The Crown's Courtyard (OOC general discussion)

[Raineh Daze]

I suppose we have to argue that "can you win these encounters because Vampire has buffed dominate" is a valid point in a setting rife with vampires. People prepared to deal with this and vampire-specific weaknesses should be common.

[Kuroimaken]

I suppose we have to argue that "can you win these encounters because Vampire has buffed dominate" is a valid point in a setting rife with vampires. People prepared to deal with this and vampire-specific weaknesses should be common.

Right. In the case of monsters with no particular intelligence-related skills I completely ignored this, but with Clerics we're talking about people with different tactics.

There are enough vampires around that it's better to be safe than sorry, but not enough that there's a shortage of garlic on the market, I suppose. 

[Nytemare3701]

-You mention you're going kinda nova and burning through resources fast, so any battles that you can win where you would lose if the enemies are doubled? Because if you're still winning over half of them then that's too stronk.

The nova aspect is the ability to chuck a 400ft ranged touch attack for 1d6 per spellfire charge expended. both my safe capacity and my maximum expenditure are equal to my CON score, but my UNSAFE capacity can go up to 5x that much. Nothing on this list dies to 12d6 spellfire, and most of them could even survive a second shot (assuming someone had the resources to overcharge me)

My only two offensive resources that survive the first few turns of a fight are my truespeak checks (so I can keep a piddly 2d6 DoT on a target for a while) and my invisibility. If I'm trapped in an arena all alone with any of these things I'd be pretty fucked in general.

-Did you take in account the dragon's blindsense? That way it would be able to detect where you are even if invisible and hit-and-run with lighting breath.

(Reversed) Seek the Sky shuts off flight and the normal version grants flight. My plan would be to root it and get out of the 60ft range before the root wears off (even with extend it's only 2 rounds  ). I have no idea how I'd actually BEAT that fight on my own.

-The vrock has at-will mirror image, you got any way to go around that and if not can you win the slugfest of you trying to hit the real vrock while removing spores and it just telekinesis stuff in your general direction hoping to make up for the 50% concealment chance?

I can't remove the spores mid-combat (recitations are full round actions that provoke), I can quicken dispel a few times before the Law of Resistance stops me, but it won't last. I definitely won't win the slugfest. My to-hit is +12, and my damage without after Iaijutsu is expended is 1d4+5. In a few levels I'd have True Seeing+Blindsight as an utterance, but that's a ways off.

Without a party, my support-oriented know-it-all skillmonkey is pretty terrible. Spellfire requires ammo so it's only good for a round or two without an enemy mage to drain, Truenaming has potential to throw around damage over time, but I chose battlefield control and support abilities instead (I have a single level 4 utterance. You bet I'm gonna use it for Solid Fog and not a blasting spell that requires 2 turns to cast). If any of these monsters were casting offensive spells at me directly or self-buffing with something other than mirror image, I'd be real good at breaking that down and letting other people take them apart.

So, my revised list:

(click to show/hide)

A lot of Shadows.
- They can't really hurt me, and I think my DoT is enough to kill them.

(click to show/hide)

An evil 10th level cleric with a big pile of 1HD human skeletons tagging along.
- If it's offensively-oriented, I can feed off the spells indefinitely. If it's pure buffs, I can dispel quite a few of them. It's a toss-up.
A Fire Giant.
- It doesn't have an answer to invisibility, but I don't do enough damage to kill it in a timely manner. Attrition win, but law of resistance will be biting me in the ass by then.
A pair of Mind Flayers.
- I auto-succeed on the saves and can FoM at will to avoid the grapples. They aren't dumb enough to keep feeding me spells though, so I'm only gonna get a little extra spellfire out of them before they wise up.
A Bebilith.
- Scent and Web are awkward to deal with together, but I'm pretty sure invisibility still holds up here, with emergency use of Dimension Door/FoM. Cunning Surge to be able to go invisible and DDoor on the same turn might be required.

(click to show/hide)

6 Trolls.
-  300+ HP of regenerating beef is too much to burn through. I could lock 1-2 down at a time, and MAYBE kill one with slightly above-average maxed Spellfire blast.
A Young Blue Dragon.
- I could take it to half health before running out of resources, but I could pretty handily escape due to the root+antiflight combo.
A Vrock.
- Recitations are no good in combat, I can turn off flying or fly myself, but I can't actually beat at-will mirror image + telekinesis.

