/vx/ - Videogames and Paranormal

>>193789
While we go to the boiler to relight it, Monstro could be order to go after the GRU ship. He could drop the improvised bomb onto its main gun from above to disable it, then dive into the water before the AA guns can get a good lock on him. Then he can ram the GRU ship onto the beach, preventing them from reaching us. That will give us time for a systemic sweep of the ship, tactically removing the Traveler's Petrushkas to weaken him and Light Water before the final battle. It also lets us take in the atmosphere that GM pone wants us to experience as well as getting to see all of the unique encounters he has in mind.

>>193789
>>193790
Actually there is one way. We take all the creatures we need to relight the boiler and to fight aboard the Kostroma, then we send the rest off on one of the two boats. After we complete our mission, we take the other boat, or the freighter if you really want it, and meet up in deep water. This would let us complete the mission the intended way without a rewrite or intentionally gimping ourselves.

Also, destroyers have several main guns.

>>193790
>While we go to the boiler to relight it, Monstro could be order to go after the GRU ship.
Worth noting that Monstro is a mindless creature and lacking humanoid form cannot necessarily carry out precise tasks without Posey's input.
>Then he can ram the GRU ship onto the beach
It's not actually a collosal whale, he's a huge monster made of whale bones. Best it can do is kamikaze them while carrying all of the torpedos from the plant and the boat (it would need no supervision to do this: a bone lurker is designed specifically to stealthily float above its target, and then drop down on them with a charge attack to catch them flat footed, so kamikaze is its natural style of attack).
If you want me to order the Kamikaze order now, I will comply.
>That will give us time for a systemic sweep of the ship, tactically removing the Traveler's Petrushkas to weaken him and Light Water before the final battle.
We already decided Boiler -> Light Water -> Intruder. There doesn't have to be a systemic sweep, because the enemies will come to obstruct us, and we can just kill anything that gets on our way.
>>193789
>GM Pony wants to indulge us in the atmosphere and if we're going to be busy herding thirty ponies we won't have the chance to experience any of it. I would much rather explore the ship in the dark with a group of eight or ten but I don't know if it is possible at this point. This whole boiler plotline turns the quest from a search-and-destroy mission to an engineering one.
None of us as characters know how to fix a boiler: the mission would only be to escort the NPCs there do that they can work on fixing it, so that we can leave and do the adventure. We shouldn't have to manage any of them.
The hook to go to the boiler room has clearly been laid out, so that is shat we are doing.
>I also don't want to use the Kostroma as an escape vehicle, so afterward we would probably just have to move the whole group back onto the boats.
I want both boats. I want to sell them to find my army and my castle. That's my motivation for not escaping with the airponies right now.
>But maybe that's a good thing because the GRU are coming, maybe?
When they come I will blow them up by dropping torpedos on them. I will do this even if they do not come to attack us, because they have pissed me off. No mercy. Total destruction.
>This is stressing me out.
Then stop thinking about it, and just follow the plan.
>>193791
Fine. The ones who can't do anything useful can stay behind on the torpedo ship. I don't care. Let's just go.
Await GM response for who follows Posey into the Torpedo room. No more debate on who is coming and who is not, the NPCs can decide for themselves where they go.

>>193792
>We already decided Boiler -> Light Water -> Intruder
No, you decided that. I've been calling for us to clear the ship since this discussion began. There could be anywhere from 20 to 50 petrushkas left, not to mention the pirate boarding party that has likely also been possessed and the unending amount of summons Light Water and the Traveler can bring into the field. Facing all of those in a single encounter where they will rush in from behind is certain death.

>>193792
>>193786
On a very basic, very fundamental level, you're not getting it. You are not understanding it. To understand the what try to understand the why.

You've DMed games, right? You've DMed several games and are currently DMing at least one. And then you've played other games. You've played other TTRPGs, you've played video game RPGs, you've played non-RPG video games, and you've watched movies. At least I'm pretty sure you have. Please please please to look at this from the perspective of a GM. Or from a game design perspective. Just try to think about why.

Ask yourself, why would I try to get the party to go to the boiler room? Why would I try to get the party to eliminate the Petrushkas? It's because I want the party to explore the ship. Let me repeat that, because it's very important and I don't know what gets through. I'm trying to get the party to go through the ship.

Think about it. The boiler room is located on the lowest deck in the middle of the ship. In order to get to it, you'd have to walk through the crew deck, which is the biggest area of the ship, and thus by many locations of interest. Then you'd have to walk past the supply level and into the boiler room itself. That's several of the most interesting areas of the ship. And then if after that, you wanted to find someone who is ambiguously located on the Bridge deck, well, then you'd have to go upwards past all of those things, then past the boat deck, then up to the bridge deck. On all of these levels are multiple areas that at least to me are interesting or have opportunities. These include the galley, kitchen, and crew quarters on the crew deck, the boiler room itself, then the officers' quarters, the Captains' room, the navigation room, the radio room, and the actual bridge of the ship. Even if these two tasks alone didn't necessarily make the players go through these individual areas it would at least get them near them.

Just seriously. The purpose of the lights flickering and going out is to give the players an in universe reason to want to go to the boiler room. The purpose of saying that the traveler is propped up by his followers is to give the players a reason to go through the ship to kill, knock unconscious, disconnect, or otherwise remove the followers of the traveller. The purpose is to use the location.

As I said in a previous post, the first half of the twentieth century is an age of machines. Among these are automobiles, planes, trains, and ships. I think ships are cool. A big cargo ship like the Kostroma has its own kitchens, many crew quarters, a hierarchy and class system within it, a bridge, big cool engines, and massive cargo holds. This is probably the only time I can actually use that kind of environment anywhere.

And then it's so much more than that, because this is also the only time that the party is likely to face an enemy that can just materialize things. Think about it. It's a derelict cargo freighter where you fight an eldrich abomination. How many times has this been used in media? How many different works have used this? How many things could you do with it? So far the party has fought mind controlled enemies, aberrations, and summoned outsiders. But there's many more kinds of enemies and problems that could be faced.

There have been many, many encounters I have wanted to do that I have not gotten to. I wanted to have the party fight undead at the medieval village, but wasn't able to do it. I wanted the Traveller to make an appearance of viking griffins to fight, or make an illusion of going back in time. that didn't happen. By far and away the biggest miss of the whole questline has been that not once has there been a pitched battle with the stalliongrad forces. I really wanted to use a full squad of soliders with their own special weapons. A combat magician, a light machine gun that you'd want to neutralize before it got deployed, elite soldiers within the group that would be armed with more powerful weapons, and more than anything else, a bard that would sing or play classic soviet songs that I love.

I was going to have a squad of soldiers attack the party at the airship. They would walk through the mist and shoot at the airship, and the party could take cover in teh wreckage or around the rocks. Instead Kira found it by mistake as it was moving towards them, then lost all of her HP in a single round, then Cavaliere said "I can 1v10 them in the open" for reasons beyond me, then you decided you were going to dispose of your dreads by suiciding them against this group. The battle didn't happen. Then I thought I could make a battle at the lighthouse, which could be cool because you have a gunner in the lighthouse and monsters to make it a 3 way battle. That didn't happen, it was toss grenades and leave. Then I thought I could make a battle happen on the way to the village. That didn't happen, the party snuck around them. Okay, well I thought that leaving the village I could have the party find the last airpony in a supply shed just outside of the village, then they get shot out by the GRU and a 3 way battle commences with monsters. I could not, no matter what I did, get the party to step forward, so that battle was scrapped and the last airpony was placed elsewhere. So at no point anywhere was there a battle with the spetsnaz.

There are so many things you can do with the Kostroma. There's environmental storytelling about how the mutiny went down. There's the mystery of the missing pirates. There's potentially survivors taken from the snow pony village, or ponies killed or otherwise made causalities of by the traveler before the main mutiny. There's a captain of the ship and an officer class. There was supposed to be a whole third villain of a Griffin from Skynavia to accompany Lightwater. There's the other cargo the ship was carrying. Then there's many unique types of enemies and challenges. I want to say more, but I'm out of characters.

>>193794
>>193792
>>193786
Anyways, if you think that not only does your character not give a shit about any of that but you don't give a shit about any of that, then just say so so I can abandon certain ideas and start on others. For the boilers we can just say that they will hold out for as long as the ship is going to continue to exist, which won't be long anyways. Lightwater sure just make him easy to kill I guess. Don't worry about the Petrushkas, all of them were sent to the island and killed off screen by the GRU. I can just handwave away all of that, and it can be just a quick get in, get out thing.

This even opens up new opportunities. Say the ship is sinking. The Traveller knows that all he has to do is to just sit in the cold water and wait for Stalliongrad or New Mareland to salvage the ship in the shallow waters of the bay, then he's back to doing what he wants. So it's a race to try to kill the traveller before the ship sinks. Or something like that. Also facing monsters in dark, narrow corridors, has real horror potential. I can make it work, I just need to know what I am doing.

Anyways, again, all of the things that are going on is an attempt by me, GM, to give your characters in universe reasons to want to explore the ship, and thus make use of the unique environment, and hopefully introduce combat and challenges of a type unlike what has been experienced thus far. And again, if you don't care, just tell me and we can all move on. Because this whole past week has been me trying to do everything I possibly can to try to get the players to have some reason to use the ship.

If you actually want to try to keep the ship or at minimum loot it for its valuables, then explore it. I'd rather it be explored before the climax than in the denouement for a number of reasons. And if you don't give a shit, great. Then let's agree to blow up the ship because blowing up the ship is the best way to use it if it isn't going to be explored. But let's get on the same page.

>>193795
Actually, this isn't a bad idea.

Go in the dark with the party to kill lightwater, then plant explosives on the Traveller, blow up the ship in the water, then sail away in the dark.

>>193794
I see you are frustrated, GM. I pordon if I have been flippant these past couple weeks. I've been under a lot of stress lately with meatspace issues.
I get your points, and I appreciate the effort. GMs almost universally do a lot more work behind the scenes than is evident to the players, and I can see that that is clear here.

I really just wanted to move the story forward, but idk how to get everyone to agree. This morning I thought the plan to go to explore the and go to the boilers was set in stone, but idk anything.

>>193794
>>193795
>>193796
There is also all of this: even I'm upset that we've missed so much and managed to screw up so many of GM pone's plans an ideas. I've even screwed up a couple of those myself and those I'm especially pissed off about (pissed off at myself, in case it wasn't clear). Please, can we just not do that for once in this mission, and actually explore what he has to offer in the ship instead of trying to speedrun this?

>>193797
Then let's agree on this: we go to the boilers, fighting one or two encounters as we will inevitably be ambushed in the dark at least once, and light it. Once it's back on and the lights are lit again, we can explore the ship to take out the petrushkas and find the secrets, lore, and loot that GM pone has planned. Then, after we're done, we can fight Light Water in a far more even playing field, and then take on the Traveler.

>>193792
>We already decided Boiler -> Light Water -> Intruder.
>Then stop thinking about it, and just follow the plan.
I'm being pedantic but I mentioned multiple times how we have no formal plan and how this just kind of happened as a compromise. Let's not make the same mistake and instead have a concrete agreement, now that things are much simpler.
>There doesn't have to be a systemic sweep, because the enemies will come to obstruct us, and we can just kill anything that gets on our way.
The sacred texts!
>I want both boats. I want to sell them to find my army and my castle. That's my motivation for not escaping with the airponies right now.
We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
>When they come I will blow them up by dropping torpedos on them. I will do this even if they do not come to attack us, because they have pissed me off. No mercy. Total destruction.
I think you're severely overestimating the chances of a jihadist floating whale against an elite destroyer with multiple batteries, anti-aircraft guns and radar. In my personal opinion we would have more success with a conventional hit-and-run torpedo strike using the boat, but that has a high risk of losing the boat and anypony aboard.

>>193794
>missed encounters
I'm sorry and am probably more responsible than anybody else. I've constantly emphasized stealth, speed and avoiding direct engagements which of course included the very battle you sought to have. Task failed successfully I guess. And of course a lot of it was due to us being bone-headed and not too perceptive.
>Kostroma stuff
Let us see for ourselves. We'll give you what you want.

>>193795
>>193797
>And again, if you don't care, just tell me and we can all move on.
Posey's player is just more autistic than any of us. I don't mean that in a negative way. I love him (no homo) and how he comes up with clever ways to game the system. It's good to have a person who thinks on a different wavelength, even if it leads to misunderstandings. If this was about videogames a good comparison would be a speedrunner vs. an immersive gamer. Someone who takes time, listens to all the music, reads all the text, and savors it like a novel cares about the game. Someone who studies all the idiosyncracies of the game's programming and uses them to skip as much as possible to reach the ending also cares, just in a different way.

The idea of opening the cargo hold and attacking from above was frankly brilliant, even if it wasn't going to work. It's the sort of tactic a veteran of dungeons in Dungeons and Dragons (a pretty important part of the game, considering the name) would come up with. If Mended Horn and the Kostroma were a module like Gary Gygax used to make, that could be played by any group at any time, then this sort of workaround would be commendable. It's only a problem because it's a custom quest meticulously designed to be played only once by one group of people, and if we avoid all the dangerous stuff and grab a win as quickly as possible it robs us of the experience. To prevent this from happening again we need to keep considering "why" from a narrative standpoint instead of always doing the smartest thing from our characters' perspectives.

>>193798
I agree. I still want to send off all the creatures who aren't going with us so we don't have to worry about them.

>>192977
<its this guy again

It occurred to me as I went to get supplies for the soup I guess I'm making, that there would be an "accidental" way to vastly ease the time-constraints.

What if some room, after a bit of searching etc, happens to have the eerie quality of blocking the tinnitus? IE for no explicable reason the ebil dream-walker can't see into this black box. So long as there was enough floor space for Kira to stretch out while leaving Caveliere enough room to floomph out flat, you could opt to balance regaining spell slots with how-long-will-the-GRU-wait with a bit more finesse.

Again, thinking of the times I've DM'd, I killed an idea or two by stirring in the "DONT fall asleep" mix-in. maybe a compromise on that would encourage a more thoughtful speedrun, if you will.

Or won't, of course...its your game, after all.

>>193787 →
Why is Posey suddenly and unilaterally altering the NPC composition? I thought the party had a nice lean set for the initial investigation of the ship

>>193798
>>193799
>>193797
The problem with the previous plan was that it simultaneously split the party, was going after a hard target, and was going to get itself surrounded by weaker enemies.

Seriously just ask yourself, what kind of proper villain battle is one that can be defeated by only 2/3 of the party even being there? That's already kind of a lame villain fight. But then on top of that there was a plan to skip all of the lesser enemies, so that the other enemies would all dog pile onto the 2/3 of the party and block off any chance of retreat while simultaneously surrounding them. If you want to split up the party to explore, okay fine. If you want to simultaneously battle the boss and every single enemy you just skipped past when you refused to clear out the rooms... that's kind of lame, but at least add more bodies to absorb more hits.

>>193799
Basically, it comes down to "Are the characters going to explore the ship or not?" Because I spent most of the past week trying to contrive reasons the players would want to go to more parts of the ship than just where the Traveler is, and if there really is nothing that I can do to get characters to go to multiple parts of the ship then I may as well know now so I can get my expectations right and can plan accordingly. Otherwise I'm just going to be indefinitely throwing things in an increasingly unworkable attempt to get characters to do things they are never going to do.

>>193799
>>193792
>Monstro versus the destroyer
The party quite simply has no weapons that equal the destroyer. Its main guns are stronger than anything the party has, and frankly so are its anti-aircraft weapons. If the destroyer knows you are there, at best you can attempt to run or hide, but it's so fast and its weapons have such a long and indirect range that even those options aren't really options.

