PrognosticHannya
Far Too Enthusiastic About Etymology
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Would Adamantine bolts be able to pierce through Hookwolf's hide, given sufficient force?
Story of an industrious Tinker
- Thread starter Haaret
- Start date
Fantastic chapter.
Pet doggies. Check.
Knock out goons like a master of stealth. Check.
TRUE MASTER OF STEALTH! You earn big bonus points for environmental knockouts in any stealth game.
Extremely important. I just love the image of a cute little tinker visiting stores for snacks. I'm sure the late night workers love it when she stops by.
Glad to see Becky delivering excellent hero banter. realizing. Realising should be realizing. Seeing another "s" instead of "z" being used, I wonder if this is one of those spellings that's not consistent across countries, like colour and color.
I got a good chuckle imagining Hookwolf thrashing around furiously and trapping himself in a dozen of Becky's magic bombs. Hopefully the PRT can capture a blind and hindered Hookwolf.
Assault will need to have a talk with Becky about her drug problem. She can get the help she needs in the Wards.
Becky is ecstatic about her magical discovery! Also the cocaine powder in the air she's inhaling.
Probably! I imagine Becky's little crossbow doesn't have enough power though. Maybe if she eventually made a big honking crossbow.
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Wand of Cure Light Wounds probably. Wands usually have 50 charges when created.
- Location
- New Zealand
I admit, I was expecting someone to walk in on the workshop that entire time. I suppose it's best that it was Charlotte, since Becky has the best chance of convincing her to keep quiet. The question is, did Charlotte call someone before coming in, or did she just have the phone ready?
This immediately had me thinking 'Chekhov's gun', and lo and behold...
Is this purely because of the experience gained, or is this particular device also unlocked due to seeing Hookwolf crawling down the building?
It is. Most English-speaking countries use 's'. I don't know about Canada, but I think that using 'z' so often is just an American thing.
misterq
Mister Questionmark
- Location
- Somewhere near Space
"I am a magical girl powered by cocaine and jewelry!"
Great chapter. Loved Rebecca's snark to Hookwolf. She really needs to make something to take him out. And more Rust cubes. Save one for Kaiser, though.
- Location
- FarEast
And this is why my favorite class is Wizard not Rogue.
Sheer utility of prepared Wizard can't be matched. I also loved how rewarding was out-of-box thinking when you foiled DM or managed puzzles and even cloak and dagger stuff.
- Location
- Brazil
Oh damn, making magic out of cocaine is sensational.
- Pronouns
- Mr
Sounds like how the Powerpuff Girls were created. "Sugar, spice, and everything nice", although I don't know how cocaïne would fall under "nice".
By the way, I hope there won't be any side effects in using an item depending on how it was created. I mean "shudder" I hope using the magic cure wand is not addictive.
Imagine her trying to explain to other how the creation process works. "Its powered by WHAT?!"
Or the magical girl transformation sequence; "By the POWER of MAGIC and COCAINE!!!". It won't go well.
By the way, a new chapter.. Yeeah thanks!
In the original draft i wanted to find a way for her to break wealth by level using salt, like in the tale of an industrious rogue that inspired the title. It didnt work in the story, but I prefer this work around.
Not an eternal wand, its actually a wand of cure serious wounds.
Probably, but then you have the flechette problem, where everything you shoot is now full of holes, her range is limited by the size of the crossbow, but tipping darts with adamantine would punch through most capes pretty easily, when she was worried about her lethality in the last chapter it was with good reason
While i will make some concessions to Becky being from Boston, i refuse to use that many z's
(Im British)
Little of column A little of column B, Slippers of spider climbing require CL4, which she has now surpassed, and she was inspired by seeing Hookwolf to easily complete the schematics.
Thanks!
She needs to work on her snark, at the moment its just running on autopilot, its a dangerous power she needs to get under control
I love rust cubes, there are some hidden gems in the alchemy tables, part of why we spent so long at lower levels is because i wanted to explore them a bit more.
In the original draft there was a minor effect, but i decided to write it out, people will already be leery of cocaine powered tinker-tech.
- Location
- Brazil
Oh wow, that's some serious oomph.
I keep forgetting she breaks WBL pretty handily, right from the start.
- Location
- New Zealand
I don't know what WBL is, not being familiar with the source material.
I have to say though, thanks for introducing me to the original 'Tale of an Industrious Rogue'. It was absolutely hilarious and I got a lot of laughs out of it.
- Location
- Brazil
Wealth-By-Level. Essentially, what kind of money and, consequently, gear a character is expected to have at a given level. For example, IIRC, for a level 6 character, that's 9000 gold, which translates to no individual item higher than 4500- enough for a +2 weapon for the fighting types, or a +2 Stat Enhancement for the casters as their best item. It's just about enough for a well rounded set of starter magical gear. For reference, the full version of Becky's invisibility ring, which doesn't have a duration limit (even as it still breaks invisibility if you attack), is a whopping 20000 gold- a major investment for a 9th-10th level character (with WBLs of 36-49k gold).
