The never ending Book2: WotW. (Inactive)

Game Master Aku Warashi

First, welcome.

I need some information about the game itself.

How ended up things at Branderscar?
How ended up in the Watchtower?
How is you relationship with the master?
How is you relationship with Tiadora?
What happened to Grumblejack?
How is you relationship with the knot hibernal?

Any ally recruited?

Lastly, what is your character motivation and how you plan to achieve it?

Dotting, going to bed for the night. I'll post a response tomorrow when I can.

Ill try to answer some of those although im sure other will expound..

In Branderscar we kicked ass and basically wiped the place out.. Karn took the owl familiar as a pet..

The watchtower was infiltrated from a number on angles but we rushed and almost got killed.. It culminated in an epic night of us entering and basically killing everyone impotant and holding up in the outer defense tower while Fire Axe made his way.. Lilpinny was actually GMing then and did an excellent job closing that out.. You should read it, its epic..

I think the majority of us show The Master respect but overall he's not looked at highly i dont think..

Pretty much the same with Tiadora. Vlad has made several attempts at bedding her/it..

Grubmlejack is on the boat in Farhold. He was initially left behind for the Balentyne mission but was picked back up when we came here..

At the mansion we didnt converse much with the Knot Hibernal.. When we met them in farholde we discussed a plan that they would set up shop here and we would get back to them i believe.. Vlad once again attempted to bed the leader and was slightly more successful, i think she agreed to dinner at some point..

I think we did a fine job at bringing the Baron on board.. He offered us access to his contacts in Farhold etc.. I promised him a place in Ghastenhall at some point down the road..

Pretty much the same with Tiadora. Vlad has made several attempts at bedding her/it..

haha

In my other games, I've always wanted someone to try it. But I think they were too afraid of her, to attempt.

Vlad gets a lot of it, but he forgets to mention the most important part. Sir Reginold the Third of the Hapsburg Family, Fourth in line to the Sun Throne, and heir to the Silver Duchy is the reason the party has any good luck at all.

Kharn's motivations right now is profit and revenge. During the ending part of book 2 Kharn had a tiny run in with a fully voltroned lantern archon posse and long story short Kharn walked away minus some skin, but with new metal jewelry. Kharn still wants to make as big a profit as he can, but he also wants to do anything he might think would have some negative effects on the archon's home plane or just for the archons in general.

For your convenience, the big wrap up post to the first book is found on this page.

I joined after Brandscar, so I cannot account for what happened during that time.

Personally, Lil was just saved by Thorn and hasn't formed much of a relationship beyond grateful so far, and she technically hasn't met the party yet (if we're starting before the previous DM who barely did anything). I leave much of that up to you.

Same with Tiadora, nothing much as of yet.

Lil is curious about humanity, as she is a sociopath who is disconnected from morality and society. Her vision for the future is everybody getting to live together happily with all of their friends and family, and everything is merry and bright! A world where nobody dies, nobody gets sick, nobody gets angry or fights or wages wards, and everybody gets along. Naturally, a world where everybody is undead.

Also, she has yet to explore some of the characteristics of intelligent undead, which is a completely foreign idea to her and could wildly change her perspective on all of this.

Sir Reginold the Third of the Hapsburg Family, Fourth in line to the Sun Throne, and heir to the Silver Duchy is the reason the party has any good luck at all.

I did not understand this part.

Sir Reginold is the owl's name.

Kharn the Binder *Cleaned-Up* wrote:

Sir Reginold the Third of the Hapsburg Family, Fourth in line to the Sun Throne, and heir to the Silver Duchy is the reason the party has any good luck at all.

I did not understand this part.

Kharn likes to glorify his pet haha.

I was reading Vlad profile and I must admit...

That is hell of a powerful character. Really, your DM was crazy when he agreed with that!

Anyway, I’ll confess that I don’t liked the Moroi Vampire, because It gives more bonus than a normal one, and it removes the penalties that would, to a certain degree, balance things out.
Vlad, how much pissed would you get if I asked it to be changed to a normal vampire?

