Stats
Factotum 1 and Able Learner for treating all skills as class skills. A good low-level (level 1, to be exact) Wizard is Harry Potter (Power Word: Pain + Sudden Extend + Sudden Maximize + Mount (spell)).
Maximize spell is like a +4 CL, so in order to maximize a lvl 0 spell you have to be lvl 9 at least I believe, then to maximize a fireball which is 3rd lvl you will have to beable to cast 7th lvl spells. Lvl 6 wizard cant maximize a lesser orb. Nice try on trying to get it past me, I give it a 4 for effort.
Looks cool anyway. Got a player interested in the same concept (Recaster) so I'd be interested in hearing how it works in practice. Don't go and die too soon now!
Also, Im thinking of doing a Wizard myself, im just trying to figure out how to pull it off atm lol.
You can dump these suggestions if you like because I don't know how optimal they'd be in your rather mid-to-low level campaign.
Factotum 1 and Able Learner for treating all skills as class skills. A good low-level (level 1, to be exact) Wizard is Harry Potter (Power Word: Pain + Sudden Extend + Sudden Maximize + Mount (spell)).
That's definitely a good skill monkey route, but I'm already losing a caster level to Recaster, and I'd rather not lose another. Recaster gives me the main skills I wanted as class skills (Disguise, Bluff, Sense Motive) so I can bring those up to full capacity now.
The Harry Potter build is alright for low levels, but since we're starting at 6, I think it would be nearing the end of its usefulness soon. I'll be getting the fun of Sudden Maximize/Extend multiple times per day with Recaster in a few levels anyway.
@Dawnmor, Metamagic School Focus (Conj) let's me lower the level of 3 metamagiced conjuration spells by 1, so that's what I'm doing for my level 3 spells (Max. Lesser Orbs and Ext. GMA). Maximize Spell is on my feat list, I took it for my 5th level Wizard feat.
Tak was in his male, Human form this session, so shall be referred to with masculine pronouns.
Things get rolling right off the bat with all of our characters getting a Sending spell message, or something similar, from a Gnomish benefactor of ours from House Sivis (I think that's the right one at least...) asking for our assistance, and that some travel would be involved.
Getting the ball rolling
We meet up with the guy and get the low down on what he wants us to do. It's your standard explore the ruins, retrieve the awesome items for him, I'll give you gold and you can keep the other stuff you loot mission. We get some cash in advance, a map, and catch the next lightning rail out of town. Once we arrive, we do some shopping to prepare and hire a local to guide us to our destination.
Word around town is that there's been some trouble with bands of Lizardfolk lately. Not the normal kind, mind you, but the large, mean, black variety and the not so large, mean, poisony type.
We meet up with the guy and get the low down on what he wants us to do. It's your standard explore the ruins, retrieve the awesome items for him, I'll give you gold and you can keep the other stuff you loot mission. We get some cash in advance, a map, and catch the next lightning rail out of town. Once we arrive, we do some shopping to prepare and hire a local to guide us to our destination.
Word around town is that there's been some trouble with bands of Lizardfolk lately. Not the normal kind, mind you, but the large, mean, black variety and the not so large, mean, poisony type.
One thing I think you missed is that creating a disguise takes 1d3X10 minutes of work. The hat of disguise gives you a +10 bonus on your disguise check, but you still have to spend the time creating the disguise.
Disguise
Disguise Self
Action
Creating a disguise requires 1d3
That was a good read. Your character is working out pretty well.
One thing I think you missed is that creating a disguise takes 1d3X10 minutes of work. The hat of disguise gives you a +10 bonus on your disguise check, but you still have to spend the time creating the disguise.
Disguise
Disguise Self
Changelings can use their Minor Change Shape ability (ECS 12) as a full-round action, though I suppose a full-fledged disguise would still take the full duration. I'll make sure to account for that in the future (I'm the DM).
My favorite part of the adventure so far is when the sorcerer rolled a nat 1, then dropped his falchion due to a d10 house rule we have. One of the poison dusks promptly picked it up and walked away with it.
Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, EotLQ is a 5th level adventure, but I started them at level 6, since there's only three players and I wanted the effective group level to be as close to 5 as possible.
.Also you may wish to try doing the Web thing, then use your orb of fire and light the sucker on fire for an additional 2d6 per round of damage I believe the damage is
but still additional damage is still additional damage regardless of how trivial it is .But then again, making a conjurer whos also a master of disguise just gives me the fits of the uncontrolable giggles.
GJ
That was a good read. Your character is working out pretty well.
One thing I think you missed is that creating a disguise takes 1d3X10 minutes of work. The hat of disguise gives you a +10 bonus on your disguise check, but you still have to spend the time creating the disguise.
Disguise
Disguise Self
I noticed that later, but I'm not entirely sure how Disguise Self works with making a disguise. You change your clothes, appearance, armor, weapons, and equipment all as a standard action. Isn't that a suitable disguise in itself? I understand it taking 1d3x10 minutes if you're doing this by mundane means (putting on make-up, changing clothes, etc.), but other than staying in character I don't know what a disguise would need that Disguise Self doesn't already cover.
Anyone else want to throw in their 2 cents on this?
I noticed that later, but I'm not entirely sure how Disguise Self works with making a disguise. You change your clothes, appearance, armor, weapons, and equipment all as a standard action. Isn't that a suitable disguise in itself? I understand it taking 1d3x10 minutes if you're doing this by mundane means (putting on make-up, changing clothes, etc.), but other than staying in character I don't know what a disguise would need that Disguise Self doesn't already cover.
Anyone else want to throw in their 2 cents on this?
Yeah, the wording is confusing but I believe the context is for making minor changes that wouldn't make you look like an entirely different person or creature. Such as hiding a scar, making your freckles disappear, making your ax look like a sword, ect.
