Renegade Paladin
2009-03-28, 10:46 PM
Okay, here's the situation: The party just got done rooting a draconic-influenced orc army out of an iron mine. While there, we uncovered written orders to the base's (spawn of Tiamat) commander, referencing the displeasure of his superior and instructing him to have his army ready to attack the nearby city on the 13th of the month, which was at that time three days away. There is a total solar eclipse set to occur on the 13th, and the city is marking it with a major street festival. The orders strongly hinted at other assets set to attack in conjunction with the orcs on that date.
The total eclipse is disturbing because we know our enemies are led in part by a vampiric dragon, and the eclipse will permit him to attack during the day. We do not know if he will do this, but it is an everpresent concern.
We have since gone through a day of ally-gathering and investigation, and have come up with nothing substantive beyond what we gathered in the mine, though the platinum knight/vassal of Bahamut in the party (yes, the character took both classes) managed to convince a copper wyrm and some of his family to be on hand for the festival in case things really get hairy. It is now the 12th in game, and there's nothing to do but gear up and steel ourselves for whatever lies ahead.
This is where you come in. In the dungeon with the orc army, we gained a level and a half worth of XP, and commensurate treasure, which means we're swimming in money. My primary character already spent a good chunk of his on a new bow (his old one was sundered by an orc in the dungeon), which still leaves him with a good six digits in gp terms, and his cohort has even more owing to not having to replace broken equipment.
The primary character (http://www.libriumarcana.com/RPG/public_profiler/view.php?id=38) is a rebalanced paladin/rogue, and except for gear isn't terribly adaptable in terms of preparation. For him all I need is suggestions for what to do with his cash, keeping in mind his +16 UMD modifier. (And yes, I know his build isn't terribly optimized; he's one of my oldest characters, and I haven't really significantly rebuilt him other than converting his paladin levels to OW4's rebalanced paladin.)
The cohort (http://www.libriumarcana.com/RPG/public_profiler/view.php?id=27) is where things get interesting. He's an Unseen Seer (Complete Mage) who entered via the human paragon shortcut and took Practiced Spellcaster, so his caster level is higher than the designers had in mind. The only unnecessary lost caster level is the second level of rogue, and frankly, with all the dragons running around, I felt Evasion was well worth it. For him, I need both suggestions on spending his cash (we're in a metropolis and major trading hub, so most magic items are available, within reason) and spell selection. The prepared spells shown on that sheet are from an earlier mission where we were supposed to not harm the guards protecting our target, hence all the nonlethal disabling spells. I'll change his spell selection for the big day to a more standard combat loadout of buffs and battlefield control, but if anyone's got any brilliant ideas on spell selection, I'd love to hear about them.
Our enemies have up until now shown themselves to be incredibly resourceful and skilled at subterfuge. The plot is headed by at least three dragons, one of which is the vampire I mentioned above. Their primary servitor in the city is a vampire doppelganger, who has given us no end of trouble in recent days. Before that, a puppet of theirs managed to briefly seize control of the government, but the party took care of that situation already. We don't know what their plan is or even what their objectives are, but their actions so far have clearly shown that whatever the purpose of this scheme is, it isn't benign. Despite my cohort being a specialized diviner, divinations have not produced anything useful thus far. So: How does Batman prepare when he doesn't know what's coming?
Edit: Though I mainly draw on the Magic Item Compendium and Spell Compendium in addition to core, almost all 3.x sources are available, so feel free to suggest anything.
The total eclipse is disturbing because we know our enemies are led in part by a vampiric dragon, and the eclipse will permit him to attack during the day. We do not know if he will do this, but it is an everpresent concern.
We have since gone through a day of ally-gathering and investigation, and have come up with nothing substantive beyond what we gathered in the mine, though the platinum knight/vassal of Bahamut in the party (yes, the character took both classes) managed to convince a copper wyrm and some of his family to be on hand for the festival in case things really get hairy. It is now the 12th in game, and there's nothing to do but gear up and steel ourselves for whatever lies ahead.
This is where you come in. In the dungeon with the orc army, we gained a level and a half worth of XP, and commensurate treasure, which means we're swimming in money. My primary character already spent a good chunk of his on a new bow (his old one was sundered by an orc in the dungeon), which still leaves him with a good six digits in gp terms, and his cohort has even more owing to not having to replace broken equipment.
The primary character (http://www.libriumarcana.com/RPG/public_profiler/view.php?id=38) is a rebalanced paladin/rogue, and except for gear isn't terribly adaptable in terms of preparation. For him all I need is suggestions for what to do with his cash, keeping in mind his +16 UMD modifier. (And yes, I know his build isn't terribly optimized; he's one of my oldest characters, and I haven't really significantly rebuilt him other than converting his paladin levels to OW4's rebalanced paladin.)
The cohort (http://www.libriumarcana.com/RPG/public_profiler/view.php?id=27) is where things get interesting. He's an Unseen Seer (Complete Mage) who entered via the human paragon shortcut and took Practiced Spellcaster, so his caster level is higher than the designers had in mind. The only unnecessary lost caster level is the second level of rogue, and frankly, with all the dragons running around, I felt Evasion was well worth it. For him, I need both suggestions on spending his cash (we're in a metropolis and major trading hub, so most magic items are available, within reason) and spell selection. The prepared spells shown on that sheet are from an earlier mission where we were supposed to not harm the guards protecting our target, hence all the nonlethal disabling spells. I'll change his spell selection for the big day to a more standard combat loadout of buffs and battlefield control, but if anyone's got any brilliant ideas on spell selection, I'd love to hear about them.
Our enemies have up until now shown themselves to be incredibly resourceful and skilled at subterfuge. The plot is headed by at least three dragons, one of which is the vampire I mentioned above. Their primary servitor in the city is a vampire doppelganger, who has given us no end of trouble in recent days. Before that, a puppet of theirs managed to briefly seize control of the government, but the party took care of that situation already. We don't know what their plan is or even what their objectives are, but their actions so far have clearly shown that whatever the purpose of this scheme is, it isn't benign. Despite my cohort being a specialized diviner, divinations have not produced anything useful thus far. So: How does Batman prepare when he doesn't know what's coming?
Edit: Though I mainly draw on the Magic Item Compendium and Spell Compendium in addition to core, almost all 3.x sources are available, so feel free to suggest anything.