Chaos018
2012-07-30, 03:26 AM
yea, bad rolls like normal. We're playing Red Hand of Doom, gestalt lv5 (was lvl4 with an LA +1 but was reset due to many people joining then quitting 2 sessions in). We had been handing the grunts their butts the entire time. Me, I was support really. Artificer//Wizard. I made stuff and buffed/debuffed. We had gotten to the bridge 2nd to last session, just me and my orc melee guy (was 3 classes on each side of gestalt, basically our tank+heals since he could heal anyone with each hit. He was hell on the ground, with my buffs on him, he critted on anything higher than a 10 with a +19 to hit without True Strike.) basically took them on ourselves, being invisible, buffing my comrade up with all but 2 of my buffs (infusions and STR buffs stacked, which made for hilarity), and him mounting up and charged up. GM, in that session, bump the dragon to young and changed its sorc levels with warlock. Even with the grunts getting proper feat selection, my orc friend cleaved and greater cleaved him way through the army while I stayed invisible. In fact, I never got all that close to battle since he was on the other side of the bridge. My mount summon (found a scroll and learned it) would've been dead on sight if brought. Could've played the entire battle but with my orc's AC being 35 and my buffs, GM ruled we won that battle, but that was after tanky mcheally took the young adult green dragon down to 2hp on the 2nd turn (critted twice, big surprise, lol, the 2nd critted for about 100hp loss) and the dragon limping away outside of my reach. That levelled us, with me taking as my feat Quickened Spell, adjusting scores appropriately (with 55hp), and my two new spells Greater Mage Armor and the dragon killer (didn't take it for that fact, was going to get it anyways) Shivering Touch (3d6 Dex damage, brutal). In the day I had left while my orc friend was endless caltropping the bridge, I made alchemical fire to blow a section of the bridge and a wand of maxed shivering touch (was going to blow charges for making it reaching now that I could do that as an artificer.
Now onto this session. We levelled to lvl6 for that one bridge battle. The rest of our party came back from their selective missions, the party face/leader (had some 5 classes total, basically was told by GM to grab the Spell Compendium and there ya go, all arcane spells, lol. our groups tends to powergame a bit, me only doing so accidentally). We got the bridge set to meet the oncoming army. I got the alchy fire set on the bridge tower that was to fall while I got three wands out on my belt (only told two of them a Reaching, Maxed and Empowered wand of touch of Idiocy (gift from the GM, on the condition that I only used it sparingly which I also kept, using it only twice, a wand of fireball (my spells weren't fully charged, and though I had other wands, I figured a generic one like this would help in the case I cannot reach my targets with my only spells and crafts), and a new wand of maxed shivering touch. Well, night came, and immediately got the call:
GM: Okay, guys, roll Spot check
Party rolls horribly, and with my -1 modifier to it (I call that my OCD moment, lol, I can tune out awesomely well, make my craft and unfocus all at the same time and make it look like I am roleplaying sometimes, :P), I rolled a 2.....yea, I got nothing, lol.
GM:....Okay, roll a Listen check, again -1 modifier on my end (+3 modifier for my Wisdom but -4 to inattentive, huh, I suck balls when I need to listen in ANYTHING), rolled okay-ish 12.
GM: Big Chris (pointing to another guy), you can't spot anything but you did hear the wingbeats of many dragons coming your way. (Many but not sure as to how many at that moment.)
I sighed a little but made perfect sense, especially when the book never planned for the group playing to fight and win the bridge. With a green dragon injured, what else would one do but make sure that one was healed and send in reinforcements? They sent 2 young dragons, green again. They sent their respective volleys of acid onto the bridge to clear the way of traps, i.e. caltrops, staying a full 60ft off the top of the tower. Only me and party lead could do anything really, her being evocation spell specialist, lol, and me being enchantment special wizard. But I had a small problem. Most of my spells are touch when it comes to most things, immunity to sleep hurt and as dragons, they would have a high will save to my understanding (was only guessing really, they make great casters from what I am told, and those get nice will save bonuses), buffing my tank meant nothing since he was out of sight and only way to get to my dragons would be to be thrown up there, if only for 30 or so ft. (Had Reaching spell feat, allowing me to stay in the back, work my magicks and make things a bit easier). Well, I did the only thing left to me...well maybe not the only thing since I now can reason that I could've just gotten cover and make the tank realize (8 wisdom.....yea, hard enough as it is IRL with the player, lol) to blown the bridge and go....I should've thought harder, I grabbed my fireball wand and flicked away. Got 2 shots in for 54 damage total to one green dragon, named Iceberg. I just wanted that thing to come in closer so Tanky Mcbloodbath could get a charge and eff up the thing.