I am looking forward to session 2. :whatsthis
Yeah, the wording is confusing but I believe the context is for making minor changes that wouldn't make you look like an entirely different person or creature. Such as hiding a scar, making your freckles disappear, making your ax look like a sword, ect.
Actually, according to the SRD:
You make yourself—including clothing, armor, weapons, and equipment—look different. You can seem 1 foot shorter or taller, thin, fat, or in between. You cannot change your body type. Otherwise, the extent of the apparent change is up to you. You could add or obscure a minor feature or look like an entirely different person.
The only limit seems to be not changing my body type, so anything humanoid should be somewhat doable. My Changeling ability might be able to help a little there, I'll have to take a closer look to see just how much I can change myself. Not having a tail could be a problem... but I don't really plan on turning my back on anyone I'm disguising myself from...
The only limit seems to be not changing my body type, so anything humanoid should be somewhat doable. My Changeling ability might be able to help a little there, I'll have to take a closer look to see just how much I can change myself. Not having a tail could be a problem... but I don't really plan on turning my back on anyone I'm disguising myself from...
Yeah, I know the SRD says that but it is worded poorly. The problem is that the wording of the Disguise skill and the Disguise Self spell don't support each other.
Disguise Self is a standard action and says you can make major alterations. Then it goes on to say if you use it to create a disguise it gives you a +10 on that check. Once it mentions the Disguise skill it uses the rules for the skill instead of the spell.
But like you said, doesn't Disguise Self provide a disguise in of itself? It must not according to the rules as it mentions the Disguise skill specifically. That's why I tend to personally ignore the "entirely different person" wording because it's in the minority and once you venture into that territory the rules for the Disguise skill supersede the spell.
That's how I think it works anyway.
Another way of looking at it is that Disguise Self gives you a flat +10 to a non existent Disguise roll. You take on a disguise as a standard action that has a check of 10 (ignoring all modifiers to your Disguise check). That's a pretty crappy disguise check though so it's undesirable.
EDIT: Yet another way of looking at it is that Disguise Self lets you create a disguise as a standard action rather than 1d3X10 minutes. Thats a pretty substantial change and the spell doesn't specifically state that it changes the normal rules for the Disguise skill. A change that significant would be something that would be mentioned, I would think.
Not too far down the path we come to a large temple, with more Blackscales to take care of, and another surprise.
Outside the temple
I'm running a little low on spells at this point, just a few of my big guns left, so I'm trying to take it easy.
I believe this starts off with 2 Blackscales. One of them gets taken out quickly in the first round since we all focused on it. Then I hear a voice in Draconic calling from the temple "To me." and the other Blackscale retreats. We move toward it, and we can just see some more Blackscales and a Dracotaur in front of the temple. One of the Blackscales intercepts us on the way. The others gang up on him and I Truestrike myself in order to Icelance the Dracotaur next round. The sorcerer uses a scroll of Fireball on the group in front of the temple.
Here's a brief history on the Truestrike spell in our group: You'll roll a 1, every time.
Except this time, I didn't! It's a miracle. I nail the Dracotaur for some decent damage, but he doesn't fail the stun save. Apparently that was enough, because after moving and spitting fire on the monk, it falls unconscious. The others work their way through the Blackscales.
I try greasing a few of the Blackscales, but they all make their saves and ensuing balance checks.
Suddenly, a small black dragon pops out of a nearby well, breathes acid on the monk, and dives back down the well. Monk evades, but now we've got something else to worry about. I get a little closer to see what's going on. I get hit next round with a breath weapon, and have to expend an action point to make the save. The DM kindly rolls max damage for the breath weapon...
In a sudden "what was I thinking?" moment, I cast invisibility on myself and go up to look down the well, completely forgetting dragons had blindsight (rolled high enough on my knowledge check to likely know that, too). I see there's a false bottom to the well grinding shut.
At this point, the Blackscales are taken care of, and there's no more surprises from the well.
Thoughts: Grease didn't do anything. Don't try to trick a dragon with Invisibility.
I'm running a little low on spells at this point, just a few of my big guns left, so I'm trying to take it easy.
I believe this starts off with 2 Blackscales. One of them gets taken out quickly in the first round since we all focused on it. Then I hear a voice in Draconic calling from the temple "To me." and the other Blackscale retreats. We move toward it, and we can just see some more Blackscales and a Dracotaur in front of the temple. One of the Blackscales intercepts us on the way. The others gang up on him and I Truestrike myself in order to Icelance the Dracotaur next round. The sorcerer uses a scroll of Fireball on the group in front of the temple.
Here's a brief history on the Truestrike spell in our group: You'll roll a 1, every time.
Except this time, I didn't! It's a miracle. I nail the Dracotaur for some decent damage, but he doesn't fail the stun save. Apparently that was enough, because after moving and spitting fire on the monk, it falls unconscious. The others work their way through the Blackscales.
I try greasing a few of the Blackscales, but they all make their saves and ensuing balance checks.
Suddenly, a small black dragon pops out of a nearby well, breathes acid on the monk, and dives back down the well. Monk evades, but now we've got something else to worry about. I get a little closer to see what's going on. I get hit next round with a breath weapon, and have to expend an action point to make the save. The DM kindly rolls max damage for the breath weapon...
In a sudden "what was I thinking?" moment, I cast invisibility on myself and go up to look down the well, completely forgetting dragons had blindsight (rolled high enough on my knowledge check to likely know that, too). I see there's a false bottom to the well grinding shut.
At this point, the Blackscales are taken care of, and there's no more surprises from the well.
Thoughts: Grease didn't do anything. Don't try to trick a dragon with Invisibility.
if you knew his backstory you wouldnt find such treachery surprising.
As we go forward, we begin to hear increasingly loud grinding noises. Then we see what the fuss is about when we see a large room full of whirling blades, some of which you can crawl under, some you have to tumble across. Neither of which are things I can/want to do.
