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Loot thread 3: Booty, broads and booze!

Started by Anastasia, August 23, 2011, 02:41:49 PM

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Ebiris

Since the Aurora fund's had some money put into it, Afina decides to beef up our forces with a battalion of nimblewrights, using the MM2 stats according to the 3.5 update from here. Note the text specifies it can disguise itself as any medium humanoid even though alter self should restrict it to only construct forms, so I've noted that in the stats.

Base price is 22,000gp per construct.

Afina further upgrades their rapier-arm natural weapons as if they were actual weapons, enchanting them as +1 Blessed for an additional 8,000gp per construct, necessary to beat dr/evil and also to autoconfirm crits vs evil 3 times a day, which is good since these guys are crit machines.

Medium Construct//Ninja 5/Hellbreaker 5, Chaotic Good
Hit Dice: 10d10+20 (75 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: 40 ft
AC: 27 (+7 dex, +7 natural armour, +3 wisdom), touch 20, flat footed 17
Base Attack/CMB/CMD: +7/+14/31
Attack: Rapier-hands +15 (2d6+5 15-20, +4d6 sudden strike)
Full Attack: 2 rapier-hands +15 (2d6+5 15-20, +4d6 sudden strike)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Tripping thrust (DC 19), spell-like abilities (CL 10 alter self (humanoid only), cat's grace, entropic shield, feather fall, haste /at will), sudden strike (+4d6), ghost step (invisible), telepathic static, steal spell-like ability, stowaway, neutralize spell-like ability
Special Qualities: Construct traits, augmented critical, spell resistance 27, vulnerabilities (cold slows 3 rounds, fire stuns 1 round), AC bonus, ki power (5/day), poison use, great leap, mantle of darkness
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +8, Will +5
Abilities: Str 19, Dex 24, Con —, Int 10, Wis 17, Cha 19
Skills: Bluff +17, Climb +17, Disable Device +13, Disguise +17, Hide +20, Jump +21, Knowledge (planes) +4, Move Silently +20, Search +13, Sense Motive +16, Speak Language (infernal)
Languages: Common, Infernal
Feats: Combat Reflexes(B), Combat Expertise(B), Improved Feint, Undo Resistance, Weapon Finesse, Telling Blow


These guys are here to fill out the battlefield sabotage and assassination roles. In battles they'll strike out ahead of the main forces, using their stealth and disguise skills to infiltrate devil formations (mantle of darkness means they can hide in darkness despite the devils' ability to see through it, as well as having good odds of blocking divinations against them) where they can assassinate low-rank officers to disrupt the chain of command (helped by telepathic static to prevent calls for help or orders in general) and otherwise damage devil fortifications. They're not gonna be taking on PC level threats at any point, but they enhance the tactical options of our army and should fill a useful role in further battles. Construct immunities also help with bullshit like Styx-water.

The cost of all this is 30,000gp per nimblewright, which is 7,500gp after Aurora discounts. She wants to make 20 of them for a total of 150,000gp out of the Aurora fund. Any objections?

Nephrite


Anastasia

Quick note, ninjas are homebrewed to get sneak attack instead of sudden strike. As sudden strike is sneak attack-1, this is a strict improvement.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Corwin

I actually wanted us to consider a couple things as well, Aurora-wise, so I'd appreciate if we went over their pricing and feasibility first.

-A guardhouse/maze at the entrance, so there isn't a direct path into the Aurora through the gate.
-Place a Gate pointing outwards at the event horizon of our entrance gate. People who aren't allowed entry by Elena could be diverted to a horrible/neutral plane of our choice.

We also need to consider something for larger people, I think this came up?
<Steph> I might have made a terrible mistake

Ebiris

I'm not really on board with physical defences that'd clog up the gate. Given our usual battle plan is to gate into someplace nasty and have everyone go out the gate, anything that slows that down puts us at a disadvantage, similarly it'd slow down our ability to recover people during a retreat such as the recent Lethe battle.

Also any idiot with a disintegrate spell can pierce the force bubble and ignore the gate entirely.

Dunno about needing extra stuff for larger dudes. The Jarl's never complained, and Medi had that titan dude on board in the past.

Corwin

What if the defenses let those keyed into Aurora act normally? Our troops would see them as transparent outlines they can move through, any invaders would have to deal with properly opaque structures/walls of force/whichever.

You make a good point about the disintegrate. What if we upgraded the Wall of Force around Aurora to a Prismatic Wall? Or stacked with, actually, since it seems like the latter is subject to SR while the former isn't.

Incidentally, anything about placing a Gate at the entrance? In fact, we could go with two, one to send people off without bugging Vul'lath and to deploy groups to distant missions, and the other as the extra security system I suggested for outsiders seeking access.
<Steph> I might have made a terrible mistake

Ebiris

Gate saves people using spell slots so that's fine.

