton of time on each post - a quick, easy reference and knowing where to find the numbers is all I'm really looking for here. XD
Also, the Stryker's a +1? Should have that listed by the weapon. XD
Okay I guess that can work. I can just copy/paste that into the ends of combat related posts. Regarding the +1, I had just factored that into the listed to-hit.
I believe the Spawning Canker still needs to make its turn though.
The number of pluses are important because at higher numbers, they overcome certain types of damage reduction, and it helps to have an easier reference. ^^
The creature is still alive - it simply activated one of its powers. The actual effect is an aura that surrounds the creature, and it can be stopped either if the creature wants to stop it (whiiiiich isn't going to happen) or by killing it.
The Shadow does not have an alignment - it's simply unaligned, and this particular ability affects creatures that aren't Chaotic (which would still affect unaligned creatures, as opposed to abilities that specifically target an alignment and therefore wouldn't work against it).
...
If that's still too confusing, I can elaborate further. XD; This isn't meant to be something you don't understand.
