Please keep out of character discussion contained to this thread. The previous one hit bump limit
696 replies and 95 files omitted.
Or maybe you can both stop this bickering and trying to kill the game for everyone else, and instead work towards helping the party as a whole.
>>190742Maybe I just shouldn't reply to this leech, but if you scroll up you can see that he continues to spam even in the absence of replies.
Anyway, I think our best bet is to approach the GRU as a group, and then they to attack them before they attack us. With Kira and Cavalier taking 10 on perception, we should have a surprise round. I think this is the best bet because it is the only option that avoids splitting the party. Let's not split the party again.
Blackheel and the commies may need some convincing to fire on the GRU though. Once they fire on non-enthralled commies, they would be deserters and traitors. Perhaps I can roll a bluff check to convince him that they are under the Traveller's influence. If he wants to believe that he's doing no wrong, he gets a -10 penalty on his check. It could be a fun moment to roleplay Posey's manipulative side.
>>190747>Black HeelThat's why I was thinking we'd parlay first. If they refuse and attack us, he and the other commie ponies would see that the GRU is unreasonable and untrustworthy, deciding to instead stick with us through the end.
>>190749I think it would be better to just bluff the Stalliongraders to join us in a surprise round. It avoids any conflicts of interests.
I suspect that Blackheel is a Wizard. If we bluff him, we can convince him to fireball the enemy himself. That would be quite poetic.
With the Stalliongraders, birds and party taking aim, it would be a great opportunity to use the volley rules to kill the enemy with a concentrated volley check. The AoE damage will kill most level 1 enemies.
Who has the has the Highest BAB+Int? Posey has a total mod of +5. I think Silver would be the best to lead a volley.
>>190750Let's at least get some other voices to give their opinions before we fully commit. Something tells me that bluffing the Stalliongraders to join in the surprise attack will cost us dearly down the line.
>>190748
>I meant I didn't want to be the cause of you wanting to quit the game.
You're doing that right now. The prospect of having to interact with you is the only thing that would make me consider leaving this game that I otherwise enjoy and look forward to playing in the long term. I find find your presence is unpleasant and unwelcome. It is a distraction at best, and untenable at worst. I want nothing to do with you.
>You're 'nice' to whoever plays along
Strange, nobody else seems to have a problem with it. Almost as if the problem is you.
>you seem to enjoy the idea of people quitting because of you
No, just you. It would be a great relief to not have to interact with you. If it were anypony else, I would be horrified and ashamed.
>So, don't YOU DARE put this on me.
I will, actually.
Everypony else is roleplaying, planning, encouraging eachother, and doing other things to contribute making this game fun. You do nothing but unsolicited backseat driving and insulting the GM and players, contributing nothing and antagonizing everyone.
>Have I been divisive? Unequivocally! But I learned from experience, from watching how you like to do business.
Why would you intentionally learn bad behavior? Are you a toddler?
>>190751
>No one who is here is 'blessed' because you are here. No one should be grateful. No, it isn't funny when you pretend they should, behaviorally.
I never once said that, and I don't believe that either. I am here because GM and the other players afford me the privilege of playing, and I am blessed to be playing with them (except for you).
>you're probably fucking invincible.
No I'm not. I have survived two encounters in this game with single-digit HP.
See those two dreads that were destroyed in that last encounter? Together, they're about as tough a Posey is. They were destroyed by machine gun fire all the same.
>Wouldn't it be heroic if Clark Kent was fixated on his "clark kent" persona, while all the citizens and staff of the daily planet were dying.
I don't even know what this analogy is supposed to mean. If you think my lvl 4 undead Necromancer is comparable in power to Superman, you are grossly mistaken.
Notice how she did the least damage out of everypony in the party in every encounter this mission, even factoring in the (now destroyed) dreads.
But of course you don't actually care about that. You just want to complain.
>>190753
>I'm calling Posey out for wanting to play a super hero, but then wanting to pretend they aren't a super hero
The opposite, actually. I want to play supervillain while pretending to be a hero. Totally different.
>I guess it really IS a better game for some when one player controls everything
I don't control anything but a single ghoul who is current fishing on a beach somewhere.
And what is it your business endlessly complaining about my character? It's GM's responsibility to decide what characters he wants in his game, not yours.
