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Bennet Whitecastle, NG Illumian Truenamer 3
HP: 20
Init: +1
AC: 15, Touch: 11. Flat: 14
BAB: 2
Attack: Quarterstaff 2 1d6
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 17, Wis 11, Cha 14, Saves: Fort 4, Ref 2, Will 3
Feats: Skill Focus: True Speech, Item Familiar
Skills: Concentration: 6, True Speech 6, Item Familiar (True Speech): 2, Knowledge Arcana: 5, Knowledge Nature: 5, Knowledge Planes: 5. Knowledge Religion: 1, Listen: 2, Use Magic Device: 5
Special: Knowledge focus: Arcana, +2 vs Shadow spells, Sigel (Naen): +2 int checks and skills, Sigel (Krau): +2 to caster level, -4 vs Sigels/Glyphes of a higher level, otherwise imune, Know Personal Truename.
Utterences
lexicon of the evolving mind
Lvl 1: minor words of Nurturing, Universal Aptitude
Lvl 2: Lesser words of Nurtuting
Possesions: Quarterstaff, Dagger, Chain shirt, Lesser amulet of the Silver tongue, Misc. adventuring gear.
HP: 20
Init: +1
AC: 15, Touch: 11. Flat: 14
BAB: 2
Attack: Quarterstaff 2 1d6
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 17, Wis 11, Cha 14, Saves: Fort 4, Ref 2, Will 3
Feats: Skill Focus: True Speech, Item Familiar
Skills: Concentration: 6, True Speech 6, Item Familiar (True Speech): 2, Knowledge Arcana: 5, Knowledge Nature: 5, Knowledge Planes: 5. Knowledge Religion: 1, Listen: 2, Use Magic Device: 5
Special: Knowledge focus: Arcana, +2 vs Shadow spells, Sigel (Naen): +2 int checks and skills, Sigel (Krau): +2 to caster level, -4 vs Sigels/Glyphes of a higher level, otherwise imune, Know Personal Truename.
Utterences
lexicon of the evolving mind
Lvl 1: minor words of Nurturing, Universal Aptitude
Lvl 2: Lesser words of Nurtuting
Possesions: Quarterstaff, Dagger, Chain shirt, Lesser amulet of the Silver tongue, Misc. adventuring gear.
I've always loved the fluff and idea behind Truenamer (I say sh** and your face asplodes), and will seriously enjoy your updates on this character. Don't forgot the Legacy Item to boost your skill checks by 5/10/15. Skill Shards (MiC) can be useful for when you can't meet the DC easily, and are fairly cheap. Alchemical bonuses, some feats from Elder Evils (if they are allowed), and an actual Familiar will be helpful. Drugs from the BoVD can boost your Int/Skill Checks, but be careful with them.
If you can actually convince the DM that your Truenamer abilities are Arcane like the Warlock's, you can get Obtain Familiar and Improved/Exalted Familiar for a great assistant on your checks. And a hell of a scout. If you are willing to slow your Utterance progression a little, a 3 level dip into Warlock can easily net you some nice post-Utterance abilities (though Factotum/Savant from the Dragon Compendium would be more optimal, as you wouldn't have to spend a feat to keep Truespeech as a class skill, and Factotum is able to take Obtain Familiar at 3rd level).
Truenamer is an excellent Buffer/Debuffer. Most of the first Lexicon can easily give the entire party an advantage. The second Lexicon has very poor abilities, but one of them is great (the repair one). The third Lexicon is where the Broken is.
A 1 one level dip in to marshal may be in order, so you can get charisma to your int based skill checks, then you have two stats powering your truespeak checks.
If you can actually convince the DM that your Truenamer abilities are Arcane like the Warlock's, you can get Obtain Familiar and Improved/Exalted Familiar for a great assistant on your checks. And a hell of a scout. If you are willing to slow your Utterance progression a little, a 3 level dip into Warlock can easily net you some nice post-Utterance abilities (though Factotum/Savant from the Dragon Compendium would be more optimal, as you wouldn't have to spend a feat to keep Truespeech as a class skill, and Factotum is able to take Obtain Familiar at 3rd level).
I second this: remember that the familiar's static HD means you can quicken and extend utterances, and otherwise boost the heck out of it and still hit the DCs a ridiculous number of times per day.
Actually, this seems like a great character to invest in some war dogs and handle animal, for the same reasons...
I think I'm going to go work on a "big guy is with me" style build, now... and clean my pants...
On a side note, imagine what a Truenamer/Factotum Gestalt could do, lol.
Feat wise, I was planning on taking Extend Utterance at 6, and maybe empower utterance at lvl 9. I was also considering the Keen Intellect feat, and the improved Sigle feat for an additional +1 bonus (debating on wether it's worth it. If I can get my Truenamer bonus up a little more I may also consider the Quicken Utterance Feat. Those would pretty much tie up my feat choices for this build.
.My plan was to go straight Truenamer for now. I've been debating on the Legacy champion route. On one hand, you get a nice +15 bonus, and the item can replace a headband of intellect as well. On the other hand, you lose two levels of progression, and take some hits to your skill points and other abilities.
On a side note, imagine what a Truenamer/Factotum Gestalt could do, lol.
Feat wise, I was planning on taking Extend Utterance at 6, and maybe empower utterance at lvl 9. I was also considering the Keen Intellect feat, and the improved Sigle feat for an additional +1 bonus (debating on wether it's worth it. If I can get my Truenamer bonus up a little more I may also consider the Quicken Utterance Feat. Those would pretty much tie up my feat choices for this build.
IIRC Utterances are SLAs. If I am right, then you can just take Empower, QUicken, and Maximize SLA from the MM and CArc instead of hitting your DCs with feats.
IIRC Utterances are SLAs. If I am right, then you can just take Empower, QUicken, and Maximize SLA from the MM and CArc instead of hitting your DCs with feats.
The only problem I see with that, is that each feat would only apply to one utterance. Taking the Utterance feats would allow me to use them on any of them.
The only problem I see with that, is that each feat would only apply to one utterance. Taking the Utterance feats would allow me to use them on any of them.
Still, Quicken may be worth it. +20 to the DC of the Utterance just to Quicken a single one? Ouch. The SLA feats may be more intensive, but they can be more effective for your DCs in the long run. Also, there is one SLA-enhancer that applies to each of your SLAs 5 times/day/SLA. Mortalbane. You don't even need to be Evil. Plus, the way the feat is worded, you can blow all of the uses/Utterance on a single use to blast their head clean off.
what legacy item can give you +15 to your check?
One of the Menu A, D, and G options for custom-made Legacy Items is a +5/+10/+15 enhancement bonus to any skill check. They don't stack, but having all three is nice. Especially with an Artificer cohort who can change two of those enhancements o something else.
Still I could probably make a better character with the same flavor by building a wizard/loremaster that focuses on the command, hold, dominate, suggestion and power word spell lines.
(it's weird that the truenamer section notes command and power word spells as lesser forms of true name magic but then does not allow the true-namer to learn them or anything much like them)
Still, Quicken may be worth it. +20 to the DC of the Utterance just to Quicken a single one? Ouch. The SLA feats may be more intensive, but they can be more effective for your DCs in the long run.
That said, you'll want to keep your check as high above the necessary DC as possible anyway to be able to squeeze out more uses. This means that for your first shots of a given utterance in a day (and you will have a lot of utterances eventually) your check is likely to be much higher than necessary with no benefits unless you have a meta-utterance feat. If your Truespeak check is "budgeted" for five shots per day at equal CR, you might as well Empower the first shot of each utterance. When your check gets high enough (and you will want to push it that high) you can do the same for Quickening the first couple of shots per day of a given utterance - given how many utterances a high-level Truenamer has, it's quite nice to be able to Quicken the less-used ones for extra oomph without impact on your "bread and butter" utterances.
Quicken SLA is good for emergencies later in the day, especially if you can convince your DM that "Utterances" is a single SLA. However, given the cap on what level of spell-like ability you can quicken at any given character level, I question just how useful it will be in a tight spot.
So feat wise, I am for looking at
Lvl 6: Extend Utterance
Lvl 9: Keen Intellect
Lvl 12: Quicken spell like ability (universal aptitude)
Lvl 15: Empower Utterance
Lvl 18: ?
On a sidenote, having a check which is way too high isn't wasteful at all. After a while you guess how many HD enemies will probably have and reduce your check by an appropriate amount to increase the save DC. (For each -4 you take on your check, the effective level - and thus the save DC - increases by one.)
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Only one combat. We entered a room and were attacked by three shadows. I used lesser words of nurturing, and concentrated on it for one round, and followed it up with another lesser words of nurturing to drop it. In the mean time the healer had seriously hurt the 2nd, so I finished it off with a minor words of nurturing. By that time the 3rd shadow was dispatched.
Only one combat. We entered a room and were attacked by three shadows. I used lesser words of nurturing, and concentrated on it for one round, and followed it up with another lesser words of nurturing to drop it. In the mean time the healer had seriously hurt the 2nd, so I finished it off with a minor words of nurturing. By that time the 3rd shadow was dispatched.
IIRC there is also an organisation in Complete Champion that boosts your Truename check by 5 or 10 (depending on your rank). Im AFB at the moment, but its that paragnostic affiliation.
I always wondered about that, is it a bonus for the next check, or does it last a certain amount of time?
Mortalbane is always a nice feat. Add 2d6 damage/round to your Word of Nurturing Utterances five times a day. Whilst this is only minor at high levels, doing 6d6 over two rounds is quite a good thing at level 1.
On a sidenote, having a check which is way too high isn't wasteful at all. After a while you guess how many HD enemies will probably have and reduce your check by an appropriate amount to increase the save DC. (For each -4 you take on your check, the effective level - and thus the save DC - increases by one.)
The nice part about Mortalbane is that there isn't a limit to the number of times you can use it on the same SLA (aside from the 5/day thing). By RAW, you can blow all 5 uses on one Words of Nurturing and watch the monster cringe in pain from the 10d6+ for two full rounds. That+Greater Words of Nurturing means you can deal a ton of damage each round with no save!
Do note: Most of the first Lexicon doesn't offer a save to resist. This makes that option very limited.
I always wondered about that, is it a bonus for the next check, or does it last a certain amount of time?
Paragnostic Scholar: You can gain a bonus equal to +1 per hour spent in research (maximum +5) on your choice of one of the following skill checks: Appraise, Decipher Script, any Knowledge skill, Psicraft (EPH), Spellcraft, or Truespeak (ToM)
It's permanent. Later you can boost it by up to 10+. This looks basically required for a true-namer.
Paragnostic Scholar: You can gain a bonus equal to +1 per hour spent in research (maximum +5) on your choice of one of the following skill checks: Appraise, Decipher Script, any Knowledge skill, Psicraft (EPH), Spellcraft, or Truespeak (ToM)
It's permanent. Later you can boost it by up to 10+. This looks basically required for a true-namer.
Very nice... now to convince my DM that they are in the Shackled City...
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Most of the campaign was role play. The two new characters were introduced to the party. One was a Half Orc Paragon, and the other was a half elf fighter/rogue mix. Only got to one combat for the night, which was against a Wraith. None of the melee could do anything against it, so it was up to me and the healer. While the Healer went at it with heals, I used my lessor words of nurturing on it. I rolled crappy, but still made my check. Rolled damage and dealt 5. Next turn the healer continued to burn heals on it, and I concentrated and dealt another 5 damage. Third turn healer uses another heal, and I used lessor words of nurturing again and rolled even worse (a 6). It still was enough though, and this time I dealt it 7 damage, and finished it off.
in general, i like the idea of dipping marshal. however if your boosting ability mod is crap then the bonus may not be worth the dip..
i like factotum... but it might get murky..
i like the warlock dip... but then i start thinking about warlock 12, and that changes everything..
maybe some paragon for extra ability bonus?
as a side note, isnt truenaming the backwards system? the one that works best at low levels? is ur-naming an option?
if they are an option,
some custom items would be handy... X of foxes cunning... that sorta thing.. like an x per day uses.. type.. and a similar alterself item to help with movement and size... its alot to ask for at lvl 3 or 4.. but it what i would be aiming for...
Bennet Whitecastle, NG Illumian Truenamer 3
HP: 20
Init: +1
AC: 15, Touch: 11. Flat: 14
BAB: 2
Attack: Quarterstaff 2 1d6
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 17, Wis 11, Cha 14,
Saves: Fort 4, Ref 2, Will 3
Feats: Skill Focus: True Speech, Item Familiar
Skills: Concentration: 6, True Speech 6, Item Familiar (True Speech): 2, Knowledge Arcana: 5, Knowledge Nature: 5, Knowledge Planes: 5. Knowledge Religion: 1, Listen: 2, Use Magic Device: 5
Special: Knowledge focus: Arcana, +2 vs Shadow spells, Sigel (Naen): +2 int checks and skills, Sigel (Krau): +2 to caster level, -4 vs Sigels/Glyphes of a higher level, otherwise imune, Know Personal Truename.
Utterences
lexicon of the evolving mind
Lvl 1: minor words of Nurturing, Universal Aptitude
Lvl 2: Lesser words of Nurtuting
Possesions: Quarterstaff, Dagger, Chain shirt, Lesser amulet of the Silver tongue, Misc. adventuring gear.
As for the system being backwards... without the item familiar feat, it most certainly is. The DC increases with 2 at every CR above you, and your skill only improves by one. With Item Familiar, you are able to keep pace with the DC increases, allowing you to actually improve as you get better. Assuming no other gear additions, this build will have 23 skill ranks in true speak, 23 through the item familiar, +6 bonus from int, +5 from the amulet, +3 from skill focus, and +2 from the runes. This gives me a ability modifier of 62 at lvl 20. For an even CR target, the DC would be 55. So I would get 4 free attempts with an utterance.
However that is assuming straight true namer, with no additional items. Odds are by that time, I would have had taken a lvl of exemplar (+4), a lvl of Marshal (+2 right now, but could go to +5 with a cloak of Charisma +6), an improved amulet (another +5), a +6 headband of intellect (+3 bonus), a luckstone (+1), and the improved Sigil Feat (+1). This would up my ability check to 81, giving me 14 free attempts with an utterance before there is a chance of failure. But with the Exemplar lvl, I get to take a 10 on rolls so that actually adds 5 more uses of the utterance. From then on I will have roll a 10 or better, or boost myself with the universal aptitude utterance for another 2 1/2 auto successes.
And all of that is without joining the Paragnostic assembly, which I am still trying to figure out how that actually works. With it, there is a potential +10 to add on top of it.
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Convieniently the session started with the group taking a rest. So I got to start out fresh that session. We then proceeded to search a tower. In an alter room, we encountered some type of undead. There was just one, stalking a player. Fortunately, the half Orc Paragon spotted him, and quickly killed it before the rest of the party could react. Next we found a room several large vats. As we are searching, we heard casting, and some one summoned a scorpion. The half elf charges, and damages it, and I finish it off with a reversed minor word of nurturing. A second scorpion apears, which the Half Orc quickly dispatches. The human suspects that the caster is in a vat, and climbs up on top of one. He turns out to be right, and finds a Deathlock. He proceeds to attack it. The Half Elf leaps up on the vat and begins to attack as well.
Since it's getting crowded on the vat, I decide to ready an action to fire of a word of nurturing at the first enemy that shows it's self. The Deathlock manages to fear the human, and he takes off running. The Half Orc gets an idea, and charges at the vat. Unfortunately he critically fumbles, and falls on his face. Another turn goes by with the half elf attacking the deathlock, and resisting a spell. The half orc gets up, and attacks the vat. He hits, but barely makes a dent. He then gets another idea. Another round passes with the half elf attacking the deathlock, and resisting the deathlocks spell. I continue to wait to see something to attack. The half orc goes around behind tha vat and tries to push it over. He almost succeeds. The half elf jumps down to help him, and the healer goes over as well. The deathlock summons another scorpion, and I use my readied action to blast it with a minor words of nurturing. On my turn I concentrate on it, and hit it with another d6 and kill it. The rest of the party (excluding the human who was under a fear spell) continued to try to tip the vat over. The Deathlock climbs out of the vat and seeing me, blasts me with a magic missle for 5 points of damage. The Half elf comes around the vat, and ends up killing the deathlock with his attack. I use another minor utterance and heal myself back to full.
Once the fear spell wore off, we regrouped and checked another room. This time we encountered a Ju Ju zombie and a pair of vargoyles. The Half orc gets hit pretty hard by the Zombies axe, and the vargoyles proceed to paralyse all but the half elf and healer. The half elf trips and disarms the zombie. One vargoyle attempts to kiss the human, and the other poisons the half orc. The healer removes the paralysis from the human, who then attacks and kills a vargoyle. The half elf kills the zombie, the healer removes paralysis form the half orc, who then kills the last vargoyle. A round latter my paralysis wears off, lol.
We then go down the stairs and encounter a gorillion Zombie. The Zombie was clutching something in it's arms (meta gaming we suspect a brain in a jar). Right off the bat, the human decides to leave the combat (after a private conversation with the DM). Initiatives begin, and the half elf and Half orc attack. The half orc takes a pretty bad hit, which the healer heals, but mentions that she is running low. Then I get to roll a will save and have a private conversation with the DM. Turns out I am dominated. My instructions are to take my companions and go and kill the orcs we had talked with earlier). So on my turn I cast a lessor words of nurturing on the half orc, giving him fast healing 3 for 5 rounds, tell the party that we have to find the human, and leave the combat to go find him. The half orc continues his attack, and the remaining party members consider a retreat. The half orc gets hit again, bringing him to 0 hp. The elf runs interference for him, and the orc and the healer retreat. The Elf then gets dominated to join me and the others, and the zombie lets him leave. Fast healing brings the half orc back to 12 hp.
Since it's getting crowded on the vat, I decide to ready an action to fire of a word of nurturing at the first enemy that shows it's self. The Deathlock manages to fear the human, and he takes off running. The Half Orc gets an idea, and charges at the vat. Unfortunately he critically fumbles, and falls on his face. Another turn goes by with the half elf attacking the deathlock, and resisting a spell. The half orc gets up, and attacks the vat. He hits, but barely makes a dent. He then gets another idea. Another round passes with the half elf attacking the deathlock, and resisting the deathlocks spell. I continue to wait to see something to attack. The half orc goes around behind tha vat and tries to push it over. He almost succeeds. The half elf jumps down to help him, and the healer goes over as well. The deathlock summons another scorpion, and I use my readied action to blast it with a minor words of nurturing. On my turn I concentrate on it, and hit it with another d6 and kill it. The rest of the party (excluding the human who was under a fear spell) continued to try to tip the vat over. The Deathlock climbs out of the vat and seeing me, blasts me with a magic missle for 5 points of damage. The Half elf comes around the vat, and ends up killing the deathlock with his attack. I use another minor utterance and heal myself back to full.
Once the fear spell wore off, we regrouped and checked another room. This time we encountered a Ju Ju zombie and a pair of vargoyles. The Half orc gets hit pretty hard by the Zombies axe, and the vargoyles proceed to paralyse all but the half elf and healer. The half elf trips and disarms the zombie. One vargoyle attempts to kiss the human, and the other poisons the half orc. The healer removes the paralysis from the human, who then attacks and kills a vargoyle. The half elf kills the zombie, the healer removes paralysis form the half orc, who then kills the last vargoyle. A round latter my paralysis wears off, lol.
We then go down the stairs and encounter a gorillion Zombie. The Zombie was clutching something in it's arms (meta gaming we suspect a brain in a jar). Right off the bat, the human decides to leave the combat (after a private conversation with the DM). Initiatives begin, and the half elf and Half orc attack. The half orc takes a pretty bad hit, which the healer heals, but mentions that she is running low. Then I get to roll a will save and have a private conversation with the DM. Turns out I am dominated. My instructions are to take my companions and go and kill the orcs we had talked with earlier). So on my turn I cast a lessor words of nurturing on the half orc, giving him fast healing 3 for 5 rounds, tell the party that we have to find the human, and leave the combat to go find him. The half orc continues his attack, and the remaining party members consider a retreat. The half orc gets hit again, bringing him to 0 hp. The elf runs interference for him, and the orc and the healer retreat. The Elf then gets dominated to join me and the others, and the zombie lets him leave. Fast healing brings the half orc back to 12 hp.
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When last we left, all but 2 of the party had been suggested/dominated, by what we suspect was a brain in a jar, to wipe out the hobgoblin/orcs that we were helping. The party rests, and we decide to go after the lead Orc first. In fact, we decide to have the half Orc challenge him for leadership over the band. So we head back to their camp, and ask for an audience with their leader. He comes out, the half orc challenges him, and he accepts the challenge, and asks the half orc to follow him into another room. The half orc does so, and the rest of the party is surrounded by a dozen hobgoblins/orcs. The leader tells the half orc to follow, and then drops down a web filled shute. The half orc, having seen a giant spider in this room before, isn't dumb enough to follow.
So the party decides to spring into action, as the main goal was to nutralize the leader before taking on the minions. With the leader gone, it more or less accomplished the goal. The monsters get their hits in first, and I end up taking 5 damage. Our rogue/swashbuckler goes first, kills one (creating an opening), draws all the aoes, and moves close to a corner. Next came the half orc, who throws a throwing axe, which misses. Then came the Fighter spike chain wielder. He tripped and disarmed one, and then moved next to the rogue. Then came my turn, and I moved behind the rogue, and then used temporal twist to give the fighter another attack. Unfortunately he misses. Lastly came the healer, who moved behind the fighter in the corner.
Next turn, the hobgoblins charge, and the fighter and rogue go to town with their AO's. One of the hobgoblins is a caster, and nails me with a Melfs acid Arrow for 5 damage. On our turn, the half orc kills one, the rogue kills one, the fighter continues to trip and disarm, and I use a reversed lessor words of restoration to deal the caster 7 points of damage. Most of the bad guys are disarmed now, but one punches me for 4 damage. Next turn the killing begins in earnest, and I concentrate on the uttterance to deal 10 more damage and finish off the caster. There are only 3 hobgoblins at this point, and my companions are about to kill them all, so I use a lessor words of nurturing to heal myself to full.
So the party decides to spring into action, as the main goal was to nutralize the leader before taking on the minions. With the leader gone, it more or less accomplished the goal. The monsters get their hits in first, and I end up taking 5 damage. Our rogue/swashbuckler goes first, kills one (creating an opening), draws all the aoes, and moves close to a corner. Next came the half orc, who throws a throwing axe, which misses. Then came the Fighter spike chain wielder. He tripped and disarmed one, and then moved next to the rogue. Then came my turn, and I moved behind the rogue, and then used temporal twist to give the fighter another attack. Unfortunately he misses. Lastly came the healer, who moved behind the fighter in the corner.
Next turn, the hobgoblins charge, and the fighter and rogue go to town with their AO's. One of the hobgoblins is a caster, and nails me with a Melfs acid Arrow for 5 damage. On our turn, the half orc kills one, the rogue kills one, the fighter continues to trip and disarm, and I use a reversed lessor words of restoration to deal the caster 7 points of damage. Most of the bad guys are disarmed now, but one punches me for 4 damage. Next turn the killing begins in earnest, and I concentrate on the uttterance to deal 10 more damage and finish off the caster. There are only 3 hobgoblins at this point, and my companions are about to kill them all, so I use a lessor words of nurturing to heal myself to full.
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Ok, the last game the players mopped up the rest of the orcs/hobgoblins/whatever and the Orc warlord, and decided to rest. I knew I wasn't going to make it, so I had spent some time before hand familiarizing my DM with how to play my character so he could play him while I wasn't there. I lived, so it was all good. lol.
So we started off this campaign rested. We knew there was a huge spider some where down a shaft, and spent some time burning off the webs. down the shaft. Our human swash/rogue went first, followed by the half elf chain fighter. Then came me and the healer, followed lastly by the half orc. Well, the human didn't wait for the whole party and oppened a door at the end of a short hall. He got an arrow in his chest for his trouble by a half orc with a bow. He ran into the room, and a taer drops from the ceiling, trying to bullrush him. It fails, and falls prone on the floor. The half elf charges in, and another taer drops down, and clubs him in the head. The elf trips him, and then then moves toward the human. Me and the healer finish climbing down the rope on our turns. The human goes next and heads behind cover and makes his way toward the half orc archer. The Half orc goes next, and casts a spell. The tears regain their feet, and attempt to attack the elf, and one gets tripped. Another taer flings it's club at the elf, but misses. The elf then proceeds to trip the other Taer, and then moved towards the human. It's my turn Next, so I enter the room, back into a corner, and use a lesser word of nurturing on the Half Orc for 5 damage. Next up the healer enters the room, followed by the Half Orc. When the Half Orc charged in, another Tear fell from the ceiling and failed it's bullrush.
Next round the human rounds a corner and engages the Half Orc archer and disarms her bow. The Half Orc responds by turning into a beatiful elven woman and casts a spell at the human. He dodges. One of the tears goes to help it's friend with the Half Orc, and the other goes to engage the Half elf. The half elf trips the taer. I concentrate on my utterance, and deal an additional 10 points of damage. The healer moves in and heals the half orc for some minor damage, and the Half Orc kills one taer, cleaves into the second and kills it also. The human tries to attack the "Elf" and fails. The Elf responds by 5fting and casting a web to block off the corridor, seperating her from the human. The remaining taer tries for the elf again, and gets tripped. The elf, having seen the web, tumbles past the fallen taer to try and get at the caster another way. It takes a double move, but he gets in range for the next turn. Since I now can't see the "elf" I move and use temporal twist to give the Elf another attack. He misses.....sigh. The healer moves in futher to the room as well, followed by the half orc.
The human tumbles past the fallen taer, around the corner, getting into position to go at the "elf" on the next turn. The "elf" responds by casting darkness and 5 footing again. I move to where I can almost see her, and once again try to temporal twist, this time with the half Orc. He misses.... I have absolutely no luck with that utterance. The healer moves in and heals up the half elf some. Next up the Half Orc tries to swing at it, and misses twice. The human moves into a flanking position, but takes an AoO. He also misses with his atack. The "elf" then transforms into an ooze. Yup, thats right... we are fighting a Yochlol. What is up with this campaign? We fought a Wraith at 3rd lvl with no magic items, and now a friggin Yochlol at 4th? Anyways, the Yochlol then divides it's 8 attacks between the human and half orc. The human gets away with one hit, while the Orc takes about 23 points of damage. The remaining Taer goes after the half elf, and the Half elf responds by killing it. I use another reversed Lessor words of Nurturing for another 10 damage. The healer heals the Half Orc to full, and the Orc full attacks again, and misses. The human attacks, and misses. The Yochlol attacks again, hitting the human once, and the Half Orc three times again, for 24 damage this time. The Half Elf comes on and hits it with his spiked chain, but doesn't overcome the DR. I concentrate on my words of nurturing and deal another 7 points of damage. According to the DM the ooze was looking hurt. The healer once again heals the Hald Orc to full. The half orc then attacks and manages to finish it off.
So we managed to win a scarry fight. Afterwards the DM admitted that he played it soft by following the tactics in the modual. With it's abilities, it should have wasted us easily. That, and he said that I had almost killed the thing entirely by myself
. All our melee was hurt and the healer was running low on heals, so I spent 3 more lessor words of nurturing to heal them up 15hp a piece. I also used a minor to bring one up to full, and the healer topped off the rest. The party decided to press on, and went down a stairway at the far end of the room. There we encountered 3 more taers. The half orc and the Human went to work, the human killing one, the Half Orc missing. The half Elf moved up behind them, and attempted to attack, but missed. I moved in behind them and used another lessor word of nurturing, but this time failed my check. The human managed to flank one of the taers, but missed his attack. The half orc killed the Taer in front of him, and the remaining Taer cast a spell at the human and hit him. I tried once again for a lessor word of nurturing and this time made the DC! Only I rolled a pair of 1's for damage 
. The rest of the party being blocked from entry by the human and Half Orc had to wait for them to move, and on their turn they killed the Taer.
So that concluded the night. We are now in a strange room that seems to shout out secret door. I assume we will be resting very soon.
So we started off this campaign rested. We knew there was a huge spider some where down a shaft, and spent some time burning off the webs. down the shaft. Our human swash/rogue went first, followed by the half elf chain fighter. Then came me and the healer, followed lastly by the half orc. Well, the human didn't wait for the whole party and oppened a door at the end of a short hall. He got an arrow in his chest for his trouble by a half orc with a bow. He ran into the room, and a taer drops from the ceiling, trying to bullrush him. It fails, and falls prone on the floor. The half elf charges in, and another taer drops down, and clubs him in the head. The elf trips him, and then then moves toward the human. Me and the healer finish climbing down the rope on our turns. The human goes next and heads behind cover and makes his way toward the half orc archer. The Half orc goes next, and casts a spell. The tears regain their feet, and attempt to attack the elf, and one gets tripped. Another taer flings it's club at the elf, but misses. The elf then proceeds to trip the other Taer, and then moved towards the human. It's my turn Next, so I enter the room, back into a corner, and use a lesser word of nurturing on the Half Orc for 5 damage. Next up the healer enters the room, followed by the Half Orc. When the Half Orc charged in, another Tear fell from the ceiling and failed it's bullrush.
Next round the human rounds a corner and engages the Half Orc archer and disarms her bow. The Half Orc responds by turning into a beatiful elven woman and casts a spell at the human. He dodges. One of the tears goes to help it's friend with the Half Orc, and the other goes to engage the Half elf. The half elf trips the taer. I concentrate on my utterance, and deal an additional 10 points of damage. The healer moves in and heals the half orc for some minor damage, and the Half Orc kills one taer, cleaves into the second and kills it also. The human tries to attack the "Elf" and fails. The Elf responds by 5fting and casting a web to block off the corridor, seperating her from the human. The remaining taer tries for the elf again, and gets tripped. The elf, having seen the web, tumbles past the fallen taer to try and get at the caster another way. It takes a double move, but he gets in range for the next turn. Since I now can't see the "elf" I move and use temporal twist to give the Elf another attack. He misses.....sigh. The healer moves in futher to the room as well, followed by the half orc.
