Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
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- pathfinder open voting
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
According to DP, we fought the pirates at roughly the halfway point between Apuku and Orinilu. I also think he said a couple weeks ago that they needed one more fight to level up, so they should be level 3 by the time we arrive.
- Location
- Argentina
@Goldfish
Look at these jewels I found. Some look really interesting, but they have their own prequisites. In particular, I like the Crush Armor maneuver, because I want to make Tom into a sunder and polearm specialist with a bec de corvin.
Weapon Trick (Combat) – d20PFSRD
Considering the Elephant in the Room, maybe all the maneuvers should be able to be bought with a single feat? The same way we have Deft and Powerful Maneuvers.
Look at these jewels I found. Some look really interesting, but they have their own prequisites. In particular, I like the Crush Armor maneuver, because I want to make Tom into a sunder and polearm specialist with a bec de corvin.
Weapon Trick (Combat) – d20PFSRD
Considering the Elephant in the Room, maybe all the maneuvers should be able to be bought with a single feat? The same way we have Deft and Powerful Maneuvers.
Arc 6 Post 12: Words of Heart and Spirit
Words of Heart and Spirit
Thirty Fourth of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descending) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
"It offered us no harm and did us no mischief, unlike others I might name," you speak up calm and deliberate in manner, hiding the turmoil you feel as best you can. You are not going to win Antonio with appeals to kindness and a good heart, at least not directly. He might be swayed at the thought of loosing your goodwill, but you can do better than that, or at least so you hope "Had it done either perhaps we might be justified in asking for service in recompense, but this..." you shake your head at the implications. "It would be no different than stealing away an innocent man and chaining him to one of Marcella's oar benches."
Or imprisoning Inge and forcing her to heal the wounded whether she wills it or not, you think but do not say, it would be too grim a thing to utter in a child's hearing. Still from Antonio's wince he had gotten the point, or something like it at least
"More practically," you continue. "Keeping the spirit imprisoned is dangerous. Although its power would be most welcome the next time we encounter a storm, we would forever live in fear of the imprisoned spirit slipping its leash and taking its anger out on us, it's jailers, or possibly even attracting the attention of its fellows. There are enough malicious spirits and monsters in the world who would already be happy to destroy us, we need not add yet another to that list. Moreover take note of where we pass this night and of who dwells in this place. We have it seems passed the mouth of the world without another meeting with the knikut of the straights. Better I think not to give them another chance to turn spirits against us. I trust this ship has seen storms aplenty and it will see plenty more safely by the valor of her crew and the skill of her captain. We have no need for making slaves of spirit flames I think."
"Ah, again with the flattery," Antonio raises a hand as though asking for quarter, though his his lips twist in rueful amusement. "You make a fair point, several in fact, best do away with this spirit rather than take a chance keeping it an unhappy guest."
"Perhaps it might be a welcome one," you offer tempering your words at the swift agreement. Turning to Esha you ask if there is aught the spirit might take payment of to bear the boredom of the lantern.
"Alas not that I can think of," the sorceress replies plainly. "I did not even know such fleeting spirits of the elements could be bound and I could not begin to guess where a reaver might have come upon such a vessel."
"They are like the storm, they are drawn to us the way we are drawn to the flash of lightning and the rumble of thunder," Inge speaks up in turn, sounding a lot more happy now that Antonio had agreed that you should not keep the spirit bound. "So er... close company maybe, it would not be safe, no more so that moving your hand though a flame."
"One can do that if one is fast enough," Zaia notes. "I saw a conjuror in Damascus play that trick for his supper"
"And how scarred did his hands look?" you ask, dubious. "No if that is the best we have I think it is safest for the both of us to part ways..."
"And so we are to take the seeing, and us with nothing but the sea before us for two weeks time and more," Antonio curses under his breath as he rises from his seat.
It is Inge who speaks up again, her words carrying an odd cadence like a song half-remembered "Storms there are across the vaults of heaven near and far and no corner of earth is spared the touch of lightning, in time the spirit's sight is clouded, but not in the breadth of the wide world."
What do you choose as your divination question?
[] What do the anjo oru seek to do?
[] What power or powers is responsible for bringing you to this place?
[] Are you indeed fateless?
[] Write in
OOC: Keep in mind divination answers in riddles, but some things may be beyond the sight of a storm wyrd.
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- Location
- Argentina
Why are we not attempting this, with access to healing magic?
- Location
- Germany
You do not have as much healing as the spirit has abilities to throw lightning out of innocent curiosity to see how things twitch.
Control of any storms you might be hit by, but it comes with risk of life and limb from being poked with lighting in body and mind.
- Location
- Argentina
Try with a goat first. See how it thinks about actually murdering things. See if it can be reasoned with to not murder things for fun then.
- Location
- Germany
I've got to admit I'm not really interested in knowledge we can't act upon for weeks (or more in some of the suggested questions).
