A Gang of Mercs and the Jerks who hire them(IC).

[Penitent]

This is our Acheron game thread: To whit:

You have enjoyed your one month of vacation greatly, torturing poor locals, refurbishing the Fortress, and otherwise taking a break from murdering things for other things.

Having recently reached a new level of potential, you float endlessly through the sky, spinning lazily, and gazing out into the great beyond. If anyone feels like designing your Cube Fortress of Doom (TM), you may, but as things currently stand, some guy teleports into your reception room. On further consideration, he appears to be a Goblin.

He comes bearing a large contract, and an Imp on his shoulder.

[loser0ll]

One of the mercenaries walks to investigate the potential client. His companion is... a slightly larger relative of the Imp Devil the client comes with. He turns to him, but says nothing.

((Communicating via the Telepathy Bearded Devils possess, I question whether he knows much about any goblin mages powerful enough to throw around teleportation spells that have an Imp - another Devil - as a Familiar who live close enough to be interested in their services?))

After a moment, he turns to the Goblinoid with the friendliest smile he can manage. "What can we help you with, good sir?" He tries to keep his tone as friendly as possible.

Diplomacy [roll0]

[shadowedsoul]

Gabriel (http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/User:Shadowed_soul/Gabrieal_Arceneaux)

Not being much of a talker, Gabriel hangs back and lets Danath greet the newcomer goblin, mostly just keeping an eye on things.

I doubt it'll come up, but just in case-

spot-[roll0]
listen-[roll1]
and in case we decide to frisk him in the near future-[roll2]

[Penitent]

Your bearded devil is unfamiliar with Wizards or Imp Familiars seeking services.

The goblin unfurls his contract and the contract begins speaking:

"Presented here for employment in services of reclamation of the Cube known as SV3215. This contract outlines the conditions of the agreement and likely compensatory measures should the contract be accepted.

Negotiations, should they take place, will be handled by the emissary presenting."

[Tacitus]

Gore "Norian" Magebane (http://www.thetangledweb.net/forums/profiler/view_char.php?cid=381)

From the depths of their fortress a warrior clad in blue silk with spikes and spines protruding from nearly every surface on his body pokes his head into the main foyer. Adorning his otherwise deep violet eyes are a pair of lenses that give his eyes the appearance of a hawk. In his hands he examines a mask he had created earlier that day and has been studying. Though a rather unassuming artifact made of pure sapphire it seems to be giving off an aura of mental static within a radius around Norian. Via the telepathy granted by his glorious crown he queries Danath, "You got this?"

Blindsight 60ft, and he'd be peeking in generally close enough to allow 60ft to cover the guest.
The 40ft Mental Static radius should not be affecting anyone. (If it would be, he'd turn it off.)
Norian is under the effects of Mind Shielding and Arcane Sight
Concentrating on the Goblin to determine possible spellcasting capability as per Arcane Sight.
Some Spellcraft rolls if needed for any spells active on the Goblin [roll0] at +10 each.

Soulmelds at the moment are:
Monstrous Sapphire Mask
Keeneye Lenses
Lucky Dice
Phoenix Cloak

His SR is 20 (8+CR, +1 for secondary SR)

Knowledge (The Planes): [roll1] Is the Goblin a Barghest? Yes, I'm dead serious about this question.

[loser0ll]

Danath looks at the Goblin and his Imp. "Well - I suppose we should go ahead and start outlining the details. What are we taking the fortress back from, and how long do you have before the mission needs to be done?"

[Penitent]

The Goblin is not a Barghest, as far as you can tell. He has some spells active on him, most registering as transmutations and abjurations, but the most powerful one is an evocation. Your standard action reveals that he has a 6th level arcane ability as his highest.

The imp squeeks out a response: "Very well then. You can start by reading the contract."

When you get down to the reading, you discover that it is a contract to aid in the "reclamation" of a small cube from the orcs on behalf of the goblins. The mission involves meeting up with a goblin force on a cube set for collison, and traveling over in advance of the collision to strike at the other side of the cube as a distraction and to hopefully deal with some of the shock troops the orcs have in play.

Payment is to take the form of primary loot choice in the invasion, and the grant of the specific device inside the cube, at the center, which allows the orcs to reverse gravity all along the cubes surface, somewhat hampering the goblins usual bashing tactic, and preventing the goblins from boarding en mass.

[loser0ll]

Danath nods at his companions, apparantly signifying that he has everything under control. "Well, that's a fairly decent contract from what I can see - except that the reward is all completely based off of looting what we kill and take from the cube itself. It seems to me that if it's vulnerable enough for us to take on the elite troops and capture this gravity-device before your Goblins arrive, that we could take the major prizes on our own. Any bonus loot we might claim is entirely dependent on your people being able to take the fort afterward. Do you have the authority to offer anything aside from what we'll apparently be claiming on our own anyways?"

[Surgo]

"It sounds acceptable so far, but we'll need to know about their leaders, capabilities, defense points, and what not." Lyrana says, talking smooth as silk. She also wonders why Danath is essentially reiterating what is described in the ordinary contractual rules.


Diplomacy: [roll0]
Sense Motive: [roll1]

Bleh, didn't have a chance to put on the items that give me bonuses to these before we started.