The human tumbles past the fallen taer, around the corner, getting into position to go at the "elf" on the next turn. The "elf" responds by casting darkness and 5 footing again. I move to where I can almost see her, and once again try to temporal twist, this time with the half Orc. He misses.... I have absolutely no luck with that utterance. The healer moves in and heals up the half elf some. Next up the Half Orc tries to swing at it, and misses twice. The human moves into a flanking position, but takes an AoO. He also misses with his atack. The "elf" then transforms into an ooze. Yup, thats right... we are fighting a Yochlol. What is up with this campaign? We fought a Wraith at 3rd lvl with no magic items, and now a friggin Yochlol at 4th? Anyways, the Yochlol then divides it's 8 attacks between the human and half orc. The human gets away with one hit, while the Orc takes about 23 points of damage. The remaining Taer goes after the half elf, and the Half elf responds by killing it. I use another reversed Lessor words of Nurturing for another 10 damage. The healer heals the Half Orc to full, and the Orc full attacks again, and misses. The human attacks, and misses. The Yochlol attacks again, hitting the human once, and the Half Orc three times again, for 24 damage this time. The Half Elf comes on and hits it with his spiked chain, but doesn't overcome the DR. I concentrate on my words of nurturing and deal another 7 points of damage. According to the DM the ooze was looking hurt. The healer once again heals the Hald Orc to full. The half orc then attacks and manages to finish it off.
So we managed to win a scarry fight. Afterwards the DM admitted that he played it soft by following the tactics in the modual. With it's abilities, it should have wasted us easily. That, and he said that I had almost killed the thing entirely by myself
. All our melee was hurt and the healer was running low on heals, so I spent 3 more lessor words of nurturing to heal them up 15hp a piece. I also used a minor to bring one up to full, and the healer topped off the rest. The party decided to press on, and went down a stairway at the far end of the room. There we encountered 3 more taers. The half orc and the Human went to work, the human killing one, the Half Orc missing. The half Elf moved up behind them, and attempted to attack, but missed. I moved in behind them and used another lessor word of nurturing, but this time failed my check. The human managed to flank one of the taers, but missed his attack. The half orc killed the Taer in front of him, and the remaining Taer cast a spell at the human and hit him. I tried once again for a lessor word of nurturing and this time made the DC! Only I rolled a pair of 1's for damage . The rest of the party being blocked from entry by the human and Half Orc had to wait for them to move, and on their turn they killed the Taer. So that concluded the night. We are now in a strange room that seems to shout out secret door. I assume we will be resting very soon.
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Ok, we had left off in a strange room with polished reflective sides. One side had a reflection of a door that wasn't there. We obviously checked it for secret doors. We found it, disabled the traps (me using a universal aptiture on the rogue to help his disable check). We then entered a flooded room, and were attacked by a zombie under the water. Since I had already had already used my lessor words 6 times, and had a whopping +12 to my DC, I used my temporal twist to let the fighters deal damage. They missed 3 out of the 5 times I used it, but a few did land, and for more damage than I could have done anyways.
Afterward, I used a minor and a lessor word of nurturing to heal up one party member to full. Next we searched the room. We found the key we were looking for, and the little girl we had come here to find to begin with. Having found our objectives, I suggested that we rest (I had used lessor words 7 times, adding a +14 to the DC. I'd have to roll a 12 or better to affect an even CR. Thats more dicey than I like.), before making a break for the exit. So we rested up, and made a break for the exit. A the bridge we were attacked by something that appeared to be a tentacled glass elemental. I was grappled by a tentacle, so I uttered defensively and fired off a reversed lessor words of nurturing at it. The rest of the party attacked it, and I concentrated on it the next round to deal some more damage. The party dispatched it, and we continued on our way.
Afterward, I used a minor and a lessor word of nurturing to heal up one party member to full. Next we searched the room. We found the key we were looking for, and the little girl we had come here to find to begin with. Having found our objectives, I suggested that we rest (I had used lessor words 7 times, adding a +14 to the DC. I'd have to roll a 12 or better to affect an even CR. Thats more dicey than I like.), before making a break for the exit. So we rested up, and made a break for the exit. A the bridge we were attacked by something that appeared to be a tentacled glass elemental. I was grappled by a tentacle, so I uttered defensively and fired off a reversed lessor words of nurturing at it. The rest of the party attacked it, and I concentrated on it the next round to deal some more damage. The party dispatched it, and we continued on our way.
Glad to hear that people are still reading this. I'll keep updating this as long as this character lasts. As for remembering... I always try and update this the next day while it is still fresh in my mind. Also, though we generally play for about 3 1/2 to 4 hours, it usually only entails a couple encounters, few that last more than 3-4 rounds. Not too much to remember.
IMHO it seems to suffer from versatility somewhat, although it does seem good on the stamina.
It's also quite sad that you are having so little success with those utterances that are actually strong. The piddly 2d6 from the nurture should hardly matter, while extra attacks should be a kicker. Oh well.
You are right about the lack of versatility. However, I am only lvl 4 and I will be getting more options every level. Once I can start quickening utterances, things will get interesting. I can't emphasize enough however, how important item familiar is to the build. Without the ability to increase my skill ranks by 2 each level, I wouldn't play it.
And yeah... temporal twist should be my main means of offense. However the party is also just lvl 4, and misses happen. Even worse when the things we are fighting get concealment, DR, or are immune to non-magic weapons (like the frigging wraith we fought at lvl 3). The 2d6 isn't much, but sometimes it's all the party has. But temporal twist should stay strong as the party levels. I would have prefered the whole words of nurturing line to be done away with and changed into two utterances that scale as you level.
Anyways, spoilers a head.
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We arrived in Marsember, under the auspices of helping our employer find some one who could help her with some ancient Star Elf lore. This allowed the party to spend their loot, and for me to join the Assembly and do my research. We then learned that the person we were looking for had moved to a small town a few days journey away.
We arrive at the town and find out that the person we are looking for is missing, and found clues implicating the new temple to Mystra. We investigate the temple, and it seems that there is something off about the church. They are pushing a special ritual, and the rest of the party decides to try it. My character refuses on religious grounds. Why would he join this Mystra cult, when he already worships a REAL diety like Denier. Afterall, there can't be any wizards without books now can there? So the rest of the party shells out some gold, undergoes a ritual, gets dominated, and are put in cells.
During the three days of the ritual, I am watching the temple and know that no one has left. The priest we had spoken to claimed that they had left already, so I knew he was lying. So I case the place, ambush a pair of guards, interrogate them, knock them out, steal on of their uniforms, and bluff my way into the temple. I search it, and find the room that the others were brainwashed in. Two guards that I couldn't see in the darkness were there, and I pressed forward to try and find a better lit room. I find an area with more light, but then an elemental comes at me. I keep running, and enter another room. There I encounter a priestess of shar, several more guards, and some wierd snakes. Things are looking grim, so I run to the far door, and open it. There is a narrow hallway, where hopefully I can create a bottleneck and at least fight one at a time. Well, the priestess manages to cast a hold person on me, and I fail my saves. The bad guys pound me into unconsiousness, and I wake up in a cell next to my team mates.
So that was pretty much it. I saw the only action, and that was to take out 2 lvl 1 warriors. Lol. I guess we'll have to see what happens next time.
We arrive at the town and find out that the person we are looking for is missing, and found clues implicating the new temple to Mystra. We investigate the temple, and it seems that there is something off about the church. They are pushing a special ritual, and the rest of the party decides to try it. My character refuses on religious grounds. Why would he join this Mystra cult, when he already worships a REAL diety like Denier. Afterall, there can't be any wizards without books now can there? So the rest of the party shells out some gold, undergoes a ritual, gets dominated, and are put in cells.
During the three days of the ritual, I am watching the temple and know that no one has left. The priest we had spoken to claimed that they had left already, so I knew he was lying. So I case the place, ambush a pair of guards, interrogate them, knock them out, steal on of their uniforms, and bluff my way into the temple. I search it, and find the room that the others were brainwashed in. Two guards that I couldn't see in the darkness were there, and I pressed forward to try and find a better lit room. I find an area with more light, but then an elemental comes at me. I keep running, and enter another room. There I encounter a priestess of shar, several more guards, and some wierd snakes. Things are looking grim, so I run to the far door, and open it. There is a narrow hallway, where hopefully I can create a bottleneck and at least fight one at a time. Well, the priestess manages to cast a hold person on me, and I fail my saves. The bad guys pound me into unconsiousness, and I wake up in a cell next to my team mates.
So that was pretty much it. I saw the only action, and that was to take out 2 lvl 1 warriors. Lol. I guess we'll have to see what happens next time.
I'm surprised you went so far, but I may be overestimating low-level NPCs. You ought to have acted dominated.
Tip: If you are hungry for feats, check out DCFS (in my sig).
Edit 3: NO SERIOUSLY, ABYSSAL SHUFFLE YOURSELF A PLANAR WARD SOULMELD NOW!!!
Second, I am very familiar with magic of the incarnum, and it's a great meld. I take it you have played this mod before? If so, please refrain from any outright spoilers please.
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Long story short, I got dominated with the others, lol. We were set to be shipped out to some camp. They went to renew the domination, and I think the DM went easy on us, and gave us some divine intervention. The Domination was broken, but we played along. Once the boat left us down river, and gave me a map, and instructions on where to go. There was one other lady with us, and we got some more information from her. Turns out, they guy we were looking for was probably dead. We decided to head back to town, and take down the temple. Lol, there was some great roll play this session. The Half Orc likes to pretend to be stupid (he has a 14 int), so he asked the party, "Um... so are we killing this shar lady, or Mystra?". A party member responded, "No, we are killing Shar... the difference is that people like Mystra, and she gets killed on her own anyways". LOL
Anyways... we head back into town, and are ambushed. One is a female hafling rogue, who is sniping from a roof top, and a fighter type. We were not sure if we were facing innocent people who were dominated, common street thugs, or people connected to the temple, so the swash/rogue climbs up on a roof to go after the hafling, and the half orc does some subdual damage to the fighter. The half elf chain fighter attempts to trip the fighter, but fails the trip attempt. Then the enemies attacked, and the swash rogue got shot with an arrow, and the half orc took some major damage from the fighter. The healer went next, and went to heal the half orc of some of his damage. On my turn I blasted the hafling with a lessor words of nurturing for average damage.
Next turn, the swash/rogue closes the gap and tries to grapple the hafling, but fails. The half orc attacks again, and the chain fighter again rolls crappy on his trip attempt. On the badguys turn, the fighter delivers a huge hit, and drops the half orc into the negatives. The hafling tries to swallow a potion, but the Swash/Rogue disarms her with his AoO. The hafling then retreats off the roof. The healer brings the barbarian back to consciousness, and I concentrate on my words of nurturing doing average damage again.
Next round, the Half orc draws a handaxe and attacks the fighter with it. The spike chain fighter again is jinxed by his dice, and the Swash/rogue again fails to grapple the hafling. On the enemies turn, a swarm of bats appear, and pester the Half Orc and healer. The fighter again attacks and knocks orc back into the negatives, the hafling retreats first, then swallows an invisibility potion. The healer moves out of the swarm and heals the Orc again. Since I can't see the hafling, I attack the fighter with a reversed lesser words of nurturing for about 5 damage.
The Swash/Rogue tried to grapple the invisable hafling, but fails. The Half Orc is nausiated by the swarm, and takes some wounding damage. The chain fighter again rolls crappy and fails his trip attempt, lol. The swarm moves toward the fighter, and the fighter moves to a door. The hafling is no where to be seen (pun intended). The healer then goes up and heals the half orc for some more. I concentrate on my utterance, and deal an additional 8 damage.
This time the trip fighter finally trips the fighter, and the rogue moves in to flank, dealing some more damage. The Half Orc becomes un-nausiated, grabs his weapons, and gets back to his feet. The fighter stands, and takes some AoO's, and oppens the door. The healer helps the half orc again, and I use temporal Twist on the Swash/rogue, and he kills the fighter.
The party flee's the swarm, and it soon disapates. We come back, and plot our next move. If our attackers were connected to the temple, then they know we are back and will be waiting for us. I decide to bring the corpse with us, and try to get a cleric from one of the other temples in town to cast speak with the dead on him. So we go to the local priest of Silvanus, and he agree's to help us. The next morning he casts the spell, and we confirm that they were hired by the Sharran's, and it is more than likely that they will be expecting us. So we tell him to go to the authorities, while we are storming the temple.
So next game we get to go bust up the temple. lol.
Anyways... we head back into town, and are ambushed. One is a female hafling rogue, who is sniping from a roof top, and a fighter type. We were not sure if we were facing innocent people who were dominated, common street thugs, or people connected to the temple, so the swash/rogue climbs up on a roof to go after the hafling, and the half orc does some subdual damage to the fighter. The half elf chain fighter attempts to trip the fighter, but fails the trip attempt. Then the enemies attacked, and the swash rogue got shot with an arrow, and the half orc took some major damage from the fighter. The healer went next, and went to heal the half orc of some of his damage. On my turn I blasted the hafling with a lessor words of nurturing for average damage.
Next turn, the swash/rogue closes the gap and tries to grapple the hafling, but fails. The half orc attacks again, and the chain fighter again rolls crappy on his trip attempt. On the badguys turn, the fighter delivers a huge hit, and drops the half orc into the negatives. The hafling tries to swallow a potion, but the Swash/Rogue disarms her with his AoO. The hafling then retreats off the roof. The healer brings the barbarian back to consciousness, and I concentrate on my words of nurturing doing average damage again.
Next round, the Half orc draws a handaxe and attacks the fighter with it. The spike chain fighter again is jinxed by his dice, and the Swash/rogue again fails to grapple the hafling. On the enemies turn, a swarm of bats appear, and pester the Half Orc and healer. The fighter again attacks and knocks orc back into the negatives, the hafling retreats first, then swallows an invisibility potion. The healer moves out of the swarm and heals the Orc again. Since I can't see the hafling, I attack the fighter with a reversed lesser words of nurturing for about 5 damage.
The Swash/Rogue tried to grapple the invisable hafling, but fails. The Half Orc is nausiated by the swarm, and takes some wounding damage. The chain fighter again rolls crappy and fails his trip attempt, lol. The swarm moves toward the fighter, and the fighter moves to a door. The hafling is no where to be seen (pun intended). The healer then goes up and heals the half orc for some more. I concentrate on my utterance, and deal an additional 8 damage.
This time the trip fighter finally trips the fighter, and the rogue moves in to flank, dealing some more damage. The Half Orc becomes un-nausiated, grabs his weapons, and gets back to his feet. The fighter stands, and takes some AoO's, and oppens the door. The healer helps the half orc again, and I use temporal Twist on the Swash/rogue, and he kills the fighter.
The party flee's the swarm, and it soon disapates. We come back, and plot our next move. If our attackers were connected to the temple, then they know we are back and will be waiting for us. I decide to bring the corpse with us, and try to get a cleric from one of the other temples in town to cast speak with the dead on him. So we go to the local priest of Silvanus, and he agree's to help us. The next morning he casts the spell, and we confirm that they were hired by the Sharran's, and it is more than likely that they will be expecting us. So we tell him to go to the authorities, while we are storming the temple.
So next game we get to go bust up the temple. lol.
The downside is he could move out of range and you'd auto-fail and not know it.
Hmm. They are limited by range right?
The downside is he could move out of range and you'd auto-fail and not know it.
60 ft unless otherwise stated. The range doesn't even scale with power unless you enlarge it.
As for Temporal twist... Round one I wanted to help with the archer on the roof (no one was next to her at that point). That lead to me concentrating on it during the second round. The spike chain's fighters dice were against him that night, so I didn't want to target him. On the third round, the Barbarian had been knocked unconscious, and then regained consciusness with the healer, so had no weapon in hand on my turn. Besides that, he was prone for most of the fight, so had a to hit penalty. The Swash/rogue was not next to the hafling on my turn, and the hafling was invisable anyways. So I fired off a reversed lessor words of nurturing on the fighter, and concentrated on it the following round. On the fifth round, the swash/rogue was next to the fighter, so I went ahead and fired off the temporal twist.
Ok, got a response from customer service, which in a nutshell was "We no longer support 3.5". LOL. So I guess it will be my dm's call next time.
As for Temporal twist... Round one I wanted to help with the archer on the roof (no one was next to her at that point). That lead to me concentrating on it during the second round. The spike chain's fighters dice were against him that night, so I didn't want to target him. On the third round, the Barbarian had been knocked unconscious, and then regained consciusness with the healer, so had no weapon in hand on my turn. Besides that, he was prone for most of the fight, so had a to hit penalty. The Swash/rogue was not next to the hafling on my turn, and the hafling was invisable anyways. So I fired off a reversed lessor words of nurturing on the fighter, and concentrated on it the following round. On the fifth round, the swash/rogue was next to the fighter, so I went ahead and fired off the temporal twist.
Well, ok, I would say giving the chain fighter attacks would have finished the fight much more quickly - but of course he would have to hit now and then. Going by probabilities... well, if you miss a lot you can only increase your chances by getting MORE chances.
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So after last game we decided to storm the temple. However after my last experience, I decided that I needed to stalk up on a light source or two. So were refered to a herbalist shop (evidently some of the people in town don't like the hardware shop owner). There I bought an ever burning torch, and some of the party members did some shopping.
We walked into the temple courtyard, and saw Brother Shan. I had the group gather around me and act like we were discussing something (for background noise), and fired off a lessor word of nurturing at him. He excused himself, and headed into the temple. We followed, and I bluffed my way past the guards. I was kind of glad for this, as being neutral good, I didn't want to kill some innocent guards just doing their job. We made it into the room where the rest of the party saw the orb, and where I had the two hidden guards confront me. The swashbuckler/rogue found the orb and pocketed it. Our light sources dimmed, and the two hidden gaurds made their appearence. Fortunately they both missed their attacks. The spike chain fighter attacked and disarmed his opponent. The half orc attacked and missed. I used a temporal twist, and the half orc missed again. The bad guys swung and missed again. The rogue moved behind one of them to flank with the half orc, and missed as well. The spike chain fighter failed his trip attempt, and the half orc missed his next attack. I used temporal twist again, and this time he hit and killed it. The other shadow guard came and attacked me, dealing 7 damage. The healer attacked him and hurt him. Every one ganged up on the last one, and despite a lot of misses, he was taken down. I used a minor word of nurturing to heal myself for 5 point of damage.
So then we moved down the hall where I knew that elemental was hiding. So we proceeded carefully, and were attacked by the elemental and two of those shadow guards. I'll sumarize the nex few rounds to save on space... I used temporal twist two more times, with no real effect. Either they missed, or they hit and failed their trip/disarm check. Still, they managed to take down the two guards, while the swash/rogue went full defensive and distracted the elemental. Just as we were finishing off the last guard, in walked Brother Shan and the priest that had used the orb on the party. I fired off a lessor words of nurturing, concentrated on it, and fired off another to kill Brother Shan. Shan and the other priests had been firing off sound bursts at the party, which had got everyone in the party but me. The swash/rogue was down to single digit hp from the sound bursts at this point, but was still confidently dodging the elementals attacks. When Shan fell, the other priest tried to run. By my turn again, I tried to temporal twist the spike chain fighter, hoping that he would trip and stall him. He failed his check. The priest tried to cast another spell before he fled, which triggered an AoO from the chain fighter. He managed to disarm his holy symbol. The priest used his move to pick it back up, and bought us another round. The chain fighter managed to kill him, and the healer healed the Swash/Rogue. I used my lessor words of nurturing on the elemental twice, and managed to kill it.
We walked into the temple courtyard, and saw Brother Shan. I had the group gather around me and act like we were discussing something (for background noise), and fired off a lessor word of nurturing at him. He excused himself, and headed into the temple. We followed, and I bluffed my way past the guards. I was kind of glad for this, as being neutral good, I didn't want to kill some innocent guards just doing their job. We made it into the room where the rest of the party saw the orb, and where I had the two hidden guards confront me. The swashbuckler/rogue found the orb and pocketed it. Our light sources dimmed, and the two hidden gaurds made their appearence. Fortunately they both missed their attacks. The spike chain fighter attacked and disarmed his opponent. The half orc attacked and missed. I used a temporal twist, and the half orc missed again. The bad guys swung and missed again. The rogue moved behind one of them to flank with the half orc, and missed as well. The spike chain fighter failed his trip attempt, and the half orc missed his next attack. I used temporal twist again, and this time he hit and killed it. The other shadow guard came and attacked me, dealing 7 damage. The healer attacked him and hurt him. Every one ganged up on the last one, and despite a lot of misses, he was taken down. I used a minor word of nurturing to heal myself for 5 point of damage.
So then we moved down the hall where I knew that elemental was hiding. So we proceeded carefully, and were attacked by the elemental and two of those shadow guards. I'll sumarize the nex few rounds to save on space... I used temporal twist two more times, with no real effect. Either they missed, or they hit and failed their trip/disarm check. Still, they managed to take down the two guards, while the swash/rogue went full defensive and distracted the elemental. Just as we were finishing off the last guard, in walked Brother Shan and the priest that had used the orb on the party. I fired off a lessor words of nurturing, concentrated on it, and fired off another to kill Brother Shan. Shan and the other priests had been firing off sound bursts at the party, which had got everyone in the party but me. The swash/rogue was down to single digit hp from the sound bursts at this point, but was still confidently dodging the elementals attacks. When Shan fell, the other priest tried to run. By my turn again, I tried to temporal twist the spike chain fighter, hoping that he would trip and stall him. He failed his check. The priest tried to cast another spell before he fled, which triggered an AoO from the chain fighter. He managed to disarm his holy symbol. The priest used his move to pick it back up, and bought us another round. The chain fighter managed to kill him, and the healer healed the Swash/Rogue. I used my lessor words of nurturing on the elemental twice, and managed to kill it.
- Knight's Puissance (1st level, I know), might give the +2 to attack you need for your Temporal Twists to turn out successful more often
- Depending on how mobile your party's combat is, Inertia Surge (reversed), or Speed of the Zephyr (for +20' speed and walking on walls) may be more useful
Try and get your DM to give you the Sorcerer's spell retraining mechanic, so when you get to next level and take Words of Nurturing, Moderate, you can retrain your Words of Nurturing, Minor into something useful. Otherwise 50% of your LEM utterances will be Words of Nurturing (boring). Also makes choices like Silent Caster less permanent if they turn out to be less than stellar.
Extend Utterance will be a nice feat to take at 6th level (as you plan) to take advantage of your excess skill modifier and double the total healing per words of nurturing, or keep buffs going longer in a prolonged fight.
One first level utterance I do plan on going back for is the freedom of movement one.
Yeah, inertia surge seems very useful long term (both normal and reversed) and is tough to leave out when you pretty much have to choose words of nurturing, minor and universal aptitude with your first two.
But I agree... a part of me wishes that they had broken out words of nurturing into two seperate uttereances that scaled with your level.
It will be fascinating as your diary continues which higher level utterances turn out to be useful or not. Keep up this good and valuable work.
I agree, the words of nurturing should either be automatically gained at each new utterance level, be a seperate Lexicon, be two seperate utterances that each scale with level, or Truenamers should start with more utterances known like a Sorcerer (say 3 1st-level utterances instead of Sorcerer's 5 0th-level and 2 1st-level).
As for the game, I arrived late, so most of the combat was done. Here is the small recap of the evening.
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The party went to the room with the Shar portal, and killed the priestess and the snakes. Evidently the swashbuckler/rogue had a bestow curse cast on him. I arrive just after the fight. We explore the rest of the temple, loot what we can, spare the boatman, and leave before the city guard shows up. We then head back to our friend the priest of Silvanus, and tell him what's happened. He urges us to speak to the constable, who urges us to speak with the local lord, who hires us to finish wiping out the Sharrans. We then head to the priests of Chauntea to buy a scroll of remove curse for our team mate.
EDIT: Hmmm... wait a sec... If I hieghten an utterance, that will help boost the DC wouldn't it? I may have to re-look at that, and the Silent Caster utterance. I remember thinking what use hieghtening an utterance would do, as they had no spell level or real caster level...Dispell checks and the like were about all that came to me. But a truenamer has an effective caster level equal to his truenamer level. I will have to look at it again to see if it works. But if I could boost my truenamer level with the hieghten ability, I will be able to boost up my save DC's. I loaned my Tome of Magic to my DM, so I won't get to check till next week.
I'm looking to build a higher-level truenamer for an upcoming game...looking forward to reading more about your (mis)adventures and developments
This recent thread had some builds you might want to check out for a high-level Truenamer. I would strongly recommend my pet favorite: a one level dip in Archivist for Dark Knowledge (tactics), and a smattering of useful 1st level spells like detect magic, lesser restoration (Paladin), longstrider (Druid), feather fall (Shugenja), or silent image (Shugenja). Just make a ton of scrolls (using extra XP from Item Familiar?) for all those useful-once-in-a-while 1st level spells. Great flavor match for a Truenamer seeking knowledge.
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We were given our gold from our loot, and so the party did some shopping. For my part I bought a wand of detect magic. No one had that ability yet, and I figured I could best cover that party need. My base rank is 5 at the moment, with a +2 stat bonus. However, universal aptitude will give me another +5, giving me a +12 modifier. Decent enough for right now. Once the party was supplied, we set out.
We came across and man and gnome making camp at a ruined shrine, but mostly bypassed them. We were ambushed by a pair of archers near a tomb, and I took 30 points of damage in the suprise round, leaving me at 6hp. Fortunately the next round I got healed for 22 by the healer. The spike chain fighter had disarmed one archer, and the archer retreated. I and the rest of the party tried to close in the distance (they were out of my range). I got poked for 2 damage by another arrow.Next turn I killed one with a lessor words of nurturing, and the Half orc killed the second. I healed myself to full with two minor words of nurturing.
Next we were ambushed in a swamp by about 8 normal lizard folk, and 4 larger ones. Four of the lizard folk were up in the trees. The first round I was hit with an arrow (boy was I a magnet for them tonight), and was paralyzed by whatever they had coated it with. The half orc and swashbuckler/rogue were captured in nets, and the elven healer and half elf spike chain fighter were immune to the arrows paralytic effect. The party continued to be peppered with arrows and javelins, dealing some fairly serious damage. The spike chain fighter got to run to the nearest lizard folk in a tree, and tripped him off a branch and killed him with his follow up attack. The half Orc and Swashbuckler/rogue cut their way out of the nets, and the healer freed me of my paralysis. Seeing that the swashbuckler/rogue and Half Orc were very hurt, I decided to help with the healing department and hit the swashbuckler/rogue (whom I shall now just refer to as the human. I'd use their names, but I couldn't hope to spell them), with a lessor words of nurturing. Next round, more arrows and javelins, but now we were not flat footed and faired much better. The spike chain fighter made his way to the next tree, but missed. The half Orc, being out of range of anything, popped a smoke stick to give me, the healer, and himself some cover. The human tried to attack one of the large lizardmen but missed. On my turn I targeted a lizardman in a tree on the other side of the battlefield, and hit him with a reversed minor word of nurturing. Next round the spike chain fighter killed another tree'd lizardman, The half Orc killed one of the big lizardmen, the human hurt his opponent, and I finished off the lizardman I had hurt earlier by concentrating on the utterance. The following round, the spike chain fighter attempted to kill another lizardman, but being half submerged in a bog gave them a bonus to AC, and he missed. The human got into position to attack another cluster of lizardmen, as did the Half Orc, and I killed the last tree'd lizardman with another reversed minor word of nurturing. At that point, the remaining lizardfolk fled.
We came across and man and gnome making camp at a ruined shrine, but mostly bypassed them. We were ambushed by a pair of archers near a tomb, and I took 30 points of damage in the suprise round, leaving me at 6hp. Fortunately the next round I got healed for 22 by the healer. The spike chain fighter had disarmed one archer, and the archer retreated. I and the rest of the party tried to close in the distance (they were out of my range). I got poked for 2 damage by another arrow.Next turn I killed one with a lessor words of nurturing, and the Half orc killed the second. I healed myself to full with two minor words of nurturing.
Next we were ambushed in a swamp by about 8 normal lizard folk, and 4 larger ones. Four of the lizard folk were up in the trees. The first round I was hit with an arrow (boy was I a magnet for them tonight), and was paralyzed by whatever they had coated it with. The half orc and swashbuckler/rogue were captured in nets, and the elven healer and half elf spike chain fighter were immune to the arrows paralytic effect. The party continued to be peppered with arrows and javelins, dealing some fairly serious damage. The spike chain fighter got to run to the nearest lizard folk in a tree, and tripped him off a branch and killed him with his follow up attack. The half Orc and Swashbuckler/rogue cut their way out of the nets, and the healer freed me of my paralysis. Seeing that the swashbuckler/rogue and Half Orc were very hurt, I decided to help with the healing department and hit the swashbuckler/rogue (whom I shall now just refer to as the human. I'd use their names, but I couldn't hope to spell them), with a lessor words of nurturing. Next round, more arrows and javelins, but now we were not flat footed and faired much better. The spike chain fighter made his way to the next tree, but missed. The half Orc, being out of range of anything, popped a smoke stick to give me, the healer, and himself some cover. The human tried to attack one of the large lizardmen but missed. On my turn I targeted a lizardman in a tree on the other side of the battlefield, and hit him with a reversed minor word of nurturing. Next round the spike chain fighter killed another tree'd lizardman, The half Orc killed one of the big lizardmen, the human hurt his opponent, and I finished off the lizardman I had hurt earlier by concentrating on the utterance. The following round, the spike chain fighter attempted to kill another lizardman, but being half submerged in a bog gave them a bonus to AC, and he missed. The human got into position to attack another cluster of lizardmen, as did the Half Orc, and I killed the last tree'd lizardman with another reversed minor word of nurturing. At that point, the remaining lizardfolk fled.