A torpedo boat absolutely has the firepower to sink a destroyer if it is lucky. But it should be remembered that "Destroyer" is short for "Torpedo Boat Destroyer." It's not a fair match up. I'm less sure about Kamikaze Monstro. It has the massive disadvantage that it will be delivering its payload from above the water line, it has to get immediately next to it, and it has less explosive power. It would need to survive long enough to get close to it and also be able to do enough damage to sink it, or at least, prevent it from causing trouble. That's not easy, because destroyers are large and bristling with anti-aircraft.

>I want to sell both boats to fund my army and my castle
Buying or building?

>Silver's pet zigger
Zara's expertise with engines means that she's one of a small number of NPCs that could help in a meaningful way with the Kostroma's boilers, engines, and power generators (and this is absolutely not a one-pony job). So sending her in makes sense. But it means she's not on the torpedo boat repairing engine 3, so that means that the Torpedo boat won't be able to, just to pick a task at random, outrun a destroyer. It's supposed to be a tradeoff. Either get the Kostroma up faster but the Torpedoboat can't outrun a destroyer, or make sure the torpedo boat is up to full, but the Kostroma is still dead in the water. She's definitely not exactly combat material, however. Also Silver wanted to bring her along to, I assume, trauma bond, and maybe accomplish some kind of romantic bonding. And don't make fun of him for wanting to fuck the zeeb. No one else is trying to fuck anything, so he needs to pull the weight of everyone.

>>193800
That's not a terrible idea. It's already established that a faraday cage could probably completely stop the Traveler's psychic qualities

>>193801
>Why is Posey suddenly and unilaterally altering the NPC composition? I thought the party had a nice lean set for the initial investigation of the ship
I must be confused. If what I said did not accurately represent what the party agreed to, ignore that part of my post and roll with the agreed ups n plan.
>"Are the characters going to explore the ship or not
I do want to explore the ship. The party just seemed to believe that was s bad idea, but if you are prepared for that it's what we should do. Let's start with the path to the boiler room and go from there.
>I'm less sure about Kamikaze Monstro. It has the massive disadvantage that it will be delivering its payload from above the water line, it has to get immediately next to it, and it has less explosive power. It would need to survive long enough to get close to it and also be able to do enough damage to sink it, or at least, prevent it from causing trouble. That's not easy, because destroyers are large and bristling with anti-aircraft.
Monstro does not need to breathe. Nothing really prevents it from swimming underwater or crawling along the sea floor, and then jump onto the deck with a flying dive from the water.
It should be able to sustain 2-3 rounds of direct fire, because it takes only half damage from piercing weapons.
>buying or building
Both. I said I wanted to buy off the farm from Glass Horizons after convincing him that it is haunted insurance liability, and then I want to build my research facility and stronghold there. It's just a pipe dream, but my character is trying to raise funds to build up her army, which is why she's doing mercenary work. Also because she wants to level up.
>So sending her in makes sense. But it means she's not on the torpedo boat repairing engine 3, so that means that the Torpedo boat won't be able to, just to pick a task at random, outrun a destroyer.
Yeah, I thought of that, which is why I wanted her on the torpedo boat, but Silver insists on bringing her for some reason.

...

I will try to respond to these ooc posts in better detail later. I'm really burnt out from work this week.

>>193801
>Seriously just ask yourself, what kind of proper villain battle is one that can be defeated by only 2/3 of the party even being there?
Not to mention picking the harder route of capturing rather than killing. If we had any real chance at stealth, I think we could do it without getting immediately ganked, but against this sort of enemy I don't see it happening. Not having any automatic weapons with this group is also a bad decision.
>A torpedo boat absolutely has the firepower to sink a destroyer if it is lucky. But it should be remembered that "Destroyer" is short for "Torpedo Boat Destroyer." It's not a fair match up.
Yes, though at least under these circumstances the destroyer is near an uneven coast which allows for a surprise attack under cover of darkness. It would still constitute a suicide mission which is why I wouldn't want to do it unless if we had no other options.
>And don't make fun of him for wanting to fuck the zeeb. No one else is trying to fuck anything, so he needs to pull the weight of everyone.
Cries in Amber
I don't care what he does as soon as we don't have super-secret time-sensitive mission objectives
>It's already established that a faraday cage could probably completely stop the Traveler's psychic qualities
I don't know what's scarier, the Fellow Traveler escaping on the Kostroma or Stalliongrad succeeding in containing and researching it.
>>193803
I don't want to take more NPCs than we strictly need.
>Monstro does not need to breathe. Nothing really prevents it from swimming underwater or crawling along the sea floor, and then jump onto the deck with a flying dive from the water.
It should be able to sustain 2-3 rounds of direct fire, because it takes only half damage from piercing weapons.
Destroyers also have hydrophones and maybe SONAR, though we don't know if they'll be actively using it at the moment.
>Yeah, I thought of that, which is why I wanted her on the torpedo boat, but Silver insists on bringing her for some reason.
We were told that restoring electricity will take much less effort than fully restoring the Kostroma's engines. I prefer the more conservative route of letting the ship stay put and escaping on the boats after we leave. We do have the option of trying to sail it but we will open ourselves to being chased down and sunk.
>I'm really burnt out from work this week.
I don't blame you.

>>193794
>I'm trying to get the party to go through the ship.
>These include the galley, kitchen, and crew quarters on the crew deck, the boiler room itself, then the officers' quarters, the Captains' room, the navigation room, the radio room, and the actual bridge of the ship. Even if these two tasks alone didn't necessarily make the players go through these individual areas it would at least get them near them.
Understood. Let's make our way to the boiler, then light water, then the Intruder, and explore/fight everything we see on the way there.
>The purpose of saying that the traveler is propped up by his followers is to give the players a reason to go through the ship to kill, knock unconscious, disconnect, or otherwise remove the followers of the traveller. The purpose is to use the location.
Shoot everything that moves. Got it. More than willing.
>there's many more kinds of enemies and problems that could be faced.
Ooh? Sounds like fun.
>There have been many, many encounters I have wanted to do that I have not gotten to.
As a GM, you have my condolences.
>I wanted to have the party fight undead at the medieval village, but wasn't able to do it.
I'm kind of bummed that didn't happen, because it's relevant to my character's skillset and simply encountering undead would have been its own reward for me, but I'm not really sure what the trigger to cause that would have been. I tried to comfort the colt by speaking soothingly and hugging him to get him to lead us to something. Maybe I should have just opened with a Rebuke to calm or control him. Missed opportunity. Oh well.
>I really wanted to use a full squad of soliders with their own special weapons. A combat magician, a light machine gun that you'd want to neutralize before it got deployed, elite soldiers within the group that would be armed with more powerful weapons, and more than anything else, a bard that would sing or play classic soviet songs that I love.
I remember that encounter being the most obvious combat encounter setup ever, and I was ready to fight it, but I was outvoted for how to approach it and it ended up being resolved with a luck roll to sneak past. I tried to negotiate with the party and convince them that the enemies would have level-appropriate loot as well as the machine gun, but everyone else just wanted to run for the sake of avoiding casualties.
I should say though, while my character was the only one willing to fight, my character is also the only one with unlimited out-of combat self-healing. It's actually an odd situation, because as the only spellcaster I should be the one worried about my long rest resources being depleted, but everyone else has lost hit points and had several close calls and are out of healing resources, possibly exacerbated by the fact that most of the party isn't really properly equipped for adventuring (some of them have +2 weapons, but don't have basic things like sufficient healing items or even stat-boosting items). Perhaps it's further exacerbated by the way the party entered this mission thinking that they would have two healers and neither of them are present. Also the good-aligned characters seem to think that being good means avoiding NPC death at all costs, and with the huge herd of NPCs I guess that means avoiding combat whenever possible.

>>193809
As a GM, I think you should really consider the XP budget of this adventure for how it has affected the mindsets of other players. In 3.5e, the recommended number of party-level encounters per day is four encounters before having an opportunity to rest (in 5e, it's 6-8); more encounters after that would be considered to be in unfavorable conditions (worth 1.25x-2x experience). The party has already experienced more than that, with no opportunities to rest. Whether or not this this makes the adventure too hard is open for debate, but consider that having an excessive of encounters per adventuring day gradually begins to distort the player's attitudes towards the encounters, making players try to avoid encounters than fight through them. This is especially true in long-lasting play-by-post games, where the party becomes increasingly eager to see the completion of the story, because they slowly begin to view encounters as an obstacle to continuing the story instead of the fun of the story itself where they get to use their cool abilities on enemies, especially when the enemy forces are seemingly infinite from the player's perspective.
It's a bit of a perfect storm of player hesitation. You could add the fact that this is a milestone game instead of an XP game. If XP turns players into "murder hobos", milestone games turn players into "plot goblins", as lack of XP as an immediate reward after an encounter subconsciously makes players want to evade encounter to finish the plot instead of engage every encounter they can. I have run games with both XP and milestone, and this is one of the reasons why I prefer XP as a system (that and because I'm just really fond of 3.5e's unique self-correcting XP formula).
It's really a matter of incentives. When players are hesitant to engage with content because they are short on resources and/or are afraid of what's to come, they need incentives to pull them in, that being the promise of treasure or progression as characters.
There's also loot as an incentive. Although you made it clear how frustrating it was that players weren't looting, that could in part be addressed by placing items that are more obviously useful to players, such as healing potions. I GM'd a campaign that had hundreds of lvl 2 warriors as enemies, and every single one of them dropped a masterwork longsword, a masterwork chain shirt, and TWO potions of Cure Moderate Wounds. If every soldier had dropped at least one standard issue healing potion, I think the living characters would be more willing to fight then for them. You talked about trying to have realistic placement of loot, but consider that Equestria is a high magic setting where potions are confirmed to exist, so maybe it would be normal for soldiers to carry them. It does nothing for my character, but maybe it would subconsciously incentivize the other players.

The culmination of it all was how the players approached the Kostroma. They seemingly didn't even recognize it as a complete dungeon (basically its own adventure with its own quest line and XP budget), but the final battle they needed to do to finish their current quest. They decided to "go for the dragon first" because from their perspective the dragon was the final boss of their current adventure, instead of the boss of a dungeon.

And I'm not saying this as criticism or even suggesting any immediate changes, but I'm trying to help you understand the conditions that lead to these sorts of frustrating situations so that we can better understand each other and subconscious factors that cause misunderstandings. GMing games is hard, so I want to offer some perspectives to help out.

>There have been many, many encounters I have wanted to do that I have not gotten to.
GM, if you want players to engage with an encounter, it's okay to just throw the encounters at their faces with a truckload of cement ala surprise round instead of waiting for the players to do it. You control the narrative, so maybe don't frustrate yourself by letting your content schedule hinge on players doing something specific, because that is just setting yourself up for disappointment.
There are a lot of ways to force encounters. Give the enemy mage a scroll of invisibility sphere, it potions of invisibility. Have an enemy with the track feat hunt down the party. Have enemies wait to ambush the party. Or simply make enemies bump into the party for no reason and roll initiative immediately. You already have an enemy that summons monsters all around us from anywhere, you could do the same with the other encounters.

>>193810
>I was going to have a squad of soldiers attack the party at the airship.
Yeah, I did bypass that with my nat 20 Intimidate check. I did get to feel scary though, which was fun.
>Instead Kira found it by mistake as it was moving towards them, then lost all of her HP in a single round, then Cavaliere said "I can 1v10 them in the open" for reasons beyond me
Yeah, that was a bad idea.... The rangers thought their stealth and perception would let them avoid it if they went alone.
>then you decided you were going to dispose of your dreads by suiciding them against this group.
I did that because you expressed discontent with me having minions, so I got rid of them to help the others survive.
>I could not, no matter what I did, get the party to step forward
I recall trying to step forward, but the rest of the party didn't want to.
Pro Tip: whenever a player mentions doing something you want them to do, immediately canonize it before anyone else can hesitate. Just move th story forward whenever you can. You can even make the uncontrolled NPCs take initiative to railroad players into the plot.
>There are so many things you can do with the Kostroma. There's environmental storytelling about how the mutiny went down. There's the mystery of the missing pirates. There's potentially survivors taken from the snow pony village, or ponies killed or otherwise made causalities of by the traveler before the main mutiny. There's a captain of the ship and an officer class. There was supposed to be a whole third villain of a Griffin from Skynavia to accompany Lightwater. There's the other cargo the ship was carrying. Then there's many unique types of enemies and challenges.
That sounds like fun.
>>193795
I do want to do it. Let's just do it. Let's go to the boiler room and witness everything on the way there. Please start narrating the path to the boiler room before anyone else suggests otherwise.and opens up another month of debate.
...
>>193801
>I thought the party had a nice lean set for the initial investigation of the ship
I was confused. Do the thing that was agreed to.
>"Are the characters going to explore the ship or not?
The answer is yes. Let's just do it.
>I'm less sure about Kamikaze Monstro. It has the massive disadvantage that it will be delivering its payload from above the water line, it has to get immediately next to it, and it has less explosive power
It only needs to make a hole in the ship to sink it, and it can travel over land, air and underwater. I could tell it to approach from underwater and try to sink the shop by ramming the hull with all of its harpoons or floppy onto the deck after jumping out of the water and doing and flying up to build momentum before falling. A single torpedo swung as an improved weapon could potentially do like 30d6 before it explodes. You can secretly roll a d100 and then narrate to tell us if it works or not.
I suggested it because I saw you didn't like how I had a powerful minion, so I thought to dispose of it in a way that helped the party, just like I did with the dreads.
>zigger
I think we should leave her on the torpedo boat, and let the Kostroma crew repair the boiler. Idk.

>>193811
>Yeah, that was a bad idea.... The rangers thought their stealth and perception would let them avoid it if they went alone.
To Kira's credit, she would have been fine had the dice gods decided not to do a "funny" and have me roll a nat 1 on stealth at the absolute worst time. She would have gone into stealth, retreated to the rest of the party, and warned them about the coming encounter, but instead...I can't say much about Garv's choice to try to assassinate one of the Spetsnaz soldiers or the dreads being sent in on a suicide mission when everyone had already escaped, but at least Kira's misfortune in that moment was down to just plain bad luck. I won't lie, I absolutely would have asked for a do-over if Kira died there. It's one thing if your PC dies in a normal fight, it's another entirely when they die because a nat 1 causes them to go from 100% health to dead in a single round.

You do make good points about the health economy in this game. A lack of healing options and the number of intended encounters has absolutely impacted how I've approached facing down enemies as of late. Early on in the quest I had no problem rushing into battle, but as my PCs' health started depleting rapidly along with our healing spells I started trying to avoid needless fights if the option was there, which also sometimes led to inaction if the choice was between one encounter or another.

>I think we should leave her on the torpedo boat, and let the Kostroma crew repair the boiler. Idk.
But zeeb waifu

>>193810
>>193809
>the missed combat encounters
I'm not upset with players sneaking past enemies rather than engaging. The mission objectives were very deliberately set up in such a way that engaging in combat with the pony-enemies was not strictly necessary. What bothered me more was the foiled ambush outside of the airship - not because it was foiled, but because I got blamed for an organized squad of 10 soldiers explicitly stated to be special forces being undesirable to 1v10 - and the whole kerfuffle of the village, where my original plan of the ghost child had to be scrapped because a small helpless child was the only thing in the entire game the players wanted to attack, because they didn't want to fight the aberrant monsters outside the house without trying to make a distraction, ask if there were alternate ways of exiting the house, or putting in any of the effort of avoiding combat, and because I couldn't get the players to walk forward on a street where you could literally only go forward or backward, and so had to cut out a battle, a scene, and several buildings.

