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Thrawn183
2007-10-04, 11:37 AM
I just started a new campaign starting at level 1 that is inteded to reach level 15. I'm writing this because there are some interesting classes being used and its always useful to hear about real world uses of classes rather than just the math.

Party: I'll post my build, and at least the partial builds of others.
-Al: male elf beguiler1
-To be added drow cloistered cleric 1(starts as an elf, gets stats of drow but not SR at level 2 for 1 LA, never gets SR)
-Cordel Stuart: male human ninja 1 (me)
Able Learner, TWF, Improved Initiative (flaw: vulnerable)
-melee type swashbuckler maybe (wasn't present for first day)
We're playing an eberron campaign, and everyone present can make at least a mechanically decent character. (In this case it means choosing something possibly suboptimal and then optimizing within those constraints).

Encounters:
Warforged, warforged and more warforged! It became an overnight joke to run around saying "Godd***** warforged!" I may even try to take a level in ranger just so that I can take favored enemy "godd***** warforged. It'd c hange the class progression I've planned out but it might be worth it. We've been running around Sharn, in Breland, doing missions for a woman from one of the houses. It involves one of the old forges used to make warforged, hence the warforged who think we're evil trying to slaughter us at every chance they get. First time I've ever fought a kobold. They were so pathetic it was almost laughable. We leveled a significant way through the session, and are about to travel to a different country either by boat or by train.
So onto the report!
1) Color Spray is amazing! Its difficult for enemies to spread out in cramped spaces and seeing 4 of them go down in one shot.... just wow. Virtually no-one was able to make the save.
2) TWF penalties hurt. A lot. Maybe its just that we fought so many shifters and warforged, but my ninja only managed to hit enemies two or three times. Though I think I killed every enemy we faced except one by coup de grace'ing the ones taken out by the Beguiler's color spray.
3) LA hurts even more than TWF. We made it to second level a while through the session, and having the cleric still only be able to cast a couple of healing spells in the entire day was not cool.
4) The Healing Belt (MIC) is amazing. It and a wand of Lesser Vigor made the cleric less of a heal bot, which meant the player of the cleric have a lot more fun. It also made us much less screwed when the cleric got knocked unconcious (the first time the DM was nice enough to on the fly stick a healing potion in the loot to revive her with)
5) You can never have too many skill points. Every character present had 6+ int per level. 2 out of the 3 could search for traps, and the third could at least search for hidden doors and such. It really made for a group that felt like they could support eachother, just a whole lot of fun really. Let us get really creative and such.
6) Surprisingly, low hp at such low level wasn't much of an issue. My ninja and the cleric each got knocked unconcious only once. And that was even without a real tank.
7) Sudden Strike is significantly weaker than sneak attack. There were plenty of times I got into flanking with the cleric solely for the +2 bonus. At least I still got to use it on coup de grace attempts. Oh, and Taking improved initiative was... a very good call on my part.
8) Level 1 was really fun! I'm used to playing anywhere from level 5-15, this was just.... I don't actually know how to describe it, but it definitely felt different.

Suggestions? Comments? Criticism of layout/intent? (Keep it constructive though, pls)

KIDS
2007-10-04, 11:47 AM
Is your ninja the weapon finesse (which is not available yet) type or the str type? I know from experience that TWF with 8 or 10 str can be very nasty at low levels.

Otherwise I applaud your effort and see this as a kind of "evolutionary" iconic report of an "evolutionary" iconic party in an advancing setting. It's definitely fun to see ninja and swashbuckler played somewhere, and the DM knowing the value of lesser vigor/healing belt.

From a writing point of view, I'd recommend you add a few names of characters and a shorty synopsis of the story from session to session (which depends on how often you meet). Now, while this thread will likely be slowly pushed out of page 1 and I don't think you should write a blog or anything, reading short reports such as this is something rather refreshing.

Mr. Friendly
2007-10-04, 11:55 AM
Healing Belt is the best and quite possibly one of the more broken items ever. Since I bought the MIC when it came out, it has become practically a staple item for every character.