[DinosaurHunter]

Masaki (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=182179)

The last of the Mercenaries to take an interest in the appearance of the goblin and it's companion is the band's resident Halfling. Entering the room without a word, the halfling simply makes his way to the far side of the way and plops down on the stone floor.

sorry about the short and late post, half the family came down with the flu last night.

[Penitent]

The imp laughs, "What you want gold? Already giving you more than your fair share of the loot, and pick of the pit besides. Certainly aren't handing over anything of value to you outside of that. You think you can take the cube by yourself, go ahead, but we are just going to take it from you afterword. Either you kill a bunch of orcs and you get an artifact plus a majority of the loot, or you don't and you get nothing."

Tapping the goblin on the head, he points to Lyrana, the Goblin takes over, his voice is a quiet rasp interspersed with chuckles, "Well, we don't get to know much, since they live primarily inside the cube..., but we have set up surveillance on the cube for some time. It appears that in addition to the normal garrison, a particular chieftain has visited at this inopportune moment to marshal the forces... Normally this sort of thing would be good for us, as he would leave with the some of the soldiers in a few weeks, taking his elites with him, but in this case, the task is time sensitive, and this collision will be our best chance in a long time.

The Chieftain is a rising star among the clans, he's half demon or something, and he employs a squad of half orcs as his body guards. He's a spellcaster himself, and his guards are from many different traditions of blending combat with magic. His highest reported circle was level 5, but we've not had much combat with him in a long time, so be prepared for anything."

[Tacitus]

'Norian'

The warrior nods to himself as he turns to leave the negotiators to their business. Before he is completely out of range his voice enters the mind of Lyrana and Danath, "I like it. An artifact we can use to control gravity on our cube would be immensely useful. One of you two inquire about divine influence centered on the cube. We don't want to personally run into Bahgtru, Ilneval, or worse yet, Gruumsh."

[Surgo]

"Okay, good." Lyrana says. "Good to know what comprises their best. What we need from you, then, is a surface map -- especially entry and exit points, and where the garrisons are most commonly set up. If you have any knowledge of the insides, from spies or whatnot, we need that too so we can have the cube ready for you on the day of the collision."

Lyrana taps her chin thoughtfully. "For that matter, you mention the time-sensitivity of the mission. Is it just that you need the elites cleared out and ready for your takeover by collision time, or is there a more specific timetable that you desire?"

[Penitent]

"You misunderstand, we are not asking you to have captured the cube for us, but merely to attack yourselves minutes ahead of the collision, to provide a distraction for us to land our own troops. As for time sensitive, it is merely that we must capture on this collision, as we will not have another for a very long time. The collision occurs in three days time, and it will be our only shot for far too long for the goblin empire to wait."

The imp disappears from his shoulder, and returns shortly during this conversation. He proffers a small cube with chiseled tunnels in it, and a few surface fortifications.

"This is a map of what we know, past the first bend in the tunnels it loses much information."

[loser0ll]

Danath looks over the cube, studying it for a few minutes. "This is interesting - if we take a few of the surface fortifications in the minute or two before you strike, we could summon allies to hold the fortifications. That would force them to divide their troops even thinner and give us an easier route of retreat. The pay is decent - this gravity manipulator isn't my style, but I'm sure it could help us at some point. More importantly... this sounds fun. It'll be entertaining to watch them try and pry us out of their own fortifications. And I've always hated the filthy things - so... untidy and disorganized. Like a bunch of weak-blooded Demons if you ask me. Pushing everything around like raw physical power matters when a giant ball of fire hits you in the face."

[Surgo]

Lyrana looks around to her companions. "The job seems fine to me. Do we have anything else...?"

[shadowedsoul]

I don't see any immediate problems, and the premise seems sound enough.

[Penitent]

"Very well. If the arrangement is agreed to, we will prepare. The specified time of the collision in Goblin Standard time is specified on your copy of the contract. Please sign here... and here."

If you want to get all nitty gritty and read the fine print of the contract, at least one of you should be smarty lawyery enough to read it and know it's all just special contract jargon for the stuff I've already set up. I'm not trying to get you to sign away your souls or anything.

[Surgo]

If there is no argument, Lyrana signs. And then starts prepping for the invasion.

Woohoo now we can move along.

[Tacitus]

Norian, not being nearby and having left the decisions to those at hand, tacitly agrees. He's off preparing his weapons and trying to find his ballista, cause everyone needs a good ballista.

Did you ever approve or deny my use of a Great Crossbow? Exotic weapon, 150 gp, 2d8 (3d8 Large), 18–20/×2, 120 ft range.

[Penitent]

Great Crossbow is fine.

[Surgo]

I can teleport myself, but not anyone else unless we put them in a portable hole or something. Anyone else have a similar ability to get to the cube?

[shadowedsoul]

I've just got local range teleports at this point. also maybe it's time for an OOC thread so we can discuss these things without clogging up this one?

[Tacitus]

My best is Flight and/or Dimension Door, which isn't of much help for what I'm assuming is a vast distance.

[Surgo]

Well if anyone can shrink themselves I can carry you with me in my pocket.