I was wrong, not sure how I read it so incorrectly.
Don't sweat it, I did the same briefly.
As for archavist, I abslutely love the class. In fact one of the first builds I made with true naming, was an Archavist/fiend binder. Flavor wise I thought it was awesome.
I generally find maximise more rewarding than empower, I must say.
I would love to have a maxamize, but all we get is Empower, Quicken, enlarge, and Extend.
Hmm... a truenamer isn't that strong. Any chance to persuade your DM to make a houserule?
I'm curious if you intended to UMD some stuff before too long.
I had just bought a wand of detect magic last game, so yeah, I will be. We just haven't been running into much in the way of scrolls and wands yet. I have 5 ranks in it at the moment, and with stat bonuses and Universal aptitude I can get my modifyer up to +12. Level 7 is when my item familiar ranks will catch up with my skill point ranks for true speaking, so I will start having some free skill points again. UMD is one of the skills I plan on catching up on.
As for the house rule... I could get maximize spell like ability, but I believe the way the rules work, I would have to chose an individual utterance for it to affect. The DM does allow retraining, so I suppose I could take it and just retrain it every time I get a new words of nurturing.
As for the house rule... I could get maximize spell like ability, but I believe the way the rules work, I would have to chose an individual utterance for it to affect. The DM does allow retraining, so I suppose I could take it and just retrain it every time I get a new words of nurturing.
I'm not a great friend of the SLA feats... 3 times per day. But at least without DC increase.
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Last game I was in, we had beaten back a small horde of lizard men who had ambushed us. The next game, the party was aproached and offered a truce. Turned out that the lizardmen were just trying to stop us from becoming new recruits for the sharans. It also turns out that there was a black dragon and renegade group of lizardmen helping them. They offered to aid the party in exchange for freeing some of their tribe who had been captured. The party decided to go into the stronghold through the front door. The gave the half orc the map, had him hold it upside down, and pretend to be dominated. The sharrans were a little suspicious about an unschedualed arrival, but let them in. They then took the party to the head priestest. She questioned the party, who played dumb, and then attempted to read their minds. They resisted, and then attacked her. Evidently she and her two guards went down easy, though she had cast a blacklight spell and the guards managed to sound an alarm. This is where I joined back in.
The party could hear guards coming, so we moved out of the darkness, and into a new room. The room was filled with a strange black orb, that had tendrils of darkness coming out of it, snaking around the room. There was also 4 shaderkai warriors, a shaderkai caster, and a half black dragon sorcerer. The spiked chain fighter came in, and tripped the nearest Shaderkai, and the half orc followed close behind and finished him off. The rogue/swashbuckler entered into the room, and started moving toward the cast. It was then the bad guys turn. The half dragon spewed acid at the half orc and rogue. The rogue managed to evade the blast, but the half orc took the full brunt of the blast and was reduced to 9hp. The Shaderkai caster then cast hold person on the rogue. The remaining three shaderkai fired arrows at the held rogue. Next up was my turn. I could have cast inertia surge on the rogue, but since it was only for 1 round I felt I would be better served focusing on eliminating the caster. So I hit him with a reversed minor word of nurturing. The healer was last, and came in as close as she could and readied an action to heal the half orc.
Next round, the spike chain fighter moved up to the caster, and attempted to trip him. He failed. The half orc got healed, and moved closer to one of the shaderkai warriors. The rogue failed his save and remained held. The half dragon fired a lightning bolt that hit the rogue and me. We both made our saves, and I only took 15 damage. The caster cast ray of enfeeblement on the chain fighter, and the warriors fired arrows at me. One hit for 3 damage. On my turn I concentrated on the utterance, and moved to where I had some cover. The healer moved up and cured paralysis on the rogue.
The spiked chain fighter attempted to attack the caster, but missed. The half orc moved up and killed one of the Shaderkai warriors. The half Dragon cast a spell, but it was resisted. The caster cast a hold person on the half elf. I got hit with one more arrow for 1 point of damage (up to 19 total). On my turn I used another reversed minor words of nurturing. The healer healed the rogue, and moved closer to the spiked chain fighter. The rogue tumbled and leapt his way next to the caster, but missed his attack (evidently this caster had some high ac from defensive buffs, and the tendrils gave him concealment).
The Half orc moved closer and lobbed a thunderstone next to the half dragon and caster. The half dragon attempted to cast a spell, but appeared deafened and it fizzled. The caster hit the rogue with yet another hold person. The remaining two warriors missed their attacks. I concentrated on my utterance, dealing more damage to the caster. The healer used remove paralysis on the half elf. The rogue managed to break free of his hold. The hald elf attacked the caster and missed.
The half orc finished off the next shaderkai warrior and moved closer to the half dragon. The half dragon attacked the rogue and missed. The caster cast another ray at the rogue, but missed. I used another reversed minor word of nurturing, and finally killed the caster. Yay me! The healer healed the rogue for some more, and the spiked chain fighter moved closer to the half dragon and missed his attack. The rogue managed to hit the half dragon for some damage.
The half orc attacked the half dragon, and scored a decent hit. The half dragon hit him back, and dropped him into the negatives. I used a minor word of nurturing to givve him fast healing 3. The healer moved closer and healed the half orc back into consciousness. The spike chain fighter and the rogue both missed their attack.
The half orc picked up his axe and swung again at the half dragon and hit. The half dragon attacked him back again, ond once again dropped him into the negatives. Since my minor words of nurturing were tied up, I used temporal twist on the rogue. He missed. The healer once again healed the half orc into consciousness. Spike chain fighter and rogue attacked and missed.
To sum up, the party continued to wail on him, missing quite a bit. I used temporal twist two more times, the last one was actually worth while as the half orc was able to put him down with it.
we were then attacked by an armored man and three casters. It was made clear to us that they had been dominated. I was closest, and moved away. My minor words were still tied up, so I didn't do anything. The rest of the party moved in closer to attack, with the healer npc urging us not to kill them, for they were not acting of their own volition. My minor words of nurturing freed up, so I used a reversed on a caster. The half orc moved in close, and missed an attack. The others moved their way closer. The half orc was hit by several magic missles, and the armored man missed his attack. I concentrated on my utterance, and sent a caster into the negatives. The half orc killed the other two casters (so much for taking them alive). The armored man hit the half orc with his spear, and dropped him back into the negatives. The rogue and chain fighter flanked the armored man, with the rogue scoring a hit with his sap. The healer gave the half orc a small heal. bringing him back to consciousness. I gave the rogue a temporal twist, and he critted, subduing him into unconsciousness.
We searched our fallen enemies, and I used a charge of my wand of detect magic on their belongings. Part of what we found were 3 scrolls of dispell magic. I had the chain fighter stand next to the two subdued foes, and used universal aptitude to give myself a bonus to skill checks. I then cast the dispell. The chain fighters strength damge was removed, and a spell from the armored man. i used another charge of my wand and determined that hte caster still had a spell effect on him, bit the armored man seemed free. I then used a lessor word of nurturing on him to bring him around to consciousness.
Long story short, we learned that the sphere of darckness in the room was a portal to the plane of shadow. We also learned that we had cleaned out most of the stronghold, except for a tower where they were holding some lizard folk captive. The armored man turned out to be our new player (good thing we didn't kill him, lol)
The party could hear guards coming, so we moved out of the darkness, and into a new room. The room was filled with a strange black orb, that had tendrils of darkness coming out of it, snaking around the room. There was also 4 shaderkai warriors, a shaderkai caster, and a half black dragon sorcerer. The spiked chain fighter came in, and tripped the nearest Shaderkai, and the half orc followed close behind and finished him off. The rogue/swashbuckler entered into the room, and started moving toward the cast. It was then the bad guys turn. The half dragon spewed acid at the half orc and rogue. The rogue managed to evade the blast, but the half orc took the full brunt of the blast and was reduced to 9hp. The Shaderkai caster then cast hold person on the rogue. The remaining three shaderkai fired arrows at the held rogue. Next up was my turn. I could have cast inertia surge on the rogue, but since it was only for 1 round I felt I would be better served focusing on eliminating the caster. So I hit him with a reversed minor word of nurturing. The healer was last, and came in as close as she could and readied an action to heal the half orc.
Next round, the spike chain fighter moved up to the caster, and attempted to trip him. He failed. The half orc got healed, and moved closer to one of the shaderkai warriors. The rogue failed his save and remained held. The half dragon fired a lightning bolt that hit the rogue and me. We both made our saves, and I only took 15 damage. The caster cast ray of enfeeblement on the chain fighter, and the warriors fired arrows at me. One hit for 3 damage. On my turn I concentrated on the utterance, and moved to where I had some cover. The healer moved up and cured paralysis on the rogue.
The spiked chain fighter attempted to attack the caster, but missed. The half orc moved up and killed one of the Shaderkai warriors. The half Dragon cast a spell, but it was resisted. The caster cast a hold person on the half elf. I got hit with one more arrow for 1 point of damage (up to 19 total). On my turn I used another reversed minor words of nurturing. The healer healed the rogue, and moved closer to the spiked chain fighter. The rogue tumbled and leapt his way next to the caster, but missed his attack (evidently this caster had some high ac from defensive buffs, and the tendrils gave him concealment).
The Half orc moved closer and lobbed a thunderstone next to the half dragon and caster. The half dragon attempted to cast a spell, but appeared deafened and it fizzled. The caster hit the rogue with yet another hold person. The remaining two warriors missed their attacks. I concentrated on my utterance, dealing more damage to the caster. The healer used remove paralysis on the half elf. The rogue managed to break free of his hold. The hald elf attacked the caster and missed.
The half orc finished off the next shaderkai warrior and moved closer to the half dragon. The half dragon attacked the rogue and missed. The caster cast another ray at the rogue, but missed. I used another reversed minor word of nurturing, and finally killed the caster. Yay me! The healer healed the rogue for some more, and the spiked chain fighter moved closer to the half dragon and missed his attack. The rogue managed to hit the half dragon for some damage.
The half orc attacked the half dragon, and scored a decent hit. The half dragon hit him back, and dropped him into the negatives. I used a minor word of nurturing to givve him fast healing 3. The healer moved closer and healed the half orc back into consciousness. The spike chain fighter and the rogue both missed their attack.
The half orc picked up his axe and swung again at the half dragon and hit. The half dragon attacked him back again, ond once again dropped him into the negatives. Since my minor words of nurturing were tied up, I used temporal twist on the rogue. He missed. The healer once again healed the half orc into consciousness. Spike chain fighter and rogue attacked and missed.
To sum up, the party continued to wail on him, missing quite a bit. I used temporal twist two more times, the last one was actually worth while as the half orc was able to put him down with it.
we were then attacked by an armored man and three casters. It was made clear to us that they had been dominated. I was closest, and moved away. My minor words were still tied up, so I didn't do anything. The rest of the party moved in closer to attack, with the healer npc urging us not to kill them, for they were not acting of their own volition. My minor words of nurturing freed up, so I used a reversed on a caster. The half orc moved in close, and missed an attack. The others moved their way closer. The half orc was hit by several magic missles, and the armored man missed his attack. I concentrated on my utterance, and sent a caster into the negatives. The half orc killed the other two casters (so much for taking them alive). The armored man hit the half orc with his spear, and dropped him back into the negatives. The rogue and chain fighter flanked the armored man, with the rogue scoring a hit with his sap. The healer gave the half orc a small heal. bringing him back to consciousness. I gave the rogue a temporal twist, and he critted, subduing him into unconsciousness.
We searched our fallen enemies, and I used a charge of my wand of detect magic on their belongings. Part of what we found were 3 scrolls of dispell magic. I had the chain fighter stand next to the two subdued foes, and used universal aptitude to give myself a bonus to skill checks. I then cast the dispell. The chain fighters strength damge was removed, and a spell from the armored man. i used another charge of my wand and determined that hte caster still had a spell effect on him, bit the armored man seemed free. I then used a lessor word of nurturing on him to bring him around to consciousness.
Long story short, we learned that the sphere of darckness in the room was a portal to the plane of shadow. We also learned that we had cleaned out most of the stronghold, except for a tower where they were holding some lizard folk captive. The armored man turned out to be our new player (good thing we didn't kill him, lol)
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When we left off, we had just dispelled the dominate off of one of our attackers, who became our newest party member (a marshal/paladin). The healer was completely out of heals, and I had maxed out my uses (at 14) of minor words of nurturing healing the half orc paragon to full. I had also used up quite a few of my other utterances. The party agreed that we should rest, and we debated on what to do. I wanted to rest in one of the rooms, but the party voted to try and make it back to the swamp where we had some lizard folk allies. So we made our way to the gate house to try to raise the portcullises. we open the door, and see two zombified lizard folk and two humans. Suprise round. The marshal/paladin goes first and attacks one of the zombies. I'm next (love the marshal's initiative bonus), and temporal twist him. I had used it 4 times last session, which means the DC was +8, which meant 33 for a 5th level character (2x5+10=25+8=33). My modifyer was 33, so I auto'd it. However next time I will need to start keeping track of the DC's. The marshal/paladin hit, and finished off the zombie. The healer went next, and only took a movement. The half Orc went next and polished off the othe zombie. The swash/rogue moved in closer to one of the humans possibly providing flanking, and the spiked chain fighter went after the other one. The next round, the marshal/paladin trips one of the humans, and I followed up with another temporal twist which he hit with to finished it off. The spike chain fighter tried to trip the last human but failed the apposed check. The half orc moved further in, and so did the healer and swash/rogue.
On the enemies turn a shaderkai stepped out of the shadows, flanked the spiked chain fighter, and hit him. a willow whisp appeared and zapped the marshal/paladin with electricity. A grell came down, and blasted me with lighting, and critted! Thankfully I have been rolling well for hp, as the blast hit me for a whopping 28 damage leaving me at 8hp. The paladin marshal attempted to hit the willow wisp but missed. I retreated away from the grell, and managed to use a lessor words of nurturing on myself. To sum up the rest of the battle, the half orc and spiked chain fighter polished off the shader kai and humans. The marshal/paladin attacks the grell, hurts it. I had to roll a 4 or better to Temporal twist him, and roll a 1. The swash/rogue attempts to feint the willow wisp. Another round of attacks and a successful temporal twist finishes off the grell. The party then focuses on the willow wisp. Eventually the swash/rogue succeeds on his fient, and a few attacks and a successful temporal twist end up killing it. We hurriedly left to join our lizard friends and rested.
Once we were rested up, we headed back and raided the last tower. There we were sniped at by a pair of lizardfolk zombie things. The marshal/paladin moves in, and attempts to hit them, but misses. The half orc moves in and throws an axe at them, and also misses (railing gave them cover). I temporal twist, and the marshal/paladin misses his attack. Then the swash/rogue runs up the railing, tumbles between the two zombies, and takes one out. On the monsters turn, two more shaderkai appear, and a shadow mastif. The swash/rogue, marshal, and healer make their checks. The rest are paniced (including me), and try to flee. Fortunately the secret door I had to go through took time to open, which allowed the healer to hit me and the spiked chain fighter with supress fear. The half orc wasn't so lucky, and took off running. In the mean time, the swash/rogue and marshal/paladin battled the remaining combatants. Once I had the opportunity to act again, I ended up using another temporal twist to allow the paladin/marshal to finish off the mastiff. At that point the melee types had pretty much mopped up the rest.
This is where we left off, so hopefully the half orc didn't run too far. lol.
On the enemies turn a shaderkai stepped out of the shadows, flanked the spiked chain fighter, and hit him. a willow whisp appeared and zapped the marshal/paladin with electricity. A grell came down, and blasted me with lighting, and critted! Thankfully I have been rolling well for hp, as the blast hit me for a whopping 28 damage leaving me at 8hp. The paladin marshal attempted to hit the willow wisp but missed. I retreated away from the grell, and managed to use a lessor words of nurturing on myself. To sum up the rest of the battle, the half orc and spiked chain fighter polished off the shader kai and humans. The marshal/paladin attacks the grell, hurts it. I had to roll a 4 or better to Temporal twist him, and roll a 1. The swash/rogue attempts to feint the willow wisp. Another round of attacks and a successful temporal twist finishes off the grell. The party then focuses on the willow wisp. Eventually the swash/rogue succeeds on his fient, and a few attacks and a successful temporal twist end up killing it. We hurriedly left to join our lizard friends and rested.
Once we were rested up, we headed back and raided the last tower. There we were sniped at by a pair of lizardfolk zombie things. The marshal/paladin moves in, and attempts to hit them, but misses. The half orc moves in and throws an axe at them, and also misses (railing gave them cover). I temporal twist, and the marshal/paladin misses his attack. Then the swash/rogue runs up the railing, tumbles between the two zombies, and takes one out. On the monsters turn, two more shaderkai appear, and a shadow mastif. The swash/rogue, marshal, and healer make their checks. The rest are paniced (including me), and try to flee. Fortunately the secret door I had to go through took time to open, which allowed the healer to hit me and the spiked chain fighter with supress fear. The half orc wasn't so lucky, and took off running. In the mean time, the swash/rogue and marshal/paladin battled the remaining combatants. Once I had the opportunity to act again, I ended up using another temporal twist to allow the paladin/marshal to finish off the mastiff. At that point the melee types had pretty much mopped up the rest.
This is where we left off, so hopefully the half orc didn't run too far. lol.
Just out of curiosity, what about the reverse? How much damage can you do (and what's the maximum "pulse" damage)?
14 minor words of nurturing
6 minor words of nurturing
7 temporal twists
3 universal aptitudes
Universal aptitude doesn't really do anything by itself, it just enables a few more uses of your utterances that actually do something, so you really have just two things: words of nurturing and you can let someone else try to have fun (make another attack).
In your actual play, does it feel boring having such a small set of options, or does the seemingly many ways of using them and combining them to fit the tactical situation offset this?
On paper, it's like this class does just one thing at low levels: "uses words of nurturing", but it seems in reality to have a lot more nuance and intrigue than that. Maybe it's just your writing style?
Do you feel limited in your options, that you make few decisions and every action feels the same? How is the gameplay different from a sorcerer who just spams magic missile (and, uh, cure light wounds somehow)?
Bonzai: When I look at a Truenamer progressing from level 1, and see the logical choice of utterances is always a new word of nurturing, it seems like a terribly boring class until level 10 or so.
On paper, it's like this class does just one thing at low levels: "uses words of nurturing", but it seems in reality to have a lot more nuance and intrigue than that. Maybe it's just your writing style?
Do you feel limited in your options, that you make few decisions and every action feels the same? How is the gameplay different from a sorcerer who just spams magic missile (and, uh, cure light wounds somehow)?
From the number of different things you can do it DOES seem sort of limited, I'll second that.
But then, what does a beatstick do?
On a sidenote, can you reverse ALL the utterances? Also Temporal Twist? Stealing actions sounds like a tempting tactic, too, unless the save is too easy to make.
A reverse temporal twist dazes the target for 1 round, but a Will save negates it. It's basically the daze cantrip without the HD or humanoid limit. This is why you haven't read about Bonzai reversing that one.
Is the save DC so low? That would mean most DCs are puny, right? Dazing is pretty powerful, much more so than stunning, IMHO.
Speaking of which it somehow feels like this has been discussed by before, just can't remember where.
[edit]Right, now I feel stupid, it's right up there. Sorry.[/edit]
As for damage..
minor words: 1d6 over 2 rounds x16
lessor words: 2d6 over 2 rounds x16
That would be 96d6 total damage from the words of nurturing line over 64 rounds.
Next level I get moderate words which will do 4d6 points of damage. Overall when it works, temporal twist is a better option at dealing pure damage. And it should continue to scale better and better as the party levels. However there is something to be said for consistant ranged damage with no attack roll or saves involved. That has saved the party in a few situations so far.
As for being boring... I don't find it to be. Yes your options are limited, but what options you get are decent. What I have so far;
minor/lessor words of nurturing: fast healing for 5 rounds, or Xd6 damage that can repeat the following round. Straight forward damage and heals. The fact that is 60ft range, and no to hit or saving throw rolls makes them an excellent choice. Yeah, they take up a lot of choices, and should have been one or two utterances that scales with your level, but that is a whole other discussion.
Universal Aptitude: 5 rounds of +5 to skill checks isn't bad at all. Not only have I used it for true speaking, but also for UMD checks and to help the party rogue with his search/disable device checks. The reverse hasn't seen any use yet.
Inertia Surge: Freedom of movement for one round, or imobilize an enemy for 1 round. Duration is short, but freedom of movement can be invaluable. Only had one opportunity to use it so far, on a party member that was under a hold person spell. However, I oppted to go after the caster instead while the healer freed him from it. If I remember right, the reverse has no save, so it could be handy, especially when I can start quickening and extending.
Temporal Twist. Ally gets an extra attack, or opponent is dazed for one round. Concidering my party, this is one of the best damage dealing utterances there is. Unfortunately at low level you have some catching up to do in regards to BAB vs AC, and nearly everything in these mods seems to have concealment, but it is a very solid utterance that will only get better as the party levels. The reverse could be useful, but I am not confident enough with where my saves are at right now to use it.
Keen Weapon: Gives a weapon the keen property for 5 rounds. It's duration is short, and I can only use it on one weapon at a time. Really haven't used it at all. In fact we haven't really had any pre-buffing situations at all so far.
Thats about all I can do right now. I certainly hold my own, and even stand out in some situations. As our wealth and equipement increase, I will start using UMD more. Eventually I will probably take over the healer role completely as well.
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We had just finished off the fight at the base of the tower, and eventually the fear effect on the Half Orc wore off. We then ventured up the stairs. The Half Orc, feeling that he had something to prove, went first, followed by the marshal/paladin. As soon as he came up, he was attacked, and grappled. The Marshal/paladin went next and attacked their assailant (looked like a large were-crocodile. Think it was called a kohment, or something similar). I went next, but couldn't see what was going on up stairs, so I did something I had never done before, and used Keen edge on the swashbuckler/rogue's sword. The spike chain fighter went in next, and missed an attack, however the beast managed to get an AoO on him. Then came the rogue, who flanked the beast and missed. Then the Half Orc went, and pinned the monster! Then the monster went next and broke the pin. The healer then rushed in and healed the chain fighter.
Next round, the Marshal/Paladin attacked and missed. I gave him a temporal twist, and he missed again. It was clear that this thing had an AC in the high 20's. So I decided to focus on attacking it directly. The rogue attacked and missed, and the spiked chain fighter decided to use aid another on the marshal/paladin to help him hit. The half orc tried to pin again, but failed. The monster released the grapple, and attacked the marshal/paladin, and reduced him to 0 hp with one hit! The healer then rushed forward and healed the marchal/paladin.
3rd round, The marshal/paladin used aid another on the rogue to help him hit (cause he was in flank). I used a lessor words of nurturing, and learned that he had spell resistance. I passed, and dealed 11 damage. The rogue attacked and crited! The chain fighter aided the half orc, who then missed his attack. The monster turned and bit the rogue. The healer tumbled over to the rogue and managed to heal him.
4th Round, The marshal/paladin aided the rogue, and I continued to concentrate on my utterance for another 5 damage. The rogue missed his attack, and the chain fighter aided the half orc, and the half orc missed. The monster bit the rogue again, and he was reduced to only a few hp left. The healer healed him again.
5th Round, the marshal/paladin aided the rogue again, and I used another reversed lessor words of nurturing on the monster. The rogue attacked again, and critted once more! This time killing it.
We freed the lizardfolk prisoners, searched the ruins, found another letter, and an alter to shar Shar (the half orc accidently setting himself on fire in the process of destroying it, lol). I healed up the half orc for 25 points of One of the prisoners was the former chief of the lizard folk, and he refused to return to the villiage. So I set him to building a bright fire in the room with the portal to the plain of shadow, and guarding it till we got back. We then returned the villiagers to the tribe, and learned that the lizard folk wanted to take over the ruins. And thats where we left off. We added up the xp, and had just enough to level! So we called it a night while we updated our characters.
Next round, the Marshal/Paladin attacked and missed. I gave him a temporal twist, and he missed again. It was clear that this thing had an AC in the high 20's. So I decided to focus on attacking it directly. The rogue attacked and missed, and the spiked chain fighter decided to use aid another on the marshal/paladin to help him hit. The half orc tried to pin again, but failed. The monster released the grapple, and attacked the marshal/paladin, and reduced him to 0 hp with one hit! The healer then rushed forward and healed the marchal/paladin.
3rd round, The marshal/paladin used aid another on the rogue to help him hit (cause he was in flank). I used a lessor words of nurturing, and learned that he had spell resistance. I passed, and dealed 11 damage. The rogue attacked and crited! The chain fighter aided the half orc, who then missed his attack. The monster turned and bit the rogue. The healer tumbled over to the rogue and managed to heal him.
4th Round, The marshal/paladin aided the rogue, and I continued to concentrate on my utterance for another 5 damage. The rogue missed his attack, and the chain fighter aided the half orc, and the half orc missed. The monster bit the rogue again, and he was reduced to only a few hp left. The healer healed him again.
5th Round, the marshal/paladin aided the rogue again, and I used another reversed lessor words of nurturing on the monster. The rogue attacked again, and critted once more! This time killing it.
We freed the lizardfolk prisoners, searched the ruins, found another letter, and an alter to shar Shar (the half orc accidently setting himself on fire in the process of destroying it, lol). I healed up the half orc for 25 points of One of the prisoners was the former chief of the lizard folk, and he refused to return to the villiage. So I set him to building a bright fire in the room with the portal to the plain of shadow, and guarding it till we got back. We then returned the villiagers to the tribe, and learned that the lizard folk wanted to take over the ruins. And thats where we left off. We added up the xp, and had just enough to level! So we called it a night while we updated our characters.
I'm thinking, after reading this thread, that I might just have to try one of these out, but with no nurturing instead (maybe the highest level one; I'm not sure yet).
Unfortunately unless you are going to focus on melee, words of nurturing are your only direct damage source until level 6. And the one you get at lvl 6 is only 2d6 energy damage (the words of nurturing at that level give you 4d6). The sad fact is that you are behind the damage curve compared to a wizard or sorcerer who are doing around 6d6 at that level. The only consolation, is that there is no roll to hit, saves, or resistance (spell resistance aside). Using it as a ranged heal is also powerful in the lower levels.
I guess you can focus more on melee or UMD to get by offensively. If you do take this class, I have to again stress that the Item Familiar feat is almost mandatory. Without it, the class is no where near as effective. In fact, taking my character at level 6, the DC for an even con is 27. My True name check without item familiar is 28. So I would get one auto success before I could start failing. Next level, without any increases in gear, my check would increase to 29, while the DC would become 29. The next level it would become 30 with a DC of 31. It would get worse and worse every level, with only stat bonuses and gear upgrades to mitigate the DC increases. Again, I wouldn't take the class without the feat.
For example...
20 EM Lexicons
1 Inertia Surge
1 Universal Aptitude
2 Speed of the Zephyr
2 Temporal Twist
2 Strike of Might
3 Temporal Spiral
3 Accelerated Attack
3 Energy Negation
3 Greater Speed of the Zephyr
4 Spell Rebirth
4 Magic Contraction
4 Breath of Cleansing
4 Morale Boost
5 Sensory Focus
5 Ward of Peace
5 Eldritch Attraction
5 Greater Energy Negation
6 Greater Word of Nurturing
6 Singular Mind
6 Greater Knight's Puissance
5 CT Lexicons
1 Fortify Armor
2 Agitate Metal
3 Rebuild Item
4 Suppress Item
5 Metamagic Catalyst
4 PM Lexicons
1 Fog from the Void
2 Transform the Landscape
3 Master of the Four Winds
4 Conjunctive Gate
1 Inertia Surge
1 Universal Aptitude
2 Speed of the Zephyr
2 Temporal Twist
2 Strike of Might
3 Temporal Spiral
3 Accelerated Attack
3 Energy Negation
3 Greater Speed of the Zephyr
4 Spell Rebirth
4 Magic Contraction
4 Breath of Cleansing
4 Morale Boost
5 Sensory Focus
5 Ward of Peace
5 Eldritch Attraction
5 Greater Energy Negation
6 Greater Word of Nurturing
6 Singular Mind
6 Greater Knight's Puissance
5 CT Lexicons
1 Fortify Armor
2 Agitate Metal
3 Rebuild Item
4 Suppress Item
5 Metamagic Catalyst
4 PM Lexicons
1 Fog from the Void
2 Transform the Landscape
3 Master of the Four Winds
4 Conjunctive Gate
Gamma World is not lame!
LOL! Old school Hex fans, over in the peanut gallery, I see ;).
1. Ability Focus (MM): +2 to a single spell like ability (utterance).
2. Utterance Focus (ToM): Get a +1 bonus on the DC of a single utterance.
3. Focused Lexicon (ToM): Allows you to up the DC by 1 against a particular creature type.
4. You can also spend 1/2 the targets CR x 1,000 in gp and weeks of research to boost it up by 2 for that one target.
It's up to you if it's worth the feat investments to boost your DC's. For me, they are too specific, and for too little reward to take. So I focus on the utterances with no saves, or those that I will mostly use on allys.
Another tip is to start with a one level dip in Marshal, and take the aura that boosts intelligence based skills. This bonus is equal to your charisma modifyer. Then boost your charisma as high as you can. I will be taking a level of Marshal at lvl 9 as well. I would recomend that you have a minimum intelligence of 16 however, as it will net you enough skill points to keep your true speech maxed, and putting 6 points into item familiar each level until you catch up. This way you will be able to max your DC's without taking a hit to your true speech checks. You still lose one level of truenamer progression though.
Also remember that an utterance can only effect one target at a time. So for example, you can make some one invisible. However you won't be able to make anyone else invisible until the utterance wears off, and you won't be able to give anyone see invisibility at the same time either.