The monk is nimble and tumbley, so he went to check things out. He gets about half way through when some doors pop open on the sides and out come a pair of Persistent Harriers, jumping and bouncing through the mess with perfect timing toward the monk.
Persistent buggers, ain't they?
In come the Harriers and flank the Monk. We soon find out they have sneak attack. They have little trouble hitting, as he's prone, and the Monk has a lot of trouble hitting, as he's prone. I tried throwing an orb in there, but being in melee and all the cover from the blades means I can't hit it too well. The Swiftblade tosses some Magic Missiles in there, which help, but soon the Monk is dropped badly negative, about -8 bad.
At this point one of the Harriers comes over to fight the Swiftblade. The only shot we seem to have to save the Monk is for me to use one of my Benign Transposition scrolls to swap the Monk with one of us so the other can get him a potion. Unfortunately, getting in position means taking an AoO, and likely getting flanked by those things if I stay there, or getting smacked around while prone under the blades. Neither one of those sounds good to my meager 11 HP, so I decide the Monk isn't worth saving, and feel that there just might be something to that karma thing.
Of course the Swiftblade ruins it all by running madly through the blades to get a potion to the Monk. That leaves me alone with a Harrier, and I don't care for that. I throw another orb and miss, then back off, hoping the Harrier prefers fighting in the spinning room of death. No such luck, he corners me and I take a minor shot. Unfortunately, I'm cornered, and have to take an AoO to get out and throw another orb (didn't want to risk losing the spell on a blown concentration check or getting the spell fizzled from an AoO for making a ranged attack in melee). I take the AoO to move and it misses, so I actually drop it with my last orb.
I come back to see if the others took down their Harrier, no... It sees me and decides it wants to attack the thing not in the spinning death maze, so here it comes. It misses me and the Swiftblade drops it with a Magic Missile.
Thoughts: Throwing orbs into melee and cover sucks.
In come the Harriers and flank the Monk. We soon find out they have sneak attack. They have little trouble hitting, as he's prone, and the Monk has a lot of trouble hitting, as he's prone. I tried throwing an orb in there, but being in melee and all the cover from the blades means I can't hit it too well. The Swiftblade tosses some Magic Missiles in there, which help, but soon the Monk is dropped badly negative, about -8 bad.
At this point one of the Harriers comes over to fight the Swiftblade. The only shot we seem to have to save the Monk is for me to use one of my Benign Transposition scrolls to swap the Monk with one of us so the other can get him a potion. Unfortunately, getting in position means taking an AoO, and likely getting flanked by those things if I stay there, or getting smacked around while prone under the blades. Neither one of those sounds good to my meager 11 HP, so I decide the Monk isn't worth saving, and feel that there just might be something to that karma thing.
Of course the Swiftblade ruins it all by running madly through the blades to get a potion to the Monk. That leaves me alone with a Harrier, and I don't care for that. I throw another orb and miss, then back off, hoping the Harrier prefers fighting in the spinning room of death. No such luck, he corners me and I take a minor shot. Unfortunately, I'm cornered, and have to take an AoO to get out and throw another orb (didn't want to risk losing the spell on a blown concentration check or getting the spell fizzled from an AoO for making a ranged attack in melee). I take the AoO to move and it misses, so I actually drop it with my last orb.
I come back to see if the others took down their Harrier, no... It sees me and decides it wants to attack the thing not in the spinning death maze, so here it comes. It misses me and the Swiftblade drops it with a Magic Missile.
Thoughts: Throwing orbs into melee and cover sucks.
...out pops a big ol' draconic looking Mummy.
Before anyone says anything, yes, I realize that normally dragons can't have the mummy template applied. This one was special.
Something interesting happens to us when we get back to town. We feel all itchy and burny during the night and notice we have suddenly developed Dragonmarks. Mine's Aberrant because I'm a Changeling, and so is the Swiftblade's due to dumb luck.
The swiftblade is a lesser Aasimar, which are not a dragonmarked race.
So we last left off with all of us getting Dragonmarks and hearing the horrible story of the last group of adventurers this happened to. We've got a ship to buzz around on, and an urge to visit the tomb of the one guy that survived what we're going through so we can do what he did. Off to the Lhazaar Principalities we go, which is as far as we can narrow down the location of this tomb.
We decided to head for Regalport in search of more information. After hitting the streets to gather information, I just manage to get people to glare at me with my awful roll, but the Swiftblade finds someone quite willing to talk. Apparently someone long ago found this tomb we're looking for, but didn't get too far into it, and barely made it out alive. Fortunately, he kept an extensive journal of the trip, which is now part of some fancy rich guy's memorabilia collection. We find out where he lives, so back to the boat we go. This sounds like a job for Tak Tambor, Diplomancer extraordinaire.
On the way back to the ship, though, we spot a suspicious looking figure eavesdropping on us and heading off toward the docks. Well, we're not going to let that slide, we need to see what he's up to.
Stop that guy!
He's got about a 60 foot head start on us, but we win init. I'm first, but we're in a busy street, so I can't really go dropping Clouds of Bewilderment or Webs or Glitterdusts in the middle of the street causing mass panic. I do have one thing I can use to help us catch this guy without effecting the populous, Slow! I didn't want to draw too much attention to myself by waving my arms around a chanting the spell out, so I decide to use my Recaster ability to sudden still it, figuring the street noise will drown out my verbal components to most people, who probably wouldn't figure out I'm casting a spell anyway.
The cloaked guy fails his will save and starts running like David Hasselhoff on the beach. The Monk (who spent his money on a permanent Enlarge Person) runs up to him and so does the Swiftblade. Cloaked guy tries to get away, and the Monk screws up a trip check and the Swiftblade bashes him with the flat of his falchion for subdual damage. These guys are about as subtle as a dump truck.
People definitely notice what's going on, so I figure we're going to have to deal with the authorities soon. Time to be glib. I still the spell for the hell of it so no one can tell I'm casting a spell. The others knock the guy out, and here comes the fuzz.