>You can make an encounter happen by (lists multiple ways to have the enemy surprise attack the players)
Yes, I know. I was terrified that the players would find some way to miss the torpedo boat and I'm happy that making it basically invisible and letting it ambush the players worked. But you're missing the point. It's not so much the combat encounters that bother me, but when scenes, details, and especially areas are skipped or ignored or not explored.

>players need incentives in order to explore the ship as opposed to just beelining for where the objective is
Yeah, I know. The disadvantage of a ship is that basically every location on the vessel has multiple points of entry. That's why after going to the Traveller was brought up, then it was a suggestion of "well, go after Lightwater first." Then it was a suggestion of "hey, turn the boilers on." Then it was a suggestion of "he's drawing power from the followers, take out the followers." And then after that it was "Nah, let's split the party and send 2/3 to take on the dragon." And that was when I realized that I didn't really have the power to make the party do what I wanted them to do, and the best thing to do was to just flatout ask the party if they wanted to explore or if they wanted to speedrun, because if they want to speedrun let me rewrite the end game so it doesn't end in a TPK and can be more satisfying

>>193809
>Let's make our way to the boiler, then light water, then the Intruder, and explore/fight everything we see on the way there.
I'm glad we agree on the general plan. Now for the finer details.
>Shoot everything that moves.
Some killing will be inevitable but let's capture who we can.
>It's actually an odd situation, because as the only spellcaster I should be the one worried about my long rest resources being depleted, but everyone else has lost hit points and had several close calls and are out of healing resources, possibly exacerbated by the fact that most of the party isn't really properly equipped for adventuring (some of them have +2 weapons, but don't have basic things like sufficient healing items or even stat-boosting items). Perhaps it's further exacerbated by the way the party entered this mission thinking that they would have two healers and neither of them are present. Also the good-aligned characters seem to think that being good means avoiding NPC death at all costs, and with the huge herd of NPCs I guess that means avoiding combat whenever possible.
Cavaliere has the excuse of simply not having time to buy healing items and having to rely on the meagre amount we got at the start of the mission. We are sorely missing those healers and it would have been nice if one of the scientists or other ponies had medical expertise.
>This is especially true in long-lasting play-by-post games, where the party becomes increasingly eager to see the completion of the story, because they slowly begin to view encounters as an obstacle to continuing the story instead of the fun of the story itself where they get to use their cool abilities on enemies, especially when the enemy forces are seemingly infinite from the player's perspective.
>If XP turns players into "murder hobos", milestone games turn players into "plot goblins", as lack of XP as an immediate reward after an encounter subconsciously makes players want to evade encounter to finish the plot instead of engage every encounter they can.
Very true! I don't mind some combat, but like you said it's a perfect storm.
>I GM'd a campaign that had hundreds of lvl 2 warriors as enemies, and every single one of them dropped a masterwork longsword, a masterwork chain shirt, and TWO potions of Cure Moderate Wounds.
This feels ludicrous. Nevertheless, I agree on healing items being more common. I don't know what sort of kit the Soviets were using circa 1945.
>GM, if you want players to engage with an encounter, it's okay to just throw the encounters at their faces with a truckload of cement ala surprise round instead of waiting for the players to do it.
He did this with the petrushkas coming from the fog and it went great.
>I suggested it because I saw you didn't like how I had a powerful minion, so I thought to dispose of it in a way that helped the party, just like I did with the dreads.
Why don't you just park it in the water off Baltimare? Posey has a goal of building an undead army so it makes sense she would save her assets.
>I think we should leave her on the torpedo boat, and let the Kostroma crew repair the boiler. Idk.
I second this. There are two practical reasons to take her with us. The first is to calm down the pirates if any are still lucid, but Wistful Wonder can also do that. The second is to restore the boiler to full functionality. We don't need to do that unless if we absolutely want to take the whole Kostroma with us, and you need to come up with a better argument for doing that than >money.
>>193814
>What bothered me more was the foiled ambush outside of the airship - not because it was foiled, but because I got blamed for an organized squad of 10 soldiers explicitly stated to be special forces being undesirable to 1v10
I'm again sorry about that. It's my fault for not knowing how DnD combat works and thinking I could take out their leader without being detected.
>because they didn't want to fight the aberrant monsters outside the house without trying to make a distraction, ask if there were alternate ways of exiting the house, or putting in any of the effort of avoiding combat, and because I couldn't get the players to walk forward on a street where you could literally only go forward or backward, and so had to cut out a battle, a scene, and several buildings.
I really wanted to explore the whole village but a number of things kept Cavaliere from doing that. There was the repeated issue of an apparent time crunch where we had to get the NPCs out or they would be surrounded by monsters and the GRU.
>I was terrified that the players would find some way to miss the torpedo boat and I'm happy that making it basically invisible and letting it ambush the players worked.
What's funny is that your prediction was correct and we were going to try to sneak by it again.

>>193813
>But zeeb waifu
Bro, if you bring horny is going to get in the way of our plans, I'm going to read her entrails.
>>193819
>Cavaliere has the excuse of simply not having time to buy healing items and having to rely on the meagre amount we got at the start of the mission.
Probably should have thought harder about your starting equipment, but it's too late for that.
>We are sorely missing those healers and it would have been nice if one of the scientists or other ponies had medical expertise.
I would prefer to just loot a wand of Cure Light Wounds. Mundane healing is a joke.
>This feels ludicrous.
It's really not. A lvl 2 nonelite character has 700 gold pieces in equipment, and potions are the most sensible thing to give them.
>I don't know what sort of kit the Soviets were using circa 1945.
This is not the Soviet Union. This is magical pony land.
>Why don't you just park it in the water off Baltimare?
That was my original plan. I even have another one parked in the swamp.
Nice thing about mindless undead is that you can just order them to bury themselves and wait to be summoned at a later date.
>The first is to calm down the pirates if any are still lucid
I wasn't really planning on leaving the pirates alive.
>The second is to restore the boiler to full functionality
The Kostroma crew should be able to do that.
>you need to come up with a better argument for doing that than >money
Well, since you're so intent on rescuing NPCs, you should consider that they would need a boat big enough to carry them all if they want to leave the island alive.
Money is also the reason why we came. Posey is a single mother and an aspiring small business entrepreneur. She's not killing the Eldritch abomination for free. Also, it's what a real pirate would do.

>>193819
>>193820
>Zeeb
So, the Torpedo boat works, you only need the third engine if you needed to, let's say, outrun a destroyer. Or fight a destroyer. Or evade the main guns of a destroyer. For almost any other purpose, the torpedo boat is fine.

>Entrails
Bruh. She's not a chicken.

I understand Silver wanting to get inside her, but Posey?

>Healing potions and loot and what have you
Have you considered that you haven't actually taken down any of the Spetsnaz soldiers (except maybe ones taken out by grenades) in order to loot them?

As for the sailors, if they had anything of value, they either didn't have time to take it off the ship before the mutiny forced them off, or they are mind controlled and don't think to take it off the ship. Either way, basically everything of value on the Kostroma stayed where it was prior to the mutiny.

Admittedly not having a healer among the NPCs was a missed opportunity

>700 gold
Guns are expensive, then consider helmets, gas masks, and a myriad of other required equipment

>>193820
>Puerto Rico flag
I didn't think you were a spic.
>I wasn't really planning on leaving the pirates alive.
Why not? A "real pirate" would incorporate the willing within a rival crew into one's own. And anyway if we're trying to keep NPCs alive we might as well go for them all.
>Well, since you're so intent on rescuing NPCs, you should consider that they would need a boat big enough to carry them all if they want to leave the island alive.
That's a good point. Nevertheless, the swan boat plus the life boats were enough to carry our entire retinue up to now. The torpedo boat would be enough for the pirate crew plus whatever remains of the Kostroma crew. However, if we send off one of the boats prematurely then we might not have enough capacity on the remaining one.
>Money is also the reason why we came. Posey is a single mother and an aspiring small business entrepreneur. She's not killing the Eldritch abomination for free.
As it stands, we can negotiate for a far larger sum than we would have gotten. On top of a successful mission, thwarting a Stalliongrad research experiment, saving the world from some entity, retrieving information on said entity, and getting a large number of defectors/prisoners who may prove useful will all add up. That's in addition to whatever we carry from the Kostroma, whether that be money, precious metals, weapons, or secret documents. Except for the remains of the entity and whatever else we can't carry with us, the ship itself probably will not be valuable.
>Also, it's what a real pirate would do.
The real pirates were using a torpedo boat. This isn't the age of sail where you could realistically upgun a merchant vessel to stand a chance against a dedicated ship of war. There is a very real chance it will get boarded or sunk if we try to leave with it.
>>193823
So it seems we're picking between two bonii where one maximizes speed for our escape and the other lets us use the Kostroma.

>>193826
>thwarting a Stalliongrad research experiment, saving the world from some entity, retrieving information on said entity,
If only there were some way to prove it...

>Defectors
That's actually a good point

>>193826
>So it seems we're picking between two bonii where one maximizes speed for our escape and the other lets us use the Kostroma.
Yes.

>>193827
Another reason to bring the zeeb: she can help get the Kostroma running and we can bring it carrying the corpse of the Traveler to Clear Waters and prove that we killed a god. And of course, killing a god deserves more pay.

We just need to hold him to destroying the corpse by any means necessary once we prove it.

>>193828
>We just need to hold him to destroying the corpse by any means necessary once we prove it.
That is incredibly naive and he would have no ability to ensure that himself. The only creatures that can make sure it is destroyed is ourselves, right now. Photos, documents, and testimony from the crew will be enough to prove our case.

>>193828
A corpse of a dead god would surely be valued by the Blackhooves and New Mareland military intelligence. Contact Stalliongrad millitary intelligence and you can get a bidding war started. Maybe even add Changlingia, or the Empire.

>>193831
It would be valued by ME, the Necromancer. I already have plans on what I would do when I acquire the body of a creature with Divine Rank.
I intend to leverage my earned recognition with the Blackhooves and the Military from succeeding on this successful mission to secure a large research grant for the College of Arcane Sciences.
Furthermore, I have another research proposal to exterminate the Changeling occupiers in Equestria with a necrotic hyperweapon, which I call the Manehattan Project. I think the military might be very interested in it.

>>193828
>we can bring it carrying the corpse of the Traveler to Clear Waters and prove that we killed a god. And of course, killing a god deserves more pay.
We do have the camera for proof of everything.
Furthermore, we have all of the living airponies to testify for what we went through. Their testimony alone should be enough proof even without pictures.

>>193836
The laboratory is right next to where it's stored as well, so if it's not too damaged we should be able to loot documents that were left behind. The research information that's contained will be even more value.

I’d hardly be surprised if no one wants to speculate about new quest ideas, but this old and crowed cemetery gives me ideas for the necropolis I’m planning in a quest for Silver to find a very special ring.

>>193863
>I’d hardly be surprised if no one wants to speculate about new quest ideas
I speculate all of the time, but I try to keep it to myself so that I don't annoy everyone. Also I try to focus on the quest at hand.
As for future quests, I have several things that I would like to do with my downtime after this quest, which include orchestrating a false haunting, buying some land, getting clout with the Blackhooves, getting clout with the university, driving out some communists, opening a business, acquiring research grants, conjuring a castle, and reporting back to the League. I do not know how much money I will have or what level I will be, so I cannot plan for specifics, but I have a lot of ideas.
On the topic, while looking for materials for my Savage Tide Campaign, I found interesting mechanics and flavors for Hauntings of various natures, and I thought some of them might be similar to what we are encountering right now (Dreamscape, Planar Cancer, Bad Place, Entity, etc). They supplement the Libris Mortis rules well. GM might find them useful for quests going, including that Necropolis.
https://archive.org/details/DragonMagazine260_201801/DragonMagazine336/page/n17/mode/1up
Obviously, I do not expect this to work the same way, but it made me wonder if Posey's turning ability might be able to help exorcise the Intruder's Influence in some contexts going forward. Posey is an exorcist by profession.
>necropolis I’m planning in a quest for Silver to find
>Silver
Oi, Posey is literally a Necropolitan.

>>193863
Do you want to hear speculation?

>>193876
nods

One, it can give me ideas. Two, especially if you want something, you’re more likely to get it if u have time to think about it.

>>193877
I'd love to experience battle in the snow and ice. Explosions sending columns of snow into the air, shaking nearby snow-covered evergreens. Crimson blood staining the otherwise pristine white landscape. Kinda like Wasteland 3's setting. That opening mission where the Rangers get ambushed outside the frozen dam is peak.

>>193863
>but this old and crowed cemetery gives me ideas
This pone paying respect gives me ideas too.

>>193877
>speculation
Well, as far as speculation goes, I can only imagine how this event plays into the larger overall plot of the story. What I do think is that it involves a major milestone in character progression, as characters after having neutralized a potentially continental level threat can be considered to be on the latter end of the "heroes of the realm" tier of play, potentially approaching the "masters of the realm" tier of play, which means characters leveling up (I anticipate being 7+ soon) and gaining key class features and game-changing feats such as leadership. If victorious in this mission, with the elite airponies as witnesses to our valor, the party will have gained great renown among the Navy and the Blackhooves as mercenaries, perhaps with roleplay-oriented rewards similar to the Heroes Of Battle Recognition Point System. Having such recognition would mean that the Blackhooves and the Navy would be more likely to solicit party members in the future, possibly for major military campaign operations that would bring the game's plot more in line with the Equestria At War inspired military campaign it has been fluffed as. This might include things like neutralizing changeling incursions or seizing military checkpoints. Being more involved in military operations may also mean that players, through their actions, may have opertunities to make decisions that impact the overall fate of the occupied Equestria. Recognition ad mercenaries from the military and ruling party may also give players more freedom to operate as they please in Baltimare, like having access to military-restricted weapons, or building standing armies of followers, opening up many more personal activities for characters. The military may become more actutely interested in the abilities of the individual characters, possibly soliciting them for quests tailored to their specific skillsets and class abilities.
If the game does transition towards a more military style of play, characters may be called on to assist in major military campaigns, directly or indirectly. This would lead them to new locations both nearby and remote, doing various optional or less optional quests to assist allies or undermine enemies, perhaps using the Victory Point system in Heroes Of Battle.

As for military missions, the role of Changelings has yet to manifest in my two years experience playing (at least not visibly), so I speculate that they will either make an aggressive move in the near future or the party will be called on to attack or infiltrate changeling hives. I understood it that the major goal of this campaign is to eventually liberate Equestria from changeling occupation, so I feel like what we have done so far must have helped prepare us for that or somehow contributed to that. Bug squishing on the horizon.
While characters may have varying levels of interest in participating in a full scale war with changelings, to my understanding there are a majority of canon characters from FiM currently cocooned or worse, which is a status quo that few players would be willing to accept, so I imagine that might play a role in future adventures.

I anticipate that all of this happens after some downtime though, with players having several months to themselves before a major plot point summons them again. Players would then have the opportunity to spend their money and properly equip themselves. They might also have time for extreme training and personal contemplation (which means leveling and/or rebuilding character sheets). With the funds from this mission, particularly of the Kostroma is captured and sold, players may be able to open businesses, research topics that interest them, and build armies for those interested. Other players may be interested in crafting magic items, or other downtime activities.

The advent of the Intruder may be relevant to the plot as it represents an otherworldly extraplanar threat to the world, and may foreshadow more to come in the future. Perhaps higher level characters might find themselves in the midst of a full force alien incursion, along the lines of a Githyanki or Mindflayer invasion, or even possibly a demonic invasion. I speculate that that might only come in the distant future though, as terrestrial military conflicts are far more relevant.