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Last session the party went through the rift into the plain of shadow, and cleared out most of the "shadow" version of the fort we were in. So when we started today, we decided to search the Gate house. There we were attacked by 5 lizardmen. Pretty standard combat. The melee types did their thing, and I used two temporal twists (that actually went to good use, lol). In the gate house we found a captured lizardman. He told us that there was an "evil" lizardman camp nearby, and a human settlement, and how to get to them. This game I made a deal with the healer. I told her that I would take care of all the downtime healing, and to save her spells for in combat use. So I healed up the parties minor wounds with extended minor words of nurturing.
The party decided to clear out the lizard folk first. The journey took us along a narrow slick dirt path with difficult terrain on either side. We were attacked by a Hydra (which I successfully identified). The trip fighter attempted to trip it, but this thing had 15ft reach, and he was quickly taken down to 0 hp. The swash/rogue drug him out of danger, and the healer healed him. The Half Orc threw a hand axe at it, and I hit it with a reversed moderate words of nurturing for 11 damage. The next round the Half Orc took some heavy damage as well. The party quickly discussed their options. Our ranged damage was minimal, and it could possibly kill any one of our melee types in a single AoE barrage. I then hesitantly told them that I would try and Daze it for a round with a reversed temporal twist. I warned them that it might not work, as my save DC's were minimal. They thought it was worth a shot.
The party delayed (except the healer who healed the chain fighter some more), and I made my truespeak check (at a +4 Difficulty). The DM rolled his save, and got a natural one! The Hydra was dazed, and the melee types charged in to the attack and set to work. The next round I attempted to Daze it again (at a +6 difficulty), but this time it made it's save. Thankfully the DM pulled his punch a little and spread out the attacks. However now everyone was in reach, and full attacked it. The Hydra was slain before my next turn. I then healed up the party with a few more extended minor words, an extended lessor word.
We find the Lizardfolks lair, which is essentially a chasmed mound, with a little wicker gate. After some brief scouting, the swash/rogue determined the coast was clear, and cut loose the rope binding the gate, LOL. We enter in, and are attacked by 4 lizard folk. The lizardfolk go first, and hurl some pots that shatter and let loose two angry snakes. I end up going first. Because of my position in the tunnel, the only enemies I can see are the snakes. So I temporal twist the swash/rogue (at a +8 DC), and he kills one of the snakes. The combat begins in earnest with the melee's doing their thing. My second turn I still couldn't see the other enemies, so I use the keen weapon utterance on the half orc (it helped him get a crit even!). Third turn I temporal twisted the half orc, who slaughtered a lizard folk that the chain fighter had tripped, and by the 4th turn I did nothing, as the combat was pretty much over. I then healed up the party with a few minor words of nurturing.
The party decided to clear out the lizard folk first. The journey took us along a narrow slick dirt path with difficult terrain on either side. We were attacked by a Hydra (which I successfully identified). The trip fighter attempted to trip it, but this thing had 15ft reach, and he was quickly taken down to 0 hp. The swash/rogue drug him out of danger, and the healer healed him. The Half Orc threw a hand axe at it, and I hit it with a reversed moderate words of nurturing for 11 damage. The next round the Half Orc took some heavy damage as well. The party quickly discussed their options. Our ranged damage was minimal, and it could possibly kill any one of our melee types in a single AoE barrage. I then hesitantly told them that I would try and Daze it for a round with a reversed temporal twist. I warned them that it might not work, as my save DC's were minimal. They thought it was worth a shot.
The party delayed (except the healer who healed the chain fighter some more), and I made my truespeak check (at a +4 Difficulty). The DM rolled his save, and got a natural one! The Hydra was dazed, and the melee types charged in to the attack and set to work. The next round I attempted to Daze it again (at a +6 difficulty), but this time it made it's save. Thankfully the DM pulled his punch a little and spread out the attacks. However now everyone was in reach, and full attacked it. The Hydra was slain before my next turn. I then healed up the party with a few more extended minor words, an extended lessor word.
We find the Lizardfolks lair, which is essentially a chasmed mound, with a little wicker gate. After some brief scouting, the swash/rogue determined the coast was clear, and cut loose the rope binding the gate, LOL. We enter in, and are attacked by 4 lizard folk. The lizardfolk go first, and hurl some pots that shatter and let loose two angry snakes. I end up going first. Because of my position in the tunnel, the only enemies I can see are the snakes. So I temporal twist the swash/rogue (at a +8 DC), and he kills one of the snakes. The combat begins in earnest with the melee's doing their thing. My second turn I still couldn't see the other enemies, so I use the keen weapon utterance on the half orc (it helped him get a crit even!). Third turn I temporal twisted the half orc, who slaughtered a lizard folk that the chain fighter had tripped, and by the 4th turn I did nothing, as the combat was pretty much over. I then healed up the party with a few minor words of nurturing.
If the DM wants to balance it more, I'd add more to the DC per target (+5 per target instead of +2, for example).
I might also suggest that speaking the party's truename has it's own seperate and additional Law of Resistance which increases at +5 DC per usage. Otherwise, I see no reason for you not to use every utterance this way (at least its first four uses until the Law of Resistance DC catches up with the party size DC increase), greatly increasing your healing and buffing capabilities.
So per your example, if you wanted to use reverse vision sharpened again after the first DC 33 usage, it would be a DC of 40 (+2 for vision sharpened Law of Resistance and +5 for the groupname Law of Resistance). Any other groupname utterance would suffer the same +5 DC.
I mean, mass vigor and mass snakes swiftness are pretty much taking care of what you'd likely use it for, and they aren't that high a spell level. Especially not mass snakes swiftness (2nd level), and that thing is freakin' killer in some situations.
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We continued on into the lizard folks warren, and encountered a Naga of some type. Melee's charged in to attack, and put a huge dent in it. I temporal twisted (and the half orc put it to good use). The Naga cast mirror image, attacked, and 5ft'd into some water. Melee's press on, taking out some images. We had an interesting rules question when it came to true naming and mirror images. He allowed that since I am able to describe the naga it's self, the universe knows which one is real. So I blasted it for 16 damage with a moderate words of nurturing. According to the DM it was hanging by a thread. On the Naga's turn, it cast stinking cloud, and I failed my save (I had a fort save of 16). It then attacked and submerged completely out of the water. I got out of the cloud, and spent the rest of the fight being nausiated while the melee's chased into the water after it, and eventually killed it.
After the battle, the swash/rogue scounted, and found an underwater tunnel leading out into the swamp. There he saw that re-inforcements were coming by boat. We regrouped (and I healed some of the minor injuries taken by the party). We moved into the next room, and the Elf chain fighter saw an undead lizrdfolk hiding in the shadows. He charges, and it turns out there is a large group of them hidden in the room. The party goes to work, and chops them up in a couple of rounds. I believe I temporal twisted twice (both hit), and blasted one with a words of nurturing. DM called it a night there, and told us that we were going to immediately enter another combat when we returned.
After the battle, the swash/rogue scounted, and found an underwater tunnel leading out into the swamp. There he saw that re-inforcements were coming by boat. We regrouped (and I healed some of the minor injuries taken by the party). We moved into the next room, and the Elf chain fighter saw an undead lizrdfolk hiding in the shadows. He charges, and it turns out there is a large group of them hidden in the room. The party goes to work, and chops them up in a couple of rounds. I believe I temporal twisted twice (both hit), and blasted one with a words of nurturing. DM called it a night there, and told us that we were going to immediately enter another combat when we returned.
I have to say your homebrew feat looks pretty alright, balance wise, considering the amount of investment you have to make to use it, and that Druids and Clerics can do most of that completely for free. Just let it revolve around that when talking to your DM. You have to invest thousands to use the feat, so you should be allowed to use you utterances a bit more often with it than a cleric.
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We started right where we left off, and a Large undead lizard folk with two larger ones came into the room.The paladin/marshal went first, and moved in to block the charges and set his spear. I went second, and blasted the big one for 14 points of damage from a reversed moderate words of nurturing. The bad guys moved up, one getting taken out by the Marshal/Paladin. The big one critted on the Marshal/Paladin, and nearly killed him. A cage broke open, and some type of beetle came out and blasted everyone but the Marshal/Paladin and me with some sort of sonic attack. Three more lizard folk rush in carrying three jars. They throw them at me, the Marshal/Paladin, and the Chain fighter. The rest of the party sprang into action, with the healer healing the Marshal/Paladin, and attacking the lizard folk, beetle, and the chain fighter removing his stirge. The Marshal/paladin hit the big lizard folk, and I finished him off by concentrating on my utterance. We had both ignored our stirges, and they became full, and left on their turn. To sum up, I used one more Moderate word of nurturing on the beetle, and a lessor to finish off a wounded lizardfolk. Rest of the party made short work of the lizard folk. After wards, I healed up the party with 2 extended lesser words, and two more minor.
We explored some more, found the leaders treasure, and a way out. There were several shocker lizards there. Since they were not overtly hostile, we left them alone. We then found a cell where two living lizard folk were kept. We freed them, and we got some information from them. We knew about the Shaderkai base, but evidently there was another stronghold of some sort to the North. This one with some monsterous flying messagers. We finished searching the place, and all that was left was the loan boatman at the dock. I asked that we try to take him alive, as we needed information on this other stronghold. The Swashbuckler wanted to go through the underwater passage so we could suprise him. We let him go that way, while the rest of us snuck out throught the back door. I used an extended keen weapon utterance on the half orc's axe before we left. We got nearly to the dock before we were spoted. On the suprise round I tried to daze the shaderkai with a reversed temporal twist, but he made his save. The rest of the party charged towards the boat, and the Swashbuckler climbed up on to the dock.
The chain fighter disarmed the shaderkai from the dock, and I delayed. The shaderkai kicked off a rope, and jumped into the hold. Two shadow creatures came out of the boat, and onto the docks, attacking the chain fighter and the half orc. Having a target now, I blasted the creature next to the chain fighter, since I knew that the half Orc and Marshal/paladin would take out the other together. The swashbuckler picked up the boarding plank and used it to sunder one of the oars getting a +6 to the attempt thanks to the Marshal. He destroyed one. The chain fighter tripped the shaderskai and hit him. The shaderkai kicked off another rope and gave the order for the boat to "Row". One of the shadow creatures hopped on the boat, breaking my line of sight with it. The half orc and marshal finished off the other creature.
On my turn I ran up the docks and got closer to the action as the boat pushed away from the dock. The Swashbuckler sundered another oar, and the chain fighter got another attack in. The Shader kai cast a spell and disapeared while the remaining shadow creature attacked the swashbuckler. The half orc ran and leapt on to the boat. I fished into my back pack, took out my rope and grapple, and managed to hook the boat. The Marshal came up and tied the rope off on his turn.
Next round the swashbuckler sunders the last oar, and the chain fighter misses his invisable oponent. The half Orc wounds the shadow creature. I delay, waiting to see a target. The Shaderkai casts a spell, and commands the shadow creature to run to their head quarters. It dives into the water where I see it, and finish it off with a lessor word of nurturing. The swashbuckler hits the invisible shaderkai with the plank, but after that we do not see or hear him. We search the boat thouraghly but find no trace. We do find some nice treasure, including a dragon bone lyre with a note attached. Thanks to my helm, I was able to read it, and learn that it passifys some sort of gaurdian. We then went back into the lizard folk lair to rest, talk with the rescued lizzard folk some more, and they make their way back to the portal.
We explored some more, found the leaders treasure, and a way out. There were several shocker lizards there. Since they were not overtly hostile, we left them alone. We then found a cell where two living lizard folk were kept. We freed them, and we got some information from them. We knew about the Shaderkai base, but evidently there was another stronghold of some sort to the North. This one with some monsterous flying messagers. We finished searching the place, and all that was left was the loan boatman at the dock. I asked that we try to take him alive, as we needed information on this other stronghold. The Swashbuckler wanted to go through the underwater passage so we could suprise him. We let him go that way, while the rest of us snuck out throught the back door. I used an extended keen weapon utterance on the half orc's axe before we left. We got nearly to the dock before we were spoted. On the suprise round I tried to daze the shaderkai with a reversed temporal twist, but he made his save. The rest of the party charged towards the boat, and the Swashbuckler climbed up on to the dock.
The chain fighter disarmed the shaderkai from the dock, and I delayed. The shaderkai kicked off a rope, and jumped into the hold. Two shadow creatures came out of the boat, and onto the docks, attacking the chain fighter and the half orc. Having a target now, I blasted the creature next to the chain fighter, since I knew that the half Orc and Marshal/paladin would take out the other together. The swashbuckler picked up the boarding plank and used it to sunder one of the oars getting a +6 to the attempt thanks to the Marshal. He destroyed one. The chain fighter tripped the shaderskai and hit him. The shaderkai kicked off another rope and gave the order for the boat to "Row". One of the shadow creatures hopped on the boat, breaking my line of sight with it. The half orc and marshal finished off the other creature.
On my turn I ran up the docks and got closer to the action as the boat pushed away from the dock. The Swashbuckler sundered another oar, and the chain fighter got another attack in. The Shader kai cast a spell and disapeared while the remaining shadow creature attacked the swashbuckler. The half orc ran and leapt on to the boat. I fished into my back pack, took out my rope and grapple, and managed to hook the boat. The Marshal came up and tied the rope off on his turn.
Next round the swashbuckler sunders the last oar, and the chain fighter misses his invisable oponent. The half Orc wounds the shadow creature. I delay, waiting to see a target. The Shaderkai casts a spell, and commands the shadow creature to run to their head quarters. It dives into the water where I see it, and finish it off with a lessor word of nurturing. The swashbuckler hits the invisible shaderkai with the plank, but after that we do not see or hear him. We search the boat thouraghly but find no trace. We do find some nice treasure, including a dragon bone lyre with a note attached. Thanks to my helm, I was able to read it, and learn that it passifys some sort of gaurdian. We then went back into the lizard folk lair to rest, talk with the rescued lizzard folk some more, and they make their way back to the portal.
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We picked up where we left off, and rested. We then decided to clear the room with the shocker lizards. Suprise suprise, the vegetation turned out to be a shambling mound. Long story short, party attacks. 1st round I couldn't see the action so I gave the Half Orc a keen weapon. Second round I moved up and gave the Half Orc a temporal twist (he missed). Mean while the party made short work of the lizards and mound. The healer had forgotten to take a feat at 3rd level, so she picked up the healing reserve feat. So now she is taking care of the down healing.
So we went off to investigate the rumors of a tower with gargoyles. We arrive, and oddly enough, were attacked by 3 gargoyle type creatures. But, being consistant with this mod, they were "Shadowy" type gargoyles. I identified them, but can't remember what they were exactly. Round one, the Marshal/paladin and swashbuckler/rogue rush up and double team and kill the one closest to the ground. The Half Orc hits another with a tangle foot bag, and it plumets to the ground. I hit the remaining one with a moderate word of Nurturing for 18 damage. Round two, the Marshal and rogue go over to kill off the grounded one, the half orc hits the airborn one with his last tangle foot bag but it stays air born. I concentrate on my Words of nurturing, dealing 17 more damage, and the spike chain fighter now had his bow out and finished it off.
Now we investigate the keep. We hear a wailing from the room, and open the door. Inside we find an old altar of shar that had been converted to a temple of Cyric. The wailing is coming from a golem type creature. But not just any type of golem. Nope this was a "Shadowy" type golem (see a trend here?). I identified it as a gloom golem or some such. We get the suprise round. My companions charge it, and I hit it with a Moderate words of nurturing for 18 damage. It doesn't make it past the 2nd round and the fight was over.
So we went off to investigate the rumors of a tower with gargoyles. We arrive, and oddly enough, were attacked by 3 gargoyle type creatures. But, being consistant with this mod, they were "Shadowy" type gargoyles. I identified them, but can't remember what they were exactly. Round one, the Marshal/paladin and swashbuckler/rogue rush up and double team and kill the one closest to the ground. The Half Orc hits another with a tangle foot bag, and it plumets to the ground. I hit the remaining one with a moderate word of Nurturing for 18 damage. Round two, the Marshal and rogue go over to kill off the grounded one, the half orc hits the airborn one with his last tangle foot bag but it stays air born. I concentrate on my Words of nurturing, dealing 17 more damage, and the spike chain fighter now had his bow out and finished it off.
Now we investigate the keep. We hear a wailing from the room, and open the door. Inside we find an old altar of shar that had been converted to a temple of Cyric. The wailing is coming from a golem type creature. But not just any type of golem. Nope this was a "Shadowy" type golem (see a trend here?). I identified it as a gloom golem or some such. We get the suprise round. My companions charge it, and I hit it with a Moderate words of nurturing for 18 damage. It doesn't make it past the 2nd round and the fight was over.
Bennet Whitecastle, NG Illumian Truenamer 7
HP: 46
Init: +1
AC: 15, Touch: 11. Flat: 14
BAB: 5
Attack: Quarterstaff 5 1d6
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 18, Wis 11, Cha 14,
Saves: Fort 5, Ref 3, Will 5
Feats: Skill Focus: True Speech, Item Familiar, Truename Research, Extend Utterance.
Skills: Concentration: 6, True Speech 10, Item Familiar (True Speech): 10, Knowledge Arcana: 5, Knowledge Nature: 5, Knowledge Planes: 5. Knowledge Religion: 3, Listen: 2, Use Magic Device: 7
Special: Knowledge focus: Arcana, +2 vs Shadow spells, Sigel (Naen): +2 int checks and skills, Sigel (Krau): +2 to caster level, -4 vs Sigels/Glyphes of a higher level, otherwise imune, Know Personal Truename, Paragnostic Assembly (+5 to true speech).
Utterences
lexicon of the evolving mind
Lvl 1: minor words of Nurturing, Universal Aptitude
Lvl 2: Lesser words of Nurtuting, Temporal Twist, Inertia Surge
Lvl 3: Moderate words of Nurturing, Greater Speed of the Zephyr
Lexicon of the crafted tool
Lvl 1: Keen Weapon
Lvl 2: Analyze Item
Possesions: Quarterstaff, Dagger, Chain shirt, Lesser amulet of the Silver tongue, ever burning torch, Helm of comprehend languages and read magic, Eternal Wand of detect magic, scroll of dispel magic, Misc. adventuring gear.
True Name modifyer: 39
Max uses per utterance vs even CR: 15 (17 with universal aptitude, 16 on self, 18 with universal aptitude). So right now I can auto pass 5 utterances on an even level CR. If I didn't have item familiar, my check would be equal to what the DC for an even level CR would be.
Now I start to get my control/utility options, and I can get away from dealing damage and going into party support. I also had a thought. I had recently upgraded my Detect Magic Wand to an eternal wand. This allows me to fill in the gap as I have no other way of detecting magic unless I use analyze item, and the one wand will last the character for his entire career. Now I am thinking that getting a wand bracer with a few more wands could be a good thing. A wand bracer holds 5 wands, so I am thinking that they should be Detect Magic, Silence, Cure Critical, D-door, ?
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picked up where we left off, and continued to explore the keep. We encountered three soldiers. Our melee's carved them up fairly fast. So much so that I delayed taking an action. Other than some negative energy rays, the party was unscathed. Then a Howler charged me from some where. It broke off several quills into me, and I took 22 damage. I took my turn, 5ft'd, and slowed it with a reveresed greater speed of the zephyr (my new toy). A tiefling warlock appeared and blasted the Marshal/Paladin. Long story short, I got off one reversed moderate words of nuruting for 18 damage before the party mopped them up. I used several minor words of nurturing to heal the party (including myself).
Next we explored a tower. Fought two more of the negative energy ray soldiers, and a cleric of Cyric. First turn I gave the swash/rogue a keen weapon. He tore into the cleric. The cleric cast confusion on the party, and the healer was the only one to fail the save. The rest of our melee types attacked the soldiers. Round 2, I gave the swash/rogue another swing with temporal twist. I got stabbed by the healer for 2 damage. Round three, the two soldiers were down, and the cleric cast invisibility on herself. On my turn I shut a door, and helped to seal her in. The healer stabbed me for 4 more damage, and then stopped once I was far enough away. By turn 4, the Cleric was found, grappled, pinned, and subdued. Damage was healed (more minor words), and the cleric stripped down, tied up, and ready to be questioned next session.
Next we explored a tower. Fought two more of the negative energy ray soldiers, and a cleric of Cyric. First turn I gave the swash/rogue a keen weapon. He tore into the cleric. The cleric cast confusion on the party, and the healer was the only one to fail the save. The rest of our melee types attacked the soldiers. Round 2, I gave the swash/rogue another swing with temporal twist. I got stabbed by the healer for 2 damage. Round three, the two soldiers were down, and the cleric cast invisibility on herself. On my turn I shut a door, and helped to seal her in. The healer stabbed me for 4 more damage, and then stopped once I was far enough away. By turn 4, the Cleric was found, grappled, pinned, and subdued. Damage was healed (more minor words), and the cleric stripped down, tied up, and ready to be questioned next session.
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When we left off, we had captured the invisible cleric and subdued her. The DM informed us that she was under some sort of spell that killed her. We also had a friend that wanted to join. After some painfully awkward role playing we had another member in our group (a kineticist).
We follow the back path from the temple, and several of our group notice that they have been mentaly attacked. Soon the attacker revealed it's self to be some sort of treant. Lond story short, I slowed it, and then gave the half orc another swing with his axe. New guy got the honors and blasted it apart with a lightning bolt.
We then come across a huge waterfall. So deep that we can't see the bottom. There is a stone house and dock next to it. We send in the swashbuckler/rogue to investigate, and he is detected by a pair of Cannoliths. He runs back to us, and the Cannoliths pursue, on by jumping in the water. Round one, I give the swash/rogue another attack since I can't see any enemies. The Marshal gets hit by a Cannolith's tongue attack, and gets pulled into the water and pinned. Round Two a Mezzoloth and another Cannolith pop in, and cast a cloud kill around him. I slow the Mezzoloth, and help out where I can with Temporal Twists. It's a tough fight, and the party is sorely tested. The encounter was very well thought out, and the con damage hurt a lot. It din't help matters that the party was spread out, attacking different opponents. However, soon one Cannolith fell, then the next. Our party prevailed, but was in bad need of a rest.
We follow the back path from the temple, and several of our group notice that they have been mentaly attacked. Soon the attacker revealed it's self to be some sort of treant. Lond story short, I slowed it, and then gave the half orc another swing with his axe. New guy got the honors and blasted it apart with a lightning bolt.
We then come across a huge waterfall. So deep that we can't see the bottom. There is a stone house and dock next to it. We send in the swashbuckler/rogue to investigate, and he is detected by a pair of Cannoliths. He runs back to us, and the Cannoliths pursue, on by jumping in the water. Round one, I give the swash/rogue another attack since I can't see any enemies. The Marshal gets hit by a Cannolith's tongue attack, and gets pulled into the water and pinned. Round Two a Mezzoloth and another Cannolith pop in, and cast a cloud kill around him. I slow the Mezzoloth, and help out where I can with Temporal Twists. It's a tough fight, and the party is sorely tested. The encounter was very well thought out, and the con damage hurt a lot. It din't help matters that the party was spread out, attacking different opponents. However, soon one Cannolith fell, then the next. Our party prevailed, but was in bad need of a rest.
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Ok, I missed last session, but from what I was told the Party threw a major monkey wrench into the Sharran's plans. Something about disabling some huge bellows pumping dark energy into a thingamabob. After that, the party went back to the cabin by the docks, and rested.
We get a knock at the door, and it's a tiefling attempting to deliver something to some one (probably some one we killed). We stall while the swashbuckler/rogue sneaks around behind him. We open the door, and the Half Orc attempts to subdue him, but misses. The swash/rogue attempts to grapple him, and succeeds, but the tiefling triggers a wand of D-door, and is gone.
We leave the cabin, and head down one of the bridges the party skipped last session. It leads to a tower. We burst in, and encounter an armored knight type, with two squire flunkies. Party springs into action, and I slow the knight. The knight gives himself a blurr effect on his turn, and the party continues to pound on them. On my turn I give the half orc and extra attack through temporal twist. He crits, and deals 46 damage. After my turn, an Imp appears next to me, and stings me. I roll crap and fail my save, taking 5 dex damage. During this turn, the Elf chain fighter goes nuts tripping and disarming the enemy. On my turn I 5ft step back, and blast the imp with a moderate word of nurturing for 16 damage.The imp advances, and stings me again, dealing another point of dex damage. I am now at 6 dex, and sweating a little bit. The knight does something that some how prevents the Healer from accessing her divine spells. Next round the Knight is slain, the half orc moves up and kill steals the imp from me, and the rest of the party finishes off the peons.
We search the room, I detect magic, and encounter several items, including 3 scrolls of break enchantment. The party decides to try them on the healer to end the effect on her. I roll crap on the first two, but on the third it goes through, and our healer is back. I also find a scying mirror. I activate it, and it shows me an eye staring back at me. Then the mirror shatters and I take 15 damage. I heal myself up, and we move on.
We cross a bridge, and are attacked by a large black dragon with glowing purple runes on it's body. The party makes a dash to get to the other side, but I take the time to slow it, hoping that it will have to concentrate on flying instead of attacking. Unfortunately it had the right feats and a good enough movement to blast us with a flyby attack. Instead of acid, it hit us with some sort of shadow breath. I take 22 damage, and am under half health. We continue sprinting acrosss the bridge, and then run smack into the lair of a gorgon. I end up passing my save versus his breath, but the healer and half orc fail theirs and are turned to stone. The rest of the party attacks the gorgon, and I blast it with a reversed moderate word of nurturing for 19 damage, and end up killing it. We then rush into it's lair and brace for the dragons attack. It never came.
We were out of scrolls of break enchantment, so we debated our options. In the end it was decided that the swash/rogue would sneak out, and try to head to town for some more scrolls. The rest of the party waited in their defensible position, incase the dragon counter attacked. The swashuckler/rogue ran until he nearly passed out, and came back fairly quickly. I successfully used the scrolls on both our petrified team mates, and had 2 to spare. At that point we called it a night.
We get a knock at the door, and it's a tiefling attempting to deliver something to some one (probably some one we killed). We stall while the swashbuckler/rogue sneaks around behind him. We open the door, and the Half Orc attempts to subdue him, but misses. The swash/rogue attempts to grapple him, and succeeds, but the tiefling triggers a wand of D-door, and is gone.
We leave the cabin, and head down one of the bridges the party skipped last session. It leads to a tower. We burst in, and encounter an armored knight type, with two squire flunkies. Party springs into action, and I slow the knight. The knight gives himself a blurr effect on his turn, and the party continues to pound on them. On my turn I give the half orc and extra attack through temporal twist. He crits, and deals 46 damage. After my turn, an Imp appears next to me, and stings me. I roll crap and fail my save, taking 5 dex damage. During this turn, the Elf chain fighter goes nuts tripping and disarming the enemy. On my turn I 5ft step back, and blast the imp with a moderate word of nurturing for 16 damage.The imp advances, and stings me again, dealing another point of dex damage. I am now at 6 dex, and sweating a little bit. The knight does something that some how prevents the Healer from accessing her divine spells. Next round the Knight is slain, the half orc moves up and kill steals the imp from me, and the rest of the party finishes off the peons.
We search the room, I detect magic, and encounter several items, including 3 scrolls of break enchantment. The party decides to try them on the healer to end the effect on her. I roll crap on the first two, but on the third it goes through, and our healer is back. I also find a scying mirror. I activate it, and it shows me an eye staring back at me. Then the mirror shatters and I take 15 damage. I heal myself up, and we move on.
We cross a bridge, and are attacked by a large black dragon with glowing purple runes on it's body. The party makes a dash to get to the other side, but I take the time to slow it, hoping that it will have to concentrate on flying instead of attacking. Unfortunately it had the right feats and a good enough movement to blast us with a flyby attack. Instead of acid, it hit us with some sort of shadow breath. I take 22 damage, and am under half health. We continue sprinting acrosss the bridge, and then run smack into the lair of a gorgon. I end up passing my save versus his breath, but the healer and half orc fail theirs and are turned to stone. The rest of the party attacks the gorgon, and I blast it with a reversed moderate word of nurturing for 19 damage, and end up killing it. We then rush into it's lair and brace for the dragons attack. It never came.
We were out of scrolls of break enchantment, so we debated our options. In the end it was decided that the swash/rogue would sneak out, and try to head to town for some more scrolls. The rest of the party waited in their defensible position, incase the dragon counter attacked. The swashuckler/rogue ran until he nearly passed out, and came back fairly quickly. I successfully used the scrolls on both our petrified team mates, and had 2 to spare. At that point we called it a night.
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With the party fully restored, we set off down one of the area's we hadn't been to. This took us to a room where we were attacked by a creature with tentacles. It's attacks also had a chance to slow whomever it struck. Round one, the melee types rushed in, several of them getting slowed. I slowed it on my turn, and on the next turn I gave the half orc an extra attack. He critted for 110 points of damage, killing it. By this time a 2nd had joined the fight. Since I still had a turn to wait before I could slow again, I gave the half Orc another attack and he did 19 points of damage. Since the thing was likely to fall the next turn and I gave the half orc another attack.
We then went down another hall, and found a strange room with a set of bellows, and strange crypt things. There were several ladies in the room, armed with staves. Once again, the melee types sprung into action, they rushed in and quickly killed one. Since no one had a shot at another, they seemed to go down easy, and I wanted to save my moderate words of nurturing, I gave the swash/rogue a keen weapon. This round however, the ladies started using their staffs, and dark bolts shot out at almost everyone, dazing several party members. Deciding that that changed things, I used a reverse moderate word of nurturing and injured one of them in the back, concentrated on it the next turn, and brought her into the negatives. In the mean time the rest of the party dispatched with the rest.