[Read more] >>190752>Let's at least get some other voices to give their opinions before we fully commit.That's fine. Let's see what Cavalier has to say.
>Something tells me that bluffing the Stalliongraders to join in the surprise attack will cost us dearly down the line.Yeah, although it would also be pretty fun. I won't deny that it has potential to cause issues if Blackheel finds out, but dead mares tell no tales
(or do they?) >>190755I suppose if we wanted to figure out the answer to that question, Posey would indeed be the pony to ask. In all seriousness, though, I would still prefer not having to kill them. I'd still like to recruit them as Silver's followers after the mission.
>>190756>I would still prefer not having to kill them. I'd still like to recruit them as Silver's followers after the missionI guess I'm none to judge, being a person who is trying to amass undead minions, but can't you just get followers from any other source? They should appear as soon as you take the Leadership feat. You could potentially even design their builds (I would recommend Wild Cohort).
Capturing these ponies alive is risky and may cost the party resources. If we can kill them on a surprise round, that would be better for us overall.
But that's just my perspective as an Evil character.
>>190760This way feels more natural to me. It also makes for a nice story, you know? A group of sailors and soldiers, marked for death by their former government, saved by our group who manages to kill the eldritch horror that was terrorizing them.
I don't think we need to capture or even coerce them to join us, if we show them that the GRU has indeed marked them for death.
>>190764The sailors, sure, but I would prefer to have a surprise round than try to parlay with the GRU at the base of the hill
(I miss my Dreads and I hate them for destroying them). And I say that as the Charisma/charm build.
I guess we should hear from the rest of the party first though.
>>190766As far as I can recall, it was never explicitly stated that they were destroyed. For all we know they might have made a beeline to return to their master after killing mage. All I know is that GM pone was getting annoyed at the constant one-at-a-time-in-a-line fighting that we were trying like in some kinda kung fu movie from the 90s.
>>190752>>190755I agree about not bluffing them. Tricking them into slaying their fellows will lead to them turning on us at the earliest opportunity, and we can't risk that.
We have the machine gun now; let's set that up so we have an advantage of firepower. We should probably get some cover for whoever will use it. Are there any sandbags around?
>>190769That's a good question. Let's ask the airponies when play resumes.
>>190768>As far as I can recall, it was never explicitly stated that they were destroyed.Nah, I was there for the encounter and played them. They were destroyed. Undead don't go unconscious.
It's a small price to pay to save two party members. I don't mind that much.
Hopefully I level up enough after this mission to make my own minions.
>>190769>We have the machine gun now.....
Damnit... I forgot about that.
I should have sent the dreads with the machine gun.
>Tricking them into slaying their fellows will lead to them turning on us at the earliest opportunity, and we can't risk that.You, but it would be really convenient if Blackheel fireballs those guys for us, and getting him to expend his spell slots now would make him easier to kill later.
I guess I'm out-voted though...
>Are there any sandbags around?We could possibly use Monstro as cover. He's large enough to do it. I can heal him too.
When he's not moving, he just looks like a pile of bones.
[Read more] >>190772We could probably have the airponies help fire a volley. With multiple volleys, the encounter could be over in one round, if only a couple rolls. That would probably be the quickest and easiest way to resolve this.
I've thought about this very hard, because I hope to have a large number of minions in the future.
>>190778Oh! Unrelated question for you, since you seem to have an extensive knowledge on all sorts of stuff related to D&D: is there any class you know of that's similar to a Magick Archer?
>>190779>is there any class you know of that's similar to a Magick Archer?Arcane Archer comes to mind, but that class isn't very good. I guess it's fine if you start out as Mystic Ranger with Sword Of The Arcane Order, once you max that out.
Sword Of The Arcane Order Mystic Ranger is great overall. Basically a Full BAB Wizard. Mystic Ranger itself is especially good because it gives you access to the Ranger's many archery related spells at twice the speed of a typical Ranger.
Peerless Archer, Order Of The Bow Initiate, and Cragtop Archer are all archery prestige classes, but none of them are particularly magical. You can take any of them after you max out Mystic Ranger at level ~10. Scout is also a good option to increase mundane archery abilities after maxing Mystic Ranger.
There are multiple Handbooks on this. The Brilliant Gameologists archives appear to be dead... Which is tragic
https://dictummortuum.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-archery-handbook-completed.html?m=1#google_vignettehttps://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?269705-Toxophilite-The-Archery-HandbookI could be more helpful if you would be more specific for what you want out of your build.