Potion of Cure Serious? No thanks I'll take a Healing Belt.

I would be most amused to read of your party's exploits at higher levels and you run into a golem.

Other than that, sounds like a blast.

Thrawn183
2007-10-04, 12:00 PM
We already fought construct dog things.... *shudder* Fortunately that was once we'd made level 2 and I could go invisible 3 times per day. Definitely used all of my ki power for the day in that fight. The DM decided to count it as a higher CR encounter because we worked well together, played smart and still got pwned.

KIDS
2007-10-04, 12:04 PM
Don't view Healing Belt as a "broken item". View it as a necessary fix to the game and more freedom to players to not be pushed into "I drop all spells for CLW" routine. In fact in adventure like this where, as far as I see, the party fought many battles, its value is supposed to go up as compared to 1 encounter per day when you will hardly ever use it.

Kyeudo
2007-10-04, 12:05 PM
Constructs are the bane of rogues, ninjas, and scouts, beguilers, and anyone that need to deal precision damage or use mind efectting abilities, so I'm not surprised you got beat up.

Mr. Friendly
2007-10-04, 12:07 PM
Don't view Healing Belt as a "broken item". View it as a necessary fix to the game and more freedom to players to not be pushed into "I drop all spells for CLW" routine. In fact in adventure like this where, as far as I see, the party fought many battles, its value is supposed to go up as compared to 1 encounter per day when you will hardly ever use it.

Don't get me wrong, I don't actually think it is broken, at least not mechanically, I do think there is something a bit off about it though. I am sure the math all works out, it just seems too cheap at it's price though considering, as I said above, it costs the same as a Potion of Cure Serious and it works every day.

Thrawn183
2007-10-04, 12:15 PM
Considering that I was tanking with 8 hp and an AC of 14 without any helpful spells (can I say thank you mage armor?) I wouldn't call any of the healing stuff against the spirit of the game. At least not in our case. It allowed us to do what we were there to do without always running around screaming that we had no hp left. I think their effects were wholly beneficial to the game.

dyslexicfaser
2007-10-04, 05:28 PM
I'd second the request for periodic reports. This campaign sounds like fun.

It rather reminds me of my favorite campaign, that started at level 1 with 5 of us, none of which were a cleric or healing class. Something about trying to work through an adventure without a heal bot felt dangerous, but fun.

OneWinged4ngel
2007-10-04, 05:32 PM
Potion of Cure Serious? No thanks I'll take a Healing Belt. Wait wait wait waaaaaait. People took potions of Cure Serious Wounds BEFORE MiC came out? :smallconfused:

I've only seen that in one party, and it was because, quite frankly, they were kinda inept (and, actually, their mid-battle potion quaffing nearly got them TPKed in the first encounter of the game! And the second too...) Actually, it was for this party's benefit that I wrote my healing guide late one night after the party got pwninated by one of the (not too hard) first encounters. Cure X Potions (with the possible exception of the early CLW potion at 1st/2nd) have always been a rather suboptimal choice of items. MiC didn't make that happen.


Healing Belt is the best and quite possibly one of the more broken items ever. Since I bought the MIC when it came out, it has become practically a staple item for every character. Man, people toss around the word broken like candy these days, when they really just mean that they think it's more powerful than one or two other options. I mean really, a Healing Belt isn't so bad. It actually has a pretty decent tradeoff against the benefits of investing in a Wand of Lesser Vigor (and indeed, you'll almost certainly want to get a Wand of Lesser Vigor FIRST, because the LV wand will actually fill the party healing role, while a single healing belt definitely will not). Actually, Healing Belt is just about the only healing item that takes a standard action that's worth getting that isn't a Wand of Cure Light Wounds, or a Wand of Lesser Vigor.

Oh, and for the record, I wouldn't make my clerics use spell slots for Cure X Wounds spells even at low levels. They craft scrolls of lesser vigor, and use their spell slots to win combats (unless I've given them some specific ability that makes them totally awesome healers, like Touch of Healing + Healing Domain)

The only healing spells I ever really cast from slots are the swift and immediate ones (can't use Close Wounds as an immediate action, buddy), as well as Heal.