High end gear is a serious thing, so much so that there's an entire playstyle around it, at least for this edition where that kind of freedom is allowed, called "WBLmancy", where the right equipment lets even a commoner function in a surprisingly high level party (tho that's usually using a lot of cash). Which is great for Becky, because she is, for all intents and purposes, less of an Artificer (which still has actual class features, and would be the classic "crafter character") and more of the eponymous "WBLmancy commoner".
We figured out pretty early, because of her ring, that she is far less limited by the cost of making stuff than she is her caster level, aka how strong a magician you have to be to craft a given magic item. You need a measly CL of 3 to craft a Ring of Invisibility (it looks like running away from Hookwolf bumped her up to at least 4, and at 5 she gets magical weapons and armor), and while she was limited by wealth a bit then, as it's not the full continuous effect, a Ring of Invisibility with endless uses should be way more expensive than someone that level could normally afford.
For the kind of shenanigans higher level gear can get up to, I figure the right hit with a Mace of Smiting should kill an Endbringer. But that's CL11 to craft. There's a shield that straight up gives you the spellcasting of a 20th level Paladin, alongside resistance to every single elemental damage and Spell Resistance, besides being a banging good shield. That latter one is an Artifact tho, we don't know if she can make those. In general, however, the high end non-Artifacts are better than the Artifacts, such as the rings that grant Wishes.
@Haaret do you envision parahuman powers as SLAs? Those overly-expensive SR itens start to look a whole lot more attractive if they translate to "some resistance to parahuman powers".
@edit: Wait, a wand of CSW means her CL is definitely 5! Magical Bling, activate! That opens up a world of really neat Augment Crystals for weapons, armor and shields.
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A great explanation for people less familiar with 3.5 ed, thanks!
I dont think i can answer your direct question without giving away some major spoilers, but i will say, some of the abilities Becky will gain access to will interact strangely with parahumans, have a guess what a dimensional anchor does to mover/breaker capes. Its not pretty.
Of course like with the mace of smiting on endbringers, you have to know about the effect to take advantage of it.
As for artifacts, we are unlikely to see her attempt them for numerous story reasons, though when she hits CL 7 she is effectively a 20th level paladin spellcaster anyway if she makes the right wands (though the DC is lower for wands).
And you are very welcome, when i stumbled on it right when i first got into D&D it blew my mind with the kind of things you could pull if you were inventive enough.
- Location
- New Zealand
Traps them in their shard's dimension? Traps them in their breaker state?
- Location
- England
Imagine if a dimensional anchor does that thing from Ward to everyone, where all parahumans have their corona act like a nail into spacetime and shreds their head apart. 'Whoops, a bad interaction made this minor item hilariously lethal to enemies and allies!'
- Location
- Brazil
Paladin spellcasting in itself is too little, too late for 3.5, but the spells themselves are pretty damn good. Favor of the Martyr and Holy Sword come to mind. At level 7-ish those are ridiculous.
The Shield is just quite exceptional in giving you actual, and all-stacking, spellcasting. Even if, yeah, money can replicate one. Thus, WBLmancy.
Just quite the neat item, IMO.
Also, it's cool how the idle thoughts I've always had about 3.5 and Worm keep showing up, like the Dim Anchor (and Dim Lock) vs the constant portals on parahuman heads.
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- Pronouns
- Mr
Wait her class is a paladin spellcaster?
What does that exactly entail? What kinds of abilities? She can create items, which made me think she is an artificer.
- Location
- Finland
No, she is an artificer (well, artificer style magic item maker that lacks other class features), so at CL7 she can just make items to cast as well as a paladin.
- Pronouns
- Mr
if she is CL5 now, then she is near CL7. It means that is able to create lvl 20 paladin items. If CL 11 can create such endbringer tier items, then she is halfway.
- Location
- Brazil
To be clear, the Mace of Smiting is less an all-powerful item and more of a specific hard-counter against constructs. A very hard counter (no-save destruction). It's originally carried around by some angels, IIRC. A very good item when you concern is unbeatable murder constructs immune to everything, but that's fairly niche as far as magic weapons go, which is why they are relatively cheap/low level.
At CL 7 she has enough CL to make wands of lv 4 spells, which is as high as Paladin spells go. In many cases, they will be lacking compared to a real Paladin casting them, but for a lot of the best stuff- Favor of the Martyr, Holy Sword- the low CL just means shorter duration, and the low DC doesn't matter because they are buffs.
That's the cinch: Paladins have considerably delayed spell progression, compared to full or even partial casters. Their spells only go up to level 4. They generally get spells way too late to be more than about as good at casting as a cleric 1/3 of their level, but they have some really good Pally-only spells.