It's one thing to make divinations directly before using them, as actionable intel, but for mere backround info it's not great, particularly as it would just be a riddle.
So how about something closer to us?
@DragonParadox
Can we ask for advice on decyphering/learning the Wizard's spellbook for Esha and Zaia? Woul that be a bonus?
It's one thing to make divinations directly before using them, as actionable intel, but for mere backround info it's not great, particularly as it would just be a riddle.
So how about something closer to us?
@DragonParadox
Can we ask for advice on decyphering/learning the Wizard's spellbook for Esha and Zaia? Woul that be a bonus?
It does not even see goats unfortunately, nothing non-sapient registers as interesting to its empathic senses.
Yeah, that would grant a decent bonus, odds are they can do it on their own, this would just speed it up.
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- Location
- Germany
I might do that, but OTOH, using the boon fully on the mages with no bonus for Antonio is not quite fair to him.
Eh, he'll have the biggest advantage of our connections if we make the journey north.
[X] Ask for advice on the dead mage's book and notes, to help Zaia and Esha advance their craft.
Eh, he'll have the biggest advantage of our connections if we make the journey north.
[X] Ask for advice on the dead mage's book and notes, to help Zaia and Esha advance their craft.
- Location
- Russia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] What power or powers is responsible for bringing you to this place?
This happened during the storm - so, spirit can divine some useful information.
This is 4-lvl spell, so, we can wait for this opportunity for a very long time.
Even a riddle-information on this topic will be better than no information at all.
This happened during the storm - so, spirit can divine some useful information.
This is 4-lvl spell, so, we can wait for this opportunity for a very long time.
Even a riddle-information on this topic will be better than no information at all.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
This is tempting, but nothing a bit of time shouldn't be able to manage just as well. Esha won't have anything to do for the next few weeks at least except study the spellbook, and Zaia won't be brewing potions and Alchemical stuff that entire time, either, though doing both should actually help him work towards becoming a true Alchemist anyway.
I'm more interested in using this opportunity to try to learn something of the people who recently infiltrated the ship, who they are and what they wanted. This is immediately pertinent information that could influence our decisions in the short-term.
[X] What can it tell us of the people responsible for the stowaway who hid themselves on and beneath Marcella's using magic and stealth, who tried to slay one of our men through that same magic, then eventually slipped away without us being any wiser?
Travler66
Let her name echo in song!
- Location
- Beyond
[X] What can it tell us of the people responsible for the stowaway who hid themselves on and beneath Marcella's using magic and stealth, who tried to slay one of our men through that same magic, then eventually slipped away without us being any wiser?
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] What can it tell us of the people responsible for the stowaway who hid themselves on and beneath Marcella's using magic and stealth, who tried to slay one of our men through that same magic, then eventually slipped away without us being any wiser?
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
I don't have anything against Tom using a Bec de Corbin, but a Lucerne Hammer can do the same thing and has a slightly higher base damage, 1d12 vs 1d10.
I hadn't really thought much about Tom's build once he becomes a Fighter. As a 3rd level Fighter, he would have a total of five feats. Keeping Weapon Focus (Spears) and Pikeman's Training, that leaves three to work with. Powerful Maneuvers would be necessary for what you suggest, as would the Weapon Trick feat. That would leave one additional feat he could use to learn Deft Maneuvers or Improved Initiative.
Using a Bec de Corbin or Lucerne Hammer, along with Powerful Maneuvers, the Crush Armor weapon trick would require a DC 17 Fortitude save. That's a difficult save for most things we would be fighting, especially anything that would be wearing armor. The only problem is that when you're trying to Sunder something, you're not actually inflicting damage on your enemy, and I'm not sure inflicting the Fatigued condition on that enemy for 1 round is worth the feat investment. All that really amounts to is a -1 penalty to Attack bonus, damage bonus, and AC. What are your thoughts, @Artemis1992, @Snowfire?
If it was easier to inflict the Broken Condition on armor, it would be more attractive, but armor is actually pretty difficult to break in that manner without repeated Sunder attempts. Let's say an enemy is wearing Banded Bronze Mail, similar to what Roland uses. It has a +7 Armor bonus, meaning it's got 35 Hit Points. For mechanics purposes, we'll say Bronze has a similar Hardness as Steel, which is 10. The armor will ignore the first 10 points of damage because of its Hardness, so even assuming Tom does maximum weapon damage on a d12, adds his +1 Strength bonus, and Power Attacks for another +2, he would only inflict 5 points of damage on the armor. That same attack could have instead inflicted 15 points of damage on the enemy.
Now if @DragonParadox ruled that Sundering armor in that manner also damaged the person wearing it, which would make sense but isn't really allowed by the rules of the game, it would be a somewhat different story. Still not sure if it wouldn't just be better to direct all of the damage to your enemy, though.