Across the board the winning move is to not engage alone. Anything I can actually solo is either smart enough to not let me slowly unmake them, or big enough to jack the law of resistance through the roof.

[Jarob22]

No LA allowed, but you can use vermin/plant monster classes  to make low level minions using the elite array of stats.

Apparently I cant read text - my leadership score would be something like 22 or 23 rather than the 12 or 13 I thought it was - I forgot to add my char level. Now I need to deal with this...

Edit: would I be able to use Awakened Monstrous Crabs as my followers?

Of course, and I was feeling a bit suspicious your Leadership score was so low you could only afford lv1 followers.

Super edit: if I were to use most of my followers to guard my hoard, is there some sort of item or something I could get to allow me (maybe with friendly help) to teleport there and then back to where I was? Else I’m gonna need to go back there every so often to placate them, make sure they’re all ok, by mundane means, which may be a problem?

Let's say 4k gp for an 1/day item to go back to your hoard or back to the previous location you teleported from, sounds good? Double price if you want 2/day so you can check and go back in the same

Awesome - I feel a crab colony coming on...

Would it be ok if I got the 4K one now and maybe upgraded it later?

[oslecamo]

Good, so that seems like the numbers are falling into place and everybody's around the same scale. So here's a review of the characters presented so far:

Raineh Daze: Carnelian Blackthorn, vampire lady lunatic lancer, offense.
Jarob22: King Crabby the giant allied crab, big, tough and knows kung-fu, tank.
Kuromaiken: Marquis Hector Von Schwarzhund, "The Black Hound", Vampire Enslaver Valkyrie, lots of minions but seemingly prefers to rush in melee personally.
Skyrock: Atkirza Suitra the chain lockdown with some magic and psionics for self-buffing, tank.
YuweaCurtis: Vira Ferrothorn, vampire pixie purple mage heretic most devout follower of Bonnie, gish offense.
Nytemare3701: Kazimir Iskander, truenaming and spellfire and factoum, utility/support
Nanshork: (name pending) nuclear robot maid, still WIP but looks like specialized in offense.
Ketaro: Decus Rosier, legendary drunk angel brawler, offense.
Vladeshi: was planning a Kasha scholar but haven't heard of him. Maybe has just been having a busy week and he would sill be in time of delivering a character sheet.

And since nobody spoke for it and it needs to be done before the game can start, here are my suggestions for player teams:

Team Bonnie: Raineh Daze+Kuromaiken+YumeaCurtis+Ketaro. Everybody is offense but also self-sustainable with some sort of fast healing.
Everybody Else: Jarob22+Skyrock+Nytemare3701+Nashork(+YumeaCurtis 2nd character). Two tanks, one offense and one utility that hopefully can take care of healing too.

If anybody would like to switch places or suggest other team configurations speak now, otherwise we'll be rolling with this.

Also fair warning, if nobody in the not-Bonnie team picks a faction to start with, I'll pick it for you.

Would it be ok if I got the 4K one now and maybe upgraded it later?

That's ok.

[Jarob22]

I will point out that ‘crabby’ is not going to be my actual name - it was a placeholder so I could create a sheet. I need to think an actual name up.

[ketaro]

I like that you could essentially break Team Bonnie down as a bunch of solo villains pushed together and that Team Everybody Else is the well-balanced party of adventurers to take them down. 

[Nytemare3701]

Everybody Else: Jarob22+Skyrock+Nytemare3701+Nashork(+YumeaCurtis 2nd character). Two tanks, one offense and one utility that hopefully can take care of healing too.

Also fair warning, if nobody in the not-Bonnie team picks a faction to start with, I'll pick it for you.

Can confirm, I can hand out fast healing between fights.

I will join Mexilhoeira as an independent informant for the sellsword culture and supplier of exotic meats across shipping channels for the Kasha.

[YuweaCurtis]

I don't care who I'm working for with second char as long as it isn't directly anti-Bonnie and there's profit and adventure.

And yes, those are the people I wanted Vira to end up with.