We then invstigated the room, and the swash/rogue removed one of the bodies from the crypt things. This caused 6 shadows to materialize and attack us. Lucky for me, I got first initiative for once. I 5ft'ed away from a shadow, and hit it with a reversed moderate word of nurturing. I knew from experience that the miss chances would cause havoc with my melee companions, so it would be best to focus on taking them out. As predicted, all my companions attacks missed, except for the spike chain fighter, he finished off the one I wounded. On the shadows turn, they all swarmed the marshal/paladin, draining his strength to 0. Two of the shadows got tagged by AoO, but were still standing. Round two, I killed of one of the wounded shadows with another reversed moderate word of nurturing. The Half Orc destroyed one of the shadows. The rest of the attacks missed. On the Shadows turn, they decided to target me. The first shadow (which had been wounded once), made it too me, and thankfully missed it's attack. The second one got killed by AoO. The third one was wounded, but made it to me and drained me of 6 strength. The healer started casting restoration on our fallen companion in an attempt to save him. On my turn I was faced with 2 damaged shadows. I only had 4 str left, so odds are one more attack would kill me. I 5ft'd again, and killed one of the two with a reversed word of nurturing. Lucky for me, the spike chain fighter finished off the last one.
Unfortunately for our companion, the effects of the shadow's strength drain took effect before her spell went through, and he became a shadow. It was killed in one shot by the swash/rogue. I used my wand to detect magic, and used my analyze item utterance to identify all the magical items. The staves had darkbolt on them, and I traded my quarter staff for one with 3 charges on it. Hopefully it will come in handy against the dragon. The crypt things evidently summoned the shadow versions of corpses from the material plane. The bellows were pumping the essence of the plane of shadow into some sort of magical effect that would nullify the weave, but allow shadow magic to work. We stabalized the wounded lady, disarmed her, and prepared to question her. Lol, we also looted our dead companion. Then we set to work destroying the bellows and the crypts. After that we rested in the room. At that point the DM called it a night.
We then went down another hall, and found a strange room with a set of bellows, and strange crypt things. There were several ladies in the room, armed with staves. Once again, the melee types sprung into action, they rushed in and quickly killed one. Since no one had a shot at another, they seemed to go down easy, and I wanted to save my moderate words of nurturing, I gave the swash/rogue a keen weapon. This round however, the ladies started using their staffs, and dark bolts shot out at almost everyone, dazing several party members. Deciding that that changed things, I used a reverse moderate word of nurturing and injured one of them in the back, concentrated on it the next turn, and brought her into the negatives. In the mean time the rest of the party dispatched with the rest.
We then invstigated the room, and the swash/rogue removed one of the bodies from the crypt things. This caused 6 shadows to materialize and attack us. Lucky for me, I got first initiative for once. I 5ft'ed away from a shadow, and hit it with a reversed moderate word of nurturing. I knew from experience that the miss chances would cause havoc with my melee companions, so it would be best to focus on taking them out. As predicted, all my companions attacks missed, except for the spike chain fighter, he finished off the one I wounded. On the shadows turn, they all swarmed the marshal/paladin, draining his strength to 0. Two of the shadows got tagged by AoO, but were still standing. Round two, I killed of one of the wounded shadows with another reversed moderate word of nurturing. The Half Orc destroyed one of the shadows. The rest of the attacks missed. On the Shadows turn, they decided to target me. The first shadow (which had been wounded once), made it too me, and thankfully missed it's attack. The second one got killed by AoO. The third one was wounded, but made it to me and drained me of 6 strength. The healer started casting restoration on our fallen companion in an attempt to save him. On my turn I was faced with 2 damaged shadows. I only had 4 str left, so odds are one more attack would kill me. I 5ft'd again, and killed one of the two with a reversed word of nurturing. Lucky for me, the spike chain fighter finished off the last one.
Unfortunately for our companion, the effects of the shadow's strength drain took effect before her spell went through, and he became a shadow. It was killed in one shot by the swash/rogue. I used my wand to detect magic, and used my analyze item utterance to identify all the magical items. The staves had darkbolt on them, and I traded my quarter staff for one with 3 charges on it. Hopefully it will come in handy against the dragon. The crypt things evidently summoned the shadow versions of corpses from the material plane. The bellows were pumping the essence of the plane of shadow into some sort of magical effect that would nullify the weave, but allow shadow magic to work. We stabalized the wounded lady, disarmed her, and prepared to question her. Lol, we also looted our dead companion. Then we set to work destroying the bellows and the crypts. After that we rested in the room. At that point the DM called it a night.
I like the look of truenamer, but feel that what it really lacked was a truenamer/wizard PrC. THAT would be cool and have me playing one in no time at all.
This may have already been raised, but if tempted to give up a CL for improved skill checks, had you considered a level of Exemplar? It'll result in both a +4, and the ability to take 10 on the checks automatically (unless of course that is expressly forbidden by the skill description).
I like the look of truenamer, but feel that what it really lacked was a truenamer/wizard PrC. THAT would be cool and have me playing one in no time at all.
Oh, yeah. Mainly wizard, some TNer added in... Man, thats so overpowered. Healing and... Oh wait, look at the Mystic Theurge, crying in the corner =\
This may have already been raised, but if tempted to give up a CL for improved skill checks, had you considered a level of Exemplar? It'll result in both a +4, and the ability to take 10 on the checks automatically (unless of course that is expressly forbidden by the skill description).
I like the look of truenamer, but feel that what it really lacked was a truenamer/wizard PrC. THAT would be cool and have me playing one in no time at all.
I think I had mentioned it earlier in the thread, but I intend to dip into 2 classes in this build. 1 level of Marshal, and 1 level of Exemplar. The level of Marshal will allow me to boost my intelligence checks with charisma. That means that I can now just focus on raising my charisma, which will help my save DC's too.
Frankly, there are only 2 Truenamer PrC's that grabbed my interest. Fiend Binder and Acolyte of the Ego. I used an archavist/fiendbinder build as an NPC in a campaign once. The NPC can be found here. . He was a very creepy villian for the party to face, especially when he was still standing when it was very clear that he should be dead. Lol, they had no idea what was happening, and it made them sweat a little.
Acolyte of the Ego is a decent true naming class. In fact I am thinking about taking levels in it if this campaign ever goes epic.
Anyways, here was the nights adventure.
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After we rested, we left the room andcame across another narrow bridge. One player ran across and was attacked by the dragon. Knowing that it would take time for him to turn arround and recharge his breath weapon, we ran across the bridge. The next room lead to a library with several tables and book cases. The walls had 5 flaming skulls along the wall, providing illumination. I moved to a corner and used my wand of detect magic. The book shelves, tables, and skulls all radiated magic. I used analyze item to learn that the tables and bookshelves provided protection magic to the books and provided great resistance to fire. I didn't analyze the skulls, assuming they were just a light source.
I perused the books, and found one or two that I wanted to take back to my organization for brownie points. As soon as I put a book in my bag, the skulls began to move. They suddenly became blurred and mirror imaged, and then dropped a fire ball on the center of the party. This fight dragged on for a while, but I will summerize. I took out 4 of the 5 skulls with five reversed moderate words of nurturing, and took about 34 damage from magic missiles. I was in a corner away from the others, so I didn't get hit with the fireballs. After the fight I healed up the party using extended minor and lessor words of nurturing, and we continued on.
I perused the books, and found one or two that I wanted to take back to my organization for brownie points. As soon as I put a book in my bag, the skulls began to move. They suddenly became blurred and mirror imaged, and then dropped a fire ball on the center of the party. This fight dragged on for a while, but I will summerize. I took out 4 of the 5 skulls with five reversed moderate words of nurturing, and took about 34 damage from magic missiles. I was in a corner away from the others, so I didn't get hit with the fireballs. After the fight I healed up the party using extended minor and lessor words of nurturing, and we continued on.
This was the last game for this module. Fortunately, the group all wishes to continue forward with this campaign, so it looks like a trip to Shadowdale is in our near future.
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So after our fight with the flameskulls, the party decided to continue on. We came upon a room with many people locked up in cages, and a mass of darkness swirling around the center of the room. There was also a caller in darkness. The party went on the attack, and I blasted it for 15 damage with a reversed words of nurturing. It then hit me with something. I failed my save, and was auto-dropped to -1 hp. I spend the rest of the combat unconscious. My companions kill the thing, and then begin searching the room, and freeing the captives. Then the dragon does a fly by and hits the party (thankfully not me). His blast hits some of the captives, who die and release some sort of energy that heals everyone (except me). At this point the healer gets me back on my feet, and I give myself extended fast healing. My companions continue to free the captives, and I analyze the cages. Turns out that they are powering the ritual, and there was another item that controls them. At this point the dragon drops down and attacks the Swash/rogue. Now that he has landed, the party starts to attack it. Long story short, I slow it, and then give the swash/rogue two temporal twists. One misses, the other hits for a massive crit. The dragon is killed, and after that the mod is pretty much wrapped up.
Ok, finished shopping. Here is the updated character.
Bennet Whitecastle, NG Illumian Truenamer 8
HP: 55
Init: +1
AC: 16, Touch: 11. Flat: 15
BAB: 6/1
Attack: Short Sword 6/1 1d6
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 18, Wis 11, Cha 15,
Saves: Fort 7, Ref 5, Will 8
Feats: Skill Focus: True Speech, Item Familiar, Truename Research, Extend Utterance, Bonus: Recitation of the Sanguine State.
Skills: Concentration: 6, True Speech 11, Item Familiar (True Speech): 11, Knowledge Arcana: 5, Knowledge Nature: 5, Knowledge Planes: 5. Knowledge Religion: 3, Listen: 2, Use Magic Device: 11
Special: Knowledge focus: Arcana, +2 vs Shadow spells, Sigel (Naen): +2 int checks and skills, Sigel (Krau): +2 to caster level, -4 vs Sigels/Glyphes of a higher level, otherwise imune, Know Personal Truename, Paragnostic Assembly (+5 to true speech).
Utterences
lexicon of the evolving mind
Lvl 1: minor words of Nurturing, Universal Aptitude, Inertia Surge
Lvl 2: Lesser words of Nurtuting, Temporal Twist
Lvl 3: Moderate words of Nurturing, Greater Speed of the Zephyr, Vision Sharpened
Lexicon of the crafted tool
Lvl 1: Keen Weapon
Lvl 2: Analyze Item Lexicon of the Perfected Map Lvl 1: Fog From the Void
Possesions: Short Sword, Dagger, Elven Chain, Lesser amulet of the Silver tongue, ever burning torch, Helm of comprehend languages and read magic, Eternal Wand of detect magic, 2 scrolls of dispel magic, 2 Scrolls of Break Enchantment (10th level Bard), Mantle of 2nd chances (+2 saves), Wand Bracer, Misc. adventuring gear.
True Name modifyer: 41
Max uses per utterance vs even CR: 15 (17 with universal aptitude, 16 on self, 18 with universal aptitude). So right now I can auto pass 5 utterances on an even level CR. If I didn't have Item Familiar, my check would be even with the DC, allowing me to auto pass an utterance once.
The one thing the last encounter made clear, was that I really needed to work on my saves. So I bought a mantle of second chances. This will allow me to have a re-roll once per day. This will most likely be used on saves, but can also be used with skill (truename) checks. I then spent 1,000 and 3,000 gold in giving it +2 to saves, as per the magic item compendium. Next up I decided to upgrade my armor, and bought some Elven chain that I will start upgrading latter. Armor isn't a huge issue with me, as I try to stay out of range. However I do get bushwacked from time to time. As I had already boosted my saves as best I could, bumping my AC would be my next priority. Next up I bought a Wand Bracer. These things are fun, cheap, and can come in real handy. I already have my wand of detect magic. There are several other wands that I would like to get as well (like silence, cure serious). Eventually I'll nab an infinate scroll case as well, so all my magic items are at the ready. Lastly, I replaced my quarter staff with a short sword. Eventually I will be getting a luck blade, but for now I will have the short sword. I am not even proficient with it yet, but the staff tended to make the enemies believe that I was a caster, and I would sometimes get alpha striked.
Utterance wise, I took Vision Sharpened. We have encountered several invisible creatures so far, and this would have come in handy. Not to mention the ability to become invisable ourselves. The only other utterance that was tempting was Seek the Sky, but I will probably get that next level. For my 1st utterance of the Perfected Map, I chose Fog from the Void. Fog cloud and solid Fog are nice control spells, and should come in handy. Shield of the Landscape could be nice, but the fact that it only works on natural terrain turned me off on it, as it would be useless in a dungeon crawl. Shockwave seems nice, but the fact that it relies on a save (and my save DC sucks right now) makes it far less reliable than it should be. Lastly, I chose the Recitation of the Sanguine State as my bonus Recitation feet. Poison is pretty common, so I will probably get some use out of this.
And that was pretty much it for this level. Next week we start the next leg of our campaign in Shadowdale.
Ok, we had another game this last weekend. Since the SBLOCKS don't seem to work with these new forums, so Spoilers ahead.
*******Spoilers**********
As mentioned last time, we decided to take the Shaarite artifact to elminister. We head to Shadowdale, and encounter a town that has been recently sacked by a group of humans and a group of Ogres who are about to come to blows. We side with the humans. I start out by giving the Swash/rogue a keen weapon, and the the half Orc an extra attack twice. Combat was resolved quickly, and soon both sides were dead. Our party healed up what villagers survived, and we learned that there were a lot of mercenaries in the area.
As we approach Shadowdale, we are approached by a Zhent riding some sort of aberation. He had two wands pointed at us, and asked us what we were doing here. From him, we learned that Elminister disapeared and the Zhents took over Shadowdale. We attacked him, and he turned out to be a caster. First round I slowed the mount, second I managed to daze the mount and get it to drop to the ground. The mount was quickly dispatched, and the mage had his two wands disarmed. The mage then used a scroll to teleport away. I ended up with his wands (Magic Missile and Fireball)
*****End Spoilers**********
Lol, I chose invisability over flight, and we start off by facing a flying creature. Thankfully I got lucky and dazed the mount, and brought it down. Otherwise we would have been at a tactical disadvantage. DM said afterwards that the mount had a 50/50 chance to fail the save. This time it paid off, but those are higher odds than I like. I'll be boosting my charisma soon.
Last weekends sesion was all role play, so no combats or anything that would have reflected on the class it's self.
I am starting to think about getting some sort of excape plan for the party in case we get in over our head. I would need an 18th level scroll of D-Door or Teleport to do the job, or Shadow Walk. We'll see. I may just be getting paranoid. Still, having a solution for "Oh Crap" moments would come in handy, and as the parties designated "caster", the duty falls on me.
Ok had a game last night.
::Spoilers::
The party had figured out most of the riddle, and went to the tomb that Selune was supposedly trapped in. As we were warned, we were attacked by a Skeletal red dragon. Long story short, on my turn I slowed it (bumping the DC up to auto-overcome spell resistance). I then gave 2 temporal twists to the half Orc. It was killed just before my 4th turn where I would have had to renew the slow. The DM said afterward, that if I hadn't slowed it, it would have probably killed a party member a turn.
Nex we entered the tomb, and encountered one of those magic eating demons who's name I forgot. We were told that they were weak to salt, so I had bought a 5lb bag of salt in town. I handed it to the half orc who dumped it on the demon. It seemed to really hurt it. We quickly found out that magic healed it, and that it supressed any weapon that attacked it. Since I couldn't cast on it, I hasted the swashbuckler/rogue, and then gave the healer an extra attack (she had scooped up some of the fallen salt). The rest of the party continued to scoop up the salt and throw it at it, and the fight was soon over. Selune appreared before us and told us where to go for the next leg of the adventure.
::End Spoilers::
Once again my ability to slow something with no save proved invaluable. The dragon would have had a lot of attacks, and the damage would have caused a lot of trouble. It was also the first time I gave some one haste, as normally the slow is a better choice. Over all I contributed quite a bit this game so I can't complain.
Had another game this weekend.
::::Spoilers::::
When we last played we defeated the magic eating demon. So now we looted the tomb, rested, and set out to cut off the Zhent reinforcements. At the tomb we recieved two items (a cloak of charisma that went to the healer, and a special staff that went to me since I was the only one who could use it). The staff had several abilities, including darkness, darkvision, lowlight vision, dispel magic (light spells only), summon monster (umberhulk only).
When we arrived at the shent fortress we were attacked by to Moghs. They nearly sundered the poor half Orcs axe. For my part I slowed one of the Moghs, and gave one of the melee party members an extra attack. I discovered then that the duration of my utterance was reduced by 1 round due to a gimmick in the mod. Then we encountered 2 entins and a cleric working some human slaves. I actually had a round to buff a party member, so I gave the dragon shamman a keen weapon. He had the keen weapon feat, but our DM allows keen to stack so long as they are from different sources (like 3.0). So now he had a crit range of 15+. We attacked, and for the next two turns, I used one of my wands to drop a fireball on the entin and cleric. They seemed to resist some of it, but they all took some damage. The two ettins were quickly dispatched, and the cleric retreated by stone melding into the fortress. Unfortunately, the mod had mis interpreted the way stone meld works, so he was able to get away. After setting the prisoners free, we entered the fortress to search for the cleric and any remaining enemies. We started searching the fortress, and were rewarded with some treasure. I recieved a wand with 6 charges of levitate (could keep in handy).
:::::End Spoilers:::::
This session I got to take advantage of my UMD skill and make some use of the wands we have found. The two rounds of Fireballing probably did more than any of my utterances could. Right now I have a wand of Fireball, Magic Missile, Levitate, and an eternal wand of Detect Magic with one more slot open on my bracer (may have to pick up another one. At 300 GP it can't hurt). One of my party members made a suggestion, and I may actually use it. That was to pick up a wand with the Regroup spell (duskblade lvl 3). This could actually help on several levels. I have been looking for a Get out of Jail card for the party. The closest thing I could think of was shadow walk. However I can easily get the wand, and possibly boots of temporal acceleration and fill the role, and take care of battlefield positioning.
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We went down the stairs and were attacked by a skull crusher Ogre and 2 dread warriors. I temporal twisted, giving the Half Orc an extra attack. By my next turn things were pretty much mopped up. We searched the room, and I used detect magic with my eternal wand. I also used my minor words of nurturing to top off the party. Next up we oppened a door and were greated by a devil with a spiked chain. The Swash/rogue laid in to it, critting it. However it appeared that it had some major resistances to it's attacks. I decided that I would use my direct damage, and upped the DC by 5 to over come it's spell resistance. A fireball hit the room, and I made my save (took 15 damage). Boy I am glad I boosted up my saving throws with my cloak! I concentrated on the Utterance for my second turn, and I then made my roll to disbelieve, and learned that we were fighting an illusion. I then informed the party about the illusion. Made another save, against a 2nd fireball (17 Damage). I then figured that something was targetting us, and so I cast Vision sharpened incase they were invisable. A third fireball hit. I rolled a 7, which would have given me a save of 13 (DM latter told me that I needed a 15). I chose to re-roll it with my cloak, and ended up with a save of 22. Took half for 20 damage, which left me at 2 hp. That mantle of 2nd chances was definately money well spent, as without it I'd be dead. Fortunately my comrades had found the two demons targeting us, and eliminated them with the help of another temporal twist. Party then used the healers reserve feat to heal up to half, and then I topped them off with my remaining lesser words of nurturing. After the battle was done, we rescued a prisoner, who just happened to be the missing heir of Shadowdale.
We went down the stairs and were attacked by a skull crusher Ogre and 2 dread warriors. I temporal twisted, giving the Half Orc an extra attack. By my next turn things were pretty much mopped up. We searched the room, and I used detect magic with my eternal wand. I also used my minor words of nurturing to top off the party. Next up we oppened a door and were greated by a devil with a spiked chain. The Swash/rogue laid in to it, critting it. However it appeared that it had some major resistances to it's attacks. I decided that I would use my direct damage, and upped the DC by 5 to over come it's spell resistance. A fireball hit the room, and I made my save (took 15 damage). Boy I am glad I boosted up my saving throws with my cloak! I concentrated on the Utterance for my second turn, and I then made my roll to disbelieve, and learned that we were fighting an illusion. I then informed the party about the illusion. Made another save, against a 2nd fireball (17 Damage). I then figured that something was targetting us, and so I cast Vision sharpened incase they were invisable. A third fireball hit. I rolled a 7, which would have given me a save of 13 (DM latter told me that I needed a 15). I chose to re-roll it with my cloak, and ended up with a save of 22. Took half for 20 damage, which left me at 2 hp. That mantle of 2nd chances was definately money well spent, as without it I'd be dead. Fortunately my comrades had found the two demons targeting us, and eliminated them with the help of another temporal twist. Party then used the healers reserve feat to heal up to half, and then I topped them off with my remaining lesser words of nurturing. After the battle was done, we rescued a prisoner, who just happened to be the missing heir of Shadowdale.
[SBLOCK] We moved on to the next corridor, and the Half Ork gets hit with a symbol of pain. We disable it, and move on to the next room. We see an altar to bane, with several statues in the room. As we move in, skeletons start comming out from behind the statues. 1st round I can't see the action, so I give a team mate haste. The melee's go to town on the skeletons, and more appear. They are joined by a Dread Wraith. I use a reversed moderate words of nurturing on it for 17 damage. Next round the wraith spring attacks the spiked chain fighter, and I concentrate on my utterance for 14 damage. The Skeletons are dispatched, and the wraith sinks into the floor. I ready an action to blast the wraith again when I see him. The skeletons are dispatched, and the wraith appears and spring attacks me. I blast him for 11 points of damage, and then move back into the room. One of the party finds a cleric behind one of the statues, and attacks him. I get spring attacked again, and am now down to 8 con. I Concentrate on the utterance and deal another 14 points of damage, and then move behind some of the party members. The Cleric runns down a secret passage, and the swash/rogue chases after him and grapples him. The wraith thankfully hits some one else this time, and I hit it for 15 more damage, and then it is killed by the half orc.
We interrogate the cleric, but he is uncooperative. I use my universal aptitude to increase the half orc's intimidate skill. He talks! After we learn all the usefull intell he is willing to give us we dispatch him, and find another secret room. In it we find the portal. I analyze item, and find out what it would take to destroy it. We next spend several rounds hitting it with acid till it breaks. We search one final room and are attacked by two small lizard like things I never bothered to identify. I temporal twist the Half Orc and they are taken down quickly. [/END]
Once again I prove to be the main damage dealer vs incoporeal creatures. It was also nice being able to use universal aptitude and having it make a difference. After the game we got xp, and we found out that we leveled! Hello Quicken Utterance!.
I'll post the updated build soon!
Bennet Whitecastle, NG Illumian Truenamer 9
HP: 62
Init: +1
AC: 16, Touch: 11. Flat: 15
BAB: 6/1
Attack: Short Sword 4/-1 1d6
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 18, Wis 11, Cha 15,
Saves: Fort 8, Ref 9, Will 8
Feats: Skill Focus: True Speech, Item Familiar, Truename Research, Extend Utterance, Quicken Utterance, Insightful Reflexes, Bonus: Recitation of the Sanguine State. Flaw: Non-combatant
Skills: Concentration: 6, True Speech 12, Item Familiar (True Speech): 12, Knowledge Arcana: 5, Knowledge Nature: 5, Knowledge Planes: 5. Knowledge Religion: 5, Knowledge Dungeoneering: 1, Listen: 2, Use Magic Device: 12
Special: Knowledge focus: Arcana, +2 vs Shadow spells, Sigel (Naen): +2 int checks and skills, Sigel (Krau): +2 to caster level, -4 vs Sigels/Glyphes of a higher level, otherwise imune, Know Personal Truename, Paragnostic Assembly (+5 to true speech).
Utterences
lexicon of the evolving mind
Lvl 1: minor words of Nurturing, Universal Aptitude, Inertia Surge
Lvl 2: Lesser words of Nurtuting, Temporal Twist
Lvl 3: Moderate words of Nurturing, Greater Speed of the Zephyr, Vision Sharpened, Seek the Sky
Lexicon of the crafted tool
Lvl 1: Keen Weapon
Lvl 2: Analyze Item Lexicon of the Perfected Map Lvl 1: Fog From the Void
Possesions: Short Sword, Dagger, +1 Elven Chain, Greater amulet of the Silver tongue, ever burning torch, Helm of comprehend languages and read magic, Eternal Wand of detect magic, 2 scrolls of dispel magic, 2 Scrolls of Break Enchantment (10th level Bard), Mantle of 2nd chances (+2 saves), Wand Bracer, Misc. adventuring gear.
True Name modifyer: 48
Even Lvl DC: 33.
Can Quicken on a 5+
Max use of utterance vs even lvl CR: 20 (including Universal Aptitude Bonus).
Without Item Familiar, my check would now be at 35. Without items, I would be at a 27.
I picked seek the sky, as flight can would be handy. I also misread the reverse and it is better than I thought as there is no save. With my cash I upgraded my Amulet of the Silver tongue, and mage my armor +1.
We had a game, but it was one encounter vs cannon fodder. I did manage to do a quickened Keen weapon, and temportal twist in one turn.
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Party entered a room and were attacked by 2 gargoyles that were in an opening in the ceiling. On my turn I quickened a seek the sky, giving the half orc flight, and gave the spike chain fighter (who was enlarged) an extra attack. By the 3rd turn, everyone else was pretty much through the opening in the ceiling, and fighting gargoyle reinforcements. Being on the ground floor, I gave the spike chain fighter another attack. Saving my utterances, I used my grapple hook to climb up.
We then encountered a room where there was a deep ravine, where boulders were suspended in the air, and smashing together. The swash/rogue decided to bounce from boulder to boulder to get across (he lives to show off his tumble skill). The chain fighter leapt as far as he could, then used a shadow hand manuever to get across. The healer used a magic item to d-door. The half Orc tried to do what the swash/rogue did, but fell half way. Fortunately I had readied an action to give him flight, and so he didn't die and made his way across. They wanted to save my utterances for the return trip, so one of the players who had spider climb carried me across. On the other end of the ravine, we found a that there was a dead magic effect.
We then entered a side room that had 3 men and a female shade. We charged into the room. The Swash/Rogue killed one, the chain fighter tripped another, and I futilily tried to hit the tripped man. The then the shade and standing man pulled out scrolls and all turned invisable. Next round we were all hit by evards. I spent most of the up coming rounds trying to break the grapple. Evidently these were all shadow magic spells, and therefore uneffected by the dead magic. It also became obvious that the shade could teleport, as she and the man would keep peppering us with spells from wands, and then teleporting around the evards. I was brought down to 36 hp, and then they dominated the half orc. I knew that we needed to do something quick, so I used one of Selune's kisses, and used my utterance of the vison sharpened on the swash/buckler rogue. With his whip he had the best chance of getting her. With him able to pin point the squares they were in, the party was able to take the rest down. In the mean time the spiked chain fighter kept the half Orc busy by using setting sun manuevers to throw him back into the evards and disarm him.
It was an intense combat that had me sweating. My utterances would have made a big difference with quickened Inertia Surges, vision sharpened, etc... However it was me burning a kiss to use magic that turned the tide on this battle. On a positive note, we are definately looting these guys of all their shadow weave magic items, so next time I will be much better prepared and useful. We still have to deal with the Half Orc next session, but I have scrolls of dispell magic handy. We will have to retreat outside the anti-magic zone and cast it. I was also nice to have my last two utterance choices validated. Seek the Sky came in handy the first combat and saved a party members life. Vision Sharpened allowed us to take down the invisable opponents, which allowed us to take them down without sustaining to much more damage. Now I will get some wands of shadow weave scorching ray, and at least one scroll of shadow weave improved invis. I'll also have 2 more uses of Selune's kiss to over come the dead magic. All in all, I think I contributed a lot this session.
We then encountered a room where there was a deep ravine, where boulders were suspended in the air, and smashing together. The swash/rogue decided to bounce from boulder to boulder to get across (he lives to show off his tumble skill). The chain fighter leapt as far as he could, then used a shadow hand manuever to get across. The healer used a magic item to d-door. The half Orc tried to do what the swash/rogue did, but fell half way. Fortunately I had readied an action to give him flight, and so he didn't die and made his way across. They wanted to save my utterances for the return trip, so one of the players who had spider climb carried me across. On the other end of the ravine, we found a that there was a dead magic effect.
We then entered a side room that had 3 men and a female shade. We charged into the room. The Swash/Rogue killed one, the chain fighter tripped another, and I futilily tried to hit the tripped man. The then the shade and standing man pulled out scrolls and all turned invisable. Next round we were all hit by evards. I spent most of the up coming rounds trying to break the grapple. Evidently these were all shadow magic spells, and therefore uneffected by the dead magic. It also became obvious that the shade could teleport, as she and the man would keep peppering us with spells from wands, and then teleporting around the evards. I was brought down to 36 hp, and then they dominated the half orc. I knew that we needed to do something quick, so I used one of Selune's kisses, and used my utterance of the vison sharpened on the swash/buckler rogue. With his whip he had the best chance of getting her. With him able to pin point the squares they were in, the party was able to take the rest down. In the mean time the spiked chain fighter kept the half Orc busy by using setting sun manuevers to throw him back into the evards and disarm him.
It was an intense combat that had me sweating. My utterances would have made a big difference with quickened Inertia Surges, vision sharpened, etc... However it was me burning a kiss to use magic that turned the tide on this battle. On a positive note, we are definately looting these guys of all their shadow weave magic items, so next time I will be much better prepared and useful. We still have to deal with the Half Orc next session, but I have scrolls of dispell magic handy. We will have to retreat outside the anti-magic zone and cast it. I was also nice to have my last two utterance choices validated. Seek the Sky came in handy the first combat and saved a party members life. Vision Sharpened allowed us to take down the invisable opponents, which allowed us to take them down without sustaining to much more damage. Now I will get some wands of shadow weave scorching ray, and at least one scroll of shadow weave improved invis. I'll also have 2 more uses of Selune's kiss to over come the dead magic. All in all, I think I contributed a lot this session.