I jump in and explain that our friend over there had a bit too much to drink and was getting a little irascible, so we had to do what we had to do what we could to get him under control so we could take him back to his room to sleep it off. Granted, this is all happening in the middle of the day, but, sad to say, I think our friend has a bit of a problem...
My bluff check of 52 says they believe me, and even offer to toss him in the drunk tank for a few hours. We think it's best we take care of him, though... Tak Tambor, Bluffomancer, is born.
Thoughts: Yay for Glibness and absurdly high bluff checks. I also got a chance to try out those sudden stills I've had since I started, pretty handy in the right circumstances.
He's got about a 60 foot head start on us, but we win init. I'm first, but we're in a busy street, so I can't really go dropping Clouds of Bewilderment or Webs or Glitterdusts in the middle of the street causing mass panic. I do have one thing I can use to help us catch this guy without effecting the populous, Slow! I didn't want to draw too much attention to myself by waving my arms around a chanting the spell out, so I decide to use my Recaster ability to sudden still it, figuring the street noise will drown out my verbal components to most people, who probably wouldn't figure out I'm casting a spell anyway.
The cloaked guy fails his will save and starts running like David Hasselhoff on the beach. The Monk (who spent his money on a permanent Enlarge Person) runs up to him and so does the Swiftblade. Cloaked guy tries to get away, and the Monk screws up a trip check and the Swiftblade bashes him with the flat of his falchion for subdual damage. These guys are about as subtle as a dump truck.
People definitely notice what's going on, so I figure we're going to have to deal with the authorities soon. Time to be glib. I still the spell for the hell of it so no one can tell I'm casting a spell. The others knock the guy out, and here comes the fuzz.
I jump in and explain that our friend over there had a bit too much to drink and was getting a little irascible, so we had to do what we had to do what we could to get him under control so we could take him back to his room to sleep it off. Granted, this is all happening in the middle of the day, but, sad to say, I think our friend has a bit of a problem...
My bluff check of 52 says they believe me, and even offer to toss him in the drunk tank for a few hours. We think it's best we take care of him, though... Tak Tambor, Bluffomancer, is born.
Thoughts: Yay for Glibness and absurdly high bluff checks. I also got a chance to try out those sudden stills I've had since I started, pretty handy in the right circumstances.
From SRD under conjuration:
A creature or object brought into being or transported to your location by a conjuration spell cannot appear inside another creature or object, nor can it appear floating in an empty space. It must arrive in an open location on a surface capable of supporting it.
If a creature moves into a its targets square after grappling that space is occupied right? Or am I missing something here?
So is it a house rule or something that lets the transposition spells in your game place a target in a occupied space during a grapple with a teleportation spell?
From SRD under conjuration:
A creature or object brought into being or transported to your location by a conjuration spell cannot appear inside another creature or object, nor can it appear floating in an empty space. It must arrive in an open location on a surface capable of supporting it.
If a creature moves into a its targets square after grappling that space is occupied right? Or am I missing something here?
The Swiftblade wasn't grappled at the time. The squid zombie lost interest and dropped him after it heard a loud CRACK and his body went limp.
I think previous sessions he did the grapple swap though, if not in this last one...so question still stands I guess.
Nope. The only other time he did it in battle is when the monk was dying against persistent harriers (which would never grapple anyone).
I see where I misread it now. Thought he was going to use it on the monk in the grapple with the squid and himself as opposed to the swiftblade and run out of combat with him. Swiftblade should be legit since he was dropped (although if dropped in the squids square it could have had the same problems I mentioned before).
The squid was suspended in midair, so once the grapple was over I ruled that it dropped him to the ground below, which I represented on the map as the square 5 feet in front of the squid. Though, now that I think about it, there might have been some falling damage from that...
So we wake up in front of the smoldering rich guys house we were fighting in last week. The others paw through the ashes a little bit and we find some nice things to sell. Since we also need to find this Artificer guy that took the pages out of the journal we found, we head back to Regalport we go. We find out what town this guy lives in, and I say what the heck, and splurge on scrolls of Bite of the Wererat and Flame Whips for my spellbook. These will come in handy. And look at these fancy gloves here on the table, Gloves of the Starry Sky. I quick reference of my Knowledge (Arcana) tells me all I need to know about the Raiment of the Four, and hey, I think that guy whose tomb we're looking to raid had a pair of goggles that was part of this set...
We ship off to this new town and ask around about this artificer fellow. We split up to see what we can find. I end up in a tavern and Shaggy and Scooby are who knows where at this point. Another dazzling Gather Information check of 4 doesn't get me any clues, but it does get one fellow pretty angry with me.
Bar Fight
He takes a swing at me but misses. I check him out and see that he's got a sword and is wearing some sort of insignia, and has a few friends with him. They even start taking bets on the fight, not many going my way. Stupid people.
Tak Tambor, Diplomancer decides to sit this one out and it's time for Tak Tambor, Bar Room Brawler to come out. I chuck an Acid Orb at the guy and he goes down. Well, he looked dangerous... kind of...
After this goes down, I catch sight of a shady, cloaked fellow heading out the door. This, and you know, the fact I just melted a guys face off with an Acid Orb, means it's time to go, and possibly catch up with that guy.
As I'm going for the door, the bar owner steps in front of it with a club in hand. He says nobody's going anywhere until the authorities come to settle this business with me and the other guy. I have a different idea, though, one that involves me leaving and not getting arrested.
I take a step back away from the guy and go Invisible. The bar owner swings at me with his club, but misses because I'm invisible, then about 7 other people feel brave and try to grapple me. Of course, the last one gets me (a freaking halfling, too
). He nabs me by the foot and things aren't looking good.