Thinking about it, I think I would go with Weapon Focus (Spears) and Pikeman's Training from his previous feats, then Deft Maneuvers, Improved Initiative, and maybe Weapon Trick (Haft Bash) to let him use whatever type of Polearm we settle on for him against enemies that get inside the weapon's reach, which isn't normally possible.
I actually did want to give you this weapon in the first weapon choice, but then I realized that it was not used until the 15th century and roland is from the early 13th century. So unfortunately I cannot justify you knowing what a Lucerne Hammer is IC.
Good night guys, see you tomorrow with visions of the storm.
- Location
- Argentina
Holy hell. How can sunder be such a terrible choice to even exist? How come armor has so much HP then? I mean, armor has hardness and more HP than the average thug we are going to find.
My idea was to have someone with the Powerful Maneuvers feat that could help to shape the battlefield with the whole pushing and pulling foes from one place to another. There are complimentary feats to sundering to make it more interesting, but at our level it is pretty much wasting feats, but nevertheless I will link what I found:
r/Pathfinder_RPG - Is a sunder two-handed fighter a viable build?
Then maybe we go for a trip build? Or something that makes combat tactics a little more interesting?
I was going to suggest substituting that for a poleaxe, but the thing starts being used in the 14th century apparently.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
It's not really a terrible choice, but it would take a heavy feat investment to really make it work, and part of the problem is that there are never going to be many iterative attacks in a P6 setting. Martial characters who reach 6th level and have a full BAB will be able to make two attacks per round, or three if they're Hasted or using a weapon with the Speed special ability. Where a high level Fighter with a bunch of iterative attacks could spend a round trashing an opponent's gear, that isn't possible here. And like that post says, it also trashes what could be your loot, too. There is also the issue that a lot of opponents aren't even going to be wearing armor because they're creatures of some sort.
Greater Sunder at least lets some damage go through successfully Sundered armor, but that's not available until 6th level at a minimum and it's still not all that great.
The great thing about using the EitR rules is that you don't have to really focus too deeply on a particular build to the exclusion of other stuff. Just picking up Deft Maneuvers gets you the effect of the Improved Trip, Improved Disarm, Improved Dirty Trick, Improved Feint, Improved Reposition, and Improved Steal feats. And Powerful Maneuvers gets you Improved Bull Rush, Improved Drag, Improved Overrun, and Improved Sunder. Two feats for a lot of good stuff, assuming you want both. Then when you get to 6th level, you can learn Greater Trip or Greater Sunder and be really good at something while still having all of the other maneuvers to use when the situation calls for them.
So instead of focusing on a Trip build, I would just say to learn Deft Maneuvers and call it a day for at least a few levels until other options become available. Speaking of, I actually want all of our melee people to learn that one at 3rd level, and Roland on his next level up, too.
- Location
- Argentina
Right. I was thinking about what a Fighter could add to our tactics, and really didn't know what to focus about, but I think that our men knowing how to perform those maneuvers are enough.
About loot, though, I didn't really expect to find much magical gear, so I kinda thought that it would be ok to destroy gear
- Location
- Germany
@Goldfish
I'm not opposed to taking Powerful Maneuvers and having at least the option to use Sunder if it becomes useful.
Mostly because it includes Bull Rush, which can also be useful depending on the situation.
But as an aside to the maneuvers, I would be interested in making Tom a Two-Hand Weapon Fighter. Give him proficiency with a group of heavy weapons and let go of the Pikeman's training. We could use someone who can bring in the damage with a two-hander and we can most definitly use someone who can utilize a two-handed weapon if we loot one.
I'm seeing this less like ASWAH and more like a computer-game in regards to loot, we will get relativly random stuff and it's best to have a party-member who can use the magical loot, so having companions with different styles of fighting is valuable on that base alone.
I'm not opposed to taking Powerful Maneuvers and having at least the option to use Sunder if it becomes useful.
Mostly because it includes Bull Rush, which can also be useful depending on the situation.
But as an aside to the maneuvers, I would be interested in making Tom a Two-Hand Weapon Fighter. Give him proficiency with a group of heavy weapons and let go of the Pikeman's training. We could use someone who can bring in the damage with a two-hander and we can most definitly use someone who can utilize a two-handed weapon if we loot one.
I'm seeing this less like ASWAH and more like a computer-game in regards to loot, we will get relativly random stuff and it's best to have a party-member who can use the magical loot, so having companions with different styles of fighting is valuable on that base alone.
The randomness of magical loot is in a sense like early ASWAH, in that you are going to encounter unique magical items that are linked to the lore of the world and its peoples rather than just being able to make your own as you will. Not that crafting is off the table, but with the way I have it set up it is going to be a lot more narratively costly. Also you are not swimming on gold so you will have to consider that side of things