Prismatic wall has issues in that it messes up low level dudes just from being near it, and we have a lot of low level dudes.

Honestly I think we're far better off with active defences rather than static ones. We never sit around letting the enemy besiege us anyway because we can move and just go away if we're in a bad spot. Having more/better guys and big fixed weapons that can let low level types hurt high level types would do us far better than having more walls.

Corwin

Huh. I didn't actually consider this. Dune, assuming the extra prismatic layer is possible, can it be made to not blind people?

As for the fixed defenses I guess I thought they'd be cool. We do have some problems with mobility upon the grounds, and it seems like the NPCs can't deal with it. What if we had some means to do targeted teleports from the barracks within Aurora proper to several spots on the inner perimeter of Aurora, within the protective bubble? One way only, possibly with a teleport circle that works within the dimensionally blocked area of Aurora? That way, reserves could be deployed far more easily if the forcefield did get breached somewhere or the gate was broken through.

Active defenses are obviously cool. You're thinking along the lines of the Holy Power courtyard trap/outward projection Aurora upgrade we can go for? The fireball cannons Aurora upgrade (except let's not use an element the devils are immune to)? I think having something along those lines would make it more fun for the one who stays behind to look on things, since you could control Aurora's weapons.
<Steph> I might have made a terrible mistake

Ebiris

Less just the flat aura damage in the courtyard since that's kinda boring, more stuff like lightning cannons or true-striking ballistae or giant fucking golems. (next level I can make stone collosuses and one of them's gonna get parked in Aurora's back yard for the next styx-spewing devil asshole to run into).

I dunno about teleporting stuff since any gaps in the dimensional anchoring just makes it easier for our enemies to exploit in turn than if it's kept as complete blanket coverage. I mean we could make muster points linked to the portal network but if devils take one of them they can immediately spread themselves all over Aurora through portals. Seems more trouble than it's worth and could be solved by having defensive forces positioned appropriately in advance.

Corwin

I propose we go for this:

Install fireball cannons in the outer wall (5d6, DC 20, CL 5): 80,000 gold; 2 DC 23 spellcraft checks; 1 DC 23 K:A check; 4 days.
Long distance systems for fireball cannons (Doubles range of fireballs): 25,000 gold; 1 DC 25 spellcraft check; 1 DC 25 K:A check; 2 days.


Except as lightning. I'd expect us to do well enough on the skills to bring the price down below 100k. Can we go for those and a dozen of the ninja robots?
<Steph> I might have made a terrible mistake

Ebiris

CL 5 lightningballs aren't gonna be hurting much with SR, something like the orb of X spells might be better. No area damage but I see this sort of stuff being more useful for letting our low level guys grab a turret and focus fire something that's too hardcore for them to sword.

Iron Dragoon

#1796
Orb of Force, Sonic, it Acid is my suggestion. On that same note, we could look into a scroll production system. High CL scrolls of healing and some AoE or lockdown could supplement our units pretty well.
This is not the greatest post in the world, no... this is just a tribute.

Anastasia

Quote from: Corwin on September 07, 2016, 05:05:27 PM
Huh. I didn't actually consider this. Dune, assuming the extra prismatic layer is possible, can it be made to not blind people?

That's a good question. Normally you don't look to weaken a spell, so I'd call it even spell level wise, but with an add on cost for figuring out how to do that. Assuming the layer's possible, I'm not commenting on that quite yet. I haven't deeply read anything, just answering a few salient questions now.

Quote from: Ebiris on September 07, 2016, 05:20:26 PM(next level I can make stone collosuses and one of them's gonna get parked in Aurora's back yard for the next styx-spewing devil asshole to run into).

I've said this before and I'll say it again - don't assume the as written ELH stone colossus is going to be allowed. It's an over hit diced disaster like most of the things in the ELH. I'll put it on my todo list and see if I can't have that done by next level up. Very tentatively, the colossi would be in the area of the mithral and adamantine golems, but focused towards being giant wrecking machines rather than guardians. Somewhere around 30 to 40 hit dice, pending on how many I gave those?

(Side note: The closest thing I've done to the spirit of the stone colossus is The Calamity over on the R&S board. That's uh, that's a thing. Any replacement stone colossus will be much saner. )
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Corwin

Yeah, I realize that. But the cannons path progresses till CL15 right now, and just as there are range boosters I don't see why we can't put in a CL booster as well, if the cannons can't go past 15.

If we want to go the way of orbs, let's ask Dune for a price tag on those and start building them up?
<Steph> I might have made a terrible mistake

Yuthirin

Why not just anyone without permission and hostile intent gets shifted to Chronias? Realistically I'm sure I'm missing a large point here, but I'm overworked and under slept and this seems like a great idea.
What if they're not stars at all? What if the night sky is full of titanic far-off lidless eyes, staring in all directions across eternity?