@Others
Once Vlad the other feat, at level 7, there’ll be a huge gap in power between the characters, more still when he get the last feat, probably at level 9.
Since making him be weaker is an option that I don’t want to consider, we have other thing we can try, we can make everyone stronger! How? Well, templates for one, if you guys have any interest.
I once had proposed to one game this: A CR+1 template and mythic tier one. I think that it would be fairly equivalent in power to a CR +2,5

@Other thing:
Your characters are pretty optimized, from what I could see (custom stuff + custom races + almost godlike abilities) that alone is reason enough, for most of the encounters be a bit more harder (plus, you are a party of five, instead of four, as the AP was designed), pathfinder however has a huge issue about that. Adding a template CR+2 don’t make you really powerful enough to face designed encounter with +2 CR. So, I’ll ask you guys, once the game starts, to drop the attitude: “I’m the bad guy, I’m invincible. I’m the bad guy; I can treat everyone else with scorn.” I’m not saying you do that, I’m still to read the other gameplay thread.

The AP is fairly hard in normal conditions, and there’s a difference about being evil and to think that only because you are evil, you need to be a jerk with everyone else you meet.
The most successful villains, in every story, where incredibly charming and cunning, revealing themselves tyrants only after their place of power was achieved and secure. Well, that’s something to think about.

Adding The Hunger was the main equalizer for buffing the vampire template. It wasnt just 1 person, it went through like 3-4 people and was changed some before it was allowed. If you wish to tweek it more thats fine but id like to stick with the theme as ive invested alot of time and effort into it, ntm in game rp of being something slightly different than the average vampire.. And it will be lvel 11 before he becomes a full vampire, which means he wont gain another level till what, 14? Yes its true he gains a lot of hp at 7th, but that happens regardless of the alternate bloodline..

If you look at the changes side by side over he normal vampire its not that huge when you consider the added downside of it.. Ill go over the major stuff:

Yes, the party is very highly optimized. I added significant difficulty to every combat when I was DM.

As for the improved vampire template, it was mostly me who originally approved that. I intended to balance out the power by severely increasing the drawback of the hunger rules, making feeding a constant problem that needs to be dealt with. I'm still not totally confident on the balance of it; it was more experiment than anything.

@Lil'

I understand.

The thing that buggs me the most, is the fact that he traded, combat/rp hindering mechanics to rp hindering only.
And due to the nature of the game, allowing you to create a huge, evil organization, there'll be no shortage of 'dispensable' followers that we could use to feed himself, and thus making the hunger problem practically non existent.

That and the fact that every alteration made, was done to increase combat power (Adding more str and cha, and DC to abilities) while removing from the original template, things that don't not really are equals in power or utility.

Anyway, I'll take a closer look at this over weekend and see think about it more carefully. Because as it is, the only real problem he'll have for being a vampire will be not being able to go out in the light.

I won't be able to make a very compelling argument to defend it, as I said it was mostly experimental on my part. Feel free to alter it.

It's almost like im not here lol.. The first GM for this campaign encouraged us to maximize our potential. Thats the main reason we are all pretty optimized. And rather than this creating a huge problem ill just drop it all and go the normal vampire template. It was an attempt at something unique not a god mode template.. Since its obviously seen as that I'll just go with the lesser but still potent normal template.

I planned on dealing with the sun via crafted wondrous item with a continuous this spell. He currently doesn't have the cash for it but hes saving..

@Sorry Vlad.

I don't want you do drop it, really.
Give me some time to think about it a bit more, so I can propose some changes(What I'm thinking mostly is the garlic, holy symbol thing)

Hey man no worries.. I dont want the fights to get way bumped up just because of me anyways. Just retool it to fit what you think is fair and ill be fine with it or go normal vamp. Just a heads up but i think you might have a lich or 2 on your hands at some point as well :)

Any idea when Walter will be back playing again? He's in several games with me and 1 post in the last month has got me kinda wondering whats up.. Before that he was the highest poter of all of us..

I'll tell you what's up on the Mummy's mask, Pox ^_^

Well, Argan is not planning on going Lich nor anything like that, and although I'm powerful in the melee I'm very restricted when dealing high damage, aside from sucking in AC. I may seem optimized because of the different classes I've gathered, but it was originally just charlatan/crimsom assassin, although taking Rogue 5 would leave my BAB too low, so I got a level of ranger which still keeps my skill points high, and also adds some new class skills.