GM: Well, after that, they now can see you and attack. Roll Reflex (did not find out 'til later that it was a DC 22)
Me: (rolled the die I realized I shouldn't have, the Red Die of Death, one that never rolls anything but a lot of nat 1s and a lesser amount of nat20s) ......(facepalm) Nat 1.....I basically just leapt into that acid didn't I? with my Reflex modifier of +10, that's 11.
Orc Player: (laughs) Doesn't matter, it's a nat 1
GM: Yea, take 29 damage (already rolled this point, now at 26hp) from Iceberg. Roll Reflex again.
Me: Sigh, what's the DC save?
GM: (smiles) Roll.
Me: (rolls die, from the now known Purple Die of Destruction) a 6, total is 16.
GM: Nope, (rolls damage)......40 damage to you from Romaine.
Me:...I'm dead.
GM: Not if the party stabilizes you, what are you at?
Me: Doesn't matter, I'm at -14.
GM: Um, yea, you're goo.
It was at this point where the rogue in our party (correctly assumed he was chaotically evil, especially after a joking friendly jab with a partner tried to assassinate me. Barely missed me with my Touch AC at 18) went up and looted my bodily remains. Granted he almost didn't make it with my orc friend being downstairs. Coudn't use everything from my body so it threw my wands to my leader friend, and grabbed all my crafts. Leader lady reduced one dragons INT to a permanent 1 and her/orc went to continue with Iceberg.
Yea, I didn't like the death. But it's part of the game. I was actually going to get a concept art commissioned (my very 1st) for him but I guess that's over for me. I liked him honestly. Good times if brief. Now I gotta make a new lv6 gestalt character. Has to be ranged casting 'cuz as of right now, only one caster & one Tanky McIkillyoubad (CE rogue decided he wasn't doing so well with this one since everyone was doing comparatively better, he's re-rolling AFTER he took my crap, sigh). But, I've got no direction with this. Bay (full name was Baylaral Meilyr, Elvish neighbors being a bit on the kind side while being human, hehe. translated into Common was...Jonathan Stormcloud) was patterned after Forge of the X-Men (first run of this game before reset, everyone was gonig with an X-men theme, I chose Forge and with the new reset, I decided to keep him but with a few feat and spell changes, and said "ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, I just chose new things, lol"). So yea, anyone here mind giving me caster gestalt creating advice? I want something that will be just as fun but not too complicated. I mean I was Artificer 6//Wizard 6, extremely simple and highly effective. So in memory of Bay, and due to me being a cheapo in game, I was hoping another artificer mix with another class. As well as other classes I liked, like the beguiler (not sure why since I read barely nothing on it, but it sounded cool), duskblade, and dread necromancer. I was squishy due to no armor (interfered with spells on the wizard side), so I am hoping to make a not-so-squishy PC to maybe be a family member of sorts to Bay. Any suggestions?
Now onto this session. We levelled to lvl6 for that one bridge battle. The rest of our party came back from their selective missions, the party face/leader (had some 5 classes total, basically was told by GM to grab the Spell Compendium and there ya go, all arcane spells, lol. our groups tends to powergame a bit, me only doing so accidentally). We got the bridge set to meet the oncoming army. I got the alchy fire set on the bridge tower that was to fall while I got three wands out on my belt (only told two of them a Reaching, Maxed and Empowered wand of touch of Idiocy (gift from the GM, on the condition that I only used it sparingly which I also kept, using it only twice, a wand of fireball (my spells weren't fully charged, and though I had other wands, I figured a generic one like this would help in the case I cannot reach my targets with my only spells and crafts), and a new wand of maxed shivering touch. Well, night came, and immediately got the call:
GM: Okay, guys, roll Spot check
Party rolls horribly, and with my -1 modifier to it (I call that my OCD moment, lol, I can tune out awesomely well, make my craft and unfocus all at the same time and make it look like I am roleplaying sometimes, :P), I rolled a 2.....yea, I got nothing, lol.
GM:....Okay, roll a Listen check, again -1 modifier on my end (+3 modifier for my Wisdom but -4 to inattentive, huh, I suck balls when I need to listen in ANYTHING), rolled okay-ish 12.