Addendum: 27-01-10, 16:22, -8 GMT, I remember reading your exploits a long time ago. It's been awhile.
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After the fight with the shades, we loot up. I get shadow weave wands of scorching ray and Orb of Cold. We also learn that this was not the temple, and make our way further into the under dark. In one cave, we are ambushed by some drow. If memory surves, I quicken a reverse vision sharpened, and become invisible, and then also give keen edge to a party member. Then I get caught in a fireball. I use my cloaks re-roll, but still fail the save, and am dropped into negatives. Fortunately I am next to the dragon shaman, and his healing aura stabilizes me, and brings me back into positive health. I stand up and use a quickened word of nurturing on myself, and give an ally another attack with a temporal twist. On my next turn the dragon shaman had been paralized by poison bolts, and two drow were moving to coupe de grau him. I sacrifice my invisability, and do two reverse tempral twists, managing to stun one of the drow. The other fails in his coup de grau. By my next turn my team mates had pretty much mopped things up.
Next we entered the temple, and were attacked by cultists and cannoloths. I can't remember the details of this one, but it was pretty straight forward. Use quickened buffs, slow the meanest looking one, and give extra attacks to those in reach of an opponent. We rest up, and learn that we have to go back into the dead magic zone. There we are attacked by 3 golems. Since I would be useless here, I retreat back to the edge of the anti- magic area and wait to assist as I am able. Turns out my party was able to take them out. We heal up the party, and press on. Next we are attacked by a shadow weave using beholder mage. The swash/buckler rogue runs in to attack him, and learns that the floor is littered with pit traps the hard way. Lol, as he is starting to fall, he puts his level of Lasher to use, and uses his whip trick to lash around the beholder. The beholder fails his strength check, and is pulled along with him, eventually becoming wedged in the pit. For my part I use the shadow weave wand, and hit it with an orb of cold. The thing is dead by my next turn, and we fish the rogue out of the pit.
That pretty much concludes the games. I missed one the other week, and will find out where we left off.
Next we entered the temple, and were attacked by cultists and cannoloths. I can't remember the details of this one, but it was pretty straight forward. Use quickened buffs, slow the meanest looking one, and give extra attacks to those in reach of an opponent. We rest up, and learn that we have to go back into the dead magic zone. There we are attacked by 3 golems. Since I would be useless here, I retreat back to the edge of the anti- magic area and wait to assist as I am able. Turns out my party was able to take them out. We heal up the party, and press on. Next we are attacked by a shadow weave using beholder mage. The swash/buckler rogue runs in to attack him, and learns that the floor is littered with pit traps the hard way. Lol, as he is starting to fall, he puts his level of Lasher to use, and uses his whip trick to lash around the beholder. The beholder fails his strength check, and is pulled along with him, eventually becoming wedged in the pit. For my part I use the shadow weave wand, and hit it with an orb of cold. The thing is dead by my next turn, and we fish the rogue out of the pit.
That pretty much concludes the games. I missed one the other week, and will find out where we left off.
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The party entered a room where the high priestess was performing her ritual. It was nearly identical to the ritual room in the last campaign we went through. Essentially a tear in the weave surrounded by several people in cages that seemed to fuel it. There was the high priestess, and several guards. We figure that the first priority would be to take out people in the cages so that we might get our magic back. Once again I am forced to rely on UMD to be effective. Round one I use one of the shadow weave scrolls to give the Swash/Rogue improved invisability. I make the check. Round 2 -4 I have a terrible rolling streak and am unable to roll the 6 I needed to use a wand.
In summation for the first few rounds, the party melee's start taking out the guards. And the Priestess starts using a staff to buff up. She summons some type of Orb thing that surrounds her, and entropic shield. Third round she casts improved invis. From here things start going bad. The spiked chain fighter attempts to hit her, and his chain disolves. So evidently this orb makes her immune to physical attacks. The next round the spike chain fighter drew a bow, and the arrows disolved to. So now we have an opponent immune to physical attacks in an anti-magic zone. We kill off the people in the cages but the anti-magic is still in place. Round 5 I finally manage to scorching ray her, but by now the Half Ork is in the negatives and on borrowed time thanks to the healer burning a kiss and casting a delay death spell. The priestess casts destruction, and kills the swashbuckler/rogue. The half dragon is down to single digit hp, and other than my scorching rays, we have no way of hurting the priestess. At this point the DM takes pitty on us, and uses Duece Ex Machana to take away her staff, and dropping the orb thing. After that we manage to kill her, perform a quick ritual, and restore magic just in time to heal the poor Half Orc.
What a rough mod. I don't know how you are supposed to beat it without some one with max UMD using looted items. If the DM hadn't interceded I am sure that we would have lost at least 2 more party members if not more. I feel bad for the swashbuckler rogue. Pitting a 14th level or so caster against some 9th level characters is a little rough. If I was one level higher I could have dispelled her buff by blowing a kiss. Oh well, at least this encounter got me to level 10, and we shouldn't have to worry about anti-magic dungeons for a while. Also the spike chain player has left the group, and was being npc'd by the DM, so losing his primary weapon won't be too bad (lol, 2 more levels and I could have fixed it).
So thats about 2/3-1/2 of the campaign down. I will post my updated character sheet soon.
In summation for the first few rounds, the party melee's start taking out the guards. And the Priestess starts using a staff to buff up. She summons some type of Orb thing that surrounds her, and entropic shield. Third round she casts improved invis. From here things start going bad. The spiked chain fighter attempts to hit her, and his chain disolves. So evidently this orb makes her immune to physical attacks. The next round the spike chain fighter drew a bow, and the arrows disolved to. So now we have an opponent immune to physical attacks in an anti-magic zone. We kill off the people in the cages but the anti-magic is still in place. Round 5 I finally manage to scorching ray her, but by now the Half Ork is in the negatives and on borrowed time thanks to the healer burning a kiss and casting a delay death spell. The priestess casts destruction, and kills the swashbuckler/rogue. The half dragon is down to single digit hp, and other than my scorching rays, we have no way of hurting the priestess. At this point the DM takes pitty on us, and uses Duece Ex Machana to take away her staff, and dropping the orb thing. After that we manage to kill her, perform a quick ritual, and restore magic just in time to heal the poor Half Orc.
What a rough mod. I don't know how you are supposed to beat it without some one with max UMD using looted items. If the DM hadn't interceded I am sure that we would have lost at least 2 more party members if not more. I feel bad for the swashbuckler rogue. Pitting a 14th level or so caster against some 9th level characters is a little rough. If I was one level higher I could have dispelled her buff by blowing a kiss. Oh well, at least this encounter got me to level 10, and we shouldn't have to worry about anti-magic dungeons for a while. Also the spike chain player has left the group, and was being npc'd by the DM, so losing his primary weapon won't be too bad (lol, 2 more levels and I could have fixed it).
So thats about 2/3-1/2 of the campaign down. I will post my updated character sheet soon.
Updated Character sheet.
Bennet Whitecastle, NG Illumian Truenamer 10
HP: 67
Init: +1
AC: 16, Touch: 11. Flat: 15
BAB: 7/2
Attack: Short Sword 5/0 1d6
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 18, Wis 11, Cha 15,
Saves: Fort 9, Ref 10, Will 10
Feats: Skill Focus: True Speech, Item Familiar, Truename Research, Extend Utterance, Quicken Utterance, Insightful Reflexes, Bonus: Recitation of the Sanguine State. Flaw: Non-combatant
Skills: Concentration: 9, True Speech 13, Item Familiar (True Speech): 13, Knowledge Arcana: 5, Knowledge Nature: 5, Knowledge Planes: 5, Knowledge Religion: 5, Knowledge Dungeoneering: 4, Listen: 2, Use Magic Device: 13
Special: Knowledge focus: Arcana, knowledge focus religion, +2 vs Shadow spells, Sigel (Naen): +2 int checks and skills, Sigel (Krau): +2 to caster level, -4 vs Sigels/Glyphes of a higher level, otherwise imune, Know Personal Truename, Paragnostic Assembly (+5 to true speech).
Utterences
lexicon of the evolving mind
Lvl 1: minor words of Nurturing, Universal Aptitude, Inertia Surge
Lvl 2: Lesser words of Nurtuting, Temporal Twist
Lvl 3: Moderate words of Nurturing, Greater Speed of the Zephyr, Vision Sharpened, Seek the Sky
Lvl 4: Spell rebirth
Lexicon of the crafted tool
Lvl 1: Keen Weapon
Lvl 2: Analyze Item Lexicon of the Perfected Map Lvl 1: Fog From the Void
Possesions: Short Sword, Dagger, +1 Elven Chain, Greater amulet of the Silver tongue, ever burning torch, Helm of comprehend languages and read magic, Eternal Wand of detect magic, 2 scrolls of dispel magic, 2 Scrolls of Break Enchantment (10th level Bard), Mantle of 2nd chances (+3 saves), Wand Bracer, Misc. adventuring gear.
True Name modifyer: 50
Even Lvl DC: 35.
Can Quicken on a 5+
Max use of utterance vs even lvl CR: 20 (including Universal Aptitude Bonus).
Without Item Familiar, my check would now be at 37. Without items, I would be at a 33.
Now for the campaign update.
[SPOILER] Ok, when last I posted, one of the swashbuckler rogue had died. Also, the chain fighter player recently got married, and hasn't been coming in. Since the Chain fighter's weapon was destroyed, we decided to have him leave the party to get a new one, and help with the people we set free. The swashbuckler rogue decided to re-roll a Dwarf Forsaker. So our party composition is;
Half Ork Paragon Barbarian/ Warblade
Dwarf Barbarian/Forsaker
Illumian True Namer
Human Dragonshaman
Elf Healer (DM NPC)
We exit back to the under dark, and encounter the Dwarf. Minor role play ensues. We then encounter some hook horrors. I give the dragon shaman a keen weapon, and the throw out a temporal twist or two, but don't end up doing much.
We continue forward, and encounter a corridor of magical darkness. The Dwarf is uneffected by it, but the rest of us are forced to trudge through the darkness. To be safe, I make myself invisable. The Dwarf manages to spot several drow in ambush before they are aware of us. The Dwarf charges through and tackles the priestess. The rest move forward and start the attack. I begin with giving the dragon shaman a keen weapon, and try to give the forsaker an extra attack. He declines it. One of the drow is a wizard, and goes invisable. I use a reverse word of nurturing on a drow to end my invisability, quicken a vision sharpened to give myself see invisable. Next round I reverse my spell rebirth and quicken it again, managing to strip the invisability and another buff. At this point the party is prettty much mopping things up.
Yay, I got to use my new utterance, lol. I like it, as it automatically removes an effect. No dispel check needed. [/SBLOCK]
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we encountered another cavern with magical darkness. Once again the forsaker is immune to it. There is a lake in the middle of it. I make myself invisable before entering, and as we pass, an undead fang dragon pops up and hastes it's self. Party attacks it, and it casts a quickened shield on it's self and attacks. I get hit with the frightfull presence and am shaken. On my turn I reverse spell rebirth, and dispell the haste. I attempt to quicken another on it, but fail.melée continues, and it starts to trip the party. I manage to dispell the shield, and slow it. Hurt, the dragon sinks back under the water. The party moves to the edge of the darkness, andare again attacked by the dragon. He trips the healer on his new suprise round, then me on the next normal round. I resist the poison, but still take 15 damage. I utter defensively while on my back and renew the slow. I fail to quicken a seek the sky. The half ork steps in and puts some hurt on it. My next round I do utter seek the sky, and fly away from the dragon. I then quicken a moderate words of nurturing and manage to kill it. We find an amulet on it, and learn that it created the magical darkness. I then heal myself up.
I missed a game due to the holiday weekend, and we picked up this weekend.
Since the forum change, I haven't figured out how to end the spoiler block, so I'll put my post game reflections at the top.
The last two levels have shown a great increase in my characters effectiveness. Firstly, being able to quicken an utterance has effectively doubled my out put. I can quicken on an even CR on a roll of 5+. Not fool proof, but semi- reliable. Secondly, I can now dispel effects on people. As the only "caster" type in the group (excluding the healer), I am the only debuffer readily available. I find that I now spend a good portion of my combats stripping my opponents buffs and debuffs, and with a quicken I can still do a few other things. Another note on the reversed spell rebirth; is that there is no dispell check. An epic level wizard with a CL of 100+ could have cast it, and it doesn't matter. The highest level spell effect is removed. This makes it extremely powerful, if a little limited.
Anyways, on with the game recap
[SBLOCK] Party is still in the underdark, and are wandering through drow central. We come across a Lothite alter. Searching reveals a hidden aclove in the wall behind it. The forsaker triggers a glyph of warding but is more or less unharmed. Inside we find a scimitar that seems to be obviously magical. I attempt to analyze item, but don't get any results. So, we know know that it is an artifact.
There is a pool in the room, and some searching reveals that a hole, and some recently disturbed silt. We tie a rope to the Forsaker (who doesn't need to breath), and have him scout. A short swim latter he enters a cavern with an air pocket and a hole in the ceiling. Upon entering the cavern an alarm spell is triggered, and some sort of humaniod figure drops from the hole in the ceiling. The dwarf gives the rope a tug and we haul him back. We wait for any pursuit. 10 minutes go by, and we see nothing. So we tie ourselves together with rope, and I do an extended Invis and Fly on the half orc. We enter the cavern, and are attacked by a Mummy. Everyone fails the fear check except for the Forsaker and healer. The half ork uses his Iron Heart Surge manuever to remove the fear, and I spend a turn untying the rope and moving away. The melee's plow into it, and do a number on it. Next turn the fear wears off just in time for me to kill steal with a reversed moderate words of nurturing.
With his flight still up, the half ork peeks up the hole. Inside he sees a cavern covered in spiders, and what is described as a fountain of spiders flowing up through the floor. From it emerges a Drow priestess. He pops back down and tells the party. Next round I cast keen weapon on the dragon shaman, and extended Universal aptitude on myself. The healer has a vest that can d-door all but one of us, so we d-door in with the half orc flying right behind. There are also some large spiders guarding the priestess. Turn 1, I fail my save, and a re-roll and fall under a suggestion to stop my allies from attacking her. So my turn I slow the half Orc, and fail an extended, quickened inertia surge on the half dragon. The party does it's thing, the healer free's me from my suggestion with a resurgence. The drow casts protection from energy: acid after the dragon shaman blasted her and her minion. I strip touch sight from her, and fail a quickened reverse spell rebirth. Next turn she manifests a psionic power and becomes fog like. I strip her protection from acid, and an ac raising buff. The spiders start levetating for some reason, but are pretty much struck down. I strip another buff and she becomes solid. I then quicken a temporal twist and the dragon shaman scores a massive crit which kills her.
We put a book mark in it there.
[SBLOCK] when last we played, we had just dispatched the drow priestess in the room with the spider fountain. The spiders weren't hostile, and we identified them as black widows. I analyzed the portal they were coming from and it was some wierd holy site. As soon as we left the room, the spiders went hostile. Thankfully I was able to use my rescitation and cure myself of the poison. We left the area and camped, then moved on.
We come across a cavern with lots of chasms. Surprise, surprise, we are attacked by 4 giant spiders. Rnd 1 I quicken a keen weapon for the dragon shaman, and then temporal twist the half orc. Rnd 2 I give the dragon shaman haste, and temporal twist him. After that, a large spider being ridden by some weird spell casting creature comes out of the cavern and attacks. I get hit with a scorching ray, and roll a 1. I use my re-roll and easily pass. The smaller spiders are mopped up and the party attacks the mount. It seems hurt, so I do reversed moderate words of nurturing on it, and kill it. The rider flee's, jumps into the crevase, and turns into a spider. We regroup, and move in on him, and he stone melds.
Next we come across a door with a glyph. Since I am illumian and it was a higher caster level than me, I have a -4 to the save and end up running. After that hilarity, we open the door and find a stone bridge that leads over another chasm with a river running under it. We are then attacked by a beholder. But not just any beholder mind you, but a 4th edition beholder with Lords of Madness feats. He gets a suprise round, and wins initiative. He does a number on us. Most of the party is dumped into the river or on the slope, and two party members are missing limbs thanks to a feat he took with discintagrate. My first turn I am asked to give a party member an attack, which I do (49 damage). I then try to quicken a reverse seek the sky, but fail. I then move behind the doorway for some cover. Next round the thing is pretty hurt. I succeed on my quickened reversed seek the sky, and it is now stuck on the bridge. I then do a reversed moderate word of nurturing, roll near max damage, and kill it.
We decide to rest, and thankfully the healer can cast lesser regeneration, so the party can get their limbs back. At least now it seems like we are close to the Zhent head quarters.
Bennet Whitecastle, NG Illumian Truenamer 11
HP: 74
Init: +1(+3 with belt)
AC: 16, Touch: 11. Flat: 15
BAB: 8/3
Attack: Short Sword 6/011d6
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 18, Wis 11, Cha 15,
Saves: Fort 9, Ref 10, Will 10
Feats: Skill Focus: True Speech, Item Familiar, Truename Research, Extend Utterance, Quicken Utterance, Insightful Reflexes, Bonus: Recitation of the Sanguine State. Flaw: Non-combatant
Skills: Concentration: 9, True Speech 14, Item Familiar (True Speech): 14, Knowledge Arcana: 5, Knowledge Nature: 5, Knowledge Planes: 5, Knowledge Religion: 5, Knowledge Dungeoneering: 7, Listen: 2, Use Magic Device: 14
Special: Knowledge focus: Arcana, knowledge focus religion, +2 vs Shadow spells, Sigel (Naen): +2 int checks and skills, Sigel (Krau): +2 to caster level, -4 vs Sigels/Glyphes of a higher level, otherwise imune, Know Personal Truename, Paragnostic Assembly (+5 to true speech).
Utterences
lexicon of the evolving mind
Lvl 1: minor words of Nurturing, Universal Aptitude, Inertia Surge
Lvl 2: Lesser words of Nurtuting, Temporal Twist
Lvl 3: Moderate words of Nurturing, Greater Speed of the Zephyr, Vision Sharpened, Seek the Sky
Lvl 4: Spell rebirth, Words of Bolstering
Lexicon of the crafted tool
Lvl 1: Keen Weapon
Lvl 2: Analyze Item
Lvl 3: Rebuild Item
Lexicon of the Perfected Map
Lvl 1: Fog From the Void
Possesions: Short Sword, Dagger, +1 Elven Chain, Greater amulet of the Silver tongue, ever burning torch, Helm of comprehend languages and read magic, Eternal Wand of detect magic, 2 scrolls of dispel magic, 2 Scrolls of Break Enchantment (10th level Bard), Mantle of 2nd chances (+4 saves), Belt of Battle, Wand Bracer, Misc. adventuring gear.
True Name modifyer: 52
Even Lvl DC: 37
Can Quicken on a 5+
Max use of utterance vs even lvl CR: 20 (including Universal Aptitude Bonus).
Without Item Familiar, my check would now be at 38.
I chose rebuild item, as it seemed more useful than supressing a weapons energy properties. I chose words of bolstering, as being able to instantly repair ability damage/drain is huge. The reverse version kind of sucks, but thats ok. With my cash, I purchased my belt of battle, and boosted my cloaks save bonus to 4+.
Now on to the campaign:
[SBLOCK] We activated our magic item that lets us travel to sigil, did our shopping, and came right back. We entered into the twisted tower's dungeon level. We see some narrow hallways, with rows of cells, and dire guard standing watch. We get the suprise round. Round 1: I give the dragon shaman haste and keen (thought he had an item that let him crit undead). The half orc had ran up and attacked a dire guard, and so on round two I quickened and did a normal temporal twist, which gave him 2 attacks and finished the dire guard off. More seemed to be coming down the hall. Round 3 saw me left well behind the party, so I attempted and failed a quicken, then did a normal seek the sky to fly forward and catch up to the party. More Dire Guard reinforcements show up. Round 4 I use my belt of battle and do 2 normal and 2 quickened reversed spell rebirth utterances to dispell the blinking effects on the dire guard. More reinforcements. I dispell one more, and fail a quicken on round 5. A Banelar appears this time, and starts casting. One of my party members gets hit with a fear spell, which I dispell on round 6, and I also do an extended slow on it. Round 7 see's me pass my save versus a suggestion, and I quicken a reverse words of bolstering to give it 6 con damage, and then do a reverse words of nurturing for 14 damage. At this point the horde of bane guard is almost defeated. The Bane guard delay deaths it's self and starts healing. I concentrate on the words of nurturing for more damage, and fail a quicken. Next round the Banelar retreats. I manage to quicken a new seek the sky, fly up, and dispell his delay death. He casts a slay living on me and I roll a 2. Thank god for my cloak! I burn the re-roll, and roll a 12. I made it. The Banelar is finished off before my next turn, and the dire guard were all dispatched.
The game is called for the night.
It's been a busy week, and so the game isn't fresh in my mind, but here is the recap:
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After defeating the Naga, we discovered that in the cells was an NPC party we had encountered earlier. Some roleplay latter, we discover that we have some more potential missions. We still needed to rescue Lord Maugrym (sp?), then stop some Zhent reinforcements, help the rebells gather some fey allies, and lastly, the Priestess we killed had 3 two sisters that would probably come for revenge. Some role play latter, we decide to clean up the bodies, hide some where to rest, and then rescue the Lord. While doing so, we were scry'ed and then ambushed by about 6 Drow, Several driders, a Yohchol, a Web golem, a werebat, and a priestess riding a giant spider with some kind of undead body guard.
Turn 1: The Half Orc had charged down the hall, right into the bulk of the drow. So I hasted him, and gave him fast healing since he was isolated. NPC's allies went to work on the drider. The Forsaker went after the priestess, and the dragon shaman went after the werebat.
Turn 2: I'm a little fuzzy here, but I think I gave the dragon shaman keen, and an extra attack vs the werebat.
Turn 3: I think the Half Orc was through the normal Drow at this time, and fighting the Golem, and the werebat was killed. I believe I gave an NPC an extra attack that finished off the last drider.
Turn 4: Gave the Yochal 5 con damage, as two NPC's were closing in on it, and killed it.
Turn 5: My Moderate words of nurturing utterance expired, so I used it on the priestess and kill stealed. LOL
Game was called there. NPC cast speak with dead, and we learned of a hidden way to the surface. We will probably head up there and rest.... after we made it look like the drow killed the guards and Naga.
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We escorted the prisoners we had freed to the secret entrance that entered the inn's cellar. I went ahead and scouted it out, and spoke to the tavern mistress who was secretly supporting the resistance. Some role play latter we had a safe place to stay for the night, and got the prisoners safely out of town. We then headed back into the twisted tower, using secret passageways to go to the captured lords room. We enter in and he attacks us.
I tried to dispel the effect on him, but it wasn't dispelable. Next round the healer cast break enchantment on him, and he reverted to normal. However the next turn a wizard apeared, and cast the same spell on the dragon shaman. He blasted several of the party with acid. On my turn I immobilized, slowed, and debuffed the dragon shaman with 2 strength damage (using belt of battle) to keep him from attacking the party. Next round the healer cast resurgeance, and he made his save. The wizard ran, with our forsaker chasing after him, and found that there was a monster arround the corner. The party seals the secret door the wizard came through, leaves the room, and I create a solid fog to slow down pursuit.
I tried to dispel the effect on him, but it wasn't dispelable. Next round the healer cast break enchantment on him, and he reverted to normal. However the next turn a wizard apeared, and cast the same spell on the dragon shaman. He blasted several of the party with acid. On my turn I immobilized, slowed, and debuffed the dragon shaman with 2 strength damage (using belt of battle) to keep him from attacking the party. Next round the healer cast resurgeance, and he made his save. The wizard ran, with our forsaker chasing after him, and found that there was a monster arround the corner. The party seals the secret door the wizard came through, leaves the room, and I create a solid fog to slow down pursuit.
Had another game this weekend, as we won't meet for a few weeks due to the hollidays. Fun game this session. Once again I fell into the role of debuffer, and helped mitigate a potentially dangerous encounter.
[SBLOCK] When last we met, we had freed the ruler of Shadowdale from the Zhents. Suprisingly, we were able to get him out of the tower, find his wife, and get them out of town without any suprises or conflict. We then got a little more intel, and decided to cut off the Zhent reinforcements next. We get to the rode the supplies and troops are supposed to come down, and create a blockade. We are in Zhent uniforms, so we are making it look like we are guarding the road. We are rested and set up when a horn sounds off in the distance. Soon, a skymage on a foulwing flies over head. I use a reverse Seek the Sky to bring him down. I decide to keep the bluff up and call out for the man to identify himself. Turns out he is the head of the Zhent Invasion force 
. Non-plussed, we tell him to "pull the other one", and ask him for his real identification. He starts casting on us. Round one I am lightning bolted, and he D-doors him and his mount up in the air. My seek the sky continues to bring him down, and I give the dragon shaman an extended keen, and move up (quicken fails). Healer heals me, and next round I continue to move up (quicken fails again). Third round he has dropped back in range, and I do two dispells on him, removing a blink. The second does nothing as he has no buffs. Next round I am lightning bolted again, and healed. I debuff him with 2 con damage, and go invisable. Long story short, he cast a repulsion, and starts buffing himself. I keep stripping the debuffs, reknew the reversed seek the sky, he casts dominate, I roll a 3, use my re-roll, roll a 2. Healer casts resurgence on me and I make it. The buff, debuffs continue, until the dragon shaman finally gets close enough to leap and attack the guy. Kills him with massive crit damage, and then kills the mount on the next turn. Over all I think I used 6 dispells that fight.
Now that the head Zhent is dead, all we have to do is mop up the reinforcements, help the resistance get their act together, and prepare the final assault.... oh, and maybe kill the last Drow Priestess.
Back from the holidays, and had our first game. Had a real close call, and rolled a ton of 1's and 2's.
[SBLOCK] When last we played, we had just killed the head boss of the Zhents. The supply caravan was in route, so we went to meet up with it. The plan was to try to bluff and re-direct them to the rebel camp. We failed, and were attacked by the guards. 4 fowl wing mounted wizards, and 4 little flunky guards. We were in a bad position to start off, so the first few rounds were a bit hairy.
Round 1: 2 fowl wings breathed on us, and I was hit for 49 points of acid damage. A caravan guard crited on me for another 26 points. Then one more hit me and dropped me into the negatives. The healer brought me back to 1 hp and kept me upright. On my turn I uttered defensively, and used an extended reversed vision sharpened, and failed a quicken. Healer delayed death herself, and the forsaker and dragon shaman moved towards the foul wings.
Round 2: Dragon shaman had was attacked, healer took some spell blasts. I gave the dragon shaman an extended fly, failed a quicken. Plan was that he would attack the mounts, and the forsaker would mop up the wizard on the ground. In the mean time the healer summoned her unicorn to help with the ground troops.
Round 3: Extended Keen on the dragon shaman's weapon, and temporal twisted him to finish off the first foul wing. Turns out the wizard had fly up. More damage on the healer and dragon shaman. Ground troops are whittled down.
Round 4: Dispelled a displacement on the flying wizard, quickened a moderate words of nurturing on myself since I was still down to 1 hp.
Round 5 on... The dragon shaman killed the 2nd foul wing, and the first flying wizard. I dispelled the flight and displacement on the 2nd wizard, which the forsaker took care of. Dragon shaman then flew over and killed the next mount. I dispelled the fly, reversed temporal twisted to daze him, and the unicorn finished him off. Last foul wing and rider flew off and retreated faster than we could keep up with.
The fight lasted about 10 rounds all together. We were caught in a bad position, and the alpha strike nearly killed me. If it wasn't for the healer keeping me on my feet, I would have been out of the fight and we would have had no chance of winning. It was a better tactic this fight to let the dragon shaman fly, rather than bringing one fowl wing down at a time. Especially since the wizards were flying themselves. We recovered quickly though, and it only took so long because we had only one souce of damage for the most part. Still, it was a good thing we killed the boss by himself.
Definately needed a rest after those two encounters. I think my DC to dispell is now at a +24. Good thing they are at a lower level.
For sblock, simply avoid using capital letters: for some weird reasons it tends to work better.
[ sblock ] [ /sblock ] (without the spaces)
(I'll delete my post afterwards to keep your thread clean.)
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So we had marched caravan to the rebel camp, rested, and met up with Falconhand, who was trying to get fey allies. Unfortunately there is a guardian preventing access to the portal. Needless to say we lent a hand. It was some sort of Lothite Demon spider thing. We were warned that it had some kind of noise based affect that would mess with our heads, so we prepped ourselves by putting wax in our ears. First round I slowed it, and gave the dragon shaman a keen weapon. Round two I did constitution damage and hit it with reversed moderate words of Nurturing. Round 3 I ended up kill stealing it with my residual damage. Kind of nerfed the encounter by taking out it's spell like ability, and slowing it.
Next we were approached to enlist the aid of a Legendary wolf pack. A suped up winter wolf had taken over, and one of us needed to duel it. I almost voulenteered, but we let the forsaker take it. It was a good thing we did, as we learned how enhanced it was. It had fast healing 15, which would have made it very difficult for me to kill it.
Next we were approached to enlist the aid of a Legendary wolf pack. A suped up winter wolf had taken over, and one of us needed to duel it. I almost voulenteered, but we let the forsaker take it. It was a good thing we did, as we learned how enhanced it was. It had fast healing 15, which would have made it very difficult for me to kill it.
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So when last we met, we secured some new allies for the upcoming battle to drive off the Zhents. We got back to camp, rested, and then heard news that the Zhents were taking elderly and children to a bridge to be executed. So needless to say, they were looiking at us to put a stop to it. We run off to the bridge, and come across about 9 zhents, and 2 ogres. Turn 1: I give the dragon shaman extended haste and a keen weapon. The Zhents all seem to have bows, and take aim at me, and drop me into the negatives. 