Time for Tak Tambor to do his thing, cause a distraction and leave in a new disguise. I switch forms to Lia Amastacia, my female Elf alter ego, and drop a stilled Solid Fog in the tavern. Now we've got some chaos going. For good measure I cast a stilled Glibness and start screaming at the Halfling to let go of my foot. Needless to say, he's a bit confused at all this. He lets go and I slap him and call him a pervert for good measure. Then I wade my way through the Solid Fog and out the door.
Thoughts: That would've been a lot easier had I just prepared Dimension Step that day, or had Baleful Transposition or Dimension Door to use.
He takes a swing at me but misses. I check him out and see that he's got a sword and is wearing some sort of insignia, and has a few friends with him. They even start taking bets on the fight, not many going my way. Stupid people.
Tak Tambor, Diplomancer decides to sit this one out and it's time for Tak Tambor, Bar Room Brawler to come out. I chuck an Acid Orb at the guy and he goes down. Well, he looked dangerous... kind of...
After this goes down, I catch sight of a shady, cloaked fellow heading out the door. This, and you know, the fact I just melted a guys face off with an Acid Orb, means it's time to go, and possibly catch up with that guy.
As I'm going for the door, the bar owner steps in front of it with a club in hand. He says nobody's going anywhere until the authorities come to settle this business with me and the other guy. I have a different idea, though, one that involves me leaving and not getting arrested.
I take a step back away from the guy and go Invisible. The bar owner swings at me with his club, but misses because I'm invisible, then about 7 other people feel brave and try to grapple me. Of course, the last one gets me (a freaking halfling, too
). He nabs me by the foot and things aren't looking good.Time for Tak Tambor to do his thing, cause a distraction and leave in a new disguise. I switch forms to Lia Amastacia, my female Elf alter ego, and drop a stilled Solid Fog in the tavern. Now we've got some chaos going. For good measure I cast a stilled Glibness and start screaming at the Halfling to let go of my foot. Needless to say, he's a bit confused at all this. He lets go and I slap him and call him a pervert for good measure. Then I wade my way through the Solid Fog and out the door.
Thoughts: That would've been a lot easier had I just prepared Dimension Step that day, or had Baleful Transposition or Dimension Door to use.
So we're down in a mine underneath the prison where the Gnome went, with this kid that has something to do with the pirates that got us there. So we go forth through a lot of tunnels and stuff. We see a few dead bodies that look drained of all there fluids. We can't stop here, this is Dolgaunt country...
We finally come to a nice, open, gravely area with a dried up dead Gnome in the corner. Clearly the Dolgaunts had their fill and went back from whence they came.
Or not...
So they were hiding and ambushed us good and hard. There were four of them, three bums and a guy in charge. One of them actually grappled the monk. The others went after the Swiftblade, because I was fortunately by a rock in the back. Head guy punches the Monk in a very monkish way of his own.
Now it's on. Monk escape artists out of the grapple, Swiftblade does his ooga-booga haste crap, and the Dolgaunts all attack again. Not many hits. I get my Sculpting Rod out and drop four cubes of a Cloud of Bewilderment on the Dolgaunts. Didn't get the leader to fail, though, but two others did. Everyone runs out of the Clouds and attacks of opportunity are made. Two of them run up by me, which I don't like, but one was nauseated, so it wasn't too bad.
The Monk does a big throw on the leader guy, back into the cloud. This time he fails. Swiftblade steps down and mashes one of them with his magic murder blade. I drop the last non-nauseated one with an orb. Leader runs out of the cloud and up to me, what a jerk.
Monk runs into the cloud making the save with little problem and hits the leader. I decide to finish things off with a maximized lesser fire orb.
Thoughts: Only having two other guys in the party makes it hard for them to keep things out of my face, which makes these short range spells hazardous. Sculpting Rod owns and I'm glad I actually got to use one of those Clouds of Bewilderment to good effect.
So they were hiding and ambushed us good and hard. There were four of them, three bums and a guy in charge. One of them actually grappled the monk. The others went after the Swiftblade, because I was fortunately by a rock in the back. Head guy punches the Monk in a very monkish way of his own.
Now it's on. Monk escape artists out of the grapple, Swiftblade does his ooga-booga haste crap, and the Dolgaunts all attack again. Not many hits. I get my Sculpting Rod out and drop four cubes of a Cloud of Bewilderment on the Dolgaunts. Didn't get the leader to fail, though, but two others did. Everyone runs out of the Clouds and attacks of opportunity are made. Two of them run up by me, which I don't like, but one was nauseated, so it wasn't too bad.
The Monk does a big throw on the leader guy, back into the cloud. This time he fails. Swiftblade steps down and mashes one of them with his magic murder blade. I drop the last non-nauseated one with an orb. Leader runs out of the cloud and up to me, what a jerk.
Monk runs into the cloud making the save with little problem and hits the leader. I decide to finish things off with a maximized lesser fire orb.
Thoughts: Only having two other guys in the party makes it hard for them to keep things out of my face, which makes these short range spells hazardous. Sculpting Rod owns and I'm glad I actually got to use one of those Clouds of Bewilderment to good effect.
I love Recasters already, and you just make me love them more.
Picking up where we left off last week, we head out on our ship to the tomb we've been seeking the past few weeks. We make it near the island, but the boat is a little too big to navigate the narrow inlets and reefs near the shore. Looks like we have to take the dingy to land.
Things went fairly smoothly at first, but then we had company. A big ass corpse whale rams our boat, sending the Swiftblade and me into the water.
Free Zombie Willy
Monk starts off by sinking a few arrows into the whale, and the Swiftblade swims back to the boat and climbs in. I decide to wait a bit to get back in to see if the whale is just going to smash into the boat again before wasting a swift fly on getting out of the water.
Ok, bad idea... The whale decides to swim over and give me a kiss. A big, bitey kiss that I'm not certain was a kiss at all... Tak goes from full health to 6 hp. Ok, time to swift fly the hell out of there.