[Penitent]

Lucky for you guys, one of you has Shadow Walk at will, and because the Plane of Shadow is crazy weird, you can totally just walk there stepping from cube to cube, or whatever.

Have fun. But take note that you might end up not being right where you want, like, somewhere within 1d10X1000ft will probably be on a (at least temporarily) nearby cube.

[shadowedsoul]

Oh, that works here? I wasn't sure.

awesome, yeah I've got shadow walk, we're in pretty good shape for travel.

[Penitent]

Bottom line, when it comes to spells saying "blah blah, material plane blah" I just assume the writers are retarded. It wouldn't work from the ethereal, but it does work on any outer plane in my cosmology.

[loser0ll]

Hey all - sorry for the infrequent posting - lot of stuff came up. Glad I didn't miss anything. By the way - I have Teleport, and can cast it Spontaneously. So as long as I can glance at it at least once - by any means, magical or otherwise, including seeing it from a long distance like one of the other cubes, I can get us there. I also have "Greater Dimension Door" if that could be helpful - I don't know the specifics of the layout.

Question to DM/a PC who knows more about this Plane - what use, if any, would those spells be in getting us to our destination?

[Surgo]

If it's not greater teleport, then shadow walk is probably better because we can buff up before we step out of the spell. Then we can use greater dimension door to get to where we want to go.

If we want to advance to the right time, let's go ahead. I'll just re-configure my 8 attuned items to be the most desirable for the project and I'll be good to go.

[Penitent]

So... Are we shadow walking? Teleporting?

[Surgo]

I say we Shadow Walk. Let's get this show on the road.

[shadowedsoul]

Shadow walking works for me, let's go kill some ****.

[Tacitus]

Shadow walking is fine.

For this mission Norian will swap out his Bluff/Disguise Self item for his Demon Armor (which gives +Move Silently as a minor ability). I've made the relevant changes on his sheet, including applicable armor check/stealth penalties. This armor will slow him down, but does not restrict his ability to run.

He'll also be taking a Keen Mithral Longsword and his Keen Great Crossbow, though they are not part of his 8 at this time.

Norian will alter his Soulmelds as such (none are active):
1: Cerulean Sandals (ER (Cold), Super Speed)
2: Phoenix Cloak (ER (Fire), Dimension Door)
3: Lucky Dice (Sleight of Hand, Aura of Luck)
4: Futile Steel Gauntlets (Intimidate, Crushing Despair)

All of these changes offer the following:
Attacks treated as Evil, 120ft vision which identifies souls through barriers, living and undead, Each kill I score heals me 10hp
Cold Resist 33, +55ft Land Speed
Fire Resist 33, Dimension Door (120ft)
+13 Sleight of Hand, +4 Luck bonus to Attack Rolls, Skill Checks, and Saving Throws to all allies within 30ft, self included.
+13 Intimidate, Opponents within 30ft suffer -4 Morale Penalty on Attack, Damage, and Saving Throws, no save.

So.... his land speed is either 55 (30+85*0.666) or 75 (20+55), but I'm inclined to assume the former over the latter. Never really have thought much about speed reductions and speed enhancements working together.

[Surgo]

Once we go Shadow Walking, right before we step out, Lyrana will cast the following:

- Fiend Form (Ice Princess), lasts 110 minutes.
- Good Hope (grants all of us a +2 morale bonus on saving throws, attack rolls, ability checks, skill checks, and weapon damage rolls), lasts 11 minutes.
- Stoneskin, lasts 110 minutes.
- Shield, lasts 11 minutes.
- Turn off In Brightest Day (Daylight effect)
- Turn on In Darknest Night (all allies within 30' gain Death Ward).

Used 1 level 5 spell, 2 level 4 spells, and 1 level 1 spell.

(I really need to get My Spells Last Forever feat of yours when I level up, Penitent...)

I could use Nondetection but I'm not really sure how it interacts with, like, arbitrarium magic triggers that would detect when somebody just teleported onto your lawn. Plus it's one person per casting.

If it turns out we need energy resistance or whatever, we'll get it.

If anyone wants a +3 deflection bonus to AC or +4 shield bonus to AC, speak up now.

The air turns cold, and Lyrana's skin and clothing gains a slight blue tint. Icicles start to form on her wings, which she has out, and her breath frosts over. Everyone feels really good about themselves and super confident.

[Penitent]

Good News everybody. I get to use my shadow encounter.

Because of the weird nature of shadow walk and the plane of shadow, you guys move too quickly to really see what's coming at maximum level of awesomeness, so as you walk through a patch of shadow trees, you are suddenly attacked. In the surprise round: Gore notices the soul just a little bit before the attack begins, and will roll init (I rolled for you, you won, you may act now) and everyone else will roll init but not act until after the end of the surprise round. (Alert: Maybe a houserule, maybe changed in Tome, Surprise round is a full round, not a standard action.)

Gore realizes there is a soul in the tree just soon enough to realize see it's branches start to attack.