>>193863
Cavaliere would confront grave robbers. But there are other things he could do.
>>193880
>recognition
Maybe. I would like to offset the distrust the Blackhooves have, understandably, toward outsiders like us. Just being able to complete mundane quests while having an understanding with the authorities in charge is an understated bonus. It also doesn't come at the cost of damaging reputation with any other group in Stalliongrad.
>changelings
I suppose that's the end goal. Unfortunately that would also mean the end of the campaign (Posey's rampage notwithstanding), and I don't think GM Pony wants to conclude it yet. That's why we're being asked about quests.
>downtime
I'm fine with that. We don't have to simulate every single day. However after this quest we can have a couple of days of less intense gameplay.
>They might also have time for extreme training and personal contemplation (which means leveling and/or rebuilding character sheets).
This is what Cavaliere needs.

>>193880
Well, maybe “speculation” was the wrong word. What I meant was “do you have any suggestions or plans or ideas for possible quests or other things for your character to do?”

>>193882
Tbh, it would depend what level we are at the end of this, but I have quite a few downtime activities planned, which could be done in or out of character depending on how GM wants to run them.

Since I follow this and the other thread anyway, do you guys want a healer? I'm way more familiar with original-pathfinder than 3.5, but 3.5 had a 'healer' class (medic, from Heroes of Battle, suggests Reddit, maybe) that would bypass the deific aspects that weird me out just a bit.

But other ideas about "healers" I've had were the cleric who crafted 'cause medium wounds' potions as a lobbed touch-attack weapon; this would have the benefit of accumulating health potions if I'm not drained of magical resources on any given day. But the potion-as-touch_attack would require a nod from the DM going into it.

Or just a bard? Skill monkey with Jack-of-All-Trades as a career. Not the best healer but could operate a lockpit kit without too much of a penalty, and as a griffon would presumably have a natural-attack of 2x1d4+STR (...?) though if I'm invited as something winged I'd want to know how flight math works around these parts. Also a bard-birb makes me think I should have Ghost Sound as a race feature, albeit with some heavy penalties (think crow that learned to curse in English)

Although I've gotten the impression you guys have met before coming to this image board, meaning you have a lot more history as a group than even is seen here...so I would understand if my application is denied.
But since you're going into a new area, introducing me would be easy - I'll just show up as a slightly insane form of myself but regain most of that after a secured nap.

If not I'll wish you a happy new year liberating the Kostromo

>>193884
The Healer class is just a worse Cleric imo (still not terrible), with worse proficiencies and worse spellcasting. It's best and most interesting feature is the Unicorn Mount, but that wouldn't really make sense in this universe.

Play whatever character you want. If you have ideas, I could help you out with your build.

If you are interested in playing a Healer, Factotum can also be a decent fallback healer (if you have decent Wisdom and good stats all around). A unicorn Factotum was going to be my fallback character in case Posey was destroyed. Great Jack Of All Trades class, in the same vein as Bard.

>>193884
Those are cute hoers.

>>193884
A bard would be pretty cool. Healing is always a plus, too. I'm planning on turning Kira into a Mystic Ranger after she gets back from the mission which would give her more spell slots and of higher levels, which she could put to use towards healing spells.

But ye, all are welcome as long as you're not a butt.

>if you want something, you’re more likely to get it if u have time to think about it
What I want more than anything is to level up. Call me a munchkin, but all my characters ambitions and goals revolve around the progression of her personal spellcasting abilities (Animate Dead doesn't appear on my spell list until lvl 8), and I do not want to continue to rely on broken human sacrifice gimmicks to do that, so leveling is a priority for me. Posey's level adjustment was bought-off (before her abilities were reduced), so she should be leveling at a higher rate than her peers until she gets to their level, so I hope to be at least the same level of the party by the end of this quest. I've been roughly estimating what we've experienced on this quest over the past year (monster CR estimated by HP and attacks, consequential diplomacy rolls made, NPCs rescued, objectives found), and based on my math we could have gotten enough XP to level up multiple times, and that's before we fight the Eldritch God, so I would hope that we do level up at least once after this. I know that the prospect of leveling makes you a bit queezy, but the other characters in this game have been struggling through a lot of this quest, so I don't think giving them more HP/damage is going to be that disruptive.
I do not want to come off as too demanding though.

That aside, I would like to progress as a character, with the themes and goals that originally set out for Posey. Posey came to Equestria for a purpose that can be summer up with one word: vainglory. She came to conquer, to expand her powers, and to revel in such. Of course, I would not expect you to let me just take over the world and make the campaign revolve around Posey, but I would like to make some military or diplomatic accomplishments later in the game.
For now though, there are a lot of loose plot points and downtime activities that I would like to address. Because they are so many in total, I would like to streamline some of them without necessarily doing them all in-character. Posey's immediate plans would include:
>Acquiring Curwhinny's farm
Curwhinny's farm is prime real estate, with a dungeon underneath and easy access to bones (and proximity to the school). Posey will persuade the ghosts to help her in her blockbusting scheme to lower the price of the land before she buys it. Then she would mail their haunted objects to their appropriate locations as promised.
Posey intends to lair on the farm full time. If given the opportunity, she would like to conjure a castle there, a Crystal Palace style building made of obsidian and onyx. This might be a while off, although I know some RAW-tarded gimmick to do it early (create multiple undead with the landlord feat).
>Assemble the horde
Posey will take the undead leadership feat at the earliest opportunity, and when she does she will do it in the similar vein as the Society Of Bones normally does, through infiltration. The Society's army is already here, Posey just needs to wake them up and give the signal for the Dread League's sleeper agents to pull themselves from the grave. She will only do this after she has a lair and safehouse to safely stow them.
>Open a research facility
Posey will then open a business, a Criminal Organization with a Scholarly Organization as its front. Posey will solicit grants from the College Of Arcane Sciences for this. She intends to do legitimate work while also contributing to her evil plans. Posey would study Necromantic magic and undead, develop new spells, consult on necromantic problems, study her artifact tiara, study any piece of the intruder she recovers, and also look for any Necromantic research that Curwhinny may have had. She may also have the opportunity to study the cadaver of the Intruder.
Once Posey does this, she would make checks for running a business month by month, using a follower or hireling to stand in for her if she goes adventuring.
On these points:
>Study Necromantic magic
This would be Posey's day job. She would study various necromantic topics. If GM wishes, this would be a way to lore dump stuff related to necromancy, undeath, or other topics.
>Develop spells
I usually avoid homebrew because I don't think it mixes well with my desire to optimize, but I had some ideas for some trivial spells that Posey might sell to the military. One of them is a spell that draws out the bloody legacy of a weapon and reveals history of where it was used to kill, useful for forensics and military applications. Another was a lvl 1 version of the Necrosurgery cantrip (Posey does not have cantrips), which deals damage to the target but also gives them a hefty bonus to recover from disease. Another was a "foal friendly" version of Animate Dead that is only useful for reanimating tiny harmles creatures such as dead pets while emulating their behaviors in life. I wouldn't even necessarily want to learn these spells, just show that Posey is an innovator.
>Study Tiara
Idk how useful the cursed Tiara actually is, but it sounds cool. Posey would like to study it in a semi-responsible way in a controlled environment.
>Consult
This is the "village witch" niche. Posey could make knowledge checks for a small fee to consult on ponies experiencing Necromantic problems. She may even cast Speak With Dead to obtain info from the dead upon request: a job that she would have near exclusive access to, because Speak With Dead is otherwise a spell only on the Cleric list, and most faiths have writs against disturbing corpses.
>Study the Intruder
Posey might study the Intruder, because the concept of a dead god interests her due to her backstory. She would do this carefully, knowing that the Intruder is the kind of monster that refuses to stay buried

>Report back to the University
As part of the previous step, Posey will work in tandem with the College Of Arcane Sciences to raise her profile as a legitimate, reputable and law-abiding Necrologist. She will credit the college for supporting her skills as a Warmagus and her success on this mission (a lie) to earn favor for the University among the Blackhooves, which the university will graciously accept if they know what is good for them. This may help to further undermine the communist rival University, as well as earn Posey kickbacks for putting in a good word for them.
Furthermore, it would also demonstrate Posey's skill to the University, which would mean that they would be more likely to give her research grants or quests. It is so far unclear what the College of Arcane Sciences actually does aside from cast the Necrosurgery cantrip, so using the University as a Questgiver has a lot of potential. Posey could receive jobs to work as an exorcist, a paranormal investigator, a monster-hunter, a consultant or similar professional scholarly Necromancer jobs. Although this is a modern setting, Equestria is still a high-magic setting where the forces of nature themselves are dependent on the harmonious and friendly relations between ponies, so in the context of war and suffering restless dead and paranormal outbreaks might be a common occurrence: there is always work for a Necrologist where there is war. The graveyard that GM mentioned might be exactly what Posey would be sent to check as an investigator.
Posey has her own motivation for doing this besides clout though: she knows that only well behaved researchers get access to their own supply of cadavers.
>Making friends
This would be what Posey was doing from the beginning, that is meeting any and all of Licorice Lament's contacts with Necromancers in the Dread League, living or dead.
Posey also wants to make friends in other ways, to forge powerful connections and alliances.
>Leto and August
Posey has an idea to put the Relic on sale (it seems to not be useful to her) to draw out August to find him again. She would do this not to attack him, but offer him a trade to receive the relic in exchange for letting her draw some of his blood. Posey is a passive supporter of the ELF, as Changelings are a common enemy for her. August might make a decent Death Knight too.
She intends to use his blood as bait (the blood of his slayer) to attempt a ritual to draw out the spirit of Little Leto to ressureect him as a Crimson Death (a vestige of a vampire that has possessed swamp gasses), or eventually as a vampire proper. Baka may be interested in assisting with this.
(There is no mechanical basis for this, only lore)
>Day Low Rain? How is your sister doing?
Mare DuWell is still a zombie, but Posey is interested in recovering her full powers as a Sorceress. With investment, research and spells, Posey may find a way to promote her to an intelligent zombie, such as a Necropolitan Zombie (no known method), an Thinking Zombie (Unliving Identity), or a Juju Zombie (Create Undead). Posey may be able to do this soon, since she may have enough money to purchase a scroll of the latter.
This might just turn into a pattern of reanimating villains that Silver has killed, but I am okay with that.
>Repay Licorice Lament
After opening her facilities, Posey will at some point tell Lament that she is thankful for his services, and she will reimburse him for the lodging and cover, either by paying an appropriate amount of gold for her lodging or fulfilling any favors he might ask of her. She does not intend to cut ties with Lament, only to politely transition away from being a freeloader in his guest house.
Worth noting, the Black Horse of inflation is still an open mantle in Posey's prophecy. Wine prices will not be affected.
>Enroll Gloomy in school
I guess I could do this. It was brought up before. It would create opportunities to develop Gloomy as a character.
>Dinner with Agire
Posey brought back Agire as a ghoul to repay the favor she promised to the Kaftar community for his passing, but she did not do it out of the kindness of her heart. Posey was interested in Agire because she wants the successor of the Kaftar clergy to be allied with her. A ghoul is one of the types of undead that retains its memories of life, and Agire could even be considered to be a ghoul who was "Touched By The King" (a gravetouched ghoul) and may redevelop his class abilities and Clerical magic through his newfound belief in evil and undeath, possibly with new levels gained from martyrdom. Posey will monitor his recovery with weekly or biweekly meetings over dinner. Repeated castings of Rejuvenating Corpse could help to recover Agire's body/powers and sate his endless hunger (Baka may be able to assist with this if neither Agire nor the head Cleric can). Casting this spell overtime may cause participating non-skeletal undead to become fleshvigor undead, who have lively bodies and could even pass as living creatures.
When or if Agire recovers, Posey will steer him to embrace his ghoulish instincts and spread them across the Gnoll community. In D&D, Yeenoghu is the demon prince of gnolls and ghouls, and if any equivalent to such a beast exists in its setting then Agire is to be his champion. She will use him to sow extremism in the Gnoll community and raise an army of demon-worshipping fanatics ready to take up arms when she eventually moves to take over Baltimare (kind of a Scar & Hyenas Lion King deal), like the Storm King did. She will also seek to unite the Kaftar and Crocutta, by having Agire raise the Crocutta shaman just like how Posey raised him in a gesture of friendship. The mention of how the Kaftar's dead are buried upright waiting for the end of the world interests me, it's almost as if they are on standby for somepony to summon them.
I have a half-finished statblock for Agire, if GM is interested.

So new character I wantd to share you guys.

Name: Anonymous

Race: bipedal none pony, eww

Wis: Ehh...
Dex: wiggle wiggle~ (has the ability to sit in any position before a computer for indefinite time)
Str: In general (6) but "do it for her" (20)
Cha: huge faggot
Con: 30 (can survive on the greasiest goyfeed there is, however, allergic to soy)
Int: Does jigsaw puzzles count?

Skills: Shenanigans
I just wanna be funny^^

>>193884
>Or just a bard? Skill monkey with Jack-of-All-Trades as a career. Not the best healer but could operate a lockpit kit without too much of a penalty, and as a griffon would presumably have a natural-attack of 2x1d4+STR (...?) though if I'm invited as something winged I'd want to know how flight math works around these parts. Also a bard-birb makes me think I should have Ghost Sound as a race feature, albeit with some heavy penalties (think crow that learned to curse in English)
You can go for it. There's already a bard pony in the game named Amber Sunset, but she's not with the main group right now and I don't know when she will join a quest. The advantage of having two bards is of course that they can play music together. However, variety is the spice of life. We started this current quest with a cleric, but he has gone inactive since. Other than Posey we don't have any dedicated magic users. I can list out the current PCs if you want.
I'm not sure what the race features exactly are (they were hashed out a while ago but I kind of forgot), but I do know that griffons are naturally poor fliers. https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Fly

>Although I've gotten the impression you guys have met before coming to this image board, meaning you have a lot more history as a group than even is seen here...so I would understand if my application is denied.
None of us had to fill out an application to play. I never had contact with GM Pony before playing this game and Posey's player doesn't know us, either.

>>193890
Kek
Having somepony to tank all the damage is useful....
What happened to Virgin Flame?

>>193866
>I found interesting mechanics and flavors for Hauntings
You may as well speak about it. I had a plan many years ago for Dark Star to encounter a haunting. I recently had a plan for Silver or especially Cavaliere to encounter a haunting. I like hauntings.

>Posey is literally a necropolitain
But she doesn't have a reason to rob the grave of the old pirate buried in that cemetery to get his magical ring. Silver does.

>>193878
Uh... There are so few places cold enough for that. Maybe if the party does something in Trottingham, maybe in Whinnysota if Spark comes back, or maybe if the party does something in Nova Griffonia or Yakyakistan.

>>193879
Like what?

>Heroes of the realm, or potentially masters of the realm
Uh... what?

>Recognition by Blackhooves
Technically it was supposed to be a secret mission by a single naval commander who is doing all of this secretly and off the books because he has no trust in his own government and the Blackhooves specifically, and he's paying for all of this by pretending that the party are pirates he is paying a ransom to. But maybe? Again, a part of the question is what players want to do in the future

>This might include things like neutralizing changeling incursions or seizing military checkpoints
Maybe? I have multiple suggestions for potential quests in the future

>Being more involved in military operations may also mean that players, through their actions, may have opertunities to make decisions that impact the overall fate of the occupied Equestria
In what way?

>Recognition ad mercenaries from the military and ruling party may also give players more freedom to operate as they please in Baltimare, like having access to military-restricted weapons, or building standing armies of followers, opening up many more personal activities for characters
This sounds pretty appealing to me. Is this what players want? Is this what (You) want?