Argan has as motto the survival of the fittest rule, and he sees himself as superior to the other humans, and even to other classes. Of course the rest of the party knows that, but he is kinda friendly with other folks and try to obtain information in several ways, using disguises that best suit the moment. He started wanting his money back, since he lost all of it when he was arrested for making a mistake, but then the money was coming too easily, and he realized that he could much more. The problem is, the party is very powerful regarding leadership potential, and thus he is aware we won't have leaders so soon, having kinda of a free-for-all style of fighting. He realized Thorn has power, and that he is as human as Argan, so the rogue may also obtain that much power. And, of course, Thorn's place as a ruler. But the lack of magical abilities was bothering him, so he started to focus more on that part, gaining some powerful sorcerer-like abilities. He will keep doing what he's asked for now, since defiance would only lead to certain death, but no one knows the future. Thorn is sitting behind a desk while the party is constantly on the verge of death, getting stronger every second, so they will eventually catch up to the master.

He doesn't really mind of Tiadora and the other knots, believing that the first is just a behaved dog and the others some folks without much of a talent. Not wanting to be a jerk with everyone else, but although he knows he is NOT immortal, Argan's ambitions increase at every passing moment, so he will try to get what's his by birth right, be it wealth or power.

@On the overpowered damphir subject: Indeed the endless quantity of followers may diminish greatly that hunger weakness, as happened in the boat with Kargheld on our way to the north and Balentyne. "There was" a slave who was serving as Vlad's food, so it was no problem at all. On the other side, I don't believe Vlad is too powerful right now, and although he may be later on Argan sees that as a challenge, not as a problem for us to solve. Maybe Vlad himself could suggest some minor stuff for the others to power up to his level instead of removing the things he planned carefully? Just a suggestion...

As a heads up, new job made me drop the ball with this. Going through everything now! Welcome aboard Aku!

Seth is much like Lilpinny, a new character thrown into the mix. If we start over he'll have no interaction with the party but you can see his general attitude and behavior in my few posts and his background.

Seth is another character who was eventually going to get something... er... special. I'll discuss it with you via PM since -stares at the others- there are some... shady people in this thread.

@Party Power: I was honestly looking forward to more challenges, so feel free to ramp things up as much as you feel is needed. I always intended to play Seth as smarter anyhow. XD Clever, cunning, etc.

@Vlad's Vampire Stuff: I've not read any of his mechanics so I can't say too much on how strong it is, but I didn't really care too much either. It seemed to me he was aiming for something that was awesome for story. If its too powerful you gotta do what you gotta do I guess, but even with a power jump for him I wouldn't care. -shrug- So far, the party as a whole, despite being powerful, has been a great bit of fun with the story.

@Vlad

I've reached a decision.

Instead of changing things to make it weaker, I'll just adjust the template CR. Moroi vampire, as described by Vlad is a CR +3 template.

Hmm, IMHO I think that's fair.

And back to the feeding problem, while getting victims for Vlad wouldn't be a trouble with our future evil organization, perhaps the steady death rate would be a hit to morale, especially if they knew Vlad was the cause?

He doesn't have to kill to feed..

He uses his sexiness!

You ever looked at the dread vampire template? It's CR +3 and way more stroke than the Moroi template.. Being behind another level is simply not worth it. If that's ur final say I'll just go normal vampire..

@Vlad

Don't go into defensive mode, it’s a bit boring.

I don’t know what you are expecting, but this is not 3.5 ed. I’ll not keep you levels behind because of the template CR. It means that, when calculating the group level, you’ll be counted as a character three levels above of your current level.

If even with that you decide go normal template, well, it is your decision after all.

@Vlad

Don't go into defensive mode, it’s a bit boring.

Funny thing, someone else called it annoying... :)

It wasn't defensive mode.. I was just simply stating that there is a published template called a dread vampire and compared to what ive written for Vlad its way over the top better..

As far as levels go i had always assumed i would be penalized levels to put me back even with the groups individual CR. I would prefere it actually as I dont wanna be the "im way more powerful than you" guy.

With that said im going to just go normal vampire and reflavor it Moroi. That way we can end this discussion and get back to the game.

@Vlad

About the powerful thing, I don't think that this will be an issue. The others probably will get some template as well, I think.

@All
Also, this end of the year, I must confess that DA: Inquisition is stealing almost all my free time, thus we’ll start after the holidays.