In the mean time, the Forsaker and the Dragon Shaman engage the Ogres. The Healer heals me back up to 34 hp, which is good because I failed to stabilize on my turn. When it's my turn again, I turn myself invisable, and stand up. I fail a quicken. Next round I give myself fast healing 5, and the Dragon Shaman another attack. From that point on, I continue to temporal twist when I can, until the bows had been dealt with and I healed up enough to risk becomining visable. I then gave the leader (whom we believed to be a marshal) -2 con, and he was soon killed.
In the mean time, the Forsaker and the Dragon Shaman engage the Ogres. The Healer heals me back up to 34 hp, which is good because I failed to stabilize on my turn. When it's my turn again, I turn myself invisable, and stand up. I fail a quicken. Next round I give myself fast healing 5, and the Dragon Shaman another attack. From that point on, I continue to temporal twist when I can, until the bows had been dealt with and I healed up enough to risk becomining visable. I then gave the leader (whom we believed to be a marshal) -2 con, and he was soon killed.
Ok, we had another game this weekend. This should be the last encounter for the campaign.
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So after we freed the towns people, we gathered our allies and attacked the Zhents the next day. Things seemed to be going great, and then Scylla (a big wig zhent) showed up, riding her albino nightmare, and flanked by 5 Erinyes. They began to rain down arrows on the crowd. The party pushed towards the keep, and helped batter down the door. That way we can get the townsfolk inside where they weren't sitting ducks. As they did their strafing runs, I targeted Scylla's mount with a reverse seek the sky and went invisable. The Erinyes unfortunately had true seeing, and hit me with arrows for 74 points of damage. Scylla then went etherial, and became invisable.The party got the door open, and the people stormed inside the keep. I gave myself fast healing 3, bringing myself back to health, and moved inside. I believe I gave the dragon shaman a quickened Keen weapon, used my belt of battle, broke my invisability, and gave myself see invisability. They healer then healed me for a large amount, which was good, as Scylla targeted me. I failed a save, used my re-roll, and made it. On my turn I had failed to identify her mount, so did not know how she went ethereal. As such I used two dispells on her. Since I was the only party member who could see her, the rest of the party shut and barred the doors to block the Erinyes's line of sight. We also discovered that the hall had a door adjacent to a court yard.
Next round, (still not knowing that going ethereal was the mounts doing), I targeted Scylla with a reversed moderate words of nurturing for 16 damage, and reduced her con by 2. She went through the wall into the courtyard. The Forsaker charged after her, and discovered a Zhent sky mage with a wounded mount, and a cleric that had been treating it. He killed the mount on his charge to prevent another mounted opponent. However this left him alone in the courtyard. The Erinyes flew over him, and began peppering him with arrows, and Scylla came back to the material and did a ride by attack. In turn he did some damage to her mount. I concentrated on the words of nurturing, dealing an additional 16 damage, and then quickened a haste on the dragon shaman. The Healer (who was on her unicorn mount), and the dragon shaman race off down the hall to go around and enter the courtyard closer to the combat, without being in the open, peppered by arrows. Scylla plane shifts and disapears. The erinyes summon a hord of lemure's and bone devels around the Forsaker. With the party divided up, I was starting to get concerned. Searching for something to do, I had an idea. I used fog from the void to create a solid fog around the forsaker. This would protect him from arrows, Scylla's ride bys, and give him concealment against all the devils, and time for his fast healing to kick in. I then moved to catch up with the others, who were rapidly out pacing me.
Next turn I continued my move and readied an action to utter when I saw something. Scylla appeared, and did a ride by on me for 33 damage, and 4 con damage from a failed poison save. I got off a reversed words of nurturing on her mount. On my next turn I concentrated on the utterance, and dealt some more damage. I continued my movement and failed a quicken. The Forsaker was busy dispatching the cleric and the horde of devils. The wizard had made it out of the fog and moved towards a side door. At that point the healer and dragon shaman burst through it and kill him, lol. On my turn I use my recitation of the sanguine state to cure myself of poison, and cure 2 con damage. I continue trying to catch up with the rest of the party.
The Dragon shaman crosses the courtyard, and starts spider climbing to reach the erinyes. Healer had cast delayed death on him, and was healing him up. On my turn I remove the last of the ability damage, and give myself anfast healing 3. Battle continues with the dragon shaman nearly killing an erinyes. Scylla does a ride by and drops the healer into negatives (though she close wounds herself). I finally make it to the open door, and target the mount with reversed moderate words of nurturing. At this point Storm Falconhand and two other NPC's walk in (not sure if this was in the mod, or if the DM was just trying to hurry things along as it was late). Dragon shaman does some major damage to the mount and kills it. The unicorn heals the healer, and she is able to heal the dragon shaman up enough before the delay death wears off. My turn I then deal damage to scylla. Dragon shaman does some major damage to Scylla and I concentrate on finishing her off. After that, it's just a matter of mop up, which we quickly do with some help from the NPC's. H
Next round, (still not knowing that going ethereal was the mounts doing), I targeted Scylla with a reversed moderate words of nurturing for 16 damage, and reduced her con by 2. She went through the wall into the courtyard. The Forsaker charged after her, and discovered a Zhent sky mage with a wounded mount, and a cleric that had been treating it. He killed the mount on his charge to prevent another mounted opponent. However this left him alone in the courtyard. The Erinyes flew over him, and began peppering him with arrows, and Scylla came back to the material and did a ride by attack. In turn he did some damage to her mount. I concentrated on the words of nurturing, dealing an additional 16 damage, and then quickened a haste on the dragon shaman. The Healer (who was on her unicorn mount), and the dragon shaman race off down the hall to go around and enter the courtyard closer to the combat, without being in the open, peppered by arrows. Scylla plane shifts and disapears. The erinyes summon a hord of lemure's and bone devels around the Forsaker. With the party divided up, I was starting to get concerned. Searching for something to do, I had an idea. I used fog from the void to create a solid fog around the forsaker. This would protect him from arrows, Scylla's ride bys, and give him concealment against all the devils, and time for his fast healing to kick in. I then moved to catch up with the others, who were rapidly out pacing me.
Next turn I continued my move and readied an action to utter when I saw something. Scylla appeared, and did a ride by on me for 33 damage, and 4 con damage from a failed poison save. I got off a reversed words of nurturing on her mount. On my next turn I concentrated on the utterance, and dealt some more damage. I continued my movement and failed a quicken. The Forsaker was busy dispatching the cleric and the horde of devils. The wizard had made it out of the fog and moved towards a side door. At that point the healer and dragon shaman burst through it and kill him, lol. On my turn I use my recitation of the sanguine state to cure myself of poison, and cure 2 con damage. I continue trying to catch up with the rest of the party.
The Dragon shaman crosses the courtyard, and starts spider climbing to reach the erinyes. Healer had cast delayed death on him, and was healing him up. On my turn I remove the last of the ability damage, and give myself anfast healing 3. Battle continues with the dragon shaman nearly killing an erinyes. Scylla does a ride by and drops the healer into negatives (though she close wounds herself). I finally make it to the open door, and target the mount with reversed moderate words of nurturing. At this point Storm Falconhand and two other NPC's walk in (not sure if this was in the mod, or if the DM was just trying to hurry things along as it was late). Dragon shaman does some major damage to the mount and kills it. The unicorn heals the healer, and she is able to heal the dragon shaman up enough before the delay death wears off. My turn I then deal damage to scylla. Dragon shaman does some major damage to Scylla and I concentrate on finishing her off. After that, it's just a matter of mop up, which we quickly do with some help from the NPC's. H
Heh, I couldn't help myself... I tried to temporal twist Storm. Found out that I would have needed a 19 to affecter her. Still, not bad at all.... Having a chance to affect an epic level pet NPC at level 11 is nothing to sneeze at.
Bennet Whitecastle, NG Illumian Truenamer 12
HP: 81
Init: +1(+3 with belt)
AC: 16, Touch: 11. Flat: 15
BAB: 9/4
Attack: Short Sword 7/2 1d6
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 18, Wis 11, Cha 16,
Saves: Fort 10, Ref 11, Will 11
Feats: Skill Focus: True Speech, Item Familiar, Truename Research, Extend Utterance, Quicken Utterance, Insightful Reflexes, Share utterance. Bonus: Recitation of the Sanguine State. Flaw: Non-combatant
Skills: Concentration: 9, True Speech 15, Item Familiar (True Speech): 15, Knowledge Arcana: 8, Knowledge Nature: 5, Knowledge Planes: 5, Knowledge Religion: 5, Knowledge Dungeoneering: 7, Listen: 2, Use Magic Device: 15
Special: Knowledge focus: Arcana, knowledge focus religion, +2 vs Shadow spells, Sigel (Naen): +2 int checks and skills, Sigel (Krau): +2 to caster level, -4 vs Sigels/Glyphes of a higher level, otherwise imune, Know Personal Truename, Paragnostic Assembly (+5 to true speech).
Utterences
lexicon of the evolving mind
Lvl 1: minor words of Nurturing, Universal Aptitude, Inertia Surge
Lvl 2: Lesser words of Nurtuting, Temporal Twist
Lvl 3: Moderate words of Nurturing, Greater Speed of the Zephyr, Vision Sharpened, Seek the Sky
Lvl 4: Spell rebirth, Words of Bolstering, potent words of Nurturing
Lexicon of the crafted tool
Lvl 1: Keen Weapon
Lvl 2: Analyze Item
Lvl 3: Rebuild Item
Lexicon of the Perfected Map
Lvl 1: Fog From the Void
Lvl 2: Transform the Landscape
Possesions: Short Sword, Dagger, +1 Elven Chain, Greater amulet of the Silver tongue, ever burning torch, Helm of comprehend languages and read magic, Eternal Wand of detect magic, 2 scrolls of dispel magic, 2 Scrolls of Break Enchantment (10th level Bard), Mantle of 2nd chances (+5 saves), Belt of Battle, Wand Bracer, Gloves of arrow snaring, Ring of silent casting, eyes of truth, Misc. adventuring gear.
True Name modifyer: 54
Even Lvl DC: 39
Can Quicken on a 5+
Ok, raised my Charisma to 16, which increases my save DC, not that it matters. I also chose potent words of Nurturing for aditional damage, healing etc. Also got my 2nd perfected Map utterance. Kind of slim pickings, but chose transform the landscape. Also did some shopping.
1. Brought my save bonus to it's max +5. Next I will probably start boosting Intelligent.
2. Gloves of Arrow Snarring. Tired of getting one shotted by a round of archers.
3. Ring of Silent Spells. It's cheap, lets me bone some casters, and allows me to utter without people hearing me (with a +5 DC in the truespeak check).
4. Eyes of Truth. I have a long time to wait till I get true seeing, and there are other utterances that I could get.
Now we come to the first divergence from published material. My DM came up with a home brew feat which I took at this level.
Share Utterance
You may target any number of targets, no more than 30 feet apart with an utterance. The DC is equal to the highest CR target, plus 5 for each additional target.
We will see how this works out.
Had our first game in the new story arc. Two of the PC's decided to swap out characters. So now our party consists of:
Bennet-Lvl 12 Illumian Truenamer
Celestia-Lvl 12 Star Elf Healer
Nix-Lvl 12 Hafling Arcane Trickster (has some spell thief levels)
Sulu-Lvl 12 Spirit Folk Iajitsu master (unsure what else)
And now on to the game!
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So we rested for a time in shadow dale, and said our goodbyes to the PC characters that were going to be retired. Along the way we encountered our new companions who decided to tag along with our heroes as they made their way to Myth Drannor. My character wanted to go there to return an artifact to the city, and in exchange be allowed to peruse it's archives. The healer, being an elf herself, wanted to go see the legendary reclaimed city for herself. None of the old PCs had any real reason to tag along on a sight seeing, research expedition and so left to persue other adventures. On our travels we met Nix the hafling arcane trickster and the Sulu the iajutsu master on the road and reluctantly let them join us. We avoided an encounter with the local wild life and reached the city. There we were welcomed with open arms, and Bennet was allowed complete access to their archives. As a bonus, we were given some upgrades to our gear up to 10k. I enhanced my helmet with +1 int, my armor to +2, and got a hewards handy haversack... Sweet!
Inevitably, the plot hook snagged us, and we had some ones raven animal companion tell us that to meet them at midnight at a hunting lodge in the woods. Sensing a trap, I instructed the Arcane trickster to conceal himself and act as our support. We enter the lodge, and we are hit with a stinking cloud. The Iajutsu master and the Arcane Trickster passed their saves. I rolled a 3. Burned my re-roll and got a 1. The healer and I were both nauseated. The Trickster casts re-group, getting us all out of the cloud. We are then set upon by several werewolves. The Sulu and Nix begin to make short work of them. The leader revealed herself to be a Shade spell caster of some sort. She ended up greviously wounded and teleported away. The turn after the battle ended I recovered, and said "See? It all went according to plan. You boys passed your initiation with flying colors. Welcome to team Bennet". Lol.
Inevitably, the plot hook snagged us, and we had some ones raven animal companion tell us that to meet them at midnight at a hunting lodge in the woods. Sensing a trap, I instructed the Arcane trickster to conceal himself and act as our support. We enter the lodge, and we are hit with a stinking cloud. The Iajutsu master and the Arcane Trickster passed their saves. I rolled a 3. Burned my re-roll and got a 1. The healer and I were both nauseated. The Trickster casts re-group, getting us all out of the cloud. We are then set upon by several werewolves. The Sulu and Nix begin to make short work of them. The leader revealed herself to be a Shade spell caster of some sort. She ended up greviously wounded and teleported away. The turn after the battle ended I recovered, and said "See? It all went according to plan. You boys passed your initiation with flying colors. Welcome to team Bennet". Lol.
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I had been sticking with in character role play on this campaign. My character was here to research in their library, and that was exactly what I was going to do. The DM allowed it, and even indulged me with a true name lead. Evidently a minor elven house did research it, but it never really took off. We then investigated the ruins, and found a basement level is intact. In there we found several secret passages, and found a private library guarded by a Baelnorne. We roll played, and I got to study and copy a book without any battle. DM said that he will reward me with an utterance to be announced latter. So that was cool, and my character's mission in Myth Drannor was more or less accomplished.
Next session, Celestia wanted to explore the windsong tower, using that ring we had found last campaign. Seeing that she helped bennet in his research, he would help her in hers. The rest of the party tagged along, expecting us to draw trouble as always. We enter an extra dimensional tower in the ruins, and sure enough, are attacked. I get shot with an arrow off the bat. Since I was flat footed, my gloves didn't go off. I resist some sort of a spell effect on the arrow. We close on the direction it came from, and find some sort of elf like creatue who seems incoporial, and partially phased into a column. I blast it with a reversed potent words of nurturing for 27 damage. Nix blasts it some more with fireballs. I get hit with a spell, and need a will save. I roll a 4. I use my cloak, and re-roll. I get a 2. @#^%!!! Turns out that it was a Feeble Mind spell. Ironically, having an intelligence of 1 didn't hamper me all that much. Like any idiot, I can continue to babble on. Next turn I concentrate on the utterance for 26 damage, and it ends up killing whatever it is. I then cure my self of the feeble mind with a reversed spell rebirth. Latter on the DM said that the attacker had all kinds of buffs and tactics to be really annoying, but my Truenaming circumvented it. Rest of the session was spent exploring the rest of the first floor.
Next session, Celestia wanted to explore the windsong tower, using that ring we had found last campaign. Seeing that she helped bennet in his research, he would help her in hers. The rest of the party tagged along, expecting us to draw trouble as always. We enter an extra dimensional tower in the ruins, and sure enough, are attacked. I get shot with an arrow off the bat. Since I was flat footed, my gloves didn't go off. I resist some sort of a spell effect on the arrow. We close on the direction it came from, and find some sort of elf like creatue who seems incoporial, and partially phased into a column. I blast it with a reversed potent words of nurturing for 27 damage. Nix blasts it some more with fireballs. I get hit with a spell, and need a will save. I roll a 4. I use my cloak, and re-roll. I get a 2. @#^%!!! Turns out that it was a Feeble Mind spell. Ironically, having an intelligence of 1 didn't hamper me all that much. Like any idiot, I can continue to babble on. Next turn I concentrate on the utterance for 26 damage, and it ends up killing whatever it is. I then cure my self of the feeble mind with a reversed spell rebirth. Latter on the DM said that the attacker had all kinds of buffs and tactics to be really annoying, but my Truenaming circumvented it. Rest of the session was spent exploring the rest of the first floor.
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Continued forward with our exploration of the tower. Encountered a dread wraith and got the drop on it. Sulu went first, and got next to it on the suprise round. I used a temporal twist to give him an attack, and he did major damage. When we went into normal rounds he killed it. Next room we encountered a low level nightshade type thing. I did a reversed potent words of nurturing and rolled crap, and then failed to quicken a temporal twist. On it's turn it flew up and tried to finger of death Nix. On my turn I concentrated on the utterance, and then quickened a fly on sulu, who then took his turn and attacked. On Nix's turn, he turned the thing into a glass statue, which shattered when it hit the ground.
[sblock] We continued our exploration of the tower. There were lots, and I mean LOTS of empty rooms. Eventualy we came to an armory, and as we entered, we set off a trap. In walks two Stone golems and an advanced Helmed Horror. I roll a one on my initiative roll, so go last. Partycharges in, Sulu and Nix are invisable. Sulu does some damage to the helm horror. Nix manages to take out both stone golems with arcane fusioned Acid Orbs and a belt of battle. I give Sulu haste and a temporal twist, but he rolls a one on his attack. Next round Sulu and Nix finish it off.
We finish searching the area, and have one portal left to go through. The party decides to rest before continuing forward. Something tries to cast something on us, most likely a detect thoughts. Celestia fails a save, but I remove the effect for her. We rest, and then explore the last portal. The portal leads to a tower, that seems to contain severa chapels. On the 2nd level of the tower, we encounter some kind of Eladrin. The DM stops us here as it is getting late, and the potential combat could last a while. [/block]
One good thing about the truenamer, is that direct damage is the least important thing I usually do, so all magic imune constructs do, is force you to focus more on party buffs.
Also since most (if not all) magic immunity is baded on whether you are using an effect that allows magic resistance couldn't you just take a it of 5 on the DC to mkae your utterances to not be subject to MR and thus effecting things like gplems? Buffing your allies is probably still better but it could be an optoin in a pinch.
I love this thread keep it up.
Also since most (if not all) magic immunity is baded on whether you are using an effect that allows magic resistance couldn't you just take a it of 5 on the DC to mkae your utterances to not be subject to MR and thus effecting things like gplems? Buffing your allies is probably still better but it could be an optoin in a pinch.
This was something we debated on, as it wasn't clear. True Namers can automatically over come spell resistance, however a golems spell immunity is defined as an un-overcomeable spell resistance. Kind of an immovable object vs irresistable force scenario. DM ruled that you can't auto over come something that can't be over come. If that makes sense...
Since there will never be errata or an FAQ, it is up to the DM.
I love this thread keep it up.
Also since most (if not all) magic immunity is baded on whether you are using an effect that allows magic resistance couldn't you just take a it of 5 on the DC to mkae your utterances to not be subject to MR and thus effecting things like gplems? Buffing your allies is probably still better but it could be an optoin in a pinch.
This was something we debated on, as it wasn't clear. True Namers can automatically over come spell resistance, however a golems spell immunity is defined as an un-overcomeable spell resistance. Kind of an immovable object vs irresistable force scenario. DM ruled that you can't auto over come something that can't be over come. If that makes sense...
Since there will never be errata or an FAQ, it is up to the DM.
Good call this is not the only time something like this has come up (immovable object v unstoppable force) so I understand the issue.
Update from this weeks game. All RP, no action.
[spoilers] So we encountered what seemed to be an Eladrin. It challenged us, and asked us to stand down and surrender to it. Nix tried to steal some of it's spells, but got hit with a spell reflection. He wasn't impressed, and grilled us as to why we ascossiated with a shadow weave user (Nix). We managed to diffuse the situation, and things got less tense. Evidently he had been watching us since we entered the city, and was aware of our exploits. Long story short, we have the new plot arc: Sharrans invaded the tower, stole Netherese Scrolls, and are going to try and perform a ritual upon them. We are told to investigate a tomb in the anuaroch for clues as to the ritual. As a bonus, he helps us out and provides us with some new gear (I got a ring of evasion). He also gave me a lead on some more True Namers (RP purposes). We also got some additional windsong tower rings. After our business is done, we go and inform the queen about our discovery. Next we have Nix scry the anuaroch, and then have him teleport us there (thanks to a windsong tower ring). [/sblock]
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we arrived in the desert in the general area of the tomb, some where in the general area of the Stone Lands and Annorauch desert. We begin to look around and stumble across a group of goblinoids arguing with some other type of gobliniods who's name escapes me. We are spotted, and decide to take a diplomatic tact. The smaller group was trying to cross the goblins territory, and the goblins blamed the others for disturbing a "Scorpion God". We start asking questions and learn that something in the desert is interfereing with the weave (like we haven't seen this before). We offer to aid the goblins in defeating their "Scorpion God", in return for granting the others safe passage, and acting as our guide to the tomb. The others were to pay us for our services. That settled, we started teleporting across the desert, eventualy stumbling across a colossal giant scorpion. Round one, I give the party fly (using the dm's home brew feat), quicken and slow the scorpion. I use belt of battle, fail a quicken, and then give the group invisability. Sulu goes benny hamma on the thing and deals some massive damage. Nix also blasts it with acid. The scorpion uses it's one attack and grapples Sulu. I deal 4 constitution damage to it, Nix teleports Sulu out, and then sulu finishes the beast off. The DM latter told us that he had advanced the thing a ton, and it had 47 hd. My 4 con damage amounted to it losing 90 hp, lol. Nix figures out how to teleport the carcase to the goblins and we make a dramatic entrance that sends them scattering for the hills.
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Last game we killed the scorpion god, and then came back for our reward. We now had a goblin guide, and learned that some giants were escavating some ruins near by. We also encountered a couple femal sphinx subspecies (whose type escapes me at the moment), who gave me a lead on finding a true naming sphinx latter. We found the ruins, and decided to monitor the Giants, who had enslaved some Earth Gensai to do their labor. While we were camped, we encountered 4 Soraro Sentinals (big cactus treants). Party spings in to action. I use my new home brew feat to slow all 4 (which the DM said helped a lot), Nix and Sulu begin damaging them with spells and blade. Round two I used my Reversed words of nurturing on the remaining 3, and concentrate on it for the following round, which was enough to kill off the last two. We continued to rest, and made our plans to assault the Giant camp. Oh... and our healer traded in her unicorn for a gynosphinx.
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We discussed strategies, and decide to try and bottle neck the giants and take them out. Nix casts a divination spell and scouts the in cave. Turns out it's a huge complex, and far to big to do what we originally planned. He also found a tomb, so we might be in the right place. He failed a knowledge check to determine a religious symbol, so I used universal aptitude to boost his skill check. This time he passed. We might be in the right place. So after much discussion, we decide to just teleport in and kill them. Sulu gets buffed with greater invis, an extended haste, and the option to use silence. I invis the party, and we all port in. There are 3 giants in the room. Sulu turns one into a fine mist with his first attack. Nix teleports over to another giant and uses his spell matrix to vampiric touch, and finishes it off with another spell. Since there is one giant left, I use my reversed inertia surge to render the giant imobile, which ends the invisability. The remaining giant howls, rages, and swings at Nix, hitting him. Fortunately he has a bunch of temp hp at this point. A Door opens and we see an armored giant. Sulu waits for the giant to enter so he can get his full attack. Nix hides, and I move around the corner away from the new giant. I hit it with an extended reversed inertia surge, and fail a quicken. I belt of battle, and hit it with a reversed potent word of Nurturing, and quickened reverse word of bolstering for 4 con damage. Next the armored giant comes in, and over runs several party members. Sulu swings at the armored giant, but learns that it's AC is very high, and that he can't really hit it reliably. Nix ports over and glitter dusts the armored giant. Its a small room, and I 5ft away from the armored giant, but it puts me in reach of the other one. I utter defensively, and go invisable again. Next round, sulu moves to the wounded giant, and hits it. We learn that it's rage is keeping it alive, and we can't kill it by chopping it to death. Nix kills the armored giant with a spell. The wounded giant has scent, and swings at me. It's attacks get through concealment, crit, rend, and drop me down to -2 hp. Next round Nix disintagrates the giant, and he healer manages to bring me back. The DM decides to call it for the night, but says that he is keeping it in rounds.
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Ok, so we had just defeated the giants, but the boss giant had sent out a call for something. I get a heal from the healer, and then some sort of corpse golem dragon construct apears in a hole in the ceiling. It being a construct of some sort, I am anticipating that it has some sort of magic immunity. So I concentrate on buffing my team mates. I give the group fly, and haste Sulu. The thing has a lightning breath weapon, and uses it, and drops down. Nix and Sulu attack it, and go at it with blades and spells. I make myself and the healer invisable. The construct is tough, and there is a lightning trap that seems to be healing it some every round. Then two more cactus people appear. I break my invis, and do a reversed extended inertia surge on them both, rooting them in place for two rounds. Since the healer is still invis, I cannot re-invis myself. So I give Sulu another attack the next turn. On my turn I root the cactus people in place again. Then a beholder also appears, and it turns me to stone. Fortunately, Sulu finally kills the construct, and then Nix and him are able to deal enough damage kill the beholder in a round. From there the cactus people are easily dispatched. The healer is then able to do a break enchantment on me, and bring me back to normal.
We free the earth genesai that had been enslaved by the giants, and get some information. The most important of which was that the giants, cactus people, and beholder, were all controlled by a Phaerim. We also are informed that we had leveled up. We ring our bell, head to sigil, and I am able to buy a Luck Blade. That gives me +1 to my saves, and a second re-roll per day. We return, and are able to scry a room with a rift in the weave. We port in, and are able to see into another plane. We see the Elven Netherese scrolls being corrupted and changed by shadowy creatures, and some giant gold spider construct thing. Then we are spotted and something big comes through the portal. From it's description, I am thinking that it is a Nightwalker, however it had too many HD to tell. I am having a hard time remembering all the specifics of the battle, but I assumed it had spell resistance, so I took a +5 to the DC to over come it. I had a hard time getting my quickens to go through. Sulu ended up getting killed by a spell in short order. It dealt out a lot of ability damage, which I kept healing. Things were looking bleak, and then Nix cast a spell that froze it in time. We regrouped, buffed up properly, and were able to kill it quickly when the spell ended without any more casualties. Sulu refused the res, and will be returning with a new character. Latter I found out that we were fighting a super advanced Dread Wraith with tons of hit dice, and it had no spell resistance.
We free the earth genesai that had been enslaved by the giants, and get some information. The most important of which was that the giants, cactus people, and beholder, were all controlled by a Phaerim. We also are informed that we had leveled up. We ring our bell, head to sigil, and I am able to buy a Luck Blade. That gives me +1 to my saves, and a second re-roll per day. We return, and are able to scry a room with a rift in the weave. We port in, and are able to see into another plane. We see the Elven Netherese scrolls being corrupted and changed by shadowy creatures, and some giant gold spider construct thing. Then we are spotted and something big comes through the portal. From it's description, I am thinking that it is a Nightwalker, however it had too many HD to tell. I am having a hard time remembering all the specifics of the battle, but I assumed it had spell resistance, so I took a +5 to the DC to over come it. I had a hard time getting my quickens to go through. Sulu ended up getting killed by a spell in short order. It dealt out a lot of ability damage, which I kept healing. Things were looking bleak, and then Nix cast a spell that froze it in time. We regrouped, buffed up properly, and were able to kill it quickly when the spell ended without any more casualties. Sulu refused the res, and will be returning with a new character. Latter I found out that we were fighting a super advanced Dread Wraith with tons of hit dice, and it had no spell resistance.
Bennet Whitecastle, NG Illumian Truenamer 13
HP: 87
Init: +1(+3 with belt)
AC: 16, Touch: 11. Flat: 15
BAB: 9/4
Attack: Short Sword 9/4 1d6+2
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 18 (20), Wis 11, Cha 16,
Saves: Fort 13, Ref 15, Will 14
Feats: Skill Focus: True Speech, Item Familiar, Truename Research, Extend Utterance, Quicken Utterance, Insightful Reflexes, Share utterance. Bonus: Recitation of the Sanguine State. Flaw: Non-combatant
Skills: Concentration: 9, True Speech 16, Item Familiar (True Speech): 16, Knowledge Arcana: 10, Knowledge Nature: 5, Knowledge Planes: 8, Knowledge Religion: 5, Knowledge Dungeoneering: 5, Listen: 2, Use Magic Device: 16
Special: Knowledge focus: Arcana, knowledge focus religion, +2 vs Shadow spells, Sigel (Naen): +2 int checks and skills, Sigel (Krau): +2 to caster level, -4 vs Sigels/Glyphes of a higher level, otherwise imune, Know Personal Truename, Paragnostic Assembly (+5 to true speech).
Utterences
lexicon of the evolving mind
Lvl 1: minor words of Nurturing, Universal Aptitude, Inertia Surge
Lvl 2: Lesser words of Nurtuting, Temporal Twist
Lvl 3: Moderate words of Nurturing, Greater Speed of the Zephyr, Vision Sharpened, Seek the Sky
Lvl 4: Spell rebirth, Words of Bolstering, potent words of Nurturing, Confounding resistance
Lexicon of the crafted tool
Lvl 1: Keen Weapon
Lvl 2: Analyze Item
Lvl 3: Rebuild Item
Lexicon of the Perfected Map
Lvl 1: Fog From the Void
Lvl 2: Transform the Landscape
Possesions: Luck Blade +2, Dagger, +2 Elven Chain, Greater amulet of the Silver tongue, ever burning torch, Helm of comprehend languages and read magic (+2 int), Eternal Wand of detect magic, Mantle of 2nd chances (+5 saves), Belt of Battle, Wand Bracer, Gloves of arrow snaring, Ring of silent casting, eyes of truth, Ring of Evasion, 2 shadow weave wands of scorching ray (10 charges, 20 charges), hewards handy haversack. Misc. adventuring gear.