>characters may be called on to assist in major military campaigns, directly or indirectly. This would lead them to new locations both nearby and remote
I will definitely list a set of potential quests

>the role of Changelings has yet to manifest in my two years experience playing (at least not visibly)
I have had multiple quests where Changeling infiltrators were either central characters in the quest, or were involved in the periphery or minor roles. And in about half of all instances, players have completely failed to discover the infiltrators. Including Posey. They just don't notice and the changelings win. Could I have more changeling infiltrators in the setting? Yes, but again, you keep missing them when I add them in the game, so in order for players to find them I would need to make a very large portion of encountered characters secretly changelings (which admittedly I've done on a few occassions), and that gets old after a while.

Stop and think about it for a moment. If you were a changeling, why wouldn't you just use your shape shifting ability to pretend to be a pony/griffin? I know that it actually does work.

But sure, a changeling incursion, or an offensive opperation into changeling lands, is a possibility. I had another idea of accidentally finding a defunct changeling hive in an odd location, but that's a seperate idea.

>there are a majority of canon characters from FiM currently cocooned or worse
Canon characters have met a variety of fates, and many of them are still roaming about. I have not included almost any canon characters at all because any canon character is immediately more important than basically any of my original characters, and in any event, the intent was always to keep the campaign kind of smaller scale. Beneath the level of the canon events of the show.

>Several months
Several months?!?!?!?!?

>Githyanki
A "Githyanki" sounds similiar to "Tiyanki," the squid-like space whales of Stellaris, so I chose to believe that they are basically that

>Alien Invasion/Demonic Incursion
I mean, I can't say I've never contemplated i

I would like to offset the distrust the Blackhooves have, understandably, toward outsiders like us.
takes notes

>mundane quests
Like what?

>>193883
>it would depend what level we are at the end of this
Why? Why would it depend on that?

>>193892
>You may as well speak about it.
The mechanics are in the link. There's a few different types.
There are other haunting rules in Libris Mortis too.
>But she doesn't have a reason to rob the grave
Posey doesn't need a reason to rob graves.
>magical ring
That's a reason. Magic jewelry is great.
>Uh... what?
It's a 5e-ism. Referring to the mid levels of character progression.
>Technically it was supposed to be a secret mission by a single naval commander who is doing all of this secretly and off the books because he has no trust in his own government and the Blackhooves specifically
Very well. I can build a relationship with Captain Waters.
>In what way?
Perhaps the party might go on quests that impact the results of major wars in the region, join certain sides, or otherwise influence history.
>This sounds pretty appealing to me. Is this what players want? Is this what (You) want?
Yes. It's Posey's main mission as an infiltrator.
The reason why Posey goes about using her real name despite her precarious position is that she wants to raise her public profile for her own vanity and power.
>you keep missing them when I add them in the game
..... Hmmm, that does pose a challenge...
>I have not included almost any canon characters at all because any canon character is immediately more important than basically any of my original characters, and in any event, the intent was always to keep the campaign kind of smaller scale. Beneath the level of the canon events of the show.
Understandable.
>Why? Why would it depend on that?
Mostly because spell access it would determine what my character is capable of in her free time, and whether or not she has minions she can control.

>>193884
Huzzah! (Potential) New friend!

>Touch attack weapon
I mean... You can just as easily throw a Molotov cocktail

>As a griffin
Oh... A griffin

Griffin males are a little less desired as they are less desirable in romantic interactions than pony stallions (certainly i can make it work as necessary)... Bu I get the impression that the preference is no romance at all.

>I've gotten the impression you guys met before coming to this imageboard
No, I know all of the people here from this imageboard. Of the active players I've only met Cavaliere, and Shimmering Spark, Tenebrous, and Brie among the inactive players

>Just show up in a new area
Maybe

Right now the party has three warriors and one half of a spell caster. So a spell caster or a rogue would be most useful

>>193885
>No unicorn mount
You don't want a unicorn mount? I mean sure, you can't mount a unicorn in the traditional sense, but there are ways to work with this.

>>193890
Hello again!

>>193892
>I recently had a plan for Silver or especially Cavaliere to encounter a haunting. I like hauntings.
I prefer Cavaliere to deal with missions of the physical variety, though I can see this working as a partnership.
>Uh... There are so few places cold enough for that.
Baltimare is relatively warm but in January much of Equestria would have snowfall. Even Ponyville has it.
>Technically it was supposed to be a secret mission by a single naval commander who is doing all of this secretly and off the books because he has no trust in his own government and the Blackhooves specifically, and he's paying for all of this by pretending that the party are pirates he is paying a ransom to. But maybe?
Sounds like a big gamble on his part. I don't know how this will affect him, but for the party it will attract attention from some powerful personages within the Blackhooves.
>This sounds pretty appealing to me. Is this what players want? Is this what (You) want?
Besides Cavaliere being able to carry his revolver in Baltimare (which the Blackhooves may not even be able to affect, given the civilian administration), it's not terribly important for either of my characters. I have no use for a standing army, and if a PC is not either military or a rebel I don't see how having an alive "army" would even work in an organized occupation state. It makes sense in the pseudo-renaissance world of DnD, less so in this setting. Maybe if we were in the EaW version of Yugoslavia and we could recruit partisans, but that's not what this is.
>And in about half of all instances, players have completely failed to discover the infiltrators.
Players keep missing magic items lying out in the open and you're surprised that they don't spot spies who are trying not to be found?
Nevertheless, this is the sort of thing Cavaliere is cut out for and he hasn't had a chance to find any yet.
>Like what?
Aforementioned infiltrators, criminals on the run, missing ponies, personal disagreements that need a negotiator, etc. Small-scale stuff that can be solved by a single, skilled creature with wits and a gun.
And yes this is completely at odds with what Posey wants, which is why I think they'll have to split ways.
>>193893
>The reason why Posey goes about using her real name despite her precarious position is that she wants to raise her public profile for her own vanity and power.
But she goes by the alias Rosey Ring.
>>193894
>Griffin males are a little less desired as they are less desirable in romantic interactions than pony stallions (certainly i can make it work as necessary)
Come now, the -1 charisma penalty is not that bad. One just needs a good personality.

>>193895
You could apply the magic-blooded template to a race for +2 Cha -2 Wis
>alias
Rosey Ring is her actual name (matches her cutie mark). Posey is her nickname.

>>193894
>Molotov cocktail
But can I store up molotovs as the condensation of my unused daily magic energies?
Also don't molotovs, even in the game, burn a little but until they make a check? Also something about tossing unhealth potions just appealed to me, though after reading about PF deities that have both life and death domains, I would as a cleric thereof, have to be doctrinally opposed to everything I find out about Posey, since undead things in general stand against their domain. Life is natural, death is natural, the god's goal is for greater, more natural existence, and here I would be consorting with the unnatural.

>But I get the impression that the preference is no romance
Every group I've been with, player or DM, has been of the murderhobo variety. Also I never play 'dating sims' because they're dumb and nothing about that tortuous set of rituals appeal to me.

>So a spell caster or a rogue would be most useful
Most systems I try to play a gnoll sorceror, though the charisma hit a 3.5 gnoll has can make that ... challenging but against that, the 4thEd game I DM'd had as their major damage dealer, a "seven foot four, three hundred and seventy five pound sneakity-sneak" who carried a rapier but generally did-in foes with his 1d6-twice claws.
Plus sneak attack.

>>193895
>Come now, the -1 charisma penalty is not that bad
So, this invites the major question what material are you using?
I have a now-dated set of Ponyfinder books (random cover attached, and I don't think I have that one) that rely on Pathfinder rules, but in that system I can use PCgen, which has a great deal of anything I might like to include in my games, already converted. 3.5 exists for it, but seems very limited - can't find the healer class, or surely there were some books extending the race choices to play-as-monsters once in a while?
I know some of the 1e diehards hate PF with a passion because there are so many races, and of course a lot of people hate 5e because yes there are as many races as you like but it doesn't make the slightest difference (that's my major problem with that system, is that nothing makes any difference - no feats, incredibly limited stats, magic items are heavily constrained...what was the point of calling it a fantasy system?)

The other question, is what level are you guys at? Running around at 1st-level is never fun, and especially when everyone else has a nice set of problem solvers. But in reading the post about Posey's challenges, it seems everybody is at their own level? As with 5e, a 'level isnt important' game probably isn't something that would be all that fun after a while, so I should consider that, too.

>>193897
>I would as a cleric thereof, have to be doctrinally opposed to everything I find out about Posey, since undead things in general stand against their domain.
Posey is operating incognito and has gone so far as to cast a "hide alignment" spell for this quest. Though, her concealment does leave much to be desired....
>Also I never play 'dating sims' because they're dumb and nothing about that tortuous set of rituals appeal to me.
That's alright. Just keep in mind there is a lot of it between PCs and NPCs, even though it has not been common during this quest. They also get quite explicit.
>So, this invites the major question what material are you using?
I'm not sure what all the sources GM Pony is using but it's a mish-mash. I don't know what's been taken from Ponyfinder, but almost everything mechanical is derived from DnD 3.5e. Some things, like guns, are from DnD Modern, and of course the entire setting comes from Equestria at War. As for classes, any official 3.5e source books are probably allowed and Posey's player is a good source if you have questions. You can also ask the GM Pony about what's allowed; Kirafiki is a half-snake half-pony lamia which is not a canon race in either FiM or EaW. Equestria at War also has every race which was shown in the show and movie, so there's hardly any limits.

>The other question, is what level are you guys at?
Silver Sword and some other characters are at level 6. Amber Sunset and Cavaliere are at level 5. Posey is at level 4, I think, but that is due to an offset because of her character build. I will warn you that GM Pony is extremely reluctant to level characters up due to difficulty in creating balanced encounters. I'd advise developing your character as a finished product rather than as a starting point, because you will be waiting a while.

>>193897
>So, this invites the major question what material are you using?
I would like an answer to this question too.

Here are some potential quest ideas. These ones are... maybe medium length or intensity? These are more "martial" ideas, which is to say, yeah, let's assume that party members have been more or less allowed to form their own mercenary force. Just assume that force size is limited to ~28 characters.

Yakyakistan
Yakyakistan is being invaded by the Changeling Hegemony and at least portions are expected to fall quickly. Fly in, and rescue a set of Equestrian emigres. This quest is presumably either given by people related to the emigres as a sort of rescue mission, by ELF who wish to cause harm to changeling efforts, or possibly by the Blackhooves who either have assets they want to withdraw or wish to cause harm to the changeling efforts. This would be a semi-mountainous location, have perhaps buildings like ancient monasteries or fortresses carved into mountains, and could take place either in the present time (January, heart of winter) or spring.

New Mareland
Wingbardy has launched a counter invasion of Talouse, and then Wingbady is now launching a force into the New Mareland heartland. No troops can be spared, so mercenaries are brought in as a stop gap measure to attempt to plug and repel breaches in the line. This idea has multiple possible executions

One, trench warfare. Hold the line against repeated Wingbardian assaults as they invade.

Second, Outback. After the Wingbardians have created a breach they spill into an a rural area with sheep-stations - little ranch houses with water-windmills, barbed wire, shrubs and thin plains - and small rural towns.

Third, Hoovesplain. This is along the same river-defense line, but further south in a large city. One concept for this was to have the dam upriver of the city be blown, and parts of it are underwater. The idea was that you move in a small boat, or fly or however, from the exposed rooftops of houses and buildings, trying to find barges carrying enemy guns attempting a crossing, and call in air or artillery strikes against them. In a different conception, possibly after the latter, there is an aluminum foundry that must be protected, as well as a factory making aircraft bodies, with fighting through or around the factories.

Another idea is a drained lake, where you fight in a mostly dead, brown and muddy depression that was recently the reservoir of a blown dam. There may be ruins from drowned buildings and towns, or boats and barges left in the mud. This area may not be about fighting so much as finding a site that could be an entry to a parallel dimension - the Dream Time.

Les Meridianes
This takes place in a chain of islands south of the dragon island sort of between Equestria, Zebrica, and New Mareland. These islands, at least I think, were originally inhabited by ponies, but were later colonized by waves of horses, zebras, and especially the Aquellians, who set up a colonial rule over the island chain. When the Aquellian Revoution took place, the islands remained loyalist and declared independence.

There are a few ideas for how these become involved, but my favored idea is that an Equestrian naval commander of Free Equestria decides to just takeover an island as his personal fiefdom. This incites other factions like rebelling natives, Republican Aquellia, and New Mareland to intervene and potentially take things for themselves. Tropical island setting. This idea could become complex quickly.

Forbidden Jungles
There have been many ideas for the Forbidden jungle, mostly centered around New Mareland-aligned groups fighting against rebels and separatists in the forbidden jungles. ELF fighters, separatists from the earth-pony tribes, and bat pony separatists.

A recent idea had chiropterran mercenaries intervening.

Uh, anyways, that's kind of a truncated description of a few ideas for more-military quests. Maybe there could be one directly against changelings, like if the Changelings make an incursion nominally to fight rebels, that needs to be pushed back?

>>193900
I appreciate these ideas, and they are very well-thought out, but they're not relevant to the direction I want to take either Cavaliere or Amber.

>>193894
>I mean... You can just as easily throw a Molotov cocktail
Yeah, it's easy in d20 modern. Would definitely be cheaper than potions. 3.5e potions are notoriously overpriced.
>one half of a spell caster
HEY!
"You DARE doubt my powers?!"
>So a spell caster or a rogue would be most useful
It's why I recommended Factotum.
Factotum builds are really easy too (after allocating skills). Just take Font Of Inspiration as many times as possible.
>You don't want a unicorn mount? I mean sure, you can't mount a unicorn in the traditional sense, but there are ways to work with this.
How would you adapt that class feature?
May as well just play a Cleric or Archivist imo. Clerics are great. I was going to play Posey as a Cleric, and I low-key wish I had.
>Players keep missing magic items lying out in the open and you're surprised that they don't spot spies who are trying not to be found?
This.
>Nevertheless, this is the sort of thing Cavaliere is cut out for and he hasn't had a chance to find any yet.
Yeah, I would strongly recommend taking Changelings as a Favored Enemy.
Furthermore, since Cavalier is good aligned, you qualify for the Nemesis feat, which would allow you to automatically detect all Changelings within 30 ft.
Specializing into Favored Enemy would be great on a Swift Hunter Ranger/Scout build. Would be great as a gunslinger too, especially with Fly-by-attack.
>Some things, like guns, are from DnD Modern
I assumed this at first, but from what I observed this does not seem to be the case, particularly with the automatic weapons which seem to just outright give extra attacks.
I have asked a couple times how firearms work, without a complete response.
>Posey is at level 4, I think, but that is due to an offset because of her character build.
I spent a bunch of XP during character creation, erroneously thinking that having a low ECL would let me earn it back quickly...
Four levels until I can cast Animate Dead...

>>193902
Partially meant for >>193898
>>193895

>>193902
>Yeah, I would strongly recommend taking Changelings as a Favored Enemy.
That makes no sense considering they were not his typical encounter in his backstory nor have we encountered them (to our knowledge) on this quest. Griffons are his favored enemy and ponies will be his second favored enemy.
Don't get me wrong, mechanically it's a good idea, but it makes no sense thematically. Plus automatically detecting changelings would make things too easy. It would be the equivalent of yellow paint in modern games.

Since I was so terse with my response regarding quest ideas, here is what I have envisioned:
Cavaliere — quests focused around individuals or small groups and services, disagreements or conflicts surrounding them. This can be any variety of things, including finding a missing person, tracking down a local magnate's wayward son or daughter, stopping a factory strike, getting justice for some creature who was murdered, or taking care of a sensitive matter for one of Baltimare's various factions. He may also come across charity cases, like that one pony having trouble in immigration (no I haven't forgotten about him). I don't mind quests that take Cavaliere outside of Baltimare as well, nor ones where has to either avoid or win a gunfight against a larger group, but Mended Horn should be the exception rather than the rule since I don't want to do commando raids constantly.