[Tacitus]

Norian
HP: 123/123 AC:36 (-2) T:18 FF:32 Init: +8 55ft Land Speed
Buffs: Good Hope, Arcane Sight, Aura of Luck (+4 attk, skill, saves-30ft), Crushing Depair Aura (-4 attk, dam, Saves-30ft)
Item Powers: Feather Fall, Telepathy 100ft, 360 degree Vision, Spiderwalk, Counterspell: Greater Dispel, Endure Elements, Mind Shielding
Immune: Poison
SR 16. DR 2/Slashing or Piercing. Darkvision 60ft, ER Cold 33, ER Fire 33
Resist Acid: 5
Str: 19 Dex: 19 Con: 21 Int: 17 Wis: 21 Cha: 25
Fort: 28+4 Ref: 18+4 Will: 23+4

The spikes warrior reels back as he notices a soul inhabiting the tree, his left arm whipping back to extend a gleaming sword of blue soulfire. Even as the ephemeral flames shoot out from his hand and coalesce into the wickedly barbed sword a burst of soul energy washes over him and form into gleaming cerulean sandals, a billowing cape of flame, massive gauntlets of blue veined mithral, and three pairs of pinpoints of light that orbit his head and hands which seem to look vaguely like dice. Once his blade is fully formed he charges forth with incredible speed to plunge it into the tree with as much force as he can muster.

His voice rings out telepathically, If a tree kills alone in the forest, does it make a sound?

Arcane Sight 120ft. Some spellcraft checks for any auras that might be active on the tree. This is a non-action.
[roll0] each at +14

Knowledge checks
Planes: [roll1] +21
Nature: [roll2] +21

Swift Action: Call Souldblade and activate all Soulmelds.

Full Round Action: Charge!
Weapon has a 18-20/x2 crit, Ignores Harndess and Deflection bonuses to AC, and deals Force damage. Treated as Evil for overcoming DR. Treated as Ongoing Damage for Concentration Checks.
Attack: [roll3] +27 (11 bab, +4 Str, +4 Enh, +2 Morale, +4 Luck, +2 Charge)
Damage: [roll4] +8 (4 Str, +4 Enh)

Edit: Damage was supposed to be a D10, but seeing as I rolled a natural 1 on the attack rolls, its rather irrelevant...

[Surgo]

[roll0]

Feel free to just roll init for everyone in the future, makes it go faster.

Also, no Good Hope right now man. Not until we exit.

[Tacitus]

Riiiight... well, I'd only added it to the attack roll anyway, so even if it hadn't been an uberfail thats easily fixed.

[Penitent]

I was mostly doing it to see who was active/paying attention. And I got roughly the answer I expected. Oh well, will post the surprise tree attack tonight when I get home.

[loser0ll]

I decided to add an "Important Statistics column to make it easier for the DM. I'll detail current effects on me, basic key stats, etc...
Danath Shadecaller
Current HP - 129/107 (Con Bonus boosts HP above normal Maximum)
AC(Normal/Touch/Flatfooted) - 25/13/21
Longspear - +18 Melee. 2d6+19(plus DC 26 Fort save or lose randomly chosen limb). Reach and permanent Large size, so I hit opponents between 10 or 15 feet away, but not those 5 feet away.
Saves(Fort/Ref/Will) - +15/+15/+16
Fire Resistance 5
Blindsense - 60 Feet

---Lesser effects of my 8 Items---
None for Weapon/Armor, since they have Moderate effects...

Natural, All-Around Vision, Aquatic, Alarm, Speed, Ramming.

---Spells---
Greater Anticipate Teleportation - 24 Hours - Delay creatures teleporting in for 3 rounds and gain information about them.
Sorry - weekend's been pretty busy. My girl came down for the weekend, Valentine's Day and all that. I'm rolling Initiative and a Knowledge check - if it can be identified through Arcane, Nature or The Planes (since we're on the Shadow Plane, I'm hoping for The Planes since it's for outsiders and such) then the check is for identifying the creature and learning stuff about it. If it not an outsider, dragon, animal, magical beast, etc... then the check is for Knowledge: The Planes to try and gain some advantage while fighting here on the Shadow Plane.

Quick question - my Summoned Cohort thing still acts as a regular Summoned creature, just with an extended duration, if I understand the rules correctly. So that means that he acts immediately after me on the initiative count like all other creatures I summon, right?

Initiative
[roll0]
Knowledge check
[roll1]

PS : I don't know if it matters, but I have Blindsense to everything within 60 feet, so if there are any other enemies within that range, I automatically detect them.

[Tacitus]

Reach weapons on a large sized creature affect 15 and 20ft away, but not 5 or 10.

[Penitent]

1) You know of anything you have line of effect to within that area.

2) Con bonus does not push you above your maximum HP. It changes your maximum HP.

After Gore's failed attack, the tree brings down the pain, so to speak, swinging at everyone else in the party. A branch strikes Danath and Lyrana, wrapping them up and lifting them into the air. Then a hoof flies out of the tree striking Norian and he feels magic tugging him to another plane.

Then the tree disappears, leaving a flowing collection of mist that looks vaguely like a horse in it's place. Danath and Lyrana leave with it.

Gore: DC 28 will save or be shifted to an incredibly random and almost certainly burning location on the plane of fire. If you are okay with me making random "save or die/leave the party for a bit" saves on ambush attacks for you, go ahead and say so, but even though I'm sure you can fire resist your way to life, you would be stuck on another plane, so you roll it for now.