[Read more] >>190782Some of Arcane Archer's abilities seem kinda neat, though you do have to get pretty deep into the class to unlock them. Mystic Ranger sounds interesting. Really I'm more just curious various options and exploring what they're like.
Oh, the one thing I had in mind was the use of a Magic Bow: basically a bow made of arcane metals rather than out of normal wood, it lacks a drawstring and instead fires bolts of magic.
>>190785I think I recommended Mystic Ranger to both Kira and Cavalier before. It's a good variant of Ranger that gives you better access to the Ranger's spellcasting.
https://srd.dndtools.org/srd/classes/baseCore/ranger.html#mystic-rangerIt does delay your combat style and favored enemy progression, but the spells more than make up for that. It's especially good if you intend to multiclass Scout or prestige class into a martial class, because Mystic Ranger 10 / Something Else 10 has better spellcasting than Ranger 20, and possibly better martial features depending on your second class choice. Also note that many ranger spells scale on the Ranger's normally weak caster level, like Hunter's Eye, so the Mystic Ranger's full caster level can greatly improve your magical archery in volume and potency.
You also lose animal companion, but neither of you seem interested in that anyway, so no real loss.
If you use a weapon Groups variant, the Elven Double Bow is better than a regular longbow, particularly on a Manyshot build.
Targeteer Fighter is also a good option for archery specialist. It can give you an exotic now, and you can even add Dex to damage. A great multiclass for mystic Ranger that makes up for loss of combat style.
https://srd.dndtools.org/srd/classes/baseCore/fighter.html#targetteerBe sure to trade your heavy armor proficiency
Cavalier in particular would be very good as a Swift Hunter Mystic Ranger / Scout, since he could use Fly-by attack and skirmish together.
>>190786Reminds me of Hank's Energy Bow. It is considered to be one of the most desirable magic bows in 3.5e.
[Read more] >>190787>Be sure to trade your heavy armor proficiency*For Hit-And-Run (Underdark Fighter)
I mentioned this on the Silver build I posted before, because Silver has high Dex and seemingly only wears light armor anyway. Dex to damage vs flat footed enemies would be good.
>>190787>>190788I am
definitely screenshotting these classes for later reference. Thank you so much!
>>190787Oh, forgot to add, do you have a link to that energy bow, or do you think you could post its description?
>>190787Be warned, at this level, Mystic Ranger would in fact reduce your archery abilities slightly, but the spellcasting is worth it, imo. I should say this because I practically recommended the opposite of what you asked for.
I would not recommend Order Of The Bow or Arcane Archer. Peerless Archer is okay.
>>190791Get it before the WotC jannies memory hole it like they're doing with the rest of the archives.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190908194211/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ask/20061227aHank's Energy Bow is a +2 bow. I think if you made a +1 version it would cut ~6k off of the price.
I ran a campaign where I gave this to the party ranger. He really appreciated it.
>>190792Thanks a bunch, Posey! I'll see about asking GM pone for something similar for Kira as a potential reward for a quest or what have you, especially if I do end up shifting from Ranger to Mystic Ranger. I think a magic bow like that would be a fitting weapon for a Mystic Ranger.
I think after this adventure is over, we should have a conversation about Wealth By Level and character equipment. I noticed that none of the new characters are properly equipped for their level. Some of us have +2 weapons, but we would fare better with appropriate wands, healing belts, potions, and other level-appropriate stuff (particularly the healing resources).
I think we could pressure Captain Waters to use his military connections to get us issued full equipment for characters of our power level, as an extra reward for destroying the Eldritch God that threatened the planet. If we get the airponies to assist on our diplomacy rolls, we could get him to agree to it. I could try to charm him too.
>>190793It's definitely an item for your wishlist. Every Archer wants this bow. It's iconic.
Posey uses a dragonbone compound bow, mostly for style.
>>190794I have a +1 revolver…
>>190787It's a good recommendation but I'll probably go into a ranger/swordsage multiclass. I still need to iron out the details. Cavaliere is meant to be a griffon of many skills but unfortunately spellcasting is not one of them.
>>190796You talk about disrespect but it seems like you're making it into a competition. Everyone is telling you to stop. There's your cue.