Amber — if Cavaliere's missions should be more mundane compared to what we're currently on, Amber's should be practically everyday. She has not come into her own as an adventurer, let alone her paramore, and if the two can stay together they have to be eased into it. Exploring Baltimare, such as the shady underground area, would be fun without involving gunfights. I want her to find out who's responsible for breaking High Sewn's window. She also needs to come into her own as a bard and needs musical training from some source. She is too poor to pay for that and that may be an intermediate goal, at the end of which she reaches level 6. I don't mind if she comes across the other PCs or important NPCs, but until she reaches that goal, and is believably seasoned from more minor adventures, it makes no sense to be putting her into seriously dangerous quests.

Perhaps I misinterpreted the direction this campaign was going. When I made Amber there already was a very clear disconnect between her and the other PCs, and I have only myself to blame. I was hoping to get her to catch up eventually, but I put that off by focusing on her more mundane life events. She should get involved in the sort of aforementioned adventures but even then it will be a very long time until she is "Mended Horn" ready.
However when I made Cavaliere every adventure was within Baltimare and was very small-scale, with the largest fights being at Hoebuck, Curwhinny's Farm and that gang-operated bar. I was hoping for more of that urban fantasy with this character, Cavaliere operating largely alone since that was the trend with every other PC. If you wanted commando raids I would have made a different character to fit that role better. I hope urban fantasy is not off the table even at level 6. I especially want quests where if they're played intelligently they can be resolved without violence or with it being limited in scope. They would fit MLP's themes even in this fallen world and they make sense within a city where every bullet fired negatively affects quality of life. Blue Skies chewing out Silver's gun-ho attitude at that bar comes to mind.

>>193904
>Don't get me wrong, mechanically it's a good idea, but it makes no sense thematically.
The fact that they're not a typical encounter and difficult to detect means that there's even more reason for a hunter to specialize.
>Plus automatically detecting changelings would make things too easy. It would be the equivalent of yellow paint in modern games.
You say that, but it's limited Range. There are far more powerful detection abilities (Scent, Lifesight, freaking Mindsight)
>She has not come into her own as an adventurer
Amber is a lvl 5 member of an elite adventuring class: she is heroic by definition. You are not obligated to continue roleplaying a lvl 1 character when you have powers that exceed 99% of characters in the setting.
>She also needs to come into her own as a bard and needs musical training from some source.
This should only be necessary if you're going for an obscure prestige class that requires spiritual epiphany or exposure to primal music, like Seeker Of Song.
Still, looking for musical secrets to expand her powers sounds like a cool quest.
>She is too poor to pay for that
We need to have a serious conversation about starting equipment and Wealth By Level. 3.5e game balance falls apart of wealth by level is not honored.
>I was hoping to get her to catch up eventually, but I put that off by focusing on her more mundane life events.
What is holding you back? You can just do it.
Tbh, if you're that hesitant about roleplaying a hero, you could have her have a spiritual awakening, or contact with her muse. Bards are all about inspiration. Just think of what would inspire her.

>>193905
>The fact that they're not a typical encounter and difficult to detect means that there's even more reason for a hunter to specialize.
Cavaliere is not a specialized changeling hunter and never has been, neither in Nova Griffonia nor in Equestria. They will be a new threat he will have to deal with, but he will still be mostly dealing with ponies and griffons. If I wanted to make a specialized changeling hunter, I would write a different character, maybe a rogue who is a spy or double agent. I like that idea but that is not who Cavaliere is.
>You say that, but it's limited Range. There are far more powerful detection abilities (Scent, Lifesight, freaking Mindsight)
Those are interesting abilities and I should look into those. However when I redesign Cavaliere I will probably be moving away from vanilla ranger and monk.
>Amber is a lvl 5 member of an elite adventuring class: she is heroic by definition. You are not obligated to continue roleplaying a lvl 1 character when you have powers that exceed 99% of characters in the setting.
When I made her I was not as aware of that fact and there is no good explanation for why she is so strong when she is basically a commoner. However I wrote her this way and she is stuck along that path for the time being. In my defense, at the time none of the PCs seemed particularly heroic or elite so I thought a level 5 character could be of any background or experience. Maybe it would have been better if we started at level 1 and worked our way up, but GM Pony had other ideas.
>This should only be necessary if you're going for an obscure prestige class that requires spiritual epiphany or exposure to primal music, like Seeker Of Song.
>Still, looking for musical secrets to expand her powers sounds like a cool quest.
When making her character sheet I forgot to give her points in perform, but I don't want to redo it so I'm playing along until she levels up and has justification to suddenly be better at music
>We need to have a serious conversation about starting equipment and Wealth By Level. 3.5e game balance falls apart of wealth by level is not honored.
Being poor is part of her background and I intentionally wrote her this way. She isn't written to be balanced, she's written to be out of her depth in a big city.
>What is holding you back? You can just do it.
This is why I made Cavaliere.
>Tbh, if you're that hesitant about roleplaying a hero, you could have her have a spiritual awakening, or contact with her muse. Bards are all about inspiration. Just think of what would inspire her.
She had an inspiring dream. Like I said, I want her to reach music school and then she can come into her own.

>>193894
>I mean... You can just as easily throw a Molotov cocktail
Pic
Once I get my minions, I will be a lot more invested into weaponry of all kinds.
>>193900
>Yakyakistan
I don't really care for Yaks, and Posey would not unless Yakfolk genie Sorcery is involved (one of my fallback character was a Yak Sha'ir), but undermining Changelings sounds like fun.
>This would be a semi-mountainous location
I would really like to ritually freeze a prisoner on top of an icy mountain to create an Icegaunt. I was going to do it here on Mended Horn, but alas.
>ancient monasteries or fortresses carved into mountains
Hmmm, could these dungeons hold forbidden magical secrets, seal imprisoned monsters, or ancient mummified monks, or forgotten treasures?
>Wingbardy has launched a counter invasion of Talouse, and then Wingbady is now launching a force into the New Mareland heartland. No troops can be spared, so mercenaries are brought in as a stop gap measure to attempt to plug and repel breaches in the line. This idea has multiple possible executions
This is what I was expecting when I joined the game. I would certainly be interested, especially after I have my minions.
>One, trench warfare. Hold the line against repeated Wingbardian assaults as they invade.
Great use for minions.
>Outback
What would be the mission here?
>Hoovesplain
I already established that Posey has sea sickness, although since it's purely psychological there's no reason why she could not overcome it after this mission.
Sounds interesting.
>There may be ruins from drowned buildings and towns, or boats and barges left in the mud.
Reminds me of the town in Dragon Age Inquisition that was drowned by the Magister who raised the dam; it was full of undead.
>This area may not be about fighting so much as finding a site that could be an entry to a parallel dimension - the Dream Time.
Sounds like something that a Sorceress would investigate.
>Equestrian naval commander of Free Equestria decides to just takeover an island as his personal fiefdom.
>This incites other factions like rebelling natives, Republican Aquellia, and New Mareland to intervene and potentially take things for themselves.
Hmmm, perhaps Posey might want to depose him and make it her own personal fiefdom on behalf of the Dread League.
>Maybe there could be one directly against changelings, like if the Changelings make an incursion nominally to fight rebels, that needs to be pushed back?
Sounds interesting.

>>193906
You could also take evil creatures as your favored enemy. It's quite optimal. It would also fit the paladin-like theme you wanted.
>However when I redesign Cavaliere I will probably be moving away from vanilla ranger and monk.
Elaborate. What kind of build do you want?
>However I wrote her this way and she is stuck along that path for the time being.
Remember what I said about spiritual epiphany? The inspiration to be a hero could come suddenly to you, like it does for most Bards. It's all about inspiration. Try meditating, praying, observing nature, making a pilgrimage, pouring yourself into the arts, or contacting your muse.
Could also try something like the ritual of burning hearts.
>When making her character sheet I forgot to give her points in perform, but I don't want to redo it so I'm playing along until she levels up and has justification to suddenly be better at music
Just spend a few weeks of downtime retraining your skillpoints. A Bard with no perform ranks makes no sense.
>Being poor is part of her background and I intentionally wrote her this way.
Being a slave was part of my backstory, but I still put my wealth into non-material body enhancements, surgeries and rituals (which were later removed...). There are other ways you could allocate your starting wealth. Could buy a couple bonus feats. The only valuable equipment posey came into the game with that she still has is Gloomy (100 gp slave).
>She had an inspiring dream.
Sounds like you've already met your muse. Your path to greatness begins today.
>Like I said, I want her to reach music school and then she can come into her own.
This could take as little as one week in universe. As a Bard, you are implied to be innately talented. Once you pick up the art seriously you would realize that you are a genius. Retraining does not take very long, and I don't think GM will be stingy about putting ranks in perform as a Bard.
Think of the career of a pop star: when it happens, it begins very quickly.
Once you reallocate your skills, you could make public Perform checks to attract the attention of wealthy patrons, bardic colleges, distant nobles and even extraplanar beings who would accept you as a private performer or wish to enroll you in their school, and make some gold every day while you do so.
Equestria us a very Bard-centric setting anyway.

>>193907
Forgot pic

>>193907
>You could also take evil creatures as your favored enemy. It's quite optimal.
Wait, you can just do that? I thought it had to be a race. That sounds broken.
>Elaborate. What kind of build do you want?
Powerful with ranged weaponry (revolvers in particular), good at unarmed, varied skill set. Tries to not get hit at all rather than rely on armor or HP. That sounds vague but there are different suggestions you gave in the OOC threads a while ago (spellblade I think had the most potential). Sometime soon I'll look over every combination and see what's optimal. Normally I don't care about minmaxing but Cavaliere is meant to actually be heroic and is meant to complete some quests on his own.
>Remember what I said about spiritual epiphany? The inspiration to be a hero could come suddenly to you, like it does for most Bards. It's all about inspiration. Try meditating, praying, observing nature, making a pilgrimage, pouring yourself into the arts, or contacting your muse.
>Could also try something like the ritual of burning hearts.
>Just spend a few weeks of downtime retraining your skillpoints. A Bard with no perform ranks makes no sense.
That's what the music school is for. Sure there are these alternate methods, and she does practice on her own time, but I want it to be believable as well as give chances for socialization.
Even talented ponies need to practice.
>Once you reallocate your skills, you could make public Perform checks to attract the attention of wealthy patrons, bardic colleges, distant nobles and even extraplanar beings who would accept you as a private performer or wish to enroll you in their school, and make some gold every day while you do so.
>Equestria us a very Bard-centric setting anyway.
I look forward to it. Maybe that would be a good way to get into school, and having a tutor would be an intermediate step. I'll leave it up to the discretion of the GM Pony.

>>193910
>Wait, you can just do that?
There's a couple ways to do it, yeah.
>I thought it had to be a race.
You can also choose rival organizations, members of a particular religion, foreign merchants and priests, or Arcane Spellcasters. Bigotry knows no bounds.
>That sounds broken.
Nah. It's a better pick than most, but Favored Enemy is still a pretty weak feature overall. It can be quite interesting if you specialize in it though.
I mention it because it's good for Rangers who wish they were paladins, which describes you.
>Powerful with ranged weaponry (revolvers in particular), good at unarmed, varied skill set. Tries to not get hit at all rather than rely on armor or HP.
A Mystic Ranger Swift Hunter build would suit this very well. Take Flyby-Attack and all of its derivatives to help you in both ranged and melee combat. Use the Scout's Skirmish ability to boost your AC and damage while moving quickly. Take Evil as your favored enemy and progress it through both Ranger and Scout.
If you want to fixate more on Unarmed Damage Mystic Ranger / Swordsage would be the best, with a focus on the Setting Sun School. Take Improved Trip, Ranged Trip and Knockdown. That would be a lot more melee focused though.
>I want it to be believable as well as give chances for socialization.
I'm just saying you shouldn't need to spend that much time on it. Don't put arbitrary obstacles on your roleplay potential.

>>193911
>You can also choose rival organizations, members of a particular religion, foreign merchants and priests, or Arcane Spellcasters. Bigotry knows no bounds.
There are many of those in the setting of EaW, and Cavaliere sometimes has to face those of any background. Considering how many griffons and ponies there are, having those as two favored enemies would encompass the vast majority of enemies. I would have to look into evil-aligned favored enemies.
>A Mystic Ranger Swift Hunter build would suit this very well. Take Flyby-Attack and all of its derivatives to help you in both ranged and melee combat. Use the Scout's Skirmish ability to boost your AC and damage while moving quickly. Take Evil as your favored enemy and progress it through both Ranger and Scout.
>If you want to fixate more on Unarmed Damage Mystic Ranger / Swordsage would be the best, with a focus on the Setting Sun School. Take Improved Trip, Ranged Trip and Knockdown. >That would be a lot more melee focused though.
I have to look into flyby attack but the issue is that Cavaliere is a poor flyer (racial feature) and often fights indoors where that would be impractical. I like scout but last I checked it has a significant skillpoint nerf, and if anything I could use more skills. It's a balancing act among attack bonus (for dueling and trick shots), AC (for not getting hit), feats (fun and useful stuff) and skills (what will actually make my character viable on his own).
I want a good balance on ranged damage and unarmed damage. Ranged damage is lethal, melee nonlethal. No combination really fits the exact sort of character I'm going for which is why this is a difficult decision. I have to make multiple character sheets just to know how everything would work together.
>I'm just saying you shouldn't need to spend that much time on it. Don't put arbitrary obstacles on your roleplay potential.
For me roleplay is in the journey, not the destination. I've had a lot of fun with Amber so far despite her mundane life, and I see it only getting better from here.

>could Posey's unseen put some of that leaked fuel in

I've [accidentally] inspired another game element, haven't I?

Ah, well. I'll see what I can find class-wise. I still want reasonable flight including hover unless circumstances warrant a fly-check (someone's shooting at me, there are high winds, the air isn't breathable) and to come in matching the crew (lvl.5)

PF1 was built to discourage multil-classing, but 3.5 seems to implicitly encourage it. Maybe a bard/sorceror with a level of healer to access that cure-minor spell?

for humor, have some AI : I asked for a gryphon singing, while casting fireball; first pic. Amused by being cast as a singer, or whatever happened, I replaced casting with drinking fireball. Cue 2nd pic.

>>193912
>Cavaliere is a poor flyer (racial feature)
How poor? If you have poor maneuverability, you can still pull off a Flyby-Attack build.
>often fights indoors
You can fly indoors. As little as 5 ft off the ground.
>I like scout but last I checked it has a significant skillpoint nerf
Scout has more skillpoints than Ranger. It's tied with Rogue for the most skillpoints in the game.
Skirmish works for both melee and ranged combat, especially with flyby attack and all of its derivatives.
You can do non-lethal damage with a sap, whip or other non-lethal weapon too. You could also use rubber bullets, Merciful magic weapons, or take Non-lethal damage feats.
You could also just dip Unarmed Swordsage 2 at the end of your build while still being primarily Ranger/Scout. Your non-swordsage levels will contribute to your initiator level halfway.

Oh, I guess you could use Predator Ranger to trade Combat Style for Wildshape, which could be traded for Aspect of Nature or Shapeshifter, which could give you some unarmed combat abilities. Those could stack with Scout ala Swift Avenger.
>No combination really fits the exact sort of character I'm going for which is why this is a difficult decision.
I really think Ranger/Scout with Favored Enemy (Evil) and some non-lethal weapons/ammo/tactics would fit your character well.
>>193913
>3.5 seems to implicitly encourage it.
It encourages prestige classes. Multiclassing less so (except for instances like Swift Hunter).
Thou shall not lose caster levels.
>Maybe a bard/sorceror with a level of healer to access that cure-minor spell?
No.
You would be better off as a Bard / Sublime Chord if you want to be a powerful spellcasting Bard. Lyric Thaumaturge is also a good prestige class for this concept.
If you want divine spells and healing as a Bard, Green Whisperer is your home. Divine Bard works too.
https://www.joshuad.net/new-bard-handbook/

>>193914
< >Maybe a
>No.