True Name modifyer: 57
Even Lvl DC: 41
Can Quicken on self/team mates with a 4+
Without Item familiar and bereft of all magic items, my modifyer at this level would be 28, which would mean that I would have to roll a 13+ to effect an even level team mate. With all gear and optimization, I can auto succeed 8 times before I even having to roll. Amazing the difference it makes, huh?
I chose confounding resistance as my last 4th level utterance. It was between that and Breath of Cleansing, but I wasn't too keen on spending my 4th level utterance selection for what amounts to be a 2nd level spell. So now I can add or remove evasion to people, and it will become one of my party buffs. Gear wise, I had just enough to get a Luck Blade. I wanted one for the re-roll, which gives me two per day between it and my mantle of 2nd chances. As an added bonus, it also gives a +1 to saves which stacks with the +5 from my cloak. It amazes me how often I fail saves, despite devoting a substantial portion of my wealth towards boosting them and gaining additional attempts at saves, lol. Now there are only two body slots left to fill, Torso and feet. I was thinking on boots of temporal accelleration, and Shirt of the iron skin. The boots will have to wait a couple levels, and the shirt isn't a huge priority yet, so I think next I will focus on boosting the +int bonus on my helm to boost my True Name check and reflex saves.
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So when we left off, we had just killed that enourmous undead thing, and lost Sulu. A door opened, and in walks 7 Krinth, and some sort of shade/changeling thing that was invisable. Nix D.Doors us away and glitter dusts everything. I do a quickened universal aptitude to boost my true speech modifyer, and then use my share utterance feat to do an extended, reversed, inertia surge on the whole group of Krinth and therebye rooting them in place for two rounds. At this point the new character decided to make his appearance in the room by teleporting next to the rift/globe thingy. Nix blasts, the changeling thing with an enervation ray and drops it into negatives. New guy kills some of the krinth with a blast of some sort, nix kills all but one, and I finish the job with my reversed words of nurturing. Just then a secret door opens up right next to me, and a Phaerum appears. I get hit with a crushing sphere, and burn one of my re-rolls on it. Nix tries to blast it with a spell, and it has spell turning up. I get hit, and am now bloodied. On my turn I strip a buff from him, pull out a silence stone that Nix had given me, and drop it in front of the phaerim. Celestia heals me and teleports a short distance away. The phaerim is uneffected by the silence, and blasts us with some sort of wind spell. I am now down to 22 hp. Nix regroups us out of sight, down the hall way that the Phaerim came from. I ready to dispell the thing as soon as it shows it's face. However we then see two more Phaerim coming from down the hall, and the new guy decides that it is time to leave and teleports us all out of the room.
Safe for the moment, we got an opportunity to get to know our new ally, Dox. He claimed to be a scholar, linguist, and amature archeologist, who was part of an expidition to those ruins. He was able to tell us that the place was actually a ruined Netherese Enclave. Long story short, he was willing to help us to clear out the current occupants. We then talked tactics. My plan is to start loading the phaerim down with reversed spell rebirths until spell turning is gone, and the casters can deal with them.
Safe for the moment, we got an opportunity to get to know our new ally, Dox. He claimed to be a scholar, linguist, and amature archeologist, who was part of an expidition to those ruins. He was able to tell us that the place was actually a ruined Netherese Enclave. Long story short, he was willing to help us to clear out the current occupants. We then talked tactics. My plan is to start loading the phaerim down with reversed spell rebirths until spell turning is gone, and the casters can deal with them.
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So we came up with a battle plan, negated an attempt to scry on us. We spent some time scrying the room in return. Fortunately Nix caught sight of a Phaerum laying in ambush for us. We try and teleport to an adjacent room, but it was blocked. Figuring that they had dimensional locked the area, we teleported instead to a safe area that Dox knew. Once there we explored the level, and found a large shaft going up and down. Knowning the the Mythallar was on a floor above us, I gave the party fly, and we began to go up. Were were then attacked by Gargoyle like creatures. In their openening salvo, Dox and and Nix killed all but one. Nix pursued, and encountered a beholder, which he promptly killed, and finished off the runner with an attack of opportunity.
We proceeded up, and began to explore the next level. We saw a giant guarding a corridor. We teleported over to him, and killed him. However this alerted two more who came to attack us, and two hybrid wind/fire elementals. I used my inertia surge to root the giants in place. Nix and dox did some damage to them, but they had raged and had the feat that wouldn't let them die until the rage ended. So I kept them rooted for a few turns, and then we started focusing on the elementals. They had a damage shield, and a whirlwind ability that forced a ton of saves. I ended up getting trapped in one, but a regroup from Nix bailed us out. We finished them off, and then went back down the shaft until the rage wore off and they died. We explored further, and Nix found a pit trap. He began to disable it, but failed. I gave him universal aptitude, and he was able to disar it. While he was doing so, something tried to telekenesis him into the pit. We made our saves, but then another giant came around the corner, jumped, and was telekenesised over the pit. We killed it fast, and then Nix and Dox ported over and finished off the Beholder that was shooting through a peep hole in the wall. We then explored a bit further, and the DM put a book mark in it, as we were about to encounter another fight.
We proceeded up, and began to explore the next level. We saw a giant guarding a corridor. We teleported over to him, and killed him. However this alerted two more who came to attack us, and two hybrid wind/fire elementals. I used my inertia surge to root the giants in place. Nix and dox did some damage to them, but they had raged and had the feat that wouldn't let them die until the rage ended. So I kept them rooted for a few turns, and then we started focusing on the elementals. They had a damage shield, and a whirlwind ability that forced a ton of saves. I ended up getting trapped in one, but a regroup from Nix bailed us out. We finished them off, and then went back down the shaft until the rage wore off and they died. We explored further, and Nix found a pit trap. He began to disable it, but failed. I gave him universal aptitude, and he was able to disar it. While he was doing so, something tried to telekenesis him into the pit. We made our saves, but then another giant came around the corner, jumped, and was telekenesised over the pit. We killed it fast, and then Nix and Dox ported over and finished off the Beholder that was shooting through a peep hole in the wall. We then explored a bit further, and the DM put a book mark in it, as we were about to encounter another fight.
The best I can really say, is that I am typically a 0 drain on party resources, contribute some useful things, and occasionally we come into a situation where I really save the day. Generally the Truenamer has to wait longer to get things that other classes get early, but when you do, they are more powerful in some way. Examples?
Slow: Slow is a great spell, but loses it's effectiveness after a while thanks to it's low save DC. There is no save on mine.
Dispel Magic: Mine is a bit more narrowly focused, but it always works as long as I make my check. A 70th level wizard could have cast it, and it won't matter.
There are a few others, and it is not always the case. Some times you wait and get nothing for it. I am also playing a Conjurer/master specialist in another campaign. Even though I am lower level and have given up 3 schools, he contributes 10x more to the party each game. Bennet gets to quicken something almost every round, and it still doesn't feel like enough at times. Hopefully that will change as I level and get new and better options. I am stubborn, so I will hang on with this till he dies, or the campaign ends.
I don't know what tier that makes this class, but I'll let you draw your own conclusions. lol.
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We continued exploring the level, and entered a room. It was some sort of laboritory, and had 3 summoning circles on the floor. There were 4 cages with flying snakes in them. Nix scouted ahead, and saw a phaerum lurking on the ceiling. He retreats back and tells the group. I give myself see invisability and universal aptitude. The plan was for me to start stripping it's buffs as best I can, and let the others kill it. Nix was able to see it's buffs thanks to greater arcane sight. The most problematic one being a spell imunity up to 5th level spells. The enemy some how saw us, and a bone devil was summoned and attacked celestia. The flying snakes got out of their cages. Dox teleported me up, and I double heightened (+8 DC) a reversed spell rebirth. I got a mind blank off of him. Since I doubted that I could quicken a dispel and heighten, I quickened and used a share utterance and did a reversed words of nurturing that ended up killing all the snakes. Nix teleported in and delayed until I stripped the spell imunity from him. Celestia backed away from the bone devil, and cast repulsion. The phaerim hit Dox and I with some spell damage, and some sort of huge fire/acid elemental came out of the pool. I don't remember what Dox did, but I managed to strip the spell imunity from the Phaerim, and rooted the elemental in place. Nix sprang into action, and hit it with some high damaging sneak attack spells, and stole several buffs. We were hit with more spell damage from the phaerim, and I managed to dodge a fireball thanks to my ring of evasion. Dox was hurt though. So on my turn I hit the phaerim with a reversed words of bolstering, but only took one constitution point away. I then quickened and shared utterance (universal aptitude is handy this way), and gave dox and myself fast healing 20 thanks to the dm's interpretation of the healers buff spell. Next round they manage to kill off the Phaerim, and the bone devil and fire/acid elemental retreat to the summoning circle and disapear. One Phaerim down, but no clue how many more to go.
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We went into the next room, and saw dozens of floating bodies, glowing. An examination and some knowledge checks and we determined that this was a Phaerim hatchery, and that the people had been implanted with phaerum eggs. As we decide on a plan as to what to do with them, we encounter a Tomb Tapper. The tapper demands that we turn over our magic items and leave. We try to negotiate with it, but the best we can get out of it is that we can keep our magic items, but must leave within 24 hours.Two more Tomb Tappers also arrive. We discuss it as a party, but in the end we don't feel that 24 hours is enough time to clear out the dungeon, and find.... whatever it is that we are looking for. Besides, Nix wants to come back and repair the Mythallar one day. So we tell them to pound sand.
We get a suprise round as we attack. I give the party fast healing. There is nothing much for me to do, as I discover that Tomb Tappers have golem immunities. I also critically fumble an attack of oportunity, and end up on the ground. So Dox ends up psyionicly stealing their hammers, while Nix kills them one by one. I get hit with a full attack and get critted on, which drops me into negatives. I heal back on my turn. Nix kills them, and we decide that it's time to rest and port out the bodies, and deal with the eggs.
We get a suprise round as we attack. I give the party fast healing. There is nothing much for me to do, as I discover that Tomb Tappers have golem immunities. I also critically fumble an attack of oportunity, and end up on the ground. So Dox ends up psyionicly stealing their hammers, while Nix kills them one by one. I get hit with a full attack and get critted on, which drops me into negatives. I heal back on my turn. Nix kills them, and we decide that it's time to rest and port out the bodies, and deal with the eggs.
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We rested, and returned back to the room where we fought the Tomb Tappers. We explored further, and Nix used his eyeglass that lets him look through doors and saw a Hive tyrant and a couple lesser eyes with a few baby phaerim. We get our game plan, and burst through the door. I use my share utterance feat to do a reversed word of nurturing on everything, and move around a corner to block line of sight. The rest of the party does it's thing, and focuses on the Tyrant. I concentrate on my utterance, and all the fodder dies, leaving the large hive tyrant (dm was using the 4th edition conversion one). Celestia is suffering from the first signs of paralasys, and the party takes some minor eye beam damage, but we take it down in short order.
We press on after some minor healing and taking care of celestia's paralasys. We encounter a room with an altar, and find several of the gargoyle like creatures that we had encountered before. We start taking them down easy,first turn I give the party flight, and the next turn I delay, fully expecting something to come in the room, and wanting to conscerve resources. Sure enough, an adult Phaerim comes into room. I take my turn, quickening a universal aptitude to give me a +5 bonus to true speech, and then a heightened, reversed, spell rebirth to start stripping the buffs off the thing. I then belt of battle, fail a heightened quicken, but succeed on stripping another buff from it. Nix and Docs had a plan this time, Nix polymorphed into a gorralion and started to melee it, and dox did as well. However not only did it have spell immunity, spell turning, and stone skin, but also some high AC as well. So while they did score some hits, it was not nearly as good as they would have liked. Celestia and her mount worked to finish off the gargoyle things. Then a second Phaerim entered the room. We focused on the big one, and I started flanking with Nix to give him what little help I could. I continued to hieghten a reversed spell rebirth, attempting to strip off it's spell immunity.
On the 3rd round of combat I blow two re-rolls to save against a dominate. The 4th turn I fail another and am ordered to land and stand down. Finally though, Nix was able to kill the first phaerim. Then they start focusing on the last one, and Celestia manags to finish off the gargoyles. On her next turn she free's me from the dominate, and I manage to strip another buff from the last phaerim before they kill it.
We press on after some minor healing and taking care of celestia's paralasys. We encounter a room with an altar, and find several of the gargoyle like creatures that we had encountered before. We start taking them down easy,first turn I give the party flight, and the next turn I delay, fully expecting something to come in the room, and wanting to conscerve resources. Sure enough, an adult Phaerim comes into room. I take my turn, quickening a universal aptitude to give me a +5 bonus to true speech, and then a heightened, reversed, spell rebirth to start stripping the buffs off the thing. I then belt of battle, fail a heightened quicken, but succeed on stripping another buff from it. Nix and Docs had a plan this time, Nix polymorphed into a gorralion and started to melee it, and dox did as well. However not only did it have spell immunity, spell turning, and stone skin, but also some high AC as well. So while they did score some hits, it was not nearly as good as they would have liked. Celestia and her mount worked to finish off the gargoyle things. Then a second Phaerim entered the room. We focused on the big one, and I started flanking with Nix to give him what little help I could. I continued to hieghten a reversed spell rebirth, attempting to strip off it's spell immunity.
On the 3rd round of combat I blow two re-rolls to save against a dominate. The 4th turn I fail another and am ordered to land and stand down. Finally though, Nix was able to kill the first phaerim. Then they start focusing on the last one, and Celestia manags to finish off the gargoyles. On her next turn she free's me from the dominate, and I manage to strip another buff from the last phaerim before they kill it.
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The first game was pretty much all role play and exposition. We searched the room where we fought the phaerim, and found a book that was full of phophecies regarding shar. We then went back to the mythalar room and spoke again to the Sharn trapped within. Lots of exposition and conversation ensued. The summary: Shadowvar are corrupting the Nether Scrolls. We need to find them, and use some artifact of Aumantor to purify them. Pretty straight forward, except we don't know where the artifact is, or where the Shades are performing this ritual. We do have some leads though. First, there was a temple of Aumator in the upper levels that we scryed earlier and skipped. We also know of some sort of magical disturbance in the Northern desert that native creatures were fleeing from. So we rested, popped to Sigil, and did our official level up and shopping. We also have another vision from Mystra, and get a 3 use ability like the Selune's Kiss that we recieved last mod. Then we came back to explore the temple.
We have one short encounter with a mummified scorpian person type thing, which Nix promptly killed. Then some undead creature I can't remember came in, which would have made the fight harder if the Scorpion thing had lived. Only recources I used were a Reversed Inertia surge to root it in place, and a reversed words of nurturing to damage it before it was taken out. We then find a secret passage under a statue, and eventually figure out how to open it.
We have one short encounter with a mummified scorpian person type thing, which Nix promptly killed. Then some undead creature I can't remember came in, which would have made the fight harder if the Scorpion thing had lived. Only recources I used were a Reversed Inertia surge to root it in place, and a reversed words of nurturing to damage it before it was taken out. We then find a secret passage under a statue, and eventually figure out how to open it.
Bennet Whitecastle, NG Illumian Truenamer 14
HP: 114
Init: +1(+3 with belt)
AC: 19, Touch: 12. Flat: 17
BAB: 10/5
Attack: +2 Luck Blade 10/5 1d6+2
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 12, Con 16 (18), Int 18 (22), Wis 11, Cha 16 (18),
Saves: Fort 14, Ref 16, Will 15
Feats: Skill Focus: True Speech, Item Familiar, Truename Research, Extend Utterance, Quicken Utterance, Insightful Reflexes, Share utterance. Bonus: Recitation of the Sanguine State. Flaw: Non-combatant
Skills (base ranks only): Concentration: 6, True Speech 17, Item Familiar (True Speech): 17, Knowledge Arcana: 10, Knowledge Nature: 5, Knowledge Planes: 10, Knowledge Religion: 8, Knowledge Dungeoneering: 5, Listen: 2, Use Magic Device: 17
Special: Knowledge focus: Arcana, knowledge focus religion, knowledge focus the planes, +2 vs Shadow spells, Sigel (Naen): +2 int checks and skills, Sigel (Krau): +2 to caster level, -4 vs Sigels/Glyphes of a higher level, otherwise imune, Know Personal Truename, Paragnostic Assembly (+5 to true speech).
Utterences
lexicon of the evolving mind
Lvl 1: minor words of Nurturing, Universal Aptitude, Inertia Surge
Lvl 2: Lesser words of Nurtuting, Temporal Twist
Lvl 3: Moderate words of Nurturing, Greater Speed of the Zephyr, Vision Sharpened, Seek the Sky
Lvl 4: Spell rebirth, Words of Bolstering, potent words of Nurturing, Confounding resistance
Lvl 5: Essence of Life Spark
Lexicon of the crafted tool
Lvl 1: Keen Weapon
Lvl 2: Analyze Item
Lvl 3: Rebuild Item
Lexicon of the Perfected Map
Lvl 1: Fog From the Void
Lvl 2: Transform the Landscape
Possesions: Luck Blade +2, Dagger, +2 Elven Chain, Greater amulet of the Silver tongue(+2 Con), ever burning torch, Helm of comprehend languages and read magic (+4 int), Eternal Wand of detect magic, Mantle of 2nd chances (+5 saves, +2 cha, +1 deflection), Belt of Battle, Wand Bracer, Gloves of arrow snaring, Ring of silent casting, eyes of truth, Ring of Evasion, 2 shadow weave wands of scorching ray (10 charges, 20 charges), Harrowing Rod (shadow weave version), hewards handy haversack. Misc. adventuring gear.
True Name modifyer: 60
Even Lvl DC: 43
Can Quicken on an even level CR on a 3+
Without Magic items or item familiar, my modifyer would be 31. I would need to roll a 12+ to do anything on an even CR.
At this level I get access to 5th lvl Utterances. I chose Essence of Lifespark, as the ability to add and remove negative levels is pretty handy. Shopping wise, I bought a Rod of harrowing. My reasons for this are two fold. First, I have nothing that I can really do against golems or other magic immune creatures. Normally, I would just buff the melee characters and give them extra attacks, but the party is all casters right now, so that doesn't work. Now I can lob a 9d6 cone of acid at them three times and contribute. Secondly, I made it a shadow weave varient. This may be metagaming, but I am fairly certain that we are going to have more situations where all our weave magic will not work, while shadow weave users attack us with impunity. This evens the odds a bit. There are penalties for using a shadowweave item without the feat, but a UMD check or a swift action latter and it will be negated. The rest of my cash went to various upgrades on my gear.
Ok, had a game last night.
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We ventured down into the lower level of the temple, and encountered a hallway that turned to the left further on, and had two statues along the wall. There were also two doors to the left and right. Nix searched for traps and actualy set one off. Fortunately no real harm done. Next we opened the doors and searched two rooms full of sarcophagi. He found a spot that had been plastered over, and discovered what looked like two keyholes. We continued our exploration, and saw some sort of skeletal lion. I did an extended reversed inertia surge to root it in place, and the party made short work of it. At the end of the hall, we found a door. Nix disarmed and unlocked it, and inside was what looked to be a destroyed Alter room. However with his true seeing and greater arcane sight, Nix was able to see that that was an illusion, and that the alter room was in tact. There were also two crystaline statues that looked like they had the keys. Nix tried to get them and they animated and attacked. Dox entered the room and had an ability to see past the illusion. However he could not effect them as they were golems and imune to magic. Nix went next, teleported to a corner, was able to quicken a grave strike, and did some sneak attack damage to it. The golems went next and blasted Dox and Nix with some sort of sun beam that left them both blind. On my turn I moved to the door way, activated my Eyes of Truth, and blasted the wounded one with my Harrowing Rod and killed it. Nix had some other buff that let him see while blinded, and managed to kill the last golem. We ended the game there.
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So after the last combat we picked up the keys we found on the golems, and explored a bit further. We found a crypt room and a secret door that required the keys we found. We found a hidden room, with a another sarcophagus in it. We oppened it up, and found a gold disk exactly like the one in our vision. I used my Analyze Item utterance and determined that it was most likely an artifact. At that point we were attacked by some sort of wailing/wraith thing. I was out of the area of effect as it tried to deafen the party. I was able to identify it, but I can't remember what it was exactly, I did learn that it had a vulnerability to silence. I went last, and my companions were having a hard time with it's etherealness, and high touch AC. On my turn I activated my silence spell ring and moved up to where I could see it, and cover my party in the silence spells emination. I figured that I would rather take the +5 difficulty to my true speech in an area of silence than having to deal with making saves every turn. Turns out that the silence didn't completely cancel out the effect, though it helped ease the save DC against it's attack. What was worse though, was that it's screaming supposedly made verbal comunication very difficult. In mechanical terms this imposed a 30+ the utterance level concentration check to be able to use true speech. There was no way I could make that, so my true naming was shut down. I made my first save against it's ability just fine, though the healer and Dox were deafened.
On the second round, 4 mummies also popped out of the crypts and attacked us. The party tried to focus on the wraith thing, but were having a hard time with it. I failed my second save against the wailing, and couldn't remember if I had re-rolls left. I got stunned, but burned through one of Selune's kisses that I had saved up to get out of it. On my turn I used my Rod of harrowing to burn 2 mummies and the wraith thing with acid. On the third turn the wailing ended and we were able to act. The mummies were quicly slain, and a reversed potent word of nurturing and some force spells from Nix latter and everything was slain. We grab the artifact, and go back over our notes to see what to do next. We know that we need this artifact, and a chalice to stop the corruption of the Nether Scrolls. Where the chalice was and where the Nether scrolls were, we had no clue. Dox attempted a hail marry knowledge check, and he learned that the terraseer had chronicled the history of Netheril and had dropped them off at candle keep. This was a tenuous connection at best, one that I probably wouldn't have followed. With no better leads, we went to Candle Keep.
We arrived without difficulty, and the DM read the description. Out of game, this floored me. The mod expected you to go to Candle Keep, but did a real piss poor job of giving you clues to go there. Bad... bad writing on WotC's part. Anyways, we go in and trade a book we found for access to the Library. Bennet was estatic about getting to browse this great library, but was a little put out that the caretakers were Ohgma worshippers and not of Denier. He also browsed the library for any possible knowledge of True Speech and organizations or societies that had practiced it for future plot hooks. I ended up loaning my helm with it's intelligence bonuses and casting universal aptitude on Dox to help his knowledge history check, as he had the highest ranking on it. After our research, he learned roughly where the Terraseer could likely be found. We rested and prepared to head there. At that point it was time to call it a night.
On the second round, 4 mummies also popped out of the crypts and attacked us. The party tried to focus on the wraith thing, but were having a hard time with it. I failed my second save against the wailing, and couldn't remember if I had re-rolls left. I got stunned, but burned through one of Selune's kisses that I had saved up to get out of it. On my turn I used my Rod of harrowing to burn 2 mummies and the wraith thing with acid. On the third turn the wailing ended and we were able to act. The mummies were quicly slain, and a reversed potent word of nurturing and some force spells from Nix latter and everything was slain. We grab the artifact, and go back over our notes to see what to do next. We know that we need this artifact, and a chalice to stop the corruption of the Nether Scrolls. Where the chalice was and where the Nether scrolls were, we had no clue. Dox attempted a hail marry knowledge check, and he learned that the terraseer had chronicled the history of Netheril and had dropped them off at candle keep. This was a tenuous connection at best, one that I probably wouldn't have followed. With no better leads, we went to Candle Keep.
We arrived without difficulty, and the DM read the description. Out of game, this floored me. The mod expected you to go to Candle Keep, but did a real piss poor job of giving you clues to go there. Bad... bad writing on WotC's part. Anyways, we go in and trade a book we found for access to the Library. Bennet was estatic about getting to browse this great library, but was a little put out that the caretakers were Ohgma worshippers and not of Denier. He also browsed the library for any possible knowledge of True Speech and organizations or societies that had practiced it for future plot hooks. I ended up loaning my helm with it's intelligence bonuses and casting universal aptitude on Dox to help his knowledge history check, as he had the highest ranking on it. After our research, he learned roughly where the Terraseer could likely be found. We rested and prepared to head there. At that point it was time to call it a night.
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We found the Terraseer's lair pretty easy, explored the ruin, and found his throne room. Inside it looks like he preserved himself in a pickling jar for safe keeping. We were then accosted by Yaunti as we entered the throne room. We were attacked by everal minor yuanti, two nagas, an abomination, and a Yaunti with wizard levels. Long batte short... Nix cast a spell that put half the room in stasis, covering the two Nagas and the priestess/wizard thing. I used my reversed words of nurturing to help clean up the fodder, put negative levels on the abomination, and put con damage on it. Once they were all taken out we buffed up, and then made short work of the two Nagas and wizard, dropping more negative levels on the caster. This was the brief summary, but the fight took some time and lasted two sessions.
The battle damaged to tube that the Terraseer was in and he evidently woke up (he is a lich btw), and we learned that he was some how captured (a Netherese arch wizard/lich/ sauruhk was captured by friggen yaunti? wtf?). Anywho... he was most helpful, told us right where the grail thingy we needed was and ported us there, as well as filling in some plot stuff.
We were dropped off in a cave that the Tomb Tappers were storing their magic items. We were then challeneged by the head tapper, and had two adds join in. We knew what we were up against, so Nix had spells prepped for them. He cast thunder lance, and I spent my turns temporal twisting him to give him more attacks. I then get full attacked and dropped into negatives (heroes feast saved my life). I get healed and give Nix more attacks, and we kill the last one. Game ends and we are told that we leveled.
The battle damaged to tube that the Terraseer was in and he evidently woke up (he is a lich btw), and we learned that he was some how captured (a Netherese arch wizard/lich/ sauruhk was captured by friggen yaunti? wtf?). Anywho... he was most helpful, told us right where the grail thingy we needed was and ported us there, as well as filling in some plot stuff.
We were dropped off in a cave that the Tomb Tappers were storing their magic items. We were then challeneged by the head tapper, and had two adds join in. We knew what we were up against, so Nix had spells prepped for them. He cast thunder lance, and I spent my turns temporal twisting him to give him more attacks. I then get full attacked and dropped into negatives (heroes feast saved my life). I get healed and give Nix more attacks, and we kill the last one. Game ends and we are told that we leveled.
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So we had defeated the tomb tapper guardians, and put in the key to open a door, which lead to a portal. This took us to the Tomb Tapper HQ. We weren't noticed for some reason, and there were a variety of weird floating islands that were probably powered by the subteranian city's Mythallar. We found the island that we were looking for, went in to some ruins, and were predictably attacked by some tomb tappers. I used an extended inertia surge to root them in place, and put fast healing on the party. More adds were coming in, and Nix started damaging them. My plan was to temporal twist him with his thunder lance to try and take them out quick, and keep them rooted so that they could only throw their hammer at us instead of full attacking. Dox realized that he wouldn't be effective against the constructs, so he used his psonic teleports and rogue skills to find the artifact that we were looking for and grab it. Nix then regrouped and ported us out of there.
[SPOILERS] We escaped the Tomb Tappers caverns, and went back to the through the portal. We were attacked by some sort of plane of shadow outsiders, and decided not to waste our time with them. We then teleported to the general area where the Nether Scroll trees were being corrupted. There was a newly created forest and began searching for them. We eluded several patrols, and found the tree. We also saw some phearim polymorphed into ravens standing guard around them. We thought that it was kind of strange that the Phaerim and Shadovaar were working together, but then these were the same guys who wrote 4th edition forgotten realms. We got our suprise round, and Nix cast that stasis zone spell over them, allowing Dox to move freely in the fild to activate the chalice. One of the Phaerim passed his save. So I focused on stripping his buffs (there was a small area where weave magic worked), and Nix quickly dispatched it. The Chalice started doing it's thing, and we set up to guard it till it was done. A shadovaar higher up (Haldrune?), appeared riding a shadow dragon and with a shadow clone thingy from the shadow adept class feature. I started stripping buffs and putting on negative levels on him, Nix started dealing his damage and stealing his spells. The clone died quick, and Haldrune or whatever he is followed soon after. The dragon was easily dispatched, and so was the Phaerim once the stasis field wore off. Ritual completed, the Nether scrolls scatter like the dragon balls. Instead of the Eternal Dragon, Elminister and the Simbul showed up. Essentially they said "good job", that we gave Shaar a black eye, and brought about some world wide changes, including stopping the Spell Plague, and by association, 4th edition from happening. Damn we really are heros aren't we? Lol.
THE END [/SBLOCK]
So that's it. For now my time as a True Namer has come to an end. I stuck with the class from 3-15th level. You can judge for yourselves about the merits of the class. I would have been willing to continue on with it, but my group was ready to move on to a new campaign.
Closing Thoughts
Never consider playing a Truenamer unless you have a DM willing to work with you. In particular, you will need either the Item Familiar feat or something houseruled like I did. Otherwise the class is simply not worth playing. The second, and nearly as important, if they are willing to homebrew a feat that allows your utterances to buff your entire team. Like speak to the massess but limited to your party. If those two things can happen, then the True Namer can get along just fine and be a productive team member as you have seen with this diary.
Planning your build is important from the start. You basicly have 3 choices. One that avoids all utterances that involve a saving throw and focuses on buffs, one that takes a dip into marshal and makes charisma his primary stat so they can max out saves, or a gish build. All can do reasonably well, but your utterance selection will be heavily influenced by which path you take.
It's been fun guys! Thanks to all who kept up with this and followed itthrough.