Huh, originally I was wanting to just stick with a plain character so that I could keep my full spellcasting progression, but if we're all planning on getting some templates...

Lich is never bad for arcane casters, but I find it a little "meh" for flavor. I did find this little gem, not giving me the near-immortality of a lich but allowing me to be more of an undead general.

If we do all go with templates, that is.

No worries DM, most of my games are dying down in the presence of the holidays. Can't wait to get the game started again next year!

Happy Holidays everybody! Hope you have a very merry happy wonderful blissful jolly fantastic whatever holiday you celebrate!

You to Lil! And everyone else!

Happy Holidays everybody! Hope you have a very merry happy wonderful blissful jolly fantastic whatever holiday you celebrate!

Omen sometimes takes the "get into the character" stuff too seriously... Nice template, by the way!

To you too guys, enjoy your holidays!!

Happy Holiday to everyone whatever you celebrate!

Happy holidays for you all!

May the dice always roll in your favor. :)

Hey, I'm back.

I'll continue with my review of your chars.

@Seth

I have some questions:

What tiefling ancestry are you using? Based on your aims and coals, I find it difficult to be anything else than Devil-Spawn, but there’s no information on your profile.
Based on your spell like, I would say it is: Div-Spawn (Spitespawn), however, Div’s are descendants of Genies and not infernal creatures, so it really does not match your character goals.

You have four traits, while the others have only three. And there’s no drawback added you allow you have more traits.
Edit: Also, I usually don't allow two traits that does the exact same thing: (Flames of Hell and Asmodeus is with you)

Assuming you are using this post to create your character, you’ll notice that you used F&F wrong. You should have added +7 instead of +8.
Don’t need to roll again, just subtract from your current ability scores one point for each that is not your focus our foible. Also, bear in mind that if you want to keep as Div spawn(for bonus I think) your goals are not acceptable..

Gear: Total money for a level 6 character: 16k

• Headband of Mental Prowess (10k)
  
• Wand of Cure light Wounds (750g)
  
• Wand of Bless(750g)
  
• Lesser Metamagic Rod of Reach (3k)
  
• +1 Agile Mithral Breastplate (5,6k)
  
• +1 Heavy Darkwood Shield(1,167g)
  
• Pearl of Power (1st lvl) (1k)
  
• +1 Cloak of Resistance (1k)
  
• Disguise kit plus Scroll of Dispel Magic (I was lazy to check the price.)
  

Total money expend: From your gear you expend about 22k gold.
And remember, you can't use more than half of your money on a single item, so the max value you can purchase is 8k.

I still need to check some other things, but I ran out of time. I’ll do it later.

Ooh, new DM can crunch numbers. I like.

Dunno about the rest but i think we all have 4 traits, or should.

2 to start, plus 1 from a crime, plus 1 from training.

I looked at the original recruiting and it says only two traits. Also Vladimir has only three.

Another questions for the others: not talking about Vlad, the rogue and the barbarian have almost no magic items. What happened? why are you guys so behind in money?

-Posted with Wayfinder

They were not very thorough in their searches for loot, and I may be mistaken but I believe we have a large sum of unspent gold. But yes, we are very behind of WBL.

As far as traits, remember that in book 1 everybody got an extra trait for training with Thorn.

We started with 2 plus the crime trait, then we got 1 from Thorn training..

Vlad has 4:

Attempted Murder-Crime
Extremely Fashionable
Half-Forgoteen Secrets
Quiet as Death-Thorn trained

Vlad is prob close to wbl or over, but he has gotten alot of the gear that dropped due to it just being better for him.

+1 Dastard Fullplate - 5650ish
+1 Keen Longsword - 8320ish
+2 Charisma Headband - 4000
+1 Cloak of resistance - 1000
+1 Heavy Steel Shield - 1200ish

Probably close to 2000 worth of potions/alchy items/misc stuff.. So like 22k worth of stuff. Granted none of these items were purchssd, so in loot terms there valued at sell prices.. I forgoed most of my cash though.. Walter has had some items made but i think he has quite a bit of cash and Kharn has like all of his..

EDIT: Also updated my profile with vamp stuff to review.. Its at the bottom.

1.) In game he was definitely a Devil spawn. I may have asked to reflavor the Div-spawn to a devil spawn, since the Devil-spawn had a negative on Cha, a rather important ability score considering his Archetype. IC, his heritage is devil. It was a change in line with Lil's, when I asked after it, and since it's not a large change, the last DM approved it.