Heh.

>Sublime Chord [] Lyric Thaumaturge [] Green Whisperer
I'll look into those. But if the table thinks you don't need a healer, my go-to is sorcerer. Though neither 3.5 nor EaW/MLP have anything allowing for what PF1 calls a Dragon's Disciple, which I got to play once as a kitsune rogue (relying on racial feats for 'spontaneous caster' prereq).

Anyway I'll continue giving it some thought; thanks for the suggestions.

>>193915
Sublime Chord adds Sorcerer spells to the Bard, going up to 9th level. A high-op Bard has the casting abilities of a low-op Sorcerer.
If you were to do that, your spellcasting abilities would probably exceed Posey's.
>Though neither 3.5 nor EaW/MLP have anything allowing for what PF1 calls a Dragon's Disciple
It's a prestige class in 3.5e.

Dragonfire Adept is a really good base class too. Very easy to play: just spit fire at everything.

>>193913
>pic
Kek and cute

>reasonable flight
To get hover you would need two feat ranks of improved fight, bumping up your flying skill from poor to good.
https://dnd.arkalseif.info/feats/complete-adventurer--54/improved-flight--1494/index.html

>PF1 was built to discourage multil-classing, but 3.5 seems to implicitly encourage it. Maybe a bard/sorceror with a level of healer to access that cure-minor spell?
It does, and DnD also has prestige classes which are even more specialized. There probably is one out there that matches what you want.

>>193914
>How poor? If you have poor maneuverability, you can still pull off a Flyby-Attack build.
There is a handy maneuverability table for this: https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Fly
>You can fly indoors. As little as 5 ft off the ground.
>half minimum fly speed
>no hover or reverse
>45 degree turn angle
>no turn in place
Indoors this is slapstick waiting to happen. For a serious character, I would take any other feat other than one guaranteeing crashing into stuff constantly.
>scout
Okay I must have misremembered. I will definitely look into it. I remember there being some cons (of course, in order to be balanced) but they might be worth it.
>You can do non-lethal damage with a sap, whip or other non-lethal weapon too. You could also use rubber bullets, Merciful magic weapons, or take Non-lethal damage feats.
But muh brawler flavor. Pistol whipping is also an option but nothing is more satisfying than an old-fashioned beatdown.
>You could also just dip Unarmed Swordsage 2 at the end of your build while still being primarily Ranger/Scout. Your non-swordsage levels will contribute to your initiator level halfway.
This is promising. I was also considering the Wushu fighting style for monk, which adds more class combinations to compare (two levels here give me just about everything I want): https://srd.dndtools.org/srd/classes/baseCore/monk.html#fighting-styles
>Oh, I guess you could use Predator Ranger to trade Combat Style for Wildshape, which could be traded for Aspect of Nature or Shapeshifter, which could give you some unarmed combat abilities. Those could stack with Scout ala Swift Avenger.
I don't want Cavaliere to shapeshift to fight. His skills should depend on his training of his own griffon body.
>I really think Ranger/Scout with Favored Enemy (Evil) and some non-lethal weapons/ammo/tactics would fit your character well.
Got any resources on evil favored enemies?

>>193915
Healers are always good, but sorcerers are also welcome. I forgot if Spark (old inactive player) was a wizard or sorcerer. This class works best with unicorns.

I keep referring to racial bonii but to tell the truth I have no idea what the bonii are aside from unicorns being somehow better at magic, pegasi being the best flyers, and earth ponies have +2 to strength and constitution. In fact this was never settled on when I made Cavaliere and I had forgotten that his sheet doesn't have racial bonii or penalties applied. Hopefully GM Pony can make a decision on this.

>>193916
>A high-op Bard has the casting abilities of a low-op Sorcerer.
I will discourage any sort of build that plans around levels higher than around 7. It would be nice to have consistent level ups but GM Pony has repeatedly asserted a reluctance to level up the party due to making mundane encounters against enemies such as gangsters impossible to balance. This is a problem with DnD as a whole due to level scaling and I think the game would benefit from each level being split in half to allow more incremental progression. Maybe it would have been better if we started from level 1 and if we reached around level 5 by now.

>>193917
>Poor
Plenty good for Flyby Attack.
Protip: if you fly 5 ft off the ground, you can drop to the the ground as a free action at the end of your turn, no longer having any maneuverability penalties, functionally making it a wing-boosted pounce.
>I remember there being some cons (of course, in order to be balanced) but they might be worth it.
Combining Mystic Ranger with Scout with Swift Hunter is basically just the core Ranger but better.
>But muh brawler flavor.
I think you could pick up Combat Martil Arts or Brawl from a d20 modern occupation. It would work with Scout.
Nerve Pinch might work too, although that's d20 Future.
>Got any resources on evil favored enemies?
Iirc, it's in Players Guide to Faerun, a tribal background from the North, iirc the Worm, had Evil as a favored enemy for Rangers. The setting content is adaptable, particularly because Griffons are from Hyperborea.
Foreign Merchants was on that table too.
Stalker Of Kharash prestige class also gives Evil as a Favored Enemy.
>I will discourage any sort of build that plans around levels higher than around 7.
Mfw I don't get Animate Dead until level 8 and until then I just have a handful of shitty touch-range spells (Video)

>>193917
>To get hover you would need two feat ranks of improved flight

While I get that for DnD, where (nearly) all PCs are ground-bound in their day to day lives, this is based on MLP; where fliers are routinely shown to hold conversations while hovering, or sitting on clouds.

I've DM'd a oneshot where the mid-level wizard got a flying carpet; I get the concern about combat balance. But if I'm playing as a winged amongst the ponies, I expect that means I can just fly. Concentration check while casting and flying, sure. Fly-check at the normal penalties (-6 for clumsy, IIRC) and normal DCs when "something happens" such as melee or magical winds - but if you're all roleplaying as fursuiting humans I want out, and I may as well learn this before I create a character "the old fashioned way" since PCgen doesn't have the breadth of materials the SRDs list.

>due to making mundane encounters against such enemies
Similar problems; I want to play a fantasy game, you're playing Call of Cthulhu at best. Why would you be the only wizard on the block? The gansters hired a dragonfire adept as bodyguard to their necromancer. BOOM! balanced.

>slapstick
Ah, I remember a trap-only dungeon that catapulted the plate-armor'd paladin into the air. I made him do a fly check; he warned that he was untrained in it and I said that was fine.
[gladdos voice] He got a negative 15, so that was fun. [/voice]

But in all honestly, I should wait to hear a bit more from your DM before I decide anything.

>>193918
>Protip: if you fly 5 ft off the ground, you can drop to the the ground as a free action at the end of your turn, no longer having any maneuverability penalties, functionally making it a wing-boosted pounce.
Basically it would be fighting like Max Payne? I'll consider it. I thought of Cavaliere's fighting style as relying more on cover to boost his effective AC.
>Combining Mystic Ranger with Scout with Swift Hunter is basically just the core Ranger but better.
Is one level from each better than three in ranger? Multi-classing to this degree, with four different classes, is a little excessive and I have no idea if class requirements would even allow it.
>I think you could pick up Combat Martil Arts or Brawl from a d20 modern occupation. It would work with Scout.
I will look into that too. I don't know how much of D20 Modern is allowed to be included in character design but there are good features from that module.
>Players Guide to Faerun
I wasn't able to find that feature in that document. Also Cavaliere does not have a tribal background.
>Stalker of Kharash
That does look good, and it's one that can be readily picked. That's yet another prestige class to consider.
>Mfw I don't get Animate Dead until level 8 and until then I just have a handful of shitty touch-range spells (Video)
Hence why I'm trying to spare him the disappointment.
>>193919
>While I get that for DnD, where (nearly) all PCs are ground-bound in their day to day lives, this is based on MLP; where fliers are routinely shown to hold conversations while hovering, or sitting on clouds.
True but flight is the only special feature pegasi get and other species get flight too. EaW implies that pegasi are the best fliers in the setting.
>but if you're all roleplaying as fursuiting humans I want out
We're not? I'm not sure what you mean by this. Different species have had different advantages from the start of the game. I'm just not sure what these advantages exactly are since they have been homebrewed and there's no reference document yet.
>Why would you be the only wizard on the block? The gansters hired a dragonfire adept as bodyguard to their necromancer. BOOM! balanced.
That works. From what I know, skilled wizards are around but are relatively uncommon compared to regular unicorns who have basic telekinesis. Meanwhile, guns are more common and are meant to be very lethal.
> He got a negative 15, so that was fun
kek
>But in all honestly, I should wait to hear a bit more from your DM before I decide anything.
That's the best move.

>>193920
>I thought of Cavaliere's fighting style as relying more on cover to boost his effective AC.
What cover?
>
Mystic Ranger 3 / Scout 3 would be good. Then you could advance by putting levels in either of them.
Mystic Ranger 2, Scout 4 could also work. You could skip Combat style in favor of the Scout's Bonus feat.
>Multi-classing to this degree, with four different classes
You would be better off staying in one or two classes if you want to be an effective Swift Hunter, imo, but that's just my opinion.
Then again, martial classes are quite front-loaded, so you could do Ranger/Fighter/Barbarian/Monk if you want.
>That does look good, and it's one that can be readily picked. That's yet another prestige class to consider.
It's adaptable. Depends on GM though.

>>193921
>What cover?
Doorframes, crates, other sorts of objects that could stop a bullet. The sourcebook talks about how they can be used in combat.
>Mystic Ranger 3 / Scout 3 would be good. Then you could advance by putting levels in either of them.
>Mystic Ranger 2, Scout 4 could also work. You could skip Combat style in favor of the Scout's Bonus feat.
Yes but what about melee capability?
>Then again, martial classes are quite front-loaded, so you could do Ranger/Fighter/Barbarian/Monk if you want.
This is why putting only two ranks into monk has been advantageous for me. The downside is that monk is not a very friendly class for multiclassing and you lose your benefits if you outpace it with anything else imo I want to homebrew that out since monk is weak enough as-is
>It's adaptable. Depends on GM though.
GM Pony, like me, has never heard of most of these prestige classes. Telling him about a potential build feels like giving a marketing pitch to a corporate executive; it has to be easy to understand yet detailed.

>>193922
>Yes but what about melee capability?
Well, that's +2d6 damage on all attacks if you move 10 ft, +4d6 if with Improved skirmish. It applies to melee and ranged attacks.

Wing Expert could be useful for charges, particularly since you are a griffon and could do double damage with diving charge Attacks. Cavalier arguably qualifies for Catfolk Pounce too.
High Dex could allow you to make use of the Great Flyby Attack feat, and allow you to hit a lot of creatures in melee by flying through them. Adroit Flyby Attack would help with this.

Alternatively, you could just do 100% Swordsage, or Mystic Ranger + Swordsage. Swordsage is by far the strongest option mentioned here for melee, or damage in general. It's stronger than Monk by far.

>>193923
Thank you for the tips. I guess now I just need to make a big Excel spreadsheet with all these combinations and see what works best.

>>193923
Does Posey have a soul? Like an actual soul like other living beings?

>>193925
No comment.

>>193922
>Doorframes, crates, other sorts of objects that could stop a bullet. The sourcebook talks about how they can be used in combat.
The Woodland Archer feat may help you with this, if combined with flyby attack.
>The downside is that monk is not a very friendly class for multiclassing
If you're that serious about Ranger/Monk multiclass, you should have the Ascetic Hunter feat, which stacks Ranger and Monk levels for certain abilities.
Arguably, you don't even need Monk levels for Ascetic Hunter, just Improved Unarmed Strike. A variant unarmed Ranger Combat Style grants this. Combat Martial Arts or Brawl from a d20 Modern Starting Occupation should work too.
There's also the Pugilist Fighter variant. It has some good level 1 features. Trade the heavy armor proficiency for the Underdark Fighter's Hit-and-run ability: Dex to damage against flat-footed targets.

Taking the Brawl feat from d20 modern starting occupation would also qualify you for Knockout Punch, which auto-crits flat footed enemies when hit with unarmed strikes. Combine this with Stealth, Fly-by Attack, and that one Tumble Skill Trick from Complete Scoundrel that allows you to attack a target flat-footed by dashing past them.
Note that you can trade you Ride class skill for the Tumble class skill in Urban adventures.

Oh yeah, brass knuckles are a thing in d20 Modern: they give +1 damage on unarmed attacks. They cost pocket change.
As a griffon, you can also use claw extenders from Dragon #334, for an additional +1 damage.
Then you could use special materials on both (dragonfang, Iron-filled, Razor-Sharp, etc).
>Yes but what about melee capability?
You should understand that 3.5e martials are very feat-reliant, so leaning into a particular weapon or fighting style is recommended.
There's no build that is optional for both melee and Range, unless you would prefer to completely rebuild as a Cleric with the Animal and Hunt Domains, and then specialize into Prestige Ranger, with Intuitive Attack for Melee and Zen Archery for Ranged Combat. Then take Ascetic Hunter for unarmed damage. Clerics are just good at everything.
The Scout's Skirmish still works in melee though. You just need to keep moving, which Flyby Attack helps with.
>it has to be easy to understand
I just explained it to you. It's more of a matter of acceptance than understanding.

>>193926
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...another question: how would Posey react if one day in a battle she took a hit and it for once oddly hurts. Then she looks down at the wound and sees that she's bleeding...blood. Red, crimson blood.

I get the distinct sense this recent line of questioning has accidentally killed all discussion by the cause of how awkward the air in the room just got.

So I'm going to turn the boxfan on and get back to flight statistics.
>Pic attached
Griffons aren't precisely known for their flight prowess, but in Fallout Equestria, they are known for equipping wing razors - a specialized subset of the idea of barding meant to allow the leading edge of their wings act as a weapon during high-speed flight against a slower, or ground bound target.
Also, Gilda in particular considered herself the equal of RD, and no one in she show disputed it.

So I posit that griffons should have flight abilities that are within reach of the pterripi''s 'normal'
I feel this needs reconsidering of the DnD 'flight chart' - I wouldn't, if this was at a "normal" DnD table where gnolls, elves and humans happened to be travelling with a flying, talking horse-person, but since this is Equestria...

Hippogriphs are a different problem. They spent an entire generation being seaponies and disallowed their young to come to understand the nuances of flight. This was recent enough that it still haunts today's energetic, youthful new workers. They would suffer flight checks not so much because their wings aren't strong, but because they don't have the culture or history to know what to do with the extra limbs.
Like legs. (2nd attachment)

According to Surf And/Or Turf,
<[ Season 8 Episode 6, https mlp _ fandom _ com /wiki/Surf_and_or_Turf ]
Hippogriffs still have the right to become seaponies.

Which [would/should] could massively alter the immediate course of this campaign to confront a sea monster and its willingly enthralled minion(s)

>>193925
No.

>>193930
>Griffons aren't precisely known for their flight prowess, but in Fallout Equestria, they are known for equipping wing razors - a specialized subset of the idea of barding meant to allow the leading edge of their wings act as a weapon during high-speed flight against a slower, or ground bound target.
That's an idea. In Equestria at War, the setting for this campaign, the special unit for griffons are "knights," heavily armored units that are holdovers from a more archaic time but which can be improved via enchantment research to better resist gunfire. We haven't encountered any so far, but their existence implies that griffons are less inclined to mobility and flight, though they're capable of it. Ponies have a couple of unique units in the mod, with pegasi being dedicated, fast-moving paratroopers. On average, it seems that pegasi have better flight than griffons and we can chalk Gilda up to being both exceptional and having spent time with flight-focused pegasi.