Now I'm pretty miffed at this whale, so I'm gonna go all Captain Ahab on his ass. Split your lungs with blood and thunder, when you see the white whale. Break your backs and crack your oars, men, if you wish to prevail. This ivory leg is what propels me, harpoons thrust in the sky. Aim directly for his crooked brow and look him straight in the eye! White whale! Holy grail! Maximized Orb of Force, right up his blowhole. Monk shoots more arrows, and I think the Swiftblade cast a spell at it, or Hasted us, or both...
At this point we notice the several pints of blood I left in the water have attracted a clan of strange, amphibious ghoul things. Somewhere between six and eight of them come swimming up to the boat.
The whale decided to go under the water and ready for another ramming run, and I ready an action to Force Orb him again, using my sexy new Residual Magic feat to Maximize it for free. Well, freer than the first one at least...
Sure enough, my White Whale (though more of a deadish-gray color, really) approaches the boat, and I slam another 48 damage force orb into it. That's enough to free Willy from his undead coil and send him to the bottom of the ocean. What did you expect? Tak Tambor has a 22 Int, so he's not going to harpoon himself to the whale like a dumbass...
Oh yeah, the ghouls are on the boat now. They're hardly worth wasting my time on, and the Monk and Swiftblade have them well under control, so I just start using my healing belt. I think I threw an orb at the last one, but rolled a 1... At least it was on that one, and not the whale... I didn't even hit the Monk this time. But yeah, they weren't much threat, easy pickings.
Thoughts: Residual Magic was cool, since I only really use three different damage spells, and a three man party needs a little blasting, I usually have a couple copies of each damage spell ready to maximize. Also this septuples the value of my Wand of Lesser Acid Orb by quadrupling the damage (and it'll be even better next level).
Monk starts off by sinking a few arrows into the whale, and the Swiftblade swims back to the boat and climbs in. I decide to wait a bit to get back in to see if the whale is just going to smash into the boat again before wasting a swift fly on getting out of the water.
Ok, bad idea... The whale decides to swim over and give me a kiss. A big, bitey kiss that I'm not certain was a kiss at all... Tak goes from full health to 6 hp. Ok, time to swift fly the hell out of there.
Now I'm pretty miffed at this whale, so I'm gonna go all Captain Ahab on his ass. Split your lungs with blood and thunder, when you see the white whale. Break your backs and crack your oars, men, if you wish to prevail. This ivory leg is what propels me, harpoons thrust in the sky. Aim directly for his crooked brow and look him straight in the eye! White whale! Holy grail! Maximized Orb of Force, right up his blowhole. Monk shoots more arrows, and I think the Swiftblade cast a spell at it, or Hasted us, or both...
At this point we notice the several pints of blood I left in the water have attracted a clan of strange, amphibious ghoul things. Somewhere between six and eight of them come swimming up to the boat.
The whale decided to go under the water and ready for another ramming run, and I ready an action to Force Orb him again, using my sexy new Residual Magic feat to Maximize it for free. Well, freer than the first one at least...
Sure enough, my White Whale (though more of a deadish-gray color, really) approaches the boat, and I slam another 48 damage force orb into it. That's enough to free Willy from his undead coil and send him to the bottom of the ocean. What did you expect? Tak Tambor has a 22 Int, so he's not going to harpoon himself to the whale like a dumbass...
Oh yeah, the ghouls are on the boat now. They're hardly worth wasting my time on, and the Monk and Swiftblade have them well under control, so I just start using my healing belt. I think I threw an orb at the last one, but rolled a 1... At least it was on that one, and not the whale... I didn't even hit the Monk this time. But yeah, they weren't much threat, easy pickings.
Thoughts: Residual Magic was cool, since I only really use three different damage spells, and a three man party needs a little blasting, I usually have a couple copies of each damage spell ready to maximize. Also this septuples the value of my Wand of Lesser Acid Orb by quadrupling the damage (and it'll be even better next level).
Endless Shadow Mastiffs
We all make our Will saves for the first Mastiff's baying. The Monk steps up to the Shadow Mastiff and swings, missing due to concealment. Swiftblade throws some Magic Missiles. I used all my glove uses for the day, so I was out of Magic Missiles. Another Mastiff came and bayed, all passed our saves again. I Glitterdusted the Mastiffs, they saved, but I hoped the Glitterdust would help against their shadow blending a little.
The Monk missed a lot due to concealment in this battle. I wanted to wrap things up, so I Truestriked myself for an orb after one of the Mastiffs went down. Then a third Mastiff shows up, bays, and I roll a 1 on the Will save.
PANIC!!! Tak Tambor is now panicked for 8 rounds... Great.
A LOT MORE Shadow Mastiffs show up while I cower in a corner. There was a lot of baying, but fortunately, the other two made all their Will saves. By the time Tak came to his senses, the body count was up to about 12 Mastiffs. The Monk was chewed up pretty bad, and we needed a way out of there. I try Knocking the locked door open, but unfortunately, those 12 latches on it are all locks... That's not going to work.
Monk decides to go to the other side of the room to inspect the jail cells we saw earlier. A Shadow Mastiff on him decided to run up to me. I didn't care for that idea, so I Dimension Stepped myself and the Swiftblade. Now the Swiftblade was next to the Mastiff, and I wasn't near anything bitey.
Monk uses his Mountain Hammer Strike to bust through the cell bars. I go invisible and go down toward the other cell. The Monk finds a lever in there that and pulls it, which unleashes the shadowiness in there and clicks open half the locks. He also rolled a 1 on the Will save he had to make for that and got 2 negative levels.
I have to bite the bullet on this one. I moved to the bars of the other cell, pulling out a scroll of Benign Transposition on the way, and ready an action to cast it. I then call my familiar out to go through the bars and transpose us (nifty trick I picked up from a CO Diary here a while ago). Next round my familiar comes pack and I need to use an extra move action to spot the lever in the dark cell.