GM: Big Chris (pointing to another guy), you can't spot anything but you did hear the wingbeats of many dragons coming your way. (Many but not sure as to how many at that moment.)
I sighed a little but made perfect sense, especially when the book never planned for the group playing to fight and win the bridge. With a green dragon injured, what else would one do but make sure that one was healed and send in reinforcements? They sent 2 young dragons, green again. They sent their respective volleys of acid onto the bridge to clear the way of traps, i.e. caltrops, staying a full 60ft off the top of the tower. Only me and party lead could do anything really, her being evocation spell specialist, lol, and me being enchantment special wizard. But I had a small problem. Most of my spells are touch when it comes to most things, immunity to sleep hurt and as dragons, they would have a high will save to my understanding (was only guessing really, they make great casters from what I am told, and those get nice will save bonuses), buffing my tank meant nothing since he was out of sight and only way to get to my dragons would be to be thrown up there, if only for 30 or so ft. (Had Reaching spell feat, allowing me to stay in the back, work my magicks and make things a bit easier). Well, I did the only thing left to me...well maybe not the only thing since I now can reason that I could've just gotten cover and make the tank realize (8 wisdom.....yea, hard enough as it is IRL with the player, lol) to blown the bridge and go....I should've thought harder, I grabbed my fireball wand and flicked away. Got 2 shots in for 54 damage total to one green dragon, named Iceberg. I just wanted that thing to come in closer so Tanky Mcbloodbath could get a charge and eff up the thing.
GM: Well, after that, they now can see you and attack. Roll Reflex (did not find out 'til later that it was a DC 22)
Me: (rolled the die I realized I shouldn't have, the Red Die of Death, one that never rolls anything but a lot of nat 1s and a lesser amount of nat20s) ......(facepalm) Nat 1.....I basically just leapt into that acid didn't I? with my Reflex modifier of +10, that's 11.
Orc Player: (laughs) Doesn't matter, it's a nat 1
GM: Yea, take 29 damage (already rolled this point, now at 26hp) from Iceberg. Roll Reflex again.
Me: Sigh, what's the DC save?
GM: (smiles) Roll.
Me: (rolls die, from the now known Purple Die of Destruction) a 6, total is 16.
GM: Nope, (rolls damage)......40 damage to you from Romaine.
Me:...I'm dead.
GM: Not if the party stabilizes you, what are you at?
Me: Doesn't matter, I'm at -14.
GM: Um, yea, you're goo.
It was at this point where the rogue in our party (correctly assumed he was chaotically evil, especially after a joking friendly jab with a partner tried to assassinate me. Barely missed me with my Touch AC at 18) went up and looted my bodily remains. Granted he almost didn't make it with my orc friend being downstairs. Coudn't use everything from my body so it threw my wands to my leader friend, and grabbed all my crafts. Leader lady reduced one dragons INT to a permanent 1 and her/orc went to continue with Iceberg.
Yea, I didn't like the death. But it's part of the game. I was actually going to get a concept art commissioned (my very 1st) for him but I guess that's over for me. I liked him honestly. Good times if brief. Now I gotta make a new lv6 gestalt character. Has to be ranged casting 'cuz as of right now, only one caster & one Tanky McIkillyoubad (CE rogue decided he wasn't doing so well with this one since everyone was doing comparatively better, he's re-rolling AFTER he took my crap, sigh). But, I've got no direction with this. Bay (full name was Baylaral Meilyr, Elvish neighbors being a bit on the kind side while being human, hehe. translated into Common was...Jonathan Stormcloud) was patterned after Forge of the X-Men (first run of this game before reset, everyone was gonig with an X-men theme, I chose Forge and with the new reset, I decided to keep him but with a few feat and spell changes, and said "ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, I just chose new things, lol"). So yea, anyone here mind giving me caster gestalt creating advice? I want something that will be just as fun but not too complicated. I mean I was Artificer 6//Wizard 6, extremely simple and highly effective. So in memory of Bay, and due to me being a cheapo in game, I was hoping another artificer mix with another class. As well as other classes I liked, like the beguiler (not sure why since I read barely nothing on it, but it sounded cool), duskblade, and dread necromancer. I was squishy due to no armor (interfered with spells on the wizard side), so I am hoping to make a not-so-squishy PC to maybe be a family member of sorts to Bay. Any suggestions?