Vote closed.
Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
-
- Tags
- pathfinder open voting
Maybe, then again there are some neat advantages to that. If he's using something like These then he would get enhanced strength without any loss of dexterity and add weapon enchantments to his limbs.
So he could possibly do stuff like add Automatic Kung-fu blocking action, Melee Autocorrect, or Weld on a new combat feat per limb.
So still crazy, but in the mad with power kind of way rather than a suicidal one.
- Location
- Argentina
… missed the CL requirement for them. Still, he has clockwork limbs so he's got something going on here.
Being able to stack enchantments at a cost is pretty standard, so he might be able to do something with that anyway.
Being able to take the wondrous item Equipment trick set and then heavily invest in UMD he could get some nice bonuses to any magical equipment he's wearing. As a mage he technically doesn't need it for most stuff, but UMD does also help with poking items that have requirements you don't meet which would be nice from a research perspective.
Then he'd still have one arm free to add a defensive enhancement to, or something generic like improved initiative.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
How is CL determined again? Level 6 gives you CL 6, plus casting ability score modifier?
If he rolled an 18 in that ability, then could he use his ASI at level four I think to get it up to twenty, which IIRC would be a +5 mod? That gets him to CL 11, I think. Throw on a CL-boosting effect/item or two, and he's set.
Unless there's some in-universe limit to spell CLs that I'm not aware of?
Last edited:
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Sometimes it is arbitrary, and in those cases we might be able to argue that a lower caster level should suffice, but in the case of the magical prostheses @BronzeTongue linked, one of the spells they require to enchant is Regenerate, a 7th level spell. Since the spell's minimum caster level is 13, that is the necessary level for the item, too.
Then again, if DP allows them to be made with a lesser healing spell it ritual, they might still be available in some form.
There's not one for general CL checks on transmutation spells, but This list has a broad set of alchemical power components of varying rarity that do stuff like that.
A powerful established mage in a prosperous port town could get a lot of the things on that list, and things that aren't on it but could reasonably fit as homebrew. Reagents that do for the other schools what salt does for necromancy would be pretty reasonable as one example.
He might also be able to pull off Adept Spirit on his own for +1 CL. If he could somehow get access to someone or something that can cast Harmonic Chorus that's another +2.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Was also thinking things like magic items that boost his CL, either directly or through increasing the relevant attribute.
Also, @Goldfish mentioned that part of the issue was the required Regenerate, which is a seventh level spell…
Maybe the wizard has an ally with that as an SLA, or has some sort of item that gives him the same?
Last edited:
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Adept Spirit is Incarnum which is 3.5 only and a mechanics system that isn't available. P6 has an Epic Feat that's called Legendary Craftsman that allows a crafter to count as CL 8 for crafting purposes .
Point. I'm still used to the 3.4/pathfinder mix we were using for aSwaH.
I'm not sure if that feat should be taken to mean you can't get a crafting CL higher than your class one though. There are limits to what you can do to boost your CL in a P6 environment already, and making it rewarding to set up all this stuff to reach them breathes a lot of life into crafting that it otherwise lacks on a mechanical level.
It gets busted if the character happens to live in the heart of an empire trading with multiple planes of existence but if you're a Bronze Age artificer getting wood from two continents, rare metals that almost no one can refine, and support from spells outside of their class list is a big ask.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Speaking of caster level boosting, with the right feats, traits, and items, it would be possible to push the caster level of a spell to 14 or higher, and that's not counting buff spells like Harmonic Chorus or Suffer the Flesh.
That's a pretty major investment, but it could be worth it when combined with something like the 3rd level Phantom Steed spell. At 14th caster level, the spell reaches full functionality, including the ability to fly. In a low magic setting where Teleportation basically doesn't exist beyond limited, short-range effects, being able to fly at 45 mph for 14+ hours per casting of the spell is huge. The world doesn't quite become small, but it suddenly isn't so large either.
That's a pretty major investment, but it could be worth it when combined with something like the 3rd level Phantom Steed spell. At 14th caster level, the spell reaches full functionality, including the ability to fly. In a low magic setting where Teleportation basically doesn't exist beyond limited, short-range effects, being able to fly at 45 mph for 14+ hours per casting of the spell is huge. The world doesn't quite become small, but it suddenly isn't so large either.