Danath and Lyrana
You take 27 and 34 damage respectively. As well as taking 4 and 1 Str damage, respectively. You are lifted, as per races of war, you are both incapable of attacking back, and have the following options: 1) DC 40 escape artist or grapple check to escape. 2) DC 30+spell level concentration check to use any spells of SLAs. 3) any Su or Ex abilities to escape a grapple.

From what you can tell around you, you are not in Kansas, you are also not on the Plane of Shadow. But in a Forest. Danath, you know of fabled Umbrayl Banyans which are Shadow Trees perverted to seek blood. They are known to wisk people off to the plane of shadow after attacking, but you aren't sure what happens when they start there.

The general init order is:

Party acts: (Plane of Shadow)
Monsters Act: (Tree left in surprise round, first round of actions already calculated.)
Party: (Trapped by Tree)

So for now, I need actions from everyone.

[Surgo]

Where did the DC for that Concentration check come from? I thought grappling Concentration checks would be only 20, as per the SRD. Yikes. Also, does that include Swift Action spells?

Also, does Knowledge (The Planes) work against this dude? Because I'd like to know more about him if I can, before acting.

[Tacitus]

I'll roll 'em myself, just out of habit if nothing else.

With my Aura of Luck active I fail only on a 1 (+27 mod). [roll0]

Did my spellcraft or knowledge checks turn up anything at all?

Also, I don't suppose I can AoO anything? Creatures can't Cast Defensively when I threaten them (Mage Slayer) and provoke for making 5ft steps (Pressing Assault class feature). ^__^

[Penitent]

Knowledge Nature only. But meh what's your mod/roll? It would make sense for planes to say something.

2) no AoO, touch attack that counts as armed. holding the charge. Free action plant moving, and the horse hasn't 5ft stepped and is still adjacent to you.

Didn't see any rolls, but knowledge nature will tell you the stuff in danaths description. Spellcraft as yet tells you nothing, as no spells were cast or really, visible effects around, except for the plane shift on you.

Edit: oh, and the DC is because it has an ability to use grapple mod in place of 20.

[loser0ll]

---My Turn---
Danath doesn't bother with trying to escape the tree through physical means - instead, he skips straight to magic, trying to simply ignore the hanidcaps of the situation and focus on his spell.

Casting Dimension Door, teleporting myself safely out of attack-tree range but close enough to help the others, if any of them are close enough to be seen.
Concentration Check DC 34 (Wow, that is an incredibly high DC)
[roll0]

[Surgo]

That's a weird ability that I didn't know existed. Guess I'll have to invest in an item that boosts Concentration checks.

I cast Freedom of Movement as a swift action. Inner Fire makes it Stilled and Silent. If I need the Concentration roll:
Concentration: [roll0]

Well, that didn't work. I'll use Magic Hands on myself twice then, as that's basically all I can do (unless I didn't need the roll, in which case I'll edit the post):
Oh cool, looks like I can't edit in additional rolls. Guess I'm double posting!

[Surgo]

[roll0]
[roll1]

Thus, I heal 28 points of damage.

I'm guessing that despite radiating Daylight, nothing bad happens to the shadow tree.

[Penitent]

Not to the shadow tree. If only you were there to help your friends against the shadow horse.

But yeah, I recognize that the ability is pretty bull****, and, not to part the curtain too much, I checked to make sure your Concentration checks were still on the RNG, and it can't really do much to you per turn, so you can take a couple turns to escape without it being too big a deal.

[loser0ll]

Quick question - I'm guessing that my Summoned Cohort is still stuck back with the others, since you didn't mention him being dragged along with us? If so, I'll leave it to you to NPC him - I have the information detailed in the bottom of my Character sheet, so you won't have to worry about doing a lot of work coming up with his stats.

[Penitent]

I should have had it attack your cohort too, instead of those two Uncanny Dodge jerks with high ACs!

[loser0ll]

I love it when NPC allies are luckily forgotten! Anywho, what have we all learned about using things that carry us through another Plane? >.>'

PS : I was reading up on Shadow Walk spell - if we lose contact, we can choose to simply "Stumble back into the ____ Plane" - normally the Material Plane, but in this case you've ruled that for "Material Plane" it just means "Plane we started on". So... the up-side is, unless a house rule is in play, those of us who are still on the Plane of Shadows can freely escape. The down-side is, we don't know where we'll end up on, except that it's on the starting Plane. So unless we have resources to travel quickly with, we could end up in a lot of trouble...

[Penitent]

And why do you think every attack method so far has been an attempt to shunt people to other planes?

So actions: Assassin/Gore/Ninja guy.

[loser0ll]

...
Touche. I hadn't even realized how many of us were forcibly plane-shifted away. And since we're seperated and few if any can actually travel across planes, we're basically boned. Even the ones that escape quickly like I did will still have to both travel to our home plane -and- get to our Cube.

OH! That reminds me - for the purpose of this game, are we considered 'Attuned' enough that our fortress home and the Plane it exists on are our "Home" plane, or are we considered "Outsiders" there and still "Native" to whatever plane our actual race would -normally- come from?

PS : Would it be reasonable for my character, an Aasimar, to have been born -on- that plane itself, and if not, where would he be from?