I like that you could essentially break Team Bonnie down as a bunch of solo villains pushed together and that Team Everybody Else is the well-balanced party of adventurers to take them down. 

[Raineh Daze]

I like that you could essentially break Team Bonnie down as a bunch of solo villains pushed together and that Team Everybody Else is the well-balanced party of adventurers to take them down. 

Hey, hey, I'm not a villain. Any more.

[YuweaCurtis]

I mean, Vira was never a villian. I just think he means our setups.

For those of us with Sepette's Red Magic, can we start with some spells in it?

[Nanshork]

I've got lots of utility too, my character sheet is finally shaping up nicely although I'm still having option overload.

[Kuroimaken]

I will point out that ‘crabby’ is not going to be my actual name - it was a placeholder so I could create a sheet. I need to think an actual name up.

The Japanese student in me suggests a name with Kani in it. I'll give you one guess as to what it means. 

[Jarob22]

Hello Osle,

Would it be possible for me to create some form of use-activated..uh..stone or something that my various minions back in my hoard would be able to tap (with a claw or leg or whatever) in order to activate a 1/day sending? I'd like some way for them to be able to communicate with me in case something bad is happening and I need to defend my hoard from invaders

From the creating magical items formula, Sending is 4th level cleric, so Would need 7th level cleric, so 4 * 7 * 750 = 21000 / (5/1) = 4200gp - does that sound about right? Not sure how I'll fit this into my budget, but I feel like leaving my hoard with no way to react to invaders would be a bad idea...

[Skyrock]

But for the Vrock, it can teleport away from melee range and snipe you by flinging stuff with telekinesis from 880 feet away, do you have a way to deal with that? If not you'll probably need to pump your combat numbers a bit higher until you can at least beat the fire giant.

The Vrock will first have to overcome SR21, and to deal with Spell Reflection as every missed projectile comes back to smack him himself by his own action. I think he will get tired of that cute trick very quickly.

Looking again at the Fire Giant, I remembered a.) that I have Combat Expertise to pump up AC and b.) that Fire Giants have really, really terrible Touch AC. I should be able to keep tripping him and whittling him down, although it may take some time with the Expertise penalty eating up valuable Power Attack space.

Everybody Else: Jarob22+Skyrock+Nytemare3701+Nashork(+YumeaCurtis 2nd character). Two tanks, one offense and one utility that hopefully can take care of healing too.

Looks good to me.

I'm fine with Nytemare's Mexilheoira suggestion. I could see the Cenobites of the Doombringer being used as a deniable asset for troubleshooting when shit has hit the fan and the iron fist needs to come out - which very much the succession crisis situation. "I'm Mister Wolf. I solve problems."

Can confirm, I can hand out fast healing between fights.

Might now also be a good time to coordinate abilities.

Knowing that I am paired up with a capable all-day healer I will still drop the wand of Lesser Vigor and get some arcane scrolls of Darkness instead, in case of fire giants and similar heavy hitters. (Chain devils see perfectly well in magical darkness, most monsters don't.) - Between my Healing Belt, Revitalizing Strike and a couple of cleric spell slots for Lesser Vigor, I should do have enough panic buttons to get Kazimir back to his feet if necessary.

Speaking of Kazimir, Spellfire needs to be fed with targeted spells, righto? Think I will make good use of the Hexblade's endless cantrips by swapping Light for Arcane Mark.

[YuweaCurtis]

Oh that's the spell sword people... I'm actually interested in the NPCs from there lol.

Melody, my second character is, erm offensive asf? She has some defensive things for herself but she's definitely doesn't have party support.

[Nanshork]

I might be changing my character again. 

This would be the last time, pinky promise.

[ketaro]

Skyrock, im pretty sure you dont get SR vs objects thrown at you even if thrown by a spell. The telekinesis isnt directly targetting you 

[Raineh Daze]

Bio completed and Personal Maid completed. A bit tanky but not so good at the hitting things without maneuvers. Adding to the party someone who actually doesn't have weird supernatural self-healing, just cooking. The backstory is basically to have a personality but not take a -2 int penalty on an int class.

I assumed no flaws/traits were available and to use NPC WBL, not PC.

[YuweaCurtis]

Second character is a vampire with a rock band, any ideas for a name?