>>190797That's great. Swordsage is great for melee. Be sure to take Adaptive Style.
Scout is also great as an alternative to Ranger, especially with Fly-by-attack. It multiclasses well with Ranger too, if you take the Swift Hunter feat.
I'm running my own game on weekends. It's a twelve part campaign, and the task of getting it done in less than a year has been quite intimidating to me, because I want my party to be able to casually roleplay throughout the game, but I'm also concerned with keeping the story moving. It's a tricky thing to figure out, and it takes both practice and confidence.
A thing I have come to appreciate about these kinds of slow PbP games is that they afford me time to do other things, like working 10 hours a day, or prepping materials for my own game, without worrying about missing out.
I would still prefer it if we could try to work on better pacing in this game, but it's also not a huge deal. I think it we all learned to schedule a bit more clearly, things could pick up.
May Posey attempt a Hypnosis check (Ravenloft Campaign setting) to try to attempt to cure the maddened ponies?
>>190866For the record, I have not idea if this would actually work rules-as-written, because I don't know what kind of mechanic the Traveller's madness/possession actually is. I just like the idea of using counter-hypnosis to try to expell the Traveller.
There's other rules for possession, and Hypnosis probably would not help with that. Since GM described the Traveller as a being of chaos, it may be similar to an Obyrith demon, and may be possession creatures.
If I'm being annoying with the splats, feel free to just ignore these posts.
Another option to attack the GRU could be for Silver and Posey to work together, with Silver providing total cover with his Tower Shield.
If Posey has a fighter with a tower shield defending her, she can safely concentrate on the spell, which means the swarm of bats would kill all of the enemy artillery while their bullets bounce off of the tower shield.
This would require both Posey and Silver to spend their entire turns concentrating and defending.
The limitation is that a a summoned swarm cannot be controlled and will attack the nearest living creatures, so we would have to avoid entering melee. I think Silver is the only melee fighter in the party though, so that's fine.
We could probably do this on the Kostroma too.
>>190869Oh, wait, that would only give total cover to Silver. Anyone standing behind him would only have improved soft cover (still good).
Tower shields are great. One reason to have levels in fighter.
I know, you're thrilled to hear my opinion, but hear me out.
Silver is the tank (maybe Mala), Posey, Kira, and Garv are DPS (again, maybe Mala), and Dust is the healer (I'm insisting that Mala get Brie's healing potion). You should know where I'm going with that. But, what happens when the tank can no longer tank and the healer can no longer heal?
That's when the evil power-house who outside of circumstance would be hunted down and destroyed for it's very nature,... saves everyone. And I don't mean everyone here, but by being the unstoppable force that she is, ensures that the Traveler is not free to conquer equestria.
At the same time, the characters get to weigh the moral implications of applied evil versus conceptual evil. To quote governor Swann from Pirates of the Carribean:
[YouTube] Piracy itself can be the right course?
[Embed]Dust won't HAVE to like that Posey is LITERALLY what he's diametrically opposed to, but he will also have to recognize that one of "those" just saved everyone's bacon. The rest are easier to explain.
If necessary, Posey can describe how she never asked to be. Does she remember her past life, or did she simply come into being?
Posey is a character reminiscent of some of the Akuma from the series D-Gray Man. I really want to see her shine, in spite of all the salt I've thrown.
Naturally, there's no guarantees that's where GM is going with it, but one can hope.
[Read more] >>190875As for the rest of us, I don't think we'll be all that useless for the final fight. It's likely that the Kostroma has at least a small infirmary and armory, given that it was repurposed for military use. Before the big final fight against the Traveler, we can slip into both to heal and rearm.
>>190880>don't think we'll be all that useless for the final fightIdk how this is even a question. You all do 2-3 times as much damage per round as me. It's going to be on you to do most of the damage. I am better suited for Fear-based debuffing, but that has not been effective so far.
>It's likely that the Kostroma has at least a small infirmary and armory, given that it was repurposed for military use. Before the big final fight against the Traveler, we can slip into both to heal and rearm.Healing is the bigger issue. Dust only has so many spell slots. Hopefully they have a cache of healing potions on the ship. The commies are so broke that they haven't even been able to equip their soldiers with cure potions, so healing has been scarce.
After this adventure, you should all probably buy Healing
Belts too.