Edit:


Don't get me wrong, I don't actually think it is broken, at least not mechanically, I do think there is something a bit off about it though. I am sure the math all works out, it just seems too cheap at it's price though considering, as I said above, it costs the same as a Potion of Cure Serious and it works every day.

Uh, what? You just said you thought it was one of the "more broken items ever."

And again, CSW pot have always been... not worth the money =P

Lord Tataraus
2007-10-04, 06:20 PM
My group uses healing tiles that are in CA. I don't know how they are supposed to work, but I allow them to be taken as a free action (you just hit them) and the cost the same as the equivalent potion.

MeklorIlavator
2007-10-04, 06:26 PM
My group uses healing tiles that are in CA. I don't know how they are supposed to work, but I allow them to be taken as a free action (you just hit them) and the cost the same as the equivalent potion.

They're supposed to work exactly like potions except you snap them instead of drinking them. Though I don't think making potions themselves free actions to use would be exactly game breaking.

Nerd-o-rama
2007-10-04, 06:35 PM
Ah, the Schema Cycle. I just finished running the last module in that, and it sounds like you just finished the prologue of the second.

I won't spoil anything, but let me just say: get used to the Goddamn Warforged.

I'd also like to hear updates on this, see how your DM's campaign compares to ours, in which I was a player for the first half and DM for the second.

Thrawn183
2007-10-04, 08:28 PM
Yeah, I did a little reading up on Korvaire in preparation for the campaign and my backstory is that I was trying to set up an expedition to the Mournlands. As I was the first (and only) person to get my backstory and build to the DM in any kind of a timely fashion, the schema cycle (if that's what we're doing, I do know its a published adventure) would appear to be a bone thrown to me in gratitude.

Shas aia Toriia
2007-10-04, 08:48 PM
I second the request for periodic reports. Also, since I play almost exclusively Divine Casters, I'm not really in the know for not having a steady healing source.

leperkhaun
2007-10-05, 12:13 AM
ahh, just remember that once you get the invis ability, that it works like greater invis. That saved my butt a couple times.

Thrawn183
2007-10-05, 02:17 PM
Yeah I was careful to clear the ninja invisibility acting like greater invisibility with my DM.

The real reason we don't have much in the way of healing is that I'm usually the one playing the cleric. I wanted to do this to break the cycle a little, I felt like all I was doing building clerics was cramming new mechanics together w/out really trying out new backstories/motivations etc.

We'll be having another session tonight, and there's a good chance we'll hit level 3 (maybe?). If so, should I update this thread or create a new one?

Nerd-o-rama
2007-10-05, 02:20 PM
I'm always of the opinion you should lump threads, rather than split them. It's not really a new topic, you've just made the title a bit of a misnomer.

PlatinumJester
2007-10-05, 02:51 PM
Are you playing the campaign in the back of the Eberron books where you go through the sewers because you campaign sounds alot like the one I'm in the middle of.

Thrawn183
2007-10-05, 02:56 PM
I don't think so, though it's some other published adventure. There was an encounter that was "underground" where water would rush through a different grate each round, but that's about the only thing that resembled a sewer.

And now we're headed to another country by either train or boat so we're definitely not sticking around Breland.

Kyeudo
2007-10-05, 03:03 PM
Yep, its the module at the back of the Eberron book. Whats the next module after that one?

Nerd-o-rama
2007-10-05, 03:29 PM
The module he played was The Forgotten Forge in the back of the Eberron Campaign Setting. Next up is Shadows of the Last War, which involves a trip to the Mournland, and saying anything more would be spoilers.

PlatinumJester
2007-10-05, 03:54 PM
I don't think so, though it's some other published adventure. There was an encounter that was "underground" where water would rush through a different grate each round, but that's about the only thing that resembled a sewer.

And now we're headed to another country by either train or boat so we're definitely not sticking around Breland.

Thats the one with infamous (in our group anyway) **** spraying tunnels. Our gnoll barbarian could do nothing in that round because he kept on getting hit by crap.