A Shadow Mastiff pops up next to me, but I'm invisible. He smells me, but misses due to concealment. I pull the level and use an action point on my save (might as well, I was almost certain to level up after that fight, and I still had about 5 to spare) and don't get hit with the negative levels.
That was the end of that, no more Shadow Mastiffs and the door was open. I was almost out of spells and the Monk was almost dead. At one point the Swiftblade used another bead from his Necklace of Fireballs, the Monk was caught in it, and rolled another 1. Hilarious.
Thoughts: Rolling a 1 and being panicked for 8 rounds sucked. This was also the first time Glitterdust failed to blind anything.
We all make our Will saves for the first Mastiff's baying. The Monk steps up to the Shadow Mastiff and swings, missing due to concealment. Swiftblade throws some Magic Missiles. I used all my glove uses for the day, so I was out of Magic Missiles. Another Mastiff came and bayed, all passed our saves again. I Glitterdusted the Mastiffs, they saved, but I hoped the Glitterdust would help against their shadow blending a little.
The Monk missed a lot due to concealment in this battle. I wanted to wrap things up, so I Truestriked myself for an orb after one of the Mastiffs went down. Then a third Mastiff shows up, bays, and I roll a 1 on the Will save.
PANIC!!! Tak Tambor is now panicked for 8 rounds... Great.A LOT MORE Shadow Mastiffs show up while I cower in a corner. There was a lot of baying, but fortunately, the other two made all their Will saves. By the time Tak came to his senses, the body count was up to about 12 Mastiffs. The Monk was chewed up pretty bad, and we needed a way out of there. I try Knocking the locked door open, but unfortunately, those 12 latches on it are all locks... That's not going to work.
Monk decides to go to the other side of the room to inspect the jail cells we saw earlier. A Shadow Mastiff on him decided to run up to me. I didn't care for that idea, so I Dimension Stepped myself and the Swiftblade. Now the Swiftblade was next to the Mastiff, and I wasn't near anything bitey.
Monk uses his Mountain Hammer Strike to bust through the cell bars. I go invisible and go down toward the other cell. The Monk finds a lever in there that and pulls it, which unleashes the shadowiness in there and clicks open half the locks. He also rolled a 1 on the Will save he had to make for that and got 2 negative levels.
I have to bite the bullet on this one. I moved to the bars of the other cell, pulling out a scroll of Benign Transposition on the way, and ready an action to cast it. I then call my familiar out to go through the bars and transpose us (nifty trick I picked up from a CO Diary here a while ago). Next round my familiar comes pack and I need to use an extra move action to spot the lever in the dark cell.
A Shadow Mastiff pops up next to me, but I'm invisible. He smells me, but misses due to concealment. I pull the level and use an action point on my save (might as well, I was almost certain to level up after that fight, and I still had about 5 to spare) and don't get hit with the negative levels.
That was the end of that, no more Shadow Mastiffs and the door was open. I was almost out of spells and the Monk was almost dead. At one point the Swiftblade used another bead from his Necklace of Fireballs, the Monk was caught in it, and rolled another 1. Hilarious.
Thoughts: Rolling a 1 and being panicked for 8 rounds sucked. This was also the first time Glitterdust failed to blind anything.
Dun Dun DUN!
Anyway, we stop off at Regalport to sell things, get supplies, and find a map of this place we're going. The map obtaining went a lot more smoothly this time, we just had to cough up 500 gold. It was a little steep, but it had what we were looking for. I didn't buy anything exciting, just a Scroll of Heart of Water to put in my spell book. Things are getting large and I don't want them getting grapply on me.
We get to our landing zone with no problems. We take the shiny, new rowboat off to shore (well, the other two do, I've got my Sudden Extended Overland Flight going). Once we get to the shore we hear some fighting going on and a burning city. Something's going on here, and we're going to put a stop to it. It doesn't take us long to find trouble, and this trouble is Dracotaurs...
We didn't start the fire
There were four of them here, three normal ones and a Dracotaur Rager. The three regular Dracotaurs go down fairly easy, but the spit a lot at the Swiftblade, and one even hit me, the jerk... Charges and full attacks from the Swiftblade and Monk take out two and I drop the last with a LAO and a second from my wand (go Residual Magic!). The Rager is pretty nasty. It takes a few rounds to drop and I burned a few Magic Missiles on it.
We heard some ruckus near by, and I caught sight of a human in my Darkvision, so I went to investigate. I see this big, burly Barbarian fellow with a big, frosty warhammer taking on three Dracotaurs and two Dracotaur Ragers. Then he went, correction, two Dracotaurs and two Dracotaur Ragers. I decide to help the guy out by dropping four cubes of Glitterdust on the four Dracotaurs. One Rager and one mook go blind. The Barbarian gets smacked around a bit, but he's still chugging. I think he took another mook down.
The rest of my group was still finishing off the Rager we were fighting. I drop an Extended Evard's Black Tentacles on the Dracotaurs. The last mook and the non-blind Dracotaur are caught in it. The Barbarian takes another good chunk of damage, but he's not stopping. He pulverizes a Dracotaur Rager in one full attack. Glad he's on our side...
At this point, the rest of the party arrives. They can't really get through the Glitterdust and Tentacles to the Dracotaurs, so they just lob some ranged attacks. The last Rager rages and bursts out of the Tentacles with ease. The Barbarian gets a few solid hits on him. I think I drop the regular Dracotaur with some Magic Missiles.
Dracotaur Rager takes a hefty chunk out of the Barbarian, and he's looking pretty tore up. I decide it's time to end this, and drop a Maximized LAO on the Rager, putting it down for good.
Thoughts: Evard's Black Tentacles is pretty hit or miss. I just got it and it's already losing its luster. I might be switching back to Solid Fog.