>>190880Yes, you've been remarkably efficient
(he is lying when he says that) so far/
It's more likely that when you get to the Kostromo, you're going to be playing in the opponent's hive/zone. Be careful.
>>190881If fear-based debuffs don't result in vulnerabilities, they're kinda ass. The key is exposing a weakness in the otherwise "immovable object" (oh, you're just now noticing that? Look back on descriptions of the Traveler)
Fine, nevermind, I'm just glad cuz formations is where its at, so I literally have nothing left to offer
Keep in mind the machine gun harvested from the crashed airplane.
>>190907How do machine guns work in this game anyway? From what I have observed, they seem to work differently from d20 modern/past machine guns. It seems as though they either make a fixed number of attacks (like a siege weapon?), or Grant the user additional attacks (??), instead of doing AoE damage. I could be wrong though. Maybe the NPCs just have different feats, or access to Swift Haste through items.
Are we using some homebrew documents? Where can I read them?
>>190909Kek. Better question, who is proficient with a heavy machine gun?
Sorry to be a dick again but you MIGHT wanna worry about explaining to the GM about how an improvised and rushed mounting of an airplane heavy machine gun is even going to work, who knows how to operate it, etc. It's not like they have butt-stocks and triggers, they're designed to be fired from a cockpit mechanism.
Bombs however, those are easy
I was thinking, couldn't we use that explosive harpoon to destroy The Traveller, instead of the torpedo that Monstro is carrying? The harpoon is powerful enough to kill a whale-sized creature, and a baleen whale has 132 HP: If the harpoon is strong enough to kill a whale, it may be strong enough to kill The Traveller, or at least soften it up to the point that we can kill it ourselves.
Judging by meta-narrative, the explosive harpoon was put in the party loot for a reason, and that reason was likely to kill a whale-sized monster (I expected there to be a kraken). The Traveller has been compared to a dead whale multiple times in descriptions, and I feel like that might be a hint that we are supposed to use this plot-relevant weapon on it. (Also GM clearly did not plan for us to take the torpedo with us, so the harpoon was probably what he wanted us to use).
The torpedo would likely destroy a lot more than The Traveller if we used it on that, and since Silver wants to commandeer the Kostroma we probably shouldn't be detonating torpedos on board.
If we use the harpoon to destroy the Traveller, we could reserve Monster's torpedo to take-out the GRU ship. If Monstro approaches the GRU ship underwater, its could avoid being destroyed for long enough to drop its torpedo on the GRU ship.
[Read more] >>190913The harpoon is also more likely to fit in The Traveller's mouth
>>190934By that logic, your dick is MOST likely to fit in the Traveler's mouth
>>190913As soon as the torpedo was suggested I knew it would scuttle the
Kostroma in the process. While not a bad outcome by itself, we have no way off the island that can fit all the ponies we have picked up. That instant-boat token will not fit everypony and airplanes will dare not approach with such a heavy military presence. Nor is the airship salvageable (we need to destroy the engines and radar system already). Maybe the griffons' boat was, but it's too late to restore now. Hijacking the
Kostroma is the most logical option. We could hijack the GRU's ship instead, but good luck with that. I don't think GM Pony will give a game over to most of his players for going overkill, but if he did I wouldn't blame him. Meta-analyzing his intent for an in-game quest is cheesy, but we might as well try the harpoon first.
>>190935You are welcome to try that option when the time comes.
>>190936>As soon as the torpedo was suggested I knew it would scuttle the Kostroma in the process.It was Silver's idea. I'm still not sure about it, but I decided to transport it anyway, mostly because reanimating the whale skeleton was on my bucket list of "things I must do this adventure".
>we have no way off the island that can fit all the ponies we have picked up.We have the swan boat feather token, which seats 32 creatures. Posey can ride on monstro
>That instant-boat token will not fit everyponyThis is true, although it would fit the party and the airponies. We would have to leave the others behind if we took the swan boat.
>Hijacking the Kostroma is the most logical option.Yeah, the only thing that complicates this is the chance of the GRU ship ship gunning us down. To solve that, we could use Monstro's torpedo to skink them.
Also, if we highjack the ship, we could sell it for profit.
>Meta-analyzing his intent for an in-game quest is cheesyTrue, but surely the adventure has one or more win conditions, right? The harpoon may be key to one of them. We should analyze every resource at our disposal to see which ones will help us meet our goals.
[Read more]