The real draw are those unique Paladin spells, which in theory have level-appropriate effects for the time a Paladin gets them (which is very late for the level of the spell), aka are way stronger than their level would indicate, but being low level still matters because you can only make wands of 4th level stuff and lower. And wands are really essential for WBLmancy, as they have 50 charges of a given spell, and it can be any spell, so you can fake being a wizard or a cleric really well if you have enough money.
In theory, the Ranger and Paladin lists are an incredible source for inordinately potent wands exactly due that reason- they only go up to 4, and get those fourth level spells by the time a full caster is nearing 9th level ones, so the exclusive spells can be way beyond the curve, even if they don't compare to the real heavy weights in the 7th-9th levels.
For example, Holy Sword turns, for 42 seconds at CL 7, any melee weapon into a +5 Holy weapon, which would conventionally cost 98 thousand gold and require a CL 15 crafter, and over three months of dedicated crafting. And let me tell you, +5 Holy is very good. That's the kind of weapon a max-level Paladin would wield, no doubt, so they have a spell to guarantee that.
With the magic of crafting, Becky can make a wand that casts that spell, which is normally achieved by 14-15th level Paladins, and bootleg herself a Balrog-slayer out of a treebranch for just enough time to hopefully finish the kind of fight you'd need one of these for.
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Becky's loadout as of Chapter 19
I've seen a couple of requests for a character sheet for Becky. I'm reluctant to put up a full character sheet, because she isn't an actual D&D character and I'm not rolling anything for the story (maybe an Endbringer fight because it looks like fun to try and work out what happens based on the rolls of who died). But as the list of what Becky can make and what she has made gets longer I will try and keep an updated list every few tinker bursts.
When I reference a spell, or a specific item, remember I am using D&D 3.5 edition.
So Becky's current loadout is as follows:
Mother's ring: Invisibility (as the 2nd level spell, current CL of item = 3, duration lasts 3 minutes), expeditious retreat (as the 1st level spell, current CL of item = 3, duration lasts 3 minutes), Jump (as the 1st level spell), Unseen servant (as the 1st level spell, current CL of item, = 3, duration lasts 3 hours), Animal Friendship ( charms animals, as the spell Charm animal, duration 3 hours)
Father's ring: Protection from Evil (as the 1st level spell, current CL of item = 3, duration lasts 3 minutes), Feather fall (as the first level spell, automatic effect triggers when falling), Minor energy resistance (fire, cold, electricity – absorbs a small amount of each instance of damage of the each type of energy),
Armour:
Alchemy:
Misc:
When I reference a spell, or a specific item, remember I am using D&D 3.5 edition.
So Becky's current loadout is as follows:
Mother's ring: Invisibility (as the 2nd level spell, current CL of item = 3, duration lasts 3 minutes), expeditious retreat (as the 1st level spell, current CL of item = 3, duration lasts 3 minutes), Jump (as the 1st level spell), Unseen servant (as the 1st level spell, current CL of item, = 3, duration lasts 3 hours), Animal Friendship ( charms animals, as the spell Charm animal, duration 3 hours)
Father's ring: Protection from Evil (as the 1st level spell, current CL of item = 3, duration lasts 3 minutes), Feather fall (as the first level spell, automatic effect triggers when falling), Minor energy resistance (fire, cold, electricity – absorbs a small amount of each instance of damage of the each type of energy),
Armour:
- +1 Twisted Silk armour (resizes to fit owner perfectly, self-cleaning and moderately self-repairing).
- Workman's apron and gloves (not enchanted)
- +1 hand crossbow (foldable for ease of hiding, enchanted drawstring makes loading easier, modified to take darts rather than full bolts)
- +1 Adamantine dagger (Adamantine capable of cutting through any substance less tough than itself unless that substance is enchanted or reinforced in other, esoteric manners)
Alchemy:
- Oil (regular and slippery)
- Titan gum (a temporary glue)
- Sneezing powder
- Mithril
- Adamantine
- Instant rope
- Soft-shoe oil (silences/quietens movement)
- Rust cube – rapidly degrades any rustable metal that comes into contact with it
- Slumberweed poison (gaseous)/ alchemical sleep gas
- Nausea gas
- Powerful acid
- Instant cement (liquid stone)
- Night venom (sleep poison for darts)
- Liquid ice/ Ice crystal
- Alchemical fire
- Elixir of rest/ rejuvenation essence (reduces amount of sleep required by half)
- Variety of terrifying poisons (strength reduction and intelligence reduction specifically)
- Thunderstone (flashbang)
- Liquid smoke/smokestick
Misc:
- White ceramic mask
- Healer's belt (minor amount of healing per charge, maximum of three charges in the belt, can discharge all charges in one go for a slightly boosted amount of healing, recharges at dawn each day)
- Goggles of night (built into mask – grants darkvision out to 60 feet)
- Satchel enchanted to only open for owner
- Assassin's hand (incomplete and now partially disassembled for parts)
- Adamantine crafting tools
- Wand of cure serious wounds (49/50 charges)