There were four of them here, three normal ones and a Dracotaur Rager. The three regular Dracotaurs go down fairly easy, but the spit a lot at the Swiftblade, and one even hit me, the jerk... Charges and full attacks from the Swiftblade and Monk take out two and I drop the last with a LAO and a second from my wand (go Residual Magic!). The Rager is pretty nasty. It takes a few rounds to drop and I burned a few Magic Missiles on it.
We heard some ruckus near by, and I caught sight of a human in my Darkvision, so I went to investigate. I see this big, burly Barbarian fellow with a big, frosty warhammer taking on three Dracotaurs and two Dracotaur Ragers. Then he went, correction, two Dracotaurs and two Dracotaur Ragers. I decide to help the guy out by dropping four cubes of Glitterdust on the four Dracotaurs. One Rager and one mook go blind. The Barbarian gets smacked around a bit, but he's still chugging. I think he took another mook down.
The rest of my group was still finishing off the Rager we were fighting. I drop an Extended Evard's Black Tentacles on the Dracotaurs. The last mook and the non-blind Dracotaur are caught in it. The Barbarian takes another good chunk of damage, but he's not stopping. He pulverizes a Dracotaur Rager in one full attack. Glad he's on our side...
At this point, the rest of the party arrives. They can't really get through the Glitterdust and Tentacles to the Dracotaurs, so they just lob some ranged attacks. The last Rager rages and bursts out of the Tentacles with ease. The Barbarian gets a few solid hits on him. I think I drop the regular Dracotaur with some Magic Missiles.
Dracotaur Rager takes a hefty chunk out of the Barbarian, and he's looking pretty tore up. I decide it's time to end this, and drop a Maximized LAO on the Rager, putting it down for good.
Thoughts: Evard's Black Tentacles is pretty hit or miss. I just got it and it's already losing its luster. I might be switching back to Solid Fog.
The Top Gun references made me LOL :P
Thanks for another awesome recap.
~Bowen
And go DN
.We start by mourning (kind of) the loss of our Monk, but this is over quickly, as one of the prisoners in the camp we just rescued calls out to us, even calling Tak Tambor by name. Tak is not pleased by this. Apparently, this guy is a defector from that annoying Emerald Claw group that's been bugging us and is looking to undo what's going on. We're really shorthanded now, so we reluctantly accept, but Tak's keeping an eye on this guy.
As if that wasn't enough, while the Barbarians go back to their village to rest for tomorrow's epic battle, our new friend starts animating the dead Dracotaurs around as skeletons. Apparently this guy is some kind of Necromancer, and that fills us with a bit of Dread...
No troubles during the night, and it's time for an all-out war! We go around to where we need to be, and we've got some company waiting for us. Barbarians, and one or two things that look like little Blue Dragons without wings.
Barbarians and burrowers
Skeletons are fast, so they go first. Two run up toward the barbarians, and the other toward the bluespawn. Swiftblade hastes us and gets after a bluespawn. Tak flies over the barbarians and drops an orb on them. The bluespawns start shocking the crap out of the Skeleton nearby, the Swiftblade, and possibly the Dread Necro, not sure. Not sure what the Dread Necro did, we were mostly letting the skeletons and Swiftblade do all the work.
Here comes some more bluespawns! Pretty much every round another bluespawn burrowed its way into the fight, until there were six of them. Swiftblade and Skeleton took most of them out. Other Skeletons, an Orb from Tak's wand, and a Magic Missile from Tak took out the barbarians. Dread Necro cast Fear on the last bluespawn and barbarian to end things. Swiftblade and Skeleton got shocked a lot, too.
Thoughts: It sure is nice to be constantly flying out of range of things.
Skeletons are fast, so they go first. Two run up toward the barbarians, and the other toward the bluespawn. Swiftblade hastes us and gets after a bluespawn. Tak flies over the barbarians and drops an orb on them. The bluespawns start shocking the crap out of the Skeleton nearby, the Swiftblade, and possibly the Dread Necro, not sure. Not sure what the Dread Necro did, we were mostly letting the skeletons and Swiftblade do all the work.
Here comes some more bluespawns! Pretty much every round another bluespawn burrowed its way into the fight, until there were six of them. Swiftblade and Skeleton took most of them out. Other Skeletons, an Orb from Tak's wand, and a Magic Missile from Tak took out the barbarians. Dread Necro cast Fear on the last bluespawn and barbarian to end things. Swiftblade and Skeleton got shocked a lot, too.
Thoughts: It sure is nice to be constantly flying out of range of things.
against the master thrower and tempest: in addition to the gravemist giving exhaustion, my quasit familiar got him with a wand of ray of enfeeblement for 5 str penalty. he was going NOWHERE. the skeletons completely destroyed the master thrower.
i animated the larger bluespawn from the lightning room. even after all of this i wasnt even halfway through my HD limit. dread necros are absurd.
after the final battle i animated both the godslayer (who came with a huge +2 bastard sword) and the blue dragon. i turned the blue dragon into a zombie instead of a skel so he can still fly and use his breath weapon. since all of my other skels died in the battle, i now only have the godslayer skel and the zombie dragon- but they should be able to take a hell of a lot of punishment. i may consider taking a few ranks in ride so i can use the dragon as a mount.
nimble bones is probably one of the best feats you can take as a dread necro. my skeletons ALWAYS went first and there were so many of them that they could entirely surround anything i didnt want bothering me. they are especially potent when they are from monsters that could burrow. i had my 5 burrower skeletons burrow up to the next level of the tower to the opposite end of where the stairway was so we could easily surround whatever was there, and it worked like a charm.
kelgore's gravemist is an absurdly powerful spell. i have no idea what they were thinking. it is essentially waves of fatigue, except with better range, duration, does damage even on failed SR check, and 3 levels lower!
with my adventuring reward money i am totally going to buy a tricked out lair with an attached unhallow spell, and a permenant desecrate.