Arc 5 Post 41: The Riddle of Bronze
The Riddle of Bronze
Nineteenth Day of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descending) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
"You might know enough of such things as to have made a habit of it, but we have not. The last time we faced such a one... it was more ruined battleground than lair and all the dangers of that place were in the bodies of the dead cast off hither and yon. I do not know and could not hope to guess what devilry this one might bring..." You catch your breath and look around, hoping you do not seem too timid to have so surrendered the first step, for that had seen many a lord laid low on the eve of battle great or small, but thankfully you see nothing but grim agreement and perhaps a touch of relief in the eyes of your men.
Perhaps they would rather have you leave the hunters to their task altogether and wash your hands of the whole business, but even if you were inclined to such timidity you know it would be folly recalling the rage and sorrow upon the wizard's gaunt face. That is not a foe you wish to leave behind you, even if it should mean gong down the serpent's lair.
When the first thing Anisi does ask for is willing hands to tumble a large stone down the tunnel you are surprised, but not so surprised as when the other two 'arm' themselves with large poles about the size of a lance, but clearly too light to make use of even in practice. For setting off traps they say. Every trade needs its tools you suppose.
Still neither boulder nor poles meet any impediment or cunning trap, though Zaia does note the cracked remains of stairs and what might be the splinters of a wooden door set into the floor above. Rather than being a tunnel which had been laid out as some sort of trap from the start it seems to be the usual way to ascent to the chamber above which had been trapped in haste.
"Hopefully such haste as would not allow a second like of such work," the alchemist adds delicately. You had half expected him to wish for something he could dissect for the secrets of the great furnace blast, but you suppose even his curiosity allows for 'first keep all of one's limbs'. After all it is rather hard to study anything without them.
The tunnel is only wide enough for two to walk abreast comfortably or four if they are good friends descending swiftly from cut stone blocks to rough carving though the bedrock beneath the city, carved wide and tall indeed by the standards of any common mine shaft or so at least you had heard from listening on on the conversation of some salt miners when you were young. 'There's a reason the good Lord put Hell in the ground and heaven in the sky...'
Thankfully you do not have long to ponder that particular memory, the first stretch of passage, perhaps a hundred steps heading northwest is clear, then Anar raises a hand, for his blessed eyes had spied something, a line of power, a sort of ethereal snare meant to warn the conjurer of nearby unwelcome visitors.
"How close do they have to be to hear its... bell?" you ask, eyes fixed on the patch of stone though of course seeing nothing.
"Up to a mile as the gull flies or the fish swims," comes the reply.
"Well he already knows we are on his trail so it matters little that we warn him now," Anisi says impatiently ready to step into the warded space, but much to your surprise Zaia holds her shoulder.
"Wait. Can this spell have some physical manifestation?"
"Yes, but only as much as the sound of a handbell, it is not as useful unless you wished to be awoken from slumber..."
"Look there," the doctor cuts in. "Do those cuts seem natural to you..." Following his hand you see what he means, a place where the granite of the tunnel was interrupted with a block of a slightly lighter color. Had you been walking by torchlight you might have missed it entirely. "How is the magic sprung?"
"Anything larger that a cat," the priest announces.
At this Anisi draws from one of her many pouches a common looking grey bag of most uncommon power you would find. From it a small cloud of darkness that twists into... a bat.
"Gambler's cursed balls!" she spits, then tries again and this time the ball revolves into a small black cat, or perhaps a shadow in the guise of one for you have never seen a cat wait so attentively for the word of any man or woman for that matter.
It walks onto the enchanted place... a bell rings and then, just as Zaia had suspected, there is the sound of shifting wheels and the great crash of stone on stone like a mountain falling in avalanche, a great cloud of dust spewing backward down the tunnel.
"Well now... does anyone know how we might move this?" you ask spitting out some of the dust, the stone filled the corridor like a cork in a bottle.