2.) The traits thing is what Vlad said. 2 + the crime + special training from Thorn. I have two traits, and while they do similar things (raise my DC for channeling) they do them in different ways (mechanically they work together I mean), and since one is a 'special' trait, gotten from Thorne, there weren't really any other options for that which fit Seth. If you want to correct that I really can't stop you, being the DM and all, but considering the fact that my channel evil is full damage on a failed save and no damage on a save, it's not as powerful as a normal channel. More versatile yes but it won't be a heavy source of damage.

3.) I came into the story with Lil, who had some time before they arrived with the group to make some magic items for Seth. The actual cost is correct if you take into account crafting cost rather then purchasing, and Lil also has like a .152% extra discount or something?

4.) Focus and Foible... Ouch, yeah I did use it wrong. Hrm. Going to have to go over his stats and see what that changes.

I also have four traits: Armor Expert; Irrepressible; Murder; Focus Strengthen your Will;

The actual fair share is about 10341, since we spent money on a wand. We are indeed under WBL, and some of us have less than others. I spent about 1k on potions so far, for instance.

@Seth

About the reflavoring, no worries, you can keep it as is.

Please adjust your ability scores to the normal value, correcting the focus and foible.
Also, I'll allow the two traits, it's no biggie.

Now, pre-game about crafting, I don't allow that. Even more because you are using another character skill to do it.
Please adjust your gear for the standard 16k, observing the limitation about expending half of your money on a single item.

@Vlad

I must be blind, I swear I saw only three. >.<
Now about your gear, it's largely the paladin gear, shield, + fullplate+ weapon+ headband.

@Aku: No worries, I expected that the pre-made stuff might go. Thanks for letting me keep the rest. It's not exactly do or die but I still like how he was built. Now to decide on a headband of wisdom or a headband of charisma... XD Probably Wisdom for more spells and what not.

The ability scores were actually fixed. I switched around my additional ability point to put it into Dex, so that it stays at a fun 20. Everything else got dropped 1. (Int is at 13, adjusted skills for that, and so is con, still need to adjust health though.)

And yeah, the traits are... I was actually hoping for a few more options from Thorn but Asmodeus is with you fits so well. XD So thanks for letting me keep that as well!

Alright. Dropped the scroll (375 g), dropped the headband of mental prowess and replaced with Headband of Inspiring Wisdom (3000 gold), and dropped the Agile Mirthal Breastplate and replaced with a Mithral Chain Shirt (3000 gold).

I think that's right. So around 22k - 6,375 should be just beneath the 16k mark. Might drop something else to leave some money for scroll creation but otherwise I think I'm good?

Hey, I’m back!

@Vlad

Help me with something here,
This is your actual status.
Strength 20
Dexterity 14
Constitution 9
Intelligence 14
Wisdom 8
Charisma 21

Here is your F&F roll.
Based on that, the Dhampir race, feats, class and gear, your ability score should have been:
Strength 18
Dexterity 12
Constitution 7
Intelligence 14
Wisdom 8
Charisma 19 (Assuming you used your fourth level bonus in this attribute.)

I’m sure you got some boon or arrangement with your previous DM about the ability score; can you tell me about it?

@Seth
Seems good for me.

@Kharn
Actual:
Str 18 Dex 16 Con 19 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 8

What should have been:
Str 18 Dex 9 Con 19 Int 10 Wis 10 Cha 8

@Argan
Argan ability score is coherent with his initial roll on the recruitment.

@Lil
Strength 8
Dexterity 15
Constitution 17
Intelligence 21
Wisdom 8
Charisma 15

Strength 8
Dexterity 15
Constitution 17
Intelligence 21
Wisdom 8
Charisma 14
From Lil, I cannot be sure, because of her custom race, there’s no information about ability scores there. But using the Dhampir as base, the only difference would be in charisma, from 15 to 14.

Anyway, this is hard. Keep searching in different threads for information. Please have a bit a patience with me and help me out. :)

Whats funny is that finding this thread is still difficult for me sometimes considering I have the others bookmarked for reference. XD

Seth, dot in the game play, that way, you can access it real easy using http://paizo.com/people/Marko/campaigns address.