We also aren't entirely sure on what the natural weapons of each race are, though we know we have them (hooves for ponies, horses and deer, claws for griffons, just about any race can bite, etc.) The monstrous form of griffons in default 3.5e have the "rake" ability which is frankly overpowered in this game, but maybe that could be a feat for griffons?

>hippogriffs
My interpretation of them in EaW and in this game is that they are a jack of all trades, master of none (except swimming). They would be ungainly on land despite their appearance and wouldn't fly well, but being able to move through any medium is valuable. In EaW they have the best marines.

>>193932 →
>I'd rather the players figure out where they want to place NPCs rather than letting them free roam
I mean, we tried that, but here we are all these weeks later with no progress.
Furthermore, this is an opportunity for you to decide how many NPCs you want to run at once in the given encounters, and which of them you actually want to roleplay.
I have a Thrallherd in my Sunday game, and I try to work with him to streamline when/when he brings his 30+ minions on the ship to avoid slowing the game down, as well as give him a heads up so that he can preserve his named-character slaves while letting his expendables do expendable work. And that's for his controlled NPCs.

If we go back to debating who goes where, we might just spend another three weeks arguing. We don't actually control any of these NPCs, we do not have their statistics or combat stats, and they only barely trust us enough to follow our plans: better to let the ponies themselves decide what they're prepared to do based on their mindedness and capabilities.

I don't actually care what we do in the end. My only real priority was keeping the airponies from being killed, but if we seize the boat(s) we can probably sell them for more than our reward, so I am less anxious about that. Do whatever. Let's just decide somehow so that we can go back to roleplaying.
>>193936
>We haven't encountered any so far
I killed a griffon Knight. It was Luminous. He sadly didn't have any of his equipment except for a suit of chainmail, but I gave him my +2 Silver sword so we could have a semi-honorable fight.
I still have his bones. Might do something with them later.
Posey fought griffon knights throughout most of her military service, and that's basically her specialty.
>but their existence implies that griffons are less inclined to mobility and flight, though they're capable of it.
I don't really see anything that implies this. Griffons seem to be strong fliers in the show. It would also be kind of stupid to have a bird-based race not be strong fliers when so many other flying creatures exist in the universe.
Imo, Griffins could use stats similar to 3.5e Raptorans, except I guess you should give them flight at lvl 1 that also improves as they gain levels.
Maybe check out Races Of The Wild, or just do whatever ponyfinder does.
>On average, it seems that pegasi have better flight than griffons
This is true.
>We also aren't entirely sure on what the natural weapons of each race are
>claws for griffons
I would like answers to this.
Griffins should at minimum have two 1d4 claw attacks, ideally 1d6. Perhaps you could let them spend feats to give them a rake attack as well. I think they should qualify for catfolk pounce too. Griffons should be good as flying charger martial builds.
>The monstrous form of griffons in default 3.5e have the "rake" ability which is frankly overpowered in this game, but maybe that could be a feat for griffons?
Oh, looks like you already though of that.
Griffons have cat-like anatomy, so being able to take is nice.
>hooves
Considering that kicking is often depicted in the show, ponies could have a hoof attack.
A 3.5e pony (animal) has two 1d3 hoof attacks. Hooves are only secondary natural attacks though (-5 penalty), so they wouldn't be all that useful in combat. Still, an extra attack is an extra attack.
>just about any race can bite
Nah, I wouldn't do that. If a 3.5e horse does not have a bite attack, then neither should an average pony.
(t. has a bite attack)
Considering that this is a setting with guns, I think being generous with natural attacks is fine. Griffons at least should be able to have good natural weapon builds.
>They would be ungainly on land despite their appearance and wouldn't fly well
Mythologically, hippogriffs are better fliers than pegasi or griffons. The Holy Roman Empire really romanticized them as the ideal mount for Paladins.
>>193933
Rood
>>193928
Posey is a masochist.
If she bled red, she would think that she either needs to go easier on Gloomy, or recognize it as some sort of advancement in her necrotic evolution and proceed to study it. She prides herself in her ability to pass for a living pony despite being dead, unique among Necropolitans, a trait she attributes to her vampiric heritage.

>>193937
>Griffons seem to be strong fliers in the show. It would also be kind of stupid to have a bird-based race not be strong fliers when so many other flying creatures exist in the universe.
I suppose so but my concern is balance. How good at flying should pegasi be by default? The answer is better than any other flying race, because it's all that pegasi have going for them. Griffons are a complicated answer, so let's do a simpler comparison with batponies. Batponies also can fly, but in addition to flight they have echolocation, which is a type of darksight. One way of balancing them is to give a negative, but the only negative which makes sense for them is a social disadvantage in pony society. However social disadvantages can easily be worked around while darksight is a really cool power, so batponies are simply better by default. The easiest way to balance the two races is to make pegasi naturally better at flying than batponies.
>Imo, Griffins could use stats similar to 3.5e Raptorans, except I guess you should give them flight at lvl 1 that also improves as they gain levels.
>Maybe check out Races Of The Wild, or just do whatever ponyfinder does.
I will have to research this.

>Griffins should at minimum have two 1d4 claw attacks, ideally 1d6. Perhaps you could let them spend feats to give them a rake attack as well. I think they should qualify for catfolk pounce too. >Griffons should be good as flying charger martial builds.
I don't know how these abilities would transfer over to a monk build with a focus on nonlethal damage.
>Griffons at least should be able to have good natural weapon builds.
I agree and the way to balance them would be a small charisma debuff (-1) and going by bipedal weight rules (all equines use quadrupedal weight rules). I'm still not sure how this works with a monk/nonlethal unarmed build, or what other abilities and balancing methods should be incorporated.

>>193935 →
>bringing the possessed ponies for a "Light of Ourabouros" gambit
internally screams

>>193938
>I suppose so but my concern is balance.
Imo, it's a bit late to care about "balance" when races that fly at-will at lvl 1 are on the table. Flight is such a powerful ability that trying to nerf it with maneuverability feels like cope. It would still be the strongest ability by far.
>How good at flying should pegasi be by default?
To reflect the show, their flying ability should be Average maneuverability with a speed twice as fast as their land speed. They should also have the opportunity to upgrade their flight through feats.
I also think Pony land speed should be 40-50 ft though, so 80-100 ft.
>Griffons are a complicated answer, so let's do a simpler comparison with batponies.
Is it though? Assuming we're letting races have flight at lvl 1, their maneuverability should be average, like that of an eagle. Make their flight speed twice as fast as their land, which imo should be slower than ponies.
>Batponies also can fly, but in addition to flight they have echolocation, which is a type of darksight.
>The easiest way to balance the two races is to make pegasi naturally better at flying than batponies.
Just give Batponies low light vision and a hearing-based blindsense, with the opportunity to upgrade it to Blindsight.
Bat wings aren't as optimal for flight, so you could reduce their speed. Batponies would be adept to flying in narrow corridors, so their maneuverability should be fine albeit with lower speed.
Then also give them Light Blindness, like Drow. Or at least Light Sensitivity. That is a reasonable debuff.
>One way of balancing them is to
See, you're thinking from a "balance" perspective again, when you've already committed to a "show-acurrate realism" perspective by letting races fly at lvl 1. Start by giving them basic abilities that represent their abilities in the show, then balance them with each other. Ponyfinder does this: the most "broken" thing about it is still the fact that races fly at lvl 1 and games need to be written with that in mind.
Really, you could probably just use PF1e Ponyfinder for a lot of metrics.
>I don't know how these abilities would transfer over to a monk build with a focus on nonlethal damage.
Well, having a Claw Attacks might qualify you for the Beast Strike feat, which is good. Claw attacks are just nice to have overall, but imo don't impact the game all that much, particularly if you don't have multi attack. They're excellent to have it you're a Psychic Warrior or Totemist though.
Btw, Psychic Warrior is very, very, very good for unarmed combat. It multiclasses well with Monk too, ala Tashlatora.
It even multiclasses well with Ranger, ala Illithid Slayer.
If you want to focus on Non-lethal damage, the Book Of Exalted Deeds has some stuff written on that.
You could also buy weapons with the Merciful Enhancement, particularly an Amulet Of Natural Attacks or Claw Extenders.
>I agree and the way to balance them would be a small charisma debuff (-1)
I actually disagree. A debuff to the most commonly dumped stat is not a balancing measure, despite what early 3.0 writers thought it would be. If you don't use Charisma, -2 Cha does nothing.
>weight rules (all equines use quadrupedal weight rules)
Carrying capacity is a non-issue for most games unless someone is a Hulking Hurler, but sure.
Buy a Bag Of Holding.

>>193939
>Imo, it's a bit late to care about "balance" when races that fly at-will at lvl 1 are on the table. Flight is such a powerful ability that trying to nerf it with maneuverability feels like cope. It would still be the strongest ability by far.
This is a good point. I don't know how true it is in a world with guns and planes but the "fly-by-attack" feat is certainly powerful. Just getting from place to place quickly, at the cost of being easily spotted, has its benefits.
>To reflect the show, their flying ability should be Average maneuverability with a speed twice as fast as their land speed. They should also have the opportunity to upgrade their flight through feats.
>I also think Pony land speed should be 40-50 ft though, so 80-100 ft.
Agreed
>Just give Batponies low light vision and a hearing-based blindsense, with the opportunity to upgrade it to Blindsight.
>Bat wings aren't as optimal for flight, so you could reduce their speed. Batponies would be adept to flying in narrow corridors, so their maneuverability should be fine albeit with lower speed.
>Then also give them Light Blindness, like Drow. Or at least Light Sensitivity. That is a reasonable debuff.
These are good assessments. I forgot there are less powerful versions of dark vision. Also instead of taking the lazy route and relying on the flight table, individualized flight performance is a good idea.
>See, you're thinking from a "balance" perspective again, when you've already committed to a "show-acurrate realism" perspective by letting races fly at lvl 1. Start by giving them basic abilities that represent their abilities in the show, then balance them with each other. Ponyfinder does this: the most "broken" thing about it is still the fact that races fly at lvl 1 and games need to be written with that in mind.
>Really, you could probably just use PF1e Ponyfinder for a lot of metrics.
You're right. I still haven't read Ponyfinder
>beast strike feat
I didn't know about that. It would be useful for Cavaliere, though if it counts as lethal damage then it's less than ideal for subduing enemies. He doesn't kill enemies if he can help it but if he has no choice he might as well use a gun. Did I mention there's about a dozen viable feats he could take on as his next one?
I'll have to look into the other stuff.
>I actually disagree. A debuff to the most commonly dumped stat is not a balancing measure, despite what early 3.0 writers thought it would be. If you don't use Charisma, -2 Cha does nothing.
It would impact Cavaliere since convincing or intimidating other creatures is necessary for his work and I invested points into those scores. That's a good point. Also talking about debuffs is useless until you have a list of racial abilities and a baseline for what counts as "balanced," so we might as well ignore it.
>Carrying capacity is a non-issue for most games unless someone is a Hulking Hurler, but sure.
It has impacted Cavaliere pretty significantly but point taken.
>Bag of Holding
No idea how common that is in this setting. If it's something that can be readily made or purchased, militaries would absolutely use that magic for their logistics. Since it's core to 3.5e we can assume it exists (like the swan boat) until GM Pony says otherwise.

I happen to have a moderately complete copy of Ponyfinder.
Now, I know some folks are squeamish about bypassing the profits maybe getting to the author, so here's what I'll offer: I'll leave the link up just a time. Either about nine hours or about 26 - work happens in the middle of those two. Then I'll delete the link.

mega.nz/folder [slash] L9YCxbZS#56e4eQ7cDStXpjmfBRIWoA

>>193942
So we're all in agreement that this is very likely bait and isn't actually Ponyfinder, right?

>>193942
Thank you anon. As a poorfag I appreciate it.
>>193943
If he's punking us it's very well hidden. All the files seem legit.

>>193942
Thank you poner.

While we wait for a response from the NPCs, do we want to try using Monstro-kamikaze to sink the GRU ship before or after we enter the Kostroma?

Doing so before lets us know early if we could eliminate the threat of the GRU, and also gives us the opportunity to strike their ship while they are distracted with their wild goose chase on the island (an underwater approach followed by a free-Willie style flying leap could catch them off guard and compromise their hull by slamming into it while carrying the torpedos). It would also possibly increase allied NPC morale, as seeing the explosion would be spectacular, and the communists seeing the GRU ship sink would make it clear that they have passed the point of no return and cannot return to Stalliongrad, lest they be executed for treason/desertion: this makes them more likely to comply with our demands. This does, however, risk Monstro being destroyed, which would sadden me, but sacrifices must be made for the sake of the mission.

Doing it after means that Posey would be able to use Monstro as a combat minion aboard the Kostroma, which may help us against other monsters we may encounter aboard the ship. Monstro an attack flying enemies, has considerable reach, has decent HP and damage resistance, and can grapple+constrict+paralyze enemies. It would have to squeeze in narrow corridors though, which limits its combat potential, although that also makes it a means of total cover for the party if we want to use it to plug up a passageway to stop monsters from reaching or shooting us. It also leaves Monstro intact so that Posey can use it as a flying getaway vehicle to fly home if this mission goes south and fails and she is forced to flee while everypony else dies.

>>193946
I'm not so sure Monstro would be able to fit inside the ship corridors. I would vote to use Monstro to attack the GRU ship before rather than after, to remove the threat of the destroyer attacking either of these ships.

>>193946
After. Attacking their ship directly would kick the GRU's efforts into overdrive and they will come to kill us. I also don't have confidence in Monstro being able to sink the destroyer at all and I think you would be wasting a valuable summon. But he's your minion and it's up to you.

>>193947
>I'm not so sure Monstro would be able to fit inside the ship corridors.
Monstro is a huge creature. I think it can squeeze through a space barely wider then 5 ft, although it would not be able to fight comfortably in those conditions.
If we find ourselves in single file 5 ft corridor encounters, we should have somepony holding a tower shield take the lead.
>>193948
> I also don't have confidence in Monstro being able to sink the destroyer at all and I think you would be wasting a valuable summon.
Well, idk how many torpedos we have altogether, but I have been studying the rules for sinking ships in 3.5e and likewise calculating the HP for the hull section of ships in this era, and it should be doable based on my estimates of the torpedo damage. So long as it can either make contact with the ship, or drop something on top of
I'm still looking for the rules for WWII era radar detection, but based on the Range increment and damage of the ships guns it should be pretty difficult for them to completely destroy monstro before it gets within sprinting range.
A single torpedo can be swung or tossed as an improvised weapon against an AC of ~3 towards a hull section before it detonates, which will then detonate all other torpedos. The improvised weapon attack combined with the first explosion might be twice as much as it needs to destroy a single hull section of the ship (assuming hardness of tempered steel) and the AoE is large enough to affect at least 3 squares radius. Once a single hull section is destroyed, adjacent hull sections are automatically reduced to 50% max HP, which combined with the explosion would destroy them, causing a cascading chain reaction that would destroy maybe 9 sections and severely damage some others. Monstro could potentially pull this off without even destroying itself.
The ship would immediately begin sinking if at least one hull section is destroyed. Unless I'm gravely mistaken with the damage of a torpedo, one should be enough to sink it, and Monstro could carry a few.

But yeah, valuable minion. I might prefer to keep it to defend me in combat, particularly because it's large enough to give me cover in combat and has a very strong melee attack and incapacitating grapple. I should weigh the risk.