[Penitent]

If you want to be attuned, you totally can be. Some of you may be, others not.

[Tacitus]

Norian
HP: 123/123 AC:36 T:18 FF:32 Init: +8 55ft Land Speed
Buffs: [s]Good Hope[s], Arcane Sight, Aura of Luck (+4 attk, skill, saves-30ft), Crushing Depair Aura (-4 attk, dam, Saves-30ft)
Item Powers: Feather Fall, Telepathy 100ft, 360 degree Vision, Spiderwalk, Counterspell: Greater Dispel, Endure Elements, Mind Shielding
Immune: Poison
SR 16. DR 2/Slashing or Piercing. Darkvision 60ft, ER Cold 33, ER Fire 33
Resist Acid: 5
Str: 19 Dex: 19 Con: 21 Int: 17 Wis: 21 Cha: 25
Fort: 28+4 Ref: 18+4 Will: 23+4

Thrust backwards a half step from the hoof to the chest, though more from the magical power imbued therein, Norian's violet eyes burn with rage. Soulfire bleeds from his body and along the length of his wicked blade as he throws everything into a series of baleful strikes at the cloud. If nothing else, his rage will be spent.

I'm assuming the vague horse outline is a secondary foe, and that Norian's various forms of sight can find it accurately enough.

Swift: Soul Smite! +7 Attack, +11 Damage for one round.
Ignores hardness, 18-20/x2, [Force], [Evil]
He will be maximizing the Power Attack combat maneuver on all attacks.
Full Round Action: Full Attack
1: [roll0] +21 (0 bab, +4 Str, +4 Enh, +2 Morale, +4 Luck, +7 Smite)
2: [roll1] +21 (0 bab, +4 Str, +4 Enh, +2 Morale, +4 Luck, +7 Smite)
3: [roll2] +21 (0 bab, +4 Str, +4 Enh, +2 Morale, +4 Luck, +7 Smite)

Damage:
1: [roll3] +41 (4 Str, +4 Enh, +11 Smite, 22 Power Attack)
2: [roll4] +31 (4 Str, +4 Enh, +11 Smite, 12 Power Attack)
3: [roll5] +31 (4 Str, +4 Enh, +11 Smite, 12 Power Attack)

(If he needs more than 5ft of movement he'd make only the first attack, no charge.)

Edit: wtf, twice in a row with natural ones? UUUGGGHHH

[loser0ll]

Just a reminder - I need to know if I'm in sight of any of my allies to decide on my next action. Also, about my Summoned Cohort - if he's alone wherever he is, you could just assume that he used his Devil teleporting abilities to get away from everything to keep from having to worry about him if he isn't around any others.

[Penitent]

Danath, as I said, you are on another plane. You don't see any of the others.

So pretty soon, you guys are going to become a party of 3.

[Surgo]

At this point, it looks like we're a party of 3. Let's get this combat going.

[Penitent]

The Bearded Devil attacks the horse as well, but fails to strike.

Monsters: Horse reaches out to attack, misses once, and does 1 Str damage with the other attack to Gore.

Meanwhile, The tree sort of stands there, not moving, but it's branches all beat the crap out of Lyrana (You are now grappled four times, so you have to make four successful escape artist or grapple checks to escape that way. You can still cast with just one DC 30+level check.) You take 53 damage and 2 Str damage.

[Surgo]

(I can't seem to get on AIM, so I'll have to ask here.)

Does that mean that with a successful casting of Freedom of Movement, I'd need to use 4 actions to escape?

Also, does that ability damage allow a fortitude or will save? I ask because I have Improved Mettle and take the effects of a successful save on a failed save.

[Penitent]

Only if it has a partial line, (if it says anything else, I'm changing it.)

This is actually negates, but I forgot to roll the save, and I'm nominally at work, so not looking up your sheet, roll a DC 22 fort save to negate Str damage.

[Surgo]

[roll0]

Does it require 4 separate actions after a successful casting of Freedom of Movement to escape the grapple?

[Penitent]

[roll0]

Does it require 4 separate actions after a successful casting of Freedom of Movement to escape the grapple?

I don't think so, I'm a a little unclear about how the Tomes do stuff like that. Aren't you just going to use Greater Teleport?

You'd have to still and silence and eschew materials a FOM, and I don't think it's one that you can do that two for free.

[Tacitus]

Is the strength damage from the other creature also allow a saving throw? I'm going to assume no, but its a fair question. >.>

Did my natural 1 fumble all my attacks or did I require movement and therefore didn't get the other attacks? If I got my other two attacks, did they hit? Did they do anything?

[Surgo]

I don't think so, I'm a a little unclear about how the Tomes do stuff like that. Aren't you just going to use Greater Teleport?

And have a mere 15% chance of making my concentration check?

Plus, it eats up a standard action which means I'm dead next round when I take 58 damage again.


You'd have to still and silence and eschew materials a FOM, and I don't think it's one that you can do that two for free.
I get the first two from Inner Fire. Assuming we're actually using material components in the first place, I get a similar thing from Inner Fire.

[loser0ll]

Seeing his comrade in major trouble, Danath shrugs. The contract that binds them all together doesn't require him to throw away his own life or fail a contract to save an ally... but leaving them to die just out of lazyness is unacceptable. So he thinks quickly, before muttering a quick spell to free the trapped mercenary.