"Rope," Eki replies, to his credit the man puts his back where his words had been end you eventually manage to drag the block of stone back all the way whence you had come and get it out of the way, but by then the better part of an hour had passed. You make it past the place where the trap had been laid and find at last a sanctum carved into the living rock with tables likewise wrought as slabs for the honored dead, but upon them there is nothing but a few dd bits of spiraled bronze and broken tablets.
Ipsit had made good his escape it seemed... and then as you make to walk over the threshold you notice something odd about the back wall, it seems too clean, a little too smooth. Under your gaze the portion of wall seems almost to shimmer and you realize that you are seeing, by luck and sharp eye, though a glamor. He had not perhaps fled far. You open your mouth to speak, but just then Nico's head snaps up and he cries with profanity born of sheer surprise: "What the devil is that?"
You catch the merest flash of flying bronze wings before a crossbow bolt smashes it apart.
"Niz ah Nizul"
The chanting is at once familiar and strange ragged with an edge of desperation and all at once you feel your limbs as though turned to lead, as tough the air itself had gained weight and substance. Somehow you still manage to raise the shield to guard Antonio as two darts fly from the false wall aimed at Nico, one high, another decidedly not.
"Take him... take him now!" Anisi cries just then and both of her companions spring into a charge having apparently resisted the spell.
The glamor dies as they pass it to reveal the mage Ipsit in a further narrow chamber carved into the rock not grey but reddish brown the color of old blood and all around his chests and shelves hastily staked together. He runs at the hunter, hand sparking with a fistful of lightning and as he presses it into her chest it flashes and booms like thunder, throwing her back, chest issuing from her chest. It is not enough, together the three hunters cut him down... cut his apart where he stands.
Beneath the bronze he bleeds red.
Choose four of the following rewards from defeating Ipsit Iron Tamer:
[] A chunk blood red obsidian carved into the form of a human heart, the thing is surprisingly warm almost pleasant to the touch
[] Ipsit's spell book containing his arcane lore and experiments
[] Books and sketches on anatomy and the workings of gears and and pistons, the craft of his false men
[] Books of alchemy and metallurgy
[] A pair of crossbows standing of three legs which can be fired with a word needing no hand to pull the pin, potent weapons for the Marcella
[] Ipsit's left hand which had blasted you with fire
[] Ipsit's right hand which had borne lightning
[] Masterwork smithing and alchemy tools of finest glass
OOC: Well that almost worked, but then the scroll of Silent Image he used to hide himself (which he had for just such an occasion) did not quite work out because he was most definitely not an illusionist. Perception served you well in this case.
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
[X] Masterwork smithing and alchemy tools of finest glass
[X] Books of alchemy and metallurgy
[X] Ipsit's spell book containing his arcane lore and experiments
[X] A pair of crossbows standing of three legs which can be fired with a word needing no hand to pull the pin, potent weapons for the Marcella
Tempting as the craft of the false men is, I don't see us using that any time in the near future. The crossbows, on the other hand...
[X] Books of alchemy and metallurgy
[X] Ipsit's spell book containing his arcane lore and experiments
[X] A pair of crossbows standing of three legs which can be fired with a word needing no hand to pull the pin, potent weapons for the Marcella
Tempting as the craft of the false men is, I don't see us using that any time in the near future. The crossbows, on the other hand...
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I do not really see us using that any time in the near future, probably not until after we have a more permanent base of operations at least.
What of the four options that I picked would you sacrifice for that?
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Curiosity did not, in fact, kill this kitty.
@DragonParadox do we need to select anything here to ensure a resumption of cordial conversation with the Captain's Guild or would that be something to ask for later? Assuming it is within reach.
- Location
- Argentina
The tools. We could even buy them now from the hunters
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Hmm... Fair point. How much would they cost us though? Those can't possibly be cheap. If they're like 3000 gold or something, that'll wipe out a substantial chunk of our available funds.
Last edited:
No, you are fine on that. Having made friends with Anisi and company, uneasy though that may still be, she is going to vouch for the whole thing and get Antonio off the hook.
- Location
- Argentina
Anything mundane is bought with gold, and we have a business venture