Casting Dismissal on him, to "Force" him back to our 'Home Plane' - the attuned cube fortress we control. He can choose to voluntarily fail the Will Save to be instantly teleported away - although there is a 20% chance for it to send him to another plane. (Rolling 1d100 below, 20 or less = random plane of DM's choice) If he can come up with a better way out before dying, he can speak to warn me not to cast it.
[roll0]
Oh, and Fortititude Save for the Strength Damage
[roll1]

[Penitent]

1) Sorry, terrible DMing, you hit with the second two attacks, it did look like it was pissed off at you, that's why it attacked you back.

2) Yeah, didn't think Innate Fire worked on FoM, thought it was healing only, but reading it, yeah, go ahead. Though, if you only have a 20% chance of making it, I'd say take the dismissal, assuming you are not native to the Prime. Especially because you'd take one action to cast the spell, and one action to escape the grapple, and you'd still be adjacent the next round.

[Surgo]

Okay, looks like I get sent to a random plane.

Readying a Plane Shift action, let me know where I end up.

Also, Lyrana is female.

(edit: Already shifted planes and whatnot.)

[Tacitus]

Norian
HP: 123/123 AC:36 T:18 FF:32 Init: +8 55ft Land Speed
Buffs: Good Hope, Arcane Sight, Aura of Luck (+4 attk, skill, saves-30ft), Crushing Depair Aura (-4 attk, dam, Saves-30ft)
Item Powers: Feather Fall, Telepathy 100ft, 360 degree Vision, Spiderwalk, Counterspell: Greater Dispel, Endure Elements, Mind Shielding
Immune: Poison
SR 16. DR 2/Slashing or Piercing. Darkvision 60ft, ER Cold 33, ER Fire 33
Resist Acid: 5
Str: 19-1 Dex: 19 Con: 21 Int: 17 Wis: 21 Cha: 25
Fort: 28+4 Ref: 18+4 Will: 23+4

The hoof strikes Norian and saps a portion of his immense physical strength, but does nothing to slow his swift and powerful strikes.

Swift: Soul Smite! +7 Attack, +11 Damage for one round.
Ignores hardness, 18-20/x2, [Force], [Evil]
He will be maximizing the Power Attack combat maneuver on all attacks.
Full Round Action: Full Attack
1: [roll0] +21 (0 bab, +4 Str, +4 Enh, +2 Morale, +4 Luck, +7 Smite)
2: [roll1] +21 (0 bab, +4 Str, +4 Enh, +2 Morale, +4 Luck, +7 Smite)
3: [roll2] +21 (0 bab, +4 Str, +4 Enh, +2 Morale, +4 Luck, +7 Smite)

Damage:
1: [roll3] +41 (4 Str, +4 Enh, +11 Smite, 22 Power Attack)
2: [roll4] +31 (4 Str, +4 Enh, +11 Smite, 12 Power Attack)
3: [roll5] +31 (4 Str, +4 Enh, +11 Smite, 12 Power Attack)

Edit: Why the hell do I keep getting natural ones? I mean honestly...

[Penitent]

"When a Soul Smit is declared, it can't be declared again for 10 rounds."

Since you just declared it last round...

I mean, did you really think that you just got a free +7 AB +11 damage on all attacks forever?

[Tacitus]

Endless Smiting: At 6th level, a Soulborn does not have to wait 10 rounds between using Soul Smites.

[Penitent]

****ing retarded. Remind me to kill Frank Trollman. Since when did every ****ing character in the game have to become "Just add +12 to everything, I don't give a **** about RNGs and ****."

[Tacitus]

It still requires a swift action, and given that manifesting the blade (which disappears if it leaves my hands) and/or the soulmelds takes a swift action I can pretty much never smite in the first round of combat unless I have everything running at the time. While it is true that I yet have few other uses for swift actions, its pretty much the only thing I do. All of the soulmelds are pretty much self-buffs to get around obstacles or increase defenses (or nerf nearby foes).

My main attack form is to smack things with a sword REALLY hard. I don't even have the huge number of feats a Fighter would get to do a ton of cool things. DR of any sort except Magic massively impacts my combat ability because the Soulblade does not have a material type, normal damage type (bludgeoning/slashing/piercing), or alignment (mine is Evil because of my armor). I can always smite with a material weapon, but I'd have to know what we're fighting and bring it along. I don't have a place to carry even half my weapons at any given time.

I'm not crying over a lack of options or that I need Smite to survive. The character is fairly solid without the need for +7AB/+11Dam at all times, but I'm merely presenting that it isn't the end-all be-all of combat. Though, if your beef is with the way Tome ramps up the power, why are you even running a Tome game?

(Though I just remembered that I've been forgetting to take out the +2 Morale on attacks cause Good Hope wasn't cast by the time this happened. Oops. >.<)

Now that thats out of the way, if you hate Endless Smiting to death, would you prefer something along the lines of it merely reducing the wait time instead of removing it entirely? Perhaps 10-Cha Mod or something?

[Penitent]

1) You bypass all DR of any kind at all, because you do force damage.

2) You always have your sword running and your soul melds running, the only time you won't smite is when you have a pressing need to activate deactivate a soulmeld that isn't a constant benefit, which is basically just stuff like silence.

3) The Tome Fighter is an abomination, and the Races of War is exactly what I am talking about in that prior to that he actually made classes with abilities and level appropriate numbers, and then he decided, **** it, let's just give Fighters +100 to everything for no reason, and that's a large part of where the problems started. I had kinda hoped his recent kick back to ability based classes would stick around, but apparently he couldn't resist a full BAB class with tons of good combat auras and buffs and abilities also just randomly having +Cha to everything in the game for free on top of level appropriate numbers so that anything you can even fail a save against would smoke everyone else in the party and anything that you could miss on a 2 would be unhittable to every single summon of the summoner.

Bottom line, the supposed goal of the Tome balance was to be actual parity with monsters of your CR. But the Soulborn, apparently like every ****ing martial class that Trollman makes, and completely unlike every caster class, can solo like 18 monsters of it's CR without breaking a sweat, while the Summoner and White Mage can go die in a corner.

[Tacitus]

Force by itself does not bypass all forms of DR. Regardless, the description of the Soulblade states that it ignores hardness and affects incorporeal foes normally. It says nothing about DR.

I started this combat without soulmelds or soulblade. Disarming the soulblade will force me to consume a swift action calling it back.

But that doesn't seem to be the point anymore. You just seem to no longer wish to run with the Tomes because they are far too ridiculous. Before the game started you approved all content and now are complaining about how its all broken. Yes, its powerful, but I'm asking if you'd rather try to fix it or just give up on the Tomes.

[Penitent]

Hint, when DM says he does not have a problem with X, he has a problem with Y, it's not a good idea to keep asking him why he hates X. It gets annoying.

I have a problem with one Tome class that no one is playing, and one single ability of another Tome class. I certainly don't have any problem with the Summoner, you know an actual Tome character. The problem I am having right now is that your AB is +26 and his cohort, much less his actual summons, has an AB of +13. Anything you miss on a 2, he has to roll a 17 to hit. And his Summons won't be wielding magic weapons all the time, so they will just be rolling for crits.

And once again, yes, Force does automatically bypass all DR. That is one of the things Force does. Just like it's one of the thing Cold damage or holy damage does.

[loser0ll]

Before this gets too far off track, I wanted to post the action for my next round - although I'm not sure what round we're on at this point. I use Planeshift back to the Cube Fortress.


EDIT : Yeah - Frank K evidently felt bad about how shafted Fighters were compared to Wizards and Clerics in 3.5, so the Tome is sort of a way to make up for that. But, even if we suck compared to Fighter-classes sometimes (Summoners especially) we have some nifty talents - like my ability to escape the tree on my own, then Banish my ally out of it's grasp into safety. We all have out niches.

[Tacitus]

Even without Smite I currently have a +23 to hit, but by the same notion I also give +4 of that to all allies within 30ft. Without even bringing Smite into the equation, if I charge and don't power attack (and don't roll another bloody natural 1) that means I have a +25 to attack using only my current soulmelds and no outside buffs. Does the fact that I'm full BAB, have a good strength, and have a +4 effect break it any less? It just seems that you're surprised that a Full BAB class that is built to hit things can actually hit things. In Core a power attack focused fighter would be pretty much doing the same thing.

Now, I get that adding in Smite makes it better. Like I mentioned before, its solid without the Smite, but if you're focusing on numbers I don't see why you have beef with my numbers as is.

With a party of three as it is we've got a murder machine, a battlefield control expert, a healer, and summoned cannon fodder. Each of those three characters very good at what they do, so I'm not really seeing the problem.

I'll ask it again. How do you want to fix Smite? Is my suggestion (Endless Smiting makes it 10-Cha rounds) or perhaps a 5 round wait? Have it scale to level maybe? 10 round wait at 2nd, 9 at 4th, 8 at 6th, etc. Aye, you have a problem with it, but you're not trying to fix it.

Edit: A side note, you approved : http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=182179
Look at the attacks there. How is my Smite worse than a round where that character would use Haste and Kenjutsu to get SIX attacks of +26 and +24?

[Penitent]

I want to apologize for letting this game die.

It's not just the smite thing believe me, it's a lot of things, not the least of which is that work has really picked up and I'm short of free time.

Also, I'm super pissed about the fact that I can never get any game as a player, and I only agreed to this one on the condition that I would be a player in another Tome game, and that one fell through when Shadow whatever disappeared.

Long story short, I really don't have it in me, and this would have happened even without the smite thing. It's a bitch for all of you, but if it's any consolation, I know exactly what it feels like, since it happened to me to.

That all said:

Are any of you free on mondays or tuesdays to do this by IRC? I could manage an IRC game, though it might not be this one, it might have to be a module.

[loser0ll]

I could play on Monday or Tuesday

I'm busy with school from 10 AM until about 3 PM each day. For reference, my current time when I make this post will be close to 6 PM, to make it easy to translate that into your respective time-zones.

[Tacitus]

It happens. I'm usually not free Tuesdays as I have a face to face game that evening and mondays are just not good for me, so I'll be drifting into the wasteland.